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C1 EP6 - Hokey Pokey with a twist image

C1 EP6 - Hokey Pokey with a twist

Ursa Red
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36 Plays1 year ago

The party visits the Erirep Dinner for some eavesdropping and games then heads to the Vein to buy a hard-to-find substance.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains fantasy violence, Crime, Alcohol use, amnesia, potential trigger statements, and strong profanity.

Click https://www.linktr.ee/tacticalcrits for Social Media, Spotify, and Apple Podcast

Transcript

Introduction and Player Character Introductions

00:00:00
Speaker
Content Warning. Ursa Rhett is a podcast with mature themes for a mature audience. Content warnings can be found in the description.
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome golden dragons, gnomes, and giants to this episode of Ursa red. Ursa red is a real crime. Nope. Fake crime show. Based on Dungeons and Dragons. I am Alexander Crutchfield and I am your GM today. I am joined by Carter profit.
00:00:34
Speaker
I'm part of Prophet. I play Mr. Somebody. He's a human, a variant monk. A little more fun than fact is he actually does have a favorite cube color. Oh, do tell. It's not rainbow. Sorry. Well, you're wrong then. You're strong. It's not the worst, but it's definitely purple.
00:01:04
Speaker
Well, you know, it happens. And purple already is a mixture of red and blue goop. That is true. So if you just added a couple more, it has to be specially made. Cause we already talked about if you mix the goops together, they don't. Yeah, that's true. That's true. We did say that. It was actually YouTube who, uh, who established that.
00:01:29
Speaker
But when you mix them all, it doesn't. It turns into a rainbow. Exactly. Exactly. I'm joined by Chase Dixon. Hello, everybody. I am Chase Dixon. I am the voice of Antonio Moretti, a drought rogue. And fun fact about Antonio back at his abode, right? He's got a closet full of clothes, but it is the exact same combination of vests, trench coats, boots and pants.
00:01:56
Speaker
over and over and over and over again. It's the exact same thing, as far as the eye can see. To quote Jerry Seinfeld, black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow. Ooh, yellow and black. I was thinking like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg style. Yeah. Except for inventing world changing technology, he commits organized crime. Same, same. I'm joined by Dean Balter.
00:02:27
Speaker
Hello, I'm Dean Walter. Playing card with flair. A drunken high elf with an affinity rare. Loves all alcohol, top shelf, and generic. In the neon lit Ursa Red, he's the greatest Twilight cleric. Cards, fun fact of today.
00:02:46
Speaker
is that he is kind of afraid of children, because after going to the very well-known Children of the Thorn play that was going on in his hometown, he just doesn't like being around children. Yeah. It happens, you know.
00:03:09
Speaker
I'm imagining that Karg was completely plastered when he saw this play and he didn't realize it was just a play. So he thought children are just murdering people. Yeah, just murdering people. It's like there's a gang of kids on the loose out here. They're in the thorns. They're going to kill everyone. I'm joined by Timothy Lincoln. Hi, I'm Tim Lincoln. I play Optimus Crime, the warforged artificer tech guru of the group.
00:03:39
Speaker
So I got a fun fact for us today. I'm actually going to do a five fun fact series over the, it's going to be a themed series over the next five weeks. And we're going to go over Optimus crimes, five senses. So the first one this week is going to be his vision, what the world looks like to him. So as a robot.
00:04:05
Speaker
Um, he doesn't see the same way that people see he doesn't got eyeballs. What he does have though, is his camera. And so I did a little bit of research. I was like, how do robots see there's a five step process that it goes through.
00:04:22
Speaker
There's the processing of the data segmentation description and recognition and interpretation of the data. So his favorite thing to see is when he's at the overlook of the upper pass at the start of glow with his sister and they watch basically the sun rises all the neon lights turn on.
00:04:44
Speaker
So his interpretation of the start of glow is he views it kind of like how he has power and rest cycles. And he knows that someday he's going to power down. He won't be able to power up again. It's just part of life. So seeing the whole under power up every morning means that everything's right in the world and the home he loves is functioning normally. So he fears in the back of his mind someday that
00:05:12
Speaker
The under won't power up again. Hmm. That is beautiful. Hmm. That kind of feels a little bit. Now I got to figure out where the power comes from. And I'm joined by Dominic Weymeyer. Hello, I'm Dominic Weymeyer and I play Johnny Phelps. Fun fact about Johnny Phelps.

Setting the Scene and Initial Strategy

00:05:38
Speaker
Less fun, more fact. I lost my
00:05:41
Speaker
Organic eye on the first case I ever took as a private eye It was supposed to be a simple hunt down a lost shipment It was it was very much not simple What happened this fucking gang they took this package I was trying to get it back massive gunfight lost the eye and
00:06:06
Speaker
Didn't get the package. Yeah, but how'd you lose the eye? They shot it. With guns. I thought it was gonna be like in the middle of the gunfight or something, you know. I thought it was gonna be like something funny. I tripped and impaled my eye with a screwdriver. Yeah, with a 10mm socket. That's why he lost the gunfight. He brought a screwdriver instead of a gun.
00:06:33
Speaker
Johnny Phelps be the example children never run with scissors. He was trying to write with his pen taking notes about the gunfight. Yeah notes are important running with scissors just Being an absolute menace to society It's a bad idea. Don't do it
00:06:56
Speaker
Once again, I am Alexander Crutchfield. I am the GM for Ursa Red. And my fun fact is I found three creatures that have different pronunciations of the letter G and I made the conscious decision to not look for other creatures. I just went with golden dragon, giant instead of giant and gnome.
00:08:08
Speaker
Okay, cool. See, we ended with you guys telling the dudes. Cool. Jason dudes. Yeah, Jason dudes. So you guys are together as a group or how are we trailing them? I was thinking kind of slightly spread out the way there's not just Yeah, a couple of groups, five dudes just following these guys.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, Karg is like 30 feet back. Kind of stumbled around like a drunk person. So like, he's not super conspicuous. He's just trying to fit in as a normal Karg. How he usually fits in. Is the street populated? Like a lot of people out today? Yeah, right now it's about two hours past mid glow.
00:09:06
Speaker
Okay, yeah, then I'm gonna I'm gonna just move Gaggle people to gaggle the people going about my business, you know, but I'll remain about 40 feet back from this group of a dozen sinister suited figures. Okay You're gonna pass one shot and as you look into the shop You see two people that are like Frantic like they see you and they frantically start moving
00:09:36
Speaker
And like they think you're coming to collect from them Yes, there are no chairs Business closed So
00:09:49
Speaker
That's how you're moving. Karg, you're just kind of drunkenly stumbling down the road. What are you doing? Yeah, so I'm still wearing my high vis vest and my hard hat with the clipboard tries to see me. They have to pass their in the what was it? Intelligence safety check against my insight.
00:10:16
Speaker
because everyone knows how did you wear a situation check that you know i really think you're supposed to be there you're supposed to be there uh... uh... johnny how are you moving walking normally down the street you know not trying to do anything to out of the ordinary you from Moscow or Brooklyn yeah it's got five it's got four settings
00:10:46
Speaker
He's a private investigator he changes his voice up so that people don't exactly How are you telling them I'm I'm trying to just kind of walk normally But I also realized that I might look like I kind of belong with them with the suit and everything so trying to not move I guess as menacingly as they are and
00:11:10
Speaker
Oh, okay. Um, these guys have, they're, they're not looking super menacing either right now. They, like the only thing menacing about them is that they're moving as a group. As soon as they got out into like the public area, they, they turned a lot less menacing. Like they had a nice little moment with Karg before they started walking around. They weren't super mean or anything.
00:11:35
Speaker
They're they're blended in pretty okay. They're going to Start like they're heading west east We east I thought you said east They're they're gonna head east and until they get to the like a major Intersection, they're gonna head north. They're gonna stop at the air rep diner. That's what that's called. Right? Yep, the air rep diner
00:12:05
Speaker
error rep diner what a place looks a little fancy oh yeah the error rep diner is one of my favorite restaurants to go to mainly because they have a completely automated staff
00:12:22
Speaker
Karg likes it because the menu consists of red goop, blue goop, green goop, pretty much any color you want. And as you know, we just mix them all together to make the best color goop.

Executing the Earpiece Heist

00:12:34
Speaker
Oh yeah. This is the kind of place that you'd go if you just want to sit down, enjoy your goop with friends while eating, you know, real chill place. Yeah, you can taste the rainbow.
00:12:54
Speaker
You're gonna follow them in and they're gonna walk up to one of the robots and say Hey, is this one of those places we set ourselves or do we have to wait? Robot was gonna respond with Set anywhere you like and then they're just gonna kind of shrug and take sit down at the nearest spot that it sets a
00:13:18
Speaker
Most of them and then the rest are going to sit at the table adjacent cars going to look over at, uh, at rhyme and just be like, Hey, let's go sit over here. We'll grab some, we'll grab some goop. Yum, yum. And he goes down. He's going to sit, he's going to sit like close enough to them where he can kind of listen to their conversations.
00:13:41
Speaker
Yeah, crime's going to do the same thing. I'm going to try and focus my attention towards the group and listen in on what they're saying. Okay. Yeah, Antonio. Let's split off a little bit. That way we're not sitting in one massive group. Yeah, it's probably a good idea. I'm going to sit at the bar so I can have line of sight of them.
00:14:06
Speaker
But I'm by myself, you know, I'm not bothering nobody. I just want to sit here and slurp goop. I'm going to do this in a couple of spaces down. Okay. Johnny, what are we doing? I will be sitting at table by myself in the corner of the restaurant and order best flavor purple goop. Purple goop. Okay. The goop is going to cost you three credits.
00:14:35
Speaker
That's expensive. The robot's gonna come over and set it down. There's a lot of goop for three credits. Can I get a bag for it?
00:14:44
Speaker
When it's time to leave yeah, absolutely Did you request the smoking area of course of course As You guys are just kind of sitting there the group is just kind of casually talking and then one of the guys is gonna look over in the direction of card and crime and
00:15:10
Speaker
And Carg is going to yell out, hey waitress, we need some goops. We need some alcohol. The waitress, which is also a waiter because it's a robot. Just to specify. I don't know. Non-binary. Wait. Robot. Text. I don't know what the culturally sensitive term is. Very binary waiter.
00:15:38
Speaker
Yeah, very binary waiter. Yeah, we got to see if it got the, the, if it has two ones, chromosomes or a one in a zero. Uh, it's gonna come over. It's gonna take your order. Like this rainbow goopin alcohol.
00:16:01
Speaker
And it's gonna look at you and be like, ah, you don't want anything. And it's gonna start to turn. Wait a minute. I'll also have a drink.
00:16:12
Speaker
and some rainbow goop. Yeah, rainbows for everyone. Can you believe these people judging us by the way we look? I can't believe it. This place is going to shit. That will be four credits from each of you. Karg looks over, he's like, make that a double. And he tosses five credits. Five credits. You can pay at the table using the terminal. He does not toss it. He goes to the table.
00:16:42
Speaker
But one of the guys is looking over at you is gonna Kind of he's got kind of like a puzzled look on his face and he's pausing for a second Right now these guys are just talking about Just regular stuff. They're one of them's telling the other guys how He got overcharged
00:17:04
Speaker
because he wanted a guy to come to his daughter's party to entertain him. Very normal, wholesome conversations, like just between co-workers. The robot is going to return with your guys' goop and drinks and
00:17:26
Speaker
Mr. Phelps, I assume you are smoking right now. Naturally. Antonio, Mr. Somebody, what we got going on? Just observing. Just observing. I'm going to order a drink. Okay, that'll be one credit. So these guys aren't
00:17:46
Speaker
Right now they're like you just hear them talking about like family life and stuff like that but there are some things that seem a little bit weird that just kind of don't fit the context of the under but you guys don't expect them to because we know that these guys aren't from the under.
00:18:03
Speaker
After they kind of talk about everything, they're like, so how are we dividing this up? And the guys kind of all look over at one particular gentleman who was the one that was looking at Karg and he's like, oh yeah, I got a list. And he pulls out from his shirt a list that looks really similar for those of you who can see to the one you found in the hotel with all the numbers on it.
00:18:36
Speaker
and he starts to list off where all the guys are supposed to be going and they all bust out pens and write it down on their arm just because they can and then they pull their sleeves back down who has the list of numbers? I have a copy I have the original
00:19:03
Speaker
Let me figure out where the hell I wrote the numbers down at. I seem to have lost the list of numbers. Amazing. Did you actually give us a list of numbers? No, but I wrote it down on my bus ride to not jump out of airplanes. So the list of numbers that they're going to have are going to line up
00:19:30
Speaker
with the list of numbers that you guys had. So this list hasn't really changed. You do notice that they omit one number and I can come up with that number real fast like and in a hurry. Uh, that list is six one zero six zero zero. Was that one big number? That is one big number. Okay. And so which one did they omit? Uh, the one I just read. Oh, okay.
00:19:59
Speaker
Yeah, that was the one that was completely different from all of the other. Right. So out of the 12 numbers they read, that one is like the 13th number on your guys's list. Karg is gonna look intently on him, like look, look very closely at him and just see if he has anything on him that just seems really kind of suspicious or something else that
00:20:29
Speaker
could offer more insight to us. Mr Phelps, what's up? Did the guys like react like individually when a specific number was read? Yes. One at a time. They wrote them down on their arms. Do these guys have any distinguishing features? Nope. Pretty generic like video game starter characters. Except they're all wearing suits.
00:20:59
Speaker
Except they're all wearing suits. And they're all human. They are all human. Yes. The guy who's in charge of them, the. I'd like you to roll perception. Who's rolling? Karg, my bad. Oh, you're good. Karg, I'd like you to roll perception. That's unfortunate. So she got a really good roll.
00:21:28
Speaker
I'm 19 on the die. Hold on. And I have a plus. Perception. Well, 19 is fine. Out of their year. 19 plus five, 24. 24 is fine. Out of their year, you're going to see that they have a wire coming down. It's gonna be their right ear coming down and it tucks into their shirt.
00:21:52
Speaker
and kind of disappears out of sight. So just based off of context, you would guess that they have someone, like they have an earpiece in so that someone can talk to him. None of the other gentlemen have it. Hmm. Where's he sitting at the table? He's currently sitting at the head of one table, but in between the two tables. Okay. Card is going to send a message to Antonio.
00:22:23
Speaker
And it's going to say, Karg distracts. You take your piece. I'm gonna, I'm gonna respond with. Affirmative. Give me a Mr. Somebody a minute. Oh, my little doodad low risk gizmo.
00:22:47
Speaker
And Karg is going to stop watching Lincoln. I counted Karg is going to look at crime and just be like, yep. So I'm going to.
00:23:04
Speaker
You're right. I'm going to go over to atmosphere and here's getting a little stuffy. I'm going to go change the music on the jukebox. Oh, you play the good song. And if you want to give you a credit for it, I'm going to walk over and put a couple of credits in the jukebox and play everyone's favorite song.
00:23:30
Speaker
What's everyone's favorite song? The Eye of the Lepers.
00:23:39
Speaker
Have you guys ever heard time code? I imagine that is what he puts on where it's just like And it's like just a giant jumble of electronic noise I went with the one that mr. Krabs requested we played on the radio Well
00:24:04
Speaker
our big robot friend over here is uh playing some poonage i'm gonna i'm gonna saunter down the bar and plop next to mr somebody hey hey mr somebody uh how good are you at pushing people
00:24:21
Speaker
pushing people I said what I said answer the question uh I don't know not not bad I can work with not bad this is what we're gonna do all right you're gonna circle around one way toward the table with the fuck faces I'm gonna circle the other way I need you to bump into me with your shoulder right and then I'm gonna push you you push me back
00:24:50
Speaker
Into one of the fuck faces. All right, that's all I need but you gotta really sell it What's what's the plan here aside from that? Like why do you what do you plan on doing? I'll tell you after it's done It's fine the guy with the earpiece is going to look over a card and say Aren't you that guy? That was playing hokey dragon slab doki
00:25:20
Speaker
Yep, that was me, and then I got hungry. Have you guys had, they have rainbow goop. This shit's fire, dude. Does it taste any different than the other ones? Nope, but it looks cool.
00:25:40
Speaker
He's just gonna kind of chuckle and be like well you want you can come over a week We can play that game that uses you wanted to play Uh, yeah, give me just a minute And he's gonna kind of look it back and he's like, okay boys Spread out And so everyone except for this guy is going to get up and kind of like
00:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, have a good one. And then one of them's going to turn and be like, oh, I forgot. Happy anniversary. And he's going to be like, thank you. When we get back, I'll let the missus know that you said happy anniversary. And like the guys are going to kind of walk out and start like,
00:26:29
Speaker
Leaving the error rep diner This guy's going to get up and walk over and Sit down. He's like, okay. So what do we need to play the game? So Here's what we do. We roll dice on there's a lot of crosstalk happening in the text chat and
00:27:05
Speaker
Before they get too far into their game I'd like to slam my drink and stand up and start walking I'm do the same Okay You ready? Yeah, okay wait, so Let me get this right if You play a seven
00:27:24
Speaker
We switch seats. So, so you get, you get two dice. Two 10 dice. Two 10 dice. Let me grab two 10 dice. Okay. I have two 10 dice. Well, these two will work. Yes. So yep. So we roll two 10 dice. If you get seven, you got to switch seats. If it's a two, then I have to spit on you.
00:27:54
Speaker
And if it's eight, then we're mates. And then... Wait, what was that last one? We become best friends. That's how you play the game. Oh, okay. And then we do the Hokey Pokey. And then whoever gets closest to 21 wins. Okay. I'm gonna roll my two tens. Hokey takey.
00:28:23
Speaker
And as he does that role, I'm going to show. OK, no check the shit out of Mr. Somebody walking past. What the fuck, dude? I'm going to fucking just push him as hard as I can into the guy.
00:28:39
Speaker
And as I do that, I'm going to add a little oomph to it and jump like not, not just to push, pushing me back. I'm going to leave my feet willingly as well and eat my body into this man's upper torso neck region.
00:28:55
Speaker
He's gonna say, I got a six and a four.

Venture to the Vein and Dealings with Dirk

00:29:01
Speaker
Fucking guy. Come on. It's, it's feet. You've been using them long. Fuck. Okay. And while I have done that, I would like to try and swipe his earpiece. Uh, roll slide of hand. Shit that fell. Uh, mod 20.
00:29:17
Speaker
mod 20 uh that is you're going to get the earpiece you're not gonna get the other end of it wait hold on you also still have uh guidance i do that's a what d4 yeah mod 22 okay you're going to get the earpiece you're not going to get the other end of it
00:29:47
Speaker
best possible outcome you get the earpiece you don't get the other end of it and he after he kind of just says like hey you've been walking he's gonna be like okay so a six and a four so i'm gonna leave i'm gonna leave the diner i believe that means i don't get spit on nope this is two and then i rolled a four and a ten so i win and then he slapped the guy
00:30:28
Speaker
One more game Little did you know this guy is actually a That's a real bad gambling problem You put some money in it
00:30:48
Speaker
No, no. His credits are no good for you. So, probably not a good idea. But you said you slap him and you won and did you go outside or was it just, I feel like you said, okay, my bad. Yeah, it was just, just him. Crime, what are we doing?
00:31:11
Speaker
So I'm standing at the jukebox, right? Uh, pretending that I'm repairing the jukebox, but keeping an eye back on the table, you know? Okay. Uh, Mr. Somebody, what are we doing? Uh, I'm going to wait for Antonio to leave the bar and then I'm going to kind of fall out behind him. Okay. That way, you know, it'd be kind of weird if we both left at the same time after that interaction. That's a good call. Johnny, what are we doing? I will keep eating mind goop.
00:31:41
Speaker
At table and then when I'm finished. Mine goop? It's German now? Four settings. Then I will get to go back. Yeah. Top of Versa Red's best seller list this month. Mine goop. I like to imagine the bag is like a shitty like plastic.
00:32:07
Speaker
like a Walmart bag and they just dump the bowl into it. Well, I like to think it's like a paper bag. And the goop is just seeping through. Yeah, it's the best. It's the best. Oh, so the guy after sorry, are you guys gonna play another game? No, it's a one more game. Okay, each again. We'll do it. I got this. I got this. I got this. I got this.
00:32:39
Speaker
Seven. Slap. Whoa. Who's supposed to switch seats? And then he just slaps him back. And then the guy's going to get up and switch seats, and he's going to be like, wait, your dice are over here, and my dice are over there. So you have a seven and a four. What did I roll? Your seven. No, no. What is your dice? Do we keep our dice, or do we?
00:33:09
Speaker
What's the point of switching seats if we don't switch dice? Well, I don't I don't roll yet. You just fucking slap me before I got a uh, you're right. Okay, you can roll your dice now I got a nine and a three Well
00:33:38
Speaker
uh you want to play again tomorrow yeah we'll play again tomorrow and i got places to be i heard your friend said university so happy anniversary he holds his uh he holds his drink up for thank you uh my name is let's see who we got on the patreon here oh johnny felds my name my name is david david hayes
00:34:10
Speaker
And who who submitted David Hayes David Hayes was sent to us by I don't actually have the list pulled up I know I guess I know who it is
00:34:20
Speaker
I don't even need to see the list, I know who gave it. I know his actual name, because it's one of our good friends. Give me two seconds, I'll pull it up. Yeah, give him a shout out. Okay. This right here is getting edited out, and just in case it's not, you came in like a wrecking ball. I like big butts and I can't not lie. I can guarantee you could set it out. David Hayes is submitted by Austin, spelled with a Y.
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah, Austin with a Y David Hayes Austin with a Y Deep cut he's gonna hold his hand out and be like My name is David Hayes and Karg is gonna shake his hand
00:35:02
Speaker
While still holding his alcohol. So they're just going to be both holding his cup. He's like, let's meet you. Let me. Carg. Carg. Yeah. Carg. Like Carl with a G. Yeah. Junior. Carg. Okay. It was nice meeting you, Carg. And he's going to get up and walk out. Um, so what are we doing?
00:35:31
Speaker
I'm going after Mr. Mr. David Hayes walks past and out of the diner out of I shot I'm gonna go back in and deliver the booty to Karg over here. Okay. I don't know what you wanted with this thing. But here you go. Thank you very much. And Karg just he walks over to crime. He's like, but this with the other stuff.
00:36:00
Speaker
Open your belly. Here it comes. I'm going to look at Karg and hold out my hand and receive the earpiece. Can we go outside? A disappointed look. We go outside and then we can listen. Karg, you realize that we could have gotten one of these.
00:36:28
Speaker
at any electronics store. It's just an universe. This one was new to me. I just hit a lick because you thought it was shiny. You're pretty nickel and I had to hit a lick. I mean, I'm here for it. I just want to be clear. Well, I thought we get this one and then we can hear into his brain because it was attached to it.
00:36:57
Speaker
Now, I don't know. I love it. You could have just slapped him and took in the earpiece when you slapped him. Yeah, we just saw that, guys. We just ruined that, guys. We could have stole whatever it was connected to or something like that, but now you said, I'm going to have him steal the earpiece and then slap him twice right where it is.
00:37:21
Speaker
Well I don't know if you guys thought that was productive, but I found some information that I thought was productive. When the group was talking, I overheard them talking about the list of numbers that we got.
00:37:35
Speaker
And there was one number in particular that they didn't mention. Antonio, you said that you had a guy that might be able to help us figure out these numbers. Yeah, I do. I think it's, uh, I think it's time we go visit the accountant. I would like, I would like to call the waiter over and get a, to go bag for my goop. Go bag. Okay.
00:37:54
Speaker
and he's going to pull out a little bag and he's going, the robot's going to take his head and put it on your plate to suck up all the food and then basically like to fill up the bag and then hand it back to you like
00:38:12
Speaker
Thank you for coming to the AeroRepDiner. Have a great day, Johnny Phelps. You have a great day, too, Robot. The group's a goof. Everyone's pretty much back at the table, actually. So are you going to join them at the table? No. Where are we going? Antonio's going to take us to the account. OK. So the accountant is normally at the, was it, at the, not the vein.
00:38:43
Speaker
the Expanse showroom however uh we are towards like the end of uh the family's like work day essentially um as far as like the more steady jobs go uh he'll be there tomorrow morning card card is uh gonna message someone
00:39:13
Speaker
on his device. And he's going to message them and just say, Hey, you got my good stuff and send it out. About 10 minutes later, you're going to receive a message. It's like. Yeah, I got it. Come to the vein. All right. Well.
00:39:40
Speaker
Since we can't go to this accountant yet, Karg is... Karg is gonna go to the vein. What's everyone else doing? We are going to the vein. That will follow. Mate, we'll be too close. We're gonna freak them out. Yeah, I'll go to the vein. Antonio, are you also going to the vein? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna take one. You guys are like on your way to the vein.
00:40:09
Speaker
You're going to go past a group of people who are currently, uh, returning home from their work job in the mines over in the nearby region of Gas Springs. Um, there's a man there who they're like, they're carrying.
00:40:34
Speaker
He seems to have some kind of like a mark on him as if he was attacked by something. And this is like you hear them kind of like talking like. Hey, man, like I told you, you shouldn't have taken that job. The extra money wasn't worth it. That area is dangerous. He's like. He's like, I thought I thought the gas was the danger. I didn't think that would be down there.
00:41:05
Speaker
and like they're kind of like they kind of like walk off a little bit away from everyone like away from you guys going in the opposite direction you guys are gonna get closer to the van and as you guys approach the van the normal suspects start to show up people that you guys kind of have seen around you know these people to be just generally not great dudes
00:41:32
Speaker
Not that like you can really judge them being from around here, but they're just not people that you are the kind of friends that you can expect to stab you in the back. And Karg is anxiously looking for someone. Yeah. So he's, he's, uh, looking all over the place, kind of scratching his neck and looking a little shady, uh, trying to find, uh, his hookup friend, but it, um, you're,
00:42:02
Speaker
You get to the door of the van, and there's gonna be a big, like, kinda dude hanging out at the front door. He is a little bit tall to be, like, pure human, so you think he's, like, some kind of half-elf, but this dude is jacked. He doesn't really have the lean gene of the elves.
00:42:31
Speaker
You guys walk inside. Once you're inside there is like kind of a lot of open space for people to dance and there's multiple bars. There's the traditional neon lights and everything but they have them timed to where different color neon is flashing at different times and they're starting to play music. It's not really the time when like the music's super loud.
00:42:57
Speaker
You can still hear conversation pretty easily over the music. And off in the corner, Karg's gonna see his dealer friend. What does your dealer friend look like? What's his name? Tell us about him. Well, I wasn't doing Karg's voice, but it would probably be intelligible.
00:43:20
Speaker
uh this guy's name is Dirk Garverston and he is a pretty meaty uh drow uh he's got kind of like puffy cheeks big face uh slicked back hair and it's kind of like super greasy slicked back
00:43:43
Speaker
He's always wearing like a almost like a pinstripe suit. And then he's got a big gold watch kind of looking thing on his on his arm. But it's not real gold. It's just like the fakiest materials possible. He's got a big gold chain necklace that is also not real. Get over here.
00:44:17
Speaker
I got it. You got money Yeah, of course I get the money How much how much is it this time because last time I paid you extra So give me some more. Okay
00:44:51
Speaker
Yeah, I got you, Cog. Um, you know what? Cause I like you. We'll say, uh, 18. Make it a double. 36. Okay. And Cog hands over, uh, exchanges, uh, 36 credits.
00:45:13
Speaker
He's going to take 36 credits and he's gonna pull out two very nondescript Bottles with a light green liquid in it and he's gonna hand it to you and be like You sure you don't want to get into the other stuff. I got lots of good stuff. What you got for me to do? Uh-huh you ever try a Hard line in some
00:45:39
Speaker
Some, uh, I don't have a drug name. I need a drug name. What's a good drug name? Glow dust. Yeah, glow dust. You ever try hotline and some glow

Uncovering Trafficking and New Threats

00:45:50
Speaker
dust? I'll try. I need a little taste. Optimus is going to walk over and be like, he doesn't need any glow dust. Thank you. Ah, crime. I got a chip that just came in. It'll make your circuits go wild.
00:46:06
Speaker
I don't trust any chips that we get from you. We know what, where you download that stuff from. You take it from other robots. Yes, that's so, that's so rude to say. I'm, I'm a businessman. Your business is destroying people's lives. You're not going to destroy ours.
00:46:39
Speaker
Kyle, what are these times you need to come along? Nope. Nope, not doing that. Last time I did the outside and someone, someone punched me in the face and they took all my money. Whatever. Uh, Mr. Phelps and Mr. Moretti, Mr. Somebody, uh, what are you guys, what are you guys up to? Just having a drink at the bar. The same. Okay. What are we drinking? Gin.
00:47:08
Speaker
neon green goose back janiels uh that'll that'll be uh one credit from all of you this card know what uh this glow dust does like has he ever heard from any of his other buddies about it not really is it newer newer on the market crime's probably right you probably don't actually want anything that this guy has because
00:47:33
Speaker
You know, generally people who bought, who start buying whatever he has to offer end up incapacitated for a while. Hmm. Well, that's what Karg wants to do. Um, well, other than obviously his, uh, absence that he, that he buys all the time. Uh, I think, I think Karg will just go with, uh, with crime and be like, you know, get the globe just next time.
00:48:01
Speaker
I gotta try it. I just don't have a whole lot of, I don't have a lot of credits right now. Just next time. Okay. And this guy's gonna turn and go back to talking to what appears to be mostly a woman. Like most of a woman or we're mostly sure it's a woman?
00:48:22
Speaker
Uh, mostly sure it's a woman. Also, you don't know if it's actually alive. It could be a robot. I'm glad you said robot because that could have went. So, what are we doing? Where are we going? Where are we taking this absinthe, Karg? Hmm, take it right here. Well, the first step is we're going to test it.
00:48:44
Speaker
and make sure that it's actually the good stuff. Ark smells it. And then he goes to the crime. He's like, we'll just smell right. And can I use my brewers kit in any way to make sure that this is a actually just absent. That's not anything else crazy. He's cut in here. All right. What do you want me to roll for that? Just we'll call it.
00:49:14
Speaker
We'll call it an investigation check, but you'll have advantage because it's the Brewers' kit. And we'll make it pretty easy, because Absinthe is pretty straightforward, I feel like, compared to some of the chemicals. So like a DC8. That's good, because I rolled a 1 on one Dyson 8 on the other. This is Absinthe.
00:49:46
Speaker
This looks to be chemically pure. I don't think he cut anything into it. How about it, bud? My little drinky poo. And he's just going to put it in his pockets for now, his little handbag. Let's save this for later. All right. Saving it for, uh,
00:50:16
Speaker
saving it for a little bit of praise and worship later. For those of you guys who are at the bar looking around, you don't really see anyone out of the normal, but you see a few people who are kind of huddled in groups that normally wouldn't be. You also see people who specialize in the trafficking of sexual partners. How many of those motherfuckers are there?
00:50:46
Speaker
Like four or five. They don't normally don't talk to each other, but right now they're all talking amongst themselves. I would like to get within earshot of this conversation. Okay. Roll perception. That rolled off the table. Fuck! Natural one. Uh, it's starting to get late. So the music has gotten much louder. It's harder to hear conversations and people start coming into the club to dance. I totally could have just said natural 20. God damn it.
00:51:15
Speaker
Yeah, not after you yelled. Yeah. Integrity. Person integrity. All right. Well, wow, this is music, you know, music really something, you know. It's all fun. Do any of the, those people notice him? He's very loud. No, they.
00:51:36
Speaker
don't seem to notice him, but they break up and kind of start going their own ways. One of which pulls out a pack of like cigarettes. He's going to head outside and he's probably going to go to the the smoking container for the biological people to go smoke cigarettes without so that they don't have to wear a respirator. I like that image though.
00:52:02
Speaker
People have to wear a respirator to breathe the air, but then they go specifically to a room to take off the respirator and smoke a cigarette. Yeah, it's it's a little bit backwards, but you know, that's that's the under at times. OK, is anyone else doing anything at the vein? Do we know any of these extravors? I'd say probably not. They. I mean, this is still like. Kind of a look down thing because
00:52:32
Speaker
kind of goes against what a lot of you believe which is like that people can do whatever they want and the people that these sex traffickers work in is uh definitely not that yeah i've been more like do we know of them like do we know who they are would they have like any prevalence to us at all not really so as far as i'm aware most of your guys's background is like
00:53:00
Speaker
day drinking and organized crime. These guys fall into that other category of. Yeah. They're like street pimps. Yeah. I'm going to go over to, uh, Mr. Phelps and be like, Hey, Mr. Phelps. Remember when, uh, we were in the hideout. Marcellus said something about you were looking for.
00:53:27
Speaker
his nephew or cousin or something that went missing? Duh. I only have one lead at right now. Maybe these pimps over here might know about people who go missing. There is chance they would know. Maybe a couple of credits could loosen their lips. I like the way you think, Crane. Antonio. Yeah, what's up?
00:53:56
Speaker
Come with me, we are going to talk to those gentlemen. What? The music's really loud in here. Come with me, we are going outside. All right, jeez, jeez, no need to yell. Don't fall that one guy out to his little smoking booth. Out to the smoking booth. And right now there's a few people in there, but kind of talking into a corner is this dude who's sitting there smoking a cigarette.
00:54:24
Speaker
He's just kind of ignoring everyone around him. I'm gonna... I'm gonna go over... like lean up against the wall near him, but not like right next to him. Start smoking. I'm gonna be like... I'm gonna look over and be, hey... I need some information. Would you be able to help me for a nominal fee? It depends on the information. I'm looking for someone.
00:54:51
Speaker
Someone missing. Danny Olson. Oh, Danny Olson. That's a... That's a rough one. That's a Genovese family kid. Yeah, I heard he was missing, but... Unfortunately, I don't know anything about Danny Olson. You know of anyone who might have any information on it? Ah.
00:55:18
Speaker
Not really. Look, there's new people in town and I'm trying to figure out how to work this into my business plan if you could just give me some time. And he's going to kind of like lean to like stare off in a different direction and keep smoking. Let me pick a stab.
00:55:40
Speaker
I'm gonna walk over to him. Hey boss man, I got, I got 50 credits with your name on it for information about Danny Olson. What do you got for me? I don't know anything about Danny Olson. I got a hundred credits with your name on it. That's great. I still don't know anything about Danny Olson. I'm gonna walk back over to Phelps. Phelps, did he say anything else? Anything useful at all? He said there were new people in game in town. He had to, he needed time to mumble it over.
00:56:09
Speaker
I, did you have any more success than I did? Fuck no. This guy's a steel fucking trap. Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, go, go ask about the new people. Go ask about the new people. You guys walk back over. One final question before, before I leave you alone. Could I get some information on these new people in town, into business as it were?
00:56:35
Speaker
Yeah, but your friend's last office is gonna have to hold up. Antonio, how much did you offer him? 75 credits. A hundred credits. I have 13. No, don't worry. I'll fucking put the bill. You owe me, Phelpsy. Are we about to go in debt to a sex trafficker? Yes. 50 now. Fucking fine. Fine. He is 50. There's some secret
00:57:07
Speaker
There's some secret, uh, spooky figures that come down once a year and they drop off people. Some, I dunno, they just don't want them where they come from, I guess. And, uh, they do surgery on them and try their fancy tech things, but whenever something goes wrong, they fall to us. So there was 13 potential people.
00:57:33
Speaker
Now there's 12 potential people. Four of them have gone wrong. We're hoping for five and six so we can split them up evenly. Do you know where they come from? I barely care. I just know that if you want to sleep with a dude that's got, I don't know, a metal kicker that randomly vibrates. I got you. Wait.
00:57:56
Speaker
Is Carter's arm supposed to be for hand jobs? Give me a minute. It all makes sense. Only if the surgery went wrong. I mean, I'd say it did. Doesn't seem to have gone right. If the surgery goes right, where do they go? I think they just get let loose and
00:58:27
Speaker
this place, the under, they just get let loose, try and become one. That's where all those weird fucks come every year at the Prospect Festival. Here's the other 50. Thank you for your time. Yeah, anytime. Also, that's a legitimate offer on the dude. It's a 25 crown and 25 credits an hour.
00:58:52
Speaker
I'm going to look at him with the most discussed a human being can possibly portray on their face and just walk away. I'm going to come back and, uh, unload. All right. So you're saying that Mr. Somebody here, it sounds like he's one of those 13 people. That is what it sounds like. Maybe that's why.
00:59:22
Speaker
When we overheard the group at the diner, they only listed off 12 numbers. Maybe the 13th number is Mr. Somebody. But they also said there was four other. Uh, there were four went wrong after the 12th. That means there's eight good ones running around. It means that there's 13 people total, just like Mr. Somebody.
00:59:50
Speaker
that were brought down to the under this year, or even just recently. Brought down. They specified that it came from above. Or I guess in this case, you came from above. From somewhere. Who are these people? That is a wonderful question. Who knows?
01:00:18
Speaker
Why are they doing this? Why? Maybe you should go talk to the man. He has information he might be able to tell you. You seem to have better questions than us. I walked the smoke pit. I'm looking for this guy now. Oh, Mr. Somebody.
01:00:46
Speaker
The person we need to talk to is the accountant. Yeah, no, I'm already walking. I can't hear you over the music. Uh, you go out to the smoke pit and you see this dude leaning up against the corner. You, you walk up to him. He he's going to be like, Oh, great. What? I just, just have a few questions and I'm going to, uh,
01:01:16
Speaker
I'm gonna try to just grab him and throw him to the ground. Grapple? Make a strength check. Eat. No. You're just gonna, I don't know, slam your arm up against the glass, I guess. Menacingly? Who takes the people from up top and brings them down? You know, the goon guys.
01:01:43
Speaker
They just, I don't know. Every once in a while they send a dude to this club and we get information on what the next shipment looks like. Is it the same guy? No, different chap, always wearing a black on black suit. Of course he is. Dude, do you have any information on when the next shipment's coming in? Uh, yeah, tomorrow. On the train?
01:02:10
Speaker
No. From, I guess they're already down here. They're just, the broken ones are going to be delivered here. All right. What time are they showing up tomorrow? Right at the start of glow. Uh, fuck. I'm going to pull out 20 credits or not 20. I guess we'll pull out 20 credits. Uh, transfer 20 credits. Yeah. So I'm just going to,
01:02:39
Speaker
walked back out to the rest of the group uh... hey mister phelps i'd like you to what's your passive perception passive perception uh... eleven there's a group of like regular people not necessarily like the super shady kind just people who wanted to go to a club
01:03:08
Speaker
Uh, who are next to you. I mean, they're talking about the guy who was attacked in the mind. What are, uh, what are they saying? I'd like to, uh, take a little listen. They're talking about how dude seemed like someone.
01:03:31
Speaker
that the guy was lucky that he was actually wearing his tether because all the miners wear a tether so if there's an issue with them like with something they can basically be dragged back to a safe place because if he wasn't wearing the tether he would have been stuck down there with whatever attacked him and right now they're like
01:04:00
Speaker
Talking about how the mine is essentially trying to hire people specifically to work that portion of the mine because the people who work at the mine don't want to go there. Interesting. I don't know what to do with this information. Go talk to them. I will go talk to people.
01:04:31
Speaker
I'm gonna walk up to them and be like, hello, I heard you talking about mine injury. I've heard quite few people talking about this. A good friend of ours was down in- I'm just interested to learn more. It's uh...
01:04:51
Speaker
It's an O2 shaft, it holds natural air, but it's like a pocket of it, and something seems to have lived down there. We got his body out of the mine today, bit into his armor, and
01:05:08
Speaker
It didn't, it didn't look like it did too much damage to the armor, but it happened to get in between two of the plates and he started to lose pressurization. So it like the emergency cord ripped him back to the nearest airlock.
01:05:29
Speaker
Yeah. And now, now the company thinks that they can just hire people for like, it's like 50 credits an hour to go down there and work on some simple machinery. But it's a, it's a suicide mission. No one will go down there. And people who go down there, I hear crazy things like people screaming and stuff like that. Hmm. That is interesting.
01:05:58
Speaker
This is in Gas Springs, yes? Yeah, Gas Springs. Why? You're not... You thinking about it? No, of course not. It's a suicide mission, like you say. Seems stupid enough to try. Well, I guess if you leave now, you could get to the onboarding for the next...
01:06:26
Speaker
hiring process. I mean, creature sounds interesting. I have not heard of creatures living in mines before. If you don't mind. We're just trying to drink after a hard day. Kind of trying to... I think you should start talking about other stuff. We've been talking about this for a while. Amongst ourselves. I'll leave you to it then. By the way,
01:06:56
Speaker
It is early dim, so it's starting to get nighttime. I'm going to go over to the bar then. Crime just bought Karg a shot. Cheers, buddy. I'm going to take a shot with me. Let's do it. Clink. That's a credit shot. Hey, Karg, can I get a pull of that good stuff? We'll save it for a little bit.
01:07:24
Speaker
Let's bring it up tomorrow. All right. So, uh, the guy in the smoke pit kind of forgot to ask him some important questions, you know, like where these people come from or why or who does it and a lot of stuff. I wonder if you are one of the failed ones. I don't really get any answers though, other than, uh,

Strategic Decisions and Next Steps

01:07:51
Speaker
tomorrow a shipment of the,
01:07:53
Speaker
that the failed ones, so to speak, are being dropped off here. Now we can go see the accountant, but we already know what the numbers mean. We assume what the numbers mean. We don't know for sure. And if our assumption is right, the accountant could tell us where to find the other numbers. True. We could also tell whoever comes on drops off the people here.
01:08:21
Speaker
Maybe some stay here. Some go there. Talking about splitting up the potty cog. I mean, we could do whatever. Well, Antonio, if you want to head to the accountant, I'll come with you. And then Karg and Mr. Somebody can stay here and wait for the delivery of
01:08:47
Speaker
failed. I don't know what to call them. Numbers. Let's call them numbers. That works for me, crime. Mr. Phelps, what are you gonna do in the meantime? I am not decided yet. I have multiple opportunities I could pursue. Both of them are outside of safe harbor, but they are something.
01:09:16
Speaker
There is the, there's the mining accidents I could look into. I feel like that is pretty interesting. Or I could go speak to the Daniele family about the letter from Donovan. Ursa Redd is Dean Balter is Karg. Alexander Crutchfield is RGM. Chase Dixon is Antonio Moretti. Carter Prophet is Mr. Somebody. Dominic Waymire is Johnny Phelps and myself. Tim Lincoln is Optimus Crime.
01:09:45
Speaker
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01:10:11
Speaker
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01:10:24
Speaker
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