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The Gadget - Pt 2
55 Plays4 months ago
The moment you've been waiting for is here! Can the Fixer escape 1945 with his TARDIS and history intact? Facing the Cybermen means there’s no room for error—it’s strictly Pass/Fail in the Fixer’s Final Test! Learn the fate of our Time Traveling Heroes in 'The Gadget'!
🔊 Audio Warning: This episode includes incredibly loud noise.
Join Brand Osorio, Caiden MacCoyne, and Pandora Beatrix, along with GM Casey Jones as Team TARDIS race to escape Los Alamos and a Fixed Point in Time!
*Do* stick around for interviews with the players. If you'd like to run a game of D&D or Doctor Who of your very own, find Casey on StartPlaying!
Come say hi on our Discord! Be sure to subscribe and leave a question or comment! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and BlueSky for more updates!
Send your questions and fan art to [email protected]!
Music by Tabletop AudioTheme by RJ Pirchinello
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Zencastr Discount: anywherebutnow
With tabletop gaming as a storytelling tool, the show features the Doctor Who roleplaying game from Cubicle 7, powered by the Vortex System, designed by David F. Chapman.
Game Originally Created by David F. Chapman
Addl. Game Writing by Will Brooks, Zak Dale-Clutterbuck, Eleanor Hingley, Andrew Peregrine, John Sewell, Chris Spivey
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Transcript
Introduction and Season Finale Welcome
00:00:04
Speaker
Time travel, sci-fi adventures, and risky rolls of the dice lie ahead. Hello and welcome to the final episode of season one of Anywhere But Now, a Doctor Who actual play podcast.
Host and Cast Introduction
00:00:19
Speaker
I am your host and GM, Casey Jones. The next hour and a half or so holds a thrilling adventure in time and space. So let's dive in. With me is the daring crew of our time-traveling machine. Playing the Fixer is the charming and resourceful Brandisorio. Hello, Brand. Hello. And joining him is Maeve Sullivan, played by the ebullient Caden McCoyn. Welcome back, Caden. Hi. And finishing the TARDIS team is Pandora Beatrix as the delightfully chaotic Calamity
Podcast Logistics and Listener Engagement
00:00:53
Speaker
Hap. I'm sorry I have nothing. Hi.
00:00:57
Speaker
Are you all excited? Do you feel that energy? We are finishing things with a bang. We are recording today's episode and every episode on Zencaster, an excellent resource for podcasters, both amateur and pro. And if you'd like a discount on your Zencaster membership, simply use the discount code anywhere but now, all one word, the link and details in the doobly-doo. Get ready for a collaborative, immersive storytelling experience. Stick around after the game for interviews with the players. A bigger on the inside thank you to our listeners.
00:01:36
Speaker
Time is truly a gift, or it wouldn't be the present. We thank you for spending yours with us. If you like what you hear, leave a review, rate the show, and follow us on Blue Sky and Twitter at Anywhere But Now. Join us on Discord and share the show with your friends. Word of mouth is a huge help. Have questions or lovely fan art you want to share? Send them to us at anywherebutnowpodcastatgmail.com. And if you'd like me to run a game for you, find me on startplaying.games. Links to everything in the doobly-doo. Brought to you wherever you're listening in time and space. This is anywhere but now.
Time Loop Adventure Begins
00:02:53
Speaker
Last time, you were blindsided by and immediately pulled into the wake of a time ship. By the time you righted yourself, you were tumbling into a time spur, a loop of broken time. And not just any time spur, one circling a fixed point in time, and one of the most important in Earth history. You land, the cloister bell peels, sparks rip from the console, and a canister lodges in the dispatch. You are in a time spur. The same canister still lodged in the dispatch. You are in a time spur. The same canister still lodged a third time in the dispatch. You are in a time spur. Fixer, welcome to your final exam.
00:03:44
Speaker
July 15th, 1945, Trinity Base, Los Alamos, New Mexico. Outside away, who knows how many Cybermen, and oh yes, the world's first atomic bomb. We begin in the past with ticking, Fixer, off tempo ticking. You are stuck in a moment in the broken room. A grandfather clock leans like the Tower of Pisa. Before the time bomb went off, this was one of countless libraries on Gallifrey. Now cracks litter every surface of the room. Breathe wrong, and this place could crush you. Fixer, you don't know how long you've been here, how many times you've been here. What are you thinking?
00:04:41
Speaker
Well, it feels like with each loop, the world gets smaller and smaller and smaller. Time itself is slowly crushing me. It's funny you should say that. Behind every other tick of the off-kilter clock, you'd swear you could hear a tisk.
00:05:13
Speaker
And you thought you would make a proper Time Lord. Well, well, well. I think I'm still trying to figure out what a proper Time Lord even is. You snap back to your senses in the TARDIS. External sensors are half fried. Your TARDIS has crashed and cannot fly. There is no immediate sign of the other Time Ship. Is it in orbit? Is it buried underground? Is it lodged out of sync with space time? You don't know! Calamity! The scorch marks on your hands begin to fade and vanish. There's a broken rattle and a weaves as a cylinder falls out of the demolished dispatch. The note reads, you are in a time spur.
00:06:03
Speaker
Well, that was a lot. Mostly she's compiling a list of questions that she needs answered to immediately or sooner. But, uh, she's just taking a bit to process because, you know, she has definitely had a lot of terrible things happen to her, but she's never actually died that she remembers. That being the operative word. So. Maeve, outside the rift on Ruption, this is the worst time shenanigans you have ever felt. In the blink of an eye, you went from a building on the compound in New Mexico back to the TARDIS. How is Maeve holding up? Not well. I mean, she did just kill all of her friends. She's sitting on the ground with her head in her hands trying to figure out how we're going to get out of this one. I mean, they're flying now, but it really sucked.
00:07:00
Speaker
It really sucked. All three of you, please add one story point to your extant amount for making it thus far and having truly wonderful answers and some new questions to your immediate circumstances. I'd like to begin gathering the canisters. And once I've gathered each of the canisters, I want to open them up and array the paperwork showing that we're in a time loop or times, er, as in a circle around me and see how many
00:07:32
Speaker
You put yourself in a circle of the same scroll with the same scorch marks and the same fraying at one corner where the gold leaf is already burned away. That reads, you are in a time spur. I just need a guesstimate on how many I'm looking at. I mean, the number doesn't truly matter. Like you start counting. Like you started like, okay. I'm a time lord. Let's put this in terms of time and start at the top in front of you and then turn to the one next to it. I am in a time spur. I am in a time spur. I am in a time spur. And by the time you get to four o'clock, you have lost count. There's that dissonance when you say a word or phrase often enough that it loses all meaning. In this case, with you surrounded by copies of the same paperwork, it's not the phrase that loses meaning, but you're beginning to wonder if you are not losing meaning.
00:08:26
Speaker
inside of this time sp Look up from the endless paperwork and say, there is one thing that keeps me steady right now, one thought that prevents The immensity of all of this from crushing me. The last time I was in a situation like this, there weren't the people I cared for there with me. And the fact that the two of you survived means so much to me, and it is the one thing that lets me know we can make it out of this. I love both of you, and we will break this time spur, and we will fix this time. I promise you.
00:09:04
Speaker
Fixer, you say we will fix this time. And between your double hearts, there has been the slightest hint of an arrhythmia since you have landed here. And when you assert yourself, we will fix this time, they fall back. into their normal rhythm and you can make out the gap between two slips of paper that say the same thing and are able to step out of the circle if you so choose. I would like to.
00:09:38
Speaker
um So, I've got some questions. So, in principle, a lot of this is ah not actually all that unfamiliar. and the weird The weird part is remembering it, and that's where most of my questions lie, right? Why do I remember what just happened? And based on what the cyber people were saying, it seemed to imply that they had already done this with me more than that time. So why don't i remember why didn't I remember those times last time? I'm gonna say the word time a lot.
Strategizing Against Cybermen
00:10:17
Speaker
Girders in the superstructure of the time capsule you are currently in grow, holding their shape and keeping the chaos of time outside of this capsule. Fixer, you were saying? That calamity is a great question. Auditor, have students ever been stuck in a situation like this before? And if so, what elements of memory did they retain? For how long? There is a pop and a cloud of soot as the auditor sits up and prize goggles off of his face, leaving clean space immediately surrounding his face, which is otherwise lightly bedecked with soot. and he
00:10:56
Speaker
Well, we have a cascading number of problems. He gets up onto his feet, putters around, and finds in a chest an old gramophone that appears broken. There's a crack in the trumpet. And he sets it upright, and he takes out a warped record and puts it on, and then places a needle on the edge of the record and says, time has been described as compared to a flat circle. And that's as close as a good working metaphor as we're going to have at the moment. Imagine calamity with your excellent question. that the Cybermen are here. He puts the record, the needle down, and you hear a march. the Going around the circle, and he says, that's them. That started before us on this particular flat circle, and I suspect we might be somewhere along here. And he moves the needle too closer to the center to another track, and there's the
00:12:03
Speaker
They appear to have quite a lead on you and the difficult part and he just CUNK on a second needle to the same record that they are both playing at the same time as on the outer ring the march goes around. And louder. And on the inner track that is shorter and closer to the center, there's a... And he says, I'm afraid time is so cramped right now. It's a minor miracle that our two circumferences around this spur are lining up at all. there's there's There's absolutely no way of predicting which incarnation of you steps out that door, whether it's the first calamity to have faced them or the four teams. And they will...
00:12:49
Speaker
in theory be trapped in that same loop but at an early advantage point in theory you could run into them on their first time would there be a way to trigger that there's a spark and the record melts
00:13:06
Speaker
The auditor replies, it would be a very delicate operation. I don't think we have the necessary data to attempt such a thing. And as the lights flicker and spark on the targets around you, she's in no shape for anything like that until I can get some repairs done. Next set of question. They are, if I'm understanding correctly and I am mildly confident I am not, they did something to mess up something very important in time and now it's, you know, this just sort of thing that's off by itself from everything else, right? And it's just going around in the circle with the melted thing. So the question is, what's their victory look like here? Because they're they're stuck in it too, right? like
00:13:51
Speaker
are are they going Are they trying to get out or are they just happy having this little universe of their own? like My suspicion from the technology we saw is that they are attempting to both break their way out of it while also powering a conversion that would allow them to take a good 75% of Earth's population and turn them into Cybermen as well and possibly kill off the remaining. There is a doomsday scenario where if the Cybermen successfully harvest the power of Earth's first atomic explosion, if they do it cannerly enough, if they leave enough of the current events in place, they could theoretically march right out of this place with everything they need and into another time and place to wreak all sorts of cyber terror.
00:14:43
Speaker
You mean they like do it, do it in a time where they, you know, get a bunch of energy and then they like save it until the next time and then they don't do anything at all and then nothing's changed and then they can just leave? the The auditor is a bit frazzled. Like, there's just a little bit of dried blood from his nose, from the quantum nosebleed he got not that terribly long ago. He says, honestly, I'm having a bit of a difficult time concentrating myself in here. And he kicks something. And there's a woo woo from the TARDIS. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. If the Cybermen manage to actually grasp that power,
00:15:20
Speaker
And it still successfully ends the international war going on on this planet, and they could successfully exit the time loop, land somewhere else, and start their own campaign of horrors. But I don't think that's happened yet. For varying definitions of the word, yet. If they would have succeeded in that, the time spur would have been fixed. I think we would know if irreversible damage had been done. I think even here, POP, we would know. So there's still a chance to make it so I didn't kill everyone.
00:15:53
Speaker
Well, I mean... i mean standing here Look, I don't... You should definitely not blame yourself for the entirety of all of that. There were a lot of choices made, let's be clear, right? So try not to be too upset. I think technically the answer is no, right? That did happen. It's always going to have happened. It just isn't having happened now. And the consequences are only the consequences that you choose to experience in it. So they're using the coffee to influence people, make them more prone to suggestions. So who isn't drinking the coffee? Because we could use somebody who is not quite so prone. That's an excellent question. Do we have any idea of how long they've been here?
00:16:43
Speaker
I mean, you know, there were different versions of them, right? Like they'd made, there were the sort of old and busted ones and then there were the newer looking ones, right? Which it seems like they'd been working on themselves for a while. And they arrived long enough to set things up so that we failed to stop them multiple times. Enough that they recognize us. At least Calamity. I don't know if they recognized me, they didn't say my name. I'm not sure you want them to. Okay, so, right. Well, first question. The relative... God, there's just no good language for any of this. The starting points, do we think they're going to be fixed? Like, if we go out now, are we going to be at the same point we went out before, which is to say that they have already done all of the coffee stuff and
00:17:31
Speaker
gotten to how they had gotten, and then we can just make different choices from there. Or if we go out, could... Are we gonna end up, like, at a different point, like before or after? a That's an incredible question, Calamity. Why don't you open the TARDIS door and find out?
00:17:49
Speaker
Now, she's not you know actually being heretical about it, but she has considered that this particular situation might be worth just a bit of advanced planning before we just make choices, right? She is still technically actively recovering from her own death. ah which is which is the line that you try not to cross when you are being particularly devotional to do oops. So, mmm. Maeve, the scanners are sparking and only half fried. Can you give us an ingenuity and technology role to see if you can see and clean anything from the TARDIS scanners? Sure. We're only trying to hit a difficulty of 12.
00:18:39
Speaker
That's gonna be a one and a two for a three. I don't think I'm gonna hit 12 no matter what I have. No, no, I'm afraid not. Yeah, no, you press a button and static fills the scanner. Maeve, you do not remember the last time you have felt this out of joint, this stressed over a situation. You can't shake. the memory of watching Calamity hug that Cyberman fatally before you were put here. You're going to be unable to concentrate for an hour starting now. You're going to be down one point of ingenuity. I'm sorry.
00:19:21
Speaker
Any guesses i was onto the as to that point? I mean, we can just test it, but, you know, I'd like to prepare as much as possible. Well, if they're having the same conversation, we're in the same point in time loop. If they're not, then we know we're either before they have the conversation or after they have the conversation. Wasn't there a calendar when I stepped out last time? I can't remember clearly. Yes. So there was a calendar out there. We could theoretically just open the door and check. And failing anything else to do, Maeve walks to the door and opens it. Don't let the door close. I kick a leg so the door won't close behind me. I love it.
00:20:08
Speaker
The outer door of the laundry shuts as the exact same conversation you heard the last time the first time you stepped out of the TARDIS echoes across the short room of the laundromat. I turn back around and go, well, it's the same time. So what does that mean for them then? Are they just reliving the same day, the last day, over and over again? That would make sense, especially based on the different technological levels that we've encountered so far. We've so far only remembered elements of one loop, our arrival here in one loop. They may be remember being able to remember more than one loop, allowing them to gather additional resources each time. do we have Do they have a shelter like we do, someplace where they can hide things and they're not affected by the time shift? They've got to. Fixer, give me a
00:21:01
Speaker
Ingenuity and intuition check, please. I was gonna ask if I could add my Time Lord senses to it. Yes, absolutely. Okay, got a 16. With a 2 and a 5 on the dice. Beautiful. It suddenly occurs to you, like Maeve's question connects dots in your head because you did not see the Cybermen marching across the quad. You went to them. If they have to maintain that this time spur still works as a fixed point and that the bomb is successfully triggered, you don't know if they can afford to walk around in broad daylight. So that may be an advantage that you have over them that they don't.
00:21:40
Speaker
Well, there is one benefit. As long as we dress appropriately for this time period, we can travel freely until we're caught, whereas they have to hide themselves, and they're forced to only use the cybermats to extend their influence. I have another idea. Last time, rather than follow that little metal mouse thing, we went and found whatever it is they're working on, some mass destructive implements. I suggest this time we follow the mouse.
00:22:12
Speaker
Interesting. Fixer, having stepped out of the circle of you are in a time spur, you spot that you still have that thermost sized chrome steel lead lined artifact that you had in your hands when you were pulled back here. Give us an Ingenuity and technology role, please. Absolutely. And throw on two for the Sonic. We're looking at a three and a one for a total of 14. With that one on the dice, this is going to be yes, but territory. Yes, you are able to figure out this version of the urchin, the innermost workings of the gadget. This example in your hands has at least some version of Cyberman technology inside, but you cannot open the casing to get a closer look right now without exposing the TARDIS chamber to the radiation inside. I have an idea. It may be mad, but somewhere on this base there is going to be a a storage area, a place where they can put the equipment they're working with when they're not using it. If we could find that storage vessel that they're using, bring along a radiation suit, we could step inside there, open this up, figure out exactly the modifications that the Cybermen are making,
00:23:38
Speaker
and possibly create a counter. But, Maeve, I do think it is an incredibly wise idea for us to track back to where the Cybermen are hiding out, where they have their timeship and how they are accessing this space. But we have to be super careful that they don't track us back to the TARDIS. If they do, the next time, Spur, we step through, Maeve result in us stepping out with them waiting for us. Dreadful thought.
Infiltration and Discovery
00:24:02
Speaker
Give me a awareness roll with two for transportation, because this is your TARDIS, and go looking in the wardrobe for me, Fixer. Absolutely. Radiation is not something that time lords are particularly troubled with, depending on the band or the intensity thereof. So protection from radiation should be fairly easy to locate on the timeship. Okay, well, we got a 12 with a one and a four on the dice.
00:24:32
Speaker
Yes, you find a full intact head-to-toe lead-lined radiation suit, but you only find one fully intact head-to-toe radiation suit. Although you are in a laundry, there may be more out there. Oh, that's fair. Okay. One quick question. I think I know the answer, but I'm going to double check. That thing, Calamity is pointing to the urchin. Is that like the a message tubes in the sense that like we have it, but they also still have it. They don't not have it anymore because we have it now. Can I scan it for the Sonic to find out? Is this a copy that's been replicated? Yeah, you can. Absolutely.
00:25:14
Speaker
Calamity, take one story point. Maeve, for your excellent question that puts the story forward, take one story point. Okay, we're looking at an 18 with a five and a four on the dice. I love to see it. So, Fixer, using your Sonic, you are able to deduce fairly quickly that not only is this little sucker radioactive and befuddled with Cyberman technology, you are able to tell that this is from the same iteration of time that you just left. You brought it with you. So if there is a new iteration of the time spur out there where they were just having the same copy of the same conversation, You have no reason to believe the Cybermen do not also have eventual access to the urchin of this specific rendition of the time spur. Excellent seducing. Add one story point. Okay, so the way that they win, if they win, is that they get the energy from the thing because they put, you know, whatever inside it so that they get energy from it when it blows up.
00:26:19
Speaker
but it still blows up in the normal way and everything goes in the way it's supposed to and and then that that works for them and then but the same way that would work for us like we have to do the same thing like the answer has to not actually make anything different from how it's supposed to be so but we just have to make sure they don't get make sure that they don't get the energy but they they already haven't gotten the energy if they had then we'd already be over so do we have to like do we have to get the energy and then use it to do something to them or can we just leave and then they'll be here forever and nothing bad will happen or
00:26:59
Speaker
Calamity talked questions into a circle of like, so do they have, and then do we, to Cimida? And the auditor pulling a glove with a snap off of his wrist says, the cybermen appear to be attempting to harvest power of the atomic blast without preventing the atomic blast from going on we must prevent their plan from succeeding find a way to annihilate them and still ensure that the atomic blast goes off otherwise we'll be stuck here with them forever Well, that seems simple enough.
00:27:35
Speaker
pop well So we give them the energy that they're asking for, but we give it to them in a way that they can't utilize, or better yet, fries all of their circuits. i do likerying Okay, so here's here's here's just my first idea then. First iteration of this process that I remember. Take the thing. We have an extra thing now, right? Like it is in fact the exact thing. It is actually the thing. It's just not actually actually the thing. So if we just sabotage this one and then swap them out without them finding out that, right? Then they and then just go and let them do their thing as if everything is fine, then they won't
00:28:16
Speaker
Know that anything's wrong until it goes off and then they'll all be whatever it was we did to it to make them no longer exist. What we might consider doing is looking for someone who it has their own supply of coffee, right? I mean, there has to be a connoisseur on this, someone who doesn't want.
00:28:36
Speaker
whatever crap they've got in the cafeteria, right? And that person would be less adjustable. Maeve, give us a ingenuity and knowledge check, please. And throw on two for being an intrepid reporter. That's a five and a five, very an eighteen. Oh, beautiful. Maeve, you don't remember that Feynman guy drinking the coffee. Bainbridge did, and there were other people drinking the coffee in the place, but you did not see Feynman with coffee anywhere near his person. So we need to find this Mr. Feynman fellow who isn't drinking the coffee. Maybe have a talk with him and see if we can convince him to help us out. People here are acting weird. I'm sure he's noticed, right?
00:29:21
Speaker
I'm often surprised at how little people do notice these things in moments like this, but he does seem very intelligent, so hopefully he's figured out something's off. pretty charismatic crew i'm pretty sure we could talk them into it if we really wanted to is it okay that we talk to him like Are we like aiming for like a trial run here where it's okay if we're doing things that aren't allowed to stick and then we have to like get everything ducks in a row wise to do you know the final performance as it were and make everything go the right way right? Because I don't... I think the only solution is to just throw things up the wall and see what we can get to stick until we win right? I mean we can't do this forever but we have to try as many times as we get.
00:30:04
Speaker
right it can feel like forever you hear scribbling and the of a sheet of paper and the auditor tucks it and folds it and hands it to the fixer right just in case you leaving the tardis again resets it i've i've left myself a note so that i can continue to attempt repairs here because even if we do Correct things, ultimately, versus versus these Cybermen, we still have to be able to leave in a working time ship, which is currently on the table. Well, there is another option. If we can also track down where the Cybermen have their ship hidden, perhaps we can triangulate and hitch a ride on them as they attempt to start up their engines and launch ourselves back safely out.
00:30:57
Speaker
Their wake dragged you into this mess. Hopefully their wake can pull you out of it again. Fixer, I love it. Take one story point and you will be at advantage to try crazy, shenanigans-like that later on. That is some beautiful wibbly wobbly time bullshit. I love it. I absolutely love it. Okay.
00:31:20
Speaker
So the two things we need to accomplish, mave calamity, auditor, we have to reprogram the additions that the Cybermen have added to the urchin. We need to reach out to Dr. Feynman, get him on board for helping us swap these so that way the Cybermen don't know what's going on. we have to do so without the Cyber-Mats seeing us do it. And then the easy part, we just sort of, you know, wrap a little rope around their ship and fly out on the way out. Well, can we make these modifications ourselves, or do we need to recruit fine men to help us? Fixer, give me an awareness and knowledge check of Mr. Feynman. Ooh, great. I think I might have something that's useful for this. Would my knowledge of quantum mechanics specialization help with this? Yes, it would. 13 with a 4 and a 3 in the dice.
00:32:12
Speaker
um Well, it just so happens that ah Richard Feynman won a Nobel Prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics. There is very possibly a photo of Richard Feynman in your locker somewhere. Yeah, you are fairly confident that with a minimum of cajoling, Richard Feynman could indeed be Prescott is the wrong word. Convinced. Persuaded. Peer pressure. Peer pressure. refresh we are not We are not peers of Richard Feynman. Maybe. with ria
00:32:53
Speaker
baby already getting another quantum headache the auditor rifles off right so sabotage the cyberman's sabotage find an accomplice that we can use on the canvas finish TARDIS repairs and replace the device that the cybermen have attempted to sabotage without their knowledge yeah i Well, I got a one question I wasn't sure about. um So the whole coffee thing, right? Do we have to also find a way to use fix that? Or is that all right to just sort of leave and it'll wear off on its own? Give me a medicine check, Calamity.
00:33:30
Speaker
Well, that is an 18 with a 6 on one of the dice. Well, that's magnificent. You remember this stuff being used by other church congregants that were not whoopsie-im? Having seen people come off of the effects of this stuff, like it leaves them in a very suggestible state where they will go along with what they're told to do, but there are no lasting permanent negative detriment. Okay, so that's good. The idea that it was a related question though is that it seems like possibly the only person who isn't going to raise suspicion for directly interacting with the thingy is the guy who's all twitchy and on coffee, right? Because he was the one who's supposed to be working on it.
00:34:14
Speaker
Fixer. The other person, the twitchy guy on the coffee, is none other than Kenneth Bainbridge, who oversaw the final assembly of the gadget and was also the one to physically push the button. He is going to be keeping a hawk-like eye on the gadget until it is transferred off base. A man that drinks that much coffee has to use the bathroom sometime. That's very true. okay Okay, so I think this is about as prepared as we're going to be able to be. Somebody runs interference with the security in a way that doesn't actually excite an alarm to ruin everything, right? It's got to be just that right line of this is concerning, but not enough to make everyone, you know, alarms and everyone's running around because that would change things, right?
00:35:04
Speaker
Other people are waiting until he goes to the bathroom and doing that. But of course, we have to prepare for all of that by messing with the thing first, which is where ah Feynman comes in and then right. Okay, there's a bunch of things moving parts, but we have the pieces, I think. Now we can just start mixing them up. Reach down, grab a bunch of the papers that say ah were you are in a time spur. Write three identical sets of the same notes of what our plan is. Sorry, four identical sets of what our plan is. And then make sure I fold them up and put them in Otter's pocket, Maeve's pocket, Calamity's pocket, and then my own kilts. I love it. I love it. Just in case we get separated, here's the plans.
00:35:48
Speaker
all right This way, if we hit another loop, we'll also know what to continue working on. the auditor before sitting back down on the rolling carts to continue repairs he says now be warned, getting in and out of a timespan carries its own dangers. So there may be unforeseen consequences of even successfully emancipating ourselves. But be strong, be clever. I believe in you. And and rolls back under the the TARDIS.
00:36:23
Speaker
So Maeve, to Dr. Feynman? Let's go. Or to the mouse? I say we go to Feynman first. To the doctor! What does that look on calamity for? She's trying to remember if the the crossed paths of the Victor and the Fixer um have already tied off all the knots, or if there's still outstanding things in in Fixer's relative future that haven't happened yet, which implies there's definitely a way to get out. If you had to guess, given how angry the Victor was the last time you saw him, then yes, you are fairly certain that there is a Victor Fixer face-off in the Fixer's future. Time travel. That's encouraging. So yes, you have every reason to believe that, no, we have to get out of here at some point.
00:37:14
Speaker
Oh, it's still encouraging. Okay, we can do a better job finding uniforms this time because we sort of know where they are already, right? Yeah, there were women scientists at Los Alamos. I would like to find myself a white coat. You find yourself a white coat. You can help out with some math. I don't know if Maeve can do that, but we'll find out. You can look like you can help out with some math. There we go. So here is a fun side effect of the wibbly wobbliness. You are now going to be at advantage to do things you have already done the second time you've done them because now you have had practice. This is a double-edged sword. The Cybermen will also be at advantage to do things they have already done. So, disguises. Yeah. Disguises.
00:38:01
Speaker
You emerge into the Los Alamos laundry, like stepping into a very fresh memory. You're like, yeah, no, this is exactly where we didn't leave it, leave it, but this is right where we found it the last time. And the deja vu is strong, as you're like, no, I'm not picking that one up this time. I'm getting a lab coat. slip into something a little more formal. You know all those times you've experienced deja vu over the course of your life? I do. Yeah. Have I? Sure. Deja vu. It's always like this, but sometimes it's fun to see it from the other side, I guess. Well, we ran into fine men outside the cafeteria, if I remember incorrectly, so that's probably where we'll run into him again. Was anyone paying attention why the gods started suddenly looking at me?
00:38:44
Speaker
I believe it was the things that you referred to that clearly showed that you were not a member of this society in this time period. I'll try not to talk as much. are we may not Okay, I'll try not to talk as much. Maybe that will help. You will be a disadvantage to talk less. So are all three of you heading for the cafeteria? Are you splitting up? What are you guys doing? Heading to the cafeteria and while we're heading, I'm hoping to use the Sonic to see if I can backtrack where the Saibamet that was in the kitchen may have come from. I love it. Give us any dexterity check because you were trying to use an alien sensor without being without being noticed. So this is going to be dexterity plus subterfuge because you're trying to do the sneaky sneak. Now here's a question. Can I do it at advantage because I designed it to be a stylist so it literally looks like I'm just walking and writing in my pad?
Allies and Revelations
00:39:32
Speaker
You bet you can! An attitude for the Sonic! Okay, we're looking at a 5 and a 4 for a total of 18. Oh, beautiful. So, not only do you avoid notice of the armed patrolmen, you successfully get a bead of origin from the cybermat you previously located in the cafeteria. If you look at the map, You will see the building circled in blue that reads Boiler House number two. Doing a very simple scan, you backtrack that the cyber mats came from Boiler House number two.
00:40:09
Speaker
Doctor, I think I may have figured out what this is all about. And write on it, spoiler house number two. Is that to me? Yes. Oh, that does make sense. Flip it over so Calamity can see it. Richard Feynman steps out of the cafeteria and yawns past his stomach. He's like, I gotta make more espresso. And he's like, oh, are you guys going in? I was actually looking for you, sir. I tried drinking the coffee in the cafeteria. It is absolute sewer water. I don't know if you've tried it. You wouldn't happen to have a stash somewhere that maybe you'd be willing to share a bit of. Just a little, you know, late night, last night and all. Uh-huh. Give me a present and convince role.
00:40:54
Speaker
Please, because you showed, you walked up with a British accent and he has never seen you before on a closed circle of a compound. Presence and confidence. Okay. Oh, he rolled a three with ah a one on the dice. So he's he's got double sixes. but but Beautiful. He looks at you with just the slightest, the slightest patina of deja vu. Yeah. No, I guess it's, I guess it's okay to use to share the last of my supply. It's not like we're going to be around you much longer anyway. Oh, the last. I am so grateful.
00:41:29
Speaker
Oh, you and me both. He starts walking off. He is, however, not headed for the boiler house. He is headed for the physics like laboratory, which is in the complete opposite direction. He is headed for the building with a yellow circle on it with the letter Y on the map and is like, yeah, no, ah my my my espresso maker's in there. I'm going with him, of course. OK. Because I talked to him before. I'm going to talk about how I'm such a huge fan of his work and just really put on the flatter. With that double sixes, he eats it up with aces. Boom. There is absolutely no difficulty. It's like, yeah, no, that's that's fantastic. He's like, excuse me, need to move my bongo drums and move them off of the coffee maker. Takes out a little water still of a purifier. Oh, you play the drums too, a man of talent. It helps me think. Fixer, Calamity, are you joining Maeve with Dr. Feynman? I sort of share a glance with the Fixer and then Calamity's personal plan is that she is going to go ah walk around in her janitorial jump suit that she got from last time and just see if she can see if she can figure out what like, you know, guard patrol
00:42:44
Speaker
routes and patterns are in general so that then later she can communicate that to everyone else and be like here's our window or if there's no window then be like yeah I'm gonna have to do something loud. I love it. Before Calamity walks away I'd like to quickly just scribble on a piece of paper a note saying see if you can figure out Bainbridge's schedule and just hand it over as I walk by. Bainbridge exits the cafeteria yawning and just carrying a travel thermos. Share a glance with Calamity and and just a little bit of a wink and then walk off with Maeve and the doctor.
00:43:22
Speaker
Okay, we'll start with Maeve and the Fixer as ah Richard Feynman walks you into the physics lab and says, I'm surprised that they let anyone onto the campus this late in the game. How the hell did you guys get this assignment? Quite a difficult feat, actually. I've been begging to be allowed on to help with the map for decades, for years, a month. It's like, as like, Dave just does not understand the time. And Feynman shrugs as, it can feel that way sometimes, sure. Yeah, I followed your work, of course, for years. And, you know, there was a sudden drop off in being able to attend your lectures. And, you know, I was pursued until I figured out a way to come and work with the great Feynman.
00:44:11
Speaker
He hands you an espresso. Cheers, young lady. Cheers. Fixer, what's going through your head, friend? Oh, it's very simple. Maeve will definitely be able to convince Feynman far better than I can. I just need to be here when the science needs to be done. Yes. I love it. Fixer, did you bring the first urchin that you had or did you leave that on the TARDIS? You know, that's a great question. I think I would have brought it with, specifically inside the carrying case. So it just looks like ah we're carrying and maybe another piece of equipment that's important. The TARDIS is charming enough and old-timey enough that you have a briefcase that does not, you know, beat or shine as it
00:44:50
Speaker
successfully contains with lead lining the version of the urchin that you have already collected. So I i mean since coming on it's very difficult to talk to anybody on this campus and I've had a hard time finding you know my way around where the coffee is everything really. No kidding. You wouldn't happen to know how one makes friends with Americans would you? Keep! Rubs the back of his head. He's like, I'm probably the wrong person to ask. Pipe in and say, Doctor, you're doing a great job making friends. He chuckles and says, I guess so. I've made two new friends today. Here's hoping we're all still breathing and not glowing tomorrow.
00:45:30
Speaker
Here's hoping. Maeve is, like, kind of drowning a little bit in, like, how to, like, approach the topic of, we're time travelers in a time loop. How fast? So your job is to deal with these theoretical physics? That's what they pay me the ridiculously low bucks for. I was wondering, what kind of theories might a man of your talent ah approach? What's the most out there theory of physics that you've heard? Oh, I mean, like there's the brass ring, you know, what really is at the center of a black hole and stuff like that. But I've, I've, I've heard some doozies in my time. Well, I think we might have a doozy for you. And I look at the mixer.
00:46:19
Speaker
Why? What's going on? Well, what if I were to tell you that you are involved in what I'm sure you know is one of the most important projects that humanity has ever worked on? that's That's a very flattering way of talking about the gadget. Well, I want to go beyond flattering because I need you to understand the importance of the types of technologies that you're working on. and their historical impact, an impact so profound that if it were mathematically possible for people from a future time to come back and make sure that you succeed, would that make mathematical sense to you? As his jaw slowly hangs wider and wider and Maeve just delicately nudges the door shut so that the three of them can talk without any eavesdroppers, we cut to
00:47:07
Speaker
calamity who is doing a fairly successful job of tailing Bainbridge into the technical warehouse yes where he's doing last looks um well when when we were in there before like did it seem like it was just one big place or were there like side rooms and stuff that we didn't go in like but the main question being here like Is there a bathroom in that building or would he have to leave the building in order to go to one? No, there are there are bathrooms, there are offices, like the central square of the building is one large open space, but there are walls up with lead lining here and there, there are offices, there are facilities for people to take bio breaks. Gotcha. Okay, so I feel like she has to go inside then to get the timing on when he's gonna not be by the thing, um but also she has to, she's gonna need to deal with the guard thing. Okay, give us a presence and convince roll at advantage plus two for the uniform you're wearing to persuade these guards that you are who you say you are. Is charm count specialty wise? It can, you're welcome to try. Okay, well I have a 23 with a six on one of the dice.
00:48:16
Speaker
Oh, that's flippin' beautiful. Yeah, you have worked enough ground support jobs that you just fall into like, this is the tempo a janitor uses to avoid maximum notice. Got it. And like, you don you barely even have to show a little ID card on your jumpsuit. You just like, okay. And carrying the mop where you don't even know where you got a mop, honestly. Where did that thing come from? But yeah, you just walk right past the guards and into the warehouse. That's fun. Give us a dexterity and subterfuge check to quietly tail Bainbridge. Now this is something that I did do last time, but not in this specific context. So does that mean I i don't get advantage because it's technically a new application?
00:49:05
Speaker
the the Because that was the thing that i I screwed up the first time. I would say technically you followed Bainbridge here before. Yeah. And given the other advantages like the janitor's jumpsuit, etc., I'd say you're at advantage to try it. Because technically that then cancels out the disadvantage I get for not having subterfuge at all. Okay, roll with neither advantage nor disadvantage. It comes up, you know. Wow, that's... that went great. So I have a six with two ones. Okay, you are tiptoeing to catch up.
00:49:38
Speaker
to Bainbridge and kick an empty bucket so loudly. Not only does it humble across a concrete floor sending the noise further into the warehouse, but as clatter from that kicked bucket. But you can't mistake the sound of doors slamming behind you, the front doors. Like you've made it down the hall and into the warehouse the body of the warehouse proper and that's when from kind and the doors at the other end of the hall have locked noisily behind you and that is where we're going to leave you for the time being. Fixer and Maeve, you are finishing off and a ah round of espressos with Richard Feynman. Fixer, you are trying to
00:50:26
Speaker
persuade this human being in 1945 of something that is beyond his can utterly. How are you attempting to proceed? Oh, this is gonna be a fun one. I'm gonna use as much Flash Gordon as I can. Well, you see, there are times when heroes have to step up. Situations like I'm sure you've read about in comics and other places. Places where a person sees a despot of such evil, aming the merciless as despot. Now instead, imagine...
00:50:58
Speaker
something of that level of evil, that level of dominance, but it is robotic and it spreads using human bodies. A horror from beyond time and space, but a horror that is guaranteed to lose today because of the amazing work that we already know you have done. The challenge, of course, is that we would prefer to be honest with you about the import of today's events. Will you stand with us against this temporal threat? presence and convince at advantage. Do you pull out your Sonic? You so you mentioned Flash Gordon. like are you are you trying Are you presenting anything of evidence of this as you spin that magnificent speech? Is there a light in the room, just a standard light bulb? Oh yeah. One that's clearly in his view. I'm literally going to just pick up pick up the stomach, raise the volume up as loud as I can, and just turn the light on and off.
00:51:56
Speaker
Use Sonic a nearby lightbulb and it glows brighter and brighter and brighter and then fades back. I still need that presence and convince role though. Absolutely. At advantage. Can I add a story point onto Fix's role? You absolutely can. I would also like to add a story point if possible. Please do. So two story points, adding two levels of success. Got a six and a six on the dice for a total of 17. So yeah, the light glows bigger and bigger and close too tight on
00:52:28
Speaker
Feynman's eyes as the light gets bigger and bigger reflected in his peepers. He just sits back in his chair with a thud and says, this isn't a prank, is it? When I say I'm not from around here, I mean more than just not from the colonies. Colon... when are you guys from? That's classified, unfortunately. Fixer says that's classified. Cut to... Calamity in the warehouse proper as a stop stop stop slowly emerges not from anywhere nearby but with that double ones with that snake eyes you have absolutely alerted them to your presence and the building itself is now on lockdown
00:53:10
Speaker
Bainbridge turns over his shoulder because he's got his back to the door and he says, you shouldn't be in here, you know. Well, it's it's it's too late for you now anyway, I guess. And goes back to work as a pair of armed guards make their way down the hall and a pair of Cybermen stop slowly towards Calamity. Okay, so they've all already seen me. You wrote double ones trying to sneak on this guy. Yeah. Well, okay, so I'm not actually aware of any way to actually recover from that at all, given what we discussed before, plans-wise. Um, uh, like, like, I mean, no, no, short of like disintegrating every single person here, like there's nothing, and even that's probably not going to help, so history-wise. So, nope, nope. You could book it, they could roll badly trying to catch you. Well, no, because they know they know we're here now. That was the whole point, like that that they need to not know that we're involved. Well, they only know you're here in this room. Okay, right. Well, okay. So what I'm going to do then is like they recognize like the cyber men recognize recognize me. And I assume because it's a warehouse and it's secure, there's like no windows or anything.
00:54:24
Speaker
There are windows. I mean like the entire place is on lockdown. There are no windows with anything delicate visible on the inside. Like you could skirt to an office nearby and try and slip out a window before they grab you. Okay. If you wanted to. Yeah, so sure. if there's any um if there's If there's any exit to this immediate area, then I would like to pick one of those at random and then run. As boots race up the hall from the main entrance slash exits behind you and a pair of first-generation Cybermen stomp towards you, You hook it to the west and slip behind shelving and look for an open office door. You slip through the office and there is a cyber mat squeaking across the floor that might need jumping over, but there is a window beyond it. So, like, is it just a normal opening window? um Because I suspect jumping through it is going to cause a commotion outside.
00:55:27
Speaker
It's possible, yeah, it's it's very likely, yeah. Like, even even so, someone may see me climbing out a window, which is gonna excite notice, but there's nothing, there's no help for that. um But in the fallback plan of I'm causing a distraction, maybe we can just roll with that. um So yeah, I would like to open that window if that is a thing that I can do, yeah, see if I can get out. Okay, give us a strength roll. Is hiding, like, physically hiding subterfuge? Yeah. Subterfuge would be what would be used for for sneaking around. They're hiding. Okay. Well, that's not gonna work then. Oh, I have a seven with nothing special. I do have a lot of story points. I'm terribly motivated. If you were to spend one story point, you would get the window open. If you were to spend two, you could ah sneak through it without immediately being spotted by ah someone on the campus proper.
00:56:18
Speaker
That sounds good, let's do that. The two. Okay. Calamity tumbles, tail over teakettle out of the window, straightens up and walks like that, that speed walking that people do when they're leaving the scene of an accident that they may or may not have caused. Calamity is currently on the westernmost side of the building S. The technical warehouse nearby is the electronics. From here you can see in a straight line across the quad the physics lab Feynman and your friends were heading to.
00:56:54
Speaker
I don't want to lead anyone to them. I just want to lead them away from here. okay Why don't we head towards electronics on general principle and see if there's any mischief we can cause there. I love it. You make your way stealthily as you can towards electronics. Meanwhile, Maeve and the Fixer successfully broken the news to Richard Feynman that time travel is in fact possible. hey Calculations regarding nuclear explosions have been wiped out in favor of math calculating how many dimensions would need to be relative to each other in order to successfully enter and exit a vortex that would make time travel possible. And he's and he's he's he's got it down to like at least two. Like so you're telling me you're from the future and she's from the
00:57:46
Speaker
half, but you're not from here? You're from up there? Sort of. ja just remember Just remember, there's no job too big nor too small, and I'm an emotion to me and Maeve. We have the time to fix it all. What do you need from me? but What we need from you is your help and and knowledge about the Urchin. This mechanical robotic threat has already altered it. and plans on using the immense power generated for great evil. But we suspect we can reroute that power in a way it will shut them down and possibly permanently while not interrupting your experiments. Hang on a second. So he rolls the blackboard over and starts drawing cosines. Like so you're talking about a pulse on an ah electromagnetic wavelength created by the blast and that would
00:58:36
Speaker
and draws it to a ah stop, like that could theoretically interfere with any kind of electronic. I mean, that's one of the reasons that we're we're blasting this thing 20 miles away from absolutely anything of importance. But like, holy cow, I suppose that could be feasible if they got clever enough with parts and electronics. Cut to electronics, where Calamity bullsh**ed your way it past the security men here at this juncture into the electronics facility. As you push through, you see crates in the larger storage rooms that are being in the process of being packed up. As Bainbridge, Brigadier General Groves have both made it absolutely clear that the project is wrapping up.
00:59:23
Speaker
clean you might as well start cleaning up now um because no one wants to stay here a minute longer than they have to but you are able to because you're a janitor just walking through you are able to walk past any number of open office doors where people are slowly packing and you can smell burnt coffee Well, so I'm mostly just sort of passing through this on my way to further away from where I was. But she she also is going to I guess if there happens to be any crates or boxes or whatever of like electronic stuff. um that have already been finished packing like they're they're closed and done and you know ready to say be moved out on like hand trucks or something um that she would just do that take a hand truck and move some crates out like it was the thing she was supposed to be doing and then maybe there will be useful stuff in there that she can sort through later at the very least there are boxes that she can throw down if people are chasing her
01:00:18
Speaker
If you spend a story point, you will be at advantage to find things of value in that crate. If you spend two story points, you can guarantee you will find useful things inside of that crate as you chitchee-kink and squeak-a-squeak-a-squeak-a-squeak-a towards a significant exit. Well, so I don't honestly see any super plausible options just looking at the labels on the map. Calamity's just going to basically, once she gets out of the electronics building on the far side, start looking around for any vehicles that one might plausibly load crates onto. Okay, give us an awareness and intuition role, please. And as far as the finding useful stuff thing, is that a decision I'm making later when we're sorting through the crates or right now? Later, yeah. yeah yeah Thank you. um Things are definitely already off the rails, so I could use some attention, don't care what kind, you know, brief little prayer to whoops, and activate that. Let's actually see what that does, because it might be negative.
01:01:26
Speaker
Hooray, it's good. Okay, so to two plus two plus two plus two. Excellent, that's a 20 with a six on one of the dice. You push out of the electronics building and see a jeep nearby for the convenient leaving of a crate beside. You also notice that you are within a stone's th throw of the laundry where you first left. That is building m Gotcha. Okay, and has there been any sign of pursuit from behind me yet? You thank your lucky stars and whoops in general that the Cybermen are many things, but fleet of foot is not one of them. You do not see that the guards have noticed your egress from the technical warehouse, so you have a moment to either create a diversion or make use of the fact that no one is currently glancing away. So what I'm gonna do actually is try, since I have a shot, I'm gonna risk going into the laundry with the crate. I love it. And heading back, heading back to the TARDIS. Okay. Like, hypothetically, if I can get that in there, then we can always have it, even if we have to do this over again. Mm-hmm. Give me a strength roll, please. And you don't have any subterfuge. Do you have any points in athletics?
01:02:44
Speaker
Yeah, I got one in there because that did come up. Throw on a point of athletics to book it without being seen into the laundromat proper. Oh, okay. So that's a 10, nothing special. Okay. You successfully managed to put up the dump the crate into the laundry building and the door squeaks shut behind you. You cart this thing
TARDIS and Temporal Challenges
01:03:05
Speaker
through past the crates to the site of your TARDIS, which is nice because now you can actually enter it through the door versus being shunted back into it past dying this time. So that's gotta feel good.
01:03:19
Speaker
She was considering it as an option, but yeah. It takes some significant doing, but why the crate rolls into the TARDIS interior console room and the auditor sits up beneath the console and wipes grease from their face and saying, were we expecting a delivery? ah I mean, I wasn't, I don't know if you were, so probably not. um I just got some things that might be useful for well maybe fixing the TARDIS but also you know doing the sabotage when that comes up later but also some guards and cybermen saw me and are excited about that they were not chasing me actively when i came in here i made sure for that but yeah i don't know what that means or what i should do now does that mean we just have to do this over again or is it maybe okay i
01:04:09
Speaker
Calamity asks that as we cut back to Maeve and Fixer and Richard Feynman in the physics lab, as you've managed to successfully convince this outside the box thinker that there are worlds beyond what he knows and he is not totally against this idea. When you hear a siren start at one end of the facility and start
01:04:44
Speaker
Like an air raid siren, an incredibly unpleasant noise cuts through the air. Feynman looks around. at. Surroundings is like, oh no, what's that? What's going on? That's the all call. There's been some kind of lockdown. Fixer, give me an ingenuity and intuition check with two for time traveler. Maeve, your hour of confusion lowered ingenuity has passed, so you are back up to full.
01:05:15
Speaker
I would like to ask, do we have to go back? And if we do, can we take him? Kind of like tilt my head toward Feynman. So we don't have to redo the whole convinced thing. I think that's a great idea. With my free hand, the one not holding the urchin, grab hold of Dr. Feynman. wait what as like you lock arms with him and mave locks arms with him and he says wait what as there the the siren the air raid siren that is calling a shutdown a lockdown across campus this was not something that happened in 1945 on july 15th and has thrown a major wrinkle in their plan of detonation on time this more this coming morning. There is a flash, but instead of the intensity and the suddenness of last time, this time you can almost hear it approaching like an oncoming tidal wave that's going to wash over you with white nothingness and
01:06:24
Speaker
Fame men is like, wait, what are we doing? And the fixer, evens or odds? Odds, please. This is wibbly wobbly for our audiences. You called for odds, so if the number comes up odds, you're good. If the number comes up evens, not so good. That is a six with a one on the dice. So you say, wait, you lock an elbow with Feynman and Maeve vanishes before she can lock an elbow with him. And he's like, oh, oh, no, no. Oh, this this feels wrong. This feels really bad. Because the idea is too fun not to use, as nothingness starts to eat up the wall, Feynman turns to you and
01:07:09
Speaker
Grabbing a notepad, just scrawls with his own handwriting. Time travel is real, trust me. He tears it off and hands it to the Fixer as his back and shoulder and face is eaten up by the nothingness of a time spur. Fixer, you snatch it out of his fingers at me.
01:07:31
Speaker
Calamity. Your own eruption. Scraping carbon before the rift. Being in a place where time is compressed. Time did funny things and this doesn't feel quite so different. It what did wobbly things to your joints. It was technically a very short amount of time. Being around the rift is funny. Sometimes you swear that you spot you on the far side. Strange. glimpses like you hugging a robot man with with cables in your hands ah just impossible stuff like that uh what does calamity think of all this time distortion well you know this is uh i mean the fixer has been has been consistently very alarmed about the whole rift thing so
01:08:27
Speaker
you know that tracks but honestly it's all pretty interesting given the day-to-day in here other than rather than trying to minister to the various potential uh serendipitous it's not a lot to do right so sort of like you know sort of like watching holovids just of me so that's nice this is before she got her brains fixed so That was so How does it feel now that your brain has been fixed? Mostly it's just contrition. you know Sorry, that was my bad. What happened? I managed to get into the building where the putting together the thing in Bainbridge is and then i I kicked a bucket. You know you died? Not metaphorically. like there was a bucket and I kicked it and it was very loud it was incredibly suspicious bucket kicking like no one has ever kicked a bucket in this place so suspiciously and then I ran and jumped out a window and um I went through a building with a bunch of electronics so I stole a box by then no one was chasing me so I got rotted in here sorry I think that was an excellent idea but we didn't get the doctor
01:09:31
Speaker
But we have the key to the doctor, holding up the paper. Wait, you were trying to bring Feynman here? Yeah, I mean, we had talked him into believing us, so it seemed logical that we should just bring him with us, so we didn't have him again. Wouldn't that mean there would be two of him, then? I mean, there aren't two of us. Yes, but we weren't here before. Like, there is a him here, and if there was a him in here and in there... Everything happened really fast, and I wasn't fully thinking through the implications. Okay. Fixer, give us a resolve in Intuition plus two for Time War. Ooh, a one and a four for a total of 12. Because of the one on the dice, you get a splitting time migraine. As you just wad in here, calamity was already in here. Now there's a crate. You are going to be at a minus one to resolve for the next 60 minutes starting now. Unfortunately, I also rolled for the auditor who got a
01:10:26
Speaker
Big old snake eyes. And as Calamity is talking in front of the practicalities of there being two Richard Famians in existence, he gets another nosebleed and hits his head on the console. It's like, ah, dear God, stop talking about time moves. Sorry. And he's going to be at a minus two to resolve for the next hour. I would like to check the sensors and see if there's anything on there. That is a 6 and 4 for a total of 19. Oh, Bully! That's magnificent. Time has continued within the capsule this time to the point where the auditor has been at least to able to avenge some repairs. Quite possibly because Calamity walked through with material almost at the exact same time that time reset outside, which is flipping awesome.
01:11:13
Speaker
With the working scanner, Maeve, you are able to track trajectory of the other time ship. Because of that six on the dice, you are also able to determine where the ship is and when it gets here in relation to you guys. The answer is in orbit and the time is about two weeks. So while your time spur is much narrower, kicking you in at July 15th, it looks like the entry point for the Cyberman's ship
01:11:49
Speaker
which does not look like cyber technology. They get here with two weeks of advance to transport down, find a place to start building, and get the wheels of their plan in motion, and you guys have that two week late start. So good news, bad news, Todd. Good news. This shit looks like crap. Bad news. They got here two weeks before us. Well, maybe part of why it pulled us into their wake as opposed to allowing us to pass smoothly near them. The auditor squints through pain looking at the screen.
01:12:28
Speaker
Ah, that's a seven with a one and a six on the dice. Well, if that ship is as old as it appears, they couldn't be using more than the most rudimentary technology to broadcast the energy up from the explosion. They would need a quantum manifold that would take weeks to put into place with 1940s materials. Is there anything in that crate you brought, Calamity, that might help us disrupt the thingy from doing the thingy? That is a question that other people should answer by looking at it. I'm going to go in and look at it. May I add an extra two points so I will have enough parts to build. May of her recorder slash Sonic at the end of the mission.
01:13:12
Speaker
Save your points for for stuff do you want to use in this game. You want to build it out of 40 seconds anyway? Don't blow your last two points on on a gadget for Maeve at this point. That's sweet as hell. I love it. It's really nice. It's really thoughtful of you. But I think the last thing she needs right now is a Sonic anything. Fixer, can you give me an ingenuity and technology roll plus two for Time Lord and another two for your Sonic? Well, a 13 with a one and a one on the dice. Fixer, there is great news and there is bad news. The great news is between the cart and the urchin and your sonic. You have everything you need to supplant the Cybermen and build a version of their tech.
01:14:00
Speaker
that looks like something that they could very well, very easily overlook. That is all the good news. The bad news is there is absolutely no way to implement these changes without opening it up and exposing the person that does the changes to the radiation of the uranium inside. That is the bad news. The good news is you have a fully complete radiation suit and you also have access to the Zero Room. The Zero Room on the TARDIS is critical for Timelords who have been injured or wounded or made sick in some way to recuperate. You have reason to believe the Zero Room could eat excess radiation from the core. Let's grab that lead-line suit. As I turn to the companions, I'll yell out, to the Zero Room! Shall I go and get Feynman?
01:14:56
Speaker
That's actually a really good idea, Maeve. Hand her the note. Can I take the paper? Thank you. Calamity. Well, I mean, before we open the door, is time passing outside? How's that work? Because every time I open the door, I hear the same conversation start. I wasn't testing it yet. I was asking the question. We had better get going because they're having that conversation again. Alright. I feel as though fate is nudging us forward. Do you want to come with me, Calamity? Or do you want to stay here with Fixer? I mean, I don't know that I can be a whole lot of help for what the Fixer is doing. So, right. I should probably come with you. Maybe I shouldn't. I don't know. Everything I've done has led to confusing things, but we'll just try it again. Surely we'll be fine this time. But you've also done amazing things. You got Feynman's attention the first time. Yes, no, yes.
01:15:47
Speaker
i Mean considering that calamity was able to take a double so ah take a snake eyes on the sneaking in to successfully get the hell away find useful Equipment and smuggle it back onto the TARDIS. I would call that a result. I would call that a capital R. That's that's whoops not me anyway all said like a true whoopsian. Let's go then I'll go out. I'll get the white coat. I know where it is now. I'm going to also wear something different because talking to a janitor thing is weird. If we're just going to talk to Feynman, then I'll just look for something like Maeve. Sure. White coat. Lab coats for everybody. And off we go. I love it. So a shot, Maeve's hand reaching in and grabbing the lab coat off of a hook.
01:16:32
Speaker
and a shot of Calamity's hand reaching off of having a lab coat. Elsewhere on the base, a tired Kenneth Bainbridge finishes his coffee. And elsewhere, cybermen stand over the open dome of the gadgets that they cannot get too close to. Fixer. As Maeve and Calamity cross the campus, can you please give me an ingenuity and technology role? okay thank god that was an 11 on the on the dice for the auditor with a six on one of those dice he is able to find a second radiation suit to be your assistant as you perform surgery on the first atomic bombs the little troublemaker or so it's called it is quite a troublemaker You slip into the zero room where gravity can be turned off and you are able to suspend the urchin in zero gravity while you get to work. The door steals behind the auditor as he steps into a system. Might I use my quantum mechanics specialization for this? Oh my yes. Got a 14 with a one and a three on the dice. So with the two of you working, it is not the swiftest of operations given that you are working with materials that have been poured or manufactured in the last weeks and it is going to take some time.
01:18:00
Speaker
The good news is, you don't know how the hell time is going in the outside. So you may have some time. This is going to take us a minute to work on. Calamity, Maeve, you guys cross to the cafeteria as a tall, wavy-haired man exits and yawns, and he's like, oh, are you are you are you ladies going in? No, actually, we're here to find you. It's a very tightly classified mission. I need you to come with me. a Did Fuchs put you up to this? Is this something? This is not a joke. Did you get the thing from the fixer? And I hand him the note and say, we really need you with me right now. He unfolds the paper with his own handwriting on it. He looks at you.
01:18:47
Speaker
And he looks at Calamity and he looks back at the note. He makes the same face that you Calamity have always already seen him make. A theoretical physicist and a quantum engineer who is suddenly having his mind blown for the second time. Where do you want to take him? I'm taking him back to the TARDIS. Okay. You lead him successfully to the laundromat. Can I please get coordination and subterfuge if you've got it as unobtrusively as possible. Make your way back to the laundromat without being observed. Now I do have a specialization in intrusion. Would that help me in this instance?
01:19:25
Speaker
Since it's my last time probably to allow it for a while, I'll allow it. So Calamity's gonna try. She knows that she's not great at this. If anything happens that seems like it might actually draw attention, then her overriding goal is to draw as much of that attention to herself specifically as possible. Then finding the TARDIS is bad. Capital B. Yeah, that's a six with a one. it I got a 14 and I will spend, I have three story points, I will spend up to all of them to get Feynman back on board the TARDIS without anybody knowing where we are. I mean, yes, I do have a pile. I do have a pile. I'm happy to mitigate this. So, Kalinity, you're walking.
01:20:06
Speaker
with Maeve and Feynman. And, like, this is going great! I never thought sneaking around would be, like, would be this easy. You hear a squeak and it... and glance over your shoulder, and sure enough, there is a... the cybermat from the cafeteria has been trailing the three of you. And because of Maeve's successful role, you were able to get Feynman into the laundry. How well does it jump on it like it's a grenade? but
01:20:36
Speaker
I literally can't see what's happening while Maeve is getting Feynman into the place. And then I'll go from there. I love it. This is fantastic. We are now in an action round, which is just going to go great beautiful. Give us a strength roll to subdue the Cyber Mat as you jump on it. Yeah, yeah, sure. Why not? Oh, what's up? Horrible. So it's 11 with nothing special. I would say an 11 is enough to successfully blind the creature, are you trying to damage it at all? Like you're trying to crush it, or are you just more importantly about covering it up? the It not seeing was was the overriding priority, but if there's an opportunity to to... Like getting a really super close-up look to this thing, yeah it looks about as sturdy as a Tinker Toy.
01:21:22
Speaker
OK, pretty fragile. It is a dangerous tinker toy. Here's the question. Is there any indication with my grasp of technology if this thing is like doing a live feed back to somewhere or if it has to like report in? Because if it's the first one, I have to do different things. Well, give me an awareness role, please. Not ingenuity? You can use ingenuity if you want. So that's a 15 with a 6. You can hear this thing making a little quack, quack, quack, quack, quack noise that probably means it's broadcasting its location. Right, okay. Then I'm going to not break it yet. Once I'm sure that Maeve is inside, the idea is pick it up and then run in a random direction. Not where they are. You will get to try to do that next round. It is going to try and bite you now. No, that's fine. Because you have gotten as close as you are. This is not a large cyber mat. It is just a regular itty bitty one that I have personally described as a tinker toy.
01:22:21
Speaker
And that is an 8. Calamity, can you please roll, resolve, and survival for me, please? Sure. Well, I tied an 8. Does that count? Okay. Yes, it does. That's good enough. You only take one point of damage from this thing as it sinks little metal teeth into the arm that you're using to block its view. You're going to be down one point of strength until you are able to get medical attention. And now this thing is going to be trying to attack you in of the future. Do you want to get to your feet? Do you want to kick this thing?
01:22:59
Speaker
The idea is take it somewhere else while it is still broadcasting its location before I break it. Give us a coordination roll, please. And you are at advantage to scuba this thing and up into your hands. It is going to try and wriggle out. That's a 12 with a 6. So you successfully picked this thing up in a way that prevents it from fighting you again. And that takes us out of combat for the time being. Give me an awareness room to figure out if you've been noticed or not. 13 with a 6. Yeah, you've, uh, you've caught the attention of some armed security. Wait. Oh, okay. That sounds cool. They're looking over in your direction and realizing they've never seen you before start making their way closer. And you've got this little, uh, okay. Where, where are they coming from? Roughly on the map. What direction? So if you.
01:23:54
Speaker
are roughly, I'll call it a centimeter north of the K building. The gentlemen are on the patrol road, have spotted you from the southernmost corner of the D building sitting at seven o'clock. Okay. They are several yards away, but they are now on their way to
Device Modification and Final Preparations
01:24:13
Speaker
fire. Excellent. Plan B, I'm going to approach them directly, efficiously. And while I do it at halfway through them, I'm going to break the thing. New plan. I love it. As you walk off with a cyber mat, you're about to... I mean, I'm going to try to do it subtly, but yeah. I mean, maybe. I don't think it matters. Maeve, you bring Feynman into the laundry, and he's like, uh, OK.
01:24:39
Speaker
At this point, I'm just propelling him forward through the door of the TARDIS. There isn't a whole lot of time for him to hesitate. but Yeah, it's like, but we'll never fit in there. I promise you we will fit. And I open the door and I shove us both through. But it's too small, my gosh! Handshot around Feynman as he walks through the tiny door into the massive, busted-ass TARDIS. There are still cracks and then the smell of light electrical burning. Ta-da! Okay, so it normally looks way cooler than this. It's a little broke right now, but we're fixing it. This is a relative dimension.
01:25:21
Speaker
He gets a little dizzy and and reaches out for a handlebar. Is there some kind of like intercom system where I might be able to have the fixer and the operator hear me in the the zero room? Because you have everything sticky noted, posted it around the TARDIS, you are able to find the intercom button with a minimum of four. This one. Oh, shit. And Feynman just sort of gravitates to the only chair in the room and just plops down and finds a walnut between one of the cushions. Fix that. I think I have a visitor who might be able to help us. And I'm going to make him a cup of coffee because he looks a little faint right now. Before you make him a cup of coffee, could you do me a favor and bring us up in the zero room on the screen so he can see the work we're doing? I would yeah love any insights he could have. Sticky note, sticky note, sticky note. You are able to help him on to bring up the zero room on the screen.
01:26:20
Speaker
And he just wanders over, eyes open and mouth agape. If the science he stums a bit beyond me, I'm from like way before this, and I don't really know what's going on in there. But I think you do, and you might be able to help. Hello? Is this a task to make? Is this thing on? It is on. We can hear you loud and clear, doctor. This device, as you know, is the urchin, but you probably don't recognize these additional attachments. These attachments were made by that robotic menace. Oh. by a robotic menace threatening humanity throughout time. The TARDIS successfully throws up a split screen of talking to you and pictures of classic footage of cybermen marching out across open terrain. Those guys aren't bad. They look at, yeah, that's a Halloween suit I don't want to run into anytime soon. They really want to put you in one, so we gotta figure this out.
01:27:12
Speaker
That's a manifold. How did you put together, how did you get, I've never seen work that fine. Just starts rambling compliments at the fixer for a solid minute of like, how did you get work that fine done on that? That took us weeks to pour that. Oh my God. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Start blushing more and more and more and finally say, thank you so much, doctor. Your, your praise, it is truly, truly an honor. I'm sorry. Was there a question? Yes, there was. This right here. And points at the part that I'm struggling with. We're trying to reroute the power that the robotic threat has decided they are going to siphon off for their purposes. They want to tap into the gadget's explosion. like But the power output from that would be, oh my god, oh my god. You know, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. so And he squints and takes out a pair of glasses and pulls them up to the screen.
01:28:05
Speaker
and says, you can't, you can't, you're, see, where you're falling into trouble is you're trying to shunt it back. That's not gonna be possible with material that's fragile, but what you could do is a loop, a loop they can't break. If you, and he starts technobabbling. I would use my note taker to record this entire conversation. Very smart. May take a story point. Fixer take a story point because you guys are going to flip and need them. Cut to 20 frenzied minutes in Tardis time as like you finish the fine tune work on this urchin and turn it into a true troublemaker. Cut to Calamity who is walking proudly on the open sunshine with a robot rat in her hands ready to
01:28:56
Speaker
Snappin' in two? Yes, as the armed guards are approaching. Yes, definitely want to break it before I get to them. But making it obvious that I am, you know, walking up to them on purpose. Give us a strength roll just to make certain that you can break this thing as you intend to. You are at advantage because you've already got it in your grip. So 12 with a 6. I love it. You break it enough that important looking wires are torn free and it goes completely dead. Okay, so when I get to the guards, I'm going to be like... ID? Oh, yes. I mean, does the coat have ID on it or no? It doesn't. If it doesn't something that I'm going to call the convenient clip in a in a pocket. Okay. ah Oh, yes, here. See this. um But ah I found this thing and I think it might be some sort of listening device. So I thought I should bring it to you right away. They snatch it out of your hand. Calamity does not have subject.
01:29:51
Speaker
Yeah, but you're also not lying because this thing is a listening device. This is technically true. The US President is convinced, at advantage. 18 with nothing special. Beautiful, I love it. One of them snatches it out of your hands without a glimpse of apology, peers over it, and he says damn cushions. As the person next to him pulls up his walkie and says, we have a possible with monitoring device. I need a double sweep of the perimeter. Don't sound the aligned. Cut to the interior of the warehouse where Bainbridge is exhaustedly working on his version of the urchin as the security guards who are watching him from behind get a... We have a possible list out. They say copy and they leave to go on assist on the double-time routine meanwhile Fixer in the zero room with the urchin you look down at What is probably the best tech work you have ever done? Like you've had your time you are in the zero room So your stress is at a manageable level you have had a pep talk from Richard Feynman, which is
01:31:10
Speaker
not something you were expecting to experience today. What is going on in the fixer's head right now? That for the first time ever in my entire life, I could actually relive a moment over again and not have a panic attack. I Oh, I absolutely love that. My voice went up high because I was happy. at a storm point and your resolve is restored to full 26 minutes early. Yeah, no, you are feeling as good about your role as a Time Lord as you have ever felt because you've just finished your first cyber thwarting device.
01:31:47
Speaker
That's exciting. briefcase and clicking shot what do you do for it Step out back towards the main room, head over towards Maeve and say, I think we're ready. I think we if we swap this with the one they have, we will see this day through and humanity will have a bright future. So we need to get to the lab and make the swap without anyone knowing. Can you help with that doctor? They won't be looking for me. i'm I belong here. And he looks at the briefcase. Let's let's go together. Lead the way. Calamity on the quad with the guards they are waiting patiently for backup as you see in the perimeter on the horizon more armed soldiers making a circuit keeping an eye out on the ground for small devices. Well does it seem like they're expecting me to stay with them?
01:32:41
Speaker
You could ask. So, um, do you have this handled? Can I go back to work or? One says, wait a minute, you're not going anywhere. And the the first one says, why would a spy point out their own listening device? He's like, yeah, no, good point. Okay, get out of here. And they keep a grip on the listening on the rat, trying to figure out how it works. Right. I'm heading in the direction of the warehouse. Okay. You speedwalk for the warehouse as the fixer and Maeve and Richard Feynman step out of the laundry with a briefcase in hand. It's like, is she with you? She is. Go ahead and give me a presence and convince role to get into the warehouse unperturbed. All of us? I'd say you're at advantage with Mr. Feynman, if you.
01:33:33
Speaker
Fixer and Maeve roll for me, please. President Jamitz. I got a 15, nothing special. Got a 16 with a six and a five on the dice. Oh, beautiful. They snap to attention. And Maeve is just sweating the tiniest bit of like, did they pull it off? And the guy says, wait a minute, just one moment. Keep your eye out for listening devices. We've gotten an all call that there may be monitoring devices. So watch what you say in there. Absolutely. Make your way into the warehouse. You are heading down. the hallway towards the main storage facility. What is your plan? What are you guys going to try and do when you get in there? So, uh, do we think that the, you know, the cyber people, men are actively watching that room or, um, yes, just that, basically that question, like, because that makes a huge difference. They did jump on us pretty quickly when we were in that room in a previous loop.
01:34:29
Speaker
right i mean i've already sort of alarmed them so it's possible they're out still looking for me but i don't know how to tell that can you like check for them with the stylus give us an ingenuity and technology scan with the sonic please fixer Now, since we did know they were in this room previously, do we get to do it at an advantage? You know what you're looking for this time. We're looking at a 15 with a five and a two on the dice. How many story points is the fixer sitting at right now? Four. I also have four and I will contribute.
01:35:01
Speaker
You guys are walking down the hallway to the double doors into the main warehouse and you could hear a pin drop. As travelers in time, timing has never been more important. So the question I'm gonna ask the two of you with the story points to spend, how many story points are you willing to spend in this moment to get the room to yourself? All of them. I would like to use three out of four because I want to save one just to help make sure we escape here. Oh, I got that.
01:35:38
Speaker
You head toward the door. Just as you're about to reach for it, the door swing open and Bainbridge bursts out, looking as tired as you've ever seen him. And he doesn't even bother to look at the Fixer, Maeve, or Calamity so much because Faintman is with you. He's like, blast it, I told you, I didn't need any last looks. I gotta move. And he he pushes past you. The room beyond him is silent. can we go fixer give me a coordination and technology role like your life depended on it ah yeah whatever whatever room the Cybermen came into this room the first time we were here
01:36:24
Speaker
Like whatever door they came in by, I'm gonna go and buy that door and just be watchful and ready to take a thing to do at random. I would like to stay near Feynman if I can so that if time does reset, I can grab him. Calamity, you get to the far door where the Cybermen had previously emerged and stomped around. You can hear through the shut door the wheeze and whine of electronics. One voice says to another on the far side, The armed patrol has discovered one of our devices. And the voice next to it replies, He got secret, shall they answer to us?
01:37:19
Speaker
They will continue to serve us. Have them with soon patrol for the time trappers.
01:37:34
Speaker
And the first poet says, Sandy, Sandy.
01:37:45
Speaker
As it starts transmitting, you do not breathe loudly on the other side of this door. Fixer, how did you roll, friend? Well, I rolled a one and a five for a total of 11, but I didn't actually want to go in the room. What I would like to do, if we have any knowledge that there is a threat in the room, to keep an eye on Feynman as Feynman does what our original plan was, which is swap the devices. So do you want him to do the swapping or do you want to do the swapping? I thought thought one of the whole reasons we brought him here was so he could do the swap. Part of it was him getting you in the room, but yeah, absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. Hang on a second.
01:38:21
Speaker
He walks in, and one of the things that surprises you in this moment, Fixer, as much as anything else, is the mundane-ness of it. A man crosses the floor, puts on lead shielding, opens the device, takes something out, puts something in, puts the original urchin in the briefcase, shuts it. The whole thing takes maybe five minutes. and this mundane person crosses the floor again away from this pile of circuitry and uranium and explosives and crosses the floor to you. Calamity. If it seems like we're done and it doesn't sound like any stomping is coming in in this direction,
01:39:11
Speaker
And I will head back to the others and quietly let them know. So the Cybermen are going to have the guards be patrolling again, so we're going to have to be careful getting back to the laundry. But I think we can work that out. Will anybody notice the switch? A heartbeat later, the door to the men's room squeals open. Bainbridge looks at the four of you and says, I told you, I've already taken last looks. I'm just gonna, so I'm just gonna seal the thing up and we're gonna get a card in. Can we be done now, please? He pushes past you back into the room. Fixer. Yes.
01:39:51
Speaker
Maeve, Calamity, can I get a presence and subterfuge role to get you successfully snuck back to the laundromat, please? We have already snuck across Los Alamos, so do we get advantage on this? You are at advantage at this, because at this point, you're like, no, wait, we've, there they are, there they are, there they are, there they are, let's go. I got a 12 with nothing special. I have a nine with nothing special. I'm happy to bump that with with story points. Save 15 with a 5 and a 5 and a dice. Calamity, how many story points are you sitting on? Eight. Eight? I'd like to save at least four for the, you know, getting off the planet and out of the thing and not dying part, but... That's really excellent because I would say two of those story points elevate you into comfortable yes territory as Feynman walks right up to
01:40:47
Speaker
the doors of the TARDIS, but does not cross them again. And he looks down the sheet written in his own handwriting of time travel is real. He says, i I don't know that I am comfortable knowing this and and holds out the sheet of paper. There's already plenty about this base that I want to forget. Take the sheet of paper, reach down into the inner doorway where we have the watch shop, pull out the wristwatch appropriate to the time period that says, a hero of humanity, and just ah gently affix that on his wrist.
01:41:22
Speaker
I love it. Cut to the interior TARDIS as the doors squeal shut. The TARDIS has seen better days, but the non-stop efforts of the auditor outside the Zero Room have at least gotten the old girl up on her feet, so to speak. Calamity, however, she is going to need a pep talk from you. I'm i'm way ahead of you. Yeah, so Calamity is going immediately to the console and being like, okay, so here's the situation. This is terrible. This whole place is terrible. It's very uncomfortable for you and the Time Lords. Maeve and I are coping, but their thing, their ship, which is in orbit, which is just, that's unfair. Like we crash and they're up there, unfair. That's fine. You know what? It's so old crap, right? Whereas you, you're hurt, but you're very strong and you are so new and shiny and way better than they are. Come on. This is basically a formality.
01:42:13
Speaker
We're gonna go out there and like slingshot away on them and they can just go, you know, suck it. Calamity, how many story points are you committing to your pep talk to the TARDIS? Four. You finish your speech and the hum in the console immediately rises to notes as the console lights up several shades brighter because you have instilled in it some Really necessary confidence. Fixer. The auditor takes you to a convenient display screen. Right. Given the circumstances, we're going to get one shot at this. Everything appears to have transpired and you're all in one piece. But we're going to have to monitor the energy output of the explosion to ensure the urchin does what it's supposed to when it hits its energy surface.
01:43:10
Speaker
That makes sense. We have to do that while we are tethering ourselves to the Cyberman ship. So we get to watch the bomb go off? Clamity, everyone's going to get to watch the bomb go off. Cut to about four o'clock in the morning. As a truck rolls away from a tower assembled in the middle of nowhere, 20 miles away from Trinity Base, as a tower erected for this purpose slowly winches up.
01:43:42
Speaker
a gadget. Men in goggles watch from miles away, 20 miles away. They are going to have their backs to it while they are laying down. In orbit, Cybermen of the first and second generation work in complete silence around their very crude controls, no conversation, no anxiety about what's to come, no thrum of egoic triumph that they have thwarted the Time Lords.
Explosive Climax and Aftermath
01:44:16
Speaker
Finally, first generation Cyberman turns a slightly to a second generation model and says, energy transference occurring in five, four,
01:44:33
Speaker
Three, two... Lining Flash expands in... a sphere that then rises into the sky. Fixer, what are you feeling as you watch the energy instantaneously scooped out of the first atomic explosion?
01:45:07
Speaker
And now humanity will begin those first tiny steps to explore the stars. You say that with all of that dignity before the entire TARDIS is ripped out of time and space. And now humanity can begin. Can I get a coordination check from all of you lovely humans as the TARDIS rips through time and space after a rocketing commandeered time machine? Snake eyes for me. and 11 with a four and a two on the dice. I have a 14 with two sixes and and I want to help Maeve.
01:45:46
Speaker
Calamity you are in such a zen state at this moment Possibly because you have one extra entrance through the door of the time capsule versus being back through it But you know exactly where to stand to grab and lean over and scoop made from falling off Fixer scoots back a coach while he hangs on for dear life. Thankfully the auditor rolled a nine with a four and a five on the dice So he did not necessarily fly ass over to kettle fixer. The scanner is fixed on the time ship flying dead center out the perfect circle the spur has carved out of the vortex as it enters the vortex proper the excess of energy that has been transferred hits the ship can i get an ingenuity and knowledge roll from the fixer please and throw on two for time travel
01:46:46
Speaker
got a 17 with a 5 and a 2 and I'd like to spend that last story point to make sure everyone gets through smoothly. Good, you're gonna need it. Your eyes go wide as you realize the Remaining sliver, even if it's a 1% of an atomic blast's energy output, cracks the time ship in two, explodes it into infinitely small pieces of shrapnel, as the rest of the blast tears a rip right out of the time ship and across the fabric of the vortex.
01:47:25
Speaker
You witness red, fraying lines like torn string or yarn frayed against a flashing black and purple and constantly shifting void of color on the far side of of the vortex as your TARDIS pulled along the trajectory of this thing because of the Tachyon Tether that you figured out how to use on Ruption. Follows that same trajectory and slices the excess energy slices through the Tachyon Tether and a little red clock shop
01:48:07
Speaker
careens out of the vortex through and past the tears of red ribbon-like energy that is flapping in the breeze of a wounded vortex. And the Vardis comes to a stop. Not a landing, not a crash, but a stop.
Player Reflections and Season Wrap-Up
01:48:33
Speaker
And light. from the screen of the scanner shows a white void on the far side of the doors. Fixer, you peer into the screen of the scanner, blink, and realize you need a closer look and step out of the TARDIS. And outside of the TARDIS, in nothing, is an office.
01:49:06
Speaker
with everything but the office. There are no walls, there is no floor, there is no ceiling, but there is a desk, there is a grandfather clock, there are degrees hanging on nothing, and the seal of Rassilon emblazoned on the front of the desk. You have the overwhelming sensation that you have walked into the dean's office or something of that gravity. The chair behind the desk swivels around and the person in the chair says, hello fixer, how do you feel about a little extra credit?
01:50:05
Speaker
And that is where we are going to end things with the first season of Anywhere, but now this has been the finale of our first season a semester abroad.
01:50:25
Speaker
You made it! Nobody died. Nobody regenerated. Holy crap. Wrong. rap Yes. Nobody died. We permanently died. We permanently died. That's fair. That's fair. We died, but we got better. Cool. Better. Oh, man. Folks, that was The Gadget, a.k.a. The Cyber Manhattan Project. Caden, how would Maeve report on today's events? You know, I thought a lot about that this week. And what I kept coming back to is that Maeve has seen the wonders of the future. She's seen so many good things happen. But this is really her first chance to see the destructive capabilities in such a huge amount. I think that I don't know that Maeve would have anything to report so much as she would have something that she's now researching, like very clearly. And this is ah kind of a big moment.
01:51:22
Speaker
for her. And I think that post this adventure, you find her in her room, a lot of books open, a feed flashing up on a screen with images of the bomb of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the death and destruction of this place. And as much as Fixer might view it as humanity's first steps towards the stars, I think Maeve's attitude is, what have we done? I absolutely adore that answer. I mean, this is her home. This is, you know, like Calamity is from somewhere else. The Time Lords, they all have like a ah perspective on this that Maeve does not have. This is home. Absolutely. Dora, what does Calamity make of today's wibbly-wobbly-ness?
01:52:04
Speaker
Well, she has, you know, because this the the whole thing that happened is is a lot like what was going on where she came from, Borchershoy, just with a ah less tight time loop. um And she feels sort of vindicated because she had never, because of what happened to her brain, never really remembered how she got out. um that is specifically supposed to be very very very very hard slash impossible to do um but she knew it had already happened once yes because she was you know because there was a time Lord there and she was trying to go
01:52:39
Speaker
find another one because they seemed great all the random things happen near them that's super so yes I think this whole this whole experience has has basically like gelled all of that in her in her head so she remembers now and and and was like wow I was insane I was clinically insane to do the things that I did to get out of Rojoi that was unwise but here we are and it all worked out so yay Yay! You made it! You win, you survived. That's winning. Well done. Well done. Brand, what surprised you most about today's mod?
01:53:17
Speaker
um I think the thing that surprised me the most about today's mod was that we were able to find a way to incorporate Dr. Feynman in a way where like I go out of it wondering is he going is that how how much of this is going to be stuff that drives further research that drives him away from his peers because since they didn't experience this they're not going to have the capability to ponder in the way he's going to ponder after these events. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's a fantastic question. He's also gonna wonder after all this. He might forget where the watch came from. Time spurs are messy that way. Fixed points are messy that way. History has a way of writing itself, and sometimes that way is that guy right there called the Fixer. Yeah, no, I was fully impressed with your guys' decision-making and conclusion
01:54:07
Speaker
reaching and bringing Feynman into it was an absolutely inspired choice. Plus, it's actually a show choice. Like you got to hang out with the famous guy as much as possible. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, you know. I wanted to do a historical story per season, and have and I know what next year's is gonna be, blah, blah, blah. But like I've been looking forward to this and i for a long time. And I'm i'm glad it's Feynman you ran into and not Oppenheimer himself. That would have been a different game.
01:54:42
Speaker
You could have reached him. He was available on the campus, as was Brigadier General Leslie Groves. They both have their own reasons that working with the Cybermen might not be the worst thing in the world if it gets the bomb exploded on time. But that's not where you went, so thank you. This is our final episode of Anywhere But Now for our first season, and it has been a strange and wonderful year. I wanted to ask you each, what has stood out for you most over the first season of games? I think what stood out to me the most is playing someone who's got really no idea what's in the world and out there and has like a very limited perspective and is now experiencing things that they could never have hoped to ever experience. I think that's been such ah a fun thing to explore, especially like the Weeping Angels. All of that has just been like a really stand out. That was a really stand out episode for me. I loved that episode so much every moment of it.
01:55:43
Speaker
I'm so glad. Yeah, Gallery of Fear is one of my all-time faves, and nothing has come along that has unseated it. Although your guys' shenanigans in Trinity Base certainly make a valid argument. I also really loved Joy Bullet. That was a really fun episode to do. It's one of faves. It's one of my faves. So I think that the main the main thing is just that because I came into this, having never actually watched a complete episode of any incarnation of Doctor Who, kind do literally just... i I knew a bunch of stuff because it's impossible to avoid the cultural osmosis of Doctor Who has permeated you know so many things.
01:56:24
Speaker
But, but yeah, like so many of the like guest villains and stuff, I'm like, I had just no clue and I was just like completely blind. And it was awesome because, you know, that is that is exactly how it should be. Right. and it And it had that very the whole thing had the very TV feel. Right. That this is this is a spinoff show, but also we're living it and they're making choices. And, you know, we don't have plot shields because of how Doctor Who works. Like they don't they don't have to not kill you. No. Yeah. If it were if this were not a time spur episode, Calamity would just be dead. Yeah. but So stressful. So stressful. But no, I i i have been i've been continually impressed by by how just how immersive the whole thing has been in a way that just makes it very easy to think about what your character would be doing and then just do it. Like you're just living the dream as it were. I absolutely love that.
01:57:22
Speaker
Well, the games have been absolutely fantastic. But the thing that stood out to me the most is, um you know, in the Doctor Who series, the relationship between the Time Lord and their companions is so pivotal to so many stories. And I just want to give so much love to Dora and to Caden because they make it effortless. you guys really do which is a magnificent segue because Dora I wanted to thank you because you have brought a dollop of chaos and whoopsie and randomness to every game you have been a part of before and after getting your marbles back like these stories that you have been a part of truly would not have gone the same without Calamity making those completely random choices
01:58:10
Speaker
How does it feel now that calamities had a year of those in the TARDIS? I mean, she's like, well, the plan was to, you know, find a Time Lord and follow them around so that you, I get to experience all of the randomness and well, mission accomplished. um Like she's got a bit more, you know, healthy sense of import and significance to everything now that she did not have before, which puts a, you know, puts a different flavor on it, whoopsie and wise, but also like she has so much,
01:58:42
Speaker
confidence in the Fixer and Maeve and the Auditor and the TARDIS. She's like, no, this is, you know, this is a whole new level of of craziness and sanity that I never had access to in the Multi-Heaven. But we got this. You got this. You absolutely got this.
01:58:59
Speaker
Brava. Kayden, I wanted to say thank you because from the start Maeve has embodied all of my favorite companion traits. She is brave, she is driven, she is gifted in ways that are not all super on the surface. I wanted to say thank you for bringing all of those like Brand said so effortlessly to anywhere but now I've had such a great time. I kind of come at this from the opposite spectrum from Dora where I've seen like every episode of New Who at least once probably way more. And I wanted when I created a companion to create someone who is a little bit like Martha Jones who is like very high tier like favorite companions for me. I love her independence. I love that she doesn't always need a Time Lord with her to go and get things done in the world. That really like influenced me and also Lois Lane was the other big inspiration for Maeve. I've had a great time. I think I like Maeve because I feel like she appears as just like a very normal person to most people, but she's just got this like inner bravery where she will just do outrageous things at the right moment to make something occur that she really wants to happen. And she's made some incredible things happen. It's been phenomenally fun to play her.
02:00:21
Speaker
I'm so glad. I am so glad. Brand, no TARDIS team is complete without its Time Lord, and I could not ask for a more fitting one than the Fixer. How has it been for you on this year-long trip through cause and effect and time and space. It's been really wonderful. I feel like there's that wonderful growth in the way I've been enjoying the character, where at the beginning there was that opening your eyes to the new universe and seeing what's out there, but not really knowing what direction it's gonna take you. And then feeling like in that like last year of schooling, focusing down on something that you're like passionate about fixing about the universe. And you're like, I'm gonna put all the effort into learning this and I'm gonna make it better.
02:01:07
Speaker
in those ways and that's really profoundly satisfying. I am I am just so chuffed. I think I still have questions about the victor fixer like timeline where I don't really understand how it's worked. I could use like a little loopy loop drawing to help me. Well we'll see about putting a a zigzaggy shoots and ladders time it's shoots and ladders basically.
Session Closure and Season 2 Teaser
02:01:33
Speaker
What, at what point did I punch Victor in the face is my big burning question. That was- Before he tried to kill you on Joy the Lent, before he- Oh, really? Okay. I didn't realize that. I thought it was after. That makes it even better because she's punching him for something he doesn't even remember. I haven't done it yet, yeah. Do you guys have any predictions or thoughts about what might occur in season two?
02:02:02
Speaker
I feel like there is, because of how calamity is and how she's very cavalier about a lot of things, at least especially before she fixed her brains or had her brains fixed for her, like she's extremely free with what she says around everyone, every when, every, you know, whenever they've been and I think there's probably gonna be, there's gonna be a variety of little butterflies about whoopsie and stuff. How could there not be? I think at some point Maeve will return to her own timeline for some tiny whiny reason and have like a final boss confrontation with her dad. Ooh, that's exciting. That could well be in the cards for season two. That could well be in the cards because I know that Maeve is not fond of her home time. No, she has a lot of family difficulties.
02:02:52
Speaker
I'm actually really looking forward to the bittersweet next meeting with Victor. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's gonna be fun. One final time from my heart, Kayton, Dora, Brand, you guys have helped me make a dream come true in ways that I did not anticipate. You've gotten some attention this year from Queens Court Games and and received a grant that's helping us enter the audio fiction world tour, which is not so bad. But all of this, like the magic is the chemistry that you guys bring to the table and the choices you make in the spontaneous moments. And I want to thank you for being part of this. Because it could not happen without you. And finally, to our listeners,
02:03:43
Speaker
Another great big thank you for sharing your precious time with us. If you feel it's been well spent, please share anywhere but now with your friends who are looking to enjoy themselves. If you like what you hear, leave a review, rate the show, and follow us on Blue Sky as well as Twitter at anywhere but now and wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget, if you'd like me to run a game for you of your very own, find me and start playing.games. Links to everything in the doobly-doo. From all of us, I'm Casey Jones. There are exciting things to come, my friends, in season two! I'm glad you're along for the ride. The joy of geeing will continue and anywhere but now, we'll return. Thanks so much and have a great day.