Clean up time after the battle, what’s that in the pit? And then it’s time to move on – but to where and how?Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all!
Knights of the Night
KotN Actual Play Podcast - 158 Numenera - Christmas in the Desert
(upbeat music) Hello and welcome to Nights at the Night actual play podcast. This new manure adventure, sand swept, was written and run by a GM Scott. And now please enjoy episode 158 titled Christmas in the Desert. Actual play begins five minutes. (upbeat music) (piano music) Before we get started on the episode, we actually don't have any feedback this week. But we'd like to-- - I just released the episode on false. - And that's what it all went down to. - I was like releasing the episode because I was going to pick up the daughter from college. The adventure that that was, small accident on the way home, we didn't damage the car, but we went off into the-- - We're the most active post-operative person I've ever known. - Yeah. - To jumping jacks. I didn't actually drive the intro down there, which was great because I got to relax. But it's a lot of driving and my sister drove and-- - Relaxing through driving through Pennsylvania and New York. - Oh, oh, oh, I didn't mean to mention this. We went into Pennsylvania for the first time, we took a different route and I've gone to pick up my daughter from college a number of times. And they're throughout the entire state of New York as you're driving, there are signs, deer crossing, deer crossing. First time ever, it was a teal crossing. It was as big as bear. - I've never seen a bear crossing before. It was, it was crazy. - Well, if you go to Maine, there's moose crossings. - Is there right? - And I'd make fun of them until you cross-- - A moose crossed in front of our vehicle. - In which case, this will kill your ass. - It will, because I got out of the car and my college girlfriend's time was screaming at me, which I don't think really-- - How are you doing? - Calm the moose down all that much. We're ranting at me. Kind of wanted to picture 'cause it was raining, it was drizzling. - I didn't mean to get a picture of the bear crossing sign, but I don't-- - Sure, but that last little detail kind of explains the story a lot more, because I didn't understand why she's screaming if she drove past a moose in there. - Right, no. - It was stopping. - It was stopping. - Oh, the brown and lowered its antlers. She's like, hit the fuck back in the car! - Well, let's see now, in that context, the mixing force. - I saw a bear crossing sign. - I did not see a bear. I saw a bear crossing sign. - Oh, I saw a bear. - Just from the record, what medication are you in? - That means-- - A number of different medications, yes, and it's only quite good. - What was the episode released, like four hours ago? - Oh, yeah, it was at least this morning that was after driving 16 hours and getting worse when I was asleep. So, any editing problems? That's since my explanation. So we don't have any feedback. That was my fault for getting the episode out, so like we normally do have feedback. But we did have some activity on the fan page. Michael brought it up, and I wasn't drawing it while I waited. Someone asked what the music box music would be. - I thought we'd get that very clear. - No, it's not the little monkey thing that you know. - No, it's not. - It's clear that that was not what it was. - I said that I was thinking, if I was ever gonna have to design a music to it would be our intro music, the Giro for us. That would be kind of interesting. - Well, that'd be a nice little time. - Why? - Some people posted some different ideas, and then one I thought was actually not bad. I mean, it's, I believe-- - It's a number one. - A new two? - It's on YouTube, and it was titled Specifically Creepy Music Box. (laughing) - It sounds pretty cool. - It sounds really cool. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's apropos. - It is, actually. Michael's gonna play it. (piano music) - It is a very creepy music box, like quite slumber. - I thought that was a good one. - But I'm sure other fans will put in what they think. - Sure. - The music box should be. And I'm telling you right now, somebody in the fangaroo puts in the little monkey song where he's doing the music box. - Jack in the box. - I'm looking to get his ass out of the fangaroo, even though I don't have that power. - Yeah, even though you can't do that. - Even though I can't do that. (laughing) - Anyways, that's it. That's all the feedback. - There's a monkey chasing a whistle you've never heard? - Half that's a whistle? - I don't know. - Half a whistle. - It's a long time ago. (laughing) - Half goes a rage piece. - Half kids, how do you not know this? - Somebody Google will work. - Half goes a rage piece? - I am a very rich monkey. She's the weasel monkey. That was all but fun. Half goes. (laughing) - I knew there was a reason we invited her. - And another resource. - For those of you who are wondering who that was, that's one of our new players, while at least spectator she's got. She's sitting in for an episode, see if she likes it. - And that's Rachel. - Hello everyone. - There you go. And with that, we'll let you get on to the episode. - And since we're only a few days away, Merry Christmas to everybody. Happy holidays. Be safe out there. Watch the moose crossings and the bear crossings. - They're safe now. - Stay out of the burn. - And thanks for listening. - Yeah. - It'd be holiday. - This is chapter eight of the new manera story, "Sandswept." I am your GM, Scott. And with me today on my right hand. - I am Jim playing "Eshman" in mystical nano who works miracles and will probably not make it to a guide by the end of this adventure. - I'm Tom playing "Tila," the intelligent Jack who housed at the moon. - My name's Mike. I'm playing "Baz," the tough play for who fuses flesh and steel. - Now, Michael, I'm playing Nina, a stealthy nano who exists partially out of faith. - 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, last week we wrapped up the battle of Sand Pit Doom. And I believe everyone made it out all right, alive. From the battle, we had one of the ab humans escape, albeit with a bolt broken off in its chest. One of the mudbirds are the raven men. All the other antagonists were killed. "Tila," I believe you ended up running off with a kill. That mistake it in-- - I chased one down and devoured it while my brother watched and then did the music box, yes. - Oh, we're doing that, okay. So that's what we do. We'll say that everyone reconnoiters around the Sand Pit because the arachnids is dead at this point. It obviously leads to a central point because it has all your goods that spilled into it when the wagon fell over and broke in the pit. So all of you are standing around this Sand Pit, wondering what to do next. And that's where we'll pick it up. - I showed up. Do I get experience? - A couple things. Let's-- we'll go through this at an accelerated pace. Everyone gets too experienced for that battle. Unfortunately, on the two dimensionally scrambled mudbirds, there were four ciphers, but only two of them survived the scrambling, the dimensional scrambling. So any one of you can roll, or you can kind of take turns, whatever you want to do there. So there's two random ciphers picked up from the mudbirds that were scrambled. There was two more on the leader who was the one who snuck up behind Felix and attempted to stab him from behind, which was awarded from the brave actions of Boz, Nina, and Felix himself. So we have a total of four ciphers that were picked up off the dead corpses of the mudbirds. There was also a total of 12 shins on the three creatures. Yes. - Okay. As far as how we're dividing this up, after we all gather around the cart and look at it in the pit. - So he's inherited still. He's missing so much intellect. He's gone to zero on his pool. - Yeah, he's totally drained. - You're barely walking around. - Yeah, he's just entering into the distance and he wanders away, just kind of walking. He's listening to his senses and he's just kind of trying to pick out the noise that's buzzing in bothering him. He's looking for the second. - And I'm asking you guys, you know why he's like that, right? - He's fucking crazy now. - Because he was the one that caused her to go off again. Which was a good thing and a bad thing. - Well, I don't know. - One way or another. - It might be a bad thing and a worse thing because Sig forced Tila to transform, but I don't know if she is still going to be affected by the moon and when her time is up. So I don't know if we're in for another transformation here. I'm going to keep on playing this music box though. - Right. - Forever and ever. - Never mind. - Sig could use his one action to restore some of his-- - Sig's not there. - Right. - He is wandered off. So you're talking about him when he's not there. - I'm talking to him as a character. - Yeah, I'm going to restore my my pull. It's almost time to roll an action and restore a pull. - I'm sorry, I misunderstood. - Okay. - My character is kind of boogie for an hour after the transformation. I just won, but that's not a big deal. I mean, it only lasts for an hour. - Well, I asked Geshman, tell me exactly what you're accusing Sig of doing. Are you saying that he's the one that triggered this transformation because I assumed that the attack by the chirag is what triggered the attack. So what makes you-- - I have never, never transformed in the day down before. - That's what I mean. I'm only telling you what I know based on what I saw. And the only thing that I saw was that you were fighting the chirag. So I assumed that your transformation was starting from there. I should now just said that no Sig somehow tripped you, or tripped your brain to trip the transformation. - It might be a good thing, though. - I saw it right through. - You saw it. - I saw what he looked like when he was scanning her the last time and he was looking at her and doing the same type of thing. If he didn't trigger it, he was at least in there taking a look around when it happened. - Yeah, but he does that shit all the time. - Yeah, but-- - But something triggered me. I'd never changed in the day like before. If he's able to change me, then he might be able to stop me from changing. This might be great. - Well, if you're not this, stop me. - Well, that's it. There's a good thing and a bad thing about it. It's how she can help learn to control it herself. - How do you do about someone going in and playing with your sister's brain? - I know. If you're like better at permission and just-- - Makes me. - You have to mention the danger to the entire party. - Makes me a little nervous that you can jump in anybody's head and turn something on and off like that. - I think it might be makes salvation. If you could permanently turn it off, this would be great. - Okay, T-Lo, we'll see. We'll talk to Sig once he gets a little more rational. - Where is he? - I don't know, why don't you go ahead and find him? - 'Cause there's one person in this group that tracks real well and it isn't me. - To be fair, he just wandered off to where some of the-- - Oh, he's with insight? - Yes, we'll take a look at the corpses. - Yeah, picking out some site. - Also, we're gonna have time. - All right, well-- - At the very least, we have to talk to Sig about doing what he's doing under more controlled circumstances and not in the middle of a whim. I want to go retrieve my daggers, or my dagger from the Murden. - Is there anything at the bottom of the suit that we need to get? - I like the cart. - I don't know, it's just, was there any other-- - You're taking a rip to your sister, what do you want? - Sure, so she's okay with it. It's tough to be angry about something. Someone's okay with it. - Well, I'm not too happy about it, and I haven't talked to Sig at it, and I just gotta think of a way of how best to communicate to the mutant, what not to do. - Beautiful. - Like I said, where's my dagger? I'm going to go get my dagger from the other body. - Your dagger was the ab-human that was on top of the dude and then chased Felix down the dude. - We did have several days worth of food in the cart. - Oh, yeah. - You have no food, right? - Just so everyone. - Unless someone's carrying a backpack, which I think the only person who got a backpack was Boss. - I got my backpack out of the wagon before. - No, you got mine. - Oh, dammit, that's weird. - Somebody threw you mine. - I could go-- - You might have had yours. - Can we go down? - Oh, yeah, I mean, you could go down there. - They're coming down the hole, I'm walking over to Sig. - Yeah, there's some, isn't there some bug legs hanging up in the rat movement anymore? - Supposedly. - Is the anine alive? - Yes, the anine is alive, it is trotting back with Ichabod holding it, it's one rain, Ichabod saved the anine. - Oh, man. - And it's bringing it back to the group. Hey, guys, I saved it. - It's good that it's still alive. - It's just a shame. Ichabod came. - Yeah. - Has it been about 10 minutes? - Just 10 minutes. - No five, maybe. - Where is Sig currently? Over this hill with a guy died. - If I've already been-- - In those five minutes found all the seconds you have, I am poking the little giblets that are left of the-- - The giblets are where two of them are. - Real quick. - And the leader is where the other two are. So, you are picking through the remains of the leader. You went to the, you were first led to the two that were disrupted. - There was still. - You got two off of them, one off of each. Then you went around the front of the doon and found two more on the leader who attacked-- - Come on. How many safeers are you currently carrying? - Well, he's got none. - How many can you carry? Because if you're picking up four of them, there's a problem. - Yeah, I'm gonna let that go for temporary. If he keeps them on him for an extended period time, we'll cause a problem. But just to collect them for the group, I'm not gonna have a big process. - So you have all four of them? - You should probably roll on the chart. - Don't have to identify them. - There is the difficulty of identifying them as well. - You will say that you're able to identify them. We'll take it as we go here, but just roll randomly for them so we can get that out. - The what? - Dice isn't it. - 100 side of dice. - Mm-hmm. - The two. - Yeah, just roll it. - Well, he's collecting those. - Sorry, picking those out and identifying them. I'm gonna go probably with somebody else down in the pit to see what we can get. - Nina wants to go down there. - Okay. - First thing I'm gonna do is stab one of the legs and make sure I don't get a reaction. - You get a sickly crunching noise, some oozing of some green liquid, but no movement from the arachnid. - I'll take that as dead, and then we can search the wagon in danger. - Before we do the ciphers, I was thinking that between Ichabod, myself, and the ropes that we have, we can get the anene to act as a beast of burden for a gear and kind of get that should occupy at least four of us. - To be fair, the anene is wounded. It's left hunch. My career leg was gouged pretty severely by Nina's knife. When she was jumping out of the wagon and trying to grab on a hole to get away from the collapsing wagon, right now it is actually bleeding a lot. Not bleeding, but bleeding. Making noises like it's pain in this back, leg is limping as Ichabod leads it back. - You're just going to kill your flock. - Well, it's either that or we camp out in the sand pit. - So for the knife. - After I'm going to say a two minute conversation about what Sig had done. There's another eight minutes that go by where you walk over, find him and are able to approach him and talk to him. In those eight minutes, Nina, and Bos, and Eshman, and Felix down in the hole. - Yeah, I'm helping. - Everyone kind of works there around the hole and starts trying to recover, coming up with a plan to recover the goods on the now broken wagon. - Well first of all, let's assess the wagon. I mean, is the wagon even recoverable? - I'm not going to say whether it's recoverable or not. I will say that the back axle did snap. The wheel has cracked in two when the axle snapped, all the way on that wheel snapped it, which hastened the tumble of the wagon into the sand pit. - In that case, either Eshman or Sig, who have some control over Numenera, do they have any way of fixing the steel on that? - Sig is not there, but Eshman has. - I think we might be almost to the destination, or at least 90% through. - I will remind you that there was a split up ahead. - One goes to a village, the other goes to where we're going. - The Oasis, I believe, was marked on the map as a destination. - So we need to get parks to fix the wagon or brand new wagon. - Well, we're going to have to end up walking, and if we don't have the means to fix an axle on a wheel, then there's really no point in exerting the effort, and we should just salvage what we can out of the wagon, get out of the pit, and head towards the village, whatever's closest before nightfall. - Who has gone into the pit? - I'm in the pit. - Nina's in the pit, who else is in the pit? - Can we resolve this tech first? - No, there's a reason, three. - I am not in the pit. - Okay, the three of you, please, make a quick perception roll for me, please. - Jesus. - I see, I'm not going to terrible all around 4-4. - 4-4-2. - 4-4-2. - I'm watching the people. - We're busy at the wagon. - You are busy at the wagon. Eshmen, looking from above. Good afternoon. - 15. - You only need a nine. Eshmen, you notice that there seems to be along the western wall, which would be the wall closest to the dune. There seems to be a small cavity or an area that goes in. You can't call it a cave because it's not that big, but it's probably about five feet high, maybe about three feet deep. It's got a bunch of stuff hanging over the front, which made it very hard for the people that were down on that level to see. But there seems to be a small cavity there. - I say, hey guys, what's that hole on the other side? Over there. - Over there. - Who is going over a tooth, the cave. - There's no one else for you, it's like a busy turn. - Don't point it out. - Nina, we'll go check it out. - Yeah. - All right. Nina, you find a bunch of shiny things. - Ooh, I love shiny things. - Particularly in that particular alcove, you find an assortment of gems and jewels which are worthless in this world, for the most part, because I don't think I'm being manufactured any way they want to. So there's a plethora of rubies and emeralds and things that would look really pretty, but are not really worth anything. There is a sack, which was ripped, so it revealed some shiny shins that are inside, and there are 30 shins inside that particular sack or backpack or whatever you wanna call it. And then there are an additional three ciphers, shiny, metal-aged ciphers in that alcove. - All right, let's deal with Sig in myself for a minute before you find these, I wander over. - Okay. Sig's recovered a bit, and he looks-- - Actually, so do I. I spend the, at least, instant one to get three back. - We've spent 10 minutes. - And then a 10 minute later, I spend another to get a total of four. - So that's seven, is it the same side of plus one? - Sig. - I need to talk to you. - Oh! - How you feeling? - Like shit? - Really? - I normally, when I force myself to change back, I feel like shit, but I didn't get to feast first, so I feel less like shit. - You're talking to me, so that's a start. - Ashman is saying things about you as if you're the one who triggered this. I've never turned during the day before. - Yeah, I thought we were going to die. - So you did change me? - Yes. - Can you turn it off for good? - It was extremely difficult. - Oh yeah, yeah, we're all the way over there, all right. - I didn't get enough information about how I did it to begin with. - Like I found something out. - Yes, and I paid a price for it, not yours, my own. I don't know if it would be easy for me to do again, but I'm willing to try, and I hope this doesn't offend you in any way. - You could make this stop forever. I would be ever in your gratitude. - Well, that might take longer than one night. It wasn't easy to do to begin with, but I think I have at least something to grab onto now, okay? My brother might not be, I advise you to stay near me. - He was saying the other thing last night. - What? - He was saying the opposite last night. - You should stay away from me? - Yes, entirely. I don't know how this will pan out. - I don't either, but if my brother finds out that you were the one that truly triggered this, he might not be as happy as I am. He might try to kill you. So I'm advising that if you're near me, I could maybe stop him from killing you. - He asked me to help. - I think he may look at what you did as a violation of his sister, and might not be happy about it. - I think this new narrow is separate from you and anything I can do to affect it. I mean, obviously it affects you. I'm sorry that it had come to that, but I thought I was preserving our lives and it ended up giving me something that I might be able to give back to you later. - How, like I said, I'm all for this. So, what is it you found on these guys? - I found it, number 32. - A 70. - A 11. - 32, seven, eight, 11. - 63, 17. - 11, 32, 63, and 70. - A 11 is a data sphere siphon. - Before we know what it is, I need to roll. - You're right, identify it because the number, it's level will determine that difficulty. - The GM is saying that you know what they are. - Oh, it's a data sphere. - You're gonna be able to figure it out eventually, so why don't we, oh, let's get right here. We got more friction-reducing gel. I know what that one is. - See that before? - That might help on the wagon. - Mine controlling poison. - And 70 is a rejuvenator. - Ooh. - And this one's empty. - That's good to take care of. - How much does that you have? - Like two of my pools were drained, more or less. I might need this rejuvenator. The rejuvenator will look at that first, then since that's the most interesting. You and I are the only ones that know that they were there. - Did you transformation leave you with the answers? - Nothing that I'm not already recovered from. - That's good. - Five. - Seventh-level rejuvenator. It's an adjustable liquid, and it restores speed. - This is bullshit. - The substance restores the number of points equal to the cypher's level of one random pool that is a speed, so it restores five things of speed. - Somewhere Nina giggles gleefully. - Speed. - Yay. - I was down 10, but I rode a six plus one, which was seven, so. - So you're mostly? - Yeah. - I'm going to hit it so much right now. - The data sphere siphon is a die six, John. - Two. - So it's the second level, roll a die. It is a usable item. That would be a crystal. And the effect is that tapping into data sphere's knowledge, the user can learn the answer to one question. So it's a crystal. - I'll be keeping that. - This might actually give us even more. - On your condition. - We have the gel, so you can, friction reducing gel, you can roll for that. - Please. - It is a level of six. - Ooh. - That's some good. - It's a spray canister. - Of course it is. - Spray across 10 foot, three meter square. This gel makes things extremely slippery. And the poison, mine, four. - That's six level. - Two. - That would be internal. - Two. - That would be a pill. - The lipstick would have been level pill. - Can we make it lipstick? - No. - It is a pill. - Roll a die one hundred. - 73. - John Bowen. - A tax is closest friend for one round when within immediate ring. - Nina, you have, which one do you want to roll for first? Do you want to roll for your own private one? - No, I'm claiming off. - Okay. - Authority. - Infernal wall projector. - Ooh. - Whoa. - That sounds nasty. - Whoa. - Yeah. - It just portrays your entire wall. - 34. - 34 would be a gas bomb. He rolls better than you. - He does. - I got his status for a bitch out of here. - Sure. - 44. - These just sound cooler. - And 44 is in an intellect enhancement. - Now that we have the ciphers. - If you had a fiberglass, I'd be right. - You do have to disperse them, but I'm going to say that about an hour in game time passes as you put together a human chain of lifting up the cargo that could be salvageable from the wagon, which is pretty much everything. Nothing was majorly damaged. - Except the wagon. - Except the wagon itself, right? Your backpacks, any kind of adventure kits, any kind of things that you'd store away. Everything is an okay condition. It wasn't a hard fall, but the wagon itself, obviously we have a broken axle, a broken wheel, and we have the western or left side of the wagon shattered as well. - So it's practically kindling, right? Just strap everything with Canada and Union. - I got a heel, do you mean? - Well, yeah, we're going to use the Union as a beast of burden once Eshman heals it up. - Scott, I am rolling on a difficulty to heal our beast of burden. - All right. - Do I believe it's a six, right? - Yes. - You're correct. - And I rolled an 11, which is more than enough. And I healed it a big one. - Well, one isn't as inconsequential to think because Mina only did two damage to it, which you've healed half of it. It's slipping just slightly now at this point. And it stopped its bleeding and complaining. - You know, am I doing that? I tended to save the wagon and the shithead that has cut half the reins off. - It wouldn't be digging the food out. - I wonder, does anybody else need a boost? - If anyone's injured, we had like having reins and opportunities for three recovery rolls. - Yes. - Or do you want to wait 'til later? - Again, when we're recovery roll. - It's been an hour, at least, but don't you have to rest for an hour? 'Cause you guys have been working for this period of time to be fair. - Oh, okay. - It's now, you know, I don't think you have to fully rest and do absolutely nothing. - No, just sit down, talk in. Oh, I thought that it was-- - I'm pretty sure you had the rest because that's why I did basically nothing when I desperately needed to recover. - You can double check that for us, please, Thomas. - At the end of the battle, and by the time you get everything up out of the wagon and onto the desert floor, we'll say it's $1,800. - I want to assess the repairability of the wagon. - Sure. - And I want to use my skill remembering. 'Cause surely, Father's must have had to repair some wagons during this. - Oh, absolutely. I mean, this should happen all the time. - Well, not this precise stuff. - But a broken axle, certainly. Yeah, a broken wheel and a broken axle really can't be prepared without additional materials. - I think we need a new axle and a new wheel. - You would think a spare wheel would be standard if that's something that happened a lot. - Yeah. - The axle-- - People don't normally drive it like a chariot off-road in the desert into a sinkhole, but to be fair, just-- - I disagree. - It happens all the time. - One of the long-term benefits you can spend three experience points for, not for, is getting a familiarity with certain kind of task. This can be crafting or writing or persuading or so on. It's not full skill, so it doesn't decrease it. - It doesn't. - It encounters the next tier, but it lasts for a long period of time. - Forever. - Forever? - Yeah. - Interesting. - Okay, getting back to the point. - Well, this was relevant. - Because I'm spending three to become familiar with the inside of Tito's head. - Okay. - I've gained enough knowledge. - You've got like a 3D imagery of it. - It's geography. - It's 1,800 hours to finally nail this day down. We have is, it is currently 1,800 hours. So you have seven more hours of daylight left. You haven't rested yet. You have just lifted everything out of the pit, gathered up your slifers, and you're ready to grab some food and talk about what just happened. - All right. - This wagon, is there any way it can be repaired? - Go ahead and make a roll. I'd say your target number is nine. You have a skill area, appropriate area. Takes you down to six. (clicking) - 16. - Not without a bunch of supplies. You might be able to rip off some boards. - That's what I'm trying to rip off some work on the side, if the axle's so near the middle, I get at least. - It was actually much more towards the, that's why it's really dicey, and then the wheel itself is broken, and that's where the major problem comes in, because if you could get it out of the pit, you might be able to Jerry rig the axle to last for a period of time, but you know it's iffy, but the wheel is what's really the major problem. - You might be able to take that third wheel and put some boards up and just prop it up so it's a dragon of support on that side, but it's gonna fall off sooner or later. - Part of the problem is you don't have the tools, you don't have the nails and hammers and things that you really need to make this happen. If you're somehow able to get that stuff through searching or a new manera or something along those lines, probably eight to 10 man hours to rig it up. - Well, yeah, I'm gonna if we tried to change the way two wheel wagon. - Backwards. - What kind of wheel is it? - It's a four wheel wagon. - What is there a spoke, a new manera? - No, there's spoke, it's old school. - Okay, you guys, I mean there are really sophisticated wagons in this world, but not for the least part of the cart. - Oh, I see what you mean. - Like a chariot. - Everyone sit in the end and it's rebalance of them. - Well, there is one other thing that could work possibly and that would be that I would have to take that might pill and then walk alongside it carrying that whole axle. - That damage, how long is that last? - An action. - I do have a bot that could probably walk. - It's the only one action? - For a little while. - Well, it's a question of might and strength and endurance, I mean, it's-- - All right, first of all, can we get this out of the hole? - How much time do you have for it, is that gonna take? - It would seem to be the most difficult proposition because you could probably be using a need to try to drag it out, but it's not gonna be clean. It's gonna be a script against, you know what I mean? You might do more damage trying to get it out, you'll have to see, they'll be rolls involved. - We don't have equipment necessary for this stress to need this cart. - That's what I'm saying. I'm starting to obey that we will have meat for calling it back, stuff that we find. - The wagon, I think, is out of the equation. - I think we got to take care of supplies and go to the village and see what-- - Well, like a homestead, if anything, where there might be 20 people or less-- - That's not our destination, I don't think that should be our destination. - It's not, the path in about a mile, it diverges one going to this little homestead of maybe 15 to 20 people living in the desert, and then the other going towards the oasis, which is marked on your map as your destination. - All right, have we got everything out of the pit? - Yes. - Yes. - Everything with the wagon. - How much time do we have to nightfall? - What's up? - 1,800 to 1,500, six, if you rest. - Do we need to rest that hour? - Wouldn't hurt. - I think some people are feeling it. - How long till you change the entire-- - I'm not there, Mark. I don't want to die enough, I don't have any damage. How long did I change to a bear? If the chronometer is even right here? - 2800 hours, so 10 hours from now. - We're camping here? - No, I don't know, we're just talking. - Some people need to rest, I think you are right. - I do, but-- - Some people are fucking hungry, just. - First, we have our supplies from the wagon, we can eat. - Right. - Do we cover anything, you get one action, then you get 10 minutes, then you get one hour. - Right, and some people are on that one hour at this point, they've already done the one-- - Yeah, I don't want so, after 10 minutes, then we get another. - Yes, which 10 minutes have passed. - Yeah. - So go ahead. - In this 10 minutes, I have recovered everything I need, so-- - Me too. - The rest of you stay here, eat, wait an hour, I'm gonna walk to the village and see if they know anything about the caravan. - So you think you should be the opposite, that you who are in danger of changing-- - In 10 hours. - Okay. - Okay, the path diverges in one mile. It is then roughly five miles from there to the oasis and a little bit more than that, six or seven miles to the homestead. Your location. - Okay, so we're not gonna maybe two hours to get there, that seems too far to go out of the way, even to check up on that. And they're not gonna notice something seven miles away. So that's waiting an hour and then we'll make a call on what we're gonna do next. - Well, it's room for a new manure. - Oh yeah, I had to-- - I had to buy this friction-reducing gel. - And I hand-- - Hand-sig some good advice. Don't get into my sister's head again. And every time you keep on trying to help, you spark a more dangerous situation. So let's try to avoid triggering the rage-beast monster. We saw what happened last night and we're gonna have another replay. We just had a replay an hour ago and we're probably gonna have another replay in 10 more hours. I know it's fascinating. I know you're a mutant. I'm trying to be-- - What does that have to do, Amy? - To you, what does-- - I'm building up to you. - Is he speaking for you? - I'm assuming you're not thinking like a normal app human. - I find it best. - I'm a human, Don. - You said you're a mutant. - I'm a human. (laughing) - All right, so you're probably-- - That's too much. You're too fascinated by things that are-- - No, look, you asked for help. I saved our lives when I-- - No, you put our lives at risk. Even more so. - You were never at risk. And let's be honest, that thing would've eaten me alive, whether or not. - Okay, you're first. - Bath, he's helping me. - I know. - He's first. You help, YouTube, go get married. Go, go live together. I'm showing you-- - Well, I just-- (laughing) - You have it all in here, let me take that lube for a second. (laughing) There we go. (laughing) - That's long. - Nina, audience, by the way. - That's good. (laughing) - I walk away promptly. Nina, for sure, introducing me to that level six, you're gonna write that down. And, and Nina, the mind control pill. She is full of-- - No, yeah, yes. - I'll take some of that if your hand's distributed or whatever. - I just think you would do the best with this. I don't see anyone else getting close enough. - Well, I gotta tell you, when you pulled that, if that's what happened, you pulled that trick. You say, "We went in danger." When I started happening, I ran like hell. - That was a good idea. But I didn't run like hell. - And it-- - I was-- - Probably wasn't necessary given it was the-- - As fast as that charge was, I could not get away. - I'm just saying. - Here. - I don't think anyone can use this mind control pill and get close enough to even get it into somebody. - So, I think you're our best shot at getting that into anybody. - Oh, you're a slut. (laughing) - Four. (laughing) - It's level six. And I walk away from the fat. - Well, I gave you three more. - Don't, what? - Which even blows up. - It's evil, don't you? - Yeah, I do. (laughing) - You get like little skid, right? - No, I have regular skid, I'm not like crawler. - Okay, I just, I'm just trying to-- - Is he able to-- - Is he able to-- - Does he have a loose skin? - He had a picture right here. - Do you know what you're playing with? - Bamp, bamp, and you teleport around. - No. - He does a cool part. - He's just a regular human, but he's got like way too long salamators tail that is, it's like six feet long. - It's like one of the curtains. - It's serious, right? - That's a serious tail, yeah. - That's a sail, yeah. - It is supposed to be an asset in grappling, but it's just something he can't fucking hide, and it's caused him a lot of trouble on the pass. - And our passes, while everyone, grifes, and complains, and lets out vents and feelings of-- - Yes, I try to explain to my brother why this is a good thing that he did what he did, but apparently my brother doesn't want to listen. - No, he's very interested in it. - Let's just understand if firewall-- - He's protective of me, and that's good. I appreciate it. - But-- - Is he able to turn it off? - He thinks he will be able to, yes. - You trust him? - I see him in the hope that I have not had since this happened to me. It's obvious he can affect the power. - It is, and that's what's scaring, because I don't think he was thinking of consequences. I think he sees action, not reaction. And if he sets you off, again, in a group of people, or worse this village, or whatever, because he's fascinated and interested, and he doesn't ask-- - I will talk to Sig, and I have talked to him, and he's not gonna do it again without permission. I think he's scared of you. - Which is good. - We're gonna just tail off and beat him to death. - I'll just grow back, 'cause that's what happens with humans. - She uses a six-foot tail. - Okay, it's 1900 hours. Everyone had a chance to eat, discuss, try to paint a quick picture. You're in the cold desert, so it is cold. Everyone's kind of miserable, in the sense that maybe you're lighting small fires. The wind's blowing sideways. Usually at 20 miles an hour, blowing a sand, and it is literally on every inch of your body. You haven't even showered since the sand pits. Excuse me, the salt. - No, no, we got the wash off. - Oh, like in a basin, right? I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like, you're talking about three days of just sand and-- - Yeah, well, we've lived in the desert before, so I don't know. - I think in Oasis, it's not a nice. - Yeah, but it's not uncommon not to bathe in the desert. I mean, it's-- - Fair enough. - You wear your robes and that's all-- - And your goggles. - And your goggles, yeah, sure. - Just trying to set up a picture of that. You know, maybe you're just a little bit uncomfortable. It's not like the most comfortable. Maybe for you, a little bit less than everyone else, but everyone else is probably not feeling exceedingly happy right now of the elements in the cold. - I think we can make the Oasis by night. - And have time to prepare for-- - Is that another-- - Are you sure we're supposed to be going? - There's gonna be another kind of-- - Yeah. - There's like little palm trees thrown out and drawn, so, you know. - By we, you mean everyone but you? - Pardon? - By we, you mean everyone but you? - I think the Oasis is only a few hours away. I have 10 hours before we have to be concerned with the change. - Let's go and talk about it on the way. - Let's do that. - Okay, well, in this case, Felix, take point and find us the best path into a four-lean outpost. - Didn't we have someone who got away who was injured? - No, I think a lot came back. - At that. (laughing) - No, and actually when we sent away, someone who got away. - There was a mud-- - A Merton bird. - A Merton bird. - A Merton bird. - A Merton bird, Raven Man. - Oh, I desperately want to try to make that kill it, but we have five hours away. (laughing) - Two, 'cause you took an hour to get this stuff out of the pit. - We have priorities and it lives in the desert. - I thought of doing that instead of going down to the wagon right after that. - I have a fair belief that it can have a pace, us. Maybe not me, but definitely the entire group of us. - It definitely may return any greater numbers. I think it died five minutes. - Well, that's my concern. - Isn't there a possibility that he went back to a nest or a village or-- - Want to get reinforcements for another failed ambush? - Right. - I think he murdered all of them. - Put some miles behind him. - Well, cover our tracks. - Covered. - I'd run around and circle them. - We may have a good guess as to where we're going, but I see we go anyways. - Yeah. - I believe that the sooner we reach the vizier stockpile, which I believe is located at the oasis, the better it will be equipped to deal with these-- - 'Cause that's a return. - That's the way they would have won. - No, because we'll move it. - The destination on the map is the oasis. - The guy who got away has got to go to his people and then try to go to where he thinks we're going, but we're going straight to where we're going, so we should get there first. Let's go. - Okay, so there's three things going on. The issue of the Raven, the Merton, and the threat he poses, issue one. Issue two, we don't have a wagon or vehicle to transport Indra or anything from this other city, so that's why we'd want to go to four lean outposts to get sort of there. - Or third, we just head on to the oasis and try to either finally need to find and steal, quag, borrow, or whatever transportation. - The assumption is that the caravan that came down to your head wagons. Now, unless they were destroyed, which we don't know, you may have an axle left there. - And then what's going to happen is that if we go to the oasis, then we're going to have to probably fight our way in and out, starting on foot, which is, I'm not against it right now. I would be, sure, let's, and you should be just about, - What do you think is that? - Just be a good thing. - What do you think is at the oasis that we need to fight? - You just said, the-- - They're not based there, as far as I know, they run where? - The Merton? - No, he said that was one, three, whatever's at the oasis, whatever took the caravan out. - They care about discussing this all around the way. - Yes, sure enough. - Whatever secret operation is going on, whatever activity that lost, that got Indra lost and that lost. - That's the sultan, for those of you who might remember her name. - Right, that is what's happening at the oasis. So my point is, whatever, if we go to the oasis, we just have to find a way to get out of there, and we don't really have a means of traveling back out into the desert, because it's all piled into a sand pit right now. - Well, as we're traveling, Felix take points to make sure we don't get ambushed, and you can fly in front of us a bit. But of the options we have, the wagon doesn't work. The village is seven miles out of the way, and we don't even know if they have, but we know the caravan had a wagon. - Okay. - I'm just saying, probably destroyed? - Don't know, but then we're going in, tired, wounded, and on foot through the night into a more hostile situation with even less protection. - I don't think anybody's still wounded. - Potential enemies in front, and potential enemies in back. That's my, that's all I'm saying. - Well, what do you want? - Yeah, let's just check. - Let's go to the oasis. That's great to do. - That's awesome. - What you just pointed out was not a good idea. - What? - Not even if it's a bad idea. I just want to be sure that we're all clear in what the risks are, so we don't all act surprised when it all goes to hell. - And I want to make a decision and-- - Show and minimize the risk, what should we do? - Come on, can I single file harder numbers? - I think that could work. Honestly, if I walk in back, I could just sweep the tracks up with my tail. - That's gross. - That's gross. - Again, we're walking down a road. - We're not going to hide the fact that we're walking down a trail. - No, this is a trail that they commonly take. It's the only trail you have to go. - I mean, we might fool them though. We could go to the village or whatever. - I think covering our tracks helps no matter what. So let's just do that. - Fine. - Let's start walking and walking. - They could have thought we'd stay here. - With the wind blowing, I don't think members will say anything. - Yeah, it's probably windy too, right? - Yeah, it was very windy. 20 miles an hour. - It's kind of warm, but it's going to be hard. - Yeah, we walk towards the Oasis, we stop short of it, we send never countissists in, we rest, we wait till the next day, whatever you want to do. - We send Felix in. - Thanks. - We still have an issue with your-- - I don't know. I plan on wandering off, away from the other village. So, wind her into the Oasis. (laughs) - Stir it, shake it up, and when you're done eating. - I'm not invulnerable, they could still kill me. - And if she just kept-- - Hey, you took out almost six of us. - Okay, we couldn't, and you were working with us. - A wagon full of noumenera armed soldiers was also taken out. - None of us were trying to kill him, he was back. - How far ahead are you, Felix? (laughs) - Apparently, really fucking far, 'cause they haven't started walking. - Look at the edge, weapons. - Oh yeah, we've been walking. - Okay. - Walking and arguing. - I don't know how much farther-- - Yeah, how much does it discipline here? - Yeah, how much further ahead are you? I just need to know, in case there happens to be some, can go wrong. - I think we've got-- - I'm trying to keep you in sight, but not close, too close, so it's worth it. - So, we're at the edge of long distance, maybe 100 feet? - Yeah, 102 course. - Well, where a double move might get you back home with a good roll. - Yeah. - Felix is 100 feet ahead, walking on the path, correct? - Mm-hmm. - All right, keeping your eyes near is open for any sort of danger. - Do you want us to kind of call off of lying or-- - Yeah, this I was gonna go to. Can we get that? Where's the inene, where's the rest of you as you work towards the diversion in the road? The split in the trail? - I'm way in front. - Yes, got that. - I might want to be along with you, 'cause I have stealth. - Do you mind a little bit of companionship up there? Watch you, you didn't turn her in, 'cause she was hot, so I imagine if she says, "Hey, can I walk next?" - Do you, you're like, "Uh, yeah." - Yeah, right here. - How about this for an order? So we have Felix with Nina backing him up, followed by Ichabod is leading the inene. - Okay. - Followed by Tila. I'll be behind, and then Eshman and Zig brings up the, he's rear guard. - Okay. - I'm hanging out with Tila. - No, no, you see, according to my order-- - I'm between you and Tila. - Yeah, that's correct. - Well, I don't think I'm gonna let that happen. - Where'd you throw me here? - You are between me and Zig. That's where I wanna be. - About a half mile would be three quarters of the way in towards the splits in the path. You notice that the sun breaks out in the sky for the first time in a couple days. The wind dies down when the sun comes out, so it's actually almost desert-like for a little bit, 'cause in the direct sunlight, the temperature definitely raises, and so it actually gets a bit of a warm walk. You can actually get a little bit of that desert mirage effect. As you look at a distance, you can see things that seemingly aren't there, and that's when Felix and Nina both need to make a perception check, please. - See, that's what I should have trained in. For the record, I am not listening to my guard and I am factaining out near the back of the tail end of the margin arc. - 1215. - You both spot as you're walking south on the path to the west, so to the right-hand side of the road. There is a particularly large dune, maybe 20 feet or so in height, which is the highest you've seen so far. It kind of stands out, which is quite of what drew your attention to it, and you notice that the sand is really built up, 'cause it had been blowing from east to west up pretty consistently over the last couple of days, and there looks like there is at least the back end of an ornate caravan wagon that seems to have gone into the side of the dune and has now been partially covered by the sand. - You go check it out, I'll watch. - I go check it out. - I watch. - Selffully? - I'm not in a position to talk to you guys, but you might remember, you know, that they could talk frequently about knowing about these caravans, so if you're wondering if it was part of the caravan that's missing, he might know what the wagon would look like. It's just a talk. - I also feel like it's just lived in the city for a while, he might have seen them coming back. - Actually, they came and departed from a small fort, not in the below, but above, like on the rim-- - So you had to kind of see it. - Of serenity, Fort Coldline. That's the name of the fort that's on the rim that the special caravans come and depart from. They don't mix with the blow or any of the rabble. They were very specialized caravans, carrying some secret kind of cargo, so hence the reason that they weren't someone would come down in the lifts and go into the below to work their way up to the platforms, the mirages. They would just go into Fort Coldline, which had its own transportation devices to get them up to the various levels of the mirages. So long story short, you see what looks to be 100 feet in the distance. You see it looks to be a mirage for a second, but then you look closely and now that's definitely the back of an ornate looking wagon. Definitely much nicer than the one you had. Your initial take of it is that what you can see is not damaged and otherwise it seems to be in good condition. - Is this like a part of the dune or is it next to it? - To your eyes, looks like it might have been run into the dune and then the sand in the last couple of days kind of gone up and over it a bit, kind of creating an impromptu addition to the dune. - So you're gonna cover her while she's checking it out? - Oh yeah, man, I enjoy my crossbow. I go into hiding, which I still have just my flex skill. - You're heading for a crossbow? - Yeah, it's a crossbow. - We're out in the open, so. - It's relatively open. You still have those dunes. There's dunes all over the place, so there is cover in a sense that you're not in the wide open, but there's no trees to hide behind. There's some shrubbery here and there, some dried shrubs. - It might impulse us to forge ahead, but I think we might be better off waiting. There's no point in them to us. - For some shadows? - No, you're the one going to check it out. - For us to catch up, I suppose? - Yeah, yeah. - We're only like 100 feet all day. I mean, it's probably a couple minutes and they catch up to you at that point at a normal walking pace. So you guys do see Felix get down to the crouch, take his crossbow out, go into defensive position. - And then he has-- - He's turning slowly around. - Then he has words briefly with Nina, and then he stands back up again and kind of relaxes himself. And then you see Nina skirting-- - Just a little bit. I can still talk to them, you know, like maybe. - So you're off the path a little less. - It's already feet towards the wagon. - On the trail or off the trail? - Off the trail. - Back to the wagon. - Towards the wagon, it's the west side of the-- - We've been ambushed once already, guys. Maybe we should. - 'Cause everyone catches up. - All right. - Is there any other caravans that come this way other than the-- - No. - I think it's ornate, I think it's key. This would probably be the biziers, personal. - I turn to Ichabod and say, hey, you tend to have knowledge here about this kind of stuff. What do you recognize that wagon? - Caravans and ropes. That's what I got. - So he's tied to the-- - Yeah, we've seen your expertise with ropes. - To the knee, right? - Yeah. - You're riding it nicely along. He's very close to the knee now. - He's being dragged behind. - The knee is like a balloon. You really need to tie your wrist to the rope. - So have you seen that wagon before? Do you know what the-- - Yeah, that's definitely the biziers wagon. One of his wagons, one of his more ornate ones, which I would assume would be the ones that come out this way. - I know nothing about a knee. Is it a puller? - Yeah, absolutely. That's what would normally pull them. - That was natural, okay. - I turn to sick and ask what you can text any thing going on, any pneumonara, any activity that you can detect from here. - How close are you? - How close are you to get 30 feet? - Short range, I think he has to get. - Is it 30 feet? - Yeah. - I can scan it from here. - Can you? Long distance? - Yeah. - Okay. - Everybody's taking a good look around just to see if there's anything. - Right. There's tunes, so to be fair, there could be people crouching behind the dunes and you have no idea at this point that that's the case. - Well, I take the crossbow that Felix loaned me and I'm writing it-- - Okay. - And neither to cover Nina. Did you want to kind of sneak up and use your stealth and investigate? - Yeah, I've got to scan as well, but it's, I think it is kind of-- - Okay. - You put varieties here. - Here's a short-- - Okay. - This seems like a mysterious language, actually. - Oh, okay. - It can go along right now. - And I'm, what do you want me to look? Behind the wagon? - Well, right now I'm just trying to, it seems like a mysteriously good thing that we need to wagon. So either, or someone can find something, or, I don't know, I think it's a trap. - 'Cause you're anything in the wagon? - The back of the wagon is closed. It has a full back on it, which means it goes as high as the sides did, which was unlike your wagon, so it's impossible to see if there's anything-- - But you can see inside the wagon without-- - Seeing inside of it. - Yes, with that, with the search, you could see inside of it, right. And very quickly, both Nina and Sig can do a quick search and you sense nothing on human area, stick, or anything. - I'll describe how Scan works later. - Okay, but you don't detect anything. Nina and Sig both do a long range scan. - Scan, and let me tell you what the wagon is. - Tell you what something's made out of in an area. - Wood and metal. - No flash. That's a great answer. - So, and it's 30 by 30, correct? - It's an accurate answer. - So you guys could actually, probably coordinate so you're doing different parts of the 30 by 30 area. - Yeah, so I walk a little further along. - Right, so there's nothing behind the do either and no bodies hiding in seemingly at least alive. - I think this is just a time sink myself. - Is this a wagon half submerged in a doon? - Yeah, a fully functional wagon. - Well, you can just dig out and grab, hopefully. - Well, the half we see is-- - Correct. - I'm not sure we want to show up wherever we're going with this thing. - No, 'cause we always dole it up a little bit. I mean-- - This was a once-in-former target. I think it would take us to the rest of the day to pry out that. - So not only that, but if we do show up with this thing, there's gonna be no doubt where we're from. I don't like advertising the fact that we're-- - It's half buried in it and we aren't out of it, right? - I would say the S, not just the S N, but the S half of it is ticking out. It's about half buried. - Let's poke our nose into it, see if there's anything in the unburied part that looks like there might be something that we can use or need and then we'll just have to get it back. - Was there-- - There's nothing in there, right? - Feel free, actually. - I think that is, you felt, when you did your searches, wood, metal, maybe a little bit of synth, you know, you felt things, but nothing as far as, like, something corporeal, flasher, blood, no numoneera. So-- - I'm not gonna hijack a wagon and leave a bunch of great stuff in there, right? - I'm gonna-- - Okay, so everyone starts walking forward again. - Sure, I'll come in with a crossbow. - Right, and then when you get to the wagon, Eshman decides to veer off. He goes, "I'm just gonna check it out real quick," kind of thing, and buys holes across both the rest so you can keep walking if you want or stop. It doesn't really matter. Obviously, the back is fully, has a full-sized back on it with a latch that pulls down to open it up. - Is it like a covered wagon? - It does not look covered in the center, it's not covered, but sure, there are rums that are along the side of the east and west walls of it that you could probably do something over the top of it, yes. - Can I still go without the sheet? - Yeah. - Okay. - But the back of it's just that you pull a latch and you open up the back. - Yeah, and you open up the back of it. It actually pulls down, it doesn't slide. It doesn't slide down, it pulls out. - It's like a horror movie. - And forms like something as you step up to it, I guess. So, you open it up without too much trouble. It's high, but you kind of reach up and grab it and you unlatch it, and it comes down, and you look inside, and obviously it's dark-ish because some of it's covered with sand, but it's also bright now, and it's a light part of the day for once, and you see what looks to be about, I think we're between six and eight pretty large size, for lack of a better term, rucksacks that are in the back of the wagon. They're closed, so you can't see what's inside the rucksacks, but there's definitely looks to be-- - Like something when you use dollar stuff around it? - Something that any kind of desert traveler who had some money, 'cause they're definitely, again, the quality there, you can see some synth, you can see some nice leather, you know, these are nice packs, so these are something that someone who traveled in some sort of style, and then along the right side of the wagon, which would be the west side, as you look, there seems to be several long wooden poles wrapped with some sort of synth cloth, which looks to you like it might be something that would constitute a way to put a cover over the top of the wagon. Yes, go ahead. - Are the rucksacks full, you never made that clear? - Oh, sorry, there's six to eight full looking rucksacks. - I'm grabbing a hold of them and bringing them to the back of the-- - You're gonna have to jump up and crawl in, okay, just to be clear, so you can do that, and there's one or two that stick out from there, which are pretty easy to grab. The others are a little bit buried in sand, so maybe you grab two out, 'cause they're pretty heavy, and you drag it out to the back, and what do you do? - I just leave you to the back of the wagon for these guys to grab out and go through and go back in, I start thinking the rest of it. - Okay, so he pulls two rucksacks, says, look, rucksacks, and then goes back in, starts pushing some sand away, and starts trying to grab some more things from inside the wagon. - Felix? - Hmm? - It's been going a really long time, but if there's anything at all, a trail that we could follow, it would be around the wagon. - They've been going pretty long, but I'll check while we dig through a bunch of-- - And to be fair, the wind did die down recently, so perhaps, but go ahead, Felix, and make a, I think I should make like a 360 around the dune, just see if you can catch anything that looks suspicious. - I tell Nina to kind of keep us scotting on the area, and I'll open one of the rucksacks. - Okay. - If you walk up to the back of the wagon and open up one of the rucksacks. - Sure. - Felix, for any-- - A trail or anything suspicious. - I've got it. So go ahead and make a tracking role place. - It's just specialized-- - I'm not gonna give you the number, because I don't want you to know whether you succeeded or failed. - All right, I'm specialized, it's too difficult. - Too difficult to down, okay. Thank you. - 15. - Okay. So you are utterly confident that there is nothing of concern here. You don't see any tracks leading away. You don't see any spots of ambush that look overly concerning. You jog down to the next dune, which is about 10 feet high, you run up it real quick. Again, cautiously and kind of staying hidden. You look over the top of that further out to the west. There's nothing but dunes and sand as far as you can see. Mirage is kind of forming as well because of the sunlight. And the heat reflecting off the sand. Really fucking sure you are fine unless there's something in the water. - At this point, Boz opens up one of the rucksocks, which isn't very difficult. And you look inside and there is, to your mind, one of the best looking travel kits that you've ever laid eyes on in the desert. - Shit, I take it. - There's a cloak, which looks like it has some type of synth weaving in it, which you can just tell when you feel like, wow, this thing is-- - Well, it's warm and it can be cold. Like if it could cool you off, it was too hot. It could warm you. It looks like some type of really sophisticated type of cloak. You see what could only be described as the new manira equivalent, not new manira in the sense of magic, but new manira, or technology. New manira in the sense of the world. Sense of a wet wipe, a group of wet wipes, basically just to wash yourself off from the desert. Go ahead. - That's disgusting. I grab it. - Right. - Right. - There's provisions in there that are three steps above the provisions that you're currently gnawing on, you know, the raw, high jerky that you're trying to choke down as a meal. There is a small little stove that's in there, like portable stove that can warm up the provisions. There's boots. - Is this an all of the sats on up on the wall? - Well, he opens one sack. And that's what's in that one sack. - Well, Eshman, is this a miracle that you've arranged for us? - Just say that. - Have you put down the crossbow? - I would have had to put down the crossbow to-- - I'll just make sure. - I walk up there. - Enjoy them. - It seems safe now. There is approximately three of these rucksacks that Eshman had two easily, and then just dug out one more. So he's at three now, and you're grunting, and trying to push away the sand, and it's kind of falling in. - It's telling you wet naps. - You know, if we do spend a little time to pull this out, this might be, we could wear these as this kind of sleeve into. This might be something that wouldn't help. - It's a giftineen. - Nice, nice cover. - Why not look it in the feelers? - There you go. - Don't look a giftineen in the feelers. It's gross. - Pull it out, cover it up, then we can all be in the back in the covered area. - Are there enough cloaks here? - There ends up being a total of seven. You were mistaken, there looked like there was another one back there, but it looked like it was half buried sand, but it wasn't. It was just the side of, or the front of the wagon. So there was seven total. And there are two, four, six, seven of you. There's Ichabod as well, if you were going to include him. - So serendipitous. - Serendipitous indeed. I'm sure it can't be at all a trap. So. - Is the same thing in every one of them? - Yes. Each one of them contains a full, what would be some kind of, yeah, survival kit for the desert. - And there's simply a desert cloak. It's not really nice desert cloak. I could get that cloak. - I had the idle thought here that we saw the vizier manipulating forces from his tower. Who knows what type of reality his numerator are. - I think you made me drop this down here for us. - I don't know. - Could happen. - It seems too. - Yeah, 'cause it seems like we died and went to heaven. - Or at least something a little more. - It's a scot adventure, that never happens. - I just believe this is the guard's equipment. I'm not sure where they went. It's kind of suspicious that they left it. But how many guards typically run with these caravansic above? - Felix has already scotted the area and is sure. So I say, let's take a little time and we are on a clock here. So let's not debate it too long, but it seems too good to pass up, especially giving our current condition. - Jacobod says that on a caravan of this importance, there would easily be between six and eight guards. - How far are we from the Oasis still? - You're a half hour from the divergence and you are five miles, which at the Indian travels, probably another two to three hours, and you're probably three hours from the Oasis. So you do have some time if you want it, your choice is to how you want to use those hours. - You can either camp here for the night and then pick this up in the morning or we can try to excavate and move this party on. - Or keep going. - Or keep going with the take the tags. - This place-- - We know where it is. - Ignore the wagon, take it to take the most time. - Yeah, we can take, there's so many questions here. I don't understand what this stuff is doing here. - Seven people are gone and they left here-- - I don't understand why we got attacked when there's this prize here. I mean, maybe-- - Further down-- - That's why they came from up north, probably. - They came from due west, you're further south now, so they could have just not ran into it yet or could have avoided it for some reason. - I prefer to view it as providence. - Well, I agree with Nina though, something took out the Indian and all the guards. Let's not stay here for the night. - Can we-- - There you go. - Then let's just take the sex. - We find that we really, really need a wagon. It's a six hour round trip from where we're going, right? - Right. - But take the stuff. - I've already like exchanged cloaks. - Yeah, I remember you changed-- - Snap load as you spend to my back. - Wiping your face off with a wet life. - Well, if we don't die, we need to come back and get this wagon. So Leo, what's his name, the wagon? - You're a sharp one, why are you? - Pretty sure there's an upgrade. - That's a game. - That's a game. - No payers. - It's a city wagon. - It's an investment, it'll be as good as it might be. - All right, so everyone, I'm assuming, who's, is everyone taking advantage of the ultra comfortable boots, the cloaks that are actually right now, the sun's beating down and it's a little bit hot, so you actually feel cool. Like, the weeding of the cloak contains some sort of air conditioning, if you'll allow for that type of definition or that type of description. The food looks just downright delicious and again, there's a little portable oven or like a stone, like a camp stove with, yeah. - And to be clear, both Sig and Nina scanned and they did not detect Numenair. - Not detect Numenair, no, so whatever is being done here is being done with just really fine workmanship. - And yeah, I'm changing to some of my new gear. - All right, I have magic boots, but everything else. - You said very strategic stuff? - Yeah, I'm not, for that reason. - What's that? - I'm not changing anything, I'm changing physical form soon, so being in something nice is gonna be-- - Are you carrying a rucksack with you, however? Or are you leaving all of it's gonna act? - What do you mean? - Yeah, well, you change for a few hours. - Can I ride the anne? - You can ride the anne, but may you ride the anne, and that's a different question. - You were sweeping up the footprints. - I think I got friends up. - No, he wasn't. - He gave up that idea 'cause the wind was flying. - Ashman, stop! - Are you capable of hailing right now? - Yes. - I might need a bit of an edge when it comes to Teal's transformation. - Okay. - Help me. - You want it now or you want it later tonight? - I have no idea how your hailing works. - Listen to me, we'll talk about you. - When it's under the impression that Teal is gonna be far away from the statements. - Yes, I don't intend to ever go through a day like that where I feel like shit. I really wanted to die. I'm gonna have to wander off and-- - I thought you wanted to go back later. - You should go west, that's where they're not. - And they taste good. - As long as it's away from the village, which we know is off the divergence. - When is it you want me to try to cancel this transformation? - I was thinking you can do that. I thought you said you needed more information. - There are very limited ways to get that. - The only way he's gonna be able to get more information is by diving in and hoping for the best. - Well, maybe instead of what you did before, which was to instigate the transformation, while we set up a time where she has a transformation, you observe it and then take your time to try to reverse or dampen that thing and help me with the music box to change her back. - The only one who thinks that's a bad idea. - No, I think it's a bad idea. - It might be wrong, but you kind of did that last time. Didn't you know that didn't work? - These loans are trying to stop it. - I think that's a good long-term goal, but right now, we don't feel like shitty. - Right. - We need you at the top of your game. - Okay, that's part of your game. Just kind of going down to the... I don't walk to waste everybody's time in that. So I would just suggest, let me handle it this night and we'll talk about it after we figure out what's going on here. - Are we moving out? - Yeah, we are. - Yes. - On foot. Okay, leaving the wagon behind. Everyone has changed into the nice stuff - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - But these boots, are they one size fit all of them. We're accurately fit our feet. - Right. - In a free sheet, she's a petite. - She is a petite, but the Rucksack you have, your boots do not fit you. The Rucksack that you have, I'm sorry, Nina and Ashman, your boots are much too tight for you. If you were to maybe roll up a pair of socks and push them to the front of the boots that Ashman has, they would fit you just fine. They don't form themselves to you, though. - Are there any cloaks that fit me? - That makes you feel better, son. - Yeah, absolutely. You're a smaller guy, obviously, but there are cloaks that would fit you. They just maybe, it would trail on the ground. - It's a duster. - Russell, right, it's a duster. - You'll cover our path. - With your cloak, right? - I'm way ahead, yeah, it's a duster. - Buz, you don't have any qualms about looking at gift horse in the mountains. - Ooh. - Came to do anything nice for you guys that'd be suspicious. - She, I wonder why we've been fucking trained for the last 20 years. - We're all moving along. - Yes, you're moving along. Another half mile down the path, again, with Felix and Nina running point, the rest of you moving on with the anene. Everyone dressed in the nicer clothes, except for Tila, you get to the, what's known on the map, after the map as the crossroads or the divergence. And Felix and Nina come up on it first and it's unusual in a sense and that there is no path going to the west. Now, there are two dunes that separate and you could walk through the two dunes and head to the west, but there is no path as it shows on the map at this exact point. All there is on your west where the two dunes separate. Before one of the dunes close to the road is one of those glass oblisks. Beyond where the second dune starts that you can walk between is a second obelisk. And on the east side of the road, there are oblisks at exactly the same interval. So there are four oblisks, two where the southern end of the first dune would be, and two at the northern end of the second dune where basically you would turn, again, turn to your left. It's kind of almost as if it's marking this spot. If you didn't know, you wouldn't turn here, if you didn't have a map saying to turn here, but it certainly seems that these four oblisks are at the point kind of signifying that this is, I mean, it says on the map four oblisks and then it shows you going, but it shows a path on the map and there's not a path. Trust them. And when Nina and Felix make their way towards that intersection, if you will, sure enough is you come up on either side of an obelisk, one on the western side of the road, one on the eastern, a visage comes up. This point, you don't think they're really important. It's what they're doing or what they're representing, but you each see something and the other person just sees glass. It's the same effect that you had in the very first set that you saw, but not in subsequent sets that you had saw, some that were floating, some that were not, that just show glass back at your mirror, reflecting mirror. These are the other version which seem to show some sort of scene depicting something that makes absolutely no sense to you whatsoever. And it's seemingly not important, but if you want me to describe them, I can come up with some creative descriptions if you need. - Can I scan that? - Absolutely. - Scanning 50. - An obelisk. And you come up with a powerful sense of new manira. There definitely is a powerful essence of that and almost what seems to be 100% glass. I mean, it's not like these are glass faced and it has like, it's made of some kind of stone. It looks like it's glass all the way through, which is strange in a way. - So he wants to hurry through here. He says these things are making an unpleasant discord. Can we move along? - And to be fair, you're about 100 feet behind so you're just catching up now as Nina is finishing her scan and-- - This is the end of our map essentially. - Oh, there's a path that doesn't exist on the map. - I think this is not the path that exists on the map right there we have. - The other way, there's a path-- - This is an adjective. - You don't see. Could be. - It doesn't travel through here. - You go through. - Let me see the map. - To throw a handful of sand through it. - And it lands through the ground. - I look at the sand blowing through. - This is a-- - It fell. - This is the path to that little homestead down the street. People go through here every once in a while and I don't think anything bad happens to them. If you keep going straight through to the homestead. Now, turning may screw something up, but I think you're probably safe going into them or through. - Well, I trust the word Ashman for some reason. - Well, I'm just walking through. - If you want to say walk right through, you mean towards the homestead or-- - Or the steppe in the center. - Okay. - Square. - You walk into the middle Felix and you, yeah, you're in the middle of these things and you're looking at a different glass facet now so you see a reflection 'cause you're the first one looking at it. So you're just the same thing, but you have a little experience. - How about if you throw the sand through the right side and to the left side? - Again, sand and sand. - All right, it's safe for sand. - I don't think we want to cut across. It might be significant that we go through. - Yeah, I would suggest it. Let's go. - All right, I'll go first. - Send me an aim. - All right, Felix. - Send a makeup bomb. Send a makeup bomb. - So you bravely walk between the two dunes. - So brave. - This is all bullshit. - All right. - Nothing to be worried about. - World's not gonna end. - And. - It's already ended, like eight times. - As Felix walks through, he disappears. - Like the other. - And he disappears. (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to the Knights of the Night At 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 podcasts or business, please visit zanaudiosmith.com and please join us next episode for more mystery and adventure. (upbeat music) - What should we call this battle? - Cluster. - Gotta have a theme for a battle. - For 27. - The Battle of Four Dunes. - No, no, no. - The Battle of the Spider Hole. - It's more than four. - What was the Spider Hole? - Sand Trap. - Wasn't it? - Ooh, Sand Trap. - Sand Trap? - Surrounded. - Okay. - There's a Sand Trap. There's a spider in it. - Just a hole in the ground. - Heart fell in. - The Battle of the Broken Axle. - Sorry, I'm not interrupting your thing. I don't remember saying stay away from her. - Just in general. - Well, it was when she was turning. It was so, so I'm warning you away from the, don't do that, she was a ravage bear. - That she's an uncontrollable beast and now she's warning me away from you who was an uncontrollable beast. - Sorry. - Okay. - Sorry, it wasn't very funny. (beeping) - Nice, really, really good. - It's the same damn stuff as I had before. - It's a great job. - It was funny then, too. - For her pleasure. - The Wazir. - No, the Bizir. - Bizir. - I was with the Bizir. I can't do anything nice for you guys to be suspicious. So, gee, I wonder why we have been fucking trained over the last 20, 30 years. - We are moving along. - Yeah, if you're moving along.