The show you were about to listen to was originally a live stream actual play
on twitch dot tv slash Onmade Gaming Horiz Minions 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 warp beyond the veil to find
out exactly what happens when you take the path less traveled in this original Tails
from the Loop actual play Atari Twilight Age of Always. Very good, my
friends, it is a pleasure to be back here on Unmade Gaming for Atari
Twilight Age of Always, which is our ever long, never ending campaign based
on Tales from the Loop by Free League. I want to ask a question
right now of my players, and I'm going to talk a little bit,
but I want them to be able to think about it and this question.
Yeah, okay, So maybe a content warning going forward. We are currently
dealing with kids. All of the players that you see in front of you
are playing kids in the Tales from the Loop system. Normally, kids in
the Tales from the Loop system are safe enough. You know, they can
be knocked out, but they can't be killed or anything like that. That
little rule no longer exists. In our campaign. So with that being said,
you know, please be aware that these these kids have a mortality about
them now. And so with that being said, I wanted to start the
questions with something light because this session might be a little heavier than normal.
So my question to my players, since this is going to be a tough
session, let's have an easy question that I didn't get to ask earlier in
the season. This is one of the ones that I had to pivot away
from because of the circumstances that we had. What is the accomplishment your character
is most proud of. A work of art, a feet of athletics,
music of photograph, a poem, something written, their grades, academics,
whatever would happen to be if your character was asked, And again, maybe
something outside of the scope of what we've seen in the various campaigns that we've
had. Maybe something that's you know, from earlier in their life that they're
very proud of that if they were asked at this moment, you know,
beyond all the adventures and the fantastical elements, just as a kid in Garrett,
what are you most proud of? What was the accomplishment that you kind
of dust off and polish every once in a while to see to kind of
remember fondly. Now, with that being said, I'm not going to go
into the intro, but i am going to let everyone know that this is
of course based on free Leik's Tales from the Loop system. The kids in
this are, of course mortal. At this point we've already established that.
Does that mean that means that we are going to be seeing It's without question
there will be combat at the top of this episode. The kids will be
involved, and while they are currently sound and healthy and okay, that will
change. So again, I will never ever try to make anything graphic,
especially when it deals with kids and my players, because I love my players
and their characters more than anything. But at the same time, if something
terrible were to happen, I am going to leave that up to a conversation
between myself and the player. I will allow input from the other players,
of course. But in or Things from the Flood, which is the kind
of the spiritual successor of Tales from the Loop, there is a moment where
you can basically say goodbye to a character, and that involves the entire cast.
If something like that were to happen, then we will stop, we
will address the weight of the issue as it pertains, and we will give
it the gravitas that has deserved because these players have been playing these characters for
several years now and it's not likely that I enter into something like this.
But we are several campaigns and several seasons into this, and before them is
the biggest bad that has ever been in any of them, and this character
has been behind the scenes for most of what's been going on. So with
all that being said, I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware that
that that's a possibility that could happen. I, as your game master,
and to the audience as well, I will strive to make sure that this
isn't gratuitously violent. And again, this is a conversation that should always happen
at every table between the players, whoever's in charge, the GM, and
of course anybody in question with this particular act. So with that disclaimer set,
I would now like to go around and talk to my cast and see
at this moment what their characters would be most proud of, maybe outside of
their adventures. So I am going to start with Chris Ricky's not a very
prideful kid, but he'd probably be most proud of the friends that he's made
in a group that is so diverse, diverse in that they're completely different.
Every one of them is completely different. In a lot of groups, I
find when you're young, friends are very similar to you, but they're all
so different and all bring so much, but there's no real achievements other than
work. Very good your friends it is. Let's jump over to g What
is your answer to the question. Yeah, I'm actually really raking my mind
here for this. During the Forgotten Year in eighty nine, when the Keystones
were kind of they lost their memory, Heather was sleeping in Vh's tree and
the group was kind of fractured because they didn't remember. They didn't they didn't
remember the close connection that they had with each other. Scarlett was hardcore training
to join the junior the varsity football team. She did end up making the
team, but without her friends there, it kind of felt empty. So
she was incredibly proud of being able to do that, but she almost didn't
let herself enjoy it, and it was a very like dark dark year for
her. You know, she just turned fourteen, and you know, hormones
are raging and she's angry and she doesn't know why. But I think the
most but the thing she was most proud of is way back in nineteen eighty
eight when her when she got to take the field for the first time and
she threw that touchdown pass to JD. I think that was her proudest moment
for herself. That was the one where she was like, yes, it's
a great moment. It's a great moment, and the one to be proud
over. Lessa. How about Heather. I think Chris stole my answer.
I think the one change I would make to it is instead of being proud
of having made those friends, I think she would say that she's proud of
her friends, you know, as who they are as individuals. But I'll
add, because it seems like you're interested in like some sort of like creative
endeavor. I don't think she's ever really like you. I don't think she's
ever like made anything that she would necessarily be proud of. But she I
think I imagined that in the quiet hours, you know, when she's falling
asleep, or she's hiding, or she's you know, she's in the shadows,
she probably daydreams and imagines a world and I think she's like, this
is the beginning of her becoming like an author or something in the future,
where she's building a world and she's building a story. Oh that's fantastic,
you know, and that fits very well with the way that you know,
I view Heather personally, So I love it very much. Okay, so
before we start, let's go around, and I would like all of you
to say who you are, who you'll be playing, and what your playbook
is for this system Free Leagu's Tales from the Loop. So let's jump around
in the same order. Chris start us off. I'm Press and I'm playing
Ricky Lewis. Ricky Lewis is the class Chuck fantastic and G. I am
g your friendly neighborhood Lightning and Voker. And today I'm playing Scarlet Blake.
She is the second jock in the group, the athlete, nice, nice,
and last but certainly not least Melissa. I am Melissa and I'm playing
Heather Jones, who is the weirdo. I always love that one, all
right, my friends, Just remember I love you all. The Age of
Always is growing. It lives, it breathes, it hungers war has come
to the Age of Always, It's beauty turned to violence, it's people conscripted
into a batter eternal, a conflict with no beginning and no ending, never
ending in point of fact. But we are no longer in the age of
Always. Gone are the friends that stood beside you, mister Lewis, Wendy
Alice and Dorothy the Wizard, Mitch Lion, and of course your two closest
allies, van Halen the Sword, Princess Valeria, daughter of the Lilac Prince
and she who sits the Movius throne. And Randall Flagg, once the walking
dude, the man in black, now just a man. You stand in
your hometown of Garrett, Maryland, eight years after you last saw it.
Before you sits a humanoid covered in inky, dripping and roiling darkness. Nothing
else can be seen, nothing can be heard, nothing can even be guessed
of its appearance. Beneath this creature is nothing, and it stands before you.
You sense a humor and a confidence that you can smell. You are
not whole. Only three of the four leaves. Will it be enough?
Or will a dying, powerless Garrett watch as some of its last few bravest
children fall to nothing? Welcome one and all to potentially the last episode of
Atari Twilight Age of Always, episode nine, The Eternity road Less traveled my
friends before you. Upon the pyramid of stacked mag trucks, sits this creature.
The guitar perfectly polished, its wood and its tune exquisite. You watch
as the creature stands and takes the guitar and slowly moves it behind them,
and without having a place to put it, the hand returns empty, the
guitar gone. I need you all to make a move. Role for me.
One for Scarlet, Yeah, one for Ricky. I didn't see Ricky's
come in. Okay, I think my Roll twenties, thug. Let me
just refresh it. Are you in the right roll twenty Chris, because I
don't see them? Yeah, I don't see you either. To Age of
Always. Uh that could be why Roll twenty puts it in that weird order.
That's what someone else's accessed comes to the front. Oh gotcha, gotcha?
Gotcha? Okay did you say you had one success though? Because I'll
take your words, I can reroll. It's fine. Oh right to so
as it stands right now, Scarlet, you will act first followed by Heather,
and then we're gonna have Ricky go last. I just saw it come
in, Chris before you. The creature as it stands and puts the guitar
away, It looks down at you all, and it mockingly shivers in the
blowing snow and the deep powder that is on the ground eight inches at least
as it blows and drifts in this section of a the mag truck graveyard,
nothing but the pyramid really being able to stop this wave of powder as it
crests over the old field that this was. And as he stands there shivering,
he says, well, this hardly seems fair. And you all start
to get cold. Feel the wind, grab your hair, your clothing.
It's biting you. Smell Garret, the wind from the pasture, even though
it is covered in snow, snow carries that freshness, that pine, and
you hear the crunch of the snow beneath your feet. You feel the cold
creep into your shoes, your legs as they are now submerged in the snow.
You are in Garrett, and he attacks, I need everyone to roll
a move roll again? Please? Was that move roll just for initiative?
That was just for initiative, Okay. As he charges, Scarlet yells,
he doesn't charge, see him. You see him lift his arms, and
as he does so, that inky blackness that's licking from his shoulders and his
forearms, it shoots towards you. And I'm going to give you this one
for free. It looks like musical notes as it creeps and spins and helixes
off of his shoulders and forward, and you can hear song. You can
hear beats and bits of popular music, of folk music, of old music
played around a campfire. All of those notes come from this creature, and
they scream towards you. Gee, what did you get? Who? Two
successes gives you one condition. As it strikes your chest and blasts you back
into the snow. You are on your back, looking up as the snow
swirls, the sky obscured. Whatever is blue beyond it, if it is
even still blue, is obscured because of the snow and the darkness that you
see now. And as you breathe out the air forced from your lungs,
you see it as it fogs in front of you. I will let you
take whatever condition you would like, but the condition you must take, yeah,
I just took upset. So what is it something physical that hit me?
Like? What did it feel like? Absence, loneliness, a dread.
You are not physically harmed, but you are hurt. Okay. She
kind of kind of cries out and like grasps her chest and like clenches her
clothes and her fist, and she uh kind of rolls to her side and
forces herself to her feet. Don't let that hit you. And then she's
nah. She glares at him and she runs forward. Chris, I need
you to make a charm roll for me somehow. Three successes. Crack Jesus,
three dice from three dice, you have three successes, which of course
is six sixty six. But we won't get into that part of it.
This is this is a good part. So what you all would see is
you see this creature as it produces some of that ink that covers its body,
that licks off of it, that acts as flame and tar and oil
and just the deepest of black that seems to just lick across its surface.
It puts it together almost like a photo negative of a snowball. Here bastardized
in this blizzard, and throws it at Ricky, it is screaming towards his
face. But Ricky, how do you evade this attack? I think Ricky
would drop to the ground as he does, gets up and tries to get
himself back up as soon as he can. Okay, so you like kind
of almost like violently throw yourself to the ground because it's coming so fast,
and so for a beat to hear, both Scarlet and Ricky are on the
ground, Scarlet suffering obviously more from the attack than Ricky, but you're both
down and for a moment, Heather, you stand facing this creature as you
can tell when it's looking at you, but it has no eyes to make
it truly, you know, discernible, but you can feel it when it's
gaze hits you, and it's gaze hits you, Heather, it's part of
that weighted blanket that you had been feeling, that that doom that seems to
have at least around its proximity created this like ara that you have been able
to feel since you were brought back here into Garrett. As soon as you
all now are physically here, you can feel it and it's palpable. It's
almost bringing you to tears because of the sorrow and the absence and the loneliness
and the dread that it produces. For a moment and a beat, you
stand facing it and I need you to roll a D twelve for me,
Heather as your magic comes online. That's a one. I will again let
you know that your assets are in play here. I'm not going to remind
you anymore. There is luck, there is pride. You may push and
take a condition for a reroll. It is completely up to you. But
again, please remember that you're been refreshed, You have all of the things
that you need at this present time. Has a condition, but pride and
luck are here. Did you want to use any of those wells? Can
you push? Can you push magic? Absolutely, it's one of your skills.
Yeah, you can push the D twelve. This will give you a
condition though in the pushing. All right, Yeah, I'll go ahead and
push and take scared because hell, there's always going to be scared, right,
and I will try and roll twelve again. Eleven. Well, that's
ten better everybody. If you could go to the Spotify playlist, and of
course we need to have that Spotify playlist available for everybody. I'm not sure
if somebody put that in our chat, make sure that Mike has it.
That would be capital if you could go to your Spotify playlist please and let's
cueue up the track number one by Tori Amos Crucified. Okay, Melissa as
Heather's magic now that she is physically manifest here in the world, it it
begins, you can feel it, but it takes that last little bit of
effort to breach the veil or what would have been the veil between here and
there. As you draw your magic directly from the Age of Always and bring
it to Garrett. And as it appears the two of you that are on
the ground, Scarlet and Ricky, you see the Vorpal Blade appear on the
back of Heather in its normal spot, as this weapon of lore, this
weapon of wonder, gifted to you by the now past Maggie. What do
you do, Melissa? As Heather stands in front, her magic returned,
and for a moment you have an action as this vicious sneak attack has already
hit. I think Father's not going to draw her sword. She's going to
reach into her pocket and she's gonna draw her pitty bitty look like out and
then clicking it on she will She'll make a maneuver similar to drawing a bow,
and then she'll release it and fling light from her itty bitty book light
the man of shadow like a magic wand h all right, what I want
you to do here is I want you to roll me a D twelve.
And in addition to the D twelve, I also want to take a force
move as two worlds collide. So we got a six and zero. Success
is on the force. You see the light streak in the everybody here sees
this as it's more light than just produced by an itty bitty book light.
This is a beam of light and not a flashlight beam or something you know,
an electric torch. This is magic. This is condensed. This is
concentrated and focused. It is power wielded by a witch. And as Heather
brings it to bear and fires it, it strikes the creature in the chest.
And you see that wherever the light hits, the darkness recoils from it.
Wherever it's waving. It's almost as if you know, it's piercing through
the smoke, and the smoke dissipates around it for a moment, and the
creature looks down at the mark and then looks up at you. Heather Well,
a witch, I never, And we are in initiative order, Scarlet,
what will you do? That is a quick question. Isn't that her
iconic item? Yeah, that's true. It is my iconic item. There
were that gives you one more dice? Right? Two more dice. I'm
just going to roll to D six. Then got one. Let's roll it
back a little bit. As you see, the light hits the chest and
it moves away the creature a witch. Well, I never, Scarlet.
So now that we are in full on combat, we don't usually get into
combat in chells very often. How many actions can I take? You may
do one role, so you can add as many actions to it as you
would like. I will, of course add the number of successes that I
think that you need to have to do, like a multifaceted move. But
if you have several things you want to do, I will tell you what
the DC is. You know the success rating is before you roll. As
far as overcoming this particular instance of trouble, it only gets more difficult if
you know you add more things. But you can. You can tell me
what you want to do, and I'll let you know what you need to
do. Okay, I'm just going to do two things. Well, a
move plus two actions. So she's moving forward. How close to the base
of this pyramid are we probably fifty feet? Okay, So she's going to
move closer. She's running forward and as she passes a like a pile of
junk, like it's like a pile of like hubcaps or something from the various
item vehicles that are in there. She punches down as she passes and it
flips up and she grabs it one of the hubcaps like a shield, and
she's gonna You mentioned in the last episode that the hammer was already cocked on
her gun, so she or yes, So she's going to run forward.
She has her shield, and she's going to shoot for the very first time
at a being her weapon of the gun slinger, and she's going to aim
at the exact same spot that Heather hit. Awesome, everybody switched down to
the track number two. My hero, when you get a chance, as
you run forward, you are able to smash the one of the hub caps
up and catch it from the backside, kind of grabbing one of the it's
almost inverted really, you're holding it kind of with the concave side out,
so you can have a purchase point kind of like one of the fancier hubcaps,
and you're holding onto it as you run forward like a super soldier and
you take your shot. Roll me a D twelve as you wield the power
of the gunslinger. And then I also would like you to roll a move
to see how far you can get, and two successes and then a move
no successes. Okay, So I mean you do. It's not like you
slip or fall or anything like that, but you don't really achieve the base
of the pyramid if that's where you're heading, right, You get closer,
you get closer though, so I mean it's a success in that respect.
Also, you feel your gun rig appear around your waist. Your other gun,
your offhand gun is dangling the rest of you, ricky, as you're
kind of pulling yourself up. You would see just out of a materializing as
the snow swirls. Once you know Scarlet's hips are empty, and then the
snow swirls and she is wearing her gun rig. As we go back around
to Melissa, Melissa, what do you do? You see this? The
bullet strikes the same spot, and you see the creature recoil for a moment,
but it doesn't say anything as it is not its turn. What would
you like to do? It's what is a reminder? It's dark out a
daytime or is it nighttime? What is the what's the situation? You all
figured that it's between it's right around like ten o'clock in the morning. M
hm, But it's it's darker. Is it light? It's light enough,
but it's almost like it's dusk or I don't know, twilight. Let's see
what you did there? Great? What did I do? All? Right?
Well, I think she's going to use her magic again, but I'd
like to imagine this time that as she wields her wand and and floiks it
at him, she wants to harness the the light that is available in the
environment. So if it's twilight, then that to me, that means that
the sun is behind them on the horizon. So I imagine that she's lit
from behind by this great solar light. Okay, I'm going to make a
deal with you here, Melissa. I'm going to allow you to do this,
and I'm going to ask you this question. If successful do you want
I will allow you to overcharge this. There's not a lot of light present.
So if you want to take around where you use your magic to basically
drink in as much as you can, I will allow you to do that
for a stronger result. Or you can just see what happens with what you
can kind of muster in this round. So we'll take We'll take. What
you're saying is take the round to charge, so to speak. Yeah,
I love that, And you know, if we can do a magical effect,
then we'd see like a total anime moment similar to the waterfall where she
lifts up slightly on her feet as she draws in the power. Yep,
you everyone else would see as the feet of Heather lift up beyond the eight
inches of the snow and the wind begins to whip around her, and as
she is back lit by this light, you begin to see her equal the
glow of the light around as her own radiance moves to eclipse that that is
around and you feel a sense of intrigue from the top of the pyramid.
Chris, what do you want to do as Heather takes this moment to charge
your power? So Ricky was on the floor, did he see the hits
from Heather, and he saw how the guy was hit. Yep, saw
both of them, saw the hit and then again in the same spot as
Scarlett was able to pinpoint and shoot and hit the spot again. And you
saw the creature recoil. Wasn't like it shrugged off the blast or anything like
that. But it hasn't acted yet, So you're not sure. This is
all not like D and D where we've got like six seconds and six seconds.
This is like at the exact same time. It just we need an
order in which everything happens. Sure, Ricky's going to push himself to his
feet, and he looks across to Heather and sees that she's preparing for this
and starts to see the visual of that. He's going to try and grab
anything, a pipe or anything that he can swing. I'm at a bow.
You take a bow if he can get one. Greg to the bow
of Locksley, champion of the down trodden and communists everywhere, appears on your
back as you once again are the wielder rightfully of the bow of Robin Hood.
As Ricky feels that on his back, he steps not directly in front
of Heather, but enough that he could intercept anything that was sent her way,
and he would drop to her knee and ready and arrow and fire it.
Then roll a D twelve for me, am my friend, yeah eleven?
WHOA So as now, did you want to move as well? You
say you want to? He's moving not close distance. He wants to be
in front of Heather such that he could intercept anything that's going to try and
stop her from doing what she's doing. Gotcha, okay, So you move
as almost a defensive posture, and then closer to the pyramid, still is
Scarlet as she made her charge, and it's at that moment the kind of
time catches up for the creature at the top of the pyramid, and the
light hits and burns, and there's a strange smell. It's off putting.
It's it's a burning plastic and you smell that for a second. And then
the shot from the gunslinger gun it hits the same spot, and you see
the creature kind of flinch as it hits, and then it's immediately followed by
an arrow. The arrow hits in the same spot, just three bull's eyes.
As the Keystones launch their attack on this creature. The arrow hits and
the head of it disappears into the creature's chest, but the shaft cracks as
the fletching splinters and sprays around it for a moment, and you all see
the creature stand as it looks and its posture does not. You realize now
that it was relaxing, It was nonchalant. And you see that spine stiffen
as it brings itself up to its full six foot five height, and as
it looks down at you all, it realizes and you feel this. You
smell it, you know, because you can't see much that goes on with
this creature. You smell that this creature understands that the these are not normal
folks in front, Heather, I need you to roll and empathize. And
again both hands raise, this time as those blasts of black, inky musical
notes fly out at both Scarlet and Ricky. I need move rolls from Scarlet
and Ricky. Can I use my newfound shield as a bonus? Yeah,
in fact, do me a favor. Roll me a D six before you
do that. One to three is a plus one, four to six is
a plus two. See how good your shield is? Six? Pretty fucking
good? Rolling? Great? Thank God, this is this is a chance
we've got We've got life, everybody Jesus. So it's a plus two shield
yep, okay one success. Yeah. I need you to take two conditions
as both of you. Heather, you're in a bit of a kind of
a fugue state as you sit there and are powering up. But you see
Scarlet go down as she has blasted into the snow from the base of the
pyramid, driven back nearly half of the charge that she made twenty twenty five
feet in the snow, kind of coming to rest as a meteor. You're
not out of the fight by any stretch of the imagination, Scarlet, but
that is your third condition. Correct. You see that, You know Scarlet's
hands are shaking, but they're still holding the gun. You are racked with
pain. It's in every ounce of you, from your toes to your head.
It's it's worse than anything you ever felt on the football field. But
you can't be where it's coming from. It feels like everywhere is where it's
coming from. And you are heart hurt. You feel an absence, you
feel a loss, and it's unidentifiable at first until you realize you can't remember
making that pass the one that won the game, and you all see as
the creature pulls the notes back in and in one of the last bits of
note, you hear a couple chimes from Poison, nothing but a good time.
As the creature drags in whatever it had taken from Scarlet, Ricky,
what did you get? Zero? I need you to take two conditions.
As a blast that was meant for Heather hits you and drops you down to
your knees. You're still in front of Heather, but again, this sense
of loss, this sense of it's been, it's palpable. You're not sure
how to define. You don't know what you've lost. You look around,
You see your friends, You see Scarlet, you see Heather. You know
them. But wasn't there somebody else? Scarlet, Heather? There was someone
else You no longer remember JD. As this creature pulls back in for a
moment, you all hear the laughter of your friend laughter that Scarlet you remember
as JDS and Heather you remember as JD's. But Ricky, you just hear
a laugh. You're not sure whose it is, what was your role?
Melissa's too? Your success is unempathize. For a moment, you feel as
you're charging up, you feel this lethargy hit your soul, and you feel
yourself wanting to freeze, to not move, to curl up, sort of
like you did back in the closet of your foster home, so to speak.
And you are able to fight it off with the sounds of the waterfall
in the background, with the power raging inside of you. But you see
your friends fall, and you see as the creature begins to mimic your own
levitation as it lifts from its own feet and begins to descend the pyramid.
We are back at the top of the order. Scarlet, what do you
do? She's gonna hold her action. She she's going to get up,
and like tears are like freezing onto her cheeks from the cold, and so
she brushes them aside, and she grips her shield and her gun. Uh,
she's not going to shoot yet. She's going to move to cover you,
covering Heather or Ricky or yourself herself. But she's moving, She's not
moving further away from the group. She's staying. Like if we were,
if Ricky's in front of Heather, Scarlett is going to be up more ahead
of head of ahead of and in front of Ricky. Okay, so you're
still taking point on the defense as Scarlett is able to pull herself over.
I'm a going to make you make a move, roll or anything here.
You're able to cover this distance easily as you hold your action for any attack
that comes your friend's way. Melissa Heather is fully charged, and you see
your friends are hurting, perhaps worse than you've ever seen them hurt before.
As there's noticeable damage to Scarlet as she moves a hero always and defends you,
putting herself between you and Ricky. But which of the age of always
heir to the Mobius throne? What do you do? Man? As a
scarlet falls, I think she's calls out no scarlet and then yeah, she
wants in that moment to shrink back, and she wants to close her eyes.
But you know, her memories go back to the last time she felt
hope, which was in the paperback exchange with Miss Maggie and Miss Maggie's message
to them, the words coming off of the page and glowing and spinning around
her and in the same at the same time. I think that's what that's
the form that the magic takes as the light fills her the words I believe
in you, circling around and around in the similar fashion to the magical notes
used by the Shadowman, and I think she spins with them, and when
enough energy has been built up, she sends all of that energy of hope
and love and light at the Shadowman. Roll me two D twelve. I'm
willing to use everything here, by the way, So I don't know what
pride would do. Immediate success with a pride, and do you want me
to roll my dice as well? Or well, you have one success,
roll your dice to see what we add to it, right, So I
got a nine and an on eleven on my dice rolls, and then I
have a success with my pride. Right, So that's four total. Because
we have a high enough success on the D twelve to give you two,
the nine will give you one, and then we have the h with your
pride, So that is a grand total of four successes. Do we want
to also add rolls in for my book light? Absolutely, because we're using
it all right, that's your focus? Yea, absolutely? Please call.
We have a lot of stuff in play here. People make sure and we
have another sess fantastic. I love it. So that is five total successes
described to me as these words believe in you. All the words that were
part of the titles and the spines of the books that Maggie the Queen's Witch
used before to communicate with you, all now become the offensive power of the
newest witch. As Heather draws all of the light and all of the words,
and all of the love into herself and blasts it out in a focus
from the itty bitty book light towards the creature as it's descending from the pyramid.
It strikes the creature, and the creature wails, and you see the
inky black in the same spot, right over the heart where the everyone has
landed a hit. It blisters away and for a moment you see flesh,
you see pink skin, and then it's gone. But the creature's levitation immediately
ceases and it drops to the ground hard. It falls back, and you
think would have fallen on its back if the actual geometry of the pyramid didn't
keep it leaning. I need you to make me a force roll as a
wave of energy comes back at you, this darkness, this dirge music,
almost in a retaliatory strike, in the success is how is he firing this
magic in this respect? You don't know. It almost looks like it was
automatic. As soon as Heather was hit, this pulse comes out of it.
You see it affect the tree line. You see as snow comes off
the trees in the distance, almost like a sonic boom. But Ricky and
Scarlet, you don't feel it as it passes over you. But you watch
as Heather gets blasted from her perch, the words spinning away as they burn
up like paper and fire. I need you to take two conditions as you
drop to the ground. She'll be upset and injured, I think. As
she falls to the ground, her head hits the ground and her glasses fall
off and one of the lenses shatters, and you feel more than the others,
Heather, there is a physical injury that has occurred, and you don't
know what. But it's something in your chest. It's something sorry, it's
hard to say, it's something that feels like it broke and you, Ricky
and scar watch as blood sprays from the mouth and nose of Heather as she
hits the ground, and it's kind of comes to rest, making the snow
around pink as her glasses hit the ground beside her. Ricky as he sort
of hits the ground. Does you said he hits the ground and he leans
up against the pyramid. Does he look disorientated at all? From that?
You can't tell. There's just there's no way to really read anything that it
appears that this creature doesn't want you to read. You can smell certain things,
you can tell when it's looking at you, but as far as pain
or disorientation or confusion or you know, stunned, you're not sure. But
this is the first time you haven't seen it standing upright. If that makes
any differences. It's definitely compromised in that it's leaning back. Okay, Ricky's
going to see this as an opportunity to try and close the distance, to
get right up to him. If he can reach him, his goal is
to almost tackle him and hold his arms to himself. Okay, roll me
a move. Roll. You're gonna just like Scarlet, You're going to make
progress. But this is basically like, can you get up the pyramid?
I'd like to use luck, Greg to reroll. Please do some Oh jeez,
no successes. I think that's the first time I've ever failed a lucky
rule. As Ricky moves forward, Ricky, you feel more injured, perhaps
apps then you thought. As you stumble forward, your your legs are weak.
They are. It's the snow there, they're chill there. The circulation's
poor. But there's also a weakness about this as you stumble forward. I'm
going to say, though, that you make it through the snow to the
base of the pyramid. The references point for everybody here. Ricky is now
at the base of the pyramid. Scarlet and Heather have pulled back, Scarlet
being forced back. Ricky has made the base, and maybe fifteen feet twenty
feet at an angle is the creature like two kind of steps of the pyramid
up from where Ricky is. So Ricky is the closest, but you all
probably have a better view of them. You know. Ricky gets still shoot
if he needs to, but I mean it's you all can see this kind
of playing out from the distance that you have back from all this and the
creature. If you have anything else to do, Bud, do you want
to try anything? No, I don't think you'd try and buy I At
this point, he's trying to get to him. That was his only goal.
I tell you what, if you want to kind of burn more movement
instead of having an action, I will allow you to kind of essentially dash
if that's something you would like to do. Yep, So give me another
movement role, another move role. Wow, six off. That's eighteen dice
with no sixes. We're going to say, though, because you know this
was I'm not going to have you not have any type of movement or forward
momentum. You're able to kind of climb up, and it's so difficult as
you kind of post up and push like you're getting out of a pool.
Ricky lands and kind of slips and is looking up at the next level above
where this creature is now writing itself and it is going to attack Heather and
Scarlet because it's certainly knows Ricky is a threat, but it suffered more damage
from the other two. She's gonna ship as he's preparing to gather himself,
she's intentially trying to interrupt him. Okay, So I tell you what.
At the same time, I want you to roll your D twelve and I
also need you to roll move rolls for both Heather and Scarlet. One success,
your successes and no successes. I gonna use my luck to reroll that
move. Okay, please two successes? Oh okay, so with two successes,
you take one condition, Heather, you take two conditions. Please buck
things up a little bit. Oh, I'd love to hear. Yes,
she was waiting to cover an attack being made, and maybe he maybe she
tells that he's he glances at Heather. So her two successes, she's transferring
to Heather and she is throwing her she's she like it's like she throws the
shield up to try and block the or deflect a portion of the h the
attack. I will one hundred allow that. Heather, you do not take
any damage, but Scarlet, you will be knocked out. All right,
I've been saying, I've been kind of saving this idea for you. Did
get your shot off too, because you I did shoot. I got one
success from my shot. This is a this is kind of like a role
for bullshit. I only have Yeah, I only have one luck and I
just spent it to uh re roll that is it possible to permanently burn that
one luck point? Excuse me? Now? What now? I want to
permanently permanent burn that luck point so I don't gain it back and what do
you get in return for that? The ability to do just one more role,
Yeah, to essentially reroll my move role again or something else. I
tell you what, reroll your move role, but we're keeping the two successes
that you have and then let me. If you're going to do that,
then I want to give you something more than just an extra role. Nope,
here's what I'm going to propose. And again, if you want to
keep your luck point, I'll still allow you to do it. Since there
wasn't really an additional success there. You're going to prevent any damage from getting
through to Heather. But instead of being knocked out and for all intents and
purposes out of the fight, I will allow you to stay upright. You
will have four conditions instead of the five that would knock you out. But
you are hurting. But this is Scarlet's pride, pride, This is Scarlet's
determination, the same determination that allowed her to get on the football field,
that got her to play, that got her on the high school team.
This is that same determination that you now forget that you ever did, as
those accomplishments are ripped from you. But the one accomplishment that cannot be ripped
from you is the fact that your friend behind you is unscathed from the attack
and Heether. You will watch a Scarlet jumps in front, throwing the shield
as the hubcap is ripped away by this blast because of both the awkward kind
of move that worked, but again it hit and just kind of twisted and
wrenched Scarlet's body. As Scarlet you drop to the ground, You're still up
on one knee, but you are bleeding as well. You feel it from
your left ear as blood comes down off of the lobe. And Heather,
you see your friend as she is wobbling and she's trying to stand. Yeah,
she's trying to push yourself up. Maybe maybe blood from a head wound
is starting to leap down her her neck and onto her shoulder. You see
the creature pull itself up to its full height. The attacks that were meant
for both Scarlet and Heather thwarted by scarlet sacrifice, and the creature looks around
just a breef is all happening, and beats of the heart. It looks
around and you can all sense that it smiles as you see this kind of
disturbance on its chest begin to slowly get darker and darker, and the ink
creeps across it once again, around, and you all hear in your minds,
even though you can't see a mouth open, you have proven formidable.
And for that your prize is oblivion. And it raises its hands. It'll
all are one. You will stand down. The creature turns and looks at
the face of the newcomer. It looks confused. For a moment, you
smell the confusion. You smell they the absence of, I don't know,
hackiness. The arrogance seems to dissipate for a moment. Wait, who are
you? I am the inheritor of my father's spark and the protector of Garret
Bryan, but most of all in the son of a witch who's got to
kick your ass. Yeah, that's one of my favorite things that's ever happened
in the show. Friends. I would like to welcome Fragg's playing and reprising
the role of Rob Ott, original founding member of the Autobots from Atari Twilight.
And he is here. But before we understand why he is here,
we have to look back and see what has happened. So everybody take a
pause as we flash back fifteen twenty minutes, Rob Maggie is in the chair.
She is gone, her body still sits there, but you are in
the paperback exchange. The paramedics are on their way. You can hear the
distant sound of the ambulance, but again, the snow is packed and it'll
be difficult for them to get here in a timely manner. And you are
alone for a moment, more so maybe than ever, as the paperback exchange
has lost its caretaker, or one of its caretakers. But then you hear
a voice from behind you. I'm what remains of your mother's magic? What
do you do? My friend? He's going to turn around and just say
hello. Does he see anybody or does he just feel and hear the presence?
You see a beautiful young woman. She is standing in the dress that
you saw Maggie wear in nineteen sixty nine, with it's long and flowy,
with a flower child's skirt. I'm here to help you. I was.
I'm your mother's magic. All that's left? Really, Mom, Well,
what do you mean all that's left? What's the rest of it? I'm
I'm not what I once was. I I'm just a dash of magic.
All that remains. She wanted me to help you. I suppose that's what
you can call me dash And she looks just like young Maggie's. Well she
doesn't. She's dressed like young Maggie, but she looks like her own person.
What do I need to do? What's what's what's wrong? Help me?
Help me with what? I am so lost? Right now? She's
gone, you're here, She shakes her head when you say that she's gone.
No, no, don't grieve. She's returned to the waterfall, and
she will return when when her light is needed. Magic and the witches that
wheelded are never truly gone. But I need her now. She can't just
leave me alone. It's just it's just me. What if they come back,
It's it's us. I'm here. I can help you and your Your
mother and your father left you one last thing. Do you want it?
Oh? I'm not. I'm not gonna say no. She lifts her hands,
and a dim light creeps through the paperback exchange, and everybody, if
you could play track number thirteen nice and low, if you will. She
lifts her arms and this glow encompasses everything, but it focuses on the crystals,
and the crystals that hang throughout the Paperback Exchange begin to swirl and tingle,
and they break free of the fishing line holding them, and they rush
together, combining to form a box. And there is something inside, and
you hear the voice of Maggie, your birthright, my son, there is
a place where dreams survive, calling you to victory. And as the box
begins to spin closer towards you, this box of crystal and light, you
hear the voice of Optimus. The great wheel has turned to the final age.
Your time has come, my son, Go light our darkest hour,
arise, Rob, a miss Prime. Inside the box of crystals, wrapped
with the love of your parents, lies the autobot matrix of leadership, pulled
from the comic books of the Paperback Exchange by Maggie, like the other weapons
of legend, and infused with the might of the legendary Prime Optimist. Rob,
you are now Garrett's only defender and the wielder of all of the knowledge
gained by all of the heroes that have come before you dash. The last
remnants of your mother's magic staggers for a moment, and the crystals clink as
the box kind of shutters in front of you. Rob the kids that we're
here with Maggie. They're dying, but nothing has them. What do we
do? Where are they? And we cut to the glen as the mag
truck graveyard and the rest is history. As the last autobot faces the nothing
that is facing Garrett, Rob have just arrived and this is a sneak attack,
my friend, what would you like to do? Well? As Rob
kind of comes out of the the darkness per se and steps into the fight,
he's gonna just take his right hand and almost forced push straight center mass
of this guy as he finishes telling him to stand down, or actually or
actually finishes telling him who he is. And it's going to be like almost
like a light can cut light as a spectral light concussive blast just straight into
him. Roll me two D twelve, my friends, as you launch your
attack versus this creature, if you want to use the drop down on the
side, but that's probably the easiest if you want to see yeah, it's
been a while, it's been a while. Yep. The very last thing
on the left hand side, you'll see it, says Dice. If you
click on that, it'll bring up your roller and you can do two D
twelve and two. Okay, is it not doing the same thing as it
used to? Yeah, it's just doing your right now. It's just doing
the figure that you sliced in there. So it's easier just to go over
to that that dice thing on the side. There's a on the thing with
the hand and the pointer all the way at the bottom. It will say
dice on the left hand side. And if you click that, it'll bring
up the roller. Yep, I see you're so smart. Is he Is
he an Atari Twilight Age of Always? No, he's in He's in Atari
Twilight the actual roller, the the they're the autobox side okay at eighteen total
seven and a seven as three successes launched towards this creature, and again this
creature had just started its recuperative movement as this light pounds into it. As
again it's almost like focused from the very reality that is Garrett. As rob
attacks and Ricky, you feel this creature pushed as it almost reverberates through the
pyramid it hits, and you see some of the snow kind of rock off
the top of it as it turns, and the attack that it was going
to launch at the entirety of all of you is thwarted as it spins and
drops to one knee, stunned for this round, let us start again from
the top. Rob, you are going to go last. As we go
through Scarlet, Heather, Ricky, and Rob as the creature is unmoving,
at least for a moment, down on one knee. The culmination of quite
a few hits in the last couple of moments. Oh you're muted. G
am, I muted. Now you are, Now you're fine, Now you're
fine. Sorry, I'm just talking quietly. Then, okay, mmmmm yeah,
she's going to use her pride. Almost forgot. I need Rob,
if you would, Rob, what is your best skill? I'm pretty sure
it was your mind and something else. But what is your one that has
the most dice associated with it? I'm pretty sure for you, I mean
double empathize. I think empathize. Roll that one for me. Okay,
let me get to it. One success, one success. Five conditions may
be taken off of any of the keystones. As Rob arrives, an aura
surrounds him, produced by the matrix of leadership. My friends, you have
five conditions to be removed. Rob can dictate who loses what you can talk
amongst yourselves for a moment. How would you like to delineate these five heels?
I feel like it should be up to them with how they feel about
my arrival. Very good? Who has what? Scarlett is broken? No,
I'm just I'm just injured. Frank's what do we see of Rob when
he appears like he no longer has his park on? Uh, he's got
a long sleeved shirt that just it says paperback Exchange on it. He's still
wearing his work clothes essentially, but you know, he's got shorter red hair.
He's got his glasses on, but he's got about a half It looks
like the old mask that he used to wear back when he was a kid,
but it's it's only a half mask now and just regular blue jeans and
snow boots. I love that Rob is still practical and has snow boots on
walking. Yeah, you didn't have time to switch into his superhero oupit the
greatest. Okay, So my friends, you have as Rob has arrived,
you have five heels to spread amongst yourselves. Mike is put into the chat
four three and two. Spread between all of you, how today you feel
My suggestion would be one to Ricky, two to Heather, and two to
Scarlet. My suggestion would be three to Scarlet, one to Heather, and
one to Ricky. And the reason is, sorry, for mechanics, Scarlet's
not going to hit with a force, is not, I mean sorry,
Heather's not going to hit with a force. Scarlet and Ricky can So scar
Heather only has magic really to do to help, and so I'm using the
D twelve. So I'd also say Ricky is distracted, he hasn't seen Rob's
behind him, So it makes sense for Scarlet and Heather to take you all
just know. Let's let's do Let's go with a G suggestion and do two
to two one, then remove all of the conditions. Based on that,
Scarlett would be down to two, Heather down to one, and Ricky down
to one. As this magic of Maggie may begins to course through all of
you. So let's start from the top. Now that you have this newfound
uh invigoration. What would you like to do? Scarlett h she was down
on one knee and she glances over her shoulder and she sees Rob and she
just was like like her face just kind of like lights up with surprise.
And she turns back to the nothing and she she just mutters under her breast
like you're going down, dickhead, and she put like like like a runner
out of the starting block. She launches forward and she's going to shoot at
him. Are you trying to close the distance for a move role or is
this just kind of a flavor for you to just like jump up and move
or are you trying to close She doesn't. She's got a brain weapon.
She doesn't need to get up too close, gotcha, So row me your
D twelve please. As you fire off now, I will give you the
same option that I gave to Heather. If you want to essentially charge up,
and that means pull your other gun out and aim with both of the
guns, I will allow you to do that for a round. The result
of that would be as Heather had was two D twelve in one particular round,
which I will let you know this, The more successes that hit in
a given round, the better it is than cumulatives sixes. If that makes
sense. Expect that at the end of every round he gets a little bit
of healing. So the more that you can pile on in one particular round,
the better. I didn't hear you what you said. Yeah, sorry,
that's what she will do. She will as she because she no longer
has the shield, so now she has her free hand. She's going to
leap up and run basically to be a moving target. And she's going to
draw both guns. So as you draw and both of the guns are out,
you begin to aim as you're kind of flanking the area, you know,
drawing eyes, drawing attention, you know, just the motion itself.
Not necessarily aggressive, but definitely if there's a threat assessment going on, you
know, this creature has to take you into consideration as you move to attack
Heather. I think she's on the ground right, so she she's gonna she'll
stand up and uh wipe the blood off of her face. Her glasses are
still on the ground, uh, as as well as her anty bitty book
light. She uh doesn't doesn't pause to look at Rob I think, given
what they're doing. But she she's gonna draw her sword, the porporal sword,
and can we do this again where we do to things in a round?
So so she will take a moment again to pull in the power of
the light, thinking uh as she does about the words that she mentioned to
the other two on their walk here, and that is there is you know,
always hope out there, and so's she's going to look for the constellation
and that's it. That'll be it for her own very good And I shouldn't
make mention because it's only fair of me to do so that I did say
that the creature was stunned. So do not expect a move from the creature
this round mechanically, just to make that completely clear. So if anybody wants
to do a charge maneuver like Scarlet and Heather have done, that is open
to both Ricky and Rob. So as we drop down to Ricky, Ricky,
what would you like to do? As you're at the base of the
pyramid looking up and you see the creature moving definitely in a more erratic,
less confident fashion with the arrival of Rob, because you saw a blast and
voice that you don't recognize coming from behind you. But you're, like you
mentioned, you're fixated on the target, so you haven't technically seen Rob.
What would you like to do? My friend? So from memory, Ricky
was one step below him on the wreck. Yeah, you're right, one
tier below one tier of blood perfect and these are about chest high. Is
that right? A little bit more? Yeah, you're like you got to
like kind of jump up and hop and pull yourself up. So they're probably
like seven eight feet and he had dropped down to a knee. Is that
correct? Yeah, Ricky wants to jump and grab anything on him, like
as if he was wearing a shirt. He grab the shirt and then use
everything he can to pull him backwards and throw him down the pyramid. Absolutely,
go ahead and roll me a force here as you are going to be
able to clear this moment. Let's go, let's go. Wow. Can
I use my pride here? Greg? You absolutely success. I'llp eurn my
pride for that. And because the creature is stunned, its resistances are down.
And so you all see as Ricky jumps up and grabs the ink.
And when you grab the ink, you start to see it creeping up your
fingernails, to your knuckles, to your hand, in the back of your
back of your hand, and back of your palm. As you grab it,
you use the kind of the lip for the edge where you would normally
push yourself off, and you push backwards and fling this creature over your head
as it begins to it goes with you. It's not necessarily heavy, it's
strange. It's heavy enough, like you know, like you were lifting a
human, but it almost seems like it should be denser, but it isn't.
And you all watch as Ricky kind of almost like a souplex throws this
thing over its head and it starts to fly the extra tear down towards the
ground. Rob, what would you like to do? I want to catch
them in mid air and hit them with a stunner. RKO out of nowhere,
babe, that's right. You never know when the viper is going to
strike, Buddy, do me a f and let's see roll me a force.
But again, I fully expect this to not go the way I'm hoping
it does. These are completely untested powers. And Rob's never done this before.
He just watches wrestling. That's exact move. But roll me a force
and then I need you to roll me a D twelve after you roll your
force. Two successes on the force, yep, two successes and you said
two D twelve just one D twelve twelve? Baby? Yeah, so almost
like the tag team champs or somebody that has worked together through matches eternal as
Ricky throws is kind of like belly to belly souplex off of the top of
or the second level of the pyramid out of nowhere. No one saw it
coming. As Rob closes the distance and throws this neck breaker for anbody that
does not really sure what a stunner or an RKAO is. Rob reaches up
and almost over his own shoulder, grabs the head of this creature and using
both body weights, drive them both into the snow into the ground, and
when it hits you all see a slash of that's not brilliant because it's so
dull, but darkness almost splashes out of this thing as it coats the snow.
You see it, and it goes everywhere. It's you see that Rob
has it all over like something popped, almost like a balloon. Instead of
filled with water, it's filled with ink. As it just sprays over the
side of Rob, coating half of his face in a bizarre yang yang type
of look. And as he's laying there for a moment, the creature is
still, you know, stunned and then has been stunned, is lying there
on its back as we don't have a turn for it and go to the
top of the round again with g G. You have two D twelve since
you've been aiming and your aim is pretty fucking great. Yeah it is.
She is gonna get closer, Yeah, fucking is, Greg, of course
it is. Yeah, actually it is. So yeah, she's gonna move
a little closer because now technically the two boys are standing there and he's on
the ground, so he's like a prone figure. So she's gonna she's gonna
run up a some piles of junk and like, and she's gonna leap into
the air and she's gonna shoot down at this motherfucker. All right, to
do it, let's go one success and I'm gonna add my pride for two
successes. Okay, so in total, everybody for the round of stunning and
this current round, just so everybody knows that we are currently up to eight
successes on this character or this creature. As we go to Melissa, who
is also charging up, what would you like to do? So Heather is
going to not not charge with the weapon, but instead pointed at him and
using that as a focus, send this power of light. But this time
it's joined with the crackling energy of the uh bur the porporal crackling lightning energy,
right, so surrounding nickersna. So I will roll to twelve two D
twelve come well, okay, so that was once? Uh? Can I
use luck to reroll that first one? You sure can't? All right,
I'm going to do that. Can I push to roll that one again?
Sure? All right? You just have to take a condition, but that's
it. I will. So she is injured and now she's going to be
scared again. Okay, okay, so two successes, very good. I'm
going to go through everybody before we see what happens. As I am doing
some mental math, Ricky. As you turn, you see a figure that
you met maybe once before, and again this person was much younger the last
time that you met eight years to be exact, maybe even a little more.
It looks a little bit older, but you see the devastating combo effect
of the two attacks that you had just levied. And for a moment,
as you look into the face of rob, your mind whispers to you,
just as that splash goes off, just as like that blackness kind of sprays
everywhere, you look at the newcomer and you think to yourself, is that
JD? But what do you do now, my friend, he is on
the floor. There are no bad ideas. You guys just did a belly
to belly suplex off a supernatural creature into a stunner. There's no bad ideas,
friend, and then you just got shot. Well, there's a lot
going on. I don't know, Greg, Does Ricky have the crystal on
him? Both came back. Yes, since the rematerialization, you do have
the crystal because that was in your possession before you left. This is the
one from Bubo. Yeah, and how big was that crystal? It was?
Bubo could carry it, so it was probably like three or four inches
long, maybe like a I mean, it's a larger crystal, but you've
seen Miss Maggie's and stuff. She has like stalagtites, So this is like,
uh, you know, three or four inches long and probably his thick
around as like a paper towel roll. Okay, And Ricky doesn't recognize rob
as connected. Oh, it would recognize them as connected to Miss Maggie right
from the paper back exchange you just saw him. Yeah, but just reason
is right, he's only forgotten JB. Ricky's gonna take out the crystal.
You motherfucker, you named yourself Rob Cornelius Ott, I'm sorry. I'm sorry,
Chris, go ahead, sorry, And Ricky's gonna give that to Rob
because Rob is right there. Yes, And he looked to Rob and says,
I believe this is for you, and he's gonna hand out the crystal
to Roll. Well, you're still a little bit higher, so you can
throw it to him if you want. Ricky still abovest. Yeah, he's
gonna throw the crystal down to Robe. Okay, So what I want you
to do here is my friend, I want you to roll a I'm gonna
let you do this, roll me a D twelve and let's just see what
that does. Hey, Rob, you see this crystal coming towards you.
You know, crystal's about as well as anybody now now that Maggie's gone.
But you see this crystal coming flying towards you, and you have one action
here before the creature is unstunned. What would you like to do? Uh
Am, I still on the on the ground parallel with the creature after after
the hit, and look up and see the crystal coming towards me. Right,
you guys are basically like head to head right now. So it's heads
like right here and its body's going this way, and you're lying like this
after having just delivered the r k O Cornelius, which, to be fair,
I named myself that because I came out of nowhere. The r k
O was just circumstantial. Thanks, very sure, that's what happened. Just
so happened to work out. So he's gonna catch it and turn and kind
of come up on a knee and take that crystal and jam it into this
thing's head. Very good, my friend. You roll me a D twelve
as well. Cool? Oh yeah, I'm not gonna see that role.
Let's go, let's go. I was Derek at the chat wondering why can't
I see it? That was one? And would you like to use your
luck? I do, yes, Yes, I do want to do that.
Yes, And everybody's saying, right now, wait a minute, Rob's
too old for luck. Rob has one luck. I have one luck and
I rolled in eleven. Yes, so keystones and Rob a miss prime as
you this combo move comes in as again one success is thrown with the crystal
as Rob grabs it and brings it down onto the creature just as the two
shots hit into it, just as the light from the vorpal snicker snack combines
with the eldritch energy of the vorpal blade, and it strikes this creature.
True and you all hear as the creature begins to sizzle. The creature says,
I have no time for this, but your faces are known to me,
and you see it melt into the earth. Scarlet's gonna unleash a couple
more shots into the if she can before he goes. Roll me D twelve.
You need it twelve here, please? Roll twelve would have been fucking
awesome. No, just as its head goes into the snow, just as
like the tip of what would be its nose kind of goes past that plane,
right where its eyes would have been in this humanoid head that's featureless,
you see a shot hit the snow in dirt, just as Scarlet needed just
one more beat to be able to shoot this thing like our friend A good
point in chat, Greg, is he melting or is he splashing like Homer
Simpson through a bush face? Do I Rob? Rob? No, your
ears do not pop? Okay, Rob, roll me a comprehend and yeah,
roll me a comprehend one success, he just dove. You know it.
You've done it. This is something that Mitch used to do. He
just dove after she misses her shots. Rob's gonna pull his mask down and
scream out, take a good look, motherfucker, and just start punching the
ground where you just melt it into fantastic mind not in a good space.
As Rob is punching the ground having just lost his mom, Maggie, I'm
gonna take this moment as a gm to let the Keystones know what has just
occurred. I'm not going to tell you what would have happened if you had
gone north, but because you went south, Rob faced this creature with you.
If you had not gone south, he would have faced it alone.
And I can tell you this right now. At the very least, the
Autobots would have lost the paperback Exchange, all of its secrets, all of
its magic would have been gone. The HQ, the sanctus sanctorum of both
the Autobots and the Keystones would have been eradicated from this in every world.
But you all saved that. Today, my friends, as the snow swirls
and you are all cold, you are back in Garrett. What do you
do? I think? Scarlet kneels down as Rob is punching the ground,
and she doesn't say anything to him, but she just kind of crouches next
to him, and she just puts a hand on his shoulder, just to
let him know that he's not alone. And she just kind of sits there.
Maybe her chin is resting on her knee and her hands up on his
shoulder, and as he's punching the ground, and she's just present, you
don't want some tea? And Rob's gonna kind of start making us way back
to the paperback exchange. Rob, as you say that and start walking away,
you hear a voice, the voice of Dash, the bit of magic
that Maggie has left, and she invisible to everybody else. She is looking
at these newcomers, to Scarlett, to Ricky, and a lot towards Heather.
As she says to Rob, there from where I'm from. Rob's gonna
stop. Where is that? The age of always? It's where magic comes
from, well most of it. And she looks at Heather. She's been
in the waterfall, she's been with your mom. He's going to look at
him and then he's going to signal for him to follow him, and said,
no, y'all need some tea. He's going to try to get him
to, you know, follow him back to the paperback exchange, because there's
definitely a conversation that's gonna need to be had. No, you do that.
There's going to help Scarlet up off the ground, all right, Are
you okay, Scarlet? I can't hear you. Yeah, I wonder why.
I don't think so, but yeah, And then she's gonna help Ricky
up. Ricky's up on the gonna push him down and then help him up.
Ricky's on the top of the belt. Okay, Ricky, so he
could grab it and jump down. Yeah, he jumps down. And then
so Heather goes, yeah, are you okay? I I don't. I
don't. I don't think so. Her hands are covered in blood and she's
still got thismeard blood on her face, and she's going to yeah, she
rips, she reads down and rips part of her shirt like the strip that
pople doing movies all the time, and she uses the strip from her shirt
to wipe the blood off Heather's hands. I don't, do you see my
glasses? So, like he's leaving and I can't leave my glasses here?
Do you see them? Ricky? Such is for them? Yeah, yeah,
you quickly find them one side packed with snow. But I hope they're
right. Thanks, All right, let's yeah, let's go. They'll follow
Rob and I think they're all limping. I don't know how injured Ricky is,
but Garlic Heather are injured. I'll say for the sake of the narrative
that as you are are walking and when you get there, the paramedics have
taken Maggie. There is a note left at the paperback exchange. There's messages
on the old like real to real cassette answering machine that's in there, you
know, basically people asking, you know, where Rob is? Is he
okay? People are concerned now that they found, you know, Maggie had
expired. It didn't seem to be you know, nefarious by any stretch of
the imagination. But you know, Rob wasn't there when the paramedics arrived.
So there's kind of a you know, people looking for Rob, so to
speak. But you all get there and it's sort of like the last place
they would look for Rob is the paperback exchange, now that they've kind of
realized he's not there, But Maggie's no longer there at least her her remains
are no longer there when you arrive. So when we get there, Rob's
going to ask, where where have you been? I've seen you here before?
And Garrett, will you remember us? Do you remember us? Something
tells me I should, but yeah, I don't really remember that many details.
You were late at chess game? You were at four four fourteen?
Oh well yeah, wait Heather, Yeah, where have you been? She?
Uh? Heather blushes, and then she just looks at Scarlet, expecting
Scarlet to fill in the answers yeah. When he says, well, where
were you, Scarlet kind of looks down. We were in a place called
the Age of Always. Did you die there? She shakes her head.
No, we I don't know what we did. Well she technically she doesn't
know what diving is, so she would say, I don't know what that
is, but we went with flag. Randall Flagg He is not gonna enjoy
that answer. You guys are playing with flag. That's not not super cool.
Given the situation we were just in, you know, that was probably
likely his doing, right, It's complicated. He's he told he told us
he was out to stop what was affecting Garrett. He's the reason this is
happening to Garrett, how I did you? Did you did you see did
you see any of the others? Did you see Mitch? Yeah? And
Haleen? Any of them? You love Shan Halen is the one who sent
us here. It was Mitche getting my messages. Did he mention anything about
hearing from me or anything? No, he's weird, now, he he's
weird. He just he doesn't. He's weird. He's the Wizard of Oz
And I'm not joking. So a your other friends there too, a whole
bunch of them, but spin yeah, out of gang quickly. Was Scarlet
conscious when Ben showed up? Yes? Wait, no, no, I
can't remember. Well remember when when Bumblebee showed up in the car drove up
Roland got out. Yeah, but we saw him getting We saw him.
He's like, I'm making my attack run and he yes, you saw that.
You saw that? Okay, So she knows that that Ben was there,
and that Ben would be roughly the same age as this rob. This
Rob seems a little bit older though than that Ben. Yeah, Ben was
there, and the whole shipload of Jerry's and George's you know how to get
back. She glances at Ricky. Ricky nods in the back if I can
find the road, and she turns back to Rob eternity road. It's how
it's how we travel, or how Ricky can travel. It's complicated. Yeah,
Rob's going to reach around the counter and pull out a more modern looking
walkie talkie. Uh that's like neon looking, you know, see through controller,
game boy type stuff all over it. And it's got like three crystals,
two of them duct taped to the side and one of them just tied
onto the antenna with wire. Can you take me? We have to find
it well to figure out how to do that. Ricky looks to Scarlet and
Heather. When we told we needed to come back here, Yeah, now
we're going to leave. You don't have to come with me if you just
want to show me where to go. Came back, Ricky did were I
did something? I mean, what you guys are still like twelve, You
probably shouldn't go whatever, And Ricky wrote me a D twelve, I have
an idea for how we can locate the thing. Even as you are well,
we have to come and help you because lions there and bitch e v
H is there and there, yeah, and your dad is there, and
really you can't get there without us anyway, So yeah, you have Ricky
has to go with you, and Ricky's not going to go or Ricky's not
going without us. That's right, Ricky, you know, okay, as
in we're going to go where Ricky goes. Considering all the weird ship I
did when I was a kid, I guess that's fine. So where is
it, Ricky? Yeah, Ricky, where is it? M u h.
Outside, I can tell you that much. But what has been going
on? Well, what has happened in the last however many years, eight
years, that's uh, it's a little tough to explain, honestly, m
h. And I really don't know where to begin. When I came back
and this was gone and everybody just kind of stopped caring. He took the
loop, right, Yeah, that's what Flag told us. Yeah, he
uh, he rolled the loop into a swan dive. I guess you could
call it. And I don't really know where he's currently at, but I
know where it ends. Where does it end? What? Yeah, it's
a whole looping time thing. That's kind of hard to explain because it already
happened, but it hasn't yet and uh, well, I need to pull
him out of it. We all need to, Like you said, George
and Jerry are already there. And then so I don't. I don't know
if I've just been left out or if it's they're alternates. Do you remember
JD? No? I barely remember you, guys. I'm sorry, it's
been over a decade. Yeah, then that's okay because when you got when
you guys pop back in to Garrett on the rooftop of the mall, we
technically weren't really introduced very well. And then Ricky and I went with George
and Jerry, and you went with Shannon and Mitch and Heather and JD.
So oh yeah, good question. Do we remember JD? You certainly do,
Ricky does not, Okay, but it's for Rob too, and Fraggs
is doing an incredible job here of trying to fill in blanks without ruining any
narrative. But you probably would remember that there was another person there. But
again, yeah, I'm just basing off of like kind of myself. I
have a hard time remembering faces and people. So yep, nothing nefarious,
just yeah, yeah, it's just a timeframe thing. He was, he
was the one that was really smart. Yeah, he said all the smart
things apparently. Oh and he's gonna point to Heather, your friend, right,
Yeah, Okay, I mean I guess I kind of I know of
him. I remember being around him, but I don't know what his middle
name is. Well, do you know Wendy, Because Wendy, when you
seem to remember things, was really angry with Mitch. Wait she could he
couldn't remember things, and she was mad with him. No, she couldn't
remember, and then nobody could remember. Yeah, and then a balder hit
attack and a lot of I spent a lot of time in this paperback exchange
with Maggie. My memory is not nearly what it should be. She was
from the sixties. Uh, I'm sorry about Maggie, by the way.
Yeah, it's uh, it's still kind of processing. But luckily I'm finding
a way to get older it, or did not get over it, get
through it, miss mister Ott. I think we should we should go to
the age of always, But I think you should know that we don't even
know if your friends are good people. I brought up JD because he was
leading them. He was like their general, and they were attacking Emerald City.
Those are alternates and it has to be was defending it. He called
himself Casey, not much, but also just to clarify too, the only
like an autobot that you saw that was older and not the age that you
remember was Ben. All of the George's, all of the Jerry's, all
of them were still kids. Okay, yeah, do we know if it's
your friend that was the wizard? He kind of half locks to call it.
Well, didn't he tell us that one time that he was the only
one left. I just whatever the hell that means? I don't know.
I don't know. I bet mister Rott would know if he if he met
him. We don't know him well enough. And you're talking about your JD
fella Rob, still very confused. He left, Yeah, he just disappeared
one night, and that's when all this shit started happening to us. And
last next time we saw him, he's leading this army attacking the city.
Oh sorry, he was attacking Loop, which was the Emerald City. Yeah.
Yeah, your friends, your friends with our friend were attacking the city
against Niche who's your age? Those weren't my friends. Well they weren't his
friends either, because you know they were throwing boulders at him. But Ben
was there, and I know he's as you were. I do have an
idea for locating at least the direction of the road when the time comes.
So yeah, but I know that Ricky looks to Rob. However, whichever
side it's on, it seems like you might be able to end that war,
whether it's right or wrong. So I guess I better get you to
the age of Always and the crystal. JD had the crystal that there's plenty
of crystals. That was Boobo's crystal. Oh is it? Oh? Well,
sorry, I assume that JD gave it to him. Ricky doesn't remember
JD. Oh right, Ricky took and goes, let me go outside.
Let me see if I can figure out which direction is the road, and
he says, take his leave and go outside. Twelve. Since you're out
there, it seems like just walking outside, you hear a whisper on the
wind. Now that you can feel the wind, now that you can hear
the crunch of the snow. Actually no, because Robin shuffled off this area
that you're standing on. So as you're looking out into the still pelting snow,
you can see the tracks where the ambulance came up to the front of
the paperback exchange. But you look just up the street and you hear a
whisper coming from the library. Can't hear what it says, but it's something
something. Ricky opens the door and just says, I remember being told that
the road will shift. I can hear something. We need to go towards
the library. There's something there, and if it is the road and it's
going to move, we might not have long. I think when Scarlett goes
out, she stops when she sees like the tire tracks of the the first
responder that was there and by for a moment, she stops and she looks
the direction they would have gone, and she just thinks about her dad.
He probably responded to the call whenever she saw him. Remember, Yeah,
Yeah, so I'm in the track heading back towards the paperback exchange. Yeah,
there's going to be the last one leaving the paperback exchange. And before
she leaves, she's gonna wander over to the books and she's going to find
the one that said believe, and she's going to swipe that and put that
in her backpack. Okay, well, you're stealing and you're a big thief
now, but yes, you have it. She is a big theme.
Yeah, put it on your character sheet. Problem a thief? Right,
we were doing scars, then this would be a good time to roll on.
Okay, now, but you got a paper. As they come head
off the road, Greg, I'd like to as she's as they're going,
I'm curious about a little something. She has her gun rags on her hip
and they don't disappear now, they're always there. And as they're walking,
she kind of just looks up in the sky and g would like to know
does she notice any a specific pattern in the clouds, like how the clouds
maybe are like wavy depending on the air currents and stuff like that. Does
the do the clouds kind of bend or shift pointing in the direction of the
library? It's an interesting question. Will me to investigate all things serve serve
the beam in some forts zero successes. I will say this because I like
where you're going with this. The sky looks strange. You can't figure out
why, and that even if it is, I don't think Scarlet would really
know because she's not that well versed yet. What it does for Scarlett,
though, is It makes this Garrett seem less like home because even the sky
is different. It's still the sky. You know, you've seen skies dark
and cloudy like this before, but there's a foreign nature to this one.
Much like just the the differences in the town. The sky augments that feeling
of separateness. I will say this, though, I'm assuming Rob you're probably
the last one to leave the paperback exchange, like officially as far as because
as you close the door and start to walk off, a just a bit
of wind comes and catches. You know, there's a blizzard blowing outside.
And as the blizzard blows it, it hits the open closed sign, and
for a moment the sign says close but not forever, and then it blows
and says open for adventure. It twists again closed but not forever, and
then finally it twists to open for a venture and comes to rest. You
all are at the library. Does Ricky get a feeling from anywhere in particular
within the library? You hear the whisper now, and it says here,
here, here, and it gets louder the closer you get to the library.
Ricky would start to jog slowly, not a fast enough run that anyone
couldn't keep up, but a gentle jug Carlo just like right with them.
Yeah, you all get there and the library is open but unattended. There's
nobody at the front desk. Should uh we should go to the mural,
you know, the mural of the Lion in the forest where we saw you
know, Robin Hood. Do you remember it's upstairs? Yeah, where's Hannah?
Rob? Me and who Anna Casper? The librarian points to the desk.
Rob, you would know that she died. Well, she's she's not
around anymore. She she passed away. Yeah, I mean I didn't.
I didn't come to the library a whole lot, but uh, Maggie knew
her, and she was she was pretty torn up about it when it happened.
Yeah, what happened. She wants her hand on Heather's on her shoulder.
Rob, you would know that she was found in the library on the
second floor. There was an investigation, but no, I didn't even knew
what the cause of death was. There wasn't like a big to do or
anything. But they found her in the library that's on the second floor.
And yeah, they said, no, no real signs of foul play or
anything. She just passed away, and she will lower her voice but so
everyone can hear her, but it's like she doesn't want trying ears to listen.
Maybe she uh we saw her. She was with the army outside Everyone's
city with Serge and Yuriko. They were there, Rob, you would also
know that both Sarge and Yuriko have passed away. They're all gone. This
is not the same place, this doesn't have the same people. Very few
remained, and then then Helen said that that it was taking taking Garrett's heroes.
She'll turn she she turns full onto Rob. What about Ben? You
would know that Ben left Garrett and never came back there. I I really
haven't seen Ben since our whole thing kind of decide to find somewhere other than
Garrett to the Ben m But you said you saw him and always right,
she nods. Was there any other Bins or was that the only Bin?
I saw him three times, four times technically, but not like with three
other Bins, just one Bin. Every time she kind of looks like she
got like punched in the gut a little bit. I saw him twice as
I remembered him like the last time I saw him, and twice as an
as an adult. But it looks he looked about your age. I'm I'm
way older. I'm I'm older, way over the bit. Uh. Well,
he was driving a Harley and he had long blonde hair. And she
kind of blushes. She blushes, long blonde hair. I saw him.
It was it was kind of like a dream I was. She looks.
She looks at Rob. Sorry, she looks at Ricky. I was trying
to find some answers, like you said, so I tried talking to Rob.
But he's the older one, is the one I saw, and he
saw me too somehow, but I know he did. Then when did that
happen? Scarlett m hm, in the glade the like before JD left.
Okay, Ricky, that figure made out of the fast moving lines down the
center of Eternity Road is standing at the top of the stairs in the library.
Ricky looked to them and smiles to inspect. That says, we need
to go. We can catch up on the road, we can catch up
in the age of Always. And he starts to make his way towards the
stairs and yeah, he'll he'll take the steps. Head up. Ricky.
I'm gonna stick I'm gonna stick with Ricky, real quick, Ricky, when
you get up to the top of the stairs, the being that's there,
that that feminine form, moves down to where the murals are. And just
across from those murals there's a stack of books and it is a skew and
there is a door behind the stack of books, one that Rob might remember
as opening to show skeletons of them when they were little during an adventure in
the library. But now the door is open and there's sunlight pouring in and
you can see eternity road. Ricky stops just before the door and he looks
back to the others and says, all right, mister Rutt, you wanted
to go to the Age of Always, this is the way in. But
when we go, we all need to go quickly, because if you get
left behind, it'll be long behind. It could be days. Time's funny
in the Age of Allways, and it's funnier on the road. So if
you're ready and you have everything you need, we go. She'll take Ricky's
hand and then Heather's hand. I will now ask Rob this, you have
the option of joining the keystones to go to the Age of our Ways.
I will say this at least Ben is there. Do you go with them,
my friend? And outside of the narrative, do you join this group
to play with them? Now, with that being said Garrett right now January
twenty third, nineteen ninety eight, will not have a defender. But like
Ricky just said, time is strange in the age of always. But Frags,
this is your decision and we will do whatever you want. Will now
when you say time is strange, mm hmm, is it strange only in
a forward direction? Or can it be strange in a reverse direction? Yes?
That to the group. No, No, I'm asking that the grect
I mean be told things hot diggity dow. I believe in the current mental
state of what Rob's going through and his want to not think about everything that
has literally just happened and left him alone, and for how long he's been
by himself, he can't not go. He's he's he's got to, especially
knowing that it's most likely that all of the those people are just you know,
duplicates from you know, sideways garretts Uh. He knows that this.
He knows for a fact that Mitch Dove and kind of what's going on there.
So his best bet I think right now to at least get more information
on everything is to go with them. So you got about halfway through that
speech about what happens before Rob just walked through. If Rob starts to walk
through, Ricky would dot three, knowing the warnings he's been given right right,
And I will no roles here, buddy. You can get the seecres
you got to see. You know what happens to happen with the sequence and
everything, so you're able to make that work. But I will say this,
there will only ever be or keystones, but you can always use an
autobot Ellien, Rob, welcome to the age of always. As you all
walk through, is there anything else that anybody wants to do? In these
last moments? Literally Ricky had to kind of jump in to be with Rob
as Rob was determined to go through there. So you've got a couple heartbeats
to join the road yourself in Scarlet and Heather, anything you want to do.
I think she's holding Heather's hand and she looks over her shoulder and she
just she mutters under her breath, I'll be back. Heather only looks forward,
she doesn't look back. The key once inside Greg, He's going to
look for the figure of the road. Does he see her? Well them,
Yes, you see her. She is standing in the middle that she's
made up of the if the yellow line in the middle of the road went
very fast and became the wire frame of a figure, that is what the
road looks like. But it's just to Ricky. No one else can see
this. As soon as you all step onto the road, you hear a
scream from this figure, Ricky, and your world all four of you goes
dark. You wake up, You're not sure how much time has passed,
and you're lying on cold stones. And as each of you kind of rows
at the same time, Rob, Ricky, Scarlet and Heather, you realize
that you are each in individual cells you love and when you wake you're all
kind of the sides of the cells or bars in the front are bars you
can see to the left and right each of you as it goes Ricky,
Rob Scarlet, Heather. But across the hallway in this prison there is another
bank of cells, but there is only one occupant who is looking at you,
and he smiles as you see jdck And that, my friends, is
where we will end this episode of the Age of Always join us next time
for the Age of Always Episode ten, Spell Block six. What a fun
mother episode I didn't weep the whole time. Atari Twilight is an Unmade Gaming
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