959 – Tic and Tac | Land of Tomorrow Ep 6

Notable Language:

• Tossin'
• Pulsing
• Utilidors

Notable Culture:

• Dawson's Creek
• International Institute of Catharsis
• Florence + The Machine

Notable Talking Points:

• A Pitch Meeting for Tossin's, the Store
• Managing a Party that Splits Up
• Giant, Shaking Footsteps

Episode 959 – Tic and Tac | Land of Tomorrow Ep 6

 

[START OF RECORDING]

 

SCOOTER:    Friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, patron peeps, everybody out there, get ready to roll off to dreamland, maybe like you’re rolling…I don’t know.  I don’t know how you patrons…you know, I don’t know.  Like a train rolling far…a quiet train you didn’t even hear roll by.  It’s time for Sleep With Me, patrons, the podcast to put you to sleep.

 

INTRO:    [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossin’, turning…tossing or tossin’…tossin’, turning, mind racing?  Trouble getting to sleep?  Trouble staying asleep?  Well, welcome.  This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep.  We do it with a bedtime story.  Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press play.  I’m gonna do the rest.  What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake.  It could be thoughts, things on your mind that you’re thinking about from the past or the present or the future, so those are thoughts; thinking stuff, I guess.  You say Scoots, give it to me in an easier way to absorb.  I’d say thinking stuff?  I don’t know if anything with stuff though is easier to absorb.

 

But thoughts, it could be feelings, it could be emotions coming up.  Those would be easier to absorb if they were absorbent.  Absorbent feelings; feelings you’ve absorbed.  Sometimes I feel like I’m being absorbed.  It could be feelings, it could be physical sensations, could be changes in schedule or time or temperature or routine.  Whatever it is that’s keeping you awake, I’d like to take your mind off of that and what I’m going to do is I have a safe place here set aside.  I’ve smoothed it, I’ve patted it, I’ve rubbed it down, I’ve cleared out some space, I have different…it’s modular, and then I’ll send my voice across the deep, dark night.  I’m gonna use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, pointless meanders.  So, creaky, dulcet tones is…my voice is a little bit different.

 

Pointless meanders, superfluous tangents; that means I’m gonna go off-topic, I’m gonna get mixed up, I’m gonna ramble nonsensically and use filler words, pauses, mispronounce things.  Did I say get mixed up and be forgetful?  What did I say at the beginning?  I said something like thinking…no, it was something else.  It was a word with -in instead of…I said I should go back to that.  Oh, tossin’; tossin’, turnin’.  Tossing, turning…do I usually say tossin’?  I don’t think I do.  Tossing sounds like…I don’t know.  Hopefully we’ll come back to that.  But if you’re new, after I send my voice through the deep, dark night, I want to take a second for my new listeners.  My regular listeners, what up?  You would know if I say tossing…tossing, turning, I guess.  But we’ve all…we’ve tossed, we’ve been tossing, and we’ve been tossin’.

 

For some reason tossin’ makes me think of Dawson and that makes me think of that show Dawson’s Creek.  None of that has anything to do with one another except…they say Scoots, tossin’ and Dawson…I guess…but Dawson’s does not sound like Tossins, the store where you toss stuff.  Come on down to Tossins and toss some stuff around.  It’s a store but it’s an…really an experience.  It’s Tossins, the store where you could toss stuff.  You do have to buy everything you toss.  It would be one of those touchless…Tossin’; it’s now a touchless store but you could throw stuff ‘cause you already paid for it.  Soon as you pick it up…you didn’t pay for it but we do have a way to know you’ve picked it up, so if it’s tossed…you toss it, you boss it.

 

Toss it like a boss here at Tossins, the store…we already said…oh, we already said that, according to the script.  The store where you can toss it.  You could…yeah, oh, also, yeah, no, you wear a head…don’t worry, you put something on your head.  Don’t worry, we have all that…we wouldn’t have people tossin’ stuff where it would bump you or anything.  Don’t worry.  We have it all set up.  It’s a concept.  It’s a concept store.  What’s the concept?  Well, I was trying to introduce the sleep podcast.  I didn’t realize I got into another pitch meeting about my…in the retail space but yeah, it’s a store where you toss stuff.  I think that…oh, you don’t understand?  Okay, ‘cause I gotta get back to the sleep podcast I do.  Okay, so let’s say you’re familiar with the idea of a store, correct?  Which type of store?

 

Well, that’s a great question.  We’re gonna do some focus groups but at first I was thinking of what I would call…not as small as a bodega or a corner store but kinda like a store you’d see in the movies.  You say what’s…it’s not a supermarket.  It’s not quite a market either but it’s bigger than a bodega or a corner store or…I know there’s kinda other terms for a small, local market.  It’s bigger than that but it’s not as big as a supermarket.  Okay, I lost you.  That’s good, ‘cause this is actually a sleep podcast and not a pitch meeting, but so then you go into the store and we have touchless technology, so that basically means you’re usually a registered user of the store or of some service; I don’t know.  Probably we’d have a subscription, maybe.  I don’t know.  Maybe there’s a membership.  I don’t know.  I’m not sure about that.

 

We say okay, well, okay…say hey, welcome back, Jenina.  Aisle 7’s open if you want to head down there.  Toss away.  Maybe the customer would say well, I was kinda looking to do Aisle 2; grains and cereals.  I say okay, I got a opening on Aisle 2 in four minutes.  Do you want to do some actual shopping?  But then what you would do is you’d go down…that person would go down there and say okay, hm; gonna toss some stuff now.  As long as it’s within super…certain parameters that we’ll probably have to learn the hard way; say okay, no throwing the rice over the aisle unless you’ve reserved two aisles.  That would be some sort of other…you say well, I need Aisle 2…1, 2, and 3 ‘cause I’m gonna be tossing rice and sacks of beans over the aisles.  You say okay, you could do that as long as we know ahead of time.

 

But then yeah, you could…you toss…I don’t know if you’ve tossed a bag of rice because you’ve got to pay for it even in this one, but you know you paid for it, so you…I mean, come on, who isn’t held…especially not just a bag of rice, but like a small sack of rice that has…that’s not in plastic; it’s in the…whatever those rice bags are made of, and you feel…you can feel it in your fingers, right?  This one’s not too heavy.  I don’t know, it clocks in maybe…I don’t know, we got four pounds of rice here.  You know, we would have all different things.  Then another one would be pinto beans.  You say well, what would happen…say, I know Galileo did all this and Newton or somebody, but I’m gonna throw both of these and see what happens.  There’s not many places you could do that.

 

You say okay, now the beans…now the rice is spilled everywhere.  Now, everything also is very well…we keep our store in very clean shape, so we do…a lot of this we’ll use for specialized feed ‘cause you say well, what are you gonna do?  You just wasting the food?  Oh no, no, no, we don’t do that.  No, don’t worry.  We have all that figured out too, but you have the…this is just providing an illusion for the customer.  So, there’s a certain feeling of decadence but nothing decadent.  Then you could throw molasses on the rice.  You say okay, wow.  I don’t know, maybe it doesn’t work.  You’re right, brain.  My left brain just said cannot compute.  Anyway, so I’m back.  Sorry I toss…I was tossing…I got too…so if…usually…sorry new listeners; I had a little tangent I went on for regular listeners and for new listeners.

 

So if you’re new, a couple things to know.  This is a podcast you just kinda barely listen to and what I mean by that is you’ve kinda seen; you say what is he talking about?  It doesn’t really make any…why is he talking about tossing things in a…it’s not hermetically sealed but it has the feeling of being in a hermetically sealed environment so you feel comfortable.  Why was he talk…was that what he was talking about?  That’s a normal reaction but the thing is, you don’t…you just barely listen to me or barely pay any attention.  Now, that’s not for [00:10:00] everybody.  Some people like to pay attention or they’re waiting for me to get to the point and I don’t think…eventually I’ll never get to the…eventually I’ll take forever and never get to the point, a bit like what that pitch meeting would end like.

 

They’d be like okay, we’ll get back to you.  I say okay, what was…can we just do a quick debrief?  We still don’t understand what the purpose of a store where you toss things is.  I’d say well, okay, you’re right, ‘cause I would have said birthday parties but you can’t really have…I’d say it’s a cathartic thing.  Maybe we could make a…maybe…is there a Institute of Catharsis?  International Institute of Catharsis; we could work with them.  They say okay, there’s no International Institute of Catharsis.  If there is, they’re probably on a bootstrap budget, so they’re not looking to open store-like experiences.  Okay, how about this then; what if we change it to…we take the touchless store model and we design a shopping cart that you toss stuff into, but then nothing gets…the shopping cart, maybe it has anti-gravity, so then everything gets settled in.  Maybe.

 

Okay, well yeah, but actually…okay, so don’t really listen to me.  Just kinda passively consume me.  That’s the first piece of advice new listeners…that’s from all the regular listeners.  That’s what they say over and over again.  Yeah, if you’re doubtful or skeptical or you’re not sure about the show, that’s a normal, normal reaction.  Now, for some people, they know right away this isn’t the podcast for me and that’s…I guess…that’s fine, but for a lot of people, you’re just not sure and what regular listeners say is give it a few tries, see how it goes, ‘cause for a lot of people, this podcast kind of eventually grows on them.  Not actually, but you say oh, okay, I get it now.  I don’t really listen.  Also, there’s no pressure to fall asleep.  This is a sleep podcast that doesn’t put you to sleep; it just keeps you company.

 

So, I’m here just to keep you company while you drift off, not really to put you to sleep.  I’m here to be at your bedside.  That’s why the shows are over an hour, so you have plenty of time.  You don’t ever have to say oh, how am I gonna fall asleep by then?  You got plenty of time to fall asleep.  Also, the…oh, even if you can’t sleep, I make…I’m here.  So if you can’t sleep, I’m here to keep you company just as much as if you’re sleeping and not listening to me, because that’s my job.  I’m here to talk and to be barely entertaining while you do whatever works for you.  You can always listen to show after show after show, so that’s the first couple things to know.  The other things that throw people off — understandably, too — is the structure of the show.

 

So, the structure of the show starts off with a greeting so you feel welcome; friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.  Then there’s listener support, then there’s support for the show, sponsors and stuff like that.  That’s how we’re here twice a week free.  Then there’s a intro.  The intro goes from maybe minute six or minute eight to minute twenty to twenty-two.  This really…some people have strong feelings about the business and the intro, kinda understandably, but kinda just see how it goes the first few times for you, but that’s why I want to give you a heads up that people have strong feelings about it.  But the intro really…it doesn’t serve an essential part of the podcast but it’s built into the podcast for a reason, so you could skip it.

 

Now, I think it’s 3% of listeners now skip ahead to start the show at around twenty or twenty-two minutes, and then a few thousand people that support the show on Patreon listen to story-only episodes but a lot, a lot…most listeners…but that doesn’t mean there’s a right or wrong way, but most listeners, they listen to the intro because it helps them wind-down and get relaxed and get ready for bed, or to kinda get comfortable and ease you into bedtime, because I’ve learned that there isn’t really a quick fix for bedtime or to instantly fall asleep that I’ve found that works for me.  So, the intro…eventually if you become a regular listener, this is like me applying for you to be a regular listener; if you did become a regular listener, you could then see how the intro works.

 

Like, some people are doing some sort of wind-down routine, some people are getting ready for bed, and some people are in bed getting comfortable, and then some people skip it.  Some people listen when they wake up, some people listen during the day for a little distraction, so just kinda see how it goes.  Yeah, go from there.  So, that’s…oh, so that’s the intro.  Then after the intro is business.  That’s how the podcast business works.  That’s called the mid-roll even though it’s not in the middle of the show.  Then after that, it’ll be our ongoing episodically modular series where we kinda listen in on a roleplaying game of a couple people playing a roleplaying game in a future world, in a…that takes place in a future world but not futuristic.  It’s called Journey Into the Land of Tomorrow, so very…bedtime story.

 

You can listen to it in any order.  There’s…so, that’ll be the bedtime story, then the show ends with thanks and goodnights.  So, that’s the structure of the show and then the other things that are important to know is one; you deserve a good night’s sleep.  I hope this…Sleep With Me can provide it but it might not, so you could always check out sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou.  That has other sleep podcasts I found and other stuff I’ve tried.  But either way; the reason I make the show is because I want you to get the sleep you need.  I don’t want bedtime to be something you have to dread, because I’ve been there dreading bedtime.

 

I’ve been there tossing or tossin’ and turnin’ or turning, mind racing…mind…it’s interesting; I say tossing, turning, mind racing…oh no, I do say mind…or mind racin’, trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep.  I’ve had all those things so if I can help you, it would be my honor and if you could get the sleep you need and you deserve, our world’s gonna be a better place.  So, that’s why I make the show and I think that’s everything.  I’m really glad you’re here.  I work really hard on the show.  I yearn and I strive ‘cause I really want to help you fall asleep, so thanks again for coming by and here’s a couple of ways I’m able to be here for you twice a week.

 

Alright everybody, it’s Scoots here and it’s time for our episodically modular series, Journey Into the Land of Tomorrow.  I don’t really host it or anything; the characters take care of everything pretty much, except for this little set-up…for a set-up.  Talk about a movie made for Antonio Banderas; Set-Up For A Set-Up, starring Mr. Antonio Banderas.  Thank you.  Friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it’s time for a journey into the Land of Tomorrow.  Future sound of jets; whoosh.  Thanks.  That’s Antonio Banderas.  Oh, what is this show?  So, it’s a show you could listen to in any order.  Thanks, Antonio.  You sent me a…he sent me a note.  It’s a show you could listen to in any order.

 

It’s just friends playing a roleplaying game and we’re listening in but they play it knowing we’re listening in and sleeping, so there’s a lot of…it’s really lulling and soothing, I guess is what I’m saying.  If you’re a friend…a fan of theme parks, it takes place in what was once a pretty familiar theme park, so I think you’ll enjoy it.  So, here, without further ado, is Journey Into the Land of Tomorrow.

 

Okay, I’m starting to record.  I wasn’t…thank you for your essay.  Okay, I’m not gonna read it or anything out loud.  I read it.  Thank you; I appreciate it.  I also realize that it is Emwatta’s turn to do the recap for the party, and…but that’s part of the story, so I will take on that role.  Not as Emwatta, but I will recap it as the DM.  I appreciate that Zell, the character Zell, is considering being more…anyway, so, sorry, I guess…it isn’t easy being the DM.  I’m not trying to say that right now it’s the opening a line of enquiry or discussion, but you know, I’m learning to be the DM and balance player and the NPC, so we’re all just here to have fun.  Let’s just remember that.  I just forgot it.  That’s why I’m saying it out loud.  It’s to remind myself we’re here to have fun and to immerse ourselves.

 

I think we’ve successfully immersed ourselves into our characters, and that I’m playing the character of the DM and that…so, wow, that was a method.  [00:20:00] Yeah.  So, who, what, where, when, how, and where are things right now?  What are they like now?  Who are you?  You’re a team of adventurers that heeded the call of the Wizard’s Council for adventurers willing to take on a nearly impossible task to go into a abandoned, run-down, former theme park where the Wizard Council has pretty solid information that somewhere is a hidden portal to another world, a powerful, magical portal to a powerful, magical world not our own.  This other world has…is a powerful magic world.

 

It does have forces of good and not good, and you’ve been tasked with finding the portal and sealing the portal which means finding and assembling a staff.  That’s really all the information you know, to close the portal.  There are other groups looking for the portal but you’re the only group that knows what part of this…this theme park is really big.  It’s more of a entertainment world or something.  As far as you know, you’re the only ones that know that it’s within The Land of Tomorrow.  So, this is not only a theme park; it has different theme parks within the theme park and you’re in one of the lands within the theme park, look…I know you all know this but I’m just helping.  So, that’s where you are and who you are.  Who or whom?  You have Eleanor, your Florencian healer.

 

You have Grenada of Darmok, nimble-fingered and fleet of foot who works with or for Lord von Chill, one of your warriors; strong, stout, brash, as well as Zell, your other warrior.  A little bit more blue collar, as we’ve been saying.  Well, maybe down to earth in certain ways but definitely not…yeah.  Strong-willed in a positive way.  Of course, Emwatta, an acolyte wizard that you don’t know much about.  Emwatta tends to be very quiet and was…is right now resting which we’ll get to, and hired by the Wizard’s Council and assigned to your party.  Naturally, of course, your party now wonders can we be…can Emwatta be…Emwatta did stay strong on your side but there are some lingering doubts about Emwatta and Emwatta’s motivations; her loyalties or why Emwatta hasn’t been more…using magic more often.

 

You’ve worked your way through different attractions in the theme park to where you are now, hiding in a control room, a control room where you’re supposed to turn on imaginary steam where you’re trying to recoup after a battle with the Emperor and Buzz Tomorrow.  The good news is you did recover a gem from this attraction which I guess is…I don’t know who has the gem but we’ll discuss it in a second.  But during your…during the final face-off with the Emperor, it was a tough battle.  Emwatta was down to very low hit points and is resting.  You’re sealed in this room.  You think you’re safe, and there’s a character that does want to update people that…in your party because you’ve been working in shifts, resting.

 

Emwatta…you do find it strange that Emwatta has not woken back up even though you’ve gone through a few resting shifts.  So, Eleanor, your Florencian nurse and healer does want to say something.  Hey everybody, this is Eleanor, your Florencian healer.  I didn’t get any rest, so that’s one of the reasons Emwatta I don’t think has woken up, is because I haven’t been able to…I haven’t…before our last encounter, I did expend all of my connections with the three Florences and I haven’t been able to rest since…I don’t…I’m gonna keep trying to rest but I’m not able to.  I’m feeling some sort of discord with the three Florences which means I kinda…I’m probably gonna have to set off on a little bit of a personal path.

 

I’m not leaving the party or anything but I will have to perform some rituals to reconnect with the three Florences in order to regain my powers of healing.  I still do have powers of nursing.  The problem is that one of the acid…the things that the Emperor shot out destroyed my healing pack that I would have used for nursing, so I’m able…only able to do some basic stuff.  I do think Watta is okay, and…because all the resting Watta’s doing; that’s why it’s taking so long for Watta to come back to us, is that I haven’t been able to accelerate Watta’s healing or do any major…so, Watta’s been healing on Watta’s own.  Okay, this is Lord von Chill.  Thank you Eleanor for sharing that with us.  That is…we do have this secure location but I wonder what are…what do you think if…how…I guess I have some questions.

 

How long will these rituals take?  Do you think you could get some rest in the next few hours?  Then if neither one…and then what should we…what do you think?  What do you think we should do?  I would like to hear from you.  Thanks, Lord von Chill.  I don’t think I’m gonna get any rest.  I’ll be honest with you.  The rituals I perform for the three Florences is not maybe where you might be coming from in your belief system.  I don’t need a…to find a shrine or anything.  I just need to pay tribute to the three Florences in their own ways and it’s not something I can just sit down and do, either.  Some of it is apparent to me and some of it will be revealed to me, and I say oh, this isn’t my opportunity now to write things with the Florence…the Machine or Florence the Nightingale or Florence the Supreme.

 

But I don’t know how long it would take, so that leads me to the next thing which is that because I’ve had so much time on my hands, they said okay, so this is a abandoned theme park, right?  But it’s been abandoned for a while, so maybe there’s some extra kits around, nursing kits or healing kits, but I don’t know if there is because it’s been down for so long.  There should be first aid buildings or facilities or something, but I wonder if we were to find them what we would encounter anyway.  I know we’ve all just…because I haven’t been able to heal everybody; now that everybody is rested…the other thing is we didn’t hear from…those steam…that steam bot brought us those healing things, so what I was thinking is if we could get…hopefully…we can’t turn the steam on.  I tried to turn the steam on.

 

It’s really just a fog machine.  It’s out of fog machine juice.  I think fog juice, they even call it.  There’s a empty container of fog juice here.  I don’t even think it would work, but that would…this is the room where they did…it’s behind the control panel that the fog would go into the steam…it would be fake steam; it was just fog for the Steam Genie.  So maybe you could go explain to the Steam Genie one; I think the Steam Genie’s steam bot reported back that we defeated Buzz Tomorrow and the Emperor but if you could go back there and if…some of us are gonna have to stay with…this is what I’m thinking, just since you’re all still looking at me; so, I would say that Zell and I stay here with Emwatta.  No thank you.  No thank you; I’d prefer to do something else.  Now Zell, please hear…Eleanor has the floor here; please.

 

Okay, go ahead, Eleanor.  Okay, there’s a good reason…Zell, you’re…I think we need to split up our soldiers, so we need you.  I need you here to keep an eye on Watta because since Lord von Chill and Grenada are a little bit closer, I think if they go to the steam…go to see the Steam Genie, find a way, check in with the Steam Genie, see if the Steam Genie’s willing to give us anymore [00:30:00] healing potions or knows about any clinic or first aid or kits, and just check in.  We left on good terms.  I don’t see why there wouldn’t be good…and say we’re working on the steam thing.  I don’t know if you should break the illusion; just say that the Emperor damaged it and we’re…we’ve been unable to reestablish steam for the Steam Genie.  How does that sound?

 

Grenada of Darmok, I would like to hear what you think but I think that’s fine.  We’ll head out.  You three…well, I guess Watta’s not going anywhere, but keep an eye on Watta and we’ll be back as soon as we can.  I think that sounds fair to me.  Okay.  Yes, this is Grenada of Darmok.  I’m fine with that plan.  Okay, so I know when you split parties, different DMs have different ways of dealing with it but we’re gonna split the party up.  Okay, well, you could split the party up and I won’t split the party up for now because I just have a sense that…if I think something’s gonna happen that’s essential to you hearing the information…you know what I mean?  I think right now it’s fine to have the party separated but still together for gameplay.

 

So, Lord von Chill and Grenada, you won’t be able to…but please don’t break the rules even though you’re together.  Please let…no crossovers and advice or consensus-building.  So, Grenada and Lord von Chill, are you gonna head back the way you came?  Yeah, we’ll head back the way…Grenada, why don’t you go first, because I don’t even know exactly where we’re going.  But you’re pretty familiar with it.  Can we head back the way…what do you…Grenada, what do you think?  I think that’s fine.  I think we’ll go back the way we came and head back to the Steam Genie which isn’t that far.  What I’ll do is…can I listen at this door and then open the door stealthily?  You can.  Okay, successfully.  You don’t hear anything at the door.

 

You open the door, you look around, and you notice actually that all the…any of the little green people that were…they’re mostly gone.  Probably they fled, I guess would be what…you might assume something else, though.  Oh, that’s good; they fled from us.  So, there’s none of them?  Well, there’s some left but they’re non-motion ones.  Okay.  Alright, let’s head out, Grenada.  So, Grenada and I head back towards the passageway to go to the Steam Genie.  Okay, and now I just want to check in with Eleanor and Zell and see what’s…so, you two…just to check in, ‘cause Eleanor, you seem like you have something.  Yeah, so now that they’re gone, Zell, I wanted to talk to you.  Okay, what did you want to talk about, Eleanor?

 

Well, so I haven’t been able to sleep and I think part of it was like that we had this kinda challenge of…authority challenge last time over Watta’s use of magic.  Yeah, that’s one way to say it.  I still feel like there’s some tension between us and I mean, part of the tension is just…I only…I want to heal our relationship.  I only challenged you because I feel that you could…that you were…you’re worthy of being challenged, not because I was trying to usurp any authority or doubt your convictions.  Okay, so what are you trying to say?  Well, what I’m trying to say is I guess I was…well, I was wrong.  I’m sorry that I…if I took a tone…I’m sorry if I was over-aggressive in challenging your authority.  I’m not making an excuse; I’m just saying that in the heat of the action, I may have made some wrong choices that sent a message other than of respect and not even equality, that I see you as being our leader, really.

 

Huh, it didn’t sound like it when you…okay, well, I know it didn’t sound like it but I’m saying it now; I’m sorry.  So, is this your way to heal things with Florence the Nightingale?  You’re trying to heal our relationship?  Well, yes, I mean, Florence the Nightingale is my witness to the apology which is a heartfelt apology even though it doesn’t sound like it.  I think it’s just I’ve been tired, you know?  But I was…I’m sorry.  I’m mostly sorry because…I don’t know how to put it into words other than I think there was some sort of crossed communication and I…this is how I feel.  I don’t feel like your authority or the power…your power is diminished by people disagreeing with you or even not voting with you to force Watta…and I know the Dungeon Master made you write a thing or maybe I…I don’t…I guess I’m tired.

 

I don’t…did I do that?  You know what I mean?  I’m sorry.  Watta’s moving around.  Yeah, Watta’s moving around.  Thank you, Eleanor, for reading that note and starting to come to.  Zell, do you take my apology…I’ll…can I…I’ll think about it.  There’s one more thing, but…Zell, that I was wondering about with Lord von Chill and how the…how you…oh, Watta’s starting to…what happened?  Zell, this is Eleanor; we…do you remember the battle with the Emperor?  Yeah, that’s the last thing I…yeah.  Did we get the gem?  We did.  Yeah, and we managed to get you out of there.  We’re in a control room right now and we’re waiting.  Lord von Chill and Grenada are looking for some healing potions.  I’ve lost my ability to heal, mostly due to not being able to sleep and maybe you understand; disconnected from my source.

 

We’re gonna try to find any other…we’re just…they’re going to deal with the Steam Genie and see what they can get from the Steam Genie.  So, Zell and I are just here.  We’re keeping watch over you, both of us together.  Like, together, together?  Like, together as members of your party, yeah.  Okay.  Do you have the gem?  Can I see it?  Zell has it.  Zell, could I see the gem?  Yeah.  I took it off the claw and I have it here.  What is it?  I don’t know.  I can sense it’s…I can feel it’s magic.  I mean, like I said, we’re supposed to…it’s supposed to go in the headpiece and then a staff, and it should help us find the magic portal and close it.  Yeah, wow.  It is powerful.  Well, what is its power?  I don’t know.  I mean, yeah, I can just sense it in the thing.  Well, okay, and then do you know where the headpiece that it goes into or the staff is?

 

I don’t, I don’t.  But look at this; it’s almost like it’s…do you both see this or is this just me that there’s a pulsing inside of it?  Yeah, it’s faint in there.  Yeah, it is faint.  Wait a second, if it…you notice that?  When I move, the pulsing changes ever so slightly.  Yeah, that is interesting.  Why don’t you stand here in the middle of the room and go slowly in 360 degrees?  Why…what are you thinking?  Well, I’m thinking if it’s pulsing and the pulsing changes, then we can start to run some experiments of why…we can start to infer things.  Wow, thanks.  Yeah, it’s kind of…if it’s pointed not back…well, yeah, it’s kinda pulsing only…it stops pulsing if I’m faced this way, away from…back away from the park almost, back out the way we came in the whole park.

 

It’s pulsing more towards the center, so I don’t know if that’s where the portal is or maybe the next piece.  So, we have no clues of how to find the next piece anyway.  You’re right.  Did you…so, did you say you can’t heal anymore?  No, I can’t heal anybody anymore.  So, the only way we’re able to heal right now is just by rest which is a good thing we have a place to rest.  You said those…so, where are [00:40:00] Lord von Chill and Grenada?  Okay, this is the DM; actually, they are crawling through the passageway into the Steam Genie’s room but as soon as they get towards the edge of the passageway, Grenada, you notice a breeze of air and you slow down and you listen.  Okay, I’ve noticed the breeze of air and I listen.  I listen very…as closely as I can by rolling.

 

Okay, yeah, you listen closely and you kind of just hear a little bit of air, and that’s it.  Okay.  Well, Lord von Chill, what do you think?  Well, let’s be ready for anything but let’s cautiously and quietly proceed to the end and into the room with the Steam Genie.  Okay, so you cautiously enter the room, the attraction where the Steam Genie reigns supreme.  As soon as you get in the room, you see that it’s filled with natural light.  It’s the next day from yesterday.  The roof has been torn open and after that, you notice that the steam bots lie in parts around the room.  Then you turn towards the front of the room where the Steam Genie was and the Steam Genie’s gone.  Oh, boy.  Okay, let’s be ready for everything, anything now, Grenada.  You’re right, Lord von Chill.

 

Okay, so we look…can we look around and see what we see?  So, you look…do you look…you’re just scanning the room or are you looking some place in particular?  First, let’s…I’ll generally search the room and then maybe Grenada can search specifically?  Is that what you’re getting at?  Okay, yeah, so clearly you look around the room.  You look at the steam bots.  There’s no steam giants.  All the doors are still closed; it’s just the ceiling’s been ripped off and you quickly ascertain that there’s been a battle, or wasn’t much of a battle.  Something from the outside or something having to do with the roof maybe, I guess, took out all the steam bots and, yeah.  Okay, well, let’s look at the…the Steam Genie was behind a lectern, right?  Or some sort of console?  Can we look up there?

 

Can Grenada actually look very deeply and search up there?  Yeah, I’ll search where the Steam Genie was and see what happened to the Steam Genie and see if there’s any potions or anything.  Okay, so you search the…wow, yeah.  That’s…with your bonus, that’s over twenty.  So, you search behind the Steam Genie’s console.  The Steam Genie’s shins and feet are still bolted into the console but the rest of the Steam Genie’s gone.  You do find some drawers and stuff and compartments actually that you quickly…that aren’t for show but that where stuff was stored in the past.  Most of it’s not usable.  There was some old lubricant for the Steam Genie.  At some point, actually, fog juice that’s actually probably expired but that’s not drained.  Because you get so high, you do find some maps and stuff.

 

Some papers catch your attention and you grab those and you look at them.  You decide to…as you’re trying to decide what to do, you start to feel the earth shake a little bit.  Oh boy, that’s gotta be…let’s head…let’s take…do we find anything else?  Did Grenada find…?  No, that’s it.  So, you pocket the maps as the earth starts to shake, like giant footsteps or something.  Okay, that’s not good.  Let’s head…can we head back to the rest of our squad?  You can, you can.  Okay, we go…we head back as fast as we can.  Okay, so you’re…as you’re heading back, you three also start to sense the shaking of the earth.  Not as intense because you didn’t see that the…you just think huh, that’s weird; did the earth just shake?  But you don’t have a reason to associate it with anything yet like Lord von Chill and Grenada do.

 

Watta’s also noticed…kind of narrowed down a general direction of where the gem is glowing which from where you’re standing is kind of like…I’m trying to think of directionally how to make it make sense where you are, ‘cause you’re in a control room.  Really hard to know…if one direction was through the wall to where the steam pipe comes out where the Steam Genie is, I would say you would move another twenty-five or thirty degrees to the right.  So, not across the street where the other attraction you were was, but towards the area you haven’t explored is where the light is lighting up, or the pulsing of the…and then Grenada and Lord von Chill come in the room.  Okay.  Hey everybody; it’s me.  There’s no…there was a battle.  Nobody’s left over there.  No healing potions.

 

Grenada found some maps or something and that’s all we have.  Also, there’s some sort of…that shaking I’m guessing is related to whoever took out all the…you know, this World of Steam.  Okay, but you don’t have any…other than the shaking, you don’t know anything, right?  Right.  It could be some sort of earth-settling thing, you’re right.  Okay, can we look at those maps and see…what are the maps of?  Okay, the maps are of a…of some tunnels.  Oh, Eleanor here; is there any…let’s examine the maps.  Whoever has the highest map score, can we just roll for whoever has the highest map score or whatever the skill is called?  Yeah, yeah.  Let’s not quibble over details.  So, you look at the maps.  They do seem to be some sort of tunnels and as you look at them more closely, you do see a first aid station.

 

Actually, with the roll you have, it would be good to know some other information, maybe, that’s not map-based, to see, well…oh, history of the park.  Okay.  I forgot who’s the expert on that but could we roll for that, please?  Okay, I’ll just…yeah, that’s fine.  Okay, so…because I don’t remember which of you is the expert either, but so, you remember…Zell remembers that this park is actually the second floor and underneath the first floor…the second floor is where the guests go but on the first floor are called the Handy…the Handy Halls, they call them.  The Handy Halls were where all the workers were, like how they would get…they would deal with garbage, they would deal with getting from Point A to Point B, from getting in their work clothes, and presumably getting first…when worker’s needed first aid, I guess they would go in these utilidors…or in these Handy Halls.

 

You say well, there’s a entrance right below where the place we’ve been crawling in and out of to get into the steam thing.  There must be a hidden trap door there that you could climb down.  Otherwise there should be another entrance but it’s through this caved-in spot, so…but we could find another one, but that’s the closest one.  Okay, well, where would that leave us?  Well, you could…as you see — and I’m showing you all this — it’s a very basic map but yeah, there’s a few rooms and halls between where you are and the…and where the clinic is.  The map’s kinda faded.  You see Wardrobe, you see Test Area, and then you can’t really make anything else…other than the first aid cross.

 

Okay, anything else on the map if we really, really examine it?  [00:50:00] Yeah, Grenada notices that as you’re looking for ways to get to the clinic, you start thinking well, is there more than one way to get there is the natural question.  Grenada sees that from the area that says Test Room that there is some sort of small passageway.  There’s the Main Hall, there’s a hallway where you could walk to the clinic but there’s also a secondary way that looks like you could get there through some sort of duct or something.  Okay, so we’d need to go down there to find out more and then there’s a chance that there might not even be…what does everybody think?  Oh, which way is…oh, wow, is that in the same direction as where the thing is glowing?  Would it at least bring us in the right direction?  Is the gem…is glowing?

 

This is Zell; so, Lord von Chill and Grenada, the gem has some sort of pulsating light.  We’re assuming it’s trying to tell us to go in the right direction.  What if it’s warning about D-A-N-G-E-R?  Okay, well, let’s…if we point it right towards where the clinic is, it’s generally close to where we could guess on the map where the clinic is, or the first aid which we’re gonna have to go to, so should we rest, or…?  Wait a second, the DM here; all of a sudden things really start to shake and you hear some pounding going on above you, like something heard your voice, something giant, and it’s trying to get through the ceiling.  Oh, you know what; did I tell you guys that the ceiling was ripped off in the Steam Genie’s room and that’s how…?  So this…we should probably get outta here.  Okay, can we just head towards the utilidors?

 

Grenada’s gonna have to go first to see if…can Grenada find where the secret door is or whatever, the trap door?  Yeah, so Grenada finds the trap door.  It’s in the same crawl-way as how you got to the Steam Genie and back to Buzz Tomorrow.  Grenada pulls it up.  You do have to all go single-file, so what’s the order?  Grenada, myself, Lord von Chill, Watta, Eleanor, and Zell.  Does that sound fair to everybody, to keep Watta in the middle?  Yeah, that’s fine, that’s fine.  Okay.  So, oh, I’m sorry Grenada; so, I’ll open the door and listen.  What do I see?  Okay, so it’s pretty dark but you can…you smell old electrical stuff and it’s just a ladder going down.  You listen; you don’t really hear anything.  Okay, can I stealthily try to climb down and enter the room silently and then listen again?

 

Oh boy, you got…okay, so yeah, that doesn’t work.  As you’re going down the ladder, you slip.  You knock…you fall into the room.  You didn’t fall far though, so…but you knock over a giant cabinet that was an old server.  It smashes into another cabinet and then after it settles, you…there’s more crashing, of course, and there’s dust.  Then there’s no sounds at all.  So the only thing you could hear is the settling of the stuff you knocked over.  Okay, what else do I see?  Okay, well, this would be what a room was once called a server room but it’s been…it…without having to over-explain stuff, they had various levels of technology running this park.  So there’s some smaller, new servers which are just cabinets and then there was some…the previous generation which is one of the ones you knocked over, then there’s some of the even previous generation.

 

They kinda go into another room but that other room…okay, so if you’re standing in the room, I’m gonna use north, south, east, and west but I’m also gonna use left, right, and up and down.  So, you’re pretty much in the center of this server room and to your left which would be the west if you were looking at a map is more servers and then kind of just…the room kinda goes off into darkness.  Then there was where there was once another door.  You could see the outlines of a door and a window but there’s so many servers.  There’s like, tons of old servers and old equipment piled in front of that door and window.  You can just barely see it through the stuff.  Then to your right is a hallway which would be south, so east and west…west is like more servers and to the east is a server cave-in, and then south is a door.

 

Okay, but I listen; I don’t hear anything.  No, not really, other than, yeah, your own…oh, okay, ‘cause…so should everybody come in, come down?  Okay, so everybody comes down into the room.  Okay, could I check to the west really quick and see if there’s another room or anything?  Yeah, you…there’s nothing.  Okay.  This is Zell; can I move some of the servers to get to that door or should I, everybody?  Or should we be quiet and check this…the door that is…or the hall…is it a hall?  It’s a hall, yeah.  It’s a hall with a office door with a window.  There is a door but it’s…has a window.  It’s broken.  So, it’s a door but it’s barely there.  Okay, but then there’s also a window and a doorway, and can I move any of that server equipment?  Does it look like it’s…?

 

You look at it and it looks like it would be…there’s some very heavy equipment.  Maybe somebody could crawl through there if they were really determined but you don’t even see a obvious way to crawl through there.  Okay, so we could…something could technically crawl through there.  I mean, maybe you’d roll…you’d…yeah, you’d have to roll to find out.  Okay, this is Grenada; the only other thing is that I noticed that the stuff…I knocked some stuff over and I know I’d be the one crawling.  I’m not in a hurry to crawl through there unless…if we could just go through this door, because according to the map…yeah, that’s…that room that’s blocked off…there’s also a hallway over there that connects to the…I don’t know if it’s a locker room or a cafeteria.  Then this way, we could to go through this doorway.

 

It goes down the hall to Wardrobe, so we know we’re going in the right direction.  Either way, eventually it connects to the…a clinic.  So, I would prefer…I would vote to go to the Wardrobe.  Okay.  Anybody else?  I’ll go with…let’s go quietly.  Grenada, can you go first and use stealth?  Yeah.  Okay.  Let’s…can we go in the same order as we’ve been going?  Sounds good to me.  Okay, so you walk in…you’re walking quietly, Grenada, ahead of your group, stealthily going.  You get through the door.  It doesn’t make a lot of noise.  You go into a room, a really, really big room that was once…your view…it has racks and racks of clothing and also costumes.  It goes to the west very far, but you can see the back of the room because a lot of the clothing has been taken, but there’s still some plush characters, like life-size…they call them face characters, I think.

 

There’s still some outfits and then there’s a lot of…it was a automated system, so there’s still…kinda like you’d see…remember those videos about the cleaning machines or whatever?  Okay, so it’s a giant clothes storage to the west and then what about other access points?  Okay, and then to…on the southern-most…southern-eastern side of the room, so bottom-right side of the room is a hallway and another door.  Its window’s actually intact but it says Wardrobe.  The hallway’s kinda long, like people would be waiting in line to get their wardrobe.  Okay, okay, this all makes sense then, ‘cause I think then the next room is the locker room which you could still get into the cafeteria through.

 

Okay, why doesn’t everybody come…is there anything else we…well, let’s get this…why isn’t everybody coming…are we all in this room?  Yeah, you’re all in the room.  What do you want to do?  Well, we should search the room.  Can we check the gem?  Do we need to check the gem?  Just to make sure it’s not pulsing really strong or anything.  Watta, what’s it doing?  It’s kinda still…depends on where I have it pointed, but nothing [01:00:00] too strong.  Okay, well, why don’t we…I guess let’s search…a couple of us search or something.  I’m just worried about the way that other hall…so, can some people keep an eye on the…what way we haven’t come?  Eleanor and Zell, why don’t you stand by that door?  Watta, you stand with them, and then Lord von Chill and I will search.  How does that sound to everybody?

 

Wow, we’re really splitting this team up, huh?  Well, we’re in the same room.  Okay, so…well, do you want to do things differently, Zell?  Yeah; can I search with you?  I have a higher score anyway.  Okay, that’s fine.  Lord von Chill, you stay with Eleanor and Watta.  Okay, so you have to…there’s one of those counters that goes up and down that’s actually still in place, so you lift the counter and you go behind the counter.  As soon as you go behind the counter, you notice that two of the plush…the head…they’re like, two giant chipmunks.  They come rushing at you.  They’re six feet tall.  They’re chipmunks; they’re a famous chipmunk dancing team, Tick and Tock, or Tick and Tack.  Tick and Tack.  They’re a dancing…the dancing chipmunk siblings.  Okay.

 

Also, then out of your corner of your eye, you also see some sort of…like, something rushes out of the room and back where you came, and you hear it…you just happen to hear it because you have really good hearing; probably crawling through the cave-in of servers.  Oh boy, so something got away.  Do we see what it was?  No, because you were…everyone was…saw Tick and Tack and you were mesmerized by two giant chipmunks coming at you.  Okay.  Can we tell them to stop?  They don’t stop.  Alright, but we’re prepared for them, right?  You are, so you roll and it goes…for initiative, and it’s gonna go Zell, Grenada, Tick, and then Tack, and then Eleanor, Watta, and Lord von Chill.  Oh boy, I’m last?  Yeah.  Okay, so I’ll go first and I’m gonna use my greatsword on…Tick is up front, right?  Yeah.  Okay, so I’ll roll for everybody.

 

Okay, so you…Zell, you slash across Tick which does nine, and some stuffing comes out but you also feel like…that it’s almost like the furry part is furry armor because there’s something hard underneath.  Alright, well, I’ll use my shortsword; Grenada here.  Okay, twelve plus your bonus.  Okay, so you also get a good slash in on Tick; nine.  You hear some crunching metal but Tick is…then Tick goes after…now, Tick and Tock or Tick and Tack have unnatural sharpy-poos on their hands and they also have…so, they look like they were cute from far away but now you see that there’s some sort of amalgamation, so they have their fake teeth but they also have some sort of metal stuff coming through which they…Tick goes right after Zell and does get a little bitey-poo of Zell and a slashy-poo that each does four.

 

Tack runs up to you and gives you a little huggy-poo, Grenada, and a little kissy-poo which does four each of damage, too.  Oh, boy.  Okay, this is Eleanor; I’m gonna rush ahead with my hammer, okay?  Okay, so you rush ahead and you do…you…six right on Tick.  That’s who you’re going after, right?  Yeah, yeah.  This is Watta; I’m going with my sword, too.  I don’t want to wait and I don’t want to…okay, and you shortsword…phew, you get it right in there too and it does a crunch on Tick.  So, that was six by Eleanor and seven by Watta.  This is Lord von Chill; I’m gonna use my longbow.  Okay, you missed.  Okay, so what’s the situation with this Tick?  ‘Cause we got…we did a lot…Tick is still…Tick is definitely hobbled and Tack is fine.  Zell, you’re at eighteen.  Grenada, you’re at sixteen.  Okay, I’m gonna go after Tick again.

 

Okay.  You miss, Zell.  Okay, I’ll go after it with my shortsword; Grenada here.  Okay, Grenada, you…oh boy, you get it right in the…you get Tick good and Tick is no longer tocking and you’ve removed the…Tick’s headpiece forever.  Okay.  Then what happens?  Actually, while you were doing that, Tock pushed past and rushed Lord von Chill and managed to get a clawy-poo on Lord von Chill to do four, but Lord von Chill put his gauntlet up in the mouth of Tock.  Okay.  Then Eleanor, you still using your hammer?  Yeah, I’m still using my hammer.  Okay, you do twelve plus…okay, so you did eight on Tock, or Tack.  I’m sorry, Tack.  Watta?  I’m gonna still use my sword.  Okay, you did five on Tack.  Okay, I will use my…oh, I’ll use my…whatever, a hand-to-hand or…okay, you missed, Lord von Chill.  Okay, let’s keep going.

 

Okay, Zell, you use your longsword; eight plus bonus, so you do eight of damage on Tack, so you really…you get…attack right in the shoulder.  Grenada, you do…oh boy, Grenada, you’re really hitting all the notes.  Seventeen natural…you do six more, so some of the fur is starting to fall off of Tack.  Tack is still grappling with Lord von Chill but unable to do anything.  Eleanor; thirteen.  So Eleanor, oh boy, Eleanor successfully puts Tack to rest forever.  Okay, and so where are we at with everything?  Okay, Lord von Chill, you have twenty-three, Zell has twenty-two, and Grenada has sixteen.  Okay, Grenada here; can we check these two to see…what, are they magic creatures or what is happening, or what else do we need?  Can we search the room for any other things?  Okay, let me…okay, so you use…yeah, those are good rules.

 

So, you…the first thing you notice is that Tick and Tack are…were costume creatures but there’s a animatronic in each one, like some sort of characters from another attraction or something put on these suits.  Then you immediately check all the other suits.  They’re all empty; tentatively making sure they’re not gonna come…nothing else is in the room.  You search the room.  You don’t find anything else interesting, except something catches Eleanor’s eye that Eleanor can’t help but staring at which is…on the main desk behind where the people were working is some pictures.  They’re old pictures of what I would assume are the people that worked in the Wardrobe department having a party, a wardrobe party with animatronics.  You’re saying well, maybe that’s why the animatronics put on the Tick and Tack?

 

Okay, can I look and see…go back…like, follow whatever ran into the other room?  Okay, so…wow, you’re…Grenada, you’re on fire.  Grenada, you go in the back.  You follow successfully the path in the dust that the other…whatever ran out of the room ran.  You say it’s something lighter and thinner.  Maybe just a animatronic without a suit on?  It definitely crawled through the servers and through the door that…but you look and you say I’m not comfortable crawling through there.  Okay, can I listen and see what I see?  Okay, you listen and you definitely hear some faint…you sense that there’s something not that far away, but you can’t really hear anything else.  [01:10:00] Okay, can I reinforce this?  I’m gonna leave some presents for anybody that would come through on us.  Okay, you’re successful at doing that.  Okay, and now I return to my party.  Hey everybody, I’m…I said something, so nothing should come through that room and surprise us, ideally.

 

But I’m thinking we should…we’re gonna have to be very cautious on our next move.  You know that there’s a hallway, then there’s a locker room.  It’s a two-way locker room, so the locker room comes in here so you could get your wardrobe and then get back to the locker room.  I think it was a big loop.  Maybe this server room was added or there’s some other thing, but there’s a doorway and if that door is closed, maybe I could sneak in and…there’s something.  Sounds like whoever…they know we’re here, basically.  We don’t have a healer, so we should probably come up with a plan.  Yeah, we should, but let’s…why don’t we take a break?  You guys can’t rest as characters but you could take a break as characters and contemplate what your next move is going to be.  Okay, that sounds fair.  Thanks everybody, and thanks for apologizing, Eleanor.  No problem, Zell.  Do you want to talk about it?  Okay, thanks everybody.  Goodnight.  Let’s all take our break.

 

[END OF RECORDING]

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