The crew discusses what to do about/with Teela – and the cracks begin to show..
Knights of the Night
KotN Actual Play Podcast - 154 Numenera - Sometimes an Obelisk is just an Obelisk
[music] Hello, and welcome to Night's of the Night actual play podcast. This new manera adventure, Sandswept, was written and run by GM Scott. And now, please enjoy episode 154, titled "Sometimes an Obelisk is Just an Obelisk." Actual play begins 22 minutes 52 seconds. All right, before the episode, we will get into some feedback. Facebook, episode 153, an evening with T-line. What's the name of the episode? What is the name? What is the name of the episode? What is the name of the episode? I have to start accurate. Luna Voco posted and said two hours, four minutes, and 12 seconds. Bless you, KOTN. That was long. It was long. And in fact, I posted on Facebook and said do you want longer episodes? Do you want a longer episode for your travels during the holidays? Oh, you American listeners, you. And you're okay? Whatever. You fuck you. You can? No, you already had your thanksgiving, so screw you. But part of the reason why I actually knew a lot of people would be traveling, and I thought something a little longer would be nice, but it was also the fact that I had edited. I usually try to get about an hour of actual play, and then tack on the feedback that we record. When I got about an hour of play, it was a night that we had a lot of interruptions. We started late, we ended early the whole thing. I only had like 20 minutes left over, and there's no, or actually 30 minutes, and there was no way I was going to take a 30-minute episode and try to collage it into another night. So I decided I was pretty much going to do it anyway, so, but it was an excuse to explain why it was a day late. And I believe the next episode is also going to be a little longer, because we had the same thing. It was one of those that we started pretty late, and we ended pretty early, so we only got about one episode worth, but it's longer than normal. There was a lot of discussion on the forums about everybody seemed to be in favor of it. The only one who actually expressed any kind of concern was Lunavoka, who said, "Devil's advocate, sure, longer would be nice as long as the quality doesn't suffer." So, it's a valid point. I don't think I'll ever release on edited. Some podcasts as I go along get a little more and more lax. It just bugs me, and I have to. If I listen to it, I'm like, "Ah, no, that has to come out." Anyways, back to the feedback. Theron Mark T said, "As for the collaboration idea, my first Vampire of the Masquerade story did a kind of cross campaign. We had two teams, which we will call Alpha and Beta. For the first team, we ran a VTM campaign, and the other team will hunter the Vigil campaign. He then interoed the effects of the action of each team. Another idea may be both teams running the same scenario or story, but as long as only the storyteller GMs have contact with each other, we may receive alternative storylines. Cheers. So, it's a couple of different ways that we can tackle it. I actually spoke with Tandy just today, and we discussed whether this was going to happen. And I think it's going to be difficult just because of the backlog we have. We are definitely going to Dresden next. We could maybe fit a small short story in between that and World of Darkness, but we're going back to World of Darkness after that. He didn't think that we should run the adventure in either of those systems. Like they would run a Dresden that would intersect with ours, or that they would run a World of Darkness. He was talking about what other gaming systems would you like to try? And so, I bring it to you guys. It's going to be a while, right? We'll discuss it, but at the very least, the way we run things, it's unfortunately going to be a while. But still, a decent idea. And we actually did that once, if you remember a long time ago with Dungeons and Dragons, when we had like 12 players at one point, and we went with two GMs running the same story, it was kind of a race. Yeah, exactly. They started from different points. The dungeon had a couple different entrances. They came into different sides of the dungeon, and it was kind of cool. But if I remember, the problem we had was also pacing in that one, where one GM ran out longer than the other one, and they slept and then continued, and that made the other group a day and a half behind. So anything that's got that much inner connectivity isn't going to work. It could work more along the lines of existing in the same city. Or even like they did something in their city, and then when you pick up, you go visit their city, pick up a clue from something they left behind, and then come back or something. You have limited interaction. Yeah, there's some hooks going both ways. There's a game system called Inspectors. And basically it's a spoof on Ghostbusters. You're running an organization in which you're fighting ghosts. And I've heard it played in a couple of actual plays, and it's light-hearted and fun and fast-moving, and maybe something like that, where it's a quicker type of a game that would play that doesn't get drawn out into. But I've listened to them play, and I don't think anybody plays at the pace we play. We tend to over-analyze things and get bogged down. I don't know if we get bogged down, I think, because that implies a negative, and we really enjoy it. So I don't think it's getting bogged down. I think it's, we like to look at the minutiae, we like to find out, like you guys really like, and I do too as a player, to drill down to the essence of something, and not just gloss over certain interactions. And I think, well, I think we have listeners who I think really appreciate that. That's how I'll find a good, in certain gaming systems. Yeah. Sometimes if you're playing champions, superhero game, it's not going to work as well. No, it shouldn't be doing that. Right, but for investigative games, horror, mystery, and even this, the Newman era, which is a mystery game about discovery as well, I think it lends itself well. Maybe we stick to systems that tend to support our playstyle. But we always have listeners who enjoy it. Right. So no, oh no, I'm not saying we will. I'm saying if we're going to do this cross collaboration, I would suggest not. We're going to ask them to change their playstyle. It would be easier for us to play something and lighter and lighter in their playstyle that's fast paced, because of the fact that when we play these investigative games, they end up running six months of releases because of our play style. That's probably not something we want to do. Right. I'm just going to say something, right? I was just going to say, I don't know if we like minutiae. I think we're always looking for trip wires and booby traps. So that's what we're looking for. It's like looking for that too. Occasionally, yes. Back to the feedback, Tom Rocket reported in. Hey, Rocket. I believe he sent me a message saying that he's caught up. He's listened to all the Newman era and he's enjoying it. But he said-- He misses, Bob. He did. He said, ah, Neil, I'm my favorite character in the new chewless world. He said, Neil, I did. And so did he, which I questioned him on. Ah, gotcha. Now, you play a good straight-- He was the first guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we'll discuss that in a bit. I'm finding Newman era much to my liking. The characters are as diverse as the men playing them. The setting presentation is worthy of an apple. Well done, Knights. I encourage anyone finding this podcast for Newman era to go back to the beginning of the lost episodes and start with the New World of Darkness campaign episodes one through three. All the way to episode 153. All of the efforts of the Knights are worthy of the round table. Well done. I did question him on Nila. I was like, ah, there's a Nina and there's a Tila. There's no Nila. He's like, yeah, I like them both. I can't pick a favor. It's like-- Was that like a slash fiction there? Yes, apparently Nina is inside Tila. And then we'd be up becoming Nila. A little people would pay to see that. That's a big boy. That's what he paid for in those photographs. Possibly half the guys at this table. There were other comments about the episode and the fact it was longer. Miles S said, "Nice surprise." Chris Naples said, "You guys kick serious ass. Thanks for the extended release." And then Luke Green had a comment. He said, "I like the Claude Raines reference." Anyways, Scott Mike made that. Well, of course. [laughter] It's a reference. It was Mike. I didn't recall a reference, but I think there was a bad pun or a reference. Obscure, obscure reference. Obscure, obscure reference. Well, for these youngens. Do you do remember their reference or no? I don't. It was about Claude Raines having to defeat his son as the world. What's the name? The whole Tila and brother. Shocked. Shocked I am to find gambling in this establishment. Anyway, Scott was a bit nicer there than I would have been. I would have ruled that the reflective, intelligent defense weren't actions and thus the ravaged bear could still try to fight past the calm. Though, not likely to be easy. Fair enough. I disagree. I think Scott was just fine. We used a very potent tool that would have come in handy later. Yes. I think it was part of it. It was the level of numerator. You have to respect the use of the ciphers. Right. If someone uses them, they should work. Yeah, that too. Because of the cost of the resource being it. We're certainly going to play that a little bit more difficult than we did, certainly. I think it was really goodness. No, I like the way that it worked out. It was just difficult enough. Dropping in the music box, the panic that ensued. Tila running ragged there for a little while before it could be covered. It seemed to fit the scene well. I could have made it more difficult, of course, but between the Tila. It could have been a 19 chagrin for us. This is going to kill the couple of you. But no, I think getting back to the original point, the level of the cipher was what made a decision for me. It must have been powerful. It had been a level two or level three cipher. I would have not rolled the same. But because I think it was, I want to say level seven off the top of my head and I'm not positive. That kind of sealed the deal for me from a storyteller or a jam standpoint. Logan Swanson and our Facebook general page just posted a comment in which he said, "Hey gang, do you ever think about turning KOTN into a Facebook group? It's a little easier to stand touch and socialize between fans. I think it might work better than just a fan page, just a thought." So I asked him a quick question and said, right, one of his Facebook, what's the difference between what would a Facebook group offer us that a page doesn't? Because currently we're set up as a page, which allows us to all post. It allows fans to post as well, but as a group, apparently, he says, and I'll read it rather than try to describe it in my own words, because I don't really know. He said, "Easier communication for everyone is central spot for fans to talk back and forth. Groups can be open so new members can join any time. And a group conversation can be hidden from your main newsfeed. A fan page doesn't really lend itself to talk between the fans. It's hard to find a fan post on a fan page. In a group, it's much simpler. On all groups are easier than a page. It's more like a concentrated forum. It's easy to chat and easy to keep track of who's saying what. So I thought about this and there's no way to convert. What we would have to do is basically start up an entire new group. Yeah, but I'm putting it right at the page. You can make them find it. We'd get rid of the old one, and we'd have to invite everybody that-- Do they occur? Well, they could just follow and join, so it can have two simultaneous, because I don't have enough places to go on the internet to look for things to post above. But we're looking for other things to do. Because Twitter and Google+, and Facebook, and our feedback, and the forum, and the blog, and the, uh, I get the point. Can fan pages get these posted to them? Pictures and character sheets and everything? I think pretty much they act just like that. Then make your last post for our current page. We've moved. Here. I think there won't be a bad idea. I think you lose traffic when you move, in my opinion. But we could try to run two simultaneously. If everybody does go over to the group one, we could shut down the original fan page. I don't know. See which one they'd like better to-- Because I agree that having conversations on the Facebook pages is very difficult. This being said, with not knowing what it would look like on a group page. I'd have to see it. I'd have to turn it through. And then a group of something else I like and see what it's like. Test it out? What's the difference with our-- Do their research. Yeah. I'm not going to jump. Reports back for that next week, Jim. But interesting idea. Just, uh, maybe some more research on it. Munavoka posted under the picture of Bos, perfect photo. I thought of him as well when you made the character. So the picture you chose for your character? Mm-hmm. Was well chosen, sir. Where is that, by the way? Oh, should be out. Come on, man. From our kotnpodcast.com blog site, Kyle H. posted and said, "Hey, I love the podcast. Just found it for the new Monera adventure and can't wait to hear all of it." At the five minute mark, the thing you're looking for is the inverse ninja law to explain the Buffy example, in which I was talking about the first time you run into the vampire. It is incredibly hard to beat. And later on, the more of them there are, the easier they are to beat. Or just-- Apparently, I said it has a name. That's the name. So thank you, Kyle H. You should have checked the inverse ninja law. Trops? Yeah. I go there, huh? It's dangerous to go to TV Trops. You can get lost for hours. I've been once, and I haven't gone back for that very reason, because I lost a whole afternoon at work. I got a lot of money. Did you go paid for it? What's wrong with it? Well, I had lots to do, but I remember I started looking at lunch, and I blinked, and it's like three o'clock. I'm like, oh my god. I go often enough to not get lost. But nowadays, I don't want to go back when I need to read up on a series. I just finished. Gotcha. We got an email from Lunavoco at our feedback@kyotmpodcast.com. He states, "Can I rescind my comment about missing the email address on the website?" It's given out at the end of every podcast. So I've listened to it over 153 times, and I still forgot it. [LAUGHTER] Miya Kopa. No, he can't rescind it, because he made a statement that it wasn't on the website, and it's not on the website. So that's a valid point. Sorry, Mike. I know I dropped shit from laughing, but it's a valid point. If someone's looking for the address, it's not there, and it should be. It should be. It should be. You hear that? That was like-- It should be. Somebody fucked up, and they really should step forward and take responsibility for it. So I'm just saying, no, you can't rescind it. It is a fuck up. A whole week. Well, you weren't here for it, but as of today, I completed several very important milestones, and so for what has been occupying all my time. That has been passed six months for work. Oh, for what? So now, I will regain some freedom. Oh, OK. So I'll be able to pay attention to other things, like an email that he's heard 153 times. I can't remember. I like Star Trek. [LAUGHTER] Star Trek. [LAUGHTER] Something really important. He continues with his feedback. If this redaction is acceptable, no, it's not. I'd like to point out that Mike did indeed have a perfect feedback episode last week. No, he didn't. [LAUGHTER] Regarding-- [LAUGHTER] See, you're like, you're reprimanding him, but somehow it's bouncing up and hitting me. You're surprised? Mike, come on. And that's absurd. Regarding Mike and Spiders, I echo your fear of death hierarchy, and what Ed drowning is number three. Also, when killing spiders, I'm pretty sure that nuking them from orbit is the only way to be sure. Ah, good man. That's the proper way to use that book. That's exactly. If he can tell me who said it, he'll win a prize or something. I don't know. No prize. Isn't that just a marvelous line? On your offer to post equipment and software for tech savvy fans, yes, please. As a tech savvy listener, I fully support this idea. I'm still grinding away at my own podcast, and I welcome any vetted data I can get. I can't post an email. I just want to think about a post to get equipment for. Grats to Scott. Yes, Luna Voca means something like that. I made the name in high school after reading a werewolf book and seeing a mostly full moon out my bedroom window. It's supposed to mean called by the moon or a moon's voice or something. I'm sure I thought was terribly romantic at the time. Since then, it's become the de facto standard. And since no one seems to use it, when I enter a form, I find myself in. I decided to keep it. And he also posted a link to a picture that said, "Our children's life will not be that easy, as all the usernames we'll have already been taken." Which is a valid one. It's tough, man. It's a future that's going to be awful. Oh, I did mention to him, he works in tech support for a company, and I told him I had some really good stories, and he said they're like gold. He can actually use them to barter at work. So I did say I'd mention a quick story, and I was going to type it out to him, but it's much easier to talk. I was working tech support once, and I got a call from a lady who said, "Her keyboard was making the wrong letters come out." And so I was like, "What?" And she's like, "When I press the keys, the wrong letters come out." And I said, "Where are you located?" And it was like right next to my office, where I was doing tech support. So I said, "Guys, cover for me." And I went over, and I sat down at her desk, and I'm like, "Oh, what are you talking about?" And she's like, "I'm trying to log in here, and she's typing in her name, and I'll be damned. The wrong fucking letters are coming out." And so I said down at her desk, I said, "Wait a minute, let me try." And I typed touch without looking, because I typed, "Well, I typed my name, and I typed my password, and I logged right in, there's no problem." And she's like, "No, no, it's not working right." I said, "But you just saw everything worked fine." And she's like, "Well, yeah, go ahead, try my name." So I log out, and I log back in, and I'm using her name. And what I'm doing is I'm looking up at her name, because I don't have a speller name. You know, it's some Amish weird name. So I'm looking up at her... Actually Amish. I apologize to all her Amish listeners. Come on, this is a podcast. I worked in a... You know some of them are tech savvy. Yes, they are. I worked with one. He was really brilliant. But I'm looking up at her name, and I'm looking at the keyboard as I'm typing in, and it's "Fuck if it doesn't come out the wrong way." And I'm like, "What the hell?" So I log out again, and I bring mine, and it works perfect. I log out again, I do hers, and it doesn't work again. But then I realize I'm actually typing slower when I do hers. But not only that, I'm looking at my fingers, because this is an unfamiliar muscle memory that I'm doing here. I'm watching her name, and I'm typing in, and I look down at the keyboard, and I'm like, "Oh, fuck." You look at your fingers when you type. And she goes, "I do not." She gets all I'm digging. I'm like, "Yeah, you do." Because somebody took the keys, pride them off, and switched them around. And she was looking at the letters, and pressing the wrong keys, because she's not a touch thing. And I'm looking around the room, and there's this guy over in the corner, and he is fucking busting his gut, trying not to laugh. And I'm like, "Dude, you..." I didn't write him out, you know? And I'm like, "I tried the keys off, and I switched them back around." And I go, "Now, try." And she did, and it worked. And I was like, "Yeah, okay, whatever." And I talk to him later, I'm like, "Man, that's just me." That's just nasty. He tried the keys off, and I'm exploring. He tried the keys out the keyboard, and switched them around. But he did, if they were close enough, he would just switch the close ones, so that you didn't think about it. And I didn't catch it, and I've been typing it forever. And so, man, it was brilliant. Brilliant. So there's your story. Okay, well, we'll save it for another time. Oh, you got it, you got it. We have some... Yeah, we got to go. Yeah. We got to move on. We have one last thing. It's from the RPG. Crosstalk. Crosstalk Forum, thank you, Donna. In a while. It's from Matt Mulener. And he says... He's still mad? Two weeks in a row. Yes. He says, "After you do the too-longer-than-normal episodes, you could do a straw poll and gauge the audience's preference." I'm torn. More KOTN goodness per week, versus the harder effort finding a chunk of time to listen without too many interruptions. If Jim is willing, and is not too much trouble, perhaps you could put all his backstory stuff that currently lives on Facebook on a blog site, such that other Facebook phobes, like myself, can read what sounds like great fiction. And for the record, Tandy and I are separate people. He's a GM for D&D and Savage World Games, and the guy who started the podcast off. I'm the GM for World of Darkness, Robotech, Fate, Wild West, and the upcoming Dresden Las Vegas game. Did I play Robotech? Apparently, did play Robotech. I don't think I've heard those episodes. Well, sure. So, thank you for the feedback. Two things. Okay, what I did was I posted a link as a response on RPG Crosstalk Forum. That link points to our blog page. Our blog page, I put the three current posts that you've posted. I reposted them up there. Good. So, people can see them there. It's also on the, we have a separate tab for the Newman era at the top, if it says if you want to read the excerpts from the book of Ashman, click here, and it takes them to. So, basically, if I could set a hidden page there, that it doesn't show up on any other things, but it's a link that people could get to, to see the readings from the book. You put it ashes. Mike didn't have the time. I asked Mike to do it, and he told me, "Fuck you. I'm not going to do it." That sounds exactly like-- It does sound like my call. The time. Okay, that's the end of the feedback. Now, Black Friday. It's a lot of fun. It's this week. So, people, on our blog site, kotnapodcast.com, right hand side, there's a thing, it says Amazon, click on it. Anything you buy at Amazon will generate a small bit of money to us. It doesn't cost you anything at all. It just comes out of Amazon. It's big, huge pockets. Fuck them. Then, fuck them. They're the man. Fuck the man. I love Amazon. Amazon provides a wonderful service. I know that. I use them all the time. I'm a prime member and I send things to them. Thank you to the man. So thank you for giving me money. And you're putting out all those little mile and five shops out of business. Thank you, Amazon. Oh, fuck them. Those old people. They're old people. And they don't listen to our podcast. Yeah. You can copy that. You don't really put the Amazon. I mean, the Amazon. The Amazon. Amazon. And you can copy that link and put it in an email and send it to your grandmother and stuff. She can use it too. That's right. Everybody can use it. Yeah, it's not just for our listeners. And once when it goes there, and you're going to put our feedback email, he's also going to put a little Amazon logo. So it'll be easier to identify and click on it. Yeah, because it's not so easy right now. Because it's really hard to find. Like I said, I've actually do this before. And you said, fuck you, Tom. Again, it's like the second time. And I was like, you know, I have a laptop in my car. I should just go get it and log in. And it's a super powerful network in particular right now. It's super powerful network. All right. Thank you all for listening. We are on to the episode. All right. This is chapter four of the Nimanera Adventure Sandswap. I am your GM Scott. And with us tonight on my right is. I am Jim playing Eshman who is a mystical nano who works miracles and will someday be the god. I'm Tom playing Tila, the intelligent Jack who hauls at the moon. I'm Mike playing Boz, the tough glaive who fuses flesh and steel. And Michael playing Nina, the stealthy nano who exists partially out of phase. I'm Thomas playing Felix, the strong-willed Jack who hunts with great skill. I'm John playing Sig, the mutant nano who talks to machines. All right. Where we left off last night was the moonlit encounter with Tila turning into a ravage bear and threatening the entire group, except for her brother, Boz, was resolved. She had been brought out of her state of lycanthropy or whatever it may be. It's equivalent? Yeah, it's equivalent in the future. And everyone is discussing how to go about the rest of the night. It's probably about 12, 30 or so. That encounter taking less than a half hour. And then the stand-up of getting the anene back to the camp, Felix and Ichabod taking care of that, bringing the anene back. And everyone kind of settling into a bit of a norm. At this time, Tila has passed out from her experience. She's exhausted and she is sleeping without being able to be awoken at this point. Was Ashwin knocked unconscious too? No. No. He was definitely mentally taxed during the battle, but did not lose consciousness. And I believe Sig took some damage. Yeah. He got the... From her right, but again, nothing, nothing a life threatening to any extent. So... I lost a threat of my health. You got bit? Bashed, bit, so... Think he got... He got hugged. Yeah, hugged. Oh, he got... I clawed him. Quad. Right. Gauged. Prep. This ability isn't transferred. Is it? No. Better. Well, maybe... Sig doesn't believe it is. All right. Finished all those other victims. So, Boz, I think we should talk about your sister's demise. It was terrible. That's what we call terrible things. Just for just relaxing after. Just leave one tip of... If an enemy did this to us... If an enemy did this to us... I know. We use a lot of resources. A lot more resources. I thought our plan would work better than it did. Just like the last time, right? I think... Waving goodbye is a good answer. I just would not do anything for her. I want to see if I could. I definitely don't want to be here tonight. Well, this is something. Whatever. Well, I mean, let's talk about tomorrow night. Tomorrow night... I say we leave you with her... And go like a mild one with that. I say when she's done, we'll catch her. We'll carry it. We know it. We're going to be by tomorrow night. Just think what type of awesome weapon she'll be against our enemies. If she ever gets control of it... If we meet them at midnight... First. Or I'm sure she'll get some control over it soon. Has she ever had control over it? Not yet, but I'm sure once she gets more customer use to it and... Oh, well then that's... I've got some of that. And actually, we didn't have any deaths. That. No one died. If anyone, let's blame Ichabod. That fucker can't tie knots. All right, can we all agree that Ichabod... You know, didn't tie her down sufficiently? That's right. How many kills? How many kills all pilot Ichabod? How many, your replaceable ciphers did we go through to maintain our own flight? Three. I used none. I used both of mine. I used one of mine in one of yours. Oh, okay. That's right. Well, yeah, and... We can assure it something. So now it is now that you've used me and got what you needed, that everything is... You had more time, I might be able to. Yeah, I apologize. That was just embarrassing. Yeah. I mean, give it time. I think we both can help her. We get control of it, but it's... What helped did you do? You attacked her. You attacked her. I didn't attack her. I saw you falling down. I'm attacked her. I was standing there. I was scanning her too. No. Yeah. I was scanning it. I saw... Aggressive leap. And intrusive leap, but yes. I forgot of lies. Well, now that we all have a much clearer picture of what we're dealing with... I don't... Oh, that's right. You were wrestling with the, I mean... You can't... You didn't see any of that shit. I heard it. I didn't tell that what happened. Nothing happened. Except this is Rope time failed again, so you can know that a lot of it. Well, you know what? If it's going to be about my Rope time failing, then we're going to talk about how you got manhandled by a domestic piece of burden, Mr. Hunt with great skill. It's still here. I think the one of the four hours to find a dust rabbit for crying out loud. No one's going to find you. What's going to happen? Well, all right, we're good for the rest of the night. We will have to take different precautions. Are you sure that? Should we tire down again? It's the moon still full. No. She has gone through her transformation. She will not transform again tonight. She's already... So you're sure it's once a night. It's never happened. You've been with her every single night. She's ever changed all night long. Yeah, I'm protecting her from all those... All right. I'm saying if I'm going to try to fall asleep, I want to make sure that there's nothing broken up by her. Well, he's having a thick abod. You can go into the... You can go into the caravan and rest your head with a... You did well. All right. Here, here's your rope being well. Hey, listen. That's what I'm going to put on you, too. Those ropes held are longer than anyone else's ropes here would have held her. I don't know. Okay. I'm not quite sure if that's an argument or a statement, but... So, she's not going to be any more danger tonight and we still have to worry about Alstan the first watch. I need my rest. I don't think I can watch tonight. No, I know. And I know. You guys are both probably you, especially... Sing. Thanks, Pete. I gave you that last week. Okay. I didn't know. You should all have it right now. I have six. I'm going to spend one on a permanent upgrade. One of those... You need to level things. I'm not sure how to mark them. We took the four. I have a total of four XP. How much do you need to level up? Well, you need to do it four times. You need four or four times, correct? You do four steps and there's four distinctive. You choose this, that or the other. And then when you do the fourth thing, you say you go up one here. Perhaps it's going to steal other than combat. An increase by some number of your pool. I guess what I'm asking is that... Well, we'll get a let's say four experience points. You do one of these steps. Now, if you go from four to zero, remember you won't be able to ward off a GM intrusion. You have to take a GM intrusion if one comes your way. Just so you know. Yeah, we're used to that. Oh, I'm okay. It's called playing with Scott. Just like it's like a strategy redemption. We're going to take what we give you. Then we all do a one action recovery roll now. And then in 10 minutes, you maybe... I believe it's one guy six plus four. Not mistaken? Is that what it is? No, I thought it was one day six plus one. Plus one. That was one day six plus ten. Yeah, you're full shit. Recovery rolls one day six plus tier points. One. Yes. One of the abilities you can get progressing is to improve that by a couple of points. Is that something that you can do to it? Oh, hi. Yeah, I'm just before I get on there. I don't remember where I were with that. I am rolling. Right before optional rules. All right. Ashman is rolling to recover. His first recovery roll of the day. Six plus one is seven. I can use it. You can work like that in any pool you wish. I spent a ton of mine because I spent effort on nearly every roll. So I'm going to need to sleep too. Okay, so to some speed. The different things you can do is increase capabilities. You gain four new points to add to your status polls. You can allocate them among your polls, however you wish. You can move towards perfection, adding one to your mic edge, your speed edge, or your intellect edge, your choice. Your effort score increases by one. Or you get a skill. You train in a skill, other than attack or defense. Do you have to go through these four bump ups before you get the tier two? Yes. You should have had a war. So really, it's like lever on your record. And in effect. There are four standard options, and then there's other options today. Yeah, other options, sorry. You can reduce the cost of wearing armor. You add two to your recovery roll. If you're a glade, you select a new fighter move. If you're an enemy, you select a new esoteric. If you're a jack, you select a new trick of the trade. You got to be of your people of your tier or less. Yes, and all of those cases. So as I have five experience, I'm going to spend four of them to add one effort. So I now have an effort of two. Now, if I instead of putting it into effort, if I put it into edge. It makes everything that you do. Then your effort only costs one point. Yeah. For that particular poll. Alright, see. Does anybody else have any experience? I will increase my might edge by one. And time is increasing. And select edge by one. Okay. If you need an increase in your speed edge by the way. Oh, okay. So everyone spending four experience points? Well, I'm going to spend about four. How much? Yeah. Okay. I want to make it easier to heal. You could do it without rolling if you had two efforts, but it would cost you a lot of mana. Or a lot of intellect, sorry. So then we need to figure watches, or we're just going to wake up in the morning refresh. I have an advantage yet because I keep trying to talk. I think watches would be a very wise opportunity. I'll take the first one. Yeah, we don't find it late. So we really only have to. Oh, wait, I can fucking sleep. So I'll stand up too. With all the noise and flashing that we did, we definitely let anything within miles or on your number. I'll need two people. Yeah. Two, three hour watches, which will take us to morning. From midnight. So three hours to three, three to six. Right. Although, to be fair, the sun does, because of the sand, in the sandstorms, it tends to get lighter, a little bit later, financial seven or seven, 30 in the morning. So Nina and Mike are up for the first three hours of the watch. Two watchmen? You can discuss our mill. Well, Nina said that she-- I prefer nothing. She was too scared. All right, we're done discussing the mill. Yeah. Never speak of it. It could buy curls up in a bed, roll underneath the wagon. And he's often snoring within 10 or 15 minutes. A time of the wagon. How do you tie things? This is how you tie things, asshole. If this passes on eventually, can we roll for the recovery? Yes. Should I let you finish? Well, no, you can roll a second roll if you want for the 10 minutes recovery. If it's a three hour watch, I have to roll for the one hour. And then you can also roll for the one hour, correct. All right, I'm sleeping on two. So if you need to roll three recovery rolls, everyone can make three recovery rolls. If you don't, don't. That worked out well. I didn't know recovery works so fast. I'm done. All right, sing. Passes out of bed and said I'm up next. Took you an hour. Yeah, apparently. I am still not on the top of my game. I would like to go back to sleep. So after three hours pass, there's no activity besides the bone chilling cold and the blowing sand. So after three hours, who's taking the second watch? Seriously. Second one. I'll take the second one. Six wakes up and talks to Basil a little bit before everyone else wakes up. Eshman attacked your sister. I don't know why he's lying, but as I was scanning her, I definitely saw him attack with a series of nanospirits per brain. He was attacking a monster at the time. Well, that's valid. I don't know why he's lying about it. Well, if I was about based on what I saw, I mean, I couldn't perceive that attack. It was a mental attack, so I wouldn't have noticed it, or does it create a light show that I can select you? Okay. You don't have any reason to trust me over him. That's true. But I'll try to earn that trust and just to let you know that happened. I'm doing my best to help your sister. If I can't help you, hopefully that'll earn some trust. Well, she's going through a rough patch right now and we all are. We all do what we have to do to so do her. I mean, at one point, I've been prepared to have to kill her if it meant saving lives. But whatever the case, I'd like to take the next watch if you're willing to let me. Rather than-- Yeah, Beshman watch it while we sleep. All right, let's take a look at her. All right. So, Bob's falls asleep. Nina, staying up. Are you going to be able to fall asleep? I'm tired enough. Yeah, you feel it's pretty safe and-- Get your own boat. He'd just sleep in you. No, no. You could just-- It's over. It's over when you're unconscious. We are not going to be unconscious, though. So, a few minutes later, Ashman wakes up and takes the second shift along with Sig. And for the second shift, you definitely hear some predatory noises in the darkness. The wind dies down at certain points and you're able to hear some growls in a distance, an occasional screech or just noises of some type of aggression happening, but not nearby your camp, necessarily. Close, but not nearby. There was one time that Ashman thought that he saw some eyes glint against some glow globes that you had lit dimly to light the night sky and to give you some-- to be able to see around the camp a little bit. During this watch, I'm extending my newment air scences up to the waist. Okay. Just to make sure no one's sneaking up with tech or aiming. Right. Before you know what, it ends up being 6 a.m. You have all slept, whether it be three hours or six hours. You wake up somewhat uncomfortable, even in your bed rolls and in your sacks that you slept in or what kind of protection you had. Sand is pretty much everywhere. It's just a salt. Insane, exactly as I've had it rough. It's inside your clothing. It's inside your boots. It's everywhere. And so you have to spend maybe a half hour in the morning trying to get yourself somewhat comfortable for a day's march because you certainly don't want to be walking with sand in your shoes for eight or 10 or 12 hours. You guys have rations, right? Breakfast rations. Yeah, we bought lunch before we left. All right. The sun is pale and weak in the sky. It's very overcast, both with clouds and with the blowing sand. As I mentioned, as towards a tail under your first day, the dunes went from more rockiness to a bit more sandy. Types of dunes starting to crop up and overtake. So you're seeing a lot more sand and a lot more subsequent discomfort because of the amount of sand that's being blown about into your face, into your clothes. I still want to make the most out of my wrist. I give the map to pause and I stay asleep in the wagon. All right. I need to reset this shit. I'm still damaged. Does anybody need healing? I can heal. I don't think you have to be asleep to get a recovery roll as long as you're not hurting yourself. I'm just riding to the back of the aneanors. All right, fine. I'm awake. I'm pointing the way on the map, but I'm not getting up. All right. Ashman offered to heal you if you'd like. Yeah, go for it. Come on, God, give me. I've seen your work. You do fun. You believe he's a God, right? Wait, I'm not sorry. Messiah. He's not God yet. I don't know how to finish me out if he is. Anyway. Do you have you shoot a man to heal him? Yeah, it was confusing. I know we're really questioning. Okay. What do you have to do, Ashman, to heal? Ah, spend it. I think it's an intelligent one, but I have an engine one. All right. So then it is a free action or there's no cost to this particular esoteric. It's a difficulty, too. Okay, so you have to beat a lot of two, which is a six. Six or more. Yes. What you doing? It's more than a 19. And then I roll a one-day six. Just a one-day six or one-day six plus one? One-day six to any step pulls, but it says. To any step pull. Which step pull are you? Would you like him to heal Felix? Intellect. Two. I'm still rusting, but thanks. And I would assume you could do that again. Yeah. I mean, you could do it again and again and again, couldn't I? Keep doing it. This time you attempt to heal the same creature, the test. A difficulty increases by one step. Okay. Look at that. I thought you would ask the other god. The god of knowledge. I have to beat a nine to do it again. Yeah. Let's try it. I mean, is there anything bad can happen to you? No, either. Well, you can roll one. That's the problem. Oh, you said the bad it could be. Four more. Yeah. That's much better. In fact, I'm nearly done. You can roll again. Use me. I was devastated by hunting a rabbit and dealing with a hobbled horse. That's not a horse. No, it doesn't. You're a big metal man. You can do it. I'll impress the rest of the dog. All right. I want to reset the 10 hour thing anyway, so I can reset this track. It'll be really dangerous if I actually take damage. What do you think of the idea of you actually trapping an animal instead of killing it and then sticking it next to her? So it's a lie. We can't try it. So take a bite. Today, if we really want to, if we still are fucking around with all that stuff, and not just burying her two miles away. Well, we're going to tell her to bury your sand when there's some wax underneath the... Are we in deeper sand yet? You are. I still say we just... Or sand to your sand, perhaps. Go an hour ahead when the sun starts to set. We set camp at the same time. We just leave Tila and her brother behind, and they can catch up with us after he's turned about. They can actually melt pretty well. I don't know. Whatever. It's a week or so. It just put the... And the annead between us and her too, so that we need to buffer there. Ugly thing. No. An hour should do it. I don't know why we have to rest the annead. Well, you know what I think it means? The annead just faces all of us. All of us. She left camp. Yeah. Is all. Like an hour away, the annead is facing towards her and everyone else is behind the annead just in case. That's what I'm already doing. Okay. All right. Well, the first several hours of your day trek goes pretty smoothly. Tealah, I'm assuming when you... I feel like absolute. Woke up, right? You're probably curled in the ball in the back of the wagon. I feel nauseated. Had a... Five of you is just not in good shape. Right. I'm sure that's quite the transformation. There's... I'll heal you. Two more hours. No, it's eight a.m. I like to play my rest more so I can play my rest. Okay. Six done a scanner to see if you can go into any details in our own transformed state form. Right. Especially since you're sick, that seems to be some residual effect of the noumenera. Right. In your scans, we don't have to roll for it. It's just... Throughout several hours, you can scan her pretty easily. You can see that the situation is quite similar to what you saw in the ravage bear. You see some concentration of noumenera in her brain and then you dig. You go deeper and it looks like it's the frontal cortex. Only in this particular case, the noumenera seems to be mostly at rest. You are seeing some activity and some activities in other parts of her brain besides the frontal cortex. But you're not seeing anything approaching what you saw last night. So there's just... There's like a small residual effect that seems to be in motion right now. And there basically seems to be some concentration among an area of the brain known as the amygdala doubt. And you see some other activity. Again, very low key. Almost all very dormant. Notice in the amygdala doubt. I can't tell very much about it. No. Then I'm going to ask some questions. Why the fuck do you keep staring at me? Leave me alone. I'm not feeling well. How's wrong with you? Shum resting. Shut up. I've had PMS, but you should have seen yourself. When did you start transforming? Was this a child? Always with you? Brother, make him go away. He's f*cking pissing me off. He's driving the amine. Well, I appreciate your input saying maybe she just let her lie. She isn't feeling well. She's very cranky. If I can answer his questions, if they're... Maybe you say something like... Actually, I storm off. Just wander back and get away from them. You're all in the wagon. I mean, I'm still traveling with you. It's just not with you. On the other side of my child. I'm farther away. Ask questions on a career shot. You'll be fine. Yeah, I'll try to answer your questions as best I can. Do I know when she was infected? She restored it. The first time she turned, you were destroyed yourself. Yeah, I don't think it was that long ago, because otherwise we would know more about it. And since we don't, it probably was very recent. And yes, he was harmed and became what he was because of my first transformation. How does that make you feel? F*ck you! Do you have questions for Bowser now? Yeah, I do. What circumstances did it happen under? Were you around some new manera? Well, it was active in the area. I don't think any of us realized that she was infected until she transformed and tore me apart. And I really don't remember much after that. It could have happened anytime between... her transformations happened monthly, right? Yeah, but this has only been the third time that I've seen her transform. If you could look at your records to see where you traveled through during that last month before she first transformed, you might get a clue as to where this originated from. Would you say this is like the third month that happened then? This is the third transformation. The first transformation, it turned me to this half-man, half-metal monster you see before you. Well, to be clear, the transformations happened five nights in a row. So you're talking the third group of transformations? Yeah, well, that's what I mean. The third group of transformations? Yes, you could buy the first one? What? After the first attack... the first attack, she didn't attack me again because something stopped when you were off, right? And didn't come back for a few days. And ever since that first time, she won't attack me even in her beast form. I didn't have such a blessing. Which is why I was trying to keep everyone behind me. Your father did keep books about where I traveled, right? Up until the point where he disappeared and a lot of that gear and stuff was lost with him, and I would like to know that as well. If there was an oasis that we had visited in the cold desert, assisted of a very strong... You visited it before or was it kind of spontaneous? Most of the time we had visited before, but we were a lot younger, and our father made sure that we stayed in the wagon and didn't really... She wandered off. Seam went, "No." Well, that time I was younger and I think I fell asleep and I think she wandered into the oasis grove. And actually, it's not even a grove. It's more of almost like a tesseract built into the sand, and there's kind of a hot spring. And I've seen it. I don't know how to get there. It's been a long time and maybe that'd be a good place to go look for answers someday. I don't know how she got infected. And that's the only place out of the ordinary that I think that we didn't account for her. Okay. Well, that's interesting, but we'll have to finish what we're up to here first. Okay. As you're traveling, as you continue to travel south, the pathway that you're following, it is thinning out, being smaller. It's just becoming less obvious. And then sometime, just before midday, you see your first glass obelisk. It's small. It's maybe eight feet high, and it's coming out of the sand. And it looks like it's made entirely of glass. It's on the right side, or what would be the west side as you're heading south. It may not have what's underneath the sand. You can't tell. The sand is all around it. I mean, do we see it with some bare spots where they expose the glass underneath? Does this monolith just mean out of the same thing? Correct. Yeah, so it's made of the same type of glass. By 14 o'clock, I'm rested again, so I'm going to roll. And then I'm up, checking out the obelisk. There would be two 13s. Okay. All up and heal. That's awesome. All right. So as your small caravan of one wagon and one in need approaches, the glass obelisk right far. What are you doing? I go check out the obelisk. So you jog up ahead. Sick joins them. Open and get a chat with the machine. Can you guys stay back? And are you still alive? Definitely going up. Check this out. Nina, do you want us to stay here with Tila? I'll go with the babysitter. I'm fine. I know. I'm worried about Nina having to travel a family across the sand. Just relax Tila. It's not all about you all the time. Sometimes you're going to give her some tough love. Kind of treat her the way she treated us last night. So that was tough, but not much love. So four of you are approaching the obelisk. Yes. Eshman, Basig, and Felix. And the girl's right. Leave the girl behind. How masculine. We're breaking Eshman alone. I'm looking on the map to see if this is a landmark. It's not listed on the map. The map is rather sparse in its descriptions and it's what it shows. It does not show this particular obelisk. Is this the first time that I've ever seen like a glass. You've heard rumor of the glass obelisks of the southern desert, but you've never seen one before. Because you don't normally come this far south. Even though it's only even a day and a half. A day and a half is that's scary traveling. When when you're, it was just you and your father and a small, you know what I'm saying? There's ab humans out here. There's not a lot of population. It's a very desolate place. Well, we tend to go south with our father because there's no one to trade with. Right. It's also more. You stayed in the northern part. So it goes south anyway. I've been this far south. It's just right along the path where you're traveling. Relatively close. It might be 15 to 20 feet off the path. This isn't hovering above the scene. Nope, it's actually built in. It goes into the ground seemingly. I was wondering if it could make a move. Can I show the way to do the glass underneath the set? Maybe it's a marking where this glass room is. It's higher here. Hard to talk. It kind of is blown up over. Like it's almost, if you get a snow fence kind of thing where whenever there's something the sand will then blow and kind of drift over it. It's kind of sloped on one side. Yeah. So I'm not saying it's not. I'm not saying it's undoable. We're on the high side. You would be the wind blows from, I believe the weather in this world comes still from west to east. So it would be on your site. You're actually on the where it slopes up a bit. On the other side of the obelisk, it slopes down. I detect new manera. Is this thing humming? It is humming, yes. And in a chat with my, I have an ability to activate machines. Is there anything? Well, any switches? Who is the first person approaching the obelisk? Me. Yeah. Okay. I'm interested, so. Well, you're more of a scout, right? So how about these two go forward? Okay. I'm not particularly military minded. So I didn't really think of that. Well, yeah, but at least you're kind of the same. You say, whoa, slow down. Well, I'm just saying it's okay. I'm just like be cautious, but if he's a hunter and he kind of a tracker, he sees stuff while you're focusing on the technology. I just want somebody to kind of watch your back, and we'll hang back and reserve. Okay. The two of you walk up, as you're walking up your side by side, I'm assuming you're not. I'm right behind him. You're not, you're not going in single file. You're going side by side. Yeah. Okay. So two of you are there, Ashman's behind you. As the two of you approach the obelisk, there is a corner of the obelisk that breaks up the obelisk, right? I'm a jack of all trades, and I have a skill each day that I could specify what it is. Flex skill. Flex skill it's called? Yeah, I can't remember that. Yes, sure. Go ahead. Could I choose something like the history of the frozen desert? Can't know. Yeah, so I'm saying, can I make a roll to see if I know anything historically about these particular monoliths? Sure. So I have a skill of one, and unfortunately my current state adds two to the dice roll. So I'm going to throw a little effort in there. So that reduces the difficulty by two. It is a difficult, which is level four. So then it comes down to two. Are you able to reduce it by two levels? Right. If you're ever-- One is for the skill, and the effort is another one. So you went from difficult to standard. Go ahead and make your roll. This might be very important, so I'm actually going to do it again. So I'm using four of my pull of an intellect. All right, taking it from standard down to simple, which gives you a target number of three minus two. I rolled your team and that was awesome. So that's a lot of wasted, but-- Well, I made sure-- Yeah, I said it's 11, and I definitely succeeded. All right. You have heard of the oblisks of the southern desert, actually the glass oblisks of the southern desert. And it seems that each oblisk, there's something unique about this part of the southern desert in a sense that there's these mirrors, seemingly, this glass all over. And the glass is-- Under the sand, you mean? Yeah, under the sand, and then there's also these oblisks that are sometimes above the sand. Right, out of it. Or in other places. You've heard of floating glass oblisks, and you've heard of other things as well. That's up there. But the line short of it is that each of these oblisks, they do something different. They interact with whoever's gazing upon them in different ways. So no two people see the same thing when they look at a glass oblisk. And generally speaking, you see reflections of what seems to be another place in time. They don't seem to actually have any power to affect people here on the ninth world. But you're definitely seeing something. And what someone sees is completely unique to the person that is viewing. So if two people walked up to the same glass oblisk, they would not see the same thing. There's no stories of it forewarning them about something. Oh, there's all kinds of, I mean, yeah, sure. I mean, of course, people say that they can see the future. It's the future that you're seeing, and you're seeing a version of yourself. And so people say you're seeing ancestors for another time. Some people say you're looking at a new different dimension. No one knows what you're really seeing, but you're seeing something. Brother, don't you remember when we were sitting around the campfire with Father and that traitor, Damantar, was telling us about these crystal monoliths. And I go and tell you the exact thing that GM just told me. Okay. Meanwhile, Felix and Sig are walking up to the oblisk and there is a corner of the oblisk. So they each are catching a different reflection, if you will, as they're looking toward the oblisk. Sig, when you get a little bit closer, there's sand blowing, there's wind, you kind of huddled up. But as you get a little bit closer and there's a break in the sand, you see a reflection of someone who's walking towards you in the oblisk. He's also standing in wind swept escape. So it looks like I'm catching a glimpse of someone around and walking towards you, seemingly in the exact same manner that you're walking towards it. You're not looking at yourself. It looks like a reflection of yourself, but it's actually, you could tell the hair is different, the eyes are different as you get a little bit closer. You're seeing a completely different person walk towards you in the oblisk. For you, Felix, your particular vision is not someone walking towards you. There is someone much closer than what you don't know this, of course, because you're not seeing what Sig is seeing. But there is someone whose face is almost pressed up against the oblisk. And it looks to be a woman in her late 20s or early 30s. And she has her hands over her ears and almost cupping both sides of her face. And she seems to be screaming. Sig reaches up with his tail and grabs a hold of Felix's off hand points. Right, so he's looking like pointing towards his reflection. Felix, you look over and you see nothing but glass. I'm just walking around it, just take a look at it and if I see anything, I see it. You're kind of going along this too. So the two facets that these gentlemen are standing in front of are walking up to are clear to you, you don't see anything at all. And you're making your way around, but you're not there yet. So we'll just give it a little bit of time. I'm trying to catch details of what's going on behind her. Is it like a movie or is it just... You don't see anything. What they're seeing, is it just, are these scenes something that's continually going on or is it a replaying of something? It seems to be something that's actually happening. Okay, I'm just curious if it just stops or if it's going on all the time and then you're just looking at like, you know, what's going on. So you guys see both of them stop for a second and Ashman kind of not know what they stop for and it's kind of walking around and trying to get to the other side of the oblisk. But the girls are seeing them approach it and barge you a little bit further back. Go ahead. Just as a tactical assessment of what I was saying, this is a single oblisk. Is it like a crystal spindle that has many facets or is it like a four-sided oblisk? It's a four-sided oblisk with a point in top. Okay, it is eight-foot high, it's about 15 foot off of what you call a path, which is, like I said, getting smaller and smaller in size as you continue south. And it is made of what seems to be glass. There's nothing more distinctive about it, it's just a glass. Is it like a glass or a clear glass? And what you seem to see from a distance, as you can see, what would normally be reflected. Right, I go touch the oblisk and see if it's horrible. I don't know. Never heard of this shit. Right, well, I've seen other oblisks, but I know it's- You walk up to the screaming lady, and as you get closer, you can see her entire body. It looks like she's standing in the oblisk looking out at you, and she's screaming and screaming, but she's making eye contact with you, and she's watching your eyes as you get closer. She's following your path. It's not like you're peeping into some world of hers. She's interacting with you in her way. She can't seem to stop screaming, but she definitely is taking notice of you as you walk up, and as you place your hand, where are you placing your hand? No, I kind of like grab her and then we just touch the oblisk and see if I can go through it. But she is taking up, again, the oblisk is not a huge oblisk. It might be the width of this particular side is probably five feet, so she's probably taking up a good, probably two foot of that, maybe with her billowing robes, maybe even three feet of that. So you're touching the side where she isn't, or are you trying to touch her directly? Swear she isn't. Okay, so you reach towards it, and she's screaming and screaming, and she sees your hand reaching out, and she starts stepping back from the oblisk. And you touch the oblisk, and it feels very cold to the touch. But your hand does not pass through. It feels like a solid glass surface. It's cold, yo. I see him, but I don't see what he sees, right? You see him walking up, looking cautiously, kind of slowly pressing his hand forward, and touching the glass, and then like stepping back, and you see him looking at something. He's deeply looking into it. What you see, Boz, is you see a reflection of Felix doing the exact same thing in the oblisk. Okay, I approach to, but what do you see up there? Screaming lady, a screaming lady, like a reflection. Yeah. Can't you see it? Screaming lady. No, really, what does she look like? Does she look like the Vizier's daughter? Oh, and I'm seeing that lady. I never thought about the talks. The age would pretty much dismiss it. From what you've heard, the Vizier's daughter is young. Just come up age recently, so between 16 and 19, let's say. And this looks like someone who was again in her late 20s or early 30s. So unless she aged and has blonde hair now, she is not the Vizier's daughter. Oh, she's blonde, kind of old. Screaming? She's in the desert. In the meantime, so you just kind of wandered up and down in the face of it. Okay, see, sees a man. He was farther away, so Zig didn't get a very good vision of him. But you said you're walking up to the oblisk and then back in the oblisk? No, kind of along the face of it to see if he mirrors me exactly. He seems to be mirroring you exactly. He seems to be, again, maybe his mid 20s. Seems to be some kind of desert folk. He definitely has the attire. He's wrapped. You got a similar face to mine? I'm not saying it best to me so much. Not similar in a sense, rather. But more similar in the sense that he's the same size as you. He's the same, like, he has the same build. When I wrapped my tail around the hand of the village, he did not mirror this action. No, he didn't, well, he stopped and reached out towards someone. So he used the hand as opposed to a tail. So I kind of narrow my eyes, stick my tail out, and then my hands in two different directions. What the fuck does he do then? Right. Well, he does the same thing. He sticks his hands out but doesn't do anything with the tail. Go ahead, Nina. I'm just taking out my artifact because Taylor's being boring. So, right, trying to see what's going on. But my artifact is the circular stone plate with the face that appears to speak. Right, I'm just checking to see if it's still doing what it usually does. It is doing what it normally does right now to you. To be fair, you point out a plate, you're looking at it. So you're interacting with it and all it really sees is you. So I'm going to say, yes, it just does what it normally does for right now. And then Eshman made his way around the obelisk to the third side of the obelisk. Let's just make sure we all stay within sight of each other. All right, let's not. Right, so the looking roadside, let's step the pace up here. Let's get moving. So you move around to the side and you see a desert scene. You see, again, a reflection. It looks like what would be behind you. But behind you where there's a doom, maybe 30 or 40 foot in the distance, it's five foot high, you see a little boy. Again, looks like desert folk dressed in the appropriate tunic and your robes and what not to keep the sand away. And he's flying a kite on the hill. He's standing at this little doom and he's flying a up kite in the sky. He looks over and he sees you and he waves. I wave him over. Okay. Oh, this is what you guys are seeing. The guys of you were saying you were just staying close and watching or making sure that it was happening. I kind of want to keep my eye on all three of them. I'm not ready to finish the link here and look in the fourth wall. When I was feeling out with my senses, was there any switch I could pull to activate or deactivate this smaller? Now that you were able to ask me. No. Oh, okay. I'm back to the car. Okay. Screaming lady can't do anything about it. I'm trying to, yeah. I look back to the gearman, try to make acting like my sister and go. Shred my shoulders like. Yeah, I have to wait. Right. Go check out the other side, whatever. The little boy points to his kite and shakes his head. No. He's like fighting with his kite. Oh, I got the kid playing with the kite channel. But you're lost in a sense. I got the speaking face channel. I'll see. I look at his plate. Someone go look at the fourth side. I think he sees it too, right? You're not the only one that sees it. Or she sees it too. Right. All right, I'm curious. I will walk over to the fourth side and look into it. Oh, if you remember, I had this credit chip that we got from the guy. And when I came back, I didn't have it anymore. I have a book on the southern desert. And I crack it open and start trying to look up this monolith. Okay. And I assumed the guy reflecting me doesn't have a book. No, he doesn't. You are here. But he stands patiently in the same pose that you have. Every time you look up, he looks up. But he's dead. He's turning pages even though he doesn't have a book. He's blocking me. He is. He is turning a page as he's not necessarily mocking you. He may be mocking you. I can't really answer that because you don't know. So finally, he walks around to the fourth side, which is the side that's off into the desert a bit more. I climb up on the wagon and then look around. If I were to ambush somebody, this would be the place damage. That's what I was going back to. Everyone's fucking full. Checking their hair in the mirror and get attacked. No, there doesn't seem to be anything. Visually. I'll write the person a note saying, "Can you read and ask him questions on my paper?" But these kids have won. Bob, you move around to the fourth side. And that is the side that has the most reflection. It's facing towards the sun. What little the sun that's actually breaking through and its feeble rays kind of shining upon the southern desert. Breaking through what? The cloud cover, the sand, the swirling sand. Storm. Yeah, I thought there was no bridge because it was a zit. Okay, whatever. No, there are lots of clouds. I think the sand is going on. I got the scarf from it. Right. Okay. The scarf. Good enough. And when you walk around to that fourth facet that has not been viewed yet, you see a very disturbing sight. You see what looks to be a large automaton of some sort. But it's shattered on the desert floor. And it has sand that's sweeping over it. And all that you can really see well. I mean, there's an arm socket that's buried in the sand here. And there's obviously something that looks like a torso that you're just catching a bit of glint from when you look and see. But what you do see planted directly on top of the sand is the head. And the head itself is metallic, of course, because it's an automaton. And it seems to have recessed vision of some sort, where you see two red dots that are kind of further back in darkness. And the two dots follow you to where you are. And then when you look somewhere, again, you seem to see some sort of pantomime of the eyes moving with your eyes, of this decapitated automaton that is laying in the desert. Did you say it was like a giant or just like my size? Larger than you, but I wouldn't call it a giant. If you had a guess, you would say maybe 50% larger than you. I wouldn't necessarily call that giant task, but it's not you. It's not your torso. It's not anything along those lines, but it is an automaton. And it is disconcertingly apropos in the sense that you're half machine yourself. I mean, I don't think that's lost on you. That you're seeing someone's talking about seeing a little boy, someone's talking about seeing a screaming woman. You're talking about destroyed automaton. You're a screaming woman. You're a screaming woman. It's just like with his feminine side. Glad I told you all what I saw. So that's the first one I got. I'm getting dinner tonight. I'll wake up there. Let me show you glimpses of the past or future I'm looking for a way to maybe tune it forward or backwards. Isn't that true? I mean, it's just a glass of hablis, is all it is. There's no dials. There's nothing that you can do. Even Zig reaching out with his-- I mean, I can say, sir. His senses are always trying to fly too high, but he can't control it. I'm just saying. The kite's imagery is about trying to reach forgotten. I'm just a kid with a kite, but now that's just me. Sometimes it's a garish, it's a cigar. You're not a psychiatrist, don't you? Somebody said, "Go flight, kite." There you go. So anything else with the glass hablis? Ladies, I think we should take it with us. Yes, take this 8-foot tall hablis out of the ground. Go away and come back. Yes. On the way back. Let's see what we should read. How wonderful. Okay. The boy's done fucking around now. I mentioned the book says about as much as Tila did. It's a curiosity. I don't know what it means. It actually says a little bit less than her. It just ends with a map. Sure. There's a brief mention in the southern waste part of the entry of hablis made of glass and other glass oddities. And it's just a brief two or three side. Take it and point at it to the guy and I'm kind of frustrated because he always looks where I look and I can't look at the book and I fuck you and I walk away. So there when you look back as you're walking away, he looks back as he's walking away. This is a strange mysterious object. There's a lot of mysteries in the desert. Tila is kind of right. We're kind of moths to a desert moths to a flame here. No, it's the matter on the track. It's good. He covered it. Right. So let's mark it down in our map. We can talk about it with somebody who knows about this later but we should move on. Sometimes the hablis isn't just an hablis because the girls are over here in the mirror. I'm just saying. I'm still open. I'll let the girls look in here because who knows what the hell they'll see. Okay, so you continue on your way. All right. And within, I'd say another 45 minutes to a half hour, you see a glass of hablis on the left side of the road. And as you get closer to this one, all you see is a standard reflection of the desert and your scenery. You don't get the same effect that you had before. And you continue on for another hour or two. Is it in life, roughly? Roughly. You continue on for another hour or two. And you see on the right-hand side and on the left-hand side two floating glass hablisks. Something tells me that these things have got to control wherever these things disappear. I don't know. How many days do they travel where they when they disappear? I thought it was normally two, right? Yeah. Give it to me. This is towards the end of our second. This is towards the middle of your second. It's almost floating. They are floating actually upside down. They are inversed. So the point of the hablis is pointing towards the desert floor. But it's hovering about five foot off the desert floor. And you would guess that it might be 10, 12 foot. Ah, it's tough to tell. It's tough to gauge because it's floating in the air. But you have two hablis that are made of glass, completely free of any sand or any type of residue. And that's surprising, especially you guys, because you are coated in it and just hating every second of it. Having a blast. But this is... These hablis seem to be impervious to the sand, at least to the sand sticking to them. And these hablis that are upside down are also reflecting the scenery as well. You don't get the strange visions or the strange sites you had before. Is it like right down our path? They're off a bit. It seems as if maybe the path, and because the path doesn't seem to be a straight line on his map, nor in reality, it seems to meander a bit. And it seems that you haven't seen hablis a half mile off in the distance. They always seem to be right within 30 feet of the path. So the paths are following the hablis. Right, almost as if the path was made to follow the hablis, or the hablis were created during the path. It's a jog over there. Bosco push it. Without consulting. Push the floating hablis. Sure, of course. That sounds pretty tough. Am I just an active flip them? Am I just an activation, of course, that I understand the function of the machine? Yeah. My size is smaller. Sorry, I didn't know that. No, that's right. I'm going to use my scan esoteric as I get within 10 feet of this. Okay, I need to know what the hell that does. Am I aware of any history of the floating ones being different than the non-fotting ones? No, you heard of the glass hablis of the southern wastes. So it was more of a collective in that they have strange reflections sometimes, and sometimes they don't. So obviously, the first one you came to had really strange reflections, and the last three that you've seen seem not to. And one other question you said is one on each side of the road. In this particular instance, they're not exactly parallel. Oh, okay. Yeah, they're a bit off-center. The great gate that we're going to go through. Kind of. Yeah, I mean, it's a angle though. It's a gate in your mind, right? Yeah, I mean, it's you certainly are going through both, and you certainly pass through. I guess you could have said that with the ones that were in the 1/4 mile away too, in the ground they were a little bit closer. These are much closer. Nina jumps off the cart and jogs up to the one that's floating to the left, which would, on her map, be to the west. And she pulls out one of her esoteries, and when she's done looking up, we will know what she does. The esoteries is a spell. I'm sorry, I was thinking of a cipher. So she prepares an esoterie. Scan is a scan an area equal to, in size to a 10 foot, 3 meter cube, including all objects or creatures within that area. The area must be within short range, scanning. It is a creature. It is definitely within short range. You also learn whatever effects the GM feels are pertinent about the matter and energy in that area. It's all on you. I love what it's all on you. You might learn that a glass cylinder is full of place and glass, and its metal stand has an electrical field running through it, blah, blah, blah. You'll learn about the materials, but not necessarily what they do. Got it. Is that esoterie free? Because you have... No, it's two intellect points. The difficulty is... It's like it's 13 and I have an edge of one, so it's costing me one. And I have over 12. You scan the area, and the feedback that you receive from your scan mentally, which you can share or choose not to share with the rest of your party, is that the albalisk is made from glass. It's not your normal temper glass. You would see in a woman's bandy. It's definitely composed of heated sand in some glass-like material, but it seems like as if the whole obelisk is made of glass. If you were to chip away from it somehow, you would still find glass underneath the glass, if you will. It's solid glass. And not only that, but there seems to be a coating on the glass that is of a chemical composition that you are not familiar with. And based on the chemical composition, and things you've searched and scanned in the past, you're guessing that it has an incredible level of hardness to it. So it would be practically or not impossible to damage the glass of the obelisk. You're able to tell that this was something created by a very advanced society, because the level of the obelisk is level 10, which is an extremely obviously high level of skill and craftsmanship. You're also able to sense that there is something powering the obelisk, but it's not the stuff that you're used to seeing. We'll call it black matter for just the sake of this conversation. And there is something that's powering it that is unlike anything you've ever saw heard before. I'm going to walk directly underneath it. It's about five feet from underneath somebody who's going to do that. It's about five feet from around down or whatever I have to see if I can fast through it, if I feel it. Why do you feel the urge to walk under an eight-foot-tall spear and put yourself right underneath the point? You are able to move underneath it without any difficulty whatsoever. Nope. How about if I jog on back? How about if I walk in between the two of them? Do I disappear? Nope. You walk between the two of them and you are on the other side of the two of them. That's how we test that we send the messiah. Right. And the messiah knows. It's all good. So once again, a strange anomaly with these glass obelisks, but nothing that you're able to suss out. Yeah, just yet. Did you share that information? Sure. So you continue on down the path. I'm going to say that around 1600 hours, you guys feel the need to stop. You're just too uncomfortable. The sand is building up too much in your boots and in your clothing and you're hungry and you're cranky and you haven't seen shit yet of anything. Oh yeah, I thought I'd talk about our evening. You haven't been attacked. It's been an uncomfortable boring, well, with the exception of last night trip. The actual trip part of the trip has been exceedingly dull. No creatures, no 80% of desert travel is boring shit. Yeah, that's true of all the other 20% is terrible death. So you know, I like pretty well. Portum is good. Yeah, we've experienced all of that. Let's talk about midnight with Kila. Yeah, we need a good lunch topic. Kila, I don't know if your brothers talked to you and maybe we should stop this conversation until it gets back. Oh yeah, he's cobbling and taking care of the any, right the second. I think you've been hobbling. Yes, that, not cobbling. That would be making those shoes. Hey, it might be some shoes after all this desert travel. Or road, or road, I'm in sense, sure. Have we talked to you about what happened last night? Do you know your member? Yeah, I was wondering if you like exhausted all of your energies and various fields. Does that matter when you do your little trick? You become refreshed or you beat the hell then? Let me just say that you exhausted yourself and I'm going to marathon. Are you looking for an easy way to kill me? I know, easy way to do you. No, I'm saying that if you like, don't want a marathon that ended near midnight. It sure would. What would the result be at midnight? Did that matter? Did that be a really tired rabbit piece? It'd be harder for it to break its bonds. Definitely. Maybe your brother just, maybe you'd go a bit more up for sleep. But don't have to kill you. The beast, tell us how to kill you. Tell us how to keep you from killing us. The beast and I are one. If I am damaged, it is damaged. It is damaged, I am damaged. So, I've seen Ashman do some significant hit. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's pretty impressive. The best answer is to have that music playing already. Wow, a few minutes early. Yeah. I think the bear has to be conscious for today. Oh yeah. Okay. But at least the music's running as soon as she transforms. The second it's there. And it's she's putting the music on. Current working plan with your brother is that we leave your two behind like an hour before we make camp. Who's that? And then after you're done with your transformation and he's turned you back, you catch up with us. Or he drives you back because the last time you weren't really in a catching up mood. Do I do? Oh, but it's all good. If anyone has anything else to add to that plan, we could make it better. I say you keep my brother busy in about an hour before I leave. I'll catch up with you in the morning. I might catch up before that. Not if I go directly away from you for an hour and a half. Within an hour, I'm able to fight back and take control. So if I don't kill something in that time, it falls asleep and be perfectly healthy the next day. The things you've killed and woken up in their remains. How big does it have to be? Does it have to be a certain size? Talking enough, I'm aware of it. The size it will do. You've woken up in front of the tiny rat. I'm trying to think of a small creature in this universe. Does it have to be funny? I don't know anything about it. I really should read the creatures. I've woken up alone with nothing noticeable nearby. So we should have any bones? If we leave you to your own devices and you fall asleep before you get back to us, we're going to have to find you. Are you saying you can't find me, Mr. Tracker? No, I'm saying I'm going to have to spend some hours after I wake up finding you. Where if we left you with your brother, you will turn back quickly. If you left me with my brother, you will be unprotected by far the best water in this group. You haven't seen anyone else fight in the history of ever. As an old man with a tail, a guy who thinks he's a god, a girl who's more likely to phase into someone that attacked them than a tracker. No, seriously, I suck at a fight. You're right. Thanks. Well, if you're going to go an hour and a half away, then that's going to add three hours to your travel time. As compared to ours. I guarantee I'll feel better than you right now. How about you go three hours ahead of us? Yeah, I'm just saying. I mean, can you do three hours a day for four more days? Three hours in addition to what we're doing? I will feel better than you right now, so yes. So maybe you should just stop and go for another hour and a half and then you catch up later. There is a trail right now. In fact, she can follow. Yeah, you could just hang around for an hour and a half. So it doesn't have to be three extra hours of travel for you. It could just be an hour and a half at a different time. Yeah. Yeah. I think if you stop and I continue for an hour and a half, it's better because the only trail I'll have to follow back is me. If I get left behind, it's the B's enough to follow your trail. Fine. Yeah, okay. Same numbers. All right, so you all came up with a great plan while her brother was. Cobbling. Cobbling. Cobbling. Cobbling. Cobbling for the yeah. Isn't that road built yet? All right, and you guys had onward and deeper into the desert where the dumens are starting to get a little bit larger as you had more south-ish because you're taking a winding path. And I need everyone at this point to make a roll. I'm not going to tell you what the roll is. Just make a roll. Not even going to tell you what the difficulty level is for, but you can put your upper into it if you want. And we put everything in something we don't know what we're doing. Okay, whatever. Put a lot of effort into doing something. I hope it paid off. I do not. Okay, so let's go with Eshman. Nine. Okay, you put any effort into it and you roll the nine. Yes. Okay, Tila. I rolled a two. A two. Actually, I rolled a four. That was apropos to your current condition of how you're feeling. What are you doing? Baz, you're driving? Are you distracted by your driving? Are you putting some unknown effort into something that might be occurring? Not really, I just, I might it's nine. Okay, you roll the nine? Yeah. Good try. Nina? Eighteen. Eighteen. Exceptional. Is that with any effort or just straight up? Okay. And then Felix? Nine with effort. Nine with effort. Okay, one effort. One effort. I only have one effort. Last but not least. Sick. Uh, twenty. Sig was eagerly awaiting the next. Natural 20th. Holy shit. And you rolled 18, right? Natural 20. Yeah. The second comes with benefit. Yeah. I don't know what I could benefit from. That's a major. Major effect. Anyways, it's major. And Nina just missed a minor effect with her 18, which was just one off of the minor effect. So both of you happen to be looking, talking, you're standing in the back of the wagon, letting it take some of the toll because your feet are again covered and your boots are covered with sand and you're like, where you're done walking. So you go jump up, you empty out your boots over the side. You're kind of just talking and shooting the shit for a while while you're waiting for. Is all of the sand from the walking or is it windy? It's both. It's windy and it is also like a-- Because I got my goggles on. Right. I'm sure you do. That's helped a lot actually to keep the sand away. But you both notice as the dunes are getting a little bit larger, maybe now 10 feet as opposed to 5 feet? Not huge, but they're definitely getting larger. Both of you caught a glimpse of figures going from one dune to the next off to the east, off to your right. They looked in your direction and scurried. They looked to be human-sized and shape and inform. I immediately tell everyone we have company. Right. Point. So Nina, that's what you caught. You caught a movement of things that were humanoid in size and were dashing from one dune to another as you just happened to both look that way. Sig, on your natural 20's since it was a major effect to give you something more than that, you saw four distinct creatures, if you will. So you were able to pick out how many there were, exactly. There were four. Again, they were humanoid-sized. You're guests based on the way they were dressed and the way they were moving and a glimpse of a weapon that you might have saw. A hand axe that one of them was carrying. It looked to you to be some sort of ab-human. And you thought that as they disappeared behind another dune, and you looked towards Nina to say like, "What the fuck? Did you see that?" The corner of your eye, you kept something scurrying after them. Something trailing them. Whether a friend or foe, you don't know. It was definitely low to the ground and you don't know what it was. But you caught that as well with your major effect. So I'm sorry, did you want something you wanted to say, Felix? Yeah, what did I spend up for him? Was that intellect? In that particular instance, yes, it would have been intellect. You were searching. You were seeing how intently you were looking and sculpting the scenery out at that moment, and if you were looking in the right direction. It cost me two point because of my edge. There's no cover to this cart, or is that? No, there's no cover to the cart. Then I stand up for the cart. There's walls to the cart. Yeah, I stand up. Over cover. I lean on one of the walls and point up to the dune and say, "Four ab-humans, weapons drawn." Okay, so you point to the east about, I'm going to say somewhere in the vicinity of an eighth of a mile distance. It wasn't close. It's not like they're right there. They're seem to be far away. It was an amazing, well, an 18 and a 20. So you can kind of imagine how amazing that role was. But that was definitely some good scouting by Nina and Sig. So yeah, Sig shouts out, ab-humans. I look in their direction and try to verify the count and see what type of weapons they have. They went from one sand dune to another. So they are not blocked. All you have is Nina and Sig's word that, it's one of those things like when you're pointing the distance. It's that dune. It's that dune right there. No, that dune. Look at the other direction to see if there's anywhere that we can get a more defensive bolt position. They're going to say like six o'clock. You mean the one with the sand on it? It's about 14 hours, I don't know. Right. Twelve, thirty-five o'clock. No, he just says, "Do east." Third dune from my finger to the left or whatever. He just gets some decent directions. I think it would go to greed. Or yeah, three degrees from the dune with the rocky outcropping or something like that, which gets everyone a vague idea of. Is there a higher ground or is there anywhere ahead of us that maybe we could... Run up a dune? Or at least they were on foot. Did you mention the trailer? They're moving fast. I had to end something else, but I didn't know what. Hmm. Were they on foot or were they riding in? They're on foot. They're trying to get the drop on us. Oh, they're still there trying to out flank us. So I guess I'd look ahead to see if there's anywhere a little bit more defensible. And then everyone get their weapons ready. Yeah, I draw my, I have a broad start. I draw that and I just kind of move closer to my brother and look for his... He's on the actual seeding outside of the wagon and the seeding that's driving the anne. He's actually holding the range and driving it. But there is, there's, it's a two-seater as far as the bench. Well, I hadn't assumed somebody was already there. So I just moved closer to the wagon and I'm looking. Clear on the wagon, but closer to the wagon. No, I'm walking next to the wagon, but on his side. On his side, got it. I'll just sit next to him. Okay, you're up top, Ashman, next to... He's got a weapon. And who's the warrior? I'll just sit next to him. Okay, Nina. I'm going to the wagon. Well, you were in the wagon. Yeah, nothing off and going to the opposite side. Whatever we saw, I just want to look that way by that. Which would be the side that Teal is on. Kind of covered. Right. I don't suppose any of you guys have the ability to like create some type of shimmer or glamour that can... I do. Once or all that black. No? Are you talking big? I'm talking hedge magic. I can do hedge magic. There's maybe a big... I'm sorry, I was just gonna say maybe... Well, do we... If we've got nowhere to move or run to, then maybe we just try to conceal and see if they either miss us. You're in an open desert with five or ten foot dunes. There's no defensible spot. Michael's swimming their enemies. That's probably a good assumption, but we don't know that for sure. But out in the desert, you only trust the people you bring with you. Talk for the best. Brother, you want me to take the reins in and pretend that I'm going forward so you can flank the flankers. Well, one against four. Who else wants to go with me? Not me. I'm not sure the podcast listeners. Jim raised his hand and you say... Not me. I prefer to be hidden before a fire helps. You're a tracker and you see where they're tracking us, so maybe you can get yourself into position. Are you assuming they have some type of arranged weapon? So, hey, name it. Felix, you page through to your map and to your mind in about mile or so in the distance, there is going to be a split in the path. The main path, if you can call it, that leads to four lean outpost. It's a small town of maybe less than 50 people, handful of people living out in the desert. The other path veers southeast and that path is a path they're going to take. And within another, let's say, three to five miles, tough to tell on this hand-drawn map. Within three to five miles, there is something listed as the reflecting oasis. That sounds intriguing. Great place to set an ambush. All right. I don't know how to escape them for six miles. Well, if it's an oasis, that else might be their base. Another option. It could be out of the town. Also, I just remembered I can't remember. Do you have room for another cycle? You got to slip him a stim pill that gives him plus three steps down, like, reduce the difficulty of something for a physical move. Okay, so you hand him one of those to do some case to get ambushed. Right. Do you want to take out the altercation? How long do they last? I think it's for one action. Oh, okay. So, you can totally obliterate one guy. Right. So, plus three physical stim pill. Right. Two mic or speed. Reduces the difficulty of a mic or speed task by three. With hedge magic, it costs one to intellect my half a edge of one. So, I could do it for free. Yep. I take over the reins and make myself appear to be my brother still sitting in the thing so that he can go do what he needs to do. Okay. I don't know when it's down. For the record, the hedge magic says you can perform a small trick, temporary, change the color, or basic appearance of a small object. I'm just changing my face. Okay. So, I'm not doing the whole body thing. I'm just trying to look at it. You look very impressed, Spous. Spous? Well, if you hit me or hurt, Spous, you're having all kinds of troubles. I know. I have, you're being dated. You're being turned, you're kind of woman with your face. It's just, it's been a rough trial for you. I do as much as I can, but I wear baggy closing anyways, because I tend to. Well, I guess the question is, do we, do we get in the wagon and make a break for it and try to hit the spork in the road? How fast can this mind go? I'm hoping faster than what they can do on the foot. Let's find out. Open it up. Open is a need up. That's great food. Well, if I'm going by the, back in the ancient, ancient, ancient, ancient history, they had like horses drawing covered wagons across the plains of a small kind of, so our big time in those in case was, so they can haul ass pretty fast. Sure. We've got some, we're short, we're short, first. Yeah, we're short, first. And if it's only, if you said it's about a mile, you said the fork in the road is about a mile in the distance. The oasis is a good anywhere from three to five miles. It's tough to tell on this hand drive back. Only three to five miles. And the town was. The town was another 10. Oh my. That's so helpful. That's pretty fun. And calling it a town would be gratuitous. What the dude that they were behind is how far away. About an eighth of a mile. Middle close. Well, then, if I'm just saying, if I continue on a pace that seems normal, like we don't know what's going on, it gives you an opportunity to do something. Well, then we can try to do something sneaky. And that is kind of try to outflank them by hanging back, trying to conceal ourselves and then follow up behind. And all of this is going to go with what you mean. All right, Felix, how are you and me? You've got sneaky boots. I don't even want to call them. I've filled so much. He is good and close quarter stuff and I wanted to stay close to Tila. Well, I imagine this is for when we found out. I got the vibe. You were good at hiding. Yeah. That is what I was still out about it. Then would she be good to hang back with you? The guy sitting next to me, I'll be okay. All right, well, yeah, if you want to split with the party and three Felix and Nina and I hang back and I'm not going to fight, but I can defend myself. Believe you, the noncombatants, it'll be great. Okay, sure. What do you go wrong with this? This groggy, cryy bitch is in charge of the noncombatants. This is good. Can't you do your whole thing now? I wish. All right. All right, so what's the plan? The three of us fall back and you between my fallback hop. Well, we wait for an opportune at the time, like we're passing a dune and we kind of slip off to the side where they aren't, right? No, we also try to like get to the dunes and use the dunes where they're trying to use it against us. I think that's what he's saying. What she's saying is wait to the wagon is passing a dune, jump off to the west, which is the opposite side, because they're on your east and try to hide behind one of the dunes and let some time pass. Let them just go past us and then we'll fight them. Let's see if we can just keep going until we hear something and turn around and see if we can help out. Well, we'll probably, I guess what we'd like to do is three of us hang back. We hide in the dunes. We let the group come up. If you hear us engage them, you guys can stop and then we can flank them. You on one side of the group, we on the other and kind of squeezing between us if it comes to that as best we can, right? Or you guys can also go forward and make a break for it, but then that kind of leaves us outnumbered in the desert alone, so that may be the worst plan. Yeah, I've looked for A. Okay, let's stick with A, then. Seeing as I'm in the- I like to back up with the non-combatants. It sounds- Do you like to get a room for another sniper? No, uh, why? Nina? Yes. I'm carrying two complex ones. I don't have any ranged weapons. If anybody's got a decent ranged weapon, they're not going to be using- I have a retaliation. Module, you kind of attest to and it'll hurt anyone who tries to hit you. Great. I have room for that. Go ahead. That's a one- That's a- One shot? It'll work for the fight, but- All right, after that, that's exactly what I needed. So this is a necklace or just a thing. The first one I used, I said it was something I attached to my uh- You have several- Neon priest insignia and kind of snapped it in. But nobody has anything like that, so I don't really know how they would do it. Yeah, I'd say you tag it on to your policies. If I could broach or something, I don't know. It's electricity if that matters. That's what I need to give to you. Yeah, that would be- That'd be mean. All right, so by understanding what you're doing specifically, Bosco and- Felix. Felix. And Nina. And Nina are staying behind. They're slipping behind the gym. They're slipping behind the wagon, trying to conceal. They were hiding behind there. Tila is throwing a simple glamour to- The skies are so approximately as me. They feel like, uh- Sig, Eshman, and Tila are on the wagon. I'm trying to winch our stuff in the back of the wagon to make it look like there's people there, maybe laying down or something. Okay. And they'll be proceeding as normal. And then what we're going to try to do is hang back and hide long enough to see if this group reveals themselves. And then we'll try to sneak up or move up behind them and assess the situation then. And if they're hostile, which I'm pretty sure they are, Felix will engage with long range and will try to hit him hard. And then once we engage the other three in the wagon, we can stop and help out. And then we'll kind of get him a flight. Okay. That sounds like a great plan. Be ashamed if they notice to sleeve the wagon. It would be. I'm wearing armor shield and a sword. You can borrow my sneak boots. My sneak boots? Sneaky boots. They're wonderful. What type of skill does any of you have in the art of? Sneaking. Sneaking. I'm trying to move these. I don't know that that contains sneaking. Mostly because, mostly I don't think it does, because Hunt's with great skill gets sneaking at your tube. Skills can stack. I have stealth. That's perfect. That's perfect. So go ahead and make a roll. I probably go sneaking off, I remind you. I have a flash grenade. Well, keep it as a ace for the grenade. But you roll the five? Yep. Okay, on your stealth roll, which you're trained for, so that removes the level right there. Well, that could obviously reveal whether or not you made it or not, because that would ruin the sort of prize. But you don't feel like it was your most stealthy maneuver ever. But at a distance with sand blowing, the skies are darkened a bit because of the sand in the cloud cover. It took a miracle shot for them to see us maybe. Yeah, it would take a heck of a shot for them to see you. So you feel somewhat confident, even though it wasn't your best attempt that you safely sconched yourself behind this particular dune. Go ahead, Felix, make a roll. I'm going to spend an effort again. You can only cost me two. And I have these boots that have had plus one to sneak in. Plus one level? No, just plus one. Plus one to your roll. Yep. Okay, have at it. I don't know, 12 and plus the effort, so. Right, okay. So you feel confident that you were... Wow. Did you see that? Need it, did you see that? No, you're really good. Really good, I was falling on my face. I have physical skills in climbing and mic defense action, so I don't think any of those really... They don't apply. So you can either spend effort based on speed, or you can just go ahead and make your roll. I am hedge-magicing him a little bit to help him sneak better. All right. Like making a glory. Making a glory? Change magic to ours. I'll give you a level of hedge magic. Because you're that. Reduce the level of the shift, then I will spend the effort as well. You know what, I am doing one hedge magic, so I'm going to say that if I do a second one, that the cost is accumulative, and so that cost. Because you're holding one in place. Right. I mean, there's got to be something. I can see that. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, go ahead, Vasco. All right, so effort of one. Right. And... Oh my gosh. Yeah, it would be roll. It would be roll. Well, at least you had to roll one, because that would have been absolutely disastrous. Like pots of pans. My talking trip over. What the fuck is wrong with you people? This was a great plan. It was going to be a 20-game. I just look at Ashman and say, "Man." So everyone, yeah, everyone here sees and notices Vasco trying to get behind this thing. Instead of going to the... Instead of following the... Go back. Don't compromise our cover. We made it. Instead of following the wagon and taking the south side of the hill, the dune. He decided to try to go the same way. You guys are going to jump out first and go around the north side of the dune, which exposed himself a bit to view if someone was looking at that point. And then he stuck behind the hill. So you guys, we're all just... Oh. Hey, here we go. I hope we win. Vasco. So, you guys are going to obviously look like you're trying to hide, even though you're not. All right. Well, I am well. I think we'll call it there. Thanks for listening to Lights 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 form for comments and suggestions. Or you could email us directly at feedback. at 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 zanaudiosmith.com. And please join us next episode for more mystery and adventure. [Music] They drop your weapons. That's what they're doing. They're all dropping their weapons in the mirror. You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, I'm gonna do this one now. I could just wait till what else. Feedback. No, apparently you can't. Because I'm going to crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack.