Avery/GM: Welcome to Episode 27 of Beyond the Furthest Stars!
(Intro music plays and fades out, ambience fades in)
Avery/GM: And we flash back to the crew of the TSKAM.
Bee/Polaris: So I know we're just like in the parking lot, but is there like in a, uh, like a, you know how ERs have like the, this is where the ambulance guys can go because it's an emergency, they gotta get a person in there fast. Is there a that?
Avery/GM: I didn't design one, but there probably would be. Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. Cause I imagine this facility is probably gonna ha like most facilities on the capitol is probably gonna have a weapons check. I think that's something that we could all intuit. Is there any way that we can make it look like this is an emergency and we need to get in there fast without them taking our weapons? Does that make sense? Am I making sense? Y
Avery/GM: Yes. Yes. It, yeah. You make sense Yeah. Basically we need help now.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: totally.
Bee/Polaris: Because Rho does need help now.
Avery/GM: Yes.
c Yeah. Um, I, I think it would be pretty great to have Marty burst off the, the thing leading the stretcher.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Yes! We can show up the nerd!
Jenine/Marty: Yeah. I was about to say that!
Avery/GM: We will say, you took one of the medical beds, the hover beds from the cassia and put it on the TSKAM.
Bee/Polaris: Sweet.
Avery/GM: So y'all have this hover bed that. Y'all can put Rho on and, and, and get her into the, into the medical bay. So it's on the other side of the building. From where
Bee/Polaris: you're at. Oh, okay. Well, I guess player. Well back into the ship, we're gonna have to park on the other side
Chris/Ollie: also…
Avery/GM: Parking lot's full, ER is busy. No, I'm kidding.
Chris/Ollie: Just land on some other
Bee/Polaris: yeah, we like wasting resources.
Chris/Ollie: So Ollie's also gonna want to, uh, disassemble his combat rifle and stash the parts inside himself.
Bee/Polaris: Oh. And then he has like little hands inside himself that are putting it together.
Avery/GM: Y'all think this is gonna go so bad. I don't understand. like
Bee/Polaris: No, I just having weapons on hand.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Jenine/Marty: I cannot fight. I do not shoot.
Avery/GM: Not with your body, but with your mind.
Jenine/Marty: This is true.
Bee/Polaris: I fight with my body with varying degrees of success.
Avery/GM: Mm-hmm. So, okay, Ollie, you do that. I mean, you know your body, you know where you can hide things. I'm not gonna make you roll a skill check for that. Yeah. So you disassemble your, your weapon and you stash the parts inside of your, um, inside your chassis. So y'all are going to, is this the plan everyone wants to go with? Bluffing your way into the medical Bay, past the security checkpoint?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Feel free to come up with a less risky idea.
Zach/Zahn: I mean, it's one of those that's gonna have, well, what does Amp
Jenine/Marty: Does Major Tom have anything to say with this before we go in there? Cause I feel like
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. It's on his authority that we're requisitioning the lab.
Avery/GM: Well. We're here. Uh, how, how do, how, how are we gonna go in? Um, you just, you just want me to go in and present the, the papers and we can just take, uh, this, uh, row person, uh, back there and, and get 'em fixed up, Right?
Bee/Polaris: We're going in emergency style.
Avery/GM: Oh, all right. Are you sure? I mean, we have the requisite, we already got permission to be here. It's not like we got a go the extra mile.
Bee/Polaris: Sure, but I'd like to keep my weapons.
Jenine/Marty: Yeah. Are they gonna take our weapons if we try to just go in?
Avery/GM: Oh yeah it’s a Secure facility. There's like psionics who are really sick there, and if they got ahold of weapons, they could really do some damage. Like, not even like purposefully, but just like due to the nature of some of their illnesses.
Jenine/Marty: Oh, yeah. Huh?
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Jenine/Marty: Huh.
Bee/Polaris: Well…
Avery/GM: I mean, you could, you could be put the whole, whole city of ambrosia. It's just a few, a few miles away. You could put that whole city in danger.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, well anyway.
Chris/Ollie: What's done is done. The gun is stashed.
Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah. Polaris will just walk over to Ollie and hand him his laser blades.
Avery/GM: So Machamp is just like, yeah. Um, I don't really think y'all should be bringing those in. I mean, I won't say anything, but I mean it's not exactly safe
Bee/Polaris: Noted… as he hands the second laser blades to Ollie.
Avery/GM: Ollie, do you like disassemble these and also hide them in your orifices?
Chris/Ollie: no. They're probably small enough that they can just. Fit in.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. If you just turn 'em off. Sure. Which players didn't turn 'em off when he handed them to you. He always handed them on.
Chris/Ollie: They're just always on?
Zach/Zahn: what!?
Bee/Polaris: when I said polaris is a danger to public safety, I meant he literally always has them on to some degree.
Chris/Ollie: All like the door, door handles next to the door handles around the ship, have like, scorch marks around all the, uh, light switches on the ship and shit?
Avery/GM: There's just little. There's literal little holes that have been made into makeshift holsters to hold them.
Bee/Polaris: I mean, he has a belt. He has a utility belt.
Avery/GM: What? Oh gosh. Okay. Um, so Machamp isn't gonna say anything
Bee/Polaris: good
Avery/GM: about y'all sneaking in weapons, but, um, is definitely uncomfortable by the idea.
Bee/Polaris: Well, he’ll live
Avery/GM: and Marty, uh, he helps you get row situated on this hover bed and it's just like so front door or emergency door.
Chris/Ollie: This is a medical emergency.
Zach/Zahn: Polaris your call.
Bee/Polaris: Why is it my call?
Zach/Zahn: I don't know. It was your idea.
Bee/Polaris: Well, I said emergency style. I assumed that we were gonna go in emergency style, but… okay
Jenine/Marty: cool. So like Marty starts like that, like fun little, you know, like when before people start races, they start doing that little hoppy thing.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Jenine/Marty: That’s what Marty's doing next to the bed that she's ready to push? Rowe all of her fi, all of her little frame.
Bee/Polaris: there's like three of us pushing the gurney. All right. Like go, go, go.
Jenine/Marty: Ready? cool.
Bee/Polaris: Everyone look, look urgent.
Jenine/Marty: Marty like, Starts full sprint towards the door and just goes, move, move, move. We have an emergency. We have an emergency. Please, please help, help, help. We've been, we had permission before. Now this has gotten more critical as she's like starting to like also say different medical terms with it. Like
Bee/Polaris: Yeah!
Jenine/Marty: medical terms that makes sense, but like, The player doesn't know this. But Marty does.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Polaris is on the side pushing the gurney behind Marty, like making it look like an actual emergency cause usually there's like two or three people pushing the gurney. Right, in a medical, medical emergency.
Avery/GM: Yeah!
Bee/Polaris: yeah!
Chris/Ollie: yeah!
Zach/Zahn: So Zahn’s running alongside with like cables attached to the bed and a holographic display on his other arm.
Bee/Polaris: Hell yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Like life, life side readings,
Bee/Polaris: let's go. You just Googled it and it's like a gif on loop.
Zach/Zahn: Yep.
Avery/GM: Oh my gosh.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Um, Ollie’s gonna be on the, on a side pushing as well. And he is just going to be, uh, reciting random, but urgent sounding medical, uh, numbers. You know, like, uh, you know, the usual like
Zach/Zahn: like blood pressure blood pressure stuff,
Chris/Ollie: Blood pressure dropping! you know, X over Y!
Jenine/Marty: X over Y?
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will just be like, just like get out of the way. Just like making, like moving people aside and like trying to get like, you know, make their way.
Avery/GM: Sure. you come into this medical bay and they are not quite ready to receive you in this way.
Zach/Zahn: they should always be ready.
Bee/Polaris: Right?
Avery/GM: Well, you know,
Zach/Zahn: that's their problem.
Avery/GM: They weren't. Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: And they knew we were coming,
Avery/GM: sort of, uh, whether Oswald told everyone you were coming. Different story. Oh,
Bee/Polaris: we're about to embarrass the fuck outta this man.
Jenine/Marty: Oh, I'm so excited.
Avery/GM: So in this medical bay, there are three chambers to the left that are filled with some strange green liquid. And suspended in the liquid are three individuals who look to be sleeping. There's a lab worker nearby checking vital signs on these, uh, little chambers here.
Bee/Polaris: Sweet.
Avery/GM: Also in this room is a set of operating beds next to each other. Uh, there is a cat scan machine, which is. Represented by this little radioactive sign, even though CAT scans are magnetic, I believe, and not radioactive, but whatever.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah
Avery/GM: there's computers, there's events, there's some other stuff in the back that you can't quite see as you come rushing in here. And the lab worker's, like, uh, I, I, we weren't expecting any, we didn't get any calls about an emergency. Uh uh what do you, what do you need?
Jenine/Marty: And then I turn to this person and I go, We have permission as well as we had informed your lead here. What is his name? Dr. Um, Oswald is supposed to alert you of our presence here.
Avery/GM: Oh yeah, doc, Dr. Oswald. He. They, they didn't say anything. I'll go, I'll go double check. And they run out of this room here and as they do, you hear an alarm going off somewhere else in the building and you do hear Oswald like shouting, ex expletives. Bruce, what do you do? You just heard this person referenced Marty. Could be a different, Marty, you don't know, but you're here. You've caused a distraction. What is your next step?
Caden/Bruce: My next step is going to be to try and like, Get out of the room and go somewhere private. Like, I don't know if there's a washroom or, I don't know if there's like a room that's just like unoccupied?
Avery/GM: you know… Of course I didn't think to make a bathroom, but there's definitely a, a restroom of some kind. Uh, we'll say right here is a restroom with a vent.
Caden/Bruce: Perfect.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: A Bruce sized vent.
Caden/Bruce: is, is is the vent Bruce sized?
Avery/GM: They are, they are, they are Bruce sized.
Caden/Bruce: Okay.
Avery/GM: Because, because,
Chris/Ollie: like Batman, Arthur Asylum ones.
Avery/GM: they're robot sized, so the maintenance bot can get in and out.
Caden/Bruce: Okay. Alright. So the first step of Bruce's plan is to remove the cardboard, like what he made, uh, costume sort of thing, and underneath it. Yes, it was blue, but it's also a maintenance jacket. So now he looks like a maintenance guy. Yeah. And he removes, he removes the glasses because obviously the glasses were part of the Comic-Con disguise and instead puts on like this white baseball hat Because he can and proceeds to like, because it's cardboard, he just folds it up and puts it in the recycling bin because he's a good boy and he recycles and then he'll kind of look up at the vent and having noticed the other vents, is there a way for him to like, I don't know, step on the toilet and like get up in there Because that's what he wants to do.
Avery/GM: The vents are actually in the ground.
Caden/Bruce: Oh, okay. Even better.
Zach/Zahn: It's like a dropdown
Avery/GM: Like I said, robots.
Caden/Bruce: So yeah, he's just gonna open it up and, uh, jump on in.
Avery/GM: Sure. Um, and you do hear some panic going on outside as people are evacuating Oswald's lab and trying to clean up the mess that has been caused.
Caden/Bruce: It's a great distraction
Avery/GM: nothing, nothing putting anyone in deadly danger, but just like, You don't know what chemicals those were. Get away and figure it out first. You know, that kind of thing.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah.
Avery/GM: So yeah, you are in the vents.
Zach/Zahn: What about guy who tripped? Is he ok?
Avery/GM: Uh, physically? Yeah. Emotionally? No. He's probably embarrassed.
Zach/Zahn: I hope he is not covered in potentially bad chemicals.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Avery/GM: No, no. They, he, he tripped and they flung and they flew far enough away. No acid damage. Its okay.
Caden/Bruce: No NPCs, were harmed in the making of this episode yet.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Yeah. Yet,
Avery/GM: yet,
Zach/Zahn: Oswald's feelings are definitely gonna get hurt.
Avery/GM: So you're in the vents. Where, where to next?
Caden/Bruce: Bruce. Bruce wants to go underneath room three, please.
And thank you. Back underneath the, um, administration room. And now what Bruce is gonna do is he's gonna remove one of the patches that he's wearing. So what Zuli has given him is they gave him like basically, uh, knockout gas capsule, and he's gonna take one out and he's gonna chuck it into the room to activate it and keep him underneath. So hopefully it won't knock him out, but only the people in the room.
Avery/GM: Perfect. We'll say, you'd probably throw it in there and then take a few steps down the vent so that way it won't
Caden/Bruce: Oh yeah, definitely.
Avery/GM: it'll probably get in there, but by the time you get back it probably won't, um, be active anymore. But yeah, you throw this little capsule into the room. Uh, I'm gonna make some saving throws that are probably gonna be awful, cuz these are NPCs, like commoners, so. Yeah, that's a one. And that's a three. Okay. So the two aides that were in this room milling about the one that gave that really boring speech about paperwork, they, you just, you hear a thud and then another thud from inside this vent. And after a couple of moments, this gas kind of dissipates and you were, you were basically told, give it two minutes, the gas becomes inert, and they'll be out for a good hour.
Caden/Bruce: Oh, perfect. So you crawl up into the.
Avery/GM: Into the room now or ?
Caden/Bruce: Yeah. I'm gonna try and break open the door. I realize that there is now event inside the room, but I feel like there is, Bruce would not know that, so I am gonna try and break Open the door instead.
Avery/GM: Sure. Okay. Um, you pop out of this event and this is when you notice or actually roll a. Intelligence or no? Yeah. Intelligence. Notice. Check, please.
Caden/Bruce: That is a… That’s a five.
Avery/GM: Okay. Uh, you notice nothing, you're fine.
Caden/Bruce: Okay.
Avery/GM: Totally fine.
Caden/Bruce: Totally not suspicious at all.
Avery/GM: Uh, so this door is a giant vault door with a electronic keyed lock. Um, like keypad lock on it.
Caden/Bruce: Okay. Can I, can I, can I use my com pad to, to try and hack it?
Avery/GM: Sure.
Caden/Bruce: I'm assuming that's another role. Um,
Avery/GM: Let's see here. Yes. Um, it will be a, uh, intelligence sneak check with a plus two bonus since it's hacking. Uh, or, or you can use program instead. If you have better program.
Caden/Bruce: I would rather use program. Um, sure. That makes it a six.
Avery/GM: a six
Caden/Bruce: flat across the board.
Avery/GM: Sure. Uh, so it unlocks, but you. It takes like a good like 10 to 15 minutes to actually get this door open, um, which is a lot longer than you really had hoped for with this kind of mission because timing is everything. The longer you're away from your group, the less likely it is that your disguise will hold up. Um, but the door opens and slides to the side and you are inside the server room. There are computers buzzing and worrying. There's uh, servers, there's monitors, and all kinds of electronic mumbo jumbo here, and you see several terminals that you know, you could probably access this data from. So yeah and then you do also look, and you do see this vent, like right, like, Just right there.
Caden/Bruce: Okay. Having seen in the room, having seen the vent, Bruce is gonna close the door, cause he knows he has another way out that doesn't involve the door and he doesn't want anyone, like, he at least wants notice if someone's gonna come in behind him, even though he's wearing his grate maintenance disguise that no one can see and yeah, he'll go to one of the computers and try and access the files to the funds and see what's been going on.
Avery/GM: Sure, go ahead and roll an intelligence program check.
Caden/Bruce: Ooh, that is a nine.
Avery/GM: I'm sorry that it's not enough. You get an error code and a little voice says, two more attempts remaining before total lockout.
Caden/Bruce: Well, uh, I'm, I'm still gonna try again cause
Avery/GM: Sure.
Caden/Bruce: Cause I, I, I gotta, uh, that's a little bit better. That's a 10.
Avery/GM: Is that including your plus two bonus?
Caden/Bruce: Oh, no, the nine wasn't even including my plus two bonus. I didn't think I had a bonus on that.
Avery/GM: Yeah, yeah. If you're, are you, wait, are you using your data pad for that one?
Caden/Bruce: Yeah, I'd assume so.
Avery/GM: Okay. Yeah. Then yeah, you get your plus two bonus. Okay. So an 11 and then a 12. Yes. A 12 is what you needed. Woo. So cool. Um, you bust into this server. And start downloading the data. You don't have the time to really go through it here, but you do see the words project epidrome several times on the screen.
Avery/GM: As you're downloading this data and as you're sitting here waiting for the download to happen, you hear a familiar voice coming through the vent as Marty is yelling that they have a medical emergency. Just in the next room over and Marty, this attendant has gone to go get Oswald and Oswald comes barging into the room, all flustered, um, clearly distracted by a bunch of other things going on, and it's just like, really? You had to make a scene coming here. You couldn't have just come in through the front door like a normal person. You had to just make a big scene.
Jenine/Marty: Hi, sorry. Emergency. Hello?
Avery/GM: Hi. Hi Marty. What's the emergency?
Jenine/Marty: I motion to Rho.
Avery/GM: that is, that is an unconscious woman.
Jenine/Marty: Oh, I'm sorry. Um, is this not a place where you're trying to like, understand and, uh, fix fixed beings that have, uh, torched. Significantly. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you could tell that this person has been, uh, has been torching. Sorry. I guess you're not as smart as I thought they were. Can I get someone else who is more competent?
Avery/GM: Okay. I understand now. This is the, the person you were, I thought you were talking about yourself when you sent me those messages. I, you know, I recognized that your skills weren't always up to snuff, and so I just, I assumed that it was, it was you.
Bee/Polaris: sir. Can we keep the mudsling to a minimum? We have a patient that needs help.
Avery/GM: Yes. And uh, you are
Bee/Polaris: none of your business. Go get your supervisor.
Chris/Ollie: Just full on Karen on him.
Avery/GM: I am the supervisor!
Bee/Polaris: could have fooled me since you're staff didn't know we were coming.
Avery/GM: Oh, Marty, you have just gotten all kinds of tough talking friends, haven't you? Fine, everyone out of my way. Let me assess the patient. And Oswald starts putting on gloves and is just like, did you get the data that I sent you? Of course you did. You insulted it?
Jenine/Marty: Oh, I'm sorry. Did you double check your work? Because it's definitely incorrect.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie is going to, uh, stop him as he's putting on the gloves and say, sorry, we require your lab, not your assistance.
Avery/GM: Ooh.
Zach/Zahn: Oh!
Bee/Polaris: ouch.
Chris/Ollie: And he's just gonna do that casually as he's continuing the, uh, setup process, plugging, uh, row into the life support and all that.
Avery/GM: Sure. You're transfer row from this floating bed to one of the operating beds and. Oswald is looking very flustered at getting kind of tag teamed by all of these people that came in with their longtime academic rival and is just looking around and is like, okay, you know what? Fine, you don't want my help. You don't need my help. I will be in my lab cleaning up a very dangerous chemical spill…
Bee/Polaris: so go do that.
Avery/GM: Fine, Find your own psionic to help you with the procedure. See if I care and Oswald wanders out of the room and back into their lab.
Bee/Polaris: Did we actually need his help?
Zach/Zahn: Is Machamp here with us somewhere.
Jenine/Marty: I mean, it would be nice to have like a…
Avery/GM: Machamp is standing there awkwardly like, like that kind of person that's like, doesn't know the context of a fight and but is in a room when a fight occurs.
Jenine/Marty: Mm-hmm.
Avery/GM: And so just like kind of like looking around like, oh yeah, look at these people in these chambers. Uhhuh, this is really interesting. You don't necessarily need Oswald's help. You have a S here with you. In the form of Marty to do this procedure.
Chris/Ollie: We believe in you, Marty.
Avery/GM: Marty, you have all the data available.
Chris/Ollie: You corrected his thing.
Jenine/Marty: Mm-hmm.
Avery/GM: You correct… You did correct the work.
Jenine/Marty: Yeah.
Avery/GM: still it is experimental.
Jenine/Marty: Mm-hmm.
Avery/GM: Bruce, you hear all this commotion going on through the vent. how do you react to hearing your friends on the other side of this wall?
Bee/Polaris: It’s us, its Bruce!
Caden/Bruce: How, how long has my, uh, download Gotta go?
Avery/GM: It is at 65%.
Caden/Bruce: Okay, that's fine. I'm, I'm assuming it's just like a live updating thing, like it just live sends, like, Bruce doesn't have to wait for it to get to a hundred.
Avery/GM: It's, it's on transmit, so it's, it's transmitting to your shuttle.
Caden/Bruce: Okay. In which case he's gonna pop that safety hatch open and try to go towards the voices. If he can hear them, that's, he's gonna assume he can hear them through the vents and that's what he's gonna try and do.
Avery/GM: Sure. Uh, go ahead and roll a either dexterity or intelligence and we'll go with notice.
Caden/Bruce: we'll go dexterity caise that's better for me. So that's a nine.
Avery/GM: Sure Okay. Yeah. Uh, you realize the sounds are coming just from the next room and you follow the vents and you are just underneath the vent. In this lab. Marty, Rho is prepped and ready. Are you gonna perform this procedure with, with her or?
Bee/Polaris: out of curiosity? So there's no one else in this lab, correct?
Avery/GM: Uh, the attendant has come back in and is like, purposefully just like making themselves. It's scarce over here in the corner. Um, and then Machamp is up here somewhere checking out these People.
Bee/Polaris: Okay, sweet. I was gonna say it would be a bigger flex to get his, like assistance, like his attendance to help but not him.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: So up to you Marty.
Jenine/Marty: No, we're gonna do it as a close situation cuz Marty, Marty's not here for, for, for the glitz and the glam. She's here to help Rho. No, they can stay.
Bee/Polaris: Well, I mean, do we want them to, cuz Roe is like not from here and also Oh yeah. Like secret girl.
Jenine/Marty: Yeah. Before I start, can I like, make sure that like the information that's coming off of like the computers, cuz we have her hooked up, could that be like on like an internal hard drug that we have control of? So it's not going anywhere except for like our own location. Does that make sense? Did I, did I communicate technology terms?
Avery/GM: Yeah, I get what you're saying. Um, you. You could set up a local server because Ollie's an AI and has just a vast amount of computing power. You could set up a local server on Ollie to hold this data.
Bee/Polaris: Yo
Avery/GM: as long as Ollie consents to it.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. We do need Ollie's permission. We gotta ask Ollie about that.
Chris/Ollie: Absolutely.
Jenine/Marty: Ollie, Could you use you as a hard drive? Awesome.
Chris/Ollie: Anything to help our new friend!
Jenine/Marty: Sick. Smexy. Amazing. Wonderful.
Chris/Ollie: Cool. Is that gonna require a processing point or me to be incapacitated.
Avery/GM: Yes. it will require a processing point. You will be able to observe and everything, but you will not be able to go farther than like five feet from the bed while you're connected.
Bee/Polaris: I'll go ahead and since Rho is a secret girl, we should probably get that person to not be in the lab.
Jenine/Marty: Yeah. Valid.
Bee/Polaris: So Polaris will walk over to them and like gently kinda like tap on the shoulder to get their attention.
Avery/GM: they're just like, uh, yeah. Oh, how can I, how can I help you?
Bee/Polaris: Uh, I'm sorry. Without proper clearance, you can't actually be in this lab. Not right now, at least until we're done.
Avery/GM: Oh, I thought I had proper clearance. Are, are you sure?
Bee/Polaris: Yes.
Avery/GM: Huh. Well, uh, go ahead and roll a charisma connection.
Bee/Polaris: No, I have nothing in that.
Avery/GM: Or a charisma lead.
Bee/Polaris: No, I have nothing in that either. Charisma connect.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Jenine/Marty: can, can I help by just giving a quick glare at the person in the back.
Avery/GM: I love it. Yes. Well charisma connect to help. Oh, beautiful.
Bee/Polaris: Please help me. Oh my gosh.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Uh,
Jenine/Marty: you would only get a plus one from me, but you know,
Bee/Polaris: can, is there an intimidate? God, can I do an intimidate? Was there, there's not an intimidate. Dammit.
Avery/GM: I think that would be lead.
Bee/Polaris: Shit, I don't have anything in them.
Jenine/Marty: I got an 11 for help.
Avery/GM: Okay. Bee what did you roll?
Bee/Polaris: Eight.
Avery/GM: Eight.
Bee/Polaris: Eight.
Jenine/Marty: That's not bad.
Avery/GM: well, you're like, Hey, you're lucky. This guy's a moron.
Bee/Polaris: Sweet.
Chris/Ollie: What a maroon.
Zach/Zahn: What a maroon
Jenine/Marty: maroon.
Avery/GM: Between, between Marty's glare and your very like, monotone official way of speaking. This person's just like, uh, well, I, I guess I'll go help. Oswald with the, uh,
Bee/Polaris: yes. Do that
Avery/GM: with the cleanup. Sure. Hey, just make sure these, these folks don't, uh, flatline. Okay?
Bee/Polaris: Sure.
Avery/GM: So, Bruce, you are in this vent. You coming out or are you staying there?
Caden/Bruce: Oh, no, Bruce is coming out. Uh, but I feel like. Beforehand cuz I, I don't, uh, no, I, I don't think Bruce would. I think, yeah, he's just gonna come out
Bee/Polaris: as soon as the vent opens. Polaris goes to grab his laser pistol, remember? He doesn't have it. And then sees Bruce and just stares.
Zach/Zahn: Hold on. Do we know it's Bruce? Because Bruce is in disguise.
Bee/Polaris: Oh. Do we have to roll? To recognize? I feel like we could recognize Bruce.
Avery/GM: That's the genius of it. Y'all recognize your friend to Bruce?
Bee/Polaris: Hell yeah,
Avery/GM: but for some reason no one else.
Bee/Polaris and Zach/Zahn: No one else does,
Avery/GM: no one else sees through these disguises, but y'all are just like, oh, it's Bruce
Bee/Polaris: as soon as Bruce is fully out of the vent, Polaris like speed walks over and does the thing where like he puts his helmet against Bruce. Like, kind of like a hug or like, you know when like cats run over and they like nudge you that?
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Cause Polaris doesn't know how to hug. I was gonna say,
Zach/Zahn: I was gonna say something very similar, uh, as Zahn like sees Bruce come out, he's gonna like have the helmet de deconstruct and then he is gonna run over and like bear hug him.
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will put like one arm around Polaris and the other arm around Zahn. Someone just be like, I'm sorry I was gone for so long. But I'm here now.
Zach/Zahn: How the heck are you here, man?
Caden/Bruce: Well, I might be stealing data about their finances.
Bee/Polaris: excellent. We're stealing their lab for a moment
Zach/Zahn: temporarily, but we're helping this lady.
Avery/GM: And Bruce, you do see that this person that you only got a glimpse of back on the Cassia, uh, who you've only ever seen actually knocked out.
Bee/Polaris: So this is nothing new.
Caden/Bruce: This is nothing new.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Hatsune Miku over here is laying down on this operating bed. Connected to Ollie and getting ready for some sort of procedure with Marty.
Jenine/Marty: I'm on the other side of the bed with my hands extended being like, oh, woohoo, wait, I wanna hug
Bee/Polaris: pause operation for a hug.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie’s gonna get up and try and go for a hug, but he is gonna get stopped and tug back by the cables.
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will hug Marty and like take his hat off with his tail and like put it on Marty's head and then walk over to Ollie and give him a hug and just be like, I missed you guys too. I should probably make sure I've recovered my data pad before we leave, but, um Right. I, uh, I have a gift for you Zahn. And like, he'll pull out the other data pad that Lazuli gave him and just be like, this is the blackmail that the, uh, tigers had on us. And, um, Lazuli, They gave me information on how to delete it, but, uh, I figured there might be some valuable stuff on this that we maybe don't want to delete. and I thought you might have fun with it.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn gladly takes it and is like, and as his helmet reconstructs and he is like, hell yeah, man… When. Bruce, when did you turn into international super spy? Sheesh.
Caden/Bruce: I think Bruce will just shrug and smile and just be like, apparently creativity doesn't just stay in the kitchen.
Bee/Polaris: Speaking of, I have a gift for you, and he pulls out the little canister of like bay leaves that Bruce left behind and hands it to Bruce.
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will smile on. Just be like, please tell me you just haven't been consistently eating those bars.
Bee/Polaris: Then I won't, and then he'll walk over to the room.
Zach/Zahn: Food has been spectacularly more boring since you came, since you left.
Bee/Polaris: Well, Marty's been cooking!
Jenine/Marty: Ouch! Ouch!
Avery/GM: Oh, the shade.
Bee/Polaris: Oh my God.
Zach/Zahn: It's not a diss on Marty's cooking capabilities. It's a, uh, compliment on Bruce's extravagant cooking capabilities.
Jenine/Marty: Are you digging? You're continually digging a hole in front of Marty.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, you're really saying that. Marty's the basic bitch and Bruce is way better.
Avery/GM: Oh my god.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's gonna shut up.
Bee/Polaris: Thank God you're back. We've only been eating McDonald's.
Chris/Ollie: Hearing Bruce mentioned Lazuli, he's going to be like Lazuli is... are they here on the planet with you?
Caden/Bruce: No, they, um, went to go and investigate some other call and sent me to do this as a solo mission. Basically said that my, uh, the blackmail was done and that's why they gave me the data pad. Um, there's stuff going on with the Hegemony and. It wasn't exactly my skillset, which, um, they're probably right.
Chris/Ollie: I find it hard to believe that they simply kept their word. Maybe we have misjudged the Winstons.
Bee/Polaris: No, we killed their relative. Rich people generally don't like that.
Zach/Zahn: I, at least some of them, despite having, you know,
Chris/Ollie: that would improve the, their, the size of their inheritance if you killed off all their family members, so
Bee/Polaris: Well, sure. But they don't like other people doing the job.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, true. Yeah.
Avery/GM: No one's allowed to kill my uncle but me.
Bee/Polaris: Exactly.
Bee/Polaris: Cause then they'll have the secret satisfaction that they were, the reason their inheritance is bigger.
Avery/GM: Oh my gosh. Dastardly devils
Bee/Polaris: indeed
Avery/GM: Marty, as a refresher, the data that Oswald had sent you on this experimental procedure, um, it's called mind melding. Basically, um, you link your mind with a pscion who has been torched or is incapacitated in some way, um, and apply a dose of the brainwave drug To the person that is incapacitated, and once the two minds are linked, the healthy Biopscion will be able to use their powers to heal the mental pathways that have been burned In the torched victim, or at least that's how the experiment is supposed to go.
Jenine/Marty: Mm-hmm.
Avery/GM: Who is going to be administering the dose while you align your energies with Rho?
Bee/Polaris: Oh shit. Who's good at drugging people?
Jenine/Marty: Yeah. What kind of a stat would, would that be a stab situation? Would Okay… Could I also defend, could I defend this?
Avery/GM: Sure.
Jenine/Marty: Would you say applying a vaccine is kind of like basting a Turkey?
Bee/Polaris: Bruce is probably excellent at that.
Avery/GM: Let's see it. It is a heal roll.
Bee/Polaris: Ah shit.
Avery/GM: by the book.
Bee/Polaris: Ah, well.
Jenine/Marty: Mm-hmm.
Bee/Polaris: I can't help there.
Avery/GM: But
Zach/Zahn: Well shit.
Avery/GM: This particular drug is just a patch.
Bee/Polaris: Oh sick!
Jenine/Marty: okay. That's fine. Yeah. Who, who, who has a Healy heel? Who? Who has some healy Heal? Or did you all just not do it and rely on me?
Bee/Polaris: Uh, yeah. I'm only good at harming.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: We got a medic.
Zach/Zahn: I'm only good at fixing and harming.
Chris/Ollie: I'm pretty good at fixing, but I pretty much can only hacky things.
Bee/Polaris: Sweet. We got two harm boys, and a hacker.
Zach/Zahn: Do we, do we have, um, do we have any of, uh, the chips for, for Ollie on us right now?
Chris/Ollie: I don't, I'm I'm pretty preoccupied being the server though.
Jenine/Marty: Oh, yeah. We have a, yeah. Holly's our hard drive.
Avery/GM: Yeah. I mean you can still, yeah, you can still move and stuff. Um, but yeah, I don't think you could install a chip without having to disconnect everything.
Bee/Polaris: Uh, is there like a program or something that we could use that Polaris could like patch onto his helmet? Cause his helmet is essentially a computer. That could like basically assist in letting him know where the best place to put the patch is. Like an x-ray sort of deal.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Roll intelligence program.
Bee/Polaris: Ooh, do I have anything? I, wow. I somehow don't have anything in program. Alright.
Zach/Zahn: Gosh darn it.
Bee/Polaris: but I'm smart.
Zach/Zahn: I was thinking of the exact same thing. You just beat me to the punch.
Bee/Polaris: Oh. Uh, 10.
Avery/GM: That's good enough. I was gonna put it at a 10. So
Bee/Polaris: sweet.
Avery/GM: You actually log into the local server for the institute and find a bunch of like automated like training programs for administering medication. And like, one of them is like basic first aid, right?
Bee/Polaris: Sweet.
Avery/GM: And you kind of skim past all the boring stuff, like how to identify bandages and stuff like that and you get to the part where it's like applying medicationthere's a friendly little stick figure, um, illustrating how to apply different medicines, and one of them says, brainwave and shows the person just slapping it on someone's, uh, forehead.
Bee/Polaris: Oh my gosh, I'm so glad because I was thinking of like the, the meme where you get a craft single and slap it on someone's face
Chris/Ollie: or it's head on, apply directly to the forehead.
Avery/GM: Exactly. So I will give you whatever your heel role or heel skill is right now. Um, just make it a plus one for this roll.
Bee/Polaris: Thank goodness. It's negative one.
Avery/GM: And then it's, um, intelligence, since you're using training.
Bee/Polaris: Hell yeah. I'm uber smart.
Avery/GM: So for you Marty, As Polaris is getting ready to apply this medication, I would like, I would like you to roll and a, a wisdom heal and add your bio skill to the roll.
Bee/Polaris: Fancy!
Jenine/Marty: I have a question. Am I, would I be looking at my heeler foci and I gain the heel, blah, blah, blah. You may attempt to stabilize one mortally wounded adjacent person per round on a turn one rolling heel skills rolled 3D6. So I'm rolling 3D6 question mark. Yes.
Avery/GM: Yeah, yeah.
Jenine/Marty: Sick!
Avery/GM: That's totally, yeah.
Jenine/Marty: Oh my God. Oh, that was so terrifying. The one is gone. Wonderful.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, thank God.
Jenine/Marty: Um, one of my dice kept rolling and it was right next to the dye that rolled a one, so I was just watching it roll. Rolled a six, so that's cute. Um, So it's gonna wisdom. Does a 14 do anything?
Avery/GM: perfect. You are, so as we kind of talked, like Scions can kind of see like the, the, the. Energy around them, they can kind of see this, this psychic energy around them, right?
Jenine/Marty: Mm-hmm.
Avery/GM: and when you really focus on it, that's when you really notice like just how much there is and there's kind of like a pattern to the way it moves and you are able to manipulate this, um, energy usually to heal people physically. But following your memory of the data that Oswald sent you and the corrections you made, you align this energy in a way that connects you to Rho’s mind. And as you do, uh, you give a thumbs up to Polaris and Polaris, Go ahead and make your roll.
Bee/Polaris: I'm gonna, I'm gonna unpeel this craft single and slap it on Rho’s forehead.
Avery/GM: I mean, it's not a very hard roll. I will say that.
Bee/Polaris: Excellent. Okay. What am I doing? So heel is a plus one right now and I'm adding intelligence.
Avery/GM: Yes.
Bee/Polaris: So plus two… 11.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Perfect. Uh, you apply a patch to a forehead.
Bee/Polaris: Let's go. Probably the hardest role I've done in this game so far.
Avery/GM: Oh, no. I hope not.
Bee/Polaris: I'm kidding. I'm so kidding.
Avery/GM: And Marty, you see Polaris's hand come down on onto Rho's forehead, and suddenly there is a flash of bright white light. And as this light fades, you find yourself in a field of flowers, a beautiful rainbow of flowers, different colors just spread out around you. And in different directions In this field, you see several different figures standing or sitting or kneeling in the distance, and it takes you a moment as your mind eyes, I guess, your eyes in this place kind of focus and settle as you, uh, see these figures, you see to your left is a Rho who is wearing red combat armor and she is raising boulders into the air and like moving her hands and you just see these boulders crumble to dust. And then another gesture reforms the rock. And she repeats this process over and over.
Avery/GM: To your right, you see a Rho wearing a black gown, hunched over what looks like a memorial of some kind, and she is weeping. Directly ahead of you. You see Rho is wearing a golden gown of radiant light. She is smiling and embracing a figure that you cannot make out from this distance. And then as you look behind you, you see a Rho wearing the same blue vac suit that you found her in on the Cassiopeia.
Avery/GM: And she appears to be looking at a Holo-projection of a blue and green planet. And while not crying, she definitely seems depressed. And as you take this scene in Rho, as you currently know her appears next to you. And begins to speak…
(Ambience fades out, Outro plays then fades down)
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: Starbase Omega, Mega City Slums, Covert Ops, Pattern Recognition, Starship Medical, and Ethereal Plane. We’ll be back on August 15th with our next episode.
See you out there, Beyond the Furthest Stars!