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.
Join us at our virtual table as we play Mysteries of the Loop, our Tales from the Loop series; explore the Arthurian mythos in The Sword Campaign, the first part of our Great Pendragon Campaign; chart the stars in Star Trek: Magellan, our Star Trek Adventures series; and sail the seas in Dark Blue Sea, our Mutant: Year Zero campaign. Stories from other worlds are coming soon, including The One Ring, The Electric State, Legend of the Five Rings, Twilight: 2000, and so much 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 Time That Shouldn't Be S2 E4: A Tales from the Loop Actual Play
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As the kids face a day that repeats itself, their search for answers leads them to the beach, where a TV crew sets up an interview with a man who claims to have witnessed an unexplainable phenomenon.
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This is the time that shouldn't be. A Tales from the Loop. Actual play. 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. Hey, welcome back.
SPEAKER_05It's another episode, and I think it's episode number four of Tales from the Loop. The time that sh shouldn't be. Well, what we I thought would be really cool is if you listen to episode four and not episode three, so all the references will happen in this episode, you'll be just in the dark as the rest of the people. So yeah, don't worry about listening to episode three. It's fine. Who knows what will happen. It's Friday morning. Sven, you wake up. What's your plan for the morning?
SPEAKER_08My dad isn't around, right?
SPEAKER_05Uh your dad is laying on the sofa with a bottle of something on the floor, sort of like resting in his hands.
SPEAKER_08Okay, so I'll do the usual. I will clean up the house, I will prepare everything.
SPEAKER_05It's relatively tidy-ish, but yeah, yeah, you kind of give it a bit of a tidy-in.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, and I I will put a blankie on top of him, try to push him if the feet is falling down, then I will push it up and cover him. Perhaps I will close the window if he left it open so he doesn't get some darkness. And I will prepare perhaps some breakfast.
SPEAKER_05You start making some breakfast and you look in at your dad sort of sleeping on the sofa. This feels weird. You remember the stuff from before. I do. Yeah. You're kind of as you're sort of like you kind of go into sort of like that morning kind of routine, and then as your morning routine starts to be normal again, it's then when you kind of like look over and from memory starts to come back.
SPEAKER_08You see, yeah. So I go and check him again and I poke him. You poke him? Yeah, he's real.
SPEAKER_05Uh he's like coughs and stuff.
SPEAKER_08And I open I look open the w the door and I see if the car is outside.
SPEAKER_05Uh yeah, the car's outside.
SPEAKER_08I check my pockets if I find any paper or anything.
SPEAKER_05No, you don't find any paper?
SPEAKER_08Check the time. I take a radio, one of these. Yeah. I guess I will have one of these old radios that you, you know, just take it with me. Yeah. And I I go to my bedroom and tried to put it on to know what date it is. You know, just to check the date.
SPEAKER_05It's it's Friday and stuff. The date is correct, and people are talking about a noise they heard coming from the uh the sound in between the two islands, shimmering lights in the sky, loud noise. Everything that you heard previously. Or today. So that's what you do in the morning to kind of like figure out what you're doing. Susie!
SPEAKER_07I think I think Susie wakes up and uh sort of confused, but also just assumes that's just a dream, right? That's we we're just dreaming. That's that's fine. So I I think normal morning routine, nothing too special. After sort of having some breakfast, watching some teddy for a little bit, programming a little bit. Her mum calls her down.
SPEAKER_05We're off to the library.
SPEAKER_07Well, before that, puzzle time. Puzzle time at lunch and then library. Before lunchtime, and she heads down. What I want to know is, is it the same puzzle? It's the exact same puzzle. It's the same puzzle. Poor has not been completed? So the the progress has just reversed itself from yesterday. Okay. Which I find odd, but not too odd. But I am I basically, as we sit down to do the puzzle, I just go bam, bam, bam, and complete the pour almost instantly. And before my mum is even she's like, probably slightly surprised at how quick I did that, given how long this puzzle has taken us normally. And I just sit there kind of real smug with myself.
SPEAKER_05Cool. Yeah, I'll tell you what, why don't you make me a comprehend roll and add two dice to that? Okay. Yeah. That's what. You exactly take the you don't even look at the pieces, you know where they are. Boom bum bum bum bum straight in. Your mum looks at you and goes, How did you do that?
SPEAKER_07It's just been playing in my mind all this time, apparently. We've got a very smart girl here, obviously. We're going to then sit down for the the the hour or whatever before lunch, continuing to fill in slowly little bits of the the rest of the puzzle. Um we're not caught not quite doing as uh as well as the start. And then uh lunch. After lunch, it's time to go to the library, and then yeah, I'll get my stuff ready. Cool.
SPEAKER_03Johannes, what's he doing? Well, my plan was to go to the hideout and just hang out, but for some reason I get this when I think about doing that, I get this sort of like disconcerting feeling about like being there. Like something feels off about doing that. And then I'm also suddenly thinking about I should probably call my sister. She I I feel like I'm forgetting something relating to her. So I will leave the house and go find a public call box.
SPEAKER_05Feel like you made plans to do that or something? Something like that? Yeah. Plague on your mind.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Like we discussed something, or don't know. It's a bit blurry.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Yeah, you kind of like go out of the house, go to the nearest public telephone, and you dial her number, and it rings and rings, but it doesn't answer.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_05Is there like a voicemail or anything?
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, I guess for voice message. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Hi, Hammond.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but just uh just gonna call in you to see how you're getting on, or whatever. Yeah, I'll call you back this evening. Okay, look forward to speaking to you. Still not very keen on going to the hideout. So I will probably head down to somewhere where there's kids. I know and just try and uh do some schmoozing.
SPEAKER_05Okay, you make your way down to um the Pizzeria ice cream shop, which is near the library and opposite the school, and if you can make an investigate role, that'd be great.
SPEAKER_02This is probably not gonna be great. No. Let's see. One success.
SPEAKER_05Well, as you're sort of like going down around the town, you notice quite a lot of white vans that seem to be either parked up on corners or driving around. They're plain white vans, no markings, with a couple of people in them.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Do they just sort of seem to be sitting in the vans? There's not like people like wandering around from the vans.
SPEAKER_05No, so they're all just yeah, you're right. Then they're not kind of doing anything. They're either parked up, parked up somewhere, or the vans are driving around town.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Alright. I'm going to find some other kids and try and see if they know what's going on or what if they know what the deal with these bands are.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So you um you meet up with some of the other, there's some other kids from school. You know, it's it's coming towards the end of the summer holidays, so they're all kind of like, we need to just eke out every last possible second of not having to go to school. So Leonard is there. He's the fair-skinned, blue-eyed kid. He's like a shock of strawberry blonde hair. He's quite cool. Was it? He lives close to the doctor, yeah. Uh he's a um he's quite skinny. Uh, you know that he's sort of like he's part of the the the gym, the gym class. Yeah. He's a bit of a gymnast in school. Leonard says, Hey Johannes, how are you?
SPEAKER_03Oh, not bad. What's all hanging out? What have you guys been up to?
SPEAKER_05Me and Rolf and Eric. We're planning to sort of go up uh and um spend some time in the quarry this week today. It'll be quite fun.
SPEAKER_03We were there yesterday? No. Was it yet? The other day. We were there yeah, it was it was last night, yeah. There wasn't much of interest really. I think Antsay found the most interesting thing, which was a sort of hospital gown. That was the one.
SPEAKER_05Oh yes, because they were filming the um the TV show there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, just a bunch of junk lying around, really, and some tracks in the dirt. That's all that's there.
SPEAKER_05Should have done it the other day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Well, we we heard that all that stuff that was going on. Lights in the sky, and we kind of figures something's going on at the uh at the loop. Lights in the sky? Yeah, like people said the lights in the sky. Do you um there was uh actually, I think, a little bit later on today, Dan Eric, you know the guy who has the boats at the pier. Yeah, I was saw him yesterday.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yesterday.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Well, he apparently is going on the station, the local station, to talk about something he saw last night. Oh. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Any idea what he saw?
SPEAKER_01I think you said something about lights and sky and stuff, but well a kid stealing a canoe going to the maybe.
SPEAKER_03I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's what he's planning to do.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03He's seen all the the vans out today. No. Like point I'll point out a couple of them from where we're standing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Seen tons of them on the way down from the house everywhere. Really?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05Oh, do you think the news ag newspeople are gonna be uh checking out what's going on?
SPEAKER_03I don't know.
SPEAKER_05Well, there's one driving past again as well. Cool, we're gonna be famous. Maybe we can get like on TV or something. We could do that, yeah. Maybe we'll do that. That's a good idea. And he he kind of like says, Hey, do you wanna do you want ice cream? And uh he forks out a couple of chrona and bites you like a chrome of a chalk ice or something.
SPEAKER_03Sure. Uh Janice just kind of he just For some reason he doesn't really want to be alone right now for some reason. So he'll just hang out with Leonard and whatever anders!
SPEAKER_04What's your plan? Uh bit fuzzy, but there was a John insect in a bag. That seems it's very vivid, but it seems a bit strange now.
SPEAKER_05Yep.
SPEAKER_04But I'll I'll just to double check, I'll go down and get my bag, check through, see if it it's there where I thought it was. Uh yeah, there is. Um there's a insect in a bag. So that's right, but then I seem to call it being thousands of years old. From we found something in the library and I haven't been to the library once. Anyway, uh for some reason I'm worried about the workshop being really untidy. So uh I'll probably head over there first and uh check it out tidy up.
SPEAKER_05Alright, yep. You uh you make your way to the workshop or the hideout. Anthony What's your morning looking like today?
SPEAKER_01So, once again, we're having breakfast. My father, you know, once breakfast we finish up breakfast, mom's cleaning up the you know, cleaning up the kitchen, doing the dishes. I gets ready to go to work. Father gets ready to go to work, and he steps to the door and he stops for a minute and he turns around and he looks at me and he says, Deja vu. And I was like, Yeah. Yeah, Dad. Catch you later. And then he leaves. And then I go into his study and try to break into his drawer again.
SPEAKER_05Why don't you uh use that that paperclip? And you're gonna get an extra two dice this time. Now I was rolling tinker, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, tinker.
SPEAKER_05Tinker, but you get to have two extra dice. You feel like you know what you're doing this time.
SPEAKER_01Wow, okay.
SPEAKER_05I have one success. So, you are deftly, apparently, like the films, fiddle around with your your paper clip, and there is well, there isn't any satisfying click, but the drawer opens. The device is sitting there. The device itself is yes. Were there a bunch of scratches on it? On the Nock in the wood?
SPEAKER_01No. Okay, alright.
SPEAKER_05No. There's a device there. The device itself has now come out of the jacket. It has sort of like a button system attached to like a small metal box that's got loads of sort of warning signs and various other kind of don't open this box, otherwise you'll explode kind of warnings. But it's a little bit handmade, so it's not sort of like anything that's been generated sort of on the production line, it's just a one-off kind of looking thing. Like a prototype.
SPEAKER_01Like a prototype, and it's sitting there. I take it. Okay. Put it in my jacket. I mean, the you know, I'm wearing my brother's jacket, so I put it in the jacket.
SPEAKER_05So it's been re-sewed into the seam, so so obviously you you had to you have to unpick the the seam. Okay. And then and then, and so now that's been sewn up, so you just you can't put it back in there. You can just put it in your pocket or something.
SPEAKER_01Okay, no problem. I'll leave a little note like on a little sticky pad or something. Sorry, dad. Deja vu, am I right? And then I put it inside, I close the the drawer.
SPEAKER_05You and then you as you go to do write the note, you go to put it in the drawer, and you can see there's another note in the drawer. What does it say? It says deja vu, huh?
SPEAKER_01Wait, is that in my father's handwriting? It's in your dad's handwriting. Son of a bitch. So the I check the device.
SPEAKER_05Does it look like it's bullshit? No, no, no, it looks like it's you the device. You you remember taking out of the thing to show your dad. It looks the same. Why would he leave the note then?
SPEAKER_01Messes your brain, right? My brain is melting. Okay. So I I I close the I write ha ha on it, and then I close the uh the drawer and and I I run out into the kitchen, say, I'm gonna go meet my friends downtown. See you later, mom, and then I go out, jump on my bike. She waves at you with a kind of quizzical look on her face.
SPEAKER_05Jump on my bike, and I'm starting to head to the hideout. Right. Well, Anders, you get to the hideout. Uh it's exactly like you remember it, except all your tools and stuff are up where they should be. There's no weird stuff on things, it doesn't smell bad or anything like that.
SPEAKER_04Well, my anxiety is relieved. I will set about making those jump leads for uh shorting out the uh electric fence that for some reason I've decided I want to do.
SPEAKER_05Right, well, I guess while Johannes is hanging around with the uh the kids at the pizzeria, Sven, you are going to do what?
SPEAKER_08I mean, once I clean up and I prepare everything, I will go to the hideout to meet with the rest.
SPEAKER_05Cool. You you you go to the hideout where you meet well you'll you'll meet you'll meet you'll meet the others. Susie. You do your your crossword, you have some food, and then you go with your mum to the library.
SPEAKER_06Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_05Uh you get to the library, you don't see Anders.
SPEAKER_07Which I find odd. I was kinda hoping that I had psychic powers and the fact he's not here. It's kind of thrown that one off, but kinda not not unexpected. I'm still gonna go around and collect the the the books that I collected from before, including that one on dinosaurs. I'm gonna quickly flick through and just make sure that the page is still in there.
SPEAKER_05The page is in there, it's not torn or anything. Woo! Danger verded. It's the end of the that's the end of Tales from the Loop. It's all sorted, no problem. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_07Um sort of, you know, I I think I'm gonna spend a bit of time, as I would normally, sat down at one of the tables, sort of flicking through the books, making sure these are the ones I want. Again, while my mum has the conversation with the librarian, they might be friends or whatever. To be honest, that might be the actual reason why we come to the library rather than anything else. But you know, suiters doesn't mind. He's a particularly good-looking librarian. Yeah, sure. There you go. I kinda kind of delaying a little bit just in case Anders does show up. But she probably isn't pushing it too much, because again, she's not really attributing this to a time loop or any such weirdness. It's more everything's explainable, right? So, never mind. I'm gonna check everything out, pop it in my bag, and then I think as we're going home or getting home, I'm gonna I'd probably strike up a little little uh conversation with my mum. Mum, would it be okay if I maybe went along and caught up with Anthony and and Anderson, whatnot, this afternoon? She looks to you and said. I haven't seen them in a while. As long as you're back for dinner. What's for dinner? Wait, let me guess. Oh, you didn't let me guess.
SPEAKER_05She says, yeah.
SPEAKER_07It's your favourite, so be back for dinner. We'll do. And so we get sort of out of the car. I immediately hop on the bike. Be careful. Wait, run back inside, dump all the books on the table, grab the the one on dinosaurs, throw that in my bag, zip it onto my back, and hop on my bike, and I'm gonna head to the bottom.
SPEAKER_05You seem to have problems putting the jacket on.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05And that yeah, you uh make your way to the hideout. Everyone this time, apart from Johannes, goes to the hideout. And uh you'll meet up.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I I uh I go I I get up there and I'm I'm gonna try and remember the secret knock from like six weeks six weeks ago. Six months ago, sorry, I'm like give it a go. Hello! Is anyone here? Anders, Anthony, come on in. Open the door. Hey! Long time no see? Yeah, it's been a while. What have you been up to? Wow. You should see it actually. Anders, you might like it. I've I've got a new computer. Is it a TI99? I can't quite remember, but I'm sure I'm sure Susie remembers. She doesn't know. She doesn't fully know. She's like, I've I've been programming, she just sort of ignores the question. I've uh I've been um making my own uh little little games and stuff. Pretty fun. And and reading, of course. In fact, I brought one along. I if anyone wants to look at it, I'm gonna pull out the one on dinosaurs from yesterday. And I'm looking at Anthony's leg.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I look quizzically I look quizzically back and then pull out the plastic bag with the insect in it and point to it and say, giant prehistoric insect, page 57.
SPEAKER_07I am psychic!
SPEAKER_01On page 57, there is indeed that. We're caught in. Suzy, we're caught in a time loop. What? Caught in a time loop. What? I w I wish I could reference Groundhog's Day, but it hasn't come out yet. What do you mean? Didn't you guys ever seen Doctor Who? Like a few episodes, maybe. Like we keep playing the same day over and over again. And there's supposed to be a dinosaur downstairs. Johannes is supposed to be here, but he's not. Do we have a shared dream? Things are always a little different each time we go through this day.
SPEAKER_07Group hallucinations are a real known thing, Anthony.
SPEAKER_01I think I can fix it. And I pull out the device that I took from my father's desktop. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not that again.
SPEAKER_07No no no no no no no. Put the device down, Anthony. Please. I thought we'd left that behind, okay?
SPEAKER_01But all I have to do is push this button and everything will go back to normal. Please, Anthony. Just just put it down. Puts it back in his pocket.
SPEAKER_04So are all the white vans still out there?
SPEAKER_08I guess I can arrive at that moment, perhaps when they uh finish arrive with the bike and I put it on the side. Something the weirdest ever happened to me today. Today, my dad didn't come from work. But also today, my dad came back from work. See, I told you time loop.
SPEAKER_07It doesn't mean time loop, Anthony. I'm sure there's a logical explanation behind all of this.
SPEAKER_08But either I was hallucinating. Or something happened. I do remember coming here, seeing a flash of light, and being back to the morning. Flash of light. And I was just picking up things at home, and then I realized that I've done this, and I was super mega worried for my dad, and my dad was there snoring. And drunk on the sofa as use one. So I don't understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_07Anders, what are people was it you who's been working on the car downstairs?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, not not today though.
SPEAKER_07But you haven't left like, I don't know, s some paint out or think so.
SPEAKER_01Can we talk about the more important question? Why does Anders have a prehistoric bug in his bag? Which kind of feeds into we're stuck in a time loop.
SPEAKER_07I was so caught up on guessing it, I I kind of forgot that fact. You're right. That is weird. But could it just be a mosquito's drunk a lot of blood?
SPEAKER_01Have you seen a mosquito the size of a fist?
SPEAKER_07No, but I haven't seen that many mosquitoes.
SPEAKER_01But mosquitoes are like the size of, you know, ants.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, but no, there's one.
SPEAKER_01There's evidence of it.
SPEAKER_07It could be a new species.
SPEAKER_01Could be a fossil. Fossils aren't alive. When Anders found it, it was alive, right, Anders?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So do you reckon that came here through some kind of time change?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. I I I I do. Sven talked about a light in the sky. We've been having these weird memories of reliving this day. Susie's all of a sudden got psychic powers.
SPEAKER_07Anders, where did you find this bug?
SPEAKER_04Just found it in my bag yesterday or the day when whatever it was.
SPEAKER_01What else did you have in your bag? Was it when we went to Monso?
SPEAKER_04Yes, w when we'd come back, yeah. We've we've been there, then we went to the quarry.
SPEAKER_01And then home, right? After the quarry, we all went home, right?
SPEAKER_05Came back here, but And as you and you and you and Johannes went to the to meet up with your uh contacts?
SPEAKER_01Oh that's right. You guys went to a drug deal.
SPEAKER_05That's right for you to pick bring that up.
SPEAKER_07You what?
SPEAKER_01No, it's it was a bunch of videotapes. So they're selling porn now.
SPEAKER_07Anthony.
SPEAKER_01What?
SPEAKER_07Mind your language. So, okay, so you've you've been to the quarry, which I could see how that's fun, but you probably shouldn't have been there either. And you've you've come across this this strange bug. Have you told anyone else about this?
SPEAKER_04Well you lot yesterday, but wasn't yesterday.
SPEAKER_07Okay, but like no one else. So we can't really verify this further. This could be big. This could be big discovery, Anders.
SPEAKER_04So stuff on the news this morning, all the vans that are out, it must be something to do with the loop.
SPEAKER_01At least someone here is talking sense.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, in fact, yesterday when my dad did not come, I mean today, I called the loop, because he worked there, and the security officer was afraid of the loop, and he was telling me that something had happened, and that's why my dad did not come home. So yeah, has to be the loop. I mean yesterday I thought that the same thing that happened to Anthony's brother happened to my dad. What are we gonna do? What can we do actually?
SPEAKER_01The way I see it, we have two options. I use the device and it fixes reality, and I get my brother back, and you get your dad back. Or two, we break into the fucking loop and we see what's going on in there. Gosh, Anthony, that's but first we have to f we have to find Johannes, because you know, maybe that drug deal went bad. But it was Johannes dealing dru I leave you for six months.
SPEAKER_07And what? You just you should just start becoming even more troublemakers.
SPEAKER_04It's just some videotapes.
SPEAKER_07It better be, because this is the reason I can't hang out with you anymore.
SPEAKER_01X-rated videotapes, I bet, knowing Johannes.
SPEAKER_07Right. Well, we've all got our bikes, right? Should we go find him?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, we should we should find Johannes. He could be in trouble. He could have sold those tapes to the wrong to the wrong people, you know. The Russians. The Russians, right.
SPEAKER_05You will kind of get on your bikes and uh leave.
SPEAKER_03Johannes, where does that find you? I'm probably still hanging out with people at the pizzeria and ice cream shop. Yeah. Just uh chatting or whatchallow, seeing what people are interested in. Whatch we call it. Try and get some deals going, maybe be like, oh, you want one of those? I think I've got that. I don't know where to get those. I do have that. I did have like a quick look over the sort of labels on those tapes I bought. Or whatchallow? There was I don't I don't know whether there was some generic names. There was one that was just called Aliens, one called Ren Red Soon, Sonja, I think it was, and some other things. Whatch one called Alf, episodes one to three.
SPEAKER_01It's probably gonna be terrible. Some like Jazz Legs of Star Trek The Next Generation. Nobody's interested in that. Yeah, I know that. That's never gonna be on about that. That would be like what the first season, right? In 1986.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I know that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05That's an old thing that your parents watched.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05You're sort of like hanging around with with the other kids. And you know, Leonard and Haven and stuff are all seemed quite friendly, and they're sort of like some of the quieter kids, so actually they probably like to hang around you because you're a bit cooler.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I am.
SPEAKER_05What is you like to think you are?
SPEAKER_03I I'll have you know my class is popular, kid, so there.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, you're you're kind of like just sort of like shooting the breeze, and and actually they're they seem like quiet uh a normal lot, you know. Leonard is a gymnast in school, Alvin, he is he kind of like likes a lot of music, so he's always sort of like talking about music. And Rolf is just I guess like a regular kid who likes a bit of everything. He's kind of into he's a bit younger, so he's kind of into a lot of the sort of cartoons and stuff. So yeah, you kind of end up hanging with them and and chilling out a little bit. I guess the rest of you are gonna go cycling around town to try and find Johannes. Yeah. Could you all make for me an investigation in fact, one of you can make an investigation roll and add three dice.
SPEAKER_01Who's gonna have three and investigate? What's your mind? My mind is four.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, go for it, Anthony. I think you're really in the hunt anyway. So I'm adding how many bonus dice? Three. Three.
SPEAKER_01I wasn't about to say that was. Well, it's a lot of dice, and I only got one success.
SPEAKER_05Well, lucky for this game, all you require is one success. Yes, as you sort of like cycle around, you can see the white vans. And while they're not following you, they appear to sort of like be unnervingly in the same places that you are. You reckon between all of you that you count four vans. So while while they look like there's loads of them, actually there's only four, it's just they all seem to be on, you know, one sort of like laying up, then they're driving. And the only way you realize that is you basically look at the number plates and you realize that there are four of them. But they they they appear to be around a lot, and you make your way towards or go past the pizzeria, and you just make out Johannes in the pizzeria. In fact, you see his bike outside.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I make a U-turn and I I stop the bike and I go, Johannes is at the pizza place!
SPEAKER_00Johannes is at the pizza place, guys!
SPEAKER_01And then I pedal over to the pizza place. By the way, what what year is it? Is it 86 or 7?
SPEAKER_05I think we know 86. I think it was 86, I think it was.
SPEAKER_01Then Star Trek Denise Generation hasn't even aired yet. Okay. The Voyage Home, I think, came out this year. Right. Yes, I think you're right. So you have a bootleg of Star Trek for, and it's instead of the Voyage Home, it says the one with the whales. The whales.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you you see Johannes in the in the pizza, pizzeria and ice cream shop. Like you're all going in, one of you going in, you some of you weighing outside, you calling Johannes. What's the plan? I think we should all go in in case he's in trouble, because we might need backup. Fair enough. Yeah, Johannes seems to be being tortured by ice cream and pizza on one of the tables with a couple of the other kids that you recognize. We don't recognize them? No, you do recognize him. Okay. And he seems to be having a good time by the look of it. Best time he's had in months.
SPEAKER_01I s I I go over to the ice table and Anthony arrives to ruin his day. Anthony goes over to his table, folds his arms across his chest, and he just stares down at him. You enjoying that ice cream?
SPEAKER_03Hi, Anthony. I was just trying to lend it here. They were thinking about going to the quarry later on.
SPEAKER_01We thought you were dead. We thought your drug deal had gone bad last night. Where the hell have you been?
SPEAKER_07The kids are like, What? Anthony was worried about you, Johannes. Hi Johannes. Long time Nancy. He thinks we're in some sort of time vehicle or something.
SPEAKER_01Don't you can't speak openly in front of they're not in the group. I'm like pointing at the people she didn't sign the contract. I'm pointing at people that Johannes is with. Leonard Kelly goes, What? He says, What film?
SPEAKER_03Oh, right. Ignore Anthony, he's just being weird, you know, kids are like.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're a kid. Fuck you. You're 11. 14, yeah. You're still a kid.
SPEAKER_03Anthony! Notice, Susie, how nobody's even buying an eyelid at all that's sort of like abuse. Everyone else is used to this.
SPEAKER_05And you Anthony. The Alvin Alvin's like, he's kind of like backing away a little bit from clearly a very angry-looking Anthony and a girl. You better run. He's not he's just kind of like sitting back in his chair, kind of like trying to distance himself a little bit. Especially when you've got Sven and Anders. I mean, you've got the the older boys out.
SPEAKER_03Let me just go chat to my friends here, Leonard. Okay. What time were you thinking you're going to enter the quarry? Probably about five-ish. I might I might meet you there, maybe. We'll see what's going on. Sure, no problem. Cool. Alright, cool. Maybe see you later. Sure. You're off. Bye. Bye, Susie. Bye, Leonard. Walk outside and be like, okay. What what what's up?
SPEAKER_01We're stuck in a time loop.
SPEAKER_07Andy thinks we're stuck in a time loop.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_04Just look questioningly at Johannes and say, dinosaur.
SPEAKER_03The word for some reason does kind of fill him with dread. And he's not very sure why. And he's like, okay, what about dinosaurs?
SPEAKER_07I'm gonna get the book out.
SPEAKER_03That's a nice book. Mind if I borrow that for a second, Susie?
SPEAKER_07That's why I brought it.
SPEAKER_03He'll have a flick through until he sees like something he that fills him with dread.
SPEAKER_05Okay, you flip through. Yeah. Ah, you run away. Yeah, that's cool. You kind of flick through and yeah, you you come across what looks like a picture of something you've seen recently in the garage. Yeah. Today, yesterday, it's difficult to tell. It's telling you that it is a Allosaurus. And there is a picture not dissimilar to the the one that you saw. It tells you a whole bunch of stuff about the Allosaurus.
SPEAKER_03This was it. This was it. This is the one I saw the other day. When we were all at the um I don't remember. Well, no, I was by myself. You guys came later. I can't remember. Anders, you were shouting about a bug or something. I don't know.
SPEAKER_07He's got the bug.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'll pull it out, hold it up, point to it. Page 56. There's nothing on page 56, it was on page 57.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_0357. As I told you the other day, whatchamacallit, I don't think we can sell that thing. I don't know who would be interested in it. No, that wasn't yesterday, it was the other day. Yeah, you already showed this to us.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, in our shared hallucination, or maybe it's time loop, I don't know anymore.
SPEAKER_03No, no, no, no. It was it was a couple of days ago. Sven, Anthony, Anders, you were all at the hideouts. You weren't there, Susie, you don't You were there yesterday.
SPEAKER_06What day was yesterday?
SPEAKER_03Uh Friday.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_06What day is it today then?
SPEAKER_03No, it can't have been Friday.
SPEAKER_06Must have been Thursday.
SPEAKER_03Wait, no, we were we went to the beach on Thursday. But he just started scooting. Like, wait, hang on, well.
SPEAKER_07And you're going back to the quarry. You know it's dangerous there.
SPEAKER_03No, to be fair, there's not much of interest there. When we were there a couple of days, no. Thursday. Thursday. Friday. Thursday. Thursday. That reminds me. Remember Jan, who we rented the boats from yesterday? Apparently he he's getting interviewed by the uh television station tonight. He uh apparently uh saw something to do with the lights which were in the sky yester last night. I didn't hear anything about that, but that's what Leonard was saying.
SPEAKER_04I suppose we could head towards the beach and ask him.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04How we know?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, he might he might know something. You uh get back on your bikes. It's about a 45-minute bike ride up outside of Stenhamra and heading north up towards the centre of the island. So, yeah, you follow the uh the road up past a quarry and you continue up. Continue up to Sangasebi, which is the town just above Stenhamra. You hang a left and head to the beaches that you're in before, which is just down here, which is just on the edge of the outer ring of the boop. As you kind of get to the same location, it looks exactly the same as it does. The the days are still warm, it's still a very unseasonably warm September. You can see that there is the pier, you can see that there are a bunch of canoes all tied up on the pier, but you cannot see Yanner.
SPEAKER_01Who is renting out the canoes if it's not?
SPEAKER_05No one. No one. There appears to be an honesty box on a on a table on one of the next to one of the canoes. In fact, one of the canoes has actually been hauled up onto the end of the of the jetty, and there's like a box in there that says two krona per rental.
SPEAKER_03I just ask around and see if anyone's seen him or know where he lives.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, there's a bunch of kids, there's some families. Again, much like yesterday, they're kind of enjoying the beach, and there's uh this Friday afternoon, there is someone selling ice creams and drinks. And uh you can see there's a as you look around, you can see there's a throng of people kind of down by the far side of the beach where there is like a small hut kind of thing. And there's a throng of people like just surrounding the hut. Alright. Definitely. Okay, you will make your way down to the the hut and the the ring of people. You can see as you get closer that there is a there's a reporter who has got a microphone, and there is another person with you you were expecting like a video camera or something, but he seems to have got like a bunch of recording material or something. He's got like a like a backpack which is put down. There's wires coming out of the backpack going to sort of the mic, and there's like a little mast and like an aerial antenna or something. And they're they appear to be sort of setting something up for an interview. I'll go up to the one of those people and be like, Who are you guys gonna interview? Hey kid, one of the guys, one of the locals here, saw some stuff. We thought we'd interview him.
SPEAKER_01What do you mean he saw stuff? Well, you'd have to listen. But is it like interesting stuff, or did he see fish? No, of course it's interesting stuff. Aliens or something. Aliens?
SPEAKER_05Does this hut look like it's been here a long time? Yeah, it's basically been painted for for many years. It looks like it's been here for a very long time. What's it used for? Yeah, you probably well actually you probably you probably don't know this. And does. You know this is one of the huts that Jan Erik sometimes stores in winter his all his stuff in. And it's kind of unofficial, we'll call it his office, but it's uh like a a really run-down boathouse kind of like shack ramshackle thing. You know because you've been here longer than banana. When is this interview gonna take place? The guy says that or the well the woman, she says that she looks at her watch. Probably in about half hour or so. He's just getting ready. Who's getting ready? The guy we're interviewing, the Jan Eric. Jan Eric Anderson, he's getting changed. Is he in the shed? You ask a lot of questions, kid.
SPEAKER_01Fuck you, lady, is he in the shed? Mind your manners, she says. And there's this stupid lady won't answer my question.
SPEAKER_05The woman and the guy next to her looked at you and the kid.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I look apologetically in their direction. Yeah. And then pat Anthony on the shoulder like he's a special child. So go on, Anthony. Yeah, I guess we'll have to uh hang around and listen to the interview. Find out what he knew.
SPEAKER_01Half hour? We gotta wait a half hour? That's bullshit.
SPEAKER_05Kid, you can just leave. Go on! And she basically does that like very adult, sort of like walking up to you and says, Go on, leave. Make me. Don't make me call your parents. You don't know who my parents are. You pull your tongue out there. The give her a raspberry. The guy that's uh next to her says, Right, and he basically takes a couple of steps towards you.
SPEAKER_04We're going, we're going, come on out. And I'll start dragging you down the beach.
SPEAKER_05Okay. For the kids today, he says. Yeah, tell me about it. He kind of like emotions about, you know, the kids. You grow up in this sort of like in the 80s, they just, you know, don't know what they're doing with themselves and listen to all that stupid music, uh, sort of reading things, and they should just, you know, do as they're told. I remember back in the 60s.
SPEAKER_01Gen X, they're never gonna amount to anything.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And yeah, you're sort of um you sort of like wait a little bit. You kind of pull Anthony away a bit. And Jan Eric comes out of the of the shed. Janek is wearing this very kind of like knitted tie with a shirt that isn't quite pressed properly. He's got like a green, almost tweed, too kind, uh jacket with some like patches and stuff on the elbows. He's kind of tidied up his trousers and his shoes, and there's a little scruffy dog sort of like barking next to him as as he comes out. He goes, I'm ready. The gentleman that was with the reporter takes out like a camera and snaps like a bunch of shots of him standing outside the uh the shack, and then there's a lot, there's a bunch of like tearing, woo, and there's a couple of like he doesn't know what he's all about from a couple of people, and then take me to your leader from somebody else. And they're like, shh shh, quiet, quiet, quiet. The woman she stands next to them and says, uh, I'm Christina, I'll be interviewing you today. Yes, yes, says, um, I'm just gonna do a bit of an introduction, we'll kind of have a quick talk and then we'll interview you. You won't be able to hear this, but there'll be someone talking to me, but you won't be able to hear them, and then I'll just ask you the questions. He's like, Oh yes, yes, yes, that's that's fine, that's fine. He's pressing his tie and getting himself all ready for sort of his big, his big interview. And the woman kind of like is talking to the gentleman for a bit. It's all a bit kind of like, can you just hurry up and just do the thing you want to do? And everyone's now looking at her, and you're all kind of like watching uh the interview. And she says, Hi, my name's Christina Edmund, and I have been reporting in the Millaran Islands, off and on, for about two years now, looking at all the weird things that happen around here, and nothing more weird than well, what was seen last night. There's been some strange goings on here, and we have first hand evidence of something very odd. This here is Jan Eric. He says, Yes, ma'am. Well, Jan Eric, can you just let us know what it is you saw? So Jan Eric says, Well well, Miss Edland, I was sitting there with with with Georgio here. Little dog kind of like looks up, and and and we just had a long busy day. There were some crazy kids who were just messing about with our with my canoes. I rigged canoes, just two krona. She says, yes, yes. Well, I was sitting there and I saw this weird sort of like haze in the air, and all of a sudden there was this large noise, like a large crack, and then this kid came out of nowhere. This he just like fell onto the beach just over there, and he basically points behind the people that were watching him, and everyone almost to a T sort of looks behind them and looks down the beach, and then he he he basically looked over at me and he just ran off straight into the woods up there. He points into the woods and everyone kind of looks towards the woods. And then I heard this horrible, horrible noise, like I don't know, some some some strange beast. And then he was gone. And then and then it was all quiet again. It was really strange. So uh the reporter Christina Edlund says, So what did this kid look like? I don't know, he was about average, he was a kid. I mean, you know, he must have been 16, maybe, something like that. And he just he just he just ran. I mean, it was just it was so weird. But what was really strange was that he was wearing like a hospital gown. He just he just ran. And and that that was it, he was out of there. I thought it was really weird, and I just thought, well, that seems odd.
SPEAKER_01At the mention of the hospital gun, Anthony punches Sven in the in the arm. I told you. Sven looks confused.
SPEAKER_05Um she says to uh him, so what what what happened after that? And he goes, Well, I went home. She goes, Right, so did you see anything else? No ma'am, that's what I saw. I just like, what cut, cut, cut. She sort of goes, what do you mean you saw nothing else? Oh no, that's exactly what I saw. Isn't that enough, Christina? says the guy who's obviously offering the the rest of the kit. Well, I was kind of hoping for something more jazzy. I mean, we can edit some stuff in, that's fine. Okay, well, thank you very much, Jan Eric. And she kind of hands over something like 20 chronor to him and says, Well, be in touch. She's sort of like as she walks away, you can see her, but Jan Eric can't. She's like, I don't think we'll be in touch. That's what her eyes says. And then they kind of start to pack up. So you're all kind of like in a group, with the others kind of just slightly off to the side, and you're sort of looking at the rest of them pack up. And Anthony, you get sort of like a hand on your shoulder. Turn and look. You turn and look. Joe looks at you and says, Help, Anthony. I really need your help. And your brother is standing there. And I think that's where we're called the end of it.
SPEAKER_01Oh, he's son of a No! Is any I was gonna be like, is anybody else seeing this? Well, I can't ask that question, can I?
SPEAKER_03You cannot. Next week, well, I bet you the start will be So what are you doing if you're Friday?