As the gang gets closer to the last known location of the lost caravan and the adventure, things start to get interesting – very interesting…
Knights of the Night
KotN Actual Play Podcast - 159 Numenera - The Other
[Music] Hello and welcome to "Night's of the Night" actual play podcast. This new manera story, "Sandswept", was written and run by a GM Scott. And now, please enjoy episode 159, titled "The Other". Actual play begins immediately. [Music] This is the new manera story, "Sandswept", chapter 9. I'm your GM Scott, and with me tonight, taking his new place on my right is... Michael playing Nina of Stelphi Nano, who exists partially out of faith. I am Jim playing Feshmen with a mystical Nano that works miracles. I'm Tom playing Tila, an intelligent Jack who falls at the moon. I'm Mike, playing Buz, a tough glaive who fuses flesh and steel. Thomas playing Felix, a strong-willed Jack, huns with Kritzko. I'm John playing Sig, a mutant Nano who talks to machines. Alright, brief recap of last week, the battle was concluded. You pulled all the supplies out of the sand pit that you could. You left your wagon behind in the sand pit since it was damaged beyond any conceivable repair. You then made your way towards the split in the road or the junction where you were to veer off towards the oasis. At that point, when you came to the, actually before you came to the junction, about a half mile out, you found an abandoned imperial wagon from the city of Serenity. Looking from either a high noble or maybe even the vizier himself, one of his wagons, the half-buried in the sand dune. You took some items from the wagon, mostly personal gear, camping gear, travel gear, some cloaks, boots, etc. And you left the wagon, the nice wagon behind and made your way with the anine on towards the split in the path. When you came to the split in the path, there were four obelisks made of glass marking the four corners of the split. There was no perceived trail heading off to the west that you were supposed to take. However, there were two dunes that were pretty closely packed together and between them was where a path could be imagined heading out in that direction. After some searching and some investigation, both Felix and Nina walked through the westernmost two obelisks and disappeared. At this point, we'll take it with the rest of the group, noticing that they just disappeared as opposed to going through guys because we've the mystery intact for everyone that way. So at this point, you see Felix, you guys see Felix and Nina walk through almost simultaneously and disappearing. To be clear, when Felix walked through, you were so very close to the two obelisks, Nina, that you actually were still able, and they don't know this in the group themselves, but you were still able to see him, you thought you were going out of phase a bit because he seemed to lose some of his consistency. So you thought it was you because he was going translucent and you both walked through within seconds of each other. Let's explain how that happened. So the rest of you, we have Eshman, we have Tila, we have Bas, and we have Sig, who are standing there slack jawed as two of your members disappeared as they walk through the obelisks. Before we get on, I had zero experience, like spent at the beginning of the game to get any more. Yes, everyone, that's a great point. Everyone gets one experience point for just showing up for the adventure last week. We didn't discover anything meaningful, there was nothing really, you know, fantastic that happened, so we're not going to give out any additional experience. So we go around the table real quick and everyone can announce how many experience points they have, so I have an idea of where to throw out the GM challenges or interventions, intrusions, whatever. Tila has six. Wow. She's stacked. Eshman has one. Tila has one. Tila has one. I now have four. Okay, Felix. All right, so lots of ones in there. With a four and a six, I believe. It's going to be two. Okay, so getting back on track, the four of you have seen the two of them disappear, being Felix and Nina. So what do you do? If you recall, the clouds had parted a bit, the sun was coming through, still the cold desert, but you're getting some direct sunlight, the wind had died down a bit. It's 1900 hours and there's 28, 100 hours in a day. It's 28 hours in a day, so you have nine hours till you may not swim. Now that my clock's been thrown off, I turn to my brother. Go. Stay. I'm going. I'll be right right after him before I take it if I can, and I walk through it. Wow. And I go right back if I can. Let's follow after them as quickly as we can. Okay. Okay. So everyone seemingly agrees that the best thing to do is to follow through. Correct? Yeah. Okay. So everyone walks through switching gears quickly to Nina and Felix. When you walked through, almost immediately, Felix came substantial again. So you know that it wasn't one of your phases. It was much like me. Right. So, and you spin around and realize that there's no one behind you. There's the four aquelisks, but there's no one that is no longer behind you. Yeah, you can see. It looks like a normal day, but we can't see them through. You can't see them through whatever it is that you're experiencing. The first thing you notice is the clouds above. It'd be hard not to. The clouds above are normally white or with rain. It turns gray. These clouds are a hue of magenta that there is no way you can't be stunned by just looking at the sky and seeing clouds. The sun itself, where it was pale and weak in the southern hemisphere, the sun itself has a deeper, ready hue to it, much more fiery. It's still cool. You know, you're still in a cold desert, but that's the second thing that draws your attention is there's vegetation in this desert. There are literally palm trees and shrubs that aren't half dead with no leaves on them. There's flowering bushes. It's a desert, but it seems to be a desert in bloom. It seems to be a desert that is at the height or peak of its vitality. It is, to your mind, a completely different desert. The third thing that catches your eye is there's a fucking trail. It's not some dirt, little path or whatnot. There is a trail made of compacted dirt. The path itself is slightly convex in a sense that if there was any water or anything, it kind of falls to the side. There seems to be stones along the side, the very sides of the now existent path. It just seems a lot more well put together than what you just came from. The next thing that catches your eye is that for the first time in a long time, you're seeing creatures. You see what looks to be some herd animals. Looks to be wild, like some type of herbivore or for our friends in England herbivore. But they're grazing maybe quarter mile in a distance. They look like some sort of herbivore that travels in a herd and has four legs and it looks like bluish hue to them. Unlike some of the coloration that you might be seeing with some of your domestic, there seems to be closer to you some large dragonflies. And when I say large, I don't mean any larger than your hand, but still a sizable insect that are buzzing from a flowering plant to flowering plant within a short distance of you. Not quite immediate. And then the last thing that catches your attention as you look around you, there seems to be, you don't know if it's in your ears or if it's coming through the earth or something different, but there seems to be a deep, constant hum, almost like a some sort of pulse or just something I just felt like I described it. It's maybe just this constant pulse that's running through the earth, through the air. There's just almost like the air of electricity that happens right before like how your senses are heightened right before you're about to be in a fist fight or maybe a combat of some sort. Before Nina is getting ready to pull her knife out and I mean literally at that second of cutting the pouch. That excitement that kind of swells through you, that buzz you get in your ears, that feeling of adrenaline, that seems to be something that's just all present. All the time, it's just, it's disconcerting in a way, it just, it kind of throws you off a little bit of your game. Questions? Any obviously strange tracks in the area, anything that doesn't come from the blue beasts up there or any insects that might be running around? You notice what looks to be a very clear track of a wagon and a four legged southern anneen traveling on this pathway. And also a couple sets of boot prints as well. Along with at the same moment, they're perfectly aligned with the wagon and with the anneen. What's the road made out of? On its surface, it's a hard-packed dirt. You're not sure if there's that glass, what is happening underneath it, but it seems to be a hard-packed earth with some really ornate stones, like carved stones along the sides of the convex of the path itself. It's not of sharp convex, it's just convex enough that if it rains, the main path itself would not be flooded. Kind of convex that makes gutters useful. Yes. The tracks going in or out? In. They're heading to the west, if that's what you're asking. And at that moment, I think enough time has passed because it wasn't that long. The four of you, along with Ichabod, come through. So again, your senses are kind of just overwhelmed. Magenta clouds, this adrenaline buzz that's just through the earth, through your body, through the air that you're breathing. These strange creatures that I have, a strange hue to them, they almost seem to glow at a distance. Are we still in a cold desert now, or is it? You warmer, does it smell like? It definitely smells different because there are flowering plants throughout this desert. It looks like it just has rain. You know how you hear that once a year when the desert gets rain, it just blooms like crazy. That's what it feels like you're experiencing. But that's what I mean, is it warmer? Not necessarily. I'm a warmer to a degree. It's maybe 50 degrees instead of 40. Yes, John. Is this feeling of electricity something my pneumonara sense can pick up? Okay, I want to hesitate from calling it electricity only because words fail me a little bit. It's more like almost like a feeling. Yeah, like almost like a adrenaline or like a pulse. Yeah. You could call it like I don't think I have electricity or making it a direct language. I would say they have something similar, but yeah. Or a thunderstorm, like a result or something. Yeah, like an ozone almost like a mic. So my pneumonara parts, my robotic or bionic arms and legs and stuff, those are functioning normally here? Yes, it seems to be. You don't seem to be noticing any difference. Getting back to your thoughts, Sig. I would assume that your pneumonara senses are in overdrive right now. You're feeling a little bit like you did when you had the feedback loop from Tila, but it's not as aggressive as that. It's not burrowing back into your mind like the rebound from Tila. This is more like like how you felt when you were in the vizier's inner chamber hit one of his throne rooms and there was so much technology around. It's a very, very similar feeling to that, but probably a little bit more powerful than that even so very distracting for you. Yes, Mike. I look around in the distance. Do we see any buildings or structures? No, you don't. You see a desert that again is flowering. It's full of life. You see a path. It doesn't take a fantastic track or like Felix to tell you yourself that there's ruts in this dirt pathway. There are footsteps, boot prints. There is a mean tracks that are, you've been walking behind this mean now for a day and a half, two days. So you've got a really good feeling for what a mean track looks like, plus you did it as a living anyways. So yeah, there has been someone here recently with one wagon and one indeed and several people walking to the side of it within the last 24 to 48 hours. And is it still kind of flat terrain or is it still full of dunes and hills? Same. It looks almost like the desert itself is similar. I mean, the sand looks like it's the same texture. Is it relatively the same time of day? The sun in the same spot? Yes. Faz and I have traveled a lot with our father and take it. None of this looks even remotely from that. Nothing you've ever seen before, nothing you've heard story of, nothing along those lines. We're still kind of close to the obelisks, right? I would say you're maybe by the time you stop and take it all in, you're maybe 10 steps from where the obelisks are behind you. My intellect isn't strong enough to, I could take a rope and cross back and see is this like a sphere or a dome or a protected area or is this like another dimension, but that might be beyond my... Another time? I don't like this place. It's very uncomfortable. I'd like to get what we came for and they've... Well, we can only follow the ruts and do what they lead. Are we bringing Ichabod in the aminilon? Well, that's a good question. Ichabod, you know, what does Ichabod have? To me, Sarah, they came through. Yeah. He's stunned, he's never seen him like this himself. He thought he knew a lot. He even says that I thought, you know, I got some good reports back from what this was all about, but they didn't share this part of it with me. I had no idea that the desert would change like this. He's absolutely flabbergasted. Now, all these flowering plants, they're all natural, they're not cultivated, right? They're not in rose or they're not like big? Correct. It looks like, again, it looks like there was a huge shower here recently, maybe within the last week or so, and there's a huge bloom of fresh foliage. I don't know what to say, we should be in our guard and try to, like you said, get going and move as fast as we can and see what we have to see. We don't see structures, we don't see any other people, and these aren't fields that are cultivated, so is this where the ambushes came from? No, this was farther south, they came from the west, unless they went above. They could have, but it would have been a different route. They hit you from the west, when you're coming, when you're heading south down the path, and now you're heading to the west. So, similar direction to yes, but several hours south of where they hit you from. I find it odd, this is very well marked, and it's like, you figure it would be like a bridge or a transition point, or a tollgate or somebody would be guarding one end of this. Yeah. Sig has turned around and tried to wander back through the obelisks, if they're still there, but he does get a view of what's back there. Sure. You turn back around and walk back through the obelisks and look down the path, and what you see, first of all, you know, I'm sure you look back to your group, they are still there, when you walk through the obelisks. Just trying to get back to the real world. When you look down the path that you came, it has changed. It is now, it's the same path, but it is again, in bloom, underneath the new desert sun, the air is still throbbing with potential. You did not go back to where you were hoping to go back to in the past. Even if you turn and go back to the other set of obelisks as well. Are there ruts in the ground as if the wagons went that way as well? You ask that if Sig and Sig says, "Yes." Maybe it's farther before they return. All right. Different spot to go. Well, let's go again, and there's a different spot. Maybe we need to buy a token. Yeah, let's start walking west. It does not. The blue breeze animals. Yes. Do I recognize them? They are unlike anything you've seen before. You know, I have an idea. And they don't appear to have any kind of... There's no fence or anything like that. They seem to be free range. Correct. You know, growing up with the caravan and dealing with anene flesh. I know that it's pretty popular to brand animals with a mark to the fire ownership. I wonder if Felix, if you can go check one of these slow, peaceful looking blue grazing animals. And see if they have any kind of brand or mark on them just to see if... And I want to make sure that I describe this as well as possible. As you move, I'm assuming everyone's moving down the path it sounds like. That's your take. You get a little closer to the grazing animals. They would be analogous to maybe a present day antelope. With the exception of the fact that as you get a bit closer, I'm saying, instead of them being a quarter mile away or maybe an eighth mile away, they have perhaps what looks to be six lives and two large horns that curl back and then one smaller one that's straighter, which kind of like sweeps back a little bit. So there's three horned and there's probably about four of them on top of this one dune. And when you get to within an eighth mile or so, you're able to tell that there is a slight glow to them. They glow. So, I guess I'll go check one of them out. I'm not going to be subtle because I have a feeling they're not around humans a lot and they don't see us as predators. But I do have my crossbow out in case they do. And what would be in the marching order while Felix is heading off to check out these razors? I think we'll fall back into the original mark chair we had, which was Felix and Nina. Except that six, now you're going to get out of here. You're just kind of pushing towards the front. But we're headed deeper in. We don't know that. But I tried getting out and it didn't work. So let's go. I agree. It's freaking him out. I'll take point. I'll just pick up perception if I could as a skeleton. Sure. Because anything is going to do. Believe me. In any world that you're going to be adventuring in, perception is not a bad skill to have for multiple characters. So Felix goes off to what would be the northern side of the path and kind of goes off and works his way around as he's trying to pursue these strange razors. The main group is moving kind of slowly giving him a chance because he's stalking prey. But he said you're not going overly cautious, but you're probably somewhat cautious. I would say. I'm just like running up to him. No, because I could try to kill me. And so we have Nina taking the point and then what happens from there. Sounds like Sig wanted to be behind her towards the front. Anyone else? I'll be next. Okay. Which would leave the brother and sister combo on the back. Tila feeling quite. I feel better. Better. I would say hung over, but not because you got the feed. On the plus side there seems to be plenty of easy game for her. As long as they're not poisonous. Well, that's the risk of the property. We'll feed it to Echo Kong. I'm sure that we're wage bears in the globe before. It's a wage bear. You're looking for, I think. I'm sure it's not affected by poison. So you make your way to approximately a couple hundred feet from the animals and they look up somewhat startled because they were grazing on the top of this hill. And they start to then crack off in a southerly and westerly direction. So they're heading away from you but kind of in the direction you're going but away from you as well. They seem to be nervous. Whether they picked up your scent or something else bothered them. They know about predators. That's right. So I kill one of them. It means they're edible to something. They might be owned. Yeah, I just wanted to figure out later. To be fair, he is off by himself at this point. So you can raise your crossbow. The closest one to you is 200 feet away. I'm not sure. Can the rest of you continue on the pathway? Yeah, it may not be that important. I was just saying if it was closer, I just wanted to get a sense of whether there's habitation here. We're completely domesticated. They probably ignore you or come over you to figure it's feeding time. Or oats or something. I cannot quite see that far. But they might be the safety and owners of this world. Or herbivores. In which case they're very intelligent to run away from them because I was going to kill them. There's a new order in time. So you can rejoin the group. You continue to walk. The path itself is relatively sizable. It's about 25 feet wide. It's not a small path that you're on a road now. But it's just packed dirt and packed earth. It's not any synth or some kind of futuristic material. But on either side of you, you've got dunes. You've got various vegetation. You've got what looks to be the bee of this area. Which would be those dragon type flight creatures. Which are about the size of a human hand. They have a greenish hue to them. A little bit of glow as well. And they're pollinating or whatever looks to you. Like there's some sense of purpose to their visiting to the various flowers. Yeah, they're being industrious. Thank you. So that's just the basic backdrop. The clouds are moving overhead. Same direction as they were before. Again, the color's different. The sun is different. It's a little bit warmer here than it was on the other side of whatever veil you crossed. But for the most part, it's similar. It's 15 to the 40. As we're walking along, I slide a bit to the side of the road and take out my dagger. And kind of dig in a packed dirt to see if there's glass underneath it like there was where we were. And while she's doing that, I'm looking around for an unusually high dune or high area or high point that we can just go around and get them to lay the land with. Sure enough. I mean, the carry is not moving any fast pace. So it's very easy for Tila to move off to the side of the road. You start digging with your knife. And within maybe four to six inches of solid sand, you hit some type of glass material. Eshman, the highest dunes in this area are anywhere from 15 to 20 feet high. So you run off the path, scamper your way up or kind of climb your way up to the top of a dune. And looking out to the west, caravan path seems to go on for quite a distance. The sight line isn't as great as you'd like because you're only 20 feet up in the air. And in this particular version of the cold desert or this area of the cold desert, there's quite a bit of palm trees and other types of vegetation which are blocking any extended view. You can see for several hundred feet ahead. No big castle or pyramid. Nothing like that. I had a farm every way about the glass. You can't bury me here either. Sorry. And somewhat disappointing. We have what, six hours before? Nine. Got some time. And you're about five miles from the oasis according to the map. A brisk block would be just there. Actually, I think it was only... I thought it was shorter than that, actually. That was seven to the village from the crossing and maybe three to the oasis. So you should be getting the oasis right around the time of nightfall, excuse me. It takes us two hours to go a mile? Yeah. Okay. The oasis too. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You're right. The knee is going in about two miles an hour. So you're going to cover that in a couple hours. An average of brisk walking pace is four miles an hour. We slow it down for the giant elephant thing we're dragging on. It turned out the knee is going in about two miles an hour. But still, you're going to be there in plenty of time. Do you see another animal to shoot? Try that. Oh yeah, this time I'll sneak up. Try not to kill it, but to wound it so we can keep it alive. Yeah. We should tie teal up underneath one of those. If one wakes up, there's this great big hunk of food in front of a fish. Right. How big are these things? They were big. Like I said, they were... The cows are bigger. Analogous to an animal, but slightly larger. I don't know if you remember. I'm pretty small. I'm not sure I can drag an entire antelope back here while also subduing me. I could kill it. Me neither. You don't have an issue here. Let's get to the oasis. Felix has come back. I'm sorry. Felix has come back and then he picked up with Ashman who came down from the Dune. You guys are talking towards the rear of the caravan at this point. Me neither can use your newly minted perception skills to see if you can find something while everyone's kind of talking or just walking and it's pleasant enough. I'll almost kill it. How about it? And then you heal it. It doesn't have to be a monster big thing. If you see something smaller and more portable, but still living that you can eat, that would be great. They protect the baby. Another perception would allow you to...how many levels can you bring it down? One level because you have the training of the skill. It's not something you could put effort into because you don't know that you're looking for anything. Again, you're ahead enough to try to do a little bit of a reconnaissance. And you thought you heard a low...it's hard again because there's so much friction in the air that it's hard to pick up. But you thought you distinctly heard a very, very low, water-roll, almost vibration, which could be perceived as a change in the tonality of air pressure or maybe a grove. Well, I put up my hand and... I stopped. I want pumps in your back. But it's looking at me, which should be everybody eventually. Right. You'll see that I'm putting my hand to my ear, so... You're listening and pulling them to... The throwing of the air has changed as SIG notices. And he's trying to block it up, but he can't. I would say that SIG can make a roll, but his chances are almost nil. You are closer to Nina than anyone else is. But it's bothering you to a degree. I thought it was a change in the potential in the air that was bothering me. I'm saying that she doesn't know what it is. Okay. So for you can make the roll, but if it is a grove as opposed to the potentiality in the air, it would be very difficult for you to attack. The other one wouldn't be as difficult for you to attack. Okay. I don't have any skills adding in here because I don't have any perception, right? Right. Okay. I roll 13 however. For you, you don't pick up any change in the atmosphere. It just sounds like so much white noise in your ear. I guess I should have showed you what that's saying out loud. No, that's right. Because it still could be a change in the tonality, but you're catching so much feedback from the pulsing in the air, the electricity in the air, that it makes it difficult. She said stop and listen. She says stop. Do we all need to speak a roll? No, you're not paying attention. As soon as they're reasonably quiet, I'd do another perception. Right. And you go ahead and make that roll. And this one you can add effort to if you want to do that. 10 again. This time, down two, right? Down two. Correct. Yeah. Maybe this lane is where most music box came from. So maybe the very power in the air will keep you from changing. You are the most hopeful mother of all. But gentle is the answer. My father is a guy in your world. If there's an advantage. That is wishful thinking. The quiet around me. There might be another in addition to the two that I... Yes. You are aware now that it is absolutely a growl. But what's really interesting about this growl is not only is it this quarter roll noise that you hear, but it does also seem to be in the potentiality of the air. It's very strange. You hear the growl as a noise, but you also feel it as a... Almost as if some type of external adrenaline, if you will, not your own adrenaline pumping. Something else is adrenaline pumping and you felt it. It is unlike anything you've ever experienced in your life. And for that very reason that you're able to detect it, you're not surprised when a creature that is not at all a grazer. But it looks to you very clearly like a predator comes leaping out from one of these plants and bushes. And just the foliage, it's the side of the road. With a green hue just like the dragonflies, this thing leaps out. It's probably the size of maybe half the size of the grazer that you saw. It too has six legs, although the arrangement of them is relatively unique. There's four that it's running with and there's two that are in the very back that almost seem to spring it off the ground when it leaps for you. It's an incredibly weird beast, but his face is very predator, very feline in nature. You see these huge hooked, almost like sabers that look like they're coming out teeth that are coming out. Like a saber tooth cat in a prehistoric sense here on earth coming at you and the mouth opens up and it's coming right you. It's glowing. This neon green as it strikes you from its leaping position. The key here though is you weren't surprised. So it does not get the advantages that it would get if you were surprised. Not a leafy. Not a leafy. So you're trying to defend against it. Do we hear this attack happen? I think we see it. She holds her hand up. She kind of bends down and tries to listen. And then you see her head snap to the side. You are all in surprise for this particular round. And as this beast just leaks, again it's relatively sizable. It's half the size of those large prey items, the grazers. So defend is a speed task and it's a level four creature defense. And the effort takes it down to nine. I do that. Good luck to you. One, it costs me two. Thirteen. Nina being the slide minks that she is, tucks and rolls and this beast goes over the top of her and lands with quite a bit of agility. It lands on the turf and kind of spins around. Looks at the rest of you there. Looks at Nina who did a little half roll and is back up again. And what's really interesting from ten feet away or so is the fact that it is glowing. But what seems interesting to you is it seems to be phasing a bit like you. It seems almost like you're looking at it with water between you or the haze of the desert between you. There is a shimmering quality to it that is just very unique. It doesn't seem to be central. It doesn't seem to be as substantial as you would expect it to be. But in that quarter second that it leapt over your head and you spun out of the way and you look up. You just noticed that. You said this is about half the size as the grazers. Yes, which means it's probably somewhere in the city of 400 plus pounds. It scares you every bit as much as that ab human, that the lizard, the shurag, that came charging at you. It's every bit as big as that and the fact that you're in a strange land and it looks like a strange creature who's not quite as substantial as you expected to be. Everyone can roll for initiative now. Okay, Nina. I love it. Is that good? I'll think of something. Give me a few seconds. Teela. Seven. Bass. Six. Felix. Seventeen. Six. Seven. I will give you an additional action for the turn. Now I move action, but action action for the turn. Like a smite it in the brain type of action, if I can. Sure. That sounds good. So the first person to go after that initial surprise attack, Nina, if you weren't surprised, you roll the defensive role, which is really for the creature, you still get to act. See the back up and slide behind the bush. Okay. That will be some sort of stealth role I would imagine, so go ahead and try to conceal yourself, which may or not matter, just to be fair. Because he sees where you're going and he's a predator. Well, I follow my face. Well, not necessarily. It is a very small bush. Yeah, the stealth skills. Right. That lowers it a level. I mean, all you're trying to do is put a bush between you and it, so it was a simple action. So actually, when you, with your stealth talent, you took it down from a three to zero. You literally could, you didn't have to roll it. You could not fail to put a bush between you and the creature. I love you. That will take us to Eshman. Go. I just might it. I don't know what that means. I don't hit it in the head. He scans it aggressively with his... Okay. Well, each one of those squares is five feet. So, Eshman, you are approximately 30 feet away from that creature. I'm gonna use effort. I have two edge. How many points does Onslaught cost to cast? One. Then you should spend the edge on the effort. Right. So that the effort only costs one plus the one of the Onslaught. Right. So, two full points. Right. And you can roll it. One level. Because he's not trained. Okay. One second. What does Onslaught do? You're in a new land with new rules, so please tell me. One or his armor does two points of damage direct to his intellect. To his intellect. Okay. Go. Seven and it rolled over to six. Okay. It was level four, so it was a difficulty of twelve. And you took it down to nine. And, unfortunately, it's an alien mind to you. It's the description we'll give it. It's just something that is, for lack of a better term, electronic in its nature. So it just seems very strange to you. And you're unable to find that zone. Like, okay, where's the part of the brain that can really do the most damage? Or the brain stem or whatever. It's just not there. There's no there there. So, this first turn, you're kind of stunned and kind of confused by it. Next would be Felix. That's right there. And I already had my crossbow out back when I was hunting. So, I'm going to fire on it. Ichabod's is the only person in the way. And I don't mind so much about that. Yes. Ichabod is in your way. You want me to move so I don't-- I'm not telling you what to do. Do I need to move in order to be able to hit it? It's my actual-- Ichabod is in your way. The creature is low to the ground, three and a half, four foot at the shoulders. Ichabod's definitely providing cover for the creature. It's Ichabod, so. Yeah, but it's more difficult to hit him. And I'm already pretty bad at this thing. Just about having killed several people with it before. We have a couple steps. I'm just going to move off the path a little bit to the south. Okay. And then I have a better angle on it. Sure. You move in front of Ashmen and off to the right to the edge of the path and fire at the creature. It is level four, which is a 12. 12 is much harder to remember. That's 15 because I'm not very good at this. I'm going to spend effort. So, spend the points and efforts to bring it back to actually 12. And then I'm going to fire. 17. 17. I spend another speed point to put one more piece of damage onto that. 17 is self. That's one more point of damage. Yeah. 17 itself does do one extra point of damage, yes. Two extra points. It's six, seven, eight. What happens is something that you have never experienced before in your life. Your heavy crossbow bolt penetrates what would be the right side of the beast. And there is a scattering of zeroes and ones that looks like almost like a dust storm of neon green zeroes and ones. And then 10 feet away to the west, the creature reforms and rolls over a couple times and there's a huge bolt sticking out of the creature's side. As it's glowing, snarling to the ground, it's looking directly at you. Certainly seems to be in some sort of pain. So, whatever you did was good and effective. Kill it. And pissed it off too. Right, kill it. I don't want to deal with that. Digital blood. It's beautiful. Nina. Aren't we allowed to go in any order we want as long as we're before? As long as you were before after the creature, the creature is a seven. Bas is the only one who rolled lower, so anyone who wants to move can go. The normal fighting style of Bas and I is back to back because we're off and out of the wilderness and we can't see what might be coming from any direction. So, I'm dropping down to his speed, just putting my hand on his shoulder to let him know I'm there and then turning and facing him up is a direction of watching in case these are pack animals. Right. So, you are facing east down the path? No other way. I'm facing east. I'm facing the exact opposite. This is our normal fighting routine, so if these movies let me know, we're going to move together. And then that way I can also be a shield for her as well. Oh yeah, and I draw my sword. Alright. That's a good idea. I guess Nina's waiting seems to be so long for looking at her. She's going to wait and see what happens. Thanks. Go ahead and make a perception check. This one is not one that you can add anything to, but you do get the fact that you have that skill. Roll the six. You're panicked and don't see anything. That takes us to sick. Sick. Sick is kind of zoned out, but. Yes, he is. I think he notices when the thing bursts into one's and zero's and warps somewhere else. It didn't warp so much, it almost was like as if the momentum from cloud. Yeah, the cloud kind of almost rolled. It was a roiling cloud and then the creature kind of rited itself back on a path and looked towards Felix who had struck it and it reformed its zero's and one's and it's glowing again with that neon green glow. He's thinking it's got to be some new manera. A projection? It can be hit. It's physical. What the hell? I'm going to try to turn it off. And he reaches out and tries to flip a switch. He doesn't know if it's full of what this thing is entirely totally. Totally. I'm not zero leading. Oh yeah. He's kind of zoned out of it and he's just going to try what he can do. At least he can flip one of those ones. What skill would you be using to do that? It's special ability, just in activation. Talk to me about it. I think I need to know what it does. As with Tila I gained a lot of information before I could even attempt it and then it was a role. I'm not used to dealing with Sig so it doesn't occur to me that he might try to turn me a bear again. If he does something that draws my attention I'm going to turn him and go. Right. Right now I'm not even thinking about him. Well Sig is the last person to go besides Nina who is kind of waiting and watching to see what happens. So while you look at up Sig I'll let the creatures go that won't really affect you. What you... You said plural. Oh darn it. Even everything away. Boz go ahead and Tila. Go ahead and make a perception check. I'm not going to tell you what it is. Unless you have perception you can't change it. What'd you roll Boz for? Huh? This place is really messing with your luck. Yeah. Nine. It's working. Until you, at the very last second both you and Boz, you looking to your left, Boz looking to his right, there was actually one of the creatures which Nina, as you were looking around, didn't quite catch. On top of that ten foot dune that is just to the north of where you're standing on the road. There was a creature that was hunched down really low. Did any of us notice what our roles are now? No. I'm just going to give you a chance to surprise. Looking over in this creature is coming at Boz. Right. With claws out, fangs out, you used its back two legs of the six. So thrust itself into the air at speed and momentum at Boz. Boz, you are taken by surprise at this. Right. What that means, as a defender being surprised, you cannot use effort or action abilities. So the level is the creature, which is four. So that would be a target number of twelve, but you do not get to use any effort or action abilities. So I assume that would just be a twelve. Is my shield as a speed defense when that's not a certain action ability, right? No, it's an asset. It's an asset. I would argue, however, that it's still strapped to your back. Well, that's where there's a cavity. Depending on which... No, no, it's taking you from the side. But your argument would be that since the initial attack has happened, he was surprised the first round and hasn't acted the second, so he couldn't have drawn one. The second round? Exactly. It has got a chance to act in the second round and get to draw his shield. And it's hitting him from the left side. It's not hitting him on his back. Okay, thanks. Your back is covered by your system. And you marvel for a moment when you think about the fact that it just left probably twenty-five to thirty feet through the air, watching itself at you, which is just really impressive. Yeah, but my sister's a ravage bear, so I'm not much. Yeah, you're right. Probably not as impressive as... I do with this shit every other night. Exactly. At least four or five times a month. Go ahead and make your defense roll. Okay, my armor doesn't come into play here because my armor is damage reduction and that's all. Okay, so... I will... Hi, nineteen. Nineteen? Well, that is a finer... I took that. I can't get my shield. I can't use my armor. I can't use my armor. I think you like... Why can't you... I catch the movement out of the corner of my eye. I turn and I'm able to kind of set my legs and my metal arms and I bunch up and hit it down. And so I kind of break its... It's momentum? It's momentum. And it had some serious momentum going your way. Yeah. And I've braced myself. I've set myself to receive that charge and to... Well, what ends up happening, interestingly enough, is as you set yourself and brace yourself for the attack, the creature hits you. And so it's still... it's still struck home. But you feel a flood of the creatures adrenaline, your adrenaline. Again, the air... the ozone seems to crackle with potential. And the creature shatters into zero and once. And it spills over you, behind you, into the path. And you hear... like, it sets itself as it reforms again, behind you, further down the path to your right now, as it was going from left to right across your body. Growling that low-gloteral growl as it looks at you as a zero's and one's reform into a coherent shape of this beast. Doing no damage to you, but kind of shocking you a bit with, again, that potential, that electricity, that ozone, just crackling in the air. Is that anything I can interface with with my technology or... I mean, I imagine if you have a way to interface with technology, it's got... You know, I think that's a possibility coming down the pike for me. I look forward to it. I don't have a doubt. Okay, Nina, I'm going to allow you a chance before Bos X, because you were holding for some movement or some activity, I'm going to go ahead and give you a chance to go. You don't have to. I'm going to scan in this direction, these directions for protection. Okay, this is an actual other attack. Right, this is actual one, so go ahead and make your perception check real quick. Putting effort into it, so it's down two. It goes down two levels. Well, one for training. Training, and one for the effort. Thank you. Okay, I've got a target number in mind. Eleven. You look to the west, which is down the path, and there is a palm tree. If you can see the foliage there with the impressive trunk. And the palm tree itself, it's got a slight neonish glow to it, with everything in this world. And it makes it incredibly difficult, but not for Nina, to detect that there is one of these creatures that is out on an offshoot. It kind of branches out, right, that this palm tree breaks into three different large shoots, if you will. And there's one that's hanging over the road a bit with a lot of foliage, a lot of leaves. There's one that's concealed in there, and you catch it's glowing, because the eyes glow a little bit deeper than the rest of the body does. You catch the glow, the eyes through the foliage. Go ahead, Felix. I'm sorry, you said you had something on the same. I was curious how tall the trees were on here. The palm trees can be up to 20 feet higher, so same as the dunes. Maybe 30 feet at some of the larger ones you've seen, yes, sick. I never took my turn. Nope. Distant activation. Activate or deactivate any machine you can see within short range. Even if you would normally have to touch manually operate the device. To use this ability, you must understand the function of the machine. It must be your size or smaller, it can't be connected to another intelligence, or be intelligent itself. Okay, and is this a role that you get to make, or is it just an automatic power? It's an automatic power. However, since he doesn't have enough of an idea and he knows how his ability works, he would rather scan than try it. That's your call. I'm not telling you whether it's going to work on that because you wouldn't know to be honest. So give it a generally when it tries to figure out how a machine works. He scanned it. Okay. Well, let's just roll it up and say it's level four creature, but the incredibly unique build of it makes it a level more difficult. So it takes up to level five. I'm going to have to roll. Yes, you're going to have to roll. And you may apply efforts, if you wish. It's an intellect roll. I'm not going to. Okay, I'll tell you what. You're not supposed to roll, is that what you're saying? For this, normally? Yeah, but I'm using this weirdly. I've been using everything weirdly. Go ahead. Well, that's half the fun, is trying to use these things in a very unique manner. I'm going to say you have a choice. You can roll, and you will learn more about this incredibly unique creature, or fail. Or you can just say surface scan, surface scan, surface scan. It seems like, you know, that's what you'd say. But anyways, you could just do a brief surface scan on it to get what you can get. I'm going to roll for free. Okay, so you're at level five, which is a 15 target, and you may apply intellect effort, if you wish. I'm running out of that. Okay. You can heal myself, too, you know? I've run out, I need to wait ten hours, so I just keep walking. And the cart's gone. Anyway, at risk, I'm better at letting this pressure, adrenaline into the feedback into my head. I scan this thing. Right. One. No. Well, I have to say, you've got all this incredible potentiality and ozone that's just filling the air. What a really cool number. Yeah, but there's these things called experience that you could spend a roll again. Yeah. I mean, you have one, right? Yeah. You have one, that's pretty shitty. I know. There it goes. I'm not going to get 15. You don't know what could happen. No, but you're not going to get a one. You might get a 15. I got a two. Two. Two. Two. Which is actually, thematically. You know where it was? Really impressive. I'm going to start with what he went for. Or just that. Or just that. He didn't get hurt. So, it was so different. So, the failure. The failure, there's just so much background noise. And it's so... This technology is new manera you've never experienced before. So, that's, I think, a cause. I think thematically it was, I mean, I'm sorry, you wasted the experience point. I really am. Me too. But a one to a two almost makes sense because it is so different. But it did probably save your life. Or you still got it in the way. Something along those lines. Yeah. That way, that's it. Getting back to the story. Nina, you didn't action. Which was to actively perceive. And you found another creature seemingly ready to pounce from the trees. But you still have a move action if you choose to expend it. So, your choice there. Your turn isn't completely over, I guess is what I'm saying. What are the distances here? Are these all close range? Five feet. You're all five feet. Am I allowed to talk out now? Talk out. When fighting pad hunters, we should probably try to stop. From being divided. So, we probably want to begin to work towards each other. And so we can kind of cover up and protect ourselves. Are you suggesting this all about? Yeah. I'm saying you are. Because I wouldn't know that. Right. So, I'm saying that a lot like, you know, like I was drawn in. Like, yeah, I fell back to the anne. You can still shift ahead towards the one. Now, it is the creature's turn. The predator that Felix had shot looks to be heavily favored. It is heavily favoring its left side. It turns to its right, which is the south. And it limps off into that ground cover of those flowering bushes and trees. And just kind of slowly limps away. In obvious pain, yes. I need that bulb back. Well, it's chasing. The one in the tree that most of you haven't seen, but have heard, mean a shout about. No one senses any other activity happening. So, whether it's moved or whether it's changed positions. No one knows. I'll go first. And then you follow up. I imagine with my flesh and steel that my shield will slide over and do a little. In the middle. Sure. No, it's all good. So, I'm going to instead pull my broadsword out. And I'm going to. I'm going to thrust my broadsword. You're going to just distance. Yeah. Basically turn to your right, move south 10 feet and thrust with your broadsword. Right. Into the creature. He is level four, Bos, which gives you a target number of 12. If you're attacking with a broadsword, it's one level higher. So, he goes up to level five. Oh, it's eight? It's not really where he seems to be. It's been my effort to reduce it back to. 12. Target number four difficulty level. So, the cost is actually one. I got two in my ditch. That's pretty damn money. So, the thrust is a funny move, so I get an extra damage. Excellent. What? Six? Six? Six's number tonight. It is. But with him, but I'm on his shield side and I talk underneath his shield and strike as well. Okay. Right. His thrust didn't miss the beast. It definitely hit the beast, but all that happened was it seemed like the zeros in one. As you get up close, when you are immediately in front of it, one foot away from it, you can actually see they're very small. I mean, they're probably half the centimeter in size. But it's zeros in ones. I mean, you see it and your sword thrusts into the zeros in ones. So, like a hologram or like... You know that painting that's not a bunch of dots? It's like that. It's glowing zeros in ones. I don't know what I would call it a hologram. It could be. So, in a way you're describing is almost like these are creatures, like an iron wind, but they're creatures. 'Cause you're more cohesive than the wind. It seems to be amazing. That's what I mean. So, anyways, the zeros in ones just part. Your sword slices right through them or thrusts right through them. Okay. As you pull the sword out, they form again. The zeros in ones just come back together again, and the beast seems no worse for wear. You duck under his attack and... I'm not thrusting. I'm slashing because I figured that might be harder to move away from. Sure. But I'm not putting it in there because I'm not a very very teeny. Yeah. It's a tough roll. I'm more intelligent. Again, you're just taking with a broad sword. So, same weapon. Just slicing across the creature as opposed to thrusting into it. 17. 17 is plus one damage. My brother showed me this move. Sure. He's a team. So, four damage. Okay. And I take the half step and pivot to be back on his back, watching from behind. Right. In this particular instance, you're sliced through. It covered a lot larger of an area than his thrusted. The zeros in one scatter, the creature seems to almost implode. And the zeros once are a swirl as it seems to roll. It seems to roll with your blow. And then it reforms again, snarling and angry and just looking absolutely terrifying to you. But certainly favoring the size that you struck it on. That definitely seems to have affected it in some way. We're back to the start again with only T-law and Bos will go after the creature or creatures. Go. I'm going to attempt to smite the one that's closest to me. Right in front of you, you see the combat. And when you say smite, that means... That means I'm using my onslaught to hit it. You're trying to electrify it. You're trying to go into it to train again. Okay. Same as before. So, you have level four difficulty. Level four straight up. Target number twelve. Looks like a seven. Okay. Again, not being able to figure out exactly how this thing operates. I'm beginning to think that he has the foreign mind, that he doesn't understand anybody else's. Right. All the creatures are foreign too. Ashmen. Well, he does. He has a mind of a messiah. That's totally unique. I'm moving. Okay. And where to? I can go here, right? Yeah. Go there. It's more than enough room for you. Okay. So, you push away in front of Ichabod moving down the trail to the west. That is Ashmen. So, next would be either Felix, Enina or Sig. Well, I'm already off on the road. Can I still see the one who was limping away with my crop hook? Oh, yeah. It's not like this is so heavy fully. I mean, this is a desert. So, the undergrowth and the bushes and the flowering plants, they block your view a bit, but not enough to be completely obscure as the creature. Okay. I'm going to reload because I need to do that before I fire again. Okay. It doesn't seem to be moving that quickly away. It's limping, it's moving in immediate distance right now as opposed to a short distance, which makes you think you have a little more time to be able to attack it. All right. I'm going to move an immediate distance on it as doom, if I can. On to the doom? Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead, advantage again. Enina's Tila's successful attacks, so she's going to try to slash rather than throw her a stab. Okay. So, she's moving an immediate distance into the zone of that creature and slashing at it to try to help. It is a level four. So, you're going to remember 12. You have a, what? Nothing? A dagger. Still a light. Still a little dagger. So, it doesn't have any properties that are going to be useful to keep this negative way, which is a one-level penalty for using a basic weapon against it, which takes up the level five difficulty, 15. If three characters attack a single foe in melee, they all be in plus pawn on the attack. And there you go. So, you now, because you're the third character joining this particular melee, thank you very much, Thomas. Effort would target him. Light. Effort would be might. She's doing that. She has no edge in that, though, so it costs three big ones. Fifteen. Fifteen. So, excellent. Slashing seems to be the way to go. You rip across the other side of the beast, and you do two damages with that weapon? Yeah. It's not mistaken. And you see a very similar thing where, in this particular instance, the damage was a little bit lighter, so you don't see the full reforming of the beast, but you see zeros and ones just scatter as your knife slices through, your stiletto slices through, creatures hide or skin, and the reforming of the zeros and ones starts to take place, but again, there's the gap in the zeros and ones where you struck home. When I see this happen, and I see him kind of cut a furrow of ones and zeros through this creature, do you get a glimpse inside, or is it just all just ones and zeros? It's all ones and zeros. Six. He has nothing to contribute, and he's kind of lost. I mean, the thing he was scanning just kind of ran away. This is what he means. Well, I mean, it's retreating. You're rolling out. So, he kind of looks confused, and he notices one behind him, and he starts to scan that one. Okay. Now, he starts to scan that one. The scanning seems to drive them away. Let me try that again. This works. Scanning, in a basic sensor, I'm going to roll a sense. I'm going to roll a sense. All right. Fifteen's your target number, unless you spend intellect. I can't afford that. Can't afford it. Shame. Jesus. He rolled and won. I can't. I think it's absolutely fucking perfect. Wait. I don't mean it in a bad way. It's just such an incredible creature that you've never experienced from a place that you're not very familiar with. What ends up happening, GM intrusion, oh, I don't get to give you experience. Go ahead and make a intellect roll. If you fail. There is. The feedback. I don't want to say it's feedback, because it's not feedback. It's a worm. It's a worm. Yeah. It's a worm. All right. These things have the worms. It's like a table. It's a creature living in the wild for crying out. I want to say that your difficulty level is challenging. It's level 15. Target number 15. I failed it a little over three times. Yeah, exactly. So, level five, target number 15, and this worm is trying to bore its way into your psyche. So you can. I have a skill relating to Numenara, this probably would have reduced the difficulty level, and this difficulty level in surviving this. Sure. Take it down on level. Be fair, if the difficulty was rolling a three, you would have missed it three times. Right. Yeah, yeah. 13. Yeah, you needed a 12. So you successfully. I mean, it's just a fart. I don't even think it was your immune system. I think it was an active battle for control of your mind as this something, some alien programming was trying to bore its way into your intellect and take over functioning of your body. It was literally a digital parasite that tried to affect you, and you thankfully were able to hands to your head, screaming in pain, writhing on the ground, you collapse to the ground. But. It's as he does when I look over at a Tila, like, is she changing your hands? I look over at him. Don't you dare. But no, he's, you guys see him holding his head, screaming, and he literally collapses into like the fetal position in the sand. Where's the beast do? The beast is snarling at the three of you, seemingly not even aware of what's happening. It certainly wasn't an active attack on the beast part, and that takes us to the beasts. The beast that was limping away Felix noticed you trailing it, holding your crossbow and walking after it. I was incredibly subtle, and I was shouting obscenities at him. Exactly. He wakes into a short distance limp, and he continues to head off into the south, to the south and deeper into the desert, luring you deeper into the desert. I have a bow dipshit, and the creature that is in front of the three of you is snarling and wraddling, and it's, you know, its paws are, are swiping at you and it's down in its haunches, and I'm gonna say that it's, I got the roll, you don't get the roll. Yeah, wait a second. That really should be you guys. No, I'm kidding. That is Nina. It kind of makes sense in a way too because you were the last one to strike it, so its tension was kind of turned towards you, and it uses its back legs to just launch itself short distance, obviously immediate distance at your throat. Go ahead. It's a speed, and its level is four, and effort, and if you want to expend some, that takes down to three, which would take it to a nine defense, not one of these creatures is hit yet. I understand that enough. It's got worms. Wait, I don't think we know that. 17. 17. I gotta hit something. This is embarrassing. You ladies are hitting. You can describe to me what happens as it launches itself at you. I think similar to the first time, it just kind of goes over me. You tuck yourself into a roll, get a shoulder and roll over. I don't think I can do the boss thing and knock it back. Right. Right. Not quite. 19 would have done that. Well, it leaps over you literally just short of the tree because its leaping ability is profound. It launches itself over Nina and comes skidding to a stop, front paws out, and then it spins around quickly on its paws facing back towards Boz about 10 feet from you. Something that everyone can, well, not everyone, I'm going to say that Boz has a shot here. Tila, not really. Ichabod, not so much. Eshman. Yes. Felix. Yes. Nina. No. What ends up happening, it'll make more sense as you see here. This creature in the tree leaps 30 feet just short of the prone sick. So it couldn't quite make it to him to attack him, but it leapt out of the palm tree, traveled 30 feet in the air, and came down hard, zeros and ones somewhat just dissipating for a second. Back to form a coherent hole, and it gives out a great deep quadrilateral growl, but if he's still fetal, is it tenses to make its final attack on the prone sick. That leaves us with Boz and Tila who can go in any order they wish, but I don't think that the people I mentioned would have saw that just by the way where it lingered, and what you were focused on at the time. When to bash it, step forward and bash it. Alright, why don't we wait until next turn and do it at the beginning of the turn, then you and I and Nina can all do it all once. That's effectively it gives us all of doing it just now. So then that's what we're doing. Okay, you skip your turn, I'm going to put you both at 17, which puts you back towards the time. We'll get a plus one for everybody, plus one if we all attack the same creature. Okay. Back to the time. Everyone moves before the creatures. So the three of us are attacking the one that's in front of us. Raws go first. I will attempt to bash it. I don't know what that means. It's a fighting move where I cause less damage, but I will daze the target for one round. You're going to use a flat edge of your sprouts or to try to stun the head region at zeros and ones. Maybe like to slap and scatter more of these ones. Gotcha. Sure. Does it matter? It doesn't matter. Okay. That's a three. Okay. Level four, but level five, but then level four again because of the group of you that are surrounding it now, trying to control the scene. I'm not sure. Is that actually the three of us together is plus one of the dice or is it a production of difficulty? I don't know. I'm talking about it. If three characters attack a single phone, we lay the all game plus one bonus on the attack. It doesn't say whether that's wrong or not. That's what that means. That's a plus one to the die roll. Yeah. I think so. Awesome. If I had to guess, I didn't say reduce the difficulty. That actually happened somewhere. I didn't want to the die roll. I have boots to give me plus one to sneaking. Right. So Nina, do you want to go next? I'm using effort in my speed pool. You attack the speed. Oh, yeah. Like that. Raised to the extra with speed. Of course. 5% chance. Is this not a not only? How many have we rolled tonight? I think it's not enough. You've rolled two and Micah's rolled one. Sixes and ones are like pretty much half full. You've rolled three ones in probably a total of 20 rolls. So that would be 12% as opposed to a 5%. And even 5%. We are definitely in Bob territory now. Yes. Usually you don't see this kind of rolling list Bob's here. It's a natural two now. So you go ahead, Tila, the last one of the three musketeers attacking here, giving it their best shot. That's such a great idea. Mm-hmm. Make it big. It's 15 or less. You may choose to expend effort if you wish. No. I'm not strong. Yeah. It's a great plan. 18. Well, that's a little bit better than what we've been saying. We distracted it. Plus you set you up. You waved it to the right. Right. You need to roll the 18. I actually rolled an 18 which I had one to make it a 19. A natural 19. Yes. By those rolls Bob. Which is a minor effect. And? Oh, I'm sorry. It's plus three to damage or a minor effect. What'd you choose? I think I'd choose the plus three to damage because that makes it a total damage of seven. That's almost as much as I do, you know. But I hit it before so this is at least 10 damage to this motherfucker. The other two fainted and got into position for you. Right. And set me up. And your sword slices through the, what would constitute the neck of this digital cat and literally severs the head. And the zeros and ones just absolutely implode in a way that you haven't seen them yet. So much so that they just dissipated such a fast pace and then they just fade. And the creature is gone. Tila, boss, Nina, done. We have Felix. We have Eshman and we have Sig. All three going before the creature. I have for some reason assumed that the melee fighters who are within melee range of the thing that was about to eat our magic man's throat. We're going to kill it. Let's. Well, you just heard Tila say, fuck yeah. So they saved him. Right. So I think that you're assuming something could happen. Right. So I'm going to focus on mine. But Sig, you want to go first? Yeah. He says, they're just worms. He don't have to worry. They're worms. And he reaches out and he tries to switch out the worm in the head of the beast. You're going in again. He's not sensing. He's shutting off the worm. He knows there's one in these beast since what is controlling them. It's the intelligence and such. I'm pretty sure. I can't deactivate intelligences. I don't know if it's intelligent. I know that it's hostile. I'm going to try to turn it off. I all mean. Push him like a force push or something? I do. But I think this will blow. Okay. Besides, I'm like on my knees, tears in this audible state of sound. Well, you're actually in a field. They should see you in my head. I can't. Get to your knees and you go. As this thing is literally breathing at you, it's just that close and it's terrifying. You just seem to have started helping you put down to this. Now's the time to roll the 20. Yes. If you've been waiting all night, John, this will be the time. 18. Okay. You work your way into what you think is its mind and it is absolutely impossible to find the worm that you think would turn the beast off. But what staggers you is the sheer amount of worms in the creature. It's literally almost like a living virus. There is. These are just thousands, if not tens of thousands of worms running around this code. And you grab onto a handful of them mentally and deactivate them. Turn them from the zeros they were to ones or actually ones to zeros, but actually in a way. No, no. That's. It's neither one or zero. The interesting thing that you find that literally blows your own mind in a positive way. Enough of that. Is that you could actually have both the zero and the one both on or off at the same time. Literally each zero and one contains to the eyesight of people a hidden version of the opposite. And there is a switch that allows you to affect both if they're like paired, if you well, in a way. It doesn't have to be zero or one. It could be zero and one. So I'm deactivating this thing. So I activate all of them into this special state. Not all of them because there are millions what you can grab you deactivate. Does that make it super powerful? He just turned it into a super beast. No. Does it unfaze it so it's easier to hit? What it does is it turns its head sideways looking at you. It kind of looks at you in a different way. And that's all you've got before it gets a chance to react. So you scramble to your knees. You went inside its mind and you discovered something profound that in a zero or one it can actually be both. Go ahead. I'm doing his intellect pull. Okay. You have a wonderful sense of timing. I think he just became the god of the DigiPets. I don't know. I'm thinking of a look at me and then I got to cross the ball to the neck and follow him. I'm so dizzy. Sorry. Yes. You climb to the top of that. You scramble to the target heel. Of that. Yes. You can. It was difficulty too. So you did six or higher. And I rolled 12. Okay. You got higher. And then. He got two. I'm pretty sure I rolled. No. He does. He got two. See? He got two. So we had to get two intellect back. Interesting. I'm pretty sure it says an description. And I screamed for backup. Help. We're pretty high five in ourselves. Yeah. It's all great. I have the high ground. I can't run around any points. It gives you one level. Yes. Level. Otherwise. Five. Four. This is a regular crossbow. It's a large crossbow. A regular large crossbow. It's not a electrical crossbow or a noumenera driven crossbow. No. Okay. It's old. It's beautiful. It's fantastic. So you're back to difficult. Because of the height advantage, you're back to a level four task. Up to five because of the difficulty of actually using this crossbow and the effort spent. And effort spent back down four. So here you go. Eight. Son of a bitch. Eight. No, you know what? I'm going to spend an XP because I like hitting. And crossbow bolts are damn expensive. I've got like four of them. You need a twelve. Yeah, I know. Never happened. Son of a bitch. What is that? Three. Okay. Well, does sink into the sand within a decent distance of the creature. Five feet or so. But far enough away that it jumps when it hears the noise and looks back towards you. And it is now the creature's turn and it moves even a little bit faster because it did not like that sound scared it coming from that mean man on the sand. The creature that is in front of you. The big crows surrounded the air twice and then turns around and bounds away off to what would be the Northwest the way you're coming but off into the desert and it moves a long distance. It's running. So it's escaping. It's a hundred feet at least away. Okay. So we can end it here with Felix getting one of his two bolts back or Felix you can try to chase down the creature into the sand dunes at your own peril of course. I'm going to track it away. I'm going to tell them that I'll be back and I can find their path just as easily as I can find this things but we don't have to do it tonight. Okay. I wait until it's all rad because it's bleeding and we'll take a rest and I'll be back before shit goes to the pot. So before we go why don't we assign Axby so we'll remember next week. For instance I thought it was something very important was found out by Sig. Yes Sig on the evening gets two experience points for what he found and one for showing up. So three. What does he found? He found out the worms that are part you know these digital creatures actually contain very dangerous worms and found a way to. I met more the successful one whatever he had at the end there where he found it off. Right that too because he did find a way to go in and try to manipulate the worms although it didn't work. He could just have easily turned it into a frenzy attacking but in this particular instance he was able to actually cause it to flee. It looks like it worked great. Yeah no one needs to know that it could have been disastrous. I didn't know that it could have been disastrous. Felix had the first solid shot on one of these creatures and struck home I think no just once. So one experience point for the battle of Felix and one for showing up. So two for you. You actually shouldn't get experience your battles but go ahead. Well yeah but tough shit money. Sure enough but for the great role-playing. You won. You won. You get one for your. I didn't do anything. No you did. You the thing hit you but you threw your shoulder into it and dissipated it. And then you wounded it or sorry distracted it enough for the women to finish it off. So one for that great job of role-playing being the protector and one for being here. Tila you get an experience point for realizing that the slashing was more effective than the bludgeoning or the thrusting and one for being here as well so two experience points for you. Eshman you dealt with the alien mind obviously and were able to not quite figure out any major degree but you certainly were trying. So one for the effort that you gave forth during the battle and one for showing up. And then Nina one for discovering them working in warning the group before they were attacked and one for contributing in the combat and one for showing up. So three for you for the night as well. So that will wrap it up for this evening and we'll start back on the trail of the wounded digital carnivore when we turn it into the full name for that major on the book. Thanks for listening to the nights 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@kotnpodcast.com or contact us via twitter or leave a message on facebook. All music for this podcast was created and performed by Zen Audio Smith. If you'd like custom professional music created for your podcast or business, please visit ZenaudioSmith.com and please join us next episode for more Vistri and Adventurer. It's really hard to do directions. I have to draw another cheesy ass map. I've got some graphic paper here. I love it. I still love my graphic paper. Please thank you. I love the weird little rocks and everything's in the grid and it all locks together and it doesn't change. Order. No chaos. I'll order. I'm telling remarks now. I had to go hunt a blue thing and graze it. I thought you were done with that. I was. Then the guy wanted to talk about how I should capture one alive with my manly strength. But what? I was listening to that guy for anyways. It was insane. Incredibly so. I came three guys that aren't insane here. I'm not insane. They're just mysterious. Brains working mysterious. We have. Presumably. Probably. I wouldn't dare. We have another word for that. Couldn't we decide on a number or range of numbers that if you rolled a one that you did have to roll again and if you got a one for you. We did house rule. I think we were just... I think we were just... Well, we'll play the first adventure as written and then if we come back to the new manera we'll have to... Check the shit out of it. There was someone... That's what I was looking up here is that someone else was doing an actual play of it and I was listening. They were playing new manera and I want to hear how they played. And they were actually playing that you could play effort afterwards which really radically changed the game. Oh my gosh. But it says specifically. I was just looking up specifically. You can't do that. Right. It's not the way you roll against their house rule. Right. I don't know how you'd apply effort after something. Well, it's almost drastic like though. Yeah. We changed it to be effort. So that's why I tried harder. I got a lower number. Well, I wouldn't make the roll. So it was a story. But anyway, so let's go. Yeah. Getting back to the end. Money has my money. You can fucking cringe all you want. It's my game now. Oh, yeah. You better cut that out if he's listening. I'm not cutting that out. It's my fucking game. We'll play it anyway. We'll play it anyway. We'll play it. I'm pretty sure just to clarify, you see it's limping. Is it bleeding? There is no blood that you can see. Okay. There's fractions. Just pee, man. I don't know how they would see it. Broken zeroes. I'm just curious if irrational numbers are falling off of them. Roman numerals. Right. It's crazy. Weenings. Okay. Again, not being able to figure out exactly how this thing operates. I'm at the beginning of the thing that he has the foreign mind, that he doesn't understand anybody else's. Right. All the creatures are foreign to Ashmen. Well, he does. He has a mind of a messiance. That's totally unique. All the way down. Mike suggested using a data sphere of siphon, which sounds like it would be brilliant against these creatures. But it turns out to be just a Google search and once you ask for any answers. What are these apartments? I was like, "Slicing." On the data. We got it in here. But that's not how it works. Awesome. Or a digital lion. And... Go. Do it. It's already a shoot without getting a lot of stuff. Even thoughts. No one happens. No one happens. I thought it was going to be an answer. I thought it was going to be an answer. You look bad. Which would have been really cool. What's the answer? Neelaw. I mean, it's just going to be tealaw. It helps me through a whole night without doing that.