My rec league goalie says he plays for the love of the game. You gave up six goals last week, Steve. Maybe play to win, huh? Like with Bet365, I get paid the second my team goes up big with early payout and can cash out at any time before the game ends. Come on, Steve. Bet365, the home of winning early. Must be 19 and older, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know is concerned about gambling, visit ConnexOntario.ca or call 1-866-531-2600. Terms and conditions apply.
And how are you feeling? Yeah. Antsy. Antsy for action. Ooh, yeah. So I thought what we could do is have two to three sessions of extended introspection per character. Great. And then we can return to the campaign later. Yeah, love it. Or alternatively. And based on that...
A bit of meditation, you know? Today's recording will just be 45 minutes of in-character meditation. I quit. That's actually Zolf's line. I'm just imagining Zolf very annoyed, lying there with cucumber slices on his eyes and eventually just storming off.
The idea, the animation is it looks so relaxing. And then as it zooms in, you realise that he's actually, his teeth are grinding. Yeah, there's an eye twitching behind the cucumber. So in terms of what we are going to be picking up from, at the end of the last episode, you obviously got shown the device. And the device is effectively not hideous, but an inelegant amalgam of science in terms of botany, biology, chemistry, physics. It's a big pile of science. Pretty sure it combines technical elements from Mr. Sealing, the simulacrum and Shoeen just to really tie together everything we've met.
That is correct. Like I said, it's a big pile of science. That's how science works. And we all know that a scientist knows all science because it's one field. And each science is stackable. It's like Lego. Science is like Lego, right? And each discipline is like a different colour. And that's how science works. Because everyone knows the arts are actually connects. Oh, I hate it. I hate it so much. I never wanted to be on Team Connect ever. Anyway, one of the last things that was happening is people sell Hamid and Skrark. Yeah, wanted to have a look over basically.
plans, the device, et cetera, to see whether it seems on the level, seeing whether it's the kind of thing that in the real world, if someone saw a pile of science, would go, that's actually junk, and see whether there's actually some stuff going on there. So I'd like to do that first. Can I please get a technical roll from the three of you of the field of your choice? Because it's all of them. I'd advise not nobility, but you could, and I'll find a way to make it work. Alchemy, I guess? Yeah, alchemy's fine, alchemy's fine. For the sake of it as well, Zolf and Azu, if you have anything that you want to bring to that as well, feel free, but last session it was pretty much a I'm not a science person. Zolf is unconcerned. It's just like, great, we have a plan, let's do it. Azu is happy to let the people who are good at it...
figure out if it's good or not. In fact, I was going to resort to it's quite a noble-looking brain, so I'm glad I'm going to save you that. 33. For knowledge alchemy? Okay. Hamid got a natural 20 on Arcana. Yep. So that's a total of 37. Ooh!
Crikey. Skrark only managed 18 on knowledge engineering. In which case then, Skrark very quickly comes to the conclusion going, I'm not sure what it does, but I know it's going to work, by which I mean the bits are connecting right, nothing is mechanically wrong with it, but that's like base level, you know, that isn't physically broken. In terms then of the higher roles, both Cell and Hamid come to the conclusion that, yeah, as far as you can tell, and you're getting pretty good at this by virtue of exposure, this should in principle do what it is expected to do. It could in fact probably be hardwired from here, but you would need to leave it where it is.
connect it to something about a few miles away at least, and walk through the middle of London carrying cables and hope no one notices it. Even then, it'd be a bit of a push. And you can see how that kill switch, whatever it is that it was meant to be, would interact with it, though you aren't necessarily able to discern the exact specifics of the kill switch to just make one yourself. There's a couple of elements there that are variable. But both of you do come and notice there is an error in the design. It is a minor error.
Effectively, there's a mechanism built in there to protect the brain that's in the jar, the Babbage brain, from feedback, meaning it should, in principle, the machine should work. It should do what is stated. However, it looks like it's been built in such a way that hopefully the Babbage brain would survive, that the mechanism that's being used to make the Babbage brain survive this process isn't going to work. You probably could fix it, but it will function in its role, but it's going to cost Babbage's brain currently. It's going to take control of the network successfully. Yes.
the feedback will kill the brain. And would that mean that nothing is there to take over, which could then... Oh, no, you think that it'd be okay for long enough to do what it needs to do, but it's going to... Basically, Babbage will burn out. Sorry, I just... I thought that the point was to have Babbage replace the mind at the centre. So if Babbage pops... And then relinquish control. Oh, right, okay. Yeah, they just need him to survive for long enough to be like, do what you want, bye. Yeah, but according to the current design, he will go, do what you want, bye. Oh, that was a big bye, pop. Oh, okay. Whereas there is a way to modify it so that Babbage isn't lost in the process, should you wish. I mean, but he would still be a brain in a vat. That is correct. Right, that's...
But that opens up, is that really an error, or is that Tesla not wanting to confront the idea of leaving his friend as a brain in a vat? The other issue is that if Babbage survives and lives long enough and was somehow taken control of elsewise, would he be able to re-extend control into the network? It would take more work than what's currently there. Okay, so that's not a risk necessarily. Once he has successfully withdrawn the tendrils, he can't just push them back in. No, it doesn't really work like that. Hampton and Sal meet eyes, having both realised the same implication. Yeah.
Hammond, shall we? I just want to... Quick sidebar, maybe? Quick sidebar. I don't want to talk about these formulas and things in a way that I know. I don't like to talk about things that bore or confuse people in front of them at length. I think it's going to work. That's the headline. It's good news. There is a very, very delicate... Bing-bong. Like an actual bell dinging. Bing-bong. Like a doorbell. Why doesn't everyone else go and get that? And then we can discuss. Or should we go into... Ada's just like, oh, yes. Yeah, of course. Hurry's off.
Tesla doesn't seem to have noticed. Okay, so Cell's just going to go into the other, like, into the staircase thing area. No, the alternate lab. I'm trying to... Yeah, yeah. Remembering what it was and sort of hope Hammond follows. The workshop as opposed to the computer lab. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So...
That brain isn't going to survive. No. Do you think that's intentional? The way it's put together, it looks like it's trying to protect the brain, but it's not. But I don't know if digging into... Like, motivation... Human science is not my strongest science. I have many strong sciences I could talk through, but not the motivations. Yeah, I don't... I don't know. Is Babbage in pain there? Is that something that they might want to... I don't want to unpick... There's a lot of complicated... Can we communicate with Babbage? I feel like it should be his decision, I guess. That sounds... Yeah, I mean, maybe he loves being a brain in the bat. I don't want to judge.
It could be great. I've considered it a few times. I love that this came up in the showing institute, almost exactly that same phrasing. That's because cell daydreams consistently. I don't want to necessarily bother Tesla with more of this, but maybe if we talk to Ada about it, she might... That is... See, this is what you understand people. We should ask. Okay. Ada would probably know, and she's friends with both of them, and she may know if it's appropriate to talk to Babbage. Maybe Babbage is perfectly chatty.
Would people be okay then with a minor time jump? We're talking like 15 minutes tops. Sure. Ada comes back down the stairs mid-conversation with a wild-haired and familiar friend. Oh, Professor!
Oh, it's so good to see you. How are you? Hey, I'm good, yeah. In terms of the look of Einstein, you remember the post sort of Rome jump? He'd gone very kind of Mad Max to the point where it was almost affectation, maybe even actual affectation. Sure. He seems to have reined back in a little bit from there. You can actually see some torso underneath ammo belts that don't have any ammunition in that kind of thing. He is wearing an eye patch not over one eye, just here. On a forehead, right, yep. Just above the eye as if it were to be flipped down, but he doesn't seem the worst for wear. Maybe a little bit thinner, maybe a little bit more...
city miles on him, but he seems all right. Oh, hey, I didn't know you'd be here. The communication doesn't work with the anti-magic field and the wardings and you look good. I thought you were dead. It's really nice to see you, Professor. I don't know who you are and I'm glad I'm not dead. I don't know who you are either. Hello. Cell, this is Professor Einstein, who helped us previously a lot. Professor, this is my friend Cell, pronounced they the... Hi, Cell. Of course.
alchemical expert and they've been a wonderful friend and have done so much good while working with us. I really like your goggles. Yeah, I'm liking this whole get up. Do you make the belts yourself? They look extremely practical.
I mostly use them to carry snacks. Unfortunately, my thing doesn't really need much in the way of components. Maybe a little bit. So mostly it's like, you see, this is my beans pouch. And then over here we have my sweets pouch. That one's running a little low. I have two water pouches because you can never drink too much water. It's very important for you. You've got to stay hydrated. You've absolutely got to stay hydrated. Ada's just kind of lost in this conversation watching the back and forth. I'm going to, if I may, accelerate it a little further because there will be nothing beyond, we both like talking a lot, right? It was on a knife edge there. So I'm like the moment of jealousy of, oh, look.
There's a wild-haired science chatterer. What I am going to do, though, is, with everyone's permission, jump ahead a little bit to... I got a briefing to give you. I'm just going to lay it out for you as a GM. I got a mission briefing I need to give you all. So unless anyone objects, I'm going to push you into that meeting room. I'm happy to be pushed. In which case then, I'm going to jump time ahead. I'll say that the, again, this is for the safe expediency, there's been some catch up. Einstein is basically happy to have said what he's been doing, but it's mostly, did a bunch of stuff with the Harlequins, didn't really pan out, then got stuck helping a lot of people evacuate Cairo. And now I've been sort of chasing down some stuff for this lot. He only became aware of this lot after being contacted by Barrett. He was not aware of it until...
comparatively recently. And his read seems to be similar to yours, which is, you know, that's a big pile of science, huh? But, you know, it's not his field because he doesn't really have one. He's just good at teleporting. I would like to say that for flavour, Azu has definitely given him like the biggest hug you can imagine. And he's quite a small man, if I remember correctly. True, but he does take a little bit of time to show you that he's been working on his guns.
So many compliments on the old man's science guns. There's definitely, like, a muscle in there. Between both arms, there's maybe one. Having to get in on the hug action, absolutely. So I'm going to say that there is a warm hubbub of conversation as Wilde comes and sits in. There's an actual briefing room. There is a conference table with fancy, slightly threadbare chairs that are slightly mismatched, but there's even a projector screen with an old-styly, like, Magic Lantern-style projector. Literally Magic Lantern, I assume.
You know what? Yeah, there's a magic, magic lantern. In terms of who's in the room, Wild, all of yourselves. Einstein, Skrark. Summit Neal has eventually slumped in. Seems fine with all of you, but is still clearly real peeved at being in a certain person's house, basically. And then last but not least, Ada comes in. Augusta was not especially interested and was probably even a little bit disparaging, but, you know, that's how she rolls.
So Ada sets up, goes over to the Magic Magic Lantern. Thanks, everyone, for coming here. I know it's all a bit rushed, but when is it not? I'd ask if you can keep questions till the end, because otherwise I'll lose my thread, and that'd be rubbish. Yeah? Okay. She pulls a lever, and then a slide comes into place, which is an exterior of the Svalbardian vault. Ah, what does that look like? It's not actually especially impressive, and I would say that it's obviously Svalbardian, and if anyone doesn't know, it's immediately just said by the people who do. Enough people in this room would recognise it. And it is, at first glance...
quite unassuming. I want you to imagine a sort of like an ice shelf or like an ice pack or whatever and then you have a small-ish worked stone front that then seems to lead down into the sort of side of the mountain or glacier. It's hard to tell in the image. It does seem to have sort of vaulted doors or whatever but beyond that it seems like a very small entrance to a city. You could maybe get to as I was walking abreast. That said, there is what seems to be a path leading in towards that main entrance that goes out of shot. Maybe like a road or something. So, uh...
With the thanks of Einstein, I'm Einstein! Yes, hello! That's me! We've been scouting out, effectively, places, and we're fairly certain we've found the kill switch that we need to cannibalise for the vice, and, well, we believe it's in Svalbard. Oh, is this the one that Grizzot commissioned the cult of Hephaestus to build? I ate us immediately now, like, oh, er... Wait, hang on, and it's supposed to be questions at the end. Do you want to continue? You did say, sorry, sorry.
Yeah, yes, yes, yeah. Ada starts sort of shuffling her notes and comes back. Yeah, yes, questions at the end. Yes, cool. Yes, so she clunks it, goes forward to slide, clunks it back, and then clunks it forward again. Okay, so this, so that was the entrance. And then obviously within, you start seeing a massive plan. It seems to be a very, very old document that's been like magically illusioned or photographed or something similar. It's an incomplete one. The actual interior is very large because, well, it's a city. It has an unassuming front, but there is a whole city under there with a number of entrances, most of which seem to have collapsed or boarded. Next slide.
Ah, me, yes. So, we have a series of sort of like documents were effectively put on that seem to be like diplomatic missives and so on. We managed to sort of find out through some contacts and with Barrett's. help that the population of Svalbard sort of dropped out of contact obviously once the infection was going on. An envoy was actually sent to the city and the envoy said that it was sort of abandoned and that there wasn't infection there. There weren't moving people there. There was no one there and it was locked up but they kind of said they got the impression that it might be a little bit...
dead inside. As far as we're able to tell, we think that they may have had a seed in the vault, similar to in London and so on, and we think it may have triggered, but wrongly somehow? Yeah, we found them. Next slide. You've already been into Svalbard? No, we've been... Right, next. Let's stop interrupting. Okay, right, yes. Next slide. This whole time, Sel has been, like, bouncing up and down like the kid in a classroom that knows the answer, but not saying anything. So, like, the angriest, like, the most resentful they've ever looked at Zolf, like, you spoke up and I was trying so hard not to. But, like, it continued. I didn't ask a question. True, true. I can make all the statements I want. Sel was also going to answer. That's their, like, oh, I know the answer. I know, I know.
the answer to this! And they're so proud of themselves. So, next slide. Yes, backwards, forwards, forwards, yes, yes. It then is showing what is effectively some correspondence which appears to have, like, symbology from the Hephaestus lot. So we received a missive from the cult of Hephaestus who, when things started going bad, they sort of implied that they might have a solution that they were working on in Svalbard, which is obviously why we sent the envoy. Well, I didn't send, they sent the envoy because it was important, but then, because we couldn't get in. But now we can get in. And then she just points at Einstein.
We think, based on what they've said, that... the device may have interfered with the seed when it triggered or something, which meant it triggered differently. But we don't really have the data. But we're pretty certain that the device itself is in the city, most likely pretty much the most secure place you can get. So maybe like a, I don't know, a vault or a council chamber or a treasury or something like that. Maybe a lab, I don't know. But, you know, somewhere that's going to be secure. We have managed with Einstein's help again. Thank you, Einstein. I'm Einstein! Yes, hello! We've managed to isolate certain areas as being, you know...
inaccessible and things like that, but he's not actually able to go very far in by virtue of... It's warded! Yeah! Turns out they don't like people teleporting into their bedrooms! I mean, I've seen it before. It's kind of like this place. It's not insulting. Einstein, come on. Ada, I'm very interested in what you have to say, and so are all the rest of us, and we'll be quiet now. Oh, so, anyway, yeah, we've generated what we think is a plan of Einstein can get you past the main entrance and into sort of the... It's like a foyer?
Because there's a blank spot in the warding. And then from there, if you could go in and fetch the device from the secure pit and then bring it back out, Einstein could then bring you here and then we could plug it into the main device. Any questions? No, sounds good. I'm up for that. Yes, yes. I agree with the plan. I just, to ask my previous question, is this the Colton Hester who Grizzop commissioned the kill switch from? Is that the link? Is this where they went with it? Wilde sort of asks Ada to go back a couple of slides and look at the documentation from the Hester slot.
Um... Inconclusive, but my guess would be probably. The Hephaestus lot are secretive at the best of times. It kind of goes with their territory a little bit. I mean, does it matter? The point is they got one. We should go get it. At the very least, they thought they had one, and even if it didn't work, that's still... What else we can do? Yeah, we don't have it. We don't have it. So let's get the one that might be it. I've always wanted to go to Svalbard. Wilde turns to Ada. Did you have anything that you could maybe give us to equip up a bit?
Because let's be honest, I don't think I'm the only person at the table here who assumes that the second we're going to go in there, there's going to be nothing but death and monsters the whole way down, right? Oh, I was hoping also there would be interesting mechanical devices. Some of which make traps, but yes, death and monsters too. Well, I'm going to aim for, you know, less death than... Ada kind of looks awkwardly around and goes, I think we do have an armory. Yeah, it was... Tesla's really about preparation. None of us actually know how to use the stuff. You'd be happy to welcome it. Augusta looks after a lot of it. But yeah, I think, help yourself. If that'll help. Do you think it'd help? Yes. Never hurts to be prepared.
In that case, from our perspective, we're good to go. I mean, I'm guessing you might want to rest, maybe stock up or something. Oh, one question. What kind of monsters might we expect? Oh, good question. So, yes, right. One second. I believe that you're already familiar with our friends, the root guardians that are in London. Oh, the clicky, clicky. Yes, yes, they make strange noises. We believe that those have been derived from the plant itself. So it might stand to reason that even if that plant is...
different by virtue of whatever that mechanism is, I would expect those to turn up again, potentially. Beyond that, we believe that the plants have a sort of extra planar quality. I'm currently working under a theory that they're all the same plant. They're just sort of different faces in the same plane. Makes sense. So it could just be that this face is damaged. So I would expect probably planar entities or such. Thankfully, it should have been mostly protected by the heavy wardings that are all over the city. But again, that might result in it coming out stranger rather than not at all. Beyond that, I know that they...
I mean, you know, it's a very large subterranean city. No doubt if it's been left unguarded and unattended, there might be some other more naturally occurring beasties that could have turned up. So it sounds like, clicky friends, we are trying to be quiet. So in this equipment, let's be looking for quiety stuff. There's one last thing before we go, which, well, Einstein, you're the one who got, yeah, last point. This is news to Ada, so, you know, I may have...
kind of poked around a little bit further than I should have just to, you know, see. I just wanted to see, you know. I got as far as sort of the big main entrance far side of the foyer and there's two things, last things you should know. There were bodies, there were living bodies, there were dead bodies that seemed connected via routes and they kind of keep an eye out still. Like, if they see you, then other things on the routes seem to notice. So I managed to get in a little bit, and they're not everywhere, but we're going to have to be a bit careful.
Because, you know, I think it might be a little gestalt-y. I don't know. Maybe like a 6 out of 10, maybe like a 3 out of 10 gestalt-y. Yeah, yeah, that scans. Fine. Right, well, good to know. Well, bad to know. They can't move because I am not quick and they did not chase me, but I heard other things moving, so then I left. Like a big mushroom network with eyes. Lovely. Oh, that's horrible. Thank you. Both apt and terrifying. Yes, it's not good, is it? But I assumed that we'd be trying not to be seen by anything, so...
Yes. Speaking of, let's have a look at this equipment. Yes. And before we head into the armory then, why don't we take a break and I'll be back in a couple of minutes. My teammate says he plays pickup basketball, quote, for the cardio. Well, there's more to it than that, Sean. Like with Bet365, I get paid the second my team goes at big with early payout and can cash out at any time before the game ends. Sean's getting his steps, but I'm getting paid. Bet365, the home of winning early. Must be 19 and older, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know is concerned about gambling, visit connectsontario.ca or call 1-866-531-2600. Terms and conditions apply.
And welcome back. So because we don't have Sasha in the party, I'm not necessarily going to RP going through every single, you know, blade in detail because it doesn't have quite the same charm to it. What I would say is it's really well stocked. It's grossly overstocked, in fact. Augusta shows you around and it becomes very clear very quickly that most of it is either looted or some of it may have even been stolen prior. And maybe Ada and Tesla were naive enough to assume that she was just really good at fetching things. In terms of what's in there, though, straight out the gate, if there's basically any basic protection items, you know, amulets of natural armor, that kind of thing.
They got loads. But basically nothing that costs more than 1,000 or 2,000 gold. That's the kind of thing we're looking at. They also have Cloaks of Elvenkind easily enough for everyone. Cat Burglars Boots, if anyone's interested in them.
What's the bonus on them? Plus two competence bonus on acrobatics climb and stealth. And once per day as an immediate action, you can re-roll any one failed check of acrobatics climb and stealth. It also has a hidden pocket to hide Masterwork Thieves tools. So in some ways they would fit Skrark, except that I assume they would adapt to Cobble's feet. They're magic, so yes. It might be better to give them to Azu to bolster a weakness rather than to enhance a strength. I think you might misunderstand me. There isn't one set of these boots. There's like eight, maybe nine.
Well then. So anyone who doesn't already have boots can have them. It's not so much that they fell off the back of a lorry than that an entire freighter tipped itself over and Augusta helped herself. Tipped itself over. Correct. I see how it is. There are also a number of goggles of the night. Oh, I'd like those. Not to be confused with night goggles. They're completely, completely different. These are goggles of the night. I also want to highlight that we are being careful about slots and everything, but I've been talking about Cell having goggles of intelligence, but they are actually re-skinned. It's a kind of headband, whatever the thing is. So technically...
They can have both of these. But like skinning wise, definitely going for like full opticians level, like multiple things flopping down over the... I'm imagining the ones from like that Hellboy film. I think it was Guillermo del Toro with the lenses. Yeah, yeah. We are going full steampunk goggle design here. Yeah, absolutely. Very, very good. I'm afraid that is it apart from any mundane weapon you could possibly want. So no cloaks of resistance. Oh, no, I would count that as the basic resistance. Okay, cool. So when you're talking about the basic items, I always think of those as the set of...
cloak of resistance, amulet of natural armor, and ring of protection. Those are like the three bread and butter everyday items. I naturally already spend lots of money on those things. See this, mate? This is your standard run-of-the-mill plus one ring of protection here. That'll deal with most of your bumps and scrapes. Yeah, so Augusta's fine to equip all of you, but is very keen to say that if you happen to come across anything particularly shiny on your travels, do bring it back, you know, because it's our armoury.
Are there any nice looking axes? Nothing comparable to what you're wielding. As he looks a bit smug about that. There is a very overwrought ceremonial axe, but you know that that's not actually a weapon. It's more like maybe a trophy for a competition or something. It's for putting on a wall.
Yeah, and Augusta doesn't necessarily seem to know her mundane weapons that well. Everyone knows if you put an axe on the wall in the first act, by the third act, you have to get it off the wall to use it in one fight before it breaks dramatically. The man's not wrong. I'll just pick up an amulet of natural armour plus one, because that's kind of the only slot. Yeah, you're pretty... You have all of the numbers, don't you? Your numbers are good. You have good numbers currently. Is this a cloak of resistance plus one? Yes. Oh, okay. It's an armoury, not a Christmas present. I want a Christmas tree. With that in mind, does anyone have anything further? Otherwise, I'm happy to basically, if you want to have a night's rest first and then go...
Fresh-faced, bushy-eyed, bushy-tailed, bushy-eyed? Yes, bushy-eyed in the morning. That's fine, but it's up to you. Never hurts to have full spell slots starting a dungeon crawl. Agreed.
So with that in mind then, are we happy to skip to the next morning? Everyone fresh-faced and ready to teleport away? Yeah. In which case then, Einstein is carrying a hiker staff and he's wearing boots. He looks like he's about to lead maybe a scout's expedition or something, and he's certainly talking with you all like that. Okay, so we are going to have to leave outside of this building before I can then teleport because of the warnings. When we arrive, it is going to be dark. Do not worry. It is fine. I have already scouted it out, okay? Now, could everybody please pick a buddy and make sure you stick with your buddy until the journey is complete, okay? Yes. Good. Right.
Einstein just starts heading out the way you came in through that big elaborate airlock door and you're going to have to go one at a time and blah, blah, blah. Sure. Do we have an awkward moment of Hammond and Zolf being nearer each other and so accidentally becoming each other's buddies and hope then... I mean, just for all the school playground AUs, we need to know. No, I'll explicitly need Azu because if something goes wrong with my legs, I need someone who can pick me up. Yes, that makes sense. Yes, fair point. I would say as well, for clarity, Skarak is coming, as is Summit Mjöl, as is Wild. In which case then, heading outside, everyone joining hands, Einstein seems a little bit less jovial once he's outside in, you know...
Vague danger and sort of checking around and so on. Okay, right, so. Last chance? Otherwise, are we good to go? I think we'll nod quietly. Okay. All together then. Three, two, one, alley-oop! And you teleport.
And it's the first legitimate teleport you've had in a long time of gameplay. At no point do your feet accidentally come out of your head. At no point do you feel like you're being stretched through infinity and forced to eat a thousand stars. You just turn up at your location. And with that, I would like to reveal to you and to the audience, we are now going to be doing some stuff via Roll20, an online system that can be both free and subscription paid because it allows me to do big, elaborate battle maps. With that in mind... Can I be the one that tells the audience that...
what we've got loaded up that we can see is a big smiley face just saying, be afraid. Yeah. Yeah. And the reason for this is very simple. It's because you should be afraid, yes. We are going to be using Roll20 as we explore Svalbard. So if everyone could please get into Roll20 if you're not already. Everyone there? Yeah. Looking at the terrifying face. I am going to put you into the new room. Do not freak out if all you see is black. And last but not least, I am doing things to do with Fog of War, meaning you can't see the entire map all in one go. So if that breaks, let me know. This should now put you all...
into a new thing. So what you should be able to see is a big open area of earth and then what looks like a bridge leading out over a chasm. And you should also see two large sort of semicircles on either side. You appear in what feels like an open-topped underground cavern. There is a large amount of unworked stone and earth around you and you are stood upon a large elaborate stone.
pavement with sort of interlacing designs upon it looking up again this is first impressions the cavern is open to the sky above it looks like it might be a naturally occurring light well or something similar that has been taken advantage of you are at one end of a bridge leading over an enormous chasm the bottom of which you cannot see in terms of the scale of the bridge it is Big, very big, far larger than that main entrance you were told about. For a scale about 5, 10, 15, 20, 35 feet wide, there you go. And it is 200-ish feet long over the chasm, highly impressively worked stone. It is leading to an enormous, imposing fortress-esque edifice that is built into the very rock and ice. It has large amounts of arrow slits, buttresses, things like that. This is a defensive structure built from things on the outside getting in, less than a prison to stop things getting out, if you see what I mean. On either side of the main...
bridge, you can see there are two balconies which are sort of a little bit higher than the bridge, maybe 10 feet or so, that look out upon the bridge and the chasm, which seem to be covered in medium-sized-ish plants. Could everyone please give me a quick perception check? Yes. 24. 17. 31. 11 and 18. Okay. I'll give extra detail for Sel. For everyone else, using a sensible amount of deduction here, it looks like the plants seem to have sprung from the fallen, maybe? And they are marking where someone has fallen and been integrated into the system. Oh, no. There is also Sel, for your benefit, on the left-handmost balcony. These are all massive balconies, by the way. Don't think little apartment. You're talking like a huge, almost like you could put market stalls on there, big square almost. About 75 foot cross. There appears to be one.
actively shambling dwarven-sized creature. However, it does not look to be a dwarf. Let's put it that way. Thus concludes your initial description. Cell excitedly, while flipping the goggles of the night on and off as the additional lenses to their already pretty cool goggles describes all of this. So Einstein obviously drops people off and goes, OK, so you see these two towers that are either side of us here, the little ones that overlooks the bridge? This is as far as I can go. That's not true. I can go in because I have. It's sort of scary. But I can't teleport any further in than this. How did you get in? I walked.
You may not be able to see the main door up top. You see there's a square. Just beyond that, it's a little dark. The main door is open. There's no portcullis or nothing. Are the plants on those balconies, are those the ones you said were looking? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So these are the watchers. They aren't very good. They don't seem particularly bothered by sound, which is interesting. You have to be quite loud. And they can't see very far. You know, maybe like 10 feet, something like that. The danger isn't that they're going to see you coming. It's more like, you know, you're going to open a door and, oh, there's one. Oh, no. Right. That's what happened to me. I opened a cupboard. There was one. They all see. There we go. How many of them are there in that?
first you know room or is it pretty clear if you get into the first hole you can't sit from here the main entrance there ahead is full of them loads and loads but there's a bunch of side doors i've tried the left hand side and i've tried the right hand side the right hand side seems a little clearer but there's not much in it really all i would say is i think that if you can just get around that first sort of pile of them you're kind of in this is this is the front porch it's our big front porch His voice is a little bit echoey around the space. Well, I can only make myself invisible or a bat. I can make us all invisible a limited number of times, obviously, but if there's a real collection of them near the front, then we'll do that to get part at least into the next section. Now, there is one last thing, which is I can't go back, then come here, then go back again. I kind of have to stay, otherwise I'm going to use up all my teleports. So I got to stay here. All right. So he kind of looks a little bit sheepish and says, mostly I solve my problems by teleporting away till they aren't there anymore. So should some people stay with you?
That's a really good suggestion that I didn't personally make, yes. Well, the five of us have explored unknown and dangerous areas before, and that's what we're good at. So perhaps Oscar and Summit Niel, you could stay with the two of you together and make a formidable team to hold the location. I think that's sensible. We can hold this area in Summit Niel with your permission. You're pretty good at, like... At which point, Summit Niel's, yes, I can turn into animals. I just mean that, you know, you could kill something with your bare hands. Oh, dear.
Oscar, is this really the time for jokes? I'm going to say Cell doesn't respond to that pun, but perhaps Oscar gently on the shoulder says, I just think you should know that what you said was actually very offensive in Polar Bear. Oh, wow. I don't know if that was intentional. That's genuinely really interesting. Yeah. Huh. Should we go? Yeah. Wild turns around. On a serious note, I'm going to sustain an illusion over us in probably the left side of this tower, so that if anything comes, they're just going to see an empty tower anyway. So if you come back and you're seeing an empty tower, we might still be here. Do you have a message spell or anything like that that would last long term so we could keep in contact and know if you...
actually disappear? Is that the thing? The thing is that, um, yes, I can, but with all the warnings and stuff that Einstein mentioned, the likelihood of it getting through, the deeper in you are, the more likely you are to be on your own. That makes sense, and we wouldn't want it to suddenly cut off and think that there was a thing that we need to rush back and help you with, and then it would turn out that actually you were fine, and that was diplomatic. So, let's go. Right. In that case, then, good luck, and, um, you've got this. I certainly couldn't think of anyone else in the world who's better suited. Yeah, you too. Be safe. Good luck. Just before Wild leaves, I'll just give him a squeeze on the arm. Aww.
emotions. At which point, Wild, Einstein, and Summit Neal all go into the left-hand tower, and then, and this is where Alex really shows off his skills, the illusion of an empty tower is activated, and they disappear. But as a GM, I can still see them. Yeah, because they're onto a different GM plane. Should we tell him that we were using this for the space game? I would like to, out of character, quickly establish...
like literally a 30-second conversation between Hamid and Wilde to establish three code sentences that he could write in chalk to leave behind if they have to go that mean slightly different things. I'm not clever enough to think of the codes or exactly the three most useful sentences, but that seems like a pretty simple, practical three sentences meaning three different codes. Ooh, clever. Since we're basically at the end of the episode, why don't we call it there? You can discuss these off-call because we'll need something soon to be elaborate and ridiculous. But in that, then, I leave you standing on the porch of an incredibly cold, enormous chasm facing a forbidding ice fortress that is manned only by the dead and the doomed.
Lovely. Bye. Bye. I'll just pick up a natural armor plus one because that's kind of the only slot. Yeah, you're pretty, you have all of the numbers, don't you? Your numbers are good. You have good numbers currently. You know, in the system, there's just some items that you have to take because it makes number go up, which is definitely the hallmark of a well-designed system. Yeah, love it. I love seeing, because you're on the same level of the call, the two extremes. With me sat in the middle where it's like, I do like good numbers, but you can have too many good numbers and it's just the whole spectrum. I love it. Well, I think me and Helen just sat there with complete indifference, like marking the center. Oh, no, no, no. I am...
fully on Ben's side, perhaps even more on Ben's side because I actually do not understand half of the things that we do. So by definition then, Lydia, you have to be pro numbers with me and Bryn, otherwise the system is unbalanced. I like it when my numbers are high. That'll do. That'll do.
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