S1E8 Secrets, Secrets Are No Fun

In this episode, our unflappable crew makes some new friends and explores a library jacked up on growth hormones. Some crew members learn the importance of using their inside voices.

Transcript

unknown 0:02

No.

SPEAKER_02 0:07

I was just about to say that it took us eight episodes to really like get the groove of the intro. Like it was like really good, and then you did the jock strap thing, and I'm like, maybe it'll be episode nine. That'll be when we that'll be when we hit our stride.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

I'm leaving all of this in.

SPEAKER_05 0:25

And a good day to you.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Okay. So we're gonna cue the music. Welcome to this week's episode of Closses at the Crux, a Never Fear campaign presented by The Witch He March. I'm Ian, your GM. And joining me around the table are Hi, I'm Bree.

SPEAKER_06 1:29

I played Glitch, the Ship's Mechanic. Hi, I'm Audrey and I played Tabitha, the ship's quartermaster.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

And I'm Garrett, I played Tegan St. James, the ship's pilot.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

And I'm Eugene. I play Qualo, the ship's science officer. And my jockstrap is finger-licking good. Jeez.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Jeez. The last episode, you all were chasing after a felion, following the transponder signal to somewhere at the edge of the known Empyrean. And behind you, Alan and Wrench had left Dockstation Theta and had gone back to the Temple of the Lost Colossus. Uh, you had each had troubling dreams. One of you uh had a more interesting dream than the others, in that Qualo was visited by misinformation, a fairy who delivered some cryptic message that Qualo uh I would hesitate to say, did you even half understand it, or was this more like a quarter understanding? More like pi divided by E. So pi divided by E understanding. That's math.

unknown 2:35

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

People immediately turned the podcast off. They're like, oh no, I am sorry.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

I uh Yeah, no, we didn't sign up for this.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Uh-uh I misunderstood.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Yeah, we wanted like regular nerdery, not that uh no.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Okay. So what do you all want to do uh as you are in the sea sky pursuing Ophelia and the Golden Eye Woman?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

So Tegan's up in the cockpit and he's checking all the levels. Like, is there there's really nothing else he can do now that Josephine's taken over and she's she's charting her course, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:06

That is correct.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Okay. He's gonna get up and stop by the mess hall and get a cup of whatever passes his coffee, and then he's gonna wander down to the cargo bay and kind of watch things because it's a little bit of a quiet time in the journey, and he's like knocking on the sides of different bulkheads and things, just kind of feeling the ship. But as he wanders down to the cargo bay, he winds his way through kind of the stacks of some of the junk that we didn't get to offload and some of the new supplies we brought on, but it goes all the way back to like the ship's shrine locker. And he's sitting there looking at it. It's a new journey, and he's kind of looking at it, seeing nobody's around. Uh, he takes out a small piece of paper, he writes down Mr. Thickams and Chonkosaurus Rex on one side and on the other side. On the other side, he writes Do Gremlin's dream. Uh he folds it up and he shoves it into the shrine locker and then wanders back off to go finish his coffee.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

As you do, you think maybe you hear chittering from the ducks. I look up and I'm like, but it's just the air kicked on and it made like a rattle on the vent.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

He squints real hard so that like you know the tear that's forming gets like pinched off into his eyelashes. Mm-hmm. Smart. And then he goes back to work.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Uh, do any of the rest of you want to do anything before you make it to the mysterious signal?

SPEAKER_03 4:30

I stay on the bridge trying to get a better read on where we're going for the whole trip.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Okay. Uh, as you massage your hologram, you can see that Ofelion's ship is moving much faster than yours is toward the source of the other half of the transponder. So she's going to get there much sooner than you all will.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Hey everybody, we're gonna get late to this party, so be ready to go. Uh Slim Jimmy will be walking through and he'll be like, You heard the boss.

SPEAKER_06 4:58

Um, I guess I spend some of my time like trying out Slim Jimmy's food and uh, you know, stoking up the engine, so to speak, and I like pat my belly.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Okay. You will go down to the mess hall, uh, and Slim Jimmy will have a large uh pot that is boiling over. He's doing the thing where he's like wafting the smell of the pot up to his up to his uh his his nose. Um it's some kind of grayish brown goop, and the bubbles have like a viscosity to them. They like really hold their shape for a while before they pop. Um Yeah, it it smells like two-week old coffee and beans.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

I walk past the mess hole and I'm like, did a dumpster fart? Keep going.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

How'd you know the name of the dish? Uh, but yes, if you do eat some, I'm gonna need you to make a strength challenge roll. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

I believe in Chapel.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Roll the 21 with fear. So the fear is you will take a stress immediately from the intense intestinal discomfort that you're going to be in. You know when you eat something and like five minutes later you're already getting the like hot grumble.

SPEAKER_06 6:19

Or like you put more into your mouth and your throat tightens to try to keep you from like actually swallowing it.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Instead of bubble guts and getting like blimp guts.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Uh, and he's got like wide eyes as he's watching you eat it, and he's like, I told you I could cook, didn't I? Uh, you can put on your character sheet that you're going to get a uh a moment of insane strength from having uh eaten it, so you can cash that in for one advantage upon a roll for having survived dumpster farts. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 6:51

Glitch is deep in the engineering bay, running tests that may or may not be necessary, just trying to regain some sense of centeredness after having so much exposure to other creatures and people and all the events that happened while they were docked, and avoiding the mess hall entirely, she is munching absent-mindedly on the bag of candy they swiped.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Oh, yeah, I forgot about the bag of candy. Okay, cool, cool, cool. So, um some days pass like this, and uh eventually, uh, over the comms, you all hear Josephine's voice Captain Captain, please come to the bridge.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah, I know I'm not the captain, but I guess we should get confused. Uh he waters up and he's like, uh Josephine, you okay? Are they alright?

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Well, I think we might be here, but I'm not sure exactly where here is. So you will see that in the distance out in front of you, that there is a what looks like a ring of debris, like a ring you might see around a planet, but no planet.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Okay. Um, Darling, could you drop us out of FTR and just take it slow? I'll I'll take it from here. And I start getting the stuff together to like get ready for like manual control.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Okay. Uh so she drops out uh faster than reality travel. And you see she like comps back up the tube so that she's uh situated in the bridge with all of you. Her frame moving in and out of the milky substance inside the tube. And she says, Um, Tegan, this is this is strange. It's it's making me it's unsettling. I don't know. And she pushes away from the fluid so that you like can't see her now in the tube. Huh.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Uh oh, we got anything weird out there that we can see on your display? I look at my console.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

You can see that there is the ping of the signal and the ping of Aphelian ship, and both of them are coming from what looks like inside that ring.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Can I enhance or zoom in on the pings? Enhance. Uh, you can. I massage the papillai.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Okay. I'm gonna give you information either way, but if you would like to make an instinct check, I will give you additional information on a success. Would you like the just the base information, or you want to gamble with me?

SPEAKER_03 9:28

Oh, I'll gamble. Why not? Ooh, I love it. And I got a nine with fear. Such a good role.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

I will take that fear. It's good, I don't really have much. So, after studying it, you will see that suspended in that ring is what looks like a gash along some kind of uh maybe spherical surface, except that you can't see the spherical surface, just the gash. And, you know, this is a podcast that this would be very difficult to explain without visualizing it, so I'll just sort of give it away. It looks like there's something that is otherwise invisible that something has gashed the top of to like reveal the sub-surface that isn't invisible. And the ring is created by debris that was scraped out of this gash. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

Um hey yeah, Tegan, aim for the pole in whatever the hell that is.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Alright. Well, uh, we're gonna get closer. Uh the everybody strap in, it might get a little bumpy. So, Ian, is there uh you said there's a lot of like debris around. Uh is the ship responding correctly, like I would expect. Uh, or is it responding more like there's something bigger out there? Like we said it looks invisible, but I'm seeing if the ship feels like it's getting pulled towards something larger.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Yes. It feels like it's getting pulled towards something the size of an object that would have a debris ring of that size.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

So if Dox Station Theta is the size of a small city, then this is the size of like a small town.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Uh as you guys get closer to the gash, moving cautiously, you can see that tethered to the gash is the front half of a ship. But because of the way it's tethered, it is sort of listing in the sea sky. And it's been listing in the open sea sky for long enough that it has started to change.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

So the outside of the ship is now made of felt, and there are several large trees that have like bloomed out of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Okay. So was this the front or the back half of the ship?

SPEAKER_02 11:49

The front half of the ship is here. The back half of the ship is at Dock Station Theta.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Okay. And I'm not sure we'd be able to tell this exactly since all ships are kind of different. But if the FTR engine was in the back half of the ship, there wouldn't be anything to kind of help this thing stabilize out here, right? And maintain itself, it would slowly like uh drift into infinity.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Um yes. It lacks any way to propulse. Okay. But this is where the Navadream revolt would be in the front of the ship.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Okay. Uh yeah, I start pulling us up close. I'm looking for the other ship as well. Uh for the Golden Eye Lady ship.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Ooh. That's gonna be a check. I think uh knowledge or instinct.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Uh I will take an instinct. Just trying to see if either of my experiences would help out with this. If it runs, rolls, or flies? Sure. Okay. I'll spend hope and get a little extra sauce on that one.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

I got a boss fight coming up.

SPEAKER_04 13:00

Yes!

SPEAKER_01 13:02

So that's an eight with hope. But it's only an eight.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

You do not see another ship out here. Okay. Dang it. But you're hopeful. You are hopeful. What you do see as you were looking for the other ship, are that there are some very weak looking lights coming from down in that crack. So it's otherwise dark, but there are two dim purplish lights.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

How is the uh the front half of this ship? You said it's tethered. Uh is it like actual physical cables, or is it like uh energy, or or how is it tethered to this uh crack?

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Um, it's tethered with a cable, and the closer the tether gets to the ship, so the further it is from whatever this weird invisible object is, the more uh changed it has become. And you know it's only a matter of time before it changes so much that it snaps. But right now, uh what's a fun material for the tether to be made of closer to the ship? Spaghetti.

SPEAKER_05 14:03

Licorice.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

Licorice flavored spaghetti.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

The crew's hungry after uh having only dumb parts in the last three days.

SPEAKER_05 14:12

Clearly.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

So alternating layers of uh spaghetti and licorice getting closer to the getting closer to the ship.

SPEAKER_05 14:22

Oh, that's way too visual.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

And you can tell that the uh the spaghetti layers um are um going to let loose soon, so the ship will become unmoored. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

So I would, since I I don't see the other the other vessel anywhere, uh I'm gonna tell everyone it's like, hey, I'm gonna try to dock us up to the other half of that and see if we can't get to the Navadreamer vault uh and get at least what happened here.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

So you you go to dock at the crevasse?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Yep, up to the other half of the ship.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Um as you do, Qualo, you don't see it on your scanner, but out of the corner of your eye, at just the edge of the bridge's windows, you see movement. It looks like something is moving on the invisible object, and it goes just beneath the invisible horizon and out of view just as you like turn to look. Um but whatever that was, if you did really see it, is enormous.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

I'm gonna train a couple of cameras on as much of the horizon as I can of the invisible sphere. Mm-hmm. And just set it to record. Okay. For review later. Cool. Oh. Hey, uh Josephine, if we're off the ship and something comes over the horizon, let us know.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Of course, Wallow. But aren't I coming with you all?

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Uh no, darling. We need you to stay here in case we need to get a quick getaway. Things around here look a bit unstable, and we might have to get a scoot on real quick.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Oh. Okay. I I suppose that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Uh, and I get up because yeah, I hate doing this every time she wants to get off the ship. Uh, it just feels so damn bad. But I go by and like pick up another couple like ammo packs for my rifle and get ready to go.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Alright, cool. Um, you guys move into the crevasse. There's some sort of crystalline shell that has been smashed away. It's broken enough that you can see down into it, but it's it's not well lit. It looks like some sort of glassy crystalline material that was surrounding this object. So how do you proceed down into it?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

What kind of distance is it? You know, are we falling hundreds of feet down there or I would say it's very far. Okay. So we've kind of gotten the risen as close as we can. Is there uh enough of a surface we could jump to that that we could then start to climb down?

SPEAKER_02 16:49

Yeah. Okay. Like climb along the tether?

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yeah. So yeah, I will go first and we'll open up one of the cargo bays in the back of the ryzen, and then if the ship swings by close enough, I'll grab a hold and just lift up off. Okay. And then start making my way down the tether.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

Hey Tegan? Yeah. Not for nothing, but you should let Tabby go first.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

I figured she'd be coming next. That way if I fall off, she can catch me.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Alright. Okay. You go down the tether. It is a very far distance from the sphere to wherever um these lights are. You can see as you are going down, there is movement in the lights, and it's looks like it's trying to get away, like out of the light. So something was presumably watching you come down and is now trying to hide.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Okay. Could I make a roll to see if I know approximately where that thing is to like help keep it from getting a jump on me if it is in fact a thing?

SPEAKER_02 17:50

You sure can.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Instinct?

SPEAKER_04 17:54

Yeah. It's a 16 with hope.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

A 16 with hope. So um, I apologize. I was looking up something in my notes. What were you trying to do again, Garrett?

SPEAKER_01 18:07

So you said there's this thing that kind of moved out of the light, but you know, I can't really see what it is, but it seemed to be watching us. So I'm trying to gauge its most likely position if it's a thing trying to ambush me. That way I'm more ready for it.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Okay, perfect. Yes, you do see where it moves to. And it stays right at the edge, just outside of the light.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Okay. Is anybody else on the tether with me? Is anyone's like following behind?

SPEAKER_06 18:32

I I am Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Now turn back around and be like, uh, hey, uh Abitha, there's there's something down there. I don't know if it's uh I don't know if it's alive or not, but it seemed to at least recognize us. So it could be some sort of automation. I'm not sure. But uh just keep your head on a swivel, because I feel like it's watching us.

SPEAKER_06 18:52

I'll keep all three of my eyes open.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

I'll keep going down the tether.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

So when Tabitha gets on the tether, you feel that like jolt of her weight. Uh, you hear some licorice snap in the distance.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Okay. How how thick is this uh spilic rope?

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Spilicerish? And is it sticky? It's about six spilicorishes. Where you guys are grabbing onto it, it's still more tethered than spilicorish.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Okay. I'm hungry. I'm just asking if there's enough I can get a bite here or there that saves me from uh Slim Jimmy's cooking.

SPEAKER_06 19:32

Everybody's starving except for me.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

I don't know, your your stomach's still grumbling, and it's that like it's not like a low, like it's high-pitched grumbling.

SPEAKER_06 19:43

Like a wine?

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:45

Like a Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Okay, so you all come down into the crevasse, right? Yes. Okay. So you will see that a very gaunt person will come just into the light and will say, please, do you have any food?

SPEAKER_06 20:13

I hold out some of the licorice the the splericerish tether to them.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

No, I I couldn't eat the the ship's tether. We we uh might be our only way home, potentially. Nothing else on your ship? Um, he's looking at you all with like uh maybe you could be food kind of situation, like that level of of desperation.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Uh well I get on the comms. Hey, uh Slim Jim, you there? Yeah, boss? Did you uh get a stew pot of that creation you've had and uh send it down here?

SPEAKER_02 20:56

Oh, no can't do, boss. I don't work today.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Alright, well, uh, can you whip something up real quick? I know I know it's your your day off, uh, but if you don't, I'm gonna beat the living shit out of you.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

So I I I don't work on the Sabbath.

unknown 21:13

What?

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Anything else I can do for you, boss? That isn't working?

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Nope, you're good, Jim. See you in a bit. Uh and I look at Tabitha and I'm like, uh, you're I'm gonna need you to hold him down. We're gonna have to give him like the mother of all noogies.

SPEAKER_06 21:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

So how dangerous does this guy look? That's a good question, guys. Tabitha, what does this guy look like?

SPEAKER_06 21:38

Well, he did say he was pretty like slim and gaunt looking, and he's been down in this hole for a while. So he's gonna be a really pale, skinny, weak looking fun grill. He's got like a withered looking mushroom head shape.

SPEAKER_05 22:01

Can I um I Glitch is listening in on the comms, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Uh yeah, you're also there, as far as I know.

SPEAKER_05 22:08

Okay, I followed them down. I wasn't sure. I'm gonna mumble as quietly as I can. Um, hey, I know thinking is hard, but isn't it a little odd that it's asking for our stuff before it's asking for rescue?

SPEAKER_01 22:25

It is kinda odd. Hey, uh there, partner. How many people you got down there with you? Like, we got some supplies, but not enough to share with a whole bunch, so who's all down there?

SPEAKER_02 22:37

There's five of us left. We're the crew of the goddelver. And he'll point up to the crevice at the half of the ship.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Alright, well, how about we do a little little trade? We'll go get you make you up something to eat, and then you can let us know what happened here.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

I should say, um, he's been talking, not just like a harsh croak, but also he's been like whisper shouting.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

So he's just barely audible. That is an important thing to mention. But you offer to exchange information for food?

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

Of course. Um could could we join you on your ship? Uh let's save that till after we have our talk. Oh, please. We won't last but a few more days. We're just scientists. We're we're so hungry.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

Uh, and I'll ask like either Koala or Glitch to kind of back up the tether a little bit and just go get something. And literally feel free to like throw Slim Jim out the airlock if he protests or anything. Like, like he can come like float in the Empyrean for all I care right now. It's his day off, he'll like it. But if yeah, I just want to stay here and like guard the tether and make sure they're not gonna try to like make a boarding on us while we get them something to eat. Rock, paper, scissors?

SPEAKER_05 23:56

Well, you're trying to decide glitch just scrambles back up the back up the tether.

SPEAKER_04 24:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 24:02

Uh and goes running through the halls down to the mess hall. Just sort of sneers at Slim Jimmy as she runs past him and starts rifling through.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

I'm assuming he's got like his feet kicked up or something, and he's like I don't know, he's back.

SPEAKER_05 24:20

Yes, yeah, he's playing solitaire.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

He's in a hammock, he's in a hammock and he's got a newspaper uh opened up. Um cool. Alright, so you grab some provisions uh and you run back and you bring them to the thing. All the while, like more figures have started to move to the edge of this purple light, which you can now see is a dying flare. And you can also see, if you look really closely, that they had actually spelled out help with the flares, but all but two of the like two dozen flares that they had put out to spell help have all died.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

Uh hey GM, is this sphere and or ship considered a prominent town or environment?

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Like for Loreborn?

SPEAKER_03 25:01

Like for Well Connected.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Well connected? Uh yeah, if you're in a new place, you can well connect. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

Yeah. I know one of the people, uh one of the survivors.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

Uh indeed, in the darkness, uh well, what person would you like to see here among these scientists?

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Um, it's someone I exchanged papers with a couple years back on the nature of gestational gremlins.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Okay. Another little tear rolls out my eye.

SPEAKER_03 25:32

I went through a period where I was wondering at what point do gremlins develop hands? And this guy is the expert on that.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

Uh, it turns out two years after they're born, for the first two years of their lives, they're just nubs. Gross. Weird. Hey.

SPEAKER_05 25:46

But they get the pompadours at birth, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:48

No, they're born with regular hair. They st they style their hair. That's one of the weirder things about gremlins, is that they have a Grimming hat. They seem to have some kind of culture around uh yeah, advanced hair.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

The first thing they do when they develop hands is go through the hair ritual, and that's when they first style their hair into their distinctive pompadour. That's how they know that they're adults.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Okay. They have a they have a rite of like a coming of age passage where they have to like use their new hands to do their hair. Oh, you are on the bus.

SPEAKER_05 26:20

That Qual is explained to us in his surprise how he knows this person. I'm just gonna be like, why is it always gremlins with you guys?

SPEAKER_02 26:28

They're fascinating. Alright, so this uh researcher. What is their name and what do they look like?

SPEAKER_03 26:35

Their name is Philanges, and they are the shortest elf you've ever seen. They are as short as they are wide.

SPEAKER_06 26:45

Oh well, are they as wide now that they've been starving for a while?

SPEAKER_03 26:49

In fact, they used to be wider.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Okay, uh so for the audience, I've been playing with uh Eugene for some years now, and this is like the sixth guy he's named Phalanges.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Um I'm I'm a big Phoebe fan, what can I say?

SPEAKER_02 27:11

Okay. Alright, so uh yes, phalanges shuffles out of the darkness and uh says Qualo, Qualo Dynasim?

SPEAKER_03 27:22

Phil?

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Phil baby! Is that you? Oh my gosh! Oh, we're it uh Phalanges is going to grab uh you know one of the other starving people and shake them. We're saved! Oh, Qualo's a uh famous scientist from uh the city at the crux. Oh Phalanges will fall into a sobbing heap of relief. Hey man.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

Are are you guys planning to kill us and take our ship?

SPEAKER_02 27:52

Oh, I guess if you said you weren't gonna take us, we might try, but we're starving to death, so I don't imagine it would work really well, but we're like we're we're we're desperate enough to give it a shot, you know?

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Just being on the level with you, we're that bad off. We are real bad right now.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

The others like look at their feet and like shuffle them. You see one person, like their arms had been behind their back, and like their arms fall slack and they had the makeshift shiv from stuff that they had found.

SPEAKER_03 28:27

They like let it drop. Alright, do any of the rest of you have any weapons? Because honestly, we want to help you, but also Tabby will just eat you.

SPEAKER_06 28:36

It's true.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

One more person drops a shiv on the ground. Okay. Hang out here. Well, tell us everything you know, but uh, if we have to go inside, you can just hang out here, and when we're ready to go, we'll bring you to the ship with us. Yeah, we'll pass the food over.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Are you are you all following that lady?

SPEAKER_03 28:58

We are. We are following that lady. Do you know where she went?

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Uh deeper inside. Also, you've gotta keep your voice down. If you're too loud, you'll attract it.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

I immediately start whispering. Uh attract what, buddy?

SPEAKER_02 29:15

We've been calling it an idolon. It's it's a creature, it's meant to protect this place. Uh we guess. Um so we came here, the the research was funded. We we knew it was kind of sketchy, it went through a bunch of different shell corporations and things, but you know, some of us already had research in the area, and you know how scientists are, we'll do anything for, you know, a citation. So we uh we had uh someone purchase the ship, the God Delver for us, the most advanced ship I've ever seen. And uh there was a a signal that was coming from the city at the crux, and it was winding up here. Uh so we were sent to research the source of it. Um when we got here, the you know, there was the big crack you all saw. But right after we left the ship, the this thing, this large creature came up and sliced the ship in twain.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

Wait, the Eidolon sliced the ship in half?

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

Oh, that's way more serious than I thought. It's big as fuck. Hey, um, thanks for reminding me. Any papers that come out of this operation, I expect the co-author for rescuing you.

SPEAKER_02 30:33

For shit's sake. Uh all of a sudden all the scientists like look really suspicious, and they're like, one of them tries to hand back the food. Like, if that's what this takes, I'm not eating.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Um You could just you could just put me in the middle. I don't gotta be first or last. Fine. Just you know, uh I want to get on the comms.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

I wanna get on the comms real quick and be like, uh, hey, Yosefine, uh, darling, could you do me a favor? Can you go ahead and uh detach off of the the what you're we're on right now? I need you to pull away a good decent amount to the outside, more like what we came in on. Uh we'll call when we need you to come swing by and pick us up.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

Is it because of that enormous creature that's just come uh into view?

unknown 31:14

What?

SPEAKER_01 31:15

And I look up.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Okay, I need everyone to give me an instinct reaction roll.

SPEAKER_04 31:24

Ooh.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

Man.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Ugh. That's a five. Eighteen. Eight. Twelve. Okay. Everyone who made less than 14 is going to take one HP, like mark one HP, that you cannot use armor for. Uh, you hear what sound like the clanging of bells, but it's not coming from the crevice. It sounds like it's coming from behind you and passing ahead of you. Almost like the sound is being pulled toward this creature as it walks across the crevice. And so you see what looks like a spider, the size of a strip mall, walk over the crevice and toward the ship. Josephine manages to pull the ship just out of the way before a large scythe-like leg sweeps where the ship would have been. Woof.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

Woof!

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Uh, well, you guys go to go woof, and then you realize you can't hear anything.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 32:40

All four of us or just the three that took damage.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

All four of you. Okay, so we had the big crack, and this giant spider thing came out of it. Crawled over top of it.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

From your perspective, you were inside the sphere looking out through the crack, and this thing is crawling along the top of the sphere.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

Okay, okay. So it was either invisible or on the other side of the thing we couldn't see. Okay. Uh yeah, I get on the comms and like, get Ghostfing, go, go, go! Get out of here.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

So you're you're trying to do that, but you're not making any noise. And one one of the people from the crew is going to like put their uh hand on your shoulder and give you like a they're shaking their head telling you like don't bother trying to talk.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

I shrug off that and then start heading back out of the crack. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

The uh shadow of the large spider creature continues across the crevice and away. And yeah, Josephine has like jerked the ship just out of range of its swipe and is you know, listing further away in the sea sky.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

Yeah, I'm trying to like move over the rest of the crew to get back out of the crack and towards the outside. I just want to see what the hell's going on.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

By the time you get back out there, Yosefine is some distance away back toward where the ring is, and there is no creature in sight, but your ability to hear is returning. And so if you're at the crevice, like the mouth of the crevice, it returns faster to the people who are inside the sphere than it does to you. And so Glitch Qualo and Tabitha, you you know, regain the ability to hear pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_06 34:14

What was that? What?

SPEAKER_03 34:19

Stop fucking yelling, people.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Hey, that's a good point. I so yeah, when you're like, what? Uh a bunch of the people down below, like and they'll aren't furiously shushing, then one of them will scream whister whisper. We call it hush.

SPEAKER_06 34:37

So that wasn't the other thing that you were talking about? There's like two scary creatures roaming around here.

SPEAKER_03 34:46

Nope, just the one. Just hush. Okay, well, I don't know about you guys, but now I really want to be inside and away from that thing. And conveniently, the crazy woman that I have questions for is in there too. What?

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Shh I'm like pantomime, I can't I got my my hand in my ear, I'm like, nothing. I can I can't hear you.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

So uh he's also hard to hear. Like his voice is muted like a muffled because it's closer to the creature. The creature's back out of view by the time you got to the top of the crevice. So you you didn't get a good look at it.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Okay, I'll start back in.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

Almost like by GM Fiat, you can't see this thing in full before it's time for the fight. Ha ha ha ha. You're like, I just get back in the ship and leave. I don't have to do this stupid way.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Oh, we could, but now our ship's all the way out there.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

Yosapine's like, should I come back closer?

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Oh, darling. We'll we'll radio when it's time.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Uh you can hear Slim Jimmy in the background be like, take a load off!

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Don't listen to him. Uh yeah, don't don't don't bring it any closer. We're not sure what that thing can do, so just stay out of its its reach for now.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Alright. The architecture to this place is strange. Uh, which isn't, you know, that's not that weird for being out in the Empyrean, but your comms devices usually translate any writing that you see for you. And uh while there is writing everywhere, it is not being translated by your comms devices. And judging by the amount of writing and handles and knobs and things, you're in some sort of like control or maintenancey style area.

SPEAKER_05 36:26

Alright, well, uh, since we don't have a good idea what we're doing except that we're getting into trouble. Glitch is gonna take a moment to spend a hope, use her community ability, which allows her to spend a hope to use an ally's community ability, and I am gonna use Habitha's nomadic pack. I'm gonna spend an additional hope to reach into my backpack and pull out a mundane item that is useful to the situation, which the GM will elaborate on.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

Oh great. Also, how many hope did you just spend? Two. Okay, two hope. Okay. Cool. What the hell would be useful for this?

SPEAKER_03 37:10

Something to make light? I mean a decoder ring, obviously.

SPEAKER_05 37:14

Something that yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

Something that that uh I might well, a mundane object could not decode the uh the text. But yes, uh something that can make light does sound useful. So you pull out an old tiny torch with like the pitch soaked rag, like wrapped around a wooden uh wooden stick.

SPEAKER_05 37:37

Totally. Something glitch would carry around. I didn't even know that was still in there. Set it alight.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Yeah, Tegan's not reacting to any any stranger any stranger to the like the the unreadable writing, because he can't really read to begin with, so he just thinks this is regular writing.

SPEAKER_03 37:54

I'm gonna use the comms recorder function to record all the writing. I'm sure the scientists have been working on it because they'd be bored and doing that, but I'm also just gonna record it for myself.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

We have been doing that, one of them says. Um then he begins to cough and he loses uh loses consciousness. Um, when before you go in, Phalangee's gonna grab you, Qualo, and he's gonna say, There's a chance you you all might not come out. Can we just get aboard your ship so that you can take us when you leave? Like, I mean, what happens if you die? Like, you're just gonna let us die? Uh don't let us die.

SPEAKER_03 38:29

Well, we can't we can't risk bringing this ship close enough for the Guardian to cut it in half just yet. So you're just gonna have to wait for us.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

I mean, you don't need a you know 14 in presence to know you're just blowing smoke right now.

SPEAKER_03 38:47

Yeah, but you do need more than those two shivs to make us change our mind.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

You've changed, Qualo. You've changed. You used to be the kind of guy who would write research papers, and now you're this. Any emotions to your whole body?

SPEAKER_03 39:02

Well, we don't we don't gotta get personal about it there, Phil. I mean Phil!

SPEAKER_01 39:10

You changed too. You weren't nearly as starving the last time we talked.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

I mean, I'm not one to body shame, but if you really want to go there. Out in your ribs, bud.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

Just let me go on the ship. Okay, uh, so I guess you guys don't let them go on the ship. But you do feed them, and they very greedily eat the food, you know, like you would expect five starving people to do.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

Okay, are they able to share anything about what this writing is or like what this place is?

SPEAKER_02 39:38

Uh their interactions with this creature. So the Funkrill will say, I'm Saturnus, and I was the head of the expedition. The the writing um our our linguists and uh she'll point to the person who just went unconscious, uh, says that this place was some kind of archive, and so the creature was meant to protect the archive, but we we haven't been able to find out what they were archiving um because we haven't gone very far out of here. What on account of the intense danger and the fact that we're just scientists and not like, you know, swarthy adventurers or what have you.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

The the other lady, uh, did she bring her ship through or No, never saw a ship. Huh. Turn around to the rest of the group, like that's weird. Definitely got here on one.

unknown 40:32

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

Alright, well, which way'd she go?

SPEAKER_02 40:35

They will point to a door that is ajar and goes down into a maintenance shaft.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Alright, well, I don't think there's much for it but to do it. Let's head on after him. I mean, we gotta get some answers before we can fight figure out a way past this hush, or we can get the hell out of here.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

Let's go find a database. Alright. Um, I'm going to have each of you tell me how you help navigate through this place. And then you will make a uh associated roll and we will see how that goes. So who would like to go first?

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Uh I'll go first. Tegan is going to be watching out for unstable bits of you know this area and any kind of strange terrain as we kind of go through those hallways and then, you know, stuff that's broken. And I'd like to use my Ridgeborn community feature steady, which uh gives me roll advantage on rolls to traverse dangerous cliffs, ledges, and navigate harsh environments. Wow, it's like you were bored for this. It's like I'm intentionally choosing the thing I'm really good at. Roll that shiz. That's an agility challenge roll with advantage. That's an eleven with hope.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

Eleven with hope. Alright, get that hope. Uh yes. At one point, Tabitha goes to like put a paw on a beam, and you put your hand like on her shoulder, and she like doesn't put her full weight on it before it like and then falls down and then like clangs into the darkness. You can tell this place uh has seen better days. It's fallen into disrepair. Awesome. Alright, that's some progress. Who's next?

SPEAKER_06 42:10

I will, with Tegan's guidance, use my strength to maybe move large obstacles out of the way for people so that they can traverse easier or lift them up to like help them get up a ledge or something like that. Basically, using my size and strength to uh get everybody through.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

Perfect. Give me that strength roll.

SPEAKER_06 42:34

A 16 with hope.

SPEAKER_02 42:36

Alright, get that hope. Uh so between the two of you leading this first charge, you're able to get out of this system of what looks like maintenance shafts, and you come out into a walkway that is over top of uh what looks like uh like a full town. It is enormous, and it is full of pillars that are hundreds of feet high, and there is like one of these pillars like every far distance, and there seems to be like an opening in the center of this forest of gigantic pillars, and you guys are an extreme distance above that. So, like if you were to fall from this catwalk, you'd have some hang time before you went splat. But you can see at the distance that there is what looks like a shitty elevator that goes down from this catwalk to this library proper. Cool. Who wants to do the next next leading?

SPEAKER_05 43:28

Glitch will pop in and uh pull the rope out of her pack and start to create some sort of tether as we make our way towards the janky looking elevator, trying to create something stable to uh create a little a little bit of a fail safe for the team as they make their way over there.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Smart, smart, smart. So that's gonna be a finesse check, and I'm gonna give you advantage because you use the uh commute uh community pack to get the torch. So

SPEAKER_05 44:02

That is a 19 with fear, you're welcome. Yes! Alright. Doing her best. Void Scouts. All the knots she learned.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

In the Void Scouts, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

Alright, Qualo. Can I describe what we do when we're at the after we take the elevator? Or do you need me to do it now? No, you can do it after the elevator.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

So, uh, you guys ride the elevator down. And now you are at the you know uh start, I guess, of this, like I said, forest. Uh now that you're closer, you can see that they are full of scrolls. These like towers. Like scrolls with text on them?

SPEAKER_03 44:46

Yes. Oh, fud you. Um Well, damn it. I no longer care about moving after the woman. And I'm just I've I start reading the scrolls. I just start grabbing scrolls and trying to read them.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Uh cool. Give me a well, okay, so I'm gonna tell you what starts to happen, and you tell me how you react. So you reach in to grab a scroll, and when you do, you can see that there is some kind of uh indicator that clicks on, and it's flashing green and red as you're holding the scroll, and when you give it a little tug, it flashes more red than green.

SPEAKER_03 45:32

Alright. Well, I'm not a complete idiot. I put the scroll back in, does it go back to green? It does, and then it clicks off. Okay. Hey Glitch, if we turn off the power source, then the the tracking mechanism will turn off, right? And then I can just grab all the scrolls. Let's let's put that plan in action.

SPEAKER_05 45:49

Oh oh sure. We'll just make it happen just like that. Err, that sounds like a great idea. Why don't you reach in and find out?

SPEAKER_03 45:56

Thanks. I I agree it sounds like a great idea. That's excellent. Thanks very much. Um when we get to the bottom of the elevator, uh, because my genes are a hot mess, I'm gonna use my intuitive sense of figuring weird shit out to see which direction we should head in.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

Okay. Uh yeah, give me that uh I think that sounds like a knowledge roll, right?

SPEAKER_03 46:19

Sure. 15 with hope. You guys rolled so good, damn it.

SPEAKER_02 46:29

Stack that fear up. Weak, weak, week, weak. Okay, so um you recall in your many, many studies in your different eras of of uh academia that there was a diagram for a archive that was considered like of legend. And uh you thought the idea of this archive, uh giving your character was uh so awesome that you had inadvertently committed the layout to memory, and you find you are in that fabled library. Like you are in that that fabled archive.

SPEAKER_03 47:06

Uh I'm never leaving.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

Uh I'm home. I'm home! Leave me enough dumpster farts and I'll be happy. So, Ian, uh, I'd like to use my my gifted tracker ability because I just remembered I'm a ranger. And uh, I was wondering about that. Yeah, yeah, I just kind of forgot about it until now. Uh it says when I'm tracking a specific creature or group of creatures uh based on signs of their passage, and I'm assuming there wasn't a whole lot of other ways for a person to get to where we are now.

SPEAKER_02 47:40

That's a fair assessment.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

Uh it says I could spend any number of hope and ask the GM that many questions uh from a list of questions here. So I'd like to know, I'm gonna go ahead and spend three hope to get three of these questions. Mm-hmm. So the first one is which direction did they go?

SPEAKER_02 47:57

Okay. Uh so you can see there was like a layer of dust, and if you look closely, you can see very light footprints in the dust, and they're leading toward that opening in the stack of books.

SPEAKER_01 48:09

Okay. The second was uh how long ago did they pass through?

SPEAKER_02 48:14

So even though she had like a couple of days hit start on you, it looks like she maybe went uh ahead of you, maybe like half an hour.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

Wow, okay. They're right on our on our tail. Uh, and then the last one is how many of them were there? Just the one.

SPEAKER_04 48:28

Ooh.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

Okay. So if we encounter this uh the golden eyed lady that I've tracked in this way, I get a plus one bonus to my evasion against her. That's nice.

SPEAKER_03 48:38

Nice. Um, hey, since apparently I I know where we are, where does that hold lead to and where is she likely to be going? Do I remember that?

SPEAKER_02 48:48

So in the center uh of this library was said to be something that was able to uh extract and store secrets directly from people and in their raw form, right? So rather than somebody having to write something down through like layers of their subjective experience, that it could pull the objective secret out of people and then store it.

SPEAKER_03 49:12

Okay. She's going for the encephalon machine.

SPEAKER_01 49:17

Tegan nods like he understands what's going on, he doesn't. He's like, mm-hmm, yeah, encephalitis, okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:25

That joke was incephalable. Um, uh, do you all make your way toward that central area?

SPEAKER_03 49:34

Yep. I mean, if you have a chance to see an encephalon machine, you have to take it.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

Okay. So uh you all move toward this encephalon machine, and you can see that with this very dim lighting that you might expect to see in a uh archival area, you know, more like more like emergency lighting than task lighting, there is a large dais that rises up in the center of this open area. And as you approach, you can see that Afelion is on the dais messing with some kind of desk. Um, assume you know there's like controls or something on the desk, then you can't really see it from where you are. And she looks frustrated and she's being very frantic, like typing and moving something. And so she is very far distance away. But as you all approach, there really isn't, you know, once you're inside the area, there's nothing really to hide behind, right? So it's a big open space, the dice in the center of it. And so she sees you when you see her, and her eyes narrow. She's wearing a black outfit from toe to turtleneck.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

Toe to turtleneck. Nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:47

And she looks like she has a weapon on her side, some sort of firearm. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

I look over at uh Qualo, and I just kind of put my hand on my back where like I got my carbine all folded up, just ready to go.

SPEAKER_03 51:00

I'll step to the front and I'll put my hands up. Mm-hmm. Hey, Ophelion. We don't have to fight about this. What you trying to do?

SPEAKER_02 51:09

So as you say that, her eyes go wide with horror, and the dais that she's on rocks violently, and then uh you see all around you embedded in the ground are what look like spider legs that begin to lift up and you know set down and like pick up the weight, and the dais rises quickly and awkwardly from the center uh of this area, and uh you can see that Hush is standing in front of you, and a felion is thrown from the dais, falls on the ground opposite the monster uh of you all. And uh you can see from uh where she lands, like she hits the ground hard, bounces off the ground. Uh but then yeah, this gigantic spider creature is now looming over you. Now that you can get a better look at it, so the dais makes up this weird center of the body, and then it has six legs positioned equidistant around this dais. And in the center of each leg, like where it articulates, there is a gyro with a gigantic bell situated inside the gyro. And so it's got six of these bells. And that is where we're gonna end the session for today.

SPEAKER_01 52:31

I'm guessing we shouldn't have called out hello. Hey! Hey there, lady!

SPEAKER_02 52:38

We're fine! Oh no. You you had been warned. You had been warned. And so, uh, yeah, everybody.

SPEAKER_06 52:48

Okay, okay, so we were warned, but how are we supposed to know it was just gonna come out of the ground when it was previously on the surface?

SPEAKER_01 52:55

Yeah, I thought the thing was like um guarding it from the outside, but no, it lives in here. Also, I didn't realize I was yelling.

SPEAKER_05 53:03

Because the answer is because we should have known.

SPEAKER_02 53:07

And so, special thanks to our sound guy for Darington Press for creating Daggerheart, the awesome game we're playing, and to our incredible fans. Don't forget to like, subscribe, comment, five stars, the whole thing. It's the number one way to help our show. Colossus of the Crux is part of the Witch Key March Universe. If you're interested in playing in any of the associated games, you can find them on startplaying.games. And we will see you next week. Oh yeah, everybody's so excited.

SPEAKER_03 53:35

I fry it in olive oil.

SPEAKER_02 54:02

Oh my god, I was so I I like that went exactly the way I wanted. Like how like in my entire GM career, how many times have I gotten exactly what I wanted? Like never. And I got it. I was like, please, somebody say something and forget that you're supposed to be quiet. And then it would you know, it's whoever had said whatever it would have woken it up, but like so good.