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 E13: A Mutant Year Zero Actual Play Podcast
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Elson’s absence on a critical mission against cannibals leaves leadership on the Ark in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Cochran, Roach, Moss, and Caspian must navigate mistrust and betrayal as they attempt to deliver a message to Arwin, the exiled leader of the Lore Keepers.
Join our Patreon
Join our Facebook Group
Website: Stories with Dice Podcast
Subscribe to our Stories with Dice YouTube Channel
Our Podcast music was provided by The Podcast Host and Alitu: The Podcast Maker app.
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_00Welcome back to another episode of Mutant Years Zero. I am joined as ever by my trusty and wonderful, very hardworking co-host, Marco. I'm glad you've noticed. What? You do stuff? I didn't even realize.
SPEAKER_02We also have uh Douglas. Hello. I am not as hard working as Marco. I just turn up. And Pete.
SPEAKER_00Hi. We don't have Chris, unfortunately. She is off enjoying Carnival somewhere, I believe.
The Ship and the Ark
SPEAKER_01So Chris, this one's for you. And that's okay, because Moss fixed my rifle, so Moss is superfluous.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we don't need don't need Moss now. It's all good. So where we left off last uh session, you were back at the ship. You kind of convinced Elson to go off and lead uh I don't know, like an expedition to the cannibals that you uh you were fought, leaving them go them gone. There is no one leading Rhett's gang, and Anwin is on the island, leaving you all to uh well figure out what you're going to do with the ship. But first of all, someone needs to make a roll to see how many people in the ARK kick the bucket this week. But I believe your ARK has got quite a lot of food now, which I think you went over to the the NES information of the state.
SPEAKER_02Unless we solve the stuff on the island, the people on the ship don't have access to the food. I think we're population.
SPEAKER_00That that is true. So currently, technically, the people on the on the island have quite a lot of food, but it's currently your development level is 25. So technically, uh so almost everyone in the ark can fill their stomach every day, and there's even enough to put some aside for hard times. A bullet typically buys you three rations of grub, and we get to decrease the session body count by two. So if uh someone wants to roll me a d6, I'm gonna just enforce that out, why not? It would be minus one, so let's just see what someone rolls. So shall we uh nominate a Pete. Pete. If you want to roll me a D6, that'll be great, sir.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I always get six on this. See, I nominate him because he always is a high roller.
SPEAKER_00Nice. So, well, that didn't go very well. So even though it turns out that the people on the island seem fine, but the rest of you on the ship are sadly funny. So you start off with 200 souls on board the ship, and you are now on 106. So it's uh it's going down. Just to remind everyone, you've got a development level for food of 25, a development for culture of two, technology is ten, and warfare is ten. So uh definitely the food is kind of getting there, but you're not really kind of developing any kind of uh culture or understanding about how you're gonna live in that direction. Technology is kind of holding st steady, and warfare's holding steady. Now, before we started, Douglas, you were looking at some of the the projects you do. And you uh were talking about one project that you liked.
SPEAKER_02Unfortunately, I don't think we meet the minimum criteria quite yet. Do you not? Okay, well I think I think I will I will maybe keep it a
Expedition to the Cannibals
SPEAKER_02secret for now, but I think we're missing the technology requirement.
SPEAKER_00Me just have a little look- I won't spoil the surprise for anyone, but I'm just gonna have a little quick look. Okay, yes, you're right. Okay. Well, we'll have to uh wait and see then in that case.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I think maybe maybe if that's gonna be our goal, the first order of business will be to secure that food supply for from Anwin's gang on the island, because they're the one with the farm. Okay. That's just you know, put that on the board, you know, as something that we need to take care of.
SPEAKER_00Can you someone uh someone roll me five d6? Five dicks five d six. It's not a skill roll, it's just yield five to six, total it all up, and tell me what you get. Because that's how many people are gonna go into the zone expedition. Alright, I'll do it. Thirteen. Thirteen. So he's taken thirteen of them, so there's twenty odd left. But he is gonna take about half of his team, half of his group, and then a bunch of others that are kind of un unaligned to a particular gang. And they're all going off to uh go and sort out these uh cannibals. Okay. So that gives you 120 odd people to try and manipulate and deal with, I suppose.
SPEAKER_01He left you behind, Roach. Always getting looked over, you know, passed over and all the important all the important stuff. Six me for now. Okay. Well, what's the plan then, guys?
SPEAKER_02Well, I think we the one thing we were asked was to go deliver a message to the people on the island. Yes. To say that there's going to be some sort of like meeting or something. Well, I don't know this. I this is this is stuff that the other characters discuffed as Belson, so I assume they told me.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah, area one sort of thing.
SPEAKER_02So that is the one thing that they have asked, because we have the only boats and we may the other one went missing mysteriously, who knows where it went.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So you have the power of the boat. That's quite handy. You know, you are that you've got the power to be the one who can explore places. Well, I suppose give them another boat if necessary. So that kind of makes you a little vital for them kind of going backwards and forwards, that kind of thing. And they've got a bunch of like smaller skiffs and rowboats, which they could presumably get their own back, but it's just a lot of time and effort to kind of fike it across. So is that a plan to kind of go over to the island and do that? Or are you did you want to I don't know, did you want to take the island by force? Did you want to try and get Anwin?
SPEAKER_02Well, I don't want to kill everyone on the island or take it by force because my buddy's there. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't I don't see there's a need to like go in there guns blazing at the moment. But we do need to speak to Anwin, make sure she understands she's no longer in charge.
SPEAKER_02And also maybe ask why she did what she did. Yes, I agree. That is if Irwin's still there or alive or hasn't just been deposed by everyone else. So will we do that first, everyone?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think so. That sounds like a plan.
SPEAKER_00Well if you're not gonna be tooled up for anything, or you know, you're not going over there with with any kind of intent and sail over, did you want to take anyone with you, or are you just gonna go over just the four of you? Three of
Planning the Island Infiltration
SPEAKER_00us, you mean. Well I say the four. I assume you're gonna go over and leave Moss in charge of the boat so that you don't all kind of wander off to see Anwin and they take your boat. We're stranded on the island. Yes, I see what you're saying. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And then mysteriously, yeah, Moss happens to s come in and save the day if anything goes wrong. There we go. Okay, right. You do that. You wander over to the island. Can someone roll me a D6, please? Bliss, you haven't rolled anything yet. I have Douglass.
SPEAKER_02I haven't rolled anything. Why not? Is there going to be a reason why I've not rolled anything? Maybe a four, it's a middle ground number, so four, okay.
SPEAKER_00So the yeah. The the the weather has unchanged. It's kind of slightly overcast. A little breezy, but nothing too bad. And so very very quickly you manage to sail across to the um to the island.
SPEAKER_01The weather outside is frightening. Weather outside is frightening.
SPEAKER_00Unfortunately, yeah, singing is not my strong set. As you may have noticed. Nor mine. Okay. You make your way across to the island, you can see there are a couple of gang members waiting on the dock, and one of them says, You back?
Confronting Striker
SPEAKER_00What's our boat? How the fuck should I know? It was here and then you left, and then it wasn't. Sounds like a you problem. Alright. Well, what could I do for you? This guy's name is Stryker. We're here to see Anwin Stryker. Alright. Well, come on, Caspian. Do you want to leave all your stuff in the boat? Why would I leave my stuff in the boat? Well, you kind of look to see if you're told that with any weapons or anything. And unless you're particularly trying to hide any weapons, uh he kind of says you can put that back.
SPEAKER_01You don't need that. Don't worry, I'm not gonna shoot Anwin. He's a lore keeper. Why would I do that? He smiles and Guys, back me up here. Like everyone else is nobly silent.
SPEAKER_02Well, okay. You you know me, striker. I'm friends with victims, I broke. We did you a favor to get you on here. We put our lives at risk to hold off the other people to get you tied to get here. That doesn't give us any sort of trust. Come on, guys.
SPEAKER_00He looks over at the other guy. The guy who's got like this these postules on his cheek and stuff, he looks over at him, he looks back. Striker, and he just sort of like shrugs his shoulders. Cochrane. Why don't you make some kind of persuade manipulatey kind of role? So if you want to make a manipulation role, that'd be great.
SPEAKER_02Manipulation sounds fine. I just do that. No, don't have anything else that has, so there'll still be seven dice. Nice.
SPEAKER_00And that's a whole lot of nothing. Yeah. He says, uh being Victor's friend is think that's what it's all cracked up to me? Does you want to push the role?
SPEAKER_02Really? Because I'm not fussed about taking my weapons and it's only Caspian. Okay. It's me. Funny about the weapons.
SPEAKER_00And says, like Caspian, you can stay with the boat if you want. Roach.
SPEAKER_01What do you think? I ain't going nowhere without my axe. Yeah. I ain't going anywhere without me gun. Alright. I'll do will I just go then? You guys. No, no, no, no. You're not going by yourself.
SPEAKER_02These guys are twitchy. Can I make a sort of like get a feel for like do a sense of motion check to get the sort of like vibe check if that makes sense?
SPEAKER_00You don't need to make a sense of motion roll. They're twitchy.
SPEAKER_02They don't want you going in with Yeah, but it's it's the weapons part of that is the stipulation. It's not that they're Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You can also see there, Daphne Stryker is a little bit he's but he's he's he's pretty much showing that he's very untrustworthy as far as he's concerned. You stole the boat. It was there, you were there, you went, boat went, a la, you stole the boat.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It probably also didn't help. We literally left a message that said, fuck I went. There is also that.
SPEAKER_01You have an excellent memory, my friends.
SPEAKER_02Yes. I remember these things which are not helping us. The separate
Conversations on the Jetty
SPEAKER_02situation.
SPEAKER_00So you can understand they're not exactly particularly happy with it's two. There are two guys, right? They're two guys, yeah. And what do they are they armed? Yeah, so striker has got pistol, like a scrap pistol. And the other guy, whose name is Ooze, appears to be he's got like a scrap knife at his side. They haven't drawn any of their weapons or anything.
SPEAKER_02I'm just gonna turn to the guards and be like, um, could you give me a minute to just try and convince these guys? Oh, sure.
SPEAKER_00They kind of like walk to the end of the jetty, or walk to the beginning of the jetty were attached to the land. And just kind of like they end up shooting.
SPEAKER_02So remind me out, this is the jetty on the south side of the island. Correct, yes. Yeah. Okay. Because we know that you can land on the north side because that's where we arrived initially.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the the northwest side. You can kind of land. There's no jetting, but you kind of get near get near to it.
SPEAKER_02It was like somewhere where we sheltered from the storm up there. Yes. Yeah, correct. Overnight when we first came here. So I'll pitch to the other guys like if they really want to get onto the island of the stuff, and whatchamacallit, we could maybe you get you could leave I could go in unarmed, and then you guys, if you want, could come in from the north part and then sneak in. Because I don't think you're gonna convince these guys to let you take assault rifle in.
SPEAKER_01I don't like the idea of you going alone. So either we all go to the other side of the island. Or remember when I said we're not gonna go in guns blazing? Well, we go in and fuck these guys up. They're being dicks. We're just here to like talk with them. Right, exactly. But I don't know. I'm just telling them anything too inflammatory. Right, but I'm not going anywhere without my rifle. I don't trust them. They're too twitchy.
Tensions Rising
SPEAKER_01They clearly okay, so we left a nasty note in the sand. They're clearly, clearly rubbed them the wrong way. So why now would I disarm myself around them, you know? Well, I'm not asking you to disarm yourself. I'm just saying, Right, but your party can go in. I can I've been in like I could talk my way out of anything, you know? Clearly, you couldn't talk us onto the island without having to give up our means of self-defense. So I don't to get myself out of trouble, you know.
SPEAKER_02That's different. That's when you need you need that adrenaline rush on like, you know, stakes.
SPEAKER_01So when you really push yourself to the limit, as it was. What do you think, Roach? You think we should let him go on his own and we approach the island from the other side?
SPEAKER_03I think if he really wants to go, he can go. We just need to point out to these people that uh if we really wanted to take it by arms, we can easily just nip back and get the rest of Elson's gang and wipe them out.
SPEAKER_01That is an excellent message, Roach, and I think that you are the most effective person to deliver it. Because you're imposing. You're you're a big dude, man. If that comes from you, it carries weight. I'm just a scrawny parasite.
SPEAKER_02And plus, if anything goes wrong, I can rely on you guys to like bust me out. Whether if we were all together and something went wrong, we're all in trouble.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01See, it makes sense, Caspian. You can bring the weasels back. Question for the GM. When when they come back and Cochrane and Roach Roach tells them, gives them, you know, the the the lesson, I suppose, that we could take them by force if we wanted to. Where like how far apart are we? I want to know if I'm at arm's length with any of these two people. You can get close and whisper into their ears.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I want to whisper sweet nothings. Kind of look. So you've got like the boat on the end of the jetty, and you've kind of got them towards the land. Okay, so we're not close enough. No, I mean you're probably sort of like I don't know, ten meters away from because they've walked towards the end of the jet towards the front of the jetty, leaving you guys to discuss your conversation. Right, but when they come back, how how close will they be? Well, how close do you want to get to them? I mean they've spoken to you probably an arm an arm and a half's length away from each other. Okay. Cool.
SPEAKER_01Kakarun, why don't you uh signal them to to approach? Okay. I um like give them the thumbs up.
SPEAKER_00Yep. They kind of kind of wander over to you.
SPEAKER_02I'll hand over my are they are they particularly fussed about my knife? Well, are you gonna give them the knife? Well no, I'll give it to I'll make a big open thing of giving that to like Caspian. Okay. Actually, no. You know, it's more of a sign of trust if I give it to them. Right. These guys aren't gonna mu budget f uh because they don't want to give up their stuff. So they're just gonna like go for a little sale and come back in like a couple hours.
SPEAKER_03Elbow Roach. Tell on Roach? Yes, striker. Just for an update on the security situation. We ain't the only community round here. Some of these others uh yeah, they they look enviously upon our resources. Just pointing out that, yeah, we aren't really the ones you should be worried about. So how should we be worried about cannibals. If we were if we were you know that we have the armament and the manpower back on the main ship that we could come over and take this island any time anyway. So uh maybe you should be looking to us to uh offer you the protection you need.
SPEAKER_01Or you know, we could just feed you to the cannibals. Strike it looks like a Caspian. They almost made a tasty morsel out of Blossom before we rescued her. I don't think I'll be doing the same for you. He smiles. And if he's if he's in arm's length with me, I am going to use a mutation point. Sure. And I'm gonna steal his mutant power. Okay.
SPEAKER_00It's fine. Roll to four. Yep, that's fine. Okay. You uh you steal his mutation point. You use mutation. He's got extreme reflexes. Extreme reflexes? Yeah, so uh you have superhuman reflexes. If you get a plus two per mana point spent on your initiative rolls at the beginning of the conflict, you can fight or shoot an enemy a second time for the same turn, and each attack costs you one mana point. You can dodge someone who fights you or shoots at you. Every mana point spent or mutation point spent reduces the damage you take by one, and then you can roll for your armor afterwards.
SPEAKER_01As a show, I'm not initiating combat or anything like that, but as a show, I'm going to I'll take Cochrane's dagger from him. Using the extreme reflexes, he'll see that I'm doing it like super fast and I put it in my belt or whatever, and just be like, see you later, striker.
SPEAKER_00Spend another mutation point to do that. Okay, no problem. Okay. Stryker kind of sucks at you, and he he looks even more suspicious than he did beforehand. You can see that the other guy is kind of a bit oblivious just to what's going on. There's definitely some kind of conversation you're having under subtext, and striker kind of just nods and uh offers you to come along, Cochrane.
SPEAKER_02Oh, so they're they're escorting me, are they?
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, yeah, they're just basically saying after you kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01Look after yourself, Cochrane, and uh striker fuck off. Alright, see you in a couple hours. Yep. Wink. P, what are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_03I'm just gonna stand there watching them. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he kind of they they they eye you up quite a bit, P they're just like, clearly, out of everyone, you're the the biggest threat to them. Caspian is the most annoying to them. And Cochrane is kind of not really kind of too much of a threat and or anything. So they're just like, yep. Plus, he's also a friend of someone they know. So yeah, they they don't escort you. So Cochrane, they they walk to the end they walk to the the beginning of the pier with you, and then they say you know the way, and then they stay at the Do I? I don't know where they I I've I've been here once. Where where is Arwen? The guy with all the kind of pustules on his face says, if you just follow
Meeting Anwen
SPEAKER_00the f follow the path up, as soon as you get into the the courtyard, you turn right, and there's a couple of the mortuaries have been turned into into buildings. Okay. Alright.
SPEAKER_02I think I know where that is. Right. Uh he kind of looks at you and says, I'd go with you, but I've got to stick here. Fair enough. Hopefully I'll get back before they get back. Hopefully this won't take too long.
SPEAKER_00Sure. Um and they need to walk up the um path. I assume Roach and Caspian are gonna get back into the boat to go off for a in quote unquote sail. Yes. Okay. Right. Well, Douglas, you kind of follow the path and you kind of get to where you kind of it kind of goes up the the island, sort of like on a on a small hill. And as you go up, you can kind of come across the large wall that surrounds the entire middle part of the island. Um there's some of these old iron gates which are kind of dilapidated. There's all sorts of like this, you remember being quite a lot of overgrown plants and vines. That appears to be cut down. There's a path that's been sort of started to be made. And as you go through the iron gates, you can see that there's a lot of patches that are being dug up, and you can see they've been working on making cropland in the um in the thing. It seems to have some good nutrients into the soil. And so the you've also seen that they've taken a lot of tarps and they've started to make shelters and lean tos out of the various mausoleums, and and they've taken a lot of the brickwork, which they've taken apart and sort of like pushed to the side, and they're still starting to make buildings and stuff out of it. So they're in they're nowhere near completed, but they're they're in the beginning stages of basically making a bit of a home here. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Can I rather than just going directly kind of like take a scenic sort of route around and just sort of scout out the area?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you can either take scenics, look around. I mean, people there are people walking around, there's some people sort of like tilling the fields. There's a couple of them that are sitting down and they've got various cans and other bits and pieces around them that they're kind of putting into the soil.
SPEAKER_02One of them small talk to them with them as I walk past or whatever, just to not be threatening. And they'll be probably like, why are you who are you? You here. Pretty much everyone.
SPEAKER_00Also not armed, so just but they all know you because you hung around with Victor. And as you're sort of like having a look, you make small talk. It appears they pretty much spent the last couple of weeks just kind of trying to get everything ready and sorting out the uh cropland. It's nowhere near quite ready to sort of like be harvest. What they did find on the back end of the wall, they found some small allotments that apparently had been used before, which had fruit and vegetables growing in, which they've kind of harvested and which has kind of helped them to add to your food level.
SPEAKER_02Can I gauge kind of like how they're feeling about like being on the island in Arwen? They seem fine.
SPEAKER_00Yep, they seem happy enough. And as you're sort of like doing that, you see your friend Victor. You kind of promised one together.
SPEAKER_02From what I'm discussing, it doesn't sound like there was any sort of bombshell reveals done while we were away, so they were either all on it or nobody knows anything. Yeah. Victon says, Hey, Cochrane. Oh, Victim, how's it going? Okay. Good to see you. I love how we've done the place.
SPEAKER_00Very uh sort of uh earthy. We've worked really hard to try and get it right. But yeah, it's it it's a work in progress. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But um it must be a bit creepy like living in the dead people in the dead people houses. Well, they're dead.
SPEAKER_00So uh they're not gonna bother us. Whatever. I mean we cleared out most of them, so it was that one over there I got the cool dice from. He looks over and goes, Oh, we found a bunch of other things. Anything interesting? Well, we found well, we found a lot of jewellery and things.
SPEAKER_02Shiny things. I found a bunch of like shiny bricks when I was at that sunken city. Nice. But they were like they were just not very useful. They look pretty though. Well, if you ever want to bring anything to us, feel free.
SPEAKER_00I take this just not a social visit.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no. I've been sent over by the people back home taboard reparn.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Sure. Do you want to go and say?
SPEAKER_02So yeah. So how did how things been going generally after, like, you know, what told you last time?
SPEAKER_00After you well, yeah. Yeah, it's it's been a bit disturbing. I don't think that's really my my news to tell you. I think you need to think to Anw. You know, me, you've got to have an opinion on things. I do. How many years? I mean, the thing is that you know how the others are. They'll just like riot at the smallest things. Um it's safe to say that sometimes the majority of the people can't know everything that's going on. Because then things fall apart. Hey, I'm saying it's not like perfect. But look, it's not really for me to tell you. I don't really want to kind of We we get on, right? And I don't really want to kind of get anyone's bad bugs.
SPEAKER_02I understand. You've got to keep you live with these people, you know. Here, you know. I don't want to make things too awkward for you, you know. So you know. Unfortunately I'm kind of stuck here for a couple hours until my mates come and pick me back up. So and depends how things go with Arwen, it might be a quite a quick meeting, you know, if you get my drift.
SPEAKER_00I understand. Well look, why don't we why don't you go see her and see what what happens?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I'll tell you what, um I'll come back and see you when I'm done if I've got time.
SPEAKER_00Sure, where are you going to be? Well, I'll take you to Anwin now. Oh, okay, thank you. Um and he kind of like walks with you to the sort of like the corner, the n the sort of like northeastern corner where they've kind of built sort of like the um the mateshift shelters and kind of are making use of the mausoleums that are up there. And yeah, you kind of like walk past a bunch of things that are happening. They've obviously got their own mini projects happening, and you have sort of like a bit of a bit of a sort of like a chat. Meanwhile, on board the on board the boat, uh Pete, Marco. So your plan is to what come out and sail around?
SPEAKER_01We're gonna sail off far enough so that if anyone is watching us, they see that we're leaving. And then once we're out of sight of their spotters, if anyone happens to if they ha happen to have lookouts, then we'll turn and go toward that other area that Cochrane had mentioned. Make them know the zone role for me. Well, I have no successes. I'm going to push it. One success.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sure. Uh so you kind of come out and you sort of like start to sort of make your way around the island, but you've got I also took one damage. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, you kind of as you kind of make your way around the island, there isn't a huge amount of places that you can kind of go. Because it's on a up on a on a on a hill, as you sh as you sail around the island, it pretty means that most of the island, if you're sort of on the top of the hill, if you were on if you were a spotter, for example, on a on a wall, you'd probably be able to see you go all the way around the island. Probably. It's difficult to tell when you're on the boat and you're looking up, but just as a heads up, um, you'd hope that you know there's only sort of like eight to ten of them there. So in reality, unless they're all sitting on the island on the walls, looking out and scoping things out, it's unlikely that they'll be able to spot you at some point, but presumably all the good landing spots will probably be watched, you would imagine, or at the very least a couple. But yeah, uh it's you to make that decision about what you want to do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What do you think, Road? Should we take that chance or should we actually go into the next zone so that we are completely out of their sight and then come back around from above?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think it'd be too obvious if we we land now. And it would raise the alarm as far as they're concerned.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay, so we're gonna move into this other zone here. To the north. Uh no, no, over here. Okay, you wanna Yeah, we're going east. If I go north, they're gonna know something is up because we're not heading toward the ship, right? Okay. Well, we did say we were going sailing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. Okay. So well, can you uh find the path, please, sir? Or and or navigate. Please don't get lost and then I'm stuck on this island forever.
SPEAKER_02One no, two successes.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so off you go. You uh you made your way to the west. So you So for that, obviously you've been through this area before. So at least you half the time. Isn't that east? Oh, so you're going west, sorry. Yeah, that would help, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_01No, over here, isn't that east? Yes, that's east. Yeah, okay. You said west.
SPEAKER_00Sorry. Sorry. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, east.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you're uh you kind of takes you half the time to go through, so that's not a problem. You've already been through here before, so I assume you're not staying to look for anything, or are you you just gonna bottom through the sector?
SPEAKER_01Do I have one stunt available? You've got one stunt, yeah. One stunt, okay. So I want to rush through the sector in a quarter of the time it normally takes. Yep. That's fine. So we avoid any creatures or any other kind of phenomenon. That's fine. Okay. And what's the plan after that?
SPEAKER_00To go up to here. Okay. Right. Well, we'll get back to you while we do that.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02There's not like two interesting up there where it's like, oh, that's the crack, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00Well, you never know. Okay, Cochrane, you uh you make your way to see Anwin. And Anwin is waiting for you as you uh go in. She says, Cochrane, it's good to see you.
SPEAKER_02Yes, it's nice to uh come visit. It looks like you've really spruced up the place. So does it look like it's very much been improved inside here since last time I was here?
SPEAKER_00Well, the fact that they've actually got some form of place to stay is, and before it was just an old battered cemetery. She says, You uh just you, no none of the others?
SPEAKER_02Unfortunately, yeah, Stryker didn't let anyone up with any weapons, and Caspian and Roach did not want to get rid of theirs, so they've just gone off for a little uh sale and they're gonna come back for me in a couple hours. Okay, well uh what what can I do for you, Cochrane? Well, I'm mostly here just to Well, I want to see check on Victorum mostly because he's
Updates and News
SPEAKER_02a mate. But Elson sent a message over that he's wanting to have a meeting soon with the current leaders to discuss what's going to happen soon and he would like to include yourself.
SPEAKER_00That's very kind. Maybe he can give us back out both.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That would possibly have to be discussed as part of it.
SPEAKER_00It's difficult. How am I gonna get there if I don't have the vessel that I require?
SPEAKER_02I'm sure Caspian will be able to come get you on his one. Well. Yes, but unfortunately we're having our own struggles at the moment at the boat, and I will just kind of filler in on everything that's happened so far. So Are you gonna leave anything out? Am I gonna leave anything out? So let me have a list of the things that we've kind that have kind of happened. And do you mind if I just list them off ahead? You go ahead. And you could agree if these are the things that have happened. So a bunch of people have died. There's sickness running across the boat at the moment, somewhere in the lower decks. Yeah. Uh a bunch of centipedes came and kidnapped people at some point.
SPEAKER_00No, they were crab people or crabs. I think that's that that's how we all described it. Like you all described it as crab people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, crab people came and grabbed some people and took them off to the deep blue sea. We found a bunch of cannibals who were kidnapping people, and Elsin, who is literally the only we told her Rhett was dead last time we were here.
SPEAKER_00Did we actually tell her Rhett was dead? Did you tell her? Yeah, no, you did. Oh, you said well, you said that there was a large explosion and a lot of the people were hurt. I I don't know if you actually said the cheapest. I'll confirm that Rhett's very dead.
SPEAKER_02We've or we've not found her. And her her gang's in a bit of disarray at the moment. And Elsa yeah. Elson has kind of taken charge, basically, of the ship. Yeah, but unfortunately he's having problems because a bunch of cannibals came and abducted some people and ate them, and now he's going to go and deal with that personally.
SPEAKER_00So who's in charge of the ship while he's not there?
SPEAKER_02Cochrane's actually going to be like hand up in a second and be like, technically there's no one in charge at the moment. So everyone's just kind of everyone's just sort of working away. It's actually quite peaceful. The Ark has no king. The Ark needs no king. Actually, it's like all the leaders away, and everything is fine.
SPEAKER_00Sure. She says, Okay, and when do I need to sort of uh go and see well, I assume that requires Elson to come back from wandering off into the zones and come back alive.
SPEAKER_02He's not wondering. He's got he's a very specific target, and I'll explain like where he's going on the there's a specific place on the East Coast that was boss imagined, wasn't it? Yeah. Like some sort of like place in the other thing. And he's like, he's going there with a list of all the people who went with him. Yeah. Like, because you know, I vaguely probably know that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know most you you pretty much know everyone in the So he took a decent amount of people. I see. You can see she's sort of like thinking. Yeah. And says, um, so where are your colleagues?
SPEAKER_02Told you they're they're just out to taking a sale at the moment. She looked quizzical at that and says, How long do you think Elson will be away for? Well, let me have a think. And I'll I will try and do the math in my head, even though I have terrible wits of how long it actually took us to get vaguely to that area. I think it was around about like half, but it's like three hours to cross a zone. And that's like three and a half ish zones, is it to get over there? Well, it's about it's about two zones, essentially. Two zones. So it's probably I don't know, it took it'll probably take him like a day to get well, a day of traveling plus who knows how long the fight's gonna take.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So you probably a couple of days, maybe three days at most.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but like we have a route to did any of him us tell him the way to go we took? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You kind of like told them the direction to which to go.
SPEAKER_02So you could probably travel a bit quicker, those ones.
SPEAKER_00She says, um, so how many of his gang are still there?
SPEAKER_02This is gonna be the bit that Cochrane's like, hang on a minute. So these are some very specific questions. Oh, I don't. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, why do you need to know that? Well, I don't particularly want to go back and then find that they want to take over as a sole leader.
SPEAKER_02Now, here here's a question to Marco and Pete. Did you did you tell Calcret that you were like, oh, there was a suggestion of like him being the sole person in charge, and he kind of was very warm to that suggestion. Did you tell him that? Probably. Okay.
SPEAKER_03But with the proviso that he actually wanted a council of leaders.
SPEAKER_02So then I will be like, Oh no, no, no. But he's looking to form some sort of like what be the word, committee of sorts?
SPEAKER_00She says, okay. Well that that that that seems sensible.
SPEAKER_02But unfortunately, a lot of people are still pretty mad with you, Arwen, over Why? Really, Arwen? Do you want me to say it? Well, yeah. The elder? What about the elder? The elder that you lied to everyone about about being alive who'd actually been dead for days.
SPEAKER_00What was I gonna tell everyone? The elder's dead in the middle of a war between or at least something that was brewing. How was that gonna work? Well, and I will point around and be like, this is what happened. You get a a decent place to live. I mean, I'm not gonna exactly I was going to tell everyone. I just needed the right time. But unfortunately Rhett decided to uh to cut that short.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Well, this is the thing. They'd already left the boat, so do they know that we me and Casmian were the one who exposed all that? Because they were already long gone. No, they don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I'm like, oh. Okay, well, I think that I I I'm not gonna apologize. I think that it was the right thing to do.
SPEAKER_02I think a lot of people would disagree, unfortunately, and a lot of the people are very emotional about that disagreement.
SPEAKER_00So A lot of the people in the ARG are stupid and can't freely make their own decisions.
SPEAKER_02Wow, I'm glad Caspian is he would have probably shot her, right?
SPEAKER_00But I mean, yes, I mean I'm saying that. But I think the problem is that when big things happen, like the elder passing away and passing on the knowledge that she had, she didn't want to cause a problem or a scene. And unfortunately, that's obviously what's happened now. But she imparted a lot of information to myself and my team. And so we have learnt a lot.
SPEAKER_02Well, by the looks of it, you've put a lot of it to use because I wouldn't know anything about like what you've done here with like the the plants and stuff.
SPEAKER_00Well, we we we took all our our manuscripts with us when we left.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I I remember we bought you time to do that because you asked us to do that.
SPEAKER_00That's we're very grateful. So you're always you and your your team, or you specifically, are always close to you know our hearts for that. Very grateful for your help. And of course, at any time that you wish to uh join us, you have a place here.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. I'm not hugely enamoured on the sort of like staying on land part. It's still a bit weird, this dirt stuff.
SPEAKER_00I understand, but we'll have to sort of start from the ground up, and then we can build a new ship and then get back out onto the uh Oh.
SPEAKER_02See, this is I've been going on about that, everyone, but nobody seems that interested about repairing the ship. Obviously, you have the right idea. Thank you. He's like very smug with himself for the he's like, Finally, these people are talking sense. Everyone else is all about survival and defense. Well, he's like, repair the ship
Navigating the Mist
SPEAKER_02and it solves all the problems.
SPEAKER_00And at that point, Denrik Effixer comes in and uh he has got a lot of uh fresh food, vegetables, and some clean water, and she says, Come, let's have some food. Meanwhile, I guess uh we're uh we're going north with the other team. We are going north. Okay, so couldn't you please make a find the path or navigate wrong? That is the first point of call for you, sir. Um it looks like I have one success. Um, you've got two, I think. Is it one? No, no, it is one success. So yeah, so you can you can go into the um into the zone and you can spot uh anything before they spot you, so it's unlikely you're going to be ambushed. That's always helpful. Always helpful. And uh yeah, you kind of go in. Can someone you can uh Pete, can you roll me a force roll from the V's? One success. One success. So essentially as you kind of like head your way north, the the breeze that you've kind of been working on slowly starts to sort of fade, and you end up having to use good old-fashioned oars to kind of keep this vessel moving. And so you do so. That's fine. And so you you kind of slow down at a slower pace, but you're you're making your way through the zone. As you're doing so, a uh mist sort of like starts to roll in from the north. You can just make out an island ahead of you as you're kind of starting to go into into the zone. And then this this mist starts to descend. Is it weirdly colored? It's not weirdly colored. It is not weirdly coloured in any way, shape, form, but it kind of just starts to settle around the thing. Uh do I know if this is gonna hinder navigation?
SPEAKER_01If we should wait it out. It is. It is, yeah, it is definitely gonna hinder navigation.
SPEAKER_00I'll head toward the shore of that little island. So you make your way towards the shore of that island. Could you make another find path? Keep forgetting my I get a plus two on these rolls. There we go. Three successes. Very nice. Uh yeah, you kind of already know where you're going, so that isn't really a problem. And you head towards the island.
SPEAKER_01With Do I have I have stunts with that, right? Uh yeah, you have stunts. Okay. So can I read the rot level of the sector?
SPEAKER_00You can indeed. The rot level is strong in this area, so it's gonna be every hour.
SPEAKER_01And then I have one more talent, a stunt, correct? Correct. Okay. So we're waiting out the mist, so it's not like I can rush through the sector. Okay. Are there any ruins on the island?
SPEAKER_00You can't tell until you get closer. So as you're getting close to the island, you you obviously see the island, and then the then the the mist and the fog sort of like comes in. So it kind of means that you are sort of then without being able to see what's going on.
SPEAKER_01Okay, that makes sense. Roach, we're gonna have to wait out this this damn mist here on the shore. Uh it's too dangerous to navigate.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's Cochrane knows what he's doing. We might be a bit longer than he expects.
SPEAKER_00Things that sort of really slow to a crawl is you are in the you end up having to sort of bro. So Moss and and Roach are putting their backs into it. You're kind of like trying to keep the rudder steady, and the wind really kind of just stops and everything
The Mysterious Bell
SPEAKER_00becomes very calm. You can hear the the sound of like a bell in the distance. Where is that coming from? Uh in the direction you're going, towards the north. From the island or from the water? It's difficult to tell. It's really calm. The mist and and sort of like fog has descended, and so you can just you can hear it, but have no idea in which direction it's coming from. It's just this very very soft ding noise.
SPEAKER_01Like another boat.
SPEAKER_00It could be yeah, it could be another boat. Yeah, it could be another boat. Continue on your on your route. Heading towards the island. The ding of the bell get a little bit louder as you're going towards it. So you think you're going in the right direction towards the bell, at least. But it is also the direction of the island. Lights on the island. There's no lights. All you can see in front of you is this greyish mist. You can see that definitely above you there is a there is a sun somewhere that's kind of trying to break through the mist. And every now and then a portion of of of the of the area in front of you dissipates for a second, and you see a bit more, maybe 10 meters ahead, 15 metres ahead, and then it kind of closes in again. You're sort of like all your all your clothes are sort of like starting to get a bit damp from the mist. And yeah, it's it's very disconcerting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't like it.
SPEAKER_00As as that happens, uh you kind of hear another ding noise, and then you hear maybe it sounds like someone or something speaking just ahead of you, and then you hear a growl.