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
Dark Blue Sea S1 E7: A Mutant Year Zero Actual Play Podcast
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Caspian makes his move against one of the Bosses, unleashing chaos with explosive consequences. Amid the roiling turmoil, the shocking truth about the Elder comes to light.
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Welcome to Stories
Welcome to Stories with Dice
SPEAKER_01with Dice. This is the Dark Blue Sea, a Mutant Year Zero Actual Play Podcast. If you're enjoying our actual plays, please subscribe to Stories with Dice so you'll never miss an episode. Don't forget to rate and review us. It really helps others discover the podcast. Follow us on social media to stay updated, share your thoughts, and join the conversation. You'll find the relevant links in the description of each episode.
SPEAKER_04Welcome back to another episode. Marco's just been uh, you know, holding up suspicious fingers at me as we did the countdown. Oh, it's the usual, so it's gonna be another fun filled day. Marco That's why we're doing this. So I'll welcome Michael.
SPEAKER_03Michael, hello. Hello, I am Caspian, the navigator, who's about to get his hand blown off.
SPEAKER_04Woo! That sounds like a good start, so we want plenty
Introducing the Characters
SPEAKER_04of ones to start with. We've got Chris.
SPEAKER_00Hello, I'll be playing Moss the Inventor.
SPEAKER_03Cool. Uh we've got Douglas. Hello, I'm Payne Cochrane, who I think it's just one to drive to the bad guys in quotation marks at the moment. Cool.
SPEAKER_04And he Hi, I'm Roach the Enforcer. You're also following the bad guys. So, where we left off last week was um someone pulling the pin out of a hand grenade and throwing it. Right. Well, Caspian, let's get you started, shall we?
SPEAKER_03I have five base dice, I have two skill dice. And do I put one in for gear? No, no, there's no gear. The grenade is a gear.
SPEAKER_04Does it give you one one one gear in the grenade? I don't think it does. It doesn't, but shouldn't it? It's a piece of gear. No. No. This does not give you any special bonuses.
SPEAKER_03Really? Yeah. What about like if the scrap rifle See the scrap rifle gives me one dike, one gear dike? It does. But the grenade does not. Well, I can understand that though, because a rifle helps you shoot the bullet well. If you had a bullet, you wouldn't get hit a gear die for throwing a bullet. Are you sure you don't want to play a Vulcan in our Star Trek game, Douglas? Okay. That was my backup, but you know. Here we go. Here we do. Let's see how we do here. One grenade coming up. Okay. So.
SPEAKER_04That is one success and one bad symbol. Did you want to push that? I mean, currently you're doing nine damage to anyone in the radius.
SPEAKER_03The biohazard symbol, which is the bad symbol. If I push this, that gives me damage to what?
SPEAKER_04That'll give you damage to your leading stat, which is I think agility, is it?
SPEAKER_03Agility, yes. Okay. So it will re-roll everything but the buttons.
SPEAKER_04But the success and the unsuccess. I think I will. Plus, I mean, obviously, you will take one damage minimum and you're also going to take one lot of mutation points. So it's a bonus. I will do it.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03Oh sugar honey iced tea. Oh. That is a bad roll. So I have now I have three biohazard symbols, which means I take Okay. Well, say three tragility. Somehow you I don't know, you probably I imagine I like you as I'm trying to toss this grenade, not only do I throw my shoulder out, but I stumble over something and fall like almost fall or fall on the deck. Make sense, yeah.
SPEAKER_04You fall you fall flat on flat on the floor, and one of the huge mistake. Yeah, yeah. It kind of just rolls rather than being rolling in an arc,
The Grenade Incident
SPEAKER_04it just rolls on the floor and it spins, and you kind of wish everything goes into slow motion that it doesn't stop spinning and doesn't stop rolling close to where you are. And it doesn't. It kind of lands just at the feet of Rhett. And she looks down, then looks up at you, and there is this almighty ringing in your ears. There's the world suddenly goes very dark after a very bright flash. I guess I'll um roll my armor for Rhett.
SPEAKER_03I got too greedy.
SPEAKER_04You basically roll it, it lands at her feet, there's a large explosion, and all you can hear is this woo ringing in your ears. There's smoke everywhere, you can't see anyone. She was with a couple of other people. They also have disappeared from view. There's just smoke. The rest of you hear this loud explosion, and then the ship just shudders and shakes for a second. And then everyone kind of stops. You realize it's come from above you as because the the the Rhett's rugged crew are heading towards uh I think Ansel stuff, because I think you kind of started uh wind them up, so they're off to Elson's, they hear this explosion and everyone kind of stops, looks up, and then they kind of like do an about turn and start to go upstairs. I believe Moss was up at the older location where Anwin's stuff is. Correct. And you've obviously felt this explosion. And you can hear the sort of like tearing noise of metal on metal. Cochrane is kind of with the bad guys, because they he was following them, wasn't he? Yeah. Pretty much just And you can hear the streaking noise and splitting noise. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Everyone starts to run up towards the top of the shi I guess I'll follow the bad the whatchall it rats gang. I forget who's the named person, the one with the flamethrower, is that uh Naphtha.
SPEAKER_04Or Napta, I think Napta enterson, and so yeah, she's sort of like leaning up, and they all go rushing upwards. Caspian. Yes. There is a lot of noise in your ears, there's a lot of dust and smoke, and you can hear sort of the splitting noise of metal on metal.
SPEAKER_03That doesn't sound good. What do you want to do? I want to see if I got her. I want to see where she is.
SPEAKER_04So you're gonna sort of like make your way forward. Yes. Um in the in the sort of like dust and dark, and yeah, you can hear the sort of like you can also see in front of you, as you can see a little bit of brightness, and you notice that as you sort of like put your hand up, you can see there's a small there's small fires burning on the all those old little like sort of half sofa, half sort of love seat things, although kind of velvet is sort of like either melting or burning. You kind of make your way towards where where they were standing. There is a massive scorch mark on the floor, and you can see that there's actually a hole in the in the floor of on the on the deck of the boat, and also you can see above you, you can see sort of daylight coming through.
SPEAKER_05Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_04And you can see sort of like the smokestack starting to sort of topple a little bit. Oh shit. You look up and go, oh shit. Um you kick, you think maybe someone's kneecap, but it's just the kneecap. There's nothing else. But then there's a couple of fingers and you recognize a leg somewhere else. Yep. Am I close enough to that hole to like look down? Yeah, you kind of look down, it goes into darkness. There is a lot of, as well as sort of like the scorching of the uh from the grenade, there's also a lot of they call it the chunky sulcer effect, which is all over the floor. What? Chunky Sulsa effect. Where grenades go off in enclosed rooms, they reverberate around the inside of the closed room and then increase the damage of said explosions.
SPEAKER_03Oh, so you're telling me that I didn't even need to re to push that role to get more damage. Well, you wouldn't have done that.
SPEAKER_04Um, it's safe to say that Rhett and whoever else was there is well and truly dead. My work here is done. Then you hear a loud creak and a snap, and you can hear the sound of rivets and stuff popping. Oh, I'm running the hell out of this room. You run in trying to get through the smoke, and you trip straight over. This is where you take your agility damage, you trip straight over one of the other chairs, and you crack your ankle where the chair is just at the wrong height, and you fall over and you uh presumably attempt to continue. If you'd like to make a move roll, that would be now you're just being mean.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so I am now only rolling two bass dice because my agility is down to two. And one skill one skill die. Caspian failed.
SPEAKER_04Okay, then that's fine. Yeah, you hear sort of like the sound of the creaking and the ripping, and you rush into direction and you realize that you've kind of got a little bit turned around and you're not at the door, and and then things start to panic. Moss.
Aftermath of the Explosion
SPEAKER_04Yes. So you're at the back of the ship where the law keepers are, and you can still hear the sort of like ripping noise of metal or metal. What do you want to do?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I I'm not entirely sure what that was, where that came from, but I have a good idea, and I think don't necessarily want to be found here if shit goes wrong, because after all I was trying to get rid of Anwin's people anyway, and then, you know, turned out weirdly. And much less do I want to, I don't know, get torn down by the ship collapsing. So I think my first instinct is to find a safer place, which presumably that's gonna be an upper deck from where I could uh I'll not be buried and could presumably easily leave the ship.
SPEAKER_04Okay. You you make your way upwards hoping to not be buried in whatever is coming down on top of you.
SPEAKER_02What is a roach doing? Well, I'm the other side of them, so I'm probably almost directly under where the explosion is. Yeah, I'll listen out to the creaking and banging and if it seems to be coming downward, I think I will head for the front of the ship as quickly as possible.
SPEAKER_03Okay, right, no problem. And Cochrane. I'll just keep on following these guys wherever they're going. Nafa, Napata, whatever.
SPEAKER_04Um yeah, you you sort of like follow them as they head upwards. Okay. You come across, as you're sort of like making your way around, trying to feel your way out of the room, you come across some windows which are sort of like facing out over the um north end of the ship. And you're like, oh, okay, that's uh a long way down. So you have to kind of make your way around. But you kind of get a bit of fresh air, the smoke kind of billowing out of the windows, and you sort of make your way around to where the entrance would be. You can then hear a group of people come in and they're all shouting, Rat, Rhett, where are you? Rat, what's happened? As people are sort of like flooding in. What do you want to do?
SPEAKER_03I would like to try to get out without them seeing me. Well, that sounds like you need to do something vaguely sneaky. I imagine, you know, there's a lot of smoke and consumer. I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give you a plus two if you're a skill dice. Is there any chance of me seeing him? You can you can definitely try if you want to make a scout roll. I have one success. Okay. You happy with that? Assuming that I only needed one success, yes.
SPEAKER_04Well it's uh it's it's a it's uh uh resisted action with with then as a junk bunch of them.
SPEAKER_03I also have a biohazard symbol, so if you're asking me if I want to push it, the answer is no. Douglas Douglas also has one success. Okay. On his scalp role. Oh, but I'm not necessarily going to turn you in. It's the the other guy to see you as the issue. Right. Yes.
SPEAKER_04But that that's the thing, right? So uh let's do it.
SPEAKER_03Just letting just letting our listeners know at home what's going on. Or in the car, wherever they may be listening. On the International Space Station, who knows?
SPEAKER_04I mean, if you if you're listening on the I uh space station, then you need to like join our patron definitely. Exactly. Yeah, you kind of make your way through, you can see them sort of flood in. Somehow they walk past you. Cochrane, you you can see Caspian. He's covered in cert and scorch marks around his, you know, his eyebrows and Oh, he has no eyebrows. Oh. Oh, lack of eyebrows. Yeah, he's just covered in like dirt and there's like bits of sort of s meat hanging off of him. Barbecue?
SPEAKER_03Is it like cooked meat? Partially cooked, I mean. Can I attempt to distract everyone else by being like, look, what's that over there into the smoke? I think I see someone moving over there. Sure.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it doesn't require a role. I mean, it's pretty straightforward that you're like, over there. They're like, you're where? And they kind of like some of them move to that location and they start sort of like I'll just gesture to Caspian and be like, get the f out of here. Okay. Yep, that's fine. Caspian sort of slips out. Limping my way. It's limping your way out. But they seem to sort of be really focused on looking for Brett and the rest of the others that were in here. Then you can hear someone shout and scream, and then there's this murmur that goes through them all, and they all sound very angry. Roach, you've been kind of like following them to a degree at the back. Yeah, you've you've now kind of like got up and forward of the uh of the ship. And Moss, you've kind of like come up directly above uh the uh the law keeper's area. And uh as as you kind of like make your way up, you kind of come out of a gangway and look out and you come into the open air and you can see the the sort of like faded red smoke sack, which has sort of got barbed wire and a ladder up, kind of is starting to sort of topple. It probably wasn't it probably wasn't in the best of uh Nick in the first place, especially after the storm, and you can see that it's kind of almost bending over, and it looks like it's probably gonna bend over fully and then crash down into the um ship.
SPEAKER_03Just so I understand where the room that Rhett was in in relation to the smokestack. Right. So if our It's directly underneath it. So are those people in there might be in danger? Could well be, yes. I hope so. Thanks, Caspian. Why are you in there? Yes. I saw you, remember? Well, get out.
SPEAKER_04So what do you want to do?
SPEAKER_00So yeah, hel help me understand this a bit better. When it collapses, is it going to take part of the ship down? Is it maybe going to make the thing structurally unsound and is it gonna sink?
SPEAKER_04No, because you're um you're currently grounded into the sort of like the bay, as it were.
SPEAKER_00So I sort of imagine it's still lying in water and then it just I mean at least it's gonna you know, obviously make make water into the the living waters or something.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. There is already water in sort of like the lower part of the the anyway. But yeah, uh if it falls, it'll break, well, it will fall, it'll crash down onto the upper decks, and depending on the weight of the stack, it might go down through the decks, and anyone that's underneath the decks will probably get crushed.
SPEAKER_00Right. I mean, I don't care who's gonna hear this, I don't care what kind of danger this is gonna put me into. There's 182 people on this ship, and I don't want any of them to be crushed unaware.
Urgent Evacuations
SPEAKER_00So this sucks. And from my position now, you know, on the on the upper deck, I I just start yelling, evacuate, evacuate, smokestack coming down.
SPEAKER_04Right then. You uh you shot, you start shouting. Some people look up. I mean, there's a lot of people that have kind of come out to have a look at what the explosion and things was. So you very quickly uh grab their attention.
SPEAKER_00Um Do we have a thing like a I don't know, siren or something for cases like this? Do I don't know, do you have a siren for something like this? Yeah, probably with something that's a normal sort of equipment on a ship this size, but it would be on the bridge, and I don't know if we ever used it for anything. So it will be on the bridge, which means it's gonna be right at the front of the ship. I just I'm not sure I'd be aware of us having that thing, is what I'm saying. It's like, no, that's not where I went.
SPEAKER_04You've heard it before, it has happened before, but you aren't aware of where or how it's.
SPEAKER_00Well if somebody's you know, if somebody's in the know about emergency procedure, one of those 182 people, they might just know what to do right now. But I know just.
SPEAKER_04Well, I'll tell you what, you shout a load at people, can you please make some kind of shouty roll? Um let's uh let's call it manipulate, maybe? Manipulate. Let's go with manipulate. Make a manipulation roll. And I'm I'm looking for two successes, three if you want everyone to become unarmed. Let's get those pushing rolls ready.
SPEAKER_00While you say that. My goodness, nobody, that is two successes out of four dice.
SPEAKER_04Okay, well, did you want to push the other two? No. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, you shout and scream, a load of people start moving out of the way. Some people are like, oh my god, and they they they rush to I'll gonna get my stuff. Because that's what they do.
SPEAKER_00No time! Run, run.
SPEAKER_04Uh yeah, so people start rushing out of the way as you're kind of like shouting and pushing and and just getting people to move away from this area. Okay. Could you please make a scout roll at least two dice, please?
SPEAKER_03Scat roll at least two dice. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Or less two dice, sorry.
SPEAKER_03Less two. Okay. I want to see if you can hear. So you you remove two dice from the the skill. Yeah. It's manually minus two dice. I only have one skill, so I'll just have to remove from the base. I think that'll just accomplish the same amount thing anyway. Okay, so I will be rolling ground tool or was it three dice you want to to remove or just two? Take, just remove two dice. That's fine. That's four dice.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Yeah. You can't hear anything. That's fine. Yeah, you kind of are sort of still with the rest of them. No, it's it's it's not like an active role. It's you know, it's just something passive that's happening. Roach, you can see the stack like twisting over on itself and starting to kind of in very slow motion huddle down as it it kind of almost splits into.
SPEAKER_02Right. Do a quick assessment of whether I'm in danger from it.
SPEAKER_04You are probably not from where you are, because you're probably somewhere around here on the map, about halfway along. And you reckon the stack is going to come down sort of like here.
SPEAKER_02Right. So a second priority, I'll to see who is in danger, if I can see anybody.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, there are people sort of like running away from the stack. You can hear just just in the distance, you can hear you think maybe moss shouting, but you can't quite make out the noise from the rending and tearing from the smokestack. I mean, if you want to try and shout and get people out, you are more than welcome to. Yeah, I'll I'll try and help raise the alarm. Sure. I mean you can you can intimidate people out of the way. I mean, that's something you could do. Okay. Make an intimate roll, why not? So you basically start threatening people to leave or else.
SPEAKER_02Do it quickly. I'm so shaken it's not going very well, so I'll take a deep breath and I think I'll sh I'll know it. Go on then?
SPEAKER_04Push roll and got no successes this time. No, but you do take one to your M path or or your strength, sorry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they're all more scared of the falling smokestack than they are of me.
SPEAKER_04And you get another mut and you get another mutation point, which is always good. I think it's already uh captained that way. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So do I do I get a mutation point for my Yeah, yeah. Oh god, yeah, yeah, yeah. You get mutation points for your.
SPEAKER_01Do you get one for each point of damage you take, or no?
SPEAKER_04Oh, oh this is a good question. I can't remember. Someone's got a book, why don't you look it up so I don't just spend all ages kind of going, oh my god, I can't remember the name. Yeah, okay. You you you shout and sort of like try and grab people and push it out of the way, and and yeah, it it's all kind of like a bit chaotic. People are leaving, but you don't seem to be having much in the way of any any any ability to sort of like control them in the right direction. Then you hear a horrendous it sounds like a snap, like you would from sort of like a a little like a like a wooden stick or something, but it's on a magnified scale. And that smokestack snaps and lands on top of the deck, and it crushes down into the deck, and you think it's just gonna go through the entirety of the ship. But it stops, it settles, and then it slides as it slides down the side of the ship and then tumbles off the edge of the ship down into the water, and there's a large smash and there's rending, it pulls all the bits of metal that's kind of like attached to it. There was guidelines and stuff that were sort of on it. They go flying and they kind of like go all over the place. Can someone roll me a D6? Because you know, this is a new session, so how many people are getting killed by this? Well, can I can I can I do it? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03Murdering of the people You are responsible for their deaths, Marco.
SPEAKER_04Death Wolf. I only ro I rolled a one. Well, that that no one dies. Because it's a one minus one because of your your food. Miraculously, no one gets hurt other than the ones you've already done yourself.
SPEAKER_00That's because my shouting, just having you.
SPEAKER_04You're shouting the whole thing, it just somehow it all goes perfectly right. Um disappointing.
SPEAKER_03Sorry, Marco. So I have an answer to the question. Go ahead for every biohazard symbol you roll when you push, you get a mutant point. Okay. Which means I Got three mutant points.
SPEAKER_04Three.
SPEAKER_00Nice.
SPEAKER_04Alright, cool. So, yeah, that's cool. Excellent. Well, everything goes deathly silent, and then there's a lot more shouting as the rugged crew kind of like make their way out, sort of like cuts and bruises, and some of them have sort of got lacerated arms or whatever,
Chaos Among the Crew
SPEAKER_04and everyone's kind of rushing in to sort of like help them. You all sort of like congregate to sort of like see what's going on, and you're all together.
SPEAKER_03What do you want to do? I'm gonna turn to the group and say, wow, what I miss. Why don't you tell us, Caspian, what we missed? Because uh you seem to come out of that hello. I don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what you're talking about. You're trying to get us killed? I assume I'm as battered as Rat's crew because I was in there as well.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I was not particularly happy. You've managed to not get hurt, but you're sort of like you because you were just on the edges.
SPEAKER_03Loose slips, sink ships, Cochrane. So is she uh when I do the gesture across the throat? Oh yeah. Yeah, pretty pretty positive. Hey, that's good, right? It's ex it's most excellent, but now we have a lot of angry gang members. Well, I don't think anyone saw you apart from me leaving, so you might have got away with it. Don't know where the other half of the gang ended up, though, because they were off to go uh pick a fight with Elsen's Law, I think. Well that's right. Maybe we should go back that way and see how he's doing. I think we have delayed them enough, I think.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it seems that the uh the takeover has sort of stalled.
SPEAKER_01And You're welcome, Anwin.
SPEAKER_04They're all kind of like starting to sort of come together and find out what's going on. You can see that the Anwin's base oh Elson, sorry. Um, Elson kind of like comes up to see what's happened. He is speaking to Monja, who is one of the fixers, and sort of finally trying to figure out what's happened. Where is where is Rhett? What's what's what's what's that what's going on? And sort of it takes probably about 15-20 minutes for the for the smoke literally to clear. And they kind of like go in, you can see sort of like the the the bosses and the underbosses are all kind of like making their way into their into their quarters, assessing the day the da the damage that's been caused. Clearly they can see that an explosion has happened in here. And questions have started being asked Does anyone want to offer anything? Or are you happy to just stay back?
SPEAKER_03And I don't think there's anything that really ties us to anything, because nobody saw anything. Like a bunch of Reds people got killed by like a cylinder, but nobody saw Moss do that. Nope. And I was just kind of standing around offering advice, and the only people who saw Caspian got turned into a mist seconds later. It's like an episode of unsolved mysteries. I think I think Roach just was being stealthy, so I think unless anyone's like there'd no reason to suspect us of anything to do with this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think Roach will um step forward to where all the uh believers and that arguing over what's going on just to overhear what what their theories are and what's going on.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so Elson is pretty much got their uh I think they're uh what's the word? They're specialists, I suppose. Looking at them, you can see uh Lambda is one of his um one of his crew, and Lambda kind of wears these old sort of blue coveralls with tools in all the pockets, just there's loads of stuff everywhere. And he's kind of like looking at everything that's happened and can really sort of like hear like what's actually happening. And that's sort of like he's kind of looking at everything, but he's sort of like spending a lot of time sort of examining exactly the area that's happened that it's happened in. He seems to sort of like be away with the fairies a little bit, kind of like he's in his own mind, and he kind of like stops and he says, Right, well, let me tell you, an artifact has exploded in here. I saw it with my my ability. I could see that Rhett died by a a
Accusations Fly
SPEAKER_04a a a old artifact, an explosive device, and it was thrown by someone here. I'm kind of I just need to I can see it, I can see who it was, I can see who it was. No, no, it's Is he within arm's length of me? He is not. No, they're kind of like slightly away from you. He's he's talking, he's probably maybe five or six arm lengths away, but there's also the other underbosses and and the other the other the other.
SPEAKER_02As I'm nearly there, I'll I'll interject in his talking and go, uh was it thrown or was it dropped?
SPEAKER_04He says, Wait, wait, wait, no, I'm losing it, I'm losing it. I'm losing it. And he stops and says, It's gone, it's gone.
SPEAKER_02And then I'll look across at NAFTA. Where were you look going all armed up like that? What was going on here?
SPEAKER_04She looks at you and says, Well Rhett said that there was someone potentially causing a risk to the ship and they were back with the lawkeepers. And so of course we went to go and stop them from doing whatever it is they were supposed to do. I was just following Rhett's orders. She didn't tell me exactly what the issue was.
SPEAKER_02So it might be that Rhett was preparing this artifact in case it was required and something went wrong. Well, yes, she says. A hundred percent that could be the case. Tragic accident, and then I just step back.
SPEAKER_03Nicely played, Roach. Can I like inch my way forward so I can get to maybe within arm's length while this whole conversation is happening?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, everyone's kind of like there are there are bun there's a whole lot of you. There's probably at least half of the half of the people are here looking at everything. So there's a large sort of like gathering, looking up and discussing, and there's loads of people sitting around being sort of like treated for injuries, and yeah, so it's not a problem.
SPEAKER_03It's it's a little bit chaotic. So yeah, of course you can. So this person who said he had the power to see what had happened, do I know him? Do I know what his power is? Yeah, you do know him.
SPEAKER_04He's never sort of like shown any sort of like physical powers that you've ever seen. You don't you don't normally go, oh, what's your power? What do you do? But yeah, he he he doesn't have any mutations that are visible, at least.
SPEAKER_03Now, when you steal a mutation from another mutant, does that mean that they lose the power? It does. I think it's only for one turn. It's only one turn. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. After that, the person gets it back. Okay, I'm gonna do it. I'm taking his power. I want to know I want to know what he how he's seeing things. Yeah, but you know everything. You were there. I mean uh I'm speaking out of character. Yeah, yeah. So am I. Okay, good. Right. Well, I think you have to do you have to make a roll for it? I think you do. I thought it just happens automatically. I think the mutations, I'm not sure if you do have to roll. Yeah, I think it just happens.
SPEAKER_04What was your mutation again? Parasite. Because one it costs you one mutation point, you can use the mutation in the next turn. After that, the victim gets it back. Let me, for Lambda, make a very brief roll to see if he realizes that he's having his mutation stolen. I kind of figure, you know, if you're in the if you're in the process of using your mutation and you take it, that's pretty straight obvious, but he's now lost the ability to do it, so he's gonna just see if that's the case. Okay.
SPEAKER_03So you take his mutation. Okay, so you can't fail when using a mutation, but it but it's not without risk, so you roll one base die for each point you use to activate the mutation. Oh, if you roll one or more biohazard symbols, the mutation misfires. Yeah. Excellent.
SPEAKER_04Cool then. Roll your mutation point. I mean, you put as many mutation points in as you want. Guess the one is what you're gonna here's okay. It's a D6, yeah. So push roll and then just so instead so click on the roll button. Yep, and just put put one base.
SPEAKER_03Oh, one base, there we go. Okay.
SPEAKER_04You just don't want any exp ones. Okay. That's fine. No misfire. So mutation goes and you take the mutation. Right. He has the mutation mana beast. Sorry, not mana beast. Man beast, but it's a low level. He can transform himself into a beast. You've never seen this. He does not have any ability to read minds or see into the future or do anything like that. So you get the ability, and then I'm guessing you're not able to use it because it doesn't do what you want it to do. Hold on, let's see. So you can attack one of our enemies at arm's length with your fangs, which you grow and rip out of them. So it's not quite the same as this ability here. But you can let a beast you'll roar using your mana points to spend at near range, they will suffer a point of doubt. Or you can, when you're broken by damage or fatigue, you can get up again and recover two more points equal to the mana points spent. So he's obviously been blagging big time. And what gang is he with? He is with Elson's gang. And his name is what again? Lambda. He's clearly trying to pull a fast one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think theory, apart from he is correct in his suppositions. Right.
SPEAKER_04He's quite loose. I mean, pretty much, if you kind of had any deductive reasoning, you'd probably expect that there's been an explosion. Whether it's an artifact or he knows more. Make a make a make a witch roll for me.
SPEAKER_03Okay. I don't think I'm gonna make any kind of public announcement that he's a fraud, because why would I do that? He hasn't outed me. Make a witch roll, you said? Make a witch roll. Two biohazard symbols, no successes. That's fine. A cochrane, can you also make a witch roll for me, please? Wits, okay. That is my worst roll. So expect so I've got two dice. Go on then. Oh, I actually succeeded.
SPEAKER_04Hey. One success. Okay, so you know that Lambda is a gearhead, and you know that he is he has poured over quite a few documents from the old world and the old age, and he has a lot of knowledge around the stuff that was from the time before. So it's quite well, it could be it could be well within his reasoning, you know, that he's for you. Obviously, he's not only does he have the power to see, but he can understand what he was seeing.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, it's that comprehension that I lack of things. Things indeed. Yeah. But yeah. Then again, if we don't understand things, do we usually just blame it on artifact and leave it at that? Kind of happens. We don't understand that.
SPEAKER_04Probably. Yeah, that's that's pretty much what what you'd probably do. Anything you want to do, Rich?
SPEAKER_02Or you have to just uh do their thing. Like, I think I've planted the seed and I think I'll I'll just leave it.
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm tempted to sort of I mean like this this was stressful. Like this this foray into diplomacy that I'm very ill-suited for is like, you know, that almost killed people. I I feel bad about this. So I think once the you know, the the literal smoke has cleared, I'm actually gonna um approach Elson's gang and see if they can use me for some of the repair works. I feel I need to atone for something here.
The Elder's Secret
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Okay. Well, prior to that, it then becomes very obvious that Anwin is not around. Yeah, I wasn't gone. That's fine. There's there's a lot of conversation around is this something that Anwin did? Maybe Anwin is the one behind that whatever's happened. Because it's interesting that that she left just prior to it all happening. And he said, That's very suspicious. She stole one of the one of the ships and she was last seen heading north towards the island.
SPEAKER_03Here's a question. Yes. Anwin was looking after the elder, wasn't she? Yes. They wouldn't take the elder away with them, could they? Because uh the Moss hadn't built her little thing. So I'm gonna if that's the case, is that correct in my logic? That is correct. I'm going to nip off and be like, this is an opportunity for me to actually go talk to an elder. So I don't get to do that very often.
SPEAKER_00Maybe then you lawkeepers. This is how our elder now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So I'm like, I'm not gonna get an opportunity to speak to an elder.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03Even if it is an elder, it's dying.
SPEAKER_04Okay. That's fine. Okay. You're gonna nip off to go and see the elder, that's fine. Are you gonna tell anyone that or are you just gonna wander off?
SPEAKER_03I I can't for express. Has any of my other sort of like co-conspirators ever expressed any particular interest in the elders and that sort of thing? I don't know. Just asking the other players. Not really knowing. Caspian believes that the knowledge of the elders is important. Yeah. Boss, no.
SPEAKER_00No, sorry.
SPEAKER_03Oh well. Okay. Just you if Caspian has expressed interest in talking to the elder before, I will grab him and be like, explain this is a good shot, you know? Wanna go see the elder? Does the sun come up in the morning? Yeah. Plus uh maybe it's better if we don't stick around here.
SPEAKER_04Okay, you two wander off to see
Confronting the Truth
SPEAKER_04the elder. Moss and a roach. Are you gonna particularly stay here, do anything? Is there anything other than some moss? I know you want to speak to Elson and try and get some work, and that's fine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But Yeah, I'll hang around with Moss and basically doing the fetching and carrying and lifting.
SPEAKER_04So you kind of help the repairs with the help out with the repairs, that kind of thing. Okay. So that's perfectly reasonable. People are very happy that you're helping. And I'm gonna be particularly generous and say, why don't I give you an extra XP for helping out your fellow man? Or your fellow people. Mutants. Mark Douglas, Cochran, and Caspian make their way to the elder's den, which is towards the front of the ship and top of the ship. You make your way there, and you can see there is one person at the front of the elders' quarters, as it were, and everyone takes turns sort of like being being security, I guess, for the elders is the best way to describe it. And this is actually one of Anwin's followers. It is Austrina. She is standing outside, and she's got this sort of like bright red mobile, and she says, I saw what happened. That's terrible. Is everyone okay?
SPEAKER_03Not sure at the moment. There's a lot of damage and a lot of uh very upset people. No. Arwen and that they've all left the boat. Are you aware of that? Uh yes, one of them came to tell me that um they'd like You're the only one left really on the boat, but you should probably get down to there because there's a lot of accusations flying at Anwin right now, and nobody I think you might agree, Caspian. They're all kind of gunning an opinion on you guys. Well, I can't I can't I can't we'll we'll watch it. Yeah, yeah. Like I'm in front of uh you know me. I've I have a victim. Look, these these guys they think that Anwin left just as this explosion happened that might have knocked out Rhett. I mean, they know she went to the island, they're gunning for her. Yeah. You gotta go to go down there and like smooth things over, let them know she left long before she had nothing to do with it. Of course we know you guys had nothing to do with it, but there's no one there to say otherwise.
SPEAKER_04Suppose I I can just pop down there. Okay. Don't let anyone in. You you do you know the rule? Yeah, well, yeah, we know the rules. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She basically locks the cabin doors and puts the key around her neck down at her top, and uh she wanders off out towards the um What happens if like the elder needs something?
SPEAKER_03The elder's very sick. We need to go in. She'll be okay. It should be okay, don't worry. Let's wait till she's uh speared down this there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, she wanders down the stairs and then heads off towards the back of the boat. Is there a window we can break? Um yeah, there's there's a couple of windows. They've kind of they're all shuttered and from the inside, so you've got glass on the outside or what's left of glass on the outside.
SPEAKER_03Cochrane, are you any good at picking locks? I don't think so, because I that would have to be gearhead, I would imagine. Would it be a key in a lock? Uh yeah, I mean sort of comprehension of locks. Yeah, yeah, any kind of comprehension of locks would be helpful. No, that no, I know nothing about locks apart from you put a key in them and they they lock. Is there a window in this door? No, there's no window in the door. Okay, it looks like we're breaking through the other window then. How sturdy a door is this?
SPEAKER_04I mean it's of average sturdiness.
SPEAKER_03I imagine it's made out of metal.
SPEAKER_04It's made of made of probably a little bit of metal and some sort of like that that plasticky material that they have.
SPEAKER_03Is there any anything lying around that I could use to smash the window? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could probably grab like something.
SPEAKER_04There's there's a lot of like scrap kicking around. We'll do that. Okay. Yeah, you smash the window. It's not pretty, it's not subtle, but it does the job.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_04Come on, Cockerin this way, and then I just crawl through. Right. You uh you smash the window, you crawl into the window. It's a series of rooms. They would have been quite large rooms for for a ship up here, back in the old days. And there's a lot of tubing. There's a large bed in the room, there's the elder laying out in the room, but there's she seems to be hooked up to a bunch of machines, and there's a machine in the in the corner that kind of is going up and down, and as the machine's going up and down, her chest is up going up and down. She seems to be asleep.
SPEAKER_03I go to the side of her bed. Tap her shoulder. Elder, elder. Doesn't seem to move. Cochrane, what do you think is wrong with her? Can I have a like quick glance over to see if I can figure out anything? Sure.
SPEAKER_04Why don't you make a heel? Make a w make a uh if you got heel.
SPEAKER_03I've got heel.
SPEAKER_04Oh, make a heel roll.
SPEAKER_03Uh that's two successes, I believe.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, she's dead. Can I double check before I tell Caspian? You could double check, yeah, you absolutely double check. It appears that the machine is helping inflate and deflate her lungs, which is also making her twitch a little, but she has no pulse. And when you kind of like double check and you sort of like move her arms and stuff, yeah, she's she's dead. She's probably been dead for about three or four days.
SPEAKER_03And is she like stone cold to the touch, basically? She is, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm like Caspian, like feel her. She's cold.
SPEAKER_04She's still dead. When when when you move these sort of like packs, you can see that sorry, when when you move the blankets, you can see there's like these little refrigeration packs that are that are underneath her to keep her coolish, fresh and fresh. It appears that uh that the law keepers have been lying to you. Uh it appears that the elder has died. Cochrane, we need another grenade. I where are we getting why? At that point, you hear someone banging on the door, and then you can hear a large group of people kicking on the doors. You can see some people turn at the window that you smashed. I thought I heard someone break in, and you can see a bunch of people just staring at you, and they look over and go, What are you doing to the elder? And then and then behind them you can hear um the ostrina who uh left you here saying, Wait, I've got the key. They weren't supposed to go in. And you see a lot of angry faces. What do you want to say?
SPEAKER_01What did Anwin do to the elder before she killed Rhett and fled?
SPEAKER_03Because the elder is dead. The elder's dead? What do you mean the elder's dead? Yeah. She's stone cold. She has no pulse. The elder is dead. What? What do you mean the elder's dead? What language am I speaking?
SPEAKER_04The elder is dead. Moss, you and you and a roach have kind of like seen them all kind of go up to the elder's sort of area. Someone said, Oh, I think I heard someone smashing a window, and they've kind of like moved across, and there's obviously this large group of people that have kind of made their way across from the the damaged end of the ship to the front of the ship, and you've kind of like moved along with them, and you can hear sort of like some shouting and stuff. As you get closer, you can hear Caspian and Cochran inside the elder's quarters.
SPEAKER_00I mean, yeah, the rip the repairing can, you know, wait a little bit. That sounds exciting. I absolutely want to go check it out.
SPEAKER_04You can hear a couple of people sort of saying, They what's that? The elder's dead. Did they kill the elder? No, no, they said Animan killed the elder. Did they? No. Oh my god. And then a couple of people look at Austrina and goes, You killed the elder. She's like, no, no, no. And a couple of them like grab her. You see a couple of mutations flare up. I guess we'll leave it there for the session.
SPEAKER_03Our society is collapsing. This is why we should stay away from the boat because we where we spent time here. It all goes to shit. Apparently it's all going to shit. I guess that would be Caspian's fault, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_04Well, you know, you've got to cracker through rhet to kind of make an omino or something. It's an old saying. No one knows what it means. But yeah, that that that'll we'll leave it there for this this session. Whoever said loose lips sinks ships didn't have a grenade. No, that really sinks ships. Cool. Thank you very much, everyone.