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Episode 61 - Through the Wormhole
Avery/GM: We are going to skip ahead three weeks from the last time Polaris spoke with Alioth about the medicine that is needed to help Rho and Psi. And
Zach/Zahn: if I remember correctly, Psi is the one who is more, uh, eminently in trouble, right? Cause he's been the longest without medicine.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, he's like 45. Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah. How long has he been active as a silver shield? Was it like 20 years or something?
Avery/GM: 20 years.
Bee/Polaris: Oh. Is he, how old is he actually? Did I get that right?
Avery/GM: He actually is like in his 40s. Oh wow.
Bee/Polaris: Damn.
Avery/GM: Yep.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: I had to throw a twin paradox in here somewhere so, you know.
Bee/Polaris: So Psi's medical thing is a, is a closer gorilla than Rho's medical thing.
Avery/GM: Correct. You found out that the ingredient that is missing is an ingredient that in this galaxy went extinct about 300 years ago when the planet that the Custodians orbit mysteriously died off and everything on it completely was wiped clean.
During these three weeks, although they don't like humans, they like Polaris, and Polaris's friend being in danger. is not seen as a good thing, so they've decided to help in any way they can. Merak has sent out some probes to look at some of the nearby wormholes that Polaris conveniently received, um, coordinates for, back in like session seven or eight, and is kinda just seeing what's on the other side of those to see if any of them might lead to either an area of the Milky Way galaxy where this plant still grows, or maybe to this galaxy where that plant still grows, maybe at a different time.
You have found out that one of the probes has come back. A lot of the probes actually have not returned from where they went, indicating that those wormholes might be more dangerous than previously thought, but one of them returned. And the preliminary data recorded from the probe seems to indicate that it actually does conveniently lead to a sector of space that is near the planet that you're currently orbiting.
But about 400 years, 300-400 years in the past, based on scans of the planet, the probe was able to get some flybys of the planet before returning and has discovered that there are basic civilizations living on this planet. The technology is not as advanced as your current space… space age technology and given the fact that during that time period a lot of other Species had already, and planets, had already extended their reach out into the galaxy.
It definitely seems like maybe this planet just never got the chance to actually connect with the larger galactic community. So, in the pictures of the Probe took, you see a lot of dirt roadways. You see a lot of carriages being pulled by various animals. And the species that live there, there are humans…
But the three main dominant species on this planet. These tall bird like creatures with brightly colored wings and large feather plumes on their head of various colors. They're the most technologically advanced of the three main civilizations. On this planet, but even then, like, they're still using, you know, horse and buggy type stuff.
But, uh, they have a very vast, like, kind of agricultural development that was surveyed. Another major species is a bunch of creatures that look kind of like giant praying mantises, or manti. And they… They appear to be nomadic and kind of travel from place to place kind of just as, and that's based on just the surveys, the survey images that were taken where there's these large kind of traveling caravans of these groups.
There's the species of anthropomorphic canines. And they have a bunch of different civilizations all over the place, but the main location that looked promising for this particular ingredient that you need was a, what appeared to be a small mining outpost in one of the deserts on the, on one of the central continents.
So, what has everyone been doing for the past three weeks while you've kind of been waiting for this news and preparing for stuff?
Zach/Zahn: Uh, well, Zahn has fully recovered now from his arm injury. Uh, made my parties that we
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, you mean the thing that was your fault?
Avery/GM: Broken arm takes about six weeks to heal. It's been, yeah, okay. Yeah, it's been about six weeks since the incident. Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Well, he also had that accelerated, like, Bacta tank thingy on his arm, so it helped along.
Avery/GM: Oh, that's true. Yeah, you had some.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn would have been between healing, fine tuning his, uh, Kinesis module.
Avery/GM: Yeah, and we decided that you can lift up pretty much anything that's not, like, a living target, right? That's, like, up to, like, probably, like, what do we think, 50 pounds?
Zach/Zahn: 50 to 75?
Avery/GM: Sure. Okay, so Zahn is fine tuning his kinesis module, that's good. Jenine, let's check in with Marty. Marty's been kind of focused on this stuff, and how did, how did Marty react when hearing that, like, a cure might be within reach?
Jenine/Marty: Uh, Y'know, when you open the door and your child is just on their laptop and have only been playing video games for hours? That's what Marty looks like as she moves from the screen. And there's just like, murder board with red string. That's Marty. She's happier that we are finding the cure. But currently right now, that's her like Set up.
Her sweet little bean.
Bee/Polaris: I do believe once, uh, Polaris asked Alioth about the, uh, ability to synthesize Gemadryl. Uh, he had Alioth email that to Marty. Like the, the process in which you need to do that and stuff like that and the ingredients list.
Avery/GM: Okay, that makes sense.
Jenine/Marty: Marty, Marty is now, she's got all that information, the, everything is starting to like, She's becoming more human again.
She's becoming herself, but she has been in, She's been stressed and only been looking at that, cause friendship.
Avery/GM: Chris? What's Ollie been up to? Uh, working on any of that, that scary, uh, murder robot machine, or, or just enjoying
Chris/Ollie: I don't know, we haven't exactly hashed out, uh, what it is, but I think the Omen shell, uh, in the, the base rules is pretty, uh, you know, pretty much what I'm going for.
Just a pure combat robot. And he's been pretty much using all of his free time, uh, since the Coil Ambush to work on it, so Yeah, he's good.
Avery/GM: That's fine, um, why don't you Go ahead and roll a, um, intelligence fix check for me.
Chris/Ollie: 10. Actually, no, I'm also boosting a bit with my stuff, so it would be 11.
Avery/GM: 11, okay. Cool. Yeah, so you're able to get this shell 75 percent done. And so in the process of doing that, um, let's see. Because the shells, you can also like equip, like, Certain gear, right?
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, I mean, essentially, for this, I'm thinking, because it's got an integrated, uh, like, melee weapon, but for most of it, it's like you attach weapons to it, so I'm thinking it's like, it's functioning, but it doesn't have any guns. I mean, and also, Ollie isn't planning on using it, like, immediately. Just having it ready.
Avery/GM: This is more the thing that you drop from orbit when it's time for the final battle.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, like, oh yeah, oh no, we're getting ambushed again, okay. Let's not get caught on the back foot. Calling the orbital drop.
Bee/Polaris: What the fuck are you building?
Chris/Ollie: Uh, you know, we need a death robot on our team.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: I'm tired of fighting enemy death robots. When do I get a death robot?
Bee/Polaris: Just steal the enemy death robot.
Chris/Ollie: Because they look lame.
Bee/Polaris: Okay.
Avery/GM: Coming soon to an ollie near you. Yeah, so we'll say you're like 70, you're 75 percent of the way there. You're, you're, you're golden. Um, and you know, probably a little bit longer on the factory and you could probably get it all the way there. Um, yeah. Uh, Polaris, I think that leaves just you. What's Polaris been up to these past few weeks?
Bee/Polaris: Spinning in an office chair. I'm kidding. Uh, well, first of all, um,
Avery/GM: Polaris had the zoomies.
Bee/Polaris: I will say, Polaris probably would have had a little chit chat with Marty, um, after like, Marty appears back into the wild, and, uh, like, out of, out of her room and stuff to rejoin society.
Uh, Polaris probably would have just, like, told her, like, Hey man, you can, like, rely on us, you know? Just, like, a little talk like that. Cause you did hide all of this from… from us. Didn't tell anyone about the stuff going on with Rho and Psi.
Avery/GM: Oh, yeah, that's right, cause Psi told you to keep it a secret.
Bee/Polaris: Well Psi said to keep it a secret from Rho, and Marty kept it a secret from everyone.
Jenine/Marty: Yes. Secrets? If someone tells Marty to keep a secret, Marty will keep the secret. Con… Patient. Patient. I cannot even think of the things. HIPAA! This is a HIPAA situation!
Chris/Ollie: It's the most effective way to keep it from reaching them.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, Dr. Patient Confidentiality?
Jenine/Marty: That's the thing!
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, but Polaris would have just, like, told her, like, hey, you can rely on us, like, we can help you, cause you never know if we have information that you may need.
Jenine/Marty: Marty just kinda, like, looks there, like, stands there, and then her eyes get a little watery, and then she just goes, Can I give you a hug? Hug? Hug. Permission to hug?
Bee/Polaris: Polaris will like, kneel down to Marty level and hold out his hands.
Jenine/Marty: Squish.
Bee/Polaris: Cause like, Marty has been stressing about this the entire time, and Polaris are sitting here like, I have information that no one has asked me about so it hasn't come up, it's helpful!
Avery/GM: Classic, uh, classic sitcom trope, you know? The one person knows something, the other person doesn't, but, you know, yeah. It's totally fine.
Chris/Ollie: And all problems could be solved by a little simple communication, yet it doesn't happen.
Bee/Polaris: Welcome
Avery/GM: But we needed Marty to be distracted for plot purposes.
Bee/Polaris: Indeed.
Avery/GM: And scheduling convenience.
Bee/Polaris: Correct. So, Polaris would have been doing that, and then, uh, probably just like, figuring, probably watching like old western movies, if they are available on the custodian ship, to figure out what a cowboy is.
Zach/Zahn: Oh, to figure out what a cowboy is!
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: And then subsequently making himself a cowboy costume, because Polaris does so, and has many clothes on the Ursa Major. Um, so, yeah, he has made himself a cowboy.
Avery/GM: If he doesn't have it, he can make it.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Um, no, that's excellent. Uh, yeah. So that little robot that is like the, the older version of Dief, um, has a bunch of old Western, like all kinds of movies from like Earth and, and other planets in the Milky Way. Um, and conveniently this robot, uh, because I just decided it can, um, can also fold into a display screen and play these movies.
So, yeah, you have a portable Dief 2, or Dief 0.5.
Chris/Ollie: Dief VR
Avery/GM: dVR.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Polaris has been, I don't know if there's like some sort of common room or something that the crew would have used, if there was a crew, to like relax and stuff, but Polaris has like held up in there and just has been watching movies nonstop.
Avery/GM: Yeah, you, uh, you learn all about, um, the, the Wild West and what a cowboy is and the rope being the cattle and all that stuff. I don't actually remember all the things cowboys do, but you know, all that stuff.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, lassoing and whatnot. Yeah, so Polaris is So In between watching movies, Polaris has probably also, A, been practicing lassoing, and B, been practicing quickdraw.
Avery/GM: Okay.
Chris/Ollie: Quick drawing the laser blades?
Avery/GM: Let's run with that.
Chris/Ollie: Are you quick drawing the laser blades?
Bee/Polaris: No, he has a gun. But also, yeah. But also, yeah.
Avery/GM: Yeah, so I guess go ahead for um, the lasso, oh gosh, what are we gonna call lasso?
Bee/Polaris: Wait, I get, I get a lasso skill?
Avery/GM: We'll go perform. We'll go perform. Let's go dexterity perform to see how well this lassoing is doing.
Bee/Polaris: Perform? I have nothing in that. Oh, well. Dexterity 11. I rolled a 5 and a 6.
Avery/GM: A 5 and a 6? Yeah. Sure. And a minus 1. Yeah, you What are you practicing your lassoing on?
Bee/Polaris: Just like, stuff. Like
Avery/GM: Just stuff?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, just like any random thing. He's probably done that thing, you know how like when you're like, kids make like a pillow fort or like just absolutely destroy the living room?
To have movie night, but yeah, Polaris has basically ruined the common room Uh for watching movies and has like set up stuff where he just like lassos… Lassos… Lassos Shit. So. Yeah.
Avery/GM: Perfect. Beautiful. Okay. Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Just lassoing the fridge open.
Avery/GM: You flip chairs.
Chris/Ollie: Lasso a fucking soda out
of there.
Bee/Polaris: If Polaris is like, he needs to get a drink, he fucking lassos the fridge door and then lassos the drink. No, I'm kidding.
Chris/Ollie: Accidentally, like, knocks the whole fridge over, just, oops, leaves it.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. If, if Ollie walked by at any point, Polaris would ask if he could try lasso Oli.
Avery/GM: Does Ollie allow it?
Chris/Ollie: Actually. How about. Ollie is just split his consciousness, and is, you know, hanging out with everyone, as well as working on his robot.
Bee/Polaris: Yay!
Chris/Ollie: Ollie's also watching the movies, um.
Bee/Polaris: Yay!
Avery/GM: Through, like, one of your drones?
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, like the, the dog body, because that's the, the best one to, uh, chill with. And then he's been using the drones to build.
Bee/Polaris: Hell yeah, Polaris will put a little cowboy hat on Ollie.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, put a little Stetson on him.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Ollie has a little Stetson and also a bolo tie and Polaris would practice lassoing all week.
Avery/GM: Yeah, so one of these mornings when y'all wake up, and you're kinda in the middle of breakfast, and Merak comes on the intercom and is just like, When you all are ready, we are ready to start planning your mission. If you'll come to the bridge, uh, we'll, we'll get everyone on the same page.
And you can tell, like, all the custodians kind of speak in a very kind of flat tone most of the time, but like, there's something up. You can tell there's something concerning going on here. Uh, Polaris.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is squinting his eyes.
Avery/GM: At, at whatever cameras are in the room?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Polaris is just like, hmmmm.
Chris/Ollie: Uh, we probably don't notice, huh? It probably sounds just normal to us, but to Polaris, it's like, their voice is shaking.
Avery/GM: Right, like, there's just a subtle difference in, like, the way they delivered that line, that it's like, no one else would notice, but the person that's been with them for 20ish years, like, yeah, they'd notice.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Polaris, so Polaris, so everyone else will see Polaris, like, looking up at one of the cameras, chewing slowly and squinting his eyes.
Avery/GM: But yeah, so after, after y'all arrive in the bridge, um, Merak begins discussing the plan. So, as you know, we've discovered that one of the wormholes leads to this planet about 300 years in the past, uh, which is both good and bad.
Um, this planet did all of a sudden go kind of, uh, you 300 years ago. So, we don't know exactly at which point you're going to be arriving at this planet, but hopefully, you'll be okay. But the main problem we were kind of trying to figure out was how to get you there unnoticed. As, as we've discussed, the planet's technology is not very advanced, not capable of space travel of any kind.
And, you could, you could imagine how people might react to ships showing up in the sky from nowhere, carrying beings with Advanced technology. It might not go over well. You could alter the entire timeline just by your presence being discovered in the wrong way. We, we may be all knowing AI, but we, the, the calculations needed to figure out exactly what the consequences be are vast.
So, we've
Zach/Zahn: Zahn holds up a finger.
Avery/GM: Yes.
Zach/Zahn: Like a, like a couple of fingers, like he's partially holding his hand up. So, if the planet's gonna end up massively extinctifying itself in a very short amount of time anyways, our presence an effect on local history wouldn't matter because it would never leave the planet.
Avery/GM: But we don't know if it would just affect the local history. We don't know if it would affect galactic history. We don't know. Have you ever heard of the, the Zygorian fly effect?
Bee/Polaris: Oh my god.
Zach/Zahn: No, but I did see this holovid once. It's a part of a series where like this trickster being was like hiding but within what they deemed to be apocalypses and they were allowed to do whatever the heck they wanted in these times, because Apocalypse immediately followed and it didn't fuck with the timeline.
Bee/Polaris: Okay, Zahn, but that's a Holovid. That's not real life. This is real life. This isn't some sort of game. Polaris looks into the camera.
Zach/Zahn: Yeah, this is, this is real.
Avery/GM: Did we just have our first fourth wall break? Um,
Bee/Polaris: I don't know, we might've done it before.
Chris/Ollie: Can't be the first.
Zach/Zahn: Can't.
Avery/GM: It's up there somewhere. Anyway, the, the Zygorian fly effect states that you could step on a Zygorian fly in the past and. You don't know. Maybe that Zygorian fly was the cause of an allergic reaction for some mad scientist in the future who would have developed a world ending bomb, but because you stepped on the Zygorian fly, you didn't cause the mad scientist to have the allergic reaction, and then the bomb gets made and so, there's just, there are unknown possibilities that could happen.
Bee/Polaris: Long story short, we're probably just gonna have to blend in.
Zach/Zahn: Zahn just lets out a sigh, and then he Hits like a button on his chest and his futuristic getup changes into Something I haven't said like for this moment. He hasn't made his future cowboy costume so It's just like The it's preset to the tuxedo from that one
Bee/Polaris: Yeah
Zach/Zahn: So, yeah, he just hits the button it turns into just a normal tuxedo, okay
Chris/Ollie: We also have holoskins, don't we?
Avery/GM: Yeah, Zahn has the holodrobe. I don't know if anyone else picked one up, but I don't think so.
Bee/Polaris: I think it was only specifically targeted to Zahn, because Zahn has a big suit that he didn't want to take off.
Zach/Zahn: Never.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: But, sure, custodians probably have a few lying around.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, sure. Avery?
Avery/GM: I mean, if not, you have a mobile factory, you could easily have it be scanned and made.
Chris/Ollie: But only Bruce, Zahn, uh, maybe Polaris would need him? For being undetected on the planet. In terms of disguise.
Avery/GM: I mean,
Bee/Polaris: well, are you gonna be a person or are you gonna be a dog?
Chris/Ollie: I'm a dog. I'm gonna ask, are dogs actually available on the, or a thing on this planet? And if they're not, I'm definitely gonna get a holoskin to, or holodrobe to look like whatever is.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, Polaris will actually, Polaris will actually ask, What would we need to, like, what period of time or fashion should we disguise ourselves with?
Avery/GM: I'm very glad you asked that, Polaris. Actually, it's ironic because you've been watching so many of them. You'll actually probably want to be dressed up similar to a lot of people in those little Wild West holovids you've been watching lately. The place you'll be going is a desert mining town, and I can't think of anything more western themed than that.
Bee/Polaris: Uh, Polaris's expression doesn't change, but his eyes absolutely light up!
Avery/GM: Unfortunately, you will need to leave a lot of your high tech stuff behind, or keep it very much concealed. As, again, we don't know what that type of exposure could do to the timeline.
Bee/Polaris: Oh... What am I going to do about my helmet?
Avery/GM: Yes, I've been thinking about that. The sun is quite bright on that planet.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris grimaces.
Avery/GM: And Merak pulls up a data pad and starts kind of scrolling through some different items and sends you a few options and there's basically some very low tech stuff, you know, dark sunglasses. It's a wide brimmed hat that will act as like a visor.
There's a little more like steampunky type style where it looks like it's some sort of like iron mask that could go over your face, but there wouldn't be any like heads up display or anything like that. And then, you know, there's probably a couple other things if you want, if you have an idea of what you're wanting.
Bee/Polaris: Mm hmm. Polaris just scrolls through the, the options to see if anyone else wanted to bring anything else up.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie will ask just through, uh, like the little headset microphone on Polaris's helmet. Um, Is Canis Familiaris present on this planet?
Avery/GM: In a sense, yes. Most of the canine species have actually evolved to walk upright and act.
They're more humanoid, I guess you could say, than your typical canid. But there are a few canid species on the planet that are still four legged and furry and used as companions, although not as, um, It's not as common on this planet due to feelings, I guess you could say, about that kind of stuff.
Bee/Polaris: Are there coyotes?
Avery/GM: Yes, there are.
Bee/Polaris: Ollie, we can just disguise you as a colic coyote, and we could just say we trained you from puppy.
Chris/Ollie: Ollie would be a pet coyote. Right on.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. Also, or, or, Ollie fursona?
Chris/Ollie: Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. I mean, wouldn't be opposed, but, uh, I don't have anything, like, preset up for that, so.
Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah, you would have to make a… A fur suit robot.
Chris/Ollie: Or maybe I've secretly been working on a fur suit this whole time.
Bee/Polaris: Who's to say? That's the death robot, it's a giant furry mech.
Zach/Zahn: Oh god.
Chris/Ollie: I didn't specify what it looks like, so.
Avery/GM: Oh my gosh. Please, that would be so funny.
Bee/Polaris: Oh my god.
Avery/GM: Yeah, we've all of a sudden hit like a 500 percent listener rate with the furry community.
Bee/Polaris: Oh my god, it's like Voltron, but we're all in like, fur suits.
Zach/Zahn: Oh god.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, no, it's Power Rangers, but our Power Rangers suits are fur suits. Yeah!
Avery/GM: Merak speaks up again and is, and just says, um, Anyway, I have confirmed with additional probes that the byproducts that this plant that you're looking for produces are found in large quantities across the planet, but they are concentrated in this desert mining town that I was talking about.
So you'll definitely find the plant down there. There's no doubt about that. And as Merak's explaining that, Alioth enters the room and just very matter of factly, you know, is, is just like,
Alioth: on that note, let's go over exactly what you are looking for down there.
Avery/GM: It pushes a little button on a remote and a hollow screen appears and shows a flower that appears to be made of gems or crystals of some kind and they give off kind of this faint soft glow and Alioth explains that
Alioth: the plants you're looking for these gem like plants that give off a soft glow and a mysterious energy They tend to grow inside mountains caves and mines They absorb the latent psychic energy that seems to permeate the universe.
The energy is then synthesized into the gems that grow on these plants. You will need several of these plants in order to create the medicine to save your friends. While harvesting the plants you will need to be careful. The psychic energy within these gems is unstable. It could summon strange creatures, teleport you through time and space, or simply explode.
So do not break the crystals unless absolutely necessary. After reviewing the records from the Pan Solar Union, it appears they were giving Rho just enough to keep her dependent on them, rather than heal her condition. Based on my calculations, you will need at least 10 gems in order to not only stave off your friend's condition, but to actually stabilize it.
I think with 5 crystals for each sibling, we should be able to stabilize your friends permanently.
Bee/Polaris: Why don't we just get a sample of the plant itself and see if it can be cultivated, so it can help future psionics?
Alioth: Oh, you can certainly do that. I am only interested in helping your friends because they are important to you. If you wish to help more organics, you are welcome to do that.
Bee/Polaris: Ha ha ha, very Alioth
Chris/Ollie: Alioth is like, help other organics? Why would that even cross my mind?
Bee/Polaris: Ha ha ha, exactly. Okay, do you have some sort of container that we could transport a full sample in? We could probably send it over to Oswald's lab. And he looks over at Marty. For like, confirmation.
Jenine/Marty: Marty thumbs up. IRL Emoji.
Avery/GM: That's a funny way of putting it. Right? That's when Bear speaks up and, and actually walks over to you, Polaris, and hands you this medium sized, probably like, you know, four foot wide, twelve inches deep case. It's kinda big, but not too big. And says, well this should probably hold them all. It's a little big though, I don't know if it'll fit in the pod that you're Gonna go in. I'll head down and actually look for a better option. I'll head down to the cargo hold. And bear leaves.
Bee/Polaris: Okay.
Avery/GM: Mainly because I just realized I said four feet wide and that's not gonna work.
Bee/Polaris: That's very big. Well, there is, I'm pretty sure there is, uh, something in the equipment section in the PDF where it's like a, it's basically an ender chest. For all the Minecraft players out there, like fricking Tardis in a box.
Avery/GM: Oh, a porta box. Yeah. Uh, he comes back a, a few moments later with a 1.5 by one by one meter porta box that is airtight and has a simple electronic lock.
Zach/Zahn: No, it's, so, it's a small three B, so it's a small cube that folds out into all that.
Avery/GM: Yes.
Zach/Zahn: With a type A power cell.
Avery/GM: So it's a small cube that gets bigger. Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: And Zahn's got a bunch of power cells.
Avery/GM: It's your, uh, it's your companion cube.
Zach/Zahn: It's your companion cube.
Bee/Polaris: Yay.
Avery/GM: Yeah, and, and Merak says, and speaking of pod, that's the other thing. You're not going to be able to take a normal spaceship there just because, again, the risk of being discovered. Instead, I have developed a… experimental pod. Gel thing that will essentially blast you through space into the wormhole and land you safely on the planet.
Bee/Polaris: How are we getting back?
Avery/GM: You'll simply reapply the gel.
Bee/Polaris: Oh my gosh! That'd be wild if that was the solution.
Zach/Zahn: We just go into some kind of We apply the gel and just wait and it like cryogenically stasis us or whatever and we just wait 400 years.
Bee/Polaris: Except Ollie who is there the whole time and has experienced everything because he has to guard us.
Jenine/Marty: Very Doctor Who.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Avery/GM: Merak says that. You'll be getting back with this and holds up a small device that has just a, it's just a, a little metal coin shaped device about the size of your palm and it has a red button on it.
And, and they say, just hit this after you apply the gel and we will have one of our larger probes come by and snatch you up. Just make sure you're not in like a populated area, preferably in the desert would be best.
Bee/Polaris: Hey, I do have another question. If this flower or plant grows all over the world, is there not, by chance, a part of the world that is remote that has This flower growing that we could just go there so we don't have to like blend it and stuff.
Avery/GM: I mean you could search the mountains or various other areas. It's gonna grow in caves or mountains on this planet. So, you know going somewhere where they've already dug up into the caves would… would probably be faster But you could certainly if you want to spend the time, it's your time to spend I suppose
Zach/Zahn: if we're lucky the Locals will have already cultivated a bunch
Bee/Polaris: That is true. Yeah, but we could also use our very high tech future gear to be able to mine out caves and stuff to find said flower. I feel like that would be relatively fast as well, but I like playing dress up, so we can go the original plan.
Avery/GM: Bee always trying to, always trying to shoot the holes in my elaborate plans. No, I'm kidding.
Jenine/Marty: The evil giggle.
Avery/GM: If you don't want to play Wild West Cowboys, it's fine, we can do something else. So, you've gotten the breakdown and you've gotten your, your intro and your exit for how to get onto the planet. Anything anyone wants to do before you leave?
Bee/Polaris: Uh, dress up as a cowboy, obviously.
Avery/GM: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Montage! You see a short montage of Zahn programming his, his holodrobe to look like the, the last picture I posted in Session Prompts
Avery/GM: sure.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, um, Ollie's going to do some observation research to see what the coyotes on the planet look like and program his holodrobe to look like that.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is taking Marty's measurements cause, I assume, actually Polaris will ask, he'll ask Marty if she would like to dress him as a cowboy.
Chris/Ollie: Are you saying that Polaris already hasn't made cowboy outfits for everyone?
Jenine/Marty: Yeah, I thought it was already made. I thought it was, I think it was, I thought, I think Marty just assumed at this point. Marty was just kinda like, it's gonna happen. I'm not gonna say no.
Bee/Polaris: Okay, okay, we'll say that like After, like, movie 15, Polaris did make everyone cowboy outfits and then when he sees Zahn programming his suit, he like walks in with the cowboy outfit, he sees Zahn programming his suit, and then he just gets sad and walks out.
Avery/GM: Zahn, you gotta wear it. You can't go, you can't go high tech and everyone else is going low tech.
Chris/Ollie: At least program your suit to look like it.
Zach/Zahn: Wild West outfit Polaris made? No, this is going to be one of those handful of Zahn as a dick moments where he's so engrossed that he doesn't realize.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Chris/Ollie: Doesn't even notice.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah, it's very much like, if the camera is focusing on Zahn, just like in the, in the background, Polaris walks in, sees Zahn doing what he's doing, then walks away.
Jenine/Marty: Oh!
Bee/Polaris: Where Zahn doesn't even notice. But yeah, Polaris will put on his outfit, and then give Marty her outfit, and then give Ollie his bolo tie and cowboy hat, his Stetson.
Avery/GM: So, you all head down to the landing bay of the ship, and that's where you see one of these small satellite probe basically things that Merak has been using. You see it ready. You see it has five Like, handlebars, kind of like, hastily welded to the sides that you're gonna be holding on to and Merak has like these tubes of gel that they're handing to you as you are entering the cargo bay. You'll all be fine, no one will die.
Bee/Polaris: No, no, do that.
Zach/Zahn: No one will die, but will there be people that are killed?
Avery/GM: There will be blood. That's a western movie reference.
Chris/Ollie: Yeah, I was just thinking that.
Bee/Polaris: Ya know, I have not seen a lot of western movies.
Avery/GM: Neither have I. I know some titles, but that's about it.
Bee/Polaris: Oh no, credits don't work on the planet! Polaris will turn to Alioth, or whoever, whichever custodian is there, and say, Do we have, do we know what currency they use on the planet?
Avery/GM: Unfortunately, I could not find evidence of capitalism or any sort of trade on the planet, which, kind of a good thing. I think you'll be okay.
Bee/Polaris: Okay, how are we gonna get Okay, well, how are we gonna get Okay, well then, can I have knives?
Avery/GM: Uh, sure? There should be some knives in that storage locker over there.
Bee/Polaris: Alright, I'll be back.
Avery/GM: And you walk over to the storage locker, open it up, and you just see a bandolier of knives hanging there. With a note from Bear that says, I figured you might need this.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris just like, hell yeah, and puts it on.
Zach/Zahn: As you're walking back, Zahn has his, uh His spike shooter, his compressed air spike shooter, and he's slapping on a holodrobe to it to make it look like a crossbow.
Bee/Polaris: You suck.
Avery/GM: I didn't think that was that high tech. Let's roll a, uh, intelligence fix check to see how well this works.
Chris/Ollie: Just have the holodrobe push out a little bit of steam, like a hologram of steam, so make it like, oh yeah, it's a steampunk bolt thrower.
Zach/Zahn: Uh, so how's a 14?
Avery/GM: Shit. Okay. Yeah. Good enough.
Zach/Zahn: I have 4 fix and a rolled 10.
Bee/Polaris: Sorry. Can I get revolvers?
Avery/GM: We'll say that you, you all probably had enough time actually to like, have the factory print you out a couple of weapons that would kind of fit this area or this. Yeah. So.
Bee/Polaris: Zahn's is a cop out!
Avery/GM: So yeah. So y'all. Have, you know, a couple of revolvers or
Zach/Zahn: Zahn is addicted to his armor. It's his safe space. Okay.
Avery/GM: I need to break it.
Bee/Polaris: No.
Avery/GM: I need to break you.
Bee/Polaris: I mean, Polaris helmet is his safe space.
Avery/GM: But you know, you might find some, you know, really friendly prospector armed to the teeth with dynamite. You never know.
Bee/Polaris: Polaris is going to need a bunch of bullets too.
Avery/GM: We'll say you, you If you're gonna take a revolver, you have 30 bullets.
Bee/Polaris: Yay! 30 bullets. Okay, I'll add that to my list.
Zach/Zahn: Put that on your bandolier.
Bee/Polaris: No, they're full of knives. Okay, Polaris will have a bandolier of knives and then just like a leather pouch with bullets in it.
Avery/GM: Okay, sounds good. Marty, is Marty taking anything?
Jenine/Marty: Her charm.
Avery/GM: We're just gonna, your charm, your wit, your psychic powers.
Jenine/Marty: Yeah.
Bee/Polaris: Oh yeah. We could also get you, like, an old timey doctor's kit.
Jenine/Marty: Oh, that's cute.
Avery/GM: Oh, yeah, like an old timey doctor bag? Totally. Love it.
Bee/Polaris: And then you can put all your drugs in it.
Jenine/Marty: Oh, yeah. I forget how many drugs she has.
Avery/GM: All the drugs.
Zach/Zahn: Are all those drugs from, like, Winston or something?
Jenine/Marty: Yep.
Bee/Polaris: Yeah.
Zach/Zahn: Okay.
Bee/Polaris: Do these drugs expire? That's a better question.
Avery/GM: No.
Jenine/Marty: I'd say no.
Avery/GM: I mean, realistically they would, but there's no mechanism in the game for that and I'm not inventing an expiration date mechanism.
Bee/Polaris: Okay.
Avery/GM: And yeah, so once you're all ready, uh, Merak just says, please hold on to the probe and don't let go until you reach the planet. And do you all hold on?
Bee/Polaris: Yeah. I did. I do realize that Polaris has a vac skin, which is essentially like fuses to his skin and it doesn't look like. Hi tech gear. Can he keep that on?
Avery/GM: That makes sense. I mean, you're wearing it, yeah, cause you're wearing it under your clothes, so you're fine. And as you're all holding onto this probe, Merak takes one of the capsules of the gel from each of you and pours it over your head and you feel this, like, cold, like, icy cold liquid just, like, start to almost, like, freeze around you and you can't really move very well in, in this gel. Ollie, I guess you don't feel this, uh, ironically. But everyone else does.
Zach/Zahn: Well, would Zahn even though he's in his full
Avery/GM: Well, you're not going to be able to have your helmet constructed with, while you're there.
Zach/Zahn: No, that's what part of the
Avery/GM: Because that will actually be a limit.
Zach/Zahn: That's what the, uh My bandit mask is supposed to, like, cover over.
Avery/GM: Oh, is that what that is? I thought that was just your face.
Zach/Zahn: No. I have, like, a bandit mask.
Avery/GM: Sorry, I didn't mean it like that.
Zach/Zahn: I thought it was just your face. No, so the holo… holo
Avery/GM: Okay.
Zach/Zahn: Like, turns the, the helmet into make it look like a hat, and then the
Avery/GM: The cowboy hat
Zach/Zahn: and the bandito mask.
Avery/GM: Okay, I see better. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Okay, that's fine. I thought that, yeah, like I said, thought that was your face. Um, or Zahn's face. Um. Okay, then yeah, then I guess you wouldn't feel it unless you have any skin exposed. Um, but you still can't move, well, Zahn you could move, but Merak specifically tells you do not move until you get to the planet, because if you break the seal, you might die.
Zach/Zahn: He would give a thumbs up, but that, he instantly worries about that, um, breaking the seal, so he doesn't.
Avery/GM: Good. So, I guess, Marty and Polaris, you feel this cold liquid cover you, and you can see through it, but it is, like, almost looking through, like, glass or ice in front of your eyes. Um, you're still fully conscious, and you hear kind of a muffled, like, Good Luck! and the probe launches, uh, into this wormhole that is open before you, and you go through it, and you see around you sort of these, like, colors of blue and green kind of mixing together as you go through, and it doesn't last very long, and suddenly The probe is on the other side of this wormhole, barreling you towards this planet.
There is some heat caused by the friction, obviously, of it entering the atmosphere, but eventually it And Merak didn't tell you this part, but The probe does start to kind of break up as it enters the atmosphere, but luckily this gel is enough to keep you intact. And, as it hits the ground, you all kind of land near this little oasis pond, the probe's handlebars having broken off.
As it plunges into this water and you hear a dull explosion at the bottom of this pond, and you're all kind of just scattered on the ground as the desert heat melts this gel off of your body, and you are in this beautiful little oasis.
(ambience fades out, outro plays)
Avery/GM: Thank you for listening to our show. Beyond the Furthest Stars is a 1up Podcast Network Production. Intro and Outro by Dustin Carpenter. If you like our show, be sure to leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify. Background music provided by TabletopAudio.com. The tracks used today were Kaltorean Craft and Lush World. We’ll be back on April 1st with our next episode.
See you out there, Beyond the Furthest Stars!