Avery/GM: Welcome to Episode 11 of Beyond the Furthest Stars. A Quick Trigger Warning: This episode contains brief mentions of gambling. If you need to skip those sections, the time stamps are in the description of the episode. Now let’s get to the action!

(Intro music plays then fades out) (ambience fades in)

Avery/GM: Where we last left off, in case anyone forgot, Ollie had decided to try his luck, uh slash cheat at Blackjack at the Lucky Tentacle Casino, and you were doing pretty well winning some of your credits and suddenly a tiger furry sat next to you and bet just a bunch of money. Luckily, it's blackjack, so it doesn't matter what your fellow players at the table bet, because they're not playing against you, they're playing against the house.

Avery/GM: And I believe 3 million is what I said that she bet. And if not, that's what it's gonna be because I'll just rerecord over. So that happened. And while Ollie was gambling, the rest of the party had decided to go check out the Pendulum of Doom Death Races sponsored by Assembles Singles. And Zahn had left to go sell one of your hover bikes.

Zach/Zahn: Yes.

(Ambience fades out, background rock music fades in)

Avery/GM: So let's start with the sales and acquisitions of this Hover Bike. Zahn. You coming to Little Fred's shop? Seeing as how little Fred was the one selling vehicles vehicle equipment earlier, you have a good feeling that he'd probably be interested in buying this from you. Obviously, you don't have it with you, but you have like a little hologram version of it that you can pull up for him, kind of.

Zach/Zahn: Yep.

Avery/GM: Qui-Gon Jinn style, uh, sort of from Phantom Menace. You come in and that same kind of heavy metal music is playing, uh, in the background. As you come in. He's reading some sort of magazine and he looks up and he is just like, ah, what do you want?

Zach/Zahn: Yeah, you're, uh, you're the vehicle guy, right?

Avery/GM: Ah, I Sell vehicles, I sell vehicle equipment. You know, this and that. Who's asking?

Zach/Zahn: A potential seller?

Avery/GM: I don't really do trade ins. But let, let me take a look.

Zach/Zahn: Oh, he does the, the chef's kiss against his helmet and he is like, mm. Top of the line, pulls a hologram of the, the cool hover bike pristine core worlds hover bike Here.

Avery/GM: He hops down off his little step stool and walks around to the front of the little display case here, and he's just like, lower it down here. So I, I can see better.

Zach/Zahn: I kneel.

Avery/GM: Sure. and Marty. You start coming up to little Fred's shop and you can hear this kind of heavy metal, like rock music coming from inside. Yeah. You walk in just as Zahn is bending down, showing little Fred the hologram here, and you hear little Fred say, eh, it is nothing special.

Jenine/Marty: Mm. Cool. She walks in.

Avery/GM: you see it's just, it's just a Hover bike, you know? Yeah, you're right. It's cool. It's, it's from the core worlds… top of the line. Look, if you're really trying to get rid of it, I can go 2000 credits.

Jenine/Marty: Could, could I, could I, can I check? Can I observe the emotional state of this?

Avery/GM: Of course!

Jenine/Marty: of little Fred? to see how he actually feels about it? Awesome! That's just a, I think it's just a, the role on your part, I believe. I'm gonna double check that.

Avery/GM: Yeah. Basic forms of contact Do not require a saving throw.

Jenine/Marty: What's he thinking? What's little Fred thinking?

Avery/GM: His emotional state is. That he's trying. Let's see. In one word, I would say hopeful.

Jenine/Marty: Mm-hmm. Clarification on the hopeful. Was it like after he had said the amount?

Avery/GM: Yes.

Jenine/Marty: Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Zach/Zahn: Zahn's gonna say, man, you're, I feel like you're low balling me here, dude. I know you're gonna turn around and sell this thing for what, 7k? I want six.

Avery/GM: Oh, no, no, no. I, I can't, I can't do six here. That's, that's way out of the question here. Yeah. Let's see. Go ahead and roll a charisma connect check.

Jenine/Marty: Rip.

Zach/Zahn: Double rip.

Jenine/Marty: Darn. I should have tried to swoop in, my b!

Avery/GM: you can, yeah, you can roll to help. If you have a good line,

Jenine/Marty: I can roll 3d6s and then take rid… get rid of the lowest.

Avery/GM: Okay.

Zach/Zahn: Oh that’s good cause technically I think I have a minus two, right?

Jenine/Marty: Oh my. I can only give you a plus one if I succeed.

Zach/Zahn: Cause I have a minus one for charisma and then I have a minus one in connect. So does that make it a minus two overall?

Chris/Ollie: Uh, yes. If it's a charisma connect.

Avery/GM:

Zach/Zahn: All right, so I rolled a four, so that is a two.

Jenine/Marty: oof! I don’t even know if I could save you!

Zach/Zahn: Oh, there's no saving. That's why you're here.

Avery/GM: you rolled a four?

Zach/Zahn: I rolled on dice four

Avery/GM: oh!

Zach/Zahn: And then minus one for charisma and minus one for connect is a two total.

Chris/Ollie: We need Marty to come in with a, some hand wave and just, you will give us 6,000 credits for the bike.

Jenine/Marty: Well, actually… I can’t.

Zach/Zahn: you'll give us 6,000 credits.

Jenine/Marty: Unfortunately, I can't.

Zach/Zahn: ooh, you know, it'd be really cool if we just swap the, uh, the hover bike for this heavy machine gun I'm seeing in the, in the shop for vehicle weapons.

Jenine/Marty: Can you carry it?

Avery/GM: Oh no. You, you put it, it on that ATV.

Zach/Zahn: we carry it back to the ship and then we put it on our ATV.

Jenine/Marty: Oh, interesting. Okay.

Avery/GM: Like Rambo, out here oh my goodness.

Zach/Zahn: Heck yeah, brother.

Chris/Ollie: I mean, we need, we need at least one.

Avery/GM: He says, look, I like you kid. I don't like you 6,000 credits with though. I can go as high as 2,500.

Jenine/Marty: What about five? And I just flash the biggest smile.

Zach/Zahn: Oh, And Zahn looks over. He is like, oh, what's up Marty?

Jenine/Marty: Hello.

Avery/GM: Okay, you've thrown 'em off a little, so go ahead and roll a charisma connect check and add one for kind of double teaming this fellow

Jenine/Marty: sick.

Zach/Zahn: Good. Take, take no penalties from me.

Jenine/Marty: Okay. that will be 11

Avery/GM: That's really good. Cool. He's like, okay, look, I'm gonna level with you. This thing here it is not actually worth that much money. I think I can probably get five for it, but the thing is I'm gonna turn around. I got a racer who's enter one of these races and, and he needs a really fast machine now. I'm not gonna give you five for it, but I'll go with 4,000. 4,000 credits.

Jenine/Marty: is he lying? Can I, can I check again?

Avery/GM: Yeah. He's actually not lying to you.

Jenine/Marty: Okay.

Avery/GM: You actually get the, he's actually being level with you about what he intends to do with it.

Jenine/Marty: Okay.

Zach/Zahn: Zahn looks over at the, at the wall, he sees this heavy machine gun. He's like, how about even trade? Even Stevens this, uh, this year hover bike for your, for your sponsor and uh, we get that pretty machine gun over there.

Avery/GM: Yeah. Hmm. He rolled a two though. That was early.

Zach/Zahn: I did roll a two. So his opinion of me can't be real shit. And I do have money. I can't sweeten it with a little bit of money.

Avery/GM: Yeah, that's true. Okay, one more charisma, connect check and we'll see how you do.

Zach/Zahn: Oh God.

Avery/GM: I know.

Jenine/Marty: Do I… Is there help with that?

Avery/GM: You can help with it if you have a line.

Jenine/Marty: My associate is very interested in technology and wants to upgrade a little bit more and assist you in the technology that you need.

Avery/GM: Okay. Yeah. Good enough. Go ahead and roll to help.

Bee/Polaris: You guys could also let him take it for a spin, you know?

Jenine/Marty: that's so much better.

Zach/Zahn: What's nice is I actually, I rolled halfway decent.

Jenine/Marty: How much did you roll?

Zach/Zahn: So I rolled nine, comes out to be seven.

Chris/Ollie: Okay.

Jenine/Marty: And I rolled an 11 plus one, so with a 12 for .

Avery/GM: With that, I will give it to you. He'll say, all right, how about this 500 credits, The hover bike, and the machine gun's yours, and he spits in his hand to like shake.

Jenine/Marty: Oh, to who does? Who does he?

Zach/Zahn: Zahn like goes to shake and then immediately hesitates at the spit part. He's like…

Avery/GM: he's holding it out to both of you. He's holding out his hand to either one of you.

Zach/Zahn: Zahn just doesn't want like spit in his well… It's one of those, like spit and oil are two different things. You know?

Avery/GM: he sees you hesitate. He's like, oh, I'm sorry about that. Force a habit, You know? That's how we used to do things back in the day. Fist bump, anyone?

Jenine/Marty: Give a little fist bump,

Zach/Zahn: Zahn shrugs and actually like shakes his hand anyways, he's like, eh, spit and oil Ain't that different, is they?

Avery/GM: Marty, you fist bump and then Zan just kind of grabs both of your hands and shakes them up and down.

Jenine/Marty: cute.

Avery/GM: He's like, all right, so which land in bays yours?

Jenine/Marty: 12.

Avery/GM: 12? Yeah, I think my brother had had some deliveries down there earlier. So did I. So yeah, we'll get that delivered. I take it, the hover bikes right inside the, uh, Dockin’ bay there?

Zach/Zahn: Yes.

Avery/GM: Great, great. We'll get you all squared away. Appreciate you doing business and, uh, yeah, my, my race is really gonna love this thing. . Now get out. I got reading to do,

Zach/Zahn: I got reading to do

Jenine/Marty: as we're walking out. I'm like, should we let Hermes know that someone is coming on the ship to take the hover bike?

Zach/Zahn: I’m heading back to the

Jenine/Marty: Oh, cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool

Zach/Zahn: ship now anyways, I'll, uh, I'll let 'em know. Okay. I got some, I got some tinkering to do. Uh, that, that. Brother delivery that he mentioned was, uh, was all me.

Jenine/Marty: Okay, cool. Where's the rest of the team?

Avery/GM: Yeah. So actually that's a good question. Bruce and Polaris, after Marty took off, what did you two end up doing?

Bee/Polaris: Polaris probably would've followed Marty.

Avery/GM: Oh. Okay,

Zach/Zahn: just standing outside.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, just wouldn't have said anything but would've made sure to like look back and see what Bruce was doing.

Caden/Bruce: Bruce probably took his shopping to the ship and organized. Bruce probably brought his shopping back to the ship and is organizing his, quote-unquote “pantry” With all these different variety of beans and then like having seen the racism, what the race entails, he starts making these mini bean tarts. And the objective of these bean tarts is, and I will tell you cause I've been thinking about this, they're gonna taste amazing. You are gonna want to eat so many of these. And as he's making them, he's making them in like little tiny like cupcake tins. And the goal of hi of this is he's gonna make them and give them to the other teams so that the pilot gets to get stuck on the toilet.

Bee/Polaris: that's a great idea.

Chris/Ollie: The Long Con!

Jenine/Marty: Here for it!

Avery/GM: Biological warfare.

Caden/Bruce: I'll, I I'll be very clear. Bruce is not, Bruce is not poisoning. He's not like, these are gonna taste phenomenal. It's just gonna be a bad time. You're giving

Zach/Zahn: a nice, it's just causing of a national… or of not national natural bowel movement, not actual virus illness.

Chris/Ollie: I mean, Bruce is just being a bro and bringing all you can eat Chipotle.

Caden/Bruce: Exactly. Yeah.

Avery/GM: Okay, so you're gonna be using your cooking skills for not evil, but like underhanded purposes. I like this… So let's go with an intelligence work check.

Caden/Bruce: not gonna lie, that is really good because that's a 12!

Bee/Polaris: Yo

Jenine/Marty: Let’s Go!

Avery/GM: Let's go. All right. So yeah, so you make the batch exactly how you intend to do it. You, you heat the… the heat that you use to make these little pastries is just enough to cook the outside of the pastries, but the dough in the middle is not so undercooked that someone would notice while, but it's undercooked enough that it will cause some gastrointestinal distress. So you have succeeded. So you have succeeded there, and Zahn As you come back to the ship, you smell this wonderful smell of tarts, wafting through the air.

Zach/Zahn: As he enters the ship, you just hear a hot damn, Bruce, what do you got going on?

Bee/Polaris: You can spell in your helmet. Sorry.

Zach/Zahn: I mean, I can turn that on and off.

Bee/Polaris: Sick!

Caden/Bruce: Well, um, let's just say I'm making racing pastries.

Jenine/Marty: Racing pastries. I'm here for it!

Zach/Zahn: is that gonna be, you know, for all of us or just the…

Caden/Bruce: I would suggest that you don't eat them.

Zach/Zahn: I guess I'll just make my cheese sandwich then.

Caden/Bruce: Bruce will kinda like til his head and like look his on and be like, I mean, I haven't tested to see if they work. If you wanna try.

Bee/Polaris: Oh my gosh

Zach/Zahn: I don't like the way you said “tested the way they work” now I'm not so sure I want to eat them anymore.

Caden/Bruce: I just, if Polaris wants to race, would like Polaris to win the race, so I figured that this could potentially help.

Bee/Polaris: Ouch.

Caden/Bruce: I'm not good with guns or ships, but I like to think I'm good at cooking and if this. Give Polaris a leg up in the race, then, um, that's the way I intend to do it. I mean, I'm sure it's not against the rules as far as we read the rules giving other teammates food doesn't seem to be illegal or a penalty So, That's what these are for, but if you wanna test to see if they work, go right ahead. Um, I just would recommend you don't leave the ship after you consume one.

Zach/Zahn: you know, he's gonna do that whole like slow back away thing with the finger guns and be like uh, you know I'm just gonna go ahead and, uh, get the cracking on some cool stuff that I have planned in the workshop.

Caden/Bruce: If Polaris wins the race, uh, Assembles Singles is the, uh, sponsor. I'm sure you could probably try and get a lifetime supply of, um, what you like to call cheese.

Zach/Zahn: That sounds cool. I'm, I was planning on helping in, uh, in my own way as well. Um, he pulls out the Grapnel launcher. He's like, I got this here, baby!

Caden/Bruce: Bruce Slow blinks.

Zach/Zahn: we’re gonna make it cooler.

Caden/Bruce: Okay, I can bring you down a, uh, well, what you like to call a good, um, grilled cheese if you would like. I promise I won't, um, give you one of these.

Zach/Zahn: That would be nice.

Caden/Bruce: Bruce will nod and start making a grilled cheese.

Zach/Zahn: You can also secretly. Make it not an assembles grilled cheese, and he'll probably blow his mind. It's one of those, Zahn has almost entirely been like in space going from place to place. He's only ever had like processed foods, so to him, yeah, processed cheese of assembled singles fucking fantastic.

Chris/Ollie: I mean, if it's not processed, then it's not cheese.

Jenine/Marty: S tier. S tier cheese, period.

Avery/GM: So as Bruce is engaging in biological warfare, and Zahn is doing some tinkering in the ship. We flash back to our casino scene. Ollie, you are sitting here at the table when an anthropomorphic tiger sits down next to you and starts betting big. She bets 3 million, indicating that she's a very wealthy. And let's see… Nine. Okay. She's showing a, she is showing a nine on the table, and your cards are showing. You see that you have an eight on the table and an eight underneath, not, not showing on the table. So you have a, a double, a set of double. , and I'm not expecting you to know all the ins and outs of blackjack, but,

Chris/Ollie: Hmm. she, I can't remember from last session. She hasn't interacted with me at all, right?

Avery/GM: No, not yet.

Chris/Ollie: Okay. is there anyone else at the table?

Avery/GM: No, just you, the dealer and this tiger furry, but there are several other patrons kind of all around.

Chris/Ollie: Ollie will turn and, and politely nod. And, uh, say greetings, just the classic. hello to be polite.

Avery/GM: Oh, hello. It's so nice to see another friendly face at the table. Are you enjoying yourself today?

Chris/Ollie: Certainly. I have noticed that everything requires credits and I can never find enough. So here I am.

Avery/GM: Yes, yes. The universe does run on credits. Unfortunately. It's so tiring. You know, sometimes I just have so many credits. I just sit down and bet them until I lose. It's quite fun. Sometimes losing money.

Chris/Ollie: he's gonna cock his, or Ollie will cock his head a bit and say, to lose is fun?

Avery/GM: Oh yes. I mean, when you're, when you're always winning, like I am, Sometimes the thrill of losing is much more enjoyable.

Chris/Ollie: She's tired of winning.

Avery/GM: She just needs to feel something. That's it.

Chris/Ollie: Great. I can it kind of brings the whole tiger fur into a new perspective as well. Beautifully done.

Avery/GM: Ollie. Go ahead and roll an intelligence notice check.

Bee/Polaris: By the way, is Ollie still live streaming this? Cause last session Ollie was live streaming.

Chris/Ollie: Oh yes. He would not have stopped.

Bee/Polaris: Okay. Cool, cool, cool.

Chris/Ollie: intelligence notice you say

Avery/GM: Yes, please.

Chris/Ollie: Okay. Cause uh, my cognitive boost should still be active.

Avery/GM: Mm-hmm.

Chris/Ollie: so it says, Oh, it wasn't, which my bad. It was intelligence know, right?

Avery/GM: Yeah. Or no intelligence…

Chris/Ollie: Okay. Never mind.

Avery/GM: Last time, did I have you roll intelligence know Check?

Chris/Ollie: yes.

Avery/GM: Oh, then that's what I meant. Sorry.

Chris/Ollie: Okay. Well, because that would automatically succeed.

Avery/GM: Okay.

Chris/Ollie: If at all possible. Um, but if it says, if it's primarily mental and requires only basic physical actions, I get a plus two. So whichever one you wanna go with.

Avery/GM: you're literally just counting the cards, so it's not even, okay. It doesn't even take physical actions to, to do. Yeah. You calculate that you have a 75% chance of winning the hand if you split your eights

Chris/Ollie: split. What's that? Wait, what's that mean? Sorry. I'm very bad about blackjack.

Avery/GM: That would basically mean that you'd get two cards or I mean two hands because you have eights, you have a pair of eights in blackjack. Anytime you have matching cards, you can split them and basically give yourself two hands. Yep.

Zach/Zahn: I didn't know that.

Chris/Ollie: Really?

Avery/GM: I watched way too many black videos that so, yeah.

Chris/Ollie: I mean even, even when all those like. Blackjack tournaments were just like on every channel, like on Spike and, and all that. In the early two

thousands, I'd never even seen that. Okay. Uh, then yes, I will defer to the master Ollie, uh, plays to always the optimal chances.

Avery/GM: Okay, so I roll for this, uh, for the rest of the cards. So the dealer deals you attend and an ace giving you 18 and 19. The Tiger furry flips her cards and shows that she has a 20 and stays. The dealer flips his card and shows that he has a seven. He hits and he has an eight, so he has to hit again and he gets a seven. So he busts. So you both, uh, you both win, uh, your money. Um, so how much did you.

Chris/Ollie: Ollie's pretty much Max bedding every, every hand.

Avery/GM: Okay. we'll say that After this, you have probably won a total of about 40,000 credits. Heck yeah, brother. Just over the course of all your gambling so far. Wow. She's like, oh, well. Okay. More money for the family, I guess. And Ollie, in your head, you hear Hermes’ voice come in and say Ollie, I feel the need to warn you that this is Avi Winston, one of the Winston family. You should be very cautious around her.

Chris/Ollie: Ollie will reply: I thought she looked familiar. Do we know how much she knows?

Avery/GM: you do not.

Jenine/Marty: did we also all hear that?

Avery/GM: Yeah. Anyone, anyone listening or watching Ollie's Little Stream would also have heard that?

Jenine/Marty: Could we, could we, could we space Google her?

Avery/GM: Sure.

Chris/Ollie: Uh, but we know for sure like the, uh, that the message from those spy drones got. Or

Avery/GM: Yes

Jenine/Marty: Yeah.

Chris/Ollie: Okay.

Avery/GM: You know for sure that it got out and got back to Olympia. Whether she has been to Olympia since or has been in contact with her family, you obviously wouldn't have that information.

Chris/Ollie: Okay. So Ollie is gonna play, uh, unless you need a minute to read something,

Avery/GM: go ahead.

Chris/Ollie: Okay. Ollie's gonna play totally dumb and, uh, ask the family, where are you?

Avery/GM: Oh, just, you know, the capital of the Republic Olympia. We have quite a number of properties there. I just find high society so restricting sometimes I just like to get out to some of the more rougher places of the galaxy from time to time. you are a fascinating little robot, by the way, far too curious to just be a gambling machine.

Chris/Ollie: Oh, thank you. I am personally on a journey of self-discovery.

Jenine/Marty: Oh.

Chris/Ollie: My name is Optimax 11 E, but my friends call me Ollie. What is your designation?

Avery/GM: My name's Avi. Avi Winston

Jenine/Marty: Oh Avi, not Abby!

Chris/Ollie: Do… Ollie's gonna like text message the group real quick and ask if we have a sponsor for the race?

Jenine/Marty: Currently, No. But again, can we, can we google search this?

Avery/GM: Yes. I was gonna get to that. Yes.

Jenine/Marty: Sick.

Chris/Ollie: Oh yeah.

Jenine/Marty: Before we say yes.

Chris/Ollie: go ahead.

Avery/GM: Yeah. So because y'all basically got like little personal communication devices back on the custodian ship. So yeah, Marty, go ahead and roll. Yeah, I guess it would be intelligence know. Or intelligence program, if that's better.

Jenine/Marty: Sick! *Rolls Dice* oh, no. Okay. Well, um, , that is, that is a four!

Bee/Polaris: Can I also roll? Cause Polaris, like once they got back to the ship, Polaris is just sitting outside crisscross applesauce, just playing around with his like not light savers while watching the live stream.

Avery/GM: Yeah. You can also roll either intelligence program or intelligence know.

Bee/Polaris: Okay

Avery/GM: Marty, you type in Avi Windstone and you get articles about a famous asteroid miner, who 200 years ago found the biggest deposit of asteroid gold in the galaxy. And it's a really old article and you probably think that this person probably isn't actually the one you're looking for cause they would've been dead by now.

Jenine/Marty: Positive thinking! Now I have some stuff for trivia night.

Bee/Polaris: I got a seven, just a flat seven.

Avery/GM: A flat seven.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah.

Avery/GM: Yeah. You find a few like gossip particles, like from like space people magazine about Avi Winston, you know, talking about how like she took the, the Winston yacht, the Winston Space Yacht for a joy ride around a nebula kind of, you know, you get the general sense that the paparazzi at least has painted her to be kind of a rebel, a wild child, so to speak.

Bee/Polaris: Hmm. Polaris will copy and paste that into the group chat and just put a shrug emoji.

Jenine/Marty: Does she have any connection to, uh, does it show that she, I'm asking this to, um, is there anything in those articles about like how close she is with like her other relatives specifically? I don't know. The, the, the one that we met on the planet?

Bee/Polaris: Is there?

Avery/GM: Hermes chimes in and says Yes. Avi Winston is the third great-granddaughter of the patriarch of the Winston family and the matriarch of the Winston family. She is second cousins with Lord Winston, whom you blew up. I'm sorry. Whom we blew up. Smiley Face.

Jenine/Marty: We Smiley Face!?

Bee/Polaris: You said second cousin?

Avery/GM: Yeah!

Jenine/Marty: I think that’s fine.

Zach/Zahn: She probably doesn't even know who Lord Winston is.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: maybe… we don't know!

Zach/Zahn: second cousins and this chick is so disconnected from reality. Yeah. She probably doesn’t know.

Jenine/Marty: and she's like third in, is she like third in line? Is that what like third in line to get like everything? Or just third rem…?

Bee/Polaris: We don't know actually, Polaris was about to ask for a family tree from Hermes.

Jenine/Marty: Give us the visualization of this tree.

Avery/GM: I will happily visualize that for y'all next time.

Bee/Polaris: Sweet.

Avery/GM: I didn't think about that, but I should actually Family tree this out.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. If we're gonna go through a whole lot of 'em, we, we kind of know which ones we gotta destroy.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah, yeah. What's, what, what is our like list of, of, of these people that we are about the, these tigers that we're about to go through?

Bee/Polaris: yeah. Also, we gotta know if there are any children, so we don't orphan them. And also children are like, immortal in this game. So…

Jenine/Marty: Yes.

Avery/GM: so Hermes pipes up and says, I believe she is kind of considered a black sheep of the family.

Jenine/Marty: Didn't they say that about Lord Winston too?

Avery/GM: Yeah. Whether or not this information is accurate, you know, ,

Chris/Ollie: the entire family are black sheeps.

Caden/Bruce: which is funny considering they’re tigers

Avery/GM: They all don't like each other.

Jenine/Marty: RIP

Bee/Polaris: You know what, that's fine. That means they won't come and get revenge.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Dammit.

Jenine/Marty: They're fine. Yeah. Let's do it. What's gonna happen? What's gonna happen?

Zach/Zahn: What's the worst that could go wrong?

Caden/Bruce: What's the worst? I can heal. It's fine.

Avery/GM: Ollie, You hear the dealer announce that it's time for his break. And so he'll return to the table in about 20 minutes,

Chris/Ollie: how long until the race starts.

Avery/GM: The next race would start in about three hours, give or take.

Chris/Ollie: So we don't have a sponsor, but, uh, I, it's just a clarifying question for me. I'm, I don't think I'm gonna ask her to be the sponsor, but I do want all her money.

Jenine/Marty: That's fair.

Chris/Ollie: Um, so Ollie's going to. Watch the watching the dealer walk away say, unfortunate. However, we can continue to gamble. There's a race soon. Would you like to wager on the outcome?

Avery/GM: You see her crack a huge grin. She's like, gambling on the races is illegal back home! I like this. And she claps her hands.

Chris/Ollie: I didn't know they were illegal. Uh-oh.

Bee/Polaris: Wait, but is it illegal? I think she's with it. Just two people are trading money. Like it's like two friends being like, I bet you $5 you won't drink.

Avery/GM: It's illegal in the same way that like, you're technically not supposed to have poker nights at your house, you know?

Bee/Polaris: Oh.

Jenine/Marty: What?

Chris/Ollie: Or illegal in the same way. Like everything here is illegal.

Avery/GM: Exactly, so…

Jenine/Marty: I didn't know that.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, true.

Avery/GM: Illegal. In the same way that everything here is underhanded and technically, you know, dark web 2.0 type of stuff.

Bee/Polaris: Mm.

Avery/GM: You know?

Bee/Polaris: Gotcha.

Avery/GM: It would be, it's illegal based on where she lives. So, you know…

Jenine/Marty: copy.

Avery/GM: She's like, you are an interesting robot. What kind. What kind of wager would you like?

Chris/Ollie: I pretty much just gonna glance at the pile of money she's got at the table.

Avery/GM: She's like, oh, you want to wager this? This is 5 million credits. You would owe me a lot of money. And she like, runs a claw. Kind of like on your robot hand.

Chris/Ollie: He… Ollie's going to say…. just trying not to be too inflammatory here.

Avery/GM: If you win, we will tell you where to find the remains of your second cousin .

Jenine/Marty: If it’s still there.

Bee/Polaris: Wait, yeah. Whatever happened to those? Did we Yeah.

Jenine/Marty: If it’s still there?

Bee/Polaris: We didn’t burry? I'm pretty sure he just evaporated, No? Cause he was like right in the blast radius.

Avery/GM: Yeah, it was…

Jenine/Marty: Yeah. Is the planet also still there?

Avery/GM: Oh yeah. The planet will be there for another million years or so before it gets sucked into the black hole.

Bee/Polaris: we should speed that up in some way.

Jenine/Marty: Just go to the evidence, yeet the evidence.

Avery/GM: Take the planet and push it somewhere else. Yep.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah, Ollie's just going to, you know, say that, uh, If you seek to lose money, I seek to win. I have a group of friends participating in the race. I'd like to wager on them.

Avery/GM: She kind of rubs her in for a minute and she's like, well, that certainly would be thrilling. Losing that much money in a race . That would be so much fun. Daddy would get so mad. Okay, you clever little robot, You! What If we wager this, your friends win and you take this nice pile of money with you, but if your friends lose, I get whatever ship you came in.

Chris/Ollie: Done. immediately.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris puts a yikes emote in chat.

Jenine/Marty: live reactions.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah, I was, I was actually gonna say, can I get a quick vibe check from all the stream watchers? But, uh, that, that pretty much, uh, spelled it out. Yeah, I'm, yeah. Ollie's gonna immediately agree.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. When Ollie, uh, suggested to bet on us, uh, players put a blank face emoji and then we immediately agreed. He puts a, a yikes emoji

Jenine/Marty: a yoinks!

Avery/GM: Will you also be participating in the race?

Chris/Ollie: No.

Avery/GM: Oh, good. We can watch together in my private booth.

Caden/Bruce: Oh, no

Jenine/Marty: That’s a yoinks!

Avery/GM: and she stands up and hooks her arm into your arm and she's just like, come on, the race is gonna start in a few hours. Let's go get seated.

(Club ambience fades out, cyberpunk city ambience fades in)

Avery/GM: So you have three hours until this next race that you are now apparently doing.

Bee/Polaris: We don't even have a sponsor.

Jenine/Marty: We still gotta find a sponsor.

Bee/Polaris: We can't enter the race until we get a sponsor.

Jenine/Marty: Who can we get to sponsor us!?

Chris/Ollie: How much? How much would that cost? She might be willing to do it.

Bee/Polaris: sponsor a race.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Sponsor. She's betting against us

Bee/Polaris: That you bet with her on?

Jenine/Marty: yeah.

Chris/Ollie: Hey, she is. She seems pretty crazy.

Zach/Zahn: She likes to lose.

Avery/GM: Yeah, so there are a few options for sponsors that I have already subtly presented. You with, but if you would like me to be more explicit, I will be more explicit.

Bee/Polaris: Uh, I was about to ask if like at the, at where you signed up for the race, if there's like a list of sponsors that don't have a team to race for them and you could just like, oh yeah, I'll just sign up with this one.

Avery/GM: You could probably find a list of sponsors looking to get a racer at the main building.

Bee/Polaris: Okay.

Caden/Bruce: Can we be sponsored by Assemble’s singles?

Bee/Polaris: They're sponsoring the whole race.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah, that'd be funny though.

Bee/Polaris: Also don't they already have a team?

Avery/GM: I did say they do have their own team, so

Bee/Polaris: yeah.

Avery/GM: Whether or not you decide to be on that team,

Bee/Polaris: Oh, we have to partner up with other people. I see.

Avery/GM: That's one option.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah.

Avery/GM: You could be your own team. You could partner up with another sponsor that already has a team. You could make up a sponsor. See how far that gets you.

Bee/Polaris: We can lie.

Jenine/Marty: Oh?

Bee/Polaris: could Hermes be our sponsor? ,

Jenine/Marty: honestly…

Bee/Polaris: Do we have any other like robot chassis with us currently on the ship?

Zach/Zahn: They're all damaged at the moment.

Bee/Polaris: Oh… Well.

Chris/Ollie: Well, Wait cause I've been fixing 'em from a little bit

Avery/GM: yeah, I was gonna say you at least fixed two of them.

Chris/Ollie: Okay.

Avery/GM: One of the companion bots and the security bot.

Chris/Ollie: Excellent. Cause yeah, everything pretty nice except, uh, I didn't really expect to be taken prisoner there at the end, so, Hmm.

Avery/GM: I'm sorry Chris, I didn't, I wasn't saying you had to go with her, she was just

Chris/Ollie: Oh, no, no, no.

Bee/Polaris: social prison.

Chris/Ollie: socially in prison because

Avery/GM: Oh,

Chris/Ollie: leaving would be pretty sketchy. So.

Avery/GM: Okay.

Chris/Ollie: At least to her.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, you could just say that you left your oven on!

Chris/Ollie: true… Cause it's pretty much gonna be the game plan for when we go back. He's gonna be like, Hey, I need to be right back real quick. Uh, use the robot, the little robots room and then run over and just like hack off a piece of my quantum core and then go back and be like, oh no, we're good. Oh, we haven't been doing those roles.

Avery/GM: Oh, you're right. I'm sorry. Roll a percentage dice. Sorry.

Chris/Ollie: Should I do two? Cause I, I don't think we did it last session either.

Avery/GM: Yeah, yeah. Roll two, uh, 19. Okay. And you were at 64% last time, so we're back up to 83%.

Bee/Polaris: That's pretty good.

Chris/Ollie: And then 21

Avery/GM: Okay. Your core is fully restored.

Chris/Ollie: Okay, that's good because Ollie might be in a little bit of trouble.

Avery/GM: You'll be fine. You'll be totally fine. All right, so the other sponsor opportunities here would probably be any of the shopkeepers that you've interacted with, aside from Little Fred.

Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah. Cause he has a racer already.

Avery/GM: Because he has a racer already. Yeah. you haven't explored the hotel yet, so there might be sponsors. or you could go back to the actual racing building and get a list of sponsors.

Chris/Ollie: Ollie could probably also, uh, just call out up in the upper class booths. Hey, anyone need a team?

Bee/Polaris: right in front of the person you just made a bet with That'd be, wait, isn't it her private booth? Are there gonna be other people there?

Chris/Ollie: Uh, her security.

Avery/GM: It is the Winston Private booth.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, are there other Winstons?

Chris/Ollie: Oh, oh, I didn't even think about that. Uh-oh

Jenine/Marty: That’s a yoinks.

Avery/GM: Also, we should establish who actually is gonna be doing the race.

Chris/Ollie: I said that I wouldn't, but I'm gonna be there.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, so you lied. Got it.

Chris/Ollie: Secretly. I'm gonna be there like in Cognito.

Bee/Polaris: Okay.

Avery/GM: Oh, so did you wanna have your core already split, basically?

Chris/Ollie: Well, I'm gonna use one of my subroutines to split my consciousness so I can, you know. Be mentally, multiple places at once, and I'm just gonna like pop into like Polaris's helmet down in the corner and just be like, Hey, I'm here. Don't tell anyone I'm helping out.

Avery/GM: Okay.

Bee/Polaris: Uh, Polaris will not be part of the race. He's gonna sit on the sidelines.

Chris/Ollie: What?

Bee/Polaris: I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Chris/Ollie: The ringer.

Bee/Polaris: his whole deal is being a pilot.

Jenine/Marty: My heart dropped for a second there.

Bee/Polaris: No, I'm joking with he's gonna be there.

Avery/GM: I was like, I planned this whole thing.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. No, no, no. It goes without saying is gonna be part of the race.

Zach/Zahn: If I have enough time to make the, the modifications to a suit that I want, yeah, he’s definitely gonna be there!

Avery/GM: Which mods did you wanna make?

Zach/Zahn: So definitely gonna be having mag boots. Um, he wants to, you know, modify his, his helmet to do the cool thing. he wants to have a, uh, data pad computer on his left wrist. He wants to insert the laser blade into his right wrist predator style. And then he's gonna ma modify the grappling launcher to have, uh, cause on the front of it, it's currently just a grappling hook, right?

Avery/GM: Yeah.

Zach/Zahn: He wants to have it as a magnet head.

Avery/GM: Okay, so you have three hours until the next race I will give you. That gives you enough time. Actually, let's make it interesting. Go ahead and roll. Intelligence fix.

Zach/Zahn: That's a 14.

Avery/GM: Okay, I'll give you three. You have enough time to do one mod per hour given your roll.

Chris/Ollie: Definitely One of the grappling. The grappling hook one.

Zach/Zahn: Well, yeah. Grappling hook and mag boots are essential. so in that case, uh oh, I want the helmet one though, but I guess I'll go predator wrist cause that sounds more useful.

Avery/GM: Okay. Marty, are you gonna be on the shuttle part of the race, or are you?

Jenine/Marty: I don't know which is more helpful?

Avery/GM: I mean, you can heal

Jenine/Marty: I can heal! So… Let me double check this. It's two vehicles, right?

Avery/GM: I can go over the rules again if you need me to

Jenine/Marty: One more time! I have them down, but I do not remember. I cannot read my own chicken scratch.

Avery/GM: you are totally fine. One vehicle is called the Spotter. They are basically a fighter ship that maneuvers around the track, dodging debris, blasting obstacles, and protecting the other ship.

The other ship is called the shuttle. It's an open top hovercraft that needs at least two other members of the team, to basically pilot the shuttle craft through the track, dodging any obstacles that aren't blasted by the spotter. Fighting off teams of other shuttles who will either try to board your shuttle, ram you to knock you off or run you into debris.

Jenine/Marty: Hmm. I'll be on team shuttle. I can help out.

Avery/GM: Okay!

Jenine/Marty: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: I don't think anyone else can be in, uh, the ship with Polaris anyway, yeah. Other than

Avery/GM: probably not.

Bee/Polaris: robots that can get into the system.

Avery/GM: Yeah, that's probably right. I don't,

Bee/Polaris: I mean, Polaris is just, just wants to race, so he didn't even consider that sponsors were something that you needed. So he probably just go with like the pre gen list at the actual signup place unless someone else has an idea of getting a sponsor.

Zach/Zahn: I like Big Fred as a possible sponsor.

Jenine/Marty: That would be fun.

Bee/Polaris: He did give, yeah, he did give us those cool, cool laser blades.

Zach/Zahn: Cool, cool. Laser blades and, uh, a shit ton of like parts and stuff.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. What do the sponsors get out of sponsoring racers?

Avery/GM: Essentially the sponsors get the prestige of having basically sponsored a winner. They get the street cred and the social benefits of being the winner of the day, that kind of thing. Additionally, they do get a cut of the prize money.

Bee/Polaris: There's prize money.

Avery/GM: Oops.

Zach/Zahn: Of course there’s prize money. Do you think people just race and death races for fun?

Jenine/Marty: Yeah. Why not?

Chris/Ollie: I mean, yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris quite literally would have! That was his whole goal!

Avery/GM: First prize is 1,000,000 credits. Second place prize is 500,000 credits, and the third place prize is 250,000 Credit.

Bee/Polaris: Okay. Gotcha, gotcha.

Caden/Bruce: But running in the race is priceless.

Avery/GM: Yes,

Bee/Polaris: exactly.

Avery/GM: We'll say you downloaded the generic list of sponsors when you got the pamphlet as well.

Bee/Polaris: Okay.

Avery/GM: And the current list of sponsors includes, Dex, who is the owner of the Ornate Dreams Hotel, featuring the Sapphire Tree Restaurant. Another sponsor is Terry, Carrie, Mary, and Larry. And they are a polycule that owns the lucky tentacle. And then… And then also you could do Doc. Doc is sponsoring racers cause hey, if they get injured, that's more business for him.

Jenine/Marty: Mm-hmm.

Bee/Polaris: Excellent. did we visit Doc?

Avery/GM: I don't know. I think, I think you did.

Zach/Zahn: I did. I think

Avery/GM: yes. Yes, you did.

Zach/Zahn: Yes, Because I bought stuff from Doc

Avery/GM: and then Professor Infinity is sponsoring racers. Next to his name is a little asterisk, and at the bottom, the asterisk says, testing out highly experimental shuttle craft.

Bee/Jenine/Zach together: Ooh, ooh.

Jenine/Marty: How, how experimental?

Zach/Zahn: oh, right. Professor Infinity is the, is the mad scientist.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah.

Avery/GM: Yes. Yeah. There are no other details to answer your question, Marty. There are no other details about what highly experimental means.

Jenine/Marty: That's a little sketch, but, okay.

Bee/Polaris: Polaris will send a screenshot of the list and chat, but like with the highly experimental shuttle, uh, highlighted and then raised eyebrow emoji.

Zach/Zahn: and like triple underlined with an exclamation point… Sorry!

Jenine/Marty: No, no, no, no, no. This was, this is another clarify. We get provided a shuttle.

Avery/GM: Yes.

Jenine/Marty: Right. Okay.

Avery/GM: Okay. The shuttle is provided by the sponsor.

Jenine/Marty: Okay.

Avery/GM: And most of them are pretty bare bones. So someone saying that they're testing out an experimental one is a bit interesting, to say the least.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: while Bruce is poisoning the other, uh, contestants, should we , I mean, sorry, feeding the other contestants. Should Marty and players go talk to some of these sponsors? Maybe, yeah.

Avery/GM: Okay, cool. So let's start out with Bruce. You wanted to take little treats into basically the locker room?

Caden/Bruce: Oh, I have a very, very distinct idea of what Bruce wants to do.

Avery/GM: All right. Lay it on me.

Jenine/Marty: Yes.

Caden/Bruce: So what Bruce is gonna. Is he's gonna put on the chef hat? Well, he's probably still wearing it, honestly. He's gonna keep his apron on. And what he's done is he did buy a can of Jamie's beans and what he's gonna do is he's gonna take the label off of chef's Jamie's, and he's gonna borrow Polaris sewing machine and very rut, sew it onto his apron.

Caden/Bruce: and what he's gonna do, He's gonna go down there wearing this, wearing this uniform with his tray of made like bread roll tarts, which as we've already like established, are like, they look and smell amazing. They're just dangerous. And he's gonna go along to like, into the contestants corridor and just try to promote Chef Jamie's.

Caden/Bruce: Company by being basically giving these out as, uh, you know, um, like companies do, you know, like, here's, here's a freebie. If, if you like it, come back and, and, and buy the product. You know, like how uh, Costco gives away free food to try and promote to buy the thing that they wanna sell, but no buys…

Zach/Zahn: Oh the samples!

Caden/Bruce: Yeah, no one ever buys the, like, you never actually go and buy whatever they're selling. You just go and eat all the free samples of food. And that is basically what Bruce is doing. He's just, uh, knowing the outcome of this promoting chef Jamie's brand. That is, that is what I wanna do.

Avery/GM: I love this. This is great. Yeah. Yeah. So you come into the main corridor of the death race registration area. You see the bars in the clubs, and they're all kind of bumping and getting excited, getting ready for the next race. And then you see a sign with an arrow that says contestants, and it points down a flight of stair.

And you come down this flight of stairs and you see about 12 individuals kind of, they're like in like sets of like threes and fours. They're chatting with each other kind of off in different corners, and they're wearing like pilot jumpsuits. They look like they're, you know, kind of just trying to relax before the next big race.

Caden/Bruce: Excellent. Bruce is gonna hold this tray and, uh, like nervously flick his tail, but like, try to control himself and just, uh, walk into the room and be like, Fresh out of the oven, chef Jamie's brand new beans and more buns here to give you motivation to help satisfy your cravings before the next race. Would you like to try one?

Avery/GM: Go ahead and roll a charisma connect check.

Caden/Bruce: Oh no! Of course I have to roll.

Bee/Polaris: can the, the smell wafting in…

Avery/GM: I'll give you a plus one because No, no, I'll give you a plus two because they smell so good and they came out so great. And you rolled a 12 on your earlier check, right?

Caden/Bruce: What was the, um,

Avery/GM: then I'll, I'll give you a plus two.

Caden/Bruce: It was Connect and, uh,

Avery/GM: charisma connect.

Caden/Bruce: Charisma. I got a plus zero on both of those. That's fine. Uh, with the plus two, that's an 11.

Avery/GM: Okay

Jenine/Marty: Nice!

Bee/Polaris: That’s Pretty good!

Caden/Bruce: That's pretty good.

Avery/GM: Nine of these individuals, a few. A couple from each team, and then a whole team come over and start taking samples. And one of 'em is just like, oh yeah, food. That's exactly what I need. Helps calm the nerves, you know?

And one of these racers is like a humanoid mushroom, a little miconid, and it wattles up to you and reaches up its little tendril and grabs one and looks at it and it's just, I rarely eat people food. Uh, but sure why not? Jamie's a good person and eats it.

Bee/Polaris: They know Jamie?

Avery/GM: they know TV personality. Jamie.

Bee/Polaris: ah, fair.

Caden/Bruce: If this mushroom very rarely eats human food, it is like one of the best things this mushroom has eaten in a very long time. Like, these things taste good. Bruce did not make something that tastes bad.

Avery/GM: Bruce would never,

Caden/Bruce: Bruce would never,

Avery/GM: yeah. You see its eyes kind of get big and then it reaches up for another one and asks, uh, can I have a second?

Jenine/Marty: Oh no.

Caden/Bruce: Bruce will kinda like look around at like the people who have already established here and like know that he'll have leftovers and smile and be like, Of course, and you can take one for the road as well if you'd like.

Avery/GM: It takes another one and waddles back over to where its team was sort of chatting and you see it stuffing its face with all these samples that you've given it. And do you stay down here and monitor or do you leave your tray and just take off?

Caden/Bruce: I feel like to not look suspicious, Bruce would have like done a lap of the room and then like gone off and. Like made sort of the same sales pitch to other, um, people who are watching this event, but like, but like, he is very, very sure to like, not give this to anyone who's like super elderly or like a small child.

Caden/Bruce: Like he might see like a parent, like nursing a baby and just. Kind of be like, oh no, I wouldn't suggest having this like with a small infant, you know, don't wanna like blow their taste buds outta their brain sort of thing. And just, you know, like he, he is, he's given, he's given them a way to not look sketchy, but like, Also trying to be somewhat nice about it.

Avery/GM: Totally. Okay. I'm just gonna make a note here. Uh, chef Jamie impersonation…

Caden/Bruce: He's not trying No, no, no, no, no.

Bee/Polaris: No. Employee. Employee.

Avery/GM: or No, no. Not impersonation.

Caden/Bruce: He is, he is, he is marketing chef Jamie's beans and buns now, apparently and just, they taste amazing. They're just gonna have… you know.

Avery/GM: I'll put marketing subterfuge.

Bee/Polaris: Yes.

Avery/GM: Yes.

Zach/Zahn: Fantastic.

Avery/GM: This, this is great. Cool. Yeah. So Bruce, you hear a few people say, wow, I can't wait to try these at, at bean me up later. Oh, I, I hope they get these in stock soon.

Bee/Polaris: Uh oh.

Avery/GM: and your bean roll are becoming the talk of the race, surprisingly.

Caden/Bruce: Uh oh.

(Ambience fades out, outro fades in)

Avery/GM: Thank you for listening to our show!

Beyond the Furthest Stars is a 1up 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 include: Cyberpunk bar, cyberpunk city, and orbital promenade.

be sure to check us out @furthest Pod on Twitter and Tumblr

We'll be back on December 15th with our next episode.

See you out there, Beyond the Furthest Stars!

(Outro music swells, continues playing, then fades out)