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 E8: A Tales from the Loop Actual Play Podcast
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After yet another botched attempt to infiltrate the factory, one of the kids is left wounded. Desperate and shaken, he pleads with his father for help, but his father's disbelief cuts deep. Feeling abandoned, the boy turns to the only adult he thinks might listen—Inspector Ingmarie. But can she really be trusted?
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Welcome to Stories with Dice
SPEAKER_02Hello and welcome to Stories with Dice, an actual play podcast of some of our favorite tabletop role-playing games.
SPEAKER_03Hi folks, and welcome back to Stories with Dice Actual Play podcast of Tells Living. I'm joined as always by my fellow co-host Marco. Hello and my lovely, lovely players. Who this mention you for I haven't mentioned you for a while, so that's Tony. Hello. Hi. And Douglas. Unfortunately, my other player, Sol, cannot be around. And much like my last episode, I'm I'm still suffering from a bit of a cough. So hopefully Mark will be able to edit most of that out. I'll try my best to sort of my lungs up away from the microphone.
SPEAKER_02I'm just gonna I'm just gonna edit the GM out of this entire episode.
SPEAKER_03Well sounds like a really good idea. Why do you need me for in the first place? I'm out of here. Anyway, yeah, so if you could give us a thumbs up, a like, subscribe, or a follow on any of the social media stuff that you're following us on, that would be amazing. This is episode eight. And I'm gonna go straight over to
Last Episode Recap
SPEAKER_03for the update of last episode in brief.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we started by breaching the perimeter of the factory. We made it to some stairs down to a basement level and has astonished himself by managing to actually get past the security panel and getting into a room that seemed to have some computers or servers in, but actually it also had some of our little Deceptor Bot things who uh hacked us. We tried our best to fight them off, but quickly realized we're on to a losing streak and basically headed back out the way we came. We also noticed a few human characters pursuing us as we left, which was quite disconcerting as well, but we managed to make our way back to the uh to our hideout. Yeah, poor Anthony actually got cut by one of the robots, so we patched him up and patched up our egos by telling stories of how we were gonna get them next time. And then most of us being concerned about the adults seeming to be taken over by uh the chips implanted behind their ears wanted to actually check on the adults that we knew, our parents and loved ones, to check that none of them had turned. So uh I headed off back to check on my parents. All was going well there. And Anthony went to check on his parents and tried to get his father involved. But yeah, telling a story about robots coming to life and attacking you wasn't quite received the way Anthony wanted. And Anthony lashed out at his father emotionally by mentioning the loss of his brother, which didn't go down well.
Back Home Check-ins
SPEAKER_03No, thank you very much, that's amazing. So we will start off this episode. Um, as the rest of you all s like drift off back home, I guess Johannes, you're gonna go home. Who is home when you get in?
SPEAKER_02So his mum works at home, so she'll be there. Dad works in an office, but he's never bothered asking more than that, so he'll be there. And Svetlana the dog will be there.
SPEAKER_03It's it's particularly it's particularly nice at home, you know. They're probably watching some Sunday uh late afternoon, early evening TV dinners being cooked.
SPEAKER_02Uh it's just very homely. I'll just sit down and be like, well, do you guys do anything? I was your day, Dad.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he he he happily tells you about his day. He was probably doing some gardening. He probably explains about some of the ways you sort of like cut roses to kind of like get them to rebird, and he waffles on about his enjoyment of gardening. Uh and he throws in a few times that now you're gonna be off for the Easter break. You can help in the garden as well, that'd be really nice. Yeah, that sounds fun, Dad. That's right. It's good to get out and and just do some stuff, but you spend a lot of time outside anyway. They ask you sort of like very very briefly about your daily.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03They seem relatively engaged while they're sort of like watching TV at the same time.
SPEAKER_02I'll mention it that that Antony boy was uh getting in trouble or whatever. Because he uh stayed out too late last night.
SPEAKER_03Just stay away from that boy, he's bad, he's a bad influence.
SPEAKER_02You snitch. It's just a thing that happened today. Whatnot, yeah. And then we spoke to a police officer and she was like What? A police officer? They kind of like Yeah, apparently his parents might call the police.
SPEAKER_03They're happy to listen to your story about how one of your friends got in trouble with the police. Do you minimize what you kind of got up to in the whole thing?
SPEAKER_02Or you But yeah, it will literally just be the bit where she met us in the woods. That is the only part I'm talking about where it's like we found a police officer. She was looking for Anthony. He went and called his parents. So actually it's not that interesting. Fair enough.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02Cool.
SPEAKER_03Thank you very much. Then we will finish that off.
SPEAKER_01Then you get home. Yes, I guess I get home. Yeah, I didn't I arrive like uh perhaps I do before when my dad usually arrives just to prepare some TV dinner, sit in front of the TV and kind of you know, I just wait for him. I will position myself so I can see well when he opens the door. Um I get that sneak peek and he's head six there are any wires.
SPEAKER_03Cool. Yep. You wait alone in your coal house for your dad to get home and he doesn't come home.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_03He usually comes back home, I think to myself. You wake up and you wait up, and time just seems to drag on as you're waiting for him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, now I wish I had that meaning to look at his head when I was running away. That's not like him. Before going to bed, I would probably put a chair on the main door. Kind of lock it there, wedge it, so nobody can come in. And I kind of you know, I don't want to be, you know, kidnapped at night by my dad, you know, that he put a cable on me. And I'm gonna try to make sure that all the windows are closed and if there is a back door that will I will put also a chair or something. And yeah, I will even go perhaps close the door and to the kind of uh complicated setup that if somebody opens the door, you know, a glass will fall, show, make noise, I don't know. Something weird like this. I'm kind of not panicking, but something's going on. And I I kind of remembered Magnus. Magnus also had this, and we didn't go to see what happened with him, and I'm feeling you know, worried about my dad, worried about Magnus, and thinking with that I will fall asleep, I guess.
SPEAKER_03Yep. You fall asleep, you try and fall asleep, and you try and fall asleep, and then you hear creaking in the house, you hear sort of like things tapping at windows, the wind picks up, and you think it's someone screaming outside. Your imagination starts to sort of like get the better of you until you eventually fall asleep from exhaustion rather than anything else. That is how you all spend your
A New Week Begins
SPEAKER_03Sunday. It's Monday morning. Welcome to another fun-filled week. It is your week off. In fact, you've got two weeks off. What is the plan for today? What are you all kind of planning to do?
SPEAKER_02Anthony is going to try to find the nice investigator lady. Okay. And leave her a note. He will he will leave his house by his bedroom window.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I guess I will when I wake up, I will probably just undo everything I did. I will double check in any case if anybody came in, yeah. Just to be sure. And I guess I'll grab something to eat and I would prepare myself a sandwich and I will just go about. I'm gonna go and check. I mean, if we didn't say to meet anywhere, which I don't think we did. I'm gonna go buy the ice cream store check for Magnus.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00Whenever they open.
SPEAKER_03What's Anders gonna do?
SPEAKER_00I'll check in with grandfather first. Check if there's any work on. If not, I will then head out to the hideout and hang around there until somebody else turns up so I can let them know the reassuring news that my parents are right. Sure. And what is your hungers gonna do?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Probably just go to the hideouts first and see who's there.
Meeting the Inspector
SPEAKER_03Okay. Alright, well, we'll start with that. So the police station is on the waterside of Steadhamara. If you look at Matt in the centre of town is the uh pizza shop and the uh ice cream shop, uh which is opposite your school. If you follow the road down towards the coast, you will come to the toy shop, which is uh crossroads there, and then if you continue on down that same road, you'll find uh the police station. There's a bunch of police cars in the lot in front. There's a little two-story building. It's not particularly big and it kind of services uh the most of uh the island. Yeah. What is the plan?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I'm just gonna I'm just gonna waltz right into the front door, go to the desk and ask if the ins the inspector is in. Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You uh you go and ask. Uh the uh the desk sergeant says, I think she's in. Let me just check for you. Who should I say is calling young sir? Anthony. She uh gets on the phone, and uh about five minutes later, Amy Marie comes out and uh she says, Yeah, please come this way. Is she s is she wearing her hat or she's not wearing a hat, she's in her uniform, and she takes you she passes you through and takes you back behind uh where all the other police officers are. And she walks you through up the stairs through a bunch of sort of like uh desks which are all sort of with with various people sort of like doing various police related stuff, uh some of them in uniform, some of them outside in uniform, and she takes you to a corner of an open office and she sits you down. She sits on the other side of the desk and says, Hello, Anthony. Hello, how are you this morning? Can you just show me the back of your head, please? Yes. She smiles and she uh shows you the back of her head and then she shows you the other side of her head, so you can see both behind both ears.
SPEAKER_02Have you ever seen Star Wars? I have. Remember that message that Princess Leia gave to old Ben Kenobi? Yes. Well, this is that message, Inspector. You're our only hope. Nobody believes us. My dad doesn't believe me. My mom doesn't believe me. Nobody believes us. Sven's father tried to attack him with a pipe. There's something wrong in this town, and it's has to do with that factory and those toys. You have to check it out. One of your own police officers is like in on it.
SPEAKER_03Really? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Which police officer? I have no idea what his name what his name is. Well, you have to do is look behind their ear. Magnus is has been like operated on.
SPEAKER_03Grab him, check him out. She picks up like a little um notebook and she starts writing some stuff down that you're saying. Okay. Who else has been taken?
SPEAKER_02Just know, Sven's father and and Magnus from the ice cream shop. What about anybody else's dad? Don't know. I don't know. I have to have to talk to my friends. I haven't seen them yet this morning.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02But you have to go to that factory. You have to go to the toy store where they're selling these toys. There's these little transformable robots. They're real. They're attacking people. I got caught on my leg by one. She says, stand up, show me. So I I sh I pull up my pant leg and I show her the the bandage, my bandaged sh leg.
SPEAKER_03She and may I? And she says she kind of like goes to take the sort of like the little bandage off. Sure, sure. She has looked at it and then puts it back together, bandages back up. Okay. Look, I know I'll I know I know I'm a kid, and I know who else knows about it? Friends. Which friends? Are you gonna get them in trouble or are you gonna help us? Well, I need to listen first. Once I understand what's going on, then I can help you.
SPEAKER_02Ben, Anders, Johannes, and Susie. We haven't even seen Susie in like I don't know, what
Plans with Friends
SPEAKER_02the the day something happened to her. She was supposed to meet us yesterday.
SPEAKER_03You see her, she basically pulls a um a file from her desk and it's got a picture of Sven on. Yes, uh-huh. There's a couple of other pages with the other friends' names on that you've mentioned, but they don't seem to be in any trouble. Looks like Sven's actually got like a bit of a rap sheet going up there, but the rest seem like they're just names. She says, Okay. Uh Susie, yes, I saw Susie yesterday. Well we can we can we can make sure she's okay. I'll tell you what we can do. Why don't we speak to your friends and then maybe we can go and have a look at that that toy shop. What you really have to do is go to the factory. Okay. Now the toy shop we can probably go and have a look at because right now we don't need any special permission to go there. We can just go and have a look around. The factory, on the other hand, is going to require a little bit more paperwork to do, and that might take a few days. So I just thought we'd kind of do that first. Does that make sense? Are you happy with that? It makes no sense, but adults don't make any sense ever. She smiles. She says, Can you get in touch with your friends and maybe we can meet somewhere? Sure, sure. We can meet at the toy store in like let's say an hour. She looks at her watch. She says, How about we make it about two hours? I've got some other things to do.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'll come and meet you there. Um but don't go in. We'll go in together and we'll talk to the people in the she she looks at you and says, Do I need to worry about the people in the toy shop? Are they also gonna be a problem? I have no idea. Well we can find that out, can't we? And I'll see if I can find out about Magnus and Send Dad as well. Okay? Now I'll see you out and then if we go through here, if you see the other police officer, point him out to me when we leave, okay? But don't make it obvious. Okay. She basically takes you through the police station. You don't see him at the police station at all. And then she takes you out the front and uh so she'll be in touch.
SPEAKER_02Okay, and then I and then I so I tell her like I didn't see him, but whoever didn't come in to work today, that's probably him. Okay. Well I'll have a look and find out. Okay, so I'll get back in my bike and if I don't see anyone at the ice cream shop, I'll probably head over to the hideout.
SPEAKER_03Okay. It sounds like the rest of you are pretty much going to be going to the hideout, apart from well, Sven. I guess you're gonna go and see you swing past the ice cream shop. I think you don't see Magnus. Can I go in and ask? Yeah, yeah, you go in. It's the older guy, Matthias. And uh he says, Hey Sven. How are you doing? I'm okay. You don't have the police after you today then? No. It's okay today. He laughs as well.
SPEAKER_01Mr. What can I do for you today, Sven? Actually, I was looking for Magnus and I was hoping to talk to him today.
SPEAKER_03He rolls his eyes and says, Magnus hasn't turned up for work again. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No what's going on with Magnus lately.
SPEAKER_03No, I don't know either.
SPEAKER_01Anyhow, would you tell him that I'm looking for him if he comes back?
SPEAKER_03Sure, we'll do. I mean, you'll probably see him before I did, Swan. Perhaps.
SPEAKER_01Thanks so much.
SPEAKER_03That's okay.
SPEAKER_01I'm super male worried now. And I got to the hideout.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So you will kind of meet up at the hideout. You probably get there just before Edki turns up.
SPEAKER_01I'm guessing I'm gonna be the last one I drive in, perhaps.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you'd be the last one, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01I will arrive and I'm kind of you know running up the
Tensions Rise
SPEAKER_01stairs. You know, I've been, you know, keeping my panic at bay, but once I get to the hideout and just run up the stairs to the specific, you know, to this office that we have, and you know, it's metallics and I'm like glam, glang, glang, glan, glang, glang, glang, glang, going all the way up. And I open very, you know, like with all my strengths.
SPEAKER_03Dramatically you open the door.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03When you do that, what is Johannes and Anders doing?
SPEAKER_02They're just faffing around until the door suddenly dramatically slams open and we get a heart attack.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, just just sorting out tools and things. And I I suppose that maybe Anthony might have just been putting down his rucksack and the door bursts open.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I say, Sven, Sven, did you see your dad?
SPEAKER_01I've been dead dead worried since this yesterday night. There is I mean, definitely there is something going on. Very bad, very bad. You know, he did not come back home. I was freaking out. I mean, not that, you know, I'm not that I'm a coward, you know that, right? But you know, I cannot believe it. I mean, I feel feel like responsible. I should have checked on on his head before running. Um I mean, this is not like me. I I mean I don't know what to do. I mean, what can I do? Well, I got I got his help, guys.
SPEAKER_02So the inspector at the police station, I checked her out. She's totally okay. But she's gonna look into this and we're gonna meet her at the toy store. Does she know about the sideboard?
SPEAKER_01I told her everything, yeah. Told her everything for crying out loud. What are you then? I mean you cannot tell the whole truth to the ground apps.
SPEAKER_02Now if they get hurt, they'll
The Search for Susie
SPEAKER_02know everything that we know. They know that we know they know. And he sort of like tries to you can see him mentally going the logic of they will know that we know that she knows that we know. Well, we had to get help. Stuff wasn't working. We were getting hurt. Sven's dad is one of them now. Maybe he got a new job and he was doing some overtime. Yeah, new job, beating his son with a pipe. But he never bid me. What are you saying? He was chasing he chased us with a pipe. What do you think he was gonna do with it, Sven? Come on, I'm ten and even I know what that meant. Anthony, how how were your parents when you went home? Oh, they were useless as usual. They were that mad then. They didn't believe me.
SPEAKER_01So you're telling me that now I have to wait until this policewoman comes? There's nothing we are gonna be doing about this. We need we needed someone, an adult, in our corner.
SPEAKER_02You know, we needed our own Obi-Wan Kenobi. You never saw Star Wars? Somebody check Johannes, I think he's a cyborg.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't know. I don't know about this movie either. Must be must be something we're I mean, yeah. Sounds pretty generic. Must be one of these budget B movies or something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Come on, Anders. You saw Star Wars, right? Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's okay. I mean, yeah, the kids like too. And your kids. Well, yeah, I'd I watch more grown-up films more now, kind of thing. Like what, like horror movies? Yeah. Yeah, my brother got a video of the exorcist. That's it's quite scary.
SPEAKER_02Can we get back to the topic? We have to meet the inspector in front of the toy store in like an hour and a half. Oh, what's gonna happen if we don't do it? Is she going to arrest us? Are we sure about her, Anthony? I checked her out, she's totally fine. Like, what what do we know about her? She's nice and she's not a cyborg, and she listened to me without Well, my dad's pretty nice, but I'm not gonna take all this to him. Yeah, well to be fair, he's not he wouldn't be that helpful either. He really cares more about his roses than that, that sort of thing. Your dad grows roses? Yes, I mean I mean, you never seen the garden. It's very nice, so I'm told. They're colorful. My mom grows roses. Well, you know. Matt needs his hobbies, so he said, keeps telling me.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I have no other ideas, so why not? But you do the talking.
SPEAKER_02Has anyone seen Susie? No, no. She hasn't turned up here this morning. I think she's just whatchamacallit, chickened out. Obviously, got this got too intense for her, and she just went back to doing whatever girls do. I wish I had a watch and mcollet right now. What, you guys never had a watch and mcollet bar before? What? Sweden sucks. Well, I'm quite partial to the fruit fishes. They're very nice. Right.
SPEAKER_03So, do you want to go and try and check on Susie or are you going to go see the police officer first?
SPEAKER_02Can I do something before we go to the police officer? Sure. Can I go and like ask around like people I know and that sort of thing about this police officer to make sure she is like on the level? Because Anthony doesn't give me much confidence. Who would be my contacts? Who would be the people who well, kids-wise, the kids who are getting into trouble would be the ones who know the police officers.
SPEAKER_03It's Monday morning, so you know. They hang out somewhere by gang. Hang out somewhere. I mean, yeah, I mean it's it's not like they're bad, but probably in the same way that Sven is bad in that kind of they think they're the hard nuts of the school.
SPEAKER_02Well we've done business before, you know, I've heard them things and they've given me things and I've maybe not asked questions where they came from. You probably can't Yeah.
SPEAKER_03You probably have to cycle to a payphone or to if you think you probably know where they'll probably hang out. You could probably do that via going to the uh the toy shop to meet with the police officer.
SPEAKER_02Well, who wants to come with uh Johannes to go meet the bad boys? I'll I'll go direct deal face to face, you know. In case, you know, the phones are being tapped or something like that. Yeah. Okay. But better to do all the sort of business and face-to-face. The personable approach is what it says in the book. Eye contact and all that.
SPEAKER_03Alright, that the rest of you are you just gonna wait till the allotted time go and see the police officer?
SPEAKER_01No, I will go with we'll go with Johannes. Okay.
SPEAKER_00What is and it's gonna be Yeah, I'll probably tag a look. I'm not over sure about this police officer yet. I certainly don't wanna be seen meeting up with a police officer if I can help it.
SPEAKER_03So that means you're the odd one out, Anthony.
SPEAKER_02Anthony will go to Susie's house.
SPEAKER_03Okay, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02We've written her off, she's dead.
SPEAKER_03Okay, right, you three wander off to go and see Hans, Ovid, and Victor. They are all at the in fact, they're at the back behind the ice cream shop. They are currently have lined up a bunch of old cans, and they've got some catapults. And then sort of like shooting at the old cans with catapults, sort of like in the back of the parking lot and where they would have deliveries. So yeah, you walk around there. Again, it's you know, it's a it's a cool, breezy morning, uh, but it's sunny-ish. They kind of look at you, they seem to acknowledge Sven in the same way that some bullies acknowledge other bullies, and they uh they kind of like nod their heads, and everyone kind of suddenly changes tact from being, you know, a bunch a bunch of friends to sort of like, yeah, yeah, I need to kind of walk the walk and sort of like puff my chest out a little bit more. And uh, Victor, who is the de facto leader of the three, goes, uh, Sven, what's up? Not much. Yeah, not much here either.
SPEAKER_01Is Johannes doing anything? Or do you would you like me to take off a negotiation? Yeah, I know. Uh have your back.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they know Johannes and they know Anders. They bought stuff maybe from me at some point. Yo, Joe. Hey, how's it going, guys? Got a question to ask you. And you seem to be the people to ask. We've got one of these those police ladies breathing down her neck. Alright. You know the young guy guy, Anthony, we run with, you know. The wee one, nerdy. Yeah, they they look at them go, no idea who he is. Anyway, not important. He's he's he's getting harassed by like one of the policewomen for some reason. I don't know. She's gone in for him. Or just wanting to know if you've ever had any running ends with her. I'll say do I know what her name is? Do you know her name? I must have mentioned it to everyone.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know her name. Inspector Ing Marie.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Ing Marie. Blonde. Ponytail, I think. Victor comes over. Well, he gets closer to you. He goes, uh, all right, we might know something. What's it worth to you?
SPEAKER_02Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_03What do you want? What's it worth to me? Got your crona? He starts like patting down your pocket. Boy, that's not the way to carry negotiations. The other two kind of like step slightly forward.
SPEAKER_01And I also step forward and say, hey, guy, guy, chill, chill, chill. Well, just exchanging information here. One day for you, one day for me. Take it easy. Just just answer my friend, please. They kind of like, you know, telling us what to do. No, no. Don't just saying this is a fair exchange, one day for you, one day for me, and you probably will need us at some point. I see. Right.
SPEAKER_03Well, what's the uh yeah, well, tell you what, why don't you uh Sven, why don't you go and uh get us some ice cream? Seems like a fair exchange. I'll have mint, and the other one says I'll have vanilla.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like fine, but you owe me one.
SPEAKER_03Sure. As soon as Sven goes out of uh sight, they basically come back over and get in your face between you and the handers again. Right, okay. What do you want to know? What's uh what's Johannes gonna do now that Sven's out of the picture?
SPEAKER_02Well, he's going to try and keep us cool and keep this sort of like as as pleasant as possible. Yep, okay. With trying to, you know, keep uh keep try not to give anything away, give up or give away the crown jewels or whatever. But you know, keep the negotiations going until Semen can come back to save him from getting killed. Unless unless Anders is gonna be doing anything to help this situation. Do what? Make a charm roll.
SPEAKER_03Use your charm. Two successes. Okay, yes, absolutely. They start to kind of get me you kind of get the vibe of the how they're acting, and you kind of start to mirror their response. You've read it once in the book. Yeah. And you're generally an affable kid. So yeah, you kind of like start talking the talk a little bit. When you kind of mention Ing Marie, they laugh a little bit and say, yeah. Yeah, she's she's relatively new. She's a bit of a pushover. She's she spends a lot of time out on the lake. You can see her, uh I think she's like a bit of a nerd. She spends a lot of her time looking for fish or birds or something. She's always out with her binoculars and stuff. But she seems very nice. She's always the person to let you off. Yeah. You can pretty much get away with anything with her.
SPEAKER_02And I verbally describe the other police officer that was in the ice cream burlo the other day and be like, oh, there was another guy.
SPEAKER_03Yes, Officer Vicstrom. Yes. He's a different kind of police officer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, uh, don't tell him when he was going the other day when he was thinking, I kind of uh stuck my feet out and caused him to fall into the bikes.
SPEAKER_03They laugh and put their hands up to sort of like high-five you. I will I will take the high five. Yeah, so Sven basically comes back with some ice cream and yeah, you exchange information. Yeah. She but she seems to be on the level. She seems sort of like a, you know, one of those one of those cops who who likes to help with kindness as opposed to sort of like a strong arm. And sort of like in the sort of like 80s, it's, you know, a bit more of a strong arm is sort of like the type of policing that some officers will do. She seems to be of a new kind of breed of officer kind of like coming in with psychology and stuff.
SPEAKER_02Well, is the other one of the old school variety?
SPEAKER_03He's of the old school variety.
SPEAKER_02They've seen him around recently or did they dance in around.
SPEAKER_03His local beat is actually Stanhammer, so he would normally be found wandering around this area. But they don't have any more information to give you. And uh we'll leave it there with you guys. So, Anthony, make your way to uh Susie's place. There's no one home. Susie's not there, neither her parents.
SPEAKER_02Take up my backpack, rip out a piece of paper from my notepad, grab a grab a pen, and I say uh I leave a note that says, Hi Susie, I hope you're okay. You didn't uh you didn't show up the other day and were worried your friend Anthony. And then I'll slip it under the door if I can or put it in a mailbox
Confronting the Toy Shop
SPEAKER_02or or what have you. Yep.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you can just slide it under the door. You notice the car's nesting as well. So yeah, no one seems to be out.
SPEAKER_02And there are no other cars like in the garage or anything.
SPEAKER_03No, that you can see the garage is in fact we'll say that the garage is like a a lean to sort of like garage, so you can actually see into it. There's nothing there.
SPEAKER_02All right. I'll head back to the in the other direction, back toward where the toy store is. So hopefully the guys are are there on time to meet the nice the nice police lady whose name I can never remember.
SPEAKER_03When you all get there, you see a police car. In fact, you don't see a police car. Marie will have halt, because it's not that far from the police station. But you see her standing outside, and you all kind of like conveniently kind of meet up roughly at the same sort of time. In fact, Anthony kind of meets you all as you're coming down from that from the central part of uh you'll see her sort of like waiting outside in her blue uniform.
SPEAKER_02Hey, hey guys, this is the inspector I was telling you about. She's gonna she's gonna help us and look into all these weird things going on. Smiles at you all and says, hello again. And I'm like, this is Sven, and that's Anders. He's like Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, and and that's Johannes. He's like, I guess you I guess you'd say he's like a Ferengi. I don't know. He likes he likes to talk about money, he likes to talk about money and business all the time. Alice is not sure if to be offended or not.
SPEAKER_03Okay. She um she takes your hand in each and sort of like shakes it. Probably not with Sven, I imagine. Sven and the police probably have uh check it past. She says, Okay, so a friend Anthony has told me what's happened. So we want to find out what's going on, right? And last time you said you were here, you said that something had happened in the back in the storage area? Yeah. Okay. Well, uh, you can show me. And she says, um, okay, come on then. She opens the door and she walks into the into the toy shop. The toy shop is packed with loads of toys, like floor to ceiling. The cashier's desk is right next to the big windows. There's loads of little shelves, and at the back you've got the door that goes into the storage room. And can see the uh the the owners basically staring at the police officer in New York. Henrik is one of the owners. He says, Goodness, what have they done now? She says, No, no, no. Uh I understand that um you might have had a break-in or something. They look at you all and go, Oh, it's these kids. Yes. They tried to get in the back area, but we we chased them out. They said it was like that originally. So I thought I'd just come and have a little look. Do you mind if I go out the back? Henrik and uh looks over to his wife and uh no man, please help yourself. She says, Okay. And she makes a way towards the back. She says, Come on now, show me what you saw. Kind of like gets you to sort of like follow her.
SPEAKER_02I'll stay here and have a nice chat with the the leaseons. We have some business to do. Secretly it's gonna be just keeping an eye on that to make sure. Yeah, they kind of look at you like Well, we're friends, because I think I've got a relationship with them. You have, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So um yeah, Annette sort of like goes, she smiles. They've kind of like taken a life on tea just because it's a bit of a sweet thing that you want to kind of, you know, you might have wanted to kind of do some like work experience or something here, looking after a business, that kind of thing. Um that leaves Anders, Sven, and Anthony to go uh out the back with the police officer. So she takes you out and back into the storage room. There was a storage room and an office. Clearly it's a little bit messy, but nothing massively. There does not appear to be the same level of trashed toys in here. And she says, um, okay.
SPEAKER_02I mean it was it was a couple of days ago, you know, and and and we didn't do anything wrong. We just peeked into the back and the place was a mess. And we overheard them talking that like some of the some of the toys were missing or something, and we noticed that one set of toys were broken, and the other set there were a bunch of them that were missing, and it was like they were fighting each other or something.
SPEAKER_03Looks over at Anders and at Sven to sort of go, Can you confirm this?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Anders definitely doesn't. He just sort of looks disinterested and blank. He's not confirming one way or another.
SPEAKER_03She has a wander into the office, and you can see that she's poking it around on the desk and just generally having a bit of a a look without doing too much rummaging, and uh she goes to sort of like the back door, unlocks the back door, and opens that to a loading dock. Just on the outside of the loading dock, there's a load of those large skipped kind of bins. And she kind of has a little look around and she sort of uh opens up one of the bins with her foot, and inside you can see a whole load of the toy boxes, they're all broken open, as well as a bunch of cardboard and various other things that have been thrown out the back. It makes a lot of hmm, hmm noises. So she kind of like rifles through some odd bits and pieces, and she says, Are these the boxes? To we to you three?
SPEAKER_01I don't know, maybe. Definitely those are boxes for the robot.
SPEAKER_02I mean I mean, why would they throw them away? Don't they want if they're if they like got damaged in like shipping or whatever, like wouldn't they want their money back from the place they bought them from?
SPEAKER_01Hmm, if you'd think so. Why don't you ask the owners about all this? I mean, I thought policemen would do that. Just ask police person?
SPEAKER_03Police person, sorry. She says, uh, well, first of all, you have to have a look, don't you? Before you ask the questions, walk up and down the loading docks. You're pretty much standing there as you're watching her do all the sort of thing. She looks like she's doing policey type things. She's definitely not jumping over all red cars, drawing guns, or anything that you kind of associate with doing police work in vertical commerce. And she seems to just be sort of like poking her nose into some stuff. She doesn't really even touch much things, she just kind of like looks at things. And then she just sort of like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Then she gets back up on the loading dock, says, okay, we can go out the front now. And she sort of like hustles you all back in, locks the back door, and then takes you back into the store. You can see Johannes and his two business partners having a chat at the cashier's desk.
SPEAKER_02Can I ask about something before they come back? Sure, absolutely. I'll ask if uh Dr. Was it Dr. Yonker was the woman who was with the special guest. Ulla Yonker.
SPEAKER_03Did she ever turn up in the end? She did not. She tried contacting her and she has not heard from her at all. And they've also tried to contact Helena Voss, who is uh the the actual engineer for it, whereas uh Ulla is the uh the the sort of like creative director, as it were. No, no, no, we went around to her house just up by and they give you the address back on like on the road.
SPEAKER_02But there was no one home. Do you think maybe she was at the factory? I think they're they're set up in that and I'll say where the other factory is.
SPEAKER_03That's where we get our deliveries from. Yeah, no, we know that that's where um that's where Helena would normally work from, but we haven't heard from either. So we're really annoyed that they didn't turn up, but it's gone quite well. And they're basically talking she talks about some of the figures and stuff that they've done, just in very broad strokes. Yeah, and the the police officer comes back and she says, Okay, well, if you not want to just weigh outside, I'll speak to the two here, and then I'll be outside in a okay.
SPEAKER_02Just make sure you ask her about the people who made the toys and why they disappeared.
SPEAKER_03She says, Oh, okay, off you go. She basically hustles you out the door, and then she goes and speaks to the the the two owners. You can see through the window, they're obviously having a bit of a conversation. She uh she sort of like talks to them about some stuff, this gesticulation and stuff. But you guys are outside. What what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm gonna say that I got the address. That policeman was useless. I'm already five steps out of her. That's how you make it in business.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Anders is gonna press his ear up against the front window and cup his hand over his other ear to see if he can actually hear anything of the conversation.
SPEAKER_03What about the rest of you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm looking peace. I think we should just like head over, you know, get started, you know, show the initiative to this policewoman, you know. Continue the investigation. She seems busy speaking to my business associates. They'll talk her ear off. Johannes, they she she did notice that the all those broken toys and boxes that were open were in the garbage outside, out back. Like, why would they throw it away if they arrived damaged? Wouldn't they want proof to get them so that they can get their money back? I believe that's called a he grabs a spook and he flicks through it. It's like uh a tax write-off. They do that some types of business, so they don't have to pay so much money to the government. I don't even know what that means. It's a standard business practice. We should wait for her to come back out before we go anywhere. Just to be nice. Just to be told that she didn't solve the problem.
SPEAKER_03When when you listen, I just when you're kind of like Julia, like really up the close thing, she's she's speaking to them and asking them about what's happened to the uh the people that were doing it. She asks about the factory, she asks if anyone strange has come in. She asks whether anyone has she's seen anyone who's had any kind of head injuries. She asks why the boxes were thrown away. Asks about 500 items, but 50 of them were were damaged. The responses are sort of like met with like, oh, how do you know that? and all this kind of stuff. And and then they basically are they're having a proper conversation around. So she's asking sort of like pertinent questions. And yeah, she uh she kind of comes back out after a short while and says, Okay, right. Well, it seems that uh she she says that the owners think that someone broke into the back and stole fifty of those machines. But I don't know, it looks suspicious. I I'm not of any kind of forensic background, but it looks like the boxes were broken out, which makes sense if you say that the boys came alive. It looks like the person who created them and the engineer have mysteriously gone missing as well. So I think you're onto something, she says to Anthony.
SPEAKER_02I'm like very proud of myself at this moment. Like Anthony's got his arms folded across his chest and he's like beaming from ear to ear.
SPEAKER_03When you grow up, maybe you should uh think about getting a job in the police. Maybe I will. Now, my boss is not gonna go for this. So I'm gonna have to do it in my own time for you, which I can do this evening, and I can see if I can go and speak to the people in the in the factory as well. But I'll try and see if I can get hold of Fuller and Helena, which I can do this evening when I'm done with work. You guys just need to stay out of trouble. Whatever you do, don't go back to the factory and and just keep a low profile.
SPEAKER_02Don't don't forget about Susie. I went to her house and it was all locked up and the cars were gone.
SPEAKER_03So I've I've spoken to Susie and her mum. They have gone to the head office of Rick's Energy because they were concerned that someone was harassing Susie from the energy company, and so they've gone off to go and speak with them. I've kind of phoned ahead so that they're aware of that. But they're gonna be gone for probably the rest of the afternoon. Well, they'll probably be back a bit later on, so just in time for you to catch up and uh try and stay out of more trouble. You kids, just take care, okay? If you need anything, she takes out like a little card, goes directly to my desk. It's got an answer machine, so if you if I don't art they don't pick up, just leave me a message, okay? Right. And she walks off, leaving you all well, leave leaving Anthony very smug and you all standing outside of the toy shop. I assume you are going to completely ignore her and wander off to go and get
A Quote to End On
SPEAKER_03into some more trouble.
SPEAKER_02I would like to quote from my book by the J. Key Chesterton, which is I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_03And I think that seems like a perfectly good place to end this episode. Thank you very much for listening, and hopefully we'll see what happens to everyone in the next episode.
SPEAKER_02And I hope you feel better, Ed. Thanks for thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Thanks for hanging in there.