
Part 2 of Episode 1 A mystery long forgotten stirs in the abyss, as the Thresher crew makes a treacherous descent into the lost station of Rán-Beor. ABOUT THRESHER: Created in collaboration with 12 Sided Studios and Paragon Pictures, Thresher is a two part underwater epic taking place in a unique world created by Matt Linton and Jacqueline Emerson and homebrewed for gameplay by Jasper William Cartwright, based on Candela Obscura, an Illuminated Worlds game from Darrington Press. Deep in the abyss where ancient creatures lurk, a motley crew must unite onboard the S.S. Thresher submarine to explore the abandoned Rán Boer station resting in the ocean’s unforgiving depths. Battling claustrophobia, paranoia, lurking behemoths, and hidden horrors, only one thing is certain; from the deep, power rises... Learn more about Thresher at http://critrole.com/thresher Meet the Cast! Creators Matt Linton (https://www.instagram.com/mattlinton11/) and Jacqueline Emerson (https://www.instagram...
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Emily Wadsworth
Introducing Instagram Teen Accounts.
Jasper William Cartwright
A new way to keep your teen.
Emily Wadsworth
Safer as they grow. Like making sure they've got the right gear for writing.
Jasper William Cartwright
Knee pads.
Valerie Sutton
Check.
Jasper William Cartwright
And helmet. Done. See you, dad.
Emily Wadsworth
New Instagram Teen Accounts. Automatic protections for who can contact your teen and the content they can see.
Ashley Johnson
When a cold has you down, it's the little comforts that lift you up. A warm blanket, a cup of tea, and a tissue that actually feels good on your skin. Infused with aloe Kleenex Cooling plus Aloe provides a hint of cooling freshness to help your skin feel restored. So whether your skin is feeling dry, chafed or irritated, you're only one wipe away from helping it feel relieved. The next time you have a cold, get a hint of instant cooling relief with new Kleenex Cooling plus Aloe for whatever happens next, grab Kleenex. Hey there, critters. This is Ashley Johnson and Telus and Jeffe, and we're popping in here to talk about our new podcast on Beacon. Weird Kids.
Kimmy Ace Morgan
In this series, we're diving into our lives as former child actors. From unraveling our eccentric upbringings to embracing all the delightfully odd interests we still have.
Ashley Johnson
Today, we're covering so many topics like antique toys, taxidermy, Japanese pop culture, and honestly, anything else we come up with.
Kimmy Ace Morgan
Weird Kids is available exclusively on Beacon. But good news, we're offering a one month free trial on Beacon TV so you can take a look before you become a member. Just use the code weirdosacon TV to start the trial.
Ashley Johnson
You can also find fellow weirdos by following the series on our heirdkids pod Instagram and using the hashtag weirdkids.
Kimmy Ace Morgan
So to all the misfits, outcasts and weirdos out there, come take a seat at our table and celebrate all things unconventional, nostalgic and wonderfully weird. Welcome to Weird Kids.
Ashley Johnson
New episodes release every Tuesday.
Jasper William Cartwright
Greetings again, crew. It's game master Jasper William Cartwright and you're listening to part two of this episode of Thresher. If you haven't checked out part one yet, pause this now and head over to the first one in this epic underwater miniseries. We're following a motley Thresher crew to explore the abandoned Ranbior station resting in the ocean's dark abyss where ancient creatures lurk. New episodes of Thresher air on Thursdays at 7pm Pacific on Beacon, Twitch and YouTube, with VOD uploaded to YouTube on the following Mondays at noon. If you want instant access to podcast content and ad free listening experience, check out Beacon and get access to the Full audio version of Thresher right when it airs at 7pm Pacific on Thursdays. You can also check out our Beacon exclusive show critical role's cooldown and experience the Thresher cast's post show reactions to each episode. So without further ado, let's return to the suspenseful deep sea story. SS France embarks on maiden trend.
Hercule Deboddin
Ocean Needle opens today at the World's Fair.
Jasper William Cartwright
Off Beetles hit the charts with Love Me do Music's newest sensations. Music on.
Valerie Sutton
Tonight, General Dynamics prepares Ranger 3 to.
Jasper William Cartwright
Photograph the ocean's surface.
Hercule Deboddin
Experts back Jacques Cousteau's Conshelf 1. Experiments begin.
Kimmy Ace Morgan
Humans living beneath ocean waves.
Damon Adams
Cuban missile crisis deepens.
Valerie Sutton
Disturbing wizards. Operation Fishbowl launches nuclear tests over Pacific waters. Strange sea creatures spotted near sin.
Emily Wadsworth
Are we all going together? Are we splitting?
Betty Callahan
We're going together.
Hercule Deboddin
I don't like the idea of splitting us up, especially when there are so many unknowns down here.
Damon Adams
I'm not going anywhere alone. Betty, is it dry through there?
Valerie Sutton
Sorry, I was just lost in some thoughts. You can see that it's not flooded through here, so we should go in quick and then shut the door behind us.
Hercule Deboddin
It's not going to work that way. If you open this door, the weight of this water will drive us all.
Jasper William Cartwright
So I think that you can. So you can see just by looking at the sort of mechanics of this door, there is essentially a sequence of locks and balances. And essentially every sequence pressurizes the room beyond that little bit. And so essentially you'll make a roll just to make sure that that doesn't get out of sequence. But essentially, if you do everything in the right order, that chamber inside should like, rebalance. Essentially. This was like a. It's like a fail safe should this exact thing happen.
Valerie Sutton
Okay, sure, sure, sure.
Hercule Deboddin
If there is a way that I can assist because I'm pretty used to this sort of procedures. Yeah, that will help.
Valerie Sutton
Yeah, I'll start opening the door.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, great. So, yeah, we'll go ahead and make this a. I'm actually making some read, check, read.
Valerie Sutton
Okay. Okay. And then. Are you assisting? Thank you. Thank you. That's a six.
Jasper William Cartwright
That's a six. Okay. Yeah, you kind of watch as you kind of. There's a few little sort of turns and you can hear sort of now like air and sort of water rushing through pipes. And you can actually see the room beyond starting to fill with water as like very slowly, the door itself. After a while, after the room has filled up completely with water, the door itself compresses in and slides to the side, and you see the exact same thing on the other side. So essentially, should you do the same thing, the water will now drain out of that chamber and you can open that. So do you wish to proceed on. Are you going to drain the water out of this? Okay, so you go through. Drain the water out of this chamber. So the other door swings open and you are now, for the first time, out of water. Do you guys wish to continue with your suits? As in, you're keeping your oxygen flowing.
Emily Wadsworth
Ekyu. Do you think it is safe?
Betty Callahan
I just begin to take it off. Okay, don't even wait.
Jasper William Cartwright
You can just essentially just turn the oxygen. Turn the oxygen off?
Hercule Deboddin
Yeah, I'm going to turn off my oxygen, but keep my seals. And I'm going to watch and see how Mr. Adams behaves over the next 30 seconds.
Jasper William Cartwright
He doesn't start to turn blue or anything like that. So you'd assume that he's breathing fine, at least for the moment.
Betty Callahan
I kind of look to you, I'm like, seems safe.
Emily Wadsworth
Then I will do the same.
Hercule Deboddin
Okay, I'm going to crack the seal on my helmet, but I am not taking it off.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, absolutely. So for the time being, oxygen is not flowing and there's basically this round tube. And in the middle, there is this walkway that goes through. And you can see outside. It's almost like in an aquarium where you're surrounded on all sides by water, but it is completely pitch black. There is the occasional. Now that you're here, and in this part, you can see that there's the occasional flicker of bioluminescence, maybe an anglerfish or something swims past. There's the occasional little bursts of light, almost like stars through this sort of inky blackness. And I'm going to get. Yeah, actually, you tell me, are you proceeding forward? Pushing on. And can I get order? Because you'd probably have to go single file, especially in these sort of slightly heavier.
Betty Callahan
I will probably lead.
Jasper William Cartwright
Go first.
Betty Callahan
Yeah, I'll go first.
Valerie Sutton
I'm gonna follow Mr. Damon.
Damon Adams
I'm hanging back.
Jasper William Cartwright
Hanging back.
Emily Wadsworth
I was going to say that I think as I'm walking, I'm kind of looking around in fascination. This is incredible to see this in the flesh. So probably hanging back as well.
Jasper William Cartwright
Going to go in the middle.
Hercule Deboddin
Yes. And I am.
Jasper William Cartwright
Where would you like the doctor to go?
Hercule Deboddin
I think he's being manhandled by Monsieur Adams.
Betty Callahan
So he'll be actually in front of me.
Jasper William Cartwright
He's in front of you?
Betty Callahan
Yeah. Okay, Sorry. I'm gonna change the order. I'm actually gonna be in front of the doctor.
Jasper William Cartwright
You're gonna be in front of the doctor. Okay. And who is gonna be actually at the back then? Between you two?
Emily Wadsworth
Whatever you think.
Damon Adams
I wanna be right at the back.
Jasper William Cartwright
Right at the back. Okay.
Emily Wadsworth
I'm walking quite slowly.
Betty Callahan
Okay, so you guys are back.
Valerie Sutton
I'm sticking as close to this guy as I can.
Hercule Deboddin
I'm going to hang back slightly and just quietly whisper to Val and Amelie. I don't know Mr. Adams intentions, but our medicine, our doctor may very well be from Atlantic. The idea that he is being manhandled by Mr. Adams isn't necessarily because Mr. Adams doesn't like him. Perhaps it is. Both are an Atlantic employee and are sticking together. So I will be watching them very closely. I do not like this.
Valerie Sutton
I think as they're having a sort of more serious, quiet conversation in the back, I'm kind of just rambling maybe, and I'm like. So like Mr. Damon, you like. You know, where you come from? You know, you like movies?
Betty Callahan
Where I come from?
Valerie Sutton
Yeah.
Betty Callahan
Your mother's funny.
Jasper William Cartwright
Oh, shit.
Valerie Sutton
Okay, well, no need to be rude about it. I guess I'll just be quiet then. Geez. Just trying to make a little conversation. It's pretty scary down here, you know.
Betty Callahan
You're wasting the oxygen.
Jasper William Cartwright
I. I like movies.
Valerie Sutton
Yeah, maybe. Zip it, Doctor.
Jasper William Cartwright
Oh, right. I shouldn't talk either.
Hercule Deboddin
Okay, don't feel bad, Betty. You have already contributed to our cause much better than this gentleman here.
Valerie Sutton
All right, let's just get down to the power system, gentlemen. You know, let's just. Let's just get on with the job, right? You know, fair enough. We're here to do a job. Just trying to make, you know, something moves.
Betty Callahan
I kind of.
Emily Wadsworth
Within the tunnel.
Jasper William Cartwright
Look on the outside of the tunnel, but large enough for you to catch your attention. Something that moves very. It's not that same fluid shimmery motion of a fish. Of a fish. Something a bit more jerking and aggressive.
Hercule Deboddin
Turn off the lights.
Betty Callahan
My light instantly goes off.
Emily Wadsworth
Emily leans forward to Herculean says your mind makes things up in the darkness. Is that correct?
Hercule Deboddin
That does not look like intuition to me.
Emily Wadsworth
Emily turns out her light.
Jasper William Cartwright
Everyone turning the lights off.
Betty Callahan
Yeah.
Emily Wadsworth
Emily then turns her.
Jasper William Cartwright
So you hear something start to scratch. And then a distant sound. You hear a. Almost like a rush. And then it immediately stops.
Betty Callahan
My hand goes back to Betty. The hearing of the breathing. And you feel this large paw just on your shoulder. But it doesn't feel aggressive. It's just enough weight.
Jasper William Cartwright
Something lands on the bridge, hand still on the shoulder. And then you hear.
Betty Callahan
Hand still on the shoulder. My other hand's gonna reach for my hunter's knife. And as my. And as I'm feeling it, can I sense that it is in front, front of me or behind you? Right?
Jasper William Cartwright
It is right behind you.
Betty Callahan
Right. Oh, my God. So then what I'm gonna then do is I'm gonna try and maneuver myself across everyone to try and get to this thing.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. Would you like. Are you trying to do it silently? Are you trying to.
Betty Callahan
Yeah.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay.
Betty Callahan
Small movements, but like very slow.
Jasper William Cartwright
Before that happens, may I please ask anyone who perhaps might have been affected by that to make me a. Make your gilded roll, if you will. So use your gilded roll, basically. How many dice you have for that?
Betty Callahan
Would I have been affected? I feel like I'm.
Jasper William Cartwright
I think you're using it. I'm alright. Because I'm like.
Betty Callahan
I'm almost like, oh, yeah, I'm having vert.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah.
Emily Wadsworth
All right.
Valerie Sutton
Four gilded six.
Emily Wadsworth
Gilded.
Jasper William Cartwright
Six. Four. Oh, four, six, six. Four, four, six, six.
Hercule Deboddin
And is this a sound that I would know?
Jasper William Cartwright
No, I will say this. I think for all of you. It starts as this raspy kind of, kind of intake of. And then it starts to change. Almost like there is something, some new kind of mechanism or something that's being. That's sort of trying to function and it's not quite working because you hear like. And I think that what you would sense is that like it almost sounds. The closest thing you can to. Is like when a fish is stranded on the beach. Oh, so interesting.
Hercule Deboddin
I'm going to quietly take my helmet off, extend it as far away from my body as possible, and turn on the light. I am, I think, right next to Val.
Jasper William Cartwright
So are you going to allow Daemon to move past you first?
Hercule Deboddin
No problem.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. This smell, Daemon, as you walk past Val, of rotting flesh becomes almost unbearable.
Betty Callahan
Okay.
Jasper William Cartwright
As you move past and then I think this light. Then this light flicks on and probably six inches from your face, you see a completely faceless creature. Almost like this pale blue skin has been pulled over the head of this humanoid. Covered in fins, barnacles, claws, spikes all poking out from different places. Scratches all over its body that look concurrent. Almost as if it's done it to itself. And the light turns on and there is absolutely no reaction from the creature as it doesn't have an. It doesn't have eyes, it doesn't have a mouth, it doesn't have a nose. And that noise seems to be coming from its throat.
Betty Callahan
So if it's close to Me.
Jasper William Cartwright
I'm.
Betty Callahan
Going to place the knife just under, like, just aim for the neck. And then I'm just going to move straight in for the stab for the, for the neck there.
Jasper William Cartwright
Make me a strike roll, please.
Betty Callahan
Six and a four.
Jasper William Cartwright
Six and a four. Okay, so this, we're gonna introduce another mechanic that I've made for this. So we have now what's called a cinematic mode. Now what this means is that during a cinematic mode, we have a slightly more turn based sense of action. But it's very, very simple. Essentially the group will all choose whether they want to go high tide or low tide. If you go high tide, you act first. If you go low tide, you act second. I will also pick one and if there's a conflict between what I want and what you want, we'll do a simple roll off and whoever wins gets to choose.
Valerie Sutton
Is there a benefit to going second?
Jasper William Cartwright
Well, essentially it's like if I call for a cinematic, but you don't necessarily know why you might want to go second so that you get a chance to see whatever I see, I see.
Valerie Sutton
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
Jasper William Cartwright
Rather than sort of wasting essentially a turn of just, you know, not knowing what is happening. So with that said, we will resolve that at the top. But what does the group want to do? Do they want to go high tide or low tide?
Damon Adams
Does the high tide or low tide take place after the stab?
Jasper William Cartwright
The stab is going to happen at the top of the round and then essentially we'll go into high tide vessel.
Valerie Sutton
I think I'm low tide. I'm at the back and I'm just freaking out.
Jasper William Cartwright
It's a collective decision as well.
Valerie Sutton
Oh, it's a collective.
Jasper William Cartwright
Oh, gosh.
Valerie Sutton
Okay.
Betty Callahan
I think with the action that I've just done, it makes us high tide, right?
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah.
Valerie Sutton
I mean, that makes sense to me.
Jasper William Cartwright
That would all give you a chance to act now in this moment before the creature did.
Hercule Deboddin
Action has already been taken. I was originally thinking perhaps if it is actually blind, we could just give it space and see what it does.
Jasper William Cartwright
But that has a knife in its throat.
Betty Callahan
Yeah. With two successes, I'm gonna do my render flesh as well.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay.
Hercule Deboddin
You are very good at killing things, Mr. Adams.
Jasper William Cartwright
Also, we're just stabbed a creature, so we're going to need you to make a decision real fast.
Valerie Sutton
I think it makes sense to be high tide. Like this is like an impact thing.
Jasper William Cartwright
Like reactions like jumping in this knife goes into the throat of this creature and you see it reaching out and it sort of places this wet sort of strange. It's not skin. It's not skin and it's not scales. It's something in between. It leaves this sinewy sludge all over your face. What are other people doing?
Damon Adams
Bloody hell.
Jasper William Cartwright
I retreat while sort of. You're still like, halfway across this thing, so. Right. So the rest of you are sort of the other side. You're the right side in terms of the direction that you want to head. So.
Betty Callahan
I mean, I'm gonna. Once I've done that, I'm gonna look back and get. And kind of direct people to, like. I'm like, run.
Jasper William Cartwright
And you are gonna use your rend flesh ability, I believe.
Hercule Deboddin
Yes.
Jasper William Cartwright
Which is when you get two or more successes in your dice pool. Making a strike action, you can to do a critical piece of damage. What would you like to do?
Betty Callahan
I guess the knife is just gonna turn, and as it turns, I'm gonna lever it up and almost go to, like, slice the bright. The head in half.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. Twist it. Slice through. There is a. As you slice through, you see a perfectly human skull on the inside as it cleaves in half. That same noise, that kind of wet gargle of blood as it drops back onto the ground.
Emily Wadsworth
Emily moves forward, just absolutely fascinated, and you can almost hear her whisper under her breath. I knew it. I knew it.
Valerie Sutton
We heard this thing, like, something land on the walkway. Right. I going to look up.
Jasper William Cartwright
Are you still using. Are you using lights? Are you. What are you choosing to do?
Hercule Deboddin
You know what?
Valerie Sutton
Yeah, I think, like, I'm not even. I'm thinking. I'm just like. I tell my.
Jasper William Cartwright
I look up, you look up, and there is absolutely no. There's nothing wrong with the outside, the exterior. There is some water that seems to have pooled very briefly into the bottom of this tube that wasn't there before. But the actual, like, outside of this tube is perfectly intact.
Valerie Sutton
It was high enough up that something could have been up there and then dropped down.
Jasper William Cartwright
No, it's a pretty small tube.
Valerie Sutton
What the fuck?
Hercule Deboddin
How did this thing get in here?
Betty Callahan
Well, I'm not even asking questions or thinking if it's down. Right.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah.
Betty Callahan
So I'm gonna grab it by its leg and I'm gonna drag it past everyone to the front.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yep.
Betty Callahan
And go towards where we were going.
Emily Wadsworth
As he goes, Emily runs out. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Trying to take a photo.
Betty Callahan
Yeah. I kind of look as I walk past. I walk past Hercule and kind of look at him be like as if. Like the flash of the light and kind of move on.
Valerie Sutton
What the fuck is going on?
Damon Adams
Oh, bloody hell. I don't like this.
Jasper William Cartwright
So you managed to open the two doors. It seems that this next room, this next area is not flooded or anything like that. So you make your way through and into the billow's reach.
Betty Callahan
Is there an open space here? Is there like.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, there will be.
Betty Callahan
I'm going to put the body just in the middle there. Yeah, clean my blade.
Jasper William Cartwright
You make your way through the door. As you get through into the biller's reach, you feel like you can smell it first. There is some sort of gas in the air here and the oxygen is starting to feel a little thin.
Emily Wadsworth
Should we put our helmets back on?
Hercule Deboddin
I think that's a good idea.
Jasper William Cartwright
As you get through into this room, what you see there is a. In fact, actually, why didn't everyone give me a survey roll? Because you're still. There's no power on, so we're still using our headlights. So I think this is essentially like what you are kind of able to scan and see.
Emily Wadsworth
Going to take a gilded five, three.
Jasper William Cartwright
Four, four.
Betty Callahan
I've got six.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. So as you're looking around trying to uncover what this room is, it's actually a much larger room than any that you've been in thus far. One whole side of the room seems to be a series of very complicated dials and buttons, which would probably only make even vague sense to you two. It does seem that there are as well almost like a railway kind of map. There's like a bunch of lines and then sort of light, like what looks like they would be like little light bulbs. And then it kind of leads to something else and something else and something else. And it's all sort of connected along this big wall, along one side.
Hercule Deboddin
A grid map perhaps?
Jasper William Cartwright
In a sense, yes. And under a kind of big port window, you see there is a table. You get six.
Betty Callahan
Yeah.
Jasper William Cartwright
So I think you see there's a big table and actually you look down and catch there is a chessboard. Some of the chess pieces, like two of them still stand. There is a. In one chair on the right hand side, you see a skeleton with another one of those strange kind of leather pouch things. And with the six, you notice that there is a handcuffed hand that remains kind of like on the table. And the other side of the handcuff is attached the leg. And the most peculiar thing about this hand is that it is still intact. Rotted certainly, but it is not a skeleton.
Emily Wadsworth
Ooh.
Jasper William Cartwright
What I think as you're walking around as well, you get this really particularly metallic tinge. As you're looking around, I'm going to take the lanyard.
Betty Callahan
Would I have noticed that you have got the other one on you? Have you got it on your person visibly or.
Hercule Deboddin
Yes. I didn't hide it.
Betty Callahan
So I kind of walk over. I'm like, you like to collect these, eh?
Hercule Deboddin
I will hold onto it for you, of course. Are we in this? So this is.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah. You feel like. Just goes to clarify as well. There is absolutely air here. It's just a little fit. Like you'd feel like if you were to be without your helmet for a while, you might get a little sort of thing.
Hercule Deboddin
I would also caution. And we don't know if this gas is flammable.
Valerie Sutton
It's a good shout. Yeah. Does it smell like anything like this?
Jasper William Cartwright
It's just like that metallic tinge.
Valerie Sutton
It doesn't smell like methane or gas or anything like that, I don't think it's not methane on usual gas, but it could be something, maybe something they use in their experiments or whatever. Are we gonna talk about this fucking thing? Wait, I know we got a job to do, but what the fuck is this?
Betty Callahan
Let the doctors do.
Hercule Deboddin
What the fuck?
Jasper William Cartwright
That was me being me. That was just me being mean. It's fine. It's not moving anymore. We will be right back after this break.
Ashley Johnson
Hey there, critters. This is Ashley Johnson and Telus and Jeffy and we're popping in here to talk about our new podcast on Beacon, Weird Kids.
Kimmy Ace Morgan
In this series, we're diving into our lives as former child actors. From unraveling our eccentric upbringings to embracing all the delightfully odd interests we still have today.
Ashley Johnson
We're covering so many topics like antique toys, taxidermy, Japanese pop culture, and honestly, anything else we come up with.
Kimmy Ace Morgan
Weird Kids is available exclusively on Beacon. But good news, we're offering a one month free trial on Beacon tv so you can take a look before you become a member. Just use the code Weirdos at Beacon TV to start the trial.
Ashley Johnson
You can also find fellow weirdos by following the series on our heirdkids pod Instagram and using the hashtag weirdkids.
Kimmy Ace Morgan
So to all the misfits, outcasts and weirdos out there, come take a seat at our table and celebrate all things unconventional, nostalgic and wonderfully weird. Welcome to Weird Kids.
Ashley Johnson
New episodes release every Tuesday.
Jasper William Cartwright
And here we are returning to Threshia.
Betty Callahan
Did not have their time to look at it, right? No. We need to figure out a way out of here.
Jasper William Cartwright
I'm sorry, did you just say I'm Gonna look at it?
Betty Callahan
Yes.
Jasper William Cartwright
I'm not gonna look at it.
Hercule Deboddin
Yes, you are. And you're going to look at it right now.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, these two? Yeah. If these two say I'm looking at it, I'm looking at it. Let me go have a look at it.
Emily Wadsworth
I'm curious to know the method of preservation.
Jasper William Cartwright
Wait, what is this? A human skull in here? Oh, I don't like that. I don't, I don't love that. The bones are the same. From what you slice the thing in half. The bones are the same. Why are the bones the same?
Betty Callahan
I kind of look too. Why are the bones the same?
Hercule Deboddin
The bones, Yes. I want to know. Also in the ocular cavity, is there an eye? Is it vestitial? What is happening here?
Jasper William Cartwright
Ah, there's a space where the eye would be. And he sort of. Oh, no, I don't like this. Digs around in what the eye socket would be. And you see that there is the beginning. He's like, there's the beginnings of an optical nerve, but it doesn't end in anything, it just ends in flesh.
Hercule Deboddin
Almost as if it has adapted to life in the dark.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, it's probably kind of concurrent with other things like fish and things down here that had eyes at some point and then essentially don't need them, so they just become dead.
Betty Callahan
If I go to it, is it bleeding? Is there any blood?
Jasper William Cartwright
It's, I think the further in you go, almost like a sort of medium rare steak. Right.
Betty Callahan
And then with it, when I smell it, what does it smell like?
Jasper William Cartwright
I think it's hard for you to get a smell because you've got your helmet on right now, so you'd probably have to.
Betty Callahan
So, yeah, I would have taken. Yeah.
Jasper William Cartwright
So you take the helmet off briefly. Yeah, it is that same like putrid smell of like. Yeah, like rotted flesh mixed with like fish.
Betty Callahan
Okay. Yeah, yeah. Kind of wipe my hands, put my helmet back on, I'll wipe it and look at your lanyard. And I'm like, so what's inside?
Hercule Deboddin
I think it is time that we open these and see the contents.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yes. You're going to open one of these. Which one are you going to open? The one that you found in here or the one that you found earlier?
Hercule Deboddin
I think we should open one first. But my intention, I think is to open both.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, yeah. Which one do you want to open first?
Hercule Deboddin
Let's open the one we found in here first.
Jasper William Cartwright
You go ahead, open it up. And you find this strange looking, sort of long, almost like a cassette tape holder there's a little keypad at one end. At the other end there's like a play button, a pause button, rewind and a record. And then there's like a little kind of. It looks like it's almost like a built in cassette. Like it doesn't. The actual thing. Cartridge doesn't come out or in right. It's like all one piece. And at the end that's sort of facing up in the lanyard, you can see there's like a little kind of gauze where a microphone would be.
Hercule Deboddin
Some sort of log or recording device.
Valerie Sutton
Yeah, looks like it.
Emily Wadsworth
I've used these before in my research. It must be some type of. Is there a button?
Hercule Deboddin
I don't know much about these sort of electronics, so I will hand it. If you have experience, I will hand it to you.
Emily Wadsworth
How familiar am I?
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, I think you've probably seen one of these things before. It's not like a particularly revolutionary piece of tech. The only thing you do know is that sometimes the. These are because you can't remove the cartridge. You can like almost like pin protect the.
Hercule Deboddin
So they can't be overwritten.
Jasper William Cartwright
Right. To make sure if someone else found it, they can't just listen to it. Do you press the play button on this one?
Emily Wadsworth
I believe yes.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, it does start to play.
Ashley Johnson
I love this place. Ran bior is just wow. I the brightest minds all working together. No red tape, no limits. Just pure innovation. We're making history. Unlimited energy for the world. Can you believe it? And the layout. So efficient. If you know the right pathways like I do, you can get anywhere in minutes. I even found a tunnel. Not on the schematics. It hums like the walls are singing with all these notes and marks on it. Though not in a language I understand. I asked Marcus if it was part of the system, but he just gave me that serious face. Changed the subject. I'll beat him at chest later and.
Jasper William Cartwright
I'll make him spill.
Ashley Johnson
Oh, and last night I was at my station in billows reach and I used the current deflectors to give the divers on the outside a little boost. They swung by after to tell me how fun it was. Anyway, back to work before someone catches me talking to myself again. The future is so bright.
Emily Wadsworth
Emily grabs out her notebook and tries to jot down everything that she just heard.
Valerie Sutton
I'm going to go over where the chessboard was. You said that there was a handcuff with a hand opposite the person where the lanyard was taken from.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yes.
Valerie Sutton
And I look at the hand.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, you look at the hand. It's this kind of rotted, putrid hand. Do you want to.
Valerie Sutton
Is there a scar? I'm looking for a scar on one of the fingers.
Jasper William Cartwright
Why don't you give me a focus roll?
Valerie Sutton
Okay. I'm gonna spend a drive on this. Two fives. Two fives, Two fives.
Jasper William Cartwright
There is so much sort of wrong with this hand that it's almost impossible to tell. It's been, you know, parts of the flesh are peeling there. Looks as if there's probably been some creatures buried inside it. At certain points, it's really difficult to tell, but there is one point where you're like. That does kind of feel like.
Valerie Sutton
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Emily Wadsworth
What do you see?
Valerie Sutton
Nothing. It's just, you know, it's just a creepy hand, that's all. The audio lady said that she was playing chess with somebody. She figured it was something we should get a move on. We should go find the power.
Jasper William Cartwright
We find ourselves in this billow's reach. Bodies on the floor. Just heard this message played out loud. I think you were going to try and play perhaps a second one. Just going to hand that to you.
Betty Callahan
As he's opening this.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. Would you like to play. Try and play the. The other one that you have.
Hercule Deboddin
I would like to look at the player and see if it looks the same as the other one we just used or if it looks like in.
Jasper William Cartwright
Any way you take a look at this thing, it looks a little bit more worn than perhaps the. The other one did. Do you go ahead and press the play button?
Hercule Deboddin
Yes, please.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. You click it in and it does seem like this one is pin protected. Unfortunately, if you wanted to try to bypass it, you could absolutely pass it.
Emily Wadsworth
Any way you can.
Jasper William Cartwright
So, yeah, focus.
Damon Adams
I would like to focus. And I will try and interface again with the tablet.
Jasper William Cartwright
All right.
Damon Adams
I'll spend another point of drive.
Jasper William Cartwright
Do it.
Damon Adams
That is a gilded six.
Jasper William Cartwright
Whoa. Okay, Perfect as you like. Click it in, you find like one file. You manage to bypass the security on that one. There is actually a second one on here as well that you think that you could access. But that it does look like will require the pin number. But you do get that it is only a three digit number that you're looking for. However, you do get access to this one.
Damon Adams
Ah, yes. It's working. Oh, wait, is it? Yes, yes, of course it is. Dr. Yvette Durand, personal log. Well, another one. I need to organize these better. Tonight was different. The specimen?
Jasper William Cartwright
No, no.
Damon Adams
The subject saw me, recognized me. It responded not just Mimicking sounds? No, it mimicked form. Crude attempt, but unmistakable adaptive. Dr. Blackwell will call this reckless. They lack vision. The Riftborn need more than caution. They need guidance. This one is still capable of speech. Fascinating. I should delete this. No, no. History does not remember the timid. I must keep it so everyone knows my great work.
Jasper William Cartwright
That is where it cuts out.
Hercule Deboddin
Well, that was disturbing.
Emily Wadsworth
Something happened here.
Damon Adams
What the bloody hell's a Riftborne.
Valerie Sutton
Riftborne Subjects. Specimens. This ain't what I signed on for. This ain't what.
Emily Wadsworth
This is exactly what I signed on for.
Valerie Sutton
Well that's good for you lady, but we got a. We got a job to do. We need to get the power on. We need to stop messing around here with all this sci fi bullshit.
Hercule Deboddin
Still capable of speech. Sounds like her subject.
Valerie Sutton
Is that my twin?
Jasper William Cartwright
You think this then.
Emily Wadsworth
I feel like we ought to explore the laboratory.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, well that's if you want to.
Valerie Sutton
Get to the observatory. It's through here and we gotta connect for another one of those tunnels.
Hercule Deboddin
And is the observatory where we find the access to power?
Valerie Sutton
Yeah, there should be from the val. The schematics you brought up. Right. It showed that there was a connection from. From the observatory in the Colgrave nexus.
Damon Adams
Yeah, yeah. It all loops around and the power is connected to the nexus and the Haven Observatory.
Valerie Sutton
Yeah. So we go through the observatory and then we can get to the power.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah.
Hercule Deboddin
While we are discussing what to do next, I'm just going to take a look at the body. I want to see. You had mentioned that it has like barbs and other features on it. I want to see if I recognize anything that looks like perhaps from the ichthyology I've done like venomous barbs, things that maybe it's poisonous. I want to know if we run into these again, if there are things that we need to be more careful about. It seemed to want to connect with you.
Jasper William Cartwright
Which I'll say that just based on your experience, you know that there are types of. Whether it be crustacean or bacteria or fungi or anything that like will sort of. Will sort of allow and allow for like growths and other such things. And I think that the fact that these. This sort of thing was covered in these like barbs and spines and. And part like there was. It's quite clear that this wasn't like an evolutionary thing, if that makes sense. Right. That this was like somewhat random and it seemed like the. Just based on like the scars and things like that that you can see on its arms. They all look like self inflicted. So you can almost imagine that it was uncomfortable or difficult for the creature.
Hercule Deboddin
It suffered.
Damon Adams
Mate. Sorry, would you.
Hercule Deboddin
Perhaps you did it at Mercy. Bethy, I'm not going to pry into your personal business, but I noticed that when you went over to the hand, for a moment, you seemed to be upset.
Valerie Sutton
Oh, you know, see, a crazy fish monster and a dead hand. Of course I'm upset. Yeah, of course. Yeah.
Jasper William Cartwright
I don't want to pry. I'm also a little troubled. And it's not even me just being a wuss. But why is that hand not a skeleton? All the other bodies we've seen, they're, like, full. There's no flesh. It's been like, what, 10 years or something, they said. That freaks me out. That's not good.
Valerie Sutton
Maybe they were. Maybe they were handcuffed there not that long ago. Maybe people found a way to survive down here and something happened.
Betty Callahan
And then they all ask a lot of questions and we get no answers. We're just gonna sit here talking all the time. We should move forward.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah.
Valerie Sutton
No, I get the power on. You're right.
Betty Callahan
Then we can start assessing.
Hercule Deboddin
Fair enough. The body is not missing a hand.
Jasper William Cartwright
Which one?
Hercule Deboddin
This dead creature.
Emily Wadsworth
I do agree with Daemon that some things are unexplainable. Shall we continue on?
Hercule Deboddin
Yeah, I just want to finish this real quick. And I'm using Reed.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay.
Hercule Deboddin
So it seeks. But just to say it is your personal business, just know that I'm here for you. And if there's something that I can do to be of service.
Valerie Sutton
She is absolutely not telling the truth and is hiding something. It's very obvious. Very. Whatever. Whoever that hand belonged to meant a lot to me.
Jasper William Cartwright
But.
Valerie Sutton
Yeah. Yeah, Mr. Damon's right. Let's go. Can you help me with the door again?
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. As you begin, you look through this. Next door opens quite easily. You all filter through. You notice that the tube. This tube is actually kind of broken halfway down. And so this will require you essentially to swim through. And there is a section where the tubes don't connect. Connect anymore. So I'm assuming you'll all put your.
Betty Callahan
Yeah, we'll go.
Jasper William Cartwright
The door closes behind you and water starts to seep up from below. Can I get people, please? I'll have everyone make me. Make me a control role.
Emily Wadsworth
Okay, that's a one.
Betty Callahan
I'm gonna resist that.
Emily Wadsworth
That's a one.
Betty Callahan
That's better. Jesus Christ.
Jasper William Cartwright
Wow.
Hercule Deboddin
Double six.
Betty Callahan
I got a six.
Valerie Sutton
Five.
Jasper William Cartwright
Five.
Damon Adams
That's the one.
Jasper William Cartwright
As this water starts to fill up from the bottom, there is a moment for the two of you. I think the three of you see what it is. Almost immediately. It seems as though that some sort of oil or almost like fluid of some sort seeps into the room. It's like there's something from the machinery. It's just sort of leaking, which shouldn't be a problem because you'll be in your. But I think there is a moment as you look down at these swirling kind of patterns on the ground, the two of you, that you feel this twisting sensation in your stomach. And you can't help but feel like there's almost like the motion of whatever that liquid is seems to move something inside your body. Almost like the blood itself starts to churn the wrong way around your organs. And I need each of you to take a tight mark, please. We will be replacing bleed with Tide in this game.
Emily Wadsworth
Does anyone else feel that?
Damon Adams
I feel something. It don't feel right.
Emily Wadsworth
No, it doesn't.
Damon Adams
My insides. Your insides? Not good.
Hercule Deboddin
Describe the sensation to me.
Emily Wadsworth
It's almost like my blood is moving in rhythm with the churning of the liquid. What about you?
Damon Adams
Yeah, exactly that.
Jasper William Cartwright
I think the most unsettling part for the both of you is normally when you experience this kind of thing, whether it be on the ocean or whether it be the waves or something, where it feels slightly disorientating, normally once you kind of realize it, it sort of stops. It's still going.
Emily Wadsworth
Emily leans into Val and whispers, you still don't believe in ghost stories?
Damon Adams
No, I don't. This isn't a ghost. This is a doctor.
Jasper William Cartwright
Huh.
Damon Adams
Am I gonna be a fish man?
Jasper William Cartwright
What?
Damon Adams
Fish man.
Jasper William Cartwright
Are you gonna be a fish man?
Damon Adams
Am I gonna be a fish? I don't feel right.
Jasper William Cartwright
I hope not. I'll try and stop that, I guess.
Hercule Deboddin
Is Val starting to spiral out here?
Jasper William Cartwright
Is Val. Do you think that Val's affected by this?
Damon Adams
Yeah. I'm not up for any partners.
Jasper William Cartwright
Can you make me a gilded roll, please? Okay.
Damon Adams
Four.
Jasper William Cartwright
Four. So you feel yourself begin to panic and you burn through an hour of your oxygen.
Emily Wadsworth
Oh.
Jasper William Cartwright
So if you could mark that down for me so everyone actually would be down to five. So you're down to four.
Emily Wadsworth
Four.
Hercule Deboddin
I'm going to take Val. I'm going to place my hands on either side on her shoulders and put my faceplate against hers so that she hears me speaking through the vibration of the helmet. I'm not distributing this to the group.
Jasper William Cartwright
Sure, sure.
Hercule Deboddin
Val, I've seen a lot of very scary things down here, and I've lost many good friends. But nothing is going to happen to You. You are in good hands.
Jasper William Cartwright
All right?
Damon Adams
Right?
Emily Wadsworth
Yes.
Hercule Deboddin
And I'm gonna take that tide from her.
Jasper William Cartwright
Wow. Okay. Yeah, take the tide, Mark.
Hercule Deboddin
We are all going home. Oh.
Jasper William Cartwright
I'm just gonna give you this just to mark your success there. You know what you can do for that, and that's when you would like to.
Valerie Sutton
Okay, okay.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. So, on order, you're going first.
Betty Callahan
Yep.
Valerie Sutton
Then I'll go right back.
Jasper William Cartwright
I guess I'll go third, go behind, stay at the back this time.
Emily Wadsworth
Yes. I don't care as much this time. I'm just excited to see the next one.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, so. One, two, three. Doctor, why do you want me.
Hercule Deboddin
Why don't I take up the rear? You go ahead, Doctor. I will make sure that we aren't visited by another one of our friends.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, sure. Okay, will everyone just take one dice, please, as we begin to swim out and roll it for.
Hercule Deboddin
2.
Jasper William Cartwright
2.
Valerie Sutton
5.
Jasper William Cartwright
5. 4.
Emily Wadsworth
4.
Damon Adams
It's another one.
Jasper William Cartwright
Another one.
Hercule Deboddin
One.
Jasper William Cartwright
One. Oh, okay. I actually need the three of us to roll as we all rolled once. Four, two. As a second one for the Doctor. As you're swimming across through this inky blackness, I think it takes a second for you actually to catch the other end of this pipe because it's so impossible to tell if you're drifting. It's essentially trying to walk with your eyes closed. And there's that natural drift that happens. And I think literally, you almost would have gone past it until you sort of catch the. Your light kind of catches the rim of it and you. You kind of manage to. Course correct, and you all follow in. And I think just as the two of you making your way in, something dashes across your field of vision at an almost impossible speed. And you see, the Doctor disappears.
Valerie Sutton
What?
Betty Callahan
Okay, so I haven't seen that. I'm still just.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, you don't hear a thing. It's. It. She's like. And it's so quick that you genuinely can't. Like, you don't even see what happened.
Valerie Sutton
What?
Hercule Deboddin
He's gone.
Jasper William Cartwright
Three of you haven't seen a thing.
Hercule Deboddin
Oh, do we have radio? Or is it.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, if you wanna. If you wanna. Yeah, sorry, yeah.
Valerie Sutton
Doc, he's gone.
Jasper William Cartwright
Doc.
Hercule Deboddin
The Doctor is gone.
Jasper William Cartwright
What?
Emily Wadsworth
Where did he go?
Hercule Deboddin
Something took him.
Damon Adams
He's just gone.
Emily Wadsworth
Swim as fast as you can.
Jasper William Cartwright
You can patch in directly to the Doctor's channel if you'd like.
Betty Callahan
Yep, I'll patch straight in.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. You hear a wet crunch, sounds of ocean and a little.
Betty Callahan
I go back to the normal comms and I just keep Swimming forward.
Hercule Deboddin
Does it remind us of the creature that we heard before we. Stabby McStab stab decided to do his business.
Jasper William Cartwright
I think the sound reminds you more of. It reminds me more of something being eaten.
Hercule Deboddin
Oh, good.
Betty Callahan
Wow. That was. Okay. That was crazy.
Jasper William Cartwright
Sorry.
Betty Callahan
I just had a moment of realization that one of you guys kind of just died. Okay. Anyway.
Jasper William Cartwright
Oh, God.
Valerie Sutton
Literally, he was the one who rolled the lowest. I hadn't even considered it could have been one of you two. Oh, my God.
Hercule Deboddin
You cross next. I will follow after.
Jasper William Cartwright
But yeah, so you've made it across. You already. You've all made it in. You're heading through into the observatory.
Betty Callahan
Yes.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay.
Valerie Sutton
Yeah, we gotta get the fuck outta here.
Jasper William Cartwright
We're gonna take a short break right here, but we'll be back soon.
Ashley Johnson
Hey there, critters. This is Ashley Johnson and Telusin Jeffy, and we're popping in here to talk about our new podcast on Beacon, Weird Kids.
Kimmy Ace Morgan
In this series, we're diving into our lives as former child actors. From unraveling our eccentric upbringings to embracing all the delightfully odd interests we still have.
Ashley Johnson
Today, we're covering so many topics like antique toys, taxidermy, Japanese pop culture, and honestly, anything else we come up with.
Kimmy Ace Morgan
Weird Kids is available exclusively on Beacon. But good news, we're offering a one month free trial on Beacon tv so you can take a look before you become a member. Just use the code Weirdos at Beacon TV to start the trial.
Ashley Johnson
You can also find fellow weirdos by following the series on our heirdkids pod Instagram and using the hashtag weirdkids.
Kimmy Ace Morgan
So to all the misfits, outcasts and weirdos out there, come take a seat at our table and celebrate all things unconventional, nostalgic and wonderful. Welcome to Weird Kids.
Ashley Johnson
New episodes release every Tuesday.
Jasper William Cartwright
And now we return to Thresher. You find your way up and into the Haven Glow Observatory. The whole. This whole area is flooded, so even the Haven globes.
Emily Wadsworth
So we need our.
Jasper William Cartwright
So actually you don't even need to like decompress or anything like that. You're able to just open the doors.
Valerie Sutton
So this is all. Yeah, yeah.
Hercule Deboddin
Oh, and if it wasn't obvious already, I've taken my cane and kind of put it through the belt of the suit just to keep it readily available.
Jasper William Cartwright
So you find yourself in this massive observation dome. There's a panoramic view of the abyss. There is a sort of a low hum, sort of almost like the vibrations. You can almost feel it in your suits as you look down and round it's that same thing where it's kind of covered in all parts of like moss and sort of algae and little creatures kind of scuttling in and around some of the circuits and things like that. One of the positives, if you will, is that as you look down at some of these panels, I think the first thing that you notice is that the mechanics of this is largely analogous and seems like it would be either steam operated or through like protected cabling. So there's still some usage in the like all of the little kind of mechanisms that are down here. You also see that there does appear to be like a sort of tube almost that goes in to this room, like a hole in the wall. And in the center it looks like there was probably some sort of like pond and or garden area almost like where that tube is. You can see that there was like water probably flowed out of it, sort of down and then into this area. And it does seem like that's the reason why this part of the station is flooded. Like almost like that sort of depressurized and filled the whole room essentially. Sorry, last thing I will say. Make me a survey roll please. Okay.
Valerie Sutton
Survey, right?
Jasper William Cartwright
Yes, please.
Valerie Sutton
Okay, that's a six.
Jasper William Cartwright
Wow. Okay. You look down and I think probably instinctively start like looking at some of these dials. There is like these two big switches quite far apart. And as you kind of click it round, you can hear like a sort of almost like the sound of an engine starting. And then. But you kind of, you need to hold it and it's all had that same thing of like turning a key in a car where it kind of like starts to power up or starts to sort of make a whirring noise and then it kind of shuts down and you have to like actively physically hold it there. But with a six, you look kind of just out and beyond. You follow the line kind of the cable. You notice that ever so often there is a. The faintest pulse of light through this cable. And I think perhaps if you'll let me. Adjusting looking out and maybe softening your gaze, taking a moment to learn the technique that you were shown earlier. You see that faint pulse of energy and you can see just across the way outside there is a cable sort of pulsing, but it seems to be swaying and disconnected outside in the water outside.
Betty Callahan
Do you tell us this?
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, say like, okay, there's like a sent sort of. Just to be very, very clear, it essentially seems to go. The cable seems to run down from the observatory. There's like a central point where the pulse is coming from, and then the other side there is like, a loose cable, essentially. And you think perhaps that. Because you also remember there being in the schematics, there was, like, a source of power.
Valerie Sutton
Yeah. And so is that what I think is out there? That's the source of the power. And it's been disconnected.
Jasper William Cartwright
It looks like it's disconnected. Yeah.
Valerie Sutton
Okay. So I say, okay, well, I mean, like, this is. You know, there's an engine here, but there's some sort of power coming. But I can see out there, thanks to our friend Captain Nemo here, the cable is. It's disconnected. So I guess I gotta go out there and reconnect it.
Hercule Deboddin
Is the cable broken or unplugged? Is the cable damaged pretty hard?
Jasper William Cartwright
Pretty hard to tell. I mean, it's still. It is still pulsing, which means that.
Valerie Sutton
Like, sort of power's running through it.
Jasper William Cartwright
Power's running through it.
Valerie Sutton
Power's running through it, but it's hard to tell. I mean, if it's disconnected, it's an easy fix. If it's broken, I might be able to fix it still. I mean, I got tools and stuff that I can maybe find. You know, there's things around here that I can use.
Betty Callahan
So I kind of move towards you.
Valerie Sutton
Yeah.
Betty Callahan
Better go outside then.
Ashley Johnson
Yeah.
Valerie Sutton
Okay.
Hercule Deboddin
My concern is if these controls are analog, maybe she's better used here. If it is something where we simply need to plug it in, one of us can do that while she runs these controls.
Valerie Sutton
Okay, so I'll explain. So, okay, so this is how the system works. You got these two dials. They're kind of like engines, you know, like when you turn the key in the car, they both need to be turned at the same time as that pulse is running through. So we need two people to turn these two dials. And somebody needs to go out there and, you know, it's like a jumper cable almost.
Betty Callahan
I'll go outside, start, like, making my way towards this light, and I kind of radio and I say, I tell you if it's broken.
Valerie Sutton
Sure. I'll come out there if it's needing my fixing.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay.
Hercule Deboddin
I'm going to radio in to Monsieur Adams. Monsieur Adams, whatever took the doctor is still out there. Please maybe consider keeping your knife close at hand.
Betty Callahan
Knives out as well.
Jasper William Cartwright
So you're just going out there on your own. Okay. And then the four of you are staying in the gloves.
Valerie Sutton
Arbitrage. Yeah. I'll take one of the ignitions and I'll say, hey, Val, can you take the other one?
Damon Adams
I can Turn a dial. Yeah, that I can do pretty easy.
Hercule Deboddin
I'm going to join Mr. Adam.
Betty Callahan
I kind of see you, and I stop, and I'm like, no, no, I got this.
Hercule Deboddin
While you are focused on the cable, you will not be able to see whatever is behind you. At least let me watch your back.
Betty Callahan
What if it takes you? Then.
Hercule Deboddin
I don't think that would really upset you.
Valerie Sutton
So upset the rest of us. We need you to get out of here. We? You know, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have even seen that thing out there. We need all of us.
Betty Callahan
Oh, no.
Emily Wadsworth
As you keep saying, if he wants.
Betty Callahan
To come, want to be brave.
Hercule Deboddin
Bravery has nothing to do with it. If you die out here, I'll have to come out and plug this in anyway. I'm old. I'm saving myself the trip.
Valerie Sutton
Jeez.
Emily Wadsworth
Be safe, both of you.
Betty Callahan
I swim out and go, would you.
Jasper William Cartwright
Like to, like, tether? Like when you dive down in pairs, like, you tether together. So if someone gets, I think, you know, knocked adrift or something, it's, like, easy for something.
Betty Callahan
Yeah. As. As he kind of says that and saves him the trip. I kind of go up to you.
Jasper William Cartwright
And I tether, and then it's like a big harness.
Betty Callahan
Yeah. And I'm just gonna hold on. I'm gonna use. Move.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay.
Betty Callahan
Oh, no. Actually, I'm going to resist it because this is a cool moment.
Jasper William Cartwright
Mark that resonance.
Betty Callahan
Yeah, that's it. It's a six. And you just. With, like, sheer force, almost just. I just move like a tornado. I pull you with me. Like, it's. It's ridiculous.
Hercule Deboddin
Oh, la la. You're like Master Blaster. She's fantastic.
Jasper William Cartwright
I think you, from the outside, watch as these two figures occasionally being illuminated by this pulsing of this cable. The sort of glow of it catches these two figures. And I think the strangest thing is you see this strong, powerful swimmer. Big, athletic strokes as you're pulling yourself through the water. And then behind, you can't help but feel like when you look at Hercule, it's suddenly like this jilted kind of stumbling man almost seems graceful in the water, like he's suddenly in an element that he is more attuned with, that he's no longer held down by any physical injury or scars. You make your way out. Hooray for buoyancy towards this cable. As you get there, you can see that there is a. It's about this big. It's quite sort of heavy. It takes you a little while to find on the opposite Wall where you would sort of plug it in. And I think that what you can see is that there is essentially a mechanism, like a lever on top that would lock that in place. That appears to be broken.
Valerie Sutton
How's it looking out there?
Betty Callahan
You're right. Something's broken.
Jasper William Cartwright
And now we're going to enter a cinematic mode. Would you like to go high tide or low tide?
Emily Wadsworth
I think low tide.
Hercule Deboddin
I'm going to go low tide.
Betty Callahan
Let's go low tide.
Valerie Sutton
Yeah.
Jasper William Cartwright
You gonna go low tide?
Valerie Sutton
Yeah, I think so.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay.
Emily Wadsworth
So I don't know what's happening.
Jasper William Cartwright
No. So I'm just gonna make a. Can I just double check scars for the two of you? You all perfectly clear? Oh, no.
Hercule Deboddin
And one of tide for me. That was a lot of dice.
Valerie Sutton
I don't think that was necessary. That was a lot of dice being rolled right there.
Jasper William Cartwright
As you. You're there doing sort of scanning out, looking. You, I think, have a moment of clocking and also realizing sort of what's happening. And there's the briefest second where you're no longer looking forward. And as your head kind of pivots back round and you look, you see a similar kind of taut skinned face, but this time behind where sort of the eyes would be, you can see these kind of glassy balls kind of staring out, huge staring out at you. And underneath, a kind of flap of skin, a mouth filled with teeth crashes into you. And you slam against the side of the station and you take three body marks.
Hercule Deboddin
For fuck's sake.
Betty Callahan
Does he take me with him? Cause we're tethered together.
Jasper William Cartwright
You also get pulled.
Betty Callahan
Right, so.
Jasper William Cartwright
And then it's.
Betty Callahan
Ow.
Hercule Deboddin
Okay, so at three body marks, I am like shattered.
Betty Callahan
I am going to go to swim towards McCue and I'm going to pull him and take him back. Essentially.
Hercule Deboddin
We need to get this cable reattached.
Betty Callahan
We need to fix the latch. So I kind of, you know, using whatever energy I can to take him back to the.
Jasper William Cartwright
You want to get him into the.
Betty Callahan
Yeah.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay.
Hercule Deboddin
Someone will have to be outside.
Betty Callahan
Yes, I know. And I'm as. He's as he says that I'm unlatching as well, so I'm just holding him.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, go ahead and give me a move roll.
Betty Callahan
I'm gonna drive twice.
Valerie Sutton
Wow.
Betty Callahan
Five.
Jasper William Cartwright
Five.
Betty Callahan
Yeah.
Jasper William Cartwright
Mixed success. As you are going, you are swimming at a furious pace. And I think now feeling that weight of someone else's life in your arms, regardless of your opinions of that person, it's still a life. And I think there is an element where you are clutching onto that little bit too tight. And you take another body mark as you can, as you're holding him and grasping him, not letting him go. You feel these impossibly strong arms wrapped around you. And just. There's a few more cracks in there as you drop unconscious and take a scar.
Hercule Deboddin
Gently, gently.
Jasper William Cartwright
And what is everyone else doing in this cinematic mode?
Valerie Sutton
The last thing we heard was that it was broken and they needed fixing.
Jasper William Cartwright
I think you probably heard the slam. And then.
Valerie Sutton
Emily, you come on this switch. I'm gonna go out there.
Emily Wadsworth
No. Are you sure?
Valerie Sutton
Well, we have to get the power back on.
Emily Wadsworth
All right.
Valerie Sutton
And I'm gonna look around and see if I can find something that I can maybe use as a replacement lever. And, you know, quick weld on to there to replace the lever. I use my improvise, my jury rig.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, absolutely.
Valerie Sutton
But. And then, yeah, I'm gonna go out there. We gotta fix it.
Jasper William Cartwright
Use a move. And then are you two.
Damon Adams
I mean, we're trying to. We're frantically trying to radio them, but I assume they're a little busy to tell us what's going on out there.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah.
Emily Wadsworth
I was wondering if I could also do a survey check.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, absolutely.
Emily Wadsworth
Or something just for what I might have come across in my research about this place of the observatory.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Emily Wadsworth
All right, I'm gonna take a five.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, take a five. So I think with this, what you find is that there was one thing that kept on coming up with Atlantec was these. Kept on making reference, like holograms and things like that. But it needed a source of water. And I think as you're kind of looking around, connecting things, you notice there are these little kind of projectors that seem to be kind of built into the actual dome itself. And you think that whatever water source was in the center perhaps was what was projected onto that. There might be some either information or something like that that is like a part of this area, should you be able to, like, get it powered back on.
Emily Wadsworth
Awesome, thanks. I'd relay that information.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, so you're heading back in. You're heading out.
Betty Callahan
But as. So if. If I'm.
Valerie Sutton
That's the last thing is.
Betty Callahan
Yeah, if I'm seeing. So the way I kind of do it is I would have brought the herculin. Probably attached him to either someone or something there.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, I mean, you could. Yeah, you can attach it to a metal railing or something on the inside. Yeah, yeah.
Betty Callahan
And seeing you go out, I would then quickly move back out again to join knife in Hand.
Jasper William Cartwright
So you, as this comes back in, you see Hercule kind of sort of somewhat limp maybe sort of starting to come around now sort of be tethered to this thing. The two of you head back out. I'm gonna go ahead and ask everyone to make me their gilded roll to see if you panic.
Valerie Sutton
6, 5, 5. Can we get drive back if we choose the gilded die on this?
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, yeah. Yep, Great success. Six, six. So. Five, five, five, one, one. Okay, so you two burn through another hour of oxygen and Hercule, you begin to panic. The panic condition allows you to do a little bit more in your turn. However, it also means that you automatically go first. Now you are sort of outside of the high tide, low tide, and you will go first and you have some slightly different actions that you can, can do. So every turn, essentially every round, every time everyone goes and you remain panicked, you burn through an hour of oxygen. What you can do is you can take an action. You can actually take two actions now because you're panicked, so you're acting sort of more quickly than perhaps you normally would. You can try to center yourself, which basically means you end your panic. You will pick a role essentially, that associate something that you would try and do to calm yourself, whether it be look at a cherished object, whether it be, you know, try and snap yourself out of it, whatever it is. You can justify any of the rolls, essentially. But if you fail, you'll burn through another hour of oxygen as your breathing gets heavier and heavier and heavier. Or you can choose to take a selfish action. A selfish action could be that you run, you hide, you use an ally as a sort of shield. You shut a door behind you, perhaps locking an ally away. If you do that, you will automatically end the panicked condition. And you also take a brain mark if you have any affection towards anyone that might be affected by your action. But that won't like trigger a control rod or anything like that.
Hercule Deboddin
Awesome. The scar for body, does that actually mean I need to declare what this scar is and its effects?
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Hercule Deboddin
So I took crushing damage and impact. Right. So I'm going to say broken ribs.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yep.
Hercule Deboddin
Can broken ribs further affect oxygen?
Jasper William Cartwright
I think so. I think that seems like a fair trade off.
Hercule Deboddin
That sounds like fun.
Jasper William Cartwright
So that's a good point actually. How much oxygen has everyone got left after what's happened? Four. So four hours?
Betty Callahan
Five.
Jasper William Cartwright
Five hours. Four hours. Four hours.
Damon Adams
I had four, but it's down to three now, isn't it?
Jasper William Cartwright
But yeah, I think you just burnt through one.
Hercule Deboddin
So I just burned through One as well. So that's three. Three plus whatever happens with the panic.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yes. Okay, so we're now back at the top of the round, which means our panicked individual will go first. So if you end this turn while still panicked, you burn through another hour.
Hercule Deboddin
Right.
Jasper William Cartwright
I think as you feel as that crushing weight happened, your eyes open again. And I think there is something about the helmet and almost like the suit itself pressing into you, further restricting your ability to breathe and further to move. And I think that. That the breaths. I think you're doing all the things that you told the doctor to do. You were breathing in for three seconds, out for three seconds, but you can hear the sort of gurgling, cracking almost inside. You can hear your bones and lungs struggling with the strain of just breathing. And I think it makes it almost impossible for you to just calm yourself like you normally might do.
Hercule Deboddin
Right. So I think I know what happens to divers who panic in the black, and usually it ends up costing them and their partner. So I'm going to resist that urge as hard as I can. I will try to stay on radio. For me, fighting panic is about finding purpose. So I put myself to work. I will. I will hold my breath and keeping the helmet top so that the opening is facing down, so any air that is in there is trapped in there. I'm going to unclasp it, release it, and allow water to flood my suit.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Hercule Deboddin
Which also means that I'm going to be watching what is happening outside, essentially trying to provide overwatch.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay. For these two. How about a survey roll, potentially? And I'll say that this can be a centering role as well, because you're essentially, you've picked something that, you know, you're trying to keep yourself busy and using that as a method to calm yourself down.
Emily Wadsworth
Over the radio, you hear. Remember your intuition. Trust your intuition. And I will burn a drive.
Jasper William Cartwright
Love it. So you get an extra die.
Hercule Deboddin
All right. Can I add my own drive?
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, yeah, yeah. As long as it doesn't exceed six. Die in your.
Valerie Sutton
All the die.
Jasper William Cartwright
Six. Six.
Betty Callahan
Oh, God, I just saw one.
Jasper William Cartwright
And I was like. I had the opposite. I saw the six. I was like, oh, thank God.
Hercule Deboddin
Merci.
Jasper William Cartwright
You feel as the water fills into your suit, that pressure on your chest just suddenly starts to alleviate, and it almost feels like you're sinking then into a bath and you feel your heart rate start to slow. You know, now that you have a sort of task of putting the helmet back on and probably having to seal it around your neck in Order to stop the air from flowing out. But you have ended the panic condition. I will also allow who. Either of these two to add an extra die as a part of you kind of keeping a watchful eye on them. You can sort of be giving them some radio messages essentially. Okay, so the remaining four of us, are we high tide or low tide?
Valerie Sutton
High. Right?
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, high. We gotta get this done quick. We have a conflict here because I would also like to go high. So how about we go ahead and make a roll? I'll do it here.
Betty Callahan
Ready?
Jasper William Cartwright
Ready. That's a six for me. Okay. So you move back out into the inky blackness. Who is ahead?
Betty Callahan
I am.
Jasper William Cartwright
You are ahead.
Valerie Sutton
Okay, sure.
Jasper William Cartwright
You move. Do you move? Are you moving kind of quickly? Yeah, yeah.
Betty Callahan
When I say I'm ahead, I mean, like, we're still together.
Jasper William Cartwright
Sure. You, I think, can hear the distance, sort of as if clicking. And the strange thing is, it's like one side, another side above.
Valerie Sutton
Clever girl.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, can you mark two body marks, please? As you feel something puncture your suit, you feel blood start to leak out of the side as water is starting to fill up your suit.
Betty Callahan
Okay.
Jasper William Cartwright
You can essentially do a similar thing where you compartmentalize. However, you are going to lose an arrow of oxygen as your suit is punctured.
Betty Callahan
Okay, cool.
Jasper William Cartwright
I don't even. Again. It's so quick. I don't even think you see any of this happening.
Valerie Sutton
I am focused. I'm trying to get to the connector as quickly as possible.
Betty Callahan
Yeah. As I feel that a surge of adrenaline hits me as I get a drive point back.
Jasper William Cartwright
Love it.
Betty Callahan
On my nerve.
Jasper William Cartwright
Great. That's that we. Which of you would like to act first as you're trying to.
Valerie Sutton
Should I go? Okay. Yeah. I'm going straight.
Jasper William Cartwright
Are you fixing a new kind of. Yeah. Okay, so let's go ahead and. Was it sense or focus? Sorry?
Valerie Sutton
You said sense to me.
Jasper William Cartwright
Sense. Yeah. Cool.
Valerie Sutton
Absolutely. Spending both drives on this because it is my gilded die as well. I'm gonna burn my resistance to reroll that because that was awful.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay.
Valerie Sutton
That is. It's really bad. I mean, there's a success with cost, but it was, you know.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah. Yeah.
Betty Callahan
You can only. You can only now roll your points. You want to spend driving.
Valerie Sutton
That's right. Oh, yeah. Still five.
Jasper William Cartwright
Five.
Valerie Sutton
It's not my gilded die, but it's a five.
Jasper William Cartwright
Okay, so five. Still a success with a.
Valerie Sutton
With a cost.
Jasper William Cartwright
Yeah, with a cost. You act so fast in trying to get this. This sort of thing on, and you come in straight away to sort of jam this thing in and as it happens, you like like the. The like mechanism essentially for locking it in place. Your hand is still on it as you ram it into the side of this thing, turning it on and your hand gets crushed into the mechanism and you have to literally pull it free and you take a body. Scar. Scar.
Betty Callahan
Wow.
Hercule Deboddin
Oh.
Valerie Sutton
Okay.
Betty Callahan
Okay.
Jasper William Cartwright
So as this happens, you see it's connected. You turn, you hear this sound, sort of like thunderous noise as from the Haven Glow observatory and the surrounding buildings. Engines and machines start whirring and clanking into place as slowly, one by one, buildings surrounding Ranbior suddenly light up brilliantly casting light across this otherwise pitch black and strange station. Injured. Very injured. You see now this creature. Now there is a one above you. That sort of sheet of skin seems to have disappeared. There is no sheet of skin on this one. As you can see these giant bulbous fish like eyes kind of turning down to look towards you. And that is where we're going to end this episode. Precious. So mean. Oh, wow, wow, wow. That was absolutely amazing. Thank you so much to my incredible players.
Emily Wadsworth
There's so much.
Jasper William Cartwright
We are gonna go do a. Well, I think we should probably do a little cool down after that. What do you think?
Valerie Sutton
We did a little cool down.
Jasper William Cartwright
I think that'd be nice. Thank you all so much for watching this episode. Thank you to my cast, thank you to the crew. You've all been absolutely incredible and I'm just checking my notes. It says here, is it Thursday yet? We've reached the epic conclusion of this episode. If you're enjoying this expedition so far, consider leaving a review in your podcasting platform of choice. We are always recruiting brave new explorers willing to traverse these dangerous waters and your review might bring them our way. Thanks for checking back on this voyage and we'll see you soon this upcoming Thursday as we get ready for the next episode of Thresher. Thresher was produced by twelve Sided Studios and Paragon Pictures for critical role. Original world created by Jacqueline Emerson and Matthew Linton. Adapted and home brewed for gameplay by Jasper William Cartwright. Produced by Sam St. John Critical role producer Kirby Winslow Critical role executive producers Ben Vanderfleet and Annie Kruger 12 sided executive producers Jess Jewell and Chad Pytel Starring Abubakar Salim as Damon Adams Jacqueline Emerson as Emily Wadsworth Jane Douglas as Valerie Sutton Mark Mara Humes as Betty Callahan Noshir Della as Hercule Deboddin Ashley Johnson as Kimmy Ace Morgan Laura Bailey Dr. Evatt Doran Travis Willingham, Marisha Ray and Sam Riegel were all radio voices, multicam Director John Certavan, 3D artist Owen Tunston, Post audio Oliver Moore and production designer Gemma Alexander.
Valerie Sutton
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Jasper William Cartwright
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Valerie Sutton
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Critical Role Podcast Summary
Podcast Information:
The episode kicks off with Jasper William Cartwright, the Game Master, welcoming listeners back to the ongoing underwater miniseries, Thresher. He sets the stage for Part 2, urging those who missed Part 1 to catch up before diving into the current adventure.
Jasper William Cartwright [00:52]: "Greetings again, crew. It's game master Jasper William Cartwright and you're listening to part two of this episode of Thresher."
The crew is tasked with exploring the abandoned Ranbior Station, nestled in the ocean's dark abyss, where ancient and mysterious sea creatures lurk.
As the Thresher crew approaches the station, tension builds. Hercule Deboddin expresses concerns about splitting the team amidst the unknown dangers they might face.
Hercule Deboddin [04:00]: "I don't like the idea of splitting us up, especially when there are so many unknowns down here."
The team debates how to proceed, weighing safety against the mission's demands. Jasper introduces a complex door mechanism requiring precise actions to avoid catastrophic water pressure.
Jasper William Cartwright [04:28]: "So I think that you can. So you can see just by looking at the sort of mechanics of this door..."
After successfully navigating the door's sequence, the crew finds themselves in a pitch-black, water-filled chamber illuminated occasionally by bioluminescent creatures.
The calm is shattered when Betty Callahan senses a large paw on her shoulder. She draws her hunter's knife, preparing to confront the unseen threat.
Betty Callahan [12:23]: "It is right behind you."
Despite her bravery, the creature remains faceless and non-responsive, heightening the eerie atmosphere.
Jasper innovates the gameplay by introducing a "cinematic mode," allowing for a more dynamic and turn-based sequence of actions. The crew must decide between "high tide" or "low tide" actions, influencing the order of their moves.
Jasper William Cartwright [15:51]: "That's a six. Okay, so this, we're gonna introduce another mechanic that I've made for this. So we have now what's called a cinematic mode."
Amidst flickering lights and rising tension, the crew engages with a monstrous entity. Betty's knife strikes reveal a human skull beneath the creature's pale blue skin, intensifying the mystery.
Betty Callahan [19:06]: "I guess the knife is just gonna turn, and as it turns, I'm gonna lever it up and almost go to, like, slice the bright. The head in half."
As they attempt to progress, communication issues and sudden attacks lead to Damon Adams disappearing without a trace, raising alarms about the lurking dangers.
Jasper William Cartwright [48:02]: "What?"
The situation deteriorates as the crew faces unexpected malfunctions and aggressive confrontations. Betty is forcefully pulled by an unseen entity, resulting in injuries and heightened urgency to restore power to the station.
Jasper William Cartwright [58:09]: "I think you, from the outside, watch as these two figures occasionally being illuminated by this pulsing of this cable."
With oxygen supplies dwindling and panic setting in, the crew employs strategic decisions to survive. Hercule Deboddin takes a critical action to help Valerie Sutton resist panic, showcasing his commitment to the team's survival.
Hercule Deboddin [45:15]: "Val, I've seen a lot of very scary things down here, and I've lost many good friends. But nothing is going to happen to you. You are in good hands."
As the episode nears its climax, the crew grapples with physical injuries, mental strain, and the ever-present threats of the deep ocean. The introduction of new mechanics like "board marks" and "tide marks" adds layers to their survival challenges.
Jasper William Cartwright [73:35]: "So as this happens, you see it's connected. You turn, you hear this sound, sort of like a thunderous noise as from the Haven Glow observatory and the surrounding buildings."
The episode concludes on a suspenseful note with the observatory powering up and a formidable creature looming over the now-lit station. The crew is left battered but determined, setting the stage for the next episode.
Jasper William Cartwright [75:36]: "As you turn, you hear this sound, sort of like a thunderous noise as from the Haven Glow observatory and the surrounding buildings."
Jasper William Cartwright [04:28]: "So essentially, you'll make a roll just to make sure that that doesn't get out of sequence."
Betty Callahan [12:23]: "It is right behind you."
Hercule Deboddin [45:15]: "Val, I've seen a lot of very scary things down here, and I've lost many good friends. But nothing is going to happen to you."
Jasper William Cartwright [58:09]: "I think you, from the outside, watch as these two figures occasionally being illuminated by this pulsing of this cable."
Innovative Gameplay Mechanics: Introduction of "cinematic mode" adds depth and strategy to the roleplaying experience, allowing players to influence action sequences meaningfully.
Character Development: The interactions, especially Hercule's support for Valerie, highlight the characters' growth and the team's dynamics under pressure.
Suspense and Tension: The episode masterfully builds suspense through unexpected threats, injuries, and the looming mysteries of the Ranbior Station.
Engaging Storytelling: Jasper's vivid descriptions transport listeners into the treacherous underwater world, making the adventure immersive and gripping.
Stay tuned for Episode 2 of Thresher: 2-Part Underwater Epic, where the crew faces new challenges and uncovers deeper secrets of the oceanic abyss.