Daniel Andrlik: (silence) Daniel Andrlik: Welcome to Explorers Wanted. We are a weekly, actual playing Numenera podcast. I will be your humble GM, Daniel Andrlik. With me today is Sampson Davis. Sampson Davis: Hey Dan, what's with all the fucking shoebills on your Twitter? Daniel Andrlik: I just think they're fun to make creepy stories about. They're creepy looking birds. Alex Finn: They're so adorable. Sampson Davis: Not judging, I just, time of recording, there was a lot. Alex Finn: I love it. Daniel Andrlik: I started following shoebills every hour, and so now whenever I look at Twitter I get a new idea. Daniel Andrlik: Stace Babcock. Stace Babcock: I'm going to have to Google shoebill. Alex Finn: No you won't, you know what it is. Sampson Davis: They do have very expressive eyes. Stace Babcock: How do you spell it? Sampson Davis: Just how it sounds. Shoebill. Stace Babcock: I knew it was some sort of stork. I guess that was just my best guess. Alex Finn: Oh, no it's something worse. Stace Babcock: Oh, shoot. It's a little rodent bird. Alex Finn: No it's not. Sampson Davis: No it's not. Daniel Andrlik: No, it is huge. Stace Babcock: It's a giant ... oh, my God. Alex Finn: Yeah. Stace Babcock: Whoa. Whoa. Alex Finn: So it makes the stories he's telling 10 times creepier. Stace Babcock: Look at this one. It's ... Alex Finn: Yeah. Sampson Davis: Audio medium, remember. Stace Babcock: I'll share it in Spoilers Wanted, I'll share the picture I'm referring to. Daniel Andrlik: But yeah, listeners, if you go back to a month ago when I was retweeting a lot of shoebills with creepy dialogue lines for them attached. Sampson Davis: Dan, what do you think your next Twitter thing is going to be? Alex Finn: Can you do red pandas? Sampson Davis: When this episode comes out, what do you think the next one is? Make a guess. Daniel Andrlik: Oh, I have no idea. It might still be shoebills. I'm having a lot of fun with that. It scratches the same itch for me as the creepy sign-offs for this podcast. Stace Babcock: Yeah, it does. Daniel Andrlik: Except it's like it comes with its own prompt built in, and that is this fucking terrifying bird. Daniel Andrlik: And Alex Finn. Alex Finn: Speaking of shoebills, that was my question for you. Do you think they base the Loftwings from Zelda on shoebills? Because I was looking at them and they have a very distinctive- Sampson Davis: Absolutely. Daniel Andrlik: That beak is very close, yeah. Alex Finn: Shoebill-ian? Yeah. For listeners, I'm showing them the Zelda Loftwing Amiibo that I tried to shove into my mouth hole during stream. The things you miss on Twitch. Yeah, I tried to fit this in my mouth. What are you going to do about it? Not a choking hazard if it doesn't fit. Sampson Davis: Not a choking hazard if I don't choke. Alex Finn: Anywhos-a-doozle. What happened last time, Daniel? Sampson Davis: Ooh, Uno reverse card. Ooh, nice trick. Alex Finn: Uno reverse. Daniel Andrlik: Nice trick. Stace, that shoebill by the way would say, "You thought you could run, but who's holding whose pancreas now?" Stace Babcock: Daniel, I'm sorry, did I ... I missed a shoebill period on your Twitter where you tweeted pictures of shoebills with creepy quotations? Sampson Davis: Yeah. Alex Finn: Yup. Stace Babcock: Oh, I thought you wrote them yourself, and I was going to- Alex Finn: He did. Daniel Andrlik: No, I wrote them myself. Stace Babcock: Yeah. What? Alex Finn: Yeah. Stace Babcock: Wow. Alex Finn: Where were you when this happened? Stace Babcock: Probably working. Alex Finn: Having a life? Yeah. Stace Babcock: Right, having a life. Alex Finn: That'll teach you to have a life. Daniel Andrlik: Being away from the internet, how dare you. Alex Finn: Being on the internet 24/7, ugh. Stace Babcock: I work in a subbasement. It is the best thing for my social media consumption, because the signal is trash. Alex Finn: Fair. Daniel Andrlik: Only the Eloi have signal. Daniel Andrlik: So, who remembers what happened last time? I'm going to pick on Sampson. Sampson Davis: Last time we dealt with the angels, and now we got the townsfolk to clear the tunnels for us that are hopefully going to get us to, at least pretty close to the training grounds, if not exactly there. I don't remember. But anyway, we have that, we have them clearing the tunnel for us, so during the few days while they're excavating, Dili finally built his fucking leg cannon for Nix. Stace Babcock: Hell yeah. Sampson Davis: Got that installed. And then as we were about to go test it out, the headman of the village ran up to us and told us that three people, two of whom are important, the other one is just fucking Gary, three people got pulled and possibly got ate. So we went down there, followed the tunnel, followed a blood trail, and fought a meat and metal monster man. Dili got the kill on that, nice. One of the people who got pulled died. We basically walked in on her getting pulled apart, that was sad. But we saw that Jackson, the kid that was illegally drinking, ran away deeper down the tunnel. So after killing the meat and metal man, naturally first we salvaged the body, picked up a few cyphers, those are cool, and followed- Daniel Andrlik: Yeah, spent about 15, 20 minutes on that. Yeah. Sampson Davis: Yeah, yeah. We followed the trial that Jackson left, found him in a crystal cell, and also found a creature made of rotating synth doing some experiments or whatever, and then they turned to us, and then after cycling through a bunch of languages said, "Excellent, more specimens." Daniel Andrlik: Yeah. Sampson Davis: And that's kind of where we left it. Daniel Andrlik: Yeah. And that's where we come back in. This creature has just turned to you and said, "Excellent, more specimens." What would you like to do? Stace Babcock: Take an action recovery roll. Alex Finn: Did we ever find fucking Gary? Daniel Andrlik: You have not found fucking Gary yet. Alex Finn: Ugh. Sampson Davis: Dili's also going to take an action recovery roll, because this speech shit's expensive. Alex Finn: I guess ... so. Side question, now that I'm drunk enough to remember things that are happening. I've crescendoed past the giggle drunk to, "Okay, let's try and function," drunk. That crystal prison that Jackson is in, is it similar to the crystal prison that ... fuck, I feel so bad, I forgot his name. Daniel Andrlik: Bastion? Alex Finn: Bastion was in, thank you. Daniel Andrlik: I'm going to tell him. He's going to be so sad, he's going to cry for a day. Alex Finn: I know, and now I'm actually, you don't understand. My actual person anxiety is just, I feel bad that I forgot a fictional character's name, and I'm just like, "Why." But is it similar to Bastion's crystal prison? Daniel Andrlik: No. It's, whereas Bastion was sort of imprisoned in this sort of crystal pillar that looked more like natural crystal being formed up, this is more like, it's a glass cylinder. There's no obvious door or anything like that. Alex Finn: Oh, okay. Daniel Andrlik: It doesn't look the same. Because you know Bastion can walk through most matter, so the thing that helped Bastion was holding him on some energy base level that was separate from its physical form. Whereas Jackson is just trapped inside some sort of clear, crystal cylinder, and pounding on it. Alex Finn: Okay. I guess ChaCha's going to try and break Jackson free. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. That'll be a might roll. Well, actually, it'll take you a turn to get over to it. Alex Finn: Okay. We'll do that. Daniel Andrlik: What does everybody else want to do? Because ChaCha going for this is almost certainly going to initiate combat, but I want to give you guys a chance to try something else. You can still speak up. Sampson Davis: No. No, no. No specimens. No, no. Daniel Andrlik: You're trying to persuade it not to? "Well, I mean more specimens are always good. My artwork only sent the boy my way. You were supposed to bring more." Stace Babcock: Oh, yeah. Your artwork fell apart. Daniel Andrlik: "Fell apart?" Stace Babcock: Yeah, it's no longer a flesh and metal construct, it's sort of just a pile of debris at this point. Daniel Andrlik: "My art. And how did that happen?" Stace Babcock: A variety of factors played into it, honestly. Daniel Andrlik: "Did you destroy my art?" Stace Babcock: Oh, yeah. It attacked us and we were like, "No." Also, it was trying to hunt down a kid, and we were also not down for that. So yeah, we destroyed it. Sampson Davis: Yeah. Alex Finn: Nix used the word, we collaborated with your artwork. Stace Babcock: We collaborated with your artwork, and reduced it to its- Alex Finn: Most basic elements. Stace Babcock: ... most basic elements, yeah. Sampson Davis: It was a beautiful death. It definitely captured the fleeting moment of transient life. Alex Finn: It is now reborn. Daniel Andrlik: Nix, I'm going to give you one asset on this, as your friends are both chiming in. ChaCha is of course moving at the same time, so I'm limiting how much she can do, but I like it for flavor. Nix starts off at 24. You've got an asset which brings it down to a 21. You're specialized, which brings it down to a 15. Stace Babcock: I don't want to fall unconscious. So it's a 15 after everything I have normally. Daniel Andrlik: Before effort. Stace Babcock: But before effort, right. Hell yeah. I can spend three levels of intellect effort. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. That's a six. Stace Babcock: We're going to have to leave it at that. Daniel Andrlik: The blood vessel over Nix's temple for a second? Sampson Davis: Oh yeah, it's bulging really bad. Stace Babcock: Nat 20. Sampson Davis: Holy shit. Okay. Daniel Andrlik: That is honestly fucking exciting. Okay, so, okay. This creature pauses for a moment, and says, "Different perspectives, but maybe you're more interesting." And Nix, what would you propose as a major effect? Stace Babcock: It sounded like you might have something in mind, Daniel. Daniel Andrlik: Actually, I'm not sure what I have in mind. Stace Babcock: Okay. Daniel Andrlik: So, I'm open to whatever. My brain is racing thinking about what this could mean for you. Stace Babcock: Honestly, I think that I want a peaceful solution to this problem. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. Wish granted. Stace Babcock: Hm? Oh, wish granted? Okay. Oh, shit. Daniel Andrlik: And the monkey paw's finger curls. Stace Babcock: I hope not, it's a major effect. Daniel Andrlik: So the creature looks at you, he says, "I could see how that could be alarming to someone who doesn't know the whole story. I suppose we could," and then there's a moment where it pauses. And then it floats a little lower, and this beam scans out and lights you all up from head to toe. And there is a long pause, and then this entity says, "Well. That's interesting." Stace Babcock: Does Nix know she was scanned? Daniel Andrlik: Yeah, I think it's pretty clear. Stace Babcock: Okay. Daniel Andrlik: And they say, "Not what I expected." And it's weird because it doesn't have a proper face, but you get the sense of its focus shifting on this sort of metallic front, which you think might honestly be an effect for your benefit, where it says, "Interesting. Not what I expected." It looks at Nix, and then at ChaCha, and then it looks at Dili and says, "And of course, my respect to your rider." Stace Babcock: Oh. Sampson Davis: Okay. Have you met my rider? Or just know of him by reputation? Daniel Andrlik: "Your kind is very familiar to me." And then there's a moment where it pauses, and it speaks a language that none of the rest of you understand. It sounds almost sort of ... it's very consonant heavy. There's lots of ... sounds, and there are definitely some ... it's a guttural sound. But Dili, as he says it, there's a part of you that still understands it. Sampson Davis: Yay. Stace Babcock: Hell yeah. Daniel Andrlik: And this creature says, "I have not violated any of the treaties." Sampson Davis: Ooh. Daniel Andrlik: So Dili, one of the things you notice is that as this creature says that, there was a threat assessment of question marks above its head, and in Astor's sight, you see that threat percentage move down to zero percent. Sampson Davis: Cool. Does Astor respond at all? Daniel Andrlik: Nope. Sampson Davis: All right. Stace Babcock: Hm. Daniel Andrlik: What do the rest of you guys do? This creature just spoke nonsense. Alex Finn: I mean, relatively nonsensical. Daniel Andrlik: Mm-hmm (affirmative). At this point, it notices ChaCha moving towards the crystal, and says, "Do not interfere with my studies." Alex Finn: I think your studies can go more advanced if you have a wider variety of subjects, and I feel like this one is very inadequate. I noticed him stunting his own growth with illicit substances the other day, so you don't want him, he's not a great subject. If you're trying to study growth, he will not achieve it. I don't know if that's how it actually works. Daniel Andrlik: So, ChaCha, there's a couple things going on here. I'm going to give you an asset because Nix has already sort of opened the conversation here. I'm going to give you another asset because you're used to speaking to fairy alien entities. So this'll be a 15 social roll. Alex Finn: I'm going to use that, I guess I have a free level of effort, don't I? I'm going to use it. Daniel Andrlik: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That'd bring it down to a 12. Alex Finn: I got an 18. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. There's a long pause again. "Do you have any suggestions for new subjects?" Alex Finn: Well I mean there's this guy named Gary out there. If you find Gary, he's probably a better fit. Stace Babcock: ChaCha? Daniel Andrlik: "Gary broke after experimentation in moments." Alex Finn: Oh, you found Gary already, okay. Daniel Andrlik: And the creature kind of gestures with a piece of metal, and you notice this one corner, there's another one of those glass cylinders that is just covered in red and purple gore. Alex Finn: It's covered in Gary, let's be honest. So, honestly, I was thinking more along the lines of not experimenting on anybody. But what about the angels, if he could find the angels? I think those would be pretty good experimentals. Daniel Andrlik: "Ooh, what are the angels?" Sampson Davis: They are creatures that look somewhat like this. And Dili will project a real to life image of the angels. Daniel Andrlik: "Ooh." Sampson Davis: They responded to I believe extra-dimensional energy patterns. Daniel Andrlik: Dili, evens or odds? Sampson Davis: Oh, evens this time. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. Alex roll me a die, tell me if you get even or odd. Alex Finn: I got a four. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. "I've read studies of such things, but I've never had a chance to observe one myself. Where might I find them?" Sampson Davis: Do you have access to the surface from here? Daniel Andrlik: "I have access to anywhere, little creature." Stace Babcock: Guys, are you really set on submitting an entire species to torture and kidnappings? I just want to check in on that. Alex Finn: I mean, the angels, yeah. Yeah. Daniel Andrlik: That's fair. Alex Finn: Because fair is fair. Sampson Davis: Hey, what's your name? Is there something we can call you by? Just to- Daniel Andrlik: "My name doesn't translate into your language because I am a science fantasy stereotype." Sampson Davis: Okay. I don't know what that means. Daniel Andrlik: "You can call me Carabas." Sampson Davis: Carabas. All right. Daniel Andrlik: "With a C in that." Sampson Davis: God dammit. Every time I spell it wrong, every time. All right, all right Carabas with a C, what is the nature of your experiments, what are you trying to figure out? Daniel Andrlik: "I need to know what they're made of, and what they can be." Alex Finn: I mean, you saw what Gary was made out of. That's pretty universal here. Daniel Andrlik: "That's disappointing. I had hoped for more in the ninth world." Sampson Davis: Yeah, sorry, humans are pretty boring, just a lot of loose meat, basically. Alex Finn: All squishy and stuff. Daniel Andrlik: "But the three of you are not boring." Sampson Davis: Eh. Daniel Andrlik: "The only one that's boring is that grumpy one over there." Alex Finn: Oh, shit. He's talking trash. Stace Babcock: I mean, we're not exactly- Daniel Andrlik: But serious, I am not boring, okay? I am a adult, I have an interesting and rich inner life. Stace Babcock: Yo, that's what I was going to say about you. Sampson Davis: It's true. He's a writer. No? No response? All right. Stace Babcock: But yeah, outwardly boring, yeah, for sure. Alex Finn: He doesn't have flair. Daniel Andrlik: "Well, I assume you're not proposing yourselves?" Alex Finn: No. I'm trying to save the world here. Daniel Andrlik: Dili, you hear Astor's voice in your head that says, "Be very careful how you answer this one, father. This one will make deals, but adheres to the exact language of them, and nothing more." Sampson Davis: Oh, shit. Okay. Daniel Andrlik: For a second, Sampson, so, listeners. Sampson turned away to cough away from his mic, but the way he did it was in such a way that for a second, I thought he was about to throw up offscreen. Stace Babcock: Yeah. I was like ... Sampson Davis: Let me just confer with my associate. Daniel Andrlik: "Judging by your faces I feel like I should explain some more. So, a train leaves a station at 8:00 AM, and another train leaves a station at 11:00 AM. They are both trying to reach a location that is ..." they kind of trail off. Stace Babcock: I only know about one train. Crazy train. Sampson Davis: Coltrane. Daniel Andrlik: "What train is that, little imp queen?" Stace Babcock: Thank you, I think. The one that goes on these tracks. So where's the other train in this scenario, is what I ... Daniel Andrlik: I totally lost the track of where this train metaphor came from, even though I know where it started. Stace Babcock: Do the math problem, a train is traveling at X miles- Daniel Andrlik: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So- Stace Babcock: ... and another train, so Nix is like, "Where the hell's the other train?" I'm aware of precisely one train. Daniel Andrlik: Yeah, sorry, that was just the creature mocking you guys, your confusion. Stace Babcock: Yeah. Sampson Davis: Dan, what's kind of the physical space we're in? Are we still in the train tunnel and this guy just has their lab- Daniel Andrlik: You're in a cavern. There was a perfect hole cut through the side of the wall, not where the maintenance tunnels were, into a cavern with a lab set up inside of it. Sampson Davis: Oh, okay. Daniel Andrlik: So you're not in the tunnels, but you're not in any sort of organized maintenance area either. This is clearly a after market addition to the tunnels. Okay? Sampson Davis: And the various devices and consoles and whatever this entity has, is there one that seems important? The main one? The one that has the- Daniel Andrlik: That'd be an understanding numenara of 18. Sampson Davis: Okay. 21, 18, 15, bring that down to a nine, with two more levels of effort. Natural 20. Stace Babcock: Ooh. Daniel Andrlik: Holy shit. Sampson Davis: Oh, man. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. Stace Babcock: Nice. Daniel Andrlik: There's definitely a console that seems more important than the others. That seems almost like everything else seems to wire into it, quite obviously at least to Dili, not necessarily to everybody else. Sampson, or Dili, what would you propose as a major effect? Alex Finn: You're 0-2 for consoles. Daniel Andrlik: What was the first one? Alex Finn: The one in the cave, where we met nature. Daniel Andrlik: Yeah, that was for ChaCha, zero. Alex Finn: Yeah, but we're still 0-2 for consoles. Sampson Davis: All right. As a major effect, I would like two assets on this bullshit that I'm about to try. Well, I mean, we were kind of thinking about it, because we do want to save our friend here in the crystal cage, but I'm looking at your equipment. This is what you're working with? This somewhat in disrepair malarkey? Daniel Andrlik: "Oh my." Stace Babcock: Nice. Sampson Davis: Because I'm looking at this, some of this wiring is way out of date. It seems like you're getting not enough power to get even half the functionality that you could be getting out of this. Daniel Andrlik: So two assets would make it a 15. Sampson Davis: Oh, shit. Okay. So this is some sort of social roll. Is that a cognitive task? Daniel Andrlik: Let's say no. Sampson Davis: Cool. Daniel Andrlik: Because I'm an introvert. I have no idea. Sampson Davis: Fair enough. So that's a 15, three levels of effort, bring it to a nine. And I got intellect to spare, so two more levels of effort. Daniel Andrlik: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's a three. Sampson Davis: Eight. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. Daniel Andrlik: "What do you mean? This is the highest quality equipment I could manage to muster. What's wrong with it?" Sampson Davis: Well, you said that you can manage to muster. I'm sure this was nice three or four worlds ago, but now it's just ... ugh. Daniel Andrlik: "It really looks that old to you?" Alex Finn: Oh, shit. Sampson Davis: My friend, you need to get out more. Can I help? Can I help with this? Can I help put this together? Daniel Andrlik: "I suppose so, what do you have in mind?" Sampson Davis: Well, it's going to get a little technical. Do you mind if I pop this open? Dili will go to pop open the console. Daniel Andrlik: It's watching you very closely, but it's letting you do it. Sampson Davis: All right. Dili will pop open the console, and at one point just make eyebrows to the others, just like, "Work with this." And then using the most technical jargon Dili can muster, he's going to go into a full explanation of power and signals and all the stuff to sound smart, but Dili isn't saying anything meaningful. Daniel Andrlik: Because you're all right, I'm going to give you an asset on this. Because he's already coming off of a quite the tomfoolery that you managed to pull off, so it's probably a 15 before effort to spin this bullshit. Sampson Davis: 15, I'm bringing that down to a nine. In case you haven't guessed this is a level eight creature at this point. Alex Finn: Oh, shit. Sampson Davis: Yeah. Ugh. All right, I'm going to risk it with the nine. Alex Finn: Do it, you got this. I believe. Sampson Davis: Somebody do something with this distraction. Somebody do something. I'm going to re-roll that with my one XP that I have. Alex Finn: Nice. Daniel Andrlik: What did you get? Just so I know. Alex Finn: A one. Sampson Davis: Just a six. Alex Finn: Oh. Sampson Davis: But- Daniel Andrlik: Oh, okay. Then I don't feel as bad. Sampson Davis: I rolled a five. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. Stace Babcock: I gave you one, Sampson. Daniel Andrlik: Ooh. Sampson Davis: Okay. Yeah? Stace Babcock: Yeah. Sampson Davis: All right. 13. Stace Babcock: Hell yeah. Sampson Davis: That's a 13. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. So tell me how you almost bumble this, and then somehow save yourself to keep this bullshit train going and make it believable. Alex Finn: You start telling him how old he looks? Sampson Davis: No, I think while Dili is kind of taking in what's inside this console, he kind of stumbles a little bit, because he almost starts describing what's actually there instead of what's kind of not there. So, for a moment it almost sounds like, "Oh, wait, that console's in perfect working order," but then Dili catches himself and is just able to course correct back into bullshit. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. Daniel Andrlik: "That's very troubling, I'll have to take care of my contractor who set that up. Is it easily fixable, or should I just continue with what I've got?" Sampson Davis: I mean, it's easily fixable. Do you have any, and then Dili says a relatively high level iotum that Dili would know the name of, but I can't think of off the top of my head. Daniel Andrlik: Mm-hmm (affirmative). There is a pause, and it says, "[Cripanon 00:23:43]. Yes, of course, yeah. Cripanon. I don't have any of it, but I've heard of it." Sampson Davis: Hm, well, if you had Cripanon right now, I could fix this pretty easily. That would take off a lot of the stress that this thing isn't quite capable of handling at the moment. I guess, I mean, I don't know. What are you trying to get out of this? Daniel Andrlik: "Well, perhaps it's best to continue with this test subject then. If I don't have it at full capacity, I'm probably better off with whatever I've got, right?" Sampson Davis: No, because you're basically ... with what I'm seeing here, you're going to be wasting that subject. You're going to be getting false results. You're basically going to have to, once this is repaired, start from scratch all over again. Daniel Andrlik: "Well that's disappointing." Sampson Davis: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Daniel Andrlik: "Yeah, that would fuck up the timing of my thesis really badly." Sampson Davis: More eyebrows pointed at Nix and ChaCha like, "Come on." Daniel Andrlik: "Well, I mean, come on. What can I do? I mean fixing it is of course, I don't have that io, but I am on a timetable." Alex Finn: You should outsource. Daniel Andrlik: "To whom?" Alex Finn: Clearly to the one who's told you you had the problem. Pay him to finish it. Daniel Andrlik: The figure looks at you, ChaCha, and there is a moment, and it says, "But why should I listen to an adolescent [inaudible 00:25:03]?" Alex Finn: I think ChaCha just makes a really confused face like, "What? What now?" Daniel Andrlik: Some of these nuts, is that what you're doing? Alex Finn: You want some of these nuts? Daniel Andrlik: "You're almost there. You're two thirds of the way there. Once you're done growing you'll be able to-" Alex Finn: And I'm two thirds of the way to putting my foot up your ass. Daniel Andrlik: "Once you put together the last piece, you'll be in your final form, and the world will be right again." Alex Finn: Exactly. This isn't my final form. I'm sorry. Stace Babcock: Yo, so, how about you agree. Daniel Andrlik: "Yes, imp queen." Stace Babcock: Nix side-eyes Dili and then looks back. Sampson Davis: Just for my sake, what are you saying Dan? Ant queen? Daniel Andrlik: Imp queen. Sampson Davis: Imp queen. Oh. Stace Babcock: Yeah, so mostly what I want is for you to not experiment on people. Daniel Andrlik: "Well that's not acceptable, I have research to do. If I don't show results in my research, I won't be continued on my grant." Stace Babcock: Who is funding this? Daniel Andrlik: "That's a big question." Stace Babcock: Nix looks over at Dili. Sampson Davis: Dili is deep in the guts of this console. Stace Babcock: Well- Sampson Davis: Dili's trying to craft a bomb. But you continue. Stace Babcock: Yeah, I think that the big issue is that what you're doing hurts people, is wrong. Frankly, you called it art, which was probably the only way that I knew it was art, you know what I'm saying? Daniel Andrlik: "I thought it was a rather poetic pastiche of different memories. It takes awhile to make those, you know, you have to decide on just the right memories to combine, and then build a loop that will cause the drit to form the shape of the memory." Sampson Davis: Makes sense. Stace Babcock: All right, well those memories kind of sucked. All right, so why the eyes? What is the eyes and the middle of the chest supposed to represent? Because frankly, it's just strange and off-putting, I'll be honest. Daniel Andrlik: "So many organics are obsessed with eyes? Why not? Why not point that out by having more than there should be?" Stace Babcock: No, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, don't point it out, because when there's more than there should be it's really weird. All right, so what were you trying to say with the flesh and bone juxtaposition, or metal? Whatever it was. Daniel Andrlik: "It was supposed to be a comment on ninth world entities, and how some of them are flesh, and some of them are synth or other forms of metal, and I was trying to do a pastiche of how they were all sort of mismatched variants of the glory of prior worlds that just embraced their own civilization and their own power." Stace Babcock: I mean yeah, I guess I could kind of see ... and Nix is buying Dili time, I guess. So. We're just trying to find a way to get a little bit of edge in a conversation with this guy to continue negotiations. Daniel Andrlik: So those are two separate goals. Stace Babcock: I just realized that Nix wouldn't know why she would be buying Dili time, so, she's just trying to find an opening to negotiate in. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. Give me a 15 social roll. Stace Babcock: Is that before or after? Daniel Andrlik: Before, so you're specialized, so that makes it a nine. So it's before effort, at nine. Stace Babcock: I'm going to leave it, because I don't have a ton of ... nat 20. I'm not kidding. Holy shit. Wow. Sampson Davis: Let's fucking go. Stace Babcock: Wow. Daniel Andrlik: Oh my God. Sampson Davis: Okay, so ... Daniel Andrlik: Is that three? Was that three in this episode? Stace Babcock: I got a 19. Did I get another 20 as well? Daniel Andrlik: Yeah, I think you started with a 20. That's how it did immediately become a fight. Stace Babcock: This thing is giving me more 20s than ones tonight, which is more than I can say for it normally. So. Daniel Andrlik: Mm-hmm (affirmative). You're definitely going to get some sort of asset against this creature. What would you propose as a major effect? Stace Babcock: What I really, really want the end of this to be is, I don't know if Nix could tune into what Dili was doing. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. I think you've realized what Dili is doing, and the creature is considering, and saying, "Do you have an alternative proposal for a design?" Stace Babcock: Yeah, and then now instead of trying to, yeah, exactly, find the opening, Nix really is angling him away, and trying to facilitate Dili's shenanigans. All right, honestly, it's the flesh. I feel like it's ugly to look at. Yeah. Daniel Andrlik: "But how would we encompass the organic component? I mean, organic components are kind of ugly to begin with." Stace Babcock: Well, that's a little hurtful, honestly. Daniel Andrlik: "Well, I mean, I'm just saying objectively, there are a lot of mucouses and humors in your body that are objectively just kind of gross, right?" Stace Babcock: I have a [inaudible 00:30:07] also, honestly. Daniel Andrlik: "Believe me, I know." Stace Babcock: Oh yeah, so what am I? You keep calling me imp queen. I don't even know what that means, but I kind of like being a queen. That's legit. Mmm. Daniel Andrlik: "I'm just saying, when the time comes, you should accept your power." Dili, give me a crafting numenary roll of nine. You're a train, and you have tools, so it's a three. But it's a cognitive task, so it's a six. Sampson Davis: And then two free levels of effort, so it's a freebie. Daniel Andrlik: So you built a bomb in here. Sampson Davis: Yup. Dili has adapted the capacitor plan that I believe he first constructed on the ship that brought us back to Charmonde. Daniel Andrlik: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Sampson Davis: So, what I'm also hoping is that if this entity looks in, it's not immediately going to look like a bomb. They would have to kind of follow the wiring and see that, "Oh, if I use this console, it will overload the capacitor and that's what's going to explode." Daniel Andrlik: Okay. What's the trigger for the explosion? Sampson Davis: The trigger is whatever the main function of this console, whatever the big lever, the big red button, whatever equivalent is on this console, that's the trigger. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. That's fine. What is ChaCha doing during all this? Alex Finn: I think she's working on releasing Jackson. Daniel Andrlik: Are you trying to be in any way stealthy about what you're doing? Alex Finn: Evens or odds? Sampson, evens or odds? Sampson Davis: Odds. Alex Finn: I got a six, so no. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. Alex Finn: She's just going for it. She's just like, "Fuck it." Daniel Andrlik: So this is going to be a pure might roll then, of 15. Alex Finn: I got a 16. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. You manage to find a way to break a part of this crystal. You're slamming your fists against it, maybe you pull out something like the dagger, and you're just trying to slam against it with the hilt or something like that. And you manage a crack to start breaking this open. This is definitely going to draw the attention of the creature. I'm going to give, Nix and Dili have been moving toward a peaceful solution this whole time. I'm going to give them a chance to each try something before this definitely goes into combat. Stace Babcock: I think Nix would say, once she notices Dili's done, "Honestly, listen. You let us have this one human that you have here in this cell, you got a fixed console, and you know what? We'll just leave you alone and let you do your thing." Daniel Andrlik: Okay, so Nix, give me a ... with all the stuff that's adding up before your effort, it will be a nine. Stace Babcock: Yikes. Afford is a strong word, but I'll spend one level. Intellect, to make it a six. Oh my God. I got a two. Daniel Andrlik: Wow. That's GM intrusion for Nix. Stace Babcock: I think I'm going to keep it unless someone has strong feelings. I mean, how are you feeling, Sampson? If we want this trap to work, which would be dope, I'll spend an XP and try again. Alex Finn: Well, I have some XP I can spend too, so. Sampson Davis: We're just so close. We're so close. Stace Babcock: All right, all right, all right. All right. Sampson Davis: But I don't feel like I can really say anything because I don't have the XP to back up my opinion. Stace Babcock: Well that was one. Alex Finn: Okay, so I'm going to spend an XP. Stace Babcock: Oh my God. Alex Finn: It'll be fine. Stace Babcock: I'm ditching this one. I'm trying to tell myself I'm not superstitious about dice, and that I'm above such things. I'm not. Right? It's my lucky die all night. 19. Alex Finn: Thank you, Jesus. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. Sampson Davis: Dice Jesus is real. Daniel Andrlik: What will you propose as a minor effect? It's going to agree to your deal, but. Stace Babcock: Man, honestly, after that two and that one, I'm mentally exhausted and would just take the deal. You know what I want for minor effect, that I think would be cool? Is if when this thing agrees to let Jackson go, that we turn and ChaCha's already got Jackson, she'd already executed the escape. Alex Finn: Nice. Daniel Andrlik: I like that. Stace Babcock: And then she's like, "Ah, we can go now." Daniel Andrlik: They look at it and say, "It appears that one is already released." It seems like it's almost grumbling, and says, "That's fine, I can work for what I have. I'll get another subject I can also work on. What is these angels you spoke of?" Sampson Davis: Yes, angels. I showed you an image of them. Well, okay, so there's some humans, just boring humans, not interesting, not worth your time, who live nearby, and then there's an Old Town. They call it Old Town, that's kind of where the angels congregated for a little bit. Daniel Andrlik: "All right." Sampson Davis: That's about the most I can tell you, just because that's all I really know about them. They're kind of, for all intents and purposes, like wild animals, in that they're just kind of going out and about doing their own thing. Daniel Andrlik: "All right. I'll require a different piece. Give me a moment," and its attention turns, and you start seeing this swirl of dust kicking up, and slowly starting to form a shape. And you can see what look to be sort of humanoid feet starting to form. It's obvious this is going to take hours to complete. Sampson Davis: And this creature looks distracted? Daniel Andrlik: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Sampson Davis: Then I guess we start slowly backing up? Stace Babcock: Oh, yes. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. Sampson, evens or odds? Sampson Davis: Oh, shit. Evens. Daniel Andrlik: Alex, roll die, tell me if you get even or odd. Alex Finn: Oh, no. I got another four. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. So, the creature is very focused, and sort of seems to have almost in its attention kind of dismissed you guys, as it begins working on its next task. Jackson's just huddled against ChaCha, weeping, and ChaCha, I will say this, it is probably fairly rare to have a child cling to you this way. Alex Finn: I think she's just trying to awkwardly pat his back, like, "Yup, this is a thing. This is what we're doing." Sampson Davis: Yup. We're leaving, backing up. Alex Finn: It's going to be totally fine. Like I said, he's going to go after the angels, no one's going to worry, we're totally cool. Daniel Andrlik: And Jackson's face is totally sort of red and blotchy, and there's sort of snot dripping out of their nose, which they're, as they cling to you, is kind of getting on your romper, but they kind of move with you. Alex Finn: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Awesome. Daniel Andrlik: Guys, step out of this area. What are you doing? Sampson Davis: I think the second we're out of line of sight, we just turn and start running. Alex Finn: Yeah. Yeah. Daniel Andrlik: In which direction? Sampson Davis: Back toward the cave-in. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. So you run back to the cave-in, you pass what's left of the pile of metal from the other entity, and you find your way back to the cave-in with that hole there. Sampson Davis: Should we grab Sylvie? Should we grab Sylvie just out of respect? Sylvie? Was it Sylvie? That was her name, Sylvie? Daniel Andrlik: Yeah. Stace Babcock: Or maybe we never found the body. Sampson Davis: Yeah? You okay with that? Alex Finn: Yeah, I think so. Stace Babcock: Oh, no. I would take a nap, so yeah, let me just grab it. I won't eat it, yeah, you're right. Sampson Davis: It's a little dark, it was split in half, so you can eat the bottom half and we give them the top half. Stace Babcock: Ah, yeah, but I don't think ... yeah. Now's not a good time for a nap. I'll just grab the halves, I'll just give them back, it's fine. Yeah. Sampson Davis: All right. Stace Babcock: Nix scoops up the halves. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. So you're bringing them with you guys through the hole? Stace Babcock: Yup, it's only four feet-ish, right? So it's sort of a pain to get through, but passing a body through might not be so bad. Daniel Andrlik: Yeah, so you guys get back through. Nix is the only one that's had to pass a body, so you tell us. Jackson immediately runs to his mother, and he leaps into her arms, and he's crying, but still happy. She's crying. And the headman comes over to you and says, "Is the threat gone?" And it's at this moment you hear a loud explosion from down the way, and there is a rumble. Stace Babcock: No. Daniel Andrlik: And all of the sudden, this cave and rocks begin lighting up around their edges where they meet, and this wall gets a little shaky, and it crumbles. And you can see that it'll clearly be ... well there's still work to do, but it can still be cleared. Sampson Davis: In answer to the headman's question, I don't think so, but now that I think about it, we may have just screwed ourselves, because I might have just destroyed the track a little bit upstream. Daniel Andrlik: Well, we'll see what we could find out. Stace Babcock: Yeah, Dili, we probably should just go ahead and just go take a look and make sure the deed was done. Sampson Davis: Yeah. Daniel Andrlik: So the same hole is not as easily accessible because of the blast, but there are other ways through that you guys can get through, and you do go over and find that the lab is utterly destroyed. But you don't see any sign of the remains of the entity that you saw before. Stace Babcock: This is disappointingly inconclusive, Dili. Sampson Davis: Yeah. Daniel Andrlik: Dili, you hear a voice in your head that says, "That's unfortunate. With these things, if you decide to go after them, it's better not to miss." Sampson Davis: Shit. How hard are they to kill? Daniel Andrlik: "I wouldn't unless my directives required it. The likelihood of survival is too low." Sampson Davis: Cool. Cool, cool, cool. And Carabas there mentioned treaties. Any relevant? And by the way, Dili's side of the conversation is totally audible to the rest of you. Stace Babcock: Oh, right. Daniel Andrlik: "I'm not at liberty to talk about that, father. You haven't signed the right agreements yet." Sampson Davis: Oh my God, so many rules. All right. Alex Finn: Yeah, there are a lot of rules about killing, Dili. Sampson Davis: What? Alex Finn: Nix is teaching us those. Sampson Davis: What? You are? Stace Babcock: Yeah. Wanton murder is bad. That's a baseline. Daniel Andrlik: "Well it's pretty delicious, I think. I mean, it's a pretty good soup. Yeah, sorry." Stace Babcock: I want Astor to have said that to Dili. That's what I thought was happening. I love wonton soup. Sampson Davis: Is the track intact? Daniel Andrlik: Yes. Sampson Davis: Okay. All right. Well, it feels like the best we can do right now is just get out of this town, get out of these people's hair as fast as possible. Stace Babcock: Oh yeah. Sampson Davis: And I guess Carabas will just be a problem for another day. Just put it on the pile, I guess. Alex Finn: Yeah, we got a few problems on the back burner. Sampson Davis: We really got to take care of these sidequests. Holy shit. Alex Finn: I guess we're hundred percenters. Sampson Davis: Yeah. [inaudible 00:40:58]. Stace Babcock: All right, yeah, let's get out of here. Sampson Davis: All right. Alex Finn: Let's do it to it. Daniel Andrlik: So you guys get back, and it's probably still going to, even with the explosion, there's still enough to clear that it's probably going to take another day of work before the pod can move again. So what do you guys want to do during that time? Sampson Davis: I think what Dili's going to do is make sure that the train will still run, and that we'll have full control over it, that that won't be an issue. Daniel Andrlik: Okay. If you're going to spend a day doing that, I don't think it's going to be a problem for Dili. Sampson Davis: Cool. Daniel Andrlik: What about Nix and ChaCha? Stace Babcock: Just what spending the day doing? Nix is definitely milking. Daniel Andrlik: Warm your hands first. Stace Babcock: She's trying to catch up on her journal, run around, generally speaking. Do her workouts, get in a full workout, finally. Probably hunted and killed a few small creatures. The Nix life. Daniel Andrlik: Yeah. Okay. What about ChaCha? Alex Finn: I think she's just kind of just relaxing, and trying to psych herself up, because she had a positive interaction with a child that didn't end badly? Question mark? Daniel Andrlik: Yeah, it actually, it was really good. And over the day, Jackson brings you over a flower that he picked. Alex Finn: Aw. Daniel Andrlik: It's got sort of a mixture of purple and yellow petals. "Here you go, I like it, because it reminds me of your eyes." Alex Finn: That's really sweet. This is the best day ever. Daniel Andrlik: And as night arrives, Nix, you're sleeping. I'm going to offer you an XP. Stace Babcock: Ooh, yeah. All right, where are we at on number? Alex, you have three? Alex Finn: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Stace Babcock: Sampson, who has zero. Daniel Andrlik: Nix, you are sleeping, and then you wake up to what starts as a ... and goes up to an entire almost pain scream. And you wake up, and you can see Hubert the First, sitting on your chest, trying to drive their antlers into Hubert the Second. And Hubert the Second's fur, where the antlers have struck it, is wet with a viscous blue blood. And that's where we'll end this episode. Stace Babcock: Oh. Sampson Davis: Oh my God. Alex Finn: Oh my God. Stace Babcock: Hubert the First is going to go in the naughty corner. Where's the spray bottle? Daniel Andrlik: Sampson, something about this episode? Sampson Davis: Dili planted a bomb. That was awesome. Alex Finn: Yeah. Stace Babcock: That was dope. Alex Finn: Terrorism. Stace Babcock: Well, no. We weren't making a political point. Sampson Davis: Research the saboteur. Stace Babcock: It was just murder. Sampson Davis: Yeah. Just straight murder. Stace Babcock: Loud murder. Sampson Davis: Yeah, that was fun. I'm glad we kind of were able to ... we didn't do a fight on that last one. But I'm glad we found a way to not do a fight, even if it did end up in murder anyway. Daniel Andrlik: Yeah. No, it was very cool, and level eight creature so, probably a good idea. Sampson Davis: Yeah, and also, three natural 20s through that? Fucking mint. Stace Babcock: But also, we burned so much XP. I feel like it was a real up and down. Daniel Andrlik: Yeah, it was. Sampson Davis: Yeah, but three natural 20s though. Daniel Andrlik: Let me put it this way: I'm happy with that exchange. Alex Finn: Yeah. Stace Babcock: Tier three forever. No, yeah, the natural 20s were clutch. Sampson Davis: Yeah. Daniel Andrlik: Cool, it was very cool. We have a segment that we do each week called Player Intrusions, and that's where we offer you, the listener, an XP to check out something that we think you would really dig. This week, it is my turn, and I will give you all an XP if you read the book The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix. As you can tell with the title, it has sort of an association with slasher movies, which I'm not particularly a fan of, which is a part of the reason it took me a long time to try this book. But, it is really, really good. It is a pulse-pounding thriller that I finished, and I needed a few moments to calm myself and let my pulse slow down. Daniel Andrlik: And the premise is that all those slasher films of the '70s, '80s, and even '90s were based on real events, and that even though those movies exist in sort of a fictionalized form of them, the final girls from all those are now adults and they do meet in Burbank, California on a regular basis for a support group with a therapist who helped them through that trauma initially. And the story's told in the first person from the perspective of Lynette, one of the final girls, and as you can expect she frames a lot of her narrative through the lens of past trauma, so there's a lot of, she's always checking the exits, she's always thinking about what she does to protect herself. But, the premise is that the support group that's meeting on a regular basis, and one of them dies under mysterious circumstances that are very similar to what happened when she was a teen. And Lynette becomes convinced that somebody, whether it's one of the original slashers, or a fan, is coming to pick them off one by one. And so, Lynette begins this process of trying to work with the others to prevent this. Daniel Andrlik: And the story itself is a bit of an homage to slasher films, but it's not really the same. I didn't get the same feeling from it as I get from the few that I've watched, but it's an homage to some of those ideas. Even though it's not exactly those things, it's still a really good thriller. It takes you kind of through a weird journey of thinking about all those conventions of those movies, but really, I mean it's mostly a story about the grit and resilience of the final girls. So, it's really good, it's a very fast read. I've only read a few books by Grady Hendrix, this is probably the best of them. The other one that I recommend is Horror Store, which is sort of a comedy horror about a fictionalized haunted IKEA. Daniel Andrlik: But anyway, Final Girl Support Group, if you're looking for a horror book, or just a really good thriller that you'll blast through really fast and get your heart racing, highly recommend it. If people wanted to reach out to us to tell us about what they think about The Final Girl Support Group, or the podcast, how would they do that? Sampson Davis: Well hey, we have a website. It's explorerswanted.fm. From there, they can find all our socials. On Twitter, we are @explorerswanted. On Instagram and Facebook, we are @explorerswantedpodcast, and if they would like to interact with us more directly, we have a discord. You can find that by going to explorerswanted.fm/discord. Additionally, if you'd like to support us and have the means to do so, we are at patreon.com/explorerswanted. Give us money so we can keep doing this please. Thank you. Daniel Andrlik: Excellent, yeah. And if you can't afford to give us financial support, we totally understand. Honestly, the best thing that you could do would be to tell a friend, and tell them why they should listen to the show, and why you love it. Second best thing you could do is leave us a five-star rating on a podcast directory, particularly Apple Podcasts, that makes the biggest difference. Podchaser is in the second place for that, but leaving us a five-star review there really helps us find listeners and honestly, you should review every podcast you love, because those podcasters would ride that high for weeks. Daniel Andrlik: If you didn't like the show, or if you just thought it was meh, well, it's too late now. By listening to this episode you have agreed to certain terms and conditions for an extended warranty and service plan for the front door of your home. Our team of talented engineers will arrive silently in the dark, sometime over the next three nights. When work is complete, opening said door will reveal the maw of the yawning void. There you will turn slowly, in frozen supplication, to its distant nebula. When the stars that are born there begin to wink out, then and only then will you finally know the truth. Daniel Andrlik: 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 Babcock: You can find me on Twitter @stacewindu. Sampson Davis: This ding dang late capitalist society, I'm not even a homeowner, can't even find the truth because the engineers aren't going to come to my apartment building, are they? Just to homes. I'm @slampotato. Alex Finn: I'm sorry, I'm still thinking about fucking Gary. You can find me @realteaunicorn on Twitter, and teawithaunicorn on Twitch. That is going to be in my mind, like a shoebill, staring at me. Daniel Andrlik: I hope you enjoyed the show, except for you, Gary. Fuck you. Stace Babcock: Gary's a nice guy. Daniel Andrlik: We will be back next week, as we will for every week in the foreseeable future. Have a good night, day, weekend, or whenever you listen to this. And bye. Stace Babcock: Bye. Sampson Davis: Bye. Alex Finn: Bye. Alex Finn: (silence)