The crew learns about their haul, levels up and visits Nio Cimbalon.
Listen, I'm not trying to tell you what to do with your life but the latest arc of @funcityventures has a giant dying alien commandant who quotes William Blake, and a purple Pierce Brosnan with bugs for a beard. So, y'know... get in here!
https://funcity.ventures/episode/float-city-1-ah-sun-flower/
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Support the show at http://patreon.com/funcityventures
Share the show with your friends! https://funcity.ventures
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Find more about Stillfleet at https://stillfleet.com
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@funcityventures is the show on twitter
@funcityventures is the show on instagram
@bijanstephen is Remy, the Sleeper (human) Blooder
@randwiches is Merkis, the Jalasti Banshee
@nicholasguercio is Vynos, the Conscript (human) Tremulant
and @shodell is Beta, the Shoodtha Pir
@taylordotbiz is Oat (Harajoon recruit) and Brandish Tamm (Brandish Tamm!)
@mikerugnetta is everything else
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This episode of Float City was recorded in various locations across Brooklyn New York. It was produced, edited and sound designed by Mike Rugnetta.
Pitying, he dropped a tear / Pixlriffs saw a glow-worm, near
Our music is by Sam Tyndall - https://arpline.bandcamp.com/
Remy's flute playing is by Jake Fridkis - https://instagram.com/flutebros
Our art is by Tess Stone - http://notdrunkenough.com/
Our Discord mods are Olivia Gulin, Kit Pulliam and Kestrel
The voice of Artemis is Molly Templeton
--
CC-BY LICENSED SFX Used in this Episode:
https://freesound.org/people/tosha73/sounds/509902/
https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/484470/
[00:00:00] [Intro Music]
Molly Templeton / Artemis:
“In the far future, faster than light travel is possible via portals called Stiffworks. Human and alien civilizations travel this way for millenia. Trade, war, and technology proliferate. Countless societies rise, thrive, fall, and vanish. Eventually, almost everyone forgets the secrets of the Stiffworks. Almost.
“Three hundred years ago, the Worshipful Company of Stillfleeters is formed on Spindle, a space station of unknown origin. They send fleeters into the void using Stiffworks, in search of profit. It is one hundred million years in the future. Welcome to Float City.”
Previously, on Float City: the crew is sent to Rigamont-B to collect the vasular multiobject from the dying Baas Aanverder Lehrer. They witness her death at the hands of a terrifying, extra-dimensional entity and abscond with her priceless armaments. En route to Spindle, they battle a void elf laying waste to a provincial town--a void elf they freed from the Aanverder’s prison. For this trouble, they’re brought to the Saffron Anax, the local trade lord who says they must snoopily investigate one Zeshdano Navelle, a Co. Archivist holding up a trade deal of his on the planet Kakudun. If they refuse, the Anax will break his three-century contract with the Co. and blame the crew’s elf-troubles.
Back on Spin, the team remits their spoils to Brandish Tamm, an item-appraiser, and files their paperwork with their refactor Algar, who is wildly impressed with their haul. They are rewarded with guilder, promotions, and a recruit: the Harajoon Oat, who they, unknown to Algar, also freed from the Aanverder’s prison. We join the team now, having just left Oat at the bar Zona, after a round of Dronk. They approach Brandish Tamm’s item-filled room-blob, hoping he has some fresh insight into their treasure trove of archaetech.
[Theme Music]
Mike Rugnetta / GM:
[Theme Music Concludes]
Taylor Moore / Brandish Tamm: “Oh hello, I’m Brandish T--ooh, you people? Listen: this was a lot of stuff! And I worked quick to get it all figured out for you. No small task for me,
Brandish Tamm [laughter]. Now you gotta pay me something--200 guil--or, or, I--don’t look at me like that!--OR, you let me pick one of these things and I keep it. That’s your options: whaddaya wanna do?”
Bijan Stephen / Remy: Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Jenn de la Vega / Merkis:
Mike / GM:
Shannon Odell / Beta:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Shannon / Beta:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Shannon / Beta:
“That wasn’t our agreement, if I recall correctly, Brandish Tamm.”
“OOOH, it wasn’t our agreement? Well who’s got the objects now? Are you gonna report me to your refactor? Oh I’m scared. [laughter] Oh Brandish Tamm is scared.”
As he’s talking, Merkis is, like, reacting like this is way too loud, because he has a hangover. [laughter]
Mmm.
Beta’s kind of, like, looking over at Remy like: “Craft Basis Holder never really changes the rules on me...” [laughter]
Yeah. I think, I think Remy is, Remy’s a little mad. He’s, you know, like, he’s like, you know “this--we had an agreement.”
“Yeah!”
“Brandish Tamm, we had an agreement. Yeah, and you’re--”
“You were gonna--look--No! you were gonna let me look at the cool shit, and you took it away! You took away--”
“You saw it!”
“You didn’t let me--”
“You saw it.”
“I got to see it, but I want to inspect it! Things like that come once, but once in this single life we are given!”
um...Beta--
“You took it away from me, so no deal. I want pay!”
Beta, uh, turns to the group and kind of pulls out fifty guilder and is like: “Well, are we gonna do this, or what?”
Bijan / Remy:
Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Mike / GM: Jenn / Merkis: Bijan / Remy:
Jenn / Merkis:
“I mean, I could eat him.” Remy’s turned around, and like, and talking to the group. [Beta sighs] He’s like: “I could eat him. He’s--he probably--I mean, you know, it wouldn’t, I don’t know what the rules are on Spin, but...” [laughter]
Uh, strictly against eating other people! Yeah.
Yes, that would be frowned upon. Hmm...
Do you say that out loud, Remy? Do you say “I could eat him”? Yes. One hundred percent.
Alright. You hear an electric and sort of mechanical hum and spin and rattle sound from behind you, and you see that Brandish Tamm’s hand is under the counter. And--
Just give the man 200 guil!
And he says--
It’s a reasonable price! [laughter]
“Oh, you can eat me, big boy, but you might! not! like! how I sit! in your stomach! [laughter]
Very Joe Pesci. Merkis--
Remy walks--Remy walks up to him and puts his forehead on Brandish Tamm’s forehead and just smiles.
Uh. Merkis just puts both hands into his swim trunks and pulls out guilder and is like: “I will pay!” [laughs]
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
Nick Guercio / Vynos: Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Bijan / Remy:
[00:05:00]
Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
“I like what I’m hearing now!” You’re halfway there.
Remy...Remy puts some money on the counter. ‘Cause he, he’s decided it’s not worth it to eat Brandish Tamm.
Vynos puts it on as well. “Aah! Now--”
I just want to say: I think Brandish Tamm can hear Remy’s stomach rumbling. [laughter]
Can hear the nanites starting to swarm... Yes.
“Well, my friend, if you are indeed so hungry as to be this aggressive, let me assure you: you are headed to a wonderful future, because by exchanging these items for goods and services, you can eat until you die. Let me show you what you got!”
Begin the game show music. [laughter] [brassy music cue]
“What looks like a mere fishbowl is actually a Portable Atmosphere Generator. This is a small, portable, demonstrator of atmos--short for atmosphere, I’m sure you understand--of various planets. You’ll see here an inscrutable dial which reproduces them. Now it has a helpful AI, however...I feel it is helpful; I cannot be sure because the lang--it is in a language I, and I bet you, cannot understand. Sounds like a bunch of synthy squawks. But it’s friendly!
And sure enough, as he’s like, sort of holding it aloft, this upside down fishbowl with a gameboy attached to it, he--he has turned it on, like: you did not previously turn it on, he’s figured out how to get it going, and it is making these very friendly little like, [chirps and beeps] sing-songy, bird-chirpy little sounds, and Brandish: do you hand it over to, I believe this was Beta’s---
Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM:
Mhmm.
Do you hand it over to Beta?
Yes. These are like on a countertop...
Yeah.
...and I’m doing the Vanna White [laughter]...
So then, yeah, when you approach it, you can see that in fact, yeah, like: the gameboy screen--there’s something that looks like a little robot face on it, and the eyebrows that were on top of it are sort of moving up and down, and it’s making these funny little sounds. I mean, you...cannot...roll Reason to see if you can figure it out.
Okay...
This is going to be very difficult, but if you get a very high result then I will say that you can read it. You, like, work it out.
Mmm...two! [laughs]
No, that’s not high enough. Uh, wow! It looks, it’s got a bunch of faces and pictures on it, and it’s making these sing-songy little noises. What you sort of can guess now that you know, using your science-y background and like having seen some of--some weird stuff in the Archive before, maybe, maybe in your like xenobiology travels, like--there’s some way for you to manipulate this dial and then push a little button that’s on the side that, basically, in the fishbowl, is generated a kind of atmosphere, like an atmosphere of various different planets and locations, and you’re pretty sure that what the dial does is it lets you choose, like from a litany of planets, that you’re choosing a planet, pushing a button, and then generating roughly what it’s atmosphere is.
Ooo!
In game terms, if you can pass a simple Charisma check, which is four or higher, because it really wants to help you, and just wants to be your friend, then you can do it. Or you can pass a difficult, nine-plus Reason check to use it. Why you
Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM:
would want to generate atmosphere, I’m not sure. But that’s a thing that you can do.
Okay...
Now is the point at which I will also explain: all of the items that you found were randomly generated from a table. The table told me what elements were involved in each of these items and I put them all together and this is what I got.
Fun!
“Now! Beta! Your second item appears to be a simple two-sided dart. Ah! but my friend, it is anything but. This is a two-part, exsanguinatory ocular assessment bolt. I can tell by the way you’re looking at me: you want me to go a little bit slower with a little bit more detail. So! Allow me to proceed. This is a two-part, blood-powered, dart.
And Brandish is, like, unscrewing it... Mhmm...
...and you can see as he’s, like, it’s like a hard piece of metal that he’s unscrewing from the center into two pieces.
“There’s a point here on each end. Unscrew it, and oo, what’s this, look at that! A weird lookin’ eyeball inside the flat end! Now you stab somebody with part of this, and the other part of it you stab into yourself, and you can see through their eyes--” [Beta gasps] “That’s nice!”
Uh, yeah, I mean that’s basically it. You roll Com in order to stab someone with this thing, stab yourself with it, and then pass a Will check to be able to see through the eyes of whoever you just stabbed.
Now...this is very interesting to Beta, who’s main goal of her sapient, Shoodtha, is to learn through experience...
Um...you don’t know more past that. I will reveal how it works more specifically once you use it. But yeah, what Brandish Tamm described is roughly what it does.
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Shannon / Beta:
[00:09:56]
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Shannon / Beta:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Shannon / Beta:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Shannon / Beta:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
“And now, we come to this little beauty! This is an olfactory sonar helm! Do you know what that is? Have you ever seen one of these?”
“I can’t say I have!”
“Well, then, don’t! [laughter] Now, obviously, cause you’re--this is a big heavy helmet, bulbous and rusted, but here is it’s secret function: it’s a helmet, you put it on, now--but, no no no! Don’t! Don’t put it on right now!”
“Okay--”
“Wait until I tell you what it does, because what it does is very uncomfortable. You put it on your head, and if you have a, a nose, just like the kind that...” he points at Vynos “he has!”--because CommBot has no nose holes, right?
No...
Yeah, yeah... Faceless.
“This is not for you, but if you're like one of them, and you have nose holes, you put this on, and tubes go up the holes in your nose, and you’re probably thinking--” he’s looking at the other people “--you’re probably thinking that, ‘oh a little tube in my nose, I don’t mind!’ Wrong! You are going to mind how far these tubes go back!”
“Yes..”
“Question. Vynos?”
“No, I was just agreeing. I said ‘Yes, I don't mind that at all...’” “You will. You will! I tried it on!”
“Ah. Too far back, eh?”
“It’s deeper than you’d think!”
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
Shannon / Beta:
Jenn / Merkis:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM: Bijan / Remy:
“How deep? How--how deep are we talking?”
“Take a guess at how deep it is, and then think about much much deeper than that!” [laughter]
“Okay.”
“But! Once the tubes reach your olfactory gland or brand-equivalent, you can then see--but through smell!--the location of every norm-space and non-informatic sapient within a 2d10-meter radius! It’s a neat little device here.”
So...
Wait...I like that [laughs] I like that Brandish Tamm has said--
Also, yeah, Brandish Tamm knows--
Yeah!
‘2d10-meter,’ yeah--
Brandish Tamm breaks the fourth wall! Brandish Tamm knows it’s a game! Looks directly--looks directly into camera and says 2d10! [laughter] “What--what are you looking into?”
And he looks right into camera. “And you can have one for yourself! Just go to olfactory-sonar-helm-by-Brandish-Tamm-dot-gov and buy one right now for sixty credits!”
Vynos takes off his beard and looks at camera. “Hi, I’m Nick Guercio, I play Vynos, and...” [laughter]
“If you too would like to own a brandish-tam branded olfactory sonar helm, just head to: fun-city-dot...”
Ventures, dot-ventures!”
Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM: Bijan / Remy:
Shannon / Beta: Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta: Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Brandish and Vynos: (nearly in unison)
So, yeah, this is an item that you--if you have nose holes--you put on the helmet and two tubes extend out of the interior of the helmet and enter your nose. They do go pretty far...they go the cost of 1d10 Grit far, once they are--I don’t, like, yeah, close to your, close to your brain bits, I guess, the helmet will scan the surrounding area for sapients. For non-weird, non-informatic sapients. That is within a 2d10 meter radius. But you can only do that if you pass a difficult Reaction check, because you are decoding the position of a sapient in three-D-space on a map made of scent only. So it’s very hard to understand.
I mean, the idea that she doesn’t have a nose, right, we know this, so I don’t know how it’s gonna work on her--
Yeah, that was gonna be my question. I don’t know whether or not--do we think Beta would be able to use this?
Well Beta has a brain, so maybe it’ll just go through some of the metal on Beta’s face.
Yeah, maybe she would have to dig little holes into her face. [laughter] Merkis would have to wear it on his tummy.
Aww!
That’s where his brain is!
That is so cute. So Beta is very interested in this piece of equipment, because she’s always interested in talking to people and seeing people and it would just be a way of finding more people who are, maybe, hiding from her... So she’s gonna, actually, she’s gonna secretly hold on to this piece of equipment.
You have--you have an olfactory sonar helm.
“Ah, now, Vynos, let’s go on to your first item! What I began calling simply: The Spectacles. But they are so much more! And yet it is an item known to me. Would you believe that in its original place in time, this was known as the Malady Mell-o-tron?! Say it with me, Vynos:”
“The Malady Mell-o-tron!”
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
[00:15:00]
Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Nick / Vynos:
“It looks like just wrap-around sunglasses with, like, these attached headphones, you know, but this is for--this is from the Illithnari, Vynos!”
“Ahh!”
“Did you know that?” “Er...yes.”
“Oh that’s right, ‘cause you told me the whole story. So I would know that you know that I know that we both know what’s goin’ on. If you wear these Spectacles--you wear the Mell-o-tron--they will tell you the ailments of any particular being in complex medicalogical diagrams accompanied by appropriate music. [laughter] Very nice!”
“Wow...well I-–would it, does it give you cures, or panacea?” “Only time will tell!” [laughter]
“Okay...”
“But my gut says no!”
“Okay.”
That is roughly what it does! You spend 1d4 Grit and you pass a standard Reason test and yeah, that just represents you having to parse out the lyrics of the song being sung that describes the sickness of the person that you are looking at.
Ah, I see.
“Now the music is Illithnari, but, from what I can remember, it probably won’t drive you insane. Now! Your second object—this harness—do you know what the name—the actual name of this harness is, Vynos?”
“I do not, sir!”
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
“It is called ‘My Visage is a Shield,’ this is actually a piece of art! Vynos! [Vynos gasps] This is art! A very famous piece of art, actually. It was made by a Mantid artist—I cannot say the name of the Mantid artist...that—I—sure, I can show you a reading of it, but I can’t say it out loud—’cause my species has two uvulas and one of them hangs in front, and prevents me from making the kind of sounds necessary. But look! It’s a kind of commentary on the defensiveness of one’s designed and accumulated persona, and the willingness, while engaged in battle, to see your enemies as less than people equal to yourselves.”
“I see...”
“You’re moved, I can tell.”
So this actually is like a piece of, y’know, in other place in the universe, this would be recognized as a very famous piece of art, up there with like Andy Warhol prints or, y’know, a Michelangelo sculpture. It is, in fact, a chest-worn, like, harness-plate that you put on and when you push a button underneath it, it rapidly expands into a piece of metal that will cover Vynos from roughly his ankles to just underneath his nose, and painted on the shield is the face of, like a--yeah, like a female Mantid warrior, it sort of looks like Frida Kahlo, but a mantis-person. Does Brandish Tamm expand it to show it?
Yeah—and then Brandish Tamm goes: ka-thunk! He just, like, shakes his arm and expands—shting!—up into this, like, y’know, five and a half foot tall shield, and says: “Now you could use it as a shield, if you are a philistine! [laughter] I leave it up to you!”
I like how Brandish Tamm is an art appreciator!
“You kinda gotta be to be in this job!”
Yeah.
He—If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. Brandish Tamm, Brandish Tamm, everybody.
Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Jenn / Merkis:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
“I’m Brandish Tamm!”
Nick, in game terms, this is a free action—if you put it on, and use it as armor, if you so choose, it’s a free action to deploy, so it happens immediately and you can do it whenever you want. When it is deployed, it is damage reduction four--
Okay.
--but your movement die goes down one type and you cannot engage in melee combat, because the shield is just too big to reach around. If you want to pack it back up, that is—that takes a full turn.
Oh wow, it’s a—it’s an auto-release, but not an auto re-pack.
Correct. You basically have to fold a metal map back into a little packet that sits in your chest.
I see.
And if you aren’t wearing it, it takes a turn for you to, like, get the harness off and stuff.
Well, Vynos says: “Well that’s quite astounding! And evocative as well, um...”
“It is evocative!”
“Yes, I really appreciate your time and effort you’ve put into explaining this piece.” And Vynos takes it from him and begins folding the metal shield back into the little metal pouch.
“Ah, now! Merkis! Sweet Merkis.” “Mhmm?”
“This I’ve been calling The Blimp! But it is not a blimp! Oh no no! This is another item that is known to me. It is called the Stupendous Foam-ator!”
Jenn / Merkis:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Jenn / Merkis:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
[00:20:02]
Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Huh?? [laughter] And merkis is like, tilting his lizard head, like: “doesn’t look technological to me!”
“Oho, but it is! So, so much technological! It is a pen-like tool, but instead of writing words! [laughter] instead--instead of--instead of creating verse and prose, it creates FOAM!”
“Ohh!”
“Look!” And he—he uh, he squirts there’s like, a, there’s a corner of the room that looks like it’s been shot by every weapon and stained by every--it looks like an artist’s studio, like a sculptor’s studio, just like—and he points it at that corner, and maybe there’s even like a mannequin there, that has had, like, arms blown off, and the face gone, and from the end of this pen just like squirts this, sort of, load of foam [laughter]...
Oh god...
“Now! [Clears throat] Over the period of an hour, the foam hardens to the point where it is very difficult to cut or chop. But it’s always easily disintegratable by water, Merkis! It’s also very useful as a firestarter.” And then he flings--takes out a match and he throws it on there and it goes fwoom.
“Woah!”
Also, when--when Brandish Tamm pushes the plunger that ejects the foam the blimp expands a little bit, and you can see the seams between all the parts making up the sort of phalanges of the blimp, like, light up, it starts projecting this really bright, multicolored, like, rainbow of light. It’s like there’s a fucking party happening. And then sort of surprisingly loudly from the Stupendous Foam-ator, or Foam-a-tor, however you want to say it, disco music starts to play? And a voice goes:
“Thank you for using the Stupendous Foam-ator! Thank you so much! From, Foam-ator Industries. Your source for foam-ejecting goods. Thank
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Jenn / Merkis:
Mike / GM:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
you for using the Stupen—” and it just continues like this until he pulls the plunger back out.
I think there are about, eh, d8 charges left.
Yeah, so Jenn, roll a d8, and that’s how many more foams it can make. Okay...let me check...5!
Five more foams left! It costs nothing to use, you can just use it. Okay.
iI produces foam that will expand to fill a space up to a limit of about five cubic feet, over an hour it hardens. If you try to cut or break through it once it’s hardened, it’s very very difficult--but if you put water on it or light it on fire it basically just disappears...
“Ohh...” Merkis is just marvelling at it.
...and it plays really really terrible music when it’s doing this. Alright I think we got two more?
Two more, alright!
Two more!
“And now my favorite tough customer: Remy! Let’s look at what you got in the bag! And, by the bag, I mean on! the table! Look at this, look at this! Remy: do you know what these calipers do?”
“Measures things?
“No! quite the opposite! this is--” “Useless as calipers.”
“Ehh--well, yes! Yes, that’s right...”
Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Yes.
“Now if you want to buy calipers, I can sell you calipers, and I can talk to you and haggle about that until the cows come home! [laughs] That doesn’t make any sense in space! This is an analytic solidifier, depositional-class. This is a major piece of technology, Remy.”
So just to remind you, it’s a small box with curved antennae forming an open circle, right? And now, he--Brandish Tamm indicates a sort of open space in the antennae and says: “This will turn any gas present between the two leads into a smooth polyhedral solid. you like polyhedral solids, right?”
“Sure...”
“Now, when the polyhedral solid is produced, it is surprisingly heavy and very hot, okay? But look here on the side: there’s a little heat proof pouch, okay? You seem unimpressed, but listen to this--”
“Yeah, well, I’m--sell me on it! sell me on it.”
“A lot of people seeing a gas turn into a polyhedral solid would be like ‘this is impressive,’ but oh Remy, I think you're gonna like this next detail...oftentimes an impact to the solid made by throwing it will result in rapid endothermic reaction. look--waiting for a response, waiting for a response...”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
“It’s a kind of reverse explosion, Remy, in that it will cool or freeze the surrounding area in a forceful blast.”
“Oh, okay...that’s pretty cool!”
“Yeah, a forceful blast! Yes, of course! Now listen--not every time, sometimes, something really weird happens. It’s a real, quote, roll of the dice, end quote. Also, don’t use it in space. If you use it in a vacuum it’ll break permanently and I can’t guarantee the machinery won’t expand and cause some kind of rift. Okay!”
Yeah, that’s basically that’s the long and short of it. If you pass a level seven Reason test, then you, y’know, effectively use this piece of strange measurement equipment to produce a quote-unquote “sample” of the gas that is between the
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
[00:24:51]
Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Bijan / Remy:
Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
two leads, which, yeah, basically makes a d--an object that kind of looks like a d20 dice, but is a solidified version of the gas that is between it. And if it is impacted, if it’s like normal atmo, y’know like what we breathe, if it is impacted it causes basically a freeze explosion. That--
Sick.
That, like, does damage. It depends upon what gas you’ve performed this process on, but yeah it’s basically a way for you to generate grenades from the air. They are very unstable. So--I would not recommend walking around with a lot of them? But yeah, also if you’re in a weird atmosphere maybe you could just...see what happens.
Cool, very cool. And we also have the atmosphere maker thing, so, I assume those two things could go together.
That is true!
“Now Remy, are you ready to see your next object?”
“Show me the jelly!”
“Ah! trick question! The jelly is not an object. Remy, the jelly is a substance!” “Okay. Alright. Well.”
“This is illegal drugs!” [laughter]
“I love to hear it!”
“Have you ever--have you ever heard of Never Ever?”
“Never Ever...”
You can roll Reason or Will if you want to see if you’ve ever heard of it before. I’ll roll Reason.
Mike / GM: Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Jenn / Merkis:
Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Looking for--I’m looking for a seven. I think. Nine.
Nice! Yes, you have heard of this drug. Never Ever, which is short for Never Ever Again, which is the sort of like joke name of this drug which is also called See-Beam, like ‘see’ with your eyes, ‘beam’ like a ray of light, is a drug that is very popular amongst artists on many planets and it’s kind of a way for you to...uh, okay. So, I’ve never done DMT, but [laughter] you’ll tell me. My understanding about DMT is that it is a drug that when you take it you always have a very similar experience that involves, like, travelling through space, or like aliens of some kind. No?
Ehh...sure.
Ish? Sure?
Yeah I don’t know, I don’t know.
Close enough.
Alright. This is like a similar thing, like everybody who takes it has a similar experience.
I met giant dinosaur fossil creatures that lived in the world between all the other worlds. And the metaverse was symbolized by a giant infinite dinosaur ribcage, and at the end of each bone was a silver globe that contained a different reality.
Damn.
That sounds dope. Okay, this is not like that. It fuckin’ ruled. Kids, do drugs!
Brandish Tamm, why don’t you--so, I mean, like, you know, he maybe knows that Remy knows what this is, but is gonna explain it to him anyways, so that it’s not just me, the universe, delivering exposition.
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Bijan / Remy:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
Mike / GM:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Shannon / Beta:
Bijan / Remy:
Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GM:
Jenn / Merkis:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm: Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
“Now look--this is a dense brick Remy, do you understand what I’m saying to you? This is enough for dozens of doses. You gotta be careful! Tell me you’re gonna be careful before you walk outta here with this!”
“Hey, Brandish. I’m always--sometimes--careful.”
“Okay! and listen: even if you are careful and you take it, remember: they’re not just visions, these are things that have happened, or are happening, or will happen other times and places okay? So you gotta take it very seriously.”
So yeah this is the understanding about Never Ever Again is that it does in fact repeat things that have happened, and that when you take it the lore, at least, is that you are momentarily--if you--if your body can deal with it--that you are momentarily psychically transported to a random event that has actually occurred, is actually currently occurring, or will actually eventually occur. But you have no control over when, where, how, who, why, etcetera. It’s like momentarily quantum leaping yourself.
How many doses in game terms do I have? Literally dozens.
Dozens.
Wow!
Sick!
Fun.
Like--roll a d20. Roll a d100!
Ooh! Can we all take it?
Well, there’s--
Actually--roll a d--roll--this makes more sense--roll a d12. Ten.
Mike / GM: Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM: Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM:
So, yeah! You have...you have 144 doses. Cool.
It’s like a big jelly brick. Okay, let’s talk about what happens when you take this. Once you take it you have to pass a standard Will test followed by a standard Charisma test.
Remy can never pass a Will test. Unless you burn Grit.
Yes.
If you pass both of those, you see hazy, sort of warped, visions from other times and places before, during, and after your current plane of existence. In game terms, I will say that these visions may be hints, they may be clues, they may be warnings. It may be like gaming inspiration or meta-gaming inspiration or none of the above. It might be absolute meaningless nonsense. But it will be the case that you are experiencing things that actually happened, are happening, or will happen. That will always be true.
If you fail the Will test but you pass the Charisma test, you become sick to your stomach and you act irrationally for an hour, because you are convinced that you are somewhere else that you both are and are not. If you fail the Will test but pass the Charisma test, then like--you don’t go catatonic, and you’re still with the crew, and you're still like, playing Stillfleet, but you think that you’re at a Japanese tea ceremony in 1650.
Sick.
You can basically--I can tell you--I will tell you where you think you are, and you essentially have to interact with the world through that lense.
Wow.
If you pass the Will, but you fail the Charisma roll, you are sort of transported to before or after creation.
Bijan / Remy:
[00:29:57]
Mike / GM:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta:
Jenn / Merkis:
Jenn / Merkis:
Jenn / Merkis:
Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Jenn / Merkis:
Taylor / Brandish Tamm:
Ah!
And you are forced to confront the time before things were made or the time after which things are unmade.
Very cool.
And very bad things happen to you, and if that ever happens...we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Oh my god...
You could also sell this. And you would probably make a lot of money, and then you would be a drug dealer. You can choose whether or not that’s something you’re interested in! There like, is a market for it both on Spin and in other places. It’s probably not very big, but--’cause it’s, again, it’s called Never Ever--now you maybe understand why it’s called Never Ever or Never Ever Again, but, uh, yeah. That’s what it is.
Wow.
Great. Good to know!
And that--that’s all the items?
Mhmm.
That’s all the items.
Beta looks at Brandish Tamm and asks: “So which one were you gonna take?”
“Well it’s all, you know, I mean, what does it matter now? I would’ve taken the one that turns the gas into the solid.”
“Ah, so not mine! Great.” And Merkis puts away the blimp.
“But I am happy to take your guilders instead. Thank you for your custom! Please do not hesitate to come see me again when you have such another wonderful treasure trove! I’m Brandish Tamm!”
Mike / GM:
Jenn / Merkis: Bijan / Remy: Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM: [Music interlude] Mike / GM:
Taylor / Oat: Mike / GM: Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Oat: Mike / GM:
And he sits back down at this desk and goes back to writing in his ledger. So you guys have a bunch of new stuff...Do you want to level up?
Yeah!
Sure.
Level up level up level up! Okay.
Here’s what happens when you level up: you gain six units of pool which you can distribute between Health and Grit however you want. You can also take--
And that also increases our max.
That only increases your max. That does not add to--
Not the pool itself.
What you currently have--it adds to the total that you can possess. Does that make sense?
Right. Okay. Uh-oh.
It increases your max without increasing what you currently have. You can also, and this is a four-way choice, you can choose a class power from your class that you did not choose when you first made your character. So in Stillfleet it says, like, you know, here are your class powers: choose two of the five that are available, you can go to that list and you can choose one that you did not choose.
Or you can choose an advanced power, from the correct advanced powers list, which is a whole other set of powers that are available to you that are not reflected in your class powers, or you can choose a specialization, which is to say that you can choose--you can describe a situation where you want a dice bonus. So like attacking a certain kind of sapient, rolling to understand a certain piece of technology. Or you can do unarmed combat training, which is similar to a
Nick / Vynos: Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos:
specialization, you can basically get a dice bonus for a certain kind of combat training that you want to do. At level two, those are the things that can happen when you level up. You will also get paid more by the Company.
Mmm! Money!
So yeah, let’s say you leave Brandish Tamm, you collect all of your stuff, you have your new toys, and while you have time off, from going out on ventures, as Algar said. You spend the next couple weeks just sort of training some new skills for the next venture that you have to get out on. So what does everybody do with their time?
Vynos has been spotted at various places around spin speaking to a teapot, or a small, you know, glass that would hold knicknacks, or little things or an old shovel. And he’s--he does it in sort of a whispering fashion, sometimes he seems impatient with the object, as though the object could be more forthcoming [laughter] but sometimes he seems more pleased with the information that seems to be passing from the object to Vynos. And he has honed his skill of Speak with Steel.
This is an ability that allows him to burn one Grit or three Health to touch one object. He will roll his Reason and add his level too--if the result is greater than seven, he can choose to learn either how the object was made--that’s socially not technically, the story of how the object was made--who last used it, or how it really works.
Wow.
And how it really works is more of that technical side, without the historical conditions. If the result is twelve or higher on the dice then he gets to know all three of the facts about the thing he touches.
That’s very cool. What object that Vynos had a conversation with was the most forthcoming?
[00:35:05]
Jenn / Merkis: Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos:
Shannon / Beta:
Jenn / Merkis:
Shannon / Beta:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM:
A lot of the ship itself is not very forthcoming at all, but he seems to have an affinity for things that are more organic. But then may just be kind of beginners luck, or intuition, or something that guides him toward something like that. He had--I don’t know if it was real leather, but maybe it’s like algae leather--there was an algae leather pouch that had a few coins in it. He threw the coins away, people thought that looked strange, and he really had a good convo with that pouch. [laughter]
Oh my gosh!
My god, Nick!
This is a perfect skill for Vyons!
It’s so good!
The pouch was like: “Thanks man, those guys were terrible!” [laughter] “Getting really sick of hanging out with them...”
The only point of clarification here is that...the first point here is that I can learn how the object was made and he makes--we make a point to say that this is socially not technically, but then the third possibility is how it really works? But not necessarily the historical conditions of its making, but how it really works, is that more technical--technological or technical for you, Mike?
Yeah, I think that, and it depends on what kind of thing it is, that like you could probably learn how, y’know, let’s say you put your hands on Nearer the Sun and--
Right--
You roll really well, and you learn how it works--your brain would probably be flooded with a lot of information about nanotechnology that you just barely understand.
Sure.
But if you are holding the jezail, like an old arabic, like, musket essentially, and you roll really well and you learn how it really works, then your brain is filled with information about basically how like flint locking style pistols or firearms function, which are things that you probably mechanically would be able to understand very easily.
Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM: Nick / Vynos: Shannon / Beta:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta:
Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta:
Sure. Okay, that makes sense--it’s a little bit like having a brief access to the textbook, but you know, obviously, that textbook would make more sense to a professional than it would an amateur.
Yeah. Yeah.
Beta works on something that she has been working on for a while because she really really really wanted this power. It is called Hypnotize, and basically the power is you burn three Grit and spend at least one hour with someone. That person falls for you and now [laughter] and will now do things within her power to help you in any way.
Wow What??
It’s not mind control, it’s basically seduction. [laughter] But the person that you’re seducing can roll a Will check once per day to snap out of it, or at least reassess her feelings for you.
Is this a...isn’t this--this is a weird power, isn't it?
No, this is a--it’s one of my things, in, it wasn’t commun--I could choose between communications or...
Oh, an advanced power? Yeah, it’s an advanced power Holy shit, that’s wild!
Yeah.
Hell yeah!
‘Cause it just, it just immediately jumped out as, like, Beta would want to know--would want to know how to do this.
Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM:
Shannon / Beta: Jenn / Merkis:
Mike / GM: Jenn / Merkis:
[00:40:14]
Mike / GM:
So what do you think--what’s the training regimen that allows Beta to know better how to seduce people I guess?
I think...okay, ‘cause, this is interesting ‘cause Beta on her own does not have much charm. She has a very low Charm roll. So I think maybe this means she kind of is studying someone, maybe in the Archive, who’s a charmer?
Mmm.
And maybe she’s been studying this person for a while? And is kind of getting the hang of it.
This is like, like using your xenobiologist background on a person that lives on Spindle and you’re just treating them like a specimen, that you’re learning their ways.
Mhmm...
Following them around Spin, being like: “what do they do in this--” like David Attenborough. Like: “Mmm...interesting...”
Yes, exactly.
Okay. Merkis wants to learn something from the advanced powers list as a Banshee he has access to communications, so I chose find NEMAT--or--it’s an acronym: n-e-m-a-t? I don’t know what that means, or it doesn’t explain what it means.
I don’t either.
Basically, Merkis will learn about, or be able to find, secret hole-y spaces like, whenever we’re anywhere, so: ruined office buildings, ship concourses, deep below the earth, throughout the escheresque... He can burn three Grit and make a reaction--a--it’s not reaction is, it?
Reason?
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM: Jenn / Merkis:
Mike / GM: Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM: Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Jenn / Merkis:
Mike / GM: Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta: Jenn / Merkis:
Mike / GM:
Reason, sorry.
It’s okay, it’s the Shadowrun residue.
Yeah! So he burns three Grit and makes a Reason check and if he gets a six or higher you find an interesting secret hole. Basically, it’s a technological place, because Merkis is, like, the Pilot, and has Jack, which is a--an ability to use, alter, or repair technology. So this skill will help him find rooms or special hiding places that have technology. Which is really exciting!
There is a--there is a Shadowrun like equivalent to this There is?
Which I think actually Carbone’s character had, which is essentially like finding hidden escape routes; like finding secret passageways.
And now it’s just like pockets spaces where Merkis can hide, or...
Yeah.
Or something.
It’s great. Yeah! Is that like--you’re like studying the hvac system of spin to leike see how back passageways are put together?
It’s like looking through maps of of Spin and then playing a giant game of hide and seek with all of his brothers.
All of your brothers!
By the...
Yes!
By the bays, by the far bays. It’s--you can hear, it’s like a--like a Looney Tunes with all these hatches opening and someone scurrying...
It’s like Laugh-In, but in the time travel corridor of the secret weird unknown-provenance spaceship?
Jenn / Merkis: Bijan / Remy:
Mike / GM: Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM: Bijan / Remy:
Mike / GM: Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM: Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM: Taylor / Oat:
Yeah.
Sick. I think Remy is going to learn Repro. [clears throat] So Repro is a nanofluidics power, but basically what you do is you burn some Grit and you can send your nanites into an electrical device, which includes, like, you know, like Tephnian comms, or radios, and interestingly it does say sapient brains, to induce any specific effect possible. So, it’s like being able to use technology without really having to know exactly how--how it works.
So like your nanites ask as a translation between your intent and the capabilities-- Yes.
--of the technology?
Which is exciting! Because, like, it’s--it seems, I think Remy’s like, y’know, I think--he’s sort of been, since he’s been awakened, which again hasn’t been that long, he’s been trying to figure out like exactly what to do. So he has all this y’know, like, he keeps a bunch of junk in his room from his old missions. And so he’s been playing with the electrical stuff trying to make it, like, trying to turn on like an old CRT set, from like across the room, and like trying to like fuck with people’s devices that they have on them at range. Just like, across Spin.
And then one fateful night the ancient CRT that hasn’t been turned on for-- It just--
--ten thousand years, just *spring*, turns to life!
Yep. Yep. And then he turns it back off and falls asleep. [laughter]
Mission accomplished. Taylor, does Oat take any new--
Yes. So, I--let me ask you what's better. So the tactics--skill list is all about, like, straight up attack bonuses, attack opportunities, and also like, getting information? Like I can pick a skill that lets me get information about places, and what’s in it, or I could pick a skill that tells me about like, people and groups of sentient things, and know about them. I wanna pick the one that’s, like, best for story. I guess, like--
Mike / GM: Taylor / Oat:
Mike / GM: Taylor / Oat: Mike / GM: Taylor / Oat: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Oat: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Oat: Mike / GM: Taylor / Oat: Mike / GM:
Taylor / Oat:
Mike / GM: Taylor / Oat:
Probably places?
Places, right? So that’s Reconnoiter, which lets me spend a couple of rounds figuring things out about a place and then I know everything. Like the layout of a structure, how many guards are walking around for example...
This is very Oat. This seems--this feels very right.
Yeah, I mean, he’s a thief, so he’s gonna be really good at casing the joint.
Yeah. Yeah.
Reconnoiter. There’s also a really cool Disarm skill, but, I think we can--
Disarm has been the subject of a lot of discussion on the Stillfleet discord, because--
I bet.
People were like: ‘this is wild, you can just roll some dice and just take an enemy's weapon away?’
It works. Yeah.
And then it just happens.
Unless they use weird against you, it works. It’s wild.
Yeah. So like Oat hits the books, basically. Or I guess maybe just wanders around Spin, like trying to just be--
Y’know I think maybe, like, he used to be able to do this. And either the aging or the freezing process kind of scrambled them and he’s sort of maybe remembering some of his old skills.
Mmm...
‘Cause I think before he got frozen he was not a level one character.
[00:45:00]
Mike / GM: Taylor / Oat:
[Musical interlude]
Mike / GM:
Oh that’s probably true, yeah, I think you’re probably right.
Yeah, so I kinda like this as ike, he’s sort of remembering himself. Reconnoiter. [laughter]
So, you all have I think some snooping to do, if you want to, to ask around about Zeshdano Navelle. You can go about this however you’d like, you all know a group--a good group of people, and you can talk to whoever you want. I think some of you also have contacts...I know, Shannon, Beta knows another xenobiologist in the Archive, and that we’d decided that based upon your side-hustle as xenobiologist. And Nick, Vynos knows another Archivist, which is the Archivist that trained you, quote unquote, as a Tremulant, and so you still have a relationship with that person. And so if you want to go talk to those people, they might be able to help you.
I would like to talk to the--my contact, but we can contact--we can talk to yours first, if you’d rather do that, Shannon.
Let’s talk to your contact!
Alright, Merkis is walking up and down a blob-hall, poking his little lizard head into random tarps and just going: “Vynos? Vynos?” and you just hear crinkle crinkle, “Vynos?” Merkis cannot keep track of where Vynos is staying. “Vynos??”
Vynos is in sort of a rusty old alcove talking to a--the pot that contains a sootflower, a flower that only eats ash, and he is just talking to the pot and kind of whispered tones again, and he turns around and says: “eh-uh--wh--wh--what? who?”
“It’s me!”
“Oh--Merkis, I say, [stutters]--how are you this day? Hm?” “I’ve been playing in the far bays!”
“Oh, Merkis, you’ll get yourself killed!”
Nick / Vynos:
Shannon / Beta: Jenn / Merkis:
Nick / Vynos:
Jenn / Merkis: Nick / Vynos: Jenn / Merkis: Nick / Vynos:
Jenn / Merkis: Nick / Vynos: Jenn / Merkis:
Nick / Vynos:
Jenn / Merkis:
Nick / Vynos: Shannon / Beta: Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM: Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta: Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM: Jenn / Merkis: Nick / Vynos: Jenn / Merkis: Nick / Vynos:
“Not if I find a good hiding place!”
“Well, you’re getting better at that...what say you?”
“I was wondering what we were going to do about the thing I’m not supposed to talk about.”
“Ah, yes, yes yes, oh I think I’m just about ready. Umm...well let’s say, I say let’s say umm...alright. Let’s gather the team, and go speak with my contact Nio. She knows more about all of this than I do.”
“If only there was some way we could all, you know, tell people that we were going somewhere. We just have to find Beta, huh?”
“Yes. Where do you think she’s run off to?” Pan--pan to their walkie talkies. [laugher]
Exactly. [laughs]
Both of them have their walkie talkies in their hand. If only there were a way.
Thank you for catching that, Shannon.
if you’re looking for Beta, Beta is in her room.
Vynos has still not thought of the walkie talkie.
Of course not.
And merkis...
He is talking to the walkie talkie, but not using the walkie talkie to talk. [laughter] “I--I think her blob is this way,” and you just hear this slap slap of Merkis’ feet. Vynos follows.
Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GML Shannon / Beta:
Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta: Nick / Vynos:
Shannon / Beta:
[00:50:02]
Jenn / Merkis:
“Betaaaa?” You just hear yelling down the hall. “Betaaa?” Beta yells: “Come in, come in, don’t mind the mess, come in!”
Beta is standing there, she’s standing over what seems to be a diorama and you can notice that NTS is in that diorama and she’s putting little hats that she made [laughter] out of little pieces of material on [laughs] NTS.
Please tell me it’s a cowboy hat.
Yeah! There’s a cowboy hat, there’s a, y’know, a baseball cap, yeah. There’s a whole variety of caps that she made. “Hey hey hey y’all, what’s up? Don’t mind me over here, just...just working on a little project.”
“Which one is this?”
Oh! “He is in the Sleepless in Seattle diorama.” The airport?
Yes.
Kinda gotta be, right? I mean...
Yeah.
“Well, we were on our way to go speak with Nio, a contact I have who’s also a follower of the Howling Lamb. She’s well versed on much of the Company’s workings and may help us get to the bottom of this whole kerfuffle with Zeshdano.”
“Ah, excellent! Ah yes, I had almost forgotten just got a little caught up in my crafts and my projects, um...yes, let’s do that.”
“Have you seen remy?”
Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GM: Nick / Vynos: Shannon / Beta:
Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM: Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta: Bijan / Remy:
Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta:
“No. Let me let me beep him in,” and Beta pulls out her walkie talkie and says...How do you use a walkie talkie?
You make the walkie talkie sound! “krshht” Doodlie doot!
Doodlie doot doot doot doo... [sfx: radio static]...types in Remy’s number? I don’t know!
What??
They only--
It’s a channel, he’s on a channel.
They only work--they only connect the four of you, so...
Okay.
It’s just between the four of you.
Yeah, and she presses the button down and yells: “Uhh Remy?!”
Remy’s asleep, the walkie talkie’s, like, near him, but he’s--he’s not--he’s...tired from a long day of experimenting with his nanites. Which sounds a lot worse than it is. He, like, he’s sort of like waking up--I don’t think he thinks he has anywhere to be.
She says: “Ah, well, this thing doesn’t work,” and I think she’s gonna aetherspeak with Remy. Can she?
Probably, yeah! It just connects two sapient brains, right? Yeah.
Yeah!
And this is, like, something she’s done before.
Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta: Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta:
Bijan / Remy: Shannon / Beta: Bijan / Remy: Shannon / Beta:
Bijan / Remy: Shannon / Beta: Bijan / Remy:
Shannon / Beta: Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta:
Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta:
This is funny, this is a real mom move.
Yeah. So I’m going to burn 2 Grit and connect our minds together. I love this.
And so she--she’s like: “Just a moment, ah, let me connect you, and if this thing doesn’t work--this always works.” And in the same tone and volume in her head she says “Remy!”
Remy starts awake and is just like: “Oh, fuck. What? Am I...am I needed?” “Oh Remy, were you sleeping?”
“Yes. I--I was tired.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry to wake you, but the team is meeting over in my room, if you want to come on over here. I think we’re gonna get started with some business.”
“So we’re a team? eh?”
“Yeah! I love saying we’re a team!”
“I know, I can hear it in your voice. Beta I can hear it, I know you love this. Alright, let me just, let me put on some clothes. I’ll be there in a second.” So Remy like--Remy--I don’t think he can disconnect the call! [laugher]
Yeah! She--
Disconnect your brains!
She lingers there for a little--just like a moment too long. And she’s like: “Oop! I’ll disconnect us!”
It’s like when your mom comes into your room when you’re a tennager and she’s like get out of bed and the n doesn’t leave until she sees you get out of bed--
Yeah!
Mike / GM: Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM:
Bijan / Remy:
Shannon / Beta: Jenn / Merkis:
Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM: Bijan / Remy:
Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GML [flute interlude] Mike / GM:
and put some pants on-- Yes!
She’s like ‘okay good.’ It’s also very funny to me that, you know, the voice from the howling beyond you just experienced is Beta ComBot!
Yeah, and I feel--I feel like this happens quite frequently, and he’s sort of used to it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Meanwhile Merkis is like, fiddling with the channel switches on the, on the walkie talkie, like: “Oh that’s how you--that’s how you do that! Oh!” Got it.
Temy shows up to the room! Fully dressed, only a little bit groggy. That’s like the Sleeper; the Sleeper mode.
Well yes, yeah, but he’s--you know, he arrives, he’s tootling. It’s what he does. [Flute tootles] He’s idling.
So you all are going to head to the basilicon to talk to Vynos’ contact, Nio Cimbalon. Is that right?
“Yes!”
Eyy, okay nice!
So, yeah. You make your way from Beta’s room-blob sort of, y’know, on the other side of the canteen, across the canteen, and the green of Spin that is, like, this large open space that is directly in front of the entrance of the basicilion. Nick: I think Vynos would know basically where Nio’s office-slash-laboratory is, so you can lead the way. You know you go in past the single Weitan that’s just sitting at the desk, standing there watching everybody enter the basilicon, you go through this long warren of halls...Nio’s office is very far up in the basilicon, so you’re going up and up, and you’re taking these long hallways and you're turning left and right and going up another set of stairs that’s carved into the Spindle black rock.
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM:
[00:55:15]
When you get there, unlike many other spaces in Spin, and unlike many of the other offices nearby, Nio’s office-slash-lab actually has a door, and it’s--it kind of looks, like, white. So the opening is roundish, and it kind of looks like white tile.
Vynos knocks.
Yeah it’s very sturdy, like it barely makes a noise, but it’s enough, and you hear this creaking, crackling sound as the grid of white and grey that’s on this material that’s blocking the entryway slides over and provides an entrance into this room.
The first thing you notice is that it’s very bright--the hallway that you’re in is very dark, a lot of Spin is very dark--in here, in Nio’s office, it’s bright, there's a lot of lights. Also, the floor, ceiling, walls are all this same white, tiley, plasticky, gridded material. It actually looks like, y’know, it doesn’t have that uneven floor surface that much of the rest of Spin does. It’s like a false floor has been installed in here. It’s been made very flat and it’s very clinical, it’s very white, it’s very clean. It’s all very straight and tidy. And in it there are a lot of tables; there a lot of surfaces that are covered with pieces of technology, pieces of equipment, there are what look like just metal and wood work tables with, y’know, various blinking and beeping instruments on them and you can see in the far back that there actually is--you maybe have seen a few of these in your time--an actual terminal to access the eponymous Archive. To actually, like, type a keyboard, this effectively a computer, to search the storehouse of knowledge that is Spin.
Woah.
So this is something that Nio Cimbalon has access to, she’s a very, very high up, very sort of respected Archivist. You hear whirring of these machines, you hear a high-pitched sound of this, this terminal. The terminal is like, yeah, it’s like a big, fl--it’s almost like a lectern, like this big floor-standing thing that’s on wheels with this giant screen, these big chunky keyboard buttons; it’s got a huge braid of wires that comes out of the back of it and goes into the wall. So it’s like a very, serious piece of technology. You can hear it just, like, you can hear how much power it takes to run.
You also see that there are basically three, almost, gurneys? that are in the middle of the room? and they’re tilted up at an angle and there’s a person on each of them. They are upside down. Their feet are above their heads; they’re all wearing grey smocks that sort of signify that they are Tremulants-in-training, their eyes are all wide open and they’re sort of staring like agape a little bit off into nowhere.
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio:
And as the door starts to open you hear this, you hear a voice from the other side of the room before the door’s fully open:
“Come on in!”
Vynos enters and says--is this Nio?
This is Nio, yes.
Yeah. And Vynos bows slightly and says: “Nio! I hope your dreams are rich with promise!”
“And I hope yours are decked in ornament!”
“Well, Nio, is this a good time?”
“Ah...well, I mean, you know how it is: there are never really good times in the Archive, but we just have a few subjects here who are undergoing some, some, training, Vynos, I’m sure that you think of these times fondly.”
Nio is like maybe four feet tall, she’s got like darker skin, she’s got straight black hair, with like surgically straight bangs, and unlike most other Archivists, she does not wear a robe. She wears a pantsuit, with very bright silver buttons all the way down the front of it.
“But, ah, what--to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Well, um, we--” and he walks in towards where her desk is--is that where she is?
She’s standing over what looks like a ledger and she’s writing some notes in it and you can see that there’s a quill pen that she’s just put down, and it looks like she’s just copying things either to or from the Archive terminal that’s in there.
“Well, we came to see if we could get some information on a matter that’s come---become troublesome for us, we have been told, and have found, and come to find, that the trade has been blocked in The Lovers and Kakudun. We have interested parties that could benefit the Company greatly if this trade was allowed to resume. I have upon further digging, we have learned the Zeshdano Navelle, an Archivist here, is causing maybe perhaps uh--if not causing, is furthering this blocking of trade, and I was wondering why this was...”
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio:
Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM / Nio:
[00:59:58]
Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM / Nio:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos:
“Have you thought about asking them?”
[Vynos sighs] “Yes, I have thought about that, but I also know that these things can be very tricky and nobody likes someone who puts their nose where it doesn’t belong. I know that I trust you, and I know that you have access to this information. We don’t mean to, actually, impede on the relations between these great planets, or moons, as they may be, but we do--would like to know, maybe, what is the cause of the blockage.”
“And is this--this is something that you’re--a job that your refactor has sent you on?”
“No, no, not at the moment, we have learned some information on a previous mission that made us think that a few interested parties would find it very fortuitous for the trade to begin, and it could be very fortuitous for the Company as well! So, always worth digging around to see if that dog barks.”
She’s looking at you very suspiciously.
“We would of course be able to help you in whatever you need, to be able to find any information that could help us, or you know, provide you any services that you believe should be rendered. But of course if you have no knowledge of these things, then--nothing can be helped here!”
“What you’re asking is...very unusual. No one knows that you’re here asking me for this?”
“No, I was trying--I was hoping we could keep it between us.” “What do you--tell me exactly what you need.”
“Well, I think just information, again, we don’t mean to make trouble for anyone on The Lovers or Kakudun, or anyone here who is interested in their trade, but perhaps learning a bit why; why trade between these great masses can be--”
Are they moons, are they planets?
Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos:
Jenn / Merkis: Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio:
Jenn / Merkis:
Mike / GM / Nio:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio:
They’re planets, yeah.
Yeah. “Why these great planets must be impeded when so many lives are at stake.”
A little bulbous finger pokes past Vynos and: “Excuse me, ma’am?” “Yes, I’m not sure if you’ve met Merkis here?”
And, yeah, she sort of leans forward, and she squints a little bit, and she says : “Um. Yes?”
“My name, my name is Merkis,” and Merkis is just looking down at the floor, and he says: “ don’t actually know much about the Archive but do you know where we could find Ms Navelle?”
“Hmm. Tell you what--” she looks at her ledger; she looks at her terminal; and she says: “I would love to be able to help. As you know, access to the Archive is highly restricted, and very closely surveilled. If you can get me any requisition form that says I should or need to contact this person, then perhaps I could assist you. But it’s not so easy as walking over to the terminal, typing a few words in. You have questions, but I cannot raise any questions.”
“I see. It might raise more questions for you. I understand.” “You need something of a paper trail. Anything. Anything!”
“Yes. Well, I completely understand that. And I of course would love to do things above board, but before I started getting everyone’s day all squiggled and squaggled I figured I’d talk to someone who might know more than I. I appreciate your help, and I will be looking for the proper requisition form, and will return thusly if I am able to obtain one. Do you have any advice on getting one?” [laughter]
“I mean...you should talk to your refactor...” “...Refactor, yes...”
“Would be the first person--”
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos:
[01:04:52]
“Yes, Algar will probably help, yes.”
“I’m, ugh--” and she sort of screws her face up a little bit and is like “Ugh, very by-the-books, that one.”
“Yes, yes, right, well, he’s a respectable man...”
“A good chap, a good chap, a good chap...”
“A good chap all told, yes, yes, yes, a good chap, beetles for a beard, yes...”
“Vynos, Vynos--”
“...a good chap...”
“Just, just...just one little point.”
“Mhmm?”
“You should be careful.”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’m glad you know that.”
“Of course, of course, yes, I wanted to get some advice from yours truly and--or: mine truly?--whoever you are in this saying--”
“The truly them.” “Them truly, yes--” “Them’s truly?”
“Them’s truly, yes. And I understand, I don’t want to be causing a fuss here. I just think that it could be some very big opportunities that had been promised to us, but, a promise is only a promise and a promise isn’t always true, so. I should be careful on that end as well!”
Mike / GM / Nio:
She looks at you like she’s trying to follow what you're saying like it’s a bouncing ball, like...like she’s watching a tennis match. She says: “I have all of the opportunity that I need right now. But I would love to help as long as there is a way for me to help,” and then one of the people who is on one of the gurneys begins like, [groaning] not shrieking, but like kind of moaning really aggressively, and starts coughing, and she walks over to her terminal and she goes--she like, gets an alarmed look on her face, and walks over to her terminal and starts tapping on some buttons on it, and you hear the sound of motors kicking into action and spinning, powering up, and the gurney, the table that’s the furthest away from you, was the closest to the entryway door, starts to spin and the person goes from upside down to rightside up.
And as they’re doing that, they also...ripple? With a kind of, like, purple-pink-silver iridescence, like a sort of light flickers over their whole body, and they kind of, like, you know, their eyes have been open the whole time, but they kind of focus a little bit harder. And they come to, and they look over at you, and they transform into an imperfect, so like, distinct, not exact, but a still very uncanny copy of whoever is the last of the group of you to enter. Is that Remy?
Yes.
So, they turn into, like, a copy of Remy. Woah!
They just look like Remy. Not like Remy, sort of like Remy’s brother. Like Remy has a twin brother. So you can tell that they’re different, but they’re very close. And she says: “Sir, don’t worry about it, it’s a new recruit. Solarians--very rare, you know, and you know, they’re not normally willing to change form. It’s a very tiring process, and you know they love to settle in to a body and just stay there for a while--but of course, there are tactical advantages to avoid minor...being able to easily and frequently change their form...some of the research we’re doing for the Company...very interested in these applications. I apologize, it’s not--it is not an act of aggression, she just doesn’t have control over her body right now. So I apologize, I apologize...”
And she types a few more buttons on her terminal and the gurney goes from right side up, but tilted, to just fully horizontal and there’s another set of flickers and you see this person go from Remy to like what they were before to like half what they were before, half Remy, they’re sort of, like, cycling through some forms.
Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM / Nio: Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM / Nio:
Nick / Vynos: Jenn / Merkis:
Mike / GM / Nio: Jenn / Merkis:
Mike / GM / Nio:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM / Nio: Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM / Nio:
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM / Nio:
And Nio looks at Vynos again and says: “I’m sorry, as I was saying, I already have a lot of opportunity and I just wanna makes sure that I don’t put any of this in jeopardy, and I don’t want to put you in jeopardy.”
“Yes, yes...”
While that conversation was happening, Merkis was scanning the room, and using Insight, which is burning one Grit, doing a Reason check, and I can either detect lies or confirm truths or find a clue.
Sure. Well, yeah--what do you want? Or do you just want me to sort of choose something for you?
Kind of--I mean, I feel like from her authority and from the relationship we can already tell that was really truthful, I think more clue, or like, direction in, y’know, what we’re asking for might be helpful...
She would almost certainly give you what you want if there was a reason that she felt you needed it. And right now, she’s just like: “I don’t--” It’s not that she doesn’t trust you, it’s that she’s very careful, and that she got to this position by being smart, working the system, working really hard, and like--isn’t gonna just walk over to what for most people in the current universe would be an unthinkable amount of knowledge and take one very simple action that could jeopardize her access to it.
Merkis failed the roll anyways, so he’s just--
Oh, okay!
--fixated on the quill on the desk, thinking that it’s important.
Okay, yeah. That quill is extremely well-made, and...wow. Nio must’ve spent hundreds of thousands of hours writing with it. It’s weird to think about the objects that people invest a small amount of guilder into, but they use for the rest of their lives.
Merkis is just like: “Hmmm...” like, cataloguing that one for later. Merkis thinks about what it’s like to be a pen. [laughter]
Bijan / Remy:
[01:09:58]
Mike / GM / Nio:
Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM / Nio: Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM / Nio: Bijan / Remy: Mike / GM / Nio:
Shannon / Beta:
Yeah, Remy is fascinated by the--the thing transforming into him. He like, goes over and looks more closely, but is...just very interested. He asks: “Does she always do that? Is it always the last person in the room?”
“She’s been having some trouble maintaining forms around new people. You know, we’re just--we’re trying to figure out how it is that we can maintain a kind of plasticity in her form while she is in new situations. Like I said, y’know, Solarians--very rare, you don’t really meet a lot of them. Though they can take any vaguely sapient form, you know, they can’t turn into a desk, but they can look like a Harajoon, they can look like an Enjan. They tend to choose one form and just stick with it their entire lives.”
Remy takes out his flute and starts tootling. [Flute toots] Yeah--
--and then--
--as you tootle--
He’s like: “Have you tried music?” [laughter]
As you tootle, the sort of spectral form that sits around this body, that’s this iridescent pink-purple-silver kind of, like--it doesn’t move in time, it doesn’t respond in anyway that is clearly rhythmic or harmonic, but it does change in response to the flute-playing that you are doing. And Nio goes: “Oh! Huh. Interesting...” and she makes a little note in her ledger and goes over to the Archive terminal and types some things.
This whole time Beta’s been kind of sitting in the corner. She was immediately impressed with Nio, and like, really wanted Nio to like her, just like, she just thinks she--Nio--is really cool and has gotten a lot in the Company--she has this thing that gives her access with the touch of a button to the Archive. That’s literally Beta’s dream, so she’s just--she hasn’t been paying attention to the conversation at all, she’s just been, like, kind of readjusting the way that she’s standing [laughter]. Like, very, very self-aware.
Mike / GM / Nio: Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM / Nio: Shannon / Beta: Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM / Nio:
Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM / Nio:
Shannon / Beta: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos:
Roll Charisma.
Ohh, that’s--that’s bad. You mean Charm?
Charm, sorry, roll Charm.
I’ll roll a big ol’ d4.
That’s how you stacked her?
I got a four!
Nio looks at you a couple of times during the course of this conversation and sizes you up. She doesn’t say anything to you.
Uh-huh.
But she definitely notices you, and at one point while she’s, y’know, she’s talking to Vynos, but she’s looking at you and making a face like: “Huh...”
Beta takes that as positive.
It--I don’t think--yeah, it’s not negative. It’s certainly not negative.
So, Vynos is taking this in, he has been very vague, obviously, with Nio, presenting the reason why he wants this knowledge as maybe a possible boon for the Company and nothing more. The truth is that if he doesn’t get this information the Saffron Anax will cancel his contract with the Company, and that could probably get all four of us, uh...Spaced, i.e. hurled into space. So this is really important, and makes Vynos want to tell her the truth, but he also knows that while Nio is, you know, a great person to work with, she does things a little bit more by the book, and by-the-book may involve telling the Company exactly what happened, and that could get us Spaced.
So...Vynos thinks: it’s probably best just to leave it where it is now, and perhaps come back to her later if there are no other options. So Vynos turns to Nio and says: “Many thanks for your patience; I will seek out the proper form.”
“I think that is the best course of action, and I wish you luck. Vynos: it is always so nice to see you.”
Mike / GM / Nio:
Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio:
Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta:
Nick / Vynos:
Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos: Bijan / Remy: Nick / Vynos: Bijan / Remy: [01:15:00]
Jenn / Merkis: Mike / GM / Nio: Bijan / Remy: Nick / Vynos: Shannon / Beta:
“Absolutely.” and Vynos does another small bow, and turns towards the door.
She goes and she pushes a couple buttons and the door opens up even more, and she wishes you all happy travels as she reaches into a compartment underneath the table that she’s standing in front of and pulls out a very mean-looking object that’s like, curved forceps with a corkscrew in the middle. And she begins approaching one of the upside down people on the table.
Merkis’ eyes are wide, and frozen in place. [Merkis whines]
Beta is nodding her head like, knowingly, like: “Ahh, yes. Haha. Just two powerful women, we are.” But not saying this out loud, but kind of giving that vibe.
Vynos may have had this exact procedure done to him, so he probably isn’t even aware--
I think you probably have, yeah
--that it’s going on.
Yeah, Remy doesn’t care. He’s walking out. Remy eats people, so...
Yeah. He plays them a little riff. [flute toots]
And we leave.
The door slides shut behind you. You are in a darkened hallway in the basilicon. “Well, she was nice!”
“She is nice--”
“Very cool. Very cool!”
Nick / Vynos: Jenn / Merkis: Nick / Vynos:
Shannon / Beta: Nick / Vynos: Mike / GM / Nio: Nick / Vynos:
Shannon / Beta:
Jenn / Merkis: Shannon / Beta:
Jenn / Merkis:
[Outro music begins] Mike / GM:
[Outro music concludes] [Credits music begins]
“She is very nice.” “What was that thing?!”
“Oh, that’s a rice-slice-nice thing. Oh! it takes the fibers from inside of your nose and puts them right on the tip of your butt.” [laughter]
“Yes, gotta get myself one of those! Am I right?” “You do not. You do not.”
Yeah, note: it goes the short way.
“Yes. It goes the short way, and involves space worms. Alright! On with the next bit of business. I think that she could be a resource that we use later on, but she also may not be the best person to divulge the whole truth to, if you understand my meaning. Beta: did you say you have someone we could perhaps talk to?”
“Why don’t we take a little walk out to the dormant bays; my pal Ourndrim lives out there. He is a xenobiologist like me and, I mean, whenever I have a question, he’s the first guy I go to. He is a total nerd about pretty much everything...so let’s at least see what he knows.”
“Oh! I know my way around there.”
“Well! Then you lead the way.”
Hup hup hup hup...Merkis just marches ahead.
You are now leaving Float City. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, do a tweet about it! Tweet it out to your pals, or however you would characterize the people who follow you on social media. You can even tweet the tweet I have left in the show notes. Get your tweet on. And of course, you can support the show at patreon.com/funcityventures. Thanks to all of our current patrons for help keeping this ship afloat.
Bijan / Remy:
Jenn / Merkis:
Shannon / Beta:
Nick / Vynos:
Taylor / Brandish / Oat: Mike / GM:
Hi. I’m Bijan Stephen, and I play Remy Tester on Float City. You can find me online on twitter, at bijanstephen, on twitch, at the same name, and on instagram, at bijancakes.
I’m Jenn de la Vega. I play Merkis Imeldar. You can find me on twitter and instagram at randwiches. That’s the word sandwiches, but replace the ‘s’ with an ‘r’!
This is Shannon Odell, I play Beta CommBot. You can find me on social at shodell.
Hello, this is Nick Guercio, and I play Lux on Fun City and Vynos on Float City. You can find me at NicholasGuercio on twitter and nguercio on instagram.
I’m Taylor Moore, and I play all the cool, interesting characters. You can follow me at Taylor.Biz [sinister laugh].
My name is Mike Rugnetta; I am your GM, and you can find me on twitter and instagram at MikeRugnetta. You can find the show on twitter and instagram at FunCityVentures. Float City is played in a soon-to-be-released system called Stillfleet, which you can find on twitter, instagram, and patreon at Stillfleet. This episode of Float City was recorded at various locations around Brooklyn, NY. It was produced, edited, and sound-designed by me, Mike Rugnetta.
“Pitying, he dropped a tear / Pixlriffs saw a glow-worm, near...” Fun City’s music is by Sam Tyndall; Remy's flute playing is by Jake Fridkis; our art is by Tess Stone; our Discord mods are Olivia Gulin, Kit Pulliam and Kestrel; and the voice of Artemis is Molly Templeton.
[Credits music concludes]