1.04 A Good Spot To Dig

The team arrives on-scene for their first assignment. JJ bonds with her dad. Ibra stands sentry. Gordon steps up. Fran ponders “construction chic.” 

-- links --

Website: wanderingpathpod.com

Support our show: patreon.com/wanderingpathpod

-- cast & crew --

Created by Mischa Stanton

Produced by Bex Taylor-Klaus, Lyn Rafil, & Mischa Stanton

Gamemaster: Mischa Stanton

Ibra: Bex Taylor-Klaus

JJ: Lyn Rafil

Gordon: Ian McQuown

Fran: Mayanna Berrin

Sound design: Mischa Stanton

Cover art: Lyn Rafil

Music: Independent Music Licensing Collective
Production & House Manager: Erin Bark

-- about --

The Wandering Path is an actual-play podcast putting complex characters, resonant themes and engaging new mechanics at the heart of immersive adventures. We’re making the stories we want to see in the world, one game session at a time! Join us for our first season, as we dive to the heart of the City of New Prosper: a techno-magical metropolis on the rise, where those who seek to craft themselves a new future will first have to settle the debts they owe the past. New episodes every other Monday.

— Transcript —

Bex: Previously, on the Wandering Path.

[SFX: Theme music plays in background of recap].

Mischa: Our crew’s tracking down the mysterious wraith attacks across the city, which might be harder than they thought, considering that apparently some people can’t even remember anything having to do with them. But at least Gwen knows what to do: assign competent, qualified, capable individuals to the task. Or, when you can’t find any of those, call in some eager young folks who need some employment. I guess when you’re fighting electric jelly ghosts, any crew will do, you know? Okay, let’s see what’s around the bend today on the Wandering Path.

[SFX: Theme music swells, then fades out].

Mischa: Well, here we are. 

[SFX: Gentle, pensive music begins: acoustic guitar and piano].

Mischa: A group of heroes, and a quest calling them to action. Now that Gwen has officially noted the four of you as people capable of handling a vital and important task for the city–a task she can't even remember the details of as she assigns it. But fortunately for her and for the rest of the city, you all do remember it: the task of investigating potential incidents of danger across the city that may or may not have been caused by spooky electromagical creatures, or what y'all have affectionately called electric jelly.

Ian: Wait, also, just not to put too fine a point on it. But, people are forgetting, right? So even the people who assigned us these tasks, they told us that they might not remember having done so. 

Mayanna: Yeah, having given us the job. 

Mischa: Correct. In fact, Gwen is one of those people and knows she is one of those people. So is trying to do this job knowing that she's not going to remember what she has told people to do. 

Mayanna: So scary.

Mischa: Which, for the person assigning tasks across the city, pretty scary. 

Mayanna: Not awesome. 

Mischa: Yeah. And to that point, she's also warned you guys that like, anybody you try to talk to–to gain access to places, to investigate, to do your jobs–might not be willing to help you because they won't know why you need to do what you need to do. 

Mayanna: But she gave us an ordinance or something, right? 

Lyn: We got some forms. 

Ian: Some paperwork. 

Mischa: She said she would help you where she could. 

Ian: Yikes.

Mayanna: Gotcha, right. Well, that's not– That's not promising. 

Ian: So it's gonna be like a, “Hey, the city sent us to investigate ghosts.” And people are gonna be like, “Ghosts don't exist!”

Mayanna: “You're dumb. Get out of my lawn!” 

Mischa: Little bit.

Ian: Great. 

Mayanna: Yeah. 

Ian: Specters. 

Mayanna: Yeah. Phantasms. 

Ian: Wraiths. 

Mayanna: Spooky.

[SFX: music fades out].

Mischa: To that end, she sent you to investigate the bridge collapse: an overpass has collapsed over Minetown, over the center of the city, and it's a major thoroughfare. It's been tossing traffic around the city into chaos for the past 24 hours.

Mischa: Ibra and JJ, you're headed directly there from Gwen's office, correct? 

Lyn: Yes. 

Bex: Mhmm.

Mischa: Fran and Gordon, you guys were still doing Gordon's bread route. And Ian, you were going to decide whether you were going to stick on your delivery route, as you've promised Cecilia, head of your guild–

Ian: Mhmm.

Mischa: –or if you're going to drop everything and head over to help your friends at the disaster site.

Ian: It's such a hard call. And I'm so scared to leave them alone for whatever amount of time that is. How–Okay, wait. Just so I know before I make this decision–how far off the path does it put us if we finish the delivery? 

Mischa: Well, correct me if I'm wrong. The final delivery on your route as prescribed by Cecilia is handing out free bread in the Dustpan.

Ian: Yes. 

Mayanna: Yes.

Mischa: Dustpan? Pretty close to the disaster site, actually. 

Ian: Ohh-kayy.

Mayanna: (Aligning with Ian’s cadence) Ohh, that's greaaatt. 

Ian: That makes the– 

Ian and Mayanna: (Elongated, singsongy, and in unison) –decision easier. 

[Laughter].

Ian: Well, that solves that problem. We're going to go finish the route so I fulfill my responsibilities to the Baker's Guild and to Cecilia. 

Mischa: Sounds good. 

Ian (Gordon): Let's go hand out some bread. 

Mayanna (Fran): Let's hand out some bread. Let's do it. 

Ian: So we get back in the tuk-tuk. 

[SFX: motor revs, then rumbles in the background].

Mischa: Yeah. 

Ian: And we head in the direction of the bridge, but we stop at the Dustpan. 

[SFX: motor zooms off into the distance]. 

Mayanna: Yes. 

Mischa: Okay. 

Ian: How many people are there today? 

Mischa: Well, that's a good question. 

Ian: Flippin' on the GM, ask them questions. Boo! 

Mischa: Oh no, I have to make a world? Come on! 

Bex: Keep them on their toes. 

Ian: Uh oh, that's not a good face.

Mischa: Well, I love when you ask me to casually roll a d20 and it shows one of the highest numbers or one of the lowest numbers. 

Bex: (Nervous) Aiiee.

Ian: Oh lord. 

Mischa: It's slammed today. 

[SFX: soft but tense music begins, rhythmic piano]. [SFX: soundscape begins, overlapping chatter of a crowd on the street with building intensity].

Mayanna: Oh. 

Ian: Fuck, I shouldn't have asked a question. 

Mischa: It is a little rowdy. 

[].

Ian: Oh no. 

Mischa: I think, well, I think that you know, the people of the Dustpan are not always in the right minds.

Mayanna: Right.

Mischa: A lot of these people are sort of dependent on this chemical, this drug that has swept through the city in the past few years called “dust.” [Thoughtful hums]. Which gives people like, a glassy-eyed look. It gives them, you know, stray thoughts. It makes people's behavior erratic. Their moods and emotions can shift at the drop of a hat. So I think all it takes is this, you know, this orderly line that Cecilia has enforced every day, that like, people know Cecilia's coming, line up, get your bread. 

Ian: Sure.

Mischa: And today's the day that it's you and Fran. 

Ian: Yeah.

Mayanna: Yeah. 

Ian: Yeah. Mom's not there. 

Mayanna: Yeah, so the kids are getting a little-getting a little rambunctious. 

Mischa: Yeah, so I– 

Mayanna: Substitute teacher.

Ian: Yeah. (Chuckles).

Mischa: Gordon– 

Ian: Yeah.

Mischa: –and Fran, you can either roll separately or you can help action, I suppose. 

Mayanna: I'll do help action. 

Mischa: Okay. Gordon, will you roll a charisma save with advantage? 

Ian: Yes… I… 

Mayanna: Nice. 

Ian: Can… [Dice rolls]. I got a 21. 

[Impressed cheers].

Ian: Gordon steps up to this. 

Mayanna: Yes!

Mischa: I like– It's looking like it's about to get out of hand. What do you do? 

Ian: Okay. I get on the top of the tuk-tuk.

[SFX: metal creaks and thuds].

Mischa: Okay. 

Ian: I– It's so loud and rowdy that at first people can't hear me. So I take one of my handy muffins out of my bag: the biggest muffin I can find. And then I very quickly just hollow out the center, turning it into a somewhat of a cone-shaped muffin, and I use it to amplify my voice– The look on Mischa's face right now.

Mischa: (Flabbergasted) I’m sorry. Fucking what?

Mayanna: You made like a cornet, a literal cornet. Basically. 

Bex: Like a director's cornet. Oh my god. 

Mischa: Okay. 

Ian: And so, yeah, on the top of the tuk-tuk, yelling through my director's cone.

Mischa: (Chuckles).

Bex: Thank you.

Ian: I think I get everyone in line, and I think because– You're with me, right? 

Mayanna: Mhmm.

Ian: You really like– If Fran wasn't with me, we would have no hope. But me getting people in line and Fran starting to hand stuff out–

Mayanna: Mhmm. I'm a server. 

Ian: –we get– Ohh!

Mischa: Yeah!

Mayanna: I'm a server. 

Mischa: Yeah! 

Mayanna: I'm servin’. 

Bex: You're servin’. 

Ian: Wait, so maybe Fran has a piece of this, too, in terms of getting– Cause, you know, I'm not super used to it. So what did Fran do? 

Mayanna: I think I start– I whip out my little, 

Mayanna (Fran): What can I get for ya? 

Mayanna: And I think, I think the sort of stark weirdness of that, I think people go, 

Mayanna (Dustpan Resident): (Taken off guard) Can I get bread?

Mayanna: And I'm like, 

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah, you can get bread. Yeah. All right. Just to line up right there and, we'll give you a number and yeah, we'll be-we'll be right on your way. 

Mischa: Whoa.

Mayanna: And I just keep doing that. 

Mischa: Whoa!

Ian: So we would not have succeeded without Fran. So– 

Mayanna: I'm unemployed. I mean, I just got a new crazy job, but if you need help on this route, I can help you.

Ian: That's amazing. I think–I think we–I think we like, look at each other and we're like, 

Ian (Gordon): Wow.

Mayanna (Fran): Going good. 

Ian (Gordon): Dynamic duo. 

Mayanna (Fran): This is working out. 

Ian: And we fairly, I guess in short order, we take a really messy situation and we handle it. 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Ian: I was not expecting that. 

[SFX: music and soundscape fade out].

Mischa: Yeah, I'm– with a 21 charisma save like, I mean, Cecilia's gone for the better part of this week, but like when she hears about that, she's gonna, I mean.

Ian: (Singsongy) Gordon makin’ the ranks. 

Mischa: Yeah baby.

Ian: (Singsongy) In the Baker’s Guild. 

Mayanna: (Singsongy) Yeah yeah yeah, earning respect. (Continues singing)

Mischa: What a fantasy. Earning respect at work. 

Ian: Yeah. 

[Laughter].

Mischa: Yeah! Look at that. 

Mayanna: I like wipe a little sweat. 

Mayanna (Fran): Whew. Whew.

Ian: Yeah, we get in the tuk-tuk, [SFX: motor revs], and then we head to see our friends at the bridge. 

Mayanna (Fran): Woohoo! 

[SFX: motor rumbles into the distance].

Mischa: Let's head over there with Ibra and JJ. 

[SFX: reflective music beings, pulsing synths and vibrant metallophone]. 

Mischa: You head over to the collapsed overpass. It soared hundreds of feet overhead, these crisscrossing sections of roadway supported by tall, grey concrete columns embedded into the steep hillside, creating a central thoroughfare high above Midtown. It was a huge interchange, with all sorts of major roadways overlapping and leading in and out of each other, creating a central hub for traffic leading to every part of the city.

Mischa: And I say “was,” because as you approach, you see that the topmost section of roadway seems to have just collapsed, like it was knocked down by a giant's fist. And it crashed into the layers beneath it until the entire hillside is just covered in asphalt chunks, concrete dust, and other various cascading debris. 

[SFX: soundscape begins to fade in, various hums and whirs of large machinery, hammering and digging as rubble is cleared].

Mischa: It seems fairly static at this point, the sort of immediate rescue effort having taken place the previous day, so the work crews here are mostly excavation and construction, rather than rescue and paramedic. Lots of members of the Mechanist Guild have been called in. You can see workers in the cockpits of large excavators, six-limbed machines clambering spider-like over the debris pile, breaking larger chunks down, with blasts from force cannons on their backs.

[SFX: electricity hums and thuds, making contact with rubble]. 

Mischa: Some people are also carrying smaller versions of that, workers armed with like, shoulder-mounted rigs, as well as some telekinesis harnesses to carry the smaller pieces away. By a rough headcount, you see about 30 workers. Looks like a pretty big crew called down here. 

[SFX: music fades out].

Mischa: Ibra and JJ, you arrive from Gwen's office. Riding on Ibra's bike? 

[SFX: electric motor winds down].

Lyn (JJ): It's too fast, this is too fast. 

Bex (Ibra): You say that every time, but we get here on time. So.

Lyn (JJ): (Distressed groan).

Bex (Ibra): You wanna go find your dad? 

Lyn (JJ): Oh my gosh, my dad! 

Mischa: Yeah, your dad is here. 

Lyn: Which one? 

Mischa: Your dad, Paul. 

Lyn: Paul!

Mischa: He's on site. Lyn, why don't you go ahead and describe your dad, Paul, for us? 

Lyn: Yeah, Paul. I wrote in my notes, “Paul just gives off big dad energy, you know?”

Mischa: Helpful. 

Ian: Classic dad. 

Lyn: Yeah, so Paul is one of my dads. 

[Yays].

Lyn: He's an engineering technician with the Mechanist’s Guild. He– I don't know, he oversees like equipment maintenance, a bit of project management on worksites, I don't know, that kind of thing. So, he's got on his workman's gear, always a little bit dusty, with a… tan. Yeah, sure. [Laughter]. He is, you know, a bit sunned, he hasn't been directly working in the Pit for some years, so he can actually see the light of day, which is great. 

Mischa: Pretty nice. 

Lyn: He's a little taller than JJ, but he's still like, you know, a squat man.

Mischa: Sure.

Lyn: Still a half dwarf. 

Mischa: Yeah. Half dwarf size. 

Lyn: Yeah, half dwarf size, and he's-yeah, he's squat. And especially, especially maybe more so now, because he is (singsongy) rather far along in his pregnancy. 

Bex: (Singsongy) Ooh.

Mischa: Yeah, how far along would you say he is? 

Lyn: I don't, I don't know what, (mumbled) half dwarf gestation periods are, [Laughter]. (Normal) but like, we'll say like, mid-second trimester? 

Mischa: Okay. 

Lyn: Yeah. Like definitely like noticeable. 

Mischa: Sure. 

Lyn: Uh, but…

Mischa: I'm going to go ahead and make an executive decision that that's eight months along in a 14 month pregnancy.

Lyn: Wow. 

Bex: Whoa.

Lyn: Math. 

Mischa: Yep. 

Lyn: That was very fast. Yeah. So, but yeah. Like, just like, still early enough that he's like, approved to be on a worksite. And, yeah, he likes being hands-on at the job. So I guess that's why he's currently here and not like, at home doing not work stuff.

Mischa: Sure, but I bet you that like, his supervisors are like, “Okay, but you have to actually supervise, you can't jump in.”

Lyn: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like “you have to stay at a distance. Like, you can tell people what to do, please tell people what to do, but you cannot operate heavy machinery right now.” 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Lyn: Yeah, that’s definitely the vibe. So I'm looking for like, a foreman, essentially. 

Mischa: Pretty much, yeah. I think he's been called in to oversee, yeah, the use of these pieces of heavy machinery. Probably overseeing like, the larger construction pieces. There's, you know, some people with almost mech power armor-like devices that sort of like strap to their whole chest and shoulders, and then there's a couple of big diggers. They're like these six-armed almost spider mech looking things–

Lyn: Cool.

Mischa: –that like, they're heavy and not nimble, but they're like you know six-legged, and they kind of crawl up the piles and like, they have little drilling lasers or like, they'll just knock stuff away, and they're trying to clear away the debris. And I think that's probably where you find your dad is overseeing that section of the disaster site up on the hill.

Lyn: Amidst the din of all of the machinery, I am looking around trying to find a short man in a white helmet. (Chuckles).

Mischa: Yeah, you find him he's kind of way in the back. You know, you have to enter on the lower level so you're looking up the hill, and you can see him a ways away through some of the smaller portions of the worksite.

Lyn: Mhmm.

Mischa: I think he wears, the family crest of Calderon on the back of his helmet. It's not like, a super well-known crest, but he takes a lot of pride in it, and so he put it there. 

Bex: Aww.

Mischa: So you can, I think you know exactly what you're looking for, but you see it far away. 

Lyn: I think I change out of like my normal overshirt that covers a lot of my other workwear, and I put on a high visibility vest that I take when I ride my… fixie as opposed to your… Ducati ass crotch rocket so I'm very, the safety is there like I have a little high visibility vest. I don't think I have a helmet?

Bex: I mean, I– you might not have a hard hat, but you have at least a motorcycle helmet. 

Lyn: Oh no. 

Mayanna: With like the visor?

Bex: Visor down. 

Lyn: No, I mean, can I put the visor up? Does it have the–

Bex: Yes. 

[Laughter].

Lyn: Okay, I just have the visor up. 

Mayanna: But it's still like a full encapsulation of your whole head. 

Mischa: Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna give you like a bonus to persuasion because the hi-vis vest and then the motorcycle helmet like took it back a little bit.

Lyn: It’s a lot. (Laughs).

Mayanna: It's a clashing outfit. 

Mischa: Yeah. I think. Before you gain immediate access, there's like, some standing barriers, just kind of keeping the general public out. And there's a couple of crew people standing by just to sort of direct traffic in that way. This is a– I mean, it's a big disaster area. There's a bunch of people walking by on adjacent streets that might get curious and it might be a little dangerous for them. 

Mischa: So, I think a young human man, probably about your age? Lanky, he doesn't fit his hi-vis vest very well. This is clearly like a mechanist's apprentice being, you know, put on traffic duty, and you two walk up and he stops you and says, 

Mischa (Young Construction Worker): (In a garbled voice) Excuse me. Sorry. This is a highly dangerous area. Please stand clear. 

Lyn (JJ): Oh, we have business here. I– we work with the Magistrate's Office, but I'm also a student in the Mechanists Guild. But we've also been assigned to come here. Also my dad's up there. I need to speak with my dad. He's the foreman. 

Mischa (Young Construction Worker): Listen, I understand you need to fulfill your work hours for your-your schooling in the Come-Up. This is very dangerous. We need you to find a new activity today. 

Lyn (JJ): We have a letter from the Magistrate, actually. 

Lyn: So I pull out, it's probably like the graphite copy. 

Mischa: Sure.

Lyn: Like, you know, the pink version instead of the normal version. 

Lyn (JJ): So we're– This is– We're supposed to be here. 

Mischa: I… Okay. There's so many competing elements that go into this role. The motorcycle helmet. Ibra's next to you in full riding leathers, not looking like a member of the crew at all. Your dad's on the crew. He's a member of the same guild as you. You have a letter that's really just a copy of the letter. I think we're just gonna jump straight to it. Can you roll persuasion with midvantage?

[c].

Lyn: I've been gunning for midvantage this whole time. 

Bex: Yes, yes, yes.

Mischa: You did it! 

Lyn: Nice. 

[Dice rolls].

Bex: We love to min max. 

Lyn: Okay. Yeah, that was a flat 7. 

Mischa: A 7? 

Mayanna: (Pained) Ooh.

Lyn: 2, 7, 17.

Ian: (Pained) Ooh.

Mischa (Young Construction Worker): I don't know, this doesn't-this doesn't look very official. 

Bex (Ibra): Okay, here's the thing, just because something doesn't look very official doesn't mean it isn't very official. I've learned that in the last couple years in the Magistrate's Office. It's very confusing. But I can promise you this is legit. We have been sent by the Magistrate to do some work here. I know we don't have proper hard hats, but we've got these helmets, if that helps. 

Mischa: This apprentice gets a look on his face like he doesn't know if those helmets are properly rated. He's like, 

Mischa (Young Construction Worker): (Nervous whimper). Is there? Something about how they make the helmets? Are any helmets good? Alright, stay here one second. 

Mischa: And he turns off to the side and goes, 

Mischa (Young Construction Worker): Supervisor! 

Ian: I love this guy. 

Lyn: (Giggles). 

Bex: This is my favorite. 

Ian: 100 percent my favorite NPC. 

Mayanna: This guy’s actually a muppet. This guy's a puppet and everybody else is not a puppet. 

Bex: Imagine him doing that flappy thingy when he says, (garbled) “Supervisor!”

Mischa: Yeah, he looks at the both of you and goes, 

Mischa (Young Construction Worker): Alright, stay right here, alright? 

Mischa: And he walks over to his supervisor to ask whether or not it's okay. 

Bex (Ibra): Should we just go in while he's not looking? 

Lyn (JJ): Oh, I can also just page my dad. 

Bex (Ibra): I mean, that works. 

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: Staticky filter, indicating a text] I'm at the site. 

Bex (Ibra): He's not looking. 

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: Staticky filter] I see you. Ha ha. Can you come down here? They won't let us in. 

Ian: Do you text “ha ha” to your dad? 

Lyn: Yes. Absolutely. 

Mayanna: Really hitting them with the do you know who my dad is. 

Lyn: Yeah. 

Mischa: Yeah! 

Lyn: I mean, do you know my dad? He's right there. 

Bex: He's on the hill, literally. 

Mayanna: Just call him over. 

Lyn: Yeah. 

Ian: This is classic bureaucracy. He's. Right. There! 

Mayanna: He's right there. I just need to get to him. Please. 

Mischa: Yeah, about 10 seconds after you send that text, you see off in the distance, he raises his hands to stop the work–

Mayanna: Aww.

Mischa: –and sort of like trundles down the hill towards you. 

Mischa (Paul): Ah, JJ, hi! What's uh? This is kind of dangerous, what are you doing here? 

Lyn (JJ): Oh, I didn't bring my hard hat. 

Mischa (Paul): You always gotta bring your hard hat to a worksite!

Lyn (JJ): Right, okay, so, we didn't know that we were coming here originally, but we did get assigned to come here, so. 

Bex (Ibra): And I brought motorcycle helmets. I don't know if they're the same. 

Mischa: Ibra, what's your AC? 

Mayanna: Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh. 

Bex: Uh… 18. 

Mischa: Paul takes out, an Omnitool lookin device and just sort of like, thunks right on top of the motorcycle helmet. It cracks.

Bex: (Surprised) Oh!

Mischa: And you take one point of bludgeoning damage. 

Mayanna: Ohhh.

Ian: (Mocking laugh). Survey says?

Bex (Ibra): Okay, so it's not the same. Got it. 

Ian: Not the same!

Mischa (Paul): Well, we'll get you some rated hats. Hold on one second. 

Mischa: And Paul takes his hard hat off of his head and, JJ, puts it on your head. 

Mayanna: Aww. 

Lyn (JJ): Thanks, Dad. 

Mayanna: Aww. 

Lyn (JJ): Are our head's the same size? That's crazy.

Mischa: He reaches into the back and like, twists a knob that tightens it onto your head. 

Lyn (JJ): Yeah. Great. Yeah. I knew that. That's fine. 

[Laughter].

Mischa: See those Mechanist classes really-really paying off, huh? 

Lyn (JJ): You know that I'm mostly doing the like, more architectural stuff. I'm not normally on work sites like this, usually. 

Mischa (Paul): That's more your father's area. You know, I-I'm– I think there's something to be said for getting your hands in up to the elbows. I like it. It's just me personally. Yeah, and I'll-I'll grab I-Ibra, why don't you come with me? We'll grab some helmets. 

Bex (Ibra): (Stammering) Could I buy one so that I can replace this motorcycle helmet, which apparently does nothing? Cause this this sort of? This?

Bex: And I'm like, touching Ibra's, 

Lyn (JJ): Motorcycle helmets are supposed to break on impact because when it hits. It deflects the energy, so it takes it away from your head. But hard hats here, things are supposed to slide off. 

Bex (Ibra): Man, I have so much to learn. 

Mischa: (Surprised) That's-that's really true. That was not a made up fact. That's a real fact. 

Bex: I love that. 

[Laughter].

Bex (Ibra): Okay, well, then, yeah, thanks, sir. Um. Thank you. 

Mischa: Yeah, and he takes you off to the equipment trailer where you pass that, other apprentice, and he goes,

Mischa (Young Construction Worker): Okay, I, I don't know if they're– Oh! Oh, Mr. Calderon, you– Are you here with these…? Are they…? 

Mischa (Paul): Yeah, Percy, it's fine. 

Mischa: And Percy– 

Bex: (Delighted) Percy.

Mischa: Yeah, and Percy goes,

Mischa (Percy): (Unsure) Okay. 

Bex (Ibra): Thanks for keeping it safe, Percy.

Lyn (JJ): You're doing great. 

Mischa (Percy): Thanks. I worry sometimes. 

Lyn (JJ): I… know the feeling. 

[Laughter].

Bex: Oh my god, I love this.

Mischa: Yeah, your father has gone off with Ibra to go get some better equipment. You have a hard hat. You have a hi-vis vest. It's a construction site. What do you do? 

Lyn: I would like to cast Detect Magic on the site. 

Mischa: Yes! Cast some spells! What does the tech magic look like? 

[SFX: dreamy music begins, arpeggiated synth harp]

Lyn: Ooh, for fun, I feel like I have safety goggles. 

Mischa: Okay.

Lyn: And so I plug my Astra into my safety goggles. So that it turns into like, the heat radars. But for magic. 

Mischa: Sure, normal glasses with a slot in the side. You just like, click it in and twist. [SFX: dial clicking, electric whir powers up]. And, like, detection, like, AR screen pops up onto the normal glasses. 

Lyn: Nice.

Bex: Sick.

Mischa: Yeah. Okay! Great! Detect Magic! 

Lyn: Yes. I think this one's hard because I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for, but taking a page out of Inspector Ravona's book like, clearly was looking at infrastructure for latent magic…stuff.

Mischa: Sure, I'll describe for you again what Ravona was doing, and so that can inform what you do here. She didn't really tell you what she was doing. She had a modular weapon/device, which she sort of like smacked into the floor of Boggin’s Beestro in various spots until it glowed a different color, and then when she did that, she immediately said, “Okay, everybody leave, Boggins is closed for business.”

Lyn: Got it, yeah, so dowsing, essentially. So, I guess what I'll look at is– there's a bunch of construction going on, so I'm looking for if there's any magical spark that happens whenever contact is made with any of the debris. 

Mischa: Yeah. Great. What do you want to roll about that? Perception? Investigation? 

Lyn: I could do either. They're the same modifier. 

Mischa: INT and WIS? 

Lyn: They're the same mod for me so. 

Mischa: Okay, great. Go ahead. Let's get it going. 

[Dice rolls].

Lyn: Oh my god I thought that was a 1. That's a 7. Plus five. 12! 

Mischa: Okay. 

Lyn: I was so scared. I was like, “Nooo!”

Mayanna: Naur! 

Mischa: A lot of the construction cleanup equipment is powered by magic. So first things first is–it's funny. Cause like Detect Magic also, in this world, a little bit goes Detect Electrical Devices. [Understanding hums]. So yeah, the first thing you see that lights up in your vision is anybody using any sort of piece of construction equipment. The heavier machines, and some of the heavier personal apparati have debris clearing like, lasers. They kind of like break up big chunks of rock into smaller chunks so that they can then pick it up and do stuff with it. And at the front of the construction site, there– it's really more just like, clearing rock, clearing rubble, clearing debris, cleaning up pathways so that other people can walk further into the site.

Mischa: Up near where your dad was working, up onto the hillside underneath the soaring overpass, your goggles spot something deep underneath a pile of rubble up on the hill. Up where the big spider crawler is doing its large work. It's not on the surface, it's very clearly like a reading on the goggles, that where you like, you turn your head, and it's faint, because it's covered by a layer of stone or whatever.

Lyn: Yeah.

Mischa: But with the 12, you, like, something registers on your goggles, that like–as you're turning your head. 

[SFX: music fades out].

Lyn (JJ): Oh boy. Um. Dad? Ibra– Oh, they’re over there. Dad! Dad! Hey, Dad. Dad. Dad.

Mischa (Paul): Wassup?

[Laughter].

Lyn (JJ): Um. Do you know what caused the collapse? Also, there's something in that pile. 

Mischa (Paul): Okay. 

Lyn: I– one was a question, one was a statement. There's something in there. 

Mischa (Paul): We don't know what caused it. It happened pretty randomly. It crumbled. We assume it was a structural weakness in one of the pillars. We're still investigating. You know, we're really clearing out the area. We're probably going to take down some pieces of the overpass, amputate it a little further back towards the ground level and rebuild from there. But we're still on the first phase of that stuff. You said there was something in the rubble? 

Lyn (JJ): There's uhhh… There's a-there's a magical footprint in there. I can't see it very well. But…

Mischa (Paul): Okay, okay.

Lyn (JJ): There's something magical within the rubble up there. 

Lyn: And I point to that specific location.

Mischa: Sure. I think Paul, puts a hand on your shoulder and goes, 

Mischa (Paul): Good looking out. I got this. 

Mischa: And starts waving to the driver of the spider excavator. The six-legged excavator. 

Lyn: So cool. 

Mischa: And starts like, hand signals pointing to the exact spot you pointed out. And it moves over and starts digging. Ibra, what would you like to do? 

Bex: I'm trying to figure out if Ibra's at all concerned about unearthing something unknown. 

[SFX: tense music begins: reverberating synths].

Bex: I think Ibra's gonna– Ibra doesn't really know what to do with it in this kind of voice, it's like, 

Bex (Ibra): Are you sure digging it up is the right move? If if it's buried, why don't we formulate a plan while it's buried? So that we don't just accidentally unleash it before we're ready, in case it's something like…You know.

Lyn (JJ): Oh. That's a good point, but we won't really know– I can't even tell what it is until it gets uncovered a little bit. 

Bex (Ibra): Oh. That's fair. I just. Ah, okay. Can I go up there and-and-and-and– You think your dad will let me go up there and be at the ready? With the hat and everything? 

[SFX: music fades out].

Lyn (JJ): If you ask really nicely. And look really cute doing it. 

Bex (Ibra): Okay, I can try. On the second part. 

Lyn (JJ): Heh, I don't actually think that'll work. 

Bex (Ibra): No. 

Lyn (JJ): No. 

Bex (Ibra): But I'll try. 

Lyn (JJ): Do it! 

Bex (Ibra): Okay, I'll channel you. Let’s go.

Lyn (JJ): He likes you. 

Bex (Ibra): Here we go. He does? 

Lyn (JJ): Yeah. 

Bex (Ibra): I like him. Cool. 

Lyn (JJ): Yeah. 

Bex: Can I sort of, like, establish something kind of a little gross? 

[SFX: ominous music begins, creepy organ and keyboard]

Mischa: Okay. 

Ian: (Intrigued hum).

Bex: At one point during the transition process, Ibra popped out a canine.

Mischa: (Perturbed) Ooh, okay. 

Bex: And, slipped it into JJ's pocket. 

Mischa: Okay, sleight of hand Ibra, perception JJ. 

[Dice rolls].

Lyn: 18. 

Bex: 11. 

Mischa: Okay, as you head off towards the excavator's position JJ, Ibra pulls a tooth out of their head, and slips it in your pocket. 

[SFX: soundscape pauses].

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: an echoey filter, indicating telepathic speech] This is the only way that I know that we can talk from afar. 

Mischa: And JJ, you hear that in your brain. 

Mayanna: (Disturbed) Oh god. 

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] Hello? 

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: echoey] Hi. 

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] (Disgusted) Ew! 

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: echoey] Yeah. It's weird, but, it's the only way that I know how to work this thing. 

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] (Extremely flabbergasted) What?!  

Bex: (Devious chuckle). It is a hexblood feature. 

Mayanna: Oh my god. 

Bex: It is called Eerie Token. 

Mayanna: Yeah, no kidding. 

Bex: And I give someone a tooth, a lock of hair, or some other token that is–

Mayanna: Part of your body.

Bex: –broken off of me. 

Mayanna: (Under breath) Oh my god.

Bex: This token is imbued with magic until I finish a long rest. While the token is imbued, I can take the action to telepathic message. Up to 25 words, to 10 miles, or remote view, and enter a trance for a minute and see through it. 

Mayanna: Does your tooth grow back? 

Ian: Yeah that’s–

Bex: Yes. 

Mayanna: What?! 

Ian: Oh okay.

Lyn: I was gonna say like, well, I think JJ's response is, 

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] Was your tooth loose this whole time? 

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: echoey] Oh, this one's always a little bit loose, it's supposed to do this.

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] (Trepidatious) I–Uh… Okay. If it's supposed to, I'll take your word for it. You know your body more than I do. 

Ian: I’m shook to my very core.

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] (Heavy denial) This is fine. 

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: echoey] Look, if it helps you at all, you can think about this tooth as just a piece of Astra. 

Mayanna: (Nervous chuckle).

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] I think that makes it weirder. 

Mayanna: It does. 

Bex: (Dejected) Oh.

Ian: 100 percent worse.

Mayanna: 100 percent.

Bex: Dang.

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] I think that's weirder. 

Mayanna: Yeah, not helpful. 

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] Um…

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: echoey] I tried. 

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] We'll talk about this later.

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: echoey] Okay.

[Laughter].

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] Is it wet? Ew! 

Ian: Gro– Jee-zus!

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] (Disgusted, rapidly) You couldn't have dried it off before putting it in my pocket? I just put my hands in my pocket, it's your wet tooth. 

[Laughter].

Bex: (Mischievous laugh).

Mayanna: It’s bone, it’ll dry eventually.

Ian: Oh my god, I'm so uncomfortable. 

Lyn: It’s (fake gag).

Bex: Your pocket’s gonna dry it.

Mayanna: It's porous. 

Ian: (Disgusted and horrified groan).

Mayanna: Sorry. I had to.

Lyn: You could’ve wiped it off!

Ian: It's not like a cyborg tooth, it's just a tooth. 

Bex: (Devious cackle).

Mayanna: It's bone with magic. 

Mischa: It's a magic tooth. 

Mayanna: Magic bone. 

Ian: No! 

[SFX: soundscape resumes].

Bex: I'm gonna go up to– I'm gonna call from afar before I start walking so that it's not a surprise.

Bex (Ibra): Um. Mr. Calderon? Sir? I– May I approach… the bench… please? 

Mischa (Paul): I'm not a judge.

Bex (Ibra): Sorry, force of habit. 

Lyn: (Prolonged chuckle). This laugh is in character too. 

Ian: I so deeply identify with these dads who are like, “The kids are over at the house again today? Yeah, sure. Yeah, what do you– Yeah, yeah. Just stay out of the garage.” 

Mischa: “What do you want? A peanut butter and jelly? Yeah, one second.”

Ian: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Bex: Sir, do you mind if I stand nearby? I'm just– I'm not sure what it is that JJ saw, and we had a weird encounter the other day, and I-I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I could stand nearby just in case something jumps out. 

Mischa (Paul): Yep, sure. You know, union regulations say you have to stand a minimum of so many feet back, so just stay, I think, behind this area, clear of the excavator doing its work, and you should be all set.

Bex (Ibra): Cool. Awesome. Thank you. 

Bex: I'm gonna, I've got my shield in one hand in front, and from a pocket I pull something that has– any-if anybody in the audience is familiar, it looks like a pop out cane that a magician would use. 

Mischa: Okay. 

Bex: (Fake whisper) But it's actually a spear. 

Mayanna: (Fake whisper) Shh.

Mischa: (Fake whisper) Shhh, don't tell anyone. 

[Laughter].

Lyn: Imagine a magician pulling out a wand, but it's actually a spear.

Mayanna: I'd leave that show. I'd go, “Well, I think I'm done here. I don't want to see what's about to happen.” 

[Laughter].

Lyn: The weirdest night at the Magic Castle. 

Mayanna: Yeah, I'm like, “Y'all, you will not believe the show I saw last night at the Magic Castle. Uh. Somebody died.” 

[Laughter].

Mischa: Okay, so you pull out a shield and spear and head into the…rubble?

[SFX: soft footsteps crunching on gravel].

Bex: I head into the area that's sort of designated safe–

Mischa: Sure.

Bex: –distance from the thing. 

Mischa: Kind of like the other side of the rubble pile. 

Bex: Yeah. 

Mischa: Okay. Sure.

Bex: I'm just sort of standing at attention at the ready, if anybody– if anything pops out, I'm on it. 

Mischa: Sure. Will you roll perception for me please? 

[Dice rolls].

Bex: 13. 

Mischa: 13. Interesting. 

[SFX: mysterious music begins, a mix of soft synths and plucked strings]

Mischa: Yeah, you step up onto the rubble pile, and the action is kind of on like, the other side of the rubble. You're taking like, a wide stance to just sort of survey the whole scene. Out of the corner of your eye, on the far side of this rubble pile, a piece of roadway shifts, [SFX: rocks tumbling], and cascades a little bit down the hillside. No one was touching it. 

Bex: Yeah.

Mischa: It's just sort of, you know, maybe the vibrations of the machinery. But like, it cascades kind of behind you. You turn around to look, and different pieces of debris have revealed themselves. You can see mixed in there, there's actually like, a couple of pieces of car, or like, other devices that were on people that like, when they were rescued, they left them into the–in the pile, you know, kind of thing?

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: echoey] Something moved.

Lyn: I direct my Detect Magic gaze in that direction. 

Mischa: You– With Detect Magic, it doesn't come up with anything new. 

Lyn: Okay. 

Mischa: Nothing like, nothing has rec– like, just now started being magical. 

Lyn: Okay. 

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: echoey] I-I don't know, I just-I just saw something up here moving. Maybe I'm just being para–. Ah, just a little on edge.

Lyn (JJ): [SFX: echoey] That's okay, and I know the feeling. 

Lyn: I cast Sanctuary on my dad. 

[SFX: a glowing hum].

Mischa and Mayanna: Ooh. 

Lyn: Just in case. 

Mischa: Yeah.

Mayanna: Oh, that's a great spell. 

Lyn: You ward a creature within range against attack. Until the spell ends, any creature who targets the warded creature with an attack or a harmful spell must first make a wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature must choose a new target or lose the attack or spell.

Mischa: Okay. Really, not spotting anything yet, but really preparing for danger, which, I mean, in all honesty, is exactly what Gwen asked you to do. So nice work. 

Lyn: Mhmm.

[SFX: music fades out].

Mischa: Gordon and Fran. 

Ian: Tuk-tuk pulling up. (Imitates motor rumbling)

[SFX: motor rumbling].

Mischa: Parked just outside of the barriers. And Percy goes, 

Mischa (Percy): Excuse me, you can't park that there. 

Ian: I laugh at Percy's face. [Laughter]. Percy's voice catches me so off guard and I just go, 

Ian (Gordon): Pft. That's what you sound like?

Bex: (Gasp).

Lyn: Jeez!

Mayanna: (Surprised cackle).

Bex: (Horrified) Oh no!

Mayanna: I think I’m side saddling, just laughing at you laughing. 

Mischa (Percy): All right. You definitely can't park your tuk-tuk there, sir. Please move. 

Ian: And I go, 

Ian (Gordon): It just keeps getting better. 

[Laughter].

Mayanna (Fran): You want a muffin? Are you hungry? 

Mischa (Percy): No, I'm at work. We have lunch in a few hours.

Mayanna (Fran): Few hours? 

Mischa: Sir, excuse me, sir. 

Ian: Wait, quick question, side question. Can you give me some physical characteristics of Percy? Did we talk about this? 

Mischa: Sure. Human. Lanky. Again, like wearing the hi-vis and like the helmet, but it's all like a little too–

Ian: Big.

Mischa: –big for him. 

Mayanna: Aw.

Mischa: It's like he's– It's not form fit. It's not his stuff. It's like he's been-he'd been given it by the guild. 

Bex: He's cosplaying a mechanist. 

Mischa: A little bit. He– I mean, he cannot be that much older than you guys. Like, he– Fresh faced like, just out of school like (some stuttering). Maybe– You know, probably not his first day on the job, but within the first.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Ian: I pulled two high protein muffins out of my satchel as we pass him, and I just put ‘em-put them into his arms and go, 

Ian (Gordon): You need to eat more, my friend. Come down to the Baker's Guild, and I will teach you how to eat, okay? (Laughing slightly) You have a great day, man. 

Mayanna (Fran): (Sincere) Have a wonderful afternoon. 

Ian: And we just walk straight past him.

[Laughter].

Mischa: He's definitely gonna try to physically stop you from doing that. 

Mayanna: I would love to see him try. 

Ian: Not worried about it. (Devious laughter).

Mayanna: I'd love to see him try.

Mischa: Okay, Gordon. Let's roll an athletics contest. 

Ian: Woohoo!

Bex: Gordon, you're not very strong. 

Ian: Hey, don't remind me of that right now, okay? I'm riding high. 

Mayanna: Weirdly, I am. 

Ian: Yeah, there we go. I got Fran next to me.

Mischa: You need those beefy arms to craft stuff. 

Mayanna: Yeah, it's true. 

Lyn: And from servin’. 

Mayanna: (Disbelief) My strength is 17. 

Bex: Yes! 

Lyn: Holy moly! 

Bex: Oh my god, that's so hot.

Mayanna: Ah, thank you.

Lyn: You're buff. 

Mayanna: I'm buff. 

Bex: You're smart and buff. 

Mayanna: I'm a buff lady. 

[Dice rolls].

Ian: I yeeted him! 

[Cheers]. [Prolonged laughter at Mischa’s expense. Sorry].

Mischa: So you… shove… two high protein muffins in each of Percy's hands and like, pat him on the shoulder and just walk past. He goes to like, grab you but doesn't want to drop the muffin because it does look delicious. And you guys just like breeze past him. He's-he's like, so confused and doesn't know what to do with his hands. 

Mischa (Percy): (Stammering) No, you can't– I just– Please sir! [SFX: fading into the distance].

Ian: We're already gone. 

Mayanna: Yeah, bye. 

Ian: We're like 40 feet, 40 yards ahead already. 

Mayanna: I can't hear him, it's too… 

Ian: I'm still laughing, he can hear me laughing.

Ian (Gordon): That guy sounded so funny! 

Mischa: That's so mean.

Bex: JJ, you hear your head, 

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: echoey] Is that… Gordon laughing?

Mischa: Yeah, it like echoes off of the underside of the overpass, and it like makes it–

Mayanna: (Exaggerated and haughty) Ha ha! 

Bex (Ibra): Oh good, they're here.

Lyn: Looking around for them. Waving. 

Mayanna (Fran): Oh, oh, there they are. 

Ian (Gordon): Hey! 

Mayanna (Fran): Oh, you see them. Hey! 

Lyn (JJ): (From afar) Heyy! 

Mayanna (Fran): Heyyy! 

Ian (Gordon): Hey! 

Lyn (JJ): Hi!

Mayanna (Fran): Oh, should we get helmets too? 

Lyn (JJ): (From afar) Yeah, there's a– in the shed over there.

Mayanna (Fran): Oh, okay. Oh, I hate– 

Ian (Gordon): We have two motorcycle helmets in the back of the tuk-tuk. Are they strong enough? 

Lyn (JJ): (From afar) No, absolutely not. 

Mayanna (Fran): Okay. Alright. 

Lyn (JJ): (From afar) They're improperly rated. 

Mayanna (Fran): Are there any that are in like, complimentary colors? Cause these are I'm not really loving the options. 

Bex (Ibra): (From even farther away) I think I saw a pink one in the back. 

Mayanna (Fran): Okay, sick!

Lyn (JJ): (From afar) There's white, blue, yellow, orange. 

Mischa: Lyn, real quick, name five more colors. 

Ian: Yep.

Lyn: Um. Octarine.

[Laughter].

Lyn: I just started The Color of Magic like yesterday. 

Mayanna: Indigo. Oh that's so funny. 

Lyn: Um. Red. Scarlet. Maroon. 

Mischa: Also some reds. 

Lyn: They're different reds. 

Mischa: Yep, you got it! 

Mayanna: Periwinkle.

Bex: I love this game. 

Lyn: Turquoise. [Laughter]. Teal. 

Mischa: Okay. So you, you go back and–

Lyn: (Whispering too close to the mic) Seafoam green.

[Laughter].

Mischa: Fuck you. You head back and try to, and like get some equipment. 

Mayanna: Mhmm.

Mischa: Are you trying to avoid attention when you do that or are you just like walking up and grabbing some helmets? 

Mayanna: (Thoughtful hum). Probably should cool it. I'm feeling pretty confident. We-we-we did waltz our way through this, but we should probably just maybe keep a low profile, Gordon.

Ian: Great. Fran nudges me, and I like, cough and chill out a little bit. 

Mayanna: (Fake cough).

Ian: Gordon's just so stoked, just, you know. 

Mayanna: Oh no, I get it. I really get it. I just like, I don't want to get kicked out at this juncture. 

Mischa: Fran, roll stealth. 

Mayanna: Okey dokey. Woohoo! [Dice rolls]. Not good. 3. I picked hot pink as my helmet color. So.

Ian: We made a mistake.

Mischa: I think you go and pick a hot pink hard hat, and what color for Gordon? 

Ian: Seafoam green. 

Mischa: Seafoam green? 

Mischa: Seafoam green. 

Lyn: You look like Cosmo and Wanda. 

Mischa: Yeah, you walk in looking like a pair of Fairly OddParents. 

[Laughter].

Mayanna: We are, aren't we? 

Mischa: With a low stealth roll, I think what happens is you just grab a couple off the shelf. [Hum]. And, like, as you walk away to hand the green one to Gordon, the person who owns the hot pink hard hat comes up– like, comes back from, like, a ten minute break, and is like, 

Mischa (Pink-loving Construction Worker): Who freaking took my hard hat? It's hot pink. Everyone knows this one's– Where did it–? 

Mischa: And then looks off to the side–

Mayanna: Oh no.

Mischa: –and sees you. And… You don't hear what happens after that, but you got spotted. 

[Mixed reactions of pain and delight].

Mischa: What do you do? 

Mayanna: I mean, I kind of want to go back in there, but I don't think that's a good idea. I think it was just like, 

Mayanna (Fran): (Hurriedly) Go, go, go, go, go!

Mayanna: So I think we're like, shambling to put on the outfit and just like, 

Ian (Gordon): (Grunting in effort).

Mayanna (Fran): Come on, come on, come on, come on, go, go, go! 

Mischa: And you walk up to JJ like, “Okay, we're here, what are we doing?” 

Mayanna: (Rushed) What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?

Mayanna (Fran): I probably have like 15 good minutes before, somebody– I didn't know this hat belonged to somebody. I should've checked. I see now that there's a name on the inside. But, we probably have like 15 good minutes before I have to return this, so, yeah. 

Ian (Gordon): Yeah. I was also really accidentally rude to the guy at the front, who has a really funny voice, by the way?

Mayanna (Fran): Oh my god, he is so funny. 

Ian (Gordon): But yeah. Anyway, people are probably coming.

Lyn (JJ): Percy? Percy's just a guy. 

Mayanna (Fran): Well he’s a guy with two muffins and– 

Ian (Gordon): A really funny voice.

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Mischa: …So are you guys just hanging out at this construction site? You just chillin? What’s up?

[Laughter].

Mayanna: J chilly! 

Mischa: J chillin!

[All repeating “J chillin’” in various voices].

Lyn (JJ): Oh! Have y'all met my dad? 

Mayanna (Fran): No! Oh my god, your dad's here?

Lyn (JJ): Yeah. 

Mayanna (Fran): Oh, cool! Wait, which one? 

Lyn (JJ): Oh, that's Paul. 

Mayanna (Fran): Oh, cool. (Yelling) Paul! 

Ian (Gordon): (Yelling) Hey, Paul! 

Mayanna (Fran): (Yelling) Hey! 

Mischa (Paul): Oh, hello, hi, you must be, uh– 

Mayanna (Fran): I'm Fran! 

Mischa (Paul): Fran, and, uh– 

Mayanna (Fran): Nice to meet you. 

Ian (Gordon): Hey, it's Gordon! I think we met, like, a couple months ago, maybe? 

[SFX: soundscape pauses].

Mischa: Ian, you've been doing this thing where you say something and then you force me to accept it. 

[Laughter].

Ian: I know. I’m–

Mischa: You're just like, “and uh…last week (growl).”

Ian: I'm co-creating story with the GM against their will.

[Laughter].

Mayanna: I live.

Mischa: Stare daggers into me. 

Ian: (Devious laughter).

Bex: Truly it’s a staredown every time. 

Mayanna: “Say yes, say yes, say yes, say yes.”

Mischa: “I met him two weeks ago, (threateningly) right?”

[Laughter].

[SFX: soundscape resumes].

Mischa: He goes, 

Mischa (Paul): Yeah, of course. Oh, so great to see you again. So great to meet you, Fran. Thank you so much for for taking care of our little JJ.

Mayanna (Fran): Aw, JJ's the best! 

Ian (Gordon): JJ's great. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah.

Mischa (Paul): Y'know, I see you guys grabbed hard hats? 

Mayanna (Fran): Mhmm.

Mischa (Paul): That one.. Did you– Hot pink hard hat, huh? Did you make that? I know you make stuff! 

Mayanna (Fran): (Extremely unconvincingly) Uhh... Yeahhhhh. [Laughter]. Yaaa.

Mischa: Alright, deception. 

Mayanna: Okay, heehee, alright. 

[Various “teeheehee”ing].

Lyn: The “Yaaaaaa.”

All: “Yaaaaaa.” 

Mayanna: 9.

Ian: 9? You are not rolling well.

Bex and Mayanna: I know. 

Mayanna: I mean, I'm lying bad. It's obvious. 

Mayanna (Fran): I may have borrowed it. I will give it back. I will give it back. I promise. 

Mischa: He actually looks to JJ for that cue. He sort of looks down and is like, 

Mischa (Paul): This is a work area. You know that work is important. Are you gonna be on your best behavior here? 

Lyn (JJ): Yes. (Admonishing) Yes. 

Mayanna (Fran): Of co– Yaaa.

Lyn (JJ): We're going to be… on great behavior.

Mayanna (Fran): Great.

Lyn (JJ): Great.

Mayanna (Fran): Great behavior. 

Lyn (JJ): This is work. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yes.

Lyn: We're working. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yes. Working.

Lyn (JJ): Work. Working. 

Mayanna (Fran): I love working.

Ian: (Disapproving hum).

Mischa (Paul): (Doubtfully) Okay. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah.

Mischa (Paul): Alright. [SFX: machine loudly whirrs, then a loud thud and crumbling concrete]. No! Oh! Not that column. You gotta swing it the other way. 

Mischa: And he's off supervising again. 

Mayanna (Fran): (Whispering) I am so sorry. I should've picked a different helmet. It was just the cutest one. 

Lyn (JJ): It’s a good– It is the-it is the cutest one. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah.

Lyn (JJ): It's… 100%. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah.

Lyn (JJ): But we should get you a hot pink helmet. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah!

Lyn (JJ): It’s a good look.

Mayanna (Fran): I love that idea. We should do what we're here to do though. 

Lyn (JJ): Yes. 

Mischa: Fran and Gordon, why don't you guys roll some investigation for me? 

[SFX: mysterious music begins, a slow drum beats under synth and piano]

Ian: Yeah.

Mayanna: Okay. 

[Dice rolls]. 

Ian: 10.

Mayanna: No! 4. 

Mayanna (Fran): I see rocks. 

[Laughter]. 

Lyn (JJ): There are a lot of those here. 

Mayanna (Fran): Okay, cool. Alright, so that's-that's on the up and up?

Mischa: Fran, you start digging just sort of idly in the rubble, [SFX: large rocks and concrete scraping against each other], really being like, “Man, we have not been given parameters for this assignment.”

Mayanna: No, I have no idea what's going on. I'm like, yeah, I feel lost in the woods at this moment. 

Mischa: Yeah, I think you start digging through, [SFX: rocks shifting and thudding], and you shift some layers aside and you come across in the pile, like a sealed wooden crate.

Ian: Uh ohh.

Mayanna: (Skeptically) Uhh. Hmm?

Mischa: You sort of like dig it out of there. [SFX: scraping]. It's like, you know, like milk crate size. It would like fit in your arms. 

Mayanna: Okay. 

Mayanna (Fran): (Yelling) Crate! 

Ian: I run over. 

Mischa: Sure. 

Mayanna (Fran): I think I might have some tools maybe to open it. Should we open it? I don't know. It doesn't belong to us, so. 

Ian: Does it look particularly, like dangerous or enchanting?

Lyn: Can I look at the crate? 

[Laughter].

Mischa: I said “crate” and all the players went, (gritted) “I look at it.”

Mayanna: “Crate!”

Mischa: No, it looks battered, but still sealed. It's got a label on the outside of it that– It looks like it was highway maintenance equipment that was stored underneath and got buried. 

Mayanna: Oh yeah. In the rubble. Okay. 

Ian: I go, 

Ian (Gordon): Hey, maybe there's two non pink and seafoam green helmets in here.

Mayanna (Fran): That sounds like a great idea. 

Ian (Gordon): Let's-let's see.

Mayanna (Fran): Let's just, let's just crack it open. 

Ian (Gordon): Yeah. 

Mayanna: I mean, I'm, it's probably not going to be like a crowbar situation, but it's probably like maybe something that can slowly remove nails. 

Mischa: Oh, yeah, sure. 

Mayanna: Yeah. So just like– 

Lyn: Like the claw of a hammer? 

Mayanna: Yeah, like a little, like a little claw, because it's-it's a-it's a tool belt that I think like rolls out with like hand-sized tools. So nothing like, nothing big, but I can start getting some nails out. 

Mischa: Yeah, sure. You pry it open and look down and you see, just lined in the bottom of the crate about half full are little gray blocks. 

Mayanna: Okay. 

Ian: Hmm.

Mayanna: Hmm. Does this, is this anything? For you?

Ian: Yeah. I mean, I would know more about food. So–

Mischa: Oh, you know, roll arcana for me, please.

[SFX: music fades out].

Ian: Yas!

Mayanna: Oh.

Ian: 13. 

[SFX: foreboding music begins, rattling and high synths].

Mischa: A crate at a site with like, construction materials, and a crate just full of like, gray clay bricks. 

Ian: Fuck.

Mayanna: Oop.

Mischa: You are a bomb expert.

Ian: Yeah.

Mischa: You know, a chef, but you– Actually, let's take a moment, let me take a moment and just ask, What is your interest in chemistry outside of cooking? 

Ian: (Thoughtful hum).

Mischa: Like, how like-how do you feel about chemistry outside of cooking, I guess?

Ian: Well, we live in a post war society. 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Ian: So I think that it's pertinent to know and maybe like, topical for societal knowledge. So I think probably I got into chemistry first as a kid and was like, you know, starting little bitty fires. You know, using the magnification of the sun to burn things, [Laughter], and then realize that there was like a positive way. So I think I know a fair amount about chemistry. 

Bex: Well, you had parents who were like, “Okay, we see your potential and we're going to bring you into a safe zone.” 

Ian: Exactly. 

Mischa: “Let's turn these urges into a positive thing.” 

Mayanna: That is so funny. 

Ian: “Stop causing fires in the basement.” 

Mischa: So I think maybe from your teenage years, you can recognize an accelerant when you see one.

Ian: Yeah.

Mischa: This is the equivalent of C-4. This is like, solid explosive that like, if you ran a charge through it, would explode.

Ian: Explode. So, so I think I immediately, very carefully, like grab Fran's forearm–

Mayanna (Fran): Whoa.

Ian: –and pull it back out of the box. 

Mayanna (Fran): Okay, so not good. Bad? 

Ian (Gordon): Bad. Very bad. Bad.

Mayanna (Fran): Okay. How bad? 

Ian (Gordon): I mean, it's an accelerant. It's not a full bomb, but it's like, if the right thing hits it.

Mayanna: This is also like the first time I think Gordon has ever said anything kind of science-y and smart. And I'm really, I'm really like, “Whoa!”

Mischa: You've been hanging out with him on the deliveries all day. He not once has he mentioned anything about science.

Mayanna: Anything about accelerants or like, 

Mayanna (Fran): Wha– oh! Okay. 

Ian: We take a couple of steps back.

Mayanna: Alright.

Ian: I like push us back. 

Mayanna: Okay. 

Mischa: And then I think I immediately call for JJ's dad. 

Mischa: Yeah. Good call. 

Mayanna (Fran): (Deep breath).

Lyn (JJ): What-what'd you guys find? 

[SFX: music fades out].

Mayanna (Fran): You tell ‘em, you said the science words. 

Ian (Gordon): I'm not gonna say, I'm– It rhymes with “mom” and starts with a “B.” 

Mischa: Before we get too much further, it's not a bomb.

Ian: Yeah, right.

Mischa: It's just like a construction C-4.

Ian: Right. Oh yeah. 

Mischa: It's a valid thing to find at a construction site, but it is dangerous. 

Bex: It's normal, it's just dangerous. 

Mayanna: Hypothetically, if I shot it with my gun, would it ignite? 

Mischa: Well, you did spend time… 

Mayanna: I did. 

Mischa: …dipping your bullets… 

Mayanna: Into magic.

Mischa: …in liquid magic fuel. 

Mayanna: Yes, I did. Okay, cool. 

Bex: So, yeah.

Mayanna: Good to know if it- if we need that.

Ian: So I let you all know that we found some accelerant, which is not necessarily super weird, but is definitely very dangerous. 

[SFX: mysterious music begins, resonant synths and chimes]

Mayanna (Fran): Okay. 

Lyn (JJ): Big safety hazard. Yeah, that's… Daaad! 

Mischa (Paul): What's that your kid's found? 

Mischa: And you show him the crate full of stuff, and, like, you just, like, turn it to him, and kind of pop it open. And he goes, 

Mischa (Paul): (Poignant silence).

Mayanna (Fran): (Gasp).

Mischa: And he slowly shuts it.

Mayanna (Fran): Okay.

Mischa: And he goes, 

Mischa (Paul): Thank you so much, I will take that.

Mischa: And he sets it down, like, just, just to the side of him. 

Mayanna (Fran): (Nervous laughter).

Mischa: Just like away from you, on to the side. And then takes out a safety whistle from around his neck. And blows.

[SFX: whistle].

Mayanna and Ian: Whoa.

[SFX: humming of machines winds down]. 

Mischa: The spider mech immediately stops moving. 

Lyn: Because they're excavating with lasers, too. 

Ian: Oh.

Mayanna: Oh, man. 

Lyn (JJ): I'm very glad you found that. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yay! Okay, we're helpful.

Bex: As soon as the excavator shuts down, I'm headed back to JJ. 

Mischa: Paul looks down and goes, 

Mischa (Paul): I think I need to go make a phone call. I didn't really know what you guys were doing here. You might have just saved the day. Good work, kids. 

[SFX: music ends].

Mayanna (Fran): Cool. 

Mischa (Paul): Good work. Seriously. 

[SFX: soft footsteps into the distance]. [SFX: soundscape shifts, less din of equipment, with ambient sounds of far off traffic].

Ian: As he walks away, I turn to the group and I go, 

Ian (Gordon): Good work! [Laughter]. We did it! 

Bex (Ibra): I missed it all. Sorry.

Ian: I'm just, like, I'm standing there, like a high five up that no one's–

Mayanna: I'll, I'll high five.

[SFX: soft clap of hands].

Ian (Gordon): (Pleased) Yeah.

Bex: I had five a little too hard. 

[SFX: much harder slap of hands]. 

Ian (Gordon): Ye-

Bex (Ibra): Oop.

Ian (Gordon): Ow.

Bex (Ibra): (Sheepishly) Sorry. 

Mischa: Not very strong. 

Ian: My yeets are gone. Now I'm just rolling straight 3s for high fives.

[SFX: midroll music fades in].

Mischa: Hey there. It’s Mischa. This is the Rest Stop. Come take a break beside the path with me, just until we catch our breath. First things first: a big shoutout to everyone supporting us over at patreon.com/wanderingpathpod. Thanks so so much to our newest patron, Emma, and to our Voyager level patron, JWX, who gets a shoutout in every episode. That’s in addition to to other neat stuff, like bloops for every episode, stat blocks, and more. This month, we put up the monster block for the Electric Jelly, in case you want to add it to your home game! 

Mischa: So, if you want to see this show keep going and keep growing; if you want us to be able to survive until 2025; if you want to bring us life, sustain us, and bring us to new seasons; please help us out for just a few dollars per episode. One more time: patreon.com/wanderingpathpod. 

Mischa: This week, I’d also be grateful if you checked out our website! We’ve got some new updates over there for you, like world detail pages and character descriptions. That was all added thanks to a message from one of our listeners. Thank you so much for the suggestion! Hopefully it helps some visual learners keep details straight for our audio-only show. How’d they get in touch with us, you may ask? Well, of course, they used the contact form! We love to hear from you, and we’re planning some talkback episodes here are there. We want to hear your questions about the show. So, any question, big or small, drop us a line. That’s wanderingpathpod.com.

Mischa: That’s it for now! Let’s get back on path and back to the show.

[SFX: midroll music fades out].

[SFX: soundscape resumes, at construction site].

Mischa: So Paul has wandered off to sort of reinforce the safety measures that this construction crew now should be taking, now that they know there are some buried explosives in this debris. They're sort of re-strategizing. The spider climber excavator has shut off. The pilot has come down and is now like, conferring with Paul on the ground. Which sort of leaves the four of you alone on top of this pile of rubble. 

Mayanna (Fran): (Sigh). Okay, that can't be it, right? There's gotta be…

Lyn (JJ): I feel like there's gotta be more here, and I still–

Lyn: With Detect Magic up, I can still see the faint aura–

Mischa: Yes.

Lyn: –within the rubble? I'm like, 

Lyn (JJ): There's still also something in here. 

Mayanna (Fran): What do you mean? 

Lyn (JJ): Okay, I have these goggles.

Mayanna (Fran): Mhmm. 

Lyn (JJ): I can detect some magical–

Mayanna (Fran): We'll talk about the goggles because–

Lyn (JJ): Do you like them? 

Mayanna (Fran): There's areas of opportunity here. 

Lyn (JJ): Oh, I like that. I like that framework. There's always an opportunity to make things better. 

Mayanna (Fran): Exactly. 

Lyn (JJ): Right. 

Mayanna (Fran): Exactly.

Lyn (JJ): Yes. 

Bex (Ibra): Good spin. 

Mischa: Those goggles, they're a design choice. 

Mayanna (Fran): They are choices. Choices that were made.

Ian (Gordon): I just don't like how front heavy they are. You know what I mean? 

Mayanna (Fran): I just think that there's some aerodynamic options for us. Maybe some color changes, but again, we will talk about that later. 

Lyn (JJ): Okay, I mean, I'd really appreciate help on these actually.

Mayanna (Fran): Thank you so much. I'm very excited for this. 

Lyn (JJ): This was like an older project.They work.

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah. 

Lyn (JJ): Oh, yes. So I can see an aura of magical something in there, but it's so faint that I can't even really see what it is at all. 

Mayanna (Fran): Should we go…

Bex (Ibra): Digging? 

Mayanna (Fran): …check that out? 

Lyn (JJ): We should, I mean, we can dig. 

Mayanna (Fran): Okay.

Lyn (JJ): We just have to be really fucking careful. 

Mayanna (Fran): Okay. 

Lyn (JJ): Because there's… potential bombs? In here? 

Ian (Gordon): And just to be clear, the crate that we uncovered was not very deeply buried.

Mayanna (Fran): No. 

Ian (Gordon): Right? 

Mischa: No. 

Bex (Ibra): Oh.

Ian (Gordon): And there's big, heavy mechs walking around on the landscape. 

Mischa: Yeah. There are a couple of these excavator mechs, and then there's people sort of tricked out with–it's like bulkier than power armor. It's not quite a mech, but it's like personal equipment that like, a person can walk around with, but it's heavy equipment that they like have to rest on their shoulders and like maneuver.

Ian: So a lot of heavy things walking around. 

Lyn: Like a Steadicam.

Bex: I was just thinking Steadicam. 

Mischa: Yeah, just kind of like a Steadicam. Yeah. 

Mayanna (Fran): And the other question I'm having is like, you know, people store equipment under bridges, like whatever, but like– I don't know. It's interesting that. That those types of explosives were being stored under the bridge?

Ian (Gordon): Right.

Mayanna (Fran): That doesn't seem like the best place. 

Lyn (JJ): I don't think they would normally be under here. That’s the weird thing.

Mayanna (Fran): That's really confusing to me. 

Ian (Gordon): Also, if they were being stored, you'd think they would be all together. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah.

Ian (Gordon): Not a box. 

Mischa: Yeah, Gordon. That's a good point. Why don't you roll investigation about that? 

[SFX: ominous music begins, deep thrumming and echoing taps].

Mayanna: Oh gosh.

Ian: Let's go! 

[Dice rolls].

Mayanna: Here we go! 

Ian: (Whispers) Damn it. (Normally) 11.

Mischa: It's hard to tell where this thing was originally stored. There's just– it's all a big old pile of mess. 

Ian: Damn it. 

Mischa: Like you're on, you're, you're sort of still near the bottom of a pretty steep hillside that like, you know, was excavated to make room for this overpass system when it was originally built. So like, it's pretty steep. It seems like the entire thing just like kind of slid down and is at a pile on the bottom and that's where you guys are. So like, if there was an order to where these things were stored, it's almost impossible to tell. 

Ian: Yeah. Cause it could have all come down. 

Mischa: Yeah. The evidence has kind of been obscured.

Ian (Gordon): But so then we can assume then there might be, there's probably more boxes. There could be more boxes in the big slide. 

Mayanna (Fran): So they– Cause if the bridge is above us, and the rubble has cascaded downward, and we found essentially a crate that sort of bubbled to the surface. Either the crates were on the bridge when the blast happened and then got like washed away. Or like, the dirt sort of pushed it up? Which I don't think makes any sense.

Bex (Ibra): Hm.

Ian (Gordon): I think we need to find some more crates. 

Mayanna (Fran): We should find some more crates. Let's– Okay, breadcrumb wise, if we found them down here, so you want to go up–you want to go up the-the cascade? 

Ian (Gordon):  I think we kind of do, don't we? 

Mayanna (Fran): Is that kind of in the vicinity of where you're seeing some magic stuff? 

Lyn: I look with my goggles.

Mischa: Yours is kind of deep in the pile, whereas Fran, you're looking sort of like up the hillside there.

Mayanna: Mhmm. Okay. 

Lyn (JJ): This thing is much deeper. It's at least– it's a combo of stone, wood, and dirt in here. So somewhere between one and three feet deep at least. 

Mayanna: When we discovered the accelerant, that was non magical, correct? 

Mischa: Correct. It's not like, generating magical energy. 

Mayanna: So we wouldn't be able to detect it.

Mischa: Yeah. It's more alchemical. 

Mayanna: Alchemical.

Mayanna (Fran): Alright, I think maybe we split a little bit, you guys focus on this magic, and Gordon, you and me maybe go up the incline, and-and see if we can uncover some more crates? 

Ian (Gordon): Yeah, let's do that. 

Mayanna (Fran): Cause you're, you'd be able to identify them, and I'm able to dig. 

Ian (Gordon): Yeah.

Bex (Ibra): And there was something moving when I was over there earlier–

Mayanna (Fran): Okay. 

Bex (Ibra): –by the magic stuff, so I wanna-I wanna maybe look closer.

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah, you guys, you guys check that out. We'll go up the incline a bit and see if we can find more crates. 

Mischa: Sure. Fran and Gordon, you start climbing and clambering your way up this massive rubble pile up the side of the hill. 

[SFX: footsteps crunching as debris shifts]. 

Mayanna (Fran): (Tired groan).

Ian: My chef whites are not white.

Mayanna: No. 

Ian: More…

Bex: Chef grays.

Ian: Chef grays. 

Mayanna: Chef grays. Alright.

Mischa: JJ and Ibra, you guys at the bottom of the hill, where do you want to start? 

Bex (Ibra): You're the one with the glasses, I'm gonna, I'm gonna trust you.

Lyn (JJ): Okay.

Ian (Gordon): My other problem with the glasses is that the battery pack isn't attached to them, you know? 

Mayanna (Fran): Yes, Gordon! 

Ian (Gordon): Right? 

Mayanna (Fran): Yes!

Mayanna: And I start writing that down as well.

[Laughter].

Mayanna (Fran): That is part of the problem. 

Ian (Gordon): They need the Astra input on the headset.

Mayanna (Fran): Gordon!

Ian (Gordon): Not in a pack that goes into your pocket. 

Mayanna (Fran): Collab?!

Bex (Ibra): Yeah, so wherever those goggles see, I'll go, but something moved when I went in... uh… there. 

Lyn (JJ): Oh, in a different direction? 

Mischa: Yeah, kind of like around the back of the pile from where you and your dad were standing, where Ibra was standing sentry.

Lyn: Okay. 

Lyn (JJ): I mean, so let's go back around where you saw things and start digging through from that side.

Bex (Ibra): Cool. 

Lyn: I look for a shovel? 

Mischa: Sure, just like a normal shovel? There are also, like, again, people are walking around with sort of person-sized construction equipment. 

Bex: I want to-I want to ask a passing person with a Steadicam rig if I can borrow it.

Mischa: Okay, I think a saurid construction worker with like, a shoulder mounted like, force beam, [SFX: electronic whir and burst of laser. Rattling debris], that's like, clearly swinging their tail out for like, counterbalance as the thing like, hangs over its head, is sort of working on like, a different pile off to the side. 

Bex (Ibra): Uh, excuse me. 

[SFX: laser powers down].

Mischa (Saurid Construction Worker): Oh, yes. 

Bex (Ibra): Hi, do you mind if I borrow that tool just for maybe five minutes? I'll give it right back. 

Mischa (Saurid Construction Worker): This whole rig? Are you certified? 

Bex (Ibra): I have a pass from the foreman. Paul Calderon.

Mischa (Saurid Construction Worker): Have you gotten your certification? 

Bex (Ibra): Uh… Certification? Yes. 

Mischa: Okay, sweet. You know what you're gonna roll. 

[Giggles].

Bex: Yeah. [Laughter]. Thinking, thinking, 21. 

Mischa: Whoa.

Lyn: Whoa.

Mischa: Yeah. I think you look at him and go, “Would I come to the site if I wasn't certified?”

Bex: If I wasn't ready. 

Mischa: He, he goes, 

Mischa (Saurid Construction Worker): Well, that's good enough for me. It's about-it's about time for my 10 minute break. Anyway, I'm gonna go lie in the sun.

Mischa: And, yeah. Takes this heavy thing off, and like, without putting it down on the ground, [SFX: metallic clinking], just sort of like up over the head and, [SFX: thud], onto your shoulders. 

Bex (Ibra): (Strained) Yep. That's what I– yep. Thank you. Thank you.

Mischa: Ibra. You're gonna be encumbered.

Bex: Yeah. 

Mayanna: Yeah. 

Ian: I was thinking about putting one of these on, and I've realized that Gordon probably doesn't have the constitution or strength to even wear it in the first place. 

Bex: I think it would squish you.

Ian: I think it would squish Gordon.

Mischa: Canonically not very strong. 

Ian: (Through laughter) Canonically.

Mischa: Yeah, Ibra, you've got this device. It's got like, two handles on either side that come, you know, elbow height for you. You can swivel it around. [SFX: robotic whirring]. There's like a force turret on the top of it that, that blasts away bits of debris. Cool. You got it. 

Bex: Ibra feels a little guilty about lying, because it's not fun. And then is like, 

Bex (Ibra): Alright, I– I can figure this out. 

[SFX: robotic whirring].

Lyn (JJ): I'm not certified in that, so I don't even know how those work. 

[Laughter].

Bex (Ibra): I can figure this out. 

Mayanna: Oh boy. 

Lyn (JJ): Okay, well, I'll grab a regular shovel or pickaxe. I can start digging away a little bit to make sure that there are no crates when you use that. A little, (nervously) canary in the coal mine, as they say.

[SFX: suspenseful music begins, quick and staccato synth rhythms].

Mischa: Okay, Ibra, you are not proficient with this piece of equipment. I was going to have you roll an attack with disadvantage, but now you're being helped by JJ with more conventional tools, so go ahead and roll me an attack roll with midvantage. 

Bex: (Singing to the tune of the Red Robin jingle) Midvantage. Yum. 

[Laughter]. 

Bex: Attack? 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Bex: 18, 13, and 6, which gives me 16 with my additional points.

Mischa: Nice! Yeah, the two of you, start digging away. [SFX: shovel repeatedly digging into dirt]. And, you know, it's like JJ with the shovel kind of knocking away some debris, it's like, okay, this spot's clear, and then [SFX: laser powers, thuds, and hums], you blast it with, some force damage. It's just sort of like, a little bit of like, invisible blast energy that just, just sort of makes a little crater in the thing.

Lyn: I love this minigame.

Mischa: Yeah? 

Lyn: I've loved– You know in, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl–

Mayanna: Yes!

Lyn: –when you're in the underground? 

Mayanna: Oh, when you're like, (imitating a hammer) ting ting ting ting? 

Lyn: Yes. 

Mayanna: And you're getting the stones out? 

Lyn: It's like that. 

Mayanna: One of my favorite parts of that game. Yes.

Lyn and Mischa: Yeah.

Mischa: You spend a little bit of time, digging for this stuff. JJ, after about two or three blasts of it, [SFX: laser activates], you step in to do your-your small dig, and the bottom of your foot feels warm.

Lyn (JJ): Warm, warm, it's warm. Hot. Warm. Okay, just warm, not hot. [Laughter]. Maybe it's hot. Hot. Metaphorically. Um!

Bex (Ibra): Is this what happens when ghosts pee in the air? 

Lyn (JJ): Ew! 

Bex (Ibra): Does it get warm? What’s happening?

Lyn (JJ): First, your tooth! Then… ghost pee?!

Ian: That was the craziest thing.

Bex (Ibra): Look, I'm trying to figure out why the air is warm. Is that what you're saying? 

Ian: That's the craziest thing that's been said on the podcast so far. [Laughter]. Just to be clear. 

Bex: (Maniacal laughter).

Mayanna: So far.

Ian: So far.

Lyn: When I look down at that spot, is it magic there? 

Mischa: Oh yeah. Entirely.

Lyn (JJ): Oh, oh! Red hot. Red hot! Magic!

Bex (Ibra): Well, move!

Mischa: You start digging, like, very tentatively with your shovel, [SFX: dirt scraping away], still trying to knock away loose debris.  Bend down into this sort of little debris crater that you've made for yourselves. You're kind of fully in it now. You're like, [SFX: digging through larger debris] , you know, pretty deep into the rubble pile. You know, you're knocking aside like pipes and bars and bits of rubble and then, [SFX: digging suddenly louder], as you dig you uncover a device. 

Lyn (JJ): Oh.

Bex: Device?

[SFX: music transitions to more ominous, thrumming tones and suspenseful piano].

Mischa: It is a small, handheld thing with control boards and like wires sticking out of it and on the control board, in a little slot, built for like, for example, a power supply, there is a piece of Astra stuck in it.

Lyn (JJ): Oh.

Ian: Now that looks like a bomb. 

Mischa: It does look a little like a bomb. JJ, can you roll arcana please? 

Lyn: Yes. Which die should I use? 

Mischa: A good one. 

Bex and Lyn: (Scared groan).

[Dice rolls].

Lyn: Not the best roll, 11. 

Ian: Ah, jeez.

Mischa: Okay, yeah, with an 11, you examine the device. The wires feed from the power supply back, but the circuitry is so complex that, you know, you're working on big machines, you're working on physical devices. This thing is a little bit too advanced for you. You take a look at the piece of Astra in it, and it's like, dark in the middle, almost like a burnt out lightbulb. 

Lyn: Oh. Yeah, that's not a common occurrence for Astra, right?

Mayanna: It's like spent. 

Lyn: It's been juiced. 

Mischa: Like, burnt out lightbulb is a pretty good analogy for it. Like, it looks like a fuse that's burnt. 

Mayanna: Ooh.

Lyn (JJ): Uh… Can you call Fran and Gordon down? I feel like… we're gonna need every brain cell we have for this one. 

[SFX: music fades out].

Bex (Ibra): Got it. I can't provide that many of those, so I'll go get the good ones. 

(JJ and Ibra overlapping).

Lyn (JJ): Oh, no, that's not what I meant! I meant-I meant they're-they're-they're just–

Bex (Ibra): No, I was kidding. I was kidding, JJ. It's okay.

Lyn (JJ): I'm so sorry. You're so smart! 

Ian: You can hear them bickering from around, because we're not super far, right? So you can hear them bickering and go, 

Ian (Gordon): (From afar) What's going on over there?! 

Bex (Ibra): JJ, I was kidding! 

Mayanna (Fran): (From afar) Did JJ say something by accident? 

Bex (Ibra): No, I was ki– Ah. It was me. 

Mayanna (Fran): (From afar) No, I’m sure it was just–

Bex (Ibra): I'm just messing with JJ. 

Lyn (JJ): (Pitifully) I’m sorry!

Mayanna (Fran): Everything's fine! I think.

Mischa: Fran and Gordon, you guys climb up the hill. 

Mayanna: Yeah, we climbing. 

[SFX: footsteps crunching through dirt and debris].

Mischa: Yeah, you guys are like, tentatively, almost on all fours climbing up this thing, the like, rubble sort of like minimally streaming behind you guys. 

Mayanna: Yeah. 

Mischa: How far up do you want to go before like, you pause to look around? 

Mayanna: Hmm, are there any sort of areas that look like additionally kind of sunken in? Like that, you know, any spots where there looks to be like divots or like…

Mischa: (Thoughtful hum).

Mayanna: You know what I mean? 

Ian: Or abnormal like, variations.

Mayanna: Like that, yeah, that something may have sunk or that something may have been dragged, you know, something that would pull the rubble in a way that's not normal. 

Mischa: Yeah, I would say you can either roll investigation or survival.

Mayanna: I'll do Investigation. [Dice rolls]. 17. 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Ian: Sick. 

Mischa: Yeah, there's major spots where, like, each sort of subsequent layer of the thing collapsed onto the next one. And so I think with the 17 you can get a good sense of where those layers are. 

Mayanna: Mhmm. 

Mischa: Yeah. Yeah. As you climb kind of like, you know– I love this sort of like idea of the soaring crisscrossing roadway.

Mayanna: Yeah.

Mischa: That just like you look up, and it's sort of– It's like majestic if it wasn't a banal piece of infrastructure. [Laughter]. And as you sort of get to the base of the second layer of pillars, it sort of transitions from less dirt and rubble and more like broken objects and stuff.

Mayanna: (Thoughtful hum). Okay.

Mayanna (Fran): I think this is probably a good spot to dig. 

Ian (Gordon): Mhmm.

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah. 

Ian: We start moving stuff around. 

Mayanna: I'm gonna start shifting stuff. Yeah. 

[SFX: large rocks scraping, thuds as they’re tossed aside].

Mischa: Yeah. Slow and steady or?

Mayanna: Yeah. 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Mayanna: I think slow and steady. Cause I don't-I don't technically have a tool for this situation, so I think I'm literally digging through the rubble with my bare hands.

Mischa: Sure. Your tool belt doesn't have like a trowel in it or anything? 

Mayanna: Um… I mean, it can.

Mischa: It's up to you. It's a mechanical thing, so I don't wanna make you spend charges of stuff, but…

Mayanna: I won't spend the charge.

Mischa: Okay. So bare hands then.

Mayanna: I won’t spend the charge.

[SFX: continuous digging and shifting of stone and debris].

Mayanna: I'm just gonna just dig with my bare hands, you know. You gotta–you gotta roll up your sleeves sometimes and get in there. 

Mischa: That's true.

Ian: And we're, we, we have four hands between us, so we can lift semi heavy things. 

Mischa: Yeah, sure. Now I would like both of you guys to roll survival, I think. 

Mayanna: Okay. Survival. 

Ian: I think I've got a really good survival bonus. 

[Dice rolls].

Mayanna: (Pained) Oof. 

Ian: Yeah.

Mayanna: I did not do good. I rolled a 1.

[Gasps].

Bex: No!

Ian: Oh fuck!

Mayanna: A flat 1. 

Ian: I rolled a 16. 

Mayanna: Great. 

Mischa: Gordon, you rolled a 16? 

Ian: Yeah. 

Mayanna: Oh god.

[SFX: suspenseful music fades in slowly]. [SFX: soundscape shifts to the sound of digging, debris and refuse being moved aside].

Mischa: Yeah. I think you start, you start digging through. You start finding more construction equipment, broken pieces of like, traffic cones and like, some other tools. Maybe like an axel that broke off a wheel of a machine that's buried in the pile. Basically you can find evidence that whatever was going up on the top layer, like people were working up there when there was a collapse. 

Ian: Right. Work was interrupted by this. 

Mischa: Work was interrupted. Yes, absolutely. 

Ian: I see.

Mischa: So you start finding– And now that you know that you do start looking through maybe what they were doing. So with that 16. It seems like there was some, repair work happening on the topmost layer. You see things like epoxies or like, you know, smaller focuses for magical spells that like were casting Mending. 

Ian: Right, so it seems like it was a routine bridge repair that should not have resulted in an enormous collapse like this.

Mischa: Exactly. 

Mayanna: (Understanding hum).

Ian: Yeah, yeah, I pick up what you're putting down. 

Mayanna: And I die, right?

[Laughter].

Ian: I look to my left, and Fran is just dead.  

Mayanna: I died of tetanus immediately. [Laughter]. I find a, I find a needle that stabs me right in the hand and I die of fast, rapid tetanus to my whole body. 

Lyn: Oh no.

Mischa: And that's a season wrap on Fran. Thank you very much. 

Ian: Lockjaw!

Mayanna: What's my next character gonna be?

[Laughter].

Bex: It's so funny you said “tetanus” and I thought you said “deadness. I died of deadness.” 

Mayanna: Oh, that's so funny. 

Ian: I've always dying of deadness. So I turn to– I-I-I notice this, and I turn to look at Fran to tell her what I'm seeing. 

Mayanna: My hands are gone. 

Mischa: You have a Nat– honestly, with like Fran with a Nat 1 on survival, I'm so sorry to do this to you. I think that you do climb high enough and slip. 

Ian: Yeah. 

Mayanna: Oh no!

Ian: That has to be what it is.

Mischa: I think, yeah–

Ian: Big old rock slides under you. 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Mayanna: Oh no! 

Mischa: You start sliding and like scraping your hands. 

[SFX: rocks and dirt shifting, building in speed].

Mayanna (Fran): (Escalating panic) Oh my god. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Oh my god. (Yells). 

Ian (Gordon): Fran!

Ian: And I-and I immediately sort of rush over as fast as I can, and I try to grab her as she's sliding down the mountain.

Mayanna: I'm gonna reach for Gordon's hands. 

Mischa: Gordon, roll a DEX save. 

Ian: (Singsongy) Let's roll a DEX save! 

Mayanna: Oh my god. 

Ian: Here we go. [Dice rolls]. Oh yes! What is it? It's a 22. 

[Cheers].

Mayanna: Oh my god!

Ian: (Whispering) I am crushing it today.

Mayanna: Oh my god.

[SFX: sudden shifting of rocks and gravel].

Mischa: You managed to grab Fran before she slips to fall. 

Mayanna (Fran): (Nervous screaming).

Mischa: I think this is the first moment where you go, “Oh, all of those safety measures were for a reason.”

Mayanna (Fran): Oh my god. Oh my god. 

Mayanna: And my hands are like cut up pretty bad. 

Mayanna (Fran): Oh no!

Mischa: Yeah. I think you– hold on. 

Mayanna (Fran): My money makers! 

Bex: Yeah!

Mischa: I'll only roll a d4 because of the good DEX save. [Dice rolls]. It's 2 slashing damage. 

Mayanna: 2 slashing damage.

Ian: (Pained) On your hands.

Bex: (Pained) Aiee.

Mayanna (Fran): Oh my god ow, ow! Oh my god! Ow ow ow ow ow ow.

Ian (Gordon): Are you okay?

Ian: Okay so I immediately take my apron off, [SFX: soft shuffle of fabric], and I flip it inside out, so you get the clean back side.

Mayanna (Fran): Aww thank you.

Ian: And like rip it in half, [SFX: fabric quickly tearing], and wrap it around–

Mayanna (Fran): Ow.

Ian: –Fran’s hand

Mischa: Wow. 

Mayanna (Fran): (Heavy breathing) Ow ow ow ow ow.

Bex: Oh you rip it? That's so sweet.

Mischa: Yeah.

Ian: That’s what aprons are for.

Bex: That’s love.

Mischa: Your apron has like a little torn frayed edge at the bottom. I'm not even gonna make you roll it. Yeah. You manage to wrap up those hands pretty good? 

Mayanna (Fran): (Labored breathing, out of breath). Ow. Thank you. That was a really good job. That was tied really nice. (Breathy) Okay.

Ian (Gordon): Yeah. This one time I cut my hand really bad in the kitchen and blood went– Nevermind. Let’s not talk about it.

Mayanna (Fran): (Still breathing heavily). Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. That was really stupid. Oh my god. I don't know how that happened. Thank you. 

Ian: She says, “I don't know how that happened.” I might be off. And I go– I get a lightbulb and I want to go check out where it was that she fell. 

[SFX: mysterious music begins].

Mischa: Okay. 

Ian: You know, where the rocks slipped, just to see if there's anything there.

Mayanna: (Intrigued) Ooh. 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Ian: (Pleased humming).

Mischa: (Thoughtfully) Yeah. 

Mayanna: (Suspensfully) Ooh. 

Mischa: You start digging through that rubble. You already got your 16 survival. I'm not gonna make you roll it again, cause I do think this is just really cool and I'm gonna give it to you. You start digging through, [SFX: rocks tumbling], right where she slipped. You dig down like, with your hands just kind of pushing things away. Like, it almost– The rubble almost like, wants to crumble back in from the edges, and you're just sort of like, hurriedly pushing things aside to see at that spot where it slipped.

Mischa: You dig down in the debris, and you pull out a device. [SFX: digging stops]. A control board with a piece of Astra in it that is burnt out like a fuse and wires attached to it. 

Ian: Looks like. (Smug) A bomb. 

Mischa: And it looks like a bomb. 

Mayanna (Fran): Oh my god, what is that? 

Ian (Gordon): That's a bomb. 

Mayanna (Fran): What?

Ian (Gordon): I know exactly what that is. That's a bomb. 

Mayanna (Fran): What?! 

Ian: I call to the other– I call to, JJ and Ibra down the hill. I'm holding this up. 

Ian (Gordon): Guys, I found something. 

Bex (Ibra): I'm ki– What?

Lyn (JJ): I can't see. I'm in a hole. 

Bex (Ibra): Hold on, let me put this off. [SFX: metal clinking]. (Strained) Oh god. Oh, this is really heavy. I'm fine.

Ian: Are you taking it off already? 

Bex: Yep. 

Ian: We're getting out of it. 

[Laughter].

Mayanna: Yeah, get outta that mech.

Bex (Ibra): [SFX: metallic thud hitting the ground] Alright.

Mayanna: Can’t be encumbered in this situation.

Bex (Ibra): Okay, here. I gotta help you out. 

Lyn (JJ): Okay.

Bex (Ibra): Here we go. 

Lyn (JJ): We found a thing!

Ian: I bring– We bring them very carefully down the hill, and I show them– And I see that they have the matching device and that tells me that there are two detonating devices in a big fall, at least two. 

Mayanna: That look like they've been used up. 

Ian: Or burned out. Cause they're not, yeah, they're not still active in any way, right?

[SFX: music ends].

Mischa: Everybody. 

Ian: Uh oh.

Mayanna: Oh god.

Mischa: Roll either perception or arcana. 

[Dice rolls].

Mayanna: Okay. (Thinking sounds).

Ian: I'm rolling for perception. 

[Dice rolls].

Lyn: Thank fucking god.

Mayanna: Alright, I'm gonna do arcana. 

[Dice rolls].

Lyn: 22. 

Mischa: Okay. 

Bex: (Excited) Ooh!

Lyn: For either. 

Bex: 22!

Mayanna: (Disappointed) Okay. 14. 

Mischa: Okay. 

Ian: Dirty 20. 

Mayanna: Nice!

Mischa: Wow! High rolls, everybody. Nice work. 

Bex: We've been saving for now. 

Lyn: We've been saving for now. 

Mischa: This, this really clutch– High rolls. 

Ian: It's the “fuck/yeet” dice that you got us all.

Bex: Yeah. 

Mayanna: Yes! 

Ian: So good. 

Mayanna: Blessed. 

Mischa: Yeah, Bex got us all d20s that say “yeet” on the 20 and “fuck” on the 1. It's pretty great. 

[SFX: pensive music begins, slow piano and soft strings].

Mischa: You compare these two devices to try to determine if they're the same, if there's what. The device that JJ has recovered, the Astra crystal is completely burnt out like, black sooty in the– from the center almost all the way through. Gordon's device…

Mayanna: No.

Bex: (Gasp).

Mischa: …Only about halfway. 

Mayanna: No.

Bex: (Gasp).

Mayanna: No.

Mischa: It looks like there's a little bit of charge. It's not like– The devices aren't blinking. It doesn't look like they're activated or on–

Lyn: It’s not a live–

Mischa: –but it looks like this piece of Astra has not been totally burnt out as opposed to the one that was on the bottom layer, which is. 

Mayanna: I think I want to know what kind of Astra we're dealing with? Like if it's infused with any particular spells, which is something that like I'm intrigued by.

Mischa: Yes.

Mayanna: Yeah, I just, yeah, I just want to-I just want to get a closer look at what kind of Astra we're dealing with.

Lyn: Can I help Fran with that? Detect Magic lets you know the school of magic–

Mischa: Oh yeah?

Lyn: –that something can come– comes from. 

Mayanna: Oh, amazing. 

Mischa: Oh shit, I have to look up the schools of magic. Okay. [Laughter]. Yeah, you look at this with your Detect Magic goggles. You can, spot– You like look into the internal structure of the crystal, and like, the way the wires run on these boards. You can spot this as conjuration magic.

Mayanna: Conjuration magic. 

Lyn: Conjuration?

Ian: Which means…?

Mischa: Which is– Sorry. Conjuration is making stuff appear. 

Mayanna: Making stuff appear. 

Lyn: It's like the summoning…

Mischa: It's summoning portals, that kind of thing. 

Ian: Got it. 

Mayanna: Oh! 

Bex (Ibra): Well, summoning bomb? 

Mayanna (Fran): Well, it's summoning what? 

Lyn (JJ): …That’s weird.

Mayanna (Fran): Fire? Creatures?

Lyn (JJ): Because explosives, in theory, would normally be abjuration or evocation.

Mayanna (Fran): Yes. Which means they're conjuring something that's creating the explosion for them? 

Lyn (JJ): Maybe, or…? This is a…?

Bex (Ibra): Are they conjuring the jellies? 

Mayanna (Fran): The creatures? 

[SFX: music intensifies, high strings swell].

Lyn (JJ): If it's connected– I mean, it must be… At the very least, Gwen thought that this might be connected somehow. 

Mayanna: Is there anything on the mechanism that leads me to see like where it was manufactured? Any like serial numbers or any sort of like components? 

Mischa: I mean, you're a craftsman. 

Mayanna: Yeah. 

Mischa: You know exactly like where to look for–

Mayanna: Yeah.

Mischa: –makers marks and such. 

Mayanna: Yeah. 

Mischa: This device reeks of homemade. 

Ian: Yikes.

Mayanna: Oh god.

Mayanna (Fran): So somebody made this themselves. 

Lyn (JJ): Fran, You're a much better artist than I am. Can you sketch a diagram of this?

Mayanna (Fran): Absolutely. 

Mayanna: Should I roll for how good the sketch is? 

Mischa: (Chuckle) Yeah. Roll performance. 

Mayanna: Okay. Let's see. Charisma. All right. Come on. [Dice rolls]. 11. Pretty good. 

[SFX: music ends].

Mischa: Yeah, pretty good.

Mayanna: Pretty good schematic. Not my best. 

Mischa: Functional, clear, not the most artsy. 

Mayanna: Yeah, it's like, it's a rush job. But, it's-it's-it's-it's the important bits. 

Lyn: I think, yeah, this sketch will also be good evidence to bring elsewhere.

Mayanna: Yeah, I'm gonna fold that up and like, put it somewhere safe in my clothes. 

Lyn (JJ): It was on my graphite paper, so there is a second copy. 

Mayanna (Fran): Oh gosh, yes! 

Mayanna: I'm gonna take, I'm just gonna make a note of this for Thorgunn for later. 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Mayanna: Because I think he would probably have maybe some insight into this. 

Mayanna (Fran): Um. This– Who-who–? Why would somebody make something like this? This is like… This is like, terrorism kind of stuff. 

Ian: Yeah, so here's what-here's what's interesting to me. 

Mayanna: Mm hmm. 

Ian: None of us, except for maybe Ibra, have dealt with like, ballistic combat equipment much. 

Mischa: Well, I– And I don't even think Ibra had. 

Bex: No.

Mischa: Like, Ibra's combat training is really, like, kind of…

Mayanna: Theoretical?

Mischa: Well, basic martial arts, I would say. 

Bex: Yeah. 

Mischa: Like, like this, the training that–

Lyn: You do recreational karate. 

Mischa and Bex: Yeah. 

Bex: Ibra compares to like, a black belt in karate and someone who like, actively trains in a different– a couple different mixed martial arts. 

Mayanna: But you're not in the field because there's nothing to be in the field about, so you'd be like, training in a facility, presumably.

Mischa: No, of course not. The war's over. 

Bex: (Satisfied but nervous chuckle).

Ian: So here's what I'm after. 

[SFX: suspenseful music begins]

Mayanna: Go for it. 

Ian: We uncovered accelerant, which on its own could just be, “Oh, that's kind of dangerous in a site.” Now we have uncovered two types of detonators, one of which is not fully out. So we haven't really been thinking of it in this way, but I think if we were standing there, we would immediately realize that we were in an incredibly potentially dangerous situation.

Mayanna: Yes.

Ian: And it might feel very eerie instantly because all of a sudden you realize that you're kind of in a minefield. 

Bex and Lyn: Yeah. 

Mayanna: Yeah. 

Ian: Right. 

Bex: Literal.

Ian: Because if one of the– if there's another one that isn't done. And there's a bunch of boxes.

Mayanna: (Understanding sigh).

Ian: So I kind of want to get off the hillside–

Mayanna: I agree. 

Ian: –as fast as possible.

Mayanna: I would agree with that.

Lyn (JJ): Well, this is still an active work site. Even though we called the safety whistle. 

Mayanna (Fran): We got to clear this site. 

Lyn (JJ): There's a lot. 

Mayanna (Fran): You gotta talk to your dad. You gotta talk to your dad. 

Lyn (JJ): Yeah. 

Mayanna (Fran): This is not the kind of specialization to be handling these kinds of things. 

Bex (Ibra): We need to call Inspector Ravona. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah. We have her card.

Bex: I think I'm gonna, I'm–

Mayanna: I'll–yeah. I'll hand you the card. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah. 

Bex (Ibra): Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. 

Mayanna (Fran): We should message her for sure. 

Bex (Ibra): Yeah. 

Mayanna (Fran): Yeah. 

Bex (Ibra): You guys are good words. Help me craft it so we can do it. 

Mayanna (Fran): [SFX: staticky filter, indicating a text]. We have discovered– This is– This is Fran, by the way, from the other night, at Boggin’s Beestro. We have been– 

Bex (Ibra): We've been assigned to you.

Mayanna (Fran): [SFX: staticky] We've been assigned to you by the Magistrate's office. We have uncovered ballistics equipment and detonators at the recent overpass destruction site. 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Ian: Just to be clear, while they're texting this, my head is like on a swivel. I feel very uncomfortable. 

Mayanna: You should. No, I'm paranoid as well. 

Mischa: Perception, please, Gordon.

Mayanna: (Nervous noise).

Mayanna: With advantage. Your head's on a swivel. 

Ian: (Excited singing filler noise). [Dice rolls]. 19. 

Mayanna: Nice! 

[SFX: music ends].

Mischa: Gordon, while all of your party members are huddled together crafting this message, looking over these two devices. I think you've probably maybe handed yours to Fran and JJ. And they're kind of– 

Mayanna: I’m holding one and then messaging with my other hand.

Mischa: Yeah. Gordon, you're the– You know, while they're doing that, you have the thought to start looking around. You spot up high on the top level. You know, and this has got to be at least, you know, a hundred feet overhead.

Ian: Great.

Mischa: Something like that. You see the silhouette of a figure–

Ian: (Tense grumble).

Mischa: –dark gainst the light of the hover engines keeping the Constellation afloat overhead.

[SFX: ominous music begins, deep rumbling and echoing crackles]

Mayanna: (Under breath) No.

Mischa: And you see them [SFX: ominous buzz] reach a hand into a-into a back pocket…

Ian (Gordon): Go. Run. Run.

Mischa: Pull out something…

Mayanna: (Gasp).

Ian (Gordon): Run. 

Ian: I start– I yell to everyone,

Ian (Gordon): (With increasing alarm) Get off the side of the mountain, off the side of the mountain right now. Now!

Mischa: And press the button. 

[SFX: a deep, low thud].

Ian: (Screaming).

Mayanna: Oh my god. 

[SFX: earth rumbling, builds and swells].

Mischa: Everybody make a DEX save please. 

Mayanna: Oh. My god.

Lyn: Oh no.

[Dice rolls].

Lyn: 16. 

Ian: Dirty 20. 

Mayanna: No! I rolled a 4. [Pained exhale]. Oh my god. I like trip. (Laughs).

Bex: 10. 

Mayanna: I feel like my foot gets caught.

Lyn: Your hands are full. 

Mayanna: Yeah, my hands are full. 

Mischa: Yeah. An electric crackle spreads over the debris field. [SFX: zaps and crackles build]. It jumps from stone to stone. Crackles spread down like a waterfall over this debris pile. From deep underneath the stone. You hear, though it is muffled– 

Ian: Oh no.

Mischa: –a familiar high pitched scream. [SFX: piercing screech]. 

Bex and Lyn: (Groans).

Mayanna: Oh my god. 

Ian: Oh. My. God.

Mischa: The electricity, [SFX: zaps and sizzles], spreads and cascades all the way down the pile. Fran.

Mayanna: (Gasp).

Mischa: Unfortunately. 

Mayanna: Oh no. 

Mischa: You're going to take 2 lightning damage. 

Mayanna: Oh my god. Ah! 

Mischa: And then the crackles of lightning condense, [SFX: static and crackles quickly zoom], onto the excavator–

Ian: (Under breath) Oh no.

Mischa: –which starts to twitch and jitter and move. 

[SFX: metallic rattling, heavy thuds into the ground].

Ian: (Pained whisper) Of its own accord.

Mayanna: (Pained gasp).

Mischa: And rear up on its six spider like legs [SFX: metallic thud] , and swivel [SFX: motorized twisting, clicking into place] its force beam in the direction of the gathered crowd and work crews.

Mayanna: No! 

Mischa: And–from deep within, its like, hollow metal chassis–bellows.

[SFX: deep, metallic, echoing roar].

[SFX: music ends]. 

Ian: So, today, when everything got laid out, I naively thought, “Oh, cool. Maybe a battle where one of us is driving a mech.” I–I'm going to say again–really naively just didn't anticipate the obvious choice of us fighting a giant disembodied spider mech. [Wheeze]. And I'm bummed. [Laughter]. that I didn't see that coming. 

Mayanna: I'd like to speak to a manager about that.

Mischa: Ian, would it help if we participated in one of your favorite activities in Dungeons & Dragons? 

Ian: Is it rolling dice? 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Ian: Is it called rolling initiative? 

Mischa: Yeah. 

Ian: Woo! 

Everyone else: No! 

Mischa: Let's roll initiative!

[SFX: theme music begins].

Mischa: The Wandering Path was created by me, Mischa Stanton, and produced by Bex Taylor-Klaus, Lyn Rafil, and me. This story was game mastered and sound designed by me, Mischa Stanton, and was played and performed by Bex Taylor-Klaus, Lyn Rafil, Ian McQuown, and Mayanna Berrin. Cover art by Lyn Rafil, and music courtesy of the Independent Music Licensing Collective.

Our production and house manager is Erin Bark. If you like what you're listening to, please tell your friends and let them know where to find us. Our website is wanderingpathpod.com, where you'll find links to subscribe and follow us wherever the path leads. We're also on Patreon, patreon.com/wanderingpathpod.

We're so grateful for anything you can do to help us keep making this show. Thanks for wandering with us. Til next time!

[SFX: theme music fades out].