Happy May 1st! Whether you’re celebrating International Workers Day, May Day, or just a nice day in spring, I hope it’s a day you remember. Aggie wades into the crowd. Milo needs a scoop. Val puts the dogs on a schedule.
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Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Milo Lane), Co-Producer, Editor, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Aggie O’Hare), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Co-Host (Val Vesuvio), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is a collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast, powered by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. That means a group of friends create a story together, chapter by chapter, that takes us beyond the tabletop to parts unknown. In the first campaign, we explored fantasy adventure, intrigue, magic, and drama. In the newest story, we tackle science, superpowers, a better future, and the responsibility to help others.
Every month, we sit down for the Afterparty, where we break down our game and answer your questions about how to play D&D and other roleplaying games at home. We also have segments at the beginning of each campaign to teach people how to play the game themselves. It’s a party, and you’re invited! Find out more at jointhepartypod.com.
Transcript
Amanda: Last time on Join the Party...
Eric: We wrap up the Join the Channel arc with some new clarity. Milo has a heart to heart with Dr. Morrow about her relationship with his dad on and off her relationship to the ghost in the museum. Incredibly sorry. And her relationship to scientific experiments, casual but done on mountain lobsters that may or may not have made them incredibly large. Aggie met up with Danny in New York City, understanding a little bit more how Danny's painting powers work. And if he knew the mob was trafficking his work and how easy it is to make him cry. And Val declared themselves the protector of Little Italy as Julia took a level of flame sorcerer on her character sheet. New arc, new me, same podcast. Let's get the party started.
[Theme music]
Eric: We have three different panels of the outside of your three different homes, as you three are waking up for the day here on May 1st, this is the end of spring. So we have the outside of Val's Little Italy apartment. We have the outside of Aggie's Historic Lake Town bungalow, and we have the outside of the Companyton apartment that Milo lives in. So it's like Val is on top and then Aggie and then Milo. And then first we're going to zoom in on Milo. So Milo, before you started with this, like Devo-80's-
[Brandon yawns loudly]
Brandon: Was that good, Eric?
Eric: That was good - was that personally for you? Milo wanted to burst in before gave of exposition?
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Milo is like oh no, I want to take this take early. This one's for me.
Brandon: It is his new late spring attitude. He just rushes in.
Eric: Right. So before we started with this like 80s Devo sort of song, if I remember correctly Milo has your beginning song changed at all?
Brandon: Yeah, it's like Kifah fictional Devo release, not their sophomore album, but like their third album.
[Ambient 80's synth music]
Brandon: And it's very sort of like Cure-esque where it's like slower and more like ambient but also like has that still like 80s vibe to it. You know?
Eric: It's like a different person is playing the synthesizer. Yeah. Like the synthesizer is still there, but it's a totally different person. I love that. That's great. So yeah, I think that we have this 80s Cure like as we zoom in Milo, it's nine o'clock. Has Milo missed his alarm once again?
Brandon: What day is it.
Eric: This is Friday so - oh because it's me first. Thank you. This is such a good question because -
Brandon: I practiced so hard. I wrote it down on my notes and everything.
Eric: So it is Friday but it is May 1st and this is May Day and also International Workers Day. In certain places they celebrate the coming of spring and other places it's time for workers to demonstrate. So in Lake Town City and in the government of Lake Town City, people do have the day off. So Milo you do have the day off from MMFFC. But, you know, like the world doesn't like the stock market. Still, it's not a bank holiday. Like the stocks are still going up, up, up. It's a roller coaster that only goes up then.
Brandon: Yeah, I think because Milo has the day off, I think that he is still sleeping.
Eric: Wonderful Milo make it constitutional for me.
[Amanda gasps]
[Dice rolls]
Brandon: 19 +2 for 21!
Eric: Nice.
Brandon: He's sleepin' hard.
Eric: Do you want to sleep soundly or do you want to be not like deep in the REM?
Brandon: I want to sleep so good Eric just like so good you know.
Eric: Nice. Your REM is going so well, your eyes are rapidly moving behind your eyelids and you don't hear anything outside like you're getting used to city life and like living in this apartment so you can sleep through anything as they say in the heights with the elevated train goes by your window every day, but I don't care no more. And then she does a lot of work with her hands and that's when you get woken up by Tuna landing them directly on your face.
Brandon (as Milo): [Yawning turning into a grunt] OW- hold AH- Tuna.
[Music fades out]
Eric (as Tuna): Mmm you didn't wake up from all the things that are happening outside. So I felt like I had to do it. Meow!
Eric: And then Tuna hops off.
Brandon (as Milo): What is happening outside? Is it just a bird again?
Eric (as Tuna): I mean, I thought it was bird.
Eric: And that's when you hear people outside going,
Eric (as Crowd): Hey hey! Ho ho! Thornhill has got to go! Hey hey! Ho ho! Thornhill has got to go!
Eric: And you look outside and there is a there are a bunch of people walking by your apartment. There seems to be some sort of demonstration happening outside. You see, the people are wearing like Thornhill coffee aprons. Some other people are holding Thornhill coffee cups. They've painted and design. People are holding up signs. And you also hear
Eric (as Crowd): What we want? Higher wages! When do we want it?! Meow!
Julia: Meow?
Brandon: Do I hear meow? Or is that just because Tuna is telling me this?
Eric: Tuna said meow while they said now. So you heard meow.
Julia: That makes sense.
Eric: So, yeah, the people are walking outside, but you've I you don't know how long this has been happening. You're just hearing the chants outside.
Brandon: I go over to the window and stick my head out and look down and I say,
Brandon (as Milo): Yeah!! Yeah!! Support!!
Eric: Other people in your building are leading outside and banging pots, somewhat like two floors above you like looks down is like,
Eric (as Milo's neighbor): Oh, nice, Milo cool.
Brandon: And then because Milo is stuck in a capitalist society that he has very little introspection about, he goes into his kitchen and opens a bag of Thornhill coffee and makes a cup of coffee.
[Julia laughs]
Eric: Yeah. 100 hundred percent. And he checks his Slack for sure. When you go to open up your coffee, do you have like one of those little scooper.
Brandon: Of course.
Eric: Yeah. And you just can't find it. Usually you you have it in your drawer. Are you Eric in the coffee or you put it somewhere you just can't find it.
Brandon (as Milo): Tuna.
Eric (as Tuna): Mmmm what?
Brandon (as Milo): Where's the scoop?
Eric (as Tuna): Mmmrow. I'll never tell.
Brandon: Doop di doop di doop di doop di doop. What is a harmless cantrip I could cast on Tuna.
[Eric and Amanda laughing]
Brandon: This maybe a little bit of overkill, but I'm going to go ahead and cast Geshe on Tuna.
Julia: That's like a fifth level spell. What are you doing?
Brandon: Which means I place a magical command on a creature I see within range, forcing it to carry out some service or action, which I'm going to go make Tuna, get my scoop back.
Eric: And it's for like a month, right?
Julia: It's like 30 days.
Amanda: Well, Julia sure hope we don't need any 5th level spell slots.
Julia: Today yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. That's great. Brandon roll. Why don't you roll your spirit surge, while I figure out or what kind of stuff do I have to do.
Brandon: I got a 6 so no dice there.
Eric: Great.
Brandon: And you must succeed with some saving throw against 17.
Eric: Yeah. Give me the Tuna stuff.
Brandon: Tuna is for wisdom is +1.
Eric: Well Tuna is a is a very wise ghost. So I'm going to give-
Brandon: I disagree!
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I'm going to give you a +3 because they lived multiple lives. Alright. I rolled, I rolled a natural 2.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: So yeah. You use your fifth level spell on your cat and like Tuna stay is both straight and looks at you and says
Eric (as Tuna): [In a monotone voice] the coffee scoop is on top of the fridge.
Brandon (as Milo): Can you get it for me, Tuna, please?
Eric: Yeah. For anything related to the coffee scoop Tuna will do for you. Yeah. So Tuna like very rigidly jumps up on top of the fridge and drops it in your lap and then sits there is like
Eric (as Tuna): I will only do coffee scoop related things.
Brandon (as Milo): Thank you Tuna.
Brandon: And with a swish of my hands I end the spell early by using an action to dismiss.
Eric: Adorable.
Eric (as Tuna): Well good thing you're never going to find your keys!
Eric: And then Tuna runs away.
[Everyone laughing]
Amanda: Eric, do you consider going on tour as just Tuna. I think you should spin this off.
Eric: Alright. We're going to go now. We're going to cut away. We're going to cut away. We'll deal with you finding your keys later. But you also don't know where your keys are. That is canonical. Alright. We're going to go with Aggie. So Aggie, this is also nine o'clock. What are you doing?
Amanda: I think I've completed my morning rounds of checking that everything is intact at the museum and just one quick circuit around the lake. And so I've returned home to have coffee. I got my newspaper at the newsstand, as usual. I had some had some top bantz with my friend over there. Yeah. And I think I'm at home listening to some music, having my breakfast petting Sushi and just reading the local paper.
Eric: Nice. So before your song was like a Creedence Clearwater Revival, Crosby, Stills, Nash, sort of classic rock song. Has yours changed at all?
Amanda: It sure has Eric because I found out that my sister, Quinn's friend Taylor does music and it's really good!
[Everyone laughing]
Amanda: Aggie's making her way song by song from Red forward and she's currently on Folklore. And it's like, wow, Taylor's really good at music!
[Chill guitar music fades in]
Eric: I should tell Taylor this, does she know, she's so talented?
Brandon: And then a stock version of Red plays behind you.
Eric: It's wonderful.
Amanda: Aggie has definitely been texting Taylor reactions as she goes through like a mom would of like watching your YouTube videos or listening to your podcast. And they are almost all supportive, kind of like, you know, I really like pop direction. It's just it's just you just doing great. You're doing great.
Eric: This Bon Iver fella sounds like a heartbreaker.
Amanda: Folklore is a little sad, but given the context, I get it.
Eric: So you're jamming out to Folklore, your pet and Sushi and you get a phone call from an unlisted number.
Amanda: Alright. Pick up.
Eric: There's a lot of wind in the background and like there's some clanging of like plates and stuff. But you hear a voice that is unmistakable to you because you heard it your entire life.
[Music fades out]
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): [Muffled through the call] Margaret, Margaret, can you hear me? It's your mom!
Amanda (as Aggie): Yes, Mom. Are you on a mountain again?
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): Yeah. How'd you know?
Amanda (as Aggie): I just remembered from the last time.
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): Oh, okay. That's fair. How are you. It's been so long. This is the first time your dad and I got into got service in a long time. You got to be on the top of a mountain to get service here. Did you know that, honey?
Amanda (as Aggie): No. It makes sense with satellites, though. Nothing nothing changing. You know, for me, I saw Danny saw Quinn recently. They're doing great.
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): Oh, how are Danny and Quinn and I haven't talked to them.
Amanda (as Aggie): They're good. You know, the same.
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): Oh okay. Does Quinn - Quinn have friends. I haven't heard but I know she didn't have any friends before.
Brandon: Awww.
Amanda (as Aggie): We have talked about this. Mom. I don't want to, I don't want to report on my siblings to you. So you know you should, you should reach out to them. I bet they'd love to hear from you.
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): Oh I'm only after I know this isn't even my phone. It's someone who works at the top of the mountain.
Amanda (as Aggie): Well, if you want, I can tell everybody you said hi.
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): Don't call me, just don't call me here.
Amanda (as Aggie): How is your email working?
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): What will Hotmail. Yeah. Oh, no Hotmail. I heard Hotmail bad. You should have told me.
Amanda (as Aggie): Do you have a new email address?
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): No. Messaged me on Facebook. That's how I get those all the time. You want play words with friends?
Amanda (as Aggie): No, Mom. Thank you, though, how's dad?
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): I'm really good at it. I play with it with Ryan all the time. So I thought that you would if you wanted to play.
Amanda (as Aggie): Hi, Dad.
Amanda (as Aggie's Dad): Oh how's it goin? Go and talk to your mother.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric (as Aggie's Dad): I'm going for a bike ride. I can't stay.
Amanda (as Aggie): You guys so so classic.
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): Oh Margaret, listen, I was thinking of moving back to Lake Town City. Are there any you know, I heard of the the Ropers are thinking of moving down to Boca. I was going to take their house. Would you like that? I was thinking of doing it.
Amanda (as Aggie): This is a very big conversation for us to be having while you're on the mountain, Mom.
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): So I sorry. I thought you would be happy for me. I mean, you don't want your parents living with you. I know we've been gone for so long, but you know what?
Amanda (as Aggie): That I just I guess I guess I worry that you wouldn't have the you know, the personal growth and adventures that you and dad were on if you were if you were back here. And like my direct neighbor, you know? I mean, we can have both, but if you don't want us to do it, we won't do it.
Amanda (as Aggie): Listen-
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): I was thinking we were asking you and then if you could ask the rest of your siblings, that would be great to tell them what? Tell us what they said, because I don't know if this is running out of batteries. I can't. What is it, Margaret? Are you still there?
Amanda (as Aggie): Yes. Yeah, I'm here. Listen, Mom, it's not my choice if you buy a house. I'm just saying it might make things a little bit different-
Eric (as Aggie's Mom): Okay, we're probably going to do it, but we might not. We have to see how the money is doing. Okay, talk to all of your siblings. Okay, bye.
Eric: Click.
Julia: I think they had a little bit of a panic attack listening to that conversation.
Eric: Don't worry, I asked Amanda if I could do this.
Amanda: Yeah yeah. Aggie is frozen there in the same position with the phone like six inches away from her ear for a good like 10, 11 seconds and then says
Amanda (as Aggie): Bye.
Eric: Alright, so we're going to go over to the panel with Val. Val, we had just like some loud guitars for you before. Did you feel like changing that at all? A little bit. Throw in some tarantella on it on top, maybe?
Julia: No, I feel like the vibe is more like Paramore now.
[Paramore-esque song fades in]
Eric: Sure.
Julia: Like, ain't it fun and still into you. I feel like it's the the general vibe that I'm going for.
Brandon: And then a stock version of Still Into You plays behind.
Eric: Is this Val new thing that before you beat someone off, you give them a business card and says, hi, I'm Vulcani, I'm in the misery business, then you fucking punch them in the gut.
Julia: No, no, they don't get that luxury. They don't get to know what's coming.
Eric: Listen, a bunch of people thought that was funny, so I just know it is a good one. The listeners all thought that was funny.
Brandon: If you thought that was funny, text 555-
Julia: 5555!
Eric: And vote one for Funny Vote two for Clay Aiken -
Julia: Oof.
Eric: This is nine o'clock. Hitomi has slept over. And what are you two doing?
Julia: Well, it's Friday, which means that it's dog walking day and dog's got to get walked. Even if it is National Workers Day.
Eric: That's only fair.
Julia: So I think Val is kind of like rolled out of their bed, give Hitomi like a little kiss on the forehead before they go to, like, get dressed and stuff like that.
Amanda: CUTE!
Julia: I imagine Hitomi is like a late sleeper for some reason for sure. So I think Val just like leaves a little note, like,
Julia (as Val): I got to go walk the dogs. I'll be back later.
Eric: Totally fair. I think that you're almost out the door in my head, you have a key rack that's like two hundred and fifty dollars from Williams-Sonoma that your dad sent you that has like your keys and leashes and your gauntlets on them or something like that.
Julia: Well, that would imply that Hitomi knows that Val is
Eric: You tell Hitomi like, no, those are driving gloves. Don't worry about it.
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: Maybe a little like entryway bench that the seat folds up and that's where the Vulcani starts.
Julia: Okay I like that.
Eric: Twelve hundred dollars from CB2.
Julia: It's got like a mailbox on it that Val never puts mail in and just puts the puts the gauntlets in instead.
Eric: That's great. Yeah. I think you're about to leave and you see that as you turn around to say like bye to the Hitomi's usually sleeping form, Hitomi is sitting up and has like - Hitomi to me has like incredible bedhead because she I feel like she has a lot of hair, but she tosses in the night and it's like really, really rumpled. So it's like mounds when she wakes up and Hitomi has very long legs but her short torso. So when she's sitting she looks much smaller than she is with her like six foot bird bones as you know her. So she looks up and so like
[Music fades out]
Eric (as Hitomi): Oh hey Val, do you have a second?
Julia (as Val): Yeah, totally. The dogs don't have much of a schedule. They're dogs. They don't have a concept of time.
[Brandon and Amanda laughing]
Eric (as Hitomi): Oh yeah. No, for sure. Hey, I like, I like sleep over here like two or three times a week. Do you think. Well do you think it would be easier if moved in.
[Brandon and Amanda gasp]
Julia (as Val): Uh yes, it would be easier if you moved in.
Eric (as Hitomi): I mean, no, I mean, like, listen, I oh, I shouldn't have asked you right in the beginning. And you said uhh, so like, if you need to think about it or something, like, I just don't want like, we don't I don't know if -
Julia (as Val): I'm just saying this is a very small apartment and you are very tall and have beautiful bird bones. Maybe we can look for a place that will be both of ours instead of just moving into my studio apartment that is full of stuff.
Eric (as Hitomi): No, I mean, like no, it's fine. I mean, if you don't want to do it inside of it, it's not that big of a deal.
Julia (as Val): I mean, we don't have an alternative to the thing that we are discussing.
Eric (as Hitomi): No, listen, it's fucking I shouldn't have asked you,
Julia (as Val): It is an extremely cute thing that you asked me the first thing in the morning.
Eric (as Hitomi): No, I shouldn't have asked you. I know you said and you're probably hiding it and I shouldn't have asked you and you know it. Just forget about it. I forget about it. There's not enough space in here for my shoes. So I don't. This was dumb. I shouldn't. We're not. No, we're not. No, never mind. I need I need -
Julia (as Val): Okay on.
Eric (as Hitomi): Okay,
Julia (as Val): Let's let's have a discussion about this because I have a reasonable human being and this is not the weirdest thing anyone has ever asked me before. Like I said, this is a small place if you want to entertain the idea of moving in together, I am all for that. But we probably shouldn't move into here, which is above a place I got fired from and also is like 400 square feet.
Eric (as Hitomi): Okay, Julia make a persuasion roll.
Julia: Cool.
Eric (as Hitomi): Here's the thing about your wonderful girlfriend who told me she is incredibly nervous about this and put it in her own head that regardless of what you would have said, she is kind of set herself up for this. So I'll say that the DC is quite high.
Julia: Okay, I'm probably not going to get it. It's fine.
[Dice rolls]
Julia: It's a dirty 20, which is pretty good.
Eric: No, I think that that's the that's the thing. Yeah. I think that what you're saying is reasonable and nice, but I think that right now, listen, Val doesn't lose 40 hit points on this.
Julia: Val is emotionally devastated though.
Eric: Yeah, she's just like,
Eric (as Hitomi): You know what, I know I shouldn't let me think of some stuff first and maybe I can look up some stuff on. You're right. I guess I'll look up some stuff on StreetEasy and or whatever. And yeah, we shouldn't live here, though. That was that was. We'll talk about it later.
Julia (as Val): You know, you also just woke up from sleep. So maybe, you know, we didn't we didn't all think things through right away, but. I like it. I like the idea of it.
Eric (as Hitomi): Okay, cool. Go, go, I know. Maybe the dogs do have a sense of timing, you have to go and I'm making you late for that.
Julia (as Val): Okay,
Eric (as Hitomi): Maybe they have watches like the fancy ones.
Julia (as Val): You know what I think Glitzy and Glizzy actually do have watches. I think that Mitzy actually bought them smart watches so that she could, like, track where they were going.
Eric (as Hitomi): Do the steps, count twice as much because they have more legs?
Julia (as Val): That's a great question. I'm going to think about that.
Eric (as Hitomi): Alright. Bye.
Eric: And then she falls back asleep.
Julia (as Val): Okay. I love you. Alright.
Amanda: A nervous. Exhausted. Narcolepsy.
Eric: Yeah. She's so tired. You like you close the door and then she's immediately just like, womp, is asleep.
Julia: Adorable.
Eric: Wonderful. That was all of your mornings. But I would love to set up what the three of you do for the rest of the day because Dr. Morrow asked you all for a favor yesterday. Dr. Morrow got you all in the conference room again. And she says
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): The wonderful thing about having a superhero team in which you are so love wonderfully involved with is that they can help you with things that are more complicated with a super power capacity. And I just want to tell you all more things, because I feel like giving you all more information would help figure out, yeah, it's getting a little weird. Like remember that time. I don't know if you all remember, but remember that time Val got attacked by a bunch of drones that was wild.
Julia (as Val): That was not fun personally for me.
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): No, I would say I would say not.
Julia (as Val): I thought he was a cameraman. And then he started weirdly threatening me and then he ended up being Guttenburg, fucking weird.
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): In the immortal world of Val Vesuvio, fucking weird indeed.
Julia (as Val): Fuckin weird.
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): Okay, so I would look, you know, this is like half Charlie's Angels and half I need you to do me a favor in a sitcom here. Can you at you all help me out with something? I would really appreciate it.
Brandon (as Milo): As long as it doesn't involve math. I'm I'm your man.
Julia (as Val): Don't you work at a science museum? Don't you have to do math?
Brandon (as Milo): I don't work at a math museum.
Julia (as Val): Math isn't part of science?
Brandon (as Milo): It is. But I don't do the science. I talk about the science.
Julia (as Val): Okay,
Eric: Okay, so here's what happens. Dr. Morrow saw that a private collector has gotten their hands on some old MicroTech from over the years and they decided to put it out as some sort of art exhibit they rented like a warehouse in Company Ten and like they're going to put it out like as an art exhibit. And Dr. Morrow is like
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): I told them so many times that these things could be dangerous, but they're like, no, it's art. It's for the people, man. And listen, I don't know if that's what they actually sounded like to me. That's what they sounded like. And I can't stop it because it's a private it's a private thing. So I would really love it if if the three of you could look at it, see what's going on there, look into it. I feel like there's dangerous things there. And also maybe somebody - somebody might want it? It's someone may well try to steal those things because they're they're mine. And I don't know how they got their hands on it. So, yeah, I would love it if if you went out there in uniform and would I would check it out for me. That would be it would be incredibly helpful.
Julia (as Val): Hey, Aggie, you probably know better than me, but like when they if it's like an art exhibit, don't they need like a permit or something to open that?
Amanda (as Aggie): I can definitely check. But I do know that in the sort of like revitalization art district, they are a little bit more lax about, you know, it can just be zoned as like a multifunction space. And then they don't serve alcohol. They can kind of do whatever. But I can definitely check. Also. I mean, do you want me to call Emily? Should someone else call Emily? Because this is definitely smell like an Emily project.
Julia (as Val): Why we got to call Emily? Can we can we check it out first? And then if it smells like Emily so to speak, we could do a quick sniff check, see if it's an Emily Slaughter original and then we go?
Amanda (as Aggie): It was more that it was more the collecting stuff. And Warehouse just really reminded me, you know.
Julia (as Val): You know what? That makes sense. I forgot that she likes collecting things. She's a weird eBay person like Milo over here.
Brandon (as Milo): What what what is your deal today, Val? I'm going to sell your results on eBay and make nothing because they're bad. Got 'em.
Julia (as Val): You totally got me there, but that was what we're even now January hops by holding a cup of coffee and says
Eric (as January): You should buy now a better joke!
Eric: And then hops away.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Dr. Morrow says,
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): I don't want to keep you from looking into anything, of course, but I do know who is putting it on. His name is Byron Zorn, one of the cool new art of various. I don't know how these people get their the Internets. I don't know? Well, people say this and I say how? And they say the Internet. And then I say, but have the Internet is more of a series of wires and a state. And they say, oh, you know, and they walk away. And I hate that.
Eric: So Byron Zorn, yeah. He's like a someone who just gets randomly rich on the Internet in that way. In my head, he's cast as. Do you any of you know who Cam Newton is? An NFL quarterback now. He's very talented, big dude, like six foot. But the thing is that he has like a really strong fashion sense and he wears wild shit like out and about. And also during his NFL like pressors. There's this one image that I have. He's wearing like a matching floral print shirt and shorts and a hat and glasses at Coachella from a few years ago, an NFL Twitter roasted him because, you know, a bunch of NFL pros on Twitter is going to roast someone who has decent fashion sense. He has really it's really wild. That's like the kind of person he is. He's a black man with like a No 1. One shaved head, but like has very big statement, hats, glasses and wears incredible prints.
Julia: Wow. I love this outfit.
Eric: The photo Dr. Morrow shows you is that with, like, statement glasses is like one of those like big black hats with the big wide rim that you might see walking around all over L.A. And she says,
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): So this is like to the passage of time, technology, art, something something I don't know. Can you just check it out? It opens at noon. It goes till 10:00. I, I don't know. I think something I having this just out as an art exhibit is asking for trouble. And I would love it if you all just went over there.
Brandon (as Milo): Do you think, like, it's my day off? I mean, do you think it'd be useful to like apply as it a dose it and get on the inside? Or do you think it's probably better to to to wear my uniform?
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): Hmmm. No, I think if it's already a private event, it's probably already set up, I tried to collaborate, I tried to be a part of this. And I think it's going forward as it is and it's happening tomorrow. So whatever it is they're putting together, this is more like a look at OOO science over time. It's also Art's future.
Amanda (as Aggie): No it sounds like a cool exhibit. I'm just a little bit worried about containing anything that might be still dangerous. Is there any kind of like containment device or scanner that we should be using to to suss out how dangerous or active any of them could be?
Brandon: Milo points to his brain.
Amanda (as Aggie): Milo you are on fire today.
Eric: Dr. Morrow doesn't know what it is. There's a private things. You can't do anything about it. So she just wants you all to check it out. Dr. Morrow saying this is a favor to me. Just do I don't know. I don't know really know what to do. Like, you don't have to shut it down, just like
Amanda: Check it out.
Eric: Check it out.
Julia: How did these pieces get on the market?
Eric: Dr. Morrow says.
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): You know, sometimes when people get fired, they walk out with it, sometimes, I guess their soul, they were sold in 1985 and I don't know where they go. I have made some things. It's it happens around.
Eric: If you go on YouTube, there is a clip from Antiques Roadshow where like you think it's like a bunch of mason jars but it actually is holding a bunch of like deadly liquid inside. And she's like NONE OF THOSE ARE MINE!
Julia (as Val): That's - alright, I'm not going to judge the actions of the past doctor.
Brandon (as Milo): Dr. Morrow, this is why you need to donate all your artifacts to the museum.
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): And I started that. But it was 1986 that I wanted and I wanted to go on the set of Miami Vice.
Amanda (as Aggie): Should have hired Dez as a toddler is what I'm getting out of this.
Eric: Dez walks by holding a cup of coffee and says,
Eric (as Dez): Yeah, I was an awesome toddler.
Eric: And walks away.
Brandon (as Milo): Yeah, I mean, I'm down. Yes, I want to go and see some art?
Julia (as Val): Yeah.
Amanda (as Aggie): Yeah. No, I'm, I'm down. I kind of want to see it.
Eric: Okay wonderful! So we're back into the actual day. We're back on May 1st. It's late morning now. So I'm going to open this up to you. Whatever time you want to go over there, just let me know and then we can figure out, like the vague times and all this stuff depending on your choices.
Julia: So it's open from 12 to 10, you said?
Eric: Yes, it opens at 12:00 to the public.
Julia: My instinct is like, let's go at night. But I don't want it to be like, yeah, at one o'clock someone turns on the doomsday device and we didn't get there in time. You know?
Brandon: What if we go over there during, like, load in?
Amanda: Yeah, I think we should go there like an hour early and people will be setting up and then we can be like, oh, hey, look, we didn't want to cause a disturbance or the actual event, but we let's just like take a look just act chill.
Brandon: Yeah. Like pull the VIP card you mean?
Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Mhm!
Eric: That sounds good.
[Transition note]
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda. I recently switched out all of my sweaters and fleecy leggings for my shorts and sundresses and tank tops, and I realized that there is something very sweet about kind of putting those unseasonal clothes away for the summer or winter, whichever it might be. I'm like, good bye, sweet friend. You are laundered you are folded, I'm putting you in this little case and nothing's going to get to you. And when the weather turns cold again, you will be there with open arms waiting to keep me warm. Welcome to the Midroll. You forgot you had that button up. It's so good.
First and foremost, thank you and welcome to several beautiful people who joined our Patreon last week: Brooke and Dustin, and to Alek, who upped their pledge! We are so grateful to the three of you and everyone who makes it a priority each month to support creators, particularly when that creator is us, but not exclusively. We couldn't keep making the show without your support. So thank you very much. And I hope you've been enjoying the NPC playlists that Eric has been publishing just four last week. They're all incredibly good. People are using spoiler tags in the discord to talk about the the different tracks and it is just the most delightful thing. So if you want to check out those, as well as all of the bonus content, even publishing for the last year plus of campaign two and the four years that we've had of this show, in total, all the campaign, one bonus stuff as well is waiting for you at Patreon dot com to join the party pod pledge. As little as five bucks at Patreon dot com slash join the party pod.
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[Transition note]
[Ambient warehouse noises]
Eric: So, yeah, you want to head over there like you three will meet there at 11?
Amanda: I think, yeah!
Eric: I think that works.
Julia: The caterers are setting up.
Eric: Yeah, right.
Brandon (as Milo): Oh, my God mini sliders!
Julia (as Val): Milo. No. Stay on task.
Amanda (as Aggie): No, it's all frozen. They're still frozen!
Eric: I think this isn't even imagined. I didn't even say there were caterers. This is what could happen if there were caterers. So, yeah, you go over there and you see that there's a catering truck.
[Everyone laughs]
Amanda: Fuck yeah.
Eric: Yeah, they're unloading a bunch of like really small, like Fritz salads and like really high end pigs in a blanket.
Brandon: Like gold leaf on them.
Julia: Like handmade sausages and flaky pastry.
Amanda: They call it like puff pastry and aioli instead of bun and ketchup.
[Eric and Brandon laughing]
Eric: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So you're at a warehouse in Company Town, Milo this is actually only a few blocks away from your apartment.
Brandon: Oh, dope. I can sleep in.
Eric: Yes. You can spend a full hour and a half looking for your keys. And Tuna does not tell you where they are. It is like incredibly bare inside you. Have you ever been into, like, one of those gallery spaces when there isn't anything in there and it's just like white and that's it? It's kind of like that. Someone's taken a warehouse, maybe used to like can pickles or something, and then just like ripped out all the stuff and painted everything white with white surfaces. But now there's like a few different stools everywhere and little presenting things. As you peek in through the the glass doors, you see that there's some, like, random objects just assembled in there. You also see that there is a small group of like five people being led around by a very tall black man with a statement hat on the the brim is wider than you think that it should be. And that is Byron Zorn leading around a as you take a look like you can tell their influencers from a long way away. And there are someone standing out front, kind of like in a reception area who is also like six foot eight and like 120 pounds, maybe white man with his hair tied up in a messy top bun and also with statement glasses. Fill in in your mind, what kind of statement glasses they are.
Amanda: Did we talk in advance about? Who wants to do the talking?
Julia: My charisma stuff is very high.
Brandon: Mine is not.
Amanda: Yeah, I have like five persuasion.
Julia: My deception and my intimidation are +7.
Amanda: Do we want to lead with deceiving and intimidating is my question.
Brandon: No, I think we want to just charm. Right?
Julia: Ehh.
Amanda: I can try that and then we can back it up with a good ole Vulcani squeeze as we call it.
Julia: Sure.
Brandon: I have really good insight to so cool. Alright, Milo, why don't you, why don't you assess it, kind of see what the vibe seems like.
Brandon: Yeah. As we're walking up Eric and I have to check to see if anything seems criminal?
Eric: Yeah, absolutely.
Brandon: And gonna roll a Chad die.
[Dice rolls]
Julia: While Brandon rolls, what's our social media been looking like since Carmen took over?
Eric: It's been doing well. I would say that she did need to start from scratch. And the reason why you hired Carmen was like there was nothing. This is only like a few weeks forward. So I would say that you're doing like 5000 to 10000 followers on the Lake Town City, the ElTeeThree insta.
Julia: Not enough to be influencers?
Eric: Yeah, like you're still definitely micro influence in this way, but like people know you and tweet at you and stuff. But good question, Julia.
Brandon: I rolled a 12 +9 for 21.
Amanda: Daaamn!
Eric: So you just looking for weird stuff for like bad stuff?
Brandon: Yeah I said criminal but like just anything that like might seem odd for a load in event like are they loading in something that seems oddly shaped or overly large or overly tiny? Maybe there's tiny box on very large wheels. Makes no sense.
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: Oh that real like mass differential really leads us to some heavy metals there!
Eric: For sure. I will give you two things. One is you see that the people walking around inside all have yellow wristbands and you also see the the things that are on the pedestals seem like regular objects, like you look inside and you're like "why is there just a guitar in there?" Like it's an electric guitar that's like red and white, like, what is that doing there? And you look around and you see, like there are other household objects, quote unquote. There are like regular objects and there are nothing that looks like a weapon except for an oversize like pirate cannon.
Brandon: That's not a weapon. That's just a statement piece.
Eric: That's the only thing that looks like a weapon. But there's just like a lot of just like random stuff in there.
Brandon: Okay.
Eric: And I think that's what I'll give you with a 21.
Amanda (as Aggie): Maybe they're talking about like Dr. Morrow influence on things we use every day?
Brandon (as Milo): I don't know.
Julia (as Val): Looks like we need one of those wristbands though.
Brandon (as Milo): Yeah, exactly. I think we need to get some wristbands if you want to work some magic, you know.
Amanda (as Aggie): Yeah I no I can, I can just do what people do to me, which is assume I'm there to serve them to the receptionist.
Eric: Was that Amanda saying that or the Preserver?
Amanda: Ahhh nah nah nah, Aggie. That's a fine line sometimes. Yeah, so I think Aggie will will walk in and, you know, give a little cheerful wave to the reception dude and say,
Amanda (as Aggie): Oh hey, I someone reached out to our publicist about coming in. My name is Preserver, one of the Lake Town City Three and we are the LT3-
Brandon (as Milo): Helloooo!
Amanda (as Aggie): We are not to be like, "hey, we're famous" or whatever, but like you guys invited us to a sort of pre-tour showing and I can't fit a cell phone on my costume, as you can see in this form. So I don't have, like, the confirmation or anything, but we'd love to just, you know, take a little tour and get out of here before we, you know, cause any issues or, like, distract from the opening.
Eric (as Receptionist): [In a posh voice] No. Oh, wonderful. Wow. Not not having your phone on you there must be so freeing.
Amanda (as Aggie): You know, it's a real it's a real exercise in, like, mindfulness and presence.
Eric (as Receptionist): Now being a superhero, don't people need to contact you? Doesn't that seem like a professional hazard?
Amanda (as Aggie): Yeah, we have like a like a closed circuit kind of communication situation.
Eric (as Receptionist): Oh, like a like a like a Batman thing.
Amanda (as Aggie): Yeah. Yeah. And then our our our person on the ground can let us know if there's any relevant updates.
Eric (as Receptionist): But doesn't that only work if it's dark out because it's like no it's not. But what if it's cloudy? But what if it's windy?
Amanda (as Aggie): It is radiowaves which works in any weather.
Eric (as Receptionist): That's so confusing. I'm so sorry. I'm going to need the name of your I'm going to need that confirmation email. We send it only to our VIPs. We could talk about Batman all day.
Julia: Can I see where the wristbands are held?
Eric: Yeah. Make an investigation check.
Julia: I'm not good at those.
[Dice rolls]
Julia: I got a 16 -1 for a 15.
Eric: So for a 15, good news: yes, you can. Bad news. They're like underneath him. Like inside of the desk, you know what I'm saying?
Julia: So if you were saying like what a DC for a sleight of hand would be to get those-
[Amanda and Brandon laughing]
Eric: Quite high. I would say quite high.
Julia: White hot shuffle.
Amanda: I'm just gonna shuffle slightly in front of Val.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: And be like,
Amanda (as Aggie): Listen, you're completely right. I should have brought a printout. I could have fit that like in my in my side pocket. You're completely right.
Eric (as Receptionist): But but do you have a publicist. I can just message them or I can call them.
Amanda (as Aggie): Yes, it was Carmen De La Paz and you can just tell her the LT3.
Eric (as Receptionist): Okay, well, I'll take care of that. I've really you should give her as a cell phone, both as a superhero and as someone on the Internet, you should have a phone.
Amanda (as Aggie): Yeah, I know. You really give me something to think about-
[Brandon laughing]
Brandon: Milo laughs aloud as you as you reach out to her.
Amanda (as Aggie): Do you mind if we just we just join the tour so we don't we don't miss the circuit or-
Eric (as Receptionist): No, unfortunately, you need to make sure that I need to be able to give you one of these wristbands to let you in, I'm sorry.
Amanda (as Aggie): Okay, do you like a course-
Eric (as Receptionist): I know. I'm actually. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I mean. Oh no, I phone call.
Eric: You see that he flips his hair and he has an air pod and and he's already on a phone call with somebody else.
Amanda (as Aggie): Do you like a catalog or literature we can look at?
Eric: He gestures with like one finger at like an art pamphlet.
Amanda: Oh the catalog? Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon (as Milo): Vulcani and I can like like this place on fire if that's something that would make us feel better.
Julia (as Val): Would that be good for you?
Amanda (as Aggie): You know, I think I think Carmen - if Carmen can't do this, then we have to break in because she's better at it than we are.
Amanda: I'd like to try and persuade him before he reaches out to Carmen. But if he does that, then like that's not the end of the world.
Eric: No, you can persuade him.
[Dice rolls]
Amanda: Well, 5 +6 for an 11.
Eric: Yeah. He puts in another air pocket and now he's fully not listening to you.
Amanda: Well, I'd love to check out the art catalog, the exhibition catalog and see if there's anything on, like provenance or descriptions of the items in there.
Eric: Sure. Vulcani or or Kilonova. Do you wanna do anything?
Julia: You wanna go charming?
Brandon: Yeah, I'm a step forward and [laughs] Milo steps forward while the receptionist's back is turned to him and he goes up and he goes he waves his hand in front of their head and says, Jedi mind trick and casts -
Eric: Such a fucking nerd.
Brandon: And casts charm person on the receptionist.
Eric: Okay, great.
Julia: I picture the ghost hand just like gently caressing his cheek.
Amanda: Yeah, yeah!
Eric: Sure. Yeah. Let's do a spirit surge for this one.
Brandon: Okay!
Eric: What are we looking for?
[Dice rolls]
Brandon: I am currently at a 4.
Eric: Great.
Brandon: Well another 6 so I'm up to 5.
Julia: Great!
Eric: Alright. What, what am I rolling?
Brandon: You've got to beat my spell save. So it's a 17.
Eric: Okay.
Julia: Is that a wisdom save?
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: Because Insight is part of this. And he went to a college, he did ayahuasca and really got in touch with himself. I'm gonna give him +2!
Amanda: Ugh, one of these.
Eric: I got a sixteen.
[Players cheering]
Eric: Yeah! The ghost hand caresses his face and he says.
Eric (as Receptionist): I'm sorry, I lose, I need to be more mindful of the people in front of me, I shouldn't be, you know, technology is really taking it or taking the art of conversation away from us.
Amanda (as Aggie): Yeah.
Brandon (as Milo): I know you talked to my my colleague over there, and we couldn't we couldn't figure it out. But, you know, I really wanted to see these artifacts. I think they you know, there might be a matter of, you know, city security in there. I don't know. But, like, they're really cool. I love them. I want to see them. There's a guitar in there that I might buy? I don't know if it's available for sale, but if we can get a wristband.
Eric (as Receptionist): Oh, oh, you should have led with buyer, that's fine. Here's the thing about art. Always has a price. Here you go.
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: Give you three yellow wristbands.
Amanda: Nice!
Julia: Sweet.
Brandon (as Milo): Thank you so much. I really, really appreciate it. And if you ever need anything from our office, just give us a shout and we'll see what's possible.
Eric (as Receptionist): Absolutely. That sounds wonderful. I like your whole vibe, it's like. Alice Cooper, spaceman.
Brandon (as Milo): Thank you. Yeah, that's what I was going for.
Eric (as Receptionist): Wonderful. I have I dated one of those guys in college. Wonderful.
Eric: Alright. And you guys go in with the wristbands. There you go!
Julia (as Val): Which one?!
Julia: Val is going through the door-
Julia (as Val): Which one?! Which one did you date!?
[Everyone laughing]
Eric: Yeah. So you are in there. Byron is leading this group of influencers around who is taking photos of everything you can interact with them or not. There are some caterers who are setting up, but really there's like a bunch of items that are just kind of set up all over on little pedestals. In my head, it's like, you know, in a Marvel movie when you see the green screen and there are like items that are also green screened, like there's a box that's like covered in green in my head, like everything is covered in white, even like there are objects and pedestals that are all white. So the only real color in there are the outfits of the influencers and the items that are that are in the space.
Julia: Do I recognize any of the influencers?
Eric: Why don't you make an arcana is our tech role, so why don't you make an arcana roll.
[Dice rolls]
Amanda: Nice.
Julia: 3.
Eric: I was going to let you add your fame, but uh-
Julia: Then 5.
Eric: Yeah, hey, you think you see your your old high school bully, Shannon Redwine in the group of influencers.
Julia: Really?
Eric: Yeah.
Julia (as Val): Oh, my God.
Brandon (as Milo): Val? What's up? What's wrong?
Julia (as Val): Oh, that that woman sucks. I don't want a deem calling her a bitch or anything, but she sucks.
Amanda (as Aggie): Let's let's do a little circuit on our own. I feel like if if the curator Byron walks over to us, it's like more like we belong here.
Brandon (as Milo): Yeah. I like it before we go.
Brandon: And Milo is going to hold his hand out and like blow on it as if it was blowing glitter into the air. And I'm going to cast detect magic and see if there's anything that is magical over here.
Eric: For sure.
Amanda: Aggie without moving her lips is like
Amanda (as Aggie): Milo those very conspicuous.
Eric: Yeah. Milo loves glitter. That's canonical now.
Brandon: It's a new love, but he's into it. He's just like a starter pack on the eBay's.
Eric: It gets everywhere is the glitter is just stuck to everything.
Julia: It is biodegradable glitter though.
Brandon: Of course!
Amanda: Biodegradable!
Eric: Is detect magic a spell?
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: Let me have it as you distribute glitter all over this white space.
Brandon: It's not visible glitter but like it's magic from my hand. But anyway, I got a 15 so I'm up to a 6.
Eric: Oh buddy.
Amanda: EEEEE.
Julia: Oh it's gettin' real high I'm nervous.
Eric: As we've talked about what magic means if you've bought No Capes, a wonderful deconstruction of high - of high fantasy and applying it to a modern context. Magic really just means like other worldly power or like extraordinary power or like does something different, like every single thing in here is quote unquote magical or has can do some shit.
Brandon: It also works on any visible creature. So is anyone else highlighted in the crowd like an invisible person? No, like I don't know if maybe the hosts of this exhibit are powered?
Eric: Understood, understood.
Julia: Or fucking Redwine.
Eric: No, no one is.
Brandon: Okay.
Amanda: At what level of of wealth does it register as a super power? Because Byron should be highlighted.
Eric: Yeah. Byron is covered, is glowing because he's protected by insurance. Yeah. None of the people go just the items.
Brandon: Okay, well I let my teammates know that there doesn't seem to be anything wildly off about this exhibit so far.
Eric: Cool. Yeah. What would you guys like to do?
Julia: Let's check out the, the exhibits and stuff.
Eric: Cool.
Amanda: Yeah. I'd love to make our own like independent circuit of the room and I think Aggie work in the museum every day and maybe Milo as well. I want to sort of aim for the the most important item, like sometimes it's at the back of the gallery, sometimes it's in the center, sometimes it's like on a feature wall. But do I get the sense that any of these items is like the coup de gras?
Eric: Sure. Why don't you all make investigation rolls? And I will let you check out one item.
[Dice rolling]
Julia: 12.
Amanda: Eric, I can't read it, I don't have my glasses, what is that?
Eric: That's a natural 20, Amanda:
[Cheering]
Amanda: Aye oh ayyye!
Brandon: Oh, I rolled and mine like it was on 19 and then it went thunk to land on a 3. So I got a 3 +1 for 4.
Eric: Wonderful Vulcani, you go over to the pirate cannon, because it stands out.
Julia: Oh hell yeah.
Eric: Kilonova you're going to go check out the guitar because it was the first thing you saw and you're like, what about that thing? And we're going to we'll come back to our good friend Preserver. I will do that last. Yeah, I think that you go over there Kilonova. Yeah. This guitar to you, it just kind of looks like an electric guitar. There's a little card below it that says "Dance until your feet come off with this cool guitar. Dr. Morrow had a real 80s rock phase"
Julia: I don't like that placard. Don't like that one bit.
Brandon: That's that's weird. Is it within reach?
Julia: You cannot play this.
Amanda: Don't touch it.
Brandon: I just want to touch one of the strings.
Eric: Yeah, you can touch you can touch one of the strings. Make a sleight of hand roll for me man.
Amanda: Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea, bad idea.
Julia: You can work at a museum and you're going to touch the exhibits, you absolute maniac?!
Brandon: Hey, Eric, I'm not wearing my glasses what does this say?
[Amanda laughing]
Eric: Nat 20. You know what the funny thing about this is? You play it and it goes thwooom and no one yells at you even though, you know someone should yell at you.
Brandon: [Laughs] But do I start automatically dancing for some reason?
Eric: Nope!
Brandon: Okay, cool. Can I also offer Eric that my playing is so good that one of the catering people in the truck come over gets me a free slider?
Eric: I think - yeah, sure. They're like,
Eric (as Caterer): Oh man. Nice.
Eric: And gives you a slider. There you go.
Brandon: That's my only nat 20 I've ever rolled and won a free slider out of it.
Eric: Yeah. I wish you had used it for a better time, but unfortunately those are the stakes. Alright, Vulcani yeah. You go over to the cannon. So the title is The Pirated Cannon And it says, "yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's." And then in parentheses, "(stealing IP)" close parenthesis, "life for me."
Julia (as Val): Who wrote these placards?! These are awful. I could do better than this. Someone hire me to do this! I have a degree in communications.
Eric: Do you want to try to interact with it or anything?
Julia: Sure. I guess I'll check it out before I. I don't know. I'll check it out.
Eric: Sure. It seems like there's like a drawstring on the back. Like you, like, pull the drawstring and it goes boom.
Julia: Mmhmm.
Eric: But that's what I'll give you with a 12.
Julia: Okay, I'm not going to pull it because I'm not I don't want to set off a cannon in the middle of a thing before it opens. Alright. So I'm going to use my unknown glasses, which allow me one to look through regular walls and doors, but two which I'm going to use it for now, identify if someone or something is an illusion, a construct or something else that is not what it seems.
Eric: Wonderful. Yeah. You put on the unglasses and you check it out and I feel like you see it like you're looking at specks of like seeing what if this was actually built as so you can see the outside looks like a cannon, but then you look in inside and it looks like there is one of those flags that go bang.
Julia (as Val): Dr. Morrow. Why would you build this? What is this?
Brandon (as Milo): I mean, it's Dr. Morrow. I see it, you know?
Julia (as Val): I mean, like I get it, but like to what end.
Amanda (as Aggie): I mean they retrofitted it for art.
Julia (as Val): Maybe.
Eric: So Preserver. Yeah. You pick up the catalog and your nat 20, you're reading through and you're seeing like there's a little bit more in the catalog, like I think I'll give you the ones for the guitar. Like there's more language that suggests that, like it makes you dance, like firmly suggests that. Yeah. It also reveals the canon is actually it's a commentary like Dr. Morrow made it because she was supposed to sell it to like a warlord and instead it was a fake in this way, it's the pirated canon and like somewhat like bolded the D. And then in the catalog it says, "get it? With a D, it's a pirated cannon and not a pirate canon." And you read there. And you're looking around. And I think what you were looking for was the most ostentatious thing, which is the canon. But you see something that doesn't make any sense. And over in the back corner, someone has set up a slide projector that is playing up against the wall and the slide projector is playing nothing. It's just like, you know, the clicking of a slide projector doesn't have anything in it. It's like that [shuffling noise] But it's just playing white. It's like different frames, but it's just white and isn't in there. You look over and it's like there's no slides in it. It seems like it's jammed and it's just like playing. The caption says, "slide projector?" Questionmark. And it's like, "I don't know, we had it. Check it out!"
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: And there are no slides in it?
Eric: There are no slides.
Amanda: Is it on a cart. Is there anything on the cart like laminates or slides?
Eric: No, it's just like it's plugged in to like, you know, there's like a secret outlet that is plugged in to but like, that's it.
Amanda (as Aggie): I do always get an urge to unplug things when I see them plugged in and museums.
Brandon: God same.
Amanda: Just a death drive there. Okay my main question from the catalog is, did Byron or whoever else curated augment these items or change them at all? Or is it just literally like a collection of Dr. Morrow bizarre items?
Eric: Yeah, it's literally just putting them out here again, like Dr. Morrow summarized it. It was blah, blah, blah, passage of time, technology, art. And when you read it, it's like, oh wow, this is really just "blah, blah, blah technology, passage of time art."
Amanda: Okay, okay. I would like to kind of crouch down next to the projector and not touch it but sort of peer at it. My intention here is to kind of incite someone to come over to me. Is Byron's tour over yet?
Eric: No, because of how well you did with the people like Byron is still just walking around the influencers.
Amanda: Can I attempt to make eye contact with him and sort of give him like, "Oh hey," head nod, and try to summon him over this way?
Eric: Yeah, sure. Make a persuasion check!
Julia: Would it also be useful to us at this point to since we have the catalog that lists all of the exhibits like contacting Dr. Morrow and being like, "are any of these a problem?!"
Eric: Yeah, sure. You can do it. Yeah, you could totally do that. At the same time. Val you can, you can send her a text or whatever and see if she gets back to you.
Julia: Yeah, I think that they kind of take pictures of the catalog and the room in general and be like,
Julia (as Val): are any of these extremely dangerous that I need to do something about now?
Eric: Cool. Yeah, I think that Dr. Morrow doesn't get back to you.
Julia: When I need her. Of course!
Brandon: Everything is on Dr. Morrow time.
Amanda: I got a 5 +6 for an 11.
Eric: Okay, with an 11 yeah. I don't think that you get Byron's attention. I think that he's very much into the people around him and then showing the stuff off, all three of you then hear like noise coming from outside. There's like some shouting, then there's more shouting. And what sounds like a big scuffle happening outside, like people are yelling at each other. I think that you hear some, like, chanting against Thornhill. People are going,
[Muffled loud crowd]
Eric (as Crowd): Hey hey! Ho ho! Thornhill has got to go!
Eric: And like they're trying to yell over some other people that are just like,
Eric (as Other Crowd): Hey shut up, you coffee people! You get your pay!
Amanda: And then I'm going to run out and fire or a side door.
Eric: Yeah, you see that there's like a big crowd here. You haven't seen this before. Actually, this is a question. Did any of you do any of you wake up with the news? I guess is kind of like a silly question, like, do any of you put the TV on or like or stuff like that? Because you guys got up around 9:00.
Amanda: I think Aggie listens to local news and her truck on her rounds and then reads the paper over breakfast.
Eric: That makes sense.
Julia: Val's probably got like local news feeds on their Twitter or something like that.
Brandon: Yeah, Milo just across Twitter.
[Crowd becomes less muffled]
Brandon: I don't know how much, you know, whatever, like normal amount seeps through into a person's timeline.
Eric: I think that's totally fair. Yeah. I just realized that you guys are like community liaisons, so like you probably would. Yeah. You heard that the starting of this protest happened because people walked out of Thorn- all the Thornhill Coffees around the city at 8a.m. to demonstrate about wanting better wages because they're paid minimum wage.
Julia: Good for them.
Eric: For like the first six months. And then they get like a dollar pay bump and shit like that. So they walked out at like 8a.m. during the morning rush. And there's the thing. The other thing that happens on May 1st is that there is a there are spring celebrations that's happening in companies and there's a park out there that was kind of created around all the different companies there. There was like almost like a plaza. And there's one park. And then you could go to all your different jobs linked to your various places.
Amanda: They're required to make a park in order to build a building over a certain height.
Eric: Yes. Yeah, exactly. And like this is one of the various like Dr. Morrow parks around the city and like Dr. Morrow Plaza whatever. But people call it smoke break park and smoke break park. They also do like a puppet show that happens every single May first, like it was a real rite of spring sort of thing. But recently they've started doing Midsommar and they do Midsommar as puppets like every single day. And it's it's very it's really popular. They love the change. Like people come there because it's like it's like a spring celebration. And also they love watching puppets in massive amounts of flowers and like performing a horror movie. It's it's adorable.
Julia: Is it like hand puppets or like full sized puppets or a-
Eric: Full sized puppets like Muppet? We're talking Muppets. Like this is some real shit. Like there's a puppet company that in Lake Town City, they're like the puppet theater that, like, puts this on every year. And it's like they've been doing it. They've been doing a Mayday thing for like 20, 25 years. But over the last few years this is this 202X like who knows when the Midsommar came out. But they've been doing Midsommar ever since like 2020 and it's it's been fun.
Brandon: Are you talking about the film?
Julia: That's what I was going to ask.
Brandon: Mid-Midsommar - like Midsummer. That one?
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: I thought you were talking about Midsummer Night's Dream.
Brandon: Yeah. So did I.
Eric: I was talking about Midsom- [with an accent] MidSOMar! The horror movie with Florence Pugh.
Brandon: So there's like horror and nudity and awfulness?
Eric: Yeah it's awesome.
Julia: Oh, interesting choice for our community.
Amanda: Wouldn't you go to that?!
Eric: That sounds tight as hell. I don't know what you guys.
Brandon: I don't want to see it on screen. I don't want to see it in puppets. I don't see it ever.
Amanda: It's a weird daytime park community activity.
Eric: It's fun. Lots of people go and they love it a lot. That's actually based off a real thing in Minnesota. They do a thing in the park for Mayday in Minneapolis and a puppet theater does it.
Julia: They remake a horror movie?
Eric: No, they don't.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Yeah. So the problem is here and you're pretty close to it, that like the protesters and the counter protesters have ended at Smoke Break Park and there's also people there for the puppet show. So there's just like a mass of people. And it's just like becoming such a mess of people yelling at each other, people who didn't want to be involved in the first place, protesters, counter protesters, lots of stuff is just like kind of kind of all coming together.
[Crowd becoming more hysteric]
Amanda: I would love to head out there through whatever like fireworks at her side door is nearest and try to de-escalate and see if we can get like the protester and counter protester representatives to, like, go, you know, do some negotiations somewhere.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: Yeah, I think I followed Preserver out, but I'm still like checking my phone, waiting for Dr. Morrow to respond because that's important information that we need.
Eric: Cool. Listen, I'm saying you texted her like two minutes ago and she didn't get back to you for like two minutes.
Julia: That's fine.
Eric: So when she says she doesn't get back to you, it's not like she leaves you unread for an hour like that's what it is.
Julia: Listen, it's very pressing and I will keep checking my phone until I get a response.
Eric: Yeah, for sure. Kilonova, what do you do?
Brandon: I think he doesn't overly dramatic like hand signal that they've never worked out before to the other two checks out. And then he he's going to go and join the quietly and swiftly join the influencer group so he can just sort of like be on the ground here in case anything happens.
Eric: Cool. That sounds good. All of you make perception checks and then Kilonova, I want you to make a stealth check to see if you get in there.
[Dice rolls]
Julia: Oh, that's pretty good, 17.
Amanda: Dirty 20.
Eric: Dirty 20.
Brandon: 9 +9 for 18.
Eric: Grains and then stealth role for you, Kilonova.
Brandon: Should I cast a spell here? I don't really need to hide necessary.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: You're just you're just getting this is more like you're like a video game of stealth. Like if you're playing Hitman is like looking conspicuous.
[Crowd gets louder, no longer muffled]
Brandon: Yeah. I got a 14 +2 for 16. So that's pretty good.
Julia: Pretty great.
Eric: Great great great. Okay, so let's talk about the people who are out there. Yeah. Vulcani you see that like there's a hole in the counter protesters. There's stuff about like counter protesting wages, but there's also like counterprotesting just lots of shit that's happening in this in the city. They all are just yelling. They're like "look at these fucking weirdos, all these weirdos! First there were superhero shit and now they're trying to upend everything is not normal any more!"
[Julia groans]
Eric: So the counter protesters are bad news all the way through.
Amanda: Gross.
Eric: With a dirty 20 Preserver you look and you're trying to like, calm people as is your want. You you look around, you see the Dr. Morrow is in the protest.
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: I make eye contact with her and like,
Amanda (as Aggie): [Whispering] What are you doing!?
Eric: And then she's like
Eric (as Dr. Morrow): [Whispering] Protesting!
[Everyone laughing]
Amanda: I am going to try to do my emissary of peace thing and kind of like wade right into like wherever these two groups are meeting heads and be like,
[Crowd chanting rhythmically]
Amanda (as Aggie): Hey, everybody, I really appreciate your right to peacefully assemble, and the fact that there's multiple viewpoints expressed here, would it be possible for some representatives to to come to like a mediation and negotiation? Like, I'm I'm happy to help set that up. We're just I'm a little bit worried about, like traffic flow and, you know, fire capacity. Not much I can do about it.
Eric: Sure, sure. Sure.
Amanda: You know. So the mechanic, there's I get advantage on a charisma check to calm violent emotions or counsel peace.
Eric: Sure. Is it just straight charisma?
Amanda: It is! ,
Eric: Cool.
[Dice rolls]
Amanda: 19 for my first roll, 10 on my second roll, and my cha's +1 so dirty 20.
Julia: Dirty Twenty!!!
Brandon: Cha cha cha!
Amanda: And fame. So 21!
Eric: Yeah. So what we've talked about this emissary of peace move. What does this look like is do you like shoot out peaceful rays like truly what does it look like?
Amanda: Maybe to other powered people they can see me with kind of like that like vague orange outline in the way that my hands do when I'm healing.
Eric: Sure.
Amanda: But to non power people, I don't think they can see it. And it's more like like there's almost a spotlight on me that they can't see and they are a little more likely to be like, yeah, you're right. Or like, oh, someone is here to lead or oh, let's turn our attention to that person. And so I get like noticed more. And people, if they're already feeling like this, getting a little out of hand, they're like, phew, okay.
Eric: Yeah, okay. I think that you do this. I think they'd listen calming a protesters and counter protesters and all of this. And there's a lot of chaos here. I think that the people immediately around you like stop for a moment. But I think that I rolled perception for the counter protesters because they are looking out for weird shit and like a bunch of them are like,
Eric (as Protester): Hey, the people up front just stopped! There's a weird shit that's Preserver!
Eric: And like it just riles the people up that are further back behind. And Vulcani you see this. That's part of your perception. That's what is it.
Amanda: Okay, so the leaders are around me. Can I say, like,
Amanda (as Aggie): You know, listen, anything you can do, you put it out on on the Twitter, the Instagram, all of those. And and just let's diffuse this decamp. I just I don't want this to get the cops involved or like do anything, you know, do anything out of hand here.
Eric: Yeah, for sure. I think that that's fine. I think you're trying your best and like this is a massive thing that's happening.
[Crowd chanting fades]
Eric: You're trying your best to stem the tide, especially if the police show up. Absolutely. Let's pop back inside to the gallery, Kilonova.
[Echoing chatter]
Eric: You try to sneak in with the with the stealth and you bump into somebody who's there, who's wearing like a low black hat and sunglasses inside, and it's wearing like a black trench coat and it's like black boots. And you bump into them and they they, like, turn around and be like,
Brandon (as Milo): Oh, oh, I'm so sorry.
Eric (as Mysterious Person): Hey, hey, hey. Watch where you're going.
Brandon (as Milo): I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I apologize. I love the look, by the way. It's a good look.
Eric (as Mysterious Person): Oh. Thanks. I like your. Cowl and ghost arm and whole space thing.
Brandon (as Milo): Thanks.
Eric (as Mysterious Person): Okay, I'm going to go look at some art.
Eric: And he walks away.
Brandon: Do I recognize him?
Eric: No, you don't.
Amanda: What does he look like?
Eric: He looks like a real sad sack, I'd say like bags under his eyes and like a real long nose and like a five o'clock shadow.
Brandon: And you're looking at me while you're describing this. And it's very offensive.
Eric: Yeah, he looks like Brandon, but yeah, he looks he just looks like a cartoon of someone in an office, like looking at a screen for an extended period of time.
Amanda: A Dilbert situation.
Eric: Yeah, kind of a Dilbert situation, you white guy, five o'clock shadow, kind of a long nose really just like droopy like it's behind sunglasses. You can see there's bags under his eyes and he walks away from you over to the over the projector.
Brandon: Okay, I'm going to call on Tuna and have Tuna just follow this guy.
Eric: Sure. Tuna pops out of nowhere and be like,
Eric (as Tuna): Mmm, I love art. It's my favorite.
Brandon (as Milo): Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you follow that that person over there?
Eric (as Tuna): Why don't you do a spell on me to get me to do it? I'll probably do it.
[Amanda and Julia laugh]
Julia: Sick burn.
Brandon (as Milo): We can, we can negotiate this later at home.
Eric (as Tuna): I'm a cat. Just love me. Jesus.
Eric: And Tuna walks over to the guy.
Brandon: Okay, I just want to say
Brandon (as Milo): And if he does anything. That you think I would deem suspicious or dangerous, not you, can just like either meow at me or like swipe it, swipe upon them out of the way?
Eric (as Tuna): Mhm. Yeah sure.
Eric: Okay, Tuna walks over and like stalks behind him and he's like trying to and he looks around like really furtively and he tries to put his hand out on the projector and Tuna's like
Eric (as Tuna): Is this bad?
Brandon (as Milo): Yes! Swipe it! Swipe his paw!
Eric: Tuna jumps and tries to jump on him and he like grabs Tuna out of the air with like one hand and then like tosses Tuna over to the side.
Amanda: No!
Brandon: What?!
[Rhythmic synth music fades in]
Eric: It's like he did it reflexively. He's like, boom, throw. It's like you are learning a delicate dance and you're like, one, two, one, two, three. It's like first move, grab, second move, toss. And so immediate. He, like, tosses Tuna out of the air and you see that he's trying to go, he's going for the projector.
Brandon: Can I roll apperception to see if there's anything around me that I could like, turn on or turn off or knock over or whatever, create a distraction?
Eric: Sure, yeah.
Brandon: That's a dirty 27.
[Julia and Amanda laugh]
Julia: The dirtiest of numbers.
Eric: Hey, man, all of these objects are magical. I can tell you a few other ones that are around you.
Brandon: Yeah. What's the closest one?
Eric: Right next to you, there is a old school looking fan.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Like a 1950s style fan that you would see, like on like a newspaper editors desk in like 1955. Milo, if you're the kind of person who likes to touch things at museums, which might be why you work at a museum, there is just a juicy on/off switch looking at you.
Brandon: Oh, then yeah. I'm definitely going to just like hit that juicy on and off switch.
Eric: Yeah, it turns on it goes [blows raspberry] and it immediately blows air that like shoots the fan off of its place. You're pointing the fan at the guy, I assume.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: It's like the power of the wind blows it back but also tosses him forward and he like hits the wall, crumbles for a second and he's like,
Eric (as Mysterious Person): Oh shit, shit, this wasn't supposed to happen. Where's it gonna to go there?
Brandon: I'm gonna rush over there and say,
Brandon (as Milo): Oh my God, sir, sir, are you okay?
Eric (as Mysterious Person): Oh, don't don't touch don't touch me. I'm fine.
Brandon: And I'm going to lean in and next to his ear whisper,
Brandon (as Milo): If you touch my fucking cat again, I will destroy you.
[Julia laughs]
Julia: Shit.
Eric (as Mysterious Person): Yeah, that definitely sounds like something you would say.
Eric: Make a dexterity check my man.
Amanda: God, I'm so nervous. My hands are so sweaty.
Julia: This is bad.
Brandon: 16 +2 for 18.
[Protesters chanting starts again]
Eric: Okay, I got a 21. So he slips out between your hands and he starts running out the just books it out the front door. I think that as he runs outside of Vulcani and Preserver you see that he someone has ran out of the museum who's like wearing all black.
Julia: I'm a grab him.
Amanda: Yeah yeah yeah.
Eric: You guys are run over?
Amanda: No, no. I'm going to say Vulcani cam do it.
Eric: Nice.
Brandon: I'm going to chase after him too obviously.
Julia: Yeah. I'm, I'm a charge him.
Eric: Absolutely. So I think Vulcani you're charging him from the park. There's a little while away and Kilonova you're charging, you're running after him from the museum and you see that out from underneath his trenchcoat. He takes out what looks like a Nintendo 64 with like a kind there's a cartridge in there, there's like extra wiring. I don't know if you've seen, like, you know, when you have a Gameboy and you put all the stuff on the Gameboy, it looks like like it looks like a technological monstrosity, and he looks around like,
Eric (as Mysterious Person): Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Eric: And as you two are getting closer now, you're converging on him. He hits the reset button, motherfucker. And for a second, everything goes white.
[All music and chanting stops]
Eric: And Milo, you wake up from Tuna jumping on your face and you check your phone. And it's May 1st.
[Amanda screams]
Eric: Welcome to Join the Loop, baby, let's go!
Julia: Hey, remember, we talked about this and you said, "wow, if I did a time loop thing, that would literally kill me."
Eric: I lied to you!
Julia: You did!
Amanda: Oh, my days.
[Theme music]