Thank Goodness it's Thursday! CRF's 90s Charity One-Shot Benefitting NCWIT | Sponsored by Ebay Live Part 1

Summary

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Critical Role: TGIT! CRF’s 90s Charity One-Shot Benefitting NCWIT – Summary (Part 1)

Podcast: Critical Role
Episode: Thank Goodness It's Thursday! CRF's 90s Charity One-Shot Benefitting NCWIT | Sponsored by eBay Live Part 1
Date: September 25, 2025
Players: Will Friedle, Jodie Sweetin, Christine Lakin, Stacey Keanan, Ashley Johnson, Rider Strong
GM: Matthew Mercer
Benefiting: National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)
Charity Supporters: eBay (matching donations up to $10,000)
Theme: 90s child star sitcoms and TTRPG adventure, with custom classes and stage drama!

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Main Theme & Purpose

This one-shot blends classic Critical Role improvisational tabletop action with playful 90s nostalgia, all for charity. The cast, playing exaggerated versions of 90s child actors (and their sitcom alter egos), face a brewing conspiracy on a studio lot where child actors are being replaced by sinister, robotic doubles. Donations, live auctions, and audience participation directly impact the story, supporting NCWIT's mission to foster diversity and opportunity in tech.

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Key Discussion Points & Play Highlights

1. Charity, Auction, and Audience Engagement (03:00–06:30)

• Hosts inform listeners about the partnership with eBay Live and the chance to bid on unique Critical Role memorabilia—Trapper Keepers filled with character sheets, signed core rulebooks, 90s dice sets, etc.
• Ashley Johnson: “...we have one of a kind autographed Trapper Keepers... each filled with our character sheets from the game, character art, and domain cards that were homemade by our very own Matt Mercer.” (04:14)
• All proceeds and donations go to benefit NCWIT. Audience actions (bidding, donating) can directly affect the in-game story—bestowing “Hope” to players or “Fear” to the GM, much to everyone’s excitement.

2. Setting the Scene: Salamander Studios, 1996 (10:55–12:57)

• GM Matt Mercer paints a vivid picture: It’s the summer of 1996 at Salamander Studios, bustling with production crews, classic LA heat, and jaded stars. “Welcome my friends to the grandiose film lot of Salamander Studios here in the dry heat of the Los Angeles summer...” (10:55)
• Players portray kid actors on assorted (often silly) sitcoms; their real lives blend with their TV personas in whiplash 90s fashion.

3. Character Introductions & Table Dynamics (12:57–26:42)

Key child actor characters include:

• Lucas Bellucci: Bookish, only kid on his set, heavy Dean Koontz fan, caretaker is Chad.
  • Notable quote: “Lucas Bellucci. Not Belushi. No relation… My mom went back to Texas, so I kind of have no one here anymore, except my caretaker, Chad...” (12:57)
• Paloma Polinski: Star of flagship show "Tiny Podiatrist," medical prodigy, lavender scrubs, fanny pack.
• Joey “Squawk” Powers: Method actor, “Meisner” devotee, wants to break into film.
• Sam Stone: Babysitter’s Club reboot regular, wants to do action films, perpetually on smoke break.
• Casey/KC: Comic goofball, old pal of Sam’s, high-energy and always with Silly String.
• Karin Marie Thomas: Slightly weird, award-winning actor from TV films, big cargo shorts.
• Classic 90s frenemy banter, critique of the industry, and running jokes (backwards hats, method acting, kid actor tropes).

4. The Disruptive Arrival: Mysterious 'Understudy' (28:06–34:12)

• Studio Head Adam Pearson introduces Logan, a near-identical 13-year-old who’s to “shadow” Lucas as an “understudy”—but he’s oddly emotionless, speaks stiltedly, and acts… “off.”
  • “You must keep watching where none are…” (Logan, after catching Lucas, 36:15)
  • Tension: The kids suspect Logan is a threat; classic Ominous Doppelganger vibes.

5. First Sci-Fi Twist: Logan the Cyborg! (34:12–55:01)

• Lucas tries to escape Logan, who is unnervingly strong (“...feels like a chunk of iron…” 36:15) and, after confrontation, is revealed as a cyborg—exposed gears and metallic face beneath burned flesh.
  • Sam (shouting): “He just lit that kid on fire. My god.” (38:46)
• The children work together to fight the Logan-droid:
  • Paloma pulls a gun from her fanny pack (“…I have a .38 from that whole stalker incident…” 42:45).
  • Creative improv: Someone uses a Counting Crows CD to reflect Logan’s laser eyes. (“I bet I could use that to reflect the lasers back at it.” —Karin, 47:48)
  • Computers, baseball bats, Trapper Keepers—all weapons in the battle.
• Defeated, the cyborg leaves behind a mysterious VHS tape before self-destructing.

6. Mystery Deepens: VHS Tape Revelation (71:43–77:14)

• In Paloma’s dressing room, they watch the VHS: A hidden message from another kid actor, warning of creepy replacements and weird studio happenings.
  • “If you find this video, maybe it’ll make for a good horror movie.”
  • A clue: The actor mentions swiping a strange metallic disc off a replacement, which the PCs find and identify as an “advanced force field.”

7. Conspiracy Theories and Sleuthing the Studio (77:14–101:14)

• Cast suspects a company-wide plot—possibly aliens, deep fakes, or cost-cutting robots.
• Player improv and inside jokes abound (nepotism, “Nepo baby” powers, Hollywood family trees).
• After escaping suspicious studio security (with a dazzling “fake Adam Pearson” performance—“I want a Youth in Film award for this!”), the party plans a stealth infiltration of the executive building.
  • “Now we have keys!”
  • Casey (as Adam Pearson): “Listen, it’s what I do, I really like to be hands on… Wait, not the thing to say in the bathroom with all of us…” (88:12)*

8. Stealth, Drones, and Tapes in the Night (98:05–106:00)

• At night, the studio is patrolled by drone dogs and strange sentries.
• The players masterfully sneak to the executive building, discover another mysterious VHS, and plan to break into Adam Pearson’s office via vents.
• Memorable joke: “If we all wear the backwards baseball hats...[we] can just look like we’re the cast of that Sandlot 2 movie. This time it’s personal!” (95:30)
• Reveal: Secret hidden device (Mind Delver) lets them read minds for clues.

9. Alien Tech, Lockdowns, and Climax Buildup (120:15–134:17)

• Strange “earthquake” and black sludge/tentacles invade the building—the sci-fi/horror elements mount.
• Lucas uses the “Mind Delver” on Pearson and discovers hints of “underground bunkers... people trapped under glass... alien technology.” (133:24)
  • Lucas: “I saw the craziest thing… It’s aliens. I think there’s like an underground... weird tentacle stuff... I think it’s alien technology. Mr. Pearson is... working with the aliens.” (133:24/133:39)
• Cliffhanger! Two “executive detail” guards’ faces split, sprouting black-green tentacles as the kids realize the full scope of the threat.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Lucas (defining 90s nerd): “I always wear my fishing vest. Cause it’s got a lot of pockets and I wanna keep everything in there...” (13:06)
• Matt (GM): “Tonight’s charity One Shot is benefiting CRF’s newest charity partner, NCWIT...” (05:43)
• Paloma (after pulling a gun): “I go to the range every weekend, okay?” (43:47)
• Sam: "You just lit that kid on fire. My God!" (38:46)
• Karin (facing laser eyes): “I have a Counting Crows CD in my cargo pants. I bet I could use that to reflect the lasers back at it.” (47:48)
• Joey/Squawk: “My second uncle is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was in Terminator. It’s been ninety years. Hope. I’ll allow it.” (57:15)
• Actual kid logic: “If we all wear the backwards baseball hats, I’ve got my catcher’s mask… we’re just the Sandlot crew, right?” (95:30)
• Regarding studio politics and nepotism: “I’m Bette Midler’s granddaughter... Steve Guttenberg is also my uncle… Anthony Kiedis is my second cousin.” (74:47, 75:13, 75:21)
• Matt (GM, at the twist): “You watch as their faces split open as masses of blackish-green tentacles begin to emerge. Did it look like that? …That’s where we’re going to go to break.” (134:17, 134:22)

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Key Timestamps

• 03:00–06:30 – Charity info, eBay auction, NCWIT mission
• 10:55–12:57 – Studio backlot scene setting, campaign tone
• 12:57–26:42 – Player/character introductions; 90s tropes and banter
• 28:06–34:12 – The ‘understudy’ Logan and initial suspicions
• 34:12–55:01 – Logan revealed as cyborg, first combat, creative teamwork
• 71:43–77:14 – Discovery and viewing of incriminating VHS tape
• 77:14–101:14 – Escape, disguises, and stealth into the executive building
• 120:15–134:17 – Mind Delver, revelations of alien plot, penultimate confrontation
• 134:17 – Tentacled security guards, closing cliffhanger

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Tone & Style

• Lighthearted 90s banter with meta Hollywood humor and loving TTRPG chaos.
• Improvisational and quick-witted storytelling—NBC’s “Must See TV” meets “Goosebumps” meets “Stranger Things.”
• Audience-interactive—real-time donations and bids raise the campaign’s stakes and bring new advantages/obstacles.
• Playful, satirical send-up of 90s pop culture, child star tropes, and studio politics.

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Conclusion

This first part of Critical Role’s 90s charity one-shot delivers nostalgia, humor, and inventive TTRPG action, all while building a genuine sense of suspense and an escalating mystery. The combination of a robust charity drive, audience-decisive gameplay, authentic kid-actor roleplaying, and sci-fi/alien horror makes for a unique, thrilling episode—ending on a classic Critical Role cliffhanger as the true threat literally reveals its tentacles.

Stay tuned for Part 2 as the cast faces the tentacled horror, the secrets of Salamander Studios, and the fate of the lot’s remaining human child actors!

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

A friend of the show, Erika Ishii. He voices Atsu, a new unforgettable PlayStation hero. Ghost of Yotei is available October 2nd on PlayStation 5.

[B]

Rated M for mature.

[C]

Tron Ares has arrived. Hostiles. Repeat, we have hostiles.

[D]

Mayday.

[C]

Mayday. Oh my God. There's hundreds of them.

[A]

On October 10, we came here from the digital world. The war for our world begins. What in God's name is that? Unimax. No, it's not. But I can help you. Tron Ares, rated PG13.

[C]

May be inappropriate for children under 13.

[A]

Only in theaters October 10th.

[B]

Get tickets now.

[A]

Morning, Zoe. Got donuts.

[D]

Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage?

[A]

Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me. So.

[C]

Dana.

[D]

Oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at T Mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most power iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system.

[A]

Wow, impressive. Let me try. T Mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best network.

[D]

Nice. Jeffrey, you heard them.

[C]

T Mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible trade in in any condition.

[A]

So what are we having for launch?

[D]

Dude, my work here is done.

[C]

The 24 monthly bill credits on experience beyond for well qualified customers. Plus tax and $35 device connection charge credit send and balance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel Finance Agreement. IPhone 17 Pro 256GB, $1,099.99. A new line minimum 100 plus a month plan with Auto PayPal, taxes and fees required. Best mobile network in the US based on analysis by Oclev Speed Test Intelligence.

[B]

Data 1H 2025 visit t mobile.comday critters Travis Willingham here and welcome to the Critical Role Podcast network. We are thrilled to have you here and thank you for making us a part of your day. You're listening to part one of this episode right now and part two will arrive the following Tuesday. If you'd rather listen to the full episode right now and without any ads, consider becoming a Beacon member. You'll receive access to exclusive content, discounts at all of our online critical role shops, exclusive pre sales for live events and much, much more. You can start your seven day free trial today at Beacon tv. Now that we've got all that covered, let's go ahead and get this adventure roll.

[C]

Hello and welcome to tgit. Thank goodness it's Thursday. Sponsored by our friends at ebay and ebay Live. Ebay Live is your destination for discovering and bidding on exclusive finds in real time. From rare trading cards to vintage fashion, you can join the thrill of live auctions with your favorite sellers and an enthusiastic community. With ebay's protections and a dynamic entertaining experience, you'll stream, shop and score live like nowhere else. We're on ebay live right now over at Bit Ly crfebay and I'm gonna go ahead and send it over to Ashley Johnson to tell us more. Ashley.

[D]

That's right, Matt. Folks online have the opportunity to win the most exclusive items used in tonight's show. Things like gorgeous retro dice sets from 1985 Games and. Ooh, Dispel dice. Ooh, yes, yes, yes, I know. Or we have one of a kind. Autographed Trapper Keepers. Each filled with our character sheets from the game, character art and domain cards that were homemade by our very own Matt Mercer.

[C]

And I have a Trapper Keeper for tonight too. So you can win my notes and run the very same one shot for your friends at home. Oh, and I might have hidden a few little special somethings in the sleeves of some of these domain cards in some of the. Actually in each of these binders. So you don't want to miss this.

[D]

That's right, Matt. We actually have our Daggerheart core rulebook available to bid on right now. And these aren't just any Daggerheart core rulebooks, Matt. These are autographed by the cast of Critical role. Perfect for the game master or collector in your life.

[C]

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[D]

That's right, Matt. Tune in now over at Best Bit Ly Crfebay to join this live event and gain access to tonight's critical role rarities and some truly glorious goods. Matt, back to you.

[C]

Thanks, Ashley. I know, I know. Now, we can't jump into tonight's episode without touching on who this is all for.

[D]

Hi.

[C]

Tonight's charity One Shot is benefiting CRF's newest charity partner, NCWIT.

[D]

NCWIT is helping build the technology workforce of the future for high school and college age students across the country through programs that offer meaningful opportunities to build skills, connect and receive the support needed to thrive in technology fields. And we are so excited to have them join our CRF family. And tonight, with your help, the more we raise, the more we can help. So you can bin on ebay, live donate on Tiltify, and to add more incentive, our friends at ebay will be matching up to $10,000. So give what you can and bid, bid, bid.

[C]

Yes. Thank you so much, Ashley. Lastly, your donations will affect the game, so check out the list over on Tiltify. You can unlock things like special guest appearances, hope to the players, or fear to me. So like Ashley said, every little bit helps by bidding on these items at bit lycrfebay or donating at bit lycrftiltify. And I think with that, that's all of our announcements and I think it's time for us to jump into tonight's episode of thank goodness, It's Thursday. Woo. Starring Will Friedle, Jody Sweden, Christine Lake, Stacy Keenan, Ashley Johnson, Reuter Strong, and your GM for the evening, Matthew Mercer. Hello, friends. Ah, thank you all so much for joining us. This is, this is gonna be fun. Yeah, I figure we'll kick off. First off, say one of our players at the table that was supposed to be here unfortunately hurt her leg and is recovering at the moment, so couldn't join us. But in doing so brought us a wonderful Stacy to join us as well. So thank you for coming along. So yeah, to begin here, first off, I'm super happy to have you all here. Everyone begins the game with two Hope, so if you haven't marked it already, start with two Hope. Just two Hopes. To begin with, two Ashes because we have six players. I start with six Fear and I'm going to be using these pogs. Yes, yes. My fear counters for the evening like a true badass. I'm just saying.

[D]

Amazing.

[C]

Some good shit. Alrighty. Six Pog Fear at my disposal, friends. And for those of you at home, a couple things to go over. We are reusing custom classes that I built to match the sitcom archetypes within the theme of what we're playing tonight. I also slightly altered and reskinned all the Daggerheart cards to also fit within the 90s centric child star themes. And if you hear the term skillcraft, that'll be replacing Spellcast for the evening. Since there is no real magic in this world. So Skillcraft will be taking that term. So for those of you who know Daggerheart, if you're a little confused, that's why you all ready to jump in? You're saying there's no magic in the 90s sitcom? Matt.

[D]

How dare you. It was only magic. How dare you. It's all magic.

[C]

My story doesn't get done. I'm setting the scene. Welcome my friends to the grandiose film lot of Salamander studios here in the dry heat of the Los Angeles summer. The year is 1996 and the bulk of production that supports the FRC channel's Thursday night lineup of family friendly sitcoms and after school specials calls the western edge of this studio lot home. A majestic grid of towering concrete soundstages are buttressed against a patchwork collection of outdoor sets. A metropolitan city street, a library courtyard, a suburban neighborhood. It is here that the magic of television is expertly crafted by all manner of talents. Cinematographers, makeup artists, makeup artists, art departments, sound engineers, directors, grips, wardrobe, an army of PAs, and of course, performers. And none so crucial to that success of these TV series of that era as the youthful actors that bring them to life. Here in the late afternoon heat, multiple productions have stopped down for the day due to a pending production restructuring, allowing a tired cast and crew a reprieve from the barely functional air conditioning of the oven. Like soundstages here among the tarmac streets, gang bosses move vehicles between a zipping sea of golf carts and hand carried set flats. A massive central white tent lends a shady sanctuary to numerous tables and a mighty spread of mediocre catering. This is the crafty tent. And it's around here that some of our players begin to arrive. As we look off to one of the nearest studio sets, the doors have swung open and the crew is shooting out into the hot summer day. We see what looks to be a number of figures walking around brushing past one of which is a young boy. Ryder, if you would please introduce us to Lucas.

[A]

Yeah, Lucas. Lucas Bellucci. Not Belushi. No relation.

[D]

Bellucci.

[A]

I'm wearing. I always wear my fishing vest. Cause it's got a lot of pockets and I wanna keep everything in there. I'm the only kid on my set, so I, you know, spend a lot of time reading, going through a heavy Dean Koontz phase.

[D]

Tight.

[C]

And Dean Koontz never even went through.

[A]

A heavy teen Koontz Day 96, man. So yeah, so my mom went back to Texas, so I kind of have no one here anymore. Except my caretaker, Chad, who's an assistant on my agency. We live at the Oakwoods. Anyway, so, yeah, I'm the only kid on my set. So I guess right now I'm just gonna try and kill some time before I head home.

[C]

Fantastic. As you brush past, looking forward to something on your grumbling stomach, you hear the grouchy voice of a familiar figure. Hal. You see a male in his 50s or so, balding head, looks like Don Rickles a little bit. Who currently has affixed to the edge of his arm a weird gnarled looking purple latex puppet with weird Boggle like eyes as he comes by and goes, hey, nice day there, Lucas. Maybe you can learn your fucking lines for once. We wouldn't have to retake it over and over.

[A]

Hey, Hal. How's it going?

[C]

I'm all right. All right. You getting some snacks?

[A]

Yeah, I was going to try and see if they had more Red Vines.

[C]

Red Vines?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

You see, you got to figure out how you really let the time pass. Here you see him slips a small metallic vial of some sort of liquid that he quickly swills under his lips for a second before the stench of strong alcohol hits you at an exhale and goes, how old are you anyway?

[A]

I'm 13.

[C]

Thirteen? That's almost old enough, right?

[D]

No.

[A]

How you remember what happened last time? If they catch you drinking this much on a shoot day.

[C]

Shoot day? Kid, we're getting canceled in two weeks. I ain't worried. He walks past and heads to start pocketing nearby bits of stuffed rolls and turkey sandwiches as you stumble up to the open table where we glance over and see Paloma has been sitting. If you wouldn't mind introducing us to Paloma Stacey.

[D]

Hi, I'm Paloma Polinski. I am the 15 year old star of Tiny Podiatrist, which is the. Thank you. Thank you. An anchor of the TGIT lineup, Tiny Podiatrist tells the story of a child prodigy. That would be me. Who graduated medical school at age 12 and has gone on to do foot surgeries at the hospital in my signature lavender scrubs and fanny pack. So, Tiny Podiatrist. That's me. I'm your tiny podiatrist, Paloma.

[C]

As you glance up and you see a rather perturbed, curbed and rattled, Lucas kind of stands up to the side of your table looking for somewhere to sit.

[D]

Lucas, why don't you come and sit here? Oh, ignore Hal. You know how it is. He's always drunk. You don't need to mess with him. Sit with me. Get something to eat. Let's just relax, all right?

[A]

Sure.

[D]

Where's Chad right now?

[A]

He's back at the apartment. I gotta wait for a ride later. You seen any Red Vines?

[D]

Oh, of course. There's always Red Vines. There's always tons of Red Vines. Here, I'll get you some.

[A]

Oh, that'd be great.

[D]

You just have a seat and. You know what? Forget about Chad. I'll give you a ride home tonight. Oh, I mean, my driver, but, you know, we'll drop you off.

[A]

That'd be cool.

[D]

Of course. Anytime.

[C]

Paloma. As you stand up from the table and head over to where one of the numerous red vine repositories are across the the crafty tables, you see one gentleman sitting off to the side in his patented leather jacket, scoping out others in the space. Joey, if you wouldn't mind introducing us to who we are.

[A]

Yeah. How you doing?

[C]

My name's Joey Powers. Everyone calls me Squawk. But you know that, right? I'm currently filming a movie. It's the sequel to Outsiders. It's called Outsiders two More Outsiders. And I'm a practitioner of the Meisner technique, which, actually, until last week, I thought was Mizna. I thought it was wrong, so I.

[A]

Never dropped my accent.

[C]

Cause I gotta stay in character. You know what I'm saying? That's just the way it is. I was on a sitcom before called.

[A]

Whoa, that's Not My Room.

[C]

But that got canceled, which is good. Cause I'm trying to get into film.

[A]

And this new Outsiders film is gonna be my break.

[C]

That's just the way it is. You know what I'm saying? Amazed. Amazing. What are you passing your time with here at the edge of the table? What's caught your eye? It was gonna be a Rubik's Cube, but it turned out to just be a square block. So, frankly, I'm just sitting here. Diploma. You catch Joey just staring at a small concrete cube very intensely.

[D]

Squawk.

[C]

Hey, hey, little doctor, what's going on?

[D]

Hey, hey, what's going on over there? I see that you've got. Your pet. Wouldn't block you. Okay.

[C]

Well, again, I thought it was something else, but it's been passing the time of any, like, three hours. What have you been doing?

[D]

I mean, working. Squawk.

[C]

You know, how's the show going?

[D]

So it's going really, really, really well.

[C]

Because I saw. Yeah, when I saw the Q ratings. Not everybody's going really well.

[D]

Well, I mean, my show is. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, not every character, but it's working all right.

[D]

You know, we're playing around with different breakout characters. That's true. But, you know, we're anchoring the lineup, so, you know, that's what's important. As long as we're still performing that important function for the lineup, then that's what matters.

[C]

You're the anchor show, let's say.

[D]

Hey.

[C]

Hey, Lucas. How you doing?

[A]

All right. How you doing? I'm doing all right. The accent sounds good. Thanks.

[C]

I've been working on it now. Since this morning.

[A]

Yeah, I was gonna say. Cause you don't even start shooting for like a couple weeks, right?

[C]

Yeah, I don't technically have the role, but I'm working on it.

[A]

Oh, yeah, it sounds. You're from la, right? Not a real.

[C]

I mean, Bakersfield, but, you know.

[A]

So that's why I'm really kind of.

[C]

Working on the accent. I was told this is what it sounds like when you're from the Midwest. I didn't really do a whole lot of, you know, kind of research.

[A]

Have you read the Outsiders? The book?

[C]

They made a book out of that.

[A]

Oh, man.

[C]

About this time, you hear joint laughter of two figures also joining you under the tent. We'll begin here as one of the two figures. Casey. Casey, what do we see as you approach alongside Sam?

[D]

Well, I approach alongside Sam and I see Squawk. And he and I have never gotten along. It's always been a thing. And he's with that stupid pet block again. I mean, he's been carrying this thing around for a year and a half. Yeah, you'd think he'd at least draw a face on it or something.

[C]

I'll figure it out one of these days.

[D]

Anyway, I came over to get some cookies.

[C]

All right. And Sam, if you wouldn't mind introducing us to what we see with Sam.

[D]

So, I'm Sam Stone. I am formerly Sam Rabinowitz. My manager made me change it. I currently doing a Babysitter's Club reboot. I really just wanna be doing action films, you know, like deep. Like, deep meaning. But I keep getting typecast in these other roles, so it's, like, annoying to me. But whatever. It's paying the bills. My mom is away in Asia. They're doing a tour. My brothers are in a pop group. So they've got, like, a really big pop tour in Asia. So anyway, you know, I've got a beeper. She calls me. I call her back. I gotta take a smoke break like, every five minutes. But anyway, Casey and I have been friends for a long time, you know, ever since we did that show together five years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been. It's been an interesting ride with this one. But kc. I didn't really introduce her properly to everybody, but. Kayce. It's Casey or kc. Either one. You know what I mean? The SAG thing was I kinda had to abbreviate. There was already a Casey in there. But I'm a goofball. I'm just kinda silly. You know what I mean? We're a good team. We're a good team. You're sitting there smoking. I'm sitting here with Silly String. You know what I mean?

[C]

The smell of cigarettes almost precedes the laughter that catches your attention as these two eventually join here at the edge of the tent.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Already smoking, huh?

[D]

What's it to you? Nothing.

[C]

Just wonder if you had one.

[D]

I've got one. Have you ever smoked before?

[C]

Of course I've smoked before.

[A]

Come on.

[C]

I'm an outsider.

[D]

Come on.

[C]

I'm good.

[A]

I'm actually alright.

[C]

Don't worry about it. 90s were a different time. I'm an outsider. A darkened shape looms in the distance. As it approaches, you see what at first might have been the intense arrival of an adult, which is already a momentary cause for tension. But as she pulls back the curtain that's holding the outside of the tent, you see Ms. Evelyn, who is the onset tutor for for a lot of the children, who's approaching. Beautiful, delightful woman in her late 20s or so. Red crimped hair permed. And she has her hands over the shoulders of a young girl and is like. No, no, it's okay. You can go sit with them. If you could please introduce Karin to us. Ashley.

[D]

Hi, I'm Karin Marie Thomas. It's spelled like Karen, but you say it like Karen. And I'm 14 and I'm working on a made for TV film. It's actually a sequel. The first one I won a Youth in film award for.

[C]

That's impressive right there.

[D]

She's bringing that up very early. Right? She is. She has huge cargo pant shorts on. Because she has. And they are full. You can tell there's just a lot of stuff in there. Mousy brown, dirty blonde hair. She's just. She's a little weird. She's just a kid who's always hung out with adults.

[C]

Ms. Evelyn, can I type something? Children. So nice to see all of you. I see that you've congregated here in the feeding space. If you'd be so kind, I'd like to introduce you To Karen, who has had a hard time integrating socially with the other child actors here, I've taken the liberty to hopefully make new friendships amongst you. Isn't that right, Karen?

[D]

Thank you, Ms. Evelyn. Hello, everybody. I feel like some of you I've maybe met before, but it's really, really nice to be here on your lot and just thanks for letting me sit at your table.

[C]

Yeah, that's no problem.

[D]

Cameron, I like your cargo shirts. You know, my. Kind of got the little matching thing here with the pants. You got a cool. I like the flames on the bottom. The flames on the bottom are kind of awesome. But if you want to ever borrow my catcher's mask, you know, really do that. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

[A]

Hey, did Ms. Evelyn say anything about me?

[C]

Like, anything at all? Maybe something about she wouldn't want to go out, get some dinner or anything?

[A]

Kind of mentioned.

[D]

She didn't say anything like that. She mostly just said, you. You give her the most trouble. Oh, quiet.

[A]

That's.

[C]

So Ms. Evelyn.

[D]

You have a thing for her?

[C]

Maybe a little. She likes me. It's what it is, you know, I can't help it.

[D]

Cool.

[A]

He thinks everybody likes him.

[D]

Congratulations on your Youth and Film Award. Let me just say that. Thank you so much. Yeah, it really was just like, so much work went into the part and it was just really a lot of, you know, it took a lot out of me, but I'm really glad.

[C]

Yeah, it's very special. Raise your hand if you've been nominated for a Youth in Film Award.

[D]

Yeah, well, I mean, raise your hand if you've won.

[C]

Oh, yeah. All right, that's fair enough.

[D]

Shit. Sorry.

[C]

Karen lays it down, doesn't he? Ridiculous. You hear a voice ring out and you see what some of you recognize to be the director known as Vanessa Drogan. She's a woman in her late 40s, kind of dark brunette hair that's going gray in streaks. She's very fashionable with a leather jacket that's way too hot to be wearing. You see her chain smoking as she darts through. She's the director currently of Tiny Podiatrist. Makes eye contact with you and goes off. And somebody's like, Mr. Ogan, what seems to be the problem? She's like, I just supposed to be making art. I directed 20 of the most expensive music videos of the past 15 years, and here I am making a ridiculous sitcom. Goes and brings her a bottle of wine, and she immediately uncorks with her claws of fingernails and she begins to take a heavy swig from it. And then a voice next to her looks at her and assistant of some kind goes like Mr. Okun, do you? And they look over in the distance. We should get out of here. Of course we should. And they both scatter. And you see other people in the tent start looking over in a particular direction and beginning to gather their food and begin to leave the middle of the tent. Can we see what's causing them to scatter you too? You glance over and you see a golf cart approaching.

[D]

Oh God, that's the network.

[C]

The golf cart itself, a very well kept one. You see most of them are just standard golf carts, but this one has a unique velvet trim along the top. And you see in the front of it, the first face you see is Myers, this sheepish looking gentleman with a plaid button up and horn rimmed glasses and very, very heavily slicked back hair. Someone who would have been fired from Weezer for looking too nerdy. And it's just driving the golf cart. First you know him to be the assistant to the Salamander Studios executive who is sitting behind him, a portly gentleman in a very well filled out jet black business suit with a shaved head and a thick chin beard where an ever smoking cigar puffs in it. This is Adam Pearson, the studio head executive. As the cart begins to saddle up alongside, you see a smaller third figure sitting alongside him who is quietly listening to music. The executive is chatting with him. The golf cart comes to a stop and Myers steps out and says sir, we're here. Adam Pearson steps out. A good time merry for all of you. Do we have. Perfect, perfect. You're one of the individuals I wanted to see. Luke. Lucas.

[A]

Lucas. Lucas, of course.

[C]

Understood. No worries. Where he looks over. Ah, there. And he points off to the side. Gerald, come here. And you see around the corner, hiding almost is this older man in his 40s with a gray beard and a baseball cap and glasses who's the director of the film that you were just on. And comes out. Yes, Mr. Pearson, can I help you? Yes, yes, I wanted to talk with you for a moment here with young Lucas. We've had a shift in our production schedule here. Well, needless to say. Well, I'll introduce you. This is Logan. And he looks behind and you see stepping off of the golf cart is a young 13 year old boy or so, very similar hair color, very similar outfit who steps over, smiles and turns.

[A]

To me, so mad.

[C]

Hello Lucas, it's nice to meet you.

[A]

Hi. Hi Logan.

[C]

So Logan here, I'd like the two of you to Hang out and I'd like to study. Just think, you know, this is part of a studio wide precaution since children tend to be children and get injured and suddenly our productions are behind schedule. Think of it as like a classic. What's the word? That all the understudy. Understudy. That's in the theater.

[A]

Kids. I know what this means. I teach him my lines and then next week I get a call from my agent to not come to work.

[C]

This is classic. That's not. I didn't say anything about that. That's wild. That's not legally binding in a court of law. So Logan's gonna hang out with the rest of you and just get a lay of the land. Treat him well. All right, if you don't mind. Thank you, Myers. We're out of here. And he gets back into the back of the golf cart which kind of like rocks as he sits in and puffs up a secondary cigar. Kind of gives a once over glance at the rest of the kids and goes straightens his jacket and then Myers scoots it off. The rest of the crew begin to slowly emerge like cockroaches that have waited for the light to pass and begin to. Adam Pearson, the man who invented the After School special. Unbelievable. He's incredible, that guy.

[D]

Yeah, Just so smart. So just incredible. And I love the smell of cigars. You know, one time back in the day, I thought it was hilarious. I took an M80, like one of the little explosive ones, you know? Yeah. I put it in his toilet in his office, set it off. Exploded whole thing. It was everywhere. Absolutely hilarious. Mr. Pissed. I mean, I did have to pay for a whole new office for him out of my salary. But you know what? It was fine. It was worth it, you guys. It was really worth it. It was totally worth it. It was awesome.

[C]

Very much like for us to spend time together and play games like children.

[A]

Oh, man.

[C]

Holy.

[D]

Hey, Logan.

[A]

Hi, Logan.

[D]

What's up?

[A]

You probably like sports, right?

[C]

I like all sports outside. Where are you from? Ball throwing.

[A]

You know what, why don't you go hang out with him? He's. He's gonna love showing you around the studio.

[C]

I've been told to stay with you, Lucas.

[A]

But no, I was getting a ride home with Paloma. Um, uh, okay. What do you want to see? You want to just see my script? I can show you my dressing room.

[C]

Where are you from, Logan? Indiana.

[A]

Where in Indiana?

[C]

That's kind of where I'm from. Indiana. Holy shit. I will play what games you play. Show me Lucas, what you do?

[A]

I play poker.

[C]

Poker? Show me this poker.

[A]

Lucas, are you from Europe? Dude, what's going on?

[C]

I'm from Indiana.

[D]

Are you homeschooled?

[C]

One of those shows?

[D]

That's exactly what.

[C]

We were. Homeschooled. Show me your poker. And he slaps you on the side of the shoulder, and he kind of pushes you a little bit away from the tent.

[A]

Oh, God. Guys, I don't want to hunt up.

[D]

Don't.

[A]

Don't leave me alone.

[D]

Sorry. Lucas, can we get rid of this kid?

[A]

Yeah, please.

[D]

Let's ditch him. Gonna be the one who said that he had to shadow him. Yeah, but, like, what if we could get him? You know? Let's, like, put him in some heavy hair and makeup or something and ditch him.

[A]

I just want to hang out with him, and then we can run away right here, you know?

[C]

I can hear everything you're saying. You're from Indiana.

[A]

You told him you're from Indiana?

[C]

We have the role.

[D]

You're playing with a block, eating Red Vines. Like, go hang out with the guy.

[A]

You're a weirdo, kid.

[D]

Why do you talk like that?

[C]

This is how it's where the outside is supposed to be. Indiana.

[A]

It's an Indiana accent.

[D]

Oh, my God. Yeah, see? Okay, why doesn't your accent sound like his Indian accent?

[C]

Because I'm a better actor.

[D]

Wow.

[C]

I am also a better actor, huh?

[A]

Yeah. See, they're gonna replace me with this guy.

[D]

God, is terrible. Very original. Yeah, he's gotta parrot stuff back. Sort of like, you know, look, man, you're not gonna like charisma.

[A]

Why don't you play baseball or basketball or whatever, you know? Oh, are you imitating me? You guys, he's totally studying me to take my place.

[C]

Show me your poker.

[A]

Just take my place, man. I don't care. I want to go home anyway.

[D]

He's doing Meisner.

[C]

It's a Meisner. Okay, so he's homeschooled and a method actor.

[A]

Meisner's not method acting. Don't you know anything?

[C]

What are you talking about? Of course it is. Okay? That's why I do Meisner. Yeah. Cause I like method. Yeah, some people, right?

[A]

Am I wrong about that? He keeps staring at me, you guys. It's really creeping me out.

[C]

Hey, Logan. Logan. Yes? What other shows have you done? You stage actor?

[A]

Where are you from?

[C]

Indiana. No, but I mean, what kind of shows you done?

[A]

You done Nickelodeon?

[C]

I've done local community theater.

[D]

Who's your agent?

[A]

He's a real actor.

[C]

Johnson, Johnson and Johnson.

[D]

And. Oh, my God. This guy, he has a sponsorship with Johnson.

[C]

And Johnson puts his hand over your shoulder, and with an uncomfortable grip for a child your size, begins to lead you away from the crafty tent.

[D]

I've seen this at all. No, guys, we have to stop this. This guy's creepy, and I think he's a robot or something. Yeah, something's wrong. We need to get him away.

[C]

You watch as both Lucas and Logan are now being pushed away beyond the nearest lot and around the corner.

[A]

All right, all right, all right. That's it. That's it. I'm freaking out. I'm going to stomp on his foot and try and run away. I'm stomping on his foot.

[C]

You can run that. I need you to go ahead and make a strength roll for me. First roll of the game. Now, mind you, we have before you roll, we do have from the audience up to 20 plus ones that we get to share amongst your rolls at the moment. So if you'd like to take any of that 20 to spend on this. How many would you like to spend? Wow.

[A]

I'm really not that strong. Okay, so I feel like I should take some.

[C]

Take some. How much do you want to take?

[D]

Wait, so say it again.

[C]

We have 20 plus ones that we can add to this. As much as you want to.

[D]

20 plus ones. Okay, okay, okay.

[C]

So how much do you want to add?

[D]

We have to decide beforehand.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Can we just.

[C]

Four. Five.

[A]

What am I. Give me five. Give me five. I'm negative one strength.

[C]

Oh, you're negative one strength.

[A]

I need this. I only weigh like 80 pounds.

[D]

Pounds.

[C]

Is that too much? Five seems like a lot.

[D]

We just started. Seems like a lot.

[A]

You have to save this.

[D]

Two. What if we only get 20?

[A]

Okay, okay, never mind.

[C]

Then I'll be two. I'm just going to stomp. You guys don't care about.

[D]

Let's do two.

[A]

We'll do two.

[D]

We'll do two.

[C]

Two, Two, two, two.

[A]

Three.

[C]

With hope. Okay, so take with hope.

[D]

Hope.

[A]

So bad at fighting. Guys always the guys, the boys taking my place.

[C]

Okay, so take a hope as you find within yourself a rare moment of heroism that fight or flight really billows up inside. And you lift your knee and slam your foot down into what feels like a chunk of iron. And immediately you feel this pain shoot up your leg. And you all hear him shout out in pain just as he goes around the corner. And Logan whispers in your ear, you must keep watching where none are. And keeps dragging you. Now your feet are dragging on the ground as he's Lifting you by your shoulder into an alley side. Lucas, that kid's really strong.

[D]

He's really strong. I'm going to grab some provisions from Crafty. I would like to grab a box of frosted strawberry pop tarts.

[C]

Smart.

[D]

I would like to maybe can I just, like, grab some stuff to put into my grab?

[C]

Pockets full of Crafty. You can add to your item.

[D]

Pockets full of Crafty. I don't know how much we're gonna need.

[C]

You start after. I just start after him. All right. I'm picking up the pace, too, as you're getting farther away. All right. Yeah. Use case. So you see them, like, vanish around the corner. Squawk picks up a pace. Did anyone join with Squawk to follow?

[D]

Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna go too. Yeah. Where you go, I go. Yeah, well, I'm shoving things in my pockets and running.

[C]

All right, so can we see him ahead of us? No. You saw him go around the corner, and you hear the out. But which is what gets you to follow up quickly. Sam and Casey, you follow up after Squawk with Paloma. Are you following as well?

[D]

Yes, I'm there. I'm figuring out a plan. Everyone all right? I'm with you. I'm behind you. I'm processing right now.

[C]

With Karen holding up the rear, trying to get everything mashed into your pockets proper. Lucas.

[D]

I'll keep him. Good.

[C]

Lucas. At this point, Logan grabs and turns you around and looks you in the eyes, and you see this flash of yellow light that seems to scan past you in two different directions before it says, soon I will learn all that you are and you will be obsolete. Guys.

[A]

Oh, my God. All right, I'm using my hairspray and lighter.

[C]

Okay, Straight. You hear the footsteps rising quickly behind you as you reach in your pockets real fast and pull up from your pocket your lighter and your hairspray. Go ahead and make an attack roll for that. That Is that. What's the trade on that? Is that finesse?

[A]

Yeah, finesse.

[C]

All right, so go ahead and roll for a finesse roll. Do you want to take any of these bonuses to it, given your three from the last roll?

[A]

No, I'm pretty confident.

[C]

All right. I mean, these are free to spend, you guys. People are donating for them.

[D]

Should we add two?

[A]

Yeah, add two.

[C]

Add two.

[D]

Add two.

[C]

We're going to spend two of this. Go for it.

[A]

All right. 17 plus two. Finesse. So 19 with Hope.

[C]

With hope. Take a hope with that. You all rush the corner as a fireball emerges and surrounds the torso of Logan, more than you were expecting around the corner. You were expecting maybe a scuffle or a fight, but there is now flames surrounding the.

[D]

He just lit that kid on fire. My God.

[A]

It's not human.

[C]

Guys, go ahead and roll damage on that.

[D]

Lucas, what are you doing? He's.

[A]

He's a weirdo. His foot hurt my foot, and I was trying to stomp him.

[C]

What do I wait for?

[A]

Damage? All right, damage is 2d10.

[C]

Yeah, 2d10 on that.

[A]

2D10.

[D]

You know, I went out for that show. No.6.

[C]

So six points of damage. Alrighty. That is enough to be his minor threshold. So the cyborg, as you notice at this point, the fire burning away. The skin shows like a weird combination of metal and organic material that is not human parts. Where the burn has kind of curled away and the flesh has burned back black in places. You see metallic teeth and this weird whirring of odd gears and strange mechanisms on the inside just beneath the surface.

[D]

This robo kid.

[C]

Oh, my God, he's a robo actor.

[A]

They're replacing us.

[C]

They're replacing us with robot also, because it can mark a stress. You watch as the flames emerge around it from. Actually, no, for this one. The first hit he wasn't expecting, so he's not going to do that. The flames burn back. I'm going to immediately spend one of my fear to interrupt this. As you all turn the corner, the headcount turns to you. You will all be replaced and is going to go ahead and grab and crush you. Going to mark a stress to do so. Ooh, that's going to be an 11 to hit you. Does that hit your evasion?

[A]

No, I'm 1212.

[C]

He goes to grab and crush you, and as you do, you slip out of his grasp and pull back. It hits the air with nothing, turns around and now notices the approach to the rest of you. And all of you can now see this burned figure. This is not a human child actor at all. What would you like to do? I'm in the front, so I'm at full bore at this point. Go for it. So full run. I'm gonna try to just put my shoulder into his chest and slam him as hard as I can. Okay, go ahead and get ready for that roll. It looks like the audience has delivered unto me eight negative ones to apply. So I'm gonna apply three to that. So you have negative three to your.

[D]

Come on, guys.

[C]

I'm telling you, people have a thing against child actors.

[D]

We've been saying it from the actors also. Also really Quickly, the Dispel Dice Fun City are available right now on Bitly Crfebay. So go get them.

[C]

I got awesome ones too. These are great.

[D]

Yeah, these are all right.

[C]

Make your roll. Make my roll.

[A]

Here we go.

[C]

Here we go.

[D]

Come on, Ponyboy. Stay golden.

[C]

Seven with fear. Seven with minus minus minus three. So as you rush forward full board, you're ready to like, impact. Even with a little bit of non human visual you got, this isn't a massive. But it's like hitting a freight truck that's parked. You just. You immediately feel two hands grip you from the back and lift you up. And it's going to go ahead and take the throw action and throw you at Sam. So with this you've watched suddenly as Squawk is lifted up. That is going to be only a 10 to hit you. What's your evasion?

[D]

Nine.

[C]

Nine. So that does hit you. You both take as part of this 10 points of damage to each of you. You can use your armor to reduce it by one threshold if you want to, but that's 10 damage to each of you as you go onto the ground. I'm gonna do my not in the face ability. Okay. Not in the face.

[A]

Not in the face. And I'm gonna mark a stress.

[C]

Mark a stress to reduce it by one threshold. And I'm also gonna. Well, so if my minor damage is 11. Yes. And you gave me a 10 and I bring it down to 10, it still hits, right? Well, if I did 10 damage, your. My threshold is 11, you said? Yeah, that'd be one. That brings it to zero. Okay, great. So then. So perfect. You're great. Excellent. But I. But I. Mark a stress. Gotcha. You got it. All righty. So after that throw is done, you now see the entity is standing in front of you. Now its arm's gonna be. And the eyes begin to glow bright red. What do you want to do?

[D]

All right. As my inventory weapon, I do have a shave trigger. 38 that I've been carrying ever since that whole stalker incident. You know, it's in the fanny pack, Paloma, so. I know. So it is. So I'd like to. I want to try to shoot him. He's so strong. What else can we do?

[C]

Tiny badass.

[D]

I mean, that'll probably work. That's a little bit stronger than what I have. Well, that's what I'm saying. I mean, we have to pull out the big guns here. I mean, it's not that big of a gun, but it's the biggest one we have. Pull out the tiny padanga. Do it, do it, do it, do it.

[C]

I'll say. As you pull out the gun and everyone reveals this, it kind of changes the perspective. The audience has voted to give you all one hope. So that's six hope from the pool. You all gain one with two remaining if needed down the road.

[D]

Yes, we'll take it. We'll take it.

[C]

Thank you, thank you.

[D]

Oh, my goodness.

[C]

So audience can give, audience can take away. All right, so you pull out your hidden gun here that no one's noticed from the fanboard.

[D]

Oh, my gosh, Relax. I go to the range every weekend. Okay, Is that real brightening?

[C]

Like a red glow begins to emanate brighter and brighter from the eyes of this cyborg clone. Logan, go ahead and take your roll for your shot.

[D]

Now, this is the D6 plus four thing over here, right?

[C]

So you roll the two dice, the two D12 to see if you hit first.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

And you add. Is that finesse on that one?

[D]

Take out your bullet.

[C]

Put him in there. There we go.

[D]

Sam is very controlled. Yes, I know. Oh, you got a crit.

[C]

Critical crit.

[D]

Crit.

[C]

Out of the gate. Out of the gate. We got a crit.

[D]

So.

[C]

So take a hope. If you had a stress, you would clear that as well. But that's an automatic success. And here's the fun thing about the damage on a crit. So what was it? It's 2D6, you said?

[D]

Yes, 2D6 plus 4.

[C]

So you take maximum damage on that. So that's 12 plus 4, which is 16. And then roll the dice on top of it.

[D]

Oh, roll these dice again.

[C]

Yeah, roll the 2D6. That's all good.

[A]

Wow, that's great.

[C]

Crits on attacks are awesome.

[D]

Yeah, nice. Seven.

[C]

All right, so 16 plus seven. That is going to be 23 points of damage. That is going to be. That would be two hit points for the target. It's going to go ahead and spend a stress. As the bullet hits, you see this, this wave of blue energy, a force field sourcelessly. Technology you've never understood seems to slow the bullet down. It still penetrates through and hits part of the shoulder, kind of carving open. You can see now this blue energy sparking on the inside. It still takes a hit point damage, but it reduced it through some sort of force field that seems to protect it. But the gunshot rings out. It's probably going to cause a little bit of chaos here around the lot as immediately begin to hear voices go, what, what? Who's up next?

[D]

Studio teachers are probably after that Ms. Evelyn is definitely on her way over here.

[C]

All right, so who wants to go next?

[D]

No, I'm gonna run up knowing that probably I'm gonna do as much damage as a gun. I'm gonna take out my primary weapon, which is a Trapper Keeper.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

And I'm gonna take a swing. I take a swing at his face.

[C]

Go ahead and roll. I'm gonna go. You wanna spend any of these bonuses here from the audience?

[D]

No, I'm gonna save those.

[C]

All right.

[D]

I'm gonna save those for everyone else. I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna use my own.

[C]

Let's go.

[D]

Oh, that's not awesome. Oh, no, it's not that bad. Okay, so instinct plus two. Okay, so we got 17.

[C]

17 hits.

[D]

17 with hope.

[C]

With hope. Take that, hope. And roll damage.

[D]

Oh, I forgot. Okay. Okay, 2d10.

[C]

You can do it.

[D]

Now can I take. Where's my 10? Where's my tens? Okay, I'll just do this one too. All right, so we got 8, 9, 10, 12 plus 5. 17 points of damage.

[C]

20 points damage.

[D]

That is still with a Trapper Keeper.

[C]

It's all right. She keeps.

[D]

I played softball.

[C]

There's a lot in there. Sat prep. You rush up, whack it nearly knocks it off its feet. But that same force field seems to deflect some of the blow. It's going to mark another stress to reduce the damage by one. So it only takes one hit point. It impacts the head off to the side. And you can see now there's part of the skin of Logan on this side of the face. And the rest is just this exposed cyborg skull. This weird Terminator esque, sort of like it clicks back into place. The voice now became more synthetic. You will all be made obsolete. You will be destroyed and forgotten. I'm gonna go ahead and spend a fear to activate immediately after you. Even though the spotlight was on you. And I'm gonna go ahead and spend another fear to use its laser eyes sweep.

[D]

Oh, laser eyes.

[C]

The eyes now brighten up and the head turns. I'm just like an arc of red laser. Just scoots through for all things in front of him in close range. Which I'll say would be.

[D]

Wait. Yeah, I have a Counting Crows CD in my cargo pants. I bet I could use that to reflect the lasers back at it.

[A]

Do it.

[D]

Oh, my God.

[C]

Is it August and everything after.

[A]

Yes, it'll work.

[C]

It'll work.

[D]

Okay. Okay.

[C]

All right. So what I'll do, I'll save. So this is Great. Go ahead and roll. I will say either knowledge or finesse. Your choice of these two as a reaction roll for you. It'll still sweep across all of you, but this will help protect you for a moment and see if they can back there.

[D]

I'm gonna do. I go with the one that I should have higher. I'm gonna go with knowledge. I'll go with knowledge.

[C]

This is you kind of looking at the angle. It's in that moment. It's sweeping by looking at where you should hold the angle of the CD and where to place it to try and protect it.

[D]

Got it. Okay.

[C]

So this is gonna be all right. That's. I rolled a six plus two. It's an eight to hit. Does that hit anybody's evasion?

[D]

Can I add scathing mockery to this before she rolls it?

[C]

If you want to. Does 8 hitting anyone's evasion? What's your evasion?

[D]

9, 9, 10, 11.

[C]

So you don't even need to because right now. And we'll say from a narrative standpoint, you pull out your counting crow cd and as the laser arc's about to happen, you step forward and hold it in place. As it hits the edge of the cd, it arcs in the directions.

[A]

A perfect blue building.

[D]

Come back.

[C]

Come back up. Around here, it carves all.

[D]

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[A]

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[A]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[D]

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[D]

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[D]

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[C]

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[A]

So what are we having for lunch?

[D]

Dude, my work here is done.

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[C]

That finishes its turn. It kind of. It looks frustrated and uncertain about how you managed to pull that off, but it is back to you. What would you like to do?

[D]

Casey, you're brilliant. Brilliant. That was amazing. That was incredible, guys. I'm really sad, though, because that was my favorite cd and now I have to go to Tower Records and buy another one. We'll find you another one. We'll find you another one. Are we gonna tag team?

[A]

Get out of here.

[C]

We gotta just run away.

[D]

So he's just coming after us now? Laser on us.

[C]

I look like he did an arc of lasers. Try and get all of you. But it was deflected over here by Casey's savvy.

[D]

Should I just step up and try to knock this guy out, like for real with my baseball bat?

[C]

You got a baseball bat? If you wanna.

[D]

Hey, guess what? Jody's Trapper Keeper is right now up for auction. Go.

[C]

Let's go. So, Sam, do you want to rush up there and take a swing?

[D]

Yeah, let's go. We already shot him.

[C]

It's not going so well.

[D]

How?

[C]

We shot him once and then.

[D]

Stop.

[A]

We gotta go find Mr. Meyer.

[D]

Should we? Oh, God. But you don't know what I can do with a baseball bat. I keep it on me at all times. So I'm gonna walk up to him, I'm gonna take my baseball bat out of my baby backpack and I'm going to beat this cyborg senseless.

[C]

Let's go. Go ahead. Number one. Do you wanna take any bonuses from the community here?

[D]

Yes. Yeah, take a bat.

[C]

How many do you wanna take? We have currently 15.

[D]

Oh, what do we do?

[C]

Well, no, we didn't spend it earlier, did we? So we stopped. 20. Technically, you didn't spend it on that roll.

[D]

Well, he did.

[C]

No, he did. The first roll was horrible.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, right. And you did spend it.

[D]

I went down to two for you.

[A]

Yeah, we went to two, so.

[D]

Yeah, let's grab another two. Yeah, let's try to nail it. Me too.

[C]

Nail it.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. Two more. Two more.

[C]

Two more.

[D]

Sure. Okay.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, take a plus two. We're gonna take two from that stool.

[D]

Okay. Nine and six. That's 15 with hope. 15 with hope.

[C]

That's a success. So take a hope and go ahead and roll. Damage for that baseball bat is you rush up and crack. Heavy hit on the cyborg's head and shoulders.

[D]

Hold on. Damage is sixes. Is this correct?

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Okay, two.

[A]

Let's go.

[D]

Seven.

[C]

Seven points of damage total.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

All Right. That is going to be a hit point on it. It's not going to reduce that. A heavy crack, you watch the head kind of snap at the side.

[D]

It's starting to look a little.

[C]

Starting to show some damage, some wear and tear, like it's still holding strong. But it's not immune to your assaults. And for a moment it seems to almost halt for a second at the impact before it writes itself angrily at you.

[D]

Can't tell an adult. No. They're useless. No. Okay, sorry.

[C]

I'm an adult. Come on.

[D]

It's true, it's true, it's true.

[C]

We're all here.

[A]

Okay, can I use, Can I use. Cause I'm a big computer hacker. I'm really into that.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Can I use my. Can I. My knowledge to see. See if there's anything that I might know about a weakness in the neck or like anything that I'm seeing.

[C]

Go ahead and make a knowledge roll for me as you inspect the now exposed part. Yeah.

[A]

Because I might recognize a wire or something that is a weak. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

[D]

All right.

[A]

Knowledge is plus 3. I rolled 18 plus 3.

[C]

So 18 plus 3 is great with hope or fear.

[A]

Fear.

[C]

Fear. Okay, good to know. So that's all good. So you're glancing at it, this technology like you're familiar with. Yeah, this is Unix. I know this. You know, you're looking at the machine. The intricacy of the electronics that are exposed is strange to you. It's advanced to a degree that you're like. There's no port of entry for cables. From what you can see, it's like bio organic in an odd way. And there are like sort of strange exoskeleton shell parts to it that are beyond most of the sci fi that you've read. This is some government level like technology. Probably you could try to look for other ports, but at the current moment, most of its body is still kind of meh. It would probably take more damage to try and find something to do.

[A]

So how far away are we from it?

[C]

Right now you're about 15ft from it. You're all like right around it and you've all been kind of closing in on its current position. Is there a way to get. Is there a way for me to.

[A]

Get around it in any way?

[C]

Yeah, you can just run around it if you want. It's not moving anywhere.

[A]

All right, I'm going to try working my way around it.

[C]

I'm going to try to be circumspect about it. Yeah, yeah. You see one eye track you as you move, but it doesn't seem to react at all. Okay, so I'm trying to get up behind it. Yeah. And once I get up behind it, I'm going to pop both my stilettos into the side of the neck. That's good. Let's give it a shot.

[D]

Meisner paying off. Right there he is.

[C]

Funny boy. In this model, it's just what it is. Both in the side of the neck. Let's go. I also have the power of the Nepo baby. I don't know if that matters to this. This robot. Tell me how the Nepo baby experience helps you against this technological moral.

[A]

Well, here's.

[C]

Here's how it helps you in life. So my second uncle is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was in terminator. It's been 90 years. Hope. I'll allow it. I'll allow it. So there you go. You've watched this enough. I've watched Terminator enough with the family. With my family. Family. Yeah, Absolutely. I love it. Spend that hope and add that. Add that Nepo baby bonus to your attack. It's like Wheaton. It's six with unfortunately with fear, but I add three, so it's nine with fear. It is. All right, so nine with fear, unfortunately. But wait, I'm also going to. I can add. Yeah. So. No, I can't do that. No, it's just nine with fear. Okay. Nine with fear. That is a failure with fear. And you go and sneak up from behind, and the head swivels around, and technically, I would have taken the spotlight after you because you rolled with fear. So I'll take two in a row for this one as it spins around and looks at you. Oh, hello. Yep. First, I'm gonna go ahead and. It's gonna go ahead and just take its giant metal fist and try and plunk you right.

[A]

Not in the face. I'm hitting.

[C]

Not in the face. You can. That's gonna be a 17 to hit you, which I think does. It does. So you take from the impact. Let's see what we got here. That is.

[D]

Oh, no.

[C]

11 points of damage as it just clocks you right into the jaw. But you put up your hands in time to try and prevent it and kind of take it mostly to the forearms. So then. Yeah, I don't take any damage. Right. Because it goes from 11 to 10. Correct. And 11 is my. Yes. So the second spotlight there is going to go from the earlier one does. It's going to go ahead and see spin around, and with each of these hits, I'm getting a fear because of its momentum reaction. So I'm just adding that would be two there. And then it's going to go ahead and with unnatural speed. You watch it kind of like it kind of darts between a bunch of you. And as you've been kind of like backing up from this, it appears with an incredible burst of speed that both lets you know that there's no way to outrun this. But also it's now refocused itself on you and it's going to go ahead and mark its last stress to grab and crush you. That's going to be a 12 to hit. Does it hit your armor class?

[A]

Yeah, well, I have a 12 evasion, so.

[C]

So that does hit you. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. Alrighty. And so as far as damage goes, Here you take 16 points of damage as it. You guys watch as it rushes up to Lucas, grabs him by the throat, lifts him off the air, and then begins to just squeeze his throat.

[D]

Lucas. Lucas. Okay, okay, look, it's been an armor.

[C]

To reduce that if you'd like to.

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, so I spend one armor. Gotcha.

[D]

In my fanny pack, I have my pet tarantula. So what if I take him out and just maybe he's never. Maybe this creature, whatever it is, has never seen anything like that. I could just hold it up and try to distract him. Are you gonna scare him? You're gonna scare the cyborg? I mean, it seems to have some kind of intelligence, so it might be curious about what this creature is and just kind of forget about Lucas for a minute. Try it.

[C]

Try it.

[D]

Try it. We have to try it. Hold it out in front of it. Throw the spider at him. Try it any.

[C]

Try it.

[D]

Just throw the spider at its head. Yes.

[C]

No.

[D]

It's my pet.

[A]

You just have to become its friend.

[D]

Just wait a minute. Wait a minute. Karen. Karen. Whatever. Do you have any water in those cargo pants? Yes. Maybe we need to throw water on the robot.

[C]

I like to point out that's a good idea.

[D]

I can't do that. All right, let's go. We need to short circuit him. Yes. Yes.

[C]

Good idea. That was a good movie.

[D]

Short Circuit was a great movie. Forget it. Let's short circuit the robot. Brilliant. Great idea. Do it. Great idea. Do it. So when I was at craft service, I definitely took water bottles for each one of us.

[C]

Absolutely. And you fit them all in your massive cartridge?

[D]

I did. I did.

[C]

Hell yeah. I love it. Water bottles.

[D]

Not crystal Pepsi. Yes.

[A]

Crystal Pepsi would have saved us.

[C]

It always would.

[D]

Disintegrate in it. All right. So, yeah, I want to just point and spray with the water bottles.

[C]

All right. I would say go ahead and make a finesse roll for me to see if you can. Finesse or agility? I'll say your choice on that one. To try and see if you can aim this towards some of the damaged areas, the parts where its exoskeleton have been carved open by the bullet. Fire by the baseball bat striking the side of its head and see if you can get it properly there.

[D]

I can't run.

[A]

Someone move.

[D]

Okay, 12. I'm going to go with 15.

[C]

15 succeeds.

[D]

Yes, it does. Okay, great.

[C]

It does. So as you fire the water and splash it into these areas, it sinks in for a second. And you see it still holding Lucas up. Its head looks over towards you. One eye kind of sputters out and the head sparks begin to fly out. I need you to roll 3d20 for me, Sam.

[D]

It's working. He's working.

[C]

Oh, my gosh.

[D]

3D20. Okay. Okay. Two sixes and a 19.

[C]

Okay. That is far beyond its severe threshold. So it takes three hit points as it begins to short out from the exposed interior circuitry and the amounts of water put into it. It's now holding Lucas in the air, but his body's. One eye's still kind of functioning. The other one's kind of darkening and coming in. It's on the edge of collapsing.

[D]

Can I get under Lucas shoulder to try to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Try and catch him. Catch him.

[C]

I'm going to spend a fear first to try and take its one good eye and do one more sweep of its laser eye towards all of you. I'm also going to spend another fear to do so.

[D]

I have a VHS tape of Pulp Fiction in my bag. Such a good movie.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

Between that and the tarantula, we're safe.

[D]

Can I hold that?

[C]

Certainly. Try. If it was a laserdisc.

[D]

If it was a laserdisc, then you.

[C]

Might be able to save. That's gonna be a 19 which hits all of you. So now. Now because it's lost one eye, it's only doing half the damage. So you all. You all take eight points of energy damage as the Aiden scoots across everyone but you. Because you're in front of it. I'm just using air.

[D]

We get a hit point. Unless you want to use an army.

[C]

Armor to reduce it by one.

[D]

To reduce it.

[C]

Oh, yeah, if it's an eight. But it doesn't. If it hits your. Doesn't hit Your minor, it still counts as damage. I don't. Yeah, so? So if it's below your minor, it's just one hit. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Between your minor, your major. Okay, I'm sorry. Sorry. If it's. If it's below your major, then it's one hit point. If it's. It's equal to or above your minor major, then it's 2. And if it's above your severe, then it's 3. Gotcha. So as the one good laser eye streaks past all of you and hits you all on that point, you all also mark a stress from the laser impact, but it is on the edge of losing itself at this point. Who would like to go?

[A]

All right, well, how mobile am I right now?

[C]

Amir, it's by your throat, but your arms are over.

[D]

Try to get so you're not getting choked.

[A]

I'm going for my yo yo. I got my yo yo attack.

[C]

I'm going.

[D]

Great idea.

[C]

Let's go. Are you helping him or the bam.

[D]

I'm trying to help.

[C]

So spend a hope.

[D]

Great.

[C]

You're helping him by getting underneath. So go ahead and make your attack roll and add a D6 to it from the help ally. All right.

[A]

Whenever I mark a stress, I gain a hope.

[D]

Wait, before.

[A]

If I do, my next action roll uses a D20 for the fear die.

[C]

That's beautiful. So likely to succeed, though, with fear. Let's go for it.

[D]

Can I. Wait. Can I embarrass the target, giving them a minus two penalty to their difficulty, or does that.

[C]

If you want to spend three hope to do that?

[D]

Oh, man.

[C]

There's one way to find out. You want to do that?

[D]

I'm doing it.

[C]

All right, so you spend three hope to use your hope feature.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

How do you.

[D]

I want to help Lucas.

[C]

Okay, so as this is happening, what do you say to this cyborg to try and embarrass him?

[D]

I look at the cyborg in the face, and I'm like. Like we say in show business, don't call us, we'll call you. Oh, burn.

[C]

The other eye kind of flickers. It's less the statement and more the reaction from all of you that makes it feel ashamed. It doesn't fully understand from this human interaction. And as this is happening, that moment of distraction, you seize your opportunity.

[A]

Pull out your high anxiety yoga attack. Use my high. Oh.

[C]

You added D6 to it because of her help, Right?

[A]

Okay, so I'm rolling finesse, Right? So that's so. Oh, I added D6 to it.

[C]

Oh, no.

[A]

God.

[D]

All right, wait, but can you.

[A]

Seven plus six plus two. So what's that?

[C]

13 plus two is 15.

[A]

15.

[C]

14 minus two because that would have been 12. So that definitely succeeds. Yeah.

[A]

With fear.

[D]

He was very embarrassed. Who's replaced now with hope?

[C]

Okay, there you go. There was only three.

[A]

Even though it was a D20, it's a little swingy. All right. And then my damage is 2d6 plus 5 4. So 9.

[C]

It only has one hit point left. How do you want to do this? Yeah, describe to me how you destroy it with your yo yo. Stay gold.

[A]

And I whip out my yo yo as fast as I can. I get a whole like extra twirl in it and I go right into the open wound in his neck right there and I just aiming to lodge it in there.

[C]

Smoke spills out from its head and it shuts down its arm, kind of weakens and leaves you there for a second and then it kind of just stands there still non functioning.

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[C]

That's like the third weirdest thing I've seen today.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[D]

That was crazy. Lucas. Does this happen here all the time?

[A]

I yank my yo yo out of his neck.

[D]

So do you think we're all gonna get replaced with robots like that? It's just you.

[C]

As you yank the yo yo out of its neck, you watch, it had a. Like, it's normal clothing that still mostly stands. It had in its pocket something that clatters out. It looks like a VHS tape that hits the ground. What is that? Somebody grab that.

[A]

It's movie.

[D]

I'll pick it up. There.

[C]

Tiny doctor. Go get that.

[D]

All right.

[C]

Anybody gonna talk about the fact that she has a gun? She's carried a gun.

[D]

Wait, you have to carry that on set. It's a security thing. Now we need a VHS player.

[C]

Where we're gonna find a vcr?

[A]

They're everywhere.

[D]

They're everywhere. Yeah, there are.

[C]

There. There are crt. Yeah, like, everyone hold on. Guys, we gotta search this. Yeah, I want to search whole body. Yeah, me too.

[A]

Like, figure, like I want to do.

[D]

Good idea. Pat him down.

[C]

As you begin doing so, you hear this.

[A]

Get away from me.

[C]

Inside.

[D]

Oh, no.

[C]

You all go to rush out of the way as it self destructs and scatters pieces everywhere. Because you were closest, I need you to make an agility reaction rule for me. Oh, no.

[D]

Wait. But he was on my shoulders.

[C]

Correct. So you would also make it as well. Okay, where's my other.

[A]

Which is. Okay, So I need 212.

[D]

Come on, come on.

[A]

So my hope is the yellow one.

[D]

Well, it's a critical success. Oh.

[C]

Which is fine. It's a reaction roll, so you don't get any fear or stress from it. But that is a success.

[A]

All right, I got 18 with fear.

[C]

Both of you succeed.

[D]

Great.

[C]

So you manage to dodge and leap out of the way before any of the Shrapnel hits you, the smoke dissipates. And as you kind of get up and kind of look down, you still have the VHS functional to you. And you look over and there are some other crew and people walking by that glance over and just keep going about their workday. We gotta watch this tape.

[D]

Yeah, we gotta go find a vcr. I've got one in my dressing room.

[C]

All right, let's go, let's go.

[D]

I was watching Pulp Fiction before lunch. You're so cool.

[A]

I know.

[D]

I'm not allowed to watch that yet.

[C]

So here in the late afternoon, as you can just barely make out the beginnings of sunset, you begin to quietly gather yourselves, uncertain of who's friend or not. And are there more of these in the studio? Who knows? You gather over to your dressing room, and there inside, you find your television and VHS player at your disposal.

[D]

I'm going to lock the door. Okay, guys, sit down on my corduroy couch. Let me pop this bad boy in. I'm gonna take the Papa Sanchez here. Yeah, great idea.

[C]

You pop in the tape and press play.

[D]

If anyone wants Smarties, go for it.

[C]

And here's what you see. Is this thing on? Yeah. Okay. Hey, Matthew, here. Look, something really weird is happening over at FRC Studios, okay? I'm like the third child actor to be replaced off his own show in all week. And what's worse than that is the child actor they got to replace me.

[D]

Is creeping me out.

[A]

I mean, he's not even good at playing a real person, let alone portraying my character. I don't know, Mr. Pearson's thinking. Anyway, I managed to swipe something off.

[C]

Of this replacement, but I can't figure out what it does. So I'm hoping that you'll have better.

[A]

Luck at figuring it out than I did.

[C]

Anyway, this whole thing has got me wigging out. If you find this video, maybe it'll make for a good horror movie. Anyway, I'm gonna keep looking into this.

[D]

Wish me luck, you guys.

[C]

I always loved Joey Lawrence.

[D]

Me, too. He was my favorite. The Lawrence brothers. Guys, this is crazy. They're coming for all of us. Wait. He said he got something off of the body.

[A]

What did he get?

[D]

He didn't even tell us.

[C]

He didn't tell us what it is. You find out. You didn't go back and check the recently exploded body of the entity? We'll say for the sake of brevity, you go back quickly and rush over to find it. It's now getting darker and darker in the sky and it's Nearly nighttime at this point. You go and inspect the body and there's a piece of material that does not match the remnants of the cyborg. It's a strange disc like piece of metal. And as you look it over and flick it, you see a strange flash of blue energy, almost like a bubble around it. As you acquire an advanced force field.

[A]

All right, while this is in your possession and you take damage, you can spend any number of hope to mark any number of stress to reduce the severity of the damage by one threshold per hope spent or stress marked. Wow. When this object is used, roll 1D6 on a 5 to 6. The GM gains a fear. All right.

[C]

Hold on to that.

[A]

Got a force field, guys.

[D]

Yeah, we use that multiple times. Or is that like a one time thing?

[A]

When this is in your possession and you take damage.

[D]

So, Lucas, I'm happy for you. Yeah.

[C]

Who else think it's been replaced?

[D]

Well, I don't even know. I would say you, but you don't actually have a job.

[C]

I'm this close to getting the role, okay? It's basically mine.

[D]

Wait, then why are you on set?

[C]

That's a good question that we don't have time to answer right now. So why don't we figure out who's been replaced?

[A]

It's his family connections. He just.

[D]

He sneaks on.

[A]

He just hangs out all the time.

[D]

And he's always actively just waiting for someone to give you a job. That's a great idea.

[C]

I'm Bette Midler's granddaughter.

[D]

So Bette Miller's granddaughter and Terminator is your great uncle?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

My family, we're connected. So ridiculous.

[D]

You're connected? Why is he like this?

[C]

It's Hollywood. Part of a famous Hollywood film.

[D]

Okay. I can't believe I ever seen Gutenberg's uncle.

[C]

I think.

[A]

I think Steve Guttenberg's his uncle. That's the only thing I can.

[C]

Steve Gutenberg is also my uncle.

[D]

See? It's always something.

[C]

Yeah. Did I get you the tickets?

[D]

Yes. But Anthony Kiedis is not your uncle or your brother. He's not.

[C]

He's my second cousin, like I told you, which is how I got you the ticket.

[D]

Okay. I think we need to go tell somebody.

[C]

Who. Who can we trust?

[D]

Maybe we could. Maybe we could go tell Myers.

[C]

That's what I.

[D]

Or maybe we could go tell Myers. He works for Pearson. Yeah, but he can help us. Maybe. Maybe.

[A]

Maybe.

[C]

I'll tell you.

[D]

I don't know. Oh, maybe. Maybe Ms. Evelyn. Wait a minute.

[C]

No, wait.

[D]

But didn't she.

[C]

Yes, maybe Ms. Evelyn.

[D]

You just want to go talk to her because you just want to see Ms. Evelyn.

[C]

She might be able to help us.

[D]

What's happening with Vanessa? Why was she drinking? Does she know something?

[C]

She's a director.

[D]

I know, but has she been drinking the whole time? She seems stressed. I think she's going through a divorce. She is always stressed. But you're right. It was a little over the top, even for her. What's your relationship like with her? She's directed like 20 episodes. Well, you know, I just try to be perfect and do everything that she wants, exactly how she. I mean, but she's never that happy. You can't make her happy. Oh, my God. Do you think maybe she asked Pearson to do this so that all the performances would just be perfect? Maybe. You know what I mean? She knows. Maybe she knows that we're all being replaced. And she's only going to have to direct cyborgs from now on.

[A]

And they get extra hours and they.

[D]

Don'T have to pay him. Health education and they don't have to go to school. They don't need social workers because she disappeared right before this whole thing went down. We have to ask right before that weirdo kid showed up. It actually sounds like a pretty good idea. People save money by using these cyborgs. No, Karen, no, no. Sorry, sorry, sorry. You can't. You think you're gonna get another Youth in Film award once you're replaced by a cyborg? Come on. It's Karin. No, thank you. Paloma. I actually am a really big fan of yours.

[C]

I am, too.

[A]

Paloma, I got a question.

[C]

When you originally got the script for your. Your show, did you think it was just about a really small doctor maybe?

[D]

Yeah. Small podiatrist. Yeah, I thought maybe it was like, honey, I was sharing the kid. Yeah, I don't need that. No. What do you think a podiatrist is?

[C]

Are you kidding me? He's a race car driver.

[D]

That's what I thought. Okay, I just. Vanessa.

[C]

Shh.

[D]

Everyone. Cut the tape. Turn the TV off. Hide. Hide Where? Get under my couch. Hide one coffee table. Go in my closet. Leave her in the bathroom.

[C]

Hey, kids, you in there?

[D]

Yeah. What's up? I'm changing. How?

[C]

I'm really worried, kids. I saw you wandering around. I heard gunshot and a lot of noises. And then some weird. Some weird shit going on. I'm scared. Can I come in?

[D]

Hal's going to get replaced so quick.

[C]

I'll talk to him. I'll talk to him.

[D]

Come on in, Hal.

[A]

Hey, Hal.

[C]

The door opens in. Hal's there, and there's two security guards behind him. And he goes, sorry, I got to make rent, and steps away. And the two security guards kind of stand in the. As Hal begins to walk away, these two studio suited figures stand there. Hello. It's been coming to our attention that you've been meddling in executive affairs, and you are to be taken in for custody and generally asked questions as to whether or not you're part of this growing conspiracy.

[D]

What are you talking about? Are you calling. We've been hanging out in here watching stuff on her tv.

[C]

That's fine. You can watch it afterward. But for the time being, we're gonna have to take you into the private executive suite and keep you all under lock and key until the police arrive.

[D]

I'm afraid they get sushi in the executive suite, though. No, we need to call our lawyers first because we're not gonna be questioned without representation. That's our constitutional right.

[C]

Make a presence roll.

[D]

Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good.

[A]

We've got a.

[C]

As a note here, too. You can take any bonuses. We now have 21 bonuses to add to rolls here you can pull from. And we currently have 10 rerolls at your disposal. Oh, thank you.

[D]

Thank you.

[C]

Keep tabs there so we can spend those as we go.

[D]

What do you think? I mean, presents is plus three.

[C]

That's good.

[D]

That's good. Do you want to use any of those or. Let's use a few. Why not? So it'll be plus five.

[C]

Yeah, let's do that.

[D]

O. Nice. Thirteen with hope plus five. Eighteen.

[C]

Take that, Hope. Do you want to reroll? Are you happy with what you got?

[D]

Tap, Stick. Stick.

[C]

Stick with that. All right.

[D]

Oh, oh, okay.

[C]

All righty.

[D]

All right.

[C]

You see, one of the security guards looks at the other and kind of. Is that how it works? Like, technically, legally? They do have council as children. There's a whole bunch of weird laws with child actors I don't really fully understand, so best not to, you know, mess with things. I don't want to get fired. That's a good accent.

[A]

You from Indiana, too?

[C]

No, I'm from Jersey. Why? Oh, sound like you're from Indiana. I'm working on. Sorry, I'm just picking it up. I got a good ear for these things, so. All right, well. All right, well, Mikel, we'll wait until they reach out the representation, and then we'll take them in, I think is how it works, right? Yeah. Totally closes the door. And they both kind of stay with their Backs against the opposite side. So you're now stuck in the room. So we're in the room with them? Yes. Okay.

[D]

Oh, they're. No, no, they're inside the room.

[C]

No, no, they're outside of the room.

[D]

They're back against the door. So we're trying to.

[A]

You guys, is there a bathroom with a window?

[D]

Yes, yes. Okay, the bathroom. The vent. The vent on top of it. Lucas, we're gonna have to throw you through it. You're the smallest. Do we need to ask if there's a bathroom with a vent or can we say that there's a bathroom with a vent?

[C]

You can ask me. It's up to you.

[D]

Is there a bathroom with a vent?

[C]

There is a bathroom, and there isn't a window that exits, but there is a vent that leads into an air vent that probably leads to an eventual place.

[D]

I think we can all fit in it. Can we all fit in? I like this.

[C]

Not at once, but individual file. You can certainly try.

[A]

Is there a phone in the dressroom? Did you pay your phone bill? Is there a phone in the dressing room that works?

[C]

We're kind of whispering to each other on the opposite side of the door.

[D]

Is there anyone we should call?

[A]

We gotta move, guys.

[D]

Yeah, we gotta.

[C]

What if we have somebody call?

[A]

We put on a fake voice, pretend.

[C]

To be their boss and draw them.

[A]

Away from the door.

[D]

That's a great idea. How do we call them?

[C]

I don't know.

[D]

Okay, well, I do have. Wait, look at the stage phone. Just call down to the stage and somebody will go find them. Oh, yeah, it's a good idea. I have. I have an ability where I can do impression. Impressionist. So maybe in my pockets I have. I have like. And. And. And if I can mark a stress, I can dawn the facade of any humanoid while disguised. You have advantage on presence rules to avoid scrutiny. So. Okay, wait. Place the number of tokens equal to your skill craft trait. Okay. My skillcraft trait, I think is knowledge. Okay, so we've got two. So do you want to take any more bonuses?

[C]

And you got rerolls to use twos if you want. So.

[D]

Okay, so maybe I'll take two.

[C]

All right, take a plus two.

[D]

And then can I also use my experience, youth and film award to cry on cue again? Yeah. To cry on cue. Yeah. Okay, my. So I can mark a stress. Okay, wait, wait. When you utilize an experience, you can mark a stress instead of hope. So I'm gonna mark a stress. And if you do, double your experience modifier for that role.

[C]

Correct.

[D]

So That'll be a plus six.

[C]

Correct. Now here's a fun thing I'm gonna throw out here too. The audience has voted with their dollars to give four of you, your choice amongst you to add plus two permanently to one of your experiences. Throwing this in. Now, you can take them now or you can take them later, but if up to four, if you want to take a plus two to an experience, now's the time to spend them.

[D]

Do it, do it. Yeah, he's got negatives.

[A]

Oh, what? But we're talking about our experience. Oh, experience. I'm thinking because experience robots and stuff. Like, we should focus on computer hacking, computer skills. And I already have plus three, so that would give me plus five.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

All right, take that, subject one one.

[D]

I have photographic memory and horseback riding. My dad was a handyman, so he's really good with tools and taking apart stuff. He has to take apart posters all the time.

[C]

So take a plus two to handyman if you want to do that. Liza Minelli is his second cousin.

[D]

No, no, it's not good for her. No, no, no.

[A]

All right.

[D]

I've got chemistry and lifelong residence at the Oakwood.

[C]

Jesus Christ. What a. Chemistry is good.

[D]

I don't know how life chemistry, that can be used for a lot of stuff.

[C]

She's the queen of the Oakland.

[A]

That's why I was getting a rapper from her.

[D]

I've got chemistry. Plus three. So do plus five.

[C]

So plus five to that. And did you want to take a.

[D]

Thank you, audience to your old pluses? Pluses? Should I do photographic memory if you want them? Yeah, go for it.

[C]

Plus two to three.

[D]

Do it, do it, do it.

[C]

All righty.

[D]

Yeah. Cuz you can remember. I can remember all the interworkings. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[C]

Smart.

[D]

Like any sort of manual. All the manual.

[C]

All right. So you begin to gather things. What are you trying to make.

[D]

Gather stuff up. Okay. I could act like. Are you gonna be Pearson? I could be Pearson. I could try to be Vanessa. I could try to be Ms. Evelyn, I think. Be Pearson. Pearson. Be Pearson. Okay, tell them they gotta. There's an emergency on stage six and they're needed over there. There's a crisis. Leave the kids. Leave the kids. Cause she's an emergency. Lucas, somebody's gotta go get.

[C]

I'm sorry.

[D]

I want a youth in film.

[C]

I just thought.

[A]

How are you gonna be Mr. Pearson in here talking to them out there?

[D]

Bald cap in my pocket. See this? So impression. So, okay, so I will put on a bald cap because I have all of this in my pocket.

[C]

Yep. Dress up.

[D]

I will put on a fake beard.

[C]

As you're rummaging through. By the way, you also uncover things that you'd forgotten were in your dressing room. Because the audience.

[D]

One of you guys gotta have a spot.

[C]

Five healing items. So we'll say that's three slam jam beef sticks.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

If anyone wants to mark that down. And two packs of gummy bears for everybody.

[D]

Or.

[C]

No, Jez, just amongst you. Just to share. So you guys decide who has it.

[D]

Here and there and everywhere.

[C]

You guys can decide who gets. So there's three slam jams.

[A]

Slam jam.

[C]

Need a little excitement.

[A]

Slap into a slam jam.

[C]

Slap into a slam jam. That is the actual phrase.

[D]

Does it matter who has one? Which like if you have the gummy bears.

[C]

If you have the gummy bears, you can take a. You just mark down that you have one and then you can mark down another one if you are the one that carries it.

[D]

I'm confused.

[C]

Sorry.

[D]

Do we.

[C]

We have to decide who gets. Who gets the new stuff? Correct. So you have that there as a point of reference. You have.

[A]

I mean I only have one hit point taken away.

[C]

Me too.

[A]

Who's hurt the most? I got one.

[C]

My problem is I only have one.

[D]

Hip press.

[C]

Are there. Does the gummy bears take away stress? Two different. See, I have three. I have three stress.

[A]

A beef stick.

[C]

I have three stress.

[D]

Yeah. You. Yeah. I don't need. I mean it says. This thing says clear 1D4 stress. I only have one stress. So I don't think I need it.

[C]

I'm gonna take a gummy bears if that's okay. You can hold onto it till later. It's up to you.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

Anybody mind if I take a gummy bears?

[D]

You can have it.

[C]

What is it? So what does a gummy bear take away? One stress. One d four stress. One D four.

[D]

I'm gonna have a beef stick.

[C]

You got it.

[D]

Thanks.

[C]

You should. You've earned it.

[A]

Oh, three. Great.

[C]

Have you. Have you figured out. Have you. Have you finished your discussion? Can we take you to the. To your holding area now or.

[D]

Alright, so I'm gonna walk out.

[A]

Thanks for the good meeting. Hello, Mr. Pearson.

[D]

Hello, gentlemen. What are you doing here? I know it's weird that I'm in this bathroom with all these kids. Don't mind me. What are you doing? What are you doing here?

[C]

I would like you to make a present stroll for me. Would you like to add anything to this?

[D]

I can see why she won't be so bad.

[C]

You want to take any bonuses to this and you can take rerolls if you'd like to. I will tell you this is a very high difficulty because you are. You are a child actor passing yourself off as the executive of the studio. However, it's not impossible. But this is what. This is the time to start spending some stuff.

[A]

Okay, wait, can we help her by.

[C]

Doing like one of you can help her by spending. Yeah, yeah, I want to. How do you want to help? Spend a hope to help her.

[A]

I'm spend a hope and, and, and. And get in character and be like, oh, Mr. Pearson, thanks for the, you know. You know, thanks for that. Really great help. Yeah. Helping me out with the acting.

[D]

And listen, it's what I do. I really like to be hands on.

[A]

Yeah. Really appreciate it.

[C]

Probably not the thing to say in the bathroom with all of us.

[D]

I like to be. I like to.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Anything I'm trying to say doesn't sound right.

[C]

All right, so you get to add.

[A]

Mr. Pearson's been a little sick lately, so he's feeling a little under the weather.

[D]

Right.

[C]

A little weird. Yeah, that's right.

[D]

Okay, so we got.

[A]

We got, you know, come along.

[D]

So I have.

[C]

You have 22 plus ones to choose from if you want to use any of these.

[D]

Okay, so I'll use two. Five. Okay, I'll use five.

[A]

I mean, and because I spent a.

[C]

Whole D6 on top of this five.

[D]

So I get a D6 plus five on this, plus experience, plus three twice. So that's a six. So I get a plus 11 to start.

[C]

Yes, plus 11 to this roll.

[D]

That's enough.

[A]

Right.

[D]

Okay, so, okay, 10. Okay, so 10 with hope so far. Okay, plus one. Okay, so 11. Plus. Did I say plus six? 17. Yeah, plus. Wait, that's it. 17.

[C]

Well, it was 11 you said was the bonuses, and then you rolled 11. So it's 11.

[D]

Plus 11.

[C]

22.

[D]

Oh, yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. 20.

[C]

I think that's enough. Would you like to reroll? It seems like he said it's gonna be super high.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

I'll be like, spend a reroll.

[D]

So I can spend a re. How many rerolls do we have?

[C]

You have currently 12.

[D]

Oh, yeah. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Come on, big money. Come on, big money. All right.

[A]

Come on, K.

[C]

Okay, that's a good. So, gator. So take a hope and clear a stress.

[D]

Take a hope and clear a stress. Okay, wait, do we all take a hope from. No, just me.

[C]

Okay, so there's a moment where the two security guys step back and they both look at each other and be like, Mr. Pearson, I'm sorry you're not feeling well.

[D]

What are you doing here? You should be out by the.

[C]

You sent us to go retrieve the kids.

[D]

Huh?

[C]

You sent us to retrieve the kids to. To bring them under holding, but now he's got.

[D]

I came to do it myself.

[C]

He's got us, okay? So you go away now.

[D]

He placed us all under arrest. Yeah. We're going to talk. Try.

[C]

And that's impressive.

[D]

Mr. Pearson, can you please go to the gate? Because there's. There's people trying to break in to the tiny podiatrist stalkers here.

[C]

Does this mean your private meeting in your office is over?

[D]

The private. We're gonna do that at another time.

[C]

All right, so we'll send the detail out to make sure nobody gets in. Got it?

[D]

Yeah, I'll do that. I don't think we need the detail. I really don't.

[A]

I don't think we need the security detail in the private meeting. You're just gonna go back to it.

[D]

You do not need the security at the private detail. You need to go to the front gate. We're gonna go to gate number three and make sure that tiny podiatrist stalker does not make it in.

[A]

Yeah. And we gotta go back to that practice.

[C]

This is Mr. Pearson, and you're not needed here. Understood.

[D]

Thank you.

[C]

Squawk, kid.

[D]

Yes. Great actor. Fantastic actor. Probably gonna be an outsider. Meisner. Meisner.

[A]

I don't know.

[C]

He was kind of shaky in the last two projects. I'll do my best, Mr. Pearson. The executive details, a little intense.

[A]

Yeah, we don't need the executive detail.

[C]

Thank you, sir. Have a good night. Nudges. The other guy's like, oh, yes. Have a good night. Good luck. And they both kind of dart off, kind of look at each other like.

[A]

What the fuck just happened?

[D]

Bye. Bye. Have a good night.

[C]

Did you deserve that?

[A]

You can film a little.

[D]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I forgot. Did I lie? I misplaced my set of keys for around the whole. My key set for all of the studio.

[A]

We need the master keys.

[C]

You lost your master. I need you to make another present roll for me, please.

[D]

Okay. Okay.

[C]

You're on the edge of freedom. Roll them right back in.

[D]

I know. Wait, wait, wait.

[A]

We have keys.

[D]

Agility. Wait, what'd you say it was?

[C]

Presents.

[D]

Presents. Roll.

[C]

Yes. Do you want to take any more bonuses in this one?

[D]

Yes, yes. I'm gonna do. I'm gonna use my youth and film award again.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

So that'll be a plus six. And then I'll use stress. She always uses that.

[C]

And then do you want to add some, too?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Okay, got it.

[A]

I've got how many left?

[C]

No, the audience gave me a bunch of fear. Thank you.

[D]

What are you doing? What are you doing?

[C]

I'm just gonna take three fear and put it up here for now.

[D]

All right, I'm gonna roll this. Oh, that's so terrible. Okay, take a reroll. Okay. Okay.

[C]

All right, so second reroll used.

[A]

All right.

[D]

Okay, that's very good. 14 plus. Yes. No. 9. 9 plus 12. 21 with hope. So 21. 21 plus 6. 27. 27.

[C]

27. Are you happy with that?

[D]

Oh, yes, you're right. 27. Oh, no, because it's a presence. Roll. Oh, 27.

[C]

27.

[D]

Sorry. I'm happy with that.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

I'm happy with that. Are we happy? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

[C]

Okay. Sir, I'm sorry, I don't have the access that you do to the building. I can give you my standard entry key.

[D]

That's fine, that's fine.

[C]

It'll get you in the door. But I won't get. All right, here, sir, what about you? He's like, I have the same card, sir. I wouldn't have anything to offer to you.

[D]

That's fine.

[C]

I'll put on a request for a replacement in the morning. Good night, Mr. Pearson.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Yeah. And they dart off there.

[D]

Thank you.

[C]

It was Pearson who sent them to come get us. Yeah, we just said it was Pearson.

[D]

Wait, wait, wait.

[A]

We gotta go get a Pearson's private meeting.

[D]

What's happening in his private meeting?

[A]

That's what we gotta go. We gotta go find out.

[D]

Now we have keys. We.

[A]

Okay, keys.

[C]

She can't be Pearson to go see Pearson, because in this we'll just go.

[A]

We'll just go see who he's meeting with.

[D]

She's gotta use the noble word. She could be anything.

[C]

Oh, my God, it was you. You're good, though.

[A]

She was really.

[D]

Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you so much.

[C]

Joy gives you all an additional hope from the audience as you kind of in the wake of the success of that absurd performance, which definitely earned that award. No. So what do you want to do?

[A]

All right, I'm assuming we know where Ms. Mr. Pearson's office.

[C]

You know where the executive building is, a three story building that's kind of on the northeastern side of the lot. You've only probably been in there a couple times, and it's often been paraded amongst shareholders and such. Not a great Experience. And it's been a while, so don't you think they're gonna. They're obviously looking for us. What, are we gonna sneak there under the COVID of day? Actually, right now it is.

[A]

Oh, let me get a sneak deal.

[C]

Under the COVID of Duck. That works perfectly.

[A]

That's awesome. Just gotta find out what's going on, right? I mean, he was probably meeting with somebody. Like, that's. That's.

[D]

You know, what if he was meeting with whoever brought the robot?

[C]

That's what it's gotta be.

[A]

That's what you gotta find.

[C]

It's a robot.

[D]

Me. Okay, listen, I've got a bunch of extra backwards hats. I collect them. Cool. I'm gonna give them to each other. Wait, wouldn't they just be hats? No, you have to. Have you seen my doppelgangers? No, there's no. It's just a backwards. Just a hat. That would just be a hat.

[C]

We have fun.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

We will gladly take your hat and maybe wear them backwards.

[D]

No, try to put it on frontways. It just. Only backwards hat. Wait, isn't it a beanie? It's just a beanie. Oh, my God. But this will. This will be a disguise for all of us.

[A]

I don't know, man. We're kids on the lot. I don't think we need to.

[D]

I mean, if we all wear the backwards baseball hats, I've got my catcher's mask. We can just look like we're the cast of that. That Sandlot 2 movie. It's the Sandlot 8.

[C]

This time it's personal.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

Grace, script.

[D]

Let's try it. So good. It was so good. I read it.

[C]

Yeah. Great script.

[A]

I don't get cast on sports.

[D]

You're killing me, Biggs.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

You're killing me, Biggs. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. They brought it back.

[D]

Now, I do have a doctor's coat that I can put on over my scrubs. I. Also, in my bag of stuff, I have a fake id, too.

[C]

What are you doing?

[D]

A gun and a fake id.

[C]

Why?

[D]

God, she's so hot. I'm an actor. Of course I have those things. What else would I have?

[A]

She's the queen of the clubhouse at Oakwoods. You should see it. People just. She's there every night hanging out all the cool older kids.

[D]

You were born in there.

[A]

The South Birth Certificate. Just south 117.

[D]

Stain on the carpet.

[C]

That and many others somewhere in the distance. Which gives you the sense that there's something, Some sort of awareness amongst the lot. The sheer impact of it shakes you to your core. For what you're currently going towards. The audience voted for all of you to mark a hit point.

[D]

What? We all mark a hit point.

[C]

We all mark a hit point. This is your bravery and sense of purpose, taking a hit as you steal yourself into the night.

[A]

Use my force field to protect from that. Or. Or is it just a hit point?

[C]

This goes directly. But as you all come outside of the building now, you can acknowledge that it is nighttime in the lot.

[D]

It's almost my bedtime. Karen, keep it together. I'm trying. I'm trying, I'm trying. I'm stuck on the way.

[A]

Guys, we've all been here past nine hours.

[D]

By the way, that is so bad for you.

[A]

You should call Sag.

[D]

Karen, leave me alone. Stressed.

[C]

Who is helming? Who's leading this stealthy charge across the lot in hopes of not being seen? I'll take the lead. I got a black coat on, so I'm sure that I'm just gonna blend in seamlessly.

[D]

Oh, yeah, you blend.

[C]

I do. Hey, my second cousin, Sho Kosugi, he played the ninja in Revenge of the Ninja. Okay. I know what I'm doing.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Okay, let's go. Alrighty. So I need all of you, all the rest of you to make agility reaction rolls here. So there's no hope or fear on it. Just roll with your agility and all those rolls. Rolls will eventually affect your final roll to help the group. So we'll just go down the line here.

[A]

Nine plus one. So ten.

[C]

Ten minus one.

[D]

My first roll was with Hope, so now I'm rolling with a D20 because of my superiority complex.

[C]

You do? Yeah.

[D]

18 plus seven. Nice.

[C]

Okay, that's a plus one. What'd you get?

[D]

12.

[C]

12. It's a minus one.

[D]

Okay, I got 11 with hope.

[C]

11 with hope. It's a minus two. So we're at a minus two total.

[D]

I got 15 with hope.

[C]

15. That's a plus one. All right, so you get your final roll, which will correspond. This whole thing is a minus one. And you can see weird little red lights kind of moving across the rooftop of the different studios while all production has been shut down for the evening. It looks like there are sentries or something keeping watch that you haven't noticed before. Then again, you haven't been out on the lot this time of night. So I need you to make a final agility roll with a minus. Can I add? You can. Why don't I take three? Well, you guys have spent quite a bit here, I think. What are we at? I think we have One more plus one to spend. Ooh, is it worth it?

[D]

Then use it.

[C]

All right, I'll take a plus one. All right. But my agility is plus two. But I haven't.

[A]

I'm.

[C]

So it'd be plus three, but minus one. So plus two correct. Be plus two total. And you have. There are still rerolls here to choose from, Right? Okay. Crit, baby. Double five.

[D]

All right.

[C]

Beautiful. As you all kind of gather behind squawk and calo, the only thing really noticeable is the trail of cigarette smoke that permeates behind as you go. Sam having to indulge. But as you leap from the darkest of shadow to the darkest of shadow, trying to zigzag through the lot's odd studio structure, you can see there are these odd surveillance drones, so small, mechanical, dog like, quadruped entities that have cameras for heads and little red lights on top, that at one point, one of them, you think, picks up one of you, and you watch all of them, almost like a hive mind, swarm and go to the edge. But you all stay still, and a moment later, they all begin to scatter off again unnoticed. You slowly trek in the direction of the executive building before you can see it. And it is this massive, very industrial park. Plain, brutalist, almost structure. Three stories. Most of the windows are all dark. The only thing that has a little bit of light is the lobby, which has a little bit of indirect light, but everything else in there is dark. One of you might want to try and remember where exactly in the building Mr. Pearson's office is, specifically. Perfect memory, right?

[D]

Oh, yeah, perfect memory. You guys remember that one time that we had that network thing, like a brunch or something, where we had to go parade ourselves around and, like, take photos? I remember that entire building, top to bottom. All right. Wow. Amazing. All right, so this is with +5.

[C]

Yeah, go ahead.

[D]

Crit. Yes.

[C]

Two in a row. Dang. Okay, well, all right. So remembering this, you immediately close your eyes and go into your own mind palace, and you begin to recall. It's the third floor. It has a window that overlooks the courtyard set. So it has an outward facing window on the eastern side. But with the crit roll, you also know that it's very reinforced, like some executives would do. They're a little overzealous, just in case. It's a very, very thick glass, heavy curtains on it, but you know directly where it is and where it's facing. And as you move around the side of the building, you pinpoint exactly the window that leads to his Office.

[D]

All right, guys, I know exactly where it is. Right up there. How are we going to get there?

[C]

As you are coming along this way in the shadow, something hits your foot as you all stop and look down. And there it looks like there's a small box and another VHS tape.

[D]

Hey guys, Ryder's dice set is right not ready to bid on. So go bid on it.

[A]

A question as I'm.

[C]

As I reach down to get the videotape, Are there any rocks around me anywhere? There's pieces of cinder block, small little things, that kind of stuff. Yeah, there's also little pieces. Just gonna grab everything. Just start shoving them in my pocket. You got it? Just getting ready. Yep, just getting ready. All righty.

[D]

Is there maybe a monitor and a VCR at security where we can play the tape? Let me tell you where there is security. No, no, no, no. But there's nobody there. Where we have to go is the network casting room. Yes. This is where they make all the decisions. They put us on tape and then they review the tapes. I know exactly where it is. It's two doors down, down the little set of stairs into the theater. Take the tape.

[A]

We have the keys.

[C]

Well, we have the keys.

[A]

We could just walk through the front door of the executive building.

[D]

Right, but we need to see the tape though.

[C]

They gotta know that we're okay.

[A]

Wait, I mean, if they're looking for.

[C]

Us, we just walk right in.

[D]

We walk into the building. We watch the tape first. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

And then we go find the tape.

[D]

And then we go find the executives. Yes, yes.

[C]

Are our hats on backwards?

[D]

Yes. Okay, There are no bills. Okay, there's no bills. All right, back and beam.

[C]

All right, so you're walking through the lobby and then going to find the casting room. Just try to walk in and find the casting room, I guess.

[A]

Right.

[D]

It's down this. I know exactly where it is. You go in through, in through the double doors, off to, to the left, down the set of stairs, and right there on the right hand side, glass.

[C]

Doors open as you slide the key card that you managed to snag with a very, very high roll earlier. Stepping into the main lobby area. You see feet up is the one lobby security guard is in the process of reading a newspaper. And he glances over and goes and looks up over the top of the newspaper as you all walk in. Can I help you?

[D]

Hi, Phil. It's me, Paloma.

[C]

You, I know you. Yeah, nice you meet to see you.

[D]

You're a tiny podiatrist.

[C]

Hi. Looking forward to season three thank you.

[D]

Thank you so much. So we are all gonna go check out. It's a little funny gag reel that we're making just for the, you know, our cast, our crew. But we want to see it on the theater screen because so, you know, so it's big. We can really see, you know, is the edit any good? We want to see the laugh.

[C]

Smiling and nodding. And he looks at the screen to him, and his face kind of drops. Cause, like, we're on a particular security lockdown at the moment.

[D]

I don't know if I'd probably be safer in there.

[C]

If you want to go ahead and make a presence roll to try and convince him of the importance of your interior endeavor versus his current orders. Work orders.

[D]

All right. Plus 3. 9. Plus 5. 14. 17.

[C]

17. Are you happy with that or do you want to take a reroll?

[D]

I think it's pretty good. Is it with furniture? Oh, it's with fear.

[C]

It's with fear.

[D]

Yeah. Wait, which one? No, no, no, no, no, no. It's with hope. Sorry.

[C]

Okay. Do you want to go with that one?

[D]

I think that's pretty good. Yeah.

[C]

You're not gonna.

[A]

On a re.

[D]

Roll.

[C]

You're with it.

[D]

No, yeah, no, I think we stay. I think we stay. I think we stay.

[C]

Okay. He goes. Okay, yeah, no, go right ahead.

[D]

Thanks, Phil. Good to see you.

[C]

No worries. Thank you, Phil. Of course. Yeah, no worries. Enjoy. And you kind of walk by as he kind of leans in board and like, types of things on his computer and then goes back to his newspaper.

[A]

Coming in.

[C]

It's all right. We're here now. Following your destruction. Indeed. You go down to the stairs. You go into the viewing room, and there. There is. There is a VHS and a laserdisc player.

[D]

Yes, yes.

[C]

As every room should have.

[D]

Quality of laser disc. Disc is impeccable. Can't be beat. Never going to go out of style. Never going to go out of style. I mean, the clarity is crazy.

[C]

Definitely bonus features.

[D]

Forget about it for days. All right, guys, let's put this tape in. All right, press play.

[C]

Hold the sl. The small box to your side and put the tape in. And press play.

[D]

No one's coming. Play. Okay, this is Tori. I found Matthew's camera and I'm worried. He's been missing for a few days now. And everywhere I turn, it's. It's that creepy copycat that's trying to take my place in here. Just watching me, following me. I hate it. I went and told Mick about this, and he said that he actually bought his replacement and it was some weird cyborg thingy. Something is definitely wrong. There's also some strange spooky board meetings happening at night in the exact building apparently. We're going to try to investigate. I hope we can find Matthew and all the others who are missing. Now, if you found this tape, turn it into the police or come help us, please. Here. Mick found this on his replacement, and it looks like some secret government technology. So use it as evidence. Government what?

[C]

The little box that you had. You pull it open and you see what looks like a handheld black box device with a handle and buttons on it and a weird screen that has a strange crackle of energy that sets a similar coloration to that force field device that you had uncovered earlier. What the hell's going on here?

[D]

What she said go to the police.

[C]

This is what is uncovered from the box. I'm handing these to you because you're the most tech savvy and when kind of gather the best use of these.

[D]

Mind Delver device spend a hope to make a skill craft roll against a target within close range. On a success, you can hear the thoughts of the target for several seconds. On a success with hope, you can ask for deeper knowledge or information within their memory.

[C]

Ooh, Men in black.

[D]

All right, so we all can use that if we need to. Yeah, we need to get. That's cool. For sure. Whoa.

[C]

Are we just still going straight up to. First of all, Matthew's gone now. They got him.

[D]

He's missing. They got him.

[C]

Tori's gotta be gone too, then.

[D]

Yeah, they got her.

[A]

Even if we met, if we saw them, could we trust that it was really them?

[D]

No. That's what I'm saying. I think they've already been replaced. Guys, it's all deep fakes. Oh, my God. How do we know that everybody here is actually human? Come on. Hilarious. Just say hilarious.

[C]

That's funny.

[D]

How would you know?

[C]

It's got to.

[D]

How would I know?

[A]

I think we got a trap.

[D]

What if I'm fate?

[C]

I'm going to spend a fear.

[D]

I don't think. Cyborg fart. I know.

[C]

At this moment in time, you hear a door close in the hallway not far from where you are, and you hear two pairs of footsteps almost stepping in unison. Are you all hiding?

[D]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[C]

Who is the group leader to this attempt to get everyone to hide everybody down. All right, so once again, I need everybody to make another agility roll that will modify your role. No, but you. I said who's leading this? And you stepped in 15.

[D]

Then you add 22 zero. No, no, right, with fear, I've got 11 with hope, 14 with hope, minus two. 15.

[C]

That's a plus one total.

[D]

Oh, wait, I got a 15.

[C]

Yeah, the fear and hope doesn't matter for the reaction. Oh, oh, okay, so you're all good there. So plus one, you're fine. And this is what? Agility. This is agility. So then it's plus three. Yeah, total. It would be, yeah. Now, you know, you hear these footsteps working in unison. They're right around the corner. So you have to do this fast. This is gonna be a fairly difficult roll. Can I add anything to anything? No, I don't think I can.

[A]

There we go.

[C]

Oh, God, it's another crit.

[D]

For real.

[C]

Damn. That's insane.

[D]

This is like the most crits we've.

[C]

Had in a row in the short time. It's five lives too.

[D]

Yeah, we gotta go to Vegas.

[C]

Obviously, you have to highly recommend you bid on these dice when they're available because apparently it's a hot table.

[D]

Right? Hot table. Hot table.

[C]

As you all kind of hide quietly, the door opens and you see two elite security step in. These are particularly executive detail that you've only seen occasionally walking with Adam Pearson. They look like Secret service agents. As they step inward, they have sunglasses on even though there's very little light in here. And they both step in together, glance around the room. Glance around the room in unison, disengage and step back. And the door closes. And you hear. So you know now that the detail that couldn't be stopped by the earlier security is aware of your presence and searching. What would you like to do?

[D]

What is happening here? This is insanity.

[C]

Look.

[D]

She'S becoming more Chris Farley. My dream. She's in a van. My dream. Down by the river.

[A]

Guys, we just gotta get upstairs. I mean, what else can we do? Where can we go? Where do we gotta go?

[D]

We gotta get. Okay, we've got the key. We've got the key.

[A]

We've got the key. We've got a mind delver. We can get up there and we can delve into his mind.

[C]

Wait a second. Have you.

[A]

You know this whole building backwards and forwards, right?

[C]

Yeah. Is anything next to Pearson's office, like where we could overhear what's going on?

[A]

And use the mind delver.

[C]

And use the mind delver to delve his mind?

[D]

Yes, well, of course. I mean, there's his assistance. There's two different offices. One's his assistance, but I don't know if it has any vents that we can hear Maybe we should ask.

[C]

I'd say you've been in the office. You rolled critical earlier. I'd say you do know that there is a venture on the upper left wall if you're stepping inside the chamber. In his office, it's this massive, dark wood stained chamber with a desk that is obviously compensating for something. All manner of decorated shelf units and cabinetry, beautiful dark purple carpet, all sorts of gadgets and weird little sharper image acquisitions across the surface. But up above the left turn shelf, you do see there was a grate there.

[D]

Yeah, that was there. Okay. Okay, so what I think we need to do is I think we need to get into the vent from the bathroom, the executive bathroom that's adjacent, crawl through the vent, and then position ourselves right there in his office and listen.

[C]

In all of us.

[D]

All of us can't fit.

[A]

No, I'll go. Yeah. I'm a little bit goth, so I am a shadow stepper. I can move from shadow to shadow, and when I move into an area of darkness, I can mark a stress to disappear where I am and go from one shadow to another. So I'm pretty good at sneaking around.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And I'm also. I have a little criminal ability. So some great rap named little criminal.

[C]

I think that's a good idea.

[A]

Right.

[C]

How do we get to the existed bathroom for you? Yeah.

[A]

So we're just gonna.

[D]

Well, the easiest way, if I remember correctly, the fastest way is to come out. Currently we're in this amphitheater. We need to come out of the theater, make a quick left, go up a service elevator. That will be a lot less conspicuous than going up the main elevator. And then all we have to do is get down the hallway on the third floor, and it's only about four offices away. How far away is the service elevator? From about here, 25 yards outside the. Outside the doors.

[A]

Should I just go by myself?

[D]

No, I think we all have to.

[C]

Have some kind of backup. I think we need.

[A]

Make a lot more noise than I am. I'm the. You should send, like, I'm the sneakiest.

[D]

Send a couple people.

[C]

You got to send somebody with you. You can't go alone. Wait, send her with the gun? Yeah.

[A]

I'm trying to help you out.

[C]

Send her with the gun. You two, send her with the gun. Yeah.

[A]

Hey.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Good idea. Right?

[D]

I'll cover you, Paloma.

[A]

Okay. All right. Service elevator.

[D]

Service elevator.

[A]

We straight out, trying out the door to the right. Let's go.

[C]

All right, so Lucas and Paloma, the two of you begin to dart around the corner towards that service elevator. I'll say two. As there are patrolling executive detail wandering this floor, I will have one of you roll the agility roll to help the other. So who's helming this?

[D]

My agility is zero. What is yours?

[A]

Plus one.

[C]

All right, so go ahead.

[A]

But I have this shadow stepper, so I can move from shadows. If I mark a stress to disappear for him, I can.

[C]

Right? So you can move pretty much without issue. If you want to mark a stress, you can succeed, but then you have to still roll for yourself. Sheik is not a shadow.

[A]

Well, okay. Okay, then. Oh, no, no. I would never leave her. Okay, so how can I add to her roll? I can.

[C]

So if you want to spend a.

[A]

Hope, I can spend three hope after you or an ally makes an action roll. Oh, no, that would just match her. I'm good with numbers. I can spend three hope after.

[C]

You can shadow step and then help her make her roll, which would help her overall do better.

[A]

Yeah, I'm gonna do that.

[C]

Okay, so spend your.

[A]

I add my stress to do my shadow step.

[C]

You mark a stress to do your shadow step. You just dart to the other side where you can see the shadow outside of the elevator.

[A]

Yep.

[C]

And then you kind of more or less guide her with your eyes. The best places to run. Go ahead and make an agility roll and spend a hope to add a D6 to her roll.

[A]

My good with numbers is that I spend three hope and I get to add three. Or I roll three D12. And if any of those match, critical success. But.

[C]

But you do it after she rolls. You can be like, oh, she rolled really bad. Let me try and fix it. So let's first see what she rolls.

[D]

So I'm adding.

[A]

So I just. I just gave her the one hope for now.

[C]

Correct.

[A]

Gotcha.

[D]

You have a little time left to bid on this, by the way. Let's do it.

[C]

More money that comes in, the more guest appearances and boons the players receive. Because it's about to get more and more dangerous as it goes.

[D]

Yes, yes, yes. Bid. Oh, my gosh. Bid. Well, there's two fives, and then there's a 12. So does that.

[C]

Is that a crit? Well, as the 12s have to be together.

[D]

These two, and it would have to be one of them.

[A]

It's a 22 roll.

[D]

Yes. It's still great. That's a good roll.

[C]

22 is still very good. So with your help and guiding through, you dart from shadow. You hear footsteps, you dart another shadow and stay Low. The two details walk past again in the other direction. And it's an odd unity in the way they move as they're scanning through. Are they cyborgs? Could be. And you wait for them to pass by, and then you go and gather up to the outside. You take the keycard that you had received earlier and hit the side of the elevator and the doors open to let you in. Now you have the keycard to do so. They do not. Do you leave the keycard here for them later or do you take it with you? You got to take it with you. We're kind of safe where we are, so maybe we can take like a rest while we're here. You can if you want to take a short rest. So for the purpose of a short rest, you can take two downtime actions. That includes, like, you can recover 1D4 hit points. You can repair 1D4 armor. You could gain a. Hope. You can do two of those things. I'm sorry, what was the hit points? 1d4 hit points you regain. You get to clear those. You can either take 1d4 stress. You clear off. You can repair 1d4 armor to gain those back.

[A]

Question.

[C]

Because I want to make sure that I'm not cheating. And I did this last time. I had three stress and I did one D4 and I hit three. So I erase all three of stress. Correct. So you're no longer stressed in that one. Good. I also. Because four of you are resting, I get four here. So 1D. Well, actually, it'd be 1D four plus. Oh, yeah. No, there'll be three fear then. I rolled that there. All right. Plenty of pogs on my side. Good to know. So you get into the service elevator. I'm gonna spin a fear. It stops halfway up. And it seems like this elevator may not have been used in a while and is now stuck between the. Oh, my God.

[A]

Okay, I'm going to. Can I check out the instrumentation and try and use my knowledge of electronics and hacking and whatnot?

[C]

Yes, you may. So go ahead and roll a knowledge roll for me to see if you can figure out what might be causing this issue or how to bypass it.

[A]

Oh, well, this is. Yeah. Before making an action roll to learn information or something to someone I can spend. Because I've read about this. I have that skill. So I'm going to spend a whole of bunch to do that.

[C]

Don't go for it. That's what it's for.

[A]

Gains advantage on the roll. That means another six.

[C]

Add another D6. Yeah.

[A]

11 six. All right, one. So what's that? 18.

[C]

18 with 18 with fear.

[A]

Oh, no, wait. And then. Well, this is a knowledge roll plus three. So 21.

[C]

21 with fear. With fear. Do you want to try and reroll to knock it with fear or are you fine with that? That's all I ask.

[D]

Would you go 21?

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

It's fear, though.

[A]

I know, but all the fears aren't yet. I'm going to stick.

[C]

Okay, great. So manipulating the interior of this panel, you can see that there's been a slight short that caused the lights to dim and lock in place. You go ahead and look into where that is, and you can see where the wire is threaded and exposed. You pull out a couple of your usual repairing electronic, repairing electrical tape and a few other elements there. And you repair where that is, finish it around, and then hit the up button again. It takes a second before the lights brighten up again and the elevator continues upward.

[D]

Ding.

[C]

The door is open. And because you rolled with fear, immediately across the way, you can see two other figures that are also patrolling the third floor. It looks like the details are on all the floors. With the knowledge of your presence, how would you like to proceed?

[A]

Well, let's try and sneak up to the office. Right. Or we want to get to the bathroom to get into the vent.

[D]

I mean, that was my suggestion, but you do you boo. Okay, so one of my experience elements is chemistry. So what if I try to just.

[C]

All of you feel a sudden shift underneath you. The very concrete of this building quakes for a second from something below. An earthquake seems to hit and you all grab yourself for a second. The hanging lights in the hallways are now swinging and you see the two details that were walking and look at each other and keep walking. And you all feel this. They're from la. Yeah, exactly. You feel this faint, this thrumming vibration through the very structure of this building, and you feel this sense of concern drift over all of you. The dust that is locked for you. This is an older interior building. Without having done, there's an asbestos that sits within the system here that's now breathing. You all take a hit point. Before I do that. It's 1D4 to get rid of a hit point for our rest. Yeah, I can't see what that is.

[A]

Can I eat my beef stick?

[C]

You may afterward, yes. So after you're doing that rest, you then take a hit point from the asbestos to dislodged from the shake of the environment here.

[A]

I'm going to quit my beat stick because I have Three hit points.

[D]

All right, three. Get rid of them all. I'm very scared. So out of my cargo pocket, I'm going to pull out my first edition Princess Diana. Baby, baby.

[C]

Whoa.

[D]

Just to hold on to.

[C]

Beautiful. All right.

[A]

Is that a first edition?

[D]

Yeah, Fool.

[C]

That's brilliant.

[D]

That's gonna be worth so much money someday. It's gonna be worth so much money.

[C]

Babies are a good investment.

[D]

They're a fantastic investment. I have 10 so far. I know it's gonna pay everything off.

[C]

Smart. Very smart.

[D]

And I love Princess Diana. I'm sure she's gonna be queen one day.

[C]

The too soon.

[D]

So sorry. I'm so. Wait. 96. Sorry.

[A]

No. 97.

[C]

Oh, my God.

[D]

I'm so sorry.

[C]

So as this vibration thrums through the building and the two detail begin to walk past, you see one of them pulls into his jacket and drops something on the ground. And you continue to walk as you wait for them to pass. Ray, drop it. You see something go like it's beginning to grow and unfold. And you watch as. As this strange dark shape begins to expand across the ground and begin to climb up the sides of the walls. Like some sort of an odd gravity defying oil slick, this sludge begins to spread up and begins to encase elements of this hallway. You're running out of space to traverse unless you hurry up and risk being seen to rush there. Or you can wait for this to finish whatever it's doing.

[A]

I'm really sneaky. I think you should just stay here and I'll go around. I'll take the mind out for a try. But you stay in the service elevator.

[D]

Are you sure, Lucas? Yeah.

[A]

It's too risky for both of us. I got this.

[D]

You're so brave. She's so hot.

[A]

Don't I get a bonus for that once in life?

[C]

I'll say. Honestly. I'll give you advantage in the roll. All right.

[A]

Well, okay. So do I roll finesse to hide and stay or do I use my shadow stepper skill by Markus?

[C]

You can use your shadow stepper if you'd like to, to leap immediately to the other side of the hall from what you can, which isn't quite to where the bathroom is. You have to go around the corner to get there. So you have to jump twice to get there without having to make a roll. Or you could make two rolls or jump.

[A]

So whenever I mark a stress because I'm high anxiety, I gain a hope.

[C]

That's true.

[A]

And my next action roll is a D20 with the fear die.

[C]

That's True.

[A]

I'm gonna make that whole situation happen.

[C]

Let's go.

[D]

You have so many skills, Lucas. Hey, we have character art prints that will be signed by the. The whole cast here, and they're live. One of them is live. Go get it.

[A]

Go get it. So I gain a stress, super anxious, gain a hope, and now I'm using my shadow stepper skill to just get there to the bathroom as quickly as possible through the shadows.

[C]

Alrighty.

[D]

You can do this, Lucas.

[C]

You watch Lucas. He's a bit of a dorky young kid with his pockets, and you watch as he steps into the darkness and suddenly appears around the corner for a second. It's almost like magic. It's wild how impressively skilled this kid is beyond just his talent as a performer. You give a little wave and then vanish again. As this is happening, you watch as this sludge is crawling up the sides, and it's like the rather dimly lit interior of these halls is beginning to look organic in some way, almost like it's an expanding hive, you see as striated, weird tendrils begin to expand and the hallway is becoming a nightmare within a matter of minutes.

[A]

Going into the bathroom.

[C]

You dart over to the bathroom. You come into the door. Inside, there's nobody inside. You look around, and you can see the vent in the wall that leads up and over to that office.

[A]

All right, I'll try and climb up and get in there.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

What, do I roll for that or do I need to.

[C]

So you will make this an agility roll to try and squeeze through without making too much noise. Yeah. Or finesse. Your choice.

[A]

Finesse. I think it's good. I have a plus two finesse. So I'm rolling a 20 fear dive because I spent that stress this plus. I get a 6 advantage from her.

[C]

I'm going to go ahead and spend seven of these minus ones to add minus seven to the roll.

[D]

Minus seven.

[A]

I got 18. Plus finesse is two, so that's 20, but minus seven, that's 14.

[C]

You can re roll. You can re roll if you'd like.

[D]

Thirteen, isn't it minus seven.

[A]

Yeah. Let me. I would reroll, actually. I got a five on this D6. It's really only one three. That sucks. I don't know if it'll be that much better.

[D]

So you have on the 20, 18.

[A]

The 20 got 10.

[C]

Yeah. So you could roll better with the 20. You have like nine re rolls.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it.

[A]

Get up this mat. Sorry, guys.

[C]

7.

[A]

Reroll.

[C]

Are you good? With that or do you want to use another reroll?

[A]

Plus two. So it's 14. Minus seven. It's only.

[C]

Use another reroll. You got to do it. That's another reroll. Spent. Come on, baby.

[A]

27.

[D]

Yes. Okay.

[C]

Yeah. Okay. Minus seven.

[A]

27. Minus seven with fear.

[C]

I'll take the fear. Great. So that just barely Even with the minus 7, it's a success because you needed a 20 to get through there. You begin to crawl through the grate, and you get to the edge of it, and the gate, its grate is closed, like, wherever closed into the side, so there's no airflow. And you can. You can barely see a little bit of light in the inside. But you do hear some voices. Low. You hear what it sounds like. Mr. Pearson. Go. Of course. I understand. Well, keep an eye out. It can't be too far from here. I have to attend to another meeting, so if you don't mind, we'll rendezvous in the next couple of hours. Just don't go too far from the office doors. You hear two of their voices. Got. Of course, sir. Of course, sir. You hear a shh, shh. Then a door close. What do you want to do?

[A]

I'm going to use the mindelver device on Mr. Pearson.

[C]

All right. As you see him heading over, you can barely see where he is, and he's moving away from his. He's at his desk. And then they hear that sound that begins to. It sounds not too different from the elevator sound that you had heard below, just softer. The two elevator doors opening in the office, and he stands up and moves out of sight. Right as you use that device. So go ahead and roll for me.

[A]

All right, So I spend a hope, and I do a skillcraft roll. What does that mean?

[C]

So, yes, that would be. It is finesse for you because of your little bit goth right now.

[D]

Can I use any of these to help right now?

[C]

Unfortunately, no, because he's on his own. He's on his own. Yeah.

[A]

Thirteen with fear.

[C]

Thirteen with fear. Would you like to reroll that? It's kind of delicate. How many do we have left?

[A]

Seven.

[D]

Six.

[C]

Let's see here. Six. Six. Yeah.

[D]

I say reroll.

[C]

Yeah, I do too. You got to Come on, come on, come on. Donate more to help them out, folks.

[A]

Mind delver.

[C]

All right.

[A]

20. 20 with hope.

[C]

20 with hope.

[A]

Oh, wait, plus two. Plus two, because I have.

[D]

Yeah, that's great. And out of hope.

[A]

Finesse.

[C]

That's with hope. So you can. All right, so the surface thoughts that come to your mind for A few seconds, you get just a sense of greed and anticipation. A person who thinks highly of their plotting capability and a big picture that maybe they don't fully understand or grasp, but they know they'll benefit from it. You also catch a bit of nervousness, a feeling of, like, I hate talking to them every time, but it's going to be okay. In the end. It's going to be okay. You also get to push for some more memories. What would you like to try and reach for within his mind in this moment before he steps away from the range of your device?

[A]

What his next meeting that he referenced was is going to be.

[D]

All right. While he's getting a whisper, I believe these are up next.

[C]

Ooh, these are so cool.

[D]

Which these are.

[C]

These are so cool, y'.

[D]

All. These are so cool. And we're all having a really hard.

[C]

Time letting them go. Yeah.

[D]

Like this little, like, VHS case. Are you kidding me? Yeah. So this is Ryder set.

[C]

Yeah. These sick.

[D]

Coolest.

[C]

And they're all signed.

[D]

They're all signed dies.

[C]

You have a fine autograph, Stacy. I don't think I've ever seen you.

[D]

Have a great autograph. Oh, thank you.

[A]

Very nice.

[D]

All right. All right.

[C]

And then you hear the elevator doors close out of sight. And that.

[D]

These are so cool.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

All right, I got to get back to the group.

[C]

I got. I got to tell him.

[A]

All right. So crawling backwards down the vent back into the bathroom.

[C]

Are you going to shadow step back to the rest of your team? Do you have the stress to spend? Yeah, let's go. Spend that stress, gain that hope. Take that fear die. I'm going to spend a fear as you're doing so and say that as you emerge from the bathroom, the detail is now walking towards your direction, and they may attempt to spot you even in spite of your shadow step. I need you to make an agility roll to see if you can even dive into the nearest shadow before they see you.

[A]

14 plus one. So 15.

[C]

15. With.

[A]

Fear.

[C]

With fear. I'll take that fear back. You dive into the shadow, but you hear them pick up pace. They noticed you, and they rushed to the edge of the shadow where you are and seemed confused that you're not present. So they're definitely aware that there is movement on this floor. But you manage to get back to Paloma. The two of you have reconvened now.

[D]

Lucas, you made it.

[A]

I saw the craziest things. We have to get by.

[D]

Okay. Okay, let's go. Let's go.

[C]

All right, you head back down the Elevator to the bottom floor. Quickly gather with the rest of the folks. As you're walking, you hear a. The building is on lockdown. And all the doors. You hear all the exterior and the lobby doors all begin to electronically lock. What did you do?

[A]

What was that? Wait, what happened? Did we make it back to them yet or we still.

[C]

You enter back into the viewing room where they've been hiding.

[A]

Oh, my God, you guys, I saw the craziest thing. It's aliens. I think there's like an underground. I saw in his mind, there's an underground bunker and there are people and they're trapped under glass and this is a film and. No, no, I think it's.

[C]

What's happening?

[D]

I can't explain.

[A]

There's some weird tentacle stuff. I don't know, but I think it's alien technology.

[D]

Tentacle stuff?

[A]

I think it's alien technology. I think Mr. Pearson is, you know, he's working with the. He's in cahoots with the aliens.

[D]

Is he an alien?

[A]

I mean, maybe.

[C]

I don't know.

[A]

I don't trust anything anymore.

[C]

I'm going to spin to fear at this point. The doors slam open to the chamber, and you watch as the two executive detail that were on the bottom floor step inward. They look over at the rest of you, clustered and talking, and you watch as their faces split open as masses of blackish green tentacles begin to emerge. Did it look like that?

[A]

Yes. That's what I'm talking about. And that's where we're going to go to.

[C]

We're going to take a short break here in return for this viewing room throwdown as the executive detail's true nature has been at least partially revealed as the rest of this executive building is slowly being corrupted into some sort of terrifying cataclysmic event. And where you find you need to go and what's safe is next. Thank you so much. So far, great bids are coming up. We have a few other milestones in the thresholds that we can work towards other guests that will arrive and have benefits to help them and what is going to be a continuously more and more challenging endeavor. We'll see you in a few minutes.

[A]

That's a wrap for part one of this podcast episode. Part two will land here this upcoming.

[B]

Tuesday at 5am Pacific.

[A]

And we'll pick up this story right where we left off until next time.

[B]

And we'll be back in this adventure.

[A]

Before you know it.

[D]

Come to DSW for the shoes, Stay for the fun. Because let's be honest, if shoe shopping isn't fun. Are you even doing it right? So go ahead, try something new. Try something different, good different. Try something that feels like you, you know, thrill you. And then definitely brag about it later. Because at dsw, you've got unlimited freedom to play. Find the shoes that get you at prices that get your budget at DSW stores [e-mail] let us surprise you.