Stories with Dice
Stories with Dice is an actual-play podcast where a fellowship of everyday gamers explores fantastical worlds, distant futures, and parallel realities through tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) from Free League Publishing, Chaosium, Modiphius Entertainment, and more.
Over the years, we’ve told stories around our virtual table in the worlds of Tales from the Loop, Pendragon, Mutant Year Zero, Star Trek Adventures, The One Ring, The Electric State, Forbidden Lands, Legend of the Five Rings, and Symbaroum. Going forward, we’re focusing on a smaller lineup of games, giving us more opportunities to return to each story sooner. As campaigns reach their natural conclusions, we’ll add new stories from the worlds of Twilight: 2000, Vampire: The Masquerade, The Walking Dead, and more.
We’re not voice actors, professional entertainers, or trained performers—just friends from around the globe sharing virtual dice, stories, and a laugh or two as the game unfolds.
Stories with Dice
Mysteries of the Loop S1 E2: A Tales from the Loop Actual Play Podcast
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In this episode of Mysteries of the Loop, the kids are excited to check out a new line of transformable robot toys from a local company. But things take a mysterious turn when they discover some of the toys are damaged and others are missing.
Join Johannes, Sven, Anthony, Anders, and newcomer Susie as they navigate through the toy store's secrets, uncovering high-tech surprises and broken toys that lead them on a thrilling adventure. Will they solve the mystery of the missing toys and the unusual high-tech components? Tune in to find out!
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Welcome to Stories with Dice
SPEAKER_04Hello and welcome to Stories with Dice, an actual play podcast of some of our favorite tabletop role-playing games.
SPEAKER_06Welcome back from our second episode of Tales of the Loop. We'll just get straight into it, shall we? So where we left off last time, the kids were vaguely excited about seeing this knockoff version of the Transformers. Important because it is a local company that is making these machines or the little toys, which sort of like transfer from everyday kind of things like helmets to a military aircraft into robots. They are a local company, a local person who's designed them, and the kids have decided that they're going to go and either mock them mercilessly or buy them. And so that's where we find the kids this morning, all getting ready on their first day of their Easter break, ready to kind of start the day, to kind of all meet up at the toy store in Stanhamra, where they all live. I'm only going to take two of you, one of them being Johannes. What is he going to do this morning? What of his daily life, daily grind that he really despises does he have to do even though he's actually on holiday?
SPEAKER_03Something he'd have to do every day. Maybe like has to walk the dog, let's say. Let's say there's a dog. What kind of dog do you have? What kind of dog do I have? Let's say like a small yappy one. Okay. Do you like the dog? Not particularly. It is small and very yappy. And what's the name of the dog? Svetlana.
SPEAKER_06Svetlana. Cool. Okay. Svetlana, the little yappy dog. You know you have to be out for a certain amount of time, walk that dog, and bring it back so that it's done all its business and is relatively tired for your parents to deal with.
SPEAKER_03Staring at the dog, being like, come on.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Yep, it's a lovely chore. And uh I'm gonna go to uh Sven. What will Sven do in the morning? Um not much.
SPEAKER_01Just wake up, get his breakfast, smoke a cigarette, just listen to some music. Just wait for the time to go. Watch TV. Cool.
SPEAKER_06Your dad comes back from work and he's tired, he's annoyed, but he doesn't really kind of acknowledge you, and he sort of like goes straight to bed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I just hide my cigarette, perhaps. I mean, at least I don't want to see him at home as possible.
SPEAKER_06He doesn't seem to have noticed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06No, he doesn't seem to have noticed, he's just completely ignored you and gone straight to bed. Anthony, are you gonna take one of your uh transformers with you to uh compare them to uh to these toys, or are you gonna leave that at home?
SPEAKER_04I'm definitely bringing Optimus Prime with me.
SPEAKER_06Okay, cool. Okay, I see you're gonna bring Optimus Prime with you. Show what's what it's really how it's really done. Yeah, you'll kind of meet up at half past eleven, maybe beforehand. How are you gonna get there, first of all? Are you biking it? Are you walking because it is within walking distance? Asking a parent for a lift, get in the bus. Well, you probably don't need to really get the bus.
SPEAKER_04If it's walking distance, I'm just gonna walk and I'll have my headphones and my backpack with Optimus Prime in it.
SPEAKER_05Cool. What about andas? I'll be on my bike because I probably uh got up, had breakfast quietly so as not to wake mother. Father heads off for work. I would have popped around to see grandfather on my way into town just to check what's the plan is over the holidays, and then yeah, head on into town on my bike. Amazing.
SPEAKER_06Off your head, you will make your way into town, and you are there's there's a queue of probably about 40 kids and some parents, all sort of like waiting in a queue, and as you kind of arrive, there's sort of like a slightly separate queue for VIP members, and then you've got the rest of the rabble behind them, and as you kind of walk towards the uh the VIP area, which is you know what uh what you expect Johannes to have uh sorted out, uh you can see there is a kid who is sort of like got thick wavy hair, uh sort of like short and heavy looking. You know his name is Alvin Nordstrom, and he is a kid who absolutely does not like you. And as you sort of see as you kind of like walking past, he's like, Hey, what are you doing? You can't go there.
SPEAKER_03It's fine, we have a business arrangement of the owners. What? He kind of looks at the others and goes, business arrangement?
SPEAKER_06What kind of business arrangement?
SPEAKER_01And I move forward and I say, Is there a problem here? Okay, maybe not. Yeah, and I'm like, if my friend says that he has an arrangement, he has an arrangement.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Crossing my arms, you know, in front of this guy.
SPEAKER_06He looks at you and he he kind of takes a couple of steps back and goes, Alright, Sven, alright. And he kind of like talks to a couple of his mates, but not loud enough to kind of make any sense, but loud enough to know that he was complaining about you guys. And you kind of like make your way to sort of like the VIP area. Yeah, so you can see the the door to sort of like the um the toy shop. It's sort of like on the corner of the road. And the little the little toy shop is just this sweet little store. It's just uh on a on a on a sort of like edge of town. It's the only toy store around. As I said, it's run by Annette and Henrik Lienson, who are a married couple. Uh they're sort of like in their sort of like mid to late 30s. They're really old people. And yeah, there's this glass door, and it's got sort of a load of like posters and stuff from uh there's like some garbage pal kid posters, there's loads of comic books of like front covers that are sort of like stuck on there. There's a there's some VHS sort of like front covers as well on some of the other bits. There's like some pictures of someone who looks like who's come along and drawn on the on the wall of various different knockoff toys, I suppose. Uh, and you know that you know you've been in here before, for those who have been. It's a small store, but it's got sort of like a large fronted window on the other side of the toy store, away from the road, which kind of looks into sort of like a bus stop. And that's where all the kind of toys and all the latest new releases and stuff all get stuck. They're all in there. And so you're just waiting around. And you don't have to wait long. You're kind of like chatting. There's probably another sort of like five or six other kids in the VIP section, along with some people. You can see that both uh both the owners are kind of uh having a bit of an argument. You can see that in the in that doorway, that glass doorway, there's a whole bunch of blurb about the the the co-creators and and everyone being here to kind of welcome everyone and hand out the first you know, 20 of these toys for free. Anything else would be that, you know, you'd have to pay for them. And you can see that the two owners are sort of like having a bit of a an argument, which is kind of a bit uncomfortable because a lot of them, a lot of you come from homes where where parents are are arguing, and the door sort of like opens up just a little bit, and you can hear Annette say to Henrik, Well, they said they were gonna be here. Why aren't they here? Look, honey, I I I don't know what to say. I'm trying to get hold of them, but I just can't seem to get hold of them. But what we're gonna do? Well, we're gonna have to go ahead without them. Yeah, but a load of people want to come and see them. They're gonna do some like signings. You know, we've got a whole bunch of their comics that are in. I mean, what are we gonna do? Oh, geez, this is a nightmare, says one of them. Henrik says, I'll give them another call and I'll see what I can do. But we've got to open up in five minutes. So shit. And then Annette sees the door slightly open, sees one of you, in fact, makes eye contact with you, Anthony, smiles, and then pulls the door shut, and then wanders back into the store, wandering over to uh speak to her husband. Leave you guys standing outside. What was that all about?
SPEAKER_03You know them, right? Oh yes, we bought things from them before. We have a pre-existing business arrangement. Yes, that's the word.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't get it.
SPEAKER_04And then he rolls his eyes when you say that.
SPEAKER_01Like, yeah, I don't get what you're saying.
SPEAKER_03He he he sort of puts his finger up to try and explain it, but then he realizes he doesn't actually properly know what that meant.
SPEAKER_06I'm taking the plan was to kind of get a couple of the free toys and then sell them on. Is the is is the plan.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and do you see the toys?
SPEAKER_06I'm trying to look through their glass or you yeah, so you you look through you look through the um you look through the uh the the shop front. It looks straight into the cashier's desk through the glass, but you can see behind the cashiers or in front of the cashier's desk in the in the in the in the window, there's a bunch of these these toys. There's also a large cardboard cutout in the actual store of one of the uh the main leaders. You kind of have a look. They look all right, they look exactly what you'd expect them to look like. But they're in boxes, so it's difficult to really tell until you can kind of like get them out of the box. But they seem well made.
SPEAKER_03The other kids are around us. Can I have a quick chat with them and see what stuff they're excited about to kind of gauge what people are interested in?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you can.
SPEAKER_03Which one do you think's the best?
SPEAKER_06Make a charm roll for me, please. So again, if you uh look at your character sheet, you'll have charm as a skill, which I think is under heart.
SPEAKER_03Yes, that is correct.
SPEAKER_06So because we're using Foundry, if you want to click on charm and make a roll for me. Again, you're looking for sixes.
SPEAKER_03So this is one of my better skills. So Woohoo! One success out of eight.
SPEAKER_06Hooray! Well, that's okay. So the system requires you to have one success. You got one success, so that's great. Yes, so they they're all talking about it. When when you when you're listening to them, they're all really excited because the the main sort of like leaders, blatantly ripped off. So Megaton Prime for the deceivers, and Equious Optimus, which is a large carrier truck. Megaton Prime is a large futuristic cannon that fires lasers. They're really kind of interested in those because they're like the big sort of like multi pull-apart ones that really kind of do all the extra bits. They kind of come with little extra weapons and sort of like little missiles and stuff. So they're really keen to get hold of those. They were designed by a l by the lady called Helena Voss, and she actually designed a load of the robots that are used in the loop. So they used a lot of the kind of same sort of designs as them. So it should be very, very exact. She she was apparently sort of this bigwig engineer in in the loop that then ended off wandering off to uh design toys for companies. So they're really excited about that. They're really excited about the cool stuff. So it seems that the deceivers are way more cooler than the convoys. A lot of the kids are like, oh yeah, well, yeah, you've got those, but they're all a bit goody two shoes. They're not like, you know, the uh the Verticamp Crux, which is the the military helicopter, uh, the sort of like a sea night helicopter that kind of like converts the the rotor blades turn into like a big sort of like sword, and they're all really kind of like ra, whereas the equivalent over on the other side turns into sort of like a pair of rotor skates, well, a a white roller skate with a large blue star. Yeah, it's not quite the same. So everyone's really keen for sort of like the really sort of like other you know hardcore sort of military sort of like types. So that everyone's really happy about the deceivers, even though they're the bad guys, but they're definitely the cool ones.
SPEAKER_03I will relay that to everyone saying the hot top the hot option is the deceiver ones, if you can grab those if you don't want them. Those are the ones that people want.
SPEAKER_06They are indeed. So yeah, you're uh you're kind of all standing there, you're kind of like talking about that. You're kind of like waiting
New Character Joins the Adventure
SPEAKER_06for this thing to happen. And then just before the store opens, one of your other colleagues turns up. Sol, welcome. Hello. Sorry to hear that you had such terrible trouble with the um transport.
SPEAKER_02I know, disaster. But I mean, it's it's method acting, right? We've just been I might clearly my my character's been doing something quite tiring.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you you know, you've come all the way from uh Uppsala up north, and so you've just arrived back in town to hear that there's a new line of toys being opened at the local toy shop. And so you've managed to get here. You turned up this morning and you got home. The first thing you wanted to do was catch up and see what was going on. And yeah, you have done that. Could you do me, I'm gonna throw you straight into the fire here as all could you give me a description of your character, what they look like, and a brief rundown of of your sort of like key key points, you know, what makes you different to any other kid? Is there any issues going on in your life, and how you know the best of them?
SPEAKER_02Sure. Well, I am playing a 14-year-old girl called Susie. Now, her her issue is she's actually new in town. So the the answer is to how I know these. I probably don't know them very well. I know of them, and sort of her problem with being new in town is she, you know, she wants to be known. So her her her drive to go go out and and and interact with the the kids and um, I don't know, perhaps the mysteries that we might be solving is that she wants to, you know, sort of try and impress and make friends, essentially. She she wears a denim jacket covered in patches, got blonde hair in a loose bun, and her her fingers are filled with rings. She's a little quiet at times, but if you get her on on a topic that she she loves, she can talk for days. Uh I'm playing the archetype of tip uh of rocker, but I'm not your typical rocker. Uh she just really loves music.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Cool. It turns out your mum has managed to get you VIP tickets to the opening of the new toys. Which are, as you already heard, a knockoff version of the Transformers. And so you actually get uh you've got your little ticket, and you can go into the the the VIP section uh where there's these kids who you know from school and you probably know in passing. And, you know, a handful of other kids are all waiting to kind of go in and be the first to get in there and actually get a free toy, which is very cool. So you probably know of them. You and in fact, this other kid that hangs around, a kid by the name of Anthony, who's a lot younger than the rest of you, probably arrived in town at the same sort of time. So they might be sort of like, you know, you're both new. He though is from the States. I don't know where Susie is from.
SPEAKER_02No, Susie is from somewhere else in Sweden.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. So that's kind of cool, you know. An American in in in Stanhamra, always good. And and and you know the others in passing, probably. How does Anders know Susie? What's your connection?
SPEAKER_05Probably in one of the same classes at school. Okay, that'd be sense. Okay, cool.
SPEAKER_03What about Johannes? Oh, well, I'm seeing that the music and mixtapes are sort of her thing, so maybe she's come to Johannes to get music, which she's got from whatcham? Sven and that sort of thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Sven spirit cassettes. I think I think that would probably make sense. If we're gonna say, if we're gonna say that Susie's from sort of, you know, back background Sweden, you know, middle of nowhere, she really got into music just through her like parents' collections, but that's really running dry now, and finding someone else to to to share some new new tastes with is is probably something she would do.
SPEAKER_06So Johannes and Sven would be your in on that one. Okay. That makes sense. Cool. Well, we'll just leave it there because that's nice and straightforward. So yeah, you're you're in this little VIP
The VIP Opening Announcement
SPEAKER_06section. They the door sort of opens, and Annette comes out, the uh one of the owners, and she says, Welcome. Um can I have your attention? Can I have your attention, please? I'm I'm I'm I'm really sorry to have to tell you that Ulla and and and Helena would will not be joining us. I'm really, really sorry, everyone. You hear like some, oh no, what? Where? How? What? What's going on? And she says, it's nothing to worry about. It's just unfortunately they just at the last minute they were called away. There's nothing we can do, cut, but that's okay, because everyone other than the ones that are here, we're gonna give you five percent of all of the things you find today up until and she looks at her watch until four o'clock this afternoon. So please, please, uh come on in. But you know, as you know, we're not like the biggest shop. So if I take the first you five and points to you lot, if you want to come in first, and she kind of looks at Johannes and goes, Yeah, you come in first, and then and then we'll we'll we'll take it from there. She she then ushers you all in.
SPEAKER_02My my kind of feeling with Susie is she's she's come here because her mum has bought her tickets, even though she didn't really want to go. It's not really her cup of tea. So so as they said, like you five, like like Susie was like, Oh, me? God, we'll still wander through.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so she kind of like brings you in, and the the store itself has got like the one set of glass doors as the the glass frontage, and then as you go in, it's quite a small store, space between the shelves is very crowded. All the shelves have got like they're they're stacked ceiling to floor, and there is a lot of stuff. It looks like someone's ordered a lot of things and they've basically shoved them wherever they possibly can. There's like a bit of a a meandering pathway through all the um through all the shelves, and it's quite easy to kind of like get a little bit turned around because you can't really, there's no real way to kind of like judge where you are in the store. So there's a load of painted arrows, sort of like it, on the floor, sort of going this way around. So they've kind of like made it so it can be a bit of a s a circuit, and it's made in the sort of like bright electric pink colour. Uh, all the lighting inside probably was quite good until the couple put all the boxes right next to the lighting. So it's all kind of like made it a bit dingy and a bit, a bit dark. It just looks like they've got too much stock for the size of the store they have, but it is the only store that's on the island that sells toys. And you can see there's a door at the back that says private. You can't see Henrik, who's the other owner. You can just see Annette, and she's basically, once she's let you in, has gone behind the cashier to let you browse. There is a large stack of these toys. Have at it, she says, and she she points you over to the stack of toys.
SPEAKER_04So Anthony goes and finds the knockoff of Optimus Prime. What's the name of that toy?
SPEAKER_06What do you mean then? How dare you? How dare you? Um Equious Optimus is his name.
SPEAKER_02My question is, does does Douglas actually follow the the the painted strips along the floor, or or do you just go straight for it, ignoring them?
SPEAKER_03Ooh, well, he is he's looking, we're looking for deceptors, because that is the hot product. So if I could see them from here, maybe I might beeline for that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, there's a bunch of the deceivers that you can see, and you're like, right, I'm gonna go straight for that. Okay. And I know it's megaton prime or whatever it is. Megaton Prime, indeed. The futuristic canon with with with with triple toy lasers, that's the one. Yeah, there is there is surprisingly only one of those. There appears to be a lot of the the the convoys versus the number of deceivers. Yeah, you managed to find one. Anthony's find found one. Tony, what what's yours?
SPEAKER_01I'm not in the slide less interested on all this stuff, all this post. This is for ten year old. Okay. Come on, Sven. Just just grab one.
SPEAKER_03That that one there. You d you I know you don't care. Just grab that.
SPEAKER_01Just tell me, Johannes, just tell me which one I take for our business, okay? Just tell me.
SPEAKER_03Here, you take this one and I'll pick out one for a randomly pick out. And if anyone asks it's your favorite.
SPEAKER_06You randomly pick out one, and that one is a white popcorn machine with orange plastic lid, and you pick out another one, which looks like a red nail gun. And it's called Automata Nil.
SPEAKER_02Susie's probably doing very much a similar to Sven. I like picking them up, kind of looking at them. This this really is not her cup of tea. But but she's she's sort of, I guess, seeing seeing Douglas be enthusiastic about some. It's just picking them up, seeing seeing what he he's saying about them. But if if I'm gonna pick any of them, what Susie's actually doing is trying to pick apart sort of the most complex ones, the the ones that are probably the most mechanically complex.
SPEAKER_06There's a large alter ego, which is a huge oil platform that can be turned into a mechanical spindle. There's a big sticker on the front that says, this is exempt from the free the free selection.
SPEAKER_02I pick it up sort of or or like press some things on it, make it make it kind of move. Yeah. And then realizing the sign, kind of like, oh well.
SPEAKER_05Pete, what what are you doing? What's Angels doing? Well, initially disinterested when I walked in, but then sort of familiar memories come back of happier times in the family and buy my first toy tractor. Oh so I walk up behind the others and I just start picking them up and looking at these things, see if there's anything that catches my interest.
SPEAKER_06I think there is actually. Well, there is a tractor. The sedimenter is a yellow-orange excavator with a bucket on the end. So yeah, that's the closest you're probably gonna get to a tractor.
SPEAKER_05So I lift that up and look across the yo harness and say, This any good?
SPEAKER_06Do I think it's any good? It's all right. I mean, it's not as cool as the uh the military helicopter or the uh the black snowmobile that's on the deceiver's end, but yeah, I mean, it's alright.
SPEAKER_03You you you you pick whatever you like.
SPEAKER_05Well it's gonna make us money though, isn't it?
SPEAKER_03Well, if you want to get that, if it's deceivers are the ones you want to go for.
SPEAKER_05Fair enough. So I'll put put that down and grab the nearest deceiver one. Alright.
SPEAKER_04I pull up my Optimus Prime figure from my backpack and set it beside I forget the name of the knockoff again, I'm sorry. But my my Optipus my Optimus Prime's talks, so I like I set it down and I I push the button that makes it speak, and it says, Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.
SPEAKER_06In which case you can see that the Annette kind of is like, how what what no no, don't bring that in here. Why not? It's mine. She says, Um, well, we don't want to get it lost amongst all these others.
SPEAKER_04Oh, don't worry. We'll all be able to know the knockoff from the real thing.
SPEAKER_06She realizes that there's nothing she can actually do, and she's like, All right, it's fine. She looks around to make sure there's no one else. It's just you kids, and the phone rings and she wanders back to the um the cashier's desk and picks up the phone. Is Hendrix around somewhere or is he disappeared? Um you kind of you can see sort of like some movement in the other room that says private. The door is sort of like partially open, and you see sort of like someone moving around in the back. And as you do that, you can see that the Hendrick comes out and he sort of like almost stumbles into you. He goes, Oh, I'm I'm really sorry, I'm really sorry. He looks really annoyed. And he basically walks up the aisle the wrong way against the the flow of traffic and wander off to the cashier. And as he's done that, the door's left open, and you can see in the storage area behind, there are a load of these toy boxes, but they're all missing the toys from the boxes. There's a bunch of deceivers and a bunch of the um the convoys that are all sort of like broken open and just laying around the um the storage room. Did you want to do anything?
SPEAKER_03Is there any sign of like the actual toys themselves in the room? I stick my head in. You stick your head in.
SPEAKER_06Oh it's the holy grail of toy shops, the storage room. Um it's much of the same as the others, less tidy, less clean. But you can see there's a bunch of unopened, well, there's a bunch of open boxes, like big brown carbo boxes, and there's a load of like toy boxes, all the packaging from the from the toys in. And you can see that there's a load of the the convoys, like the toys, all shatter all scattered around the floor. Some of them have got like their arms pulled off, some of the sort of like the the the parts of the crane have been ripped up, and there's like a spool of sort of like the wire from from one of the cranes. It looks like someone's basically come in and trashed them, trashed the place. You can see sort of like behind there, there's another door and what looks like maybe sort of like a shutter. And it looks like to your mind someone's come in, basically broken in and damaged all the toys. What else are you looking at, Johannes?
SPEAKER_03Oh, I'm just having a look at how the business functions. They seem to have a lot of uh damaged stock. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Damage the stock. Weird.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Well a bunch of broken toys. Ah, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because they're cheap knockoffs.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. It looks like if it was someone playing with them, they were playing with them pretty hard. Look for yourself.
SPEAKER_06You can like stick your head in. Yeah, you can see there's a little office and then there's a storage room. And they're just like they're just they're just pulled apart and all over the floor.
SPEAKER_02Isn't the store store manager around?
SPEAKER_06They seem to be very distracted and having a conversation quietly at the cashier's desk.
SPEAKER_02I I'm gonna I'm gonna rr sort of wander back across the room to the cashier. I haven't got a toy in my hands.
SPEAKER_06As you get there, you hear Annette says to Henrik, what do you mean? And he says, Yeah, a bunch of them. They're all they've all been damaged, and we're missing a load. Someone's obviously broken into the back somehow and stolen them all. I can't believe it. I mean, who would do that? And then they they turn to you as you've got turned up to the cashier.
SPEAKER_02Yes? Are you selling the the the the the parts of toys from the back room? Like I would happily purchase a box of them. He says what?
SPEAKER_06And he looks over, and obviously as he looks over, you can see obviously the rest of the kids by peering in the back. I'm I'm taking that you you haven't crossed the the threshold, you're just kind of like peering through the door kind of thing. Or have any of you actually gone into the storage room?
SPEAKER_04Um I might have gone inside. If Sven went inside, then I followed him. I'll still be peering around the corner, so I will be visible.
SPEAKER_06Anthony, could you please make an investigate role? So it's your mind plus investigate. And Sven, because you're there, you can help with that. So I'm just gonna give you an extra plus one, Anthony. That looks like two successes to me. As you're looking around, the thing that you can see is a lot of the toys that are missing are the deceivers. A lot of the toys, in fact, almost all the toys that are damaged are convoys. That's what you both see as you uh as you then hear, hoi, kids.
SPEAKER_04Do I have a chance to grab one of the broken pieces and like sh put it in my pocket or something without being seen?
SPEAKER_06Sure. That's not a problem. Yeah, they like scattered all over the floor on some boxes, on some shelves. You just grab a piece and just pocket it, that's fine. I guess Sven is in there as well. What do you do you want to do anything?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we'll turn around and say, Well, it looks like you have a case of vandalism in your store. I wonder what it is.
SPEAKER_04It wasn't you, right, Sven? And I like elbowing, like I'm trying to make a, you know, trying to be funny and buddies and in in an awkward way.
SPEAKER_05What's what's your Hannes and Anders doing? Because you're obviously in the doorway. Once we've been noticed, I would I'll just start taking my the one I picked up towards the cashier.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, similar as soon as it's just like, oh yeah, it's like nope, away from the door.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Henrik comes down to sort of like the um the private entrance desk into the storage room. He's like, You lot, get out of there.
SPEAKER_02Susie's quite embarrassed that she kind of got the others in trouble. But it's still just sort of standing there, still waiting for an answer to her question. Annette looks at you and says, Sorry, what was the question?
SPEAKER_06Uh I I just wondered if we could buy the bits instead of the toys. I probably say no because we'll probably have to like send them back to the factory. They're arrivaling this? She then sort of like starts waffling on about insurance and a lot of boring things that adults scook about.
SPEAKER_02I grab I grab the nearest toy and put it on the counter.
SPEAKER_06Henry comes running over to the rest of you and says, Come on, out, out, out. Enough of that lip. He says to you, Sven. Come on, come on, get out of there. He's like kind of like ushering you out of the storage room.
SPEAKER_04Why would only your Autobot knockoffs be damaged? Don't you think that's weird? I don't know. I just get out of there. Fine, whatever. And I'm like, whatever. Transformers are better anyway.
SPEAKER_06You mope all the way back to the cashier's desk and you give your your your toys to the to a to Annette, who basically says, yeah, that's fine, gives you each a little bag, a little plastic bag that says toy corner on with the address on, and a little kind of like flyer for the comic book, and sees you very quickly out of the store.
SPEAKER_04And I'm like, but wait, I didn't even check your role-playing game section.
SPEAKER_06Come back later. As if you do sort of like catch a glance of the very corner of the role-playing section as you kind of like get hustled out, and the next five kids get pulled in, leaving you off to the side in the front of the of the shop.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, when I'm outside, I give to Johannes. My toys like get a good price. Same deal, that's all worries.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I'll hand mine over as well. And then I'll look back at the crowd outside the shop and then point out that everybody seems to be here. I guess that means there's nobody at the ice cream shop. Anyone fancy going there?
SPEAKER_04Ooh, we could we could dine in dash. What? You guys don't dine in dash here, man? Not round here. Everybody knows us. We have to live with these people.
SPEAKER_06Was that Sven and Anders and Johannes? Yeah, that's fine. We'll just charge the parents.
SPEAKER_02I think I think Susie was already waiting outside by the time the rest got ushered out. Sure. They'd gone through that. Chooses not to hear what she just heard and goes, uh You going for ice cream?
SPEAKER_03Sure. You coming? With my arm full of toys, I will make direct eye contact with Alvin as we leave.
SPEAKER_06Alvin kind of gives you evil stares back because he's not in the VIP session, so he's gonna have to pay for his.
SPEAKER_03Um But there's only one of this one, so I don't know. Well maybe someone will find where all the other stock's been taken. But if we don't find it, the value of these go up. Oh, I like where you're going with that.
Ice Cream Shop Shenanigans
SPEAKER_03If nobody ever solves the mystery, these are worth a fortune.
SPEAKER_06Okay, you'll make your way to um to the ice cream shop. Uh it's actually called the ice cream shop. It's got some very nice seating outside, but it's probably a bit too cold for that today. It's probably sort of about 10, 12 degrees. So you kind of make your way indoors and with your various pocket money that you haven't spent on toys, you get yourself some ice cream and settle down into a corner booth. It's very much of the American diner look. So yeah, you can kind of like sit into a booth which comfortably seats all of you.
SPEAKER_04I'll pull out that broken piece that I lifted and start checking it out in between eating my ice cream.
SPEAKER_06Cool. Do you have any kind of tinkering skill? I have one in tinkering. Cool. If you want to make a tinker roll for me, well, look at that. It's a little bit heavier than you would expect. And then when you look into it, you can see there's like lots of little cabling that's going into the leg. What looks like little miniature servers, servos. Whoa.
SPEAKER_04Check this out. This is like real high-tech stuff.
SPEAKER_02After Susie has finished her ice cream incredibly quickly. She's sort of had had sort of a similar idea, except she's doing it with the new the new toy. So she's taking taking it out of the packaging. It's sat on probably on the the the right-hand side of the booth, so yeah, on the outside. And as they're all distracted by that, you just hear a crunch as she slams it against the table edge to try and get the head off or whatever. And see see how it works inside.
SPEAKER_03If you didn't want to, you could have just given it to me and I'd given you a bit of money for it. She looks at all of you and just what?
SPEAKER_06And then starts peering inside of it. You start peering inside of it, it's made of plastic and a little bit of metal and looks like a toy.
SPEAKER_02She sighs.
SPEAKER_04Ah well, and just sort of puts the broken toy on top of the box. I'll I'll take a look at it and then can I notice that Susie's toy is sort of less complicated, I guess, or less technically complicated than the broken piece that I stole?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, absolutely. It it doesn't take much. Once you now you've seen what the piece that you have compared to Susie's toy, 100% it's like very different.
SPEAKER_04It's also a lot lighter. They're supposed to be the same. There's the same manufacturer, the same brand. Yep. Same boxes. Same looking. Toy line is the same. Okay, so let me have a look at it, Anthony. Yeah, I mean, sure. Why would this one be so different inside? Why would they put all this fancy tech inside a toy, but then not do it for all of them? That doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_03Maybe it's like special competition one or something like that. one in a million or something like that that they make fancy.
SPEAKER_05Can I have a look to see if there's any manufacturer's marks on any of these servos or chips or anything inside it? Yes, you kind of have a look.
SPEAKER_06You don't really have the right tools. It's really you can see there's like small scratchings and stuff, but you can't really read it. You'd need some sort of like magnifying glass or something like that to kind of see it, which you don't have. But you know where you do have that? Yeah, back at the base.
SPEAKER_05Back at the base. We'll have a closer look at it once we get back there.
SPEAKER_04Can I come? I don't know, guys. What do you think? Are we gonna let a girl in?
SPEAKER_03You'd have to agree to become an equal equity partner within the corporation.
SPEAKER_02Does it mean we'll still buy ice cream with the uh the winnings? Yes. And I think I can agree to that.
SPEAKER_03Looks like you got yourself a new business partner. Oh, all everyone is an equal equity partner within the company. What's good for the company is good for everyone.
SPEAKER_02It's quite clear that Susie's agreeing, but she's she's very appreciating it as a tug-in-cheek thing. Like yeah, sure. No, no, no, I'm genuine for I'm I'm aware it's not, but she's seeing it as like, yeah, all right, I'll play your little game.
SPEAKER_05I'll look across to Sven to see what he thinks about this. Yeah, whatever. I'm like, I don't care.
SPEAKER_03I'm too cool to care.
SPEAKER_06You you kind of like see Eric kind of like wander over who is one of the the guy who served you the ice cream, and he comes over to you and says, Have you seen Magnus?
SPEAKER_01Magnus? No, I haven't seen him since yesterday.
SPEAKER_06He hasn't turned up for his shift. I know you're always talking to him. So uh I just want to know if you knew where he was.
SPEAKER_01No. Do you know where he lives? Yeah. Do you want me to go by and see where he is? If you guys wouldn't mind. Not at all. At least I don't mind.
SPEAKER_06Tell him to get his ass in here. If he's not here for tomorrow's shift, he can find another job. Well, that's not from me, that's from the boss.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I would get the address. Guys, you wanna come with me or should I go alone and meet you in the hideout?
SPEAKER_03I didn't have anything really planned for the rest of the day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I guess we're in no hurry. Oh or take the bike and go to Magnus.
SPEAKER_06Uh well, I'm presuming some of you don't have a bike, so are you all gonna you're you're gonna push the bike, presumably while everyone's walking with you?
SPEAKER_01Or are you just gonna take off and leave it? No, they can jump behind. I mean, there are ways to double ride a bike.
SPEAKER_03How many bikes? Yeah, yeah. Or sit on the handlebars.
SPEAKER_06So we've got two people on one bike. Uh three people on one bike. Oh, that's gonna be interesting.
SPEAKER_02Now Susie wouldn't be doing that. She actually, as you sort of pull away, she go you you're going somewhere else other than to investigate this immediately, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02She's like, well, well, we we you know, maybe maybe Anthony, we we we could take that back and and you know, have a look at it further sooner, and then and then the rest could catch up. Take it where? Wasn't it that the hideout you had tools or whatnot? Or you could sing by my place.
SPEAKER_04I I I'm sure I could I I could find my your your your your your your play your place? Uh I let's I uh the hide a hideout a hideout is better, I think.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Look, not a girl's room.
SPEAKER_04But uh we're gonna be alone.
SPEAKER_02Well, uh if if the rest of them are going the other way, then I I guess so, but I do you not want to know what the the Do you not want to see w what's behind all of these these motors and whatnot? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay, okay. Let's let's let's let's go. I guess.
SPEAKER_02We'll catch up with you guys later.
SPEAKER_04Is that is that cool, Sven? What is cool? Sven said it was cool. What I didn't say anything. I'm asking, why don't you ask him? He just starts going off with Susie.
SPEAKER_05And then Anders just shouts out, Don't touch the car.
SPEAKER_03Or my filing system. Amazing.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Well, do I know where do I know where Anders keeps the keys?
SPEAKER_06Probably not, no. Okay. I would imagine that Anders has probably kept that very closely card secret for any of the other kids. In fact, you can't ever remember seeing
Investigating Magnus's Disappearance
SPEAKER_06keys that he's ever had. So you and Susie make your way back to the hideout. The other three make your way to Magnus' Place. Magnus' Place is just on the outskirts of town, probably about as far away from the toy shop as as you can get. You kind of like turn off down this little road, and you come to sort of like a little like a cul-de-sac of of six or seven houses, one of them, which is Magnus's. You can see there's sort of like a a couple of there's a toy swing in the um in the in the in the front of the garden, and there's a little tiny veranda, and you can see that there is you can see there's a a door with like a fly sheet kind of thing at the front of it, and it looks quiet. It's a it's a Tuesday, it's the middle of the day. Parents and stuff will probably be at work, and or they'll uh be looking after their kids. But weirdly, there there are no other kids sort of like let around, you you can't hear anyone else playing in the gardens, and you kind of get to the door. It's got a very kind of like foreboding feeling to you kids.
SPEAKER_01So did you say this is a house with a backyard? Uh yeah, there's a backyard as well.
SPEAKER_06Is it easier to reach the backyard or uh yeah, you can just go around. There's no like there's no fencing or anything, so you can go from the front to the back.
SPEAKER_01Guys, I'm gonna ask directly. And I go through the door, the main door and ring.
SPEAKER_06You um you push the button for the main door, uh there the doorbell goes off, and you wait for a suitable amount of time, but no one seems to come to the door.
SPEAKER_01I look through the windows.
SPEAKER_06You look through the windows, you can see sort of like at the front, there's like a lounge. You can see that there is someone laying on the couch, sort of like in a like a wrap or a throw or a blanket, but they seem to be asleep.
SPEAKER_01I knock on the glass.
SPEAKER_06You knock on the glass, nothing happens.
SPEAKER_01I go around.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you kind of go around and see if there's a back door. What are the other two doing? What's um what's what's Anderson, Johannes doing?
SPEAKER_05Just standing by the gate, me, hands in my pocket, shuffling around.
SPEAKER_03Just kind of watching whatever uh spends up to with interest, since he seems to be up to stuff.
SPEAKER_06You do that thing that that little kids do is that you just kind of like doo-doo, we're not doing anything, we're being very kind of we're acting casual, but not looking at but not actually acting casual. So uh then you go around the back, there's a back door. If the back door is unlocked.
SPEAKER_01I go in very carefully.
SPEAKER_06Okay, you go in very carefully, and you kind of like come into sort of like a kitchen area, which then takes you out into sort of like the the dining room, which will then take you into the lounge.
SPEAKER_01I approach the shape on the couch.
SPEAKER_06You can see you can actually see Magnus's uh blonde hair sort of uh all over a pillow, and you can see that he's deeply freezing. Well, I shake him. As you shake him really hard, he basically grabs your arm and goes, ah, ah, ah, and starts shouting and screaming and is like, what the hell? What the hell? And gets up. You guys, you two outside can hear all this like commotion going from inside the house. And he kind of looks at you and goes, Oh my god, oh my god. Fan, what are you doing? What are you doing in my house?
SPEAKER_01Oh my chill, man. Chill. Just came to see if everything is okay with you. I haven't seen you in two days. What?
SPEAKER_06He looks at his wrist as if there's a watch there, but there doesn't appear to be a watch there, and he's like, Oh my god, I'm late for work.
SPEAKER_01Like, uh For two days. I mean You've been late since yesterday.
SPEAKER_06You look around and you can see some like beer bottles and stuff sort of like liberally sort of like around the around the table and on the floor. He looks at you and says, I might have had far too much, perhaps.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_06So I let you be. He kind of like wanders to the main door and unlocks it. He goes, I'll have to let them know that I was sick or something. Um I'll give them a call right now. Cheers, friend, thanks a lot. No problem. So back at the um the hideout, you go up the stairs, and the first thing you see is a whole wall of posters of bands, which have all been kind of like put together almost in it's almost starting to become a wallpaper effect. You can see in one corner there's a bunch of like old rusty-looking filing cabinets, and there is electronic junk and mechanical junk on everything. It's all just dotted around. There is a half a body of a child-sized robot sort of like sitting in the corner staring out of the room. It's just the sort of like half a leg and sort of like the abdomen and a little bit and an arm and part of the chest. The other half seems to be missing, which is really disconcerting. And it looks like there's loads of wires and various things kind of being pulled out of the robot in various different places. And then there's a a stack of little books, and one large book, like on a sort of like a an old school table or something that's kind of being repurposed, just sitting there as you follow in. Anthony.
Back at the Hideout
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Susie takes our perfume from like her like bag and just gives it a quick quick couple of sprays just just because it's a little bit musty.
SPEAKER_04I'm like waving my hand in front of my face, like, ooh.
SPEAKER_02So so did I remember his name? Uh did he say that there were there were tools or something?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and Anders, Anders, he's got some tools around here somewhere.
SPEAKER_02Hey, you want to see my polyhedral dice? I'm currently looking around for that toolbox that was mentioned. Uh yeah, yeah, sure. Maybe maybe in a second. Uh I I I gotta pull out the toolbox, hoike it up onto the table, start kind of rummaging through, seeing what's in the toolbox. Hey, hey, be careful with that stuff. That's that's not even yours. I'm like picking things up, looking at it, like putting it on on the side. Like she's fascinated by it all.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, there's some handy tools to help you do electronics and mechanical stuff. It's almost all the right stuff you need.
SPEAKER_02So so I grab the magnifying glass and I kinda I turn to Anthony, I'm like, right, should we ever look at this thing?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Do you know what you're doing? Mm-hmm. Do you? Of course. That's good to hear. So so so the leg? Yeah, yeah, the the you mean you mean my piece? I'm confused. Well, it's the only thing we've got to look at.
SPEAKER_02But what about your piece? I I I threw my my uh my my my toy away as soon as we left the ice cream parlor. It was the box and the thing just dumped behind.
SPEAKER_04But you left you paid for that. Why would you do that? That that's that's dumb.
SPEAKER_02No use.
SPEAKER_04Does it always take this long with with you? Uh uh I don't know what you're talking about. I I put the broken toy piece on the table.
unknownGood.
SPEAKER_02And she she immediately just starts uh staring at it through the uh the magnifying glass. But she actually does a thing where as she's looking at it, she goes, So you mentioned those polyhedral dice? Yeah. Wanna check them out? Yeah, what about them? While I'm taking a look. So I'm gonna get him distracted and talking about what he wants while I investigate. You bastard. Take note, everyone. Look, I I've got three in empathy. I know what's going on here.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so you kind of like start looking at the um at the at the toy. It's a really, really kind of you've got Tinker, haven't you?
SPEAKER_02I have one in Tinker, program, and calculate.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so you kind of have a look. Absolutely, it it's servers, it's it's like all the right kind of stuff. For mechanics uh and for robotics, it's just on a very small scale. You use the sort of like little uh screwdrivers and little kind of devices to have a look. Uh as you're sort of looking into the leg, you can kind of see that there's a little past the servers and stuff, there's a little uh serial number, and there's also what looks like a a business address or something. As you're sort of looking into the into the address, you can just make out the the the word Stenhamra. Then Anthony, what was the toy you picked up, or did you not pick up a toy?
SPEAKER_04Uh no, I didn't pick up a toy, I only grabbed the broken piece.
SPEAKER_06Okay, cool. Yeah, so uh you kind of look at it and just as you look at it, uh you uh you can see uh that the leg's sort of like moving as soon as you're sort of messing around with it. Uh and it has an address of a factory where the toy was made, which is just outside Stenhamra, and it has got the little the little emblem of the the the woman who's created it. It's got V-O-S-S with like a diamond shape around it for Helena
Discovering Secrets in the Toys
SPEAKER_06Voss. And so you kind of like wait for this sort of something else to happen. The other kids kind of like turn up at the hideouts.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm gonna I'm just gonna gonna say uh like I as I sort of notice that I I turn to uh Anthony and go, oh yeah, so so you you roll them. Oh, this one's cool, and I'll pick up the D4. What uh do you play games with them? Yeah, yeah, it's for Dungeons and Dragons. Oh, oh cool. Uh do you have any paper?
SPEAKER_04Uh yeah, I got loads of paper, and I grab my trapper keeper that has my DD campaign written in it, and I like flip to a blank piece of lined paper and I think can you write this down for me?
SPEAKER_02And then she reads out the the address. Stanhamra. Yeah, there you go.
SPEAKER_04You want do you want to make a character? Maybe. How long will that take?
SPEAKER_06Twenty minutes, maybe? Maybe. I think that sounds like as you kind of like kind of agree to sort of like start character creation, you hear the sound of the others joining you in the hideout. And I think that seems like a perfect place to end it for the session.