Episode 5
Episode 5: Hurt by Nine Inch Nails
Halfway out of the sewers, Book and Ocean try to make it back to Hamlet Opening with their mysterious device. Book tries to make a friend.
This one is mostly underground manicures and art criticism.
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Transcript
Welcome to Oops!
Speaker:All Apocalypses, a show where we explore the collapse of society by playing fun, tabletop role playing games.
Speaker:I'm your host, Stu Masterson, and I'm joined with two of my very good friends.
Speaker:Hey everybody, I am Brady, I play Book McCready, a compassionate detective type who just got a little bit weirder.
Speaker:And I'm Jacob, and I'm playing Ocean, a gentle giant who has maybe too much faith in the good nature of local warlords.
Speaker:I forget how good both of your guys' names are until we get introduced each time.
Speaker:I love Book and Ocean.
Speaker:They're just so powerful.
Speaker:Both names you wouldn't expect to, both things you wouldn't really see in the Apocalypses, I imagine, this far off in the future.
Speaker:Agreed.
Speaker:It's also fitting just because, like, Book is such a fucking nerd, and Ocean, like the Ocean, is generally very serene or looks very serene, but has power underneath, power in its depths.
Speaker:Yeah, but underneath that surface, there's an entire giant squid ready to just...
Speaker:gobble up everyone else.
Speaker:One day that will be relevant.
Speaker:Ready to not be able to do anything under the force of gravity.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We've gotten even more positive feedback on these questions to ask.
Speaker:One thing everyone's asking about, though, they're like, yeah, we love these characters, Book and Ocean, but what about Stu's answers to all these questions?
Speaker:We do.
Speaker:Why can't we fall in love with Stu?
Speaker:Why can't we fall in love with him?
Speaker:So I'm just going to quickly go.
Speaker:If I could have any dinner guest, Gnome Chomsky.
Speaker:And if I would like to be famous in what way?
Speaker:Yes, I would like to be famous for this specific podcast.
Speaker:Okay, next question.
Speaker:There's zero chance of that.
Speaker:What we're going to ask, thank you.
Speaker:What we're going to ask today is, before making a telephone call, do Book and Ocean ever rehearse what they're going to say?
Speaker:And if so, why do they do that?
Speaker:Why do you do that?
Speaker:Because I know both of you do in real life.
Speaker:What is a telephone?
Speaker:Book wants to know what a telephone is.
Speaker:You guys have walkie talkies, so before you go and buzz someone up, before you next tell chirp someone where you're blip blip, do you think about what you're going to say before you blip?
Speaker:Yeah, Book does.
Speaker:He tries to be very strategic about what he says.
Speaker:He's not always successful, but he tries to be very strategic.
Speaker:Do you try to present yourself in the way you do?
Speaker:Is that something that you're cognizant of?
Speaker:Is this like a Sherlock, Doctor House kind of situation where they're kind of just weird?
Speaker:Or do you like have, are you a Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion coming in super gay trying to throw people off their trail?
Speaker:I think Book has read enough books to have a concept of what...
Speaker:He has role models that he wants to emulate.
Speaker:A big one is Hercule Poirot, and I think that he likes that energy.
Speaker:I think he tries to emulate that.
Speaker:I think that he is still learning how to successfully manipulate people in the way that Poirot can.
Speaker:I see that.
Speaker:He's still young.
Speaker:He's not quite that Poirot.
Speaker:I'm also just not good at that.
Speaker:So like my character can't be because...
Speaker:Yeah, that's good.
Speaker:That's why you made your character so young and naive.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Ocean, when you're doing those blips at people, do you plan it out or do you just start talking?
Speaker:He plans it out pretty extensively.
Speaker:He role plays the whole conversation in his head multiple times in advance.
Speaker:Does he stick to that when he talks?
Speaker:He tries.
Speaker:I imagine probably even if the other person...
Speaker:I imagine he tries his best to stick with it, even if the other person goes off his imagined script.
Speaker:So they start talking about something else, he tries to steer the subject back to when he's rehearsed, because he is not the most socially inclined.
Speaker:So I feel like he has a difficult time improving conversations.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I'm pretty good at improving conversations, but I think I would normally answer yes to this.
Speaker:But thinking about it, I absolutely don't do this.
Speaker:So I think I've just been lying to myself for 20 years because I don't like phone calls.
Speaker:I've been like, yeah, I'm the type of person who would go through it in my head.
Speaker:I really don't.
Speaker:But you're also so good at it.
Speaker:That's like knowing you from a professional.
Speaker:Well, yeah.
Speaker:Like, no, literally, genuinely bullshit, but not it.
Speaker:But it's never it's never complete bullshit.
Speaker:It's it's usually very well informed.
Speaker:Are you guys ready for a new segment?
Speaker:Oh, yes.
Speaker:A new segment.
Speaker:Is this going to be the or the abdomen?
Speaker:It's going to be the head.
Speaker:Welcome to Books Nook of Book Takes Books Nook of Book Takes.
Speaker:That rolls off.
Speaker:Books Nook of Book Takes.
Speaker:Alternatively, just Books Nook.
Speaker:This sounds like something you prepared beforehand.
Speaker:Literally five minutes beforehand.
Speaker:So I wanted to use this opportunity and kind of jump on current media that's coming out that's apocalypse related.
Speaker:So I don't know if either of you have been watching The Last of Us on HBO.
Speaker:Not yet.
Speaker:But I wanted to take a minute just to talk about it because we are Oops!
Speaker:All Apocalypses.
Speaker:I wanted to take a minute to acknowledge the other apocalypses that are out there in the media.
Speaker:The entirety of what I've watched is the intro segment of the two scientists talking about a fungus based future that was going to destroy us all because of global warming.
Speaker:And that part was pretty spooky.
Speaker:How realistic do you think this apocalypse is though, if you had to get it on a scale of one to ten?
Speaker:I don't think it's going to happen in our lifetime.
Speaker:And by the logic of every generation that's come before us, that means I don't have to worry about it.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:I think logically, I don't think the real-life fungus that it's based off of has any kind of like merits of being able to infect human beings from like what I was like reading about it.
Speaker:So I think like the basis behind the science is kind of cool behind the apocalypse, but I just I don't think it's realistic.
Speaker:I think it's definitely stretched.
Speaker:Not everyone can have a level of realism that we have.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:We're grippingly realistic.
Speaker:So yeah, about the time scale of this apocalypse, he's saying it's not in our life.
Speaker:There's a theory that statistically, you're about halfway through from the advent of whatever's gonna kill you to it actually ending the world.
Speaker:I have a theory that's a little bit more fucked up than that, which is that because of quantum physics at the macro level, we will never observe ourselves being destroyed by a world ending event, because then there would be no one there to observe it.
Speaker:So the only reason that we haven't had an extinction level event, like the dinosaurs experience with tsunamis and volcanoes and meteors is because if that did happen, there would be no humans left to observe it.
Speaker:So, you know, the collective consciousness of humanity is preserving us because we can only perceive the possibilities.
Speaker:We can only perceive the futures where those things don't happen.
Speaker:Oh, we're getting real esoteric here.
Speaker:Same thing for why we haven't encountered aliens.
Speaker:Yeah, this is books ganja grove.
Speaker:So you're saying I'm invincible.
Speaker:Yeah, in your for your for your consciousness, for your consciousness, yes, you could never perceive yourself dying.
Speaker:But other people absolutely can.
Speaker:Like, I've heard something about like quantum immortality or something like that's what the concept is or something like that.
Speaker:In the middle of COVID, I had a panic attack because I was like, there's a very good chance that not only I am dead to everyone I love, but there's an even better chance that I was never born to everyone that I love.
Speaker:Because no one was observing anyone?
Speaker:Well, no, but like the consciousnesses of them, their consciousnesses that exist the longest are the ones where I never existed in all likelihood.
Speaker:Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker:Because there's an infinite combination of people that they could have created, that my parents could have created.
Speaker:Anyway, I had a major panic attack and I called one of my buddies and I was like, hey man, am I real?
Speaker:I'm freaking out.
Speaker:And he was like, literally, he was like, that's stupid.
Speaker:And stop thinking about it.
Speaker:Did that work?
Speaker:That was the least helpful thing you could have said.
Speaker:But eventually I played enough video games to forget about it for a while.
Speaker:There's a game, actually, that kind of deals with that premise called Soma.
Speaker:Have you ever played Soma?
Speaker:I haven't.
Speaker:This sounds like some of these nuts.
Speaker:So it's a game like it's a like it's like one of those survival horror things.
Speaker:It's more of like a walking simulator horror game.
Speaker:One of the big concepts in the game is like cloning yourself.
Speaker:How the game plays with it is like your current consciousness.
Speaker:It's basically like a coin flip, whether you're like the being that the consciousness you're experiencing right now is the consciousness of the original or the clone.
Speaker:And it gets really weird about it towards the end.
Speaker:And it's kind of related, kind of not.
Speaker:But the video game that I was playing is called Outer Wilds, and it's just this beautiful.
Speaker:Oh, I've been wanting to play that for a long time.
Speaker:Beautiful indie film.
Speaker:And it helped me get over the death of my dog or get through the death of my dog and also the existential crisis that I had soon after.
Speaker:Well, I'm glad that you said have such high praises because that is a game I've been wanting to play for a long time.
Speaker:It's fantastic.
Speaker:Yeah, I won't spoil it then.
Speaker:Welcome back to the ramblings of three insane men.
Speaker:I'm your host.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:New podcast starting now.
Speaker:But now that we're a half hour in, thank you both for joining me at in a book snook.
Speaker:I appreciate you wasting time before starting this podcast.
Speaker:Stu, I'll let you take it away now.
Speaker:It's a great waste of time.
Speaker:I enjoyed it.
Speaker:Well, with that short venture into book snook, which sounds way more sexual than I was hoping, we're now going to move on back to the story.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Last time, Book, you were staring down the face of some sort of subterranean creature, everything down here is subterranean.
Speaker:That's not a good descriptor.
Speaker:Some sort of sewer creature that was scraping its nails along the side.
Speaker:You had heard him quite a while ago, but you finally get your first glimpse of him just as Ocean is out of the protecting rage of you.
Speaker:You see your spotlight was held up for just a second and it revealed this face staring back at you with a mouth that looks to be almost sewn or melted shut and some long fingers with terrifyingly disgusting fingernails reaching around the corner.
Speaker:It is about a block away from you, a tenth of a mile.
Speaker:What would you like to do?
Speaker:So listen, I would say second to my desire to have a pet wolf would be my desire to have a horrific mole monster melted face pet.
Speaker:Is that going to be anytime we find an enemy or a monster is just going to be book attempts to befriend it before being brutally injured?
Speaker:I'm not going to win any fights just based on strength alone.
Speaker:So we're going to give this a shot.
Speaker:And then if I have like, what were the moles called in Avatar The Last Terrorbender?
Speaker:And they're Badger moles?
Speaker:Were they the Badger moles?
Speaker:Badger mole.
Speaker:Yeah, something like that.
Speaker:They were the original old fenders.
Speaker:Badger moles is ridiculous because those are the same animal.
Speaker:I think that could be really useful underground.
Speaker:But I don't like that its mouth is melted shut.
Speaker:That seems to me like human intervention and probably abuse.
Speaker:So first thing I'm going to do is call up to Ocean.
Speaker:Well, I'm going to call up to him, but it's going to be in a whisper because I don't want Mole Boy to hear me too much.
Speaker:So just for just for reference on the current layout of the scene.
Speaker:So the creature is down the tunnel, like far away from us.
Speaker:Well, not far, but like, but yes, easily could reach us if he started like running in a few seconds.
Speaker:Yeah, especially since Book doesn't have a super easy way up.
Speaker:You were able to get up pretty easy, Ocean, because you were strong.
Speaker:Yeah, so I'm on the surface looking down on Book.
Speaker:Yeah, all you see right now, you're fine.
Speaker:You're happy.
Speaker:You're in a good spot.
Speaker:You made it out.
Speaker:You yeah, from your perspective.
Speaker:So you pulled yourself up the slightly less dank and moist air of the cavern greets you.
Speaker:You take a big fresh gulp of it in.
Speaker:There's no dangers up here.
Speaker:You know, you're outside of the turf of Crandall, and you can actually see the switchbacks that lead back up to Hamlet Opening are not very far away.
Speaker:They're definitely visible from you.
Speaker:You're like on the outskirts of the city, basically.
Speaker:And you see them up there.
Speaker:You're like safe.
Speaker:You're like mission accomplished.
Speaker:And to even cement that more, Book pushes up the TTE that you were hired to collect.
Speaker:You easily grab it and slide it to the side.
Speaker:And as I'm enjoying this, I hear Book shout, Ocean, Ocean, Ocean.
Speaker:I turn around.
Speaker:I like poke my hand down like, yes.
Speaker:Do you need help getting out?
Speaker:Are you stuck?
Speaker:There's something down here.
Speaker:It's a little weird.
Speaker:It's a little monstrous.
Speaker:I'm going to go check it out.
Speaker:Just be ready to pull me up.
Speaker:Hold on.
Speaker:Hold on.
Speaker:Hold on.
Speaker:Is that is that a good idea?
Speaker:What are we talking about?
Speaker:And I'm going to like peek my head down the thing.
Speaker:So like I'm dangling upside down, looking down the corridor.
Speaker:It's going to be fine.
Speaker:I think it's hurt.
Speaker:Are you still shining the light on it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, of course.
Speaker:Well, I guess I'm going to say I'm going to aim the light at the ground in front of it.
Speaker:So that like the refracted or the reflected light is illuminating it, but it's not being angered by the presence of the beam.
Speaker:OK, so Ocean, when you look down, you can see you can't see all of this thing.
Speaker:You actually can't see the most horrific parts.
Speaker:You see some pretty human like legs step out from around a corner.
Speaker:And it looks like it's slowly walking towards.
Speaker:Oh, God, I was envisioning like this very large lumbering beast.
Speaker:You're telling me this is like salad fingers?
Speaker:It looks yeah, it's not dissimilar.
Speaker:Do you want to pull the light up to get a good view of all of it now?
Speaker:Because you kind of got its head peeking around before.
Speaker:I was picturing it like all the way, like scraping its way.
Speaker:Is this like human sized?
Speaker:You're about to see.
Speaker:Do you want to know what I should get?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I don't like the look.
Speaker:I don't like the sound of human legs.
Speaker:OK, actually, you know, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker:I'm sticking with my plan.
Speaker:I'm going to shine it with the light.
Speaker:OK, I'm going to shine it with the light.
Speaker:OK, am I in a position where I can also see it from the light dangling?
Speaker:You have to be ready to pull me up, dude.
Speaker:Oh, I'm not dangling.
Speaker:I'm just like I imagined.
Speaker:OK, I'm going to illustrate.
Speaker:I'm saying if you're if you're if your head is in if your head is in the manhole, your arm is not.
Speaker:And I need your arm to be ready to pull me up.
Speaker:OK, I'm going to smack your I'm going to start smacking your head and tell you to grab.
Speaker:Oh, you're like bopping.
Speaker:I'm trying to push me back up.
Speaker:Which is like, quit, quit trying to see.
Speaker:Wait, Book, give me a read a Citroen.
Speaker:Hold on, Ocean, did you?
Speaker:Did you?
Speaker:Did you?
Speaker:When I smacked your head enough, did you pop out?
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, you poked me and I like pushed like you're pushing up and Ocean's like, then you push his head back up.
Speaker:I'm going to say it's kind of a comedic looking scene.
Speaker:Instead of reading a situation, can I step forward and use compassionate presence?
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:OK, I'd like to do that.
Speaker:So I'm going to step away from the manhole.
Speaker:I'm going to step towards this thing that's still that.
Speaker:You said it's a 10th of a mile away.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:OK, I feel like that gives me some time to run.
Speaker:If it does, do you look so excited?
Speaker:I'm so fucking I am so not ready for this.
Speaker:So I'm rolling plus cool.
Speaker:Oh, God.
Speaker:Oh, thank God.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:That is a nine.
Speaker:I want to know if this old boy is holding on to pain.
Speaker:To get the stork, you do have to kind of step away from Ocean a little bit.
Speaker:So I'm going to say I take like three paces towards it.
Speaker:Is that enough?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You seem trusting.
Speaker:You're just it's mostly about the gesture.
Speaker:You're making a gesture that you trust this thing, that you aren't really a danger, that you're something that it can share.
Speaker:It's pain with is what this move is all about.
Speaker:So you're giving that impression off as you move forward.
Speaker:I guess the light are you keeping the light on its like feet or what?
Speaker:I'm going to say it's on the wall to the left of it, because, again, I want I want as much bounce on to it as I can get.
Speaker:OK, so it's loosely illuminated right now, and it sees you kind of take these steps forward and it in turn moves very similar to you, cautiously taking a couple steps at a time.
Speaker:And you hear these fingernails scraping on the walls as it's kind of dragging to the side of it, just as almost fingernails on a chalkboard sound.
Speaker:It steps into your light, and you see its bottom half is like an almost anemic human all the way up to its chest, where it's got this yoked huge pecs on this bad boy.
Speaker:And it's got slightly too long arms.
Speaker:And as it walks into the light, you see it reaches one of its hands forward and kind of scrapes along the wall gently.
Speaker:And as your light is reflecting into it, you see its fingernails are actually growing at a visible rate.
Speaker:You can see they're just slowly not like Wolverine Xing, but just like gently just like growing, like maybe like an inch a minute, you think just longer and longer.
Speaker:And as it pulls up, you can see its face and you see it's not actually sewn shut.
Speaker:You see it's trying to open its mouth towards you and it's more like putty stuck together, unable to just pull its lips apart.
Speaker:You see it kind of stringing up against each other.
Speaker:You can start seeing a little bit of gaps and the sounds start changing a little bit from like, mm, to more like, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh.
Speaker:And you sense a lot of pain in that face.
Speaker:Oh, God.
Speaker:What would you like to do?
Speaker:It does not seem happy to be here.
Speaker:OK, so does it?
Speaker:Man, does it see me as a threat?
Speaker:Do I have to read a situation to know that?
Speaker:It's not looking at you like a threat now, but it is coming closer to you.
Speaker:And it's it's continually moving closer.
Speaker:Yes, but it certainly doesn't look like a normal human.
Speaker:Is it wearing clothes?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Does it got any bits?
Speaker:It's a very relevant question.
Speaker:It's smooth like a Kindle down there.
Speaker:I feel like that's better.
Speaker:I am going to grip my cane a little bit tighter.
Speaker:I'm going to say I'm going to talk to it.
Speaker:But do you need help?
Speaker:It says.
Speaker:And it's lips start stretching more and more apart and start seeing some little gaps in it.
Speaker:Its mouth coming apart is kind of like a grilled cheese sandwich you're pulling apart.
Speaker:Like the cheese stuck together.
Speaker:Got that visual.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:Are you visualizing it correctly?
Speaker:OK, that's getting wider and wider as it starts.
Speaker:It's not moving quicker towards you yet, but it's walking closer to you.
Speaker:And this mouth, this grilled cheese mouth spreads further and further as you talk to it.
Speaker:Like it's trying to say something.
Speaker:And then suddenly some of the connecting parts snap, pop, pop, and the mouth opens up wider.
Speaker:And somehow these like dangling pieces of flesh that were strung across its mouth hole previously seem sharp.
Speaker:Okay, all right.
Speaker:That's disgusting.
Speaker:I'm going to take out, so the jerky that I still have in my pocket, I'm going to take it out and slowly lay it on the ground in a dry area that looks as clean as I can find.
Speaker:And I'm going to back away, back to the sewer, and reach up to try to grab Ocean's attention and have him pull me up as fast as he can.
Speaker:Give me an act under fire.
Speaker:Oh, no, I got a 13.
Speaker:Oh, no.
Speaker:Well, I was kind of hoping something would happen.
Speaker:You hold your hand up.
Speaker:Are you still trying to keep the light near it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Ocean, I'm assuming you just pull him up.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm going to pull him straight up.
Speaker:Yeah, you have no issue with that.
Speaker:You are a strong boy.
Speaker:He's a little man.
Speaker:And you Spartan grab his wrist and pull him up.
Speaker:And as you get pulled up, the light shines down, right?
Speaker:Like it pulls you up.
Speaker:You hold on to everything.
Speaker:You get out completely safe.
Speaker:The second that light goes away from it, you hear this skittering at a incredibly fast pace.
Speaker:It's like right away as you're pulled to the top.
Speaker:It didn't like my jerky.
Speaker:Do you want to check?
Speaker:Book, what the hell was that?
Speaker:I don't know, but we should leave.
Speaker:You hear clink clink and two fingernails stick on top of the sewer grate, and you see them just kind of growing over and curling into the side.
Speaker:I'm going to shut.
Speaker:Is there a manhole cover?
Speaker:Yeah, there's manhole.
Speaker:I'm going to try and just like slam the manhole cover onto the top of this thing.
Speaker:I'm just going to try and shut the thing.
Speaker:Try something challenging.
Speaker:I wish I was more aggressive.
Speaker:OK, that is a seven.
Speaker:And I can help, right?
Speaker:Because I could help try to push the the great over.
Speaker:How are you going to help them?
Speaker:I'm just so I'm going to try to grab the other side of the cover and drag it across.
Speaker:Then you're going to have to also try something challenging.
Speaker:OK, so my try something challenging role was a four.
Speaker:Four.
Speaker:OK, that is an utter failure.
Speaker:OK, now do I roll his?
Speaker:No, you're not going to be able to help him with that four.
Speaker:You're unable to assist with that.
Speaker:OK, so you, Ocean, you go and start pulling up this sewer grate and you see Book try to help you.
Speaker:And he goes to grab the other side and you're like, OK, he's helping me.
Speaker:So you kind of get a grip on one side and he goes to pull up the other.
Speaker:And the sewer grate book is way heavier than you thought.
Speaker:You go and you lift it up like a little bit and it falls back on your fingers and kind of pinches them to the ground and hurts and you shake your hand.
Speaker:And it makes this very loud rattling sound that gives away your exact location as another one of these hands reach up and claws towards you and grabs on to you.
Speaker:Book.
Speaker:Oh, shit knocks you to the ground.
Speaker:So you're on the ground.
Speaker:He grabs onto me and one knocks you to the ground.
Speaker:So there's basically just this one hand, this human sized hand on your chest, reaching over the top and you feel the fingernails start slowly growing into your skin.
Speaker:Did we succeed?
Speaker:So is he doing this through like the manhole?
Speaker:Like we got like, do we actually get the manhole over?
Speaker:Not not yet.
Speaker:You can go slam it on there.
Speaker:But this is on top of the hand is on top of.
Speaker:OK, so book is right now because you are successful.
Speaker:So if you want to go slam that manhole on it, you can.
Speaker:But the hand is on Book and it's got sharp nails.
Speaker:Yes, I am going to try and get Book.
Speaker:I'm going to grab the hand that is holding onto Book and like pull it apart, pull it back.
Speaker:Can I change it actually real quick?
Speaker:This could be an attack someone.
Speaker:I was just about to say, can I change this to instead me slamming my shovel into it with the edge to try and chop the hand off?
Speaker:Yeah, you can certainly do that.
Speaker:Give me an attack someone.
Speaker:That's an eight and eight.
Speaker:OK, you can choose one of those.
Speaker:You can inflict plus one harm.
Speaker:You can seize hold of something.
Speaker:You can get them out of your way.
Speaker:You can impress, frighten or dismay them, or you can pin them down.
Speaker:I'm going to get them out of our way.
Speaker:You go and you smash the shovel on it.
Speaker:You deal one to harm to it, right?
Speaker:It is a my shovel is to harm hand.
Speaker:I think, yeah, to harm hand.
Speaker:You slam the shovel down on it and you feel the wrist bones just kind of crack underneath it.
Speaker:But and it pulls it back.
Speaker:Book, you're able to kind of roll out of the way some.
Speaker:You feel a millisecond later and this would have started piercing your flesh.
Speaker:And Ocean, you're able to then at that point, grab the sewer grate, sling it over and it rolls right on top and clink clinks down.
Speaker:I'm going to turn back to Book and say Book, what the fuck was that?
Speaker:I don't think we have time to talk about this right now.
Speaker:I think we need to grab the TTT TTT the TTE and get the fuck out of here.
Speaker:We've got Crandall on one side and a whole monster creatures.
Speaker:Yes, you guys run, you grab the TTT and you make it to the switchbacks.
Speaker:You are far enough away.
Speaker:You don't see the monster try to chase you.
Speaker:Actually, it seems like it's staying in its sewer.
Speaker:OK, and you guys are further away.
Speaker:You have the TTE, you have you also acquired a light and you are very near town.
Speaker:The Demogorgon, that was what I was thinking of with its little mouth.
Speaker:Oh, yes, the cool unhingy mouth.
Speaker:I love mouths that open the wrong way.
Speaker:It's my favorite thing.
Speaker:I'm also a fan.
Speaker:Just not when Stu describes it very viscerally and it's approaching me.
Speaker:With its flesh tearing.
Speaker:I want to know, Stu, I want to know something.
Speaker:Is it going to go back and eat that jerky I left it?
Speaker:You would have to go check.
Speaker:I don't want to know.
Speaker:Problem.
Speaker:I say this is a mystery.
Speaker:Add it to the mystery board.
Speaker:Yeah, add it to your mystery list.
Speaker:Because that was all my jerky was my one non battery bargaining chip, and I just gave it all to that fucking thing.
Speaker:One of your mysteries should be everything likes jerky.
Speaker:I mean, it's pretty accurate to real life, to be fair.
Speaker:Already confirmed.
Speaker:Ocean is the only person who has turned down my jerky so far.
Speaker:Oh, no, Crandall.
Speaker:Crandall also turned it down.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Fuck Crandall.
Speaker:Did I turn down your jerky?
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:Actually, maybe not.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:I don't remember.
Speaker:Folks, go back and listen to the previous episode and let us know, did Crandall and Ocean eat my jerky?
Speaker:Crandall did not.
Speaker:I play that character.
Speaker:I know Vesuvius still has some of your jerky.
Speaker:He still has it in his mouth at this moment.
Speaker:Vesuvius thought it was chew or like, yeah.
Speaker:Snooze.
Speaker:Can we hike, Stu?
Speaker:How fast can we hike?
Speaker:Yeah, you can hike at a leisurely pace if you would like.
Speaker:You're not in much danger anymore.
Speaker:Are you sure?
Speaker:No, it depends on your roles.
Speaker:But as you're going up in a more leisurely pace, you're able to get a little bit of a closer look at this TTE.
Speaker:And you actually see in the bottom of it, there is an instruction manual taped to it.
Speaker:Oh, nice.
Speaker:Which was something I was potentially going to separate from it if you guys fucked up enough roles.
Speaker:Good job, guys.
Speaker:You succeeded in acquiring the instruction manual.
Speaker:Makes me wonder if Crandall actually knew what the purpose of this thing was, was intentionally playing dumb.
Speaker:Like, is this going to come bite us?
Speaker:Or was he actually just dumb and did not know how it worked?
Speaker:I'm going to rip off the instruction manual and take a peek while we walk.
Speaker:I'm going to do a book thing and read and walk.
Speaker:Yeah, because you're the only one of us who can actually read.
Speaker:Give me a sharp roll.
Speaker:11.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Not only do you understand what this means, you find some things that most people probably wouldn't even be able to understand and make some conclusions that people wouldn't jump to.
Speaker:You look at this and the TTE device is a through the earth communication device.
Speaker:It's basically a radio that works by sending waves through things such as rock.
Speaker:So it'll be a great way to transmit at a long distance, which is what you can assume Johnny Hertz wants to use it for.
Speaker:And it's also, is it possible that I could also use it to try to reach the surface?
Speaker:It does communicate widely.
Speaker:So to reach other people would be good in that way.
Speaker:And you do find something that maybe Johnny Hertz cares less about, but it does also have a receiving capability.
Speaker:This is a two way communication.
Speaker:So, you know, he's definitely looking to broadcast his voice out.
Speaker:He doesn't really care about what he's getting back.
Speaker:But if you hook this thing up correctly, you can get information back.
Speaker:It's a two way communication.
Speaker:Didn't he ask us to communicate with him?
Speaker:I vaguely recall us trying to figure out how we could talk to him.
Speaker:And he said just to come by his place.
Speaker:Yes, Johnny Hertz is at his radio tower, which is mostly useless because it can only reach your town.
Speaker:Yeah, nothing else.
Speaker:So I wonder if we can if we get this set up in a way where we can like transmit using our stuff to him.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that's a good idea.
Speaker:I don't know why that what kind of purpose that would have.
Speaker:But I'm going to talk to Ocean.
Speaker:I'm going to share with Ocean everything that I found.
Speaker:So, Jacob, you now know everything that the book knew.
Speaker:Retroactively, everything I just said is now here instead of where it was said.
Speaker:And so, that's a really good point, Ocean.
Speaker:I think that we could probably hold on to the manual.
Speaker:Johnny Hertz never told us that he wanted the manual.
Speaker:He just wanted the hardware.
Speaker:I'm going to hold on to the manual, and we're going to use that as a bargaining chip to get him to try to convince him to let us install it for him and also to use it.
Speaker:I think this could be really handy in the future.
Speaker:And I think having access to it would be a boon.
Speaker:But I'd say by hiding the manual, like if you've read it and you know how to read it, like if you read the manual and you're pretty knowledgeable about the device itself, if we don't give the manual to him and just set it up for him and we have like the inside knowledge of how to operate the device, we could just not tell him how to properly use it for the transmissions and use that for ourselves.
Speaker:I agree.
Speaker:And I think it's a good way for us to stay close to Johnny Hertz if he needs us.
Speaker:If he needs us, he won't betray us.
Speaker:So with that said, we keep tromping up towards Johnny Hertz with the goal.
Speaker:I think we should go right to Johnny Hertz tower.
Speaker:I want to get this figured out.
Speaker:I want to get away from all the danger that we just had.
Speaker:So as soon as we can get to him, sounds good.
Speaker:You crest the switchbacks and you can see your lovely little town of Hamlet Opening.
Speaker:You see that marquee sign that marks the entrance to your town.
Speaker:There's an old apartment complex that is literally just one face remaining.
Speaker:There are some tiered rooms that still exist on the other side, but three quarters of this building has completely fallen apart, so no one really stays there or uses it.
Speaker:But it does have one very big flat gray wall that is facing you guys right now.
Speaker:And there is some new very large graffiti on it.
Speaker:Oh, you see the telltale signature of Frida, which I'm going to say their signature is an eyebrow.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:And I think that I think that makes sense.
Speaker:And the graffiti itself looks like it would belong on the side of a van from some hair metal band in the 80s.
Speaker:It is over the top ridiculous.
Speaker:There is the most attractive person you have ever seen on it on the front.
Speaker:They have like beautiful braided hair.
Speaker:They're also like jacked and they have like a bunch of knives and like swords and guns behind them.
Speaker:And there's like explosions and they're just like staring, not looking at the explosion into the future.
Speaker:On the top, it says, Why praise the Queen of Spades?
Speaker:And then a big question mark.
Speaker:Does the figure look like anyone we know or that we would recognize?
Speaker:You have not seen this person.
Speaker:When I say they're overwhelmingly attractive, it's like whatever you find attractive in a person, you somehow see it there.
Speaker:Like you see Ocean, you see the steely, sultry gaze of Avril Ville in that face.
Speaker:You see the kind of coy smile that Calista would give you as they put down your delicious, soggy worm noodles immediately drawn to this depiction.
Speaker:And it seems over the top, you're like a human being could not look like this, like ridiculous, exaggerated proportions.
Speaker:Some Greek god level shit.
Speaker:Book's going to take out a notebook and jot down, why praise the Queen of Spades?
Speaker:Is there a question mark at the end?
Speaker:Yes, there's a giant question mark that's actually worked into the art.
Speaker:It's like the size of the person almost, like it says, why praise the Queen of Spades on the top?
Speaker:And then there's a huge question mark that goes all the way along and like goes a little bit behind them.
Speaker:So obviously Book is thinking about the cards that he grabbed.
Speaker:And how many cards were there?
Speaker:Do we remember?
Speaker:Did we ever say?
Speaker:No, but like a hundred.
Speaker:OK, so that seems like a lot.
Speaker:Let me change that.
Speaker:Well, that's two decks.
Speaker:That's two decks.
Speaker:That's not that much.
Speaker:Yeah, but they're all the same card.
Speaker:Were they all Queen of Spades?
Speaker:They were all Queen of Spades.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:They were like 60.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:It's all coming together.
Speaker:OK, sorry.
Speaker:So I'm thinking about that.
Speaker:I jot down why praise the Queen of Spades.
Speaker:And then I'm wondering and I ask.
Speaker:I'm going to say actually that I ask aloud to Ocean.
Speaker:It sounds like Frida isn't a fan of this Queen of Spades character.
Speaker:And I'm saying character in the sense of like personality, not character as in an NPC.
Speaker:But that's a little vignette for you folks listening.
Speaker:Unnecessary clarification.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So who is this fucking character?
Speaker:I'm just I'm just I want to make it clear that I'm not breaking the fourth wall already.
Speaker:OK, thank you.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:But you guys are able to make your way back up to the radio station.
Speaker:Johnny Hertz is very happy that you're back.
Speaker:He goes, welcome back.
Speaker:That was even faster.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:OK, I'm already in character.
Speaker:I'm so sorry.
Speaker:Talk to me.
Speaker:I'm so sorry.
Speaker:Can Frida's call sign be the Eye of Horus, but with a really exaggerated eyebrow?
Speaker:Yeah, but this is a unibrow, though.
Speaker:Oh, true.
Speaker:Eye of Horus.
Speaker:Eye of Horus would not.
Speaker:You'd not be able to tell that it's both an Eye of Horus and an Eye of Raw.
Speaker:And there's that's a complicated ass signature, but I'm here for it.
Speaker:That's intense.
Speaker:So going back quickly to that, to the to Frida's artwork before we move on to Johnny Hertz, does the phrase in the picture draw back to any other past artwork that she has done?
Speaker:Since I figured we were somewhat familiar with her art, considering we were kind of fans.
Speaker:So does this seem to tie in?
Speaker:Thinking back to previous artwork, you would say this one does seem a little bit more ambiguous.
Speaker:They're usually very in your face negative about things or very in your face positive about things.
Speaker:This one is a little bit ambiguous.
Speaker:Like this would not be how Frieda would phrase something about Hickory.
Speaker:You guys go in to you find the radio station.
Speaker:It's very obvious because it has a large radio tower out front and a pretty dinky shack inside of it.
Speaker:There's a sign on the door that says, come on in exclamation point.
Speaker:I'm going to knock even though it says come on in.
Speaker:That's very rude of you.
Speaker:As you knock, there's a little beeping sound and then a light neon light shines right next to you that says on air and flashes like four times.
Speaker:OK, so he does not want to see us.
Speaker:Now I'm going to open the door anyway.
Speaker:When you open the door, you are hit by a wave of heat.
Speaker:It is there is machinery and like shitty as CRT screens and a bunch of wires hooked up in here.
Speaker:It looks like it's like very haphazardly thrown together and it is giving off a lot of heat.
Speaker:You see Johnny Hurts through a thin pane of glass talking into a microphone.
Speaker:He does not seem to have a guest right now, but he sees you guys and his eyes light up and you can't hear what he's saying, but he talks into the mic real quick for a few seconds and hits a button on it.
Speaker:And you this high pitched whine kind of goes down when he hits that button.
Speaker:It's like, and he comes up to the door, opens it, goes, Hey guys, welcome back already.
Speaker:Do you have any other questions or have you already retrieved the TTE?
Speaker:I'm going to step away.
Speaker:So I think I was standing in front of Ocean.
Speaker:I'm going to step to the left.
Speaker:Just a quick reminder to you, Stu, our wonderful emcee, that I have the instruction manual tucked inside my breast pocket.
Speaker:I'm going to reveal the TTE to him.
Speaker:Oh, excellent.
Speaker:This looks to be in great condition.
Speaker:Did he?
Speaker:Do you know if it still runs?
Speaker:Oh, it definitely runs.
Speaker:It exploded a couple of Sierra mists in our face.
Speaker:I don't know what a Sierra mist is, but that sounds dangerous.
Speaker:But I'm glad it's still working.
Speaker:Did you keep everything on the down low?
Speaker:Nothing going to come back to me?
Speaker:I don't want any of your wet work to come reflect poorly on Johnny Hurts.
Speaker:Well, it was a fair exchange and your name never came up.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:I'm glad you're able to work it out without having to kill a bunch of people.
Speaker:Appreciate that.
Speaker:Yeah, we didn't lift a finger.
Speaker:We didn't even bring any guns, which in hindsight was maybe not the best idea.
Speaker:That was a very dumb idea.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:You went into Subtropolis without weapons?
Speaker:I have a cane.
Speaker:That's not a weapon.
Speaker:Well, not with that attitude.
Speaker:Man, with this, I'm going to be able to reach wide and far.
Speaker:You don't know how big.
Speaker:Let me know.
Speaker:But besides your payment, which I got for you, I got your car batteries for you.
Speaker:Ready to go.
Speaker:Just know that you have a friend in Johnny Hurts.
Speaker:You need anything from me?
Speaker:You ever want to give out a little message?
Speaker:I'll give you guys a little bit of ad time.
Speaker:I'd probably affront you guys start a business or anything.
Speaker:I'll front you about 30 seconds a month, free, no charge.
Speaker:That's a great rate.
Speaker:Then maybe even a good rate after that.
Speaker:You'll get friends and family rate after that.
Speaker:Just, you know, remember us.
Speaker:And hey, you want to be guests ever.
Speaker:I'm always a little low on guests.
Speaker:That probably won't not for long when people start hearing me.
Speaker:But thank you so much.
Speaker:I am in your debt, but not literally.
Speaker:Johnny, it was our pleasure.
Speaker:While we're here, though, I mean, like I'm, you know, we've become a fan of yours.
Speaker:We listened to some of your, you know, to one of your shows and we thought it was real neat.
Speaker:And as I'm talking, I reach into my pocket and I grabbed the one Queen of Spades card that I held on to and I hold it up.
Speaker:But while we're here, what can you tell me about this?
Speaker:That looks to be a Queen of Spades card from a bicycle playing card deck.
Speaker:This is frequently discarded because the only game anyone knows how to play is Old Maid, which only requires three queens.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Cool trophy, dude.
Speaker:We passed some artwork that we think that someone we know may have done.
Speaker:And it mentioned the Queen of Spades too.
Speaker:Oh, who do you know?
Speaker:Maybe you know who I know.
Speaker:And he gives you a look.
Speaker:He's like...
Speaker:Well, that brings me to my other question.
Speaker:How did you hear about us?
Speaker:And how did you know how to get in contact with us?
Speaker:Well, I know someone who was able to get their hands on things.
Speaker:And I knew I needed something pretty rare, so I may have followed them and seen them do a dead drop for you.
Speaker:And I should have made you make a roll for this.
Speaker:But I started talking too fast.
Speaker:Yeah, and I saw them come by your place, Ocean, and leave something in that car trunk.
Speaker:And I was like, hey, these people must know how to get stuff done.
Speaker:They know how to collect things up, and I thought I would just try to do the same thing.
Speaker:Is that not how people normally reach you?
Speaker:I thought I was just out of the know, which is rare for Johnny Hurts.
Speaker:Well, it's how one person in particular reaches us.
Speaker:We're talking about Frieda, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah, it's weird to not use their name.
Speaker:Just because we don't really know much about them.
Speaker:Well, yeah, just I know that not everybody agrees with Frieda's politics necessarily.
Speaker:Yeah, I was doing some investigative journalism on them, trying to figure out who they really are.
Speaker:I don't trust anyone who's not very upfront with who they are, you know, like Johnny Hurts.
Speaker:I put my name out there.
Speaker:I'll say it even when I'm talking to people and I don't need to repeat my name.
Speaker:I want people to know who I am, Johnny Hurts.
Speaker:Frieda, a mystery.
Speaker:Not an enemy, but mysterious, you know.
Speaker:I don't know if I trust them.
Speaker:But you were able to follow them.
Speaker:I'm very sneaky.
Speaker:Do you know, but you don't know who Frieda is, but you were able to follow them?
Speaker:Yeah, they disappear so quick though.
Speaker:I was able to pick up their trail and follow them back to your place.
Speaker:And then I saw where the dead drop was.
Speaker:But then I lost them back in town.
Speaker:Did you see their latest artwork?
Speaker:No, I've been recording today.
Speaker:I actually have to get back on air in less than three minutes.
Speaker:Do you know of anyone who goes by the Queen of Spades?
Speaker:I don't have dice to determine this.
Speaker:I was going to roll something to see.
Speaker:I don't do that in this game.
Speaker:No, I've not heard of anyone called the Queen of Spades.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:Well, listen, if Frida comes by, will you give us a holler?
Speaker:Sure thing.
Speaker:I would love to have Frida guess.
Speaker:It seems like you guys are pretty close, too, if you can put in a good word for me.
Speaker:I think I could really help get their message out.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:Well, I don't want to take up more of your time.
Speaker:We'll take those batteries now.
Speaker:There's a trunk out front that's got all of your car batteries in it.
Speaker:Go ahead and bring them out if you can lift them.
Speaker:Ocean, did you have anything?
Speaker:I was going to ask the exact same question you just asked, actually.
Speaker:You guys are so simpatico.
Speaker:Sinked in the head.
Speaker:Sinked up.
Speaker:Don't even need you both, is what I'd say.
Speaker:Oh, no, you definitely need us both.
Speaker:Oh, no, you need us both.
Speaker:You need us both.
Speaker:Oh, wait, last thing.
Speaker:Do you need help installing this thing?
Speaker:Oh, yeah, I would love.
Speaker:I'm pretty handy with some stuff, but I've never dealt with this before, so I was going to get to work soon.
Speaker:But do you know about how this works?
Speaker:Yeah, I think I could be.
Speaker:We're both pretty handy.
Speaker:Ocean's a mechanical god, and I'm an electrical genius, as they say.
Speaker:Bluffing.
Speaker:And, well, we can definitely give you a hand.
Speaker:What time do you want us to come by and take a look at it?
Speaker:I'm actually going to finally make you roll something.
Speaker:Who?
Speaker:I'm going to give me a sway someone roll.
Speaker:Hell, yeah, it's a nine.
Speaker:He goes, I could really use the help.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:I got to let you know that I only have those schematics I showed you before.
Speaker:They're on the back of that very good map I made you.
Speaker:And that really doesn't go into the details.
Speaker:And you're going to have to work with some of my wonky systems.
Speaker:So I'm going to have to be pretty heavily involved in this to get you to be able to fit into my current setup without breaking anything.
Speaker:So as long as you're OK teaching me some things, I think this would be a great partnership.
Speaker:I stick my hand out to shake his hand.
Speaker:He shakes it vigorously with both hands.
Speaker:All right, Johnny, thanks for it.
Speaker:Well, I got to get back on air.
Speaker:Thanks for your time.
Speaker:Thank you for your time.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And talk to you later.
Speaker:I think I think we leave and we grab those car.
Speaker:Are those are those car batteries there?
Speaker:Yes, the car batteries are where he said they were.
Speaker:They're in this large crate that is very hard to move.
Speaker:But Ocean, you're able to do it.
Speaker:You're not under any time crunch now.
Speaker:You may have to make a couple of trips, actually.
Speaker:But you get them.
Speaker:Can't remember how many I said.
Speaker:I think it was only like two or three.
Speaker:Then you got it.
Speaker:I'm going to try to grab one of them.
Speaker:I'm going to try to carry one of them just so I feel like I'm helping.
Speaker:Yeah, Ocean just scoops two of them up.
Speaker:He's got one in holding it like suitcases.
Speaker:I'll say Book, you carry one awkwardly.
Speaker:You look like you toddle back and then Ocean, you're able to grab two of them and you're able to bring them back.
Speaker:I guess you're going back to Ocean's place.
Speaker:Yeah, I think so, because the first thing Ocean wants to do right now is get his car fixed.
Speaker:It's a stretch to call it a car.
Speaker:But and with that collection of your owed money, that's going to be the end of the first arc, which is going to let us do our end of session moves for the first time.
Speaker:It's just about to say.
Speaker:OK, at the end of every session, choose a character who knows you better than they used to.
Speaker:They get to add plus one HXT with your character sheet.
Speaker:You can choose up to two people for this.
Speaker:So again, remember, we have some NPCs with HX too.
Speaker:You guys have not interacted with any of those people much at all so far.
Speaker:But if you think a character should have an HX rating with you, we could go ahead and give them one.
Speaker:I think we should give Johnny Hurtz one at least.
Speaker:OK, I would say both of you would probably start with a negative one with Johnny Hurtz.
Speaker:Normally, but if you both want to add your plus one there, y'all can be even with Johnny Hurtz.
Speaker:OK, and then should Crandall, should we have history with Crandall?
Speaker:It's up to you guys.
Speaker:Do you want Crandall to be a recurring character?
Speaker:I kind of want to hear that voice some more.
Speaker:Do we want Crandall or Vesuvius?
Speaker:Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker:I guess we'll leave them all for now.
Speaker:And if they come back, we can reminisce and add the history then.
Speaker:Yeah, I think usually if you have multiple interactions, some of that's when it starts becoming.
Speaker:Yeah, maybe we should do a history then.
Speaker:But I think adding it to Johnny Hurtz makes sense.
Speaker:I was about to say Johnny Hurtz.
Speaker:I'm going to add it to Johnny Hurtz.
Speaker:That gives us Johnny Hurtz zero.
Speaker:And I assume you're also adding one to each other.
Speaker:Yeah, might as well.
Speaker:At the end of every session also, judge for yourself.
Speaker:Are you satisfied with your place in the world?
Speaker:Let me hear those answers.
Speaker:I'm going to say no.
Speaker:Ocean's not satisfied until he gets to the bottom of the void.
Speaker:Yeah, also no.
Speaker:Okay, both of you get one XP.
Speaker:Also, judge for yourself, does your scavenge choice still hold true?
Speaker:Yeah, I think it still holds true.
Speaker:I don't think we've really done anything particularly different for scavenge than...
Speaker:Yeah, scavenge isn't just like, you guys are flush with money right now, but your scavenge is really how you live your life.
Speaker:Yeah, so I don't think it's changed at all for Ocean, because this seems like a kind of normal gig for him.
Speaker:Yeah, compared to how he's living.
Speaker:Book has no more interest in manipulating people than he did before.
Speaker:So, okay, then both of you get plus one XP.
Speaker:All right, all right.
Speaker:Come on, let us mark one more.
Speaker:Have you gotten improvement yet?
Speaker:One more and I will.
Speaker:Well, I think that's all of them.
Speaker:Unless you have an end of session move.
Speaker:I don't have an end of session move.
Speaker:I'm somewhat regretting not letting me get the ability that gives me experience every time I mark a vision.
Speaker:Yeah, that's the most boring one.
Speaker:Yeah, that's why I didn't pick it.
Speaker:It seemed cooler to have a car.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:OK, books end of session move.
Speaker:What's it called?
Speaker:It's called interrogating reality.
Speaker:Yes, this is where you can learn some more information about your mysteries.
Speaker:This is the exciting one.
Speaker:Yeah, we talked about changing this a little bit from how it's written in the book.
Speaker:If you're still up for that book.
Speaker:Two books.
Speaker:Yeah, the only thing in some cases, I think we do want to go with the standard route.
Speaker:And maybe for this first one, that would be good just to introduce the concept and then we can branch off.
Speaker:OK, well, do you have a mystery they would like me to answer?
Speaker:So talk about kind of our adjustment.
Speaker:OK, our alternative is that Book has made a, and by Book, I also mean Brady, has made an insane person's web of connecting mysteries.
Speaker:A lot of those are inferences that maybe don't have a lot of stuff backing it up.
Speaker:And we thought it would be interesting that instead of maybe just answering true or false for an entire mystery, when he reaches his end obsession move, he can basically force a scene where he gets some accurate information about one of his threads connecting different stuff together.
Speaker:So he can say, I think there's some relationship between these two characters.
Speaker:I think there's this event that someone was involved in.
Speaker:And when he uses this move, he'll basically get concrete assurance that yes, that's true or no, that's false.
Speaker:So to clarify, my standard move is I have my list of mysteries and I would just say, tell me if this is true or false.
Speaker:What we've added to that is that I can also get clarity on some of the web that I've created.
Speaker:My Pepe Silvia board.
Speaker:In this case, I would say, I don't think that it makes sense from this episode that I got any additional information on those mysteries with the exception of maybe the wolves.
Speaker:But I thought that because I opened my mind to the Psychic Maelstrom, I think we have more to explore with the wolves before I really can use that information anyway.
Speaker:But because I opened my mind to the Psychic Maelstrom, I thought I would start to work on those mysteries, which are some of the default ones offered with my character sheet.
Speaker:I'm going to say that in my time in the Psychic Maelstrom, I got insight on one of these is how I'm explaining this new knowledge.
Speaker:But previously, I didn't believe or disbelieve it.
Speaker:And the mystery that I am going to ask Stu is, was the world Psychic Maelstrom created by human beings?
Speaker:What do you currently believe you think?
Speaker:What would be your immediate or before your experience with the Psychic Maelstrom that you just had?
Speaker:I would not believe that.
Speaker:Well, I'm going to say it is true.
Speaker:It was made by human beings.
Speaker:Oh, as you got this glimpse into these wolves of the Maelstrom, you saw that kind of humanoid figure come out of it.
Speaker:And that seemed like too much of a coincidence for you to think that this is something that is purely natural.
Speaker:Neat.
Speaker:There had to be some sort of human interaction with it.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:All right, great.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Hey everybody, thank you so much for listening.
Speaker:Be sure to join us next Wednesday as Book and Ocean get re-acclimated to Hamlet Opening and we kick off our next arc.
Speaker:If the Apocalypse World system seems like a really fun time but your D&D players just refuse to try something new, go tell each of them to listen to all of the episodes of Oops!
Speaker:All Apocalypses and they'll surely become willing to try something new and exciting.
Speaker:Like most weeks, our logo is designed by Brady McDonald.
Speaker:In that music and editing, it's all done by Stu Masterson.
