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 E9: A Mutant Year Zero Actual Play Podcast
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Caspian, Roach, Moss, and Cochrane battle swarms of dark birds on a haze-covered island. Seeking refuge in an ancient ruin, they begin to explore—only to discover it’s tainted by the ROT. Forced to turn back, will they reach their boat or be stranded forever?
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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_00Hey, welcome back. It's episode nine, so I'm reliably informed all these episodes just turn into one. So I'd like to thank my wonderful co-hosts, Marco, for keeping me up to speed. And also, hi. Hello, Caspian, the navigator.
The Island of Green Haze
SPEAKER_00Hey. We are also joined by the usual wonderful players. We have Chris. Hello, that's me.
SPEAKER_02I'm Mossyhead.
SPEAKER_00We have P? Uh hi, I'm Roach the Enforcer. And we have Douglas.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Douglas Wayne Cochran, the Chronicler.
SPEAKER_00Excellent. Well, we'll carry on with where we left off. You were kind of you made it made it onto the island. At the island with the green haze that was kind of like settling over the island. There was a large building in the centre. And you came ashore on this rocky, sort of broken up and concrete and undefined liquid stuff pooling in the rock pool areas. As you were sort of making your way towards the large building, you noticed through the haze these dark shapes as they dived down towards you. And indeed, you saw a bunch of large, I think we called them big black seagull shapes, as they dive down towards you. Well, they're diving down towards you en masse. So we'll uh start the old initiative, shall we?
SPEAKER_02On the map, what is it that we're looking at? Are the purple things puddles or is this land?
SPEAKER_00So it's all the kind of broken rocks, so that's all the slightly raised areas. They're sort of probably chest height, and they're undulating, and you can see inside there's sort of broken bits of concrete, and there's some very sickly looking plants trying to grow through it. So I do believe our first place to go is for some reason it's called me player four, but whoever player four is, I can't remember. I think that's Moss. It is indeed Moss. Moss, you're going first.
SPEAKER_02So they're humming from above, trying to swoop in like right.
SPEAKER_00They seem to have a lot of sharp talons and beating.
SPEAKER_02As we remember from session one, my weapon is a lovely high-tech bicycle chain. Yes. Which I'll be swinging over my head like a lasse, trying to deter them from myself.
SPEAKER_00Okay, that's fine. You kind of like whip it around your head trying to deter them from attacking you. That's fine. Why don't you make a melee combat roll? See how uh how much you try and avoid them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's not a success, but no biohazard either, at least. So I could possibly push Do we push it? You could push it if you wish, if you want to, yes. Let's let's push this then. Okay, give it up. Nothing can go wrong. Um I swing a bit harder.
SPEAKER_00You put some effort into it.
SPEAKER_02Oh no, but that's all the biohazards now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's not good. Right.
SPEAKER_02Well I over exert myself. I'm now all out of strength.
SPEAKER_00Yes. You kind of whip the chain around your head, and in doing so you kind of like hit your head with the chain and you hit the floor unconscious.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I knock myself out. That's I mean, you know, now I look like Carrie and and they'll be distracted.
SPEAKER_00Out of everyone, you're the lowest of everybody else standing up, so that's a good sign. Caspian, you're next.
SPEAKER_01Caspian is going to use his scrap rifle, and he's gonna shoot one of these nasty flying beasties. Oh, and I got no successes to biohazard symbols, which means I will not push that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you kind of like shoot into sort of shoot into these sort of like large dark birds. And uh, yeah, that they're really fast, they're nipping around. Uh, and there's a lot of them. You reckon there's maybe 20 or so of them just flying around, kind of like screeching and trying to sort of reach down with their talons and their beaks.
SPEAKER_01I'll turn to my comrades and say, at which point do we tuck tail between our legs and run back to the boat?
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, they kind of like kind of swoop down on you. They're all gonna get a they're all gonna get an attack. Who is, I guess, Roach? I guess is gonna be you, because you're the biggest and meanest out of everyone here, I suppose. They are going to have a go at you, my friend. There you go again, picket favorites. Well, in that case, Caspian. Um they basically dive down at you, and they sort of like are pecking and scratching, and they dive bomb you. As they do that, they rake your head and your neck and your arms as you're sort of like raising whatever you happen to have above you, and they do uh well, they do uh two damage to you. To roach or to Caspian? To Roach. So uh if you want to take your strength down by two, kind sir. Yep. Okay. Don't fail us, Cochrane. Cochrane, you're up next, kind sir. Okay. Can we see the building entrance from where we are? You can. It's a very large building. You can see the entrances. Uh it it it kind of like goes up into sort of like the greeny-yellowy mist. But yeah, or there's a there's a large opening up to the stairs leading into the building.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And I assume that's a lot closer than the boat because we walk quite a bit of time to get it. Yeah, correct. Then I will run over and pick up moss and s throw moss over my shoulder, fireman style, and start running towards the doorway.
The Fight Begins
SPEAKER_01Cool, make a strength roll to uh pick up moss. See if this is off. Nope. You know what? I'll can I push that? You can push it if you wish. I'll push it. So it would be useful. One success that took a damage. Oh, it took two damage.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it took a lot on that. You kind of like pick moss up, sort of like throw over your shoulder, run through the sort of like jagged rocks and stuff, smacking your knees and cracking your your knee your your sort of like elbow and just whacking yourself as you kind of rush straight through the uh through all the kind of like broken down bits of concrete and stuff. Okay? Cool. But you have moss and you're running for it. That leaves Roach kind, sir. What would you like to do? Uh right. I think I will call on my insectoid mutation and I will quickly recover the two strength I've lost with spending mutation points. Do you have to roll for anything for your uh don't mutation? It doesn't say it says quickly heal light wounds. Every mutation spent heals one point of damage. Even if you are broken, the mutation can't heal critical injuries. That's all it says. Okay. Yeah, that's fine. You just you just spend the points. Wait, hang on. I think I did read last time when we're doing mutation points, I think you have to make a mutation roll. My memory says you correctly. So, yes, you it wants to use your mutations. Okay. Yeah, I think you have to roll to see if there's a mishap. Yeah, that's the one that makes sense. You activate your mutation, you spend your mutation points, and then if you cut that you can't fail when using mutation doesn't mean without risk, roll one basic dice for each point of mutation point you wish to use to activate mutation. If you roll one or more radiation symbols, there's a misfire. So you can't push this roll. Okay. Do me a favor, can you roll me one dice on basic dice? It could go badly, it could go well. I think it's the first failure of a mutation we've had. Cool. So you suffer the effects of mutation, so that works. So yeah, it it it recover you recover your health button, you get disorientated and you can't act next turn, unfortunately. Okay. Right. Well, at the top then. Back to you, sir. What are you going to do? Moss? Moss is unconscious.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Tell me when I wake up for the time being, or I'm just, you know, being being dragged around on cockrain strong shoulders.
SPEAKER_00Essentially, you as you're being picked up, you can feel sort of like being being picked up. You're sort of like semi-conscious. You can't really do very much, but you can kind of basically crawl. That's about all you can do when you're when you're broken. But you don't have to worry about that. It's just being fire carried. You could probably say a few words just about it.
SPEAKER_02Hi, Matra, thank you, and cast the bets.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Caspian. Caspian. So Cochrane with moss in toe is making a beeline for the door to the building. Correct. Roach is did Roach try to do that as well?
SPEAKER_00No, Roach basically just hunched down and all of a sudden all his shoulder muscles and his head muscles and stuff got really fed. And you said there were like twenty. Yeah, there's a bunch of them just flying around screeching and squawking and Okay.
SPEAKER_01I am also gonna make a run for it. Is that a move roll? It's a move roll. Okay. If you if you get two successes in your move roll, you will get to the build of the shroud. Alright, so I'm gonna run and I'm gonna shout, There's no shame in retreating! Son of a bitch. No successes and two biohazard symbols. I'm not pushing it. No, no way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you kind of like are sort of neck and neck with the others, but you're kind of again finding it really difficult to like move over the uneven ground. You kind of avoid sort of like the sticky putrescent green bubble as you kind of step over that.
SPEAKER_01Excuse my bad language. We're having shitty rolls today. Indeed. I don't think anyone has succeeded at anything except Douglas after he pushed. Nope. I still took two damage from the third movie.
SPEAKER_00Your knees and your your sort of like shins are all kind of cut up from the um from the concrete you're whacking as you just like push forward anyway. The uh the birds sort of like start to scatter. They kind of start to move away from from Roach and they sort of like head up, sort of following you you three as you're running towards the building. Alright, Roach, it's not you. Douglas, what is Cochrane doing? Uh I'm just gonna keep on going to the door. Okay. If you want to make a move roll, that's fine. You just need one success to get in this round.
SPEAKER_01The chances of not getting anything.
SPEAKER_00I mean, someone's gonna make a pass, right? Not on this roll. Apparently not this not this combat. I take you don't want to push that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that would just bump me down to like one agility, and I'd be pretty much like, yeah, no. Our losing streak has not broken yet.
SPEAKER_00Yes. I mean, no, wait, that's not right.
Into the Building
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you kind of like run with with moss, you're kind of like stumbling and and kind of doing that, and you kind of get to the steps.
SPEAKER_01It would be really funny if we all died.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to episode nine. This is where the pie die. Uh you can skip all the first nine episodes and just start here. Just start with the next script. Rach, you're kind of like down, and so this turn you can't do anything. You're just pretty much hunkering down. So I'm afraid that's the end of your go, sir. But at the end of the next round, you can go, right, Cassian.
SPEAKER_01I seem to have missed you somehow. Okay. Well, I'm going to keep running, so if I need to make another move roll, I shall. Finally, I have two I have two successes.
SPEAKER_00Excellent. You can get into the building. You can run past them and get into the building if you want. Yeah, you run into sort of like this this large open building. There are no windows, so doors on the actual building. Uh but you go through sort of like a a large set of what probably would have been at some point a set of double doors, and you make your way in. The doors are missing? The doors are missing. There doesn't appear to be any doors on the building. So these birds could follow us inside. They could potentially follow you inside, yes. I hate you.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01It's kind of hard to easier to hit a bird when it can only fly about ten feet in the air because of the roof.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well. The uh the crows dive bomb at both moss and cochrane. Cochrane, are you going to be using moss as a shield? Just just opting for a friend.
SPEAKER_01No, but depending on what happens, I might use my reactive mutation. Okay. To tank some of that damage, but I'm not sure if I have to say that first. I think it's reactive, so I can wait in the same way.
SPEAKER_02I'm thinking my mutation would allow me to soak damage, so it might actually be okay.
SPEAKER_00It would, but you can't technically use anything at the moment unless can we blag it? Let's have a look. I think you have to actually I'll tell you what, why don't we? I'm gonna just do a make make a make a words roll for me.
SPEAKER_02I've got those.
SPEAKER_00I want two successors.
SPEAKER_02Um, sure. That's only one.
SPEAKER_00Did you want to push it?
SPEAKER_02Nope. Okay, because there's again this two bias in there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're sort of really kind of still confused so you haven't really sort of like got the wherewithal to sort of activate a mutation, but they are going to have a go at our friendly neighborhood free. Right then. So yeah, as you're sort of like rushing in, they kind of like flaw at you and scratch at the back of your head, and they like impeck into the back of your head. One of them ends your sort of like shoulder on the opposite side where moss is, and sort of is like trying to rake its claws into you. What is the reactive thing that you have, kind of sir, that you think you can use?
SPEAKER_01Um I harden my skin to like bark, which allows me to tank damage for one damage for every mute point that I spend. Okay. Nice. And I can just since it's reactive, I can literally just do it any time. So if you tell me how much damage I'm about to take, I could uh you're about to take two damage. Then I will spend two medium points reactively on that.
SPEAKER_00So roll two roll mutation points. So we have got. Hey, that all works perfectly fine. No problem. Okay, you take no damage. It kind of like you harden your skin. I mean, presumably that's what it does, it hards it, right? Hardens it like bark. Okay. They kind of scratch into the back of your neck and on your on your shoulder, but do no damage. And you uh turns out it's your turn. I assume you're just gonna rush into the building.
SPEAKER_01You assume correctly, yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_00You don't need to make a roll for that
Regrouping and Planning
SPEAKER_00because you're close enough. And you and Moss get into the building. You can't like stand up and realize that you're the only person left out in the open. Yeah, I guess I'd bet head towards that cloud of black birds. Okay. Now, you can from where you are, if you wanted to make a move roll, if you got three successes, you'd be able to just basically helt it in. Or do you want to kind of take it slow and steady and get ready to smack things? I'll I'll yeah, make my way over at normal pace. I'll have drawn my uh my scrap axe in case they turn. Okay. Yeah, indeed they do. They they seem to sort of like stop at the building and turn around and then make their way towards you. Caspian. Your legs, sir.
SPEAKER_01What would you like to do? So Roach is stuck outside with these damn birds, right? Mm-hmm. Correct. I'm gonna see if I can help him out from the entryway of this building by taking a few pot shots at the at the crows. Taking a couple of pot shots and kind, sir. My God, all these dice. I'm rolling a fistful of dice, like eight dice, and I've got nothing. Well, you did get something before.
SPEAKER_00Uh you you have indeed. You've if you you've got you've got one of the uh you've got a one-one, we've got two ones, one on your uh abilities and one on your actual scrap rifle. So if you were to re-roll that and push it, you're gonna damage your scrap rifle, which will make it broken, because I think you've only got one dice. I assume you're not going to do that.
SPEAKER_01I'm not, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you take some pot shots. It's very difficult to sort of like get in. They're all over the place. They're they're flying, uh they're flying around, they're they're quite quick and nippy. But they make their way over to over to Roach. Sorry, Roach. Did my best. You're on your own. Pretty much. Right then. Roach, you see you see the you see the dark birds coming towards you. And they start to sort of pelt down and rain onto you. Right. Well, hopefully you've got something reactive.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Reactive. I can I can put it up before they attack, but Okay, right, yeah. They kind of like dive in on you and they start scratching at your head and your um and and your neck, and they kind of touch you for about one damage. Cochrane, anything you particularly want to do from your uh the safety of your building?
SPEAKER_01I I guess I'll put Moss down and see if I can patch her up a bit. Do you have heel? I do have heel. Make you a bit roll then, please, sir. Finally, another success.
SPEAKER_00One success. Uh Moss, you can have one strength back, and you are now conscious.
SPEAKER_02Well take it. Thank you. Ouch. Whoa, thank you.
SPEAKER_00Then we move on to Roach outside, who is now taking the full force of about twenty of these dark birds as they all dive on you. I will probably still keep heading towards the building, just not not trying to hit, but yeah, just flailing around to try and keep them off me. You want to make a move, Roll, to see if you rush in. Yep. Slow and steady rins the race according according to Roach. You make your way toward the stairs as they're kind of like froze, and the dark birds kind of like follow you, just hounding you. Imagine the sort of like scene if you've seen the birds just dive-bombing you and kind of up and rake your head and your shoulders. The rest of you can just see Roach just being pelted by birds as he kind of just puts his arms up and just continues to sort of make his way and pick his way through the um the broken concrete. Right. Well, Moss, you can do something.
SPEAKER_02Well, I look around. What is in this place? Is there something I could use to, I don't know, maybe rig up a handy sling for something?
SPEAKER_00So you look around, the building is very bland, it's very grey. It's made of the same kind of grey concrete that you'd seen in the buildings that were sticking out of the water, just one zone across. So this is what this is what they must look like at the very bottom of the building. It's looks like it's got four corridors, which all lead to a central point, and then there are a lot of small rooms that you can see around the central point. But yeah, that's what you can see.
SPEAKER_02So there's nothing lying around to improvise something from.
SPEAKER_00There's nothing laying around, it is just empty. Not even not even pebbles to throw at the berth. There might be some bits of like broken down concrete, maybe you could probably throw. Like little pebble-sized things. But you probably don't reckon you'd be able to make to do too much damage to them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'll I'll I'll you know throw those out of desperation as I hear rot on, come on, Road, come on.
SPEAKER_00Are there any stairs? When you when you look into sort of like the the middle of the building, you can see there's four sets of stairs leading up to another
Exploring the Atrium
SPEAKER_00level. They're all next to each other, going straight up. With boundaries in between them all.
SPEAKER_01Kind of boundary, like a concrete boundary?
SPEAKER_00No, sort of like about sort of like waist-high boundaries in between them, each of them. So it looks like they're four individual staircases.
SPEAKER_01Can I run out, grab Roach by his shoulder or something, and yank him back in? Sure. Why don't you make a move followed by a strength throw?
SPEAKER_00Two successes. Cool. Yeah, you dart out, grab him, and pull. So if you want to make a strength roll.
SPEAKER_01I'm apparently better at moving than I am shooting things. Strength is not my forte, but here we go. Failure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you basically go and grab him and you go to pull, and obviously you're trying to pull him. He's a bit of a lump, up the stairs, and you maybe have kind of like, ugh, damn it. Uh I'm gonna push it. You can you can push it if you wish. Maybe. Two successes. That's very cool. This is what you needed. Yeah, you basically dart out, grab him, think actually he's gonna be able to be quite heavy, all your way into it, and you pull him up the stairs. Come on, you big lug. As you yank him up the stairs as the crows dive bombed where he was, and then they kind of like f fly off. Thanks for that, Caspian. But I think I had it. Hey, by all means, if you wanna if you want to go back out there, by all means give it your best shot. You can hear them calling and making screeching noises, and you can hear the sounds of their wings beating in the air as they disappear from view.
SPEAKER_02Well that was that is called.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think we're safe for the moment, wherever it is. Check out those stairs. There doesn't seem to be anything else on this ground floor. The stairs go up, right? Or do they also go down?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, as you kind of like make your way down this this corridor, you get to like an open area, and this large open area has at least four sets of stairs leading up to a mezzanine floor, which goes all the way around above you. There is a corridor straight ahead of you to your left and to your right, and they all look very similar. Each one of the corridors that isn't this first one that you've just walked down has other buildings, like other buildings, other rooms kind of attached to them. They probably at one point were all glass fronted, much like you think maybe what the double doors were going into this building, but it's all just cleared out. There's just nothing here. It's just very kind of bland and very barren. There are four rooms, four small rooms, each one of the corners of this large or corner of an atrium, shall we? No, I'm sorry, is that at the top of the stairs? No, that's down on the atrium where you are. So you can you can see these four sets of stairs going up to one more floor above you, which is like a mezzanine, and they're they're they're just wide enough for one person each to go up the stairs. And the stairs are made of metal, uh, and they've got sort of like black railings on now that you've got closer.
SPEAKER_01Do they have like weird grooves as well in the steps?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they've got weird grooves in the steps, that's correct. Do we do we have stairs like this back on the boat? You do not have stairs like this back on the boat. If you want to know the zone, I'll let you uh if you've got no zone or comprehend, I'll let you um make a roll for that.
SPEAKER_01Well I have none of those. I'm happy to do it. I've won success.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you've read somewhere that these stairs used to move.
SPEAKER_01Ah, the moving stairs of the ancient ones. They must have been a lazy people. No wonder they destroyed themselves. I'm gonna go up to that mezzanine level.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you go up to the mezzanine level, you can see much like the this floor, except it's more open now, but it's the same sort of plan. You've got more of these other rooms, these large rooms in each one of them. There is a bunch of different writing on some of them. Yeah. And there's loads of little symbols.
SPEAKER_01There's some kind of writing up here, but uh I'm illiterate. Clockwhat should have a look at those. Okay. I guess I'll go up the magic stairs and then have a look at these words. Yeah, make it comprehendable of me, please. Comprehension, but I can read.
SPEAKER_00Okay, that's fine. Yeah, there's it looks like names of things, but you reading them out and Caspian kind of like listening to you. It appears these were all at some kind of weird named stores or or places to eat food or drink. Like a marketplace. Like a marketplace, yes. Where they've all come together to sell different things in a marketplace.
SPEAKER_01Is there any names from that shopping mall that we were in previously?
SPEAKER_00Yes, there is. There is. There's a there's a there's a similar eatery that they have. Is it called Dunkin' Donuts? TM? Can we do we can we use that? I don't know. Yeah, why not? There's uh there's a Dunkin' Donuts. Thank God it's Friday.
SPEAKER_01That's the one. Well, I recognize these ones from that last place we're at. I don't remember there being anything interesting in those ones. Not like uh the C far tubes or the other book I found. Why no? It's a fish and chip shop called the Salt and Battery. Sorry. Yeah, why not? I like that. So what do you plan to do? We should probably check out these rooms, right? See what's I mean, we came all this way. We uh got some got some took took our lumps with those crows. We might as well, you know, overturn every stone and see what's see what's what. So I'll start just going into these rooms and hopefully I won't be
Searching for Artifacts
SPEAKER_01alone.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Well, why don't you uh have a little bit of a route around? Why don't you do your scavenger? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So that means I get a plus two to my find a path. With success, you find any artifacts that may exist in a sector. To identify threats, you must instead get stunts. Can I uh assist him by pointing at things and inspire him to shoot things closer by being trying to be helpful? Go on then.
SPEAKER_02What do you mean you're not singing the shantier fluting?
SPEAKER_01No, well we're not doing shantifying sailing at the moment. So, you know, I'll be like, oh look at that thing.
SPEAKER_00I'll tell you what, mate, make your role first for me then, please, Douglas? Well, I have three successes. Sorry. That's fine. It doesn't mean there isn't. Okay, cool. You still get three successes. Finally the dice are with me. Okay. Or with us, I should say. So well, you've got three stunts.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, you've got three stunts. I have three stunts. Okay, so with stunts, I can identify threats. Too late for that. As long as there aren't any other threats besides the crows, is essentially what I want to know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It appears that if there was any threats, you think that the crows or the blackbirds have already dealt with that.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so we only have the crows to worry about. So now I have two stunts left? You do. Artifacts, please.
SPEAKER_00Let's see, are there any artifacts here? Let's have a look. Let's do a secret scroll roll. Okay. Yeah, so you uh what are the other things you want to look for? So you you've looked for threats, there are any. You're looking for artifacts, and what else? I want to assess the general level of rot in the building. It's a strong level of rot. You want to take rot, one rot point every hour that you're here.
SPEAKER_02Oh. We're not hiding from the beds for long, I guess.
SPEAKER_00And as you kind of are looking around, you realize that the sort of like greeny, sort of like yellowy mist is sort of like in the building as well. And you kind of are looking around with with cochrane, and you come across what looks like a store that had lots of things to mount things, and you're like, oh, okay, what's this? And as you kind of like have a bit more of a rummage, you find something that's fallen over in the store, and it looks a bit like the safe that you found back in the other building. When you open it, it's actually slightly ajar. You pull out an honest to goodness old world assault rifle.
SPEAKER_01That's amazing. Put that in my put that in my character sheet, please.
SPEAKER_00That is definitely gonna go into your gear.
SPEAKER_01Generous, generous game master.
SPEAKER_00I know, what can I say? Does it have bullets? It does not. I'm only gonna do so so much for you, sir.
SPEAKER_01So the bullets that I have don't work with the assault rifle.
SPEAKER_00Technically, they would do, so you could
The Assault Rifle Discovery
SPEAKER_00put them in there.
SPEAKER_01Also, like, it'd be a small fortune to fire like one mag of it's like 30 bullets. Yeah. Like everyone's bullets. And you'd be like, dad, just ammo clipped, mag dump. Caspian feels like a millionaire. I think you would be. Alright, the rod is really strong here. This green haze is not gonna do us any favors. The longer we stay here, the worse it'll get for us. We should make whatever we're gonna do in here, we should do it quickly, and then we should skidaddle back to the back to our catamaran.
SPEAKER_00What does Roach and Moss want to do while Cochrane and Caspine are searching around?
SPEAKER_02I mean, I I guess I'm I'm still sort of feeling a bit shit. Remind me, strength I regain from eating, right?
SPEAKER_00Uh yes, that's correct.
SPEAKER_02So I'll just you know, hodl in a corner and uh, you know, stretch out my legs and eat a snack.
SPEAKER_00Okay. That makes sense. Sure. And it's the number of uh the number of bits of food that you eat determined by the number of uh strengths you want bat. But that does mean that you're gonna spend a bit of time sitting around doing that.
SPEAKER_02Does a roach need a snack too?
SPEAKER_00I I'll probably spend my time while you're sitting down. I'll be wandering round through the stores, picking up bits of rubbish, holding it up and shouting across to Moss saying, Is this any use?
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I'll I'll absolutely want everything that's the right science to just throw at the fucking birds.
SPEAKER_00I mean it's it seems that your your weapons were not very effective and came to the birds. Yeah, in some of these side rooms, are there any bits and pieces that look like plastic models of parts of human beings? No. They're pretty pretty bland. You probably find some plinths that might have had them on, maybe. But other than that one thing that that uh that Caspia managed to find, everything else looks like it's been either taken or pulled off its hinges or just it just it's just gone. Yeah, so I'm relying on Moth to come up with some uh ideas of use of anything I find. While you look around, each one of those four rooms in the corners of the um of the atrium are a staircase going up to higher up in the building. Like proper staircases where they kind of like spiral up or they go around in a sort of like a a square or whatever, rather than the straight weird little stairs that you had going up to the Mesday. I'll bring this to uh Caspian and Cochrane's attention. Okay. Yeah, so you you sort of like take sort of like you're you're gonna take sort of you know, a good maybe fifteen, twenty minutes to rest. At which point can you all take a point of rot?
unknownOf course.
SPEAKER_00Oh wait, wait, wait, there's a Well, unless you don't need to.
SPEAKER_01No, no. So I have my parasite ability, I can do a few things. One of them I have a question about. It says I can heal another humanoid's trauma. Now, does trauma mean the attribute loss? Damage.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, correct.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So if I spend one mutant point on Roach, I can heal his one point of strength. Absolutely. That means that I take that damage myself. Okay. So I just wanted to make sure that that trauma meant that it was an attribute.
SPEAKER_00Trauma is any damage, yeah. Damage system.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Since my strength is really low, I don't know that I'm ready to do that yet.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't worry about that too much. It's a it's a it's a nasty version of Killight Winds.
SPEAKER_02And I will point out that I'm still flushing that food that law keepers had given us, so I would be willing to share.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm gonna still ask everyone to make a rot roll if they can do.
SPEAKER_02If anybody's still down in strings, like do do let me know.
SPEAKER_01I have a biohazard symbol on my rot roll. Okay. Anyone else? I think they've got mine.
SPEAKER_00Lots of twos. Okay. Lots of twos. So everybody else, you take a point of rot, but you don't take any damage. Unfortunately, Marco, you were not so lucky. So you uh take every time you suffer a rot point, you immediately roll a number of base dice equal to your total amounts
Decisions in the Apartment
SPEAKER_00of rot points. Everyone you roll, you suffer one point of damage, which is torment your strength. Okay. But the rest of you are fine. Well, I say you're fine, you get a you get a point of rot, but Okay.
SPEAKER_01So there's more per bits, obviously, by the loops of it. There are. Is there any signage on this staircase? It says apartments. Anyone know what an apartment is? That's me asking the group. Make a comprehend role. Zero comprehend, so can I make that role?
SPEAKER_00Uh someone's got comprehend they can make the role. If they don't have comprehend, they can't make role.
SPEAKER_01Just just for your own knowledge, I can also steal attribute points from people. Yes.
SPEAKER_02I can comprehend stuff, apparently. Look, you also want success.
SPEAKER_00Cool. Yeah, you apartments are where uh places where people used to live in the old world in large buildings.
SPEAKER_02My goodness, what a fancy word. Why don't you just say, you know, like bunk or something?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, cabin. But you know, that's what we would call it. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Lots of cabins. Land cabin. Land cabins, I like that. And that is above
The Plan to Escape
SPEAKER_00you.
SPEAKER_01What shall we go have a look at the land cabins? Oh we don't feel I don't feel so well. I think we should get out of here.
SPEAKER_02I would have loved to see what the old ones that used to live like. Yeah, like probably all ruined anyway. The state of this.
SPEAKER_01Probably go have a look, because we're not don't want to come back here, you know.
SPEAKER_00And what what time of the day is it now? Uh so this is I think you arrived here in sort of like the afternoon, so it's kind of getting towards evening. Like, is it getting starting to the sun's starting to go down? Wait, no, it's it's mid-afternoon. So no, I lied, because you were in the the previous zone and then you stayed there the night. Uh, liar. I knew you were a liar. It's it's it's the afternoon sort of shift.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I'm still sort of thinking I want something to whack birds with, you know, like somebody somebody in might have a nice bat or something in their in their land cabin. Might be worth a look. Come on. We'll we'll hurry up. Like Caspian, don't worry.
SPEAKER_01Okay, but I might steal somebody's strength. It's in my nature.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I know, I know. Rob's just not that tasty. People people ask so much what in it should nice and fresh.
SPEAKER_00I think you've got a convert there, Caspian?
SPEAKER_01Ah, yes. It's working. Besides, we lost all our stuff in our previous cabin, so it might be, you know, these land cabins might have something nice for our cabin back in the boat. Okay, okay, fine. But I'm warning you, it isn't when it's it is within my nature to steal the strength of others.
SPEAKER_00How often can we use our mutations? Oh, you can use them as much as you want. Once we're round, essentially.
SPEAKER_01Uh right. As long as you have the mutant points to spend. Reactions, apparently, you can just spam as much as you want. Yes. Or the zero, it's the other things which yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. So yeah, if you want to vampirize me, then Caspian, by all means do so. I owe you for pulling me into the building anyway, so you do, Roach.
SPEAKER_01But I'm not yet desperate. I'll let you know. We'll get in there. What's the land then?
SPEAKER_02Let's have a quick look see.
SPEAKER_01Just real quick. We're gonna check out these land cabbages. Maybe there's a nice picture we could put up in our cabin. A nice landscape or something like that. Maybe an anti-war hole or something. We were like, what on earth is this? They really liked their tomato soup. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00They seek to really like this campbell. Okay. You go up the stairs, they're very much like the stairs you went up in the previous buildings when you were in the in in the buildings that were sticking out of the sea. Okay. You you make your way up to the third floor, and it's the same sort of layout that you that you've seen before. You come out of the uh out of the out of the staircase, and you've again got this sort of like cross section, like a a left of right, a straight on and down. There's a central sort of like area which has these little buildings, these little rooms in that don't go anywhere. But you've got a whole bunch of apartments that are numbered.
SPEAKER_02Does anyone still have their doors?
SPEAKER_00It appears all the doors are either gone or are broken down. Shame. With lots of like scratch box and sort of like chips in the doors. You can see that some of the numbers are missing. Pick an apartment. I'll go to the closest on the right. Okay. You pick an apartment and you go in. The apartment seems to be made of a number of rooms. A larger room, a smaller room, two medium-sized rooms, and a room which you know is a bathroom because you have them on on uh on board the on board the ship. So essentially, when you look through them, you figure one might be our main lounge, one's a kind of dining room, kind of kitchen, and then there's two bedrooms and a bathroom. And this one has a very large open window which goes out onto a small little balcony. There is nothing in here. It looks like the place has been picked apart. I'll move to the next apartment. You do the same thing, you have a look. It's very similar. It's almost identical, but swapped around, almost like they have mirrored the uh a previous apartment you were in.
SPEAKER_01Very imaginative, these ancient architects.
SPEAKER_00Again, it looks like everything has been picked apart. There's nothing there. And as you go through the rest of the floor, you find that it is pretty much the same across the board.
SPEAKER_02That's boring.
SPEAKER_01There's nothing here we should get back.
SPEAKER_00And this is floor number three or fifty?
SPEAKER_01The higher we go, is the rot less? Do I do I would I know something like that?
SPEAKER_00Maybe if you got right to the top, you might have less rot if the rot is to deal with the green, sicky, yellowy mist that you're walking around in. Not the purple haze, but the green haze. The green haze, yes.
SPEAKER_01Not the bad haze. Can I go out onto the balcony where I think is facing towards where we park the boat? Oh. Oh yeah, you might be able to see where we are in relation to the maybe we could since we're like a bird's eye view pun intended. Uh like a decent route, a quick route. If we're like, that looks like a quick escape route, because obviously you were doing like navigation from the ground, but now we're above the ground. We could be like, oh yeah, that's a quarter route to get back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you you you go and stand out onto the um onto the balcony and you look towards where your um ship is. All you can see is this green haze, maybe about three or four foot in front of your own face. And then it just goes into this green haze and you can't see anything. But you do suddenly hear the sound of calling and screeching coming from above you.
SPEAKER_01I'll uh duck back in.
SPEAKER_00You duck back in and you can hear the sound of wings taking flight and coming towards where you were on the um balcony.
SPEAKER_01Guess I'll leave that room and be like, I think bird birds are coming back. Is there a door to this apartment that we're in? We're only a D6.
SPEAKER_00There's a water or two, there's a door. No door. Right. You make your way into the uh the corridor and you can hear the sound of the screeching of the birds outside, but they don't seem to come into the building.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Maybe they know something we don't. Right. What's the plan? Well, we're either gonna go higher and spend the night in this building and try to find a place above the level of this building that's above the green haze, or we're gonna take our chances in the dark getting back to When I heard the birds like coming for me on the balcony, did they sound like they were coming from above me? Yeah. So I would imagine the birds are probably living on the higher floors. That seems to be where they came from.
SPEAKER_02Remembering the night uh with uh with the rats? I'm like, yeah, I'm sort of willing to take my chances out there in the dog, you know.
SPEAKER_01Agreed. Shall we shall we leave? I mean, if they're in the building above us, they haven't come down to these floors, so might be a couple of extra floors, you know. Do you know if birds can see in the dark? I do not know.
SPEAKER_00Can I examine the scratches and chips on the doors and see if it reminds me of the ones on the previous building we were in? It does not, no. Like, it might be easier to take away from the birds if they're in the dark. If you've got a know the zone roll, you can you can make a know the zone roll.
SPEAKER_01I know nothing
Preparing to Run
SPEAKER_01about the zone either. I do. Should I should I do it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Feel free.
SPEAKER_01I pitch this question to everyone. Success.
SPEAKER_00So the scratches and the picking look quite or they would resemble the scratches and the picking you might get from crows' claws and beaks. So they are in the building. Right. So they they clearly have essentially picked clean the apartments.
SPEAKER_01So these birds are heavily armed, is what you're saying. Let's get the fuck out of here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what a shame. The the hay's not so pretty from a distance, you know. Who who knew that it was gonna be such a disappointment from close up?
SPEAKER_00Okay. You make your way down to the um ground floor and make your way back to the uh the entrance to the building. What's the plan? Run like hell.
SPEAKER_01Run like hell? That requires a move roll. I mean, unless anyone else has a better idea.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sorry, I was hoping we'd find something nice in there, but that was that was nothing.
SPEAKER_01Like, someone did find something nice. Going out a back door is gonna help us or anything, because they'll just attack us. I mean, go out the back door, probably.
SPEAKER_00If you want to go out the back door, there is a back door, but it's the opposite direction to your boat. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't I don't feel like I would be willing to expend bullets in the hopes of like, I don't know, building a destruction or something.
SPEAKER_01Besides, I they might just be being territorial, so once we get far enough away from the building, they might just not care anymore. Yeah. Cochrane, you're such an optimist. So I failed my move roll. I think I'm I think I'm going to push that one. I do have one biohazard symbol, which means I'll take at least one damage. You will? Douglas, I'll I've got to push my move roll, though. Okay, so I six I have one success on my push, and I've taken one agility damage. No damage, but I failed my push.
SPEAKER_02That's one success. Two successes for you.
SPEAKER_01Two successes for you. Right. Pete, what about it?
SPEAKER_02It's just like in Coriolis where I can help out somebody who have got an extra success.
SPEAKER_01I'm happy for you to do that, yeah. That sounds like a st that sounds like an appropriate stunt. That seems like a perfect stunt. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I'll uh repay the favor, and this time I drag Cochrane.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I like that. But that just leaves brooch. I'm gonna pause inside the building for a moment and use another element of my mutation to harden my skin. So I'm gonna spend two mutation points. Okay. Do you want to make a uh mutation roll? For a good roll. Dear me. Woohoo! One success. More mutation points and one biohazard symbol. We don't really care about the successes when you're making mutation roll. Okay. We only worry about the biohazard roll. Unfortunately. You want me to roll another one? Trauma, isn't it? Another D6. So again. So again, it will take effect, but you just take an extra round longer than the rest. So that you're like, okay, hang on, folks, I'll be right behind you. They run and they leg it, and you wait too long
Alone in the Mist
SPEAKER_00as you kind of really, really focus, and then when you look up, they're not there. They basically run into the in into the green mist. You're on your own. As you hear the sound of crows and dark birds taking flight and starting to scream.