Mayday Plays - Doomed to Repeat, Ep. 27 - “Death Awakens the Sleeper” | Delta Green

Episode Date: June 29, 2024

A motley crew of soldiers, officers, and pilots embarks on a perilous trek through the Afghani desert to find Liam Morales. After learning the direction of the mysterious Black Valley by speaking to tribal leaders in Qluuj Khel, the officers realize they need Hyde’s cooperation and agree to bring her along for the expedition. However, Afghanistan is a land fraught with danger, and it isn’t long before the party finds themselves fighting for their lives. As the threats intensify, Hyde must confront the harsh question: how many of her allies is she willing to sacrifice to find her brother? And what will she do when she finally stands before “The Sleeper” in the heart of the Black Valley? This episode concludes our playthrough of the scenario “Kali Ghati” by Shane Ivey. Join the Mayday newsletter here: eepurl.com/iIVUjo TRIGGER AND CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence, blood and gore, death, body horror, mental illness, cults. Implied self-harm, Blood, domestic turmoil, profanity, drug abuse, Fictious depiction of the war in Afghanistan, Military-industrial complex, Sexism in the workplace, Real-world Religion, Fake Religion and Cultural practices, Governmental Conspiracy Translation of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in Recap: Brother, Where have you gone? What did the sands tell you that has set your heart to wander further from home? There is nothing in this world we cannot conquer together. Let me help you so we can return to the people we love. Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are © Mayday Roleplay, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property. CAST OF CHARACTERS • Lev (they/them) - Rory Lopez, Army Gunner (they/he) • Amanda (she/her) - Amy “Soups” Campbell, co-pilot (she/her) • Caleb (he/him) - Agent Pilgrim (he/him) • Eli (any/all) - Kona “Hyde” Morales, Army Pilot (she/her) • Zakiya (she/they) - Agent Ice (she/her) • Sergio (he/him) - The Handler MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound Supervision: Sergio Crego, Eli Hauschel • Mixed: Eli Hauschel • Original Music: Aaron A. Pabst • Soundstripe (soundstripe.com) • Glitch Machines (glitchmachines.com/) • Soundly (getsoundly.com/) DELTA GREEN LINKS • Delta Green (http://deltagreen.com/) • Kali Ghati (https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/181675/Delta-Green-Kali-Ghati) MAYDAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/maydayrp) • Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/maydayrp) • Our website (https://www.maydayroleplay.com/) • Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/@Maydayrp)

Doom to Repeat is a Delta Green actual play podcast with violent themes and adult language. Listener discretion is advised. Hello, and welcome to episode 27 of Doom to Repeat. I'm Sergio, your handler. I'm Love, and today I'll be playing Rory Lopez. I'm Amanda, and I will be playing Amy Campbell. I'm Caleb James Miller, and I'll be playing Agent Pilgrim. I'm Eli, and I'm playing Kona Hyde Morales.

I'm Zekeah, and I'll be playing Agent Ice. For our second merch giveaway, we chose the following four contestants. Congratulations to Michael Jay, who won a Perennial Airlines shirt. Shata H., who snagged the limited print poster signed by Mayday. Sean K., who will be receiving the Perennial Asian sticker pack, and finally, Ferdie S, who upgraded their Patreon membership for free for one month. Thanks to everyone who entered and supported us. In a few episodes, we'll hold one final contest with another round of prizes.

If you like what we do, remember you can support us by going to patreon.com forward slash Mayday RP. By the end of this year, we're planning to run our first Patreon exclusive campaign, available to watch by all patron levels. If you want the chance to vote for which game system we choose next, come check us out and join the community. In this episode, we complete the scenario, Caligati, by Shane Ivy. I am I, Ayea, hea,

Coole, but he a manna of a-one Awean, A-Kulana A-Kulana A-Kulah A-Oheelan-hiel

hik o'h-hielan a-h-h-h-h-hore-h like a-kok-h-hoo-h-h-hoo-i-pui-pui-i A-a-a-cura I, no la'ila-a-a-hik-i-a A few days ago I lost communication with my

intelligence officer Liam Morales stationed at forward operating base Turner in Pakita. We were both serving our respective tours, but regularly radioed each other. In our last conversation, he was agitated, distracted. I reminded him that we were so close to the end and to hang on a bit longer, to sleep on it. and it gets better in the morning. When he missed two windows of communication, I acquisitioned a request to visit F.O.B. Turner, but was denied by Captain Elliot Byers,

who oversees the site. I was told my presence was not needed. The captain believes that he has the authority to tell me when and where I can visit my brother, which just doesn't fly. So with some haggling and trading the rest of my boar jerky pop sent from Uncle Kynani, I got the next detail from my wingman Soups and I to Turner,

and escort ops of two MIs, Lin and Tell. I don't waste my time thinking about the MIs. My only concern is that I'm escorting those who intend to investigate my brother. And arriving at Turner, I confirmed he was missing, possibly AWOL. It was up to the MIs to determine the events and the occurrences as Turner was in the process of handing over the site to the Afghan military. The last thing they needed is a missing person who would forestall their exit.

I don't know how much longer I can keep it together. I know Liam. I know who he is, but I don't see him everywhere I look around this base. The people I speak to don't talk about the kindness the way he can keep your head up in a tough spot. It was like he was a different person entirely. Something's wrong, and I just can't place it.

And, you know, when you start having dreams about it, you start to know, I'm going to find him. And we're going to figure this out. Soups and I have been watching the MIs through a grunt named Lopez. I have a shit, but they at least know what brothers in arms mean. And for that, I will be grateful. They plan to head out to the village my brother frequented. I think I'll find better answers there.

It is July 17th, 2011, bright and early. An assembly has gathered around two MRAPs. Officer Lopez has organized an excursion to Kloosz-Kel on behalf of the military intelligence officers, Morrison and Intel. Can we just set the setting real quick of what does it look like getting ready for those MRAPs and this excursion? I think Pilgrim Tell is someone who overprep prepares in these situations. He has a lot of baked-in anxiety that comes with having done this for a long time.

That's both the work on the public sector and the work on the deep, deep private sector that is the program. And so it is a long, arduous process. It's the closest he gets to ice in terms of over-prepurement. He's up before dawn getting a million different things ready. He has two different go bags. He has his shotgun and Kalishnikov, AK-47, that he keeps with himself to more mimic the country he's in.

Service pistol. He's fully geared up, strapping in the body armor and everything, and just recanting all of this information over to himself. Again and again, everything he's learned so far to get the details right. He's petrified for what happens if he gets it wrong. You're preparing and a man approaches one of the officers, puts his boot up on the MRAP and cocks his M4 looking at you. This is Sergeant Ryan Harding.

He is one of the commanders, and he is going to be commanding the second MRAP with you. And he smiles at you and says, come prepared. I like it. Better be ready for anything. Yeah, you never know what you're going to walk into. You got your fucking boots on my MRAP, though. He throws his hands up and, you know, kind of pretend sorry and starts backing up. I'll know my place and he starts walking back to his MRAP.

No, that's all right, you know. We're going to see what this is all about. I'll forgive you later. Agent Ice, Len Morrison, what are you doing? If I know that Tell is on equipment, sort of the heavier stuff, I think she's gathering all of the materials that they could have extracted from the room. Like a tried blood sample, I don't think it'll be helpful necessarily, but just sort of assembling all of the clues.

She's got the cipher. I think it's more just a mental game. Like, she's the kind of person that meditates before she goes on something like this. But she's not really, she's not worried about the logistics of going. It's what we do when we get there. Lopez, this is a little unusual for you. I mean, you've actually managed to put together an excursion here, a small platoon of soldiers, two MRAPs. Are you doing anything different this morning than you may have done any other day?

I think Lopez has the capacity to be efficient and, like, actually useful that rarely gets seen. So I think they're trying to emulate that a little bit, especially after their conversation with Hayden Soup yesterday. I think they're a little bit trying to show their worth, you know, directing the folks on the MRAP, like gathering all the supplies they're going to need. Almost, almost serious, not full, but a little closer than they have been. Hyde, you step out of Liam's tent and you can see across the fob that the MRAPs are being assembled. you recall Lopez promising you two seats, but by your estimation you have maybe moments before they're ready to roll out,

and you aren't ready, and neither is Campbell. What are you doing? I fucking swear to my breath that I run over to Campbell. I'm going to kick their bunk. What? Uh, why? What? Oh, sleeping beauty, let's go.

I'm like throwing their jacket in their fucking face. They're rolling out in like five. Let's go. Motherfuckers. I assume there's no time to get any other weapon outside of my pistol. If you can get a seat, I'll say that you can have an M4. Okay. So the two of you rush over to the MRAPs.

I want to try to not look like we are like here last minute. We're just arriving exactly when we're supposed to be. Okay, that's fine. Why don't you give me either Constitution or charisma checks roles to determine whether you can appear as if you're not huffing and puffing or, you know, whether you can maintain a kind of cool demeanor. That's a fail with a 92 for Khan. That's a fail with on a 60 with a 67.

The two agents, Pilgrim and Ice, you can give me alertness checks. You will have plus 20 because Hyde and Campbell failed their roles. And an 11. That's a critical success. 38 under my 80, so a success. The two of you are preparing. You have a moment where you're communicating and you do. see two soldiers run up out of breath and it's kind of noticeable and as you take a moment to take

them in you realize these aren't just two soldiers these are the two helicopter pilots that brought you here to fob turner ice come over here yeah you recognize those two yeah yeah i don't understand why they're both here yeah it kind of seems fishy right your hackles up on this one too Maybe one of them's just dropping the other off. Are they close enough to address? Absolutely, yeah, you can shout out to them. Morning. Morning.

Morning, ma'am. Running a little late this morning, huh? Sorry, we had to go over to the captain's quarters to, he wanted us to join on this mission. You're on captain's orders. Yeah, I mean, Turner's, you know, heading out for the most part, so they don't want to give off any more personal than they can muster. so he asked if we could lend a hand.

Lopez, you can see this interaction as well. Oh, you're finally here. Yeah, sorry. Captain had to talk to us first. I look Lopez in the eye. Right. Captain. Make sense? Yeah, sorry. Didn't mean to be late. Could I get your guys' names again?

I've been here a while now, and sometimes the faces just kind of run together. It'd help if I had the name to put it to. I'm Hyde. that suits. Oh, sorry. Let me be a little more formal here. I know that we run a little looser around this base. Could I get your full names?

Lopez, aren't we already delayed? I don't think that's, yeah, I don't think that's relevant. I look at all the other soldiers. Do you guys have a problem with my name being hide there, boys? Sergeant Ryan Harding is like, come on, let's boot up. We're wasting daylight hours. Yes, sir. Come on, tell.

Fine. You were in a hurry, sir. I want to... Hey, you don't tell me what I'm in, okay? If I stop for a reason, it's for a reason. Load up. I move to the MRAP. We have two MRAPs.

There are eight seats possible in each. The MRAPs are similar to Humvees, a little bit more protected. There is actual mine deterrent armor on the vehicle. We need to choose a commander. Pilgrim and I seem like the two most obvious candidates. Between the two of you, who would like to command? this MRAP. I'll come in.

With eight seats total, there's MRAP 1 and MRAP 2. How would we like to organize it? Who is in what seats? Lopez is going to avoid Harding if they can because they've been around him on base and he's annoying as hell. And they do not want to be close to him if they can help it. So they're going to swing up into the gunner of whichever one he's not in. Yeah, no problem.

You can jump in with what I assume the other agents would be jumping into ice and Pilgrim. I'd like to be with the pilots if I can. Yeah, I mean, I'll go wherever it seems logical. Each of you are going to be assigned a call sign. You are beacon one, pilgrim. Beacon two will be ice. Beacon three will be Lopez. Beacon four and five will be Bryant and Booker.

Bryant, I believe, will be driving. And Booker is the medic. Beacon six will be Yassim, the translator. Beacon 7 will be hide and beacon 8 will be soup. In MRAP 2, there is Sergeant Ryan Harding and then five other soldiers, including Jimmy Ravel Lopez's bunkmate. If you would like their names, I'm welcome.

I'll give them to you, but if you didn't ask for them, they don't offer them. The next question I have is which vehicle is leading? Is your vehicle leading or is MRAP 2 leading? Let's have MRAP 2 lead unless someone has an alternative thought there. The soldiers jump in. The order is given by Pilgrim to move out MRAP 2,

lead the way, and the second MRAP drives around you and begins leading you down the mountain, away from Fob Turner and towards Kluge Kelle. It's about an hour's drive northeast through rough hills that are very sparsely populated. Hide, as you drive, you can't help but notice far to the east, the blue outline of the Vargita Mountain, and you wonder if perhaps Liam is, in fact, waiting there for you?

I think I'm just fixated on it, like preoccupied on it. I'm not really trying to engage with anybody. I'm just kind of like lean back, just eyes over there, just wondering, because it seems like we're going in the opposite direction of where I have a good feeling, of where I should be going. I don't have, hmm, I think ICE is just going to straight up ask well. We're driving. Is there any particular reason two pilots wanted to go on a drive today? I mean, we're not just pilots. We're soldiers. I'm just as capable in the air as I'm on the

ground. I mean, I don't understand why that's such a big deal. Okay. That's just, it's not quite clicking logically for me. We don't have any other pilots around, though. I mean, I know you're more than pilots or soldiers and Americans, but it just seems dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket, please? Especially when those eggs keep ignoring direct questions from their commanding officers. I'm just here to get a tan. Yeah. So if I were to give in a call to the captain right now and ask if he was given special orders for you two to be on this MRAP, I'd get the answer that that was, go ahead.

Go for it. Cab's a busy man. Look, Tell, you could absolutely call on the captain, and you could absolutely waste this time. And then when you find out that we're supposed to be here, what do you think he's going to do? He's going to ream all of our assholes because now you're wasting his time. You know, he just wants this solved. And I'm just been told put ass elbow in the seat. And that's it, man.

That's all it is. That's all it can be. That has shit all to do with me. Hide. Do you call it in? Yeah, I call it in. Hey, Captain, I got a question for you here. Your man Lopez put together a rag tech group out here,

and I've got two soldiers who won't even give me their first or last name, their designation. They threw the Hilo into here. They were our pilots. You got names, designations. Oh, and even better. Did you ask them to come on this mission? And I'm making direct eye contact with Hyde. Hi, you have a moment if you wanted to take his finger off that trigger and tell the truth.

Otherwise, I'm going to ask Agent Pilgrim to make a luck roll, please. I don't know if it seems. Campbell, should I, should I, should I stop him? I said go with the luck. Yeah, I'm going to test my luck. We have that on record. We have it on record. You want to succeed this luck roll.

You want to roll under 50. I've got a 22. Fuck is this saying. Go for a lot success, too. You went to me on dice. Yeah. If you don't cross cable with dice. involved.

One thing you notice, and as you continue to drive, it becomes more apparent. There is always this kind of static interference over the walkies. But you are able to reach Fob Turner. You are able to reach Captain Byers. And eventually, you get him back

a little irate saying, the two pilots went with you? That's, uh, hold on. And you hear paper shuffling. Campbell and Morales. Well, Captain, are these two, they're respectable enough? They're not pulling a fast one. Should I go back? Should I drop these fuckers off? Or what's the situation here?

They're not in my command. I believe they're yours, so do with them what you will. I'm going to make direct eye contact with Hyde again. Thinking that name is starting to, you know, ring dinner bells. You know what, Captain? I think I'm going to keep them around, at least for this trip, see why they were so eager to come along. But thanks for the information. I appreciate it. Thank you for being honest with me. Lawyers out. So, do you want to tell me now?

What, my full name? Why are you here? I'm here to escort two MIs to a village. Listen, there are a lot of people that you can try that with. None of them are in this car. Please tell me why you're here. I look like soups. I'm looking for somebody. Who?

I'm looking for my brother. Liam Morales. Liam Morales. I'm Conan Morales, my sister. Ice looks to Campbell. Are you their best friend? Jesus Christ. No, I'm their friend, and I know Liam, he's a good dude.

I've got, I've known, I know the family well. Campbell, I go way back. I just caught the soups thing. Okay, that fully tracks now. Great. How'd you get on this expedition of ours? Uh, you'd be surprised what you can do when you ask. Yeah.

I'm a really good smooth talker. I just, you know, tenacity is usually the word that my superior officers like to put it towards. Uh, yeah, a little go-getter, gung-ho. Brian the driver calls out. Glooschkel coming up as he begins to make the turn into the small village. Gloucheel is a hillside sprawl of poor stone houses and ramshackle huts. When the MRAps pull up, the villagers stop what they're doing, and they come to greet you. The children are intrigued by you, and the adults never take their eyes off of you.

But they smile, and they welcome you. How do you proceed? What do you think, ice? We can take everybody in to talk to this elder, and then from there, We'll figure out where the tenacious people go. Yassim, the translator is happy to join you. Bryant offers to join you, as he has been here before, with Liam. Hyde and Campbell, do you try to join them as well?

I'll just walk with it without asking. Yeah, you just go with purpose. The second MRAP team kind of mingle outside of their vehicles, keep watch and interact with the locals. You make your way to the hut of the village elder. His name is Zahir Kluge. He is a large, stocky man, probably in his 60s, seems to be of good health, has this big healthy beard with these long white streaks in it. He has a friendly, welcoming face.

Though there is a language barrier, the villagers all seem friendly and welcoming to you. They sit you down in front of Zahir. They set out tea and snacks for you. And Zahir seems happy to speak with you. He introduces himself and asks why the Americans have decided to visit. Well, we first, thank you for having us here. We just have a few questions. We're looking for someone, and we think that they might have been deeply interested in your town, your culture.

We want to get as much information as we can, if that's all right with you. We will help where we can. Who is this person you are looking for? A man by the name of Liam Morales. Have you heard that name before? Liam, of course, yes. Young Liam has come to us several times. Friendly man, he's offered us presents.

Yes, very kind. I'm sorry to hear that he's gone missing. Yes, so are we. He seemed very interested in the Black Valley, and we're wondering if he, these gifts that he exchanged, were they for information specifically about that? If you could tell us what you told him

so he can sort of get into his mind. You seem as they're translating for you, and one thing you notice is that he does not say the word, specifically Caligaddy. It seems like he, and as you've learned, Caligati is the kind of exact translation for Black Valley, or one of the translations for Black Valley, Death Valley, etc. So you feel as if he's probably used a variation of the word and Zahir smiles at him, smiles at you, gives a kind of blank expression and then shakes his head, like I don't know what

you're talking about. Apologies. She flips through the specific translation. or the pronunciation that she wrote, uh, Kalagadi? The leader, Zahir, kind of smiles even broader and begins speaking to Yaseem, and Yaseem translates.

I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about. There are very, there are many valleys in here, many valleys that once the sun, uh, sets, become like dark, black valleys. Almost in a joking way, he's kind of saying this. And as he's talking, Bryant whispers to, you, that's bullshit. I was here a couple of times with Liam and I heard the word Caligati

come out of his lips a couple of times. Thank you first for being protective of our sensibilities or just your own interests, but this is time sensitive. We know that Morales was interested in some abstract concepts, and she puts a photo of what they saw under the bed down. We know that he was obsessed with Zune, a type of draconic deity of sorts. We are just trying to get to the bottom of it. If you could just be honest with us, we'd appreciate it. You can attempt to make a persuade or anthropology role. Let's do persuasion.

No. It's a fail with a 69. Oh, nice. Nice. Nice. Thanks, guys. It's not a Delta Green campaign with us if we don't roll a 69, yeah. Let's wait a fail.

Can I get plus 20 for 69? Or 69 should always be a success, I feel like. Yeah, that's an auto-crit. Zahir seems to deflect the question. Again, with a joke, with bringing up other topics of, you know, there are other interesting places in the region that maybe he wandered off to. As Yassim kind of translates some of this to you, you can tell he is, also uncomfortable. And you've established

already that Zahir knows of this. It's likely that these guys do too. They're just holding back for some reason. And it's just a matter of getting them to admit it. How close is soups and hide to them?

You're all sitting together, so you're all within speaking range. I'm going to nudge, hide a little bit, and kind of go out like not to them like you want to try. maybe that'll help. I've been, yeah, I don't know.

I've been quiet just trying to listen to everything because I'm also getting new information from Lynn as well. And if it seems that things aren't, they're not agreeing to give any more information and I'm aware of the situation, I might go and pull out the photo that I have of Liam and I. And then I'm trying to like put it as respectfully as I can down in front of,

them and point at Liam and say to them, I promised my dad that I do whatever I can for my brother, if anything were to happen to him. And I just want to know where he went so that I can bring him home. This automatically succeeds, and I'll explain why. Zahir takes the photo and Yassim translates for you what you are saying. and you see a tear for him in Zahir's eye and it rolls down his face and kind of soaks into his beard.

And he looks at you, connecting with you in a way that you don't quite understand why. And he begins to speak softly. And Yassim translates that Zahir's own son disappeared a few months ago. But it was not a disappearance where they don't know where he has gone. Zahir admits that often local villagers, local men, will join up together from time to time and form a band of fighters who stand against Caligati.

And though he warned his son not to do it, zealously his son went out anyway. He explains that the fighters, they keep watch at Caligati, they make sure that the haunted village and its people don't spread their evil. It becomes very clear that he's explaining they keep strangers away from it. He explains that he has not seen his son,

son in a while, but on the occasion, these fighters who live in hidden camps in the hills sometimes come to villages like their own demanding food and ammunition, and they recruit young men once in a while, like Zahir's son. And he mentions his son's name Assad. He finishes by explaining that nobody in Kloosheel has seen this band of fighters for a while, probably more than a year, but he knows that his son wanted to and probably went to go find them. And so he admits it.

He admits that there is a place and that his own son is missing because of it. Can you give us a better location of where these possible fighters could have gone to or camp locations? Yaseem translates this, and Zahir points to the east to Varjita Mountain that you can see out

his tent and he says head east and you will find it. Bryant, who is there with you, you know, does the math very quickly and he says, if he's saying we have to head to Vargita Mountain, that's about a four-hour drive from here. What time is it now? It's maybe 7.30 in the morning. Is this everything that you told to Liam? Is this everything he told? Zahir nods and says that he was able to keep this from,

Liam a little bit longer, but he has been touched by Morales' story, Hyde's story. You know, he doesn't seem to feel as if there is anything else worth mentioning, other than stressing that Caligati is a cursed place that you should strongly avoid. Agent Lopez, I will point out to you, again, because of your training, being out here for a few years, that when Zahir mentions the fighters who guard Caligati, it sure does remind us. you of the way many Afghans describe Taliban-like forces. It might be worth reporting to Captain Byers, as they could be referring to a growing insurgency force.

Yeah, I think hearing that, Lopez will excuse themselves and just step out far enough to be away from anyone who is in the tent. they like waffle about pushing the call button for a few minutes and kind of like pace. And then they'll radio back to buyers with just an update on all that information. And just say like, I know we're trying to move out of here. But I don't know. They don't seem like they're hurting anyone besides keeping people out of this like curse city or whatever. But you like probably should know that.

So there you go. Go ahead and give me a luck roll. 26. Static over the line, but you are able to reach the fob. And Byers appreciates the update. He does find the information interesting. And the way he operates, you know, he'll probably act on it in some way or another. But in the moment, you're just telling him what's going on.

And then as soon as they're done, they're kind of like, well, can't take it back now. Inside the tent, what else would we like to ask or do? what is your son's name in case we bump in? Do you have something we can give to encourage him to come home? Do you have news for us to tell him? You can tell him his sister, or a boy, and his name is Assad, ASAD. Is there anything strange about the way this group addresses outsiders? It's how violent are they?

What should we expect? He clarifies that these are men who are. as zealous as any Taliban fighting force. They believe that what they are doing is kind of a wholly directive and don't be surprised if they are unfazed by your advanced weaponry. I get that they protect things coming out of Caligati, but if we were to meet them and discuss the possibility of investigating the area for Mr. Morales, do you think that they would push back on that? Do you think they'd come to us with means to fight? You will have to find them first, but perhaps, but they will refuse to allow anyone near the village.

All right. I'm good, Len. Yeah. Len starts to prepare to leave, gets up and says thank you, and then motions for everybody to get the fuck out. So we got a four-hour drive. I'm going to go to our translator and just sort of introduce myself to the elders straight up. And the last thing I'll ask him is, have we, have you met me before? The final words of Yaseem are spoken in, and Zahir takes you in, looks you up and down.

And there's this moment where you think he's about to say something very profound. And then he just has a big belly laugh and begins kind of chuckling and takes your hand and shakes it. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay. Thank you, thank you. You know, he gives the white boy bow 50 times and then gets himself out of the room. Is there a chance that I heard that question?

Yeah, anyone that was still in the room, yeah. Then on the way out, what was that? Have you been here before? I've just been getting things confused lately, that's all. What do you mean? Like, what do you mean? Yeah, you ever just see faces, you think you know them? Like strangers on the street sometimes.

You run into somebody. You think, ah. I met you somewhere. You got a face like that, you know? And the elder of a village, you think, yeah, maybe. Well, you got that face on around me. Nothing. Just trying to make sure you're all right.

I'm good. I'm good. We're good. We got good information. It's good. We brought the pilots along. I mean, they were pretty useful here. Yeah.

You just, you let me know if... Never mind. Never mind. Let's go. You step out into the bright hot sun. It has been maybe an hour, so we'll say it's about 8.30 now. There is a wiry old man that comes stumbling up the road. He is wagging his finger and shouting at you as a group.

Oh, you know what? We brought the translator, right? He didn't know what he was saying, right? Oh, yes, that's right. I think I'd go get Yaseem. If they're not out with us, I think I'll go get him and point towards the man. Do you know what he's saying? Is he talking to us? Yassim immediately notices the man at the same time that you did and he's listening to what he's saying.

Before the old man can really get too much closer, the other villagers kind of surround and pacify him. It's very clear that they are a little concerned that he might upset you, you being the Americans, and he is quickly kind of carted off. Yassim turns to you, Agent Ice, and just says, we should leave, and he starts making his way to the MRAP. What was that about it? You can't just say we're going to leave like that. You've got to explain what the hell just happened. I'll explain on the way. I'd listen to him, yeah. Sure. All right. Let's text, Phil.

Look at him, be like, like, look at his eyes, like, okay, walk away. You all hop into the MRAPs, and they begin their travel. back to Fob Turner. There is this kind of tension in the vehicle, as you have asked Yassima question, and he is strangely silent. Eventually, he turns to you all, and he addresses you.

You are behind him as he is sitting in the front passenger side, and he says, that man, he was accusing us of being cursed. Caligati is cursed and blasphemous. To seek out a place like that is to tempt the wrath of God. Lopez, you recognize Yaseem's work. as insubordination. He's speaking out of turn. Do you let him say his peace or do you call him out? I let him go. I'm just kind of, I've got like my boot kind of propped up on the like part of the car

behind him and leaning forward. But I'm, I am ready to kind of like grab him and sit him back down if he gets to spun up, I guess. He continues. I mean, what are the chances this Liam Morales is still alive? They're Taliban everywhere. And he points out to the mountains, probably looking at us right now. Soaps is going to go ahead. They're going to look and see if the agents are doing anything and it's like not happening. It's going to be like, sit down. That is not your call. That is not your concern.

You're here to be a translating box. So sit down. Shut the fuck up and translate. Thank you. And that I'm going to kind of look to hide and just be like, don't listen to that bullshit. He follows your eyes to hide and he says, this is a fool's errand. And then he turns around. I mean, it's the military, my guy.

Everything's a little bit of a fool's errand. I try to be quiet, because I feel like if I don't, I'm going to say something very unkind to him. Yeah, it wouldn't be right. What's next? I think the quicker we can get there before it gets dark, the more time we have to think. To Caligati? Yeah. I mean, is there, what else do we do?

We got to get in there. Right. Len, we gotta, we gotta go back to the camp. We gotta drop some of these MRAPs off. We gotta have a discussion, you and me. We gotta see about the computer we've got back there. We don't know what we're going into, and there's a lot of, we're too big. And I think you know that.

Especially because you and I, you know. There are boundaries you don't cross before you're ready to. Yeah, I can, I'm jumping ahead. Let's go back. Ryan Harding, the commander of the other MRAP, radios you through the static. All right, beacon one, where two next? I think we're back to the fob, and we'll drop you pretty ladies back off, and then we're going to go back out, I think, an expedition either later tonight or start of tomorrow.

You'll need us again later tonight, right? No. No, I don't think so. I don't think Captain Byers would like sending an MRAP out by itself. That is a half. Hell of the thing, isn't it? It would be terrible for Captain Byers to be putting that disposition. You know what? Before we really take this away from him, you know what?

When we get back, we'll have a conversation. We'll make sure he's okay. Okay. I'm happy to follow you. Listen, Sergeant, I know that you want to drop some clips. I get it. I'm the same fucking way, but we got to have a reason to. And as soon as I have one, I'll call you up, okay?

As long as you give me that reason, I'll be there for you. Yeah, don't go blowing your load before it's ready. We're only at the dance. You've got to wait until after. The teams saddle up, and you go another hour back to Fob Turner. It will say it's now about 9.30.10. You arrive. Pull out of the vehicles. As you are stepping out, tell, you are approached by the same science officer.

Sam walks up to you and says, I've been able to put it together. I've got a bunch of files if you want to read them. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I do. Yeah, I want it all if you can. You follow him to the station, and you can see that there is basically his computer monitor up, and there are a series of PDF and text documents that have been recovered from the hard drive.

Okay, I'm going to make sure that Lenz with me, too, just so we can get this information again. And what do you do with all this? Just start going through it? I don't know, Lenn. Do you think this is the time now? Should we speak with the captain? Should we decomp with these pilots?

What do you think? I kind of want to go through this information first. I feel like it'll set the tone for how we talk to them and why we tell them they can't come with us. Good, good. Yeah. I'm with you. So then, yeah, we're going to read through them. If we can, like, keyword search through some of this, I would also be down for that.

Just keyword. Black Valley, Big Bad, Call of Cthulhu, things like that. Agent Ice, you begin searching Keyword. words and it actually helps. And I'll say that only about an hour of time is wasted before you realize that you're kind of going over the unresearched elements of what Liam was studying. There are articles that go back as we're talking about Victorian era books and papers and studies that were photocopied a million times over that mostly reaffirm what Liam was talking about, his reading of Arthur Blythe, Maryweather, and others. There's also the research on the pagan god Zune as well.

I don't think this is pushing us in a direction. We don't already know where we're going. All right. Well, then let's wave a magnet over the hard drive and say nothing came back. Sounds good to me. You do that, and you see Sam's kind of noticing it, putting his hands up in frustration. and, all right. There was nothing on this fucking thing. It's so weird. Thanks for your work, though.

Nothing on it. Yeah, sure, sure. Okay. We'll always have the fruit loops, right? What's next, soldiers? Should we bite the bullet and tell Morales she's not coming with us? Yeah. She's going to be really sad. I don't want to deal with that.

We could just not tell her. We could leave without her, pull the old Irish exit, and make her way out into the desert. Hell, we could do it on that. Lopez kit too. I mean, that's the only way they got in our truck, right? You almost had me? I knew. I should have pulled back on the Lopez shit. You liked that way. Yeah, I know. I was still there and then it got mean. I wasn't trying to be mean. I'm trying to keep them fucking alive. We're supposed to be nice to these people. What if we have to come back and then we

come back and it's like, oh, remember when we ditched you? What's nicer? Giving them the opportunity to live with a question on what happened to Liam or to die, with the answer. Okay, we tell them. We tell them they're cut. We tell them the rest of them are cut. That was like 20 people deep. So it's been about an hour.

What are Hyde and Campbell and Lopez up to? I definitely want to duck Captain Byers for sure. So I don't know. Maybe I don't know. Maybe I'll hover around where these two agents are because I clocked them probably heading over to that tent. So I'm at least in. the area. If I've noticed them looking after the agents and I'm going to probably just like

let Hyde do their thing and get Lopez and get to know them better. And we like, how's the chow? How do you expect it to be? I mean, we're a fob that's getting shut down. It's shit. If it's hot, it's better than not. Let's go. Yeah, all right. So sure enough, agents, you step out and you don't go very far before you see hide sitting on a crate seemingly waiting for you. Here they are. I'm guessing you want to talk, Morales. You don't have to talk. Sometimes not talking is the best answer. You know, we just do. Oh, good. Well, then you know what this is. Let's go, Len. Tell starts to walk away. Then I'm going to get up and I'm going to follow. Oh, no, that's where this ends if we're not talking.

You could go back on the crate. We'll not talk and we'll go about our days, yeah. Do you have something to tell me tell? Because, I mean, I don't have anything really to tell you, but, like, you know, I'm all ears about where we're going next. Yeah, yeah. About where we're going next, yeah. Well, that's a very limited space.

It doesn't have many miles on it. I figure you can choose whether this comes from me or Len. Spit it out. We will not be. We thank you for your service. The village back there. That was incredible work, truly. Yeah.

So when are we rolling out? We are rolling out soon. But you, I think, I feel like you've contributed as much as you could. And I, again, thank you so much, but I really just don't see you coming to the next phase of this mission. If you want, we can tell you what happens next on our side of things. If that'll bring you some comfort, I can tell you what our next move is so that you feel you're at least looped in, okay?

Okay. Sure. We are going to take an expedition, most likely out to meet with one of these insurgent groups and see if they're willing to talk. If they're not, then we'll probably put ourselves into danger. If they have valuable information on what this Black Valley has inside of it, then we'll figure that out. And we'll try and track whether they've seen Liam or Assad anywhere in the area.

And then we'll follow that trail. Because of what we are, we're going to spin your captain a yarn. It's a necessary yarn. It's one that he's not going to be happy with, but you'll be happy with in the long run because it means a better chance of Liam coming out of this alive. And then we're going to either bring back your brother or we're going to die. And we're sparing the more likely option for you. Because I know you said that thing about your father,

and I may not look like I much care about how people feel, but you made that promise, but you never mentioned your own life in that. And I can't imagine what your father's going to do when he finds out that you died trying to find your brother. brother and he's lost two of his children. The last time I talked to my brother, he was agitated about something. I thought it was about something about home.

I appreciate the sentiment that you want to spare me from something. But whatever you're really here for, that involves my brother, I have to find him. I cannot leave here knowing that I could have at least known. something. I'm scared for him and I need you to understand that that's not going to stop me from getting what I want out of this which is joining you on this mission. So you can tell buyers you can try to physically restrain me on it I'm going to be sitting in that car with you heading to that valley. I need to know why he wrote that death awakens the sleeper on his floor and why he's so preoccupied with it. I can't look my father in the eye.

and not be able to tell him the truth. I think I give a long look to Len, just trying to gauge where Len is at in this whole situation. Len was trying really hard not to address any of the softer issues of this, because as soon as they come up, she's immediately thawing about it. And at this point is about two sentences away

from just saying, yeah, come on. And is trying to stand by what we agreed. I don't think what you're saying is crazy. It makes perfect sense to me. You're not gonna find your brother. And your father won't know what happened to you. Or your brother. Campbell, too.

Soldiers go missing all the time. That's something other people can get over. Now, for you, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if there's a therapist in the world that can help you with it, but your father can. I'll let you come.

If you can look me in the eyes and tell me, that you're okay with the consequences, that you won't judge me in whatever afterlife that comes after this, that you will not look at me with disdain, scorn, you won't look at Lenn the same way, you will never judge us for what happens after you say yes to this. If you can promise me that,

if you can give me every ounce of your fucking body, that you can commit to that idea, then you can come and you can bring all your little friends, but they have to swear the same. I think the entire time Tell is explaining that to them. Hyde is shifting both between Len and him. But as soon as he finishes, I think Hyde will immediately say yes. I accept the consequences.

All right. I think we're going to leave tomorrow morning. You got to get the other two. We're spending, sounds like we're spending one more night at Fob Turner. Yeah. I'd like to go speak with the captain. And I've probably clue in Len. on what I'm trying to do.

I'm going to go convince the captain we didn't find anything of note in the city. And we're moving on to the next phase of our investigation that doesn't include the FAA. Okay. When you enter Byers' tent, you explain the situation to buyers.

Go ahead and give me a persuasion check at minus 20% because Byers does not like the idea of sending out a MRAP by itself. without backup. He is going to insist that you have help. Okay, so I'm at a 20% then. A 36, I fail. No matter which way you cut it, what it boils down to is buyers does not want to lose a very expensive vehicle, sending it out into the desert for whatever direction you maniacs are heading.

He insists that you go with the other MRAP. Yeah, I let him know that we'll make sure that we do that first thing in the morning. And then I'll go back to Len, and I guess hide, too, now that we're like a group here and just inform them, too, that I think we ought to leave a little earlier than planned. Hyde, what's your familiarity with MRAPs? It's the car. I can drive them. You think you could steal one? Whoa. Steal one?

No judging. No judging. Just take one a little earlier than we planned to. This is not, I mean, if this was my operating base, maybe. You remember the question you said yes, too? like, this is what you signed up for. I mean, why not ask Lopez? You want to put that idiot in charge of steel in the MRAP?

They're not an idiot. What about Suks? We'll put Campbell's on that. They have a secret wisdom that you are missing out on, and I need you to back the shit up about that. Okay? Secret wisdom? Look at the way you just described,

and that's the nicest way to call somebody an idiot I've ever fucking heard. Oh my God. Can you... Okay, can you delegate, I guess, who can proactively liberate a car? I will see what I can muster. Put tomato soup on that. I think they could do that in a heartbeat. And what would you like this order, sir?

I mean, I think we got to leave dead at night now. Captain's not exactly happy with the idea of us taking just one by ourselves. But it came at the cost of covering what we're doing to a certain extent. So he has a belief that we're not really finding anything, which is much more preferable than him being curious. Okay. Let me see what I can do then. I'll get you your ambrate.

All right. And then I'm going to go five soups. You find them in the mess hall, and what do you say? Do you have anything on your plate, like food, like a dessert that you've been saving for the end or something like that? You know what? I definitely have some cookies. Okay, I'm immediately grabbing the cookies

the moment I sit down and I'm going to eat those. You know, they all got bad cookies here. You want some? I'll hand back like the other half. No, I didn't purposely save that. I'll break my cookie in half and put the other half on soups astray. Hey, Lopez. Yep.

You were able to pretty much get all of detail done today for our convoy out to the village. I mean, yeah, I did a little bit last night, but no one was, like, tromping at the bit to come with us, to be fair. Sure, but how hard would it to go ask somebody to just have an M-Rat ready to go for the morning? Just one.

Just one? I'm looking at, like, looking at camera. Yeah, just one. Just one. Rat, just to go, don't worry about, like, you know, just keys in the ignition, gas take, fool. Campbell just lowers their aviators and just looking, like, kind of like, the fuck you said? I can get it done, but it is going to cost you. And what would be the cost?

If we make it back from this spooky desert city, which, honestly, I'm real curious about it. I don't know what the fuck those two are up to, but I want to know. But I got folks back home to take care of. So either you makes it out, you say that I was coerced by those two MI fuckers. That I didn't do, it was against my will, and they forced me to. Oh, Lopez, they kidnapped you in broad morning light before we were even supposed to go out. And I just so happened to be there to try to stop them. And then it ended up being a whole thing.

And they didn't happen to put a, threaten the other pilot as well to come along too. You were just trying to do your duty to save one of your brothers in arms, Campbell? You're watching my back. I appreciated your goodwill after our conversation here. Exactly. I just want to be clear. We're covering each other's ass. Fuck those two, right?

It'll be fine, Campbell. We're just going out to the valley and hopefully talking to the people, and that's it. That's fine. Honestly, all I fucking care about is making sure my wife still has medical insurance, so everything else can go to hell in a handbasket for all I care. We'll look out for Lopez. Lopez is looking out for us. Who else is going to wield that big old gun?

Not them. You know that there are eight seats on an MRAP, and you currently have five. Do we have to fill the MRAP? Nope. Should we fill the MRAP? Do we want extra bodies? Out of character, it would be nice to have some shields on board, and by shields, I mean soldiers 10 through 14.

Some red shirts. So you're thinking of Bryant. Oh, Bryant was good. Brian's a driver. He drives. All right. Also, it wouldn't be mad at having a mechanic. It's not that long of a trip, but it might be nice to have a mechanic. Do we need a translator?

We should bring the translator. So that's Bryant, Booker, and Yaseem. That's eight people. So a little conspiracy begins to brew at Fob Turner between the five of you. Bryant and Booker are very hesitant to do this. I think Lopez sets it up in a way. that makes it sound like they're, like, heading out early. And then in the morning, when the time comes,

they're going to play the like, oh, where's the other team? Just a very bad acting job. You are one of them, and they're going to believe you. And they say we'll be on that MRAP when you call us. Yaseem is a little more hesitant. What is the plan? Are you leaving early in the morning? Does that mean two or three in the morning?

My thought was like which an hour. Yeah, like if we could arrive in the valley as the sun is rising, that would be ideal. So however early... Sunrises around like 6, 6.30. Leaving around 1 is probably a good idea then. If there's any... I was going to say, if we're leaving around 1, I would like to collect some things from the mess hall before we'd leave. The reason is I would like us to just in case if there's any guards and bribes, kind of either bribe them with something.

like spill something, just something that they can have so we can go past. I don't think you need to roll for this. I'll say that you could easily enough bring some snacks over to some guards or communicate with them in a way. You just let them know you're rolling out. It's on the docket. It's all part of the plan. No need to worry when it happens.

So around 1 a.m., you gather on the MRAP, you jump inside silently with your weapons and your arreform. Breind and Booker are with you. Yaseem does not show up. And you turn the vehicle on and make your way out. There's basically nobody up except the guards. Campbell gives a signal to, and they signal to you back, and you make it out of the fob. Are you okay if I be the driver?

I don't think Bryant would allow that. In the front next to him, though. So Bryant is driving. You are in the passenger seat. I assume everyone else are in the... back seats, and we have Lopez as the gunner. Yeah. The Afghanistan mountains are no longer blazingly hot, but it is still so hot in the evening. The vehicle smells of dust and diesel and stale sweat, but there is a beautiful night sky

visible with thousands of stars and a bright moon. I'm going to be quiet, but I'm going to, I'm assuming I have like my navigation map, and I'm making sure I keep track of our locations. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, so you're keeping up with the travel, making sure that you guys are on track. And you seem to be. You head east into the badlands, about three hours into what you know is a four-hour drive.

Your armored vehicle drives through a ravine that rises steeply on either side and opens into a wider hillside about one kilometer ahead. The road is isolated, stark, barren. Who amongst the five of you has the highest alertness? 80. 2080 as well. Same.

You may decide between the three of you. One of you may make an alertness role at minus 20%. What do you think was? It's your scenario, bro. It's your trauma. Yeah, that's true. I'll take the responsibility then. That's my trauma.

Less than 60. Here we go. Let it be by my dice. 67. You are driving. It is dark. It is quiet. Hide.

Your eyes are fixed on the road ahead of you. And just as the MRAP drives over a particular spot of ground, you notice it. The moon brings it glint on the ground, a glint of metal, covered under dirt. God damn it. What do you do? Is that an IED? I just screamed that out to Bryant, to Bryant, that there's an IED in the road. Bryant hears it.

He looks at you. He slams on the brakes. You're going about 40 or 50 miles, though, and you slide. And it's not enough. There is suddenly a massive explosion. The vehicle flies into the air, up turns, and crashes to the ground. Lopez, I'm going to ask you to make a dodge roll to see if you can survive this. Oh, my head.

Oh, my God. Good. Cool, you got it. You feel the vehicle lift, and as it is flipping over, you manage to loosen your feet and tumble away from it, but you are now exposed out in the open. This is a vehicle that can sustain IED damage, so you are all alive, but the vehicle is now upside down.

You are disoriented, and as a vehicle, And as you come to, you can smell fumes. You can smell smoke. It is not good that this vehicle is upside down. You begin hearing from outside the crying and yelling of men, the cocking of weapons, and the scuttling of feet. What's happening in this instant as you're kind of putting together what just happened? I think that Pilgrim's calling out gas.

We need to ex-fill, hands up, surrender. There's no way we're going to survive any gunshot once we get out of here. We gotta get out though. It's gonna catch fire. The driver's side door can be opened. Bryant kicks the door open, and he begins issuing people out. We're going to enter initiative. If I'm on the ground, can I start crawling my way back towards them and try to, like, pull people out too?

And start, like, thinking on the back doors or whatever. You can see it quicker and easier than the rest, but you can tell that on top of the ridge, there are maybe three individuals that are silhouetted by moonlight, and probably covering fire would be more useful than helping them get out. Then as soon as I see those people, I'm turning on my back, staying prone so that I'm a harder target to hit, and I'm putting down suppressing fire, covering fire. The first attack group is going to go.

Lopez, you see these three individuals sit up from behind a rock and begin making their way down the mountain, down the hillside. Your only assumption is they're probably trying to get a better angle. They're getting closer. You see them kind of hide behind another rock about 10 meters down from where they were originally. Everything I'm seeing, I'm calling out to the others, too. Hide. You are in the vehicle. You are not able to get out because right now Bryant and Campbell are blocking the way out. So what do you want to do? If I can't get out immediately, then I'm going to go to the nearest window

and see if I can at least provide coverage or fire as soon as somebody attempts to shoot at anybody who's trying to escape the vehicle. That's fine. I'm going to say that if you make any attacks, they will be at minus 20% because you're inside the vehicle and all of the open areas are at odd angles.

They're not particularly easy to find and aim these soldiers, but you can do that. Are you taking the, are you basically holding your action this term? Yeah, because nobody is yet to fire, so I'm going to wait until for somebody makes contact before I fire back. Lopez, it is not currently your turn,

so you have not yet had the ability to move towards the vehicle. You've just kind of tumbled out and come to, but you hear gunfire in your direction. Only two of them succeed at their firearms checks. One of them rolls a one, and the AK-47 has three armor-piercing ability, so you are going to take that full one point of damage as a spray of bullets, kind of,

you see them explode in the sand, and eventually one of them ends up hitting you. You are a lucky motherfucker. I rolled a two. So you're going to take an additional two damage. You do not see the, you have not taken the time to figure out where these bullets are coming from.

It feels above you. but they are not very good shots. This is still more hit points than Tuck has right now. I still have more hit points as Lopez. Lopez, it is now your turn. Can I see where the shots are coming from now? As I've like settled and like I felt the bullet graze my arm or wherever it hit me.

Please make a alertness check. That's an 84. Even the men that were up there have now disappeared behind a rock. And as you look around, you just can't figure out where this extra gunfire is coming from because you know those bastards just hid behind something. But you have your movement, if you'd like to use it.

I guess I'm using my movement to kind of like hold a position and just keep an eye out for people coming up on the other side of us. To explain the situation, there is this kind of curve in the ravine. And there are a few large boulders that have fallen to the ground. You can either choose to hide behind a boulder or you can choose to hide behind the MRAF. Then, okay, knowing that now, I'm going to roll towards one of the boulders and just kind of butt my back up against it and keep an eye down the direction that the rest of the party is so that I can cover for them back the way we can. These weapons that these men are firing at you have something called a kill radius. Any weapon with a kill radius forces the person who is being attacked to either drop prone and be unable to do any.

anything else on their turn, or they can make a sanity check or just eat one sanity to move. So I will say that you are in the kill radius of both of these attacks. You feel the instinctive need to find cover, you roll over to one of those boulders, and mechanically you now have 10 points of cover behind this boulder. Back inside the MRAP, Pilgrim, it is your turn. What are you doing? So the MRAP has that like fold out door behind the turret on the south side. right? Or are we working with one that has no back exit?

It does have the dual back doors. So I'm going to try my best, use my strength to, it's going to be harder because we're, you know, fully horizontal flipped over. But to get those open and then crawling prone from the vehicle, try and get a perspective on what's going on here, they already shot, so surrendering feels out of the situation for now. So I'm just trying to get a better perspective and get those doors open for us. You will need to make a athletics check, as when you begin to move those back doors, they are jammed from the crash. I have a 35 under 80, so I succeed. The doors are completely crushed, but the glass is not, and you are able to smash it, kick it out, and you see that there is enough space that you can crawl out.

Okay, I'll do so. It'll be the same situation as the front door, which is only two people. at a time can exit the space. Got it. So if you'd like to spend your action, you can in fact, or your turn, you can in fact move out of the MRAP. Hopefully they're not behind us. They're basically across from you and...

Would this be foolishly moving in front of their sight lines, do you think? No, no. I'll assume you're just basically kind of ducking behind the MRAP. You have enough movement to do that. Yeah, that was my plan. Perfect. Okay. For anyone that jumps out of the vehicle and hides behind the vehicle, the vehicle has

20 points of armor. Are Tell and I on the same, like, can I see Tell or is Tell on the other side of the MRAP? I will say that you can see Tell, yes. Oh, holy shit, you're fucking alive. I don't know how that happened. Holy fuck. Get down.

And I think I'm continuing to narrate everyone I see and where they're going, just so everyone is on the same page. There's a lot of yelling and screaming and scrambling. The vehicle is upturned, facing the opposite direction, the west from which you came. Ice, you are in the back,

but you see Pilgrim kick open the door? Do you follow? I do. I don't think if there's anything that is inside of the car that I can get from where I'm at right now, I'm going to, I think if everyone has their guns on them already, then that's fine. But just like the duffel bag of any additional weapons,

whatever, like, evidence that we brought with us, I'm going for that and heading for the back of the vehicle. I'm going to ask you to make a strength check to see if you can pull out this equipment in this ruckus. Okay. That's a fail with 75 over 50. I'm going to say that unfortunately, you spend your entire turn trying to move it, and for this round, you are still stuck inside the MRAP.

You are not able to get out. Okay. Yeah, ICE is starting to, at first it was an active decision, and now they're kind of starting to panic. They're yanking these bags out. Bryant stumbles out of the front and finds defensive cover behind the MRAP. He joins you, Pilgrim. Booker is in the back with ice, and I think they jump out of the vehicle as well.

And finally, Soup, you have a clear shot of getting out. Morrison is struggling to get a bag out, but you have a free exit to get out of the MRAP right now. The smell of smoke and burning diesel is only increasing. I'm going to reach back, because even though I see them struggling with a bag, I'm going to just still grab and drag them out with me. You'll need to make a strength check opposed by Morrison, because Morrison is focused this entire turn on getting this bag out. So you basically have to force them away from this bag.

Okay, that makes sense. Oh, yeah, I fail with 76, so. It's four. You are unable to move them, and I'm going to say that you are now stuck in the MRAP for this turn. Go! What do you do? Let's go.

We need the evidence. If it blows up, we don't have anything. Lopez, you are the first. to notice there is gunfire coming from a direction you were not planning. Around the corner to the west in the direction that you were coming from, a group of men, three of them come running towards you and duck behind another rock, while three additional men behind them are firing in your direction. I'm continuing to call out.

Anything I say. Two of them do manage to succeed on their roles. You're either going to do nothing next round, or you need to spend one sanity right now to act next round. What would you like to do? I'll spend a sanity. Let's roll the attacks. Three is negated to nothing behind the rock, and four is negated to nothing behind the rock. So the rock is exploding behind you, but you have the cover you need.

Back at the top of the initiative, the first attack group, which ran down and is now hiding a little bit lower. in the hillside, they pop up and they begin firing. One of them throws a grenade and the other two use their machine guns. I want to say Brian gets shot at, Booker gets shot at, and Lopez gets shot at. But Booker and Lopez are going to be affected by this grenade. You see Brian take a little nip in the shoulder, but he is still standing, still fighting, he's okay. the soldier shooting in Booker's direction, suddenly you hear it click, click, click, click,

and you realize their gun is possibly jammed. They start working on it. The third man lobs a grenade in the direction of Booker and Lopez. He fails the role. Both Lopez and Booker are hidden well enough that the grenade doesn't actually cause any damage, but there is this massive explosion of dust in front of you

that suddenly makes it a little more difficult. difficult to see. However, the both of you are going to have to either eat a sanity or you will be unable to do anything the next round. I'll eat it again. Okay, so that's two sanity you will lose. Booker will lose one sanity in the process as well. Hide. It's your turn. You're out of the vehicle. Yeah, I think since now everybody's preparing to exit, it's better for me to get out and provide coverage outside of the vehicle. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to jump out and pop off on somebody who's been firing at like Lopez and Bryant. You can see the one individual who is trying to re-cock his gun.

It has jammed and he has not thought to hide. So you can try to attack him if you'd like. That's a success with a 14. That's eight points of damage. The man takes shots from you up his arm and even on his shoulder and you see him collapse behind the rock. He screams out in pain. I'll divert my attention.

my attention immediately to the next available target or continue to bribe coverage for Bryant, hopefully Bryant or Lopez. More gunfire hails down from the hills. There's another group somewhere. You even hear another grenade. Another explosion on the ground. This one is on the farther side closer where Bryant is. Let me ask that Bryant, hide and tell.

You all have to decide right now whether you are going to eat one point of sanity and be able to act next turn. I'm gonna eat one sanity. Yeah, I'm gonna eat a sanity. Lopez, it's your turn. I'm gonna start shooting at the people who have higher ground and who have been throwing grenades at us. You do see that there is a group of men

in the process of running down the hill. It looks like they're taking turns where group one will fire while the second group runs down and they've now switched. So group one is firing, group two is running down. Go ahead and make your attack.

That's a 72. I fail. There's just too much rock and debris even the occasional. shrub is getting in the way. These folks know their way around this area, and you're having a hell of a time clocking them. You're mostly just shooting it dirt. I'm still on the side of the rock that's away from the people that are coming towards us, yeah? Yes. But I think I'm going to stay there because I'm a little removed from everyone, so it's not grenade central. Billgram, it's your turn. Now that I have cover, now that I see these groups on either side, I'm going to pick the easiest shot and I at least

want to thin the numbers until we're all together. I'm gonna take my AK, turn the corner the best I can, pick my best shot, take it. I succeed with a 12. It takes eight points. Another man tumbles down as the three of them are trying to make it behind a cliff and his body goes limp and just become sliding down this rocky terrain and eventually just kind of comes to a stop halfway between you and where they are. Ice, it's your turn. What are you doing? Shit, I gotta get out of this car. I'm gonna, uh, I'm gonna go for the exit. There's no way I can make another, like, pull at the bag and try to exit at the same time. Yes, you can make a strength check to try to pull the bag out, and it'll just cost your movement to get out of the

vehicle. I'm gonna try to get out and move behind the vehicle where at least I hear the rest of my team. So you stumble your way out, leaving the bag behind you, and you find some cover. At this point it's getting pretty crowded, so I'll say that Campbell, if you get out of the car, you're going to have to run to one of those boulders that are nearby. Speaking of, it is your turn. What do you want to do? I'm grabbing, like, the

map. I already have a compass thing on my watch. I'm fine with that. I guess that would be on me. I'm just making sure that because I was, had it out. I grab it, and I'm hauling ass. There is, um, enough there that you're going to need to make either a strength or dexterity check

to pull that bag out. We'll do a Dex. Oh, finally. 26. Definite pass. You're able to pull up the rucksack that's holding all of your items, and you also crawl out. The only place to go is one of the other boulders, and you're able to get there. What's the situation? Fuck. The situation's fucked.

There's six up there, six over there. Bryant and Booker are firing up into the hills, and one of them is screaming. I think there's another team coming around the ravine. Ooh, Brian rolls a critical, and they both succeed on their attacks, so they're going to roll some damage. Two more men are mowed down from the teams up there. You see one of the men get shot,

and then begins to front tumble and land about 10, 15 feet away from your team. I'm going to ask that everyone give me a round of sanity checks for the initial violence. I am adapted to violence. Do I still need to do it? So you do not need to do it? Oh, cool. I fail with a 62.

I'd succeeded the sanity check. You are going to lose one point of sanity if you fail. If you succeed, you lose no sanity, but put a checkmark right beside violence. Okay. Also, give me another round of sanity checks for witnessing a man tumble to his death. 82, failure again.

That's where I failed. A failure for me. A 10. Failure. Okay, everyone's losing one point of sanity over this. But there is this brief moments where you all communicate what is happening before the attacks continue. The third attack team, which is coming around the ravine, one group see someone fall. They begin to call something back.

They yell something back to their other soldiers. And you actually see them retreating. The other group of them do cover fire, though. So they will fire in your direction. and I will say that Lopez and Campbell are in the line of sight. So they'll make their three attacks. Okay, two of them do succeed at shooting you, so I'll say one for each. You'll get a round of bullets in your direction.

Campbell, you are going to take two points of damage as I rolled a 12, which is negated 10 of it by the boulder, but two points get through your armor and you now have a wound on your leg. On the leg? Okay. With that said, at the top of the initiative, You hear this man crying out, and now there is no, there's currently no movement in the hills above you. Hi, it's your turn. So right now we hear nothing.

Everybody's retreated. It sounds like a retreat has been called. No one has done anything other than the third attack group seems to be backing off. Do we have eyes on everybody? I'm just like calling out to the group. Here. Yeah, we're good. Bryant and Booker called themselves out.

We're all here. We should regroup together. Like, yeah, like, Hive wants to try to get us all in one place. Preferably, not too close to the MRAP, but I don't know. I was going to say that MRAP is getting pretty smoky. Does the MRAP have anything explosive on it, like propane that might cause it to actually go up, or is it just going to catch fire? The engine itself could explode.

We need a new place to hide. Yeah, is there a place that we can run to? Not without exposing yourself. Because, like, we could maybe use the explosion of the MRAP as cover for us to run. And that's my train of thought right now. Because there's just one group on the ground with us. That's the only one left as far as we know. So maybe a group of three behind the rocks on the other side.

You do all have grenades. Start lobbing. Hug a grenade. I could just take them out. That's true. If we could toss our explosives and then use that for cover to run from the ground team and just book it into the higher main. mountains there. You might at least have a fighting chance, but we can't be on this road.

We got to move. I can toss some explosives if anyone else has experience with that. We could have two on the grenades and the others charging. Yeah, I think two of us are going to throw grenades to have the MRAP explode as a form of coverage for us to head towards the hills to get at least somewhere a better vantage point, or at least away from this immediate danger. So everyone is heading in the easternly direction past the MRAP and hopefully, hoping that nobody

fires at you as you run, and hoping that this will give you cover. Before we get into bullet time, I think it'll be physically obvious, but ICE is looking at trying to go for that bag again. Is there any, like, do you wouldn't seem like I could go for that evidence back? They can provide

cover and you can try it. I mean, no, if you're going to go for the bag, then you've got to be dropping a grenade in the MRAP and back in off. I can do it. I'm stronger. I can get the bag, I think. So let's just switch places. You can go with them.

You can charge. I'll go in. I'll plant the grenade. I'll take the bag out before, hopefully before the MRAP goes up. You fast, old man? Old man, what the fuck. Yeah, I'm good.

I can do it. I'm going to be the one to provide pilgrim coverage from any person as they're planting the grenade. I'll be at one of the boulders that is close enough to him that I can give him accurate coverage. And everyone else? I'm also at the probably the other boulder and I'm going to give cover. I'm just going to keep watch on the team that was on the hill.

I will stay at the closest boulder to the truck, even if it's a good distance away. And I'm going to look at the three behind the boulder, I believe, at our level. I've got a grenade ready for them. I just had a question on the leg. Is it on the calf or is it in the thigh? I'll say that it's on the thigh. Okay. I'm going to tournicate that thing so it does not go into artery territory and I lose blood.

I'm going to take out a grenade, but I am, because I know I'm wounded, I'm going to throw and I have to focus everything on a haul and ass when I have to. Actually, yeah, if you, I think I want to walk with Campbell to make sure that their, like, movement is all right. If you're chucking a grenade, because I was going to do that, you chuck and I'll carry it. All right, Campbell, go ahead and chuck the grenade. You'll make your attack roll. It's an athletics roll that you need to make. 23, I've passed.

Thank God. So that's a success. Make a lethality roll. Okay. That's eight points of damage. One of the men is running away. The explosion hits them in the back, and you see them throw their arms up and they collapse. You are definitely offering the good cover fire.

Pilgrim, you crawl into the... the MRAP, there is the bag that ICE wants. Give me a strength or dexterity check to pull it out of there. I'm going to give you a strength. I have a 41 under 85, so I succeed. You are able to pull it out. The entire MRAP is now full of black smoke, but you're able to locate the bag,

grab it, yank it out with a force that ICE didn't have, and you are able to get out. You are still right by the MRAP, though. I'll say that all of your movement was used. So you're still now exposed. I assume the rest of you will spend your turns kind of firing and giving cover. Yeah. I am going to make one final role to decide whether the MRAP explodes right now or as you run away.

Oh, fuck. I'll make it even more fair. One of the agents needs to make this luck roll, and Caleb, you might be the best candidate for this. You want to roll under 50. Oh, fuck. My last one, shit the bed. Come on, hubby. 24

Pilgrim you call it out you've got the bag you begin running the rest of you start supplying cover fire as you also begin moving there is no firing back at you if anything you can see the men

scattering in different directions avoiding you not attacking you anymore and you begin running out of this ravine area and And as you make the corner, there is a very loud explosion. And you can hear shrapnel flying and hitting the sides of the mountain. Some of you duck and drop to the ground.

And when the dust settles, you are all still here and you have survived the attack. The explosion echoes through the ravine. And the mushroom cloud of smoke rises up into the night sky. The burning wreckage of the MRAP is your only source of light. The soldiers that attacked you, you can. hear them still running off in the distance. What are you doing in this moment as you put yourself back together?

Hyde definitely, as much as they're, like, upset in the situation, they want to make sure that Supps is okay, because I know Supps took a hit, right? GSW to the leg, yes. So I want to help them at least turnicat the wound and make sure that they're at least how we move forward with how bad they are.

Hyde, go ahead and make your first aid roll. Oh, shit. That is a success with a nine. Soups, you can roll a D4, and you will heal by that much. Oh, I heal three. Well, while I'm assessing the wound before I get started with soups, I'm going to go like rummaged through my like vest really quickly. I'm going to find like an old stale package of like peanut M&Ms I got from like some REM like bag.

And then before I like get into it, I'm going to look at soups. I'm going to go ah. And then I'm just going to pop. like two M&Ms in their mouth, and then I'm going to start tightening a tourniquet around their leg to try to make sure the bleeding is at least stop, or they can at least be walkable. Well, I'm caught.

It's, you got to understand, you just gave me smushed M&Ms in your pocket, and they're hot, and I'm trying to focus on that instead of you yanking my leg apart. Listen, is you co-pilot good? I think we need to get everybody together. We got, we got a Delta.

We got to leave as soon as we can. Yeah, my co-pilot's going to be fun. But it would be so great if we had another MRAP, you know? Just what we normally do around here. Two MRAPs go out on a mission. Now we're stranded in the desert. Yeah, I'm sorry if I didn't correctly give you the circumstances that you're walking into, but that's not something we get here.

We have to make do. We're going to make our way on foot. We're going to do our best for your brother. I'm trying to do my best for your brother. So if you cannot come down too hard on the lack of MRAPs, I think we'll be fine here. Bryant and Booker, Bryant on the ground, kind of writhing, doesn't seem to be injured, but just seems annoyed and pissed. Booker reaches his big hands out and helps the smaller Bryant up, dusting each other off, says, man, fuck Morales and fuck you guys.

Look at this situation. We're totally fucked because of, because your dumb asses asked us to go along with you. Hold on, hold on. You're welcome to try to walk back if you want, but it tells right. Something unpredictable, something unfortunate happened to all of us, and we just need to try to stick together. Something unfortunate. Dude, we were almost out of this fucking hellhole until you guys told us to come along. This is bullshit. You can either walk back to FOB or you can come with us. Oh, believe me, we are not coming with you. That is for goddamn sure. We're going to stay right here and we're going to call the fob and we're going to get the hell.

out of here? I want to call the fob. You'll be discharged. What? So what? I'm gonna go with you into the frickin' desert? You can walk back yourselves and hope that they don't take your position and everything that you have.

But if you call them right now, if you go back, I mean, they're going to know what we did. Hey, hey dude, look, and he comes over to you and he points very, very obviously in the direction of Vargita Mouni. He says, Morales went that way. Right up IED Alley. You want to go, you have at it. I'm fucking done. I'm staying right here and Booker calls out. So am I.

Damn. Fine. I think ICE looks to both of them. Is it clear that there's anything in the, like, completely flipped over car that might be, like, worth grabbing? Is there, like, meal bags or something? Or does it kind of seem like it's burnt? The MRAP is currently on fire, a blaze of glory.

You can feel the heat from here over 10 meters away. What you do notice, because you're the only. only one who was asked, when you look in the direction of the vehicle, you can see a body. The man that fell from the cliff at the beginning of combat, or more towards the middle of combat, is on the ground, and he seems to be moving as if he is still alive. I'm going to go over and as close as I can without fucking with the fire and take a closer look. At this point, I'll say that Lopez, during this entire exchange, hasn't dropped their gun and their watch on the hills where everyone was running,

keeping an eye out. And as soon as ICE starts moving, I'm watching her back. Lopez, you're looking in that direction, so you probably also noticed the man. Ice, you begin walking in the direction of this person. You get close enough to distinguish this is some kind of man in his late 20s, early 30s. The problem is that he has a very bad abdominal wound.

It looks like some intestines are sticking out of the lower half of his stomach and there's blood caked on his shirt. But he is kind of breathing these shallow breaths and you can see his eyes glinting in the dark. He's looking in your direction, kind of watching you in his last moments alive. Does it seem like he's just lying flat on the ground? Yeah, there is no weapon that appears to be on him. His AK-47, you can notice is kind of tossed a couple meters away. There's a good chance his legs are broken and he has. you know, with his last bit of strength,

kind of propped himself up on a rock. We gotta get moving. Fuck. I'm just gonna go up to him, um, and... You walk up to him, and you're just kind of looking at him. You can tell that he's kind of breathing his last breaths,

and he begins to speak in the local tongue. And you are versed in the language you can understand. And through pained breaths, he is saying, Kala, Gotti, is cursed. It's curse like poison spreads. It will spread to you if you go there. I think the only thing she says is it's too late for that and gets back and goes back to the group.

As you are walking back, Lopez, you are watching Ice. The two soldiers, Booker and Bryant, come up next to you. And Booker says, all right, Lopez, look, I think I've got it still working walkie-talkie. I'm gonna call in the fob. We're gonna sit here tight. I think they'll probably be here in a couple hours, and then we can go back to the base, okay? Yeah, yeah, you guys can't, you guys go back safe.

They'll be, you'll be okay. Yeah, no, we are gonna go back safe. Believe me, we're gonna make sure you get out of here, buddy. I can't break my word, man. I told them I'd help, and I can't leave. I'm going to. Dude, you don't owe these people anything. Fuck them.

They nearly killed us. Look, I don't, There's no reason for me to go back. Family? That's no reason? Man, I'm only here so they have good medical insurance. You know that. I'm not cut out to be like a family person, dude. I'm here to keep my word in more than one way.

And I need you to not tell them I stayed intentionally. I need you to make it sound like a fight. Lopez, you're fucked. What are you talking about? Booker stops Brian. who is kind of trying to convince you. They're screwed, man. Forget it, man. If they're not going to fucking come for...

Man, fuck this. And Booker gets up and starts kind of walking back towards the MRAP, passing Agent Ice on the way. Brian looks at you. Stets stands up, walks, kind of turns, looks back at you. Lopez, now or never, man. Don't let him say I lied or cheated or turned coat. Bryant's shoulders slump in astonishment

at this disaster. decision and he starts to back up away from you. Lopez, you do have a family back home that you know care for you. This decision almost defies logic and I need you to make a sanity test for abandoning logic and risking your life to help these people. That is a failure with an 81. Ooh, please roll a D6. One.

Not bad. You can project it if you like. Not to finally eat it. Soups. People are choosing sides. The two of the soldiers have walked away from the group. You face a similar choice. What are you going to do? Oh, God. I'm going to be high.

I'm like, I'm going to be a liability. I'm going to be a liability right now, aren't I? I mean, you're never a liability, but like, you know, it's your brother. I can't ask you to go if you don't want to go. You've, I mean, you've gone this far, but if it's safer with Booker and Brian. I'm asking you, I'm asking you, because I will not put you, your brother at rescue. I mean, soups, I'm going to do whatever it's.

takes to get him back home, you know, but I can't. Do you want me to come? Yes or not? Yeah, I do want you to come. I'm going to go ahead, strap up, and I'm going to make sure that I have like strapped, but not too heavy because it's going to wear me down. But yes. Yeah, it does hurt, but as you kind of start to walk around on the wound, you find that you can walk. It just is not comfortable, but it's not like you're going to bleed out to death. I want to take, uh, I want to take soups pack then.

So if soups can at least take the first leg of this without having to carry something heavy on their back, I'm going to take both of their packs. I mean, I'll go up to ICE and tell and, you know, try to just regroup. Can we move forward? I don't mean to be pissy. I can be pissy. Can we move forward? Yeah.

We're finding Liam Morales. That's something we all have in common. Do what you got to do for your family. Okay. You grab your packs and you steal. yourself and you look east towards Vargita Mountain. By vehicle it's only an hour drive

but on foot in the dead of night it's going to take a while hours at the least. Bryant and Booker stay back. You can see their frames silhouetted by the flames of the MRAP as they watch you head out into the desert. The terrain is rocky

and gets rockier as you hit the foothills of Vardita Mountain. The late night turns into early morning and the sun rises. I need all of you to roll a D6 as you have chosen to forego sleep for the evening and you will reduce your willpower by that much. Four.

Four. Four. Four. Four. Two. Fours all around. Fours and twos. Along with the rise of the sun comes the rise in the heat. It quickly returns and all of you are carrying armor and gear.

Each agent, I need you to roll a survival check. Agent Hyde, you're going to do this at minus 20. because you are carrying the pack of soups. Does that mean soaps gets a plus 20? Yes. Oh, I mean, okay, minus 20. I don't have anything in survival, and it's a 10%, so I think that's like... It's an automatic failure, then.

It's a success. I have a success. Success. Critical failure with a 100. Ouch. Ouch. Oh, no. Whoa.

Wait, I lied. I misread my dice. It's a, it's a 10, not a 100. Sorry. If we record like 10 more fucking seasons of this show, we will still never get the 10-100 thing correct. It just won't happen. For some reason, it just doesn't click. You like, you want it to be 100, and you want it to be good.

It's always like a different one of us getting it wrong to, like, we take turns. It really doesn't end up good for anybody, regardless of your role, and I'll explain why. You climb the mountain. It is arduous. It takes hours. you will all gain a level of exhaustion. It's really just down to who gets it first, hide, you being first,

and then anyone else who may have failed is next. But by the end of this travel, you all have a minus 20% to every single skill. Over this spur of the mountain, the path eventually leads into a valley. And the shadows of the mountain shroud you. For a moment, it's slightly refreshing. You're out of the extreme direction.

sunlight. You're up high, and that's when you see it. Across the way, about two kilometers, is a small village that squats at the far end in the shadows of limestone cliffs. It's Caligati. It's got to be. What do you do? I don't think we can afford to camp out and try again tomorrow. I think we're going in now. I think we at least got to watch the horizon a little. I mean, they can't have just sent what squad to protect in this place. There's got to be something watching, right? Everybody pick a direction. Anyone who is actively kind of looking to see the lay of the land make an alertness check.

You could also make a search roll. Alertness it is. I have a success with 36 under 80. I failed with a 75. Success with a 1. I got a 1. Nice fun! Both Lopez and ICE rolled a 1.

Incredible. That is considered a critical. There doesn't appear to be any scouts. It feels very informal. These huts and this village resembles villages that you've seen, except it's kind of built into the ravine that it sits in. You can see that there is a larger structure that seems to be kind of built into the mountain on the other side. Almost looks like a temple of some kind.

There is a statue or something, something that is shiny, that is reflecting the ambient light. And so it stands out. You all eventually can hear that there is a noise. It's, um, it almost sounds like a screaming or a moaning that is echoing in the valley. And the longer you spend trying to zero in on it, it's clear it's coming somewhere from within the village. It almost sounds like the person is in pain, but you could misconstrue it as like an ecstasy as well. It's very, very unsettling. It, this is nothing like prayer.

Like we're, we're not hearing that correct. I just want to make sure. You have seen types of ecstatic prayer that kind of do resemble what you're hearing. But then there'll be this cry of pain or shriek that messes with the tone of it. But it does sound human. And it's one voice or many? One voice. Echoing through the whole pink valley.

Hyde, you don't recognize Liam's voice. It doesn't sound like Liam. Should we go to him? I mean, if he's going to be anywhere, it's going to be somewhere in this city, and we might as well start with the thing we can recognize, right? But listen, I don't know if I stressed this enough when we left, but like, when we get down there, you're going to see shit that I don't think that you're fully ready for. And it's probably going to be on the other side of that voice. And the things are going to change for you. You're going to become a new person when those things happen to you.

So I need you to just try and stay together, try and stay cool, and try to trust each other, because when it starts, everything changes. I'm at this point. Like, God can come down and talk to me, the individual. I'd be still like, okay, whatever. So have at it. It's going to be fine. Tell them.

We can handle it. Whatever it is. I think we go. I was going to say, can we, like, form up, though, to make sure, like, how are we, like, I'm going to be, like, kind of luck. I'm like, which direction, which path? Is there a pathway? Are we, we, like... There does appear to be a more obvious pathway down into the valley that takes you right into the heart of the city, but you do believe, the village, excuse me,

but you do believe that you could probably also circumvent it or, or... try a more silent, stealthy route? Yeah, I mean, if we could go the sort of, like, less detectable way towards the temple, that might be, that might be best. Anyone who's approaching the village, please make a stealth role. Damn. Failure with a 91. Fail, man, this exhaustion is killing me.

Fail with a 29. I have a success with a 35. I pass with a 26. You begin to make your dissent, and the exhaustion is clear. Most of you are stumbling down, little rocks tumbling past the silent Asian tell and even soups. Not long after you enter the valley, you begin to notice that there is small but obvious plant life, bushes, scrubs, things like that, the grasses. This plant life is ugly and diseased looking. what I will say is that none of you immediately understand what you're looking at,

but it is clear that this plant life is suffering from some kind of ailment of some kind. It almost seems like there's a like a fungus growing on some bits of it. Sergio, is there anything distinctive like dots on the leaves or anything like that? Because there are like tree diseases that happen in Pennsylvania and Ohio that I know about. It resembles something like a tree disease, but these are kind of desert plants that are very hearty and tough. And so it's strange. And it's also, it's not a typical thing where you might see black dots on a leaf or a graying of the plant. It's almost as if something is growing on the plant, like a fungus.

It's somewhat cobwebby. What do you think, you think we need to tagging back this? It'll be here after we take a beat. We'll come back and I'll take pictures. Yeah. So I think just in case he'll snap a few photos with his cell phone and then move on. Approaching the village, it starts to smell of mold and rot and the chemical lie. It seems very sparsely populated.

There are several homes, most of them kind of built into the side, but you don't see a lot of people. And you kind of stumble your way down. Any semblance of stealth is by this point you think obvious that you have been either seen or noticed if there's anyone around to see or notice you. As you make your way through the buildings in these tiny cramped alleyways that lead through the valley, you can see that there are these symbols kind of etched into the crumbling doorframes of these huts. None of you, I believe, speak Hindi or Uldu. Do you?

No. I would say that the best that you can recognize is that this is not the language spoken in Afghanistan. Do these symbols look like anything we saw in Liam's quarters? No. Is the symbol the same on every house? No, the symbol does seem to change. Does it repeat ever?

If you're paying attention closely to the symbols, it does seem like there is a repetition eventually. TAL is going to take out some sheets from a fucking manic-looking, He keeps on the side of his belt that just looks like no human being should continue writing in it. And he takes a scrap of paper from one of the pages that are not used, but it's really just the last little slip at the bottom. And he tries to get the best he can like a charcoal etching of the language. I think that's easy enough to do. The moaning continues in the background as you silently make your way through the city.

that's still that crying out is almost taunting you deeper into the village. Man, they are having a fucking good time, huh? Playing in pleasure, that's what people like, right? Yeah, it's a damn good dragon

making you feel like that. Didn't take you for a monster fucker's tell. I've lived a long life. Stick around long enough, this business will do it to you. Maybe I don't want to stick around then. Eventually, you make your way to what feels like the village square, kind of the center of the space,

and there on the ground is this man. He looks pale and thin, frail, and is writhing on the ground in ecstasy, in pain. It's unclear. But he really doesn't pay you much mind as you kind of enter the space, and he'll stop. It almost seems like he's starting to fall asleep

and then cry out again and writhe, and then eventually calm down. I think Lopez starts making their way up to him with a first aid kit. Just out of habit of we found the problem, we should see what's up and deal with it. I think Pilgrim draws his weapon, follows behind. I'm also going to draw my weapon,

but look around to make sure no one's trying to sneak attack. Yeah, I'm looking around. So you're paying attention more to the perimeter and stuff? Once I see, yeah, once I see Lopez is covered, I'm going to go ahead and be like, okay, I'm going to make sure. Does anyone, is there anyone else around this man that's, like, does it kind of seem like they're ignoring him? There is not immediately anyone visible, if you're asking that, but you can also make an alertness check. And why don't you also, soups, make an alertness check?

Lopez, are you attempting to help this man once you get close? Or are you just, like, looking at him? I think I'm approaching slowly enough to look at him, look for any outward signs of injury, damage, pain, blood, any of that. And then once I have like a handle on that, I'll figure out what I'm going to do, I think. You drop to one knee in front of this man. You kind of forcefully turn him over to look at him

and to inspect to make sure that there's nothing wrong with him. What you immediately notice is that there are these sores by his lips, by his nostrils, around his eyes. they remind you of the fungus you saw on the plants as you traveled. And when you look in his eyes, you see that they are glassy and rolling in his head, and any chance of reaching this man is probably going to be impossible. He doesn't appear to be injured in any way. He's just enraptured.

Ice and soups, did you succeed on your roles? Yeah, succeed in a bit of 21. Both of you do notice then, before everyone else, there are villagers that begin coming out from the backs of homes, through doors, turning an alley. There's about three or four individuals, one woman, three men, all of them pale, frail, and kind of blister-eyed looking at you excitedly. Any weapons? It does not appear that they have any weapons. They are dressed in very simple garments. wraps and things like that.

But they almost seem excited to see you. There are these half smiles kind of painted across their face as they see you and they slowly creep towards you, seeming with no fear. I don't know if they have like stuff strapped to them, so I'm definitely going to keep tense. I'm going to be like, if they get to a point

where they're going to close, I'm going to be like, stop. They do get close to where you need to call that out. You see one turn to the other and they say, Navagantuk. Navantuk. And they are kind of whispering the same word to each other. Again, in a language that none of you seem to recognize. You're like, Navatuk that way.

Is there, I'm going to try to piece together. Basically, we're just here looking for our friend the best that I can and sort of make it seem like, yes, we're not here to fuck your shit up, essentially. You call out to them. You put up a hand. You know, you're trying to show that you're peaceful or that you don't mean any kind of harm to these people. they don't seem to be aggressive towards you. They seem kind of curious about you.

And eventually they all kind of collect encouraging you to follow them, saying something new. Badabahan. Badabahan. And they're gesturing for you to follow them. And they seem to be trying to lead you towards what looks like a larger home.

Almost looks like several huts kind of combined to be a larger home. We don't got to go with these people unless we know they have Liam. Who's got that picture of him? I do. Yeah, I'll walk up to, since I've been just kind of standing there, I'll just walk up to one of them and show them the picture as well.

They nod enthusiastically. They point the picture and they say, Bad the Bahan. And they, again, gesture for you to follow them. All right. Well, Aston answered. You got hand sanitizer ice? Yeah.

That guy, there's something. Around his eyes, his mouth is no. knows. Looks like the plant shit. If there's any sort of like gloves and like masks that I have, I'm going to pass them out to everybody. Just be careful. Pilgrim's going to go and take pictures of the man in ecstasy before we continue on. You snap a couple of photos with your cell phone before following these folks. They don't take you very far. You basically go around this larger building that you see.

and they gesture towards the front door and there sitting rather informally in the threshold of the home is an ancient looking woman an old old woman with this white hair long she has a couple of long whiskers growing out of her chin and she seems to be brewing something right at her feet and she notices you

and she gestures to the other villagers and she puts her hand out to you, you and she says, please, sit. She speaks in perfect English. I'm boiling green tea, if you would like some. Please have a sit. Enjoy sitting in front of the temple of our God. And she gestures to the temple that I mentioned earlier

that is kind of built into the hill that is across from her home. So it's basically behind you as you are facing her. Temple to Zoom. Yeah? She laughs, this kind of, you know, these naive people. And she says, that young god? No, no. His worshippers died thousands of years ago.

Our god is much, much older, much, much more powerful. We call him Babajan, and you may call him Babajan as well. Do you guys sit? Yeah, I'll go and sit. I mean, I'll take a look at, like, tell an ice if it's like, okay, but I'm going to sit down if this lady knows what's up. Give Hyde a little nod, but he speaks to him and says, I got bum legs. It's better if I stand. And the gun is out in front, but down at his hip. It's not in firing range whatsoever. I don't want to be a threat, but I also don't want to be taken for a fool.

And he looks to hide and he'll whisper, maybe just don't drink the tea. Okay. I'll sit down, then right, like directly across from her. She looks you up and down, hide, looks in your eyes. and says, I recognize you. You are like, like Liam. Are you his sister? Yeah, yeah, I am. He told me about you.

Where, uh, where is he? I mean, I'd love to see him. I came to visit. Liam came to Caligadi several days ago. He was dehydrated and sick and seemed lost. He said he came seeking wisdom. And so we took him up the hillside and into the temple to recover. He has been there since.

Can you lead us to him? I am too old to climb the hill, but they can. She gestures to the villagers that have led you towards her. And how has his recovery been, if he's been in the temple recovering? You will have to ask him that yourself. He is with Babajan. And so are we. So are you.

We all will live forever with Babihan. Can we see and verify for Liam that he's okay? If you are ready to go, my people will lead you. I've got a few questions, I guess. what we saw the plants, your friends, the screams, what's happening to people? They have sores, wounds. Is that the touch of your God?

You can see that the old woman also has these sores and wounds, similar to the other villagers. There is no difference between her and the others. She says, we have no wounds. We will live forever in the glory and the wisdom of Babajan. He will take us and lead us. He will show us about the forgotten gods greater than even him. We have no fears here.

No fears of death. We are happy and healthy. Cool. Cool. Yeah. Ice is going to wait for the sound of that man screaming to come back and say, so he's doing all right. Oh, yes.

He is in the ecstasy of Babajan's presence. We're all gifted it once in a while. We all live here in the bosom of Babajan. What else does he preach? What else is he trying to bring us? Babajan teaches that most of us are asleep, even when awake. Babi Jean says that only the most important,

sometimes frightening events, wake us up and make us truly alive. Death awakens the sleeper. So what in that text? they're trying to wake everybody up. Do any of you have a human intelligence of 60% or more? There it does. 50.

You can't seem to really get much more out of her than that. She can exposit on and on all of these kind of pseudo philosophies of what Babajan is. He is light and dark. He is earth and water. Wind and fire. Time and timelessness. It seems like she can go on like this for hours. I'm going to interrupt her at one point. Will Babajan have?

issues if we take Liam with us if we leave. Why would you do that? Liam is happy here, as we all are. Because Liam needs to come home. That's why we came for him. I see no reason why Babi-Jean would have a problem, as once you see him, you can feel his presence forever. Anywhere Liam goes, he will know that Babi-Jean is with him.

I'm going to take that as a yes. How long you've been here? She seems to kind of genuinely look away and contemplate and she says, time doesn't matter near Bombajan. And to be honest, I can't recall. It's a hell of a thing. But you know what people are saying about this place, that you're cursed, that this, all of this is cursed?

Again, she smiles and says, We don't care what the Navagantuk say. We are free of the earthly problems here in the bosom of a barbara. Baba Jean. May I ask, who taught you this a mech? Like, this is amazing, like English. You are not the first Navagantuk to speak this language, to come here and visit us. We must seem like fucking roaches to you, huh? I mean, we've been alive like a fraction of what your God has given you. We must seem like bumbling little fools, huh? Everyone under the shadow of Babajan is like a roach.

What happens when people go with Babajan? Where do they go? It is difficult to describe the being in the presence of Babi Jean, but be rest assured that you will know his glory when you see it. You should go for yourself. Is there anyone in this room that looks like they aren't completely buying it, like there's anybody deconstructing in here? They all have their eyes fixed on you,

and all of them, although it's at least so, far clear that they don't speak your language. They seem very a part of the conversation, nodding and smiling, seem to understand what she's saying, even though they've given no indication that they speak the language. If you'd like to make a psychotherapy role to maybe understand these people better, you can attempt that. Sure. We've been rolled well. Not that damn well. That's a 22 over 10. Okay, so that's not a success, if anything, that's a critical failure. It's just, it's so bizarre to see these people who seem to have nothing,

seem to be suffering from some kind of ailment, but they are just so happy to be here, so happy to have you here. Soups is going to kind of nudge, because she's getting impatient, is like going to lead towards agents. Like, is there anything else that you have to ask? Because I would rather not have a philosophical debate

and rather go ahead and make sure that's... It's up to you. I feel good. You guys feel good? I'm sorry, I should rephrase. I'm done. Are you guys done? I think before we go,

ICE is going to stay low. She's going to get on her knees and reach out for the woman's hand as sort of like reverence, like a goodbye, and just say, thank you so much. This was incredibly helpful. And I want to check her pulse to see if she's, dead. She dead.

You'll need to make a, either a medicine or if you can argue for a different skill, I would be willing to listen to it. I want it to be alertness because that's the skill I have. That's the best. I think alertness is fair. Go ahead. Make an alertness check to see if you can feel a pulse as you shake her hand, squeeze her hand. It's an 83 over 80. And even with minus 20, it wouldn't, it would is a failure. I think I'm too too tired. You're too tired. You grab her hand. Her hands are cold, but they are not ice cold. They are not dead cold. You don't hang on to her long enough to feel that pulse, but she seems to be

reacting in every way that a living person would react. Okay. Then she gets up off the floor and says, thanks again. Let's go. Yeah, I will get up and thank her as well and start heading towards the temple. Go be with Babajan. I will see you again. Sure you will. Thank you. You turn and the three villagers begin excitedly ushering you towards what appears to be this temple-like structure.

Now that you are close to it, you can see there is this possibly solid gold statue of what appears to be some kind of dragon-like entity. ancient in its design. You know, only those of you with any kind of tutelage or study in arts or archaeology or anthropology can recognize this as being exceptionally old.

I actually have a 40% in art, because that was something I specifically got a degree for. With that statue, would that have like, would it have, like, triggered something like, oh, I think that a little bit of info off of that design that I might have been aware of?

Yeah, you know, especially combined with what you learned back at Fob Turner, you're looking at it, and you're recalling everything that you learned about Zoon back at Fob Turner, and you realize this is probably a depiction of that ancient God Zune. Mm, okay. It is a climb up the hill, taking some time, and it is a treacherous pass. It doesn't require any kind of a role unless you are wearing body armor or carrying weapons, which I assume all of you are. So, for that reason, I'm going to ask you all to make athletics checks or athletic tests to try to get up without issue.

I succeeded. Same. I failed. I failed by 4. Failed. Please roll a D6, and you will reduce your willpower by that much. One loss, but I am pushing it. I'm at 3.

I'm at 1. Am I fell up? No, you are going to fall unconscious. So now here's what happens. You are climbing up the hill, and Lopez, who has already looked faint and pale, begins to stumble. You recognize that Lopez is falling and could potentially fall and hurt themselves. I'm going to try and catch Lopez, like wrenched by the collared pack and bring them back in. I think, yeah, I would.

One person can attempt to make an unarmed combat or a strength role, but one person, person and you can have plus 20 because you are being assisted by Hyde or if it's the other way around by Tell. I have 60 or currently minus 20 would be 40% in strength plus 20. So I would have 60. I'd have an 85. Then you, then I'll... Yeah, I have a 15 under 85. So describe how you save Lopez's life. I think it's just like these are like switchbacks we're climbing up. I think it's one of those slides as they go comatose for just a moment and their legs even dip off the side. But Pilgrim

sort of half-dives and catches by the back shoulder of the body armor, which probably, you know, bruises a rib or something, but he does everything in his power to just wrench and toss them back the other way because there's no way you're holding that amount of weight. So it's just this big toss the other side to try and get them center of the road. At this point, Lopez is is too exhausted to continue on their own. You can leave them here, or one of you can continue carrying them up the hill. The villagers kind of crowd around them excitedly, you know, touching them and grabbing their arm. I'm pulling that weapon back out.

Back. They raise their hands and back up, but with smiles on their faces. Oh, fuck, I... Fuck, fuck, fuck. Um, we gotta... We can't leave them. Hold on. You guys go ahead.

You guys go ahead. I'll watch. I'll get, I'll get Lopez. Gives me minutes. Drink water. Get them up, okay? Yeah, it might be better for them to wait. Lopez, eventually you do come to consciousness.

I'll say, though, mechanically, you're basically out of commission at this point. I'll hear for arguments of you doing something if you really feel like you need to. But at the moment, you're pretty out of it. Cool. They're just kind of like blearily rubbing their eyes leaned up against the outside of the temple and like trying to speak to you soups, but it's kind of mumbled and not

it sounds like their mouth is full of marbles. I'm thinking that they might have he strobe. That's my thinking, especially with this epa he. So I'm going to just make sure they take sips of water. That's my goal. Try to get them to cool down. At the top of the climb, the peak overlooks the village on one side and the sprawling mountain side on the other.

It's airy and starkly beautiful. This kind of dizzying emptiness of sky all around contrasting with the dark hidden valley of the village below. But you can see that there is this makeshift door of stone and there is this large uneven crack in the limestone about two meters across and six high.

There are what appear to be ancient statues that are reminiscent of Hindu gods that are now broken and defaced, having fallen over and toppled. But there is very clearly through this massive crack and entrance into the darkness. What time is it right now? Sorry. Seven, eight in the morning. Okay, so it's still daytime now currently. We haven't gotten... It is now early daytime, yes. Okay. But you said this was carved into the mountain, so it's, it is, like, dark. We don't see any

light coming in. There does not appear to be any light as you kind of approach the crack. You can see that there are maybe naturally made stairs or maybe man-made stairs, but there is stairs that descend down into the darkness. And it appears pitch black. Is there sound emanating from the darkness at all? Do we hear any of? If you listen closely, nothing more than a kind of wind, the way you would hear in any kind of natural cave, a humming sound, but nothing that appears obviously. out of place. This is like the point of no return. What happens to us next is of our own volition.

So I'm not going to make anybody go down there. But Morales, I can't guarantee that Liam's going to be in any state that you recognize. So I just want you to be ready for that. As long as he's alive, we'll figure out the rest. Yeah. We will. Agent Ice, Agent Pilgrim, and Kona, you three begin your descend as Soupes and Lopez, and the three villagers stay behind, them squatting, keeping their distance,

but kind of making camp, and they just kind of sit there quietly as you all make your way. Can I tell Sups really quickly that if we don't come back by sundown, take Lopez and leave here. Just get you, shut up so you can get back here faster. Just do it. Okay? and then I'll go. Sorry. Beyond the threshold, these human scale steps descend between these sheer walls of what looks to be uncarved stone,

unevenly deep, deep into the dark. Eventually the light from above is lost, and you are in darkness. I would probably have like a thermoite torch or something in my backer. You have the torches, you have regular flashlights as well as your night vision goggles. Let's do a thermite torch because it, I think, will shoot the most, like, ambient light possible for us.

After descending for a while, Agent Ice, you notice a large crack in the stone, and you don't think too much about it until you see another one, and you realize that these are joints, these are the meeting of two massive stones. You start to think, how is that possible? These blocks,

would be massive in size. They must weigh hundreds of tons each, yet they are impossibly deep beneath the cliffs. It feels as if this area is not simply naturally made, and I'm going to ask you to make a sanity test. Okay, and for my own brain, the two large pieces of stone, they're the same kind of stone, right? They seem to be made of the same kind of limestone, yes.

Okay, cool. That is a success, 28 under 70. You won't lose any sanity in the epochs of time that have passed. Maybe these two stones have shifted in some way, and this can be explained in a natural way, even though it doesn't look natural at all. Yeah, there's a big slab in front of a million smaller pieces of stone. It's fine. It's aesthetic.

I failed. Oh, you did fail. Well, then you will roll a D4, please. Four. What do you feel is going on, Pilgrim? I think that the words from the out. elder sister are like rocking around in his brain, the concept of something that is out of time, that is out of existence, that has been here so long that it's been both forwards and backwards,

aligns with a lot of the psychosis that he's been dealing with himself, and suddenly it all starts to make sense with him moving through this cave. And he's starting to double his memories. He's starting to feel like he's been here before. He's starting to feel like he's supposed to to be here. He's starting to feel like this is exactly where he's supposed to be. But this might have been where it started, it ended, and everything in between. And just looking up those rocks, it feels like home. I think I remember this. What? What do you mean remember this? I think it's just deja vu, but just the feeling of this stone, the way the light bounces off it, the way it looks, it just you guys don't feel that? I mean, something

feels off, but it's just rock. Like, I don't know. How do you remember a rock? I don't know. I don't know. I feel like I remember all of this. I mean, up to the second, I think I could tell you I could remember you saying that. When the stairs

end at last, the air is thick with smells of acid and mold and rot. You have to cover your face to not be bombarded with it. And using the torch, the flashlight, you wave it around, the space and you can see that you are in a vast chamber and one of many. The walls and the floors are shaped more

intricately than the long stairs in these kind of vast, curving, spiking designs that almost seem to fold into each other in bizarre ways that kind of hurt your eyes to look at them too long. You can see that across the way there is an opening about 30 meters tall that leads to another chamber. What do you do? I'm going to, especially if I feel like Tell is starting to kind of get lost in the space, I'm going to try to take a little bit of a lead and see if I can hear anything coming from that chamber before we go into it. The walls have changed color, whereas you kind of walked down clearly limestone. Down here, there is a kind of black, green, not glow, but reflectivity to the stone. down here. It's very unusual, something you've never seen before. As you lead the way, Ice,

you approach the gaping doorway, and one moment you're kind of walking towards the door, and the next moment there's a corner, there's a wall where there was space, and you start to put together that the symmetry of this place is so bizarre that you're actually seeing optical illusions, and there are spaces where there aren't actually spaces, and you almost just walked into a wall, you almost can't trust your senses down here. I'm going to ask that you make another sanity test. Shit. It's going to be fine. That's a fail with a 79. You're going to lose one point of sanity, as you realize maybe your senses can't be completely trusted down here, but you are able to kind of touch along the wall and you are able to find

the actual doorway that leads you deeper in. Yeah, I'm going to start. leaving a trail of, um, like a, if there's like a meal pack or something, I'm going to start leaving a trail of something as we go. As you enter the next space, you all three at the same time hear a kind of cry, a scream. That's Liam. It's got to be. It sounds like him. Yeah, I'm going. I'm moving. Wait, hide. We, shit. Okay, then I'm, I'm picking up speed. Maybe we shouldn't just be running into rooms. Tell, come on. I think looking back at Tell to tell him to come on, his forehead is pressed against the rock of this place,

and he's just sort of draping himself along the wall, left and right. And the noise sort of brings him back to existence. He turns, he looks to you, and he chases after you. He goes with you. Hide leading the way now, running into the darkness. You run into a room, and Liam is there, visible, kneeling in the dark. with no light of his own, completely nude, on his knees, before a large angular black stone slab that is high as a barn. Is his back to me?

He is profiled to you. Then, yeah, then I'm going to run directly up to him and, like, crouch, like, slide, crouched down to him. And then I'm just going to, like, if he's not going to react to that, then I'm going to make him, like, look at me first before I hug him. Hyde, you run in, the other two kind of stop in the threshold of the door. I'm going to ask that Ice and Pilgrim make alertness tests. Hyde, what you start to realize is Liam isn't screaming. He's singing. His voice is raspy as if he lost it days ago.

And yet, in reverie, he sings at the pillar. I hear music. I hear music Trying to push out This song through a broken throat He doesn't look at you though And you are kind of wrestling Do you say anything to him?

Yeah, I'm calling his name I'm like, hey, hey, I'm like I want to force his head to look at me If he's not going to pay attention to me I want him to like put his Like us both make eye contact with each other You grab his head And he is so depleted

of strength, that he almost kind of collapses in your arms. His head is still tilted up towards the sky, but he's now got you in his line of sight, and his eyes kind of shudder for a second, and they look at yours, and there is this kind of clarity that comes over him. He says, blood, and he gestures towards you as if he's almost suggesting blood as in family, as in relations.

Hey, it's me. It's Kona. Hey, do you hear me? What is the result of the alertness tests for Ice and Pilgrim? I have a pass with a 31. 14. You both begin walking in to help high. Here it is. Finally, Liam is here.

And that's when you notice that that black pillar leads high up into the sky, and you can't help but follow it up. Almost sitting on top of this pillar is a vast hill, a bulging, scaly, mass of flesh that seems alternately gray-black green streaked with these white veins that pulse this polypice riot of pulsing slime filling the ceiling of the cave it indescribably large and I need the both of you to make sanity tests Surge, what the fuck is? I have a failure. Stop it.

If you succeed, you are only going to lose one sanity. If you fail, you're going to roll a D10. A D10? Eight points. Even if you projected it, you probably go temporarily insane. I go temporarily insane and hit my breaking point. Hyde, he keeps repeating the word blood, and then he finishes the sentence. Blood will awaken him and you see Liam draw a knife and he goes to stab it into your chest.

He deals you for damage, piercing through your armor as this old rusted knife slams into your gut. And you gasp in horror at what your brother is doing. All three of you feel the sudden rumble within the cavern and something above you begins to slightly move at the reaction of hide taking damage. Agent Pilgrim, you have arrived. Your home. This thing is everything. It was more than they could have ever warned you about. And you have to protect it. And Agent Ice is going to try to stop this. And you cannot allow that. You cannot allow Agent Ice or hide to survive. You must kill them both. What do you do?

Ice, what are you doing right now? Let me just get up. I am, I've already, ICE has decided that she's going to kick Liam out. Like, she's already running, getting ready to kick him to unconsciousness and get the fuck out of it. I think that from behind her, she hears the tell breathing harder than he has before and he calls back. Ice I'm awake and I think he takes the rifle

slung on his side he swings it and fires as much of a full clip into her back as possible I'm awake I'm awake I'm awake I'm awake

Agent Ice you feel like you could probably try to dodge yeah I'm yeah I'll do it Agent Pilgrim your weapon does have the ability to be kicked into automatic and have a lethality rating if you'd like to... I mean, here's the thing as I'm...

The god inside of my head told me to kill both. So I do think he'd probably go full auto. He's not exactly in his right line. It's a 45 under 80. That should succeed. Agent Ice, did you succeed on your roll? No, I rolled in 94. Please roll your damage, Agent Pilgrim.

Oh, my God. I got to remember what the rifle does. Let's see. A 1D12. That good one, that young one. It's seven, seven points of damage? Asian ice, are you still alive? I am. I am.

Agent Ice and ice, you've taken more than five points of damage. I need you to make a Constitution times five roll to find out if you are stunned by this incredible amount of damage. Fucking fair. No, I'm not. That's a past. You feel this searing heat and piercing, trip up your back, and you tumble to the ground in pain.

but you are still alive. Again, the room shakes, and you see a flap of a giant wing kind of unfold, and it moves into darkness, and then disappears back up into the darkness. Something is becoming more and more alive, the closer someone comes to death. Upstairs, high above on the mountaintop,

the entire mountaine seemingly shakes, and when it does, Supps and Lopez, You notice the three villagers suddenly burst into giggling and laughing. They triumphantly stand and they rush you. I'm gonna shoot. Sprang. Unfortunately, Lopez, you're not able to do anything, but you see these three maniacs running towards you.

Soups, go ahead and make that attack. 31.4. All right. Four damage to one of them. Okay. They are still up. They stumble backwards as you shoot them in the belly, but they just seem enraptured and screaming Babijan's name

as if they know the time is right. The other two are going to approach. One of them is going to be able to get within striking distance to attack you and Lopez. Lopez, you are unable to defend yourself. Can I just curl into a ball and like protect my head? Absolutely. As one of them brings a hatchet down on your head.

Oh, fuck. That is a failure, so they're going to swing, but you're able to kind of dump down just enough that they hit rock. The other one is going to attack you with a long knife. Supes, that is a two. Well, I've definitely got got. They are going to deal you three damage.

As one of them comes and just kind of stabs you in the arm that you had up, suddenly there is a blade and we are fully in combat. Like at the top of the mountain, is it like the peak and then sharp sides is a flat, like a flat area and then like drops? You're at kind of a point of a point. plateau, but it is pretty steep.

Okay. Let's return back downstairs. Hyde at the top of the initiative. Your brother has just attacked you. There's this gleam in his eye, and he pulls the knife out, and he's aiming to do it again. What are you doing? God. Yeah, I think for like a moment, I think as, like, Hyde's trying to, like, get themselves together, I think they're just going to mutter to themselves that it's like, whatever it is, it's going to be okay.

And then Hyde's going to try to block the knife and then sucker punch the knife and then sucker-punch the shit out of Gleum in the face just to knock him unconscious. Yeah, go ahead and make an unarmed combat and I'll say that if you're able to deal a reasonable amount of damage, it might knock him out. Yeah, that's a success with an

8. That's two points of damage. Yeah, he takes it to the face, stumbles back, but again, looks at you with this glee and says, blood will awaken the sleeper, and he goes for you again. I'm going to roll another attack. That's a 71, which failed.

So he just swings wide and you're able to kind of duck out of the way. You still have the wound, but you are able to protect yourself. Who has the higher dexterity, Ice or Pilgrim? I have a 14. I also have a 14. Both of you, let's roll D-Hundreds and whoever has the higher but doesn't go over 50, gets to go first. 37.

39. I hate this game. Agent Ice, last turn, you dodged. So there's not actually anything you can do in this round. I will say you have movement, though. So if you wanted, I will grant you enough movement to possibly hide behind this big pillar that is in the middle of the room. Yes, go towards the dragon. No, I want to, can I use my movement to just run as close as I can to him?

Without issue, you can get right in front of Agent Pilgrim, absolutely. I want to, if I'm going to, like, charge into him as hard as I can. If I could get us on the ground, that might be better. The way that we'll describe this is that you just have enough time to kind of balance yourself and run towards Liam. You don't have enough in this turn to take an action, but you are right in front of him. Pilgrim, what are you doing? As they start to charge Pilgrim's body just locks straight into the muscle memory of this. It has always been like this.

He knows exactly what it's like. So as they come full charge, he swings back with his rifle, budding it over, and then smacking the back of the, the butt of the rifle into Isis' face trying to impede the charge. Make a melee combat. Am I still? We're exhausted, right? So it's plus 20. I've been doing that, right?

It is at minus 20. Or minus 20, yeah. 18 under 30 still hits. You've got good rolls. Go ahead and roll us just a straight D4. Four points. Your body armor does still technically count. I'm going to say that you only take one point of damage, Ice.

Okay. Back at the top of the mountain. Things are getting really bad soups. I'm going to let you go, and then they're going to go. And then Lopez, if you can argue for a reason to do something, I'll listen to it. But soups, you're going to go first. What are you doing? The one that's, okay, so I have the knife in my arm.

One's right in front of you. One is currently trying to hatchet job Lopez. And there's one who's taken a shot in the gut, but is now recovering and still coming at you. How close to the edge am I? Relatively close, I would say three to five meters. Is there a way that I can go ahead and just do a defensive maneuver? That's all it is. And literally just pivot, arm, throw his ass over so I can stop hatch.

If you're trying to fight them to push them off the cliff, I'm going to need an opposed athletics check as they will be attempting to do the same. Fair. If not, can I take them with me? No, no, Amanda, that's plan C. Yeah, I failed. Oh, by like 20. They critically succeed with an 11.

Fuck! You are pushing them towards the edge, and just as you get there, their foot kicks you, and you go tumbling over the side. I'm going to roll some damage. What the fuck? The second historical scenario where a man has been thrown off of something. Or fallen from a great height. Well, I got to avoid some fucking stairs then. Yeah, I'm a fucker.

Ice picks up a flight of stairs. His greatest weakness. I didn't know. Sups, you go tumbling over the side, eventually crashing into the large rocks that are below, the craggy bottom hitting once, and then again, and you tumble over and over,

taking 20 points of damage. By Sups. Lopez, you are left alone with three maniacs. What the fuck? You have enough energy. to be conscious and to maybe pull something out of your ass. There's three of them, right? There's three of them alive. Yes. And they have all now turned and are approaching you with their weapons.

I think Lopez recognizes there's no way out of this for them. And they reach into their belt and pull out a grenade, pull the pin, hold it close, wait until the people are right on top of them, and then turn and throw the grenade up into their faces. And it's like not, not cushioning it with myself. There's the words. Their wild eyes are transfixed on you as you suddenly turn over and throw it above their heads. And as they begin kind of stabbing you repeatedly, your eyes watch the grenade fly up into the air. The rut, explode.

And your last vision is watching these men's faces as they ignite on fire. The last thing you see that their charred, broken hand comes up and kind of. covers the breast pocket of their front shirt and tries to pull it down and get their fingers inside, but they're just mangled and broken. And you see like the corner of a photo. And then they pass before you see what's on the photo. Back under the earth. Hide.

What are you doing? Am I aware of the background combat that's going on? I'll say that, yes, you heard the gunfire and you're becoming aware that something is happening between the two agents. Ah. I definitely want to get the knife out of his hand at this point. If I can get him attached from the most lethal weapon of his, then I can at least reassess this. It's not the first time I've had to crack on my brother.

So, yeah, so I like to at least try to grapple him in a way where I can get the knife out of his hand. If you'd like to disarm him, go ahead and make an unarmed combat strike, unless you can explain why you might be using a knife or something else. to make a melee combat role. Okay. That is a success with a 37. So what does it look like when you succeed on this? He might try again to like swing at me,

and then at that point, then I would try to use that leverage to put him in a grapple and just bring it down so that he has to let the knife go. If I pop his arm out of its socket in the process is doing that, it's better to get the knife out of his hand at this point.

Maybe if it was a critical hit, but at this point, what you have done is successfully knocked the blade from his hand. But he does not relent. Now, like an animal, he just goes for your jugular to try to choke you to death. He does have an unarmed combat of 50, and he rolled a 44, which is a critical success.

What? He's going to deal you six points of damage as he tries to choke you to death. unless you want to attempt to dodge. I have to dodge or he's going to kill me. Oh, please. That's success with a 40. You are able to leap out of the way.

One hand tries to go for your throat, but you know what he's trying to do and you just tumble out of the way. Back with the agents. You're up close and personal ice. Okay, I'm going to, if I see that it's not going well with Hyde and Lianne, I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to go up to Leahyb and literally kick him in the chest,

and I would like it to be done with him, please. Yeah, go ahead and make your melee, make an unarmed strike against him. Okay, fantastic. That's a success. D4.m. Stone. Three. Three damage is enough to trigger to see whether he will be knocked unconscious. He fails that roll. So you come up and you just kick him with the hard side of your boot. under his chin, blood spurts up into the air and he falls back seemingly unconscious. Then I'm gonna say,

you handle your brother and I'll handle mine and turn back to tell. It is now Pilgrimster. Yeah, I call out to Len now that she's got her back turned on me again after kicking Liam through. And I go, listen, I'm sorry about what I've been. I'm sorry, I've just been so fucking confused lately. I was trying to make sense of it all, and it's starting to make sense.

And we could do this. I can wake you up too. You'll wake up too. We can be together, Len. I figured it out. And I'm going to run immediately at her and try and German suplex her from the back. Just wrap my hands fully around her hips, and then port her over my shoulder as hard as I can, slamming her neck into the rock behind onto the floor so that I can grapple.

that feels like an unarmed combat. Go ahead and make that roll. Fuck. That's a 47 under my modified 60, so success. Go ahead and roll a D4, minus one. That's a three, so two. I'm still alive, bitch. Is the body armor still protecting the neck?

Or is that completely mitigated? How does that work? Because I have a vest. Even if I take the whole damage, I have just a little bit left. Right. I think what we'll say is, I think what will justify is just reduce that damage by one. So instead of taking two, you're just going to take one damage. Okay. Right. Because you're right that, yeah, the neck isn't necessarily protected by this armor.

Again, we're back. We're left with just the four individuals down here in the dark. Hide. You have a chance to run. You have a chance to try. try to pull Liam away, but you can't do anything this turn. What are you doing? You see that Pilgrim is saying crazy things, waving his gun around. You might be next. I can't leave him. I think that, you know, although you can't take an action,

I will say that if you want to grab Liam and just start pushing him towards, dragging him towards the exit, I think that's fair. You'll basically just make it to the threshold of the door. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to run. I'm going to grab him by like the back of. his shirt or whatever I can and just drag him as, you know, I'm exhausted. So I'm just, I can't even lift him higher than, and then that and just drag him as much as I can,

as much as I can to the door, it's the threshold. Ice, what do you do? I am, I'm still in the hold on the ground. I won't say that you're pinned, but he did basically suplex you onto the ground, but you can now take an action if you'd like. Shoot, I'm going to take. the medium pistol out and push it up against. I'm trying to visualize where I am,

but I'm going to push it up against. I feel like at this point, he's mostly on top of you. Damn. I'm going to push it into his chest and say, please, please be cool. Please, are we cool? Tell, please.

Are you going to hold your action? I'm going to hold to see the next thing he does, then I'll take the shot. And what is your reaction, Pilgrim? I think that on top of Len, he, like, presses his forehead against hers and then reaches up to hold her face and says, no, that's good. That's good.

You heard what he said. If we both bleed, we both wake up. Do it. Fucking do it. We can be together, Len. Do it. This is it. This is where it happens.

Do it, Len. And I'll hold two. I'll let her shoot. I mean, do I have time to change? change my order because I was going to shoot if he was going to try to kill me, but now I kind of want to headbut him in the face. Sure. Go ahead and make the attack.

87. It's almost as if he's anticipating it. Maybe it's because he's so close to you already, but you're just not able to get the leverage to really do some damage on his head. You were holding your action, though, weren't you, Bill? Yeah. She doesn't take the shot, and he looks almost upset over it, that she's. She won't join him on his level, which is an issue they've had since the beginning,

is that he has gone farther, and she is held behind, and he just feels so alone. And so he looks down, and he slams the fucking ground with his fist. He says, you're not fucking listening, Lenn, we could do this. We could be together. And he rips his hands around her neck and tries to slam her in against the floor. We could wake up. We could wake up. This could end.

Make another unarmed combat attack against her. 44, which is a critical success under 60. Ooh, well, whatever you roll, you will double the damage. Eight points of damage. Oh, no. No. There's no armor for that, buddy. Hide, as you make it to the threshold of the door,

you look back to see Agent Pilgrim smashing the back of Agent Issa's head into this green black rock over and over and over. blood beginning to pool out. The moment that happens, the entire cavern again shakes. And where once there was nothing but flesh, suddenly there are eyes, many eyes. And many mouths begin to open with razor sharp, irregular teeth as this thing, this massive Babajan begins to wake. I need the two of you to again make sanity tests.

I fail with a 91. I fail with a 92. The last ones. What do you think? Like a D20? D12? What are we looking at? No.

100. One. Just one. You are both overwhelmed by a psychic shout that emanates from this thing from Babi-Zan. It can only be approximated as a voice shouting or babbling something to you, some kind of nonsense. But it's clearly filled with utterly alien meaning and you both need to lose a D10 insanity. Can you go temporarily insane twice? No, you're just continuing to lose it.

That's three. We know how high lost their personnel. I'm at a 19 insanity. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. That's a good spot. I'm 20, baby. Agent Hyde, you did not lose enough sanity to warrant completely falling apart, but your body is rattling from fear.

You can barely hold on to Liam as you move. Do you continue to just run in the dark with Liam? Yeah, at this point, I'm going to try to grab him in a better leverage and try to carry him out of this place. Agent Pilgrim. You are enraptured by the presence of Babi-Jean. At last, the sleeping God has spoken to you. Do you do or say anything?

He cradles the dead Len into his arms, just bracing her head against his, like you might, a smaller kid, or just to nurse her there. And he rocks as much as he can, looking up at it, just repeating to himself. But it is it, Len? It makes sense now.

What we do? makes sense. All this makes sense. And then he loses it as Babajan takes him and he begins to writhe and shake. It's going to make sense. It's all going to make sense. Kona, you are going to have three chances to escape this dark place. You will automatically succeed on the first one because Babajan is busy. As you look back, you see an enormous part of Babajan slam into the ground where Agent Pilgrim is flattening him. There is no chance that either he or ICE have survived that.

But you can see that the strange multi-eyed, multi-mouthed thing is coming down off of the ceiling and coming after you. The first success, thanks to Pilgrim, worked. Give me an intelligence test to see if you can recall how to get out of here. here in the darkness. Oh, oh, wait, wait, wait. There was a trail. I left a trail.

You will have plus 20% to that role, thanks to that. Yes, fuck yeah. Yes. Bless you. Teamwork. That's a success with a 21 out of 70. So at first you're making progress, stumbling through the blackness, dragging an unconscious Liam.

You hear the screams of Pilgrim before it is snuffed out, and you continue. What is this shape? Stone, is it familiar? You're moving, sometimes hitting a wall, but frantically moving in the dark. Give me another test, another intelligence test with plus 20 to see if you can make it out of the darkness. That's another success for the 47. Holy shit. Yes.

Hell, yes, go hide. At last, you find the stairs. You can see the light from above, and you begin climbing. As you start climbing the stairs, you get about 20, 30 steps up. When the space rumbles and this rush of air comes up past you, you get the feeling as if something very large has pushed up against the entrance to the staircase. As you continue to move, you keep looking back, but nothing seems to be following you. And after an indeterminate amount of time, dragging Liam, screaming, huffing, puffing,

you make it back to the top. The sunlight, although it is in shape, shade is healing to you. It's finally out. But that is when you see the mess that is left above the hill. The crumpled body of Lopez, the destroyed remains of these three villagers, and no sign of SOOPS. When I finally clock that SOOPS is not there and, you know, get out of there.

I'll put Liam down for a second so that I can run over to Lopez, run over to you. Just find where Sups is. Lopez has their eyes closed and their hand on their chest. You frantically look around, you step to the edge of the cliff, and you can see down deep in the ravine not far from the village, the crumpled body of soups, now being grabbed and mangled and handled by the remaining villagers who scream out in ecstasy as they start to tear her apart.

And you realize the totality of, of your decisions in this moment, how five people have died thanks to your choices, your insistence on finding your brother. And I'm going to need a sanity check. That's fair. I don't know why, but it's a success with an 18. You're going to lose one point of sanity and explain to me the reason. How do you reason it away? I think at this moment, given that they're exhausted sunburnt, they can't even begin to start processing the fact that what's happening down at the bottom of the ravine. I think they're just staring at the ravine and seeing, just continuing to watch what's happening in the soups.

And I think it's just the denial that out of, despite all of this, Liam's right there behind me. And I did succeed in what I said I was going to do, which was to bring him home. And that there's still a chance that I can still fulfill that. You have few options remaining. You can go down to the village and exact revenge. or you could try to get the hell out of here with Liam. What do you do? I think I'm just going to grab Liam and try to lead the city.

Are you going to go through the city or are you going to basically try to avoid it? I would like to try to avoid it if I can. I don't think it's safe. Yeah, any option that gets me to go around the city or what, I'll try that first. Delirious, half dead, desperate to save your brother. You sling him over your shoulder. And you start the very difficult journey of navigating away from the village and back towards what you know is civilization. Time stops making sense.

You have no idea what time it is. The sun rises, the sun sets. You make it off the mountain. And at a certain point, you are so exhausted from carrying and eventually dragging Liam that you collapse. Unconscious. The next time you wake, Booker is over you. You are inside an MRAP, and he is assuring you as he feeds liquid IVs into your veins that you will be okay. We are led to the question that you have been wondering since we began doomed to repeat.

What happened to Liam? Did he survive? Tell me if you have a better idea. But I think you should roll a D-100, and if you succeed, And if you succeed on a luck roll, then Liam survives the ordeal. And if he fails, he did not make it alive out of the desert. 54. Oh, fuck. So close.

Yeah, I'll grab Booker and be like, where is he? Where is he? He looks solemn for a moment and gestures beside you. And there, lying next to you, is Liam. It seems Booker was not able to get to him soon enough, and he died from exposure in the... the desert. I think, yeah, I think Hyde just, at that point, like out of all of that, just starts to just uncontrollably start to stop, because despite all of that, he still didn't

make it. Within a couple of weeks, the American troops who are stationed at Fob Turner are pulled out two months ahead of schedule. Agent Hyde, you spend the next few weeks recovering from exposure, dehydration, and one day, a pair of men dressed in suits similar to ice and pilgrim, find you in the hospital and have a private meeting with you to discuss the events. They thank you for your work, and they say that they'll be in touch, and then they leave. And I think that is where we will end our scenario.