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Another Man's Gold - Pt 2
74 Plays1 year ago
The Fixer & his brave companions are deep in a mystery involving a mine where no one digs for gold, miners who might spontaneously combust, and oh yes-- one incredibly ticked off Time Lord. What lies in store for our heroes?? There's one way to find out!
Enjoy thrills, chills, and laughs galore with Brand Osorio, Cate MacCoyne, and Pandora Beatrix, along with GM Casey Jones. Stick around for interviews with the players! Your ears are in for a treat!
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]!
And if you'd like to run a game of Doctor Who of your very own, find Casey on StartPlaying!
Music by Tabletop Audio
Theme by RJ Pirchinello
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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Learn more about Cubicle7!
Website: https://cubicle7games.com/doctor-who-the-roleplaying-game-second-edition
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cubicle7
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cubicle7Entertainment
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Transcript
Introduction and Setup
00:00:04
Speaker
Time travel, sci-fi adventures, and risky rolls of the dice lie ahead. Hello and welcome to Anywhere But Now, a Doctor Who actual play podcast. I'm your host and humble GM, Casey Jones. The next hour and a half or so holds a thrilling adventure in time and space. So let's dive in.
00:00:24
Speaker
With me is the daring crew of our time-traveling machine. Playing the Fixer is the charming and resourceful Brandasorio. Hello, Brand! Hi! Joining him is Maeve Sullivan, played by the ebullient Kate McCoyn. Welcome back, Kate! Hey there!
00:00:41
Speaker
And finishing our TARDIS team is Pandora Beatrix as the delightfully chaotic Calamity Hap. Bonjour! Huh? What's going on? Are you excited? Do you feel that energy? I hope so.
Rules and Engagement
00:00:57
Speaker
We play with the second edition of Cubicle 7's Doctor Who rule books. House rules mean our players begin the game with five, count them five story points each. However, since we are in part two of Another Man's Gold,
00:01:11
Speaker
You are currently at wherever you were, plus the two story points that you earned at the end of Part 1. Get ready for a collaborative, immersive storytelling experience, and stick around after the game for interviews with the players.
00:01:27
Speaker
A bigger on the inside thank you to our listeners. 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 Twitter or Blue Sky, as anywhere but now with an underscore at
Embarking on 'Another Man's Gold'
00:01:45
Speaker
the end.
00:01:45
Speaker
Share the show with your friends. Word of mouth is such a huge help. Have any questions, theories, or lovely fan art to share? Send them our way at anywherebutnowpodcastatgmail.com or join us on the Discord. And if you'd like me to run a game for you, find me on startplaying.games. Links to everything in the doobly-doo.
Calamity's Challenges
00:02:08
Speaker
This fine TARDIS crew is picking up with part two of Another Man's Gold. They have braved fire. They have braved miners. They have braved a small boy named Sam and a shop filled with parakeets. They have braved the arrogant attitude of the victor himself on his second incarnation and have braved the fiery undergrounds, reaching a doorway where they have pried back the doors and their faces were lit by a glow from within.
00:03:11
Speaker
as we cut to calamity. The expression, a long time ago, means nothing to you. You live in a divergent universe on the planet Bortresoy, in the middle of multi-haven and the shrine of serendipity. The shrine occupies two floors of a multi-faith block that's dozens of stories tall. As is whoopsie in custom, you draw straws for chores and duties. Today, you pulled the green and yellow striped one, so you're actually at home.
00:03:39
Speaker
You're in the nurse's office, in the shrine, giving a med-scanner a code A-Tuna, when in comes Mother Maxident. All of 30, and been that way for as long as you've known her, lies beyond her unapparent years, whatever those are. She's cradling her elbow and wincing through a smile.
00:04:00
Speaker
Calamity. Oh, thank whoops you're here. I was hoping I'd run into you. Oh, it looks like you've got a You've got a good one there. Can I take a look at it? Oh, yes, it's quite the doozy whoops be praised Please give us an awareness and medicine roll versus a difficulty of 12 You have a plus two for the scanner that you have been updating 13 with nothing special
00:04:26
Speaker
You scan her elbow and find light bruising. Nothing is torn. It has just been impacted with some force.
Investigating Mysteries
00:04:35
Speaker
Okay. Well, it's just a minor contusion, but I can put some anti-inflammatories in there and then, you know, just to get a little bit of infrared to, you know, make the healing go faster. Oh, would you? That'd be ever so helpful. Thank you. Ingenuity and medicine. Plus your supplies for two points versus a difficulty of 12.
00:04:55
Speaker
You know, whoops, be praised. Throwing adversity in a way that we might stumble into the right path. Those Lucidians have been rather growing in number and gave me rather a rough shove in the streets, don't you know? Well, those things happen. Those things do happen.
00:05:12
Speaker
19 with a 1 and a 6. You do a, ha ha, bang up job applying your medical skills to mother maxident's elbow injury. She warns you some of the brothers and sisters of whoops in the Shrine of Serendipity have not come back from their pilgrimages around town or their recruitment strolls. And the ones that have come back have shown up a bit more dazed and confused
00:05:41
Speaker
then you're used to seeing them, but being that dazed and like, oh, that's nice, I wonder what's happening, has been a source for someone more. Well, I mean, we do usually lose, you know, one or two every now and then these things happen, whoops, but I have been noticing a little bit of that, you know, that other people are acting
00:06:00
Speaker
I was actually thinking of maybe seeing if I could use some of the spare parts from the scanners, maybe build something portable that I could do some sort of, you know, just, you know, neuronal scans of people as they're walking by, just see if maybe there's something going around, which would be fascinating. And then, well, if I can do something about it, then that's great. And if not, then, you know, maybe I can figure out what it is that they're encountering. And then, well, we'll go see what it is and just hope that that works out better for me.
00:06:28
Speaker
Mother Maxident shakes her head and puts her hands warmly on your shoulders like, oh calamity. If anyone could, it would be you. You're one of the smartest, most enterprising people we've ever had in our church and we are just so lucky to have you. Just be careful if you do go out there because it's been quite concerning. The basement chapel for no, the god of gambling and sunk costs.
00:06:58
Speaker
Yes. I saw the trappings thrown out into the street. They were just shoving them into the compactor. They just pretend.
00:07:05
Speaker
It was never there. The Lucidians have acquired the ground three floors of this building and into the basement now. Hmm. Sometimes things get popular, I suppose. I just, I find it concerning that they would just move right in on top of it like, like the past never happened. Like, no, didn't belong there. Just like we belong here up on the 18th and 19th floors. Has the Borden and said anything?
00:07:29
Speaker
Well, I haven't been able to reach the Bordenent personally, whoops, and I came home with a bruised elbow, and here you were. But you know what? Why don't we make some tea, and we'll go and do our investigations. How does that sound? Sounds good. You put on the tea, I'll see if I can finish a portable thing, and then we can go out and look. Good. Just remember, Calamity. Stay safe.
00:07:54
Speaker
Cut to Calamity prying open rotting wooden doors that have been worn away by something deeply intense and a warm yellow light throbs and glows inside as you throw open the doors. You all can see the map? Yes.
00:08:16
Speaker
You arrive here at the south-central entrance. You enter the remains of a hotel ballroom some considerable time after a devastating earthquake. Cracks, narrow, deep ravines litter the floor. Strange pylons of advanced alien technology pulse and hum with a faint glow. They appear to be holding up the ceiling. Tread carefully.
00:08:46
Speaker
The smells of smoke and decay pervade this massive room. The heat that you felt in the mines is worse
Facing Fears and Discoveries
00:08:56
Speaker
here, thicker, more intense. The air positively crackles with waves of heat mirage. This is not a safe place to stand.
00:09:07
Speaker
While it is larger here, while the walls are further apart than three people wide, Maeve, you are still under the adverse conditions of your claustrophobia as this building is clearly underground. There are no windows. There are no vents to air. It's very stale down here.
00:09:25
Speaker
Yes.
00:09:40
Speaker
in rubble with one of these things sliding down and keeping the room and the materials inside intact until someone could reach you during that personal hell that you were stuck in in a time loop. I need you to roll not to have a vivid flashback to that event because these pylons are basically indistinguishable from the one that you were stuck with. This is going to be a resolve
00:10:06
Speaker
and intuition roll at a difficulty of 16. You are at a disadvantage, but you can add two points for your Time Lord training. We are trying to meet or beat a roll of 16. I am so thankful for that Time Lord training in moments like this. Okay, we're looking at a 2 and a 4 on the dice for a total of 11.
00:10:28
Speaker
Without spending any story points and without any ones on the dice, you catch yourself from going back there. Your hearts are pounding. You can taste copper. Everything is in hyper focus. You have immediately cottoned that, okay, this is not that situation. I am not back there. It just happens to have several circumstances that match it. I have not gone back in time. I am still here under the ground.
00:10:56
Speaker
But it is a very close thing. If it had been a one on the dice, it would have been worse. Okay. You are just really grateful you do not hear the dreadful old man's voice in your head. That is nice. Is Maeve still holding on to me?
00:11:11
Speaker
Yes. Unless you've shaken me off at some point, Maeve is still holding your hand. I would never. And in this moment, I'm super happy that Maeve is there because I now grip her arm with even more intensity than what she was gripping mine with. My eyes go wide, and I lean in and say, Maeve, we're going to make it out. It's going to be OK. We got this. We got this. We definitely got this.
00:11:38
Speaker
Fixer, because there was not a one on the dice, you are only going to be at a minus one to resolve for half an hour. Over your shoulder, the auditor catches notices that you come to a stop, sees past you into the room, and you guys know each other well enough that he's familiar with your past. He puts a reassuring hand on your shoulder and says it's going to be all right.
00:12:01
Speaker
You're not alone. Everything is going to be fine. Yeah. Everything, everything, everything is going to be fine. It's going to be fine. Absolutely. Absolutely. And Calamity says, this place is great. I think we might all catch on fire. But it's really interesting. Calamity, give me with advantage an awareness and intuition role as you step into the sunken pearl with your canary in your hand. And that is a 13 with nothing special.
00:12:30
Speaker
You slip and you nearly fall into a ravine. The ground here is not flat. Just because it is not shifting doesn't mean that it is safe upon which to walk. If you're walking in and saying, oh, this is really neat, there is just a slight indent where you were expecting it to be flat and you very nearly stumble into a ravine. Did you have a lantern in your other hand?
00:12:56
Speaker
Me personally? No. Okay. Nevermind. It would have been fun if the lantern just falls out of your hand and then just tumbles down the ravine.
00:13:04
Speaker
I did have the Happy Chance Fun Ball in my other hand. That's true. But if that started to fall on a ravine, things would happen. I mean, like, Calamity would literally throw the Happy Chance Fun Ball to safety and fall on the ravine herself.
Moral Dilemmas and Strategy
00:13:22
Speaker
I think Maeve is holding on to the Fixer with one arm and a Lantern with the other, so I'll hold a Lantern up and try to light Calamity's way out.
00:13:30
Speaker
Are you okay? Well, that was interesting. So, yeah. Of course we didn't hear those, so, you know, pay attention. Well said. Maeve and Fixer, please both give me awareness roles. Fixer, give me, uh, add technology to the role. Maeve adds survival. You're both looking around, but for different things and for different reasons. That's a one and a four for a ten for me.
00:13:57
Speaker
and a 4 and a 5 for a 15 for me.
00:14:14
Speaker
and then darker. Calamity has already demonstrated that walking around when they're getting darker is apparently unsafe because you can't see which parts of the floor are level and which are not. That is your biggest takeaway from here other than the very quiet yawn from the ravines that split and dot the floor. You have no idea how deep they go, but your guess is
00:14:39
Speaker
I think Maeve is dealing with all that and that itchy feeling you get when you're claustrophobic of like the walls starting to get a little closer to you every moment. Fixer, you recall these are Gallifreyan phasic pylons. Following a disaster, following an attack, following a ground quake. These are slid in, phased through surfaces. The rescuers are trying to prevent a collapse of.
00:15:08
Speaker
and then they are solidified in place. They do strange things to the ground. They lock in where it is in connection to the surrounding carbon. There is a little bit of background energy that saturates with long enough the surrounding terrain. These things, they're not supposed to be glowing louder and softer like this. They're supposed to be steady. From what you can intuit, these have been left on for roughly a year.
00:15:36
Speaker
Okay, pop out Sonic's stylus, immediately begin scanning to see if I can find the control frequency for them. Ooh, that's great. That's a wonderful idea. Add one story point and give us an ingenuity and technology roll. Plus two for the Sonic, please. Let's say at a difficulty of 15.
00:15:53
Speaker
We're looking at a 17 with a 5 and a 2 on the dice. Yes, you scan while you are locking on to the signal for the phasic pylons. You do access it. You are able to now control it remotely from here while you're down here. Further away might be more difficult with distance.
00:16:14
Speaker
But the other thing that you notice in here is that a massive source of Archon energy is in this room. You have come to the right place. Well, everybody, I have some great news. The great news is that I cannot tell you what the great news is because it is so great. But calamity, feel free to wander about.
00:16:39
Speaker
hold it off to our lantern so she can get the maximum amount of light towards wherever she'd like to go. Calamity, give me an awareness and survival role as you are making your way. Where are you making your way on the floor if you had to guide? Well, that's a good question. So is it at all apparent what these things are? Like I can guess from the drawing. That's what the awareness role is going to help us define. Well, how convenient then then that I have gotten a 12 with nothing special.
00:17:08
Speaker
As the lantern light helps, you are able to make out that this was some kind of a ballroom before, like a hotel ballroom. There was a wide open floor at one point. Most of the furniture appears to have been destroyed and or swallowed by the earth. What is left includes several scraps and sticks of broken furniture, a chandelier off to one side, and a body in the middle of the room.
00:17:34
Speaker
looks like it has been mummified by time. The ground is so solid down here, worms could not make their way.
00:17:45
Speaker
I think we're gonna... I think we don't want to tour the body because that seems really interesting because I'm really curious what happened there and who that is and what's going on. This is going to be a coordination role to see if you can cross the floor safely because it is even worse in here than it was in the mines outside. Please give us a coordination and intuition or survival whichever is higher and you are at advantage with the... with your whoopsie and insight. Plus two for the Canary.
00:18:12
Speaker
Before she moves, can I yell out to her, Calamity only move when the pillars are at their brightness. Okay. Solid advice. Are they like, are they going at the same, are like they all going up and down at the same time? They're uniform in rider. And it's consistent. So these pillars are part of the structure of the hotel we're in? No, the structure itself, the decor is 1800s, like 1850s or later. Okay.
00:18:40
Speaker
the pylons look like they were added later on. Okay. All right, Terrence, let's go. Well, that's not great, Terrence. So I got a 13 with a 1 on the die.
00:18:52
Speaker
This is going to involve fire unless you spend some story points. So what we can do with a one on the dice, you can spend one story point and cut the damage of four down to two and still be on fire. You can spend two story points and have one of those, forgive the term, hot flashes as you press closer without actually taking any damage. So if I catch on fire, how will Terrence be? That's a very good question.
00:19:19
Speaker
I mean, again, technically that is more important to Calamity than Calamity's own being-on-fire status. I think if you go up, so will Terrence. He is a very tiny thing. It would not be gruesome, it would just be a little... Feather is drifting down from a blackened cage, but... Well, no, then I will definitely spend two because nothing must happen to Terrence. We've got to save Terrence. Even if he's not giving great advice right now. Hey, he's giving you what he can.
00:19:47
Speaker
You get closer, you approach the central clearing and just have one of those brash moments before you is a body on the ground. It looks like it has been here for some time, the remains are dry, but this cadaver has been here for what looks like roughly a year.
00:20:08
Speaker
Around it are three broken scraps of furniture. One might be the arm of a chair. One might be a splinter from a support structure. You don't know. They're all roughly the same size. And as you get closer, as a heat mirage might fade and thicken as you get closer or further away, there is a shimmer as you get closer
00:20:31
Speaker
and each of these three scraps flash and shimmer for like just out of the corner of your eye whenever you look at one one of the ones on your side turns into something else that looks to be made of gold and as you're looking around you see
00:20:47
Speaker
The body in the center of the room is not dressed in the manner of someone in the Old West. The body of this woman is dressed in a toga and there is a brooch on the shoulder. The brooch is a flasher. Well, the things looking like other things is interesting. Gold is not interesting.
00:21:13
Speaker
That's weird, but flashing jewelry is interesting. She's gonna poke at britches. Okay, you poke the brooch and hear the following. Victor? Victor, are you there? Bernice, what happened? There... there was an earthquake. I think the whole town's gone under. You touched the sector, didn't you? I only just found a thing. I barely touched it. I knew it.
00:21:43
Speaker
I warned you, Bernice. The scepter responded to your thoughts. You have to clear your mind. I'm scared, Victor. The light's gone out. Please, get down here and help me. I can't. You've destabilized the whole area. It'll take me weeks to build the equipment I need just to stop things getting worse. Idiot, go.
00:22:12
Speaker
But, but you've got the time. Just come down here and- I can't! It's too unstable. Sorry, Dad. You've brought this on yourself. Victor? Victor? Don't leave me!
00:22:36
Speaker
Oops. She does sound pretty sad when she says that. Calamity, add one story point for a perfectly timed oops.
00:22:47
Speaker
After Calamity's oops and that, I'm going to turn to Maeve and say, Maeve, I know you're feeling a lot right now, but that might actually be to our advantage. Frankly, for different reasons, you and I are feeling abject terror and a desire to not be here more than any other emotion. I think either of you or I could be feeling right now.
00:23:12
Speaker
And the one nice thing is that it's definitely not anything to do with whatever the hell the victor is trying to pull out of this place.
00:23:21
Speaker
So we're going to go ahead and we're going to go to Clemmor. And all we're going to think about is that how nice it's going to be once we get out of it. Okay? Because it's going to be so much nicer. We're going to be sitting on the TARDIS. Maybe we'll sit and enjoy some moments. I don't know, but it'll be so much nicer than here. It's going to be so much better. So much better. Amazing. And I'm going to take one step forward.
00:23:46
Speaker
Okay, first off, Fixer, Bravo, add one story point for excellent role play. You and Maeve are gonna roll Coordination and Survival together at advantage because you are holding hands and you're moving closer very close. Carefully and very slowly. You are trying to beat an 18.
00:24:07
Speaker
And what stats are we adding to it? Coordination and survival. So for you, that's five all told. And for Maeve, Maeve, you have intuition. Use intuition since you don't have any survival. I have one survival, but I can use intuition instead. I'd like you to not die if we can help it mid-season. Okay. It still comes out to a 15 for me. Any ones on the dice?
00:24:35
Speaker
No, but I have six. Okay, that's good. Fixer, what did you get? A six and a six on the dice for a total of 17. Maeve does not quite hook the landing. A 15 is good, but not great. However, with your double sixes, something in you clicks and your attention is no longer on the phasic pylons. Your attention is on the warm,
00:25:00
Speaker
throbbing glow of Artran that you are walking closer to and that becomes you're like okay we're not trying to navigate by those things that are way over there we're navigating by this thing that's really close. You are able to take you and mave and catch up to calamity in front of the body and the three pieces of shimmering broken furniture.
00:25:21
Speaker
Do I recognize the body? You have never seen this body before. The toga appears to be genuine. The materials do look like what they used in possibly ancient Rome.
00:25:34
Speaker
Okay, with gloves on, close my eyes and just start reaching out towards the source of the Archon energy. Beautiful. This is going to be ingenuity plus intuition plus two for Time Lord, also versus a difficulty of 18. Maeve, would you like to lend a story point? Or Calamity, would you like to lend a story point of moral support here? I will absolutely lend a story point.
00:25:56
Speaker
Okay, so we're looking at a 6 and a 5 on the dice for a 16. With the added level of bonus with Maeve's story point, this is going to take you from a yes to a yes and. You close your eyes
00:26:14
Speaker
And while Maeve and Calamity are in your proximity, you reach down and extend your hands to the right and put your gloved hand around a scrap of furniture. So, Fixer, you put your hands around something that feels like you've just pulled it out of the oven and are wearing the appropriate safety
00:26:37
Speaker
Mitt, you open your eyes and the scrap of furniture shimmers and like a heat mirage evaporates off of what is a septum.
Scepter's Consequences
00:26:48
Speaker
This is not quite of Rassilon magnitude, but you are holding a Gallifreyan instrument of mass destruction.
00:26:55
Speaker
There is a psychic README file with the instructions for a Time Lord to interpret. Ingenuity plus technology plus being a Time Lord. And this is going to be rather difficult at a difficulty of 24. Spending story points to boost your role would be prudent, I think.
00:27:16
Speaker
If that makes sense to me, I would like to spend, since this is a weapon of mass destruction, I'd prefer to know how to use it, not accidentally set it off. Let's use three story points. And what does that leave you with? That will leave me with three. You close your eyes again. Suddenly, as if remembering a class that you studied and memorized for a test you never actually had to take, you now fully grasp how to use, and what it does, the scepter of attrition.
00:27:44
Speaker
The weapon in your hands affects friction and Morton's laws of friction. The device in your hand can either increase to impossible levels the amount of damage that friction does where even oxygen cells brushing against each other in an empty room could cause a fire to all the way to the other end of the spectrum where the target you hit could be completely untouchable.
00:28:13
Speaker
This device, when pointed at a ship, could utterly destroy it. This pointed at a town could level it with an earthquake. Things of that magnitude. And as you grasp the scepter and gain the knowledge of how to use it, you grasp that using it is a lot easier than understanding how it works. Weapons are a lot easier to use than they are to understand.
00:28:42
Speaker
Here's an insane thought, but I'd like to ask it anyway. Sure. Would the technology used in this staff be useful for fixing temporal rifts? It would be incredibly dangerous. Basically be trying to poke a spilled pool of gasoline with an unlit match to see if you can try and fix it.
00:29:05
Speaker
That does not seem like a good idea. You'd have better luck preventing an earthquake with this thing, which might make the time rift worse than trying to point it at the time rift itself because that is energy breaking the laws of the local fabric of space-time and an instrument that supercharges the rules of the local space-time.
00:29:25
Speaker
If this is what I think this is, we should not allow anyone to get their hands on this. I mean, were we ever going to give it to the appraiser from like the moment we got down here? I was really unclear on that, honestly. Also, you picked it up and she picked it up and then everything was bad. Is you picking it up bad or was that differently bad?
00:29:46
Speaker
He's probably equipped and he's a Time Lord. The device could have protections on it to prevent it to fall into wrong hands, that is, non-Time Lord hands. Oh, was she like us?
00:30:00
Speaker
I believe so. I think she might have been one of the Victor's companions. Calamity, add one story point as it clicks that you are standing over a deceased version of some kind of Time Lord's companion. He just left her down here to die.
00:30:18
Speaker
The fixer next to you, the auditor opens up a briefcase and holds it open to safely deposit the scepter. Now that you have it in your hand and it's the right shape and you're looking at the briefcase, you can see that the the in-cut of the support containment technology is modeled exactly for this device.
00:30:39
Speaker
Maeve, Calamity, give me an awareness roll and you're at an advantage because you're right up close and personal and at least two of you are having panic attacks which can put you into hyper awareness. I got a 5 and a 4 for a 16.
00:30:54
Speaker
I also have a 16, but I got a six on one of the dice. Okay. Maeve, you and Calamity both notice that as Fixer is putting the, or holding the scepter over the briefcase, the other two scraps of furniture still turn into the scepter when they're on the corner of your peripheral vision. Why do the other sticks look like the thing you just picked up, Fixer? Do they? I can only see it out of the corner of my eye.
00:31:22
Speaker
Fixer, give me an Ingenuity and Technology roll, please. Plus two for Timelord. Looking at a five and a one on the dice for a total of 16.
00:31:32
Speaker
Yes, you recognize the symptom here. This device has been running its own incredibly overpowered chameleon circuit for however long it has been down here. So that its whole don't look at me I'm not important field has saturated the surrounding objects.
00:31:54
Speaker
so that in proximity to the genuine article the visual fields of these other similar objects are equally accidentally inadvertently chameleon arched as the scepter. The butt in this equation is butt you do not know how to turn off that effect.
00:32:13
Speaker
look up at Maeve and say, well, the technology built into the staff, one of the safety features is designed to prevent people from finding it. And everything in this area has been exposed to that for so long that I worry it may continue doing so for quite some time. So you're telling me that part of our world is affected for however long by this thing your people dropped on it? This weapon of mass destruction.
00:32:41
Speaker
Great. Imagine if somebody could point a stick at something and make an earthquake happen. That's pretty terrible. How do we make this place safe so that people don't come down here and catch fire and fall in these rifts? Well, I have an idea, but it's a little bit dangerous and it will require quite a bit of cunning to pull it off without the victor realizing what we're doing.
00:33:04
Speaker
Fixer, having read the psychic readme file, you are able to, into it, if you remove the scepter itself, the field of effect will vanish. This is the source of all of that friction in the air.
00:33:24
Speaker
Does that also mean all of the little pieces of wooden materials scattered around the mine will revert back to being normal wood and no longer charged with our trunn energy? The effect probably wouldn't last longer than a couple of hours or a couple of days of this shimmering back and forth of, oh it's the scepter, oh it's the stick.
00:33:42
Speaker
That would probably fade in a couple of days. This is a plan that will require quite a bit of cunning for us to pull off without the victor realizing it. We are going to need to sneak this scepter out of here to the tarts. At the same time we're doing that, we are going to have to present to the victor a decoy. And at the moment I present the decoy to the victor, I'm going to shut off these pylons. And this entire section is going to collapse into itself.
00:34:07
Speaker
which at least will prevent locals from hopefully digging any of this stuff up before the energy dissipates.
Reflections and Gratitude
00:34:13
Speaker
My worry is how much of the town might fall into the sinkhole creek. That would be terrible. Yes. Yeah, that seems bad. It seems only fitting to provide them with some kind of warning before unleashing chaos.
00:34:28
Speaker
Warning everybody, isn't what I worry about? I know that we have a team that can do that. I know that we have a team that can get this to the TARDIS. But doing all these things at once, evacuate the entire town.
00:34:39
Speaker
How can we evacuate an entire town without the Victor knowing? Oh yes, that'll be easy actually. If Vixxer is going to talk to the Victor to give him the not scepter, right, then he'll be distracted while Vixxer's doing that, right? So then we can tell all of the people, well, I guess all the men, that's how that works here for some reason, the people who are looking for gold, or they're looking for things for which they're given gold. But we can just say, hey,
00:35:05
Speaker
Did anyone notice there's a whole bunch of gold over there outside of town? I have kind of a terrible idea as well. We love terrible ideas.
00:35:15
Speaker
How close together are the buildings in the town? Like, if one of them caught fire, how likely is every other building to catch fire? Not quickly, but yes. This place has a town hall. It has the appraiser's office. There's a chapel. There's the bank. There's the Walton's home. There is not a fire department. It is very hot and dry. Yeah, when the burning man fled the mine, the two armed men put him out with dirt, not water.
00:35:42
Speaker
What if one of us left and set one of the buildings on fire? It would have to be a very big fire when they couldn't put out very easily. They would need to evacuate the town to put it out because they don't have any water around to do that. And then, well, they're putting out the fire. We collapse the town. That is incredibly risky and might cost you story points because you'd be endangering lives. Like, don't get me wrong, this is bold and amazing.
00:36:11
Speaker
I didn't say it was a good idea. I thought it might work. This is a dangerous but brilliant idea. If we can do this without anyone getting trapped in the town, we could possibly get them all out of here. Won't that keep them around the building because they're trying to put them out? I think they're all just going to go. All the buildings are probably going to be destroyed anyway when the ground, like, goes away.
00:36:35
Speaker
That is my worry. Setting them on fire is really a problem in the sense of depriving them of the places that they live. We'd actually have to do some things about all of the canaries. Also, I think there's a building where there were maybe horses? I'm a little still unclear on what horses are. And we'll need to get one of us out of here without them knowing so they can go and set the fire.
00:37:01
Speaker
Actually, we're going to need to get two of us out from here without them knowing. And that second person is going to have to be you, Audor. You're the only person who can fly the TARDIS out of here if our plane goes sideways. And I put the Scepter inside the box, close the box and lock it. And you're going to have to take this back while we're handling this.
00:37:18
Speaker
Are you absolutely certain? I am absolutely certain that based on the victor that we met previously, it is the minimum we will have to do. Anyone who unleashed Chulin energies to wipe out the swarm cannot be trusted with this type of weapon. He will find a threat that he thinks is worthy of this, and he will use it on them, whether or not they deserve it. The auditor says that's an excellent point.
00:37:47
Speaker
and reaches onto his jacket, and he says, well, we've a tanner's on the TARDIS, and rips his sleeve off as he smashes a lantern against the ground, starting a small bonfire, and burns a bit of the sleeve, stamps it out, and then hands it to Maeve. They won't be expecting me if they think I didn't make it out. That's what I was thinking. Whoever needs to go.
00:38:17
Speaker
Well, I'll have to meet with the victor. He wouldn't believe that I would trust anybody else with this type of item. Calamity, do you want to grab one of the phony scraps of scepter wood? Calamity is still trying to track the multiple different crazy plans that are all happening simultaneously now. She's having a little trouble.
00:38:36
Speaker
The Auditor has the genuine article in his hand. You have two more pieces of wood that are presently flashing back and forth to the Scepter, and you have at least one or two extra suitcases with you. Right. The plan is for the Fixer to go to the Victor and be giving him a pretend one, right? That is correct.
00:38:56
Speaker
It's as if we come out with more than one that will just be confusing. Is that the worst thing? If the Fixer is the only one who has a case, yep, we found it, he has it. And then they'll be like, well, we're going to take you by the arms strongly because we're big men. And then while that's happening, we can go do the important things. The most important thing will be the auditor getting that case off this plan.
00:39:23
Speaker
And I'm sorry to say that because just right below that is making sure that the two of you safely get off top. That's better. Oh yeah, more concern for the rest of the town. Well, now that we've found what they've been looking for, they won't have further reason to stay here. Which means the victor is going to tie up those sins. And when I say that, I'm just literally going to motion towards the dead companion on the floor. Okay.
00:39:49
Speaker
Story point for Fixer for a nice dramatic moment. Fast forward to the mouth of the mine. Who is leaving and where are you going? The auditor is going to wait for you to lead the guards away from the thing, try and sneak away to the TARDIS. Are we sending one of us to go and set the fire or is the auditor doing that? The auditor cannot be asked to do both things.
00:40:18
Speaker
So one of us needs to go and do it, and it can't be you, Fixer, because you're going to go talk to Victor. And I'm so sorry, Maeve. I'm so sorry, Calamity. I would never ask you to do such a risky thing. I mean, it's putting your life at danger. It's putting the life of so many other people in danger. I'm just hoping we can do this in a way where we can evacuate this town properly. Fixer, these were our ideas. I'm the one who said we should set the town on fire. It's fine. We're doing great. OK, we're doing great.
00:40:46
Speaker
Do you want to set the fire of calamity or do you want me to set the fire of calamity? I don't not want to set fires. I mean I guess actually that's actually not bad because then if I do that then I can just be you know warning the
00:41:04
Speaker
people or letting them out if they are, you know, animal people. As I get to each place, you know, be like, just throw open the doors and be like, you should go now and then start lighting them on fire, right? And then they'll go. But then I can just stay ahead of the fire that way and make sure everyone gets out.
00:41:18
Speaker
Right, make sure the canaries get out and the horses. But yes, we can just switch plans. So I'm tempted to actually go directly to the saloon and tell his goons to get him and bring him to the saloon. Because I am quite worried he probably would have some way of overcoming me in his own office.
00:41:36
Speaker
That might be a good idea, but that puts a lot of collaterals in the same room. Yeah. Like the, the fixer, you know, of anyone here can sort of like, what's going to happen here is going to happen. It's already happened. You're just sort of playing it out, right? Like the things that we don't know that are involved in this, we're trying to minimize the collateral damage as, as you have pointed out, but like the actual resolution of all of this is, is already written down.
00:42:04
Speaker
Again, I just can't help but say that I feel if I can get him to sit down for a drink, maybe I can fix it. Maybe I can get him to not go down that path that we saw him. If the auditor is still with you at this point, and I think he is, he would stop.
00:42:25
Speaker
shake his head a little bit, because whatever transpires here, he goes on to wipe out an entire species, perhaps just to demonstrate that he could. I fear for your expectations.
00:42:41
Speaker
The auditor's right. He did that, knowing exactly what he was doing. He said all those people down here to die, knowing what he was doing. He let his companion die in the dark, knowing what he was doing. That makes every person in this town worth more than him. I'm sorry. It does. Maeve, add one story point. But he's just trying to be the best he can be.
00:43:06
Speaker
The best what? The best killer? The best what? Exactly. Well, I mean, he's trying to solve problems and he's just only solving the problem and maybe he's causing a bunch of other problems but then he'll just, you know, not solve those because I guess he doesn't care about those and I'm not sure how he picks the problems that he cares about. Maybe that's what we need to work on.
00:43:26
Speaker
Calamity hit it on the head. If we can figure out why he thinks this course of action proves that he's the best, we may be able to show him that it isn't, that there's a better path out there, that there's some other way, some other... I'm with you. If you want to try, I'll go with you and I will stand by you for the whole thing. But remember what you told me after what happened with Magda. What happened to us, what happened on Joybellant, already happened. It can't be undone.
00:43:56
Speaker
I'm hoping somewhere in that far future, there's a place where he comes back to our side. Then if you want to make some kind of last minute plea to him, I'll go with you. I think that's actually a really good idea, especially because it'll give you an opportunity to convince the saloon workers to flee town. It's going to be really important, because the building's going to be on fire very soon. Well, I'll do this table second.
00:44:25
Speaker
like I'll do the other side of town first like I'm gonna go to you know I'm gonna go to the the the dry goods store so that we can let the birds go and then also tell them about the fire so that they can leave they may argue with me but I'll work that out listen with Calpornia tell her what's really going on don't lie to her just tell her what's happening and let her take it say I'm out of here and then start the fire there
00:44:50
Speaker
All right. What it will come down to, I think, is that, you know, after letting the birds go, I will tell her the truth and try to be convincing about it. And if I'm not, I will set a fire in her shop and then she will leave probably anyway. That seems right. She'll be mad at me, but, you know, that happens. She'll be alive and not on fire. That's the plan, right? That's the plan. Look, these things are going to be broken anyway, so really it's just not that bad, ethically.
00:45:20
Speaker
I am so thankful we have Calamity as our moral compass. So who is stepping out of the mine? Everyone but the auditor, I think. I think it's everyone but the auditor and you because you are going, we're going to pretend you and the auditor are dead. I felt that was planned. Yes. Oh, we're pretending both of us are dead. Yes. Okay. I'm sorry, Calamity. We're going to need your sleeve.
00:45:44
Speaker
Oh. OK, I mean, it's very it's very blue. You don't need to bring to smoking ruins of of of fabric. Oh, oh, here I will. I will give the fixer the the happy chance. Oh, perfect. I'll take the auditors sleeve. Please be careful. I will make sure it comes back to you. Thank you.
00:46:06
Speaker
fixer and may emerge from the mine. The armed men are now outside the open gate waiting for you and trade looks with each other. It is just about sunset getting down there and moving around
00:46:26
Speaker
quote-unquote safely, took a good amount of time. And there is a small crowd of people watching from more or less just loitering outside of the saloon. They've gotten drinks. They've waited out of there to see if anyone was coming back. And when the Fixer and Maeve emerge alone with the briefcase, that's when the crowd starts to exit the saloon and mill closer to watch what's going on.
00:46:54
Speaker
As we walk out, Maeve holding the auditor's sleep drops to her knees and starts to cry into it. I will spend the story points to create a distraction so that the auditor in Calamity can make a way out, but my role is a three and a four for a 13.
00:47:10
Speaker
To effectively cause a big enough distraction to cause people that are watching to miss out on something that is going on beyond you, I would say would cost a full three story points. Done. Whether or not you will be convincing with the diversion, like when someone comes and asks you what's going on, will be a separate thing, but you'll be in good standing on the way. You and Fixer. I won't speak for the Fixer, but like sobbing, like, oh no!
00:47:38
Speaker
They were so young and beautiful! The victor emerges from the appraiser's office with a brandy snifter in one hand and a skeptical look on his face as he steps down with Braum at the foot of the steps. The minute I see his face, I'm just going to point at the burnt sleeve in Maeve's hand, then look down with this look of like, I can't believe you made me do this, at the suitcase, and then walk straight to the saloon like I need a drink.
00:48:06
Speaker
He watches you and is not surprised at all with your gesture. In terms of you being a thorn in his side, this is not the first time something like this has occurred. Cut to the bar and the fixer slamming the scorched sleeve down on the bar with Maeve. Behind
00:48:29
Speaker
The bar is Sandy the Matron, shocked by this first impression of you, storming in so boldly with Maeve. Calamity, from the mouth of the mine, you and the auditor see that everyone, because, I mean, you've clearly brought something important out of there. Why bother keeping an eye on an empty cave? The guards have also left.
00:48:53
Speaker
Sam, Walton, who is just a wee boy, is not allowed to go to the bar and is still hovering at the post where Mama waits and stands in the doorway watching what's going on as literally the entire rest of the town has gone to saloon!
00:49:11
Speaker
Calamity is just gonna turn to the auditor with this sort of weird look on her face and be like, so I've been thinking about the whole, since we were in his office, the whole figure eight thing, that it's just so confusing with the like, that we met him earlier, but that was actually later for him, but then the fixer has met him earlier, which is later for the fixer, but does that mean that if he meets him later and he's with us, then that means that
00:49:40
Speaker
Victor knows that we didn't die. You poke a beautiful hole right through the plan. She's gonna fix it. So what we need to do is just make sure that the Fixer knows that after he learns how to knit, that whenever the next time he meets Victor, he just has to not take you and me with. Right, yes. Time Lords forget things like this all the time. Let's not ever think it. Good luck, bye.
00:50:07
Speaker
Okay, Calamity is hoping it for the dry goods store. The auditor is crab walking as discreetly as possible past the horses to the edge of town, and then just like briefcase holding a weapon of mass destruction in one hand, fumbling in his pockets for the TARDIS keys in the other. As I cry this way, right this way, yes we're going. Just slides the key into the TARDIS.
00:50:31
Speaker
Cut to the Fixer, who now has a stiff drink in one hand and his fist tightly wrapped around the handle to the briefcase in the other, pulling into a booth in the back of the saloon with Maeve.
00:50:49
Speaker
the victor sits down opposite you on the other side of the booth this is going to be a very hands-based action so i want to make sure i get my hands right on it so i have one hand holding the briefcase right my other hand with the glass i take the glass without even toasting i shoot it back slam it down look over at the bar and say another
00:51:09
Speaker
Then reach down with that same hand, pull out my notebook, open it flat on the table in front of me to the page, pull out my sonic stylus, extend the actual pen portion, and look up at the victor and say, how many? Oh, your little book. This is early days for you. You still have the book. How many did you kill in the mine?
00:51:29
Speaker
I haven't killed anyone in the mine. Okay. The people, the workers, the laborers went down there of their own free will and behind him
00:51:46
Speaker
Oh, that's nice. That's an 11 with a 6 on the dice. He's throwing his presence and convince over his shoulder, Time Lord. He's paid these people a lot of money. They're invested in listening to him. Of the own free will. Over his shoulder, like the people that have been playing poker and watching him, and the barmaid who has been wiping a glass and watching.
00:52:06
Speaker
No one is disagreeing with him, but Fixer and Maeve both, please with advantage, give me awareness and intuition rolls. Am I just making one tick for Bernice? He narrows his eyes. Ah, figured out the recording device, didn't she? You left her down there to die. We saw someone else come out of the mine on fire. How many people have died? You knew what would happen to them.
00:52:34
Speaker
Yes, and I paid them. You paid them to die! I paid them to put their lives at hazard for something that was going to benefit them. How much did you pay for a niece? Cutting remark. You got a four and a one in the dice for a total of ten. I got a one and a five for all of seven. Maeve, would you like to spend any story point as you're looking around? Yeah.
00:52:56
Speaker
you notice that on the wall between the dartboard and the brown faded photograph of the Victor, Bernice, and Sandy standing on outside the silver spur on the day the place was built, there is a square of a space where a framed picture might fit on the wall
00:53:18
Speaker
that instead of any kind of framed picture is just chip marks in fives. You can't make it out from over here, but you would guess that there is at least a dozen chip marks carved into the wall. I get up and I stalk over to the wall to see exactly how many chip markers there are. One has just been added. It is still fresh for Lefty, the man that was incinerated earlier today. And the men look at you
00:53:48
Speaker
The closest one who's been crying hands you a pen knife because he sees the sooty sleeve in your fist. How many are there total? Right now, 17. I add two more and I give the pen knife back and then I walk over and I look between the fixer and the victor and I look at the fixer and say, I'm really sorry about this. And I punch the appraiser.
00:54:17
Speaker
Here is what happens in the following order. Number one, add a story point for adding two marks on the wall. Number two, you are now going to be at a plus two to social challenges relating to the other workers, which goes up to a plus three. Give us a strength and conflict roll freeze for punching the victor across the jaw.
00:54:43
Speaker
That is a 6 and a 5 for a 15. Oh, that's wonderful. He's gotta take it right across the jaw. What is your strength? Three. Stronger than I look. He is going to spend a story point so he only takes the one point of damage. And it is not an experienced sock across the jaw, you know, but it is still
00:55:08
Speaker
and you just put some sauce on it and just, you knock the darkened glasses from his face and they clatter across the table and the whole bar goes, ooh, when you do that. And Braum, the large man, steps over and is reaching for his firearm. The victor's like, no, no, no, she's earned that one.
00:55:32
Speaker
I did. You actually hit me. And you deserved it. And you deserve another one, but I'm not going to do that. And then I sit down next to the fixer.
00:55:40
Speaker
Maeve, at a story point for punching the victor in the face, no one has ever punched him in the face before. Kudo, I'm sure players have wanted to, but no one has actually punched him in the face before. Holy cow. Meanwhile, at the Walton's Dry Goods, Calamity, Sam looks up at you in wide-eyed wonder of like, oh hi lady, as you come up the stairs to the entrance to the storefront.
00:56:03
Speaker
Hi Sans, your mom inside? You should come in, we're gonna talk about stuff. Cut to the interior of Walton's dry goods. I mean, sorry, howdy. So do you know anything about science?
00:56:17
Speaker
She blinks at you absently.
00:56:34
Speaker
we've heard of him yeah okay yeah like just the ground shakes and sometimes it falls down and all the buildings collapse and maybe there's fires you know yeah it's really terrible so that's gonna happen because the bad thing down there so she pulls the boy to her skirt and like what
00:56:52
Speaker
yeah I mean it's gonna happen pretty soon probably so you should leave like if you have anything that you would need to take with you so that you can go somewhere else like because the town is probably going to be destroyed you know earthquakes aren't bad right I don't know what the nearest town is but well maybe we can fix that for the moment we'll just sort of you know you should get outside of town um at least just
00:57:14
Speaker
Where the ground is less, you know, weird like this? Just that far away. That's most of it. Um, I was just gonna let all your birds go. Is that alright? Presence and convince. You were gonna be at advantage until you said I was gonna let your birds go. So now you're just rolling flat. Presence and convince.
00:57:35
Speaker
You want to give away your canaries though, that's the bread and butter of the town I'm currently holding parents with an open cage and carrots is with me. So, you know, that's true Okay, you are at advantage because he returned with the canary intact I will I will totally cotton to that. Great. So I I have a 16 with nothing
00:57:55
Speaker
It's the problem is that Calamity, when she's even describing something serious, does not look particularly serious about serious situations. But she's gonna make an effort, like, to actually look serious for once. No one else is looking. No, really, you're gonna die if you stay here. So, you know, you better hurry. And the fires might start early. Earthquakes work like that sometimes.
00:58:18
Speaker
Cut to Mrs. Walton with a bag and her son who is clutching another bag as they race across the street for a wagon that reads Walton's dry goods on the side of it that is in the stables. She's carrying all the gold that the men have paid her that she can carry as she hoofs it, no pun intended, for the wagon with her boy.
00:58:43
Speaker
And again, the stables are empty of people. They have all gone to watch the really interesting thing happen at the saloon. Speaking of which, as she heads for the stables with her boy, and Sam is waving behind you, bye bye, as canaries take to the skies,
00:59:03
Speaker
Man, there are sure a lot of oil-filled lanterns in there, aren't there? That was my thought. She sells lanterns. And also, this is a dry goods store, so pretty much everything here is- It's very dry. The goods could not be drier. Cut to Fixer and Maeve sitting across from the Victor and a positively wrapped-attention crowd behind them as the Victor sips his whiskey and massages his cheek
00:59:33
Speaker
I say to the Fixer, 19 with the two we lost. Start marking it off on the page. Make sure to write in full letters slowly first Bernice across the top of that page. Has they brought over the second drink yet? Look down at the drink, look over at the Victor and say, okay, now that old business is done, what are your plans for this? Return it to Gallifrey after I've had a chance to inspect the merchandise and why should I tell you more than that?
01:00:02
Speaker
Why should I tell you more than that? You're absolutely right. It would be remarkably careless of me to part with that to anyone other than the Gallifreyan High Council, which incidentally are the ones that requested I acquire it. Ah, excellent. And they of course made sure when you bring it in it's going to be safely handled, right? Because, you know, the technology here that you've been using, I'm actually quite surprised you haven't harmed yourself yet. I expect better from you, Victor.
01:00:29
Speaker
He bristles when you condescend to him? Like, just the bristles twitch a little bit as he contains a sneer and leans across the table. You know, that sort of insolence is what... Wait a minute.
01:00:47
Speaker
He rolled a 7, but it wasn't a 6 and a 1 on the dice. You've gotten him so mad he's thinking about future events for you that are past events for him, and he's too angry to be thinking clearly right now. But he is on the precipice of rumbling the ruse here.
01:01:04
Speaker
And he is spending a story point to attempt to connect some dots now. Let's just say I ran into an older version of you, and that older version made it clear to me that you losing Bernice was a lot harder on you than you expected.
01:01:28
Speaker
Give me a presence and convince. I would like to spend two story points, if possible. He believes you are sincere. He just does not believe you are right. That's fair. He bursts out laughing. Maeve, give me an awareness and intuition role, please. Plus a two for advantage because you are starting to connect with the people in this town. Fixer says, I know it affected you a lot worse than you thought. And he's like,
01:01:56
Speaker
Over Bernice, are you serious? I had to stop her stealing the cutlery out of the Dada's kitchenette. Me upset over a simple little biped in a toga like Bernice. You are trying to pull my leg. And with each word out of his mouth, Maeve, give us that awareness and intuition roll, please. Plus two for advantage. I got an 18 with nothing special on the dice.
01:02:24
Speaker
The people in this room are recognizing the cavalier attitude that he is now laughing in their collective faces over someone dying down there. And that is something the Fixer made happen. People are starting to get up from their tables. They're not getting any closer, but the collective vibe in the room is that people are starting to stand up.
01:02:50
Speaker
I want to keep turning this tide. So you didn't care about Bernice because she was what, poor? A human? What made you think that her life was worthless? Basically how short it was. Compared to yours, which is, I don't even know how long.
01:03:05
Speaker
My dear, I can trip through time fantastic and spend a century putting together works that your tiny minds wouldn't begin to comprehend. And halfway through the job, you all would have turned to dust and apoplexy in the meantime. And he's just getting more and more
01:03:26
Speaker
worked up over this, as his hand wrapped around the glass in one hand, as his other hand is slowly creeping across for the suitcase handle. I'm going to look around at the crowd and say, what I know is that you can cause more destruction with that, and there are more mayflies in here than there are of you, no matter how long you live. And I'm going to stand up, and I'm going to look back at the rest of the people with a clear like, there are more of us. So look.
01:03:53
Speaker
Fixer, you are here. Do you wish to intercede? Do you wish to chime in? Oh, no, no, I love the direction Maeve was taking that in. I'm 100% supportive and I'm gonna, with the hand wrapped around the briefcase, make a little motion to her to just be like, keep going. Maeve and Fixer, what are your story points at right now? I have three.
01:04:16
Speaker
I have two. Well, now you have four. And now you have three because this is just classic villain goading hanging by his own petard stuff. It's magnificent. And he said, these mayflies have been buzzing around my head for quite long enough. And the sooner I get my rightful hands on the scepter, the sooner I can leave this time zone behind me.
01:04:43
Speaker
and Victor as I've been trying to explain to you for so long. This is why you lose.
01:04:49
Speaker
He sneers when you say the magic word and slams his hand down on top of the suitcase. This is going to be a strength roll. He is trying to pry it away from you. As he grabs for it, I'm letting go with that free hand, raising up the sonic stylus and saying, you and I both know what your escape plan was for this town. I saw it down there. You can either walk out peaceably or not. Do you want to lose twice in one day?
01:05:18
Speaker
Oh, bravo. Fixer.
01:05:21
Speaker
You finally found a countermeasure, have you? That's so clever of you! And he yelks the briefcase off the table since you have sacrificed your grip on it. With his other hand lets go of the glass and reaches down to his side. From where you're sitting you can see that his belt has room for a holster. He pulls out a trigger device roughly the size of the handle
01:05:48
Speaker
of the pistol with a knob and some buttons on it and says, oh, you're going to hold the town hostage, are you? Well, two can play that game. I believe this is called your move. Have we started seeing the fire yet? Cut to calamity in the middle of town with the sun
01:06:09
Speaker
burning up the horizon to the west. Which buildings are on fire, Calamity? Well, she was going to, I think, the plan was sort of set, you know, set the dry goods store on fire, but take a few lanterns with her so that she could just sort of like throw one against the wall of each adjoining building to make sure that it would catch in a row, right? Smart. And then head over to the stables to deal with horses.
01:06:39
Speaker
okay if i'm understanding you correctly you are flinging a gas lantern and oil lantern into the bank and it begins to burn within you do the same once it has been evacuated of both waltons and canaries and
01:06:55
Speaker
set up Walton's Dry Goods of Flame and are doing the same to the Town Hall as you continue up Main Street? Uh-huh. Okay, you get to the appraiser's office. I mean, she does, like, stick her head in each one and say, hello! I mean, howdy! And then wait a sec to see if anybody responds, and if they don't, then she sets it on fire. That's responsible. Just, just, just be inclined.
01:07:20
Speaker
that's really thoughtful of you, yeah, and tosses another lantern into the appraiser's office as the carpet in the main hallway starts to catch and go up. Do you have any lanterns left? I mean, she specifically took one for each building, plus the stables, so that was the idea, assuming that they had that many lanterns there. Well, you probably have to stop and come back for two more at some point, because they're not the lightest things in the world, but again, everyone's attention
01:07:50
Speaker
Because of Maeve's performance and Fixer's performance getting the victors steam-ired up, there is no one even outside the saloon watching outside the saloon. They are all watching inside the saloon and listening and getting angrier as all this is going on. Excellent. There is a wrinkle. She's not going to set the chapel on fire. It feels rude. If it was meant to catch on fire, it will. Fair.
01:08:18
Speaker
You spare the chapel and a gust of wind blows a burning shingle off of the appraiser's office against the chapel roof, where it alights and begins to burn. Okay, that's Calamity's action. I think we are going to have to check to see if they notice now that there are five buildings on fire.
01:08:38
Speaker
That is a three and a one, so the collective group is not terribly bothered by the conflagration. Cut to the Fixer's TARDIS, where the auditor has very delicately just set down the weapon of mass destruction.
01:08:56
Speaker
Okay, yes, and then he grabs throw pillows from one of the comfy rooms of the TARDIS and nestles them around the weapon of mass destruction to make sure it doesn't jostle or bounce. And that's when he gets the fire alarms going off from the TARDIS. Not fires in the TARDIS, but like nining. Fires nearby. Fires nearby.
01:09:17
Speaker
Oh, plan is going according to plan. And in the saloon. The beautiful thing is, the only people facing the windows that might actually catch sight of the fire are you, Maeve, Fixer, and the Victor. He's not frothing at the mouth yet or anything, but he's in full on like, Maeve flies and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I would like to look at the rest of the people assembled and be like, do not let him push that button.
01:09:47
Speaker
Yeah, let's do an awareness roll real quick for the Victor. This is not the first time one of his plans has gotten away from him, and it is not the first time it has been because of you two. He is about to be seeing Red. Let's see how aware he is. I don't know if you can kill him, but you can probably hurt him pretty bad. No!
01:10:10
Speaker
With an actual threat, that is enough for him. He brandishes the trigger device in one hand and basically just shouts, back off!
01:10:20
Speaker
He deidly deets the briefcase long enough to open it, glimpse it, look inside, sees the stick shimmer into the scepter, slams the thing shut, stares daggers at the fixer, and Maeve, like, stuffs the whole thing under his arm. And he says, this is why you went soft. You hung around with Maeflies and let them get under your skin.
01:10:43
Speaker
Victor, you're wrong. The reason I won today, and every single time we see each other, is because these things you call mayflies have more value than either you or I. One day you'll figure that out. You patronizing me. Don't worry, I still love you.
01:11:02
Speaker
You don't get to say that! He jams the control back in his holster. I've already won you, Imbecile! You gave me the prize! And throwing up his sleeve.
01:11:17
Speaker
slaps down hard you only catch it for a glimpse because that's how long his sleeve is up of the time ring on his wrist as he full-on vanishes in front of you taking the briefcase with him as he said it's already mine mine mine
01:11:35
Speaker
And he materializes right in front of his grandfather clock in a room that is on fire and looks around and just starts screaming. And he looks out the window as the curtains go up and clear the vision and sees Calamity just bopping along the way to the stables and just shouts, Calamity!
01:11:59
Speaker
As he awkwardly throws open the grandfather clock as the room around him is on fire, shoves the briefcase in, slips inside, pulls it shut behind him. As the room is going up, the grandfather clock wheezes and sighs and wheezes and sighs and it vanishes, leaving behind a mahogany death he will have to replace.
01:12:24
Speaker
He really likes those desks. As the rest of the building starts to go up, Fixer, Maeve, you're in the saloon when like the whole room is like, as he just vanished. And that's more or less when the panicking starts at the doorway. As the people that are outside have finally noticed, oh, holy crap, the town is on fire.
01:12:49
Speaker
The town is ablaze! Someone named Cookie rings a triangle. The town is ablaze! And people start running out into the streets where, fortunately, not the arms where they have most likely been staying is not up in flames, but the Walton's Drygood cuffs it. They roll out of town at the far end as horses are champing at the bit to escape the burning terrain. The stables are fine, but they are, they do, they don't want to get any closer.
01:13:19
Speaker
The minute somebody yells, uh, fire, everyone quickly evacuate the city. They run, cut through the arms, and the men grab their belongings, they grab what they can carry, and they chase for the stables, grabbing their horses and climbing on to sometimes three people to a horse, book it west and east out of town as half of the buildings and more
01:13:46
Speaker
are going up quite rapidly. The ones that have not left yet, the ones that were stuck behind, are actually the lucky ones because as the appraiser's office collapses and burns, the back room that you did not enter is revealed as the building collapses around a force field column
01:14:06
Speaker
in the middle of the room of a mid-sized meteorite of gold that has been carved away at with a laser carver and once the building around it has more or less crumbled with the TARDIS no longer here
01:14:21
Speaker
The force field surrounding the gold sparks and self-destructs, so it does not leave technology behind. That would be a loose issue. But now there is just a half-sized, sofa-wide chunk of gold sitting in smoking ashes where the appraiser's office once stood. You've got a dozen or more people with pickaxes and hungry looks in their eyes as they charge the remains of the building.
01:14:47
Speaker
Oh, I was hoping we could evenly distribute that through the people that were here so they would have an opportunity and a new life. I think they're just gonna take care of it for themselves. I don't know if we can really impose order on this. Yeah, that's fair. Maeve says I don't know if we can impose order on this as fires burn across town and then rage at the giant very hot gold with pickaxes and sacks.
01:15:14
Speaker
Well, in this moment of chaos, I just want to create one moment of calm. I take the fixer by the shoulders and I look them in the eye and go, you're worth 10 of him. They don't deserve your love. Oh, thank you, Maeve. Maybe one day, maybe one day, they'll be able to figure it out. That's what makes you so much better than them.
01:15:36
Speaker
The sun rises the following morning on the smoky, ashy ruins of what was Sweet Fortune and what is once again what might as well be Groverton's Hearth, the ghost town this place was before the earthquake and the victor came in and built on top of it.
01:15:55
Speaker
and everything else. Anyone left is now in the process of leaving. They're packing up and they are taking off. There's no reason it's going to stay anymore. I would like to use my last three story points. So as the sun is rising on that next day, I can be sitting on the porch of the saloon with a horse next to me that I'm slowly feeding a carrot.
01:16:19
Speaker
Nice! Cut to the stables. Calamity, you've got horses. Or at least you get to wave them goodbye as the last of them are ridden away. That was what I was gonna check, yes, if any of the horses weren't actually spoken for just to make sure that they go someplace. It seems like the plan is sort of, you know, yes, has gone awry, so she's just gonna come back to the fixer and Maeve and be like, is that okay? Ooh, ooh. I think it's just gonna happen whether it's okay or not.
01:16:48
Speaker
And then I'm like, look at the calamity in the eye and go, whoops. How long is it going to take for everything to fall in a hole? Or is that not happening? We'll need to do it eventually. Hopefully after they get the meteorite.
01:17:04
Speaker
Once for sure everyone has left the town, look back at the town one last time, grab out of the wreckage, two pieces of wood, put them aside next to the TARDIS, activate the device to destroy the town, then go back into the ruins, take the two pieces of wood, attach them together to make a little cross, right on the cross Bernice, just leave it where the town was. That's beautiful.
01:17:27
Speaker
From the safety of the TARDIS and well out of the town limits, which is even better considering you didn't land inside the crater, you deactivate the phasic pylons from the console, having uploaded the code from your sonic device. Below ground, the phasic pylons shut off and the ground above crumbles.
01:17:51
Speaker
and the phasic pylons and everything else are swallowed by the ravine below and the whole town collapses into this sinkhole and the dust eventually settles on a completely flattened ruin that you can plant a a crude cross as a remembrance to Bernice. That's nice.
01:18:13
Speaker
Do you think that we should also maybe leave a little sign that says, do not build another town here? Ooh! Calamity, that's a great idea. Already made that mistake once. Rip the page out of my notebook that I was using to trick the Victor with, fold that up, and then attach it with a little thing saying, please do not ever build a town here, don't mine here, only bad things will happen.
01:18:34
Speaker
I think the sinkhole is rather warning enough, but this is useful. Yes. Put at the bottom, earthquake ghosts. Ooh, earthquake ghosts. Earthquake ghosts. You say that, and the TARDIS vanishes as behind it the sunrise comes up until only the sunrise remains.
01:19:16
Speaker
And that was part two of Another Man's Gold. I want to go around the room and thank our wonderful players for all of their incredible play today. Dora, as calamity, thank you so much, as ever, as always, for providing that
01:19:38
Speaker
random element that X factor to proceedings that never fails to impress, never fails to surprise, never fails to take things in new directions. Like, I've run this mod for a decade or so with variations here and there, and calamity's absent-mindedness that I now fully understand having listened to Faithstealer, an 8th Doctor adventure
01:20:07
Speaker
courtesy of Big Finish. I didn't even know that you had, that you didn't know that one. I mean, I've listened to them, to so many of them, they've started to blur together that I had to go back and listen to specifically that one to get reacquainted. But having a better understanding of exactly how Calamity's mind works meant, when I was going over the documents for another man's goal, it's like, okay, everybody needs stuff to do. How are they going to do this? How are they going to handle that? And so forth. And like, yeah, no, Calamity's going to be edited.
01:20:34
Speaker
advantage down here because she doesn't clearly want anything. Because she is so scatterbrained, that's gonna work to her favor. Okay, cool. What else can we do? Please take another two experience points for part two of today's adventure. Kate, incredible work as Maeve. Just incredible work, not only pushing through the emotional difficulties of the claustrophobia,
01:20:57
Speaker
which was very beautifully role-played in my opinion. Forcing the characters to push through things they do not want to deal with always makes it more interesting for me. Test that commitment, test that resolve, you know? Bravo!
01:21:10
Speaker
I'm terrified of heights, and I also like to rock climb, so I kind of channeled that energy. It read. It came through. It was nicely done. And also just pushing the Victor's buttons. I'm not going to shortchange Brand for your wonderful performance, but while we're talking about Mae just egging him on,
01:21:31
Speaker
Working up the crowd and getting them on your side was just beautiful companion work. Just top notch. Please accept two experience points. How would Maeve report on the new Key Chronicle if she were on that side of the planet?
01:21:48
Speaker
The New Key Chronicle, I think what Maeve's goal would be, would be to ensure that nobody made any towns there or dug there. So I think the story would be about earthquakes, shaky ground, people falling into quicksand and dying, anything she could do to make that stretch of land sound as terrifying and uninhabitable as possible.
01:22:08
Speaker
I think that works. I definitely think that works. And M. Sullivan publishes an article at The Next Town over as a freelance reporter that is so filled with disaster text of what happened in Sweet Fortune that no one ever builds there again, just as it was supposed to be. Kudos. Dynamite work.
01:22:31
Speaker
Brand. Fixer has faced one of his, if not his, oldest friend. I have never seen the game end like this. Certainly not in the saloon, and certainly not this personal with the Time Lord. Thank you. Thank you for bringing all of your emotion to it. It really, really helped judge the dynamic, I think. So thank you for that.
01:22:55
Speaker
How does nobody else end it that way? Like, it's literally a standoff. That's what's supposed to happen in an old west town. The standoff happens. The question is, how does it end? Where does the standoff go? Which way does it go? What are the emotional states of the people in their minds at the time?
01:23:12
Speaker
other players have used the other scepters as a shell game to try and baffle the Victor with BS to mixed degrees of success. But yeah, like turning the whole town against him, getting him furious, and then setting the town on fire. This has never happened before. And it was Maeve's idea. It was Maeve's idea. Yeah, Maeve, add an extra experience point for burning the town down.
01:23:40
Speaker
I can't fault you. You weren't putting lives at stake.
Post-Destruction Insights
01:23:44
Speaker
Calamity made sure the buildings were empty and it is a ghost town. It's a ghost town. You're not messing with time or consequences of like, oh no, that deadbeat was supposed to waste their lives here.
01:23:59
Speaker
Kudos, good lord. I like to think that some guy spent more time with his family and had a really great life because that town burned down. With that extra fist full of gold he was able to pull out of the burning ruins. Good God. Brand, please take two experience points. I was really looking forward to pitting you guys against the victor in person. I was legit surprised that none of you mentioned Joybellant to him.
01:24:28
Speaker
Well, yeah, spoilers. Exactly. Exactly. But that's OK. Amazing work. Two experience points for Brand. Also, Calamity is under an NDA, so.
01:24:43
Speaker
I think Maeve was just so incredibly confused. This is her first time encountering somebody in a different order than they're supposed to be, that she just would not have even considered it. And Bran, like, actually, I just want to compliment Bran. That first meeting between you and the victor was so great because it obviously made sense to
01:25:01
Speaker
you what was going on. But like to everyone else, all we picked up was this weird emotions and like very strange customs. Last time we met this guy, we were about to die. Now you're giving him a hug. Time Lords have their own thing going on.
01:25:16
Speaker
It was very confusing.
Companions and Sapience
01:25:17
Speaker
It was so confusing that, like, cause, you know, to be fair, Dora usually has a lot better idea of what's going on than Calamity does. And a lot of my fun process is just sort of deciding when Calamity will think of things, if at all.
01:25:33
Speaker
Um, so, so I sort of justified that because that whole, that whole scene in the office was just so like weird. And she was just thinking about the figure eights, like literally the whole time, every time she was not thinking about other things and just like, you know, almost getting set on fire. It was because she was distracted because she's thinking about this thing. And then, uh, and then, yeah, so I just waited until, until the exact
01:25:57
Speaker
until the exact ideal moment where it was too late to do anything about, to bring that up because of who I am as a person. Which is great, honestly. I'm really curious, though, about Terrence. Did Terrence stay? Oh, yes. Did Terrence stay? You can, in fact, keep Terrence. Terrence can fly into the Arboretum. Well, it is up to Terrence, right? Because the door is open. We want to leave the doors open of the Arboretum as well so that he can fly around the whole TARDIS. He should have his freedom.
01:26:27
Speaker
As far as I'm concerned, Terrence is an equal companion. Well, that's the thing. Like, Calamity is a vegetarian now, because she's like, oh, everything is sapient? That's problematic. We can't, like, we can't eat animals. Wait, she's actually, she's gonna ask, but she'd consider not asking, but like, are plants sentient? Oh, and the answer you're gonna get is a yes. And that's gonna be so much harder. Great.
01:26:57
Speaker
So we're gonna have to like I mean I guess there's future technology so we can just piece food molecules together like atom by atom or something cuz I try to eat only volunteer salads
01:27:11
Speaker
I don't think Maeve has thought too hard about the sapient versus non-sapient thing that you and Calamity were talking about. I think she'd just be like, okay, cool, Terence is fine. I'm gonna go have a burger. That's the thing is because, you know, in the Multi Haven, it's incredibly important to be aware of who is sapient because you can proselytize to them.
01:27:33
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense. You need to know who is capable of accepting the wisdom of your religion. So here's a question. Is Terrence now a whoopsie? Oh, that's a good question. We'll have to see, I guess.
Humor and Communication
01:27:46
Speaker
I mean, none of you speak canary, so it's going to be a tricky conversation. Oh, he's an agnostic. Climb is going to be trying really hard to learn how to talk to birds.
01:27:59
Speaker
Okay. She does have a Snacom's gold card, so she can hire people who like build hyper technology. I suspect that this is a problem that someone will work out. Actually, this is something I've wondered about both in character and out of character a bunch of times. You know, they posit the idea that the TARDIS is elemental in the language transformations that people are experiencing.
01:28:22
Speaker
you know calamity speaking a completely different language than mavis um and yet they can understand each other 100 what why is that safety feature in place so that we can't talk to other creatures because i can only i can only view it as a safety feature
01:28:39
Speaker
I think it's mostly the rule of funny, mostly because horses and other things have not famously talked on the show, unless 11 or 12 who speak everything or 13, you know, for eccentricity, because time lords are also eccentrics. Your average person does not keep walnuts in their pockets so that they can test the inflammability of air in mine caverns, famously.
01:29:05
Speaker
if he was doing that on like he was keeping the wallets in his pocket on purpose for that specific event then kudos yeah that really paid off though the walnuts have a lot of purposes beyond just something to eat they can be units of measurement they can be an object that is thrown they can do a third thing
01:29:24
Speaker
The number of uses that the walnuts have really just calls on the moment, really. Some people carry a multi-tool. The auditor carries walnuts.
Creative Impact and Timelines
01:29:32
Speaker
The auditor also carries walnuts. He's still got his calipers in there somewhere. So this is also one of the first times that the auditor has been a NPC
01:29:42
Speaker
in things with the Victor also present, and so as not to add confusion or too many talking heads to the mix, I deliberately made the decision of the Victor's going to say something belittling and get the auditor to clam up the rest of
01:30:01
Speaker
the time he's around. So just make that that much easier, you know. This is also something I wanted to talk about. Voices for characters. This is something we're going to talk about in a future Joy of GMing as well, but one of the tricks I use to click into a voice once I've found it is to make a sentence that captures that voice so that once I've said that sentence I can always immediately like, okay there's where the character is.
01:30:27
Speaker
And for the victor it's the condescending, don't you have papers to grade?
01:30:34
Speaker
There's like, oh yes, there he is. He's condescending and arrogant and he's right here. And his jaw just hangs open a little bit because of good breeding, you know, etc. But yeah, that line of like, don't you think she looks tired? Don't you have papers to grade? Just immediately shut him down. Fun, fun, fun. That was fun. Again, my imaginary hat is off to you guys. No one has ever set the town on fire before.
01:30:59
Speaker
I feel like every time we get into one of these modules, we do something no one else has ever done. Are there any we've done so far where that wasn't the case? I feel like there might have been one where you didn't say that specifically. Well, I like that there's variety. I like that there's multiple ways to reach an ending that's satisfying because my goddess was satisfying.
01:31:25
Speaker
I liked that I got to punch him. Oh heck yeah. I bet you did. I bet our listeners are going to enjoy that too. And listeners, if you care to illustrate the moment of contact where Maeve is just socking the victor right across the jaw, I would dearly love to see that. That would be a thing of beauty for me as well because he can be real condescending.
01:31:49
Speaker
And, since we beat him this time, it makes sense why the next time he runs into us, he wants us dead. Which is sad. Who doesn't want us dead? I mean, he just wants us to win, and us being dead is just one of the things that will happen if he wins. If I'm not missing it. Maybe just the next time. We don't even know. Like, the figure eight could be a very complicated swirl. That's true. Oh yeah, we don't even know when we'll see him next. In what order?
01:32:15
Speaker
Yeah. I know the order. I know the order of the things. Like, there are maps online of Riversong's timeline at Curly Cues and swirls around and goes in a loop and turns around for all the adventures that she had with Eleven and Twelve and later Ten. It's nowhere near that complicated. It's nowhere near that complicated. But I did have to figure out my own timeline of, okay, where did the Victor and the Fixer part ways?
01:32:42
Speaker
Where do they run into each other again? But yeah, that whole have taken up knitting get is a nice have you met Jim the fish? I Hope I hope that resonates for you, too Like the and there is that element of like when the hell have we met him before? That is part of this show that is part of the wibbly wobbly timing whining of it. That's just makes me happy
01:33:07
Speaker
There was a certain joy to that moment of specifically the Victor being the younger version of the Victor after we had just experienced, you know, recently experienced the passing of the Dodger. And so it's like, you're watching your school chums like die off and you run into one that you like really care about and you think it's a good thing and you know it's gonna go badly because you know, timey-wimey-wise, you know it goes badly, but you're just so desperate to hold on to the beauty of that moment.
01:33:34
Speaker
But that's just it. He didn't die. He turned into someone you don't recognize, which happens to people you went to school with, you know? But on a much more literal level, he turned into someone different. Do you guys have any questions? Do you have any more nods you want to give each other or anything like that you'd like to say to our fans? Well, again, I want to give Kate incredible credit for the plans she came up with as Maeve today. I don't have enough thumbs to put up. If I had multiple arms, all of them would be going up.
Legacy Weapons and Conclusion
01:34:01
Speaker
Because I restrain myself. You burned down half the town. No, but when I'm pitching ideas, I don't do the most insane things I think of. I try to still make it, you know. Let's work our way up to burn down the town. But Maeve is like, yeah. And I'm like, well, here we are then. I'm certainly not going to say no. This is the one with the least casualties though, because we didn't kill anybody.
01:34:49
Speaker
chameleon circuit, even knowing what you're looking for will be an obstacle to finding it because the people that built it knew it was a bad idea. In terms of Doctor Who, the moment from the 50th anniversary, another doomsday weapon so powerful it became sentient, that's of a scale of magnitude bigger than this, but classic who
01:34:54
Speaker
I'm proud of us
01:35:10
Speaker
dealt with from time to time, weapons of mass destruction that were relics of Gallifrey and innovation, including the hand of Omega. And they had these other, the blank of Rassilon, the sash, the rod, the crown, etc. And I wanted to explore what a different doomsday weapon from them would look like. And since the others impacted time and space, I thought, well, what about natural laws?
01:35:38
Speaker
and the laws of friction seemed to make an interesting thing to do because how are you going to without clues along the way connect people are bursting into flame oh of course the friction is the factor like spontaneous combustion that's fun that's that's that's that's scary as hell you guys almost died a couple of times yeah
01:36:00
Speaker
And we will be tiptoeing further into the Fixer's backstory in the future, but this is, again, just a good factor for GMs and your PCs. Like having a storied background and having things that upset them in the past and rumbled them can be great things to come back to that the other PCs can learn about slowly bit by bit. That's going to be a lot more fun. And finally, to our listeners.
01:36:28
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, follow us on Blue Sky and Twitter at Anywhere But Now, and wherever you get your podcasts, and soon on YouTube. Send your questions, your fan art, and your theories if you got them, to anywherebutnowpodcast.com or come say hi on our Discord. Links to everything
01:36:58
Speaker
in the doobly doo. From all of us, I'm Casey Jones. Thank you so much for joining us. There are exciting things to come, my friends. I'm glad you're along for the ride. Have a great day.