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
The Cartography of Memory Episode 2: An Actual Play of The Electric State
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Stranded among silos, radio towers, and a small church, Roger, Raymond, and IG-88 watch a twenty foot robot, tethered by cables to neurocaster-clad people, conduct a strange vigil. After fixing the bus, our group take a detour to the Museum of Forgetting, where relics stir memories—and IG-88 confronts echoes of a past he can't quite recall.
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Welcome to the Cartography of Memory, an actual play of the electric state from Stories with Dice. 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. You'll find the relevant links in the description of each episode.
SPEAKER_03Right, well, none of that nonsense of uh introductions and stuff. We'll just jump straight into it because time is of the essence. Right, well, where are we?
SPEAKER_01We are on a We're on a the side of the road in some creepy ass weird place with a bunch of silos and radio towers and a church and a creepy nun.
SPEAKER_03I don't need to say anything. I think Marco's pretty much said it all. So, this twenty-foot tall. Well yeah, I forgot about the twenty-foot-tall creepy ass robot robots connected to a lot of people as they are walking along the landscape through the fields and through the through the grasslands, up towards the road, and heading in your direction straight for where the church and the silos are.
SPEAKER_01Do we have a sense for like how long it's gonna take? Sorry, do we have a sense for how long it's gonna take to to figure out what's wrong with the uh with the with the bus? Uh no.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01That'd be too easy, right? Over my like traveling around Pacifica. I seen these things before out in the wilderness. You have.
SPEAKER_03You've seen sort of like in the distance these robots that are controlled by and essentially it's multiple people controlling the drone in the same way that IG-88 is controlled by whoever is behind said drone. Or is the drone controlling them? Well, that that that could be it. Well, there are rumors that that is exactly what it is. There are uh there are cults of the Neuroscape, where people lose themselves to uh I's the uh the the AI essentially of of the electric state, where our personality cult arrives around a digital presence. And indeed, sometimes the digital presence controls the people who are controlling it in the physical world.
SPEAKER_01Are we in danger? Like, do we So if Roger has seen these things before, Roger, do you have a sense that we're in danger? Are these things dangerous? Well, he's never seen these up close.
SPEAKER_00He's seen these things, and I believe probably people people have probably like, while he's been traveling, have talked about these things and sort of like they're weird. I don't mess with those. Nobody really probably messes with those things because they're weird and tech things.
SPEAKER_03But you probably reckon it's about as dangerous as a normal cult coming to town would be.
SPEAKER_01You mean like a a a nun in a black and red habit? I know.
SPEAKER_00So it's heading towards the it's not heading directly towards us, it's kind of heading to the side of us towards the other part the bit structures.
SPEAKER_03Right. I mean, you are sort of vaguely in its route. Round you go, you know, you don't know if it's gonna be directly in your route, but it'll be coming in this direction.
SPEAKER_01So we don't know if it's notice us basically, yeah.
SPEAKER_03No. I mean you're in a bright red bus, well, a big red bus, on the side of the road, in front of a bunch of silos and a small church. If it's if it's got any kind of sensors or or anything, it probably will have spotted you by now.
SPEAKER_01I think it's possibly uh interested in picking up more people in its uh electrical tendrils. Just don't put a neurocaster on. Well, IG's safe then.
SPEAKER_03You both continue to uh work on the electrics. This thing gets closer and closer. You can see there are there are 13 uh people attached to neurocasters which are attaching to the large drone. As you as it gets closer, you can see that on the drone there is a white cross or stylized cross in multiple different forms plastered around the drone, some small, some large, and you can see that as the drone is walking, it's walking at the same speed as the people attached to it, and they are sort of shuffling. Almost dare I use the word the Z word, almost like in a zombie state, as they kind of walk. They don't stumble or anything, but they shuffle attached to their uh neurocasters, and as they get closer, you can feel a second emanation of this buzz and this sort of static coming from this creature. And then there's an undercurrent of this, like almost like moan, like a like a low, like a low moan that kind of comes with it. It sounds like the chanting appears to be from or the moan appears to be a type of chant by those people attached to the drone. And that's what we had heard over the radio? It sounds very similar, yeah. As they get closer, one of the it starts to sort of peel away, so from the from from the from the bus, as if it's stepping around you. But to do so, all the all the people in the tendrils have to like step around in one direction. The drone then steps around. It's kind of a cumbersome way of moving, except for one tendril, one tendril on one of the neurocasters. This person comes towards, I guess you come, because you're probably the one closest. As the as the person comes towards you, you can see they're wearing sort of jeans, boots, what looks like a plaid jacket, and they've got just a standard standard neurocaster on their head. There's loads of dust and dirt on the on the person, and a lot of like burrs around his feet and for all the grass and all the grass seeds. And as the rest kind of make their way and shuffle towards their direction, he kind of shuffles in your direction and he says, Make way for the coral grievers. Make way. Who are you? Are you here for the vigil? Are you here to witness?
SPEAKER_01We're on our way somewhere, and we've just had a little bit of a breakdown. We're attempting to fix our transportation and we'll be out of your way.
SPEAKER_03Uh, which case it it doesn't look at you, you can't see its face or the majority of its face, you can just see his chin sort of sticking out from underneath the neurocaster. And uh he turns and he sort of like gives this sort of like this weird wave as if to say thank you or hello or goodbye, but it's kind of halting, and then he steps in line with the rest of them as they head towards the church and the large silos.
SPEAKER_01IG-88, how's the repairs going? Roger, you find a loose connection. I guess I'll go get a tool that'll fix those back together a bit more substantially. So while he's getting those tools, IG-88 will respond to Raymond by uh playing yet another clip from Star Wars. You hear Han Solo's voice. Which I have, IG-88. We just need to be aware that this is the I can I'm guessing a rather rather weird cult that's going on here. And cults and I have a very bad connection. And then he starts blasting love removal machine by the cult. Good song. But I've got my I've got my my hand on my weapon, which is in my in my pocket.
SPEAKER_03You can see that Tiffany's now come off the out off the bus, and she's kind of like looking to see what's going on with this large drone making its way towards the the church, and it kind of like puts his arm out to sort of almost casually rest on one of the silos.
SPEAKER_01So you've been keeping up with this, Tiffany?
SPEAKER_03She says, My god, I've not that's that's that's massive. That's that's incredible. Is the guy with the dog back on the bus? I'm sorry. Yeah, he's he's uh he's he's basically not on the bus. He's just sort of like off to the side next to one of the wheels, just looking at it. He's kind of put his dog on the leash.
SPEAKER_01When I see that she's she's stepped, she stepped off the bus. Yeah, yeah. I'll you know, pop my head around the corner from the engine under the hood and say, yeah. Roger's just gone to get a tool. We'll have this hunk of junk moving in no time. Okay. Take your seats, everyone, take your seats. Paul and Tiffany look at each other and go, sure.
SPEAKER_03And they kind of get on the bus. And uh as Paul kind of gets up to you, Raymond, he says, if you need any backup, let me know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thanks.
SPEAKER_03I'll keep that in mind. He kind of gets on the bus as well, leaving you three outside of the bus, then those two in the bus. And you can see that as you're sort of like getting everything fixed, shutting everything down, I guess, the uh the drone starts to to hum, and then all the people that are attached to the drone are all sort of starting to to sing in that kind of choral way. They're not actually using any real words from what you can tell, but they're all singing, and you can hear that the as they start to sing, the intensity of the static in the air, and the pulse seems to quicken, and it seems to sort of rise, and just the backs of your the backs of your necks and everything sort of start to stand up, and they appear to be singing in some kind of vigil of some sort. Okay.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, the the bus is fixed. Vote we uh get moving quickly.
SPEAKER_00Roger just kind of like stands there and just sort of like watches them for a while. This this thing quite almost like sort of more of a curiosity, as it was.
SPEAKER_03The nun comes out the church and she's holding a book, and she um has sort of got this face regalia on with sort of this cowl that's written that's over her head, and she is reading something from the book. Again, it sounds like Latin maybe, and as she as she's talking, the all the people that are connected to the drone are also saying the same words or just repeating them just after her. As she kind of takes another step forward, you can see that she is connected to the back of the sort of cowl by loads of wires which go back and on into the church. And as she talks, you can see that the lights on top of the silos start to sort of like become stronger, as if they're sort of like the the electricity feeding from the church or whatever seems to be doing something to the silos, and you can feel the static getting stronger and stronger, and there's a pulse that's kind of pulsing. As as you do that, the radio on the bus comes back to life, and you can hear them chanting through the radio.
SPEAKER_01Uh Rod, Roger, I think we should I think we should get out of here. Yeah, a little too Margaret Atwood for me. Let's go. Okay. He kind of like tears his eyes away from like the spectacle.
SPEAKER_03As you do that, yeah. She points in your direction, and almost like through the radio, through the C B radio, she says, um, as she points to you. Once you are named, the pulse will not stop shaping you. And then she goes back to chanting again. So that so that came from the radio? It came from the radio, but she was pointing at you, and it was her voice.
SPEAKER_01But I I never spoke to her, so I'd be like, No. But you can hear the conversation between that's a good point. And I'll just be like, Yeah, I guess I'll be like, eh, that's a bit sort of be like, uh, odd. But then sort of gesture for the other people to get on the bus, arraymond and IG8. Definitely get on. Yep, I'm on the bus. Right behind, right behind Roger. Drive away? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00If that's uh But I'll be watching in like the rear view mirror, like this woman stand thing, and sort of like the spectacle. Kind of won't be watching like fully ahead.
SPEAKER_01I'll just be sort of like concentrating the mirrors on this thing behind. Sure.
SPEAKER_03So I'm still kind of interested in whatever this is. Yeah, you you kind of like can see them as you're driving away. Obviously, it takes a little while because the the silos are quite large on your left-hand side where where you pulled over. And so, yeah, you can you can see the the large drone getting smaller and smaller in your view mirror. But the uh but all the sounds are kind of washing over all of the sort of like 60-odd silos that are down the side of the road. And actually, as you drive, you can see there are more silos. There are there are acres of silos, and you were just on one part of it, you can see and you can almost still feel the static going across the larger area of silos.
SPEAKER_01And as we're as we're driving away, you hear Lando Calrazian's voice say, She's the fastest sunk of junk in the galaxy.
SPEAKER_03As you uh move out of sight of the uh of the silos and you continue with your journey, the static fades and the sun continues to beat down on your bus. It's still hot, it's still arid, but you continue on down dusty roads, but the static disappears. What song is particularly playing at this moment? Corbello.
SPEAKER_01Basket case. Green day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, since the song's playing, you kind of blink for a second at Raymond. And the woman that you were thinking of, um, bears an uncanny resemblance to the nun. It's only you're just like, oh you just remember that as as you're driving away. As if by getting further away, you can remember more.
SPEAKER_01Okay, shit. You mean the woman from his intro? Yeah. Yeah. Wow, cool. Wait a minute. That can't I I'm just I'm just confused. Like that can't be. That can't be. How is that possible? Part of me wants to turn back around. IG88. She's reminding me of someone. Who? This lady I met a long time ago. I think we should somebody I've been somebody I've been thinking about ever since she disappeared. Should I think I'm thinking we maybe we need to turn around. What's I want to turn around, but what do you think? You and Roger both. I think we should turn around. I think I know her. She's what up she's I've been I've been trying to find her. She says, You want to go back to that crazy shit? Sounds insane, I know, it sounds crazy. But I've been I've been thinking about what happened to her. And if she is her. What happened to her is a whole lot of crazy. Yeah, I know, and I sound crazy saying it, don't I? But I just got this burning desire to know who she is, if it's her.
SPEAKER_00Roger sort of turns around and then gestures, like with his hand, sort of like turn back and then shakes his head. And then sa sort of j makes a gesture of the doors opening and walking to you.
SPEAKER_01Is that what you're saying, Roger? Great. Thanks for backing me. He will let you off the bus if you want, but he's not gonna turn the whole bus around. Alright, well. For the moment I'll let it go, but I have a strange feeling that I might be seeing her again. And then I take out my uh bottle of liquor and put it to my lips and take a chug and go, of all the gin joints in all the towns, she had to walk into mine.
SPEAKER_03Okay. You uh you let it go.
SPEAKER_01But it's always in the back of my mind. It will be.
SPEAKER_03We have some mechanics for that, which I'm gonna keep to myself for the short moment. Okay, you continue on. The landscape changes a little bit as you kind of get from the sort of like plains going further on into Pacifica. You get closer to a bit more like civilization. There are lots more small farms and towns and other small yeah, small small small towns on the edges of larger cities, and you are making good time. By the time you are getting close to which would be sort of maybe about halfway, yeah, you kind of can see that there's a convenient place to sort of like stop, and you you stop off at a convenience store, and there's a small sort of gas station rest stop, which you can kind of all get out, stretch your legs, get snacks or drinks or anything that you want. Do we need gas? Yeah, I mean you you'll probably need some gas, but that's something that Roger will take care of. Is it getting is it later like night night? No, no, it's probably it's probably afternoon, sort of maybe maybe sort of late morning, early afternoon. So it's not it's not terrible. You know, you've you've made good good good good work of uh of driving this way. You didn't get way laid too much at the last place that you had to stop. Is there anything particularly you want to get while at the stock? Is there anything refreshing? Is there a you should all have some money on your uh probably not a lot on your character sheets. If there's anything you'd like to buy, feel free. You can buy anything up to that value.
SPEAKER_01Well, IG88 doesn't need a drink, so This is true.
SPEAKER_03So you should be fine. Any chewing gum in the shop? Yeah, there's there's chewing gum. There's there's it's not a full shop by any stretch of the imagination, but there is bits and pieces here and there. There's detritus in the in the back, you can see like a large gravetic truck, which is looks like it's crashed quite some time ago, and it's rusting. You can see there are a lot of crows and stuff sitting on it. You can also see that across the way there is a a large structure that has at some point burnt down. You can also see two or three Grav vehicles which have obviously crashed into it, and there's the there's the unmistakable look of scorched earth as bombs have been dropped or something at some point in the in the past. You go into the the air station, and there is a drone looking at you, a bright-faced drone with uh cheeky red rose road roses on. He has got like a little hat, which is sort of like strawberry coloured, like a red and white strawberries and cream kind of coloured hat. And he's got this little lapel, like this little PV PVC lapel, and as you come into the shop, he says, Good take you.
SPEAKER_01Do they have any uh cigarettes in this place?
SPEAKER_03We do!
SPEAKER_01Any particular brand or just generic? Got any marlboro?
SPEAKER_03He says, uh, no, but we do have some some Senna.
SPEAKER_01I'll take whatever you got, I'll smoke it.
SPEAKER_03They're mental. Fine. He gives you a a terrible, a terrible cost for them. They're expensive, but you know, they're here. You hand over your ill-gotten gains or your gotten gains, and he says, Why, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01You're welcome, buddy. Relax a bit. Completely relax, sir.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03He says this face. Can I smoke in here? Uh no smoking, sir. No smoking, sir, and he kind of like points to the no-smoking sign, which then blinks on and off. Is he a drone or a robot?
SPEAKER_01He's a robot. Oh, he's a robot, okay. He's a robot. Yeah, he's not actually a drone. Well, I take a step outside and light one up and pick it a fine time to quit smoking. After what I've just seen, I think I deserve a few of these.
SPEAKER_03As soon as you take a dragon cigarette, you feel much better.
SPEAKER_01I'm just shadowing Roger, wherever he goes, I'm going. He'll just be, since he's not really talking type, he's just going to be browsing the shelves.
SPEAKER_00So the two things he'll probably be looking out for is one, a packaging gum, as I said.
SPEAKER_01And uh maybe some trucker pills. Benzi. Benadryn. Benadryl? Benazine, I think. Benazine. These seem like things that might be in a truck's top.
SPEAKER_03Sure. Yeah, there's a there's a there's a small mini pharmacy. It's an automated mini pharmacy, so you can just pay for it, and it kind of automates everything for you. Um absolutely there are there are those there are the the the drugs you require there. You need to have already registered, which you would have done. You put in your registration details, and you do that, and you kind of wait for the drugs to be dispensed. The drugs get dispensed. On the little sort of screen, it kind of gives you your sort of running total and you know, all your all your details. And it says your name and all the rest of it, and then it says at the end of it, take the pills. You don't know what's around the corner. And then it flashes off.
SPEAKER_01I just sort of like blink a couple of times as if I might have just imagined that probably. Maybe maybe you just need these pills, whatever. And I'll I'll go pay for them or whatever. Or take the gum up to the little robot guy. Good day, sir. And how are you?
SPEAKER_03And I will just place down the gum and then look him. Gives you a cost, and he says, Anything else, we say. Petrol? He says, sorry, petrol. Yeah. He's in America. He says, gas, sir. He nods. He um says, Can I cut your tongue, sir? He nods again. The robot continues on and uh gives you back your change. Thank you very much for shopping at SN Gas.
SPEAKER_01He gives up thumbs up and then Well almost probably walks into IG, he's right behind him, and then Stumble stumble. Well, excuse me.
SPEAKER_00Roger sort of like looks down at him being like, okay, walks around him and uh walks to the door and then sort of turns back to see what IG's doing. Wait, where are you going? Oh, I was walking out the door, and then at the other door where he's turning around to see what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's following you out the door. Then he kind of just like looks a bit concerned, but then just kind of tired, and then just walks out and walks past Raymond on the way out. He stand you know, he like keeps pace with you and and he's walking beside you now instead of shadowing you, and you hear Tarkin's voice from Star Wars. He had another clip. The Jedi are extinct, their fire has gone out of the universe. You my father. He Roger to kind of looks down at the little ro drone and just looks a bit like confused. He d it's like he doesn't quite get what you're saying. You've never seen Star Wars? He shakes his head. Is he shaking his head no or yes? You say no. My god. We must rectify this immediately. Next chance we get, we are renting all three films. And thank God it's 1997. There are only three Star Wars movies. Only problem is they're the special editions. Oh right. No. Sorry, George. Sorry, George, for all the hate.
SPEAKER_03No, no hate. Nothing but love. You do you well, yes. On video. Or maybe on DVD.
SPEAKER_01DVD, yeah. Yeah. Depends if they go far enough into the 90s before society collapsed. I think the originals were still on Laserdiscs for a while. They're definitely laser discs. Yeah. Anyway. They were still making laser discs. We can find laser discs, I'm saying, if in the game, if we find laser discs, where we can get the originals.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. We have to find a laser disc player. It was hard enough to find a laser disc player in the 90s where the world wasn't falling apart. We're gonna go to a military base and then put a laser disc into a supercomputer.
SPEAKER_01It'd be like could come across a blockbuster. They're probably still around.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, actually not too far from here. It's a blockbuster video. Is it a blockbuster video? No, actually, not far from here. Is a place where you grew up, Margot. I was made in a factory. In fact, not far from here, the Museum of Forgetting is here, which is an archive of all of the past where your parents lived or lived. How far away is it from us? It's probably 30 miles. Is it like on the way to Kind of on the way? Yeah. You would have to take one extra road for 30 miles and then come back onto the road that you're on.
SPEAKER_01Hey Roger, we need to make a stop. Roger looks down quizzically. Quizzically. Quizzically. There we go. Take this take this next right when when I w when I tell you. Won't be long. It's just just something something I gotta see. We'll show you stop for him. Hey, st stopping and going back are two different things. He he looks at his watch and then sort of like taps it and then gestures at you. Is he saying no? Yeah, I think he's he might be able to say in like how long will this take? Ah, okay. I shrug. He he gives you a look, being like, you've got me do a bit better than that. Ten minutes. He looks up as if he's doing like a mental or sort of like calculation to his head. Then sort of like looks at the weather. And then it's like he sh he nods. I mean what what what time of day is it? The afternoon? It's yeah, it's afternoon. You just stop for you stop for lunch kind of thing.
SPEAKER_03Alright, so I'll give him I'll give him directions. You uh you get directions, it doesn't take much doesn't take very long to kind of go off off there. It's just literally another another road which kind of runs almost parallel to this road. And uh you kind of make your way to what looks like a large aircraft hangar, which is part of a larger complex, which could have been at some point, maybe a military complex, but that's probably back in the 60s, maybe 70s. Um so it's long gone by now. But the uh setup is still the same. You can see on-base living quarters, but you could as you're getting closer, you can see this large aircraft hangar has got neon signs on. The neon sign says, Welcome to the Museum of Forgetting. There's a large car park, you can see maybe a handful of cars parked in the car park. So there's a a couple of spaces for buses, like tourist buses and stuff to pull into.
SPEAKER_01So once once Roger parks, IG88 will step off the bus, and as he as he's doing doing that, he plays a clip from Star Trek 4 The Voyage Home. You hear William Shatner's voice say, Everyone, remember where we parked. Roger will turn to everyone else to just be like, make a gesture of like one hour. Yep, they'll get off. I said 10 minutes, now I'm gonna go. He doesn't believe you.
SPEAKER_00Smart considering how long that took, he's like, yeah, this is probably gonna me back at an hour, but if this takes ten minutes, it'll take ten minutes. And everyone else might want to other people might want to go to this museum.
SPEAKER_01Like, oh yeah, so I go to the door to the museum. This place seems like it's probably closed, right? It's open. It is open. It is open.
SPEAKER_03There is a whole load of sort of gravel and dirt and stuff that are in the that's in the doorway, which is kind of half a h holding open one of the sides of the the doors. You can hear the sound of music coming from the inside. Sort of like this this trippy kind of kids' music that might be from some kind of arcade machine or something. You kind of remember this when you were a kid. You definitely remember the um the sound. And of like Pac-Man and Space Invader. Yeah, that kind of thing. But you also remember it being a labyrinth of various different rooms, all made up to be slightly different. So there's sort of like ones with mirrors, some with large furry creatures in, and there's another one that looks like a serengeti. Just like a you just you just remember it being very kind of like a mixed mash of things, which was fun when you're a kid, right? Because it's a bunch of different things to see. Is there anyone here? You kind of stick your head around. There's a reception desk with a little booth, and you can see that there's someone in the booth. I will go up to the booth. Yep, you go up to the booth, you can see a clown in the booth. And the clown is kind of seating still, even better. And the clown is just standing or sitting in the booth.
SPEAKER_01Is it like a real person in a clown suit or is it like a it's difficult to tell. It's wearing makeup. Tap on the is there like glass or something?
SPEAKER_03Or yeah, yeah, there's like this perspective that you can kind of tap on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'll tap on the back.
SPEAKER_03There's the kind of like little round hole that you put money in and out of, that kind of thing. Right. Hello. These eyes like move downwards at an angle towards you. The rest of the body stays stock still, but the eyes kind of move. Now, this is a mechanical thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it looks like it's a robot. Hello. It just stares at you, doesn't say anything. Alright, I'm just gonna walk away. I mean, can I enter the rest of the museum without Yeah, yeah, there's so it's basically quite uh an open plan area.
SPEAKER_03You can see that there's So there's like no need to get a ticket or anything. It doesn't look that way. Well, if you do, the ticket's not working, right? You can see as you look closer in, there's this large archway and it says orientation. And then down the sides you can see quite a lot of uh things inscribed down them, but you can't quite read them. They're sort of like they're they're handwritten down this sort of like weird archway that you have to go through to get into the rest of the rest of the complex. Uh what are the rest of you doing? What's Raymond and Roger doing?
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna look at this museum. I'm just gonna walk through the exhibits as they come. So if if the orientation is the logical next room, I will proceed that by we'll be looking and taking interest in everything that's here, as I would be. Yeah, I've been I've been sticking a little close to IG-88, so I've come up behind him and peered at this clown. Yeah. Basically, just keeping an eye on IG-88, keeping my keeping close by.
SPEAKER_03Tifty and Paul have also come into the uh building. Tifty's like, oh my god! Look at it all. Paul looks at the clown, goes, fucking hate clowns, and he gives he gives the uh booth a kick.
SPEAKER_01IG-88 gives him the thumbs up.
SPEAKER_03He's got his hands in his pocket and he's just kind of like looking around. Does not look at best please.
SPEAKER_01Is there some place that looks like it might be like an office or a place where the people who worked here would be?
SPEAKER_03So as you kind of walk through the arch, uh you suddenly uh feel this overwhelming emotion of coming home. What is that emotion? Sadness. The same question goes to you, uh Roger, as you kind of like uh make your way towards the uh the the archway, uh you can see that it says memory gates. That's what what they're called. You can see that there's loads of different inscriptions down the side. Some of them are handwritten, some of them are sort of etched in. And uh, as you sort of like have a look, there's there's someone's written a whole load of emotions down the slides. What's the first thing? Pick an emotion that you would have you hone in on. How are you how are you feeling at this moment?
SPEAKER_00Is this to do with home or just to do with being here in this general book? Just being here. Melancholy, I would say maybe.
SPEAKER_01It's a bit sad this place. It's seen better days, but it's just kind of like you know, it's it's a totem to the past as it was, but yeah. The same question goes for you. Raymond feels nostalgia for a time of innocence when things seem simpler. I don't like it when the game master makes notes.
SPEAKER_03Mmm, ask questions and makes notes. What's that about? It's like, hang on, Ed hasn't done this for other games. That's not right. Right, yeah. So you kind of like go in immediately as you go through, there are barrage of various things from the from the from the 80s, 70s, and 80s. There's lots of like slot machines, there's slot machines, pitbull machines, and as you've kind of got into sort of like the 90s, you've got a lot more of the the actual arcade machines, there's a whole load of those. There is a large central area which has got a large faux mat, and on on the mat there are seats, and there are like it's almost designed like a bit of a cafe. You can imagine that there might be a kitchen just around the corner, and someone would come and serve guests with their sort of like, you know, horrendously priced cokes and sandwiches that too dry and too overfizzy and you know the usual kind of thing. And sitting on one of the sofas as you kind of all come in is a person. This person actually looks like a person rather than creepy robot clown?
SPEAKER_01Creep a creepy robot clown, indeed. Is it uh Can you can you describe this person?
SPEAKER_03You can see someone who is probably in her fifties, maybe. She's wearing a floral dress, and she's got short hair, and she's very slight. As she sees you, she stands up and she says, Hello. Do I recognize her at all? There's something familiar about her, but you don't know what. She says, Welcome, welcome. Please, please, can I get you something to drink? Maybe something to eat. What is your name?
SPEAKER_01I'm Jel. Nice to meet you. Jell? Yes. Does that name ring a bell? Make an empathy roll. Let's see how the roll goes in session two. Well, look at that. One whole success. One success. You know, my empathy is two, by the way, which means I'm rolling two dice.
SPEAKER_03You kind of you kind of look at her. The more you kind of look at her, you you kind of get like this memory. You you get this memory of being lost. Being lost in the labyrinth is underneath the this this sort of like hangar. That's where the sort of like the rest of the museum is. And you remember not being able to find your way out. You remember being alone, you remember not actually being able to find your parents, but you do remember finding someone who looks very similar to this lady. It might not be her, it's difficult to kind of the memory's a little bit hazy, but immediately you feel you felt that you were safe when they found you. And then you think they took you for something to drink, and then you felt better, and then then you met your parents. So it's that kind of like you got lost, they found you, now you feel a little bit safer. Um that's the kind of memory though, and the emotion that kind of comes from that.
SPEAKER_01What is my mother's name? What is your mother's name? I knew you were gonna say that. Let's say her let's say her name was Clara. Clara. Okay. I will ask this woman, do you know her Clara? Says. I do. Or I did.
SPEAKER_02When was the last time you saw her? It's been a while now. What year is it? It says uh so 97. So maybe 92?
SPEAKER_01And is that about the last time I saw her?
SPEAKER_03No, you saw her way before then. Uh that was that's more recent when you lost Sora. When you lost Sora a long time ago when you were a kid and you left.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01So she says, you wait. What were you doing? What was she doing the last time you saw her? She says she was looking for her son. Fuck you, Ed. Two more, three more weeks of this, Marco.
SPEAKER_03Give me that bliss. She went back down to the vaults. I haven't seen her since. Where are the vaults? She says she points down below her and says, you know, the memory vaults. Wasn't she trying to help someone? She was. Who was this person? Who was it, Marco? You're gonna get a lot of this with this game. This is part of the stuff that he doesn't know. Well, maybe you'll have to try and find out. It's almost like you need to sort of investigate what's happening.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's why I'm asking her questions. Is there is there like a computer terminal in here? There is. I'm gonna try to access it.
SPEAKER_03So, as a drone, you can only access the global stuff. You can't access local. Well, I remember reading that. Okay. But that's fine. You can definitely try and do a search.
SPEAKER_01What are you looking for? I'm looking for information on Clara and any last sort of details or notes or articles or anything like that that might reference what she was what she was doing and who she may have been with andor helping.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Well, I believe you have got a talent that will help you for this. I do. I have a hacker talent. Um, presuming you're not actually gonna hack the system, you're just looking for the information to start with. Yes. Okay. So if you can make a wit roll for me, that is, you get to add plus two because of your uh your hacker, you because of your hacker talent. Um, and I believe what is your your drone? I don't know if your drone gives you any extra bonuses for that, because I think it's meant to be for using for something else.
SPEAKER_01Well when I when I click on wits, so I have five dice because I have five wits, and then it adds it adds a plus two for network.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Yeah, that's for your that's for your drone, I think. And also and also for your nearest, yeah, so that'd be right. So just add an extra plus two.
SPEAKER_01I'm adding an extra plus two, okay. Got it. So it should give you quite a bit of dice. It didn't add the extra plus two, but I have three successes. Okay, that's fine. You don't need to worry about the other plus two.
SPEAKER_03Yes, so you come up with a load of information around Clara. Thank you for dropping this back into my um ballpark. Yes, so Clara is married to her husband, who'd be my dad. That'd be your dad, who is? Peter. Peter. So Clara's married to Peter. They have got their residence as this address. They were one of the founding members of this place, and it is a franchised museum, mostly of old things. There's maybe sort of a handful left in North America, but this is the only one that you know of because who knows what's happened to the rest of North America after the war. And this is where you kind of grew up, amongst all the weird things from the past. They have not got any other addresses. It doesn't look like they'd moved anywhere else. What else would you what would you what would you like to know?
SPEAKER_01Does it mention what she the last time she went into the lower vault and what she was going there to get? So this information is just about them.
SPEAKER_03The last time that when you look, that would be a local search, but you can't access that. But you're kind of like trying to have a look at when she can literally physically on the computer. And it looks like in 1992 was the last time she went into the um into the into the lower vault.
SPEAKER_01Alright, so that tracks with what the woman said. Okay. Correct.
SPEAKER_03What does Roger and Raymond want to do? So Roger, what are you doing while while this is happening?
SPEAKER_00Well, while this is uninteresting, he Roger vaguely seeing like the 80s stuff brings back sort of like a vague memory of back when he was working in his previous life. That he has he has this vague recollection of a pinball machine in a break room, and he remembers he used to be like really good at that pinball machine. So so what he so what he's gonna do is gonna he's gonna have a go at this pinball machine.
SPEAKER_03Well you you you go over to the pinball machines, and there is the exact same pinball machine that you used to play with.
SPEAKER_00Oh well, just sort of like touch it and see it gets the get you know that's you sort of like you feel you get recognition sort of touch recognition almost of like how you handle the sort of like as soon as you touch it, your fingers go to the sides of the pinball machine.
SPEAKER_03It's almost as if the the worn fingers along the side, because you use your your your your your your two fingers to sort of like hit the buttons and stuff, where your your other two or three fingers might go, it's worn from other people using the same pimple machine. It's almost like it's the one that you've used. Yeah, these are the my indentations.
SPEAKER_00So I'll I'll put the spring and pop the ball up and see if I can as you pull the spring back, yeah.
SPEAKER_03The spring snaps and breaks, which kind of feels like how your life feels.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I just kind of look at the sort of like brook because I assume the thing came out and it's just kind of in my hand now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, the the sort of like the handle is kind of like on that the ball has kind of gone up. It doesn't even quite reach to get out, and then it kind of just rolls back down to where it started from.
SPEAKER_01No. I just sort of spend some time sort of like looking at the sort of handle in my hand and sort of like rolling it around to sort of get that sort of feeling, and then just sort of like bask in the sort of neon light of the as you do that there's a a sharp piece of metal that catches your hand.
SPEAKER_03It draws just a little tiny bit of blood. This is definitely not the handle you remember. It's not the same. It's almost like it should be, but yeah, it's just it's just a little sad. It should be what it should be, but it just isn't. Raymond.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, I've let uh G eighty eight go off and have his conversation. I could see and I I've been distracted by a room filled with vinyl records, you know, and kind of pulls me back to a time when I mean the war was drawing to a close in about eighty five, wasn't it? Yeah, but it still there was there was a feeling of hope in the air, and so some of the music gives you that feeling. And there's a nice little portable stereo. It looks like the one I had in my flat in the corner.
SPEAKER_03There there's there's there's a turntable and everything to play it. There's a sign that says pick what you want, play what you want.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, so I'm flipping through through vinyls and trying to flip it.
SPEAKER_03What's the vinyl that you always wanted that you never quite got to own?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. See Roxy Music Avalon.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you're flicking through it, and it is indeed there.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I just pick I just drawn to it, I just pick it right up out, pull it out of the sleeve nice and slowly. You could just smell that old vinyl smell. Put it on the turntable, and the first song, more than this, comes on.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_01Fantastic.
SPEAKER_03It is amazing. The the feeling you get from that, just the nostalgia from back then, the the sense of hope that that that it kind of gives you plays through the air as as the music sort of starts to carry out through and into sort of like the cafe area that IG88 is and sort of like the the gaming area just kind of catches the edges of that that music where um where Roger is.
SPEAKER_01And those first few those first few lyrics though, those first few lyrics just really encapsulate the moment. There's nothing more than this, tell me one thing more than this, and that just really encapsulates the moment.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and it kind of just it just brings everything sort of like together, which you get this sort of like, yeah, this nice feeling of hope that kind of brings everything together, specifically for you, for the others, not so much, but it kind of you can just kind of make it out. And as as you're sort of like thinking through the computer, the computer responds, and a chat window pops up and it says, My son, come find me. And then dot dot dot.