A few final purchases and then the group leaves the city of Serenity behind them – but they’ve brought a bigger problem along with them and the time to deal with it is quickly approaching
Knights of the Night
KotN Actual Play Podcast - 151 Numenera - One Small Problem
[Music] Hello, and welcome to Night to the Night actual play podcast. This new Monera Adventure Sandscape was written and run by your GM Scott. And now please enjoy episode 151, titled "One Small Problem". Actual play begins 20 minutes, 43 seconds. [Music] Before we start our next new Monera podcast, we'll do some feedback here. We had one post from kotampodcast.com. It was from Logan who said so far, "New Monera Rocks". Can't wait to see more of this amazing world. It seems like a feast for the GM. He's really been killing it with his descriptions and it gives the game a fascinating edge. You never know what you'll see next. Keep up the great work, Logan, fan of new Monera. And for Scott, I'll say thank you, Scott's not here tonight yet. Scott's not here, man. Scott's not here. We're at Scott's house, but he's not here. So for Scott, I'll say thank you, Logan. I'm glad you appreciate his yaming skills. We also had some feedback on Facebook. But first I'd like to mention the video that Jason McDonald posted. That was great. I really enjoyed that. He posted both of them. He made them play both of them, yes. I'm glad you enjoyed it because you were kind of key in that particular video. So long ago, it was different from any other content. Any random podcasts usually has somebody abusing me in some way or shape or form. Did I say abusing? Did I say the target of everyone's joke and score? No, I said you were key in that. He knows what you meant. Yeah. Anyways, we made a post about it and a lot of the fans are taking a look at it, which they should because it's a really good video. So thanks for that. Also, it was very clever. I'm interested in, like, is there some type of engine there? Yes, he's definitely using a specific tool to make those videos. And he's told me, and I forgot. John would remember it. I think it's source filmmaker, but I might be remembering. And he didn't code the lip syncing. No, I have to ask him how the specifics that he goes to. I don't think he necessarily has to code the lip syncing, but I do think... He already, he did say that it's a pain in the butt to get it, line up the audio, line up with the video clips that he has. So I'm pretty sure he's just fine with it and trying to get it in the right spot. As someone who has been... You deal in stuff similar to that. Professionally, I think that he did a real nice job. I think that he captured Greg's snarkiness. snarkiness and expression very well. I like that closing credits that he threw in there. Oh, yeah, he did. Yeah, that was a promo. I swear some of that stuff wasn't actually... I have to dance, Daniel. I also think that he should win a prize for actually finding an episode of "Head Greg" in it. You know what I mean? That's a needle in the haystack. I heard that without reading it. That doesn't sound like I picked somebody out of the group and I looked back at Greg. It took me a minute to figure out who that was too. Actually, I thought it was you, Jim. I thought it was me. When I heard it. That's what I thought it was Jim. Jim thought it was Jim. It doesn't laugh like that. It also has a neat perspective with Scott not being here. I wish he was here, but I was... Scott, as a camera? Well, I liked that part, but... Oh, that was good. You have a great moment where Scott is, on one hand, defending me, and on the other hand, jumping on the bandwagon and giving me just as much grief so he's getting it both ways. Anyway, I really enjoyed it. It made me want to see more and it made me want to see the whole dance with the whole song, but no, no. I did. But that's my advantage, you thought. No, absolutely not. It reminded me of the Mystery Science Theater with the Canva. Yeah, it was good. I've been watching a lot of that for at least since. That's where that's coming from. It was good. Yeah, we had feedback on episode 150. Luke Green said... Yeah, Luke Green. Just as a note, I know how onerous updating a website can be, but I'd really like to see sheets and stats for the Dresden Dungeon World Anoumenera characters on your KOTN site, eventually. I'd like to see sheets and stats for the Dresden Dungeon World Anoumenera characters on the site, eventually. Now, I don't know if he's referring to the Facebook site or the KOTN site, but since it was posted on Facebook, I'm assuming you meant Facebook. Yeah, I really do need to update all that shit. What's the KOTN site? KOTNPodcast.com, it's our blog site. It's all the blog. It lives on Facebook/KOTN. I mean, we're representing a number of places, as you all know. But I think he was referring to the... We post our own stuff to Facebook and maybe that... I think you're practically the only one that has a Facebook account and not an admin on that site. But I could still post a picture. And I can move it into, or I can make an admin, which is easy enough. So that's a good idea. Luke, we'll look at getting those up. First, we'd have to find them. Would you have the Numenera character sheets? Dresden sheets should be up there. I know they're on our KOTN site. I think I remember seeing Dresden. They'd be buried in there somewhere. So I'll bring up the Dresden and put a link for... Maybe when we start up Dresden again, we'll just... We're gonna have to read to them, so we'll definitely have to read. Have you ever heard of a Prezi presentation? No. Okay. It's not worth talking about. It's just a random question. Well, there's a concept that it takes basically an image, a layered image, and you can zoom in on it really deep and out and do different things. I guess I have seen something like that. Yeah, this is one of the commercials or... Well, the universe. History of the universe are size of things in the universe. Yes. We can scroll all the way down to strings. Yeah. And you can go all the way back to the size of the universe. But this kind of does it in a control, but you know, neat presenting way. And so I was entertaining the idea of creating this that the fans could also explore and the clues and things of our games would be in there. That sounds cool. And it'd be kind of interactive. The problem with it is... I approve this. I do approve it, and I think it'd be fun. It'd help me also, it's almost like a training thing where it's like, okay, I get to play with something... That you're going to use it for working with yourself. Right. But the point is that I need a whole bunch of time images and content and Star Trek and line calls. Really? Do you have to give up the animals? You get addicted to them too. Really? Much. A lot of that's my son, not me. Unless, of course, I have a really big bad that I'm trying to fight or battle. And then inevitably you'll... I am you. I kill you to the desktop right now. No! You killed me twice so far. Sorry. Sorry. You have to have a half human contact and a measuring princess. Do you say you're not a castle anyways? You're not playing. But back to the feedback, Taylor McClure also posted under 150 and said, "Ah, I like shopping episodes." As they say, amateur study tactics, professional study logistics. And we shouted people for not giving us more food. That's all we did. No, we did. You didn't even listen to the episode. How can you say that? As he was like, threw the fuck out of it. That's what I remember. So is he complimenting us? Right. He's saying he likes it. Well, we were talking logistic. I mean, it could be... I think you're noticing, I guess. Yes, but I don't think so. I read it and in context it sounds like he ducked himself and enjoyed it. Joshua Grasco also posted saying that escalated quickly, so much for a recon mission. But that's true of every adventure ever that we write. It's never as simple as it seems. I don't even know why we brought it right in. Well, I'm sure Scott intended for the mission to be more than just a recon mission. So he added in the daughter and then he added in other things. He's talking about... It was about the episode in which we interacted with the pseudo-grag. It doesn't really exist, and we found out about the daughter being involved. That's true. I wasn't sure if we were... Right. I wasn't sure if we were not going to be spoilers. I haven't gotten to the desert yet. Not quite. So it hasn't even gone marvelously wrong, man. What are you talking about Grasco? We have no idea how badly this can go, and we'll go. Let me tell you, badly, talk about spoilers. Lou Green posted again and said he's about 30 minutes in, and he loves the misty environments. It very much seems to call up the conjuration out of imagination feelings that I've seen from the Arabian Nights, the Nutcracker sequence, and the Sultan's palace. He mentions that transhumanism seems to be any development that fundamentally changes what it means to be a human. His own stories lend more to a genetic biotech transhumanism. So you left my definition in there? Well, we talked about it. Yeah. Isn't our book pretty much like this? It doesn't hyperion the book, hyperion deal with transhumanism. What's the one word that I remember? Half a humanity goes off into the stars, and so they end up adapting to life. It's been way too long since I read that, but I think so. Okay. It's a good book. Yeah, see, I don't remember that being the fundamental. Or do you ever read the David Brenner's? I did like Hyperion. The uplift war? No. Or Sertide Rising, it's all about transhumanism a little bit. Okay. For Baldly's speeches. That's good. Our reposted in which he was mentioning the feedback from that episode and said, "Ah, Twilight 2000 mentioned. It's got all warm and mushy within nostalgia. I used to play that game for years, and I have to disagree though that on a role-playing version versus combat simulation, although it just might be the party's choice of style. I still look back at T2K as my base for GMing, and the way the official adventures were built, it's still kind of how I built my scenarios today. You have an era, you have people, these people have agendas, enter the PCs, stir conflicts. However, that sounds similar. Town people agenda. Yeah, the party didn't build the city and give it faces, but you get the picture. Also, Dogs in the Vineyard might be hackable into a Twilight 2000. Or, naturally, Apocalypse World. I think part of our problem, that being myself and my daughter and son when we went to the convention, is it was a con game. It's a game that you play at a convention, and what they typically do in those is make it about battle, because battle is something that you can count on people. Well, it's actually right. It's action, yeah. If you've got people coming in from a con, you don't know if you're getting good role players or not, so you can't really build. But the fact of the matter is Twilight 2000 is an old-school game. I mean, it's from back in the 80s, and they just, the newer games are much more story-toler focused. I think he thinks of Twilight the way I think of GURPS. You know, you always have this warm place in your heart of something that is your first. Sure. And I'm not denying that Twilight 2000 can't be used to play a role-playing game, and that's what it was built around. But the main focus of the game is how look at these cool weapons and how I can shoot them and what they do for damage. I would guess that at least 70% of their old book, and I haven't seen it in ages, so I really don't know, is around that particular theme about equipment, because... But even that, if we took that game and played it, we'd probably find a way to role play it. And make it a mystery, and stand for an hour and a half in front of a door, you know, discussing whether we should open it out. Well, so, yeah, I mean... That's just learned helplessness. That's just a reaction to... I mean, I really believe that I think sooner or later, we should have a very special episode where we talk about... That the listeners can't see the surprise on my face. I'm wondering where the hell this is going. No, but some of the reasons why we play the way we play, and people have started listening to us and noting certain things, comes from trauma experience through characters from years ago, and some very funny now that we can look back at it, but also very frustrating and very annoying gameplay events. Like, why we spend so much time around a door is because we've been... We've forged into the door, guys. Yeah, we've been... We've been to my heart. Or, you know, one of my favorite stories, which is the night we spend guarding the open door. And none of us noticed it was open until the jail. The GM insisted that it must be open because you never said you closed it. Because we never said we closed it, we never said we locked it. And we stood guard on it for 10 hours and prepared for an ambush. And for the curious, that was scotchy. I think they know that. I think there's a lot of funny stories that might be... I'm not saying like a full episode, but like a 30-minute reminisce because... Maybe when the GM doesn't show up one night, like Scott might not tonight. Yeah. I'm just saying there's a lot of funny little war stories that are little anecdotes we have for a 150th first episode. Or 200th episode, we rounded it. Dad, people would like to hear some of the more funny, crazy war stories. In fact, maybe we should have some of them share their war stories about crazy things of how... If GM's would screw the players or the players would do stuff that was just unanticipated. Imagine trying to podcast when we were trying to figure out the puzzle that Scott laid for us with the tree. Yeah, we weren't recording at that time, but... Yeah, we were. It was right before we started recording. We actually did podcast one more. He used a maze that we had to find our way through. Yeah. And I edited the hell out of that one. But we had three... Because it was 20 minutes of silence as you've heard a pencil go through a piece of paper and a maze. You would have had the equivalent of six hours of tape of listening to us try to figure out a puzzle and flounder around. We'd be horrible on that one. We'd spend three weeks on that trying to figure that thing out. It was a picture that a kid drew, one that lived semi in this reality in a dream state. And we had to interpret what the picture was, and it was an abject failure in our part to it. Yeah, and we were... And Scott just wouldn't... Well, just fine. I mean, he wanted us to kind of feel that frustration and that pressure and that powerlessness. And... It's a puzzle. But at the same time, to his credit, he didn't give us hints and he didn't let us... Ryan eventually stumbled upon the answer. Right. Some of the pieces were there. We just did. We're putting them together. But it honestly took three weeks. It wasn't the only thing we did for three weeks. But, I mean, we got the picture and then spent three weeks misinterpreting it and ignoring it and trying occasionally to figure it out. And back to feedback. Just a general thought was sent to me by Richard Watts in which he pointed out that I apparently overlooked a few bits of feedback from a few weeks ago when I was in a drug-induced taste because of being in the hospital. And I'd like to apologize for any of our listeners who I skipped their feedback. It was not intentional. Hospitalization is hardly an excuse for shot editing in that word. Feedbacking. You should have plenty of time in your hospital bed, Jake. Do all the other things you do. Yes. Health care system in America gives you all the time and freedom in the world to do stuff, right? Absolutely. So if anything was overlooked, humble apologies, it was not intentional. We do tend to read all the feedback we get. So again, sorry about that. On Twitter, we had one tweet from Dan Scales. He was referring to someone else and said, "Hey, NPC Karan, you mentioned your latest set." In your last episode that you're interested in how Numenair plays, I suggest you check out the KOTN podcast. And that there were several episodes in the campaign, but he hasn't heard any... He posted that he was several episodes into a campaign and he hadn't heard any of the Numenair episodes yet, but that our stuff was always great. So, I want to thank him for the conference. Thanks, Bob. I responded to both of them by sending a link that shows all of the Numenair episodes listed. So I don't know. I believe Dan is going through systematically listening to some other episodes, but he noticed that we were doing Numenair. So he was suggesting I just showed them where they could find it. We also got contact through Google+ from Jeff Kay, who is actually a local player who was interested in figuring out how Numenair played and was kind of asking if he could join us sometime to play. Jeff, I had to tell, unfortunately, that we are nearly done with Numenair and that we have some episodes in the can, but as far as actual weeks left to play, we have very few. And there's the fact, too, that we have seven players in a GM, which is eight. So, we're not at this time looking to add anyone, but Jeff seemed like a really nice guy. And I told him we'd put him on the list in case players start dropping off and we actually are looking for people to come join us. That we would love to have him out and sit down. We come and sit and watch. A life studio audience. There's nothing too awkward about that. So, Jeff's at the top of the list of how local is local. Only like 30 minutes away. I was about to say that 30 minutes is one way to drive for this, and then I'm like, "Hey, I'm waiting a second up." At least 30 minutes, right? Last few couple of things, we need six more people that we need likes on Facebook to hit 200. And Facebook keeps telling me if I only spend $30, I could promise me I'll hit 200 likes quickly. I think we could do that on our own. Thank you very much. Does that mean Facebook does? Yeah, they try to advertise it on the sidebar at different times. Seriously, it's not that important to me now. It's like 30 bucks or something. No. Two days. It's 11 and a half and a half and a half and a half. We're fine. We don't need to pay Facebook. But we haven't had any iTunes reviews for over a month. I expect one a month. I mean, come on, people. I'll get out of it. There you go. We'll have one from Mike. 30 bucks. For a minute, $30. Other than that, that's it. KOTMpodcast.com, right hand side, Amazon. You use that link, send us some money. What was that? Black Friday's coming up. KOTMpodcast.com? What's with the Twitter address? Oh, AdSign. We're AdSign KOTN. I'm just going to score a podcast. Thanks. Seriously, nobody uses Twitter. I don't know. You just read one. I did. I read that right. And I also had a question on Facebook about what episode that was. In case you wanted to go back and listen to the one the video was made of. Oh, yeah. You did it for the dancing party. Yeah, that was from feedback that he spliced in there. I think way before. I have to do research myself. I will ask, in particular, Jason. It would probably have a really good idea of what episode he pulled. He had answered. I went looking for it, too. And I'm like, "It's got Greg, so it has to be one of..." Well, first, it's ship luck, obviously, because he wasn't in chagrin. So it has to be in the ship luck episode. Plus, the song quality is a little grainier than we currently have. Other than that, it had to have been near the end when we were planning the assault. Oh, you're right. It could be. Yep. Because we were talking about cutting through the fence. So, with a little bit of research, it could probably be fun. The problem was that we were thinking of the ones you buy at Walmart. Right. Mike is talking about one that he actually received from a friend of his. I was very happy. That was just corn. Military grade. Seriously, military grade, which probably would cut through the fence rather nicely. I really liked how he captured that moment, too, with the little better military grade. Military grade, as you say. Really? He really caught a... Yeah, he's got some mean editing skills. Yeah, I like that. Alright, with that, we'll wrap it up, and we'll actually get on to the episode. This is the New Manura Story Sandswept, Chapter Two, on your Storyteller Scott. And with us tonight on my right is... Jim, playing Eshman, who is a mystical nano, who works miracles, and will someday be a god. I'm Tom, playing Tila. I'm an intelligent jack who hauls at the moon. I'm Mike, playing Bos, a tough glade, who fuses flesh and steel. I'm Michael, playing Nina, a stealthy nano, who exists partially out of faith. I'm Thomas, playing Felix, a strong-willed jack who hunts with great skill. I'm John, playing Sig, a mutant nano who talks to machines. Alright, last week we left off with the group, having went to the Rift, which was a bar in a caravancery, on the edge of, or in one of the more robust quarters of the below. And you did some negotiating and found out the name of a traitor who owns a menagerie, and where you might be able to pick up a southern anene, which is used as a pack animal in the southern climates, which is actually cold, and also what you're looking for, some sort of cart, or something to carry behind it, as you head south into the cold desert for your mission that's been given to you by the Sultanate, the... -Viseer. -Viseer, and it was to locate a lost caravan. -We required information from Ichabod, the... -Yes, there was a shady character by the name of Ichabod, who made contact with Nina, and then eventually the entire group decided to add Ichabod as a seventh member to the group for a 30-shin investment, and for Ichabod's information regarding the caravan. What Ichabod shared with you was that the caravan normally travels two days to the south, disappears for a very short period of time, literally, then reappears, heading in the opposite direction, laden with all kinds of technology. -You say two days south? -Two days to the south. Now, that's actually kind of dangerous, because most of the trade, your city of serenity is located on the southern-most border of the cold desert, like any more south, and you're heading into the desert proper itself, where the villages are sporadic, and few and far between, where there are dangerous creatures that inhabit it. So, generally, caravans do not go south, but this caravan does, and reappears in short order and returns back to the city within two days. That caravan has gone missing, you don't know if it's disappeared before it reached its destination, or after it has reached its destination, or just never reappeared at all. You also know that the vizier's daughter was with the caravan in some capacity. -Did you have a name? Was it mentioned? -I thought you said the caravan came back, it didn't? -No. It did not. It does come back normally, but it did not. Indra, I-N-D-R-A. I believe, at this point, you were still roughly ten hours before the full moon was to strike, and I mean, literally, strike in the sense that it would be undergo a change, and you still do not have any type of transportation. You have not arranged for your anine or your cart wagon, any kind of transportation whatsoever. You've just wrapped up your conversation with Ichabod, and also with Fen Epsilon, who was a caravan master, and someone who was taught by your father, and some of the finer arts of being a caravan master. So, I had fine recollections and gave you some information about an individual who ran a menagerie, which, if I'm not mistaken, was... -Ryan Calliston. -There it is, Ryan Calliston. So, assuming that you're going to make your way to the menagerie, that is actually located in the same part of town. It caters mostly to the caravan companies coming in who might have sick animals that need to be looked at, or may need to be, you know, put down in a new creature's purchase. It's reminiscent of a large open area within the city. There's some sparse grass growing. There's obviously some means of keeping the creature's pen in an area, mostly anines and other types of domestic pack animals that can work in these southern climbs. -Snow lovers for the other ones. -Yes, but they're more like the horses than pack animals. Right, really tall, spindly horses, actually. So, there's a grazing area. There's a large area where they sell grains and certain things that you would feed these animals with in a long, flat building, low to the ground, where you are able to find the aforementioned Ryan and several of his assistants at a hectic pace. They're haggling prices, anines. They're loading up carts for caravans to take back to the caravansery. Basically, fueling them up with food so that they can make their return trip to wherever they're going. People are buying rains and saddles, and there's wagons being repaired. It's quite a bustling hub of activity, again, in this corner of the below, which is very close to the platforms that lean down from the desert above. That's where you find yourself at this moment. -Okay. I try to find a watch for a few minutes when he's less busy. Is there such a time? -It seems as if not. It seems as if left to his own devices he will be taking care of people for the entire afternoon. These caravan masters or their lackeys are coming up and trading and grabbing his attention and people are shouting, and it's quite a chaotic scene. -Okay. Then I just wait for him to finish with one in particular, and then I barge in. -All right. -And I form him of our plight. We are looking to purchase anine. -Correct. A southern anine to be specific. -And a wagon. -Or would it be a sled on here? -Yeah. I mean. -All right. Whatever. -We were heading south and it did snowy, and so I don't know what the terrain calls for. -Right. You mentioned wagons heading south. -You would think that with two days travel you're not... -And we're approaching the... -The snow, yeah. -You might get snowstorms, but there are more like florries going sideways in this realm as opposed to heavy snowfalls. You would find maybe two weeks to the south, much more... -So it's still very dry here, but... -Right. It's dry. You will get some flurry activity at this time of the year. You get a lot of wind storms, and of course where you're at right now, it's actually wet because you're standing below three mirages. -Right. We're in the border of the Stofas. -You're actually right here on the map. -We're in the cold desert. -You're in the cold desert, and more of the south is going to be a very vacant area of the cold desert. You're right here, just south of Neelish. -So we're looking for a deal. What has he got? -Right. Do you... anyone have persuasion? -I have intimidation. -No. -I'm a scary little man. -But? -Sure. Not very menacing. Carry a giant crossbow. -Alright. So do you have persuasion, by any chance? -No. I just have people's skills, and I know people, but that doesn't necessarily mean I can persuade them. -So go ahead and make a role then, as you try to negotiate with Ryan to get a good price for your amine and... -Did you use your flex skill today? -I have not. -Mm, neither have I. -As my flex skill, I could use that as persuasion. -So as a jack, I have one skill, and each day I can decree what it is. -People was going to give you a not a minus step. He's a very good negotiator, so normally you would lose steps, and if you go up, you get plus steps when you're negotiating with him. -Mm. -Persuasion would give you a minus one step. People would keep you even. Neither of those two would raise it up and make it more difficult to get a good price. -I'd also throw an epsilon's name, just as a possibility that it might lower the target as well. -Yes, that actually lowers the target one more level that you're able to defend. -So I just told us that he was obviously the most trustworthy of gentlemen that I should deal with you. -I've caught... -Can I bat my eyes and look all innocent instead of which I am? -I've caught snow lovers for this guy before. I bring him in so he can sell him. -I've done jobs for him. Come on. I helped you out. -Okay. -Totally. -Do you have any skill that can help or I believe we can assist in this game? I've read about that. You can't provide help. -No? -Got done with that? -Just intimidation is pretty much my only social skill. -Maybe he's got an animal that he's trying to nurse back to help and I could heal. -Well, let's just throw you a price for later. -Yeah, what's the first price you can give us? -I'm going to roll. -Go for it. -Go for it. -Yeah, four. Four would be the number. -He tells you that a fan is a good friend, a good customer. Not one of his best customers because obviously we deal with larger caravans here. The small ones is often so I can give you a fine southern and neat. Robost healthy will not quit on you. Certainly not in two days travel, not in two months travel. -Let's work the wagon into this as well. -Of course. I was going to give you a package deal because package deals are usually the most cost effective for you, but also the biggest profit for me as well, so it kind of works out good for both of us. So, I'm saying that we're going to be able to put everything together for you for 110 shins. We can go ahead and get you a very good, young, healthy, anneen and a cart. -How long should we have? -A hundred. -Well, actually... -Plus, thirty? -Yeah. -Very character, 330. -Yes, you do. -So, we do have enough. -Bye, we've got a haggle, though. -Or traders. -Oh, yes, it's in one. -I have my 30 on me and I'm not here. -You dick. What is wrong with you? -Where the hell is that? -That's why you didn't wander off. We have a hundred, but I don't tell them that. -Right. -I am attempting to haggle him downward and tell him that while that's a wonderful price, I think that if we work a bit of a discount, because we're a little strapped right now, and we have other things to purchase, but I can guarantee that when we come back, that if you wish, we'll sell this back to you at a great discount, because we're not thinking of becoming traders, but we're willing to trade them into you so that you can resell them, and you get basically the price twice for them. -That cash business I take. -I would say that most of you have Shins' business... -For the most part, and why is it stored? -I'm not sure you would know, but... -I'm wandering around the place looking at everything and then... -Watching, trying to see where that happened. -Sure. What's your basic skill of observation or thievery? -Your death's casing. -Stealthing or matters of stealth? -Well, you're working on that. Does he have guards around him, or does he have muscles? -Oh, yeah. He has hired help. They're not town guards, but they're hired help, so you definitely see it. And a lot of the guys that are working for him look quite... I mean, they're all carrying a short sword on their side. They're burly guys who spend their days loading caravans up with feed... who are rustling or wrangling, if you will, huge anneans. And you also have a couple of guards, like, by the front door. And then there is, when you're casing is just a basic thing. I'm not going to give it a roll for it. You can't fail to notice how the operations run unless they're trying to deceive someone. And they don't seem like they're trying to deceive someone. They just seem like they have decent precautions. There's a large desk in the inside building that has probably three people working behind it. A girl and two men. And there seems to be some sort of people are putting shins on the table and they're being put. And then they're being... it's, like, under the counter or spilling along those lines. Either side of the counter, there's a guard. There's one guard on either side of the counter, and there's three people working behind it. And the money's flowing over the counter and then into someplace where you can't see behind the counter. So, who knows where that might be? Yes, John. As a thief, you probably have hit places like this before. The boss. Hey, bro. I'm not here talking to your boss. I'm not here talking to your boss. You know you're as good that the boss might have a safe or something. He stuffs the money in his office at night. Just look for the most well-dressed person with the biggest pouch. I'm not going to try anything at this point. That's what I was doing on the way back. Okay, so you made your second attempt. Not yet, but... Well, you were going to make a second attempt to haggle him down further. And penalty for that is you lose one step. So, you were minus two steps before because you used Fen's name and you have people skills. Well, Fen is worn off all you're left with now is your people skills. I did promise him, you know... Actually, no, I'm sorry. You were only minus one, weren't you? No, I had a skill of... People gave you not a minus step because it was going to be... Minus one for... I wasn't using people, I was using persuasion. Persuasion, which I use as my Jack Flex trade. Right, I apologize. Are you able to use it again? Yes. Okay, then you still have your minus one step. You lose the Fen additional step because he's out of the equation now. No, that's kind of minus two, but okay. So now it's... I'd say you lose a step. You've gone from minus two steps to minus one step. You've lost some ground in the negotiations because you lost the first round, if you will, of the haggling. I see. So I'm going to use two intellect points and I have an edge, which is a total of three, to use my effort. Okay, so that reduces it another step if I'm not mistaken. Yes, it does. So that's it. We're back to the original... Right. ...of an attempt again, and hopefully now I will roll something a little higher than a four. An eleven. He tells you that he'll give it to you for 95 shins, and he'll rent to you for one week. And at the end of the week, he will give you 20 shins back, and you'll return the annean and the cart. The security department. So that's the cost to rent it. So before you told him you were going to sell it back, he thought you were buying it for 110. Now you're renting it for 90. Yeah. For 75. For a week's travel. This is how we're going to... Here's the stuff you're going to come back. It's true. It's not our money. I don't know. I expect more back. I'm not here to argue. Let's buy it. We can sell it somewhere else for a lot more. It's pretty obvious. Although haggling is in my family's blood, I am in a hurry to get out of town. So I am going to agree with this price. All right. Ninety-five. And then he calls over a burly young man to set you up with all the equipment you'll need. He'll throw in some feed as well so that the annean is taken care of and won't starve during the trip. So he'll give you a bag of grains, gives you a cart that will hold four people. The rest will have to be walking at some point. Or you can rotate. This is an open... I'm going to be there when the transaction takes place. Just check out the guards and see if there's a youngish looking one. If I can catch his eye. I'm just setting something up for the future. Right. Absolutely. Inside man. I'm sure there is a guard who would think that you would be worth a second look. Maybe it's the one who's setting up the reins and he makes some small talk with you. Ask if you're from town. If you want to be able to drink some time. He makes small talk with you while he's loading the cart up. Has anyone ever driven one of these before? That kind of thing where you guys can kind of say that you have, meaning you guys being. Right. And we previously bought food so we have to make room for food and we know how to store it in their sense. Right. You can use your stealth to set up a future action we'll say. So go ahead and make a roll to try to stealthfully set up a fog guy. If you will. For the future. Or a pawn. Or how are you? Yes. What's the adjustments? I'm going to say you're fairly good at this. It's pretty typical for your line of work to try to back your skill. I'm just going to go with stealth. I'm going to say she's stealthfully using her attractiveness and her feminine wiles to set up a future action with this one. I don't think that lies in trickery. Mechanically. I think it's okay. That works for me. Mechanically the same though because they're both just trained. Yeah. Right. So it's one or? It's not evident to you because you know how the target is proficient. Right. You're not specialized. Specialized. Correct. Correct. So it removes one step from the difficulty level and you decide whether you want to put any effort into it at all or whether you just want to. If it doesn't work, I won't walk on it. You might not know. But. Okay. I don't know. I think it worked. Nineteen. Nineteen. Go away. You're bothering me. Right. Yeah. He hangs around after the knee and set up and he has a hand. I'm going in a trip. Yeah. He has a hand on your shoulder. He's talking to you. You know, making eye contact and you sure you have to go. I mean, like we've got more people to handle this. We can look you up when I get back. Okay. What's your name? You told me three times already. His name is Devin. All right. You have your anine. You have your cart. You have your caravan. You have everyone. Eventually, John's characteristic shows up and. No money. No money. You tick. Well, you get to walk in the first two hours. Boss, you're better with these beasts than I am. Why don't you ride? I will ride the knee. Yeah. There's like a driver's seat if you will. There's actually a driver's seat for two. It's big enough to ride. It's large. Is there a huge? Okay. At first glance, the cart. You will execute the piece. Yeah. At first glance, the cart and piece look good. Yes. The creature does look quite fit. It dies as they're hitching them up. It's good. Yeah. I didn't even roll for that. I mean, we've been around these beasts for our life. And I assume that it's not. It's not. It's around the table. That's a picture of an Indian. Yeah. Now, it's hitched to a cart. So you're not riding on the back of it like it shows in the Newman era rule book. So, are you leaving the city at this point? Yeah. Unless someone's trying to hold this back. I am suggesting. I'm suggesting. Boss. I can tell. Right. I say goodbye to some friends. Right. And I wanted to set a path that puts us in the direction we want to go to the south. To kind of follow along the track of this other caravan that we've heard about. But I also want to chart a speed course to try to get us away from the habitation. Well, the first thing you do is you have to steer the annean in your cart onto the platform to have it raised. And there is a two shin. We're in the below. Yeah, you're in the below. You have been the whole time. Except for when you were in. Sorry. So, the caravancery and the menagerie were both located in the northeast sector of the below, which we'll give a name sometime if we keep playing this. But for right now, just northeast sector. And those are closest to one of the huge platforms that raise and lower to the desert floor. In this case, for you guys, that you're in the below, it raises up the desert floor. So, Bosco, you drive the annean in the cart onto this huge wooden platform with a chain and pulley system literally 40 feet above you that needs to raise up because the below is anywhere from 20 to 40 foot below the level of the desert. And again, you've got mist swirling from the three mirages. There's a cold wind blowing. It's tough to see 15 feet in front of you because of the specialized nature of the city of serenity. And there's a two shin payment to have the money to the operator. What? As we step on it, I wave my hand and the platform goes, this is the one I hooked up earlier. They've deactivated it, but it's not something beyond being. I have just an activation. I can spend one into like points and just wave in a new manera on. All right, so you... I'm not paying them. Well, I start to give the money to Nina and the platform starts to rise. You hear a sound? It's a miracle. You hear a sound. In anger, you know, coming from below. A cut wheel with slaves in the head. What's in jail again? Yeah. And there's a slave master who's running the group of slaves who's cursing you as the platform raises itself. He shouts the slaves to try to stop it, but the power of your new manera has much more strength than any slaves that are having to happen. It was made to serve us, not us to serve it. It's my way. If you're good at making friends. Then he's grown up. What time of day is it? Right now it's about lunchtime. I don't speak a language. I speak the truth. How about if we leave in half an hour? Now that we've risen out of it. I really have a tight schedule here. I understand. I need to get out of town. Yeah, and this is... And we're already out. We'll catch up. You need to what? I need to make some inquiries as to... Can you catch up? Who we're looking for? Perhaps. How fast does this thing travel? It's in the anine. Since you're going to be riding it for most of the day, it's like a horse in a sense where you're going to make a little better time. Alright, tell you what. I need to get at least an hour outside of time. And if you're not caught up with us by then, we'll stop and wait for you. Okay? Sure. Also I need to talk to you about it. You also don't want to be trot out of sorts, trust me on this. You want to be in the wagon behind me listening to this music box? Are you guys going to explain what this big secret is? Yes, it is. Great music box. It's an awesome music box. Check this out. Check this out. It's Eric Clapton. That is no bad text in this world. Alright, it's just by a musician called Slow Hands. Slow Hands. It's awesome. And what's going on, Tila? I'm just trying to get information on Dario's daughter. Where did we hear that, initially? Think about it. Does he know what she looks like? Does that jive with somebody that I might know? Does everybody know what she looks like? He's present with us, right? Ichabod is present with you. Maybe I don't have to do the half hour thing. Okay, Indra is fairly well known to the greater population who follows such things. So, for instance, Bosco and Tila would have no idea what she looks like. They have no interest. It's just not their thing. But for a rogue-ish individual who works the social scene and tries to... You seem like you're not just a... No, you don't seem like you're a pickpocket working... Socialite. You're social. The darker corners of the below, it sounds like you try to get into more high society parties. Oh, yes. And do the deeds there. So, I'm going to say that for the sake of this story, that you've actually, in one very rare occasion, you cross paths with her in a bar called the Blue Palace, which is a famous bar. I remember that night. It's actually in the below. She was slumming it that night because you didn't get up to the mirages all that often. But in the Blue Palace, you did meet her and share some stories and she was fascinated with your rogue-ish lifestyle for 15 minutes and did some designer drugs together. And you basically had fun for a bit. Your path just happened to cross. You thought, hmm, good to have met her. Could probably use that in the future sometimes. So, she has cascading brown hair. She has a pale complexion, which many do here in the Cold Desert area. A lot of people with a pale complexion and that hair in a regal site type of setting might come across as cold or distant. She was actually very warm. She had her father's eyes. She came across as a very fun, interesting, dynamic person to meet for an evening or part of an evening and very memorable as well because of those eyes. So, you doubt that you would ever need to question whether or not you met Indra again. The image kind of stuck with you. And again, she's in some of the tabloids because obviously there are printing presses in news print, some sort or others, paneled up, notices and whatnot. Tacked up. Tacked up. I was going for it. She didn't have that harsh or severe cold look that pale skin and a fancy do on her hair in a regal dress might sometimes come across as someone who was haughty or cold. She was very earthy and very much interested in everyone she met. She wanted to hear everyone's story. To you, she was a lover of life and someone who absolutely was in the moment. And probably a little too much in the moment because you put her down as what would be an easy mark if you would spend an evening with her, slicing her purse and getting some untold riches would not have been the most difficult of operations. Have you been hanging out with her for an entire evening? She did have a bodyguard in that. But she never used him properly in the sense of she was always wandering off. Trying to ditch him. Yeah. Had arms around people, sometimes two people at once and people were doing shots off of her belly. She was a very dynamic young light. Soltana Indra. Is there anybody else here that might be her name? She's the heiress. Likes hot women. Likes hot women. I'm going with potentially these two might have seen notices with her. Our audiences. Yeah. These two are. Oh yes. I pointed to Thomas. Felix, excuse me. And to Eshman who both appreciate the finer qualities of beauty. And they would probably know her maybe not as well as you would. Someone might be able to bluff because those eyes don't come across in newsprint or in any kind of holographic hazy image that might be produced somewhere. All right. So all of you are together, including Ichabod, who is on the actual cart. There's a driver who is Bosco. There's a seat next to the driver, which is unoccupied. And then there's three seats in the back of the cart itself that can be used. I will ride next to Bosco. Who is this? Who is that? He's someone we met who has bought a share in the adventure. Oh, you did. You weren't there? Share. A share. You bought in? He had inside information. You see, most of us pulled our money together so we could do this. Most of us. Okay. So I sit next to my brother as we travel along and I'm talking to him. I don't want to go off in Kaelstander. I don't want you to, but I'd like you to come up with a plan to stop me from transforming. You still don't know this, right? No, we're just kind of whispering. But we'll bring it up when it's coming close. One of the seats there. Sure. Keep flancing. I'm watching. Okay. How many hours do we have for you, Transforming? Did I fall? Probably six. By the time you're lifted up and outside of the city proper, because when you get to the top, there's still a small, little city above the below that caters to people who aren't going all the way into the city itself. So there's some various, yeah, sure, the rim. And there's some geeks you have to go through. Of course, there's caravans lined up to leave. And then there's people checking the caravans. And you have a note from the vizier who that grants you free passage, not having to pay the appropriate taxes that the caravans would normally have to pay leaving the town. So by the time, we'll say 130, rolls around, you are heading south into the desert. Okay. Into the deeper reaches of the cold desert. The transformation takes place. Midnight. Meals be thematically correct as far as that goes. Do we have enough experience, you and me, with your transformations that I don't even have any ideas of, no, you think that this is going to work, that you can keep me under control? I was only thinking I could keep you at bay, not really in control. I wanted to get you out in the wild where there is nobody. Right. I mean, we could try to tie you up and restrain you, but I'm afraid you're just going to shred it. I was debating about using my sleep inducer on you to make your sleep, but it's quite necessary. We know that you can force me to change back. It takes you a while to do it. You did it once before. Right. You trust you can do it again. So if you can restrain me in some way, when I change, change me back immediately. It should be okay. Let's see, I got to protect the caravan. They're the wagon and the anneem from your predations, right? Yeah. Tell the rest of the groups. Excuse me, I'm going to go out in the woods with my sister and tie her up. We're going to go to the bathroom. So that's how they... We have probably charged for this stuff. You have to go to the bathroom. I just want you to think about it, you know. We've got a few hours here. Both of you. If we're going to do that, then we're going to need to tell the people... Yeah. ...with, because I don't want to random... We have a great hunter here who maybe needs the back of it. Yeah, so we're going to go that he can't find us out. Right. Maybe he wants a rage bear for his wall. Too much bear. As long as it succeeds at first night, they're going to see that they don't need to kill me to keep me under control. I'm fine with that. Okay. So you've got to come up with a good plan. Okay. So about a half hour outside of... We'll probably want you, Thomas, to be in the semi-scout in front of Cuban and I. What's going on? That's why I'm walking. Okay. So about a half hour outside of serenity, the sand dunes start to grow in size. Not huge. Just five, ten feet on either side. Sand-blowing sideways. It's a relatively windy day. But... We are seasoned travelers. Yeah. So we are definitely looking for any sandstorms that are like this. Right. This is just... You know I get the danger of... Yeah. This is typical traveling weather. The wind's blowing about 20 miles an hour. Luckily, you've escaped the mist of the three mirages. So you actually can see, even with the sand blowing, you can see a lot farther. Your visibility isn't great, like a clear day, but it's much better than 20 feet you had in front of you when you're walking around the city proper with all that mist hanging in here. How am I saying my character has really never been outside of the below? Yeah. Okay. So he's really freaked out. Right. Goggles that are shaded to keep the giant sun that reflects off the snow out of my eyes. Right. It also keeps the sand out because I travel a lot. All right. So you have something that goggles kind of like you're wearing? All season travelers. I snap mine into place. Right. So you make your way on this winding path deeper south into the cold deserts. As you were leaving Serenity, when you left the main gate that you left by, all caravans were heading north, east, and west. Yours was the only caravan that was heading into the south. So you are alone on this pathway. This is good. It's a desert. Right now in the sense where there's sand, but it's not huge. Like a lot of the sand dunes actually have some low dry grass that's growing on them. It's not a complete, going back to our role, like a Sahara type sand dunes all around you surrounded by nothing but sand. There is sand, but it's not in a great amount. There's no snow on the ground right now. It's just cold. It's just bitterly cold. Probably in the upper thirties, but with the wind blowing at 20 miles an hour you're looking at. Definitely. It feels like it's below freezing. So you're going into basically a desert that's a little bit rocky, a little bit, like I said, some dry grasses that are sprouting up through some of the rock cracks. There's sand, there's some dunes that are starting to form, but as you first leave the city itself, you're not in an out and out desert desert. You're more in a rocky desert, if you will. And as you head south throughout the day, over an hour, two hours, three hours, as you continue to head south, the rocky formations start to dwindle out a bit, and the sand becomes a bit more prevalent. Nothing to any, again, major degree where you're walking in three-foot deep sand. But you can see the climate is changing as you start heading four or five hours south now. It's dinnertime. Or in the periphery of the deep desert. Yeah. It's a great way to put that, and you're working your way towards the deeper desert and towards those sand dunes, but you're not there yet. The day is relatively uneventful. And there's a couple of times when you saw some creatures far off in the sky. After talking in my brother for a while, I slipped off the seat and let him steer the wagon for a while and go talk to the hunter in the front. You guys? Spotting anything? You see anything that shows that the caravan came by, anything unusual? We're not on a road, right? There's no road? Is there a trail? There's sometimes a road. It must be something we can follow tracks. There's a couple things. There's the sand, and there's obviously vegetation that's beaten down. Then, in certain parts, it's rubbed all the way through and there's this almost slippery type of glass that you're walking on. Yet, it seems so much. I mean, I'm sure someone stopped and hit their knuckles on it and basically tested it. Maybe took a sword or a spear out or a shaft and smacked it when the sand blew off of it and it reflects perfectly back. You can see yourself. It is a mirror, but it's very resilient. It's very strong. It has a hardness to it that it's not easy to crack. Your best efforts cannot crack this with any kind of normal weapons that you might have with you. Not even like a little tiny chipper scrape. Not even like a chipper scrape. Have you seen this before? You've heard of it. You've heard of that in the southern deserts. There's areas of it that are made of glass, but you thought it was stories. But now that you're about six hours south, and occasionally the sand will blow off enough to where it reveals this glass-like surface. Then, after stopping for breaks and to give the anene a chance to eat and drink some of its water, that you brought along some portable water for it, because obviously you're in a desert and there's not a lot of that. You stop for dinner eventually at 5, 5, 30. I'm assuming you continue, because it doesn't get dark. At dinner before we continue, now that we're out of the city and we're on our track, does Ichabod have any other insight or information to share as we approach? This is the right way. We're supposed to follow this trail, the main trail, and then somewhere two days in, there's going to be a telltale sign. It doesn't make any sense to me, but I'm sure we'll understand it when we see it. When you say trail, I thought no one came to the south. Do you mean the glass is the trail? There is a trail to the south because the sultan, the vizier, does have some caravans that head to the south. They have made a bit of a trail, even though no one else goes to the south. Remember, he goes two days to the south and the caravan disappears. It returns loaded. It starts coming back loaded after disappearing for a short period of time. Is the glass something different? The glass seems to you to be something different, but it's the trail. It seems like where the caravan might have passed, it's been so beaten down and rubbed down from the caravan's wheels and such, that it's gone all the way down to the glass. Let's think about what they usually return with when they come back. He does not. He knows it's low, or lays him with technology, with ciphers and artifacts and all kinds of amazing things. He sure is. A sense of new manera is not something he has to focus to do. It's just ever present to none. If something's creating this glass out of the sand, he would have noticed it by now. It seems like some ancient. You know how there's ranges in the game? I think it's close to what it does. There's immediate short, and then more. Right now, you're not getting any new manera readings. This is just something that created a lot of time ago, so that if it came within that range, you'd be aware. How long has it been since the cart that we're going after left? That disappeared less than a week ago. We'll say five days for the sake of conversation. I think you mentioned this before. The schedule of the caravans that leave for the south. Is that a weekly thing? It was a weekly thing. It left four days ago. It should have came back a day ago, because it goes two days, disappears for 15 minutes, five minutes, half hour, who knows. It reappears the exact same position heading back towards and takes two days to return. It's left five days ago. He summoned you today, because he sure now it's not coming back. Or at least he seems sure. It was supposed to be back yesterday morning, and it's been a full 24 hours. And none of his scrying ability, if you will, his ability to search the lands, nothing has turned off the caravan. As a hunter, I would suggest, I'm not going to try and tell you your business, but if you were hunting us, you have birds in the sky, do you stay on the top of dunes? Try to think of how somebody would keep an eye on us to see us coming, and what would you do to try to minimize that risk. If they could see through the birds, that would be the easiest way, because you don't really make note of the birds. They're there. They want to eat you when you die. Standing on the top dunes is the second best way, because people don't look up into the sky, which is very bright, usually in the desert. I think he was saying the opposite. What can we do to minimize someone fighting us? If we know how we could be detected, what can we do to try to prevent it other than wearing the clothes to melt into the sand? I'm kind of thinking of doing now, all that stuff. Also, after dinner, we have to kind of go over some important safety tips that will be done. Oh, we're having a safety meeting. Don't eat the sand. And it's mandatory. Find a movie, buddy. I can't really think of anything we could do to hide ourselves while we traveled down a path that he wanted us to travel down. Later, it might be a thing, right now. Or maybe I'm just thinking that, okay, maybe we can get some early warning that, okay, somebody who got eyes on us, or we feel that feeling, or... I used to keep an eye on the dunes, because I know that's how. Narrow is this part. Not very narrow. It's probably about, say, six feet wide. It's relatively... And then when you count the meals and the various spokes and gears that are required to operate it, maybe... I was going to have a walk in a single file. I could clean up the trail just by swiping my tail on the trail. We'll be traveling down a trail. It's like a highway you're not going to ever race. We're suggesting that someone other than Darius is going to be looking for us. It's possible. Well, if we're going into a territory that makes a series, we're just going to be watching, right? Right, but something interfered with his caravans, and I'm just wondering if they were hit before they got to the destination. They were hit after the destination, or they just never returned from this destination. I missed a detail before about that the caravan travels for two days, vanishes, seems to be gone for about 15 minutes, and then reappears fully loaded. That suggests a few things to me that a boundary is crossed, or frozen time, or... You don't want to know how that works, and what happens when we get there. That's heady stuff that is above my bedroom. When we were being interviewed, or before we were being interviewed, he was looking at something that showed him the city. And the world? Yeah. So basically, there's no way he can't work. We're a little toy, on the end of a string, that he's laying out there and watching us waiting to see what happens. What possible? Plus, you know, app humans are involved in... I missed him. I don't know if I'm supposed to say app humans. I knew before trust. You know, app humans live in the region. We don't know the thing. Whatever the page is. Oh, his guards, though. In the palace were... There were some app humans. You were going to ask me something specific? No, I just don't like that. That he's watching us? No, no one likes it. Who do you think, brother? Does anyone like that? I'm not convinced that he can spy on him. He's got... I think he's got... He may have... He may have... He can spy in the region, but I don't know that he can see across the desert, otherwise he would have already found this. No, actually... It disappears, and it didn't come back. There's no way he could... I don't know. What was he doing when we were in the room? He was, of course. He was looking at the city. From what I remember... The new scenario that he was using to look at the city he was able to zoom in in certain areas and stuff, but I think the stuff that was worldwide he didn't have as much of a zoom in or scrying technique. Plus, we don't know. Once we get there, the caravan disappears, goes underground, travels in another dimension. We know that all happens to him. He might not be able to zoom in to wherever it goes. No, it turned out to be a recording. It seemed to be in motion, at least, of the city. I don't know about the world. Did we see the world map moving? No. You didn't see it moving. That doesn't mean it can't move. He just didn't move it. No, no, no, no. It was it zoomed in enough that we could see trees swaying in the breeze. It was obviously closer than this particular view that we're looking at the map. The new one here map. It was definitely closer in than that. Google Map-ish. But yeah, maybe a Google Map at about halfway. Maybe two-thirds of the way out. Not in some detail, but not a ton. In a forest, but not like a tree. Now, if he can zoom in. No, okay. And none of us would recognize what he was seeing. If Darius is using Nimanera to observe or scry. Is that something that you would even sense? Or I guess you wouldn't. Well, he did. He asked him to turn it off. He was fucking with it. Well, that's because you could possibly say it while it was active in the room. If he's... Oh, you're saying, can he sense being looked at by advice? Right. It depends on how it's used. Don't be watched from space or something. He's like, "I have to sense that." He's just satellite in orbit. And he's not going to sense the fact that it's zoomed in. If it's in a nano sphere, it's here. I could notice. Okay. Okay. But I don't. Okay. That all? Your technology scares me. How much for dinner conversation? All right. Now to the sad thing. Oh, so, yeah, it's dinner time. So go ahead and reveal your sadness. Later tonight. I mean, Tila, how do you want to do this? I mean, this is your deal, but... We got a problem around midnight. Right. And that... She is afflicted with a condition that is manageable as long as we take the proper precautions. In this case, I will need everyone to pile into the wagon or if they can't offer them to the wagon. Stay very close to me, behind me at all times, and I'll be playing a music box and trying to interpose myself between Tila and any living thing in the vicinity. I've become violent. Well, that sounds intense. Very violent. It's dangerous. What's you used to? It's not that bad. You know what I'm saying? I'm sorry. She tries to kill everything, not just everybody's mind even eating. She seems pretty manageable. In the vicinity? That seems manageable to you. Look at her. We have it. I'm pretty small now. I mean, I'm 26 years old. I didn't describe myself terribly well. I care about sort of knife. No armor whatsoever. Very baggy clothing. And a cloak of a tie. I'm a pretty small girl. What's the problem? Well, you also transform into a ravage bear and your mass increases through a hyper dimension. Yeah. So there is that. So she's going to increase in mass and size and ferocity. On the plus side, she's deaf and blind. So this music box I have. What's the point of hiding? I'm not hiding. You're not hiding. You were staying behind me. If you're all in one location, I'm only going to try to go forward. Have you tried burying her up to her neck? Our all ravage bear is deaf and blind. So keen on that. That is a good point. I didn't think about burying her in. In the same? Up to her neck. That's nice. Let's just ask them for problems. This glass only a few feet. Bear a little up into the side of the sand gate. How do they locate their prey? Smell. Smell. Oh, so if we're downwind, it would be a good thing too. Not downwind. Why don't you catch up to us and we continue on our way. Oh wait, we're camping for the night now. Well, down to the dead. I mean, go till it gets dark. We'll set up camp and then-- Nah, I like that. Probably wander away. Good. Why don't we just leave you behind? Move ahead, set up camp. You solved that fucking problem. Well, here, let me put it this way. I'm the only one who is guaranteed to be safe. So as long as I will never, ever, ever attack him. Set the one time that sees that metal fight. Right. And that's over. After that. So my turn is to put myself between you in danger. Why don't you go an hour out, make sure she can only sense you and solve it that way. I don't particularly like being at the mercy of a bear. What do you say? At the mercy of-- I'm going to protect you. That's fine. Where's the trust? I don't fucking know. What's this? I don't know. I have to be here in the mercy of this condition. Can this be this happen? But then I have the sense that I don't want to be anywhere near it when it does happen. Right. Which is why I'm here trying to protect you. Yeah, but you can do it an hour out so she can only sense you and then only you. Well, here's the thing. I'm not disagreeing that that is an approach. But if I can't stay between you and her, what's going to happen is she's going to outpace me. And she's going to get to you without anyone able to protect you. Well, that sounds safe. As long as there's no way I'm going to try it. But if you are already here, because she's going to smell food, she can smell blood. I can't cover smell tracks. You guys are fucking repugnant. So your problem is-- I thought she was-- She's deaf and blind? No. She can still smell. Right, smell. I am deaf and blind, yes. If we leave now, and this happens when-- In a few hours. Then we'll have time for the smell to fade. Well, I think I'd decide to know that in the desert. Might not be for-- Might. I mean, if her condition is anything like yours, Boz. Numenara is responsible for the transformation. I might be able to do something about that. Fuckers in your magic. Then maybe you need to stick around with me and observe what happens, but in that case, you need to take the proper precaution, which is to stand behind me and keep me here. I hear a lizard takes like chicken. I don't see why-- I walk up the side of a dune and start pushing it down with my tail and hands, and it just falls a great deal over down the hill. It's like a mountain with its teeth. It's not going to be tight. You can park the cart on, Tom. Well, I don't know how strong-- I still get hurt, okay? You turn into a ravage bear. I haven't personally fought one of those, but I'm going to assume it's pretty tough. Yeah, sure. I think we should decide. Might I'm a ravage bear? Who's going to leave and who's going to stay? I'm not going to let you park a cart on me. And when I'm a human, it's going to fucking hurt. Well, I can keep some rations for food to hopefully distract or keep you're occupied. I'm going to start a small-- Chains, ropes, whatever you got, tie me up. I'm going to start to change. You've got time there to start it. All right. There'll be maybe a small time in the middle where it'll be difficult. I might-- I've still got a breakout of the chains than the ropes. All right. So you've got more time there. I don't think we have chains. Could you keep me calm long enough? No, we have ropes for that. I can turn back. Could you hunt on a small animal to keep near her so that way if she breaks free and she wants to kill something right away, she's got something else because I just-- I thought we were supposed to buy a certain time, man. Yeah, we did. It's calling our cart. I could try-- It's too much money. But-- It's called "Bessie" and it's calling our cart. No, we didn't name it. You know, I looked it down in the hour or two, we got to wait for-- I could try, but that's going to take time. It sounds like you don't want to be around, so-- Whatever is going to be-- It sounds like we should have left her acid serenity. Yeah, it does. It does. What's wrong with her? It sounds like her already deserved. You in the middle of being a child. It travels here. I wanted to get out of a civilized area. Don't get old? Her dignity. I don't know. There's nothing to be accepted. My priority is my life first. We left so that you guys were safe. And then-- We were all thrilled so-- All together by fate and chance. I mean, and this is the earliest that I felt comfortable even talking to you. How does it goodbye feel about this? You got hired on just, like, I don't know, six hours ago now. You actually-- It's your point. It's what you're talking about. It's what you're forced about. I could be a small animal. I'm going to assume that Bosco is spent some time practicing these types of situations in the past. I'm also going to make sure that one of you is closer to her than I am. So I'm okay. Brilliant. I'm going to hunt down a small creature if I can. And if I'm gone, that's fucking great for me. Why don't you help wind? Why don't we go ahead and do your thing? Why was that not an option? I don't know, but it's-- Well, other than you're kind of abandoning us to try to catch up with you guys, so as long as we're very clear and I can track you through a desert, look, we'll give us a timepiece. Oh, no. And we'll know when you come back. The only thing that tells me when this change happens. That's a good idea. We can tell you. We'll tell you what time it is. You'll know. I've been gone. Then you won't need to know. I will be between him and you. It could bottom like the idea. And it will stay not close by, but close by. Why don't we just go ahead and eye shot, and if something bad happened, then you start moving toward me. I'll drink my liquid. Why don't we just take the caravan an hour up the road? It's a pretty big path. That's what they want to do. You know, at night it might be a little bit tough to see, but then you'll catch up in the morning. That's fine. If you want to do it that way, that's fine. I thought it would be easier to control and contain the situation if everyone was together and I could be interposed between you two. But if you want to do it that way. If it's just the two of you, then you just can't hurt anybody, right? She might run away at this point. Yeah, but I mean, you should track us a mile away. I certainly would be a lizard or a small furry animal between us and her. You're leaving a scent trail of... They're called a ravage bears, net teddy bears. I'm just saying that they have the ability to be... I'm sure she has the ability to track, but I'm also sure that there's one, two, three, four, five of us, and it's tough if she's going to be after an hour of tracking us. She'll probably be a little bit dehydrated and tired, and then we'll walk with that rhythm. How long does this transformation last? Without your intervention. Oh, without an intervention? Usually I wake up the next morning after I eat them well. I don't know when I change. When I was traveling, it was not enough to get away from that. However, I'm not convinced that I can't help you. This is a process of new manera, and it's clearly not meant for the destruction it causes. I think you just don't understand it fully. No man's sorry. Are you going to stick around and watch? Clearly. I will not argue with it. I do not understand this fully. I will go ahead with Caravan, now or north, being Ichabod. Just like being coming a guy, you'll be staying in the team. I've got to see this. I'm standing behind him, dying in. Alright, I'm going to stay in here. I'm staying behind all of you. Okay, back. Also, what happened was you were going for. Half of you were going, is that true? No, we're all staying. Go ahead, control it. Good luck to you. We need to travel about it. So, who's the next closest after the one she can't kill? Fuck that, I'm on top of the wagon. Yeah, I understand. Who's the next closest to Dan Bosco? She's going to run right past Bosco and eat someone else's face. Who's that going to be? I'm just trying to be close enough that he can detect the Numenara coming active. I'm not sure if that's the nano spirits in the area. I think that's a great idea. That's fantastic. Or something internal in Rayla. Probably internal. You should probably go listen to her heart. I think you might have to say, he just have to run faster than a ravage bear. He has to run faster than you. What I'm thinking of is if the ravage bear starts running at me. I want to have enough time to drink a potion and run the hell away. I'll make sure I have that much time space between me and wherever they're going to be standing. I will do my best to pose myself between Tila, Lianine, and the wagon. If everyone stays in the wagon, if you're off the wagon, everyone stays on the wagon. Oh, that's right. I can use this music box to get her to transport the act. Are we taking off seven of our ropes and tying her to hell up to slow this down? I want to help tie her up. I think it's a great precaution. I don't know if it'll prevent her from transforming or will restrain her once she's fully transformed. Let's find out. Here we go. Alright. Thanks for listening to Knights of the Night Actual Play Podcast. Visit kotnpodcast.com for more information on this and other adventures. Where you will find character stats, photos, storytelling, props, and even a forum for comments and suggestions. Or you could email us directly at feedback@kotnpodcast.com. Or contact us via Twitter or leave a message on Facebook. All music for this podcast was created and performed by Zen Audio Smith. If you'd like custom professional music created for your podcast or business, please visit ZenaudioSmith.com and please join us next episode for more mystery and adventure. [music] Caravancery. You're starting again. Not so bad. It's best to hide our numbers. We travel single file. Star Wars book. Yeah, I know. Your technology scares me. [beep] I'm eating candy and making a lot of noise. Yeah, well, did the editor hate that shit, man? I don't want you to dig about it, too. It's like yourself. [beep] I'm sorry, man. I'm a bag rustler. Spill 'em out or do something with it, seriously. By compliments of fighting probably the loudest vegetable you could find. [laughter] Yeah, that's much better. [laughter] I really wanted it out of the bag. I want it out of the recording. Carrots and apples, too. I love apples, especially honey crisps. But anyways, I dig rust.