Avery/GM: Welcome to Episode 37 of Beyond the Furthest Stars! Just a content warning for this episode. This episode involves some serious family trauma, a lot of discussions about death, and dying and what it means to be alive. So just take it with a grain of salt and if this isn’t your bag, feel free to skip it. Enjoy!
(Intro plays, fades down, ambience fades in)
Zach/Zahn: Before Zahn steps away from the terminal, he unlocks the door.
Avery/GM: Oh, sure. Okay. Yeah. Uh, you come into this room and there is a big tree and I need….
Zach/Zahn: Zahn waves at the tree.
Avery/GM: I need a mental save from all humanoids.
Caden/Bruce: Do I count as a humanoid?
Avery/GM: You do.
Caden/Bruce: Damn it.
Avery/GM: Every flesh person. Yes.
Caden/Bruce: That's a D20. Is that a D20?
Avery/GM: Uh, yes.
Bee/Polaris: Oh I save.
Zach/Zahn: That is a Nat-twenty
Avery/GM: D20 versus your mental save. Oh, I definitely
Caden/Bruce: I failed.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, no Bruce! Bruce, No!
Caden/Bruce: Yeah, mine was a six.
Zach/Zahn: Oh no.
Avery/GM: So you're all walking through or into this room, this tree. Is before you. And this tree is again, like those plants or the crops in the other room, very healthy looking, very like picturesque, perfect tree.
Avery/GM: and you see two vines come down from the tree and reach out to you Bruce. And you hear this voice in your head that says, you are the one that showed us kindness. Please join us.
Caden/Bruce: Ah, ah,
Avery/GM: and it's just reaching out. Its, its, its tendrils towards you.
Bee/Polaris: man. I regret being a little bow on the, on the bush.
Avery/GM: It's not acting hostile, but it is, uh, speaking directly to you.
Zach/Zahn: Do we hear it speaking?
Avery/GM: Nope.
Bee/Polaris: No, it's speaking to Bruce. We saved.
Avery/GM: In your mind.
Chris/Ollie: is Bruce mesmerized by it or just hearing it?
Avery/GM: The mental save was just so that it would have access to your mind.
Chris/Ollie: Okay.
Zach/Zahn: Oh,
Bee/Polaris: oh.
Caden/Bruce: if Bruce answers,
Bee/Polaris: yeah. I don't want that
Caden/Bruce: Would he answer in his brain or do he answer out loud? Bruce doesn't know what like psychic ability is, so I feel like he would talk out loud.
Avery/GM: So you not being a psychic, you would not know that you could answer telepathically. So I think, I think any answer would come outta Bruce's mouth.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah. So I feel like everyone else would just hear Bruce, like would just see Bruce standing there and be like, What do you mean by join you?
Bee/Polaris: Polaris Looks at Bruce, players, looks at the tree.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn’s gonna walk past Bruce, like around the back of Bruce and come right here and he is gonna be like, yes, join us. Like look, obviously looking between Bruce and the tree. Join us downstairs, let's go.
Avery/GM: Bruce, In your mind you hear, we just wish to grow. The more we absorb, the more we grow.
Caden/Bruce: That's terrifying. I hate that.
Zach/Zahn: I hate that for you, that you gotta hear that.
Bee/Polaris: What if we just plant them on the desolate planet below?
Caden/Bruce: How did you become sentient?
Avery/GM: It says I was once just a humble seed on a green planet. Where life and light was plentiful, and then I was put into a box and then I traveled a long, long time and I was fed something and I just kind of knew what I was and that I needed to grow And so I grew everything here on this area is me. And soon you will be too.
Caden/Bruce: I don't like that.
Avery/GM: And the tentacles are reaching closer to you.
Caden/Bruce: What's your name?
Avery/GM: Eden.
Caden/Bruce: It's nice to meet you, Eden. I don't particularly want to stay here, but I can promise you if you don't hurt me or my friends, that we will find a way to provide you light and we will leave you plenty of food in our wake.
Avery/GM: Go ahead and roll a Charisma Connect check. This is also a very wild one-sided conversation for y'all to hear.
Caden/Bruce: Mm-Hmm.
Zach/Zahn: Right?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Polaris is sitting on Ollie and he's, he can't, well, Ollie is the one doing the moving, so Polaris is just like, what the fuck?
Zach/Zahn: What the fuck?
Bee/Polaris: What the fuck? Just internally.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Ollie is recording this to show Marty later.
Caden/Bruce: Amazing. That, that's an 11 by the way.
Avery/GM: Oh, perfect. Beautiful. The tentacles or the not tentacles, uh, the vines stop right in front of your face and pull back a little bit and that voice in your mind just says, you promise to take us somewhere new.
Caden/Bruce: I promise to give you a new experience And Bruce is nodding
Avery/GM: The Vines retreat back and it says, what is your name, kind one?
Caden/Bruce: Me, a player not trusting the Fae. Me, Bruce, knowing nothing about the Fae.
Bee/Polaris: Ain’t that the dilemma. It’s already in your brain, so.
Caden/Bruce: My name is Bruce. It's nice to meet you, Eden.
Avery/GM: Thank you, Bruce. The kind one we will remember you always fucking terrified and the vines retreat back up into the, the tree and
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is just spamming. Yikes, yikes. Yikes. Yikes. Yikes. And chat.
Avery/GM: And that presence in your mind is gone.
Caden/Bruce: I feel like Bruce kind of shakes his head because I feel like he was in a daze… not really, like noticing what was going on around him sort of thing. That's, that's how I've been imagining it. Like he'll kinda like shake his head and just be like, the plant has a name and wants us to stay here forever. But I think I was able to talk it out of consuming us and he'll put like a thumbs up,
Zach/Zahn: Zahn does like a slow nod at the thumbs up. Very concerned he's gonna not… not look at the tree and back his way to the next level. Just back step the whole way.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris takes a deep breath, and then just says, yikes.
Avery/GM: Right before you head downstairs, Bruce the vine reaches back out and it has a seed in its hand.
Caden/Bruce: I don't wanna… ah.
Bee/Polaris: Just put it on the planet. Well, we gotta go planet-side now,
Avery/GM:
Zach/Zahn: except the planet's inhospitable.
Caden/Bruce: I don't know if I wanna take it. Uh, Bruce will.
Avery/GM: You don't have to. You can leave.
Caden/Bruce: Uh, no. I- I-
Bee/Polaris: Well, I mean, no, take it.
Zach/Zahn: we have to go back through it to get outta here.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah, no, I need to take it.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, so take it and then when we get back to the ship burn it.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah, Bruce will take it.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, actually, I don't know, bro. Like they, they literally said, we'll, remember you always, and they've been around for a real long time, should probably fulfill that promise.
Caden/Bruce: I mean, you don't know. They said that, but I also only promised them a new experience. I was very careful with my words there.
Bee/Polaris: True…
Avery/GM: Okay, so you take the seed.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Okay. And as you step down the ladder, uh, to level three, it just waves.
Caden/Bruce: Bruce will wave back and the seed is now Eden. Jr.
Avery/GM: Eden. Jr.
Bee/Polaris: Yikes. Yikes. Yikes.
Zach/Zahn: You should put that in like a Tupperware or something so that it can't, like I would attached tart sprouting on you
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Yeah. I was about to say, put that shit in a glass jar. Put that shit in a test tube.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah, I think I, well I would imagine that like, cause there is glass Tupperware, I imagine Bruce like has stuff in case he ever comes. Well, cause like he collects spices and stuff so I feel like he does put it in like what he deems the most protective.
Avery/GM: Safe container?
Chris/Ollie: I would just love for it to like grow into an Audrey too, though. Feed me Seymour. I'm hungry
Caden/Bruce: or like a frickin, like, like, like an octopus. It can just like work its way out of a jar. I should stop giving Avery ideas.
Avery/GM: I didn't think the plant. Uh, floor was gonna be the scariest, but apparently,
Bee/Polaris: I mean,
Chris/Ollie: the worst is yet to come.
Bee/Polaris: He wants to absorb us. He wants our bio matter.
Caden/Bruce: I'm just very glad that I went from like, Bruce wouldn't actually be an enemy to these plants. I'm gonna try and befriend them because I feel like that could have gone sideways.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Thank you for that So bad.
Avery/GM: Coming down to this level, uh, you notice several flashing red lights on the walls. No audible alarm, no random plant growth sprouting up here yet. Yet there was like some like telltale signs of like, moss starting to grow on like the ladder, but like barely anything.
Avery/GM: Zahn, you recognize this as a sleeping quarters area. Um, that would've been for people who had been awake and out of cryostasis and Yeah. You've got a door right here ready to open.
Avery/GM: Yeah, And coming out into this foyer area you see a hallway leading off in this direction. This area down this way opens up into like a big sleeping area where there are a lot of beds. This door here is labeled airlock with a flashing red light above it, and there are, and there are two other doorways this way. Explore the rooms, go through the airlock. What do you wanna do? Uh,
Chris/Ollie: we should probably clear the area first.
Bee/Polaris: No, no, we're not gonna go through
Chris/Ollie: the air. I mean, if we want to kill all the plants though, I don't think there they could.
Bee/Polaris: again, I don't wanna kill the plants and we don't know how many are floating around the universe
Caden/Bruce: besides, I now have a baby with me. Mm-Hmm. I have a son too.
Bee/Polaris: Now you have a son too.
Chris/Ollie: As long as the baby survives
Avery/GM: Oh, and you do hear some snoring coming from where the beds are.
Chris/Ollie: Oh!
Bee/Polaris: sweet. We can kill 'em in their sleep. Wow, that’s evil.
Avery/GM: Jesus.
Zach/Zahn: is it though?
Bee/Polaris: I’m sorry.
Avery/GM: Mr. Sandman.
Chris/Ollie: We're just Shout at them before we stab.
Zach/Zahn: I mean, we just bust open the airlock and they would all get sucked out, Right?
Bee/Polaris: Well, let's peek in first.
Chris/Ollie: So Ollie's gonna sneak, uh, as well as I can sneak with this gun and the other person mounted it on me.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Polaris is like quietly getting the trigger ready
Avery/GM: into the sleeping room?
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. cause the other, the doors are closed, right?
Avery/GM: Yes.
Chris/Ollie: So, yeah, the only way that's currently open with noises coming from them.
Avery/GM: Yeah, go ahead and roll a dexterity, sneak check then everyone else waiting. Uh, you're, you're forgetting.
Zach/Zahn: Oh…
Avery/GM: go ahead and roll a dexterity sneak check then. Is everyone else waiting…
Zach/Zahn: You’re forgetting…
Avery/GM: Go ahead?
Zach/Zahn: What kind of boots Zahn is wearing?
Bee/Polaris: Oh my fucking god.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's got his big….
Bee/Polaris: you’re the paladin clinking with all the armor.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah. He's got his big mag boots on.
Chris/Ollie: No one said he had to come along.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Stay still.
Chris/Ollie: Be chill cause I'm just wanting to take a peek, see what we're up against. I'm not trying to like engage on these guys.
Avery/GM: Sure. Go ahead and roll
Chris/Ollie: It’s Dex Sneak?
Avery/GM: Yes. Are you, are you sneaking as well, Bruce?
Caden/Bruce: Yes, I got an eight.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Chris/Ollie: I Got eight.
Avery/GM: Eight from both of you. Well, let's see why, why not make it interesting?
Bee/Polaris: Polaris has the gun prime, so if they wake up, he's blasting.
Avery/GM: Nope. They rolled a seven, so…
Bee/Polaris: oh, thank God
Avery/GM: …for notice. So yeah, so Bruce and Ollie and Polaris, uh, you ride through this room here.
Caden/Bruce: Ooh, okay.
Zach/Zahn: Oh…
Avery/GM: and there's five… five little cannibals sleeping in the beds… sounds like a really bad nursery rhyme.
Caden/Bruce: five little cannibals sleeping in the one rolls over and bumps its head. I hate it!
Chris/Ollie: One woke up and ate your head.
Bee/Polaris: Oh my God. Okay.
Avery/GM: one of them does clutch,
Bee/Polaris: don't like those guys
Avery/GM: is clutching like a haunch of like someone
Bee/Polaris: Oh, okay. Yeah. So they need to die. Okay. Can Polaris like slide off of Ollie quietly and get his laser blades ready.
Avery/GM: Dexterity, sneak
Bee/Polaris: dexterity
Chris/Ollie: maybe you should open up with the machine gun unless we're gonna like try and stealth kill 'em all.
Avery/GM: I mean, they're not clustered well enough.
Zach/Zahn: We don’t know if there's more Back this way or this way though.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Yeah. That's my… yeah, that's why. Okay. Dexterity Sneak Oh, so good. Okay. Nine.
Avery/GM: That beats their seven. Yeah. Uh, you are good to go if you want to assassinate some people.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Polaris is just gonna put the laser blade to, he's just, he wants to do it quick.
Avery/GM: Yeah, I get it.
Bee/Polaris: He's just gonna. Yeah, I won't describe it
Chris/Ollie: quickly. Dispatch.
Bee/Polaris: I can, but I won't. Yeah, he quickly dispatches.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie's gonna do the same to the next one closest to him.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Chris/Ollie: Is Bruce going for a stealth kill as well?
Caden/Bruce: Bruce has his little la… Bruce has his laser blade. He'll try.
Avery/GM: Oh yeah. Okay. So it automatically hits and does max damage. So yeah, y'all slice these three people in the head or whatever?
Zach/Zahn: I would like to have Zahn shoot this one with his, uh,
Caden/Bruce: no you’ll wake the rest up!
Zach/Zahn: not with his laser gone. His, with his, uh. Compressed Air Gun. It's quieter.
Bee/Polaris: is it quiet?
Zach/Zahn: It'd be quieter.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, oh. Can… can one of us get in position to the other guy to execute him and then Zahn can shoot the guy and then we can execute at the same time, just so he doesn't wake up.
Avery/GM: Yeah. You see Zahn readying and attack and you like hold up your hand and you're like, you point to one of the other ones and wander over and Yeah go ahead and roll your attack Zahn… Because if you're doing an execution from range, it does require a, uh, a roll to hit dexterity shoot, skill check
Zach/Zahn: 11.
Avery/GM: Oh, perfect. Okay. Yeah. You have dispatched all five of these sleeping cannibals and…
Bee/Polaris: and we gained a haunch.
Avery/GM: and you have a hunch.
Bee/Polaris: I'm kidding.
Zach/Zahn: I, I. I grab or I, uh, withdraw my, uh, my bolt from this person's face… I only, we didn't say how many like rounds for this thing I bought, so I wrote down 12.
Avery/GM: That's fine.
Zach/Zahn: So I'm just gonna recycle them.
Avery/GM: Sure.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, how much time has passed?
Avery/GM: I'm sorry. Uh, probably another 20 minutes. You should be fully healed by now.
Zach/Zahn: Yep. Yay.
Avery/GM: Okay. Uh, so you've got three doors out of this room. Where do you want to go?
Bee/Polaris: Polaris hops back on top of Ollie!
Chris/Ollie: I don't think the cannibals… I don’t know, they probably got some good weapons.
Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah. What's their weapon situation?
Avery/GM: Uh oh. These, these folks?
Yeah. The sleeping boys
yeah. Let's see, what did I give them?
Caden/Bruce: Yeah. We haven't looted bodies. What are we?
Avery/GM: I know, right?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. We need to loot people more.
Zach/Zahn: We're all millionaires.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah. And free stuff is still free. Come on now.
Avery/GM: Free stuff is still free.
Bee/Polaris: Zahn, we're millionaires. But do you see is shop around here?
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. I mean we're not, we're not gun millionaires. We got the money, but we ain't got the supply.
Avery/GM: Three of them have like these long, like they're sleeping next to like these long like pole arms that look like they have some sort of like shocky stick at the end. And then one of them is, uh, sleeping next to a machine gun and the last one, the big, the big fella down here was sleeping next to a flamethrower.
Bee/Polaris: Bruce… Bruce… You want to flambé?
Caden/Bruce: I do.
Avery/GM: Right. Um, so we'll say that it has the same stats as a laser rifle in the book, except that the range is just 30 feet. At max
Caden/Bruce: 30 feet. Nice. What were we calling this thing?
Avery/GM: A flamethrower.
Caden/Bruce: Flamethrower A.K.A. The flambé.
Avery/GM: yeah.
Zach/Zahn:
Caden/Bruce: Sweet. And then the same stats as a laser. Laser, sorry, not blade.
Avery/GM: Uh, laser rifle. So one…
Caden/Bruce: laser rifle
Avery/GM: 1d10 damage.
Bee/Polaris: I'm surprised there isn't stats for a flamethrower in the right, because it does mention flamethrowers. Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. That is a… seems like an oversight.
Avery/GM: Yeah. So, you know, we'll make do, it's fine.
Caden/Bruce: We won't complain.
Avery/GM: Yeah. So, uh, which door did you wanna investigate first? That one. Okay. A little door panel opens it up on the side and you come on in to reveal this stuff.
Zach/Zahn: Oh God. It's a workshop with biohazard.
Avery/GM: So in this room you see that it is a supply room with several different medical tools and devices in here. Um, there's pliers, forceps, uh, syringes, gauze bandages, those kinds of things.
Um, and then there is a container labeled biological disposal that sits in the corner and looks like it has been picked through and then unused for many years. Are some stains of dried blood on the side.
Zach/Zahn: Got it. Any, uh, any useful tools mixed in here?
Avery/GM: Go ahead and roll an intelligence notice check. We'll see. cause it, it looks a lot like how your workspace is Zahn. There's just a lot of stuff kind of cluttered.
Zach/Zahn: Seven.
Avery/GM: You find a couple medicines like some ointments and stuff to treat burn wounds and things like that. So we'll say you find enough medicines to scrounge up one med pack.
Zach/Zahn: Cool. And then he is gonna check this door.
Avery/GM: Sure. This door is actually locked and does not respond to your touch. And there is a sign on the door that says Danger, experimentation room.
Zach/Zahn: Spooky. Yeah. We're we, we don't need to know what kind of twisted experimentation was going on. I guess we can… *stammers* well, well without a, uh, without a computer console, I guess to open it.
Bee/Polaris: Laser blade.
Zach/Zahn: Do you wanna release whatever's potentially sleeping in there?
Bee/Polaris: I mean, no, I, I don't, I was just telling you that we don't need a key. We have keys, we have a skeleton key.
Chris/Ollie: The eternal key.
Zach/Zahn: The eternal
Bee/Polaris: I mean, we can cut a hold of peek inside.
Chris/Ollie: I mean, I'm pretty sure if there was something alive in there, the cannibals probably would've tried to eat it.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Tried until it ate them.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I mean, we could, you could cut a little hole in there and then the worst case scenario seems like the only other place to go is the airlock. So we can just vac ‘em.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Let's, uh, stab an eye hole in it.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, let's do that. We'll, uh, we'll stab an eye hole.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, we stab an eye hole.
Avery/GM: So, peeking into this room a little bit, you are able to see that there looks to be a couple of tables connected to some machinery inside.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, it's machines.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's gonna go ahead and slice the lock and go ahead and like manually open it.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Ollie as well, just immediately
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is like, wait, wait, wait, wait. But, but then he's being carry on Ollie, so he's like, huh, well.
Chris/Ollie: we saw shiny toys in there and we're like, oh.
Avery/GM: You slice open the door, and you come into this room and you see an elaborate set of tables connected to each other with wires and tubes and some computer, uh, terminals. Uh, one table has a hinged door with a glass window on the top, and the other one is a table that just has like a flat open surface with no door, and there appear to be several wires connecting these two tables together. There are several notes and data pads scattered together on these tables, uh, the data pads have long since lost power.
Bee/Polaris: Eh we can scoop those up and charge 'em.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, Zahn will… Zahn will scoop those up.
Avery/GM: Sure. Do you take the paper notes as well?
Zach/Zahn: Of course.
Avery/GM: Okay. Looking over these notes real quick, a lot of the notes are illegible, like almost like the ravings of a mad person.
Zach/Zahn: Sounds about right.
Caden/Bruce: Probably because they are.
Avery/GM: But you see several words written on them. Project Eli, transference, experiment, solution, question mark, and that's what you get.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris takes a picture on his visor and sends it in the group chat with Amanda, and then puts a question mark in an angry sideways like slash face, like a, hmm.
Avery/GM: Amanda types and says, oh, so you, you've made it to level three with the experimentation room. Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah.
Avery/GM: That's where we, that's, that's where I initiated the ELI program. You're, you're almost, you're almost to the, to the rest of the truth, Zahn. Um, just be prepared.
Bee/Polaris: Hey, uh, quick question. Why are you keeping this a mystery?
Avery/GM: It's not my story to tell, really…
Bee/Polaris: That seems like a security risk. No? I mean, if you want, we can make a separate group chat without Zahn in it, and you can tell us.
Zach/Zahn: You're saying that the group chat… With Zahn in it.
Bee/Polaris: Yup. he puts a smiley face in the heart.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn just puts dot dot dot…The fuck
Bee/Polaris: and Polaris puts in chat, even though they're standing next to each other, I mean, she wants to keep the mystery alive, So.
Avery/GM: Amanda says, Zahn, just get down to level five as soon as you can. She's been waiting for you for years.
Zach/Zahn: Wait, did he say he's been waiting for you for years or she?
Avery/GM: she's been waiting for you for years.
Chris/Ollie: Is there an actually a skeleton on this table?
Avery/GM: Are you gonna look inside the one with the window on it? Yeah. If you look in the window, there is a skeleton inside.
Chris/Ollie: Okay. Yeah. cause I did walk up and look in this one
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is gonna mute his feed and then he's gonna say to, he's gonna motion for everyone else to mute their feeds if they're, if they're streaming into the group chat so that Amanda can't hear.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Ollie will comply.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn shrugs and does it.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris just says, Hey, I don't like. I don't like the fact that she's keeping secrets from us. I don't know how comfortable I am with her on our shuttle. Like, is this not super sketchy? Because like, what, what's stopping us from getting to level five and finding… Finding out the truth and she leaves, you know, I mean, Rho will shoot her down. cause I, I texted her too, but like, that sucks.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn nods and he’s like I don’t know, I'm not used to this kind shit, and I don't see too many other options.
Bee/Polaris: I feel like this is a first for all of us. I'm just, this is very strange and I don't like it.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, I'm a hundred percent with you on that. Uh, make, make no mistake. I'm super uncomfy too, but, uh, you know, I'm kind of just rolling with these punches right now. This is, uh, this is a lot of fucked up shit to be taking in.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Well, I, I'm saying specifically, I don't like. The fact that Amanda knows way more than she's telling us, and just she won't, she wouldn't even tell us like what was on the level below or what was like here. She's just letting us discover it and then informing us, and that's pretty fucked up.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn nods in agreement. What do you want me to do about it?
Bee/Polaris: Well, I'm just saying like, I… should we go back up there and be like, Hey, you need to come with us because like you can't be on our ship.
Chris/Ollie: Do not worry about her being unattended on the shuttle. It cuts back to the shuttle where it shows my drones sitting there, quote unquote inactive, but they're ready to gat the shit out of her in case she gets on the expanding a, uh, a cognition point in order to keep those active
Bee/Polaris: ready to Swiss Cheese her
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. Cool. Polaris is like, yeah, Polaris is Like, okay. That makes me feel a little better. Sorry Zahn. This is. Probably like a lot for you, but I don't trust anyone.
Zach/Zahn: He does like the, the finger where, you know, you hold up the two fingers to show like size or whatever and he is like, yeah, just a little bit.
Avery/GM: All right.
Zach/Zahn: Then he like readjusts his shoulders, brings up his, his, uh, makeshift rifle and he is like, let's, let's just get this shit over with.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Polaris will unmute.
Avery/GM: Okay. So anything else you wanna look at in that? I mean, there's not much else to look at in that room, but you know, if Ollie wants a bone…
Zach/Zahn: not much else. Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: I don't know. I'm also kind of suspicious about the identity of that skeleton as well.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. I'm super thinking ELI is Zahn's dad…
Chris/Ollie: I’m… ELI or not. I'm super thinking the skeleton is Zahn's dad… Or was,
Bee/Polaris: well, I mean, it's just a brain in a robot. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm, I'm saying like,
Chris/Ollie: because, because this is brain transfer.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Right here.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. I'm thinking it's Zahn's Dad Polaris won't put that in. Actually, Polaris will put that in chat without Zahn in there.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. We'll make, we will make a quick non Zahn…
Zach/Zahn: So, direct message?
Chris/Ollie: group chat.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, because that's incredibly, like, that's a very not great assumption to make when you're on your home station, like reliving the horror of what happened there.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, no, exactly why I didn't bring it up. Yeah. The Non Zahn chat. That is totally Zahn's father, Right?
Avery/GM: So coming over to the airlock, you sees on um, an indication that there is this door will open, this first door will open. Um, on the side of the other side of the door of the airlock, there is no oxygen.
Bee/Polaris: That's why we got suits.
Avery/GM: Yep. That's why I asked him. I wanted to clarify and make sure. So do you go through, I guess you don't have to. You can…
Bee/Polaris: Where else can we go?
Avery/GM: You could turn back. Turn back, Ye who enter here.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah. Fuck this shit, I'm out.
Chris/Ollie: Uh, let's cut a hole through the floor.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, what the, wait a minute. That's it. We can just mine straight down. That's never had problems before in the past
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, exactly. Mining down is always the optimal strategy.
Zach/Zahn: It's not how you find Balrogs at all.
Avery/GM: You are more than welcome to try.
Chris/Ollie: Uh, no. I, no. I was he joking? I am kind of sussed about structural integrity.
Bee/Polaris: Indeed.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Okay. You see that the floor has a giant hole ripped through it, and there are several like scorch marks on the other side of this chasm indicating that maybe someone somewhere set off an explosion like an idiot…
Bee/Polaris: Angry that we could have skipped the plant floor and just gone up through this floor from the outside.
Avery/GM: Probably.
Bee/Polaris: I'm not actually angry, but we could have… anyway
Zach/Zahn: We can always have all these drones pilot the shuttle back down right here.
Bee/Polaris: True. Wait, Ollie’s drones can pilot?
Zach/Zahn: I don't know.
Avery/GM: I don't know if you wanna risk that with a pilot check.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Avery/GM: From remote. But, uh, you could,
Chris/Ollie: I mean. I could just take, probably take direct remote control of the shuttle. But, uh, yeah, I don't have any pilot skill.
Zach/Zahn: not in this body.
Avery/GM: You just have a hole. It's just a hole that you have to jump over. And I'm not saying that as
Bee/Polaris: What’s the catch?
Avery/GM: I'm not being cheeky.
Bee/Polaris: Okay.
Avery/GM: I literally don't want you to overthink it. It's literally just a hole.
Bee/Polaris: We jump over the hole. Well, I jump, Well, Ollie… Wait, I'm on Ollie. Never mind.
Zach/Zahn: You have a jet pack.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, but I'm on Ollie
Zach/Zahn: and Zahn has jet boots.
Chris/Ollie: It’s zero g out here? So, uh, use your jet pack to carry me over.
Bee/Polaris: Okay. Yeah, Polaris will just like carry you.
Avery/GM: Okay. And this is another airlock you pass right through. Alright, floor number four. We're getting close to the end folks. Are you getting excited?
Bee/Polaris: I'm getting scared.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Especially since we're indebted to a plant fae...
Caden/Bruce: I am indebted to a plant Fae.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, but you're a part of the team and there is no I in team
Avery/GM: I like that. I like that you took a sentient, uh, sci-fi horror, uh, plant monster and turned it into a fae. This is very fun.
Bee/Polaris: Well, we made a deal.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Coming down to this level. Here you see another, so it is zero G when you come down. And this, this place is again, no oxygen. Uh, there is several pieces of debris floating kind of in this like free space here that has been blown open. And there are three robots down this way, and one of them starts moving towards you and scans you, scans you Zahn.
Zach/Zahn: Ah!
Bee/Polaris: Polaris was about to shoot
Avery/GM: and says, citizen, identify yourself!
Zach/Zahn: Zahn Howard.
Avery/GM: Processing… Zahn Howard. Recently elected junior architect, please proceed to level five.
Zach/Zahn: already on it.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris puts in chat: Congrats on the promotion
Zach/Zahn: inherited? question mark.
Avery/GM: And these robots start standing down.
Bee/Polaris: Are they gonna scan us too. Is this like a toll booth?
Avery/GM: You're literally walking with Zahn, so they acknowledge you as with authorization, and you see that this door has an airlock on it, indicating that the area below actually has atmosphere again… Amanda pings you and says, oh, by the way, level four has a lot of robots on it. You may want to, you may have to destroy them.
Bee/Polaris: Gee, thanks.
Caden/Bruce: I don't like her.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, me neither. Like this isn't something she could have told us on level three Or level two
Zach/Zahn: or level two.
Chris/Ollie: It's not like she's watching currently either.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Watch us walk past all the robots and be like, oh, by the way, there's robots there.
Bee/Polaris: We also straight up asked her when we first got on the ship, if she knows if there's any threats on the other levels, and she said she doesn't know. You, you see what I mean? Like Polaris puts in, uh, the currently fuck Amanda chat. Well, okay. Well, I guess normal group chat Polaris puts in the normal group chat. I don't, I don't like Amanda. I'm sorry. I don't like Amanda.
Caden/Bruce: Bruce Thumbs up reacts
Bee/Polaris: like she lied to us.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn puts ellipses as a pause and he also puts a thumbs up because he's getting a little frustrated too.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Like she lied to us. You lied. She's a liar. We might have to Swiss cheese her. I'm sorry Zahn.
Caden/Bruce: Swiss cheese her
Zach/Zahn: Zahn shrugs and then opens the airlock.
Caden/Bruce: Zahn has a lot going on today.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah…
Avery/GM: you are heading down, down to the final level.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: We really need that beach ep.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Need a vacation?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Oh my gosh.
Avery/GM: All right. Coming down to level five, you step through the airlock, come down, and there is a little robot with a brain in the jar on top of it. Rolling towards you.
Bee/Polaris: Oh, it’s a Roomba.
Avery/GM: And it says, Scanning… architect DNA analysis confirmed. Welcome home, Mr. Howard. And Zan, this electronic voice sounds really familiar.
Bee/Polaris: Yikes.
Avery/GM: Oh, and I should say this robot with the brain on the jar. It has four arms and it has treads for legs. Otherwise, it's kind of just big and boxy, and it says:
Avery/GM: I am the Euterrian Logistical Interface, but you can call me ELI for short. The other architects always do. My logs indicate that it has been approximately 12 years since your promotion to junior Architect. While you are late for reporting for duty, I am sure the others will welcome your presence, especially Dr. Howard. If you'll follow me, I'll be happy to give you and your companions an escort to the Citadel.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, let's get on that.
Avery/GM: And this robot just starts rolling away,
Chris/Ollie: uh, as we're walking. Ollie’s gonna be like, were you an architect before you left?
Zach/Zahn: No, I was not.
Avery/GM: And Zan, as you're making your way down this hallway, coming to this first door, you realize that that is your parents' room.
Bee/Polaris: Oh. Oh no.
Avery/GM: This room has been long abandoned since the death of your mother, and it's a room you haven't stepped in for quite some time. Do you decide to enter? Oh, you're going in?
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Okay. Yep. Zahn, tell me about the last memory that you have of either one or both of your parents in this room before your mother's death.
Zach/Zahn: Ooo, before…
Avery/GM: Mm-Hmm.
Zach/Zahn: I was gonna say, cause the argument between him and his father would be after his mother's death, and that would be in his room. But before, you know, a lot of those memories I'm gonna go ahead and say are kind of clouded and kind of buried in there, overtaken by the bad.
Avery/GM: Okay. Because I have one for you. If, if you'll allow
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Avery/GM: You come into this room and it, it hasn't even been touched in, in, in over a decade. Your, your father has been sealed in the citadel since before you left, but coming into this room, you see on top of the dresser there is a snow globe that your mother always used to enjoy playing. You know, it has a little winder on the bottom and it plays a soft wilting tune when you wind it up. And do you pick it up?
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Avery/GM: And you twist the knob and it plays the little tune.
Zach/Zahn: What is in the snow globe?
Avery/GM: It is, uh, a picture of old Terra, um, just like a snowscape, a nice mountain lodge.
Zach/Zahn: Nice.
Avery/GM: And you flash back to one of the few good memories of your childhood. Your mother is showing you this snow globe. And she's speaking positively of the future of New Terra, and she's saying Look Zahn, one day when the planet is ready, we'll have a beautiful cabin on a high mountain and we'll be able to sled and ski and enjoy everything about Old Terra. On this new planet your, your father's doing some amazing work with, with his colleagues. And I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they figure out the rest of the terraforming.
Avery/GM: And it's one of those things where it's like your mother was always very optimistic about the fate of the project, but remembering it back now you realize… you know, and this is something you can only really realize with age. Is that she was putting on a brave face for you and that when she spoke of the future, her eyes looked happy, but the rest of her body language was despair.
Zach/Zahn: Sounds about right.
Avery/GM: and this little tune is playing. Are you going to take this memento with you or leave it here?
Zach/Zahn: I'm gonna leave it. Look at it and then slowly set it back down on the… the dresser top.
Avery/GM: Does anyone else do anything while Zahn is in here?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Polaris is just gonna take a recording of the music that's playing at the Snow globe and like take the dimensions and measurements of the snow globe, but he won't touch it. Also, we're gonna have to have like a snow day episode.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: So we can go skiing.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Then Zahn's gonna look over the notes on the desk here.
Avery/GM: Yeah, you find your mother's journal with a little like easy to pick, little lock. You know, like one of those like silly locks they put on journals that, you know, you could pick easily with a paperclip.
Zach/Zahn: Uh-huh.
Avery/GM: So you could open that if you want. Um, you also just find, um, some notes from your father dated several, several years ago, um, before the collapse. Just progress notes, you know, calculations on the, the percentage of acidity in the rain and different theories on how to, how to solve it. Um, and this ELI robot kind of rolls in and says, I'm sorry, Mr. Howard, but this room is your father's room. He doesn't like anyone in here.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's gonna pocket the book, leave the net pocket, his mother's journal, and uh, leave the rest of the note… the unimportant notes, and he's gonna be like too fucking bad.
Bee/Polaris: I'm sorry, were you promoted to junior architect?
Zach/Zahn: Zahn, not so secretly, blames his father for his mom's death, so
Avery/GM: yeah. Okay. Coming into the hallway….
Zach/Zahn: as we're walking now, Zahn's gonna ask ELI, ELI, how did you come to being? What are you?
Avery/GM: I am the Euterrian Logistical Interface. I have been in operation for approximately three years.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, we got that. Uh, whose brain are you, or were you?
Avery/GM: Hmm, uh. Okay. They're gonna need to make a mental…
Bee/Polaris: is it programmed to lie?
Avery/GM: Nope. Uh, they're gonna make a mental save. Nat-twenty. Okay. It responds back. I am not sure. I cannot access those memories.
Zach/Zahn: That's… a pretty shitty existence, man. It's right up there with your, your entire existence only being to download a better browser.
Avery/GM: coming to this next room's on, you know, that it is your room.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn's gonna like take a step in here and be like, I don't remember leaving anything in here. But he is like still like. Unconsciously drawn to walk in here.
Avery/GM: Zahn, As you are remini… or as you enter this room, you start to reminisce about the last time you were in here, before you left, and this ELI robot, out of character for a minute says Zahn, This is just like you. Always leaving your room a mess and it goes over to your bed and starts folding some clothes that were left on it.
Bee/Polaris: Motherfucker, if this is his mom…
Chris/Ollie: oh no, it's his mom.
Bee/Polaris: This is fucked up.
Chris/Ollie: It's his mom.
Bee/Polaris: What the fuck? I was okay. As soon as like, as soon as we kind of like got down here and like went into the room and stuff like that, I was like, oh, your father doesn't let you be in here. I was like, oh my God, this better not be his fucking mom. cause like it said, I've been in operation for three years. But like his mom died away before that, so like… wow
Zach/Zahn: yeah, I know. I am in the same place. This better not be my mom!
Chris/Ollie: Did Zahn see her die?
Avery/GM: Did Zahn see her die? I feel like Zahn saw the body.
Zach/Zahn: I saw the body.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn knew that she was like assassinated, but with no evidence.
Bee/Polaris: Oh my gosh, bro. This is probably his mom.
Avery/GM: Zahn, when shit hit the fan, you were in your room, you had two minutes to grab things. What did that look like? What did that, what did that scene look like when you were, when you were rushing off the station? That's what, that's the memory that comes flooding back.
Zach/Zahn: I had the pack that I have now, which has only gotten bigger as I've like modified it to hold more shit or more effectively store shit. And it was literally grab X number of pants, under pants, that kind of shit. Like whatever money I had gotten on the ship went in there and it was just like throwing it in the pack and then leaving. Not even really taking in my surroundings, just grabbing, putting, leaving.
Avery/GM: Excellent. Yeah. And you can see that, that yeah, that this is, this is kind of par for the course. Your, your messy habit of, of leaving workstations and stuff messy started here really, and this ELI robot is folding some of your laundry that's on the floor, humming to itself, a little tune that matches the tune from that snow Globe.
Bee/Polaris: It's your freaking mom!
Zach/Zahn: No!
Avery/GM: but over on this desk here, as you're kind of reminiscing in this room. By the way, if Zahn wants to make that connection, you are more than welcome to. But I will say that you do see on this, uh, desk, you do see an unfinished project that you never got around to finishing. Now seems like a good time of any, to at least take it with you for later. It is your, well, what do you wanna call it? Because it's, it's your, uh, basically it's your mage hand.
Zach/Zahn: It's my… Tele-Tech.
Avery/GM: Tele-Tech
Zach/Zahn: Telekinesis Technology.
Avery/GM: Yeah, this little device is basic… It was going to be just a glove that you use to control, but maybe now that you have armor, it might be better to integrate it into the armor itself.
Zach/Zahn: yep.
Avery/GM: But yeah, now's as good of time as any to, uh, to take that if you want.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, I'm gonna take whatever. Blueprints I'd come up with and then the components and put 'em in my pack.
Avery/GM: Sure. And as you turn around, you see that this robot has kind of stopped folding its laundry… Or the laundry and has turned around and said, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. We should continue on to the Citadel. Your father is waiting.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah. Immediately… Lead the way.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris texts Zahn and says, are you okay? Or As okay as you can be.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn leaves it on read.
Avery/GM: Oh shit.
Bee/Polaris: Cool. That’s fine.
Chris/Ollie: Just full on. Full on autopilot.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. No, Polaris has done that to his parents, so he knows what that's like.
Avery/GM: And ELI continues leading you down the hallway. There's one more door and Zahn, You know that this door leads to the storage area… or it was a storage area last you were here. Do you wanna enter that room or skip it?
Zach/Zahn: Oh, I'm snooping enough as it is, may as well.
Avery/GM: so in here, what was a storage room has turned into a cryostasis room. There are three panels next to these pods that have bodies in them. And the computer panels next to them, each read Harkness, Rand, and Clark. Um, and their life signs appear to be stable. And there's a timer on the pod, which indicates they have approximately six weeks left until they will be woken up.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, okay. The architects working in shifts.
Avery/GM: Do you say that out loud?
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, actually,
Avery/GM: Yeah. ELI at the door just says yes, After a few years, it seemed to be more efficient to have just three architects on duty at all times in order to preserve the collective brain power of the group. And so they have been taking shifts in three year increments.
Zach/Zahn: Mm-hmm. Got it.
Avery/GM: I came online just before these three. Were put into sleep
Zach/Zahn: Before… So my father wasn't awake when you were activated?
Avery/GM: No, I was activated during the time between shift changes, like when all six were awake. All six are awake for approximately four weeks in which they can exchange information, give a progress update, and plan for the next three years.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, okay.
Avery/GM: Come. Your father is waiting.
Zach/Zahn: Do I see a Quick, kind of like hatch that I can potentially plug into ELI on here.
Avery/GM: Oh, you do see a port. Are you gonna try and hack into it?
Zach/Zahn: Yes.
Avery/GM: Hmm.
Zach/Zahn: Gonna be like ELI, halt!
Avery/GM: it stops
Zach/Zahn: and then I just plug right in.
Avery/GM: Give me an intelligence program check. By the way, is anyone else doing anything while Zahn is doing this? cause I, I know I'm focusing on Zahn cause this is his story, but I want other know.
Caden/Bruce: Yeah. No,
Avery/GM: I don't. I don't. Okay.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, no.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is watching Zahn very closely.
Zach/Zahn: That is a 13.
Avery/GM: Oh shit. Yeah. You hack into ELI. What do you wanna know? What are you looking for?
Zach/Zahn: I’m accessing those memories that it can't.
Bee/Polaris: This is his fucking mom dude. This is so messed up.
Avery/GM: You don't find the memories. You find what's blocking the memories. It is a hard-coded patch of commands that stop this brain from accessing anything outside of its command protocols.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, so I'm just gonna delete those.
Avery/GM: Uh, you delete them and ELI powers down for a moment.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah. You gotta initiate that reboot, you know?
Avery/GM: Mm-Hmm. And powers up. Uh, it needs to make another mental save. Okay.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Imagine waking up and your brain in a robot. This is not gonna be good.
Chris/Ollie: It powers up, it can't take it, and the brain turns into jelly.
Avery/GM: Not quite, but it did roll a five on his mental save, so it's not great. Yeah, it powers back up and you hear it say in that electronic voice that sounds kind of familiar, where, where am I? where, what is, what is going, where is this place? And it turns around and it sees you and it says. Zahn! Zahn, you're, you're safe. You've, oh, you've grown so much. And it reaches out its hands at first, and then it sees its metal hands, and it's like, wait, what? What is… error! Error! And then it shuts down.
Bee/Polaris: Did you fucking kill your mom, Dude?
Zach/Zahn: So for Zahn, she's been dead.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Okay. Well, did you re-kill your mom?
Zach/Zahn: I did re-kill my mom.
Chris/Ollie: Did you find out she's alive and then kill her immediately?
Zach/Zahn: I mean, is she really living though?
Bee/Polaris: Now, now this is gonna sound a little, yeah, I was Okay. I was about to say, this is gonna be a little messed up and this will definitely be her decision to make, but like we have. Technology to put her in a robot.
Chris/Ollie: Oh yeah.
Like a, like a robot that she could control. So she's like an Ollie or, or, or one of the custodians.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. No, like she could totally, totally come back from this,
Bee/Polaris: but like, but the mental, like load of being like dead and then transferred into a robot, not, probably not very stable. I don't know. This is real rough.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. I should rephrase that. Definitely come back from this physically, mentally?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Yeah.
Avery/GM: So what's the play?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. You fuckin you killed your mom again. No, I'm kidding.
Zach/Zahn: She's just powered down. She's just having a her own mental break.
Bee/Polaris: Sure. But is she gonna power back up?
Zach/Zahn: Good question.
Bee/Polaris: Hey, we need to, we probably need to kill your dad cause this is messed up.
Zach/Zahn: Oh. Don't think the, the thought hadn't crossed his mind. He's gonna put Amanda on voice chat and he is gonna be like. Why the fuck did you do this? Oh, fuck. What was my mom's name?
Avery/GM: Eliza.
Bee/Polaris: What the fuck, dude, this is the worst. Also, can any of us hear this voice chat or is it just
Zach/Zahn: so, I mean, you can probably hear his end of it.
Avery/GM: Okay. Yeah. Amanda replies back. So you, you saw Eliza, huh?
Zach/Zahn: Oh, not only have I seen Eliza, uh, she's currently powered down and kind of like figuring her own shit out as she's a fucking brain in a jar.
Avery/GM: I, I know. Um, I look Zaun, I didn't want to do, I had no choice.
Zach/Zahn: She's been dead for 12 years. You dug her body up and managed to what? Revitalize her already decaying brain?
Avery/GM: No, it's not that macabre. Oh, well I guess it kind of is. No, your… After her death, you know, your father had her body preserved in one of the stasis chambers and came to me six years ago before he went under stasis and asked me to devise a way to bring her back and at first, I thought he was crazy, but he showed me some preliminary designs and said he just needed my help with it.
Avery/GM: And he said that once, once I did it and it proved successful, we could save the rest of the colonists this way. And I, you know, I failed so many times to save everyone, you know, with the food replicator and with the riots and everything else. I just, I thought it sounded good enough to try. I mean, it's not any worse than what everyone else is doing to people's bodies on this damned place, and so I created ELI on the third floor and activated her about three years ago, uh, just before your, your father or just after your father woke up. And so we were letting it run for these last three years to see how well it would handle things.
Zach/Zahn: Amanda, get the fuck off our ship. Your safe passage has been revoked. We'll deal with you later. He cuts the line.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Ollie, get them drones ready. Yeah. Because we can only hear Zan's and, and Polaris is typing in the chat without some like, oh, we super gotta Amanda's super gonna die. Like, right. Guys, like this is super fucked up.
Zach/Zahn: He's not gonna directly like murder her. But he is not saving her either.
Bee/Polaris: yeah, yeah, yeah. But like what's stopping her from stealing our ship, you know?
Avery/GM:
Zach/Zahn: Well, that's when Ollie’s drones…
Avery/GM: Yeah, exactly. Just your threat of murder.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, that's, yeah. That's why I'm Polaris to saying like, get them drones ready, just in case she tries to escape.
Chris/Ollie: Oh, they're ready. They're on it.
Avery/GM: Zahn, you are still connected wirelessly to your mother's robot and you see that there is still power in it, but it will not power back on as there has been a critical memory error. So you could choose to put the code back in or you could maybe try and figure out a way to fix the error in another way.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is gonna speak up. He, he is gonna say It's on what's going on. Talk to us, what's going on?
Zach/Zahn: He like does the two hand gesture points down at the jar. That's my mom.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, it sounded like this wasn't a great
Zach/Zahn: reunion after death? No. Yeah. Not even a little bit. So what Zahn…What I think Zahn would want to do and it's a little fucked up.
Bee/Polaris: Kill your mom?
Zach/Zahn: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: It's one of those,
Bee/Polaris: she was already dead to begin.
Zach/Zahn: was already dead. And this is like borderline fate worse than.
Chris/Ollie: well, I mean, we can also ask her, we should probably fix her up enough to ask her.
Zach/Zahn: I think the critical failure is her like kind of already showing the sign that she wants to be dead.
Bee/Polaris: Well, it's showing the sign that she can't mentally handle the fact that she's not a person.
Zach/Zahn: And the thing is, so I'd have to either find some kind of long. Work around to restore her like ability to cognitively function or put in that like,
Bee/Polaris: I mean, can you give it back little by little?
Zach/Zahn: Maybe.
Bee/Polaris: I mean, can you program it? Because like, I don't know how much you can program, but you can like program, so like her panic reaches a specific limit. It's kind of fucked up and like everything's fucked up here.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, I was gonna say all the same. It's all fucked up.
Avery/GM: Yeah. Zahn make a mental safe.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, that's probably a good idea.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. This is real fucked up
Avery/GM: and minus two from your role.
Zach/Zahn: I rolled at 12. My mental is eight, so I passed.
Avery/GM: Okay. Bruce? Hmm. That presence enters your mind again.
Caden/Bruce: Oh no.
Bee/Polaris: Jesus Christ.
Avery/GM: And it says, tell your friend I have another way.
Bee/Polaris: No, no, no. Feed me the brain.
Zach/Zahn: Make us whole again. Isaac.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, go with us. No, absolutely not.
Avery/GM: Putting it out there.
Caden/Bruce: What do you mean Eden?
Avery/GM: I can sense your friend's distress. He is hurting… the presence known as ELI, It is hurting too. We can help them both… We will help them both. And you feel the container that has that seed in it kind of shake a little?
Caden/Bruce: Oh no.
Bee/Polaris: I mean, we don't have to go through level two. We can just go through the floor, you know
Chris/Ollie: I love this. The seed's like, yeah. Feed me Zahn, I can fix this problem.
Caden/Bruce: Feed me Zahn!
Bee/Polaris: What the fuck? I can fix your anxiety. Just die! Like no.
Avery/GM: Yeah. So, uh, are you, are you going to kill your mother?
Zach/Zahn: Zahn will stand up. He'll put a hand on the jar, put his plasma pistol or his, uh, light laser pistol up against it and be like… so sorry mom, and then pull the trigger shattering the jar and you know, squishing the brain.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: And then he is gonna turn to the door of this fucking architect room.
Avery/GM: Yeah. You fire the shot, the brain comes tumbling out of the robots, and the motion sensor cap captures that movement and the door to the Citadel opens and that's where we're gonna end it.
(ambience fades down, 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 today include Miconid Colony, Testing Chamber, and Nostromo. We’ll be back on March 1st with our next episode.
See you out there! Beyond the Furthest Stars!
(Outro fades up and plays out)