666. A Fool’s Errand⁠, Episode 2

[MUSIC] What's up, Heroes? It's me, your host Dylan, back with another episode of One Shot and part two of A Fool's Arand. In this episode, we're going to fully properly get into the game itself. And the magically puritanical world that we built definitely leads to a lot of good vaguely saucy and sometimes not so vaguely saucy bits that I really loved. I really love playing in a world that you and your buds literally just created together. There's something so so special about it, so I'm not going to waste any time. Let's just hop right back into the game. [MUSIC] Crown City. Geometrical, high rises stand a Twix metallic, symmetrically patterned modern castles. Notorious for its lack of green space. Citizens rarely remove their sunglasses due to the brilliant glare from metallic facades. Though Crown City has produced admirable civil servants and lucrative mergers and acquisitions, it has equally produced its share of corruption and bureaucratic labyrinths that even the most seasoned politicos have taken years to escape. And be aware, these labyrinths are sometimes literal. In a world where the sun and the star endeavored to make night longer, in order for people to find that joy of hedonism, search what they've been seeking and indulge in it. Crown City rejects that. It is bright all the time. When the sun starts to set, the buildings become a light. There is never a break from constant reminders that the world is the way that it is. [MUSIC] Boss and young scrumbo, where do you spend your time these days? Because I imagine that works been pretty scant. My only thought was that we spend our time busking a little bit. Like, I, just sort of like, I show like informative videos or like, I don't know, maybe even like a little bit of like a cocoa melon situation to like, you know, keep your kids distracted for a little while while you, you know, run into a meeting or something like that. Like, just something to help people with passing the time or seeing just like the most mundane entertainment possible. It's very soul-crushing and nothing is, nothing happening is really like fun or great. Just slop. And just sort of doing that for like, you know, a couple of credits for Persenbergio on the street. I love that. And I would also pitch that, you know, with the advent of the devil dying, our roles have kind of reversed where I advertise you. Yeah. And like, give people access to the very, very moderate performances and shows that you put on. So like, maybe there's like a curtain that I've installed around you. Yeah. And I just stand on the street and I'm just like, all right, get your entertainment. It's not too entertaining. Come on. We got a boss in here and he's got some really balanced informational tame. Viewing pleasure, but not too much pleasure. Anyway, hey, you with the sunglasses. Oh, shoot, we all wear sunglasses. Yeah. It's probably been tough, hey. Yeah. It's been tough to get anybody's attention. Yeah. And I think it's like, it's a situation where it's like, I'm, you know, boss's miserable about it. Does not like this role reversal is sort of just like, yeah, whatever. No, thank you for your payment. Sit down, be quiet, shows on, talk through it or don't. I don't care. And then when it's over like every single time almost comes back up to you. And it's like, I hate this. You should not be doing this for me. I am not the artist. I am, I am the connoisseur. I know, I know. You know, and I miss you connoisseuring me. And I want that back. And I just, you know, I know that you're nervous about it. But this prophecy and this dream, I really think it means something. And I don't know. I think maybe we should get the old team back together. I don't even know what it means. It like could mean anything. And like, it's not like, again, I'm not smart. I just know what art is good. And you were good at it. I can't like, I can't do it. We were great. We were great. Well, you know what, if you think there's something there, I'm gonna follow the thread and everything. When I boss, when I think about that thing that you got in your pocket, I get all warm inside. And I just feel like things could be okay again or at least a little bit whony sometimes. Are you feeling sick? You feel warm? No, it's like a good warm. It's like, let's follow this thing to where it leads. And maybe we'll have a little fun again. Oh, okay, when I pick it up, I just feel kind of warning. Yes, same. Oh, I'm so glad to hear you say that. That's the same. Oh, okay. All right, cool. So cool. So I should not throw it out. No, oh my god. No, instead follow it. Yes. But don't let me hold it. I'm afraid of what I'll do if I get my hands on it. Thank you, sir, for coming. Remember, Devils, I'll really you. Anyway, you got contact information for arrival. And 90G, right? Yeah. I mean, unless they've, you know, done something new and exciting and they've decided to like, you know, back up and go on some grand adventure, which obviously is unlikely. No, I know for a fact that 90G ratted out like their entire office building or their entire speak easy. And now they're working in an office building. And now basically everybody that we used to work with thinks that they're a knock. I thought that was a rumor. Like, I don't know. That's what I've been hearing. Ooh, Blake. Nightingale, we find you at the end of a work day 8 p.m. in one of the office buildings. I think that shifts tend to last maybe 12 to 14 hours because what else is there to do these days? And I truly believe that even after closing nightingale, nobody calls them 90G anymore. No one's fucking here. Nightingale makes a point to say an extra hour, not out of dedication to the company, but because they know what's spoken of behind their backs and they don't need to, they don't need to experience that in the parking lot. They can just, they can just wait it out. Yeah. I think kind of as you're about to wrap up your supervisor boss comes around and is like, so I'll see you tomorrow and it's Friday today. And everyone is very excited to come in on Saturday. Well, I was kind of wondering if there was any chance that, you know, one day off isn't too bad. Why? I mean, why would you need a day off? We have so many reports to get done. And you know, I love me my reports, but you know, I just think, I just think, you know, the kind of can I be honest with you boss? What's your boss's name? Supervisor. And they wear a visor. Yeah, really good. Yeah, they're one of the like clear green visors, like old accountants or whatever. And supervisor at the sudden display of like potential vulnerability and asking, can I talk to you immediately looks so uncomfortable? And they're like, sure. All right, well, I'm going to, hmm, I'm going to direct this at you, but I'm going to look in other direction so that you don't feel that you need to make eye contact with me. Is that better? Thank you so much. Yeah, you are. And I'm actually going to just turn around and receive it like that if that's okay. We can do this back to back. Yeah, great. No, back's not touching. Yeah, no, no, no touching. Cool, cool. I'm just going to turn around in my spinny chair. Go ahead, I can hear you. Give Mr. Viser. I just think that everybody around the office is real uptight lately. And I think that a day off would help us cool out a little bit. You know, just chill out. Just go home and rest. Just a little bit, not too much. You know, someone more daring might suggest a bonding activity, but I don't think that we can do any of that anymore. I don't think that's legal anymore. Um, so I think if everybody just sort of, can I curse it? I've been cursed in the whole time. If everyone just sort of, if everyone just sort of chills the fuck out a little bit, I think one day off was fine. You hear the shuffling of, oh no, of supervisor slowly turning around. And there's this moment where it just like takes a while. And you can tell that there's a lot of thought put into this. And they shuffle around and he sort of like meets you eye to eye. And he's just like bonding activity, but that's what we're doing. We're doing the reports and, and it feels good. to be accomplished and it feels good to have a purpose. And isn't that what it's all about? - Yeah, no, I hear you, but like when we do our reports, we're all looking at our computer monitors and it's real private and it's real quiet clandestine, like don't you just love it when you get distracted by a fly and you look over your monitor and you make just a second of eye contact with somebody else? - A pregnant pause. Before supervisor straightens up, looks at you and says, I'll see you tomorrow. - Yeah, boss. - And walks away. - And I think as they finish up their work, they, you know, everybody wears this sort of like, uniform to the office and there's a little moment of night and get going to like their work locker and pushing past two or three versions of like the same uniform jacket that they keep here that are perpetually dry cleaned by the business so that nobody has any excuse to not wear them. And they just push back and there's, what 10 years ago was like a beautiful like feathered scarf, like feather boa. That is at this point, just a little necklace string with one little pink feather on it and they just take it, clasp it around there and I can just tuck it into their circuitry and they're like clothes as they walk out. Avoiding eye contact, but desperately hoping that someone strikes up a conversation. - Oh, scandal. - Oh, I think that it's hard for you to miss the two buskers on the corner of the street at the base of your building. - Stop, double take. - Oh, hello, you interested in some very, very, very neutral and informational entertainment? It's all about four. - Wait a second. - Yeah, it's 90G, what are you doing? - Wait a second. - I'm not gonna have 90G watch this garbage. Are you kidding me? - Is that 90? They look so-- - I mean, yeah, it's brushed around the soul like the rest of us, but that's for sure, them in there. - What happened to all your feathers? You were so gorgeous. - Well, I was about to play, I was gonna play with y'all and say no, I would love to see this show, but now you brought my feather into it, just pull out the little feather necklace. - It is you. Oh, my God. - Oh, my God. - We were just talking about-- - Wow, look at that. - Okay, get in behind the curtain. - I'll cover that up real quick. - Okay, you were talking about me. I'm not a nark. I swear, please, don't let it be about that, but-- - Well, I don't care how much you know. - I said it was a rumor. Did you hear that? Y'all, I told you. - I didn't, I didn't nark. I will never do that. - I'm sorry. - I hear what I hear, and that's just what I hear. - I know. - I'm sorry, I shouldn't know you better, but everything's changed so much. I mean, you used to get me the best, biggest money, customers ever, and you tell me everything about them. You'd set us up, and then you'd sing us a little tune on stage, and it just made me so-- - I can't do that no more. - It's highlighted. Don't, sorry, it's highlighted. - I don't think half that word's allowed anymore either. (laughing) - And the gossip was good. - I've been to perfect gossip for a decade. They don't ever talk in that often. - The gossip was so good. Boss, tell them what you got. - They don't tell me, not-- - The gossip was good. - I don't know what they're married. I don't know if they got children. I don't know about nobody's divorces as well. - Oh my God, what would they even talk about in there? - Do you at least get some prolonged eye contact a few times a day? - I just floated the idea to my supervisor about the idea of a brief second of eye contact, and he ran away so fast, you swear. He was being titillated. Like, absolutely not. - Oh my God, I'm gonna throw up. - It's bad, it's bad, help me. - Well, we got a little proposal for you, 90G. How's about you have a new boss now? And it's me, and we're going on a little trip, and I can't pay you. I got no money, and I got pretty much nothing to offer you, and I've got pretty much a hard drive full of stinking garbage for you to watch, but I do keep a couple of old favorites on a flash drive that I can't show you right now, but if we get on the road and we figure out, I got this thing, I got this thing, and I don't really know what it means, but Yum has a really good feeling about it, so we're gonna sort of follow it, I guess. Nighty could be like the old days. - You all had me before I even pulled out the feather, quite honestly, and don't worry about paying me. This supervisor says that we work for the pleasure of supporting growing the company. I don't even know what the company does. - It's pretty bleak, yeah, it's pretty bleak. - Arrival. We find you on the sidewalks of Crown City, because I'm sure that you've got another letter to deliver. God, do people pay for these letters to be delivered? - In one way or another. You hear what sounds like a violin that's given up as much as all of you, but in reality, it's just my wheel as it's slowly turning. Looking down, there's about a half inch groove in the concrete 'cause I've been this way before. It's pretty easy to tell where I've been before. And I try not to peek, it could be seen as something that's too much, that's too much for me, but I like to peek at the letters before I delivered them. It's almost like it's easy to tell where the city's at by reading these letters over the last 10 years. And I open this one and unfold it and all it says is, you're my wife with a period. (laughing) And that's about where we are right now. So I folded up and the squeaky violin continues and my eyes kind of water a steam from loose shoulder joint shoots upward and stings them a little bit. I'm not crying, it just hurts. And I just continue on the path in front of me 'cause what else is there to do? You are? - I'm losing it at like-- - You are is too forceful, there's too much passion. - Even the conjunction of your my wife is a little scandalous. Like I feel like normally it's you are my wife. (laughing) The contraction is pushing it. - The contraction, yeah, yeah. (laughing) - But we have a whole comma between us. - Arrival as you wheel through the city, there's like a massive billboard which once was filled with advertisements of perfume and food and clothes. And all of these ads were like very much emphasized by just how good it looked to consume and have these things. - What does the billboard have on it now, this flashing like digital billboard? - Well, you can tell it's one of those kind of progressive companies because they have a variety of human and Android altogether showing like a family unit. And it says on the top, you could have this and then at the bottom it says, or you failed. (laughing) - Tom, love is in the air. And you wheel through the city and I think that you perhaps recognize some familiar faces because I guess we didn't quite establish this but like, oh, but you did work at this club, right? 10 years ago? Okay, so yeah, I don't know how long it's been but you run into some people that you know and there's a curtain and you see it night and gale going into it to receive whatever's behind that curtain. - And this might be a normal moment for most but for a rival, you see him hop or it hop slightly to pull his wheel outside of this groove that he's in so they can turn to the left and move towards this curtain. The first of a long line of small betrayals I like to allow myself during the day. I feel bad about him later but the heart inside of me is decrepit and dead so I don't feel that bad about it. - And I turn and follow 90G as Shirley as the star follows the sun. - Oh, damn, you have to pay to come in here, oh. - We've both paid enough, yum. - Oh my god, wow, your heart is shriveled. - It's not like, it's not the first thing I noticed a rival. It's, I promise it's not, I noticed it but I didn't, it's not the first thing. I'm so good to see you buddy. - Well it's good to see you too. - All right, it is great to see you. I honestly, what I'm not ashamed to say my first thought was damn, still alive. (laughing) - And that is with the other suspect. - That's the first thing I say every morning but with like a sadder tone to it. - Oh yeah. - I'm so sorry for saying it to you. - And like twice and the second time is softer and more morose. - Yeah, well you know it. - That's so sad because when you used to say it, it was like, still alive. And now you just seem like totally over it. - Good to see you again, yum. So the whole, did we all just meet here on purpose, on accident? - I got picked up from work. - Do you have a letter for me? - Are you anyone's wife? - I could be, if it's dirty enough. - No, I don't. - It's been so long since I got one of your dirty letters. She's not, she's not anyone's. one's wife. No one. No one has done the wife scenario in 12 years. I love the wife scenario. I know me too. That was the last one I set up to. It all starts and ends with wifey. But we'll wait. God, I hope they're still together. Don't you think this is like something? It's like, you know, we talk about this thing and like there's like a calling or like a like a polar of pushover of something and then the prophecy G shows up and the rival shows up. Like we were about to go looking for you too. I mean, my groove goes right past here every day. Okay. So we weren't looking very hot, but we were about to start and I'll work here. And we again, we weren't looking yet. We were about to if we had started, I'm sure we would have noticed that you worked right here and that you come by this road all the time every day. Yeah. Also, Nidee, I thought you were a knock and I was like, we better stay away from them. All right. I heard that too. That's apparently the now. Let's lay this out clear. All right. Who here thinks I'm an arch. Why? Okay. Who here has heard that I was an arch? Yeah, right here. I heard. I heard. I heard it from you. I heard it from you and also a lot of other people. I will allow three questions to clear the air. I am not an arch. Okay. Who shut the club down? I don't know. The fun police. They just sort of, they just sort of came in and they were like, yo, I haven't too much fun. People are about to have sex. We can't be having that. So they all said, no, no, no, shut it down. Oh, that reminds me. Nidee, gee, I have one for you. And I hand you a small letter that just says you're an arch with a heart next year. I lied it to the collection. Thank you. So I got a question. Nidee, gee, did you or did you not tell the fun police that people were about to have sex? Well, see, that's an interest in one because when they came in, they came in and guns. I feel like you can't be in here. You can't be in here. Things are happening. And they were like, what things? And I said, you get all things. So I feel like there was an implication of sex, but they were already here to bust the place. They knew that they were bustin' the bustin'. Okay. Okay. So like a circumstantial knock. Right. Here's where the rumors may be came from. Okay. It's like if someone says, someone goes into a bakery and says, give me all you got. And you say, we only got bread. What the fuck do they expect to find there? Sounds like you're in a tough Nidee, gee, spot. Go ahead. Yeah. So you're not a nut because there wasn't more options. So boss, you said you had something you wanted to show us from your dreams. Oh my God. Yeah. Do you guys want to watch some of Yum's old videos? No, wait, sorry. This is the other thing. Oh my God, can we put them on my old videos? No. We can put them on in the background. We'll calm the energy down. Put on the popsicle one. That one's my favorite. Oh my God. Okay. So, all right. What I really wanted to show you is this. It sort of fell, I guess. I found it. I was walking around out in the dirt. There was like a massive crater. And I thought maybe I don't know something interesting would be in there. And so I was looking around because there was literally nothing better to do. And all I could find was this kind of little thing. And boss pulls out of his pocket a like kind of really twisted metal like illustrated star shaped objects, but like the star points are all kind of wiggly and wobbly like they're curved in places. But it still has that five point thing. And it's in like this sort of hollow metal work shape. So I found this thing. And it, I don't know, young can kind of understand, can explain this better maybe, but like it feels weird when you, like our near it, like I don't know, it feels like it's, it's making my heart feel heavy and, and also anxious. And it, it makes me feel like I got to move really fast. But I'm not really sure where or how, but young things we could figure it out maybe. I just like when you take that thing out, it just makes me want to rip my clothes off and throw myself onto a pile of tree boats like I used to. Yeah. Yeah. Are you, are you also getting this feels I can introduce someone new to the club and just being like, Hey, this is a place where you can unwind a little. Oh, I miss this feeling. Yeah. Yeah. Can, can we touch it? Well, gums afraid to touch it arrival, but you can totally touch it. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. Touch it. Please. There's the small sounds of steam as his hand opens. And it doesn't hold it for long, unnaturally short before returning it back to you. And it, it, it seems fine. But behind the eyes, there's a strangeness because they're pretty sure they felt something shift in a place that's been dead for quite some time. But he gives it back to you quickly and say, yeah, I don't know. That's, it's a different type of love letter there. I don't think you're supposed to have that. Oh, I'm so not supposed to have. Okay. I just want to make sure you knew I didn't want to accidentally have anyone knock on you just because they were asked if you had this. Yeah. No, that's why we're behind the curtain. And, and, and it's okay. No, we're in this together now. And the thing is, is that, all right, I also had this sort of dream, right? I had this sort of dream. I don't think you're supposed to have those. Do you dream of electric sheep? I, I know. I know I'm not supposed to have those, but I had one anyway. And I sort of like felt, I sort of felt like there was something more to this thing than what it seems. And like, I gotta be like the light. Okay. Tell me if this makes sense to you. But like the light. Yeah. We got to turn it on. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't know what that means. But I know that it has, I know it has to do with this little star thing. And maybe if we figure that out, you know, there will probably be more questions. 90G. You've got a question for us. This is Apollo, actually. Hello. Oh, how about Apollo? Hey guys, how'd it be here? I know the way you've established it like way away is somewhat known as like a place that exists in the world. What are characters known of way away? Honestly, I would love to eat in a small zone. I'd love if like if you had a reason to know about it, please like run with that. Unless you're asking like the rest of the table from my, from my point of view, I'm like, I think it's fun. If you're like, I heard of this place. I think I'd love to do that. I think I would love to see because I think 90G as someone that has been so thoroughly slandered. Yeah. Would definitely want to, would definitely be the type of person I've got. I wish I could run away. Where could I go? Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to the mid-roll heroes. If you are liking the sound feel of this game, I would highly encourage you to head to the show notes and grab a copy, whether it's the digital version or the physical version. There's so much beautiful artwork in here by B that makes it even more worthwhile on top of the fact that it's just a great game. This is not a sponsored one shop by the way. I just really think it's a great game that you should check out and play. We're going to go ahead and hear a few quick ads and then get right back to it. Okay. I'm trying to see if there's any abilities I can use to this. Oh, do you want to try to make a check about it to see what you might know? I think I know about way away. I'd love to make a check to see how much I know about way away. Well, take a look at your skills in the bottom left hand of your character sheet. If anything feels like that might be appropriate, you might try to, you can get really abstract with this. By the way, I'll take any pitch as long as it sounds interesting and fun. I'd love when I'm looking at it. I'm seeing analyze. Maybe I'd love to just sort of examine the wayfinder and see, you know, feeling that the little warmth feeling. Yeah, totally. I think it feels like being a lizard on a rock on the sun, what that must feel like. I'm thinking, God, I wish in trying to see if I get beautiful if energy can make the mental connection of that feeling and what indulgence and he didn't use to feel like and where could that still be found? Yeah, I love this because there's a few skills on this list into it and soothe even that ask you to connect with yourself internally and analyze puts it all up in the brain. You're just putting literal pieces of facts together to try to put this together. I think that's really interesting. What is your limit score on the far right side of your skills for analyze? It is eight. Great. So, what I want you to do is draw the top card from your play deck. And if it's an eight or lower, this is a success. - That is a six. - A. - Great. Okay, so started discard pile, don't put it back and put that face up next to it. Yeah, you analyze your way into this and you're trying to like, just put some pieces together about way away, which is a place that you know of. You know it as this haven. But I think that like this, the new piece of information here is that there's, maybe it's that the wayfinders are real. I think that maybe there had been some like rumors of wayfinders that you might have heard of in search of like, there must be something more out there and maybe hearing about it. But like, they're probably really rare. They've got to be really rare. I mean, this is the key to getting back to the way things were and it's real and you're in the presence of one. And this is huge implication wise. So first of all, there is a way back and way away is a haven, yes. But what if we could take the wayfinder and make here and now a haven to? There is potentially a place in which you can bring this wayfinder where it will, as mentioned before, turn on a light and that seems to be in a city that is always shining, seems to be what's missing. There's a musician next to me whenever thing happened. And I remember feeling light-headed like the world was spinning and then I stepped outside and I saw the shooting stars and the musician next to me said, it was in some sort of trance and they said, "The devil is dead in way away." And I thought, "Okay, that's a beautiful song." But then I heard more things about way away all these years and it's the one little piece of gossip I've been able to hold on to. We can, I never went myself because I can't leave the city, it's home, but there's stories of a place where we can go and we can have fun again. And I heard the word wayfinder before something that you need a light to show the way. I think that's this boss. I think we can find our way somewhere better. I think there's still hope somewhere. - Thank you. - You're welcome, yeah. I'm on your side, yeah, always. I just, we need to bring this somewhere. - All right, all right. - Sorry, I'm so sorry I believed you were enough. - I'm a yeah, I probably said things that I shouldn't have. - Okay, but now's the time to say more because if we leave, maybe we find nothing. So what is it about this light? Like the dream didn't really come with instructions or anything, just sort of, that was kind of it. - Well, I mean, you don't know about coming with instructions, high five, boom. - Oh my god, it dirty joke. Okay, careful with that. You're gonna bring the heat down on it. - Oh, sorry, I'm feeling good, but not too good. - Not the curtains close. - Nightingale, let me put this on the table for you. Do you are, you are in the presence of something that could bring a lot of metaphorical light and maybe that light could be a little bit literal. And again, you're in a city that shines almost constantly. What is the darkest place around here that you can think of? - Oh, the like basement, financial record office that I work in, the like the very bottom level of it because they never throw away their files, even past the like amount of years where they can't be asked for any more for audit purposes. - I have keys because I often leave late so they let me have keys so that I can lock up the building. How about we get this wayfinder out of all this light and we just let it shine itself? - Exactly. - You think that'll work? - You might give us a direction. - Okay, well, I mean, how strict is your office? I mean, they're just gonna let us walk in there or-- - Well, I have a key. - Oh my god, and I have an incredible wardrobe. I'm referring to my fine clothing ability where I can dress everybody so that they can like-- - Oh, that's cool. - Well, at least one person so that they can slip into like any company. - Oh, I love when we use the mechanics, isn't it good? - And he also just wanted to ask arrival, boss had this dream and-- - I don't think they're supposed to have that. - I know, I know, look, I know, I know, I know, okay. But you know, there was this voice that kind of started speaking to me over the next few days and it kind of started mentioned in this prophecy, you know, bring light to the darkness, find way away, bring way away to you. It was all kind of confusing, but I'm just wondering if there's been any letters that might allude to any of this because, well, I mean, there was mention of like a messenger. - With a steamy sigh, but not in the good way, it pulls out a couple envelopes and just starts scanning through the things that have gathered at the bottom of the mechanical satchel that it carries. Like maybe these were attempted at doors multiple times, but nobody was there. So arrivals just walking around with them. - You know, I can always seal them up again. Let's take a look, yum. Dinners tonight, I saw you today. - Ooh, that one's pushin' it. - Dad, and then a question mark mom and then another one dad with an exclamation mark. I think they're fighting, but then there's this one and it just says we'll always have way away. - Okay, who is it from? - Let's take a look. This looks like it was Sebastian Donner. Sebastian Donner? - I don't know. - Sebastian Donner. - Couldn't find him. Supposed to live at a mechanic shop, there was just a mechanic there. Couldn't even buy other mechanics at the mechanic shop. It was lousy. - Nighty, doesn't your company have like all kinds of contracts with mechanics? - Yeah, we mainly just source a lot of really complicated parts and send them to other places. I don't think we make anything. I think we just move things. - Okay, here's what I'm thinking, okay? Here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking maybe that record room you mentioned, that's all dark. Might have some records of a mechanic named, what was his name? - Sebastian Donner. - Sebastian Donner. - Sebastian Donner? So I mean, if we're following the breadcrumbs here, boss gets the wayfinder. I get this vision. You are working at a company that has contracts with mechanics. Arrivals got this letter about way away from a mechanic. Maybe we go into the darkness and see if we can find a little piece of light that leads us to the Sebastian Donner. - I didn't write the letter. That seems to be their name. - Well, does it say who it was from? - No, that's usually extra. People don't really pay that anymore 'cause they just assume whoever they're writing to knows. They're the only person that'll ever write to them. - So this could come from anyone. - Looks like we're gonna have to use the mechanics. (laughing) - That was a slow verdict, I love that. - Yeah, it was for me too, yeah. It was slowly washed over me. (laughing) - Well, we stand outside the building in which Nightingale works. Supposedly, with a basement full of records, records that might lead us to one Sebastian Donner, who writes of a place far away, a haven. And I suppose the thing to do would be to go and get that record, wouldn't it? And I'm certainly trying to find the explanation there and try to justify that. But perhaps the answer is also to go looking in the city for Sebastian Donner. We have a few discrete pieces of information. We have a dark basement and a thing that can light things up. We have a man's name, a person's name, I should say. We have a person's name who knows of a haven. How would you like to proceed in figuring out how to use this object of power? - Tim, how'd it look? - I love the idea of talking to whoever it is that was supposed to receive that letter. Sounds pretty good to me. My only thing is that's bringing another person into this and that is risky. - Coney, oh, risky, yeah. - Nighty-G, it's risky. There are knocks everywhere, not in this room, nighty. I am not accusing you, but there are knocks everywhere. And everybody is kind of, you know, policing each other. And you just never know when you bring a new person in what they're gonna be. So, I mean, my vote, and I'm only metaphorically your boss. So don't take it as an edict. But my vote is that we go check out this dark basement first. - I mean, I do whatever you say, boss. - Yeah, you're the boss, boss. - Yeah, you're the boss. - Okay, all right. I mean, I wasn't fishing for that, but nice catch. (laughing) Then let's nigan. - It's about 9 p.m. Most have left work for the day, but not all, of course. And certainly not the security. guard who sits watch at the little desk, kind of the concierge security mix. Are you just walking in kind of with purpose to go down to the basement? Or I would like to use one of my abilities, please. Oh, I would love that. When we, or maybe like before we fully walk in, I would like to use my wand ability in due sleep. And I would like to put like a very calming paint mixing video on my TV something. I have that broadcast to put this door man security guard to sleep. Beautiful. Okay. So the way that suit abilities work, they're always successful, but basically you draw to see how stressful it's going to be on your body. Got it. Okay. So for a level one suitability, I'll have you draw three cards and which suit is this associated with wands, right? Wands, yes. So for every card that isn't a wand, you'll take one stamina, but this will work. Okay. So I have the nine of wands, the page of cups and the chariot. So I have two that are not. So that's two stamina. Two stamina. The chariot does show up in this. And I'm curious about the way that that manifests as you use this power. First of all, I'll have you mark an obligation track to the chariot because it's, it's just made it self-known. Yes. Okay. Cool. And I just want to see what the, what the tenants are for the chariot. So will power victory and overcoming obstacles. Geez. That feels really good for the situation. Yeah. I think that you play this very calming video on and I think that like there's this moment where you walk into the building and this person's like, what a huge thing. And then just like kind of head slumps down on the desk. Yeah. The obstacle has been overcome. It was simply that this was going to be someone who needed to report what you were doing. It doesn't have to anymore. However, what do you find that might help you in this journey that's on their desk. Oh, like comical key ring full of like just many keys. Yeah. It's gotta be right. Yeah. And you unclass that from the, the like ringed stretchy thing that's attached to the belt and and you place it on your person wherever it may go. And you head to the elevator. Nightingale, you mentioned that like you have, I'm sure you have a key card for this building. Yeah. Absolutely. I also, great. Once we get in, I have an archetypal ability that is literally built for that. It's called paperwork. Okay. Well, here's what I'd like to do. I don't know that the basement is that accessible for like the workers above ground. So I'd like to throw us into an encounter, which basically we'll, we'll take a couple rounds. We'll do draws about it. Everyone can add to the situation as they see fit. And we're tracking how many successes or failure cards that I'm adding to the pile. And by the end of it, I draw one outcome card to determine how this whole thing resolves. And so as we reach the elevator, you can go in any order that you like. And we'll start adding different outcomes to the pile, depending on how this goes. But for now, it seems like the objective is to reach the thing that you're trying to reach, which is the file. Yeah. Yeah. I think the basement. That makes sense. Yeah. The basement. I think the basement is like our, is our goal. Yeah. Step one. Okay. Then let's keep this a short encounter one round. Nightingale, I think it sounds like you might be first up here. How do you want to use your ability for this situation? Paperwork will come, we'll kick in once I'm there. Because it'll, it'll allow me to. Yeah. If you want to wait on it, we can. We'll basically allow me to speed up the process. But if we're first trying to gain access and it looks like boss is taking like a step forward to distract and just to maneuver us through the space, I would love to use my protect your ability shield, which is at the top of an encounter. Choose one person in your party each time they suffer a stamina loss. You may choose to suffer it instead. Oh my God. And who are you choosing with this ability? I think it's boss is leading the way I'll choose boss. What a great ability for your character is someone who was like the vibes manager. Yes. Yeah. It's very good. I think that the way that is my elevator opens that I'm just behind you. Right. Um, there's, there's two security guards. There's Jerry and Tim. Now I don't know what their vibe is, but they do be making eyes at each other. If you know what I mean. So just kind of distract them a little bit with that. We'll be able to slip in. No problem. You got this little pad on the back. Sure. Okay. Um, well. And that is a passive ability. So if you'd like to also make a check about it in this moment, I'm sensing potentially a soothe check with the way that you just handled that. For sure. But I would be open to any other. Yeah. I love a soothe check just to be able to like anticipate and navigate us around anything that might be like too much of a, you know, when you just see someone at work and they look at you and they have the look of don't try me today versus the look of this may as well happen. I'm trying to find that these may well happens in the building. Beautiful. So that nobody stands in my way. It always sends it our way. All right. Give me a soothe check about it. Cool. Cool. Also target is a great. That's a three. Wow. Amazing. Okay. So succeeding all around my next question to you is would you like me to add a aid or a harm card as your outcome card for this encounter? And this doesn't have to represent what you do in this moment. It represents how the outcome will end up like at the end of the encounter. So it's basically just like you're you're investing in how the final part of this encounter plays out. The metagamer in me is like obviously aid. The little, the little shitzer in me is like, what if at the end of this because we've gone through official files, people more associated with overseeing the people keep in line get a little get a little whiff of us. I love a shitzer. I think we're I'm going to add a harm. I'm going to be I'm going to be the drama. Great. So I have placed a swords card in my outcome pile that will represent the harm and we'll draw from it later. But you use your very soothing presence to sort of navigate you through you get into the elevator. You start to go down. Who else would like to add to this encounter? Have Tim and Jerry been dealt with? No, certainly not. You've been heard. You've heard of Tim and Jerry. Okay. Tim and Jerry are making eyes at each other. I heard. I hate to do this. I really hate to do this. It goes against everything I believe in. Whoa. But I would love to use fine clothing, which is a pass of ability. You know how to dress be can comport yourself in a way that would convince even royalty you belong in their company. Can I dress like the fun police? Yeah. Oh. And this is going to give me plus one to a skill modifier. And I would love to draw. Let's see. And let me let me set the stage here for that. You go into the elevator and I think I think what you know here at Nightingale is that the files that you're looking for are probably going to be on floor like negative 10. Your clearance gets you to floor like negative negative five, but negative six because you have the ring of keys that you got from the sleeping security guy. Oh, okay. Yeah. We can get one lower. Yeah. You can get one lower six. So you get down to negative six. The doors open and you see are actually like maybe as you're heading down, you know that you're about to encounter Jim and Tim and Jerry and Tim. Jerry and Tim. Jerry and Tim. Sorry. Yeah. 90G knocked him out to us. I melded them. Okay. You're about to encounter Jerry and Tim. So I'm like furiously getting changed in the elevator. I put on God, what would the fun police look like? I feel like they've got one of those like reflective vests on. That's like paint. So it's like really high viz. And then just like the equivalent of like a UPS driver's outfit with like, you know, the shorts, the summertime outfit. And then a bowler cap on top because that makes it look official. And I'm just like, I'm just rubbing every ounce of makeup off my face and like kind of crying a little bit. This is just so outside of how I would normally express myself and then I gather myself. And I go out and I wear the minus sixth floor. Yeah. Okay. I'm like Jerry, Tim. Yeah, that's me and also me. I am fun police officer strictly. I'm sure that you were given warning of my arrival. We received reports that we've got some desire and fun going on at the minus 10th level of your basement. And I'm here to determine whether it's your fault. Oh, okay. I play a little siren, uh, boop, boop from my daily easy partner. We don't know if it's their fault yet. As you can see, me, we are very serious about this. Jerry and Tim look at each other kind of frantically and be like, we didn't hear anything about this. And I'm sure that we would have heard from the higher floors if there was someone, if there was any problem, what skill are you using here? I would love to use a commune check. Okay. And I'm going to be drawing nine or under because of my my fine clothing. Talk me through commune in the scenario. Well, they're a higher echelon than me. They're, they're Jerry and Tim. And I'm communing with them in the sense that like I am here on official fund police business. And I mean, I guess I could also do like I could pitch you on a suit as in like They don't need to have orders from above. I'm the fun police. You can take me down to level minus 10 right now because it might be your fault. - Either way makes sense to me. - Either way, okay, I'm gonna do communion then. I'm gonna cheese it and do communion and draw it nine under. - Yeah, why not? Okay, huge. - You don't need to hear from above. That's not how this works. You know this isn't how it works. And if it wasn't your fault, you would know that. I drew an eight. - Ooh, nice. - One under. Okay, and you picture to them as like, they need to let you down to the 10th floor because. - Well, you are the people who are guarding the way down to the 10th floor. I've been receiving reports of eyes being made at each other. And I've also been receiving reports of fun happening on the minus 10th floor. So if it's your guys' job to keep people from getting to the minus 10th floor and you make an eyes at each other, then maybe whatever's going down on the minus 10th floor is your fault. I'm just trying to determine whether it's your fault or not. We know the fun is happening. And if you cooperate with us, then you might, hey, hey, it's okay. It's okay. And I'm going to pretend to be like holding boss back. Don't do this. That's the crazy. Okay, they'll, they will go nuts so on. - I'm so, I'm so just, you know, I let me add them. - Hey, settle down. - Settle down. It's okay, we got this, we got this. Anyway, you want to deal with me. - Well, we don't want to deal with anybody. I haven't had fun in 10 years. And I've been very careful about making sure that there is no fun, there's only files down there. I, I, but look, it's, it's okay. Jerry, Tim, stop making eyes at each other. - I think I'm going to. - If you take us down to the basement, we can take care of the fun. - We were making eyes, we were making eyes. We were just, we were just like, they both look away from each other really suddenly. Nothing's, we're happening. Nothing. - I'm going to just kind of like pop out behind the arm. - Guys, it's okay. Unarked a little bit. - You are making eyes at each other. I've seen it. You can't deny it. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's not like that. - This is a number one knock, 90G. - What, and, and, and. - They call my knocky tree. - There's nothing to see here. And I'm sure that if you go down to the 10th floor, would, we only have clearance to the 8th floor, but by happy to get you down there. And I'm sure that you'll find that there's been no fun. And we had nothing to do with it, right? We're all good here. We can get you down to the 8th floor and everything's good. - If 8th is the best, you can do it. - I would like to play the intro theme to the love boat. (laughing) - No, no, no, no, no, it was nothing like that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no - No, no, no, no, no, no, it's fine, we're just, it's just been the two of us down here for like 10 years and I told you they I lose cannon. You put up bring us down there. I think Jerry stands up and fishes out a key card from his pocket and hands it over and it's just like, look please, I need this job. - I'm putting down in my file that there would no eyes being made and that we were granted passage to the minus 8th floor. But not by us or by us, whatever looks better. - Whichever do you want. - You want it to be by you. - I'm so stressed out right now. - You were cooperative, you were measured. - Yeah, that was measured, I was cooperative. - You let us down to the minus 8th floor. - Yeah, because you needed to go because you were, I became, he just kind of fumbles first words a little bit and then like walks over to the elevator presses the 8th floor button and he's just like, all right, thanks for dropping by. - Remember, devil, I really, you, never forget. - The subset of one shot uses the following music, joystack by Ian Kiloski, cash car by transputor in the mood by Rave. - Sound effects used were from Soundstripe or Made in House. The subset of one shot was edited and sound designed by Shot Lake Mono. You can find more of our work by visiting Shot Lake dot com. That's S-H-A-G-H-I-K dot com. - Thank you so much for listening here, O's. Because unfortunately, it remains relevant. I'm going to continue directing all of my friends, but especially my US friends to the show notes for a link to some resources to help you get better acquainted with your rights and the rights of your neighbors when it comes to encountering ice in your neighborhoods. - So stay safe and continue to communicate with your community in real life and I will be back next week with part three of a fool's errand. - As always, thank you to the wonderfully generous people who support one shot on Patreon. But if you want to support the show in a non-monetary way, it is as simple as just talking about the show. Tell your friends about the show, rate, or leave a review, or tag us on socials and tell us your thoughts. For updates and one shot news, please follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok at Superdylan. That's S-U-P-E-R-D-I-L-L-L-I-N, or check for updates on our website at oneshotpodcast.com. For information about ad rates, live appearances, commissioning episodes, or a general comment, please message me at [email protected]. Again, that's D-I-L-L-I-N. Finally, the music creeping up behind me is Adventure by Be Your Own Pet, courtesy of Infinity Cap Records. I can't wait to have you back for our next adventure heroes. [Music]