Episode 9
Episode 9: Magical Mystery Tour
Book tries to track down Ocean in Subtropolis. Meanwhile, 2 days later, Ocean tries to track down Book in Subtropolis. Get ready for some weird time shenanigans.
This one is mostly Book finally getting a weapon and our two players being unable to talk to each other.
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 here with two of the homies.
Speaker:Hey everyone, I'm Brady and I play Book McReady, a super smart sleuth who is also now an adventurer.
Speaker:And I'm Jacob and I'm playing Ocean, a gentle giant who is now questioning the gentle part of his introduction.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:I dig that, that was good.
Speaker:A jolly, mean giant.
Speaker:A jolly mean.
Speaker:Based on that description, you are just Shrek.
Speaker:This whole plot is just Ocean slowly transforming into Shrek.
Speaker:And I'm donkey.
Speaker:Where are the waffles?
Speaker:I fuck a dragon, fucking yes.
Speaker:Maybe spades the dragon.
Speaker:I can't wait.
Speaker:No, I think we should have real dragons.
Speaker:Who knows, maybe we could.
Speaker:Yeah, there could absolutely be dragons.
Speaker:Yeah, I got a search for them.
Speaker:I sense do some concept art for some monsters we can we can encounter.
Speaker:Oh, I've been seeing this concept art.
Speaker:That's because it's supposed to be a surprise for you.
Speaker:This is we're doing this for you.
Speaker:Oh, oh, I see.
Speaker:This is our gift, this story, this this time that we're spending.
Speaker:That's not true.
Speaker:He shared it with both of us, but it was just eight months ago.
Speaker:OK, so we've already started off on a bad foot because I was going to say immediately, I want to get through this intro very quickly.
Speaker:I know I say that every single time, but we're actually going to do it this time because we start this episode with both our end of session moves and beginning of session moves.
Speaker:So that's that's basically our intro.
Speaker:So I want to knock out our questions to fall in love.
Speaker:This week, our question is, do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?
Speaker:Oh, it's ramping up.
Speaker:This is still part of set one.
Speaker:It goes into set two and set three.
Speaker:Eventually, I can't wait to hear what the guy who doesn't know anything about himself thinks about this.
Speaker:Huh?
Speaker:That's an interesting question.
Speaker:Remember, this is like a hunch.
Speaker:This shouldn't be like background evidence.
Speaker:Like, well, my parents have bad potassium levels, so probably probably a wound.
Speaker:We have a genetic disposition.
Speaker:You know, I think Ocean does have a hunch.
Speaker:I think Ocean has kind of feels that pull, that pull of the void about going deeper underground.
Speaker:And I think part of his hunch is that there's something down there that he is supposed to get to and not return from.
Speaker:So I think he's got a call, a little bit of a call of the void going on here regarding the deep.
Speaker:Why is that the case?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:It's just something that maybe he feels in the recesses of his mind that he kind of pushes the side.
Speaker:Yeah, that's that's that's that's Ocean's answer.
Speaker:It's pretty spooky.
Speaker:I think Book is pretty pretty certain that his death will be mundane at best, like something minor will happen.
Speaker:Probably an injury.
Speaker:He might roll an ankle, fall down a hill, and I'll get like sepsis and just burn out real slow.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, this is a pretty brutal world.
Speaker:I mean, we keep forgetting that I keep forgetting that this is the apocalypse.
Speaker:I mean, medical care is not that great.
Speaker:You could die from any number of small injuries.
Speaker:That's inspired by the actor for Book, Brady McDonough, because I'm pretty sure that's how I will die.
Speaker:I'm going to die.
Speaker:I just break something related to a broken ankle.
Speaker:And Jacob's going to die by crawling in a deep dark hole where he finds some Lovecraftian beast.
Speaker:You guys are just playing yourselves.
Speaker:Wait, Jacob, you.
Speaker:Oh, oh, oh, I understand.
Speaker:You're making fun of me.
Speaker:That's fine.
Speaker:Carry on Stu.
Speaker:Oh, my answer is very quick.
Speaker:I always kind of feel like I'm going to get hit by a car in a parking lot.
Speaker:Every time I'm walking in one, I'm like, oh, that's it.
Speaker:That's the one.
Speaker:That's because you don't look both ways, Stu.
Speaker:It's coming for me.
Speaker:I don't slow down.
Speaker:You just got to look, Stu.
Speaker:I see it.
Speaker:It's like speeding up and I'm like, well, I'm still crossing.
Speaker:Wait, I'm saying that.
Speaker:I'm saying that after I openly acknowledge that my ankle is my Achilles heel.
Speaker:Your Achilles heel is your Achilles heel.
Speaker:Hey, it's been really nice being on this podcast, but I think it's time for me to step away.
Speaker:Okay, that was a very brief and useful background information.
Speaker:Let's jump right into the end of session moves.
Speaker:So at the end of every session, choose one character who knows you better than they used to, and tell that player to add plus one to their HX with you on their sheet.
Speaker:You can choose at most two.
Speaker:Well, I'm gonna pick Book.
Speaker:I think Book knows Ocean a lot better at the end of this.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Possibly in a way that makes him think he knows him less.
Speaker:Yeah, very confusing, but yeah.
Speaker:I think that makes sense.
Speaker:And remember you do have some NPCs who have history, and you can also select any new NPCs you think you should have history with.
Speaker:And again, remember if you give them history, that's basically gonna make me put them in the story more.
Speaker:So if you give like Pistachio Jones history, you're gonna be interacting with him more.
Speaker:If you give Spade history, you're gonna be interacting with them more.
Speaker:Give Juniper history, which I don't think any of them have history yet.
Speaker:Is that right?
Speaker:Okay, those are like the three big ones, I guess.
Speaker:Trying to think of who I interact with.
Speaker:I would say also for Book, potentially Wallace would be someone.
Speaker:Since you healed him, that's usually like a big moment of increasing history.
Speaker:That's actually naturally when you heal someone, you gain history with them.
Speaker:Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't think that Ocean knows me any better.
Speaker:So I'm gonna give mine to Wallace and Spade.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that's a good call.
Speaker:Do you have a second one you wanna give one to Ocean?
Speaker:I'm trying to remember who I interacted with the last couple sessions.
Speaker:Yeah, Hickory saw me do some shit.
Speaker:I think I would give it to Pistachio Jones, because I mean, I just fucked him up.
Speaker:I just fucked up his shit.
Speaker:So I think he, I think it's a negative context of history, but I think he's definitely got some history with me.
Speaker:What you showed was definitely something that can be used against you, right?
Speaker:It's like knowing you much better.
Speaker:So I think that's a pretty strong.
Speaker:Okay, Judge for yourself, are you satisfied with your place in the world?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah, no.
Speaker:I think Ocean is even less satisfied with his place in the world.
Speaker:Okay, you get plus one XP.
Speaker:And finally, does your scavenge choice still hold true?
Speaker:So Book had a big moment here where he used the truth to balance the scales with Spade, because she had hold over him, and now he has some level of hold over her.
Speaker:But the truth is still sacred to him.
Speaker:So even though he has used his knowledge to manipulate someone...
Speaker:Do you think that's going to...
Speaker:Do you think you've changed how you act in a way that's going to improve your quality of life?
Speaker:I guess is the way to phrase it.
Speaker:I think that that door is opening, but I don't think it's open yet.
Speaker:Okay, then you both get plus one XP.
Speaker:Okay, and then I believe we have one end of session move with one of our players.
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:At the end of the session, I get to choose one of my mysteries, and I want to know if it's true or false.
Speaker:So Stu and I discussed, and we talked about it the last time we ended a session, that we have a little variation on this, where it might not be a full blown mystery that I'm solving, but it's a piece of the puzzle that we're trying to unravel.
Speaker:The piece that I want to know is during my conversations with Spade, I think that Book was trying to get little snippets of information that would help him solve this mystery.
Speaker:And that is that the mural that Ocean and Book saw on their way back from Subtropolis was a gift from Frieda to Spade.
Speaker:That is my theory, is that Frieda interacted with Spade and was compelled to give her, to give them a gift like Book was, and the gift was that mural.
Speaker:I will give you a little more than that too.
Speaker:I will say, yes, that is true, and that Spade does not like it.
Speaker:Nice, I like that a lot.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Ooh, that says a lot.
Speaker:Okay, at the beginning of every session, let's roll plus barter.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And you guys have had very bad luck with this so far.
Speaker:It's because we have such bad barter.
Speaker:Okay, that's actually really good.
Speaker:That's a eight.
Speaker:Eight, pretty good.
Speaker:You did just get a shotgun and a sub machine gun, so I think that tracks.
Speaker:Okay, and Book, you have yet to pass on of these yet?
Speaker:That is true.
Speaker:That is a nine.
Speaker:So both of you rolled a mixed success on the barter, so there is going to be stuff that's easy and stuff that's hard.
Speaker:What is actually coming through very positively right now?
Speaker:And something that unfortunately Book can't check, the power in the town has been cranked up to 90%.
Speaker:Everyone has lights on right now.
Speaker:Everything's looking good.
Speaker:It seems like what you did, even though it seemed to kind of wash out at the end, or at least Hickory was trying to frame it as an even trade.
Speaker:It seems like you've had some sort of impact.
Speaker:Who knows how long it's gonna last, but right now, all of you have plenty of power to do what you need to do.
Speaker:Basically shuts off every night for eight hours, comes back on eight hours later, and stays on all day.
Speaker:What is lacking right now, though, are it has been quite a while since any major trade caravans have come through.
Speaker:You don't know if there's a particular reason for that.
Speaker:It definitely just seems like it's been a longer time.
Speaker:You guys have basically been just surviving off of what locals have been able to scavenge, and no one has made any of those runs to any of the larger cities or any of the trade posts.
Speaker:So right now, you guys are lacking both, like any kind of skilled labor or any specialized goods that you would normally find in those places.
Speaker:So right now, it's very hard to come by those things.
Speaker:Our last beginning of session move is something that Ocean has.
Speaker:It is indeed.
Speaker:I think it's kind of fun.
Speaker:Book has a end of session, and Ocean has a start of session.
Speaker:Yeah, you guys are just such opposites.
Speaker:Just another little thing to add in there to opposite.
Speaker:Such a wacky sitcom.
Speaker:It really is.
Speaker:All right, let's see.
Speaker:So this is my vision.
Speaker:So I get to see on a success, Stu can screw me.
Speaker:I ask, can he screw me quite as hard?
Speaker:But if it's a failure, he can screw me pretty hard, like how he did last time.
Speaker:I think it'll take a lot to live up to that.
Speaker:Don't apologize.
Speaker:Okay, that's a four.
Speaker:Isn't it plus hard or is it plus weird?
Speaker:It is plus, plus hard.
Speaker:You're pretty good at hard and you're still failing.
Speaker:That's that was a double.
Speaker:That was snake eyes.
Speaker:That was a snake eyes.
Speaker:Since you I guess was a complete fail.
Speaker:You hold three.
Speaker:Oh shit, I didn't even know that.
Speaker:I get to hold three against you, so I can I can basically spend those however I want.
Speaker:I can spend one to be able to cause a vision in a transition period.
Speaker:So like overnight, or if there's like a big travel scene, I'll say just like while you were going from this town to this town, this happened, or while you wait for Book to come back, this vision happens, or I can spend two to immediately interrupt you and cause very bad shenanigans like I did last episode.
Speaker:Ocean, you have this, we ended last session with you having a little rejection of reality, or maybe not, we actually don't know what the truth is.
Speaker:Maybe someone is putting all of these feelings into your brain.
Speaker:That could be possible.
Speaker:We ended with you sitting in your car, smoking a cigarette and punching a mirror.
Speaker:I think it's the sequence of events that happened.
Speaker:You don't know where Book is.
Speaker:At the end of last session, Book started walking into Subtropolis to look for you.
Speaker:What do you think you would be doing in the short term as you're wallowing in your hands?
Speaker:So how many days do we think have passed since the end of last session and now?
Speaker:Or has it even been days?
Speaker:Yeah, that's a little up to you.
Speaker:It depends on how fast you think you would react.
Speaker:Would you like wait around for Book to come find you?
Speaker:Would you go looking for him right away?
Speaker:Would you try to keep on the down low because you think you may still be in trouble with the fuzz?
Speaker:I think at first, Ocean is going to kind of stay on the down low for a couple of reasons.
Speaker:I think the first is that obviously he just killed a man, and he is a little bit like, oh, God, what kind of consequences am I going to have for this?
Speaker:Considering he wasn't there to see the fallout of the event, he wasn't there to see Hickory do some street justice.
Speaker:So he's a little nervous about that.
Speaker:But I think he's also kind of keeping on the down low a little bit because still a little nervous that he might act out again.
Speaker:Because he doesn't really know why he suddenly got so violent, and especially considering it was a pretty reasonably peaceful outcome that they're building towards before he threw a shovel and decapitated a man.
Speaker:So...
Speaker:That guy ended up fine.
Speaker:That guy ended up fine?
Speaker:Not fine.
Speaker:He had a broken clavicle.
Speaker:He's still recovering.
Speaker:Oh, shit.
Speaker:I thought that guy was dead.
Speaker:No, the one person who died actually got nicked in the neck by one of the submachine gun bullets.
Speaker:Gotcha.
Speaker:Can we establish that as you're running away, you just walked up to that man and pulled your shovel out of his chest so that you still have your shovel on you?
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:The shovel's on the ground.
Speaker:Oh, shit.
Speaker:I'll get it back to you.
Speaker:Okay, so at the time I was just in such a haze, I left without my shovel.
Speaker:Yeah, you ran immediately.
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:I told you I ran immediately, too.
Speaker:Yeah, I didn't even think about it.
Speaker:But yeah, I think he's kind of on the down-low because he doesn't want to put himself at risk for hurting anybody again.
Speaker:And so because of that, I think he's going to be on the down-low, kind of hiding for a little while, and probably is going to wait at least a day or two for Book to come to him.
Speaker:Halfway through that second day, you hear a knock on your door.
Speaker:He is going to first...
Speaker:I got to visualize what Ocean's house looks like near.
Speaker:Yeah, your house and your door.
Speaker:I was trying to imagine it like peephole situation.
Speaker:I think he has a peephole.
Speaker:I think it's more of...
Speaker:I kind of picture his house like he's in a junkyard.
Speaker:Yeah, I was picturing a lot of like corrugated steel with rust holes in it, you know?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, like a junkyard.
Speaker:And then he's got a shack that he's kind of built out of like parts.
Speaker:And it's actually a giant mech.
Speaker:We're MegasXLR in this.
Speaker:Yeah, I bet there is a little peephole that he's drilled into the door so he can see out.
Speaker:So it's just literally a hole.
Speaker:Yeah, I will say it's just literally a hole because there's no...
Speaker:The climate is probably pretty similar a little time, so no point putting glass.
Speaker:Yep, you look through that hole and you see Juniper.
Speaker:He's standing there.
Speaker:He has your shovel in his hand is the first thing you notice.
Speaker:How convenient.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He is going to open the door and say Juniper.
Speaker:Hey, I haven't seen you around in a while.
Speaker:Book was supposed to come back and talk to me when y'all got back.
Speaker:Do you know where he is?
Speaker:I'll stop by his place.
Speaker:Is he here with you?
Speaker:No, I haven't seen Book since the encounter with Pistachio.
Speaker:Is something going on?
Speaker:No, everything ended up okay.
Speaker:I think you're kind of okay.
Speaker:Hickory probably isn't happy with you, but he's not like trying to hunt you down.
Speaker:Pistachio's been real cranky lately.
Speaker:But you left this.
Speaker:I thought I'd bring it back since I was coming to look for Book anyway, but you have not seen Book in a couple days.
Speaker:He told me he was going to Subtropolis to try to find you.
Speaker:He was going to Subtropolis?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:To find me?
Speaker:Yeah, you know the place you went?
Speaker:I guess I did start running off in that direction.
Speaker:I probably should have told him that was when I came back.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Here, let me grab that.
Speaker:I'm going to go try to find him.
Speaker:I'm going to grab the shovel and sling it over my back.
Speaker:Can you, if you find him, can you also give him this?
Speaker:And he hands you a tape, a VHS, and a handheld camcorder recorder type thing.
Speaker:Oh, oh, shit.
Speaker:I don't know why Brady got so excited.
Speaker:You don't know why?
Speaker:You're literally peppering in this Easter egg, and you don't know why it excites me.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, I'll make sure he gets it.
Speaker:He'll take it from him, and he'll find, like, in his...
Speaker:Because he has a lot of bags.
Speaker:He's going to find, like, a hard bag that has, like, a hard shell to put the stuff in so it doesn't get damaged and sling it over his shoulder.
Speaker:Is it your death stranding bag?
Speaker:No, the death stranding bag is not hard at all.
Speaker:It's like a canvas sack with, like, supports that he could hook things to, is how I was imagining it.
Speaker:You find a cool, hard CD case that people used to have their dozens of discs in when they had to bring them on the school bus to swap out in their walkman.
Speaker:It fits perfectly right in there.
Speaker:I'm going to put that in my Death Stranding bag, and I'm going to put that on, and I'm going to start heading out to Subtropolis.
Speaker:And before I go, though, I want to turn to Juniper.
Speaker:It's like, Juniper, sorry for the havoc.
Speaker:That wasn't how it was supposed to go.
Speaker:No, I know.
Speaker:I was kind of far away, but I talked through it a little bit with some of the people, and it seemed like a rough situation you're in.
Speaker:I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to try and keep on the download a little bit here for a bit, just in case.
Speaker:So I'll go find Book.
Speaker:I think that's a good idea.
Speaker:Yeah, find Book, get back, and just stay safe.
Speaker:Yeah, try to make sure he gets back here in one piece.
Speaker:I appreciate everything you do for this town, Juniper.
Speaker:I'll give him a little nod, and I'll start heading towards Subtropolis.
Speaker:Ocean, you go up to the precipice overlooking Subtropolis.
Speaker:What's your approach to try to track down where Book went?
Speaker:First thing he's going to do is he's going to take a look and see if he sees any footprints, because it's only been a couple of days.
Speaker:I can't imagine a lot of people come up and down.
Speaker:So he's going to take a look and see if he sees any footprints that he didn't leave there the last time he was going through.
Speaker:There is no atmosphere, so nothing blows away, but that also means that...
Speaker:Okay, Brady, go.
Speaker:Come on, correct me.
Speaker:There's air, bro.
Speaker:Science man here.
Speaker:You can have temperature differentials underground that cause drafts, okay?
Speaker:It happens in mines all the time.
Speaker:Yeah, because they have a hole to the top somewhere.
Speaker:You'd still have geothermal vents that would cause temperature differentials.
Speaker:That's all I'm saying.
Speaker:Maybe we do have a hole to the top somewhere.
Speaker:But fine, continue with our windless story.
Speaker:You go and look around on the ground here, you see tons of footprints, actually.
Speaker:There are many, many footprints.
Speaker:You think some are potentially very old.
Speaker:It's hard to tell.
Speaker:It seems like it doesn't get cleaned up very often.
Speaker:And right near the edge of the switchbacks here, it's where it kind of goes from a very dusty, dirty ground into the more like paved streets and stone foundation of Subtropolis.
Speaker:But if you're trying to track down his specifically, give me a sharp roll.
Speaker:So yeah, I'm going to try and track his down specifically, but I also want to see, does it seem like there's been a bunch of footprints that weren't there previously since I was down there?
Speaker:Roll for it.
Speaker:It's a five.
Speaker:A five.
Speaker:You look through these footprints, and you're trying to track down which ones could possibly be books.
Speaker:You see some that seem to follow your path that you took all the way back down to where you picked up the submachine gun from the vivisected individual that you think got torn up by the sewer monster.
Speaker:So you kind of see some tracks that seem to be matching almost exactly what yours were, and as you follow those back, they lead down into the tunnels, the same sewers that you experienced this mole monster in before.
Speaker:Does it seem like there's been a lot of activity down here in the last couple days since I've been down?
Speaker:It's hard to tell.
Speaker:You can't really tell the age of any of these.
Speaker:Even these ones you're following, they could have been very recent or they could be very old.
Speaker:Before going down into the tunnels, he's going to try something.
Speaker:He's going to pull out the walkie talkie that he keeps with him, that him and Book share when they go out on their little expeditions.
Speaker:He's going to hit the button.
Speaker:Bloop!
Speaker:Book, can you hear me?
Speaker:Give me a weird roll.
Speaker:Finally, my first weird roll.
Speaker:That's an eight.
Speaker:That's a nine.
Speaker:I have plus one weird, I forgot.
Speaker:You push the button on the walkie talkie and you hear that kind of familiar static that kind of always permeates the background of the transmission.
Speaker:Book does not respond, but as you've listened closely to you start hearing something like kind of garbled like someone may be trying to make a response for a little bit.
Speaker:And then there's just silence and then you hear what kind of sounds like panting.
Speaker:Oh, shit.
Speaker:OK, so this is a move that I've had for a while, but I keep forgetting that I have it because it's not something that's directly related to my thing.
Speaker:It is I get to add my my sigh, the sigh symbol.
Speaker:Yeah, I get to add that to read a situation rolls.
Speaker:So I like to read a situation here, but I'm going to do it thematically, like as if I am kind of tuning in to kind of like the psychic maelstrom.
Speaker:Yeah, I like it.
Speaker:Give me that.
Speaker:So he's going to kind of focus, kind of clear his mind and just kind of close his eyes and just listen.
Speaker:That's a seven.
Speaker:OK, when you read a situation, you can ask who's in control here.
Speaker:What's my best way in, out, around or through?
Speaker:Who or what poses the biggest threat to me?
Speaker:Who or what represents the best opportunity for me to do something?
Speaker:What should I be on the lookout for?
Speaker:I'm going to go with who or what gives me the best opportunity for finding Book.
Speaker:Oh, nice.
Speaker:OK, you listen very carefully and you kind of tune in and you hear this panting kind of starts melding in with that background static, like it's almost pulsing together in like one coherent sound.
Speaker:And then you hear this sharp howl for just like half a second before it hits the compressor and cuts out.
Speaker:And your walkie talkie actually stops working.
Speaker:The damn fools go into the damn wolf tower.
Speaker:He's going to instantly kind of guess that he meant the wolf.
Speaker:God, actually, let's think about this for a second.
Speaker:Did you tell Ocean about the wolf tower?
Speaker:I think we I think we both were you awake at that point?
Speaker:Yes, he did not see it happen.
Speaker:But you know, I think I actually think I mentioned it in the episode.
Speaker:I think I said that I saw them run towards that big building or something.
Speaker:OK, I'm going to assume that's canon.
Speaker:And I'm going to how close am I to that building?
Speaker:You look you can see it, but that's just because it is massive.
Speaker:It's one of the tallest buildings in here.
Speaker:The top of it is actually the bottom parts have some lights that still work on it, but fewer and fewer lights remain lit up as it goes taller and taller.
Speaker:And the very top of it is completely receded into the darkness of the top of this cavern, which, you know, this cavern, like no one knows how high it goes up.
Speaker:Like people have tried to like shoot lasers at it and things like that, and they can never see the ceiling.
Speaker:It's a very tall cavern.
Speaker:You see that reaching into that darkness, and you think it's about probably a mile and a half away.
Speaker:OK, kind of slightly retcon here.
Speaker:I didn't explicitly mention it, but I would like to say that Book, that Ocean brought both the submachine gun and the shotgun that he got from the the escapades yesterday.
Speaker:Yes, I think that makes sense.
Speaker:So he's going to pull the shotgun out, and he's going to kind of like sling it over his shoulders.
Speaker:And he is going to start walking towards that tower.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Book, two days ago, you were walking into Septropolis.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:You're trying to track down Ocean.
Speaker:You don't know where he went.
Speaker:You just knew he ran here full speed in a strange fervor.
Speaker:How would you try to track him down?
Speaker:I think similar to Ocean, I'm looking for heavy footprints.
Speaker:Okay, give me a sharp roll as you make it down to the bottom of the switchback.
Speaker:Sorry, I don't have my dice out.
Speaker:Give me one second.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:My unprepared players.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:One of them has lost his character sheet.
Speaker:The other one lost the dice.
Speaker:Together you have nearly one person.
Speaker:It's like 0.9 of a people.
Speaker:I have them now.
Speaker:Hey, Stu, can you hear them?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That was a sharp.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That was a 10, baby.
Speaker:A 10.
Speaker:I'm already off to a good start.
Speaker:Yeah, man.
Speaker:OK, you make it to the bottom and you immediately see Ocean's very heavy, unique footprints that are down there.
Speaker:Do you wear some like you wear some big boots, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:He's got some chunky, chunky biking boots almost.
Speaker:OK, yeah, you see these very distinct footprints.
Speaker:You're more of the type of person to be aware of those different things than Ocean was.
Speaker:He probably had no idea what type of shoes he wore.
Speaker:He was just trying.
Speaker:You see his footprints and they lead directly to this vivisected individual that you recognize as one of Crandell's men.
Speaker:One second.
Speaker:I'm picturing Ocean was looking at a pair of footprints and they were like clearly a child's footprints.
Speaker:And he's like, that's about book size.
Speaker:I was like, books a little shorter than me, right?
Speaker:That footprint's smaller than my foot.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:I bet that's him.
Speaker:Sorry for the interruption.
Speaker:Carry on.
Speaker:I find the vivisected individual.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I am going to...
Speaker:Let me see.
Speaker:Can I use compassionate presence on someone who's dead?
Speaker:No, and that's creepy.
Speaker:That's fine.
Speaker:I don't disagree.
Speaker:That is a little unsettling.
Speaker:I do not disagree.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Do I see...
Speaker:Are there any, like, fired...
Speaker:Like, did they do any shooting?
Speaker:Like, I see them that they were clearly in a violent engagement.
Speaker:I'm going to look for shell casings.
Speaker:You do find some.
Speaker:You find some for a submachine gun, which you do recognize, or the same type of bullet you would expect to see in a submachine gun.
Speaker:I'm sure they can be used in a couple other things.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:But you do recognize that, but you do not find that submachine gun anywhere.
Speaker:So you assume that someone has taken it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And then you said last episode, I think you said that this individual was right by the open manhole cover, right?
Speaker:They made it a distance away, but there is a smearing of blood all the way from the open manhole cover to where they're at.
Speaker:I'm going to, I would like to try to identify if the blood, which direction the blood, if the body was dragged or if the blood is trailing away from the body.
Speaker:With your tin, I'm going to say that you, it looks like a little bit of both, but it is predominantly being dragged away from the sewer grate.
Speaker:Okay, so Book...
Speaker:But there is definitely some smearing going back in that direction.
Speaker:And you find some footprints that are almost certainly the giant mole monster.
Speaker:That is not at all a mole.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Very anthropomorphic mole monster boy, melty boy.
Speaker:I find that, so Book is thinking out loud, and he's like, that's weird.
Speaker:Well, okay, so before...
Speaker:Okay, I was going to say, before Book identifies the footprints of the mole monster, he's thinking out loud to himself.
Speaker:He says, there's no way Ocean did this too, is there?
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:And then I see, like, I look at the wound, and I see the claw marks, and I look at the footprints, and like just a wave of relief washes over me.
Speaker:And I'm like, okay, this is an old, you know, this is a, you know, an older body.
Speaker:And I see the direction towards the mantle cover.
Speaker:I see the footprints.
Speaker:I was like, oh, shit, it looks like that thing does not like jerky.
Speaker:It likes fresh meat.
Speaker:But was there, like, bite marks?
Speaker:Did it consume the body at all, or did it just kill it?
Speaker:Looking at the body, there are both claw marks and some other ones that look different.
Speaker:Not exactly like claws, not exactly like teeth.
Speaker:Definitely look different.
Speaker:But it does not look like it had really the major goal of consuming this thing.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Because I'm surprised that the mole boy, I would have expected it to, like, pull the body back down into the sewers and eat it.
Speaker:But I guess it was not a fan of that.
Speaker:I'm going to, oh, man, Book's curiosity is like, he is tingling.
Speaker:Like, he needs to know what happened here.
Speaker:But he's also, he has like a, I have a pretty big sense of urgency because I got to find my friend.
Speaker:I got to figure out if he's okay.
Speaker:Book is torn.
Speaker:Book is torn.
Speaker:But he also, oh, God, am I going to do this?
Speaker:Yeah, I think I am.
Speaker:Book is saying that to himself.
Speaker:And have I kind of, is there any other tidbits of information that I should be looking for here, Stu?
Speaker:The only thing that I hit on very briefly is that you notice the gun's gone.
Speaker:I'm going to say it makes sense with Book's footprints that he probably took the gun from where it's at.
Speaker:It was like a little bit of a distance away.
Speaker:You look on the concrete, there is some like scuff marks from metal scraping against it.
Speaker:Right, right, right.
Speaker:And it looks like the gun was probably there, and you think Ocean probably took it.
Speaker:I'm going to search the body for like a sidearm or a knife or anything like that.
Speaker:You find a fully automatic pistol.
Speaker:It's like a CZ75Auto if you play Counter-Strike.
Speaker:I don't know if that's the real name of a real gun.
Speaker:Lightdance and I fucking Google that, Stu.
Speaker:CZ75?
Speaker:Yeah, but it has a bunch of like aftermarket mods on it.
Speaker:You think the like barrel has been extended a little bit.
Speaker:You see that the clip is like way too long, and there's actually like a little grip on the front of it.
Speaker:I don't have a shoulder holster, but if I had one, that's where I'd put it.
Speaker:Does the person have a shoulder holster that I can steal off of the dead body?
Speaker:Yeah, they do have one.
Speaker:You think it probably fits you.
Speaker:You're a similar build to this individual.
Speaker:Okay, I'm going to absolutely desecrate this corpse and wrestle it off of the rigor mortis torso and get that shoulder harness for this machine pistol.
Speaker:And Book has now completely forgotten about Ocean.
Speaker:He's like, Oh, cool guy.
Speaker:I'm so excited.
Speaker:He's so excited.
Speaker:So I'm going to put that underneath my long jacket and conceal it.
Speaker:And they also have a spring loaded switchblade.
Speaker:Fuck yes.
Speaker:That's gone in the pocket for sure.
Speaker:So Book's priority is still Ocean.
Speaker:So I look down the long...
Speaker:I'm assuming it's like a long street that I can see down.
Speaker:And do I see any signs of Ocean?
Speaker:You see some footprints that do match oceans in that direction.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And do they go towards the sewer cover?
Speaker:Do they go in a different direction?
Speaker:Book is looking for an excuse to go into the sewer.
Speaker:There are actually two sets of his footprints.
Speaker:Like he may have came through here and maybe gone back.
Speaker:One of them does...
Speaker:You see some of his footprints around the sewer.
Speaker:There's one that's right near the grate that actually looks like it kind of slid to the side.
Speaker:Like he was lifting something heavy in that spot and moved.
Speaker:Oh, interesting.
Speaker:Something funky is going on.
Speaker:Something very funky is going on.
Speaker:Knowing what I know out of character.
Speaker:You've got to say knowing out of character.
Speaker:So you said by the sewer cover, there...
Speaker:That is now removed.
Speaker:It's right now like yeeted like 14 feet away.
Speaker:But right by where it should be, you see one of his book prints very prominent.
Speaker:But that's really the only one you see around it, because it is most of the area here is just concrete.
Speaker:Book says to himself, I don't I don't know why he's thinking.
Speaker:He's not saying this out loud, unlike the other shit.
Speaker:I don't know why Ocean would go down there, but it seems like he did.
Speaker:I was just saying ooh, because I didn't realize you had the light.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that's kind of a permanent part of Book's ensemble now, is just strapped to a shoulder as a spotlight.
Speaker:Fully charged, obviously, because any time Book did have power.
Speaker:That means Ocean does not have the light.
Speaker:Sorry, Ocean.
Speaker:Based on our last adventure, I had it in the sewer, so I don't think I would have.
Speaker:I mean, I feel shitty about this, because Ocean did wrestle it off of a building.
Speaker:I was supposed to say, Ocean electrocuted himself for this light, and Book has claimed it as his own.
Speaker:But you have like your backpack and all your other, like you got the shovel, your hands are folded.
Speaker:You seem to understand how the light works anyway, the program and stuff.
Speaker:And you carry lots of shit, you know?
Speaker:So like, I guess I could take the strap that I use to keep it on my shoulder, to keep it on your shoulder, but what fun is that?
Speaker:I mean, I could also just say that I have like a pen light or something, because I would also...
Speaker:No, I think after Book having programmed and done all these crazy things with the light, Ocean's like, you seem like you know how to use this thing better than I could.
Speaker:Yeah, so that's...
Speaker:And he'll let you keep a hold of it.
Speaker:Well, that's very generous of you in retrospect.
Speaker:In retrospect, it was very generous of Ocean.
Speaker:I shine my light down the sewer, and I climb down.
Speaker:So one thing that Book is in the front of Book's mind, is the last time the Salad Fingers monster was afraid of light.
Speaker:He knows...
Speaker:He has decided...
Speaker:I don't...
Speaker:He doesn't know if it's 100% true, but all he knows is that when the light was on the monster, the monster didn't come.
Speaker:As soon as the light moved, the monster chased after him.
Speaker:So he is constantly sweeping with the light as he's climbing down in both directions.
Speaker:Then he hops into the mucky water.
Speaker:There's a splash, and you shine the light around, and you do not see anything.
Speaker:There's this very deep silence that is even more noticeable than the silence of Subtropolis.
Speaker:Very nice.
Speaker:I think this is the first time that Book has known that kind of beast.
Speaker:I'm just kidding.
Speaker:He's not that angsty.
Speaker:Okay, so I see, I look in the direction of Hamlet opening, and I see the corner where the monster peered around from.
Speaker:And then I look in the other direction.
Speaker:And basically what I'm trying to see is two separate things.
Speaker:What direction did the blood trail lead?
Speaker:I'm assuming it's just like drops now.
Speaker:And I'm not even sure that I'm going to be able to see much.
Speaker:And then the other is, do I see any more footprints that look like oceans?
Speaker:Yeah, this is going to be another roll.
Speaker:And you think footprints are going to be hard to scope out, but give me another sharp roll.
Speaker:I can do that.
Speaker:That's my basic moves, not my character sheet.
Speaker:I would love if this episode is just a series of sharp rolls between both of us.
Speaker:Trying to track the other one down and heading the complete opposite directions as each other.
Speaker:Listen, I know, okay, I just want to say, before I tell you what I got, that like lots of numbers add up to the same numbers, so don't be mad.
Speaker:But I got a 10 again.
Speaker:This man's cheating.
Speaker:Lots of numbers do add up to the same number.
Speaker:You are correct.
Speaker:And with the 10, you still can't find any of Ocean's footprints down here.
Speaker:It is just too much.
Speaker:It's water, right?
Speaker:There's water under feet.
Speaker:Can't see much.
Speaker:You do see there is, on the walls, there are these bloody scrape fingernail prints going in the direction, I guess the way you laid it out towards Hamlet opening.
Speaker:You see these scratches, and some of them have little flicks of blood in them.
Speaker:Logically speaking, the only reason I can think of that Ocean would be down there right now is because he saw what happened, and in his emotionally heightened state, he wanted to get justice for that victim, who I just desecrated their corpse, unfortunately.
Speaker:So I am seeing no other clues other than the claw marks.
Speaker:I am going to follow them in the direction of salad fingers.
Speaker:Once again, I am still sweeping with that fucking light.
Speaker:My head is on a swivel.
Speaker:I cannot stress enough.
Speaker:And you are moving just like, what is your goal here, to just follow it and find where?
Speaker:I am looking for Ocean.
Speaker:I am thinking that Ocean went to go hunt this thing down and pay back for the violence it did against us and that person.
Speaker:I am thinking about who I know Ocean to be, and I am like, Ocean has a very strong moral compass, despite what I just saw.
Speaker:I know that about him, and I think that he blames himself for that person getting killed because we could have stopped that thing when we had the chance.
Speaker:Give me a Try Something Challenging roll.
Speaker:R-R-R-R-R-Raggy.
Speaker:Um...
Speaker:Our weakness.
Speaker:In keeping with Book's stats, that was a 5.
Speaker:You start walking down this tunnel.
Speaker:You're trying to remain quiet.
Speaker:You catch the reflection of like two eyes looking at you at the distance.
Speaker:But as you look around the corner, one of these water valves that kind of controls the flow of water underneath the sewers opens up, and this torrent of water starts brushing over you.
Speaker:And you get knocked to the ground.
Speaker:As you hit the ground and you're trying to like keep your head above water, you think you hear something coming towards you.
Speaker:Okay, I am...
Speaker:Then we're going to jump to ocean.
Speaker:I am...
Speaker:Oh, godness.
Speaker:Oh, that's a 7.
Speaker:That means I only pick 1, right?
Speaker:Could be worse.
Speaker:I have some pretty important things with me.
Speaker:I have the stuff I was supposed to give Book with me that Juniper told me to get to him.
Speaker:So I'm going to say I don't lose anything.
Speaker:It's the one that I'm going to pull.
Speaker:That is so kind of you.
Speaker:So that way I don't lose that for Book.
Speaker:I backed that up.
Speaker:Because he looked so excited.
Speaker:I'm so happy that you picked that.
Speaker:I also think that's just a cool, it's a cool thing to do.
Speaker:That is so kind of you.
Speaker:So that means you end up both lost and followed.
Speaker:So let's get to that.
Speaker:So you see this skyscraper in the distance towering into the sky.
Speaker:As you start going towards it, though, the view of it gets more and more obscured by other large buildings.
Speaker:As you're closer and closer, it was kind of easier to see from far away as you had kind of this long distance, you could see it on the skyline.
Speaker:But as you're getting closer, it's harder to track, but that should still be very easily, you know, right where it is, you're good at keeping direction, you navigate down here.
Speaker:But you find that as you go around a corner where you expect to see it on the skyline again, it seems like the whole building is gone.
Speaker:It's just not there.
Speaker:So you try to, or would you try to like circle back, or what would you do?
Speaker:He's going to see that when you round in that corner that the building is gone.
Speaker:He's like, okay, maybe I took a wrong turn.
Speaker:He's going to circle back, making sure to trace back his steps exactly how he went.
Speaker:To make sure he's going the same route that he came in to try and circle back around to the last spot he saw the tower.
Speaker:Can we call this tower the Subpire State Agmite?
Speaker:No, already no.
Speaker:Let me do it.
Speaker:The Subpire State Agmite building?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:As you trace your steps backwards, you go around the corner where there's a very obvious landmark for this sandwich shop billboard that still stood up, somehow hasn't been spray painted over in all this time.
Speaker:But as you get back there, you remember being able to see the tower extending above the top of it, and you look and it's just straight up not there.
Speaker:You're positive you saw it from this location, and you cannot find this tower, this massive, dozens of story tall tower.
Speaker:Ocean's gonna look around a little bit more and see if anything else looks different than when he passed through here last.
Speaker:As you go from spot to spot looking around, it seems like everything is still in exactly the same place.
Speaker:You're actually able to pick up some of your previous footprints.
Speaker:They go backwards in the direction they came from, exactly where you would expect to see it.
Speaker:But after spending some time here, eventually you hear tires.
Speaker:You hear a vehicle coming, maybe not towards you, but nearby.
Speaker:I'm gonna duck inside a building, and kind of hunker down.
Speaker:Give me a...
Speaker:Try something challenging.
Speaker:I no longer have minus one to that.
Speaker:Yeah, it's an even law.
Speaker:Now that I became slightly more aggressive.
Speaker:So now most of the time, you'll pass it.
Speaker:That's a three.
Speaker:Not this time, though.
Speaker:Not this time.
Speaker:You're not this time.
Speaker:So you rolled two...
Speaker:Wait, what were you rolling for?
Speaker:I just rolled a two and a one.
Speaker:I didn't know what your modifier was.
Speaker:Zero.
Speaker:It was minus one.
Speaker:So now it's a three instead of a two.
Speaker:So not snake eyes.
Speaker:Behind that same sandwich billboard, there is a shop that is just completely broken down.
Speaker:The doors are ripped off.
Speaker:But you go hide in there.
Speaker:There's no lights on.
Speaker:It's fully dark.
Speaker:And you hunker behind a portion of the glass that is still intact in the storefront.
Speaker:So you can kind of look out from the shadows and be unseen.
Speaker:As this vehicle does drive by, you hear it getting louder and louder as you're hunkered down hiding.
Speaker:It comes by and you see an H2 Hummer from 2007.
Speaker:Okay, that's a really specific, a classic vehicle.
Speaker:Classic vehicle.
Speaker:Come rolling around the corner.
Speaker:It doesn't seem to be trying to go anywhere fast.
Speaker:It has incredibly tinted windows.
Speaker:It has this complicated spotlight mechanism on the top that looks like it's shining three separate lights out that are kind of searching around the area.
Speaker:It looks like it's like doing some search matrix, trying to find things.
Speaker:And as it drives around, you see that light shine right through you, but you think it wouldn't be able to see you where you're at.
Speaker:You're in this complete darkness.
Speaker:You have this reflective glass in front of you, but the brakes skid to a halt.
Speaker:And then you see that same light starts emitting this red light, and it sweeps back over you one more time.
Speaker:And it reverses and angles itself right towards you.
Speaker:What would you do?
Speaker:OK, so what the layout of this building?
Speaker:Is there a back door that I can exit out of that will lead me into like another alleyway that's kind of further away from this?
Speaker:You can try.
Speaker:You haven't scoped it out, but that would be somewhat likely to exist.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm going to go.
Speaker:It's a sandwich shop, so I'm going to go kind of duck into the kitchen and see if they have an exit out the back that I can duck through to get back to the alley.
Speaker:OK, you run back to the kitchen as it seems like they start to get focused on you.
Speaker:All three of those lights now switch to this red color and start sweeping through the building, and you see this red light shooting behind you.
Speaker:You see your shadow in front of you as one clearly sweeps right in front of right on your back, and you push through these saloon style doors to get into the kitchen, and you see there is a back exit here, but there's a kitchen shelf completely knocked over on the side in front of it with pots and pans scattered all.
Speaker:So you would have to get this out of the way quickly, and you think no matter what, it's going to be noisy, and it will also be pretty difficult.
Speaker:I am going to try and pull the shelf off the wall so that way I can get to the door.
Speaker:And as I pull the shelf down, I want to grab a large kitchen appliance and throw it back through the salon doors out to the main lobby area.
Speaker:It's like a distracting sound.
Speaker:Yeah, to see if I can distract them and think that I'm over there.
Speaker:Okay, give me a try something challenging roll.
Speaker:Okay, that's an eight.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:You're able to wrench this shelf out from in front of the door.
Speaker:You don't get it all the way out of the way, but you get enough where you can squeeze through.
Speaker:And while you're doing that, you find there's a KitchenAid mixer that you're able to grab with one hand.
Speaker:And you hurl it.
Speaker:Candy red.
Speaker:And you hurl it through the open door, and you hear it go clattering and shattering around the corner.
Speaker:As you make it out the back door, you run your way around the alley.
Speaker:Are you just trying to get away from them?
Speaker:Yes, I want to try and put as much distance between them as possible.
Speaker:And I also kind of want to make the route that I'm diving through from the buildings to be not just like a straight shot.
Speaker:So like if they just follow me straight back, if they go through the alley, then they won't quite know which buildings I'm jumping into.
Speaker:OK, so as you get around to the back alley, you go look.
Speaker:I'll also add that as I'm passing by doors, I want to kick open the doors, not necessarily going into them.
Speaker:Yeah, so it just looks like that I've been going through potentially a bunch of different doors.
Speaker:Ocean, you plow your way out of the back door.
Speaker:You see two more doors to the side of you that you quickly kick open to kind of obscure your trail for the people chasing behind you.
Speaker:But as you start running down this alleyway, you see an identical looking hummer slam on its brakes at the end of this alley, and the doors immediately fly open.
Speaker:The person who's in the driver's seat jumps out, and you see they're wearing this very high tech looking helmet with these two perfectly circular red eyes on it.
Speaker:You see them lock directly into you, and he points his finger straight at you.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Hello, and thanks for listening.
Speaker:Brady here to kindly request that you force this podcast upon all the people you cherish.
Speaker:It's okay if it drives them away from you, as long as they end up in the warm embrace of our following.
Speaker:I'd also like to make a special shout out to our international listeners, who may just be Americans with VPNs.
Speaker:If you are real, we'd love to hear about how you found our podcast and what you think.
Speaker:Feel free to hit us up at oops at stew.cool or any of the socials we don't have.
Speaker:Stuart Masterson does our music and editing.
Speaker:Jacob Cecil provides unlicensed legal services.
Speaker:And I draw shit.
