The Butler Didn't Do It

Sampson Davis 01:17

These fries are actually quite crispy, so sorry.

Alex Finn 01:19

Oh, get that crunch.

Daniel Andrlik 01:21

So who remembers what happened last time? I think I am going to pick on Alex.

Alex Finn 01:29

You always do. Okay, I'm going to find my center. I got really distracted, because my nails look really white in this video we're doing right now. Okay, focus, focus, focus. We ended this on the idea that we were sad. Yeah? Sadness was our ending feeling? Or was it an explosion?

Stace Babcock 01:51

It was witnessing, or not witnessing, but finding a murder.

Alex Finn 01:59

Oh.

Sampson Davis 01:59

That's where we ended last time. We started with the sadness and explosion.

Alex Finn 02:02

Okay, okay. So we started being sad that Atalia was gone, and we kind of had a little minor heart to heart about how we all felt about that in character. Not resolved yet. We saw an explosion? Or did we take a nap first?

Daniel Andrlik 02:20

You saw the explosion on your way away.

Alex Finn 02:22

Okay, so there was an explosion. ChaCha thought it was Doc Taraz being Doc Taraz, and was ready to just go kill Doc Taraz. And they were just like, "Well we need to see, stop jumping to assumptions ChaCha. ChaCha, it's not always Doc Taraz." And it's turns out, oopsie-doodle, it wasn't Doc Taraz. Had to retract some statements by ChaCha. It was actually us who caused the explosion. Was anybody really surprised?

Daniel Andrlik 02:52

I shouldn't be.

Alex Finn 02:53

I know. Like come on listeners, listen to this. You're listening. Were you surprised that the explosion was us? I was, but that shows who I am as a person. So anyway, we created a fake storm. What's the other word I'm thinking of?

Stace Babcock 03:13

A void storm?

Alex Finn 03:14

Yes, we created a fake void storm, and turns out ChaCha knows about these. And if you get caught in a void storm in the wild, you go gooey, then you go crunchy. Sampson knows about the crunchy gooey.

Sampson Davis 03:27

Yeah.

Alex Finn 03:27

And so we went to go save the people, because oopsie-doodle, we did set off an explosion in a residential area, which you should never do. Please vacate the areas of your explosions before doing them.

Stace Babcock 03:43

I'm just saying, was it our fault, or was it improper storage of ordinance and bad firefighting procedures, you know what I'm saying? Like on the part of the handlers.

Alex Finn 03:56

True. They needed to get up on their EHS procedures.

Stace Babcock 04:01

I feel like it's probably 50/50.

Alex Finn 04:02

It was just like 50 us, 50 them. Yeah. And we realized we could use the battery to do something with the void storm. We were like, "IDK what this will do, but let's go poke it with a battery," and turns out that's how you fly in this world. You poke things with batteries and you fly. But what really happened is we charged the battery and the void storm went away, and we looked down the hole, and Nix was just like, "I got a glow-glow, let me yeet it down the hole." And so we saw that the hole was connected to the underground labyrinth we were all looking for secretly, and then we had to leave because the city guards were coming, and we are still on the run. We walked over to Mamma Jerrun and were like, "Oopsie-doodle, we did another bad." And Mamma Jerrun probably has a lot of regret ever hiring us, because we have a lot of oopsie-doodles. Imagine hiring contractors, and every single day they're showing up just like, "Hey, our bad, but here's what we did. Oops. Oops."

Sampson Davis 05:13

Well if she'd put us through orientation, we wouldn't have this problem.

Stace Babcock 05:16

We also get shit done. We cut a month off of the statue retrieval mission, so [inaudible 00:05:24].

Alex Finn 05:25

But then we showed back up with, "Oops, space ship."

Sampson Davis 05:29

That problem took care of itself. It was fine.

Alex Finn 05:31

And then we were just like, "Oops, we never wear disguises." Oops, all oops.

Sampson Davis 05:36

I have been deliberate in saying we are disguised. What?

Stace Babcock 05:39

Yeah, but everybody else is just like, "I'm not wanted. I can go parading down the street. It's fine."

Daniel Andrlik 05:46

By everybody else, she means ChaCha.

Stace Babcock 05:47

Yeah.

Sampson Davis 05:48

Gotcha.

Alex Finn 05:49

And oh, we started a side quest called Cypher flipping, and we got a lot of money for selling a nuclear weapon to Mamma Jerrun, who we really actually haven't determined won't use it for negative ideas, but at least we don't have the nuclear weapon anymore.

Daniel Andrlik 06:07

It's good for you, you guys are arms dealers now.

Alex Finn 06:08

Yeah.

Daniel Andrlik 06:09

It's great.

Alex Finn 06:09

We're arms dealers.

Sampson Davis 06:10

I was going to say, that first one sounds more like war profiteering than flipping.

Alex Finn 06:14

Yeah, and unfortunately at our next shopping trip, we did not find more Cyphers to flip, war profit, et cetera off of. And I think that's where we left off, after shopping? Yeah?

Daniel Andrlik 06:27

No.

Alex Finn 06:28

No, shit. No. We went actually, we went into the sewers underneath Doc Taraz's house, and using a mix of Nix's knowledge of what her dad does, ChaCha and Dili's magical engineering knowledge that I don't know how they got but they did, we broke into her basement, got into the underground labyrinth there, and found a dead body. Which Dili and Nix know are the butler, so this is the one time the butler didn't do it, unless this is a Clue situation where it's... Doc Taraz was always the butler, and the butler was secretly Doc Taraz, and Doc Taraz, the real Doc Taraz has been blackmailing everyone to have this façade going.

Stace Babcock 07:20

I don't think that's a Clue situation. Maybe a Scooby-Doo situation.

Alex Finn 07:24

No, that's like the movie Clue with Tim Curry.

Stace Babcock 07:27

Oh.

Sampson Davis 07:27

That was one of the endings.

Daniel Andrlik 07:29

To be fair, you never did ask her if she was Doc Taraz with the lighter.

Alex Finn 07:33

Yeah, see? It could've been the butler the whole time.

Stace Babcock 07:37

Don't sow doubt, Daniel.

Alex Finn 07:41

But yeah. The lighter was a red herring all along.

Daniel Andrlik 07:46

So yeah, you guys are in this Synth hallway. You have been following the lights of this hallway that have lit up in response to the battery, and you have come across the dead body of this butler.

Alex Finn 07:59

Alleged butler.

Daniel Andrlik 08:00

That Dili and Nix had met with priorly in their aliases of Anastasia and Alabaster Featherwhite, and her body is dead on the ground. There is no weapon in her or anything like that. Clearly, she suffered from multiple punctures across the chest. There is a lot of blood pooled around her. What do you guys do?

Alex Finn 08:25

Search the body. Loot the body.

Sampson Davis 08:28

While she's doing that, I'm looking around the room seeing if there's a person with a knife standing just off to the side.

Stace Babcock 08:34

Smart.

Alex Finn 08:35

Or a trap in the walls, like she stepped on the Indiana Jones square.

Daniel Andrlik 08:41

So Dili, give me a perception roll of six.

Sampson Davis 08:44

For level of effort, I rolled a four.

Daniel Andrlik 08:48

There's nobody else in this hallway, but you can see clearly that this hallway goes up further, and then goes off to the right and left, and presumably you're near this sort of labyrinth entrance. This body is at a sort of intersection, like a T intersection. So there's the way you came, there's the way that leads to that other intersection you saw, and there's a way to your right that leads away, but that way isn't lighting up in response to your battery. Only the way towards your intersection is.

Stace Babcock 09:22

Ah shit, ChaCha. That's Doc Taraz's butler. Got a feeling the Knyxos are down here, because I told them.

Alex Finn 09:31

I think ChaCha looks up from her looting and is just like, "Why would you tell them about this place?"

Stace Babcock 09:38

Well ChaCha, it was a self preservation decision. They had me in a room with like three of them. They seemed super dangerous, and they were negotiating, so I was trying to negotiate, and I was also sort of hoping that they and Doc Taraz would get in a fight. So, so far so good I guess.

Alex Finn 10:05

I mean, I guess, but...

Stace Babcock 10:07

I do feel bad about the butler, though.

Daniel Andrlik 10:09

The butler incidentally only has five shins on her person. She had five shins, and her Orc uniform.

Alex Finn 10:17

I mean, is there anything fun and fresh and funky about the work uniform?

Daniel Andrlik 10:23

No, it's pretty standard. I would say Dili and Nix recognize as pretty dull fashion. ChaCha probably wouldn't have enough experience to know what the fashion trends are here in Charmonde, but it definitely looks like a uniform, and it's not anything fancy. Presumably, ChaCha is more interested in more flamboyant outfits.

Alex Finn 10:46

She's looking for that flair.

Daniel Andrlik 10:48

This would be a dull outfit in ChaCha's perception.

Sampson Davis 10:51

So Nix, if the Knyxos are down here, do you think you could still talk to them still? Because I'm about to throw up disguises for all of us, but I'm wondering if it's a good idea to have... if they know you, do you think they'll talk to you?

Stace Babcock 11:06

No Dili, I don't think that they'll talk, considering I threw a chair at Minos, and then was instrumental in the death of Asidra and hopefully Deuces.

Sampson Davis 11:19

That's fair. Disguises for everybody, then. I'll disguise us all.

Daniel Andrlik 11:24

Okay. What do the disguises look like?

Sampson Davis 11:26

Oh my God, who have we not disguised ourselves as yet?

Alex Finn 11:30

City guards.

Stace Babcock 11:31

We should be sewer service personnel.

Sampson Davis 11:35

Okay, city employees. Yeah. We all look just normal, average.

Daniel Andrlik 11:40

And Dili, and since you have basically your whole life in Charmonde, you don't even have to roll for it. You can make a convincing disguise with your illusion.

Alex Finn 11:49

Sewage splatter.

Stace Babcock 11:50

Do we smell?

Sampson Davis 11:52

I can't do smell.

Stace Babcock 11:53

You can't do smell, okay.

Sampson Davis 11:53

Not yet.

Stace Babcock 11:55

So maybe not too much splatter.

Daniel Andrlik 11:56

Well, not unless you use your special Cipher that your son made.

Sampson Davis 12:00

That also wouldn't work, because that's stationary.

Daniel Andrlik 12:03

Yeah. Just think of the terrible smell you could make one time.

Sampson Davis 12:08

Actually, I just need seven more XP and I can make a terrible smell. So if you want that to happen, let me know Dan.

Daniel Andrlik 12:19

Okay.

Sampson Davis 12:20

Anyway.

Daniel Andrlik 12:21

So what do you guys do?

Alex Finn 12:22

Keep going down the hallway.

Daniel Andrlik 12:24

Towards the light or down the other hallway?

Alex Finn 12:27

Towards the light?

Sampson Davis 12:30

Yeah, yeah. See where this goes.

Daniel Andrlik 12:33

Okay. So you head towards the light, and fall directly into my trap. No. You see the light leads to a pathway that goes right and left. Both directions are lit up.

Stace Babcock 12:51

That was a trap.

Daniel Andrlik 12:52

And both reach a turn that seems to go left from, well, left from one, right from the other. It seems to end up going in the same direction, although obviously since they're splitting, there's a different path there.

Stace Babcock 13:06

The lights split as well?

Sampson Davis 13:08

Always go right?

Stace Babcock 13:09

Yeah. You remember Dili? Number one rule.

Daniel Andrlik 13:12

I remember everything.

Stace Babcock 13:13

Oh, God.

Sampson Davis 13:15

Yep, I remember.

Daniel Andrlik 13:21

Okay, so you guys go right. You reach this intersection, and then it takes you to a left, because that's your only choice. And when you can't go right, when your only choice is left, you go left, right?

Alex Finn 13:30

Right.

Daniel Andrlik 13:33

And so you start going that direction, and you encounter the light reach a junction point of three doors, and all three doors are lit up.

Stace Babcock 13:46

Nix's hand's already on the right doorknob. She's going for it.

Daniel Andrlik 13:50

Okay, so you go in the right door. You see this very odd room. The room has got a peculiar shape. The walls are in a decagon, so it's 10 sided, and in the center of this room is something that looks like a leafless tree of red metal, and it just seems to thrum with intent. And you can also see near where its roots dig into the Synth, there seems to be some sort of fluid pooling around it. Both the tree and the fluid are red in color, and there are two doors in this room. One leading to your left, one leading straight ahead.

Stace Babcock 14:39

[inaudible 00:14:39] hit the tree.

Sampson Davis 14:40

Actually, I'm going to check the other rooms real quick. I'm just going to peek in there, I'm just going to see what's happening.

Stace Babcock 14:45

Oh hell yeah, Dilly.

Alex Finn 14:46

ChaCha will then [investimigate 00:14:48] the tree.

Sampson Davis 14:48

While ChaCha's doing the tree, I'm going to check the left door.

Alex Finn 14:52

Nice.

Daniel Andrlik 14:54

What is Nix doing?

Stace Babcock 14:54

Just keeping an eye on them both.

Alex Finn 14:56

She's got that iguana vision.

Daniel Andrlik 15:00

Nix is now truly in parenting mode for these two. It's so important, you've got to let them run, but you worry.

Sampson Davis 15:08

I'm not going far, I'm just peeking in the doorway.

Daniel Andrlik 15:11

So Dili, you look in the door and you see a room with two doors on the left hand wall, and one door on the wall across, and you can see these long, snake-like extensions of metal that seem to extrude from the floor and ceiling. And you notice that from those extensions, occasionally you see these sprays of pollen like dust. The color of the dust is sort of a fuchsia.

Sampson Davis 15:42

The dust is on the ground, kind of spread around where it touches metal? Makes sense?

Daniel Andrlik 15:48

Well, it's like there's tiny cracks in those extensions that occasionally spew out this dust.

Sampson Davis 15:54

Oh, okay.

Daniel Andrlik 15:55

It does land on the ground, but it's like you can see sort of periodic. It doesn't seem to be on a particular rhythm where it is just spitting out this red dust like a spore you could see almost.

Sampson Davis 16:08

Gotcha.

Daniel Andrlik 16:09

ChaCha, you go up and investigate the tree.

Alex Finn 16:11

Yes.

Daniel Andrlik 16:13

It is strange. It looks like it is a leafless tree made of metal. And then you hear it... well, you don't know if it's it, but you hear a bunch of murmuring. But the murmuring seems to be emitting from this treelike structure, and it seems to be murmuring in some sort of unknown language, presumably to itself.

Alex Finn 16:39

I guess ChaCha will use her mind reading ability on this tree.

Daniel Andrlik 16:43

Okay. So you do it, and the surface thoughts you get are a little hard to follow. It's vegetable in nature, so it doesn't have animal equivalence that you can easily follow, and it definitely seems to be, what little bits of something that sounds like something you can work with from that mind reading, seems to be in another language that you don't know.

Alex Finn 17:11

ChaCha wants to try and repeat what it's muttering back to it.

Daniel Andrlik 17:15

Okay. Give me some sort of intellect or performance roll of 12.

Alex Finn 17:21

No sure... Cirque du Soleil?

Daniel Andrlik 17:25

Yeah, I give that to you. So it's nine.

Alex Finn 17:29

Okay. With good luck, we're going to close, [inaudible 00:17:31] all the way and reopen it, because I don't have any XP. Do I want to put effort into this? Yeah. I want to use one level of effort. Yes, one.

Daniel Andrlik 17:42

Okay. So that brings it down to six.

Alex Finn 17:44

We can do this, crazy tree. Eight, fuck yeah.

Daniel Andrlik 17:49

Okay. So you repeat after it, and then the tree stops talking, and there's a pause. And it says something in another language that you don't recognize, and your mind reading matches up with it. And then it stops, and it makes another much shorter sound, also in a language you don't recognize, and the mind reading pauses. But with the mind reading, you also get a sense of expectancy, like it's waiting for an answer.

Sampson Davis 18:17

I get a sense that we probably should've taken notes on Dan, little horror outros, because this feels slightly familiar.

Daniel Andrlik 18:24

Yes, they're just horror outros. Don't worry about it. There's no hidden code in there, Sampson.

Stace Babcock 18:31

Can I amend Nix's actions while this is happening?

Daniel Andrlik 18:34

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Stace Babcock 18:36

I want her to be spitting acid into the jar, like someone who uses dip into the spit bottle, that's what she's doing.

Daniel Andrlik 18:47

Okay, okay. So full on disgusting. So give me... let's see, consistently doing this. It's probably going to be more of a might thing, so just give me a six might. This will tell me how much you're collecting.

Stace Babcock 19:03

14.

Daniel Andrlik 19:04

Okay. So you are consistently getting quite a bit. You've been doing this for a while in the background, and because Dili and ChaCha are taking so much time, kind of ChaCha out of curiosity, Dili out of caution, you've actually filled up like half of your jar at this point with the venom that you make.

Stace Babcock 19:26

It makes a squelching noise every time.

Daniel Andrlik 19:28

Yeah, it's terrible. There's always this weird... since it's not being delivered through the fang every time, you're having to press against your fang, and it's making this weird spritzing noise through the gums. Gross. It's like pressurized but slightly viscous, so it's very strange. So how does ChaCha respond to the tree, if at all?

Alex Finn 19:53

I guess ChaCha's going to kind of push her head, forehead against the tree and kind of mutter to it, "Help me understand."

Daniel Andrlik 20:04

There's a pause and the tree responds. It says, "Oh, another one of those idiots."

Alex Finn 20:12

I just want to be friends, I'm not like that mean person Doc Taraz. You do you.

Daniel Andrlik 20:19

I don't know, I'm a metal tree in this room. I've got all the friends I need.

Alex Finn 20:25

I mean, how do you get out of this room?

Daniel Andrlik 20:28

Through one of the doors maybe?

Alex Finn 20:30

Do you want out? We could carry you out if you wanted to leave it.

Daniel Andrlik 20:34

I'm rooted quite happily where I am.

Alex Finn 20:36

Okay. Do you have seeds I could take and spread along the world? I walk a lot.

Daniel Andrlik 20:41

I'm sorry, I just don't know you that well.

Alex Finn 20:46

That's fair.

Daniel Andrlik 20:47

I prefer to have closer connection before I distribute seeds.

Alex Finn 20:53

Fair. Do you want me to go away now? I mean, if you're not interested.

Daniel Andrlik 20:58

That would probably be for the best. I mean, I don't want to be rude, but I just feel like I'm not feeling a connection here.

Alex Finn 21:06

[inaudible 00:21:06]. I'll tell the others to leave you alone, unless you want to see if they're a better fit.

Daniel Andrlik 21:11

No, I think I'm fine. I've eaten enough today.

Alex Finn 21:15

Okay. Oh, if you eat dead bodies, there's one down the hallway. You want us to bring it back?

Daniel Andrlik 21:20

If there is something like that, if you could just bring it over here and leave it at my roots, that would be outstanding.

Alex Finn 21:28

Yeah, cool. Let me just go do that. Be right back. So ChaCha is just going to go back down the hall and drag the dead body down this hallway for the tree.

Sampson Davis 21:39

Hey ChaCha?

Daniel Andrlik 21:40

Dili and Nix, you definitely see ChaCha go up to this tree. She seems to say something to it, leaves the room, goes back down the hallway, and she has the battery so the light goes with her. So for a while, you guys are plunged in darkness, and then ChaCha comes back and it's lit up, and she's dragging the butler's body with a blood trail behind her. And she brings it up to the tree, and one of the roots pulls out of the Synth and shoves itself directly into the butler's chest. And then there's a moment where you see this strange undulation under the flesh, and then about at her abdomen, the tree's root comes out again, and then plunges back in, and then it finally falls still.

Stace Babcock 22:27

Yikes, ChaCha.

Sampson Davis 22:28

Yeah, not to yuck your yum, but maybe kind of give us a heads up if you're going to do this?

Alex Finn 22:34

Well it said it wasn't hungry so it wasn't going to eat us, but I figure it was better to offer it a dead body before it got hungry if we're still down here.

Stace Babcock 22:47

Just-

Daniel Andrlik 22:48

Can everybody make a six perception roll for me?

Stace Babcock 22:51

Seven.

Sampson Davis 22:52

17.

Alex Finn 22:53

Nine.

Stace Babcock 22:54

Oh, we're growing up in the world.

Daniel Andrlik 22:56

Okay. You guys hear... it's very faint, but there's almost a sound coming from where the root is in the body, that's like a slow straw being sucked.

Alex Finn 23:11

Little crazy straw action?

Sampson Davis 23:11

Gross.

Stace Babcock 23:12

ChaCha, little bit sensitive about people just leaving right now, so if you could give us a heads up next time about what you're doing.

Alex Finn 23:25

Oh yeah, sorry. You were busy milking yourself, and Dili was looking at the other stuff, and I just figured quick little disposal.

Stace Babcock 23:37

Never too busy for you, ChaCha.

Alex Finn 23:39

Thank you.

Sampson Davis 23:40

Oh, speaking of other stuff, there's some kind of dust pollen in this room that probably seems like a bad idea, and this other third door... what's in the third door?

Daniel Andrlik 23:52

Well, glad you asked. You see two doors, one to the left and one to the right, and in the middle of the room floating there is a crystal that also seems to glow. Dili's pointing it out, ChaCha, you can definitely see with your Sees Beyond that this is a multidimensional crystal. It's roughly the size of a human head, and it seems to be emitting a sound that is not unlike a painful moan.

Alex Finn 24:21

ChaCha's going to yell at the crystal, "Are you okay?"

Daniel Andrlik 24:25

Just continues moaning.

Alex Finn 24:26

Can she ask the tree if the crystal is okay?

Daniel Andrlik 24:29

Can try anything.

Alex Finn 24:30

Okay, she's going to ask the tree. "Hey, is this crystal okay? It seems like it's not enjoying what it's doing."

Daniel Andrlik 24:38

Can't talk right now. Eating.

Alex Finn 24:40

Okay, thank you. Should we touch the crystal?

Sampson Davis 24:44

I don't know if that's a good idea.

Stace Babcock 24:47

Kind of wish we could scan it.

Alex Finn 24:49

Can either of you guys scan?

Sampson Davis 24:52

I can if I'm looking for Io, yes. But specifically just that.

Stace Babcock 24:58

That's useful sounding, Dili.

Sampson Davis 25:01

It's the things that make the Cyphers dangerous.

Daniel Andrlik 25:04

It's the thing that... basically what it means is that Dili can scan everybody and figure out if there are parts that are useful to him in them.

Stace Babcock 25:11

Chilling.

Sampson Davis 25:12

I haven't done it.

Stace Babcock 25:15

How much Io do you have?

Sampson Davis 25:18

Oh, on me? Three.

Stace Babcock 25:20

Okay, maybe you should do it a little more actually.

Alex Finn 25:23

Not to us.

Stace Babcock 25:25

Three seems low for anything.

Sampson Davis 25:27

Yeah, kind of. The issue is that if I scan for Io, I'd also... it usually implies that I'm breaking down a Cypher, and the Cypher is usually slightly more useful. Not always, but yeah, I can keep an eye out.

Daniel Andrlik 25:40

Well actually Sampson, the scanning Io, what that allows you to do is figure out if there's Io in something before you try to salvage it, so you have an idea of whether it's worth your while to salvage it compared to what it is.

Sampson Davis 25:57

Oh. I thought when we were looking, or encountering some sort of Numener installation or whatever, it was a choice between getting Io out of it or getting a Cypher out of it.

Daniel Andrlik 26:06

For sure. It's the choice of whether you're trying to just gather Cyphers or whether you're trying to salvage. Your scan Iotum allows you to figure out, is it worth my while to try to salvage this or not. Or say I'm in this room, I'm trying to figure out is there anything with Io in it that I want to try to figure out if I can do something with.

Sampson Davis 26:27

Okay.

Daniel Andrlik 26:30

That's the power of your scan Iotum, because it basically tells you where to look to get more of the stuff you need.

Sampson Davis 26:36

Okay. Interesting. Good to know.

Daniel Andrlik 26:39

So you have three rooms.

Alex Finn 26:40

Well we're not going pollen.

Sampson Davis 26:42

Definitely not. You got close to the tree, so I guess it's about as safe as we can get down here.

Alex Finn 26:47

I mean, the tree's eating right now.

Sampson Davis 26:51

Right.

Stace Babcock 26:51

We shouldn't stay here, though.

Sampson Davis 26:53

No, no. You want to try that door to the left in red tree room?

Stace Babcock 26:58

Sure, yeah. Against my instincts, but...

Sampson Davis 27:02

You want to go straight?

Stace Babcock 27:03

That's the crystal room, right? Straight ahead?

Sampson Davis 27:05

No, in red tree room, there's a door to the left and a door straight forward.

Stace Babcock 27:11

And they have what inside? We have a pollen room, and I thought we had a crystal room.

Daniel Andrlik 27:14

You have a pollen room, a crystal room, and the red metal tree room that has currently got a root stuck in the butler, and slowly sucking.

Alex Finn 27:21

[inaudible 00:27:21].

Stace Babcock 27:22

Oh, you looked back, like in the previous branches? Not in the branches off this room?

Sampson Davis 27:28

Right.

Stace Babcock 27:29

Got it. Yeah, let's check it out. Nix opens it up.

Daniel Andrlik 27:32

Which one?

Stace Babcock 27:33

One on the left.

Daniel Andrlik 27:35

Okay, so through the tree room and to the left, right?

Stace Babcock 27:38

Yeah.

Daniel Andrlik 27:38

Okay. You see another room. It has a door straight ahead to the left. Well, I mean you take the left and it's straight ahead. It's the next door. But just to the left of center of this room is a red cylinder just floating in the air.

Stace Babcock 28:00

I'll go first I guess. Nix will step into the room.

Sampson Davis 28:03

Oh thank you, yeah.

Daniel Andrlik 28:04

Okay. Let me ask you a question. How many shins does Nix have?

Stace Babcock 28:09

Seven. Oh no, 607.

Alex Finn 28:13

Yeah.

Daniel Andrlik 28:14

Yeah. So Nix you start... you've probably got it divided between multiple packs across your body, and you suddenly feel this pushing sensation, and you see your feet slipping backwards. So you approach the cylinder, and all of a sudden it is pushing you away. The tugging definitely seems to be coming from your money bags.

Stace Babcock 28:37

And it's pulling Nix toward the cylinder, or...

Daniel Andrlik 28:41

Pushing it away.

Stace Babcock 28:41

Nix will adjust so she backs out of the door. Maybe we should go the other way, guys.

Sampson Davis 28:47

Well it's off to the left. Can you go around the edge of the room on the right?

Stace Babcock 28:53

Nix will try to hug the wall.

Daniel Andrlik 28:55

Okay. You can hug the wall. It seems to push outwardly in all directions, trying to presumably push the metal things away.

Stace Babcock 29:03

And she gets to the next door?

Daniel Andrlik 29:04

You get to the next door. It's pushing away, but you also feel slightly invigorated by the fact that it's pushing you away.

Stace Babcock 29:14

Sweet.

Daniel Andrlik 29:15

At the other door, you see a room that has a door to the left, a door to the right, and in the center of the room stretching across the entire room, you would have to pass it to go to either door, is an arch that appears to be made of ruby.

Stace Babcock 29:34

Hey guys. We've got a classic arch situation in this room. Who wants to go through this time?

Sampson Davis 29:42

I don't think we've done it with these characters.

Alex Finn 29:44

No, we haven't.

Stace Babcock 29:46

Who wants to go through? You guys play this game when you're exploring? You're like, "Whose turn is it?"

Alex Finn 29:53

I feel like we shove Dili through, because he's the most human.

Sampson Davis 29:57

I don't know how to comment on that one, but okay. Assuming Dili can get past the red cylinder room, yeah. Dili will try the arch.

Daniel Andrlik 30:04

Well Dili, you do have Synth on you, so it is going to a might nine roll to get through this room.

Sampson Davis 30:12

Might nine?

Daniel Andrlik 30:12

I didn't make Nix roll because she's Nix.

Sampson Davis 30:17

Yeah, that's fair. I'm going to put one level of effort into that.

Daniel Andrlik 30:22

Okay, so down to a six.

Sampson Davis 30:24

11.

Daniel Andrlik 30:25

It's very difficult, but you manage to get across the room to where Nix is.

Stace Babcock 30:31

Deep breaths, Dili.

Sampson Davis 30:33

Got it.

Daniel Andrlik 30:36

What is ChaCha doing?

Alex Finn 30:36

I guess ChaCha's going to try and follow.

Daniel Andrlik 30:39

Okay. ChaCha has some metal weapons and she also has metal shins.

Alex Finn 30:44

She has Ace's leg.

Daniel Andrlik 30:46

Yeah. She doesn't have as much as Dili, but it is going to be a six might roll to get across.

Alex Finn 30:52

And I roll it flat. It's going to be funny if she can't make it. Oh, 15. Not funny. I'm sorry.

Daniel Andrlik 30:58

Okay, that's fine. You get across. When you get across, you meet up with Dili. Dili is sweating, you are just slightly flushed from the effort.

Sampson Davis 31:06

Is anyone else shvitzing right now?

Alex Finn 31:09

Cardio Dili, cardio.

Sampson Davis 31:10

I'd rather not.

Stace Babcock 31:12

I broke a sweat once, Dili.

Sampson Davis 31:14

"Will you stop doing that since you've..." and Dili kind of makes a fang motion with his hands.

Stace Babcock 31:21

Wait.

Sampson Davis 31:22

Do you still sweat?

Stace Babcock 31:23

Does Nix still sweat?

Alex Finn 31:25

Oh, wow.

Daniel Andrlik 31:26

Roll me an intellect roll of six.

Stace Babcock 31:29

Six? Oh, 10.

Daniel Andrlik 31:34

Nix, you have not sweat at all since you ate that snake now that you think about it.

Stace Babcock 31:39

Nix smells her armpits. She's like, "I'm actually really fresh."

Sampson Davis 31:44

Oh my God, are you cold blooded now?

Stace Babcock 31:46

I'm not cold right now Dili.

Sampson Davis 31:52

I think you need to be... I've got a question. Do you feel slow and kind of lethargic more than usual until you get out into the sun in the morning for your morning job?

Stace Babcock 32:01

Well yeah, I am tired at night and more awake during the day Dili. Gosh, that's your name.

Sampson Davis 32:08

Yes.

Stace Babcock 32:08

Yeah.

Sampson Davis 32:10

But more so than usual?

Stace Babcock 32:12

Has Nix noticed anything?

Daniel Andrlik 32:14

Evens or odds?

Stace Babcock 32:15

Evens. Scared to pick anything else.

Daniel Andrlik 32:18

Sampson, roll a die. Tell me what you get.

Sampson Davis 32:22

Odds.

Stace Babcock 32:22

Evens streak is broken.

Daniel Andrlik 32:23

Yeah. Nix hasn't noticed anything odd to that effect. Everything's been okay, she's felt great.

Stace Babcock 32:30

Seems fine Dili, but I guess I'll pay attention or whatever.

Sampson Davis 32:34

Right, yeah.

Stace Babcock 32:35

Yeah.

Sampson Davis 32:36

Because if we go to somewhere cold and you shut down, literally shut down, that's going to be an issue, because you're our heavy hitter. You're our point woman.

Alex Finn 32:43

It's like Dili, build a heat vest or something? A heat lamp?

Sampson Davis 32:50

That's not impossible.

Stace Babcock 32:51

Sure. I also have some warm clothes.

Daniel Andrlik 32:55

Well that's the thing. If you're cold blooded, warm clothes won't make a difference, will they?

Stace Babcock 32:59

Nix doesn't know.

Daniel Andrlik 33:02

Yeah, I'm just thinking.

Sampson Davis 33:03

Well if you're fine now, then you're fine now, so I guess we'll just try this arch. Hey, look at this.

Alex Finn 33:11

Dili's going through the arch, yay.

Sampson Davis 33:14

All right, here we go. Dili steps through the arch.

Daniel Andrlik 33:17

Dili, you immediately feel sudden pain in your abdomen.

Alex Finn 33:22

Dili's going to get abs.

Daniel Andrlik 33:25

Next to Dili in the air forms a small, fleshy organ of some kind, and it falls to the ground at the same time Dili does.

Alex Finn 33:41

Did we steal your kidney?

Sampson Davis 33:41

Can I at least get fucking sigilless alchemy stuff if you're going to pull some Full Metal Alchemist shit on me?

Daniel Andrlik 33:48

Listen man, I'm just saying.

Stace Babcock 33:49

Is the fleshy organ wet?

Daniel Andrlik 33:52

Yes, it's very wet. Moist, even.

Alex Finn 33:55

Could ChaCha do a medical check on the fleshy organ?

Daniel Andrlik 33:59

Yeah. Give me a medical check of six.

Alex Finn 34:03

And then I have the healing skill.

Daniel Andrlik 34:06

So that's a three.

Alex Finn 34:07

Nine, thank God. Is it important?

Daniel Andrlik 34:09

Okay. It is his spleen.

Alex Finn 34:12

Does ChaCha know if you need a spleen or not?

Daniel Andrlik 34:15

It's rough, like in the ninth world with medical technology, you need a spleen. You think you could possibly surgically place it.

Alex Finn 34:26

We're going to do some-

Daniel Andrlik 34:26

It will take a 15 surgery roll to replace the spleen in Dili.

Alex Finn 34:32

Yes, let's do it. Open Dili surgery. Fuck yeah.

Stace Babcock 34:35

Dili, bad news man.

Sampson Davis 34:36

What?

Stace Babcock 34:36

All right ChaCha, I'll assist. Good thing we bought this first aid kit, otherwise...

Alex Finn 34:46

Yes.

Stace Babcock 34:48

Now Dili, I'm just going to knock you out. Just going to pop you.

Sampson Davis 34:53

Okay. Can they get to me without going through the arch themselves? Am I that close?

Daniel Andrlik 35:00

They would have to drag you feet first through it. I would say if Nix wants to try to avoid going through the arch, assuming Nix is the one dragging you, Nix, I need you to make a 15 speed roll.

Stace Babcock 35:14

Oh no. Nix is going to toss Dili a rope. The grappling hook.

Daniel Andrlik 35:20

Okay. Toss Dili a rope.

Sampson Davis 35:21

All right.

Stace Babcock 35:22

Tuck it in your belt, Dili. I grappling hook him in the spleen.

Daniel Andrlik 35:31

So Dili, it is definitely going to be hindered because you are missing an organ right now and your body is reacting.

Sampson Davis 35:33

That's fair.

Daniel Andrlik 35:34

I would say it's hindered by two steps, because your body's reacting to a missing organ, so that makes it a 15 might roll to grab this rope and hold on while Nix pulls you.

Stace Babcock 35:46

No, Nix is going to slide the grappling hook head across the floor, so hopefully, maybe that would make it easier to catch because it would just stop?

Daniel Andrlik 35:54

I give it a 12 then.

Sampson Davis 35:56

All right, yeah.

Daniel Andrlik 35:58

Actually, Nix first, evens or odds?

Stace Babcock 36:01

Evens.

Daniel Andrlik 36:05

Alex, roll a die for me.

Alex Finn 36:08

I don't know which one I want it to be.

Stace Babcock 36:10

Evens.

Alex Finn 36:11

I got a two.

Daniel Andrlik 36:13

Okay. So the hook gets within Dili's grip, it does not pierce his body causing more damage.

Sampson Davis 36:22

I think I need the might points, so I'm just going to try this roll straight. 16.

Daniel Andrlik 36:27

Okay, you manage to hold it and Nix manages to pull you back through the arch.

Alex Finn 36:32

Does it put his spleen back in?

Sampson Davis 36:34

Do I lose another organ?

Stace Babcock 36:35

Or take out another organ?

Daniel Andrlik 36:37

No. I would say if you wanted to, we'll say Dili's smart enough to realize something's wrong. Dili, I would allow you as a "gimme" to grab the organ and bring it back with you.

Sampson Davis 36:50

I do that. I need this, come back to me.

Daniel Andrlik 36:54

Okay. Because I'm kind of generous, and I don't think Dili needs to roll to figure out that something's wrong like that. So yeah, Nix, you drag him back through the arch.

Stace Babcock 37:03

Now I'm going to punch you.

Sampson Davis 37:05

Okay.

Alex Finn 37:05

Sleepy time.

Stace Babcock 37:07

Three, two. Nix goes on two.

Daniel Andrlik 37:10

Okay. So Nix, give me a unarmed attack roll. Dili is just accepting the hit, right?

Sampson Davis 37:16

Yeah.

Daniel Andrlik 37:19

Okay. So Nix, give me one of six.

Stace Babcock 37:20

And I'm trained in unarmed.

Daniel Andrlik 37:22

So three.

Stace Babcock 37:23

13.

Daniel Andrlik 37:24

Okay. You knock Dili out. Dili, please mark down four might damage, and you are now unconscious.

Alex Finn 37:32

So yeah, open Dili surgery. Is the organ still outside of Dili?

Daniel Andrlik 37:41

Yes.

Alex Finn 37:42

Damn it.

Daniel Andrlik 37:43

Sampson, what are your pools like right now?

Sampson Davis 37:45

Four, nine, and 16. Might, speed, intellect.

Daniel Andrlik 37:49

Okay. Just so I know, just in case.

Sampson Davis 37:51

Yeah.

Stace Babcock 37:52

I mean, do you know where it goes? Is this a head organ, or is it a foot organ?

Alex Finn 38:00

I feel like if we open him up, we'll just find the missing... it'll be like a dangly bit missing the end, and it'll be gushing, right? And we just slap it back on and it'll stop gushing. Maybe sew it a little.

Stace Babcock 38:15

Yeah. Hell yeah. You got a dagger, right? I don't.

Alex Finn 38:18

Yeah, I got this dagger. Should I clean it off? Because I've been stabbing people with it.

Stace Babcock 38:24

I don't know if it matters. Blood is blood, right?

Daniel Andrlik 38:33

ChaCha, roll a six healing roll that includes your trait.

Alex Finn 38:37

Okay. Nat 20.

Daniel Andrlik 38:42

Yeah, you definitely need to sterilize this dagger first. Fire would be good, or anything like that. You can propose a major effect.

Alex Finn 38:52

I want a free asset to Dili's surgery.

Daniel Andrlik 38:57

Okay, that sounds good. I think you also figure out with your pyro skills that you could use hedge magic to essentially sterilize the blade.

Alex Finn 39:05

Ah, we shall do this. We shall do this. Okay.

Daniel Andrlik 39:09

Okay, so you're going to cut into Dili and try to do the surgery?

Alex Finn 39:13

You say it like we have other options.

Daniel Andrlik 39:16

I'm just saying, you have any choice under the world.

Alex Finn 39:19

We should've probably looked at this machine with Dili before we knocked him unconscious. Oh well.

Daniel Andrlik 39:25

So it starts at a 15. You have training in healing, and you have this free asset from your natural 20, so that would make it a-

Alex Finn 39:35

Nine?

Stace Babcock 39:36

And Nix will assist with the first aid kit, but first she's going to say, "ChaCha, isn't understanding Numenera a thing that you also do, so couldn't you look at it?"

Daniel Andrlik 39:48

Numenera wouldn't help in this case, because it's replacing an organ.

Stace Babcock 39:53

But if the machine could be reversed or something...

Daniel Andrlik 39:56

That is also an option you could check.

Alex Finn 39:59

I guess we'll do a quick once over the machine with the understanding Numenera to see if maybe there's a reverse switch.

Daniel Andrlik 40:12

Okay. So you have training in understanding Numenera, so that would make it a 15 for you.

Alex Finn 40:14

I got a nine. Surgery time.

Stace Babcock 40:15

Yay.

Daniel Andrlik 40:16

Yeah, yes. You have no idea if this thing can be reversed at all. You actually don't understand why it did what it did.

Alex Finn 40:24

Yeah. Okay, so we're at a nine, and then Nix is assisting, we got a six to perform open Dili surgery and have him not die of sepsis.

Daniel Andrlik 40:35

Well hold on, so Nix is assisting so that's a six, and Nix is assisting by spending her first aid kit, so it's a three for ChaCha.

Alex Finn 40:47

The greedy part of me wants to roll this flat because it's a three, but the paranoid part of me is like, should I put in a level of effort so it's a "gimme" so that we don't get the one in 10 chance that we kill Dili?

Stace Babcock 41:05

Yep, let's not kill Dili.

Alex Finn 41:07

Okay, I'm assuming it's intelligence?

Daniel Andrlik 41:09

Yes.

Alex Finn 41:11

So I'm going to spend a level of effort so it's free.

Daniel Andrlik 41:14

Okay, so now it's a "gimme." You cut into Dili where you expect in his abdomen. Blood starts pooling and flowing out the side. ChaCha, you've seen a lot of things, and this is a little bit unusual for you in terms of healing, this level of surgery. You're sort of tangentially aware of it. But you do find a spot where there's clearly a missing organ, and there are scabbed connections where that organ should be. You cut away the scabs, and you sew this organ into place, and blood is pooling all over the ground, and you stitch Dili back up, closing all the incisions you made. And it's at this point I will offer Sampson an XP.

Sampson Davis 42:02

Oh, I'm taking it.

Stace Babcock 42:03

Yes.

Daniel Andrlik 42:04

Okay, who will you give the other XP to?

Sampson Davis 42:07

I'm going to give this one to ChaCha since she's got her fingers inside Dili.

Alex Finn 42:11

I might need it for more surgery.

Sampson Davis 42:13

Yeah.

Daniel Andrlik 42:14

So Dili, you will take seven might damage from this surgery.

Sampson Davis 42:19

That's not bad.

Daniel Andrlik 42:21

And you will be hindered in any physical activity for the next 14 days.

Alex Finn 42:29

No lifting over 20 pounds.

Sampson Davis 42:30

Shit. 14 days. Oh, man. So quick question mechanically, does that just mean any might and speed rolls more or less? Okay.

Daniel Andrlik 42:41

Will be hindered.

Sampson Davis 42:41

Cool.

Daniel Andrlik 42:42

Yeah. Your intellect rolls will be unaffected.

Sampson Davis 42:45

Gotcha.

Daniel Andrlik 42:46

You guys have completed the surgery. The surgery took some time. You guys have been here for like an hour and a half while ChaCha cut into Dili, pushed wet organ meat into him, and sewed him up.

Alex Finn 42:59

Can ChaCha do a little embellishment so he gets a little CC in his scar?

Sampson Davis 43:06

Sign your work?

Daniel Andrlik 43:07

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Give me an intellect roll of nine.

Alex Finn 43:13

I'm not going to put effort into this.

Sampson Davis 43:14

This one's going to be the Nat 1.

Alex Finn 43:19

No, it's a 10. You get some nice, dope Cs instead of a dick.

Daniel Andrlik 43:23

Yeah. You definitely managed to stitch in such a way... it's a little weird, it's a little awkward. You think that maybe this is the reason why Dili will have trouble over the next two weeks, or part of the reason. But you have definitely stitched it in such a way that when his natural scar forms, there will be a CC in the midst of that scar.

Stace Babcock 43:45

Nice. Good work, ChaCha.

Alex Finn 43:49

ChaCha's going to go for a high five.

Stace Babcock 43:51

High five.

Daniel Andrlik 43:52

Her hand is covered in Dili gore.

Stace Babcock 43:55

High five. And then Nix will cover unconscious Dili in her arms. I guess we'll go the other way.

Daniel Andrlik 44:03

Yeah, so it depends on where you want to go and how long you want to wait. It is definitely going to take Dili at least an hour and a half before he wakes up.

Stace Babcock 44:11

You want to just chill in the organ room, or...

Alex Finn 44:15

Yeah, because maybe then the tree won't be like, "Hey, bring me another snack."

Stace Babcock 44:20

All right, we'll chill here.

Alex Finn 44:22

Yeah.

Stace Babcock 44:23

Going to take a recovery roll.

Daniel Andrlik 44:25

Okay, that's a good idea. If anybody else wants to take recovery rolls, you might want to do that now. Just saying.

Sampson Davis 44:33

Can I do that while unconscious?

Daniel Andrlik 44:35

You could take up through... I said you're going to be unconscious for an hour and a half, you could tick up through your one hour recovery roll while unconscious, because it's your body trying to recover.

Sampson Davis 44:45

All right, all right.

Alex Finn 44:46

I like how Sampson was totally okay with going through that portal, and it turned out to be an organ removing portal.

Stace Babcock 44:54

Man, them's the breaks, ChaCha. I've seen some shit when people walk through. But sometimes every now and then, you get a real sick improvement. I know a guy who got eye stalks, he could look behind him. That's sick as fuck.

Alex Finn 45:10

But did Dili really understand what might happen, or was it like, "Oopsie-doodle, we just convinced him to do something bad."

Stace Babcock 45:20

He didn't seem to need a lot of convincing, ChaCha.

Alex Finn 45:22

True. I mean, we also should stay in this room so he can look at the machine, because maybe there was a reverse switch, and I just didn't look hard enough, because I kind of wanted to try out surgery. I've never tried it before.

Stace Babcock 45:39

Well I think you did great.

Alex Finn 45:42

I mean, look, I even signed my work, so that's what I'm going to do when I do surgery. I'm going to sign my work, so maybe I can become a famous surgeon too.

Stace Babcock 45:50

I don't see why not. Start charging maybe.

Alex Finn 45:54

I mean, I guess if... oh, we could be an entertainment act and a surgery.

Stace Babcock 46:01

Oh yeah, I know these students, they would come. They would watch.

Alex Finn 46:04

And if they get hurt we can just patch them up.

Stace Babcock 46:07

Science students were a little weird. I was like, "You got any dead bodies?" And I'm like, "Why the hell would I have dead bodies?" You know what I'm saying? I wasn't killing people back then. Not at the rate I do today anyway.

Alex Finn 46:18

Very true. We could make so much money selling dead bodies.

Daniel Andrlik 46:22

So after an hour and a half, Dili wakes up.

Sampson Davis 46:26

Oh my God. Did I shit my pants? I can't tell.

Stace Babcock 46:30

Not this time, Dili.

Sampson Davis 46:32

Oh, good.

Alex Finn 46:33

This is just blood. You're wet with blood.

Sampson Davis 46:36

Just blood?

Alex Finn 46:37

Yeah, I think it's just blood. I mean, I didn't taste it.

Daniel Andrlik 46:41

Sampson, evens or odds?

Sampson Davis 46:42

God damn it.

Alex Finn 46:43

Oh, God damn.

Sampson Davis 46:45

Evens.

Daniel Andrlik 46:47

Stace, roll die. Tell me if you get evens or odds.

Stace Babcock 46:49

Lucky number 13.

Alex Finn 46:50

Oh, God.

Daniel Andrlik 46:54

There's a little bit of shit in that, yeah. Just a little.

Alex Finn 47:00

Should we clean up before we go find the artifact? Is the tree the artifact?

Sampson Davis 47:06

What did the battery do? Actually yeah, can you do the hedge magic thingy? Because I think that cleans shit.

Alex Finn 47:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me just do that quick. I think ChaCha hedge magics both of them to see if she can not be covered in blood and gore, and Dili can not be covered in blood and shit.

Daniel Andrlik 47:25

Yeah, you can definitely clean away all that stuff.

Alex Finn 47:26

Okay.

Daniel Andrlik 47:28

The side effect though of your hedge magic, is that for a moment, whatever you clean away you taste. But just briefly.

Alex Finn 47:33

Gee, thanks. Well actually that means... ChaCha's probably used to the taste of all this then.

Daniel Andrlik 47:43

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Stace Babcock 47:45

Is Nix's jar full?

Daniel Andrlik 47:47

I would say it's three-quarters of the way full, yeah. So Dili's conscious, what do you guys do?

Sampson Davis 47:52

Did you guys cross stitch me? What the fuck?

Stace Babcock 47:54

Oh, it was all ChaCha.

Alex Finn 47:56

No, those are my initials. See? CC.

Sampson Davis 48:00

Yeah, all right. Well as long as everything's in there, that's probably the most I could ask for.

Alex Finn 48:05

Yeah. I cleaned you up a little bit in there too.

Stace Babcock 48:08

No spare parts leftover.

Sampson Davis 48:11

Okay.

Alex Finn 48:12

Oh, you should probably look at the machine. I tried looking at it, but I couldn't find a reverse switch. But maybe you can find a reverse switch, so maybe if this happens again we can, you know...

Sampson Davis 48:24

Okay, I guess I'll just do that then. And Dili will carefully, gingerly pull himself up, and then go three foot distance, but inspect the ruby arch.

Daniel Andrlik 48:35

Understanding Numenera roll of 18.

Sampson Davis 48:37

Every level of effort for that one. Oh, 20. It's 20.

Alex Finn 48:42

Yeah.

Sampson Davis 48:43

It was cocked there for a second, but it landed on 20.

Daniel Andrlik 48:45

Okay. This arch, you're not sure what its original purpose was, but it is designed to take something out of a body. Whatever species it was originally designed for is clearly not human, and you think it defaults to whatever organ it decides looks the closest to what it's looking for. And you can propose a major effect for your natural 20.

Alex Finn 49:09

Can you harvest the machine?

Sampson Davis 49:12

That's what I'm thinking. Kind of in tandem with scan Iotum, he finds a way to kind of disable it.

Daniel Andrlik 49:19

Oh, yes. Give me a scan Iotum of three. You're trained I think, right?

Sampson Davis 49:26

Trained, and I have the free level of effort anyway.

Daniel Andrlik 49:27

Okay, so you don't have to roll or anything like that. There is definitely at least four Iotum in this device. It will be eased by two steps for you if you try to salvage to get those.

Sampson Davis 49:42

All right, yeah. Dili will take a crack at that.

Daniel Andrlik 49:45

Okay. So it's an 18. You are trained in salvaging, right?

Sampson Davis 49:50

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Daniel Andrlik 49:51

So then that's 15. You get two levels of effort, that brings it down to a nine. You get the free level of effort, which I assume you're applying, so that brings it down to a six. Oh, and you have light tools, so that's a three.

Sampson Davis 50:05

All right, Dili will roll that straight. Four, oh man.

Daniel Andrlik 50:10

Okay. So inside, you find sort of stereotypical Iotum. You find a void stone, and you also find a biomechanical Synth, as well as a blood crystal.

Sampson Davis 50:29

Blood crystal?

Daniel Andrlik 50:30

It is definitely liquid, but whenever it isn't being disturbed, it forms into the shape of a crystal with 15 extrusions. And the device is now offline. Oh, by the way, because it also has other things in it, you could also depending on how much you want to be weighed down accumulate up to seven units of Synth and two parts.

Sampson Davis 50:57

Is there a weight limit that I should be aware of?

Daniel Andrlik 51:01

No, you could probably take all of it honestly. It's more like if I notice you're accumulating a lot of it, we'll start thinking about, well how much does that really weigh, and is that going to start hindering Dili?

Sampson Davis 51:12

Okay. I'm at six Synth and seven parts now. Is that-

Daniel Andrlik 51:15

That's fine.

Sampson Davis 51:16

Okay. How many of each was that again?

Daniel Andrlik 51:18

I think seven parts... sorry, seven Synth and three parts I think is what I said.

Sampson Davis 51:23

Okay. All right, yeah. There's a lot of good stuff in here. Ow. Ow. But the thing is off, so guys, want to keep going this way?

Alex Finn 51:30

Yeah, forward ho.

Sampson Davis 51:33

Well left or right, but yep.

Stace Babcock 51:34

Right Dili.

Sampson Davis 51:36

Right.

Daniel Andrlik 51:37

Okay. And you see in front of you a very strange room. It's lit up in a glow that you usually associate with sort of Synth Numenera, but there seems to be a thick layer of organic resin over all the Numenera in this room. It is lit up, and you can see this room is massive. It's probably about 70 feet square, and you can see that along the right hand side of the wall, there are maybe six of these multi-jointed, organic looking arms extended, that they've got three joints each. And at the end of each one of them is some sort of orifice that is dripping with mucus, and each one of them opens slowly and deposits a small green egg.

Sampson Davis 52:32

Oh my God.

Daniel Andrlik 52:35

And they're just dripping in these pools of mucus. It's mucus and these eggs all stacked on top of each other as these weird appendages move back and forth.

Alex Finn 52:45

Did we find the alien queen?

Daniel Andrlik 52:47

And on the far side of the room, you can see over near a console two people you don't recognize. They're roughly in their mid 20s. They look athletic. They're dressed in sort of thug chic for lack of a better word, and you see Deuces standing there next to them, and they are all surrounding one woman at the console, and it's a woman you recognize as Doc Taraz. And that's where we'll end this episode.

Alex Finn 53:20

Oh shit.

Sampson Davis 53:21

Fuck. We're not disguised either by the way, so so much for that.

Stace Babcock 53:24

Oh yeah, because you passed out.

Daniel Andrlik 53:27

Sampson, something about this episode?

Sampson Davis 53:30

I personally wouldn't have been mad, but Dili almost died because of a botched surgery. And again, I wouldn't have been mad, that would've been very funny to me, but that almost happened.

Daniel Andrlik 53:38

Yeah.

Sampson Davis 53:39

But yeah.

Stace Babcock 53:40

I like how I was debating that. Like, "[crosstalk 00:53:42] or not?"

Sampson Davis 53:43

But yeah, ChaCha fucking did her thing. And now Dili is alive for one more session at least, we'll see how this goes.

Alex Finn 53:52

We're going to go fight Deuces while you just had surgery.

Daniel Andrlik 53:56

Yep.

Alex Finn 53:57

We made great choices. What are you talking about, oops all bad choices?

Daniel Andrlik 54:02

And what is Deuce's currently front running candidate for new partner thinking?

Stace Babcock 54:10

Oh yeah, Nix. Well, you would have to think not anymore.

Daniel Andrlik 54:13

Potentially.

Alex Finn 54:13

You never know. That might've spiced up the relationship more, and they're just like, "Yes, get this spice into our life."

Stace Babcock 54:21

Right? They're like, "Damn, we need her."

Alex Finn 54:26

Get in some of that flair. Oh shit, and they're down a nano too.

Stace Babcock 54:29

You're trying out, every day of your life. That's what they say.

Daniel Andrlik 54:33

Dress for the job you want. So we have a segment that we do each week called Player Intrusion, so we offer you the listener an XP to check out something we think you would really dig. This week, it is my turn, and I would recommend you all go out and read the book Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age. It is by Annalee Newitz, and she is an amazing author. She's written some great science fiction. She's also written some great science journalism. But in this book, she explores the history of four cities that in our western culture were typically known as lost cities, although one of the things she points is that in the overwhelming majority of cases, the cities were never lost, it's just that western colonial explorers came upon them and decided that they were lost, even though everybody around there knew that the remnants of that city were there.

But she talks about one of the oldest metropolises in the world, a neolithic site, and I'm going to butcher the pronunciation of Çatalhüyük in central Turkey. She talks about Pompeii, and then the medieval mega city of Angkor in Cambodia, which is especially funny because the French explorer who found that claimed it was lost, but there were monks that were still living there, and people made regular pilgrimages to it. And then also something that was new to me, but I was embarrassed that it was new to me, was the indigenous medieval metropolis of Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.

Alex Finn 56:21

I think this is it, on Audible?

Daniel Andrlik 56:24

Yes. So she explores both the history of those four cities, and then also how the reasons why they either failed in almost every case, or changed rather. It's not so much a failure as change, are a combination of ecological disasters and a failure of political will to do what was right for those cities. And she draws a very interesting line to modern cities that have suffered hardships like Detroit and other cities in the US that have suffered. These are the cases where, will we politically make the right decisions for those cities going forward, and what are the things that cause cities to fail? And not in the sense of some cataclysm, but in the sense of people just leaving the city and deciding, "I'm not going to live here anymore."

It's fascinating, especially when she's talking about the city in central Turkey, neolithic times. It was one of the first metropolises of its size, and how people went from a nomadic lifestyle to there, what that meant especially. Because they built these sort of stacked homes, and there were all these walkways over the tops of the homes, as well as special hubs that were just history houses that were used to represent the history of a group of people within that city. It's just fascinating learning about these cities that were built up, and then also thinking about what are the reasons why humans are drawn to cities in the first place, and then also why they leave cities. What's the turning point for them, when they leave a city and decide they want a different life? And do they transition to another type of city, or do they transition to a more remote lifestyle?

I remember thinking to myself over and over again about cities not just in terms of the nature of the diversity of people that it pulls in, but also that sort of historical notion of cities, and that every historical city is in some way founded on blood, because they had to build it, and they had to defend. That's less of what's the focus in this book, but it is fascinating when she's getting into what do we know about the behavior of those people, as well in the case of Angkor as well as Pompeii where we have clear sort of political records of why did these things change. It's a fascinating book, highly recommended. It's a book that I devoured in three days. It's great writing. She's got a very pleasant voice to her writing, and also she's able to express very complex archeological and historical ideas in very easy to understand language. So I highly recommend Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz.

Alex Finn 59:31

I just bought it on audible.

Daniel Andrlik 59:34

Excellent. If somebody wants to talk to us about Four Lost Cities, or about what they think about the show, how would they do that Sampson?

Sampson Davis 59:42

Oh, I suppose they could go to our website at explorerswanted.fm, from there you can find a bunch of socials such as Twitter where we are @ExplorersWanted, or Instagram and Facebook, where we are @ExplorersWantedPodcast. You could also talk to us on our Discorded, explorerswanted.fm/discord should bring you there. We are pretty active there, so that's a great place to come talk to us directly. If they feel that what we've done is worth their money and it is within their means, they can support us at patreon.com/explorerswanted, so there's that.

Daniel Andrlik 1:00:16

Yeah, and your support means the world to us if you can supply that. If you enjoyed the show, the best thing that you could do for us is to tell a friend, and tell them why you like the show, and why they should listen to it. The second thing you could do is write us a five star written review on a podcast directory, specifically Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, and Stitcher. Those three make the biggest difference in new listeners trying out the show. There's so many actual plays out there, and for people to figure out what to try out even, those written reviews make a huge difference in people giving a shot, and really help us build up our listenership of people who enjoy the same things you do.

If you didn't like the show, or if you thought it was just meh, well I just want to remind you that when it comes to living a life of joy, laughter, and love, you can never have too many teeth. If you want to reach out to us individually on social media, you can. You can find me on Twitter @andrlik, A-N-D-R-L-I-K.

Stace Babcock 1:01:26

You can find me on Twitter @StaceWindu.

Sampson Davis 1:01:29

You can find me counting if I have enough teeth @SlamPotato.

Alex Finn 1:01:32

You can find me very confused on teeth @realteaunicorn on Twitter, or probably talking shit on teeth just like big library on Twitch @teawithaunicorn.

Daniel Andrlik 1:01:45

Okay, that's it for us. We will be back next week, as we will for every week in the foreseeable future. Have a good night, day, weekend, or whenever you're listening to this, and bye.