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Through the Looking Glass
301 Plays1 year ago
Join the young Time Lord, the Fixer, on the first adventure of his Semester Abroad!
He's off to the UK in 1890 to solve a mystery with bizarrely *flattened* bystanders, meet an intrepid reporter that doesn't quite fit in, and explore a glass factory that's full of spooky surprises! (And if there's time, pick up some walnut bread.)
Enjoy thrills, chills, and laughs galore with Brand Osorio and Cate MacCoyne, along with GM Casey Jones. It's bound to be a delightful time!
Music by Tabletop Audio
Theme by RJ Pirchinello
Follow us on Twitter and come say hi!
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Transcript
Introduction and Player Introductions
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 holds a thrilling adventure in time and space, so let's dive in. With me is the wonderful crew of our time-traveling machine. Playing the Fixer is the wonderful Bran DeSorio. Hello, Bran. Hello.
00:00:31
Speaker
and joining him for their very first adventure is Maeve Sullivan, played by the terrific Kate McCoy. Welcome, Kate. Let's go. Yay! Are you guys excited? You feel that energy? Absolutely.
Rules and Gameplay Overview
00:00:46
Speaker
Now, we play with the second edition of Cubicle 7's Doctor Who rulebooks. That means the dice are magic. Rolling double sixes bring extra bonuses, while rolling snake eyes spells disaster. House rules mean our players begin the game with five, count them, five story points each, so they're not empty-handed, but don't have an embarrassment of riches either.
Maeve Sullivan's Story Begins
00:01:09
Speaker
Get ready for a collaborative, immersive storytelling experience, because that's what I've been bringing to tables for over ten years.
00:01:16
Speaker
The name of the game is Doctor Who, but our show is anywhere but now. Instead of a legendary hero who's defeated the Daleks and the Cybermen hundreds of times, our intrepid fixer is still in his first incarnation, traveling the cosmos as a senior member in the doctoral program.
00:01:34
Speaker
What's that, you wonder? Roles, rules, and other tantalizing tidbits will be explained as we go. You're in good hands. 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. All they know is it takes place in Maeve's home time zone of New Key Cornwall, 1890. A bigger on the inside thank you to our listeners. Time is truly a gift, or it wouldn't be the present.
00:02:02
Speaker
We thank you for spending yours with us.
Engagement with Listeners
00:02:05
Speaker
If you like what you hear, follow us on Twitter at anywherebutnow underscore at the end. Links to everything in the doobly-doo. Brought to you wherever you're listening in time and space, this is Anywhere But Now.
Maeve's Meeting with John Perry
00:02:54
Speaker
We open on Maeve's room above the fork and whistle. Maeve's room faces the eastern harbor and is bright with the morning light. The chatter of industrious fishermen, wagon drivers, and more can be heard below on their way to start their day. The humble room of a junior reporter for the Cork Street Chronicle.
00:03:13
Speaker
A tray with last night's dinner sits barely touched on the table by a notebook of cold leaves on missing persons. A list paired to a map on the wall covered in marks of places Maeve's been in her investigations and gotten nowhere. Well-traveled local Maeve boots sit under the bed near a convenient loose floorboard for the concealing of treasures and mementos best forgotten. Maeve, you're in your room. It's the top of the day. What are you doing?
00:03:40
Speaker
I think Maeve is like probably late for something and like frantically trying to get herself together in order to leave the house, like putting her hair up, but she keeps missing like one little strand and eventually she's just like, okay, and just leaves it down. Gotcha. That's correct. You do have a appointment waiting with your boss downstairs. You typically start every work day with a quick meeting with him and you head downstairs into the pub proper. A cozy, dark little pub with a smoky film on the windows and a basket of fresh sheets waiting to go upstairs.
00:04:10
Speaker
The owner and operator, Rosie, smartly serves greasy breakfast to hungover workers and managers of local newspapers. The coffee is hot. The eggs are burnt. The toast will be up in a minute. You come down the stairs. This is going to be our first exciting roll of the day. Go ahead and give us, please, awareness and intuition with two of your dice.
00:04:31
Speaker
That's gonna be an 11. So, an 11 is not quite a 12, which is what we would be looking for to uncover useful but not secret hidden facts, in which case you notice nothing out of the ordinary. Question, were any of the numbers on the dice a six or a one? Two and a four. All right, you managed not to trip over a basket of fresh laundry at the foot of the stairs on your way to the bar where Rosie is waiting with a plate of hot food.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah, so I take a seat at the bar and just start sipping on a cup of coffee and like picking up the food, but only barely touching it. Give me a presence and convince roll with Rosie polishing a cliche of a glass nearby. That's double threes. Well.
00:05:14
Speaker
12, okay, very good. Also on the house rolls, that in addition to Snake Eyes spelling certain disaster and boxcars, meaning it could not have gone better, double threes mean you have the averages average to ever average. With A12, Rosie smiles at you. Morning love, can't talk, got a shepherd in this morning. How'd you pass the night? Your boss is right over there. I apologize, Rosie is now Irish.
00:05:40
Speaker
Good morning. Yeah, I should probably go say hello. And I'm gonna take the plate and coffee with me and go see about my boss. Yes, your boss is a not entirely pleasant smelling man hunched over steak and eggs and burnt toast as he's just trying to scrape the yolk up off of an iron plate with as little grease spattered on his suit as he can manage. Give us a presence and convince role, please.
00:06:11
Speaker
Thirteen. Thirteen. To give you a bit of background on your editor, John Perry. John is not the nicest of people, but in 1890, his brusque-ness is more or less par for the course. You have been trying to land a story for months since you got his attention in the first place.
00:06:32
Speaker
of landing your official first front page story. And he has been thwarting you step by step every inch of the way. It's a miracle you were hired in the first place, as far as he's concerned, and every time you bring him something that could be a juicy story, he's like, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. You said you rolled a 12 this morning? Yes.
00:06:54
Speaker
So yeah, he's not looking too cheerful with you when you sit down opposite him. Maeve, what'd you do? Sleep in? Sleep in. Not quite. Good morning. You're smelling wonderful this morning. Really. Never smelled better. You're trying to be funny. He's American.
00:07:15
Speaker
Stranger things have happened, stranger things have happened than American newspaper men ending up in Cornwall. He slides a slip of paper across the table with a timetable wagons to Bishop Rock. So yeah, I don't know what you've been wasting your time on, but we've got renovations coming up on Bishop Rock. The mayor wants someone to look up on it, should be a nice little puff piece for you.
00:07:38
Speaker
Renovations on Bishop Rock. This is what you have for me. I have a lead on missing people all over the city and you're giving me renovation? Give me another presence and convince role. And we're going to throw on the distinction that you are an experienced reporter. You have developed or are developing a nose for news. So that is going to add two points to your role as you try to persuade this person. 14.
00:08:02
Speaker
What are the numbers on the dice? You and a four. You are currently just under what you would need to sway him. Do you want to spend a story point? Absolutely.
00:08:12
Speaker
Okay, for our listeners' unused two story points, they are a currency in the game that can help increase the success rate of a given role. They cannot turn a disaster into a perfect result, but they can raise a disaster to at least a bare success. And story points will be earned throughout the game with further explanations, including roleplay. Squeaking by with a story point bump, Perry just sort of grumbles and pulls the
00:08:41
Speaker
Lighthouse slipped back under his palm. Just scratches his jaw pretending to think about it because he can't actually acquiesce to you without some kind of pushback, otherwise he wouldn't be doing his job. He gives you the nod that you've seen in the past. It means, I suppose, it's the best you're going to get out of him this morning on his first cup of coffee.
00:09:05
Speaker
You have the tacit, if not the implicit, green light to look into disappearances. Give me an awareness role as you get up and head for the great outdoors. That's not great. That's a seven. Two and a one.
00:09:21
Speaker
Two and a one. Okay, that is going to bring you down a little bit. The light is too low, unfortunately, to see anything in here that is meaningful. And you stub a toe as you get up from the table. You are going to be at a minus one to coordination for the next 15 minutes of gameplay.
00:09:37
Speaker
Not the most auspicious start to your day. You get to the door and you push the door open just in time to see your friend Mitchell pulling a wagon up the street. He gives you a little nod on his two tired looking ponies and they start pulling a wagon cart away from the front of the pub.
00:09:58
Speaker
Meanwhile, across the street at the Darling Tea House, the smells of heaven emanate from the bakery behind the counter of a bustling tea shop. The scents of cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, and toasting walnuts dance together on a warm, cozy crosswind of coffee and tea,
00:10:15
Speaker
every time the front door opens.
Breakfast and Adventure Planning
00:10:17
Speaker
The shop is full and alive with customers getting breakfast and starting their day. The floor is spotless. The tables have humble but clean tablecloths. A small chalkboard on the wall features specials baked fresh that morning. A server delivers a pair of plates and a to-go box to a pair of gentlemen at a small table in the corner where somehow the din of the morning traffic doesn't quite reach.
00:10:39
Speaker
These gentlemen happen to be Time Lords. Dandies from the fourth dimension, these fine young-looking men are enjoying breakfast before what promises to be an adventurous season abroad. The waitress delivers the two plates and the to-go box in front of you and your companion. Fixer, what are you wearing this morning?
00:11:04
Speaker
I'm currently wearing a cerulean blue overcoat. Peeking out through the top of it, you can see that there's a navy blue gambeson underneath that. And just the hint of a kilt coming out of the bottom of it.
00:11:18
Speaker
Wonderful. Sitting across from you is a ginger-haired Time Lord in a three-piece suit that is a darker plum purple with a paisley with Saturn rings and moons orbiting around the finer points of the paisley pattern.
00:11:35
Speaker
He lifts the coffee cup to his nose and deposits it with a smile next to the best walnut bread you've ever laid eyes on. And he politely thanks the waitress as she disappears behind the counter. Fixer, give me please an awareness and intuition roll, please. Absolutely.
00:11:56
Speaker
Got a 6 and a 2 on the dice, so we're starting at an 8. And I have a 5 from the attributes and skills. So that's going to be bringing us up to a 13. Wonderful. It is a busy morning at a lovely little coffee shop. A pair of delivery men bring in a large flat crate as quietly as they dare hope.
00:12:16
Speaker
while Dorothy Darling bustles out from behind the counter to sort of sweep them a path through customers with her handkerchief, leading them behind the counter. It looks like they are delivering a mirror to replace the faded one that is currently behind the wall. Mrs. Darling recognizes the auditor. He's something of a regular. She just fusses with her handkerchief. But yeah, she's got no time for niceties this particular moment.
00:12:42
Speaker
Can't talk now, my pet. Go to ship and coming. Sorry, dear. And she just disappears bustling with the gentleman. A lot of light is coming through the open windows on the east side, so the light is just coming right in. It is a warm, lovely morning. The auditor stirs a spoonful of sugar into his coffee and dollop of cream and takes a sip. So how is the cake?
00:13:05
Speaker
You know, it's the best I've ever had. I've been up and down this countryside back and forth across, Lord knows how many decades, and there's just something about the way they toast the walnuts. Right before they go into the cake, he's just... He pats the to-go box that contains a good number of fresh slices of walnut cake for the road. Are you sure we're bringing enough?
00:13:29
Speaker
Well, that's up to you. He takes out a slip of paper, the official announcement that you are starting your semester abroad. You have come up through the doctoral program on Gallifrey for a number of years. You have done well with your trips out and returns to Gallifrey, but the terms of the semester abroad are that you are just
00:13:53
Speaker
out. You do not go back to Gallifrey in the meantime unless they call for you. This is quite literally your semester abroad. It's nice to know we've earned their trust. I should say so. The auditor is just a little bit chuffed with pride. You know, it's no small feat coming through the second rendition of the doctoral program. You should be quite pleased with yourself. This is no Sunday walker going on. I know.
00:14:17
Speaker
but I feel like there's so many wonderful opportunities. When you say wonderful opportunities, there's a little shriek and a musical sting from behind the counter. The two men that are opening the crate are lifting it out. Dorothy gives the little squeak and she backs away from the mirror that the two gentlemen are trying to pull out of the thin crate filled with straw for packing. Give me an awareness roll, please.
00:14:45
Speaker
Absolutely. Just awareness by itself? Awareness, intuition, and feel the turn of the universe, even play. So I got a two and a two on the roll. So starting at a four. We'll add a five to that from skills and attributes. And then is it an extra two for the turn of the universe? So that's going to bring us up to an 11. OK. The 11 is not going to do it. Is it OK if I simply go and try to provide help to this person that seems to be in distress?
00:15:14
Speaker
You can get up, yes, and offer to help. From here, you can't see what they're squeaking about, but they are causing a little bit of commotion. Even go over and offer to help if you want. Yes, please. Darling, I heard you from across. Are you feeling okay? Is everything okay?
00:15:31
Speaker
She gives you a quick double take. It's Mrs. Darling, my boy. Mrs. Darling, you don't know me that well yet. And she fusses with the handkerchief in front of her nose like she's trying to waft away evil spirits or something. I don't know what to make of it. So yeah, give me another awareness roll with the intuition and feel the turn of the universe for me now that the gentlemen are out of your way. We actually come in at 11 on my side.
00:15:55
Speaker
Okay, yeah, an 11 once again is not going to tell you more than the bare minimum. Well, that's fair. I would like to be more focused on how it's emotionally affecting this person who seemed very shook by that moment.
00:16:11
Speaker
That's fair. That is going to be a different role than looking at something. That'll be more present than convinced if you want to comfort Mrs. Darling. Yes, please. On the surface of the mirror, it's reflecting the room, but on the surface of the mirror, there appears to be a person, frozen, flat.
00:16:27
Speaker
While your reflection in the glass on either side of this person has its own depth and shadow, the image that is on the glassy surface of this mirror is frozen and completely flattened on the glass. It has been drained of color. It has been drained of life. It is a rictus of a man with his hands up in surprise. He appears to be wearing a work apron. Well, that's not my favorite terrifying.
00:16:56
Speaker
Just a mite terrifying, yeah. The two men are holding the mirror. Mrs. Darling fusses and says, put it down, put it down, put it down. One of the men holding it as he's sliding it back into the case just cries out.
00:17:11
Speaker
and whips his hand away and the mirror drops out of his hand and the other person just sets it down and backs away. The entire shop now has gone quiet. As the worker is just stunned and shaking out his hand, he grips his right hand at the wrist, looks at his thumb in complete shock and horror. I have to know what happened to his thumb.
00:17:34
Speaker
You get a little closer and he shows you his thumb. The thumbprint has been completely removed. The pad of his thumb has gone completely flat and smooth. While the springiness of your own thumb might have some give, his has been hardened and is now smooth as glass. Definitely like to take a quick glance at any shipping material that came with this mirror. If Cox is right there, we definitely want to look at that.
00:18:00
Speaker
Vanity Glass is stenciled in black on the lid of the box. Dorothy Darling is shaking her head while a waiter gets the blank-thumbed workman a cup of tea to calm his nerves.
00:18:19
Speaker
Meanwhile, Maeve, you have left the fork and whistle, you make your way through the streets, and eventually reach
Investigation at Vanity Glassworks
00:18:29
Speaker
Vanity Glassworks.
00:18:32
Speaker
It is a large building with not many windows and is one of the larger industrial corners of New Key. They make glass here in a variety of sizes and means. They don't just do mirrors, although they do also do mirrors. They do plateware, glassware, you name it. At some point, they have fabricated it.
00:18:54
Speaker
So from here you can see a hatch is open to the foundry floor. You could probably circle around the building to the shipping yards in the back. You know for a fact your boss is something of an inveterate name dropper. You would not be surprised at all if your boss, John Perry, was in fact on speaking terms, if not friends, with the owner of this place. So yeah, you can go to the foundry floor, you can go check out the office, you can go around back, you can do any number of things. What would you like to do first?
00:19:23
Speaker
I'll head through the foundry floor first just to take a look around. Inside the vanity glassworks is the foundry floor. You step onto a wide open industrial floor. Hot, dangerous work is done here from dawn to dusk. Furnaces about the open floor burn brightly as silicate becomes molten glass and silver ingots liquefy to reflective perfection.
00:19:46
Speaker
Men in aprons, gloves, and goggles carefully pour silver over glass. As elsewhere, glassblowers turn molten glowing light into a variety of glassware. Small measures have been taken to ensure safety, but this is still a dangerous room to stand in. Shred carefully.
00:20:03
Speaker
Stairs lead away from the furnace floor to offices and storage on the stories above. It is hot in here, not warm. There will occasionally be environmental difficulties for characters, PCs, and NPCs to deal with. I am mentioning this not because any of our present PCs have vulnerabilities to heat, but just as a reminder that in the future such obstacles may become present. Please, Maeve, give me an awareness and intuition roll and throw up the two points for being an investigative journalist, please.
00:20:33
Speaker
That is double threes, but it comes out to a 15. The workers seem tense. They do not look thrilled to see you. Why is not immediately clear. It is punishingly hot in here for those not used to it. The good news is that they have not immediately drawn ranks or closed up or anything like that. And right now are simply giving you wary look because they have never seen you here before. Can I ask what in my research made me come here?
00:21:02
Speaker
A quick recap of the notes you've been taking in your off hours that were in your private room. There have been a number of unsolved missing persons reports in New Key over the last two weeks. There have been no signs of foul play.
00:21:22
Speaker
people have simply disappeared. From what you have been able to surmise, the people that have disappeared either worked at Vanity Glass or purchased something from them in the last Fortnite. That is as far as you've gotten.
00:21:37
Speaker
Unfortunately, by the time that you have gotten to these places where someone has disappeared, someone had already come and collected the mirrors that were purchased if they were ordered. So right now, what you've got is hearsay and interviews and your own records on a pinpointed map on a big board.
00:21:59
Speaker
It is worth mentioning, Mitchell, your friend, that you passed on the way. Mitchell drives wagons. He's a wagoneer for a number of businesses in the area, and you and he have traded pints long into the night, so he might be a name to drop here. Are there any, like, finished products that are coming off the line that I can just take a quick glance at as I walk by?
00:22:20
Speaker
Absolutely. It is molten glass and it is just smooth, pristine. It's perfect. There are a number of visible slabs of mirror glass waiting to cool fully.
00:22:32
Speaker
And as I'm walking through this space, do I recognize anything that looks unusual about the process these people are going through? Does this look like just normal making a mirror processes? Give me an awareness and knowledge role because I don't believe Glassworks is anywhere on Kate's experiences as a budding reporter. It is not. Could it be ingenuity plus knowledge?
00:22:56
Speaker
It's a 15. So despite having no experience whatsoever in glassworks, you do, however, recall enough stories second or third hand from Mitchell telling you about how long hours can just disappear as they carefully, carefully lay out and pour out the glass and then the sulfites and then the silver that is melted down and poured over it.
00:23:21
Speaker
As far as you can see with the 15, nothing you see here contradicts anything of the mundane descriptions. Although as you are pushing deeper into the place without introducing yourself or like making any kind of explanations, you are starting to get looks from some of the workers.
00:23:37
Speaker
Okay, has anybody approached me yet? That is a good question. As a matter of fact, yes, they has. The floor manager, rather beefy guy in a leather apron, pulls off a pair of goggles and flops wet, flies off his forehead. Help you. Oh, hello, I'm Maeve Sullivan. I'm a journalist here with the Chronicle. I was just doing a report on a few unusual occurrences here and I'm just looking to see if maybe I could look around and ask some questions.
00:24:05
Speaker
Give me a presence and convince role, please. Absolutely. That is a 17. A 6 and a 5.
00:24:14
Speaker
Six and a five, okay, that is a pass with a six. You're talking with this person. You notice that as soon as you mention that you're with a newspaper, a whole calculation of feelings and thoughts and, oh, craps, pass over this guy's face before he quickly sags, not with defeat, but with relief. He grabs your forearm in a, oh, thank God, kind of urgency, and he looks around the other
00:24:40
Speaker
Men working here have all paused to watch him talk to you. This is a unified place. They all have the same concern. That was a very long way of telling you that, yes, they have heard the unsettling rumors, not to mention some weird sounds from upstairs.
00:24:58
Speaker
Men that pour the glass and make the mirrors are not the same men that actually have to move it up on the elevator, which they consider a death trap because it's 1890, do storage out of the way, nor are they the ones that move it back down from storage after everything's been filigreed and cooled off and everything to the shipping yard out back. Strange things are afoot, and no, they don't like it, and yes, they're weird ass sounds upstairs.
00:25:22
Speaker
Cut to the streets of New Key. The fixer leaves Darling Tea Shop with the auditor in tow with his little box wrapped up in a string and through the door you can see that one of the waiters is now comforting Mrs. Darling. The mirror is being loaded back up onto the delivery cart by the two men. I do hope that Mrs. Darling feels better soon. She does look like this could affect her for many years.
00:25:50
Speaker
She'll be alright. She's a woman of intensely strong constitution. That was the time I came here after my final test with the Atraxxi. That was an occasion. She's quite an incredible human being. Might I pick your brain as to anything you may have seen that could possibly explain this mirror situation? I'm looking around, I doubt they'd have the technology equivalent to handle that type of transference.
00:26:17
Speaker
I find it highly unlikely that anything with local technology could create such a phenomenon. Immediately brighten up? Big smile on my face? Ooh! Let's look into this. Which way do you think that, uh, glass factory is? He looks around, licks a finger, puts it in the wind. Right, December. It's that way! Add off that way!
00:26:38
Speaker
and starts trundling off west. Cut to the fixer and the otter arriving outside of the glassworks. As mentioned before, the floor is open. We could probably make our way upstairs or around to the back. The options are yours. Oh, we should go right in the front door, but of course. Okay. Psychic paper at the ready. Oh, great.
00:27:04
Speaker
As this woman standing here talking to the man that's in charge of the place, the fixer walks up, breaks out this paper, making an introduction, give me a presence and convince with a plus two for the psychic paper. Nice. Okay, we got a six and a six. Perfect timing for that. So that's going to bring us up to 19 total.
00:27:27
Speaker
Double Six's is an excellent sign. You show up and the sun just hits you just right to halo for the maximum charisma impact as you say, hello, I'm from glass and safety. Don't worry, we're here to fix your problem. So now what we gotta do is figure out if the floor manager is comfortable talking with government types as well as in front of a reporter, because I don't know how he feels about that. He feels fine with it.
00:27:57
Speaker
He must truly be terrified about what's going on here. He fills you in on the same unsettling rumors of disappearances that have circulated around. Everybody on the factory floor knows someone that is not here anymore. So yeah, they have tried to spend as little time in storage as possible because of the strange sounds on top of everything else. He does point out, scratching his cheek, that no one else has disappeared in storage since they shuttered the windows.
00:28:27
Speaker
Are all the people who have gone missing from this factory, are they all names that I've heard before, or are there any that are new? First off, he doesn't spend too much time volunteering information, but as you wrote off one or two of the names of the missing people, he shakes his head and nods. Oh, okay. Later, if you could have, like, a list sent of anybody who's gone missing, I want to make sure we have a complete list for the story.
00:28:50
Speaker
Wonderful. Yeah, because of the sixes in play and the fact that you also made a good impression, he will absolutely do that. Kate, earn a story point for your first use of focus in the game that benefits you and plays to your strengths. Bully. So, you have this information from the Foundry Floor Manager. What do you find people do?
00:29:13
Speaker
Except the problem is upstairs. Your safety. Are you coming with me? The auditor raises the finger. And glass. Ah, yes. And glass. Is that a busy job? You'd be surprised how often we get called out into the field. For glass. And safety. Well, glass is very sharp. The auditor gives the fixer a little nudge with an elbow. And who might you be, young lady? Maeve Sullivan. I work for the Chronicle. Reporter. Pleasure to meet you, Maeve.
00:29:42
Speaker
And what's your name? He is the auditor. And I'm just here to help out. You can just call me the Fixer. He's being fat and modest. Do you audit the safety and you fix the glass? They say in unison, yes! Yeah, makes sense. So I suppose I'll just see where you go and then I'll write about it. Well, we do love transparency. You're a journalist? Yes. This is my first big story.
00:30:10
Speaker
Excellent. The auditor tiptoes towards the cooling glass to take a closer look. As he's approaching the glass, and hopefully while everyone's eyes are on him, I'd like to pull out my Sonic stylus and begin doing a quick scan of the glass. Give me an ingenuity and let's call it technology since you're using the Sonic. Good. Do I notice this use of technology? Give me an awareness roll.
00:30:37
Speaker
So I rolled a 6 and a 3, and that said I'll start me at a 9, and looks like we're ending on a 15. You are entirely confident the mirror cooling in front of you is normal. That is a 6 and a 1 for an 11.
00:30:54
Speaker
Okay, the six and the one cancel each other out and the eleven is not quite enough to notice something that is not the secret. You might have gotten distracted by the auditor for a hot second when he was getting closer to the glass and missed the fixer flashing and then pocketing his sonic. So yeah, this glass is completely normal if extremely hot.
00:31:18
Speaker
Well, looks like everything is being assembled here properly. Perhaps we should check that storage. There may be some sort of, maybe a contaminant or something. Perhaps. Okay, give me an intuition roll. Give me ingenuity and intuition as a reporter. Uh, 14.
00:31:34
Speaker
It seems odd to you if people are missing and two people from glass and safety say that glass is completely normal. It occurs to you that something may have changed recently. What is the difference between the mirror here that's completely fine and the mirrors they're all tacitly avoiding?
00:31:51
Speaker
Is there some kind of formula that might have changed here recently? You ask that to the floor manager. He folds his arms, stiffens up a little bit. You've seen this act before with people who don't want to make someone else they report to angry. That kind of like, well crap, now I have to tell somebody else. He tries to figure out how to phrase it. We had some interesting ingots come through.
00:32:16
Speaker
Not long ago, about a half dozen, but we didn't place the order. You'd have to talk to the boss upstairs. Interesting how? You say interesting how, and the entire factory floor falls silent. Not a one of them knows how to answer that question.
00:32:36
Speaker
Stairs lead up from the hot workroom below to an office, where storage is further on. A woman, Mrs. Clark, works busily at her desk. His assistant, outside of his office, straightens up as you clear the landing of the second floor. Help you! Turn towards the secretary, immediately pull out the psychic paper again, flip it open.
00:32:57
Speaker
You know why we're here. Oh, oh, that's good. Okay, this is going to be the first use of advantage versus disadvantage. You are now at an advantage to get an answer out of Mrs. Clark, the secretary for Mr. Bartholomew. You have caught her flat-footed with a piece of psychic paper that already reads glass and safety. So give me a presence and convince roll, plus two for the Sonic, and you're gonna roll a three dice.
00:33:26
Speaker
and you're going to use the best two dice of the roll. He is going to roll with three dice and use the worst two of the roll. Okay, so I got a five, a two, and a three on the dice, so I'll move away that two and just use the five and the three. Excellent. So we got a 14 on that. It would have been actually a 16, I forgot the extra plus two.
00:33:44
Speaker
Yes, you get a 16 and Mrs. Clark rolled a lovely snake eyes. Mr. Bartholomew is not in the office at the moment, but you will be at a plus two to speak with him when he returns. Away from the din and heat of the workers below, the office of Mr. Bartholomew is an organized affair. He keeps his desk orderly and is filing tidy. A view out his western windows show the grotty bustling town below with a view all the way to the coast and the lighthouse on a lonely rock.
00:34:13
Speaker
The secretary confesses that Mr. Bartholomew's been at sixes and sevens for over a week, and with those snake eyes, yeah, she's not gonna stop you if you want to go into the office and sniff around, or if you want to just go down to storage. You've done that dramatic sweeping through! We have a right to be here! Admirably so. Sweep right through into the office, close the door behind us as we begin looking around, very obviously, as if we're looking for information.
00:34:39
Speaker
That is really good. I'm gonna remember that. Next time I'm just gonna tell someone, you know why I'm here. I'm gonna get really soberly sad for a moment and say, everyone is carrying something that that will work on. And then just big smile and walk right into the room.
00:34:55
Speaker
Fixer, add a story point please for you know why we're here. And yeah, I'm gonna just keep giving them out. Kate, for the line about I'm gonna have to remember that for next time. That is very me to me. So yes, add a story point for the listeners at home. Story points on our game start at five because they are useful and the roof is at 10. So please keep track of the story points you have. And yeah, I was expecting that to be more articulate.
00:35:24
Speaker
So yeah, you have had no troubles talking past the secretary into Mr. Bartholomew's office. And the two of you, give me an ingenuity and intuition role. Maeve, go ahead and add the distinction of being a reporter. Hey, I'm on fire. I got a six and a two, so I'm starting at an eight. And that'll bring me all the way up to a 14. Great. I also got a six and a two. That is going to bring me up to a 17.
00:35:51
Speaker
Beautiful. So in the office, you managed to find not only payment history for silver ingots, the small metallic bars that are melted down and poured across glass. You find payment history for the silver ingots and shipping reports wares that have left the building.
00:36:11
Speaker
With your investigative background and the fact that you have the start of your own report going, deliveries that have gone out in the last two week window line up with the addresses of the places you've found reports of people going missing.
Discovering the Mirim
00:36:30
Speaker
as well as a drawer stuffed with letters, written complaints, customers from the family, from workers who have gone missing, basically sum up as, where is my husband? Where is my son? Where is my brother? Et cetera. Be here. All these addresses that they've delivered to you, all of these line up with missing people I've identified. Well, that's deeply concerning. Anything else in there, the value? Angry letters. Pass a couple on the desk.
00:36:58
Speaker
start looking through these poor families. This is just heartbreaking. The auditor is lingering at the door. He's gotten distracted. You know the look on someone's face when you think they might have heard a noise and they're trying to identify what the sound is? The auditor is near the door right now and doing a terrible job. Oh, can I ask you just a quick question? Was I also able to see the shipping reports? Sorry, the purchase reports for where they got that silver from?
00:37:27
Speaker
Yes, and we will circle back to that information. Absolutely. When you're looking through things, there's just a quick, and you turn, and the auditor's giving you the, come here for a second finger. Fixer, give me an awareness roll with intuition and throw on, feel the turn of the universe, please. Well, we got a three and a two to start us off. We're looking at a 12 at the moment. Would you like to add a story point to that?
00:37:54
Speaker
Yes, please. So something about this place is wrong. Something about this place is dimensionally wrong.
00:38:06
Speaker
The air is just a little too flat, and it's only detectable to someone who has traveled through dimensions and would notice, like, oh, this isn't air conditioning. This is a breeze off the coast, you know? Instead of visualizing and seeing a hill taper downhill into the horizon, what your dimensional senses are telling you that the three-dimensional air
00:38:34
Speaker
Filling the room you are currently in starts to go on a decline towards flatter and flatter molecules. Space not being filled down the hallway. Off-eaten curtains let in slats of light stretching across a long dark room. Flat crates packed with straw sit in orderly stacks about the floor. Dark shadows pool in the corners.
00:38:57
Speaker
A chalkboard of orders gathers dust on the wall as it hasn't been touched in days. Lamps line the wall, not currently used.
00:39:05
Speaker
An industrial elevator loads wares down to the wagon yard and up from the factory floor. The elevator comes up as you guys come in. A trio of workers start loading pallets into the room, avoiding the darkest corner of the room as much as possible. They are putting the wares that are going out sooner closer to on their way out again. It is clear that an entire corner of the room is currently just being avoided like the plague.
00:39:35
Speaker
Well, I know where we should go. Give me an investigation role. So this is going to be ingenuity plus intuition. That's double ones.
00:39:49
Speaker
Okay. Nice. It is too dark to see anything, yet you still manage to get a glint from through one of the slats directly in your eye. You are going to be at a minus one to awareness for 30 minutes, starting now. So that's Maeve off the bat, looking around and going. Are there any light sources that are native to this time period around us? There are gas lamps on the wall.
00:40:15
Speaker
Grab one up, start walking closer to the darkness with the lamp held aloft. They are fixed to the wall, they're gas lamps. I can't imagine you would not be able to sonic them on or light them manually if you wish to be more pragmatic as a localer. How many workers are in here or is it just us and Maeve? The three workers, they're busy unloading the work elevator and they are also just sort of lingering to see what you do while you're here.
00:40:42
Speaker
Oh, they're definitely got eyes on us. Okay, I will manually light the lamps closest to that dark area.
00:40:48
Speaker
You switch on the nearest gas light and throw more shadows across the floor as you inch closer to the corner where there have just been mirrors out of their crates. They have been framed, but they have all been leaned against each other like books in a bookshelf against the wall. Fixer, please give me an awareness and ingenuity role with feeling the turn of the universe, please.
00:41:17
Speaker
Rolled a 4 and a 7. A total of 16. A flat sheet of dread fills this place and it is coming from that corner. Have you ever had the privilege of being in a recording booth that has an excess of sound absorption padding on the walls?
00:41:53
Speaker
Mirrors, as you get closer, this flatness seeps more and more into everything around you. You light the second lantern as you get closer, throwing more light into the room. And when you try to light the third, you realize it is just a flattened image pressed to the wall. That's a bad, bad sign.
00:42:00
Speaker
I don't believe I have.
00:42:13
Speaker
Give me a knowledge check, please. We're gonna be testing your Time Lord training. This is going to be ingenuity plus knowledge. Ooh, rolled a five and a five, so I'm starting at a 10. Brings me up to a 16 before any additions. 16 is good enough to recall. I'll love to have a story point on this if it'll up it so we know for sure.
00:42:34
Speaker
Go ahead, throw a story point on there that will definitely kick you up a notch. What you're able to recall from your training is that there are in fact two dimensional species in existence. None of them are native to the third dimension which you currently occupy.
00:42:51
Speaker
They have not been frequently found on Earth, let alone any other planets, but you have heard tell of two-dimensional creatures before causing trouble in places like London in the 21st century. The Doctor has dealt with two-dimensional monsters in the past.
00:43:11
Speaker
between the flattened illustration, it looks like now, of the lantern on the wall and the frozen reflection flattened on the glass that's still being carted back to the place. Yeah, you could very well be dealing with a two-dimensional preacher, or more than one.
00:43:27
Speaker
My instinct tells me to find one of the mirrors that the workers didn't seem to be avoiding, place that between us and the pile of mirrors on the far side of the room, so the reflective surface is sort of pointing back at their reflection. Brilliant. Is that a possibility? That is absolutely a possibility. Give me quickly a scan check just to quickly verify, telling the difference between a mirror that's three-dimensional and a mirror that's got other issues.
00:43:54
Speaker
Ho-ho! That's a terrible roll, I'm just gonna tell you right off the bat. It's two ones. With two ones, I'm afraid your sonic will spark and go dead when you're trying to scan one of the mirrors. So that did not go great. You have a smoking sparked sci-fi object in your hand that a person within spitting distance has now noticed you use and... So yeah, she definitely noticed that.
00:44:24
Speaker
Uh, yeah, so what's that?
00:44:27
Speaker
This, unfortunately, is broken until I get it back to my workshop. Very intricate glass measuring equipment. The auditor pulls out a sonic compass, not the compass that points the direction, but a compass that is used to draw circles and make mathematical calculations a little easier. And he hands it, eyes open, to the fixer. This is our last spare. Thank you. I will try to be a little more careful.
00:44:55
Speaker
It's for what? Measuring glass? Why not just use a roller? Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Another roll? Congratulations to the Fixer. You are not the first Time Lord to beef it trying to scan something. It's a rite of passage. Yay.
00:45:14
Speaker
Well this time I'd like to toss a story point on and I have a three and a two. So starting at a five plus a story point and what am I adding to that? With the awareness and field turn of the universe you easily find a mirror the same width so that you can safely stand behind it looking at the topmost mirror stacked against the wall.
00:45:37
Speaker
Motion for Maeve to come over and stand next to me? You should probably be over here. This is clearly a much better viewing point for the room, of course. Why think that they're lying to me? I'm not even trying to hide that. What are you so worried about? Why are you standing behind a mirror? I like turn around to take a look at the ones he's trying to see, like block with the mirror.
00:46:00
Speaker
Trust me, if I knew exactly what the problem was, we would have already fixed it. With the additional lamp light in the room. So these mirrors are not small. They are the kind that would be mounted in a restaurant behind the bar or in a bedroom, you know, to be mounted behind a dresser. So, you know, call it six feet wide, three feet tall. With the lamp light, throwing more light in the corner,
00:46:26
Speaker
Hi, that's terrifying. That's horrifying! Genuine reaction! Yay!
00:46:35
Speaker
You are now looking at the Mirim, M-I-R-R-I-M. A not entirely static image of someone dressed in 1890s clothes is not entirely frozen on the surface of the mirror. With the lights being turned on, with you approaching the glass, like lift it, step forward, lift it, step forward.
00:46:58
Speaker
The head, if you can call it a head of this thing, is slowly shifting towards you until it can get its eyes to find yours. The mouth that is open does not change. It looks like it's screaming. And now it is looking at you.
00:47:18
Speaker
Maeve also screams. Great, yes. So what we're going to do, please give me a fear factor role. This is another first for our lovely intrepid players. Things can get pretty scary here and anywhere, but now, including mirror monsters that creep right over the uncanny valley. So what I would like you fine people to do is give me a resolve, an ingenuity,
00:47:41
Speaker
versus the resolve and presence of that scary M.O.F.O. This role will determine if you can stay on your feet, if you back away in terror, if you keep your wits, et cetera, and screaming is just par for the course, so that's beautiful. Please give me resolve and ingenuity to stand up against this thing. I have an 18 with a six and a five on the dice. Six is wonderful news. Hang on to that number. Maeve, go ahead and what was yours?
00:48:10
Speaker
That is a five and a one for a total of 14. 14 with a one on the dice not super okay and this is going to be the result and presence of our creepy friend Mr. Miram.
00:48:22
Speaker
Okay, that is a 16 total. At a 14 versus a 16, Maeve, at present, you are too scared to approach or engage. If you want to spend one story point, you can stand your feet and we'll be at minus two to interact with this thing, or you can spend two story points, swallow your fear, and be okay with being around this thing, at least until it does something scarier.
00:48:49
Speaker
I am going to spend two story points. And I think Maeve is trying to remember that this is perhaps the one who's become trapped and maybe trying to not immediately jump to the conclusion that it's going to attack her.
00:49:04
Speaker
Very good. You white-knuckle the pencil and pad in your hand, but yeah, you are able to stand your ground. The creature is looking at you. Both. Picture a still lake. And on top of that lake is a collection of pond scum.
00:49:22
Speaker
in a condensed area. And without the rest of the surface looking like it moves at all, the film on the top can slosh back and forth on top of the glass, and that is what is apparently what this bespoke 1890s horror is doing. And you can almost hear a whine of glass straining against pressure from the other side. What do you find people do?
00:49:50
Speaker
What would I have learned about the Mirum in the doctoral program? Not to touch them. Okay. Communicating with them in the past has been somewhat fruitless, but these also don't necessarily look exactly like those. These could be cousins of that in some form. First thing I'd like to do is just yell out to it. Why hello there, you look like you're in a bit of distress. Are you trapped? Can we help you?
00:50:18
Speaker
The two of you, please give me a presence and convince. Got a 15 with a six and a four. I also got a 15 with a five and a four. Your attempts to communicate are frustrating. This creature is very simple. He's rather flat. Call it two-dimensional. Something very dangerous is in a state of emotional peak, and it is afraid.
00:50:44
Speaker
The body language it is demonstrating right now behind the glass is that of a cornered animal. And while you are focused on it, trying to communicate with it, the high hum wine of glass being pressured against picks up another one of the mirror in the second in line and the third one in line. They are all now making the same noise that squeak
00:51:12
Speaker
of wet hands running and pressing against the glass. I run back behind the fixer.
00:51:22
Speaker
With the scream that Maeve let out, the workers that were over by the elevator have girded themselves as best they can. One is too afraid to get closer, and the other two, they just inch closer and are staying over by the wall, watching. Like, watching a car wreck watching or watching with, like, delight. This is a monster that has frightened them.
00:51:46
Speaker
I look at them and say, has this happened before? What happened last time? The workers, they've seen this before, right? That's what my intuition is, my hunch at least. When did it start?
00:51:58
Speaker
Two weeks ago. You start flipping through the orders that you picked up off the desk as the loudest whine, the press against the glass chips and cracks.
00:52:19
Speaker
A reflected silver hand spills its way out of the mirror and creeps along the wallpaper against the adjacent wall towards the nearest worker who trips and stumbles over himself trying to get the heck away from it as fast as he can. What are y'all doing?
00:52:36
Speaker
look nearby him, see if there are any other mirrors that, for example, he was close to, that therefore would be safe to sort of try to... Oh no, I do, I have the auditor's sonic. So I would like to use the auditor's sonic to try to either loosen whatever screws are actually holding the thing in place on one side, or pull it out so it sort of swings in between this approaching threat and that poor man.
00:52:59
Speaker
There are no mirrors that could block the line of sight. That's a great idea, though. I love where your head's at. You throw your arm around looking towards that corner, and what you see is the chalkboard of shipment orders. The hand is stretching towards the chalkboard. Stretching towards the chalkboard?
00:53:19
Speaker
The man behind the fallen one starts shouting. I've had enough! I've had enough of these cursed things! That is his speaking in this round and you see him reach for a wrench that is conveniently near a stack of boxes. It looks like he's going to try and
00:53:38
Speaker
at the mirror, although it is going to take him a second to actually attempt to do such a thing. We are entering our first conflicted round. So talkers go first, then movers trying to go from one place to another in the room, to doers trying to make something happen or stop something happening, to fighting. That is actual conflict. That's the grappling, that's the shooting, etc. We have Maeve, we have the auditor, we have the fixer, we have the worker on his feet winding back with the wrench. Do we have any talkers?
00:54:08
Speaker
Can I move and talk in the same turn or just one or the other? I'll allow it. Okay. So I want to move in front of the worker with the wrench and be like, he's screaming. He couldn't eat help. Don't hurt it. Ooh, okay. Add a story point for that. That's Wunderbar. And give me a presence and convince role to stop him, to reason with him.
00:54:29
Speaker
Seven plus six, so 13, with a four and a three. That is a tie. That is enough to sort of get in his way, but you haven't talked him into dropping the wrench yet. I would like to position myself so it's easier for him to hit me with the wrench than it is the mirror. I'm actively trying to block him. Fair. Fixer, do you have anything to say to move, to do? So it did look like the hand wasn't reaching for the guy it was reaching for the chalk board with the last orders on it.
00:54:58
Speaker
Yes, it is. But vis-a-vis his line of sight, he thought it was reaching for him. It could be reaching for him. You're not entirely sure. This thing is operating on two-dimensional logistics and is not actually reaching out from the wall at this juncture. Okay, is there anything I notice on that chalkboard that might help us understand exactly what this creature is trying to inform us of? Not yet, no. It's just a chalkboard of orders that have not been updated any time in the last two weeks because people have been too afraid to get close to it.
00:55:28
Speaker
In all truth, I wonder if it's the worker trying to just get his job done and being horrified that he can't. But you said this is the Mirum. Do the Mirum interact in that way? Did they take on the characteristics of those people that are trapped in the mirror? You don't know. You've never seen this before. The image it's taken, whether it's a coincidence or a choice, appears to be the reflection of someone that has disappeared. It is entirely likely it was the reflection of someone that worked here.
00:55:57
Speaker
Say to him, if you need us to update the orders, we can update your orders. Yeah, that's a swing and a miss. That is not actually trying to do. Okay, so that was six on the dice for what the Mirum is trying to do. Its hand stretches to the chalkboard and the dust that is currently coating the chalk
00:56:26
Speaker
flattens against the board and new cracks form in the dust patterns that spell out the words, help us. Immediately say, we will happily help you. The ELP of help us disappears and is replaced with half. Everyone is filled with great questions today. Maeve, give me an intuition roll, awareness intuition roll.
00:56:53
Speaker
Ooh, that's not good. That is a 10 with a two and a one.
00:56:57
Speaker
Can I give her one of my story points to help out with that? Yes, you can help out by adding a story point because the ten with the two and one is not going to cut it. So while the fixer is trying to figure out how to talk to this thing with its affecting dust on a two-dimensional plane, his left hand drops to his side and it's still clutching silver orders. Kate pulls one that does not look anything like the others out of the sheaf. An order of six ingots.
00:57:27
Speaker
purchased from someone that is not their usual supplier at half the usual rate for what the ingots are worth. They got a good deal on silver. Do I recognize the name at all? The name on the lip is that of Mr. Shine, who is currently residing at the Fork and Whistle. Fork and Whistle. I may have a lead for us.
00:57:51
Speaker
The chalkboard rains dust again, and the dust flattens against the chalkboard again, but the words materialize on the chalkboard. Trapped here. Sold here. Help us. Home.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:58:28
Speaker
That is through the looking glass. Thank you so much for playing anywhere but now with 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.
00:58:48
Speaker
Feel free to leave a like or comment, follow us on Twitter, at anywhere but now, underscore at the end. And wherever you get your podcasts. Links to everything in the doobly-doo. From all of us, I'm Casey Jones. Thank you so much, and have a great day.