Episode 1
Episode 1: Snortin' Scorpions
Don't feel bad starting with this episode, there's a reason it's called "Episode 1".
Book and Ocean roll back into town and quickly find themselves scrounging for some necessary repairs. A mysterious missive draws them to a local bar where they are quickly out of their element.
This one's all about Noodles, scorpions, and large personalities.
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Socials, Merch, Free Music, and Other Stuff: https://linktr.ee/oopsall
Transcript
Welcome to Oops!
Speaker:All Apocalypses, a show where we explore the collapse of society by playing fun, tabletop role-playing games.
Speaker:I'm your master of ceremonies, Stu Masterson, and I'm joined with a couple of my friends here.
Speaker:Hey folks, I'm Brady and I play Book McCready, a super sharp sleuth who is cool under pressure when he's not haunted by his tragic past.
Speaker:And I'm Jacob, I'm playing Ocean, a gentle giant with a questionable past and a questionable ride.
Speaker:Excellent, and I'm playing the Apocalypses.
Speaker:So this is our first real session.
Speaker:We had a little bit of a jump into action last time, but this is where we're gonna actually do all of the normal beginning of session moves and kick off the story that we've been already talked a ton about, getting all the backstory straight, and actually start playing the game like it's supposed to be played.
Speaker:But before that, we got a few things we need to talk about.
Speaker:If you like exposition, you've loved the last three episodes.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:We got a lot of just us talking about things without doing much.
Speaker:If you hate exposition, you've already dropped us.
Speaker:Oh, there'll be more exposition.
Speaker:Yeah, we got some lessons learned from our first recordings, and I think the biggest thing we need to talk about is why no one has ever told me that I pronounced the word over like a donkey.
Speaker:It was charming.
Speaker:I've lived my entire life not realizing that I say uber, like uber.
Speaker:The second I heard it in the recording, I was like, who is speaking right now?
Speaker:Who pronounces that word that way?
Speaker:And it was me.
Speaker:To be fair, to be fair, Brady pointed it out a dozen times.
Speaker:You started this by saying, I can't believe no one told me.
Speaker:And I guess I guess I didn't straight up say stu say pronounced over, but I did.
Speaker:Actually, I pointed it out on multiple occasions.
Speaker:I don't listen to your criticism, Brady.
Speaker:That's fair.
Speaker:That's fair.
Speaker:I'm not saying you should.
Speaker:I'm just saying don't don't at me, bro.
Speaker:OK, when I hear something negative from you, it just rolls off.
Speaker:But if we do ever have listeners, what I would like is if you know anyone who pronounces that word the same way, let me know where they live, because I've lived all over the country and I want to figure out where I picked up this ridiculous pronunciation.
Speaker:Oh, man, that means we need a Gmail.
Speaker:Oh, no, we do.
Speaker:No, we all have a Stu at Stu dot cool email addresses.
Speaker:Don't worry.
Speaker:This episode is sponsored by...
Speaker:Stu dot cool.
Speaker:Oh, crap, what's the square base?
Speaker:Make the website of your dreams.
Speaker:See, we can't say that because now they know they don't have to sponsor us.
Speaker:We'll do it for free as a joke.
Speaker:We'll just do it for free.
Speaker:Yeah, you just pimp us out to the first person that will sponsor us and we'll thank you.
Speaker:We just gotta start doing ads and then hope they pay us later.
Speaker:So I'm gonna open my loot crate here.
Speaker:Ooh, what did you get this week?
Speaker:I don't have a loot crate.
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:Yes, and?
Speaker:Oh, it has a Iron Man Funko Pop.
Speaker:That's so 2018.
Speaker:Oh, and if you hold it above your head, it looks like you're a unicorn.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:You guys are so bad at improv.
Speaker:I got so confused.
Speaker:I've done a decent bit of community theater, but I never really did much improv.
Speaker:I hated it so much.
Speaker:That's surprising because you're so good at it.
Speaker:Yeah, considering how much RPGs I've played at this point, which is basically entirely improv.
Speaker:But with all of that, Irvir, we should go ahead and start off our session one.
Speaker:Previously, you guys escaped a pretty dangerous scrape.
Speaker:You made it back to Hamlet Opening on the outskirts of Subtropolis with a new vehicle that is a little ostentatious, especially since you stole it from a group of chaos cultists who may potentially want it back.
Speaker:But it's being hidden in Ocean's garage right now.
Speaker:We're gonna pick up pretty much right there.
Speaker:The way we begin each session is with living day to day, which if you look on your reference sheet, that's one of the moves you have, where you roll plus barter.
Speaker:Both of you, pretty bad at barter, but we'll see how this goes.
Speaker:Well, I think we established people like buying stuff from you because you don't know how much things could cost.
Speaker:So I think your minus one barter isn't because you don't move product, it's because you under price it.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that's definitely true.
Speaker:And speaking of, I rolled a six.
Speaker:Ah, excellent.
Speaker:So that is a straight up failure.
Speaker:You go ahead and make your roll to Book.
Speaker:And we'll adjudicate these a little bit together.
Speaker:I had to do this.
Speaker:Mine was also a six.
Speaker:Okay, so that's just an utter failure.
Speaker:Both parts.
Speaker:We really fall apart.
Speaker:That Jeep, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm gonna have that Jeep for less than half a session because I have a feeling it's about to explode.
Speaker:So the situation we find you guys in.
Speaker:So the way, since it's the first time we're doing it, I'll hit on how this move works.
Speaker:When you roll well, you get to ask me what's free and easy, or if you roll medium, you get to ask me what's easy and what's hard.
Speaker:And I get to tell you kind of what sorts of things in society right now are easy for you to access and what's difficult for you to access.
Speaker:And that kind of guides how you're struggling right now.
Speaker:Since you both failed, you're both struggling quite heavily, and you're in a bad spot.
Speaker:So right now, you guys are in possession of a stolen Jeep that you are really hoping to be able to obfuscate in some way, maybe give it a paint job.
Speaker:Have you thought about how you would want to obfuscate it?
Speaker:What I do know is that I would definitely want to paint it, and I would really love if Frida were the one to do it, because I want to meet them, and I want to see what they can do to camouflage my Jeep.
Speaker:I was thinking a nice vertical gray and black stripe to give it some cave camouflage.
Speaker:Ooh, hide in those stalagmites.
Speaker:Obviously, I'm going to leave it up to the artist, but if I could get...
Speaker:Because we haven't met Frida, so I kind of want to use this as an opportunity to sort of ingratiate ourselves with them and see if we can get on a better footing.
Speaker:Okay, I think that's a good path forward.
Speaker:Unfortunately, that sounds like something pretty pricey, and you did not roll a pretty good barter, but we'll still figure out how that works.
Speaker:More on the ocean side of things, you made it back to town with your spider, your vehicle, barely limping along.
Speaker:I believe it actually rolled into the garage as it was running out of gas.
Speaker:I was about to say, if I remember correctly, it was shot in the gas tank.
Speaker:It was actually cut through the gas tank and shot through the window.
Speaker:That's right, because I got the...
Speaker:Yeah, your window is also not very useful right now, especially you don't think you could hold up to another gunshot, which isn't unheard of.
Speaker:You like to have good bulletproof glass in front of your face, and right now, it is definitely weaker structurally, as there is a three inch long sniper rifle round halfway through the bullet...
Speaker:No, halfway through your glass.
Speaker:Unfortunately, glass doesn't patch well.
Speaker:Yeah, you can't really just like rub some dirt on that hole and break off the end and sand down that bullet.
Speaker:Like if it was metal, like we could probably weld something to something, but you're in a tough spot, pal.
Speaker:Yeah, so right now you pretty much have two non-driveable cars.
Speaker:And to make matters worse, right now you just do not have your low on batteries, your charges running out, you don't even have a lot of food, and you certainly don't have enough money to go purchase the necessary supplies to fix up these vehicles.
Speaker:Sounds like we're due for a fetch quest.
Speaker:Yeah, it's so bad that after you guys separate, go back to your houses, trying to figure out plans to kind of scrounge up enough money, kind of looking to see what you have around, that you could possibly trade, because there's a pretty big barter system in place here too.
Speaker:Book, when you go, you kind of give up on being able to find something of any value, you've scrounged through, and you find some things that do have some value, but they're important to you, they're connected to your parents in some way or your past, so you don't want to give them up.
Speaker:As you go to take your shower for the night, you turn on the sink to brush your teeth and no water comes out.
Speaker:Sink just completely broken.
Speaker:Luckily, I do have my bucket in the middle of the room that's collecting condensation from my ceiling.
Speaker:So I'll just rinse my hands off in that and then try not to touch my face.
Speaker:That's a very wise move.
Speaker:Seems like the main goal you should have in the short term is trying to get your vehicles back up and running, because that is how you make your money, especially for Ocean.
Speaker:I was about to say, yeah, that's like my whole income.
Speaker:You can't go scrounging around very well without it.
Speaker:So how would you guys try to collect some money?
Speaker:I could always.
Speaker:So here's the thing.
Speaker:I don't want to do this, because the Jeep is my ticket to the surface.
Speaker:And once I get up there, I can cruise around on those perfectly well-paved roads.
Speaker:So I don't really want to get rid of the Jeep.
Speaker:I could sell the Jeep.
Speaker:I'm fairly certain I could get a pretty good penny for that, as long as we can convince people that it wasn't previously owned by the boxcar children.
Speaker:Yeah, I would say right now it's definitely kind of hot.
Speaker:Trying to sell it would be difficult.
Speaker:You would probably need at least some supplies to even get it to a reasonably sellable state.
Speaker:Unless you want to really sell it for scrap.
Speaker:No, I don't.
Speaker:I don't want to sell it at all.
Speaker:Ocean, you holding on to any hot commodities?
Speaker:I guess I can go scrounge around in my collect-a-cord of stuff that I keep and see if there's anything that could be worth anything.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Because it's been a while.
Speaker:I imagine we probably didn't do much shopping and selling yesterday with the old fiasco with the boxcar children.
Speaker:So you have this basic scrap yard kind of around your house, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's not quite like shack in the middle of a junkyard, more like Appalachia sad.
Speaker:Yeah, it kind of looks like a hoarding situation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When you're when you're out there looking for things based on your bad roll, I'm going to go and tell you there's not a lot useful there.
Speaker:But give me a read a situation.
Speaker:Read a situation.
Speaker:Yeah, something seems afoot here.
Speaker:It looks like someone's been in here pretty recently.
Speaker:Not you.
Speaker:Not a lot of people come poking around your scrap yard, but it looks like someone's been around here recently.
Speaker:That's an eight.
Speaker:An eight.
Speaker:OK, you can ask me one of the questions from read a situation.
Speaker:What should I be on the lookout for?
Speaker:You scan around, you kind of poke poke around some things that look like they're kind of a little bit disheveled.
Speaker:You notice there is a mailbox that has its flag up.
Speaker:This is one of the ways that Fried has previously performed dead drops for you.
Speaker:They like to keep it kind of up in the air how they communicate with you.
Speaker:It's mostly been through like letters or notes that say, hey, leave the supplies in this location and I'll leave the payment in a different location.
Speaker:But this is one of the ones that they've used previously.
Speaker:You know that this is not how they would normally contact you, though, just out of nowhere using one of these drops.
Speaker:Normally, you'd have some other communication beforehand.
Speaker:I walk up to the mailbox and I open it up.
Speaker:Take a look inside the mailbox.
Speaker:Creeks open inside the mailbox.
Speaker:There is a letter that is folded up.
Speaker:That's all you see in there.
Speaker:I grab it as you pull it out and read it.
Speaker:You notice immediately this handwriting is not free.
Speaker:His handwriting is someone else's handwriting.
Speaker:It looks, though, like they've done a poor job of not necessarily misleading you into thinking it's Frida.
Speaker:They don't say like signed Frida, but it seems like it's intended to be written in a similar way where it's very nebulous and saying, Hey, I have a work I need you to perform.
Speaker:Meet at this location.
Speaker:I have a specific item I need you to collect.
Speaker:But the handwriting is obviously not Frida's.
Speaker:Am I here?
Speaker:Am I also experiencing this moment?
Speaker:Do you want to be?
Speaker:Yeah, I do.
Speaker:I would like to be here and experiencing this moment.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Like, shit, we're broke.
Speaker:Want to come back to my place?
Speaker:See if I get any good shit.
Speaker:I mean, I drag you around mostly to look at my stuff anyway, to appraise it.
Speaker:So, yeah, come on.
Speaker:We'll come back to my garage.
Speaker:Let's take a look.
Speaker:Right as you unfurl this letter and start reading it, you see Book's head pop out of the sunroof of a car on the corner.
Speaker:And Book, you notice him reading this letter.
Speaker:I wave over.
Speaker:I like wave the letter in the air.
Speaker:I'm like, Book, come take a look at this.
Speaker:It's weird.
Speaker:Ocean, what do you have for me?
Speaker:I like the letter.
Speaker:It's...
Speaker:Normally, you know, this is Frieda's call sign, but I don't think this is her handwriting.
Speaker:Here, take a look.
Speaker:Yeah, that looks fishy.
Speaker:I...
Speaker:So, Book, since you can read...
Speaker:Yes, I did too, but luckily I didn't give you much information.
Speaker:Yeah, these squiggles don't look quite the same as her normal squiggles.
Speaker:Yeah, you could tell by the shapes.
Speaker:It looked like the similar notes you've seen that were like, hey, leave this here, and then some spaces meet here, but you couldn't read any of those words.
Speaker:Yeah, Ocean, your instinct was good on this.
Speaker:It does not look like...
Speaker:This doesn't look like Frieda to me.
Speaker:Book, you see that it specifically says to meet at the Broken Leg, which is a bar in town, to hopefully work out some payment, which is also something Frieda would never say.
Speaker:Frieda is usually very discreet.
Speaker:It would literally be like this flag up, and you then have to go look in the glove box of one of your cars to go find some cryptic note that is telling how much that they'll pay you and where to leave it and stuff like that.
Speaker:Well, this is very straightforward.
Speaker:And like, hey, I'm going to meet up with you.
Speaker:Do they give us a time that we're supposed to meet or a date?
Speaker:ASAP.
Speaker:That's actually the last part of the entire note is ASAP.
Speaker:All caps, as it should be, of course.
Speaker:With periods in between the letters or not?
Speaker:With periods.
Speaker:No, exclamation points.
Speaker:I don't like that.
Speaker:Oh, fuck.
Speaker:Ocean, I think that this is going to take both of us to unravel.
Speaker:I'd like to take a little jaunt over to the Soggy Worm, which is where my crush Callista Furnace works.
Speaker:It's a ramen restaurant.
Speaker:Oh, oh.
Speaker:And I want to see if we can both scrounge up a cheap meal in exchange for something and also get some information, because that is one of the other locations that we use to communicate with Frida.
Speaker:Oh, all right, let's do it.
Speaker:Pretty hungry to be honest with you.
Speaker:Yeah, you guys head to the Soggy Worm, which is a horrendous name.
Speaker:Thank you, Frida.
Speaker:For a ramen restaurant.
Speaker:Oh god, I just realized that.
Speaker:Just put two and two together.
Speaker:Ramen looks like soggy worms.
Speaker:What does it look like on the outside?
Speaker:Is this like a...
Speaker:Do you know the first scene in Blade Runner?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The intro scene where Deckard's sitting at sort of that.
Speaker:It's just a bar.
Speaker:It's not a bar.
Speaker:They're not serving drinks.
Speaker:But you know what I'm saying?
Speaker:It's a...
Speaker:It's like a stand outside, isn't it?
Speaker:100%.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what I'm envisioning.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You go up to the stand that is made almost entirely out of Cup of Noodle's ramen that they slowly remove from the stand, reducing the structural integrity as time goes on.
Speaker:But there is so many that at some point, you know Captain Noodle, the person who runs this restaurant, he got very lucky and found a supermarket and was able to completely loot the Costco for all of their Cup of Noodle's and has hoarded them here.
Speaker:Is Calista Furness a chef here or a bartender or runs the cashier?
Speaker:She's just the server and she runs the cash register.
Speaker:I don't think she's cooking.
Speaker:There are a handful of haphazardly scattered tables around.
Speaker:This is probably one of the worst restaurants.
Speaker:There's not much good food in the Apocalypses.
Speaker:I can't imagine there would be.
Speaker:This is still pretty much bare bones because this ramen has not been good for a while.
Speaker:It has a pretty long shelf life, but it's a little stale.
Speaker:The real valuable thing here is that they have very hot water to be able to make it.
Speaker:This stand was constructed in this location because there's some sort of hot spring that there's just like this pouring of steam out that they've been able to kind of collect in these giant vats.
Speaker:And they just use the steam to quickly just blast these cup of noodle ramens and make them all nice and soggy for you.
Speaker:You guys can afford a couple bowls of this.
Speaker:And by bowls, I mean cups of this ramen.
Speaker:And yeah, you sit down, you see Calista is working here.
Speaker:Captain Noodles is also in the back.
Speaker:He's the main chef and owner proprietor of this location.
Speaker:What are you doing here?
Speaker:Hey, Calista.
Speaker:We'll have two of the usual and only option.
Speaker:It's all just the spicy shrimp ramen.
Speaker:And I think if it's all right with you, a bit of world building here, that is our phrase to signal that we are asking if Frida has left any information for us.
Speaker:Ooh, I like it.
Speaker:I like it.
Speaker:I don't think I know.
Speaker:Yeah, write down exactly that wording.
Speaker:So with this, you're saying that Calista Furness is knowledgeable about your relationship with Frida.
Speaker:Yeah, I think she will hold onto communications.
Speaker:I don't know that she communicates directly with Frida.
Speaker:I think that's unknown to me, and she won't tell me what the situation is.
Speaker:All I know is that she gets letters for us from Frida, and she will also communicate to Frida for us.
Speaker:Are you sure you don't want an extra packet in either one of those?
Speaker:Which is the code word for she has not heard anything.
Speaker:No, that's right, but I appreciate the offer.
Speaker:Okay, sure thing.
Speaker:And she goes and actually gets them and brings them to you, so it's not suspicious in any way.
Speaker:Grabs two from like the kind of like in the back corner, the awning kind of sags a little bit, but it's still alright so far.
Speaker:And you hear Captain Noodle go, not the load bearing ones.
Speaker:He's got those like marked with like a paintbrush.
Speaker:He has X's on a bunch.
Speaker:It's like a Jenga restaurant.
Speaker:Are you guys intending to stay there and finish your meal?
Speaker:And do you have anything specific you're doing?
Speaker:I think if we haven't...
Speaker:I'm finishing my meal.
Speaker:Well, I was going to say, I don't know that book, but...
Speaker:Ocean, since there's nothing from Frida, I feel like our only course of action is to actually go to this bar and just see what's going on.
Speaker:So should we hang here and eat or should we walk and eat?
Speaker:What do we know of the bar that they want us to meet at?
Speaker:I like that question.
Speaker:Do either of you drink?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I was about to say, I don't think Ocean drinks.
Speaker:Okay, Book drinks.
Speaker:I drink exclusively whiskey.
Speaker:The bar is also where entertainment is as well, so you've probably been there, Ocean.
Speaker:The bar is a well-run establishment.
Speaker:It is one of the only places they are actually not allowed to bring in firearms, so it's kind of a safe haven.
Speaker:Still pretty dangerous.
Speaker:A lot of bar fights.
Speaker:And there have been a string of stabbings, of course, because they're not taking everyone's knife.
Speaker:You can't be in the apocalypse without a knife.
Speaker:But there's at least no firearms.
Speaker:You have to leave them at the door when you go in.
Speaker:It's as nice as an apocalyptic bar could be.
Speaker:But if you don't spend...
Speaker:How much time do you think you spend there, Book?
Speaker:I think that I like to go there to listen and collect gossip.
Speaker:OK, yeah, then you know a good bit about it.
Speaker:You're probably familiar with the bartender.
Speaker:The bartender is actually one of the...
Speaker:So what you know, Book, specifically, since you've been there a lot and you kind of have history with the town, the bartender was kind of a de facto leader of the town before Hickory showed up.
Speaker:So he's been around for a very long time.
Speaker:Would you be comfortable saying that this bartender is also a fan of Frieda's work?
Speaker:I don't know if you've talked to him about that yet.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:But you would not be surprised.
Speaker:You don't think he's particularly a big fan.
Speaker:So I think given that information, there's reasonable suspicion to think that maybe the bartender caught wind of our interactions and wants to get involved and is luring us there for a good reason.
Speaker:I think there's also reasonable suspicion to think that we're about to get clobbered.
Speaker:Well, I think there's only one way to find out for sure.
Speaker:So let's get on over there.
Speaker:We're going to walk up into the bar and sit right down.
Speaker:Okay, you walk into the broken leg.
Speaker:Give me a read a situation roll, whoever's taken point.
Speaker:I think it makes sense that we both would have read the situation, but I think we don't need duplicative information.
Speaker:Let's have Ocean roll it, and then if you want to help him, you can.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, I like that.
Speaker:Always forget help is here.
Speaker:Yeah, help is a good one.
Speaker:That's an eight.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Okay, that's going to let you ask one question.
Speaker:You could attempt to help him.
Speaker:Yeah, we do have plus two HP on my end.
Speaker:Actually, no, we have plus three now because of our experience.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So that's a pretty good...
Speaker:I could probably get you up to a full hit.
Speaker:So I'm going to go ahead.
Speaker:I'm going to try to help.
Speaker:Yeah, lay it on me.
Speaker:Okay, roll it.
Speaker:Okay, so with the plus three, I just hit a twelve.
Speaker:Oh, shit.
Speaker:That is a full one.
Speaker:So that also gives both of you plus one to your history, which I believe makes you roll over.
Speaker:Roll over.
Speaker:I'm at plus three now hit history.
Speaker:And I'm at plus four, which does that give me plus one XP?
Speaker:That gives you plus one XP.
Speaker:And it brings it down to plus one HX.
Speaker:And then dropping this on you like it's hot without any warning, where when you roll over, damn it, when you roll over, you get to learn a secret from the other person.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:So you got to come up with a secret ocean, which you don't have a lot of.
Speaker:I don't have a lot of secrets.
Speaker:It can be as big or as small as you want, but you got to share a secret with them because when you roll over, it represents knowing someone on like a deeper level.
Speaker:And this is kind of a good way of just giving a quick little thing that represents that.
Speaker:Here's here's Ocean's current big dark secret.
Speaker:He hates the ramen shop.
Speaker:He just hates it.
Speaker:Oh, my.
Speaker:But he goes with Book anyway, because he knows he likes it better and because I want to see Calista.
Speaker:He doesn't quite know why he goes there a lot, but he knows Book likes to go.
Speaker:So he goes.
Speaker:He still doesn't quite understand that.
Speaker:I haven't quite caught on to the Calista situation.
Speaker:But yeah, that that secret comes out as you guys are walking over to this other bar.
Speaker:You know, I hate ramen, right?
Speaker:That shit is disgusting, especially like worms.
Speaker:It makes me think of worms.
Speaker:Why would they call a restaurant that makes me feel gross?
Speaker:I think anyway, carry on your business.
Speaker:OK, so you get to ask three questions, Ocean.
Speaker:Did you have something to add?
Speaker:No, I was trying to think of the word irreverent, but it took too long.
Speaker:So let's just go.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Joke got missed.
Speaker:Instinctively, Ocean's gonna always be on the lookout for who's the biggest threat.
Speaker:So that's the first question I'm gonna ask.
Speaker:Second question, what should I be on the lookout for?
Speaker:And third question, who is in control here?
Speaker:I like that triplet of questions.
Speaker:OK, so you come in to the bar and you see the motley crew spread in front of you.
Speaker:You see people that are familiar and people aren't familiar.
Speaker:Who or what poses the biggest threat to me?
Speaker:There is someone in here who is one of the biggest badasses in town.
Speaker:It is just this mountain of a man known as Beethoven.
Speaker:And he...
Speaker:You guys have actually never seen him do any particular violence, but you have tons and tons of stories about horrific things he's done to people.
Speaker:I'm going to nudge Book and be like, Oh, fuck, it's Beethoven.
Speaker:Hey, I heard he punched a baby once.
Speaker:Dude, I heard he pulled out his own tooth when he had an abscess.
Speaker:Oh, you think that's badass?
Speaker:I heard he wrestled a bear.
Speaker:And we don't even have bears down here.
Speaker:So where did that bear come from?
Speaker:I heard that he slept with the bear after he wrestled it.
Speaker:Oh, man, I heard he changes the car tires and he just unscrews the lug nuts with his fingers.
Speaker:No tools, just screws them.
Speaker:That's nuts.
Speaker:I heard that he is the one person in town that Hickory Fleek is afraid of.
Speaker:I heard he killed a guy with just a bullet because he ran out of guns.
Speaker:He spat at him.
Speaker:You look behind and the bartender is leaning forward, noticing you staring at Beethoven.
Speaker:Beethoven walks up to the bar, doesn't say anything, holds up one finger, and the bartender turns around and reaches down and gives him a vial with a little scorpion inside of it.
Speaker:Oh, shit.
Speaker:And you see Beethoven take it back, walk to the table, smash it with his fist and just snort it.
Speaker:And the bartender goes, that is not how you're supposed to take those.
Speaker:So he's the biggest threat here.
Speaker:I would say so.
Speaker:But he's actually not the one in control here.
Speaker:But who's in control is the man behind the bar, his large revolver on his hip.
Speaker:And he is clearly running this establishment.
Speaker:He did not flinch when Beethoven walked up to him.
Speaker:And Beethoven was quite respectful around him, even though he didn't use many words.
Speaker:The last question was, what should I be on the lookout for?
Speaker:Correct?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:This looks like it possibly was a Fuddruckers at one point.
Speaker:Let's say, for argument's sake, that either one of us or one of our listeners doesn't know what a Fuddruckers is.
Speaker:Could you, would you explain it for us?
Speaker:So if you don't know what a Fuddruckers is, they have the largest corner tables of any building in the world.
Speaker:I never noticed that.
Speaker:I'll be honest with you, I never noticed.
Speaker:They're usually like raised up and like seat 14 people.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:Don't know.
Speaker:What is they doing there?
Speaker:You see, and this would be kind of the type of place you'd expect to have a more clandestine meeting.
Speaker:So you look at one of the corners is taken up by the door, where you guys are right where you walked in, where the bar is.
Speaker:And there's three other corners.
Speaker:Two of them are empty.
Speaker:One of the empty tables has just a smattering of Queen of Spades cards laid all over it and kind of tucked into the cushions behind it, but no one's there right now.
Speaker:But in the far corner, furthest from the door, you see a man sitting wearing sunglasses inside, which is very suspicious.
Speaker:And he kind of lowers them and looks at you a little bit when you come in and then puts them back on and continues sipping on his alcoholic beverage.
Speaker:You think that's our man book?
Speaker:I have a plan.
Speaker:I'm going to go over to that empty booth, and I want to see if there's anything written on those cards.
Speaker:In the meantime, I would like for you to order me a whiskey on the rocks.
Speaker:And then, and only then, we'll go together and approach that guy.
Speaker:All right, sounds good.
Speaker:I walk up to the bartender and awkwardly is like, can I get a whiskey on the rocks?
Speaker:Are you going to be good for it?
Speaker:Yeah, you know me.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm good for it.
Speaker:Put on my tab.
Speaker:I'll pay for it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah, haven't had made a payment in a little bit.
Speaker:Just making sure there's not going to be any trouble.
Speaker:Oh, no, we got it.
Speaker:We got a gig lined up right now.
Speaker:Don't don't you worry about it.
Speaker:I'm good for it.
Speaker:I promise.
Speaker:I swear.
Speaker:He holds out his pinky finger and is like, I pinky swear.
Speaker:He sits there for an uncomfortably long amount of time first and then reaches out and makes a pinky promise with you.
Speaker:And he goes, and that's your bond.
Speaker:So I'll take it.
Speaker:And he slides whiskey to you.
Speaker:I pick it up.
Speaker:I give him a little nod and I start walking over to wherever Book is at this time.
Speaker:Book, you've made it to the other corner table that has all of the cards in it.
Speaker:I pick up all the cards and I flip each one over in turn, and I want to see if there's anything unusual about them or if there's any writing on them.
Speaker:So a lot of them are kind of just stuck around the, stuck into the cushions of the seats.
Speaker:From what you can see, they don't have anything on them.
Speaker:The ones that are on the table, they're just spread out.
Speaker:It looks like a casino shuffle basically, but all face up.
Speaker:And looking at them, you do not see anything written on those cards.
Speaker:I grab all the cards and I stuff them in my pocket.
Speaker:I have a feeling that there's something weird going on with them, and I want to hold on to them.
Speaker:All of them, including the ones that are like stuck into the cushions, or just the ones on the table.
Speaker:No, I'm grabbing all of them.
Speaker:I'm fishing around in the crevices of the seeds.
Speaker:I'm trying not to look suspicious, but I'm not being as subtle as I should.
Speaker:Give me an act under fire.
Speaker:That is a...
Speaker:I have great luck.
Speaker:That's a 12.
Speaker:A 12?
Speaker:It's actually pretty dead at the bar right now, so there's not a ton of people, but you're able to kind of subtly do it.
Speaker:You don't think anyone really noticed you come over here, and right now, after you collect them up, you look in the corner, and the man sitting in the opposite corner is focused on Ocean instead of you while you've scrounged these up.
Speaker:So now that I have those cards, and I've surreptitiously stored them in my pocket, I walk over to Ocean, and I grab my whiskey on the rocks, and we approach the gentleman in the other corner booth.
Speaker:Ocean holds up the note that was left in the mailbox, and kind of just slides it over to him.
Speaker:Are you trying to be intimidating in this, or just very matter of fact, like, hey, found it.
Speaker:I'm trying to be subtle, more than anything.
Speaker:Okay, subtle about it.
Speaker:He looks up at you and he goes, Hey, it's my good friends, Ocean and Book.
Speaker:Does that mean that you're accepting the job?
Speaker:Hey, fella.
Speaker:Um...
Speaker:Hey!
Speaker:Hey, hey.
Speaker:Good to see you.
Speaker:It's your good friend Johnny Hertz.
Speaker:Johnny Hertz.
Speaker:And he takes off his sunglasses and holds out his hand.
Speaker:You do not recognize this man at all.
Speaker:His, let's think.
Speaker:No, I don't think you've even heard of him.
Speaker:You've never seen this man before in your life.
Speaker:Haven't heard.
Speaker:It's like, yeah, it's your good friend Johnny Hertz.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:It's great to meet fans.
Speaker:And he tries to shake both your hands.
Speaker:Ocean shakes his hands like, Hey, hey, Johnny.
Speaker:The letter was pretty nebulous on what the job was.
Speaker:You got any more information on us for us?
Speaker:Yeah, we got to be a little secretive about this one.
Speaker:You know, I don't want people to recognize local celebrity Johnny Hertz and realize I'm trying to collect some items that may be of a particular high value.
Speaker:But there's something I think that I could really use from you guys.
Speaker:There's...
Speaker:It's kind of hard to explain.
Speaker:Here it is.
Speaker:And he unrolls this blueprint, and you see a very, very technical drawing of some sort of device.
Speaker:It looks like it's...
Speaker:There's little wires and arduinos and little windows on it that look like oscilloscopes.
Speaker:It looks like a very complicated piece of technology.
Speaker:And he goes, One of the local less-than-savory groups that like to hang out in Subtropolis have come across something, and I don't think they understand how valuable it is.
Speaker:I could really use this for my show, and I'm hoping that you guys could work out a deal with them, or however you could get it to me.
Speaker:And I would be able to reward you quite handsomely.
Speaker:Listen, Johnny, I am severely in need of work, so I appreciate you reaching out to us, but before we do any sort of work, I need to know what sort of compensation we could expect.
Speaker:And I also want to make it clear that Ocean and I are not thieves.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:I'm not asking you to steal it.
Speaker:I'm asking you to make a trade, make a deal, take it off their hands, whatever way works best.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So again, what can we expect as far as compensation?
Speaker:If we're going to be making a deal or a trade or purchasing this item, we need some capital to work with.
Speaker:Um, hmm.
Speaker:I think I could get you probably three car batteries, which in the fiction is a pretty significant chunk of money.
Speaker:What do you even need this device for?
Speaker:What does it do?
Speaker:I can't make heads or tail of any of these schematics you're showing us.
Speaker:Yeah, Book, give me a read someone.
Speaker:This is your type of thing.
Speaker:Your luck will run out eventually.
Speaker:That was a four.
Speaker:No, that was a four with my plus two.
Speaker:Okay, I'm going to say you can still ask me one of those questions, but be prepared for the worst, which is what I can do when you fail.
Speaker:What do you hope I'll do?
Speaker:He really wants you to get this device no matter what means.
Speaker:He does not seem to care.
Speaker:It seems to be very important to him.
Speaker:You notice looking at the schematics, so they're upside down to you right now.
Speaker:It is very complicated, but you see it says TTE device stamped on one of the sides of it.
Speaker:Okay, that sounds fun.
Speaker:I can't go selling all my secrets here.
Speaker:I really would just appreciate if we can keep this a business transaction and you guys get it for me and I'll keep you flowing in the bucket.
Speaker:So first thing, we definitely need to know where we can find it, but I'm not doing this for less than three car batteries and six double A's.
Speaker:Give me a sway someone role.
Speaker:Well, if I'm going to sway someone, I want more batteries out of it.
Speaker:Okay, that was an eight.
Speaker:On an eight, if they don't want to go along with your refuse, they can choose to ask you for evidence, time, a compromise or some concrete assurance.
Speaker:They must go along with you if you provide that assurance.
Speaker:So he's going to say, how about this?
Speaker:If you get it to me without there being any tracing from the current owners back to me, then I will throw in four double A's.
Speaker:I'll give them to you up front.
Speaker:Ocean, what are your thoughts?
Speaker:That sounds like a deal to me.
Speaker:We need something to pay for your drink, I'll be honest.
Speaker:I was lying through my teeth.
Speaker:Yeah, this whiskey keeps getting more and more expensive, but I just I like how smooth it goes down.
Speaker:All right, Johnny, Johnny hurts.
Speaker:It's a deal.
Speaker:Excellent, excellent news.
Speaker:And he tries to shake both your hands again.
Speaker:I shake his hand again.
Speaker:I look really uncomfortable, though.
Speaker:I got one last question for you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Who are you?
Speaker:You it looks like he just got limit broken.
Speaker:He stumbles backwards and he's like, well, I'm Johnny.
Speaker:I'm Johnny.
Speaker:Johnny hurts.
Speaker:You haven't heard of me?
Speaker:Local radio aficionado star spreader of truth.
Speaker:My Johnny hurts.
Speaker:My radio has been broken.
Speaker:Yeah, like no one has radio because it's next to useless in the underground.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:So I don't even own a radio that I know of.
Speaker:Sorry, guys.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm Johnny hurts.
Speaker:I'm very famous in town.
Speaker:I have the most popular radio show in town, but I'm looking to expand, kind of get a little bit wider audience.
Speaker:And what you're getting from me could really help out with that.
Speaker:Well, hey, it's certainly fantastic to me.
Speaker:You appreciate the employment opportunity.
Speaker:And, you know, I hope that this platform that you have here, I hope that you're using it for a good cause.
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:I'm spreading the truth far and wide.
Speaker:Tune in on 99.5 with Johnny Hertz.
Speaker:Under my breath to Ocean, I'm going to try to say without Johnny Hertz hearing, I don't think Johnny Hertz is his real name.
Speaker:And I think we need to get a radio so we can figure out what he's about.
Speaker:I mean, I got a lot of stuff back in my place.
Speaker:One of those things might be a radio.
Speaker:I'd like to leave.
Speaker:OK, so you want to try to listen to him?
Speaker:No, no, no, we need to know where to find this thing.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, we should probably get more information about the job.
Speaker:Yeah, that's a great idea.
Speaker:And he turns over the schematics and he has a gruff sketch of Subtropolis, which is like massive.
Speaker:This kind of looks like someone's like zoomed in on like just Brooklyn and New York or something.
Speaker:And it's very hard to tell where those references are.
Speaker:But he's shown some he's drawn some circles and he's like, so there's a small time warlord named Crandall.
Speaker:And he has come across this device.
Speaker:I don't know what his men really are doing out in Subtropolis.
Speaker:They live there, though, which so not the brightest group.
Speaker:But he's been collecting up some pretty interesting things.
Speaker:And some of my resources have told me that he came across specifically this device.
Speaker:And I don't think he knows that it's valuable.
Speaker:So I think you'll be able to get it from him pretty easily.
Speaker:But yeah, he's he's roughly in this region here north of the park.
Speaker:I don't know exactly where he is, but that's where I heard his men kind of set up ambushes and try to rob local passerbys.
Speaker:What makes you think he's not going to try and rob us as local passerbys?
Speaker:Well, he may.
Speaker:Oh, OK.
Speaker:But but yeah, you guys are very capable.
Speaker:I've heard that you guys know how to get stuff.
Speaker:And I think that you guys won't have any trouble with them.
Speaker:They're not too violent.
Speaker:They're like medium violent.
Speaker:And I don't know.
Speaker:As long as as long as you keep your head up, stay focused, keep your eye on the prize.
Speaker:I believe you'll have no trouble.
Speaker:I'd get it myself, but you know, my knee got that old knee injury.
Speaker:An arrow, maybe?
Speaker:No, that's ridiculous.
Speaker:Fair enough.
Speaker:Well, I think...
Speaker:Football.
Speaker:I think that's everything we need for now.
Speaker:But if we need to get back in touch with you, how can we find you?
Speaker:Well, you can hear me on 99.5 with Johnny Hertz.
Speaker:You can tune in.
Speaker:I'm usually transmitting about from 12 to 5 every single day.
Speaker:So, you'll be able to hear me.
Speaker:But that is not how radios work.
Speaker:You cannot communicate back with me.
Speaker:So, if you want to really get another message to me, you should probably come down to my station.
Speaker:And I'm usually there.
Speaker:I sleep above the recording booth.
Speaker:Sounds like you got a real stable setup going on there.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Johnny Hertz is living large.
Speaker:So, I definitely have questions about how he's powering this situation, but I don't think I'm going to ask him anything more at this point.
Speaker:Ocean, are you ready to rock?
Speaker:Let's go find a radio.
Speaker:Alright, I get up from the table.
Speaker:I try to avoid making eye contact with the bartender, because we have not paid for my drink.
Speaker:And we're going to exit as quietly as we can.
Speaker:Oh no, I pinky promised.
Speaker:Oh shit.
Speaker:Did he give us those batteries?
Speaker:Yeah, he gave you four batteries up front.
Speaker:Four double A's.
Speaker:I'm going to be like, hold on one second, Book.
Speaker:I have to do this.
Speaker:And I take a battery and I head to the bartender.
Speaker:He's like, here, told you I was good for it.
Speaker:And I slide it to him.
Speaker:It rolls to him, because that's what batteries do.
Speaker:And he goes and picks it up and he goes, yeah, that'll cover for today, but you're still a little in the hole.
Speaker:But I know you're working on it.
Speaker:You're working back there with Johnny Hurt.
Speaker:So I'm sure you'll be flush with cash soon.
Speaker:Wait, you know that guy?
Speaker:Yeah, he he apparently does some sort of radio show.
Speaker:I've never heard it.
Speaker:Well, yeah, no, he's a he's a character.
Speaker:You haven't heard it.
Speaker:I thought it was I thought that was something the cool young kids listen to.
Speaker:It was the radio.
Speaker:No, I don't even think I own a radio.
Speaker:Do you happen to own a radio, actually?
Speaker:Most vehicles have a radio in it, but there's that's the thing that if you hit the wrong button, it's just like, you know, that one.
Speaker:So you go that you get that you turn it to that button.
Speaker:It's FM.
Speaker:And then you got to change it.
Speaker:There's usually buttons or a little knob and you go to nine, nine point five.
Speaker:And that's where you can hear him sometimes.
Speaker:It's all good tips.
Speaker:Thanks for that shoo-shoo noise was just the I thought that was like just the psychic maelstrom talking to me through the car.
Speaker:I didn't know you could turn that off.
Speaker:Oh, it could be.
Speaker:Yeah, I know what people think it might be, but not sure.
Speaker:No way.
Speaker:At least it could.
Speaker:Yeah, every other station may be psychic maelstrom, but he's gotten nine, nine point five.
Speaker:At least one isn't.
Speaker:All right, Ocean, I think we know what we have to do.
Speaker:What's that?
Speaker:We're gonna find ourselves a radio.
Speaker:Don't worry about it.
Speaker:Okay, gotta head back to Ocean's place, and just for the hell of it, he's gonna ask and see if Book can point out a radio from all the junk that he has.
Speaker:Well, I think let's just hop in the Jeep and see if we can push some of those buttons that the bartender was talking about.
Speaker:For God's sake, yeah.
Speaker:I think we have enough fuel for it to run for a little while.
Speaker:Yeah, the Jeep's got some gas in it still.
Speaker:So yeah, you turn on the Jeep, crank it to the right channel, and you hear Johnny Hertz coming in, and he goes, Johnny Hertz here, back from another commercial break, spreading the news and the truth of the day.
Speaker:Exciting news for everyone.
Speaker:I'm about to have a much larger listener base, as I'm going to be able to reach all throughout the underground.
Speaker:Just keep listening on 99.5, and if you happen to be traveling to nearby areas, let them know that they can start probably next couple days tuning in to 99.5 wherever they're at, and they'll hear the smooth, smooth tones of Johnny Hertz.
Speaker:Our first guest today is, and he just goes in and interviews some local people.
Speaker:Are you trying to figure out anything from this, or is it like...
Speaker:What are you trying to learn from listening to him?
Speaker:So I don't just keep talking for 45 minutes.
Speaker:Trying to get an idea of his political alignment regarding Hickory Fleek.
Speaker:Yeah, like what his definition of what the truth is.
Speaker:Oh, he seems very conspiratorial, is what I would say.
Speaker:He's interviewing people...
Speaker:Okay, yeah, his first guest actually is kind of...
Speaker:They're very rambling.
Speaker:Their voice sounds familiar to you in some way.
Speaker:Book, actually.
Speaker:But they are rambling about the current society and the state of society and how no one is safe here.
Speaker:And that everyone needs to make their way to the long dark.
Speaker:And that's the only way people will be able to survive.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:And he seems to be backing them up in some way, but then also pushing local restaurants and bars on people.
Speaker:So he doesn't seem to be fully bound into it.
Speaker:But he does not seem to be.
Speaker:If you've listened longer, I'd say there's definitely some anti-hickory sentiments in what he's saying.
Speaker:He's telling people to open their eyes and kind of figure out who's really in charge.
Speaker:I think we've got what we need.
Speaker:I feel less bad about helping him.
Speaker:Yeah, agreed.
Speaker:But I'm going to...
Speaker:Let's shut off the car, preserve the battery and the fuel there.
Speaker:And if it's all right with you, Ocean, I might want to walk for this particular mission here, just because it's not too far.
Speaker:We're not that far from the...
Speaker:Truthfully, I don't even think my car can drive right now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Subtropolis isn't too far of a walk, and I think that might be a less intimate...
Speaker:What's not the...
Speaker:Intimidating is not the word I'm looking for.
Speaker:A less threatening way for us to approach these guys that we're going to try to barter with.
Speaker:What should we bring with us as...
Speaker:To try to acquire this machine?
Speaker:All you know, really, is that he said they were collecting...
Speaker:They've been collecting some devices and tech and things like that.
Speaker:And Johnny Hertz doesn't think they know what they have, but it does seem like they are intentionally collecting some things.
Speaker:Ocean, do you have anything with a lot of wires sticking out of it?
Speaker:Actually, is this a good time?
Speaker:This might be a good time to read a situation.
Speaker:I was just about to say, Stu, can I read my situation to see if I have anything with wires sticking out of it?
Speaker:Yes, I think this is a read a situation for your scrapyard.
Speaker:Pretty much only one of these questions that is relevant, so I hope you get at least a 7 to 9.
Speaker:Oh, that's a 13.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:So I'm going to say, since you have your psychic ability tied to your read a situation, you immediately feel drawn to near the same beaten up car that Book poked his head out before.
Speaker:For some reason, you're drawn there and you open the trunk and you see there are just coils and coils and coils of wire just shoved into this trunk.
Speaker:And in the middle is this very strange looking device that has a screen on it.
Speaker:It looks like it should be connected to something else important, and this was probably just like the display portion, but it looks very fancy despite this massive coil of copper and fiber wires coming out.
Speaker:Well, I got this book.
Speaker:Do you think this would do anything?
Speaker:What are you thinking of?
Speaker:I don't know what it is, but it looks like exactly the type of thing these folks might be interested in.
Speaker:Do you have a bag that this wire and this contraption can fit in?
Speaker:Yeah, I'm sure I have a bag somewhere.
Speaker:I shuffle around.
Speaker:I imagine he's got enough junk to have a bag to carry things around in.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Do you mind carrying that around?
Speaker:I just don't think that I'm particularly suited to be lugging wire.
Speaker:He just gives you the stink eye and doesn't say anything and just picks it up and starts walking.
Speaker:It's very pokey.
Speaker:It kind of pokes your hands a lot, but yeah, you're able to carry it and put it in a bag.
Speaker:All right, I'm holding the schematic slash instruction manual that we got from Johnny Hertz, and let's follow it out and see where it leads us.
Speaker:What's our first steps, Stu?
Speaker:Okay, it's in Subtropolis, so you head out towards the overlying cliff face, and there are these massive switchbacks that head down it, just this rocky outcropping.
Speaker:So Subtropolis itself, which is, I guess, the first time we've seen it in live action where the camera's on, it's this massive city.
Speaker:It's like skyscrapers like New York, but the size of it is probably more like LA.
Speaker:Like it is a wide spread out, huge, huge region.
Speaker:And a lot of the buildings are still powered in it.
Speaker:Everything is like torn apart, dilapidated, but there are a bunch of lights that turn on in the city and turn off later in the day.
Speaker:And it's on a set schedule, and that's actually how all of you guys set your clocks, is when those lights come on daytime and lights go out at night time, which is probably the opposite of the truth.
Speaker:So yeah, it is just massively sprawling, huge buildings blocking sight lines, very easy to get lost in, especially once you're down there.
Speaker:Like from up here, you kind of get a view pretty far in a few different directions.
Speaker:Like it's kind of more spread out and not as many skyscrapers to your left as you look.
Speaker:But when you're down there, very easy to get lost.
Speaker:You basically lose all reference points.
Speaker:You're mostly in a giant, dark cavern still, but there's this huge city.
Speaker:So to get there, you're going to have to traverse that city and try to get there in a safe manner.
Speaker:The way we're going to deal with that mechanic is a custom move, our first one.
Speaker:So custom moves can be created for specific players or specific monsters you're fighting or specific threats you're dealing with.
Speaker:I'll probably make a custom move for the spiders cranking stuff, because a lot of the rules of driving don't really fit that.
Speaker:But another fun way to use them is for specific locations.
Speaker:So we have a custom move that is triggered when you try to plunder Subtropolis.
Speaker:So when you plunder Subtropolis, you're going to roll plus sharp.
Speaker:On a 10+, you get to choose two of these, and on a 7-9, you get to choose one of them.
Speaker:So the options are you aren't lost, you aren't followed, and you don't lose anything.
Speaker:So the better we roll, the less bad off we are.
Speaker:Okay, since I'm holding the map slash schematic, I think I should roll for Plunder Subtropolis, and then if I need you to help me, Jacob, you can pop in for the help.
Speaker:Okay, laid on me.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Okay, that was an 11.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:So you can choose two.
Speaker:We are not lost.
Speaker:I feel like we definitely shouldn't lose anything.
Speaker:And we definitely don't lose anything.
Speaker:But I guess we get followed.
Speaker:Maybe.
Speaker:Excellent choice.
Speaker:That's probably my favorite one.
Speaker:Okay, so you have a rough idea of where this is based on some of the landmarks he pointed out.
Speaker:There's this very there's the largest skyscraper on this side of the cavern.
Speaker:You guys have never been.
Speaker:You don't know how far this city expands, really in any direction, except right here.
Speaker:It is just massive going off into darkness.
Speaker:But there is a very large skyscraper on this side that it's kind of a good reference point for the drawing that he gave you and kind of circle this area that is kind of the turf for this group of Crandall's men.
Speaker:So you're able to get to that area.
Speaker:You're not going to be lost and you're not going to lose anything while you do that.
Speaker:But as so as you're going along, give me a I'm going to say Ocean.
Speaker:Give me a read a situation.
Speaker:All right, let me read that situation.
Speaker:That is going to be a 10, a 10.
Speaker:OK, you can ask me three questions right now.
Speaker:This is during travel.
Speaker:This is before you've gotten to their for their spot turf.
Speaker:OK, yeah, this is why you're going along trying to you're trying to keep a lookout for, I guess, in your case.
Speaker:Well, it can be tied to your answers, but in your case, you probably looking for anything valuable and any dangers or kind of the big things I imagine.
Speaker:Is that accurate?
Speaker:Yes, I would say that's yeah.
Speaker:So I'm going to go with who or what poses the biggest threat to me, who or what represents the best opportunity for me to make money.
Speaker:And what should I be on the lookout for?
Speaker:So you're moving along and you have a pretty good idea of where you need to go.
Speaker:You know, this place is dangerous.
Speaker:There are frequently roaming bandits who will just try to ambush you, take what you have, leave you for dead or literally just kill you.
Speaker:As you're going along, you have to travel through a corridor that has very large buildings on both sides of it, which is basically a kill box situation.
Speaker:So if you stay in the open, you feel like you're in a pretty bad spot.
Speaker:Okay, so that's what poses the biggest threat.
Speaker:Okay, so as you're going on, you see this kind of kill box area.
Speaker:They are going to have to figure out some smart way of navigating, or you can ignore it and just go through and hope no one's there.
Speaker:That's always a feasible option.
Speaker:As you're looking out for valuable things, you see on one of these buildings, there is a very high powered spotlight placed above a camera that is still functioning.
Speaker:And this is something that is you could reasonably get a hold if you could get up there and get it down.
Speaker:Yeah, you could carry it basically somewhat mobile if you're able to get it off of here.
Speaker:But it is very high powered.
Speaker:You see, it actually seems to be motion triggered either with the camera or with something else.
Speaker:As you guys turn around a corner, there's just this bright flash of light about 20 feet in front of you guys are actually just out of the light.
Speaker:But it is a lot of candle units.
Speaker:Is that how they measure light?
Speaker:I'm going to turn to Book.
Speaker:You think we could use that as a bargaining chip?
Speaker:If I could get that down?
Speaker:Yeah, I think.
Speaker:Well, do we want to try our luck with what we have and get that on the way back?
Speaker:Or do we want to grab some extra stuff to move in case they're not?
Speaker:Let's try our luck on the way with what we have.
Speaker:Because if they end up taking what we have, then we can take that and make some more money later.
Speaker:I like that plan.
Speaker:I like that plan.
Speaker:I'm gonna...
Speaker:Do we have a map?
Speaker:Or is it just written instructions?
Speaker:You have...
Speaker:It's a very poorly drawn map.
Speaker:I'm gonna mark on our map the location of this light.
Speaker:We're gonna do our best.
Speaker:It's the quality of a map at a zoo.
Speaker:So none of the distances are accurate.
Speaker:Useless, practically.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:But you're gonna mark this location down.
Speaker:What if actually...
Speaker:Ocean, what do you think about...
Speaker:How about we scavenge it now and we stash it somewhere?
Speaker:Yeah, I'm down with that.
Speaker:That way, all the hard part's done.
Speaker:All we have to do is grab it on our way back.
Speaker:If we're in a rush, we'll put it somewhere easy to grab.
Speaker:Yeah, that sounds good to me.
Speaker:Okay, who's gonna try to get it and how are you gonna try to get it?
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:I feel like neither of us are gonna be very good at this.
Speaker:So I don't think it matters too much.
Speaker:Who has the better idea?
Speaker:It's about 20 feet up on the side of this building.
Speaker:There is a camera right under it.
Speaker:You have no idea if that camera is working or not.
Speaker:Or if it's feeding to anyone.
Speaker:Is it by a window?
Speaker:There is a window inside the building that is above it.
Speaker:My instinct is to try to get inside the building and get to that window.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what I was just about to say.
Speaker:It's like going through the building, get up to the window, and try and reach out and grab it.
Speaker:Or climb out and get it from the window.
Speaker:Who's doing it?
Speaker:Can we go together?
Speaker:I'm scared.
Speaker:I guess I'll try and do it, and you can be the watch out.
Speaker:That works too.
Speaker:Do we have walkie-talkies?
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:We always carry our walkie-talkies around on these kind of things.
Speaker:Totally.
Speaker:Alright, I'll stay down, I'll keep an eye out, and if you need a call out, just poke your head out the window and walkie-talkie me, and we'll be in touch.
Speaker:Good luck, Ocean.
Speaker:Alright, let's do it.
Speaker:Alright, I'm going to start the process of getting into the building and going upstairs to get to the spotlights.
Speaker:As you go inside, it looks like this first floor is a completely blown out diner.
Speaker:It's been completely looted, but it's this large flat open floor with these like stools that are all overturned and tables that are just smashed against the walls.
Speaker:Looks like someone at some point piled some tables up to provide some cover or something, but there's no one there right now.
Speaker:But luckily, this spotlight is so bright out there that it's actually providing some illumination in here.
Speaker:That's how good this light is.
Speaker:This is a very good light.
Speaker:This will be so useful in my shop.
Speaker:And you see that it looks like there's probably a set of stairs behind the counter leading up to whatever the second floor is.
Speaker:OK, I'm going to go up the stairs.
Speaker:OK, as you're heading towards that door, it's classic diner door where it has that little glass circular window on it, you know.
Speaker:Are you picturing this door accurately?
Speaker:Yeah, the little swing doors with the window, kind of like a rounded top.
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:Yes, nailed it.
Speaker:So you're heading towards this door, and the glass is actually still intact.
Speaker:And as you're heading towards it, I guess the timer or whatever is triggering this light to be on goes out.
Speaker:So it suddenly gets very dark, and you can just barely see the glint of a reflection.
Speaker:And I'm going to give you your last read a situation question, which is what should I be on the lookout for?
Speaker:Just for a moment in the reflection of that glass, it looks like you see right to the side of Book is something that kind of looks like a large wolf is the first instinct you get.
Speaker:But when you turn and look towards him, it's gone.
Speaker:It's gone.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to our first real episode.
Speaker:If you could, please just find your two best or two nerdiest friends and tell them to listen as well.
Speaker:If you have any comments or ideas about the show or any fun intros we could do, you can send us an email at oops at stu.cool, because apparently I'm a narcissist.
Speaker:That's oops at stu.cool.
Speaker:The art and logo are by Brady McDonough, who plays Book McCree.
Speaker:And the editing and music is by Stu Masterson.
Speaker:Thank you again.
