The show you're about to listen to was originally a live streamed actual play on
twitch dot tv slash On made Gaming. Arise, millions and welcome to this
unmade gaming production. Join us on our adventures as we take a jump to
the left, a step to the right, and time work all around the
multiverse to find out exactly how to save the town of Garrett. In this
original Tale from the Loop actual play, Atari Twilight rollout, So without further
ado, my Friends. Atari Twilight is a story about the eighties, played
using Free League's Tales from the Loop system. It is a story about a
group of kids tasked with saving the world, and tire standing against them.
A collection villains from the far corners of movies, TV, comic books,
and novels. The battleground their hometown of Garrett, Maryland, a sleepy mountain
town utterly unremarkable save for the ominous edition of the Loop, a particle accelerator
whose reckless science has breached the veil between Garrett and its limitless parallel dimensions.
The veil protected Garrett from the forces of evil for an age, but now
it has fallen dropped by the very defenders of the Maryland Mountain, Maryland Town.
Why the enemy had already found a way in. The veil had to
be dropped and the door opened if their allies were to have any chance of
joining in the fray. But to win, they must be united, and
they must be whole. Then Mackenzie, their friend lies lost in the rows
of mirror universes. Together they must find a way to bring him home.
The date Sunday, December thirty first, nineteen eighty nine. Time is running
out. The greatest decade, the nineteen eighties, draws to a close,
and if allowed to end, so two ends all the worlds. Evil has
come to Garrett Can our heroes band together to stop the end of it all.
And that's what we're here to find out. Our kids are the pieces
to this cosmic game. Rabot the wild Card, Shannon Locke the Night,
George Bott's the Question, Jerry Baker the Hero, Casey Mitch Mitchell the Key.
Joining them are the defenders of Garrett, the Keystones, Scarlett Baker,
the Gunslinger, Jesse JD. Davis, the Invisible, Ricky Lewis, the
Archer, Heather Jones dream in this the last year of the Greatest decade.
Here in nineteen eighty nine. All will be decided for good or ill the
end of an age. And this tale was upon us four years, over
one hundred and sixty songs, ultimately forty episodes in the making, comes down
to this. Now we return to Garrett Prime in the Islands of Maryland.
Welcome one and all to the end of an age. Welcome heroes, to
the beginning of the Battle of the eighties. Welcome my friends to a try
Twilight rollout Episode ten Voltron Force. My friends, all of you, your
luck is refreshed, my keystones, your luck end, your pride is refreshed.
Now someone must roll leadership. This person cannot be Jerry. This person
can be a Keystone, but whoever it is, they will not be allowed
to roll in their next appearance. So, my friends, collected as you
were among your group, now swelled in size by twice, who will roll
leadership for us? I think, I said, Scarlett Baker. It's Scarlett
Blake, everybody, I didn't know Jerry at a sister right right, if
people anyone wants, go for it, all right, let's go one real
twenty oh. So I will tell you in this episode that you may gather
a success from using your pride. You may use your luck, or you
may push this leadership role, or you may do nothing. It's totally up
to you. I will use my pride, so I feel like this is
gonna My pride is going to apply for this whole, this whole encounter with
the two groups. All right, Scarlett, Then with your pride being spent,
you receive a success which means you get two dice that you may give
to anybody else in the Atari Twilight family except yourself, my friends. With
that being said, we pulled down onto the top of the Maplehurst Mall and
Garrett, Maryland. There we see a collection of heroes, a collection of
kids that are all holding hands. These are our keystones. And as the
keystones stand there, they are finishing a spell. The words of the spell
ring among their group as they chant them in unison, sweet Song of Youth,
the Wise, the meeting of all Wisdom. And as the last syllable
rings out, van Halen, a member of their band, looks to them
all and she looks at Ricky. Ricky, you feel something across your back,
something thin presses against your chest, and you hear van Halen say the
bow of Locksley. It's working. The rest of you see a bow seems
to be strung over Ricky's shoulder. The rest of you, knowing full well
the items that you are gifted in the Battle of the paperback Exchange, do
not find them present. As the camera turns its gaze, and as you
all look at van Halen's exclamation at Ricky and the newly arrived bow of Locksley
robin Hood's famed bow, you notice a couple of things are different about your
friend. A year has passed since you really had a moment to look at
him, Chris, what does Ricky look like? How has he changed Ricky?
Ricky has always been quite a strong and relatively athletic kid. He works
on a farm, so he was quite a strong kid. But he is
bigger now. Ricky has now short hair from military academy. He is definitely
bigger than he was before in muscular size. And you see this as the
farm boy has grown and as he is standing there with the bow slung or
his shoulder, the mechanical al bubo swings down from the skies through the swirling
snow to rest on his shoulder, and for a moment, Whether you are
a fan of novels, or not, there is a mythic quality to him.
But as soon as that happens, this this frozen moment of growth,
van Halen's face falls. Something's wrong, And with that our camera moves,
and as the entire group is now circled inside the roof of this globe of
snow on top of the Maplehurst Mall, Doctor Arkaville raises his device that he
has. This looks very similar to Egon Spangler's ectometer. It's gone. Wait,
the big interference of the veil is gone, but there's something else.
It's still jamming us. I might be able to punge through it the slide,
but it was going to take time. And from the group next to
you, releasing the hands of those to her right and left, van Halen
says, they must all be together. They need Benjamin and we need the
other heroes. Now we are running out of time. The age ends,
the world's will be broken forever, even will win. Doctor Arkaville looks at
you, metch. I need help sitting up the slide. Once I start
out, I won't be able to move. I'll need defender, someone to
fight them off. If they if they find us, someone someone to fight
them off. While I finish where he stands apart with that ex Mitch,
where do you need me? Van Halen looks at the two groups. She
knows all of them, with the exception of Shannon. I'll take a group
to destroy the interference. We have to be quiet and quick. Once it's
down, you'll be able to get Ben and the army of Happily ever After
can begin it's charge. Van Halen looks, I'll take Shannon, Heather,
JD and Rob with me to find the jammer. Arcaville still looks at you.
Mitch. You need to take Mitch too. Sorry, my boy,
but if you are the younger, if you're the younger other Mitch, you'll
know where we go to set up to slide. You might be able to
stop us. Classic type paradox. Okay, Mitch, what do you do?
He says that, and then he looks at the rest of his friends,
that being Jerry and George, and just like looks between the two of
them and says, just get him back. Mitch. I need you to
roll force christ h just a straightforce, Gregg. Please. Three successes.
How are you doing? With three successes? Precisely what you needed? You
are able to avoid vomiting as your stomach wrenches and you feel nausea rip your
head, as you feel like you're on a roller coaster. Standing still with
that moment, with that incredible vertigo that you feel. Everybody that is in
possession of a Mitchie talkie, which would include of course JD, they all
crackle to life and Mitch, you hear your own voice? What the fuck
did you just change? He grabs his own walkie talkie, which I think
is still in his hand, and just sort of like not screams into it,
but definitely raises his voice and just says everything, and then clicks it
back to his belt. The rest of you would hear, just stay out
of the fucking way, and the line goes done. My friends, you're
on the roof of the Maplehurst Mall and for a moment you were all still
together. I need you to get from the top of the Maplehurst Mall down
to the parking line, or more appropriately, down to the entrance where an
suv has smashed through the glass in classic a team fashion. What would you
like to do? How would you like to do it? Are you going
to be quick? Are you going to be quiet? You're all together You're
all looking at one another for a moment. It seems that van Hamlet and
Arkaville have nothing else to say. This is Greg giving you your cue that
the MPCs are out of the equation. Your path has been set. But
though on rails, this narration does not stop you from conversing. And so
as the door leading to the Maplehurst Mall or down into it is open,
what are all of you thinking? JD would look to Mitch and be like,
who who was that? Because that sounded a law like you, Yeah,
it was it was me. We don't really have time for that right
now. I'm a secret bad guy from the future. It's a whole thing.
Man. Did you see that dragon? We gotta We don't know that
you're from the future. Okay. Shannon says nothing and walks towards the stairway
and keystones. You would recognize everyone here, with the exception of Ben Mackenzie
as being the pictures that you carry around with you or probably are still in
Jad's journal. Of the ones that you found in the library under the purview
of Hannah Casper, all of them are have been missing for a long period
of time. Are you guys? Okay? Man we have less time for
that one. We've been looking kind of for you. Yeah, optimists told
us, and he looks towards Rob that we needed to find Rob his boy
and help him. So what do we have to do? That's me.
We haven't seen him any year so height I don't know where he is,
but we could really use his help. And he looks up at the dragon
in the sky. Yeah, yeah, he kind of kind of shoo sho
shows shows shows up when he wants trying not to think about it. He
broke my silo. Yeah, he was really he was really hurt, and
we think we helped him. We stole some menage on for him. So
we think he's okay, but we don't know where he is. It'll be
fine. You would all have seen Shannon kind of jet down the stairs.
Would anybody from the Autobots or the Keystones try to keep up? Or is
she allowed to run Point Guard alone? Greg? Is there still a robot
fighting a robot downstairs? Well, that's outside. You hear various sounds of
destruction. Yeah, you hear various sounds of destruction and explosions. Of course
there's fire. This is a hellscape. But if you try to isolate that
sound. You don't hear robot combat at present? Great? Great, yeah,
I think Mitchell look around and to see that Shannon's not here, and
then just sort of look to rob because that's who he knows. Like she
left again, we gotta go, and starts heading for the door. As
we're walking. I don't know what you guys know, but the robots sometimes
look like people. I was attacked by something in a library, so and
oh, yeah, you got you gotta watch for the I thing. Well,
he called me you, he called me Mitch. I don't even know
who you are. Hey, like important to know he's a robot. Jerry
points to George's he's cool. Yeah, that's true. He is a robot.
Yeah. Yeah, he's a transformer. It's okay. He's not a
bad one. It's fine. Yeah, he doesn't really like transform or anything.
Is still cool. Yeah, Shannon's a vampire. True, we've seen
it. That's really it set to and with Shannon's a vampire. Our camera
spins down and follows Meta as her character Shannon descends the steps. Everybody.
If you go to your Spotify playlist, please go down to track number six
by a Little Band called a flock of seagulls. I ran so far away,
Shannon, as you down the steps, I'm assuming you said you're moving
in a pretty clipped pace. You were able to get downstairs. A couple
of things I'm going to give you for free, without the need for an
investigate role. The suv that had slid into the area that was your transportation
through, Garrett remains. There are not weapons of mass destruction or robots fighting
just outside the entrance newly made of the Maplehurst ball. However, the battlewagon
sits there. It is empty. Oh not good, not good. She
grabs her walkie Hey, asshole, and she cues it up, waits for
a response. She's definitely talking to you, dude. She's just waiting to
see which Mitch responds, hopefully, go go for Wheeljack. Oh it's just
you. You're arch Nemesis is probably somewhere here or whoever was driving the van.
What do you want, Shannon? You hear a clip come through in
Mitch's voice. Well, first and foremost, I would love to know what
it is that you want, because I've been trying to figure it out for
quite a while now, and I just don't get it. I want this
conversation to last forever, TikTok, TikTok. Shannon doesn't respond and checks to
see if the keys are in the battlewagon. They are. Is there anybody
lurking in the back? Roll me an investigate? Okay? Come on?
What did it roll? Oh? I'm on the wrong tap? Three successes?
Hey did? I will let you bank, matta. You can bank
two of those for a future investigate role, So make sure you remind me
of those if you need to roll and investigate. The battlewagon is empty,
and it's completely empty. You notice that while it has a driver and passenger
kind of command chair, it has nothing in the back. Whether or not
you and Mitch had had I'm assuming the bench seats used to be back there,
nothing is back there anymore. It is a completely opened almost like a
cargo van. You would also notice that while the keys dangle from the ignition,
they bear a key chain that you have never attached to the keys of
your battlewagon. This one is an autobox symbol. Interesting, huh. Okay,
she's gonna turn the ignition on. Make sure that it starts up.
Probably throaty healthy battlewagon. Okay, and you would all be getting downstairs just
as you would see. She and I'm behind the wheel of the battlewagon as
he kind of the moon comes to live and she sticks her head all the
window. You guys gonna get in. We got a lot to do and
not a lot of time to do it, apparently according to your nemesis.
By the way, Mitch, do you keep calling shotgun? It's Mike,
I built no the rules? Are you seeing? You call it? I
made it? What? Don't have to time for this? But you've been
in it? He's right, g uh, my name is as the As
they were walking there, she's like, oh, by, by the way,
I'm Scarlett. Oh oh yeah, and that's that's JD. And she
points to and then that's Ricky and this is Heather. Oh cool wheel Jack
grim Lock, uh jazz beatbox, ironside Oh using maid up names. Now
all right, yeah, well we people try to kill us. So okay,
what is this like a conference? Can we all do something more productive?
Start the engine? Leave? The engine is started? Fine. Mitch
climbs in the back of the van. She's bossy, She's so bossy.
Where are we going? She she'll take She'll take Heather's hand. Mitch is
in the back of the van JD has shotgun, so the only people that
are in. Van Halen jumps into the van as well, which means the
only other members that need to get in would be Heather and would be rob
As. This will become team cleaner. Excuse me, team cleaner. Wait
wait, wait, we're supposed to stick together there, I think we have
to. We got to split up on this one. Van Halen takes your
hand, Heather, I'll be with you, and Scarlett gives Heather a big
hug. You can do it. Ricky walks up, takes Heather's hand,
and below we're apart. There's at least at some of us together. This
will look off to you as well. If they don't call them, you
have to call the others in. Yeah, you gotta your your friend's gotta
come right. Only you can do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, he'll he'll be he'll be here. He knows, he
knows what I need, him knows. I mean, you guys, you're
probably safe. We've been trying to get killed in the multiverse, so like,
you're probably fine. Yeah, this is okay. Pistically. Heather nods
and crawls in the back. It's probably sifl with them that it's going to
be with us. She elbows Ricky and the ribs pairful and don't get yourself
killed, Scarlett, all right, I won't. I just want to point
out one thing for you guys while you're defending the base camp I guess here
or whatever you're going to call it. Just be aware that somebody else drove
this here, so whether or not they're there to help, just be aware
of your surroundings. Let's all the advice I can give you at this.
Yeah, we have eyes, Thanks Shannon. That's that's how cauts get places.
Be congratulations, Scarlett Arkaville. Arkaville moves over stiffly to the driver's side
and looks at Chinon and like moves like liver spotted hand inside and calls Mitch
forward to the window. Yeah. He hands you the his device. The
ectometer looking thing will tell you where it is, where it is, where
the source is coming from. You'll have to look forward. It's kind of
like a like a metal detector. Is it is there multiple sources or just
one? You don't only be one. It got stronger when we came outside.
It looks like it's up and he kind of points vaguely to like the
east, Greg, is that the direction of the tower? Now the tower
that you're thinking of, Yeah, be to the north? Yeah? Does
it destroy it? Turn it off? Like, what do we turn it
off? It's whatever it is, it's it's it's fake, but it's keeping
it's keeping Garrett isolated. I can't It's gonna be hard to punch through and
get your friend, but I'm gonna try. And he reaches forward and you
see that he has fashioned three loops of wire roughly ring sized, and his
hands shaking a little bit, and he hands one to both shann and Mitch
and you can see that it's electrical wire and it's white, like a white
cased wire. What do we do with this? And he kind of looks
around and he sees JD that's you know, awful on the passenger side,
and tries to be not conspiratorial, but tries to be quiet because he doesn't
want to He didn't get a gift for j D. And says he thought
that we could have a group. We're the only good ones. Oh oh,
thank you, okay, super rad and he like goes to give him
a high five, like over Shannon, that's the cross in front of her.
Yeah. He it's an awful high five that you're pretty sure probably shatters
his shoulder, but he accepts it. Be careful, you two, all
right, And he turns around, then shuffles off as he moves towards the
suv. And as he moves towards the suv, our camera changes to encompass
just those that are still in as the battlewagon roars off two points unknown Jerry,
George, Scarlet, Ricky, and doctor Arkaville remain in front of the
suv. All the power in this place seems to be running through the bad
Me, but it's probably being used the power that jammer. We we need
to find a sour stage independent. Does anybody have any ideas it all started
of the tree lighting? Ricky looks to call it, Yeah, but she
she's been like eyeballing Argaville this whole time. We need something that's not tied
into the gridge, something separate, something's got his own power and perfect the
loop. The trailer. There was a trailer that had underground tunnels. Yeah,
it's it's an alta, an altar place. Nope, not alter.
If it's alter, it's it's his mine, bad Me. George I need
you to roll a contact or a comprehend good because let's just think I think
Butts is the smart one here. Now he's not, and he also has
bad roles, so that's a zero. I will let you know that you
may push this wrong. You may use luck, you may use your pride.
I will no, I'll use luck. Pride for me doesn't make sense
right now, so luck let's tr reroll absolutely does. Yeah, I should
right know these rules by now. Oh successes, So an excellent use of
luck. You do you do know a guy? The guy's name is Eugene.
You remember hearing in your travels that you Jean wired his home in Garrett
Prime, presumably to keep you and your mom powered up. That's why you
never had to recharge. You never saw your battery come offline or that light
to blink in the bottom right hand corner of your vision. Knowing Eugene,
the real Eugene, your dad before he was possessed, it would have been
separate from the grid. Man. I was gonna say the Butts of state
anyway, because so guys, doctor A, I think we have to go
to my house. He knows, Mitch knows about it. But I don't
know if bad Mitch knows that I got you know, that's where I plug
in, like you know, into a battery there, that's where I recharge.
He looks confused for a second. No, okay, you're Eugene's boy,
right, yeah, I trust Eugene. Wait, you're literally a robot.
Yeah. She pokes him in the arm. It's fleshy, it feels
warm. Yeah, whoa, yeah, I haven't That's what I said.
She looks at Ricky. I think he's in charge. Hey, the robot
guy. Oh not at all, man, No, Ricky looks at him
close in the eyes. They said to look at your eyes. What yeah,
thing with the robot eyes? Greg? Yeah, can I modify my
body at will? Can I make my eyes just flash red to screw with
this guy? Or do I have that? Why don't you roll a force
for me? Two successes? Yeah? This is how much red? Do
you want? Just the pupils or the whole sheet? The cylon thing?
I wanted to go back and forth? It does you see the scarlet punches
him in the face. It hurts your hand. Yeah, no condition,
but if you do it again, you probably will get one. And this
is like, this is a punch that doesn't give you know, George's face
might move a little bit. George, whenever you take that punch, you're
reminded of the four percent that is blinking in the bottom right hand corner,
a reminder of even your mortality. Yeah, so she and then she backs
up and stands next to Ricky. Are you serious? And she looks at
Jerry. He's a good one. Yeah, but red eyes exactly what I
didn't see. Ben told me to watch out for the ones with the red
eyes. Jerry, I need you to roll company. I need to roll
empathize. Please, that's gonna turn it way better. Yell. I'll say
you can use your luck pride, or you can push for a condition if
you so desire. Yeah, you know you don't have to. I will
throw a luck at it. You never Okay, No, there's something nagging
in the back of your mind. But there's so much shit going on.
It's just for another day, as you put a pin in it. Yeah,
that's Cherry's life. Yeah. Ben told us to watch out for the
ones with the red eyes and now and then him and she points at Arquaville.
I'm not me, I'm I'm a different one. He keep it.
He did this his hand with a wire ring around it. I'm one of
the I'm a good one. Yeah, that's what all the bad ones say.
Okay, okay, wait, took our memories. He took our memories.
We don't remember what happened the past, like a year. You see
a tear roll out of his eye. It wasn't me, the old man.
Now we gotta we gotta get going, guys, I get it from
anyone to trust Okay, okay, wait, wait? Wait? Who would
win in a fight? Batman or Joker? Well, supposed to be the
Batman, but that's because of the movie. He's the good guy. That's
what I would say too. Who can fight with that logic? Was that
what that was? Okay, Well, I trust Ben. Let's go.
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say. Let's go. We can argue
on the way, we can build team on the way. Someone has to
drive. I never learned that I did, but they took my license from
me four years ago. Jerry, you've stolen cars before. Are we back
on this again? Ricky can drive? Hector shot gun driven up to school.
So you all climb into the suv. Ricky driving Jerry claiming shotgun and
obviously the other two with Arkaville climbing in the back. Arkaville would make it
a point not the sit beside Scarlet if she didn't want him to. Oh,
she will, she won't care. Then as soon as the SUV turns
over with just enough of the engine kind of clouding it, he wouldn't like
lean over or whisper. He'd whisper kind of still facing forward, and he
would say, so sorry, I guess it's not your fault. It's not
you, it's not your fault. I'm not mad at you. Just we'll
make it up to you'all. I'm going to get Ben back what we're doing.
Yeah, is he your friend? Kind of yeah? He he won't.
He warned me about the red Eye guys before all this ever happened.
I didn't even know him at the time, but he he warned me,
sounds like a friend. Yeah. I think he's my friend. That's why
I want to help him. And with that, the SEV begins to move
out into Garrett and we stay with it as we travel through Garrett. Everybody,
if you go to your Spotify playlist, go down to the near the
bottom track number nineteen on this big old playlist, the rescues. It's the
end of the world. As you drive through, Garrett, this is the
first time that the Keystones have actually seen it because of your state before.
It's a war zone. You see shops burning, houses burning, these little
green creatures that Ricky would immediately recognize as scarletwood. As well. Bounding in
herds of two and three dozen, you would see other deeper shadows and movements
within them. The town of your youth, the town that you have defended,
is losing a war. Within about five minutes, the suv pulls up
in front of a house with a overgrown yet still oddly shaped bush. It
is the house of George Butts and appears empty. What do you do?
This place is oom just a house. I'm sorry, So he's he's a
rich robot, like they can afford really good power. Yeah, we have
to set everything up. And Arkaville begins to pull the like the the pieces
of the slide that are folded up in the back of the suv. I'm
going to need to and he looks at Jerry going to help him. What
can what can we do? Yeah, yeah, you take this and and
he looks every George Georgia. Where do we set up? I'd say,
let's set up in the backyard. It's right up to my here's my mom's
office opens back there, so that's a good place. Showish the way,
all right, I open the door. The house is open when you pass
through the one level through where the kitchen and living room would be. You
can see it before you get there, because they're the back walls all glass.
There's no grass in your backyard. It seems to have been dug up.
As you look down the hallway, you see the room to your father's
office open. I'll walk down the hall. I'll point to the guys.
Start setting up through there through the double doors and one parts back back of
the house. As our camera follows us down the hall with George George.
As you get to where your father's offices, the light from the outside kind
of filtering in though light inside is helping reveal more of this scene, but
enough is revealed. See two things. You see that there is a door
that has been revealed behind your father's desk. A button depressed inside of his
desk opened this door. It's big enough to walk through. Unfortunately, the
figure inside the threshold is not walking. It is your mom. She is
still and she is gray. And as our camera pulls back from the butts
of State, we zip through the air until we arrive in the battlewagon as
we see Mitch, Rob, Shannon, Heather, JD, and Van Halen.
You need to find the source of the interference, my friends, as
you begin to use this device, I need a couple of rolls from everybody.
JD rull me a comprehend and I'll take a calculate roll from Mitch.
If you will one success on the old calculate, I'll go ahead and use
my luck. Oh you know what, do so at a plus two?
I'm sorry, So if you want to roll two D six Bacon, we'll
be able to kind of compensate for that first role. If we want to
an extra two D six okay, please please okay, Yeah, you'd still
need to push or use your luck. I'll use your luck one success.
Do you want me to roll the extra two again? You can if you'd
like. I will always allow you to bank successes above and beyond what you
would need. Once all you need, though, you immediately begin to realize
that the beeping that is coming off of the device as it is swept back
and forth. Is Morse code. You recognize it immediately. You've been studying
it for the better part of a year now, and as it goes back
and forth, you realize that it is getting a location, one of the
locations that you have studied that's in your journal. As you're working with the
calculate. Let's see, you did get a success, didn't Mitch? Yes,
the device seems to be keyed in on an area of town to the
north and to the east. You know that you are going into a neighborhood
that would eventually end as the fields and everything would extend north in that direction
to eventually Castle Gray Skull. As you're moving, you're also in the neighborhood
of Shannon's house. But as you are moving close Shannon, you are driving
as it's being indicated. Between the two of you, you have a rough
idea of where this is. If you're going to begin to kind of scour
the area, how do you want to do it? How do you want
to approach this? Are you doing it on foot? Are you staying in
the battlewagon? My friends, you have it narrowed down between Mitch and JD.
You have it narrowed down to about two blocks. Mitch, you're pretty
sure exactly right, JD. You're pretty sure exactly where it is. But
there's nothing there that you know of. Do they would know where this is?
I think I know it's Morse code. Greg? Where is what I
think it was? The construction site? That's exactly what you think it is.
Okay, it's this Alta construction site. Oh wait, the one that
does it? Greg? Is this in the same area as before with the
construction site, Shanna? Because you were in the neighborhood, you would you
would know that. Whenever you all disappeared in October, they were clearing a
lot, but no construction had begun. It did, however, say because
this is your neighborhood. It did say future site of the Alta Boys Club.
Okay, then I think I know where that is too. There's an
underground There was a trailer when we went to check it out the first time,
and it goes underground, and that's we found an energy on que,
which is what we tried to power optimists with. But things happened faster than
we wanted them to. What else did you find down there? There was
a I believe there was a catwalk, and it was headed in the general
direction of Castle Grad School, the battlewagon in a position to see your home.
Could I actually just roll hard here to see what? Because I don't
know she she's going to go towards the house. Okay, So you all
would park and as you would get out, are you working for speed or
stealth? Here? Speed obviously gets you there, Quicker stealth gets you there
quieter. Yeah, she knows Mitch isn't very stealthy, So I think it's
just a standard pace. Yeah. So as you are all moving, Heather,
JD, Rob as Mitch and Shannon would kind of move off. J
D kind of directing as well, towards the front. It would be Heather
and Rob that are kind of dragging back a little bit with van Halen.
What do you do? Van Halen staying very close to you, Heather?
This is this? Is this the last last place you guys saw saw Optimus.
We're not We're not at the farm, right, we're at No,
No, you're at the country or we're a couple of blocks from the construction
site. No, No, Optimist wasn't here. He was he was at
the farm. How does that work? Are you a robot too? I'm
not not necessarily necessarily a robot physically, but spirit spirit spiritually. I we
have a lot of the same traits you like you like your dad kind kinda
I I'd like to think so we we've we've never expressed it out loud,
but it's it's it's it's it's a feeling, you know, M really upset.
I it's I have issues with abandonment. And sometimes when he disappears,
I always know where he's coming back. So it's it's all it's always good.
So I just kind of wait, wait, wait until I really need
him m hm. Other kind of smiles at you and says, I have
those issues too, nice, I mean not not not not nice. But
I set the paperback exchange. That's like my favorite place. Libraries better than
books are free, yeah, but not not not not not as not as
cool. Uh what what? What? What are we here? Here here
looking for a lot of times I just kind of follow I don't know videos,
Yeah, okay, let's let's just follow them and and try to be
useful. I do. And as the caboost follows the locomotive shan and as
you round the corner, you have the first vision of your house, and
just beyond it you can see the fencing of the construction site. There's spray
paint all over your house. It says where is she? Let us in?
Invite us, And it's repeated over and over all over the siding of
the house and the brick around the base. Yeah. I think Shannon kind
of remembers the last time she was in this house. She left behind Kisma
and and Dutch and Knee, And I think she has like a moment.
If everybody behind her, we'll notice her stride slows a little bit, and
if anybody's really paying attention, her fists clench as she's walking by the house.
But she kind of refocuses her attention forward, kind of checks the sides
of the road to see if anybody is like out there waiting. I guess
if somebody comes by free of charge. You can hear the the the struggle
of life down in Garrett proper, but here it's eerily calm, almost deserted.
So maybe you're not like a vampire now, But like if you were
going to hang out with your old friends and not team cool Kid, you
would have become a vampire. White. She's not a vampire now, I
don't know what you said. I was a vampire? Are you serious right
now? Oh yeah, you left the roof, so I just said you
were a vampire. But that's vampire stuff, like, let's you know,
he has a point, oh you know, speaking of vampires. Hey,
uh, I didn't get your name. Uh. I didn't get either of
your names. Ad, and you didn't listen to the angry girl because she
was really angry. No, tune your frequency out and she has the same
one. Can either of you fight? Well, I'm sorry that I've kept
you alive all this much. Please continue to tune out my frequency. Well,
sometimes you try to kill me. I think j D's in the middle
doing this anyway. Can you guys? Can either of you fight? Are
you? Can you? Yeah? I mean I'm the football team. I'm
somewhat athletic. That's great, awesome. Heather's really good with books and puzzles,
and she seems to have a knack for talking with things that were behind
the veil. So great, Okay, can you guys have to explain a
little whatever that is, because that's I don't know, it's kind of like
there's a force field and we couldn't bring anything that was good in, but
the bad guys figured out a way to get the bad guys in. And
that's that's what I'm meaning to bouncing off of. It's really confused. How
you guys know more than we do. And we've been all over the multiverse
apparently, so I think we've just we've been here, We've been here,
and where have you been? Everywhere except for here? Apparently. I think
we know a lot about a small portion of this where you guys know the
other stuff. That's all we really know about is the veil. Okay,
okay, without with our powers combined, right, we the powers metaphorical.
Well that's not that'ssily true for everybody. Van Halen walks in the middle of
all of you and says, you are all the defenders of Garrett. You're
all that we have. Okay. She walks past in the direction that you
were going. So, all right, here's the bad news, guys,
We're all alone here. Shannon usually is a killing machine. Rob I didn't
had a shotgun once. That was really cool. Moral support, moral support,
hugs, he gives hugs. Heather. I don't I don't recommend you
talk to the vampires and j d uh do whatever her old friends are vampires,
and I'm the last Mitch in the multiverse except for the evil one.
Long story. Most people try to kill me, and now they're all probably
gonna come here and try to kill me, which means you're all in danger.
Okay, and then he like hits the device to try to see where
it's coming from. It looks like it's coming from now that you're close and
JD, you would realize this that the location that you got initially you believe
to be the construction site, but it's actually the vacant lot right beside the
construction site. It's still wooded, it's still I mean it's cleared, but
it still has enough trees to kind of uh keep it from view from the
road. But you know, much like Egon would whenever you kind of hold
up this one, besides come out as you hold it right at the lot
beside Shannon's house between where the construction site is. Okay, we gotta go
this way, Yeah, I think so, Greg. Do I sta have
my backpack? Yep, gonna take I'm gonna take up my backpack and I'm
gonna pull out like a marker, a red marker. Sure and match you
come here before we go, I'm gonna not just flip over his right hand
on his wrists. I'm gonna mark him with like a red marker, be
like that. Now I know it's you, it's me. What well,
just in case I run into the evil one him this whole time, he's
he's like, he's like a man way way way way older. He's like
a tall man. That's why I said I was from the future. Changed
that too, but Jerry said he didn't know if you were for sure from
the future. So well, he's he's definitely a grown up because Rob tackled
him. Okay, whoa, that wasn't a different That wasn't a different multiverse.
Guys, something is guaranteed here. You're good. Then he had facial
hair. Okay, well, so where is this? Uh? Just this
this empty space? The woods over here? Yep, my friends, would
you like to, I don't know, scout out the woods enter the woods?
And if you do so, are you going for speed or stealth?
Shannon would like to use for two banked investigation dice to scout out from a
distance safely the area. Thank god you gave with Shannon. Let's just run
dim so and are you going ahead by yourself. She's like, hang on,
and she kind of goes to like a side where one of the trees,
like one of the forward trees are, and just kind of like scans
back and got roll me a stealth because I know you're being stealthy since you
don't have a mitch with you. Yes, yes, that's so good.
Two successes. A couple of things happen is you kind of creep in and
peek into this area. It's it's with shrubs and kind of overgrowth. You
can see that the middle area does have a clearing to it, and there's
trash and debris around, cement dust and you know, a few like traffic
cones just like you know, bags of fast food and things like that.
Snow hasn't touched this area. You're not sure, you're probably the enough trees
have kept it clear. But when you look in, you see a tall
regal fellow sitting on a stool in the middle of this vacant lot. He's
dressed in an almost Shakespearean guard, puffy sleeves, kind of a silk tied
shirt on. In front of him is a stump with a chessboard. Well,
come on, neddy, I don't tell a knife. This is already
eating into my muddon time. And he looks right at you. Oh shit,
hey guys, she kind of there's a there's a dude, British dude.
Thank not sure with a chess board. I feel like this is a
trap, but as per usual me fashion, here I go. I guess
are you good a chess? I guess we'll find out. What are you
all entering the area? Are you screaming? We have to go? She
doesn't know how to play chess? I can't and mid starts falling after her,
a vampire who plays the chess. I'm confused when you all get into
the area. If you get into the area, anybody that is a book
fan or a movie fan may roll me and investigate. If your character doesn't
really do that, then don't please. I'll give you a movie movie fan.
Mhmm. We're really good at rolling. Now to successes for movie fans.
It takes you a second match. As you walk in and you see
this dapper regal fellow. He's handsome, he's got a kind of high cheek
bones, big shock, dark hair like I get in, tall, a
little thin and teach you a moment and you realize that this guy is the
spitting image of the actor Chris Srandon, and he is dressed identically to Prince
Humperdink of Floren. Hmm, look at you. You don't seem like much
a bunch of unripe in dullards by the look very well, pick your players
and pick your pieces, okay, hold on first and foremost never started getting
without knowing the rules. So what is this? What is happening here?
Oh? You know what's going on? Don't you enlighten me? One of
you will play me and the rest will be your pieces. You really are
daft, aren't you? Totally okay? Is anyone good at chess? Yeah?
I'm not going to do the heather. You look like a super smart
person. It beats me all the time. Great, I will be one
of the pieces back communities too, you can tell. Listening to you all,
father, I'm almost tempted to let you have two players against me to
make it challenging. I mean, let's see how dense you are. Convince
me that you can have two of your feeble brains against my superior intellect,
and I will allow it. The rules are simple. Defeat me and you
will find what you seek the ability to stop the and you see him check
an index card transceiver, lose and you die agreed? Oh what are you?
What do we get if if if you lose, you get the transceiver.
That's not enough death and trendsy. I mean that's not an equal,
Like, there's got to be something else there. What are you looking for?
You want a side wager with me? M that's a really, really
a good offer. Actually, what do you? What do you side?
Side side wader? I feel like we should side wager. Oh gosh,
there's so many options. I don't want to be selfish here, guys.
But does this guy have like a powdered wig. No, no, no,
it's it's jet black dark hair, just like Prince humperdink. It's a
Princess bride. Princess. It's the main bad guy, Pricess Bride. I
mean we must hurry. I have to get this done. It's mutton time.
I'm swamped. Uh. If we win, we not only get the
transceiver, but you have to help us. Why would I do that?
It's part of the side wager because we won. Yeah. Oh, I'm
sorry you don't. In addition, do I get if I win? You'll
be dead. I don't get a side wager. Yeah, because we'll be
dead. We kind of like you kind of use a trump card there,
like at the maximum. Unless you want to die, then okay, I'll
give you this, and she brings up for her her father's This is very
important to me and very valuable. Really, yes, well, it includes
the name of the best hero in the entire world. I didn't realize my
name was on metal. But I will take it. I suppose, okay,
all right, side wager? It is perfect. He looks pressed at
you. So what would it be? One of you against me or two
of you against me? I don't care, but you must convince me if
you wish to take me on as a pair. My friends, you are
given the option to roll charm if one of you would like to do so
against Prince Humperdink. You may have two players versus him. Oh god,
charm is not in my strong suit, just as it out of anybody can
roll it. But you must rp it. How you convince Prince Humberdink.
Hmm. Mitch has already in his head decided that it's either because she might
annoys when he said, are you good at this? Game, so he
is like standing beside her and like whispering in her ear. Okay, So
do you know how to play chess? Because like I've played like one time
and it was it was okay, But like you did say you were into
like books and stuff. Was one of those books chess wizardry. Oh,
I've played chess. I never never like this for death, I can.
I can play. Anybody can help, though, that would be great because
then maybe we can put our you know, heads together for better moves.
You know, I can help, but you always beat me, though,
I don't know how much help i'd be. I'll help if you want me
to, though, How do we convince him? What does he want?
How do we convince them that we should have help? I mean, he
thinks he's better than us, So let me just keep believing that. Rob.
I will allow you to push that. Use your pride. If you're
trying to convince Humperdink to have two players, two brains versus his, yeah,
I'm gonna push it. She is a world renowned chess player. Actually,
she just likes to be very humble about it. So how how would
you feel if you beat her and somebody else? You'd be like, ah,
I beat two the best chess players in the entire world right before the
end of it. Honestly, don't care. But sure I don't know.
Convince me why should I? I mean, because it's like bragging Rice,
and clearly you are so superior than the rest of us. Just need more
reasons to be better than everybody else. Do you think I would put that
on metal hanging around? I would if I weren't dead, I would totally
put it on metal. Hmm. Maybe a whole plaque, like a statue
in this entire area a field, but a lot of people read it if
they were dead, maybe the ghosts. The ghosts read it. Can you
imagine all of the undead gathering here all the time just to see this beautiful
statue in plaque. I mean, it sounds creepy, but if they're reading
it, fine, and all press is good for us. Fine, pick
your two champions. Rob take the upset condition as you tried to get yourself
kind of pumped up to ask Humperdink, but Shannon swooped in. Because they're
upset, angry, scared, exhausted, injured, broken, scared. They
just take scared. Be my friends who are your pieces and who are your
players? And at that question, as Humperdink asks it and hangs in the
air that has no snow, we travel up beyond the tree line that does
have snow, over just the short few blocks to the Butts residence, and
once we get there, we zoom back in through the window into the room
that contains a cold and gray Doctor Butts, George's mom. George, the
door that you never knew behind your dad's desk is open. When you look
inside it, you see that there's light coming from it. You see that
there are chairs de ray, just simple folding chairs. Four of them are
your mom in various stages of her life up through what you can only assume
would be her eighties or nineties. And in the other chairs are you from
a child all the way up until your forties. These are the past versions
of George Butts, so no one would be aware that you weren't aging.
You would go to sleep one night, you would be downloaded into the new
body, and you would awake older, stronger, but nothing the wiser.
Also in this room are two tanks very similar to the back to tanks that
Mark Hamil's Luke Skywalker floated in and an empire strikes back. One of them
is empty, and one of them holds a fifteen year old you in a
wetsuit very still bubbles kind of coalesce around the chin and go up past the
ear, and a computer is on with writing on the screen. What do
all of you do? George has been gone a hot minute. I think
Jerry's like trying to direct the building of this this slide. But every time
he's like, well, we'll put this here, Doctor Arkaville probably comes over
and no, no, no, do it this way, and then Jerry,
we'll find a new direction to mess up for everybody. About thirty seconds
into that, doctor Arkaville would look at you, Jerry, after everything's kind
of placed, you see him kind of like, you know, moving the
frame and in the position. He would look at you and say, is
there any way to defend this? If they once we get it set up,
if they come for us, we're we're not going to be able to
remove till we get your buddy. We need weapons. And she looks towards
the house where is George. He he's probably like looking at his stuff in
his room. It's been a while since he got to touch his stuff.
He likes stuff. Should should one of us go check see if he's okay.
We should be sticking together. That's what Heather always says, and she
knows a lot. Jesus, we almost never stick together. Everything works out
for us. But sure, gah, Ricky picks up some garden furniture table
and just looks at Jerry us you know him the best, and he walks
and jams it into the corner of the of the yard, climbs onto that
so you can look over the fence, and just starts keeping a lookout.
Very good, my friends, And as you take your first sweep of being
lookout, roll me and investigate with a plus two because Bubo is also flying
high in the sky checking to see if anybody is approaching the house. That
then give me an option for a plus two. O. What is it?
How do you do the two dice again, Mike, where it's actually
rolls the sixes. You can use a little drop down menu looks yeah,
you can use the menu on the side too. Heat Yeah one success,
Craig. Okay, so yeah you can see that as of right now,
nothing is coming. However, Boo Bow circles and comes down to you and
in the quietest that the clockwork al can be. It begins to talk to
you in worlds and clicks. You would know this to mean something's coming.
Ricky jumps down from the table, looks to the others, and just waves
his Something's on its way. You might want to get your friend if he's
a robotic can fight. Something's on its way. And he runs back to
the table and peers just over the top of the the fence, just to
keep an EyeT and keep his profile as low as possible. Ready's the bow
and waits. So as you ready the bow of Locksley, and as Bobo
takes to flight again to get a better view, you can see a flash
of the clockwork owls metallic wings. You look down the street, down past
the other residential homes that seemed untouched by the damage. There's abandoned cars here
and things like that, but none of the fires have spread this far north
and Garrett. But as you're looking, and with your investigate success several blocks
away, you see your first set of eyes glowing beneath the car and not
looking at you, but they are looking. And then you see another set
and another is anyone willing after George Ricky, go ahead, Ricky. Ricky
just looks to Scarlet and just indicates that it's the small things that just keeps
on. I think, I think Jerry'll head towards the house, dropping one
lass, like you put that over there, probably the wrong as he heads
into Fine George, and with no sense of like decorum or anything, he'll
just like show when he gets in the door. But George, have you
entered into this secret room or are you still in the No I've entered in.
Before heading to the screen, I imagine the still visage of my mom
is there, and so I'm kind of like looking at her and I don't
even know if she knows. And I go to the computer screen. What
does it say When you see your mom? You look down and her skin
is completely gray, It's colorless, and you see there's a stain and splash
of green all over her mouth and in her teeth, and her hands seem
to have dirt beneath the nails, and dried blades of grass are kind of
collected there. You walk forward. At the top of the screen, it
says this will activate in the event I don't check in once a month.
You will always be my wife and you will always be my son, no
matter your choice. Beneath that, it says the Pinocchio Protocols, and there's
a prompt that says flesh and blood and a yes or a no. Jerry
walks in, but he's not going to answer you. He's just sitting there
looking at the curse or the flashing yes or no, trying to figure out
what he's going to decide. You would see the lights from this room,
the secret door that has opened behind the desk. It's easy enough to find
George. Oho, this is weird. Hey are you you alive? Get
chamber, I'm alive? You much? Do you have a quarter on you?
Yes? Go ahead and flip that for me. Man m hm,
well, uh one is heads, so as as he here's the coin,
flip into the air. George will type no and hit enter. Jerry.
You see George fall to the ground as your coin hits the ground two and
lands on heads. Oh what did I do? Scarlett? What are you
doing to aid doctor Arkaville as he's finishing up? You can do the following.
You can aid doctor Arkaville with a tinker roll, or you may At
this point, let me get over here and make sure I'm telling you exactly
what you can do. You may aid doctor Arkaville with a tinker roll,
or you can roll a force to fortify the house. Yeah, she's gonna
yeah, she's gonna look to the doctors like, okay, dude, we're
running out of time. Guys are coming. Yeah, and she's gonna look
around. Is there like a shovel or any kind of weapon around? I
tell you what, roll me a force. The higher your role, the
better the weapon you find. Okay, let's go. Yes, three successes.
Oh god, Okay. As you look around, you're not sure exactly
why there is a bat laying in the yard here, but there are several
elements are garden implements that are around here as well. It doesn't take you
long to realize there was a stand of some kind that probably held garden tools,
which are strewn everywhere, that was knocked over, and there seemed to
have been an old Louisville slugger in there is the eighties? Do metal bats
exist? Would you like it to be a metal bat? This is what
residents it is. That's what I'm thinking. Because he always wants to do
all the all the activities right, so he always got like the best toys,
right, so for his baseball phase, he would have got the best
blat and you find he perfectly weighted and almost brand new aluminum bat. Yeah,
so she'll pick it up, SA, this will do that, and
she like flips netflixs with like spins and she catches it and then she puts
it over her shoulder, like as you do that and put it over your
shoulder. Archivil looks at you for a second and his eyes get wide.
Where'd you get those? You feel something on your hips? She looks down.
You are wearing a two gun rig and she grins. She's like thanks,
Heather, and she's gonna run and go four to five the house.
You are able to do so as the guns of the gun slinger are back
in your possession, forged from the very metal of melted down ex caliber.
She's not going to leave the backyard. She's gonna try to fortify the house
so like at least they can't get into the backyard through the house. Okay,
you can start locking the doors, putting stuff in place. He was
the one to abandon Argaville. Gotcha. Your force role is basically going to
give you three successes. If there is a conflict to come, Jerry,
what do you do? As George drops to the ground, He'll probably rush
over to him and like, I don't know, he doesn't really know what
he's doing. He's seen the other people try to do like first aid type
things, so he'll probably check for a pulse. You don't find one.
I don't know if he had one before. George probably shake him and yell
right in his face. Jerry Romian empathize plus two. I had it one
success. You're sitting there working on George, trying to get him, check
him for a pulse, trying to get him moving in some way, but
as he felt, it's almost like he's frozen in a fetal position. So
when you move him, he moves in one position. All of his joints
are frozen and mocked. You're able to move him. He's heavy as shit,
but you're able to move him. And as you're moving him, you
get a flash of the memory of Ben. I'm saving myself, man,
I'm saving that She goes to another school. You wouldn't know her, and
you remember Scarlet saying Ben, and you've never heard of Scarlet. Shit.
Jerry's gonna look at all this like equipment that's way beyond them, and put
George back down. And if you're dead, I'm gonna kick your ass.
And I don't know. Head back outside as you would do, so,
you would hear a couple of things simultaneously. One Ricky, Doctor Arkaville would
fire up the slide behind you would hear that hum, and that light would
spill into the backyard. And as soon as that light goes off, you
hear and you see all the eyes turn and look directly at the house.
All pretense of stealth or subterfuge gone. You hear from the clouds above,
and Bubo shoots back down into the backyard. Ricky, you see no fewer
than three hundred of these creatures running towards the house. My friends, Doctor
Arkaville is trying to find Ben. There is an army coming at you.
Jerry, you get to the top of the stairs by the door just as
Scarlett kind of throws something against the door or locks it or fortifies it in
the way that she would the two. If you have a brief moment as
you hear doctor Arkaville, this chaos starting very close to you, and Arka
Bill says, I think I have him I'm gonna need help. As we
cut through the air and go back a short distance to a vacant lot,
we spiral down as Prince Humperdink sits beside a chessboard and says, so,
who's going to play? And who your pieces? Others sits down in the
chair opposite Humperdink and who is your other brain? Gonna be me? Oh
boy, we'll sit down. That makes points over at Mitch, rit Shannon,
overt, Rob and van Halen, you're the pieces, and he snaps
his fingers. It's at this time that you realize that the debris that was
filtered around this vacant lot, the cement dust, was actually part of a
grid that every other square was filled in with cement dust, that the bags
actually represented corners that were staked into the ground, and the traffic cones bear
the indications of other chess pieces. Nights rooks. With another snap, Humperdink
says, you have you old pieces, Now I must have mine, and
with a snap, four characters appear. One of them is wearing all black
with a mask across his eyes. Another seems to have long hair, a
thick mustache, a scabbard with no sword at his side. He is standing
in a spot A princess is the only way that you can describe the girl
that stands there is in a spot reserved for the queen, and a giant
of a man stands at a spot reserved for a rook. The giant turns
and says the goal, what are we doing? And they all turn and
look at one another, and they look at you as you are now a
part of the chessboard. My friends, the game has begun. You may
roll for me either. Whenever we get into this, you may roll for
me comprehend or investigation. You can use your pride, You can use keystone
players. You can use your banked flashback successes if you have them. Roles
can be pushed for conditions. Luck can be used for rerolls, saving any
successes that you have. Before each round, I will tell you what you
need to hit. If you are successful, you may move one of your
pieces, but you may not move the same piece until all of your pieces
have moved once. Makes sense. So with that, my friends, JD.
Heather, as you sit down across from Prince Humperdink, I need you
to roll me comprehend or investigation. My friends, go to your Spotify playlists
please, and if you could play a little twist of fate, which is
track number twenty one. Right enough, great? Mm hmm, my friends.
You can push, you can use luck, you can use your pride.
I will let you know you don't get a refresh anymore. M hmmm.
We'll use your pride. I've got a good mind and I can use
it to overcome challenges like the hears in the books. Do that'll give you
a success? You need two more? Can you generate them? I can
push? Yes, we can take frightened. As you move the position,
and who do you move? Of your friends, Van Halen, Shannon,
Mitch, and Rob, which piece do you move? Knowing that you can't
move that piece again until the others have moved, We'll move Mitch. All
right, Mitch. As you move forward, I need you to do the
following. You need to make me a move role and you may do so
at a plus one one success. Greg. As you step forward, Mitch,
the spaniard steps forward, and you meet in the middle, and Spaniard
takes Mitch. Mitch begins to sink into the board. You see him sink
his shins to his knees. My friends, it's your next move. I
need an investigator comprehend by j D and Heather. You need two successes for
this one, my friends, who do you move as you have three successes
instead of the necessary too? You may move Shannon, you may move Rob,
or you may move van Halen, Greg. Can we do any kind
of investigate or anything to see if we can get a clue from the board
what a better strategy would be here? Absolutely, you may roll me a
comprehend or investigate as you go ahead, I'll tell you what I will let
you. You currently have one extra one right, thank you everyone, plus
one for my leadership. You may absolutely do so. Hm, you may
roll in an investigate with a plus one if you'd like so. Wait,
I already have already have one. That's for the games. That's for the
game. Yeah, if you want to just go ahead and roll a separate
investigate for just kind of looking at the board now and trying to figure something
out that was without the bonus dice hum perdict is cheating? Oh all,
this motherfucker well is just going to be over sooner than I thought. But
but what rules are you playing by? And only rules that count the rich
win? It's not those rules either. Oh I don't know those rules.
We should play by the same rules. What would you give me to play
by poverty rules? No, no, I'm not going to give you anything
to play by poverty rules. We're going to play the same rules. We
sat down here to play a fair game. Are you trying to shame Prince
Humperdink? N Or let's go for shame. How she can have that plus
one? Okay, then you may roll a charm at plus one. This
is your ability to shame Prince Humperdink. All right? How do I add
bonus dice on in this character sheet? I don't know how to do I
don't know. You don't You don't have an option. You just have to
do it manually. So there is no charm. Now there's a little bit
too awkward to convince anyone of anything. Sorry. I like my rules,
so I will let you all know this. With that revelation. You must
roll one higher than what I ask for to actually beat Humperdink. So when
we rolled last, we just met right, we need one morrect and he
was able to cheat. But because you have identified what he's doing, you
have also identified his tell and so you can anticipate his cheating. If we
push, I can push and get a You're already one over then in this
most recent one, Yeah, we should probably just move a piece you'd like
to move? Yep, do you want to pick Heather? Heather? You
want me to? What's that you pick? Van Halen? Van Halen moves
forward and goes right up to the large fellow and he looks way down at
van Halen, and you see van Halen grab him by the shirt and him
and he begins to sink into the sand. Even when he gets up to
his knees, he still towers over van Halen, and she has taken the
giant. My friends, roll again. You need two successes for this one.
No, I think I know your strategy that two successes or three successes,
that we you really need three because you needed to Yeah, okay,
so we're gonna have to do something here. Luck or pride or whatever we
have left weren't so scared of us. We could play by the same rules.
But I guess fear drives all your motivations, doesn't it. It's a
new round. If you're trying to shame him, I'll take a charm.
No, I'm perfectly fine with this? Can I all use my pride if
I can? It's like, okay, my knowledge of a nerd? Dum?
Who would you like to move them? So I can't. We can't
move Van Allen. We have to move rob or Shannon, basically Robert Shannon.
Correct, we'll go with Shannon Shannon. Please roll me a move at
a plus two? Okluky, move at a plus two. I'm gonna have
to roll those separately. So me one second, waters two and well two
three successes. You roll forward, uh under a whil not your own,
and you take a couple of steps on the map until you are face to
face with the man with the black mask on. And as you get toe
to toe, he says, I really don't have any control over what I'm
doing. Same, and how do you take the dread pirate Roberts off the
board? It's a really good question. I think I take his mask?
Do you put it on? I sure do. As Wesley begins to sink
into the sand, he looks up and says, looks dashing on you and
you hear a cough from the princess in the back. It does look good,
I mean it looks good, right, It looks great, as you
put on the mask of the dread pirate Roberts, please put that as an
item in are inventory? Great, will do my friend Greg action for you?
Can we the pieces here? What's happening? Absolutely, I'd like to
attempt to roll for bullshit Greg, if I if I could, as Mitch
is sinking into the quicksand yeah, you're up to about your chest now.
Yeah, if if said Spaniard is still standing over me, I would.
I would like to since Prince Arbernique is cheating, and my pride is Garrett
is right, and I will fix it on my drive rather Oh no,
my pride is only I can fix this. I will. I'd like to
to employ that against him, and and sort of like, please please the
man controlling you, the man who killed your father works for him. He's
the bad guy. He's the bad guy. And try to convince him to
turn on his player. And you're using your pride to do this. Yeah,
okay, he looks down at you. I know he is the bad
one. What do I go if you join our side? We're the good
guys. I could to be a good guy as man, and he don't
see when it seems better, right, I get paid for these things.
But yeah, are you commending me? I think I think they will.
He like points back to Heather and j D. I think you just have
to turn around and you'll be on our side. Just turn around, just
to do a spin. I guess. So, if you're facing this way,
that means you're attacking us. If you're facing that way, that means
you're attacking him. The rest of these are my friends as well, and
do not wish to attack them, Well, then help us turn them.
We can probably good guys. And he turns around and you begin to rise
out of the sand, say you mention that's going on? It's cheating.
Eight points like a pinky and an index finger at Heather and j D.
You are cheating and we're playing the same game. Did you always win?
That's my line, all right, so be it to the rich. As
we cut back over across town, everybody the Butt's house is under siege.
George take five, Jerry. I need a force roll from you. I
need a force roll from everybody because this is nothing stealthy, this is nothing.
If you can come up with something else for another role, please let
me know. But you are in the middle of what is essentially a riot.
As these creatures are trying to burst into the house, you hear them
breaking glass as they go into the second floor. They are not real sure
how to get to the back other than through the house for some odd reason.
But they are going around and coming through the house. And then there's
so many of them they start to kind of log jam right by the front
door in the garage, and you see him spilling out and a couple of
them turn Ricky and look, what do you all do after you roll your
forces, I'll tell you if you do what you want. My friends,
please go to your Spotify playlist. Please go down to number four by one,
Prince, Let's go crazy. That is one success from Ricky. Okay,
you have the bow of locks. Lead roll with a plus two.
You have the guns of the gun Slinger Starlett. Please roll out a plus
two as you turn to defend archivilm. Let's try for Ricky. Then two
for Ricky, two for Jerry M. You may push, you may use
luck. I got my pride for my plus two right mm hm oh nothing,
Yeah, I'm gonna have to push it. This life. You're on
your own. Yeah, so I'm pushing. It's just a straight reroll right
and you get the plus two. Yeah, yeah, come on, no
one success those all right? No none? Okay. So as you turn
and begin to fire the shots off, they go wide, but you are
back Scarlett. You're the last line of defense. As Jerry and Ricky move
forward, Ricky, Jerry, as these creatures start to pour over into the
backyard, what do the two of you do? What are your successes as
you repel this first wave. A few of them drop into the yard,
but the majority of them are repelled. What do you do? I imagine
we've probably set up, like I mean, it seems like everybody has ranged
ability, So we've probably set up some sort of firing line, maybe a
picnic table tipped over, and there a patio table tipped over that we can
hide behind from Jerry's like like trying to be nonchalant about it, but yeah,
he's he's blasted lightning it. These things are treating them light bugs,
and they are popping. The lightning will hit one of them for a second
and they'll just blow up like a piece of green bubble gum, and then
as crap flies everywhere in the yard. As Jerry turns, like the green
lantern and just blasts a swath. Ricky, as you stand beside this kid
blasting electricity out of his hands, what do you do? Ricky's got a
smile on his face seeing Jerry lightning exploding these these creatures because Ricky doesn't like
them. He's sitting behind the sort of the same barricade with Jerry and just
firing arrows through every gap in the windows to anything that's moving within. Looks
across to Jerry and just says, good warriors, let others come to them.
Don't go to the others. Stay here. That's how we'll defeat them.
As he quotes it sounds like he's quoting something that he's read before.
And he just keeps firing arrows into things. And you do so as these
arrows are flying unerringly and Jerry, you can see this kid is firing these
arrows and just I mean openings it would be the size of a sandwich and
taking two of these things out by the ears, pinning them to the fence.
You see this owl swooping down and picking one up and clearing it in
the air about about fifty feet and dropping it. You see that this is
a tandem attack that is going on between the two of them, Scarlet,
won't we investigate? You don't hear it when it happens, but you hear
coming from inside the slide, hope. And when you turn and look,
you see as if from fifty feet away, down a tunnel inside of this
frame. As doctor Arcyville works the control panel, you see the boy that
you know is b and he is running as hard as he can towards this
opening, and he seems to be getting farther back as he's going through this
hallway, but he's like he's on a treadmill and he's just not getting any
closer, and he's losing ground, and he sees you and you see him
reaching out. He don't leave me. Yeah, she's gonna turn and run
towards the slide. Are you going in? Yeah? Or she's gonna like
jump and like reach out with her hand. Are you like trying to stay
on the outside, like hanging onto the frame. Are you grabbing like a
garden hose and jumping in? Are you? Oh? No? Because Scarlett
doesn't know what the fract this thing is, right, So not really no,
no, because because my first instinct is literally she freaking just dives right
through. No unintended, it's funny you say, I was gonna say,
it's really say that. So you dive through and you hear Arkaville yell out,
yo dope, and you are able to be kind of semi caught as
Arkaville reaches for you, but he can't hold on as you slip inside.
Meanwhile, back over at the vacant lot, we are in the middle of
a round that requires a role. As we are now playing the version of
this chess match to the rich. I need a comprehend and an investigate from
j D and Heather, and from Shannon and Rob, who has not yet
moved. I would like Rob to roll me a charm. Rob, you
see one of the other pieces turn and join your side. Rob, you
are closest to let's say you would you would be closest to the princess who
is looking at you. What is going on, she says to you,
comically large, large game of chess for the fate of the world. You
know Wednesday, No, he was on my side, She seems confused as
she points to the guy with the mustache that's now standing and watching his mitch
rises behind him in the sand. Well, he probably probably realized that you
got guys are on the side of evil. Well that's not right, she
seems confused. No, no, no, no, no, no,
it's it's it's totally pop. Ye, fine, there's time and time to
switch. I mean, look, he he did should I? Yeah?
Are you? Are you a knight of of of of of sorts? You
seem like you're accustomed to wearing metal. Yeah, I left my my other
mm hmm. This is suit of armor at the house. Very well,
sir, And you can tell that she's awaiting a name. Rob, Sir,
Rob, what should I do? Let's let let let's let's fight fight
fancy pants. Yeah, well he's not on the board though. I mean,
we can think outside of the board, or or you can you can
let let me, let me win, and what will be done with the
game? Give up? Well not not not get give give up respectfully,
could concede. You can't be a conscientious objector roll me another charm at plus
two because this is this is a vintage Rob two CONTI and justus objector I
like it. I will object to this. I don't like it, and
I won't do it. And that's the spirit. She turns around. Shannon
I need you to roll me a charm as. At this point, the
giant is the only one that's still semi on the board. But he looks
at you. What's going on? It looks like we are all joining the
same side. Yeah, we're all joining the same side. See your friend
there is turning around. Your friend, there's turning around. I'll help this
individual turn around, I suppose, if you so want. I'm keeping the
mask though, I'm just letting you know. You rule for one more definitely,
and ask turns around j D and Heather. You would see prince Prince
humperdink, Chris, I'm almost going to Chris Humber. Chris Surrandon's Prince humperdink.
He looks down at the chessboard that has no pieces in between the two
of you, looks over at the living chessboard that's beside him and says,
well, this isn't right. I think that's Jerry Ah got you at your
own game. Pump ass fuck, pumps fuck. That's brutal, correct,
but brutal. Well, I guess you one fair and square. Here it
is. And he lifts up the chessboard and there is a small what looks
to be a radio inside the stump. He looks over at Mitch. Did
I do it right? Uh uh yeah, yeah, yeah. I was
supposed to delay you here with this farce, but it was supposed to last
longer. Uh huh. Whatever you do, you have to help us,
It's true, you do have to help us. Now, that was the
side deal. What was I going to give you for delaying us? There's
a building in this place that fancied which which why a department? It has
a golden pole in it. I liked quite a bit. Okay, all
right, well you you technically you failed at what we agreed to, so
you don't get that. But you did lose is to the rich. I
mean really, we never keep well, bro, what go ahead? Sure,
well you don't have a golden pulse, so you're not rich anymore.
But you did make a side best you have to help us. Also,
did I happen to mention the last time we talked where I could be hanging
out when not here? Yes, you were still at the loop bad thing.
You called the loop and I said could you show me the loop?
And you said fuck no? And I said that's rude, and you said
go play your game, and I said fine, that tracks thats okay,
cool, Well you're gonna help us. You're gonna help us now, Okay,
Well, kid, I don't know what this is. And almost like
he's holding a dog turd, he like lifts the box out, fucking description,
Greg, Yeah yeah, immediately, Yeah, what am I looking at?
Greg? Like a dog? Turn This is a loop issued transceiver.
It is capable of interdimensional static and it is currently on. Muh Mitch turns
it off and then takes the backpack and stuffs it in his radio shack backpack.
Okay, what was that? Was that? It? See? Antichomactic?
Honestly scrabs the walkie. As the transceiver turns off, a burst of
sunlight appears from somewhere certainly not the sky seems more ground level, like there
is a door opening where it is sunny. Only this door is about the
size of a drive in theater. And as the sun sweeps over your area
and two points north, we go back to the Butts residence. As the
light being goes by, the Humperdink says maybe follow that, I don't know,
and we go to the Butts residence where a battle is taken place.
For the very soul of this area. But when the sunlight hits these green
little bastards, they start popping their skin bubbles, they liquefy as Jerry and
Ricky are back to back, side to side, as they are swarming over
them and still blasting away with electricity, and endless arrows, countless goo masses
of fallen dead are around. But it was only a matter of time before
the two heroes would have fallen. But the sun does the work of one
hundred Jerrys and a hundred Ricky's as it sweeps through the area, melting the
army in front of them. As this happens and the silence kind of deafens
the area, Arcaville is yelling, she fell in, she'd fall in,
And for the first time, Ricky and Jerry you realize Scarlet is not there,
that the slide is open, and both Ben and Scarlet are running towards
the door, almost like it's a relay race. My friends, what do
you do? And my friends, I mean Jerry and Ricky, because you're
the only ones that can do ship right now? How do we get them
out? What does it mean? Region them out? Strong dumb boys.
Arcaville is sitting there trying to keep the slide open. It's down, the
veils down completely interfere, just gone. But I'm losing them. You gotta
bring him in ow Yeah, no do. I go in and Jerry's gonna
run to the side of the house, grab the garden hose on school and
give the tug and then run back over to Chris and hand it to her.
Cool. He wraps it a round his waist and then runs and jumps
into the slide with his arms out to try and grab onto. I want
a force roll from both Ricky and a force roll from Scarlett. As the
two of you kind of meet into this column, you would know that the
hose goes full length before it catches. Are you holding on to the one
in Jerry? I'm assuming yeah, yeah, he's getting ready to them.
Okay, one success from Ricky. Sorry my rolling here, I forgot I'm
actually playing and not watching. Yeah you are, you are? Okay,
get me a force please? One success? Thank God. With that,
you're able to crash together. As Ricky, you kind of envelope her.
Ben starts to fall away, almost like he's stumbling now, and you hear
him yell out no, Scarlett as he reaches for you. Yep, roll
me another force or I will take a condition for an automatic success. Mmm.
Oh for going the condition? Can I use my ravens and bumblebees?
Oh? Hell yeah? And you get to tell me how you grab hold
of Ben Mackenzie, So I need to use more than one, just one,
all right. Then as Ricky kind of grabs onto her, she looks
back. She's like Ben, and she's going to kind of shift shift herself,
so she's facing the other way and she's gonna look back and he's like,
don't let go, and she's gonna force herself off of him so she
can Like he's like grabbing onto her feet and she just shoots out with her
hand and then like claps arms with him. You grab hold, almost like
a soul's clasp with Ben Mackenzie, and he's dangling now as if he's being
held not you know, along a hallway, but over a great abyss.
As Ricky, you have hold of Scarlett's feet, and Scarlett has a hold
of Ben Mackenzie. And Ben looks up at you with calm eyes, eyes
that have seen horrors, and even in the face of this, he looks
directly at you, Scarlet and says it's you got you, Maverick. Let's
go, Jerry, roaming of forest. As all of a sudden, a
fuck ton of weight hits you. I got two successes. What's a fun
ton of weight? To Jerry? As Jerry grabs hold of the hose and
both of your feet go to either side of the frame. As you're almost
you're standing vertically, almost like you're repelling into the slide itself. Arkaville's sitting
there and the mechanics of the slide are beginning to spark as the control panel
is going up in smoke. Again, hold it much longer and you pull
the first length up, Jerry, as they're getting closer, and it seems
like despite your pulling, they're getting closer regardless. And as you have them
about five feet away, you can see the you know, as Ricky's turned
around. You can see Ricky's back and Scarlett stretched out and Ben. He's
now looking directly at you, Jerry, and you can see him nod and
smile as he knows what you're doing. You see a hand reach from behind
Ben and wrap around his ankle, and you're looking at George Butts as he
holds onto your friend. Where are you going there, benji our George.
You're standing behind Jerry. At the bottom of your screen. It says one
hundred and ten percent, my friend, you have made your decision before you.
You see your antithesis through a mirror darkly as a version of you that
made poor decisions is trying to pull at least one of your friends away from
you forever. Jerry is at work, Ricky is holding to scarlet. Scarlet
to Ben, you are free to act, my friend, What the fuck
do you do? One hundred and ten percent? Uh? I think i'd
te one thousand run and I pencil dive over top of them with like a
knife hand out front into my antithesis, my nemesis, do you try to
grab hold of Ben's foot, completing the chain as you do so, because
you are free falling at this point into whatever the hell is on the other
side of Yeah. Yeah, so hitting him doesn't stop me enough, then
yeah, my reaction would be to my friend Rolly a force at plus four
and plus one for my leadership plus five. Okay, what two successes?
You're able to shoot bypass right over Jerry's shoulder and Arkaville says you're shot.
Don't go back. Why are they all going in? As you shoot over
top of Ricky, over top of Scarlet, over top of Ben, you
wink at Ben as you go by and jam the knife hand into the face
of George Butts, and as he who walks between the rows loses his first
soldier, the George that isn't explodes into sparks and falls backwards. The heads
split open like the T one thousand you mentioned, only it is not reforming.
It lets go of Ben's ankle and your hands takes its place. Jerry,
this is super fucking heavy. But at this moment, Shannon, Rob,
JD. Heather, you all run into the back room, the backyard
of the Butts residence, driven here and followed here by the sunlight blast that
guided you. Prince Humperdink is here as well, but he is not helping.
The large giant Pheesic though is. As they all move to the rope
and begin to pull, My friends, those of you that are player characters
here, I would like you to roll me forced rolls. All of you
get a plus two as you are working as a team of autobots and keystones.
JD. Heather, this includes you, all right, I'm assuming that
doesn't conclude those of us at the end of a rope. It does not.
If you're dangling, you're not helping. So I'm free for rock even
a success from Heather, even a success for everybody contributes. As you pull
free, well, basically Jerry has helped away from the frame. You pull
out Ricky as Ricky comes out, like a reverse Poultergeist moment, pulling Scarlet
as she comes out, and finally you see Ben come out all the way
and at the very end of the chain. And if I had that on
the Spotify playlist, I'd start playing Fleetwood Matt. Everybody get Greg's doing an
audible Hold on a second, give me one second because I wanted on there
and I want to listen to it. Fuck it, everybody, just hold
on something. Everybody, yes, it is. Everybody, go down to
the last track on your Spotify playlist. Start playing the Chain by Fleetwood Mac
please. As everybody has pulled out one at a time, the last one
being George, who has just vanquished his through the mirror darkly version. You
all pull out, and when you crash to the other side, Benny immediately
rushes into Jerry and throws his arms around him, and he wouldn't leave me.
I'm so sorry. He turns and looks at Scarlet. Thanks. Yeah,
she's like lying on the grat or the dirt I got you. Are
you okay? Yeah? Yeah, you can tell he isn't. Hey.
I didn't think it would be you. Whoa you? He helped me out
before, so I gotta And she kind of blushes a little bit, like
I gotta help. I gotta repay the favor. Yeah, And he puts
his hand out to shake your hand. H She she goes to she clasp
his hands, but it's because she's down on the ground. She pulls herself.
She uses his hand to help herself up, and then she's gonna give
it. She's gonna give him a hug. I'm glad you're okay. Thanks,
Thanks. He hugs you back. She goes to say something, but
she kind of doesn't, you know, okay, wait, uh m hmm.
When this is all over, and like she kind of points to the
sky and like everything's not so shitty. Do you want to go get milkshakes?
Me? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, cool cool,
And then she will shake his hand again. It's like an elbow in
Jerry's ribs. Are you ben what school does she go to? I don't
know, not ours. Ben backs up to Jerry and looks up. That's
why I waited, man, Uh yeah, nice. So as we look
into the backyard of the butts is and the group is standing there looking at
one another. Ben looks up at Jerry, looks at everybody, all the
autobots, the Keystones, all of them. Let's finish this once and for
all. Van Halen moves forward. The sunlight is still beaming, creating a
sunset at the end of George's Street. She looks at all of the autobots,
her first friends in Garrett, go get to the loop in this we
will protect Garrett. The army of Happily ever have to is here. And
she turns and she's backlit against the sunlight. Go and she turns to the
Keystones. It's time and she looks at Heather. Call to them, h
Heather closes their eyes and yeah. There is silence for a moment. Then
she says, Heather, I don't know if you remember. I don't know
if you remember me, but I'll hope you come. That's glad lion folk,
or are you dear? There are dots inside of the sunrise everybody,
go to your Spotify playlist track number twenty two. Loved by the Sun.
You hear very distantly, he her het her, And in the front of
a field of silhouettes that stretches from one sunrise to the next, an old
lion, gray across his muzzle and face, charges forward, fulfilling a promise
he made an age ago, and behind him, the vast gathering of heroes
race in the first and last charge of the Army of Happily ever After.
But that's where we end our session. Join us Saturday for the thrilling conclusion
of the Keystones Saga and Atari Twilight Twist of Fate Episode seven, Never Say
Never, and then join us as we begin the final tale of the Autobots
and their epic campaign. See you next Wednesday for the first of our two
part series, Finale Tory Twilight Rollout Episode eleven. Until the Day. Atari
Twilight is an Unmaide Gaming production and a proud member of the Unmade Gaming podcast
Network. If you'd like to support our endeavors and get some behind the scenes
looks at upcoming projects, please join us on Patreon at patreon dot com slash
Onmade Gaming. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please take a minute to give
us a five star rating and review on iTunes. Thank you for joining us
on this blast from the past, and we'll see you next time on Atari Twilight