1.02 Electric Jelly
An uninvited guest breaks up the party! Fran & JJ take their shots. Ibra stands their ground. Gordon thinks on his feet.
-- 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 —
Mayanna: Last time, on The Wandering Path.
[SFX: Music begins].
Mischa: Meet our heroes, Fran, Gordon, Ibra, and JJ. After sharing a weird dream that clearly feels like some kind of call to some kind of magical destiny, the four of them try to go about their days in the city and plan a birthday party for their friend Paz. But an ethereal party crasher has arrived to cut the fun short. (Scared voice) Oh no, spooky scary! (Normal voice) Let’s see what's around the bend, today, on The Wandering Path.
[SFX: Music reaches a crescendo, then fades out].
Mischa: The lights on the arcade machines flicker and crackle [SFX: electrical buzzing] with white static in rows, flashing down lines among the aisles of the arcade as power is drawn up into the translucent spectral form of a floating entity, drawing ghostly flesh out of the electricity and around itself, forming on a wire skeleton of glowing blue. It looks like nerves or the branches of a tree. It forms into this wispy structure that lets out blood curdling screams. [SFX: screams].
Ian: Yikes.
Mischa: Let's roll initiative.
[Groans]. [Dice rolls].
Ian: 16.
Bex: Oh no. 7.
Lyn: 14.
Ian: Okay, well. 6.
[Laughter].
Mischa: The only sources of light in the room right now, because the power is being drawn into this creature, are the creature itself, the flashing screens, which are almost painful to look at, all of them flashing for too long, and the booth table, which JJ has lit up with a Light cantrip.
Mayanna: Nice.
Mischa: And so.
Mayanna: Thank God.
Mischa: The four of you and Paz are uplit from the table, and across the large arcade space, this spirit is forming. This…phantasm.
Mayanna: [Groans].
Mischa: Fran.
Mayanna: Yes.
Mischa: You are first to act.
Mayanna: Great. We have a cake on the table, correct?
Mischa: Correct.
Mayanna: I would love to—sorry Paz—I’m gonna dump the cake, and I'm gonna toss the plate at the ghost.
Mischa: Okay.
[Laughter].
Mischa: Great. I love it. Just, just immediate fight or flight and you choose fight. Okay.
Mayanna: Yup.
Ian: I have to tell you, if I had gone first, it would have been the rolling pin immediately through it. [Agreement]. That was gonna be my first move.
Mischa: Okay. Yeah. It's a strength, or it's a dex roll, cause you're throwing it.
Mayanna: 4!
Ian: Fuck.
[Laughter].
Mischa: The tray goes completely through it.
Mayanna: (Disappointed) Ooh.
Mischa: Ad clatters against one of the machines on the other side with a loud metallic bang.
[SFX: metal clanging].
Mayanna: (Whispering) Okay. (Normal voice. So we know something. [Laughter]. It… doesn’t have… a physical form. (Higher voice). Write that down everybody, write that down!
Mischa: It screams at you.
[SFX: Screams].
Mayanna: Okay. Alright.
Mischa: Anything else?
[SFX: Spooky music begins].
Mayanna: Hmm, I think I… I think because I—I have a gun, [laughter] but I don't have it on me all the time.
Mischa: Okay.
Mayanna: So I'm going to go make a dash—or not a dash, but I'm gonna make a run for the—for my bag in the locker room.
Mischa: Okay, yeah, I think you can probably—oh you're in the booth though.
Mayanna: I’m in the booth.
Mischa: Can you roll me a quick dex save to see how far into the booth you are?
Mayanna: 9.
Mischa: Okay, yeah, so you're on the inside of the booth, so I think you can only make it halfway to the locker room.
Mayanna: Okay. (Stammering). [Laugher]. I’m gonna like, climb over the table.
Mischa: Yeah.
Mayanna: I think my knee makes contact with the cake. [SFX: Squish].
Mischa: Well, the cake has already been—
Mayanna: smooshed.
Mischa: Smooshed everywhere.
Mayanna: So I'm climbing over the table, and I'm all covered in cake now. [Laughter]
Mischa: Great. Great. Fan artists, get on it.
Mayanna: Man, oh man!
Mischa: JJ, that's you.
Lyn: Oh gosh, Okay. Fight or flight. I don't think JJ has experienced this before and is now surprised that fight is the action.
Mischa: Yeah!
Lyn: I think just straight up sees giant… screaming… electricity wraith. Yeah, and fires off. Just straight up Guiding Bolt.
[Laughter].
Mischa: Wow, okay.
Mayanna: Nice. Nice.
Mischa: From whence do you know Guiding Bolt?
Lyn: Great—
Mischa: How have you gained this knowledge?
[SFX: Pensive, string music begins].
Lyn: Great question. You know, JJ has studied a lot of magic, but this is a cleric spell. It was supposed to be firebolt and then it turned into something different after some studies and philosophy stuff. Especially right now, in this moment, it's like, maybe I tried to cast Firebolt, and then, because I'm trying to protect other people, has now turned into Guiding Bolt.
Mischa: Yeah, I think, you know, you plug a piece of Astra into the matrix on your—what is it?
Lyn: I have like a—it’s like a watch.
Mischa: Yeah. You plug it in, and like, something about your intentionality, changes it. [SFX: chimes sound]. At the last second something not necessarily quantified in the matrix itself. But for now, it's changed, and it's working for you.
Lyn: Cool.
Mischa: So attack me?
[Laughter].
Mayanna: Do it.
Lyn: That is a 13 plus 5…18.
Mischa: Okay an 18 hits. [Cheers] Write that down!
Mayanna: 18 hits!
Lyn: That is 4d6 radiant damage.
Mayanna: Oh my god.
Mischa: That’s a lot.
Lyn: 6 plus 4 is 10, plus 4 is 14, plus 3 is 17. [Impressed cheering]. And the next attack roll made against this target has advantage.
Mayanna: Nice. That's the best part.
Mischa: Interesting.
Lyn: Thanks to the mystical dim light glittering on the target until then. So I feel like hits this ghost thing [SFX: zoom then a chime] and then the type of light that is alighting it changes.
Mischa: Yeah, it’s sort of a cold white almost. Lightning white translucence, and all of a sudden, like, the translucency, I think, fills in with, like, a warm yellowish glow?
Lyn (JJ): That’s—I hit it! I hit it with something.
Mayanna (Fran): Great. Great.
Lyn (JJ): I don't know if we should write that down. I don’t know what that was!
Mayanna: I don’t know what something means, so we'll just leave that one as question mark for now.
Mischa: I think Paz looks up at you and goes,
Mischa (Paz): That’s a ghost! You're attacking a ghost!
Ian: How normal are ghosts in this world, by the way?
Mischa: Do you want to roll a free history check for me?
Mayanna: Ooh, yes.
Ian: Tell me I have something.
Mayanna: Come on, history. Come on.
Ian: I think it's just a 12.
Bex: Is it acceptable if I, also? Because I would like to calm Paz down.
Mischa: No, I just want Gordon to.
Ian: My history has a plus 6 next to it. Does that mean?
Mischa: Yeah, it sure does.
Ian: I’m an 18!
[Cheers].
Mischa: Okay, ghosts are spooky, and there are stories about haunted places, especially out on the Edge.
Ian: Yeah.
Mischa: I don't know if you know anybody who has told you firsthand they've ever seen a ghost.
Ian: Great. Okay.
Mayanna: So we're seeing ghosts.
Ian: So it's not something that does it exists, but it's something that, it's like, “does it though?”
Mischa: Yeah, it’s like, you know, like, my cousin heard from his neighbor that like he went into this haunted place and there and it was scary.
Lyn: Sure, Kevin. Whatever.
Ian: They decided to keep you down.
[SFX: Ominous, rhythmic music].
Mischa: Yeah. Next up, the Phantasm, [groaning]. having been lit up from the inside, not of its own doing, and attacked via serving tray, most brutally. [Laughter] It shudders on its frame, on that, like, that central blue—I don't even know what the right word is. It's like, it's like a branching electrical conduit that runs from top to bottom of the thing that branches out into different ghost limbs.
Mayanna: I think you nailed it.
Mischa: Okay, great. Good. It's still a new podcast—
Mayanna: You crushed it.
Mischa: I’m still working on it. The wraith screams again, [SFX: screams] and lashes out, and Like, stutteringly teleports, like, one foot, one foot, one foot [SFX: stuttering teleportation sound] and darts forward directly towards the table.
Mayanna: Oh my god.
Mischa: And attacks Gordon.
Ian: Wow cool. Love it.
Mayanna: What?
Bex: Disadvantage.
Mayanna: What did you do?
Bex: He's within five feet of me. I'm using my reaction. Fighting style protection.
Mischa: Whoa!
Bex: Creature you can see attacks a target other than you, that is within five feet of you. You can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll.
Mischa: Yeah! How do you do that?
Bex: I'm standing in the bee costume.
Mayanna: You are standing in the bee costume.
Bex: I step in front of the booth.
Mischa: Great. The ghost has to go through the bee.
Bex: Yeah.
[Laughter].
Mischa: Okay. Great. So I attack with disadvantage then.
Mayanna: Nice, nice.
Mischa: Pshh. Oh boy. It lashes out and is thrown by you so quickly reacting that way and tries to go through you to get to Gordon. [SFX: rattling]. But… ends up going through the both of you, and like, out the other side.
Mayanna: Woah.
Ian: Oh, damn.
Mischa: It passes through you.
Mayanna: Do you feel cold?
Mischa: It passes through both of you. It doesn't feel cold. It feels like a static shock.
[Groans].
Mayanna: That’s way worse.
[SFX: Buzzing static].
Mischa: From, like, when you rub your—
Ian: Ahh! Don’t say it.
Mischa: —socks on a carpet.
Ian: No!
Mayanna: The current.
Ian: That's like, actually one of my things.
[Sounds of discomfort].
Bex: I imagine that this bee is mildly fuzzy, so this happens to Ibra sometimes, and it is never, never a good feeling.
Mischa: I love the image of just like, between the fur points on the bee costume. Like the little (buzzing sounds).
Bex: The antenna looks like a light bulb right now.
Mayanna: That is–
Mischa: I think Paz just screams. Just absolutely terrified.
Mayanna: Oh my god, no.
Bex (Ibra): I'm okay! It's okay, it's okay.
Mischa: Ibra, that's you.
Bex (Ibra): Everybody, scatter! Move away from this booth. I will be right back.
Bex: And I'm going to use my action to dash to the locker room so that I can get changed. At the very least, we prolong this so that I can get back and you aren't in the same space to get attacked all at once. [Agreement]. I think I can shout over my shoulder:
Bex (Ibra): Paz, get down!
Ian: What’s likelihood that Paz fainted into my arms?
Mayanna: (Snickering).
Mischa: How much does that happen versus how much does Paz want that to happen?
Mayanna: Yeah, how much did Paz make that happen? How much did Paz move the situation in such a way to make that happen?
Mischa: Okay, I think you're gonna have to spend your action changing armor.
Bex: Hundred percent. Okay. That's fine.
Ian: Cool. Gordon.
Ian: (Muffled, mouth full). Gordon’s been eating a muffin because he's so scared. He took a muffin out of his bag. And so I'm standing there eating a muffin and he goes:
Ian (Gordon): Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!
Ian: And then, I have an idea.
Mischa: Okay.
Ian: I wonder if it might be fed on electricity. Because of the stuff that was happening earlier with the lights and the and so I think I call out:
Ian (Gordon): Where’s the fuse box?
Mayanna (Fran): It's in the back. Why?
Ian (Gordon): I got an idea, I got an idea, I got an idea.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay, I like this.
Ian: So I'm gonna try to dash towards the fuse box. I shimmy up over the side of the red pleather booth into the other booth and then I think I dashed towards the—where you said it's in the back, right?
Mayanna: It’s in the back, yeah.
Ian: I think I'm trying to dash towards the fuse box.
Mischa: Yeah, which is great because it's in the back in the direction the ghost came from which having passed through you…
Ian: Oh, it’s the opposite—
Mischa: So you have a clear shot.
Mayanna: Nice.
Ian: Great, great. Do I grab Paz, like, am I scared for Paz? Do I grab Paz by the hand and—
Mischa: You tell me man.
Ian: Pull Paz with me, I guess my question is—What’s up?
Bex: You better be scared for Paz, or I’ll kick your butt!
Mayanna: Yeah, Paz is dangerous!
Ian: Yeah, I think I grabbed Paz too, so I'm pulling Paz by the wrist.
Mayanna: Nice.
Ian: Okay, see, I knew this was gonna be a problem. Yeah,
Mischa: She walks with a pronounced limp. It's gonna slow you down.
Ian: Yeah, I mean, I think that's, I think that's what I'd do.
Mischa: Okay.
Ian: I think I'd probably carry her.
Mayanna: Smart.
Ian: I think I'd just grab her.
Mischa: Okay.
Bex: I’ve been holding Paz for like six minutes, and I'm not very strong.
[Laughter].
Ian: Yeah! You beat me to it. So I'm sort of half carrying her, right? I'm sort of just, like, bear hugging her, and kind of maybe dragging her even more, right?
[Horrified laughter].
Mischa: Sure.
Ian: There’s a fucking ghost, you guys!
Mayanna: No I get it, no, I get it. I respect it.
Ian (Gordon): I’m not at my best at the at the current second.
Mayanna: No, this is fine. I'm just glad you're protecting her.
Lyn: It’s still chivalrous, but not gallant.
Ian: Yeah, like, I think I think she sees me coming in slow motion, and, like, in her first fantasy, like, my hair comes out of my man bun and it's like flowing and I like scoop her up and my chest muscles are exposed. But then what really happens is I'm like:
Ian (Gordon): (Panicked, undignified) Ghost!
[Laughter]
Ian: And I grab her and we're sort of hurtling towards the doors.
Mischa: Absolutely. Gordon, you pick up Paz and start strengthening towards the back out of the back of the arcade. Samira and Cecilia come back into the room. I think Cecilia goes.
Mischa (Cecilia): Hey, did the lights go off? What is happening?
[PCs shout about ghosts.]
Mischa (Cecilia): Okay!
Mischa: Samira doesn't even have, like, the wherewithal to react like that, she's just like:
Mischa (Samira): (Screaming).
Mischa: And Cecilia probably, like, grabs her by the shoulder and has her, like, duck behind, like, a machine.
Mayanna: Nice. Nice.
Bex: Beautiful.
Mayanna: I mean, like, what other reaction would you have in a world where you've never seen a ghost before?
Mischa: That’s what I mean, like, Like, yes, there's magic here—
Mayanna: But a ghost!
Mischa: —and there's technology, but like, that's fully a thing.
Mayanna: It’s a ghost. It's crazy.
Mischa: Fran, that's you.
Mayanna: Alright, so can I make my way—have I acquired my bag?
Mischa: Yes.
Mayanna: Alright, cool. So I've acquired my bag, I unzipped my bag, [SFX: zip] and I flash back [SFX: flashback whoosh]. To the moment when I told my mom I was moving to the city, and she gave me this gun, and she said, “You never know. You never know.” And I was like, "I think I know,” and she goes, “you never know.” [SFX: whoosh back to present]. And so I've never used this gun before. I've never had a reason to. Cause I just hold on to it cause my mom insisted.
Ian: Is it loaded?
Mayanna: Yes, it's loaded. I know how to—I know how to load it I've just literally never needed to fire it. Like any time I've even been in a situation where I thought I might be attacked, I just said I have a gun and it's never led to anything else. So I—I'm going to grab the gun. And so I'm going to fire the gun at this ghost.
Mischa: Sure. Okay. So you're firing a gun at this wraith?
Mayanna: Yes.
Mischa: You normally would be firing with disadvantage because of the way it's form is like, not completely solid, not completely ever in one place at a time. However, because of the guiding bolts some part of its light remains steady. So I'm going to give you this choice. We can either cancel out the advantage or disadvantage, or you can roll with midvantage.
[Curious sounds].
Mayanna: What's midvantage?
Mischa: Here's what midvantage is.
Mayanna: Okay.
Mischa: When you roll with midvantage, you're going to roll 3d20 and take the middle result.
[Excited noises].
Mayanna: I love that. Okay. Three dice, midvantage. My God. What an invention.
Mischa: Thank you.
Mayanna: Okay. We've got, okay. 8 plus 3 plus 2. So, 13.
Mischa: So close.
[Groans].
Mayanna: Dang! Midvantage! No!
Lyn: What were the highs and lows, though?
Mayanna: 18, 3, and 8.
Mischa: Wow, what a spread!
Lyn: A true mid!
Mayanna: Woo! True mid!
Mischa: That's the power of midvantage.
Mayanna: I love midvantage! I want to use that all the time.
Mischa: So yeah, so you—everybody’s sort of running in the opposite direction, so there's no, like, worry of hitting anybody.
Mayanna: Good.
Mischa: But I think you come out of the locker room door, [SFX: door opens], level this gun that you've never fired at anyone.
Mayanna: Mom!!
Mischa: Fire it at a ghost, the bullets hit the surface tension of its ghostly form—
Mayanna: Fascinating.
Mischa: —which kind of ripples as it allows the bullets to pass right through and a couple of bottles in the bar shatter.
Mayanna: Okay. I think I just had an idea for maybe a magic bullet of some kind. So I'm going to write that down in my journal.
Mischa: Okay, Yeah.
Mayanna (Fran): A bullet for the spectral. Don't know what that means yet!
[Laughter].
Mischa: JJ, that's you.
Bex: Oh, I completely forgot to use my bonus action. It's fine.
Mischa: Next time.
Lyn: Yeah, no, I was like, Oh, Guidance is a bonus action. Nope, in Baldur's Gate. But not in regular D&D because—
Mischa: Dang you, Baldur's Gate! Setting expectations!
Lyn: For making an improvement, because Guidance should be a bonus action!
Mayanna: Agreed. Agreed.
Lyn: Anyway. I also have a gun.
[Laughter].
Ian: Vote yes on Prop 42.
[More laughter].
Mischa: [SFX: Flashback woosh]. JJ, your dad sent you off into the Come-Up after moving away from Hillside? They live in Hillside?
Lyn: Yeah, but I think they grew up in, what is it?
Mischa: In Minetown, in the center of the city?
Lyn: In Minetown. Yeah, I—I did—They did teach me how to use this in Minetown.
Mayanna: Well, that’s good.
Mischa: Sure. And he just gives it to you and it's like,
Mischa (JJ’s Dad): JJ, you never know. You never know.
[Laughter]
Lyn (JJ): What? Dad, when will I? I'm going to school.
Mischa (JJ’s Dad): You never. Know.
[SFX: Whooshes back to present].
Lyn (JJ): (Sighs). Oh god, you really never know!
[Laughter]
Lyn: Yeah, I guess I have this gun, also.
Mischa: What kind of gun is it? So like, I think Fran, yours is more like a—
Mayanna: It's a parlor gun.
Mischa: Yeah, yours is a parlor gun. Yeah. So it's like a tiny, like, almost concealable weapon?
Mayanna: Yeah, it's like I put it in my purse, and I'm like,
Mayanna (Fran): I guess I do feel safer.
Mischa: Yeah. So JJ, what is your gun?
Lyn: No, mine's a straight up revolver.
Mischa: Okay!
Lyn: Like, it is a hand me down. My parents are also like—
Ian: Is it from the war?
Lyn: —Dwarves, yeah. It's like, when they say, you never know, they meant it with like a dark fear.
Mischa: Yes!
Bex: They meant the Balverox.
Lyn: Yeah.
Mischa: So you level your gun.
[SFX: Rhythmic music begins].
Lyn: So I level my gun in this moment after, you know, I've mostly only shot like, cans and glass bottles before, but.
Mischa: Yeah, never like a moving target and also one whose flesh allowed solid objects to pass through it.
Lyn: Yeah. Sure. Is this phantasm like in front of me? Cause I'm still in the booth, right?
Mischa: Yeah, it's, it's kind of on the other side. You know, there's like a low knee, like hip high wall.
Lyn: So am I firing point blank?
Mischa: Yeah, you are.
Lyn: Cool. Slightly easier.
Mayanna: Yes.
Lyn: Truly, JJ is not expecting fight to be part of their—this has never happened before.
Mischa: Yeah.
Lyn: So the fact that they fired off a thing then was like, gun, answer, bang.
Mischa: Yeah. Thank goodness for that training!
Lyn: Thanks, Dad!
Mischa: It's disadvantaged because it has blurred form, and you have advantage because of Guiding Bolt, no?
Lyn: It's just the next effect.
Mischa: So you're rolling with disadvantage.
Bex: Oooh no.
Lyn: 15 to hit.
Mayanna: Okay!
Mischa: Still hits!
[Cheers].
Lyn: Yeah, point blank, bang, and [Dice rolls] 4 points of piercing damage.
Mischa: Okay! The light from your Guiding Bolt dims after the bullets from Fran's gun pass right through it. But while it's dimming, there's still, like, a moment of stability at its core, and that's right what you aim for. And right before the light goes out, you hit that source of yellow glow. Point blank and the bullets enter its form and like, actually hang there and don't pass through.
Lyn: Woah.
Mischa. And it cries out in pain and anger. [SFX: Screech].
Lyn (JJ): I'm sorry.
Mayanna (Fran): Why are you apologizing to the ghost?
Lyn (JJ): I don't know. This is very real. It looks like an arcade game, but it's real. Or maybe it's an arcade game that became—I don't know!
Mayanna (Fran): Okay, alright.
Bex (Ibra): Treat it as an arcade game!
Mischa: It is now the phantasm's turn. It looks at JJ, and the head section, I guess, it's hard to kind of tell with this thing parts, and roars and bellows as if it's about to attack, and then the roar catches inside of itself, and it looks up, and it almost sniffs the air, and then locks its head parts in the direction of Gordon and Paz heading towards the breaker. It's going to twist around its neon blue center and fade, and then right next to Gordon and Paz fade back into being and scream right in your face.
Ian: No! No!
Mischa: It’s going to attack you, Gordon.
Ian: It looked like a 20 from here.
Mischa: Did it?
Ian: It looked like a 20 from where I was looking.
Mischa: That’s funny because it was a 5. I guess it can look like whatever it wants.
Ian: It does. Yeah.
Mischa: It seems like, it's still working out how to exist in physical space and do all the things it wants to do. So it, like, appears, and before it fully solidifies, takes a slash at you with its wispy tendrils. But the tendrils haven't solidified yet, so they pass right through you. But then it's going to step through you again. You feel that static discharge. The hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, whether from fright or from electricity. And it's going to attack Paz.
Ian. Of course. Of course it is. Of course it's going to attack Paz. Why'd I bring Paz?
Mayanna: Oh my god!
Bex: I told Paz to get down.
Mischa: You did. And then Gordon.
Ian: Then I got in the way.
Mischa: So this thing raises, its the tendrils, its wisps, and raises them up [SFX: booming bass] and stabs them all forwards right into the crown of Paz’s brain and it's going to deal her some damage.
Ian: What is happening right now?
Mischa: Paz shuts her eyes tight and screams a high piercing scream and falls against your side.
Mayanna: Oh my god
Mischa: But is still standing.
Mayanna: Okay.
Mischa: She, like, her knees go wobbly and she looks rocked.
Mayanna: Oh my god.
Ian: Oh my god, what’s wrong with you?
Bex: Ibra didn't see it.
Mayanna: No. You heard it though, probably.
Bex: I heard the scream.Yeah.
Mischa: I think you can hear it from the other room.
Bex: I know that—I know the timbre of that voice. That is the worst case scenario.
Mischa: It's your turn.
Bex: I’m, I'm immediately busting out of that locker room. Full. Leather jacket, leather riding pants, leather boots, which essentially is leather armor.
Mischa: You've used your action this turn to get into your, your normal armor from the bee costume.
Bex: I have.
Mischa: You grabbed your weapons.
Bex: Yeah. So now I only have a bonus action and movement. So I come busting out of the room, shield in one hand, a knife in the other, and I say:
Bex (Ibra): Everyone, get back!
Bex: And I press a button and a naginata comes out. [SFX: Metal shing].
Mayanna: What’s that?
Ian: Yeah, what?
Bex: It’s basically, it's a really, really cool blade on the end of a long pole.
Mayanna: Cool.
Mischa: It’s a, it's a Japanese polearm.
Bex: Sick. Love that. Cool. This belonged to my mother. This is a family heirloom. This means, this weapon means a lot to me. And right now, Paz means more. How far away am I?
Mischa: You can get there in 30 feet.
Bex: I’m going for it.
Mayanna: Nice!
Bex: I’m going to get within 5 feet of it, and I'm going to use Warden's Mark. [SFX: rattling thrum]. Bonus action, mark a creature you can see within 30 feet of you. And while that creature is marked while it's within five feet of me, it has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than me.
Mayanna: Nice.
Bex: The mark lasts for one minute or until I mark another creature or become incapacitated.
Mayanna: Amazing.
Mischa: Yeah, do I, I don't save against this? There's nothing I can roll?
Mischa: Nothing.
Mischa: Ooh, I love it.
Bex: You can only fight me or you will be at a disadvantage.
Mayanna: Dang.
Mischa: Wow. Incredible.
Mayanna: Dang.
Ian: That’s bananas.
Mischa: What a move! Good move. Love that.
Ian: Better move than picking up Paz and dragging her across the floor.
Mischa: Well, now's your chance at redemption, cause Gordon, it's your turn.
Ian: Okay, let's see.I think I just have to keep pulling Paz out of the room, especially because of that, right?
[SFX: Somber music begins].
Mayanna: Yeah.
Ian: So that's what I do. I how, how much farther is it to the room with the fuse box? Now I'm carrying her.
Mischa: Now you’re carrying her. Can you make a strength check for me?
Ian: That’s not going to go well.
Mischa: Athletics, I guess.
Ian: 7.
Mischa: Okay, so it's gonna take you this turn and one more turn to reach the circuit breaker.
Ian: Fuck, so weak.
Mischa: Yeah, Paz kind of crumples into your arms. She manages to crack her eyes open. Can you roll a medicine check for me?
Ian: 16. [Dice rolls].
Mayanna: Nice.
Mischa: You glance down at her in your arms as she cracks her eyes open and you can see a little bit of static discharge across the irises of her eyes.
Ian: Oh my god.
Mischa: Yeah. Yeah, correct. Yikes.
Ian: She's not low on health though, right?
Mayanna: She’s staggering.
Mischa: With your medicine, I'll also give you a general no. She's not looking good at all. Oh no.
Ian: I—does it take my full out– Could I do, could I, I can't remember how bonus actions works. Could I do the painkiller bomb in a bonus action for her?
Mischa: Oh, you have painkiller bombs because you're an apothecary alchemist.
Mischa: Yeah.
Mischa: You absolutely can do that.
Mayanna: So you can do heal bombs in addition to hurt bombs?
Ian: Yeah.
Mayanna: Nice.
Ian: Yeah. And just in case we didn't talk about it, for everyone listening at home, my bombs are this bag of muffins.
Mischa: Yeah. So, so you're carrying Paz across the room, you reach into your pack and grab a muffin, and—
Ian: Blueberry.
Mischa: Okay. Paz goes,
Mischa (Paz): Is that a muffin? Smells really good, but—
Ian: I put my finger on her and I go,
Ian (Gordon): jdon’t speak.
Mischa: I'm gonna roll something for me, not for my NPCs. This is for Misha Stanton. Great, hot.
Ian: And then I, and then—so I take a vial off—or out of my apron. Yeah. And I like, inject it into the blueberry muffin.
Mischa: Yeah, what color is the reagent for the painkiller bomb?
Ian: It's white.
Mischa: Cool.
Ian: Yeah, and sort of shimmery.
Mischa: Yeah.
Ian: And then, and then maybe the muffin starts—I shake the muffin a little bit.
Mischa: It starts glowing with a white shimmer from the inside.
Ian: Yeah, and so, and then I smash it down on the black and white checkered linoleum floor.
Mischa: Yeah, it bursts open in a scattering of white light particles and blueberry crumbs. [SFX: bursting shimmery poof].
Mayanna: I love it.
Ian: And 7 HP!
Mischa: That's pretty good! So, that's almost everything she lost. Pretty good.
Ian (Gordon): I fixed it.
Mayanna: You did it!
Bex (Ibra): Thank you, Gordon.
Ian (Gordon): I fixed it.
Mayanna (Fran): You did it!
Bex:Good job.
Mischa: Paz enlivens and like, comes back to her senses in your arms and then picks a blueberry off of her cheek and eats it and is like,
Mischa (Paz): This is really good.
Mischa: And then looks up and realizes that you're carrying her in your arms. And just goes, (nervous giggling).
Ian: One for Gordon.
All: Yeah!
Mischa: As you are carrying her through the arcade towards the back near the circuit breaker, you pass where Samira and Cecilia are hiding.
Mayanna: Ooh.
Mischa: Cecilia catches your eye and is like,
Mischa (Ceclia): is she okay? Do you, do you want to leave her with us?
Ian (Gordon): Yes. Great idea.
Bex: Thank you, Cece.
Ian: And I, and I like, lay her down on the floor, and now the hair out of my man bun has come out and is flowing. Yeah. Great. I, yeah, I decided that I'm, you know, I'm a baker. Yeah! So I definitely have long hair that's pulled back in a man bun.
Mayanna: Oh my god.
Lyn: I love this.
Mischa: And the elastic is snapped when that—
Ian: It's snapped!
Mischa: It’s, yeah, it's snapped from the electric discharge from the ghost—when the phantasm passed through you.
Mayanna: How long is the hair when it's down?
Ian: Oh, it's probably like just, it's Fabio level.
Mayanna: Fabio level.
Ian: It’s just about shoulder length.
Mayanna: Or Gale level, as I like to call it.
Ian: Or Gale level.
Mischa: Fran, back to you.
Mayanna: Here we go! Okay, so I'm, I'm thinking I'm intaking the data, which is that it's an electric based ghost, and I'm curious if there's anything I can do to, like, like, utilize electricity back at it. I'm trying to figure out if that, if that's, like, adding to it, or if it's like a neutralizing situation.
Mischa: Great question. Why don't you give me an Arcana check?
Mayanna: Great. I love that. Okay. Ooh, that's a 19.
Mischa: Ooh, yeah. With a 19. Here's what I'm going to give you. Yes, it's drawing electrical power from the arcade around it. [SFX: Electricity crackling]. As it moves through the arcades, all of the lights on like the machines in its immediate vicinity flicker on and off. Where does the electricity come from?
Mayanna: Where does the—in in the building or the or the ghost in the building in the building from the fuse box?
Mischa: From the fuse box, which is drawing power from where?
Mayanna: From—God from the—I guess the electrical like—
Mischa: Yeah, in this world, in this city, is powered by what?
Mayanna: Astra?
Mischa: There you go.
Mayanna: Okay. Okay, so it's Astra based electricity. Alright.
Mischa: That was a good roll.
Mayanna: Thank you.
Ian: Sounds like you need to add Astra to this turn.
Mischa: We said it! Ba da ba!
Mayanna: So, if I were to add Astra in some form to my gun, like if I were to take like Astra and like, I guess like press it against my gun, could I charge it?
Mischa: Oh. I don't think so.
Mayanna: Okay.
Mischa: I don't think that's how objects work.
Mayanna: That’s fair.
Mischa: I think that sounds like a great idea to add to your gun later.
Mayanna: So I'm going to write that down. Yes. [SFX: Suspenseful, energetic music begins]. Okay, in the meantime, like, I want to take one of the plugs from one of the arcade machines and kind of just like whip it at the ghost.
Mischa: Okay! I love that. I love all of these improvised weapons. I love that you're using the environment. I love it. Okay.
Mayanna: Just to see if maybe it can make some kind of contact or like it hurt it in some way.
Mischa: From one of the arcade machines?
Mayanna: Yes. I want to like unplug—Like, you know, they have those like big wires that you like plug into that plug in the wall so when I just like take it out of the machine and just kind of like whip it rope style at the ghost and see if the the prongs make some kind of contact and see if it hurts it.
Mischa: Okay, sure. Yeah. Hold on. I'm going to get, I'm going to get statistics for a whip real quick.
Bex: This is fucking weird. I love it.
Mischa: Yeah. Okay. And you have, just remind me, as a craftsman, you have proficiency with every weapon.
Mayanna: I do.
Mischa: Including exotic weapons—
Mayanna: Yes, I do.
Mischa: Which are a whole class of weapons that only you have proficiency with.
Mayanna: Yes, yes, yes.
Mischa: Okay. Then yeah. Oh, this is a finesse weapon. So you can either use strength or dex.
Mayanna: Okay. I'll do, it's the same bonus either way.
Mischa: Well, there you go.
Mayanna: So did I just roll a d20 and then add? Okay, all right. Ooh, so it's 7 plus 3 plus 2?
Mischa: So 12.
Mayanna: So 12. Okay. Great. Great.
Mischa: Yeah, you unplug one of the machines. It’s, like, it's got like a race car that you like sit in in front of it and like the big steering wheel. Classic. You pull it out and like try to whip it at this wraith [SFX: whip crack], and the taillights of the car, like, start blinking on and off [SFX: car alarms], and, like, the steering wheel starts spinning random directions but the ghost itself seems a little unfazed.
Mayanna: Okay, fair. I'm gonna keep writing these things down.
Mischa: Yeah, for sure. That's science.
Mayanna: This is, this is the research.
Mischa: The difference between fucking around and science—
Mischa and Lyn: —is writing it down.
Mischa: JJ, that's you.
Lyn: Getting a lay of the land again. Gordon has run off towards the fuse box.
Mischa: Yeah, Gordon has now, unencumbered by Paz, sprinted for the back of the room to the fuse box. Fran has ducked into sort of the machine, the arcade machine land from the locker room. Yeah. Ibra is holding this spectre's attention sort of in arcade land.
Lyn: Cool. Yeah. Adrenaline is now fully kicked in, zeroing in on the situation. I'm also going to run so that we're kind of making a triangle around the figure to keep it contained so that Gordon can—and everyone else is kind of safely far away.
Mischa: Great.
Lyn: Even though I know it can teleport. And I'm going to use, I'm using so many features.
Mischa: It's our first combat! Introduce the people to your features!
Mayanna: Yay, know what we do!
Lyn: So I'm going to use Emboldening Bond as an action. You can choose up to two willing creatures within 30 feet of you, creating a magical bond among them for 10 minutes, or until you use this feature again. While any bonded creature is within 30 feet of another, once per turn, they can roll a d4 and add it to an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw they make.
Mischa: Whoa.
Lyn: So I'm going to look at my two pals that are squaring up with this frightening, horrible thing, and I'm just gonna say,
Lyn (JJ): You got this. We got this. You you got—we—we got this.
Mischa: But as you say that, the adrenaline just courses through your vein and pulses and that crystal of Astra in your little focus sort of pulses with your quickening heartbeat and starts sending out like waves of light towards your friends. [SFX: chimes].
Lyn: Nice. So that's my movement to get out of the booth there. Action—I don't have any usable bonus actions right now, but I'm just going to like grab my giant ass monkey wrench and like kind of hold a position to… whack-a-balverox this ghost.
Mischa: You rock back and forth from one foot to the other in idle pose?
Lyn: Yeah. Yeah. Sick. Still like shaking, but it's like looking at both Ibra and Fran like a little frantically between the two that's like,
Lyn (JJ): (Nervously) We got this. We got this. We… got this.
Mayanna (Fran): Are saying it like a question or are you saying it like a statement?
Lyn (JJ): It’s a statement now! We got this!
Mayanna (Fran): Okay, great.
Lyn (JJ): Write that down!
Mayanna (Fran): Okay, I’m writing it down.
Ian: From across the room:
Ian (Gordon): We got this!
[SFX: ominous humming music begins].
Mischa: The Wraith rears up on Ibra, who has positioned themself, as they often do, directly between their friends in danger, and wants to get past you, and is willing to go through you to do it, and so they will try. It’s going to rear its tendrils back and take a stab directly at your head [SFX: booming bass]. You manage to get your shield up and it seems to have a little bit of resistance pushing through your shield, but screams in rage and pushes. [SFX: screech]. And finally gets the point directly to your head.
Bex: What did you roll?
Mischa: Attacks? Attack mass? Yeah,
Bex: My, my AC is higher now because I have my shield and everything. Again, I'm back up to 18.
Mischa: Oh, okay. Does it beat a 22?
[Laughter].
Bex: No. I was just wondering. I'm getting high now.
Mayanna: That's so cool, that's so cool. Does it beat a 22?
Mischa: Great question. I did attack twice. One of them didn't hit and one of them did.
Bex: There. Wow.
Mischa: That's gonna be 2 piercing damage and 4 psychic damage. Nothing.
Bex: Nothing!
Mayanna: That ain't nuttin.
Mischa: Okay, Ibra, it's you.
[SFX: heroic music begins].
Bex: I think as a direct response to that, Ibra, still crackling with electricity, cracks their neck.
Ian: Oh my god, you just actually cracked your neck.
Bex: I was waiting for it.
Ian: Jesus.
Mischa: The foley work on this show, impeccable.
Mayanna: The commitment, the craft.
Bex: The thing about this naginata, is, it's only been used for training. Ibra has a lot of history of combat training. But this, this naginata has only ever been used for training with, like, someone who you can use a real naginata with, but still. Not death scenario. And for the first time in their life, Ibra takes a swing at something with actual malice. And like, intent to harm. Mm. First, I'm gonna bonus action. Warden's Grasp [SFX: rattling thud]. Until the start of my next turn, I can't move, and this that I choose, this creature that I choose, our specter, cannot willingly move away without disengaging.
Mischa: Yeah.
Lyn: Nice.
Mischa: Nice.
Bex: And I'm going to attack with my naginata.
Lyn: You can add a d4 to that as well.
Bex: Oh, thank you. 18 plus 5.
Mischa: Yeah!
Ian: Jesus Christ.
Lyn: You can add a d4 if you want. Well, it's once per turn, so… As long as you're within 30 feet.
Mischa: For how long?
Lyn: For 10 minutes.
Mischa: Oh, so the whole time.
Bex: Max damage.
Mischa: What?
Bex: 10 plus 3. Big money.
Mischa: Yeah, you, with the rage flowing through you of someone threatening someone close to you. It empowers you. You swing the naginata once around your head, and then grab it with the second hand and bring it down in a diagonal slash through this thing [SFX: weapon twirling and whooshing in air, clanging metal]. As you do, the tip of the blade glows [SFX: chime], and It makes contact, and it's like slicing through, I don't know that they have this in this world, but like ballistics jelly, where it's like, it's like jelly and it, like molasses kind of slows you down, but the minute you get to the center of the thing and your blade makes contact with the neon blue branching structure at its heart, it sends a crackle [SFX: crackling chimes] of yellow white glowing energy up and down through the thing. That makes the entire phantasm twitch. [SFX: screech].
Mischa: And you pull your naginata out from the center.
Mayanna: Whoa!
Bex (Ibra): It's got a gooey center!
Mayanna (Fran): Okay!
Mischa: Amazing! Gordon, you sprint to get to that fuse box with a little leftover.
[SFX: pensive rhythmic music begins].
Ian: Yes. Great. And then I shout,
Ian (Gordon): I’ve got it.
Ian: And with one action, I turned all the fuses off. One swipe. [SFX: Thud, electricity powering down].
Mayanna: You kill the power.
Ian: Kill the power.
Mischa: Yeah. You throw the main breaker, and the power circuit to the building abruptly cuts out.
Mischa: The screens in Arcade Land that were flashing with blinding cold white lights reacting to the presence of the the wraith cut out now that the circuit's been broken between it and the power grid. It's a lot darker in the room now, but also less, I don't know, seizure inducing, so that's good too.
Mayanna: That's good, that is good.
Ian: If I threw an impact bomb at it from here, how, how close are all my friends to it? Well,
Mischa: Ibra would get caught up in it for sure.
Ian: Yeah.
Mischa: You could try to throw it, so you could try to throw it past Ibra, so that you only catch.
Ian: The back of the ghost.
Mischa: The back, you know, you throw it at an empty space past it to try to catch it in the ring of your bomb, but I believe it's less damage if you do that.
Ian: I also, because I'm far enough away, I wonder if I would have the frame of mind to call emergency services. Do you know what I mean?
Mischa: Yeah.
Mayanna: I think that’s smart.
Ian: You’re like, I think that's what I think considering that I'm, they feel like they got it. It feels like they have the thing.
Lyn: We did say that several times over and over.
Ian: Yeah. So I think that's what I do. I think at the fuse box, I text the emergency text line, the words, “electroghost” with five—No, that's not what I did. I text the emergency text line and ask for help.
Mischa: Sure. Sounds good. Each round of combat in dungeons and dragons is six seconds. So within six seconds, you don't get a response, but that's also like, I don't know, pretty normal for text, I would feel.
Ian: Yeah.
Mischa: Cecilia and Samira. I think Cecilia is going to—while you're spread throughout the arcade section, is sort of going to, like, pull Samira and Paz into, like, a little huddle and, like, make a plan. And then, when you, Ibra, make contact with the center of the spirit, and when you, Gordon, throw all the switches and everything goes dark, Cecilia goes,
Mischa (Ceclia): Now!
Mischa: And they book it for the exit.
Mayanna: Nice.
Ian: Nice.
Mayanna: Great.
Bex: That's fair.
Mischa: Good. They're, again, they're encumbered by paths a little bit. Yeah. But one on each side of her and helping her get to the door.
Mayanna: Okay, great. That's good. I like that.
Mischa: Fran, that's you.
[SFX: exciting, suspenseful music begins].
Mayanna: Okie dokie. Okay, so we know it has a gooey center. I think I'm gonna try and aim my gun at the vague center area.
Mischa: Hell yeah.
Mayanna: Okay, great. So that's an 18 plus 5, so that's 20 You can roll with disadvantage still. Oh, you guys. Alright, so that's a 12 plus 3 plus 2, so that's 15, 18. 18 to hit.
Mischa: Yeah, nice!
Mayanna: Yay, yay, yay! We could've just taken the 18 that I rolled previously. At that point.
Mischa: It attempts to, like, flicker its form to move around your bullet, but it's being held in Ibra's Warden's grasp.
Mayanna: Nice, nice, good job.
Bex: It can't move.
Mayanna: Good job, Ibra. Do I roll for damage? Yes, please. So it's 2d4 plus 3. Hang on, let me grab those dice. I wasn't expecting to hit—
Mischa: So you put your damage dice away!
Mayanna: So I put— I— I was like, you know, dreams do come true in New Orleans. 7. [Laughter].
Mischa: Nice. Okay. I think, because you're like, sort of in tactics, like, now you guys have set up a little bit of like a triangle strategy around this thing.
Mischa: As soon as Ibra pulls the blade out from the center of the thing, you're aiming right for like, the gash in its flesh.
Mayanna: Yes.
Mischa: Yeah, you fire off another round, and yeah, it sticks right in there, and then like, the wound. Like, forms up around it, but you can see the little bullet, like, stuck in there.
Mayanna (Fran): I did something.
Bex: Sick!
Mayanna (Fran): Something happened. That's exciting.
Lyn: Does it have two rounds in its center now?
Mischa: Yeah, and they're just sort of, like, stuck in it, like jelly.
Mayanna: Interesting.
Mischa: Yeah, it's like electric Jello.
Lyn: Oh, like our brains.
Mischa: Just like our brains. You’re right, Lyn. Just like our brains. Electric jelly.
Lyn: It’s what it is!
Mischa: I know!
Mayanna: You’re not wrong. You’re not wrong. [Laughter].
Mischa: JJ, your turn.
[SFX: suspenseful music begins].
Lyn: So people are running.
Ian: People are screaming.
Mayanna: People are afraid.
Mischa: It’s scary.
Mayanna: Ooh, it's a little scary in here.
Lyn: Because it's currently dark, and that seems to not be boding well for us to hit this creature, correct?
Mischa: I’ll say this, it's hard to gauge where the creature exactly is at any time.
Lyn: Okay, so the light is not necessarily the thing that's causing the difficulties?
Mischa: No.
Lyn: Okay.
Bex: The creature is causing it.
Mayanna: It’s like phasing in and out.
Mischa: Correct.
Lyn: I see, I see, okay.
Bex: That’s why your guiding light was so helpful.
Lyn: All right if it would if it works the first time then I'll do it the second time. For fun and flavor. I'm going to swing my monkey wrench, but as a method of like aligning my guiding bolt.
Mischa: Can we do like a cool anime sequence where like you pull the piece of Astra out of your watch [SFX: shimmer], slam it into the head of the wrench [SFX: thud], and then swing it [SFX: whoosh].
Lyn: Yeah. Cool. Sick! Yeah. Yeah.
Mischa: And I think also while you do it, you're like, Okay, last time I was trying to do a f—What if I try to do the Guiding Bolt this time and swing it?
Lyn: Still rolling with disadvantage to hit, correct?
Mischa: Correct.
Lyn: Cool. 9 plus 5, 14.
Mischa: 14’s gonna hit.
Mayanna: It's like right on for 14.
Mischa: Yeah, yeah, correct.
Bex: 13 was no, 15 was yes, it's 14.
Lyn: 13 points of radiant damage.
Mischa: Ow! Ouchie!
Lyn: JJ just yells,
Lyn (JJ): Stop hurting my friends!
Mayanna: Becoming Sora.
Ian: This is an anime if I've ever seen one.
Mayanna: My friends!
Lyn: My friends!
Mischa: Yeah. You swing the Guiding Bolt slash with your monkey wrench directly at this thing. It cuts a horizontal slash into the specter's form that, almost like a bolo, wraps around the branch at the center and forms a ring of light that just clamps on. Its form starts jittering even more, like, the electricity that forms its flesh is shorting.
Lyn: Sick.
[SFX: ominous, thrumming music begins].
Mischa: It sort of reaches its hand tendrils out, around, and back in, trying to grab at the energy of the Guiding Bolt that's now wrapped around the center of its being. Like, grabbing at it, trying to let it go, like it's, this thing's really in pain. And then, it stops and sniffs the air again.
Mayanna: What does it mean when it does that!?
Bex: Something bad.
Mischa: And it looks around, not at any of you, but at all the different arcade machines. And it picks one, and dives for it. It's going to disengage.
Bex: Oh, farts.
Mischa: And it's gonna dive for it.
Bex: Alright, well I can move again now too.
Mischa: Yes.
Lyn: Do we get opportunity attacks?
Mischa: No, cause it's disengaging.
Lyn: Oh, right.
Mischa: But that means it can't attack this turn, which is great.
Mayanna: That is great.
Mischa: I am gonna roll one extra thing. Nope, one day I'll recharge an ability. Yeah, it dives for a particular machine, which begins lighting up again, as though all the other ones were, only now it's gone. It's because of the circuit breaker. It's centered on this one arcade machine. I think it's probably like an older machine. Like I think the Pac Man of this world, like the Pong, like really one of like the, the older machines in Boggins’ Bee-stro and it dives into it and the screen lights up the same cold white color with, and you can see like pixelated on the screen running from top to bottom is that neon blue branch. And this machine begins sparking and sputtering. [SFX: buzzing, crackling].
Mayanna: Okay.
Mischa: Ibra, it's your turn.
Bex: I am going to place a curse on this ghost in the machine.
Ian: Yeah, you are.
Bex: I would like to use my hex magic bonus action.
Mischa: You have so many bonus actions, I love it.
Bex: Not a lot of reactions, but I got a lot of bonus action. Until the spell ends for an entire hour. I deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever I hit it with an attack.
Mayanna: Oh my god.
Bex (Ibra): I’m so sorry for your machine. I'm gonna try to break it.
Mayanna (Fran): That’s fine. I'm definitely gonna fix it.
Bex (Ibra): Okay, that's fair. Okay, that's a good goal. That's good teamwork. We got this. Hey, JJ, I think we found our team. Not important right now.
Lyn (JJ): Huh? Oh.
Bex (Ibra): Nothing.
[SFX: heroic music begins].
Bex: Okay, I'm gonna hit it. I've still got the naginata. I've got one good strike that I just delivered to this creature. I wanna, I wanna try again. 19 to hit.
Mayanna: Nice.
Lyn: Solid.
Mischa: You curse this arcade machine. A little bit of like, dark purple pixelation creeps along the edges of the screen. And like, it seeps into the whiteness and then you kick the bottom of your naginata [SFX: clinking and whooshing] with your heel so that it spins around and you bring it down overhead and slice the machine in half [SFX: metallic thud, electricity crackling]. The circuitry inside, like, sparks and sputters and dies and the light inside of it caused by the wraith, sort of disperses like you popped a water balloon. It spreads out across the floor. It rises back up, it, like, stutteringly tries to form. [SFX: chaotic buzzing, crackling, whooshing]. It attempts a scream, but the scream sort of stutters and reverses and twists. It has taken too much damage. It can't hold itself together anymore. And with a pop, and a fizzle, the spirit disperses and is gone.
All: Whoa!
Ian: That’s what I'm talking about.
[SFX: mid roll music].
Mischa: Hey there, it's Misha. This is The Rest Stop. Come take a break beside the path with me. Just until we catch our breath. And yeah, like, give me a minute. Combat! Woo! We are really in it now, y'all. Very exciting.
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[SFX: mid roll music].
[SFX: soundscape begins, crackling and buzzing near the broken arcade machine].
Bex (Ibra): I am so sorry about the machine. I am so happy about the creature.
Mayanna (Fran) : That is so fine. What like. What level of repairs are we talking for this machine?
Bex (Ibra): Overhaul. I sliced it in half.
Mischa: Totaled.
Mayanna: Totaled.
Lyn (JJ): I can ask my dads if they have any scrap parts for it?
Mayanna (Fran): Okay, that's fine. I think we could probably just put in a work order.
Bex: What does necrotic damage do to electronics? Are we about to see that?
Mayanna: I guess so. Can I, can I investigate what kind of like, because if it's like, what, what would be like rot, right? Is it like kind of that vibe? So it's like what I imagine corrosion. Yeah. Like an uncommon amount of rust or corrosion through the center of this machine.
Mischa: To the point where like, Fran, you could probably fix this, but you might just be building an entire new arcade machine.
Mayanna: Yeah, I think so. I think so.
Bex: It’s like the Argo. How much of it is still the original?
Lyn: That’s the ship of Theseus
Bex: Oh, sorry, Theseus.
Mischa: Yeah, if you replace the motherboard and the cabinet and the glass screen, is it still the Ship of Theseus?
Lyn: That’s the name of the game, actually.
Mischa: Actually, yeah, I was just going to say the same thing. The name of the game is Ship of Theseus. It's like a sailing adventure side scroller. It’s like one of the first side scrollers.
Ian: I walk back over and I see,
Ian (Gordon): Oh, Ship of Theseus. I know. That's my favorite game.
Bex (Ibra): That’s one you had a high score on.
Ian (Gordon): High score of all time!
Ian: Yeah, I think I just turn all the fuses back on. It's like, pfft. And does the split in half video game spark a little bit? Is it still plugged into power, or? [SFX: zaps].
Mischa: Yeah, yeah, it gives, like, another, like, couple of sparks.
Ian: And I'm like,
Ian (Gordon): Ah, ghost! Oh, okay, we’re fine.
Mischa: And yeah, as the lights sort of come on behind you, you can hear—
Lyn: Oh, the sound of all the arcade games turning on at the same time.
[Everyone makes arcade sounds].
Lyn: Sound design that, Misha!
Mischa: Yeah, as though the GM isn't the sound designer of this contest also. Alright.
[SFX: arcade machines start up, beeping in the background].
Lyn: I'd like to check in on, you know, everyone Cecilia, Samira, and Paz. They were making their way out the door.
Mischa: Sure. Yeah, I think, like, last turn of combat, they made it to the door. So probably in, you know, the moment we're coming out of initiative, where, like, normal time resumes its pace they're probably sitting on the curb outside the door of Boggins, out on the street.
Lyn: I'm probably gonna tell everyone, it's like—
Lyn (JJ): I’m gonna check in on—you’re looking at—Okay.
Mayanna (Fran): Finish the sentence!
Mischa: You go to tell everyone that you're going to head outside and then don't end up doing it. And then you yeah, JJ, [SFX: door opening to the street, light traffic in the background], you find it's Cecilia is sort of standing on the street, looking down, up and down the street, waiting for emergency services, which you saw Gordon text for before she came outside, she's sort of waiting out front to flag them down. Samira and Paz are sitting with their backs up against the front of Boggins. Paz is drained, just, like, weakened and, you know, sort of really out of it. Samira looks physically fine, but is just breathing heavily and trying to come down from a panic attack.
Lyn (JJ): Hey, hey, hey.
Mischa (Samira): Hey!
Lyn (JJ): Hi. You with me?
Mischa (Samira): Yeah, you—did you—?
Lyn (JJ): It—it’s gone.
Mischa (Samira): (whispering) How did you do that?
Lyn (JJ): (whispering)I don't really know.
Mischa (Samira): Don’t tell that to anyone. Pretend it was all your idea, always, every time.
Mayanna: She’s always hyping.
Lyn (JJ): Yeah, you're right. Um…
Mischa (Samira): Great job.
Lyn (JJ): Thank you. Thank you. Are you okay? Are you—
Mischa (Samira): I'm just gonna—
Lyn (JJ): Deep breaths.
Mischa (Samira): Whew.
Lyn (JJ): Okay.
Mischa (Samira): I talk a big game. I had nothing. That was so scary!
Lyn (JJ): I mean, you got to safety. That's the most important part. All three of you were together.
Mischa (Samira): Yeah. Is… is Paz…?
Mischa: And she looks over to see Paz, who has again, like, you look at her and she's very clearly physically less worse for wear, but also like not as panicked. Her breathing is shallow, but even. You take a look over at her, and she glances back at you, and you can still see a little bit of electricity jumping between the tines of her iris.
Lyn: Can I use a quick Cure Wounds?
Mischa: Sure.
Lyn: On her? Because she's not completely full up, right?
Ian: Well, also the thing only lasts for a minute.
Mischa: What thing?
Ian: The temporary HP only lasts for a minute.
Mischa: Oh, it was temp HP, the painkiller bomb.
Ian: It's temp HP, yeah.
Mischa: Then yes, you can do that.
Lyn: Yes, I will use a Cure Wounds. That's all my spell slots.
Mayanna: Oh boy.
Bex: Level 2!
Lyn: It’s fine. Yeah, so Cure Wounds, I'll like, reach out my hand.
Mischa: You take the piece of Astra back out of your wrench and put it back on your wrist and dial up a Cure Wounds and it flows from your wrist out over your hand into her hand and sort of diffuses and spreads across her body. [SFX: humming chime]. The electricity in her eyes slowly fades. It's jumping back and forth, and then as the light spreads it like slows down and then stops. She… comes back to herself a little bit and she just goes
Mischa (Paz): Oh we're on the sidewalk now.
Lyn (JJ): Were you, you went to safety? Everything's okay now, emergency services on the way. Everyone's okay, everyone's fine.
Mischa (Paz): My mom's gonna be so upset.
Lyn (JJ): Maybe, but this was no one's fault. We have no idea what happened.
Mischa (Paz): I’ve never seen anything like that before, but I don't know, classic my birthday.
Ian: I, I my hand comes in and I hand her a muffin, and then I hand JJ a muffin, and then I just go around and pass muffins out to everyone out of the giant stack.
Mischa: You go, you hand out a muffin to Paz, and then JJ, and then Samira, and then you look at Cecilia, and Cecilia looks kind of busy. You head back inside and you're like, hey Fran, hey Ibra.
Bex: He passes me directly, like bumps into me as I'm heading out the door. [SFX: thud].
Bex (Ibra): I, I, sorry, I'm going to check on—how's Paz doing?
Ian (Gordon): Yeah, you should go check on her. [SFX: door opening].
Ian: And I put a muffin to your chest.
Mischa: JJ, Ibra, medicine roll?
Lyn: [Dice rolls]. I rolled so bad. 2 plus 3. 5.
Mayanna: That is 5.
Lyn: Thanks.
Bex: 13.
Mischa: Yeah, on the 13, Ibra, you know that Paz's constitution is not the best on the best of days, and as the only person who took a full hit in that combat, like, it can't be good for her. She looks really weakened and tired, but there's no electric burn marks, there's no, like, outward physical sign of injury. You're not Paz's nurse or anything, but like, probably should get a heart scan.
Bex: I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say,
Bex (Ibra): Hey, hey babe, can, can I pick you up?
Mischa (Paz): Okay.
Bex (Ibra): Yeah. Alright. I think that we're gonna go take a quick test. And if you want, I can look like I'm wearing the bee costume the whole way.
Mayanna: Aww.
Mischa: She looks at you in like, your normal, like, training armor that, like, makes you look really confident for battle and she's like—
Mischa (Paz): Does the scan have to happen right now? Do you have time?
Bex: Time?
Mischa (Paz): To change into the Bee costume.
Bex (Ibra): Oh, I don't have to change. Hang on one second.
Mayanna: What?
Bex: And I'm going to hex magic disguise self.
Mischa: Oh my god, you get a free disguise self once a day!
Bex: I do, I get a free one.
Bex (Ibra): I was saving this for the, for the, if I had to do a funicular ride to see my parents, and I didn't want to deal with—doesn’t matter. This is for you.
Mayanna: Awww.
Bex: And I look like, it, if it, it doesn't hold up to scrutiny, you could roll for intelligence and tell that I'm a thing if you tried to, like, touch the bee costume. You would go right through it sort of thing and touch me. So— but, it’s, it's the aesthetic.
Lyn (JJ): Does that mean you could have just been doing that all the time instead of wearing the bee costume?
Mayanna (Fran): But for work they require, you know.
Bex (Ibra): and I really wanted to you know, the full experience for Paz.
Mayanna (Fran): She loves the kitsch.
Ian: I have to tell you the level of D&D that y'all are playing is so high above the level of D&D that I'm capable of playing.
[Everyone protests].
Mayanna: Counterspell. You don't say that anymore. [Laughter].
Ian: I’m happy to be here.
Mischa: This is episode two. You're gonna get there.
Ian: I'm gonna learn.
Mischa: I have faith.
Mayanna: You have bomb muffins.
Ian: I got bomb muffins.
Lyn: Yeah, you're already at that level.
Mayanna: That’s crazy. Yeah, you’re fine.
Mischa: Ibra, you hoist Paz up to her feet, you get her cane situated underneath her, you cast a spell on yourself to vaguely look like the Boggins bee. And she goes, ah, yeah.
Mischa (Paz): Okay. Let's go. (Singing). Happy, happy bee day…
All: (singing) From all of us to you. We wish you a happy bee day, so we can party too. Bzz!
Bex: And I, I think I lift her up into a full like carry.
Mischa: Sure. And she goes,
Mischa (Paz): Maybe next year… less ghost attacks.
Bex (Ibra): Deal.
Mischa (Paz): Cool.
Mischa: Yeah, I think you know, it's a good response time. It's only about five minutes for emergency services to arrive outside of Boggins. Cecilia sort of flags them down, there's an ambulance, they pull out a stretcher and you lay Paz down on the stretcher and Paz goes:
Mischa (Paz): Ibra, will you call my mom and just have her meet me at the, at the thing?
Bex (Ibra): Yeah, do you want me to come with you or do you want me to wait here?
Mischa (Paz): No, I'll be, I'll be okay. I'll text you later.
Bex (Ibra): Promise?
Mischa (Paz): Yeah. Okay.
Bex (Ibra): Pinky promise.
Mischa: She lifts up her pinky to give you a pinky promise, and grasps you, and when she does, a little static shock goes between.
Bex (Ibra): Alright. Love you. Be good.
Mischa (Paz): Okay. Take me away, boys! [Laguhter].
Mischa: And they slide her to the back of the ambulance.
Bex: I’m gonna go call her mom.
[SFX: intriguing, rhythmic music begins].
Mischa: Yeah. While you watch the ambulance take Paz away, another vehicle arrives. A hovercar, slick and black, fresh off the factory line. A stark silver grille flows into trim lines that draw the eye swooping across to the back of the car. This thing screams power and speed… if not exactly the height of style. And it rumbles with a concealed aggression, like a growling dog just waiting to be let off its leash. It lands on the street outside of Boggins, and out of the gullwing doors, steps a saurid woman with black scales on her dinosaur face, piercing green eyes with vertical slits. Around her neck, she's got two stripes of yellow surrounding a stripe of red, like a coral snake. She’s wearing a dark trench coat that splits in the back around her lizard tail. And like, a button up vest and, like, clean pressed suit with a circular emblem on her chest.
Mayanna (Fran): Who are you wearing?
Mayanna: Immediate question.
Mischa: Yeah. She gets out of the car, and says something to Cecilia they talk a little bit, and then she gives you a look, Ibra, but doesn't stop to talk, just immediately inside. She sort of surveys the scene, kind of looks at, like, the destroyed machine, the lights, half of which are still flickering back on, and looks around at the rest of you guys inside, and just goes,
Mischa (Mysterious woman): All right is there a supervisor on staff? Is there someone in charge?
Mayanna (Fran): Ah, me!
Mischa (Mysterious woman): Great. Hi.
Mayanna (Fran): Hi. How can I help you? Who are you wearing?
Mischa (Mysterious woman): Who… am I..?
Mayanna (Fran): Yes, who designed your ensemble?
Mischa (Mysterious woman): I didn't think to ask.
Ian (Gordon): (Whispering) It’s the government issued coat.
Mayanna (Fran): (Whispering) Oh, really? But it's got this nice emblem on it.
Ian (Gordon): (Whispering) I know, for the government.
Mayanna (Fran): Oh, sorry.
Lyn: Is there—would we recognize the emblem that she's wearing?
Mischa: No.
Bex: Do I recognize the saurid?
Mischa: No.
Bex: Can I Insight check the look?
Mischa: Sure.
Bex: Sweet. 16.
Mischa: Just a look of all business, very serious not.. pausing for pleasantries, not here for grief counseling, here to examine what has happened.
Bex: And I look like a bee.
Mischa: And you look like a bee.
Bex: Yeah.
Mischa: It doesn't hold up to scrutiny, but she's also not scrutinizing you today.
Bex: I'm gonna drop it. I'm gonna drop it and walk in behind her.
Mischa: As soon as the ambulance drives away, like, they close the doors and the ambulance drives away and you just go, ugh, and you're back in normal. That’s so funny.
Ian: You could say it didn't hold up to scruti-bee.
Mischa: I might not say that!
Mayanna: I won't, in fact!
Mischa: You can't make me!
Mischa: Yeah, she holds out a claw to shake your hand.
Mayanna: I shake it.
Mischa: She introduces herself as Inspector Ravonna.
Mayanna (Fran): Inspector Ravonna. Pleasure to meet you. I'm Fran Weaver. This is the Boggins Bistro. We don't normally have phantasms. Just to be clear, that is a not normal occurrence.
Mischa: She gets a steely look across her face when you mention the phantasm, and she says:
Mischa (Ravonna): Go on, tell me exactly what happened here.
[SFX: suspenseful music begins].
Mayanna (Fran): Absolutely! Well, you know, we were just having a lovely evening, a little birthday party situation for our friend Paz, and then… seemingly out of nowhere, all of the lights turned off. And a creature, a floating creature of blue, electronic, kind of like a root system situation, appeared, screamed we were able to, you know, cut the power we discovered it had like a gooey center, and then we dispatched of it. And then it killed the machine.
Mayanna: And then I point to the arcade machine that's got a giant splitter.
Mischa (Ravonna): This machine here?
Mayanna: Yes, mmhmm.
Bex (Ibra): It went into it first. I didn't just stab the machine or slice the machine out of nowhere. It was in the machine. I swear it was in the machine.
Ian: There was a ghost… in the machine.
Mischa: Hey o!
Mischa: She goes over she says:
Mischa (Ravonna): This one here?
Mischa: And then she reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a baton. Which she presses a button on, and it extends much the same as your naginata, Ibra. She plugs a piece of Astra into the head of it, and twists a dial, and an energy construct of a pickaxe extends from the head of the device. [SFX: electric humming].
Mayanna: Writing all of this down.
Bex: Sick.
Mischa: She says,
Mischa (Ravonna): you’re sure, right here.
Mayanna (Fran): Right here, yep.
Mischa: She swings the pickaxe directly into the floor underneath the split machine. [SFX: thud, wood crunching]. She strikes with the pickaxe a couple of times, like mining into the floor of Boggins, until after the fourth swing, she hits, and the energy construct of the pickaxe head glows a bright orange [SFX: heavy crunch, shimmering chime].
Mayanna: Okay.
Mischa (Ravonna): Okay, great. Fran was it?
Mayanna (Fran): Yep, yep, this me.
Mischa (Ravonna): Are you the owner?
Mayanna (Fran): No no, I'm just, I'm just closing this evening.
Mischa (Ravonna): Okay we're gonna need to get in contact with the owner. We're gonna have to close down this restaurant for a few days.
Mayanna (Fran): Why, why, why, why?
Lyn (JJ): It’s a crime scene.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay..What about the, I mean, but we, like, I work here, like, what about our income? Are we gonna, like, get lost wages? Like, what's the situation with that?
Mischa (Ravonna): I don't know. My supervisor in my department will have to talk to the owner of the restaurant.
Bex: I'm gonna put my hand on Fran's shoulder.
Mayanna (Fran): All right, fine. Okay.
Mischa (Ravonna): I am very sorry for the inconvenience, and my department is on the case now. Thank you so much.
Bex (Ibra): Could we ask what department you're part of? Is that something we're allowed to ask of you? I don't know how this works.
Mischa: She reaches into another pocket of her coat and pulls out a, like, leather bifold and flips it open and you see the same emblem that's on her coat and she says,
Mischa (Ravonna): I'm a special inspector for the governor's office.
Bex (Ibra): It's nice to meet you. Can we go get our stuff from the lockers before the investigation starts? Or…
Mischa: She looks around at the crime scene and looks at you guys, you know, disheveled at best, you know, like, like, in the middle of a battle.
Mayanna: I have cake all over my pants.
Mischa: Yeah, Fran covered in cake a little bit.
Mischa: She looks you over and says:
Mischa (Ravonna): The four of you handled the situation here?
Lyn (JJ): Yes.
Mayanna (Fran): In about 30 seconds, might I add.
Lyn (JJ): It happened really fast.
Bex (Ibra): Yeah. 24, if I remember correctly.
Mayanna (Fran): Pretty efficient.
Lyn (JJ): You have a really keen sense of time.
Bex (Ibra): I like, I'm good at battle time.
Mischa: Ibra, will you roll a persuasion check with advantage? I'm gonna roll something for Ravonna.
Bex (Ibra): Dirty 20.
Mischa: Wow, yeah. She says:
Mischa (Ravonna): You have stuff in the locker rooms, I imagine?
Mayanna (Fran): We work here.
Mischa (Ravonna): Okay, be quick about it.
Lyn (JJ): Thank you.
Mischa (Ravonna): Try not to disturb any place you found contact with the breach incident. Please try to disturb as minimally as possible, but yeah, go ahead.
Lyn (JJ): Inspector, are we in any continuing danger from this?
Mischa: She looks at the head of her pickaxe [SFX: glimmering chime] and she says,
Mischa (Ravonna): No, but the restaurant is closed until my personnel and I can finish our work.
Bex (Ibra): JJ, let's go clear out the lockers.
Mayanna (Fran): Yeah, I'm gonna go clear out my locker too.
Lyn (JJ): I don’t work here-
Bex (Ibra): Just come with us.
Lyn (JJ): Okay.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay. Ibra, what department do you work in again?
Bex (Ibra): We work in the magistrate in labor.
Mayanna (Fran): Did they teach you how to handle all the shit you were just handling?
Bex (Ibra): No, but they did sort of ask us if we knew of four people who could.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay.
Bex (Ibra): And…
Lyn (JJ): Was it four? Did they specifically instruct four?
Bex (Ibra): Oh, they didn't instruct, but they did specifically ask to find a couple that could.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay…
Bex (Ibra): I don't understand everything that's going on, but things are feeling related, and I JJ, you're smarter than I am. Could this be connected?
Lyn (JJ): I mean, it's a lot of coincidence to be stacked up on each other. I mean, the dreams, the assignments, this…
Mayanna (Fran): My bigger question is, you seem to have, like, a lot of combat training.
Bex (Ibra): Yeah.
Lyn (JJ): And what kind of physical education does the Constellation have?
Bex (Ibra): It’s less what the Constellation has and more what my family has.
Mayanna (Fran): Are they, like, doomers or something?
Bex (Ibra): Worse. They're government and military.
Mayanna (Fran): Yeah, that is worse. That's way worse.
Bex (Ibra): So, my mom was really, really high ranking military during the war, and because of that, I have been trained since birth. I—I was sort of—okay—
Lyn (JJ): This makes—Oh, you're a military brat!
Bex: Yeah, I've been training since I was basically born. I'm pretty sure they selected some of my genes to be better at it than other genes, but like, that's a whole other thing.
Mayanna (Fran): Whaaat?
Bex (Ibra): I haven't told you exactly everything about the chaos of my family.
Mayanna (Fran): Yeah. I thought you had like, I don't know, annoying siblings or something, not this military gene pool thing.
Lyn (JJ): I thought maybe you just had like celiac.
Bex (Ibra): Well, I mean, no, that's Paz, but—
Mayanna (Fran) and Lyn (JJ): Oh, right, right.
Bex (Ibra): I just like to eat what Paz eats because it tastes good.
Ian: Right at that moment, I kick the double doors of the kitchen open and I come in with a steaming hot, like, Neapolitan style pizza that I threw together from ingredients in the kitchen.
Mayanna (Fran): I'm starving.
Ian: And I go, oh, and I'm, I'm, I'm walking out.
Ian (Gordon): Hey guys, you want some pizza?
Lyn (JJ): Yes.
Bex (Ibra): Yes.
Mayanna: I immediately eat a slice of pizza.
Mischa: Can I just throw a detail in here? That, like, it cooked abnormally fast because you have chemical reagents that turn bread into bombs. So you, like, like, flash burnt the bread with, like, alchemical reagents.
Mayanna: Wow, this pizza’s the bomb!
Ian: 100%.
Mischa: Five party points for Mayanna.
Ian: What?! What?! I’ve been doing that all session!
Bex: Yeah, but you have the bombs.
Ian: Okay, it's fine. I'm just gonna mark them down so that I know who's got points.
Mischa: Party points are worth nothing and cannot be redeemed for anything.
Ian: Well, guess what? I'm keeping track of them now.
Mischa: Alright, mark it down.
Bex (Ibra): Yeah, I—
Lyn (JJ): We can get into that later.
Bex (Ibra): I would rather talk about it later, yeah.
Lyn (JJ): But we've spent a lot of time in this locker room.
Mayanna (Fran): Yeah, we should. Yeah. They're probably going to—
Lyn (JJ): Yeah.
Mayanna (Fran): Should we bring a slice for the, for the lady?
Lyn (JJ): Inspector? Oh, maybe the inspector will want a slice of pizza.
Bex: Oh, the specter inspector!
Lyn (JJ): Oh, in-specter.
Bex (Ibra): Okay, we should leave before she hears the joke.
Mayanna (Fran): Yeah, we should, we should. Okay.
Mayanna: I grab all the rest of my stuff. I'm like so mad that I don't know where my next paychecks are going to be coming from.
[SFX: more relaxed, thoughtful, piano music begins].
Mischa: Yeah.
Mayanna: I’m really, really stressed about that.
Mischa: Yeah.
Mayanna: I’m not saying that, but that's like, I'm, I'm pissed that that's the situation.
Mischa: Absolutely.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Bex (Ibra): Here’s the thing. We got a request this morning. JJ and I got a request this morning for us to find someone who can fill a new job.
Mayanna (Fran): Is this about that personality quiz you asked us about last time?
Bex (Ibra): Yeah, I think you just passed it.
Lyn (JJ): I think we all just passed it.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay. It's like a temp type thing?
Lyn (JJ): We’re not sure, but you think really well on your feet.
Mayanna (Fran): Thank you.
Lyn (JJ): You’re, you adapted a lot in this moment.
Mayanna (Fran): I’m a server.
Bex (Ibra): Yeah, but like you threw things that had no business being thrown.
Lyn (JJ): Yeah, you served.
Bex (Ibra): And we learned things from it.
Mayanna (Fran): Thank you!
Ian (Gordon): And you took copious notes.
Mayanna (Fran): I did.
Lyn (JJ): And that was, that was really brave. That was really courageous.
Bex (Ibra): And that was unknown. That was the face of the dangerous unknown.
Mayanna (Fran): Fair. Okay.
Bex (Ibra): So… and JJ, you, you passed.
Lyn (JJ): I don't know what came over me. I don't, I don't know what that was.
Bex (Ibra): It was cool.
Lyn (JJ): Thank you. I might barf.
Bex (Ibra): And Gordon!
Ian (Gordon): What about me, you guys?
Bex (Ibra): You made a bomb out of a muffin!
Ian: That’s true!
Bex (Ibra): And it healed someone!
Mayanna (Fran): Do that!
Lyn (JJ): You did like the smartest thing and actually disconnected the electricity.
Ian (Gordon): Yeah! Aw, thanks you guys! I thought I was going to be left out of this compliment session.
Bex (Ibra): No, man!
Lyn (JJ): I'm pretty sure that probably would have gone a lot worse if you didn't do that.
Bex (Ibra): For sure.
Ian (Gordon): And I make a killer pizza, you know?
Lyn (JJ): That’s great.
Mayanna (Fran): And you sliced a machine all the way open.
Lyn (JJ): Yeah, that was bananas.
Bex (Ibra): That was pretty wild. I have never used the naginata like that before. Like that, that was, that was a cool feeling.
Mayanna (Fran): That was really cool. We should probably go.
Lyn (JJ): We need to but, at the very least we can report this back to Gwen, in general. Huh? I feel like…
Lyn: And then I now briefly remember the fact that there was a huge bridge collapse earlier this morning. I was like,
Lyn (JJ): Oh my God, I need to, I need to message my dads!
Mayanna (Fran): Because you survived an attack from a ghost?
Lyn (JJ): …that too!
Ian (Gordon): Well, if I'm being honest, I don't really want to go back to my apartment alone after being attacked by a ghost.
Mayanna (Fran): You could stay with me? I have an apartment nearby.
Bex (Ibra): We could go to campus.
Lyn (JJ): We could go to campus and then we've got dorms. We can.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay.
Bex (Ibra): Yeah.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay. Sleepover.
All: Sleepover! Sleepover!
Ian: Cool.
Mayanna: I grab a to go box to put the rest of the pizza in.
Lyn (JJ): Oh, wait. Leave a slice for the inspector.
Mayanna (Fran): Of course. Yes, yes, yes.
Mayanna: I’m gonna put that one on a little plate and bring it out to the inspector, who's presumably still outside.
Mischa: Yeah. She puts away her texting device. She's texting someone else in her department, you know. She puts that away and she's like:
Mischa (Ravonna): Is that pizza?
Mayanna (Fran): Mm hmm.
Mischa: She, she holds it and she's like:
Mischa (Ravonna): Oh, it is warm.
Mayanna (Fran): Yeah.
Bex: (Laughing) She’s a lizard.
Ian: Oh, God. That's, that's a party point for Mischa.
Mischa: Hey! I'm on the board!
Bex: That’s so funny.
Mischa: Yeah, she's like,
Mischa (Ravonna): Oh, I, it is really late in the torpor setting and I, I really appreciate this.
Mayanna (Fran): Yeah, of course.
Mischa (Ravonna): Thank you. Um. Did you get, did you clear out everything you needed? We really need to shut down the site now.
Mayanna (Fran): Yeah. All right. Fine.
Lyn (JJ): Will you be in contact with us at all for any follow ups or?
Mischa (Ravonna): Sure.
Mischa: And she pulls out a calling card and hands it to you. It just, it, it's just like very simple. It just says, “Ravonna, Inspector– Special Inspector, Governor's Office.”
Mayanna: Okay.
Mischa: And then she says,
Mischa (Ravonna): All right. Get home safe.
Mayanna (Fran): Thanks, we will.
Lyn (JJ): Thank you. Cecilia, will you be okay You'll I don't want to assume that you wouldn't be okay after—Oh god, okay, let me do that again.
Mayanna (Fran): You got this. You got this.
Mischa (Cecilia): You got this. Hey. Hey. JJ?
Lyn (JJ): Yeah?
Mischa (Cecilia): You can do this.
Lyn (JJ): Thanks. Cecilia, thank you for getting everyone to safety. I'm glad that you're okay. Will you be okay getting home?
Mischa (Cecilia): Yeah, it’s—I’ll…I’ll be fine getting home as long as I don't get, I don't know, accosted by ghosts in the street. Is that a thing that happens now?
Mayanna (Fran): I guess so?
Lyn (JJ): I don’t know.
Mayanna: I think as we're leaving the building I also like, Look at the axe, the pickaxe one more time, and I also look at like, the giant gaping hole in the floor as we leave because I'm just like, so, like, floored by the idea that yeah, there's like ghosts in the grid. I guess? Yeah.
Mayanna (Fran): Do you wanna come with us too? Are you feeling safe?
Mischa (Cecilia): I think I'm just gonna go home.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay.
Mayanna: I give her a little hug.
Mischa (Cecilia): Thanks. I just… are you gonna be okay?
Mayanna (Fran): I am out of a job for several days and I am—there’s a ghost, so, no! But I'll be okay. I think. Maybe. Somehow.
Mischa (Cecilia): It's hard to feel safe when there's ghosts that could attack anywhere randomly.
Mayanna (Fran): Yep. In the electric city? Yeah.
Mischa: And she, she starts walking towards, you know, a bike station or like, some transit. And she gets a little ways down the sidewalk and turns back and is like:
Mischa (Cecilia): Hey Fran?
Mayanna (Fran): Yeah?
Mischa (Cecilia): I don't think I'm going to tell anyone about this.
Mayanna (Fran): I think that makes sense.
Mischa (Cecilia): Okay.
Mayanna (Fran): That makes sense. I don't think I'm going to tell anybody else about this.
Mischa (Cecilia): Cool.
Mayanna (Fran): You're leaving for a couple days, right?
Mischa (Cecilia): Yeah.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay.
Mischa (Cecilia): (Whispering to herself) Could ghosts attack the funicular?
Mischa: And she, like, walks off kind of muttering to herself, scaredly.
Mayanna: Oh, poor Cecilia. And I remember because she told me that she's scared all the time. Last, last time, so, that I feel very sad that this is just another thing for her to be worried about right now.
Mischa: Exactly. Samira stands up and like her hands are shaking a little bit and she's like:
Mischa (Samira): So… I'm going to be awake for the next three days. So if you're up late at night, text me.
Mayanna (Fran): Do you want to come with us? Do you want to crash with us?
Bex (Ibra): I've got a suite, there's room.
Mischa (Samira): Oh my god, I totally forgot you're rich as hell.
Lyn (JJ): Oh, I, I forgot. I was really trying to plan the layout in my apartment.
Bex (Ibra): Oh no, I was inviting all of you over to mine.
Lyn (JJ): Oh.
Ian: I was inviting all of you over to mine! No, that's not true. I live in a closet.
Mischa (Samira): Yeah, that sounds… Yeah, that sounds great.
Bex (Ibra): Deep breaths. Slow breaths.
Mayanna (Fran): Come with us, let's go to… your place?
Mischa (Samira): You guys are like scary competent. I talk a big game.
Lyn (JJ): Don't, no, don't say that. Come on.
Lyn: I just, like, hold out my arm. I was like:
Lyn (JJ): Let’s go.
Mischa: She holds your arm, and then, like, as you walk off towards Ibra's apartment, kind of, like, sneakily, like, pokes your bicep a little bit. Yeah, you get back to Ibra's apartment. [SFX: door squeaks open]. Samira as soon as you walk in the door, Samira's like,
Mischa (Samira): Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go lie down. I'll see you guys in the morning. And then, like, wanders off into a room.
Bex (Ibra): She's gonna sleep in the laundry? Okay.
Lyn (JJ): She can actually sleep anywhere. It's one of her special skills. She did that all the time growing up.
Ian: I immediately walk into the kitchen and like start opening cupboards and find coffee, or like, tea.
Mischa: Sure. It’s like night.
Ian: Yeah, so I'm brewing like a calming cup of a calming pot of ginger hibiscus tea with lemon.
Bex (Ibra): Smells good.
Mayanna (Fran): It does.
Bex (Ibra): Whatcha doing?
Ian (Gordon): Oh, just helps me think.
Mischa: Hold on one second. I'm looking up the mechanics of something.
Ian: Oh, great.
Mischa: You all gained two temporary HP.
Ian: I don't even ask, but I like open your fridge and I'm pulling out eggs and stuff. I'm just like whipping together little scallion cheese omelettas—like the mini omelettes. [SFX: dishes clinking, steam sizzling on a pan].
Bex: Eggs are good for any time. But also—
Lyn: You need the protein.
Bex: My, my health is down. Yes. I think I've got like, just a little bit of a crusty, like, that just itches a little bit, and I'm not even noticing it.
Mayanna (Fran): Can I dab it? I'll just like dab it. Yeah. It's dripping.
Bex (Ibra): Oh.
Mayanna (Fran): Did you not feel that?
Bex (Ibra): Oh, I—I did, but it's been a while, so now it's, now it's just weird, like, texture. It's like scabby.
Mayanna (Fran): That makes sense.
Mischa: I wouldn't worry about HP too much, we're gonna long rest.
Lyn: Can I do a flavor even though we're about to long rest?
Mischa: Okay, sure.
Lyn: I'd like to use my channel divinity, Balm of Peace.
Mischa. Okay.
Lyn: This normally is an in combat thing, but I'm using it out of combat.
Mischa: Okay.
[SFX: low, calming music begins].
Lyn: As an action, you can move up to your speed without provoking opportunity attacks, and when you move within five feet of any other creature during this action, you can restore 2d6 plus 3 hit points to that creature. A creature can receive this healing only once whenever you take this action.
Mischa: Whoa!
Lyn: So I think like as you're dabbing Ibra's head, I will also approach just like with the feeling of like camaraderie, but also like, these are my friends. I'm like, we were in danger and now that we're out of danger, I want to help and just kinda like in the spirit of alleviating the anxiety that we're all feeling is like,
Lyn (JJ): You okay, bud?
Bex (Ibra): Yeah, thanks. I feel better.
Lyn: It would be max. Not actually max, but you would regain to max.
Ian: So around the counter. I feel like we're standing around a counter—I think we're sitting.
Mayanna: Yeah, kitchen island vibes.
Ian: Yeah, I'm at I bring this conversation up to us, but it really I'm secretly asking our team. This ghost.
Mischa: Sure.
Ian: Or rather the war that was fought recently, semi recently, right? Like the war is how long ago?
Mischa: Yeah, about 60 years before, a little under 60 years before our campaign, the world was at war against these angry beasts that drove civilization to like the brink of existence. And the war was ended in one big move. The war was ended, the tides turned, those things were eradicated entirely. And it sort of left the world to you, to the forces of, you know, not humanity, quote unquote, because we have multiple versions of sentient beings here, but like the forces of civilizations triumphed. And in the 60 years since this city has become the city that it is.
Ian: So that's recent history. So we all must know all of that information.
Mischa: Yeah, I mean, in fact, like, I don't think any of you would have known a world where the war was happening, but I think, probably, at the very least, JJ's parents possibly, Ibra's parents probably?
Bex: Probably.
Mischa: So, you know JJ's parents have a slightly longer lifespan, they're half dwarves. Ibra's parents…Ibra’s parents…
Bex: They’re wealthy enough to live longer than they ever should.
Mischa: Right. So they're, they're humans, but they're sort of like artificially extending their lifespans a little bit with their resources.
Ian: And Gordon's parents?
Mischa: We haven't talked a lot about Gordon's parents. I would probably say since you and Fran are humans, maybe your grandparents were alive during the war.
Mayanna: Yeah. So they would talk about it and I was kind of like disinterested, but like I did receive a version of the information.
Lyn: We had to learn about in our history classes.
Ian: So the reason I'm asking is because that war was fought definitively against beasts, not ghosts.
Mischa: Correct. The history lessons and like, what everybody knows, they were beasts. And these are not beasts.
Ian: Yes.
Mischa: I don't know if you can even tell what they are.
Ian: Yeah, yeah, right right right.
Bex: Goo with electricity!
[SFX: suspenseful, thoughtful music begins].
Mayanna: Can I roll for investigation with the information I've learned to see if I can glean any way that I could add some sort of type of Astra thing to my bullets?
Mischa: So Fran, you're a craftsman.
Mayanna: Mm hmm.
Mischa: More so than most other classes in Dungeons and Dragons, I would say. You're about spending your downtime creating and modifying items. I have to imagine that the Craftsman rules include a way to make your weapon into a magical weapon.
Mayanna: Yeah, I think there is.
Mischa: So I don't think you need to roll for that, is what I'm saying. I think, like, you already have the mechanics.
Mayanna: Yeah, I have all the notes I took, I have my gun. Yeah. And I think while you guys are talking, I'm just kind of quietly, like, detaching pieces and like—
Lyn (JJ): Do you want some textbooks to help you with that?
Mayanna (Fran): Do you have textbooks? Aren't you like—Yes, absolutely. Thank you.
Lyn: Just like multiple engineering textbooks.
Mayanna: Yes, like while we're chatting on the kitchen island, like, I'm just I rolled out, like, my little tool belt, I have, like, my little work mat. And I'm just, like, whittling away at my gun. Like, I never want to be in a situation again where, like, I'm caught off guard without a magic situation.
Mischa: I don't know if as an apprentice craftsman, magical is one of the tags available to you. It's the beginning of the campaign. Y'all are level two.
Mayanna: So maybe I'm remembering what I saw. I'm like looking at the components that I have. And I think I'm just going to try to like, like basically just like try to stick a piece of Astra to a bullet and see what happens. And obviously nothing.
Mischa: So here's a question then. Thorgunn Boomslaang, your mentor.
Ian: Worst name I ever came up with.
Mischa: It’s so good though.
Ian: I really stuck us with that last name.
Mischa: It’s excellent. He was the pioneer of a, like, liquid power source. Like an alternate power source to solid Astra crystals. He used little vials of liquid.
Mayanna: I'd like to liquid dip a bullet, please.
[Cheers].
Ian: Shit just got real!
Mischa: I love that.
Mayanna: Like, cause I, I presume at some point, he has given me at least one vial of this liquid magical component that I've held on to for some reason.
Mischa: Yeah.
Lyn: Please tell me you're wearing safety equipment.
Mayanna: Yeah, of course.
Lyn: Eye protection.
Ian: She's got gloves.
Mischa: You dip some of your bullets in the liquid magic source and I think if you still, if you want this to be your like craftsman crafting for the next day, here's what I would love to trade you. I think that we can add your first apprentice masterwork tag to your weapon.
Mayanna: Hooray!
Mischa: I think you dip the bullets and then they come out with sort of like a pearlescent sheen across the shell [SFX: shimmery chime] and you load it into your gun and, well, probably not in the apartment.
Mayanna: Yeah.
Mischa: Where do you go?
Mayanna: I think I'll, do you have a balcony of some sort?
Ian: Just firing off some balcony shots.
Mayanna (Fran): I think, like, do you have, do you have any potted plants you don't care about?
Ian: Jesus Christ!
Bex (Ibra): Yeah, actually. My sibling got me this one and it's kind of dying.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay, perfect.
Mayanna: So I'm going to just put it on a little coffee table on the balcony and I'm going to just shoot it. I'm going to shoot the pot.
Mischa: As you're about to shoot it, Samira opens the thing, like,
Mischa (Samira): Hey girl, do you have some mouthwash?
Mischa: And it throws off your concentration. You like turn and you fire the bullet [SFX: chime], but it curves and still hits the thing [SFX: clay pot breaking]. Oh, I think you can add the tag “sighted” to your weapon. The properties of sighted are it's normal range increases by 50 feet, it's long range also increases by 50 feet, and this weapon has a disadvantage on attack rolls made against targets within 20 feet of you.
Mayanna: Woah.
Mischa: Yeah, so now it's harder to hit something close to you with your gun, but it increases the range of it.
Mayanna: Amazing.
Lyn: It makes it a sniper essentially.
Mischa: Yeah, it makes it into a sniper.
Mayanna: So the bullet just kind of like goes to the pot regardless?
Mischa: It bends slightly towards your intended target.
Mayanna: Amazing.
Mischa: The way I want you to think about this is that you've coated these bullets in magical conductive material. And magic works based on intentions and your intention when you fire a gun is to hit something. So you have bullets that now can hit things slightly further away
Mayanna: Incredible. Thank you so much.
Mischa: What a cool system this craftsman thing.
Mayanna: I’m so excited to show this to Thorgunn. He's gonna be so proud of me. I don't know yet. Someday, I'll find out.
Lyn (JJ): Is there a phone in your apartment?
Bex: There's a landline in the bedroom, so that my parents can always reach me at any time of night.
Mischa: Oof. Big oof for me over here.
Ian: That's a major oof.
Bex (Ibra): Unfortunately, yes, I do.
Lyn (JJ): May I borrow it for a bit?
Bex (Ibra): Anytime. Please.
Lyn: Cool. I'd like to call my house? My parents? My house?
Ian: Phone a friend?
Lyn: Phone a dad?
Mischa: So your tay picks up.
Mischa (JJ’s dad): JJ, how are you doing? Are you okay?
Lyn (JJ): I've, short answer: mostly.
Mischa (JJ’s dad): Okay, is, is there anything, you know, your father and I, we were down at the worksite all day.
Lyn (JJ): Yeah, how, what, how bad was it?
Mischa (JJ’s dad): Oh my goodness, so many things, there were collapsed bridge columns and debris strewn everywhere, we had to—
Mischa: and he sort of like, goes off, and like starts telling you about his day.
Lyn: There's part that's just like I kind of relax with it. I'm just like, Oh, okay.
Mischa: And then I think probably like 20 minutes pass of him just sort of describing and there's even things like:
Mischa (JJ’s dad): Oh, and you know this person was not paying attention so the dig pile slid down this way, and oh, it was a mess to clean up. Oh! But you, you are doing okay?
Lyn (JJ): Yeah… thanks. Some stuff happened. I don’t… You work in electrical mostly, right?
[SFX: suspenseful music begins].
Mischa (JJ’s dad): Yes.
Lyn (JJ): Are ghosts normal?
Mischa (JJ’s dad): My darling, you said ghosts?
Lyn (JJ): Yes. Ghosts.
Mischa (JJ’s dad): I don't think ghosts are normal….
Lyn (JJ): Okay, great. That answers my question.
Mischa (JJ’s dad): Okay?
Lyn (JJ): Love you. Good night. Bye.
Ian: Hang up. Click. Hard click.
Mayanna: My darling. I don't think ghosts are normal.
Mischa: I think about five minutes later, your dad texts you.
Mischa (JJ’s dad): Hey, hon. Everything all right?
Lyn (JJ): Yep… J chillin….?
[Laughter].
Mischa: J Chlllin!?
Mayanna: JJ Chillin!
Bex (Ibra): JJ Chillin!
Lyn (JJ): love you, bye!
Mayanna: Oh my god!
Bex: Aw, you text like you talk.
Mischa: I’m still, like, I completely froze on “J Chillin.” I cannot get off of that. Okay!
Lyn: And then, like, a minute later it just goes,
Lyn (JJ): Sorry, with friends right now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I love you bye!
Mischa: You get back a thumbs up emoticon.
Lyn: Great. That's so funny. Perfect. So good.
Mayanna (Fran): Gordon, how are you feeling now that you've been cooking for a little bit?
Ian (Gordon): Feeling pretty good.
Mischa: Yeah?
Ian (Gordon): Yeah, except I've used all of the ingredients in your kitchen. I'm sorry.
Bex (Ibra): Oh, that's, that's okay. I get a new grocery delivery in three days.
Mayanna: Oh my god!
Ian: Then I just, I'm like, I'm just staring at you.
Ian (Gordon): You just get them all delivered?
Mayanna (Fran): To your house?
Bex (Ibra): I've got this whole thing where like, they want to take control of my diet from the doctor's office. So if I've, I've made a deal where if they send me the food that they want me to be eating, I'll eat it, but otherwise I'm eating what I want to eat.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay. Who’s they?
Bex (Ibra): The doctors.
Mayanna (Fran): So like plural doctors?
[SFX: suspenseful music begins].
Bex (Ibra): Well there there's one that I see, but there's like a whole panel that he answers to. I’m…
Lyn (JJ): you can have more than one doctor?
Mayanna (Fran): You do. You do realize, like, I've worked with you for a while now and this has somehow never come up?
Bex (Ibra): Yeah. I don't, I think Paz is the only person who I've told about it.
Mayanna (Fran): Does Paz also have multiple doctors?
Bex (Ibra): Paz, Paz just has health issues. I have multiple doctors because I'm a science experiment.
Ian (Gordon): Is that what all this is for?
Ian: And then I pull up a Tupperware that is just full of pills of various colors and forms. [SFX: plastic rattling].
Mayanna: Oh. My god.
Bex (Ibra): Huh. That would be that. Those are… those are a lot of supplements and vitamins. [SFX: plastic rattling].
Ian: I shake it, it just, like the rattling is so many vials.
Mayanna (Fran): So you're like some kind of super soldier?
Lyn (JJ): The math does add up to that with what you've told us in the past two hours.
Bex (Ibra): I guess I could be… yeah.
Mayanna (Fran): You didn't know about this either, JJ?
Lyn (JJ): No, I just thought that, you know, rich health nut.
Mayanna (Fran): You guys like work together?
Lyn (JJ): You like granola or something.
Mayanna (Fran): I guess, yeah, that’s fair.
Bex (Ibra): I mean, like, I, you know how I don't get along with my parents great, but I still see them every week?
Mayanna (Fran): Mhmm. Mhmm.
Bex (Ibra): They sort of signed away my, my health information. In order to have me exist. So I'm technically made of Astra.
All: What?!
Bex (Ibra): Yeah. That's why I've only told Paz. My siblings and I are the first. I don't actually know if there have been any other after us, but that's kind of why they signed our information away, so that we could figure out if it's viable to have more children created from Astra, for people who can't have their own. And my parents, are way too old to have their own. Even with the enhancements and accommodations. So, they had to create me, and my siblings.
Mayanna (Fran): Like a, like a test tube baby?
Bex (Ibra): Yeah, yeah.
Mayanna (Fran): Okay you do understand that that sounds…insane right?
Bex (Ibra): Yeah, like it's so fun.
Lyn (JJ): Sounds like fun.
Mayanna (Fran): It sounds terrible.
Lyn (JJ): Yeah. No, it sounds really bad. That sounds not good. Yeah.
Mayanna (Fran): Oh. Okay. You got any food I can eat, Gordon?
Ian (Gordon): I made a giant casserole.
Mayanna (Fran): Great! I'm gonna just chomp on casserole, cause this is breaking my brain right now.
Mischa: Yeah, you—Gordon plunks down a big ol casserole dish, Samira's already in another room sleeping, I think the four of you just kind of like all take forks into the casserole dish and just sit around it kind of silently eating. And once it's done, and once you guys have eaten your fill, it's, it's just kind of like an awkward air of silence, but it's getting late.
Mayanna: I think I'm gonna just grab the blanket from the couch and, and meander towards the guest room.
Ian: Dragging behind you, slow, like you're wearing the blanket like a cape.
Mayanna: Yes. Yeah, exactly.
Ian: And it's just dragging.
Mayanna: Exactly.
Mischa: Like, some kind of depowered version of your showstopper cloak, just pulling it around you hoping this blanket has the same kind of protection?
Mayanna: Yes. My world is rocked. Yeah.
Bex: Ibra goes and checks all the doors and windows, the locks, twice before going into the bedroom and leaving that door open.
Lyn: I think I'll, at some point, pull Samira out of the laundry room and at least try and set up like on the couch with her and be like don’t….
Mischa: Roll persuasion.
Mayanna: Nice.
Ian: Yeah, my bet is that door is locked. [Dice rolls].
Lyn: 2.
Mischa: Trying to get any dwarf but especially Samira to give up her sleeping location is like trying to wake a stone.
Lyn: Fine. I Do the thing that we've always done, which is I just curl up next to her. I make a better pile of the clothing. I'm like,
Lyn (JJ): Oh, you always, there are towels, right? Use the towels.
Bex: There’s like four stacks of clean sheets right next to where she is.
Mischa: You all sort of make your sleep spots and attempt to get some rest after a very long day. And the apartment is dark. This is like a nicer apartment. So it's kind of higher up in the building, the lights of the city. feel a little further away, and I think there's a little while where all four of you lay in bed and wait for another weird dream to hit you. But fortunately tonight, none does.
All: Yay!
Mischa: But we'll see what the next day brings. Because, at this point, it really could be anything.
[Theme music begins].
Mischa: The Wandering Path was created by me, Misha 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.
Mischa: We're so grateful for anything you can do to help us keep making this show. Thanks for wandering with us. Till next time!
[Theme music fades out].