The team befriends Gabe, cases Jast and meets Balto.
Come join us for a premiere party on Sept. 19th, 2019 - 8 to 11pm at Wonderville (21+) on Broadway in Brooklyn. More details on their website: https://www.wonderville.nyc/events/fun-city-premiere-party
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Support the show at http://patreon.com/funcityventures
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@funcityventures is the show
@bijanstephen is TK
@randwiches is Viv
@nguersh is Luxe
and @shodell is Lash
@taylordotbiz is the bad boys and
@mikerugnetta is everything else
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Recorded at Fortunate Horse in Greenpoint BK
Produced, edited and sound designed by Mike Rugnetta
Our music is by Sam Tyndall - http://cuneiform.xyz
Our art is by Tess Stone - http://notdrunkenough.com/
This transcript was exported on Oct 28, 2019 - view latest version here.
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Speaker 1:In the early 21st century, magic reawakened on Earth, and alongside it, a new humanrace with orcs, elves, trolls, dwarves, and others. Humanity became meta humanity. Astechnology proliferated it and greatly advanced in the awakened world, global megacorporations seized ever more power becoming defacto states with their own laws, courts, and armed forces. The corporations attempt to control all aspects of modern life. This hasled to a vast and complex criminal underground, which works for and against corporateinterests. The independent career criminals who do what others can't or won't are calledShadow Runners. The year is 2101. Welcome to Fun City.
Mike:In the last episode of Fun City, interpersonal tensions were mounting as the gang is forcedto live together on spellcaster Viv's tiny houseboat Mirage, which floats in the East River. A call came in from a mysterious Johnson based in swanky mainland New Jersey whowants to hire the team to retrieve his stolen boat from a dangerous sounding mage whoowns a shipyard far south in the Brooklyn archipelago. That mage goes by the name Jast.
One problem though, to captain a boat, the team needs a rigger. Their Johnson knows just such aguy, Gabriel, a DJ at a club called The Ball Pit, who happens to owe the Johnson a favor. We return now to The Ball Pit and join the team as Gabriel's motorized DJ spheredescends from some height.
Gabriel:As the pod lowers to the ground, there's a man that is seated, dressed in head to toe withdigital camo.
Lash:Could you please explain that a little bit?
Gabriel:Yeah, like literally the 1990s style camo that was on Echo.
TK:Oh, I thought you mean like Matrix camo.
Gabriel:No. Not like fancy Shadow Run, anything but throwback mid-90s streetwear.
Lux:My laundry bag is digital camo.
Gabriel:Yeah.
TK:Frosted tips?
Gabriel:So Gabriel is completely hairless.
TK:Right, right.
Gabriel:He does not have any hair, no eyebrows, no beard, no eyelashes, but he is covered, everyinch of his skin, in tattoos of no one discernible style. It's like some geometric stuff here, some sailor Jerry stuff there. It's sort of all over the place, a couple of Bart Simpsons. And when he stands up out of his pod, he's maybe like five foot seven. And you can seeas he gets out, he unhooks a long cable that goes to the inside of the pod from a jack thatin the side of his neck. And that is his universal data jack that interfaces with his rigorsetup, so that is how he is able to control this whole club. The people in the physicalversion of the club are also kind of upset. The 15 or 20 people that were around are kindof hemming and hawing. And someone is shouting, "Hey, where'd the music ... comeon!"
TK:Where's my milk? You're going to hear a couple of where my milks.
Gabriel:What does Chester shout from-
Lash:The bar?
Gabriel:There are two drunken frat looking orcs trying to order milk, and Gabriel is no longerhooked into the system.
TK:You've got to tell me if you're going to be taking a break there, Gabriel. These babies wattheir thirsty milk.
Gabriel:I'm sorry. I have to take my 15. It's a family emergency.
TK:Gentlemen, can I interest you in some juice boxes? We should have more in 10 to 15 minutes.
Gabriel:So, Yuri sent you.
Lux:Yeah. Yes. Do you know about the job?
Gabriel:No. What does Yuri need?
Lux:You know about Yuri's boat?
Gabriel:No, I don't know about Yuri's ... Yuri's boat! Yuri has a boat? He lives in New Jersey in abank. What does he need a boat for? I mean I guess he has a bunch of paintings and stufftoo. Okay. No, I don't know about Yuri's boat. Sorry, I'm Gabe, it's nice to meet you.
Lux:Nice to meet you.
Lash:Nice to meet you, Gabe. I'm Lash.
Gabriel:Nice to meet you, Lash. I like your shoes.
Lash:Thank you.
Gabriel:They're very red and spiky.
Lash:Well, you know. I do what I can.
Gabriel:I can tell.
Lux:I'm Lux.
Viv:I'm Viv.
TK:TK.
Lux:And you're our rigger.
Gabriel:I see.
Lux:Yeah.
Gabriel:The job concerns a boat.
Lux:We need-
Gabriel:You need me to drive a boat.
Lux:... you to drive the boat. We'll secure you on the boat, and we'll join you on the boat as webring it back. But you will need to be probably driving it and-
Lash:Does a rigger have to be on the boat to drive it?
Gabriel:Not necessarily. It depends on the kind of boat. And then Gabe asks, "Well, what kind ofboat are we talking about here? Where is the boat?"
Lux:We didn't get a make or model for the boat. This is one of the boats you do need to be on todrive, unfortunately. You can do that, right?
Gabriel:I mean, I am a very good captain.
TK:Good.
Lux:Do you get seasick?
Gabriel:No. Do you?
Lux:TK doesn't answer.
Lash:You don't know, do you?
Viv:Listen, TK does that sometimes. Don't get offended.
Lash:TK, you don't know, do you?
Gabriel:Have you ever been on a boat, friend?
Lux:We're sleeping on one.
Gabriel:Congratulations.
Lux:Thank you. Yeah, we-
Gabriel:You, hold on. Let's figure this out here.
Lux:Yes.
Gabriel:I'm inclined to agree. I don't not want to be in cahoots with Yuri any longer than I have tobe. So hey, this is great for all of us, that this is an opportunity to make some new friendsand erase a part of my past that I'm not happy about. But it sounds like you need me tosteal a boat, but you don't know which boat or where it is.
Lux:We do know where it is.
Viv:It's in Sheepshead Bay.
Lux:Yeah, do you know this character called-
Gabriel:Jast?
Lux:Jast.
Lash:Oh, you know him.
Gabriel:Fuck.
Lux:Why fuck.
Gabriel:He's a bad guy.
Lux:Well, obviously he's a bad guy, but what kind of bad guy? Is he some sort of a mage, a magicperson?
Gabriel:Yeah, yeah. There's a couple of things that he does.
Lux:Okay.
Gabriel:He deals weapons.
Lux:Okay.
Gabriel:So this is surprising because ever since the quake and the floods that destroyed NewYork, in rebuilding the city, NYPD Incorporated essentially made firearms illegal forcivilians to own. And so there was a huge crackdown over the course of several decades, during which NYPS Inc. got basically every gun off the street. And it became really hard, even if you're criminals, to find, possess, get away with possessing firearms. And so Jastis one of a few people in and around the tri-state area that will still run the extremely highrisk of dealing weapons.
Lux:Right. Well, we're going to have to take this boat from him. We are going to protect you.
Gabriel:I would hope so. You need me to drive your boat, Yuri's boat.
Lux:And we do need you to drive our boat. And we'll get you there, but we can't guarantee anysafety.
Gabriel:So point of order, you need me because I know how to drive a boat.
Lux:Yes.
Gabriel:So I will get you there because it's in the middle, it's in the distant south of the Brooklynarchipelago-
Lux:Yeah, it is.
Gabriel:... where you can't get on a car.
Lash:So we need another boat.
Gabriel:You guys don't have any boats.
Lash:We have a houseboat.
Lux:A smaller tactical boat.
Lash:Yeah, just like boop, boop, boop, boop. They can see us coming.
Lux:We could drive a smaller sort of tactical boat to get us there, but we can't drive this boat.
Gabriel:Tell you what, when do you need the boat stolen by?
Lux:We need to have it back to him within three days.
Gabriel:Okay. Here's what we do. Let me worry about getting the first boat.
Lux:Okay.
Gabriel:You've never been to Jast?
Lash:No.
Viv:No.
Lux:We don't even know who Jast is.
Gabriel:Okay, great. I mean, not great, but understood. I will come and get you. We should casethe place.
Lux:Yeah.
Gabriel:We should go take a look at it and try to learn something about it. We'll go from there. Give me four hours. Tell me where you live.
Lux:Sure. We sent him some coordinates that are conveniently, location for us.
Gabriel:He acknowledges receipt, and he gives you all a nod. He's like alright, let's do this, Iguess.
Lux:Okay.
Gabriel:I'm sorry, Chester, I've got to spit. My grandma just died. I've got to leave.
Chester:Gabriel, I can see that you're lying to me, but I'm going to let it go because you're themost reliable DJ rigger we've had in here in half a decade. You're breaking my heart. I'mgoing to give you this one time.
Gabriel:I appreciate that a lot. That means a lot, Chester. And he goes in for a hug over thecounter, and nothing happens.
Lash:That was great. I had a great feeling about Gabriel. I think we're going to get along justgreat. The energy was-
Lux:What energy?
Lash:... really great energy coming off.
Viv:Lash, how are you feeling? Viv waves her hand in front of Lash's face.
Lash:I've never felt so good before.
Viv:Oh, dear.
Lux:Viv's hand to you looks like just the most beautiful butterfly.
Lash:Whoa. Viv, keep doing that. How did you learn that? I know you're magic, but whoa.
Gabriel:TK, yeah feel an overwhelming sense of inexplicable trust for your teammates.
TK:I love you guys, and doesn't say anything else.
Lux:We love you too, TK.
Lash:TK, that's a lot of progress.
Viv:Wow.
TK:And just walks away.
Lux:Alright.
Lash:Well, that was an improvement.
Mike:As you leave, the patrons of The Ball Pit sullenly and drunkenly drag themselves out oftheir various pods. A sort of secondary rigger has gone into Gabriel's empty pod to lowerpeople who were trapped up at the ceiling, who, in the intervening five-minuteconversation, became very irate about the fact that they could no longer have milk servedto them or dance in their private little dance floors. And you guys make your way back tothe houseboat.
Lash:Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lux:Yes.
TK:Yeah.
Mike:Okay.
Lux:Lux is outside on the dock of the houseboat. He's not exactly comfortable inside. Yeah, sohe's sort of just wracking his memory that he may have known someone who knewsomeone who knew about transmogrification and things like that, but he's like no, I don'tknow if that guy did that or if he did translocation because he thinks something weird isgoing on with this trash that he's turning into other stuff, but he can't quite put his fingeron-
Mike:Why don't you roll a memory test?
Lux:Yeah, I have a plus two to all memory tests, and memory is ... So I have nine dates on that. Ihave one, two, three, four, five hits.
Mike:Digging deep into your memory, you remember one very long closed-door meeting that youonce had with a bunch of faces that work with a bunch of the criminal element aroundNew York City. And it's one of those meetings that was like so long, and the doorremained closed for such a huge portion of it that the CO2 content in the room got reallyhigh. There's no fresh air for a while, and so that's why your memory is really foggyabout it. But what you do seem to remember is some people talking about a get rich quickscheme. Or really not quick, but get rich, so it's good enough where it turns out what youcan do is if you find the right kinds of metal with the right kinds of magical properties, which sometimes accidentally seeps its way into the manufacture of regular everydaymetal good like say appliances or automobiles, you can render it down through a verycomplex set of processes into something that is very valuable to magicians.
That's all you can really remember. There's something that you can do. It's really complicated. It'sreally time-consuming. But at the end, you end up with something that per gram justcosts a lot. You can charge a lot of money for it. And it doesn't involve just dealing withmetals.
Lux:Right. I wish the CO2 was a little higher in the room or lower. Lower.
Mike:The CO2 is high enough you don't even know.
TK:TK also, he knows a bunch of street urchins from his time growing up in the streets. I'm stillin touch with the urchins, the urchin gang.
Mike:So we are using the contact mechanic is what this is.
TK:Right. Right, right, right,
Mike:So in Shadow Run, player characters have contacts, which are just people they know. Andthey have a connection rating and a loyalty rating.
TK:Yeah, the connection rating and loyalty rating are both one for this. It's kind of like a I don'tknow if they're going to answer but I figure I should ask.
Mike:So connection is how well connected they are to their community. And loyalty is how muchthey care about you.
TK:Yes. It's like a hail Mary pass, but you know, I mean this guy seems like a weird magic dudewho a lot of people know, so they might know something.
Mike:Okay.
TK:So I'd like to get in touch and see if they know anything about Jast, Yast.
Mike:So you're just going to send a ... You have a comlink number, you're just going to send amessage?
TK:Yep.
Mike:You receive back a text that just says eight, equal sign, equal sign, equal sign, equal sign, D, Tilda, Tilda, Tilda.
TK:T has red receipts on and just leaves them on red.
Mike:Okay. That's all the business. As the afternoon sort of starts to draw to a close, the sunhangs a little bit lower, you hear approaching the houseboat a loud kind of whirring, whining sound. And when you look at the single large window at the end of houseboatyou see approaching one of those swamp skimmer boats with the big fan on the back.
TK:Yes.
Mike:And sitting in the front interesting chair, Gabriel. Behind him, you see two leather couchesthat are just attached to the boat. And he pulls aggressively up alongside and makes eyecontact. Who was sitting on the outside?
Lux:I was on the dock. I am on the dock. Yeah.
Mike:So you see him first. He makes eye contact with you, nods is head and says, "Get in loser."
Lux:Okay, loser. Thanks for bringing the covert boat-
Gabriel:Listen, this was the best-
Lux:... that we're going to use to quickly case the joint.
Gabriel:It was the best I could do on short notice. If you have a better, faster boat, feel free to goget it.
Lux:You know I don't. You know that the only boat we have is this giant thing that I don't thinkmoves. You know that.
Gabriel:Yeah, okay. Just listen. This is the best we can do.
Lux:Do you have paddles or something that we can paddle when we get closer?
Gabriel:No. Just don't worry. We'll just go real slow.
Lux:Okay.
Gabriel:It's the middle of the day. No one is going to suspect anything.
Lux:Alright, alright.
Gabriel:We're not going to cause trouble now, are we?
Lux:No. I mean, we're going to try not to. I have trouble with this group making sure they don'tget in trouble sometimes, but we're professionals. Guys, Gabriel is here.
Viv:Viv bursts from the door. How dare you disturb my calm.
Lux:Sorry, Viv.
Gabriel:Sorry, mom.
Viv:I need calm.
Lash:I'm here.
Mike:You guys all get on the boat. Yeah. Gabriel will take you south through the Brooklynarchipelago. You guys are at about midtown Manhattan on the east side. And the pen thatyou have for Jast is basically due south, maybe like five or six miles or so. So he's goingto take you through the Brooklyn archipelago.
Speaker 9:After the floods and quakes of '05, a number of corporate powers conspired to rebuildManhattan, but Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island weren't so lucky. And much of whatwas raised and sank underwater a generation ago has stayed that way. Serious effortsaimed at rebuilding the Brooklyn archipelago to bring it back to even a shade of thevibrancy of the former borough have really only started in the last five or so years. Forthe most part, it remains the cobbled together refuge of those who would never dream ofleaving the borough under any circumstance, as well as those who are forced fromManhattan after it was rebuilt but couldn't make the move elsewhere for any number ofreasons.
Much of the Brooklyn archipelago is a combination of naturally occurring islands, the high pointsof the now sunken borough, and stationary manmade structures. The largest earth islandis Park Beach, the former site of Park Slope and Prospect Park. The most notable builtstructure is Morgantown, a kind of floating Kowloon City on the former site ofBushwick. The further south one ventures, the less development one will find given thescale of the destruction visited upon the southern portion of the borough and the depth atwhich its past construction has been sunk.
Mike:So Jast is really far south in the Brooklyn archipelago. It's off toward the former locationslike we've talked about, Sheepshead Bay and Graves End. As you guys approach, it'sprobably like a 30, 40-minute journey just going around all of these larger and smallerislands and manmade structures. You see other houseboats like the one that you'refamiliar with, large and small islands with homes, businesses, just piles of garbage. In thedaylight, the outline of Jast is visible for several full minutes before you're anywhere nearit. On the horizon, there's this sort of squat brown rectangular prism that dims the skybehind it. And from a distance, it becomes clear that Jast is ... It's not one island, but it'sactually a large razor wire cage that is set over several islands.
And the islands range in size from maybe, you're still far away, but maybe a couple of dozen feetto city block size. So Jast, as a location, very far south, sort of in the middle of nowhere, really, really big. On some of these islands, you see these giant massive piles of scrapmetal as well as, as you get closer and closer, you start to be able to make out appliances, cars, trucks, drones, small aircraft, other mostly sort of indiscernible debris, various sizes. And in the waterways that cut between all of these piles, you see half-sunkenautomobiles, toppled rotocraft, and a lot of boats, dozens of boats.
Lash:Whoa, we've got a lot of boats here. How are we going to figure this out? One smells likeeggs maybe.
Lux:I don't think this is going to be it, Lash.
Lash:Oh, okay.
Lux:But that is a good thought. We need to figure out which boat this is. Just to be clear, Gabriel, we are just casing the place right now. We don't have any intention of going in. Do youneed more equipment and stuff to actually go in to get the job done now, or what's thedeal?
Mike:So as you look, he gestures towards the front of Jast Reclamation, which is still probablylike 2,000 yards away. So it's still pretty far away. And you can see a steady stream ofbarges bringing in piles of scrap metal and leaving empty, or leaving with a rotocraft onthem, or like one or two cars on the back of them. So it looks like they're conductingbusiness. It's pretty busy. There are a lot of people coming and going. So Gabriel gesturesat this and he's like, "I mean, we're not going to pull off a heist at," he looks at his watch, 4:30 in the afternoon."
Lux:What do you think our chances are of getting in a car that's being scrapped here, waitinguntil nightfall, popping out of that guy, and getting the job done?
Viv:I think we need more information. Perhaps I should assense the surroundings.
Lux:Please, do that.
Gabriel:That sounds great. Can you tell us what assensing is?
Viv:Assensing is digging for information in the astral plane. And the astral plane is where a lot ofmagicians have access to. That's where they can, I don't know, derive information aboutwhat's happening and if there are other magic users around.
Gabriel:So it's like a spiritual realm?
Viv:Yeah. I'm rolling ten for my assense. And three hits.
Mike:Alright, this is dope. Because you're very far away, they're not going to be able toaccurately say a lot about power levels and what exactly is going on. What you candefinitely see is that there is an exceptional amount of magic coming out of the groundbeneath Jast Reclamation and that you can see clearly, even from where you are, there isone magic user who you can tell is very powerful.
Viv:Oh, goodness me.
Lux:Viv, what happened?
Viv:Viv's caftan slips a little bit off her shoulder.
Mike:And when you look a little bit closer to sort of the underside, like the underground whereinexplicably there appears to be strong auras of magic coming from where there shouldbe basically water or the remains of old Brooklyn. You see a lot of small bits of materialmoving around. Things are active. Things are happening.
Viv:There is a lot of magic here, and I haven't felt like this in a long time.
Mike:Gabriel looks at you and he sort of reaches off to the side of the boat and wets his fingersand sprinkles some water in your face a little bit.
Viv:Yeah, yeah, I needed that. Thank you. There's a very powerful mage here within thisstructure, and there's a lot of power coming from underneath it.
Lux:It sounds like I should do a matrix perception test.
Gabriel:Sure.
Lux:Same idea, just seeing what's happening, if anything, in the matrix.
Mike:Gabe is also still keeping you pretty far away. Is that what you want?
Lux:Yeah.
Mike:Yeah. You're kind of like in the middle. You're sort of parked off to the side of a channel, sothere's a bunch of different kinds of boats coming and going. You're still maybe 1,500yards away or so. No one is paying you any mind.
Lux:Gabe, can we get a little closer?
Gabriel:Yeah.
Lux:Just because there's a lot of noise. There will be a to of noise.
Gabriel:There will be a lot of noise.
Mike:So in Shadow Run, especially with technological things, if you would like to understand more about them, you sometimes have to be closer to them because distance createswhat's called noise in the network, which just makes it hard to perceive things.
Lash:Lash says: If anyone stops us, I say we say this is a bachelorette party, my bacheloretteparty.
Mike:Lux, as Lash says this, you smell the last remnants of the liquor still on her breath.
Lux:Okay.
TK:Milk.
Mike:Cliven is not there right now.
TK:But Chester, it was milk.
Lux:Hey, Lash, I could smell the milk on you. We're not going to pretend to be at a bacheloretteparty.
Lash:Alright. I'm just throwing the idea out there. When push comes to shove, we'll see what yourdecision is.
Lux:Okay, so you're-
Mike:A boat pulls up alongside and says, "You guys lost? You need any help?
Lux:I don't know why someone from Graves End talks like this, but, no, sir. We're just abachelorette party."You kids have fun." And then he speeds off. Alright, that worked.
Lash:See, no one wants to be anywhere near a bachelorette party. You see one, you run away.
Lux:You're right. I couldn't think of anything else, and it actually worked. Thank you, Lash.
Mike:Gabe, chucking to himself, pulls forward a couple hundred yards. You see more clearly thegiant rusting razor wire cage that stretches all across Jast Reclamation. You can also seenow that there a couple dozen LED panels hung on the inside of its top surface fornighttime work, probably security. You also start to see catwalks along the perimeter ofthe cage. And you begin to hear the machinery that combs through the piles of detritusand all of the material that they get delivered. You start to hear these deep squeals andcrunches of big metal being chomped, and melted, and whatnot.
You also start to see, it's a little hard for you to tell the details, but it looks like there's officebuilding or like a guard tower or something that stretches around both sides of the twochannels that the barges are using to enter and exit. So there is some set of facilities uptowards the front, but you're still a little bit far away to be able to tell that they are.
Lux:Yeah, I think I want to do that perception test.
Mike:So you just kind of want to-
Lux:I want to see what kind of IC they have. I want to see what kind of matrix countermeasuresthey might have or, you know-
Mike:So you want to actually try to figure out-
Lux:Yeah, I want to see what we're going to be up against in the cyber sense.
Mike:I mean, I think you're going to have a hard time knowing what their countermeasures arebefore you actually gain access to them as a host, which, at this point, you don't evenknow whether or not that exists.
Lux:Right.
Mike:So I think probably your first step would be you want to just look, and you want to see ifyou can even figure out if they have something that you can infiltrate.
Lux:Right. Yeah, that sounds smarter. I'll just roll it and see.
Mike:Yeah, roll it and see what you ... I mean, this is what the matrix perception test, dependingupon how well you do, you basically see more or less.
Lux:Rolling ten. Four hits.
Mike:So what you figure out is that you see icons in the distance, they're a little fuzzy, of someemployees, a number of employees that are just working the yard. They kind of blink inand out because of the distance, maybe because of the kind of gear that they're using. Youdon't really know. But you can see that there's maybe at least half a dozen people that youcan see have some sort of connected gear of some kind, whether it's a com link orwhatnot. You do, because of your role, manage to perform some search mojo, and there isone really simple computer system that's in the office that was running silent. It wastrying to hide itself from public broadcast. And you do see that its there. You didn't rollwell enough to be able to tell what it is, but you can see that there is one thing that's therethat is wirelessly accessible that they were trying to hide. And it seems like very low-techotherwise.
Lux:So I guess I relay that information back to them. Gabriel, is there any of these ships orvehicles or anything around here that you have wireless access to that you can rig andcontrol? I mean, obviously I know that you are not going to be able to do that with the bigboat, but is there anything else, barges, that you're connected to or can connect to control?
Gabriel:So you want me to check and see whether or not there's something in the yard that I canget and move around from here?
Lux:Yeah.
Gabriel:Yeah, it's worth a host. Hold on one second.
Lux:Thank you. I like this guy.
Lash:Yeah.
Lux:You were right.
Lash:I told you. I get energy from people.
Lux:I should listen to that more often.
TK:I just wonder if it was Yuri.
Lux:We'll find that out.
Lash:Odessa.
Lux:Should we tell him about the bonus, or should we-
TK:No.
Lux:Okay. Well, he's not taking any money anyway.
TK:No. No, he's working for free.
Lux:Yeah.
Lash:Guys.
TK:We're just having a private conversation, Gabriel. Uh-oh, something's happening. Oh, no. Fuck.
Lash:Oh, what happened?
TK:Big glitch. Fuck.
Lux:Oh, shit.
TK:Critical glitch.
Lash:Oh, God. What did he do?
Gabriel:It's really weird when you're the GM and the person who glitched.
Lash:Oh, man.
Lux:But you're also playing Gabriel and not like an enemy.
Mike:Gabriel-
TK:My comment is going to be no wonder you're working for free.
Lux:Gabriel, your face is going completely white. What's going on, bud?
Gabriel:We have to go. We have to go. I'm sorry.
Lux:Now?
Gabriel:We just have to back off for a second.
Mike:And he turns the boat around and starts to drive away slowly, but you can see that hisknuckles are slightly white.
TK:What going on, Gabriel.
Lux:Gabriel, what's going on?
Gabriel:Nothing. I was just sort of checking to see whether or not there were things that wereconnected that were broadcasting a signal that I might have been able to connect to. AndI maybe just did that a little bit too loudly. It's fine. It happens sometimes. You just-
Lux:It didn't happen to us ever.
Gabriel:That seems unlikely.
Lux:I mean, I don't think it's ever happened to us?
Viv:Do they know it was you?
Gabriel:Well, probably not. I just think maybe it's a good idea for us to wait a couple of minutesand not be motionless in plain sight.
Mike:And he drives around to the backside of a particularly large houseboat that is between youand Jast and sort of nods his head a little bit and smiles. He's like, "I hear this happens tolots of riggers."
Lash:I say, "Quick, everyone, let's start singing karaoke so we can really lean into thisbachelorette party thing." Okay.
Viv:I don't think we should be drawing attention to ourselves.
Lux:What do you think happens at bachelorette parties?
Lash:Karaoke, houseboats.
Lux:Right, right. So you think what happens is you get one woman and three men on an airboatwith leather couches-
Lash:Yeah, sure.
Lux:... and then you go sing karaoke behind a houseboat. Is that what you think is happening.
Lash:Hell, yeah.
Lux:Alright, Lash.
Mike:As you are having this conversation, an orc wearing a thick padded armored vest drivesaround the backside of the houseboat that you are hiding behind on a cobbled togetheralmost Mad Max-esque jet ski and looks at you really suspiciously and shouts, "Hey, what are you all doing around here?"
Lux:I use my con skill to tell him that we are at a bachelorette party.
Mike:Roll for it.
Lux:Because again, I couldn't think of anything else.
Chester:Lash did the thinking.
Lux:Well, she did, and I'm going along with this even though I can't stand it.
Chester:You're not saying it's a bachelorette party because you didn't think of anything. There wasa plan in place.
Lash:Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mike:"I think I saw you. You was parked around here not doing anything for a second, right?"
Lux:Yeah, yeah.
Lash:Oh, yeah.
Mike:"This is a high traffic area. You can't just be around here not ding anything. You can't justpark in the middle of the channel."
Viv:Viv smiles and waves her hands in front of Lash to distract here.
Mike:They still ... I mean, they're slightly less beautiful butterflies, but they are still pretty nice.
Lash:Whoa.
Viv:Yes, that's right. Watch my hands.
Lux:I think my con is just charisma.
Mike:That seems unlikely.
Chester:Yeah, plus con's guilt.
Lash:No, it's con plus charisma.
Mike:Charisma plus whatever.
Lux:It's charisma plus ... That's right. I'm sorry. It's-
Mike:It's probably at least like 11.
Lux:It's 12.
Mike:Yeah.
Lux:Yeah, 12 dice.
Mike:I'm going to tell you, you could probably buy these hits, but we're going to roll it anywaysbecause it's going to be fun.
Lux:Yeah, it's fun. I'm trying to convince him that we're at a bachelorette party, and we've hadplenty of milk. And we didn't know where we were.
Viv:Yeah, it's true though.
Lux:I didn't do great. I got three.
TK:Oh, that's bad. You should probably burn that or spin-
Lash:Spin.
Lux:Three is still good as it relates to just general dice.
TK:We're coming off a critical glitch though.
Lux:That's true, but I don't know if that matters in this scenario.
Lash:How much edge do you have?
Mike:Well, here's what I would say.
Lux:Yeah.
Mike:Say what you want to say, and let's see how it goes.
Lux:Sure. Yeah, my friend, Dianne, over here, she is getting married to my brother, so naturally, I'm at her bachelorette party. And we had a little bit of milk earlier. I wanted to show herwhere her family is from. They're actually out from here. And she's never been out here. We kind of got lost actually. Do you know how to get to Mad Marty's? It's a bar. Ithought with we were there, and we're not. Oh, I can't wait until you get married to mybrother. Oh, it's going to be the best. Do you know where Mad Marty's is? I thought itwas over here, and then I just saw this cage. It's like I have no interest in that.
Mike:The entire time you're spinning this yarn, he is giving you the flattest look like he's notbuying it. But then, you know, as soon as he figures out what's happening, and he's like, wait a minute, okay. He's an orc, looks at you, also an orc, going to get married to thisguy's brother. This guy is a human. And then he hears Mad Marty's, his favorite bar. Andthe whole thing just sort of overwhelms him a little bit that all the hate in the world is fornothing. We're all the same. We're all a part of the same tribe. Metahumanity is just we'reall just trying to get through it together. Why cause trouble?
And he looks at you and he's like, "You know what? That's beautiful. That is so beautiful. MadMarty's, I'll tell you. What you do is you motor." And he looks at Gabriel, and he says, "You motor three and a half miles that way. And then you go north about another three of four. It's weird that you're out here. This is nowhere near it, but I understand you've beenhitting the milk.
Lux:Yeah, we've hit the milk.
Lash:Oh, hell yeah we have.
Lux:I thought that we should have turned back over there, but thank you so much. What was yourname?
Mike:Oh, it's Balto Cuddle.
Lux:Balto Cuddle, can we get a picture?
Mike:I would be honored.
Lux:Oh, that's so nice.
Lash:Yeah, let's get a picture.
Lux:That's so nice.
Mike:And then he takes a picture of you from his com link and then says, "It was so pleasant tomeet you," and then motors off.
Lux:Oh, God, I was going to use my palming skill to try to take his ID, but he's going. Great.
Mike:Gabriel breathes a giant sigh of relief and starts to pull around to the other side of the housethat you're hiding behind.
Lash:Oh, glad we thought on our feet of that bachelorette party.
Gabriel:To go back to the matter at hand, I can't tell. The cage, it's hard to tell what's going on. Honestly, I don't even know how you managed to figure out the things that you managedto figure out. It seems like it works a little bit like a faraday cage. It's hard to get signal inand out, and anything I can get is real fuzzy except at the very edges, and nothing at theedges is anything I can jump into, at least not from here. Possible, but I won't know untilmaybe we're in there.
Lux:Okay. So, guys, based on what we saw, my question is this, I'm assuming we're going tohave to get the boat completely covertly. And we're going to get on the boat, and they're going to know that we're getting away with the boat as soon as the boat starts moving. Dothese walls or these cages that it's in look like they're strong enough to stop a warshipfrom just driving through them, or do we need to plan an evac route with the ship?
Lash:Yeah, I think the only way the ship is probably going to get out of her is by someone lettingus get out of there with the ship, which might take some sneaking around.
Viv:Well, we need to find a way to get onto a barge or acquire one.
Lux:I actually think that's the easy part. We could probably drive this very boat up to the back ofa barge and jump on it. But the thing is, once we get the battleship, we're going to have todrive it out the front door. And that mage is going to pickle us.
Mike:As you guys are talking, Gabriel is just slowly floating his way closer to Jast Reclamationjust to get a closer look. You see that there actually is an office that arcs around theentrance and the exit of the razor wire cage and that you can see some people through thewindows that are in there. There are little guard towers on either side, and you can seethat to the left there is a big rendering facility with a giant crane. There's a small sort ofhut like house/warehouse kind of thing that has an orange glow coming out of it.
Lux:That's smoke.
Mike:And smoke, and you can see that the catwalks, there actually are guys and the catwalks thatare patrolling. And sure enough, in line with what Gabriel had said, you guys, they allseem to have guns. You are also now slightly closer if you wanted to do a last ditch effortto try to figure out if there's anything for you to learn about the surroundings, whether it'smagic related or technology related.
Lux:How ready are you guys to-
Lash:We're not.
Lux:What would you need to be ready to go in?
TK:I think we need a general plan on how we're going to get the boat out because if we couldsneak around everything and get on the boat, again, we're going to have to leave with theboat. And as soon as they see that boat moving, they know that shit is happening, andthey'd pull their guns out, and they'd start shooting at us.
Lux:I turn to Gabriel and I say, "Do you know how to work the guns?"
Gabriel:So that's the thing, if we can figure out which exact boat it is-
Lux:Yes.
Gabriel:... beforehand, that's better.
Lux:Right.
Gabriel:If we can figure out which boat it is when we're in there, I'm probably going to need atleast half an hour to get all the skill softs in order and to learn how to do it unless it's onethat I already know how to do, which there's a chance, but I can't guarantee it notknowing what it is. So we might need to just play it by ear.
Viv:So if I can get my hands on any to these guards that knows something, I can probe theirminds. Lux, do you think you can replicate any of these uniforms?
Lux:I can. I can do that.
TK:There's an idea.
Lux:I also have got a picture of the guard that we had, so I could also create a disguise of him.
Viv:Why don't we bring the bachelorette party back, and he may patrol again.
Lux:You want to get the guard back?
Lash:Right now?
Lux:Yeah, do you want to get the guard back right now?
Viv:Do you want to get rid of him now or tomorrow?
TK:Are we going to take him hostage for a day? I think we should-
Lux:Yeah.
TK:I think you should create the costume before. This should be a, we get in and we get out.
Lux:I'm going to figure out who this is. I'll do my research, and we'll get him on the way to worktomorrow and take care of him.
Viv:I feel more comfortable about this now.
Gabriel:Do you guys feel like you did all your recon?
Lux:The only other thing that I think we could do is if we could take the boat around to the sidewhere all the ships are. If we could look through the documents that Yuri gave us and seeif we can see any identifying marks or anything like that.
TK:Which ones.
Lux:That he gave us.
TK:Oh.
Lux:So that Gabriel can do some research on the actual ship model and make and guns available.
TK:If it is Yuri's ship, there must be a signature of his on it somewhere.
Viv:Or the name.
TK:On the operating system or something because it has to be registered to him or something. Ifwe could do a couple of searches on the matrix and see which ships are registered towhom.
Lux:Can you do that now?
TK:I think so.
Lux:Okay.
Mike:So Gabriel starts to drive towards Jast Reclamation and banks left to go around the backsidejust to get some sense on what the rest of the property looks like. He stays at a far enoughdistance so as to not invoke any sort of suspicion. And as you are turning from the frontface to the left face and around, you become aware just of how big this place is. It'sgigantic. And from the vantage point that you have moving from the left face to the rearface, you can't see any other in or out other than the channels that are the entryway andthe exit that you've seen these barges entering and leaving through.
You do get a better sense of the sort of half dozen or so Navy ships that are around that sort ofroughly fit the description. They all look similar but different. Some of them have funnypaint jobs. Some of them have artillery on them, some of them don't. Some of them lookin a state of extreme disrepair. One of them is up on stilts. A couple of them are in thewater. None of them jump out immediately as being definitely belonging to Yuri.
TK:Hey, Mike, stilts?
Mike:Yeah, what is it called when they're on-
Chester:The dry dock.
Mike:The dry dock, yeah.
TK:Okay. Because I imagined-
Mike:What are they called? They're called floaters or something. They're like big-
TK:All boats are floaters, Mike.
Lux:But not all boats are upper deckers. Hey. I made a poop joke.
TK:What do you call a submarine boat?
Lux:A bad boat. That's for to go down there.
TK:To go down there.
Mike:When you look at the coordinates that Yuri gave you for his ship, they point to directly inthe center of Jast. They don't point to a specific location. So it seems like he knows thatit's here somehow, but he doesn't have a ... It's not like a precise-
Lux:Can I just take a picture of all of these boats with my com link and then just send it to Yuriand be like which one, tell me?
Mike:Absolutely.
Lux:Can I do that now?
Mike:Sure.
TK:And while you're doing that, I think I can run a matrix search. Basically, I'm looking forinformation on the matrix about this ship because I believe that there has to be a signatureleft on the ship from Yuri's owning it. Right? Because it must be registered to him. I'mlooking for basically ship's records, even gangsters register ships under dummycorporations and fake names. So I'm going to look through all of the public maritimedatabases and see if anything is registered to Yuri or one of his aliases.
Mike:And we're hoping for, we'll say a four or a five gets you something.
TK:Oh, it's not looking good. It looks like a glitch.
Lux:Four.
Lash:Edge, edge, edge, edge, edge, edge.
Mike:Four? That's not a glitch.
TK:Four?
Lux:Four ones is not a glitch?
TK:Out of ten?
Mike:Out of ten though.
Lash:Edge, edge, edge, edge.
TK:Should I re-roll it?
Mike:You can re-roll. If you want to spend an edge, you can re-roll everything that's not a hit.
Viv:You've got two edges over here so far.
TK:Yeah, I'll re-roll it. I'll re-roll.
Mike:Yeah, keep the ones that are hits, and re-roll everything else.
TK:Yeah, we got it.
Mike:You don't get access to any of Jast's records. Nothing there is public. As far as you can tell, they've managed to scrape the matrix of any kind of record of what goes in and out ofthere. They're a private business. That kind of makes sense. If you were to get access totheir local network you might be able to find something, but on the public database, no. You do, however, manage to find records for all of the journeys of all of the ships thathave come into New York that are of the type that you can see with your physical eyes. And what you've found is that there are, in fact, four boats that showed up and then neverleft, and they're still here.
What you then can do is to figure out which has been registered to one of the dummy corporationsthat Yuri has given to you as a name. You can't figure that out from where you arebecause you need access to the boats.
TK:But that's four locations in Jast.
Mike:There are four boats that you know that are in Jast that are candidates. And if you andprobably Gabriel would be able to do it to can get physical access to them, and if theyhave power, you will be able to basically match identifying characteristics to theirsystems to figure out which boat is Yuri's/
TK:So we've devised a fetch quest.
Mike:You have devised a fetch quest. I have devised a fetch quest. The universe has conspired todevise a fetch quest.
Chester:Running in the shadows.
TK:It does feel like a team effort.
Lux:TK, What did you get?
TK:There are four candidates. I can't figure out any better than that. Me and Gabriel can go. Imean I guess all of us can probably do this, but we can all go and check the boats to see ifthey have power to see if we can see what is on their computers. We'll be able to match atleast one of them because one of them is the boat we're looking for.
Lux:Right.
Mike:Do you feel good? Do you want to amscray? You're sort of turning around now from theback face of Jast to the right face. And the sun is getting pretty low.
TK:I've done all I can do.
Lash:Yeah, let's get out of here. You've been on their matrix. They might be looking at us. Webetter get out of here.
Lux:Alright, sounds good.
TK:Got an overwatch score, huh?
Lux:Gabriel, let's roll.
Lash:Whew, I'm getting married.
Viv:Yay, Dianna.
Mike:In the distance, you see that one orc giving you a high peace sign.
TK:Little does he know.
Lux:And he shouts, "Love is great."
Mike:You are now leaving Fun City. Thank you for listening. If you want to support the show orget weird and fun behind the scenes tape and other episode extras, please head topatreon.com/funcityventures where you can transfer us some of your hard earned newyen and keep this ship afloat.
We have been working on Fun City for almost a year, and we're so excited to share it with youthat we couldn't not throw a part. So if you find yourself in the Brooklyn archipelago, please come join us on September 19th, 2019 at our favorite new neighborhoodbar/arcade/concern venue, Wonderville on Broadway. We'll be there from 8:00 until11:00 PM at least throwing back soy brews and playing Killer Queen. More details in theshow notes.
TK:I'm Bijan Stephen, and I am TK. You can find me online and bijanstephen on Twitter, whichis B-I-J-A-N S-T-E-P-H-E-N. Or Instagram, and you should just Google that.
Viv:I'm Jenn da la Vega. I am Viv. You can find me online at randwiches, that's the sandwiches, but just replace the S with an R.
Lux:This is Nick Guercio. I play Lux Sythe. You can find me on Twitter at N-G-U-E-R-S-H andInstagram at nguercio, G-U-E-R-C-I-O.
Lash:This is Shannon O'Dell. I play Lash Goodbog. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter atshodell, S-H-O-D-E-L-L.
Chester:This is Taylor Moore, and I play all the bad boys. I'm at taylor.biz.
Mike:My name is Mike Rugnetta. I am your GM. I can find me on Twitter and Instagram at MikeRugnetta.
You can find the show on Twitter at Fun City Ventures. Fun City was recorded at Fortunate Horsein Greenpoint Brooklyn. It was produced, edited, and sound designed by me, MikeRugnetta. All of the show's music is by Sam Tindell. And the voice of Artemis is MollyTempleton. Thanks to everyone who heard rough cuts of the show along the way andgave us notes and advice. And special shout outs to Drew Hendrick and JasonOberholtzer, Molly Templeton, Tim Moochy, Crystal Donovan, Patrick Davison, KyleShensanger, and George Ruiz.
Across the water, buried amongst the toxic fjords of Sheepshead Bay sits Jast Reclamation. Inone corner of its vast area sits a single story concrete building with an open steel roof. Beneath it, a Byzantine warren of hallways and tunnels leading into dark secludedchambers, rooms with chanting apprentice mages, enchanted slag, and rivulets ofmultiple glowing metals. Candles flicker with crimson and ultraviolet flames. In thesunken center of it is a round chamber lit but the fire of a forge in its center. And at theforge works a human man, his arms disfigured with scars and raw unhealed burns. Onone hand, he holds a heavy ancient revolver. With the other, he withdraws a growingcrucible from the fire.
He ours its contents into the carvings he has made on the great pistol's grip. The liquid metalsizzles, cools, and solidifies into the [phonetic 00:50:45 eldridge sidules] and runes cutinto the material. He examines his work and ignores the smell of his own burning fleshmingles with the smoke of the smoldering gun. From the chamber's only egress entersBalto Cuddle. "Hey, boss, wanted to let you know, those folks in the fan boat, the onesthat you thought maybe were causing trouble at the perimeter. I checked on it. They werejust a bachelorette party."
Jast Columnal, owner of Jast Reclamation casts a pall of disappointment over his director ofsecurity. "No, Mr. Cuddle, they were not. They are thieves, and they are coming to takesomething from me. I have seen it. Baphomet has shown it. "Oh. Should we get someextra guys, then?" "No. No. The thieves will break against me like waves upon the rock." "I don't doubt it, but I mean, still, we should call in-" "No! I have already summonedVornoth. Let them come to be rendered." "Alright, you are literally the boss. If they are abachelorette thing, though, I don't think we should really rend them."
He momentarily submerges the handle of his gun in a clear blue reservoir of water, which bubblesand retreats from the red hot material, but quickly calms and rushes in to cradle the gun. "If they are lucky, Baphomet's fire may show them mercy, but I will not."
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