Welcome to the Tales from the Crit podcast. We are an actual play podcast featuring a
revolving cast of players making our way through micro RPGs, highly narrative tabletop games,
and the more popular and less known RPG systems from a wide variety of genres. Content may
not be suitable for children and content warnings can be found in the description. I'm Riley
Groves and I'll be your host, your guide, your GM on this episode of Tales from the Crit.
Previously on Tales from the Crit. I'm gonna try to time it right so I can swing my hammer
and hit him right this close. You did not time it right. You swing, unfortunately you miss,
and you get barreled into and there's a frog man on top of you. Yeah, the gender's fucking
art begins to freeze from the fingertips up. I don't feel so super. You'll feel better.
Well, okay, so we're gonna break into the school. This sounds bad. This has been a bad day. What
does their distraction look like? Gonna run in, run right to the front desk, scream trick-or-treat,
and run right down the hallway hitting every door heading for the stairwell to the second floor.
I'm gonna do the same thing but while spinning. Is this one of the books that you sell at the
bookstore? Because I haven't seen this one on your shelf. No, this one's not for sale,
which is strange why it's not where I left it. Where did you, where did you leave it?
Because we did find it like in the woods. How would it have gotten there? Oh, well,
my stepdaughter had it last. I knew what she was doing in the woods with it. I don't know.
Wait, wait, wait, before we get into the episode, I want to invite all of our listeners to tune in
next Tuesday, November 29th for a special bonus episode. This episode is going to be a preview
of one of the different types of episodes that we will be releasing as bonus episodes on our
Patreon starting in 2023. So if you're interested in checking out an episode that deals more with
the setup and backstory of the characters in the town of our current Krizzan Bikes arc that we will
be finishing today, make sure you come back next Tuesday. All right, let's pick up where we left
off. Get to the fortune teller shop. Griselda's door sign is switched to open. It's pretty dark
inside though. Not any darker than it was before. It's not like eerily dark or anything.
Just Halloween dark. And she gets in and she, Oh, hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Little ones,
what can I do for you? Trick or treat. Oh, are you going to trick me? No. No. Oh, well,
well, where's the stakes then? Where's the high stakes of the game? Where's the treats then?
Ah, and she turns around and she has a plate of hand dipped candy apples. I've made these myself.
Thanks. You're welcome. I grabbed one. Put them in your bag. Grab one as well. It's like not wrapped
in plastic or anything. It's going to get stuck in my bag. They are wrapped straight back. Okay,
I thought you were like. It's the most obnoxious thing ever. I'm not putting this in my bag. You should eat them now.
Get wadded up in a pillowcase. I was going to, but it just seems like it was unnecessary.
Thank you. Have a wonderful spooky night. You too. All right. Have you seen any frog people?
What's that, dear? Have you seen any frog people? I saw a frog running past the hotel
earlier today. Okay. So just the one. Nope. He was followed by a tin man and a boy that looked like
this kid. How's she? As she points to Billy and a cat runs through the back of her shop. Oh boy, a cat.
And Billy runs into the house. What is happening? Billy. Oh God, sorry. Billy. Billy, come back.
Oh, and she runs out back and like it's curtained off into the hallway and she takes off after
Billy. Get back. Don't roam through my house. Jack and I each swipe another candy apple. Yep.
He's really got to get better about the whole cat thing. Yeah. He's insane with the cat. We really
just got to get it. Somebody does somebody own this child? Will someone come get him? Yeah, I'm
getting him. I go in to get him. And I think the cat led him to her little mystical room. She's a
psychic lady, right? Yeah. So her, her like mystical showrooms kind of right in the front. He led her
to her private abode, but we'll say that she has like a closet of fortune teller-y stuff that the
cat ran into. Crystal balls. Billy totally goes into the closet after the cat, which means Andy
comes up behind Billy and opens the door. Oh, do I see anything cool? There's lots of cool stuff.
Not like to steal, but for like clues. Roll of brains. Five. No, Griselda comes back here.
What are you guys doing in my closets with you? Please get out. Yes, sorry. This is my house.
He likes cats. I don't care. I'm going to grab his hand and pull him out of the house. What an
unruly child. You, you people have been very disruptive to me the last two days. Sorry. Thank
you for your candy and hospitality. You're quite welcome. Come back for a reading anytime with
money though. Okay, I will. Bye. Bye. Billy, you can't just go into people's houses like that.
We're already in her house. No, not really. You can't chase every cat, dude. Like what happens?
How many cats do you catch when you chase them? I've caught a lot of cats. And what, how does that
usually end for you? Is that where you're covered in scratches? Yeah. I give them to other people.
Like I find a cat here and I drop it off at this, at somebody's house. And they ask you for these
cats. No, no, I'm just like that place needs a cat. Oh yeah. Well, why don't you just give that a
rest a little bit. We'll just try and try and just let the cat go where it wants to go next time.
Don't you think the cat wants a home? A loving house? With a mom? Maybe it already has one. But I find them in the streets and stuff.
Sometimes you're on the streets. Don't you have a mom? I do. Jamie had a mom. Didn't stop her from
going somewhere else. We're wasting precious candy time. That's true. That's true. Get out of here.
All right. Let's go. Good idea, guys. What did she give you even? Candy apples? Yep. Yum. I'm going to
eat one of these right now since you have an extra one. You can have mine. Run down the store to the
apartments that are right there. Yeah. The apartment complex here is not like a large apartment building.
There's probably, you know, maybe 15, 20 apartments in the thing altogether. It's got one front entrance
that is just open. It's a pretty safe town. So there's no like key card or anything to get right in.
Yep. Three floors, five apartments. They're pretty decent size apartments. We're going to try and hit
them all. I'm not climbing all those stairs. I'll wait down here for you kids. Okay. We're running. Run through the door.
Danny, you want to have the cigarette now? Yes. That is a good idea. Sweet. I unroll my sleeve and pull out the
pots of cigarettes. It's a cool place to keep them. I saw it in that movie. Yeah. It matches the jacket.
I know. It's part of my uh persona now. Oh, not just a Halloween costume. Not just a Halloween costume.
Trying to be cool. I dig it. I was hoping you would. That's why I got it. Oh. Do you have a lighter though?
Oh. There was only cigarettes in the footlocker. Oh, I don't. I'm going to spend one to find something
that will work. Okay. Yeah. You do find a book of matches discarded thrown out of someone's car.
There's like six matches left in the whole book. Oh shit. Look at these matches. That was convenient.
Oh, perfect. Here you go. Okay. I'll light mine off the end ears. That's smooth. Yeah. As you guys are
smoking and the kids are effortlessly getting like handfuls of candy tossed at them through the
apartment building. This is like the worst day of the year for the apartment building because everybody
goes here because it's a quick hit. So you're getting fun size. You're getting good thing. It's early.
Oh yeah. You're some of the first ones here. Exactly. Do we get them keeping a tally. Two,
three musketeers, four skittles, two butterfinger, a Reese's. I'll watch them call it. I'll watch them
call it. Some Kit Kats. One Kit Kat and seven wax lips. As you guys are standing out front smoking
coming down the street down the sidewalk towards the hotel is Tommy Garvey. God, this guy again.
Let's just back in this alleyway a little bit. The jerk goes by. Okay. He comes down. He's by himself.
Roll a flight. Pretty easy flight check of a six. I got a five out of six. I got a three. Um, I can
pay one to give her plus two. It's mostly you I was concerned about. So as Tommy heads by, he just
happens to glance down this alley and he goes, Oh, Oh, there he is. Smoking a cigarette. Huh? Of course
he is. Yeah. What about it, Tommy? Just move along. What about it is low. It's for low people, just
like you. I'm going to step in front of Danny and be like, Whoa, huh? Oh, Hey, Andy, what are you,
what are you doing hanging out with Danny? Smoking a cigarette in low places. I thought a little bit
better, better of you. I never thought better of you. Wow. You know, you know, I was going to ask
you to dance tonight. I would have said no. You know, you know what? Were you going to go with him?
I already heard what you did to Fred. I didn't do anything to Fred. Yeah. Weeding him on. I know
your type. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. Sure you do. Uh huh. You can't talk to her like that. Yeah.
We're going to dance together at the same time. We're going together. You're going together, huh?
Yeah. You're going together. What's it do you? It's nothing to me. Good. You guys, neither of you are
anything to me. Who are you going with? Your stinky sister? What? Stinky sister? Yeah. I saw her the
other day by the hotel. She's stunk. He pushes past you and he shoves you right in the chest.
Hey man. You want another round? You want to go another round? I mean, not particularly, but
I guess we can. Talking shit about my sister and he's going to roll to fight you. All right. So
roll your grit. Nine. Yeah. So after he pushes you, he immediately falls up with a punch and he ends
up throwing himself a little off balance, slipping in the mud and not making contact with your face.
Oh, tough guy. Tough guy, huh? Yeah. Why don't you just stay down there? I'm going to pull the
screwdriver out of my pocket. I'm like, just move along and you know, maybe we'll see at the dance
later. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. My guy. You're going to bring weapons in? That's a mistake. That's a mistake.
I will see you at the dance later. I'll see you there and you better be fucking ready. I'm always
ready for you. Just not right now at this moment. You're a weird kid. Watch your fucking back, man.
Watch your sister's back. Watch. You fucking talk about my sister one more time. I swear to God.
I'll break your fucking face right here. I'm going to kick him. Okay. It's a fight. Yeah. Your fight
versus his grit. Five. Okay. He got a nine. Oh. So as you go to kick him, he grabs your leg and flips
it up doing one of those classic like counter attacks, knocking you right onto your back,
which is now covered in some gross mud. And he comes up and puts his foot right on your chest.
I'm going to sneak up behind him and I'm going to kick his knee out. I get a plus three when
I'm protecting my friends. Okay. So roll your attack or roll your fight plus three versus his
grit. 12. Which is a six. You knock him down onto one knee. Fuck. What the fuck, man? I wasn't even
talking to you. Well, you're fucking up my friend, dude. Andy, I thought you were a cool chick,
but now you're kind of weird. You're kind of weird hanging out with this kid. I'm fucking out of here.
You're fighting someone years younger than you. It doesn't matter. You think I'm not going to help?
He's a punk with a mouth. You're a punk with a fucking mouth. Fuck that. Go fuck yourself.
And he storms off. I've always wanted to tell that guy to fuck himself.
Thank you for helping me. My kick didn't go so well. The teamwork was pretty good, I think. It was.
Both of you are all smarts. You're a little hot tempered sometimes. Brains, right? Brains is what
it's called, yeah? Brains. I got a 10. I got a four. All right. Oh, a four again. Shit. All right.
Blowing it up. A one. That's a nine. This is the smartest Danny has ever been. Nice. With those rolls,
both of you now smell that like after coming in contact with Tommy, you're getting that peculiar
fishy scent in your nostrils. Oh, God, and he smells terrible. Oh, man. Maybe it's just the way
their family smells. Maybe. I didn't think Jim smelled like that, though. What's the odds that,
you know, your family just happens to smell like the frogmen? I don't know. It's getting greater,
though. It is. All right. Where are those kids? Are they done getting candy yet? I don't know. We
should probably go in and get them. All right. All right. You're kind of bursting out the front door.
Oh, thank God. Andy, we got so much candy. Great. We got in a fight. What? Yeah. It was cool. Who did
you fight? Tommy. Did you win? Yeah. Which is cool because he's much bigger than both of us.
It was a team effort. Mm hmm. But anyway, he smelled like his sister. That's weird. Yes. Do I smell
like you? I don't know. I don't know what we smell like. No. You both kind of smell like chicken
nuggets. Oh. Oh, that's pretty good. I think we're out of places on the main strip, so I think we
gotta head towards the houses. I think it's time to hit the residential area. What time is it?
Five o'clock. It's time to hit the residential section and then head back up to the hotel,
which is where the dance is. Yes. The dance is at the hotel. So you guys make your way through the
residential area. Now there's like a ton of kids on the street. It even becomes kind of troublesome
to drive around just because of the number of children that are running around. Okay. I'm gonna
park and let you guys run around. What about my bike? Okay. You can bike around. But I don't know
if I need to. Can we just set it here and I can get it later? Yeah. We're gonna use that after they
go to the dance. Oh, I understand now. Okay. Yeah. I'm gonna park here. Okay. The trunk's unlocked.
The trunk's unlocked. Yeah, we can come back. It's okay. Right. So the rest of the first round of
trick-or-treating, you guys make your way through the neighborhood. Danny and Andy are just following
the kids around for now. Yes. It's pretty uneventful for you guys anyways. For the kids,
it's awesome. Like they're filling up bags of candy as they go through. And there's a lot of kids
running around on the streets followed by parents. Hey, I think the Garveys live in this neighborhood.
Pay attention to see if their candy's stinky. Yeah. Take a good whiff when you get to their house.
Okay. Okay. I don't think they have any kids in their grade. I don't know if they'll know who it is.
I don't know that either. We head over to the Garveys' house. It's a small town. Knock on the door.
Like they said, I don't know if you know where the Garveys live. They're quite a bit older than you
and him and me. Do you guys know where they live? Oh yeah, I do. She lives down on that corner in
the big White House. Okay. And we run to the White House on the corner. The lights are off and the
door is locked. There's no bowl outside for candy. It's relatively unadorned with decorations. Like
it doesn't really seem to be in the holiday mood at all. Or is it really in the holiday mood?
Are the lights on? Like inside the house? No. No. Is there a car in the driveway? No. So if this is
where the Garveys live, Tommy said he was coming back here, I thought. Or he did just say, I'll see
you at the dance. So I don't know. But you would think he'd come back here to get ready? I'm gonna
run up and pound on the door and give myself an excuse to see if I smell anything. Fishy. From the
outside looking in? Nothing you can discern from the front door. Hey Billy. Yeah. I think I saw a
cat around back. Oh, was it a black cat? Yeah. Was it a cow or a cow cat? Was it long-haired? I don't know. It was just a cat.
Billy takes off. We chase after Billy. Here goes again. I guess at least we can take a look at the
back door too. This doesn't look suspicious. Billy, get back here. I can't. There's a cat. Jack and I
run up to the back door. Is that open? Did anybody come to answer that when we pound on it? No. There's
nobody home. The house is empty. Well, I don't think they're here. Just move on. Yeah, but we're here now.
Didn't you guys say these guys smelled like fish? Yeah, but I don't know if I want to break into
their house. Like there's a fish smell by the hotel when we're going there later. Yeah. Like we
got attacked somewhere else. I mean, I don't condone breaking into places. Didn't we break into the
school earlier? But that was different. Didn't we break into the hotel earlier? These are like businesses.
Lockers. And this is someone's home, but I'm just gonna go wait by the front door by the street
and not watch you guys. Andy, what am I supposed to do? I don't know. You don't have any supervision.
Bye. Are you telling me I had to find mom? Why do you always bring up mom? I don't know. She's mom.
Okay. You guys are dumb. So nevermind. Let's just leave. We're wasting candy time here, guys. Yeah.
He's got a good point. Yeah. We should probably get moving. Okay. I didn't see the cat. That's,
that's fine. You don't always get to see the cat. I'll find it later. Yeah. I'm sure you will. Okay.
Give me another one. Yeah. Have you ever dressed up like a cat for Halloween? No. No. You know,
you can do that, right? I'm gonna stick with the superhero. That's a good call. Thank you. What was
Jamie gonna be for Halloween? What is Jamie being for Halloween? I don't know. It was gonna be a
secret. Oh. I never got to see your costume. You still can, maybe. I wonder if it's a frog.
Do you think she's a frog? No. Oh, I think it's back to candy. Back to candy. Back to candy. We
haven't found Jamie here, so it doesn't seem like anybody's home. All right. We probably want to
head back up, you know. You guys can do a quick costume change here. What are we doing? We're
heading back up towards the school? Yeah. Changing in the back seat of the car or in the car or...
Yeah. We're clothes underneath this time. Okay. Good. We're all glad to hear that you have your
clothes on this time. Not as warm as it was earlier. The town clock chimes seven o'clock. Oh,
this is when the dance starts. We should probably go. And we're going to finish up and we'll meet
you guys at the dance. Yep. Yeah. Don't forget the curfew's at eight o'clock. Yes. Yep. We'll put
our candy in the back of your car. We'll meet you at the dance before eight. It's the second half
of the night. People aren't going to have as much candy anyway. Yeah. It'll be quick. Okay. No
problem. So we're taking the car, so get your shit out of my trunk. Yeah, we do that. I grab a board.
I grab a bike. I have rollerblades. Billy, you good? I'm fine. You okay? All right. Yep. Yep.
Yep. Yep. Okay. Going back to being two frogs and a tin man. Yeah. All right. No,
Billy's not dressed as a frog. Oh, he's not. He pulls out his lily pad costume. I'm gonna,
I got this too. This is the best role I've ever played. That works. Lily pad number seven. Andy
looks at herself and realizes she's still wearing the same clothes she wore to school. No, I'm not.
It's Saturday. I'm still wearing normal clothes instead of dance clothes. Oh, fuck. Is that what
you're wearing? I mean, I'm going to take the muddy jacket off, I think. But otherwise, I guess I'm
okay. We could go. I got a skeleton costume at home. We're in the residential area still. Okay.
Yeah. I gotta, I gotta get ready. I look terrible. Okay. You don't look terrible, but we can change.
Thanks. Thanks. But I might smell like fish, so I'm going to deal with that each in 20 minutes.
All right. Okay. Sounds good. And I just got like a, you know, generic skeleton costume on. Nice.
Andy's going to take a shower and get ready and wear regular clothes. But on top, she's wearing the,
uh, the bed sheet with the little holes. Nice. But it's cinched, so it looks not like just crazy.
It's like just after 7 20 when you meet back outside. All right. Let's, uh, let's head to
dance then. All right. Let's go. Yeah. You guys get down there. The dance is in full swing. There's
people that have beaten you there. You know, there's the people that were already there.
Oh my God. There's people beating us there. Yeah. Um, but you get in the monster mash is playing.
If you haven't heard Ginny D's rendition of the monster manual mash, um, it's a D and D inspired
monster mash. It's very good. It's on YouTube and you should probably give it a watch. It's pretty
funny. When you guys get in, the lights are down the hotel ballroom that the dances in is decorated
quite nice. It's gotten orange and black ribbons, fake candles, jack-o'-lanterns, all sorts of stuff
to set the mood. I'm supposed to work the snack booth. I forgot all about that. Whoops. I'm going
to have to work anything. I'm going to stand in the corner of the ballroom. Okay. We will.
How long do you have to work at the snack booth for? I think I have like a half hour shift. Okay.
You head over in the snack booth is assorted candies and a large punch bowl. Do you guys need
help at the snack booth? Sure. If you want to hang out, I mean, I can pour punch. There's also
brownies. Yeah, definitely brownies. There has to be brownies. The first one to come over once you
get there is Fred and like his eyes are all pink and swollen around them. And he was, Oh, you two
again. I, uh, I didn't, I didn't know if you guys were actually gonna, you're gonna show up. Uh,
Hi, Fred. Hey, Andy. Um, I just have some punch. Yeah. Here, Fred. Here's some punch. Uh, okay.
It's on me. Yeah. Sure. Sure. Lots of things will be on you tonight, Danny. And he turns.
Freddie, can we, can we talk for a minute? Yeah. I, I guess. And we're going to step to the side.
I'm sorry that I said yes. And then I said, no, I just, I'm sorry. I'm just not good at this
stuff. It was kind of rude. It was very rude. I'm very sorry. Yeah. It really hurt my feelings.
Okay. I'm very sorry. You could have just said you were with Danny. Well, not really. I don't
know. You guys have been spending a lot of time together. Well, something I probably should have
seen. Sorry. I just wanted to apologize. I ran into Tommy and he made me feel kind of shitty about it.
So yeah, Tommy's really been there for me this afternoon. He's a good guy. Just this afternoon.
Yeah. We haven't talked much before today. Oh, so why the sudden interest? Well, I think I'm a
pretty nice guy. Oh, you are, but just he's not always. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm going to,
okay. I'm going to get back out there. Okay. All right. I'm just making this worse.
And then I can go back to the snack bar. How'd that go? Not great. Yeah. I can imagine. Not as bad as
the first time. Have anything interesting to say? Well, he said Tommy has been really nice to him
all afternoon, which he didn't seem to think was weird, but I think is weird. Sounds pretty
weird to me. I haven't seen Tommy yet. No one else really came to the table while you guys were gone,
though. I brought my own brownies, though. I don't like these ones very much. Yeah. These ones have
nuts in them. They're gross. So chaperoning the dance is none other than principal Patty Cornwall,
Miss Valley, the middle school English teacher, and Jim Tambor. Jim Tambor is here. Doesn't he
have ghost walks to be conducting? Yeah. That guy doesn't seem at all concerned about the girl who
went missing on his ghost walk yesterday. You see him over there? Yeah. He's really not worried
about it. I'm just so confused how he can still be at this dance with all these children here.
Yeah. Not be sad about the kid he lost. Is this sponsored by the school? We got to talk to them.
That's a job for next time. That sounds like a real adult problem. Is Tammy or Tommy here? Yes,
they're both here. Oh, how big is the room? Can I smell them from here? No, you can't smell them.
Amidst the cacophony of smells, the cornucopia of scents that are going on here from junior
and senior high school people, you get a good mix of bio because some kids don't realize that they
have to use shower or use deodorant yet, and an overwhelming amount of perfumes and colognes,
and aquavelva. Dracarneur. Yeah, Dracarneur. There could be some Calvin Klein. Oh, well,
of course there's Calvin Klein. The room's pretty large. It's a small ballroom. Okay.
Well, I guess should we go dance over here? I guess. What's the song that's playing? Is
it something that's just wildly hard to dance to? What the world needs now. Oh, I hate this song.
It's a weird song to be playing at a Halloween dance. Let's just go. Sorry about that. Wrong
song. Wrong song. And they put on a different album and it's something more upbeat and
Halloween-ish, which is, I don't know any Halloween songs. I don't either. They're not
like Christmas songs. No. If your choices are Monster Mash, Purple People, either. Yes, but
it's also a dance. They're not just going to play Halloween music. Something to talk about,
but Bonnie Raitt came out in 1991. Anyhow, should we go get closer to the Garveys or to Mr. Tambor?
Yeah, but let's try to get closer to Tammy and not Tommy because that doesn't seem to go well for
you. Yeah. I shouldn't have been so mean to his sister to try to get closer to her in any not mean
way. But yeah, we didn't respond well to that interaction. No. No. We're not super good at
socializing, I think. I'm a little hot-headed sometimes. My insecurity, I think, triggers it.
I'm just a little too blunt for people. Well, let's dance. Dancing for a few songs and then
another slow song does come on. All right. What if I go try and apologize to Tommy? Just trying to
get a reason to talk to him again because there's something fishy going on with his family.
I suppose. Yeah. Or you can try to dance with Tammy. I think that will still just make a fight
happen because she's standing pretty close with her brother for some reason. That is true.
All right. You go talk to Tommy. I got your back. All right. And we dance over. When you head over
there, Tommy and Tammy are, they are talking. However, they're kind of in a heated conversation.
It's like kind of more of an argument. Tommy, you're such a fucking dick. Get the fuck away
from me. And she pushes him and then like turns to storm away across the dance floor. Oh my. I'm
going to walk over to Tommy. This seems like a bad idea. You should go to Tammy. You should go to
Tammy? I think Tammy would be more. I go over to Tammy. Oh, hey. Hey, Tammy. What? Are you okay?
I'm fine. I'm fine. Oh, it just seemed like you were yelling there for a minute. I just want to
make sure you're okay. I'm fine. This is my brother who's a dick. Oh, I completely agree there. Trust
me. He's been nothing but rude to me. Did you have any of the good punch? The good punch. She
punches you in the shoulder. Yeah. Your brother gave me some of that earlier too. He's a dick
and she pulls a flask from her pocket and unscrews it. Oh, what you got in there? Real punch. And she
punches you in the shoulder again. Oh yeah. Let me try some of that. That's fine. You don't want to
share? I don't want to share with you. Okay. That's fine. What were you guys arguing about back there?
It seemed pretty heated. It was none of your business. Okay. Well, did you want to dance?
Together? I mean, yeah. Okay. It'll piss my brother off. Let's go. And she grabs your hand
and leads you into the middle of the dance floor. All right. She pulls you in. She's like grinding
on you absurdly. That's kind of awkward looking and very insecure about this. It's super awkward
because it is still a slow song and she is not treating it as such. You're moving so fast.
Oh my God. I don't know what to say. All right. I'm just, you're right. This is making your brother
really mad. And he actually, you see Tommy, he storms off not towards you, but over towards
his stepdad, Jim. How long has Jim been your stepdad? Oh, I don't know. Like a long time.
Do you spend a lot of time at the bookstore? I don't go to the bookstore much. I'm not a nerd.
Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't saying that. You just, you know, you look like you enjoy some books.
He said you borrowed a book from him recently. I don't, what book? It's a weird book. I can't
read what it said. Wait, I'm missing a book. You're missing a book. I had a book in my locker.
What kind of book? We found a book. You found my book? I don't know if we found your book.
Jim said it was his book. You've, you know, it's Jim's book. They're all Jim's books. How many
books are there? There's a lot of books. What are you talking about? He owns a bookstore. That's
true. He did say that. A hundred books, 200 books. I don't know. Why aren't you dancing? And she like
continues to fucking gyrate and grind on you. I'm just trying my best over here. I'm just trying my
best over here. And Jim comes over. Whoa, buddy. You're a little close to my, to my stepdaughter.
I think this is in a- Wait, sorry. I thought Jim was arguing with Tommy. No, Tommy went to go talk
to Jim, in which case he told him about Tammy. Oh, okay. Whoa, what is going on here? You're a
little close to my daughter. I would prefer six inches plus you're completely off tempo for this
song. Me or her? I find no fault in what she's doing. It's, it's your reaction, young man.
Don't I know you? I don't think so. I recognize you. I think you maybe milkshake once earlier,
maybe in life, you know. Well, please back up. Okay. Roll a brains check for me. Three. Okay.
Cool. Cool. Cool. Six inches at least please. I want to say that Andy was surprised that she
was slightly jealous when they were dancing and is now relieved that they are not.
To the trigger treaters. There's so much candy. There's so much candy. We should have brought
extra bags. You didn't? I brought, I'm out of extras. I shouldn't, we should have brought
extra extras. This is a good year. Billy's just like dragging his contractor bag behind him,
pulling it. I get, guys, I need, I need some help. We gotta get this all in Andy's trunk.
And then guys, ah, will you help me ride my bike? Yeah. Yeah. There's a hill nearby that I want,
that I think I should ride it down. I think we should get a little bit on flat ground.
Billy's whole mouth is like covered in chocolate already. And he's just like pounding another
peanut butter cup. He's like, I think I'm ready. I think he's ready too. See, my eyes are this big.
I've got, I've got like a chocolate mustache like that goes like straight out to the side.
Like the Joker. Yeah. Like the Joker. Two hands of, two handfuls of pixies. Take these. Okay.
And he just like mouthfully rips the tops off and dumps the sugar in.
Let's do this. I think let's do this. You're ready. I'm, I'm ready. I'm ready. I put my roller
plates on. I grab my skateboard. We'll go down together. Yeah. Let's do it. All right. We'll be
on either side of you in case anything happens. Oh yeah. Let's do it. Let's go. Let's do it.
Let's do it. Billy leads you to a hill that is not paved. It is a grass hill that leads down like
into some trees. All right guys. Aim for the bushes. Aim for the bushes. I sit on my skateboard. I don't
stand on it. Coward. You can't go down like that. It's a death wish. Everybody on three. One. Two.
Three. Okay. Can we roll? I'm rolling a grit to see if I stay. It's all. Yeah. It's all grit.
It's all grit to stay. Am I gonna roll charm? To go down a hill? To go down a grass hill on rollerblades?
It's all grit. Catastrophic failure. 14. Oh, all right. Yeah. So you somehow. I make it to the bottom.
I managed to make it. However, Jack and Billy do not quite. As they both fall down this hill.
Did you roll a one? I sure did. You roll down toppling off your skateboard and like you hit
a rocky patch or ripping the Tin Man costume open. Tearing up your side a little bit. Get some road.
Candy falls out. Just empty wrappers and like you know everything that was. Over the door.
Throw the empty wrappers. That's where my hatchet is. Billy continues to ride gaining speed down this hill.
Go Billy. All the way to the bottom until you see his hands start to wobble and the bike kicks out
from underneath him. Josh catch him. Here's the funny thing. Yeah. You would wipe out early.
I wouldn't be able to go as fast as him on the bike. So he'd. I'd be about halfway down when he's
flipping as over. That's exactly it. And Billy goes flying into a fucking tree. Awesome. And he died.
The end. Does anyone have that on their card? Who wants to play an injured Billy? Dead. So that's clumsy.
Yeah. It's just wham. Billy! How's it sound when somebody gets the air knocked out of him? Like.
He's like. He's like. Oh God. Oh God. I don't like it. I don't like it. He's a candy bar. Oh God.
And then the pain hits. He's like. Gonna start crying. And he's so angry. And he grabs the bike.
And he just throws it into the tree. But as he's grabbing the bike. His eyes just go really wide.
And his hands just start to glow from the inside. Like you're putting a flashlight on either side of
it. And he just melts through the bike. And throws it at the tree. And it's like little piles of
molten bike are falling off of it. And it's useless. And he calms down. And as he calms down in
Billy's head alone. He hears a high pitched ring that continues to grow louder and louder.
Until all of a sudden it pops. And Billy collapses. Run over to Billy. I'm running down the hill with
my skateboard. I just saw what looked like glowing coming off of Billy. And him just shit whipping
the bike at the tree. And then passing out. Yeah you run up. After hitting the tree. The bike is
snapped in half. It is in two pieces. Is he alright? I go over and I check. And I hold my hand under his
nose. Make sure he's breathing. He is breathing. Okay. He is breathing. Um. Wake up. Wake up. Shake
him a little. Billy. He doesn't wake up. Billy. I open up two pixie sticks and I dump them in his
mouth. Yeah I put like a twix under his nose like a smelling salt. Typical children thing. Something
that will not actually help somebody that's fainted. Come back. Okay. Back to the dance. Your dad,
your stepdad is kind of mean there. What's, why are Tommy and him yelling? Why are you so obsessed
with my family? And she takes another swing of the flask. They've just been, you know Tommy's been
picked on me a bunch and your stepdad's kind of weird. Well maybe Tommy would stop picking on you
if you were more of a man. What is that supposed to mean? It doesn't matter. Okay. You're just,
you're kind of a pushover. Not very nice. I'm not a pushover. That's what Tommy says anyways.
If you're not a pushover, prove it. Just because he pushed me over. Prove it. Prove you're not a
pushover. And do what? Push someone else over? That's not it. You're not getting it. This song
sucks. This song does suck. Let's, what time is it? Let's go somewhere else. I've got things to do.
Yeah let's go do something else. What do you want to do? Um I don't know. Let's go out behind the
hotel. I know a place. Okay. I know a place. Here come with me. And she grabs your hand and begins
to lead you out of the ballroom. Okay I'm gonna like hand signal Andy. Like um this way. Roll Brains.
Okay you do not notice Danny getting pulled out of the ballroom. Brains is my second best thing.
Oof. Not in this moment. Yeah the D12s have not been rolling more for us this night. I don't get
any of those. I think I've passed one check. Anyway. All right. Okay. So where are you taking me?
Let's shh. And she like puts her finger sloppily up to your lips. It's an LBR secret. Come on. And
she leads you down a stairwell. Down towards the bottom floors of the hotel. What's down here?
The employee room. I didn't even know hotels had basements. This one does have a basement. All right.
Well let's let's go. I work here. You work here? Yeah. Oh that's cool. I don't have a job. See Danny
this is what I'm talking about. I mean. Push over. You're letting society push you over.
You've given me a lot to think about. I don't just. Where are we going? You're so talky. Just
come on. And it's at this time Andy that you look around. You don't see Danny anymore. You do see
Tommy headed out of the ballroom. Okay I'll casually follow him at a safe distance. Okay.
And he heads down a hallway and down a flight of stairs into the lower levels. Well I'm gonna keep
following him. Danny while you're in the basement with Tammy suddenly you hear a door open from
behind you. He goes ho ho what's this? You fucking my sister? You fucking my sister bro? Are you gonna
watch? Hell no I'm not here to watch. I'm here to kick your ass. You're here to kick my ass? Wait is
this a setup? I thought we were gonna not get my ass kicked again by your brother. See this is your
chance to not be a push over. Okay all right I'm just gonna let my temper get away from me and just
run at Tommy and punch him in the face with a four. Four versus his 19. Oh. So as you do that
he runs up and just jabs you right in the nose. Like immediately making your your nose bleed and
you take a step back and do you come down? Yeah I think I was peeking through the door and I saw
this go down so I'm gonna look around and I'm gonna use my treasure hunter thing to find something
useful. Useful in what way? Um something that I could probably hit Tommy with but not kill him with.
So not a fire extinguisher. No nothing quite so rough. A fire hose for a mantle. Fire axe. Let's
go with fire extinguisher. Small fire extinguisher. Okay yeah I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna pull the
pin and spray Tommy with it. Oh shit okay I guess that's a fight roll versus his grit roll. Good.
Four. You miss his eyes like he's not affected by it physically. However after you spray him the door
opens another time and Jim Tambar walks through the door. Hey hey what is going on here children?
You tell me your kids cornered my friend down here and then attacked him. That doesn't sound
like them. It doesn't sound like Tommy. No it doesn't sound like Tommy and Tammy would have
messed up so badly. Well that's exactly what happened. It wouldn't mean messed up so badly.
What is going on with your weird kids? Well I guess we're just you're gonna have to find out.
It's complicated now that there are two of you. Um he turns and locks the door. We're gonna have
a have to have a very serious discussion about this. I'm gonna look for another thing that would
help me fight my way out of this. Just eyeballing it. There is a mop or a broom. There's not too much
else. Is there a fire alarm? There is a fire alarm. I mean I'm not gonna pull it. It's not gonna help
us. It's actually gonna make it worse because there'll be no one in the building. Perfect time
for a murder. Yeah definitely. I'm gonna try to charm him. Jim you've known me since I was a little
kid. You're not gonna hurt us are you? Andy this wasn't supposed to be about you or you for that
matter. However you're both getting very much in our way. In your way of what? What are you doing?
Why are you so frazzled at the milkshake counter? Well you're here now so I guess you're gonna have
to find out eventually anyways. See we are part of a group of like-minded individuals who are just
upset at the current trajectory of the world kind of at a whole right? So we want to send it back to
more primordial era with something that we feel is a more natural ruler and will take better care
of us than the current world leadership that we have. Tommy, Tammy I'm stammering here. Will you
help me out? And roll grit as Tommy runs up to punch you in the back of the head. 14. Okay so he
farts up and misses punching you in the head and runs right by you. His step tag goes Tommy what the
hell was that? I can't even. You're doing it wrong. And Jim lunges at you as well. So another grit roll.
Yes. Oh that's a three. So Jim grabs you and wraps you up and Tammy's gonna attack you. Grit. Yes.
Two. She got a 21. So she throws like a laundry bag over your head and you feel something hit you
right in the middle of the forehead and you pass out. And then shortly after that Tommy comes up
and punches you and you pass out. Good night. And we're back to the kids trick-or-treating.
Billy wakes up. Oh my god. What? What the hell happened? You did it. That was such a rush. You
did it. I did it. You crashed like shit but you did it. I don't remember the end part so much.
How do you feel? I feel pretty bad. Bad ass. My head hurts. Bad ass is what it was. The cape was
going and everything. You look really good. Really? Perfect form. I feel pretty banged up.
I think all you have to do is master flat ground and then you can go right back to hills.
I'm not sure I'm ready. What happened to my bike? You crashed pretty hard. I guess. Does this happen
normally? No actually your hands lit on fire and you threw a melted bike into a tree. This has been
a pretty weird day. It has but we saved the big bag of candy for you. You son of a bitch I'm in.
We put it on my skateboard so we can drag it around. Hell yeah. Here have a Twix. Oh yeah.
And you guys make your way back up to the streets. And yeah we're gonna finish
these last couple of houses get our candy and then make our way to the dance suit right?
I think we hit all the houses. Then to the dance. Right on. You guys make it down through the
residential center and as you're getting closer to the hotel B you guys can see this steel mill
off in the distance and there is a red light glowing and pulsating coming from one area of
the steel mill. Uh guys that's the same light I saw the other night. Should we check it out?
Didn't we do that last night? That didn't go so hot for us. Shouldn't we get Danny and Andy?
I mean we probably should. Let's go make a quick run through in of the hotel and let them know
what's up. Okay going into the hotel into the dance here right around eight o'clock right around
curfew time. You guys rush around the dance floor looking at the the booth grabbing some brownies
some punch looking for these guys but you never find Danny or Andy. I can't find them guys. I'm
gonna ask the principal if she's seen them. Mr. Cornwall have you seen Danny and Andy? Oh yes dear
they were here they were around I saw them they were working the punch station earlier I don't
know and then I saw I saw that boy dancing very crudely with another girl. What girl? Tammy you
know Tammy you may not know Tammy you're quite a bit younger than them. Tammy Garvey she's not
good for a good boy like Danny. Yes Tommy's younger sister. That's the fish lady. Did you see where
they went? Went? They should be here I I haven't seen anything if they're not here I should probably
go find them. Okay you do that. Are they not here? Okay I'll go do my job. I can't find them. Has
anyone seen Jim? Oh Jim's gone too that's their stepdad. No. Uh oh. Guys do you think something
bad happened to them? Do you think they found Jamie? I think we better go check out the lights at that
steel mill. Yeah I don't think they're here anymore. Yeah let's let's go we could probably get back
through the fence. Did your sister leave the keys in the car? Probably not. Who wouldn't know how to
drive it just to learn how to ride a bike. It's it's been a weird week. It's been a weird week it's
been a weird couple days. Maybe today's the day you learn how to drive a car. We could just get there
by cutting past the lake and up the hill and then through the fence. Yeah we gotta go. Yeah let's go.
Yeah we run out of the hotel and head towards the steel mill. Sorry steel mill. You run over there
you can get back through the fence and head in. We put the candy in the car before we went. Yeah
definitely you put the candy in the car. So yeah so you run out the front door of the hotel. Probably
yeah. You should run out of the back door of the hotel room. There's a curfew that can let you guys
just run out the front. Back door sneaky style. Wait we know there's a door in a tunnel that leads
out so why don't we go through the basement. There's a hallway. This is a very unused door
is all it was. We're just confused because Danny found that tunnel. Back door. Let's go. So you guys
find the staircase down to the basement and you go out through the employee door. Make a brains roll
both of you. Seven. Seven. Both seven. In this room you guys can see some footprints that look like the
frog footprints leading out this back door fresh as you run out of it. Billy you see these? Let's go
let's follow these. You think there's more frog? I think there might be more frog people but I think
it might have something to do with where everybody is. It's the only thing that's been in common
about everything. There's been these weird footprints and now we can't find Danny or Angie
and there's these footprints. Wait maybe it's just Josh he's dressed like a frog. Josh is standing
behind us and he didn't come out here yet. Oh that makes sense. You're not a frog person are you? I
was for trickers reading the second time but to go to the party I probably switched back. Did you? Yeah
I'm a bat guy. Yeah and I'm still a lily pad. No you're super Billy again. Are you saying I'm dressed like a frog?
No. No yeah I'm dressed like a frog. We went to the tin man the lily pad and the other guys can second.
I'm still the frog you're the tin man and you're a lily pad that's right. Well maybe we can confuse
them. Maybe. Okay let's go. You guys take off around the outside of the lake. It seems like Billy has a
good pathway to get to the steel mill. He's taken this path a few times and he leads you up a pretty
steep embankment to the spot in the fence that you guys had gotten through the day before. So what are
we doing? What's the plan? We're going to check out that red light you saw. I mean you guys saw it too
right? Well yeah but you said you saw it the other day too. Yeah yeah I did just making sure it wasn't
in my mind. Nope we saw it tonight. All right and you guys just go towards the red light. You make
your way through the steel mill silently quietly without making any noise and you guys come into a
very large chamber of this abandoned steel mill. It's got some shit piled up you know some pallets
of discarded materials and some broken down old forklifts and stuff like that. In the center you
can see a red glowing and pulsating light. However from your vantage point you can't really see what's
happening yet. What is it? I don't know I can't quite see. Billy what is that? I don't know. How
am I supposed to know? I don't know you've got like superpowers. Do you feel weird? I don't know if I
have superpowers. Do I feel weird? Yeah I crashed into a tree earlier. That was hard. It was hard.
You're fine. Okay so let's just sneak up I guess. Sneakily sneakily. I pull out a couple candy bars
out of my thing. Before we go I hand this each a candy bar. It's a Snickers for Billy. Billy needs
a Snickers. Me I'm definitely taking a Zagna. I don't even know what that is. It's like a
Butterfinger. Without the chocolate. Ew. I said oh yeah do they still make those? I don't think they do. You can still get a Zagna. I've never heard of it. You guys sneak your way up staying behind
some of these materials and as you get closer you can hear some chanting going on in a language
that you guys don't recognize and the light is pulsating out of the floor and you guys can see
three people dressed as frogs standing around a circle with four people tied up and you can
recognize two of them. One of them is Andy and one of them is Danny. Andy is sitting more outside the
circle. Danny is kind of in the immediate vicinity of the circle along with two other people that
you don't recognize. Andy is on like the outskirts behind them. They're chanting Neolathotep.
Neolathotep. And every time they do that the ground pulses a deeper shade of red. Are we awake? Yes.
Are we tied up? Yes. This isn't good. Guys what's going on? That's Danny and Andy. I see. And that's Jamie.
That's that's my girlfriend. I see him. I see him. I found Jamie. Who's the other person down there?
I don't know her. Is that the girl with the sweater? Probably. Girls have sweaters. Girls do have sweaters.
All right let's get down there. We gotta figure out a way to distract those guys, the frog people,
and get in there and get those guys out of there. Can we save Andy? If we can get those guys they
can help us fight off the frog people. We gotta get Andy first. We need help. I don't know how much time
we have to get help. Well we need a distraction. We need to get them focused away from them. I've got
I've got an idea. And he closes his eyes and he just tightens his fist and the whole building starts
to shake a little bit and the frog people look around all cautiously. Yeah there was an earthquake.
The frog people you know begin to take some steps back. Two of them, the two shorter ones
in particular, start to like look around and you hear a voice. No no don't don't stop. Keep chanting.
We have we can't fuck it up. Niiiiaaa Latha. Say it with me. Niiiaaa Latha Tap. And you know they're like
looking around. I don't know. I don't I don't know Jim. We got we should get out of here. This place
is gonna fall down. Can I get up and just run? You're like tied up. So you can attempt. Like tied up.
Like not not standing up. Like tied together. Josh is going to use prepared and he's gonna pull out
whittling knife and he's gonna run up while everything's shaking and everybody else is looking
around. He's going to run up behind Andy and duck down and try and cut our bindings. As a frog man
you're able to cut her bindings. Andy and your your hands are now free. Oh thanks Josh. Um we gotta
get Danny. We gotta get everyone out of here. It's Tommy and Tammy. Yeah your little brother's having
a little bit of a tantrum. Okay yeah the shaking's not good. We gotta do something. Yeah that's him.
Go you gotta go get something by him. I'm gonna run over to Billy. Where Danny is positioned is it
in a way that I can get to him without being seen or? No definitely not. All right I guess I'm gonna
have to slip back with her to where Billy and uh Billy and Jack are. And Billy's continuing to
cause this earthquake so like parts of the building are falling down around you guys. Not major parts
yet but like the building continues to shake and and rock back and forth. Tommy and Tammy join in
on the chanting again and suddenly the light changes and begins to roil. Roil's the term right?
Yeah that means like rolling liquid. It begins to turn liquidy and and roil over and like bubble and
from in it large gas bubbles begin to pop up and you hear kind of a sickening loud hum begin to
emanate out from within it. I'm gonna run up and punch Tammy in the back of the head. I'm gonna run
up right next to you and try and kick one of them into it. I got a five. What I'm gonna try and do is
I'm gonna run up and I'm gonna pull a three. I'm gonna pull a half a bag of a half a pillow sack
of Halloween candy and use it like a pillow fight and smoke somebody with it and try and knock them
into the red thing. Okay we'll resolve Andy's first. So you punch the one you perceive to be
Tammy because they're all wearing frog costumes. Yeah I assume it's Tammy I guess. I'm not trying
to push her in. I don't want to murder anybody but like I don't know. They didn't seem to be super
into it as their stepdad is. There you're punching her in the face punching her in the back of the
head and like what's your plan? The back of the head I guess I'll try to knock her out. Okay. Drunken
Tammy like goes out like a light when you connect with the back of her head and she falls face first
down like almost into Danny's lap and Tommy goes oh my what the fuck Jim and um he stops chanting.
Jim does not stop chanting however um and that's right at the moment when Jack runs up and tries
to clock him with a half bag a half pillowcase full of candy. Seven. And you're trying to push
him in right? No I'm just trying to hit him. Okay he got a nine so um he grabs your bag of candy
and like pushes you in the chest and knocks you over. Give it back. He takes your candy and
tosses it into the liquid. You're a dead man. No man I think you're the dead man and at this moment
a form begins to rise from the center of the liquid puddle behind Danny and the other two
kidnapped victims as Jim continues to chant. Josh cut Danny free. Josh is going to go and cut Danny
free and then proceed to go cut the other two uh hostages free as well. Tommy's gonna see this
Tommy's gonna try to attack you. Okay so I'm rolling grit. Yep he only got a nine. I got a six.
What is with you kids as he pushes you as you go to uncut Danny? As soon as he comes close enough I'm
gonna stab him with the pocket knife I'm holding. He got a 20. I got a three. He grabs your knife
he's like what is with you fucking kids you're always ruining everything. He shoves you to the
ground as well. Do I need to toss your candy into the fucking puddle? However now out of this liquid
the form begins to rise and it's like a very dark black menacing visage you guys can't even like
make out it's so obtusely different than what your minds are used to that like it doesn't even make
sense. It's got arms coming out of places that it shouldn't and its head is coming out. Can I run in
and tackle Jim? Yeah. What am I rolling to tackle? Fight. What did you roll? A one. Yeah he rolled a
five. You're able to tackle him he stops his chanting momentarily as you run into him but he
does manage to grab you kind of toss you off to the side however one you attacked him did stop coming
out of the summoning circle. I'm gonna my blindfolded two are just tied up. Just tied up. Guys you gotta
stop the chanting when they're all stopped the monster is going away. I'm gonna bite Tommy's calf.
Jim's the one chanting. I don't care Tommy's the one pushing me to the ground twice. Okay let's let Jack take a
turn first. Okay that's the case I'm gonna go after Jim I'm gonna try and whack him in the shin with a
hatchet. Oh shit okay. Because I'm the tin man I've got an axe and I've taped my hatchet to the axe.
Right on roll roll fight. Eight. Roll good. Five. Yeah so you fucking jam your hatchet into Jim's
shin. He doubles over in pain and begins screaming rather than you know chanting anymore as he drops
to the ground and fucking wrenches your hatchet out of his shin which you dug in there really
pretty deep. Chopping wood man. Yeah fuck yeah. Josh. I'm gonna bite Tommy on his leg because he's
pushed me on the ground twice and I got a three. He got an 11. You little punk. He's gonna hit a kid
however he only rolled an eight to hit a kid. Jesus I rolled another three. I'm throwing all these dice
in the trash. Three different dice the same number. Nice and so yeah he he like very forcefully slaps
you and pushes you a good ways away from him. Can I pay Hoken for him to gain plus two to his rolls?
I'd let it happen. Wouldn't have helped. Yeah I mean you would have had to give up quite a bit.
I mean he's got a few but yeah. I'm still tied up right? Yeah um I'm just wriggling around.
I can't really get to my feet. Billy Billy runs up uh to Jamie before you Danny and as he grabs the
rope he's like trying to untie her and his his hands once again begin to glow like they did on
the bike and he just burns the rope away. Oh my god I didn't know I could do that. He's like kind
of having a momentary freak out. It's okay Billy. At least you didn't pass out this time. Yeah that
felt better. Get Danny. Come try that over here with me. Get Danny. Andy what are you doing? I'm gonna
keep attacking Jim I guess. I want to make him unconscious. Okay. Fight. Mm-hmm. Seven. Yeah seven
actually beats his his grit. How do you attack him? I guess I don't really have anything so I'm just
gonna run up and punch him I guess. It's my only move. Classic Andy. I'm just punching people in
the head uh and you knock Jim down to the ground now that he's been fucking hit with a hatchet
tackled and punched. He goes down however Tommy is still fighting with these other two kids.
Oh actually he's not. No he's just fighting away. Yeah and he pushed you. He does go after Jack and he's
gonna try to grab you and lift you right off the ground. I tell him I'm like please please you don't
want to do this. You don't want to do this. This is this is not this is not something that you even
are into. This is just something that your weird stepdad's trying to get you to do with him just so.
You hit him with an axe. It was a it was a hatchet. There's a difference. I didn't hit you with a
hatchet because this isn't your thing. Okay 13 for a charm. I know that's what you're going for. I'm
going for it. 11. Plus two. All right. I was about to use my own because I'm lucky. He's like I don't
really care what you're just a kid. Just thinking what are you even doing here? Saving the world.
No you're not. You're you're dooming it. You're dooming it to fail. Look at what we've managed and
like you can see the head and um shoulders and carapace of this creature still hovering in this
red effervescent pool of liquid. You can't stop us kid. I don't think that people that fight kids and
throw candy away are changing the world for the better. You don't know what you're talking about.
Tommy you have to stop this. This is insane. You know what's insane? Living your life like this every
day. Like what man? We're teenagers. Who cares? You could live your life anyway in like one more year.
Instead you're gonna probably end up in prison or something. Why would I end up in prison?
Neera Lathotep here has promised that that I have a hand in what's gonna come of the world. How can
you even say that that anything could be better than that? I don't think that this is real. What?
Yeah that's real but like he's not gonna do good things for anybody. Especially not you.
You don't know that. Corolla charm. Holy shit it's an 18. You guys don't see you guys don't
understand. We've been working at this for a long time. You know what I had to do? You know what I've
had to do? No. Has anybody untied Danny yet? Billy was too enthralled making sure Jamie was okay.
Yeah. Well Mikey is Billy when his hands are on fire right? Yeah uh I've I've run over and uh
help me out here Billy. All right don't move don't move don't move I don't know exactly if
I'm doing this right yet. It's uh all right oh and uh and ah okay stop dropping roll stop dropping roll.
Thank you all right. Tommy what are you doing? I don't know man. It's we've all been doing it.
Who's we all? It seems like it's just you and your stepdad. Well yeah yeah yeah but it's it's the
family legacy it's it's it's we need to do this. He's your stepdad. It's important to know when to
let things go. This is you guys don't understand and Tommy's gonna run over to Ali Griesmeyer who
is still tied up and he grabs her and as she's screaming like he begins to push her towards the
circle almost throwing her. Josh is gonna run right at him and shriek for the candy and slam
head first into his groin for a seven. Yeah he only got a four so he like releases his grip as he
grabs his ball. You know exactly what I'm talking about right? Little kid just yeah just headbutted
him in the fucking full run um and he doubles over letting go of her and she like is on the edge
beginning to tip backwards. I'm gonna run up and grab her. Do a brawn check. Five. Yeah you get to
roll again. Yeah you get to roll again too. It's four plus five. So six. You grab her and you pull
her away from the edge. I'll untie her too. Right on and Tommy's like you guys are fucking up
everything. What'd you do to my sister and my and my dad? They're just sleeping. I I hate you.
They're not dead. I hate you all. Hate you too dickhead. Neo off the tap. I think you should probably take Jim to the doctor. He's bleeding a little bit.
I pull out my other bag of candy and I smoke them in the head. I'm trying to knock him out. I gotta
stop the chanting. Okay that doesn't work. He needs to go in this hole. Fight. Yeah he needs to go in the hole. That's a 14.
That hero. He's gonna he grabs your other bag of candy. Shit whips it into the into the liquid
and then he picks you up by the throat because you're so much smaller than him and and he turns
you towards the circle to throw you in. I'm gonna run over and grab Tommy like what are you doing?
You're going to throw a child into it. I need to finish this. You don't always get to finish. You
just have to deal with that. Tommy what are you doing that can be worth this? Look at Jim is bleeding
over there. There are girls tied up here. We you know what is he fed you? Tommy you gotta stop being
such a big jerk. You kidnapped my girlfriend. I'm so mad at you. You kidnapped Jim. You tied her up.
You're such a mean guy. And every time he yells like his icy breath comes out and you know he's
standing behind Tommy so that Tommy is between Billy and the you know roiling Neolothotep bubbling
mass and so he's freezing Tommy but also some of the you know leftover icy air is hitting the
summoning circle and so Tommy is getting frozen and the Neolothotep is receding back into the
circle a little bit. Tommy is so stubborn as he holds Jack by the throat like he allows himself
to pretty much get completely frozen before his arm snaps from the weight of this kid holding
onto it and Jack is dropped to the ground. Not in the pit. Not in the you're not in the pit. I'm
gonna scramble to him and help him get the frozen fingers off of his neck.
I'm gonna use the rope that I untied Ali with and and put it like in Tommy's mouth so it's like a
gag so that he can't chant anymore. He's frozen. His face too like he's facing away. He's frozen.
Like his arm just broke off because it's frozen. Well I didn't know his face was. Yeah he's frozen.
Okay never mind. Okay. All right well that was a really weird series of events. Did we call the
cops? I don't know. Jim's bleeding a lot but this guy's frozen so I mean I don't really know.
At this time you guys realize that it is starting to recede back down into this pool.
Neel. So should we just bring it down? Should we? Like now it's up to us. You should take some of
that rope and uh maybe put a tourniquet around Jim's leg. Okay I'll do that for sure. And uh also
tie him his hands too. Yeah I'll tie his leg real tight. And should we go get the sheriff?
Should we get the old sheriff? Should we get the old sheriff? The new old sheriff is not good.
Get the old sheriff so he can break the case he's been working on for 25 years.
Why don't why don't we just bring the building down? Okay. I hate these people.
They kidnapped Jamie. Look at her. Should we throw him in the pit before it disappears?
I wouldn't throw anything. I want to touch the pit. I wouldn't throw anything in there.
Did I just kill somebody? No. Not yet. No but maybe Jack did. Unless we can thaw him out real quick
but yeah. I mean I don't know when he thaws out. Remember when you rode that bike? He's gonna die of blood loss.
I rode a bike today. You sure did. You sure did buddy. Andy I don't know what to do. I don't have
the answer to this. I don't think you guys should tell your mom. No but I think we gotta bring these
guys out of here. I mean Tammy's fine. This guy he his arm is gone. That's kind of a bummer. But you
gotta crush on Tammy. Maybe we should. No but I mean she's just drunk and passed out. Well yeah I think Tammy's
the only one that wasn't actively in on this. She was chanting when we got here. I think they were all
in on it but I don't know. Billy you want to bring the building down? Fuck it I guess. Okay. I don't
really want it on my conscience but. Well you guys should probably get out of here then. Okay I forgot
you were Billy. He just looked at me so I guess I'm taking over. This is earthquake again. All right well
yeah I'm getting out of here I guess. Gonna head outside with everybody and walk to the perimeter
fence around the place. Yep. Just gonna sit there and Billy's gonna go okay everybody if I fall over
pick me up. And he clenches down his hands and his face as hard as he's ever. The building just starts
to shake and just collapse into a sinkhole. Yeah and after he collapses the entire steel mill you
guys can see sirens begin to go off. However that high-pitched noise that Billy hears after he
uses his powers extensively like continues and continues higher than it's ever continued
until it pops and he faints once again. This time with a little nose bleed out of both nostrils.
Oh my god Billy. It's happened like three times today. Three times? Maybe more I'm not sure.
Yeah he did kind of crash into a tree. He rode a bike. You let him ride down a hill?
We said nothing about it. You think anybody let him do anything? Oh my god. He's got super powers.
We should we should take him home I think. We should take him to the hospital. The hospital?
Get out of here that's for sure. Yeah yeah we're gonna run into the car. Everybody gravel in.
I was just imagining I scooped up Billy. Oh okay. Me and Jack and Josh are dragging Billy's candy
stash. Jamie actually just threw Billy on her back like a backpack. And we and we I look at uh
Ali and I was like please don't please don't tell anybody about our friend. She's overcome with
all sorts of emotions having no clue what's going on. She's just crying. And her. We leave
we leave Ali there to to meet the cops. They're looking for her not us. Ali is 100% going to tell
the cops that you were there. And she does. The the following day the cops arrive at all of your
guys' house simply questioning you of the events of the night before. We were at the dance and then
just you know this girl she was started dancing very aggressively on me and then said hey come
back to this place I know. Next thing I know I'm tied up on the floor and they're singing songs I
don't understand. Can you be more explicit about the songs that you didn't understand son?
I mean if I could I don't think I'm describing the songs I don't understand but they were saying
something and it seemed like you know they were trying to bring forth a monster of some sort.
There was glowing lights and chants. A monster you say? I that's what I would call it. I mean
they were all kind of monsters but. And what happened to the steel mill? I don't know I think
whatever they were summoning you know brought it down or you see it. I mean I don't know what
happened to that. I'm just a kid this is a whole steel mill collapsed maybe they blew it up. Okay
we're gonna have to talk to your friends too. They pulled Jack and Josh into the same room.
Now hey kids I understand you had a bit to do with the incident at the steel mill last night.
Why don't you tell me about your night? Did you have a good time trick-or-treating? No that was
the worst ghost tour I've ever been on. Yeah lousy ghost tour. We did the guy was being yeah the
building was unsafe and my mom said I should never let my dad let me go there again. It was not worth
the ticket. So you you're claiming to be at the ghost tour last night and and not at the steel
mill is that correct? The guy who ran the place brought us there on the tour I don't know why.
Okay do you remember his name? Jeff? Jeff? Jim? Tim? Jimmy? Yeah the guy Jim. Yeah he made us
milkshakes too. Yeah yeah he made us milkshakes at the bookstore. He didn't even make us pay for them.
Yeah he gave us free milkshakes at the bookstore. Just like kids were just prattling on with useless
information. Yeah he's like and we got so much candy too. You guys are uh you guys can go please
go please go to a different room. Ma'am any somebody's mom comes and moves then. This is the worst
trick-or-treating ever. And what about you miss can you tell us about your night? Um yeah I was
at the dance um and then I saw Danny dancing with Tammy and then they left uh so so I maybe followed
them and then exactly what Danny happened they kidnapped him so I tried to help and then I got
kidnapped and uh we woke up all tied up and barely escaped. And what happened after that? We ran away.
Yes but what what caused you to run away like what uh? The monster. What monster? The big scary
monster. Okay did the monster bring down the steel mill? Yeah probably or the cultists. The cultists
okay um all right thank you uh we'll be in touch with uh with all you or your parents. I'm telling
you they were summoning this thing it was coming out of the ground you don't think that that could
cause the steel mill to come down? Yeah and Billy hit a tree with his bike and he got knocked out cold. Oh it was cool.
Yeah don't tell mom. Um yeah that that's fine I think we got all that that we need you guys can
go. Why don't you go? Glad to help. Happy Halloween. Oh yeah. Later on local news channel. Good evening Bethlehemites.
After days of turmoil and searching the local sheriff's department has found the missing
person Ali Griesmeier. Unfortunately they are still looking for any trace of Donna Schaeffer who went
missing shortly before Mrs. Griesmeier. If you have any information on Mrs. Schaeffer's whereabouts
please contact them immediately. It was an eventful Halloween night for our town as we were hit with an
earthquake with a magnitude of 4.0. This is only the second earthquake in the last 25 years and the
largest to have ever hit our town. Unfortunately our old steel mill has been completely decimated
by the earthquake. A local scientist says it was sitting directly on a fault line. This coupled with
the building's failing structural integrity has caused the complete ruin of the steel mill. Also
caught in the earthquake's fury was our beloved local proprietor Jim Tambor and his children Tommy
and Tammy who are taking a Halloween stroll around the steel mill at the time of its collapse. No
doubt chasing ghosts. The Moravian Cafe and bookstore will remain closed indefinitely until
Mr. Tambor's estate is settled but it looks like it is most likely going to his oldest brother Jeff
who is set to be released from prison later this year after serving a 25 year sentence for the
kidnapping of three local women. I'm Don Toliver and this has been the news.
Well that has been Kids on Bikes. We appreciate you guys spending the time with us,
listening to us. Proud Alon having some fun as children. We're living some nostalgic
times of our pasts. Please come back next week, check out our bonus episode for some of the setup
and backstory of our Kids on Bikes arc. If you're not interested in that awesomeness tune back in
in two weeks to catch us playing Twisted Trails and Broken Swords, a game of going bravely into
the dungeons and maybe crawling out. That's going to do it for this week and we will see you next
time. See you next next Tuesday.
The Tales from the Crit podcast is recorded in the Wolfbeard Games Studio in upstate New York.
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Take your dice out. Why are your dice not out yet? It's been an hour. Whip it out man, come on.