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 E10: A Tales from the Loop Actual Play Podcast
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
During a chaotic confrontation with small mechanical foes, our kids discover unsettling details about a sinister plot involving cybernetic control and an army of robotic toys.
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Hello and welcome to Stories with Dice, an actual play podcast of some of our favorite tabletop role-playing
Welcome to Stories with Dice
SPEAKER_07games.
SPEAKER_02We'll do another episode with stories with dice. I'll tell some loop. Actual play called Mysteries of the Loop, which I think we've just started to uh put them out live.
SPEAKER_01So wait, this whole game has been a mystery?
SPEAKER_02It has been a mystery.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, I threw you off head. Continue.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, thanks for everyone. So yeah, the usual kind of rubbish and promo, which is if you're listening to us on any kind of social media, could you give us a thumbs up, a like, subscribe, or a follow? I'd be very grateful. We also have a Patreon channel. If you'd like to give us lots of your hard-earned cash, please go on there and subscribe. We do have a free option. But of course, we'd like to eventually pay for that yacht that Marco's saving up for. So that would be ideal. I am joined, as usual, by my wonderful co-host, Marco. Hello, I'm I'm I was on mute, and because I'm on a yacht in the Mediterranean, that'd be nice. I can see that we have other players who seem to have called themselves a sexy Spanish person or a sexy Scottish person. So hi Tony. Hi Douglas. Hello. Hello.
SPEAKER_06After Marco.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Yeah, that's fine. So I think people need to start giving us lots of money. Hi Sol, how are you?
SPEAKER_01Hello, doing good, thank you.
SPEAKER_06What kind of sexy are you?
SPEAKER_01Slightly sexy English.
SPEAKER_06Well, Mark, Marco has to be Sicilian, sexy Sicilian.
SPEAKER_01Well, he's Sicilian. All right, I'll take Silly. That's good.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, okay. And this episode, we're also joined, thankfully, by Pete, who has got over his technical issues. So without further ado, we will continue where we
Last Session Recap
SPEAKER_02left off. I'm gonna ask the wonderful Marco if he could do a very brief update on what we happened last session. A very brief update.
SPEAKER_07Okay, so last session. Anthony Sven and Johannes went back to the hideout. Anthony got annoyed by Sven, who was playing his music really loud and smoking his cigarettes. So Anthony hung out in the fire escape. Johannes made a deal with someone for one of the toy robots. And then when he showed up, Anthony left. He went home. He showed his father, the robot that he has in his backpack, that he very foolishly forgot to show the police officer when he went to the police episode before last. And now his father believes him and he's looking into it, whatever that means. He called Susie to make sure Susie was okay and Susie was fine, those a little shook up. And then it would appear that Johannes and Sven very foolishly went on their own to Yula Janaker's house, one of the one of the inventors of these robots, these toy robots, and gotten themselves into a little bit of a pickle. Cool. One of us has. The other's fine. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06For now.
SPEAKER_02Excuse me.
SPEAKER_05I'm a ninja.
SPEAKER_02You did do an amazing ninja role. Yeah. So Anders found the note left by Johannes and Sven, and so ended up following the directions and has just got to this house. Sven was inside the house, and Johannes was outside hiding behind the car in the driveway as these ten little robots becoming bearing
Extended Trouble
SPEAKER_02down on them. You heard a couple of like bang bangs from the little helicopters. Right. I I guess we're going to call that some extended trouble. So it turns out that Anders happened to be nearby. What are you going to do? How are you going to deal with this extended trouble? How are you going to get either yourself out of it or deal with these ten little robots?
SPEAKER_04Well, if they're uh they're threatening my friends around the driveway, I will look around for something to grab to swing at them and try swap them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's a bunch of piping and various things sort of laying around in corners. It seems that Ula, who's a bit of an inventor, also has a bunch of stuff just littered around in the um in the garden. So that's not a problem. So yeah, you can you can absolutely fight your way through. That's not a problem. What does Johannes want to do? Would talking my way out of this situation work at all? Absolutely not. I will let you know now that if you fail this extended trouble, it could very well mean that you will at some point have to go to hospital. Yes, it's it's a serious consequence. They are not going to pull their blows.
SPEAKER_06I unfortunately, because my character is mostly uh talkie, I don't have many options. I try to like jump in the car to protect myself. Absolutely, you can. Okay. Try and like draw, well, draw them onto myself, as it were, because I'm the focus at the moment because the adders are if they're attacking the car, they're not necessarily attacking adders or smack.
SPEAKER_02I tell you what, I'm I'm gonna throw you a bone. If you wanted to spend a luck point, we'll use it in a slightly different way to the system. If you spend a luck point, well, actually, you could probably change something about the scene, and I would say if you've got a luck point, there'll be keys in the car. So essentially you would have a you could drive over the robots, etc. Okay. You can you can flash on the lights and basically distract them that way, or however you think you might want to do that.
SPEAKER_06I will yes, I will do that. I'll get in the car, I'll spend the luck point to have say there, and then I guess I will just I don't necessarily know much about as cars as Anders, but I will press buttons. That's fine.
SPEAKER_02Okay, could in that case could make me a let's call it a tinker roll, that makes sense. Wow, three whole days. Don't waste and if I could ask you, Anders, if you want to make a fight roll to make that using force. And actually, there's one other person in the um scene that we haven't accounted for, that is Sven. Sven, what do you want to do?
SPEAKER_05So I I guess I'm aware that the these guys went around and did them. Well, you you would have heard me surrendering. Okay. I'm gonna do the following. Is there like any trash bucket, like these metallic trash bucket? I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02There's some trash, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so I'm gonna use the lid of one of them as a shield. Yep. If I can pick it up, kind of a shield like yeah, yeah, yeah. And is there like any beak stick, metallic thing, anything? Yeah. Yeah, we will leave this at the time.
SPEAKER_02Um actually is in the patio, there is a large, well, yeah, there's a there's this one, there's a large axe, there is or a little hatchet for cutting wood, but there is also what looks like a large pole for breaking through ice.
SPEAKER_05Well, I mean it's easier for me to wield, I guess, the hatchet, perhaps. Yeah, that's cool. So I'm gonna go, you know, I'm gonna wield the back the lid as a shield on my right, no, on my left, and then on my right, I'm gonna be handling this hatchet. Cool. And I'm gonna go ahead, it's like, okay, from Yatu Samurai, let's do this.
SPEAKER_02Sure. If you wanna add two to your to your false role, that'd be great. Okay. And not now, right?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, no, but now, now make your false roll now. Okay. So I'm gonna add two guys. You need three successes. Okay, I got
The Fight Against Robots
SPEAKER_05two. I'm gonna me, myself, or everyone.
SPEAKER_02So as a group, you're gonna need one more success. Uh so you've got five successes in total. You're going to need six successes to deal with this problem. Okay, so how many did the other guys? Uh so two from Anders, one from Johannes, and two from yourself.
SPEAKER_05So I need one more.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna push it.
SPEAKER_02Feel free if you wish to push it and then mark off one of your um things. That would be great.
SPEAKER_05I got one extra.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, never mind. So yeah, um what are you what are you gonna take as your uh as your uh I guess I'm gonna be exhausted.
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna just jump in in the melee, like like like like mad. Like I'm gonna be pushing them around with the with the lid, and I'm gonna be hacking with the hatchet, the other ones, and I'm just gonna push my way through, you know, I'm defending my my friends. And you know, you know, they are my you know, whatever they are, you know, they are the only thing that it's part of my drive. So they are the only one. I actually could have put in an extra with the drive. Yeah, you could do if you wanted to. That's okay, but you know, it's part of my drive. So I basically I couldn't leave them alone, so I just came here like a night samurai, whatever, and I fought my way all the way. And then when this is done and open, I'm gonna be like, holy hell, I'm gonna be like punting, but you know, happy with all these pieces around and well, sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you come like screaming in, hitting things, pushing things. The the the car is like the lights are flashing, and the engine turns on, it rolls forward a little bit, then kind of like jumps backwards and forwards. There's uh your hands just basically pushing all the buttons and putting your foot down on some things and leaving the brake on, and you know, you name it, you were just pushing and twiddling and doing all sorts of stuff with it. And and then Anders basically comes over the fence or over the gate, swinging this pole, taking out what's the rest of the rest of them. And it's a frantic minute or so of your lives. As you said, uh, it is really tiring. Basically, pushed it as much as you possibly can do. And by the time you stop, you look around and they are all broken and trashed at your feet. And now I'm going to have to tell poor old Johannes that you are injured. So I'm going to give you a condition with whether you like it or not. And you realize that on your uh on your left arm there is a cut from grays from a small projectile, and it's gonna leave a scar.
SPEAKER_06I feel that I got off very lucky compared to what could have happened. Assume it's all quiet and down outside of the thing, all I can hear is spend heavy breathing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're all like kind of like, whoo.
SPEAKER_06I will roll down the window and peek out and be like, Did you get them?
SPEAKER_05So, and I look around, you know, I'm holding still my weapons, and yeah, I don't know. If I if I see one moving, I'm like, yeah, I would like it again. You hit it with the back of your ass. Yeah, there are none left.
SPEAKER_02Okay, anderson you decide to join us.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I got your note. What would I what were they doing here?
SPEAKER_06I think they live here. We were trying when we were pressing the uh intercom, we were just getting some sort of like automated messages. So I think maybe they were the ones pressing the player buzz and play button on the automated messages.
SPEAKER_05Fine, you you've been inside? I just had to come help you guys. I mean, I was sneaking by the back, but I couldn't get far. I look around. Is there any light on the on the windows, anything else besides the robots?
SPEAKER_02Only light you can see is coming from the upstairs top floor. It appears that none of the neighbors or anything seem to have like been called to any disturbance or anything. So you just appear to be just you in the dark in the garden. Okay. Apart from the lights from the um, I guess the car.
SPEAKER_05Okay. So I'm gonna Okay, guys, so let's try to go through the bike.
SPEAKER_06Anders, bring the bike.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06One second. Can I just check in the glove box and see if there's anything like plasters or a first aid kit?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, then there's a little first aid kit in the in the in the glove box.
SPEAKER_06Oh well, I'll put myself a plaster on and then take that with me. Is there anything else in the glove box? Some papers and stuff. Yeah, I'll grab that as well. Okay, why not?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, but what do you guys can do? So I'll go to the back. I I will take the lid. So with the shield and the hatchet, I don't I I would keep them. And I will go through the back to the patio door. I guess that it there is the outside door, and there must be one inside. Yeah, that I try to see if it is well, first I will check if there is anybody.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05And then I will open if I can.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah, so you go into the patio, and then there is another room inside. It is a dining room. You can see that there is a bunch of boxes of stuff on the dining room table. There is also a whole load of parts and various things strewn across the dining room room table and all over the floor. And these boxes are robot boxes? They are. In fact, some of them, when you go into the dining room, you have a look and you can see that there's uh an address for the toy corner. This might have to be the boxes I got taken. You can see there's loads of robot boxes that have been broken open. Okay, not robots inside. Uh no robots inside. There's there's there's there's enough boxes that there's a mix of toys and boxes where there were robots. And you can see that the ones that obviously robots are broken open. There's probably about five or six boxes on here, but not only are there boxes from the factory, but there's also other boxes of electronics and various other cabling, that kind of thing, which is also strewn all over the place. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Anders, anything does it uh make sense to you, any of this? What about do you, Johannes? This is science stuff, I don't understand.
SPEAKER_04Well, it looks like whoever was here stole the robots from the toy box and was doing something with them.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, what are these cables?
SPEAKER_02It looks like fiber optic cables, various other things. It's at that point you hear the sound of scratching coming from the door.
SPEAKER_05Okay, and then I say, guys behind me, and I move forward with my hatchet and my shit. Okay.
SPEAKER_02As you get closer, you can hear the scratching noise, like really scratching, at the bottom of the door.
SPEAKER_06Are you ready, guys? Are we doing this? I'll look for something to grab to hit things
Exploring Eula's House
SPEAKER_06with if there's anything. I'll take a desert chair or something like that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you pick up one of the chairs. I will say, hey Johannes, you do it and just stand behind the door so nothing touches you. Anders and me will take this. And I put myself like like if I was waiting for a charge.
SPEAKER_02There's this howl and a meow as these two cats bolt out of the room. Whatever you were ready for, you were not ready for two live, living cats jumping out of the room through the back door, and that they've basically they've legged it. The next thing, the next thing that happens is you smell this horrendous smell of of cat poop.
SPEAKER_06And there's this farm boy that shouldn't bother him.
SPEAKER_02And there's a hallway on the other side of the door with some stairs going up. You have a quick look. There's a bathroom, which is the doors open where the cats have been going to the loo, and a storage room, which has got one of those little automated cat feeding devices, which appears to be empty. There doesn't appear to be any water in here, and it looks like the cat poop tray is full.
SPEAKER_04This this is serious, guys. Where is she? They've been here duck here for a while, then.
SPEAKER_06Well, no one's seen her for quite a few days. It looks like the robots didn't care that much about taking care of animals.
SPEAKER_05I check, is there any weapon that Anders can Johannes can use in the storage room? Oh yeah, there's like a broom or uh or something like that. So I will get it and pass it to him. This is lighter than chair. I will take that. I just think it's it's it's you know, it's like this karate kung fu guys, you know, with the stick moving it around.
SPEAKER_02Just just well, you kind of go upstairs and you kind of check out the the first floor, which consists of a couple of bedrooms, a bathroom, uh, and a hallway, and stairs going up to the um the second floor. It looks like that this middle floor has not been lived in. There is a bedroom, but there was two bedrooms, one that looks like it's perfectly well made up, and it looks like it's a guest bedroom that doesn't look like it's ever been used, and there is a main bedroom. Again, it looks like the bed's unmade, but uh other than that, it looks like it's just not been used at all.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_05I keep on taking the lead. Climbing this terrace.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you climb the stairs where the with the light is on. As you go up, you go into the the top floor, and you can see that there is a computer desk, there is a computer chair, a bunch of cables and stuff going from a large set of servers, what it looks like. And it's attached to the back of the seat. You can see there's someone sitting in the seat. You can also see there is a weird kind of couple of devices, what looks like blenders. In fact, there are some blenders here, and it looks like there's a couple of tubes which seem to be hooked up to what looks like a lady with wild crazy hair. It appears there are feeding tubes and other kind of wiring and cabling going to this woman who is sitting in a chair.
SPEAKER_06The description that Martin gave me of the crazy lady who was not very nice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it so it seems about right now.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You you think that oh my goodness, what's going on? And then she starts to move and she starts tapping away at the keyboard on the computer.
SPEAKER_03I don't know, guys. Is she controlling the robot? We could ask her. What did you mean? At the moment, it isn't it more like something's controlling her. Oh no, should we cather cables? Do you want me to cather?
SPEAKER_06Well, can I like walk up to her and get closer?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you can you walk up to her. As you walk up to her, you can see that behind her desk, or in front of her desk, I suppose, on the wall, there are loads of schematics, loads of different things. You have to kind of like walk over various boxes of powdered food. There's loads of you can smell sort of like that faint, horrible smell of off banana and stuff like that. Looks like someone's obviously made up a load of food, which you have to kind of walk through. Yeah. Doctor? Hello. Excuse me. Uh she takes no notice of you and she's busy typing away. Can I tap her on the shoulder? Uh yeah, you tap her on the shoulder. Hello. Nothing. She completely ignores you. Can I wave my hand in front of her eyes? She kind of moves her hand sort of like to bat your hand away, but then goes back to uh tapping away on video. So you can see that she also has a couple of stitches behind each of her ears, except unlike the others, there are loads of wires and stuff going into each of them.
SPEAKER_06Sorry, Sven, I don't think she can be much help to us. Look, they got her.
SPEAKER_04And as we'll be looking around the room for where the computers and that are actually plugged into the power supply. Yeah. Yeah, you can find that. Hey guys, maybe we should try turning it off and on again.
SPEAKER_06Well she's kind of just ignoring us.
SPEAKER_05Do it. I just don't hesitate. Do it or they can't occur.
SPEAKER_04Are you ready, Sven, just in case? Sure. Go for it. And then I'll hit the switch, switch it, power off.
SPEAKER_02Okay, you switch this you you you s you flick the switch. The power goes off, and then she suddenly starts to shake and and has a seizure.
SPEAKER_06Is that normal, guys? Does anyone know any first aid? What do you do for seizures? I've got a first aid kit. I think you have to wait until they stop. Okay. Does it look like she's getting better the longer we wait? She she continues to seize um and then she stops. She's dead, you've killed it. Hang on. Does anyone know how to check if people are dead alive or dead? It's something to do with like heartbeat.
SPEAKER_04You feel for a pulse. I'll step over and try to feel a pulse on her neck. Okay. You can't feel the pulse. Oh god, Anders, you killed her. We need help. We need help. Is there a phone around here?
SPEAKER_05So it's the thing off on. Switch it on. Reboot, whatever. I don't know. I think we should should call the authorities.
SPEAKER_06You you you killed her, Anders. They'll put her put you away for life.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and then she's dead. No, switch it on. Yeah, they're shouting. Imagine these kids are shouting like madman.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, just so blaming each other. It's your fault. You turned it. You turned off, but you told me to.
SPEAKER_02Around the house through a telephone. There is indeed a telephone. It seems to all be connected into all these wires.
unknownOh.
SPEAKER_05It shoots it on everything, right? It swits it on. Are you gonna switch on, Sven?
SPEAKER_02No, I've left it switched off for now.
SPEAKER_05No, I wouldn't switch it on.
SPEAKER_02Okay, Sven turns it back on and she starts having another seizure. She's having another seizure, Sven. And then she goes back to typing away on keeping.
SPEAKER_06Hang on. What did Anders do? Check for I will attempt to try and do the same thing as Anders did.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you kind of you think you could feel a pulse? It's it's difficult to tell.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Oh, she's alive. Huh? I don't get this. It's the zombie. No, no. She tried as if she was a zombie. No, ignore it.
SPEAKER_05Perhaps it's a cyborg. This is the next step of evolution of the cyborg.
SPEAKER_06So she's like advanced cyborg. I guess it must be perhaps it's the brain for the cyborgs. So she's like the cyber leader or cyber controller. Yeah.
Discovering the Crazy Lady
SPEAKER_02Well, while you think about that, what is Anthony and Susie doing in your rooms?
SPEAKER_01Well, that's the thing. I think off after the chaos of the day before and and my trip out and my trip back, I've probably I I reckon she's got still got her headphones off. I think she's now well as I as I sort of inclined before, she's starting to think that maybe there is something. To this, and I think I'm either like beautiful minding this or just putting loads of pins up on boards and like actually trying to put it together while I'm I've got music. So I've got like you know, the guy we met at the start, the toy shop, the people that own the toy shop, the people the the people in the suits, sure, the authorities, and she's just sort of like yeah, drawing little lines to each other. She's managed to get her dinner upstairs on a tray. Uh mum let her this time, which is not normal, but uh she's just got it sort of on the bedside table half eaten while she's doing this thing while putting yeah with music on essentially. Sure. Cool. Why don't you make an investigate role for me, please? Cool. I don't think she's very good at it, but she's just sort of thinking that's the that's the best thing to do in the movie. Yeah. Yeah, I got none.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, all the information you have you've kind of definitely put on a board, you've kind of pull the string from one thing to another, and you've got a little map of Stenhamra up. Yeah, that makes sense. It's starting to look like a proper investigative board.
SPEAKER_01Can you remind me? Can you check your pride once per session?
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_01Is it once per mystery? Uh once per session, I think. So I I put it to you, O Master Plus Gamer Master. Oh, that's always a good start when you use that. That I have, as I said, I'm currently listening to my my music, but as we know, it's easy. It's not just track after track, it's a mixtape. And I think she's got her mixtape, like her thinking mixtape, her her like solve the problem mixtape. I don't know what it's filled with. Maybe it somehow has has created an unorthodox mix between rock and classical. And just as we're getting into Vivaldi four seasons Right, it is very eclectic. Yep. I would like to check my pride of my mixtapes are legendary because my thinking mixtape should not fail me. I'd like to wrong.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and in that moment, you have a moment of clarity, and you kind of like look at the board again, and you're like, oh, actually, you change a few things around and you you move a few bits here and there, and you're like, right, okay, so you've got like a timeline coming up, and you kind of think, well, actually, uh the hit the timeline shows that uh the the factory was was was producing the the robots and the toys at the same time, but actually the the the factory had actually started to only produce these like a month ago, and you kind of start sort of like pinpointing the kind of various things, you can definitely tell that you kind of look at it and go, Well, you kind of put a ring around Ula Yonica's name, and you're like, right, okay. So you kind of realize that she's she used to work in the loop and she used to be in advanced robotics before she something happened to her. You know that from speaking to Anthony and some of the other the other the other guys that she lost her job because of her her temper. So you kind of like make a note of that. You can kind of see that she then met up with the marketing guru, Helena Voss. You kind of see that. And she was sort of one of the people that sort of started to tell the stories. The factory used to be old factory, but no one really knew what it did. But actually, it turns out that it was a long time ago, it looked like it was some kind of electronics factory, perhaps.
SPEAKER_01Dad's old new newspaper stuck up on the wall.
SPEAKER_02Yep, that's all kind of stacked up there. And as you're kind of like going through it, you say, okay, so clearly a month ago the the stuff would have been doing that. You kind of look at some other bits and pieces and you do some other sort of like you look through old newspapers and stuff, and you realize that there's something quite key that that you've realized that in the newspapers there is some odd sort of things going on. And some of those odd things is that some of the people who are living in Stanhamra had started to like not go into work on certain days, and there was a couple of things, like a couple of articles like I haven't seen my husband, or my wife has been away for a couple of days, and then she's just come back. So there's a whole load of those sorts of things that seem to happen. And at the same time that it seems that the Ullah went missing, there was an issue in the loop, and there was some kind of data breach that had happened. And you're just kind of like, like you said, you're beautiful mining it, putting all the bits together, and you can see that maybe it looks like Ulla potentially caused the data breach, maybe. And just afterwards, that's when the factory started developing these toys and slash robots, perhaps. And so that's the kind of like sort of link that you suddenly get with the information that you have. What's happening with Anthony?
SPEAKER_07So Anthony thought he was going to get to sleep, but he can't. He's like his father finally believes him, and you know, he's just kind of lying in bed and looking over at the photograph of his missing brother on his bedside table, and and going over in his mind that you know, all of this is somehow connected to the loop, and uh his father is just gonna figure it all out and like they're gonna find his brother, and he's he's like making these wild leaps between these robots and yeah, the missing inventor and his father working at the loop, and how is you know now he's he's kind of like fantasizing that his father is gonna sort of save the day. Sure. And he's he's you know, he's happy about that, but he just he can't get sleep because his mind is just his mind won't turn off. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Are you you you just gonna see you sort of like toss and turn, you're gonna just try really hard to try and get some sleep, or are you just gonna do anything or are you you just going to just do that whole kind of thing of I can't sleep, I need to do stuff, but you can't do stuff because you're tired, but you can't go to sleep.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and like he'll you know, he'll go to his desk, he'll like you know work on his world of Greyhawk DD campaign that he wants to rope all the kids into, and you know, but he can't really concentrate on any of it. So then he just goes back to his his bed and he just lies there staring at his ceiling, and he's got like you know glow-in-the-dark stickers on his ceiling, and he's just looking at them and and looking over at his picture of his brother.
SPEAKER_02What was the last what was the last interaction you had with your brother?
SPEAKER_07Uh the last interaction he had with his brother was uh his brother was sneaking out to with his friends, and they were gonna go, you know, go somewhere where they were weren't supposed to be. It was like within the grounds of like the facility, the loop facility. And Anthony had tried to tell him not to go because it was that it was, you know, a bad idea.
SPEAKER_02Okay, yeah. You you kind of like remember your brother sort of like leaning in, smiling at you, and saying that he's gonna come back with something cool, which you'll get for you, something from from the loop, something you'll find really amazing. And he smiles and kind of wanders off as he kind of like sneaks out the house. And that's your last kind of like memory of your brother.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, and and Anthony sort of imaginations, you know, he's seen tons of sci-fi and and and and what have you, and he and and he has referenced Star Trek
The Missing Brother
SPEAKER_07before. So, you know, he he kind of imagines that his brother slipped into some other universe or parallel dimension or something, and and somehow they're gonna find find him or help him find his way back or something. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So while you're sort of uh thinking of your brother, can I uh interrupt Tony? You can. I'm I'm kind of imagining it's probably been a little later, so I I don't know how the timelines might might mix up. But once once I've sort of made my my extra connections, I guess, I think Susie would have gone straight downstairs and gone, I I'm just gonna go and check on Anthony. Here's where I'm going, drawn it on a map. Yeah. Drawing exactly where the the path I'm taking, like everything to confirm to my mother that I'm going to be alright.
SPEAKER_02Your mum is happy to drive you to Anthony's if you want.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that'll work. She'll open the car then. Um when I get to Anthony's though, I'm not gonna not gonna knock on the door. I'm gonna do the throw stone against the window. Yeah, that's fine. The little bells against the window still.
SPEAKER_07And so Anthony thinks that the robots found him, right? And so then he's like a little carrot and he's like he's like in the corner, because his bed's up against the corner of his room, and he's like, you know, in the corner, just kind of like looking at his window for a minute. And then he hears a couple of more, and then he sees maybe like in a like a glint of light or something, a street light outside or something, that it's a pebble. So then he creeps over to the window and he he opens it up and he pops his head out. Oh hey, Susie, what are you doing up?
SPEAKER_01Anthony, I'm sorry I I I didn't really believe you, but I think I'm going mad. I I I I I need I need your opinion. I've I've been building this wall back at back at back at my back in my room, and I I I I really need you to see it because I I think I'm onto something.
SPEAKER_07He like I could really use your help. He sort of looks around for a minute and he's like, you're the car.
SPEAKER_01You wanna need a go into your room, but like you're a girl. Yeah, and and and you're a ten-year-old boy, Anthony. It doesn't it doesn't matter. It's just a room. But it's where it's it's where I've I've I've put everything. It's up up on my wall. You'll have to excuse the mess and everything.
SPEAKER_07But Okay, just just give me a minute. I close the window, I get dressed, I go to I go to check on. Usually my father is up late, but I'll check and see if he's gone to bed or still always. He's he's watching he's watching some sports on TV. I I go over to him and I say, Dad, my my friend Susie is outside. It looks like her mom drove her here and she wants me to she wants to show me something. So is it okay if I go? I didn't I was gonna sneak out, but I decided not.
SPEAKER_02He uh he he he he smiles at you and says, Sure, that's okay. Just let me know when you want to come back and I'll come pick you up. Okay.
SPEAKER_07And I give him the number, I give him Susie's number, and I'm like, this is the number in case you know you need to get a hold of me. He says, Yeah, go and go and spend some time with your friend, it's fine. Thanks, Dad. So then I uh I give him a hug. I'm gonna lay it on thick. He gives you a hug back. And then I love you, son. Don't get all weird, Dad. He pushes you away and goes, go on. So I I I I run outside to Susie and a car.
SPEAKER_02What's your mum's name, Susie?
SPEAKER_01Marie.
SPEAKER_02Marie is there, I'm waiting for you. And she says, Hello, Anthony. Um hopping. Okay, thanks. Um and then she drives you back to uh Bear Place, which is like it's probably like a four-minute drive at most.
SPEAKER_01Can't be too careful these days, Ed.
SPEAKER_02Uh no, apparently things happen to uh people who just go out in the middle of nowhere. Oh yeah, you go back to your house. Okay, Suzy. So what's this wall you're gonna do?
SPEAKER_01Rush out to my room, just do, you know, the bah bah throw my coat off, get out to the room, open the door, and go, Look! And I'm gonna just go point him to the wall, but I was doing all of the dots. What what am I looking at? Right. So this is us, and this is the loop, and that's those weird people, and that's the horrible security guard, and they're the robots, and there's the toy stuff, and she just points through them all. And there's been people who've been been disappearing from their work, and the newspaper is dodgy and I don't know, what do you think?
SPEAKER_07Well, that certainly sounds like Magnus and and and that police officer. He wasn't he wasn't at work that day when I spoke to the uh to the investigator. I think well yeah, I mean this is this is this is some pretty amazing stuff, Susie. But is is it like is there an answer in here? You know, like two plus two is four. Like what's the what's the sum of this weird map that you drew?
SPEAKER_01Something's definitely dodgy with who was it? It was the the the media person and who was the uh the other who are they?
SPEAKER_02So so they are linked with so the factory uh is linked uh with I'll just get her name again, Helena Voss, who is the um Helena Voss. One of the one of the the co-creators of uh of My Friends the Machines.
Susie's Investigation
SPEAKER_02And she's gone missing, right? She's also gone missing, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think it's all down to actually her. And I point to her in the center.
SPEAKER_07But where's the where's the other person? The Ula Yannickers person. Johannes hadn't had her address. Let's go talk to Johannes. Do you have do you have his number?
SPEAKER_01Shortly there at the uh hang on, who's Johannes? That's one of our yours. That's Douglas's thought. I was so confused for a second. Shorty is at the hideout.
SPEAKER_07Let's go. Oh, okay. Is your mom gonna drive us? Mum can't take you to the hideout. No, yeah. Yeah, so we can't we can't tell your mom about that.
SPEAKER_02Okay, you lead the way. Yeah, you you you both head off to the hideout. Right. What are you guys gonna do with the woman in the chair and everything that's going on in the house?
SPEAKER_06Anders, don't need to call anymore. She's not dead. What? She's not dead.
SPEAKER_02You sure? And I'll rush back up. You run back upstairs. She looks like she's working on something, like some schematics and stuff, as if nothing bad has happened. See? I checked her pulse on everything. Got to show this to someone.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, but what what what is any of this? Can I have a look at the stuff on the desk close working on?
SPEAKER_02Make a calculated roll for me, please.
SPEAKER_06I do like how all the smart brainy stuff is happening away from the science place, and it's like the real lookheads and the speaking person. That's exactly what you calculate, you say. Oh, this is a straight tech roll of two.
SPEAKER_02Minus one because of inter. Did you want to involve anyone else to have a look at them with you? No. Let's see what happens. Okay. That's one success of one dice. Um, somehow you've kind of you kind of look at it and go, this kind of makes sort of sense. You've seen this before. So the it looks like all the um bits that are on on the side and on on the bits, all the schematics, appear to look like an upgraded version or an upgraded version of the little robots that you see already. There also appears to be a lot of information from the factory, and it looks like there's an upgrade to the factory to make, and if you look at the figures correctly, 10,000 of these over the next three months. When you look at them, it also appears that there are some wording that you that is worrying, miniaturization of weapons, and some other bits and pieces that kind of make you, oh, okay. And it looks like they're integrating these little toys to become a lot of almost military grade. Some of them look like they've been scaled up to sort of small doll sizes instead of little toys. Yeah, it looks like they are ramping up.
SPEAKER_06Anders, have a look at this thing. This looks like a schematic for like the robot, but the scale's all wrong. It's way bigger than the ones we've seen. I'll pass them over that blueprint.
SPEAKER_04Oh dear. Looks like they're building an army of these things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. If you're also going to have a little look around, could you too, please, Anders, make a comprehend roll for me, please? Cool. I think that's one success you got. Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah, so you kind of look around and you can see that there's a whole list of names of various people. You recognize some of them. You recognize a couple of the names of some people who worked in the local ICA, which is the supermarket. There is, you see Sven's dad's name on this list. You see a couple of you see the police officer's name on the list. You see the name of the security guard that was outside in the shack on the list. And there's a bunch more. You also see Anthony's dad's name on the list and Susie's mum's name on the list.
SPEAKER_04Hey guys, this seems to be the list of the people we're taking control on.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I recognize some of them. Oh, you're saying your dad's names on here.
SPEAKER_02When when you look at that name, it's emboldened uh font as opposed to say Suzy's mum, who is not. And it looks like the ones that are all on emboldened font and underlined appear to be the ones that have been turned into what did you call them? Cyber zombies or whatever you were calling them. Oh my god. This is proof. This is proof.
SPEAKER_05Cyborgs.
SPEAKER_06It was all her, and I point to the weird, the lady in the chair. She's behind it all.
SPEAKER_05Is it? I mean, it's this is pretty incapable to me.
SPEAKER_06Well, it's her house. But it's she's literally working on all the stuff right now as we speak. She was looking at this a wee while ago.
SPEAKER_05Aren't we sure that she's not another cyborg, as I said? Perhaps it's just the brain of the cyborg. She's the cyber cyber leader controller.
SPEAKER_06She's the one in charge.
SPEAKER_04Is she controlling them? Maybe we should try warning the people on this list who haven't been got yet.
SPEAKER_05Maybe we should talk with the police woman again and give her this list. Even though, you know, I don't like police, but I don't see how.
SPEAKER_06Probably is worth getting them at least notified of all this. I'll gesture around because a lot of this is very scary.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have we checked the whole room?
SPEAKER_02You have there's a there's a another another door.
SPEAKER_05Can I check that one?
SPEAKER_02You can. You open up the room and you can see that there is in this room another couple of servers, which wires that are running through the wall into the room you were in, in the sort of like the study workroom, and you can see that all of the little uh all the little server buttons are going from green to red and and systematically turning off.
SPEAKER_06Do these servers
The Server Shutdown
SPEAKER_06look similar to the ones we saw in the basement of the factory?
SPEAKER_05Yes, they do. You know what? And why we shouldn't do try on this before we leave.
SPEAKER_02I'll tell you what, let's just try turning off a server and I will press the off button. Okay, you go to turn the off button, it doesn't turn off.
SPEAKER_06It must be stuck. I'll push harder.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, push the red button and it goes down and up, but it doesn't turn off any of the servers.
SPEAKER_04I'll be fumbling through my pockets for the card the inspector gave us with the number on.
SPEAKER_02As the as the little dots at the bottom of the server go down from green to red from one of the servers, the server sort of like shuts itself down, and then it starts to sort of like cool down, and and sort of like you can hear the fans and stuff stopping. As the next ones, all the buttons are kind of like going from green to red and all shut down as well. Oh. I think I think it did it. Well, it did something. She seems to be typing slower than she was before. And uh as you as she does that, she kind of like finishes a couple of the keys, and you can see on the screen it says deleting files, and there's there's these little uh lines going across the um the thing to show all the files that are being deleted. Loads of little file names like disappearing very quickly into sort of what looks like the trash folder or something.
SPEAKER_05Do I see how is she communicating this outside? She's not she doesn't seem to be communicating. No, no, no, no, no, no. The computer. Can I understand?
SPEAKER_02It looks like the computer's linked to something else. And can I look for that cable to this uh antenna or something? Yeah, you kind of look around, you find a bunch of cables. Make a make make a make a comprehend roll. I'm the on the smartest cookie. Uh failure.
SPEAKER_06Havacks will chop.
SPEAKER_02Okay. You can't seem to find the right cable. There is a bunch of them. I just start chopping.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02You start just pulling the cables and cutting the cables. Okay, I'll do it. That'll do it.
SPEAKER_05All of them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you start cutting all of them, and you're like, I'll just start cutting and pulling, which you do, and eventually the computer turns off, and then she sort of like starts to have a seizure again. My gosh.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. I'm saying they're watching the servers, so I can't see what Sven's doing. Are the servers doing anything differently, or are they just doing the Turks little turning office way?
SPEAKER_02They've pretty much, by the time that Sven has kind of cut the last cable and stuff, all this all the servers have kind of gone red and turned themselves off. Problem solved. Turn them off. She then lets out this horrible when she stops convulsing, she lets out this horrible sort of like deep rumbling kind of noise, which scares the living daylights out of you, and she goes still.
SPEAKER_05What the heck was that? Call an ambulance. I'm already. Did she turn the power off again?
SPEAKER_06Remember, I cut the cables, man. You cut oh, yeah, it's they're very cut.
Consequences of Cutting Cables
SPEAKER_06I will desperately try, maybe try and touch the wires back together, but I'm not sure which ones are which. So I'm like, uh, is she alive?
SPEAKER_02He's done a proper good job of like cutting all those cables with his like knife and stuff.
SPEAKER_06Not working. She's still dead. Okay. And there's are you calling?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'm down by the phone now. What's going on up there? I'm just calling the inspector.
SPEAKER_06I think Sven killed her again. Well, for the first time, he did it.
SPEAKER_04Are the phone liners dead?
SPEAKER_05God damn it. Maybe you cut through the phone cable. Can you go and talk with your friend next door, whatever you've got this info? Perhaps they can call.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I can suppose gonna go ask Martin. How how late is it at this point?
SPEAKER_02It's um probably about half past seven, quarter to eight. It's not a good one.
SPEAKER_06So it's still still. It's dark. It it it's dark though. But it's not like middle of the night knocking on someone's door.
SPEAKER_02No, no. Right. So you're gonna go down from upstairs down to Yeah. Okay. As you go to walk past Ulla and her dead body, she grabs your arm. As she grabs your arm, she screams this horrendous blood curdling scream, and she sits bolt upright, which scares you again more so than the whole rattling of her chest and everything. And she just screams, you know.