Critical Role - Thresher: 2-Part Underwater Epic | Episode 1, From the Deep Part 1

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Part 1 of Episode 1A mystery long forgotten stirs in the abyss, as the Thresher crew makes a treacherous descent into the lost station of Rán-Beor.ABOUT THRESHER:Created in collaboration with 12 Sided Studios and Paragon Pictures, Thresher is a two part underwater epic taking place in a unique world created by Matt Linton and Jacqueline Emerson and homebrewed for gameplay by Jasper William Cartwright, based on Candela Obscura, an Illuminated Worlds game from Darrington Press.Deep in the abyss where ancient creatures lurk, a motley crew must unite onboard the S.S. Thresher submarine to explore the abandoned Rán Boer station resting in the ocean’s unforgiving depths. Battling claustrophobia, paranoia, lurking behemoths, and hidden horrors, only one thing is certain; from the deep, power rises... Learn more about Thresher at http://critrole.com/thresher Meet the Cast!Creators Matt Linton (https://www.instagram.com/mattlinton11/) and Jacqueline Emerson (https://www.instagram.com/jackie_emerson/)Game Master Jasper William Cartwright: https://www.instagram.com/jw_cartwright/Jacqueline Emerson as Emily Wodsworth: https://www.instagram.com/jackie_emerson/Abubakar Salim as Daemon Adams: https://x.com/abzybabzyMark "Sherlock" Hulmes aka Mara as Beatrice “Betty” Callahan: https://x.com/sherlock_hulmesJane Douglas as Valerie “Val” Sutton: https://www.instagram.com/penny_dreadful/Noshir Dalal as Hercules De Baudin: https://www.instagram.com/noshirdalal/ Produced by Critical Role in partnership with 12 Sided Studios and Paragon Pictures BEACONWe’re excited to bring you even MORE with a Beacon membership! Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to the shows you love completely ad-free! You’ll receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord. YOUTUBE MEMBERS / TWITCH SUBSCRIBERSTwitch Subscribers and YouTube Members gain instant access to VODs of our shows, moderated live chats, and custom emojis & badges:https://www.youtube.com/criticalrole/joinhttps://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole   Due to the improv nature of Critical Role and other RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode.Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResources

Greetings, crew! It's your Game Master, Jasper William Cartwright, and welcome to Critical Role's new two-part miniseries, Thresher. In this expedition, the motley crew of the Thresher vessel must work together to explore the abandoned Ranbyor Station, resting in the ocean's unforgiving depths. Battling claustrophobia, paranoia, lurking behemoths, and hidden horrors, only one thing is certain. From the deep, power rises. Now this voyage is extra special because Thresher is a homebrewed world using Candela Obscura game system by Darrington Press. Homebrewed by who, you ask? Well, me. New episodes of Thresher air on Thursdays at at 7 p.m pacific on beacon twitch and youtube with the vod uploaded to youtube on the following mondays at noon prefer your expeditions in audio

form the podcast version arrives here on critical roles podcast network with a one week delay from the original broadcast you're currently listening to part one of this episode, and part two will be available this upcoming Tuesday. If you want instant access to the podcast content and an ad-free listening experience, check out Beacon and get full access to the audio version right when Thresher airs at 7pm Pacific on Thursdays. Now, let us prepare for a harrowing journey into the abyss. Hello and welcome to the first episode of Thresher. Thresher is a homebrewed world using a framework of Candela Obscura and Illuminated Worlds system. I want to say a huge thank you to Matthew Linton and Jacqueline Emerson for letting us use this world. And by us, of course, I mean me, Jas William Cartwright,

and my amazing cast. Hello, everyone. We've got Nosheer Dalla, Jane Douglas, Abubakar Salim, Mark Sherlock-Humes and Mara, and Jacqueline Emerson! Yay!

Wow, wow, wow. This is going to be a very, very special little thing we're doing today. So if everyone is feeling pretty good. So ready. So if we're all about ready, sitting uncomfortably maybe, we can go ahead and get started. SS France embarks on maiden train. it. X-Plex prepares Ranger 3 to photograph the ocean's surface. Experts better. Jacques Cousteau's Conch Shelf 1 experiments begin. Humans living beneath ocean waves. Cuban Missile Crisis deepens.

Disturbing wisdom. Operation Fishbowl launches nuclear tests over Pacific waters. Strange sea creatures spotted near... This is Admiral Anders of the Atlantic Station, Rand Bjorg. Systems are failing, the crew is mutinous, and there appears to be something down here with us. I understand the protocol demands that I get as much information off of this station as possible. However, due to the perceived threat to the outside world, I have made the decision to initiate the abyssal lockdown protocol, destroying the station.

Dr. Blackwell agrees. Three, two... Right, crew, listen up. We have a very rare opportunity, thanks to the sharp eyes of a fishing boat that picked up a distress signal from one station, Ranbiore. A geothermal power station at the bottom of the ocean, this facility has been lost to us for over a decade.

But fate, or perhaps something stranger, just joking, has brought Ranbiore back to our attention. And our generous benefactor has not only financed this expedition, but has uncovered a piece of communication that actually escaped the station. That video of Admiral Anders that you saw earlier. Since this message, there has been no communications with Rambiur and we haven't been able to locate it until now. Your mission is very, very clear. Investigate the Rambior station. We need to ascertain what actually happened and if it can be salvaged, put back into a serviceable status.

So, each one of you have been brought here with a unique skill that will help you achieve said mission. It's at this point that you all of you find yourself sat in front of these big windows aboard the Thresher. You sit around this

dimly lit table. There's lots of gears and wires and things. Captain Atticus is kind of droning on, perhaps a little bit too much going into illicit detail. You get the feeling that maybe Captain Atticus one day wanted to be a performer and instead ended up doing this. He's really taking the spotlight. As your attention sort of comes back. Emily.

Yes. You are our leading expert on Atlantic. Been studying all of this for a number of years, and I understand that you actually think that you have some sort of layout or an idea of the layout of this station. I believe through my research I've put together a couple of papers that could be very useful in this so she'll be indispensable when it comes to navigating the uh station itself then we've got damon damon adams you're the muscle of the operation so if things get hairy down there

which they won't but if they do stay close to damon you'll be fine. I got a question. Are you gonna cripple with us today? Well, okay, listen. It's very important that everyone here gets through the mission, okay? And you'll have, I'll have you know that this is actually Hercule. Renowned explorer. He's done this millions of times. I appreciate the support Captain Atticus, but I think my work speaks for itself. It's gonna make me laugh much harder, right? Fancy gentleman.

I'm sure you'll make do, Damon. Then, Valerie. Valerie has an unparalleled master of those fancy doodads and gadgets that light up and make things... Val is fine. Right, OK, sorry. Val, yeah? Val knows the doodads and stuff. I don't pretend to know, but I reckon if you're going to get around, you probably need some of that. If it's got valves, if it's got a keyboard I'll get you in okay right and uh well last but not least we have Beatrice uh oh sorry did you prefer Betty yeah Betty

Beatrice you know only my mom and dad really call me Beatrice anymore so Betty's fine Betty's fine sure hey hi everyone well uh Beatrice here is the mechanic, so if we're going to get this station back online, I reckon you're probably going to have something to do with it. Yeah, I'm not as fancy as Val here with all the knowledge and stuff, but if it's got sprockets and gears and can be done with some oil grease, I'm your gal. I'll make him turn. Yeah, nice. So, does anyone have any questions, thoughts, feelings? No? Ha! Marvelous. Great. We can get going.

No, I'm joking. Does anyone actually have any questions? I would like to know more about this abyssal protocol. We don't have any more information on this station. Atlantec, it seems, were pretty secretive about all of that stuff. Literally all we have to go by is a location and that. So we don't even know if the station's still in operation? We don't even know if it's still there? It could be in tatters, yeah.

You did say something about a mutinous crew. Maybe one of them was acting all crazy or something. It's possible. The pressure does have strange effects on people. And it's at this point you hear a little, Hi, everyone. I'm Matthias. I'm going to be the doctor, so if anyone gets in trouble,

let me know and I'll get you fixed up. Great. So as the briefing starts to wrap up, if anyone has any more questions for either Atticus, the Doctor, or anyone else, then you're essentially free to wander about the ship as you're

making your descent. You see outside these big, vast windows now here that you can see the occasional rock formation or kind of coral and light is slowly getting dimmer and dimmer as you're nearing the point where even light itself

can't penetrate any further madam what's worth you've been doing research on atlantic not atlantic specifically well have you heard of the Forgotten Spirit? No. You haven't heard of it? This is a journal I run. I travel around the world researching... Jesus... ...the spiritual realms, the occult.

And I have reason to believe that something about Atlantec is at the heart of it. I've been putting together an expose. That's why I'm here. You think that this corporation is somehow involved in... spiritual... It is not something I think, it is something I feel. As is everything in these matters. What are you, a doubter? Oh no, no, of course.

What do you feel? That, uh... Like a hunch or something like that, you know? Like a hunch or something like that, you know? There are things around us that are not just what we see. There are things around us that are not just what we see. In the study of the mysteries. In the study of the mysteries. I mean, this is where humanity finds answers.

I mean, this is where humanity finds answers. Oh my God, I thought you worked for a proper paper. You worked for a ghost magazine. It is a proper paper. Thank you. We have many followers. You see, there's a little ghost down at the bottom of the ocean waiting for us. Perhaps. And you have no way of knowing do you well we'll find out soon enough no one is attacking you here I can certainly understand that at the bottom

of the ocean sometimes you will see things that you cannot explain with science yes have you been down there before most of my work has been deep ocean benthic diving. So yes I've never been to this base though. So you're a real like underwater Explorer Yes, mother kind of like our own Captain Nemo from two thousand leaks under the sea or something like that. Ah, yes

Captain Nemo close Anyway Captain Nemo close anyway anyone want a coffee or anything I can go get something it sounds like you know something to break the pressure in here or something yeah I could do a team building exercise or something if you guys want team building you know like

and they just sort of he picks a small ball out of his pocket and just sort of throws it at Damon. Catch it. Look at it. What do you want me to do with this? Uh, you pass it to someone else, and then, uh, and then they catch it,

and then they throw it to someone. I don't, I don't, I don't know if I... Calling me a dog. Oh, no, no, no, no. No. If anything, I'm the dog. It's me. Oh, God. Just pass it to Betty. No. Thanks. Okay. Here you go. So I got that coffee and he just runs out of the room.

Was that our doctor? Yeah. That's how he introduced himself. Will we need a doctor? I think it's probably a good idea. I mean, when they talk about these mutinous crews, like, you know, they're not going to be like, they're not going to attack us or something, are they? You know, we're coming to help them, right? So... Well, how long has it been abandoned?

Yeah, not to be morbid or anything, but it's been over ten years. Hell, long dead. Without finding anyone down there alive. No, but they would have had supplies and stuff, right? I mean, they were... If the station's not operational, they wouldn't have had power. Oh. Without power, you cannot filter oxygen.

If they did not starve to death, they most certainly suffocated. So, yes. Ghosts, eh? There might be ghosts. We talk about no ghosts or nothing. Give me the jitters. It's alright. They ain't making fun of ghosts, right?

I tell you something. The worst monsters that we're gonna find down there are gonna be ourselves. Live humans. The darkness can do to you. Just do your job, huh? Yeah, yeah. I'll do my job. Don't worry about that. Keep focused. I'll handle the rest. Sure. Tell me, Mr. Adams, are you here to keep us safe, or are you here to ensure that we do our jobs?

You do your job and you'll be safe. I see. You don't mind me asking, who hired you? Wouldn't you like to know? Yes, actually, I would. I would just like to point out, you are all being paid a handsome sum, and part of that contract that you did technically agree to was that certain questions wouldn't be answered. You're paid enough to not know

the answer to certain questions, and I do think that perhaps some level of anonymity for those involved is ideal for the mission's success. Yes, Captain. Dead men cannot spend money.

True. On the bottom of the ocean, there are no mistakes. Only tragedies. So perhaps it is worth it for us to work together in this case. If only for survival and our own personal interest, yes? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Don't worry, I got your back.

Okay. We will return right after this short break. We now return to Thresher. So as you all now kind of filter out this main briefing room, is there anything that anyone would like to do, anyone would like to go? Anyone like to go before we arrive

at the next point? I would like to walk around taking photos. Of course. I'd like to document the ship. As well as anything I see outside the windows. It feels to me that Miss Wadsworth has all the cards. If you actually know the layout of the base

perhaps it is worth it for us to be briefed. If something should happen to you or to your maps, how are we supposed to navigate if you hold all the cards and now you are dead? I must also say that while I know some, I don't know all. I just have what I've pieced together for my research. I don't know how accurate it is. I haven't yet been able to put it into play. That being said, I'm happy to give a bit of a debrief. So are these plans based on your research,

or is this more of your intuition? Who's the journalist here? You or her? And I would say with any journalist journalist it's a mix of both now I see if I were to sit everyone down and give a bit of an explanation of the layout can I roll for how yeah for sure is? Yeah, for sure. Let's absolutely have our first roll. Give me a focus.

Give me a focus roll. Do you want to spend a drive to add dice? You can spend a drive if you would like to add some dice. I will spend a drive to add dice. Okay, go for it. Might as well. Can I ask, given my understanding of how nautical layouts work,

can I watch what she is doing and contribute the drive if perhaps I see something that, for example, doesn't make sense or we're about to do something? That would be amazing. Yeah, 100%. Yes, I'd love that.

Yeah, absolutely. So you can take another drive. All right. Oh, one six. Okay, and what were the others? One and one. One and one, okay. Thank you.

So you got the six. Amazing. So I think as you're kind of recalling or piecing things back together, what you have essentially is a collection of areas and sort of an idea of like what they did. And this is all from kind of pieces of sort of random like journals or things like that, that kind of has made their way back up to the surface. So you kind of know the description of like an area. So for instance, you know that like where you will go down into is called the

Heverin Ascent. And it's this long... It was described as this long, vertical, almost like transport hub that connected it to this next layer up. And things like escape pods and hatches and stuff, that was intended to be very easy for you to get in and out and obviously out of the water. And I think with that as well,

you'll probably also know two other key areas were Billow's Reach. Billow's Reach was an area, I think maybe it's unclear exactly how it worked or what the purpose was, but essentially where it could redirect ocean currents. Oh, interesting. With these sort of, like, there was a set of controls, essentially, that allowed you to redirect ocean currents.

And then the Dover Well. And the Dover Well was the water purification, like, center. So I describe that for everyone, and I draw out a loose representation of sort of what I'm imagining. There are some big patches of emptiness where I don't know how things connect, but the big things you see are the Ascent,

the Escape Ports, the Billows Reach, and the Dover Well. That's real handy. Thank you. So I believe we'll be entering through the Havarin Ascent. Okay. Do we know exactly what kind of, are we going to have to go out in, like, diving suits? Is there going to be, like, you know, are we going to connect to this thing?

Do we not have any knowledge of what equipment we might need to take with us? The capsule will say, we unfortunately don't really know exactly what we're going to find as and when we get there. Obviously, if we get there and it's just a bunch of rubble, then, you know, kind of just exploring, it'll be suits, et cetera. We'll try and take the Thresher as close as possible, and then if there's not a clear docking point, something that's compatible with the ship will have you go out in the suits, yeah.

Which does remind me as well, make sure to pack light, any gear. It's unwise, as I've been advised by Hercule, for you to pack too many heavy objects. Keep it simple and just to what you need. Even if it turns

out there is an airlock that is intact nine years, I don't know how much damage has been done by salt water to the seals. I would certainly recommend that we are all in diving suits in case we do have to go extra vehicular or perhaps we lose pressure inside.

So, I think that you're all kind of floating around. The doctor comes and checks on each of you, clears you, gives you a clean bill of health. As you can hear someone over the town, I say, I think we've got something. We're getting pretty close. As you can see, the light outside

is becoming extremely, extremely dark. You all, I think, feel that sense of, like, the pressure. This ship does a good sense of equalizing it, but as you're getting down into this darkness, into this blackness, the sort of slightly oppressive nature of the ocean itself and that endless blue kind of beyond.

Wow. Especially for probably the four of you who haven't really done this before. It's sort of, it's something quite extreme to look at and to see. So I would love actually if I could get the four of you to make me a, we're gonna say a sense check, please. So if you don't have any die. If you don't have any die, then you roll two

and you give me the worst of the results. Great. All right. Oh, well, that's fine. Five. Oh, wow. Okay. Mixed success.

I got a three. Three. Three. Failure, failure. And then six. And then mixed success. Mixed success. Okay, perfect.

I think as you're looking out of this window, that kind of endless blackness is almost like that moment where your depth perception suddenly gets a little bit warped and strange, and I think you feel almost like your mind gets pulled somewhere, slightly out of your own body. And I would like the two of you to take a brain mark, please. As you can feel a sense of like the pressure sort of gets to you and you have a moment where it's hard for you to actually stay focused on what you're doing. I think for the mixed success, you feel something. I think

you feel it's maybe in a slightly different place. It feels more like rooted in your body, and I think that because of that, you're able to resist any sort of damage or effect, but there's something deeply uncomfortable which sits as you're slowly descending. And I think you've got enough to be getting on with on the ship, making sure that it's maintained,

that maybe you're just not actually paying as much attention as you need to. Looking out and actually seeing it's quite beautiful in a way, kind of admiring the beauty of it. So as we are circling the base, is the Thrasher using spotlights to highlight? I'm assuming it's pitch black out there. So as the ship descends, you feel that...

You see these spotlights do come out, and the thresher gets to the edge of this giant, what seems to be like a cliff face in the ocean, below darkness. There's a moment just as the ship kind of tips over the edge and starts to descend out even further, spotlights lighting the way. there's a rather slightly alarming moment as the suddenly the pilot sort of pulled back all of a sudden as you meet this rocky sort of floor almost

and you can see there's a couple of sort of holes in this in the ocean bed here. And off to one side, you see this giant kind of billowing kind of like bubbles and like sediment all kind of filing through so aggressively, a giant hole. And I think absolutely as part of the brief and also any information that you have, you know that when the station is fully operational, that sort of geothermal vent is fully operational, that geothermal vent is closed,

essentially. So you know looking down that the station is underneath this layer of rock and sediment. It's buried. It seems to be, it is underneath the layer.

Maybe there's a cave or something like that. The captain will say, OK, good news and bad news. We're pretty confident we found it. The only issue is this is as close as we can get. We could, in a pinch, try to get through that vent, but we'd risk destroying the ship in the process. So I think the best course of action is we'll get you to suit up and head down these hatchways, if you will.

A cue? Any advice before we go? This geothermal vent proves to be very challenging for us. That hot water is coming out. Superheated. And the water surrounding it is very cold. You will have massive turbulence outside. We will probably be relying on the strength of our protector here to keep us safe. Did you serve in the Navy, good sir?

So many questions. I'm simply trying to find out if you have experience this level of benthic diving. You know how to keep us safe out here. Don't worry. We got your back. I'm gonna use use my read. Do it.

And I'll add my gilded. Yeah. Mixed success five. Mixed success, okay. With a mixed success, how confident and assured does Damon feel? I think he's... There is definitely a sense of...

nerves that I think you can gather. But there's also... You don't know whether those nerves are excitement or fear. So as the ship is being prepared for the five of you, six of you, disembark, including the doctor, you'll be diving in pairs. The main reason for diving in pairs is so that you can keep an open line of communication with that person, and that if someone, for whatever reason, should start to panic, they won't then cloud the communications for the rest of you.

So you all suit up, and I'm going to introduce the first of our sort of different mechanics that we've got going on It's less of a mechanic more of a an optional thing Which is that in this world because as you perhaps have sense there are some different opinions and feelings at the table, so I'm gonna invite the players at any point to hand me a note or To sort of essentially whether it be a feeling that they have or something they would like to do specifically. So as we go to leave the ship, is there anything that anyone would like to do, whether they want to tell me out loud or pass me a note, you are more than welcome to. Thank you so much.

Okay. I would like to do something inside the submarine before I exit. So currently the submarine is hovering and the spotlights are out. Yeah, they're sort of searching. You see they're still kind of trying to search for like a larger opening that they might be able to get the sub through, but it's sort of completely in vain at this point. Uh, alright, uh,

OQ de Potin limps his way to one of the windows and asks the captain, um, Captain Atticus, can you turn off the lights inside the cabin, please? Uh... yeah. Can you turn off the spotlights as well?

As well? We'd be blind out here. Can I ask why? I just want to take a look for myself. Okay. Briefly. 20 seconds? Understood. He sort of walks off, and then you feel a kind of ripple down the sub itself. And then the lights go out underneath. What's going on? And you all find yourself in complete darkness.

I would love, let's say, a survey roll from the four of you. Oh, good. Unless anyone specifically is in the room and has heard that conversation. And I'm going to use a gilded on that. If you, yeah, if surveys were gilded, yeah. Five. I'm going to spend a drive. Yeah.

Five. Five. And I'm going to recover. Okay. Five. Five. And I'm going to recover. Okay, perfect. How high stakes was that? It's not super high stakes. It was just a little moment of... Three.

Three? Okay. This is actually a good opportunity for me to introduce a second mechanic. This is called... This is going to be a new panicked condition. So when something shocking scary monumental happens, I will ask you to roll a relevant role and if you fail or

Get a mixed success. You have a chance of becoming panicked and this is where you start to breathe rather heavily So should you be hooked up to your oxygen tanks right now, you might start burning through your oxygen a little quicker than perhaps you would normally. So for this instance, we'll say that you, the sort of four of you, it's not extreme. You manage to kind of stay yourself, but you feel that kind of flutter in your heart

and your breath quickens briefly, but you kind of, know let it go great is anyone of the four of them more agitated or anxious from this than anyone else i do this for two reasons the first is to get you psychologically comfortable with the fact that you will be in the black most of the time. Oh, golly. Your intuition will serve you well out here. He walks to the glass. I put my hand and my forehead to the porthole.

And I just take a second and feel the ship. And then he has these lightly blue tinted glasses. And he takes them off, folds them, puts them in his pocket. And kind of shields either side with his hands to avoid any ambient light from the controls. And I'm just going gonna take a long look and while I do that I'm gonna explain your eye has two parts the center of the fovea uses cones this is how you see color that will serve you not at all out here in the dark the periphery uses rods they do not detect color but what they do detect is movement if you find yourself in the dark out here and you want to see something don't look at it

look aside and i'm just going to kind of soften my gaze and allow myself to just look out as far as I can. I'm looking for any kind of movement whatsoever. Okay, let's make this a survey roll. A three and a two. Three and a two. Three and a two. With... As you look out, I think that there is a moment of... Not... Not doubt, but it's almost like...

I think struggling to actually understand what you're looking at. Because the formation of the rock... There's almost like a moment where as you soften that gaze you could swear you feel the rock start to like move and warp slightly and i think that as it essentially happens to your whole field of vision almost like one of those kaleidoscopes where suddenly everything kind of shifts you can't help but snap yourself out of it and as you do the sort of rock seems to snap back as well what did you see i saw nothing and that's the problem talking about all those rods and cons a smart guy to have on our side. Oh, jeez. Okay. So with that, we are going to get suited up

into our diving suits. As we go to suit up, I will just stop by my bunk cabin and head inside, grab a few tools and things like that that I think I'm going to need, and then part of it

is I'm going to take out from a little kind of leather purse two movie ticket stubs, and I'm going to keep them in my jacket. Can you make me a hide roll, please? Yeah. Okay. Four. Four? Okay.

Thank you very much. So with that, you are taken through, and you begin suiting up, putting on the suits, as we begin our dive down to the Rambior geothermal power station. We will return after this short break. We now return to Thresher. Right, dive in pairs. Damon, you're with Hercule.

Betty, you're with Val. And Doc, you're with Emily. Remember, keep it quiet, keep it calm, and you'll be all right. Alright. Make your way down to the station and we'll seize you on the other side. Good luck crew. You can take the lead, Monsieur Adams. I'm slower now in my old age. You still don't understand why we got a cripple on me, Hans. Not everything is about physical might, Monsieur Adams.

I have already lived far longer than most of the able-bodied seamen that I joined with. I'm a bit worried about all of this, because, you know, everybody on that ship, it was getting pretty tense up there, right? Well, yeah, that's just people, you know. You'll be all right. You think so? Yeah. Oh, okay. Hey, you know. You'll be alright. You think so? Yeah. Hey, you run with me. Run with you?

Yeah, you'll be alright. Maybe we should just keep talking instead, though. You know, I know the quiet's good, but, you know, we should just keep it going so I don't lose my mind. Maybe. You out. Just your soul. Darkness. Your senses feel starved.

No light. Little sound. Just the endless void of the ocean. Your torchlight extends out and hits nothing. Until eventually, a fleck of bioluminescence drifts across your view, and you see a door. The entrance to Ranbior. You find yourself emerging

as these two doors kind of pry themselves apart. See, still in your suits, out to this sort of dark room. A few things float by, the occasional fish. Appears to be like a pocket of air up right at the top. And I think the first thing that you notice is it's very cramped, and there appears to be some little seats, like seated areas, which there's like one seat, two seats, one missing,

and then like a fourth seat. And as you make your way out and into this kind of dark and murky room, you can see now very clearly a door to the right and a door to the left. Who do we think would step out first out of this kind of shaft? I think I probably would, given that I believe I have a bit of a layout. Okay. As you step out, something immediately kind of like bumps into your side

as sort of parts of a skeleton, a skull just kind of bumps into you. You see an almost perfect bullet hole in the center of the forehead. And then I think as that bumps into you, you see the other bones that make up this person now filling the room. At which point the doctor, having changed the channel

to make sure that you're all, you know, everyone can hear him, goes, I don't think there's much I can do for that one. Okay, sorry. I don't like that. Just, there's gotta be maybe a place that some people could still be okay down here. Maybe a

storeroom or something, maybe? Maybe? Maybe, yeah. Sure, why not? Anyone who would like to Go ahead and give me a survey I'll do it I'm not gonna do it

I think I'm too caught up in some thoughts right now Absolutely Oh, wow Okay So we have A three, a five A three, two And a two Okay. So we have a three. A five. A five. A three.

Two. And a two. So I think as you're kind of now, all of you kind of dispersing, perhaps checking over certain areas, and you can see there are all these kind of, as was kind of alluded to by Val, these sort of dials, checks,

you know, little kind of gears and things like that. There's still pockets of like air that seem to kind of, like bubbles that seem to like flow out of a pipe or something like that. And nature has largely reclaimed this area of the ship. It does seem almost

like a sort of mini aquarium with, just with bones floating in it. I think as you're all checking around, you do. I'll say that with the five, kind of like rub off a bit of a kind of above this like little keypad on the door, there's a little thing that says Billow's Reach on the left door. It seems that the panel is a bit broken on the other side and you can't make out,

but you would assume that that would probably be the Dover well, based on the information that you got earlier. Could I take out my camera and take a picture of that? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think something catches your eye. There is almost like a lanyard, and on the end of it there is this sort of box

that seems to be in some sort of airtight, almost like leather pouch, and it's just sort of slowly floating a little ways ahead of you. I'll gently reach out and grab it. Is there any sort of inscription or anything on the case? No, it seems to be sort of well-worn and used, but it does seem that it's still sealed. Sealed like airtight?

Yeah. So you'd assume that whatever's inside is probably unharmed. and may not be something that I want to subject to water so I will wait until hopefully we find someplace dry before I try to open it well um you know probably one of the first things we should do is get the power back on right you know that's gonna help us get around maybe figure out what happened down here I don't suppose you would know exactly where something like that might be located or? As you say the word power you hear a little like as at the back wall right in front of you this little red light suddenly appears and then what appears to be a sort of clean, almost like pulled-tort sheet of latex. You see a kind of face almost presses itself in and through as this simple male's face kind of...

Hello? Hi, hi, hi! Ooh, is there people? And then I think as you hear some further whirs and clanks, this strange sort of automaton-like creature with this face seemingly like, almost like there's metal behind this silicon kind of pressing the impression of a face into it.

Kind of lumbers forward. Click, click, ha, ha,bers forward you are new i think maybe or you are new do i know you you know you maybe jesus christ earth we are on Earth, you say? Who are you, Tin Man? Do I in... Al, Al, Al. Alvin, Alvin. I'm the personal security of the Rambiore. You got something to do with this?

And I point at the, um, skeleton. Wha, wha, no, no, no no no i saw that was a gun bang sorry how long ago was this how long ago is anything i don't have a reference i I think. A long, long time, maybe. It's like goddamn Robbie the Robot over here. What the hell is this? Uh, who, who, who, who, who, who, who is that? Just a guy in a movie.

What, what, what is a movie? Okay, we're getting off track here, but... I brought a chunky tablet. It's ruggedized, right? Waterproof. Can I interface with you? Yeah, absolutely. All right.

Make me a focus roll. I think you essentially, on this little rugged-looking tablet, you see there's a number of cables and sort of dials on the outside and all these cables you're like filtering through like checking the kind of connection point like no no jamming different things like we all do trying to desperately find a usbc and not being able to find one that's what happening right all right i put it in this way and then i turn it the other way and then and then i turn it a other way, and then I turn it a third way. Yes. And that's it. I'm going to drive on this one as well.

Okay. Oh. Well, I don't like any of those. Would you like to burn a resistance? I would love to burn a resistance on that. Go ahead and burn a resistance. That means you get to re-roll. You don't get to re-roll the drive. You have to spend another drive if you want to.

All right. Well, could I add a drive to this? Yeah. How would you assist, do you think? That's a good question. I could say, you know, in my research, I came up

with, I believe that there was, you know, something about these security robots that patrolled. And do I have a thought or anything that I may have come across I have, like, a thought or anything that I may have come across? Yeah, I think there's, like, enough of a...

Like, you would have got enough research on just, like, general Atlantic kind of construction, I think, that maybe there's, like, stuff that makes no sense to you, but I feel like you're someone who's probably, like, who researches things to a point where, like, they know the words, but maybe they don't actually mean anything. So think it's essentially like you could offer up a few words being like they mentioned like this thing and this thing and then maybe it'll be like oh

a bio-noble that is you know what a bio-noble is it uh a collection quarter uh um a corralling device a corraling device all right okay all right i'll look for that while she is working i'm going to try to keep alvin's attention so it's not necessarily paying attention to what is doing yeah yeah okay alvin my friend yeah yeah yeah yeah yes yes you have been injured, my friend, or perhaps just worn down over time. I must say, it looks different in here. Much, much different. There are more of you now than there was, was, was, was. Cause they all dead now, Alvin. The last time there was two people

and hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit here. At least, yes. Six. Six? Okay. Yeah, yeah. You sort of make a connection and I think you start to see kind of like data and things like that, sort of lots of zeros and ones

start spilling down and you're kind of trying to read across the lines of code and you can see there's like parts that are corrupted but absolutely with you know a little bit of reworking you start to kind of place a few lines of code like back where they should be and there is a noticeable kind of shift it's alvin like thank you that feels better. So much better. All right, Alvin. Mate, what can you tell us? Well, I was tasked with making sure that nobody came or went

that should not come or go. This is the only personal escape route from the station. Otherwise you needed vehicular support. And Alvin, do you have any record of anyone entering or leaving yes yes yes yes yes there was two two two two people came came in and one one one one was was was shot bang there and then then one one took uh uh the the seat and left left so that's the three versus the four uh uh yes that is the missing one there. Do you know the name of who got out? I think it was... Nope.

Maybe one more focus roll, please. All right. Can I add a die because I'm using a computer? Yes, absolutely you can. Ah. This is one of your abilities. All right. Five.

Five? Okay. You get a b-b-b-black w-w-well? Blackwell, the science officer. Dr. Blackwell. B-b-b-black w-well. He went... He's the one that went... B-b-blackwell. B-b-b-blackwell. He went, he's the one that went, b-b-blackwell. Blackwell. And you see that the complication,

this sort of mixed success here is, you go, b-b-blackwell and just seems to kind of get stuck. And as you start trying to interrogate or ask any further questions, b-b-blackwell. I'm gonna hit it. Make a strike roll, please.

I am going to make distance from our fork. Okay. Let's push this phone. Uh, you strike, uh, you sort of, um, how are you pulling a punch here or are you just sort of- Yeah, I'm kind of just like almost like- You haven't had a- Yeah. you just sort of yeah, I'm kind of just like almost like to show you forehead here No, come on what happened where'd he go It was making too much noise. Merci beaucoup. Mr. Adams. You have clearly helped us in our cause

Black what was the lead guy, right? He was the guy who sent that message? He was the science officer, from what I understand. Oh, that's right, the science officer. I believe the video is from an admiral. Is that correct? Correct. Admiral Anders.

Admiral Anders. Okay, well, this doesn't... We still got to find out, you know, where everything is. And I think getting the power on is still a really good idea. Because then it's going to make it a lot easier for us to get around here, I think. Maybe get some of the filtration systems and stuff going back on. Should we split up? You know, there's these two different buildings.

Should we... What do we do here? Before we go anywhere, if you don't mind, mademoiselle, I would like to ask Val, are you able to use your interface to perhaps extract information from this robot? I can see what I can do. I'll say, given your ability and the sort of information that you've already got there, I'll let you ask me two questions. I reckon there's enough juice for a couple of questions

can i consult the party for questions or or am i is this i think so essentially the reason why i'm saying it's two questions is you're essentially like pulling apart the dates that like you know you're like sort of ripping through files and having to like extract things right and as you're doing that it's becoming less and less stable right so essentially the more you do that the less sort of coherent that the information is so I think it makes sense if it's like a slightly more instantaneous thing you're just like I'll check this and I'll check this. We trust you. I look for a log about the flooding. Like, is there a record of what happened where the shell was broken?

Where containment failed on the station? I'll sort of give it to you in visual form. So essentially, you watch as... the... you see these doors kind of slide closed. And then, it's all from the perspective of Alvin. Kind of stomps forward. And clearly, he's trying to open the doors. Like, you see these two metallic hands coming up and trying to

pry the doors open, but they're sealed by several layers. And then Alvin stomps over to a porthole window and you can see this little individual pod shooting up and you see it go up and through one of those holes in the top that you

descended down through. And you see that Alvin just starts, like, hammering at the window. And it probably does sort of... Essentially, the file just goes on for the best part of, like, three months of just Alvin just, like, attacking this window until eventually it busts. It broke open, and Alvin eventually sort eventually found his way back to his little dog. And is that one of the windows in here, in this room?

Yeah. Hmm. All right. Um... I'm scanning the data for a blueprint. A current blueprint. Of the station or just any current blueprints? Of the station. Of the station, okay.

Yeah, I think that with the roles and everything that you had, I think that you get essentially like the next layer that was previously revealed. And so you can see sort of relatively accurately as described earlier that the Haverin Ascent and then we have Villers Reach Off to the left and the Dover Well

then beyond that you see there is a place called the Colgrave Nexus which I think you get just a line of experiments or laboratory and then the other side is the Haven Glow Observatory Alright which I think you get just a line of experiments or laboratory. And then the other side is the Haven Glow Observatory. All right. Haven Glow... Observatory.

And what are they attached to? Are they attached to the billows and Dover? Yes, that's a good point. So it seems that the billows reach is attached to the Haven Glow Observatory and that the Dover Well is attached to the Colgrave Nexus. I will say a crucial thing that you do get here is that there appears to be a power source that then connects those two locations. So there's a somewhere else that's attached to there, okay. Brilliant, Val. Hi, you've done pretty well. Grateful to there. Okay. Brilliant, Val. Hi.

You're doing pretty well. Grateful for your talents. Great work, Val. That's real swell. Cheers. What would the party like to do? Well, we got these two directions. I mean, they all connect to the power source,

but I don't know if it's... I guess we got to explore the whole thing, right? That's what we're here to do. That's what we were paid to do, right? And it's... I guess we gotta explore the whole thing, right? That's what we're here to do. That's what we were paid to do, right? And it's dark in here. You're using spotlights or something to navigate our way? Yeah, it's all the lights that are attached to your suit. That's the only thing that's drawing attention. There was a

very brief kind of red light above Alvin's little face, but that was it. Oxygen check. I want to know how everyone is doing. Yeah, you're still in about five and a half hours of oxygen remaining. And you all have an emergency tank with you as well, a one-hour emergency tank. Because I'm paranoid, I'm just going to do a really quick once-over on everyone

and see if I see air bubbles escaping from anyone's suit or anything that implies any sort of potential failure or breach. I'll say that we pretty pretty quickly can you know as long as no one is objects to you uh checking you like everyone seems uh pretty good would you pass this um thank you so much um is there a door like i'm sure there is but like the what was the two doors yeah so you've got two doors that you came through and then you've got uh a door? I'm sure there is. There's the two doors, right? Yeah, so you've got two doors that you came through, and then you've got a door. So if you're coming out of those doors,

you've got a door to the left, door to the right. Door to the left definitely goes to the Billows Reach, and you're pretty confident the door to the right goes to the Doverwell. So I'm going to go towards the Doverwell door. Doverwell door? Yeah. Okay.

There's a little sort of keypad on the door, and it appears that there's like a tube kind of on the other side. Well, sorry, there's like a door, then another door, and then like a long tube, which seems to connect to like another building. And it's like a sort of pretty round tube with like a walkway platform on it.

But that sort of next room does appear to not be flooded. So it's sealed currently, the door? Yeah. Could I do a possible research check to see if I know anything about either of these rooms in my research? Well, I think that you got already the

billows reach was the one that directed currents. And then the Dover well was the one that purified the water. directed currents. Ah, yes. And then the Dover well was the one that purified... The water. The water. All right. Mademoiselle Betty, we are probably going to need to manually open these bulkhead doors, right? They would have been designed to withstand great pressure,

so it must be some sort of massive... Mechanical lock or something like that. Sure, I can take a look. We probably need some sort of it should there should be a ranch or some other type of leverage nearby that we can use to yeah i mean i've got something here i can probably get these open with uh are we all going together or you know how do we want to do this i mean mr damon looks like he wants to head towards the dover well like are we all heading there is there something you are looking for that we can help you with? I'm just trying to do me a job, man.

Uh, if I can, sorry I'm still here. I'm just kind of panicking a little bit. Um, the, uh, um... Well, the observatory could be useful if we're trying to get a lay of the land, or I guess if we want to... I mean, the lab feels like less consequential, but I don't know. I'm just here to make sure you're not sick or anything. Which actually does remind me, sorry, when you check his, he's absolutely burned through more oxygen. He's on about four and a half hours left.

You should listen to the doc. Go to the observatory. Mr. Matthias, you are a nervous individual. Uh, uh, uh... No, I think, you know, I'm good. It's just there was a, you know,

dead body, Skellen. You all seemed fine with it, which was kind of think, you know, I'm good. It's just there was a, you know, dead body, Skellen. You all seemed fine with it, which was kind of wild, you know? I'm a little concerned that a doctor is so disturbed by dead bodies. Uh, well, that's kind of my job, is to not have dead bodies, you see, you know? And so far, I got a pretty good strike rate. In that I don't have dead bodies, not that I do. You know, yeah yeah i realized how that came across that sounded bad that sounded you're wasting time which way are we going

i'm curious to see the observatory right i think it would be interesting to get a lay of the land we start making a move and i start moving down i actually grab the doctor and kind of force him as well in that direction okay we're going that way uh i'll go up to the door and i'll start you know checking for the leverage system or whatever medicine mr matthias use your box breathing you must calm down your consumption of oxygen is getting low and if you run out of oxygen it is going to slow all of us down trying to save you. Yeah, okay. We are all going home. You understand? Yep, yep, yep. We're all going home. We're all going home. There's no place like home. This is fine. Three second inhale. Hold for three seconds. Exhale for three. Hold for three seconds.

Focus on your breath. Okay. I'm so relaxed. Thank you. Monsieur Adams will keep you safe. It's so calming. Thank you so much. This concludes part one of this podcast episode. Part two will be here this upcoming Tuesday at 5 a.m. Pacific time. We'll pick up this expedition right where we left off. Until next time, and we'll be back on board the Thresher before you know it. Thresher was you know it. Starring...

Starring... Starring... Starring... Starring... Starring... Starring... Starring... Starring... Della as Hercule Diboudine. Travis Willingham, Marisha Ray and Sam Regal were all

radio voices. Ali Henderson, Owen Tunstan and Jess Jewell as screaming CCTV voice. Multicam director John Sirdovan, 3D artist Owen Tunstan and production designer Gemma Alexander. Thank you.