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 E6: A Tales from the Loop Actual Play Podcast
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The kids find themselves ensnared in a web of mystery and danger. Their friend Magnus has been compromised by a mysterious implant, and as they evade a relentless cyborg police officer, they retreat to their secret hideout. While piecing together the puzzle of the cyborgs and the suspicious toys, Susie discovers that the robots are susceptible to certain frequencies.
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Introduction to Stories with Dice
SPEAKER_01Hello and welcome to Stories with Dice, an actual play podcast of some of our favorite tabletop role-playing games.
SPEAKER_03Hey, welcome back to Stories with Dice, an actual play of Tales from the Loop. If you're listening to us, if you can give us a thumbs up, a like, subscribe, or a follow or anything like that that's social media related, that'd be good. We have a Discord channel you can join called Stories with Dice. We have a Patreon, which you can join for free. Or alternatively, if you want to, you can give us money. We need lots of it. We also have a website, Stories with Dice, podcast dot on. Correct, Ed. Very well done. My God, it's like it only took me 7,000 sessions to do that. So let's get on with it. Last time we we left the session off, we had the kids who were running from a police officer because he apparently um was a cyborg that had uh was chasing them. I guess we'll kind of go back a little bit because that's right at the very end, and so brief rundown. The kids after spending a night, or most of the kids after spending a night in their hideaway, decided to go meet up for breakfast. Anthony and the others, unaware that Anthony's mum had kind of filed, I suppose, a missing person, and were happily having a nice old breakfast. Susie kind of went out looking for them, found them in the diner, where she bumped into a couple of suspicious individuals, a man and a woman. She she literally ran into them on her bushbike. After sort of figuring what was what, having, it seems like, particularly good nose for something that's out of the ordinary, we found out that they were definitely being suspicious. Our good friend Sven went to go and have a look to see whether or not they were part of this potential cyborg issue, which they the kids seem to be calling it, as to whether or not they've been chipped or turned into some sort of like random cyborg by looking at stitches behind the ear. No such luck, but they did look like they were some kind of like government agency or something like that. Stone went to go and have a look. As he was doing that, they met up with his friend Magnus, who pretty much blanked him and on a good look at Magnus found that Magnus himself had some stitches behind his ears. At to that point that Susie decided to drop the bombshell, that the police were looking for Anthony. As a police officer arrived on closer inspection, it looks like this police officer has also got some stitches behind his ear, and Sven managed to rab Anthony to rush out the diner, as Susie somehow managed to tap into who knows what and blare out some music by shoving a tape machine
Breakfast and the Cyborg Chase
SPEAKER_03into the drinks container, which absolutely distrusts her. And as Anthony and Sven rode off on their bikes, the cop went to go and give chase, Johannes managed to trip up the cop, and then Susie and Johannes jumped on their bikes to ride off after Anthony and Sven. But we also have Pete, welcome back. You were kind of like late in the morning to kind of catch up with people because you had to uh get home and do some chores. So by the time you've kind of like come back into town, you're sort of like making your way. Uh how will you get into town?
SPEAKER_02I'll be on my bike heading towards the diner and then just look across the road mused as I see the others heading the other direction.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. And do you kind of give chase with them? Yeah. So that finds our our intrepid kids cycling like crazy down little sort of bike paths which crisscross the town of Stenhala, through the woods, through fields, past primary school, past little housing unit, heading down to the darker parts of the woods where their hideout is located. Which leaves you all cycling together towards your hideout. What are you discussing? First of all, I'm gonna be inquiring as to who we're running from.
SPEAKER_01But you don't tell by the music, it's the Iron Man. Yeah. Cyborgs. Right. Name pending. Yeah, Anthony shouts over to Anders and he says, Cyborg cops! They're trying to kidnap me. What are you sure? Yeah, yeah, talk to Sven.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01He's friends with one of them.
SPEAKER_02Is this anything to do with the um guard at the factory? Yeah, yeah. And now Magnus is one of them too. Magnus, but he was alright when we saw him before. He's been compromised.
SPEAKER_01And uh scored stitches on his neck.
SPEAKER_02Like an implant kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah, like an implant. Yeah. I'm not gonna lie, I didn't I didn't really believe it. But I mean, with the CIA or FBI or or someone also being here? Wait. What? Sven, you got a good look at them. Yeah. Definitely secret agents. There's a conspiracy here. What if what if they're Soviet? They they could be KG KGV or B or w whatever, whatever it's called.
Conspiracy Theories Unfold
SPEAKER_01Could be. Could be. Grand Danger, that's for sure. I think we just need to go to Haven, regroup, and think our next step. We need to save Magnus. Yeah, but we gotta make sure that that that they're not following us. They cannot know where our hideout is. No man, that never works in any of the horror movies I've ever seen. Well, we're almost there anyway. It's not too far away at this point.
SPEAKER_03Indeed, your um abandoned factory in the middle of the woods comes looming large.
SPEAKER_01So moot point anyway. But you know, songs like they're gonna be able to find this place. It's not on the maps. Johannes, what's a what's a moot point? He just kind of like scrumples up and he's like, I'll I'll tell you later. Is it like a moat around a castle? Possibly. I think it's it's a business term to emphasize things. All right, Colin Anthony. Make a decision. Where are we going? We're at the hideout. Now we have to make our plan. You might as well go and sit inside.
The Hideout Plans
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, we gotta go inside, hide our bikes, and go inside. And we should set a watch. Some some somebody should be should be checking the road or the path or whatever. Besides, I need to get some paperwork done for Susie. And it as long as it's not the Wait, is this a DD character or something? I'm not sure we have time for that. No, certainly not. This is very important business paperwork. Right. Just need to get you push your uh John Adams. That's what they said.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna hide the bikes. You make your way up into your uh hideout, which is above on the on the top floor. Again, one of the one of the the the wonderful parts of your hideout has got loads of posters of bands and stuff. There's a section for all of you, except for Susie, who's obviously not part of the gang yet, by the look of it. Yes, you can see usual stuff. But it also looks like for anyone who wasn't here that people have had a sleepover. There's some there's still some um sleeping bags and some old pizza boxes and some I think some of them were some like microwave meals that were kind of like that were made before they turned up and they're kind of like scattered over the floor. It's exactly how you left it this morning. What are your plans?
SPEAKER_01Okay, so we need to go back to the ice cream shop. You're just gonna pull this thing out of his head. Yeah, I mean Anthony or Susie know how to do this, right? This it's science and they are science people. I think if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. As much as I'd really love for this to be my first chance at real life surgery, that's not sensible. But but but we need to help him. He's my friend. Right, d well did you did you see how he was rather distracted by the loud noise? Maybe we could like, you know, sedate them with frequencies.
SPEAKER_02Like the greatest mix track ever. Maybe if it's electrical we could somehow overpower it. Blow a fuse some way.
SPEAKER_01Fine. I can't I can hold him while you guys electrocute him. I'm I'm okay with that. Wait, wait, wait, wait. We're gonna electrocute Magnus? Don't think that's what I said we were gonna do, because again I think that still lies a little more heavily on the side of an actual crime. I think if we want to have a chance to save your friends, we've probably got to figure out what exactly is going on. Maybe there's an off switch somewhere. Most things have an off switch. Could it be in the in the in the toy plan? Makes sense. That's why they then want us to get in. Well well, data on Star Trek has an off button on his back. Maybe a robot.
Discovering the Robot
SPEAKER_01Like a he's a proper robot, isn't he? He's an android. What's the difference? I don't I don't know. They're spelled differently.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03Well, while you're all kind of like sitting there and having a discussion, you realize that there is a box on the floor. I reckon, Douglas, you notice this. It's one of the uh boxes that you brought back from the toy shop and it has broken open.
SPEAKER_01It broke one of the toys. I'm not gonna be able to sell that now. Well, let's see how I can see if it's salvageable or pick it up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you bend down to to pick it up, and you can see that there is one of these robots towards the back end behind where the box was. It's the uh the red scanner truck, which is now sort of like turned into a little robot. And it kind of like sees you and runs from one side where you are towards the other side of the room. That's one of those little robots, grab it. Yeah, it it runs.
SPEAKER_01Just go after the like a madman. Hey.
SPEAKER_03Make a move roll if you want to try and catch it.
SPEAKER_01I think Susie will be doing the same because this is now a game. Okay, one sector.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Sven jumps on the little thing and you kind of grab hold of it. Again, like like with the other one, it feels a lot stronger in your hand than you would expect. Um, and it's kind of like moving around, it's like trying to grab your one of your fingers to pry one of your fingers apart so that it can kind of get out, but you've got hold of it.
SPEAKER_01Perhaps if the others are being maybe maybe controlled by frequencies, maybe it's the same frequency that's in this. We need to turn this one off. We need to talk to it. Yeah, I'm gonna pull a leg off.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_01Like if it was an ant and like fuck it, so it doesn't run anymore. Make a false roll for me. Two successes.
SPEAKER_03Okay. You basically grab and twist the leg. As you grab and twist the leg, it goes and screams as you pull its leg off. There's like little there's little spurts of like motor oil or or something. As it's sort of like thrashing around. It's making this kind of like horrible server motor kind of noise as as it's like going spurt, spurt from its um its broken leg part. And the little uh the little um little truck robot.
SPEAKER_01It's going to if you don't stop moving right now, I will take the other leg off too. It stops moving. There you are. Do whatever you need to do, guys. It can hear us? Hello? It the little head looks up at you. Yes, it can hear us. So ask science things, guys. I don't know. Do we have a jar or something we can put in? Anthony goes over to it and actually he's he's got tears in his eyes, and he's like he's pissed at Sven. And he's like, You heard it, you jerk. What's the matter with you? It's kind of cute. And we I'll give him again if he doesn't help us with my friend Magnus. Well I'm gonna
Communication with the Robot
SPEAKER_01take the other leg. No. Yes. Yes. And I turn to the robot and I say, Are you one of the good guys?
SPEAKER_03Kind of looks at you and puts its hands up in front of its face in sort of like a in like a defensive posture. Kind of like it looks like it's nodding or something.
SPEAKER_01I'm sorry about Sven. He's really worried about his friend. Do you know what the fuck is going on? What?
SPEAKER_03He just looks at you. Can you speak? Head's moving and siphon's like copping its head from side to side. Then try to understand you, but it doesn't say anything.
SPEAKER_01Are you in too much pain to speak? You can nod your head yes or no. You might not actually have any sort of audio box. Well you just definitely does. It just screamed real loud.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01When when when Sven tortured it.
SPEAKER_03No. Did not torture it, kind of just sort of like tries to sort of curl up as best it can to stop itself from being hurt more. Kind of a bit like a wounded puppy, maybe. Right.
SPEAKER_01If you promise not to run off, we could put the other we can put the leg back on. No. I I think we can. How is he going to do so without a leg? Like if he can't talk. I'm sure he can right. I don't know.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01He's not going to be able to do it. Whatever. I'm gonna smoke a cigarette, do whatever. And I didn't take it smoke your cancer sticks. I will do so. Thank you so much. Alright, look. I know it was brought up earlier, but I think it's a lot safer to perform surgery on a robot than
Preparing for Surgery
SPEAKER_01a human. So we must set up the operating table. And have you got your tools?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm not sure how much use these will be.
SPEAKER_01Maybe we just got some glue sticking back on. I dig around. I've got like a uh I've got like a magnifying glass and that's about it. So that's gonna have to do. You've not got a screwdriver or anything?
SPEAKER_02Um I think I've got a small Philips screwdriver and I'll rustle around in the box. See if it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_03You've got a bunch of like tools and stuff that you could probably use to kind of do that. Well, that's gonna require a tech roll. Tinker, right? Tinker, that's it.
SPEAKER_02I think Anders, you're the best at this. Well you'll have to come up with some ideas because this doesn't look anything like the machinery I'm used to working on. Alright, that's okay. First of all, lay the patient down. Let's take a look.
SPEAKER_03Make a calculator roll for me. It's a bit of eight successes. Oh, one success. Excellent. Uh yeah, you think because you've really looked at the previous leg from from before, you reckon you could probably put the leg back on. I mean it probably won't be amazing, but you'd probably be able to do something. He hasn't twisted it too much. We're just gonna have to screw it back in.
SPEAKER_02If we can fit that long bit there into the edge of the servo, that would work, but I'm not sure where the wires go.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I'll just do it. Well, match the colours. What do you need? I'm gonna like situate myself next to the the toolkit and wait for him to ask for the different tools to then pass it.
SPEAKER_03Okay, do you want to make so does Janus want to make a um role for Tinker? Right, I'll give it a go. Do my best to you can get a plus two out to this role because Susie's already looked at this previously and is kind of pointing some stuff out. And you've got some tools. Okay. How many suggestions you get? Two. Okay, yeah. I mean with with under Susie's direction uh based on the previous leg, you manage to put it together. I mean this the the leg's probably gonna be about eighty percent effective, but it's it's back on. Well, little guy. I think you might have a bit of a limp, but it seems to be working. He kind of sits up and uh he he sort of like gives you a thumbs up.
SPEAKER_02There you go, Anthony. Your little friend's mobile again. Thanks, Anders.
The Robot's Identity
SPEAKER_01All right, if you're not gonna talk, can you can you lead us somewhere? Kind of looks around with his head. Is your are you redbeam? Is that the best way to address you? He looks around. He puts his thumb up. Do you re you remember anything before you came here? Did you come from a factory where there was other toys? Thumb up. Do you know what's happening to the people that have the the scars on their head? Do you know how to write? Put his thumb up. Uh thank God. Well, I know someone who's got a lot of pencils and paper. Yeah, so here's a piece of paper, and I don't know if your little robot hand can hold this pencil or not. Um He can grab it with his like thumb or whatever. Can can you just like write down what what's happening to our friends and and and the people in this town and what we have to do to stop it?
SPEAKER_03He puts his thumb up and he holds onto the pencil. He doesn't appear to be writing anything down. Something something simple. Write your name. I hold the paper up for him, okay? He holds the pen up. He doesn't write on it. He just holds the pen up on both with both his hands above his head.
SPEAKER_01I think we need to take the other flag off. You're outside smoking. I just came back from just looking at you guys
Planning for the Factory
SPEAKER_01from the door. Like I'm like, you know, this is happening. Yeah. Can I try and figure out if he's actually comprehending anything that's going on, or is he just saying yes to everything?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03So far, all he has is just thumbs up to every single thing we've said and we gave him. He has. He seems to put thumbs up. You've given him things to like hold on to, but he hasn't really done anything with the pen other than when you pulled the when you held the paper up, he held the pen up above his head. In in sort of like almost mimicking what you were doing. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Can I make a check to see if he ac uh he's not if he's actually understanding anything we're actually doing talking to him about? How are you gonna do that? Like like comprehension, be like, I don't know. That's interesting. Is there any sort of no. Can't do a Turing test. You know what I would do. I I would just type him up. I would just take him up and walk him to whatever he wants to go. Yeah. Keep keeping. Well, are you gonna let spend time up? No, no, no. Anthony is gonna take the pen or the pencil from the robot and is gonna and is gonna write his name. He's gonna write on the paper and he said, Look, like this. And he writes, Hi, my name is Anthony. What's yours? Okay. And then he hands the pen back to the robot. Okay.
SPEAKER_03You have said that to the robot. And he looks at what she's written on the paper. Um and he he grabs the pen and he starts to write onto the on the paper. But it's just basically a a line of squiggles and like circles and and and it's the kind of sort of thing you probably do when you were about two if you had a crayon or something.
SPEAKER_01Guys, do you think he's writing in like an alien language? I think Redbeam's just not very smart. Maybe he saw the busted robot behind us and he said. There's also really not a lot of movement in that and like writing takes a little bit more than just up and down, little circles. Well, okay. Here's a test. Robot, is your name Sven? He puts a big thumbs up. Is your name Anders? He puts a big thumbs up. Are you I would point over to like the a spanner. Are you a spanner? He looks over to the spanner and puts a big thumbs up.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he doesn't understand anything that's going on. Well if you didn't understand one thing. When Sven says that, he kind of like he basically puts his hands up and kind of like moves away from Sven.
SPEAKER_02So what do we know about these robots?
SPEAKER_01Anthony, did you read any of the comic books? No, I I I I only watched the Transformers cartoons, but these these aren't Transformers, these are different. This is real. Yeah. I did look at some of the stuff for like if people would be interested in buying them. Oh what not?
SPEAKER_02They're supposed to have a leader robot. Someone, you know, one that would control them all. Yes, those were the most expensive ones.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Equvius Optimus was the leader. He is the large carrier truck.
SPEAKER_01The bad guy one was something else. What was it?
SPEAKER_03Megaton Prime.
SPEAKER_01We actually got that one, didn't we? Somewhere around here.
SPEAKER_03Did have that one.
SPEAKER_01Where is that? Where did you guys put that? It got out of my backpack and it ran away. Should we go to the toy store and buy Ecfious whatever his name is, Prime to Mr. Prime? So it's that's if he's still there. If nobody else didn't see any others that were there, that was kind of the big ticket price one. Besides that, we'd lost a lot of their stock their stock, if you remember. Also I yeah. I hate that I'm saying this. But maybe Sven's right. Like we're not gonna be able to keep this pet little guy here. So maybe we could make a little little like lead or leash or something for him? Walking with us. He puts his thumbs up. When you say that's easy.
SPEAKER_03Just put him back in his box. I mean his box is busted.
SPEAKER_01He's basically ripped out of it. Yeah. Well, like he lifts in boxes. Has anyone got any rope or anything? String? String, I'm sure, kicking around. So I could do gonna create like a for loop system that ties around each one of the limbs and then onto the back. Like a like like a little toddler walker. Yeah, okay, that's cool. Yep, that's fine. Well, what are we what do we do now, guys? I think it the only way we're gonna find out what's going on is go back to the factory. Yeah, with this guy tied in front. I'm not sure how how much help he is. He's not, as I said, the brightest, sharpest spanner in the toolbox. But he was going somewhere. When you say the word spanner, he puts his stuff up. Ton is gone? What are we waiting for? Let's tie this thing up and let's go. I will tie it in front of my bike and I just go and grab the guy. I've I've popp popped the little the the There's like a little harness on it now. The harness on him. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03Pop him on pop him on the floor.
SPEAKER_01He can walk.
SPEAKER_03If you put him on the floor, he'll walk and he'll sort of like walk with a bit of a lip, but yeah, he can walk. And he's really slow. I mean he's got little tiny steps. Unless you like grab him. Okay. You go to grab him. He basically tries to run off away from you. You can make another move roll to try and grab him. He does not want to be grabbed by you. There you are. Another success. Another success, yeah. You grab him. When you grab him, there's another sort of like noise from his like servers and stuff, which sounds almost like a bit of a scream, but it sounds more like it's like the his servers are like overcompensating to try and get away from you.
SPEAKER_01What? Why don't why don't I put him in my pocket? I don't think he likes you, Sven. I don't like him either. He's just squirming in your hand, Sven. Okay, open your backpack. Fine. I open my backpack. I put it inside and I close. Do we have uh log? No, you probably don't have a log. Uh we'll take a small rope or something and try. You've got some like wire or something. Yeah, I will try to close the zipper in a way that cannot be open easily. Okay. Yep, that's fine. Let's go, guys. To find this massive. Where are you off to?
SPEAKER_02We're heading back to the factory. We might not want to go in via the main entrance this time. I'll see if I can find the wire cutters.
SPEAKER_01Good thinking.
SPEAKER_03Okay. In the meantime, you kind of get all your stuff together. You kind of is there anything the rest of you want to do? Anything you want to take specifically?
SPEAKER_01Or is there is there a payphone nearby? I will talk to Susie. Susie, you s you said something about frequencies, right? I yeah. Yeah. Should we do you think it would work if you get a big speaker? I think you get a speaker. A big one. Big enough? Sure. Yeah. I think that might be helpful. You know, as a dissuasive mesh art. Yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_03I I can swing by. Perfect. Okay, but while you're doing that, what is Anthony and I guess your hands would be?
SPEAKER_01Anthony is talking to the robot through his backpack and just trying to he's like apologizing that Sven ripped his he's like, I'm sorry that that Sven ripped your leg off, but you know, and has put it back, so you know, we're good. Everything's okay. You can empathize roles, things.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Any successes? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01No successes. No successes. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you you kind of like talk to him. It seems to calm him down. He doesn't seem to be sort of he's not he's definitely not trying to get out of your rucksack, he's not trying to rip through anything. He moves around when you move around, but it's not sort of like to get out, it's just that he's just knocking around in your rucksack.
SPEAKER_02All right. Anders is trying to get together a set of tools that he thinks might be useful for this mission. That'll probably be the wire cutters, set of mole grips, a small lump hammer. Yeah, that's fine.
SPEAKER_03You just crowbar. Short, you stick them all in like a bag. That's not a problem. Douglas, what are you gonna be?
SPEAKER_01Okay. Just uh put your put an X on the line. What? It it's it's the contract for the organization. Look. We're in a bit of a hurry, maybe later. As he like climbs down from the the hideout. Oh yeah, you've just gotta put an X. It's take two seconds. Sorry, gotta go. Get in the speaker. Dear, nobody has any respect for proper procedure.
SPEAKER_03None whatsoever. Okay. Is there anything that Sven wants to grab from the hideout, or you pretty much got everything you need?
SPEAKER_01I have everything I need. Well, perhaps take a hammer. You know, as you're thinking about it. I don't take a hammer.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, you take a hammer. I'll hand you the small lump hammer that I've got in my kit.
SPEAKER_03There you go. Okay. You get back on your bikes and you go back for where you came towards the factory. As you're cycling, you kind of are going through
Encounter with the Police
SPEAKER_03the woods. As you're just coming out of the woods into a clearing, you see a police officer walking towards you.
SPEAKER_01It's the same as before.
SPEAKER_03It's a lady police officer, and she is she kind of looks up as you also like cycle out of the cycle path. Um you're you're probably a good like 50, 60 meters away from her. But she looks up and she can see you also like cycling in this direction.
SPEAKER_01She won the cyborg.
SPEAKER_03You can't tell from here. Susie, you recognize her from the person that you spoke to this morning. Right.
SPEAKER_01I will s I will cycle right up to her. Stop about you know a few feet away from her and just look at her and say, Are you a cyborg?
SPEAKER_03She looks down at you, she looks over at you, and she looks around and she says, No, I'm not a cyborg. I'm Inspector uh Ing Marie. Your mom is really worried about you. Can I tell if she's had that scar? Yeah, but she's got her hair. It's all pulled back in like a sort of a really tight button on her hat, just underneath her hat, and you can see there's no scar side side of her.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I I call over my shoulder and I to my friends to the other kids, and I say She's not a cyborg. Maybe she can help us.
SPEAKER_03She looks down at you and she says, What are the cyborgs look like?
SPEAKER_01I look at her and does she have any stitches? No, she when you cycle closer to her.
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_01And I s I say that there are people, but they they've been operated on on the sides of their heads. Have they? They're after us. You have to warn you have you have to warn my dad he works at the loop. I bet I bet he knows someone who can help us.
SPEAKER_03I can do that. You need to get hold of your mum and let her know you're safe. We'll do. And then I'm I'm like cycling off again. She doesn't seem to try and stop you. And as you cycle past, she goes Susie. He just raises an eyebrow at you. And as you all cycle past, she walks following you. Probably travel another couple of hundred meters, and you kind of come out onto a sort of like a side road, and you can see there's a police car on the side road. And you cycle past that, it's empty. So the plan is to go to back to the factory. Antonine, is there anything you'd want to do differently than that? Or are you planning to go back to the factory as well?
SPEAKER_01Well, if there is a payphone between year and the factory, he'll use it to call his mom. It can be. Okay. So that's what he will do. He will call his mom. He'll stop he'll he'll stop at the nearest payphone.
SPEAKER_03Rest of you gotta wait for first Dieter make his call and then move on, or you just I'm still probably heading back home because I've got to get it. You're going ahead. Yeah, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01I was there with Anthony. That's fine. I'll save Anthony. There's cyborgs about apparently. Sure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
Anthony's Call for Help
SPEAKER_03And what about Anders? Yeah, I'll I'll be there as well. Okay. So you dial your uh telephone number for him. And immediately the um the the phone gets picked up. It's your mum. Mom, mom, you have to tell dad.
SPEAKER_01You have you have to tell him. God, Anthony, what the hell have you done? Mom. You have to tell Dad. Tell him. Cyborgs are taking over the island. Come on. What are you doing, Anthony? You need to come home right now. Being chased by cyborgs. You have to tell. You never listen. I hang up the phone on her. So everything's sorted with your mum then, Anthony? As if let's go.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Start cycling off again.
SPEAKER_03Cycle off. Are you going a particularly sneaky way? You can kind of get around the back side of the factory rather than go up the road that you had before.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that definitely sounds, especially since Anders has the wire cutters to get through the fence, that definitely sounds like the option that we're taking.
SPEAKER_03You can see that you can kind of like go over the fields and come through the back area of it rather than going up the main area. Which means you can get a little bit of cover as you sort of like travel that direction. You're gonna wait for Susie to arrive with said speaker.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if that's what our plan was.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we'll probably hold back for a while and uh have a little montage of a speaker.
SPEAKER_01She really takes takes a while to get there because she's gone and grabbed her like synth and trying to hold over those things while while
Susie's Unfortunate Capture
SPEAKER_01cycling, absolute pain.
SPEAKER_03Okay. You keep like dropping it and picking it up and dropping it and taking it up and you know see much like people wandering around outside the factory or uh depending where you kind of want to like situate yourself. If you stay away from like sort of the main entrance, you are not gonna notice anything. If you want to see what's going on, you'd have to situate yourself towards the front of the um the factory to see anything.
SPEAKER_01I will tell everyone I think the main place is probably the big building. That's where the guard lasign went in. The other one is the the smaller one, was the warehouse. So if they have an antenna or master robot, it's really there. Where did you see all the tiny robots last day?
SPEAKER_03They were outside. They were they were just they were just outside, sort of there was probably about 15, 20 of them.
SPEAKER_01But they're not here now.
SPEAKER_03Well, you the re obviously you'd have to sort of like find some way of spotting them in the the large open area of of the factory. As I said, when you look at the factory, you've got like the main gate, then there's a smaller sort of like warehouse, then you've got the larger two-story sort of like factory. And mixed in between that, there's loads of barrels, there's old sort of like cars and vehicles and old trucks, which are sort of piled up on the right hand side of the factory's lot. And there's lots of barrels and stuff. This this place is essentially you could hide. It means that it doesn't afford you the best view through the chain link fence for sort of like robots running around on the ground or any of that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_01You don't need to like go around the front, because I'm the only person who hasn't been here before, so they would have no they don't know who I am. I'm just a kid.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, we've got time to pass right now before Susie gets back. No, that's a good idea, Your Honor. They don't know you yet. We have an advantage.
SPEAKER_03While you're waiting, Susie, you're having a wonderful time trying to bring all this stuff with you. And as you're sort of like driving, you're sort of like cycling along a side road. Are you gonna be sticking to the main roads or are you gonna be sticking on some side roads? I mean, what's the plan?
SPEAKER_01She's given up given up cycling at this point. What she's done is put like the amp on the seat and then like the synth up on top, holding the wires, and then we is wheeling the bike along with it.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Cool. So you're sort of like wheeling along the bike, and this car pulls up beside you, and a man with handlebar mustache gets out and he kicks your bike from underneath you, grabs you, throws you in the back seat, and sticks a cloth over your face, which smells horrendous. And and as as he does that, you're like you go to scream and you sort of like breathe in this sort of noxious stuff that he's got on this like tissue or something, and immediately the gold sort of goes black. The rest of you are sort of like waiting around for Susie. Susie, you wake up, you are in a room with a bed, looks like you're in a motel of some kind. You can see the woman with black hair and the gentleman with the handlebar moustache looking at you. You are sitting on one of the chairs, and the gentleman is sitting opposite you, the woman is standing, and she says Are my hands tied? Am I tied to this chair? Am I just sitting? They're not tied. No, they're not tied. You're just looks like you've been basically put in the chair and you've woken up.
SPEAKER_01I'm looking around.
SPEAKER_03Okay, you look around. Looks like a well-used hotel room. It's got two beds next to each other. As you sort of look around, you can see on one of the there's a sort of like a card, sort of like on the floor, or in fact, there's a there's a menu on the floor, and it says uh Apple Farm Yard Motel, which you know is a motel in town. The woman says, So I stay quiet. What's happening with you and your friends? I stay quiet. Looks over and says Anders. Anders kind of like pulls out a gun from underneath his jacket and puts it quite loudly on the sort of like table off to the side from him. They both look what's going on?
SPEAKER_01I think Susie is like trembling lip starting to tear up a bit. What's happening? We're we're we're currently playing a game where we think there are uh people around town that are cyborgs or something. They're running around like we're we're we're we're playing with the Honestly, we're not doing anything wrong. We're just playing. That fact as far as Susie believes, yeah, pretty much.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. She says, and where are your friends now? Susie's crying at this point. We don't seem to care too much about the fact you're crying. Well aware. The factory. The base. The base of the toys or whatever. I don't know. See, and what do you know about the toys?
SPEAKER_01I I don't really know much at all. Just toys.
SPEAKER_03Like sits down and she kind of like pulls out from one of the uh you can't quite see it behind one of the uh chairs. She pulls out like a bunch of cakes, like little sort of cakes, and like looks like uh some kind of soda. And she says, You're being very brave. She gives you the cakes and the soda.
SPEAKER_01Opening any of that.
SPEAKER_03He says, from Rick's energy, who controlled the loop, and she uh passes you some ID and it's a picture of her with uh energy sort of like symbols and stuff on it, and it says that she's investigator for them. She says, Um, I think there's something dangerous happening in the uh in the factory. I think there's something going on with the power grid. It's really important if you tell us if your friends are anywhere near the place because they could really get hurt. Oh, you didn't know that. No, I understand. And she sort of like puts her hand on your shoulder, she gently pats it. She says, Do you know anything about about what could be happening? Have you heard anything? Have you have you seen anything? We know that you were at the uh factory yesterday and your friends got into the factory. No, if they saw anything.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I don't I'm I'm not really sure. I think I think that's where this whole cyborg game came from.
SPEAKER_03I see. Do you think your mum will think if she realizes you've been in trouble doing this sort of thing? Susie just shakes her head. Does look, you seem like a good kid. So how about I don't tell your mum. We don't have to get anyone else involved, we don't have to get any of the of the of the law enforcement people involved, so you can just go about your time and or just pretend this never happened. How about that? Susie just nods why she says she kind of gives you some tissues. It's got sort of like Apple Farm Yards and stuff all over it. She says, Look, why don't you go and find your friends, make sure they're okay, and stay away from that factory. It's very dangerous. The electrical statistics or the statics will probably show she basically starts talking a bunch of gobbledygook. Will you please make um a tinker? In fact, make a make a uh calculus. They're all the same to me. One of them. That's one's a bad thing. He has no idea what she's talking about. And she says, Off you go, everything will be fine. Where's my bike? Where's my synth? That's okay, we've got all that for you. And uh basically open the door and you're in the motel, and you can see your bike is up against the front of the motel room, and you can see that um your synth and everything else is also there. And there's that black car that's well the grey the grey black car that was they were driving outside the front.
Waiting at the Factory
SPEAKER_03It's okay, run along now. That's the that's the other kids. So you are at the factory waiting on Tuesday. So you're sort of like waiting, you can hear the sound of a truck coming. You see sort of like one of these sort of like half-sized trucks. You can just make it out, make them make it out over the sort of like grass and stuff, heading towards the entrance way, and the truck goes in and then it just disappears into the into the into the factory area. How long?
SPEAKER_01How long do you think we should wait for Susie? How long is it gonna be until she comes? You gotta strike while the iron's hot. Yeah, I don't think we can wait for her anymore. What's it been like three three hours? I don't know. Maybe the cyborg. How long has it been since Susie?
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah, so she's she she's probably been missing probably two or three hours, makes sense.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay. I was trying to to exaggerate because Anthony tends to.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, no, you no, yeah. No, yeah, probably yeah, probably a couple of hours.
SPEAKER_01Okay. I think she's in trouble. I and I think that means we gotta move into this factory now. I agree. I'm a fantastic The cyborg's got her.
The Decision to Move In
SPEAKER_01She might be in that truck. Yeah. I was thinking the same thing. Yeah, yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02Anders, can you can you can you cut the fence? Sure. Maybe we should be a bit careful about going inside when we're in there before those little robots were chasing after us and look very dangerous. Yeah, I'll do my best to sneak up with uh bits of undergrowth tucked in around my clothing.
SPEAKER_03Okay. So uh who's got the worst sneak out of all of you? I have zero and a body of two. Well, Johannes, excellent. Could you please make a sneak roll?
SPEAKER_01That is a straight body roll. Yep. Uh no successes.
SPEAKER_03Excellent. You make your way towards the fencing. You've uh got your snippers out, you think you're kind of partially hidden from any kind of view, take a couple of steps up towards the fencing. That seems like a great place to leave it for the session. Thank you very much once again for another fun-filled episode of Tales from the Loop. Anything you'd like to say, Marco?
SPEAKER_01No robots were actually harmed in the making of this episode.
SPEAKER_03No, and no little girls were abducted either.