Are they in a new world? A pocket dimension? A Numenera created fabrication? One thing is for certain, things can’t get any stranger then they are now…. Right?
Actual Play starts 28:18
Knights of the Night
KotN Actual Play Podcast - 160 Numenera - Teela 2
(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to "Night to the Night" actual play podcast. This new Moneer adventure, sand swept, was written and run by your GM Scott. And now, please enjoy episode 160, titled Tila 2. Actual play begins 28 minutes, 18 seconds. (upbeat music) So we have a bit of feedback because we missed a week, sorry about that folks, I'm not gonna press twice more than that, anybody who reads the Facebook page knows what's going on, we'll jump right into it from the kotnpodcast.com site, we have one comment from Shara Anderson on episode 152. That was the new Moneer alt-hido. The GM does a fantastic job of describing Tila's transformation here. It was horror finally, heart-wrenchingly, and a clear illustration of the tyranny that that Numenera can exercise over people of the ninth world. Tila and Sig became real dynamic characters from this transformation description. So thank you, Shara. - Yeah, we appreciate the feedback and thank you for the kind words. - From where? - That was from the kotn podcast.com site, the blog page. - From the RPG "Crossdoc Forms" on episode 157, feedback loop, mad meal near said. - Hey, man, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - He's back. - From the outtake reel at the end of 157, it sounds like Tom needs to join me in the utterly frustrated with the D20 mechanism support group. - Yay, I don't know if you guys need support, maybe just-- - No, there's lots of us out there. There was a moment when the dice mechanics amplify tension and excitement going on at the table, and then there are times when it just sucks the wife out of it. It sounds like Tom had more of the latter. - Yes. - My worst offender was a D&D game. I offered to have my character go epic death to slow down the massive foes chasing the party. The DM said yes, but you'll need to make a role. So, I said no, no fault of the GM, but given the range of potential outcomes on a D20 role that are equally failure, I wasn't going to waste a good character's life with those odds. - To me, that's the fault of the GM. He should've just-- - Yeah. - You're telling a story, you're just dying. - Your character wants to give himself up to tell a better story. - Let the guy do it. - Yeah, you don't need to make a role in that. - Just do it, 'cause it's all about the story. It's not about, it shouldn't be about a dice roll, or dice roll. - Yeah, but let's face it, you're pretty much indoctrinated from the beginning with the D&D that the D20 system is the foundation of all. So, you just kind of-- - Maybe you don't even see the force for-- - I would say you ask me these same questions or show me the same type of game like Numenair 10 years ago. I would've loved to shit out of it and never even thought anything about it. It's games like Fate and World of Darkness to show me that there are other mechanics out there that actually work a lot better. It depending on what you want to do, but we can get into that discussion when we do the Numenair wrap-up, 'cause I'm sure it's gonna be a star feature of the particular description of that game. Back to Facebook, we have Mr. Murktee saying, "Thank you, dear Knights, this episode taught me a valuable lesson. If one of your players make a character and don't come to the session, let the other players beat the living shit out of it." - Yes, sorry Greg. - The most important lesson you want to learn. - Or write-- - I made a character in the next show to upset me. - For a few weeks. - It doesn't even have to be never show up, it's just miss a week. - Yeah, it's if they stopped coming, 'cause remember when Ryan stopped showing up and his character got eaten by a werewolf and smeared all of the balls and-- - The longer you're away, the worse things happen. - Yes. You get-- - It didn't-- - You showed the character. - Should luck didn't Greg's character end up getting-- - Yeah, but he was here for that. - He was here, yeah, okay, that's right. - It's okay to pick up the character. - Okay, another bit of feedback from John, Jason Carter, I look at you, John Carter. - He's a warlord of mine, actually. - He says okay, I'll try to keep this short. I know a couple of questions were asked from the group about my feedback, so here it goes. The decision that took so much time to make was in a Star Wars game where the player were in a group of Jedi and the high concept for the game was to explore, which meant it was meant to be a light versus dark game. And if there could even be a healthy middle, the players in question were given a quasi-mystical temptation way to find the answer that the party saw. But if they did, then he would be sliding heavily toward the dark side, to the point of near corruption. In the end, after taking the Jedi code apart bit by bit, he accepted the cost saying, it's okay, I won't go to the dark side, to which fate promptly made his opinion known as his phone immediately began to ring, and his ring tone was the Imperial March, the Darth Vader song for the uninitiated. - The Darth Vader song. (laughing) - I think, you guys may remember, it was in feedback, he said that his characters do the same thing where they take a long time making a decision and I think Mike asked, well, this is a decision they were trying to make, so he was giving his question. - As far as the second question, I was actually asking for permission to use someone else's character. I just worded the request poorly. Also, of course, Roberta will have his army of ghouls. You can't make it easy for your players, can you, Scott? - No. - Conflict, story is about conflict, period end of story. - As far as the plot of my dressing game goes, it started small scale, but somehow under a perfect storm of circumstances, it quickly turned into a universal changing game. Before you ask, I have not read the books yet, just skimmed to the wiki for ideas and ran from there. As the first season, story arc, winds down, my players are engrossed in a story so much, so that my players are now threatening bodily harm to anyone who inserts colorful dialogue here up this game. Fucks up this game. - Oh, we got the explicit mark, so. - Even me, the GM. Well, so much for keeping this short. Thanks guys, you all, as well as a few other, have helped me to become a better GM. Now, as I've prepared to run a second game on an alternate weekend with the same players, I guess I will just have to try my evil GM techniques out of them. Again, thanks Scott. - So you're teaching them out of view? - Yeah. - An absolute GM. - Very good. - We did have a comment from Ari on Facebook. This is starting to be sugar and all over again. A combat that keeps going and going and going. Which is not necessarily true. I think it went out for two sessions, which is part of the reason I decided to make some of the episodes a little longer, and so that we get through the combat quicker, it doesn't stretch out for weeks and weeks. Also, there was a holiday, and so I wanted to get a bit of a bonus to the listeners. - This is the Arachnid Ambush. - Yes. - Yeah. - Because it did. I mean, it was like a double battle, really. I didn't like the panic over the tipping cart. Although the violin playing in the background was driving me nuts, and I actually sighed as it was replaced by a more mellow tune. That was my fault as the other of course. Also, Scott seemed just to have graduated from the same GM school as I have. Fried two have been cursed by players for giving them loads of equipment, and then taking it all away and leaving them crawling in a ditch with an M1911 barely loaded. What's that piece, some kind of-- - That was the right one, is it? - Shh. - I used to know this stuff. - Kelordo would know. - Kelordo would know. - Made that piece some kind of ein curves, yeah. - Ein curves got over like this. - Really. - World costume. - And I'm not sure, I mean, this was probably before the one in the episode, which was called Christmas in the Desert, in which you gave us all gifts, and we wouldn't take them, 'cause we were afraid. 'Cause we were trying to share our thoughts and kill us now. - Actually, to be fair, everyone did, except for you. Take the gift. - Well, I had a logical character reason for you guys. - Exactly. - As Nina, I was arguing that don't even stop. It's just a time hold, it's in cold. - Right. - We should just move on. - Which was a valid argument, it all was. - And then Jim stopped and searched and found stuff. - Right. - As far as the music goes, sometimes I have a long stretch of music I need to fill if it's a battle, and I have a battle section and I grab it and I throw it in there, and I'll have to look and hunt down the annoying violin music and remove it from that. - I listened to that, as I listened to everything, and I didn't. - You know, maybe it's a matter of personal choice. - You know, I wonder if we need a house mechanic that we can use a phrase or a code word to kind of cut through the time that that would waste, where we have to look or give towards the mouth, 'cause we're sure that there's a trap or something. I know for, but then that else- - So he's saying, James, it's a safe way. - Right, he's gonna give you- - It's okay to look at the- - Well, I remember like, you have friends that you grew up with and you're always joking, or, but when someone needs to be serious and you don't have time to be playing these, you'll ever get games like, okay, for real, this is the way it is, so all right, good, you can cut- - Not just that old wasting time, but when we're telling jokes left and right for hours? - That's true. - There was one part I was at- - How would you say that? - In which John was trying to be serious, and you guys were off on a pun tangent. And it was everybody at the table except for John, and I could just hear the frustration in his voice. - Would you guys fucking knock it off so we can play? - It's a balance because there's, you want to blow off steam, and there are certain times that you've got to just- - Well, I think jokes go. - And I would rock that all the way around back to the GM storyteller, whatever. - We're joking worse than the guy. - Right, no, that's what I'm saying. It's the GM's responsibility to keep pacing is one of the most important part about being a GM. It's also one of the most advanced because it's so hard to master, and I obviously certainly haven't mastered it myself up to this point, but- - I'm not claiming that. - What Mike is saying, I think, is yeah, they could be a word about the table, but the GM can also say, okay, come on, let's wrap it up. Do you guys see, you investigate the stuff, do you want it, do you not want it? Let's move. And that gives you the feeling as players, okay, there's no, he's not, I mean, after he says that, nothing's gonna jump out and kill us, after he says, come on, let's get moving, because that's just dirty. I am a very tough GM, and I don't deny that. But I never- - The literature is fancy as it looked on my face. - I'm like, it's just a bear. - Down. - Are you skeptical? - It does require some trust. I mean, you can't tell what the safer is, and then fuck 'em over with the safe for that. - Oh, exactly. - That kills the whole point. - What's I'm saying, but it is the GM's responsibility to keep the pace of the story going. And I obviously, on that night, particularly night, failed pretty aggressively, it sounds like. - Well, on the other hand, most of us were having fun with it, and- - Right, yeah. - That's what some of us are here for. - Yeah, you need to be able to blow off some, right? - You have to be able to shut that off at some point and get down the business. - Right. - And to be honest, the podcast changes the dynamic of the table game a whole lot, because it's not the way it was before. We couldn't do a game. - There's a lot of things that have changed that. We're not trying until nine o'clock, and we're ending at 11, that's two hours of time. We go through a half an hour or 45 minutes of feedback. That's an hour and a half. - That's true. - It's time to actually play, and then we're pissing around. - Right. - So I can understand the frustration as well as the need to blow off. But there's a lot of things, and the podcast is one of them that has changed the way we play, absolutely. Good points, all right? And we'll go back to Facebook with Mark Mielman, who says, "Good session. It almost feels like fate has had a bit of permanent impact on you guys and your old playing style, as there kind of felt like there was a concession or two attempts and other types of story negotiation. I'm wondering if that level of story control has kind of ruined the traditional RPGs for you guys. Anyways, I hope you do savage world at some point and be interested to hear how your group plays that. - I think to answer his question, yes. I mean, absolutely the fact that we've been influenced by fate and world of darkness and systems that are more about the story than about the die role and concessions to players. You know what, that kind of makes sense. You just put up a good argument about why something should work. The rules are made to be broken, in senses where it makes sense for the story overall. So I say absolutely we've been influenced, heavily, and it probably has broken Dungeons and Dragons type of role-playing for us going forward, at least from my perspective. Everyone else can have a different perspective. That's mine around the table. - It might just be a case of maturing. I mean, how many dungeon crawls can you do? - Yeah. - And still maintain the level of interest that actually playing a character and telling a story brings infinite variables. - Right, well having an arc for your character changes everything. And I think that's what we've all started doing. - You might have a dungeon crawl with characters in a fate system, but I don't think you could drag them with horses back to a D20 system. - Yeah, it's almost a different dynamic in fate because there are no weapons. There are no weapons that really affect the outcome. It's more about your aspects and your character. - Right. - So it's, I guess, a magic sword could be an aspect, but as a real sword, it's almost a different dynamic. You're more about the guy who knows how to use this sword very well as to the guy who has the really cool sword. - I also think that, and what I'd like more and more about fate is that it's an adjustment. It's a, you're adjusting a storyline versus an absolute of the guy role trying to determine an outcome and you have to kind of make a, what feels like almost an artificial response 'cause I rolled a one or I keep on rolling ones. - I would say there could be an argument made that if you're playing a D20, you should roll the dice first and then decide how you're gonna play it as your character as opposed to fate, which allows you to decide how you wanna play your character and then use any resources you have to change to make that story go that direction. You can't describe how you did this wonderful attack and then you roll and get a one. - That's true. - It'd be better if you rolled and got a one and go, okay, let me just-- - You've got to have multiple times in the middle. - It would just be, you have to accept the fate of the die because that's the way the system is made. - That happened multiple times in the middle. - What is that happen? - I was asked to describe how I did something and then I rolled and got a one. I was like, I guess I didn't do it that way. - Yeah, and then that kind of sucks. - So yeah, I would definitely agree with that, John. - Back to Facebook, we had some feedback on episode 158. That was a Christmas in the Desert episode in which Ari once again responded and this time said, and now I've had this little tune rolling around in a loop in my brain, Bette Midler and Mick Jagger. - He's perverted. - He used a burden, yes. Sorry, Ari. Jason Carter also responded and said, "After last episode, I thought this app would be useful." And he had a link that led to Cherog Armor from the 9th World Post Rock. - Cherog, sounds familiar. - It's a beast that we fought. Apparently you can make armor out of them. - The lizardy beast that came over the dune and the-- - Oh yeah. - Of the-- - Something a little weird about making armor out of the flesh of the sentient being. - It's a bit barbaric, I'll give you that. It's no doubt about that. - Well, drag it over to the best, what are you talking about? - Ari also responded and said this episode, "I was done listening to this during my morning walkabout." To me, this was the best Numenair episode so far. Maybe the relief from combat was a welcome change, but also the discussion about Teela's mind, invasions, they were golden. Excellent role playing by the crew, one of those moments when the GM can lay back and just enjoy the unraveling between the characters. There's a bit of an argument between you and I, I think, as well as-- - It's a little bit great. - Yeah, let's just expect it. Yeah, he continues with, and at the end, a nice cliff hanger fading out. - You're later waiting the next episode. - Who's a cliff hanger? - You. - You appeared in New York. - Oh, it was you-- - Nina walking through and disappearing. - Oh, yeah. - That was a good cliff hanger in my life, too. - Yeah, because we ended session that night. It wasn't an artificial one that I created. Also, you finally got around to doing an iTunes review and he hopes it shows up, "Merry Christmas" to all the KOT owners. Ari, I've been looking repeatedly in Finland for this review, so if you filed it in some other country, you'll let me know, because it isn't in the United States or in the United States. - It was just in Russia, I was in Petersburg at the time. - I don't know where-- - Cut, they said in Facebook or something. - Yeah, send it to me in an email. - Have you seen Finland? I always think of a moneyed Python, "Spinland Song." - Alpha Jop responded and said, "Nice episode." I really liked the way the abandoned caravan and its loot were used by the storyteller as, at the same time, a reward and help for the characters, but maybe screwing them if they made the wrong decision. Staying there for the night, I guess. - And most of the time, loot is treated as something that is just do the characters. That's never an hour point. - No, that's not saying that. - My story is not. - It's due to the characters instead of an actual tool for the storyteller. And I say that after listening to one particular actual play where I kept listening to the storyteller, showering the characters in loot, that while constantly missing the many opportunities he had to turn these moments into something awesome. But mind you, they were running for E, so I guess that explains why. Cheers, and I hope you guys have a great 2014. - And I know he's making a joke about 4E, but I think that's valid. I think in 4E, there is certain loot that's expected. You have to have it to keep up with the curve that's expected throughout the game. - And if you look at your driving game with John's coin, although not loot necessarily, but still, it could be considered such. Mike's sword, even to the point where you could pick things from London, where he has a ring that he got that gives him some powers. All of them build into the character and the story more so than just you threw. - That sense of valid point. - Looted us. - And yet, your loot that Michael Clay has in World of Darkness is nothing but a source of grief and annoyance to me. - All of it? - A little cubed out? (laughing) - You block that's rolled out. - He says give him a drink. - You can block his hand all the time. - I still don't know what it does. (laughing) - Now I think it's a valid point that his sword is not a plus four sword. - Right. - No, it is a ward in the sword. It has meaning and purpose of history and symbology, and it does have a mechanic in the game as well. But it-- - And I personally always liked that better when you had normal iron or steel weapons, but because of someone's skill or craftsmen or the materials, that that's what brought-- - That's what made it special. - That's what made it special. Would that give you a bit of a history or some intrinsic value in it versus, well this one's plus four, and it's just like-- - I felt that way now it upgraded the plus five. - Well your dagger in might in World of Darkness as well. - Right. - The subtle, the subtle knife. - That's part of the story. - You know it's not just loot your character had for some reason, it was actually built into who he is. And in his-- - I found a mistake and there was actual mechanics in that game for his Leatherman to become a holy white weapon. - It actually could become an artifact or some kind of-- - Sister Kate, you can bless it. - It deserves to be at this point. I think maybe the third story. We'll do something else-- - It started actually having-- - It should have some-- - It should be imbued with some cool power. - Not making fun, Mike. - No, I know the skepticism in your eyes, I see it. It would be kind of cool for a little bit later. - I'd like to disagree on it. - I'd like to disagree on it. - He's direct for our fans if you will. And also a nice tip of the cap to Mike and his-- - All the times he's come through with a Leatherman. (laughing) - I mean the fence in shit luck. - I have. - He cut the fence, the hole in the fence with the-- - I have extracted my criticism of his Leatherman when he brought in his military grade Leatherman. - Exactly. - His impressive, impressive thing, it really was. That could easily cut through the fence. - Sure. - I don't doubt that. - Okay. - There's a 4E and a required treasure. A new manera does that a little bit with the ciphers that you're expected to use and you're expected to get replaced. - Yeah, I think ciphers are a little different, sorry to interrupt. But in how temporary they are, they're very one shot. - They're treated as consumables. They're almost like a rash and they really-- - But, to the point of the listener, he said that there's an expectation of loot, and there is an expectation of loot in new manera, even if it's temporary. - Yeah, but as I remember going back, this is something that you would never do. And now that we're older and more mature, I would like it either. But I had a DM once that loved to, oh, you find the dragon's horde and it's 50,000 gold pieces. You don't have any bags with you, and you don't have any way to transport you. Do you know how heavy gold is? So, yeah, you guys don't have to. It's how much can you fill in your pockets? - And you got 200 gold. - Yay! - That's a dick move. - We're gonna spend the next month and a half burying this gold in various places outside the cave, and so we can come back. - Yeah, I mean, but at the same time, if you're signing the latest Hobbit movie, there's a lot of gold in that. Some of the way I got it all there in the bed, but that's all about that issue. - Back to Facebook, Logan's Tweeting posted and said, "Hey, guys, we're listening to your new manera podcast. "I'm on episode 155 right now." He's probably, we'll pass that now. And I'm loving it. It's a great way to pass the drive time, and while I'm on lunch, being in the military and stationed overseas. - Thank you for your service. - Yep, absolutely. - Absolutely. - Absolutely. I did have a conversation with him as an aside, and he was asking about systems. He said he has people that come in and then leave, and so he's always got guys coming and going, and asked what I would suggest as a good system to try, and actually I thought, dungeon world, in a situation like that where you've got people coming in and leaving. - It's easy to learn. - Quick to start up, you have to quick to start up. And I suggested that, Joe. But I also suggested fate as being a system that we really enjoy, and then I pointed out the fact that it's available in PDF for pay what you want, which includes nothing. Anyways, back to Logan, Sweetie. He said being in the military and stationed overseas really presents me with a problem in maintaining a group, 'cause as soon as I get one together, half the group leaves a month later. So it really helps fill in the PNP void that I get in between the groups that I can get together. My question is not new manera-specific. I just wanna see if you could all give me recommendations in some of your favorite systems. I run one shots in various systems along with my main D&D campaign to change things up, and I'm running out of system ideas. So, yes, I'm sorry. It was exactly him that I had this conversation with, and those were my suggestions. I don't know if anybody else has got any other ones. - Did you say you said dungeon world? - I did suggest dungeon world, that's what they did. - That's a good one for him, yeah. - We did like it, although we didn't give a great review to it because it really didn't fit our style all that much. But I think it perfect for his situation. - Exactly. - If you can't go too deep on it, I don't think. - And again, if you're using my shots, quickly, you're not able to do that anyway. - And so, yeah, for one shot, it's an excellent system. - But he did say that when he does get a group in his six together for a while, he does enjoy a good character arc, which is why I suggested fate to him. - Right, exactly. - For character art, fate's perfect. It works out well because it's all about the character. - Yeah. - It's a fundamental. If you ask a big guy, that's definitely one shot, and I didn't know character development, it's usually ended up with everyone dead, and so it's a possibility. But I thought dungeon world are any of the worlds, like apocalypse world, they have different worlds. - Depending on their taste. - It feels like a good friend. - Yeah, I would say that would be the best, but I don't have anything additional to add. - On to the last episode that we just released, episode 159, Scott and McDonald's said, almost finished with episode 159, and I have two comments so far. First, I love the shattering reforming sound effect. Very cool, Tom. I struggled. - I found a good friend. - I did, I struggled over that. I'm asking the voice for advice. - For what? - When are you? We hit the creature and it fell apart, and then it recast. - That was awesome. - Oh, right. - I actually took, it was like a combination of three different sounds, and one of them was a hiss in the background, but over the top it was breaking glass, and then I adjusted the sound quality of it, and then I just reversed it and played backwards for it, when they recast it. So often it worked out great. - Awesome. - I didn't think it was as great as that though, but apparently it was definitely exciting. - That was cool. - Yeah, okay. - Oh, the theater of the mind, it painted a nice little picture. - I guess. - Yeah. - I was actually looking for what was in the Stargate, they had the replicators, the little things, they were like nanobots, and they would construct themselves. I was looking for sound effect from them, but they didn't have any good ones that I could find. - So I spent way too much on that sound effect. - It was just-- - Well, didn't it get some feedback back then, right? - Apparently, yes. - It was just a vacation, yes. - It was an animal in there. - Yeah. - Depressing. - Secondly, Mike, is your mind always in the gutter? Come on, you're in the middle of comment, and all you can talk about is interfacing with the technology. Is that for you? - Is that for you? - We're doing it here. Our calling it nowadays grows, and then the little smiley face. - I think I responded. - You actually did respond to it, saying something about it. - My universal adapter? - Yes, yes. - Which Nina's familiar with? (laughing) - Miles Stuffer said Wednesday just got better, 'cause I really don't know Wednesday. Actually, it was Wednesday in Japan, 'cause I spoke to him about that. He was in Japan? - He was in Japan. - He was in Japan. - I know, it's pretty much what I told him. (laughing) That we were all jealous, that's wonderful. - I would love to see you. - But he said, if we ever come to Japan, contact him and he'll put us up. That's what he said. - I love all stuff on our world's audience. - We got our world's audience. - I got to practice once with an authentic katana. That was pretty cool. - I know you love your shorts. I've been your house, and you actually have a katana. - I have a practice katana. But this was a live blade that my instructor didn't tell me it was a live blade, and you know, I was doing all the forms, and then realized, holy shit, this is a live blade, and if I do it wrong, I'm gonna cut off my fingers. - Yeah, you can do it wrong, 'cause I see you got all your fingers in. Good job. Richard Watts also commented on a 159 and said, "Excellent, I love the enemies in this one." Is it bad that I'm starting to enjoy watching you guys suffer a little more? - No. - No, you got it. - My answer is no. - It's got to be a disciple of Scott. - Yeah, you'd have to stop listening unless you enjoyed watching us suffer. - You definitely have to expect it. - Mr. Murky said long awaited, and Jason McDonald hosted. People thought I was crazy when I said I heard interference from somewhere. Who's crazy now? I showed you, I showed you all. Which, yes. Yeah, I put the interference at the end of the clip because he was the one saying he heard interference and some of the listeners were like, "I don't hear anything, what are you talking about?" And he tried to identify exactly where it was and nobody could hear it but him. No, it's there. Absolutely. It's just a little bit of static being picked up by one of the electronic devices too close to the mic. And I've got the iPad right next to the mic. - Version one iPad right next to the mic. - Yes, I have a caveman iPad right next to the microphone right now. And on Google+ Jason Carter said fantastic episode. While Greg Hutton said another great KOTN episode, I love the blooper reel. The bleeding fractions, international numbers cracked me up. So I had to leave them in there 'cause I thought they were funny as hell but I didn't let them in the middle story where it would distract from the flow. So that's it really as far as feedback goes. Thank you everyone who sent it in. - Can no one else have a graph paper love like I do? - You know, I don't think so. But that episode isn't been out there a lot. So we may get feedback if somebody would have. - They may not want to come out with them, you know. - They may not want to come out with them. - Anybody been keeping up on the fan topic page? - This is about one time. - I see some come up on Facebook, I read it. - Yeah, okay. So the things that Logan and Sweden posted about funny moments are sessions that they had. There was a lot of traffic there. Anthony Ertmer asked about Android podcast apps. That was answered. What new manera style description fits the KOTN characters that were from other systems? They're saying what would be the new manera explanation of Jay's character? Or what would be the new manera? - Oh, I had a lot of representation. - Of Roberta, Roberta. Roberto. - I'm sorry John, I just thought you were Roberta. - It's much fun. - But there wasn't a lot of traffic on that one, I was surprised. - I thought it was an array. - I thought it was an array. - A great, so look for it out there. Put in what you think. Luke Green talked about removing the vampiric weakness of the sunlight and world of darkness and what people thought about that. Anthony Ertmer talked about watching Revolution and I put my two cents in on that one. Logan Swanson wanted an explanation of the derangements in World of Darkness and how they worked. And I said, I pointed it right at Scott and then the fans answered it much better than Scott. - I could have put it in the fan. - I did a great job. - I did a great job. - And Luke Green asked for an explanation about how combat works in World of Darkness and that was also answered. And Tyler Houdak pointed out that Hunter was free at Drive Your RPG for a day. - Yeah, I downloaded a bunch of PDFs. - Yeah, it was cool. - Yeah, it was cool. - I appreciate all the traffic on there, guys, and we got to keep it on there. - I didn't get the Hunter one, but I assume that one of you guys would know. - Yeah, we definitely, I did, yeah, we did. And so thank you all for your feedback. The Amazon link is still out there. It's on our webpage, kotnpodcast.com. We love iTunes reviews, but we appreciate everything you guys do and we will get on to the episode. - Yay! - Yay, episode. - This is chapter 10 of the Neumannira Story Sand Swept. I am your GM Scott and with me tonight on My Right Is. - Michael playing Nina with Stuffy Nano who exists partially out of face. - I am Jim playing Eshman in mystical nano who works miracles. - I'm Tom playing Tila, intelligent Jack who housed at the moon. I'm Mike playing Bosco, a tough glade who fuses flesh and steel. - This is Thomas playing Felix, a strong wheeled Jack who hunts with great skill. - John playing Sig, a mutant nano who talks to machines. - As a brief recap of last week, you had walked through the oblisks, the glass oblisks into what is seemingly a different dimension, a different phase, a different... - A different southern desert. - Yes, a different southern desert, I guess. A different cold desert. And you walked for a while along a much more well-established path or trail following the ruts and the hoofprints of an anene and a wagon you were hot in the trail of since it had passed in front of you, mere hours perhaps. You noticed a lot more vegetation, a lot more activity, flora and fauna combined. When you continued to move into this new land towards the oasis, you were accosted by what will colloquial call quantum jagwars. - A quantum paraller. - Okay. - Okay. - There we go. - We have agreed. Quantum paraller is the term we're gonna use for any future encounters. If we recall, one had sauntered off to the south which had a bolt from Felix's crossbow. When she was said, go ahead and keep going down the path. I'll catch up to you, I'm gonna hunt this thing down and grab the bolt. And the other that had tried to attack Sig and it jumped the tree. It had retreated, it ran away at full speed once it realized it was really outnumbered. I believe that you tried to make an attack shut off its circuitry and what you ended up doing was causing it to, well, in your mind, you caused it to flee. You reached into its mind and working out with thousands of worms and programs and things that were working around. It's for lack of a better term, it's control center and you switched a few switches and the thing ran away. - Rather than turning it to one or zero, I turned them to a third option. - They were zero ones and you could actually put them to be zero in once at the same time which was stunningly different. - Felix left. - Yes, he decking. We did talk about that. - Yeah. - Here's the thing about that. It's definitely a thing my character would do. It's a dumb thing to do. One of you should probably try to stop me. - Want me to have the hunting system down? - Yes, we got like an hour until we get to the oasis. - An hour and a half to take the map. - I don't know how long it can take me. She's down a dedicated predator and then-- - I've got a bad idea. - Yeah, it's a dumb idea but there's no question about-- - It's got his bolt. - Felix would try to do that. - We're talking about how this place doesn't have any centuries. You think these are centuries? - Centuries? - Nina's gonna sit down in the middle of the road and stop crying. - Start crying? - Yeah. - 'Cause it was an emotional moment for her? - No, she just fucking hates this place. - This is the city, this is the music and stores. - I'm stopping off to see if I can-- - What am I doing here? I hate this. - Hunting this thing down, Tommy. We've got bigger and better things to do. - Talk to your girlfriend and get her a good moment. We've got to get to the-- - She's not even here. - She's not my-- - She's not my girlfriend. - Yeah. - Bob. - He just uses me when she wants to-- - She invaded me. - You guys are a lot closer than any of us have ever been. - It seems to me he going around. - And keep it that way. - We had to watch you have any babies with tails. She was saying, "What the fuck?" - You heard him. - So the battle is over. It's you all stand around trying to kind of gather yourself. Felix is marching off. Someone's gonna be shouting him down, telling him not to do that. The trees, the flowers, the dragon flies. - How's it gonna capture when those take a good look at it? - Zeros and ones, all of it. - How about us? - Solid, but zeros and ones. - Even the grass? - What little grass there is in a desert? And there is some zeros and ones. - And us too. - Nope. - It's solid as solid could be. - First of all, I sent it a loud pitching whistle meant to catch the attention of our great hunter and lead him back to camp. - While they're off convincing Felix to come back, I spent a little time getting mean to cheer up. - Right. - Buck up. - Listen, what was done here? All we gotta do, we're there. We're at the half-five point. We're gonna go back home. We'll be back in the city and okay. - All right. - Fine, let's do this and get up quickly so I can be rich. - And besides, if we're going towards the oasis there, you've gotta scot it out for us, that's what you do. - All right, it's a path. - Yes, but. - Goes that way. - I get that, we can follow the path, but we don't wanna blindly march into the middle of the oasis. - Yeah. - So it tells me there's somebody or something there. They've been getting that human error from somewhere around here. - Is the sand ones on the zeros? - Giant vending machine. - No. - No. - Just zeros? - So all the life is- - All the life is programmed. - Or appears to be- - The new manera is not as is the sand, otherwise you wouldn't be able to take it out of here. - If we touch a plant, we don't pass through it like it's an image, it's tangible, we can pull it from its roots. - But if you take a plant and you smash it in your hands as it kind of crumble into numbers. - What you notice is if you have a very light touch, it reacts as if it's an actual plant or animal. If you swipe your hand through it at speed, with aggression, you see the zeros in one scatter and then reform. - Sick, I have a question for you. A lot of times the magic things that I've seen, the more elaborate ones can talk to one another, send a message just back and forth, okay? So my question is, is there any possibility that these panthers, is there any chance that they were in something like scouts that was reporting back to something else? - All of these electronics are connected. Can you see anything going back and forth as far as messages, is that something you can do? - Can I make a new mineral roll to figure that out? - Since I talk to machines, it would be second nature for me to notice that sort of thing. - That's why I asked you. - That's why I'm saying that it would be easier for me? - I don't think you have enough information to really do that. I'm not trying to be a dick. I just don't think at this point you understand, it's kind of like you've walked into this and you might have 1/10th of 1% of the knowledge you need to make generalizations of what's happening. 'Cause any generalizations you're gonna make are gonna be based on what you've seen in the ninth world. When this is obviously, so very obviously, not the ninth world, any stretch. I mean-- - Yes, but the whole thing in the new manera by definition. - What's that? - That makes it new manera by definition. - Sure. - I'm not-- - I'm not-- - I'm saying that this guy here who talks to machines and is a new manera savant, he should get a new manera role to try to interpret what he's seeing, rather than either just give it to him or just brush him off. But that's my opinion. - First of all, there's a, I was talking to Eshma, I wasn't talking to Sig. So that's a difference right there because Sig is, like you said, a savant when it comes to new manera. He still doesn't have any information, but can he glean something from the throbbing, pulsing air and the zeros and ones and the mind or the beast that he was just in? He has at least a little more footing to go on than Eshma does currently is what I'm trying to say. - They're all programs. These ones were seemingly simplistic and overtly hostile. They were brute intelligences of worms unless they were designed for that purpose. - The thing is that at the bazier's office, when we were talking to the bazier in his office, he had a big picture and it was of the world. And it was there and it looked tangible, but you could shake your hand through it and it would pass through easily. These creatures were similar and his signal was coming from somewhere. And I just tend to think that they were somehow signals that might have been talking or watching or-- - Specifically from him? - He read them though. They are here in some capacity, more than just like on a screen. - Well, that's because of my lack of understanding. It was just a thought. - They have a challenge. - Very suggest. - I think it was an animal intelligence. I could try to scan for emissions, but there's a lot of emissions here. - Couldn't you catch a dragonfly and see if that thing is connected to another program or is it an autonomous by itself? - Well, more than projects are. - As long as we're doing it as we travel towards the OASIS. - I was just gonna say that that sounds like we could get easily distracted by analyzing what this is. Instead, we've got a mission and we're on a timeframe. - All right, so Ichabod takes the reins of the anene and starts pulling it forward on your command. - And then we stay here at the last I can do, so. - Okay. - But I would suggest the sink, if it's possible, to see if you can sense as we're moving deeper into this, whatever this place is, if there's any type of patterns or movements in the new manera that you can detect that might indicate, are we getting closer to the source of all this stuff, like almost like waves on a beach where you can see the ebb and flow of this new manera going back and forth as we're walking. - That'll be just, it gets louder, I'll let you know. - Right, thanks. - Go ahead, sink, and make a new manera roll, please. I'm not gonna give you a difficulty, I'm just going to tell you to make a roll. You may apply effort to it because you're trying to sense, I guess a general, whether it's a strengthening or a weakening of the new manera as you move through the land. - I'm trying to- - Fair enough. - Preserve what strength that can for what is to come. So, I went out as it is, I'm not putting extra effort, that's a 20, whoa, yeah, I will say. - That, sick, when it comes to new manera rolls, he has rolled literally out of his ass, all three times. And now, we had to spend some experience once, but still out of his ass. - I could say that he failed out of his ass. - And then re-rolls. (laughing) - I think out of his ass is in shit, and out of his ass is incredible, he's done both extremes. - Right. - Because I believe he's been caught in one feedback loop and infected by his arms another time, as well as doing these up there amazing. - Right, it is true. I just meant, I've seen, I think, three 19's or 20's out of him when it came to discerning. Well, I gotta give you something more than I would have normally given you. - It is a 20, that's a greater success. What you're trying to detect was strength of the energy. And after walking for a good 10 or 15 minutes, you've noticed no discernible change in the new manera. Which is to say, it's all encompassing, it's all around you, it's incredibly distracting. Which would really probably take your, no, it wouldn't take your 20 down. I wouldn't subtract it from your dice roll, I would say the levels were higher. You know, you were trying to achieve. So your 20 stands as is. And you are able to say confidently that every part of this world, if you will, that you've stepped into, is evenly diffused, which seems evenly diffused with new manera. It doesn't seem like there's a hot spot or it's getting stronger or weaker as you go along this path. You also get the idea that there's no direct purpose. It's potentiality. It's there to be used. You get the feeling. How you would use it, you have no idea at this point. - Those programs are just one facet of it being used. In my mind now. - Well, that's what I'm asking you, I think. - That's what I'm deciding. This entire land is just absolutely saturated with new manera, so much so that it distracts you. It's almost like her mind, meaning Tila's mind, when she went like and throughout. You know how there was just an inner frontal cortex of her brain, it was just absolutely swimming with new manera. That's this whole world, just swimming. Just a feedback would bring you to smack you on your ass if you tried to access it with your primitive, if you will. - Yeah, inner face. So it's potentiality. It's like you could just feel it there. You want to reach out and use it. And so that's where you start to form your philosophy or your idea of what the new manera in this particular place is like. - But he's been in my mind and when I was being taken over. And he knows that for lack of a better term, flavor. - Sure. - It's not the same flavor. - No, no, no, this is, you know, we keep saying, I keep saying, I need to get a thesaris, 'cause I keep saying alien. And it is absolutely just unnatural new manera, if you will, in the sense that he's used to feeling a certain way and acting a certain way with the items you find from previous worlds. - Well, yes. - Yeah, you've got to think that this is the ninth world. There's been seven different flavors. - Flavors. - At least. - Right. - Or eight, actually, to be specific, but yeah. - But this isn't where my bear comes from, it's kind of my book, right? - Right. And you don't get that feeling at all. It's not a complete mesh with hers. Does it have a flavor of some stuff you might have found in the past? There's a hint, maybe, of something, but nothing can really put your finger on. - Okay. He draws some conclusions and says, "This energy is a habitat for programs. "Those were no malignant AI seeking us. "This is just a habitat for them. "We may run into more, and it's not getting stronger. "It's just all pervasive. "This is a world of programs." - But doesn't that imply a greater force that is employing or creating these programs? - This is a magic, rich environment, where magical things work. - All right, well, then, here's what I know about this place. I want to know how to hear as fast as possible. So-- - Good call. - Let's go. - Okay. - Before we get to where we're going. - How often can you do that? I think you feel me twice today, but I still need it. - I don't think there's any limit. - Oh, there's gotta be a limit. - Once a while-- - The pressure gets harder every time you do this. - He can attempt it the first time, and it's because of his-- - It goes up a level each time? - It goes up a level each time. - I think your edge keeps the cost to-- - And if you roll a one, you're gonna do the damage that you would normally have helped. It goes up a level every time he tries it in any given day. - Even if he tries it with someone else? - No, same person. - Okay, that's what I would say. - In a 24-hour-- - The difficulty returns to two after the creature rests for 10 hours, the target. - Agnina has some physical damage. Can she use the first aid kit to do anything like that? - You got your action, and your action heal that you could do if you haven't done it in a while. - Have you done an action heal today? - Probably, yeah. - These recovery rolls. - This is for 10 hours. - Right. So, Nino, let's go ahead and just roll a die six to heal. - Five, six. (laughing) - One, one. - Maybe. - One plus one, eight. - Okay, and that's pretty much as you're walking, you could stop for 10 seconds, and you hold on. Kinds and trade, and get yourself-- - Yeah, do your tear into that. - Show us two. - Yeah. - Okay, so, first of all, thank you. - Anyone else doing a quick heal or-- - Not less arresting for 10 hours. - Okay, no. - So, do we know what the first aid kit does? - It says provides an asset to healing tasks, lowering the difficulty by one step when you attempt to heal yourself or another person. - Okay, very different than healing, and that's just the regular die six. - While people are looking up the information, what would be the marching order on going forward? - Yes, and I think we would like to be in the general front, but she's dealing with it. - Well, she's pouting, and she'll be last, and then she'll work way up to the front. - Okay, well, depending on when something happens. - If you're hurt, you need to ride on the anene for now? - It's smelly. - It's terrible. - Just one animal. - And plus, you can keep your eye on Ichabod. We don't trust him, he doesn't say much. Or if Felix could be up there on the anene and have a better vantage to which to scan-- - I could. - I don't keep an eye on Ichabod. - 'Cause he has-- - He can't scan a forest from a better vantage point and keep an eye on this dude who's holding the reins, those are too difficult. - Don't tell me what you can't do, be positive, let's tell you what we can't do. - I could shoot you. - No, I can't do that. - You're not gonna waste the bolt on me. - He knows I can deal with those bolts. - Those things are precious. - Look at how funny anene, 'cause I guess there's suction now, so I'll look around. - There'll be excuse for resting. - I'll step ahead. - Okay, you are our point man, as the great hunter and tracker. Nina, why don't you get up on the anene? - No, I'm not saying that. - I met also, she gave you an advantage to use some of your skills and observations. Sig, who is kind of scanning for a new manera, Tila, walk alongside him just to make sure he doesn't walk into a whole henchman, and then I'll bring up the rear. - Page 103, healing. You can administer aid through bandaging and suffer attempting to heal each patient once per day. The healing restores points to the step pull of your choice. You can decide how many points you want to heal, then make an intellect action with a difficulty equal to that number. For example, if you want to heal some of the three points, that's a difficulty three, target number nine. - Wow, Jesus. - Each point being skilled in healing reduces the difficulty of this task. - If you wanted to heal two for myself, that would be six. The first aid kit would make it three. - If you have the healing skill? - No, the healing skill would reduce it further, right? - So that it's like an ass side as opposed to that? - So I'm trying to mow them up there, moping. - Okay, training is up three. - Yeah, I did that. - What did you roll? - 17, okay. - Do you need to do one extra thing? - Check some more, try. - Are you spending a sniper? - No, I was using the first aid kit. - So I'm gonna heal three. - Okay. - Is the first aid kit spent at this point? - It doesn't say that it's a one-- - It says you can use them once per day for a particular target, not that the first aid kit can only be used once per day. - Okay. - Let's get that out of here, though. - These are not pretty folk. - It's only, I can do it at a two and only spend a little more. - It's only like New Zealand, so it's fair, and it's robot. (laughing) - I can't focus. - No, I can't. - They're all soft-bellied and pink for six. - Green is the case for me. - I wanna point because I healed already went down one 'cause I'm putting the hour to do it. - You're spending the point for that? - Yes, I spent the point for it. - So six is your target number? - Six. - Sixteen. - So, die six? Interlect? - Three. - There you go. - Excellent. New Australian. - Fair. - All right, Felix, you take the point and notice that to your estimation, you're not much more than an hour behind this particular caravan wagon. You take a point, maybe, do we say 100, 100 long distance or even further to minimize the noise of the... A knee. - What a beautiful-- - Well, I don't think-- - That was the every single stop noise. - For every knee noise that we need. - You want to do it? - You want to do it? (laughing) You're gonna have to look that up. - I mean, it seems to be open territory. I know we've got animals. - Animal. - Animal, sorry. - Unless you're calling-- - No. - Tila, an animal. - I'm wondering if we need to worry about stealth now or if we need to worry about stealth. - I thought those were green. I thought the blue ones are the herd beasts. - Oh, yeah, that's right. - Let's move quickly. Let's get going in. Let's go in this direction that we've chosen. - Nina's feeling better, so she's taking her vantage point seriously and actually looking at the horizon and seeing what she can see anything different up there and looking all around and seeing if the landscape varies at all. - Looks like a typical desert setting. You've got dunes. They're getting a little bit bigger as you progress deeper into the southern desert or the cold desert as it's known. You could actually see far on the horizon, the southern wall. Probably a good 100 miles in the distance. There are enough hills in addition to the fact that you're going through a desert with these 10, 15, 20 foot dunes. The path isn't straight. The desert isn't flat by any stretch of radiation. There's hills and gullies that you're moving up and down. So sometimes, you know, when you hit the top of a cliff, you could think you could see a large tree in the distance and then immediately as you cross over that apex and start heading down that particular ridge line, you end up losing sight of the perceived oasis in the distance. You've got some good views, but they need not that tall. I mean, you're maybe eight, 10 foot in the air. It was just helpful, but it's not so tall that you can just see everything. And then certainly the terrain doesn't do much for you with the dunes and the ups and downs of the gullies and the hills. - These trees that are around that weren't normally they appeared when we entered. They're types of palm trees, yeah. - Are they real, they're solid? - They are, if you touch them. But if you look really, really closely, you could see zeros one. - Could we climb them? - Yeah, I mean, you think, I mean, you're grabbing hold of it and it feels like a tree trunk to you. - Weird. All right, just pondering. - Okay. - Keep going. - Yeah, continue on about an hour passes and due to the uneven terrain, you're not at the oasis at this point. You do notice that the tracks are even more recent than they were previously. For you, Felix, and you're thinking, wow, this has got to be 10 minutes, 15, and we're making some good progress on this. For whatever reason, this particular caravan seems to have slowed down a bit. You see-- - I think like six days ahead of us, supposedly. - Supposed to be, but not. - I think that might be the one that we found parked on the stand here, but who knows? That would require some magic, but we've seen plenty of that. - If we're only 10 minutes behind. - Right. You should rush now what we're going to do. - No, we should be, do they have animals as well? - Oh, they got a wagon. - They have a wagon and a southern anene, which is a four legged variety. - Right, so they should be making enough noise that we should be able to get some sense, right? - Here, or see them? - Probably. - You're thinking, potentially, Felix, there's going to be some feedback you might provide. As you stop and everyone kind of catch up to you for a moment would be, you know, hey, if I can get to the top of a hill or the top of a ridge line on this path, and below you have a good stretch of straight trail, you think you might even be able to spot them if you were to get so lucky. - Does anybody have a problem with that idea? - No, I'm just thinking, if they're going about the same pace that we were, or that you can go, then they should be about two miles ahead of us. - We could jog up that far in a few minutes. I mean, it's worth a look first on the top of the doom. - All right, go. Oh, by the way, I shouldn't have to say it, but don't engage, see, report, and then come back to us. - I think you just run up there and kill them all until they come back and just tell us what happened. - I'm getting conflicting reports now. What am I supposed to do? - Let's go. - Don't listen to you right, I believe you. - All right, Felix and Nina make haste. And kind of at a jog, start working their way up, maybe a couple hundred yards in a distance, you guys see the path is turning a bit to the northwest, in this particular little iteration of trail, and it's going up to the top of a ridge, and then you don't see anything beyond that, so you know there must be some kind of falloff. At that point, so you kind of target that as the area that you're really looking for. And so you, Nina, and Felix, break into a brisk walk, half jog to get substantially ahead of the rest of the group in the sense that you're not a hundred feet in front of them, you're more like 400, 500 feet in front of them. And all around you, plants, trees, animals, mostly again, you see some razors in the distance, you see some different insect type creatures, nothing dangerous. - Dangerous. - Nothing dangerous, nothing really picture radar as far as we need to be cautious here. However, as you start to come up, that final ridge line to where the crust, where you wanted to kind of get your vantage point from, I'll ask if there's anything that you want to change. I mean, you just have to slow it down. - If we see anything, we back off. So we're actively looking to see if we see anything and we back off and lay down so they can't see us, but we can see them. - Okay, you want to be stealthy about it? You want to roll for it? - I could do that, yeah. - You're trained, and I took it as my flex skill, way back when this day began. - Right, no worries, both can make a stealth roll, please. - I got a plus one because of my magic boots. They don't come up off, but I don't-- - Here they are. - Push down. - Hell yeah. - 16 for Anita, seven. - All right, three. - It's not the vision that causes you to kind of ease up a little bit or slow down and get down. And you guys, obviously, are meaning buzz and T-law and Sig and Eshman. You all moving kind of slow, letting them get some distance so they can do their thing. But you can see them kind of getting down in all fours, they get close to the ridge line. As you get towards the top, you don't see a horizon, you see sky, so you work your way right up the edge. But then, just as you're about ready to crest the ridge line, you both, although Nina much more clearly than Felix, you hear what to you sounds like a shout in a distance. Certainly not like right over on the other side of the crest of this hill. When you listen closely, you make eye contact with Felix, like maybe even smack him in the arm, like, did you hear that? Another two or three shouts, again, muffled at a distance, impossible to tell if it's male, female. Sounds like it could be an anger or surprise or something. It's not, "Hey, how's it going?" You can't hear what it is, but something in the intonation of the shout makes it seem as if it's under some type of dress or some type of stress. - So we don't see anything yet, we're just hearing us. - Correct, you hear it before you click. - You're right at that crest where another two or three crawl steps and your eyes are gonna be over the edge of that ridge line. - You better check it out. Tell me what you see, 'cause this is what you do now. - Okay, you know, we'll creep up very slowly and look over the top. - Okay, you just don't crawl. - As I'm kind of going slow, so halfway there, I can pause and see if there's any. I'm trying to see if this reaction is because of us in the area. - Right, as you crawl two steps and then of the four, maybe you need to get to the top of the crest, you hear more voices shouting and you thought you might even heard what sounds to be like, like a crackling of ozone, maybe? Some more shouts, there's a lot of activity, anger, I don't know, some kind of adrenaline flowing in the distance and you don't think, you think it's far enough away that it's not you, you don't have to enroll for that. You're fairly certain that what you're hearing, maybe even a clang of metal on metal as well as that like a rip of the ozone. - At this point, I'm waving to the rest of my group to hurry up double time. - Can we see that? - Yeah, absolutely. - Okay, then we move up. - She's a couple hundred feet away, but it's pretty clear when she's giving you a whole arm wave. Hopefully not visible over the clip. - No. - I have perception and stealth, just to remind you, so she continues to very slowly crawl up to the top. - Zero. - Okay, at this point, when you peer over the edge, the first row you'll make is stealth to see just how well hidden you remain. And again, there's no target number here. It just is what it is. - 14 stealth is a chat level one time. - Right, so it would drop the level by one. Now, I would like a perception check. And this particular instance, if you wanted to, you could apply effort because you kind of know that something's going on and you could actually try to perceive it a little more clearly if you wanted to. Do you not have to? - She's doing that. - Okay, I have a number of mine, again, I won't share that with you, but you're one level lower than you would have been. (laughing) - That's a one for us. - And for our listening audience. - I believe. - Right, the sand, absolutely. - I can't see, sure. - The wind picked up, the sands in the eye. You are certainly welcome to spend an experience if you want to reroll that. - Yeah, I have to have one lot of them, so I will do that again. - All right, I'll take that one, by the way, if you don't like. There you go. Oh, excellent use of an experience. This happens a little too much, too often. You roll the two. - I just can't hear a damn thing, or see a thing. - She crawls down, she's got sandarized. You know, she's just shaking her head. Yeah, there are goggles. - She's trying it, yeah. - Yeah, damn, that woman. - She's got a face full of sand, and she's mostly you to go up properly. - I don't even want to look anymore at this point. - She's 12 back down. - When she waved us, we saw that she was still being stealthy. - Yeah, I think. - So we'd probably run 80 of the hundreds. - Up to the bottom of the-- - And then slow down. - I don't think you're panicked. No, I think you just thought-- - But I mean, we would also-- - You guys come check this out. - So we get within 20 feet, and then we slow down. - Right. So that's roughly 20, 25 feet is probably the, or maybe even 30, is the base of this ridge line that you're working your way up. - All right, I want to do this thing that you did only. I want to see things. - Good idea. - And I'm not as good at sneaking as you do. - So clearly, you won't roll a one or a two. - Clear. All right, so first, I'm going to do the same thing. She did, I'm going to sneak up very quietly so that they won't notice me when I look. - I don't know if I can't assist him, but where I was going, I tell him where I was going to look because I heard, you know, the sounds, and it was pretty specific, and it sounded like it might be a battle going on, and I feel him in as much as possible. - All right, all right. I'm going to sneak up first. I'm going to roll for that now. I'm training it currently. Probably just one difficulty. Building 18. So very, very, well 19, technically. But I don't know if the plus one will give you a minor. - I'm pretty sure it's natural. - All right, it got to be natural. - And I don't really mind because whatever I succeeded in sneaking. So I sneak up and then I'll check it out. It's the assistance, and therefore training in this task. - All right, and that time I rolled a natural light to you. - Nice, I'm pretty sure I saw something. - You did see something. - Get me some of them goggles. Don't need them in the city. - No, you do not. - They just fog up in the city. - It's all far below or far above. Sandstorms happen. - Okay, what you see in the distance is. - How far distance? - Probably about several hundred feet, way past long distance, upwards of 100 meters. This ridge line is the final crest before you enter into a prolonged period of a gradual decline in the path. All the way 'til it reaches some sort of basin of some sort, a long stretch of flat land, if you will. The thing that absolutely catches your attention first is an enormous tree. This is a tree that you had been seeing mean periodically as you're crossing over various hills and we're getting to these certain apexes of these hills and you can see it off in the distance. It's the tree. - The tree. - The tree, the one tree. - The tree seems to be the tree that's marked on your map. The oasis map that you have, it has a relatively large tree that seems to bisect the path that you're traveling on. So the path goes underneath or through or something, you can't tell by the map, but you knew that the path went through the tree in some way. So you see a large tree in the distance and there's a path going, you know, for all your sight can tell with the wavering shimmering in the distance of the heat off the sand looks to be the same tree. This tree is reflecting. And what I mean by that is when you look at it, you keep on catching these reflections as if mirrors, since mirrors have been on the oblisks, it's hard to tell 'cause at least a hundred meters in the distance and you see the branches coming out, you don't see leaves, but instead of leaves, you keep on seeing these reflections. - But presents are crystalline? - Oh, something like that would be something he'll probably describe it as when he comes back down. - I know neither of those words. - Tiny. - Shits glass, you know. - Right, so the tree itself looks to you as if it's this huge wooden tree. - Does it look like it? - Several hundred feet high. - Projecting light or reflecting light? - You're not there, I'm sorry. - You keep on being these reflections like someone shining light into your eye from the various branches on the tree. - There are leaves. - The other thing that catches your attention is the fact that there seems to be some water down there, thereby kind of reinforcing the idea that this is no basis of something to it. The third and perhaps most important, the least eye-catching at first, is the fact that there's a wagon off to what would be just the north side of the trail. It's at a 45 degree angle off the trail. The anene is definitely moving about, bucking. It looks like it's very discomfort or very nervous, the anene that was pulling this particular wagon. You see what looks to be a group of people in brownish cloaks with swords and various other types of weapons in some sort of combat, and they seem to be in combat with, well, you keep on seeing these, what looked to be human forms or humanoid forms, I guess would be a better way to describe it. You're catching some green, you're also catching a little bit of reflection off of whatever cloaks they're wearing, and you're seeing a lot of electricity or lightning bolts of some sort, like lightning crackling from the area that these other creatures are in, and these lightning bolts are being directed at the brown-cloped individuals who are trying to defend, seemingly gathered around the wagon, defending the wagon. So that's a snapshot, a three-second holy shit. That's a lot going on. And then you duck back down to make sure that you're not perceived. But you can continue doing whatever you want, just one. - Are there any dunes between us and them? - Yes. - All right. There's a tree in the distance at what I surmise is, give you a way, sis. It's a big tree, very, very large. It's a different kind of tree than you usually see down here. - It looks like a huge, enormous oak tree, almost. - Very large, huge, hundreds of feet. - So can you see the way I can see it over this dune? - Yeah, the second you get rid of it, and you can see it, leaves on the branches seem to be made of mirrored glass because they were reflecting into my eye and making an image to see what's going on down there. What's going on down there is that people wearing cloaks that I understand to be rather similar to the ones we found in that abandoned wagon. - I mean, we're all wearing right now. - Yeah. - All of us. - I love it. - Everyone but Tila. - Right. - Just 'cause I tend to... - Right. - Are fighting a bunch of other individuals who seem to be wearing green cloaks that may or may not be mirrored if I remember to recognize them. - Yeah, so far so good. - We're shooting lightning at it. - So the brown cloaks are surrounding a wagon. - Yeah. - That is off to a side. And they're being attacked by how many? - I don't have numbers. - Okay. - I'm not good at what I'm wearing. - I'm out for being cautious, but we might have people down there dying that we should be saving. - Sig holds out his dentosphere that he picked up and says when the brown cloaks to the fazir is man. - That's your question? - Of the dentosphere. - A level two usable crystal that answers you guys for no question. - Oh, wow. - To the end of the daughter, aren't they? - You'll understand later. The answer to that is sorta. - Yeah, so no question. - Sorry, if I give you just no question, I'm gonna screw you. So I'd rather say sorta, because that gives me more information. - She just goes black. - It's gray. - It's sorta, it's good information. - Is it used up now? - Yeah, that's your question. - That was a fucking movie. - No, it's not. It's actually, it'll make more sense later. I'm sorry. - Well, I know, but this isn't particularly useful. - It could be. - It's sorta. - Apparently the answer was higher level than two. - Sig says the dentosphere doesn't know what site throws it on the ground and kind of kicks sand over it. - Doesn't know what the brown cloaks are, the men of the fazir. - It's supposed to know, it can't tell. - It can't give me a straight answer. - Okay, well, there's a-- - Felix, did you see the bazir's daughter down there? - No. - If we can get them along five hundred feet away, I can't-- - They're three hundred feet away, to be fair. - If we can get them, we'll take another look. - Okay, as everyone's talking, Nina goes, I gotta take another look. And she climbs to back up the thing. Are you using stealth, or are you-- - I'm not sure she's not concerned about stealth. - Yeah. - It's kinda hanging on the side. - She's hanging on the side. - She did now. - I'm asking Felix if they seem to be protecting something, where they are-- - They're protecting the wagon. - I think she's probably there. - It could just be cash. You'd protect a wagon full of cash as much as a-- - I don't protect a pit, no, I don't. I'll let them take it and stab them in the back. (laughing) - You're gonna fucking junt bear. - You're gonna eat the rack, folks. - Sick dudes on his other side, for instance. If we can get them all on one side, we can use this wall of flame to keep them away from us. - We need to be down there to do that. - Okay. - And it could need to-- - They're going through this. - As she looks into the distance, go ahead and need to make a perception check. Screw the stealth. - 13. - This is still of one. - So, okay, it took a down one level. And Felix, on your search, did you take a down one level as well? - I did, I was using her training. - 'Cause you were using her training, right? What you catch is the battle has progressed from when Felix had first reported back to you. You notice the couple of the brown, cloaked individuals are now lying on the ground. Either writhing or not moving. You do a quick number count, and you come up with probably, again, haze of battle, distance six, seven, eight, somewhere in that ballpark, somewhere right in that range. The green individuals, you're pretty concerned, you're pretty convinced now that they are actual green. Their cloak isn't green. Their cloak is almost pearlescent, if you will. So, you'll see like the cloak will open if they turn a certain way, you'll see green. So either their skin is green, or they're wearing a green uniform underneath, but the cloaks that they're wearing are pearlescent. That's your quick look. I would say that mostly you're focusing on this brief eight to 10 second look on the combat and what's happening as opposed to the tree and anything else. So that's what you get in your 10 seconds look. You got more than Felix did. - What was the numbers involved in the fight? - Six to eight in the brown cloaks, and as far as the pearlescent cloaks upwards of 20. Okay, three bolts. Damn. - Nina's throwing her voice down the hill saying if we're gonna do something we better be quick or this battle's gonna be over. - Are we gonna, yes, which side? - I assume we've been hired by the brown cloaks. Let's say the brown cloak. It's powered discrepancy, but... - Yes, we always save the side that's winning. - Let's go. - All right, man, over the hill. Long roll on this hill. - Nina's gonna be the first one over the hill and just start charging down there. - All right. - Directly into combat, which is definitely your purview. - Right. - So, Nina does that. The rest of you say charge? - I was right behind her, sure. I take like three steps to turn around and if my brother isn't moving, I'm stopping him. - Everyone's up and over the ridge. Nina, with the head start by 10 or 15 feet, if that. Making your way quickly, I guess everyone can at this point roll for initiative. Okay, Nina. - You're gonna roll a wand. - Okay. Nina trips. - Tripple it over the hill and everybody caught up. - Yeah, basically that's it. You scrape your knee, get back up, curse, and then you're running pretty much with everyone else in the same pace. Eshman? - I'm five, so I'm probably helping her out. - Do you have Pila? - Whoa. - Three. - I rolled a three. - There is not much bigger in this charge. There's not a light brigade. - I want you to be in the moment here, ain't I? - All right. (laughing) - Oh, you gotta be kidding me. - It's flying over the hill and trips over me. - This is awesome. - All right, it's a 15. - Pila, Pila. - So it's a... - And it's a 15, 15. Say, can I borrow your die please for the others? - That guy. - And the good guy. - And sort of good guys. - It's a good guy. - Ah, fuck that guy. - Now we reveal our trap. - Ichabod was the trap. - Did you need to be on a hill sniping? - Yeah, I planned to. I don't know if he's stealthy about it. So you know, I'll charge over the hill and the 20 waiting people with fucking lightning go. - All right, the battle ranges below. Felix and Sig, go. - Well, I go first. Salamander, man. - Go ahead. - I believe you can dedicate a full movement to short. You can do short automatically. You can roll for long. - Long. And it's like a difficulty of three or four. I'm sure you're all our balls out. At this point, as much as you can. - I have balls. - And I have balls out. - You know what I mean? - Right. - Balls out. - It's running hard. - Balls balls, I mean. - Difficult. - You can get a sense of that. - Right. You tripped over you, actually, is what he did. As I was trying to help you up, Bob's come crashing through and it takes you back down again and you both get up, dust each other off. Sig, go. - Sig rushes over, but realizes everyone's behind him. - Well, he's still got a while to go, so he just keeps running and hope to catch up before him. - He's not trying to run 100. - Sure, I'll try. - Okay, get it wrong. - I would say that the hill is an asset. - Pardon him. - Bring downhill. - Fuck you. - Yeah, I'll give that. - He's probably on this well-paved route. - No. - He is better than what we had in the head. - Right, but you're rolling a little bit. - It's like you got too much momentum going and you're gonna do some somersaults down there. - And it moved at 100 feet in one round. This speed task with a difficulty of four. - Would you roll Sig? - Four. - Sig rolled a four, so he starts to stumble, starts to do the arms-over-arms. Like he's gonna go cart-willing down the hill, but catches himself and slows down his pace a bit, thereby running 50 feet. Felix. - We are an unprecedented group of fucking girls. - Physically champion. - We're here to save you! - Physically champion. - The category is a clue. - Most of all, no one is like battle-cried or anything, right? - No, there's no noise. - What's the distance from the hill that we're on to this first dune here? - 250. - 250. - Yeah, it's about 50 feet from the wagon. - Yeah, I guess I'll sprint. - All right. - difficulty four, I'm trained in it. - Your training is sprinting? - It's moving. I'm trained in all three. - That takes it down to a target number of nine level three, and you roll- - This is good, 'cause they're all 10. - That's exactly what you needed. So you sprint out ahead of the group. Also, moving is Eshman at five. Eshman? - I'm trying to run faster. I'm taking my liquid speed and running as fast as I can. - I don't know what that means. - And the door is on. - It's on. - I'm just gonna say it adds to any speed task advice as I click through this. - I'm gonna say level one, liquid speed. - I'm just thinking of discharged people falling over. - Right. - There's a good thing that there's probably a hazy barrage of the fact that you guys for them, so anyone who sees you, it does look maybe more impressive. - I thrust the hill and there's a clusterfuck, so I nimbly leap over it, continue running down the hill. - It gives you a speed edge of one for an hour. - All right, speed edge of one for an hour, and now the edge of one. - Probably means you can do effort without, wow. - Yeah, it's gonna cost less to do effort if you want to. - So if I put effort into it, it just costs me two instead of three then, right? - Yeah, yeah. - Well, I might as well do that for the first initial-- - The first initial run, let's try to get that boost. Okay, so it takes you down to level three, which is a nine, you need to succeed. You spend two speed on this effort instead of three. - 12. - Nice, you make your way past a stumbling, almost part wheeling sick, running down the hill. You're able to move past, and now you're maybe just five or 10 feet behind Felix as you high-till it down the hill. Two out of three, pretty impressive here. So we now have Tila at three. - Yes, they go before me? Are you on top of at this point or? - You just strip. - No, they both stood back up and-- - You guys done? - All right, I'm gonna attempt a run knowing that you can easily catch up. - Right, no effort, okay, 12 is your target number. - Natural 20. - Natural 20. I'm gonna say that for this turn and next turn, you move a hundred feet for both turns. You got it just a really good groove as far as just kneecaps pumping, elbows pumping, it just found that groove going down the hill. You do not have to roll next turn. Okay, that will take us to Bozz and Nina, both at one. - No, me fucker, you trippy fucker. - You look fucker than back and forth. - You can't possibly, that's what you do twice. - Right, come on, come on. - Four. - Why don't you-- - 16. - Yeah, once you get going, you leave the bionic man behind. - You guys go out ahead, that'll be it. - I got the rear. So a hundred feet for you pretty easily, 50 for you, there's something wrong with your four, it just doesn't, you've got to accelerate it. But you got a lot of girth, right? - I don't know, dude. - Well, look at me. - You look like you got some girth. - Dude, some muscle bump. - Well, it's all in the middle, and I hear the clang, clang, clang. - Right, slow the trolley and feel like since they go. - Yeah, all righty. - No, I'll go. - I'm still running down a hill, I really don't know how many turns it would take to get to this one. - Two hundred feet. - Right, so you want to roll it for it first. - Right. - So it'll take you two and a half turns. - Seven. - 50, yeah. - It will take you two turns. - You're starting to hop and pop a bit, it's the desert, it's sand is here, boots, it's just really uncomfortable. - Okay. - There are boots who pressure see you when there's some shit. - No, they're good boots, but it's not working for 'em right the second. Okay, that takes us to Felix. - Who's going to continue running? I'm trained, so difficult. - Nine. - I'm still nine, and I still made it. - What'd you want? - Nine. - Sure. - Oh, nine. Good thing you're trained, twice. - Oh no. - All right, and Ashman, you're 50 feet away from that dude. - Oh, let's do it. - I don't want to put any effort into it. - Okay. - Just give it a shot. - Flip this around to 50 without the roll, but it could take a chance. - Yeah, 'cause if you roll a one, you're in a trip or fall. - How are you gonna take the chance to try to move on? - All right. - Keep up. - Keep up. - Keep up, you go past everyone. - Eight. - Eight. - Okay, 50 feet. Okay, that's 150 for you. So you're a hundred away from that first dune, and that takes us to Tila. You don't have to roll. - I'm skipping. - You are literally-- - Neck and neck with feelings. - I'm a little insolventy. - She caught you in your club. - While doing it, I'm assessing the situation, 'cause I'm obviously dancing across this dude. - If you take a look at your map, you see how the path kind of is an angle coming into the page? - So you're still doing-- - So that what you're doing is blocking the wheel. - Yeah, that's what I'm gonna say. So you can't really get a good feel, and I would say that you could make a roll, like a perception roll to try to hear noises, but you're right on the hill. - I rolled a 20. I am dancing down this hill. - I am sliding legolas style down the hill with virtually no effort. - All right. - You could go and say like, "No, it's triple all the time." - You could, uh-- - It's triple all the time. - So I'll give you a very difficult perception roll, but I'll give you one. - Hopefully it won't spring right here. - Four. - Nah, I don't hear nothing. - I pull the muscle. - You hear Felix hopping. - You hear, as I said, you hear Felix hopping, not yourself. - You can shut off you. - I have to read it. - You can pass Nina. Go. - I'm dropping 12. - Which is exactly what you needed to run 100, and how about you, Nina? - 10. - Which is, you don't have any running skills, correct? - Yeah. - Okay, it tastes 50. So you actually catch up to Nina. So right now, we have Tila. - I'm building up speed. - And Felix, 200 feet of the 250 needed for the doom, 300 needed for the combat. - Yeah. - We have Boz, Ashman, and Nina, all at 150 feet into their movement towards the combat. And Sig is at 100. So, back to where we were, Felix, your first, your 200 feet into the run, what do you do? - I'm just gonna run 50 feet because I wanna get behind-- - Can you fire a rifle from that range? - Crossbow. - Definitely. - It's a-- - Which one are you using? - 50, it's 50. - Which one do you do the very first one? The one to the left of the path, the one to the right of the path? Or the second one to the left of the path? - I wanna be on the second one so that I can sneak here and actually have been hidden. - Okay. - Because they will have probably, at this point, seen us sprinting down the hill at full. - We're so busy. - Good boy. - Now, to be fair, Felix, when I said that you were 50 feet away from the doom, I meant the doom on the right as you're running down the path. - This? - Yeah, to get over to that second doom to the left, I'm gonna say that's closer to 75, 80 feet, which means you're gonna have to make the 100 roll to get there. And you're not going to the top of the doom, you're going, you're trying to circle around the doom at the ground level, a base and level, correct? - Yeah. - Okay, go. (clattering) - 20. - Natural 20. - I roll everything, but I don't move. - So it doesn't matter. - Felix, crossing the path, you move so stealthily you do not make, you don't draw any attention as you cross over the path. That was your big, that was your big, like open moment where you've got about 10, 15 feet of open between those two dunes where you're exposed, not so much. You absolutely, you got a freak little dust wind came up and totally obscured your crossing over the path. - Amazing. With a hundred feet of movement, could I give back here? - Sure. - 'Cause I want to be a crust rather than me. - Absolutely. You're absolutely there. Okay, that takes us to stake. - That is one first, right? - All right, Secretary sprints the closed of 15 feet away and he rolls on 18 this time. - All right, you are now 50 feet away, so they're nicely done. That takes us to Eshman. - I don't need to roll to get to the base of that dune in behind it, right? - Oh yeah, it's a hundred feet away from you, I believe. - I don't know. - Yeah, it's a hundred feet away from you. - You missed the second hundred foot. - Yeah. - I think. - All right, well, you're not adding, you're not spending any effort, go. - Two. - Whoa, almost stripped, caught yourself. You're a 50 feet away. That takes us to T-law. - I only travel the 50 feet that I need to get to that base of that thing. - Yeah. - Start slowly working my way. Eastward, staying towards the path. - Yep. - I'm also looking for my brother. I don't charge him to combat without him. - Okay, fair to say that on a short movement, it takes up, you don't have another action like a perception or anything else, you can do, but you can find him visually behind you as he's catching up, not a problem. - That takes us to Nina and Bas tied at one. - 16. - Well done, you're there. - I'm using effort. - At 100. All right, and you need to do as well, you're using effort this time, okay? Good enough. - Four, oh, it was 11 and rolled over to a four. So you're still behind, got a little winded. You started off so well, and then you got winded. That and Bas actually pushed you when you ran past you trying to get me in. - Well, I got up to speed now, now that I got ahead of the steam going. - Right, it's like momentum carrying you now. - At this point, it's Felix's turn. You are in that little crevice as the dune goes in and itself a little bit, there's a little bit of crevice there between the front and back of that dune, right? You're in that little nook. Okay, what are you doing? - I'm gonna walk 10 feet up, I'm going to draw a crossbow. - 10 feet up or 20 feet up. If you notice that dune actually is 20 foot high. - Yeah, I was gonna move 10 because I also wanna draw the crossbow that I probably wasn't holding out whilst before. - No, you were not. So you are 10 feet up that dune, and have your crossbow out, and it will say there's a bolt in there as well, okay? For that, that's what you do in your 10 seconds. And again, at this point, you can hear screams, shouts, you can hear the ozone ripping and like a little roll of thunder, it's small, but you can hear it from the lightning blasts that are occurring. There is talking in the truth and there is shouting in nothing that sounds like the truth at all, a completely foreign language. - So you hear two types of languages intermixed Felix, as you move your way slowly up the dune, in anticipation of the battle opening up before you when you get to the top. - And he has signed a language to either of the combatants. - I've been around places, I might recognize. I certainly can, I'm closing the 50 feet. - No, that's fine, without just even a roll. - Is it like totally alien or might I heard of it before in my time? - No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm asking are the green box fruits, the guys speaking in what? - We can't see them so, I'd say it would be difficult because the battle was one where they were mixed, they were in close combat, so no, I say no. And that takes us to sick. You're 50 feet away from the closest-- - How far does immediate distance move? - Immediate is 10. - 10. - Short is all your movement for the turn and it goes 50, which gets you there, to where the group is kind of mustering behind the line. You would have no action though. Besides talking, free actions. - Are they surrounding the car? - You can't see. - There's a bag in the car, are there any people on this side? - You're not, you're here. - That dude is blocking you and you're coming down a hill into the basin, you're still 50 feet away. So you can move up to the rest of the group of that 50 feet or you can move beyond it if you'd like. - I'll just get them there. - I need to roll. - That takes his estimate, no, no roll. - I still need 50 feet. - You still need 50 feet to get there as well. - You could just walk it, you don't need to roll. - Not walk it, if you could jog it. - Yeah, I'm thinking about going around it and heading toward the wagon as fast as I can. - For sure. - But we've been talking about being without a sudden, dare double. - But I'm saying. - But I'm going to try to double move so I can get up to the top of the dune so I can go around it. - Okay, I'll roll a 17. - You did it. You clamor to the top of the dune and see the battle unfold. It's hard to take it all in. Obviously, because you need a double move, I'm not gonna give you a lot of information because it's just too much. But you see a battle swirling close and lightning bolts and swords and it looks like the carp is actually smoking, which you didn't see before. You see bodies on the ground, you see definitely blood. It's just a swirl of activity. - The battle's mostly around the carp. - The carp, yeah. - I default to my brother. - You know, she's about up. - Teal is at three. Well, it doesn't really matter anyways because you're all moving together if you want. - I'm giving updates to people at the bottom of the hill as they run up. - Okay. - Letting know what's going on. - The bat. - So you're shouting out to them? - What are the people at the bottom of the hill here? - Yes. - Not like loud enough that twice as far awake in here. - Okay, so you're trying to make it low key, like. - The battle's raging. There's, there's dead on the ground. - So he does that seemingly in. - I'm looking for a way to get to the carp. Like, seeing if there's, they're on this side, but not this side, so. - It's a, I'm looking for an open for it. - To your initial observation, which wasn't much, it's a swirl of activity you'll know more next turn. Do you say something, Nina? You have something you want to say? - I'm just wondering what the bounce on things are. - That's, looks to you to be thick sand. Like thicker sand. Like brush, nope, thick sand. - Not packed loose sand that would cause you to slow down. - Right. Like it, maybe like stepping into, not a quick sand, but just like a thicker, deeper, softer sand than what you've seen. - I want to be doing something. - Yeah. - Okay, let's now worry about the wagon right now. Let's hit these ring clokes guys as hard and as fast as we can. Let's not spread thin and start doing different things. Let's go after these ring clokes first, because there's too many of them and we need to. - What's the distance from us to the ring clokes? - Because the battle is carried over behind the wagon. So it's more like 30 feet or so. It's not immediate, it's still short, but. - So could we hit and attack or? - That's 10 feet. It's immediate, only in the system. - Well, hopefully the, by seeing us charge them, then we're gonna draw some of their attention or distract them. - We battle cry. - And we muzzle make some noise and split the forces with the remaining brown cloaks, defend the wedding, give them a heart, and split the green cloaks. So that's what I would do. - So what do you do? Charge it? - Also charge and save for the vizier, woo! - Fair enough, for the vizier, and you come charging around that dune. - Sure. - And maybe 20 feet in front of you, you see a brown cloak trying to defend herself. And you see two of the, what now strike you, and I'm using air quotation marks for our listeners. These are the ab humans, the guard of the vizier. When you went into his chambers for his conference, his working throne room, not his elegant throne room. If you recall, there were a set of reptilian ab humans that were setting an attention, and they had spears that looked like they were made of energy, electricity. So they are green 'cause they're reptilian, and they have these pearlescent robes on. So they're these robes that are glimmering. The tree, Bas, you're able to see up close and personal. This thing is at least 80 feet high, 100 feet high. The branch is spread out, it's a huge oak, but instead of leaves hovering where leaves would be, are tens of thousands of little rectangular mirrors. In one of the crooks of the tree is a beautiful woman wearing a pearlescent gown, with almost like a caramel colored skin and dark hair, who Nina, she rounds the corner with you, and Tila, she rounds the corner, but specifically Nina in this case, you're struck by the fact that that is the vizier's daughter, Indra. She's not dressed like she was dressed in serenity, when she was slummin'ed in the below, but that's her without a doubt. And then, Bas, what really strikes you the most is the brown cloak turns at your, or the vizier, or cry. And she says, "Brother?" And it's Tila wearing a brown cloak and defending yourself. - Wait, so you're saying the person I see that's being attacked is also Tila? - Yeah, yeah, shoot myself. - Which one's hotter? - Last. - Okay, not your sister. - I'm sure that never crosses your mind. So what's-- - Literally says cliffhanger. - And that's where we'll end it for the night. - Experience? - 'Cause Nina will have to shout something? - Yeah, absolutely. - She's asking, is it Indra? - Yeah. - She's asking Indra who's side are we on? - Okay. - 'Cause that's what he says. - Is it Indra in the tree? - Yes, she is. Close enough, I think, to be, well, it's a distance. - Who's the enemy? - Okay, but you still can shout that out. And I think that she seems to, you know, like look in your direction, but we'll save your response for next week. For the grand conclusion, huh? Sand sweat. See you, what's the least? Literally. (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to the nights of the night actual play podcast. Visit kotnpodcast.com for more information on this and other adventures, where you will find character stats, photos, storytelling props, and even a form for comments and suggestions, where you could email us directly at feedback at kotnpodcast.com, or contact us via Twitter, or leave a message on Facebook. All music for this podcast was created and performed by Zen Audio Smith. If you'd like custom professional music created for your podcast or business, please visit Zen Audio Smith.com. And please join us next episode for more mystery and adventure. Quantum, quantum leapers, or quantum lions, quantum, anyone got something? - I don't know what you're trying to say, they're digital, right? - The creature you find. - You don't know. - The creature, I'm just looking for a name for them because I didn't take the time to create one. - You gotta go with quantum leapers. - Fine Irish. - Why quantum leapers? - Quantum leapers. - That's horrible. - Binary predators. - Binary saboteur, tigers. - Also no. I mean, close, I'm just not feeling it. - Binary cats? - Yeah. - So did you catch sounds like a Japanese animated-- - Photonic? - I mean, there's nothing wrong with the quantum or the digital or the-- - There was another one. - They're glow panthers. - Glow panthers. - I don't know about quantum 'cause it's more about size. - Quantum is-- - I'm sorry, it's very small. - Science right panthers because from our standpoint, they were glowing, they were neon. They were-- - Yeah, but our panthers think. - Well, they are now. - Okay. - Because I'm tired of trying to come up with different names of beasts that glow cats? - Well, how about a whole hard light, a hard light is a glow war. - Inch war. - They weren't really hard. - They were programs. - So-- - Neon panthers? - I don't know where I'm bald. - They-- - Neon panthers. - Fragmented. - Frag cats. - No, that's terrible. (laughing) - See, it's not as easy as you think. I gave it like a box. - That's really bad. - It'd be an honest two minutes worth of effort. I went, fuck it, I'll just ask the guys what to call them. It seems to be no better. - Well, this is-- - I don't mind panthers. Panthers are really-- - Digital pussy. - Yeah, it's like a bad, bad man. (laughing) - Did they get banned in Russia, or is it like they're all in jail now? - I don't say, I'd call them. - Pussy ride. - That was a pussy ride. - What about a fragment or a fragment beast or a-- - Frag cats. - No, I'm trying to stay open to cats. Frag, because remember displacer-- - Frag panthers. - Like the swag man-- - Like the swag man. - Panthers. - Fragment lions, fragment tigers. - Rescrets? - Resolution cats, res-- - Rescats? - Res, panthers, res. - Cougars. Can I have a resline? - Mountain reslines. - Digitally phasing feedlines. - Photonic lions? - DFFs. - DFFs. - Yes. - Oh, I'm sorry, I'm just gonna pass them on. - Instead of dip-- - DFFs. - Dymphs. - Ooh, fanthers here, fanthers. - No, fanthers here, fanthers. - Fanthers. - Fanthers. - I thought we'd each have our own name. - In done in the world, it would be a, it would be, you know. - It would be a fanther. - It would be a fanthers. - And that's, that's what our characters argue about for the next 20 minutes that we go down the page. - Yeah, you're gonna talk about what the hell that we're not talking about. - You mentioned us being on Hot on the Trail. - I'm glad I'm the one asked to edit this. During my morning walkabout, morning markabout. - Do you want to role play it out or do you just want to say that after some strong words from buys, you're able to reign it in or do you want to role play it out? - 'Cause I don't know if we want to spend time to role play it out. - I don't know, what do you guys don't? - Don't. - I'll follow the wrong. - Ah, that's a very good reason. - That's a compelling reason to short change the story. No, I'm kidding. I'm sorry, exactly phrase your question. This is like a wish with a demon. - Right, of course. - 'Cause I'm gonna screw you in on a kitty. Just go ahead and just one more time for me. - El's tripping the woods with our roots. This is, oh my god. - This is a desert. - Whatever. - But we see the movie and they show those elves running through the trees like they do. I want to remind, I remember Doug's acting. - Were we playing, what? - Failing himself on a tree in the woods. - No, no, no, no, no, no, that was for the sake of-- - Were we playing Lord of the Rings? Or are we playing Dungeons and Dragons? I'm sorry, does that understand? - We're playing Dungeons and Dragons, which was based. - Actually, it was created, I'm sure, as a tactical simulation game, that's-- - Chain mail. - Right. - I know neither of those words. - I need Schitt's glass, you know. - Right. - Long ago first, Salamander Man. - I'm sure you're all our balls out at this point, as much as you can. - Yeah, definitely not calls out. North Nina.