Episode 10
Episode 10: Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Ocean finds himself surrounded and takes a huge risk to get out clean.
Book seeks out a reunion with an old friend, but it gets wet and wild on the way there.
This one is mostly H2's and H2O
Transcript
Welcome to Oops!
Speaker:All Apocalypses, where we explore the collapse of society by playing fun, tabletop, role-playing games.
Speaker:I'm your host, Stu Masterson, and I'm joined by two real big old goobers here.
Speaker:Hey, everybody, I'm Brady, and I play Book McCready, a kind and nitpicky dude who just shit his pants.
Speaker:That's quite the intro.
Speaker:OK, let me try and top that.
Speaker:And I'm Jacob, I'm playing Ocean, a gentle giant who's about to potentially meet extraterrestrial life.
Speaker:Would extraterrestrial just be like the surface world?
Speaker:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:So I guess extra-extraterrestrial life would be aliens, and extraterrestrial would be just the people on the top.
Speaker:And then extra-extra-extraterrestrial, can't say that many extras.
Speaker:This week.
Speaker:So we are intra-terrestrials.
Speaker:I don't like saying any of these words.
Speaker:They're hard for my mouth to do.
Speaker:So I'm going to stop doing it and transition to our questions.
Speaker:That is, that is apparent.
Speaker:I want you to know that that is evident.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:We can tell, Stu.
Speaker:I'm a professional speaker.
Speaker:I just can't do it good.
Speaker:Our falling in love question.
Speaker:Is, it's, it's fuck-a-merry, it's fuck-a-merry kills Stu, Book, Ocean.
Speaker:Oh, no, you guys don't want to hear those answers.
Speaker:I'm not prepared.
Speaker:Yeah, no one wants to hear those.
Speaker:Please don't tweet those at us.
Speaker:I would.
Speaker:I come curious for the listener side of things.
Speaker:Send that to us.
Speaker:All three, Ocean.
Speaker:He's insufferable, but a little attractive, so we'll do it all.
Speaker:This week, our question is, name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.
Speaker:Oh, hmm.
Speaker:Yeah, do you guys want to do three each, or do you want to work together to come up with a good solid three?
Speaker:Nah, three each, and we should we should try to contradict each other as much as possible.
Speaker:Things that appear to be in common, so it's things we think we have in common, but don't know for sure.
Speaker:Yeah, remember the original conceit of this list is you're like sitting down with someone.
Speaker:This is still on set one, so this is like pretty early questions where you're just trying to like, okay.
Speaker:And yet we've already asked, how do you think you're going to die?
Speaker:Yeah, and then after that, you're like, we both like bracelets.
Speaker:Yeah, I think I think the first thing, I think we should alternate.
Speaker:So I'll go first.
Speaker:I think the first thing is that Book and Ocean both like tinkering.
Speaker:They like messing around with stuff and making shit.
Speaker:I think that's yeah, definitely for sure.
Speaker:I think Book and Ocean are both the think first instead of act first type.
Speaker:Oh, I like that one.
Speaker:That's really good.
Speaker:Just for different reasons.
Speaker:I think we both are very careful in that regard.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker:I also think that Book and Ocean are accidentally very polite, but it's mostly just because they're so self-conscious.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker:I think they both prefer to keep to themselves instead of going out and being super party-hard social folk.
Speaker:Totally, totally.
Speaker:And last but not least, they both love reading.
Speaker:Just kidding.
Speaker:Just kidding.
Speaker:Book's like, I bet if Ocean could read, he would love this.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:No, I was gonna say, I think they both have really fantastical dreams for themselves.
Speaker:Yeah, different dreams, but they're both...
Speaker:Right, in opposite directions in a lot of ways, but they're both kind of fantasizing about the future.
Speaker:Oh, I see.
Speaker:Oh, you kind of stole my last one, so I gotta think on the spot here.
Speaker:That's because it was obvious, because I'm bad at this.
Speaker:Big chunky boots.
Speaker:Big chunky boots?
Speaker:Do they both wear big chunky boots?
Speaker:Fuck yeah, they do.
Speaker:I can't say that.
Speaker:Both of them like cars, clearly.
Speaker:Oh yeah, true.
Speaker:Both of them have very different interests in cars, but they both seem to like cool cars, because I thought Ocean was special with his starting with a car, and then Book gets a Jeep in the literal Session Zero.
Speaker:So I think they both clearly are interested in vehicular travel.
Speaker:I'm gonna get back to Johnny Hertz's, though, and it's gonna be missing a carburetor.
Speaker:Johnny scrapped it for parts.
Speaker:Well, I have the harder job of having to compare myself to both of you simultaneously, both of your characters.
Speaker:I think you could do two each.
Speaker:No, I'm gonna do all of them for both of you because I can do that.
Speaker:We all, all three of us, have a car.
Speaker:All three of us really don't like getting shot with bullets.
Speaker:And all three of us are completely in love with Johnny Hertz.
Speaker:These are some seriously deep observations of the similarities between us.
Speaker:Stu's in a throuple.
Speaker:I didn't know that.
Speaker:He's in a throuple with our characters.
Speaker:I like that question because, like we've said probably eight times now, you guys are usually so opposite for very specific answers, but this one was like, hey, what do you have in common?
Speaker:After all that disagreement.
Speaker:And that's six things.
Speaker:That's six things we have in common.
Speaker:That's a lot.
Speaker:That's more than most.
Speaker:I have a book snook that I would like to do, but I don't know if we should do it this episode.
Speaker:Well, it's book snook, so fucking stay in your lane, dude.
Speaker:I was going to steal a book snook.
Speaker:I'm totally getting.
Speaker:Please, please.
Speaker:No, take it away.
Speaker:Welcome everybody to book snook.
Speaker:Jacob has a book to nook.
Speaker:I have a apocalyptic media that I have recently been reading a lot of that I think is pretty darn cool, but it's a little different than your formal normal type of media, like a book or thing like that.
Speaker:It's an RPG setting.
Speaker:It's another RPG like Apocalypse World and Dungeons and Dragons.
Speaker:It is called, well, I guess, have either of you guys heard of Eclipse Phase?
Speaker:Nope.
Speaker:No, it sounds a little familiar, but I don't think so.
Speaker:So it's a pretty cool, most apocalyptic, futuristic kind of setting.
Speaker:So its whole gimmick is that humanity has kind of figured out how to kind of like jump consciousness.
Speaker:Like, so everyone has like something called a cortical stack that they have in their head that they can like digitally upload their consciousness either to a computer or to another body or all kinds of different things.
Speaker:And so it explores that as well as different forms of like AI and all kinds of crazy wild stuff.
Speaker:But what makes it post apocalyptic is that it takes place after the fall of mankind in a big massive event where all these big AI beings that we created to kind of like help control our society ended up going rogue, Skynet style and blowing us all to pieces.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:And creating some kind of strange virus, hence the eclipse phase part of the name, that is transmitted by sight, sound, touch, and even looking at things will transmit the virus.
Speaker:And it could drive you crazy and do all kinds of weird things.
Speaker:It can give you psychic powers, which is like the rarest way it happens.
Speaker:But most of the times it mutates you in weird ways and saps your brain.
Speaker:Dude, I demand that we play this as the prequel explaining this apocalypse.
Speaker:Yeah, it's like the psychic powers, the psychic maelstrom, it kind of lines up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I know it sounds very interesting.
Speaker:How is the actual like game system?
Speaker:So you see the game system is pretty cool.
Speaker:Basically, what happens is you roll some dice, and if you roll a certain number, you do the thing.
Speaker:I have no idea how the game is played.
Speaker:I'll be 100% honest with you.
Speaker:I've only been reading this setting.
Speaker:I was white-knuckled following you on that.
Speaker:I was like, yeah, and then and then.
Speaker:No, I think it's D100 based, but that's really all I know.
Speaker:But the setting looks like similar to like Call of Cthulhu, if you're very brief looking into it.
Speaker:But they have this cool mechanic.
Speaker:This is from Wikipedia, so who knows how good this is.
Speaker:But when you roll any double like 11, 22 or 33, it counts as a crit.
Speaker:Oh, that's kind of cool.
Speaker:Oh, interesting.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:But yeah, I just brought them wanted to bring that up because it's a really cool setting.
Speaker:And I think that's we've we've explored all kinds of different media, but RPG settings in an RPG podcast seem like it was pretty fitting.
Speaker:Yeah, I really wouldn't want to talk to somebody about it because it's such a cool setting.
Speaker:And it's got some twists that I will not spoil for people who potentially may be interesting in running a game.
Speaker:But in the back of the book, there's actually a set of secrets for the GM that reveals some reasons for things that have occurred for the GM.
Speaker:So sprinkle in his flavor for the players.
Speaker:They're doing all my work for me.
Speaker:I dig that.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Thank you for venturing into Booksnook.
Speaker:Is there more, Brady?
Speaker:Stay tuned for next week's Booksnook of Booktakes, where we'll talk about Sweet Tooth Season 2.
Speaker:Yeah, so Sweet Tooth Season 2, I haven't watched it yet, but it just came out on Netflix, and Season 1 was pretty good.
Speaker:And you're going to watch it all in a week?
Speaker:Tell us about it.
Speaker:Probably.
Speaker:I think we should all watch it, or at least an episode.
Speaker:I've been wanting to watch it, but I'm so terrified Netflix is going to cancel it, so that's why I haven't dedicated myself to watching it yet.
Speaker:Did you?
Speaker:Well, let's talk about it.
Speaker:I was just going to ask if you read the comic, but we'll talk about it next week.
Speaker:Oh, spoiler!
Speaker:Spoiler to the chat for next week.
Speaker:That is a definitely occurring next week.
Speaker:And with that, let's get back to the action.
Speaker:Book.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:You are on your back, water rushing over you.
Speaker:You thought you heard some strange skittering sounds.
Speaker:You thought you just saw a pair of eyes.
Speaker:Do the skittering sounds sound familiar?
Speaker:Well, now you just hear rushing water, and you start feeling a lot of small little pinpricks all over your body.
Speaker:Because it's dirty water, I assume.
Speaker:Maybe.
Speaker:OK, that's fun.
Speaker:Or is it fucking parasitic water?
Speaker:I'm gonna stop speculating.
Speaker:His self-preservation instincts kick in.
Speaker:I try to sit up to get the spotlight out of water so that I can see what's going on.
Speaker:Give me an act under fire roll.
Speaker:I'm under fire?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Should I be reading a situation then?
Speaker:Nope, not yet.
Speaker:If you say ten, I swear.
Speaker:Yeah, that's a fourteen.
Speaker:So you got a natural twelve?
Speaker:I did get a natural twelve.
Speaker:We roll 2d6s here, everyone.
Speaker:I don't think we've acknowledged that yet.
Speaker:We mentioned it briefly in the intro episodes, but you roll 2d6, in general, zero to six fails.
Speaker:Seven to nine is a medium success where you do it, but there's some sort of complication.
Speaker:And ten plus is generally a complete and full success.
Speaker:Something like a fourteen is nearly unheard of, and he does it to perfection.
Speaker:You sit up.
Speaker:Fuck yeah.
Speaker:Mission accomplished.
Speaker:No, you sit up, you pull the light out, and it flickers for a second.
Speaker:But when you hit it on the side, it re-illuminates and beams forward.
Speaker:You've been pushed back down the tunnel you came from a little bit, so you actually can't see around the bin to where you thought you saw those eyes.
Speaker:Spooky.
Speaker:But what you do realize right now, are there a bunch of very small, strange bugs that are crawling up your arms?
Speaker:Some of them are like on your feet.
Speaker:It's all where you were under water.
Speaker:Most of them were on your arms and legs, but there are a few.
Speaker:It seems like they're all trying to get higher, like maybe out of the water, or at least higher up towards your face.
Speaker:Book does not like this one bit, so I start swatting, brushing the bugs off of me, trying to shake them off.
Speaker:I'm trying to get all my, like, I got my arms behind my back to make sure there's not any on my back.
Speaker:I'm in my hair, mushing my hair, trying to get all the bugs off me.
Speaker:Give me an attack someone roll.
Speaker:I knew you were going to say that.
Speaker:God.
Speaker:This is technically actually going to be doing battle.
Speaker:It's the same roll of plus hard, but it's also while under fire.
Speaker:I got an eight.
Speaker:No, I got an eight minus one, so I got a seven.
Speaker:Partial success.
Speaker:You get a seven or nine both on attack someone and act under fire when you get a seven on this roll.
Speaker:I didn't roll for act under fire.
Speaker:That's how doing battle works.
Speaker:You roll one hard roll, and on a seven to nine, you hit both attack someone and act under fire.
Speaker:Oh, I didn't realize I was under fire.
Speaker:Okay, you get to choose one of those effects under attack someone with a seven to nine success.
Speaker:You have to choose either inflict terrible harm, seize hold of something, get something out of your way, impress, frighten or dismay them, or pin them down.
Speaker:I'm going to dismay the bugs.
Speaker:I would like to...
Speaker:What's the...
Speaker:Do I know the health of the bugs?
Speaker:Don't know it, but there are many of them, but you're dealing with them kind of as a swarm.
Speaker:And as you're brushing them off, you see they are fully symmetrical, which is weird.
Speaker:There's not like a front way, but both sides of them kind of taper into two long, very thin looking like thorns.
Speaker:Hate that.
Speaker:Ovipositors basically, like the backside of crickets, you know?
Speaker:It's like that on both sides, but sharper.
Speaker:Okay, so I'm going to choose get them out of your way, because that describes you knock them down, drive them away or fight past them.
Speaker:I would like to drive them away.
Speaker:Yeah, you go brushing them against off of your back, trying to turn around, reach the hard parts.
Speaker:The last ones on you seem like they're like trying to crawl into your tear ducts, but you're able to pinch them away at like the last second and throw them back into the water.
Speaker:And you jump out of the amount of flowing water right now.
Speaker:It seems like they're mostly water borne.
Speaker:So now that you have all of them off of you, and you can kind of stand on the side, you are okay for now.
Speaker:Ew.
Speaker:You certainly didn't kill them all when you were like trying to smash them.
Speaker:They're pretty hardy, kind of like a good roach.
Speaker:Disgusting.
Speaker:A roach trying to crawl into your tear ducts.
Speaker:I didn't like that they were on my face.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, no, they were all trying to get up there, but only a couple of them like started sinking their little pointy boys into your tear ducts.
Speaker:So don't worry.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:You do take one armor-piercing harm.
Speaker:Why is it armor-piercing harm?
Speaker:Because they were bugs and because my armor is a cane?
Speaker:Refuse to answer that question.
Speaker:So, Book leaning on his cane because his shoulder is still fucked up and he now has pinpricks all over his body.
Speaker:Yeah, it's like a burning everywhere, like when you go through a field with a bunch of thorns in it.
Speaker:Have any of you sprinted through a cornfield without a shirt on before?
Speaker:Well, not without a shirt.
Speaker:Stu, what the fuck were you doing?
Speaker:Running from something.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:But you get a bunch of little tiny cuts all over.
Speaker:It's like that.
Speaker:You have this kind of burning, itching...
Speaker:Okay, so now that I've gotten rid of those fucking disgusting little fucks, I'm going to start sweeping the spotlight around me again to make sure that nothing's creeping up on me.
Speaker:Okay, give me a read a charged situation roll.
Speaker:Guard.
Speaker:I don't know how this keeps happening, but I got another eight, which means it's a ten.
Speaker:Okay, you get to ask me three of those questions.
Speaker:Stu, I would like to know, what should I be on the lookout for?
Speaker:I would also like to know what represents the biggest threat to me.
Speaker:And also, I don't know what else I want to know.
Speaker:What represents the best opportunity for me to get past the water that's flowing towards me?
Speaker:Because I'm still trying to advance towards that corner where I think Ocean went to hunt down that thing.
Speaker:And you do here, in front of you, as that water seems to be dying down, that specific bulkhead seems to be closing.
Speaker:The water starts slowing down a little bit.
Speaker:It starts kind of equalizing around your feet that you're kind of straddling this flow.
Speaker:With the reduction in flow, you're able to hear that skittering again on the other side.
Speaker:And you do hear that telltale sound that you recall from before of fingernails on a chalkboard that are just scraping against the side of the walls.
Speaker:As this mechanism is closing up, you notice that one about eight feet behind you is starting to make some strange noises.
Speaker:So you think this is kind of answering both of your questions with one connected fact, but you deduce that these bulkheads open in sequence, and it's opening behind you right now.
Speaker:So to progress forward, you're just basically gonna have to wait for this first one to close and that other one to go.
Speaker:You will be at some risk of that, again, flowing more water towards you, but you're going in the right direction for that if there wasn't some sort of horrific monster in the way.
Speaker:Right, right, right.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:You should be out, sorry, to be more concrete.
Speaker:The biggest threat is the monster.
Speaker:What you should be on the lookout for is the second bulkhead that's going to be opening up, and your best opportunity to move forward is to wait for this one to close and that other one to open up before you continue on.
Speaker:Gotcha.
Speaker:So with that in mind, Book is pretty sure that the salad fingers, that's not salad fingers, according to Stu, so the top half Goku, bottom half salad fingers, with the nails of salad fingers and the face of salad fingers, so it's pretty much just a jacked salad fingers too, is a head.
Speaker:So I'm going to take the machine pistol out of my holster, and I'm going to basically...
Speaker:Which shoulder did I get shot in, actually?
Speaker:It grazed one of your traps, I think.
Speaker:We'll say it's your off hand.
Speaker:It grazed your left shoulder.
Speaker:Okay, so I'm going to hold the cane in my left hand with the end pointing forward.
Speaker:I'm going to rest my dominant hand, my right hand, holding the gun basically on top of that left hand, so that I have a way to kind of push the thing away from me, and hopefully I won't have to shoot it.
Speaker:And I'm going to advance forward and peer around.
Speaker:I'm going to wait for that bulkhead to close, the one behind me to open.
Speaker:I'm going to advance forward and try to avoid any more bugs.
Speaker:Okay, this sounds like it's taking up a lot of your hands.
Speaker:What's the light doing right now?
Speaker:You just letting it flash as it may, dangling around your neck.
Speaker:So it's it's it's I'm picturing it like literally mounted on top of my shoulder pointed forward.
Speaker:But that means that I am okay.
Speaker:You don't have much control over it, basically.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I don't have much control over it, but it's still pointing generally forward.
Speaker:That's fine with me.
Speaker:So it's pointed forward and also that light my arms are probably blocking some of the light.
Speaker:I should say that light splashes against the bulkhead in front of you as you watch it close up.
Speaker:As you advance around this corner, are you trying to remain hidden in any way?
Speaker:Or are you slicing the pie?
Speaker:I'm going to get on basically the far side of the sewer from this corner so that I am maximizing the distance between me and the opening when I turn.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So you hop around the corner right as this bulkhead closes.
Speaker:You hear that other one starting to open up and you see this light shines in front of you.
Speaker:It's about six feet away from you.
Speaker:Your good friend, Mr.
Speaker:Pokefingers, is staring right into your face and you see its mouth starting to do that horrific opening motion again as it spreads apart like a grilled cheese sandwich.
Speaker:Do I?
Speaker:And we'll jump back over to Ocean.
Speaker:Sucker.
Speaker:Ocean.
Speaker:You are staring down this long alleyway, and you see this humanoid figure with a very futuristic looking helmet with these large, perfectly circular red disks on them.
Speaker:Okay, so I'm in the alley.
Speaker:They pointed directly at me, right?
Speaker:Yes, they clearly see you.
Speaker:It looks like they may have been talking or motioning to someone else and point directly at you.
Speaker:How far away?
Speaker:So how big is this alley?
Speaker:They are pretty far away down the side.
Speaker:It's probably like three buildings.
Speaker:Three buildings?
Speaker:So yeah, like almost a quarter of a mile.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Are the buildings I'm near actually like big, tall, multi-story buildings or is it mostly just like little mom and pop shops that I'm nearby?
Speaker:It's definitely multi-story, but not like skyscrapers.
Speaker:These are all like five or six stories tall.
Speaker:But they're all also dilapidated and falling apart.
Speaker:So some may have been six and are now one or point five.
Speaker:I am going to duck into another building.
Speaker:I'm going to duck in.
Speaker:So I'm looking down the alley.
Speaker:I see them.
Speaker:They pulled up.
Speaker:At the end of the alley, they pulled forward.
Speaker:I see them get out.
Speaker:They're pointing to me in the end.
Speaker:I'm going to duck into a building to my left.
Speaker:You dive into this building.
Speaker:Are you trying to hide or get away?
Speaker:I'm trying to get away.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So you're moving quick.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Give me a try something challenging.
Speaker:Goddamn.
Speaker:Four.
Speaker:Why can't I have Brady's dice?
Speaker:God, I'm so jealous.
Speaker:Tens and twelves and fourteens.
Speaker:And I'm like, fours, twos, threes.
Speaker:You cut into this building, and this building is like, this one's done, all been scooped out.
Speaker:It's basically just four walls.
Speaker:So you keep running through it, and you hit up a parallel alleyway.
Speaker:So you look down one side and you see another one of those hummers come and park at the end of that alleyway.
Speaker:And as you turn and start running in the other direction, you see another one park at the end of this alleyway.
Speaker:It seems like they are surrounding all of the exits to this.
Speaker:I'm going to say this is like a four by four city block that you're in the middle of right now.
Speaker:And it looks like they're trying to block all the alleyways and entrance roads.
Speaker:So right now there are a lot of them.
Speaker:So like you've seen at least like six vehicles that have at least one person in it.
Speaker:I'll have guns and these big red eyes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:OK, I'm going to try something strange here.
Speaker:So I know that I was near the big wolf tower that we were at, right?
Speaker:Theoretically, and then it started disappearing.
Speaker:I know that book.
Speaker:I think Ocean thinks he knows that book is in the big wolf tower, and he knows the wolves have something to do with the psychic maelstrom.
Speaker:So Ocean is going to open his mind to the psychic maelstrom.
Speaker:Oh, fuck it.
Speaker:And try and see if he can call the wolves to him.
Speaker:Let's see your weird roll.
Speaker:I don't think you're particularly good at weird, right?
Speaker:I have plus one weird, actually.
Speaker:OK, plus one weird.
Speaker:Make sure they stay randomized here, because I've been rolling a lot of fours and fives.
Speaker:I don't think dude, that's been randomized here.
Speaker:OK, that's actually really good.
Speaker:That's a 12.
Speaker:A 12.
Speaker:That's a 12.
Speaker:OK, we have not experienced you opening your mind to the Psychic Maelstrom yet.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:So as we mentioned like eight episodes ago, it's different for every individual.
Speaker:What do you think the Psychic Maelstrom looks like for Ocean?
Speaker:So Ocean is going to close his eyes.
Speaker:And you know, he's got like a lot of thoughts going on.
Speaker:He's left like panicking, freaking out.
Speaker:He's got all those fears of him being violent.
Speaker:He's got a lot of things going through his mind right now.
Speaker:He's looking for a book.
Speaker:But he's going to clear his head.
Speaker:He's going to take some deep breaths and clear his mind.
Speaker:And he is going to picture just a bright light that he's going to picture that bright light that he saw in his dreams, that his vision, that bright green object.
Speaker:No, he's just going to picture it as like a pulsating slowly to like focus it on.
Speaker:OK, this light overcomes your vision and you this through each pulsing.
Speaker:It's like it almost echo locations out through this city block.
Speaker:And your brain opens up and you get a perfect mapping of all of the routes in this area.
Speaker:You can see within the buildings what parts lead to other buildings.
Speaker:You pinpoint.
Speaker:You can tell that there's exactly seven of these humvees blocking these different exits, and you know exactly where they're at.
Speaker:And you look up to where you would expect that tower to be, and you see it, and it looks...
Speaker:You wouldn't know this, but it looks almost exactly like when Book opens his mind to the psychic maelstrom, how there's this large tower with this huge light on the top of it beaming outward at him.
Speaker:You see a vision of that with the eye just darting around the sky, almost like a lighthouse.
Speaker:But you still have your mind open.
Speaker:So since you rolled a full success, I guess that hasn't happened yet, so we should talk about what happened.
Speaker:I don't think we've succeeded on any of these yet.
Speaker:On a 10 plus hit, you can try to control it and or interrogate it, but on a 7 to 9, you're just along for the ride.
Speaker:Wow, that's a...
Speaker:That's very vague.
Speaker:Yeah, but so when you first open your mind, that's what it spoke back to you.
Speaker:It spoke to you kind of these routes to safety, yeah, and where these individuals were.
Speaker:So you can try to interrogate it further or you can try to do anything else.
Speaker:Okay, I'm going to try and interrogate it more.
Speaker:I'm going to try and get more information about these people that are after me.
Speaker:And do I sense Book's presence anywhere with this vision?
Speaker:You feel like there is actually some connection between the tower and these individuals.
Speaker:You visualize it as this string connected from the top of this tower, like sparkling with electricity going all the way down into the backs of the heads of all these different people.
Speaker:Like there is some sort of connection between them and that tower.
Speaker:And you feel that Book is in the bottom floor of that tower.
Speaker:Okay, that's bizarre.
Speaker:I was not expecting the tower to have something to do with these people.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:I love that they're in Hummers, H2s.
Speaker:And I picture every H2 with like a sort of like a Carolina blue color because every H2 I've ever seen was that color.
Speaker:All the ones in Virginia were yellow.
Speaker:Yellow is the ones that I've seen.
Speaker:100% yellow or black.
Speaker:Wow, that's interesting.
Speaker:Okay, so am I, how long do I stay in the psychic maelstrom?
Speaker:Is that just me until I close my mouth off?
Speaker:Until you try to snap out of it, but it's, this is not a, even though you rolled a full success, it's not like, ooh, this is a great place to be.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:So, you're able to interact with it in the way you can right now, but that doesn't mean there won't be dangerous things while your brain is open to the psychic maelstrom.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Ocean is going to start veering towards the tower.
Speaker:He's going to, with the route that they were sent him, he's going to try and navigate a route through these buildings using the brain map that is currently being beamed into his head on the best way to get to this tower without encountering any of these humvees.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Give me A.
Speaker:Act under fire with advantage.
Speaker:Act under fire with advantage.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That is going to...
Speaker:And advantage is you pick the higher of the two dice, right?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So that is going to be an 11.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:That is a full success.
Speaker:You see this vision open up in your mind, and you just follow it.
Speaker:It's almost like a Superman for the N64 series of rings that you run through.
Speaker:What a great game to compare this to.
Speaker:You know exactly the steps you need to make.
Speaker:And it's not just like, oh, a straightforward, this alleyway and then another one.
Speaker:It goes through these buildings.
Speaker:You have to like climb up to the second story of one that's starting to collapse, break through a bathroom, go down through this floor that you happen to know is almost rotted away.
Speaker:You just whack it like once with your shovel and it collapses down.
Speaker:You jump down to the bottom floor and you sprint out right when you feel like these, do you feel in the back of your mind that these H2s are starting to rotate around to where they would catch you?
Speaker:You get out just in time, book it across the corner to another building, and as you dive behind it, you see the Hummers kind of rotate, stop, and a bunch of people get out and start scoping the area that you were around before.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You think from what you see right now, they would have no reason to believe you're not still in there somewhere.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I am going to, while I'm going to still make my way to the tower, I'm going to kind of run that way.
Speaker:But I want to try and interrogate the Psychic Maelstrom one more time before pulling myself out of it.
Speaker:Ocean wants to know whether these guys are being controlled by the tower or if either just connected to the tower.
Speaker:Ooh, give me a Sway Someone roll.
Speaker:Sway Somebody.
Speaker:That's a seven.
Speaker:As you're...
Speaker:Are you still like sprinting full speed to this tower, or are you trying now that you're out of there?
Speaker:He's going to still be trying to make it to the tower because he doesn't want to slow down and get caught.
Speaker:Okay, as you're running towards the tower, you look up at these wires that are still in your vision connecting the top of this tower down to each of these individuals.
Speaker:From this perspective, it looks like almost this coil coming out and then splitting at the bottom, reaching all these people who are now sweeping this series of blocks for you.
Speaker:And you see this kind of flow of information going through it.
Speaker:You feel like there's some sort of information coming directly from this tower into their brains, is at least how it's represented in the Psychic Maelstrom.
Speaker:There's a few ways that could be interpreted.
Speaker:Dang!
Speaker:Yeah, that's why it's a Nick's success.
Speaker:So is the tower sending them commands and they're listening, or are they just using the tower in the same way that I am and just using it as a big ol GPS, essentially?
Speaker:Like a psychic GPS?
Speaker:Give me a Act Under Fire roll.
Speaker:I dropped my dice on the floor.
Speaker:Oh god, that was a really good roll too.
Speaker:I'm gonna roll it again even though, because I dropped it.
Speaker:Those are the rules that we all follow.
Speaker:That's gonna be another seven.
Speaker:You're running, you finally, you can, this whole time you've been able to see this building even through other buildings that you're in.
Speaker:It's been kind of the central focus point, always on, even on when it seems like it should be out of your periphery, it's like you can still see it out there.
Speaker:And now it's right in front of you.
Speaker:There's no buildings blocking the way, and you're about to run out into the street, but you stop just in time, as you notice, prowling around the third floor of this building.
Speaker:There are these balconies, and you see those same, well, you didn't see them very clearly before, but you see one of those wolves that you saw a flash of that looks exactly like how Book described it to you.
Speaker:You see a series of them prowling around the outskirts of some of the balconies on this tower, and you think if you just ran into this opening, they would certainly be able to see you.
Speaker:And they look like they're on alert for some reason.
Speaker:Like they know someone's coming.
Speaker:It's not like this is just their standard behavior.
Speaker:They are.
Speaker:You've been around some dogs.
Speaker:They're prowling.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Their ears are up.
Speaker:I think at this point, I'm now going to try and shut my brain off from the psychic maelstrom.
Speaker:How are you going to try to do that?
Speaker:He's going to visualize that light again, and he's going to visualize it like pulsing and getting dimmer and dimmer and dimmer until it turns off and everything just goes dark.
Speaker:And then all of his memories and thoughts and stresses just flow back into him.
Speaker:Flow back into you, and as they do, I'm going to have you have a vision.
Speaker:Ah!
Speaker:Is this a moment of transition, or is this using two?
Speaker:That's the question.
Speaker:I think this is using two.
Speaker:It's almost a moment of transition, but we are going to literally transition over to Book while you think of what visions you want.
Speaker:Cool, cool, cool, cool.
Speaker:Hey, Melted Cheesehead is opening his mouth several feet away from you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Do I see any signs?
Speaker:Like, do I see any other bodies?
Speaker:Any signs that Ocean might be down here?
Speaker:Do I see, like, any signs of struggle?
Speaker:Things like that.
Speaker:You are not going to have much time to look.
Speaker:I'm going to say, how do you want to do that?
Speaker:I'm going to try to...
Speaker:Is it, like, keeping your eyes on him and just seeing, trying to see if there's anything else aware or...
Speaker:I'm going to basically try to keep my shoulders steady as possible and aim that light.
Speaker:I'm going to try to aim that light at him while I, like, basically use my peripheral vision and just kind of dart my eyes around and see what I can see.
Speaker:You're going to hate this, but I think this is a try something challenge.
Speaker:I don't hate that.
Speaker:I think that's fair.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:That's fitting.
Speaker:I got a four.
Speaker:You go and look around, and you see there is some blood on the wall, and you're trying to see where it flows to.
Speaker:And as you look away for a second, your light completely goes out.
Speaker:And as you hear this shattering sound, this monster has lunged forward, and those fingers are even longer than you remember.
Speaker:And he has completely shattered the light bulb inside of it.
Speaker:It is now pitch black.
Speaker:Zero light is in here.
Speaker:Oh, fuck.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:Well, I can't shoot what I can't see.
Speaker:Not well.
Speaker:Oh, man.
Speaker:And you hear this snapping of skin, as you know his mouth is opening wider and wider.
Speaker:And those little connective tissues are popping, popping, popping.
Speaker:So, Jacob, genuinely, this was my plan for how I was going to handle if things turned bad here.
Speaker:So don't be offended.
Speaker:But, Book, knowing that he has basically no chance of fighting against this thing in the dark, and seeing, thinking of the viscera that he kind of waded through to get here, and knowing the damage that this monster can do, knowing that he is powerless to stop it, is going to open his mind to the psychic maelstrom, and howl at the top of his lungs, both inside of his brain and, for real, in IRL.
Speaker:Oh, that's so interesting.
Speaker:OK, I like that a lot.
Speaker:I liked it because I was like, at first I was like, oh shit, this is going to sound so tacky because I'm just copying you, but then I was like, you know what, this is good because it has like a mirror.
Speaker:No, it's highs, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, it mirrors.
Speaker:There's all...
Speaker:OK, give me an open your mind roll.
Speaker:All right, that's plus weird.
Speaker:Please be good.
Speaker:That was an eight, actually.
Speaker:You let go this howl.
Speaker:And Ocean, two days in the future, you hear it on your head.
Speaker:Oh, that would actually be really cool if that was actually what happened.
Speaker:The echoes of my psychic howl are still reverberating in Subtropolis.
Speaker:So as you open your mind, last time you did it, you saw this big shining light on you.
Speaker:But right now, it's just silence.
Speaker:You don't even know if it really worked.
Speaker:You hear reverberating down the tunnels, that echo, and it just keeps getting quieter and quieter.
Speaker:You hear it coming from further and further away.
Speaker:Echoing, echoing, echoing.
Speaker:And then it seems like the echo starts getting louder and louder, and then it's a little different pitch.
Speaker:And you realize that that isn't your voice that's echoing, and that there are Wolves of the Maelstrom approaching.
Speaker:Hey everybody, thank you so much for listening this week.
Speaker:As always, you can reach out to us at oops at stu.cool with any questions and or comments.
Speaker:Please go ahead and find any podcatcher you use that lets you rate things and give us that full good five stars with a very nice comment in the review.
Speaker:As always, the music and editing is performed by Stu Masterson.
Speaker:Brady makes the art and stuff.
Speaker:And Jacob begins every sentence by saying, I was just about to say.
Speaker:Join us next Wednesday for another fun.
