All right, so on our last session, the party rescued JR and entered into a rather climactic
encounter with Vinny and whoever is taking Vinny for a ride.
Through a long series of events, Seth found it necessary to release his demon to go into
the Umbra to help Astoria face the enemy.
Doing so required Seth to take his own life.
In the meantime, Astoria had channeled the full power of the goddess Artemis in her attempt
to rescue Terran and Seth and returned no longer channeling Artemis and found herself
lying beside Seth's dead body.
The situation as it stands is Olathe, Astoria, Terran, and Bodhi on the little island with
the fallen Seth and on the opposite side on the shore where they initially launched their
boats is Naomi, Jesse, JR, and Jessica.
I think we will just jump into the action where we left off which has Bodhi and Olathe
now at Astoria's side attempting to do what they can.
Bodhi rather superfluously but thoroughly kneels beside Seth, takes his wrist, feels
for a pulse, shakes his head, and crosses that arm across the side of Seth's chest.
He looks to Olathe, not sure that Astoria is really capable of much at the moment, and
he says he's definitely gone.
What do we do here?
I believe Olathe was actively holding Astoria at the time?
I think so.
I remember you made an attempt at an Arate roll that you knew wouldn't work and then
moved to Comfort Astoria.
The answer is going to be we're going to give her a little time and we'll figure it out.
She sits down in a semi-meditative posture and gives a little nod as if acquiescing to
wait and see what happens.
On the far side, Jessica spotted Astoria reappear and is pacing up and down the side of the
lake looking as if she's probably about to try to swim over there.
Naomi, you were thickening the gauntlet at last, I checked, when you saw the demon escape
and Jessie was on the dock having just seen Seth's body fall.
What is your next move?
Well, it's not like I can go over there, right?
They're already going over there.
I can't leave JR.
She's probably going to stand there and wait.
Okay.
Anything particular from Naomi?
Naomi is going to attempt to continue trying to maintain the gauntlet, thicken the gauntlet
if she can, but she is going to end up snapping a little unnecessarily at Jessica.
Will you sit down already?
You're not going to do any good by rushing off.
You're also very distracting right now.
She kind of freezes mid-pace and stares at you because you've never snapped at her before.
And she kind of sulkingly walks over to the dock and sits down on the edge looking across
the lake without a word.
Jessie's like staring at where Seth's body fell, like going back and forth between where
Seth's body fell and the boat and then Astoria and then when they're on the island, she's
just like staring, non-blinking, not looking away, watching.
And Astoria.
Your bird is on your shoulder.
Believe you have a Latha wrapped around you.
What's your next move?
Let go of me, please.
Latha would do so.
Astoria is going to put her hands on Seth's face and just close her eyes for a moment.
And then she is going to, with her thumbs, close his eyelids and kind of like brush off
some of the blood from his face, kind of like trying to clear his face up a little bit.
And then she is going to, I guess with the blood on her hands still, she is going to
commence marking runes across his face and his body.
Can you help me take his armor off, please?
Ben, I'm gonna need a...
I need an arcade roll.
Don't break it, I just need it off.
Yeah, I'm gonna need an Arte roll.
An Arte roll?
Whatever I said.
Don't worry, I know I'm right.
And activate Matter Vision again.
Oh, that's right, because you can't fucking see his armor.
Unless you're telling me that the effect is worn off.
Not yet.
Cool.
Still only been like half an hour at most since you went blind?
Yeah.
Okay, so you still have LIFO and Correspondence and the Mind Up, so this will be a plus one
diff.
So, what'd you roll?
975.
Okay, that's plenty.
Cool.
So yeah, you can now... it's kind of odd watching the outline of his armor fill itself in around
his body, which has now faded to... at first, it was starting to fade towards a hollow space,
and now that you're looking at Matter, it's starting to fill itself back in as he crosses
the boundary between living and dead.
Life to Matter.
Huh.
Then I will assist in removing armor once I can see it.
That's a big difference in helping.
Historia.
Perception Investigation.
If so.
Okay, um... two successes?
Plenty.
As you raise his left arm and begin to unbuckle the leather straps that hold the shield to
set arm, you glance over the various runic engravings that you would expect from any
particular piece of Hermetic equipment, and just inside the upper rim, where it would
be facing towards him, and if he were holding the shield up in a guard position, would be
roughly level with his gaze, his eye line, engraved in plain English rather than any
kind of glyph, you see a phrase.
Five little words.
And it says, for Historia.
For shield.
Always.
Um... got me crying in the club now.
She is gonna break down sobbing at that.
Kind of like tracing her fingers over it over and over and over again.
Damn it, Seth.
Damn it.
We'll send you to your rest.
I just wish it wasn't because of me.
And she's gonna continue removing the armor, placing it gently and reverently next to her,
kind of trying to pack it up.
And she's going to turn to Olathe.
Do you know which way is north?
I've never been good at directions.
With Correspondence up, I should, correct Ben?
Yes.
With Correspondence, you have an innate sense of direction.
Yeah.
So Olathe will point?
It would be roughly off to your right, because the house faces west to east, and you're basically
just in front of the porch of the house.
Is that up the river?
It would be further up the lake.
Basically at a right angle to the direction you guys came from.
So back towards the rest of the party?
The party came directly east.
Oh, okay.
So it's further up the lake.
Yes.
Okay.
Olathe?
Yes, dear.
Can you help me get to the right place?
Can you help me get him loaded up on the boat?
I know we need the boat to get across, but I'd like to give him a funeral at least.
Something.
I know we can't do much, but...
What kind of funeral would you like to give him?
I'm going to out of character remind that we do have two boats.
One wooden sailboat and one flat bottom metal boat that are both at the island right now,
I believe.
I thought the other one was across...
We all packed into one boat to get back to the mainland.
You are right.
I forgot about that.
I thought it was to the other side.
See, that was a confusing time.
That's why I wanted to make sure that that was clear, because I had been thinking about
this during the week.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
I want to get him on that boat.
He always said he wanted a Viking funeral, so I guess we can give that to him.
We can make it happen.
And let's see, what did Oletha...
I want to say Oletha has...
Oletha has three strength.
Is she able to pick Seth up?
Bode will go...
He'll kind of very gently touch a hand to Astoria's shoulder to kind of let her know that he's
stepping around her to pick up Seth so that she's not surprised by him.
And he'll reach to put pick up under his arms.
Between the two of you, you would definitely be able to carry him back to the boat.
So when they get him in the boat, she is going to kind of arrange his body, holding his great
sword with two hands, kind of across his torso.
And she is going to grab the herbs from her bag and begin laying them around him.
And she is going to begin singing a haunting, keening song as she's working.
Distinctly nothing from this era.
It is a very, very old song.
And she is going to walk clockwise around his body three times as she's singing, dropping
the herbs over his body and singing.
And then when she's finished with the song, she is going to step off the boat.
And she is going to light a couple of matches and drop it on the boat.
And she's going to turn to Bodhi.
And she is going to say, can you push that off the north, please?
Before it's gone, dear, are you sure there's nothing you...
I know you always carry a piece of him with you, but no physical items?
His bag's over there and his armor is here.
Actually she will.
She will actually.
She is going to cut a lock of his hair.
And she is going to braid it into hers.
And then she is going to...
Koria.
When you touch your hair and begin braiding something into it, you notice something that
you have not noticed before now.
That's weird.
She's going to kind of like pull a little bit more of her hair forward as she's seeing
that all of her hair that she's able to see is currently white.
And she's going to kind of like shake her head.
She's like, nope, not the time.
She's going to cut a lock of hers and leave it over Seth's sword.
And she is going to say, thank you, Aletha.
Now I'm ready.
A small nod from Aletha.
A look towards Bodhi.
He's going to take a couple steps back from the boat, because it is basically just kind
of rammed up onto the shore this time instead of being pulled up to the dock and neatly
tied.
And with a running start, get it boosted back out into the lake.
Ben, the wooden boat would have been tied up.
It was the flat bottom that we brought over at full speed.
The wooden boat only made the trip once.
Yeah, then the wooden boat would be on the opposite shore.
Wait, no, you're right.
You're right.
I'm wrong.
I'm on the boat back.
Okay.
Yeah, so he'll...
It's recorded that he said it.
Yeah, he'll kind of squat down next to it and give it a strong push away from the dock.
And Aletha will push with him.
The Keening Song is going to get much louder and it will continue until the boat is no
longer visible.
Okay.
It takes a good while because you're not sitting on a river.
The current is pretty mild, but it does steadily drift north.
Then the boat finally passes beyond vision.
Astoria is going to kneel down at the edge of the lake.
She's going to say, I love you, dad.
Just in peace.
You deserve it.
I'll miss you.
We gotta go.
I don't know if that thing's going to come back.
And she's going to begin collecting the armor pieces and the shield and walking towards
the boat.
Aletha will help her carry it and join her.
And Bodhi will scoop up his bag and he'll start to pick up the short sword and shake
his head a little.
Pick it up by the sheath only, not touching the hilt.
And then offer it hilt first to Astoria.
I think you're the only one who should carry this now.
Thank you.
And she is going to strap it to her belt as she is trying to lug all this stuff back.
She's putting what can fit in her bag in her bag and then she's just kind of clutching
the rest of it to her chest.
As she's loading everything into the boat.
As this is all happening, you realize that Harren's not here.
As you begin keening, he soared up into the sky and as the boat begins to pass from sight,
he swoops down from above and circles it for a while.
And after a moment, you can't see the boat anymore, but you can track the passage of
the boat by the tiny bird circling above as he says goodbye in his own way.
And Bodie lowers the bag into the boat and reaches out a hand to help Astoria on board.
Thank you.
She's going to sit down in the boat and kind of like stare down at the armor that she has
in her lap as they're getting ready to go back across.
And then Bodie will turn to Olathe.
Get out of this dark place.
Seems like a fair idea to me.
Is Bodie going to magic us away though?
He is.
He will start the boat drifting across with a little, almost like a little standing Tai Chi
routine at the back of the boat.
And as it starts to drift away, he looks thoughtful and shakes his head.
And you kind of just hear him muttering under his breath.
No, no, no, that's not quite right.
And he turns and stands straighter up looking back at the house, stretches a little bit,
claps his hands together.
And that's a lot of suck.
Lob's a fireball.
And back behind you, the house on the island is now merely burning.
If it comes back, it's welcome to the ruins.
After just a couple of minutes, at the more sedate pace, the boat is drifting up to the
dock where Jessie and Jessica are waiting.
When Jessie saw the funeral start, she would have started crying.
And then crouch and cry like into her arm, probably until they get back and she'll like
try to get her shit together.
Just before the boat bumps up to the dock, you feel a hand on your shoulder as Jessica
steps up next to you.
She kept a little bit of a distance to that point, very pointedly trying not to pace.
But now she steps up next to you and puts a hand on your shoulder, both as a I'm here,
but also as a heads up, they're almost here.
Yeah, sorry.
He was just like, the closest they get to a friend, you know, like ever.
It's just hard.
Jessica kind of chews on her lip for a second and is audibly or visually trying very hard
not to cry or freak out.
She is putting on a face as best as she knows how.
As the boat bumps up to the dock and Bodie promptly clambers out to tie off.
Before Bodie can move further than that, Jessica promptly reaches down into the boat to try
and get Astoria out.
Astoria is going to kind of like look up surprised a little bit from the armor and she's like,
oh, okay.
And she will kind of numbly get out of the boat toting with her the armor and sword and
everything in the shield.
She's going to give you a very brief hug with the...
It's pretty obvious she wants to hold you a lot longer than that, but doesn't think it's
the right moment.
Look at them all grow in.
And holds out her arms as if to take some of the burden off of you if you're willing.
She's going to vehemently shake her head and she's just kind of hold it closer.
I'm okay.
She nods and just kind of links her arm through yours and starts walking you back towards
the other party members.
And Bodie reaches down into the boat next to help Olathe get out.
Olathe will appreciate the help.
Jesse.
What doing?
Walking back, I guess.
Okay.
So the party, the remains of the party slowly makes its way back to where Naomi is casting
and JR is resting on the floor.
Everybody that can now see Olathe or see Astoria through something other than life magic and
now clearly see the change that has come over Astoria as every lock of hair on her head
is solid white.
As they gather back around, Jessica kind of moves Astoria to sit down near where their
bedrolls and stuff were left.
And moves as if to sit down with her.
This is not a stand around and talk situation.
This is a sit down and figure out what the hell we're doing next situation.
Bodie goes to check on JR.
And Taron at this point swoops back in and settles himself on Astoria's shoulder opposite
from where Jessica is.
Jessica starts rummaging in one of the bags and passes a water canteen off to Astoria
and looks around at everybody else.
So what do we do now?
I don't think we should stay here.
But where are we going?
We should definitely not stay here.
I think for the moment we need somewhere safe to let JR recover a little bit and Astoria
as well.
And then figure out how we're getting Dane.
There's some safe houses in this city.
I don't know if they're not raided or anything because you guys were able to get in, but
it's worth a shot.
Well that does sound like our best chance.
Do you know where the nearest one would be?
Let me look.
Astoria is going to pull out the book and flip to the section that has the list of safe
houses and she's going to find the Chicago section.
I don't really know where we are.
Okay, well when you get to that there are two standing Order of Hermes safe houses that
you're aware of in the Chicago area.
The first one being where you initially met the party which is well on the other side
of the city in the outskirts to the west.
And the second one is a bit closer to, well a lot closer to the lake in South Chicago.
Two ish miles north of you.
Heading deeper into the city but not really into the hyperdeveloped downtown zone.
With the level of knowledge that you have of the kingdom's dominion, it could theoretically
reach that far south but you have no solid evidence whether it does or doesn't.
Okay, I will show Olathe, well maybe not Olathe.
That'll probably get an inappropriate comment.
I guess I will, I guess I'm not in the mindset to really be paying that much attention.
Yeah, there's this one but I don't know.
This is my first time in Chicago.
I don't really know where it is compared to us.
Olathe's gonna kind of look at it.
Do you kind of like the head bob nod kind of thing?
That is definitely paper.
Jessica looks it over.
And then looks up.
Naomi?
Yeah?
You know this area fairly well and you helped us get here.
Do you think you could get us to wherever this is?
Let's see what we got.
And she'll go ahead and unfold her legs from underneath her slowly and move over to take
a look at the address.
Okay.
And can I do a streetwise roll to see if this is some place that Naomi would know where
it was?
Okay.
Yeah, go for it.
Would you like wits or intelligence?
Wits is fine.
Five, six, ten, ten, and two.
Twenty.
Yeah.
It is certainly South Chicago.
Kind of right on the edge of where people usually live and it starts to kind of give
way to a lot of industrial stuff, which is a lot of what's around you here.
Like there's neighborhoods and houses and stuff between here and there, but there's
just as much like industrial yards and here's going up to the river and the lake and stuff
like that.
Warehouses, those kind of things.
It would be probably an hour by bicycle to get there from here.
The one thing that you know for sure is somewhere along the way getting there, you're going
to have to get over the Calamet River one way or another.
You crossed over a bridge further south on your way here.
Backtracking that way would make it take three times as long, but you just know that you're
going to have to find some way over the river.
You remember previously Seth's suspicion about bridges that it's possible they're being watched.
Choke points.
Well, I believe this safe house is probably roughly an hour by bike.
If all goes well, I don't know if it may take us a little bit longer since we've got JR
now and he's in no condition to ride himself.
What's more is we're going to have to cross the river and while we can head back to the
friendly bridge that we know of, it's going to add a lot of time to us.
Seth had a good point about bridges and being watched.
Yes, I can take us there, but it might be difficult.
Ben, since I had enough correspondence assessments to probably see the sun, can we get a rough
time check?
Um, five-ish.
Okay.
Because it was probably not quite five because I want to say it was like 3.30 when you guys
got here and then it was across the lake, things on the island, back across the lake,
back across the lake again, the fight, funeral and then now.
It's probably a little before five.
He kind of runs a hand through his hair in a gesture of like collecting himself.
So that's a real safe house.
It's probably our safest option if we actually can get there.
How many of us are capable of working with matter?
I'll let that raises her hand.
As does Bodhi.
What are you thinking?
I'm wondering if it may take some time and I don't know how experienced you guys are
with it, but I'm thinking that if bridges are a concern, maybe we just make our own.
Doesn't have to be anything pretty.
Just get us across.
Ben, as two Chicago people, roughly how big is this river?
I mean, it's not small or a decent chunk of it.
There's like a loading piers along it.
You really wanted to go about it.
You could swim it or hop it with horse's magic, but.
Bodhi kind of shrugs.
I mean, yeah, it would probably work.
I don't mind that being a later resort, especially if we happen to find a smaller or quieter
area of the river as we're passing, but it's something to at least keep in mind.
Yeah, my only concern is it might draw even more attention.
But it's a good thought.
Are you thinking they can track magic use?
Well, make sure bridge swing just appearing out of nowhere.
Someone's likely to spot it one way or the other.
Yeah, that.
But also, I don't really know what all they're capable of, to be honest with you.
They seemed to know what we were doing before we did.
It's certainly not out of the realm of something one could do if they had the right knowledge
to.
Surround an area of a map with magical triggers to let you know who's using in your area.
Actually, hold on before we get too invested in this idea anyway.
Naomi is going to pull out her compact and make a correspondence roll to look in on the
safe house to make sure one it's still there and currently doesn't look like it's already
occupied.
Okay.
Oh, that's not the best of roles.
It's a three, a four and a five.
Not the best of roles, but for a...
Hold on, you're remote viewing, so...
It would be core two.
Yeah, so diff five.
So one.
Success.
She didn't use willpower or anything with it.
Okay.
You get a bird's eye view of the location in question.
It's still standing.
And as is the neighborhood immediately around it.
As far as whether or not there's anybody in it at the moment, less clear.
Well, the house is still there and the neighborhood doesn't look like it's gone to ruin yet.
So I think we should be okay heading that direction.
I can't really tell if someone else is squatting like we were with the first safe house.
For exactly what I'm...
I'll admit, I'm a little...
That wasn't my best magic attempt.
I don't think any of us are at our best right now.
I literally blinded myself.
But it is currently most likely our safest option, so...
Astoria, I'm sorry, I have a question and I don't know if it's too soon for it or not.
Go ahead.
Do you know if you manage to take care of that commie, that thing?
I don't know.
I can't remember.
Naomi's gonna take a deep slow breath and say that it might still be out there.
And if it does, it knows us.
I think it's safer to operate under the thought that it might still be out there.
Which means wherever we stop, we probably need a fortify as well.
Hermetic safe houses are easier to fortify than most things.
Jessica has been nodding through this whole exchange.
As a rule of fieldcraft, always assume you're being followed.
And being followed by whatever could have made that...
Spirit storm and called all of those other commies to it.
I would feel a lot better being at a Hermetic safe house for the night.
Which means we probably ought to start moving just in case it does take us longer than an
hour or so.
Because we don't want to be out at dark.
No Litha's going to non-agreedence.
Well, I don't know where we're going, so someone lead the way.
Can...
Well, actually, I'll ask in character.
Uh, Litha, do you want me to try and see if I can help you with that?
If you feel you can.
I'm not sure how much I can do, but no harm in taking a look.
If everyone else wants to start gathering our stuff and getting JR situated, then I'm
going to see if I can help a Litha real quick.
Okay.
Jessica will stay right by Astoria.
And Bodie will head over to Jesse and kind of kneel next to her and put a hand on her
shoulder.
Hey.
He kind of waits for you to look at him.
If like, uh, I'm not talking until we're having eye contact.
I don't know what Seth was to you.
Seems like he was important.
But you gotta put that down for now.
She would have like, got, she got her shit together like as Astoria and um, oh, Litha
were like approaching in the boat.
So she's not losing it quite as bad as she was earlier.
Probably like some silent tears, but she's not like, she's not breaking down.
She also hasn't said a word.
Oh no.
What is there to say?
Yeah.
I don't know how well your brother's going to walk.
It might be us carrying him.
That's fine with me.
All right.
Thanks.
Let's do this.
Appreciate it.
He very briefly flashes you the patented Bodhi Glamour Smile PM and walks over to JR with
Jesse in tow.
Seeing Jesse walk up, JR kind of pulls himself to a seated position.
All right.
Really?
What the fuck was all of that?
I don't know.
I'm going to be fucking honest.
I don't know.
I like never know what's going on.
All right.
Well, help me up.
Let's get the fuck out of here.
I don't want to look at that fucking island anymore.
Me either.
With Bodhi and Jesse's help, JR is able to get to his feet, but it's probably going to
be an arm over each of y'all's shoulders hobbling the whole way there, which is definitely going
to cause this to take longer than expected.
Naomi.
Yes.
What are we magic in about this?
Well, this one's a bit of a stretch, which is part of why Naomi has no idea if it's going
to work or not, because Charby doesn't know if it's going to work or not.
Right. She is going to go up to Olathe and put a hand on her arm and say, do you mind
if I try some mind magic?
Olathe is going to have kind of a curious look on her face and then nod.
Give it a try, dear.
What I'd like to do, and it's okay if it fails, is Naomi wants to delve into Olathe's
mind to try to find if this is less of a actual physical block to Olathe's eyes and possibly
more of a mental magical block that she can work loose.
If you will permit it, because I do have the XP to do it, I would like to buy Life 1 based
on the memories of Olathe showing her what Life 1 looked like while doing so.
Okay, as long as this is successful, I'd probably consider that your study and practice for
figuring out Life 1.
I will spend a willpower about it.
Mm-hmm.
Don't blind me.
Do it.
Give you brain damage on top of being blind.
Actually physically removes her eyeballs.
I'm going to do a Commie Mater snap.
Eight three five plus one willpower.
Solid.
Okay.
With that, you are able to get a picture, kind of a Mind's Eye CT scan, if you will,
or one of those MRI scans that explicitly show electrical conduction in the brain in
lifetime of Olathe's brain, the inside of her weird and appropriate brain.
And you see an odd dark area in the flow of mental energy.
You took biology in high school.
You know enough to vaguely...
She does have points in medicine.
Yeah, you know vaguely where something like the optic nerve should probably be.
And what you see is some kind of magical force manifesting about halfway down the optical
nerve where the electrical energy of her brain should be traveling and it hits a block and
is seemingly diverted somewhere.
And I add a little bit of flavor text.
Go for it.
Naomi is going to be quietly singing in Japanese.
And even though it makes no difference Olathe-wise, she was maintaining eye contact for foci
purposes.
And she is going to look at this blockage, this dark spot, and pull to mind the visual
image of Olathe's mind book, the leather bound book with the tree on the front.
And while this book is open in front of her, she is going to reach out a very, very gentle
hand and slowly, very carefully brush away the block as one might do a bit of dirt that
has gotten on a book that shouldn't be there.
And she will also give a gentle exhale to blow said dirt away.
Give me a perception awareness as you're doing that.
Oh, that's not bad.
97274.
Perfect.
The blockage is correspondence magic.
Because she attempted to use correspondence magic, botched it, and it backfired.
It is essentially a tiny portal in her optic nerve, parrying the signal away somewhere
else.
If one wanted to dispense with it, it would be a fairly simple matter of using correspondence
to counter correspondence.
Well, having determined what that is, that's going to be the next roll.
Let's see if we can fix what Olathe broke before.
And we've got...
Let's see, that's not the best roll.
I've got a three, a five, and a four to start.
If she needs to keep going, she is willing to do so.
I'll just say I don't think that's going to be sufficient.
Okay.
Let's give it another roll.
736 this time.
Olathe, you feel a weird jolt from somewhere behind your eyeballs.
And it feels almost...
Have you ever had that moment when you...
I don't know if you've ever had an ear infection where you needed to take steroids.
But when you do that, there's always this moment when the inflammation goes down enough
that you feel things open up and pop.
That's basically what you feel.
And your vision starts to come back in slowly at first.
It's like looking at a TV screen that's just static.
And then slowly it forms into black and white images.
The resolution gets higher.
It's technicolor.
And now you're back to actually being able to see.
And there's a small Japanese girl about three inches from your face.
Overlaid with all the visions that you've got going on.
Oh, thank you, dear.
And she's going to blink for a second and then drop the visions so she can come back
to reality.
Snap back to reality.
Okay.
Is that back to normal for you now?
Are you okay?
It is.
It was a little disconcerting because for a moment I still had magic allowing me to
see at least matter and life and correspondence.
And it was a bit disorienting to have all of them active at once.
But it is much better.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
And Naomi will sever the mind link.
Close book.
Put it back on the shelf.
Okay.
Jessica is going to help reach out to help Astoria to her feet.
I think the rest of them are ready.
Ready to go.
I'm going to pack up the armor in a blanket or something in my bag and then just kind
of attach it to my shoulders like a little knapsack to go on top of my backpack.
As I'm packing up to go.
Okay.
And then the sword will be at my hip and then I've got the bow slung over my shoulders over
all the other shit.
Okay.
And with that, the group sets off.
Karen flies out in front a bit.
Bodhi is helping Jesse to hobble JR along.
And this kind of brings us to the question of the bicycles.
JR can't really ride.
But you did all come here on your own independent bicycles.
Are you going to walk those along with you?
Have some of you try to ride and keep pace or stash them potentially to try and come
back for them or just give up on them?
Definitely walking them.
Okay.
They are not leaving them behind.
Any objections to that?
Nope.
Nah, seconded.
Nope.
Okay.
All right.
You're definitely making pretty slow progress as you head north.
As you leave the park area that was around this lake, you're passing through mostly kind
of medium density suburbs, small businesses in the general area.
And it is weirdly quiet as you go.
You're not seeing really anybody out and about in this part of the city.
Not like you saw further west.
You make your way up to close enough to the lake that you start smelling it.
The Great Lake that is.
And cut your path left kind of along a set of railroad tracks.
Which puts you in a little bit of a defile where you have a large raised highway to your
left and then for a little bit at least a line of trees between you and the lake.
But you're below ground level basically.
So you can't see very far but anybody looking in your direction would probably look over
top of you and not at you.
As you get further into the early evening, you pull back into more heavily residential
areas closer to the river.
Basically on your right along the train tracks is residential and to your left is a bunch
of warehouses lined up along the river.
You use the
out? No my first the roll was 10 10 7 7 7 5 with a 6 and a 4 from the rerolls. Wild.
Like I was but I got two successes. Damn!
Okay. Milo gets four successes. Can we get those in the dice rolls as well?
Carpy would you be able to add the two successes for me please? I am gonna be
grabbing us food.
Okay.
You know that's kind of appropriate for Astoria. I know. Did you zero out? I
double botched. Oh at this point that is pretty appropriate. It is a time so yeah.
Okay.
Jessica also zeros out. Probably because she's looking more at Astoria than she
is anything else.
Those of you with suck in a house just off to the right.
Somebody has cracked the door. This is like not far. It's within a vocal tone.
Like you could speak at a normal tone of voice in here at this distance and
poked their head out. Are you crazy? Walking around in broad daylight? Get the fuck
out of here. Is night safer?
Did you say that? Yes.
You don't want to get their attention. Just leave before somebody sees you.
And the door slams.
That wasn't helpful.
Well it tells us for sure that they're used to someone looking around here.
Are we almost there?
You're not far.
You uh.
Naomi from having scoped before and having the lay of the land roughly would
now know you are at the point where you need to make a decision.
There are three immediate bridges that would get you to the point where you
need to make a decision. There are three immediate bridges that would get you
across to the other side.
The northernmost bridge is a railway bridge and your particular set of train
tracks that you're walking on would take you straight to them.
The south of that is like a two-lane road bridge and a bit further south than
that is like a four-way road bridge that takes you a little bit more round
about. So probably another 15-20 minutes of walking to go that way east and then
up. Whereas the other two bridges pretty much take you straight towards where
you want to be.
Hey Jesse.
Yeah.
Is there any chance you can check and see if any of these bridges that are
ahead of us there's going to be three but we're not too far from where we need
to be. Are you able to check and see if any of them is safer than the others?
Yeah. Do you want me to add correspondence to that?
You're doing it at a distance so yes.
Okay. One roll per bridge.
Fair.
I don't know what you're wanting.
No that probably would be necessary.
Okay well.
Which would give the party time to kind of take a pause and catch their breath.
Hilariously still in view of the guy's door who just yelled at you to fuck off
question mark.
He's probably ducked in somewhere covered.
Okay.
I'm assuming we're kind of getting a little bit of cover.
Okay.
And then with him saying that maybe we should...
Jessica can you make us all invisible?
Literally what I have been trying to ask.
I love it.
She gives you a look of uncertainty.
Oh I guess I could try.
Does Jessie hear that?
I mean unless you've separated yourself from the group who I'm going to say
ducked into a gap between two houses.
Jessie is going to speak up.
I can also help with that.
Dane showed me how to do stuff like that.
Okay.
Well do whatever Naomi was asking you for and I'll think about it and see what I can come up with.
Okay. We got a lot of tens tonight.
Good. It's a good night for tens.
Yeah.
Okay. Give me a sec.
So this first one is what's my diff?
I assume it's like five.
Six.
You're I think six.
That is fine.
Actually no probably would be five or.
It doesn't change that one.
It would be five because you're.
Okay. Wow. That is six.
I know. Okay dude. Hold on 10 6 10 10 9 6.
Jessie got to carry the party because we lost Seth.
Damn. All right.
She is she is feeling the pressure like personal pressure to like step up now that he's missing.
Yeah.
She's been like doing a lot of the training and stuff with him and feels like very much like she needs to be a protector kind of person now.
But she also isn't speaking up because she doesn't know what to say.
Strong silent tape. We love it. We love those.
All right. So with that you're able to get the general vibe of all three bridges and the surrounding area.
The general area is dangerous.
Like the whole area around the bridges is and where you are now.
I'll give you that with your fucking six successes.
There is ever present danger.
As for the bridges specifically.
The road bridge.
The second road bridge.
The one further to the north.
Not the railway bridge.
Seems risky.
As if it is.
Probably not permanently watched.
But it's paid attention to.
Whereas the railway bridge.
At least at present seems to be safe.
And the southern bridge also seems to be safe.
With the caveat of the background level of none of this area is safe.
I think that all along through a Jersey Italian filter.
And did you say the railway bridge was the one we were currently in line with.
Yeah. If you all get back on the railway tracks and keep trucking north.
That will go.
More or less straight towards that bridge.
There are some branches that will take you to a marshaling yard.
But you stay to the left and keep on going and you'll get to that railway bridge.
You said that was one of the safer ones?
Yes.
Quotation marks.
Well, Alaysa, I don't know if you know the area better or not, but if our.
If the current path we have.
Is one of the safer options and still slightly more direct.
I personally think we ought to stick with it.
Well.
Could I use correspondence entropy to find the safest path there?
Like, yes, we're going to that place, but basically did.
Okay, cool.
Yeah.
I would say you have basically done so at this point.
Okay, cool.
You Naomi.
I would agree dear.
And hopefully we can do it invisibly.
I've got one other suggestion though.
I thought to have it so that either Jesse or Bodie has complete hands free.
That way if something does come up, they're more like more capable of jumping in.
I may not be as strong as you guys, but I can help Jr walk.
And I'm not going to be as useful swinging any weapons.
He ducks out from under Jr's arm and draws his sword.
That's fair.
Jesse not she wasn't going to let go of Jr so it was going to be Bodie.
Jessica is sitting cross legged on the ground.
Like she's thinking really hard.
And you can kind of hear her muttering under her breath.
The tune of her muttering under her breath is that the other times that she turned herself invisible.
It was mostly the felt like something was guiding magic to imitate her suit that she used to wear.
And it's really fucking weird to try and change it so that it affects other things other than just her.
Because you're not all in her suit.
That would be weird.
Have the feeling of the suit cover the area.
But she puts both palms flat on the ground in a somewhat stereotypical channeling kind of gesture.
Eh. Decent.
And with two sixes you all kind of feel the air around you pop.
Um.
Okay.
And she points at Aletha.
Can you like walk ten feet that way?
And points away from the group.
Aletha does so.
Okay.
You can't see the group.
Well done dear.
I think if everybody stays like really close this might work.
Fuck this is weird.
Is that really close to you or is there a different focal point?
Close to me. I think it's centered on me. I hope it's centered on me and not this piece of dirt.
I guess we'll find out.
Jessica if I can ask you to try to walk next to JR that way we don't lag behind.
Everyone else can move at their paces.
She looks at Astoria.
We can do that. Right?
Yeah. We can do that.
So the group kind of scrunches in a little bit as Jessica with Astoria in tow tries to stay just a couple feet behind Naomi, Jesse, and JR.
And Bodhi just in front of them with his sword drawn.
Milo is riding on Naomi's shoulders because of course he is.
And Taryn is still out in front.
Flying around which more or less just leaves Aletha to figure out where she falls in.
Probably near the front. No actually no. You said Bodhi was at the front correct?
Yeah. He's on point.
Then Aletha will take the back.
Okay.
You're now walking even a little bit slower because you're focused on keeping everybody together. But you are steadily closing in to the river.
The area that you're walking through now is just like proper industrial wasteland. Everything around you at a 360 degree view is concrete and metal and cranes and containers and just the last place I personally ever want to be.
Aletha probably also does not look thrilled about it.
And now I do need Perception Alertness.
Diff 9 explicitly 2 cents danger. Diff 7 for She of the Specialized.
Okay. You know if we can just have this be the trend all night I will take that.
2 suck.
Glad someone's got 10s because that's my second botch of the night.
It's appropriate though the dice no.
Okay.
Taryn has pushed a little bit too far north to see this. Naomi is a little too distracted helping JR stagger along and Astoria is deep in the pain cave.
Jessica.
Kind of turns and squints.
Off to the left at a large crane.
Like one of those big ones that can pick up a whole.
Like not just one of those shipping containers but the ones that can pick up multiple at once.
Jesse Milo and Aletha also.
Yep. Those just them. Sorry I'm thinking I'm missing somebody and it's Bird.
You are. So is Astoria.
There is something moving ever so slightly on top of that crane.
Something very large.
That.
Probably didn't intend to move and be spotted.
But moved enough of one appendage.
Draw your attention.
When you say very large.
At this distance it's not entirely clear.
You're a couple hundred yards from it.
But there is a black form.
On top of this crane.
I guess my question is are we talking human large or are we talking house large.
Are we talking large like that thing that we saw that was a bird the size of an airplane.
Closer to that.
That being said.
Naomi.
You don't see any particular I know you can't see this but in your general surroundings.
You don't see anything more than the normal background.
You probably would not have seen anything at all.
If something hadn't moved.
It's no longer moving.
And it's because it's so distant and.
So little.
You're you actually kind of question if you really did see anything or not.
Everybody other than Milo Milo Milo sees.
My laws are probably digging into Naomi shoulder.
Milo actually no I take it back because his claws give ag damage.
I was about to say.
Probably don't do that.
The hair the hair on him is definitely standing up and there is a very very low growl.
He.
Ben I'm sorry did you see the message I just sent you.
I did and we're now the dog well yeah.
We're going to have to.
That's actually kind of perfect.
Milo is going to push an image.
Into Naomi's head.
A little bit forcefully.
Of the.
You're going to pay attention to this right now variety.
Of just what it is that he can see.
Sitting on top of this crane because he sees it best.
And it's going in your EMS.
Joy.
Now.
Her voice is sounding breathy.
And there's a slight nervous laugh as she's looking up to.
Where Milo is very pointedly staring.
We don't happen to have any arachnophobes do we.
Wait what I don't know that I like that question dear Milo sees a very big spider up there.
Bodie kind of stops walking.
Turns with his sword just kind of dangling beside him.
Did you say.
He sees what now.
Keep your voice down Milo does that mean it can see us even though we're invisible.
I don't think so.
I don't think it would have moved if it could see us.
There's apparently an exceptionally large spider at the top of that crane so I suggest we all pay very close attention to our surroundings because there may be more than one.
Because if that's the thing that the guy on the door was talking about he definitely said they and not it.
Giant spiders fucking fucking giant spiders.
Jessica.
Does in fact.
Have a phobia.
Of spiders.
Breathing a little fast.
Storia is going to reach out and grab her hand.
She catches mid panic breath and looks down.
Okay.
I'm going to focus on that.
That's nice.
And the staying invisible part.
I really don't like spiders.
Yes please very much do keep us invisible.
Why is there a giant spider. Why is that a thing that anybody.
Okay.
Can we can we go. Can we not be here.
Yes, we can go.
A story is there anything about giant spiders in your book.
Is that something like werewolves.
Can I make you a intelligence a cultural or intelligence cosmology maybe.
You could do either and get a different answer for either one.
Is there a difficulty difference.
No.
You do both.
What. Yeah, you could do both.
Cool.
Send it.
What if.
If seven for both.
Six successes for intelligence occult.
Nice nominal.
Solid work.
And three for the intelligence cosmology.
Good enough.
Intelligence cosmology tells you that in other planes to include the dreaming.
Where the changelings are there are giant spiders.
There are other planes than ours were giant spiders just absolutely fucking are a thing.
Occult tells you that it would be.
Barely trivial.
For a sufficiently advanced life mage.
To just supersize the spider.
With enough skill in life magic and prime to make it stick.
Maybe a little bit of mind to make it smarter.
A good enough life mage could just make one of these.
Okay, so it's either natural from a different dimension or created by a mage.
Yep.
Cool.
It's.
What was your question again.
I'm sorry.
It's just asking if you knew anything about giant spiders and.
If there anything like werewolves I don't I don't know if that's a.
An intelligent thing looking at us or not.
Or trying to look.
It's.
Maybe.
I mean there's a couple of avenues for something like that there's.
A natural one from.
The different dimension like.
The dreaming or the umbra.
And if it's that then it's some sort of.
Probably very intelligent creature.
It might be something created by a mage.
Super sized it.
Made it stronger smarter larger.
Anything that a mage.
Desires.
But without.
Without closer examination I couldn't really tell you which one.
I guess it doesn't matter as much if it doesn't find out that we're here.
I'll just ask that you can walk into my car.
Yes.
Or just a little personal flavor.
With your.
Spirit shenanigans.
As you guys continue walking.
There is one spirit that stands out.
As you.
Start skirting your way around.
deliberately getting closer to this thing.
Okay, just checking.
Making sure y'all didn't want to go fight this thing.
I don't think anyone else had a death wish aside from Seth. Making sure.
Off to your left.
Uh, there is one spirit that stands out.
Most of the commie in this area are
kind of twisted.
Um,
you've been through industrial areas before
and noticed that the spirits in them were never
normal.
Um,
They're not really nature spirits at that point. Yep.
But this one stands out
and it is
a man.
Standing up straight, which is weird because usually these things kind of skulk around.
Wearing a very old-fashioned looking uniform.
Um,
He doesn't have a left arm in that uniform.
And with the right arm,
he does a very flourishing salute.
Straight at you.
Takes off the hat.
Big feathered cap on his head.
And puts it to his belly and bowels.
And disappears from sight.
Yes, the important factor because Naomi can see both.
Was it truly a commie or was it a ghost?
It is in fact a ghost.
Very respectful ghost.
Well,
upon seeing him bow and maybe before he disappears, maybe not.
Um,
Naomi would have
given a slight dip of
her legs.
Knowing she can't give proper bow or anything while attempting to hold JR, but also a respectful nod back.
Who knows if it was in time before he disappeared or not.
Okay.
He would probably appreciate it. He's been here for a long time.
Probably a lonely old man at this point.
After a few more minutes,
probably with all of you,
definitely with Jessica,
looking over your shoulders to make sure that
faint black smudge hasn't started moving.
It hasn't.
You come up to the river.
And the railroad trestle going across it.
It's the railroad.
It's nothing particularly fancy.
Just a single lane railroad trestle.
Those kind of red metal latticework.
Your basic thing.
Anything in particular before we send it.
That's not a hint.
I'm just checking to make sure y'all don't have any particular ideas.
Before you go across.
Actually, I think there might have been one thing.
Can Milo make a soul sense roll?
Okay.
Yes.
Need perception awareness for that one.
Helps if I pull up the right stuff.
And
there's no set amount as far as I can tell for what that difficulty would be.
But he, I will go ahead and put it in the dice rolls what he got.
Okay.
My understanding of that is that it is essentially to sense fate.
Or demise along one's route.
That is more of death sense.
He is specifically using the soul sense portion.
Which I will send.
Thank you.
To you.
Okay.
He can do both.
That's right.
That's what I'm mixing up.
Okay.
So he's doing soul sense, not death sense.
Correct.
He's making the deliberate perception awareness to look.
Other than your spectral gentleman behind you and
Cheelob perching on the fucking crane.
Nobody in particular in your surroundings.
Nobody near the bridge either.
Okay.
Milo's still distinctly unhappy and Naomi's probably getting slapped in the face with his unhappy tail.
Swack.
Okay.
So with that, Bodhi will lead the way out onto the bridge.
Things begin to get a little less bleak on this side.
In the waning sunlight, you actually see a fairly large arm to the north of you.
Covering a couple of blocks worth of territory.
But your objective house is a bit further to the west.
About three blocks.
Taking direction from Naomi, Bodhi leads you guys a little bit south to start with.
You kind of skirt away from view of that farm area.
And you finally get back into a suburban area.
With a decent amount of trees and even a little park.
And at that point, I need a perception alertness.
Hearing based.
From everybody. Not to sense danger.
What did you say?
I don't think I did.
You did not.
So we'll call it a six.
I zero out.
Cool. Two ones.
I'll do that to you.
I also rolled a one, but I still got some successes, thankfully.
They got to come in eventually. I've had a lot of fucking tense tonight.
Oh shit.
Milo zeroed out. He's still spooked about the spider.
Yeah.
Okay.
All of you with more than no suck.
Here a slightly haggard, breathless bit of singing.
Coming down the road to your north.
It's almost like somebody is they'd like to be singing cheerfully, but it comes across more as a nervous tick than anything.
And seemingly are approaching your particular spot.
Sun's getting low. You're in the buildings. It's a little gloomy.
But you can see a human shape up ahead heading your way.
Kind of quickly.
Is it on a collision course with us?
Yes. If you stay in the road where you are, it's half and yours are going to intersect before you make it where you're going.
I just want to get out of the road quietly.
Get off the road. Click.
Jessica is going to kind of hustle with Astoria.
Not quite pushing her out of the road, but not not pushing her out of the road.
You're getting out of the road. She's getting out of the road.
She's still holding onto her hand. So like, go, go, go, go, go.
Who else?
Hobble. Yeah.
Okay. Astoria has controlled the bubble person.
The bubble is moving. The rest of us should too.
Yeah. All right.
After a couple more minutes.
The figure. Actually, it's probably like 30 seconds to be honest.
The figure comes more into view.
It is a dude on a longboard. Booking it downhill.
That's where the singing is coming from.
Just as he is about to zoop past all of you invisible.
Without noticing you standing by the side of the road.
He hits a pothole.
Doing mock Jesus on this longboard downhill.
Chase. Dex Athletics.
I even have some of that.
What diff? Eight.
Nice. One success.
Beautiful.
You managed to get off of the longboard.
Not by getting catapulted face down.
You kind of do that thing when you're losing control of your board and you.
Hop off the side and run really fast for a second.
The board.
And he manages to break his fall just a little.
Before toppling over and rolling a couple times.
And coming to a stop.
Face up.
In the middle of the street.
Chase is going to just lay there for at least a minute.
And I need to verify with you the other bit that we had talked about.
Is that going to be a thing?
Yep. That one. Okay.
Cool.
Yeah. After laying there for about a minute.
Kind of.
Shake himself off.
Stand up.
Take a couple of drunken looking steps forward.
Fall down again.
Laugh a.
Kind of angry sounding laugh.
And get back up and try again.
Those of you who have it.
Wits medicine.
All right.
What?
He's at close range.
I will call it a six.
Just spotting something fairly obvious.
I'm going to call it a six.
Okay.
Naomi.
I've always got a lot of blood on them.
Astoria.
And Olathe.
The source of said blood.
Medicine.
There is a crossbow bolt.
In this dude's back.
In his left lower back.
In fact.
Poking out the front.
Astoria in particular.
The location of this crossbow bolt.
It would be fucking miraculous.
If it hadn't done something to his kidney.
And or renal artery.
On its way through that particular piece of meat space.
That's rough buddy.
Yeah, that does sound like a lot of not our problem right now.
Chase.
I knew that was going to happen.
Chase.
For sure.
I'm going to call it a six.
Inception awareness.
Other thing that I had been typing out to you.
That.
Like how did character?
100%.
But right now.
Yeah, right.
Now I did.
That's rough buddy.
Okay.
Chase.
I'm going to call it a six.
In the human mind patterns.
Like.
Right there.
I'm invisible.
But there's nobody.
That invisibility is so cheap to get because it's even cheaper to see
through.
Yes.
What system mastery?
We have a bunch of newbies who don't know that.
I accidentally saw you.
That's all.
Spider might not know mind magic.
Just a regular spooder.
It probably don't.
After attempt number two of.
Stand up and.
Attempt to continue walking to go fetch his longboard.
And a quick glance around.
And also ending up back down on one knee.
Kind of a drunken looking grin.
In the party's direction followed by a wave.
Jessica freaks out a little bit.
Wait, wait, wait.
Hold on.
We're still invisible.
I didn't think you could see us.
I don't think so.
I think I'm just going to go back to normal vision.
Hey, guys.
Hello.
How does anybody feel like taking a.
I don't feel great.
I got this thing.
In me.
I think it might kill me.
If it doesn't kill me and you happen to have something to do with that.
I think most people are like interested in food and medicine right now, and I do have a fair bit of that.
Not the.
Get this out of my back variety of met fucking probably that too.
But anyway.
And if you guys are with those like Rose people, just kill me, please.
Honestly, I give up.
God damn it.
Naomi is going to.
Hand J.R. off.
And she is going to step out of the invisibility.
Chase kind of.
Stairs for a moment.
I'm not the one who's going to be able to heal you, but you don't want to keep going that direction.
There's a giant spider over there.
You know, I was really, really hoping.
Not see an angel.
And she's face plants.
The fuck.
What the fuck.
To look back towards invisible party hands up.
Bodie is going to step out of the bubble.
We're really doing this.
No, I don't leave him.
If nothing else, he knows where the Rose people are, so he's a good source of information.
Who knows, he may have actually come from the same place they have Dane.
He might have.
So I guess let's put him back together.
How this is Bodie again.
Okay, how far are we from where we're going?
Naomi.
The answer to that is about two blocks north.
It's about two blocks away.
I.
Aletha, do you think you could at least stabilize him and we carry on?
Well, those who are talking of late is activating life vision.
Okay, go for it.
Roll them beans.
She does so.
Do not.
But they're pretty true at the same time.
Blame Ben.
Do not have to throw it out there once every few months just for the reaction.
You do not have to.
Once.
Which is like basically the same thing as having to one success for two to.
All well, I'm watching you with.
Always watching.
Yeah, exactly.
With your previous wits medicine check.
You can at least tell that.
I think he's not conscious anymore.
Didn't hit anything extremely important.
Like, yeah, he's leaking.
But if it had hit his renal artery,
he was a thousand percent going to bleed out before y'all did much about
it.
At this point.
Or is kidding.
Is he actively getting worse?
He's leaking and there's pouring.
You know, like, is he going to make it the two blocks without work or.
You're experienced enough to know the difference between arterial and venous
bleeding.
This is not arterial bleeding.
You theoretically shouldn't drag this guy two blocks,
but he's probably not going to die if you do.
If I'm helping carry him, will he make it just fine?
Probably cool.
Then Olathe is going to.
Probably reach into a bag.
Pull out some kind of plant that thing doesn't know,
but that would represent strength and use it to boost her strength of life
magic.
So life to effect.
Five five one.
Get styled on.
That is a success.
Yeah, that is a success.
Hold on.
You're doing life magic to make yourself stronger?
Yes.
Uh.
Arc of life would drop by one.
It sure wouldn't.
Because spark of life is explicitly for healing abilities.
Is it explicitly healing?
Yes.
So you just botched.
Great.
Cool.
Uh, take a paradox.
Uh huh.
Yep. Yep. Yep.
Wouldn't that just be a zero?
No.
Five six one?
Oh, there was a six in there?
Five five one.
Oh, sorry.
I didn't hear that.
I thought it was a six.
Nope, you're okay.
Okay.
Making sure that I didn't have it wrong.
Uh, no.
Yeah, that's botched.
That's single botched, but it's a botched.
Wait.
Is it a life three or would it be a life two since I've done it to myself?
Now it would be like three.
Yep.
That's what I was double checking before I passed, passed judgment.
Cool.
We just frequently were wrong on that one in the past.
Yeah.
So, um, it's not super bad, but you are hit by a strong wave of...
What?
Wave?
Strong wave of fatigue.
Uh, you really just want to go lie down.
You probably are not going to be useful in hauling this guy.
Nope, we're doing it again.
Fuck it, more magic.
Now he's thinking like a mage.
Okay.
Let's go.
It does increase in difficulty.
I was about to say, yeah.
Bullshit.
I'm throwing a willpower behind it.
All right, so diff six.
Oh wait, no, diff seven, but with one success.
Geez.
Yeah.
Seven, eight, two, and a willpower.
So three successes.
Okay.
Uh, you feel a little bit less like you need to go maybe nap nap time.
And do kind of feel a bit stronger.
Um, as if you can do most of the work of hauling this guy the next couple of blocks.
With Bode on the other side.
I would say that would give me at least strength four.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, this is going to pick him up.
Can someone grab his board thing?
And gesture for Naomi to lead on.
Naomi, I guess we'll go and pick up the sword thing and board.
The board thing.
Yeah.
The board thing.
She'll pick that up.
And Jessica, can you move back so that I can see you again?
She's just going to poke her head and only her head out of her bubble.
Can she poke her head out of her own bubble when she's the center?
She's controlling it.
She'll just wiggle it back a little bit.
Okay.
I had the same question, ten foot bubble.
Yeah.
She's just going to shift it a little bit behind her for a moment.
Return to bubble.
Okay.
Return to buble.
And then moving on.
Adding another cripple to your party.
Walking two blocks becomes a lot more of an ordeal than walking two blocks should be for just about anybody.
But more or less as the sun is setting, you arrive in front of the house.
And hold on.
Can I just do this?
Here we go.
I'll put it in art memes and vibes, I guess.
Hopefully this works.
Yeah.
That's what you see waiting for you.
There, two-story.
Got it.
Yep.
I love houses like that.
Is that Charby or Naomi?
That's me.
It's Charby.
Yeah, I thought so too.
Is it that Charby?
Yeah, it's a really huge house.
I'm a big fan of that house, not going to lie.
I love the skinny long houses.
Yep.
Add a character.
Stinger and I were talking a lot about them while walking through Chicago a couple weeks ago.
Getting to admire houses exactly like this.
It was great.
The one next door looks, I mean is, boarded up on the lower windows.
Does not appear to be in any use.
And the one to the right isn't boarded, but it also looks fairly unused.
This one, on the other hand, looks to be in perfect shape.
And then all of you, perception awareness about it.
If six.
Also, Davion, at what point do you want to start rolling for Paradox?
How many Paradox do you have right now?
Six.
Ew.
Oogie.
Would you like to roll for it now?
If so, I'm okay with that.
Bird, do you have that chart on hand?
Somebody has that chart on hand.
For what?
For Paradox.
What about it?
I swear I saw this chart in the last couple days.
How many?
Charby, you are muted.
Our conversation, Ben, that was with me.
That was with you.
Okay.
I knew.
Actually, that was the levels of quiet.
However, I do have the Paradox backlash right above that.
So I will post that in general.
You can save it wherever the hell you want.
Perfect.
Thank you.
So roll me six dice, if six.
Okay.
Six dice, if six.
I don't know that I like this.
What's it mean if I double botch?
Damn it, Stinger.
I think it's actually a good thing.
It is.
A botch on a Paradox roll clears your Paradox without actually having anything
that happen to you.
Oh my gosh.
What?
You just cleared all your Paradox and it doesn't hurt you.
You just feel better now.
How did you fail backwards into being better?
Of course.
He would be the one to do this.
He would be the one to fucking be the first one to do this.
All right.
Anyway.
Will Wheaton powers activate?
Back to the perception awarenesses that we're rolling about.
Five and two ones.
I'm looking at it and I'm going, hmm.
I've never rolled Paradox before.
I'm concerned.
And I was about to hurt him too.
All right.
I was about to hurt him too.
He said.
I knew he was about to hurt me.
I knew what he was going to do.
That's why when I double botched, I was like, oh shit.
Real bad or real good.
I've already been blind.
Let's do this one.
Yeah.
I think the only time I've done another paradox roll was with fucking fronds.
Yeah.
And that was I got told after the fact that if I got 15 successes or more,
Franz just died on the spot.
He was going to cease to exist.
Count yourself lucky.
Now we're just going to come out of that bar and there was just going to be a
set shaped gap in the fabric of the universe.
Seth.
Yes, it was going to be Seth just to make it more confusing.
That's a big gap in the fabric of the story is heart right now.
I was about to say.
All right.
Anyway, back to the plot.
Perception awareness from all you chuckle fucks.
Wait, awareness or alertness?
Awareness.
Explicitly awareness.
I'm sorry.
I think I just lost the.
I don't know if I rolled that before or not, so I'll roll it again, I guess.
Oh my God.
You said perception awareness?
Yes.
What did?
Six.
I botch.
Are you serious?
Seven four two two one one.
I botch.
All right.
The user walks straight towards the house, puts her hand on the doorknob as if to open the door and promptly gets yeeted down the stairs, landing on her butt and suffering one point of bashing damage.
Yeah.
User has been kicked from your channel.
Anybody else in the dice rolls chat?
Look, look, look, apparently just going to get my ones about it.
OK.
I gotta be ready for that next refill reflex catch of someone.
I'm going to get myself getting yeeted by a house.
Hey, I didn't get a role for that.
OK.
That might have made it.
Nope.
You, you, you, you made the profit of a botch, so now suffer the consequences of a botch.
The rest of you can clearly see that this house is to use the highly technical term, warded up the ass.
This is immediately obvious to all of you.
Of course, the two with the most successes don't have the magical training to know what I'm about to fucking tell them.
Hell no.
Welcome to botching as the DM.
Yeah.
Can I rely on Milo being something of a translator?
Yes.
Milo.
Walk kind of force himself off of your shoulder.
Walks past where Olathe is sitting on the floor and kind of snorts in where I'm going to nod and go, yeah, it's it's yeah, it follows and flicks his tail at a point near the door, which the tail kind of bounces off something he can't see.
He turns. He doesn't turn his head turns like an owl backwards and looks at Astoria.
This is border Hermes bullshit, right?
You're border Hermes bullshit, right?
Yeah, let me clear it.
No, no, no.
Bad. Don't clear it. We need it.
Just do some border Hermes bullshit so it knows that you're it.
Yeah.
Clear Ward bad. Ward keep safe. He's deliberately being an asshole at this point.
Just make it open.
Okay.
I'm going to open without breaking her order of Hermes.
Okay.
Give me wits.
Colt, I think.
Yes, it was a cult.
What if
six because you've been order of Hermes your entire life.
So I got a question.
Was that mind link telepathy said in a way that just Astoria could hear?
Astoria and.
Telepathy?
Yes.
From who?
From Milo.
Why do you think he always speaks in people's brains?
He doesn't speak out loud.
Okay.
Yeah.
Just Milo or just Astoria and Naomi could hear that.
Naomi will gripe at him. You don't have to be such an asshole about it.
Where just Naomi can hear he's going to mumble and she doesn't have to be so dumb about it either.
I'm grieving you fuck nugget.
How many successes?
Five.
Plenty.
Okay.
Astoria knows that there is a glyph pattern that she can sketch basically on the surface of the ward.
That will tell the house.
I am order of Hermes.
Please open the door and don't kill me.
I'm going to do that then.
Okay.
It takes a couple minutes.
But when it does, those of you who are aware of the wards, notice a character shift in them.
Basically saying, you know, speak friend and enter.
And Astoria where your hand is like trying to touch the door is actually able to touch the door.
And as your finger touches the door, the door knob turns of its own accord and swings inward.
Jessica moves to go inside and pull Astoria with her.
Well, get off the street guys.
Damn.
We need to search the house.
We will.
I suppose perception investigation from anybody that wants to go rummaging through the house.
Milo is specifically going to go rummage.
Hello.
I have a person that I'm currently helping carry.
We're sending people down though, right?
Yeah.
What did you say?
Six.
JR is deposited on a couch in the front room.
Bodhi is going to help you actually take Chase all the way to the kitchen and plop him on the island countertop right in the middle.
Good enough.
Jesse, you find a closet with what looks to be, well, it's familiar looking gear of the kind Vinnie would stash anywhere that he could fit it.
Food, bedding, a sword and survival nonsense.
Oh, yeah.
The rest of you find similar to the other safe house.
A lot of assorted clothing in various sizes.
And bedding for each room of the house, which also seems strangely larger on the inside.
There are enough beds for all of you.
With a couple of double beds here and there.
I want to make a note that after people are deposited and while everyone else is searching the house, Naomi is going to spend the time hauling each of the bikes into the entryway so that they are in the house itself.
Okay.
Latha's going to get to work healing Chase.
Okay.
Give me some Aratay life rolls then.
Aratay life, okay.
Let's see.
Okay.
His tense went.
To 710 1010 one.
So three suck to start with.
Okay.
Gotta be working on getting the bolt worked out and basically like healing it behind it as it works out. Okay.
So would you rather two separate rolls to be working down the head so that it's basically just a shaft.
So it would be more of a straight pull rather than having the entire head that would have to work its way back through.
I will give you.
Give me a flat wits.
Okay.
8 7 1.
Okay.
You have you have treated hunting accidents before where idiots have shot somebody's cow.
This is a modern looking crossbow bolt.
You could just use the broad head tips screw in to the shaft.
Bear but I still need to get it out of his body.
Yes.
But you could.
It's poking out the opposite end.
Okay.
I didn't I didn't realize that had come all the way through.
Yes.
That's when I described it earlier.
I said it was poking out of the front of his stomach or not stomach but lower abdomen.
Screw the broad head off and pull the blade the shaft back.
All right.
We will do that.
The first one.
Well that would be enough to have chase like alert again.
And it was three suck.
Yes.
Okay.
I believe we had established you had what two of lethal and some bashing.
Yes.
Okay.
I am going to say the two of lethal are gone minus and one of the bashing because that's what you're prioritizing is the lethal wounds.
The leading chase at whatever remainder of bashing we had decided on.
And he is able to wake up.
You're laying on a kitchen counter with a Native American woman looking down at you.
Stairs for a long moment followed by.
Of all the bets I had is not what I thought the afterlife looked like.
Good.
You might still win your bet someday.
Oh shit.
Wait am I alive.
To make things a little bit more confusing a ball of black fluid boils up the front of a Latha using her as a ladder and then sploots on top of you as if investigating before forming into a cat that is not a cat.
Before forming into a cat that turns its nose up as the board and hops down.
Attempts to pet cat.
He liquid wiggles his way away from your hand.
He's not impressed.
Fair enough.
If you've seen the comic of the person attempting to pet a cat and the cat just getting flatter and flatter that is Milo.
It's literally that not even for somebody who smells as nice as chase.
Right now he smells like almost died.
Milo is also an asshole.
I want to make this very clear.
He oh yeah he interacts with other humans when they're useful.
I'm mostly going to be saying that for all athas reference is chased smells nice.
Real nice.
And I'm more like not clean rain scent but like primal like this is a good person kind of smell.
All right.
Would I still have life vision up I'm assuming I would.
Yes.
Cool.
Is there something weird about his life pattern in that way.
Yes.
Cool.
He is a relatively biologically engineered human.
Another one.
Biologically not mechanically.
Yeah but there's one group that like would probably be the ones who would do this.
Erd you also forgot something.
Yeah.
We'll talk about it later.
If it's what I think you're thinking I forgot no.
Okay.
Yeah he is biologically modified somehow.
Possibly in a couple of some house.
But that's neither here nor there.
We have to kill him later we have to kill him later.
Harsh.
Look it's the apocalypse.
Coming from you and your last character bird.
Story.
Astoria.
Jessica is going to kind of guide you to a couch.
Try to get you to sit down.
And rest for a second.
You acquiesce to her attempt to get you to rest for a second.
I've already searched the house so I guess.
Or are you just going to bed because it is like seven thirty ish and it's been a day.
I think we have a discussion to be had with the party so.
Think you do.
Okay.
Chase what else are you going to do.
Now that you've woken up been spluted on and realize that this weird Native American woman probably just.
Saved your life.
Alisa told him to not move too much because she's still working so he is going to go back to not moving too much and let her continue working.
All right.
Alisa are you doing more life magic about it.
Roughly how battered is he still.
I believe two more points of bashing.
Yeah.
Two more bashing.
Three more.
Three more bashing.
All right.
Yeah.
That would be far enough.
Yeah.
She would probably continue trying to work on him.
Why though.
Please botch.
Two tens and a one so far.
A ten and a one.
Can you come here.
Are you fucking.
Not at the moment.
I believe you though.
Flipping coins.
And a nine.
Okay.
So I'm going to take a picture of that one.
So right now the Vodice tree bed I have 10 10 10 9 1 1.
So two successes.
That's ridiculous.
To be fair I heard those dice rolls.
He is not fucking with you.
All right.
Well with two successes that is enough to top off his bashing damage.
Cool.
Fit test.
Well honestly I guess I'm going to leave this to Elaine then of are you well and truly done
skis or do you want to push through for just a little bit longer.
How much is a little bit longer.
1030 at the latest.
Can we at least have a moment of chase intro.
Chase intro and let Astoria do.
Frankly we might even be able to get to the point where we can RP this coming week.
Okay.
I also need to remind everybody that I cannot do a session next Tuesday night.
So the plan is yes we're setting ourselves up for two weeks of text RP.
So don't fuck it up.
Okay.
Okay fine.
Yes we're keeping on with a keep on.
All right.
So Chase you are feeling pretty fucking good now.
You are no longer feeling the intense unpleasantness of blood loss.
Holy shit.
All right.
You are wonderful.
Is anyone here.
I'm Chase by the way.
Pleasure to meet you.
Is anyone here tweaked out by dogs.
No.
You hear a really distant hiss from somewhere in the house from farther away than should have been able to hear that.
Of course.
Well I love a live.
Fantastic.
I'm going to get my dog and then like any questions comments concerns whiskey that you would like.
I'm all yours.
Jessica jumps up.
Hold on.
I'm.
You're going where.
To get my dog.
It'll be two seconds.
I'm not leaving the house.
It's fine.
Okay.
And Chase gets up off the kitchen counter takes a key out of his pocket goes over to the bathroom and then closes the door sticks the key in the door opens the door again steps into what is decidedly not a bathroom.
Whistles.
And then comes back out with a rather large dog and shuts the door behind himself then opens it again revealing regular fucking bathroom again.
Key is promptly pocketed again.
Followed by Chase getting down on his knees which is not entirely necessary given the size of dog putting his arms around a said dog's neck and asking him in a decidedly adorable voice.
Who's a good boy.
It's you buddy.
It's you.
I told you I'd be back soon.
Extremely happy doggo.
This is Samson Samson for everyone's reference.
Did you come out the bathroom.
What.
Did you come out the bathroom.
Yes.
Okay.
He's just good.
From that this is Samson.
Yes.
No.
He opened the door to the bathroom stepped inside for a second whistled stepped back out closed the door opened the door again.
For a brief second there in the middle of him opening and closing the door several times at one point it was to a room that was decidedly not the bathroom.
But then it was back to the bathroom again and he had a dog.
And Samson.
Is an absolutely gigantic Tibetan Mastiff.
They grow be about 90 to 150 pounds and 30 inches tall at the shoulder.
He is.
Closer to 35 36 inches and probably about 200 pounds.
He's a big one.
And it currently appears to be head empty.
No thoughts.
Happy to see Chase again.
While petting and informing Samson that he is in fact the best boy.
Chase will turn to look over at Olathe and Jessica and say.
So.
Wait.
So.
Hi again.
You got Charmy there.
I needed to make sure my dog was okay.
But like sup.
Thank you again.
Do you like whiskey?
I think I could do with a little whiskey.
I will get you some of that in just a few minutes.
After I find a place for Samson to sleep.
Questions comments concerns etc.
You guys definitely aren't with the Rose people right like this isn't some fucked up elaborate trick to like.
Make me think I've got hope and then.
Like skin me or some shit.
Bodie.
Hypes up at that point.
His voice a little darker than Bodie usually is.
No.
We're not with them.
As he said no although I am very coming more and more curious and concerned as to what goes on with these people.
After a brief search chase.
The easiest way to get him something to sleep on would probably be some of the sleeping bags piled up in the closet.
Fantastic.
Because there is a bed for every human currently.
That's cool we're laying out like two or three sleeping bags.
Nesting with Samson.
Okay.
Eventually not immediately because there's like people and they're not even hostile.
Yeah.
So in the living room.
Jr is passed out on one couch.
Had not touched base with what Jesse is doing.
I was digging around and looking at stuff.
Yes.
On the other couch is.
Astoria and Jessica next to her still holding her hand.
And one empty spot on that couch.
And Bodie was in the kitchen with Aletha and chase.
I guess that leaves Naomi who I think was also searching the house.
No Naomi had been dragging bikes inside.
That's right.
Okay.
So after Naomi finishes stacking bikes in the foyer she would also be in close proximity to the living room.
Bodie.
Excuse me.
Is going to kind of lead the way kind of gesture to Aletha and chase after reaching down to screech doggo ears.
Will gesture towards the living room.
Think.
There's some conversations that need to be had.
Most likely.
And I would like to. Check on both Astoria and Jr as well.
Okay.
So that sets us in sets the scene for the living room.
Who wants to start this conversation.
I suppose before Aletha and Bodie and chase.
Come into the living room.
Naomi since she finished hauling bikes and is going to be looking at a story and said.
And say a story I think it wouldn't be a bad idea for us to word this house against spirits tonight too before we fully settle.
Yeah. Yeah, I think so too.
I still have she digs through her bag for a moment.
I still have some candles left from the mortadello house.
So I'm good for a while longer, but I am going to have to find more at some point or another.
I have some, but we're going to need more sooner than later. Right.
There is definitely a closet with candles in this house.
It is a her medic. I mean, yeah, it is a her medic safe house.
I'm sure we have some in here. We'll just have to look around a little bit more later.
On that case, if there are some already here, I'm going to keep the ones I've got in my bag.
I don't really mind the smell of cinnamon rolls later.
That's likely going to be the conversation going on when the other three enter.
Okay. Well, if that's when the other three enter, Chase is going to chime in with. I have candles.
Like a lot of them.
You do?
Yes. I have a lot of a lot of things. I did mean it. Oh, God. I said some stuff.
Anyway. Moving on. You sure did, buddy.
Look, it's an honest mistake. All right. It was weird, but we can get past it.
Great. So I have a lot of a lot of things and I did mean it when I said that I'm more than happy to share that with people who just saved my life.
So if you need candles, I will snag some candles when I go snag some whiskey or Laysa, I think.
So where is this stuff coming from? You're just...
Meat.
You have a dog. You get to get whiskey. It's just... You're pulling it out of your butt. Where is this stuff coming from?
Wow.
Normally.
Normally, I'd say something stupid like mind your business or trade secret or etc. etc.
But.
Since I only had the bag a little bit for you guys to save my life instead of just watch me die in the street, pretend you didn't see me.
I have a key.
The key to a handful of places where I have several handfuls of things.
Just needs to be stuck into a door.
And it can take me there.
Well, that's useful.
Sure is.
Does it take you only to specific spots or is it sort of a one size fits all option?
Five places that I have saved and places specifically that I have been before is a requirement.
That's a shame, but still useful.
You know, it'd be nice to be able to go anywhere in the country wherever I felt like it, but
not quite that lucky, I guess.
So candles, whiskey.
Before that.
Scritches ears.
Yes.
What would your name be?
Chase.
And yours?
Naomi.
He kind of.
Squints at her a little bit.
And then decides, like, fuck it if this doesn't work out and he burns too many bridges with
this party, he can just leave anyway, so why not, full send at all times.
And switches to Japanese.
Specifically, you look like you might speak Japanese.
That's probably racist, but do you speak Japanese?
Raised eyebrow Japanese back.
Yes, and clearly you do too.
Holy shit.
That's awesome.
Switching back to English anyway, so we don't leave out everyone else.
That's fair.
You.
Does everyone else want to introduce themselves?
My name is Olathe.
Chase points.
Still giving him slightly sussed out expression.
I'm Jessica.
All right.
Jessica, Jesse.
Full disclosure.
I am going to mix that up at least once or twice.
I'm sorry in advance.
I hope you can understand why.
JR, are you having as bad of a time as I was not very long ago?
I think you're having a worse time than I was not very long ago.
It's a pretty shitty time.
I'm not going to lie.
Brother went crazy.
Got magic or got magic and then went crazy.
I think he might have been possessed.
Did some weird shit to me.
It's about time.
Shit.
You sound like you could also get some whiskey, buddy.
You get a thumbs up without him looking up from the couch.
We have food.
There's a decent stock of survival food.
MRE style basically.
I will have questions about that then.
How good of the MREs do we get?
Do we get a pizza MRE?
It's a random assortment.
If we really want to get into the weeds on this, I can make you roll for entropy on what fucking MRE you open.
If it's not chili mac, you're wrong.
The sloppy joe one is pretty good.
Sloppy joe one is amazing.
The MREs still work though.
The heating element may or may not work, but you can also eat MREs cold or heat them up otherwise.
I will note that we are getting a strain.
In the weeds.
Given that you didn't freak out over earlier, Magic, you know it.
You have it.
He more than knows it.
Finger guns.
Wonderful.
It's not just because of the key you have, right?
Correct.
But Aletha, he more than knows it. Just say it. Whatever you're thinking, just say it.
That you've been a little altered?
Yes, I have.
Jessica Squint.
I am 94% human.
Last I checked.
Honestly, I haven't checked very often.
Well, that's still a bit more than a lot of people know.
Like my dog. If that makes anything feel better.
Didn't quite catch the beginning of that.
I got it in Tibet like my dog. If that makes anyone feel better.
Bodie pipes up from somewhere behind you.
Hey, yeah. Bodie.
Hi.
Tibet?
Yes.
Been there. Nice place.
Didn't really like the people.
I was mostly hanging out with some euthanatose guys who were raising poor Samson over here to fight hit marks.
And kind of disagreed on that one a little bit.
And now I'm not in Tibet, but I have Samson.
So you're a traditionalist then?
I am on a line. And happier that way.
You didn't seem like an Akashic.
No. They're like chiller than the euthanatoid, but...
You're an Akashic, aren't you?
He gives you a single nod.
Kind of leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed across his chest.
I'm just assuming because you're the first one to say Akashic.
I am. Or was. I don't know who is...
Well, you get it. He kind of uncrosses his arms and just gestures broadly in a the-entire-world-is-fucked gesture.
Yeah. Well, then you can't just call them and say, hey man, do I still have a job? I feel you.
Well...
The group you appear to have been with is also...
Seems to have been having a bit of problems.
Jessica perched up at this point.
Just said I'm on a line.
Yeah. So you said something about the Rose people.
They're the ones that shot you?
I think so. There were like a lot of people trying to shoot.
What did you do to piss them off? Not that it seems that hard. She shoots a glance at voting.
That'll do it. Yeah. In my defense, they're assholes.
That's putting it mildly.
Where were you that you got shot near here?
Do you remember that big hill that I crashed down?
Vividly. Doesn't sound that great when I say it that way.
That way? Like a couple of miles.
So not the immediate vicinity, but not far either.
Not as far as I would have liked to make it, but I would have liked to not get shot in the back of the crossbow.
Probably should have brought Samson with me after all, but I thought it was going to be a little more finesse than that.
Did they seem... I'm sorry, go ahead.
Ah, that was it. It is what it is.
Did they seem stationed there or were they traveling?
I have to message them now.
Naomi's trying to be logical and get information.
Thank you, Benji.
I was already typing that out.
They had a warehouse set up back that way.
It was guarded and boarded, and people were a little grumpy.
But they didn't catch me until I had taken a fair bit of food out of it with a key.
Naomi's going to dig through her bag for a moment and pull out the old map that she had started with and is going to indicate to Seth and grab... not Seth, goodness.
Chase and grab a pen. I'm sorry.
It's going to take us a little while.
Indicate to Chase with a pen roughly here, you'd say?
It's a warehouse... actually, really it's one of those big storage units being used as a warehouse.
Naomi's just going to be marking on her roughly where it was as a... hey, make sure to avoid this spot.
Yeah, a couple miles north of you, north and west a bit.
Yes, Chase will go ahead and mark that out and give the best rundown he can of, I went in this side, there were some guards here. I'm reasonably confident they will have changed that now that somebody has broken in and stolen a bunch of their shit, but this is what they were doing at the time just in case.
I had a rough list of the things that he saw inside of said warehouse, which is up to DM's discretion.
Mostly bulk food storage.
Bodie's going to chime up.
So you found one of their food warehouses.
Found anything else of theirs? Like where they might eat prisoners? Or do you just steal from people? No judgment.
I'm just kind of going to try to get a feel for your level of involvement here.
How did you know they had food to start with, I guess is my question.
Basic logic and I'm going to go with that one.
They are an organization that is claiming to, I'm not entirely sure, but they seem to be an organization that is taking over the area.
Step one to taking over an area is make sure you're the one with food.
Something soldiers fight on their stomachs, not with their guns.
So I figured they were probably going to be stockpiling food, and they were, much like I am.
And I figured they've probably got it somewhere. And that large buildings, specifically the sort that have large windows for appropriate climate control,
is probably a logical place to keep said food. So I started poking around.
I've tried to avoid talking to them where possible, given how my first run in with them went, which was quite negatively.
So I haven't been able to do a whole lot of interviews with them, and I haven't exactly been looking for strongholds in general, but it sounds like you are.
Well, it's part of the reason we're back in this shithole instead of somewhere safe.
Speaking of that, Bodhi, I had an idea that it's a stupid one, and I don't have any guarantee that I wouldn't get caught doing it.
But I might have a way of finding Dain if I'm given a lot of time and take it slow, I guess.
He thinks for a minute. What do you have in mind?
More specifically, what you have in your mind. I think that through you, I could find Dain's mind pattern and search for him that way.
But I'll have to take a lot of time covering my tracks to do so, because if they've got mages, then they're probably looking for people who can do such a thing.
He shakes his head.
I've already tried that. Wherever they're keeping him, it's warded.
It's a good idea, but I already tried.
Fair enough.
But if we can find the areas that are warded, it will narrow down the potential options, at least.
Now that is a thought.
They're going to be putting a lot more resources into hiding the places where they don't want their trapped mages to be found than they are going to food warehouses.
Good point.
I guess that would be our starting point then.
Jessica looks at Astoria for a second, gives her hand a tiny squeeze.
Alright. I guess I have to be the bad guy and say it.
Can we even still do this?
We lost Seth.
Astoria is spent.
JR is, not to put too fine a point on it, dead weight.
We just got you back up live, and I don't know that I really trust you yet.
Can we still do this?
Or do we need to consider our options?
If Cody spent all this time helping us, it would be pretty shitty to just abandon him now.
I know. I don't want to abandon him.
He did save my life. And Dane saved my life.
I just want us to think about whether this is even still something we can do.
If we all die trying to do this, that doesn't help Dane either.
Yeah? Just want all our options on the table.
Can we still do this?
We don't know. We didn't know if we could do it to begin with.
I think our best move right now is to start the search,
see if Chase here can give us any more info on these people,
and work our way from there.
Do a deep dive into my brain tonight and see if I can pull up anything useful.
In the meantime, let's consider the whiskey a gift,
and I'll help you guys with this Dane guy if I can.
Since you did save my life, then I owe you a real one,
not just here's some shit that doesn't mean much to me.
Hey, Astoria?
Yes?
Given that I was able to look at this house earlier when we were further away,
are we able to activate any latent wards to prevent it being found via correspondence?
There should already be some wards on it, but I can try and go through and see if we can turn the Aisle on.
That may not be a bad idea before we start trying to search for Dane.
Would you like another occult roll or whatever it was you had me roll earlier?
I'll go ahead and tell you that one of the things Astoria would know is that an Order of Hermes house
would not typically be warded to be invisible.
It would be more subtle than that.
It would be warded to prevent anyone from seeing what's going on inside.
If it's warded to not be findable under correspondence, then it's a blank spot on the map.
Blank spots on the map tell you that there's something there and no one wants you to see.
Right, and that kind of leads into what Naomi is trying to fish for.
So it is already warded so that if someone is looking at it with correspondence, they don't see what's going on inside
or changes that are happening. They see the house at a fixed state.
Well, I thought I just had a bad go with magic earlier, but that makes a lot of sense too.
Dane, when you were looking for Bodhi, you said it was warded. Did it seem like this place would?
Or were they more sloppy about it?
I guess it's probably something like this because I just couldn't get a trace of him.
There's a few different spots in the city that are warded.
I think that it's spreading, almost like they're steadily warding more and more.
But there's a lot of places downtown and along the waterfront that are warded out.
It could always be one of those, or just somewhere I haven't looked yet.
Your idea is sound to find where you can't see, but you still have to look first.
I haven't had a lot of time to look while trying not to die.
Well, ideally being here for now will give us that opportunity.
But personally, at least before I start helping to look for that, I want to see about us getting some food in us.
I also am hoping a story and I can work on making sure the house is warded against spirits,
because I'd rather not have our earlier friend come back again.
Okay. Go ahead and give me those Arate rolls.
But I do think we need to call it before we drag Jessie too much later into the night.
That's the thing, is I'm trying to leave it so that the Arate rolls can even happen in RP.
Yes, I'm sorry. I am attempting to help wrap up and we will roll this conversation straightforward into RP.
A story had said they wanted to do something.
You okay doing whatever it is in RP?
That's fine. Or do you want it to be verbal?
That's fine. I assumed you guys had questions, so I was preparing for that.
Yeah.
Lots of questions indeed.
Okay. And with that, I think we're done.
Go ahead.
No, I was saying never mind.
Okay. And we'll call it there. Thank you everybody for coming.
And looking forward to hopefully a lot of text RP in the next couple weeks, since we do have two weeks for our next game.
Hopefully we should be able to.