Hello, and welcome to the weekly.
Scroll podcast brought to you by the adventure.
Archive, my name is Ryan and I'm brick Nielsen.
With a slight, we have a couple of very special guests.
We have Caleb and Shawn from Haunted table, how you guys
doing tonight? Hello, I'm doing very well.
Super excited to be here. We've talked about it for so
long that it's exciting to finally be on stream.
I'm yeah, I'm also very excited. Thank you.
So, um, so what's, what the heck you guys doing here?
What do we got going on as far as as haunted table, and this
giant logo? That's beside me?
Well, yes, we are the two founding members of a new game
design company called haunting taunted table.
Our first game is called triangle agency, which is a game
of paranormal investigation, Modern Life, and working for a
very large and very mysterious company called the Can see we
are going to play it today and I'm happy to answer any
questions you have. But Sean and I have been working
on this game for like two years and have a Kickstarter now
launching in two days. And the difference between that
amount of time is very apparent to me at the second.
But I, yeah, I'm super excited and I hope I hope we see
everybody here at the the kickstarter, you know, we don't
worry. They're so I mean, yeah.
I'm trying, I'm not even gonna get into what I'm trying not to
get, but we'll see if I don't. Um, but it kind of blows my
mind. You guys this if it's a built-in
test public, people can see what we see, we've seen this.
But yeah, the Polish on this, the design, like every aspect of
what this project looks right now.
For a first project and just in general is stunning, it's
ridiculous. Like how, like how long has this
been in the works? And at what point did you decide
to make like probably the best game of 2023 that's extremely
sweet of you to say the? Yep so the Delta test what
you're describing is our demo version of the game that's on
itch. You can find it by searching
triangle Agency on edge or by going to the haunted table itch
page that has been out since right before packs.
Last year in December, we release it may be on December
1st, actually, and that demo Version has everything you need
to play a One-Shot. Like the one we're going to play
today or even a couple sessions in a row.
The biggest difference between bad version and our final
version. Other than the fact that the
Delta test kind of contains a full story of its own, that is a
little bit different from what's going to be in the final game?
Is that the final game has stuff for character advancement a lot
more stuff for building out the world?
And also again, I don't want to, like, I don't want to like over
play it too much, but kind of continues, the story introduced
in the delta. Materials.
So even if you are, pretty sure you're going to play the final
game. I recommend you check out the
demo anyway and to answer the second half of your question.
I think it was in 2020. The Caleb and I looked at each
other over Zoom column. He said you know what 2023 is
going to be a big year for us. I would really like to release
the best game of e and 23 in a couple of years.
Yeah we yeah that was like it started as Us like wanting
something to do. I have a reason to have a call
with each other like every week and we talked about a couple of
different projects, we tried out a few things and then one day
actually inspired by a tweet by Geeta Jackson.
A reporter who I really like they had tweeted something along
the lines of like, where are the RPGs?
That feel a little bit like control the video game, and I
was like, that's interesting, I know of a couple, but none that
like, hit on what my favorite stuff about that is.
So I made a low That night just for fun and then immediately
texted the logo to Sean and was like, What if we made this game
that I made a logo for first and that logo is still the logo.
It's still the text logo. I've tweaked it to make it a
little bit cleaner but yeah, it's very funny.
It started as me like, basically making a riff, like, a parody
riff. And now is the whole game.
Yeah. It's it's a true enormous
Testament to our commitment to the bit.
So the name triangle agencies like throughout the whole the
field manual have gone through it.
Very much the references like the three parts like has this
repeating theme of like three is like triangle being like the
sturdy like the star shape the the very space was that is that
still just conveying to the bit or was that like a like what's
the origin of the the use of triangle?
It's actually a brilliant repeating theme you have This
and it works really, really well.
So is that just like yeah we were just we're just messing
around and we just were perfect. I think I mean it sounded you
want to go. I think we're both in the exact
same space where you me feels accidental or like you know you
pick three and then suddenly everything else Sprouts out of
it. It's like so I would describe
what you said where you're asking about these two different
possibilities, I would describe it as like day-to-day.
It is opposites and we are swapping.
Part of what was fun about the early process and part of what
helped us build momentum? Is that any time we had a like a
question in front of us like whatever you're making anything.
There's always like a million of these little tiny choices.
You have to make all the time and sometimes the worst part of
making art is realizing how many of those little answers you have
to give and for us, then the early part of the process, any
time we hit a wall, we would be like, okay, what's a three thing
that we could do here? What if the answer was three?
Like, what if we needed three of these?
And that allowed us to kind of like move past some of the stuff
that would have taken us more time, our Weber gotten in our
heads about, I think early on, but then beyond that.
Just by the nature of approaching the game and design
a narrative, the way that I love to do and the way that comes out
of like talking through it and taking it very seriously with
each other is that every single joke, becomes something that
matters and become something that means something to us.
And so by the time it gets to a product like that.
Delta test. It's been filtered through like
months of. Can we take the joke and like
push it into something that also has emotional depth behind it.
Like can we take the gimmick and push it into something?
That's also good design because we never just stopped there.
Like we never were like, okay three and that's the end.
It was like if that is our beginning like can we make
something out of that? That's still really good and
that's where our died system came from all of it.
Well yeah, it seems like incredibly purposeful and yeah.
It was, it seems like you guys do exactly doing the entire
time. I wish that was the case.
Yeah. So talking about the, the dice
system because it's, it's different, you know?
I mean continuing with the theme of Threes, for those have read
the Delta test, you gotta roll three years and it's with Just A
Fistful of d4s like, what the same thing was it just like.
Well, let's I mean there's three is on all the dice.
Let's just pick one and have to roll a bunch.
Like We're at what point did the system kind of start to manifest
and were you inspired by other systems, or how did that come
about? Because it feels super clean.
So that was super early that was very shortly after the logo and
it was that I mean again we started with a joke like the D4
is a bunch of triangles. So it was like all right what
can you do with a D4? And then it was several days of
math. I really was it was like sitting
down and figuring out okay? Is it mean if you are how many
d4s do you need to roll to hit certain percentages of like
success and failure us continually revisiting and
talking about what our goals enrolling were.
Like, we wanted to gain the head, very high success rates
and then ultimately wanting to build a system around the idea
that mixed successes could be more like a mini game that the
GM is playing, with the players than a thing that has to happen
at that second. Every time someone rolls, which
I find often very difficult, It in role-playing games that use
mix successes. So I am kind of getting ahead by
describing it before we get there but to just sort of say,
briefly what we're going to be dealing with with the system.
You rule 6. D for you, look for a number of
Threes, all the threes that you have our successes even just one
means you succeed at your role. Most of the time and then beyond
that the extra three is can be spent to do additional effects
with your abilities and then everything.
That's not a 3 is creates chaos and chaos is something.
The GM can spend to activate a Set of effects that can make the
world weirder or worse for the agents.
So basically, it was it started with the D4, what can we do with
the D4? And then sitting down doing a
bunch of math and really actually answering that
question? Like what can you do with the T4
and how, how much can you pack into just using that 125 percent
chance? and then, Just to just to jump
along that I just hear hearing about all the math and
remembering that process really took me back.
But I also remember in those early days it was always a part
of the game that, you know, we'd be using these reality warping
abilities. But I remember it being really
important to have a part of the game where you look at what you
rolled and then got to physically manipulate Reality by
adjusting the face on the die. And to me, Me, that has always
been a really powerful through line to the experience that, you
know, I want to give that we want us to give two players wear
when they are reshaping The Narrative reality.
There are also actually reaching into the game and just tweaking
it a little bit and didn't change a thing that everybody is
staring at. That's something that would
because we've done mostly digital games, as a result of
developing, you know, post pandemic be like and during
pandemic is that the like, yes, the your rule is that you can
spend your qualities to rotate the day.
So you can you can take something that's not a 3 and
make it a 3 or vice versa because you playing digitally,
we haven't gotten to talk very much about that actual active,
rotating them. It hasn't been something that
we've really gonna do very much but you're right.
That was like a huge part of our initial thought around it.
And there's some more stuff about Dice and how you fiddle
with them coming in the final game.
That's not an adult. It's just that I'm so excited
about It's it's you know. What also got me to is that
you're literally reshaping reality with what?
Many people see us like a throwaway dice like it's like
this. It's like DC or something.
That's like one of the smallest ones.
It's literally just like it's you know, the most often in
consequential dice and you're literally just changing
everything around you. So that that got me a little bit
to where it's like did you pick a smaller dice to make bigger
changes and on our Kickstarter, we're literally giving a set of
For with every physical tear because we know that's the guy
that people are least likely to have a bunch of it just sitting
around. So we're just giving them to you
or giving special dyes that. I'm very excited for people to
see funny because I have like a ton honestly fixes like bags of
just those look good. You guys, you know, we kind of
talked about, then you kind of mentioned that it's like it's a
you know, you guys were really inspired by control and like
it's a control inspired, tabletop RPG, but cooked, it's
kind of an under. So, because part of the
character-building process feels a lot deeper than just, the
video game control and recreating that you have like a
whole like relationship thing where your agent has like an
outside life and even like a job specifically within the agency
or a place within the agency, what was kind of the impetus for
the for bringing in to have a relationship thing where the
other players at the table, get to fill these kind of roles for
a relationship and you have to kind of balance Is this like
relationship with job thing? I think just from the very
fundamental level that is a testament to the fact that both
Caleb and I came up in the theater and we're going to be
pushing our Pro theater agenda, everybody that we possibly can,
I don't know, it feels to me. It feels like the sort of thing
that could have been just a small niche in the game, but
because we had this scaffold of things.
Come in threes. Yeah.
We that gave it gave me also the Freedom to think about that as a
like a more beefed-up elevated thing that is as cool.
And as fun to engage with as your unique superpower, that is
the way that you can unilaterally ship the world.
Yeah. And a core part of the game.
The I think that's obvious as soon as you are engaging with it
is like we are talking a lot about, like, a relationship to
corporate life and like, a way that your time on Earth and like
your actual like ability to use. Or your body and express
yourself in your life is often very limited by your job.
And the things that you have to do in order to survive, we have
some stuff that's like jokes but that's also a core part of the
way. The game is designed just to
talk about that and that will never be effective unless
there's other stuff to care about.
Like there's no way for that part to feel like it, it really
feels or to tap into the same emotions that having to like be
stressed about your job Taps into unless there are other
people in your life you care about.
So making that Portent is like key to getting to the feelings,
we're hoping to get to with the game.
Hey, come on top of on top of the, the die system.
Which we talked about already. The mechanics, the these
relationships like the system itself.
One of the things that really one of two or three things that
really stands out, is just the writing and all of the kind of
just Like the subtle and not-so-subtle jokes in it.
And then also like the, the anomaly that like, pops up
through all of it. Like what?
I guess like where did all of that?
Come from where did the decision to have this kind of like
personality? That's kind of just like, you
know, above and beyond opposite of what's happening with the
agency come from. And then like the little parts
that all right, here's a little trivia bit and it's all just
like the stuff we're when you decide to put that much
narrative into the system. Health and into the game itself.
I want to tag back what my foot Shawn just said.
A second ago about theater, a big part of it is that through
with both of us coming in with a bunch of experience with
storytelling methods that are like outside of games but also
being like super into games with the way that we do it.
Our experience and my experience as a writer, I write kids books
and I write plays. And so I've been trained and
have spent a lot of time thinking about how to make like
a Alright, even Story come across the people.
And one of the big things you will learn is to focus on
conflict like to focus on having a like back and forth between
characters to help get information across rather than
just like laying it out there. And to be honest, we got to
having to write the GM side of this game and started working on
it. I was like, sitting down and
trying to draft it and was like, I cannot figure out how to make
this make sense because I can't figure out how to make the
agency, which is a thing that we had a very strong opinion about
how to make the agency. I want people to be good at
playing a role playing game. Like want a general manager, a
GM to be good at what they're doing.
So we had to think about. Like, all right, if we want to
keep this story here, I'm going to keep the world that getting
the whole game inside of the story.
There has to be something that wants people to be good at
playing it. And so, that is kind of the
birth of what you're referencing in the GM's, toolkit the sort of
other voice. But then the, Agency voice.
I mean, it's again it's a bit that became really real.
We have stuff that we don't we probably don't want to say,
there's stuff about the agency and that other voice and things
that I think are more fun. If we don't explicitly say what
our full thoughts about them are but a lot of it came from like
Shawn and I both having kind of experiences with corporate life
and with jobs that gave us a lot of language to use and a lot of
fun, having a lot of fun using that language and figuring out
how to use it in creative ways. Yes and and I hear from time to
time that we may have succeeded just a bit too well, I remember,
I was so excited when we had first print like Kayla very
kindly printed hard copies of the Delta test for when we went
to Pax and I visited some of my friends who were in Philadelphia
and I was so thrilled. I was like you guys like look at
this can't isn't it amazing? And my one friend looked at it
for 30 seconds and said Sean. I my job is to create and
deliver presentations and I trust that this is incredible
and that you've done a lot of work, but this feels like work.
I feel like I'm at my desk processing.
Somebody else's presentation, I cannot enjoy this and evil
document. We've made an evil.
Yes, this is the evil mind. Virus that we've inflicted upon
internet. Yeah, you know, we've had an arm
games that we've talked about here on the show, they have this
kind of, I mean, I'm gonna go to call it corporate horror but I
He must be really hoping and corporate dystopian corporate.
Yeah. And it I don't think I've ever
had a corporate job but I was recently in management for a
while and I feel like I have a much better.
Like I feel like this hit harder because I have done that and it
definitely there's times where I'm just like who I'm not I'm
not working right now but this this is this feels like it so
it's you guys absolutely succeeded.
Like if this came as like a like a spiral bound with like a white
real on the side, whatever with like some printouts to it would
it would definitely feel exactly like Like I just showed up for
my first day of orientation and and that's another reason why
the blue voice is so so important.
Because if that was the only feeling that we were giving
people people would do, who would click away and never talk
about this. Maybe like, why did they make me
think about work? And this I didn't Soper.
Like, it's so perfect. The first time I read through it
like and I shot shot something to her.
I was just like, dude, this is ridiculous and you have to read
the G of 1 to like is soon as it the first time that voice popped
up. I was like nah.
And then like As it went through, that was exactly.
Perfect, almost like, looking forward to seeing when it's
going to pop up again. And what is going to say about
the agency? And like, the little bit said,
it's going to just be like, no, don't do that.
That's dumb. You know what I mean?
Like, it's so well-written and it's such a perfect kind of foil
to the bit that you guys are talking about like, the, the
corporate, you know, kind of orientation book that this is,
it just all feels so cohesive and so well done.
And so just like I said, just polished Just incredible to see
a project look this good. Oh, and that's something I'm
going to say the graphic design and art in it too.
Who did that? Because it's perfect.
You are gonna make me cry. Actually, I'm like we are at the
end of so much work right now, going into the campaign, it's
not really over, but it's just it's so hearing.
Somebody say bunch of nice things to my face right now is a
lot but the, yes, thank you. First of all, for all this.
Very sweet things that you said the it means a lot.
And as a writer the thing that I pride myself on the most is like
the creation of voice like specific voice, that feels
different and I feel very proud of what we've done with this
project on that front. The graphic design is a
combination of a lot of the like a lot of what you see.
I was like, literally doing, but I am also very, very lucky to
have a husband who is like, very legitimately like paid and Has
worked in a long time and like UI and ux design, and who has
spent a lot of time, mastering a lot of things that I have not
spent a lot of time mastering. And so I had the like Incredible
Gift of a husband, a few feet away.
Every time I was working on this project where I could turn my
laptop around and make like a pouty face, and be like, I have
no idea what this isn't working. And, and for the most part, he
didn't do stuff for me, which I is very good because it means
that I learned, but he had to sit and watch me be.
So frustrated, figuring out how to do that.
Zayn, how to hit what I want and like, and like Shawn and I would
have conversations where we would sit down and talk about
like, okay, what do we need to have happen?
Like, what is the pace of this? One of the points we need to hit
and then I just wouldn't put it down.
So it was just a lot of time of like, can we make every piece of
this whole document lead toward the same goals?
And, and that's the thing that I would say, is most important
because I think people like, like, you're saying people react
to it looking really nice and some of that is like paying
really close attention to the details.
But the most important thing is just making sure that everything
that we were doing had a point and like every every page is
another part of the conversation that I'm trying to push forward
and thinking about it. That way, really, really fueled
the rest of the stuff looking good, I think.
Yeah, I think I think, well before we got on, I said it was
just, it was disgustingly good looking or something like that.
Oh Carol, I said I was like, oh, it's I it's terrible.
How amazing it looks, you know, it's so nice to look at.
Now I'm so glad the opposite would be the worst.
So I'm glad that. I think it's also worthwhile to
shout out Nate who's yes. Well for a lot of the iconic
illustrations. Yes.
Oh my gosh, Nathan roads. They did these illustrations for
us and it was one of those times where we were like scrolling
through Twitter or whatever and I saw one of Nathan's Pieces Pop
up in front of me and I was like that, I'd like pointed at it
like this is already like what we need and had this Send a
message about the project where I was like name your work does
not look corporate at all. However, I think that if we work
together, we can get it to a place where it feels like this.
Interesting. This interesting corporate
parody. Um but yeah, we're continuing to
work with Nate. We're from going forward.
Nate is hopefully going to be if our campaign goes well,
illustrating every single competency, like adding one of
these figures for every single competency in the book, which
means nine of them. So six more illustrations at
minimum and I'm so excited. We have a one new one, that's
not in the Delta test, that's in the campaign that I love, and I,
there was only more coming. It's really, really amazing.
Yeah, yeah. Just the combination of all the
pieces is, I think what's really stands out the most?
Because, you know, part of what we do here on the show is we
Deep dive interview games and we break it down into these kind of
like metrics that we try to give a sense of like game review of
and So many of those metrics here are just so well done,
between like the narrative between the mechanic for some
really interesting to try between the art, the layout,
like every aspect of how it of how it's done.
There's nothing that feels like lacking at all.
Like every single piece feels like it's been pushed to the
top. So I'm really excited to see
like the rest of it because if this is if this was it, I would
be super happy and excited. The fact that there's a lot more
is crazy to me. Yeah, I was thinking the same
thing. I like the fact that you're
like, oh there's more going to be.
I was like, oh, like Honestly, very much like this could be
just a full really Snappy like this sick.
Yeah, I think this, I think this is like, not even two thirds of
the final book, The razy. The a lot of it is like a lot of
it is exactly. We're talking about of like
wanting to make sure that whatever people choose to focus
on there. Something there for them but
like a silly thing to say that's completely true.
Is that each of the anomalies which in the Delta test, have
three skills have 21 total possible skills in the book.
Be like The there is a and there is a similar element of growth
available down each of the paths, but as you play, you have
to decide how to spend your time.
And so, any individual character is not going to see all the way
down, all three of those paths or even all the way down one
necessarily without some intense decision-making and that's going
to hopefully affect what your character can do.
How you interact with the game and ultimately what your
character is like, final choice is because we are weird.
In this game to not have internal campaigns, they have a
pretty specific point that you can kind of adjust.
But that is like the moment that your character is done and
you're going to make choices about what happens to them and
what their future is and I'm just really, really excited for
that stuff. And a lot of that is what's yet
to come. It is like I think of the Delta
test. This is maybe dramatic to say.
I think of the Delta says like the opening of like a like a
little promise, we're making a little opening of a world and
then the full game is going to give you the chance to see the
end of that series. Of choices that you start
making. When you read the Delta test
time, we released a hit single, your head is coming, right?
And you can pre save the album, starting on Tuesday, I would, I
would call the doctor says, many singles and album.
I wish I was this one. So we're playing the game
tonight. I want half of the game, but the
kickstarter is in two days. This is for two days.
What's it is? On the sixth?
Yes. On Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday.
So We're talking about, there's more to the project.
What what is coming like, what can people expect from the
kickstarter to like day one when they just shoot right to the end
and pledge with highest level? What what what are they going to
get for it for when they when they when the Beckett.
Yeah so some of it I do want to leave as a surprise but I will
give an overview because there's a couple things we have
announced. The one is the rule book which
were talking about this, going to have a lot going on the
second and most important. Other thing is a matching
hardcover book Ike called The Vault missions for triangle
agency. That is features ten other guest
writers and me and Sean. And these 10 other writers who
are already announced, you can find them on our website.
Hunted tabletop games are all going to be writing a single
mission that you can play in Triangle agency because of the
sort of campaign length that we I talked about before.
Those 12 missions can very easily take a single character,
all the way through, like their career at the agency.
So like your table could finish playing through a character By
just running those 12 missions in a row but they're not
designed to be like a restrictive campaign.
They're all going to be individual missions that you can
also play or not as you go. Those are the two really really
big pieces and things that we hope everybody will get.
Because I think it's going to make a huge difference in your
table and I'm super excited with the group of people that we have
for the games. It's a it's a really interesting
group of people with really different perspectives on
tabletop gaming and on the things that they've created in
the past and we don't have those missions.
But yet that's something that's going to happen if we fund and
those. But those missions coming from
these particular people, I just am like I cannot I cannot wait
to personally see them. Those are the two big ones names
on the Vol. I'm really excited.
I just like I think you've got me castle games, get Christian
Sorrel and then Cassie moth one, be on the show, then Minsky, our
weight, is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
See me sick that's gonna do it's so good.
Every A personal list, it has made some incredible work
recently and over the years. And I just, yeah, I like, it's
like I just want people to go look at the list because I, even
if I started naming them, I would have to say something
really nice about 12 people. So yes, the function is there
something else you think we should say?
Now do you feel like I guess the dice I talked about the dice?
We talked about the dice. Yeah, you know I do think it's
valuable to. I will always want to keep
everything as a surprise but I I think because people are here on
this stream, watching us play a game that is led by Caleb.
I think that it's valuable to just tease that if you like what
you see here, you might have the opportunity to.
Oh yes. Yeah, there is a tear we're
doing it to your eye. My other job is that I'm a
professional GM. So one of the possibilities on
the campaign is that if you want to play with me, specifically a
game from with triangle agency, that is an option.
At I, what I think is actually a lower rate than I typically see.
Kind of thing in campaigns because it's based on my actual
regular Jia Ming rate and the and on top of that, you'll get
all the other stuff and you'll get a thank-you Credit in the
book for Beckett that to your. So there's so that is one thing
we have one enormous, very cool. Secret that is also like.
Who knows what's going to happen with it?
But I thought I'm really excited about and don't want to say
explicitly because I think it's going to be a big thing, it to
believe it, and then we have some awesome.
Speaking of my husband, who designed And the Delta test not
just not designed it, but helped me with the design for the
dentist. He is going to be designing
something for the campaign that I think is going to be such a
cool tool for use with campaigns and to make playing the game
even easier. And I want to leave it a little
bit of a mystery of what it is, but he is going to be designing
something for us and I'm so excited for you to see it.
It seems like there's a lot of really cool stuff coming this
way. Yeah I'm excited for the project
started. I haven't back to Kickstarter in
a little bit and I'm looking I'm looking to give you all some
money. Look at that old school fry from
Futurama mean you know and one of the best things about
starting this podcast and doing the hunter is been able to do
this actual play with you guys and not have to beg at that
tear, so I can pick a different one.
So that's definitely going to be a good time, right?
You still gonna back up that fucking tears, don't even know
what I'm gonna do when it comes up.
It will see how long some things last, and then now long as I'm
able to hold myself back from it.
So, what? Yeah, it's it's, as we've said,
numerous times, his project looks stunning.
I can't believe. This is your guys kind of, like,
first foray into this, with Hana table.
Again, the number of amazing people that you've brought in to
work on the project. How great the project looks like
how just excited that I think everyone that's even like
glanced at it is for this project I highly doubt there
will be an issue funding and I'm really excited to see how far it
goes. I really think that this is
gonna there's going to be some waves kind of in the in the
teacher BG space for a little bit.
When this actually drops I was super, super excited.
For Frozen is happening, I hope so.
We'll see. Yeah so yeah why don't we don't
kick over to a beer be real quick.
And for those here we're going to actually we're going to play
this game. Yeah, sounds good.
All right so I want to stick around for just a minute or two.
I will hope that all of my windows were done correctly and
we'll see you in just a second. Hello, and welcome back to the
weekly. Scroll podcast brought to you by
the adventure archive, I am still Ryan.
I'm still brick, and we have a lobe and Shawn.
Oh, sorry. Yeah, that Shawn.
That's Caleb. I just burst in Caleb.
Yeah, we're here doing the, we're actually doing the thing.
We're A in the game here. Trying light.
And T we start, we took a couple of minutes to keep gushing about
how awesome this game is and just how excited we are to play.
And so so why don't you guys just take it away?
Like what what what are we doing?
Yeah. So we have already made some
characters and we are going to do a mission and triangle agency
that we it's gonna be a little different from some of the other
ones I've done. I think with people live my one
warning for people as we move forward is that this anomaly is
going to deal with some stuff that I know, make some people
squeamish because this is a game that dips into horror sometimes.
I will do my best, not to linger on these things, but we're going
to be talking about Hunger. We're going to be talking about
food. Probably a lot.
So if that's kind of thing that's an issue for you, this
might be one to sit out from this point forward and I will
also probably be it won't be gory in a traditional sense but
there will be descriptions of Flesh.
So I just want to get that out of the way in case, there's an
issue there and from that we are going to move forward.
My only question for you all is we're talking about agents, I'm
the team first is if you would mind giving us a little bit of
an introduction of your character and who they are
including their character pieces that you chose your Arc pieces.
So that everybody has a pretty good idea of who they're
imagining when we move forward. I'll give it a go so I'm playing
a character named Gaston st. Kip who I'm thinking is a
septuagenarian old school acting coach to the Stars.
So the that reflects the reality that I chose which is
overbooked. So in addition to working for
the agency, I also have a thriving business as a private
acting coach and I am directly. Isabel for a character that
Caleb is going to be playing. I respond directly to
high-powered, director, Ryan's going to be playing and the, and
I'm also married to a character that Hunters going to be
playing. The to this day is, did you say
all three of your character pieces?
And I did not know. So that's just my reality.
My, my competency my job at the agency is that I work in public
relations. So most importantly, I'm not
allowed to lie and I need to make it believable excuses for
everything. And my anomaly, my superpower is
dream, so I'm I'm concerned with people's emotional truth and
also making them fall asleep. Nice.
I can go next. Yeah, I'm brick Nick Nielsen in
my free time. I run a group of bodybuilders,
their local Rec Center. So yeah, brick is a, his anomaly
is the gun, which is actually just one of those extendo key
chains that he has like his gym membership on and his reality is
backbone. He's the leader of a local
organization, says bodybuilding group.
That meets on the weekends and his his competency.
Yeah. Competency is that he's
reception, you know, he remains ever Vigilant and he guards, the
front doors of the triangle agency.
I have a few relationships, my successor of my group, a
troubled youth. I've been mentoring and teaching
the ways of weightlifting. Derek Berg serger, is Played by
Ryan. The the my group has a another
group threatening it and which is our local yoga Alliance
chapter and all of its members, which are hopefully, didn't
chorus as Blaine chorus by Caleb and then let's see.
Oh yeah, the person who never remembers the name of my group
is Barbara Peterson. The woman.
Who works the front desk. At our local Rec played by Sean.
Beautiful. And then Randy want to tell us
about yours. Yeah, I'm I'm Corbin and keeping
on theme with anyone that's ever watched me.
Play any character ever on the show?
Um, I'm gonna pick all the edge Lord stuff, so, I, my name is
Corbin. I am a ostensibly a vampire.
I was a in some City somewhere, just a person who enjoyed the
evening and at some point, became a vampire, whether That's
from my anomaly, the drain or a real person is up to I guess I
was figuring it out as the drain.
No. Wait, a my competency just to
get it. All is, of course, the Grave
Digger and I am a creature. So, I'm a vampire with the drain
anomaly, and as the Grave Digger, my job is to not touch
living things and to clean up after everything and to take
care of Of the night. I have a couple of relationships
here names that I don't quite remember because we had decided
we can get into the relationships as we need them.
It's no big deal. Perfect, but great.
So we have a pretty good sense of our characters.
We've got guests on same, Kip, korben, Dallas and brick.
Let's that let's go Corbin Fort Worth Fort Worth.
Okay, I see we've moved just a little bit geographically.
I used to live very close to Dallas North of it.
I live in Dallas so I lived in Denton for years.
Yes. Yeah.
But we are not in Texas. As far as we know, we are in a
state unnamed unlabeled able impossible to Guess that
features a sort of nicely, mid to large-sized, American city,
roughly equivalent to a Chicago but not one.
You've seen. Before turning in City, a, a
bright shining gleaming example of American modernity, we're
going to spend most of our time in turning City, in the
beautiful and heavily trafficked downtown.
This place has lots of buses, a subway system that didn't quite
work out and was abandoned long ago, but a very beautiful buses.
They're always bustling back and forth throughout the downtown
and we are going to pass by A local Rec Center where Rick
Nielsen is currently lifting with his successor.
Derek Berg serger. Derek it has been your
responsibility to bring everyone's protein shakes today
and so, but on the way here, you have lost half of them and it is
going to be up to either you or brick to decide how to
distribute. Them amongst the group.
So let's start there. Can you deliver the bad news to
Brick? Yeah, I'm the Berg.
Derek Berg serger. I guess I'm just coming into,
we're into the gym is where I was supposed to bring these
protein shakes. Yes, a gym at the rec center.
It's like a why? Yeah, yeah.
So I dropped all of the chocolate ones before I came in
so, because vanilla for life. So I come in and you say Hey, so
brick got the protein shakes buddy.
This is not good enough. It's so many there are.
Well, I left the chocolate ones on top of the Fiat.
Nice, slap on the back, like like very like fatherly, but
like I'm like a massive dude. We should gentle, crunch.
Listen much like in weightlifting life is about
hitting points of failure and Rising above it.
So, we need to figure out how to distribute these Shades.
I personally, am willing to give up my protein needs knowing that
I can go home and supplement these but Derek.
How will you step up? How will you be a leader in this
situation? Well I mean I could take half of
mine. Yeah there we go.
Brother. Absolutely.
Who's somebody wins over from somebody leans over.
They finish a squat and she says, It's only a plateau if you
let it be a plateau, Derek, Joe, why don't we just put all of
them in smaller containers? Wow, that's some real Ingenuity
son. You know, when I when I started
training you five years ago, you would have given up immediately
but now look at you. You're rising over adversity and
becoming a real adult. Yeah.
The brain is also a muscle and I've been working it.
Absolutely. Somebody someone who's on the
rowing machine to Turns and his tank.
Top says, the brain is only a muscle.
And I'd be like, yeah, and the group the group as you have
solved finds a set of plastic cups here in the rec center and
are able to split up the protein shakes among everyone in
general. Everybody leaves a little
hungrier than they expected to be but at least they had
something. We're going to leave that rec
center now and follow down the road, a little ways to a a
studio. We're going into a studio with a
actually. Here's a question for you guest
on, when you are doing your acting teaching, what does that
usually happen on set? Or do you yourself have a place
to host it? I think you might be muted Sean.
And I was muted Sean. Yeah, it happens on set.
Like not literally on the floor in front of the camera, but you
know, somewhere in between maybe in an actor's trailer or in some
other like room that they've rented out near the soundstage.
Yeah, great. Then we are at, we are at a
exactly that you're having to help with the filming of a
movie. That's almost entirely done with
green screen in like, like something like the volume that
they use for Star Wars. Now, just this big Warehouse
area with an actress, who's having to play almost entirely
to, to stand ins and paper cutouts, because it's going to
be one of those gonna be one of those superhero movies.
There's tons of stars and you can never get any of them at the
same time. Of course, this actress Tamara
Carrington who somebody that I'm playing is has completely
forgotten. What you are there to do and she
is on her phone. Okay.
Tamara Tamara. I know that this is important
but we really need to focus. We've only got five minutes and
I understand that you got to, you know, get this in a taker to
because we got to make the day. Yeah, yeah, sorry, yeah.
It's just yeah I'm just nervous because this is like I'm hosting
that big birthday party tonight and so like the take is like
whatever. But it's like you only turn 27
once, you know. Yeah no.
I understand that. But the take lives forever to,
you know, in its own way. So we really got a hammer down
that right now. Okay.
So what am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong II?
Feel like II feel like every time I go out there that
director doesn't care what I'm like?
What I'm bringing to the table. So I know that you're just
trying to like, Hammer me down and do exactly what the director
wants me to be. And like, if that's the case,
then Mike, just tell me exactly what to do, and I guess I'll do
it. Okay, okay, that's fine.
You need to cry. I need you to cry.
I need you to cry in front of the camera for this, man.
I need you to get to a place where you can cry in public in
front of this camera. You know, they're having me cry
about a guy who dies in this movie, who my character has had
one scene with I hear you, I understand for movies, one scene
and I'm the one that has to cry. Yeah well hey better to cry than
to die, right? You're right, you're right.
That's you know, what if that's what it takes to get another?
To I can do it. Do we have any of that?
What's that cream? Do we have any of that?
Yeah, yeah, I'll get you your cream.
Thank you. I'll make sure you get that
creep. But at first, I first, I need to
see you. Feel it, right?
I need to see. You feel it, so that I can kill.
I can tell the director that we got it.
Okay. Okay.
One second. One second, I just gotta get
back in. Hmm.
And I'm Tech, I'm furiously texting the director, I just
need 90 more seconds. She says she goes.
It's just I just didn't think the Quan Walk Crystal could do
that. I thought I thought that at the
very least he and here snort would have been able to use the
Chrome lot to change the world but not Not like this her phone
buzzes and she says no no, no. You just, yes.
I need the restaurant. You're right there.
Make sure there's stuff for 450 and as you argue with her, you
won't judge me. Yeah, I want to I'd like to use
the agency's power to short out her phone.
Yes. Okay.
So this is our first kind of roll.
This is a would, the equivalent of a basic role in this game.
Is that you request that the Agency, alter something about
reality slightly for you. It requires you to roll the 64
like everything else but there aren't additional advantages
that can come from it or additional failures.
It's just a blanket. Do you succeed or not?
So in this case we have to pick a quality that applies to this
and I actually would call this. I would call this either
dynamism or subtlety. It is like, it's her phone, like
exploding. Never going to work again, or is
it just like the battery died? Just now, it's much more.
The battery died. Just now.
I was even thinking that just like, you know, the internal
antenna just like Johnson, loose, yes.
Yeah. Then let's let's do subtlety
that. Yeah.
So, here I go. Rolling 6D for.
Do you have any points in subtlety?
I do, I have three great, if Shawn had Then there would be
minus 1 because of burnout and I rolled 03s, who?
Okay, so that gives you a choice.
I have six chaos right now, and it's a failure, which means that
your attempt to reshape reality kind of rebounds back at you
slightly, or you can spend one of your points in subtlety.
Change one of those threes between one of those.
Not threes into a 3 and then you will succeed.
I think that I'm going to change one of those.
Not threes in to 130k one. Quality assurance in subtlety,
perfect. So qualities in this game are a
spent resource, they recharge it certain times but if you go down
to zero you then have burnout in that quality.
In this case by making it 16, S, I get five chaos that I can
spend later if I would like to but her phone successfully
breaks and she goes up battery died.
Okay, I'll plug it in the chem lab crystals.
Oh my God. I get it, her eyes like, light
up and then at a single tear rolls down, and she says, she's
improvising, you don't know these lines from the script, but
she says, The cam lock Crystal was supposed to make sure that
we were all happy. That everyone who came to our
galaxy bash was going to be happy but now it's caused such
such pain and such heartbreak. And my loss by loss is deeper
than the black hole created by the corpse Norm.
And the take she gets ready for the take, finally, the director
who we see only with a brief flash were unable to get his
identity in this moment. As the can of door slams open
the we cut away from the studio and over 2A.
Hmm. Okay, we are going to actually
visit the agency. So the agency itself, internally
and city is located in a very tall skyscraper to near the
center of town very close to downtown.
That just has a habit of not getting not getting bothered by
people doesn't really show up on maps and pictures of the skyline
are often have it helpfully photoshopped out so that it
doesn't disrupt the beautiful view of the Sun but it is.
Nevertheless a very Judge and very imposing Skyscraper with
many levels up and down. Our next person.
Here Corbin mr. Fort Worth, you have been a part
of the agency for a while, but you were apparently taught by an
agency employee. How to hide among the humans.
Post the development of your vampiric powers.
This is a, this is Steve played by Sean.
Could you describe for me? Me Corbin.
What is what is your relationship to Steve been like
lately? Is it positive?
Is this somebody who's checking up on you and like a like a boss
stressful way? Is it a friend?
Now, how do you feel about Steve?
I think um I think it'd been doing it long enough that it's
more of just like a check-up thing.
Like think I saw him as a mentor like a while ago but I pretty
much grasped for the most part only screw up kind of every now
and then when I let my Powers kind of get the best Of me when
the dream kind of really, you know, temps me a bit but I think
for the most part it is more of like a can amical thing.
It's also been a while Steve's older.
I'm not. So I think we we were at that
point. Now where mostly is checking in
and stuff and Steve why do you think you specifically were
chosen to watch over Corbin? Is it because you have
experience with a drain anomaly, is it because of something else
about you that the agency wanted you to watch over Corbin?
I think that I am like it's be, I think it's because I'm also a
creature but like a Sully from Monsters Inc Style just like
horror. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah.
So you've been you've been like you have to stay in the agency
these days because you're so, so clear.
But you're a monster. But I think I think that there
have been like there, there was a long period in my life where I
tried to do fieldwork and I had like, measurers that I could
take Take to blend in. And so that's where I gained a
lot of like the, you know, the Mantra is an experience in the
tools that I've transferred to Corbin. so Corbin what you're
dealing with right now, I think Is an especially intense desire
to do something. You've been able to mostly avoid
for a while, which is kill somebody like kill someone and
whatever it is, you take from them, whether it's actually
blood or not, you're just having a particularly rough time with
that right now and you need to get some advice from Steve.
Great awesome. Climb and sorting letters at my
desk. And there's no, I just come into
the office and it's like, a knock, knock knock at the door,
just like a That's going to Steve.
Yeah. Hey, is everything okay?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know a lie.
When I hear one. Come on.
And I like shut the door behind me and I come in and I like
slumping at the desk. You know, I've got just what you
need and I take out a can And it is carbonated blood problem
solved. I prefer, there we go, there you
go, I prefer still but bubbles, this is fine, I guess.
Well I spent a summer in Spain and you never go back, you know.
Anyway lay it on me, man. What's going on?
What's the problem? Well, you know this, I mean,
listen, thanks, I appreciate this.
All right, dry Cola but it's not quite, you know, it's not quite
scratching the itch anymore. Yeah, well this sounds a lot
like the old Corbin. You know, and we've done a lot
of work since then now you remember the five steps, right?
Number one, focus on who you want to be.
Who do you want to be Corbin? Let me right now.
I want to be a killer. I'm just throwing it out there.
I decided to save space. I can say these things you know.
But how is that Corbin talking or is that some time talking?
I mean sometimes it feels like the same man.
This is really bad huh? Okay.
Wow. Huh.
Israel's Disturbed. You know, it's it's been kind of
bubbling up for a while. I mean if you could tell me the
other four steps that might help.
Yeah. I think maybe I just need a
refresher course and that would really help time to kind of just
you know, settle down Shirin. Okay.
Well, as we both remember number one, who do you want to be
right? A killer doctor Verbatim what I
said before? Number two, you have to ask
yourself. How do I be that person?
How do I kill someone? That's how I become a killer.
See, we're walking down, a path here that I don't think I'm
going to enjoy. And as this conversation
continues, I think the thing that is about to interrupt, you
will cut you off from this, but just like you've been talking
about Corbin did the carbonated blood that you've been given.
Typically, you know, in the, in a manner similar to fuel, you
can drink that and be like, this is fine, this is keeping me
going this. It's not even doing that.
This is not even, this does not even feel like it's going
anywhere. The second you drink it.
It is like, it is just vaporized entirely, but you don't have a
lot of time to think about that because all three of you brick
and Corbin and Gaston, get a very urgent message on your
phones. Luckily, brick, you have
finished your workout for the day Corbin.
You are Apparently, there aren't really a 325 anyway.
So there isn't much more for you to hear and still I'm yes, it's
not as you have you've managed to get her on set and doing her
performance in that moment. Yeah.
But you all receive an alert. This is an unusual one.
Instead of meeting at the agency, you have all been
immediately given an address and because you are currently at the
agency Corbin it is your responsibility to pick up the
Ripple gun and the Normal briefcase, for those who don't
know, every agent every time you participate in a mission, gets a
ripple gun. And a normal briefcase, the
Ripple gun is a one use firearm that fires a blast that is
completely harmless to normal humans.
But will immediately disrupt the Resonance of an anomaly so badly
that it will cease to exist? The agency.
Prefers that you don't use this method if it's possible to do
something else, but it's always available to you.
Second is the normal Briefcase the normal briefcase is able to
safely house and transport anomalies that you were able to
coax into it. There's a couple different ways
you can do that. You can exhaust the anomaly, you
can help the anomaly satisfy its focus in general.
Using the normal. Briefcase requires figuring out
the anomalies deal and coming to terms with it in a way that it
is satisfied with or tricking it in some way.
That's relevant to its interests and that is also a one use item.
But both of Have access to this and whenever you actually need
it can kind of be on your person.
At that time you were all given an address at the in the middle
of downtown turning in city and the message you have from your
general manager a woman named Trina says urgent, extremely
visible anomaly reported Loose Ends, nearly immediate and
Actually growing need you on site ASAP.
So interview through a guy's actually a little question.
What are each of your transportation methods in town?
It's just a, we have a we have kind of a mix of what I
interpret as like wealth. So, I'm curious how different it
is like turn into a bat and fly as a perfect.
Notes breaks out really high in street bike.
Yeah, like, like you own it? Yeah, I think that I like if if
I'm on set business, I have a driver.
And so, in this case, I think I can convince a driver to do it
for me, but if I don't have a driver than I do, like rent a
one of those limes. Scooters, one of those, like, by
the minute, electric scooters. Mmm.
I think that's great. And what?
Steve taught me quite well how to blend in.
So I just have a white, Honda Sonata vs.
And the good thing about your bike brick is that it doesn't
require you to sit down which is your you can, you can do
standing pedaling open to see. Yep but as you as you all, make
your way to this location, just as Trina said.
The issue is obvious, the second, you turn the corner, you
can see what the problem is, but before I describe it, I want to
describe the streets around this a little bit.
This isn't this isn't a downtown of a city every once in a while,
there's a very tall building for the most part.
These buildings are designed to have like restaurants and stores
on the bottom level and then above that house, offices or
apartments for, you know, three or four floors up above in
general. It's in the middle of a city.
If you're on one street, you can't really see beyond it.
So what I'm about to be to describe is only really visible
on two streets, but at the dead center of this block instead of
the middle third of it and the buildings and the businesses
that would typically be there, there is an enormous cube made
of meat. It has the sort of red raw
quality to it. It looks kind of like beef, but
you don't see any bones. You just see this like sinews
running through it. The sort of white pieces of like
fat kind of mixed in with the rest of it.
It is a perfect Cube. It is exactly level with the
buildings on either side of it. And it has chopped because these
city blocks like kind of like New York city blocks are longer
than they are wide, like they themselves aren't Cube.
So the middle third of it has this perfect cube of meat in
front of this place, you have already, you can see.
Now, there is kind of a small crowd Gathering.
Most of them look like restaurant employees are our
sort of piling up near the front and as call people on their
phones. This the agency has alerted you
faster than it appears law enforcement has even noticed.
Something strange is going on. So right now, there is just a
cube of meat and a small crowd of people.
Hayseed dripping at all. From the edge of the block.
You don't see any drips, but it does look glisteny in a way that
makes you think. Like, those of you who have
experience with me, it would probably be using the way that a
fresh meat cut, might on placed on paper, for example, if it is
very shiny and glistening So go for it, please.
It's a brick pulls up his bike. He takes a bite chain off.
He like locks it to post and like, you know takes his glasses
off and starts, appraising the situation and you said floating
in like the middle of like a cross section, the streets that
are you saying was so replacing the buildings on this, okay?
So the street is open but the middle third where there would
be buildings, there's an exactly level Cube Of meat delicious?
Yeah. Yeah.
We got. So yoked is gonna fit my macros
for today. So for open carry, which is one
of the powers for the gun. I'm able to Target and
intimidate them enough to do. I want, or to intimidate Target
enough to get them to do what I want, because I like command a
group people to like, Vacate the premises because definitely try?
Yeah, fake Authority. Okay, I'm absolutely.
I'm gonna approach the group of people and be like, listen, this
is a government issue. I'm gonna need everyone to
evacuate the facility. The local authorities will be
taking care of this. You're still in your gym shorts.
No, no, no, he is in. No, we're done with the gym, so
he is in a fitted suit, like a like reception security.
So, yeah, building. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, the words dress shoes with no socks.
But yes, absolutely. Exactly.
Like yeah, no, socks dress shoes.
This is great. So the thing about open carry is
that initially there's a particular Target, but you have
the ability to increase the number of targets.
So let's go ahead and do your role.
For this feel real presence which means do you have points
in presents? I have three great.
So roll 6D for you don't have burnout.
So we won't reduce it by any and we look at that guy and unstable
success. Nice.
How many pieces? Look at 23, is I am going to add
for chaos and less. If you want to spend one of
those points you can make it stick this day.
Well, I think I must spend one of those points and make this, a
stable success, great. So what that what, what purchase
did was take two to three by spending one quality assurance
and if you have three or six, it's zero chaos.
So if you had gotten three naturally, that would have been
try sentence, which has its own set of bonuses.
But because you just because you're to make it, it's just
stable by having. Three right now.
The target you're focusing on, is intimidated enough to do what
you want. So, one of the members of this
crowd is definitely intimidated in this way.
However, I will choose a consequence, but because you
have three threes total. You can either remove an option
from that consequence list or you can increase the number of
targets. So you could take away three
people and I'll even if you'd like describe some of the people
in the crowd, so you could decide who your targets are.
Can you describe the people in the crowd will clicks?
I was just thinking that Yes. Does anyone look managerial
anyone who look like yes. There's a couple of noteworthy
people in that regard for the most part.
What you see here are people that are definitely dressed for
like high-end restaurant work. There's a couple of servers that
are pretty obviously servers with the bike way that they are
dressed up. There is a couple of people who
are dress a little less fancy and clear, like working in the
kitchens, but there is someone who is like dress In full Chef
like Garb. And there's also one person in
the group who isn't dressed as if she's about to work in the
restaurant at all. She's in like a perfect.
Like like a nice suit. Like she's going to go do
something else or like she's working in a business setting.
She doesn't look like she's ready to work with food.
Those two and one other person who looks like, if you took the
one that was dressed up as a chef and then like took away 3
accoutrement, she is She is that she is like she was just very
close to the chef and not wearing like the very dramatic
hat that one of them is wearing but is still like looks a little
bit more elevated kitchen wise and there's three I would call
out. So I got two additional hits
above the original one so I could pick two more targets.
I could pick three targets all together.
Or I could just pick one and just remove one of the things
that they'll remember from the list, you could pick one and
remove two things, because you've got three threes total.
So you could pick one Target and remove two things from the list.
I think I know that chefs are egomaniacs that run restaurants
even if they have bosses. So I think it will Target the
chef because everyone listens to the asshole chef and
fortunately, I know this because I work in a restaurant and I
managed one. And I also have to deal with the
chef's. I'm just like, okay.
Yeah, we'll do whatever you whatever mention.
I didn't mean to tap in so hard. Yeah, it was listen, we're all
here hitting hitting all the points they and then I'm going
to get rid of remember. Actually, I'm gonna get rid of
contact the authorities and seek retribution.
Okay, then I will know. Sorry.
I've changed it again this style contacted for authorities and
remember your face those days are gone.
Smart choice. I think the so, what that leaves
me with the two options they can react with extreme fear or seek
retribution and just exactly along with what you're saying
this like ego, that is building. The chef, you target the chef,
he turns to look at you, he can feel the presence that you have
in the authority that you have but does not look happy about
this at all. You have like you have by
putting him in a position where he has to back down and Lead
others to back down like undercut his ego.
And you can see that on his face like immediately but he doesn't
argue with you because he is concerned that there is a
distaste in his Look, as he says, of course, of course, it's
ruined. It can only be ruined further at
this point. We don't even have a kitchen.
This was our moment and yet and yet we must continue everyone.
Everyone please, let's get out of their way and the, I don't
know what you're here for, sir, but if you could remove this
meat from my place of work, I would very much appreciate me
sort of Usher's people out of the way of you clarify, the meat
is in the middle of the intersection know.
The meat is, where the buildings would be.
Yeah it's a building meet it has.
It has replaced a building And he grumpily kind of Usher's
people away. And you see that the woman in
the suit, she hangs back slightly as the others are
leaving. She looks like she's just
staring at the cube, but then she shakes her head and pulls
out her phone and starts making a call.
Mmm, I'd like to speak with her. Okay, and I'll just open it up
with some small talk and I'll say nice day, isn't it?
Activating a power called side of the bed.
All right, so when I need to change the mood in the room
casually, say, nice day, isn't it?
And rolled tupla City. This is so good.
I haven't got to see this one in so long.
I love the city. I do have quality assurances in
and I've rolled 13. Okay, so that'll be five cast
for me. Unless you want to spend some
time, going to spend two of my three.
So I'm down to one and duplicity all right.
No additional chaos. So on a success, I plant an
opinion in the mind of one person.
I'm speaking to I'm going to choose boring.
So it's a boring day. I think it's a boring day for
her and for every thirds three I have three threes.
I may speak a single sentence to layer underneath the thought, a
goal or general belief. They strongly believe what you
said, okay? And the belief that I'd like to
imprint on her is I don't know why but I can trust this man.
Ha ha, ha, she turns to you, the text the call, she was about to
make suddenly much less important.
And she says, oh yeah, I mean with weather like this, I guess
at least it won't cook on the pavement.
Yeah. That would be a big mess for us.
All huh. I got a question though.
Well, I was just I just pulled up.
Do you have any idea what just happened?
Here, has how long has this meat been me?
I mean no, it has not been long. This was a few minutes ago, it
It's like it's like I don't want to waste your time even talking
about it because nothing that's happened.
Today is really that interesting, but I mean are you
is it okay if I just talk about my day?
Is that fine? I don't know waste your time.
That's my job. Okay, I work with people who are
having all kinds of different days.
Yeah. Well yeah.
I mean We were in the kitchen, like always preparing for this
like big birthday. Dinner was supposed to host for
the celebrity done it and I was doing my job like I always have
to do just sort of making sure everybody's paying attention to
actually getting things done and not getting like hung up on like
exactly where the like P naught. I sorry restaurants not be like
with an EU to. He's it's like was an a like,
where the group of the P group. That's we blend it up and use it
as a like, a decoration on the plates.
Exactly how that splatter goes. But the Because he's always just
said, he's always like obsessed with that, but I have to make
sure that we just like get everything done.
Make sure all the food is going to be ready in time, make sure
we have enough options for the whole party and it's an enormous
group. So, obviously a lot to do and
just like the same drudgery over and over and over and then at
the center of the kitchen, this like little tiny Cube of Meat
appeared out of the floor board, and then it just kind of grew
gradually like more cubes started like appearing connected
to It sort of grew. So we had time to get out but it
seems to have completely absorbed the building and and
now the building's gone in. There's a big Cube of Meat there
but what about your day? Yeah no you're right.
That does sound pretty boring? I don't know.
I think, I think that might be all we have to talk about here.
I'm sorry to waste your time. No problem.
Nobody hasn't today, so, She turns and heads over towards the
crowd. And I said yeah I'm assuming
that this was the party that Tamara Carrington was talking
about. Yeah, you check your texts and
you see that you're like your big, long text, invitation to
the party had this address and it was for this restaurant
called Giuseppe and Olivier's. It's a luxury French Italian
Fusion restaurant. Whoa, French.
Italian Fusion. Yeah, it's a real stretch.
Yeah. And Olivier said, yes ma'am.
What was your name Olive? Yeah.
Perfect. So I guess, where are we all
together now, like, we're all in the same says Corbin here?
Yes, everybody's here. I say we, I mean, we gather up.
You know, I'm like, okay. So what, what what do we know?
What's the situation? Well then it sounds like this
place is a real pressure cooker pun intended.
There was it started as just a tiny meat Cube it consumed the
whole building, it may even continue to grow.
Mmm-hmm interesting, interesting, I've noticed it's
in line with the buildings on either side.
It's interesting, Corbin brief brick actually.
As you're talking, I'll go ahead.
Carbon you go, I don't know what time of day is it?
We are at almost exactly 5:00. This is like, the, this is like,
right before most people didn't see, we're about to go home.
It was a question that was asked for, like, almost exactly five.
And the party is at seven and like I said, overcast or what,
what, what kind of weather we looking at here, it is sunny,
but it's not but it's like it. Nice and cool.
This is a it's like kind of that it's like right now where we're
just about to get really hot but it's just kind of flirting with
it. And every day there's like a
little bit of we these different places.
Yeah. So I like dark clothes dark
hoodie up and over big ol sunglasses.
Like, I passed off like the the briefcase tag to Gaston and the
Ripple gun to Brick, and I'm just have like a spf50 that I'm
just like lathering up. I like this kind of like hanging
out and that's, I mean, that's what I'm doing, but what
something was happening? What I was gonna say that brick,
you would be the one to notice. This, the most, you're really
hungry, like very hungry. And the protein that you skipped
earlier today, you're clearly missing it and beyond that it's
not just break its everybody but you especially are so in tune
with your body break that you would know that like this is
very strange. You're like starving hungry
enough. So I got Mikey, I look at Mike.
Listen, I'm really hungry like beyond what is to be expected
and normal. I think I should take a bite of
that meat Cube. I think that we should clear the
crowd away before we start eating any buildings, huh?
Luckily brick. Did successfully do that?
The crown has made the whole crowds gone.
Okay. Yeah.
Yeah, the one that no one scares crowds like brick.
Um, certainly wouldn't deal with like an anomaly, right?
Like the anomaly supposed to have like a Focus, right?
Yeah. Well what do we know?
They were really stressed out about this party.
Okay, it sounds like the chef has really exacting standards,
the real made it real difficult to to feel like they were
performing up to the standard. Did you learn anything from from
talking to what I'm missing? Was just, yeah, I could tell
the, when I cleared the crowd, the chef's ego was was very much
harmed by that, and we all know that chefs have massive, massive
egos. They're huge assholes for no
reason a lot of time. And why are we always having to
tip them out? Yeah, hmm.
That's why I don't tip. What are you thinking Corbin?
I'm canceling. I'm canceling, your character
forever. Oh you said that's why I don't
tip. I don't have guests on part of
the problem. Dad does own even know what to
do with this. I mean if it was a big juicy
ride, be right there with you bud, but I feel like that might
not be the best idea to eat it. It's funny that you say that I'm
gonna spend five chaos. Stadium.
This is, I have exactly five. I'm going to spend all of it and
I'm going to use a chaos ability called attract attract has a few
mundane beings find themselves drawn into the anomalies domain.
What you see attached to the top of this building in this like
very heavy cloak similar to yours.
That you notice right away is someone you're very familiar
with Diego McFadden, a corner store owner played by Hunter is
attached to the top of this building and is chewing like
intensely on. It is like ripping meat off of
the top of the cube and you can recognize them right away
because it's the only other person who had dressed like you
are dressed right now and they're right at the top of this
Cube, Jang down. Like four stories up.
Or somewhere 40 plus feet up and Diego is just like attached to
the side or see on the corner. Is he off the edge?
I'll say full, vampire mode is like upside down on the edge
right near the top like chowing down into the side.
Is he a vampire too? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh oh. Yeah, he's the he's the I'm
right down owner, I wrote night shift clerk, but very humble
owner. Mmm.
Yeah, he owns he's working an IV.
He would be working night shift. So it's unusual to see Diego out
during the day late. Listen, guys.
I know that guy and it's really unusual for him to be here, you
know? Yeah, and he seems to be eating
the meat. How much is it eaten in
progress? Yes it's being in very sloppily.
I think probably so there's this chunks falling out.
There's like chewing into it. There's a whole being card but
it's like a, it's pure dense meat and he's not very long.
So the like it's probably about a head size has been removed.
That's a listen. That's a lot of meat, still.
That's a big Cube. Hey y'all.
Diego. What are we doing?
I don't know why this was the Brooklyn, but that's apparently,
yeah, I call I call up to him like, Hey, Oto.
Oh hey man. Oh you know just challenged out
man's. I was Big Cube in the street and
yeah, I'm not on work. I want shift yet so I was
looking for something to do and it kind of called to me.
Listen, you know you can't eat Street me.
Man, that's just what the government tells you.
You can Street me, did you just did you come down here?
So don't have to yell. Could you get off the meat?
Can Diego come down? Or is he just like, totally
attracted to this meat? Yeah, I think Corbin, if you
want to go to come down, you're going to have to do something
about it. This will add.
This would require you to use a power or a reality shift if you
have one. Diego is is very hungry and it's
really good. I just pick up a rock and dig
him. That no um, I stand up.
So my some look on my powers and it's exactly the character I
wanted to be but he's not very helpful in this situation right
now. Um as far as the train goes and
as far as just like a regular reality shift could I could I
just ask the agency to maybe, I don't know how it would affect
the cube. Listen.
So what I would say and I don't want to, I don't speak for you.
I think the drain has a couple abilities that might be useful
in this situation. If you would like them to be
these things, I would draw your attention to would be the
failure state for. Would you like some more?
Uh-huh, or borrow if you were willing to take on this threat
yourself now? So, this is one of my favorite
things about the drain was I was like, man.
I would absolutely rolled a fail, a couple of these like
that would be my goal is to just be like, no, three is no 30s um
because there's a couple ways to fail and I can explain.
Now a couple ways to fail, one of them is that you roll. 03 is
like you're saying. One of them is that you will try
sentence which allows you to pick a number of Threes that you
use. And one of them is that you can
spend your quality assurances to adjust, your dice spec away from
a three Dope. Okay, so then I'm gonna try to
do that then I'm gonna use my, would you like some more ability
which would generally make people want to continue?
Like with some type of, you know, Focus.
They've had attention something like that.
But I would like to attempt to fail this so I can encourage a
Loathing in Diego for Street me, like specifically this giant
Cuba Street. Me not all the street meat,
because, listen, kebabs a good bottle but like, And Metallo
that this specific Street me, that's how I would like to do.
That's a great idea. So roll empathy.
How many points you have? An empathy.
I put one point in empathy is so we got, we got our three from
her questions and then re additional that I can spread out
anywhere I want, right? Yes.
It would put one in each of the
recipient, persistent empathy and then duplicity for my three
powers. I know.
I wish I would have put one in there because it had.
So, yeah. So no burn out.
So your role will be taking normally and then you have that
one point to spend to adjust down if you only roll one.
So there's a risk here, but, right?
But it's possible, but if I roll a do I could use it to go up 1,
right? Yes, but that would not create a
failure. Try sentence has to be natural
to let you pick. Yeah, it's like an at 20.
Almost at 20. Yeah.
Okay. Alright, so let me actually
bring up a dice roll because that's probably good idea and
I'm going to roll 6D for Oh, I got one nice.
So you can spend that quality assurance to take it down to
zero. Yep.
And fail intentionally. So the failure State on a
failure. The target develops a loathing.
For the last thing, they enjoyed your suggestion of more is
insulting to them. And even thinking about that
thing is revolting to them from now on.
So, I'll pass that off to your conversation with Diego, Diego,
a pulls that. Oh man, I am I eating this
street man. Well, you don't like them or
down. Oh man, you were right man.
I don't know about you mistreat me, I got upset tummy.
This listen you can't eat street meat after you nothing, but
like, like hot dogs on those like metal rollers, and, like,
taquitos all night long, and like it just doesn't mix.
Didn't you ever Brooklyn accent, man?
What happened to that? I listen, I got picked on as a
kid when I moved. So I really try not to bring it
up. It up too much but sometimes it
comes out, you know. Well I really appreciate your
advice man. Yet why don't you uh, why don't
you head back to to the to the 8 12 or whatever and and to the
amp up the Wawa or whatever? Yeah.
What do you got a Miss? Hua enough for a while then you
definitely go to Wawa get a, get a mac and cheese ball.
Why don't you just want you to head on out?
He's good Doodles, you know? Yeah, so you are, you're able to
make your way away from here Diego and you are, luckily not
plagued with any other thoughts of the meat Cube.
But in this time, the three of you are definitely feeling some
of what Diego's been feeling. None of the food you ate.
Today seems to have worked on this Cube of Meat.
Looks very good. Does it has it retained?
Any of the other features of a building?
Like, does it have a door with nose?
Mmm, you were places where the building would have had detail.
It's just a perfect Cube. Okay, so just to get a better
picture. Is this on the ground or is it
floating It's on the ground. Okay.
This is for all the building to building, basically.
Just the the, it has filled that specific space.
Yes. Okay.
All right. So, is there any part of the
building left? Like is there crushed parts of
building underneath it? Or does it literally just feel
like it is come been completely replaced.
Like 141 it is. Squeezed right?
Right up against the walls of the neighboring.
Buildings. This was like that, this was
like a bit. This is a pretty tight block
where the buildings like right up on each other.
Basically and this Cube has filled exactly where one of
those was. So the old building is just not
there completely, there's no bids as far as you can tell.
Yeah, hmm. So with open carry, you made the
crowd dispersed and so I did. The chef has led them down the
road, but they haven't like fully left period.
Yeah. Okay, I kind of feel like I want
to talk to the chef. Yeah, I feel like we should
pursue the chef. Yeah.
So I've got that. I've got the normal briefcase
like on one of the handles my scooter and I'm just going to
fit on over. You see that the chef and the
others they've all crowded around a food truck at the edge
of this street, with a big hot, dog on the side and written on
the hot dog with ketchup and the illustration.
It says bun Germans and the the everybody at this has like taken
a bunch of hot dogs, and hamburgers from the food truck,
and they're all eating them. But everybody looks kind of like
frustrated and dissatisfied as they're eating, and Benjamin is
just like, cooking up a storm by himself.
You would assume Benjamin inside of the truck, bunch of men or
bunch of pins, or representative of Benjamin.
Yes, but you see the chef is going?
This, this is What I've been reduced to, I have the inside, I
was making art. I was making brand new Creations
unique pieces for all of us to enjoy for the stars of our day
to enjoy. And here, I am again with a bun
Germans, hot dog. Like some kind of actor off
shift. I'm dominating to set pay for a
nanny. well, you know, funny funny you should mention that
search except a I assume Yes. Ain't Gaston saying clip em.
See Kip mentor to the Stars? I actually feel like we might be
birds of a feather. In a kind of a way.
I just spent this morning with the name.
You might be familiar with them or Carrington Tamara.
Yes. Yeah.
I have been researching her Instagram for months.
Perfecting dishes. Precisely calibrated to her
tastes and personal brand. Metal.
Just like not a lot. A lot of guys are on that
Instagram. It's true.
There's one thing that I got to know from you and that is, what
are you trying to accomplish? What's the end goal here?
Why do you think that losing your mind over this dinner is
going to make a difference? I've heard things like this
before. It's it's not a surprise that
you don't get it. Okay.
All right. Well, have you ever thought or
something? Yes, tan.
Have you ever pushed herself to the brink to create?
It sounds as if not, for if you had, you wouldn't need to ask me
these questions. Mmm, it's actually precisely
because I deal with these questions every day that I've
been in this business for so long.
All I do every day is intention goals.
Character's motivation. You seem to me.
Like you're motivated by fear. Right now, I am motivated or a
hot dog that is made not with sawdust, and fills me with
sustenance. What is this?
And you see the man in the cart goes.
I'm sorry, I'm it's the same. Hot dogs is normal my best?
Nothing, there's nothing here. I feel unsatisfied.
What are the other two of you doing?
Yeah I'm giving a signal that's like to have him like so so
right handsome I would love to get a hot dog like while he's
talking could I have could I have like purchased a hot dog?
Oh yeah absolutely. You step up and he says okay
I've got hot dogs and burgers. Um I've also got some fries, I'm
kind of at the bottom of the bag right now though.
So I don't fully recommend the fries or so but just Give me a
you said you have Burgers. Yeah, sure.
Can I interrupt you just give me a Patty dispatch.
Yeah. Do you want?
I've got tomato slices. I've got lettuce.
That's American cheese. Yeah, okay.
Yeah you're watching. Watch my figure.
I know he he turns in here. He's sort of like tosses the
Burger on the grill and says it'll be ready and it will be
ready pretty quick. That's how you just give it to
me now. That's fine.
Oh um he like gives the look of someone who's like processing
whether you're a cop. Like am I about to get in
trouble for surfing like a like a not real.
Like I'm not gonna like it. Real blue.
You know what I mean? Okay.
But I had to have to point to the warning sign on the side of
the truck. That talks about raw meat.
I'm just pointing at it. Weren't I very much?
Appreciate your warning. Yeah.
Okay. And he he puts it on a little
paper plate and Hands up to you. It's so perfect.
Thank you so much punishment. No problem.
Oh, I would like to walk past the chef still freaking out till
I'm close enough to the meat and I would just like to like take
the paper off and just like throw it at them in Cuba.
And just throw the meat. Just see how the meat reacts to
more meat is what I would like to do.
That's what I'm trying to do. Yeah you throw the Patty at the
me Cube. You hear this like sick and it
was kind of noise as it slaps flat on it and you see What you
might have expected, it does absorb it but the way that this
happens is very strange little. It's as if like little tiny
beaded cubes of meat, kind of like, extend out and like build
themselves around it and then close around the Patty and then,
like, flattened back in until it is gone.
And the cube is back to being the same Cube shape.
What's that Star Trek thing? Where there's a cube and like a,
like a green light and stuff the word org.
Sure it is like meat Borg. Does that end?
In the sense that it's a cube and if you think that it just
assimilated hot dogs. So opening didn't assimilate
Diego. No technically meat.
Brick has been standing with behind Gaston this whole time,
listening this conversation and I really like, I will I as a
bodybuilder I think bricks in the empathize like listen, he's
like I've also had to climb my own mountains and create myself,
and he flexes and just like, massive.
He's like, I understand creation for the sake of creation for the
Artistry but doing the sewing fear gives you an inferior
expression of Artistic sense. He says he looks at you for a
second and then he looks at you guessed on and he says is this
somebody? Oh my God.
Yeah. You do.
Recognize my client Dwayne And I receive a demerit.
Ha, ha ha, because of your outright lie.
Apparently outright lie. What I meant to say was, oh,
have you heard of The Rock? But is your my client would and
he says, oh oh they're always different in person.
I appreciate I appreciate your your pep talk but I'm afraid my
current problem is And he tilts his head a little bit.
That you lied to me. I guess you're a star you're
doing as in the Rock. Why were you acting as if you
were a police officer before I have many, many jobs that I take
on my working with several agencies?
When you have a physique like this, you acting is not all
there is Well, whatever it is that you're doing, I can't do
what I'm doing until I have my restaurant back.
So I assure you. I'm not interested in this meat
being here as am as a person invited to this party.
Obviously, I am also very interested.
Can you tell me exactly what happened before this meet Cube
came in to be? Yes.
I was arguing with all If over
the perfect pattern for the piece platter flint and I I was
certain that we needed a perfect circle and Olive wanted a line,
straight across the meat. And I I simply don't agree, but
mid argument, we began to see something growing on the floor
that it appeared first. There was a crack in the floor
board and then a small amount of meat in a perfect Cube that
built on itself, until it became this size.
And then it's East. Luckily we were all able to get
out of the building. And upstairs.
It is just where I live and where all of loose floor above.
So no one is there. Where you and all of live
together. No, no.
Simply in the same building. We both have a whole floor to
ourselves. Hmm, interesting.
How do you feel about that argument you were having with
all of now? Well, now, it feels foolish for
now. I'm looking I'm looking back at
that fight and I'm thinking well, I all we had no idea that
mere moments later. My entire plan to work.
I've done four months, my dream would be destroyed and ruined.
So, But what do you guess that? What I've gotten?
I've gotten a hot dog. Guess what?
It's extremely unsatisfying. It's like the same feeling you
get from eating cotton candy. The second that you swallow it.
It's like, it never happened at all.
Sure, I listen, I think that you would feel a lot better if you
apologize to Olivia. Well, he looks over at Olivia,
who is like playing candy crush on her phone, like, desperate
for something to entertain her. He says, I believe she is over
it. Do I get a commendation for
interrogating? Somebody, I love that.
That's perfect. Yeah, go for it.
Nice. What is that?
Exactly gift. So, for now, right, in this
particular, case of a One-Shot, it doesn't give you much at all.
But for the full game as you receive commendations, for
participating in behaviors that are aligned with your
competency, you were able to spend them on requisitions that
you can use to purchase additional things and they have
a that's amazing. They're like they're like a
currency you get to spend on agency.
Yeah, I can get a currency, very cool, so short of out of
character, but short of just shooting this thing with my gun,
or with the Ripple, or not, the rifle, the, what's the Ripple
gun or the North Shore, the Riff.
Again, what's a suggested course of action?
Shawn, you played this more, man.
I don't know. I feel like if there was some
way we could. I don't think this man is the
anomaly, okay? But I feel like getting to the
root of this argument will help us figure out why the anomalies
bring out. Hmm, right now all I can tell is
that it was like the root. It came out of conflict.
It came out of this disagreement, there were these
heightened passions of to yeah clashing or to, you know, mine
splashing. But I don't, I don't know why
me? Why a bunch of meat.
Why Bunch meet a bunch of meat? There are going about peace
platter, why a bunch of meat? Yeah.
And why are we all said watch a pee?
Are we aware of this, like, unsatisfied feeling?
And like this, this this absolutely?
At this point, it's getting intense.
Thus the, the proximity to the meat Cube has made you aware
that. It is something that seems like
it would satisfy you, you're getting that sense.
But the actual Feeling of hunger has been building over the
course of the day and nothing you've eaten today.
Now feels like you've eaten at all.
You are just like tummy growling you can tell Tom Burke's going
to keep engaging with this with this Chef, I think I listen, I
feel like we're having a really great conversation when becoming
really close, but I feel like there's a deeper issue past the
piece, but the piss by the piece platter.
What's really going on Chef? You can talk to me, I'm Dwayne
The Rock Johnson. This is where I'm going to call
on the side effect of using your ability earlier.
The thing that I selected was that he would seek retribution
right, and in this moment, it becomes very clear that you want
him to keep talking and that you want something from him and you
see a settling as even if it's even, especially, because he
thinks you're doing The Rock Johnson, you see a settling in
his face as he leans back and says No, I Tire of speaking on
the subject and I won't anymore. Well um yeah sure is there.
Anyway I can use empathy to like You know.
Yeah, so the agency disrupting things in people's minds is kind
of difficult on the agency's part typically that has to be
the the connected to your powers, but the because you have
to be able to shift something in reality.
So you have to be able to change something directly to cause that
shift. So like if you could shift
something physically that would Inspire him to be more
empathetic to you. That's a possibility at the
second though. You hear bun, German say I'm
sorry. I'm sorry.
I can't I can't make you any more.
I don't like, you see this crowd of people has been ordering
moreover this time. He's like, I'm out.
There are no more Paddy's today. There's no more.
Hot dogs. I'm sorry.
And he just shuts the window. And the people look kind of
frustrated. This small crowd is now so
hungry and it eaten, so many things, you get the sense.
This small crowd of restaurant tours is building into pretty
intense Loose Ends. Because what's happening to them
is starting to get weird. They've had multiple hamburgers
now and they're still hungry. I'd like to find the equivalent
of a Superman telephone booth. I guess.
Like dip around the corner. Whatever, the closest thing
that's outside of the eye line is sure.
And yeah, I fake a phone call, I say, oh, excuse me, a moment.
And I dip around. And then when I come back, I
would like to actually use an ability called nightmare.
Okay, project myself into something Larger than Life rope
presence. So, here I go rolling presents.
I've got one, two, three, threes by Peppa Peppa tracin and so you
have a choice when you get resonance you can either have an
unlimited number of Threes like you can pick a number and it can
be any number. You can recharge three quality
assurances, or you can take three commendations right now.
If I, if I choose one of the other two options, I still get
three threes. Correct.
Yes I'm going to choose three. Commendations, thank you very
much. All right, the recommendations
for you and you have three threes and no chaos is created
out of success. I may pick an illusory form and
appear as that to a particular Target.
I'm going to choose to be Tamara Carrington's account manager
here. Who is who Arden ating.
The party. And before you have to take it,
you can pick one from because you have three threes.
Yes. And I'm going to Hey gang.
A quick huddle do we think it's more useful for me to learn this
Chef's, worst fear, their greatest goal or their most
secret desire. Oh, I think they're oh I'm
feeling my secret desire. I'm feeling the secret desire.
You go typical? Yeah, you drop off some
heartbeat for because I think that will help us hone in on
this anomalies. Oh yeah.
Well this I hate this dude. I'm about one second away from
borrowing, his love of food and hopefully failing, so like you
definitely should do something. Let's say, yes, I GM, mr.
Geum, I would like to learn the targets.
Most secret desire. Giuseppe and Benjamin are in a
secret relationship that Giuseppe is not willing to admit
publicly but he wishes that he could.
Feels a bit like a red herring, in the context of a meat Cube,
but I'm think I'm making it up. Or bunch of him as you just
really Craven budget ovens hot dog.
Criminal criminal that he said this straight to jail.
Great. Well, here I am.
I'm um, I'm Connie powers. Or I appear to Giuseppe as
Connie Powers, okay? And and I say, excuse me, does
anybody here know what the hell is going on with tonight's
party? No, I have been asking all day.
asking, okay, asking who asking the right people because I've
got 30 people arriving in half an hour, and I need to tell them
where to put all the table toppers, and I don't see any
tables. There are no tables Miss Powers.
And what am I supposed to tell Tamara?
What am I supposed to tell Chris?
You see, tears building in his eyes.
He says, he says, I don't know, I've been seeking these answers
the same as you since this Cube appeared on my street.
And in my restaurant, I want nothing more mrs.
Powers that to give you the perfect evening and to give
Tamara the most incredible 27th birthday, which only It happens.
Once I am not to have this chance and neither are you, and
I think we must accept this. Well, I'm not ready to accept
that because I only provide the best for my clients.
Yeah. So I only appeared as this
character to two-step a? Yes.
Okay. This folks is also feeling like
a bit of a dead end. So yeah, don't like okay, so
then I am as as Connie. I'm just going to leave in a
huff. Well, I'm and questioned her I
have as a guest on. So I walk into because this guy
is just really rubbed me the wrong way.
I have heightened senses. Yes, because I'm a creature, and
my sense is that I chose was smell like you like smell out
stuff, is there anything about this meat Cube?
Because I don't know, What I would love to do is somehow get
to the middle of the queue but because it came out of the
floorboards. Correct.
Yes, it came out of the floorboards.
And then according to the description, it was as if
additional cubes appeared on top of it until it eventually formed
this holds a cube. So it came up from the floor.
Mmm other manhole covers or like anything where that we could
possibly get or is there like Hey, Chef.
Is there a basement? Like, is there any?
Like I would, I'm trying. I would like to get to the
source of this spot, that there is a building of meat in the
way. So can I try to smell out
whether something weird deep within the meat or what am I
smelling in general? Can I smell What do I smell with
my heightened senses? If I'm sniffing?
Yeah. Cuba.
I so I think the thing that you smell is that there is a, you
are able to smell the this. This meat is as you're looking
around, you're able to follow a trail where more of the smell of
this meat is coming from and at the front of the restaurant
building, there actually is an entrance to the basement.
That's like in a lot of City places where they've got these,
like a big double metal doors that you could crack open to go
down into the basement from outside, like for putting in
deliveries, but there is a padlock on it.
I mean is this something new we got is that when you get the
sense anymore meet down there, I'm sorry, Dwayne Did I reality
shift? Yes.
Absolutely. Using persistence persistence.
Sounds good if you're talking about like you want to pull it
and you'll be able to keep pulling it.
Yeah. Yeah yeah I would say you're
able to shift. Yeah.
As long as you are focused on it, you're able to like force
the chains attached to the padlock to like get weaker and
thinner until they break it. You succeed.
So, you'll roll with persistence 64, assume I got an unstable
success. I rolled two threes.
I'm going to use one point to make, right?
Three threes. So I have zero chaos.
You pop open that door and there is a staircase.
Leading down into a basement. We had.
And then I think we're heading in.
As you make your way down the basement, you are?
We all going in everyone? Everyone's part of the yeah, I
Think yes, sweet, sweet Darkness.
Yeah part of me wants to keep tabs on this crowd but I'm in,
let's go. At the bottom of this these
stairs, there is a a basement that is kind of cool.
It's attached to like a freezer area and it's Sheila from the
Sun. So it's a little chilly in here.
You see coming from the center of this room that is full of
these wire racks with different ingredients on them.
There is a like thin line that is like flat on all.
Four sides, this like thin line coming down from like directly
up above in the center of this room to the floor and on the
floor, a top bun and a like, slice of tomato.
And a piece of American cheese, have, like, fall into the side,
as the, like, lower bun, and a burger.
Sit atop it and extending right on sitting right on top of that
burger. There is the first tiny bit of
this line. Of meet heading upwards doesn't
appear to be like a burger from that truck, you know, and it
looks it looks exactly like a burger from metric.
Huh. Wow.
Well either, this is the burger that you threw at the building
or it was not a red herring that Giuseppe wants to be open about
his love for been bunch of men. Well, I only threw a half raw
Patty. It says this is a bun.
It has the toppings near it. Yeah.
It's not the same. Okay.
This okay it's a burger of forbidden love.
I don't I've as well as I've conveyed to the both of you
Gaston has a Has an affair with a bunch of men that he wishes he
didn't feel compelled to keep secret.
Mmm, this feels pretty damning or not.
Damning this feels like pretty clear evidence of that.
Their fixation it's very out in the open.
Can I just put this burger in the normal briefcase?
When you tug on the burger that line of meat does not like let
go. So you're able to like bend it
this like this like Burr the bottom of the burger and the bun
itself also is not attached, is just the meat Patty.
You're able to like pull it and it like it, like pulls that
line, kind of like squish Ali with you that as you tug on it,
you get that feeling of like this is, this is like a chain.
Connected to a building-sized slab of meat.
It is a heavy pulling on that as tough.
Yeah, I really want to do the thing I do and I play tabletop
games and act like I'm a hammer and all problems are nails and I
want to use eliminate on that connection from the burger to
the meat Cube. Okay, so a limb innate, I'll
tell you before you roll, the eliminate has a very specific
like wording in the way that it's written because an
established mundane object. So that means mundane as a
non-anomalous, gosh, you, so, you don't know for sure whether
the meat that's coming out of the burger counts as mundane or
not, but you won't know for sure.
Unless you try, however, that could mean a failure that could
mean you're just on the aim for the burger then, Well the burger
you can guess almost definitely is anomalous at this point is
what I would say okay like meat itself is a byproduct of animal
aim for the the meat connection. Okay?
So you will roll dynamism I have zero and dynamism.
Okay. So this will be at a minus one.
Okay. say, well, the 64 I had two successes.
All right. So it goes down to 1 which is
still success which means I get five chaos but you succeed.
So on a success the target disappears without a trace.
You've been aiming at the line of meat like connecting sooo.
Yeah this works. There is a line connecting it to
the ceiling seconds later. Vanishes completely it was not
there. It was there a second ago and
now it is not the burger that's currently being tugged by Gaston
like flops back rooms hits you in the face case and the but you
have separated the burger. However, before you have a
chance to do anything else, I'm going to spend that chaos that I
just got. Right?
That's that chaos. This is a sorry.
I'm looking at my points. You are in the anomalies domain.
In the restaurant itself. So the chaos that I spend is at
a third of the cost, like, anytime I spend chaos, I can
spin it as if it was Triple. And I am going to spend three to
use the Ability triple, which means I get to make three minor
anomalies dropping from the ceiling from that hole in the
ceiling with a likes one. And then lifting up our, these
completely cube-shaped meet kind of Good forms that shift
backwards lift up their arms and then charge.
At each of you, these are violent anomalies.
They are capable of dealing a pretty significant amount of
harm to you, but each of you has a chance to respond to the one
that's coming after you. Sake.
I'm going to I think it's nap time.
I'm going to blow in a pinch of sand enroll subtlety.
I lost a die if I ever rolled a 3 but 13 on the table.
One died has disappeared. So I've gotten at least 13.
Nice, I'm not going to retrieve it.
Oh, there it is. How was the second three?
Okay, so you got two threes using a nap time?
Yes, on a so fast. I sent a Target into a sudden
sleep. They'll have pleasant dreams and
think they nodded off when they wake up in a few minutes.
And for each additional three, I can choose an additional Target
seconds into these bad boys to sleep.
Break. Have you got yours?
Yeah, I think I've got mine. Corbin.
I'm gonna send hours to sleep. This is why you always keeps and
on you, yes, they you knock the sent towards them.
It hits. The two of them lightly Seasons
them as they pass out and Tumble into a small pile of little
cubes. The dream of beefy sleep says
chat and brick. What are you doing for yours?
I'm gonna use my other than only Bill.
I haven't used yet. We spy use all these Quick Draw.
Nice. So I think that rolling
initiative, which I have one else.
So, And I purposely got another unstable success.
I rolled 13. Okay?
And you have points in initiative.
I do nice. So, yeah, you get to keep the
13. So I get five more chaos 657 and
you get to do the success unless you want to spend some points
initiative. Well, the other two are down, so
I'm just going to hit the ones coming at me.
All right. So you could be under
successive, you shot. First the ER is harmed before
their attack, and they do not succeed.
So that same way, you got rid of that lime this one that's
barreling towards you. You get to zoom out your card
and they just out of existence, just tiny little little Flex,
little glitter, meet glitter kind of tumbles to the ground
and the burger still clutched in the non Sandy hand of Gaston.
Same Kip together with my hand, I sort of You said it in, you
are able to shut it. You start closing it.
The this like red energy of the briefcase like activating glows
and then with a kind of like gentle sound it seals and then
you hear, the Click Click of the two locks on the top and you
have claimed the burger. You immediately begin to hear
these noises from above. You of this, like, very loud
thudding on the street above with this, like, Combined with
like a thunk noise from somewhere above the basement.
Perfect now. Yeah, as you head up you see
that these these large chunks of the meat.
Now unstable and sort of like losing.
Its Cube form are like falling off in these big like Globs and
just like landing on the ground. The gradually revealing the
building underneath and just sort of like sinking a little
bit but the meat itself. Elf is not disappearing.
It's just losing that rigid shape. um, Gosh, you're only
thing to really deal with from the agency's perspective.
Now is the fact that you do have a small crowd of people, that's
definitely experienced this today and their that they are
loose ends for that. But otherwise you have captured
the anomaly so that part of your job is done.
Let's imagine you want to do so we just kill everyone else,
right? That's what we that's murder,
guys. Murder.
He's got a thing called a printing press release, which
lets him write something that will appear in major,
Publications the following day. Okay?
So what would you like to say? I'll say that a boondoggle on
the Christopher Nolan on the upcoming Christopher, Nolan set
special effects. Gone Gone spoiled.
Has as poorly permitted for Lee announced.
Special effect goes off without warning.
I think that's perfect. You set up you set up that they
will not be believed in the upcoming days as anything other
than a particularly fancy. Christopher, Nolan decision.
People will wonder how many layers deep in the dream.
This was a movie so you've got this.
A friend up, is there anything else you want to do before you
head back to the agency for a job?
Well done. Man, I wish that I could do
something to make Giuseppe's, life easier.
As guests on walks up to Corbin. And says, I think that and I
gesture towards Giuseppe. I think somebody's feeling a
little burdened by guilt and shame that.
Yeah, mmm. You might that your talents
might be uniquely suited to help with.
I got this. So I kill him.
No, I know. So yes, I would love to borrow
Giuseppe's. Can I borrow his, his, like,
guilt or shame or his, his, his whatever's, keeping him from
wanting to express, his publicly like that, that desire for
secrecy from from him. You can absolutely do that.
The, this is a similar situation as last time where this is an
interesting failure State. I love that.
That's kind of the way we're taking your drain.
Today is like, the one aiming for failure, but yes, you can
take it for an hour. Our at base, but if you fail,
you can take it for good. Yeah.
So either way we got ya positives from negatives here.
This is what this is. Rule number three you always
turn a positive or negative into a positive.
Do not remember. We don't kill people that very
specific to me though. If you like so yeah, so and I
have one in duplicity, I put one of duplicity so roll, another
one and And we'll see what happens.
I rolled I wrote three are all three threes, nice.
Okay, so this is stable, no matter what and this is the only
time you can have a failure that doesn't create chaos so you can
choose to have that effect last as be 03s on try sentence, which
will lose, what if the target will lose, what you've taken
permanently and no one gets it. They'll remember what they've
lost which in this case is actually probably a positive but
they've they don't have it anymore.
I hope everyone really good. I hope you didn't have like a
really good reason for this. Since I'm literally, like,
adjusting his like, core desire for this thing without asking,
but I don't, I don't care. It's better than killing them.
So yeah. So that's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to use my try sentence, right?
And I'm just going to make this a permanent.
Permanent loss of Giuseppe's, whatever like desire to keep it
the his feelings towards bun Djimon secret.
Yeah. Hello wholesome.
You see, there's this immediate, he's sitting on this this like
table, these like folding tables that have been set up outside of
the food truck, there is like an immediate shift.
He's like, looking, he's seeing the Globs of meat falling.
And it's as if something just like connects in his head
watching that happen and he turns and while everyone else
was kind of making their way toward the restaurant, like
slowly, like maybe we can make our way back over there.
He knocks on the side of the truck and you hear a voice.
Go. I don't have any more Burgers,
go away and he says, no, I am not looking for burgers.
I am I am looking for you. And there is a moment and I
crumble and like a door finally opening and there's this sort of
like exhausted look on bun Djimon is that his real name.
We never found out the bunch of men who as he as he looks at him
and says what the sort of like sad?
Like barely trying to keep up a lie, just like what?
What do you want? And there is a moment where you
see Giuseppe, reach out and take bunch of man's hand as the Globs
of meat fall behind them and the meat cube meet-cute is complete
And then that's all that I have for you.
You can head back to the agency. Turn in your mission.
The person who got the most happens brick is like full-on
sobbing ha, ha ha, absolutely just crying.
Let's see us, perfect. We see break extremely built,
and finally realizing you're going to be able to eat to just
me and the The the Globs of meat Fallen begin to be sort of
shuffled away as a few hours later.
The Party begins and Gaston. You are therefore what does turn
out to be the party of a lifetime but because they didn't
have as much time instead of a full mini course meal.
There are quite a bit of burgers and hot dogs.
You only turn 27 one. So only person is so beautiful.
I'm just gonna epilogue to Corbin, just like going to find
Steve again and just he walks in the office and you know gets too
drunk coalesce led to him again and he's like, one day at a
time, right? Rule number four for the
Dracula. It Taste good this time.
It's definitely satiating. What's number five I guess.
We'll figure out next time on triangulating so much like IE.
That's good time. I mean I don't I just grab that
I can't wait to play this game. I feel like you know we should
probably play again sometime. I would love that.
We should play again within within weeks.
But yeah, this is this is the wheels from podcast, this was
triangle agency, Caleb, and John.
Thank you guys so much for coming on.
Thank you again. We're super stoked.
Thank you so much. This is so fun.
Yeah, you'll be able to find all of our stuff all over links.
Like, is there anywhere that people can find this stuff like
right now that they can start to kind of get even more excited
about this Kickstarter job on Tuesday.
Yeah, if you go to haunted table, dot games, you can have
see our full website, which links to all of our places you
Join our Discord, you can check out the Delta test.
You can honor Discord, find groups to play with if you need
to. And right now, you can also go
to Kickstarter dot haunted tabletop games to sign up for
the pre-launch page of sign up on the pre-launch page for our
Kickstarter to be notified immediately when we go live on
Tuesday morning and then that same link kickstarter.com to
tabletop games will work through the campaign as well.
So you will be able to use that to get to the campaign end and
pledge. And if you're coming at this, if
you're listening to this in the future, after the campaign that
haunted tabletop games website, that's the one you want.
And then when we, when we first started this segment, there was
some, some music playing for triangle agency.
I just want to make sure that we chat about that a little bit.
Yes. Where did that come from?
Well, that was a composition by Edith.
Margaret Mudge incredible composer.
And it is it is just totally remarkable how we sent her the
Delta test. And she came back with exactly
the vibe, and it was essentially like first draft we locked in.
I remember just being so excited.
Yeah. And and Finding that finding
finding the sort of in-between between you are standing in the
lobby of a job that you hate. And something is like some
nefarious forces, undermining everything around.
You was an incredible process. It's an incredible song.
I'm just so thrilled that and you can find it on Spotify or
any other streaming service now, Edith Margaret Mudge.
As Sean said, And the song is called control yourself.
Be triangle agency theme. So earlier I highly recommend
it. I hope you check it out.
It's such a good song, it's great.
It fits everything else about this project which is fantastic.
Like once again so excited to this, can't wait to do this.
Maybe you hear more from us soon about that kicks off on Tuesday
and that is been our or episode here of the weekly scroll
podcast. Once again, thank you guys so
much for being here. You can find all of our stuff at
What are we? You, we are YouTube.
We are the weekly now, we are the adventure archive on Twitter
where we play Under scroll, scroll, and on Instagram.
We are weakly where the dot weekly dot.
Scroll final saw. Their this will be up on bod
very soon. If you're watching it not live,
you don't need to be told that and that is it.
You guys all have a wonderful day and we will see you all
later once again. Thank you all so much.
Thank you.