The show you were about to listen to was originally a live stream actual play
on twitch dot tv slash Onmade Gaming. Rise 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. Oh,
thank you very much, my friend. I am Greg Grimjack two one five
h two. I will be your game master this afternoon. But before we
get into the adventure proper, as we play Tales from the Loop from Free
League's wonderful system, I would like to introduce you all, or reintroduce you
all, to the wonderful cast that is surrounding me. I'm going to ask
them the following who are you? Who are you playing? And a question
in the vein of my good friend Trooper. There's just so much to learn
at the beginning of a game, and so the question that I will ask
you all is this meta knowledge versus narrative knowledge or player knowledge. So I
will ask this question, what is one thing that either your character has forgotten
or never knew that perhaps you, the player knows. What is that one
thing that you wish your character could either remember or just actually have knowledge of,
that one bit of information that might be able to turn the tide,
that might be able to get their character over that arc comp where you want
to take them. What is that one thing, that bit of precious that
a little bit of knowledge that if shared with the character could change everything.
And so I'll start with Chris, Chris, who are you? Who are
you're playing? In your question, I'm Chris, and I am playing Ricky
Lewis. Ricky Lewis is the class jock, and I can't think of anything
that he needs to know other than maybe who's causing the meddling. But that's
the long term goal. That's a cop out answer, though, I think
really who Randall Flagg truly is? The true nature of Randall Flagg is an
absolute that's a completely valid bit of information that could in fact change the tide
of everything fantastic. I will then jump down to Melissa, Melissa, who
are you? Who will you be playing? And the same question opposed to
Chris, Hi, y'all, hi, Greg, I'm Melissa and I'm playing
Heather Jones who is the weird So that's a really good question. And I'm
going to cheat a little bit because we were having some back and forth in
our private chat about what's meta knowledge versus what's not meta knowledge? What we
know just yesterday, and I think there is a critical thing that the Keystones
don't know, and that is what is the what is the nature of how
the magnatrein effect impacts adults, and also how that can be impacted by the
use of crystals. We don't know those things at all. And it seems
like Randall Flag right now is suffering from some memory loss, so that could
have some major impact to the Keystones right now, and yet they don't really
have the knowledge in order to address it. Correct. Okay, very good.
Yeah. And last, but certainly not least, Gee, who are
you playing? And the same question as before. Hi, I'm g the
friendly neighborhood Lightning and Voker, and I'm playing Scarlet Blake today. She is
another class athlete and I don't know if this really affects us Scarlet herself,
but Ge wants to know why JD got the rate. That's my question.
An excellent question and one. Perhaps that will be answered at some point.
But with that being said, my friends, as mentioned before, this is
Atari Twilight, Age of Always. This is a story told about the eighties
that never was. But instead of looking upon pop culture as the ethereal olympus
where we have music and movies and TV that is out of reach from us,
here in Atari Twilights, those mythic figures of pop culture, those incredible
musician bards, they live and walk among the characters optimist, prime skeletor anybody
that you can think from cartoon or movies or books of the eighties. They
live, they breathe, and they exist in Atari Twilight. In this segment
of our long running show Age of Always, we are now in the Narnia
Neverland, the wonderland aspect of everything. This is when a BASTIONI goes to
Fantasia. This is away from the world in which our characters were born and
raised, and now exist in a world of fantasy that is similar to their
own, but holds many different changes, many many swerves, many variations upon
the theme. And with that, my friends, we begin The Age of
Always calls us Can you hear it? It sings a song from our youth
that we loved, but one that we have long long since forgotten. Still
it sings, calling us again to a world of adventure, calling us to
return to our friends. Ricky Heather and Scarlet JD, one of the founding
members of the Keystones, has gone his own way for his own reasons.
But all is not lost. Help comes in many shapes and many sizes.
Van Halen, their fateful bandmate, is there. The cowardly lion whom Randall
Flagg calls Big Perr, stands beside them, and of course Randall Flagg,
Yllain Wizard, Night's teacher. All of the above they are all there,
right where we left them. And so the forgotten song is remembered, word
by word, line by line. The memory of the tune forms. It's
time for us to sing our way back to the Age of Always. So
lift your eyes and your voice for today, today, with our friends,
we sing a song of forgotten youth, because today, at least for me,
today is a fine day. Welcome again, one and all to Age
of Atari Twilight, the Age of Always, Episode five, Flag of our
Fathers and my friends. If we could start this off, please go to
your Spotify playlist and track number one by the Talking Heads. Road to Nowhere
just put that on in the background. With the specter of Roland the Gunslinger.
Reawakened by the hermit Donovan, the Keystones fought to save all of their
party from the forces inside the Age of Always. Their companion and bandmate,
Van Halen, used her powers to keep a mysterious blue fog at bay,
a fog that had presumably already put their mentor, Randall Flagg aka Jackie Emrock
to sleep. Ricky blindly fired an arrow at their hidden attacker, scoring a
hit, and in his own moment of bravery, Lion rushed into the forest
to confront their attacker, but was instead captured. Instead of an escape along
Eternity Road to the Black Topped Artery winding its way through the Age of Always,
the Keystones elected to go after Donovan to reacquire Lion. After a brief
discussion, Scarlet and Heather set off to rescue Lion, while Ricky remained behind
to guard their ensourcelled friends, Van Halen and Randall. One by one,
each member of the Keystones embraced their destinies in the Age of All Ways and
gained and gained access to the disciplines they had been studying. Eternity rode itself
embraced Ricky as its new guide. Heather discovered the keys to magic at the
waterfall, and Scarlett took the oath and became a gun slinger. In the
glade known as the Perennial, Donovan was confronted and Lion rescued, but not
without cost. From Afar, the word was used to speed up time,
allowing the gunslinger Roland a chance to catch up to Randall Flag, yet the
action seemingly cost Donovan his life. Reunited, the group abated, leaving Flag
behind at his own suggestion, but ultimately they all set forth when Eternity Road,
guided by Ricky and bound for ec Emerald City. As the skyline of
Emerald City came into view, the Keystones recognized the center of the city as
the Loop from their hometown of Garrett well outside the city, but along the
road were wanted signs seeking the perpetrator of murder most Foul Randall Flagg, Jackie
Emrock, Walter o'dim, the Walking Dude, Jesse Davis. The picture on
the poster displayed their absent friend jd. And that, my friends, is
where we begin Atari Twilight Age of Always, episode five, Flag of Our
Fathers, And if you could go to your Spotify playlist, please go down
one track to Paradise City by Guns n' Roses and let that play in the
background for me, my friends. You are looking across the way at the
great metropolis known as Emerald City. Emerald City is vast, but it is
not the Emerald City of the movie that you remember. It is predominantly green,
but it has elements of gray and white and gold that are splashed along
its skyline. The architecture that you see, even from this distance, speaks
of dozens of styles. Some if you are a fan of such things or
your child as a fan of such things, would recognize them from across the
globe, elements of Southeast Asian architecture and Indigenous people architecture, as far as
just the artwork that you see displayed along certain sides of the closest facing buildings.
It seems to be everything at once, but you are still a ways
off. Your feet are still firmly planted on Eternity Road. And as you
stand looking at the poster displaying the wanted criminal of murders most Foul and the
face of JD staring back at you. It is at this point I turn
over the action to you all, my friends. The age of always waits,
as does Emerald City. What do the Keystones do? Scarlett? Okay,
thanks, thanks Scarlet. When they see the poster with JD's face on
it, I think Scarlet like stops and she's like gawking at it, and
does the picture look like? What does the picture like? What does it
look like in the picture? Only an investigate that I can do? Do
do do do one success. It's definitely JD. It doesn't look like it
doesn't look close to JD. It's JD. But for a moment you think
that you notice differences, like you're it's that, is this really him?
Is this somebody that looks you all have experienced people that might look like somebody
else or you know, similarities. It's definitely JD. But with that success,
I'll tell you this, he looks a little older. I think she
rips the poster off the wherever it's posted and she's holding it and she's like,
what is this? What's coreing? And she shows everybody, even though
they've already looked at it, what's going on? Ricky Heather when Scarlett pulls
it down and looks at the poster, you all bear witness to the poster
rematerializing along a placard in which it was placed. There's two copies now,
one in Scarlet's hand and one on the plat so back a couple of five
seconds before Scarlet shows the group the poster. I think, you know,
they all as they come to a stop at the end of the road.
Heather takes a moment to take it in, and as her eyes land on
the poster they you know, her face fills with fear, and there's probably
like a moist glistening on her eyes. She glances back at the road where
you know they last saw JD. And then she looks back up at the
city, and when she does, she pulls her glasses down to wipe her
eyes and maybe also to remove the fog from the lenses. And as she
does, she kind of blinks a moment and maybe finally now realizes what it
actually means that she that anybody can see any distance in the age of allways,
and sets her glasses down, folds them and tucks them into a pocket,
And with that she rights her shoulders again and she turns back on the
group, clear eyed to see Scarlet holding up the poster, and she says,
well, he seems to be in trouble, but also that has Flag's
name on it. Maybe we need to go somewhere else. And it's at
this moment she glances over at the cowardly lion. How's he doing? Almost
the same time that you all realized, I mean, Ricky knew the destination
from the beginning, basically shared a bit of it. I think it was.
It took moments for you all. It only seems like a minute or
two or three is passed since you walked onto Eternity Road that now you kind
of quickly, you know, sped through like on a super fast people mover
along Eternity Road. And then all of a sudden, Emerald City appears in
skyline as Ricky stopped and you were beside this wanted poster. But given now
the time to react to the vision in front of them, Lion is curled
up in a ball and trembling. Great pause with you know that dew claw
like over the head, you know, comically shaking. If he wasn't such
a ferocious looking beast. And again for those of you wondering this is the
cowardly lion of the books. That's an actual lion that walks on all fours.
That looks very fearsome, but of course, as we all know,
lacks the spine to back that up. But lion is shaking, trembling.
Pause overhead, and one last question, greg Hea, there's gonna dart her
eyes over at Flag. What are the tints of his glasses? The tint
of his glasses A little bit of can, just a little bit of tan?
Okay, good, just checking? So she uh, seeing lyon as
as he is. She says, We've got to go, Ricky. We
can't stay here, not if you want Flagged to live. And and Lion
he's he can't be here nowhere the only place I know exists here. Okay,
So here's another question. I think that I asked earlier, but nobody
remembered the answer. Did the Keystones ever talk about the shared dream of the
Age of Always nodding his head back in Twist of Fate? Yes, no,
no, back in Bonus episode two from eighty eight. I'm sure they
would have. Though we didn't do it in game, I'm sure we would
have. I leave it up to you all, if you believe that you
would have talked about it, then that's certainly something that could have transpired during
the past. And now go to the lamp post. Ricky, do you
remember the lamp post? I remember the line posts, but I don't know
where that is. Do you need to know where it is? Randall steps
forward. He shrugs. If you all are concerned about I'll stay out here
with lying. You all can go in and then learn what you need to
learn and come back for us. I thought we all had to get off
together. We can, but we just won't get back on when you all
get on with Ricky. She looks sorry, So we come back here when
we're done, hope. Yeah, he smiles a bit. Gosh, this
is happening so fast. We came here to get away from Roland to protect
you. H but I guess now we need to find out what's going on
with JD. Why And she kind of realizes that's kind of counterdicting what she's
what she kind of was just doing, and she's and she she looks back
at the paper, and she she is kind of like like breathing heavily,
like she's out of brass a little bit he's he's clearly doing something that he's
impersonating Roland or Randall. Sorry, it's like, why are all these names
here? We don't know what he's doing, and why we have we have
to remember what we're here for. What are we here for? And she
turns and looks at Heather. We're here to save our home. Okay,
so what do we do next? What I do know? When she looks
back to flag, Well, he doesn't know either. He doesn't know.
You're supposed to know. He is supposed to know. And she glares at
flag and you can tell that he's visibly upset. You can actually see for
a moment his chin trembles beneath the stubble there. I'm we got to find
out who's manipulating everything. He's drawing with us. Yes, Roland's coming going
Emerald City. Uh. I don't know who's in charge anymore more. They're
good people, they'll uh and you will both no role needed. Lion slowly
like looks up between his paws that they're all good people and then goes back
to hiding. Just go in there and see if you can find somebody it
can help that. Can you see a tear rolled out from underneath his glasses.
I'm forgetting things. I don't know how much help I can be to
y'all. He's useless. Well, what's it going to be? I don't
don't you? Don't you lead this team? She gives how they all look.
Ricky shakes his head. He never said he was leading us. He
said he was following. No, I didn't say Flag was leading this team,
I said, Scarlet, And she gives Heather a look, and she
kind of and she takes the wanted poster and she crumples it up and throws
it over her shoulder. It disappears before it hits the ground. Fine,
let's go into the city. Then what else do you want to do?
I don't know? And she and she glances back to Flag. What are
you angry about, Scarlet? Were just supposed to save our home and then
go home, figure out who's pulling the strings, who's the puppet master?
And we were supposed to don't you remember? We were supposed to know what
the good the good things to do, the right things to do? How
are we supposed to know? And he doesn't remember. He doesn't tell us
what the good things are? He told us that we know what the good
things are, and it seems to be to me one of the good things
is finding JD and getting him out of whatever trouble he's in. She doesn't
say anything, and she just turns away and like takes a few steps away
and like hands on hips and just like stares out at Emerald City. Flag
would come forward to. I'm assuming where Ricky and Heather are still in close
proximity. If if Carlet's walked forward, I'll take care of the line.
I didn't I know, I didn't mean for this to happen. I y'all
have to rely on yourself. I trust all of y'all, even JD.
I can't do it not anymore. Do you know? If there's a place
to hide here, I'm gonna take him off the trail here to that and
he points there's like some cypress trees that seem to be kind of over on
the hill leading up to You know, distance here is very odd, but
it looks like it's within like two or three miles of Emerald City. We'll
just we'll hold up there and y'all come back when you can. What's stopping
you forgetting us? He'll remember. He looks down at lion, and there's
gonna kneel down, uh to lion and you know, run her fingers through
his mane until he looks up at her. He does, but he's just
absolutely trembling, more so than you probably have ever experienced. It's almost like
a spasm along his back where his mane is. Ryan, I, I
think it would be for the best if you look after a flag for now.
And she leans closer to his ear and says, he's kind of useless.
He doesn't know what's happening. We need to keep him out of the
city. Do you think you can keep him safe? Yeah, yeah,
I can do it, but big, be careful. What's in there?
Lion? What do we need to worry about him? To go in nerdy?
Change? The change? He just shakes his head with like the spasming
and the main kind of playing against one another for a moment, creating like
an odd like a ripple almost through him. What can we do so that
we don't change? Mm? I was told one time that you have to
remember the face of your mother or the face of your father. That's what
i'd done. I remembered my dad. Okay, okay, well thank you,
all right? You uh You're a brave lion. I know you can
do this. Now, don't stray too far away. We need to find
you when we get out. Okay, he just shakes his head again.
Ricky van Halen has yeah, real quick though. Van Halen has been standing
off by herself. She was bleeding or like, kind of trailing the team,
and she steps up when it looks like it's time to continue, but
she's been noticeably quiet throughout this exchange. While Heather's with Lyon, Ricky looks
to Flaggings. Is there anything we can get in the city to help you
not forget? Is there anything we can do to help just get information,
get find somebody, point us in the right path. Yeah, Ricky,
remember your dad when you're in there. Okay, I'll never forget him.
Ricky puts out his hand to shake his hand. He grabs it, and
you've actually clasped hands with Randall before, and he has very powerful handshake,
but in this one there is a noticeable sense of almost like somebody clutching onto
a life raft. There's a desperation in the handshake. Good boy, he
says, mister Rock will do what we can, and he turns to b
h and you guide us in the city. I've never been, but I
I've heard things. I can. Yes, did you know the people?
I know of them? My my mother came here and this is where I
can and she yeah, she pulls herself up, you know, kind of
straightens her spine. I can, Yes, thank you, remarkable, we
can. And Ricky times to ready himself to me with a couple, you
know, step on and step off, you're able to kind of deposit them.
And then I'm assuming that the Keystones take to the road again, leaving
Randall and Lion along the side, and as Lion begins to guide Randall to
that the sycamores that are over in the area again without the need, well,
no, you know what I'm going to make you do it roll and
investigate everybody. One success, one for Scarlet, Scarlet Heather. As they're
walking off, you both hear flag look down that line and say, who's
mister hemrong? They walk off my friends, so they that before they departs.
Ricky just turns to Heather and says, it couldn't be mean to him.
I know you don't like him, but not nice to call him useless.
I'm just saying the fact's Ricky, I don't have to be nice to
someone who has been very mean to me and hasn't yet apologized for it.
Does he know he's been mean? He did once. I don't know what's
going on with him now. Ricky looks to the sky and is probably more
meddling. What do you do, my friends? You can stay here as
long as you like. He's not a good man, Ricky. I understand.
I believe you. I agree we should do the right thing by people,
and you made the right decision about not letting him die back there.
You really did. But just because he's just because you do the right thing
doesn't mean that you should trust him, doesn't mean that you should treat him
like a true partner here. I feel that should at least give him the
opportunity to try and do better. He can. There's nothing that's preventing him
from doing better. But I'm holding him accountable for what he's done so far.
I don't see anybody else doing that. And it's not like he is.
It's not like he's harmless. He's murdered people, He's killed them,
He's harassed people. He's destroyed their lives, many many countles lives, Ricky.
The past that JD seems to be on. We don't know that.
None of us have talked to him yet. His photo we don't have Brandall's
names, but it's Jad's picture. He's been seen doing something. You know.
Both Lion and Flag have both said that the city is trouble. Just
because his name is on a wanted poster doesn't mean he's not the hero here.
You two are so quick to jump away from JD's defense. What happened
to loyalty? Not jumping away from his defense. I'm just saying, if
JD has done the things that it says in this poster, does he not
deserve an opportunity to try and explain himself, try and right any wrongs if
he has done anything. We don't know yet if he's done anything, but
if he has done something wrong, he should absolutely right them, as should
Flag. I think he's trying, do you? I mean, I haven't
seen it. Has he not tried to bring people here at least us?
It takes a problem that no one else seems to care about. Ricky.
I'm sorry, Squaw World and just had a war in our city. Did
you miss it? Did you miss it? Ricky? He killed people bringing
them here, He murdered them. Bonafan died countless people. He said he
couldn't even remember the number of kids that he has brought here and died.
Roland killed Donovan with that magic of his calling on the word. Apparently the
word. You can do whatever the hell you want with it, good or
bad. And but loyalty. Where's JD's loyalty? He left us, and
she's her back, is still facing them, and she's still standing there,
Scarlet, do you have any idea why you're angry? Do you know why
you're angry? You know, you know, back there, when we were
running away from from Flag's House, you hurt me, Scarlet, the well
you talk to me before you took my hand. You haven't really been yourself.
You haven't really been who you are all this time since we've been here,
and you are mad, so mad when we left. I know that
you wish that you had never come here, and I know that you wish
you could go back. But you have to realize that the reason that you're
mad at JD isn't because he left. It's because you're still here and you're
stuck with us. That's why you're mad stuck with you, and she's turned
back around. I don't think I'm stuck with anybody. You're my friends,
Well, then you should treat us like that. You're the reason why I'm
here, and I don't mean that, I don't mean that in a bad
way. Well, then maybe you shouldn't be treating me like such a burden,
a burden. I don't think you're a burden, Heather, You're my
friend. Ben Helen moves up behind Ricky. I stop them. A fighting
isn't going to help. If if the problem that this place causes, and
we're close enough to the city, maybe it's not making us think clearly already
driving a wedge between us already, I haven't even reached the place this place,
Ricky, it's not this place. It's not this place. That's not
what's causing this. The problem is both of you have turned on JD,
and you are offering flag all of the empathy that you should be giving a
j D. I'm not turning my back. I'm not turning my back on
JD. I'm just saying, if you're going to give one person an opportunity,
you should give two. I think there's a difference between what gd has
done walk away from us, and what Flag has done? Their degrees,
Ricky, you can't be as trust as their wrongs. I give someone an
opportunity to prove themselves. They don't judge them based on things I've heard from
someone else. I want to make a judgment on my own. Fine,
fine, then I haven't seen Black do anything but bring us here. You
haven't seen Flag do anything except bring us here. Maybe because we believe me
about what he has done, maybe you could believe me. But what did
he actually do? He tried to he tried to hold you back at Castle
Graysdale, and then weirdly moved in next door, which Ptiple don't know why.
Never really explained that. But he didn't do anything. He threatened me,
Ricky. He bullied me, Ricky, he terrorized me. I was
I was afraid. I was afraid all the time. And you know what,
just because we're on some adventure, it doesn't mean that bullying is okay.
And sometimes you know what, I think, I think you think that
just because everyone bullieveed me, that it's okay that Flag bullied me too.
Not okay, not okay, But it's not also not okay to bully him.
I am not bullying him, and that is not fair of you to
say if I expect him because he's losing his memory, he's lost everything that
made him who he was. So what do you want me to do?
Do you want me to give him an apology right now? Ricky? Is
that what you want? What do you want? Then? Shouldn't treat him
like he's no one and he's nothing. He should apologize, But if he
doesn't know who he is or what he did wrong, and he apologized for
things he doesn't know he did, he didn't remember, doesn't know anyone in
the city that he's been to. He doesn't remember. He was struggling to
remember what was in the city. He's been here, he's lived his whole
life here, and he can't remember that. I don't think he remembers what
he did. Yeah, he should pay for whatever crimes he's done, but
I think he should be given an opportunity to write them. And that's what
we are here to do, is to hold him accountable for what he does.
That is the whole reason he's not doing this on his own, because
he messed it up. Before I'm gonna say one last thing and then I'm
done with this conversation. He's not owed my empathy. He has not owed
that, and you are a fool if you trust him. And now I'm
done. Thanks. Scarlett just runs her hand through her air and he's a
really big sigh. Friends, go to your Spotify playlist and cue track number
five. My Friends. As the wind whips across these poppy filled planes in
front of Emerald City, and as each of the Keystones either face one another's
back or different points of the compass, what do you do? Well,
let's go. Ricky turns towards Emerald City. Girla just walks up next to
them, slightly behind, so perhaps for the first time walking together, but
decidedly apart. The Keystones charged towards Emerald City with the lovely dirge sque qualities
of Pat Benatar's Love is a Battlefield playing. You all move forward to Emerald
City, and as I explained, it's not this dominating green skyline. There
are definitely hues of green, but gold and silver white. When you walk
inside, it is less fantastical and more practical, if that makes a sense.
There's nothing that you look at, whether it be a building or a
person that couldn't exist in your world. Do you know there's there's no magical
creatures. You know, like lyon there's there's no alien type of creatures or
or completely unsupported architecture. You know, everything seems realistic, but it still
maintains this Like everything in the Age of Always, it maintains this level of
magic. And because of that, anybody among the Keystones who has been in
a city before would know that it certainly doesn't smell like pine cedar with hints
tobacco. It certainly isn't clean. The citizenry, while possibly nice, when
certain cities you visit, aren't we anyone would define as universally pleasant. But
that's what you see here when you walk into Emerald City. There's no door
you go through, there's no walls to breach, there are no guards you
asking you why you have come into the city. Eternity Road moves directly into
the city and then ends. It looks like it would continue as a thoroughfare
through the city, but gone is the black asphalt, gone is the dotted
yellow line. It simply curves into the ground and becomes the bricks and cobblestones
of Emerald City. As you go ahead, Oh, I saw somebody said
something sorry. As you walk into the city, you are greeted with different
you know, obviously there's residential places, but there's also storefronts that that seem
like they would be at home in Garrett. You see Bristol's time Pieces and
a mere Laudry's House of Music and the Given Brothers Market. All of these
things seem like I mean, whether it's disappointing or not, it's sort of
less magical than it maybe should be. You know, you don't look around
and there there aren't any elements of magic, and everybody's not wearing a uniform.
You know, it's sort of difficult to divorce what you're seeing from the
movie that you know really was a dominant force, you know, Once a
Year shown on TV during the eighties, and you know, part of the
the pop culture, you know, consciousness of the eighties. But as you
look around, you know, it's just a city that you are moving through.
But if you'll go to your Spotify playlist and queue up track number for
me, when you all are moving through, the citizenry stops and they all
look up and start clapping and cheering, and as you all kind of meet
their gaze. No role required here you see three dots in the sky that
seem to be flying. I will allow investigation if anybody wants to try to
make these out. Even at the distance they are, it seems like the
age isn't giving you the twenty twenty that you would have expected. One for
Scarlet, one for Heather Ricky. You can see what I described. You
see that these three dots that are in the air, but Scarlet and Heather.
When you look up, you see that these three dots are kind of
helixing among themselves, kind of dipping in die and almost like in a pattern.
And with that investigative role. Even from this distance, you can hear
Blackter. You're kind of trickling down from the sky. And while you can't
make out any exact features of these three, two of them are riding broomsticks,
and you see them kind of zip into the skyline. As everybody all
the Ossian's cheer, well, that's not something I ever thought I'd see,
And as it sort of dims down, and as like there's now a crowd
that kind of spilled out of the shops, out of the time Pieces shop,
and out of the House of Music and out of the market, and
as the crowd kind of gathers and looks around, and as everybody looks up
at the now departing dots that are in the air, Ricky van Halen and
Heather Scarlet is gone. The crowd bustles around and kind of pushes a few
of you, so you have to kind of return your gaze to the earth.
And as you scan, there's Ricky, there's Heather, there's Van Halen.
Scarlett is not there. Do you see her? Ricky's just spinning looking
every way. Charlotte, you may roll me another investigate now that you all
are kind of aware of the situation, one for Ricky, one for me
too. You both look around, but a couple of times you think you
see her kind of disappearing into the crowd, but as soon as people pass,
you don't see your friend. You're in extended trouble. And I'm going
to ask the two of you, here are the stakes that are currently at
play for this element of extended trouble. I want you to let me see
what exactly we're looking at here. Boop it boot boot boom you're going to
need. If you fail, you lose Scarlet. If you partially succeed,
you're on the trail. If you succeed, we'll catch sight. You need
four successes. You each get one roll. I know that you already have
conditions and some people have used pride. Explain to me what you would like
to use, and I will tell you whether or not you may roll it.
But I will let you know, my friends, that this one is
uh important. Ricky is going to find something like a lamppost that he can
jump up onto and get as high as he can to see over any crowds,
to get as much high as he can without necessarily scaling a building,
to try and see if he can crack out where Scott's gone. And I'd
like to use moves for that great, I'll take it. Also, before
you all individually roll, I will allow you to. I will take that,
But before you all go any further, if someone wants to roll a
lead, that person could then if success, will give extra dice to the
other not themselves. Up to you all if you think that's something that this
group is currently able to do. Ricky definitely can't in the situation. How
they will do it. This doesn't count as your role. This is this
is a separate thing. Yeah, Heather, we'll we'll do it. As
she says she see her, where did she go? She'll uh look over
at van Halen and say She'll look over at Heather and say, I'm sorry
van Halen and say Van Helen. Check the crowds and she'll say, Ricky,
can you get up high? And then Heather and that's when we'll roll
lead. But we got zero successes, and I think that that would probably
be where this would be at this particular moment. There's leading requires camaraderie,
and I'm not real sure that exists in ample supply at this moment. For
as much as Heather might be yeah, for as much as Heather might be
giving instructions, people have to be willing to listen to her. So Heather,
what she's going to do is she is going to begin to reach or
walk through the crowds, searching around. And at the same time, she'll
be looking people in the eye and she'll be saying, did you see my
friend? Have you seen my friend? She looks like this, and she'll
describe scarlet And so I am going to roll empathize absolutely, I'll take it
one. So as it stands right now, with three successes, one of
the people that one of the Ossian's that you kind of pulled it aside.
You know, an older gentleman looks at you and contact when you pull this
person to the side, two successes. When you kind of, you know,
gently, kind of tug on the sleeve of one of the Ossians who's
still kind of looking up, like hoping to maybe catch one last glimpse of
these flyers. He turns around and you stare into the face of Herbsville,
the man known as Sarge and Garrett. Oh, hey, young lady,
how can I help you? I I think I'm looking for my friend Scarlett.
Have you seen her? And she'll she'll describe what she looked like.
Well, she's she's got a blonde hair and the most beautiful face, and
she she's wearing this puffy jacket. Puffy jacket. I saw puffy jacket go
that way, and he points down one of the side streets that leads off
of the main thoroughfare. Are you okay, darling? I do I know
you? I don't think so. You a friend of one of my grandkids?
Maybe? Who? Who? Who are your grandkids? Will let's see
if it's one of Ben's boys, then that's gonna be Howie or Frederick.
Yeah, how are you, Frederick? How how are you? No,
I don't know. I'm gonna go follow my friend. It's nice to meet
you. Nice to meet you too. Uh and Heather all head down in
the direction that you pointed. Uh, Ricky, I'm assuming that you're following.
Yeah, you will so as you all moved through in the streets of
Emerald City. Uh. Well, not like New York at midday or anything
like that. I mean, there are a lot of people here, and
the kind of the foreign nature of the streets and the way that things are
kind of laid off. It's easy enough to follow a street, but you're
quickly given numerous you know, an alley here to keep going straight to the
right. What the role we'll give you here is. This is taking a
little time for you all to again. Ricky climbs up a lamppost, Heather
begins to ask other people, and you kind of get led with both of
those attributes in the general direction that you believe Scarlet to go. And because
you have a partial success there, I'm not going to lie and say you're
not going in the right direction. You are. You are heading in the
vicinity of Scarlet, But let's go ahead and cut over to Scarlet. You
retcon a few minutes ago before you know, just as everybody looks up into
the air and Scarlet, you look up into the air, and you see
everybody look up. You see Ricky and Van Halen and Heather. Everyone looks
this guy. The entire populace kind of stops and looks up at this moment
of pure perfect distraction. Do you do? I don't think she really sees
it as a distraction. As they've been moving through the city and just every
everything around her, like all the people, she's her eyes are darting back
and forth, she's looking at the shops. She kind of knocks into somebody,
and she's and she just like kind of starts and keeps walking, and
for somemer, she just she feels like she's been climbing up a hill.
Like she's starting to like breathe heavily, and just she she's like sweating,
and she feels like all the people are just like crowding into her, and
she just feels like she feels like she's trapped. And then when everyone starts
looking up and like, oh, everyone's crying, like crying out and everyone
starts surging out of the buildings. Like you described, she starts getting like
she looks up and you know, when you're walking and you look into the
sky, you kind of like lose your balance. And she gets knocked She
gets knocked around, and she just feels like she's vibrating and then she just
books it. She doesn't look where she's going. She just turns and she's
gone down a side street and she is breathing heavily, and she's pushing past
people and they're knocking into her, and she's trying to catch her breath and
it's like she's been running up up a set of stairs forever. And she
pushes into somebody. They kind of like, oh, what are you doing?
They kind of push her back, and when she looks at she when
she looks at this person, she sees Donovan's face and those milky dead eyes,
and she shrieks and she stumbles and she turns down another alley and she
keeps going. And she promised she would take him with her, that they
wouldn't leave him behind, and that's exactly what they did. And j D
left them and was his plan the whole time, like it was one.
It was he It was his idea to leave Garrett, and then within a
week he's he's gone, and he whatever he did to do whatever he did,
he's the one who he stole the jar and that released Roland, and
Roland came after us, and then VH got hurt and then Lyon got hurt.
And Heather doesn't care if Flag lives or dies. She would have left
him behind, but like he's the adult and we're supposed to be working together
to fix Garrett, and like I don't even think Heather, but Heather doesn't
need me anymore. But all of a sudden, she's a burden, but
she doesn't need me, like and then she turns and she runs and her
vision is like black along the outside and she's gasping for breath and it's like
if I can't, I'm supposed to be their leader, but if I lead
them, we'll lose. And if I can't be the perfect leader, we're
going to lose. And if I can't be the perfect leader, I'm never
going to get home and I'm never going to see Kyle and I'm never going
to see Ben, and then I'm gonna die. And then she turns like
down an alley and she like stumbles over her own feet and she like lands
on like a stoop of some kind of back door, and she's like and
her chest and she's like, I couldn't die. I'm gonna die here,
I'm going to die here. And she is full on ugly crying and she
can't breathe, and her chest hurts like it's never hurt before. And then
she feels like she's running through the field with the Alta robot chasing her,
and she can hear like the servos whirling behind her, of its footsteps getting
closer, and she's like, I can't stop, I can't stop. I
can't breathe, I can't breathe, and she feels like she's gonna suffocate.
And then she has a flash of Jade giving her a hug that day on
the road, and he says, I'm scared too, and then she's just
sitting there, crying, trying to breathe. The air doesn't come any easier.
As you're sitting there in this completely foreign city, on this stoop,
just inside an alley way, separated from your friends, truly separated from JD,
you see a hand reached down in front of you, hand that seems
to be offering support. You're muted. Hey kid, what do you got
going on? She scrambles backwards and she's obviously ugly crying and she doesn't say
anything. Tore like a bat out of hell into this alley here. What's
uh? You didn't get freaked out by the the sky? Right? And
she looks up at you. You're not You're not really here? You're not
here? All right? Well that's, you know, kind of rude.
Do you do you need to go somewhere? You a ride? She shakes
her head. Are you lost a lot of lost people? And you see
these days? But I could probably give you a lyft, I could probably
give you directions. She sniffs and like frantically wipes at her face, and
she like turns away. I just want to be left alone. Well,
it's kind of a city and there's kind of a lot of people here,
so it's pretty hard to be like, fully, you have a house?
Can I bring you? You know? Where you're? Where are you from?
Hear it and she says it really quietly, Garrett, is that a
person place? Just a common down? It's my home, so it's a
place that's not here. Did you get here alone. She shakes her head,
and she kind of pulls her knees up to her, like she's sitting
on a stoop. So she and she pulls her knees up, and she's
like muttering something under her breath, like her lips are moving, like she's
repeating something over and over. Are you are your parents? Around? Like
full on, like like crocodile tire And she shakes her head, all right,
well, I'll tell you what. Uh. And he moves over next
to the stairs on the stoop you're sitting on, and probably like a foot
foot and a half away just sort of plops down and assumes the same sort
of position, obviously not as tightly needs to chest. Uh. And you
realize, like by how he's sitting, uh, he's several inches taller than
you. Uh. And he just sort of sits over there and goes,
so what you're doing a lot of mostly hyperventilating. I think there were a
handful of words in there. Are you you want to talk through it?
Not going to die? I'm not going to die. I mean not here,
not in a numeral city. It's pretty safe. Also, that's a
weird thing to say for a teenager. Are you often being murder, being
attempted on you? What what are you? You have an illness? What's
happening? And talk about it? Oh, it's a secret. Is it
an assassin? No? Is it loupis? No? Oh? All right?
Well she looks at Mitch looking pretty hard there. Well does it look
like the Mitch she knows? I was gonna say, Mike, why don't
you describe what you look like? Perfect? It looks enough like the Mitch
you know for you to make that assumption. He looks like he is a
dozen, you know, ten years or so older. He is not wearing
a sleeveless T shirt, which you have accustomed to seeing. He is wearing
a flannel. But you notice that, like when he lifts his arm,
is still a sleeveless T shirt underneath the flannel that he's wearing. He has
a little bit of five o'clock shadow sort of covering the face. You know
that his hair is just as long, if not something longer. It sort
of curls and waves down to his shoulders. And he looks older. He
looks aged. He does not look like the same Mitch you saw on either
the missing posters or in person that one day. So he looks like a
slightly older, slightly different maybe Emerald City native. Yeah. She doesn't say
anything. She just looks him up and down. Yeah right, I don't
think so. All right, I'll tell you what. Let's get out of
this alley just in general doesn't seem to be say if I did to hang
out in alley's, I don't know anyone that's cool that hangs out in alleys.
So and he stands up and sort of offers a hand. Come on,
let's uh, let's head back at least to the main road. He
raises a hand and it's shaking, and when she clasp his hand, her
hand is sweaty. His hand is real. Uh. And he leads you
out towards the main street. Uh, you look like you were running from
something. Is someone chasing you? Are you trying to get just you seem
lost at it at a minimum. She looks around, she does she and
she she doesn't say it, but yeah, she knows that she doesn't know
where she is. I've never been here before. And she and she's kind
of dragging behind him like she he feels like he's like pulling a weight with
him. Got it? Got it? Okay? So first timer. How'd
you get here the road? Oh we got a walker. I'm not my
friend, so you're not alone. All right, let's let's find your friends.
And he's going to head out towards like the main city square looking for
these alleged these alleged friends trying to assist you in that. As the two
of you begin to move off, kind of retracing the flight of Scarlet,
I'm given this one to Scarlet for free. As you emerge from the alleyway
and you kind of reorient yourself you were when you were running before, as
you described you were, it was just flight. It wasn't observing anything.
It was just pushing through the crowd, getting wherever, getting away from here
to there to wherever it could be. But when you're led out, you
look around and just across from the alley you see the Emerald City Fire Brigade,
and you see a tall man with salt and pepper hair as he's loading
up one of the open wagons, which can only be it must be empty
barrels of some kind. As he's lifting them up and putting them down,
and he pulls a handkerchief out of the back and wipes it across his neck,
and when he looks over, you see the face of your father,
and instead of the normal way that he wears his mustache, it is extended
down and up into his sideburns as these big kind of like mutton chop looking
things that are on the side of his face. And you see Dean Blake
looking, you know, kind of back at you in a way, and
you remember yourself saying the code if you do these things wrong as a gunslinger,
you have forgotten the face of your father. And for a moment you
see this somewhat comical face of Dean Blake, But as the crowd moves in
front, you realize whenever it passes by again that while that same mutton chop
mustache combo exists, it's not your dad. I think. She freezes for
a moment as she's staring at him, but doesn't let go of Mitch's hand,
and then he can feel her shaking. He gives a little tug like
a a let's go, come on, uh, and then she'll walk forward.
Hey, I didn't sorry, you know, the whole hyperventilating and crying
thing that was shook me. I didn't introduce myself. My name is Casey.
You are Scarlett cool? Cool? Okay? Uh yeah, let's go.
Let's go this way. What are your friends? You know what your
friends have names? Where were they? I don't, I don't know,
she she looks around. I don't. I don't know which way I went.
There was a shop with dresses in the window and red shoes Chris ran
shoes. Okay, well, I mean there's a few. You know what.
I have an idea, hold on, hold on one second? Uh,
left right left right right? Uh. And he reaches into his jacket
and pulls out something that is roughly the size of like a cell phone,
and he says, hey, I got an idea. This is gonna be
pretty cool. And he hits a few buttons on it, and you see
something like pop out of the top and sort of extend out, and he
says, if you don't mind, can I just I'm just gonna prick your
finger just like a second. It feels like a like a thorn. It's
it's not dangerous, and he places it out and almost like an insulin,
it sort of pricks your finger and you see like a little globul of blood
and the things are to light up and whir and buzz and twists and he
goes, okay, all right, and I think, I think if your
friends are from the same place as you, and he starts moving around like
he has some sort of compass locator until it's like, and he's this way.
She looks at it as you're using it. That's pretty cool, right,
I guess so would like it. It's called a locator still workshopping.
The name not one of my best, but it locates people. As long
as you have some sort of tie to him, I can usually find out
where people go. So it's a very literal name. Yeah, you know.
You see. The trick is you start at the most obvious and then
you sort of expand on it from there. So I just made this.
Uh so you're the first time I've used it, So hopefully this works and
we're not just wandering in circles or we don't find we're a doppelganger. I
don't know. You were crying in an alleyway and you sort of ran by
me like a night terror, so I figured you were either lost or there
was an assassin, which I was kind of hoping for. I thought that
would be pretty cool. But she she looks around and then almost make him
seem like that could be possible. There's no like giant robots around here,
is there. Well, I didn't say that you were. You're afraid of
giant robots. You have a giant robe of phobia. That sounds right.
She sniffs and like crosses her arms. I'm not afraid. I believe that.
Okay, this way, he holds up this device. She just slowly
follows behind him. See it's pretty simple here. Everything sort of runs in
concentric circles. It's like a like a spiral just sort of came in here
anyway this way, and he's going to try to follow this back to Ricky
and Heather, And as the two of you kind of enter into the bustling
metropolis that is Emerald City, we take that spiral and spin back a couple
helixes until we rest to Heather and Ricky and Van Halen, who are in
the middle of this pursuit. You know, Ricky, you're just climbing down
from another lamp post as you point in a direction of people that seem to
kind of, you know, be milling about, pointing in one direction as
if something has just passed that way, you know, giving you kind of
these landmarks as you move through. As soon as your boots kind of touch
the ground, Ricky and you look around. Both you and Teather see a
cart with a cage on the back being drawn by a horse that seems to
be shifting colors, and inside the cage are lion and flag. You see
several guards. Now, these gardens are dressed in almost uniform green, different
shades of green, but it seems to be and they're definitely not uniforms as
much as it's armor. You see that there's plating across the front. There
are pauldrons on the shoulders, albeit smaller ones. There seems to be forearm
protection pads over the thighs. It has a sort of a sci fi look
to it, but there's also long elements, almost like a half kilting down,
kind of obscuring the left leg of each of the guards. And they
are moving through the center towards the center of the city, and you can
see Randall's hurt. You can see that he has something wrapped around his head.
His hat is off, blood has soaked through it, his glasses are
off, his denim jacket has been torn from him, and you can see
that from this distance Lion is again, just covering his head with his paws
and trembling to the point where the entire cart is as it's moving along the
road. Heather's face as she looks at the cart is familiar, a familiar
look of fear in terror. But then she slowly turns back to Ricky and
that look turns to fury and she says, I told you, I told
you we needed to leave here. When are you guys going to listen to
me? And then she runs forward to the cart, Ricky, what do
you do? My friend? Ricky tag takes Van Helen's hand and starts to
walk towards that cart, leading her that direction. She brings her alongside him
and says, do you know what they've taken them? It looks like to
the city center, to the palace, and she stops you. Whether you
want to stop or not, the strength in Van Halen, you would have
to make a roll to escape, but you absolutely can. I'm just saying
that there is so much strength to stop you. You're going to have to
make a role. Do you or do you allow her to stop you?
If she's up state on her tracks, Ricky would stop. She does,
and she does not look at you She's staring straight ahead at Randall, at
Lyon, basically taking in everything that's inside of her, like window her you
know, uh, firing window. And she says, do not forget your
father, Ricky, do you understand? You know it's he tips his hats
to bits with his free hand. I went for again, and she can.
She's muttering under her breath, you know, remember the face of your
father, Remember the face of your father, and she will kind of whether
or not Ricky wants to run with her, you can, but she's running
to try to catch up to Heather before Heather makes it in this progression to
do the same. We're gonna say that she does catch up to you,
Heather, uh, and you feel a handle on your shoulder that you recognize
as van Halen's. She's going to try to stop you. Do you allow
her to No. I think that in the same way that she pulled away
from Lion when van Halen was in trouble, she'll do the same thing.
That is, she'll glance back briefly and say stop, and then she will
continue to rush forward, roll me and investigate, or I'll take empathize,
because it's sort of the same thing here. Well, I'm already on investigate
this same score, so I think it'll be a gotcha, gotcha one success.
Just as you pull away and your Heather's focus is still straight ahead on
lion, on the cart, and everything you hear over your shoulder, this
this whisper drifts to you and catches your ear, and you hear van Halen
say, do not forget the face of your mother, do not forget the
face of your father. And Heather doesn't remember the face of her father or
her mother, and she continues on to the cart with the aim of reaching
in to lion. Is she she going to be blocked by the guards if
you want to roll a stealth here and you want to kind of slip in
between them to reach in there. Now you're obviously it's not something that's going
to have, you know, be allowed to continue. But if you want
to at least make it there, roll a stealth or sneak, am I
one success. Just as a couple of the guards are laughing, kind of
leading the horse of many colors as you're going through here, you're able to
slip through and put your hand inside the cage within you know, grasping distance
of the lion. What do you do, lion? Lion, where are
you going? What happened? He peeks from underneath his paw. Run heat,
he run, I'm coming for you, lion. Don't worry and be
brave. Okay, be brave. Hey, And you feel I hand grasp
the front of your shirt and for a moment, you feel your toes kind
of go off the ground as you're lifted by the fabric. As you stare
into the face of Chief Reugen. What the hell are you doing? What
go of me? I will not? Is this your friend? I know
him? Don't you know him? That's not what I asked. Yes,
he's my friend. But you're not. Let go for me. Someone someone
is a man. He's holding me. Someone make him stop. As you're
saying this, and he's holding on to you, and it's not a pleasant
holds it's rough. And it continues. He continues to kind of like regrab
some of the material between his fingers and you know, jerks you around and
as you're saying that, everybody hates me. Look what I'm doing. Somebody
stop me. Some people just walk by and they put their heads down as
they go. Ricky, you and van Halen are there now you have not
approached, though I allow that I'm not going to take away your agency.
You may do whatever you'd like. Ricky looks to van Halen, I know,
for reassurance. If she doesn't look concerned about him running in, does
she? If he starts to move forward, does she roll? I'm gonna
need you to roll me and empathize because the expression that's on van Halen's face
is one you have not seen before. Emphasize that's good, dumbstuts, Oh
what success? Okay, good, This is a good time for that dumbstat
to pay dividends here as you look, You're not sure how you know this.
Maybe it's because of the fact that you've been with van Halen. She's
been your confidante. You know how she acts, you know when she gets
upset, you know, you know, especially since being in the age of
Always, she has constantly been the contradictory to everything that's going. We shouldn't
be here, we shouldn't be here gone is that expression? The expression on
her face right now is something akin to if there is a fight or fight
response. She is decidedly going towards the fight, and you see her roll
her shoulder and her hands clenched into fists, her eyes narrow, and she
seems to only be aware of Heather and of course Randall and Lyon in the
cage. But she is zeroing in and it does not look like she plans
to discuss anything okay in that case, where are where is Reugen situated?
Is see you on like a corner him and had her on a corner of
this cots the carts in the middle of the street. It was heading forward
to crowd kind of splitting in front of it. The cart would be an
open air cart, but has a box cage on top of it. Heather
has rushed up to the side of it and kind of stuck her hands in
between the tic tac toe of the cage bars the touch lion. And while
she was able to do that, Rugen, presumably and walking as one of
the guards along the side of the cart turned, grabbed her and lifted her
nearly off of her feet. He's holding her there now, just along the
side and the cart has stopped. Ricky is going to run in as fast
as he can and shoulder charge into Rerugen. His goal is to push him
past the side of the court so that Heather is on the side of the
court and he pushes Rerugen behind the court. Basically, he pushes arm into
that back corner and separate him from Heather. My friends, go ahead and
roll me a force as we are now going to enter into the seldom used
combat trouble combat in Tails from the Loom. If you could let us nice,
let us throw up, let's go back to Paradise City number two.
I think that fits a little bit, since we're having some lovely fun here
in Emerald City three successes. This is born from military school. This is
born from a year that Ricky was removed from his friends where Ricky and Chris.
Hasn't described exactly in game what's gone on with Ricky, but if Heather
is aware of this, if Randall sees this, though he would have no
point of reference. Really, anyone that would see this would not see a
teenager charging an adult. They would see a warrior charging a warrior. And
as Ricky comes in Heather, you see him slip under the arm that's holding
you, and he hits that soft area of the armpit and the flank with
his full force of his shoulder, blasting Rugan against the side of the cage
to the point where the entire thing rocks up nearly on two of its four
wheels. It is a devastating hit as you see Rugen smash the wind,
gets his kind of rancid Salami esque breath blasting out of his mouth into your
face as you're that close, and he as he gets just plastered against the
side there. It is at that moment that the other four guards turn and
begin to converge on the area, no longer entertained by Rugen, now realizing
there is a genuine threat in their midst and as the first one reaches for
Ricky, he gets blasted along the side of the jaw by van Halen,
who steps forward and punches down on him. As this guy's head rocks to
the side and sings, I'm there's three successes there. He only needed two,
so I'm giving van Halen one as well. And as they drop,
Heather, you drop to the ground and for a moment, a moment surrounded
by the city of Emerald and three active guards and two on the ground,
one of which is Reugen, you know, trying to figure out where his
air went. I'm going to give you all a second to do something,
but think about it. Because at this moment through the crowd comes Scarlet and
Casey. You would all see this situation of a prisoner cart being played out
Randall and lyon inside for Scarlet's benefit. Chief Rugan, who Scarlet probably wouldn't
recognize, crumpetle in the ground. But two guards down, three round,
what do you all want to do? And we're all going to do it
together? When they come to go ahead, Heather, oh, go ahead?
Well, when they come through the throng of people, and then they
see Scarlet freezes with purpose this time and jerks Casey to a halt. There
they're in trouble, and she will point I'm on all right, come on,
all right, and she will run forward. He slowly follows after her.
Okay, so we're gonna say that Scarlett, you're gonna get there whenever
everybody acts next. But we have an action for both Heather and Ricky that
are in the middle of all of this as Casey meanders up the crime.
Right, So what would Heather and Ricky like to do? As the first
round seems to have definitely gone Ricky and Van Halen's way. But there is
a city and there are three immediate guards who are standing up, converging on
you like, oh my god, you know the church down, you know
all this not no, you know what, No, I'm not you don't
like them at all. I don't want you to do that. So these
guys come around and they start brandishing like sticks, you know, and like
big like like nightclubs and stuff like. You know, they're just complete assholes
and that's not giving them any type of personality. They don't care about Ruben.
They want his job. They want to kill you all. They're terrible
people. Have at them. What would you all like to do? I
think Heather is going to land uh and I you know, I think she
lands into a crouch and she pauses there for a beat, and then she
lifts her head up uh and uh hollers at Ricky and says, we can't
take out the whole guard Ricky. But despite that, she uh draws her
vorpal blade and uh. That escalated quickly. I think her her goal here
is going to be to hit them back so that they can escape. So
she's going to if there's if there's three that are coming at them, she's
going to swing at them but with the flat of her blade, with the
goal of running as soon as there's a break, gotcha, So I need
you to roll me force. But as you pull forth, the snicker snack
of the eldritch blade as it comes forward and you flip it around so it's
you know, non lethal side. As you kind of swing like a batter
taking a going for you know, a base hit, go ahead and roll
that. The energy is like lancing along the ebony metal of the blade,
giving pause to a few of these guards here as they realize that is definitely
not what they signed up for, certainly not signed up for. The one
that takes it along the side of the head who didn't pull up just in
time as the sword cracks him and he does one of those two first where
you hit him and then it's his head hits the side of the cart.
It's at that time that you realize it's a warmer day here in the age
of always always perfect weather. But again, now it's when you notice that
these outfits that they're wearing, they're not that breatheable, and each of them
seem to have been issued a helmet, but each of those helmets are hanging
from the cart, not worn. And it's at that terrible moment of irony
that as this person get this guard gets hit along the side of the head
and his head smashes into the cage. He drops and slides down and his
helmet breaks loose and hits him on top of the head. Is it crowd
clatters to the ground as he's laying there. A reminder to always be safe
everybody, especially when you're a guard in Emerald City. For that uniform was
issued for a fucking reason and that is now evident to this person. Okay,
So with that, Ricky, what do you do as you see Heather
just you know, like the babe, take a shot and take this one
guard out. Uh? How is lion secured to this card? You said
it's an open top cart. How is lion secured? Does Ricky has Ricky
has been able to assitate that right? It's an I get an open Imagine
an open cart, which of course Ricky would be very familiar with working on
the farm. But inside that open cart is a built box cage that has
a top and has sides and has a back in the front. So it's
almost like someone took a cage and dropped it into the back of an open
cart. So it's it's not a barred cage. It's a crisscrossed like a
tic tac toe type of cage. Okay, and it's a steel cage.
It looks like it's made out of wood. Yeah, it's it's nice.
It's not like it's you know, it has duct tape and you know,
branches or anything and something actually a constructed cage. But Ricky in that case
shouts across to van Halen breathes a free lion, and he pulls up,
pulls his bow off his back, grabs an hour and he's going to try
and shoot one of the other gods in the knee. And I was right.
I was a garden Emerald city. So I took an arrow in the
knee, right, all right? Throw me? Uh what do we a
force for you for this? Or also move? Yeah? The move?
Oh? No successes again, you can use luck, you can push.
Pushing will give you a condition. But I used all my luck the last
time. Let's push it, Greg, sure successes and what condition would you
like me to take? You know what, I'll let you take anyone if
you want to do. You're not injured, but scared or exhausted. I
think you already have upset right, I already got upset. Yeah, yeah,
so let's just do scared, but not scared scared. This is adrenaline.
This is just you know, getting amped up and being able to take
this shot again as you fire. This guy almost escaped without a debilitating handicap,
and now he has taken one to the knee with two successes, which
is real bad. So as he gets hit into the knee, he's running
around the corner just as Ricky kind of fires down again. Non lethal,
but I think if somebody had the option to pick the non lethal Heather attack
over the non lethal Ricky attack, I think they'd probably lean heatherside, but
anyhill as it hits his knee and digs in. Luckily, the armor helps
a bit and it doesn't like go up to the fletching or anything like that.
But it's definitely one of those like ace Ventura moments where the guy has
no clue what's happening. He takes one in the knees, knee doesn't work
anymore, and he looks down in confusion as he sees this quivering arrow sticking
out of his knee and does what only anybody can do if you're shot in
the knee. He just looks down and goes as he looks down and sees
this thing sticking out of his knee, and then he just kind of goes
off off to the side, limping, dropping his billy stick or billy club.
It hits the ground. He's grabbing his knee. There's one of them
up and Van Halen jumps up onto the cage and begins to tear it apart.
As she cracks through one of the bars and cracks through one of the
other bars. She is literally breaking this thing open. Scarlet. There is
one guard here. This guard is definitely going to get to Heathern. Is
there anything that you would like to do from range? Is there anything you'd
like to shoot at this person? Yeah? Do you have any range attacks?
Greg? Could you describe me a non lethal bullet right right? No?
Uh, yeah, She's not gonna she's not gonna draw her guns out
yet. She's going to reach back because she has her backpack on and pull
out her but it's aluminum bat, not her not her bat. And as
this guy is approaching her, she's just gonna she runs forward and she yells
hey, dick face, and then attention to get his attention. And then
she's going to throw the bat like she's throwing a fire axe. Holy shit.
Okay, he's not close enough to use it in mealy, Okay,
do me. Let's see roll with charm first for the dick face, just
because I want that one success Okay, Uh, roll me a force as
you throw, and I'm using my iconic item. Give me plus two three
successes? Okay, so why two rolls? Creg Okay? The first role
was hey, dick face? Does he look he did? Hey dick face?
Apparently right, he looks. You know, that's Officer dick Face.
As he turns, and as he turns, and the just in time for
the like the the business end of the fucking bat to come in and crack
him right between the eyes. A perfect setup with three successes, four total
successes for this little kind of extended trouble maneuver you've had here. Cracks him
and he is out of the fight. He drops to the ground. Heether
you actually see him drop over your shoes. You hear this off putting crack,
and then the body is kind of across the well. He's still breathing.
He's not dead, everybody, but boom across your feet and for a
moment all the guards are down. There's definitely an audience around here. Now
people are starting to not interfere, but they are definitely bearing witness to this
attack on the guards. And it is only at that time that a shrill
whistle begins to kind of as Rerugan has this long, kind of slide whistle
out that he is absolutely belting into. A second later, you hear answers
from various points of the city. Fuck, Casey, is there anything you
want to do? As you saunter up to the area. Yeah. He
saunters up to the scene of chaos, and he closes the device and sort
of lowers it back in, clearly having reached the destination, and he just
looks around at the scene of a violent ass kicking, and then to Chief
Rugen and he says, whoa, whoa, there seems to be some sort
of miscommunication happening here. What Scarlett? I assume these are your friends also,
Chief? What's what's what do we have here? It looks like you
got your ass kicked by kids, and that's embarrassing for everyone involved. Right
now and watching what's happening right now, can Scarlett do something before? Oh?
Now, you just this is literally a second after you have thrown the
bat and destroyed one of the guards, and everybody has active here. The
guard would have had his action, but at this point the chief takes the
whistle from he's still laying on the on his back. He takes the whistle
away from his lips and looks over towards Casey a look of confusion on his
face. But the whistles continue to blare, seemingly getting closer to this area
as Van Hanley does not stop, and she tears the rest of the cage
open. As lion bounds out, seemingly not scared to the point where escape
is something that can't be done, every fiber in his large body seems to
want to flee, but instead he just backs up, so he is literally
back to back with Heather. As he just kind of sits there in Heather,
you can feel him shaking. He keeps stepping on the unconscious person,
and you see his like long back claws like digging into the guy's shoulder and
stuff. But that's just for traction. It doesn't he's not trying to be
mean, just he's gonna have interesting marks when he wakes up. Casey looks
up as whoa, whoa, the h chill, what is happening here?
Van Halen tears the rest of the cage open enough and slowly turns back around
at the mention of her name from a borign voice. And she turns and
she squints her eyes. Bitch. Hi. She jumps down and runs across.
And if you will allow it, she is going to wrap her arms
around you. Yeah. He hugs her right back. What are you doing?
What happened? Where is everybody? I don't know what you're referring to
everyone, Rob, But she looks, oh, oh, wait a minute,
shit, okay, oh when is this for you? When? When
is this? What? She what just happened? We just came here from
Garrett New Year's Eve. It was we saw you, We saw the others.
We you all went to the loop. I think, okay, uh,
but you were And she looks at you and again this is van Halen
not knowing how to say this without being mean. You look so old.
Thank you? I am older? Give it? What? Hello? I'm
you just did crimes. I'm i am older. She says, I don't
care, and she hugs you again. Okay, and he like over her
like curly hair. What is happening? Chief? I need answers. What's
going on? Why? Why? Why are you getting your ass kicked?
Why is there a Ryan Scarlett looks down at him, at Brugan. He's
looking over at Casey and he I mean again, Rugan just got blasted by
Ricky. Just absolutely. He's still having problems breathing. But the look of
complete confusion doesn't speak of a concussion. It speaks of very similarly to what
Casey just said. What in what the fuck is going on? As he's
looking around, all his men are taking out their their their cage has been
destroyed. Uh, he just has You can see that there's no point of
reality in his eyes at this moment. It's either shock stunned. Maybe he
is concussed. He just seems incapable of answering in this particular moment. And
that's what And with that, my name's Casey. Everyone, if you go
to your Spotify playlist, but don't start playing track three just yet, just
get ready, just get ready. The entire population watching this, the stop
this, and maybe a couple hundred people that are around here either looking in
this direction or stopping to see what everyone's looking at you know, if they
don't have a good vantage point. They all turn and look towards the west,
down the end of this long main street, as there are three dots
that come into view and swoop down and maybe two hundred yards away light onto
the cobblestones and bricks of Emerald City. Three figures emerge. As everyone starts
to cheer and they split. The crowd does on like the Red Sea as
these three figures come walking striding, no strutting, and in a mixture of
rock, stage, catwalk and maybe gladiatorial pit. These three walking like reservoir
dogs, you know, shoulder to shoulder, come into this street. And
now, my friends, if you get ready to play track number three,
The figure in the center screams out to Emerald City, give me a beat,
go ahead and play track number three for me. And as they walk,
music begins to spin from somewhere in Emerald City, but enough where everyone
can hear it. And for those of you whose characters are familiar enough with
pop culture music of the eighties would recognize the song of one Janet Jackson and
Nasty being played throughout some unknown public address. As they step forward, you
see and Ricky, you would recognize right away that the one in the center
that yelled out give me a beat is doped. And as she is striding
forward the kitty Eureka looking over her shoulder, she takes her broom and kind
of slides it into the area just in front of Eureka. It's bristles kind
of over her shoulder. Not this similarly to the way Heather wields the this
or wears the sword whenever she's walking around with it blanked to either side.
Well, let's start with to her right. On her right, there is
a again ages range from anywhere from seventeen to twenty. This includes dot.
You see a brown haired girl whose hair is braided and set into a loose
ponytail that hangs down her back. She has a leather vest on and it
is embossed with different symbols, a couple of them that kind of stand out.
The largest of the ones, you can see what looks like a winged
fairy and a sword and a thimble and a compass. And this dark leather
goes down into a bright white skirt that looks like it probably was something else
at another time, maybe even a nightgown, And atop her head is perched
a leather tricorn pirate's hat, and down one side of her face is the
wave tattoos that many pirates would take after successfully navigating different and new seas as
Wendy Darling walks beside Dorothy Gale and on the left side of Dorothy is a
very interesting looking figure that is wearing what looks to be a wedding dress that
is trained behind by twenty feet And as this blonde haired girl is walking,
is her hair shaved on both sides and the top is braided and pulled high
down the top of her head. And as she's walking, she begins to
grow one foot two feet five feet until she's twenty five feet tall, and
everyone cheers as they see and she in turn puts her broom, now little
more than a handbrush, and puts it kind of slung over her shoulder but
in a pocket on the back of this long wedding dress esque element. And
as they walk forward, Dorothy moves up, passing everyone. They stop only
to nod and respect towards Casey. And as she's walking forward, Heather,
you feel a hand reach out from the cart and its flag. Heather,
she glances back. What I remember I never should have left. I should
have stayed in service of the Queen. I need you to remember. I
tried to make you in the in the perennial. I couldn't. You have
to remember, you have to you have to remember the face of your father.
And with that, Dorothy walks up, and Heather, you feel her
hand on your shoulder, And do you take your eyes away from Randall.
She's just walking up. She's walking up, and she just placed her hand
on your shoulder. I think. Heather looks at Flag with confusion, and
then as something someone else touches her shoulder, she looks to see who it
is, and you see someone that you've never met before, but whose face
is oddly familiar, at least to somebody who has read the stories, somebody
that has in their own mind pictured what Dorothy Gale is supposed to look like.
And whatever picture Heather had conjured in her mind as to what the heroine
how she would have appeared in her various exploits and adventures in the wonderful world
of Oz. This is what you see. This person you've never met yet
is so familiar, and she looks at you and smiles. Have you felt
the magic I think Heather's looking at her with the kind of star eyes that
anyone would have for, you know, a celebrity, and she at first
is confused, and then she says, oh, yes, and the magic
Yes, how did you know? She looks over her shoulder and Alice and
Wendy look back and they both smile and nod, seemingly to have heard that
question that came from Heather, and they nod again towards Heather again, deferring
to Casey to nod before they nod to Heather, and Dorothy looks back and
says, and the age of always will honor an anoint one for each way
a mortal can point. We are the Witches three, but there must always
be four, and she turns to Casey wizard, what do we do?
And that, my friends, is where we will end this session. Welcome
to OZ. I love it. I love it. It's so awesome.
Oh my gosh, I just wanted to sorry. Twilight is an Unmade Gaming
production and a proud member of the Unmade Gaming Podcast Network. If you'd like
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Interview on iTunes. Thank you for joining us on this blast from the
past, and we'll see you next time on Atari Twilight