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Hard Time
92 Plays1 year ago
The Fixer is off a broken planet where Time & Space have gone sideways! His only hope of saving an old friend may lie in partnering with an old enemy! Surprises galore await in our most daring episode yet, Hard Time!
Enjoy thrills, chills, and laughs aplenty with Brand Osorio, Cate MacCoyne, and Pandora Beatrix, along with GM Casey Jones. Stick around afterward for interviews with the players, including our special guest star, Jack Scheer! You’re in for a fantastic time!
Be sure to subscribe and leave us a question or comment! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and BlueSky for more updates! Come say hi!
Send your questions and fan art to AnywhereButNowPodcast@gmail.com!
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
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Transcript
Introduction and Adventure Tease
00:00:05
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 GM, Casey Jones. The next hour or so hold 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 ever resourceful, Brandisorio. Hi, Brand. Hello, hello.
00:00:33
Speaker
and joining him is Maeve Sullivan, played by the ebullient Kate McCoy. Welcome back, Kate! Hi there! Last but certainly not least, finishing the TARDIS team as Pandora Beatrix as the unpredictable Calamity Hap. Hi!
00:01:04
Speaker
We play with the second edition of Cubicle 7's Doctor Who rulebooks. House rules mean our players begin the game with five. Count them five story points each. In effort to make the game more challenging, we're going to be dialing back on giving out those tasty, tasty story points. Players, you have been warned.
00:01:13
Speaker
Howdy Howdy!
Social Media and Episode Title
00:01:22
Speaker
Get ready for a collaborative, immersive storytelling experience, because that's what I brought to tables for over 10 years. Instead of a legendary hero who's defeated the Daleks and Cybermen hundreds of times, our intrepid fixer is still in his first incarnation. 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, follow us on Twitter at anywhere but now, underscore at the end.
00:01:52
Speaker
Links to everything in the doobly-doo. Stick around after the game for interviews with the players. This fine TARDIS crew have no idea what they're heading into. For today's adventure, they have not been told so much as the title of the mod. Until now, that is. Welcome to Hard Time. Brought to you wherever you're listening and time and space, this is anywhere but now.
00:02:53
Speaker
Some temporal housekeeping.
Past Adventure Recap
00:02:55
Speaker
You guys have now successfully survived a place for hungry minds. Calamity is now the proud owner of a working cattle prod. I don't want that to be an unwelcome surprise for our listeners. The time we had together on a place for hungry minds was so fun and Calamity's natural, not quite kleptomania, the magpie quality that is Calamity Hap. So yeah, she's got a cattle prod now.
00:03:21
Speaker
Interior, the TARDIS console room. The TARDIS once pristine glass console is now fully lived in, with Post-its covering half the controls. Small mementos of recent adventures litter a corner of the space that is calamities, the way stickers decorate a steamer trunk as it collects stories one incredible mishap at a time. Lights are dim this time of time on the TARDIS,
00:03:43
Speaker
All brave companions need their sleep. The Fixer, however, looms over the console. Eyes alight on data he's scanned over a hundred times from an unruly encounter in New Key. Fixer, you have been reanalyzing and reanalyzing the data following Tripshine's emergency jump and have gotten nowhere.
00:04:07
Speaker
One of the advantages of the Vortex manipulators is that they are light, quick, dirty travel. It's been described as a motorcycle running through traffic and therefore, you know, very hard to track and
Time Jump Complexity
00:04:19
Speaker
trace. The console has come back with yet another deep-a-deep insubstantial results. Would you like to try again? But of course! This is going to be an ingenuity and technology role, plus Time Lord training versus a difficulty of 24.
00:04:37
Speaker
Well then tracking down Trip Shine is very important for a couple of little ticks in the book. Let's spend at least two story points to make sure we do a better job of tracking him down. We got a 2 and a 4 for a total of 14.
00:04:52
Speaker
You get nothing from the quantum analyzer, but a window you have determined successfully. Tripshine leapt to the future inside of a particular quadrant of space. The window that he could have jumped into is somewhere approximately 25,000 years wide. Excellent. I mean, that's not that much to sift through. Immediately start looking around and see, is the auditor in his chair?
00:05:19
Speaker
You see that the auditor is a respectful distance behind you and looking rather flat faced, a pneumatic time tube in one hand folded of his arms across his chest. I have amazing news.
00:05:34
Speaker
We may have tracked down Tripshine's location. Honestly, I'm very impressed. We got it down to a very, very small, small section of space. So the only question is, how are we going to track down this gentleman? The auditor just unscrews the lid and pulls out a tasteful scroll. Do not pursue Tripshine. What part of that precisely requires further explanation?
00:06:03
Speaker
So hear me out. Tripshine is either a rogue time agent or he is working for something far more dangerous and far more deadly. And let's be honest, that guy is as handsome as he is deadly.
00:06:16
Speaker
The infallibility of your logic notwithstanding, has it occurred to you the program council has made these orders with some forethought? I know you're capable of incredible things, but he throws his hands together and just fishes into a pocket and starts cracking walnuts together
00:06:36
Speaker
as a sort of relaxing thing like you've seen people you know take out a hard boiled egg and start cracking it and start peeling off the shell he does that but with walnuts he says you know this is absolutely no kind of commentary on your capabilities as an explorer of time and space crack crack crack crack there are reasons we have been asked to
00:06:55
Speaker
avoid certain time zones and avoid species like the Daleks and the Cybermen and the Centaurans. Crack, crack, crack. Things can go very badly if we start breaking rules with a cavalier attitude. Crack, crack, crack. Crunch. Turn towards the console. Look very sad for a moment. Pull out the book. Flip open to the page from when we first picked up Maeve. Point at the tick marks on it and say, things like this don't fix themselves.
00:07:24
Speaker
Chef's kiss. There's a, on the door of the TARDIS. I would like to remind you, we are in deep space. So happy to extract myself from that conversation. Head right over to that door. And you push through the doors in watch shop proper dangling like a Christmas ornament on an invisible string outside the wood and glass doors is a small white glowing cube. Open the door.
00:07:53
Speaker
At some point in the doctoral program training, they covered the emergency psychic network that creates and sends these little hyper cubes, these little tesseract, these little glowing messages from a Time Lord in dire need of assistance. This is basically a traveling, self-perpetuating emergency hotline.
00:08:16
Speaker
This particular model popping into your hands is cracked and the light inside is flickering inconsistently.
Hypercube Discovery and New Adventure
00:08:25
Speaker
It has undertaken extreme strain and stress. Well you've seen some horrors haven't you?
00:08:42
Speaker
Okay, we're looking at a total of 16 with a 3 and a 5 on the dice. Before the message comes through, is there any way I can reach out, grab hold of the auditor to allow him to also experience this message as I do?
00:08:55
Speaker
He comes up behind you and talks about, we want you to be independent. It's important that you're able to think for yourselves. And that's when you put your hand on his forehead. Contact. Contact.
00:09:06
Speaker
Right, bloody contact! You close your eyes, out of silence comes a hyssostatic, and from the hyssostatic comes a pop, and alarms going off in the background, and things that may or may not be on fire. You can hear the faint crackle of burnt electricity. The following voice speaks directly mind to mind. Fixer!
00:09:32
Speaker
I'm glad I hung on to your psychic contact number! There's no bloody way I'm going back to galloping! Where? I'm in a wee bit of a pickle! I could use a spot of assistance and if you could- I'm in a spot of trouble on the carpet! Oh, Mr. Thanseker with his working time machine!
00:09:59
Speaker
The voice fades out as you hear the clunk and hiss of someone grabbing a fire extinguisher and going to retreat to put out a small fire. You're holding the hypercube, courtesy of the Dodger.
00:10:13
Speaker
an old friend of yours that jumped ship and dropped out of the doctoral program some time ago. The last time you heard him, he did not sound Scottish, he did not sound old, so you're not quite sure what the hell is going on, but you do have the impression of when and where he is contacting you from. Head right down the stairs and start collecting my wonderful companions.
00:10:37
Speaker
You reach Maeve's room first because she was the first companion on and the TARDIS gave her the next adjoining guest room. Gentle knock at the door? Uh, yeah? Something interesting just came down to us and I wanted to get your input on it. You hear like a clatter as if Maeve just straight up rolled off the bed and is already like getting on her feet and opening drawers and stuff like, I'm on my way! Okay, um, can I meet you in the console room in a couple minutes? I'm just gonna change real fast.
00:11:05
Speaker
But of course, head on to the next route. Knock on the door. Come in. Open the door, walk in. Calamity is just sitting there with a Happy Chance fun ball that's a Snackums prize. As if she had just been spending time like repeatedly shaking it and looking at it. Is something happening? Yes, something very exciting in fact. That's great. Everything is exciting. That's one of the things I love about you.
00:11:30
Speaker
While you have been gathering the companions, the auditor has gone to the console and started putting in information via time zone and coordinates. Thanks to you quickly having the thought to contact and share the information, he started putting in the coordinates with a low whistle.
00:11:53
Speaker
A dear old school chimp of mine seems to have gotten themselves into a bit of a bind. I definitely want to go help them. I wanted to make sure that we're doing it in the best way possible. I'd hate to put anyone at risk. Whatever. Yeah, let's go. You know, everywhere else we've traveled to, I went in with the assumption that we were going to be dealing with mostly people on the up and up. And in most cases, that was the case. I didn't feel like we were putting you at risk. That's why I want to make this distinction.
00:12:23
Speaker
The Dodger is brilliant, but has a bit of a perchance for finding trouble in places. When they go bad, they could go very bad. Calamity gets very excited at very bad. I mean, we've been in danger before, right? So we'll be fine this time. Sure. Yes. Maeve, I know you always want to get the story, and I guarantee you that wherever the Dodger has found themselves, there is definitely a story.
00:12:53
Speaker
The auditor tilts his head and he says, first rule of evading a trap is knowing it's a trap. That's true. We know we're going into a trap. The jaws are simply hinged and have not yet come swinging down on us. If you're looking for us to sign a waiver or something, I'm fine with that. Is this about last time with the theme park? It was really scary nearly losing you.
00:13:18
Speaker
I am having the time of my life. This is what I want to be doing. If I go out, I don't want you brooding over me or putting me in your little book to fix. I'm fixed. This is where I want to be. Okay. If I go out, I want it to be as pretty an explosion as possible. Oh yeah, so pretty explosion would be wonderful. That's practically guaranteed with this one. Gently lay my hand on the TARDIS console in a caressing fashion and say, we'll try to avoid that if we can.
00:13:47
Speaker
You hear a grateful bling, bling, bling of the bells. Stepping over to the command council, upon activating the lever, hopefully we shall travel through time and space.
00:13:59
Speaker
Ordinarily, the auditor, like, sticks, stays back or retreats to the chair to watch and not necessarily help pilot. But the screen that shows the this little red and glass watch shop hurtling itself through time and space through the vortex is getting closer to the actual fabric of the Technicolor tapestry. And you're getting closer and closer to a hole in that tapestry. Not an exit, but an actual
00:14:28
Speaker
whole. The fabric of time and space has been punched through, not neatly either. If you've ever seen one of those whirlpool plastic shapes that you can drop a quarter in and it spins around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and closer and closer into the thing,
00:14:47
Speaker
You are flying the TARDIS into turbulence. This is going to be a difficult roll of 21 with your ingenuity and transportation and Time Lord, and the auditor is going to assist because this is a tricky, tricky flight. As we are getting closer to reaching the edge of that hole, the TARDIS turbulence starts to increase. There are definite shutters going on.
00:15:13
Speaker
Now that is a very rare and special thing to see, but I think we might have gotten caught in it. Whoops. That's great. Ended up rolling a total of 11 with a one and a two on the dice. Okay. Can Maeve help in any way as she has been taking some TARDIS flying lessons?
00:15:36
Speaker
Yes, please. There are Post-its all over the place because as hard as you try, it goes in one ear and out the other. You have not been able to retain any of the actual nuances of flying the quantum hydrometer or any of it. So it's all still very typing with two fingers as you're poking around. So you are going to be at a minus two, going to be ingenuity and transportation.
00:16:05
Speaker
I rolled a one and a two for a seven. With two ones in the roll so far, the auditor rolled an eight and that's still not enough to get us like none of us have by ourselves rolled to counter as much of the turbulence as is coming at us. However, with that
00:16:28
Speaker
teamwork. This is exciting. You have actually determined not just if the TARDIS lands, but where. If you rolled even worse, the TARDIS would be landing somewhere nearby versus where we are actually landing. As it is, it is still not an entirely smooth arrival. The TARDIS materializes and starts to panic.
Arrival on a Devastated Planet
00:16:51
Speaker
A very loud distress signal is now going out.
00:16:57
Speaker
Calamity just starts, you know, patting one of the walls comfortably. Present convince, plus two for being a companion that's been around a minute, versus 15 is what we're trying to eat. Yep, I got a 16 with nothing special. If you were traveling with a well-spirited but occasionally panicky child, you would basically just calm her down to the part like, okay, okay, we got through it. It wasn't so bad. It was okay. It was just okay. He'll be okay. Nobody's hurt.
00:17:26
Speaker
The alarm fades out. On the scanner screen, the TARDIS has materialized in a bank vault, roughly the size of a two-car garage. The hypercube is now faintly blinking in a positive fashion. Oh, that's exciting. Yes, I believe we are getting closer and closer to our destination. The glowy cube agrees with you with an extra... Is that like a compass or something?
00:17:56
Speaker
That's a good way to look at it. It's a compass with some additional direction sense. Let's go with that. The actual gadget you have is called a Time Lord Emergency Messaging System. It has a major trait of Trek, which I have interpreted as brought you here coordinates wise, and now can give you the hot, cold oops to get you closer to the Dodger. This is just going to bring us to the Dodger and theoretically to no one else other than the Dodger.
00:18:26
Speaker
With the cube held aloft for a little bit of glow to lead the way, let's head on out. Roughly the size of a two-car garage, the vault sits quiet. The faint hum of air recyclers on infinite repeat chuff away. Only a single imperfection, the slightest warping in the steel floor suggests any strain on this tritanium cube.
00:18:48
Speaker
What's in the vault? Worthless currency, machine parts, and a pallet of Snacom's protein bars. Someone camped out here, at least in the short term. This vault is made of tritanium steel. It is the reason the building above it is still standing. The vault door is currently unlocked, and it leads to a building above that is only mostly collapsed.
00:19:09
Speaker
Everyone, give me an awareness roll, please, versus a difficulty of 12, throw Intuition into it, and Fixer also throw Timelord distinctions on here. I have a 3 and a 6 for a 16. I have a 5 and a 6 for a 16.
00:19:24
Speaker
And I have a three and a one for a total of 11. Fixer, you feel nauseated. The auditor comes a step behind you and also dips a little bit in reaction. You are now going to be a minus one to coordination for an hour. Calamity is able to tell because she's been all over the place. You are standing in an environment of artificial gravity.
00:19:51
Speaker
Everyone has this general feeling of nausea, but the Time Lords are hit with it double bad because they are extra sensitive to time stuff. Oh. Oh, that is... that is supremely unpleasant. Maeve, Calamity, do you feel that? I'm not sure why you'd have artificial gravity on a planet, but I suppose you could if it was, I don't know, maybe if like half the planet went away for some reason. That is supremely insightful.
00:20:19
Speaker
Calamity, earn one story point for effective foreshadowing. Calamity's a good guess, sir. The blushing sun wobbles beyond a horizon-wide sea of heat mirage. A narrow strip of sand-blasted terrain with little left standing save the barely-together bank behind you. It is cool, but not cold. A faint breeze carries the scent of ash and artificial ozone.
00:20:44
Speaker
Ahead, not too far, is a shanty town of scuttled ships around a large freighter with blinking, welcoming lights. Oh, well, what's this? It's sad. It reminds me a bit of Gallifrey during the war.
00:20:58
Speaker
Is there any indication from the damage of what might have caused this? From what you can tell, cataclysm level damage. Everybody give me an awareness role and throw intuition on there. Do you mind if I pop out the sonic stylus and do a scan as we're doing that?
00:21:39
Speaker
Oh, well, a total of 16, but unfortunately a 1 on one of the dice.
00:21:43
Speaker
You wave your sonic and the news is all bad. You are standing on a stationary planet. It does not spin. It does not circle. It is frozen where it is. You are now standing on the only viable strip of land left on this planet where it is not too cold and it is not too hot because it is sunset all the time. The planet does not spin.
00:22:10
Speaker
immediately turn to the companions, point at the dark edges of where night appears to start, and say, whatever you do, do not go past the light in those directions. The temperatures are going to drop so catastrophically, let's just say it would be bad.
00:22:25
Speaker
From this range, you can tell the planet has no electromagnetic field. It is gone. Whether or not the fixer has the words for it, you are within walking distance of a rift. The sonic out of overload. Too much info, and it'll need an hour to self-repair. My working theory is that what we're standing on was once a planet. The question that comes to mind is why.
00:22:50
Speaker
I was gonna ask, what does that? I strongly believe the answers lie ahead of us. He does raise a finger and just leans quietly to the fixer. Did you lock the door? Every time. What's the benefit of having two doors if you don't lock at least one of them?
00:23:09
Speaker
You're walking up to a long heavy freighter defended by humanoid guards on watch with spotlights and from here it looks like they're carrying blaster rifles. They are not in any kind of uniform. Their weapons do not match. This freighter sits nestled in the rubble. Oh good, survivors!
00:23:29
Speaker
Of what though? What happened here? Maybe they can tell us, we should ask. The spotlight guard posts are sweeping the ground on a regular basis. Do you want to try and evade them? Do you want to step into them?
00:23:44
Speaker
My first instinct is to greet with hands open and wide and motion to the companions to do the same. Definitely don't want to look like we're walking up with any weapons. Calamity, did you happen to bring your cattle prod with you? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely, of course you did. Of course you did. Okay, everybody give me a presence and convince role versus 16. You are in unfriendly terrain. I got a one and a five for a 12.
00:24:14
Speaker
A four and a two for a total of 11. I've got a 17 with nothing special. Oh, great. As the four of us step into the lights that just sweep over, Maeve, the fixer, and the auditor, hi, no, wait, that's awkward, what? Which is like, no, what I mean to say is, no, my hands are up, my hands are up. Because the auditor's like, on behalf of the, oh, right, no, we're putting our hands up, yes.
00:24:43
Speaker
And Cloud is like, hi! Where did you guys get those blasters? Oh man, are those catalyzers? Like holy hell, I didn't see the catalyzer pointed at me in months. One of them says, yeah! That is a catalyzer! The X900s! They're great! They hardly need recharging! Put your hands up, guys!
00:25:04
Speaker
Slowly, the gates on the side of the freighter squeal open and light spills out. A squad of armed men approach along with a rather meek, bent guy walking ahead of the people, not because he's in charge of them, but because he's been told if he doesn't find out what he wants, bad things could happen to him.
00:25:30
Speaker
Hi! It's a pleasure to meet you. Who are you? I'm the Fixer. You clearly need help. Fixer, what'd you do, thought out this guy? He says he's a Fixer! There's a crackle of over-head microphones. Bring them in.
00:25:50
Speaker
and search them. So these fine gentlemen are now going to search you. This is going to be a coordination and subterfuge role versus 16 to hide things that you want to conceal. I believe Maeve has her pocket reporter. Good luck hiding a cattle prod.
00:26:11
Speaker
I would like to help distract the people searching us with all of the pockets I have and all of the items in hopes that I can give Calamity the ability to help hide the cattle front. Okay, give me a presence and convince role of like, yes, okay, I'm sorry. And like fumbling Marx Brothers wise of like, yes, it's here somewhere, just bear with me and like tool, tool, tool, tool. Okay, got a 12 with a three and a four on the dice. Oh no.
00:26:39
Speaker
I got a two and a one for a total of nine. Maeve, you get searched and they take your pocket reporter. Oh no, I need that. It just takes notes. It's not a big deal.
00:26:49
Speaker
One of them just sniffs it. It's like, oh, I smell circuits. Put it in the pile. No, don't put it in the pile. Put it back in my hand. I'm assuming Calamity had basically gotten some sort of leather strap with a snap where she can just have the cattle prod hanging at her belt. When they say they're going to search people, then Calamity's like, oh, yeah, and just starts pulling things out of her pockets to show them. I've got this phone, and I don't think it's working here because there's no signal.
00:27:16
Speaker
but then like a first aid kit and that's great and oh and i've got the the happy chance fun ball have you seen one of these are you trying to uh baffle them so they can hang on to your cattle prod not on purpose she's just sort of going through things one at a time give us the presents and convince roll six pain with a six on one of the dice
00:27:36
Speaker
You give them a handful of receipts, a Snacom's wrapper, and half a protein bar. Yeah, darn it, if you didn't sneak that cattle prod right into your pocket, because you're getting things in and getting things out. I mean, this thing's covered in pockets. Fixer, having not rolled quite so well, do you want to spend two story points to hang on to your Sonic?
00:27:55
Speaker
I'm wondering if it might be more wise to hold on to some of the more analog tools. I don't know what sounds useful to you. You know those wonderful little tools that look like a screwdriver that just have a bunch of metal pins at the end? So that way you can stick it into different types of screws, nuts, et cetera, and unscrew them because the little pins retract backwards to fill that space? Yeah. Something like that would be fantastic. Okay. Yeah. You keep baffling them with BS. It's like, no, take this. Sorry. No, I meant to finish that. Okay. Here's my pair.
00:28:25
Speaker
That's my favorite multi-tool. You best be returning that when you're done. Yeah, no, the auditor is not nearly so lucky. They rifle him and they get everything, including his sonic compass. And as you're handing things over, one of them, they take the glowy box and toss it in the bag with the rest of things they have confiscated. Can we keep that? We're looking for someone.
00:28:49
Speaker
Clamity, you keep saying things that just set things up so beautifully. From behind the armed men outsteps a skinny, scrappy guy pushing 30 and already losing thinning dark hair he hasn't shaved. And he is wearing a suit that at one point was secondhand, but now is almost as much patch as jacket and vest.
00:29:18
Speaker
Who are you looking for then, love? She looks at Fixer to remind her. Sometimes they are called the Dodger. You don't say the Dodger. That's lovely. Where'd you come from, Peaches? As your associate mentioned, we fell from the sky. You needed a Fixer, obviously. Yes.
00:29:40
Speaker
Yes we did. The gentleman in front of you sizes you up and he takes out a little device half the size of a smartphone and he just waves it up and down the fixer and he waves it up and down the companions
00:29:57
Speaker
It rings the loudest in front of the Time Lords and less at Maeve Calamity just in terms of like how long they've been around time machines. He looks at it, smiles and pockets it. Wasn't that thoughtful of you to bring us a spare? And he snaps his fingers and the men with guns trained them on Maeve Calamity and the auditor
00:30:25
Speaker
And one keeps it trained on the fixers like, let's make you comfortable in the quicks. So he is trying to escort you someplace at gunpoint. Do you wish to fight? Do you wish to agree? Do you wish to talk? I mean, calamity is fine with being comfortable every now and then. So.
00:30:45
Speaker
Are they bringing the bag that they stuffed all of our gear in with us? The man, Felix, points to the bag and tells one of the guards to take it to his office. Uh, you have my stuff in there? My stuff now, dearie. No, it's not. It's still mine. You just stole it.
00:31:06
Speaker
Nothing is stolen or corruption. Everything is appropriated. Isn't that lovely? And I have just appropriated what's yours in exchange for the air you breathe and the gravity under your feet. You're welcome. I didn't say thank you. You must really like this place.
00:31:29
Speaker
Give me a presence and convince roll. Like, I get that you're being cheeky and cute, but we're gonna roll to see if he's in the mood for it or not. That's very fair. Presence and convince? Okay. I think I'll use my last remaining story point on this one. Have you really burned through four story points today already? Yep. Goodness gracious. We don't judge. You spend them how you will spend them. He looks at you. Blinks. You're gonna fit right in. Shackling.
00:31:58
Speaker
One of the guards produces a pair of handcuffs from the future. He points two fingers and the guards start gesturing for Calamity and Maeve and the auditor to walk ahead of them with Gruggery, the downward facing man. Calamity seems very excited about having a tour. It's good that they explained how it's all right to appropriate things here. Keep an eye out for anything interesting.
00:32:24
Speaker
Oh yes, there's quite a bit of interesting shiny shiny things here.
00:32:44
Speaker
streaks in his hair where once was sable black and crow's feet have alighted on the corners of his eyes. A 10 years older trip shine walks in. Hey, handsome, did you miss us? Fix it. How, how did- I don't think Maeve leaves unless someone physically forces her to. She just kind of stands her ground and says, I think I'll stay here. Thanks. Mr. Shine.
00:33:13
Speaker
You're just in time to take our new workers down to the quicks. Whatever you say, Felix. That's boss to you. Rightio, boss. Come on, friends. Let me show you where you'll be working.
00:33:27
Speaker
The trip waves the guards and Gruggery just sort of takes a step back and follows deferentially, walking Maven Calamity and the auditor forcefully out. Felix points to the tallest of the men that stayed put. You can escort him to my office. I'll be alone presently. You are walked away at gunpoint. So the Fixer is not coming with us? No, the Fixer is being separated from you guys.
00:33:50
Speaker
We'll catch up later. It'll be fine. Cut to a deeply unpleasant place where the laws of time are under a great deal of pressure.
Time Distortion Camp
00:34:04
Speaker
Ships welded together into workshops sit behind a chain link fence on the far side of which people move back and forth.
00:34:12
Speaker
at a literal blur. Felix walks with you in the safety of the guards across a short wasteland to where a chain link fence is the only separation between us walking at a normal pace and tempo and on the far side where people are moving around at a blur.
00:34:31
Speaker
He says to trip. It's been fine work on the couplings, but we need more. We've got to handle a lot more output on this. Take a couple of months to work on it and get back to me in the morning.
00:34:45
Speaker
Right away, boss. Gruggery follows you guys to the actual gate, takes out a key. Rather than a temperature difference of one walking into a sauna, there is a weight to the air, a coolness to it. There is a constant breeze of air moving around faster than on the far side of the fence. Gruggery walks you in to the open promenade between these various workshops
00:35:15
Speaker
And on the far side of the gate, he's now blurring and you can see him waving quickly as a hunting bird to follow him in. I do that. That seems neat. I think Maeve this whole way has been like using all of the tricks she learned growing up walking super slowly, accidentally tripping, like basically just being a whole handful all on her own. And at this point she kind of plants her feet and goes, what's on the other side?
00:35:41
Speaker
Behind you, one of the guards says, you'll have a lot of time to find out and shoves hard. Oh, if it seems like she's going to fall on her way in, I'll try to catch her. Calamity, you have been standing in the same place for three hours waiting while on the far side of the fence, someone has walked up extremely slowly behind your friend and shoved her through. And she has spent the better part of an hour slowly
00:36:11
Speaker
falling closer to the gate until she catches up to you. And a second later, the auditor, who is also slowly tumbling for the last hour, falls through the gate, trips to his knees, and is violently sick. And Gruggery just looks down at him and is like, yeah, some people get that way. It happens.
00:36:35
Speaker
That was rude.
00:36:52
Speaker
Everyone in here is a muted gray, moving at half speed that has been accelerated. Months will pass overnight. Gruggery starts to explain. Inside here there are various labors that need to be done in order to earn your keep. The ships that have crashed here because of the big collapse all basically are indentured servants in here living off of borrowed gravity and recycled oxygen.
00:37:21
Speaker
Inside you are forced to do hard labor like digging for Artron-soaked coal and carbon, working on tech, melting things down for scrap and melting it for raw materials, and even crunching numbers into quantum formula depending on where you wind up. Tripp has a little badge that indicates he is the pit boss for Fugit Foundry, which is the quote-unquote cushiest place to work.
00:37:51
Speaker
In order to determine where you guys are going to end up, we're going to roll presents and convince with Gruggery. Yes, and this is going to be a difficulty of 18 that we are trying to persuade Gruggery that we're good workers, etc. It's not much, but, you know, we get by. Oof. That's a 1 and a 5 for 812. But I will spend a story point on this.
00:38:18
Speaker
By spending the story point, you get yourself out of rift scraping and into scrap work. And he points not towards the end of the promenade, towards a purple glowing special effect that you really don't want to get closer to if you can avoid it, and points to the next station closer, scrap work. There are flickering, flashing torches inside of people doing hard work in hot conditions. Calamity, what did you roll?
00:38:47
Speaker
I have a 16 with nothing special. That is also a fail. He can assign you to scrap work with Maeve, if you like. That seems great. I'm great at finding things that are interesting and useful. This is great. This is great for me. Unfortunately, you did not roll well enough to get tools to make your work easier. That would have been a six plus. But yeah, he points you guys towards the scrap work yard trip.
00:39:12
Speaker
This isn't the worst work. It could have been a sign, so I'll be happy for that. I'm kind of in charge around here, so if you have any trouble, don't bother me. But if you find anything interesting, I'm the guy to tell. Anything out of the ordinary, you'll figure out what the ordinary is pretty soon. Welcome to Purgatory.
00:39:36
Speaker
At a story point, that was beautifully done. From his knees, the auditor just, he looks bad. He did not do so great. Gregory looks at him and just drops a rag near him, get to work.
00:39:55
Speaker
To clarify, the Chainlink fence is only the demarcation point. There is nothing special about the Chainlink fence. It's just the radius of the time wibbly-wobblyness on the far side. Yay, time distortion! The Fixer is brought, handcuffs and all, to a cramped captain's quarters, made comfortable with furnishings taken from other ships. Eclectic decor is the result.
00:40:20
Speaker
Beyond the desk console is a grotty mirror behind a faintly flickering force field.
00:40:26
Speaker
Welcome to the office of Felix Fugit, king of the hill atop a volcano. You have the view of the place for maybe 30 seconds to look around. A guard, Bruno, is standing at the door and you can hear boots on metal gangplanks walking closer. But yeah, you have time to look around if you want for a hot second.
00:40:55
Speaker
Excellent. Can I use that time instead to slip the screwdriver out, fit it into the cuffs, quickly undo them and leave them on so it appears as though they're still on? I didn't actually take the sonic screwdriver with me. I took what I was trying to describe earlier, which was the probe with the little metal things at the end. You are going to be at a disadvantage because you are wearing handcuffs as you try to take off handcuffs.
00:41:20
Speaker
At the difficulty of 21, we're gonna add an extra two because you're trying to do so without being noticed. So you've got coordination plus your subterfuge plus two for the actual device that you've smuggled. You are at a disadvantage against 23. Well, Bruno is going to roll to see if he notices anything about you. Okay, he did not roll well. He rolled a three with a one and a two on the dice.
00:41:50
Speaker
13. You manage to try and find a good angle to start fixing, and try to start getting out. That's when the steps get loud enough that you're like, okay, no, don't. And manage to slip it away without getting caught. So, kudos for that. In walks Felix. He just plops down behind the desk chair like he owns the place because he does. Well, well, well.
00:42:16
Speaker
a fixer out of the sky. I find that I usually end up in places where people need my help. And looking around, you clearly need my help. He sits back in his chair. Help is such a voluntary word. Give me a presence and convince role to sweet talk fix. This is going to be presence and convince. Nice. I got a six and a four for a total of 15.
00:42:45
Speaker
He's not going to force you to do anything. We're just having a nice conversation. He plays with the detector device that was beeping earlier. The bag-o-object is on the desk and he hasn't gotten to it yet, but it seems to be on his to-do list. So according to this, anyway, it's the device. You are from a very far place out of town, am I correct?
00:43:09
Speaker
Well, yes, of course. Do you think people from your time have the time, energy, and resources to come help somebody in your situation? Time is quite relative, especially here. Those friends of yours are going to be spending quite a lot of time here in the interim, and their time
00:43:29
Speaker
hinges on you. That sounds very reasonable, but I have to ask you a question first about one of your friends, Tripshine. Unlike in the Silver Fox look, I really think the salt and pepper hair is like a definite upgrade. It's the years and the mileage. Fair enough. He works for me. I tolerate him because he is useful. Our good friend Mr. Shine is working on projects at his. Let's generously call it a level.
00:43:59
Speaker
Mr. Out of the Sky, I think I have another job. He flicks open the bag of treats. Cut to.
00:44:10
Speaker
In the Quicks, Maeve, Calamity, The Auditor, and Tripp have now been there for over a month. Since you have seen any kind of change in the light, you have slept fitfully when you have not worked to exhaustion, you may have made friends in the interim, you may have done work well,
00:44:32
Speaker
in the interim. We are going to roll for those things and see what happens to you over the course of that month. We are going to be testing your strength and your survival skills for the work that you are doing versus a difficulty of 16 over the course of the last month.
00:44:51
Speaker
I just wanna say, Maeve has not been, she's been trying, but trying to do the opposite of everything she's supposed to do. Everything she does is a complete battle on the part of anybody trying to make her do it. That is totally fair. Like, she's mentioned having a combative relationship with her dad. You get the impression she was quite the handful because she's doubling it here.
00:45:16
Speaker
You are then, okay, number one, I love that. Number two, add a story point. You're gonna need it because you are now rolling any disadvantage for being obstinate to the people who are in your way. Plus two though, for being that strong willed companion.
00:45:31
Speaker
Calamity. You are also getting an advantage here because you have been endlessly positive and I don't think that would erode after only a month of endless labor in a hellish landscape. So give us a strength and survival role with plus two for being your sunny self. Yes, I do have some thoughts about what she's been doing for a month, but let's... I would love to hear them once we get through the role. I got double fours for a total of 13, but I will spend a story point.
00:46:02
Speaker
Or two. If you spend one story point, that brings you up to a fail with or a no-butt. So you have worked very hard. They have noticed you doing the bare minimum of quotas that don't get you in trouble with the other people. You have aged two months over the last month of being in here. It could have been much, much worse. Give us a presence and convince role because there are also people around like Fiona
00:46:31
Speaker
another worker calamity. What did you roll with your strength and survival and plus two? So I've got an eight with a one on one of the dice. You have worked very hard and not gotten very far. You have aged three months in the span of the one month that you have been in here. If it had been worse, you would be at a minus one to something and we're not there yet. Now give us a presence and convince roll for Gruggery and Fiona.
00:46:58
Speaker
Here's the thing, I have a specialization in intrusion. It's technically under the category of subterfuge, but can I use that for this role? Like, trying to talk with the other workers and inspire them to be as stubborn and pigheaded as I'm being. I'll allow it. I'll allow it. I like the individual flavors you guys bring to the show.
00:47:21
Speaker
Jack, please roll for trip to keep your quotas and make sure that the power couplings, the quantum couplings that you've been asked to fabricate continue to be completed on time. Calamity, what did you get? Like Calamity is still fine with this. You know, these things happen. She would get a little bored and probably start a cult. That's what the presence and convince roles are going to be for. Yeah. Yeah. So she's got a 20 with two sixes.
00:47:51
Speaker
Holy crap, that's amazing. I had a 2 and a 6 for a 16. Hang onto the 16 Maeve for the convince roll. Calamity, that was for the work you've been doing here. Actually, no, you already rolled for that. I'm sorry. No, I did. No, I sucked at work. Yeah, you sucked at work.
00:48:08
Speaker
You did, however, gain the friendship of another woman working in the scrapyard named Fiona. Fiona has been here as long as anybody. There are long streaks of gray in her hair, but she has some currency, some social currency with the locals, as with Gruggery. What they don't have is a lot of resolve. Let me ask you a question. This cult that you'd like to bring together nightly
00:48:38
Speaker
as people rest and have their snackums grog. Oh, it is absolutely the Church of Serendipity. Okay, so yeah, with those double sixes, you have started a small church of serendipity in the scrap shop. This is really a perfect place for it. It really is. It really is. Trip, give us a coordination and technology rule and plus two for time training. Okay. Going analog here.
00:49:07
Speaker
12 so a total of 14 14 okay that is unfortunately a fail this was also for the 16 you have worked very hard and have aged two months in the last four weeks of compressed compressed time and because it is a failure there is now a mark on the big board in fugitive foundry which we will be spending some time on soon
00:49:31
Speaker
putt to the nighttime inside the quicks after a month of calamity having meetings for the Church of Serendipity and you are wrapping up a meeting before it is time to go to bed. What are you saying to the assembled people in this little Church of Serendipity?
00:49:50
Speaker
As we have been saying, really, it's all a matter of perspective, you see. The world is a fascinating and wonderful place. If only you can just look at it from the right angle. Many people live lives of really, really quiet boredom.
00:50:10
Speaker
their innermost souls are sort of tortured and withered under the unrelenting assault of just nothing interesting happen, whereas if you properly open yourself up to the will of whoops things will just come to you and they are of course, some of them hurt obviously, some of them are you might normally call unpleasant but again if you look at it from the right perspective unpleasant things are just
00:50:38
Speaker
interesting things for, you know, your body, right? Plus, there's a couple of timelords here, so probably this is all gonna go really, really pear-shaped at some point. Just be ready for that. Take advantage of it.
00:50:53
Speaker
Cut to Maeve getting some air outside in the quicks and staring up at the stars that do not blur. The only thing that's not blurring right now because the stars are still, because the planet is still. You've had a month in here. Your friend has started their own cult. The auditor looks rough. The month has not been kind on him physiologically. There is now starting to show some silver in his temples as well.
00:51:21
Speaker
Nave is angry, not like at anyone in particular, just at the world right now. And she's just looking up at the stars and thinking, we got to get back to there. We have to go and we have to go now.
00:51:33
Speaker
Productivity-wise, for the last month of time, you have been charged with making quantum couplings. They are support beams that allow for the transfer of energy. They help maintain integrity, the bones of the ship. You have been just cutting down scrap and pouring it into molds, and then
00:51:52
Speaker
The couplings have been taken to Fugit Foundry. On the inside of the foundry, the couplings get reduced to two-dimensional, perfectly flat versions of them so that they can be stacked and transferred out of here. The Mirim are here reducing these things to two-dimensional states so they can be easily transported out.
00:52:15
Speaker
trip and the auditor stare at the big board. The project list that is going on inside of the Quicks, there are a number of projects at various states of completion. This is not good for me. This is not good for any of us. I need to stay in Felix's good graces.
00:52:38
Speaker
You see that mark up there? That's bad news for me. I'm terribly sorry you haven't hit your quota, Mr. Shine. I've been a little bit busy absorbing unhealthy amounts of action energy. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I've made my last play. I have to get out of here.
00:52:59
Speaker
I love it. Cut to a wide storage space inside the freighter proper away from the quicks where time is running at a normal pace. Scratch marks, scrape marks lead across the floor from the outside all the way into here. A big blue box of cobalt steel sits in the freighter surrounded by cutting torches, smack hammers, and blast marks of Nitro 9.
00:53:27
Speaker
the box carries not a scratch. No visible means of entry. It is a TARDIS in siege mode, the last desperate measure of a stranded Time Lord. The Fixer is brought in by Bruno, still holding the energy rifle, and Felix, who is just strolling around again like he owns the place as
00:53:51
Speaker
Fate would have it you are not the first person with a thee in your name to fall out of the sky. Really? You're the Felix?
00:54:05
Speaker
You're going to be rolling at disadvantage the next time you have an interaction that is a social contest with Felix. I love it at a story point. Not quite. He goes to an open crate, pulls out a little container of Nitro 9 that looks for all intents and purposes like a shaving cream can, pops the button, starts to beep, and shucks it at the box. There is an explosion and a flicker and not a mark on the box. Again!
00:54:34
Speaker
You see, we've had a little bit of trouble convincing your friend to come out and play. I was wondering if you'd help us fix that.
00:54:43
Speaker
Oh, certainly. That's an easy one. I'll probably need another pallet of the Nitro 9. Probably at least 20 to 30 feet of cord. Something that can handle a high charge. Half the things that you described are laying in coiled piles here and there. None of the gear is firsthand. It has all been scoured and scavenged from the other ships. He explains to you what it is he's actually trying to do.
00:55:10
Speaker
There was a disaster on eruption. They were trying to tap the planet's core as a power source for big doings. And all those people are dead now.
00:55:24
Speaker
Their efforts not only cracked the mantle of the Earth, but they accidentally suspended and killed the spinning of the planet's molten core, bringing the electromagnetic field to a complete stop.
Planetary Catastrophe and Felix's Demand
00:55:39
Speaker
When the planet stopped spinning and circling in the heavens, the wind
00:55:45
Speaker
kept blowing and sheared the entire planet's surface to a sandy ruin. The only people that survived were in orbit in a very thin slice that Felix happened to know about because he got an email from himself. He is stranded here. Everyone is stranded here, and he is not leaving empty-handed. This was a message sent to me from me, and it's the only reason I'm alive.
00:56:13
Speaker
Now I'm inclined to follow my own advice, but right now what I need is power. And there's a lot of it sitting in there. I want to take this ship off of here. Where is your final destination? Anywhere. Everywhere. I want all time and space, Peaches. I want all time and space. Gotcha. Okay, well I guess that won't work quite so well for that goal. Oh, I do have a way to actually make that happen for you, though.
00:56:42
Speaker
What's your opinion of school? He gets closer.
00:56:54
Speaker
and closer. He gets inside your personal bubble. Bruno shifts in body language to be ready to do something if he needs to do something. Felix walks up to you and straightens the lapels on your jacket. It is amusingly delightful that you believe you have some form of choice in all of this. You are going to help me transport this entire vessel off this planet
00:57:24
Speaker
or you and your precious friends will be worked to death. How does that sound? Confusing, because I've already offered you that. Now I get it. Schooling can be a little challenging, but I guarantee you within two to three years... Who's gonna try and punch you in the stomach? I'm gonna take it. I'm not even gonna dodge it. I'm literally going to take the hit. Take the breath afterwards and try to continue talking.
00:57:49
Speaker
Okay, you get as far as two to three years with this smug Time Lord entitlement to the spirit of time and space that isn't itself worth a story point because you are so bloody in character here. You do get a punch in the stomach that sends you to your knees. You're not contesting, you're not going to roll.
00:58:24
Speaker
He pulls out the device again, raises it to his left. This will be funny.
00:58:33
Speaker
Attention, Tripshine. Meanwhile, in Fugit Foundry, another month has passed. Sciencey-YNC doings are necessary. You get a message from Felix Fugit from the outside at the big board. Ah, Mr. Fixer's being a-tared unruly. Why don't you take his friends to do some scraping at the rift and get back to me next month?
00:59:00
Speaker
Boss, I'd be absolutely happy to do that, but let me suggest something that might work better. I know this guy. I can talk to him. Present and convince. Fives for both of those, so that's ten and another seven with a six and a one.
00:59:19
Speaker
17. I'm listening. I can talk to him this way, which, as you know, really screws things up, especially with my mind. And I know you don't care about that, nor should you. Let me come out there. Let me come out and talk to him. I can convince him to do what you need. Very well. And in exchange, Gruggery can take them to the Rift for fresh scrapes.
00:59:44
Speaker
click. A green light goes off in the foundry that is your signal to head for the gates. The next morning inside the quicks, Gruggery knocks on the shanty door for Maeve and Calamity and the auditor. Hi! How's it going?
01:00:04
Speaker
It's going to be bad. This is the bad part. We've got to go to any points towards the purple haze in the distance of the promenade. I think your friend might have said something to make the boss angry. Well, I mean, I had sort of been wanting to check that out. You don't seem like you want to go.
01:00:24
Speaker
Maeve, give me an awareness rule. You are at an advantage because you've now spent at least two to three months around Gruggery. And you've worked alongside him. You've wiped floors. You've cut metal. You've dragged wagons down the street. You've done the same hard, hard labor together.
01:00:41
Speaker
That's a 1 and a 4 for a 14. That is more than enough. Gruggery is broken. He has a resolve score of 1. He is barely able to keep going, and the pressure of this place has ground him down literally over time since the Cataclysm first happened. Gruggery is terrified of...
01:01:01
Speaker
heading for the rift itself. People, all of the people walking this way are gray to white-haired. Because of Calamity's building of a little church of serendipity, Fiona, when she sees the new assignments that you guys have been assigned, she's like... She smuggles Maeve and Calamity visors to keep the rift light out of their faces. She can't go for you, but she can give you some extra protection.
01:01:29
Speaker
me what do these do she says pray you don't have to find out keep them on the whole time okay okay it's not really the kind of thing i pray for but why don't we just you know say we got the word late gregory wait till lunch time maybe later later what a concept
01:01:47
Speaker
and he just trudges off. People are dragging litters of radiated carbon back from the rift as you guys, uh, head that direction. So, Auditor, are we going that direction or do we get lost and go, uh, that way? And I point off the opposite direction. The opposite direction would be towards the fences and the men with guns. Well, I'm sure Maid's been over there a few times to take it to her and see if the defenses are weakening at all.
01:02:14
Speaker
Give me a coordination and subterfuge roll to see if you can sneak around. There are men with rifles on the inside, or at least with bludgeons, instill that brand of morale. That's a 5 and a 6 for an 18.
01:02:29
Speaker
You were looking around the promenade. You start doing a head count while the gate is closed and guarded and the fence is wide to either side. There are only so many men with blaster rifles in here. You just do a head count of the guards and the people on Tripp's level of authority and the various pit bosses at the stations.
01:02:54
Speaker
And the people that have spent their evenings in calamities rooms, listening to the joys of serendipity, they outnumber the guards. Not enough to like, you know, viva revolution, but another month at it might tip the difference. You walk away from the buildings towards a headache of a purple glow. The terrain is cracked. The terrain is unsteady. Um, the air.
01:03:22
Speaker
hums and wobbles dangerously as it is pulled through time in ways it was never intended. Close your eyes and you can feel the pressure, not of tectonic plates crashed aground of each other, but plates of quanta that have been stacked impossibly high above and below, piled against each other precariously intact.
01:03:47
Speaker
breathe wrong and disaster may fall here. That is the pressure from this light, basically a tear in the reality of the way things are supposed to be. Artron energy is incredibly rife here, soaking the terrain surrounding the rift.
01:04:07
Speaker
If the warm afterglow of an oven that's been turned off is the level of background radiation that you're used to in the TARDIS, that place over there is a kill inside of the kill in terms of intensity of the radiation. It won't kill you, but being around it will not do you any good.
01:04:28
Speaker
The ground is just littered with rubble and older people get down on their hands and knees and start scraping handfuls of loose rocks and carbon onto their litters that they can start to drag back. They are trying their best not to gaze directly at the rift. Some of them have visors. They have worked hard enough to rate visors. The auditor did not get one because Fiona only had hers and Gregory's that she could spare.
01:04:56
Speaker
This is going to be a strength roll with survival. The visors make it so that you have a better chance of avoiding gazing into time and the bad things that can happen from that. Would you like to approach first or just start digging where you are? Does the auditor look worse off than me? Oh my yes. I'm gonna give the auditor my visor.
01:05:24
Speaker
Add two story points for the most humane companion-y thing I have seen in a lot of games. Timelords are sensitive to problems with time. In terms of a severity of like, I don't like strawberries versus I'm fatally allergic to strawberries is the difference. So his hands have been shaking a little bit when he's trying to drag the radiated carbon onto his litter. Maeve, roll.
01:05:52
Speaker
to gaze into the rift because you have sacrificed your visor. This is going to be an awareness roll plus survival versus 14. Okay, that's a 3 and a 6 for a 13. You gain a grasp of the rift at this distance and you feel cold.
01:06:14
Speaker
You feel a coldness pass through you. Bone and blood get no closer to this thing. Calamity, you have your visor on, yes? Mm-hmm. Okay, give us a strength and survival goal, please. And throw on two because you've had a lot of crappy jobs. Versus 18 for the getting to work. So I have a 14 with a 6. That is a fail. You have worked very hard today. Age three years. There is an extra ribbon of silver.
01:06:43
Speaker
in Calamity's hair. She has aged years in the time that we have been here. The auditor rolled a four with a one on the dice. That is definitely a failure. He ages five years in front of your eyes, dragging the rocks onto the litter. Maeve, can you give me a strength and survival role, please, to be doing your own heavy lifting here? I have a six and a two for an 11.
01:07:12
Speaker
You have worked very hard today. You have felt every minute of it and you have aged three years. It has been three years of thankless work piled into one day. This is the strain that brings people back looking like they've aged a decade. But you guys do successfully fill your litters
01:07:33
Speaker
and start dragging them back from the rift older if not wiser. Maeve you are going to be at a plus two for future rift related challenges because you survived looking into it and shared your visor. Cut to five minutes that have barely passed where Felix has been eating a Snackems bar waiting to hear back on the torments that have been going on for the Fixer's allies and just gets a little
01:08:00
Speaker
Their shift's up, boss. He looks at the Fixer who has gotten to his feet again. Now are you willing to help me, or do you have more clever things to say? What type of yes do you need to hear? Yes, you will open that ship. Yes, you will bring me to your ship. Yes, you will get me and every scrap of material I care about off of this broken rock. And we will never see each other again. How's that sound?
01:08:27
Speaker
Okay. Felix drops the sack of purloined items on the floor and it falls open. So what I'd like to do, and I'll ask for the items as I'm doing this, so it's obviously I'm working and not just buying time, I'm going to begin taking the charges and begin lining them up along one specific wall of the box, one end to the other.
01:08:49
Speaker
Then, if there's pallets or other material that the equipment was brought in on, I'm going to begin lining those explosives with those pallets. So there's now the unbreakable material, layer of explosives, layer of pallets. And at that point, I'm going to turn to them and say, OK, while I start running wire, I need you to fetch my stylus and my companion's recording equipment. I'm going to need both of those to be able to activate this properly and not just turn this into a giant bomb.
01:09:18
Speaker
Felix, first he's gonna hand it to a guard who's gonna come over and hold it very skeptically in front of you. Do I even need to say no sudden moves? Well, yeah, did you see how many explosives we just put on that wall?
01:09:32
Speaker
Look at Bruno and say, I am so sorry that your boss isn't looking out for you the way he should. Reach inside the bag, pull out Sonic Stylus, pull out Maeve's recorder, pull out, I believe it was a snow globe that Calamity was enjoying earlier. The happy luck chance ball. The happy luck chance ball. Shooka shooka.
01:09:50
Speaker
Take that, put that down directly next to me. Begin opening up the back of the recording device and start looking at the equipment inside as if I'm looking at the best way to start running that wire to this equipment. Start running wire across pallets that I put against the explosives. That way it creates that sort of lattice of metal.
01:10:09
Speaker
And at that point, check to see if my sonic screwdriver is actually active again. You ask that question like you don't know that I know what I'm doing.
01:10:38
Speaker
I can't be sure. Well, I've been waiting this entire time for you. I hope the wait has been worth it. Don't talk to me about waiting, Fixer. You haven't lived it. You aren't living what your companions are living right now. So you've obviously said yes, and so my trip out here, turns out, was for nothing. No, it really wasn't. I'm actually very happy to see you. You know, I've had a question for you for a while now. You know when you were moving those Mirim around?
01:11:09
Speaker
Did you know it was going to hurt those people? Yeah. Can you tell me why you didn't? Because I told him to. Oh, good. Well, that makes life a lot easier, actually. The next palette of flattened quantum couplings are brought in. One of the guards takes a silver ingot over to the palette and there is the squeaking.
01:11:35
Speaker
And then as the dimensionality of these quantum couplings is restored so that they can actually be installed around the ship. Because I told him to. Because your agent of time landed here. It's only through my beneficence that I allowed him to go fishing for more people like you so we can get out of here. Do you understand?
01:11:59
Speaker
I do, Felix, and I really appreciate that. I really do. Again, you know, we made an agreement. You on inside that box. I'm gonna get you inside that box. What I'd like to do is, with one arm, reach out around Tripp's waist, scoop him to the side so that he's firmly along the still protected side of the metal box.
01:12:20
Speaker
While using the Sonic, activate those explosives at once, which should drive that force towards the nearest wall, blowing a hole in the nearest wall at minimum. Stun the other two guys in the room, giving me and Tripp enough time to exit post-haste. So dynamic. Give me a roll of the dice and don't get a snake eyes. This is going to be ingenuity, this is going to be technology. And add two for being a Time Lord and add two for being a Sonic.
01:12:49
Speaker
I would also like to use those last two story points to try to make this happen. As we have discussed in the past, story points can be used to either affect the success rates of things that you want to do or just flat out cause those things to do. Two story points will make a change. It will increase the success, but it will not cause the thing by itself. I do need you to still roll because this is going to be a major impact literally with the explosives involved.
01:13:18
Speaker
I'm so happy I spent those extra points because we're looking at a 2 and a 1 for a total of 11. So here's the fun thing about physics. When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, there is a reaction in the other way. The TARDIS in Siege mode is indestructible. The Nitro 9 that has been installed facing the metal pallets towards the wall of the freighter are not going to leave so much as another scratch.
01:13:43
Speaker
on the actual blue box and instead push all of that detonating force in the other direction blasting out the wall. The spot, however, is Helix is out of the blast range. Only his guards have been blown off their feet in the detonation. Yeah, they rolled snake eyes. The guards are out freaking cold.
01:14:07
Speaker
So yeah, I presume you and Tripp are cheesing it out the brand new hole in Ford and Fugitive?
01:14:14
Speaker
Absolutely. Yes. Giving Trip the opportunity to run first. Give us a strength roll, please. We are now running over rocky terrain. This is going to be a new fun roll. Trying to go faster on an average street is a difficulty of 9. You're basically in a rock quarry, so the challenge to be here is 15. So strength and survival or athletics. Did Fixer take any sort of... does he have any points in athletics?
01:14:38
Speaker
Let's double check. It's not a lot. Just an athletics of two and I only have a strength of two as well. Okay, we're looking at a four and a one for a total of nine. You've got that ringing of tinnitus in your ears of standing too close to an explosion when it explodes. So you are wobbly AF between the fake gravity being close to a time distortion and the explosion that just went off. You will keep your feet but it will not be a graceful exit.
01:15:06
Speaker
Yeah, so with my strength of four in athletics of three, I rolled a 10 with six for a total of 17.
01:15:14
Speaker
Beautiful. Yeah, you get out of there, I'd say at least two, three steps ahead of the Fixer. Meanwhile, the Felix is, he is a scrapper. He is disorientated, but he is still on his feet. And he pulls out a blaster and he starts chasing after you guys. Meanwhile, inside the Quicks, it is the middle of your so-called day. You are not exhausted to the point of ruin yet. Calamity is having a noontime
01:15:42
Speaker
brainstorm session with Church of Whoops. I think Maeve is attending and she's been talking to Calamity. I'm sure whatever the Fixer is doing is very important and I'm sure he's doing everything he can to get us out of here, but I think we might need to take a little initiative. There are now more people in your church than there are guards guarding us.
01:16:04
Speaker
And you know, a distraction could be quite an interesting thing to happen. I was actually thinking about a distraction. Calamity has developed an extremely unhealthy fascination with what was described as basically a large disaster waiting to happen.
01:16:22
Speaker
with the quantum stacked things. Just precarious, I think was the term you used. And she's just been thinking about it the whole time. And in fact, she's kind of been mentioning it in her sermons. Soon.
01:16:42
Speaker
Presence and convince and throw two on for being the acolyte of whoops. We're at an advantage with your followers because you spent the last three months overnight bringing these people around to your way of seeing things. I think Maeve has been attending and kind of also supporting this cause. This will be presence and convince to help sway the group and build more followers.
01:17:06
Speaker
I haven't actually used a lot of story points, so I'm gonna just toss two on there. Okay. To make sure it goes well. Okay, great. Good thing too. I got a 14 with a one and a three. And I got a 15 with a three and a five. You have more than enough to bring these suffering people around to the idea that random things happen, but they're not always bad. Some of them can be good if you just wait long enough. And as you guys are talking about, we just need a distraction.
01:17:35
Speaker
and that's when the rumble starts. I don't know if you've ever had the pleasure of watching an explosion go off in slow motion, but it is a joy to behold. When you say distraction, the rumble begins, and you turn, and on the far side of the fences, outside the quicks, an entire wall of forged fugits begins to look as pieces of scrap metal fly,
01:18:02
Speaker
ever so slowly through the air on a growing plume of flame and destruction the ground rumbles fixer you are the time lord responsible for this latest disruption evens for odds oh well i'm an odd one so i'm gonna go for odds that is a snake eyes and the number two
01:18:28
Speaker
The explosion continues to erupt. Cracks split the ground underneath Fort Fugit and make their way in terrifying slow motion right for the quips.
Explosive Cliffhanger
01:19:04
Speaker
And that is where we are going to stop things today in hard time. Our fourth mod with our incredible team TARDIS. My cheeks hurt from smiling. I would love to go around the table. Kate, how would Maeve report on today's events, do you think?
01:19:24
Speaker
Oh, I think it would definitely be like a human interest piece from the side of someone in the quicks and struggling to survive it. Like very focused on the idea of revolution and change. There would be no objectivity there. I love it. Dora, what did you think of today's bizarre turn of events?
01:19:45
Speaker
I mean, it's been a lot, I'm not gonna lie, but Calamity is just really leaning into it because there's just so much going on here. I mean, she has sort of established a shrine, and if anybody actually survives, they might spread in various directions, and that'd be great. If they don't...
01:20:04
Speaker
Well, you know, that is OK, too. But but yeah, no, she's she's all about this. This is really one of the most exciting things that has happened to her, even though it's taking a really long time. That part is rough, but the sermons help. I mean, it's never easy starting a church. Yeah.
01:20:27
Speaker
What I will say for context is that Whoops! originated as a deity in a big Finnish story that was part of Calamity's inspiration and we have been looking forward to just unfolding all the little flowers of this garden of experience that Calamity has. Brand, what surprised you most about today's mod?
01:20:48
Speaker
Oh my, Felix. Felix was credit to you, well, very well-written character, but also when interacting with him, as we were peeling apart the layers of that onion, it makes a lot of sense. It's that self-driving story of I'm trying to survive this, I'm trying to make something better out of it, and then finally you see this gleaming gem and you're reaching for the gem, not realizing you're harming everybody around you as you do it. Ah, it was so good.
01:21:12
Speaker
Yeah, Felix is fun. He's completely new. I don't want to give too much away. Show, don't tell. But you've gotten the impression that he's a dangerous guy trying to eke out a living. I'm really interested in not only messing with time, because we love messing with time, a villain who's not an alien, who doesn't have special powers, who just has people and guns and will wibbly wobbly cause an effect in play. Welcome back, Jack Shear. Thank you.
01:21:39
Speaker
How did it feel playing our first return NPC on anywhere but now? Well it's an honor obviously to be the first one to make a reappearance. Tripp has been working angles this whole time and none of them paid off and the Fixer has just forced his hand.
01:22:01
Speaker
So I will be very curious to see what he does now that he's had his lot thrown in against his will, but probably not against his desires. Bravo. I am so glad to bring back Crip and start to unfold some of the mysteries that we promised early on, you know, and not leave you waiting and dangling about them the entire season, because where's the fun in that? You know, we want to feel like we're actually getting places and learning things and accomplishing stuff.
01:22:30
Speaker
I do want to talk a little bit about messing with time. Since the 12th Doctor and Bill got separated and she spent 10 years while 12 spent half an hour trying to get to each other, I wanted to know what would that feel like in a game where time is moving at different rates for different characters. How do I get them there? What do they do? Why are they there? How is it affecting them, etc.? And watching Babe's passive resistance of dragging her feet every step of the way.
01:22:59
Speaker
and calamity, just being, oh, this is, this is, wow, this is really something. Have you guys heard about whoops? Come on by the shelter tonight after 16 hours of grueling labor. We'll talk about whoops. It'll be a nice time. They'll be snackums grueled. Just lie there and listen. You know, it's very relaxing. You just, just lie on the floor and I'll just talk. It's great.
01:23:24
Speaker
It's a lot easier for Calamity, obviously, because of her attitude towards hardship. It's all good for me. I mean, I think being given the option to resist was important to me because I don't picture Maeve as being like, yeah, this is fine. I'm good.
01:23:38
Speaker
No, absolutely not. This brings us to one of my favorite segments of AFTRS, though, where we can go around Robin and give each other points for highlights of the game. Because when Maeve gave the auditor their visor as an extra level of protection in the rift, that was so humane. That was so self-sacrificing and thoughtful that I could not let it go unrewarded.
01:24:07
Speaker
everybody playing take a experience point for today's adventure may have taken extra one that was absolutely beautiful and calamity take an extra experience point for starting a new chapter in the church of whoops fixer i have been looking forward to bringing him to
01:24:28
Speaker
An opponent who is not necessarily in the mood for a chat and oh let's just banter for a bit. And you did not disappoint. I love testing your characters so that you see how far where the line is between push and shove, you know? And I hope that's fun for you as it is for me. Oh absolutely, it absolutely is.
01:24:49
Speaker
And I do love that sense of you hit that line where the character's motivation is so strong that even the best reason argument won't change their motivation because that is what they want to accomplish. And I felt like that came across really well. We're getting into some slightly murky Time Lord territory.
01:25:07
Speaker
Fixer being told don't go looking for trip shine and him looking for trip shine.
Participant Shoutouts and Reflections
01:25:11
Speaker
Anyway, that's not a bad thing It might not make the doctoral program council happy, but it's not a bad thing You know, it's just gonna be bringing more cause and effect and it's good stuff consequences You guys wanna give any shout outs to each other
01:25:27
Speaker
Yes, I do. I really want to give just all the points to Pandora for that amazing moment of creating the cult and the way you navigated that. That is wonderful. I don't really know much about the in-history of the Whoopsian religion, but if it has no current fictional start date, then in my headcanon, this is where it starts.
01:25:52
Speaker
you guys are bouncing all over time it would make perfect sense for an accidental deity to have been retconned into existence by one of its own parishioners before the actual inception of the church yes it literally started like outside of time because it was like in the divergent universe so maybe somebody goes through that rift i don't know maybe if you need to know anything about the church just watch everything that calamity does because that's basically it nice thank you though
01:26:22
Speaker
Jack, this has been an absolute treat. I am so grateful that you came back for round two. Yeah, that was very good. Yeah, thank you for having me back. This is a fun group and some really talented and gifted gamers. I have been gaming in one form or another since 1981. This is among one of the more fun groups I've been part of.
01:26:48
Speaker
Thank you so much, Jack. I just wanted to give a shout out to you. I really loved your portrayal of just a guy who is way over his head and has gotten more than he's bargained for.
01:26:58
Speaker
Well, I'm pouring a lot of my own life experience into that. I hear that. Thank you. Yeah, I hope getting close to the rift wasn't too real for people. That was cool, actually. Yeah, that was something I was going to give a shout out to Mae for because I had had the exact same idea of giving my visor to the auditor, but it was going to be like a complete afterthought.
01:27:22
Speaker
because calamity wanted to just stare into the rift and the visor would be in the way so she's just gonna like hand it to him you know but uh when mave gave it to him they had like it was such a tender moment that calamity's like i'm not gonna get in the way of that i'll just i'll just go over here
01:27:40
Speaker
but um but for the fixer that mic drop moment that he had i do does anyone remember what the exact wording was like it was so perfect and i've forgotten it now which um yeah there are a lot of them and like he was being pithy
01:27:55
Speaker
How do you feel about school moments? That was my favorite. That was also brilliant. I deeply adored that. Thank you. That was nicely done. That was nicely done.
Time Mechanics and Emotional Reflections
01:28:09
Speaker
Man, I have been looking forward to messing with time with you guys and throwing you into scenarios where time mechanics will be against you for a minute and your roles impact where the ship lands. If you rolled worse,
01:28:25
Speaker
piloting the TARDIS, we would have landed outside of Fort Fugit, immediately outside as in, oh, let's just go grab that ship that arrived versus hiding safely away in a moderate hiding space, you know, a couple of blocks over. The same way that how you interact with Gruggery and Fiona affects where you wind up working. Okay, you did okay, so you're not working in the worst place. That's great. You don't have to go stare into time right now and then fix your mouth off to Felix and like, okay, now you gotta go stare into time for a while.
01:28:53
Speaker
Which I am so happy I took that moment to like check in with everybody before we left on that mission. Because I would be dealing, the Fixer would be dealing with so much feelings of guilt otherwise, having like stolen three years of their life while waiting for a trip.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:29:08
Speaker
Yeah, we did sign the waiver. We're good. That's beautiful. Thank you guys so much for joining us today. And finally, to our listeners, 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. Feel free to leave a like or a comment, and you can find us on Twitter at Anywhere But Now with an underscore at the end, and wherever you get your podcasts.
01:29:39
Speaker
For all of us, I'm Casey Jones. Thanks so much and have a great day.