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Lantern in the Smoke - Pt 2
83 Plays1 year ago
The Fixer, Maeve, & Calamity Hap are trapped on the Sigourney, with fires to put out in Gas Processing, and ghosts to bust in the halls! Find out how they survive in part 2 of Lantern in the Smoke!
Enjoy thrills, chills, and laughs galore with Brand Osorio, Cate MacCoyne, and Pandora Beatrix, along with GM Casey Jones. Stick around for interviews with the players, including our special guest star, Amy Flanagan! Your ears are in for a treat!
Be sure to subscribe and leave a question or comment! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and BlueSky for more updates! And you can come say hi on our Discord!
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
Game Originally Created by David F. Chapman
Addl. Game Writing by Will Brooks, Zak Dale-Clutterbuck, Eleanor Hingley, Andrew Peregrine, John Sewell, Chris Spivey
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnywhereButNow_
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Learn more about Cubicle7!
Website: https://cubicle7games.com/doctor-who-the-roleplaying-game-second-edition
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cubicle7
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Anywhere But Now'
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 and a half or so holds a thrilling adventure in time and space, so let's dive in.
Meet the Time-Traveling Crew
00:00:25
Speaker
With me is the daring crew of our time-traveling machine. Playing the Fixer is the ever-resourceful Brandesorio. Hello, Brand. Hello. And joining him is Maeve Sullivan, played by the ebullient Kate McCoy. Welcome, Kate. Hi there. And finishing the TARDIS team is none other than Pandora Beatrix as the unpredictable Calamity Hap. Hi. Hi.
00:00:50
Speaker
And returning today is our special guest star, Amy Flanagan. It's so nice to have you back. Hello, Amy. Hello. It's great to be back. Thank you. Are you all excited? You feel that energy?
00:01:03
Speaker
Yeah. Get ready for a collaborative, immersive storytelling experience. Because that's what I've brought to tables for over 10 years. Stick around after the game for interviews with the players. Brought to you wherever you're listening and time and space. This is anywhere but now.
00:01:22
Speaker
Previously on Anywhere But Now.
Mission to the Sigourney
00:01:24
Speaker
Your assistants are urgently requested aboard the Sigourney. Please bring your technical assistant to co-co-consult. All right. The formerly destitute kingdom of planets called Brynnen. Sigourney was a project of Snackems that has to do with a gas giant that is one of the planets in their system. Snackems appears to be leasing the planets
00:01:49
Speaker
The project of the Sigourney is being run by someone named Dr. Vera Luton. It's a Snacktums project? On the view screen...
00:01:58
Speaker
is what appears to be a docking bay, having massive tanks being moved around by shipping machines and helper bots. Nearby, just waiting outside is a tall blonde man and a ginger-haired engineering genius. When you step out in your spacesuits, the tall blonde, he sizes you up in the spacesuits. You made it. Welcome. A brandable smokey charm.
00:02:26
Speaker
Nice to meet you, naturally. Of course you're honored. Biggest question, super important. Do you need to bring the giant scissors? It is such an honor to meet you, Doctor. Thank you. Hi, I'm Calamity Hap. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm sorry about the safety. We're only wearing them because last time we did smack of things through a bunch of zebra waffles eating
00:02:49
Speaker
I'm Maeve. I don't know what's going on there. We're wearing these suits because we don't dress snackums. I'm sure you're fine. Apple sauce, please. The Helperbots here are bulkier. They look like they can do more of the heavy lifting. Just below the collarbone is a little embossed seal, says Helperbots Union. The Sigourney is the size of several city blocks.
00:03:14
Speaker
From any direction you walk in there's the constant thrum of power running at maximum efficiency. The gas giant below is called close to look. It is made of a gas called ditritium which is used in the preservation of snack foods. He takes you to a great big sciency room where they control the optic
00:03:37
Speaker
channels. Big old laser cannons are pointed at the gas giant below. Attached to the laser cannons are tubes which run to more pipes. Doctor, how is the team filtering the gases they collected to make sure there aren't any living things in it? Sensors and filters that take care of all of those things. Certainly anything that was living would contaminate the gas. So we have taken several precautions to make sure that that is that is the case.
00:04:07
Speaker
You mentioned living things and Branable is like just chuckling. You have no idea how many probes and things we sent down there. There's not even a lot of crew. There's not even a lot of space shrimp in there. There's just a great big cloud. There's nothing to take in. It's great. There for the taking. Your... Sonic.
00:04:25
Speaker
takes a look at the canister in question. The contents of the tankard are moving about inside the tank. They are not stationary.
Ghostly Chaos and Shrieking Gas
00:04:36
Speaker
The pressure is building significantly. The rattle and the warning on the screen, you get that half a heartbeat warning in your gut first that tells you to duck before there is just a pink and
00:04:55
Speaker
An explosion bursts out of the tank, tearing it open. Blue and green gas flies out. A blue wisp of gas breezes its way out of the colorless smoke, tornadoes itself into something resembling a torso, and starts shrieking. Fear the death.
00:05:55
Speaker
We cut to the sickbay with a pair of shambling corpses with almost glowing incandescent white blue eyes reaching out towards Maeve, the doctor, and anyone within grabbing distance. Well I'm gonna take a step out of grabbing distance first of all and say
00:06:19
Speaker
All right, well you've succeeded. I am very scared. But why don't you tell us how you got here and what you're planning to do. I'm sure we can figure something out. I'm positive. Give me a presence and convince role. You are at a disadvantage because you have already failed once with these people. But in the spirit of fairness, we will tell you what you are up against. Present and convinced versus the result of four
00:06:49
Speaker
And that is a 2 and a 5 for a 13. Unfortunately, I have a 10 on the dice with a 4 and a 6. It brings us to a 14. You would need to spend one story point to get to Novus territory since there was a 6 on the Gelf dice. And two story points to get it to listen before it tries to attack something. I will spend one story point.
00:07:16
Speaker
So you have said these things. The gelf hear you. So this is the yes part of the but. These faces slowly half-shift from anger and lashing out to confusion.
00:07:34
Speaker
Even just standing in front of you, you can tell there's a delay between thought and action. These things are slow. They are using bodies that have passed on. But you have not broken through.
00:07:54
Speaker
And in the aftershocks of the shrieks you can hear more rattling as the pipes continue to trundle through the sick bay across the station. There are aftershocks of explosion as the bones of this thing shift
00:08:11
Speaker
and settle calamity fixer and dr ludin you are all in the entrance to the gas processing the ship has shook this is going to be a coordination role to stay on your feet the difficulty is going to be 15 so this is going to be coordination athletics if you have it
00:08:34
Speaker
Got a 12 with a 4 and a 3 on the dice. The fixer is tossed. You're gonna hit the floor, but not hard enough to hurt yourself. But you do lose footing when the station groans. I got an 11 with nothing special in the dice. Great news! You get to go on a trip! As you are tossed towards the center of the room and one or two bodies, which may or may not be conscious and groaning, Dr. Luton, how did you roll? I rolled an 11 with a 2 and 3 on the dice.
00:09:04
Speaker
You two stumble to your knees in the station. The room is a wreck. Things are not on fire, but things are still very hot. Gas is whispering out of the ruptured tanks, although the flow has been shut off from the pipes. We have talkers, we have movers, we have doers, and we have fighters. This constitutes action.
00:09:28
Speaker
Okay. What are you people doing not to the ground in the gas process? First thing I'd like to do is check on Calamity and Dr. Luton. Calamity, are you okay? Sure. I mean, there's a lot going on, and I'm still missing half of it, I think, but did you see the blue alien? I think alien. Probably an alien, yeah. Probably a native of that gas giant down there. An alien? That's... Well, I mean, it was like screaming gas. It could just be a coincidence.
00:09:56
Speaker
There are alarms going off as the station is slowly recalibrating orbit. There is a squawk of intercom static overhead as the captain of the ship pulls in from the bridge.
00:10:13
Speaker
This system will be threatened. What the hell happened
Crew's Response and Rescue Efforts
00:10:16
Speaker
down there? Has anyone heard? Head over to the communicator, activate it, and say, Captain, I believe that the species that your crew has taken off the planet has decided to either try to take over your ship or make a break for it. In either case, it has unfortunately harmed a bunch of people in gas processing. Can you please send a medical crew down here?
00:10:35
Speaker
On the double, you hear her patch your line into the sickbay, where before anyone can say anything, you just hear...
00:10:47
Speaker
over the intercom from the sick bay. And the captain is like, what the hell? Security to the sick bay. Now security to gas processing. Get the hell out of there. Cut to Maeve in the sick bay proper. Currently Maeve is a step or two away from two angry looking gelf who are shouting at the top of their lungs and reaching out slowly with claws. They are reaching for a medic and the doctor that are nearby.
00:11:16
Speaker
How many people are in the medbay right now that are not zombies? There are two zombies in front of you. There are two humanoids in front of you. One is the frilled lizard wearing slippers and one is just a medic and there are presently two people on sick beds over your shoulder. Okay, I have a question. Are there any other doors in here like a quarantine room or something like that?
00:11:43
Speaker
Unfortunately, no, the plastic sheeting they put up, they weren't expecting anyone to die here. This room does not have an airlockable quarantine kind of space. I love where your head is at. You are on a space station and every door you've passed through has been one of those shoot, shoot.
00:12:02
Speaker
It is likely that there are other places on this facility that could be sealed off. Okay. Two Gelf are moving towards the doctor and one of the medics. Let's see how they do. Getting the hell away.
00:12:16
Speaker
The doctor scoots back and loses a slipper, but zips right past you while unfortunately the medic is pinned. He backsteps against one of those beds and one of the gelf reach for him, shrieking, yeah bitch!
00:12:34
Speaker
As it tries to lay its hands on him at the start of the next round, Maeve. I'm going to grab the medic by the hand and try to pull them away from the gelf so they can follow the doctor out of the room. And then I'd like to try to bait the gelf after me.
00:12:50
Speaker
Ooh, okay, that sounds cool. First off, we're going to need a fresh fear factor because now you are deliberately trying to get closer to an actual zombie. This is going to be a difficulty of...
00:13:03
Speaker
That was 10, that's double fives. So the number you're trying to beat is 22 to resist and flee. Given that part of what you're trying to do is also run and back away from this thing, I will say that you're an advantage on this roll, plus you're a companion. So yes, you are rolling at advantage to snatch and grab the medic that's about to get grabbed. So this is your resolve and ingenuity.
00:13:28
Speaker
Okay. Throw two on for being a companion who has faced creepy things trying to kill people before. I got a four and a five for a total of 19.
00:13:39
Speaker
You are currently at a no-but. So no, without spending any story points, you are currently at a no-but. I'll spend another story point. Okay, that brings you to a yes-but. Yes, you are able to resist the fear of this thing that is not currently trying to grab you, but as you grab onto the person, you realize he is frozen.
00:14:03
Speaker
paralyzed with fears. You're gonna be at added disadvantage to actually get him the heck out of here. Give me please a strength roll. Let's say survival, because you're trying to help someone survive. As you pull him away, you are going to, he is going to be resisting you just because he is paralyzed with fear. That's a four and a three for a 10 on my end. Okay, yeah, that's not great.
00:14:29
Speaker
However, the man paralyzed by fear rolled a three, and there was a one-on-one of those die, so he is in absolutely no position to actually resist. When he feels you take his wrist, that snaps him out of it just enough to get him away. Let's see, however, if the Gelf zombie is able to grab onto him as you're pulling him away.
00:14:52
Speaker
They are at a disadvantage because they're reacting to something. They only rolled an 8 and there was nothing special on the dice, so the medic's tunic may rip a little as it grabs for the collar and only gets the collar, but you manage to successfully pull this thing away. In that same round, however, the gelf that was not grabby-grabby for him has seen you take someone out of their hands and is now
00:15:15
Speaker
looking at you. Good job! You successfully managed to get their attention. Behind you, the doctor is like, quickly get over here, just get the hell out of here. You hear beeping as the doctor is trying furiously to do something behind you.
00:15:30
Speaker
and only half succeeds. You hear a whoosh behind you as there's a slight crackle of air conditioning and ionization in the air. A force field has gone up around the sick beds that are currently occupied, hopefully to keep these things from those creatures. Unfortunately, it does not block the door and it will not help you because there is no force field between you and them. Start of the next round.
00:15:53
Speaker
Alarms are going off. There is rattling in the pipes above. Moot steps behind you as security are on their way. Okay, security's on their way. I'm gonna turn towards the doctor and be like, we can trap them in a hallway. We can, uh, the doors can close on both ends, right? We can lock them in and then find a way to suck the gas out back into the planet where it's supposed to go, right?
00:16:15
Speaker
The doctor is blinkered. He's watching corpses of people he knew, lurching forward, and you're trying to use logic at him at the same time. Let's see how he's doing about, like, just background noise fear factor. He's not doing great! That's a six on the dice with a two and a four, so he's, like, barely able to keep it together. He is not in a position to answer your questions. Seal the hatches! Guess! Rod, get out of here! He keeps trying to get people out of the sickbay.
00:16:42
Speaker
as the closest Gelf reaches for you. Since you turned to talk to the doctor and took your eye off the Gelf, the closest Gelf is rolling to grab you by the space suit. This is going to be a strength and conflict roll on behalf of the Gelf.
00:17:00
Speaker
That is a seven plus their strength, a four, eleven plus conflict is fifteen. The number two beat with your strength, let's go ahead and call it survival, because you're trying to get away from something that is trying, that could very well be trying to hurt you, is fifteen. Well, it's a six and a three, but only a twelve. Can I give one of my story points to Helper in this moment? You are not even in the same room. That's fair. I'm not sure how story point contribution would help here.
00:17:29
Speaker
I was hoping calling in the security might help in this moment.
00:17:45
Speaker
No, the gelf behind you does not successfully keep a grip on you, but it rips a tear in your spacesuit along the back of the neck as you instinctively react of jumping to get away from this sudden
00:18:01
Speaker
thing clawing at you from the background. Cut to the interior of the gas processing plant where calamity can get to her feet. The three of you are still actually prone. You haven't actually gotten to your feet yet.
Technical Challenges and Mysteries
00:18:15
Speaker
Given that we are wearing suit spacesuits, do they have radios in them by which people would normally like talk to each other when they were in a place without air? You can communicate with the other members of your party
00:18:29
Speaker
without having to roll anything. Your suits are paired to each other. If you want to... The question was just like, are those radios like on by default? If we have our helmets on in the sense of me having been able to hear what Maeve was saying.
00:18:44
Speaker
Yes, number one, at a story point, that is a wonderful idea. You have been able to hear at least one half of this conversation, both you and, actually no, only you, because the Fixer took his helmet off. You have been able to hear one half of this conversation, and maybe faintly the shrieks of the gelf. So you have at least some idea of what's going on. Okay, then I will say, I think Maeve's actually in sickbay.
00:19:11
Speaker
And that seems better. Then I run back in that direction. Fixer, Dr. Luton, you have gotten to your feet in the gas processing room. Getting my gas analyzer, my diagnostic scanner, and my access key card out of my pockets, trying to stumble over to the control panel and start hitting buttons to see if I can figure out what's going on.
00:19:36
Speaker
Give me an ingenuity and technology roll, and you're going to be at a disadvantage. So that means rolling three dice and using the worst of two, because the computer is currently a little damaged from the explosion. That's an ingenuity and technology roll, plus the two dice. So take a four and one, and that's five plus nine, which would be 14.
00:20:00
Speaker
So yes, 14 is more than enough to discover information that is not a secret, especially with the guess analyzer. What you're able to tell from the readouts is there has been
00:20:12
Speaker
A eruption in this room in the pipes, the tankards of quote unquote impurities have also been torn open. The station as a whole is stable. It is in orbit. It is not in any danger in that regard. The gas in the pipes has locked off. All of the systems of gas and everything have shut off automatically because of the explosion. It's a safety feature.
00:20:41
Speaker
because the less they want to do is pump more gas. And you've done that. You've shut off the gas. There is still gas in those pipes. It's just not moving around quite as freely. Life support is stable. Gravity is stable. The but in this occasion, because you did roll a one, you have lost control of the system from here. You cannot turn back on any of the systems from here. There are other places on the ship that you can control gas processing from.
00:21:08
Speaker
But the actual control part of the console has been damaged in the blast. And I turn to the fixer and say, let's go and run out of the room. I will run after her while we're running, I'd like to say. Dr. Luton, I can tell that you didn't know that these things were living in the gas. But right now we have people across the station who are in danger. And if possible, I'd like to find a way to save them and return those beings back to the plant they come from. Do you know of any way we can do that?
00:21:36
Speaker
Let's concentrate on doing one before the other. We have to stabilize this gas before we go anywhere else. Anything living in it will be stabilized as well. What does stabilized mean? Meaning that another pipe won't burst. They will stay where they are for now. It won't cause them additional harm though, will it? I have to be honest with you. I didn't know they were there. I have no idea what will cause them harm. Thank you for your honesty. If we don't stop this now, we will all be harmed. Lead the way. Fixer, give me an awareness rule.
00:22:06
Speaker
with Time Lord's senses, because this is that thing where you're able to multitask, pay attention to multiple things at once as you're listening to Dr. Lew. Give me awareness and intuition, please. Against a difficulty of 12. Well, we got a 12 in total with a 6 and a 1 on the dice.
00:22:24
Speaker
As you guys are talking, you see security filter past you and help random smock it to the door. They grab one of the engineers that is still upright and coughing and they help them to the hatch just past you guys because you're the main characters. I'd like to memorize where that hatch is as we continue running.
00:22:45
Speaker
Okay. We'll bring up the map. Meanwhile, in the hall, Calamity, as you left gas processing, you encounter a helper bot in the hallway. This particular one has both hands. They're working. And it says, sure. Are you currently operating functionally?
00:23:02
Speaker
I'm assuming that we're somewhere halfway between gas processing and sickbay at this point. So yeah, so Calamity's not gonna stop, but she'll be like, yes, I seem to be going so far. I'm just going to sickbay because it's screaming. The helper bot hovers right along with you. It nods dutifully. It may sound a little too chipper for a disaster going on, but it does say, we are so, so glad that we called an expert on chaos.
00:23:31
Speaker
As you head towards the sound of the screams, meanwhile, in the sickbay, Maeve has just cleared from icy cold fingers, just grazed the back of your neck as it tore through the fabric of the back of your spacesuit. It is no longer airtight as the gelt slowly amble towards you. They are empty handed and they are not happy about it.
00:23:57
Speaker
The Gelf will do that thing we like to do on this show, which is talk and move at the same time. The Gelf are shrieking about.
00:24:13
Speaker
As they slowly amble behind you, they will not catch up. Unless you couldn't fall. I am going to grab the medic with one hand and the doctor with the other. And we're gonna book it back towards gas processing. So I just grabbed their hands. Run. Run seems like a good idea right now.
00:24:35
Speaker
head off down the hallway. Give me a coordination rule to keep on your feet between grabbing the hands of these two medical people and trying to cheese it out the door as security are looking in and like, what the blue hell is going on in here? So yeah, give me a coordination rule. Let's say this is a difficulty. I will say it's tricky to get two people who are both distracted and afraid to go with you in the same direction. So this will be a difficulty of 15.
00:25:02
Speaker
Give us your coordination, please, and survival, and throw two on for being a companion who's run from spooky things before. Well, I got a five and a one for a total of ten. Yeah, that doesn't work. That doesn't map out. That doesn't map out. So let's roll for the doctor. Oh no, that's a snake, guys. So the doctor did not come with you. Let's see about the medic.
00:25:33
Speaker
That's, okay, so I rolled snake eyes and then immediately rolled boxcars. The blue frilled head lizard doctor gets frozen with utter terror when you try and tug on his hand and just, he's in a cold sweat, you completely lose the grip of his hand. However, the medic that you just saved saves you back as you guys dash single file between the encroaching security guards. That is your motion.
00:26:03
Speaker
The gelf do not get any closer to the doctor because they've already spoken and that was their motion and it was a one and a two on the dice. So no, they're not getting any closer to him. However, the other gelf, the other gelf rolled an 11 and one of those was a six. So unfortunately, the second of the gelf does grab onto the frill-headed alien doctor
00:26:28
Speaker
with both hands and now has them in a tight, icy grip as the arriving security guards. How are they doing with the fear factor? One of them is just fine. One of them is averaging, averaging with double threes like, okay, 10 people, grab the doctor. Okay. Are they firing? What are they doing?
00:26:51
Speaker
Okay, that is an eight. The first one fires a small laser pistol. They are security, they are armed. And that is good enough to hit unless the gelf in question is.
00:27:07
Speaker
Yeah, no. The gelf is not particularly fast on the uptake. The first security guard fires a blast at the gelf, not attacking the doctor, the one that it has a clear shot of because you guys just cheesed it. The blast hits the corpse this thing is occupying and there's a little scorch mark and the ghost pisses.
00:27:30
Speaker
Okay, that's fun. And we'll come to that in a second. Cut to the hallway. As we've said in our previous episode, about four people wide. So you've got the Fixer, you've got Dr. Luton, you've got Calamity, you've got the Helperbot, and now you've got Maeve and the Medic, scooshing in this hallway as the security men press themselves against the wall.
00:27:55
Speaker
Everybody give me an awareness role, please. Awareness and intuition, please. And, uh, Dr. Luden, you're at a plus two because you built this place. Okay, got a four and a five on the dice for a total of 14. I have a four and a two for a total of 13. Calamity has an 18 with nothing special on the dice. Okay. Okay, I got a 16 with a six on the dice. Beautiful. So, in ascending order of what you notice from not much to, oh, neat!
00:28:24
Speaker
Alarms have shut off now that the fires have gone out the station
00:28:31
Speaker
is no longer shaking at all. There are no ominous rumbles. It has truly settled back into completely stable orbit. You do hear gas both hissing in the sickbay. You also hear screaming and laser fire around the corner in the sickbay and moving up the awareness levels
00:28:55
Speaker
So, this is fun. Fixer. Yes. You notice amidst all the chaos that Brandable Smockit cheeses it past the security men and talks about getting to the mess hall and you see him disappear away from the sounds of gunfire and the smoking ruins behind you.
00:29:16
Speaker
of gas processing. He's like, I'm going to get to the galleon! I'm going to search the voluntary! Oh no, the corporate lane! And like his knees are just flying in the air as he races down the hallway. Very expensive, very uncomfortable shoes.
00:29:36
Speaker
as he runs for Chef Andre. There is still some light rattling in the pipes, which in this segment of the ship appear to be completely intact overhead. At the top of the awareness, however, is Calamity, who sees a wisp of blue slip from the sick bay and shoot off towards gas processing.
00:30:05
Speaker
So, over our heads past us. It's apparently being a little bit quiet because you're the only one that noticed. Okay, um... Oh, so we just like crash into each other in the hallway? What's going on? You guys just crash into each other and amid the bric-a-brac, that was what the awareness role was for, is like, what are you noticing in the crush? Okay, okay. Did you know that the gas can inhabit bodies that can't attack you? Excuse me? The gas can inhabit bodies?
00:30:48
Speaker
Calamity, I wouldn't recommend getting touched by these things until we know exactly what happens when they do.
00:30:56
Speaker
Right. Are there any of them visible? They said they were shooting. Are they like the further down the hallway, the animated bodies? They have not left the medical center. No, it's only been about a turn. Okay, so they have not left sickbay. So who's shooting? Security. Into sickbay. Is there any way to seal the door to sickbay? I mean, there are still sick people in there, but there are four seals around the bed now. So
00:31:23
Speaker
So if we can keep those force fields active, close the door, theoretically they'll be safe inside. Theoretically. Theoretically. We love theoretically. One of the things, you know, went back that way, so I'm gonna go back that way now, again. And Calamity just turns around, and then starts running again. Does it seem like Calamity's very clearly running back towards gas processing? Yes. As they're running in that direction, I would like to turn to Dr. Luton and say, if they're heading back to gas processing, does that mean they can release more of their kind?
00:31:53
Speaker
we should get back to gas processing. That's a really good idea. Maeve has pulled out the note taker and is getting everything down. Pull out Sonic Stylus and see if I can do a quick flick on the medical door to seal the airlock and give us time to run back to gas processing to handle that.
00:32:11
Speaker
We're gonna hold on to that. When we come back to you, your action will be to try to seal the medical bay. I wanna focus on calamity, running towards the blue gas. Calamity, what are you after? Are you trying to talk to the ghosts? I'm just trying to be in a place where something's going to happen when it happens and not slightly afterwards because it's just, it keeps happening and it's, you know, it's stressful. I'm missing everything. So yes, so she's mostly just going to watch. Okay. I mean, if she sees something useful to do, she might, but...
00:32:41
Speaker
Something is going to happen in that direction so I'm going to go see what it is. You are chasing after the blue wisp overhead and it descends from the ceiling long enough to bundle itself up into a ball and start to shoot itself towards the gas processing hatchway.
00:33:02
Speaker
When the younger of the two engineers is half in the doorway, there's room to the side of him to get past this thing. And he looks at the blue gas that's tumbling over itself. The gas rears back and shrieks. I'm gonna like
00:33:24
Speaker
try to copy his facial expression because it seems like he's got some sort of like really neat like muscular control or something that he can scare gas people with his face. Sure, give me a presence and convince role trying to copy the expression on the engineer's face as he's doing a stare down with the blue wisps.
00:33:55
Speaker
So I'd go up to an 18 with nothing special. You're doing great. You soundly overroll the floating blue ghost and try to do the same expression. And the ghost is confused as heavens at the two of you as it tries to scrape up against the ceiling again and start to shoot off in another direction.
00:34:20
Speaker
The engineer looks up at it and says, it's going off. It's like your patch is it? He just gives you one of those like chin knots of like nice work against that thing.
00:34:35
Speaker
Meanwhile, Fixer, you reach the doorway of the sickbay where on either side of the door the two security men are firing. One of them has fired and shot one of the gelf. The blast has hit the body and it shrieked and the specter inside the zombie shot out of the mouth of this thing, circled and then zoomed out of the doorway.
00:35:02
Speaker
So there is currently one angry gelf taking shots that it is not too worried about as more blue gas circulates ahead. And we're trying to seal the door? Yes, please. And one quick question. Just anything I would have learned about these types of gaseous beings while going through the Doctorate program.
00:35:19
Speaker
Is it just specifically a weapon hitting the body that drove the gaseous entity out of it, or was it a specific wavelength of light that didn't seem like it was obvious from that? Give me an ingenuity and knowledge roll, please. Plus 2 for the doctoral program. Got a 15 with a 1 and a 5. 15 is enough to remember some useful things about the gelf. They are a gaseous
00:35:45
Speaker
species from another plane of existence. They, some of them at least, were forced into this dimension because of the time war. They have also migrated or naturally occurred on gas giants, just like the one we are in orbit over. And I think even despite the one on that roll, you did get a 15. So I would say that you remember they are not fond of fire. They need gas to survive and move around, and they do not mind inhabiting
00:36:13
Speaker
dead bodies for a short while. Oh, oh no. Okay. Turn to Maeve and the doctor as I'm attempting to seal the door and say, we are unfortunately we're dealing with the guilt. My concern is that I feel like the most efficient way of handling them might actually be removing the atmosphere from the entire station. Is there any possibility we have enough suits on board or a place that we could put enough of the survivors and then vent the rest of the station? They need the gas to travel.
00:36:41
Speaker
You're talking about venting the entire station. Do you know how many people that is? I'm hoping we have areas that we can seal off. And it seems as though they aren't able to go through the material you're using to create your force fields. So maybe we can replicate that technology on whatever area we decide to hold the people in while we vent the station. Again, doctor, if you have a better idea, please, I would love any solution you have. Well, wait. If you can pump them from the planet to here, can't you just reverse it and pump them back the other way?
00:37:11
Speaker
These things are outside of all of the tubes and the pumping mechanisms now. We'll have to deal with them some other way. I don't have a better idea. Let's go to the bridge. Dr. Luton, give me an ingenuity and technology role plus two because you built this place. And in the meantime, Maeve and the Fixer both add a story point for solution toward thinking. Excellent.
00:37:37
Speaker
Got a one on the dice. A two and one on the dice total is 12. I'm not doing well. You are not doing well, but that's okay. Low rolls can lead to high adventure. So yeah, you are a bit scattered right now. This is a bit of a doomsday scenario. You do vaguely recall that there could be more options from the bridge, especially since gas processing itself appears to be damaged. Getting to the bridge would be a good direction to go in.
00:38:07
Speaker
Okay, I start heading for the bridge. Meanwhile, Calamity and the Engineer are still in the doorway as the ghost is spinning around and trying to figure out where it's going to dash to. So you know the blue gas ghost things you've dealt with them before? Sorry, I was just copying you and I do want to ask if you like studied at a monastery or something because that's really
00:38:33
Speaker
fascinating but also this you're talking to the engineer who has not taken his eye off the blue specter circling the ceiling he says yeah I'll run into these things once or twice I'm pleasant little windbags mine is the bags hey escape the thing that's not great see how the specter does
00:39:04
Speaker
Even worse, okay. The engineer says, skate! The blue wisp shoots off towards the galley cool mess hall. So yeah, that's the end of that action round. Maeve and the Dr. Bluten and the Fixer race up the hallway followed by a pair of very silent security guards. Can we choose to pass through the galley so we can grab Randible and the Shep on the way through?
00:39:32
Speaker
If you want, you would have to turn this way and turn that way to get there, but that it would take, I'd say, an extra two rounds of traveling. But yeah, that's absolutely an option. If we can reunite with Calamity and reunite with Brandable and the Chef, let's try to do it. Okay. I hate to say this, but I'm going straight to the bridge. I'm not turning right or left. Dr. Luton, add a story point for being focused on your baby. You're heading straight for the bridge.
00:39:59
Speaker
Am I correct in thinking Calamity is also going to the galley, or what is she doing? She's really torn because the engineer is interesting, but also the thing is interesting. And also, the engineer is, technically, when he comes down to it, just doing weird things with his face, so... Probably whatever the ghost thing does is gonna be more interesting, so she is gonna go off in that direction when it does decide to leave. So she's chasing it again.
00:40:25
Speaker
Okay. Give me a coordination roll, everybody, and don't roll snake eyes to successfully make it to the galley without tripping and hurting yourselves. Coordination plus athletics or just coordination by itself? Coordination athletics is great. I got a six and a three for an 11. Got a three and a two for a 10. I have a 13. I got a three and a two for an eight. I got a rock.
00:40:51
Speaker
Yeah, so at a 10 or higher, you are able to make your way to the galley. The engineer follows and does not roll a lower than an eight. So, Dr. Luton, it takes
Suspicion and Confrontation on the Bridge
00:41:04
Speaker
you a minute. You accidentally hip-check the doorway hatch on your way through. You're that distracted. But you make it onto the bridge where there are still low flashing lights indicating the place is not entirely station-shaped, ship-shape.
00:41:20
Speaker
And the captain is overseeing things as various stations and their operators are giving her updates, et cetera. You come in and she says, we're getting all the strangest readings I've ever seen from the halls and the pipes. What happened?
00:41:37
Speaker
I yell at the top of my lungs. Emergency! We have to vent the ship! Beautiful. Give me a presence and convince role, please. Plus two, because the captain knows that you're level-headed and don't say weird things like this lightly.
00:41:52
Speaker
I rolled a six, so I think I got a 17. The captain did not roll spectacularly. There's a one on those dice. So yes, they believe you, but they are not going to immediately just like hit any massive button that just airlocks the entire station. She does turn and snap. Life support, begin the protocols. Prepare for emergency decompression. This place does have decompression protocols, which you helped build.
00:42:21
Speaker
Hearing those magic words does pull you a bit out of your shock. Dr. Luden, you will be at a plus two to help with decompression protocols if it does actually come to that. The good news is you have brought the warning message to the bridge and they can start trying to do the things. Meanwhile, in the galley,
00:42:41
Speaker
You guys reach the galley where you see Chef Andre swinging an empty frying pan with one hand from behind Brandable Smockett who is screaming at a high, high pitch waving his little jet burner for creme brulee at the ghost that is reaching overhead. Get away, we don't want you here. As you enter,
00:43:08
Speaker
Look for some of those creme brulee torches so we can try to ward off any attacks from these things. Turn to Calamity and say, if you brought along that stun baton, now might be the time to break it out.
00:43:26
Speaker
That was awesome! Fixer, give me an awareness and intuition roll, please, as Maeve starts rifling drawers around the galley for more of those little creme brulee torches. Okay, I got a three and a five on the dice for a total of 13, but for this one, because it will hopefully keep people safe, I'd like to spend that story point if it'll help out. We'll come to you in just a second. Maeve, what did you roll looking for creme brulee torches?
00:43:57
Speaker
A one and a two for a ten. You do not find anything. The dice are antagonizing me today.
00:44:06
Speaker
No, you do not find anything. You're on a space station. I'm not going to give you any more penalties on a freaking space station. So yeah, Fixer, you spent a story point on your ingenuity and your intuition when Calamity says you just had to make this face. And she pointed at the engineer who made that face. Yeah, just go to do one of those faces.
00:44:34
Speaker
Fixer, you know he's hiding something. While I'm looking for the creme brulee torches, because again, I do want to make sure nobody gets attacked by these things, I'm just going to give him a very knowing look and say, could you please not twirl your mustache when people are in danger? It's very off-putting.
00:44:54
Speaker
So you say that to him, please don't twirl your mustache quite so much, and then just brush past him. Give us an awareness roll for finding brulee torches while... Oh, I already rolled for that. I got a 3 and a 5 for a total of 13. So you're looking around. 13 means you will find a drawer with 2 or 3 brulee torches in there.
00:45:16
Speaker
Like, if it does seem like the blue ghost thing is actively menacing people in the sense that they are forced to try to fend it off with various cooking implements, she did want to, you know, try to make the face again so that it would go further away, other than she would be forced to chase it, so there's pros and cons.
00:45:37
Speaker
I will say the gelf keeping well enough away from the current brulee torches looks at you and is not currently in a position to do a fear factor because it is also in a state of agitation. Give us presence and convince to do the face. That's funny, the face didn't work on it. The fixer has found a drawer with two extra creme brulee torches
00:46:04
Speaker
to help ward off the gelf floating overhead as Dr. Luton and the captain on the bridge begin the steps for emergency decompression across the station. We are currently in an action scene. Just as a quick recap, we will have talkers followed by movers followed by doers followed by fighters. Currently the gelf
00:46:27
Speaker
Circling the ceiling is shrieking at the top of its lungs. Leave us alone! Let us go home! Keep us from the monster! And it tries to claw at the pipe that is against the ceiling, but since it's completely incorporeal, it's not doing a blessed thing to the actual pipe. But that is what it is trying in futility to do.
00:46:54
Speaker
Maeve has heard this reference to the monster now a couple of times. Do I know what the monster is? Is there something I'm missing as a player? No, there's nothing you're missing. I pick up the note taker and be like, where is the monster and what is it?
00:47:11
Speaker
Maeve, give us an awareness roll, please, with intuition. And this is going to be a following your purpose. Because you are pursuing the truth. This is your focus. So yeah, since you are using your focus, this is going to be all three dice, keep all three. That is a six, a four, and a two for a total of 19.
00:47:32
Speaker
chef's kiss with the six on the dice that is a yes and you were in the sick bay when things blew up you were not actually present in the guest processing room when things blew with the six on the dice what you were able to immediately tell is that this specter you've overheard that it's run away
00:47:52
Speaker
from someone in the room and you can tell from the way that the gelf is trying to keep itself both away from the fire and something else you're able to follow where it's not trying to get and you are the first person to spot the engineer sidestepping very quickly towards the bridge. I would like to
00:48:12
Speaker
turn to Brandable and Maeve and say, Maeve, I believe if you can get Brandable to the bridge, I am sure he'd be happy to tell you all of his opinions on the current state of affairs at this station. Calamity? And then look at the engineer? And you? We're going to siphon control. We're returning these things back down to where they belong.
00:48:31
Speaker
Maeve is not going to do anything that takes her away from that engineer. So Brandable is like, oh, are we going this way? And like, oh, you know, you're not actually leaving. You know, you're not moving. Yeah, run as fast as you can. Go to the bridge. And then I'm going to head towards the engineer. Yeah. So you're all basically here. The engineer is here by the, he's been settling towards the door and he says, you know, we can do all that from the bridge. They go to control his facade and control from up there.
00:49:01
Speaker
Lead on. Don't mind if I do. And he turns. Okay, so the engineer is heading towards the bridge as Chef Andre now has a pan and a lighter, although the specter above him does not appear to have any interest in him.
00:49:21
Speaker
I wanted to turn to the fixer and be like... So, does it not work when I did it that time? Does he have like an invisible mustache and I don't have an invisible mustache that only Geth can see? Is there a certain kind of person in the galaxy that has an invisible mustache and Geth aren't afraid of?
00:49:39
Speaker
When you say that, I'm just going to give him, the Engineer, the dirtiest look-over, and say, definitely someone the Geth might call a monster. The Engineer is not looking at you. The Engineer is ignoring you, as Maeve and the Engineer are closer to the bridge. Can I just do one thing then? I would like to actually hand the torches that I got, the little creme brulee torches, one to Maeve and one to Calamity.
00:50:07
Speaker
You guys have little torches. Little jet mutating torches for flaming brulee. Okay, so you make your way to the bridge led by the engineer and Maeve, followed by Calamity and the Fixer. And Brandable is in the mix as well. So an approximation of the bridge of the Sigourney. Even here, with the alarms off and the silently flashing lights, you can hear the faint rattle.
00:50:35
Speaker
of something hitting on the pipes. The captain and members of the crew are talking actively about emergency decompression as you walk in. What I would like from all of our PCs and Dr. Luton is an awareness role with intuition, please. And Maeve, since your focus is the truth, you can roll three dice and keep three.
00:51:01
Speaker
12 is okay, 15 or higher is better for noticing things. I got a one, a four, and a three for a total of 15, and I will spend a story point or two. We'll come back to you in just a second when we get the rules from everybody else. Got a four and a four for a total of 13. Got a three and a four for a total of 16. I got a one and a six for a total of 16. Things are happening pretty quickly on the bridge.
00:51:26
Speaker
So you enter through here, the various stations of the bridge are here, and those that rolled a 12 or higher noticed that the engineer immediately goes to this station over by the corner of the room. Dr. Luton, with the 16, you're slightly confused because the engineer just went to computer core access. That has nothing to do with anything to do with emergency compression. That's not his station at all.
00:51:55
Speaker
And as he walks to that station, I say, Dr. Ludin, I don't know what he knows, but he knows something. I believe he's the monster the Gelt are talking about. We have to stop whatever he's doing and find out what he knows. I point at him and with everything I've got, I yell, stop right there.
00:52:16
Speaker
Presence and convince roll. Please, from Dr. Luton, our special guest, this is going to be your presence and convince add to because you built this place. You are invested in this place. Actually, considering that is your focus, you also get to roll three dice and keep three dice here. Tell you the difficulty you're trying to beat. Oh man, I rolled a six and a one and a two.
00:52:42
Speaker
That's fine. They cancel each other out. Is that okay? Yeah, that's fine. They cancel each other out. Okay. Plus... Resolve plus a nine. I rolled a total of 15. The Engineer has a one on his dice. You are able to call out to him and you say, stop! And he does not want to stop, but he is compelled to. And he slowly turns on his heal. This is the start of a round.
00:53:12
Speaker
Do we have any talking from Calamity or the Fixer? It seemed like the Fixer actually knew the Engineer or who he was or what was going on because his tone made it sound like he did, but then that's sort of a thing that they do. So I just wanted to check. If it seems like the Fixer does know what's going on, then Calamity will stop caring because it's handled.
00:53:36
Speaker
Ooh, if I can be really honest, from an outside character in character point of view, once the Fixer found out that the Geth were victims, basically, of the Time War,
00:53:48
Speaker
That brought up a lot of trauma for the fixer. And so he's operating on some assumptions based on time war trauma that might have nothing to do with what's going on right now, just FYI. Interesting. Okay, I'm going to dig into it then because it's unclear to Calamity what the hell is going on. So who's this person? Are they a monster? Do they have an invisible mustache? I mean, do you have any insights? Things are going great, honestly, but it's very confusing.
00:54:19
Speaker
I think the thing that confuses me the most, Calamity, is how there are some people out there that you run into. Not people like you or me or Maeve or some of the other wonderful people we met. That when everybody's in danger, that when everybody's at threat, their response is to find it exceptionally funny.
00:54:36
Speaker
You know, I've had some incidents in the past with people like that, that the minute I hear a victim telling me about a monster that has abused them, and I see someone walk into the room and laugh at that victim's suffering, you know, and in that moment where I'm getting more and more intense, I'm gonna turn towards the nearest one of the floating robots and say,
00:54:57
Speaker
Are you authorized to apprehend that and just point at the engineer? Literally with the look like I'm looking at a Dalek. The Helperbots turn and confer to each other. Give me a presence and convince, because you are trying to ask the robots to do something that may or may not be part of their programming. Plus two, because you are recognized as the... Technically. Ooh, Technically. Yay. Well, I got a four to five in the dice for a total of 16. Let's see how the robots do.
00:55:25
Speaker
The robots rolled a three and a one, so they are in no position to turn down that idea. But they are not fast enough to just immediately jump into action. They turn, then to the captain, and the captain, completely confused, says, yes, grab him! And the robots zoom towards the engineer.
00:56:00
Speaker
There are only two types of people I've seen who could take joy in that type of pain.
00:56:06
Speaker
One of them doesn't walk around on two feet and the other one does. And I'm hoping we're going to find out which one of those two this is. As the robots are scooting across the floor and they've put their hands in aggressively friendly positions to try and grapple the
00:56:25
Speaker
engineer. He looks at you with a mix of disgust and arrogance and impatience. Come now, you biped. Feet are overrated. Quick, close your eyes. He's doing a bait.
00:56:44
Speaker
He makes no effort to stop the robots as they tend to grapple him, which will be at the top of the action round. Did he already move to the computer to, like, did he pull anything up on the computer before we stopped him? No, Dr. Luden said stop and he could not, with one of the dice, he could not. So he's turning around, he's facing you guys away from the computer as the helper bots are getting closer.
00:57:11
Speaker
Croom and Thatcher, what have you done? A smirk picks up on one side of his face and is joined on the other. She's not very fast on the application. Croom and Thatcher is not in here anymore. And that's when the robots latch onto him.
00:57:34
Speaker
Neither of the droids roll better than a five. Their hold is not particularly forceful. House rules we have combined that people can talk and do other things in the same round because that's just the flow of things. Since he did not offer any resistance whatsoever, he is, however, going to attempt and attack a very special kind of attack. It will be his resolve and convince versus the nearest robot that is attacking him.
00:58:02
Speaker
The robot rolled very badly. The robot rolled a three with a one on one of those dice. The droids cross the room and attempt to take hold of Crewman Thatcher. And at that point, his whole face lights up as if projected from green off camera. And the glow, the green sheen off of his face is reflected in the face panel of the robot that is trying to clutch him from one side.
00:58:32
Speaker
And it immediately goes rigid. And rather than the friendly blue underlights of the robot's circuitry and LEDs, all of those lights are now green. And it lets go as Croom and Thatcher is now limp in the grip of the only robot that's still trying to hold him.
00:58:51
Speaker
Maeve moves to the computer that Cremen Thatcher was trying to access. I'd like to see if I can figure out what he was trying to do. He was trying to access the central computer hub, the brain of his entire operation. What kind of operations can you perform from that? Give me an ingenuity and intuition role, please, and throw two on for experienced companion.
00:59:15
Speaker
Oh, that's not good. One and a two for a total of twelve, but could I possibly suspend a story point? Yeah, you're currently in no-butt territory. A single story point will take you up to yes. Yeah, I'll spend one. From the very little that you're able to grasp here, and having just witnessed a person apparently take over a robot, it occurs to you that a person could have tried to take over the computer if he had not been interrupted.
00:59:46
Speaker
before getting the chance to do that. We have to keep him away from the computer core. I'm going to pull out my sonic stylus, point them at the hover emitters that could, or whatever device controls keeping the robot aloft, and shut those doors with a face first on the floor.
01:00:00
Speaker
That is going to be doing. Do we have any other talkers before we get to the fixers doing? So Calamity, seeing what happened with the engineer and the robot is going to sort of run over to the robot. No, it does not matter what colour his face is.
01:00:17
Speaker
You are unionized and he is not your supervisor. I'm happy to spend story points to make this even possible. Basically, Calamity is attempting to reverse whatever superpower this guy used on a robot by the power of, you know, workers' rights. You, Rock, that is amazing and wonderful. Wonderful.
01:00:44
Speaker
We're going to say that since it's a robot being possessed, that it is possible. It is going to be a... I'm not even sure what you would roll here. Like a story point expenditure? It's such a wonderful idea, but there are stakes at play, so we do need some risk.
01:01:06
Speaker
If you spend flat out three story points, you will have the desired effect. If you want to spend two or less, the robot and the thing currently controlling it will have to roll to combat each other. Well, you would roll presence and convince because you're trying to reach the robot inside with, I know you're in there somewhere, fight. Gotcha, gotcha. Okay, now then, yeah, I want to spend two.
01:01:31
Speaker
Please give me presence and convince. This adheres to your focus because you are helping this robot be unsinkable. So roll three dice, use all three, give us presence and convince. Okay, so the bad thing got a 12. I think the robot did better. Calamity, what did you get on the dice? I did 17 with nothing special.
01:01:53
Speaker
with a 17 on the dice, spending two story points to help make this thing possible, you have successfully verbally rebooted this helper bot from possessed green to flickering blue-green, blue-green, blue-green, before it goes completely stock still, shudders with electricity, and green gas shoots out of it and circles above on
01:02:23
Speaker
the ceiling. Crewman Thatcher is prone. Helperbot, it just left, is rebooting and getting back to its senses, and the Helperbot next to it has let go of the prone Thatcher. Oh, well, I was originally going to disable the Helperbot, but your solution was far superior. But you haven't gone, so... Oh, that's very good pair. Well then, we have a gas control system in here, right?
Emergency Measures and Station Stabilization
01:02:48
Speaker
Can we pull that up into the gas control system?
01:02:51
Speaker
Dr. Luton, would you be so kind as to give us an ingenuity and technology role? Using all three dice, because this is your baby here.
01:03:00
Speaker
This is going to be difficult. This is going to be a difficulty of 18 and you do have story points to spend if you wish to spend story points to help things along. But when you say gas control, the captain does a quick whistle and one by one you see people at their stations grab a strap of something to hold onto.
01:03:26
Speaker
That's a way better idea than I had. I was going to ask if there was a vacuum cleaner around. That would be good. You will notice the lovely and convenient handlebars available to grip onto for safety. Dr. Luton, what did you roll today? If I did this correctly, I rolled a 24. It's 366 on dice plus six plus three.
01:03:52
Speaker
You got two sixes in the mix? That's boxcars. Things could not have gone better. These strange baffling things have been going on on your station and you've heard these people, these brilliant mad people talking about gaseous creatures taking over bodies, taking over robots, trying to take over the ship.
01:04:14
Speaker
All that matters to you is the word gaseous. And you get to the controls. And the captain and everyone have been preparing now for at least two minutes in game time, preparing to activate the emergency decompression. And you play those controls like a pipe organ, and it is Sunday morning. As across the station, there are just these...
01:04:48
Speaker
as the gases are pulled out of every single room and lights go from blue to lighter blue to fainter blue.
01:05:00
Speaker
to the normal white light that you are used to as the gas, the green gas circling in the bridge is pulled into a thread and drained right into the vents. Cut to the exterior of the Sigourney as blue wisps of gas are shunted.
01:05:21
Speaker
down holographic pipes back towards their home of close to look as the green gas that constitutes the uncle and the family of greed rattles around and is sent into a sealed tank for impurities where it just impotently pounds on metal canister.
01:05:45
Speaker
And the station writes itself. The lights come back up to full. There's that, as the right balances of oxygen refill the rooms little by little. And of course, Calamity, the only one with an intact spacesuit, is just like, oh, that's fun. That didn't really affect me in any way, shape, or form. But it's nice that you're having people. No, she was actually waiting for an exterior airlock door to open, because she was not going to really hold on to a handlebar.
01:06:19
Speaker
Fortunately, there are no direct airlocks from the bridge. The danger has passed. Do we have any last reactions from our players as the action
Reflections and Gratitude
01:06:40
Speaker
is fading? I find a chair and sit down.
01:06:46
Speaker
As Dr. Luton sits down, I'd like to approach her and say, doctor, I have to give you a lot of credit. This station really is a masterful work of engineering. I suspect it was actually efficient and effective enough that, and I'll point at the being bouncing around inside the storage canister, thought it could turn it into a full-on body and basically become a living station. I mean, that's quite high praise.
01:07:14
Speaker
But I calculated and recalculated and it's not possible this could have happened. I wonder if it's sabotage. Oh, but if this was sabotage, that's concern.
01:07:28
Speaker
When we were up here before, it looked like the readings were different on the things from what we'd seen before. Sorry, I didn't mention it. We were very distracted. But yeah, I think somebody faked it so she couldn't see that there were, you know, gas people.
01:07:45
Speaker
We're going to repair montage as helper bots work side by side with engineers to repair the gas processing room and the controls for everything. You're able to access the logs
01:07:59
Speaker
And it turns out that Crewman Thatcher, the laziest engineer involved in the project, has been siphoning off the impurities that they did not know what were. They weren't Dytridium. They weren't O2. He didn't know what to do with them. And so he's just shunted them off into those tanks to be someone else's problem later down the road. With the addition from the Fixer,
01:08:20
Speaker
of software necessary to scan for gaseous life forms in the mix of the gas. You are able to refine the process siphoning off of ditritium from close to look so that the gelf will not be affected by any further siphoning ditritium off of the gas chart. That is the extent of any kind of wrongdoing. It was the, oh, I'm just gonna put this in an unmarked folder and leave it for later.
01:08:49
Speaker
That's a relief. That is a relief. We cut to the docking bay. It has been a day or two later. Repairs are underway. The bugs and random factors have been worked out of the system.
01:09:05
Speaker
And the tankard with the green gas alien inside of it has gone relatively, has gone quiet. You are in the docking bay. Brandable Smocket takes those tiny, tiny scissors that you brought, snips them through the ribbon as the facility comes online and a little chorus of helper bots go, as production begins in Toto on the Sigourney.
01:09:32
Speaker
Oh, the people in Britain are going to be so happy with you. Oh, this is going to be a red-headed day for them. Wait until they start to see the prophets. It's going to be beautiful for them. Oh, you saved the whole kingdom. Brother, brother. Brandable will make sure to tell Kitsy how amazing a job your team did during this. Oh, yeah, of course. So let me say hi. And the robots turn to you when you mention Kitsy. And it's like, do you know our union advisor?
01:10:00
Speaker
Kitsy is the best. Cut to the interior of the TARDIS. The scanners have identified the entity inside the tank. They are a member of a bodyless species. This one identifies itself as the family of Greed. They survive by taking over hosts with longer lifespans than their own. They are incredibly dangerous and you appear to have stopped this one before it could have
01:10:29
Speaker
done something incredibly dangerous. Calamity's poking the fixer. But does it have an invisible mustache? Does it? Well, I guess one could consider it having an invisible mustache. After all, it's gaseous, so it could technically fill out any shape. All right. Have an invisible beard too, I suppose then. Does Maeve want to interview Brandable or Dr. Luden or anything like that for her article?
01:10:59
Speaker
I think that I would definitely interview both of them. Maeve is sitting a little bit on this story. She's going to write a story about the ethics of planet buying. But avoid directly naming too many names.
01:11:16
Speaker
Well, what you get from Brandable is leasing close to look has completely revitalized the economy of the Bernese planetary system. By leasing, instead of straight out buying it, they haven't broken the collection, which is something the Royal Family kind of cares about from strictly an image point of view. But because of the lease and the terms of it, they are getting a massive influx of cash from snack homes that will completely revitalize their economy.
01:11:46
Speaker
And coming up later in the local timeline, Snackums will be sponsoring the royal coronation when the crown passes to the next successor. Interesting. Before we head on to the TARDIS, I would like to turn to Dr. Luton. Dr., thank you again for all of your excellent work. You saved a lot of lives.
01:12:06
Speaker
Luden is somebody that looks just a little broken. She says, I can't thank you enough.
Contemplating Future Endeavors
01:12:14
Speaker
Dr. Cathica Pittery comes up beside Dr. Luden and gives her a pat on the back. It's like, don't worry, doctor. Everything worked out. There'll be other projects. And hands you a cup of cocoa. And, well, brandable snuck it. And a Xanax. Oh, so you know the secret ingredient in my creme brulee. Tap, tap, tap.
01:12:37
Speaker
Dr. Luden goes back to her quarters, takes out a picture of her wife, lays it on the desk, takes a deep breath and pulls out a folder that says time travel on it and starts to write. Cut to the interior of the TARDIS. The fixer confirms the uncle in the family of greed is completely inert in the tank and can be safely disposed of.
01:13:01
Speaker
Once I'm sure of that, I would like to just sit down in the shadow of the console, if possible, with Maeve and Calamity in the room with me, staring at the container, and say, Maeve, Calamity, I'm a little worried. I'm a little worried because I really think that if it weren't for the two of you, this would have gone really badly. Really, really badly. What do you think would have happened?
01:13:28
Speaker
Old wounds would have led me down a path that would have resulted in me not seeing what was happening in front of me. And I don't know if we would have been able to save anybody on board there, the Geth or the units. Well, you're right. If not for me, we wouldn't have been here because we wouldn't have been invited, right? But that's sort of the whole point, is that these things happen. They don't happen in good ways, but they happen in right ways, right?
01:13:54
Speaker
The minute Calamity says that, the Fixer brightens up, stands up, and starts putting in coordinates into the console and says, you're absolutely right, Calamity. You're absolutely right. Sometimes the universe is looking at it. How about we go drop this criminal off with the local authorities? We don't need to worry about more of this greed family, right? Probably. Well, good to know. How do gas people have children? With a lot of pressure.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:14:43
Speaker
Folks, that was Lantern in the Smoke. I would love to go around the table, really introduce our team, and deal out those tasty, tasty experience points. Let us begin with our special guest star, Amy Flanagan. That was delightful to watch.
01:15:01
Speaker
How do you feel about having a Time Lord and their companions chaos their way through your space station? It was not what I expected at all. And I'm not sure what I expected. It turns out those spacesuits were a really good idea. I thought we were going to need them in about 12 seconds or so. I've just had an incredibly wonderful time.
01:15:24
Speaker
I'm really glad to hear that. Kate, how would Maeve report on today's events having survived a second encounter with Snackums? So, of course, uh, she's going to write this article on planetfying and possible ethical dilemmas around it, kind of. It's a very both sides and neutral article, but in a tiny boulder in the note taker.
01:15:47
Speaker
There's just a spot called evidence, and within that are conversations, notes, any documents she can find, and that folder is slowly growing. Why, Kate, does Maeve have an update to her long-term goal? I believe that we are going to try to take down the Snackums Empire. I wish you luck. That'll be incredible. Dora, what surprised you about today's mod?
01:16:15
Speaker
It wasn't surprising per se, right? Like the structure was very familiar, but Calamity was just, Calamity had to work for it this time. The chaos just wasn't happening to happen right where she was, it was happening in other places. There was a lot of running, but yeah, I think overall it was good, and I was excited to have various rifts and then ride them directly into the ground over and over again.
01:16:41
Speaker
Those playing anywhere, but now bingo, we have checked the box for running down corridors. Brand, what surprised you most about today's mod? Ooh, I love the secondary element of another gaseous being trying to abuse the system that the humans already had in place to take control of our other gaseous beings. That was, oh, chef's kiss, that's good stuff. Yeah, I was wary of putting a hat on a hat.
01:17:11
Speaker
in terms of baddies in a single episode, but the initial act break of, oh, this ship is rocked by angry ghosts. The Gelf is a great ramp up. And then learning the angry ghosts are also afraid of something themselves makes a nice accelerator. This is one of those mods that has multiple outcomes, that has multiple ways of fixing things or not fixing things and saving the day.
01:17:38
Speaker
And coming up with a emergency venting the whole station thing at once is a beautiful twist on one of the ways that things can go. You guys never cease to impress me with your intelligence and your creativity, just your resourcefulness of coming up with ways of...
01:18:01
Speaker
trying to find solutions. We are going to have to up our game because of how quickly you've gotten to, oh, were there aliens in the gas? There's a certain amount of genres in the part of Time Lords, you know. It could have been.
01:18:19
Speaker
Well, and again, I love that idea that like anytime we encounter a new biome, I feel like Time Lords are going to be like, oh, excited to meet who lives there. It's like, oh, new species. This is going to be great. And then it never seems to be great, but it always gets so close.
01:18:34
Speaker
Just imagine if instead of that evil greed gas trying to do what it was doing, the uncle, if instead it was somebody trying to do something good, they could have had a, you know, a intergalactic living gas station doing right by the universe. That would have been wonderful. It would have been wonderful. It'd be a different kind of show.
01:18:54
Speaker
That's fair. The adventures tend to be less scary if the aliens are here to help versus here to hatch some nefarious plot. Amy, I want to thank you again for joining us today. The chemistry of this team has truly found its paces and they know they enjoy playing off each other and then we bring in someone new and there's antagonism
01:19:20
Speaker
and there's oh wait we're not so different and learning to work together and working to work side by side and it's a joy to experience.
01:19:29
Speaker
I've had a wonderful time. It was wonderful to watch all three of you play off each other. I will go ahead and give out one more additional experience point to the ones you've earned for the last portion of the game, the last mod of the game. So take one experience point for today. Do any of our players wish to give a point to each other for moments that left out for you, that the beats of the story you really enjoyed, things like that?
01:19:59
Speaker
Yes, I would definitely like to give Pandora a point because I loved the way Calamity would pick up certain elements and it just culminated into the invisible mustache and that was so great. I loved the literalness of that. That was so beautiful. That was good stuff.
01:20:16
Speaker
uh oh uh yes yes i i wanted to be uh uh like i i just wanted to i wanted to shout out to temave for the that shark instinct you know because she'll just stuff is going on and it's dangerous and panic and stuff but then there's like there's that hint of of story blood in the water and then she's like latches directly into it and just goes
01:20:41
Speaker
Very, very fast, reporter shark. But yes, I always like that when her eyes light up. I definitely want to shout out the fixer for remembering like the creme brulee torches and that like brandable and chef Andre exist because I had completely latched on to other portions of the story. And I would have just like, let them die.
01:21:10
Speaker
Yeah, that was perfect. I love... Clamity, I'm sorry. I loved that at the middle of everything going wrong, you have sort of a little fit, not because everything's going wrong, but because you're missing it, and you've been missing it and missing it, and that is not fair. And you're just gonna, you know, throw a little tantrum about it till you figure it out. I know, right? Thank you. Thank you for getting me.
01:21:36
Speaker
There was so much FOMO going on. It was beautiful. Yeah. And the Fixer, I think that it was just, I really enjoyed playing off of you. I really enjoyed that, you know, as I and Dr. Luden are kind of going nuts about what's going on.
01:21:53
Speaker
you just have this calmness and that cuts directly to the heart of the problem. And, you know, that sort of, you know, stabilized me as a character and also, I think, just, you know, gave us a wonderful through line in the story.
01:22:07
Speaker
Aw, Amy, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. You're welcome. I really, really enjoyed the way that you portrayed Dr. Luton. Like, I felt like it was really nuanced and it was just a joy to play. Yes, it was delightful, really, because, like, our wacky hijinks would not come off as well if there were not, you know, just regular people having to deal with them.
01:22:34
Speaker
um yeah you really you really got that across very well
01:22:43
Speaker
Yes, you definitely provided the baseline of that tone of unamused that really gave them a lot to bounce off of. And I am incredibly grateful for that. Yes, everybody concerned, please take an additional experience point for the nods that you've gotten from your co-stars. That is marvelous. From the bottom of my hearts,
01:23:08
Speaker
Thank you for coming to play today. This game is not fun for me without players that enjoy each other's company and riff and find fun solutions and challenge me and make me do better the next time. Like you guys are really doing wonderful play. And finally, another big thank you for sharing your precious time with us.
01:23:34
Speaker
If you feel it's been well spent, please share anywhere but now with your friends who are looking to enjoy themselves. If you like what you hear, leave a review. Rate the show and follow us on Twitter at anywhere but now with an underscore at the end and wherever you find your podcasts. Links to everything and the doobly-doo. From all of us, I'm Casey Jones. Thanks so much and have a great day.