Read, Play, Game

Kids on Bikes - Play Part 1 (feat. Mfon Akpaete)

This week we're diving right into detention with our take on a nostalgic 80s movie featuring a Popular Kid, Dumb Blonde, Weirdo Loner, and a Bully, all overseen by the divorced Blue-Collar lunch lady who can't catch a break.

Want to try out the game yourself? You can find Kids on Bikes and games like it at https://www.huntersentertainment.com!

If you have a suggestion for an RPG we should try out, email us at readplaygamepod@gmail.com or leave a comment on our socials: https://linktr.ee/readplaygame

Songs featured in this episode:

"Digital Abyss" and "The Void" by Stephen Keech

"Polaroid Pictures" by Evert Z

"My Dark Side" by Gal Lev

"Charon" by Yehezkel Raz

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duration:: 1h 24m
Broadcast on:: 23 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

We see a light. That's all we see. A light. Nothing else. A small light. Until we notice in the light. An open book. On a table. We can even see almost a few words on it. After a moment. A hand comes from the shadows. We see the hand. Turn a page of the book. The light moves. We see a notebook. We see the hand writing something in the notebook. We see the book again. As we adjust to the dimly lit scene, we see a face. A very old man. With long, tied back hair. Deep bags under his eyes. A beard that has probably never been shaved. A dirty dress shirt. He is hurriedly copying something into the book. Checking his watch as he goes. He puts his flashlight into his mouth so he can write faster. He keeps writing. The frame grows larger. Above his head. We see a second. Larger light. This one is in constant motion. Circling around the room. We see various tools and a very confined clutter all around it. The light passes through windows just above his head. Suddenly, he starts writing. A cold breeze. The light goes around a few more times. And then a shadow. Something behind him that he does not see. A small figure slowly approaching. He stands up and picks up his book. The figure disappears. The flashlight is off and only the rotating light remains. We see his face only as it passes him. He stays standing still. It passes once. Twice. Three times. It passes one more time. This time, he is gone. [Music] [Music] [Music] And now we find ourselves in a different place. It's a different time of day. It's perhaps mid to late afternoon. And we see a school building. We enter part of the school and we see a very large room. Filled with several tables with benches attached. At the head of the room, a counter, that during the school day might have various kinds of food laid out. There's also a window that gives us a brief glimpse into a kitchen just beyond. At several of the tables, we see about four people. We'll say there's about, it's a pretty small school. I'd say the class is a couple hundred people. There's about 20 tables filling up this room. We see sitting at the table closest to the kitchen. A woman, maybe around 50. Tori, what does she look like? So, typically you would expect the bright colors. Her hair up and done nicely. But these days she appears to maybe wear the same clothing multiple days in a row. Her hair is flat and has lost its gloss. And she just has this tiredness and anger that seems to just emanate off her. But no matter what, she always has a cigarette. Because this is the 80s, I think, and maybe you could still smoke indoors. And big purple hoops with flaming red hair. I imagine even if she was told that she couldn't smoke inside, she might do it anyway. I mean, they don't give us no any kind of seasoning or nothing. And so the smoke from the cigarette, it kind of like, it gives this aftertaste. It's just a little more flavorful. So really it's a win-win. You're sitting at this table looking at the kids that have found their way into your cafeteria. Because this is just after school detention. Each of our other characters are also here, each at their own table. What did each of you do to get detention? What didn't I do? Punch someone in the face, I guess? Yeah, I'd imagine you might have a standing appointment with detention. They just tell me to go every day after school. It's kind of the usual now. I was asked, I was asked. In class, I had an essay on history. And I turned in a book that I found for the library. I even ripped a couple pages out of it and turned it in as my essay. I didn't realize that using sources wasn't allowed. I've fallen behind on classes. I think I'm just really preoccupied with practice. So I guess English class is important and skip and homework for a couple of days. You know, a month, maybe two months. Yeah, I haven't been the greatest student, but you know, I have priorities. I got lost walking to school and I tried to explain to the teacher. And she told me it was an excuse and tried to give me a, what is it? A ticket, a late Atari. And I told her to stick it up her house. So, she put me, told me to come here or I would get an even bigger travel. So, yeah. Each of you has been given a selection of worksheets at your table. Now, this is a big room and you're allowed to sit wherever you want. Nobody at the same table though. You basically have a worksheet that is catered specifically to you. Several worksheets, one for each class that you are expected to work on during this detention period. How is this going for everybody? Do you mind, can we do this through the vehicle of, I'm going to make my rounds? Oh, sorry. Real quick. I just cut out for like, you said, you said, what about the worksheets? Sorry. You each have, and you know this because you've been here several times now, Mandy. You have worksheets that you are expected to complete. So, I don't want to see them crumpled in the trash. I don't want to see any paper airplanes. I don't want to see any cranes. Sorry. I want to see pencil on paper, Mandy. I got pencil on paper right here. Here you go. You're very cute. I drew a big penis on it. I know. Trist. I know what that is. I need you to write that down. I did right here. And, okay, Jennifer. Yeah. Hi, sweetheart. What are you doing here? I was trying to, I had a essay that apparently I played it wrong, apparently. That's all right. So, I just want you to take the pages that you took out, read them, and take what's in your brain after you read it and put that down on new paper. Okay. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I can do that. Now, Varun, I'm, I have to move the words around. Yes. Yes. That was, I think that was the point that was confusing to me. I thought that, you know, if I'm reading these words and then I'm supposed to. It already makes sense on the page. It's, that's what I've learned. I see what you mean. I like how, you know, that makes sense. It's very direct. I make the same mistake all the time, Jennifer. No, no talking. No talking, Mandy. Sorry, Mandy. Varun. How is this going for you? I'm surprised to see you here. I think I just saw it. I've completed most of my other worksheets. It's just this English homework that I've been putting off. I think I just kind of sigh and I'm kind of silent. Okay. Well, you let me know if you need anything. Okay. Is when, when do we get to leave? I got, I got practice in a couple minutes. As actually, as you say that a door comes open, one of the, there's like a set of double doors and one of them comes open and you see walking in a man dressed in a like harsh blue suit that is very well kept. He has very clean cut hair. He has a very uptight aura about him. You all know this. This is the vice principal, Mr. Gibson, who has just walked in and he says hi. Hi, everybody. Just checking in on the, on the delinquents. Now you all know, you all know that you, you're going to be here pretty much all night. Yeah. Hey, Gibby. How about letting us out on good behavior? Well, that wouldn't really matter because we'd be seeing you tomorrow. Now, wouldn't we young lady? Thank you. Is this even legal? Is this legal? You can't keep us at school all night. It's the policy here with our detention because there's certain, there's, I don't want to name any names, but there's certain people who have a, we would call it reduced the value of our detentions, reduced the, what the punishment means and take an advantage of it. So we've decided to extend it for all students. And we're allowed to do this because that's the rules. It's the eighties. Mr. Gibson. How is that fair? I'm sorry. We, we expect outstanding. You know the core values of, okay, let's say them all with me, the L O V core values. Learning. Learning. Outstanding. Outstanding. Outstanding. Outstanding. Okay. Things I'd want. Very good. Violence. Yeah. Yeah. And excellence. Explosives. Yeah. We expect that from all of you love because we love our students. Isn't that love? What? I don't, you said L O V. You added an E in there. There's a new addition. I said L O V E. What's the excellence? Excellent. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, it would be really excellent if you won't let us leave. I think Mandy can stay behind. I call my mom. Oh, I'm enforged. Well, I can see you've already worn your seat in. Oh, well, I wore your seat in first big boy. Yeah. What does that mean? It's disgusting. Do you wore Varun's clothes? I've sat in each one of these seats there. I'm very familiar with every one of them. That's what I'm supposed to be proud about. Hmm. Anyway, um, if I'm going to be here all night, I'm going to need my mom to drop off like a change of clothes. And like my shampoo and conditioner and stuff. Like, I don't know. Oh, we'll release you at midnight. Don't worry. Oh, for my health. Now, Gibson, I'm happy to spend the overtime, you know, because I love L O V E being a part of the faculty here. Um, but this feels, uh, new has something changed. And can I like roll for charm or something to try to like get him to shed some light on. Yeah, go ahead. I just locked down. Mm hmm. That's so yeah. What's your skill for that? Um, so it's a D eight and I rolled a two is this isn't one of those. No, you don't get the, um, it's not a fight. I just lost it. It's all right. Failure. Take the token. Jot it down. Everything. How big do you say how big the challenge was? Yeah, I believe I'm supposed to say it. So I would say that this was about a, um, this is about probably a five for you. So you failed by three, which it's not too badly. He says, Oh, it's, it's not important to you, but we really appreciate your work. And we are, uh, you know, it's noting it. Absolutely for sure. But I just wanted to check it all, check in on all of you because I'm going to be leaving the premises very soon. I'm going to be locking up. So I wanted you all to be aware that it's just going to be you all. I also really, really hope and he looks specifically at you, Jennifer. I know you've had a couple, um, uh, meetings with the counselors. I want you to know that if you all don't complete for each worksheet that's not completed for the class, you will, unfortunately be failing the class. Well, that's fine. Cause I'm going to do all the worksheets for sure. For sure. Um, okay. You said you were, I think I was, I think I was going to get miss heard you. You said that you were locking us in here. That's, that's nuts. Can I roll? Can I roll or something there? Yeah. I mean, you can roll. I would say, I guess, I guess it would maybe charm here. Uh, this is probably a six. Maybe no, I'll say a seven. Okay. I got a 14. Oh, without any of my stuff. Okay. What are you trying to do with this? Are you trying to get more information? Are you trying to? I would like to test the boundaries of leniency here, like locking all that, like we can't get out. That can't be how a school works. You know, like what if there's an evacuation, like. Trying to find out like where the weak spots of this. Prison. Well, it's usual procedure for, uh, for when the building is. Empty to, um. To lock it up, but you know, you bring up a good point, sweetie. It's. Not going to be empty because you're all going to be here. So. I'll just lock up most of the rooms. I can leave this one open for now. Yeah, cause, uh. Yeah. How else are we going to go to the bathroom, you know? Yeah. He points to the bathrooms that are in the cafeteria. I meant like, um, miss. Your name's Miss. Ziggy. Is that correct? Miss. Ziggy can. Watch us. So it's not like we don't need. We don't need like a door locked or anything. She can just make sure that we're in here. Very well. Um, well, I'll see you all tomorrow at school. And he begins to leave the room as he leaves, uh, closes the door behind him. And one thing that I will say as a setup for the circumstances, you know, Varun that after today's practice there, everybody's getting on a bus to head to. The state championships. Um, can I say I immediately head to the door once I like check the coast is clear. Once he leaves. Mm hmm. Yes. What are you trying to check for? Just leave the room. Oh. Well, you know, if he left it open for us, we, uh, sorry, Ziggy, I, uh, I fill out all the paperwork. You know, it's all good. I just got to go to the bathroom, you know? It's your life. Wait. Love you up. Miss. Miss Ziggy, we could just leave. That's totally fine then. I, I have to make it to States. Whether you leave the work sheet blank or not is entirely in your control. You will fail though, I think. Oh, no. You'll fill your classes. We could fill it out really fast. Maybe. Um, is it supposed to be good? Well, how do we pass? It's due at seven a.m. The next day for school. So if you can't do it right now, you can always bring it back in the morning because I'll be here making breakfast. As you all are talking, you hear the, um, rain outside. It was, there was a light rain that maybe you wouldn't have noticed as much before. It begins to, begins to pour a little bit harder. And you've also noticed. I don't know if I should call for a general check for this. I don't know if that's how this game works. Oh, another detail that I have to say for this. Planned actions and snap decisions. There are two types of roles. There's planned actions and snap decisions. Once the numerical difficulty is set, there are two distinct kinds of stat checks. We've basically been doing snap decisions so far, but we should actually be talking about it before we roll. The characters are sitting at a kitchen table trying to break a coded message to someone left for them and have to have an all night to do it. That's definitely a planned action. If your character needs to climb up a wall to break into an abandoned factory and has the cover of night with no one in pursuit, that's planned action. So something you have time to prepare for snap decisions or choices that have to be made quickly under bad conditions. Ultimately, it's the GM's call, but you guys can try to argue whatever for a planned action. Once you decide to resolve something with this particular stat, the numerical difficulty is set. Either roll the appropriate die or because you have time to think and react calmly. Take half the value of that stats die. For example, if you have a D20 in flight, you may choose to take a score of 10 for planned actions involving flight instead of risking a roll. So you can basically auto succeed if it's going to be lower, if it's going to be lower. And remember, I believe you still get your bonuses too to that roll, right? Or no, your teenager kid or adult. Yeah. So snap decisions or you just can't take half, but you can spend diversity tokens. GM, GM, GM, what's an adversity token? Someone got an adversity token. Torried. So you got one. Is it when you fail, you just get a token? Yeah. You can spend them to get a plus one to any roll as many as you want. Yeah, you can stack them. You also believe people can help. When you help, you're spending an adversary token and I keep saying anniversary. Adversity token and you have to describe how you're helping them do it. And like for my prepared stat, if I pay two, I can have some commonplace item that we need in that moment. Yeah, some of your stats might, or strengths might help you with that. Is the, like, does the rain seem dangerous? It's dangerous from the air. My curls. I think I would just have anyone really rainy in London. I'm from Manchester. Oh, oh, yeah. Oh, also by the sea. It begins to anyone who is interested in looking outside and learning, like, like, observing the weather more may, may roll brains. I asked Miss Sigi for permission to get up and look out the window. Oh, you're so sweet. Go ahead, darling. I'm like walking into the, like, walking out, like, of the room and I kind of shot back at Varun. I say, I have Varun, you know, if you're not going to be late, you might want to look for a way out of this place, right? And I say, I know a few paths, but have to pay me for them. And I'm like kind of glancing, glancing through the windows outside to see the best point of egress. Well, this is, this honestly doesn't need to be a check. Anyone who looks outside can notice that it is actually Varun. I'll let you do this as a check. Roll a brains, brains check as you look out there for, I will say, it's a fork. It's not hard. What's your diet? It's your brains. Okay. This could be, this could be a planned action. If you want to take half, you would get a five, which would beat it because you have plenty of time to look out the window. Yeah, okay. I'll take it as a planned action and take some time. Sweet. You are used to getting up really, really early for swim meets. Swim meets are always like, like swim. There's a lot of swim practice. That's when they practice, right? And then in the early morning. So you, you are up before the crack on, like very, very often. Yeah. You're not as, you don't like pay attention to the sunset as much. But you notice it seems to be darker outside than what it should be for this time of day. Like it's basically halfway to sunset and it's only maybe four PM or 30 PM. Or maybe like past half. Like it's, the sun is almost set. It's like dusk. Yeah. Hey, does anybody have a watch on them? What time is it? Is there a big cafeteria clock? I bet. What time is it? The small hand is the hour. Uh huh. Jennifer. Thank you. Yes. The small hand is pointing to the. To the four. So it is just for 30 to the four and the big hand is pointing to the six. It's four. Six. Very good, Jennifer. Thank you. Well, you know, if it's four, six, technically detention starts at, uh, if I remember correctly, it starts at four 30, right? So if detention, I wasn't even started, there are no rules. No, Mandy. Why don't we just get at it? It's very well, it starts as soon as school ends. Is there something going on for you today? I don't know why you're giving me such trouble today. Uh, there's nothing going on. I just, uh, I've done my work. You know, I think, uh, the lights play. What was that? I sure hope the generator is running. Do we have flashlights in here? Something so that we can see in case they go down. Um, I can check. In case they go down. We need to. We should leave. You don't know. It's kind of bad. Okay, bro. You were just, you were just talking about staying. You said you had to get your work done. You're a good student, aren't you? I'm literally physically putting my hand up and like ignoring you. Like talking to you. It's like you're twice. Mm. It's kind of some sick prank, Mandy. Oh, no. Why do you think this is me? I'm above these kind of scare tactics. I don't think you're above anything. God. Oh, okay. I march to my desk and I just start trying to feverishly complete my worksheets. Out of the corner of your eye. You notice, you can't even see the sun anymore. That's not right. I pull up my botanist guide to for dummies that I have. My backpack and like see if there's any pages on like the sun and like the plants and shit. It's a botanist guy. I don't know why the sun would be in there. Yeah. Give me a brain. Need sunlight. Brawling seasons. Brains. What's the wither? What's she trying to be? Oh, yeah, I forget. I have to say that out loud. Six. Okay. My brain is a D eight. Okay. I got three. Take it. The token. Token taken. There's one more big rolling thing that I wanted to mention that I don't think we've mentioned yet and it's blowing up. If you roll and hit the highest number on the die, then you get to roll again and add it. So even if I'm rolling a D four. Yeah. If you're rolling a D four on a 12, you could potentially get it if you roll three fours in a row. The adds a better one 64th. It is not. It's there's it doesn't seem like you can find anything. It's not really organized in a very a good enough way for you to locate things based on like time of day or light. Or they just kind of organize differently. You don't really have enough time to navigate the book before the lights completely go out. Okay. We need to find flashlights. Right. I have immediately. Immediately I flick open my lighter. Oh, maybe. Oh, my gosh. Fantastic. Can you bring that over here so that I can do my worksheet? We should get out of here. I come over to Jennifer and I'm like, Oh, here you go, Jennifer. And I'm looking I'm looking at the sheet and is it like math? Like what kind of what kind of worksheet is it? I think I'm working on my essay, which is about history. What kind of what kind of history you're working on, Jennifer? American. Well, you know, as we all know, American history is everything started like about 100 years ago in 1880. So those are the dates you really need to focus on. I don't believe she's being stupid. Well, thank you for the light. If you could just stay right there, that would be really rolling. For sure. I hold the light close to the close to the worksheet. I'm not trying to set it on fire. Okay. To be clear. Roll a D three challenge flight flight three challenge flight off. Okay. Is this snap decision? I would assume. Yes. Okay. Okay. I guess I guess you could argue that it's that it's a planned action. Okay. Can I say it's a planned action? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'll take the five. You're able to keep it at a safe distance and you're sort of trying to work on your worksheet. Everybody else. You can't really see a worksheet and the lights come back on. You look across the tables, Ziggy just to like, you know, make sure everything's good. It doesn't it doesn't seem like it's an issue with the light bulbs and stuff like that. And it seems like, I mean, it's all the, all, all five students are at the same places they were beforehand. Bye. Different tables. Yeah. There's four now. Oh, you notice at the back table much further back. There is a small hooded figure. I walk over to them. Oh, excuse me. Mandy, please take your seat. I walk over to them. Only, only, only Ziggy scene. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. You are busy holding the ladder. I say, excuse me. We might have missed a attendance. Do you mind pulling your hood back so that I can verify your student ID? Hi. Now, I really don't want to have to ask again. And can I use, can I roll for grit? Is that how that works or does it have to be charm? What, what, what, what do you, what do you justify the grit? Like, um, intimidation type, like kind of like, you'll stay there all night. If you have to type a thing. Mm. I'm not going to ask nicely, like, take it off now. Okay. Street smarts as well. I don't know. This that determines how hard it is to break a character emotion emotionally or physically. So. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so for that, I've got a D 10 and I get plus one. Oh my gosh. And I think I just blew this cafeteria up because I got a D 10. Roll again. So, so it depends on what the challenge is. What was the challenge? I don't know. Oh, yeah, it's totally didn't say. I did not say three. Because this is ominous figure. We don't know. Remind me what you're trying to do. I'm asking the mysterious hooded figure to remove the hood. The dice. Or did you just already succeed? I already succeeded. So it depends on what. The challenge. It depends on what the challenge writing is. But likely. I'm checking the. The challenge. Um, 17. Okay. So that does mean you get to roll again. If you hit the reason that I was asking is you're not supposed to continue blowing up once you have succeeded. Once you've succeeded, you stop, but you can get to it and keep rolling. So if you hit if you hit a six or above. Yeah. I get to roll again because I hit a 10. You have the you hit the 10. So you blew up and you get to roll again and add it. But if the challenge rating had been seven, you wouldn't have rolled the second time. You would have just taken the success. And if you roll a six, you're able to use one of your adversity points. I rolled another 10. So that's if the challenge rating was a 25, you would get to roll again because you blew up again. But since you've already beat it, that's where the blowing up ends. Honestly, they play this wrong in dimension 20. They don't do that, but I read the rule book. I read the rule book. Honestly, very on brand for you. What role well? Yeah. Do y'all think I'm lying? There's a strong chance I'm using Google roll wrong, but. Type in 10. Okay. So I say, I say, uh, now listen, I don't know where you came from, but I can tell you where you're going. Please remove your hood. Remove your hood for me. You are approaching their table as you walk as you as you say this. You all have heard her address this figure now. So you've turned around. I imagine. And you have now seen this, this small hooded figure at one of the back tables. And it starts to shake a little bit. It starts to shutter. And it looks up at you as you get closer. And it lifts up its hands, which it's got sort of a robe on and its hands are covered with clubs. And it grabs the sides of the hood while shaking. Slowly draws it back and you see nothing. Oh, you see something, but you don't see anything in the face. You see darkness. You see a dark shape where like in the shape of a head in the shape of a neck leading down into the robe, but it is almost as if there is no light touching the face like it's completely silhouetted, except you do see that there's part of it that is like in the center, it's sort of caved in. And so it's almost like this is a weird metaphor. But if you took a Lego stud and looked at it from the underside. Oh, yeah. And it is concave and it is dark. And you see that looking back up at you and then the lights go out again. Oh! Immediately I flick my flick my lighter on and I run over towards the figure. Roll flight. That's a challenge. Ten. Varun screams. I would like to say every time the lights go out I was inching closer to Varun. I rolled a four. I'm going to help. I yell. Ziggy. I like shout out. I shout out her name and I roll a four so I failed. Excuse me. I need that light to see. So I'm going to follow and try to see with the light. I'm hiding under my death. Are you saying you're trying to help the roll? No. I'm just also getting up and following. I think you said everybody heard and turned around. I think I did for a second and then I wanted to focus on my worksheet. So I didn't really see what's happening. I'm just following the lighter. So I'm running over. I'm shouting for Ziggy. Ziggy, you okay? Oh! You can't see anything. Your leg hits the table and you fall onto one of them. Oh! And damn it. You're approaching Jennifer? I was following the lighter. Yeah. You see she drops the lighter and it slides out of view. Well, shit. Can I look for it? Like is it still lit? It's not still. A lighter wouldn't remain lit, right? Well, it's like one of those zippos. Does that remain lit? It's up to you, Gina. Yeah, it can remain lit and it slides. You see it slide under the table where the figure was and it is not there. And then Abe, you feel something tugging at your sleeve. And it's dark? It's dark. It's dark, yes. Who's on me? Who's on me? Somebody's on me? And I like tug. You hear heavy breathing, like very fast paced breathing. And the light's been back on. And the figure is next to you. And the hood is back up. And the figure, the figure says, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I scream. Varun screams. It backs up. What the fuck? At this moment, we are introducing our powered character. What? This is a mechanic of the game we haven't really touched on. But the kids on bikes games have a mechanic where you, there's a powered character. Think of it like 11 or something like that. Or E.T. Or E.T. Exactly. Where there is a sort of weird character that you all have control of. I have decided 10 aspects and you each get control of two aspects of this character. So I'm going to send the list in the chat. Keep in mind your aspects. And so we all have narrative control over what this character does. But you only get control over specific things. So if you want a specific thing to be addressed, or you like think maybe this would be relevant in this scenario, you can tell, you can tell the person who is normally you put them on note cards, but we're blank digitally. Whoever has that. This kid says, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." And sort of falls back and goes to hide under the table. And you suddenly lose sight of the character. Hey. Hey, little, what are you? Some kind of creature thing? What you doing? What are you talking about? I said it was sorry. So that's kind of nice. Yeah, it said it was sorry. Yeah. Well, Lord, you have put folks in my life who are too faced, but never one that is no faced. And so can I try to influence this character since it trusts Abe? Like, do I have a role for that? I'll just read through this. When situations come up that relate to the aspects in front of the character, they'll be in charge of narration. In any other situations, players will share control of that character. As with the rest of the game, players share control of the narrative. When an aspect becomes relevant, turn the card featuring that aspect sideways. This action helps to focus the table on who will be controlling the power character. Any player may activate any aspect of the table, even one in front of another player, but player with that aspect in front of them should be in charge of the narration related to that aspect. Thus, when another player activates an aspect in front of another player, they're handing narrative controller to a player. So you can literally say pretty much anything about this character. You can flesh out the power character as you see fit, adding desires, fears, and motivations as they go. Once a player introduces a new aspect of the power character, players should go along with it unless there are issues, etc., etc. When playing the power character, there should ideally be roughly equal input from each player and the GM as a player. You should have enough information to make decisions about what the power character does if you don't ask for the GM for more guidance. And remember that kids on bikes is a game where the players have strong input over the direction. So, since Ziggy was coming forward, would this be a time for me to say, "I'm fine. I feel like it being afraid of Ziggy would come into play here. What do you think would happen?" Quick question before I answer that. Are these just character traits? Are these like, also powers? Only one of them is a power. Okay, cool. I don't remember who that is. You gave it to me. I'm fine. I'm not able to turn the shadows. Okay, cool. When you use the power, that's where the psychic energy comes into play, but we can talk about that when that happens. Well, Tori said that Ziggy was coming forward and started talking, so I was going to evoke or just suggest, like, since it's afraid of Ziggy, something might happen here. Yeah, I think it went under, and it's just fun speaking, not Abe. So I think it went under the table, right? And Varun was also under the table. Oh, no. I think what happens is Abe screams, Ziggy moves forward, and then the power character dives under the table, looks Varun in the eyes, and then just turns into shadow. Is that something I can do? Yeah. But you are the person that can do that. When using powers, the GM will establish a numerical difficulty for the action being attempted, then if the player choosing to take that action with the power character wishes to still take that action, the power character immediately spends one psychic energy, and the player rolls 2d4 subtract the role in the dice from the ability value. If it is zero or negative, the power character suffers a very minor physical result. If it, however, the results, one or greater, the player taking the action is two options either attempt, either the attempt fails or the player chooses to spend more. So it's not very hard. I'm going to say it's a value of two. I've got the psychic energy token. So this, this uses one, and you'll roll. I mean, okay, maybe three, because that's an automatic success. So we'll say three. I rolled a four. Yeah. That was just one. Do I have to roll the other one? So, yeah, roll both of them for the psychic energy. It's just, you do both. Okay. So that's a total of six. Okay. Describe what it could look like if this disappears into shadow and maybe what minor, basically when this happens, there's a very minor physical result, for example, to the, to the, to the being. Yeah, for example, a very brief nosebleed, a muscle twitch, a momentary but painful headache, like how in stranger things 11 gets a nosebleed when she uses her powers. Yeah, they turn, look at Varun dead in the eyes, and then their body like because it's already kind of like dark. It just like comes like black mist, and then reconvenes and you see like out of, I don't know, they have ears. I don't know. They're tumbling. That's what they're like having like convulsions is how that would operate. You have to tell me how this works because coming out of Jamevoo, we did like story suggestions, seeing that this creature, trust's a is really scared just freaked out and Abe you had the experience of it trembling and can. And to tell me how I would do this can seeing that small trembling afraid creature, who, you know, I don't know I almost wanted to like remind you of how you had felt when you felt so alone like I don't want to say like, has how old were you when your mom had passed me. Yeah, five. I almost want that to be a like, oh, you like see maybe what how this creature's feeling. And I'm the mom. Because I just feel like until we get it to calm down. You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, I think that I, one of us could go over to him and be like, it apologizes to you if you want to just see what the heck is up with it because it's kind of a weird freaky thing that's under the table with my boyfriend. Speaking, speaking of this. I've never seen a brown man turn white before, but if, if a light word of shine on Varun in this moment, instead of screaming, he is witness something completely inhuman. I think he is like beginning to breathe incredibly heavy and heavy and is crawling out from underneath the table. But then he remembers swim practice, his deep capacity for breathing and begins to slow his breath down. Nice, controlled, paced, and he's trying to get a grasp of the situation again. Is that a role, or am I just narrating that? I mean, this could be, I mean, this seems like you are perhaps using your own flaws cowardly, perhaps, against yourself. I'm cowardly, but also cool under pressure, which is a strange balance. Now, what does cool under pressure do again? No clue. I'll pull it up. Okay, let's use spend address the token to take half of your dies value instead of relying on a snap decision role. So even when you are making a snap decision, you can do the half thing. I had a quick question to about the, to what Tory was asking earlier about the trust's abe thing with Tory controlling that it's like if Abe approaches Tory makes the decision whether they're receptive. Is that how that works, right? Yeah, basically, in a role, like if it was being role played, Tory would role play as them respond, like, like interacting with, with Abe there. Okay, that's what I thought. Could we briefly cover the individual things we're in control of for this creature? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I think we haven't set out loud. So I've given, if each person wants to read what they've been given. Yeah, I'll start able to turn into shadows, afraid of Ziggy. Obsessed with ninja turtles and scared of bright lights. Trusts Abe. Impulsive. Afraid of lowering hood. Ignorant of social norms. And feigns indifference towards the group and lashes out when touched. Yeah, it's good, good, good for everybody to know that. So I will say yes, like, because this is your flaw, I will want you to roll a, would this be grit, probably, to keep your composure here. And I'm going to say it's, I mean, this is pretty freaky. So probably a seven. Here. My grit is a D eight. Oh, no. You have adversity tokens. So, right. And you do have your, you do have your cool under pressure. But you need it first. Yeah, that's. Oh, whoops. And I don't have that. So this is how I'll get my first adversity token. With, with that kind of. I got a five. Five. You are, you are, this, this is almost, you try to get it. You'd like your body physically needs to get out of there. And so like you like attempt to stand up and bang your head on the table above you, but you need to get out front of the table. You need to, you need to get out of here. It's, it's funny. I think on a third party perspective, it's comical in terms of physical comedy. I've always imagined Varun is six, four. Like extremely. Like swimmer build, like super long arms, really wide shoulders. But like in this moment, he's like in the darkness where nobody's watching and. Yeah, he's just kind of freaking. I'm going to try to lift up the, the, the table. Yeah. I think that's what like Varun hitting his head and Jennifer telling me like, oh, it apologize. I apologize to pop up, apologize to you. Like you don't check it out. I'm like, okay. I like, I like squat down. And I'm like, you's okay. Do you, do you, who are you? Come out. Come. And I think in this situation, Tori, you're in charge of narrating its behaviors because this is a trust. A trust, a trust, a moment. Okay. So upon hearing a soft, you know, welcoming tone of voice after lots of screaming and loud noises. The creature finally stops convulsing and it still keeps its head down, but scoots closer to you. And it just says, I'm sorry. It's okay. It's okay. We're, we're okay. Okay. So do you go to school here or. Really? Are you from out of town? Jim, can I just freestyle with this or like, is there. Yeah, what do we do about more answers or right? You may flesh out the power character as you see fit adding desires, peers and motivations as they go. I will, I will take a quick control of this character to give a little bit of information. Not looking at you, Jennifer, in response to that, looking directly at, um, at Abe. You hear the voice say, um, I'm, um, I don't really know where I don't know. I don't go here. Are you from London too? I saddle up to Manchester. Yes. Are you from Manchester? I'm not Manchester. My name is, I love what a man has. Your name is, your name is what? Shadow. That shot. Mm. Shadow. That's a good name. It is a name. Hey, Varun. You okay down there? Uh, any help buddy? Um, uh, what is happening? What's that mask you have on your face? Can you, can you take it off? Um, who, who has this? It had me. It's me. So what is it? What is it? How does it? It's me. No, it's me. Oh, afraid of lowering hood. I think it is going to, in response to that, pull its hood down even lower and just kind of curl itself into a ball and roll away. No, no, no, it's okay. It's okay. You didn't meeting me like that. I, I did. And I'm sorry, but I, I mean, I'm very uncomfortable with everything that's happening. It's, it's dark outside. We don't know what's happening. Flicker. Hey, it's okay to, it's okay to come out. You know, I, I'm lifting the table up. Mm hmm. And we didn't make it turn into shadow. So that is unrelated. That's Emma, not, but I sound like Jennifer, but that was Emma being like, huh. Um, okay. Can I say to, um, a while keeping my distance? Um, can, would you ask our new friend if it knows what's happening with the lights? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I could do that, Miss Ziggy. Well, that, Mikey, did you? Yeah, I'm trying to, I, I'm, I'm lifting up the table. Do I have to roll for that? Uh, no, that's easy enough. Okay. Cool. And I'm like, it's like. Still under the table. Oh, wait. It's a big ass table, actually. We'll see. Yeah. I'll say, I'll say to like really significantly movie move it. It's a challenge for. I got a, I got a six. I'm trying to get them both out from under the table. Like remove the hiding spot. Yeah. Remove the hiding spot is what I'm doing. You're able to move the table from, and it's not really a problem and it's opened up. Though as you do that, the light flickers twice and you're all kind of talking as you look for somewhere to put it down, you see outside in the hallway. Uh, through the same doors that earlier, Mr. Gibson went through, you see just a tendril of something, maybe smoke. Move past the window and out of sight. Do you know about this? Like, do you know what's causing this? Are you talking to? Yeah, I'm talking. I'm talking to the creature. Do you know what's causing this? They don't respond and the lights go out completely again. Okay. We need to get the fuck out of here. Like we. Yeah. Oh, wait. Did it see like the lights going out? Was it doing something or is this separate? No, it didn't seem related. And it seems scared. Like, could something be trying to get it? The lights come out, come on, and it has moved to a different table and it says there's, um, it's dark out there gesturing to the hallway. Hey, it's fine. You know, I've wandered these halls at night before. There's nothing out there that can get us. Is it bad that it's dark? That one's not like me. What won? You see more tendrils. Lights go out. I think. I think we should set the building on fire. That will make it light out and maybe they'll hide. You know, Jennifer, I like where you're coming from. You have a lot of good spirit with that. That answer. But, um, you know, honestly, I don't really have a better idea myself. Okay, so you're not the only one with the lighter. I'm going to use the light from my lighter to go to the janitorial closet, which I assume I have a key to because I am staff here. And we're looking for flashlights so that we can exit. And so I'm going to say, okay, students get into an orderly line. Oh, sorry, let me know my voice for our new friend. Just stick close together and I'm going to try to get us some flashlights so we can get out of here. The, the figure shadow as Abe is moving around, almost like with every step. The figure is walking in complete sync, like wicked close, uncomfortably close. Um, could you, could you not do that? Could you give me like a couple feet, you know? Um, um, um, I'm sorry, I just, I'm very scared. That's okay. We're all scared. It's just your country, me up and I run. Uh, can I walk in front of you? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Is anybody looking at the hallway? Oh, I was looking at, I was going to like bar the door or like do like kind of like, yeah. I thought the plan was get flashlights, you know, yeah, yeah. I'm helping looking for a point to get out of what I'm doing. Yeah. Cause I was like, when I went out earlier, I was wondering if I saw like where Gibby went. Half the lights come back on. Oh, thank you. You see the tendril. Again, there's some kind of smoke or something that begins to come in the opposite direction and then it stops. And that was sort of passing by a window that was met like that leads into that looks into the hallway that was next to the door. It stops and you don't see it go past the other window as if it stopped at the door. Can I use, I'm going to use my, my trait, my whatever strength, intuitive and spend an adversity token to ask about the surrounding and you have to answer honestly. So I'm going to, I'm going to like try and like peek through the door so I'd be looking at it. And I want to know what I see. The first thing you see is a bright blue sleeve of a suit that manifests with a hand on the door and then the hand begins to sink down the body. Which you've now noticed a dark body, almost the same as, almost the same as shadows face, but the whole body in the shape of a person, you think, in the shape of a taller person. But the arm begins to drift down the body down from where an arm would normally be and now it's down at the waist and now it's drifting down to the, to the leg and then another arm kind of comes up and this one is not blue. It's just a tendril and it slowly begins to push the door. Guys, guys, I'm shoving up against the door. I'm trying to push a table in front of the door. Okay, roll flight. Flight, okay. Who's rolling flight? Mandy. For pushing a table in front of the door, okay. Would that be Braun? Or if I-- I feel like that'd be Braun. I think Braun. Okay, Braun, I was time-wise, but actually, yeah, Braun, yeah, do Braun. And that's gonna be an eight. Shit. I rolled a four. Okay, take an adversity token. The door is open as you start to move it, but you're not able to get it far enough and the door begins to open and you suddenly see this dark figure and you see the arm is now on the ground and it begins to move and the arm is left and the arm is not attached. It's not attached to anything. I think this is a creepy creature and we're gonna need those flashlights right away, please. I go, Shadow, let's come with me, let's go. Everyone back up, back up, back up. What is happening? Shadow is looking up at the thing at the door. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's like, like, it's, it's-- Do we have the flashlights? Do we have light? Have we found the flashlights? How hard is it to get a flashlights? The flashlights, yes. Okay. Then let's fucking go! Like, that's me. Yeah. Do we, um, hey, Ziggy, as I, as I'm, like, running back over them. Ziggy, do you have that bottom moonshine? Now, why would you know about that? Well, um, uh, I went through your stuff one time. It doesn't matter. Do you have one? Yes. Gonna have a little bit. I think first I'd like to shine the flashlight at the creature. Can we say everyone has a fire? I'm gonna light it on fire. Yeah. There's three flashlights. So let's do that while we're doing this little bomb thing, yeah. You're creating a bomb? Oh, with moonshine? I'm gonna, I'm gonna, like, throw the moonshine on the lighter. As the first step, can we do the flashlight? Yes. Does it react to that? Um, yes. As you point the flashlight to, uh, we're, we're on the, the figure. Are you pointing it? I guess the hand is what just fell so-- It sort of bends around it. Like, it, like, retreats from the light as you do that. And then it begins to swirl around. And then it rapidly shoots toward you. Roll flight. Who? Both of us? It goes across the room directly at you. What do I need to be? Oh, no. Now, this is going to be a fight, so let me see. Oh, a fight? No, it's fighting you. This is probably gonna be a flight on your-- Do I have to run, or could I, like, brace myself? That's true. That is a, they give that as an example in the-- Roll the attacker's fight against the defender's brawn if they're planning to stay and fight back, or flight if they're planning to dodge or flee. Oh, shoot. You know what I completely forgot to do? You all get to decide the stats of this character. So what-- What you know about, what you know about, um, Shadow is that their D20 stat is flight, and their D4 is charm. So you all get to decide collectively based on what you want, what the other four stats are. I mean-- I feel like grit could be pretty low, too. Yeah, this seems kind of fun. It's probably low, but maybe brain's charm should be low, too, because it's-- Oh, charm is already the D4. Oh, charm is four, yes. Cool. Yeah. I feel like-- I feel like fight could be-- because, okay, so Flight is D20. Charm is D4. I feel like the only ones I feel like grit could also be low, because it feels like it kind of caves to-- Yeah. --and then maybe fight high, but I'm uncertain. I think it would be great to have fight high, just in terms of if we are fighting-- Mechanically. --for fighting scary shadow monsters. It'd be great to have a scary shadow monster with us. Yeah, that's fair. I agree. I think about flight, fight, brains, grit, brawn, and charm in that order. So grit would be eight, brawn, yes. I feel like grit should be lower than brawn, personally. Great. Okay. Yay. Okay, so who's the appendage reaching in? You. Me. Can I roll brawn? No. Can I have something to eat? I'm confused by how fight with NPCs works, because it only really outlines fight between players. Oh. Should I be shoving somebody towards it? Ooh. [LAUGHS] Is it a last one standing type kid on a bike at the end? Oh, no, it doesn't. Okay, I guess it's just a tacker and-- Okay. Yeah, I'm going to-- I'm going to roll-- I don't know that you have to roll for this. I think that you just set a difficulty level. Which says roll the attacker's fight against the defender's brawn. Which part are you reading that? I'm on combat encounters. Combat in the scheme functions in the same way as other stat checks that sometimes you will be rolling against another character. I guess this would be-- I think that it's a stat check unless you're rolling against another player character trying to address it. Roll it. I would say 11. All right. And I'm rolling brawn, or no? I mean, you can justify a different one if you'd like. I prefer brawn, so I just brace myself for impact. I'm rolling to beat an 11 for brawn. What is your brawn? Okay. Brawn's my D20. Ooh, I got a 15. Okay, yeah, you managed to-- This isn't my first fight with the darkness. I battle my own demons every day. The-- it described to me what happens is this tendril shoots out. It shoots out like a point, like it's trying to-- And it's like made of smoke? Exactly, directly into your arm. Now that you look at it, it looks very similar to what shadows face and texture of shadows face looked like. I try to burn it with my cigarette. Yeah, you reach out your cigarette and just-- it like requails at that and comes back and it looks like it has to recover for a second. I think we should set it on fire. I'll get the moonshine. And, okay, so you're working on that moonshine thing? Yeah. I'm gonna load up. Should be a brains or a-- My thinking was, I was just gonna chuck the-- It could be argued to be like a flight to get out of the fiery explosion radius. Yeah, we should break a window or something. How are we getting out of here? Yeah. How well you can see this. We have flashlights. Yeah. Yeah, we have flashlights. But still, the thing is darkness. Who side are you on? No, I was just saying. Is there another exit from the cafeteria? There's-- I mean, the windows that lead outside, there's another door on the other side of it into that same hallway. Are we doing the moonshine thing? I agree. Yeah, that's what you're doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm done. I'll say that's a difficulty 10. Of what? I mean, you're throwing-- what would be-- Because, I guess, flight? Could it be fight? Yeah, fight. So try not to fight it. Okay, great. Okay, so I'm going to fight, and I rolled a 12. Yeah, it seems that this figure-- it almost goes into it and envelops it a little bit, and you hear a cry out from it as it retreats into the hallway, and the fire remains burning on the ground. And, okay, how did we set this? Is it the worksheet doused in alcohol with the lighter? Do we still have the moonshine? Did you do it like-- You threw the moonshine, and then-- Like, threw the moonshine to have it like shatter, and like the alcohol, and then just like tossed the lighter at it. Oh. So there's no moonshine. We should get out of here. Is that the only entrance in the exit? There is the windows in the second exit. I'm done. Yeah, let's go. Yeah, I'm looking for everything as well. Out the exit. Okay. The other exit. So you go into the-- you run to where the other hallway is-- or to the exit into the other hallway, and you see at the end where this door was, you see figure like moving as a tendril up into the ceiling. And you see in the ceiling of the hallway a just sagging, a deep sagging, and just like almost like some liquid dripping, and it is just-- it looks like it's close to falling. And Varun, you remember a rumor, a joke that was often passed around from seniors telling freshmen all sorts of things. Something about a pool on the third floor. No. No. It can't be. And that comes into your mind at this moment as there's some watery-- there's some liquid dripping from down below. I always thought it was a lie. I never thought. Maybe. Maybe. Guys. I know a way out. What? Yeah. Well, we have, buddy. You seeing things? What's nearby on the walls? There's like a bulletin board with some announcements about clubs and stuff. Here in the hallway there's lockers and stuff. And the ceiling is like caving in almost. Above the hallway. Yeah. You actually see across the hallway is the science classroom. Like for chemistry, biology, stuff like that. And actually you remember in this moment, Abe, you were flipping through your bot, botting about casually, but you remembered something about one of the lessons in a class where you use-- how do I explain this? So far, what you guys have noticed is that when you put on the temporary light or let put the flashlight on, it might be too small of an area and not concentrated enough to really have an effect. Like it maybe recoils from the fire, but there's-- But if we had a laser-- Well, there's-- You remember you did-- You did focus the light. Like a microscope. Like I've done recently. Like a magnifying glass. You were studying like luminescence and like combining chemicals to make something glow. And that just comes to mind. Um, um, uh, this is science science. We need to go to the science room. Yeah. Right now. Um, what about just getting out of here? It's gonna follow us. What is it? I think we should kill it. I think we should kill it for Jennifer. It's just-- Okay, Jennifer. Okay. You know what? Yeah. Sure. Fine. I'm tired of this thing. Let's just get rid of it. It wasted a perfectly good bottle of moonshine. I'm sorry, Ziggy. That's all right. It is occurring to me. We do have stoves in the cafeteria. So let's hit the science room. And if we need to cook or maybe we use the fire to stave it off, we maybe could do that as well. So you kids are smart, so go in there and make us a self. Yeah. If everyone's running to the chemistry room, yeah, I'm running over there. As we run, I'm gonna talk to a shadow. And I'm gonna say, is it after you? I don't know. How did you get here? The shadows. I move them. I move in them. I feel like Mikey, there's something that they want to bring. Oh, yeah. I'm scared of bright lights. No, I think you're obsessed with ninja turtles like a ninja. And scared of bright lights. There's a shadow like a ninja. Oh, kid loves that comes into its mind. Oh, gotcha. I see, I see, I see. Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, I, I always wanted to, you know, be cool. Kind of like, uh, I mean, do you know the ninja turtles? The ninja turtles. No. Yeah. Yeah. She's from Manchester. They don't have the ninja turtles. Oh, well, um, there's these, uh, there are these ninjas who are also like turtles. They were like turned into it. It doesn't really matter. But I always wanted to be like Donatello, you know, um, and like, you're a Donatello fan. Yeah. Um, yeah. I like him. He's really cool. He's got a big. I personally like Leonardo. Well, you know, we can all have our opinions, but, um, uh, I, I, I, I just wanted to, uh, like be cool and be able to, uh, you know, be, be just like him, but, um, you know, yeah. Did this happen to you? Or were you born like this? As, as you shift the conversation away from ninja turtles. It doesn't seem this, this, this figure is as interested. I don't know. Okay. Let's just get that. Let's kill this thing and get out of here. Are you born Donatello fan? It chooses you. Any, anyone looking for the chemicals that are needed can do a challenge five. And I fucking see there's a window in brains. Okay. I got a window. I got a one. I got a two. And I'm going to mark that. I got a six. Okay. So both of you take adversity tokens as you're shuffling around and you begin to see a little bit of darkness, uh, out in the hallway, like just tiny tendril, like you just kind of notice as you, as you two are searching and you fail. Uh, and you find the guys, both of the chemicals that you need to mix. Yeah. Nobody freak out, but I do think that it's right outside the door. And the flashlights told you. So true. I do that. Roll flight, uh, or grit. I don't know what this would be, honestly. Who has the flashlights? There are three of them. I would love to roll grit and just like maintaining the position and not wavering. I think Ziggy has one Jennifer and then what am I? What am I trying to beat? Oh, uh, six. I rolled a nine. Yeah, it, it retreats as you do that. And you've gathered these materials. I don't know you. That's my purse. You are on the second floor. Um, and you see it retreat back up to that ceiling area where it's sagging. Um, yeah. Veron. That's where you, uh, that's where you practice right up there on the, on the roof. And no, that's a rumor that was spread. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Mandy. I remember the day you made that up. Yes, it is a rumor. Oh, well. It was successful, right? Mm hmm. You got the camera. Yeah. It was successful. Do I know how to put it together? What's the, you, you can do that with a brains check. You just know that you've got a limited amount of time. While it's, you've only got a couple minutes where it's glowing. So we should go to the place first and then like mix them all together. I guess the, could we plan how, like what's the, I'm, I'm worried that we're going to get there and then the plan will. Fail because of this. Could we make it a planned action by like, like make it a plan. I have three happens. Yeah. I don't know if we can. Like I'm wondering if that successful. Brains role now, like makes it so that we're ready. If you are able to stave off the tendrils for, I'll say. Like a, a difficulty level nine. Check. Then you will have the time to prep that. Does that make sense? Like if you use your flashlight again to keep it away from you, you can take some more time to prep it. I can do that. If you need some more time to like get it good. I guess my, kind of my question was, would that be worth it? What's your brains? Is it, is that your D 20? No, that's what I figured. I was like, I don't think it'll be worth it to do that. What if we found some kind of appliance in the kitchen where we could keep both the liquids in a container with some kind of separator and then just remove that when we need it. So we don't have to take the time to set it up. We just got to like hit a switch. Like I'm thinking of like a cocktail shaker, but I do, it is right outside the door. So I don't know if we're going to be able to go back to the kitchen right now. And I like pull out all of the, like the big ampules and like the big bottles. I'm like, I mean, we could just put it in these two things. What do we, what do we got to do? Just throw it together? Yes, but it'll only last a couple minutes. So we could put it together and run for the door. I thought, why don't we put it together and try to get it as close to that thing as possible? I guess I'm, can we, real quick, because I think we got clarification, but I don't know if I fully understood it. The, because it looked like we had kind of a course of action that made sense. Could we, could you remind us of kind of what we've learned so far? What I, what I picked up is this is a more complicated thing than just pouring it together that we need to get to where the thing is like, and then put it all together in like this more complicated way that will require a brain's check. That seems to be what, what the scenario might be. And, and you hear, um, shadows say, like looking up as you all are doing things just staring outside. I think it lives upstairs. Do you know what would, um, convince it to not live upstairs? I think it lives upstairs. Stiggy, you know the way upstairs, right? Yeah, I've been upstairs. It's through the, uh, the janitor's interest, right? Well, I don't, uh, well, if we need someone to rush in, I, I guess I would, I volunteer to, uh, you know, help everybody. Yeah, and who's to say you won't ditch us? Okay, Varun, where would I go? I don't have anywhere to go. You gotta be your swim meet, right? Don't you need to get this done? I very much recall you saying you know all the back entrances to this place. Who's to sit on the back entrance? Oh, okay. Can we all, can we all calm down? You said a lot about Varun. Do you like like him or something? Like, what's going on there? Oh, ha, ha, ha. For your information, I don't like Varun. I have someone else in my mind that I enjoy. Lights flicker. Okay, everybody. We should probably get this done. Okay, everybody. So someone who's good at science needs to mix the things together. People who are good at fighting, we can go forward and kick some, some butt up there with our flashlights. I never, I've the science to clear it all up. I'm used to fighting humans. I've never fought any kind of extraterrestrial, whatever thing this is. You know, I want to up my cred a little bit. So I'm down. Yeah, it seemed to respond pretty well to the flashlight. All right, I'm willing to, who's got the brains? I can try to mix it together on the grounds that I'm used to mixing ingredients. Unless someone else has the highest brains. I have a D six. I have a D eight. That's not great. Anyone have better than Varun? No, that's our smart. You have a winning her smart. Are you holding out? Bro. Are people losing? Bro, buddy, you make good, you make good grades, right? I mean, I remember I got good grades and everything, but English. Yeah. I kind of, I walk up behind Varun and I put my hands on your shoulder and I say, buddy, last time I cheated off your test, I made a perfect score. So why don't you put those, put those skills to use to help us down? Okay, I thought you were going to be. It's either going to be that you rush in with us at the front line and use the flashlights or you can hang back and mix it together. And then come for it. So do you want to be on the front line or do you want to hang back and mix it together? Why are we all okay with what's happening? We're not okay with what's happening. That's what we're trying to do something. I don't have any other points. You're not doing anything. Oh, Shadow, what are you talking about? Shadow's pointing at the tendrils at the window. Varun is my guy. It's time to act. And then Varun gets to mixing up the chemicals like he learned in chemistry. Well, we need to go. We need to go up there before we mix the chemicals. We need to get to where it is before we do it because there's not time. I'll be in the front. Once I add the final reagent, it'll start glowing. But till then, I'll start mixing. Dc9 fight from you, Jennifer. From me? Yeah. Dc9, got it. That's a nine. I rolled an eight on the die and I have the plus one for being a teenager. So you managed to stave off one of the tendrils. No, thank you. And you see a couple more tendrils begin to start to creep, but slower because it looks like they're trying to avoid the path of your flashlight. All right. Let's let's ban these things out and let's get up there. Okay. Ziggy, can you show us the way? Yes, I'll be in the front because Mandy as brave as you are, if it's going to take anyone to meet our Lord and Savior. I am certainly ready more so than any of you sweet pumpkin. So stay behind me. Mandy, then Varun, you'll be mixing and Jennifer and Abe, you know, somebody's trying to light out the back and just help Varun with whatever he needs. All right, let's go. I'm going to grab one of the flashlights. I think there's some on left, right? Yes. Totally. I'm mixing as I walk. And where's Shadow near me? I'm guessing. Yeah, I was going to say for the scared of bright lights, like aspect that shadow has, I feel like as, you know, the lights get closer together and as we're kind of walking out and fanning out, shadow was hanging close to Abe. But as soon as you grab that flashlight, shadow kind of carries away and like stay still. And it's like, what are you doing with that? Well, whoa. And I think Varun gets his backpack out and pulls out his letterman. And he just kind of puts it over to shadow for a second. Yeah. Are you like covering the face kind of a little bit? That's better. Thank you. Yeah, it's yours. Actually, actually lashes out when touched. Yeah, that's what they're saying. Oh, you're right. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, you're right. But I think with the combination, what that's going to be is shadow, you touch it and shadow goes. And grabs your letterman jacket and ganks it away and then covers its own face. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, I don't really need it. I don't think you deal with the chemicals. I'll deal with myself. Okay. Yeah. That's also fans and difference towards the group. What's the marching order here? So it's, it's Ziggy, Mandy, Varun, then in the back, Abe and Jennifer. I'm in the, yeah, kind of like side to side. I think we're, yeah, we're going like this. We're in penis formation. So true. Oh, two at the bottom. Yeah. There's two at the front too. Is it there? No, I think I'm, I'm trying to be at the front. I don't know if Mandy has a flashlight. Oh, oh shit, then we should probably have two in the front, one in the back. Wait, who has the other flesh? Ziggy has the flashlight at the front? Ziggy has the flashlight at the front. I think Ziggy, you were saying that you wanted to keep the kids behind you. Yes, I most certainly would be the sacrifice or whatever if needed. I am curious, would it be reasonable to assume that I have hairspray on me? Really? It's the eighties. Then why don't you hold the flashlight, Mandy? And I have my, and I got my hairspray. If we need it. This is exact. Yes, please. I was, that was what I totally forgot about hairspray. That was, was my like thinking. Everyone roll, roll a flight. Check. I guess I will go for. Is it a speedy check? It's a flight. It's going to be eight. I got a seven. I'm going to use an adversity to make it an eight. I got a seven. I need to explode to even get anything. Do you have any adversity tokens? I do. I also fail. You can use one to make it an eight. So anyone who, anyone who failed is toward the, is just falling further toward the back. It doesn't mean necessarily take an average city token if you failed. But that means you're all going to tendrils are going to attempt to grab you. So you're going to have to make another check if you're in the back. Can I make a fight check in the back for that? Yeah. And or a grit to maintain the light. Yeah, you can do that either one. And what am I trying to be? Five. Well, I failed as well. So I guess you could, you could do not want to use an adversity. No, is this for being grabs? So the flight, the flight check was to decide if we have to do a fight check. Yeah. Anyone who failed the flight. Oh my God. Here's what happens because shadow also failed. You guys fall behind a little bit and the shadow, not shadow the character, but the tendrils begin to catch up and say you're fighting them off a decent amount. What did you roll for the fight? I rolled a seven and I think I had to beat a five. You're fighting them off behind you, but you don't see them begin to go in front of you. You don't see them surround you and go to the very front of you as they cut you off and Mandy keeps going without having seen Mandy. There is a wall of darkness. You can't see anybody. And it's so deep that the flashlight does not get through it. You are alone. You don't know where they are. What would you do? Oh, fuck. So I'm standing here and I call back and I'm like, so the lights just go out, right? Like suddenly it's dark. It's really dark. Like the entire hallway. It's like like just that hallway is gone. You can't see anything. It's just a wall of darkness. I'm like still facing forward and I like turn around. I'm like Cindy. Everybody, you begin to, you fight off the flashlight, Jennifer. You're using it on all the characters or all the tendrils around you. The wall begins to move toward you, Mandy, and it begins to fold out and starts to surround you. I'm going to, I like start to panic and I'm going to run up the stairs. Let me, your fear. Remind me what your fear is. My fear is being abandoned and I feel like I've been abandoned. Oh, no. A quick section on fear. When you face, when faced with your fear, you must make snap decisions. You cannot spend adversity tokens to help your friends. Depending on the severity of the fear, you have to make all checks with a minus three penalty. You are completely alone as it surrounds you. Make a flight check, difficulty, 50. Oh, God. What's your diet for flight? My diet is 10. Oh, no. So I rolled. Can't even help. Oh, my God. I've got, I've rolled a four. That's a one because it's a minus three, right? Is it a minus three? Yes, that's a one. Oh, my God. What the fuck? Is it possible? Do I notice that this has happened at this point? Like, could I help? There is that wall also on your side. I believe you can't help someone who's facing their fear. Oh. I would like to try the hairspray fire at some point. Yeah. I don't think we have, yeah, I don't think we're able to do that right now if we can't help. Take an adversity token. Oh, God. Is this a combat role? I guess. I add three to the negative number. That's a lot better for a combat role. That's a lot better for a combat role. Because if it was a combat role and you're like, well, okay, I wouldn't be negative 15 or lower. It's still negative. Well, is it that much better? I think it's about the same, but it's a little bit better. You are gone. You are lost. You're completely, you just, you are walking and trying to find where you're going. And you just can't see anything. And you have completely lost your sense of direction and there's darkness all around you. You could be anywhere in the school. Okay. I, I'm like looking around and I, I start calling out like everybody's name. Uh, Ziggy? Uh, Varun? Uh, Jennifer? Hey? Ziggy, roll a fight for your hairspray thing? What am I beating before I tell you what it is? A five. If I match it? Uh, that counts. Meets and beats it. Meets and beats it. A little scissors. It pushes through the wall and it disperses away from it and there is nothing. You can see the hallway, but Mandy is not there. Oh my God. Are you, can you ask your friend if they might know where Mandy went? Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'll be really that out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, Shadow, what, do you know where Mandy is? Sounds. Do I see Shadow? Shadow is there. Okay. Just staring forward. Do you know where we could find her upstairs at the pool? I think I ran up. I think I rushed up. You all ran forward. Uh, so yeah. I don't know about everybody else. I think I rushed up. Oh, whoever. I follow my girlfriend, I guess. Follow my step cousin. I'll follow the closest thing I have to a daughter. I don't know. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]