Welcome to Folio, an actual play podcast about
solo and epistolary TTRPGs. I'm your host, Seda,
and I'm showcasing multiple possible experiences
of self -paced games by inviting guests to play
them alongside me so I can compile our stories
together. You can support the show financially
at patreon .com slash foliopod or with a one
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This is episode two of our games of Far Sickness
Landing, a one -page map -making game about rediscovering
an ancient, derelict ship by lonely cryptid media.
The other explorers of crash sites and history
joining me today are Dora Rogers, whose work
you can find at dcity .itch .io and galpalgames
.itch .io, and Mark Major, whose work you can
find at major .com and major .itch .io. Last
week, we set the scene for our discoveries and
explored the first two rooms. Let's see what
other history from 10 ,000 years ago we can dig
up. Let's see another room. Room three. Area
three. Let me roll some d6s. I'm curious because
there's 13 rooms and there's only six entries
on each of these tables. So we're going to get
a lot of repeats, but the combinations are going
to be fun. The type is technical. This is technical.
Organic again. The modifier is scientific. Knowing.
Knowing. The item. Is a relic. Another weapon.
Communicator. And the vibe is uplifting. Dangerous.
And melancholy. Yeah, a little bit of the same
vibes. We're having a great time in this ancient
ship. There's nothing to worry about. And this
is on the, what left, the port side of the ship.
I think, hmm, I wonder. I wonder if this is,
maybe these are some of the cryo chambers that
did open up. I wonder how we got out. We'll find
out. Yeah, I'm curious what this is. Let me ask
some questions and find out what this might be.
What is missing, broken, or damaged? Yeah, I
like the idea that, you know, to go with a prompt
here, not everyone make it down. I think these
are damaged cryo chambers. I think there are
ancestors in them. And I think they, how many
are there? You know, there's a dozen or so in
this area. And I think it is. kind of damaged
as well. I think because we have a little bit
of power still, you know, there are red error
readouts, damage readouts that are active. And
there's a dozen of them that maybe they're not,
like they're not crushed or broken on the outside
or anything. But it's clear that the people in
there have been dead for quite some time. But
the nature of these stasis tubes has kind of
kept them in a, not pristine, but a preserved
condition. And kind of going through one by one,
doing the checks on each one, like running whatever
basic diagnostics there are available in the
limited power situation we have here. It's clear
that although they haven't decayed or desiccated
or anything, we do not have the capacity to bring
them back. And yeah, Melancholy fits there. What
piece of history have I discovered? I think that
the history discovered is exactly that, right?
Now we know for sure that there were others that
didn't make it. Maybe there was speculation or
rumors about that, or maybe myths or history
about maybe people who would return or who would
join us after a long time. But now it's pretty
clear that that is not the case. What other questions
do I have here? I mean, who are they? I think
they have names and ID numbers, but I don't know
who. they were as people or what they did what
might have happened if they did make it there's
just a lot to know maybe maybe i can find out
somewhere else on the ship but right now it's
just a lot of questions about who these people
were and who they might have been if they made
it out what is dangerous here and how will you
overcome it there's another weapon and there's
more organics Yeah, you know what this is? This
is sort of the agricultural area, right? So if
you push on through the garden, the sort of like
aesthetic, spiritual, but also agricultural location,
you come to this more densely packed, more industrial
hydroponics facility, which is where the most
practical crops were grown, where like a lot
of our food came from. I think I come in here.
And once again, I know what this is. I'm you
know, I'm I'm pretty sure that this must be this
is a hydroponic farm of some kind. And there
is another weapon here. And this is this is disturbing
to me because it suggests conflict, right? Like
two weapons and pretty close together. That does
kind of tell a story. And that's that's pretty
creepy to me. I think that this area is dangerous,
not because of the weapon, which is also lifeless.
But because of fauna, like modern fauna from
this planet, there is... Yeah, there's an animal.
Gosh, I need to come up with a cool animal. This
is what the fans like. I think it's a... I don't
want to get too bogged down with Earth categories.
Yeah, you know what? Screw it. It's like a lizard,
but a cat. I'm like, not Earth categories. Then
I'm like... It's a lizard, but a cat. So yeah,
it has scales. It has sort of like golden slitted
eyes. And I think it has this like very iridescent
silvery sheen, almost like fish scales. But it
is a live, long, very nimble animal, like a predator
with sharp teeth. And I think that this is like
meeting a coyote. I think it's somewhere between
a coyote and like a bobcat, right? It's something
that is, I as a wilderness person, like I'm very
familiar with it. I know that it is one of the
risks of operating in this, you know, out in
the wilderness by myself. And I think it's as
soon as I enter this area and then I see it,
right? I'm like, of course, because there's lots
of densely packed shelves here. that were the
hydroponic, like, where the actual plants were,
like, stacked up, right? And the, like, I know
that these animals like sort of tightly packed,
complex spaces, right? So this is a perfect den
for one of these creatures. And I see it, and
it sees me, and I'm kind of like, you know, I
know the wilderness, so I'm like, okay, I know
what to do. Like, I need to, uh, there, there
might be others in the area. So I need to watch
my back and I need to, um, I think that the,
the sort of like standard approach for these
is they won't really come after humans unless
something's wrong, you know, unless they're starving
or something. And, uh, but they're kind of territorial.
Um, not, not even extremely right. Like, I think
I still feel like I can explore the ship, but
I very carefully sort of stand to my full height.
to make it clear, like, I could fight you if
I wanted to, and I take steps back, and I don't
make eye contact with it, right? Like, I think
that I look down at the ground between us, and
it's doing, it's like, you know, it has eyes
on the side of its head, so it's sort of, like,
facing, like, directly away from me and watching
me with one eye, and I just back out of the room,
and that's how I overcome the danger of that
room. This room, I think, is, again, sort of
on the brim. It's bigger than the second room
we went into, but still smaller than the main
room. Technical and scientific. With a relic.
It isn't literally this, but I had the image
of a rotary dial phone just on a pedestal in
the middle of the room. It isn't that, but...
I want it to be something that explicitly ties
us to these robot creatures historically. Technical
room could be something like a lab. It could
be, you know, a repair bay. Could be a data bank.
Technical and scientific, yeah, that does lead
me to think it is a lab of some kind. And something
in here, the relic gets recognized by one of
the experts. There's like a shout of joy. What
is it? I wonder if we are a relatively like heavily
augmented type of society. Like if it's very
run of the mill to have like a brain chip that
you can look at the internet on or whatever.
Or I think actually what it is, is like communicate
with each other. It isn't like a hive mind, but
I think, okay, my brain is going a little A to
E as I'm trying to figure this out. So how, that's
okay. But how do I say it out loud? I think we
are human like aliens. Maybe we have some very
low key psychic abilities. We can talk to each
other silently. That is just something we can
do. And almost everyone chooses to have sort
of like an augment put probably in like their
skull, the back of their neck or something that
like amplifies that. So much of the vibe so far
is nice that I don't want it to be like, I want
it to very much be something you can choose.
I don't think that we're all going around reading
each other's minds all the time or anything.
Maybe that's actually even one of the things
that the augment does is that like it gives you
more control over it. If you don't have this
thing, if you're really upset, you might accidentally
project your thoughts or read someone's mind.
And this just gives you a little more control
over it in a lot of ways. So you can talk to
people who are further away and you can keep
your thoughts more private. It is just like a
sort of like natural ability that we have that
we tend to uh choose to lean into with with technology
and the thing we find in here is the earliest
prototypes of those chips that we use there is
like this this shout of joy and intrigue from
somebody who sort of rushes forward then catches
themselves to not touch anything like literally
like looks like they ran into a wall but did
like just themselves runs forward hands up doesn't
touch anything catches themselves freezes but
is really excited visibly like bouncing a little
bit on on the balls of their feet and they say
that like a huge area of their study is like
how did we communicate before we had this technology
or like how did that affect us i think that probably
as a culture like we used to be a lot more separated.
We had a tendency to be in like very small groups
and live very far away from each other and often
very isolated historically, because it's just
too much. It's too overwhelming when you have
psychic powers that you can't control. It's too
much to be around a lot of other people. And
I think that that caused a heartache. You know,
it was it was very isolating and not not in a
way that was like satisfying and fulfilling.
And probably we had this technology. I mean,
what we're learning now is we had the technology
all the time, but it was probably dangerous.
or more dangerous to install. It's like it often
just, you know, advances in technology and in
medical technology. It is now so routine that
you can fucking get it done at Claire's, basically.
You know, you just pop into the mall when you
turn 17. And you're like, well, I bet some kids
have younger, but I want them to be able to choose.
Whatever. I don't have to get into the full ethical
implications of this in this very moment. It's
okay. It's okay. I'm allowed. But it's so low
key. It's an outpatient procedure. If you ever
need to get fixed, there's a little, there's
a place at the mall you can go and they'll just
be like, okay, yeah, sure. No problem. It'll
take like 45 minutes, but only because I have
to like charge up a battery, you know? It's so
routine. It didn't used to be. It used to be
much scarier. And so it was much harder to access.
And this person studies like the evolution of
our society as that technology advanced. And
so they are able to recognize a very primitive
form of it. Maybe they're like, we have records
of people talking about things that look like
this, but we've never seen them. We've seen corpses.
We've seen the remains of people that... looked
like they probably had one of these installed,
but they were so difficult to make and so precious
that they were reused. Like, when somebody died,
it was taken out and given to somebody else,
which had its own set of problems. But it meant
that, like, we have never been able to actually
see a full one, and it looks like that's what
this is. Yeah, okay. So, to sum that up, here's
what we've learned in this room. When I say we,
I mean both like diegetically as characters and
what we have learned as I'm figuring out what
this story is as I go. We are human -like, but
we have some type of innate psychic ability.
It can be difficult to control. And so we often
historically lived apart from each other and
very isolated because it was just a little too
overwhelming. However, advances in technology
have made a little augment that you put in the
back of your neck really accessible. Everyone
gets one. It's chill. This makes it much easier
to stop yourself from projecting your thoughts
into other people's minds when you don't want
to. And it makes it easier to like talk to people
longer distance. Like it just sort of gives you
better control over the power all around. And
what we have just discovered is that... The earliest
known version of that technology was developed
in this room. I don't think that we know for
sure that this is a spaceship yet. It might just
be a weird underground metal bunker. We'll have
to discover that at some point. But we know that
this weird metal underground bunker is here,
and evidently this technology was first developed
here. And that's exciting. it's a missing it
it could mean that like there's huge missing
pieces of that history and puzzle of like how
did it because we don't really know like who
made it where did it come from there's so much
that's been lost in that time and maybe maybe
this means we'll be able to find out more of
it and that to a group of history dorks of various
expertises oh you fucking know that's a party
Just glancing at the list of questions, I think
what I have answered here is what piece of history
have you discovered? Maybe also what connections
are you making? Yeah, hell yeah. And I think
like our job here, we're going around and we
are doing a like cataloging right now. We cannot
dig deeper into a bunch of this. Because there's
just too much and we need to call in more experts,
etc. So we're going to have to step out of this
room. Maybe we'll leave the most excited person
here to study. But as a team, we're going to
have to move on to the next room. Go see room
four. I'm a really big fan of the first season
of Limetown. And so I think you could probably
hear me trying to make sure I wasn't just inventing
a chip that gives you psychic powers. Because
that didn't go well. in that show it's a really
really good show all right room four the type
is destroyed labyrinthian okay the modifier is
powerful occupied the item is a communicator
seed is the item huh and the vibe is dangerous
great great great great great And an unsettling
vibe. Okay. So. I know exactly what this is going
to be. I know exactly what this is. Great. So
this is the area directly starboard. I think
because it's kind of symmetrical, maybe it is
another. Well, what do we get for organic? Yeah.
So this is another. little area. The ship is
big, so these aren't right next to each other.
It takes a little bit of walking and exploration
to find these. But kind of making zigzag way
down the ship on the starboard side here, this
is kind of the greenhouse garden type area. And
I think because there's still water trickling
in from the cave -in area and the minimal power
here has kind of kept some of the lights dimly
going. We don't have a full hydroponic system
that's being tended by people or robots or anything.
But I think there are still things that have
made it here adapted to low light, cold, damp
conditions, whatever. There's definitely overgrown,
but kind of living in an ecology with the cave
critters in the first area there. And yeah, I
think we, again, I think we have readouts here.
Well, you know what? No, I don't think there
are. I think there are, but they are broken.
And so it's unclear what these plants were originally
because it's been some time. It is unsettling.
However, I think we must have brought some agriculture,
horticultural material out when we first settled
millennia ago. And I think the unsettling part
here is, you know, these plants weren't cultivated
by anyone after the crash or whatever. These
were left to their own devices. And I imagine
that means that they are entirely unlike anything
that we have above ground. So let me ask some
questions and see if I can learn some more about
these plants. What do my senses tell me about
this? You know, it is dim. It is damp. It's probably
relatively cold. But I think there's a breeze
coming from somewhere. And I'm not sure if it
is from the excavation, the opening we made.
The other thing I hear is there is something
moving when I'm not looking. And it is unsettling
because I think it might be some of the plants
that have... They have some mobility, so I need
to keep my eye on things. One, two, three, four,
five, six. What piece of history have I discovered?
I've discovered the, you know, initial seed stock
or plant stock of everything that we've built
here. All the non -native plants, but the familiar
plants to us, this is where they came from. Kind
of like a, you know, brassicas turned into broccoli.
cauliflower and a hundred different plants. This
is like the rootstock of all the familiar things.
And again, this is a fantastic opportunity. Every
branch of research is going to get a piece of
this. Botanists and sort of archaeological biologists
are going to have a field day with this. And
what is dangerous here? Yeah, what's dangerous
here is I think that some of the plants are alive
and mobile. Curious. And I'm going to overcome
it, you know, not by doing anything to them,
but definitely keeping an eye on, like not turning
my back on anything that might look like it.
Might be hungry or curious in some way. Occupied
is really interesting. Okay, so Labyrinthian.
So I've been in the hydroponics, which I drew
on the starboard side, the starboard aft side
of the ship. If I cross the starboard corridor,
I will come to the main storage space. So I described
this as just being a very large room. And that's
all I said about it. And Labyrinthian is perfect
because I think that this is a once you get inside,
it is just a it's a maze. It's all of these shelves.
And I think that if it was just sort of tall
shelves. That would be not Labyrinthian. That
would just be a bunch of narrow passages, but
they'd be very straight and orderly. So I think
that this layout was designed in some crazy way,
some Tetris situation, to maximize how much could
fit in here. Because it had to support a number
of people, like half a dozen people for 10 years.
they really tried to make the most use of space
possible. So it is, yeah, it's just fucking wild,
right? I think that the feeling is a little bit...
This is not a place of honor, right? One of the
designs for how you would build to keep people
away from a place where there is nuclear waste
for 10 ,000 years, right? Like after they lose
all knowledge of our language and any languages
that descend from it. There's this concept that...
you build this very sort of forbidding landscape.
And the ones I'm seeing as I do a Google search
are sort of like this very spiky architecture.
But what I'm thinking of is actually the idea
that you would build these very forbidding monoliths
with very narrow passages between them so that
it's just unpleasant to walk through. It just
feels ominous and weird. So anyway, that's the
image I'm going for, right? It just has this
sense of just, like, I feel uncomfortable even
being here. Like, these shelves are, like, towering
over me in every direction, and it's not fun.
And it's also occupied. Right? I mean, the easy
thing here is that... It's occupied by another
one of the same creatures as what I already found.
And I think I'm going to just go with that because
I don't think that there's a person living here
unless... No. Nope. I've got it. It is occupied
by... It is occupied... It's occupied by ghosts.
It's occupied by holograms. I think that... What
are these? They're instructional holograms to
help you find what you're looking for. So I sort
of like walk in. And again, this is one of the
subsystems that still improbably has power. And
a like hologram of a very helpful woman pops
to life and starts speaking to me in, you know,
in the language that we were speaking 10 ,000
years ago. And she wants to know what it is that
I want to find. And I just sort of like yelp.
And she says like, I'm sorry, I didn't understand.
And I'm pretty freaked out by this. So this is
a slow process. I give her a wide distance, but
eventually I retrieve my computer. I mean, I
know what a hologram is, right? Because my system
uses holograms. I retrieve my computer and I'm
able to get it to translate back and forth between
me and this digital assistant, right? And I think
that... okay so i i was i had to go out and get
cat food and as i was walking i was thinking
like wow i'm introducing the idea that they intentionally
left some technologies behind gosh they ditched
llms in a hurry didn't they and i i think that
uh this is this is not necessarily an llm whatever
but i think that this is a moment that for this
character is this is it's dangerous. It's tempting
because, um, you know, we have these cool holographic
interfaces and cool computers, but we don't have
computers that talk to us like people. And once
she figures out what this is, she's like pretty,
like that seems really magical to her, right?
Like she doesn't have all the baggage that we
do around, around what that means. She's just
like, Oh my gosh, it's like, it's a person and
she she gets that it's not right i think that
she does quickly figure out that it's not really
a person um i think she she asks it and it is
better and more helpful than an llm would be
if you asked it a question like that right like
god okay i don't need to dive in on llms but
um she's she's like oh okay this would be cool
to take back like that the nuclear stuff they
were talking about before or like the car engines
we don't really need that stuff we figured out
ways around it but um this is pretty cool I would
love to show this to to uh to some of my friends
and uh and you know like it would it would just
be pretty amazing and what else is there anything
else I want to address from my what I what I
rolled um oh seed Yeah. Okay, let me look at
my questions and think about Seed. So I'm going
to focus in on this question, what connections
are you making? Because I think that she realizes
that this technology has to have been left behind,
right? This ability for a computer to talk to
you like a person. And that puzzles her because
it seems so cool and just beneficial. Like, what
could be wrong with that? So she... It just makes
her pensive, right? And the seed that is planted
here is metaphorical, right? The seed is, this
is sort of cluing her in that the decision that
her ancestors made is stranger than she initially
understood and maybe harder for her to understand
than she realized. This isn't in the brim. I'm
not continuing to explore the brim in this moment.
This is a room under the first room that we went
into. Another hatch in the floor opened where
they discovered another hatch in the floor. We
went down into it. It's much smaller. I'm interpreting
powerful as like the thing that provides power.
This is an engine room. This is the room that
shows us we're on a ship, most likely. We're
not just in, this isn't just a bunker that was
built down here. Or if it is a bunker, it was
a bunker that was built to move. There's an engine.
There's an engine down here. And the item is
communicator. And I think the thing I want to
take from that is that, like, this is not the
only engine. separately. And I think a lot of
this isn't obvious to the characters right now,
but I think that what I'm learning about the
story is that there are a series of engines and
batteries and things that all had to be activated
at the same time. And maybe they're too reactive
to be in the same room, so they had to be separate,
but there is a communicator built into the walls
that is like... Yeah, if you're down here, you're
going to have to be talking to people, not just
like the people on the bridge, but you're going
to have to be talking to the people who are operating
the other engines so that you can all like spin
them up at the same time and coordinate. And
I think probably spin them down at the same time
if something goes wrong, which like a lot of
that is already building off of the dangerous
vibe. But like. They're super unstable. Like
that's why they're separated and that's why this
is dangerous. And it's also destroyed, right?
That was the room type that I got. And so it's
like, I'm trying to decide if it's evidence of
a crash or if it's the thing that caused the
crash. Like is this, or was there a crash at
all? Maybe it's just a normal decay. I wonder
if the ship was meant to hover and then lost
hovering ability and crashed. I wonder if somebody
was trying to escape and, like, didn't have enough
support. Hmm. Looking at the question, what is
missing, broken, or damaged? I think, ooh, possibly
also the question, what connections are you making?
I think this hatch is very close to where the
plant was growing, and maybe this engine is directly
underneath it. And just a... possibly like natural
decay I do think that it like this it probably
was damaged in an incident but then also just
then you know time things started to fall apart
a little bit and I think we back out of the room
very quickly we're taking a look and then the
I don't know if it's literally a Geiger counter
but the equivalent of a Geiger counter something
that is measuring some sort of radiation just
starts beeping like like mad going going really
really intensely and so we back out but this
makes the this this develops the the theory the
hypothesis that the plant that is growing here
is actually feeding off of that radiation maybe
they used to be able to grow these plants when
they were traveling more because like oh man
maybe they're like whoo oh i got excited you
know how You know how it's bad that we're destroying
the rainforests? For several reasons. But one
of the reasons is that trees are carbon capturing.
And so it escalates climate change by meaning
that our rampant emissions have even less of
a thing, of a buffer, of a thing to absorb them.
I think that's what these plants do that for
this radiation. These engines are super dangerous
and reactive. And one of the things that can
mitigate them is these plants absorbing that
energy. I don't know if that's what the seed
that they create is or like, like, I don't know
if it's they're like storing up all the energy
and putting it in the seed to like be disposed
of or if it's kind of like pearl in an oyster
situation where it just like creates like the
grit. uh of the radiation sort of like build
something or if it's just totally unrelated these
plants just happen to like absorb it and and
grow really well off of it these are all options
these are all options but what we know what seems
to be the case is that this plant is alive because
the engine underneath it is leaking very dangerous
radiation Which I think we can kind of test by
being like, you know, we come up and close the
hatch and there's a little bit of a flurry of
like, we know how this radiation works. We're
all fucked. Like, why didn't those sensors go
off earlier? It's probably all over this room.
And we double check the sensors and we run tests
and it just, it isn't. And then we put the sensors
close to the plant and... There's a little bit
of it. And then I think it's the type of thing
where we put it right up next to the seed and
it starts to really go off in earnest. But it's
not dispersed. It's not in the air. We have to
actually like touch it to the seed. It is making
it into a solid, which is so much less dangerous.
Still dangerous, but so much less dangerous because
it can be dealt with. It can be contained. Yeah.
Yeah. Do I feel like I... pulled in the item
the communicator well enough to feel like i've
dealt with that yeah i think that helped establish
the sort of like multiple engines thing which
which led into like or sort of amplified the
extra danger of them yeah so i think i addressed
all of my all of my table things there and i'm
very excited about the direction this is going
cool cool cool cool that is Room four. So let's
see. I've done one, two, three, four rooms. Take
a couple notes. Go to room five. Let's go. So
I'm going to zigzag back down to the other side
of the ship again. Leave whatever is here to
its own devices to five. This is one of the parts
that I kind of like busted out. So maybe this
is kind of large. The part next to this is more
collapsed, but this part is definitely like broken.
So room five. Let me roll some dice and get a
few prompts here. The type is technical. Technical.
Labyrinthian. The modifier is knowing. Spiritual.
Spiritual. The item is a seed. A relic. Great.
There are weapons here. And the vibe is mysterious.
And mysterious. And it is uplifting. Ooh, interesting.
Awesome. That's great. Okay, so she's explored.
the starboard side of the ship and she comes
out and I think the room that she's going to
go to that is technical and kind of spiritual
and mysterious is the cockpit. So she goes forward
to the bow of the ship. She walks past the stairs
that are overgrown with vines. She wants to check
that out later. And she goes into the cockpit.
There's a window here, right? So you can actually
see out as well as a pilot seat and a co -pilot
seat and a navigator station. It's a lot like
the cabin, the crew cabin of a modern plane.
And they have some, they have equivalent technology,
right? Like they can travel back and forth easily,
like between settlements, even that are, I've
established that some settlements are very far
apart. even though a lot of the planet isn't
explored. So they have whatever, they have some
version of this. She recognizes what this is.
And I think the mysterious element is just that
there's so much here, right? Like she is looking
at these instrument panels, these controls, and
they are baffling. there is so much complexity.
There's so many screens. I think that the thing
that freaks her out a little bit is that she
gets what this must be, but there's not like
a flight stick, you know, like there's not a,
like a yoke you could pull up on or pull down
on or that you, there's something that she understands
as like the way that you would manipulate an
object's movement through space. Right. And it's
because, I mean, whatever they're using. They're
using very advanced technology that is not relying
on jet engines or rockets or anything like that.
So they just have other ways to control it. And
probably they have to sort of calculate any movement
that they make way in advance. So anyway, they
don't have a manual control like that. But she
still knows what must have gone on here. And
she just finds that, like, how did it work? How
could it possibly have worked? And it's spiritual
because it's... She's an explorer, right? And
I think that this is a moment where she feels
a more personal commonality with them. Before,
in the garden where she had this strong sense
of like, oh, these were human beings, it still
wasn't personal. Now it's like, these were human
beings and actually they were like me. They were
people like me who did this sort of crazy, dangerous
thing, who stepped outside of what they knew.
And she's kind of like, God, I would give anything
to be flying through the stars in a ship like
this, seated exactly here. This is where I would
want to be. Yeah, that's kind of spiritual. Yeah.
What is the relic? I don't think it just is this
place. I want it to be something. I kind of like
the idea that it's something she can bring with
her because she does feel this very personal
thrill at this place. I think I'm going to be
corny. there are um gosh what is it there's a
pair of of pilot wings and um they are they're
gold so they haven't they haven't rusted um they
haven't they haven't tarnished and this is this
is part of somebody's flight uniform right it's
something that that they wore i think that what
happened here and she has no way of knowing this
is i think that there was we'll find out more
But there was disagreement about what they did.
And that might be why these weapons are around,
right? Maybe there was actually fighting. There
was disagreement about leaving the technology
behind that they left behind. And I think somebody
tore off their wings here. They tore off part
of their uniform in a moment of anger, in a moment
of protest. And she doesn't know this, of course.
But she finds these gold wings. I mean, they're
grimy. You know, it's not like it's this like
brilliant, shining piece of gold, but they're
intact. And I think she even she's like, what
is this? She doesn't know about birds. There's
no birds. She's like, it kind of looks like a
weird insect. Oh, I love I love that. I love
that I established there were no birds. I think
that she feels on some level, even though she
doesn't know about birds, she's like, this has
to do with flight, right? I think this has to
do with flying. This was a place where people
flew. And she takes it. She pockets it. She sort
of like wipes it and is like, whoa, it's like
shiny. They must have gold here. Yeah, gold's
like just like an element. But I think they have
a different relationship to gold, right? Like
it's not something that they... it's more something
that is valuable because it's practical. Like
gold is good for certain things, you know, like
in terms of electronics or manufacturing or whatever.
So they still value it, but it just didn't get
cemented as like, this is one of the precious
things that we all seek for. So she's just kind
of like, oh, it's very pretty. Maybe it's like
gold or like iridium or one of those weird metals
that I like, I vaguely know doesn't tarnish.
That's cool. And she takes it. So I think, you
know, since this, I said this is broken off,
I imagine there are, yeah, I, you know, we didn't
all sleep on the ship, right? I like the idea
of a generation ship or something where the sleeping
is kind of in shifts. So, you know, 90 % of the
people are down and 10 % of the people are up
kind of doing maintenance and kind of being people
for a little while. So they don't, sleeping too
long is not good for you. So I think these are
the staterooms or dormitories kind of. And, you
know, because spaceships can be, you know, they
don't need to be rocket shaped, you know, right
when they're in space. I think this was kind
of like a series of kind of like tubes almost
like a lattice. So there was kind of the illusion
of primacy. So it's kind of like a privacy, kind
of like an apartment building, only without the
building around it, just kind of like the hallways
and rooms. pods or whatever they are. But since
this is all broken up, these were all kind of
broken and tangled into each other. And so it
is kind of maze -like picking our way through
these hallways that are, you know, even if we
did know what they looked like when they were
put together, they are not like that now. Spiritual.
How is it spiritual? Spiritual weapons and uplifting.
Did I narrate myself into a corner here? Let's
ask some questions first and see if I can get
myself out of this. What connections am I making?
Yeah, so I think if this is Living Quarters,
we have a variety of kinds of people. And yeah,
I think maybe that's where that comes from. We
brought culture with us. And so I don't imagine
we were a monolithic people society when we came
here. And so as we go through the hallways and
start looking through the different rooms, we
see a variety of different religious or spiritual
practices. Maybe the seed society, you know,
when we left, maybe that was a very strong part.
Maybe that's why we reach out for the stars.
Even though it wasn't homogenous, there were
a bunch of different... spiritual or religious
beliefs, lifestyles. And so I think we're seeing
a lot of different ones represented there. Again,
that may have been lost, certainly lost after
10 ,000 years. And so maybe that is uplifting,
seeing where, again, the roots of our current
society, you know, our philosophies and sort
of societal systems came from. The weapon. I
mean, maybe why? Maybe that's why this part is
so messed up. Yeah, I mean, being a colony ship
or a sleeper ship or a generation ship, you know,
this wasn't a... This isn't a starfighter. This
isn't a battlecruiser or anything. I don't think
there would be any weapons on the ship, you know,
to fight other ships. I don't... I feel like
it's that kind of mission. It feels like it's
a straight shot to where we're going. But there
would have to be some sort of... Oh, dang, yeah.
Maybe if it is a terraforming ship, maybe it's
got a little Genesis action on there and it's
not like an offensive weapon or something. Maybe
it's some of the terraforming equipment that
is dropping on the planet. to make a dramatic
entrance, you know, drop some process or some
machines that fix the atmosphere or change the
atmosphere to what we're liking or do some sort
of biological chemical process there. And maybe...
storing it near the heavy units isn't the best
idea, but you got to do what you got to do, I
guess, on a spaceship. And maybe that's why this
is all messed up. Maybe some sort of terraforming
system went awry on landing with dramatic effects
here. Yeah, and maybe that's another connection
I'm making here, is that maybe this ship didn't
just land peacefully and go about its business.
Maybe there was a problem. And that's why everyone
didn't make it off. What do my senses tell me?
I feel like, you know, there's the sense of getting
lost in it, even though probably a methodical
in exploring, cataloging, making sure we have
everything mapped out and cataloged. I think
there is a desire to sort of wander a bit and
get lost. And I think, you know, there's a...
kind of pleasant feeling of just kind of like
letting yourself go here and sort of stumbling
through all these different people's old lives.
Again, what other questions do I have here? I
feel like if these are quarters, there would
be a lot of personal effects. And again, I think
it's the same kind of questions with the cryotubes,
like who, these are people that probably did
make it off. Probably most of us did. And I'm
kind of wondering like, Are there diaries or
logs or journals or artworks or personal effects
that were left behind? Like, what other things
can we learn by examining what was left behind?
Even though the people here left, maybe they
didn't take everything with them. So I think
the other questions are, what can I find here?
What could I find that would take some time to
uncover? But yeah, wandering along. Having knowing
and mysterious is fascinating. Technical, it
probably is another lab. The seed is in here.
It is a lab. It's a perfect mirror of the third
room, the chip lab. And the way that I want to
make knowing and mysterious work together is
that there are a bunch of formulas and like notes
from experiments, very detailed, that are around.
And I think that we can't understand all of them.
Language evolves. 10 ,000 years is a crazy timeline,
as I keep saying. But there's some basic stuff.
You know, our numbers are the same as they have
been. There are words that are similar, even
if language has evolved quite a bit. So we can
see all of these formulas and these notes for
experiments, but we don't know what the point
of them was. I think they're incomplete, and
the thing I'm not sure of, like, the notes are
incomplete. The thing I'm not sure of is whether
that's on purpose or circumstantial. Like, are
they, did somebody remove the note that was like,
here's what the experiment I'm doing is for,
and here's my conclusion? Or is it just a notebook
where the person was writing notes to themself
and didn't feel the need to explain for future
historians? Here's what the experiments were
because they're like, I'm going to publish. I'm
going to use these to publish a paper and then
you'll just reference the paper. I'm leaning
towards the idea that it's circumstance. It's
just the notes to self that are not meant to
be complete. But leaving open the question of
like, well, but did we can't find notes on the
experiment? We can't find that information written
down. It must have been written down somewhere
if they were writing this stuff down. Most likely
we can't find it. Was it removed on purpose?
That stuff we're not sure of. Whatever it was,
whatever the experiments were that they were
running, they were running on one of these seeds.
I think we know that from diagrams. They've drawn
the seed and they've drawn maybe dissections
of it. There's maybe a dried preserved seed in
a still sealed jar. Someone was looking into
these. I was thinking of starting to lean towards
the idea that these robots run off of a product
of these seeds that this is this is the oil that
is their lifeblood essentially is like a a processed
version of these seeds i think i do like that
idea i'm trying to decide if we learn that here
or if we don't know what these experiments are
oh oh oh okay yeah so we see some diagrams of
that are like the the robots interacting with
the seeds um that make it clear like yes they
feed on these um they feed on the seeds this
is this is what they run on and you know i i
wonder if part of the mystery here is is not
so much even what are the experiments there is
that there's what are the experiments but i think
it's also The idea that there was a very specific
mystery here, beyond the mystery of just science,
you know, of having enough hypothesis and proving
or disproving it. This, I think, is our first
evidence of... Until this point, like, we've
only seen stuff that the robots were probably
doing. Like, they could have been developing
those chips, right? And I think they did. But
I think what this shows us is that we were...
here too humans or our equivalent of humans were
traveling with these robots and moreover like
it begins to lend evidence to the idea that those
humans didn't really know what the robots deals
were entirely either the humans didn't create
the robots the robots don't seem to have created
the humans which i think does torpedo a little
bit of our our conspiracy theorist party member
who I think is doing a little bit of a humans
were created by aliens as pets. And then we were
just let loose. We escaped the zoo and that's
who we are. That's what humans are. That doesn't
seem to be the case here. It seems like humans,
which I'm going to keep saying humans, even if
I've humans with psychic abilities, probably
not strictly humans, just easiest to say. Our
ancestor humans and these robots were allies.
Neither of them was responsible for the other
strictly. Neither created the other. And our
ancestors were kind of trying to figure out their
deal as well. I like the idea that it's mutual.
I don't think that we find evidence of that here,
but that's probably what I'm angling towards
is that both the humans and the robots were like,
huh, figure you out because I don't really get
it. Yeah. Yeah. So in this lab, they were doing
experiments on these seeds to try and figure
out, I think, like, I mean, we don't exactly
know because the notes are incomplete, but it
seems like they were trying to be like, how do
you run off of this? Did you evolve together?
Did you create this? Did someone create you?
Where did you come from? What's the deal? Maybe
if we figure out how the food source works, we'll
know more about you. I think, is the experiment
vibe. And we have no idea if they got anywhere
with that because the notes are incomplete. Yeah.
Yeah. All right. I think that's good. Let's go
to room six. This has been Folio, an actual play
podcast about solo and epistolary TTRPGs. You
can find transcripts, games, statistics, and
more at foliopod .site. You can help pay for
hosting costs, game purchases, and maybe eventually
a bit of my production labor at patreon .com
slash foliopod or ko -fi .com slash foliopod.
You can find Dora on Blue Sky at Queen Regnant.
She has games at dcity .itch .io and games she
makes with her wife at galpalgames .itch .io.
Make sure you go follow Hocus Pocus Hyper Focus
on Kickstarter so you don't miss when it launches
on October 6th. You can find Mark at major .com.
You can find their games at major .itch .io.
You can find Seda, that's me, on BlueSky, app
of sedachips .gaygothvibes .online, and my work
generally at gaygothvibes .online. Next week,
Dora and Mark and I will continue our games of
Farsickness Landing by Lonely Cryptid Media.
Everything I mentioned here is linked in the
show notes. Thanks so much for listening, and
take care out there.