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 E7: A Tales from the Loop Actual Play Podcast
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In this episode, Susie is missing and the rest of the kids try to infiltrate the toy factory. Meanwhile, Anthony faces the consequences of his actions as his worried parents involve the police in his disappearance.
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Welcome 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_02Hi folks, welcome back to an actual play podcast of House from the Leap. I'm Ed. I'm joined by, as usual, by my wonderful, lovely co-host Marco. Hello. As well as some or most of my lovely players. Hello. Hello. As you may have heard, I have a bit of a cough, so please try to ignore that. Marcus can do his best to kind of edit it out as we kind of release it. But I'm guaranteed to cough at the wrong place. So let's have a little quick start. So however you're listening to us, if you could give us a thumbs up, a like, subscribe, or any of that usual stuff that's related to social media, that would be very kind of you. We have a Discord channel you can join. We have a Patreon channel that you can join. Um if you could subscribe to those, that would be lovely. Patreon has a free subscription with us, but if you'd like to pay for some stuff, that would be also great. We have a website and all the other information which would be in the description of the episode. So let us get on with the next episode, which I believe is episode seven. Where we left off from last session, we had a few things happen. One, poor old Anthony forgot to tell his mum and dad where he was staying overnight, so they called the police. Oh he didn't forget that was intentional. Well, he intentionally, as far as they're concerned, I guess he forgot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, he he kind of like ended up staying out. So he had the police on his tail trying to find out what's happened to him, with his parents' worries. We had a short little encounter with a police officer in the local diner where everyone escaped from said police officer. We found out that, or at least the kids found out, that there were a couple people watching them, or at least watching the diner, a man and a woman from Rick's Energy, which is the uh name of the company that owns and runs the loop. Later on, in fact, poor old Susie got abducted by them, which was not fun. In the meantime, the older boys decided they were gonna go back to the factory to break in to see what they could do about what was going on over there. There was a bunch of other things that were going on. Um I'm not gonna go through everything, you know, listen to episode six. So
Susie's Disappearance
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna start with well, I'm gonna start with the first thing that unfortunately Sol is unable to join us for the next couple of episodes. So we're gonna say that Susie is uh held up, which hence what happens, I guess, those for the next couple of episodes. In the meantime, the four lads are all outside the factory. Now, if I if I remind everyone, the factory is sort of off to the side, still within the in the limits of Stenhamra, which is the name of the town that everyone lives in, and it's the biggest town on the Malaran Islands in Sweden. The factory itself, it used to be a different factory before it could start producing toys. It basically comprised of two buildings, a main factory and a warehouse, and it was surrounded by a chain link fence, and then on the outside of the factory, there's a load of junk and old rusted containers, barrels, and just pretty much everything you'd get from a site that's been around been around and then abandoned for ages. The the larger of the two buildings, the the factory is a two-story building, the smaller one of the two buildings was a warehouse. Um I believe where we left off, the three older boys had approached it from the behind. So they were kind of covered partially and obscured by the junk that was all around the edge of the chain link fencing. They came prepared with annas and some cutters, and so that is where we're going to start. It is the first of April. It is mid-morning on a relatively chilly day, but the sun is out and there's a few clouds in the sky. Okay. I guess we'll start with Anders. I think was it you or was it Sven that had the the the the bolt cutters? Yeah, I've got the cutters. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I got the hammer. What did uh you've got the you've got the cutters, you've got the the hammer. What is Johannes bringing to the or Johannes bringing to the party?
SPEAKER_01A great personality and a smile.
SPEAKER_02Excellent.
SPEAKER_01Why would you need anything else? Well, he's bringing his bringing his business acumen, right?
SPEAKER_02Always helpful when you bring an entry into a factory. Okay. It doesn't take long to snip the uh chain link fence, and you kind of get up into the junk and the barrels, and you're sort of like by a large sort of rusting metal crates. So you can kind of hide behind that between the crates and the chain link fence, and I have a little map to show you. We'll just say you're there. So you can kind of see along this side of the of the factory, the north side of the factory, you can see a bunch of windows, which are all sort of uh sort of first floor height. And they're probably about I don't know, eight or so feet off the ground. And then there's small windows that sort of like just follow around, and it's the same sort of thing on the second story. You can see there's looks like some stairs going under the factory. It's probably like a basin or something, and then you can you know from last time that there's a big set of double doors around the front of the factory, and on the opposite side of where you are is a singles there's a couple of single doors which allow you like access in and out the actual factory itself. There's no there's no way to get up to the the first floor on on and on the factory, you have to go into the factory to get out there if you wanted to do it. Oh who is leading this merry band? Maybe we'll say maybe we'll say it's Johannes, because the other two have got the gear. What does uh Johannes want to do?
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02Remind me, there was a truck while we were waiting, wasn't there? There was, correct. Well remembered. Is that where did that end up in the end? Uh so the truck is sort of like waiting, I guess by the double doors, it's kind of reversed in, sort of like about it four or five foot. And you imagine that they're unloading stock or whatever. Also, you also remember that there was a lot of the um the the toys were sort of like wandering around the um the yard. So yeah. But there was no one else actually in the yard, and you know that the security guard when we haven't checked this today, but you imagine the security guard is still in the security shack down by the front gates. So so are the toys wandering around just now? Are they out of side right now? You stick your head out, you can see actually there's there are three sort of like maybe arm or sort of yeah, sort of four-arm length helicopters, and they are busy flying around the yard in the front here. And is the truck near the warehouse or the factory doors?
SPEAKER_01It's um by the um factory doors. Okay. So definitely not going near those doors because there's obviously people there. Like can we see like could there's a side door? There was for the factory door.
SPEAKER_03The stairs going down on this side or yes, the stairs going down sort of like towards the back end.
SPEAKER_01And we're at the back end, right? Well, I mean we're on that side. So that's that's probably we could probably find a door there. Well, see, uh maybe it would be go have a look at that stairs first, or yeah.
SPEAKER_03If we go one at a time, so we don't get caught
The Factory Break-In
SPEAKER_03at the same time. Well, there's plenty of junk to crawl around here. I would say guy guys.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna go first. This TV. I'm okay. Yeah, you you're the fence is open, you're already through. You don't have to do anything, it doesn't take much to like cut the fence. It's not like it doesn't appear to be any electrics or anything, it's just a good old-fashioned old school uh chain link fence.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So I I I signal them, okay, guys.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_00I think I'm the quietest here. I'm gonna try to sneak to the stairs. And I will signal if I uh if I see that the door is safe and we can go through. Is that okay? Just eight on these trees. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Well then, Sven, make a sneak roll. Add it to your uh sneak a body, add it together.
SPEAKER_00There you are, nothing.
SPEAKER_02No successes. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna push it perhaps. I know because then I will get you can choose to push it if you wish.
SPEAKER_02I have no problem with that. Seven dice and nothing to it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's kind of sad, right? I will not push it at least when I go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You're just that kind of like really nervous, kind of like expecting someone to see you and and jump on you, and you kind of like run across sorry, towards the stairs going down. And as you do that, you kind of like trip and sprawl face forward. The hammer that you had in your hand skitters, and then unfortunately, hits a drain and goes down into the drain. You don't see anybody else, no one's looking at you. You regain you regain your dignity, but you're now in the in in the middle of the open. Um what's the plan?
SPEAKER_00Uh I try to go faster into the world. Yep, okay, that's fine. As fast as I can since I made all this noise, at least they don't see me.
SPEAKER_02That's fine. You scrabble, you scrabble, sort of like make your way to the stairs, you can see the stairs go down.
SPEAKER_00I follow them and I try to, you know, pouch and go down. Try to see the door.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so as you um make your way down the stairs, and it's all made of sort of like a grey kind of like concrete, and there is a metal door at the bottom of the stairs, and on the uh on the front of the door it says warning, explosive materials, and you can see there appears to be some kind of electronic gizmo-y thing, which is what's controlling the door.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so no lock or anything, just numbers or something like this?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so there's like a there's the there's looks like a pass key and uh a little keypad.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so I'll go back up the steps and then I kind of signal the boys to come.
SPEAKER_02If you all could uh make a move roll, we don't need to worry about sneaking because that's now out of the question. Oh well, here we go. Two dice straight body. So uh Pete, how did you do? One success. Amazing. Two dice and nothing. Nothing for you. Anthony failed. Anthony failed. I probably wouldn't need to push any of this, it's fine. Okay, yeah. You kind of like rush across. There's a little bit of hesitation and stuff. You kind of like run through slightly someone's put like a bunch of glass down there just to kind of like crunch underfoot, and you kind of make your way across and down the stairs. You can see Sven basically looking at this metal door, a load of like electronic gizmo-y stuff on the side.
Encountering the Bots
SPEAKER_02Is it locked?
SPEAKER_01You tried the handle. Have you tried unmuting yourself?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm sorry. So uh Good call. No, I did not try the handle, but you know, I saw this keypad, so I'm I'm guessing you need to do some science thing on this.
SPEAKER_02Can I try the handle? You can. It is well and truly firmly locked. Oh yeah. Science. It's like they didn't want some random person to wander into the explosives room. No one does health and safety, honestly.
SPEAKER_03So has anybody got any clues as to what the code might be?
SPEAKER_02I mean try one-one one. That's a terrible code. Did you want to try one-one-one and then hit enter? Yes. Okay. You hit one-one-one, hit enter, and a little red light comes on and nothing else seems to happen.
SPEAKER_00But do you guys have uh a screwdriver or something to do some science on this keypad? I'm sure you can just connect two cables and make things happen, right? That's what usually happens in the movies.
SPEAKER_03My experience of fiddling around with electronics, it's not quite that simple. No.
SPEAKER_01Well, Anders, Anders, you're you're good with electronics. Give it a try. So one of you needs to make a calculator. Right. I'll be just have the hammer spent.
SPEAKER_03No, there's he's lost my best hammer.
SPEAKER_02The hammer is down a drain.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'll have a look and see if I can make out, you know, figure out what coloured wire goes where and what does what and see if I can figure out what would actually move the solenoids to unlock the thing and I'll just have my best guess. So on then, if you can make a calculate role for me.
SPEAKER_02One success. One success. Okay. Yeah. You reckon you could probably do that. So you'd have to take it apart and you'd have to then cross wires and all the rest of it. So that would require a tinker roll and a program roll. Right.
SPEAKER_03I'll I'll get that Antonita, hand me the tools as I require them.
SPEAKER_02And you would need to succeed in both without setting off an alarm. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So it's it's like I'm performing an operation here.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love that game operation.
SPEAKER_03Don't don't touch the sides and so I'll give you my mole grips and my screwdriver, and you hand them to me as I ask for them.
SPEAKER_01Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_03And he likes salutes you. Yeah. Alright, so I'll get the casing off to expose the wires.
SPEAKER_02Cool. I just want to ask.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02Does Tony ha oh does does Anthony have any skill in Tinker out or program?
SPEAKER_01Anthony has one in Tinker and nothing in program.
SPEAKER_02Did you want to add one extra dice to your to your roll, Pete? So just click on D6 on Foundry. It'll just roll an extra dice. So you're one success, is that correct? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So you you you basically pull the mechanism apart and you start to mess about the wires, and if you could and make a program roll for me.
SPEAKER_03Right, now I've got to guess which colour wire touches which. Yes.
SPEAKER_00That is a guess.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So it was a red with a blue. Everyone knows that. I mean everything or more than it's. Unfortunately.
SPEAKER_02It turns out that that Anders is colourblind. So uh yeah, you can, if you wish, push that role.
SPEAKER_03But it doesn't seem to set off any alarms by getting the wrong one. I'll try another combination.
SPEAKER_02Well, it depends. It might do if you don't push push okay, there we go. You're just about to kind of if I go, oh actually I'll do it this way. And then you think, oh hang on, maybe not. It's a slight slightly older system, so maybe if I if I do it this way instead, and so you manage to change your mind at the very last second, and as you do that, the little red button or the little red light blinks green and the door unlocks. You did it, Anders.
SPEAKER_03I knew you could do it. Trying to act as cool as possible, but actually I'm just so chuffed that I need to do something.
SPEAKER_02You go into the um into the room, the door opens inward, and you can see a spiral staircase on your left hand side going up. In front of you, you see a lot of flashy data banks with lots of lights and glittery things going on. The rest of the room appears to be empty, apart from what looks like small the small bottom of an elevator that goes up to the first floor, which is on the right hand side. One of those it's one of those kind of small sort of like elevators you'd put gear and kit on that's heavy.
SPEAKER_01Look at all these computers. It's like it's like auxiliary control room in Star Trek. Well, we are looking for some sort of off switch for like the cyborgs and stuff, and that certainly looks like it probably has an off switch.
SPEAKER_00This is utterly no explosives, that's for sure, so they are tricking us. They didn't want us to be here. We're just putting the sign to keep us away.
SPEAKER_02There's a lot of like coming from the actual databanks. And you can see coming from behind the databanks a group of seven of these deceiver bots they are all holding what looks like knives, and they all look at you.
SPEAKER_00And I look at them and then like I approach rolling. Careful Schwen. Can I have and there's give me the board cutters? Yeah, here you are.
SPEAKER_01Just gonna step off some more LMS.
SPEAKER_02As you take a step forward, they all rough towards you. This is what we're gonna call extended trouble. So these deceiver bots
Fighting for Survival
SPEAKER_02will fight you. And so as a group, you're going to need to try and deal with them, which means you're going to figure out what skills you would like to use against them. I have an idea of how some of you might react to these guys. So if I ask each of you how you are going to deal with this extended trouble, right, I guess we'll start with Sven. You're probably the easiest person to speak to at this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm just gonna go full out crazy. I'm gonna take the pole cutters and I'm just gonna use it to smash them to pieces. I'm gonna cut some arms and legs if if I if I have a moment. Okay. So that makes sense. I'm just gonna enjoy these very much.
SPEAKER_02Your destructive sign is gonna come out. Yeah. Okay. So while you're doing that, what what are you gonna do behind us?
SPEAKER_01Interesting. Is there anything else just like lying around in this room that I can just pick up and throw at things? There is nothing. It seems to be quite a very clean seller. Okay, then I guess I'll just try and just pick something.
SPEAKER_02Okay. There are other options and you can, you know, run away. You might want to try and you might want to try and damage the data banks. You might want to Well that's what that's what Anthony is gonna do.
SPEAKER_01He's just gonna start pushing buttons and trying to break the giant the giant servers.
SPEAKER_02Like pull out wires, that kind of thing. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_03And what is Anders gonna do? I think Anders is gonna use the tool sack he brought with him with the bits and pieces in, and he's gonna try and like hold it up as a shield and keep any robots away from him and Anthony.
SPEAKER_02Alright then. So I'm gonna ask you to please each role what you think that skill would be. And I need you to get combined sets of I'm of eight. So I need I need eight.
SPEAKER_01You mean we need eight successes? In total, yes. Yep. Okay. Well, I'm not gonna be for us all on this. But here we go. Well, I have a question for you, Ed. Sure. My iconic item is my walkman. Can I put that on and blast my my mixtape and get that two bonus that two dice bonus to my role? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So he will do that. He blasts synchronicity too by the police. Okay, cool. And I'm guessing mine is a tinker roll. Yes, if you want to like pull stuff out.
SPEAKER_02Or or it could just be it could be a straight force roll if you just want to like kick it and smash it, depending on what you want to do. It depends if you want to be calculated about it, or or you want to sort of, you know. So it depends if you're using your knowledge of of of tinkering about what's the right kind of chords to pull and that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02So I'll tell you what, why don't we start with we'll start with Sven, because Sven's like up front, along with uh Johannes. Why don't you make your your your fighting roles?
SPEAKER_00Perfect. So just roll body and force, any pluses or minuses I need to take care of it.
SPEAKER_02Uh is there anything you what you've got the um you've got the big bolt cutters haven't you? So you can have a plus two to that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I should have like nine. I don't know nine, something like that.
SPEAKER_02Okay, you've got one success. That will help me with zero successes. Okay, then do either of you want to push that role? And so I'll push my role, why not?
SPEAKER_00One success from Sven, and more successes from I'll push mine to Okay, you push the role.
SPEAKER_01Johannes got success, yes.
SPEAKER_00Johannes gets a success. As Ben Williams will push, so it's two successes.
SPEAKER_02So you've got two successes, Johannes has one success, Anthony has one success. That's right, we've got, you know, we're in four. So uh it it's it's it's it's just down to you, Pete. You need four successes.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna try and hold off the rest of them using the uh tool sack and hold them at arm's length. Stop them from you say plus two for that. Plus two. All right.
SPEAKER_02Wow, two successes. Two successes. So you still need another two successes. Oh, right. I'm struggling, then I'm I'll give it another go. Don't forget, all of you will take for anyone who's pushed or something, it's all of you. Yeah, uh, don't forget to take another condition. Scared is probably going to be a good condition, but any physical conditions as well, because um the little guys are going to attack you with knives.
SPEAKER_01I don't I don't lose that one success if I push, right? No, no, no, you still stays all right. We'll try it. Okay. What was one of the Buggers must have cut my leg or something or my ankle. Yeah, they they've cut your leg and and and kind of like what did you have to say?
SPEAKER_02I was scared. Scared.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I took scared as well. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So Anthony is dangerously close to being broken, by the way. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So they kind of like you kind of take out a couple of them, they fight you with every little ounce of their little beings. And they they they appear to be and they're they're talking to each other at the same time. So you can see this sort of like giving each other directions to kind of like move around you. So a couple are sort of like distracting you while another one kind of attacks from behind. They definitely appear to be less dumb than they were previously. And so they they end up uh attacking you and like pushing you back, and you end up having to be pushed all the way back to the stairs, and you have a choice. I'm gonna give you either they're going to overpower you or you're gonna run away. Is your decision. But how does that way?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and this is definitely a runaway candidate.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02So with your tail between your legs, you basically rush off back the way you can as you see in fact as you're sort of running away. Sven, you see your dad come out from around the corner. He's got sort of like a bit of piping and he looks really angry and he appears to be striding with four or five other people, and they're all walking very quickly with various bits of like uh rope and uh bits of metal piping as you sort of like rush out through the uh through behind the uh the metal crates and out behind the chimney fence. Okay.
SPEAKER_00So you're doing that they see is he a sideboard? You're not close enough to tell that. Okay, I tried to run to the to the exit if uh uh to to the where we did the hole on the fence, I guess.
SPEAKER_02You can you can get through the hole on the fence, that's not a problem. And you can quite easily get out of here.
SPEAKER_00I just wait for the rest. I will grab a stone or something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you all kind of like run and it's not a problem. It doesn't require much for you guys to to get out, and you can rush off. Okay. Unless you're gonna do something outside of the fence.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna look at you guys. I would try to hide somewhere. Are we hidden?
SPEAKER_02Uh no, you're not hidden because it's just fields behind there. So as soon as they get to where you were, I mean they could quite easily probably crawl under and through the the the the bar the the the the the training fence. You've you've cut beyond the fence. They are still coming. They're still coming towards the fence.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you kind of stop, look around, go, ooh, oh no, wait, they are coming. Then you will leg it through the fields. Run, run, guys.
The Escape Plan
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Let's go back to the let's go back to our hideout and and and rethink this. We need a better plan. Sounds like a plan. Let's get the bikes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you run back to where you left your bikes. You you ride this fast, your little legs take you back to your hideouts.
SPEAKER_01Do you think do you think we should do you think we should talk to that nice police officer that that I met? Trust the police. They're in on it. That guy definitely the other one was. Yeah, but she wasn't. At least she wasn't at least she wasn't the other day or a few hours ago, whenever that was, I don't remember anymore. All the days are running together. I think I think it was earlier this morning. It was earlier this morning, yep. Do we have something? Do we have something for this cut? I really I really got hurt.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, let's have a look at that. I think we've got some plasters and stuff in that old first aid kit up there.
SPEAKER_01Well, you're gonna have to amputate my leg.
SPEAKER_03No, Anthony.
SPEAKER_01Doesn't look that bad. But you have to keep it clean. Does anybody have a res spell? Yeah, we could really use a cleric in this in this party. Roll to kiss it and make it bear.
SPEAKER_00Wow, guys, stop doing those things. I mean, we have serious people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Johannes, that was weird. I'm just trying to make light of a difficult situation. That's what I said in the book. A joke, man. They didn't have any jokes in the book. It was more quotes and useful business advice. Guys, I think I think maybe we should if if you guys don't want to talk to the police, at least that nice lady, maybe we should get my dad involved. He works he works at the he works at the loop. He's a scientist. Yeah, he's a sciencey guy, right? He's a scientist, yeah. He'll know what's going on. How do we know that your dad is not a cyborg? We don't. We'll just have to find out. I mean, how do we know who is a cyborg in town? We just we just have to be careful. Well, I think I think I think it's those cuts in their neck, isn't it? That's how we've you guys figured that out. Yeah, it's on the side of their heads behind their ear. So if you go home if your dad has any stitches neck right away, if not, we're fine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm wondering what my dad was doing. I mean he told me he was working in the loop, but this is not the loop. So Sven, do you reckon they've got him as well? Had they have time to have a good look, but man, I'm gonna check when they get home.
SPEAKER_01No, Sven, you shouldn't go home. He was he was inside the factory grounds with a pipe. He was gonna attack us. He's told, he looks very angry. He's one of them.
SPEAKER_00You can't go home. Well, he didn't see me very well. I don't know. Perhaps he didn't recognize me. Well just I need to know, guys. But you gotta stay here.
SPEAKER_01Well, you can't go alone, so if I think we I think we should all go and then we should check on each of our families like together. Yeah, why not? Just keep guard and we know. And we have to figure out what happened to Susie. Yeah, where is Susie? She was many measures. I completely kind of forgot about her. She what needs to go
Checking on Families
SPEAKER_01grab something, she said. Yeah, she was getting us speakers in her and her and her synthesizer, but and I got a bad feeling about this. I think she got caught. No. We've only known her like a day or two. Maybe she just went off and did girl things. Um Susie wouldn't abandon us like that. She's in trouble. Well, she never signed a contract, so she's not legally obligated to do anything.
SPEAKER_02Are you all gonna make a bit of time with yourselves to kind of like get the old plasters out and clean up any wounds?
SPEAKER_03Definitely gonna do my best to patch Anthony up, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. So what what kind of so you're obviously patching Anthony up, that's fine. Are you what are you gonna do to kind of like mentally sort yourselves out?
SPEAKER_00I'm just gonna smoke a cigarette and chat with the guys to see if I'm get less upset.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02So how long you guys wanna stay at the hideout for?
SPEAKER_00Four hours? But I know that made other things come home until late. So we're gonna have to stay until 30 minutes before he arrives, more or less, and then go. Okay. I will just chill and relax.
SPEAKER_02What about the rest of you? How long?
SPEAKER_00Janice will probably just wait till dinner time and then head back.
SPEAKER_03What about Anders? He's worried about his family. He's gonna want to get back and check on them, I think. So how long do you want to stay here in the hideout for? Probably an hour or so.
SPEAKER_02Okay, what about Anthony?
SPEAKER_01So, game mechanics question. When when when Anders took care of my cut, does that remove the injured condition or no?
SPEAKER_02Well, as it so happens, if you all spend some time, a few hours, sort of like in the hideout, chatting and talking things through, getting some you know, bandages and some some plasters and stuff, you will heal your conditions. All of them or just one? Yeah, yeah, all of them. All of them, okay. Uh so which is really nice. But you need to sort of like spend time making an effort to sort of like do that with each other. So if you're just gonna literally turn up and then disappear, then that isn't something you do. But you heal your conditions uh the rules. If you heal your conditions in the hideout in the same way as using your anchor, this requires that two or more of the kids have to be present in the hideout, and they have to be physically or mentally close to each other. For example, hugging, telling secrets, stories, or comforting one another, patching themselves up means you basically heal your whole conditions. It's very kind.
SPEAKER_01Well, Johannes will be there till like five, so he's there all afternoon. Anthony's mom is really pissed at him, so he's not exactly ready to ready to go home yet. It's a Sunday. So his father's not working, and he can also go to his grandmother's house. That's that's just anchor. But I think the first thing he's gonna do is he's gonna stick around here with whoever is gonna stick around, whether that's Anders and Johannes or for several hours at least.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Uh which case you can all heal your conditions. You you do that kind of thing
Healing in the Hideout
SPEAKER_02that kids do. You I could have taken them, you see me smash that. Yeah, I pulled the leg off that one. If only they had no light turned up there. Oh, no, it's terrible, but that's okay, we'll get them next time. You kind of big yourselves up and sort of like tell a slightly different story to what happened.
SPEAKER_01We had the habit completely different. Yeah, I I just I just I you know, I just needed a couple of more seconds with those wires and those buttons, those blinking yellow and red buttons, like you know, like the ones on Star Trek, and and you know, I all uh just shut them all off. But then that stupid robot cut my leg.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you kind of like end up spending a bit of time just chatting it through, and actually it's it's quite a bonding experience for you all. I would I would I would fair to say that I think that Anthony's probably probably enjoying the Bondy experience, even though it was from something bad, because they were all kind of like treating you like treating you like an equal. So you gonna two of you are gonna go your sort of separate ways-ish, but the rest are gonna wait until
Homecomings and Revelations
SPEAKER_02later on. Anders, you're gonna go home first. Yeah. Explain to me uh what happens uh when you get home.
SPEAKER_03I'll just get in and see who's about the house, head for the kitchen, grab some snacks. Alright. Yeah, you get in.
SPEAKER_02Your parents are sitting watching TV when you get in. Well, in fact, no, you you probably go home in the afternoon, right? So what does your dad do for a living?
SPEAKER_03He's a salesman for a fertilizer company.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And your mum?
SPEAKER_03She works at a bar waitressing.
SPEAKER_02So it turns out that your dad is home and your mum isn't your dad looks at you when you come in and asks, you're not at school and then sort of like shakes his head and realises then it's a Sunday up asks what you've been up to.
SPEAKER_03I just slightly prevaricate, oh you know, just playing with the guys, you know, running about, stuff like that. Um but I just make small talk, which is really unusual for me with my father, as I'm trying to manoeuvre around the room to get a good look behind his ears. Okay.
SPEAKER_02You are very happy to hear or or to to look at, but he does not have any kind of cuts behind his ears. And he's showing you the usual level of interest that he would normally show you. It's actually quite nice w without your mum being here. It doesn't appear they're not obviously arguing or anything like that. And so he is sort of he's reading a book which he puts down to speak to you and he kind of helps you sort of like because you've probably come in about lunchtime, he'll sort of like make you some lunch as well. He seems perfectly fine, which is a big relief to you.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, happy for that. Quite happy to let lunch go on for a while. It's been a while since I've sat down like this, and it's reassuring. But I'm also eager to go and see grandfather as well at some point. So I might make my excuses a little while after lunch and go and see him.
SPEAKER_01Go and see him, yeah. Okay, out of me. At what point are you gonna go out? Probably around the same time most of the other most of the other guys do. I'm not taking the most obvious route home, and I'll come in from the backyard, make sure there aren't any uh unfamiliar cars in the driveway. There is a police car on the driveway. Okay. I'm on the back porch and I'm kind of like listening to see what maybe trying to peer through a window or something to see what I can see in the house.
SPEAKER_02You peer through the window, you can see your mom and dad sitting in a s on the on the on the sofa. And they are talking to that same uh blonde police lady that you met earlier today.
SPEAKER_01So is the back door unlocked or locked? It is, yeah. It's unlocked. It's unlocked. Okay, so I'll I'll just walk in, run into the living room, and see if I can notice whether or not the nice police lady has been compromised.
SPEAKER_02If you run into the front room, your mom and dad stand up. What's their reaction to you coming in? Because this is the first time you see them since yesterday now.
SPEAKER_01It's mixed emotions, right? They're totally pissed at me. It's also triggered them because my older brother went missing a year ago. But they're also happy that I'm here and alive and safe and that I that their kid has returned, right? So there's like some yelling and crying, and you know, like they don't know if they want to hit me or hug me. Yep. You scared the living daylights out of a slap. You could have got hurt, slapped.
SPEAKER_02But I did get hurt, look, and I show them my cut on my leg. Oh my god, what happened? You know, that they will ask you straight away what will happen, what happened, why why is your leg sore? I I need to speak to dad in private. Mum wants to know why. There's a lot of sort of like arguing. They start to argue, but the police officer she gets up and takes your mum to the kitchen. Did I get a chance to notice whether she had like that thing over here? She's got sort of like a cap that kind of like goes off at an angle and it kind of like covers just that sort of area. So you're 50-50 on that one. You don't really know.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So I'll stand beside my father, and as the police officer takes my mother into the other room, I say I do I remember her name? Yeah, her name was Inspector Ingmarie.
SPEAKER_02In Inspector? She looks over and says, Yes. Could you take your hat off, please? She says, Oh, oh, I'm really sorry. She takes the little hat off. Yeah, you can see that she doesn't have anything behind her ears. Okay. Thank you. She folds it, she folds it up and puts it in the sort of like the pell. So it kind of like sits on her shoulder.
SPEAKER_01Yep. So then I'll I'll sit on the couch and I'll say, Dad, there's something really wrong happening in this town. Do you know those transformable toys that are like the ripoffs of the Transformers? Yes. Well They attacked us, and that's why I have this cut on my leg. There's a factory at the edge of town, and something weird is going on. Like they're alive. Those robots are alive. They're not toys. They're dangerous. He looks at you with sort of like this.
SPEAKER_02We need help, Dad, and I need you to believe me. He puts his hand on your shoulder and says, sort of like tussles your hair, says Anthony. He kind of like puts his fingers into both his eyes as if he's trying to ward off a headache. Says, What do you mean they're alive? Mean they're not toys.
SPEAKER_01They're like weapons or something. You can see that he's kind of got a little bit of smile on his on his face. And they're they're doing something to the people in the town. Like some of the people, if you've ever noticed, if you ever ever got out of your office for like a minute and noticed, people in this town, like they have these the sides of their heads are shaved and and they have like these operations, and you can see the scar and the and stitches, and and they're not the same. Magnus isn't the same anymore. And Sven's dad tried to attack him with a pipe.
SPEAKER_02He he kind of like looks at you square in the eyes and says, Am I gonna have to take away those tunnel and trolls games from you? Called Dungeons and Dragons, Dad. Duck, I appreciate that you've got such a great imagination. Um and it's gonna do you amazingly well when you're when you're older. Robots uh attacking people, cutting the into the heads. Come on now, honestly. Tell you what I'll do.
SPEAKER_01I'll go and speak to Sven's dad, okay? This is why Joe went missing, because you never pay attention and you don't anyone.
SPEAKER_02He grabs your shoulders and he shakes you, and he immediately gets really angry. He says, You go to your room now. You go to your room and just think about what you're saying. Go on, go on. And he basically sort of like raises his voice, not in even like a apparently kind of raising, it's a sort of like proper shouty kind of raise. So much so that your mum and the police officer kind of like sort of peer around the door. And he he pretty much shoves you through the front into the into the into the landing and says, just go in your room now, as you run up the stairs, presumably crying and and run into your room slamming the door with a loud and as as you're doing that, you hear a lot of like shouting downstairs, and then you hear some breaking of like something that's in the um in the front room. I think your mum might collect of like porcelain pigs or something. And it sounds like your dad has probably smashed like a couple of the porcelain pigs or thrown them off the side of the subject.
SPEAKER_01That's an amazing random detail. There you go.
SPEAKER_02And I think with that we will call that the end of episode seven.