[INTRO MUSIC]
MIKE: 2019 has been a long year for everyone, but it’s finally coming to a close. It’s nearly midnight, and everyone in the beautiful lakeside city of Burlington, Vermont is celebrating in their own way. But for now, we focus on four particular individuals. Surrounded by colleagues, the pop of champagne corks, and the boisterous din of friendly banter, Dr. Sylvester Coopersmith is ingratiating himself at the University of Vermont faculty holiday party. He has just returned from visiting his family in Queens, and is still meeting some new faces amongst his fellow staff. His leg has now fully healed, and Sylvester has now gone back to his capoeira classes and spent his down time learning how better to improvise in all manner of stressful situations. Especially against the supernatural, now that he has come face to gruesome face with vicious, terrifying monsters. He takes another sip of the free booze. By contrast, Albion Graves, monster hunter by trade, spent time with a pack of werewolves he had befriended on his last hunt, helping them recuperate from the fallout of those events. In the meantime, he calls his family in Oklahoma on a burner cell phone and sends Christmas gifts to his parents and younger siblings with no return address. He’s stuck around Burlington, waiting for the next threat to arrive. But in the meantime, Albion has spent New Year’s Eve with Desdemona Brown, a medium psychic who spent her down time improving her house’s magical wards and hand making gifts for her friends. Between operating her business as a medium out of her living room, the lonely work of magical upkeep, and her connection to the supernatural around her never truly leaving her actually alone, she’s resolved to get out more in the New Year. Not tonight though. It’s late, it’s dark, and Albion has just arrived. So, she puts on a fresh kettle of tea. Finally, in an apartment near the Fletcher Free Library in the middle of town sits a young woman, alone. It’s been a month since she left town to evade some of her father’s goons, and now Rosetta Kamen has come back to check on her new friend, Desdemona, and possibly follow up on the lead she got from the mysterious entity in the library. The one who told her that her missing fiancé was still alive. With no real holiday traditions, she’s taken to volunteering, hoping to meet more people so she can learn better how to trust. As the clock strikes midnight, we see Ro watching old VHS tapes of cartoons, huddled in a comfortable pile of blankets and sipping hot chocolate. These four people have a common bond. They know that the supernatural is real, they know that it is dangerous, and instead of running from the shadows and the things that go bump in the night, they work together to fight the darkness before it can ever see the light of day. This last year was difficult for all of them, but they’ll need to rely on each other more than ever to ensure that this New Year isn’t humanity’s last. Welcome to Green Mountain Mysteries.
[MUSIC]
It was a New Year’s much like any other. Celebrations are winding down, and champagne and drunk people are starting to clear out from the tables and streets. Students and the middle class, or affluent ski vacationers alike, sleeping in and getting ready to go back to work. Something’s had the four of you on edge all day though. You can’t really put your finger on it. Around 3:00 AM, a sudden tremor shakes the ground, large enough to cause some glasses or mirrors to fall to the ground, followed by a cacophonous screech of metal rending. If you look outside, you see a sickly green eldritch bonfire emanating from the shore south of the city. This enormous green pyre illuminates a small amount of smoke in the sky, showing that the crash has caused a few real fires. The light display is in stark contrast to a cold wind that has been getting colder and more cutting all night. For anyone who lives downtown, a grim sight soon greets you. A series of skeletons and zombies covered in lake muck and zebra mussels appeared and are terrorizing any people around, as a series of sickly green glowing translucent people in Revolutionary War dress march up the street. If you have line of sight to the center of the verdant flamelike aura in the sky, there’s a ship, an old ship caked in mud and muck with weakly-glowing sailors fighting the zombies infesting it. Interestingly, the spirits each bear striking resemblance to zombies. Some are busily moving waterlogged crates to shore. What do you do?
THOM: “Hey Des?”
CHRISTINE: “Oh my gosh.”
THOM: “What the fuck is happening?”
CHRISTINE: “Probably something that needs investigating, I reckon.”
THOM: “Investigating and also shooting. Hang on.” At this point, Albion just grabs a beanie and pulls it on and pulls a bandana up over his face, and he’s like “We probably don’t want to end up on YouTube or something with our faces showing. So, alright, I’m going to drive down to the shore.”
CHRISTINE: “Oh, wait.” She starts to disentangle herself from several different afghans and looks very sadly at a broken teacup that’s just shattered on the ground and just grabs some scarves and starts to wrap those around her face too.
MIKE: Alright.
CHRISTINE: “Alright.”
MIKE: In the meantime, Ro, what are you doing? You should have a—since you do actually live in the downtown area, you are seeing this.
GWEN: Yeah. So, Ro is getting ready to leave the house. She’s got her aluminum bat that she keeps by the door in case someone comes to mess with her, and she’s trying to decide which pair of winter boots she’s going to wear outside.
MIKE: Okay.
GWEN: She’s got a bunch, and they’re all cool.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: You can’t fight crime if you ain’t cute.
MIKE: Speaking of cute, Sylvester, you’re on campus, but that’s not that far from downtown, and you know it’s not that far from the shore. It’s just several blocks or so, and this is extremely audible, this whole thing that’s occurred, so what are you doing.
DARIUS: Probably going to go the opposite way during the confusion, and then dart back around. So, that way it’s not totally obvious that I’m running at the source of whatever.
MIKE: Ah, okay. So you are absolutely going to be running into the fray, but you’re going to join the panicked sort of running away of people around you?
DARIUS: Yeah.
MIKE: Okay, great. I like this a lot. So, I think you are going to be able to reach Ro at about the same time as she’s getting out of the door, and shortly Des and Albion are going to drive up into the scene, because that’s not that far also. You find yourself looking at some serious magical bullshit. I assume this is not how you wanted to start your year.
DARIUS: Nope.
GWEN: It’s not.
MIKE: I mean, things have been relatively quiet for you for the last few months after you kicked some hags around and whatnot—
DARIUS: I mean, this shit couldn’t have waited until like, I don’t know, February?
MIKE: Apparently not. So, there are some—there appear to be skeletal folks, zombie folks, and also some glowing folks that look like they’re in Revolutionary War dress.
DARIUS: This is Army of Darkness bullshit.
CHRISTINE: Hopefully ghosty folks.
MIKE: So, alright, I would like to ask if there are people that are running and trying to get out of the way of these things, because this is clearly not something that people want to be dealing with right now. What is your first course of action? You know that there are civilian types around, and that there are these things in the streets.
DARIUS: I guess I’m just going to be yelling at people to go in the direction that’s away from everything.
MIKE: Okay.
DARIUS: Unless there’s like law enforcement around, but I doubt it.
MIKE: Okay, make me a—we’re going to make our first roll of the game right now. Make me an Alertness roll.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: Read your results out loud, if you don’t mind.
DARIUS: Oh, I got a two.
THOM: Two plus one, that’s a three.
DARIUS: Oh yeah.
MIKE: Yeah. So, whenever we make a roll, don’t forget to just add your result to your skill out loud so I can know what your total is.
DARIUS: Oh, okay. So, I got a three.
MIKE: Fantastic. Okay, yeah, you can pretty clearly see that law enforcement is not present around you at the moment. You think that they were occupied in other places. You can see some flashing lights coming from down more towards the actual docks area, the waterfront, and more towards the campus where you just ran from, but you definitely notice that there’s at least one person that is in the area and appears to be injured. Ro, you are also here on the scene and you are seeing pretty much the same thing. What do you do?
GWEN: Is there anyone that is in any immediate danger?
MIKE: I’m going to also have you roll an Alertness for that.
GWEN: Okay. Oh no. That’s a zero.
MIKE: Okay. I think that even with an alertness of zero, it’s fairly obvious to know that there are some people that are not in a good place right now, but you just won’t be as effective at necessarily—like, you have to take some time to process the scene, because this is a lot. It’s a lot to handle right off the bat. So, with that I think that we can just say Albion and Desdemona have also arrived on the scene at the same time. As you got closer and closer to downtown, you had to come in more on the North side—or actually the South side and realize that there were people moving, and a lot of them moving away from a certain area, and when you press in on that area, you realize that the main street has, well, these things.
THOM: I see zombies, right?
MIKE: You do.
THOM: Alright, I’m going to make a quick Lore check, if you don’t mind.
MIKE: Okay. Sure.
THOM: I have a Lore of plus two, is that enough to know they need a drummer, or do I need to roll for that?
MIKE: That’s something that you do need to roll for.
THOM: Alright, that is a plus two, so that’s a four.
MIKE: Okay, I need to be actually setting difficulties for those things, but that was about a difficulty three or a four, so you definitely got that. You know that there should be a drummer of some kind for these things to continue to function, being zombies. You’ve dealt with a zombie here and there before.
THOM: Yeah.
MIKE: So, you notice that there are some ghost types. They look translucent and sort of sickly green and they are in Revolutionary War garb, and naturally, you do have some fife and drum types mixed in.
THOM: Oh, that’s going to complicate things. But they’re fighting the zombies, right? Or are they leading the zombies?
MIKE: It is hard to tell in a moment’s notice exactly what’s going on there. So, we’re going to move on to Des. What is your first reaction to this? And then we’ll get into proper Initiative order.
CHRISTINE: Yeah, can I do some sort of a check to see if those are ghosts or spirits or if they’re something else?
MIKE: Absolutely. I’m going to say make an Alertness roll, and your target is like one.
CHRISTINE: That is a negative one.
MIKE: Overall?
CHRISTINE: I rolled three negatives and a plus.
GWEN: Oh no.
CHRISTINE: Thank you, rainbow dice tower of failure.
MIKE: Would you like to spend a Fate Point on that, or would you like to just—
CHRISTINE: Why yes, let’s do Grammy Came to the Tea Party, because I am a medium psychic damn it.
MIKE: I mean, you could even tag your High Concept if you want.
CHRISTINE: I’ll hold onto that one for later.
MIKE: You can tag those multiple times.
CHRISTINE: Oh, okay. Let’s do that one. I have no Fate Points to buy those with though.
MIKE: Everybody starts with your Refresh. So, there’s a mechanical thing at play here. Everybody always starts the campaign with a certain number of Fate Points, which is—there’s a certain level of Fate Points we’re at, which I think is seven, and people have spent what’s called Refresh on Stunts and Powers to make themselves cooler and more powerful, but it means that they get fewer Fate Points at every Refresh, and refreshes happen at the start of sessions. So, at the start of the session, you all do have the number of fate points that you have for Refresh. So, you should have at least one.
CHRISTINE: That’s the adjusted Refresh number?
MIKE: Yes.
CHRISTINE: Okay, I have one, so that brings me down to zero for now. So, I will tag that, please.
MIKE: Okay. These are ghosts! There are definitely ghosts in there, and you are quite sure of that.
CHRISTINE: Do I recognize any of them?
DARIUS: 2spoopy5me, mate.
MIKE: Not of hand. You don’t recognize any of them immediately as people you’ve talked to before. So, now we’re going to get into Initiative order, which is determined by Alertness.
THOM: My alertness is three.
MIKE: Okay, Albion is at three. And Des, your alertness is one?
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
MIKE: Sylvester, what’s your alertness?
DARIUS: It’s also one.
MIKE: Okay. And Ro?
GWEN: Mine is a two.
MIKE: Okay, great. Des and Sylvester, which one of you would like to go first?
DARIUS: I can go first.
MIKE: Okay, great. So, Albion?
THOM: Yes?
MIKE: Here you are, on the scene.
THOM: I see zombies.
MIKE: Yes, you do.
THOM: I see ghosts—
MIKE: Yes, you do.
THOM: -- that are Civil War ghosts.
MIKE: Revolutionary War.
THOM: Revolutionary War ghosts. I’m probably about to blow their tiny minds with my firepower. “I don’t need a gunpowder packet for this, it’s a revolutionary thing! Not your kind of revolution, my kind of revolution. Look, we’re getting into semantics here. Anyway, it’s a gun.”
DARIUS: Witchcraft!
THOM: So, Albion is going to start kind of making his way against the crowd, and once he’s clear and there’s nothing between him and the zombies that is a person he could shoot, he’s going to draw his handgun, raise it, and start opening fire on them.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: Not the magic handgun, just a handgun.
MIKE: Okay, cool. Go for it. Roll Guns.
THOM: Actually, come to think of it, a gunshot would probably be the biggest way to cause a panic right now.
DARIUS: Yeah.
MIKE: Yeah.
THOM: So, yeah, let’s not do that, actually. Albion is occasionally smart. Instead, he’s going to pull out one of his what is essentially a wrought cold iron Billy Club and kind of just “Hey, dumbasses!”
MIKE: Alright.
THOM: “You’re fucking gross.” And then start hitting them with it.
MIKE: Okay, fair enough. Let’s get into it.
THOM: I mean, he’s better at quips when he’s shooting things.
MIKE: Yeah, you spent all your time working on quips for guns.
THOM: That is all blanks, so that is a two Weapons roll.
MIKE: Okay. Great great great. Excuse me, I just have to make sure that I’ve got the correct stat block for these. Oh, okay. Page 111, amazing. Do do do, do do do.
THOM: He’s just going to start clubbing at their heads. Not their heads actually, their limbs. He’s hitting at the limbs and arms, trying to disable them.
MIKE: I mean, that makes sense, so.
THOM: “They’re not like the TV zombies, you can destroy their head, they’re still going to come at you real angry like.”
MIKE: Okay, yep. So, we’re going to roll against your two. Okay, great. Okay. Yeah, you are able to hit this zombie with—I guess, what weapon level is this particular Billy Club you have. Is that a Weapon one or Weapon two?
THOM: I mean, it’s a Billy Club. I would imagine it’s probably—it can’t be more than two.
MIKE: Okay. I’d say it’s a two. It’ll pack some punch.
THOM: It’s a heavy iron rod with a grip on it.
MIKE: Yeah, that’s fair. So, great. That’s a Weapon two, so three Stress goes through.
THOM: Great.
MIKE: Love it. Okay. He does not look extremely pleased to have been hit that way. So, he’s not going to do anything to you yet because it’s not his turn. Instead—
THOM: Albion’s going to be like “Hey Des, do you mind looking at that ghost problem if you ain’t yet? That’s kind of more up your alley.”
MIKE: Alright.
CHRISTINE: “I’m trying!”
MIKE: Okay. So, Ro, it is your turn.
GWEN: So, Ro has an aluminum bat that she has brought from her house. She’s going to swing and try to hit something.
MIKE: Okay, great. Are you just going to go for whatever’s nearest to you?
GWEN: Whatever’s nearest and looks dangerous, not like a civilian.
MIKE: Yes, naturally. Okay.
DARIUS: Of course.
MIKE: You have, I guess I would say, a skeleton in relative reach to you. Roll Weapons.
GWEN: Yeah, I’m going to swing and hit, okay.
MIKE: Oh, that’s not great.
GWEN: That is a negative one.
MIKE: Okay. Let’s do a roll. Awesome! These rolls are fantastic.
GWEN: Oh no.
MIKE: So, what is your Weapons score?
GWEN: A zero.
MIKE: Okay, so you rolled a minus one and it defended with also minus one, which means unfortunately for you, it does not actually do it damage. As you swing, the bat towards it, I think you’re still kind of getting used to A this is a thing that’s happening, and B the dark that you stepped outside into, so it’s not the best swing in the world, and it just sort of grabs your bat for a second and you hear just sort of like crack as it sort of adjusts its bones, but you have not dealt it damage, unfortunately. So, Sylvester.
GWEN: That’s fair.
DARIUS: Are there still civilians around, or just that one injured dude?
MIKE: It seems like everybody was pretty much smart enough to get out of Dodge, except for people that have been injured.
DARIUS: Alright, well I guess I’m going to try to get the nearest injured person I guess and bring them away from this bullshit.
MIKE: Okay, that sounds good to me. Cool. I think that’s going to be a Might roll.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: This person is in decent shape, so I’m going to say this is a Might of two to get them to a safe place.
DARIUS: Watch me fuck this up. Yeah, pretty much.
MIKE: What’s your Might score?
DARIUS: It’s like one.
MIKE: Okay, and you rolled a zero. So, that’s one. If you want to drop a Fate Point to guarantee you do it successfully, I think you can justify that.
DARIUS: Yeah, sure.
MIKE: Alright, which Aspect would you like to tag to do so?
DARIUS: Endurance?
MIKE: Oh, it’s one of your character Aspects.
DARIUS: Oh, so is that Stunts, or is that just—
MIKE: No, it’s just stuff like Butt Kicking Butt Doctor.
DARIUS: Oh. So, I guess Three Legged Horse.
MIKE: Yeah, that sounds good.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: You do know how to move an injured person, and you have gone through and recovered from your own injuries, so you’re willing to power through. So, great. Yeah, so you have moved this person into relative safety, and in doing so have attracted the intention of something sinister, so the zombie what done take a swipe at this guy is now sort of paying attention to you, so it seems like you’re going to be engaged shortly.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: Congratulations, by the way, on your engagement. Desdemona?
GWEN: Engaged to be married?
THOM: No, it’s a bad pun. This night sucks.
MIKE: That is correct.
DARIUS: Oof.
MIKE: So, Desdemona, what are you going to do when confronted with this scene?
CHRISTINE: Alright, can I try to do some sort of magic thing where I try to maybe get the ghosts to just stop or dispel or something?
MIKE: Well, you definitely have magic, and it’s very much spirit magic, which is the correct element. You have some rote spells, don’t you?
CHRISTINE: Yeah, the one that—So, I’m not sure if I’d be going for my attack or my counter spell, or may anchor spirit to the earth.
MIKE: I mean, okay. So, with magic, you get a cool thing that’s called rote spells. These are just things that you know how to do. You have to do a little bit less work to control this magic, so it’s just a little bit more convenient for the caster. I’d say that Bind Spirit to Earth seems like the sort of thing you’d want to do in this circumstance.
CHRISTINE: Alright, so I’ll cast Liganta then.
MIKE: Alright, so how many shifts of power is that?
CHRISTINE: Do you mean the number I have next to it?
MIKE: Yes.
CHRISTINE: Three. It’s a maneuver.
MIKE: Okay, so yep. You can summon three shifts of power. You know you can, because it’s a rote spell. So, normally casting a spell, you have to make a Conviction roll to summon the power, and then a Discipline roll to control it. But, because you know you can do this reliably, it’s just the Discipline roll to control the three shifts of power. So, let’s go for it.
CHRISTINE: Alright, that is a three.
MIKE: Alright. So, with that result, it’s not pretty, but it works. I’m going to say that you are able to—actually, you know what, that’s fine. I’ll give it to you this way. You bind one of the spirits. One of the sort of apparent drum corps type of spirits who is walking along next to someone who is playing a fife, and sort of spectral energy curls around this thing and you grab it, and it sort of stops moving and thereby stops drumming. At which point, the zombies sort of just stop, and they fall.
CHRISTINE: Cool.
MIKE: However, there are quite a few other spirits, and they seem to be not too pleased with their circumstances until the zombies start dropping, and they are confused, but they seem to be kind of happy with this result. It’s their turn, and a lot of them just start taking shots with ghostly Revolutionary War muskets just sort of at the general direction of the skeletons, but also you, because you are over there. So, everybody, you’re going to have to make an Athletics roll to dodge, and I’m going to give a big old roll here. Alright, so, to successfully dodge out of the way of all of this, you need to beat a 3.
DARIUS: yay, I got a four.
THOM: I got a three.
CHRISTINE: I got a one.
MIKE: Alright, and Gwen?
GWEN: Hold on, what is this plus?
MIKE: This is plus your Athletics to dodge.
GWEN: Alright, I got a negative—yeah, a minus two.
MIKE: You cut out a little bit there, sorry.
GWEN: It’s a minus two.
MIKE: Could you just type your overall result in the chat? Sorry. Wow!
GWEN: Yeah.
MIKE: So, your Athletics is a zero
GWEN: Correct.
MIKE: Awesome, okay.
GWEN: Because I think I switched that out with a different thing, and now I’m mad.
MIKE: Okay, good. So, the successful dodgers were Albion and Sylvester, correct?
THOM: Yep.
DARIUS: Yeah. The sports boys.
MIKE: Okay, yes, and Des, what was your overall total roll?
CHRISTINE: It was a one, because I also have a zero in Athletics.
MIKE: Okay, so, awesome. Alright, so this group of soldiers takes aim and they fire in sort of a coordinated way as one might expect from mass fire tactics of musket-bearing Revolutionary War soldiers. So, a stream of sort of green translucent balls fly your direction. Sylvester, you’re sort of able to hit the dirt without anything hitting you. Albion, it seems, you’re also able to avoid being struck by these. But Des, one of these sort of translucent bullets manages to pass through your arm, and you are dealt two mental damage.
CHRISTINE: Alright, so I’m just crossing off the actual two circle, right?
MIKE: That’s correct, yes.
CHRISTINE: Okay. Is there any chance—some of my magic is restored with spirit energy, is it possible that any of that is charging me right now?
MIKE: No, not like this.
CHRISTINE: Okay.
MIKE: No, and also for your rote spell, you did take one mental Stress hit.
CHRISTINE: Ah.
MIKE: So, you have your one and your two slot filled in.
CHRISTINE: Why, yes I do.
MIKE: Okay. Ro, on the other hand, is—you have five shifts of mental damage coming your way.
GWEN: No thank you.
MIKE: Well, it’s happening.
GWEN: I know.
MIKE: So, this barrage of—you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and two of these transparent musket balls pass through you. One of them through good, solid meat of you. But it doesn’t hurt the way you would expect a solid bullet to, but it definitely feels like something that hurts somewhere inside. So, how are you going to get out of being taken out by this?
GWEN: How do I approach this?
MIKE: So, there are a couple different options you have. You can spend Fate points to apply your Aspects to get plus twos on your Athletics roll, and you can also take Consequences to mitigate the damage by a certain amount, but those Consequences will be on you for a moment or longer.
GWEN: I think I’m going to use a Fate Point to not die.
MIKE: Okay. What Aspect are you going to tag in order to increase your Athletics roll versus incoming musket fire?
GWEN: I’m going to go with Monsters Aren’t Real, Idiot. Because obviously they're right here, but I don’t know if they’re actually real.
MIKE: Okay, okay. I’m going to say that gives you a sort of willpower thing versus attack on soul, which is currently what’s occurring. So, okay, yeah. I think I can justify that narratively. Yeah, one of your Aspects is called Monsters Aren’t Real, Idiot, even though you definitely have to confront the fact that they are. I do enjoy this a lot that you are still sort of grappling with unwillingness to deal with reality. Okay, so that is a three mental Stress hit as you do feel something pass through you and it does do pain. Alright, and that is back to the top of Initiative. Also, the skeletons seem to have actually been injured by this, so it seems like this did something to them. They seem upset. They start turning on the ghosts, it looks like. So, what’s up, Albion?
THOM: Yeah, Albion is just going to stand up and just look at them like “Hey! Fucking mind? Bayonet charge or something. There’s collateral damage, you idjits.” Then he’s going to—I mean, can I see Ro from where I am?
MIKE: Yes. Everybody is currently in view of each other. You’re all in the same zone.
THOM: Albion is just going to stop and be like “Holy shit, Ro?” And then he is going to just sprint over and attack the closest thing to Ro.
MIKE: Okay. It’s the same zone, so fortunately you don’t need to make a sprint roll, but go for it. Make a roll, make an attack.
THOM: It’s a skeleton, right?
MIKE: Yes.
THOM: Alright, cool.
MIKE: I mean, she and Des are in close enough proximity that I’m not just abandoning Des, right?
MIKE: No, it’s a whole—you’re just in the same zone.
THOM: Cool. Alright, that is a plus one, so that is a three attack, and—
MIKE: Okay, well the skeleton rolled a minus two on its defense, and it doesn’t know better to drop a Fate Point or anything, so you swing, a ton of damage into the skeleton that’s five shifts, plus the two for weapon two, so that’s seven shifts of damage onto this thing. The head just kind of goes flying away, and you can see, in what would be hilarious fashion if the circumstances were not life threatening, the skeleton sort of— its arms flailing sort of like “Huh? Huh? What? Huh?” It’s clearly quite confused about its current situation, and it just sort of tumbles over and spasms basically with its shoulders like “What? What’s going on?” But it’s clearly not a threat anymore.
THOM: Yeah, Albion’s going to look at Des for a moment and tug down his mask so she can see his face—not Des, Ro. He’s going to tug down his mask so she can see his face and be like “Hi. Howdy. How are you doing here?”
MIKE: Well Ro, it is your turn.
GWEN: I’m very surprised to see that Albion is here. So, I just kind of wave, nod, and swing at another thing in my area.
MIKE: Okay. Alright, so there is another one, you do have to do a little bit of a run to get there, so make me a Weapons roll.
GWEN: Alright. That’s a zero.
MIKE: Okay, well unfortunately for you, you are apparently now so surprised by seeing Albion that this one also fails to connect.
THOM: Wait, you have a plus two to your weapons, right?
GWEN: I do not.
THOM: oh, never mind then.
MIKE: Alright. Unfortunately for you, this also seems to fail to connect. Yeah, first combat of the game. How’s it going?
GWEN: The bat is not Ro’s weapon.
DARIUS: Swing and a miss.
THOM: “As far as I’m concerned, it’s fine.”
MIKE: Alright.
GWEN: [laughter] Thanks, Albion.
MIKE: Alright, Ro. So, yeah, this just doesn’t seem to really bother it that much. Maybe you just didn’t hit the skeleton in a very good spot or anything, but it just clicks and clacks and doesn’t seem to pay you that much mind. Sylvester?
DARIUS: Yes.
MIKE: What’s up?
DARIUS: That thing that’s coming near me, I’m going to kick it.
MIKE: Well, it already fell over.
DARIUS: Oh.
MIKE: Once Desdemona did a bind action on the drummer, it seems like all of the zombie type things fell over, and it’s not currently moving.
DARIUS: Okay, whatever. Alright, so I guess I’m just going to—is this guy that I’m escorting safe now, or does he still need carrying?
MIKE: He’s been moved out of harm’s way, but you wouldn’t know for sure how bad he is without taking a look.
DARIUS: Alright, so I guess I’m going to see how bad he’s fucked up.
MIKE: Alright, I think we can go with medical attention, great. That’s a Scholarship roll.
DARIUS: Yeah.
MIKE: So, your target on this one is a three.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: Actually, no, this one is a two.
DARIUS: Alright, so I got a six.
MIKE: Okay, yeah. So, not only do you succeed this check, but you succeed it extremely well, so—
DARIUS: I be a doctor.
MIKE: It’s true, you be a doctor. So, you can definitely identify that this thing not only got a strong hit that knocked him to the ground, but definitely raked some claws across this fellow, so he is bleeding.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: But because you rolled so well, you know that it’s not immediately life threatening, but getting struck by something or anything like that cannot be good, and there’s definite risk of infection from being struck by something that’s apparently dead. So, I will say that on your next roll, if you choose to assist this person, you’re going to get a plus one on your next one, because we’re going to use the optional Spin rule on that. You were so good at checking out this guy and his injuries that you are going to actually be more successful at treating it next round.
DARIUS: Cool.
MIKE: Great. So, we move on to—I keep trying to open up the wrong thing for initiative—Desdemona.
CHRISTINE: I was wondering if it would be possible for me to try to talk with the bound spirit for a moment.
MIKE: Yeah, you know what? Absolutely.
CHRISTINE: Okay, so I crouch down on the ground and kind of put my hands up in a sort of menacing magic looking threatening manner, and I go “What the hell is going on? It’s not Halloween, I know that much.”
MIKE: Alright, I’m going to say you should be rolling a Rapport.
CHRISTINE: That would be a four.
MIKE: Fantastic. It’s going to roll against that. Oh oh, that’s a big old minus three on that roll. Amazing. So, that’s a huge social hit on this thing.
CHRISTINE: Start singing.
MIKE: Yeah, you know what? You’ve functionally taken him out of this scene with that disparity, and he explains the strangest thing. This guy is talking in a very old style of English, which is not too out of your wheelhouse—because, you know, you do talk to spirits that have been dead for a while, you did talk to that Civil War soldier. So, Revolutionary War style of English isn’t too far of a stretch. The strangest thing though is that he seems to be describing an active fight against the redcoats to prevent them from seizing the harbor.
CHRISTINE: “It’s 2020, the harbor’s been seized.”
MIKE: He just kind of very confusedly dissipates into ectoplasm.
CHRISTINE: Dammit!
MIKE: I mean, you took him out of the scene, so yeah, he’s gone. But he’s definitely no longer a threat.
DARIUS: Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
CHRISTINE: [laughter] Mission accomplished. Eggnog, Desdemona’s place.
MIKE: Fantastic, So, at this point in time, the skeletons just kind of fall upon the ghosts, and there seems to be a lot of close quarters combat that you might expect out of a Revolutionary War film. A lot of ghost bayonets and a lot of skeletons, so it seems like they’re pretty much occupied with each other at this point. Albion.
THOM: Yes?
MIKE: It’s your turn.
THOM: There are still skeletons to be whacking, and Albion is just kind of trying to buy Des time to figure out what the hell is going on.
DARIUS: Yeah, but whack and thwack don’t work on the undead.
THOM: Is that a reference to Dragon Quest?
DARIUS: Yes.
THOM: Because I haven’t played that, so I don’t get it. I’m just going to hit them with my stick.
MIKE: Okay. Try to hit a skeleton with a stick.
THOM: Albion is going to hit another skeleton with a stick. And alrighty that is plus two, so that is four I think.
MIKE: Oh, oof, okay. Well, Albion, you continue to prove yourself to be very effective at skeleton murdering.
THOM: I’m just trying to keep them off of people right now.
MIKE: Yeah, it seems like you go in and bop this thing real hard. I’ll just say you take it out at the kneecaps and it just comically sort of slips through the air and crashes down in a sort of clatter of bones. The ghostly soldier doesn’t even seem to acknowledge you at that point, it just sort of moves on to assisting one of his comrades and trying to fight off these skeletons.
THOM: See, now he’s annoyed, because he’s not even getting credit for it.
MIKE: Yeah, it seems like at this point nobody is terribly occupied with you.
THOM: Cool. In that case, Albion is going to—I can see the big boat floating over the harbor, right?
MIKE: Yeah, with your line of sight right now, you can.
THOM: It’s in the air above the water, or in the water?
MIKE: It is impossible to tell at this angle.
THOM: “Cool, that’s a problem we’re going to have to solve.” He’s just going to kind of point at it and says “Des, right there!”
CHRISTINE: “The ship?”
MIKE: Oh my god, you are not Clint McElroy, I will not have this.
GWEN: [laughter] “There!”
MIKE: I know you’re from Oklahoma, we can have a hootenanny later. Ro, it’s your turn.
GWEN: Alright, I’m going to—
MIKE: If anyone hasn’t listened to TAZ: Hootenanny, please do. It’s a delight.
CHRISTINE: It is a delight.
GWEN: I just finished it yesterday, it’s very good.
MIKE: Oh my god. Take it from me, the real Willie Nelson. I’m sorry.
GWEN: [laughter] Yeah, so, Ro is going to use one of her actual skills and sneak up behind a skeleton and try to chokehold / take off its head.
THOM: Slit its throat!
MIKE: Okay.
CHRISTINE: Drain its blood.
DARIUS: Get a body bag, Johnnie.
MIKE: Okay, so what skill are we using?
GWEN: So, I was going to try to use Stealth to sneak, I don’t know about the head removing though.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: Okay, Solid Snake, go for it.
MIKE: I’m into this. So basically, I think what we’re going to do is say that you’re doing two actions this round where your primary action is stealthing, and your supplementary action is that you’re trying to decapitate this thing.
THOM: Now.
GWEN: Yeah.
MIKE: So, your supplementary roll is going to be at a minus one, but if you can put a tag on this thing that you snuck up on it, I think that’ll give you a good plus two tag, so overall you’ll have a plus one to try to beat this thing in one go, if you succeed at your sneak.
GWEN: Yeah.
MIKE: So, let’s do this complicated mechanical roulette. I’m going to call this, since it’s distracted, I’m going to call this a Stealth check of two.
GWEN: Okay. That is a three total.
MIKE: Wow, you’ve just rolled nothing but negatives today.
DARIUS: Sneaky beaky.
GWEN: I’m going to try dice next time.
MIKE: Okay, but that is a success. You are able to put a maneuver on this thing that, since it didn’t seem to be too focused on you anyway, you are able to sneak up on it, so it is extra surprised when you go for the decapitation. So, what skill are you going to be using for this? I have to know.
GWEN: Can I use Endurance because it’s going to take a while to rip off its head?
MIKE: I don’t think that’s exactly what the Endurance skill is for, that’s more of a thing that you would—that justification would work for Might, honestly. You’re going to do it with your fists, like your hands?
GWEN: Yeah, I don’t have anything that’s going to directly be great, so just good old fashioned head tear, so I’ll probably use fists.
MIKE: Do you want to use Might, or do you want to use Fists?
GWEN: Either way it’s a zero, so let’s do Might.
MIKE: Okay, let’s do a straight up Might contest. To do a decapitation.
DARIUS: Do it for Outworld.
GWEN: I got a one.
MIKE: It got a minus one to its normal score, so it set a challenge, and you actually cleared it. So, congratulations, you have pulled the head off of this skeleton, and—
GWEN: I did it.
MIKE: -- I’m impressed. The skeleton almost seems impressed too, even though it cannot emote in any fashion other than big broad smile. So, the ghostly soldier in front of you, again, doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to you, but it goes to try to help one of its comrades against the currently dwindling number of skeletons. I believe that makes it our friend Sylvester’s turn.
DARIUS: Yay. Alright, so I guess I got to patch this guy up or something.
MIKE: Yeah, so I assume that you have some sort of antiseptic?
DARIUS: Yes, obviously.
MIKE: Alright, so yeah. I think in one round you should be able to appropriately treat this guy so he’s not in any life-threatening danger. So, to do so, we’re going to call that a I think a three against your Scholarship medicine.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: And you do have the plus one spin from your great success last time.
DARIUS: Okay, yep. Still a three. So, it’s a four.
MIKE: Well, it’s a four. So, you win this check, which means that you are—you have definitely stabilized this individual. I think you are probably have like put some sort of gauze around and just be like “Hold this tight, dummy.”
DARIUS: Yeah.
MIKE: Alright. Yeah. Because honestly, all you really need to do is just sort of make sure that this guy isn’t going to bleed out, so you’ve probably quickly sterilized the wound areas and put some sort of bandage on there, some sort of gauze around it so it’s got pressure. So, okay. I’ll say that you’ve definitely succeeded in making sure that this guy is stable and will not bleed out by the time that emergency vehicles emergency personnel arrive.
CHRISTINE: Hooray.
MIKE: So, good job.
DARIUS: yay.
MIKE: So, is there anything else that you want to do? You could move, or you could attempt something else, but it would be pretty heavily penalized at this point because that was a fairly substantial action.
DARIUS: I mean, is there anyone else around?
MIKE: It doesn’t seem like there’s anyone else that’s currently around. Everyone else kind of got the hell out.
DARIUS: Okay. So, I’m going to be like—well, I mean next turn I’ll move to help everybody else, since he seems okay. So, for now I’ll just stick with him.
MIKE: Okay, sure. You do have line of sight down to the lake, and you do notice there is some stuff going on down there, including some sort of boat.
DARIUS: Yeah, what the fuck’s up with that?
MIKE: So, yeah. It seems like a weird, old ship.
DARIUS: Galleon.
MIKE: Okay, moving on to Desdemona.
CHRISTINE: Well, Clint McEl—I mean Albion, pointed out the ship.
MIKE: Yeah, he did.
CHRISTINE: So, can I cast Aggresso on the ship?
MIKE: It is many zones away.
CHRISTINE: Ah. Can I start heading towards the ship?
MIKE: You could do that. It is several blocks downhill, and you did arrive in a car.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. Ah, I see what you mean. So, he’s pointed to—so Desdemona sees that a ship is important, so—does Albion have his keys? Did he leave them in the car, idling?
THOM: I have my keys.
CHRISTINE: She throws her hand up above her head and yells “Albion, your keys!”
THOM: “What about them?”
CHRISTINE: “I need them!”
THOM: “Well I’m driving!”
CHRISTINE: “Then get to the car!”
MIKE: As a group, are you basically making the decision to just get in the car and go?
CHRISTINE: I want to.
THOM: Yeah, sure. If the skeletons aren’t presenting a risk to the local populace anymore.
MIKE: It is their turn, so they basically just spend their time kind of engaging with these ghosts, and the ghosts seem to be engaging back with them, and the numbers on either side are just sort of currently dwindling as they do. So, yeah. The current situation is there don’t seem to be any civilians around other than this individual who Sylvester was able to patch up, and I’m going to say that he started moving away after you provided some medical assistance and he knows that he’s not in dire need. He’s going to start moving on his own. So, yep. So, it seems like there’s nobody immediately around and these things are just kind of fighting each other.
THOM: Cool.
DARIUS: Alright.
THOM: “Alright. Hey, Sylvester, how’ve you been, bud?” Albion says this as he’s running to the car.
DARIUS: “Eh.”
THOM: “Yeah, It’s kind of a weird day, huh?”
DARIUS: “Yeah.”
CHRISTINE: “It’s been a weird year so far.”
THOM: “God, it’s like we never left that field in the middle of nowhere. It was on fire.”
DARIUS: “It was almost poetic, and then you ruined it, as usual. I missed you guys.”
THOM: “I missed you too, bud.”
GWEN: Is Ro getting in the car, is the question.
GWEN: Yes, yes, I am following you.
THOM: Albion just looks over at the back seat and just “So, Ro, what the hell are you doing here?”
GWEN: “I’m helping.” And I hold up my bat.
CHRISTINE: [laughter] “Good to see you, Ro. Are you okay?”
THOM: “Wait, Des, you know Ro?”
GWEN: “Yeah, I’m good. Freaked out, but we know each other from way back.”
THOM: “Jesus Christ, it’s a small world.” And Albion’s going to start driving down the hill, weaving around zombie corpses.
MIKE: Alright, okay. [laughter]
THOM: He does not have good enough insurance to cover that.
MIKE: That is totally fair.
CHRISTINE: Again, I’m too uninsured for this.
MIKE: So, the first scene of our whole thing was just zombies and skeletons and ghosts, oh my! Fantastic.
CHRISTINE: Happy New Year.
MIKE: Yeah, happy New Year!
THOM: “Well, I’m glad I am mostly sober.”
MIKE: Oh, actually, I do need everybody to make an Alertness roll as you guys are clearing out. Alertness, and the target is four. Holy Gwen!
GWEN: That’s a one.
THOM: Hey Gwen, you need real dice.
GWEN: Yeah, I’m a negative two. I’m going to get some dice next time.
CHRISTINE: I have some extra dice, Gwen, if you want any.
DARIUS: I have a two.
THOM: I got a five.
MIKE: Oh, wow. Albion.
CHRISTINE: So alert.
MIKE: So, basically, the only person who can roll well consistently is Thom.
DARIUS: Yeah, basically.
MIKE: Well, okay. Darius, you’ve been rolling really well generally. Albion, you are able to notice something peculiar as you are going, as you were entangled with various enemies and stuff. Since the zombies stopped moving and were just sort of dead on the ground, and there were ghosts around for a little bit, you were able to notice something peculiar.
THOM: Yep.
MIKE: You see one of the zombies as you’re running past, and something about it sort of makes you stop and do a double take towards one of the ghosts. It’s a little hard to tell because he’s translucent and the zombie is rather bloated and sort of disgusting looking, it—they look like they could be related.
THOM: “Oh, well it’s the same guy.“
MIKE: You can’t say for sure, but yeah they have an odd sort of similarity in appearance.
THOM: “We might be dealing with ghosts fighting their own bodies, and that is a whole hell of a lot of a confusing situation.”
[MUSIC; EPISODE BREAK]
MIKE: Hello, this is Michael, your GM, calling in with relationship advice. That’s what I do on this show, I call in for relationship advice. That’s not how that works. Thank you so much for tuning in to the first episode of Green Mountain Mysteries. We are all super excited to be playing this game and putting this out there on the internet for everyone to enjoy. We really hope you’re having a lot of fun listening to it, there are just a few people that I absolutely have to thank before we go any further in the episode. Obviously, I would love to say “thank you” again to Thom, Christine, Gwen, and Darius for agreeing to play in this grand experiment of ours, and thank you so much to Seth for writing the adventure, which I am so excited to hear everyone play through this. It goes to some really interesting places, so stick with it, the adventure is going to get real weird. I would love to thank The Pocket Podcast network for hosting our show, thank you so much to Britty and Daniel for everything that they do, all of the wonderful work that they do running the network. I want to say a huge thank you to everybody that helped me to record the theme music for our podcast. On acoustic guitar, we have my friend Michael Beau Dalleo, an absolutely fabulous guitarist. You can find him on Twitter @BeaudalleoMusic. That is B-E-A-U-D-A-L-L-E-O. On mandolin is Cat Faber, you can find her on Twitter @CatSittingStill. On the upright bass is Steve Roy, and on the cello is Nathaniel Kellogg, and on drums is Carey Citak. And I want to give a big thanks to you, yes you, with the headphones or in the car, right now. I want to thank you so much for listening. We’ve put a lot of hard work and effort into this, and I cannot wait to go on this adventure with you. Well, okay, not with you per se, but—I mean, you know what I mean. I’ll be there in spirit, in your car or in your earbuds. This has gotten really out of hand, so I’m just going to cut to the ad break now. We don’t have any sponsors this week, but hopefully that will change in the future. Oh, and before I forget, you can follow us on social media on Twitter @GMMCast to see updates on the show there. If you want to tweet about the show, use the GMMCast hashtag, and you can find us on Facebook at Green Mountain Mysteries. Anyway, back to the episode.
[MUSIC; AD FOR NO DICE]
Daniel: Hi, I’m Daniel, game master of the actual play podcast, No Dice. Join magic assholes Ixen,—
Britty: “There’s a score between me and doors, and so far, doors are zero.”
Daniel: -- Perry,—
Hue: “They definitely have a lot of daggers happening that they’re hiding in various spaces.”
Daniel: -- Saoirse,--
Lou: “I always love getting stories from adventurers, I really wish I could just have one of my own.”
Daniel: -- and a whole host of guest players. You can find No Dice on the first Friday of every month on Apple podcasts, Google Play, or pocketpodcastnetwork.com.
[END OF BREAK]
MIKE: We cut back to you as you are carefully driving around the sort of zombified corpses and skeletons and ghosts, and driving as quickly as you can, making sure that you’re avoiding any obvious hazards or pedestrians down to the shore. Remind me what car you have again, because this is such a fun mental image.
DARIUS: It’s an AMC Gremlin.
MIKE: [laughter] If only. It’s actually a Rabbit, so at the first hard turn it just flips right over.
GWEN: Oh my god.
DARIUS: It’s a 1961 Dodge De Soto.
THOM: He’s driving a Hyundai Sonata. It’s a Sonata, I think, let me double check. I need to Google it.
DARIUS: It’s a Nissan Stanza.
MIKE: Okay. You picked it specifically for trunk space, if I recall.
DARIUS: It’s powder blue.
MIKE: Yeah, what color is it again?
THOM: A dark blue, probably. Just kind of a dark color.
GWEN: The color is dark.
DARIUS: Like my Nissan Stanza.
CHRISTINE: Is it the color of my Mouse?
MIKE: Ah, probably.
CHRISTINE: That’s a nice blue.
MIKE: So, you’ve got a Hyundai Sonata, you’d say?
THOM: Yeah, I believe it’s a Sonata. It’s the car with one of the biggest trunks in the—
MIKE: In the game?
THOM: —Available. Yeah, in the game.
MIKE: Okay. So, alright, actually yeah, I like this. So, we return to Albion driving as carefully as he can around zombie corpses. You don’t want to get those on your Hyundai Sonata.
GWEN: Don’t mess with my discount!
MIKE: So, we see this dark four door sedan darting down the Burlington street in the pre-dawn dark, moving like some sort of poetic object that I’m struggling to say right now. Knife in the dark? Sure. Wonderful. So, you go to—this is incredible, I love it. Are you guys enjoying the podcast? How’s it going so far? I think it’s going wonderfully.
GWEN: Tweet at us and let us know.
MIKE: Anyway, before I embarrass myself any more, you make your way down to the shore. Down at the shore area, there is a parking area that you can pull off into, and you see the dock where ferries are typically launched from that go out and take tours into the lake, but right now nothing is running, obviously, and there are no ferries out on the water, but there is this mysterious ghostly vessel. It appears to be a Revolutionary War era ship, and there indeed some ghosts that seem to be doing battle with, well, zombies of a kind, and you’re not quite sure exactly what’s going on here, but this is the scene that’s presented to you as you sort of whip into half of a parking space and let yourselves out into the scene. What do you do?
THOM: Albion is going to real quick pay for parking.
MIKE: [laughter] Alright, that’s your turn. Ro, what are you doing?
THOM: Look, meter maids are merciless, man.
MIKE: It could be meter men, it’s 2019. Oh, it’s 2020.
GWEN: Yeah, it’s 2020.
CHRISTINE: Future!
THOM: It’s 2020, and it’s New Year’s Eve, of course they’re going to be ticketing people tonight of all nights.
CHRISTINE: He’s been burned too many times.
MIKE: Alright, Albion, you run over to the meter, sort of putting aside all of your other concerns for potentially the safety of others around you, the fact that there are monsters on the loose, and you run up to the meter and it says “Happy Holidays” and sort of has taped over the spot where you would insert a card. It is New Years, and they’re not charging for parking down here right now.
CHRISTINE: In downtown Burlington, hell yeah.
THOM: Okay cool, can I choose to do something else?
DARIUS: What a strange—
MIKE: That was your turn. Ro?
DARIUS: How unrealistic. Truly this is a work of fiction.
GWEN: Okay, so how far away from the ship are we now?
MIKE: So, the ghost ship is sitting not very far away. It’s actually right near the actual dock where they—with the restaurant and the sitting area built in, enough that you can see some of the ghostly Revolutionary War figures on the ship actually like taking aim at the zombies that are sort of crawling their way further onto the land.
GWEN: Okay. Is there a visible entrance to the ship?
MIKE: There is not a visible entrance to the ship. The ship is not docked at present. It’s just sort of floating, and you would actually have to swim to even get to it.
GWEN: Okay.
MIKE: Not very far, but it’s clearly enough that you would have to be swimming.
GWEN: Yeah, and it’s January, I’m not getting my ass in that water.
MIKE: Yeah, not in Lake Champlain in January, for sure.
GWEN: So, I don’t know what I would do right now.
MIKE: Well, you can choose to try to investigate the scene a little more thoroughly if you like.
GWEN: Yeah, I think I’m going to do that. I’m going to look and see if there’s anything that stands out obviously aside from monsters if there’s anything that’s really noticeable at this situation.
MIKE: Right, okay. Make me an Alertness roll. I’m going to go with a target two.
GWEN: That is a two.
MIKE: Okay. Excellent.
CHRISTINE: Yay.
GWEN: I did it.
MIKE: Yes. So, you can hear a rhythmic sound. You can’t identify the point of origin quite yet, but you do know that there is some sort of rhythmic pulsing, and you—you know what, I’m going to give you a Lore check on this one, and I’m also going to make this one a target two, based on circumstances.
GWEN: Okay. That is a zero.
MIKE: Okay. You can turn in a Fate Point to try to make this Lore roll if you like.
GWEN: Yeah, I’m going to do that.
MIKE: Okay, what Aspect are you going to tag for that?
GWEN: I’m going to go with I’m All In, Baby.
MIKE: Okay. Explain how that justifies you knowing a thing based on context clues.
GWEN: I would like to think that over the past couple months, Ro has spent a lot of time in the library and read some books, so now she knows some things. She has gone all in on educating herself.
MIKE: Okay. Okay. I don’t think this information would be contained in any of the books in the library, but you know what, I do like your justification for that that you’ve done some sort of study into things, so okay, you know what, I’ll buy it. Give me a Fate Point.
GWEN: Cool. Alright.
MIKE: Okay. Excuse me. Okay, so given the context clues of the situation, you remember when Desdemona did something, because she did say a word, and then the drummer person, the drummer ghost, stopped moving, and when he stopped drumming, the zombies just boop all plopped and dropped to the ground. So, you hear this rhythmic pulse, you still don’t know quite where it’s coming from, but you feel like it definitely has something to do with the zombies. I’m getting total silence.
GWEN: Yeah, you cut out. Something to do with what?
MIKE: Oh no. Okay. Excuse me. You hear this rhythmic thing, you’re pretty sure it’s tied to the zombies and how they are moving.
GWEN: Okay, alright, huh.
MIKE: Is there anything you would like to do on the rest of your turn?
GWEN: Can I see if any of these zombies or skeletons have drums?
MIKE: Okay. I’ll take it off of your previous Alertness roll. It does not look that way.
GWEN: Okay.
MIKE: Man, you’ve got to work on that connection, because either I drop out or you drop out. Gwen?
GWEN: Yeah, I just heard “Either I drop out or you drop out.”
MIKE: Aw man, that’s a bummer. No, you can’t see any zombies with percussive implements. Or skeletons.
GWEN: Okay, alright.
CHRISTINE: Or ghosts?
MIKE: Or ghosts, nope.
GWEN: That is probably going to be the end of my turn then.
MIKE: Yeah, that’s a lot of action stuffed in, especially given that this is the same amount of time that Albion went running for a parking meter and tried to pay for it and then the screen lit up and it backlit the taped-on piece of paper that said “Happy Holidays.” Sylvester?
DARIUS: Yes?
MIKE: What are you up to?
DARIUS: I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on.
MIKE: Okay. Well, you are confronted with a ghost ship, and there are definitely some zombies that have crawled their way to land and out of the water.
DARIUS: Okay. Is there something that I can wield as a whoop ass stick?
MIKE: I think that might be a question for Albion.
THOM: “I got stuff in the trunk.”
DARIUS: Okay, I’m going to get a whoop ass stick out of his trunk.
MIKE: Okay. Yeah. I’m just going to go with, you reach in there and grab the first whoop ass thing you can find.
DARIUS: Lead pipe.
MIKE: And it’s a gun.
DARIUS: Perfect.
MIKE: It is a gun that you are apparently planning to wield like a club.
THOM: Albion looks back and “I mean, I have like an axe. Grab the hatchet, man.”
DARIUS: It’s funny because in Double Dragon Neon, if you actually pick up a gun, the Lee brothers can’t shoot people with it, they just beat people with it.
MIKE: So, are you just going to do that, or are you going to actually find the axe?
DARIUS: I’m actually just going to beat them with the gun. It’s funnier that way.
MIKE: Okay. If you would like, you can make an attempt to do so at the moment.
DARIUS: I will do that.
MIKE: Okay. Wonderful. So, you get up in the face of something that is dead and is a-walking. So, roll I believe a Weapons attack for this.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: Oof. Yeah, he rolled pretty well, so.
THOM: “Maybe take an actual weapon.”
MIKE: So, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to really stick. This thing just sort of shrugs into it and seems unaffected by your attempt to strike it.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: It’s a little awkward holding a gun as a club, so I’m going to say that the improvised weapon is not super great.
DARIUS: Yeah, I probably should have just kicked it.
MIKE: I mean, you are literally studying capoeira.
DARIUS: This is true.
MIKE: And your leg actually is back to being properly healed at this point.
DARIUS: Yes.
MIKE: So, you got them soccer kicks.
DARIUS: It’s true.
MIKE: Alright, so we have taken a round to learn that you probably should have just kicked it. Desdemona.
CHRISTINE: Alright. I was wondering if I could do a sort of roll for Scholarship with my history background to see if there’s any information that I knew with my history major, about the ship.
MIKE: I like this a lot. Okay. Yes. Absolutely that’s a thing you can do. That’s going to be a four.
CHRISTINE: Alright, well that’s going to be a one.
MIKE: Oh boy. Okay.
CHRISTINE: I missed class that day, didn’t I?
MIKE: That or you just don’t have the appropriate information based on what you’re looking at yet. So, I’m going to go with you’re trying to figure this one out, but it’s just—you have not come to a conclusion on it. You don’t have enough information from the ghostly ship to remember.
CHRISTINE: It doesn’t even have a name of anything, or a figurehead on the front, or?
MIKE: Well, I think that that would be an Investigation roll to obtain more information, because this is all happening fairly quickly.
CHRISTINE: Should I do that?
MIKE: I’m going to say that—
CHRISTINE: Or is that a different turn?
MIKE: I’m going to call that next turn, because yeah. That’s going to be somewhat intensive.
CHRISTINE: Okay. Okay.
MIKE: By the way, I should mention that your Stress cleared from the last scene, because this is a new scene.
CHRISTINE: Great!
GWEN: Perfect.
MIKE: So, anybody who took Stress from the last scene can erase that from your sheet.
CHRISTINE: I’m so healthy.
GWEN: Wow, at me next time.
MIKE: Alright. Yeah. So, a s you’re trying to put this whole scene together, you all are starting to notice the rhythmic sound coming from somewhere, Ro in particular sort of heard that and pointed it out. It was at first, I guess, a little difficult because you do start to realize that there are police sirens and the flashing lights that you saw down this way from earlier, yep, they are still there. They’re still around. There’s some sort of emergency presence in the area, but you haven’t engaged with anybody from law enforcement or any emergency personnel yet, but you know that they are nearby. It just seems prudent to get down there and deal with this as quickly as possible. So, that brings us back to Albion. In the meantime, the skeletons—well, the zombies and the ghost crew of the ghost ship have sort of been engaging at each other. The zombies have been just trying to figure out—they’re sort of stumbling around, and the ghosts are just sort of shooting at them. So, what would you do? What would you like to do, Albion? Oh, I should actually give you an Alertness roll real quick.
THOM: Alright. All fours baby.
MIKE: All pluses?
THOM: Yes, that is a seven.
MIKE: That absolutely beats the target of two. In fact, it beats it so well that you realize that you are actually not that far from whatever is making that sort of rhythmic sound. By running toward the parking meter, you actually positioned yourself closer to where the sound is coming from, and you can pretty much pick up on right where the source of it is, given the exceedingly good roll that you just had.
THOM: Right, where is it at?
MIKE: You know the direction that you have to go to get to it, but you do not see it currently.
THOM: Alright, well first thing I’m going to do is snatch my shotgun back out of Sylvester’s hands.
DARIUS: I’m fine with that, I was just—
THOM: “Give me that. Give it back.”
DARIUS: “Alright, I’ll use a different gun—never mind.”
THOM: And then Albion is going to kind of look down at “I hear the drumming is coming from down here.”
MIKE: Okay. Are you going to move to—
THOM: Yeah, I’m going to go check it out.
MIKE: Okay. You find a portable music player, like a boombox, and the bass knob on it is just cranked all the way up. So, it seems like there is some kind of music playing, but it’s sort of drowned out in the baseness of it, you can’t tell what the music is.
THOM: Ace of Base?
MIKE: Yes, you saw the sign, and it opened up your eyes, and here it is at your feet. What do?
DARIUS: What do?
THOM: So, Albion kind of—is it a CD or a digital?
MIKE: You know what? I’m going to say that this is fairly analog. I’m going to say that this is actually a cassette boombox.
DARIUS: Vinyl.
CHRISTINE: Oh.
THOM: Yeah, Albion is going to just pop open the cassette tape and stop it playing.
MIKE: Okay.
CHRISTINE: I thought he was going to shoot it.
THOM: Not all of my problems can be solved with firearms, remarkably enough.
MIKE: Take that as a lesson, America. So, you have popped open the cassette and there is no more rhythmic pulse. The dulcet tones of—were they Swedish, I guess? Some sort of Scandinavian pop group. They’re from the 90’s, who cares? Anyway, it stops. Yeah, with that—
THOM: I’m going to pocket the tape.
MIKE: Okay.
CHRISTINE: [laughter] Sell it on eBay.
MIKE: With that, the zombies again fall to the ground and they have stopped moving and there is some confusion from the ghost ship. There is some cheering and it seems like things are good, and the ship abruptly vanishes.
THOM: “Huh.”
CHRISTINE: “Well.”
THOM: “That was considerably less dramatic than I was expecting. Are there still skeletons around?”
MIKE: No, actually. At this point in time, it seems, no.
THOM: “Right, get to the car. We got to clear the hell out.”
MIKE: You hear a sound which is definitely an amplified voice “Please remain where you are.”
THOM: “Oh god damn it.”
MIKE: A group of police approach, they have—
THOM: Do I have time to stash my shotgun under my coat before they see it?
MIKE: It is dark, I think you can do that.
THOM: Yep. Alright.
MIKE: Alright. So, you have stashed that under your coat.
THOM: “Hey Des, do you mind doing the talking?”
CHRISTINE: “I can try.”
MIKE: So, a group of law enforcement officers are moving your way. It looks like at least one is a police officer, at least one is a paramedic, one is like a—police have medics, I think.
DARIUS: Yes.
MIKE: So, one of them is definitely a police medic, another one is a paramedic sort of at the back of the group, and at the front is it looks like a sergeant of some kind, and he has his weapon drawn, but not pointing up at anybody, and he’s surveying the scene and is sort of yelling instructions at everybody, which results in the group of you sort of gathering at the hastily parked Hyundai Sonata, and you’re instructed to wait there until he is sure that everyone is all set and the scene is basically contained. The police medic is currently with you asking—making sure that you’re all okay.
THOM: “Yeah, I’m fine, I’m just a little shaken up by this whole thing. What do you reckon is going on?”
MIKE: They have no idea. They just say “I don’t know, sir.” And they move on to the next person and are just trying to make sure that everybody is in fact not in any danger. So, after you all are definitely found to be okay and healthy, the police sergeant heads you way and starts asking questions and says “Alright, well, first question is why you all are here.”
CHRISTINE: “New Year’s Tradition. We always come to the water on New Year’s. We come here to see the sunrise. We’re a little early this year, I know, but—
MIKE: “Okay. Because it looked like whoever was driving the vehicle was making some haste and that parking doesn’t look like a particularly permanent job, so I’m not finding that highly believable at the moment, ma’am.”
CHRISTINE: “You would have seen though if you did see him park, that he did try to pay for that parking spot.”
GWEN: So, I’m going to— [laughter] let’s just take that in for a second. I’m going to say “We’re so sorry, officer. We were in a hurry, I really had to pee, and there wasn’t a bathroom at our previous destination, so we kind of had to pull over before I peed my pants. I am so sorry. We will move our car immediately.”
MIKE: Please give me a Deceit roll, because that is a very good lie and I like it a lot.
GWEN: That’s what I was hoping. That’s a four.
MIKE: What’s your total?
GWEN: Four. Yeah.
MIKE: Okay, and he has rolled Empathy against that. He does not immediately distrust this. Fantastic. He says “Okay, well I guess my next question is where were you coming from?”
GWEN: “We were coming from my friend here, Sandra’s house.” And I point to Desdemona. “Her bathroom is under construction, she is remodeling, as she is a real estate agent.”
CHRISTINE: That is a lot.
MIKE: That is so extremely not even close to correct, you’re going to have to—
THOM: They could ask for her ID, Gwen, you madman!
GWEN: [laughter] We’re in lawless town.
MIKE: Okay, this is a Deceit roll, and I’m going to put a scene tag on this right now, that the sergeant can use, called That’s a Lot to Swallow.
THOM: [laughter] Can I help with this roll?
MIKE: We are going to see the result.
GWEN: So, it’s a three.
THOM: Oh my god.
CHRISTINE: Oh man.
MIKE: Well his dice roll is a minus two, which balances out the scene tag of plus two to the point where your plus three is still enough.
GWEN: Hell yes.
CHRISTINE: Y’all need real dice, yo.
MIKE: So, somehow he is still accepting this and he’s just so focused in on you and you talking now that he asks “Can I see some identification, Ma’am?”
GWEN: To me, or to—
MIKE: Yes, you.
GWEN: Okay, I’m going to play the “I’m sorry, I’m not 21 yet, and I don’t have my license,” and that is also a lie. So, I don’t have a photo ID on me.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: Jesus Christ. [laughter] Albion is just poker facing it right now, but inside he is like “What is happening?”
DARIUS: He’s dying inside.
MIKE: He then says “Okay, I understand, but do you have any form of ID on you, whatsoever? Like a credit card even?”
GWEN: And I hand him my library card.
MIKE: Okay, that does it.
GWEN: And it’s got a fake name on it.
MIKE: Okay, what is the fake name?
DARIUS: Juan Carlos de Susan.
GWEN: It is Anita Biblioteca.
CHRISTINE: No.
MIKE: Okay, well that would be two tags.
GWEN: Oh no.
THOM: No, what is your fake name, put something good please.
CHRISTINE: Like Jasmine Effingham.
MIKE: Of the famous Vermont Effinghams.
THOM: Yes.
CHRISTINE: No.
GWEN: The fake name is Rochelle Stone.
DARIUS: Calpurnia Jones.
CHRISTINE: Nice.
MIKE: Okay.
GWEN: I don’t want people to know me.
MIKE: He says “Rochelle then. Fletcher Free Library. Nice place. Well, it looks like something happened. We have absolutely no idea, but, well, as long as everyone here is safe, I suppose you should probably just return home. We kind of don’t want people in the scene right now because we’re still trying to figure out what is happening over here, so—
THOM: “Fricking Burlington, am I right?”
CHRISTINE: “Mind if I just—“
MIKE: He just looks at you and says “I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
THOM: “I mean, I’m around, so you probably just haven’t noticed.”
MIKE: “Can I get your name, sir?”
GWEN: Follow my lead.
THOM: “Yeah, my name is Graves.”
MIKE: “Graves? Is that first or last, sir?”
THOM: “That’s my surname.”
MIKE: “May I have your Christian name?”
GWEN: It’s Christian.
THOM: “Albion Graves.”
MIKE: “Could you spell that please?”
THOM: “A-L-B-I-O-N space Graves.”
CHRISTINE: [laughter] Sassy.
MIKE: “Uh huh. Is that your Harry Potter name there, Dumbledore, or is that a real name?”
THOM: “Listen, man, am I being detained or something?”
MIKE: “No, you are not.”
THOM: “Then I don’t need this bullshit from you, sir. You’ve asked me my name, you make fun of me with this J.K. Rowling shit, you have a good night, officer. Good luck with this investigation.”
GWEN: Ask his name. Ask his name, he’s a beloved NPC.
THOM: “Actually yeah, you know what—“
CHRISTINE: And his badge number.
THOM: “Can I get your name, officer?”
DARIUS: And your badge number.
CHRISTINE: And his badge number.
THOM: “And your badge number, please.”
DARIUS: There it is.
MIKE: And he’s like “Every time. Every time I ask anybody for any god damn little thing, they always ask to see the badge number. Yeah, you know what?” He hands you his badge. Give me two seconds, I was not expecting this exchange.
THOM: Albion is just going to take his camera phone out and click snap a photo of it.
CHRISTINE: You got a camera phone?
GWEN: It’s not a good one, trust me.
DARIUS: A Nokia N-Gage.
MIKE: His name is detective sergeant Ditko.
THOM: Alright.
DARIUS: Is his first name Steve?
MIKE: And you now have— It is not.
DARIUS: This sucks! I hate this man.
MIKE: And you now have a picture of this man’s badge. He’s like “Man, I transferred up here and just any little thing, people ask me for my badge. Look, I get it, it is your right, but it just slows down the whole process and adds an element of belligerence that I’m not entirely comfortable with.”
DARIUS: “It’s your job, man.”
THOM: “Look, man, you called me Dumbledore just now.”
MIKE: “And what is your job, man?”
DARIUS: “I’m a doctor, man.”
MIKE: “Uh huh. Doctor what? What do you go by? Dr. Snape?”
DARIUS: “Spock.”
MIKE: “Fucking figures. Well, okay. Sandra, if you wouldn’t mind taking these people—I assume you all know each other.”
CHRISTINE: “Oh yeah.”
THOM: “Yeah, this is our annual tradition that we don’t get to partake in due to shenanigans that I can only assume are the northern lights or some shit.”
MIKE: “Uh huh. Aurora Borealis. At this time of year. In this part of the country.”
DARIUS: Don’t you fucking dare.
CHRISTINE: “He’s obviously the sassy friend of the group, just don’t—just ignore him.”
MIKE: “Look, I don’t have anything that I can detain you for at the moment.” Yes, I know, Seth. That’s getting cut right out. “Look, I don’t have anything that I can actually detain you for at the moment, and my partner here has apparently seen to it that you’re all okay and no one is injured, no one is in any distress at the moment, apparently. So, if you wouldn’t mind, Sandra, just going back to your home and taking your friends with you. It might be best to just sort of stay in your home tonight.”
CHRISTINE: “I agree, officer, and as soon as I grab my boom box, we can go.”
MIKE: “Okay.”
CHRISTINE: “Thank you so much.”
MIKE: “Yeah, alright, sure. Well, if that’s all there is to it, then I hope you all have a happy New Year and drive safely now, you hear?”
THOM: “I will, thank you.”
CHRISTINE: “Happy New Year. Thank you for being out here tonight, officer.”
THOM: “Thank you for your service, officer.”
MIKE: “Yeah. Thanks. I appreciate it. Fucking this shift.” Yeah, he just looks to the other one and goes “This fucking shift.” And you drive your way back.
CHRISTINE: Desdemona has wrapped the boom box up in a scarf and is taking it with her.
THOM: “Hey, Ro?”
GWEN: “Haha, yeah?”
THOM: “What the fuck?”
GWEN: “I don’t know, man.”
THOM: “Real estate agent? Where the hell did you pull that from?”
GWEN: “Okay, but do you want him to know?”
CHRISTINE: Oh, it’s beautiful.
GWEN: Oh, it’s so pretty. “Do you want this random stranger, Sergeant Ditko to come up to Desdemona’s granny’s house and go like ‘Hey, I know you speak to ghosts, ma’am’? No. He thinks I’m Rochelle Stone, and he’s going to leave us the fuck alone. I’m also a poet now, guys.”
THOM: “Yeah, that’s impressive, but also, if he looks into any given real estate agency and notices that there is not, in fact, a whatever the hell you called Des—“
GWEN: “She’s up and coming.”
THOM: “I mean, we got away clean, so it’s fine. I’m just saying, you don’t need to be so specific. Just be general next time.”
GWEN: “Details.”
CHRISTINE: “She Yes And-ed us out of the situation though.”
GWEN: “You are welcome, Albion.”
MIKE: “I love that the Oklahoman is trying to instruct the mob boss’s daughter on how to lie.”
THOM: “Alright.” And then he’s just driving back to Des’s and he’s like “Alright, you guys need a ride home, or do we want to talk about this now at this fuck hour in the morning?”
CHRISTINE: “Albion, have you ever done a tracking spell on a boom box before?”
THOM: “I have not done any spells before, Des, so I’m afraid I have not.”
CHRISTINE: “Helpful.”
THOM: “I mean, I can make a couple calls. I have some folks that I know who are familiar with that kind of magic, but I personally have not.”
CHRISTINE: “I’ll check the Paranet. Want some tea before you go?”
GWEN: “I’ll check the internet. I would like some tea please.”
CHRISTINE: “Earl Grey, I got you.”
GWEN: “Thanks.”
MIKE: Alright. Everyone arrives safely back at Desdemona’s. Albion is drinking a Mountain Dew, trying to keep himself awake.”
GWEN: Ew.
CHRISTINE: It’s like what, 5:00 AM now?
MIKE: Closer to 4:00.
CHRISTINE: 4:00 AM.
THOM: “So, that was certainly an incident. We got Civil War ghosts fighting their own bodies, we got a boat that’s hanging above the harbor, we got zombies and someone leaving a boom box out in the middle of nowhere. I mean, in my experience with this kind of thing, the beat keeps them going, but someone needs to actually be with the beat extending his will to get them to do what he wants, otherwise they just kind of go wild. So, whoever did this does not directly control these things. They were setting them up like some kind of fucking time bomb.”
DARIUS: “Also, what kind of antiquated asshole uses cassette tapes?”
CHRISTINE: “A magic user.”
THOM: “That’s very fair. That kind of thing—I imagine if they had an iPod, that would just die within an hour or less. Not just because of the battery life, because of the whole magic shit.”
DARIUS: “This is why wizards are doomed to die alone.”
THOM: “I mean, man, that’s a little harsh.”
CHRISTINE: “Takes one to know one, geez.”
DARIUS: “Yeah, no offense, I guess.”
GWEN: “Ro, this is Sylvester Coopersmith, Sylvester, this is Ro.”
DARIUS: “Great.”
GWEN: “Howdy.”
THOM: “Yeah, don’t mind him, Sylvester’s an asshole.”
GWEN: “Aren’t we all?”
THOM: “We like him, but he is.”
CHRISTINE: “He’s doctor asshole.”
THOM: “That is very literal, Des, thank you for reminding me of that. It will never not be hilarious.”
DARIUS: “Fuck you both.”
THOM: “Fuck you too, Dr. Asshole. Alright, so we got to figure out who’s setting up zombie bombs and why.”
GWEN: “That’s a good band.”
CHRISTINE: “Well, if we can somehow do a tracking spell from this boom box, or even from the tape or something, it’d be possible to find out who did this.”
THOM: “That’s as good a start as any.” Albion takes the tape and sets it down to Des and “well, I mean I can either hang out and help with this, or watch Jenny McCarthy on television, so I know which one I’m choosing.” And he pulls a chair to the table.
GWEN: “Oh, hold on, guys, before we do anything, Desdemona, do you have a pencil?”
CHRISTINE: “Of course I do. You’ve been through my desk.”
DARIUS: Oof.
GWEN: “Well okay, I didn’t break into your house or anything, I was just looking in drawers.” Anyway, so Ro takes a pencil and starts to rewind the cassette.
MIKE: We’re going to end this scene right there.
CHRISTINE: Are you even old enough? Is you your character even old enough to know how to do that?
DARIUS: I mean, if you’ve ever played Double Dragon Neon, that’s how you revive your other characters. A little icon shows up with a pencil and a tape and it basically rewinds it and that’s how you revive them.
THOM: That’s amazing.
GWEN: I love that. I mean, Ro uses an iPod Shuffle, I think she’s pretty old school.
THOM: That’s very fair. I mean, when you’re working with a mob official “Yeah, I just got the new iPhone 11X, it’s real nice. Why don’t people use record players anymore, Bobby?”
MIKE: You have no idea what the modern mob is like.
THOM: I do not, I’m just making a joke. I’m making a goof. To the mobsters who are listening, I know you guys have iPhones, it’s fine.
CHRISTINE: To the mobsters listening, forget about it.
GWEN: Today we’ve had some fun here today. I just want you all to know, mobs are bad.
MIKE: We are just alienating audiences left and right today.
DARIUS: She doesn’t speak for the group, by the way.
MIKE: So, it sure looks like nobody in the Rhode Island mob who likes Harry Potter will ever listen to this podcast ever again.
CHRISTINE: We did it, guys, mission accomplished.
GWEN: We did it! I’m okay with this.
DARIUS: Sorry to all six of you.
MIKE: Yeah, yes. There’s somebody sitting in Rhode Island just like “Aw, what the hell?”
DARIUS: That’s some bullshit.
GWEN: We’re all looking at you, Steven.
THOM: “That’s my name!”
MIKE: Yeah, Steven is like “You know what? I’m going to get protection money from somebody to feel better. Forget this.”
THOM: “Hey, Flipendo motherfucker, give me your money.”
DARIUS: “This isn’t going to fill the void in your heart, Alfonso.”
THOM: “Accio your money.”
MIKE: I like how we’re just—oh boy, we are just going out on a limb and we’re just ruining ourselves today.
THOM: Let’s get back to the game
MIKE: Alright, okay. I think I have the adjudication for a tracking spell figured out. So, we have to do some thaumaturgy.
CHRISTINE: Woo.
DARIUS: Fun.
MIKE: So, thaumaturgy is going to be a thing that Desdemona is going to do. Desdemona has access to some thaumaturgy—actually, you took Wards and Veils, correct?
CHRISTINE: Would that be under stunts and powers?
MIKE: Not Veils. I think you took Wards as your—
CHRISTINE: I have channeling, ritual, sponsored magic, and the sight.
MIKE: Ah, for your ritual, I do believe that you took—
CHRISTINE: Oh ritual of summoning. Channel a spirit.
MIKE: Oh, okay. Summoning? Neat neat neat neat neat.
CHRISTINE: Yes.
MIKE: Okay. Oh let’s see. We may be able to spin this as a sort of Ectomancy. Okay, I think we can—I mean, anybody can technically do a ritual, it’s just that it will be harder because you’re not really trained in it. So, I think at this point you’re mostly kind of guessing and trying to—
CHRISTINE: Look up on YouTube how to do a tracking spell.
MIKE: You’re basically trying to track a source of energy, I guess, and you know that if this was something to do with necromancy that you might be able to actually find a bond of spirit. So, I guess this would just be more of a thing that you would try to do to extend your senses better and more accurately, so you can try to cobble together a ritual for that.
CHRISTINE: Okay.
MIKE: And I’m going to say that there’s going to be a complexity of six.
CHRISTINE: Alright.
MIKE: So, basically what happens is you have to actually establish the ritual—okay, if you are able to get the right things that are sort of there, like you have to do the preparation of symbolic links and such. So, you need to set up a casting space, you need to find the symbolic links so that you can sort of find five item to find the five points of your sort of ritual pentagram to tether this idea together correctly. So, what five things are you going to get for your five senses?
CHRISTINE: Well I definitely get—I probably put in there my grandma’s ring to help me focus. I have a white candle. I probably have a rock maybe that I took from a cemetery nearby, and perhaps maybe just a teacup full of water, and—
MIKE: Alright, cool. Since this is a lot of sort of figuring it out and trying to be decent at something that you don’t know much about, I’m going to say sure. And I’m going to say that this is not actually going to do that much to help focus this particular thaumaturgy, but fortunately you can just kind of skip scenes to do your actual finished job. So, I’m going to have you make a couple of rolls and once you’ve reached that—I’m going to say with your granny’s ring that will make it the six difficulty overall. So, make a couple of Conviction rolls.
CHRISTINE: Okay.
MIKE: Until you hit six.
CHRISTINE: That is a three Conviction.
MIKE: Okay. So, you’ve got three shifts of power in there, and I do believe you take a mental Stress for that.
CHRISTINE: Just one?
MIKE: Yeah.
CHRISTINE: Okay, and that is a five.
MIKE: Okay, so perfect. You are able to successfully finish this after two scenes worth. So, I’m going to say that we are starting to get that pre-dawn light coming in. It was early morning, but now it’s near to sunrise when you are able to finally gather your senses correctly, and it’s starting to point you in the direction of where you need to head, and it seems like you feel a sort of tug, like somebody is grabbing just a bunch of your shirt and pulling forward on it, but that’s sort of against your soul. You’re feeling that sort of a feeling.
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
MIKE: And it feels like it’s tugging you in various directions, but consistently back toward that waterfront.
CHRISTINE: “Alright, so what I’m getting from what I cast here is that we actually need to go back to the waterfront to find the source.”
THOM: “Alright, interesting.” Also, Albion has spent the time that you’re doing this kind of in prayer to Odin. Just kind of setting up some of his abilities and stuff.
MIKE: Okay, you’ve definitely had two scenes worth of time. In the meantime, Ro, you’ve had about two scenes worth of time. Is there anything you wish to do during those?
GWEN: Not really. I think I’m just going to be trying to help out where I—if they need to focus, I’m going to leave and be in another room, but I don’t have anything that I think Ro would want to do during this timeframe.
MIKE: Okay. Sylvester has about two scenes worth of time to do pretty much whatever you like. Is there anything that you feel you need to accomplish or do?
DARIUS: Nah.
MIKE: Okay. Are you going to continue to be awake, are you going to try to catch some sleep, or what?
DARIUS: Some Z’s.
MIKE: Alright, so apparently Sylvester is the only one that’s going to grab a little rest in the interim.
CHRISTINE: He’s smart.
GWEN: He does have a doctorate.
DARIUS: I be a doctor.
MIKE: So, yes. Yes, he has a doctorate. He is provably smart. Okay, so I assume everybody is going to venture together. Probably wake up Sylvester to go with you.
THOM: Yeah.
DARIUS: Might help.
MIKE: Okay. Alright, so it takes a while to walk back to the waterfront, and by the time you’re getting there, it’s starting to be dawn, and that is maybe not the best thing, because dawn tends to wash away previous magics, especially of the thaumaturgical variety.
THOM: “We’re on a time crunch here.”
MIKE: So, as you make your way down there, you do notice that there seems to be still a police presence at the waterfront sort of at that parking area. It seems like it’s pretty well blocked off, and if you wish to, you can try to go around that, knowing that you’re going to feel that tug back toward the waterfront. It seems like you’re feeling that toward the area where the boom box was initially, but possibly even pulling you further than that.
THOM: Cool.
MIKE: So, how do you wish to proceed, Des?
CHRISTINE: I’ll probably tell everyone that that’s where I’m feeling it’s coming from, coming towards the water, and I probably would also specify we’re probably going to lose the trail soon due to dawn approaching.
MIKE: Okay. Knowing that the parking area is pretty well secured, what with police barricades and tape and such, are you going to try to continue tracking it?
CHRISTINE: I mean personally, I don’t think that she would just because there’s so many cops there, and we already had to deal with somebody over the night, but if the rest of the group wants me to continue, I can try.
MIKE: Well, I will remind you that you do have a Ro shaped option.
CHRISTINE: Ah yes, a Ro shaped option. I would probably “Hey Ro, any chance we could get a veil so that we can continue to track before dawn hits us? Think you got it in you, kid?”
GWEN: “I can try. Don’t hate me if I mess up.”
CHRISTINE: “I believe in you, Ro. You’ve got this.”
MIKE: Okay. How strong of a veil are you attempting to create?
GWEN: As strong as possible? I’m not sure.
MIKE: Oh you just moved—Gwen?
CHRISTINE: That good [laughter].
MIKE: It’s so good she disappeared from the call.
CHRISTINE: It’s a plus 10 veil.
MIKE: Yeah.
DARIUS: Nice.
CHRISTINE: She disappeared from the game!
DARIUS: Is it a good roll?
MIKE: Alright, how many shifts—yes, that’s a great roll. How many shifts of power are you trying to summon for the veil? You think you can reliably do four because that’s your Deceit score, and—
GWEN: I’ll do four.
MIKE: Okay, and make me a Deceit roll.
GWEN: That’s a six.
MIKE: Dang.
GWEN: Yeah.
THOM: Nice.
MIKE: Yeah, good job.
GWEN: I did something right, I’m good at lying.
MIKE: Well, you cover over—I should have said to cover over you and Desdemona, you would be rolling at a plus two difficulty to try to cover the both of you. You got it. So, you are both covered with a four shift success veil. So, anyone trying to spot you would have to roll Alertness at at least a four.
CHRISTINE: The power of friendship.
GWEN: I did it, y’all.
MIKE: Alright. Swell. So, now that you seem—Ro, you sort of gather that sort of hiding thing that you do, where you feel like you can hide so well that you think nobody really can see you, and you sort of apply that to Desdemona as well. Sylvester and Albion, they basically dip right out of sight.
THOM: “Well, that’s just fantastic.”
MIKE: It is very hard to see them. You have to actively try and know where to look.
THOM: Alright, Albion is—I guess we’re just kind of keeping a distance and acting as sentries in that case?
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: In that case, Albion is just going to try to keep an eye on it. He’s got a decent Alertness, he’ll try to keep track of them. Alright that is a plus one, so four Alertness.
MIKE: Okay, you can follow where they are. You can’t see them clearly, but you know where the veil is.
THOM: Yeah, I gesture for Sylvester to follow me and I kind of keep my distance, but I’m not—they’re on the beach now, right?
MIKE: That actually depends on how you’re approaching this. Are you going to try to cut across the parking lot, or are you going to be circling around?
THOM: I’m going to be circling around.
MIKE: No, that’s a question for Des and Ro.
THOM: Oh.
GWEN: So, with a veil, we can’t be seen, but can we be heard?
MIKE: It’s going to be harder for you to be noticed generally, but also know that there’s police tape and barricade material directly between you and where you’re trying to go.
GWEN: I would say it makes sense to go around if you agree.
CHRISTINE: We can go around, as long as were quick about it. Sun is coming.
MIKE: Okay. Yeah, it’s not that far out of the way, you just have to move carefully. You make your way over to the edge of the water and it feels like you’re being pulled toward where it actually goes into the water, deeper and deeper until it dissipates. Not because the sun has come up, but because moving water has pretty potent effects on magic and the nullification thereof. So, it feels like something that came pulling you deeper and deeper into the water, but you can’t follow it any further. In the meantime, Albion or Sylvester, are either of you looking at your phone?
DARIUS: Me.
MIKE: You have received a message. I assume at some point you actually got the contact information from the werewolves that you encountered previously when you were in with the hag.
THOM: Yeah, Albion has been hanging out with them.
MIKE: Well, they just texted you. There’s a group text that Sylvester sees and it describes that there were three more quote-unquote “bear attacks” last night. Apparently, there’s a Warden in town, and he thinks that they’re to blame.
[OUTRO MUSIC]
CHRISTINE: Ma’am, ma’am, I’m going to stop you right there. I am the manager for Blockbuster, okay? I need you to stop.
THOM: Well, you didn’t have the movie I wanted, I wanted Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
MIKE: [laughter] Seth said “This is the opposite of ASMR.”
THOM: And I wanted to see National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation, and you didn’t have that either.
CHRISTINE: Ma’am, we’ve been closed for years. You really need to stop calling here.
THOM: Well then why do you [inaudible] because I really want to see movies and play Tetris attack—
CHRISTINE: Ma’am, ma’am, I’m going to count to 10, and then I’m going to call the police. You really need to stop calling me at home, okay? We’ve been closed for years.
THOM: [inaudible]
CHRISTINE: And I’m not refunding the fees.
GWEN: Hey, do you guys have a copy of Beethoven Five? I need a copy of Beethoven Five.
MIKE: Darius, I’m so sorry, you came back at the worst time.
DARIUS: Excellent.
THOM: What’s the problem, I kept looking through the window and I can see you [inaudible] sleep in his bedroom, and you gave me the fees [inaudible].
MIKE: Oh god, it finally petered out. Okay.
THOM: And that’s why I- [laughter]
CHRISTINE: Make sure to at tweet only Thom.
THOM: I’m not being disrespectful and rude, and at times like this you should really have a better idea of– [crosstalk]
MIKE: Stop! Stop!
[MUSIC] Pocket Podcast Network. Quality programming, right to your pocket.
Transcribed by Nicholas Johnson (https://draconick.com/)
Twitter: @DraconickGaming