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 E5: A Tales from the Loop Actual Play Podcast
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Living transformable robots? A cyborg security guard? And now strange figures lurking in unmarked cars? Something sinister is happening in Stenhamra. The mystery deepens when the kids discover that their friend Magnus has been compromised. With danger closing in, will they uncover the truth before it's too late? And will anyone play D&D with Anthony?
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Introduction to Tales from the Loop
SPEAKER_02Hello and welcome to Stories with Dice, an actual play podcast of some of our favorite tabletop role-playing games.
SPEAKER_00Hi, welcome back to another actual play with Stories with Dice. I'm Ed. I'm joined as usual with my co-host Marco.
SPEAKER_03Hello.
SPEAKER_00And our wonderful players for another episode of Tales from the Loop. Hello, other players. Hello. Hello. We're missing one player tonight, but hopefully they'll be joining us for the next session. So if you're listening to this, then please give us a thumbs up, a like, subscribe, and some kind of follow, whatever it is that you have to do to say that you like us. If you've got a Discord channel and you'd like to join us, please come join us with stories with dice. You can chat with us and the players and everyone else. There should be some other stuff by the time you call in us, with maybe some maps and character art, something like that. We also have a Patreon with the same name, so if you want to subscribe to that, that would be great. That's not how we're doing, so we can have an idea of how many people are actually following us. It's free to subscribe, but if you'd like to give us some money, then that would also be great. We can buy each other new uh microphones or some extra software, or maybe just go on that trip to the Maldives that we're always planning on doing. Anyway, we also have a s we have a website. Everything's linked in the description, so let's just get on with it. Okay, so where we left off, I was gonna kind of go through it all, but I thought maybe I would give it to someone else to do, because I'm just being lazy this evening. Now, I think I did it last time. You did it last time. Well, okay, so you did it last time. You did such a good job as well. So that means whoever's gonna have to follow you is gonna have to follow on that amazing bit of recap.
SPEAKER_05That's what I'm gonna do. I will be scoring them. I got the clip I've got the clipboard.
SPEAKER_00Excellent. There'll be a prize at the end. I guess. Why don't Tony, how about you give it a go? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That could be alright. So if I remember, it was Tuesday, and I think we started by going to the toy factory, if I remember well. That was the start. And if I may remember well, basically we found this toy factory that it was enclosed by a big white fence with two main buildings, one that was a big one and one that was a smaller one. And there was like a, you know, we were very far away, but we could still see like the small guard house with nobody uh inside. And I think at that moment, I think Susie thought that it would be a good idea to go alone, I think with Anders, if I remember well, trying to distract the the guard or approach. And then I think me, as Ben, and I think Anthony, I think no, no, Anthony went with Susie, and I went with Anders, that's it. And we were trying to sneak around. And I don't know if you know we make it we made it all the way, but then you know Anthony and Susie started having a big discussion with the guard, and and the guard was starting to get nasty because I think they're trying to get in, and they were like, oh, I'm gonna call your parents. And and I think at some point they ran away and we and the guy went went in. Yeah, that's correct. And I think we we we follow around trying to get in.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you got chased around inside, didn't you, by the weird like robots that were kind of like swarming.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. But that happened later, right, when we got in. And then trying to go and then we were running around, and then the car came back out again, and then he was started saying, Oh, what are you doing here? And I was like, well, what do you mean? I do whatever I want. And then I kind of saw that the guy had kind of um something on his brain or his head, uh, like he if he was like a robot or control, and or stitches, I think it was.
SPEAKER_00Yes, that's correct. Yeah, stitches on like a little weird like metal thing on the side of his, just behind his ear.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then I just ran away. Just went away, and I think we all met together, and that's where we left, I think, right?
SPEAKER_00Cool. Um, there was a little bit more. So, Marco, I'll hand over to you. So you'd all managed to run away from the factory, and you all had a bit of a quick discussion, I think it was.
SPEAKER_03Yes, so we headed back to the hideout, if I remember correctly. And Sven and Anders sort of frightened Anthony, telling him that the, you know, now that the guard knew his name, they were gonna come looking for him, they were gonna go to his parents' house. And so Anthony got scared and decided not to go home, so he spent the night at the hideout, only he never told his parents that that's what he was doing. And Anders and Sven spent the night. They went home to get stuff and to like tell their parents what they were doing, ostensibly, and then they went back to the hideout and spent the night at the hideout with Anthony, so Anthony wasn't alone. Susie went home to her house, and then I believe we cut to the morning where the police came to Susie's house, and so her mom wakes her up in the morning to tell her that the police are there and they want to know where Anthony is. That he never came home last night.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so uh I give that a passing grade. Just a passing grade. The only bit that was missing was most of that was also to the soundtrack of uh It's kind of magic by Queen. That's the only bit I had down that was missing.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_03Right, right. But who's getting the passing grade? I mean, like Tony did part of it and then I did the other part. So are you giving the passing grade to all of us?
SPEAKER_05No, no, it's it's Tony's work that's been graded. When yours was hand when yours was handed in, it was done for plagiarism.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much. Right, yeah. So you um you get woken up, Susie, by a police officer, sort of a youngish sort of like cop. She has she asks where Anthony is and if you've seen them, and if so, where did you see them last?
SPEAKER_05She would say, yeah, uh we were we were hanging out yesterday, and as I went home, he and I'm gonna I'm just gonna dob Anders in, honestly.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_05Him him and a couple of the other boys, Anders, were supposed to be making sure he gets home. If they never made it home, then may have gone to their hideout, and I'll tell her where the hideout is.
SPEAKER_00Okay. He says, Thank you very much. I am Inspector Ingmarie Blankung, and I'm very grateful that you're telling the truth. Do you know the name of Anders' surname? Do you know his surname at all?
SPEAKER_05I don't think he's ever like said it to me as like a formal introduction, but uh I'm I'm sure maybe I have a a a like year planner or something. I could probably find it out for you, or we could contact the school.
SPEAKER_00Yes, my colleague's already doing that. And do you know which other other kids were with him?
SPEAKER_05That would have been Anders and is it Sven, I think.
SPEAKER_00Sven? Do you know what Sven's name is at all? I'm guessing not.
SPEAKER_05She looks at you. Well, like if if if Anders wasn't gonna introduce himself politely, then Sven definitely wouldn't.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00No, no, that's fine. That was and that was it. And yourself?
SPEAKER_05Sol's trying to remember if there was anyone else.
SPEAKER_00That's fine. Um so she she sort of like takes some notes, she writes it down in a little pocketbook. And she says, Okay, well, thank you very much for your help. I'll be in touch and I'll let you know what happens. She kind of walks off with your mum having a conversation as she leaves the room and she looks back at you, smiles, and says, Don't worry, everything will be fine. And they kind of like wander off out of the room, leaving you alone in bed, basically.
SPEAKER_05Uh Susie just crashes back into Vega with a big sigh. And then starts sort of looking at looking at the the ceiling of her room, sort of uh tapping on her belly and just sort of humming along. Probably it's a kind of magic still stuck in
The Great Escape from the Factory
SPEAKER_05her head. Sure. And then she's basically deciding what to do.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So uh when uh when Anthony wakes up he is with uh he's with Janice. I think that Andes has probably uh left in the morning before you woke up, and Sven, I'm not sure if Sven was there or Sven was calming, I can't remember. No, no, I believe Sven spent the night. Sven spent the night, okay. Yeah, yeah. That makes sense. So uh yes, you wake up with with those two. It was cold. But it was like some sleeping bags of some bits of like I think you had some pizza and some other bits and pieces to eat. Yeah, and it's obviously it was quite a cool evening spending it away from home, but also there was a bit of worry, wasn't there?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00So what'll be the plan this morning?
SPEAKER_01I will I I will probably just stretch a little bit and and go to Anthony. Do you want me to take you home? I can't walk here.
SPEAKER_03You know, Ed, I think I just remembered that we had planned to go to the diner.
SPEAKER_00Yes, you're right. You were gonna meet in the morning in the diner, went Yeah, we were gonna have breakfast at the diner. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, well well okay, that's fine. Yeah, you kind of like put up and then you went to the diner to have breakfast. So that's okay. Yeah, so you've all kind of like made your way to the diner apart from Susie, who who is laying in bed.
SPEAKER_05I think she's gonna lay in bed and then she's gonna probably have forgotten about everything else. Once once once everything's calmed down, going to have breakfast as normal, having forgotten about the diner, and then get on her bike, probably go straight to the the clubhouse to see if they're there, and then ride around a bit until she finds them. Okay, that makes sense. But we have got school, right? Is it Wednesday?
SPEAKER_00Or is this the summer?
SPEAKER_01Well, I I couldn't remember.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, you're off for Easter.
SPEAKER_01Well, in that case we'll go to the diner. That's cool.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah, you go to the diner and it's the same dialog you you go to all the time. You order some breakfast and you kind of sit down in your usual beef and have a chat.
SPEAKER_01You know, uh I don't know if I told you yesterday. I didn't want to tell you yesterday, Anthony. But since I know that you're very good at computers and stuff like that, you know how was the weirdest thing that happened yesterday? No, what? You know the the guard this big old fat guy that was like bothering you guys. You know, he had something. Something weird on his brain. Is is that even possible? What what do you mean? Like there was something attached to his head? Yeah, I didn't want to tell you yesterday because you know, uh didn't want to schedule it a bit more, but yeah, yeah, he had kind of some stitches and I don't know if he I don't know, some metal stuff? I don't know if it you know very weird, it was creepy, man. Like, do you think he's a cyborg? Is that possible? I've seen it on the movies, but yeah, I don't know, science. Who knows?
SPEAKER_03I mean you know, I suppose it's possible. Those toys were alive.
SPEAKER_01Right? So it's possible that they did a bigger size one? Is is this guy a cyborg or just a robot? What is being hidden in that place? Are our parents even aware? I mean, people are are they aware of this, the police?
SPEAKER_03Who can we trust? How do we know that more people in town aren't in on this conspiracy?
SPEAKER_01Who knows? At least, you know, I'm telling you, this guy had some nasty stitches on the side of the br of the head. So have a look next time, just in case.
SPEAKER_03No thanks, man. I'm not gonna go anywhere near that guy.
SPEAKER_01No, I mean i if if you see somebody acting weird, just check for stitches.
SPEAKER_05Can Susie have turned up at this point?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, unless Douglas has anything that Yanis wants to kind of add. I assume they filled him in about everything that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They they've kind of filled them in. Uh you were sort of with your grandfather away doing things, so yes, you kind of like co-op on everything.
SPEAKER_04That is fine. Then well, I don't know. We can always trust each other because you know, we're all in this together. We don't tell anyone else outsiders about things we get up to, right? Like that's what said in that contract I made you all sign. You did make Susie sign the contract, right? Contract? You remember those bits of paper I made you all put your initials on? No. They're in my final cabinet. You didn't make her sign it.
SPEAKER_03I don't I don't know anything I don't know about that. But we dude, we we should like check our teachers' heads and our families and you know, make sure they all haven't been turned into like robots or cyborgs or terminators or whatever.
SPEAKER_00As you're leaning in close talking to each other in sort of like whispers, the diner's phone rings and it's that kind of really kind of deep ring, ring, ring kind of noise, and one of the uh one of the people that work in the diner kind of rushes over and odds the phone as he will kind of stop for a second. You can just make out Suzy's sort of on her bike through the windows kind of coming towards the diner. So it's sort of like set up in the center of town, and it's kind of on like the main sort of like uh area where sort of four or five roads kind of like meet, and uh you can see Susie sort of like cycling along that kind of gets you out of your kind of like conspiratorial huddle. Susie, could you make me uh roll, please? Could you please make it uh a an investigator? No, but let's find out five days. Nothing cool. You like cycling along, uh yeah, you kind of uh almost kind of cycling a lot of some of the car in front of you, the door opens and you didn't see it in time, and uh you pretty much almost run into uh this lady in her sort of she's probably in her mid-thirties, um sort of like short black hair, and she kind of like grabs the uh handlebars of your bike, and then as you sort of start to go forward and go over, she grabs sort of like your shoulder and stops you from kind of going over the handlebars, and she looks down at you and she's like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, are you okay there?
SPEAKER_05A little shook, rips their their headphones that I was definitely riding with, which is definitely not safe, but I was doing it anyway. Startled and probably doesn't say anything, just just a bit in shock.
SPEAKER_00She kind of honks you down next to your bike, and you notice as as she does that, uh there's another there's another gentleman on the other side of the car in the passenger seat. And uh he's sort of like got blonde hair, he's also in his sort of mid-thirties, uh, and he looks at you and he gives you you get like sort of an odd feeling about him. Like it's not something quite right, just like a bit of like and he kind of gives you a bit of a dirty look and she says, uh, sorry, sorry, sorry. And she sort of like starts to sort of pat you down and says, I'm really, really sorry. I'll let you get back to your friends. And she kind of like pushes you away from the car so you can sort of like push your bike towards the diner.
SPEAKER_05I'm sort of going around, sort of just looking at them as I head around towards the diner. And I'm I'm not actually gonna go in, I'm just gonna sort of park up outside and just stand there and look at Okay.
SPEAKER_00You're looking at the others inside the diner.
SPEAKER_05No, no, no, at at the the at the woman and the Yeah yeah, I'm gonna put my headphones back on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the the the man kind of like gives you a a smile, which is a bit creepy. She sort of shuts the door and she kind of makes her way towards you and then into the diner.
SPEAKER_05Gonna just gonna wait there and watch this car.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Okay, listening to my music. You stand there and wait and watch the car. The rest of you see this woman sort of like walk in. She's wearing sort of smart, casual clothes, in a way that doesn't sit naturally with her. You imagine she'd probably be better off uh wearing like a suit or something. And she kind of goes over to the guy on the at the actual desk at the dining room and she starts talking to him in sort of like a low hush. She kind of passes like something to him, he kind of looks at her, and then they move off towards the edge of that countertop away from the customers, and they start having like a quite muted conversation in the corner. What do any of you want to do?
SPEAKER_03Do we see Susie outside?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can see her outside. She's just sort of leaning against the glass.
SPEAKER_05Probably bopping her head along. But yeah, leaning up against the glass.
SPEAKER_03Hey guys, look, it's Susie.
SPEAKER_04Susie's outside. Oh yeah, so she is. Knock on the window, I suppose. Can't hear you.
SPEAKER_05Knock harder. She turns around. She goes. She turns around and like sees you in there, and then and sort of puts a finger to her lips, telling you to shush, and then like points quite quite vividly at the or quite obviously at the car in front, and then does does their two finger sort of uh eyes thing. I think she's saying she's looking at that car.
SPEAKER_04A look at the car. Is there anything particularly interesting about this car?
SPEAKER_00It's sort of like a a dark ray standard, like mid-80s sedan. It's sort of the sort of thing you probably see that I don't know, FBI agents in America drive, or just standard sort of people, you know, in government jobs would drive, that kind of are there any uh logos or signage on the car? No, it's very dull, boring, drab grey kind of if you weren't looking at it, you probably would never like think to look at it. It's very dull and unassuming.
SPEAKER_01Spencer's gonna stand up and go out with Susie and answer.
SPEAKER_00No, it appears that Susie ignores you.
SPEAKER_05It appears that Susie ignores you because she couldn't hear you. I'm like, what's going on? Takes the headphones down. The woman from that park, she was weird. She's like, Stopped me riding my bike. It was really weird, and the man inside's also weird. And I don't trust them. So I'm I'm I'm I'm keeping what? Do you think they're robots?
SPEAKER_01Do I do I think they're broke? Never mind. And is is is is that their car? Yes.
SPEAKER_05I think did you did you see her? She was she went inside the diner. I I thought I would keep keep the surveillance out here as soon as you've you've got the inside, you know?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna you know, this these guys think that they are FBI or you know, you know, this kind of thing on the movies like Secret Service, whatever. I don't know. I don't have a look, and I will just go kind of non-channel to check on the car if there is any anything inside that can tell me if there is a, you know, we are parked here, we are CIA agents or FBI or whatever it's the same. Ignoring him. And just trying to go like sni- I mean not the sneaking, but you know, like I don't give a shit, like trying to look like I don't care and then try to check the car.
SPEAKER_00Okay, well you kind of like wander over to uh to to to the car. The guy is sitting there, he's got blonde hair, sort of like like long like handlebar moustache kind of thing. Yeah, you he kind of looks at you as you walk towards the the car. He doesn't do anything, he just he's just sitting there with his hand rest on his on his chin, looking like he's a bit bored, just uh watching the lady that's kind of gone in. He doesn't say anything to you as you get closer to the car or anything.
SPEAKER_01Does he have his titches?
SPEAKER_00So you're gonna have to get quite close to him. So you can't just like wander past the car, you'd have to like really peer in. Are you happy to do that? Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01And just gonna get close. Like if I was gonna ask him something.
SPEAKER_00Um all right, well you um you you get closer as if you were gonna go ask him something. Okay, so you go around to where he's sitting in the passenger seat, and he's kind of like he sees you sort of like cross his vision, but he doesn't really kind of like pay much attention to you. He's still looking towards the dialogue. Okay. Um and as you kind of like walk past him, why don't you for me, Sven, make the dust again roll?
SPEAKER_01There you are. Tin tin tin. No bonuses I think, right?
SPEAKER_00No bonuses or anything, just a straight investigation.
SPEAKER_01There you are.
SPEAKER_00One success. That looks like a one success, one six. Thanks for rolling those dogs. Yeah, you you look behind his ear and around sort of like his headlight hairline and stuff. You can't see any stitches or anything like that. But you can clearly see that I guess as you get a little bit closer, you can see into sort of like the the vehicle. You can see there's a a bunch of sort of styrofoam cups that you'd get out of those terrible machines uh that that your parents and or maybe you you you might occasionally drink out of, the sort of ones you might get from like a motel or a or a or a or a hospital or or or or anything like that. And there's a lot of them. It also looks like there's various wrappers, various uh food places sort of in the backseat, and there is a black duffel bag on the backseat, sort of all zipped up, just hidden, well not hidden, but just sort of like under the sort of like Packages and of food and stuff in the backseat as you sort of like walk past.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I will light a cigarette like if I was just minding my own business and I'd stay there for a bit just you know, just not too long, but so it doesn't look suspicious, and then I will go back to Susie.
SPEAKER_00You make your way back to Susie.
SPEAKER_03What are the rest of you doing in the uh So I was thinking that while that was happening, Anthony would be filling Douglas I mean, um sorry, Douglas Johannes in. Anthony would be filling Johannes in on everything that he missed, you know. So he's like, so yeah, so then like the the guard at the factory like yanked me by the scruff of my of you know like the back of my neck, like my c my shirt collar, and he was like screaming at me and wanting to know my name, and like and then like Sven and Anders, they snuck into the factory and they found living robots, man, like in a cyborg, and they got chased out of the factory, and then Susie helped me escape, and then we we all went back to the hideout and and and like they were looking for us, and so we all hit out well except for Susie. Susie went back to her house, you know, because she's a girl, and like the rest of us, like you know, we were hiding in the hideout together. It was really cool, man.
SPEAKER_04Certainly sounds like you had a very interesting afternoon. So you're saying there was little tiny robots, like the toys?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, the toys, they're like they're like and then there's also ro Robo men? Yeah, well, I I didn't I didn't see that. Like Sven Sven said that like the guard had like this weird thing on the on his head on his side of his head, and like it looked like maybe he was he had been operated on or something. We were wondering. He was weird and and like he threatened us, so like you know, like we thought maybe maybe maybe those robots were controlling you or something. Interesting thought. But if they're if they're real, just think about how much how much money you could make.
SPEAKER_04Real robots. You said they were a bit dangerous, right? That's the lawsuit waiting to happen.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so it's just you didn't see anyone else uh this fact? No, I mean I I didn't get a chance to go inside because you know the guard the guard snatched me up, but but Sven and Anders went in there and they they they said they just saw those little toy robots and that they were alive and they chased them around. I mean the one that we had, I had one in my bag and it like it like got loose and and ran it transformed and and ran into the you know into the factory, and that's that's when we discovered that they were that they were like real transformers. More than meets the eye, huh? I are you referencing something? Yeah, you did you guys ever seen the Transformers here? Robots in disguise.
SPEAKER_04Oh, that's like your toy, isn't it? The Transformers, the cartoon. No, sorry. I haven't seen it. Is it good? You get our friends in the machine. Yeah. Unfortunately, I just had to spend the afternoon with my grandparents. It was singularly uninteresting.
SPEAKER_03Well, you're here now, and and I bet we could get another one and maybe like, I don't know, maybe you could sell it to like the military or something. I bet they would give you a lot of money for it.
SPEAKER_04They do like that sort of thing, I'm told. Yeah. Definitely if we could maybe get hold of one, maybe like trap it or something like that. Be worth like maybe take it par or something like that, see how it ticks.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and Anders is like really good with stuff and and Susie's smart, so like maybe, you know, like maybe maybe together we can like reprogram it and make it nice so it won't it won't hurt us.
SPEAKER_04Possibly. Although she's a bit of an odd one, she seems more interested in that car at the moment.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I I don't know what's up with that.
SPEAKER_00So back to Sven outside. Sven, you're kind of like making your way to Suzy when you see Magnus making his way across the road towards the diner. Okay. Which is fine. And he kind of walks straight across the road and goes into the diner.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So he doesn't see me. He doesn't seem to have noticed, you know. Okay. So I'll go to Susie first and I will just you know point our headphones. She takes it off. Looks looks right. Yeah, definitely. CIA. No, it's it's it's they're totally, totally, totally secret agents. No doubt. I have no doubt whatsoever. At least they are not robots. For real? Yeah. Yeah. Have you seen the movies when you know the state police is what they're called. Why why are they Perhaps what we saw yesterday? You know, the this conspiracy to make all of us cyborgs. And totally I think there is something.
SPEAKER_05Sven, no, yeah, I think you need to stop with all of these you know, scaring trying to scare Anthony, okay? It's not gonna work on me, and it's not good for him.
SPEAKER_01And then I start laughing. Like, okay, fine, but it's true. There's still something going on. Anywho, I go inside. You're gonna stay here or you come in here?
SPEAKER_05No, I'm not gonna lie, I'm actually quite hungry now, so I'm I'm I'm gonna get a snack. But but but I could also be quite inconspicuous, you know? As I do so, just in case I overhear anything. And maybe maybe we will we'll we won't be linked. I'll I'll do my best. I'll do my best. Okay. Do you want to go first or shall I go first? I go first, that's fine.
SPEAKER_00As you um as you as you walk in, uh the little diner doorbells rings off again. As you can see, Magnus uh picking up what looks like an order or a delivery, and uh he says, uh that's for uh Ulla's house, is that correct? The guy behind the bar says, uh yes, it's Ulla's. She says just drop it off at the gate. Magnus nods and walks past you towards the doors.
SPEAKER_01I I salute him.
SPEAKER_00Hello. Good morning. He looks at you, smiles at you, he's got like sort of dark rings under his eyes. He doesn't sort of say anything and he makes his way towards the uh the doors. As he opens the doors, you can see a few stitches just behind his ear as he uh leaves the diner. As he leaves the diner, you notice that the woman who was in the car has taken a keen interest in what whatever he said, and she leaves shortly thereafterwards.
SPEAKER_05Susie tries to come in at both times, they leave, so it's that awkward thing of sorry. Sure. And then she finally sort of walks in and then sees Sven like ogling.
SPEAKER_01I go quickly to the uh to the table, it's like, guys, guys, guys, guys, you're not gonna believe this. You're not gonna believe this. What what happened? Yeah, well, for one, I look around if anybody else is paying attention to what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00The only other person in this diner is the guy that is working behind the um counter, and he appears to be feeling something in the fog.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so after looking around, I just lean closer to them and I'm like one soda, please, sir. I just lean closer to the one and it's like one. Yeah, most definitely police or secret agents or whatever they are. Definitely, most definitely. And two, Magnus. You're not Magnus, right? From the music shop.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00Jacob is the owner of the music shop.
SPEAKER_04Was he the one who was didn't turn up for work for a couple of days when he went to his house?
SPEAKER_00Yes, correct.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So he had the stitches too, and I look at Anders. Anthony, excuse me. No. No. Magnus is Magnus has been compromised. What can't trust him is fan. What do you mean we can trust him? We need to save him, man. You need to find a way to Well yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You gotta save yeah, we gotta save him. We gotta save everyone, but but you can't trust him. He's been compromised, he's one of them now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but we need to do something. Don't you have like something to interfere with the connection or whatever his I don't know.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. No, I don't I don't I don't have anything like that, but I would really like some more home fries. Can I get some more home fries?
SPEAKER_01This is serious. This is serious, and I stand up like this is serious, man. This is my friend.
SPEAKER_03I know it's serious, but you know, so's my hunger. I can't think on it when I'm hungry.
SPEAKER_00So as you stand up, Susie is getting a a soda from the uh from the guy behind the counter, and Susie sort of like turns, you see that well you can all see this. Magnus gets onto his it's not like an old sort of like a Vesper or equivalent of, and he sticks the um the food and stuff into uh box on the back, and he turns the uh the little bike around and starts head off as the um the woman runs, gets into the car. And at the exact same moment that happens, the local police car drives past all of them, and Susie, you can see the police car or the person in the police car looks like they're probably about to look into the diner. Which you know obviously they're looking for uh Anthony, but no one's told Anthony this.
SPEAKER_05Anything you particularly want to do or say or Susie's going to sort of look round, see the guys over there, see the police outside. She's honestly just a bit distracted, uh little daydreamy at the minute. She's actually just going to walk over to the rest of them, sipping her soda, going, I think we're all in the clear. Seems to have gone.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Anyway, tiny robots. So we're gonna go catch one, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Right after I get more home fries.
SPEAKER_05Or, Anthony? How many have you had already?
SPEAKER_03One order. Along with egg, fry, you know, two two fried eggs and bacon and some toast.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Well, does your mum know you're here? What do you care? Well, I I think you might want to care in a in a second, because I think I think the police outside are looking for you. They're what? Because someone didn't go home yesterday, or should I say, didn't take you home. What? Our lives were in danger. Haven't you been paying attention? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, it's it's all fun when it's fun in games, but come on.
SPEAKER_03We gotta be sensible sometimes. I am being sensible. We are being sensible. You're the only one who's being a stubborn doo-doo head.
SPEAKER_05Well, I was going to go and order you some more fries, but maybe I won't now. Fine. I'll get them myself.
SPEAKER_03And then I march up to the counter and order some more home fries.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sure, you do order some home fries.
SPEAKER_05So, Susie, how do you know the police are looking for? Because they they they came and asked me this morning. It was like a whole investigation thing. All right. Yeah. Did you tell them anything? I told them everything. Define everything. That we we hung out and it was mainly the bits which point I told Sven to take Anthony home and he didn't. It's not my fault. Yes, it is.
SPEAKER_01She's not. She was being You know, we are in danger. I just realized now.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Actors is compromised. Everyone can be.
SPEAKER_05Oh my gosh, why are you continuing with this scare talk?
SPEAKER_01It's just a bit of fun. I haven't seen what I've seen. They have something, they're implanting something on their brains. There might be even robots for IKEA. I don't know. There might
The Police Arrive
SPEAKER_01be cyborgs. I don't know this. This is science, but they're doing something to them.
SPEAKER_05Can I uh Ed, is there any chance I could make an empathize check to see if they're actually telling the truth?
SPEAKER_00Sure.
SPEAKER_05I'm quite good at it. So I'm just I just want to see if Susie actually does pick up on it. Okay. She got one success of out of the seven. They absolutely believe it. Cool. So now now she's sort of standing there sipping her soda, you know, the last regs of it, you hear them are popping as her face suddenly dawns that all of this all of these things that they've been saying, she there is some truth to it.
SPEAKER_00At that exact moment, um you do that, door opens, and a police officer comes in. It's a guy with sort of like dark brown hair, he's wearing the sort of like traditional light and dark blue of the police force, and he kind of looks over at all of you and then makes his way towards uh Anthony.
SPEAKER_03Can I notice if he has that same thing on the side of his head? Any successes? I have one success.
SPEAKER_00Excellent. Yeah, you you look at him, and he does indeed have a uh a scar above his uh or just behind his left ear.
SPEAKER_03Do have I gotten my or my plate of new home fries?
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_03Not yet, okay. So I s I sort of take a step back and I point at at him and I scream, Cyborg! Cyborg! Cyborg, he's a cyborg.
SPEAKER_00What are the rest of you gonna do?
SPEAKER_04Sort of freeze and place being like, what the heck's going on?
SPEAKER_00Yep, okay. What is Susie gonna do?
SPEAKER_05She's currently fumbling around cassette player.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01And spell So I look at the police uh man, and I guess I see the same thing as he does. And then I just stand up and grab Anthony. I don't know, there must be a back door on the kitchen, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Okay. That sounds like trouble to me. I presumably the plan then is to escape the uh the cyborg policeman.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, through the back door.
SPEAKER_00Through the back door, okay.
SPEAKER_01And then grabbing Anthony.
SPEAKER_00Okay, well that seems like a plan. If you fail to do this, it means that Anthony is gonna get caught. And by extension, so will you. Okay, I'm gonna ask for you to uh think about something that you might want to do. What are you gonna do? Are you gonna try and like rush out? So are you gonna try and run away? Like you'd make a move roll? Are you gonna sort of like maybe push the police person and then tell, you know, Asky to run? I mean, what sort of thing is that you're gonna do how how are you gonna do this?
SPEAKER_05So if I start is going to is going to press play on the cassette player and jam it into the soda glass that she's got to sort of amplify the noise once again.
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_05Again, sort of just hoping to just create a random musical distraction once again. Um this time it's Iron Man by Black Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01I'm just gonna push Anthony towards the back of the uh of the store, I guess. As I said, they must have a kitchen with a back door or something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's like a little kind of like well, there's a there's there's a couple of entrances into the uh into the diner, so you can come out and you can run out the other.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, I'll push him in that direction and I kind of push the rest of the guys. I mean, Anders and what is what is Douglas gonna do?
SPEAKER_00Uh Douglas, what is uh what is Johannes gonna do?
SPEAKER_04Johannes, sorry. He's probably probably gonna wait a second, see what happens before actually doing anything. Because everything is just happening at once right now.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And what's uh Anthony gonna do?
SPEAKER_03Uh well he he's I mean if if uh if Sven is gonna sort of like whisk him out the back door, he's gonna sort of go along with that.
SPEAKER_00He's not gonna Okay, so what I'm gonna need from you is I'm gonna need six successes from from you. Okay, can can you and Tony so make a roll with move? Obviously you don't get to make a roll because you're trying to figure out what's going on. Yep. And I think for you, Susie, did you wanna just make I would say maybe a heart roll?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I can do that. Can I get my plus two from the tape recorder as it's my unique item?
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely, of course you can. If you think that there's anything you might want to use, if you want to kind of, you know, say you want to use any of your uh your prides, if you think that might work. Otherwise, just a straight roll and you're gonna need six successes as a group.
SPEAKER_05So can you remind us how the pride works again?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so if you if you want to use your pride, it means you get an automatic success. It's your kind of sort of thing to go, I'm I'm for example, I am really fast. You use a pride, you're gonna get automatic success turns. But you can use that once per once per sessions.
SPEAKER_05Okay, can I use mine? Because mine is my mixtapes are legendary. Absolutely, 100%.
SPEAKER_00I think that works amazingly well.
SPEAKER_05So it's just I I don't know, it's it's I don't know what it mixes into, I don't know what it mixes out of, but it catches it right at the right point, like the the climax of of Iron Man, and it's just being played loud enough, acoustically enough, that this guy looks over.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so make your roll and you'll get an extra a free success anyway.
SPEAKER_05A free success as well.
SPEAKER_00Anything you get, we'll just add that.
SPEAKER_05I'll do that. I'll add the thing. So I'm rolling five dice, and I got three more successes. So that's four from Susie.
SPEAKER_00Whoa, okay, nice. Absolutely. You won 150 bajillion percent. He just looks over at you.
SPEAKER_05It's his favorite song, clearly.
SPEAKER_00Or I think whatever you've done, you just hit the right kind of thing, the right frequency. Frequency, oh look at that. So uh Marco, you and Sven, can you make if you haven't already done it, if you can make a roll for me, to move on Anthony.
SPEAKER_03Oh Anthony has a failure.
SPEAKER_00Okay. You can choose if you wish.
SPEAKER_03I got the one.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so we're on five successes, so we need one more success. I'm gonna push it. So either of what either of you could push that role if you so wish, but then you'll need to take one of your um new conditions.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well, I'm still scared, as so I still have one condition. I'm wondering if you would allow Anthony to put his Walkman headphones on and just turn it on, just kind of like drown out this, you know, the scariness. And I and that would give me a bonus. But can I do that if I'm pushing? No, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, you can. I mean, that that that would be your the way you mechanically think, right, actually, I need to get like a right, I'm just gonna stick some music on and run, basically.
SPEAKER_03Because also he thinks that his mixtapes are better than Susie's.
SPEAKER_00Oh, fine talk. Yeah, cool then. So okay.
SPEAKER_03Oh, it didn't let me add the bonus.
SPEAKER_00No, okay, so just just just roll two dice.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_05See, this is why Anthony and I, uh Anthony and Susie have got along really well, you know? Nope.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01I have still failed. I will push mine to see if I get another success. I guess I pushed him harder. It's like start with a mixed waves. Yeah, I don't know. Okay, I got an extras. No, but I should get another one. Yeah, the one from before plus this new one, so I got another success. Yeah, it only rerolled four more. Yeah, exactly than a full five, so that is an extra success.
SPEAKER_00That's fine. So I'm gonna that's it, you got the six successes between between them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm gonna get it scared in my case, like because I'm freaking out that everyone in town is being a robot now.
SPEAKER_00So while Hannah sooks on, you basically grab hold of uh Anthony as he sort of like starts to fumble with his headphones as you kind of grab him and pull him towards the door. A police officer kind of steps forward to kind of grab you both. At that exact moment, music blares out from I I guess you've got one of those metal drinks containers that I make.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's the the metal metal metal drink can and I've just jammed the the the speaker facing down or whatever.
SPEAKER_00Makes a horrendous cacophony as you do that, and he gets absolutely distracted. Both of you two run out of the of the place. Okay. The cop then chases you out the doors, your bikes are nearby, so you can jump on those. What are we gonna do, Sven? What are we gonna do? Get on the bike, man.
SPEAKER_01Let's go. Where where where shall we go? We'll go where I don't know, let's go back to the haven. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03We'll go back to the hideout. That's a good idea.
A Chaotic Chase Begins
SPEAKER_03That's a good idea. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Make sure he doesn't follow us. Yeah, yeah. Go on, yes, it goes. As you do that, you see that you get on your bikes to sort of like ride off, and he is rushing back around the diner to get to the police car.
SPEAKER_05I think Susie looks at Johannes and goes, we should follow them.
SPEAKER_04Can I do something like stick my leg out to try and trip the guy up as he runs past just to slow him down?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean you can you by the by that time you kind of like you can come out of the diner as he runs past you. Yeah, you can do that. Do you really want to assault a police officer?
SPEAKER_04If he trips over my leg, that's not assault.
SPEAKER_00You want to make a um a force roll?
SPEAKER_04Plus, you know, if he can arrest Susan's not getting Anthony, because you know, this will just be straight body because I have nothing in force.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yep. Yeah, you you stick it, you basically make your way out of the front with with Susie, and as he's running back around to kind of go towards the police car, but you literally just stick your foot out in front of him and he stumbles straight over it, and he rushes headlong into a bunch of like other sort of like bikes and stuff that are sort of like have been there, sort of people have stored their bikes. Um he ends up crashing down into sort of a mix of bikes and and chains and various other things. I think he definitely whacked himself. What do you two want to do? I'm hopping on the bike. I'm gonna just try and follow. Sure. You you basically hop on your bike to hop up on your bikes to try and follow, as the police officer's like shouting at you as you kind of like cycle off really hard down the sort of like the off the off the main street, down some cycle cycle paths following the others. That seems like a perfectly good place to end today's session. Thank you very much for joining us. That was great fun. I look forward to the uh the next episode. Cheers, folks.