EXPLORERS WANTED
Getting Wired
Transcript provided by Ria Couoh

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 Alex Finn.

ALEX	
Hi! I don’t remember what I was doing! I just, like, fugued out there for a second. Just like… “whoosh.”

SAMPSON	
So, at the time of recording, I’d finally gotten Bo Burhnam’s Inside and all those songs out of my head. But, in the power vacuum that left behind, a new despot took place and now I have… The Power Line song from the Goofy Movie.

ALEX
Hell yeah!

SAMPSON
And I… That’s been stuck in my head. And it’s a banger of a song -way better than it had any right to be- but…

ALEX
It’s a fucking awesome song!

SAMPSON
(emphatically)
Fuck damnit!

ALEX
Like… Those, yeah, those 90s-early 2000s songs that Disney came out with like… They had no right to be that… awesome. Like Zenon 21st Century Girl and that “Zoom, zoom, zoom” song.

SAMPSON
Yes!

ALEX
Fucking love it!

DANIEL
“Zoom, zoom, zoom” just reminds me of woot, toot, toot.

ALEX
(cackles)

DANIEL
And Stace Babcock.

STACE
Yeah, so, when Sampson was doing the recap last episode, I spent the entire time trying to figure out if I was in an alternate timeline because…

ALEX
(laughs)

STACE
(continued)
I remembered zero percent of that!

(CAST laughs.)

DANIEL
I’m shocked considering your state when we started that show.

ALEX
Yeah.

STACE
Was I drunk already?

ALEX
Yeah!

STACE
Oh.

SAMPSON
Last recording session, we were… most of us were a little like… yeah.

STACE
We were…

DANIEL
Yeah.

STACE
Yeah.

ALEX
Oh, that’s right!

DANIEL
You’d been like pre-drinking ‘cause you had that work birthday party? Right before?

STACE
Oh, that’s right. And I had three frozen Mango Tango Margaritas.

ALEX
Yeah.

STACE
I remember that!

(CAST laughs.)

STACE
I don’t remember much else, yeah, I’m pretty… I was… Yeah.

DANIEL
Well, consider this a belated a belated birthday gift from me, Stace, but what happened last session?

STACE
(snorts)

DANIEL
Which you should remember clearly because we just had it.

STACE
“Should” being the word.

(CAST laughs.)

ALEX
Someone snuck her the Mango Tangos!

STACE
So, we were following Bastian who knew the way out of the ruins that we were lost in, and, uhm, yeap… Oh! No, before that… Well, that is what was occurring, but we went to this room, right? There was a cage with a little furball in it, we took the furball out.
And so, last episode started with furball in hand.

SFX: A LOW PURR.

STACE
(continued)
And we’ve determined that the furball is adorable, cute, perfectly innocent and…

SAMPSON
(laughs)

STACE
Has been dubbed Hubert the 2nd.

DANIEL
Really likes to snuggle against Nix.

ALEX
(overlapping)
Mhmm.

STACE
Yeah.

DANIEL
And it’s like…

STACE
Yeah.
Hubert the 1st is scared of it, though, and ran away. Which, by the way, guys, don’t let me forget that… Like, I really do want to find Hubert the 1st. 

ALEX
Oh, he hasn’t run away!

STACE
Oh, he didn’t run away?

ALEX	
He’s just panicking.

DANIEL
He’s trying to scramble away but…

STACE
Oh, he didn’t get away.

DANIEL
He hasn’t gotten away yet.

ALEX
But we’ve promised him a gun, so I think he’s settled a little.

SAMPSON
I haven’t signed any contracts, so…

DANIEL
I don’t think Hubert understand… the truth. So.

STACE
Okay.

DANIEL
Hubert does not understand what you’re saying.

ALEX
I mean he knows how to use the pew-pew gun. We did RP that, he knows how to use the pew-pew.

SAMPSON
I think we RP’d that we gave it to him. He had access to it, but we never…

ALEX
He had his little hand on the trigger!

SAMPSON
We can’t determine he knew what was going to happen.

STACE
(loudly)
Pretty sure Daniel explicitly said that he did not!
(laughs)
Actually.

SAMPSON
Yeah.

DANIEL
So, to be clear, to be clear…  I’m totally fine with using Minor and Major effects for… really cool stuff. I don’t want it to get cartoony.

ALEX
You don’t want to give a mouse a gun?

SAMPSON
(wheezes)
You remember that children’s book when you give a mouse a gun?

(CAST laughs.)

DANIEL
You give a mouse a gun, the one in an Apache helicopter.

ALEX
Can we give him a mini Apache helicopter?

SAMPSON
(chuckles)

ALEX
Like… Stuart Little ain’t got shit on Hubert.

DANIEL
Dili could probably make an Apache helicopter design for.. Hubert size.

ALEX
(whispers)
Fuck!

DANIEL
It would take some time.

SAMPSON
Save it for the spin-off where we do three Huberts in a trench coat!

ALEX
(snorts)
Okay. I’m sorry.

DANIEL
Ooh.

ALEX
I’m tangent-ing. Pretty hard.

DANIEL
With thanks and apologies to Dan Rodriguez.

STACE
Okay, so… Yeah. Perfectly innocent furball is… in a sling attached to Nix’s chest and the crew was moving on and Bastian was like “You should go left!” And… But was being summoned away by somebody impatient and so Bastian seemed to walk through an invisible door… Of course, Cha-Cha is the only one who could see and hear Bastian. Walks through an invisible door and is gone, Cha-Cha announces that fact.
Also, we get into the nature of the door and the mission of the Guardians and… exactly what “humanoid kind” means in terms of who we are saving and how we know the door is bad, and the answers from Vlad were not satisfying. So…

SAMPSON
Satisfied me.

ALEX
I mean, Cha-Cha is still proclaiming that she’s…. going to open the door and save the world.

DANIEL
Yeah. She was bubbled during Vlad’s talk.

STACE
Yeah. That was the start of it, was that… Cha-Chas said she was going to open the door and save the world, and I guess the whole mission of the Guardians of Night’s Hope is to keep the door closed as long as possible!
But.. yeah. So, Vlad was… was Vlad, and we moved on to the next room where there were three humans strapped to… I, like… I imagine, partially operating exam tables? Or where they rocks? I forget.

DANIEL
They were essentially rocks.

STACE
Okay.

DANIEL
But they were being used like exam tables.

STACE
Okay. 
And, uh, being dripped on by… a polyp which was causing them indescribable pain. Cha-Cha freed them. It turned out that they though they’d been there for three days, but they had only been in there less than one day, and they were Prospectors who got captured by the eel creatures to be experimented on.
So, they freed them and then… We did some other things.

SAMPSON
We talked to them a bit.

DANIEL
Dili salvaged the polyp.

STACE
That’s it.

DANIEL
Whatever it is.

STACE
And Nix ate some of the polyp. But now Dili has some… biomechanical crafting materials and stuff like that, and maybe it will do, someday I hope -it would be really cool-, craft life and craft organic constructs.

ALEX
Hell yeah.

STACE
So, yeah, looking forward to that!
After getting to know these people a little bit and Cha-Cha healing, well, cauterizing the stump… one of them lost an arm. Uh, they told the crew that the eel creatures that had captured them had gone through the other door in that room, but they didn’t want to go and Nix said: “well, make your choices.” And… the… The, uh, team went through the door and now are face to face with ten eel creatures. Which is ideal.

DANIEL
Mhmm.

ALEX
Yes.

SAMPSON
(laughs)

ALEX
We can totally do this.

DANIEL
So, yeah, there is this room…

AUDIO: STEEP LINE BY OUTLAND VIA AUDIIO STARTS PLAYING.

DANIEL
With these translucent gray, glowing spheres that are emitting a sort of lilac and ozone scent through the room, and all of these figures turn their hoods that you can clearly see, in the light from all these spheres, are just full of writing eels or tentacles or something like that. And all ten of them turn to look at you.

SAMPSON
Dili slowly closes the door.

STACE
(laughs)

SAMPSON
“Game plan on this? Or do… Do we just go in swinging?”

ALEX
I have a poison detonator that Nix could just toss in there. Just boop!

SAMPSON
“Yeah, I’m good with, with that one.”

STACE
“Yeah, they didn’t seem like they could be reasoned with earlier, did they?”

ALEX
“Ah, no. They were reasonable until certain people decided to go hey, shoot first, ask questions later.”

SAMPSON
“Well, they were going to ambush us, so.”

ALEX
“Eh, we had that one guy who wasn’t a dick.”

SAMPSON
“He was leading us into an ambush.”

ALEX
“But he gave us this cool head.”

SAMPSON
“I think we took that from him. After he ran. After the ambush didn’t work.”

STACE
Nix holds out her hand for the poison cypher while Dili and Cha-Cha are talking. 

ALEX
Cha-Cha does hand over the poison cypher.

DANIEL
Does Nix have any other cyphers?

ALEX
Because we did use that flame thrower already.

DANIEL
So, Nix has the cypher.

STACE
As Dili and Cha-Cha are talking, she just like opens the door a couple or a few inches, tosses it in there and closes it again.

DANIEL
Okay, so. Nix, you open the door and those ten figures are, without changing their pose, are half the distance away from you. 

ALEX
(gasp)
We are playing red-light-green-light?

DANIEL
And you throw the grenade in there and shut the door.

STACE
“Yo, they’re fast, guys.”

ALEX
“Did you blink?”

SFX: A THUD.

STACE
“Alright. Back away from the door, guys. Back away from the door. Alright, let’s be smart about this.”

SAMPSON
“Too late!”

DANIEL
(chuckles)

STACE
“Cha-Cha? Dili? Flank with the pew-pew guns. Alright?”

SAMPSON
“Okay. Alright.”

STACE
“I’ll try to stop them up at the door.”

ALEX
“Roger dodger!”

SAMPSON
“Gotcha. Okay.”

DANIEL
Okay, so you guys get into position. About ten minutes pass…

STACE
Oh my god.
(laughs)

ALEX
“Oh, yeah. Remember, they can tunnel, so.”

STACE
“Oh, fuck!”

ALEX
“Just saying.”

STACE
“Ah, shit.”

SAMPSON
“Is this part of the plan, Nix?”

STACE
“Uh. Hang on.”

SAMPSON
(laughs)

STACE
(laughing)
Nix opens the door again.

ALEX
(giggles)

DANIEL
The room you can see is empty.

STACE
“Oh yeah.”

ALEX
“Oh, fuck. They tunneled.”

DANIEL
There are no other doors besides the door that you just opened.

ALEX
Cha-Cha uses her ability to see through… what is it? Six inches? Just, look for tunnels.

DANIEL
There are tunnels all through here. Through all the walls and floors. A few in the ceiling.

ALEX
“I think they exploded.”

DANIEL
But, and this is interesting, their clothes are gone.

ALEX
“And they’re naked. Wait, no, they’re not naked because their clothes are… gone and how did the explode into tunnels and take clothes with them? I’m just saying.”

SAMPSON
“It can’t be that hard to drag clothes through tunnels or they have another way.”

ALEX
“Ooh.”

SAMPSON	
The translucent gray spheres, are those…? Do those just seem to be giving off light?

DANIEL
Yeah, just sort of a gray light and that sort of lilac and ozone odor.

SAMPSON
Is there anything else in this room?

DANIEL
Give me a perception roll of 15.

SAMPSON
Level brings it to a 12… 15.

ALEX
Nice.

DANIEL
There is something in the wall. It doesn’t appear to be related to everything else in here, but it’s an odd installation and you think there might be something that might be usable as a cypher in there. 

SAMPSON
(chuckles)
Dili points, “Oh, what’s that?”
And then with his illusion the installation just kind of… blinks red.
“Should we bring everyone in here? Should we just kind of… start poking around? Actually, we should probably tell Vlad and Race that… to keep an eye out.”

STACE
“Oh, yeah.”

DANIEL
“Tell us what?”

SAMPSON
“What?”

STACE
“About the tunnels. I think.”

SAMPSON
“Tell us what, Dili?”

SAMPSON
“Uh, there might be, uh, ten tentacle guys just… out and about, coming around.”

ALEX
“They have clothes with them.”

DANIEL
He pauses for a moment and his mouth quirks into a half-smile and he says:
“Well, I never wanted a boring life.”

SAMPSON
Ooh, okay. 
“Snix doesn’t like boring either! You could be friends!”

DANIEL
(laughs)

STACE
“Uh, Dili?”

SAMPSON
“No, it’s fine, it’s fine. I’m just going to go look at the thing.”
And Dili goes and looks at the thing.

DANIEL
Okay, so you go and… look at the things.

STACE
(laughs)

DANIEL
What thinks specifically are you looking at again?

SAMPSON
The installation that seems out of place in this lilac-ozone room.

DANIEL
Okay.
So, you go over and look at that installation. You think you could get it open. It… I would allow you either Salvaging or Understanding Numenera for this.

ALEX
Can Cha-Cha help Dili?

DANIEL
If it’s Understanding Numenera… Uhm… Yeah! Cha-Cha could help!
So, that’s bring it down to a 9. You’ve got light tools so it’s a six.

SAMPSON
I do, but I think Dili is going to first try and figure out what this installation is? Just like…

DANIEL
It appears to be some sort of playing in between you and what the real thing is.

SAMPSON
Okay.

DANIEL
I mean, you could also investigate the orbs if you want.

ALEX
(soft noise)

SAMPSON
“Uhm, I’m just going to pop this open. Cha-Cha, you want to go and take a look at the floating orbs?”

ALEX
“Yeah, it’s kind of my jam I feel.”

SAMPSON
“Yeah.”

SFX: DICE ROLLS.

DANIEL
Okay. Dili.

SAMPSON
It’s a six with my Salvaging and tools, right?

DANIEL
Mhmm. And you have a free level of Effort.

SAMPSON
I do, which brings it down to a three. So, I’m going to reroll that.

STACE
He was like, “but you got a…”

SAMPSON
(laughs)
But two is not bigger than three so…

SFX: DICE ROLLS.

SAMPSON
(clicks his tongue)
But four is bigger than three!

ALEX
Yeah!

DANIEL
(chuckles)
Okay. You pull out something that is some sort of artifact. 

SAMPSON
(gasp)
Artifact?

ALEX
Oooh.

DANIEL
So.

STACE
“Artifact? I don’t even know a fact.”
(laughs)

(CAST laughs.)

STACE
God damnit!

ALEX
Damn it!

DANIEL
Dili, upon inspection, give me an Understanding Numenera roll of nine.

SAMPSON
(sigh)
I’m going to put my free level and additional level into this one.

DANIEL
Alright, so it’s three.

SFX: DICE ROLLS.

SAMPSON
Fifteen.

DANIEL
Okay.
So, whereas most artifacts have sort of a random chance to deplete, this thing will definitely deplete after its first use, which makes it unusual. And as you study its design, it responds most similarly responds to something that the technical name was always really dull to you, the nickname for it was a Murder Globe.

SAMPSON
(laughs)
Murder Glove?

ALEX
Oooh?

DANIEL
Murder Globe.

SAMPSON
Muder Globe!

DANIEL
It’s a three-foot tall, collapsible, metal tripod with a large metal globe at the top. It has a number of holes in it, but it’s not hollow.

ALEX
(whispers)
Sounds beautiful.

DANIEL
It is a device, Dili, that you identify that it takes a little bit of work to assemble, it’s mostly collapsed right now. So, mechanically, it would actually take you two rounds to assemble it.

SAMPSON
Okay.

DANIEL
But then after that, you could use in action and activate it. It spends five rounds inactive, and then after that, anything larger than a mouse that enters its attack radius… It will attack up to ten times per round.

SAMPSON
Ooh.

DANIEL
For as many targets as there are. 
It doesn’t attack a single target more than once, and it will stay on watch for 28 hours or until it’s made one hundred attacks. Whichever comes first. It only has 100 units of ammo. 

SAMPSON
Mhm.

DANIEL
Roll me one d6.

SFX: DICE ROLLS.

SAMPSON
One.

DANIEL
So, it does four points of damage, because it’s level four.

SAMPSON
Mhm.

DANIEL
So, Cha-Cha, you go over to investigate the globes, how would you like to do that?

ALEX
Understanding the Numeneras?
DANIEL
Okay, so that will be a 9 with your training.

ALEX
Okay.
(several tsks)
Nineteen.

DANIEL
Okay. 
So, you can definitely tell it is energy encased within some sort of… thin layer that is providing sort of a surface tension to hold it in. What would you propose as some Minor effect?

ALEX
I could understand if it would hurt me to touch it. Is that a good one? Kind of want to touch it.

DANIEL
Breaking the surface tension is probably inadvisable. Whatever is it could be dangerous to (unintelligible).

ALEX
So, lick it. Got it. Yeah. I think that’s… I guess Cha-Cha is going to turn into the group and just be like:
“Okay. Despite all your temptation, do not touch, lick, etcetera, these orbs. It will hurt and not in the fun way. You know like when you lick batteries, it’s kind of fun?”
(whispered)
Listener, do not lick batteries. Do not. Do not! Do not.

STACE
Yes, I immediately thought of batteries when you said that.

DANIEL
(laughs)
Yeah, I was going to say. Did anybody else just hear what I heard that Cha-Cha just said? “Whatever you do, don’t lick these balls”?

SAMPSON
(laughs)

ALEX
(cackles)

STACE
(giggles)
I’ve been paying too much Kathryn, what can I say?
Nix is painstakingly taking these notes, still.

DANIEL
Oh, right.

STACE
And then writing on the doors. Yes.

DANIEL
Yeah.

SAMPSON
After that, Dili says:
“I also got a Murder Globe!”

ALEX
(chuckles)
“Yay!”

DANIEL
(laughs)

STACE
“Oh my god, Dili, that’s sick. Like, what is it? Bring it over here. Let’s check this out!”

SAMPSON
“Okay! This is what it is! It’s a Murder Globe! See how it’s a sphere on a tripod? Or would be if I set it up and activated it? But I can’t do that, because then…”

ALEX
“Murder. Yeah.”

SAMPSON
“Murder? Yeah.”

ALEX
“Yeah.”

SAMPSON
“So, yeah, this is pretty spicy. Pretty fun to have.”

DANIEL
Vlad chimes in and says:
“That’s good work, Dili. Really good work. I hadn’t even spotted it over there.”

SAMPSON
“Thank you!”

DANIEL
“Did you see that, Race?”

STACE
(laughs)
Jesus!

DANIEL
And Race looks over to Dili with a sick expression and says:
“Yes, very happy to… take in your skills.”

ALEX
I think Race is going to kill Dili because he’s becoming jealous that his father figure loves Dili more. Just saying.

DANIEL
(giggles)

ALEX
Just saying.

SAMPSON
“Well, yeah. Well. Thank you. I don’t even remember you guys entering the room, so I don’t know how you would have spotted it but… thank you anyway! Also, I’m not the only one contributing! Cha-Cha also found Murder Globes… of a different variety.”

DANIEL
(laughs)

SAMPSON
“Snix is here as well.”

DANIEL
(laughs)
Present.

SAMPSON
(laughs)

STACE
“One second, Dili, let me finish writing this down.”

SAMPSON
“Taking notes, too! What a good student, wouldn’t you say?”

STACE
(laughs)

(CAST laughs.)

DANIEL
Vlad just looks at, uh, Dili with just sort of a dead eyed stare.

STACE
Nix looks up and crosses her eyes at Dili.

ALEX
(laughs)

SAMPSON
Dili sticks out his tongue.

SAMPSON
Vlad raises his eyebrows and looks over at Nix.

STACE
(laughs)
Nix doesn’t look up.

SAMPSON
Mhmm.

DANIEL
What do you guys do?

STACE
What is the door situation?

DANIEL
Be it the one door out of this room…

STACE
And the tunnels.

DANIEL
And the tunnels. You’ve made several choices as you’ve made your way here, you could make other choices if you wish.

STACE
So… 

SAMPSON
As a reminder, Stace, the only other door we have is going back to the plant room with the small little fairy kind of folk? There’s another door in there.

STACE
Oh, I forgot about the fairy folk in my recap. Oh no! They’re going to be pissed! Yeah.

DANIEL
I’m sure it’s just set dressing, don’t worry about it.

STACE
I’m a little worried about it now that you’ve said that.

ALEX
(snorts)

SAMPSON
We walked through just fine, so.

STACE
But, Daniel, you said…
So, Nix is sensitive to heat, and she can tell when there are warm spots and when there are cold spots.

DANIEL
Mhmm.

STACE
Are there any warmer spots? Like, say, heading in the direction of the tunnels?

DANIEL
Nothing that sticks out more than the fact that all of these orbs feel like warm spots.

STACE
Ugh.

DANIEL
By contrast, they are probably the most warm things in this environment, even though they are not necessarily emitting heat in such a way that Dili and Cha-Cha would experience.

STACE
Okay. 
“Yo, what if they’re like scared of us?”

ALEX
(dubious noise)

SAMPSON
“I mean, that makes… that… that would make sense. Because I think… Cha-Cha, didn’t Bastian say they are experimentors? So, they’re probably just like… basically just scientists. Not like the…”

ALEX
“Yeah, but, I mean, you have to be able to catch your prey if you’re going to experiment. It’s not like, you know, people just walk in to be like: ‘hey, heard you’re doing some fun things’ and ‘hey, I’m volunteering’.”

DANIEL
Uhm, Hubert 2, still asleep, starts moving around furtively in their sling.

STACE
Nix will take Hubert the second out of the sling and set it on the floor.

DANIEL
Hubert 2nd blinks for a moment on the floor and then visibly you can see like a vibration going through their fur. Shivers, as if cold.

STACE
Uh.

DANIEL
And it says:
(one long purr, two short ones and then a long one again, toned as if in question)

STACE
“Uh, I thought maybe it had to go to the bathroom. I don’t know, guys. What do you think?”

ALEX
“Uh…”

SAMPSON
“Uh. Uh… I have no idea.”

ALEX
“Maybe put it on the floor and see if it attracts the tentacles and then we can… kill them all?

STACE
Nix scoops it right back up as soon as Cha-Cha says that.
(laughs)

DANIEL
As soon as its back in your hand, it begins nuzzling against sort of the… mound of your thumb, whatever that is and… whatever that mound is.

SAMPSON
Is that the heel? Heel of your palm?

DANIEL
Yeah, essentially.
And it starts nuzzling against it and making purring noises.

SAMPSON
“What’s it doing, Nix? Is it just…?”

STACE
“Cuddling. Yeah. Oh. It was squirming before, so that’s what I thought maybe… you know.”

SAMPSON
(gasp)
“Was it hunting rabbits in its sleep?”

ALEX
(giggles)

STACE
“Mm.”

SAMPSON
(high pitched and delighted)
“Does it hunt? I have no idea!”
(regular tone) 
“Sorry, I’m just talking now. Just… you were going to say something important, probably.”

DANIEL
Hunting Dilis in its sleep. I’m kidding.
(chuckles)

STACE
Hunting Dilis in its sleep! 

ALEX
Kidding, but not really!

STACE
“Uh, so do we want to go through the tunnels, guys? Uh, or do we just want to go back?”

ALEX
“I mean, we can’t fit in the tunnels.”

SAMPSON
“Yeah, they’re like… eel sized. Maybe six inches across? At best?”

STACE
“Well, Bastian was def…”
Wait… Cha-Cha told us that, right?

ALEX
“Bastian can go through things we cannot.”

STACE
“Mm.”

ALEX
“People laws do not apply to Bastian.”

STACE
“Alright, so… No tunnels is… is the vibe I’m getting, Dili, from you, like…”

SAMPSON
(chuckles)
“You’re welcome to try!”

ALEX
“Yeah, go for it.”

SAMPSON
“I don’t think any of us could follow.”

STACE
Aren’t these the same tunnels that, like, Dili went down? So, Dili fit through the tunnels once. I assume there’s a standard…

ALEX
No, there was like a little trap door…

SAMPSON
Dili got dropped down a shoot. Yeah. A trap door.

DANIEL
Yeah, there was a trap door, really.

STACE
So, they’re not the same… Oh. Okay, got it. I just assumed that was also a tunnel.

DANIEL
By tunnels we are talking about like eels. 

STACE
Oh!

DANIEL	
Like, they’re not even four inches around. 

STACE
Well, then I just wasted everybody’s time! So…

ALEX
(giggles)

(CAST laughs.)

STACE
“Alright, let’s go!” Nix says. And, uh… Yeah. She walks back into the other room and back out the other door in that room. And I believe now she’s in the…

DANIEL
Okay.

STACE
In the creature’s… The tiny creatures’ room.

DANIEL
Yeah, so in the tiny creatures’ room if you’re looking at the other door from that room, there is a room where it is roughly triangular in shape, so you would be entering from… it’s isosceles, it’s not equal sided, but you’re entering from the base…

STACE
Okay.

DANIEL
(continued) Of the triangle, and there are two doors on the other sides. In the center of this room, there appears to be sort of a glass cylinder filled with sort of a light brown fog, and occasionally you can see glimpses of strange creatures moving through the fog, but you don’t get clear views of them.

SAMPSON
“Whose turn is it to… approach the cylinder?”

DANIEL
(laughs)

SAMPSON
“Is it Nix? Nix, I think it’s your turn.”

ALEX
“I had the last one because that’s what happened with the… roof.”

STACE
“Yeah.”

SAMPSON
“Yeah, and I did the thing with the pole that… had the skinless… goat people, so.”

STACE
“Alright.”
So Nix will approach the cylinder.

ALEX
“But Nix also did the box.”

DANIEL
“Well- Well, I, I haven’t done one yet!” Race says.

ALEX
(high pitched)
“Uh…”

SAMPSON
(chuckles)
“Oh, you get a free pass this round since, you know, you kind of…”

STACE
“Dili.”

DANIEL
Yeah, his nose is definitely still bleeding.

SAMPSON
(lowly)
“Nix, he’ll screw it!”

STACE
(whispered)
“Dili, he’s a member of the team now, if he wants to take his turn…”

SAMPSON
(unhappy)
“Race, do you want to give it a shot?”

ALEX
“Have you played the arch game, Race? Because this is…”

DANIEL
“I’m… I’m ready to… do what needs to be done.”
And he starts walking to… this cylinder. And he goes over and…

ALEX
Cha-Cha is going to follow him like… getting ready to yank him back.

AUDIO: MONSTER BY WILLYECHO VIA AUDIIO.

DANIEL
Okay, so he approaches the cylinder that is full of brown fog, and he touches the glass and then he says…
“Mm, no reaction. Uhm, I’m going to go ahead and scan it.”
And he scans it and… he starts seizing up. It’s almost like a seizure, except you can see him wrap his arms around the barrier as best he can, and he starts slamming his head against it repeatedly.

SFX: SEVERAL SOFT SMACKS.

DANIEL
And you can see his forehead is starting to… drip with blood as he slams against this glass barrier until, finally, the glass shatters.

SFX: ONE FINAL THUD FOLLOWED BY THE SHATTERING OF A CURTAIN OF GLASS.

ALEX
(gasps)

DANIEL
And… Race and Cha-Cha… Something happens.
Cha-Cha, essentially what happens now is: your taste buds can no longer detect sweet.

ALEX
(whining)
No…

SAMPSON
(laughs)

ALEX
I’m going to kill Race! Sweet is an amazing…

DANIEL
Of course, the same thing happens to Race, but…

ALEX
Yeah, but come on, bro. Bro. Bro.

STACE
“So, Race, uhm… Yo, that was like a solid try. I will just some… You know, advice? Know your own limits, man.”

DANIEL
Race is fully unconscious, I would think.

SAMPSON
(laughs)

STACE
(laughing)
Nix just looking down.

DANIEL
Vlad comes over and kind of looks at Nix for a moment and then kind of like starts checking over. He checks like… Race’s pulse and things like that. He says:
“He’s fine, he just… We just need to get him out.”

STACE
“What… What is his deal, Vlad? Like, what is going on… with him.”

DANIEL
“His deal is that he served and suffered, and he did far too early what we’re asking you to do.”

STACE
“Oh, I just meant what are… specific conditions that he has so we can… help… him. That’s all I was getting at.” 

DANIEL
“I don’t know if we understood it. Our nanos or (unintelligible) would have been able to solve it by now. I don’t know what happened to him down there.”

STACE
“Yeah. So, what helps? Is it… Is it just like hydration and rest? Just like… What are…? You get me?”

DANIEL
“I’m trying my best to be patient, Nix, but I have to ask. Did I fucking stutter when I said we need to get him out of here?”

ALEX
(snorts)

STACE
“Alright.”
Nix picks him up.

DANIEL
Vlad is staring at you with his eyes wide open.

STACE
So, Nix will go to the right-side door and she’s just going to kick it open with her synthetic leg.

DANIEL
Okay… 
You see a room with two doors along the left-hand side, one closer to the door you’re entering from and one farther away. And you can see some sort of… metallic, too irregular to be called an oval, but it’s roughly that shape with a lot of odd adjustments like it was made with (unintelligible) that weren’t designed for this model. And it seems to be humming and glows in a sort of emerald green light.

STACE
Nix will bypass it and go to the next door and repeat.

DANIEL
Which door? There are two doors on the left. One closer and one farther.

STACE
Uh…

ALEX
Oh, the one that we’ve been marking. Gotcha! Got you, sneaky!

STACE
The farther one. Oh yeah! Are there any markings?

ALEX
Yeah, we’ve been marking doors!

DANIEL
There are no markings. 

STACE
Okay.

DANIEL
Yeah, but this room is a new one.

ALEX
Oh!

STACE
(overlapping)
The further one.

DANIEL
You see a room with two doors on the right and one forward, and you see synth on a table. 
Actually, let me look this up real quick.

ALEX
Oh no.

DANIEL
Sitting on a table that’s the color of sapphire although that would too be synth, from looking at it, just colored like sapphire.
You see a small, almost looks like a… cube that has one little… like a burr where it didn’t sand properly on one side. Also, sort of a blue color.

STACE
And the doors?

DANIEL
There’s a door forward and two doors to the right.

STACE
Oh, so we’ve been here before?

SAMPSON
Nope!

DANIEL	
No, you have not. This is a new room.

STACE
“Cha-Cha, can you open all these doors? Dili, can you open the other doors, and we can see if any are going up?”

SAMPSON
“Yeap!”

ALEX
“Yeah…”

SAMPSON
Uh, Dili will take the far door.

ALEX
Cha-Cha gets the other one and just whips it open like… whoa.

STACE
Okay, Nix opens her door.

DANIEL
Okay, so Cha-Cha, you see a beam of copper light in the next room and there’s one door.
Dili, you see this vast, like, it’s almost like 10 feet in diameter, machine of multiple arms imbedded in the ceiling there, made of grey synth, and there is one door that seems to have stairs on the other side.

SAMPSON
Going up or down?

DANIEL
Up.

SAMPSON
Cool. What does Nix see? Nix also got a room, right? What does she see?

STACE
Yeah, Nix opened the… 

SAMPSON
The third one.

STACE
The other door.

DANIEL
Oh, sorry. The other… The other room was the copper room, the copper beam of light.

ALEX
That’s Cha-Cha’s room.

DANIEL
There were only two room… doors in this room.

ALEX
Ah.

SAMPSON
I thought there were two doors on the right and one to the other side.

DANIEL
No, sorry. I was correcting that.

SAMPSON
Okay.

DANIEL
(continued)
It was one door forward, one door right.

SAMPSON
Uh…

STACE
Okay!

SAMPSON
Uh, let’s get rid of that one…
Dili calls out:
“I got stairs! Uhm also… big machine with lots of arms.”

ALEX
“I got… copper?”

STACE
“Oh, yeah, let’s uh… head to the stairs, guys.”

SAMPSON
“Hold on, hold on, Nix. Hold on.”
Dili sends out an illusory self under this multi-armed machine thing.

DANIEL
Okay, so the illusion goes under it, all the arms sort of like flash in a flurry.

SFX: A DEEP BURR OF METAL SOUNDS, A CURRENT OF ELECTRICITY BUZZING. THE BUZZING CUTS OFF AND RESTARTS AS IF SHORTSTOPPING.

DANIEL
And the illusion passes through, and you can see a small, very unclear pattern of synth in the air before it collapses.

SAMPSON
The illusion collapses?

DANIEL
The synth structure.

SAMPSON
Oh, so it just falls… straight down?

DANIEL
Because the illusion walks forward. The illusion doesn’t have physical mass.

ALEX
Is it trying to put things on the illusion?

DANIEL
That’s what it’d look like!

SAMPSON
Oh.

DANIEL
It’d look like it’s trying to… insert this network of very thin synth structures all through the illusion, but then the illusion as it was going forward, it has no physical mass and so the structure collapsed.

SAMPSON
“I think we’ve got another arch game.”
Just… without entering the room, can Dili or Cha-Cha figure out visually what these Numenera things do?

DANIEL
So, that would be an understanding Numenera roll of 12. Cha-Cha would be a 9.

ALEX
Okay, Cha-Cha’s going to roll.

SAMPSON
Dili helps Cha-Cha!

DANIEL
Okay, so it makes it a 6 for Cha-Cha.

ALEX
(sing-song)
Da-da-da-da! Da-da-da-da!
(normal tone)
Twelve.

DANIEL
Okay. 
It’s not one hundred percent clear what their purpose is. In fact, they may have no purpose at this stage. It may have intended to be a stage prior to something else somewhere down in these tunnels, but it appears to be that all of these arms do… install a network of synth wiring throughout whatever organic entity passes directly beneath it.

ALEX
“Wait, Dili, can you, like, see if you like… can you walk around it?”

SAMPSON
“Uhm…”

ALEX
“Like not walk right under it? Like… if we went a little bit to the right?”

SAMPSON
“Right. Yeah, I’ll… I’ll give it a shot. I’ll also see if I can distract it along the way.”

DANIEL
Dili, you hear a voice in your head, and it says:
(a robotic, deeper voice)
“We could talk more easily. We could be closer, father, if you went through it. I’m limited right now, in how I can communicate with you. I have to translate everything to the truth, but some things defy translation. Don’t you want to know more of what I can tell you?”

SAMPSON
Dili holds up a finger and then just kind of like turns away and starts muttering to himself:
“Do you know what this thing does?”

DANIEL
“It creates a network of synth. Using that network, I can use it to provide you more access to my consciousness, so I could share with you and understand in languages that you speak. Something that would give me a way to send you entire concepts.”

SAMPSON
“Now, why would you want that? Why would you want me closer? Because it doesn’t seem like… I, I have offered getting close and you always seem to…”

DANIEL
“You have offered to manipulate my mind, and you’ve already done that once, despite my insistence, and trapped me in a prison that Minos’ team eventually will release me from. But giving me answers might allow me to provide you with information. Things that, as much I’d like to tell you, you can’t hear.”
And then you hear a sound of static.

SAMPSON
“I… acknowledge that when I, uh, manipulated your mind the first time, I did so without your consent, not knowing that you could give consent to that if at all, and I apologize for that one. And… as much as I can apologize for what Minos… for what I did to you that Minos, I guess, freed you from, I apologize for that. But I’m not super comfortable letting you get closer if I also can’t get closer.”

DANIEL
I presume that the answer would be bidirectional. 
“I suppose it’ll depend on which one of us will be the more… perceptive.”

SAMPSON
Can… I roll an insight towards some sort of understanding on what “perceptive” would mean in this context?

DANIEL
So, it’d be an insight.
Properly an eighteen to start.

SAMPSON
Oof.

DANIEL
Before any of your stuff.

SAMPSON
Right.
Three levels of effort including my free one that I get. Brings it down a nine I believe?

ALEX
Mm!

DANIEL
I think it would make it a 6 actually, cause you’re saying in addition to the one that you get for free. Are you tier four now?

SAMPSON
Tier three but one of the advancements I took was the extra Effort.

DANIEL
Yeah, so that’d bring it to a six, actually.

SAMPSON
What I meant was three levels of effort including the free one, so… Free plus plus.

DANIEL
So that would be a nine.

SAMPSON
Yeah. A seventeen!

DANIEL
Okay.
The network would probably definitely give you better access to understanding Astor. It would definitely also make it easier for Astor to assert their influence throughout your system, both conscious and physical.

SAMPSON
Okay. So perceptive meaning… whoever can fuck with the other without getting noticed. Basically. Or something like that.

DANIEL
Yeah. Kind of.

SAMPSON
Okay. 
Dili I guess will mentally not say anything and then:
“I’m going to make sure the others get through first, safely, before I give a definitive answer. But I will give an answer before I leave this room.”

DANIEL
“Your choice, father.”

SAMPSON
“Yeah…”
Uh, and then Dili turns to the others:
“Sorry about that, I had to talk to… my son. I’m going to see if I can get through this room without…”

DANIEL
Race and Vlad are kind of looking at you like…

STACE
How long did that conversation actually take?

DANIEL
Just a few seconds, maybe, from you guys’ perspective.

STACE
Okay.

SAMPSON
“Alright, I’m going to try it.”
So, Dili’s going to walk around the edge of the room, but, while he’s doing that, he’s going to put another illusory self through the center and try to keep the machine distracted.

DANIEL
The arms react to the illusion in the center, they ignore the figure around the edge. 

SAMPSON
Okay.
Dili gets to the other side and then thumbs up:
“Go around the edge! I’ll be a distraction if need be!”

ALEX
Cha-Cha’s going to go around the edge!

STACE
Nix isn’t going to wait for Cha-Cha to get all the other way around to get started either. She’s just going to go right after.

DANIEL
Okay, so Nix walks around the edge. Vlad goes around the edge. Race looks at you guys, says:
“I know what you’re thinking about me, but I can do it.”

ALEX
Oh, goddamn it.

DANIEL
And he runs straight to the center of the room.

ALEX
(emphatically)
Oh, god damn it.

STACE
Wait-

SAMPSON
(overlapping)
Does Nix allow that?

STACE
Nix never set him down!

DANIEL
(discontent noise)

SAMPSON
(laughs)

DANIEL
Okay, fine. If you want to be lame.

SAMPSON
(laughing)
No, bad Race! Smack him!

ALEX
(laughing)
Just a little scooped up.

SAMPSON
Also, someone make sure the other three NPCs don’t run through. Because they’re also in the room.

DANIEL
Tell you what, I’ll give you an XP.

SAMPSON
(gasp)

STACE
Yeah!

ALEX
Oh! For XP he can run through the room! Yeah!

STACE
Yeah, for XP… yeah!

DANIEL
Who would you give the other one too?

STACE
(smacks lips)
Mm, I haven’t given… Alex, I haven’t given you one in a long time, because you’re… you’ve been a little bit ahead of us?

ALEX
I feel like you gave it to me last episode! Not last episode, but last-last, while we… we were all drunk?

STACE
Well, I don’t remember, so…

ALEX
Okay, I’m okay with that then.

AUDIO: RUNAWAY BY RONIIT VIA AUDIIO.

DANIEL
So, Race jumps out of your arms before you start moving along the side.
“I know you think I can’t do it, but I can!”
And he runs across the center of the room. His arms go flying down and spin through and he starts screaming.

STACE
Yeah!

DANIEL
But still, he runs through to the other side of the floor. He collapses. Dili, you were already kind of along the side, you can see Race there. You can see these grey lines all across his face and exposed skin, and they don’t start just existing, they’re like… digging through his skin. Comes to a final stop, and Race passes out, and… You can see that he… See and smell, that he is urinating.

ALEX
Goddamn it.

SAMPSON
“How is his body not dehydrated? Jesus!”
Uh, Dili will pull him into a relatively safe area, just muttering like…
“What the fuck, Race? You’ve had enough of that. Bad. God damn!”

ALEX
“Yeah!”

STACE
When Nix catches up, she will like… pick him back up.

ALEX
“Do you want me to like clean him up with hex-magic?”

SAMPSON
“Yeah.”

DANIEL
So, Cha-Cha cleans him up with hex-magic. Vlad says:
“I told you he was… He had a rough start.”

ALEX
“Then he just ran through the machine that installs things?”

STACE
“So are you just going to like keep letting him kill himself for this job or…?”

DANIEL
“No. We’ll have a discussion, but Race doesn’t take… feedback well, in a group.”

SAMPSON
“He needs a therapist, like… I don’t know if he should be doing field work.”

STACE
“Yeah, I… I… Send him back to where…”
And then Nix looks at Cha-Cha.

DANIEL
“He’s… refused any of those kinds of positions.”

STACE
“Oh. So, uh…”

DANIEL
“He’s here because he wants to be and, frankly…”
He looks at the unconscious Race and says:
“He’s got a… fucking hero complex.”

ALEX
“Oh, god damn it.”

DANIEL
“Wants to succeed in saving the Guardians or helping humanity or humanoid kind in whatever he does. I’ve already noted that it’s a problem.”

SAMPSON
The three NPCs who, I assume, have been following us.

ALEX
They made it through. They didn’t try, you know, to run through?

DANIEL
They didn’t try to go around through right through the center. They’re not stupid.

SAMPSON
Good.
(laughs)
Dili gives a gold star to each of them.
“Thank you for not being idiots. At least in front of us.”

DANIEL
Race wakes up for a moment and looks up at Vlad and says:
“Did I do okay?”
And then he passes out.

STACE
Nix just… stares at Vlad and then starts going up the stairs.

SAMPSON
“Hey, uhm… I’m going to do a thing real quick.”

ALEX
“You’ll run in, too, Dili?”

SAMPSON
“I’m not running, I am… just… trying to get closer to my son.”

ALEX
“Okay, so I’m going to wait here to drag your body away. Okay? So, go other side and come towards me.”

STACE
“Guys, just… real quick before we spend any more time in here, I have one question: did Vlad fucking stutter? We have to get Race out of here.”

DANIEL
Oooh.

STACE
(sighs)
Then Nix just starts going upstairs.

ALEX
“You guys go ahead. I’m going to drag Dili out.”

DANIEL
I would say… Dili, and say Cha-Cha, unless she wants to roll for it, but Dili, you definitely notice that Vlad raises his eyebrow at that. 

ALEX
Cha-Cha’s just going to be supportive of Dili’s journey.

SAMPSON
Mm.

ALEX
So, if Dili really needs this journey, she’s going to instruct him on the best way to do it, so she also doesn’t have to join on this journey if she doesn’t want to, trying to get him out of this journey.

DANIEL
Yeah, so, in that case, then, for sure. You guys get up the stairs and the stairs go one for a while. 

SAMPSON
Well, hold on. Hold on.

STACE
Hang on. Hang on!
Did Dili want to do something with the machines? Because I don’t want Nix’s bad behavior to impact, like…
(laughs)
What Dili is trying to do. 

SAMPSON
No, yeah.
And, once Nix is kind of out of earshot, Dili is going to be like:
“I don’t think Nix has ever been bad at anything, so just keep that in mind. She’s worth it, but I don’t think she’s ever been bad at anything. Just… that’s the vibe I’m getting.”

STACE
Dili thinks Nix is bad at…?

DANIEL
Oooh…

SAMPSON
I’m specifically saying this out of Nix’s hearing.

STACE
No, I know! I’m offended.

ALEX
(giggles)

SAMPSON
“I don’t think she takes criticism super well.”

DANIEL
Give me a Social roll of… 15.

SAMPSON
Free level plus an additional level to get it to a nine.

SFX: DICE ROLLS.

DANIEL
Mm?

SAMPSON
Eighteen!

DANIEL
Vlad kind of looks at you for a moment and then nods in acknowledgment of your point, but then kind of motions for you to head out before him.

SAMPSON
“Well, not quite!”
And then Dili goes to the other side of the room and says:
“Ready, Cha-Cha!”

ALEX
“Ready!”
And she gives him a big thumbs up like… “I support you!”

SAMPSON
And then mentally, Dili goes: 
“Ready, Astor?”

DANIEL
(in a metallic, deep voice)
“Always.”

SAMPSON
Dili walks through the center of the room.

AUDIO: DRY HEAT BY YARI VIA AUDIIO.

DANIEL
Okay.
There is immense pain as these devices sting inside of you, and then you can feel circuitry growing inside of you.

SFX: METAL MACHINERY MOVES AND SHIFTS, STARTING AND STOPPING QUICKLY SEVERAL TIMES.

DANIEL
You’ll take seven Might damage as this structure gets in your body and into your brain.

ALEX
(overlapping)
Ooh!

SAMPSON
Dili is impaired!

ALEX
That’s why Cha-Cha waited, you know? I figured this might hurt… a smidge.

SAMPSON
Mhm.

DANIEL
But because you’re only impaired, you stagger.

SAMPSON
Mhmm.

DANIEL
Yeah, but you still make it to the other side of the room.

ALEX
Can I catch Dili like a princess?

DANIEL
Cha-Cha, you don’t even see… You see the barest amount of blood at the entry points.

SAMPSON
(pained gasp)
Oh boy.

ALEX
“You just got to let up.”
And she cleans him up with hex-magic.

STACE
(laughs)

DANIEL
Cleans the blood off and… probably the sweat as well, as a result.

ALEX
Little bit of pee.

DANIEL
As I said in an earlier episode, Cha-Cha tastes all that as she cleans it off, uhm…

(CAST laughs)

DANIEL
For a moment.
And, Dili, you hear a voice in your head that says:
(in a metallic voice)
“Ah, that’s better.”

SAMPSON
As Dili gets to the other side and lets the pain kind of wash away, anything immediately, like after a few deep breaths, does Dili feel any specific…?

DANIEL
Nothing I would say, no. If you want to roll for it, I would give it to you. It’d be an Intellect roll of Understanding Numenera of 18.

SAMPSON
(fumbles)
I’m running low on points so I will try it with just the free level… 

SFX: DICE ROLLS.

SAMPSON
And rolled 15 exactly.

STACE
Ooh!

DANIEL
The automaton is being very quiet, as if it’s waiting for something. And, even though you don’t feel the obvious pain, there’s still a part of you -whether it’s your imagination or not, you’re not sure- with a strange wriggling within.

SAMPSON
“At the moment, Cha-Cha? Everything is… fine? But maybe keep an eye out, just in case.”

ALEX
“Yeah, you need the… help of the stairs or like… you going to power through this?”

SAMPSON
“I think I can handle stairs? Although I will be the slowest one for a while.”

DANIEL
Mhmm.
There is a moment, here, where Dili falls to his knees and he’s saying what Dili just said… and then there’s a moment on his knees with his hands against the floor. You can’t see his face, but you hear his voice:
(with a raspy, metallic, low voice)
“You all will die. You are all just resources for the mission.”

SAMPSON
Did Dili hear that come out of his voice?

DANIEL
Dili has no idea.

SAMPSON
Dope!

ALEX
But Cha-Cha just got that to her face?

DANIEL
And that’s where we’ll end this episode!

SAMPSON
Awesome!
(laughs)
Fuck!

ALEX
I know where Cha-Cha’s starting the next episode saying!

DANIEL
Eh.

SAMPSON
(laughs)

DANIEL
So, feels too obvious to pick on Sampson so… Alex. Something about this episode.

ALEX
I enjoyed… like, the banter. A lot.

DANIEL
Mhmm.

ALEX
We actually were like “hey, man, maybe get your subordinates some help! We understand that these are stressful times, and he just ran through the fucking center of a death machine.”

DANIEL
Mhmm.

ALEX
Just like… sometimes we’re not all “lol, you died in an Arch. Hah!” Or “hah! You fell over!” Sometimes, we do help.

DANIEL
(Unintellegible) grows people.

ALEX
Not much but… Smidge. We’re still going to call him a dumbass.

SAMPSON
(laughs)

ALEX
He lost Cha-Cha’s taste of sweet! He’s a fucking dumbass! 

DANIEL
Yeah. That is rough.

ALEX
I love the sweet.

DANIEL
Yeah, it’s rough for Cha-Cha because sweet extends to a lot of things.

ALEX
Yeah, it does!

DANIEL
Even like different types of breads.

ALEX
Yeah! And even meat! 

SAMPSON
Oh, and also… Also, some of the… natural herbs and berries that Cha-Cha would have knowledge of. 

ALEX
Yeah…

DANIEL
Mhmm.

ALEX
And that’s how you identify things sometimes, you put it in your mouth! Like a baby!

STACE
Wait, what? I’m not sure what this plant is, I’m going to put it in my mouth? My brother did that. He had to drink charcoal.

(CAST laughs.)

SAMPSON
You know, sometimes you just kind of like dab it, just like… Nope, that was too sweet! That was poison.

ALEX
Mhmm.

DANIEL
Yeah.

SAMPSON
(laughs)

ALEX
Oh, wait no! Sweet is usually like the good sign! Like… “No, body wants this”. Like… So, now Cha-Cha can’t easily find resources.

DANIEL
This segment is a whole gold mine for GM Intrusions.
(chuckles)

ALEX
And I was like… God damnit. I’m going to… yeah…

SAMPSON
Question: Cha-Cha can taste things that she hex magics away, right?

ALEX
Yeah.

SAMPSON
Okay, do you think… she could taste a little sweet if she hex-magics like… some sweet shit off of something? Like, do you think that would be a loophole? 

ALEX
I don’t know, does Race have diabetes? Cause we cleaned up some of his pee.

SAMPSON
Oh, yeah, was that like…

DANIEL
Taste like pee.

ALEX
Unless he’s diabetic!

DANIEL
I don’t think you understand, Sampson, like… how refined a palette you have to have to detect that kind of think in pee.

ALEX
(dubious noises)
You’d be surprised!

SAMPSON
I… I don’t want to understand. I don’t want to think about it.

STACE
You drink enough urine.

DANIEL
(laughs)

ALEX
I mean, how do you know Cha-Cha is not all bear rules in the woods? Drinking her own pee? Like, she’s just got a jar of it.


DANIEL
There’s so many questions about Cha-Cha’s past that you guys have not asked.

SAMPSON
Where do you start? Like, what do you start with? Like…

DANIEL
(laughs)

ALEX
Does the Cha-Cha shit in the woods?

SAMPSON
I feel like we’d ask something and then she’d just give us an answer that’s just like an answer that’s just like… 

ALEX
Purple.

SAMPSON
Answers the question but we’re just like: “I… what? What does that mean?”

DANIEL
(laughs)
Mhmm.

ALEX
I don’t know. Pretty much.

DANIEL
So, we have a segment that we do each week called Player Intrusion. That’s where we offer you, listener, XP to check out something that we think you’d really dig. This week it is my turn, and I will offer you all an XP to check out the book Blindsight by Peter Watts. 
So, Peter Watts is a really brilliant sci-fi author. His original profession before he went to sci-fi writing was… he was a marine biologist. So, he’s written some amazing books about sort of like deep sea fiction? But Blindsight is about a first contact situation where humans encounter a species that, for lack of an easier explanation, do not appear to be sentient? By our definition? But seem to be much more… effective scientifically space traveling than humans. 
So, the story is told by the perspective of an individual who has half a machine brain because it was a response to treatment for epilepsy. And, this figure, his main role is essentially to serve as commissar on this ship that’s designated for first contact, to use his ability to interpret what the other crew members are thinking. And you have a variety of other… essentially super-humans on board. Augmented individuals, multi-gender individuals and even a vampire, in the sense that this… in our future, they have figured out that vampires were a real genetic offshoot and brought them back because of their cognitive capabilities.
And they encounter this species called the Scramblers and the thing that is amazing about this book and honestly shook me for… at least a good year afterwards, and still occasionally shakes me now, is the notion that sentience is not necessarily a successful survival trait in natural selection. The notion that an advanced alien species we could encounter that is not sentient but is, in every way, advanced and dangerous to our species.
It’s a really amazing book, there is a follow-up book in the series as well, kind of digs deeper into that. Blindsight is the one that… I’d read Peter Watts before and, you know, you kind of have to be ready going into it because he has sort of a grim view on human nature in general? But Blindsight, once again, like, it was a novel that made me sort of question the presets that I already had of what makes a sentient being sentient and why is sentience in any way special.
Excellent book. Deeply thought-provoking. Brilliantly written and… delightfully tense from the first moment to the last. If you enjoy this book, you will absolutely enjoy his, uhm, can’t remember the series right now, but there is a series that starts with the book named Starfish which is about a woman who is researching deep, deep, deep below the ocean and… becomes something strange and hybrid-like as she encounters what real AI is like down beneath the sea.
But! Peter Watts. Great. Blindsight is amazing, highly recommend it.

If people wanted to reach out to us to tell us what they think about Blindsight or the podcast, how would they do this, Sampson?

SAMPSON
Oh, well, an excellent place to start would be explorerswanted.fm, from there they can… get to all our socials as well as see all our episodes and the transcripts attached to them. 
On Twitter, we are at explorerswanted. On Instagram and Facebook, we are at explorerswantedpodcast. 
If you’d want to talk with us directly, we have a Discord where we are very active, and it’s much better than going on Twitter, which is a hellscape! Uh, you can find our discord at explorerswanted.fm/discord. That would give you the weird (unintelligible) Discord link to find us on Discord. Discord, Discord.
Additionally, if what we’ve done here, you feel deserves money that you could throw us, find us at patreon.com/explorerswanted. And if you subscribe above the 5 dollar tier, I believe, you get character journals that may add additional insight into the dumpster fire antics that we have performed here for your amusement today!

ALEX
I mean, technically, Explorers Wanted is on Twitch. Technically.

SAMPSON
We are on Twitch.

DANIEL
We are, but the only one who can stream there is actually your account.
(laughs)

ALEX
What? You do it all the time!

SAMPSON
Yeah, you edit stuff!

DANIEL
I’ve done it like twice!

SAMPSON
Three times.

ALEX
It’s a charm!

DANIEL
Okay. Three times.
Yeah, if I’m ever editing and streaming, please stop by because…

ALEX
Why not?

DANIEL
I’m a broken person and would love attention while I’m doing my work.

SAMPSON
(laughs)
And also it’s entertaining and makes a good stream, Dan! 

ALEX
Mhmm!

SAMPSON
Don’t fucking… self-deprecate yourself!

DANIEL
That’s not the real reason, though, Sampson. Talk about my needs.

ALEX
(snorts)

SAMPSON
(laughs)

DANIEL
But, honestly, if you like the podcast, the best thing that you could do for us is to tell a friend and tell them why you like the show and why you should listen to it.
The second-best thing you could do is leave us a five-star written review stating the same! So that everybody can see why they should listen to it, you know. Specifically on those podcast directories. 
If you didn't like the show, or if you just felt it was meh, well, I’ll tell ya:
My heart is so full I can feel the things eating it away out of my chest, and, I swear to you, I didn’t tell them your name.

If you want to reach out to us individually on social media, you can!
You can find me @andrlik, a-n-d-r-l-i-k.

STACE
You can find me on Twitter @StaceWindu. 

SAMPSON
Get hype, because according to my notes, next episode of the main series at least is session 69. Nice! I’m @SlamPotato. 

ALEX
Nice! Well, you can listen to me yelling at my unfilial son, @realteaunicorn or @teawithaunicorn on Twitch!

DANIEL
Okay, that’s it for us! 

AUDIO: NINTH WORLD BY DAVE STERLING PLAYS.

DANIEL
Hope you enjoyed the show!
We will be back next week as we will for every week in your foreseeable future. Have a good night, day, or weekend, or whenever you listening to this, and…

ALL TOGETHER
Bye!

AUDIO: NINTH WORLD FADES AWAY.