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 E11: A Mutant Year Zero Actual Play Podcast
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Our crew returns to the island to explore new territory and unearth traces of the world before. This time, they stumble upon strange art amidst the ruins. But soon, they realize they are not alone.
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Welcome to Stories
Introduction to Dark Blue Sea
SPEAKER_02with 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 never miss an episode. Don't forget to rate and review us, it really helps others discover
The Adventure Begins
SPEAKER_02the 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_03Hey, welcome back. It's another episode of Pinia Zero. Yes, it's been a week, and uh we're uh back having fun, just existing in a crazy world gone mad. Sounds familiar. Joining me is my my faithful co-host, Marco.
SPEAKER_02Hello, it's episode 11, and I am playing Caspian the Navigator. We've also got Douglas. Hello, I'm still playing Cochrane, the Chronicler.
SPEAKER_03I haven't killed him off yet. We have Chris.
SPEAKER_01Hello, I'll be playing Lost the Gearhead.
SPEAKER_03And finally, but not last, is Pete. Hi. I'm playing Roach the Enforcer. Alright, well, you all know what happened last session, so we'll not bother going over it too much. You kind of weathered a storm, you you came back to uh the island, and you are going to check out the next zone along from the arc. Which reminds me, because some of Roman D6 uh minus one. We all know where this is going. Yeah, we'll give it a go. Oh. That's a good roll, Pete. Oh, very nicely done. We're getting near nearer our optimum
Navigating the Unknown
SPEAKER_03pump.
SPEAKER_02Indeed. We're kind of we're getting down.
SPEAKER_01At this point, we really didn't like any of them anymore, did we?
SPEAKER_02Not really. So what is that Ed? Is that five people died?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, five people lost their lives, but you don't know why, because you're not at the arc, but you are about to explore the next zone over, which I will handily lift the fog for you. Do you mind making a navigate roll for me, sir? Or know the zone? No, it's find the path, isn't it? Find the path. That's the word. Hey. That one's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02Now. Yep. Okay. Uh would I be using my binoculars for this? Yeah, you can use your binoculars for this. Okay, so I'll give myself one gear die. Because when did that ever go wrong? And I'm gonna roll some dice here. I have one success and one biohazard symbol. Okay. What would you like to do with your one success? I want to know the rot level. That's always a good thing to know.
SPEAKER_03Okay. It's a weak rot level, which means you're gonna get one rot per day. You can see in front of you. I'm presuming you're going, well, first of all, I guess you're gonna go via what? Are you going to go around the coast? We're gonna yeah, we're gonna hug the coast.
SPEAKER_02We're gonna hug the coast.
SPEAKER_03By boat? Uh no, no, no. We tied up the boat, we're walking. Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah, it's you you hug the coast as you walk around. As you're kind of wandering on the coast, you can see from from going from this zone to the next zone, you can see that there's more of the sort of like ruins that you've kind of like you've seen interspersed with sort of rough ground, small trees and saplings and stuff. It's definitely getting less, less ruiny and more sort of rurally. And it eventually starts to turn into a bit of a forest as you're kind of like watching on the inside, I guess, rather than at the coast level. So as you're making your way around the coast, you can see there's two promenades that kind of like jut out into the into the sea, and they're sort of like got cliffs and stuff around. So it's actually hard to to sort of like get to this part of the island. But yeah, you kind of make your way around and you're just avoiding the rot and guessing with your one success that you have. Because it's one of the things you can do, correct? You can kind of avoid the rot.
SPEAKER_02You find a safe path to spot any threats in the zone before they spot you. You can assess the general level of rot in the area, which is the stunt that I use. Yes, so that's your stunt.
SPEAKER_03But yes, it doesn't say that you avoid it though. No, okay. Yeah, so you're kind of like making your way through the zone. You can see there's definitely the odd building here and there, but it's like deeper into the zone, towards the south, and it's surrounded by trees and forests and stuff. Although there is a weak rot that running through this part of the zone, it doesn't seem to have affected the trees very much. Every now and then there's sort of like a couple of trees that are sort of dying or sort of like a bit decoloured or dead, but most of the trees seem quite alive. Just as you're sort of like admiring the foliage. I mean, this is the first time we've really seen a large expanse of trees. Suddenly something comes running out of the trees. What is that? You can see a handful of creatures. Running at us or away from us? No, no, they're just running in in the zone. They're not sort of they're not coming as you don't really need. They've got horns, it looks like, some kind of horns. They're sort of large, bulky kind of creatures. They're sort of slightly different colours, sort of like uh browns and and yellows, and they kind of like come run running through the trees. They kind of don't see you, but they kind of sense you, and they kind of run off.
SPEAKER_00I'm sort of imagining that you know, yes, we know enclosed spaces like the cabins and the boat, but this is a lot more dense than a build-up city that we also might have been to. The fact that w this is neither an enclosed room nor an open room is probably really quite unsettling. And then something this size, uh I sort of inch towards Roach who's big and strong a bit closer.
SPEAKER_02I wonder if they're good to eat.
SPEAKER_00They might be, but they're huge. How do you get those down?
SPEAKER_03If someone's gonna know the zone, they can make a roll for me. I haven't know the zone. You can add an extra dice to your skill.
SPEAKER_02Why thank you, kind sir. I have two successes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so you know that the the the people or those that sort of like ran the world before kept animals which they used for slaughter, for food, for grazing, for for various things. One of those things was called cows or, you know, bulls or something. And these kind of match relatively similar description. They are slightly bigger and they're slightly different colours from what you've heard of. But that's about as close as you can kind of get as an analogue to them. But whatever they are, you know that they they graze on plant life. And are they large like a cow? Yeah, they're large like a cow.
SPEAKER_02But they seem faster.
SPEAKER_03They seem they seem quite more they're they're more well built than than I guess a standard cow would be now. Are they red? No, that they are not red. They are brown and yellow.
SPEAKER_02Well, I guess we will shall we press in south or shall we continue to follow the coast?
SPEAKER_00I think I feel safer around the coast than I do inland, but at the same time it frustrates me that there's very little chance of finding something that we might be using for for inventing stuff here. It's like, oh what's the stupid nature thing? I wouldn't think this like salvage.
SPEAKER_02Packering, what do you think? It's usually more stuff inland we found rather than just on beaches. We haven't found much stuff on beaches. They've usually been on islands, on bits out in the water or further inland. We haven't really found much stuff just sitting on beaches. So if we want to find something, probably either need to get back on the boat and go out into the water or head inland. Roach, are you in agreement? We go south?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'm happy to follow.
SPEAKER_02Okay, hopefully we'll we will be going hopefully that that those spiders nearby don't infest this zone in the south as well. We shall go south, good sir.
Encountering Strange Creatures
SPEAKER_03Okay. Inland. You make your way south, inland. So as you as you make your way south, you can see more of these sort of like low-lying ruins as they kind of like are kind of like very run down and broken on the outskirts of the of the forest. As you kind of like head deeper into the forest, you can see that you're you're there's a lot of pathways that kind of run around the forest. And you can see just out the corner of your eyes quite a lot of movement and wildlife appears to be a bit of a wildlife haven in this sense.
SPEAKER_02There are a lot of animals in this area. We should be cautious, we don't know how dangerous they might be.
SPEAKER_03Definitely if you're off the path, there appears to be sort of like thick undergrowth that kind of covers the non-path areas. Lots of like thistles and thorns and roots and stuff like that. Yeah, you kind of follow through one of these paths, and it kind of comes out into sort of one of these large open black areas that you know that they had around buildings and around ruins from the time past. And you can see one well, well kept, I suppose, ruin. It's a large sort of box-shaped ruin, and on the roof are three rectangular buildings on a building. It's a very weird-looking setup. And it has lots of strange shapes and designs, and all the the thing has a lot of angles from different different view from the roof and sort of like the buildings. You you've seen that a lot of the ruins sort of like have of straight corners. These have kind of odd-shaped and odd directed corners, as if someone had built this in a very higgledy-piggledy kind of way. Does it appear occupied? It does not. Well, not that you can see, but please can one of you make a scout roll to see if you didn't see anyone.
SPEAKER_00I like the look of this place. This is different. This is gonna that's gonna be stuff here that we've never seen before.
SPEAKER_02We need someone to scout it out first before we get any closer. I could do that.
SPEAKER_03Off you go, Douglas. Make a scout roll.
SPEAKER_02So this will be using my empathy, because we've got our talent, so this'll be gut feeling rather than No gut feeling for you.
SPEAKER_03Oh, it's fine. Ignore the guys with the big guns. Yeah, you make your way towards the um the large building. You can see there's lots of weird shapes and stuff around the building, which appear to sort of have been affixed in place. It's got that very rough concrete feel that's kind of been manipulated. You know that this is what they did in the past in some parts of towns. The roofs look like it's some kind of metallic, acquired shiny kind of metallic. And there are there are large portions of the building, the buildings above the building, which do have windows in or would have had windows in at one point. They don't anymore. Yeah, so you kind of walk as you're walking up towards to see what's inside to get a kind of sense of of whether this building is occupied. You walk through and past all these strange shapes, which have all been kind of locked into the ground. Some of them have got strange spiral designs, others have got like a box inside of a box inside of a triangle, another one, huge one, has probably about four or five times the size of you, has got sort of like the shape of a face, but there's like the eyes, if they were eyes were like box shape, there's a weird pointed ear on but only one ear on another piece of this. Looks like it's made of metal or something, and it's all kind of like this grey red kind of metal, as you sort of make your way up some stairs, which lead to the doors of the building. There's quite a few of them. Uh it's quite an open area around it. You would imagine that back in the past there would have been nice manicured lawns and surrounded by trees and little forests and stuff, but now it's all just starting to be overgrown. But as far as you can tell, Douglas, there is no one home.
SPEAKER_01Let's get in then.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, lead the way, Cochrane. You scouted this place. Is there any is it was there any writing on any of this stuff? There isn't any writing on any of that stuff. I'll go in behind Roach.
SPEAKER_03I'll have my scrap X help.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I have my rifle out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you make you make the way to one of the sets of doors for there. The doors have got a a weird design on which you've not seen before, like spirals and weird animal shapes. Uh you open the door to a large squeaking noise. Um the door was made of wood, and it would have had some kind of like lacquer or something on, which are all kind of peeled off. You open the door and it opens out into this large open space. There's to the left and to the right desks, or at least would have potentially been desks with sort of like high frontages to them. There's also wide open space, and you can see more of these objects just kicking around. There's a whole different load of them. There's some that look like people, some that look like something that's come out of someone's strange imagination. There's a couple of ones that actually look almost identical to people, and they look like they're made of like a white stone, but there doesn't appear to be anyone around.
SPEAKER_02Very strange and strange place. Do you think these they're like statues, perhaps? Mm-hmm. Yep. Perhaps these were very important people in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00Maybe they had important stuff, and that's still here. We should we should check it out.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. Some only some of these look like people, and if they were people, there was something very wrong with some of these people.
SPEAKER_00They they used to love art in the old days. I'm sure we've been told that a lot.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, potentially. I mean you're you're a gearhead, right? Make a make a witch role.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I I I I I'm witty. I I understand.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Absolutely. You kind of remember listening to the chroniclers talking about them, and you think you remember seeing maybe a book with some pictures in, and yeah, there was some like weird statues, and they called them something else. Can't remember what the name of it was. Ones that look like statues but don't look like statues. They're odd shapes which kind of give off a vibe of something, but they're actually something different. But for the life of me, it was some kind of art term or something, but you can't for life of you know.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, yeah, they they were they used to be weird in the in the old days. And this is nothing to worry about. I mean I as you say nobody warned me when we were looking at these at these picture books. I I think they were meant to be pretty and inspiring or something. You know, like um like cochlear songs. Only uh statues.
SPEAKER_02I suppose a lot of just rust and broken bits of stone there. Doesn't look like they people have been taking care of them. No, definitely not.
SPEAKER_00No people left to take care of them either. Maybe we should have a closer look. I mean, what do I say, maybe? I wanted to have a closer look. I'm already like sort of you know, walking there.
SPEAKER_02The rot is weak in this area, but we should also just be mindful not to spend too much time here. Lest we all get sick. Pete, what's roach gonna be?
SPEAKER_04He's just looking suspiciously at especially the uh the statues that look human-like, just in case. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03We definitely don't know how they're gonna come to life, but some of them do look very odd. As you kind of move deeper into the into the building, Ed.
SPEAKER_02Can I make a sense of motion rule to try and get what the artist was trying to achieve with the sculpture? Well, of course you
Discovering the Ruins
SPEAKER_02can. So I'm gonna become an art critic if I pass. Yeah, so uh we're gonna find like a turtleneck. Surf somehow survived the apocalypse. Yeah, it's lost in you, mate.
SPEAKER_03No, I don't get it. You look at it and go, no. Sorry. It just looks like a metal of stuff. Yeah, it's a pile of metal, it's a jumble of stuff. Yeah, it's weird. Uh it's a seat made of like these strange, like sharp knife type things. You just look at it and go, it's a really impractical seat. You know. Right, well, you kind of move in and you see something a bit more traditional. As you can see, there are pictures on the walls. Some of landscapes, others of people, others of a multitude of colours and spots and splatches and geometric shapes. There's a whole load of them. As you wander through, you can see from the world before. Clearly, some of them have got sort of odd paintings of large fields and carts and people sort of frolicking around. Others have got pictures of people being attacked and stabbed half naked with these weird little babies with like wings.
SPEAKER_02That one I really like, but the rest of them I don't understand. These ancients.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02I was just gonna say these these ancients clearly had far too much time on their hands. No wonder their society collapsed.
SPEAKER_00Is there pictures where I mean, as opposed to, you know, like the the battles or something? Is there pictures where somebody has an interesting contraption or a machine or something?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's some of those. Yeah, yeah, there's definitely some of those. In one corner, there's what looks like someone's sketches of like a sort of vehicle with another round top on on top of that and blades spinning out from it. There's others where that show sort of boats and ships, and there are others which have modern day or modern day, olden day, without terms, dehors, and in fact, some of them have got what look like vehicles flying through space, if that thing. Whoa!
SPEAKER_00Check this out, this is amazing. Do you think they had those or they like wanted them and imagine what it would be like? Because I know I want those. It's amazing.
SPEAKER_02That must be must be bedtime stories they told their children. I don't believe it.
SPEAKER_00I stand there with my mouth open for a long minute.
SPEAKER_02Is there any um plaques or anything next to any of these pictures? There are there are a lot of plaques in these pictures. What is there one next to the rocket picture?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, basically there's there is a a bunch of a bunch of description of what it is. The one with the rocket is reaching for the stars, and there's a name of someone.
SPEAKER_02I will I will read that out to Moss.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's uh there's a kind of reaching for the stars, the humanities push forward to the rest of the inner planets, blah blah blah blah blah, and set fun stuff here, and then a name. So yes, it kind of explains it. And you when you kind of look at all of the artworks that you see, they all have a name of an artwork, so someone's named it, they've given a description of what the artwork is, and then who the who the artist is. So cool. There's also a random set of what appear to be dates and or numbers for the artist, but you know, it means nothing to you other than you know you know of dates that have been in the past, but no one knows when those dates were. You know, you kind of get a sense some of the pictures are older than others because the dates are different. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So any like portraits of like naval, sort of like sea stuff these are boats and things. Yeah, there's quite a few of those. I guess I'll go and have a look. Can I can I once again try and sense emotion on these paintings rather than the sculptures? Just to see if any of these if I take a liking to any of these. Sure, no problem. Or they're all just like minuless pictures.
SPEAKER_03Give yourself an extra dice because it's naval.
SPEAKER_02Ah, one success.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you kind of get an idea that the one that you're looking at is kind of imparting this ferocity of this naval battle with large masted ships and rolling seas and deep thunderous skies. Hey Caspian, come have a look at this one.
SPEAKER_02I really like it. What do you think? Makes me want to get back on the boat. Look, but there's nothing here we can kill or eat. I see no artifacts. Why are we here?
SPEAKER_00Don't knock it. We're we're learning stuff. This this is amazing. I mean, yes, I wish there was stuff to steal, but wow.
SPEAKER_02It isn't stealing if the if the people in the before time left it lying around. It's not our fault they died. I don't know about you, but I like this one. I'm gonna take it with us. It'll look good in our bunk room.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's probably about I don't know, three foot long by about four and a half foot high.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Smash the frame, fold it up, put it in my pocket.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Yeah, you you you kind of like you're gonna like fold it up and put it into like pretty much. You gotta like roll it up until it's small enough to get my pocket. I apologize to anyone who likes 170 to 1800s artwork. Yeah, there's a lot of crunching and And and and snapping as the paint sort of like that's dried on the scammers for a while starts to flake, but yeah, you manage to sort of fold it into sort of like into sort of a good map size square and sort of like tuck it into your jacket. Yeah, if you were to take that back to the art, that will give you one culture. And so mechanically, if you were to raid this place, you would allow the ship or your arc to gain culture points as part of your um just putting it up in my room count as giving it to the ship.
SPEAKER_02No, that's the ship is probably not going to get this unless they all come to my room to see it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, we're gonna open a museum in our room.
SPEAKER_02Our culture's rubbish on the ship, and I don't think we're making any attempts to improve at any point. I mean you're because then we might not eat each other if we're actually cultured, which is.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean your your culture is is the lowest. I think
Exploring Ancient Artifacts
SPEAKER_03it's a two. You guys are just surviving and barely sort of tribal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Caspian doesn't really see the point of of culture. Look, the ancients had culture and look where it got them.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Well, you gonna hang around here a bit longer? You, but what's the plan?
SPEAKER_00Um, not like I know this ecosists in character. But is there any chance that on our way out? We might just stumble through the museum shop.
SPEAKER_03We'll follow the signs for exit through the gift shop. That's fine. Yeah, you kind of come to a rundown, ramshackled museum shop. I mean, I imagine that come the end of the world, people aren't going over to sort of like deal stuff from museums. A little shop.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's like, oh, the world is ending. Let me grab some postcards.
SPEAKER_03Postcards, I need some uh pencil and some plushies of some kind of fridge magnets, yeah. And the fridge magnets.
SPEAKER_02Don't forget the snow globe.
SPEAKER_03The magnet might actually be quite useful. Yeah, what what what what is what is boss looking for?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I don't think I knew half of these things existed. A mouse had what? But yeah, just just like the the knick-knackiness of all these little things and figuring out what they could could have possibly been good for, and the fact that they're uselessly pretty. So yeah, I'm I'm stuffing a pocket, you know, full of just little things printed with artworks.
The Museum Shop
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's cool. Okay. Yeah, I like that. Okay, you make your way through and presume you're gonna go south into the next zone.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that's correct. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Okay then.
SPEAKER_02See you. Shall I roll Find the Path? Please, if you wouldn't mind. Okay, this time I'm gonna remember that I have a talent that gives me a plus two to find the path. Okay. Let's roll some ridiculous numbers of dice. I have three successes.
Entering the Next Zone
SPEAKER_02Nice. Okay. What would you like to do? Okay, so first of all, I want to know the rot level. Okay. It is also a weak rot level. Okay. Were we in that other zone for more than a day or for for a whole day, or not? So it is No, you haven't. It is a shift. So Yep.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Got it. Like Twilight 2000. So then also, so the scavenger talent lets me find any artifacts that may exist in a sector.
SPEAKER_03Okay. There are no artifacts here.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And then I'll use the last talent to identify threats.
SPEAKER_03You get that for succeeding, yeah. You got three successes. So so one, yeah, means you can go through the zone and find a safe path and spot threats before they spot you. And then you've got two more which you've really taken. So know so know what the rot is and look for um artifacts. So sorry. That's right. But as you are wandering through, let's describe the lovely zone for you. So, yes, as you kind of like make your way through the trees, the trees sort of start to sort of thin out, and you go back into that sort of derelict, sort of low single-story ruins that was around off to the other side. You can see in the distance to the west that large tower that you saw. You also see that here there is just a whole mountain of dump stuff. There's old containers, there's it is just everywhere on the on the on the streets and sort of like paths that you're following. Everything is just rusty and melted, and it just looks like someone has dumped everything here. And as you're sort of like making your way, trying to pick your way through all the kind of rubbish and and dirt and uh sort of like the ruins, you hear in well, in not so far a distance, the sound of howling, and then the return of other
The Howling Dangers
SPEAKER_03howls. If anyone wants to make a know the zone roll, that would be great. Can do that. Two successes. They are not animals, they are the sound of people communicating or mutants communicating with each other.
SPEAKER_02Stay on your toes, everyone. There's another tribe about they seem to be speaking to one another in some kind of animalistic code.
SPEAKER_00Land people, of course they're behaving like animals.
SPEAKER_04Well, pretty much along with the group, but yeah, I'll be ready to uh ready to start swinging with scrap axe if require. Cool.
SPEAKER_03As you continue south, you can see sort of to your to the east, it obviously heads towards the coast, and there's less of the buildings and more of the sort of like broken up rubble that you've seen around the rest of the island. As you're heading south again, you've got more of these buildings that you're heading towards and threading through. You also then very much quickly pick up that there are actually tracks leading around these areas. So you kind of like get the group to go in a different direction. There's probably maybe 15 or so, maybe 20 or so uh people or things or mutants uh running around just from the different sort of tracks. I mean it's only an it's only an estimate. It's a bit difficult to tell.
SPEAKER_02Do we still hear the uh quiet?
SPEAKER_03As soon as you kind of make your way into it, they go quiet. So either they've seen you or or they haven't. But I'm gonna ask the person with the least stealthy stealthness to uh make a roll for me. So that would be sneak?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_03So who is the least sneaky Albert?
SPEAKER_00That would be a four for me.
SPEAKER_02I have a two. I have zero in sneak.
SPEAKER_00Oh, but you can't. Like I have the zero in sneak, but I've got a four in agility. I've got three in agility then.
SPEAKER_02So I've got four and agility agility.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so there was someone there with a two, I think.
SPEAKER_02Yes, but with my agility, it's higher. I didn't I didn't realize we were adding it. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So my s my sneak is actually seven. Okay, so no, not you. I think it might be me with a it is indeed you.
SPEAKER_03It's you with your three.
SPEAKER_02So let us roll my three dice and see what we get. One success.
SPEAKER_03One success. Yeah. So you manage to sort of, as a group, make your way and avoid the uh beings, the creatures, the people, the mutants, whatever they are. Maybe we should hunt one for food. Cannibalism agenda again. Did you want to get try and get close enough to see what they are, or are you happy to just avoid them?
SPEAKER_00They are pretty outnumbering us, so that worries me. Maybe we could make it. They know the area, they might lead us into a trap or something.
SPEAKER_02Maybe we could make some kind of trade agreement with some of his C-Far tubes. So dofs get close. We might be able to trade with them. Besides, we should know if we're living on this island, we should know who our neighbors are and whether or not they are tasty.
SPEAKER_00Alright, alright. Let's be cautious.
SPEAKER_03Always. Okay. Can uh can Caspian please Edward. My goodness, that sounded bad. Yeah, could you uh could you make a sneak roll from the feet?
SPEAKER_02Happy to make a sneak roll. Caspian has three successes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, okay. You're gonna you're gonna try and help the others who do not have sneak. You can help two of the others basically to to keep quiet. Yes. Um and the others are fine, they've got it, so it's not an issue. Yeah, you kind of make your way You kind of make your way to sort of one of these ruins and yet you uh you can see these degenerates wandering around. They appear to be wearing uh whatever they could have scavenged, so it's not sort of clothing that you can see, but it's whatever they managed to scavenge, and that's what they're wearing. They have a a collection of hand weapons, scrap knives, spears, that kind of thing. And there's there's there's probably about ten or
Meeting the Neighbors
SPEAKER_03so of them. And they appear to have stopped and have cooking something.
SPEAKER_02Does it smell like they're cooking vegetables or meat? Uh no, it's cooking meat. Meat, okay. I'll whisper, what do you what do you think? Should we say hello? Introduce ourselves? We might we might need, you know, need our neighbors, need friendly neighbors on our side. We could trade with them, you know? And if they turn out to be barbarians, then we'll we'll just run.
SPEAKER_00I like the sort of having people to trade with.
SPEAKER_02Who's really good talking to people?
SPEAKER_00When I probably me.
SPEAKER_02Although I am a bit of an empathy deficit at the moment, but probably best still better than most of the I think. Do you have manipulate? I do have manipulate. Also sensible. I have nothing in either of those, and my empathy is two.
SPEAKER_04I'll suggest if uh Cochrane's going down there to parlay with them, uh maybe Caspian, you hide yourself some up here, somewhere up here with your rifle, just in case things turn nasty.
SPEAKER_02That was my idea as well. I've got your back, Cochrane. Can I can I roll sense emotion to see if Cochrane actually has my back, or is he just No, you can't. I do not feel confident then.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, okay. You so Cassie's gonna hang back and cover, and then the other three are gonna go and speak to them.
SPEAKER_02Cochrane, how many serious? How many times have we been out in the water and I've never eaten you once? Well, there was our first time, but we don't talk about that anymore. That was a rough night.
SPEAKER_03Are the rest of you gonna be sneaky towards them or are you gonna be quite open and walk towards them?
SPEAKER_04Well, if uh Cochrane wants to be open, I'll I'll walk alongside him, doing my best to look intimidating and at the same time not intimidating.
SPEAKER_02I I have a feeling sneaking up and then being like, hello, will probably end worse than just like walking down, because you know, you don't start a wild animal. It's probably a bad thing. I guess get make make it not like just sort of get at sort of distance and then just sort of like wait for them to see. Well, yeah, when they notice us, we'll start. That makes sense. Because I assume they will do something probably quite noticeable when they notice us.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, so you kind of like walk towards them in a very nonchalant kind of way, trying not to be too sneaky. And when you sort of get about maybe a hundred feet away from them, you obviously can make some noise as you're walking through this garbage strewn around this paths that you're following. And they and they very very very quickly kind of spot you and sort of like stab from the food that they're cooking, and they make their way to sort of become in fact you can see this Caspian. A few of them kind of like go off to the sides to sort of flank them, and then a couple head forward. But there's a there's a contingent that sort of like continue to eat and cook. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You see these two people coming towards you. Can I do a sense of motion to pick up what the biggest sort of like vibe is from them? Because I think that's the neat sort of thing, is yeah, sense of motion. You can have an extra dice. So if it is hungry, oh I'm doing very bad this session.
SPEAKER_03That's no successes that I take it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, correct. He's got no su he's got no vibes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you're you're you're unsure. They both have one of them's got like a an axe and the other one's got a spear, and they kind of come towards you, and the one of them looks at you and says, What?
SPEAKER_00Hello there. We're just passing through and you know, maybe looking to trade or something. Trade.
SPEAKER_03What trade?
SPEAKER_00Well we don't know. Maybe you're looking for stuff or maybe you've got stuff that you want to get rid of or something, you know.
SPEAKER_03We have to that's good.
SPEAKER_00We might need to buy food.
SPEAKER_03What are you wearing and what are you what what what are you carrying?
SPEAKER_00I'm wearing a yellow graincoat with uh with the pockets folding a bit with the museum stuff and probably I'm thinking I might I might have like a a tool belt or something.
SPEAKER_03Douglas, what are you what what's Cochrane wearing and what's it got out?
SPEAKER_02Cochrane is wearing a very old and grease-stained oiler suit that has a patch on it which says HMS Cochrane.
SPEAKER_01Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_02But apart from that, I think the only thing he's got is a scrap knife and of course his filtered up painting.
SPEAKER_04Pete, what does Roach look like? He's got some tassy trousers, some fairly sturdy boots, and an imitation leather long coat that he uses to hide pretty much everything he's got on him. Weapons that you've got sort of do you have anything out or is it just It's just my scrap axe will be just slung across my shoulder and I'll be looking to towards the toughest looking one of them and just giving them the respectful nod as if, yeah, I'm here as the uh the muscle and I can see you are as well.
SPEAKER_03So that's Yeah. You you look at the you look at the muscle. That's the guy without the spear, the guy with the um the axe. It takes you a minute to realise that he's holding his axe sort of down at his at his side, but he's eating something with both of his other hands. You're like, yeah, he has more than two arms. He says, uh you you have you have food? You have more? He points at your scrap axe. Back at base we have a few more tools and we come from the sea. Why what what do you do why? Why why the sea? Why are you here?
SPEAKER_00Like you do, you know. Why don't you go explore? I have your top Why don't you go explore?
SPEAKER_03I have your top, but it it wins you moss. I give you food for top. Yeah, fresh, fresh food.
SPEAKER_00I mean like I said, I mean I don't really do clothing because you know, like it grows moss because I keep doing I I keep getting wet too much. So I'd be like you know, yeah. But I scramble to find something that I could uh put my stash off new treasures in. I mean I try try and stuff stuff into my tool belt, but it doesn't it won't fit and I'm sort of you know trying trying to to find room for it and I'm sort of starting to panic a bit, trying to stuff stuff into Roach's pockets.
SPEAKER_03There is sort of like a like a rusty sort of like, I don't know, like ammo box, I guess is the best way to describe it. Which you could put your stuff in if you wanted to, but you need to be just carrying this thing around with you.
SPEAKER_00I mean we'll have to carry the food back if they give us food, so that that that'll work. But yeah, I I I hand him I hand him the raincoat and I I wonder where he's gonna put his arms, but sure, go ahead.
SPEAKER_03The guy with the spear takes the raincoat, takes off his like manky looking clothing and puts your raincoat on. It's a bit too small for him, but he's like, okay. Yeah, food? I get food.
SPEAKER_02And the uh May I ask you a question?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Am I at arm's length with any of these people?
SPEAKER_03No, because you're um covering up them. Archie by your rifle. Yes. So you actually with the other three, I thought you were like hanging back.
SPEAKER_02No, no, I'm not. I'm hanging back, covering them and hiding. But I just wanted to know if anyone in that clearing was close enough to me to be considered at arm's length. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Because you said they were f a couple of the guys were flanking on either side, so I didn't know if you Yeah, yes, they kind of came out around, but you've kind of hidden so they don't spot you. But they're that they've got scrap weapons as well. But you reckon one is kind of actually skirted past you and around you behind you, and making their way around towards the back end of the other three.
SPEAKER_00So you guys hunting the big animals, and I sort of put up my hands to indicate the horns?
SPEAKER_03They they tough. No. We have others, fresh, and you eat kind of like whistles. And you see one of them who the one of the ones that are remained at the actual place where they're having food, goes behind some of the runes and picks up someone and starts to sort of like drag them along towards No.
SPEAKER_00No. I mean, done.
A Gruesome Discovery
SPEAKER_02Jokes about cannibalism have gotten a little too real. You recognize the person.
SPEAKER_03It's Blossom, one of Elson's gang.
SPEAKER_00Was this somebody who got taken the the day that we lost our shit?
SPEAKER_03It is someone who you didn't realise was missing.
SPEAKER_04Oh glance across at my two companions and give them a bit of a glare as into Yeah, don't make a fuss about this.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna start sneaking my way toward the person that was making their way toward the behind my companions. Is that I point to the person, I'm like, is that the meat? The food?
SPEAKER_03Oh yes, good food. Very fresh.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Ah. We're gonna need to take that back to our boat. So can we have it alive? Because we'll slaughter it and it'll be fresher when we get there. And I will make them a can I are they're gonna agree to that or do I have to roll for that?
SPEAKER_03Yes, that that is that is that is good. We we like, yes, we that is fine. It is a good trade.
SPEAKER_00How much how much more do you have? We can bring stuff from our base.
SPEAKER_03We we already have the other one.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you only got two, okay. Well, that's great that you're sharing with us, huh?
SPEAKER_03We we we we we make good trade. This is nice. He kind of like he kind of feels the the raincoat that you kind of provided.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, good trade. I sort of yeah, struggle to like contain my my my emotions.
SPEAKER_02Struggling to not shoot this guy. But um I'm so I'm like following the guy that was going around behind my companions.
SPEAKER_00And I hope Glossum's gonna keep her cool when once she recognizes us. This is probably uh also stressful.
SPEAKER_02Morlocks, I like the name. You might like that. Little uh HGL's time machine callback. Very nice. So wait, does that make us the Eloy?
SPEAKER_03That does make you the Eloy.
SPEAKER_02You have a culture of two, they have a culture of zero, therefore we are more developed.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so uh he brings Blossom out. Yeah, you're you're like okay. I sneak behind. Okay, I guess well, now I've just thrown the combat map up. You can see that you are beside two ruins to your left and and to your right. You've sort of got this pathway that you've been following. The more the the the people have kind of like come towards. At the end of the alleyway, you can see the others eating food over a fire, and you can see there's a couple of um entrances and exits to the north and to the south. Uh Caspine, you are sort of like in the on the southwest of of the of the map, tracking one that's sort of like sneaking around the other two. And the rest of you are sort of like in this alleyway between the two ruins as or trading. What are you gonna do? I guess we'll go with we'll go with you first. Uh Roth.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'll step forward with my axe still slung across my shoulder in my right hand and reach out my uh left hand to uh to take the food supplies, as it were. Yep. I'll just grab Babba fairly roughly, but kind of like try to make it reassuring somehow to her in some way.
SPEAKER_03And uh That's an interesting way of doing that.
SPEAKER_04I'm not really sure. What how are you gonna do that? I'll just look at the one who's bringing her out, I'll grab her as well and kind of like nod as if I'll take it from here kind of thing. I'll just drag her away.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, t check check her out, check her over, you know, to make sure that she's not damaged goods, as it were.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I I w I won't bother doing that. I'll I'll step back first as if yeah, yeah, I've got our stuff, yeah, we'll be off now. She she looks at you and she goes, Roach.
SPEAKER_02Oh Yeah, but but they don't know that he's getting Roach or what Roach is. Oh sure. What are you gonna do? You could just be saying, Ooh, bug person.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'll just like a roach. If somebody's close enough, they might see a momentary flare in my eye, but yeah, I'll just roughly just drag it and say, Yeah, we don't need you to talk. Okay, Moss, what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_00I think I'm still sort of a bit shaken from the realization of what's just happened here and well, these are not gonna be our best friends and you know, like whatever supplies of food then are they? So I look a bit crestfallen as I carry my stuff in the in the box and saying, Yeah, well so it's a pleasure doing business with you, trying to not let my face slip.
SPEAKER_03He um he smiles as yeah, all good. And what's Cochrane gonna do? I guess I'll be like, make small talk, I suppose.
SPEAKER_02We we're from we're from the Odyssey. What is your tribe, is that correct words, name? Do you live here? Sure territory?
SPEAKER_03Yes, our territory. And Caspian, he doesn't he seems difficult to make small talk, but
Tension in the Shadows
SPEAKER_03what are you gonna do, Caspian?
SPEAKER_02Did I need to make a sneak roll to get behind the scene? No, no, no, no, you'd already you'd already done that. Excellent. Is he armed? Is he armed? Let's have a look. He does, he's got like a scrap knife. If I clock him with the butt of my scrap rifle, is that a fight roll? That is indeed a fight roll. Terrible at that, okay. How about I s okay, this might be stupid, but I'm going to how about if I I will put the what's that? I love stupid. I know you do. I'm going to put the butt of my rifle uh into his the small of his back and whisper into his ear, if you make a sound, I will fucking kill you. You'll intimidate or anything like that.
SPEAKER_03Oh, you're gonna make me roll manipulation, fuck you!
SPEAKER_02No, yes please, I am. Yeah, I think it intimidates us rule uh specific one of the approaches really when I come in intimidate at the moment.
SPEAKER_03Cool then.
SPEAKER_02Sorry, Roach. Turns out he does have the concept of what a gun is, so I failed on my one die roll. One die? I take it you do not want to push that. It's a three. I mean, I suppose I could push it.
SPEAKER_03If you get a one, then you'll be down to zero.
SPEAKER_02Right, yes. No, I'm not gonna push that. No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02I'm not gonna give him food for this thing. Cassian gets eaten because we'll disavow any knowledge of who that guy is. Oh, how ironic. The guy joking about cannibalism becomes food.
SPEAKER_03The poetic irony, I will sing a song about it. So right, she managed to sort of like get blossomed sort of a little bit further away than than than than right next to the person when you hear a a howl come from just behind you.