Avery/GM: Welcome to episode 32 of Beyond the Furthest Stars.
(Intro plays then fades down, ambience fades in)
Avery/GM: So we're back in Avi Winston's private office/quarters. Y'all have only seen the office area and the waiting area. It's all very done up, very, you know… Make it look… makes it look like she may be some sort of diplomat or something. Anyway, she has just projected an image of a space station, which looks like several different ships that are all linked together onto this Holo-projector board and has asked Zahn specifically to go home.
Zach/Zahn: So Zahn like slowly starts like walking towards the projector and is like staring at the projection of New Terra. And he's like, he taps the side of his helmet and it like decompresses or whatever, and it actually shows his face. And he is like, pale, like more pale than he normally is. He's like seeing a ghost pale and he turns to Avi and he's like, that is the worst possible idea in the entire formation of the universe. Why the hell would you want to go to New Terror?
Avery/GM: Oh, it's not that bad. It's improved quite a bit since you left. And then she smiles. Sarcastically.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, I only kept up on news about New Terror for obvious reasons, as the entire society collapsed, and anyone who goes into that sector doesn't come out. There's a reason why it's been blacklisted. Like, there's nothing there.
Avery/GM: That's true. There's no resources there, and the people there probably can't offer any actual... material support in a lot of ways, but that vessel came from the same galaxy that the IASO program comes from. It stands to reason that there might be some sort of countermeasure on board.
Avery/GM: And Lapis pipes up and says, in fact, I've, I've seen it. I know exactly what it's called.
Zach/Zahn: Seen what?
Avery/GM: In a vision. I, I know what the program is called. The program is called the Epios And it can act as a neutralizing agent against the IASO program. I don't know all of the details, but it seems that this program has been being developed in the core of this space station for the past Several years by some of the scientists that have still survived and if you bring it I think we can use it to defend Ithaca and any other systems that the hegemony decide to target.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris kind of looks at Lapis and Avi and then looks over at Zahn and says if you don't want to go there I mean this program is important in all but we can talk to the custodians about the IASO program and it's an origin and possibly come up with a copy To counteract it, I mean.
Avery/GM: Oh, you may be able to do that. I don't, that is a factor I hadn't seen in any of the visions that we had been given. But, I suppose it's always possible. Where are these custodians? Space.
Zach/Zahn: Space. Zahn puts his hands on his hips and he looks down, and he looks like this. He like, glances at the, the hologram again, and he's like, No, if anyone is to be able to come up with literally a planet life saver program, it would be there.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris like holds up his glass, like waves it back and forth and says, yay.
Avery/GM: Well, y'all don't have to give an answer yet why don't you come on down to the dinner hall? Dinner is about to be served. I did invite you for a meal, and it would be very rude of me to not actually hold up that end of the bargain.
Bee/Polaris: Is it not customary to have the meal first and then drop the bad news?
Avery/GM: Oh no, business first and then fun. That's the Winston Way.
Bee/Polaris: Okay, sure. Polaris looks over at Bruce and asks, Bruce, do you know anything about this?
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will shrug and just be like, If Zahn wants to. I mean, I'm not too sure what we get out of this, other than, what, what do we get out of this? I thought me helping you repaid our miscalculation of accidentally killing Winston.
Avery/GM: Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't misunderstand. This is not a demand. This is not me giving you an order, you can walk away anytime, no questions asked. I'm actually offering to hire you for this job. As your friend, Ollie knows I have quite a bit of money available. So name your price.
Bee/Polaris: Name your price. Give us the mansion. Give us the Winston fortune!
Chris/Ollie: Space mansion.
Zach/Zahn: Put down a lot of zeros.
Chris/Ollie: We did want a space station.
Caden/Bruce:
Bee/Polaris: we can drift the space station!
Zach/Zahn: We were going to steal a space station.
Bee/Polaris: We were going to steal a space station. We were going to work our way up. It's kind of like grinding XP.
Avery/GM: And you may not want this space station.
Bee/Polaris: ooo, Yeah, we don't want this space station.
Zach/Zahn: It's like 200 year old plus.
Bee/Polaris: That's a pretty old space station. Well, I mean, in terms of space, it's not really that old. Time is relative.
Zach/Zahn: True, I don't know how old it is in Milky Way years, but it arrived here 200 years ago.
Avery/GM: Wibbly wobbly timey wimey, it's fine.
Chris/Ollie: But when you say it's like an amalgamation of ships, is it like old and busted, like obviously like duct taped together? Or is it like, oh no, this is professionally done, you know?
Avery/GM: We're talking like the Zords.
Chris/Ollie: Okay.
Avery/GM: Like Power Rangers Zords, like, linking together.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, like Voltron
Avery/GM: well Except instead of a fighting robot, it's a space station.
Chris/Ollie: Or it's like
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Or it's like the Ro It's just RoboMaid from Spaceballs?
Zach/Zahn: It's docked together by, like, like The, the docking tubes that come off of ships to like dock with like other ships. So it's just tubes together.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, it kind of looks like a McDonald's Playhouse.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah!
Avery/GM: But Polaris has, has presented an alternate opportunity.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah I still haven’t talked to my Robot parents. After storming out.
Chris/Ollie: We probably should, even if we're gonna go to New Terror.
Avery/GM: Lapis says, well, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go downstairs and check on the progress of the meal. You know, feel free to join us, Avi, and the rest of you whenever you're ready. And Lapis leaves the room.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris, when, when she says, Name your price, Polaris is like, oh, like, actually…. And it would just be like a smartass. Yeah, just fund everything that we do.
Avery/GM: A line of, a line of credit?
Chris/Ollie: Just get sponsored to have a big Winston, like, decal on the side of the ship.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah!
Bee/Polaris: Oh my god, and then when Violet finds us.
Chris/Ollie: We're like, hey! Some, some funny things happened.
Bee/Polaris: It wasn't us. These are not the people you're looking for.
Caden/Bruce: This all being said, what if we did name a price as in money, but then also named the price of getting them to make sure that Violet backs off of us? That would solve two problems. Well, it would solve the main problem, but then also give us more money.
Bee/Polaris: Are you saying this in character?
Caden/Bruce: Yes.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris puts his hand on his chin and the loading emoji comes up on his visor. He looks over at Avi, who is still in the room?
Avery/GM: Mm hmm. And she's just looking at you with a smile on her face. And in response to what Bruce said, she is just like, I think that could be arranged… Yeah, and she starts typing away at like a little computer that's at her desk and she flips the monitor around to show a picture of the ship model that you have. She's like, this is your ship model, right?
Bee/Polaris: No, there's a dent on the wing right there and he like points at the screen.
Avery/GM: Oh, thank you. Yeah. Okay. We'll, we'll get that checked out. Yeah, let me just do, do, do, do, and she's typing away, typing away and ordered. Okay. A duplicate of your ship will be… will be delivered here shortly. And we'll arrange for Violet to have her vengeance.
Bee/Polaris: Wait, have her vengeance. Wait a minute. Does that mean that they're going to put like people in the ship so that she finds bodies?
Avery/GM: Are you asking that in character?
Bee/Polaris: No, Polaris wouldn't care. And our moral backbone is not here to say.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Wouldn't even cross Ollie's mind.
Caden/Bruce: I was gonna say, it wouldn't cross Bruce's mind either.
Avery/GM: I think Marty would say something like that. She'd be like No, I, are you going to Put people on that ship for her to blow up and Avi is just like oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, I wouldn't do that We'll just show her the ship. We'll put some fake lifeline readings aboard and yeah, bing bang boom She'll get her revenge and… and all will be well again, and she has a big smile on her face And she says, I'm sorry, my, my, my, my features sometimes make my smiles look more devious than they are. This is not me being devious.
Bee/Polaris: I was just about to say, Polaris is unsure how to take the fact that a tiger is smiling at him.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, such uncomfort, much wow.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, if there's anything he learned from animal planet, it's that's not a good thing to see Then I think I mean that's good so we got the ship well us being hunted sort of covered
Zach/Zahn: no instead… Instead of animal planet for us. It's fauna galaxy
Chris/Ollie: Fauna Galaxy.
Bee/Polaris: Fauna Galaxy. Yeah, Fauna Galaxy.
Avery/GM: Eh, the custodians came from the same galaxy as Earth. They might have had some bootleg copies, you never know.
Bee/Polaris: Alioth does not care for human entertainment, so no. Oh, you know what? The ship was meant for... anyway.
Chris/Ollie: I can just imagine Bear like in the back though just like watching just tons of old movies.
Avery/GM: Avi stands up and says, well, if that is your price, then I guess our negotiations are done and we can move on to the meal.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris holds up his hand and said, no, no, Bruce said money as well as that.
Avery/GM: Oh… My mistake. Sure. How much would you like to earn from this little adventure?
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will look at Polaris because Bruce does not know at all what to say.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris looks at Zahn and asks, How much would you say emotional distress is worth?
Zach/Zahn: A lot of zeros.
Bee/Polaris: Like, hypothetically, how many?
Zach/Zahn: Five billion.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. 50 billion.
Zach/Zahn: Adds one more zero.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Polaris turns over to Avi and says. 50 billion credits, please.
Avery/GM: Oh, that's cute. You know, I'm not going to spend that much money on this mission.
Zach/Zahn: We'll, we'll take away two zeros. Five hundred million.
Bee/Polaris: Ten million.
Avery/GM: I did just spend a lot of money on a ship to blow up.
Bee/Polaris: We didn't ask you to buy a ship. You could have falsified information that Violet has
Avery/GM: no Violet is Way too clever for that. She has the whole of the Republic military at her disposal.
Bee/Polaris: Isn't that nepotism?.
Avery/GM: Oh, certainly
Bee/Polaris: Okay, cool.
Zach/Zahn: Okay, cool.
Bee/Polaris: I mean. Do we know how much the Winston fortune is worth?
Avery/GM: You do not. I Google it. Well, no, y'all did Google. They are worth trillions of credits across their various business enterprises, assets and cash on hand. Trillions.
Chris/Ollie: Exactly. Like she didn't laugh outright. She said, I'm not going to spend that much money on this mission. So it's like…
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Let's go with this. I will pay you all 100 million credits for this job. Final Offer.
Caden/Bruce: 100 million credits to complete a job? I mean… I’m okay with that.
Bee/Polaris: Fine… Deal.
Avery/GM: Now, Come on, let's go have dinner. My, my uncles are excited to meet you.
Bee/Polaris: Whaaat?
Avery/GM: No, I told them I was having friends over and I never bring friends by so, you know, they just, they get excited about that. Don't worry, they don't know about you and Bryson. All that stuff, so it's gonna be okay.
Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah we’ve been calling him…
Zach/Zahn: Lord Winston.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, we didn't call it
Avery/GM: Yeah, because I mixed up the names in the first couple sessions, so. Yeah. Officially, his name is Bryson Winston. Avi starts walking out of her office.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will follow after everyone else leaves the room, but also type in chat, do we really want to meet more Winstons so they know what we look like? In case we run into any other Winston involved shenanigans.
Chris/Ollie: Oli doesn't really care. But while this has been going on, Oli's been kind of trolling the internet for anything available related to New Terra, or New Terror. How much is there?
Avery/GM: Go ahead and roll a Intelligence know check.
Chris/Ollie: And my Int is still boosted That is… What is that? 17.
Avery/GM: Holy shiza.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, the int boost is so strong. It lasts for like the thing is It's really weird because everything in this game goes by scene, but that lasts for the day Which is really oddly specific, but okay.
Avery/GM: Yeah, it's fine. So, a lot of the information is redacted, or is at first, like, behind, like, security features. As it's all located in, like, Republic Military Archives and stuff like that. But, with that high of a knowledge roll, I'm gonna actually give it to you and say that you... easily find a backdoor way to access these archives, and you learn that a incident occurred on the space station, the details of which are unknown, but that the entire space station's society split into several different factions and eventually resorted to cannibalism when their food replicators stopped working.
Avery/GM: You know that they have been hostile to any Outside presence that tries to enter the system or the station and that because of that the entire region within like three light years A three light year radius around the station has been designated as off limits for all travel routes. Spike Drive pilots are told to avoid this area by any means.
Chris/Ollie: Okay, so I was getting the idea that it was abandoned, but it's like Raiders, pretty much.
Avery/GM: Yeah, some... Some mean, mean cannibals.
Chris/Ollie: What's the, what's the estimated casualty rate?
Zach/Zahn: Heheheheh, all.
Chris/Ollie: All… 99.9%
Avery/GM: Unknown, because there wasn't a census taken of the station by these outside parties. But it is believed that about 90 percent of the population has perished.
Bee/Polaris: You're telling me, you're telling me a bunch of angry cannibals didn't want to take a census?
Avery/GM: Not really big on paperwork.
Zach/Zahn: How do you feel about your government? Take the census.
Avery/GM: Can you, hi, I'm a census worker. Oh God, my arm.
Chris/Ollie: Okay. I was going to post all of that in the chat and say, what a fun adventure this is going to be. And is… get a little, his tail wag and his little happy face on.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will type in chat. Why didn't anyone send help?
Avery/GM: That is not listed. In any of these reports, yeah. So Avi teleports and the rest of you teleport into this hallway and y'all come into this very fancy dining hall. And yeah, as you're coming in through the doorway, you do hear Marty's communicator watch beep.
Avery/GM: And it's weird. Cause you know, normally y'all are just chatting with each other, but this is an outside. communication and she takes a look at it and scrolls through and just says I'm sorry guys Oswald has an emergency back at the Institute is actually asking for my help which is you know interesting do you mind if I go help out real quick and then I'll meet you back as soon as I can
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is conflicted because normally he would go with to escort but And also Bully Nerd, but because this is Marty's not here and we need to get her out of the scene, please just thumbs up.
Avery/GM: Okay, thanks. He'll be here shortly, so I'm gonna go wait out front for him, okay?
Chris/Ollie: Okay. I'll save some food for you.
Avery/GM: Thumbs up on visor.
Bee/Polaris: By eating it and storing it in your tiny little stomach?
Chris/Ollie: Yup.
Avery/GM: And Bruce, she turns to you before leaving, hands you a medpack and says, In case you need it, here's a medpack. You know how to use this, right?
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will nod, even though he has... Well, no, I think he would have some sort of knowledge on how to do medpacks. He worked in a kitchen.
Avery/GM: Oh yeah, especially traveling all by yourself all the time.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah, definitely.
Avery/GM: You gotta know how to take care of yourself.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah, he'll, he'll, he'll nod. And like, put it in his fancy apron.
Avery/GM: And then Marty rushes out and down the hall. And then turns around the corner again and just yells, Sorry Avi for dipping out on the dinner party, it looks lovely, bye! But anyway, y'all are entering this dinner hall, and there are several fancy looking waiters in each corner. They look like they're holding clipboards on the map, but they're actually holding like, order forms, you know, to see what you'd like. This is a club after all, so they have all kinds of food available. And there are some robot attendants kind of walking around, dusting and cleaning and stuff like that. Probably not dusting, because you don't want to get dust on your food. And Avi just says Well that was certainly exciting. Does, does she do that often, or is that Kind of a new thing?
Bee/Polaris: Yes.
Avery/GM: Well, please feel free to sit wherever you'd like. Food shall be served shortly. And she goes to sit next to her uncles. And her uncles, Shin and Nobu Winston, are sitting at the end of the table. They're kind of holding hands and kind of talking, you know, at a low volume. You know, whispering to each other and stuff like that. Lapis is, is sitting next to, to Nobu. Just, you know, smiling and having just a good time. She's always, you know, sort of excited to be invited. Ollie, do you take a seat at the table or, or do you find a spot next to this cozy little fire right here?
Chris/Ollie: Ollie takes a seat at the table.
Bee/Polaris: Takes a seat at the head of the table.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, hops up and sits down nice and proper.
Bee/Polaris: Grabs his little napkin, puts it on his little doggy paws. As the, as the new head Winston.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, sure, I mean, I am by far the fanciest looking of us. So, I'm going to definitely take my seat at the head of the table.
Zach/Zahn: He is also the one who directly murdered Winston, so. And you know what you do? You keep what you keep what you kill!
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: I mean, I did make the bomb though.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, yeah, but I pulled the trigger.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, but Ollie's the one that pulled the trigger.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, but you also did put the bomb in Ollie.
Avery/GM: Ollie, while eating, just never breaks eye contact with any of the Winstons.
Chris/Ollie: Yes, hmm, let me regale you with a funny tale of how I suicide bombed myself and killed this rapscallion.
Bee/Polaris: No, any story but that.
Chris/Ollie: Is there food on the table already? Or is it?
Avery/GM: not yet. It'll be served.
Chris/Ollie: Okay, well then, Ollie. Around, like, the neck, his, like, collar of his suit where he's got his, like, dog collar. He's just gonna, like, come out on the sides, like, two thin flexible robo arms, kinda like, you know, benders arms And he's just gonna, like, start sorting his napkin, you know, put arrange his silverware and whatnot.
Avery/GM: Yeah, Shin at the head of the table kinda clears his throat, and he's just like, So Avi, please introduce your… Your friends to us. You never, you never bring company over. So it's, it's very, it's a very welcome sign that you're out there making friends.
Bee/Polaris: Oh shit. Is she going to say our names?
Avery/GM: Avi just says, Oh, these are just some fellows I met back at the racetracks, you know, over, over at Bragos. They actually won first place in the, the pendulum death race over there And Nobu says, they like to live dangerously. Great. Great. Yes. Yes. I once raced in the death races many times and it was always a very fun experience for me. He's trying to kind of like lighten the mood because Shin is obviously like still upset about the bad business deal. And Nobu claps, claps his hands twice just, and the waiters kind of move in With their little pads and start like asking like what would you like to order and all that stuff So the world is your oyster What do y'all order
Zach/Zahn: probably just something super simple
Bee/Polaris: a cheeseburger with fries
Avery/GM: Some club food, yeah bar food technically If y'all don't want to roleplay this scene, we don't have to we can just hand wave it.
Bee/Polaris: I'm looking up the most expensive dish you can make
Caden/Bruce: I'm glad that we're on the same page here.
Zach/Zahn: Get that thousand dollar ice cream sundae.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, no, what's that gold… gold encrusted steak called?
Avery/GM: What?
Bee/Polaris: Why are people crusting things in gold? It doesn't do anything. And you can't even digest it. Doesn't it just come out as gold as well?
Chris/Ollie: Oh yeah, it's salt bae's steak.
Bee/Polaris: Oh.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Salt bae.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie will say, I'll have your... Your finest Wagyu A5 filet mignon, crusted in gold, of course.
Avery/GM: One of the waiters kind of gives you like an eyebrow raise and then just writes it down. It's like, okay, I guess this dog is going to eat.
Chris/Ollie: No, this dog is going to eat good.
Avery/GM: This dog can talk.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, what would Marty want? Because you have to eat that too.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, yeah. We'll send Ollie, er, Marty a quick message in the chat, ask what they want.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will set down his glass of champagne that he's been holding this entire time onto the table and then ask for another glass of champagne.
Zach/Zahn: That he hasn't drank yet.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Yeah, he'll ask for another glass of champagne. And anything Bruce would like to try.
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will order some scallops and lobster and then look at them and be like, Do you happen to have the bugs from the restaurant that's located on the far Western planets. Oh, I can't remember the name of the solar system. The bugs themselves are... Well, they don't really have a name that most people can pronounce. But they're quite rare, and they taste like nuts.
Avery/GM: Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got that. I think they might be frozen, though. I don't think we've gotten a fresh shipment in for a while. So, but yeah, some of our, some of our employees really like those ones.
Caden/Bruce: That's okay. I'll, I'll, I'll have some of those too.
Avery/GM: Sure. Okay. Yep. Mm hmm. And if people need more time to think, we can switch over to Rho and Hermes.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah!
Zach/Zahn: we can do that.
Bee/Polaris: Let's hear what they're going for.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Avery/GM: So we flashback to Ro and Hermes. They are currently out on the city streets of Ambrosia. Well, we see Rho. We don't see Hermes yet. Rho is, at a small counter of what looks like a, an electronics vendor of some sort on the street here. And the man is standing there and he looks a bit dazed and kind of like in a stupor a little bit. And Rho is fiddling with some tools and a small little device. And she's like, okay, so I install that here, flip this switch there.
Avery/GM: And the little Eye-Bot that she was working on lights up with a blue glow. And Hermes voice can be heard from the Eye-Bot and he says, Thank you, Rho. All systems functioning as normal. And he turns to this, look at this confused salesperson and says, Thank you for your cooperation. A deposit of 1,000 credits will appear in your account momentarily.
Avery/GM: Rho, why does this organic being look like he is asleep? And Rho's just like, Oh, you know, long day, long day, lots of customers, probably just tired. Come on, let's go, Hermes. And grabs the little Eye-Bot and starts running down the street. She's just like, Okay, Hermes, we got you a temporary body. Are you sure this is the right call?
Avery/GM: And Hermes says, yes, we should be fine. My mother cannot afford to reveal her identity on this planet, so we should be fairly safe. And Ro says, okay lead the way and we'll, we'll go see your mother. And as they are walking, they enter a very fancy looking government building.
Bee/Polaris: Oh no.
Avery/GM: And then we flash back to the dinner party.
Bee/Polaris: Okay, cool. Two things. One, oh no. Two, where did Hermes get the thousand credits?
Avery/GM: There is no thousand credits.
Bee/Polaris: Oh my god, they fucking, they fucking...
Chris/Ollie: That man is dead.
Bee/Polaris: They killed him!?
Avery/GM: No, they didn't. No, no, no, no
Caden/Bruce: I assumed Rho put him to sleep.
Bee/Polaris: I thought, I thought Rho used her mind powers. Yeah
Caden/Bruce: yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, okay.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Rho used her mind powers, but no, did not kill him. Just looks very,
Chris/Ollie: so, very much like, so being asleep was in a euphemism. Okay.
Avery/GM: No, no, no, no. Just like he's standing there just like blaahh you know?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Okay. I thought, I thought that was the case. And the… so they just cross lied to each other?
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Nice. Zahn is ready for his order. He is going to order a Northern bovine pizza with savory fruit on top of it.
Avery/GM: Very nice, very nice.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will, like, raise his hand to catch the waiter before he goes and says actually, I'll have two glasses, thank you.
Avery/GM: Any food for ya?
Bee/Polaris: Polaris just stares at him.
Avery/GM: Oh, oh, oh, okay. Just slowly walks backwards.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris just keeps staring and then slowly turns his head back to the table.
Avery/GM: Okay, and they all disappear into the kitchen to go get your orders. So as you order your food and the waiters are off Shin says so what do you all do for a living you merchants traders Daredevils?
Bee/Polaris: one could say all of those things.
Zach/Zahn: I don't think we've traded anything yet Zahn actually pipes up and says.
Chris/Ollie: Oh yeah
Zach/Zahn: we've done some of the other stuff though.
Chris/Ollie: We've sold stuff and bought other stuff.
Zach/Zahn: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, we did trade.
Avery/GM: Yeah, we had that whole scene where you sold stuff.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, we traded your stuff.
Zach/Zahn: We traded your stuff.
Avery/GM: That's right. That's right.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah that’s why Polaris said You can say we're all of those things.
Avery/GM: Well, y'all are engaging in probably fairly friendly conversation for a little while.
Bee/Polaris: No.
Avery/GM: Or not.
Bee/Polaris: No.
Chris/Ollie: probably… This is really awkward.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Police's goal is to be as cryptic and, like, off putting as possible, but in a way that doesn't get the call to security on him.
Avery/GM: Sure. Okay. As this dinner party is going, all of your food arrives, and it all looks very tasty, and Bruce, the flies, are...Perfectly prepared they even gave you, like, little toothpicks for each one, so you don't have to pick them up with your hands if you don't want to. Why they gave you one toothpick per fly is a little wasteful, but, you know, whatever. Polaris, both glasses of champagne arrived next to the one you already have, so, you know, you've got three glasses of sparkling bubbly drink in front of you.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, except one's room temp.
Avery/GM: Except one’s room temp, exactly. Ollie, this golden crusted steak appears on your plate with some very lovely looking roasted potatoes and garlic and butter green beans next to it. And it looks phenomenal.
Bee/Polaris: Are dogs allergic to garlic?
Chris/Ollie: I don't know.
Avery/GM: Are they?
Bee/Polaris: I know cats are for sure.
Avery/GM: Okay, I guess I should make sure.
Caden/Bruce: He's also a robot.
Chris/Ollie: I wouldn't be surprised though.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, yeah, but he also ordered food. They should know this!
Chris/Ollie: I Don't know. I'm I'm probably pretty obviously Like yeah, like yeah, the way I see it is he looks kind of like The the cat, the robot cat from Buzz Lightyear, he's got like, obvious robotic joints.
Bee/Polaris: I was just saying that for you to be able to make a big stink about it even though you're a robot dog.
Chris/Ollie: yeah. Well, I mean, they don't apparently they're not into feeding gold steak to dogs. So, I might just have to ask for seconds.
Bee/Polaris: That is true, they are very mean to dogs.
Chris/Ollie: I know, what? What kind of cruel bastard doesn't feed a gold steak to a dog?
Avery/GM: No, it's gold.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, yeah, but he
Bee/Polaris: They were very rude like…
Chris/Ollie: was kind of sussed about it.
Avery/GM: Oh, yeah, it's just, you know, it's like, oh, that's kind of a weird thing to ask for your first meal here.
Bee/Polaris: He really said the audacity.
Chris/Ollie: I mean, I'm merely ordering food that befits my obvious, station in life.
Avery/GM: Yeah, stature. Yeah. So y'all dig in and eat. Do you guys have any questions for the Winstons that you want answered or anything, any information you'd like to try and pry out of them?
Chris/Ollie: I would like the little overview of who exactly Shin and Nobu are and what they like do in the organization.
Avery/GM: Okay, sure. Yeah. How do you How do you approach that topic?
Chris/Ollie: Well, after he, they asked us to introduce ourselves after that's concluded, I'll just return. And what about yourselves? What labors do you busy yourself with during these long days?
Avery/GM: Nobu speaks up and is just like, Oh, well, you know, my husband and I oversee this club and you know, all the daily operations that, that go into running such an organization, you know, hiring the DJs, paying the staff, making sure the food's ordered, all that.
Avery/GM: You know, mundane stuff for the day. But it keeps the patrons happy and keeps people interested in our business. Shin also oversees a lot of our trade activities and Nobu kind of gives kind of a knowing smile when he says trade and Shin speaks up and is just like, We don't have to play games with them.
Avery/GM: I'm sure Avi has informed them of our business activities. Yes, yes, we sometimes hire, you know, pirates and, and other smugglers to, to get products from some of the more exotic worlds that are located in the hegemony or independent systems that don't… don't trade with the Republic. And yeah, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.
Avery/GM: I just got word that a pirate crew that I hired to hunt down some very rare gems has gone missing. So… I'm out several million from that deal and Nobu kind of rubs his hand just like it's it's all right We'll we'll find another crew. I'm sure it's like yes, but you don't understand Pirates are so… good Pirates are so hard to come by these days.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris shares a look what's on Ollie and Bruce.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Out of character, little non player knowledge, is are those our pirates he's talking about?
Avery/GM: I don't know.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris asks, We may be familiar with some pirates. Who did you hire?
Avery/GM: Oh, this, this squad of pirates based out of the junkyard.
Bee/Polaris: No! Sorry, I meant to be muted…
Avery/GM: The… crimson something or other. The captain recently had a very bad loss, and didn't take it too well at first, and I, you know, said he could take our mission on after he got his revenge, and I haven't heard hide nor hair of him since, and then he just downs his, his glass of, of wine that was in front of him, just in one gulp.
Zach/Zahn: It's cause he can't, the captain hasn't gotten his revenge yet. Oh,
Chris/Ollie: okay. So he didn't go missing on the mission. He just didn't show up for it.
Avery/GM: Wasn't able to take the mission. He hasn't heard, yeah, he hasn't heard back from him in regards to taking the mission yet.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, Jesus Christ, thank God.
Chris/Ollie: I was thinking,
Bee/Polaris: I was about to be very sad.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, that they had gone to take the mission.
Avery/GM: But has not been able to make contact at all either.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, shit.
Avery/GM: Like has tried to make contact and cannot.
Bee/Polaris: Do we have their, they have our email. Do we have their email?
Avery/GM: Yeah, yeah, y'all have exchanged information before.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is gonna…
Avery/GM: Cause they were gonna invite you to a party.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, that's true. Polaris is going to shoot them an email and say, Y'all good? Question mark?
Avery/GM: I mean, it might take a little while to get a response.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, that's fine. I just wanted to, just wanted to check in on our boys.
Chris/Ollie: Our bad, we were in a system with no signal.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Polaris types in the group chat. Is this something that we want to pursue? We, I mean, after New Terra, we could, we could squeeze more money out of the Winstons.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, Especially, no, look at it this way. These are the heads of those, like, smuggling operation. We could probably get any item we want from these guys. They could find pretty much anything.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, yeah, I was gonna ask, do, would they, well, I guess I would have to ask them, huh? If, if they knew the custodians, because the custodians, they do illegal stuff. For funsies.
Avery/GM: Yeah, you'd probably have to ask them directly.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, after sending that message in chat Polaris will ask are there any other reliable groups that you could possibly hire?
Avery/GM: I mean, there are several groups out there in the galaxy that I have heard whispers of, but Captain Blitz has been my most reliable tr transportation partner these past few years. I worked with a couple, you know, strange alien crews once before, you know, a few human crews here and there, but never really found anyone too reliable.
Bee/Polaris: Well, I hope all is well with Captain Blitz, he seems to be a good man.
Avery/GM: Oh, are you familiar with him?
Bee/Polaris: No. Just knee jerk.
Avery/GM: Oh, how sad. I was hoping you might. Maybe you might know his whereabouts, but never mind. Food's here. Why don't we all enjoy our meal and we can go about our night.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's helmet only, like, it shifts up. Instead of down, so it just reveals, like, his mouth.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Caden/Bruce: Amazing.
Zach/Zahn: But otherwise, he keeps his helmet on.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris can't do that with his helmet. Because it's like a Daft Punk style helmet.
Avery/GM: Yup.
Bee/Polaris: So he just occasionally puts the glasses he made up to his mouth, tips it, but not to touch his helmet, and then puts it back down.
Avery/GM: as he sneaks one of his nutrient bars underneath.
Bee/Polaris: No, no, no, he's not even, he's not even, he's not even eating anything. He trusts, he doesn't trust the Winstons at all. There's no way in hell he's eating anything from this house. But out of character, do we actually wanna, if the Crimson Chaos Pirates don't respond, do we actually wanna snatch that job from them?
Zach/Zahn: Potentially. I mean, we'd finally steal something in this game.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, we'd finally do something illegal.
Caden/Bruce: I feel like it would be more in character to try and figure out what happened to them than just steal their job, though.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah
Chris/Ollie: Yeah I think it's more in character for us to find them and get them here so they can take the job.
Yeah, I mean, to be fair I was thinking like we do the job, give them the stuff because they’re in mourning they’re probably not going to be doing any jobs any time soon. It’s kind of like bringing over a casserole but instead its doing your job and having you get paid for it.
Avery/GM: Anything else during this meal time that y'all want to do or, or, or explore at all?
Chris/Ollie: What else was I going to ask them?
Zach/Zahn: No I’m just gonna take their free food and their money and then leave.
Bee/Polaris: I can't think of anything to ask these two specifically. And I don't want to tell them about the custodians who do mad illegal stuff because they clearly don't know them.
Avery/GM: Yeah, okay. Well, as the dinner kind of wraps up Shin and Nobu excuse themselves From the dining table and you're just left with Lapis and Avi and some of these waiters flitting about here and there.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris kind of leans in to the table and whispers so the waiters, can't hear, We totally know the Crimson Chaos Pirates… To Avi and Lapis.
Avery/GM: Avi’s like, well, why didn't you say anything? You probably would have been a big help.
Bee/Polaris: I'm sure. I panicked. I did, I did send them an email asking if they were all right.
Avery/GM: Oh, well, hopefully they respond back soon. Sounds like you're on pretty good terms with them to have their Contact information.
Bee/Polaris: Something like that.
Caden/Bruce: I made them a cake.
Bee/Polaris: Bruce made them a cake.
Avery/GM: Avi raises her eyebrows like, What kind of cake?
Caden/Bruce: I think it was lemon. Yeah.
Avery/GM: Yeah, that's not what I meant by what kind of cake.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, just a normal one.
Avery/GM: Oh, okay. Not one that violently levels a...
Bee/Polaris: No, no, no. We only do that to people that hunt animals to extinction.
Caden/Bruce: And that was in a pie, not a cake.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Oh, fair, fair.
Chris/Ollie: It wasn't even in the pie.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, it was in the ollie.
Zach/Zahn: It was in the ollie.
Bee/Polaris: It's kind of like a can of peanuts, but that, is that when you open it, it's snakes, but instead it's a bomb. We should do that. We should, we should make that.
Avery/GM: You should. Just booby traps.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Anyway, yeah, Polaris just says that, and then once again raises his champagne glass to pretend drink it.
Avery/GM: Avi stands up and is just like, well, I'll see you all out then. And if you're wanting to take the job, I'll have a, is, is your ship operational or do you need transport?
Bee/Polaris: Is, is this something that needs to happen now?
Avery/GM: I mean, we, we had time for dinner, but we do need y'all to leave like first thing tomorrow morning.
Bee/Polaris: Is our ship operational, Avery?
Avery/GM: No, it was going to be like a week.
Bee/Polaris: Dammit! We're going to need a new ship.
Avery/GM: Very well… you do have the Cassiopeia in orbit.
Bee/Polaris: We do. But we don't want to take that. Do we actually? Do we want to take that?
Zach/Zahn: I mean, taking similar technology to similar technology, it's not a bad idea.
Chris/Ollie: Not a bad idea. It could be beneficial. How busted up is the Cassiopeia?
Bee/Polaris: Not very. Didn't, yeah, fixed it.
Chris/Ollie: Okay.
Avery/GM: Yeah, y'all had like that week long break when you were in the custodian system where y'all repaired it.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: 100 percent and then y'all left it in orbit to take your normal ship down.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah
Avery/GM: to the planet
Bee/Polaris: Anyway, Polaris still ask for a ship.
Avery/GM: Sure, we can provide you with a small armored shuttle. we'll make sure that you have a ship that is protective enough to reach the station and, and get you where you need to go. I'll arrange for it to be taken to your hotel room tonight, or first thing in the morning.
Bee/Polaris: Can our…
Avery/GM: Not literally in your hotel room.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I was Oh Well, I, I kind of imagined it hovering outside of our hotel window, just parked there.
Zach/Zahn: Are we allowed to jump?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Yeah, Polaris thumbs up on the visor. Or, no, he raises his champagne glass as a confirmation. Anyway, we're leaving, right? We're skedaddling?
Avery/GM: Sure, y'all wanna skedaddle? Yeah, y'all exit the club Bruce on your way out, one of those Scaph bodyguards is at the door and they just nod at you and, you know, kinda give you a knowing look.
Bee/Polaris: They're also part of the Overseers.
Avery/GM: Oh, the Oracles?
Bee/Polaris: Oh, yeah, the Oracles.
Avery/GM: I don't know, you could ask.
Bee/Polaris: Can we? Can we just stop and ask that?
Chris/Ollie: They didn't mention, like, Hey, don't mention us to anyone. Don't talk about us.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, well, didn't they mention that they're a secret behind the scenes sort of organization?
Chris/Ollie: They did say that, but they didn't hold us to any kind of secrecy.
Avery/GM: Yeah, that is true,
Bee/Polaris: I didn't sign an NDA.
Avery/GM: You did not sign an NDA, this is correct. Yeah, in one of, in one of the recordings, one of the people that Rhea was speaking to did mention that like, there are rumors and stories about a group called the Oracles, but… Y'all are walking down the street.
Avery/GM: You happen to cross down or cross through that kind of busy marketplace that Bruce Polaris and Marty had gone through previously.
Caden/Bruce: How's our business doing?
Avery/GM: Everything's kind of shut down. It's kind of late at night
Caden/Bruce: Oh, okay.
Avery/GM: it's about 930 or so and the business district has kind of quieted down, you know There's people kind of cleaning up, you know some Street stalls and things like that, but you know, no one's no one's had time to move in yet so but as you're passing in front of the capital building here, you hear an explosion from the top floor, followed by shattering glass. And you see a figure plummeting to the ground below.
Bee/Polaris: Jesus tap dancing Christ.
(Ambience Fades out, Outro Plays then fades down)
Avery/GM: Thank you for listening to our show. Beyond the Furthest Stars is a one up podcast network production. Intro and outro music produced by Dustin Carpenter. Background music provided by TabletopAudio.com and used under an attribution, non-commercial license from Creative Commons. Tracks used were Covert Ops, Generation Ship, and Cyberpunk City. We'll be back on November 1st with our next episode. See you out there, beyond the furthest stars.