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 E17: 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.
After the assassination of one of the Ark's bosses, Cochrane, Moss, Caspian, and Roach set out to circumnavigate the island, leaving the remaining bosses to resolve the power struggle.
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_03with 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.
SPEAKER_04Follow us on social media to stay updated, share your thoughts, and join the conversation.
SPEAKER_03You'll find the relevant links in the description of each episode.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to another episode of Mutiny Zero with my trusty co-host Margot. Am I really trusty?
SPEAKER_04How trust how trust how trusty am I really, though?
SPEAKER_02Well, depends if you run away with it. One to ten. I'll give you a an eight point five because I'm I'm being generous. An eight point five? Fuck you. It's not a ten? I'm outta here. I mean, considering most of humanity is on a two, so it's fine, right? It's a good scale. Hello. Hello.
SPEAKER_04We have Douglas. Myself probably uh a seven on the trust scale. Okay, that's pretty good. Not too bad.
SPEAKER_01Not rating myself on that. No.
SPEAKER_04Pete is our mysterious player. We've never seen him. We've never seen his face. He's like he's like a Romulan to the Federation before Balance of Terror.
SPEAKER_02And we have Chris.
SPEAKER_00Hello. I don't have enough voice to be lying today, so I'm super trustworthy.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that's cool. Chris, you've got a bit of a husky voice going on there, but yet the dedication to gaming is is wonderful. Even though you're not well, you've joined us. It is magnificent.
SPEAKER_00Moss needs to see the the glory of Anwin's demise. I cannot miss that.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_02Well, with we shall shit just got dark, and we haven't even rolled any dice yet. I know. What the hell? So last time on the back end of someone, I'm not naming any names, shooting one of the uh well, I think that's two of the bosses now taken out by one of our trustee players. Who who are you talking about Cat Caspian took out two bosses?
SPEAKER_04No. No. I mean Right? Oh no, no, you're right, too, actually. Rhett. I mean being the scene of the crime twice.
SPEAKER_02And seen by people at the scene of the crime twice. Uh-huh. It's almost like it's something you've been doing from the start. As if as if I had a plan. I know, it's crazy. But we where we left it last time was everyone's now starting to sort of think that Elson is the one who's done it. We had Cochin got given a letter by the by his friend, who is also the one person who witnessed this, and he's particularly scared of Caspian. So he hasn't said anything, but he's he's clearly said that he's got this letter, which he's given you where he's named the person, but only to open it on his demise or if he says so. We have Roach, who's been put in in charge of the investigation, I suppose, to to oversee it, but no one else knows that that Caspian is the one who's who's done it. And Moss has pretty much just kind of like gone, hmm, what? Is kind of watching to see what will happen. I guess you've all kind of now turned the tide against Perold Elson, who has the most to gain from it. The other boss, Frampton, who took over from Am from Rhett, seems to just kind of go along with things. As you found out last time, he seems to have something going on in the background, but he's not sort of saying anything. I guess. This is Marco's favourite time. Who wants to roll a D6 and minus two? Woo, ooh, me, me. Let's see how well your hunt population of 155 is. Well, is it plus one? Because that someone died last night as well, anyway. Sure, why not? We'll do that. So I rolled a four. Okay, so that would be two normally. Yeah. But we'll take one more off. So you're down to 152 out of the 200 original population that you had. During this time of unease, are there any kind of projects that you would like to start or do before we get into the uh to what you're doing?
SPEAKER_04Let's see. Well, we have the militia. We have our watchtowers, we have our defenses. I think within the game we needed some more food before we could actually instigate the plan. Exactly. Yes. Yeah. Even if we get the island stuff, I think we were still going to be five resources short. Because I think it's 30 or something required.
SPEAKER_02So I guess I mean what what is it that you'd like to do, I suppose. Anything that kind of takes your fancy.
SPEAKER_04Should we do a cropland right here? On the on the on the land right here where the where we're beached? Or we could try sewing some muscle beds or something like that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you could do something like that. I mean, it essentially be the same sort of thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Let's see. What does the what does the ye old good book say? There is a smokehouse, which used for like curing fish and stuff.
SPEAKER_02There is. And that that's something you can quite easily use and do.
SPEAKER_04What page is that on, Douglas? It goes over 106. Got it. Do we is it safe to eat the fish? Isn't the fish contaminated?
SPEAKER_02It is, but you could by by you can you can cook out the rot. That's essentially what you're that's what you're doing by having by having the crab people would be out of the smokehouse.
SPEAKER_04You make a very, very good point, Moss. And let's not call them crab people. I think it turns some some some some of some of our our some of our people off, right? Let's call them crazy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, the giant crabs, yeah. Crab monsters.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Giant crabs, crab monsters. We want to avoid the P word. Crab monsters, yeah. Yeah, let's make a smokehouse.
SPEAKER_02Are you all agreed with that? Yep. Sounds like a good idea. Did you want to do anything else, or are you just gonna uh go all in for the smokehouse? Or I'll happily allow you to have another project on the go as well. Obviously that'll mean you'll have to define divide your uh your time between them. And just so you're aware, you have currently a food of 25, a culture of two, technology of ten, and warfare of seventeen. Right. So we don't have got an idea of what kind of arc you've got going on there.
SPEAKER_00You're really not selling the culture, you know.
SPEAKER_02We technically don't have a food of twenty-five until we get the crop land out. Right. Essentially, Anwin's dead, so I mean, you guys have got the cropland now. So we'll kind of like push it a couple of days, maybe three days on from the last episode. So absolutely, you'll have had access to that. So you've got 25 days worth of food. Excellent. So food of 25, absolutely. Excellent.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so we have you now have full control over the island. Uh, we have full control over the island, absolutely. So let's make this smokehouse. Okay. And cook our enemies. This might be miss me misremembering something. Wasn't there something to do with our water purification ages ago that it was eventually going to fail? It was, yes, correct. I was just trying to remember if that was a thing. Is that is that still going to fail at some point? Well, why don't I you and your damn memory, Douglas? By why did it just be like, you know what thing you forgot?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're all I've been keeping a running total of stuff like this, so I'm not reminding you. Yes, why don't you make a fact, Moss? Why don't you make a jury rig to see how well the uh the water is going?
SPEAKER_00That's too far.
SPEAKER_02And you can have an extra skill dice to it because it's a it's a group thing, right? So everyone's kind of getting involved. That's a success.
SPEAKER_00That's a lot of dice, then one success, yes.
SPEAKER_02One success. That's fine. Yes, it's still going. Obviously, you you have to make that trip to the to the water pipe, water pump and back. But yeah, you can still do it. There's no issues there. The water pump seems to be fine. How long it'll be for, you have no idea, but it it's still working, it's all okay. If you wanted to try a different type of um thing for for the water, you can do. You could probably go for something like a water mill or maybe something like that. I mean, I don't know what kind of technology you need. So you need technology of 10. So if you wanted to buy a water wheel, you can make a water wheel or a pump that'll kind of bring it up, then you can do.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that's that's the arca stationary, that seems feasible, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean you you you there's no there's no problem with you doing that. So that would obviously bring groundwater up and also the water from from there. So you'd you'd be able to do that and you'd be able to then build some kind of like pumping system that would allow you to bring the water directly to the actual thing rather than having to keep going backwards and forwards. That would work too if you wanted to go for that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And you've got the technology for it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, something like an what are they called? Archimedean screw or something?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's it's it's like that. It's just what I feel like. That's a fancy. It's like a it's like a borehole kind of thing that you've done, but less of a borehole. It's more of being able to pump the water from from further away to the to that. It's not a problem. So I'm gonna stick that down in your note. It'll be the the kind of water wheel system. Okay, right. So we've got two things then. So you've got a choice which you want to do. If you want to put yourself towards the smokehouse, that requires a endure or comprehend role, and you will need eight successes. A water wheel is endure and comprehend as well, and you only need four successes. So split yourself however you wish. Let me know what you want to do. Caspian will work on the smokehouse.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Anyone else? Now, quick question. I have nothing in comprehend and I have nothing in indoor. So can I actually work on the smokehouse? So you could, but you're just rolling your base. Right, exactly. Okay. Just wanted to make sure whichever you'd prefer. I guess I can work on the smokehouse of Caspian. Okay.
SPEAKER_02And then Pete Boss work on the water wheel. Yeah. Or film or sale. Okay.
SPEAKER_00So I'd love to um use my stoic talent that allows me to use endure with wits instead of strength.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Nice. That's gorgeous. So if you wanna if if so if Yeti and Kess. Everyone make a roll.
SPEAKER_04So Caspian has two successes for the smoke house. Roach doesn't have any.
SPEAKER_02Roach. So that's Douglas. Just one success. Okay. That's right, you've got three of eight, so that's pretty good. Two from you. So you're you're you're kind of getting there. So the other interesting thing is with the water wheel too, not only does it pull the uh the water for you, it also generates power a mill or a generator. So you can start to actually get electricity going. Right then. Well, after putting some time into that, it's three days later. Elson has tried really hard to get back some of the ill-will that seems to be going around the Ark. They're all very much a little bit concerned that maybe Elson has been trying to take out the other bosses, and the general population of the Ark is not happy with Elson. Elson's managing to sort of like fight a bit of a PR nightmare, but he's he's ho he's hanging in there. He hasn't kind of like given up yet, and the Ark hasn't revolted and kind of taken him down. But it is a very uneasy alliance between them. Franted has kind of continued to stay quiet, although Rhett's old gang is wanting a little bit of revenge about what happened last time, although saying that there's some rumors going around that actually it was Anwin potentially that could have done it, but essentially most of the arc there's a lot of rumors going around that it's pretty much of everyone.
SPEAKER_04Why would they think that Anwin did something that ended up getting herself killed?
SPEAKER_02Because she ran away when uh no no no that that she killed Rhett. Yes. So so it was in reprisal of of of Rhett starting to kind of take over from Anwin. So yes, so there's a lot of rumors going around, and you guys have been stuck in the middle of it. Or have you? Planning on staying to do some to play the political game, or are you kind of going out and about to do some more exploring? Have you returned the other ship or the other boat to the Ark? Or have you still got control of that? Where it's still hidden away?
SPEAKER_04I think we should keep it hidden away.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that one that Anwin's dead, there's nothing stopping us from naming it on a police.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, there's it's also like transporting the food back and forth, I think, is gonna be an issue.
SPEAKER_02That'd be you guys. I mean, are you going to let others in the in the ark use your ship that you've been using? Or are you maintaining control over that boat, therefore maintaining control over the arc? I don't know.
SPEAKER_03What do you think, Pete?
SPEAKER_01We're yeah, we're just in charge of security, so we hand those resources over to whoever's taking charge of the group that's looking after the food or just transporting the food.
SPEAKER_04Okay. So yeah, I guess then we'd in yeah, okay. So I guess we do have that second boat available. I don't know how we exactly describe or I don't know how we explain where it where it came from. Maybe maybe after Anwin's death, what we can just say one of her people fessed up and delivered it to us or something.
SPEAKER_01We could issue the statement that the militia has recovered the missing boat that's now available for transporting. Perfect.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Just a simple nondescript. I think I think we should name the militia the people's militia.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'd be behind that.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, you're gonna go get the boat then? Um or are you happy to kind of do you want to? Well, I guess I guess the question for for me is did you want to go and get the boat, and that'll be the part of the session today? Do you want to say you've gone to get the boat and brought it back without anything happening? And we continue on? I think so, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because some time has gone.
SPEAKER_02Are you happy with that? Some time has gone past.
SPEAKER_04A couple of days have gone by, right, since last session. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I probably I don't know. Unless anyone feels strongly about it, I think that happened already, sort of thing. So cool.
SPEAKER_02You go out, get the boat, bring it back. We found the boat. It's now part of the militia's resources. You then open up the the the the trade. It's not even really a trade. You basically go to the island, uh, basically start putting more people onto the island and mixing people so that everyone has access to it, and you have access to sort of like the cropland that's about to be put together and the kind of various vegetables, various things I think they've actually got going on. The smokehouse is starting to take shape, you're starting to get the the water mills starting to work as well. What is the plan? What would you like to do? It is it is three and a half days later. In fact, we'll call it we'll kill it four days later. It's first thing in the morning. What's the plan? Do you want to go out, do some more exploring? Did you want to faff around back at the ship? What would you like to do? You don't seem to be taking any orders from anyone. You're doing your own thing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, do do you gu do you guys think that we should let the Elson and Fanton sort of stew, let them deal with each other on their own while we go do stuff and you know, come back and sort of see who's left? I think so.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think we can sit back and see which direction it takes before making a strategic decision.
SPEAKER_04We don't want people to get too aware that we happen to be involved in every single thing that seems to be happening. People might if we're staying around too long, people might start drawing lines and collecting dots where they're like, hang on a minute.
SPEAKER_00They might just you do the job for us.
SPEAKER_04How come every time somebody dies, these guys are back from exploring. Tons of people dying where we're not there. It's the D6 Ramper. So people are dying, they all have die. Yes. It's just interesting. Um I was gonna say, what's Victor be up to?
SPEAKER_02So back on the island. Is see what's he been up to? He has so he's kind of essentially taken over the role of the lawmasters, but he's stayed very quiet. He's not really involved very much. He pretty much keeps to himself.
SPEAKER_04So I've said I'd look after him, so the only way I could do that is if we go is if he comes with us. So I will invite him a lot.
SPEAKER_02He is absolutely not happy to come with you in any way, shape, or form. He says he'll if if you were to leave a militia person with him, then he feels a lot safer with just having them around, it's not a problem. If you guys want to wander off, he's happy for you guys to go. He feels safe enough on his own with a militiaman.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that isn't suspicious
The Trust Scale
SPEAKER_04victim. Okay, I'll I'll arrange that with Roach then.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'll put most trusted person on it. Casvia.
SPEAKER_02Yes. No, no, absolutely I'll happily come with you. It's fine. Um Okay. You know what to do next.
SPEAKER_04So the question I think maybe is is are we wanting to do land exploring or water exploring? Maybe we should try to circumnavigate this island we're on. Yeah. We don't even know if it's an island. Map it out. Yeah, exactly. It could be like a peninsula or something. Aaron Powell So rather than just like going anywhere in particular, we're just going to try and do as much traveling. Yeah, I feel like we should maybe, unless, again, anyone feels strongly about something else, maybe we should I mean, unless you guys do you guys want to go visit those oil fields? Or we could map the coastline of this island completely. I vaguely remember that Elson said there was an island that was off the east coast that they saw when they were killing the cannibals. He was like, or is that a boat? It was a ship or something. He said he said both. Okay. So there's definitely we know there's something of interest off to the east. You maybe, yeah, head to that way, and then if it's very interesting, go see it, if not, as Mark's like, just carry on around.
SPEAKER_02That seems like a very good plan. So eastwards it is then, sir. Well, we haven't done this for a little while. Right. Did you want to make a navigate roll for me, please, Marco?
SPEAKER_04I did not. What makes you think you want to do that? Would you like some sea shanties, Marco? Yes, I yes I would. Sing me sing me a song, Cochrane. Just like old times, when you're not criticizing me, but that was due to the anger worms, so that is a whole lot of nothing, so. Cochrane, you're off key. What the hell song was that? Matter of practice. You've got Victon on the brain. Be too busy shouting rhetoric rather than Whatchamacallit? Six Sea Sandys. Uh, let's see here.
SPEAKER_02I have two successes. Two successes, right. Well, with the first success, you can navigate and you'll successfully detect any threats in the system within time. You also have the option, as we have done before, with one extra success, you can look for a ruin in a sector, you can read the rot level in a sector, you can fish for one ration of rot-damaged fish from the sea, you can explore the sector taking half the normal time, so usually two hours. You rush through the sector and a quarter of the time it usually takes to explore, which is usually about an hour, and you avoid any creatures or phenomenon and just just wing it straight through. What would you like to do?
SPEAKER_04Where are we on the map? We're right here. Okay. Let's speed through this sector because we've been there before.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so you you you're really kind of like you've really been this way before. You continue through, let me just remind you. So this was all the buildings. There was sort of like a all the trees in the distance that you could see that you kind of you walk through this area, and somewhere in the middle is that large building that had all the strange geometric shapes and statues and various other things in. So you continue on. I'm guessing you're going on to the next heading across there.
SPEAKER_04Yep. Would you like to redeem yourself with that sea shantied, Cochrane? I can certainly attempt to do that. Try to sing in key this time. Wow. I am just not having a good time.
SPEAKER_02Cochrane's got a bit of a sore throat going on there. Two successes again. Two more successes. Okay, same rule applies. This time I'm gonna read the right level. Okay, so it is a weak rot level. And sort of like round round the headland, and just on the edge of the headland, just down here on the map, you can just make out another building. So it's quite a low, flat building with multiple buildings around it. They're all low and flat, single story. It's just sort of like a very flat area. You can't really see from the boat. In fact, you do, you've got the cool standing oculus that you've kind of like attached to the side of the ship, so you can use that, and you've got your own glasses to look at things. When you look through those, you can see on the promenatory there is a lot of the sort of like grey ground of the hardened crete that they had. And you can see that there is a building that's actually in the side of the shoreline, and there is a massive, I guess, gateway which leads from. The ocean into the building with the sea going into that building. As you kind of make your way in to this part of the um of the area, the sort of like fog starts to descend, much like you remember from before, and it kind of starts to lay around the sea, and it starts to rain a little and it starts to get a little drizzly. Okay. And then visibility starts to drop to probably no more than a hundred meters.
SPEAKER_04So let's make a note on the map where we see that building with the gate, and we'll come back to that, I guess, unless anyone wants to check that out now. Did anyone from Elsen's war party describe the building where they found the cannibals? Was it like that place? No, it wasn't. It was it was further further in, it wasn't it wasn't there. So then if there aren't any objections, we will continue moving south along the coast. And you do that. Can you make another navigate roll for me, please? Cochrane, you're feeling lucky? No. But I'll do it anyway. Okay. Wow. Do I even need to say anything? Everyone's getting real sick of Cochrane. Give us a taste of just how bad this song is. 199 bottles of beer on the wall, 999 bottles of beer. God.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's pretty bad. Cochrane, shut the fuck up.
SPEAKER_04Two successes again for the mighty Caspian Master of the Sea. Fair enough.
SPEAKER_02As you sort of round the headland and can someone please roll me a D6?
SPEAKER_03Roach? Yeti? I'll give it a go. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I have my hands full of cats.
SPEAKER_02A number two. Hands full of cat. As you sort of like continue on into the next zone, the rain continues to stay, the fog disappears. It's still sort of like a bit rainy and drizzly. You can see ahead of you an island. And behind that, you can see another larger island. Just off to off the coast of the shoreline, you can see a large ship, probably the same sort of size as the ship that you that your arc was on. It's half buried in the water. Its stern is sticking out at a weird side list. And the water is lapping up over the hull and what would have been the top parts of the um the vessel. You can see that there is a large rusty hulk that's kind of what looks like probably has it got rammed by or it rammed it. And as you get closer, you can see that clearly whatever's happened, it's rammed into the sky what looks like potentially a large platform. I wonder if this is the Poseidon. You can see that there is a lot of rusted old pipes and metalwork that it's kind of run into. Are we gonna run into Ernest Borgnine or Gene Hackman? So could Roach or Moss please make a scalp roll?
SPEAKER_00I do not. I would roll barewits.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's all I'd have.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that's fine. We do have the static binoculars to help you out. Uh yeah, you could you could you could use the static binoculars
The Investigation Deepens
SPEAKER_02if you wanted, whichever one wants to which one of you wants to use it, you can get an extra dice of skill in it. It adds a gear die. It adds a gear dice.
SPEAKER_00That sounds nice. Yes, that's not so.
SPEAKER_02Whichever one of you wants to do that. Okay. Look at that. Oh, look at that. Thankfully. Two successes from Moss. Cool. Moss, do you have Know the Zone?
SPEAKER_00I don't know what I see. I see stuff, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're kind of you're you're looking out at the uh Well that's pretty colours. Um you can see uh people moving around on the on the on on the on the on the on the on the wrecked ship and the uh piping. There's there's people moving around on the on the piping. Are they eating people up? You cannot see three anymore.
SPEAKER_04Well, they're seafar folk, cousin. They live on a boat, so they're obviously more trustworthy than land people. They see you wanna maybe go and say hello. They're not doing anything threatening, like said, yeah, what was it? Little boats last time that they are oil rig. No, they uh they're just does it look like they've seen us?
SPEAKER_02Uh they don't appear to have sort of seen you, as it were. They're just they're just doing their thing. It looks like they've got some bags and various other things that they seem to be cutting things up. They appear to be salvaging things from the metal hulk and the the ship. Maybe they don't live here.
SPEAKER_04Maybe they're scavengers from the land.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well would that make sense to me. Like, could I like if if I was seeing people making salvaged like that, that'd be something that would make sense to me without knowing the sound.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You just yeah. That you just don't know what kind of people they are.
SPEAKER_00Well I I voice my opinion on on their skillful salvage making. Yeah, yeah, cutting all the best pieces out of there, yeah, all right.
SPEAKER_04I don't know that we should be saying hello to random strangers out in the zone. Seems a little dangerous. What do you think, roach? Well, they are. They're they're seafarers. They're just rounded people.
SPEAKER_01Unless we have any particular reason to meet with them, unless we're uh proposing trading or anything like that. I think yes, we should steer clear for now.
SPEAKER_04I agree. I don't I don't think it's worth the risk at the moment. We don't know that they're seafarers. We don't know that. They could be could be from land. Just scalvaging the boat. I don't know. It it looks does it look like they're kind of bits of metal, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they're kind of bits of metal off.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. We've seen tons of metal on land. That that would be if you're a land robber, way easier to cut that metal than it is to come all the way out here to cut metal off this thing out in the ocean. Maybe. Maybe where they come from there isn't any metal. It means that they're sea travelers. Yeah, and sea travelers attacked us, remember? Yeah, but not every single sea traveler. Most of them are fine. We've done met loads of them over the hundreds of years.
SPEAKER_02And then beyond them, you've got the small island and then the larger island behind.
SPEAKER_04I say we move on and we can circle back, and if they're still there, we can decide whether or not we want to make friends or or food.
SPEAKER_02So, Marco, do you want to go past the smaller island and maybe try and have a look? Or do you want to kind of bypass the smaller island and go to the left or the right of the bigger island?
SPEAKER_04That's an excellent question. I think I want to go here.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_04Fine. Actually, no, wait. That means we get close to the wreck. Let's go this way. You'll be going there. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So yes, you you kind of make your way to the next. We're going, I guess, a little further east-ish. Yeah, you're kind of sticking to the southeast. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And uh yeah, you continue on to the island. As you kind of like go round the island, you can see there's a yet another island behind that, a long and thin island. And I shall name it Long Island. That's them gonna catch on.
SPEAKER_04I suppose you need a a navigate role. I would like a navigate role, please, sir. You may have one. One success. No, two successes. Are we gonna put up with some uh singing as well? Nobody's asked them, and they gain a very sort of mellow response. So Caspian is after that last performance, Caspian is you know not interesting. Also, Marco's been incredibly consistent with his roles. So have you, just as bad. You're right. You are 100% right. That's true. Yeah, I have rolled two successes every time so far. Yeah. That that level of weirdness is not gonna last. Okay. So yes, uh someone roll me a D6, please. Sounds like a job for Moss and or Pete. Yes, we're gonna go with Chris this time.
SPEAKER_02Maybe Chris still has a cat in her hands. A cat and so uh Pete, did you want to uh there we go? Right. Well, as you kind of like make your way around the island, and I guess you're sort of like making your way through the two islands down the channel. That was a three, by the way, for the folks at home. Yes. Becky? We don't know what it means, but.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sorry, my voice was just out of order for a moment there.
SPEAKER_02That's right. What do you want to do with your extra success, Marco? I want to read the rot, please. Strong rot. Every hour it's gonna give you some uh give you some rot. Yes, it definitely there seems to be strong rot. Let us not let us not dally. Okay. As you kind of make your way through, I take it you're gonna just rot through as much as you well no, you can't because you've you've judged the rotten day. Yeah, I don't have any Yeah, so you're kind of making your way through the thing. You realize that there's quite a lot of shoals that you have to kind of go through, which means that you have to take your time a little bit. So on the longer, thinner island, you can see that there is a large, what looks like a rusted building that was at one point clearly metal. It's probably about three or four stories high. You can see that it's got a very large rounded dish shape on the top of it, and it's kind of streaked with sort of rust and and everything else. There's a s there's a whole lot of metal and framework around it. Moss, did you want to make a comprehend roll for me at least? Or in fact, you can do a jury rig roll, but using your wits, if it's not your wits, not me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Looks like Moss has one success. Excellent. Yeah, you can see that you can clearly see that the dish would have been able to rotate up and down, left and right, almost 360, but you you imagine that with all the rust and stuff, it's probably now stuck in place. As you sort of like make your way through the through the shoals, you can see just under the water there are a lot more of these metal buildings. But looks like this probably was a slightly raised part of a compound. And as you kind of make your way through, but we'll gain two rots. So if you can all roll me one your rot level one at a time. Caspian rolled a two. Fine. You just don't want to mess up. There we go. And then roll it again. So then it'll it'll add that. So you should be rolling three if you've got the slipper. That was my second one. That was your second one. Okay, that's fine. Yeah. So if everybody else, you want to roll a second roll, because that's your second hour that you're going through the zone with. Good. Pete, that's fine. So uh Douglas and I failed my second roll. Okay. So you'll start to like accrue rot points. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so if this is my second temporary, I'm now rolling two dice. Yes, correct. So does that mean when you fail that the route becomes permanent, right?
SPEAKER_02No, it means you take damage. So you'll see that your uh your your strung will go down, your strength will go down.
SPEAKER_04Manage to luck through that again? My strength did not go down.
SPEAKER_02Hmm, okay. Fair enough. Yeah, so essentially uh your your rot will you'll you'll you'll lose that m number of dice. So it's strong with your strength. But if it didn't, just take it down by Marco and fail.
SPEAKER_04This is the one occurrence where the logos are backwards. Yes. I think we figured this out. It's the radiation the radiation is fine. It's a biohazard that is if he fails. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Biohazard is the one that you that that will fit.
SPEAKER_04So I think you rolled two nuclear symbols, which was spying. No, that was peak. That was peak. I rolled a one biohazard symbol on the second roll. Yeah.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_02So that's so that'll be feeding one.
SPEAKER_00So I'm feeding crap and weak now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so Moss unfortunately is taking taking one damage. Well, I could stay one damage, in fact, it could also take the second damage, Chris. So you're taking two lots of damage and everybody else is fine. So yes, you manage to like get your way through the air zone rushing as fast as you can, but trying to get through the shoals of all the um of all the sort of like compound has just been very difficult. Okay. So which way would you like to go? South or would you like to head inward to the uh to the land? Inward to the land, so back west to the road. Okay, well, you continue your circumnavigation of the island.
SPEAKER_04Yep. And as we're as we're sailing along here, I'll sort of shoot the breeze a little bit with Cochrane, you know, and be like, so uh I heard that Victon gave you something. Who'd you hear that from? Word travels fast on the arc. You know that. I rolled two successes, by the way. That's uh interesting. I never told anyone about it. Well, you told Pete, didn't you? I'm sorry, Roach. You told Roach. I did not tell Roach about that. I thought you did. Nope. I just told him that he would reveal it when he felt right. Okay, but then I guess then I guess Cochrane wouldn't know. That that's why I was asked it. Then I guess Caspian wouldn't know, so we'll have to nix this conversation. You can still ask. But to tell you about the layer. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So so Because you know if people have said that the guy has maybe said that he will reveal it at some point. Right, right. And I know that's why it's put you in charge of the as of the investigation, so I know that you spoke to him. So yeah. So Cochrane, you you spoke to to Victon. How did he how did he seem to you? It must have been a horrible experience that he went through. Apparently, so he didn't want to talk very much. Got an eye- he got an eye fool, apparently, of who done it, but he's too scared to say. But he refused to tell you, and you hmm, wow. Yeah, so I think it must be someone pretty important, if that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, if he's afraid, it's gotta be like one of the bosses, right? Somebody with a lot of power. Yeah. But he has said he has taken precautions, let's just say, and he has said he will tell me at some point, but things are probably gonna have to change. Maybe if like, you know, Elson suddenly had her fall from grace or that sort of thing, you know. As long as they're still in power, I don't think he's gonna say who it was, you know, for his own safety. Yeah, I mean it's it's gotta be sin or one of his men.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04Probably. If it was one of his men, you know, you know that they did it because Elson told them to. Well, yeah. Well, I would imagine so. I mean, does he does he want us to to do something about that? Might make him say. No, he hasn't said anything like that. He seemed to say he's a bit too scared for his life and the other lore keepers, because you know, if it gets out of there, maybe like, you know, they might take like revenge on all the other lore keepers as well and just wipe them all out. But doesn't he have fear of being on the arc with this killer? Well, he seems to think that the militia will be able to protect him, and I managed to persuade him that the Michel militia would be able to like keep him safe while he's there. I think he probably wants to get off the arc, probably back to it at some point, but he kind of feels obligated to see through whatever's going on with Elson and the sort of discussions. Well, if he needs help, if he needs our help, we should we should we should give it to him. We should offer it. Well, I offered that he could come on this expedition with us, but for some reason he didn't seem very key. And you don't find that strange? That he feels keen to be remain on the arc with a potential killer and be sex here with us. Seems a little screwy to me, don't you think, Roach? Sorry? Well, what are you two on about? We're just uh talking about Victrum and the murder. Oh yeah. Did you get anywhere with that, Cochrane? Nah, he's he's his lips are sealed until he feels comfortable about telling us about that. Yeah. He'd rather stay on the arc, and I thought, isn't that strange that he wants to stay on the arc with a potential killer instead of be safe here with us out on the water? Seems a little screwy to me, don't you think, Roach?
SPEAKER_01To know, uh yeah. Sailing around in these parts is probably not for everybody. Neither's, you know, getting killed. Anyway, Cochrane, have another go at him when we get back. It'd be really good to s lay this thing to rest.
SPEAKER_04That's an interesting, interesting choice of words, Roach. Lay this thing to rest. Yeah. Like, we will need to get to the bottom, because it would look very good if the militia could like solve the murder. You know, it's a big sort of like feather in our cap if we successfully bring the the killer of like one of the leaders, especially if um Elsen's gang's not having any thing. Well, Rhett's well we still call it Rhett's gang, but Rhett's kind of very cold now. You know it's you know it's gotta be Elson. Come on. It was the meeting was kind of his idea. So that was the only way he was gonna get Arwen like off the island, and he couldn't get to the island because we had the only boat. So yeah, like that would be the only way he could get to her, if that makes sense, would be for her to come to him. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Seemed to solve a number of problems for a number of people, but it's created
Navigating the Fog
SPEAKER_01a few more.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But then again, if it has if that was Elson's plan, it's kind of backfired because I think things feel more unstable than before for the leaders, if that makes sense, the bosses. It's not really helped stabilize anything. It's in fact probably made things a bit more rocky. Well, it's a good thing we have the people's militia to keep the boat steady, as it were. Casping.
SPEAKER_02Yes. What was your second success for Did you owe? Sorry. Navigate. The rot level, please. Uh okay. The rot level here is also strong. Are you son of a gun? And as you're kind of like coming in, you can see that there is on this part of the island, again, there's another promontory. On the promontory, you can see that it is flat. It's almost sort of like a shimmering shine to the promontory and the flat ground, except for a very large dark hole or crater that's in the actual ground. And it's kind of a bit of a glare from sort of like the very glassified ground around it. And then you notice that there's a shimmering in the air that you're in. And all of a sudden you can see. In fact, did you want to make a know the zone roll? You ask me? Yes, please. Uh one one second, and I will give you a uh modifier. Never mind. Whoops. Let me re-roll that then. No, I will I'll there's no modifier, it's okay. Oh, okay. That's handy. Uh-huh. And you did not succeed. Okay.
SPEAKER_04I did not succeed, no, and I'm not going to push it.
SPEAKER_02No, suddenly the air is filled, but what you thought was like a low, a very light mist, but very quickly the mist turns to what looks like floating jellyfish in the air. And very quickly they all of a sudden start sort of like these exactly what you'd expect, like a bulbous top with all these little things hanging down from them.
SPEAKER_04I saw this on Encounter at Farpoint.
SPEAKER_02And all of a sudden the little tendrils and stuff start hitting the vessel. And you, there's lots of them, and you're sort of like, oh they're they're sticky and sort of they seem to be sort of like floating in the in the rot wind, and it's all like sticky and horrible, and it kind of like slapping at the sides of the boat, the sails, just the whole thing. And so you're kind of having to navigate and try to move around them. Now I believe that Roach was the one who was giving it the uh the sailing, I suppose, was is we're doing
Trouble on the Water
SPEAKER_02most of them. So did you want to make a move roll and add your boat's uh bonus to it? Yeah, what was the boat's bonus? So you get a bonus of plus two. So you get two bonus uh two gear dice. Is anyone else helping you sail the vessel?
SPEAKER_00Is there something that I could do by technical understanding?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sure. I mean if you also want to do a move roll, that'd be great. I mean essentially you're just moving about the ship, making sure the sail's working, or you mend the oils when you need to. So you you two can also get a plus two gear dice to your um to your to your moon.
SPEAKER_04Yes, I'll assist as well.
SPEAKER_00That doesn't look like that.
SPEAKER_02So we're assist continued. We're up to two. Is it good? Yeah, so you you kind of you kind of try and get out of the way as best you can. It doesn't seem to be having any problems, you just slap you have to like take the thing and throw it off to the side. But as as as you're sort of doing that, you can smell like corrosion in the air, and you realize that the little tendrils are wherever it's touching the metal or other parts of gear or the ship, it's starting to dissolve and corrode that. You look around and you can see the starts of the holes starting to kind of corrode.