Hello and welcome to the Weekly Scroll podcast.
My name is Ryan. I'm I'm Stella Contri.
I am a writer of various adventures with a focus on the
horrific and the strange. My name is Adam, I make games as
World Champ game Co including some of the best horror on table
tops today and all my stuff is at world champ dot IO.
And I'm Josh Dimansky. I will be your GM or facilitator
for tonight. Post noteworthy for writing and
doing design work in the tabletop RPG scene.
And officially, as of this summer, one of the now and
future partners for the Lunar Horror initiative.
Making systems and adventures and stuff.
Very excited for everything that's going to come out of
that. I already have the The Con copy
of The Bloom. I'm excited to get the SPI copy
of The Bloom. But today here right now what
we're doing on the weekly scroll is side Quest.
So for those that are unaware I believe this is Episode 3.
The point of side quests is to take games we've reviewed on the
podcast and do a one shot a lot of times with Josh running it so
I don't have to or with the creator of the game who also
basically this point is he just said it's Josh as well.
So that works out great for us. And it is Friday the 13th, so we
are doing a Friday the 13th inspired liminal horror
adventure. And that's all I'm going to say
about it. If you are watching this, the
gear of sidequest is to kind of teach the game as we play a
little bit. So as we go through, we'll
probably be stopping to make sure that the rules are clear as
we go. And other than that, we will be
experiencing some horror in the liminal spaces.
I guess, Josh, what are we doing?
We're going. All right.
Do you want me to talk about the system itself or?
Yeah, if you want to just do like a quick rule summary, let
me get that tossed up all. Right, so Limital Horror has a.
Pretty easy to interpret. Lineage Liminal Horror itself is
technically a hack of Cairn, which is a hack of into the odd
and nave, pulling some of the good elements between those two
and smashing them together. So if you have played any sort
of any into the odd or into the odd derivative game, you
probably got a pretty good idea of how to play liminal horror.
Your characters have 3 core ability scores.
These are Strength, Dexterity, and Control.
And you know, Strength and Dexterity being pretty
straightforward. Control is how your character
deals with social settings, emotions, and more specifically,
how they deal with stress and the weird things that you
encounter over the course of your adventure.
If you're looking to do something risky, you roll AD 20
and you're looking for equal to or under your ability score.
No. Characters also have what's
called hit protection. This is your character's ability
to avoid serious harm, and this is both physical damage as well
as sort of stress, which stress in our system is the toll that
seeing interacting with horrors takes upon your characters, no?
One of the key elements here again as any into the odd system
uses as well. When you get into combat there
is no roll to hit. You simply roll the associated
damage dice with whatever attack that you're currently trying to
complete, and that total is applied versus the targets hit
protection if. That is less than their total
hip protection, then. In theory, the character has
avoided damage. They've avoided taking serious
harm. So maybe it makes contact.
But deals a flesh wound gives you a bruise, or misses
entirely. It's when hip protection is
depleted entirely that damage now starts to apply to your
character's ability scores. If you're taking physical
damage, you know somebody swinging a baseball bat at you
or a. Slawed Man is grasping at you
that will apply directly to your strength score.
If you are taking damage that inherently attempts to slow or
stop your character, that applies to your dexterity score.
The example I like to use is a a giant spider shootings web at
you. It's going to gum you up and
slow you down so that I could kind of go in and eat you
effectively. So that applies to Dexterity and
control as most commonly. Used when stress exceeds or hip
protection. No.
Stress can be generated or applied directly by the horrors
themselves, due to some you know, of their inherent
abilities. Or as I said, it happens when
you you see spooky things, you know, kind of disturbing things.
You walk in in, the librarian has a knife in their back.
You know there's stress. When your character takes
Stress, and this is a core part of Limited Horror, and this is
where it diverges from the base mechanics.
When you take Stress and Stress exceeds your hip protection and
applies to Control, your character must make a Control
save. If they fail that save, they
take Fallout. Now, Fallout is a mechanical
representation of the horrors having a tangible effect on your
characters. These are your characters
changing inherently as they encounter these horrible things.
As a general basis, Fallout makes your characters a little
weirder and a little bit stronger, so you're
fundamentally changing from where you start this adventure
to where your characters eventually end up, assuming they
don't die. Because you know this is a
horror system, so that is a possibility.
And from there. I mean, that's pretty much it.
You have spooky stuff happen to you.
Fallout is effectively your character progression.
So in order to get stronger or more capable of taking on these
tasks, you have to put yourself in harm's way.
We can go from there. Again, if we have any questions
throughout the stream, feel free to stop me.
I will be happy to explain any and every one of these mechanics
as we see them in practice. Right, It's spooky.
Onto the edge here. All right, first it's time to
show a little bit. Now, the adventure that we were
running today. It's called Camp Cold Water.
This is for those of you who are watching.
It's a little bit of a sneak peek for what you may come to
find in the Limiter Horror Deluxe Edition.
That's this hardcover that we are working on.
That'll be out for sometime in 2024 if everything works out
according to plan. It is worth noting that this is
in its infancy. The things that you might see
today might be totally different by the time they do end up in a
coral book, but in theory it'll be very similar to the end
experience. Now this adventure serves as a
prequel to The Bloom. The bloom being.
The most recent liminal horror module.
We put out digital files a month or two ago and the physical file
or file, the physical form the Z in print has finally hit the
space Penguin this past Wednesday.
If you would like to pick up a copy of this, they are running a
13% off sale for Friday the 13th That includes all printed zines
if I remember correctly. But really, you're going to go
there for the Bloom because this is good now.
The bloom takes place in the town of cold water.
It's this small town and you know, in terms of like the quote
UN quote liberal hurricane, and it's set in southern Washington
state, you know, in the Pacific Northwest, United States.
But cold water is sort of inherently written to be able to
be placed anywhere that has mountains and rivers and streams
and whatnot. So you don't have to use that
exact setting, but cold water is quite quiet.
Quiet, quaint town that is inherently conservative in a lot
of ways, doesn't change much over the last 30 or 40 years.
The citizens themselves are sort of resistant to any sort of that
type of change that you might bring in.
They think their town has this sort of rustic charm and really
it's sort of just a refusal to let the past go now.
In the bloom, you will be running all over this region,
you know, dealing with there's farms, there's a big gas
station, there's the lake itself, there's a fire
watchtower and all manner of things that you can kind of
visit and go in between. What we are going to do is focus
on one of these locations that is Camp Coldwater.
Now before we begin. Improper.
A short introduction, as I said Cape Cold or cold water.
The town of Cold water I stuck right between a few mountains in
southern Washington. It's a few hours away from the
hustle and bustle of the big city was once a thriving bed of
tourism and now it's seen better days.
However. Still remains a key launching
point for outdoor enthusiasts. Sitting right on the edge of a
pristine lake as well as a fair number of trail heads, people
come here to see the sights, go up the mountains, fish in the
river, boat on the lake, so on and so forth.
Now the tourism season is just bought over.
It is mid-october, coincidentally Friday the 13th.
It didn't rain today, but it did rain yesterday and the day
before that. And there's some concern over
the various trails as fall weather inches ever closer to
winter. You know where the mountains
start to build up. A little more snow and it makes
it a little more dangerous to kind of send pokes up there.
But you guys are headed to Camp Coldwater for three day weekend.
It's the last hurrah of the season, so to speak.
Even if you did get a little bit of a late start now, I'll give
you guys a chance to introduce your characters to me, to the
audience, and to each other. It doesn't really matter who
goes first, so anyone who wants to speak up can take the reins.
Oh, hold on. Name.
Basic description. Give your character background,
because that's kind of important.
And anything else about their background that you roll that
you think might be relevant for this adventure.
All right, I guess I will go 1st.
I'm going to be playing Rosie. She is relatively short, but
very well built Goth woman who primarily works as a garbage
collector under most circumstances.
She is very, very cautious. However, at one point the thing
that kind of touched her and let her on to the idea that there is
something out there is At one point I think she read something
that she wasn't supposed to read somewhere on a forum that she
maybe wasn't supposed to be on. I'm playing Grom, whose
Christian name is Greg. He's a skater.
He's sort of just a archetypal Stoner burnout kind of dude, has
these strange dreams that he can't quite explain, but figures
it's the universe pulling him in whatever direction.
And he's just kind of going with the flow, man.
What does a grom look like in terms of general aesthetic?
Grom Where is the sort of? Baggy Jean cargo pants got like
an olive green. Like, I'm kind of picturing like
a more stoned shaggy from scooby-doo more.
More like, I guess like human. Like less cartoon.
He's a cartoon human. Yeah, I'm playing Cormac.
They I wear my work uniform, apparently, which is just my
scrubs. The only color I own in real
life is black, so that's what we'll go with.
I have, apparently, an athletic build and a forgettable face.
Gravelly speech, which we'll get to.
I believe that everything has a rational explanation rooted in
science, but at some point lost a loved one under mysterious
circumstance. And I am cautious but vengeful.
So I basically me in real life and and that's I think that's
that's it now. Before we begin, we begin
proper. We're gonna do a little bit of
world building, or at least narrative design.
I don't know how does that work? So I'm going to ask a few
establishing questions. You guys can work together to
find the answers. Now first, why are you friends?
Why are you together on this trip, going out to a campground
for a three day weekend? What is it that has brought you
and your friend group together? Just to give you a heads up,
it's not just you. Because we have a nurse, a
garbage collector and a skate and a Stoner skater.
I don't know. Do we have a common plug?
I don't know, I guess. Yeah, yeah, that.
That's what my thought was, you know.
Is it you? Cormick, you work in a diversion
is a serious so just in case IRL Nursing Association in
California, this is all RP I could be.
That works. But yeah, I I think I forgot my
background. I rolled EMT, but I I can't go
EMT when I'm a nurse IRL. So I just went with nurse.
So I to me, I think that makes the most sense.
I don't know if, Stella, that was the first thing you thought.
It was wrong. Yeah, let's just go.
Drugs. Yeah, you know, it's just the
great unifier. All right, so the drugs brought
you together. Do you share a deeper
friendship, or is it purely transactional?
How are you connected as characters to each other outside
of that one point? I I feel like it definitely
started out pretty transactional, but like we're
we're just kind of weird enough people that we kind of just
stuck together. You know, like that that's that
seems about right. Yeah, yeah, I'm into that.
I feel like if if I somehow am the plug, I would definitely be
the kind that, like since someone abandoned me.
I mean, one of the other trends I have is abandoned and I lost a
love one under mysterious circumstances.
So I guess I feel like everyone leaves me.
So when people come over, I want them to stay.
So I can imagine being like, oh, you want drugs, Why don't you
also have like cookies and watching TV or something, you
know, and it just kind of became a a space.
The dealer who's actually cool to hang out with.
There you go, yeah. All right, and.
As I alluded to, you're not alone.
On this journey together, you were the larger group of
friends. In fact, there are three other
individuals. That are present with you on
this three day vacation. I need each of you to tell me
who one of these people are, who they are, what they look like,
if it's relevant, what they do and how they are connected to
your character specifically. If you can remember all those
things and come up with something in three seconds.
OK I. I think I've got one.
My cousin Henry. He's really tall, lanky and
ginger. Wait, is that it?
The the connection look like name.
What's Henry do? Henry, I think he's, I think he
works at a gas station like convenience store kind of
situation. Perfect.
Either of you can go next if you have any ideas.
My boss Richard works or it came with the on the trip with us.
We actually we work at the head shop together and I told him
about this trip that I was going on and rather than just give me
the time off, he closed the store for the weekend so that he
could come with. Perfect.
What does Richard look like? You know, white guy with dreads?
Regrettable. Has like new Age spiritual
tattoo sleeves is just sort of a person who takes from every
culture he finds interesting, which is every every culture
that he encounters. Just like a citizen of the world
and. How about our last friend?
I will say names are the hardest thing for me.
It took me like 45 minutes to pick mine, so I'll get back to
that. But I'll say it is a a fellow
nurse, but a travel nurse that's probably been at our hospital on
contract for a little bit too long.
They as travel nurses are what to do and not many people get
this, but if you do, that's cool.
They have figs and they're a little bit too tight in the
jogger style. She What else do we need?
General aesthetic, I think you see, gave me the connection.
And there's also the job. Just what they look like, yeah.
Yeah. So I mean, let's go average
nurse like 5-3, blonde. Like I said, expensive nursing
equipment. We'll go with that.
With all their travel nurse money and her name is Jill.
Jill Perfect. Is she a TikTok nurse?
Yes, 1000%. I had to go through every travel
nurse. Somebody had to go.
I can't say that. No, I can't say that name.
They can't think this in real life.
OK. So yes, Jill, the TikTok
influencer travel nurse. Oh, all right.
Now also. I think this is going to be my
final question, at least to start here.
All of you travel together in one vehicle, the six of you.
What is that vehicle? Who owns it and who is driving?
It's got to be Henry's like Stoner van, right?
You mean I think Henry's my cousin, But also, yeah, you know
what, my cousin's big ass car. That could also be fun.
He works at a gas station, so I feel like, yeah.
You know, yeah. You know, build up and got us.
Yeah, no, that that's why I brought my cousin on the trip,
because he's the one with the car perfect.
And is Henry driving that? Yeah, I think, I think Henry
Henry's driving it. I think it's, I'm, I'm going to
say it's yellow. I I don't know.
I don't know enough about cars, but I do know it's yellow.
So that that's the one little bit of.
Looks I'll give for it. Big old yellow car.
Perfect. And I lied.
I did have one more question. Whose fault is it that you're
running behind? I think it might be Henry's
right there. Seems like he's the only
responsible, no? No, I I think.
I think it might be mine because I have to pee so much.
I've got a tiny bladder all. Right.
OK, no. See, we have Rosie, Grom and
Cormac alongside their friends Henry, Richard and Jill driving
together in Henry's. Do we say is it?
Is it a Stoner van or is it just a large car?
You know what? Fuck, it is a Stoner van, all
right in Henry's yellow Stoner van.
Now again this was a plans for three day weekend.
Cold water doesn't have a ton in the way of standard amenities.
They do have a resort. Resort quote UN quote that sits
on the shores of the lake. Two dozen rooms more motel than
anything resembling a resort. But it's still technically the
tourist season. The prices per room are
exorbitant, especially for a group of your size, unless you
cram together into one. So you're taking a simpler
route, going to camp cold water, pitching some tents and using
that as your base of operations to hang out for the weekend.
Like I said, it is supposed to be the three day weekend,
coincidentally starting on this Friday the 13th.
Now you left the city later than you wanted to.
You stopped more than you probably should have, including
one variable, very memorable gas station at the edge of a hotel.
Something like the Shelterwood Inn, if you remember the big
glaring sign correctly. But as the sun, you know, kind
of starts its journey towards night, you Crest the last sort
of big part of the hill or mountain that you're travelling
through here to look down upon the town of cold water itself.
No, Like I said, Queen Little Town.
Basically just a little downtown area and a few burbs that kind
of stretch outward from it. Again, it looks like it hasn't
been touched since the 70s or 80s, and you would probably be
right if you were to assume that.
But the roads are windy or potholes.
They're still slick with the rain from the previous day,
maybe even this morning. But the campground, Camp Cold
Water, is just beyond the town itself.
So you drive on through, you see the sights, see the cafe, the
pizza shop, and so on and so forth until you reach where the
road diverges. You're travelling along a main
like state highway up until you get to this point and you see
the sign. It's an old wooden sign, you
know, saying camp cold water has been painted in, I don't know,
20-30 years. So it's it's quite weathered as
well and unfortunately it doesn't really pull off onto
much of an established Rd. It's kind of dirt path that
someone sprinkled rocks upon at some point in the past.
I don't know the condition of the the shocks on this fan were,
but Needless to say, it is a bumpy ride.
And as you stretch down this part of unpaved Rd. heading
towards the campground, the sun kind of goes ever and ever
further down it is effectively twilight by the time you arrive.
Now, the campground itself, it's all pretty straightforward.
There's a camp office that's the first thing you encounter as
you're coming down the road. It's a little hot.
Effectively there's a drop gate that kind of like, you know,
blocks off a portion of the road and that's where we begin.
The six of you crammed into this van as you pull up to this small
office building, you know, it's the standard park affair as a
sliding window. There is that drop gate as I
said, but as you pull up, the window remains closed, the drop
gate down. What do you do?
You mentioned that this is like the end of the season.
Does that mean that there are not, we're not expecting there
to be like camp employees around?
That's a very good question. You had reservations.
So anything beyond that is speculation as far as you're
aware. The assumption is that there was
somebody supposed to be here maintaining the campground and
checking you in and so on. Probably just using the restroom
or something. We can let ourselves in.
It's no big deal, right? Yeah, I think, I mean, me and
Richard can hop out and move that gate.
It's no big deal. Yeah, yeah, you should do that.
I think, yeah, that's the intent.
We are going to hop out of the van.
I think there is a, it's a borderline slapstick of the two
dumbest people out of the six trying to move what should be a
very simple gate to allow passage for the vehicle.
It's not particularly sophisticated.
It does have a little motor that went under normal circumstances
operate the gate, and so it gives you a little bit more
force than you're kind of expecting from how flimsy it
looks. And so within short order, the
two of you are able to kind of quickly push the gate up,
followed by like a almost sickening crunch as it hits its
peak and you let go. And it seems to be staying
upright as far as you're aware, but it clears the way.
I think you'd rather than get back in.
Since we're on this short path to the parking lot, Richard and
I just are going to grab the back like like firemen and just
try to, like, ride the van up to the parking spot because we're
just like so gassed to be out and about.
How's that work out for you? There's a lot of slow stump,
like falling off, trying to jog to catch up.
Again, we're just going to a parking lot, so I imagine the
vehicle's not hitting like 30 or anything.
It's just like, again, just two. Watching 2 Idiots is just one of
the life's simple pleasures, all right, so doesn't take long to
reach the parking lot from that little camp office.
There, it's again. It's a little short down, a
effectively unpaved path. But conveniently enough, as you
reach the parking lot, you do see that it's paved or was paved
at some point the you know in the feeding light you see the
pavement there is grayed and cracked.
Whatever lines were there. You can see like the faint, like
remains of parking lines that were spray painted at some
point. But.
Other than that, parking lot is empty.
No other cars here. You seem to be the only ones
checking in tonight, and maybe somebody will be there over the
weekend, but this Friday isn't as popular as one would assume.
But it's easy enough to pull the van into one of the spots there
and begin to unload. Now you've seen the brochures,
probably looked up the website Kim Coldwater's not much.
You know it's as a main camping area and that's sort of what
your main focus is going to be. And these are effectively just
open plots of land spread between the trees of this sort
of forested region that you're in.
You can expect there to be a little like fire ring and a
little grill station at every one of these and there are most
likely like little sign pegs that kind of mark whose spot is
where, but other than that it seems pretty self governing.
There's no fences. There's no in this part.
There's no real buildings or whatnot, but that's sort of set
in the the center as part of your reservation.
Each of you who chose to bring a tent, whether you're getting
your own pot or sharing one, you've been assigned a number
and they're all clustered in like the same little area right
there. But outside of that, you know
that there is supposed to be an outhouse.
This is one of those all in one type of deals.
It does have showers, conveniently enough, and you
know the standard bathroom array there.
But that is off on the oh shit, I didn't do cardinal directions
on this. Oh, that'd be the northern end.
I did put a compass on my map. Hell yeah.
It's a little surprising myself. OK, so here's the outhouse.
There's a primary campground. There are a series of cabins
that are for rent, but those are a little bit more pricey and
they're there for like the glamping experience.
And you guys are, you guys are good with tents.
There is a main stonework hall, this big building that sits in
the roughly the center of the campground and that's probably
what you can see when you're sitting in the parking lot.
As you disembark from your van, you can look up and you in the
shadows. You see that building there and
you also know that there are supposedly A boathouse, a dock
for accessing the river and a trailhead kind of deep in this
portion of the property out here that folks can go and enjoy a
nice walk along the the edge of the lake there.
But it is getting dark. You might have just enough time
to get your tents up and your fire made before it gets
completely dark. Other than that, you might be
having to be operating with flashlights, but you've parked.
You've got out of the car at the very least.
What are you guys doing? Brom has a video camera with
which he's pestering everyone Rather than help build the tent,
carry luggage, doing anything of value, he's sort of doing the
documentarian. Like asking questions, putting
the camera on people's faces, Finding any excuse to to not
help for the sake of archiving our experience this weekend.
Very nice. I think I'm running off to the
bathrooms first thing and then coming back and helping pitch a
tent and all that. All right.
We will talk about the bathrooms because you might as well.
But before we jump into the bathrooms, what's Cormac doing
you got out of the van? Yeah, I think that I am helping
Jill with way too much stuff. Like does.
She clearly not only has like the tripod and the ring light
and all the rest of the stuff so that she can do her tik toks
while we are out here, but believes that this is glamping.
And there's like a ten person tent and like a little like bat
like plug into the car battery heater thing and I'm just
huffing as I get all of what we stuffed into there out for her
and she's playing on her phone. What is worth noting, You hear
Jill kind of curse and goes. God damn it, why is the service
so bad out here? And it's like doing the the
lifting the phone, the thing, and looking around before it
takes like 5 minutes of her doing this while you're
unloading all the stuff before you hear a resigned sigh and
just record them now and release them later.
It'll be fine. I'll stagger it.
Good. But over to those bathrooms,
this is over again. That's the the sort of the
northern portion of the site. There are big trails that cut
between the trees here and then you can see some of the signage
that tells you where things are. So pretty easy to find that out
house in short order. Just a quick summary, it's a
free standing wooden structure. There is a single entrance here.
It's an old kind of creaky wooden door.
Does have a lock on that portion as well, but as you you know,
pull over the door. It does like a the very loud
Creek on its hinges, but it's like a light switch that doesn't
work conveniently. Enough.
Inside there are three shower stalls and you see 4 bathroom
stalls and presumably if you're going to partake in that portion
of the outhouse, you open the door and are accosted with the
smell and indicators that these are drop toilets, not really
proper plumbing. Well, what can you expect?
Enough. I'm I'm not going to use the
rat. I'm going to use the bathroom,
get easy in and out. Yeah.
There we go. Before we're turning back to the
van, presumably. Yep, Yep, Return straight back
to the van to to help out. I think I'll, I think I'll be
focused on helping Henry the most, I guess.
No, How's that tent side up going?
You know, we all have our struggles and I think, I think
the tent is one of them. What did you spring for in terms
of plots? How are you guys arrayed here?
I think, I mean, as Jill's coming with us, she's definitely
using her influencer travel nurse money to spring for her.
If it's a series of plots, she definitely has her own.
Like the whole situation happening.
Did not spare any expenses to glamp out here.
Now is Cormac. It's going to say biblically
involved with Jill, but that's so.
Here's the thing. This is so here's the thing.
No, and not that when they first met, he wasn't interested, but I
think they went for like drinks a couple times and he was just
like no, Nope, not, not. I like not getting burned like
that. Again, not getting involved with
that nice girl. You know, fun to hang out with,
but I'm passing on any attempt you know on that.
Do you have your own? Do you have your own plot here?
No, I mean, we still hang out. All right.
So you're you're partaking this giant 10 versus tent?
Yeah. Yeah.
All right, perfect. What about the other two of?
You I I think I've got like a fairly modest tent that, you
know, I was able to get from, you know, my uncle and aunt.
You know and you know it's it's a little bit you know it was it
was also probably bought in the 80s you know so it so it matches
the general town of cold water. And Richard has our tent, and
since he's my boss, I think he sprung for like a nicer one.
But it's also. Because it's more involved it
it's more difficult to put up and neither of us read the
instructions, so it's not going well, It's it doesn't look as
intended. You have the air mattresses to
just bring for that too. No, we but we got those like
fold up foam things very. Nice.
All right, so after some time here, night has fallen upon the
various degrees of success you've had with your respective
tents plots. And so on.
I believe you guys are setting up tents.
Henry was getting the fire going.
Like I said, every one of these plots has its own little like
fire ring and I just said grill station as well.
And if you guys haven't been to like a public park, it's a
little like free standing poles with basically a box on it that
you can put hot dogs and hamburgers.
On the most beautiful thing in the world they are.
Americana. So Henry was out and it looks
like he was getting some firewood and maybe he brought a
small like bundle of that in the van and has been getting that
going. And let's say that this was in
Jill's plot. Jill probably has the most like
sitting amenities spread around that glamping.
So it made the most sense to put the one central fire there for
the night. So you guys left late enough we
probably got dinner on the road. This isn't really like a roasted
weenies type of situation here, but it is your first night at
the camp and you're going to enjoy it.
Damn it. Oh.
The six of you. Sit around that fire.
It's going pretty good. The air is chilly, you can feel
the humidity of the coming rain. And tonight, tomorrow, it's hard
to say, but the fire is nice as you're sitting there staring at
the burning timber and coals. What are you guys doing?
I think I'm. I think I'm asking around if
anyone brought skewers because I realized that I brought
marshmallows, but I didn't bring anything to stick him on.
I think just putting him on a stick is a little gross, those
character, yeah. I'm definitely advocating for
just grabbing some sticks because I want those
marshmallows. Also, I feel like based on the
earlier agreed upon. Pretense that we're all at least
a little stoned here. Yeah, brought some brownies.
Yes, perfect. Oh, fat melting marshmallow and
brownies I. Was going to.
Say a brownie s'mores. I was going to say the same
thing. That sounds epic.
We have to. End the stream, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I I I think that after
Jill has sent me to check something that she bought and I
opened it up there, we're not skewers in there, so I'm fine
and going with someone to go grab some sticks if.
We're. Yeah, I'm getting up.
I'm not waiting for anybody. I'm want to.
I want to get this show on the road marshmallow style.
So. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I think I'll,
I'll tag along with you because I'm just like, you know it's
dark out there. You know they're best to team
up. So we did the classic great
friends thing to do, which is leave all of our friends that
don't know each other behind for like weird like small talk while
we all go running. In best.
Yeah. All right.
So. Three of you are on a quest.
Find sticks, and not just any stick.
We want the good ones straight as an arrow long enough to stick
into the flame without having to burn your hands.
Not too mildewy. Yeah, you're not just going to
find us anywhere. As you get up and leave the
confines of the campfire, how do you go about your quest?
Where do you go? What are you looking for?
Maybe maybe kind of heading in the direction of the cabins.
I feel like that would maybe be a little bit.
You know, more like I was thinking.
Yeah, and like looking from the map too, That's the opposite
direction from the the outhouse. So we're not trying to get any
toilet sticks. Yeah, we don't.
We don't want a poop stick. That would be great going.
South. Well, here's the thing with the
outhouse area too, is like if it's full dudes, you're just
pissing on the ground around it anyway.
So, like, you can definitely pissed eggs.
And I I bet some weird hippie girls also peeing on the ground.
Listen. Everybody pees.
You know, everybody, everyone. Pees we haven't confirmed if
everyone poops yet. The the studies are still out.
But Yep. Yep, as a nurse I will confirm
not everybody poops. Put a pin in that.
Yeah. Oh jeez.
That's for after the stream we'll we'll discuss that, yeah.
So. So heading towards the cabins,
yeah. So it is not long before the
light of the campfire and the sounds of your friends leaves
you behind. You're heading South along what
I said is mostly established paths that kind of cut through
this area. You know this this portion of
the region that you're in is very heavily forested and this
is obviously like a manicure campground, so it's not like
you're dodging between trees with every step, but.
More clusters, a little forested area, and the occasional random
trees split by paths and open grass where people, you know,
set their camps up or string a volleyball net up, or so on and
so forth. So it's easy enough to kind of
wander your way towards the cabins, yeah?
Do we have? Lights, I think we mentioned we
have we? We've got our smartphones.
Right. Yes, at the very least.
Yeah, I'm using my my smartphone to just kind of light the way.
It's not like I'm gonna call with this anyways.
Yeah, I mean the the we can just airplane mode it and save some
battery. I did 1 inventory thing.
I meant to ask why we're getting set up.
I have a wag bag as an EMT. Could I have switched that out
for like silk tape, which is just like the standard one inch,
like medical tape? Sure 'cause I don't need
everybody pee in a bag frequently.
No, because it was mentioned. Let's talk mechanics.
So Luminal Horror, like I said, it has that lineage of Cairn,
which I believe pulled this from Nave originally.
But Luminal Horror has a inventory system.
Each character, each player character has 10 slots to begin.
These sort of stay static. You're able to kind of modify it
by bringing, you know, backpacks and extra things to carry stuff
in, but your core 10 slots every character has to begin with.
Most items take up a single slot.
Some items can be combined together to like fill your
pockets. So like pocket change, a phone,
your wallet that that can all take a one inventory slot.
And then if you are carrying bulky items and these are ones
that generally require two hands to use, or you know particularly
obtuse for some reason, those might take up two inventory
slots. So we have just swapped out one
of the starting items for the EMT to add in the Silk tape
because it makes more sense with how Ryan put his character
together. So I'll keep that in mind as
we're playing along. Everybody has a fun little kit
of stuff that they might be able to use over the course of play
here. All right, back to the.
Now you're walking along, you have your smartphones out.
You're pulling out the lights. Like the way.
And they're not the most powerful thing in the world, and
it's almost like the darkness of the woods is sort of swallowing
the light, so you can only see a few feet in front of you with
those. But there are a few things you
notice. It's quiet.
It's very quiet out here. It's probably been a while since
you've been out the woods, or at least away from the city slash
cities that you call home. Outside of the crunching of
leaves under your feet, you hear the faint noise of insects,
probably still a couple crickets hanging out, You know, before
the inevitable either die off or hibernation of winter.
And also, as you look up in the gaps of the trees, you can see
the sky, the night sky. Cold water is pretty far away
from major sources of light pollution.
So between the gaps of the clouds as they are kind of
rolling on by, you're seeing a very wonderful view of the
stars. And it's peaceful.
But that's not your goal. You're looking for sticks, they
muted to the cabins. These are series of they're
wooden structures they have, each of them has like a little
small porch and glass windows, and it looks like they're
breaking up to have a couple of rooms on the inside.
There are. They're sitting up on stilts and
they have like a little wooden staircase that leads up to them
as well, and they're evenly spaced out.
There's probably about eight of them at this point, but they are
conveniently surrounded by, you know, a manicured space, but
have a bunch of nice trees that are kind of dispersed in and and
around them. You might be able to scrounge up
some good old fashioned sticks somewhere on the outside.
Or, I mean, you could break in and steal some skewers, but
that's. Up to you.
Yeah, we're we're, we're looking for the thing that will get us
in the least trouble probably. But we haven't seen any, you
know, camp camp folk yet. But you know, let's let's just
search for for those nice sticks, maybe towards the edge
of like the manicured area, you know, shit gets pushed to the
side and all that. OK.
Three of you looking for sticks? Wants to take the lead on this
stick investigation. I will there.
We go, OK, so grom. So grom.
We are going to use a slightly varied mechanic.
This is something that will be presented as an optional thing
you can add to your games within the Deluxe Edition in the
future, but it's pretty straightforward because we stole
it from something else called the Die Fate.
So instead of rolling for inability that I have, 8 is
used. When you're testing dumb luck,
for the most part you roll a single D6.
In this case, low numbers good, bad numbers high.
And this is just how lucky your character is in this exact
moment. So whenever you're ready, give
me D6, roll and tell me the result.
I got a six. Six, you find nothing.
That tracks. The the three of you are
looking, searching around and there are sticks.
Don't get me wrong. You're in the woods.
But they're meal doobie. They're bed curved.
There's some of them are still living, so they're kind of like
limp instead of, you know, they're hard indebted brethren,
I guess he. Wants a lipstick, you know?
Yeah, and it's kind of becoming frustrating because who would
have thought you couldn't find sticks in a forest, do you know?
But that's when you hear it. As the three of you are shifting
around, there is a resounding snap echoes from nearby.
I think. I think what I'm going to do is
I'm going to like kind of puff up a little bit, expecting it to
be like a deer or something and wanting to just scare it off,
you know, just trying to make myself look big.
The two. Grom just freezes because he
thinks he stepped on the one good stick in this whole area,
Cormac. Just swivels my flashlight
around on my phone, trying to find the source of it.
Offed up Rosie, Frozen Greg. Swiveling Spotlight Cormac.
It takes a minute, but eventually you catch the sight
of reflection in the eye as of some creature that stands behind
the cabins. Just a little ways away from
you, there's another chik chik. You see the eyes shift ever so
slightly. OK, I'm going to, I'm going to
turn it pop up, look big. I'm going to.
Sorry, go ahead Josh. Yes, I.
Need all three of you to make a control save.
Right, Captain. Now this is again control is one
of the three core stats. In this instance, we're testing
your ability to. Actually, cool under pressure is
probably the best way to think about it.
You're rolling AD 20, looking equal or under your current
control score. In that case I fail.
What'd you get? I got a 12, my control is 11.
Lovely. You take one stress.
I also failed. I rolled a 16 and my control is
12. You also take a point of stress.
I also rolled a 16 and my control is 12 so you.
Also, pick a point of stress, all right, so as you're sitting
there, tensed up. Sorry, before you continue the
We're on the character sheet or the character keeper, do we
track stress? I was just going to get to that.
Great. So you tense up.
You feel this thing in the forest behind you watching you,
and each of you is unable to maintain your cool under
pressure. So you take your point of
stress. Now stress in Ludo Horror works
basically the same as standard physical damage.
Stress applies directly to your hip protection.
So if you have. Say 5-4 or one.
You now have 4, zero or three hip protection.
But please keep track of your your prior score because a hip
production comes back quickly. You know as long as you take a
moment to rest in a safe place, you can catch your breath and
recenter yourself. Your hip protection heals.
So. I will note that you need to
tell me you were doing that in order for that to occur, but you
can really do it whenever you want.
Just let me know when you want to heal.
As long as you're safe, you can do it.
But you tense up. You see those eyes.
You feel your nerves start to race in the anxiety spike.
What are the three of you do? I would just sort of offer my
flashlight in addition to Coremax to try to like better
figure out what is going on here.
Yeah, yeah. I think I'll I'll turn my my
flashlight as well. So the three of you just
spotlight up, no movement, and the sound continues.
The. Eyes will see the eyes.
Closer. And then you see a long snout
protrude from the leaves of the trees, a long set of horns.
I put five peaks, brown fur and the body of a deer that walks
out from behind the tree. All right.
Hey, guys, it's just a it's a deer.
We've all seen. A deer.
If you lived on the East Coast, you hit at least two.
It's fine. We're.
Good. It walks between two of the
cabins, still staring at the three of you.
Surprisingly brave deer. I mean, people probably feed it
all the time. Wait, you're not supposed to do
that. You'll get in trouble if you do.
People are stupid. They are right.
It stops. And its tracks, ever so calm,
still looking at you. I would like to approach it
because I would be one of those stupid people to feed it.
OK. Do you have any food?
I think I have some pot brownies.
I think, I think we have some pocket marshmallows there.
You go. You're.
That's what your pop brownies. No, no, no, no.
Those are all ours. Those are ours.
We've got a bunch of We good. Idea.
All right. I'm going to.
I'm going to pull a marshmallow out of my pocket and hand it to
you. Cool.
You take the marshmallow and you get closer that you're still
standing there, staring at you. As you approach and get closer
and you're so close that you could reach out and touch it if
you so desired. I think I just want to offer it
open hand marshmallow. Doesn't seem particularly
receptive to your marshmallows, unfortunately, but it's sitting
there. It's eyes or eye because it's
probably, you know, prey. Kind of side of the hands of how
it works. Side eyeing us.
Yeah. But it is staring at you.
You see the eyes sort of tracking you.
Then I just eat the marshmallow, OK, just like snooze.
You lose. And then I just sort of start
walking back to the the duo here.
You're still standing there. You've watched Grom.
Not feed it, but not scare away either.
Cormac. Rosie, do you do anything?
Do you just let Cormac return? Not Cormac Grom.
I think, I think at this point we should probably shoe it, you
know, just be like they get out of here, just shoe, shoe, you
know? Yeah, you.
Go up, you try and make a little noise, You try and shoe it.
It stands there, transfixed staring.
Until it moves and it's sudden and it's quick.
In a flash of movement, the deer turns and Rams its head into the
nearest cabin. What the?
Fuck. Oh, this thing's rapid.
This thing's rapid. Now you watch as it.
Jolts forward and jams and bang and bang and bang as it
continues to bash forward into that cabin, the the noise kind
of echoes out over all of the woods.
Here I need all of you to take another stress.
So I I only had one HP, one hip protection.
Yes. OK.
So we need to talk mechanics again.
Yes, we did the. Worst hit points you could
possibly hip protection you possibly could with one.
So. Now that you have depleted yours
with the first point of stress, the 2nd applies directly to your
control score. Again, if you are decreasing
your control, please mark the original scores you remember.
There are ways to heal your abilities points, but it is
pretty hard to do so compared to hip protection so your control
has decreased. To 10 from 11 now and what I
need you to do is make a control save again with that new score.
All right, all righty. That is, that is a success.
A success. OK, so you're able to, you see
as it is bashing its head and it's just flicking, you know,
gore and viscera out, you're able to kind of dodge out of the
way as it splatters around the ground around you.
What are the others do? What are you guys doing as you
watch this thing? The scene ahead of you?
I'm going to start tape. I'm going to start filming it
just because this is so fucking weird, man.
So now you start filming again in terms of mechanics in the the
new, oh boy, we added this to the Investigators edition and
this coming in the deluxe art cover of Limited horror.
We have this new mechanic that deals with what's it called
video cameras and like cell phones and stuff for which you
can view horrors. In a word, it provides
stability. And stability is sort of like a
mental armor. But in this case, you've already
taken the stress damage and then you pulled out your camera.
So we'll we'll talk about the mechanic as it comes up, but
that is something to keep in mind.
OK, so you flip out your camera, you're filming it, and this is
this deer is just bashing itself into the the side of the the
cabin. This thing is probably rabid.
We just need to get the fuck out of here.
Yeah, I I've definitely been backpedaling.
Like, absolutely. Just like, what the fuck?
Like over and over again under my breath.
Just kind of like taking a step back.
And if I see Graham pull out his camera, I'm lit.
I'm just going to clap him on the shoulder and be like,
really? Yeah.
Fair enough, dude. Fair enough.
Should shouldn't we like report this to like someone or
something like you report rabies to?
You know, like like the Park Service or something, right?
You. Know what?
That is probably the responsible thing to do.
We don't. We don't want anyone to get bid.
I am on vacation. I don't want to have to to do my
job. So do you?
Do we? Where would that even be?
I mean, there's no one here at the cabins.
Did we pass like a station or was there like a?
We could see the main hall when we got here.
Yeah, but it seemed more of like a recreational area where the.
SAT. If there was going to be
somebody directly at the park, they probably would have had
that front office he passed on the way in.
Which? There was nobody so so it seems
like a tomorrow problem. Yeah.
Well, I mean, I guess it's, it's probably good that you did film
it a little bit so they can show people, yeah.
Is is the rabies vaccine like the tetanus shot?
You know you got, you get it every year.
No, it's it's a it's just a series after an initial bite.
But if you don't get it quickly, like, you will die.
Like you all like 100% die, like 99.9% die.
So like, let's not get bit by this, like at all.
Let's get the fuck out of here. Yeah, we should.
Besides, there aren't any good sticks.
I think, I think I'm going to keep my eyes on it though, as as
we you back away and the deer continues to wrap its head
forward, you hear the noise continuing even after you're out
of eye shot. Shot.
But as you make your way back to the fire to return to your
compatriots without the glorious sticks you sought out for, I
think this is a good time to take a quick 5 minute break if
we have that option. Yeah, we do.
We. Got the screen?
Absolutely. Yeah, The screen.
I fixed it. We're good.
Yeah. Yeah.
All right. So let's let's do that all.
Right. We'll be back in just a couple
minutes. See you later and we are back.
Part 2 of Kim Coldwater, A little bit of horror mystery.
Now you've arrived at this campground.
You've set up your camp, and you went off looking for sticks with
which to roast marshmallows on, having encountered a strange
occurrence of potentially rabid deer next to some cabins.
Now you're on your way back to your campground, stickless.
Be a little more tense than you would left it so soon.
You hear the voices of your compatriots and you see the
light of the campfire in short order.
It's a little dimmer than you left it, and as you round the
last corner and see the silhouetted faces against the
fire, you notice something's off.
There's only two of them. Oh, OK.
I think, I think I'll loudly announce myself and be like,
hey, what's up? You hear the voices of Henry and
Jill respond in kind. You're like, hey, and how did it
go? And so on and so forth.
Yeah, yeah, it's. Fucking.
Weird. Yeah, we think there's like a
rapid deer or whatever, and it's.
Well, we'll report it to any park officials or whatever if we
see him, but like, not much we can do now besides give it
space. Do do deer bite when they're
rabid. No, Ricky.
'S got to Ricky's. Got to see this tape, yeah.
I'm pretty sure deer bite all the time, but where is Richard?
Ricky. Rick.
What? Who's your friend?
What's your what's his name? It's.
It's Richard. He's my boss, but.
Yeah, he's, he's cool. Yeah.
He's cool. Jill does him a few times.
He's cool. And you see Jill, he's sitting
there and oh, she's been responding to you.
She's definitely like staring down at her phone as well.
And you can see the videos being recorded as she's like, you
know, continuing to look up and down for she goes, oh, looks up
at you guys and goes, we're in a firewood.
Henry only grabbed enough for the initial batch here and you
guys were gone for a few minutes and the fire kind of died, so
Richard went off looking for some more.
I, I, I, I suspect he'd be good at that.
He seems like the kind of man who knows his way around around
a bonfire. Yeah cool.
So I just want to like force myself between Henry and Jill
with my like camera out be like check this.
You guys got to see what this this thing.
God and and Henry gives you this like repulsed face but continues
to watch while Jill does the like gross type of deal and you
know, like pushes you and gets up and walks away.
It's like, why would you even show me that?
Yeah, she's definitely didn't grow up in like, the vases of
death Internet era, all right? So you no longer have suitable
sticks. You can use non suitable sticks
if you really. Yeah, yeah, we're we're, we'll
we'll just find the shittiest sticks we can.
We we just want the fucking melted marshmallow on top of the
weed brownie. In short order, the fires burned
down to like that peak marshmallow territory.
It's mostly coals here with a get a nice toast on there
without burning the marshmallow and accurately apply the gooey
consistency upon your brownies. A little bit of Barca scraping
off given the shitty branches, unfortunately, but.
Builds character. And the time it takes you to get
the sticks to get the marshmallows roasted?
It's another 5-10 minutes. Richard still hasn't returned
with the firewood. Coals are burning.
Not dangerously low, but you're getting there.
You don't. You don't have a whole lot of
light coming out of that fire anymore.
Mostly just heat. I've I've got a question.
Would would partaking in a delicious, you know, marshmallow
brownie count as you know, taking a breather in regards to
hip protection. You guys are are sitting around
a campfire and in a safe place enjoying yourself.
You are more than welcome to restore your hip protection all.
Going back to maximum one out of one baby, I mean, we'll note
again that does not restore ability score loss those that
happens under extenuating circumstances.
So keep that in mind. Will do.
Does it go back to full or just up one point if we since I've
lost more than one? HP.
OK. That's good to know.
I assumed it was just one regardless, but yeah, no, no.
Like I said, hit protection comes back quick.
It is the same image you got to worry about.
Yeah, yeah. Makes sense.
Makes sense? All right, so you have your
brownie marshmallow dish treat. Infectionary Innovation,
Factionary Innovation. Yeah.
Do all you guys eat it? Oh yeah, yeah.
Yeah, hell yeah. We're we're we're eating the
marshmallow pop brownies. I was thinking about it on the
break. Yeah.
I I say it's it's such a beautiful concept.
I feel like the brownies is half the reason we came out of the
woods to begin with, so. Yeah, all right.
So you eat your confectionery innovation.
It's good. That's expected.
Yeah, and you feel the effects start to come over you.
You've spent enough time that that starts to hit and Richard
still hasn't returned. Yeah, damn.
We should, we should definitely, like, look for Richard at this,
right? Like, I mean, there, there's the
rapid. There's the rapid deer.
What if he got like bit by something?
He's gonna want one of these brownie things.
That's true. That's true.
He would. Which, yeah, well, no, we.
Which direction did he even go in if Henry and Jill are there?
Yeah, yeah, Henry, Joe, kind of look at each other.
And Henry goes, well, you guys went that way.
I think you just went went over there and he points, you know,
Bigly North. Oh, like towards towards the
outhouses. Yeah, you know, he might he
might be fighting a war in there.
No one. Sorry.
I froze for a second. Yeah, you did.
And Jill stands up and goes, you know what?
I I need to go freshen up before bed.
I'll go check the outhouse. Yeah, yeah.
The Make sure you got a flashlight with you and all that
and she goes and pulls out like a big ass mag light.
Of course, yeah. So you hear the click and she
kind of like crunches off heading out towards the
outhouse. Henry is kind of like sitting
back there, kind of leaning back on the log or you know rock that
he was sitting on and. Goes I.
Something tells me he went for a swim.
I'm gonna check the dock real quick.
If you go away here or whatever, I will.
And he shakes his head, pulls out his phone and hits the
button and walks off towards the the lake.
What are the three of you do? It's just just the three of us.
That swim does sound nice, actually.
That that cold water. I do not get in water I cannot
see the bottom of. That's a hard pass for me.
I'll go, but I'm not getting in. Absolutely not.
There aren't like crocodiles or anything, so it's probably fine.
Probably fine. Listen, I've seen a lot of
probably fine at work. I'm definitely fine.
Definitely fine. Is a type of.
Probably fine, right? You know how the campgrounds in
general is it? Does it seem like the kind of
campground that's like well traveled and people just, like,
kind of walking off isn't like a big deal?
Or is it like huge and like someone just, like deciding to
go to the dock is like a trek? Or is it just kind of like
everything's kind of around it's, it's a fair size, a couple
dozen acres total, maybe a lot of this being, you know, kind of
woods and whatnot. But the the campground itself is
is one of like the tourism draws for cold water.
So it is traveled enough where it's not just like random things
in the middle of nowhere that this was under normal
circumstances, there'd probably be a fair few people here as
just you came at the end of the tourism season.
So it's big enough to support, let's say, I don't know, 150
guests, OK? Yeah, yeah.
I I I. Think I might try tagging along
with Jill to the restroom, because I think it's been long
enough Rosie's got the micro bladder or whatever.
Yeah, I'm just you. You 2 have fun.
I think I'm just laying on a log like it's peak marshmallow time
the brownies are hitting. I'm just like enjoying this
moment. OK, so grom, you're on the log.
Rosie, you're heading after Jill towards the bathroom.
Cormac, what are you doing? You.
Know I'm I'll hang out in one of Jill's luxury camp chairs, Like,
feet up, probably like on the log near near Grom.
Like, we're like relaxing near each other.
So the two of you were chilling there.
Rosie, you are getting up and heading after Jill.
It's been a couple of minutes, so she's got a little bit of a
head start on you, but you've been to the bathroom already.
You know exactly where it is. And again, it is a few minutes
walk from here, given the size of the campground.
And so as you get up and move forward, the worst thing you
notice is there's no sign of her, you know, there.
You don't see the light of that mag light, and presumably she
made it to the bathroom already at this point.
What? A minute or so after you exit
the camp and head that direction, you hear a scream.
I pitched or I pitched, oh. Shit, I'm, I'm going to, I think
I'll yell Jill, you know, just trying to, you yell out.
Jill and there's no return. There's no call back.
The wood has returned to silence once more, outside of the
occasional bug noise. Is where we are within?
Like would we hear Rosie yelling or is that you would hear Rosie?
You probably wouldn't have heard the scream given the distance
here. Cool.
But you you Jill's close enough. Not Jill.
Rosie's close enough where you definitely would have heard you
know, her, yelling Jill. Not no worries, they're fair
enough. Cormac's gone down this road
before. She's she's fine.
Whatever. Probably saw a slug, you know,
or something. All right, so Grom, Cormac,
you're sitting there. You've heard Rosie yelling for
Jill. Just chilling.
Yeah, maybe she was just like Jill.
It's so cool to see you. Yeah.
All right. I think I'm going to, I'm going
to be in a, you know, break into like a jog to like, try and get
to the restrooms quicker. OK.
So you break into the jog, your phone light, kind of wagging in
the path ahead. You get closer to the bathroom
and you see it there. You know that that wooden
structure standing just ahead, the lights are off, doesn't
appear. There's anybody's in there, at
least initially from the outside.
What do you? Do I'm.
I'm just going to. I'm just going to.
I think I'm going to be like. Not, not quite a a full on Yelp.
I'm gonna be like Jill Richard, Jill Richard.
You know, as you call out into the woods in the trees, you get
no response. But as you're sort of pacing
around yelling out, your foot does contact something hard.
I'm going to look down. You look down and you see the
bag light. Large, expensive flashlight that
has been dropped to the ground. I'm I'm going to, I'm going to
pick it up and I'm going to turn it.
Though actually, no, it does appear to be damaged in any way.
Did you? Pick it up, you can be click the
button, you see that the the lens is shattered and the light
does not appear to work anymore. Oh shit.
I guess I'm gonna look around and see if I can see any like,
footprints or something, you know, just anything like that.
You look. Down and this is well trodden
area. Like I said, this is a fairly
groomed campground, but there are footprints everywhere.
But you see a fresh looking pair of tracks.
You can tell these are Jills because of the way that the boot
is, you know, kind of compressed into the ground.
That is a what the hell is Carl Armes gone?
Golf. Sorry, is that coming through on
your end? Thankfully not.
I I got a gate on all you guys. Gotcha.
All right, so you can tell by the way that the boot print
isn't like round up. This is an expensive,
impractical boot, more for show than, you know, practicality.
But you quickly trace the footsteps back.
You see second set of footsteps, freshly disturbed.
The dirt. It looks like a small scuffle.
Before, the light had been dropped to the ground and now
it's sort of mixed with your own footprints.
That kind of obscured the scene, make me a little more confusing
to interpret. I I think I'm going to try and
like run back to the campground and be like, hey, and you know
explain kind of the the scene. I heard Jill yell, you know,
there there's I saw like a footsteps.
There was like a pair of footprints I didn't recognize
really. And the mag light was on the
ground and I don't know where she is also.
I don't think that Richard was taking a #2 ski.
He must. He must have been with the
docks. Well, I I think, I think Henry's
went to the docks. So why don't we just go?
I mean, we have to go look. We have to find, we have to look
for her, Yeah, yeah. But like where?
Where would, where would, where would where would she be?
I I I mean, let's start from where like the Maglite was and
just like go look around. I mean, let's we can't just.
Let's sit here. Let's go yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Grom we like. Yeah, what?
Buddy Grom. Jill is missing, so let's go
look for her. Yeah, there was.
There was like a struggle. Where's Rick?
I I don't he he wasn't taking a two ski, that's for certain.
He wasn't in the bathroom. We think he might be at the
docks. I I think maybe we should just
try heading, you know, kind of towards the lake from the the,
the, the, the, you know, from the the our houses.
So we could, we could, you know? Yeah.
Yeah, I don't think you. Should.
I don't think you should have. Had that second brownie from, I
think maybe wanting to start would have been fine, but that
second one looks like it's kind of kicking in hard, but.
I'm like holding one like. What?
You had two. Well, let's.
I mean, let's behind. I'm right behind you.
Let's go. All right, let's, let's go.
All righty. You're heading out towards the
outhouse. Is it the plan?
Yeah, towards the outhouse and then kind of maybe swooping
around heading eastward towards the lake, kind of where the
trails and the docks are is kind of thing.
OK, cool. So.
But in short order, the three of you return to the outhouse.
You see again that spot that that Rosie pointed out.
The light was dropped and it looks like there was some
scuffled footsteps. It's a little hard to tell
again. You see the outhouse, so that
wooden structure, the lights are off and still no sign of jail.
Beyond that, what do you do? Wait.
Maybe here I'll, I'll go check and I'm going to check in like
the the woman's restroom or whatever to see if she's in
there. Yeah, yeah.
And I'll I'll check the is it like one of the like like stone
like 1 doors guys, 1 doors girl, the doors open kind of
situations like in a park or is it a.
Little more basic than that. It's basically one building,
There's one door and like a chair, shower and stall system
type of deal, but it primarily would at this point.
But. It's it's a little niceened up.
Outside of that, it's not just like slats sitting there, it's
it's an outhouse. More like a Dubscale outhouse
that was built 30 years ago. 30 years of shitting.
Yeah, down to the drop toilets. No.
You could take a peek around. You know, you open the door,
it's the that kind of echoes as you open the door, flick the
lights on. Quick peek.
Doesn't seem to be in here either.
Well, at least it's not her corpse.
You know what? Silver lining, right?
Yeah, yeah, does. The Meg light still work.
No, no it doesn't. It was the the lens all fucked
up like. It's still a happy flashlight,
but the like it's gonna. Say it's like a weapon now,
like. If you wanted to hit something
with it, it would probably hurt. I I think I will just just keep
it regardless because it is expensive.
Feel free to add Broken Maglite to your inventory sheet.
All righty, investigators. Does drum does that thing?
I mean it doesn't have like night vision or like is there
like a low like there's not. How fancy is that camera it?
Can be slow. MO, that's pretty sick.
Right. That's great.
Great. Yeah.
I mean, that might be helpful for sure.
Yeah, if anyone does anything sick, I'll just do it in slow
MO. Did you do the deer in slow MO
or is that just like regular? I did, but not on purpose.
Wait, wait, wait. We need to focus.
We need to focus, right? Oh fuck.
Jill. Jill.
Yeah.
Do we? Are we are we heading towards
the dock? We are.
We know Henry went that way. We still don't know where
Richard is and Jill is gone. So like what?
Yeah, yeah. We, yeah, the docks like just
just head straight kind of the we'll pass by the trails and
then we'll get to the dock kind of.
Yeah, leaving the bathroom again, the it's you open the
door, heading out, following along sort of.
It's up. Again, it's not a formal path,
but it has been worn into the ground, with people walking down
this route able to kind of quickly go along.
It's basically the northern edge of this campgrounds here,
heading towards, like you said, the trails where the trailhead
is and by extension where the the lake itself is.
As you're stomping along, hear another noise.
A rustle. A crack.
And the trees sounds a little further off than last time if I
beat the rabid deer. And then a voice you hear Jill.
Oh, no. Help me.
Jill.
Jill, where are you? You're more shifting of the
trees. Again, it's a snap.
Ever. A little further off this time
than nothing. I'm.
Not run in that direction with my phone flashlight.
It's dark now, right like we are dark.
It is darkness. Yeah.
And so this would be effectively to the northern edge.
So you guys are heading east towards the river and so this,
there's a thick patch of woods to your left that's somewhere in
there that you heard those noises.
Yeah, I'll. I'll jog a couple of steps and
look back and be like let's let's go, let's go.
Oh, OK. OK.
Grom, Grom, I'm going to just
grab you by the shoulder. And yeah, cool.
OK. So you're leaving the charge
into these woods. You're just running with
abandoned into the middle. Well, I'm I'm doing like the
like the like run a couple steps to look back and make sure that
people are with me like like dog on too long a leash kind of
situation. Like I'm not, I am a cautious
person. I want people with me, but I
want to, like be like hurrying them up as I'm like going, you
know, like, let's come on, you know, Yeah, yeah.
I'm going to be trying to keep pace as best, as best as I can.
Rosie's pretty short, so she doesn't have that leg span, you
know? Sure.
Now Cormac, since you're running ahead.
It's dark in here. You only have your smartphone,
and if that as you're running it is thick, dense woods, this is.
It's. Not old growth forest, probably
at least 100 plus year forest though.
So gnarled roots, big trees, all sorts of ferns and stuff that
kind of coat the ground and they're slick and they're wet
with the rain that came the other day.
I need you to make it exterity safe for me.
Oh, cool. Good times.
You are rolling D20 looking looking for equal to or under
your current exterity stat. I rolled an 18. 18 that is a.
So as you're looking back to see your compatriots, see if they
kept up with you. You feel your foot hit that
slick root and you tumble as you hit the ground.
You're going to take one hit protection, one HP worth of
damage. It's not bad.
You scraped your knee or banged your elbow or something like
that, but you. Land.
With a bud on the ground, yeah, you're a little bit ahead.
So Rosie and Grom, you see Carmack running and then just
all of a sudden they're gone just.
The. Flashlights and.
Then it's just dark. Oh, something got him.
Something got him. What do you two do in the moment
after Carmack disappears? I've got I'm gonna scream.
You scream. OK, yeah, just so I'm, I'm
shaking. I'm.
I think I'm just gonna start laughing because I've seen
people eat shit. Plenty of times.
I know that's all that just happened right here, so I'm
gonna kind of go. Back you lay on the ground,
hearing both scream and laugh from your friends, but you're
sitting there on the wet, damp ground.
Your clothes are now far more saturated than you would like,
and as you kind of push yourself to get up, your eye catches a
curious sight. It's a little mushroom out of
you, but it's dark. The only reason you see it here.
Is because this one. Solid little mushroom peeking
out of the ground is glowing ever so slightly.
Just a bioluminescent, almost blue.
It's almost as if you know, like the glow in the dark, like
T-shirts or like little toys that you can buy.
When you starting to run out of juice, it's just that faint
little glow that you can see in pitch black, sort of like that,
but a nice little cute mushroom about a foot from where your
head is as you felt the ground. I in my mind as I'm like dashing
after this, my friend who I brought here who is yelling for
help, I take note of it. And then immediately do not care
at all. I just try to like scramble up
and and run like or at least get back to my feet and like, you
know, look for where my friends are.
Yeah. So by the time you you're good.
You're good. Yeah.
Is by the time you stand up that Rosie and Rosie and Graham are
able to kind of make it over to you and close the distance so
you guys are. 50-60 yards into the woods.
At this point, there's no sign of Jill.
You only hear yourselves. Cormac is wet, covered in
nature's mulch. This point.
What do you just do? I think I'm gonna go.
Ahead, I was gonna say. I think Cormac's kind of leading
the charge here, so whatever. Going on with your friend?
Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna do another yellow
Jill. Jill.
Your voice echoes into the trees, quickly dying among the
foliage, but otherwise no response.
I'm gonna take it slightly slower now.
Probably like nursing a little bit of like the wind knocked out
of me or a bum knee or something at this point.
But I still want to just kind of just still be like kind of
marching forward, maybe not dashing forward this time, but
still at least trying like make progress through through the
woods. Do I still have my my phone
flashlight was able to, like, pick it up and keep going.
Yeah, you can find your phone. The light would have been all
on. It would have been pretty easy
to grab. Yeah, it's not an iPhone.
It didn't break. Yeah.
So as you push. Forward into the woods.
What's your goal? What are you looking for here?
It's just just woods. I know.
I know you're looking for. Chill.
What? I mean specifics here.
Maybe there's broken branches or like bits of Fern that are kind
of upturned and like. It's hard to tell.
You know, it's this is not manicured woods.
I guess that this is. You know the history of the
region. A cold water was a logging town
at one point and 150 years ago they clear cut basically
everything here and then just let it sit.
You know they replanted the trees or let it nature take its
course again. So the woods themselves are just
full of the detritus of 100 and old, 100 year old logging
operations, a lot of rotted wood kind of everywhere.
But the trees themselves haven't really been touched in that
long, so they grow too close together.
Some of the root structures are weak, so a lot of them fall.
It's not a particularly healthy forest, but it is dense and it
is always a mess. So you're searching around and
nothing's really standing out till you hear another yell.
This one more masculine in nature?
Maybe it was Henry's. It's hard to tell at this
distance. It's quite a ways off, but back
in that other direction at least.
Oh fuck. So is it the direction we're
going in or we did we go in the wrong direction?
Like the voice, both voices feel like they're coming from the
same area or different areas. You were heading effectively
away from the camp. You're going.
You're like 200 yards into the woods north of the campgrounds.
Eventually you could probably find the path if you're just
stumbled around far enough, the little trail heads that could go
all over the place. But this sounds like it came
back closer to the lake, You know, echoing from that
direction, so effectively behind you.
And we heard Jill from in front of us.
Fuck. Well, I.
Mean I gotta find Rick and you gotta find Hank Henry.
Yeah, yeah. So I can't.
Find Jill. So apparently if we go in far
enough, we'll probably hear Rick scream too.
So. But you're not going.
Under control Cormac. I mean, it's absolutely not.
But I see what you're. I see where you're going.
Now I don't. I don't want to go it alone
though, I'm afraid. Well, Henry's a big boy.
You can take care of himself. I think Jill is, you know, yeah,
yeah, you, you Cormac, you and I, we can we can find Jill and
we can find Henry Grom. I think you can handle Rick,
right. Henry's probably with Rick.
They're probably just swimming it up, having a blast over
there. That's what it sounds like to
me. But that's yeah, yeah, you.
Where I want to be, Frankly, Jill's probably fine.
She's probably doing this for her channel.
No, no, she wouldn't do this for cloud.
I just saw The Blair Witch Project.
Have you heard of that? Yeah.
Is there a movie? Yeah.
I think she's doing.
One, here's the thing. I'm still going to keep looking
for her, but there's a definite possibility that you're right,
She wouldn't absolutely do this for Cloud.
Like, yeah, she would do this for Klaus A. 100% OK.
Well, so we got actually. That actually reassures Cormac.
Like, I actually take like a deep breath for the first time
in like a couple minutes. Like maybe like the initial wave
from the brownies kind of running off a little bit.
I take a deep breath and I'm like, you know what?
You're you're you're probably right, Brown.
She's she's probably fine. I'm gonna keep looking for her.
But if you, if you need to try to go find Rick, I think me and
me and Rosie. We got this, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, cool.
I think I'm going to split off and head Lake Worth.
Hell yeah, we don't love. We love splitting the groove.
Yeah, why don't we try to head back to the to the camp and like
you know, like less like an hour ish tops.
Like if we don't find anybody, we'll at least meet back up
together. Does that sound all right?
Yeah. Yeah.
That's probably because the the best because like when you get
lost the woods, the best thing to do is stay still, right?
Yeah, 100%, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, so I'm going to set an alarm on my phone actually for
an hour, because. I.
Don't remember anything about post it notes and and phone
alarms. I'm going to do that too.
But then, like we see Graham
just setting an alarm for one instead.
Of the timer. All right, so we let's start
with Grom. It's not hard to make your way
back to the campground proper, pushing back the 100 or so yards
through the trees. You know you will emerge from
the forest. Again to the familiar sight.
You said you went to head towards the lake.
Yeah, you follow the path down, it arches our perches at the
heads down slopes downhill a little bit towards the Lake
Shore. Now, there's no beach here, not
at this portion of it. There might be a fake, you know,
somebody dumps some court sand over near cold water itself.
But this is a it's a lake, you know, it's not even the ocean.
So it's a pretty natural looking shoreline for the most part as
you kind of like walk along the edge of it there, but in the
distance you see a dock, it's been kind of pushed out into the
water presumably for you know, boat access and whatnot and just
beyond that on the shore. But perch next to the water
looks to be it's a boathouse, You know, effectively it's a
place where folks would store the supplies to go on the boat.
If somebody wants to rent something, they can take it out
here and so on and so forth. As you're looking around here,
it is dark. There's just enough light where
it's not like pitch black, but other than that you see the
vague shape of that dock in the boathouse and that's it.
There's no movement that you can detect.
I'm. Going to shout out dudes, dude,
you shout for the dudes and the dudes do not reply.
I'm going to head over to the boathouse.
I'm not trying to get wet. If nobody's help, nobody else is
in there. Yeah, it's easy enough to get
over there. Just a short walk down the
shoreline and the dock is to your left.
See the boathouse directly ahead of you.
Is there anything specific you're doing?
I'm. Just walking over there to see
if anybody's, if the guys are like in the boathouse and maybe
that's why they can't hear me, maybe you get to the boathouse,
you notice that there is like it's OK.
So it's a dull door on the front of it.
This is almost like a barn, but maybe a little smaller.
You can see that in a back end of it, there is looks like a
ramp that heads down into the water for deploying boats and
there's another door on the back end there as well that somebody
could open up, you know to let the boats out.
Both of these doors have like heavy padlocks on them to kind
of lock them up. Presumably you need a key or
something to exit enter there, but the boathouse itself is
locked. But as you tug, presumably tug
on the block of the front door, the light of your phone catches
something. See just a little spatter of red
on the wood next to the door. I just assume it's from that
deer. It was spraying stuff all over
the place earlier so stands to reason it was trying to get in
here and just left some junk but the doors locked.
Yeah, damn. Actually, I have bolt cutters.
I've already said OK. I do have bolt cutters because
I'm a skater and if there's like a fenced off.
Saying I need to get in, I got it.
So I'm going to try. To grab one of.
His locks, You know. Yes.
Hell yeah. All right, so easy enough you.
Want. To clip through with that lock.
Cool. And then, yeah, I just like
Creek. It open and be like where are my
dudes at? Pick the door open and the air
on the inside is still the new. Get a catch a whiff of some
probably chemical cleaner that's half faded.
At this point you see six small row boats kind of neatly lined
up in like racks that kind of like hold them up on the wall.
And then there's that back door as well that would let out.
Presumably you can launch, set a rowboat out the back, but no
dudes. In that case, I just kind of
turn around. I'm going to take a look at the
map real quick, I guess. I don't know where they are.
Me and grandma are pretty clueless, so I look at the at my
alarm and see, you know, if it's if it's time to meet up with the
the trio again. Because I'm by myself and I
don't really have good ideas, and usually you kind of need
somebody to feed me that, so you're.
Not an idea. Guy I'm.
Not a deal guy. I'm a doer.
On that note, we will flip back to Cormac and Rosie.
We leave you as Grom is sort of stomping off back, you know, to
eventually go to the shed there. But as the sound of Grom's
footsteps fade away, what are you doing?
You're stuck in the middle of those woods.
You're not seeing any any signs that are immediately obvious.
You know there's a probably a game trail that runs through
here at the you can come take a peek at plenty of wood and damp
trees. There was that small mushroom
you found a little while ago. I think it's a little noisier
here in terms of like insects and whatnot because you're kind
of deeper into the forest, probably have mosquitoes out
still, what do you? Do I think?
I think it. I think I'm.
I think Rosie would keep up with the the Jill yelling, you know,
trying to just see if you're not.
Not exactly trying to make myself unknown.
Yeah, yeah. And I think we're both just
trudging like, at this point. Maybe not running, Yeah, it's
not too long of calling out names with no response.
Excuse me, but again, noise catches your ear, the shifting
of the trees, cracking of small branches somewhere in the
distance. I.
Mean I look at Rosie and I. Just kind of.
Head that way, yeah. Yeah, yeah, we, we, we gotta, we
gotta if, if that's Jill, you know, we gotta find her.
We gotta make sure she's safe. Yeah, closer you get noise.
Continues. Doesn't seem to take mind of the
noise that you make either. And then you see just the
faintest of glow in the distance is.
It is it like a a general glow? Or would it be like the glow of
the reflective eyes seems a little more general.
It's almost like somebody has a flashlight that's really far off
and you're you're not seeing the beam itself, but you're kind of
seeing like the remnants scattered on some trees in the
distance kind of deal. Yeah, yeah, I think I'll, I'll
point that out and be like, hey, that's probably her, you know?
Yeah, I mean it's the only light.
I think we're gonna we're gonna see it in a fairy circle or or
or I hope it's not wrong genre so we yeah, I just start
trudging that direction. At this point, I'm actually kind
of getting upset. Like, I do feel like Grom's idea
is just sticking in my head. Like she's probably like, has a
camera set up on a tree and she keeps like running past it a
couple of times and like, trying to get the right shot and stuff.
And that's what I'm picturing in my head and I'm just like just
annoyed right now. I think, I think Rosie ate the
weed brownies that make you afraid.
So the sound continues. No, the light doesn't
materialize into a person. That becomes obvious really
quickly, but it does compel you forward and it shifts and moves.
And within a handful of pieces from where he first noticed it,
it fully emerges from the tree or Bush that was kind of like
not stuck within but contained. With them you see another deer.
And the deer is glowing, the deer itself per SE.
But as the deer walks out from the trees and shifts and stares
at you, you see its skin and fur are sprouting a series of small
mushrooms, each of them bioluminescent in nature,
casting a pale blue light upon the deer and enough to see it in
the pitch black of the woods here.
And it stares. It stops moving.
You can tell his eyes are so bold on you need both of you to
take one stress. Yeah, well, that is.
Oh. Sorry, I want to edit the stress
and by doing 1/1 on the keeper it has made this so it thinks
it's January 1st 2023. That is not the case.
If you do an apostrophe before anything it it makes code not
works. You can do this apostrophe 1/1
and it'll stay 11. There we go.
Knows the computer, Always knows computer stuff.
That that explains why when I tried.
That that explains something I did a few weeks ago.
By accident, I guess, but that's unrelated to the stream.
So you see this creature emerge from the woods and it stares at
you. Cormac Rosie What do?
You do. I I don't want this thing.
I'm going to try and just scare. I'm going to just like.
Make a whoop and hit try to like just smack against a tree in a
way that makes some noise. It is entirely unfazed and if
anything starts to move towards you again.
OK. Oh shit.
I don't like this. Yeah, I'm gonna like put an arm
in front of Rosie and just like just both start like kind of
like backing up a little bit or like keep her.
Like backing up a little bit with me.
Yeah, I don't want to get rabies.
Oh shit. I have to take it straight.
All right, so as you're backing away from this Mongo coated
deer, we're going to hop back to Grom.
Grom, you're sitting there, your friends aren't in the shed,
they're not by the beach, they're not swimming, they're
not on the dock, not about the campground.
Or at least they weren't. Or.
The camping area, how could they be?
I don't know if there's anywhere that's left to be.
No, you don't. I.
But. Yeah, as you contemplating the
predicament you find yourself in you you another yell could be
Richard. It starts as like a pained Yelp,
like A and ends in sort of a long dragged out rasp almost.
So it's like a that catches your ear.
Can I tell which direction it's coming from?
So we're back towards the campground.
Cool. I kind of figured I would go
back that way. Anyway.
That is where the snacks are, and that's where I'm supposed to
meet Rosie and Cormac at some point.
So yeah, I'm going to head that way.
Just sort of casual stroll. Are you going?
Oblivious, are you going right back towards the the fire pit
where you guys were? Yeah, I think that would you
said there's like probably embers that we we didn't put it
out. So it's just like some glow.
In theory, if you had some nice firewood, you could probably
start it back up, but at this point it's mostly out.
But as you arrive back at the campground again, you see the
familiar tent, and in the vague light shining from the fire pit
you see a form. It's almost like they're
standing above the fire, staring into it, and just the shadow
they cast could be Richard. I.
Reprise my chorus of Yo Dude Yo Dude, do you have a flashlight?
Just my phone. Do you shine it on them?
Yeah, I probably needed it just to walk here as you shine the
light up. I don't know if Grom would be
quite prepared for the sight you see.
You do see Richard, his back at least.
And as you go though. Yo dude, it turns shuffles.
And it's not just Richard. It's Henry, Richard and Jill.
It's as if someone took Richard's body and burst forth
from within. Are my celial cords that spread
out, grasping onto the forms of both Henry and Jill, grafting
them together in one grotesque creature.
Blue mushrooms sprout out of their skin and around the
shambling form of Richard makes up the main central body.
Henry is sort of draped over the back.
You can see their their arms are kind of splayed out and they're
almost twitching, kind of like attached to the back of Richard
and grafted to his side, almost dragged along.
You see chill, and her eyes flicker up towards you with the
light, and you see this, the look of recognition as she
feebly calls out for help. And this amalgam, this mass of
three bodies bound together by fungal cord, begins shifting in
your direction. I need to take one stress and
then tell me what you do. I want to get the hell out of
there real fast. Probably let a feeble Yelp out
and just kind of like. Turn tail as fast as I can, just
walk or run rather I guess where I was coming from.
So like back towards the Boathouse.
OK, you let out that feeblest of yelps.
It is just loud enough to carry over the sound or over the sound
over the the trees to catch Rosie and Cormac as you are
exiting the woods heading back into the main campground.
And again it's a little vague to tell what it was.
Just a little like that catches your ears in the silence of the
night. What are you 2 doing?
I think, I think we're afraid of rabies more and more than
anything. We're just, we're going to keep
an eye on that deer as we kind of.
I actually know. I think.
I think I'm going to walk backwards through the woods,
which is always a good idea. But you're walking backwards
through the woods, and that that faint noise catches your ear of
Grom's Yelp. That that doesn't sound like
Jill. No.
That's. Grom wouldn't do that for the
cloud. No.
I. Think he'd?
Do it for a doobie. But he's not doing it for a how?
How do we know where we are in relation to the woods now?
Or are we just in the middle of it and just you were basically
in the middle of it, but backing up it wouldn't be the hardest
thing in the world to retrace your steps, or at least retrace
the direction of your steps. Let's.
Just get Let's just get the fuck out of here.
Yeah, yeah, let's. Well, let's, let's go to the
camp. The camp is safe, you know?
Yeah. If we back up far enough away
that I feel like we can kind of like, turn and leave the deer,
I'll just kind of like, push Stella ahead of me.
Not like shove her, but it's like, keep her like, in front
and I'll stay by and I'll keep playing snow Marshall about this
deer, but like try to just get the fuck out of the woods now.
You'll notice as you look over the shoulder.
The deer is definitely like following you, but not in such a
manner where you can't outpace it.
I would like to outpace it, shifting back through the woods,
and you re emerge back into the normal campground.
Who is we foot back to Grom. Grom is you're shifting back
towards the boathouse with, or at least the shoreline with
which you will start it. From there you hear the shifting
mass, the flooding of the footsteps quickly at your heels,
the dragging of the body alongside it, the soft whimpers
of Jill and the the, the sharp almost yells coming out of
Richard's body as it shambles behind you, The whole thing just
ever so slightly glowing in those blue mushrooms or cords
that stretch out and connect the bodies to each other.
What are you doing? Ideally still running far away,
OK. You're running but you can.
Without spending a significant amount of time looking behind
you, you can hear the footsteps. You hear the shambling mass
shifting and following you down this direction.
It's a little hard to tell how far it is, but you're able to
Cubically move down the path. You do see the the space opens
up to form the shoreline. You see the dock, you see the
boathouse ahead of you. What are you doing?
I think I might try to get one of these row boats and just like
get out into the middle of the water because it seems like
something that wouldn't be a a swimmer.
OK. So you make it to the shed,
you've cut the the lock off of it.
The doors are still kind of like wide open in the front.
Back doors are still closed. You left those, but there are
those eight row boats or 6. What did I say, 6.
In that shed there, Yeah, I just aspire to take one.
OK. How do you go by doing that?
Are they just like they're just like on the wall?
Are they like they're just? Like a custom wooden racks that
are sort of built to hold that. So they're probably like stacked
one over the top of each other, slid in at an angle, and they're
they're glorified canoes. Basically, to call more row boat
is even a stretch. So it's a little difficult.
They take a little time for one person to pull it out because
they're, you know, heavy. But there are, like I said, six
of them kind of set up on those racks there.
Yeah. I think I'm just sort of OK,
scrambling like trying to pull one down.
So if you've jumped into the shed itself, you're.
Pushing and pulling. And shifting and these are
heavy. This can take a little bit of
time to get them down. I need you to make a strength
save for me, please. All right.
Early. 1D20 Equal to or under your current Strength score.
Not good. Not good.
I rolled the 19. The 19 low, but it's a failure.
So you're sitting there and it does not come easy without a
second person. This is going to take a
considerable amount of time, but you're sitting there pulling and
shifting and as you're sitting there trying to get this boat
off the rack and not having. Not being able to do it quickly.
You can do it eventually, but what hits your ears is the
silence and. We're.
Going to hop back over to Rosie and Cormack.
You've exited the woods. What do you do I?
Think. Our, our plan is just to kind of
head back to the, the campsite, you know, right.
Yeah, yeah. 'Cause that's where we expect to
to meet, you know, Grom. You make it back to the camp.
The embers have died down. There is no GROM, not here and
in off the distance. You hear that haggard like Yelp,
presumably from Richard. It sounds like that followed by
like the clang of wooden doors against their frame.
But after that it's silent. We need to, we we need to go
over there, right? What the fuck is happening?
I don't understand. We got we.
We would. It's better to be safe.
I mean, I know. Besides staying in one place is
the best. That's how you not get lost in
the woods. But like, but like, you know,
better safe than sorry, right? Yeah, but like, did we eat bad
brownies? I'm not getting what is
happening. Everyone's running in directions
and yelling. It's going to.
Go that way, right? Maybe.
Maybe there's, there's, there's mushrooms.
Maybe the spores are fucking with us.
Maybe this place is a fungal nightmare, man.
I'm just glad we bought the brownies and not the mushrooms
on this trip, is all I'm saying. Do we go towards?
Yeah, I guess. You know the stuff.
I mean the wooden. I mean, it sounds like it's the
lake. Yeah.
No, it's definitely. It's definitely gotta be towards
the lake. Let's try to find at least one
person out of like the five people that are missing.
If we can get one, I'll feel a little bit better.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You venture off down the path,
heading towards where you heard the clattering of, you know,
wood door against frame, so you get closer to the lake.
You do hear the grunts and shifts of Grom trying to pull
the boat off the rack, echoing in the distance, but you also
hear just off the path to your right, soft crying and Jill's
voice saying wasn't supposed to go like this.
Shit, let's head towards the voice.
Yeah. We gotta yeah, towards.
Joe, yeah. Yeah.
Head towards Joe. No.
As you walk, you walk off the path.
Into a, you know, cluster of the trees.
Here you see Jill peeking out from behind a tree.
It's mostly like her arm over the top of her head, and her
other hand is like covering her face, her skin.
Looks white, almost translucent. It's like the veins beneath it
are trying to burst from, you know, from underneath.
And as you get a little closer, there's that snap of twigs
beneath your feet. You see her eyes, you know,
they're kind of like she's sitting to the side for the most
part, just kind of hanging there.
They lock up. Cormac, She looks straight into
your eyes. Says you need to run.
The fuck are you doing, Joe? And as you say, that her body
quakes and twitches as if she'd been puppeted.
And outside of her control, her eyes lose focus and the rest of
that form shifts again as Jill kind of pushes out from behind
the trees. You see, it's really that she's
almost grafted to, like the the waist and thigh of of Richard,
who shifts and moves out. You see the legs of Henry draped
over Richard's shoulders, the breast of his body presumably
over the top of it. Richard himself.
Bursting with fungal cords and mushrooms that wrap around the
other two. His eyes are just white, they
have no focus on them and the whole mass and form starts
shifting in your direction. You are very close.
What do you do? I I yell, quite loudly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're we're both screaming.
Both screaming. All right now.
This is, this is combat. Now, this creature is very close
to you. If you don't act or if you don't
do anything, it's going to get you.
But first we need to see who gets to go first.
I'm gonna. I'm gonna What was that?
I've actually. Got to put would we take stress?
This is the first time we've seen it.
Yes. Yeah.
Don't, don't help, don't help the GM well.
Well, no, no, because I I wanna cause I've got, you know, one
hit point maximum, not one, one hip protection maximum.
So I want to see my character get messed up right now.
Yeah, yeah, I I want. I want to see that.
We arrested or took a breather or anything right when we got
about the campfire. We wouldn't have taken a
breather or anything, right? Like if.
Any you gotta let me know. Yeah, fuck me.
All right, so people take a stress and then so limited
horror. The combat is pretty free form.
If we need exact combat rounds, we will do so.
But first, the simplest way is just to see who gets to go
first. I need you to make Dexterity
saves, but we will deal with that in one second because Rosie
Stella, you're going to make a control save with that new
total. I I just did it.
And I just beat it, unfortunately.
Unfortunately, yeah. Or it's able to kind of hold
your own and resist the horror that you see ahead of you.
So sad. But.
Would that mind any both of you to make Dexterity saves?
All righty. That is a success, I guess 13
under NO11 under 13, OK. It's equal or or or less right
equal. To or less yes.
I've got an 11 for an 11. All right, lovely.
So the both of you are able to act before this creature does.
It is just a couple of steps away from you as it pushed out
from behind the trees that it was hiding behind.
It's kind of hard to tell with this thing, but you yell.
You conveniently have the chance to act.
What do you do? I'm I'm going to Chuck the
broken the broken mag light directly at the thing.
All right, so most weapons deal D6 damage when they are used as
a weapon. If you're just fighting with
your fists at the D4 and then it kind of goes up from there, you
know two handed weapons are typically D8.
So on and so forth. So using a mag light as a
weapon, throwing that heavy ass thing at this creature is going
to deal D6 damage. Again, if it reasonably makes
contact, it's going to, we just need to roll for it.
How? Badly it hits.
That is 4. Four.
OK. So not.
Not an insubstantial hit. Not an insubstantial hit.
So you throw the light out and it just like hits the center of
mass. You can tell, I mean, you hit it
and it's a heavy ass light, but it's not like you did
substantial damage to its form. You have depleted some of its
hit protection, but not caused serious harm in you know,
mechanics terms. So you throw in the flash and it
clatters off of them, off of one of them.
Maybe there's a twitch of the flesh as a result, but.
With that mine Cormac what do? You do.
All I have on me are my scissors, my trauma shears, or
my nursing shears. So I'll I'll snatch those out of
my pocket. My scrub pocket scrubs.
I mean, if it's close enough to slash out, I guess I'll just
slash at it with them. OK, it was a few steps away.
You'd have to step up to it. So again, these are your three
friends. Bound together by a massive
fungus, I mean. There's got to be a reason that
they're like this. Obviously it's escaping me why
they could possibly be like this, but like, there's got to
be a reason, you know, scientifically, I'll hold it.
No, I won't. I won't.
I won't attack them. I think throwing the mag light
was a great idea as far as initial reaction.
But I think I'll pull the shears and actually just like try to
like just move away from it. Like I'll hold in front of me in
case you get too close, but like, I'll pull them out and
just like back back the fuck up like.
So we technically have like a Disengage action, if that's
something you want to take under normal circumstances.
If you're trying to escape combat, which you've already,
you're, you're kind of close enough to be engaged in sort of
a melee. Here.
You need to make a Dexterity save and have a safe place to go
to. Otherwise, if you're just
backing up, you're still kind of Fair game.
OK. I would I would like to do that
though I would like to, I mean we're we just kind of stepped
into the woods a little bit right and saw Jill like you know
doing a thing. So I I just leave the woods,
I'll run back towards the campsite as my safe space if
that's OK. If I can, just like.
Do you wanna get the headed or towards the shore where you were
headed? And fuck that.
No, I feel like there is more space away from water.
Yeah, so I will be back up, backing up towards.
Heading back towards the campsite?
All right, I need you to make it Dexterity save to see whether or
not you're able to disengage effectively.
I'm not able to disengage twice this week.
I've played a role under SYSTEM, which I've I I think is the best
D20 kind of system, and I have never rolled higher in my life.
I roll in 18. So you're backing up, turning to
go, and you hit another route and it stumbles.
So you're not able to kind of get away within this action.
Now, I will quickly hop over to Grom, who's not in the combat
directly, but it is pretty damn close to you, and you hear the
yells of your companions. You're sitting there in the
boathouse trying to shift the move, and then you hear both of
them yell and they're pretty close to you.
What are you doing? I think I'm still trying to get
this boat. I think stick to stick it to my
my gut here. OK.
Continue to push the boat off, all right, if you wish to do
that. And we're we're tying you into
the combat, but not necessarily directly in harm's way.
Again, I need another strength save to see if you can do it in
short order here. Cool.
Nope. No.
OK, so you continue to push and shove.
You are making progress. Wrong.
You probably got a half off right now.
You would need at least another turn of combat again to kind of
get this boat off, and then maybe more to get it down to
where you want it to be, but keep.
So keep that in mind. But you're again, you are making
tangible progress. It's just you're not being able
to do it quickly. Now the creature lurches forward
at Rosie and Cormac. I'm going to let fate decide who
it hits. That's gonna be Cormac now.
It reaches up with the shift of body weight.
It's not so much as a strike as it is like a like a lurch of its
form towards you to smack into you.
It deals. Enough damage where I need to
dig for my dice. It deals.
Jesus Christ. That is 10.
Oh. No good times, right?
So so I have two hip protection. He's OK.
So you have two hip protection. Those two reduce to 0 the
remaining seven points of damage.
Applies directly to your Strength score.
Wouldn't it be 8 because it was 10?
They're meaning eight points of damage.
I'm an engineer. I know.
Math, yeah. I'm I'm a I'm a physics dropout.
I don't know it. They're meaning eight points of
damage applies directly to your Strength score, and I need you
to make a Strength save. To avoid taking critical damage.
Well, good times with the new score, obviously.
Yes. I rolled another 18.
There's a failure now with the new version of Luminal Horror
that we're working on. We have the system that's called
Wounds where? When instead of.
Into the normal circumstances when you, your character takes
critical damage. When they fail their Strength
save. After taking strength damage,
they fall out of combat. The wound system is sort of
supplanted that it's one of the few minor tweaks we're making to
the mechanics. Under normal circumstances, your
character would take a wound, which applies to their inventory
slot the same way that Fallout does, and has a number of
mechanical effects. However, this creature, I call
it Danthromycin. It's better known as the Flash
Hydra has a special condition called wingspan of severed arms.
As it collapses down and lurches itself at Cormac, it knocks you
back and you feel this flood of just spores burst off it and.
Enter your skin, your face, your hands, your lungs, and you feel
the hands of Richard of Jill. Henry's kind of tugged over the
back, so he's kind of hanging out there, grab on to you, and
in your based state you're pulling you off the ground and
attaching you. To that mass of fungal form, as
Cormac is assimilated into the flesh.
Hydra red Rosie, you watch this happen as your friend is pulled
and made into this form, this shambling mass of fungus and
flesh. What do you?
Do OK, I think. I think I'm in.
I'm in full fight or flight mode, and I've mostly been in
flight for this time, but I think the mag light did
something. I think I'm going to look for
like a large branch or something that I could use as like a
makeshift laughing all. Right, you're going to take a
I'll let you have it. You get a branch.
It's AD 6 damage if you want to roll it, all right.
I am. I'm just.
I'm wailing, you know, that is a mighty, mighty one.
Mighty one, it's like you bit. The branch just shatters against
its back and. We're.
Gonna end here. The branch shatters.
This form turns and shifts Cormac with whatever
consciousness you have left. As this creature is assimilating
you, your eyes lock with Rosie, sitting there holding the
shattered remains of the branch, staring down this massive form.
Now one last thing we see Grom, you pulled the boat out.
What do you do with it? My plan is to just like row out
to the middle of the lake and wait I guess.
Or like, wait till yeah, just wait till morning and assume
this thing can't swim. You hop in the boat.
To hearing the yells and screams of your friends.
Push it into the water, hop in and use the ORS to push yourself
out onto the glass Stillwater of the lake.
As you turn and stare back into the campground with which you
left, you feel you've made it a sufficient distance away and
hopefully this thing can't swim. So you hear a little splash of
water and something lands in your boat.
You hear it flapping around. What do?
You do. I flashed my.
I flashed my phone light at it. Assuming I still have some
battery, sure. Looks like a fish.
That's kind of got the flipped out of the water and landed in
your boat. That's fine.
I think instinctually Graham needs to put it back.
As you go, rasp it. You can see.
Looks like a trout, like a rainbow or what have you.
But as you grasp it to put it back into the water, you notice
it's. Slimier than usual has this fine
white almost hairs coating the outside of its body and it
wriggles out of your hand and poops into the water.
But just before it does, there's a white powder or particulate
substance that burst from this fish.
Get on your hands and your skin and the fish lands in the water
and swims away and we'll leave tonight's session at that.
That was fun, that. Was good sense I I contend, even
though I didn't survive. I am the final girl because the
other girl died before me. So it works out.
All right. This was Camp Coldwater.
Like I said, it is technically a prequel to The Bloom, but it is
also the adventure we're working on of integrating into the
current Deluxe edition of Luminal Horror, out sometime in
2024. Very exciting.
Wait. For that I'm how do I I just
said this before. It's crazy the amount of stuff
we're getting, hopefully with the next year, Mothership.
Like basically all of the classic games are getting re UPS
and I'm so excited that Luminar Horror is getting a second
edition as well. It's such a fantastic game.
This has been really, really awesome to play and I feel like
there was like a steep, like everything's weird and then
suddenly there's like a fungus flesh column that's just going
to assimilate. So I think Josh, that is the
second TPK we've had on the stream in one way shape or form
across the. Various things we do here, so
thank you for assimilating me into the fleshy form of my
friends. You know, it's it's mysterious.
Only one is officially dead. The other two, we don't know,
yeah. Oh yeah.
I mean, technically, yeah, let me get rid of that slash on
Rosie there. I I I'm super dead.
So the bloom is out now, like you said.
There's some other stuff going on that's available as well.
It's pretty much all through the space Penguin ink store, right?
Yeah. So if you are just catching the
stream and you're like what's a little horror, we are currently
in the process of sort of migrating between our
publishers. We have a lot of some of our
legacy stuff that's sitting on Exalted Funeral and it's
basically just until the stock runs out.
You can get our prior 2 modules, the mall, which is the thing in
the 1990 shopping mall or the Bureau, which is, I call it the
Video Game Control meets, you know, Motherships, Greeting
Descent. Those are two prior modules.
Those are still available through Exalted Funeral as well
as well as the original like we're calling it the legacy
version now of Little Horror. There's a system, the little
Zine that we have in the future, we will be releasing.
It's called the investigator edition, I think.
I forgot what Goblin Archives renamed it because my brain is
farting right now, but we're doing, I guess, a remaster of
the Zine. It's got all new layout, it's
got some of our new ideas that we're integrating into the
Deluxe edition, and it's our stop gap effectively, so keep an
eye out for that. That is currently under
proofreading and will be out in the near future.
Oh, there we go. We so Ryan's also got.
A special print of our next adventure, Next physical one.
That is One night at the Shelterwood and that was our
official crossover adventure with the Triangle Agency RPG.
And you can watch a couple actual plays.
We ran both sides of that adventure here on the Weekly
Scroll back in the summer. That's available digitally right
now if you want to go check it out.
The physicals are coming at some point in the future.
We're just kind of waiting on the stock to print and whenever.
Get those out. But.
There's more stuff coming. We're going to do a couple of
small things over the course of the next year while we are in
the lead up to the the Deluxe Edition as well.
But just to keep this brief, the Deluxe Edition is not
necessarily like a true second edition Aluminum horror.
It's a little bit of a clean up, a couple of additional
mechanics. The base game stays the same.
It's completely compatible with your adventures that you've
already purchased and the Zine that you have.
But we are expanding the content.
We're giving a new layout, we're getting a bunch of GM tools.
We're explaining some of the stuff that we've been kind of
implying. We're going to do some setting
details, and then if all goes well, we're putting two
adventures in there, including Camp Cold Water, and that'll be
out. Like I said, the goal is next
year, but we got a lot of work to do so we'll see.
And and some shirts also on SBI right now as well.
Definitely snag that pink and black one.
Anyone that's seen the show knows that pink and Black's kind
of our our thing here. So yeah, definitely got right
away. Yeah, through Space Penguin,
they're doing some apparel service.
We've got a couple of new hoodies.
One of them is the Camp Cold Water logo, which I did the
design work on. Has two different versions of
that that you can get. And then there is the just a
plain liminal horror shirt. That was done by the owner of
the filthy Loot publishing brand whose name is escaping me.
But they did a cool, like, metal version of Liminal horror.
That's that's out there. Yeah, there we go.
It looks just like that. You can get that on a T-shirt.
No, we do like tote bags and shit too.
But go to Space Penguin. You'll find all this fun stuff
there. And Speaking of some other stuff
on Space Penguin, Sally, you also have some some new stuff on
Space Penguin. Yes, yes, I do.
I'm, I've been working very closely with Jared Crater in
regards to this project. And basically the situation as
it is now is we're going to just try to pump out as much quality
content as humanly possible. We've got the bloom on there.
Wait, wait. But before you show that, we
must ask the question, can you show nipples on a Twitch stream,
even if they're drawn? I'm gonna say no.
OK, well, there is prison of the Forsaken Bear God, which is I'm
trying to get it on my camera. That is.
Well, well, yeah, well. Censored, you know, that is, you
know, good Christian family fun. It is another space Penguin
product. That is, that features a well,
it. It features, if you couldn't
tell at least in some part, a fungally overgrown bear.
Which makes it in good company with the bloom, although it's
not as focused on that. It's a minor minor hex crawl to
steal the name of a God that is based off of the Germanic bear
taboo and Finnish folk belief about the power of mothers.
And I'll leave it at that because I don't know how
explicit I can get on a Twitch stream, but it's good.
Goodman Games made sure that we printed you know this.
This product's intended for mature audiences.
However, I will contend it's for immature audiences as things
are, but other than that there hasn't been much soon ish.
There is if you're familiar with me for my works with for inbound
transmission. Very soon I'm going to be doing
a revised edition of the 1st 12 with a proper edit job this
time, which I think is much needed, and my final thing is
actually a call to action. If you've been thinking, oh I
should learn how to play an instrument, stop thinking that.
Start doing it now. Not all would be cool to, like,
do that someday. Do it.
Do it now supposed. To get that banjo.
Yeah, yeah. No, my band is in the other
room. But yeah, I was kind of.
Kidding. But oh lovely and.
And where can people outside of S of SPI the space bang?
Where can people find your your stuff Stella?
Well you can find me on H dot IO at I think it's just 500 pounds
of nothing. You can also find me on Blue sky
where it's £500 of nothing dot blue sky dot social.
However, I don't talk about RPG stuff there.
I'm also on Tumblr at Just Pounds of Nothing, and I also
don't talk about RPG stuff on there, because once I was free
of RPG Twitter, I was free. There you go, yeah.
And Adam, what do you have cooking right now?
Thankfully, within arm's reach, I have some horror games that I
designed all original systems. I got press play, found footage,
role-playing. I got stabbed.
The official role-playing game of the movie that doesn't exist.
Ritual full core role-playing. This is never I just have all
this out from a photo shoot. How does summon a spirit dialect
hack about urban legends like Bloody Mary and how they change
over time? And ever dream this man a
creepypasta inspired collaborative nightmare?
I'm making bespoke horror games and unique little systems all
the time, and they're at world champ dot IO in print and world
champ gameco dot itch dot IO for digital.
Yeah, that's my, that's my hubs just.
A few things I had mine. There's more.
Trick or treat? Bag of stuff right here.
I just released that this month. Five new games that come into
trick or treat bag as well as 1978 is supposed to come out.
Probably next week my two player competitive slasher RPG.
Oh yeah, you worked on that with Logan Dean, right?
Yes, Logan was the writer on that.
Very excited for. That we recently reviewed the
company great game from Logan, definitely check that out.
But also, I mean, Speaking of the games that you just dropped,
especially in this trick or treat bag, you're going to be
coming back on the show and I think it's two weeks and you
mean Hunter are going to be running one of these games.
Yeah, Halloween weekend. I'm not sure which one I
actually. As of today, leaning towards no
Future, which is The Green room meets Groundhog's Day, dying
over and over at a hardcore show, Time Loop Horror.
Oh yeah. But I mean you know we're we've
we've said many times this is an Adam Vas stay on podcast.
So whatever you run me and Hunt are going to be very excited for
as soon as he gets done with his move we'll be continuing the
month of horror here on on the channel.
But all of you, seriously, thank you so much.
I'm a huge fan of everyone that's on the show.
I feel like just some schmuck surrounded by incredibly
talented creative people and I really appreciate you coming on
the show Josh. It is going to be a kind of a
regular staple here on the show running a lot of these side
quests. So fantastic, Jim.
Thank you for for running that and you'll see much more of him.
Much more of Illuminal Horror and and much more from all these
people here with us today, but I think that's that's about it.
Definitely go to Space Penguin got a bunch of awesome stuff.
Jarrett Crater's really killing it.
Everything that's been coming out is fantastic.
Grab Stella stuff, grab everything from Illuminal Horror
and make sure you go over to World Champ to grab everything
from out of ass just like I have because I think I have like 98%
of everything Adam's ever put out.
So definitely grab all of that and I think.
I think that's it. I think that is our side quest
Episode 3 for Liminal horror Camp Coley by that instrument
you know you want to here you. Go, everyone.
Have a wonderful night. Goodbye, everybody.
Bye.