Avery/GM: Welcome to Episode 26 of Beyond the Furthest Stars!

(Intro plays, fades down, ambience fades up)

Avery/GM: Bruce, you are getting ready for your next mission with Lazuli. you learned from your mission to Calydon that something is going on out in Hegemony space on the planet of Ithaca. some sort of demonstration or attack or something the Oracles aren't really sure, but Lazuli knows that you are not an experienced fighter, and so that mission might not be the best suited for you and your skillset.

So instead, you and Lazuli are actually on the, um, main spacecraft that the Oracles call home. you're about to board a shuttle to head down to Olympia. for your next and what Lazuli reveals to be your final mission for the Oracles to quote unquote call you even with Lazuli, and you've been with the Oracles for about, I think three weeks have passed since everything else has happened.

Is that fair to say, group? It feels like about three weeks.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, I'm time blind. I'm the worst person to ask for that. You're gonna have to refer to someone else.

Jenine/Marty: Yes and

Avery/GM: yes. And it feels like it. I, I feel like all the time skips we've done, it's been about three weeks.

Bee/Polaris: yeah. I mean, wait, well, did, didn't we have to repair the  Cassiopeia? This took long.

Avery/GM: Yeah. You had to repair the Cassiopeia you had to, well you repaired it twice.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah.

Avery/GM: You traveled back and forth, uh, back to, um, the like black hole system to meet up with Machamp.

Bee/Polaris: Right, right.

Avery/GM: And then you traveled back to Olympia. So Yeah, it's about three weeks.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. We'll call it three weeks and some change.

Avery/GM: Yeah. You know, you haven't gotten to know Lazuli perfectly well, I, I don't know if you'd call them a friend, but maybe there's been like a mutual respect that has been built between the two of you. And, uh, lazuli is standing there as you're about to get on the shuttle and just says, you know, Bruce, I actually did not expect you to survive this long.

Caden/Bruce: I don't know if I should say thank you, but, um, thanks.

Avery/GM: You're, you're very resourceful is what I want to say. The Oracles and I are going to be heading out to Ithaca, um, to assess whatever this demonstration is that the Hegemony are plotting. We're sending you down to Olympia, as you know, to trace the funding for this little shadow cabal going on in the Republic ranks.

So I just, in case we don't come back, I wanted to give you this and they hand you a data pad. That is their copy of all the data that was scrubbed from Bragos, the security cameras, the, the docking logs and everything. And they say once you finish this mission, just hit this button and you can delete everything on here and we'll be even.

Caden/Bruce: Bruce will nod and put the data pad in like his, not front pocket, but like inside front pocket of, uh, what he's wearing

Avery/GM: Lazuli says, I know that, I know that you've gotten good at disguising yourself, but this getup is interesting to say the least. So yeah, go ahead and describe what you are wearing.

Caden/Bruce: So what Bruce is wearing is what is probably the most closet cosplay going on. Um, but he's wearing these giant round glasses that kind of like, don't really fit his face. They're kind of like Harry Potter-esque. Um, but like obviously he tried to make them fit a Scaph but like definitely weren't intended to. So they're kinda like perched on top of his head. And then he's wearing this like bright blue coat and pants and like on top of it is like this box that's tried to like cut out to resemble a shield shape. But like you can tell that it was handmade. So it's just like questionably just a shape and he's just, like, kind of dressed like a superhero. He’s not too sure, but it's the kind of thing where you're just like, ah, yes, clearly going to a convention as a cosplayer who's never really cosplayed before, but he's trying. He's trying his best.

Avery/GM: Excellent. Lazuli says, I actually kind of hope that you run into the Silver Shield because I kind of wanna see their reaction to this.

Uh, please, please record it if you can, so I can see it. If it, if we come back from this mission, will you?

Caden/Bruce: I will try my best. I, uh, made a mini shield for them to sign and Bruce will kind of show it off. He had too much fun with this.

Avery/GM: Is it, is it made out of like cardboard or are we talking like actual, like Some sort of like mat… metal material or what?

Caden/Bruce: Oh, no, no, no, no. It is a hundred percent made from like pizza box cardboard.

Avery/GM: I love it.

Jenine/Marty: Oh, my heart.

Avery/GM: Well, uh, you, you'd better get going. I, I think the tour of, of the psionic Research Institute starts in just a few hours and you'll, you'll need to get down there and, and get in position. Bye Bruce, and they hold out their hand for a shake.

Caden/Bruce: Bruce will offer his and just be like, I, uh, wish you luck as well

Avery/GM: Okay. Uh, well, I'm not good at goodbyes, so, uh, bye. And, uh, they kind of just like exit the docking bay

Caden/Bruce: I think Bruce just chuckles to himself.

Bee/Polaris: Oh my gosh.

Avery/GM: you board this little one person shuttle or?

Caden/Bruce: Oh, yeah.

Avery/GM: Cool. And we flash forward a couple hours and you are in the lobby of the Psionic Rehabilitation and Research Institute, you have been tasked with obtaining some data here by the Oracles and, uh, you've been given a few tools to complete your mission. Do you want to reveal what those tools are or save them for a surprise?

Caden/Bruce: I'll save them for a surprise.

Avery/GM: Cool. So Lazuli has stated that the funds for Project Epidrome which was the data that you stole from Calydon, showed that they were being diverted from this particular lab. Specifically, and so it's possible that this lab might have something to do with that project or with the conspiracy going on in the Republic.

You are part of a tour group who is here basically, or on the surface. The tour group is here to tour the institute and see all the cool medical research they're doing to help psionics who have psionic related diseases or illnesses, but really mostly everyone here is here to see the hero known as the Silver Shield.

A superhero of the Republic who has done a lot of heroic deeds and has become something of a icon at this point. They have comic books and they have cartoons and holo-vids made of them and their adventures and some things are probably a little bit exaggerated, but some of them are based in truth.

And you are in this tour group and it is being led by a tiny gold colored alien with bright blue eyes and their head slash neck is kind of long and serpentine, but the rest of their body is kind of humanoid. But they are very short. They're like a foot and a half tall. And he says, hello, uh, group. I am Nagani.

And I will be your tour guide today. While you're in the institute, please stay with the group. We don't want you getting accidentally lost because you may end up as next week's dissection experiment and no one laughs at his joke and he says that that's a joke. We, we don't actually dissect people here.

That's that's just a little something I do for the kids. Oh shit. Okay. Follow me. You are starting to get a tour of this facility.

Now we flash back to the rest of the group. Y'all have started your approach to Olympia. Uh, Polaris, you're flying obviously. Where's everyone else at on the ship?

Chris/Ollie: How long has this trip taken?

Avery/GM: from the black hole system to Olympia was about four days.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. I imagine Ollie's just been tinkering away at his, his new body.

Jenine/Marty: I've probably been at communi… at the little communications box sitting area.

Bee/Polaris: The comm station.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah. That one!

Bee/Polaris: It's a, it's a cardboard box that Marty puts on her head and there's like a tin can with a string.

Jenine/Marty: 100%

Avery/GM: Zahn?

Zach/Zahn: Zahn has been, um, modding. He's been going through and upgrading everybody's guns to give a plus two damage.

Bee/Polaris: I wish I had a gun!

Jenine/Marty: Do you want Marty's laser pistol? Cause she's not gonna use it.

Chris/Ollie: There was an armory on the Cassiopeia.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, but we left the Cassia and Polaris didn't grab a gun. Bri has Polaris's laser pistol.

Jenine/Marty: You should, you should take Marty's laser pistol cuz she's not gonna be able to use this.

Bee/Polaris: Do you not have a shoot skill?

Jenine/Marty: No!

Avery/GM: I think we talked about this last session about like someone like needs to give Marty, like target practice training or something.

Zach/Zahn: Something like that.

Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah. Well the custodian ... Bear probably could have, but the custodians, uh, did an evil and then Rho got in trouble, so we gotta help Rho first.

Jenine/Marty: I am all charisma and health!

Zach/Zahn: Right, you're the tank.

Bee/Polaris: Charismatically shoot people to lower their health.

Avery/GM: Oh gosh.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah. you can take her laser pistol if you want it cuz she's not also totally forgot that it was there.

Bee/Polaris: Unless it, unless it like comes up that we actually need it though. Polaris probably won't take it. He's not gonna take Marty's only form of protection away from her. Especially when he has two laser blades.

Jenine/Marty: Oh, okay.

Zach/Zahn: Oh my God.

Jenine/Marty: That's fine.

Bee/Polaris: That he can probably throw,

Jenine/Marty: yeah,

Chris/Ollie: use shoot to throw the laser blades.

Bee/Polaris: Um, I actually...

Zach/Zahn: no, that's, no. I guess it'd still be a dexterity stab so nevermind.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I'm flipping through my foci to see if I actually can throw, uh, I guess it would have to be considered a thrown weapon, but I could add my stab bonus to it if I, if it was

Avery/GM: you, you can, you can shorten the length to make it a knife. I think it can be a thrown.

Bee/Polaris: Hell yeah.

Avery/GM: We will. We will reduce. Cause I think it's 2d8, I think it would just, we'll just reduce the dice to, to 2D6.

Bee/Polaris: Okay. If thrown, if, if knife. Okay. La I'll

Avery/GM: if thrown. Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Laser knife.

Zach/Zahn: Well, if you have a weapon, Just pick one of your weapons and add plus two damage to it and Zahn has upgraded it.

Avery/GM: Sure. Okay. And you're spending all those, uh, all the resources needed for that. Yep.

Bee/Polaris: You said 2d6 for the laser knife?

Avery/GM: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: Okay.

Jenine/Marty: So what are we adding to our laser pistols?

Zach/Zahn: Just plus two damage plus two to damage,

Avery/GM: so

Jenine/Marty: Okay.

Avery/GM: It would be 1d6 plus two

Jenine/Marty: plus two. Okay.

Avery/GM: Automatically, or whatever it is. Yeah.

Zach/Zahn: Yep.

Avery/GM: Cool.

Bee/Polaris: I don't have a weapon that can be upgraded. So

Avery/GM: No. Your, your blade, your one of your blades.

Bee/Polaris: Also, I do have a knife knife.

Avery/GM: A knife. Knife,

Bee/Polaris: yeah. Instead of a laser knife, I have an actual like knife blade knife.

Zach/Zahn: So I'm boosting damage or weapon damage output is the, the verbiage. So I don't know how I can do that For a laser knife or a laser blade?

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Or yeah…

Avery/GM: make it hotter.

Zach/Zahn: Make it hotter.

Bee/Polaris: Crank up the heat.

Zach/Zahn: Yeah. That just makes it more unstable.

Bee/Polaris: I, I mean, we could just save that for a laser pistol. You know.

Avery/GM: Yeah. That's fine too. Whatever works. Cool. So you're modding, Polaris is flying. Marty, you're at the comm station and Ollie is, is down in the hold, repairing or fixing up his newest body..

Chris/Ollie: I'm building my masterpiece.

Bee/Polaris: getting his beach bod.

Jenine/Marty: Yes.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah, I'm getting Beachbody ready!

Avery/GM: We're gonna pump you up.

Bee/Polaris: Hey, where's Machamp? Speaking of pump up?

Avery/GM: Um, yeah, Machamp is, uh, chilling. Um, he, he, he didn't want to be presumptuous and take the captain's chair, um, especially after getting kind of a weird look from Hermes's, uh, holo projection. So, Machamp took a seat at the weapons station.

Bee/Polaris: Okay. I mean, Hermes projects his little alien guy onto the onto, so the captain chair and regularly gets told no. So..

Avery/GM: Right. So y'all started approaching Olympia when you got an alert on your comms. Um, and it looks like Marty, it is a communication from one of the ships out here patrolling the space around Olympia.

Jenine/Marty: Sick.

Avery/GM: Do you answer?

Jenine/Marty: Yeah. Yeah. We have nothing to hide.

Avery/GM: Yeah.

Bee/Polaris: I mean,

Jenine/Marty: we have nothing to hide.

Bee/Polaris: Wait, where's Rho's Body?

Avery/GM: Rho is chilling in one of the beds, I assume.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, right, right. Okay. Yeah. We have nothing to hide.

Avery/GM: And Marty, you answer and the person is very quick and to the point and just says, attention, unidentified ship, you are approaching the Republic capital, Olympia. Only authorized personnel are allowed on or off planet. Please present your authorization or prepare to be detained.

Jenine/Marty: I just go, okay, please hold. And then I like put them on hold. Sir, I think they need you on comms.

Avery/GM: Oh gosh. What was his real name? We keep calling

Everyone: Major Tom.

Jenine/Marty: Yeah.

Zach/Zahn: You forgot your own pun!

Avery/GM: I know, right?

Bee/Polaris: His first name. Major. Your last name. Uh, oh. Wait, no. First name

Bee/Polaris: Tom?

Bee/Polaris: No. First name. Ma. Last name Champ.

Avery/GM: Um. Oh my gosh. See, this is, this is what I was talking about with the lack of sleep. Okay, cool. Major Tom. Yeah, major Tom says, uh, yeah. Um, we sh we should be able to use the, uh, the authorization for the lab use. You mind if I just, and he, and he kind of gestures at the comms computer? Uh, to you, Marty?

Jenine/Marty: Yeah. She gives a little nod and she just gives two thumbs up. She goes, you got this. Woo!

Zach/Zahn: woo.

Avery/GM: Sure. Um, Polaris, just keep flying straight. Don't, don't do anything dangerous, okay?

Bee/Polaris: Polaris immediately does a barrel roll. No, I'm kidding.

Avery/GM: Machamp goes over to the comm station, pushes the talk button and just says, uh, this is ma Major Tom, um, Major Major Tom. Uh, authorization code alpha delta 74, and there's a little delay. In the communications and Polaris, you see the ships are not moving yet. And you're getting closer and they're not moving and then…

Bee/Polaris: I'll stop. So they don't think we're trying to blast through.

Avery/GM: No. Um, I was, that, that's just me building false suspense.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, okay. I was like, oh, I didn't realize the cops stopped. I'm still rolling.

Avery/GM: No, you're fine.

Bee/Polaris: Okay, cool.

Avery/GM: And then the comms ping again, and they just say, uh, authorization verified. Please follow our ships down to the surface and we will be happy to get you where you need to go. Do not deviate from your path or you will be blown out of the sky. Thank you and have a nice day. Their demeanor totally changed, um, between those two messages. So…

Bee/Polaris: okay. Now I do the barrel roll.

Avery/GM: Uh, do now you do the barrel and you get blown up. No.

Bee/Polaris: I don't deviate from the path. I just do a barrel roll.

Chris/Ollie: Yeah. Instant tpk. Good Sesh

Bee/Polaris: I'm kidding.

Chris/Ollie: you all die.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Okay. I'll follow

Chris/Ollie: end of campaign

Bee/Polaris: I'll follow the law.

Avery/GM: Bruce, somewhere you feel in your heart. Kidding.

Bee/Polaris: The crushing weight of lost Friends?

Jenine/Marty: I have, I have a question about these, these people that are following us.

Bee/Polaris: Mm-hmm.

Jenine/Marty: What, which,

Avery/GM: sure.

Jenine/Marty: So would you say that they're voluntarily like serving us or not? And are they like nice to us?

Avery/GM: They're not hostile towards you.

Jenine/Marty: Okay.

Avery/GM: Um, they're not really serving you, but they are aiding you in what you're doing.

Jenine/Marty: Okay, cool.

Bee/Polaris: I do have a follow up question after you're done, Jenine.

Avery/GM: uh oh.

Jenine/Marty: Cause I'm just wondering. Um, this is based off of, uh, if you go to page 24 of, of the book, I have the a Author… Authority Foci and I can roll against if someone is nice, if an NPC uh, once per day you can make a request from an NPC who is not openly hostile to you, rolling charisma or lead, and a difficulty of the NPCs moral score I was just wondering, Can I like bank in that right now? Or like, does this seem like a, maybe I shouldn't situation yet.

Bee/Polaris: I feel like we're good.

Jenine/Marty: Okay, cool.

Avery/GM: Um, so I mean, you're, you're getting what you, what you need already, so unless there is something specific you're aiming for, um, I think you're good right now.

Jenine/Marty: Sick. I'll save that for when we're inside.

Bee/Polaris: Sweet! Boss the nerd around.

Jenine/Marty: I would never don't tempt her like this!

Chris/Ollie: Charisma lead the nerd!

Jenine/Marty: Do not tempt her like this.

Bee/Polaris: Go fetch us some bubble tea nerd.

Chris/Ollie: No charisma lead check the nerd to participate in the experiment that Disre… like destroys his reputation,

Bee/Polaris: but he's an assistant. He only hands you stuff. Okay, sweet.

Jenine/Marty: I digress. What's up?

Avery/GM: Um, cool. So you follow these folks… folks like they're freaking farmers or something.

Bee/Polaris: I call everyone folks.

Avery/GM: I know

Jenine/Marty: retweet!

Bee/Polaris: They have grass like in their helmet on the mouthpiece.

Avery/GM: You follow the folks down to the southern continent of. One of the southern continents of Olympia. Cause it's a globe, not a flat surface. So one of the southern continents.

Bee/Polaris: we don't know that.

Avery/GM: Um, and there are several different points of interest here. Your main point of interest is here, of course. And the people on the line, after they get down to you, they. Uh, they ping you the, or they send you a little map of, of the area with the location of the institute, uh, pinged on your map, but you've also got the capital city of Ambrosia here. Got this cool little forest that you probably would've had to have hidden in and if you ran the blockade and you've got Fort Zeus over here.

Bee/Polaris: Ooh, fancy.

Avery/GM: And there's a desert, but don't worry about the desert. You guys won't have to go there.

Bee/Polaris: What the hell? It's called the Desert of Exile. What do you mean? Don't worry about the desert.

Jenine/Marty: I think it's just a neat name.

Avery/GM: It's just a neat name. Yep.

Chris/Ollie: Totally. Totally. An ironic name.

Jenine/Marty: Positive thinking. Positive thinking.

Avery/GM: So you know that there is a docking bay in the city of Ambrosia where you could rent some sort of overland transport to get to the research institute.

Zach/Zahn: Why rent one when…

Avery/GM: You also…  

Zach/Zahn: we have one.

Avery/GM: You also know… True. So you could land in the city of Ambrosia and travel over land or you do know that there is a um, docking bay at the institute.

Bee/Polaris: Okay, where's the capital building? And are all of the important people in there?

Avery/GM: Um, the Capital City's right here.

Bee/Polaris: No, no, no, no, no. The capital building in the capital city are all of the important people having a meeting in there yet?

Avery/GM: I mean, it's probably midday, so there's probably some important lawmakers there.

Chris/Ollie: you just gonna like bomb the capitol or something?

Bee/Polaris: Ok. I, I'm, I'm not gonna go on this tangent just to save time. I was gonna make a joke, but let's, yeah, I'll dock at the research institute.

Avery/GM: Okay.

Chris/Ollie: I mean, yeah, it's, I mean, it's the November 13th, so it's not quite the fifth, but, uh,

Bee/Polaris: oh my God.

Avery/GM: So the docking bay here is, is much less a bay and more of a giant parking lot like. If y'all have ever been to an Ikea.

Bee/Polaris: Yep.

Avery/GM: Just that sprawling mass of concrete

Bee/Polaris: I take.

Avery/GM: That's basically what it is.

Bee/Polaris: I take three parking spaces.

Zach/Zahn: Wow!

Avery/GM: Cool.

Zach/Zahn: You're one of those people.

Bee/Polaris: I mean, I think we established that Polaris has like a space Twitch channel that's like car dudes, but like Space ships.

Avery/GM: Yeah. Polaris is a car dude. That's right.

Bee/Polaris: He's one of those people. But no, I'll take a reasonable amount of parking spaces.

Avery/GM: Sure. Um, so you land here, there's enough room in this, uh, Parking lot for about 30 ships on the side that you're parking on.

Bee/Polaris: How neat.

Avery/GM: But it's, it's, it's fairly empty. There's maybe six or seven other ships here.

Bee/Polaris: Oh, sweet. I park as close to the door as possible, but like legally.

Avery/GM: Sure. And you see several. Like next, next to some of these ships, you do see several like metal crates kind of stacked around. Um, perhaps used for like storage of like spare parts or cargo that was like offloaded from these ships but hasn't been brought in.There's, you know, some trash floating around cuz people are gross. You know, it's a standard parking lot. I don't know why I'm taking so long to describe a parking, sorry.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah, I was about to say, the way you're describing it is like, you guys can take these crates if you want.

Avery/GM: I don't know. That's, yeah. Sorry. I'm I, God damn it. Okay.

Bee/Polaris: You're fine. I was like, oh shit. Loot!

Avery/GM: you land. And we go back to Bruce real quick. Bruce. Um, as you're coming into the lobby of the institute and you're beginning your tour. Nagani says, now we do ask that you check all dangerous weapons at this security checkpoint before we continue, as not all the patients are safe enough to be around weapons, and so we just ask for security purposes that you check your weapons at the door and then we will return them to you upon completion. Unfortunately, the Silver Shield will not be able to sign any weapons, and then Nagani looks at your little cardboard shield. You can keep that though. I think that's fine. Um, did you bring any weapons with you?

Caden/Bruce: Bruce did. Um, Bruce would've brought Polaris's, uh, pistol, but what he's done is, has been to design it to look like part of the costume, so, So as much as it's a pistol, he's basically like taped cardboard boxes around it. So it just looks like a cardboard, L like it doesn't look like a pistol at all. Just like basically made this really bad like cardboard holder and then painted it.

Jenine/Marty: Yes. Beautiful. Wonderful cover girl.

Caden/Bruce: And it's like, Strapped to his left hand side. So it looks like a fake, terribly made pistol. He hundred percent does not hand it in.

Bee/Polaris: That is so funny.

Avery/GM: Roll a charisma. Sneak check.

Caden/Bruce: Oh goodness.

Chris/Ollie: Any bonus for the costume?

Avery/GM: Plus one for the costume.

Caden/Bruce: Oh good cuz I don't think that's gonna help either way. Uh. Cause I got a negative one on sneak. That's a two.

Avery/GM: Oh. Um,

Bee/Polaris: you drop it and it goes off.

Avery/GM: That's better than anything I was gonna come up with. Yeah, you are making a show of like, Looking in your pockets for things that you might need to put into this, like little, it, it's basically one of those like plastic bins that you do at like the courthouse or something, right? Or the airport. And uh, and you accidentally drop this cardboard covered laser pistol and it just fires a beam and it ricochets off the ground and it hits something on the ceiling and comes back down and hits the, this bubbling fountain in the lobby and there's just an explosion of water all over the lobby and you just see this, this small robot in the corner that has a mop and it was just getting ready to put it away and it looks over and then you just see its head just sort of lower…

Everyone: Oh!

Avery/GM: In disappointment.

Bee/Polaris: You monster.

Avery/GM: And the guards don't take it as you were trying to sneak this in, but more of a, oh, you were getting ready to turn this over and you're a clutz, so,

Caden/Bruce: oh, thank goodness.

Avery/GM: And so they pick it up and they're just like, we'll, we'll hold onto this for until you leave. I think that's best for everybody. Uh, everyone please watch your step. The floor is now very slippery. We do not want anyone tripping. That is a very dangerous hazard.

Caden/Bruce: Sorry, and Bruce will just kinda like tuck his tail in.

Bee/Polaris: Yeah.

Avery/GM: Oh gosh. So your group is starting this way and Nagani leads you into this room. Leads you into this room here. And this is just a basic office. There are people kind of milling about here, filling out paperwork, doing some medical billing and coding, all very fancy stuff here.

Nagani just says this is our administration office, albeit not the most exciting room in the, uh, in the building, but definitely something that every hospital needs in order to function. This is Terrence. Uh, he's our latest hire in the office. Terrance, why don't you tell us a bit about the work you do and they start kind of like giving this like long, boring conversation about paperwork.

You look and you see. That this door right here has a label on it called Server Room.

Caden/Bruce: Ooh.

Avery/GM: And from your briefing with Lazuli, you know that that is your goal.

Caden/Bruce: Okay.

Avery/GM: I'll also say you saw this right here in the lobby, which is a vent, and you also see this vent right here as well.

Caden/Bruce: Good to know. Good to know.

Avery/GM: Do you do anything in this room yet or are you just kind of following along for now?

Caden/Bruce: The only thing Bruce is gonna try and do, which I think is quite easy, given the size of Bruce, is to make sure that he is last in the group.

Avery/GM: Sure. Okay. Um, yeah, everyone, everyone else in this group is like, I. If not, not, not necessarily smaller because Bruce is so big but also smaller cuz these people are younger than Bruce. Like not by much like late teens, early twenties, you know, and so yeah, you're may maybe, uh, playing off like, oh yeah, let the excited kids go first. That's fine. Um, you are last in the group as you come into room six and has Bruce been around for any of the interactions with Marty and Oswald?

Caden/Bruce: No.

Avery/GM: Okay, cool. Marty, could you describe Oswald for us?

Jenine/Marty: Okay. They are about like a five eight, um, human with like shaggy brown hair. And, uh, big round glasses and, uh, dark brown eyes. Um, their skin tone is like same color as Marty's, so pretty, like, not super dark, but like, kind of dark. And they're in, they're dressed very daper, you know, like, like the, like nice vest and like the nice jacket, like those sweater vest jacket kind of situation and they, they most likely have those like fancy Oxfords. They're, they, they're a fancy, fancy lad or attempts to be a fancy lad, and that's and very punchable face, um, is what you see standing in front of you

Avery/GM: and you come into this lab and this person is, is standing there and is just like, oh, great. Another tour group. Well come on in if you must. Uh, this is my lab. This is where we research all the latest medical interventions, for psionics and torching specifically, please don't touch anything. Everything's very delicate and points at you, Bruce, and it's like you especially don't touch anything cuz you look very clumsy.

Caden/Bruce: Accurate though.

Avery/GM: And Nagani is just like, uh, this is of course, Dr. Oswald, the, the lead researcher here. Well, as of yesterday, lead researcher, there's been some, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Anyway, please follow me through to the next room and we will continue our tour. If you have any questions for Dr. Oswald, please feel free to ask them. They are very knowledgeable. And Oswald kind of rolls their eyes.

Caden/Bruce: Is there any like beakers or anything that's like on the tabletops as such?

Avery/GM: There is, so as, as you are coming through this, um, lab, there is a alien researcher that is walking from this, this little desktop here, and they have some chemicals in their hand.

Caden/Bruce: Sweet.

Avery/GM: And they're trying to walk them over to this laser grid.

Caden/Bruce: I wanna try and trip them with my tail.

Avery/GM: Sure. Roll. Hmm. What do we wanna roll for that? I think it's dexterity for sure.

Zach/Zahn: Dex Sneak

Avery/GM: or are? Yeah. Are you trying to be sneaky about it or are you trying to make it like, look like an accident or just Uh,

Caden/Bruce: I feel like, I dunno if it necessarily has to be sneaky. Cause I feel like it's the kind of thing of like, As like a cat walks, it kind of swishes its tail sort of thing. If it's like upset or angry, like I don't feel like it's necessarily sneaky

Jenine/Marty: connect as you are connecting

Bee/Polaris: your tail with their leg. I feel like there should be some sort of bonus if you're trying to make it look like an accident because the whole group did just watch you drop a laser pistol.

Avery/GM: Oh, I was gonna give a bonus for sure.

Bee/Polaris: Sick.

Avery/GM: Cause it's playing into the, in, into the bit. Let's go… You can either do dexterity punch because it is you. You can treat this as like an unarmed combat skill, um, or a dexterity sneak. With a plus two bonus to either one.

Caden/Bruce: We'll go with punch only because I don't have a negative one in that.

Avery/GM: Sure.

Caden/Bruce: And that is a, Ooh, that is a very good roll now I have to math. That is a 13.

Avery/GM: Oh my gosh, yes. Okay. You trip this alien intern, um, and they fall to the ground and their chemical experiment flies across this room and hits the laser grid and explodes in a cloud of chemicals and an alarm starts sounding, and Oswald just says to you, what did I tell you? Please get out. We need to fix this. Everyone out of the lab, now we have to seal this place off. Oh, this is just what I needed right before Marty comes. Are you kidding me? And we flash back to the crew of the TSFKAM.

(ambience fades out, outro music plays)

Avery/GM: Thank you for listening to our show. Beyond the Furthest Stars is a 1upPodcast Network production. Intro and Outro music produced by Dustin Carpenter. Background Music provided by TabletopAudio.com and used under an Attribution, non-commercial license from Creative Commons. Tracks used include: Orbital Platform, Starbase Omega, Star Freighter and Mega City Slums. We’ll be back on August 1st with our Next Episode.

See you out there, Beyond the Furthest Stars!