Mayday Plays - Ghost-fi || Rollins Lodestone: A lantern on the road

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

Join Q and Eli as they say goodbye to Rollins Lodestone About Q: Q is an Actual Play performer, podcaster, and producer regularly found on Tales from the Table Studios, and Live From the Apocalypse. He's a creature of the internet, and his love of nerdery is boundless. @Midnight_INQ on most social media platforms Code Switchin Naturally Podcast- https://youtube.com/@codeswitchinnaturally?si=WKzpv-cs_qEkYZV7 👕 MERCH: http://ko-fi.com/maydayrp & https://mayday-merch.printify.me/products 💵 Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/maydayrp 📰 Join our newsletter: eepurl.com/iIVUjo 📚 Buy Ghost-fi: https://aghostofeli.gumroad.com/l/Ghostfi 🎙 Listen to us: 🟣 Apple Podcasts : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mayd…ys/id1537347277 🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5vdTgXoqpSpMssSP9Vka3Z?si=97a6a19d71cf4be0 🟠 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mayday-roleplay 🌟 Other Socials 🌟 🐦 Twitter: http://twitter.com/maydayroleplay 📸 Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/maydayrp/ 🔴 Website: http://maydayroleplay.com/ 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maydayroleplay 👾 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/maydayroleplay 🔵 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maydayrp Thanks for your support!

Hello, and welcome to Mayday Roleplay. Thank you for joining us as we come together to tell stories of ghosts, beloved characters created by their storytellers who have met their final chapters. We here come to bear witness to last impressions and learn to say goodbye. This is the game known as Ghostfy. But before we turn our next page, some housekeeping is in order. We'd like to thank our handler-level Patreon contributors. Their involvement allows us here at Mayday to continue to produce and tell stories for

your viewing pleasure. So thank you to Advance Force Sammy, OGPen, Bimblewart, Cameron S, Kirby's Double, Moria, Brandon C, Jonathan M, and Ren. If you too would like to contribute to May Day, be sure to find us on Patreon. You'll get access to early releases, art, bi-monthly games run by May Day, and our Discord server built around our wonderful community there. And expect VOD exclusive runs of Ghostfy by May Day members, and a campaign diary in the near future.

If you haven't heard, we have completed our third season of our Delta Green series, Doomed to Repeat, which is now available along with our extensive catalog of completed seasons and shows on our YouTube channel for VODs and anywhere you get your podcasts for audio friendly versions. Be sure to join us bi-weekly live stream for our Vampire the Masquerade campaign, Vegas by Night. and as always, follow us on all major social media platforms or our website for updates on future content and other news. We would like to thank the wonderful guests who have come to tell stories with us, top tier creatives in the actual play and TTRPG scene, gifted storytellers and their beloved characters, so be sure to follow their amazing work and all that they do in the description listed. Ghostfy is a game about death and grief and the complicated lives of complex characters.

This actual play is intended for mature audiences, so please take care of yourself and be aware. Our players are under the guidance of safety tools and XCard can be employed at any time. of safety tools and XCard can be employed at any time. So with that, let us begin. So Music Let's introduce our cast for today. Hi, I'm Q. Pronouns-ee-him. I'll be playing Saint Rollins' lodestone also again. Wonderful. My name is Eli. I go by any and all pronouns, and I will be your guide. To be the light in the darkness when the world falls apart is no easy task. To be a sword and shield to those who need protection takes a lot of heart in a way. As Rollins falls into that final moment among the living, where everything slowly just dissipates away, where sight and sound seem to fall deaf when the darkness seems to close all around them and they find themselves in the nothing, a most familiar space that they have come to know. We all know that there's a lot of something that can come out of nothing.

And as a type of sense returns to Rollins here in the nothingness. We enter what is known as the manifestation, a constructed location where a soul might find themselves in the end. So what is that to Rollins? What is this place that gets built around them and take shape? place that gets built around them and take shape. The location is a road, a path, one that is dark on all sides, save for the lantern that he keeps with him, there's an endlessness to it.

But there's the knowledge of a destination, of an end goal. What that looks like is unclear, but he knows to just walk ahead. AABRIA. Understood, wonderful. And as Rollins walks this long stretch of road to a destination we don't quite know yet, what do they look like? What do we all see walking along the way? Rollins is a tall man, lots of scars all over his dark skin. Most of those are covered by tattoos, as is the way of a Baywalker.

He's wearing a long trench coat that has the symbol of the St. Louis of Ashes on the back. There's a white coat under it, it billows as he walks. He has three red marks on his cheek to signify the tribe that he married into. And then the three blue lines on his eye signify Warsaw, which is the tribe that he joined. One of the marks was even given to him in death at one point

because the Grave ofmind works in mysterious ways. He's carrying a sword and a shield that looks to be made out of what at one point was a Motel 6 sign. was a Motel 6 sign. Walking a road can be a bit lonely, especially here as you look in all directions and realize that there's no one here with you. And it can bring a sense of loneliness. There's no comforts of the familiarity of the others that may have shared your journey in life or those around you. It's just endless road that stretches on for miles. But there's a moment in which, as you walk, where the sounds of one set of footsteps perhaps becomes two sets of footsteps. And this is what comes to you is your guide, a person or thing or companion that has taken up the charge to share in this

journey with you so that perhaps you are not quite so alone. So what is that to you? Who comes to bear witness to these final moments down here? final moments down here. For a moment, Rollins expects it to be his wife, Knox. But the footsteps are too heavy. But if she wanted to, she could make no noise at all.

But in the moment, the guide steps forward, joins Rollins' stride, and it's a man that looks a lot like him. Except where there is a normal face, there's that of a skeleton. Whether it's real or painted is hard to tell. When you go a little further down, there's an actual rib cage showing and behind it there's a light. To explain, in the world where Rollins is from, there are different strains, different ways that the human genetics have manifested over time. The person to his right is called an ascensorite, one tied so heavily to a faith that they manifested on their person. And for a time, Rollins was this ascensorite.

This part of him was ripped away when he died once. So there's a bittersweet sensation of seeing this part of himself here to guide him in those last moments. here to guide him in those last moments. Faith is a wondrous thing and when one carries themselves on a road that stretches on for miles where no destination is in sight and when one loses faith, it's nice to know that faith can return to you when you need it the most. And as that skeletal form of the Essencerite manifests beside you and just two sets of heavy boots just walk

along a road together, let's pull our first card. Hey, there we go. They didn't want to shuffle. Okay. Alright. First card. It's the Four of Clubs. Four of clubs. So fours are power card, which means that which also is known as a stack card, which means that you can also pull an additional card here. And we will add that to the initial tether and see you how those two mixtures play into each other.

So pull me another card. Five of diamonds. Five of diamonds. Awesome. So clubs are first and foremost about the self, a personal affliction. And the four of clubs is heartbreak. The five diamonds are about locations, places, and settings. So, Stacked Upon a Heartbreak is a favorite place from your childhood. So, tell me about that. What causes such heartbreak and maybe particularly in a place where one grew up? It was a little hideaway, a little hideout for me and my gang.

Back when we were younger and far more foolish than I am now, we would take what we wanted because we didn't really have much other choice. When the world is beset by monsters and madmen, you do the best with what you got and we didn't have much still. We found times to smile and enjoy ourselves. But that, as all things do, it eventually came to an end. We crossed the wrong folk. Thought we were a little too big for our bridges. I was given the opportunity to make a better choice. And I took it.

And I left my friends behind. Some of them forgave me. Some didn't. Some didn't make it to give me that grace. Give me that opportunity. Roll me a d4. Two. 2. 2 is a partial failure.

Your actions fail here, but nothing gets worse. What does failure look like here when one has to make a decision for themselves for for their own personal future? And sometimes when we make those kinds of decisions, it means that we have to leave behind those we cherish most, especially in friendship. What about that? Does Rollins, where Rollins can't quite let it go? There's one of the many tattoos that he has on his body. One of them is a skull. It's got a little gator wrapped around it. For a moment it burns. thinking back on those times on that memory. And while there should be the good emotions that come with it, it's mostly just the guilt. Roll me an additional D4. Four. Roll me an additional d4. CHUCK You rolled an evens here and for a partial failure, that means that no progress will be made

towards your overall successes and failures here. successes and failures here, but spite grows, a sense of resentment or anger or frustration, a connection to a more most negative feeling and emotion. And friends are a very specific type of dynamic in which a person gets to share something beyond the familiar ties of family and the intimacy of relationships. There are people who give one a sense of community, especially when facing such troubling times of the end of the world. And when things happen and life changes us and we have to make those decisions to move forward without them sometimes, because that perhaps might be the best thing one can do for oneself, thing one can do for oneself. It still hurts. Because in a way, we love our friends and we love what they offer us. But sometimes those offerings just don't guard her a better future. And we have to leave them behind. And as you said, it leaves just a scorching reminder on the skin that just burns and maybe even festers a little bit when one looks back at the marks that have been made on a soul. And no matter what we hope, what we, what we hope for, for our future, knowing

that that was the best choice to make still doesn't allow it to be any less painful than it is. And no matter how much we look ahead down a road towards the next thing, we still feel it. And it still touches us and it still reminds us that in the past there was something good out of it, but it's not here anymore. And while some were able to forgive you and others didn't, and some never had the opportunity to even give you that forgiveness and it's left up to the to the unknown. You carry them along with you and it and it just slightly burns and you can go and you can even if you

can reach and touch it you can just feel the heat just radiating off that that tattoo that leaves that ever reminder of those who were once there for you. And you return to the road. Standing next to you, a visage of yourself, of your faith that burned away at one point of your time, but has returned to you. And as you look onto this image of the skeletal form of yourself, you are met with sensations of understanding beyond recognition, a level of empathy and openness that reminds you that you are not alone here and that someone has come here to bear witness to the events that lay before you. And with that, we will pull our next card.

And with that, we will pull our next card. As they're walking, I think Rollins puts the sword away. With two of them there, he can focus on the protection. Maybe he does clap his other self on the shoulder. Thank you for being here. Nine of diamonds this time. Nine of diamonds. As we've recalled, diamonds are locations. And for the nine of Diamonds, that is a place to go when you feel alone. So what is that place to Rollins? His friend Jimmy's farm. Another fellow sainthood. He has a farmstead that's away from a lot of the other settlements, which means you

have less chance to run into Zed or Raiders. It's a peaceful moment. And there are several people that Rollins cares for that goes there, that go their way around. AABRIA. Roll me a d4. A 4. A 4. A 4 is an absolute success, which means that you will automatically add one point to your

overall success progress and you will remove one bout of spite, which is what you have currently. Great. So, so what is, what about this place makes the makes the journey a lot lighter, makes everything a little bit easier, brings comfort to Rawlins in the way that they can let go of everything. Between all of the fighting and killing and dying, it was the place removed from all the chaos. It's one of those destinations that he would reach on a path like this. So it's a hope thing. It's a comfort. Dealing with the way the world has become for Rawlins, it's comforting to be able to find a type of haven for oneself where they can retreat from all the loud, uncomfortable

noise of carnage and destruction around them, where one can find companionship in a centralized location and how fitting it is for it to be kind of a farm, a place where growth can happen and where just the sense of comfort away from the world can be made. As Rollins gets to kind of reminisce on that moment, this farm off the beaten path, where you can even hear the lingering sounds of those you know and those you hope comfort and security that, at least here, now in this moment, one can feel safe, which can almost be like a luxury in these kinds of times. And it's uplifting. And while remembering companions of the past can leave scorching marks on the skin, this brings a sense of warmth that is more about comfort,

a hearth that keeps you warm at night and keeps one feeling full. As Rollins, as that bit of that image of that farm kind of fades away and brings you back back onto the road, you carry that warmth with you. And it gives reprieve as you continue on. And once again, standing beside you is that image of you as a desindiary, you as a desidiary, the sound of two boots on a road heading far to a destination unknown. And again, you know, despite the alongside that warmth, you are you are hit with the sensations of of understanding beyond comprehension, a level of empathy and openness that someone here is sharing this journey with you and that you aren't so alone in a world that can be so unforgiving. And you continue on. And with that, let us pull our last and final card.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Hold on, we're going to shuffle up again. There's been nothing but diamonds and that's wild. Want something else, gang? Come Come on man. Work with me. There we go. Alright, let's see what we got. Never mind. Four of diamonds. Four of diamonds. Four of diamonds. Beautiful. Well, fours, as we've mentioned, are also power cards, which means that you can pull me one more card and we'll stack it onto that one and we'll see what addition we add to that four of diamonds.

Seven of spades. Seven of spades. Seven of spades. Sevens are also a power card, but since one has not, one no longer has spite in them, there is nothing to wager here. So we will disregard the wager. As we know, diamonds are about locations and the seven, uh, the seven is a place where you spent the summer at. And then, um, you said, uh, the five of spades?

Uh, seven of spades. Seven of spades, sorry. Um, the seven, uh, spades are, uh,ades are items, a personal thing one keeps on them. And the Seven of Spades is an item hidden away in a drawer or a closet. Sure. Something hidden away. A knife. One that Rollins had kept with him because for a time he was a part of something that was invested and

interested in working in the shadows. the ones that took care of the big threats quietly. And while Rollins wasn't the best at sneaking, he was very good at being a very shiny distraction. And is there a memory or a moment in a time during the summer in which this knife was utilized? Oh, yeah. It was a war. Our people, the people of Gatorland, versus the ruling class of the Paradise Isles, the Rat Trap. All the pureblood houses had finally had enough of our tiny little speck of a settlement. And there were many generals that were out and about. We had to deal with them. Some up front and others in the dark.

No names, even in death, but Rollins did get some work done. AABRIA. Roll me a d4. ROBBIE. We try a new one, check different one. It's a 3. A 3. A 3 is a partial success. Your actions here will be successful, but a complication is introduced.

So with a knife that was wielded in the name of protecting oneself and utilized, you know, a knife can be both a weapon and a tool. What about this item that was utilized in a war in a summer long past that one can be assured by and can perhaps even let go of. I think the knife is lost in someone else's hands now. in someone else's hands now. The intentions of it are unknown. What the wielder chooses to deal with it is unknown. We hope that

they use it for good, the greater good, for the greater good. Like I want it. Roll me an additional d4. Three. Three. You rolled an odds here, which means that no progress will be made to your overall success and failure, but once again, spite returns to you. So why is that? Why in the knowing that perhaps this tool can be, was passed on and can be hopefully

used in the same, with the same responsibility as you wielded it with. Why does it still bring a level of resentment or bitterness to that knowledge? Because the world I'm leaving, what I've left, was not the same when I was wielding that weapon. It was going to change. Now there's an amount of uncertainty that Rollins is uncomfortable with. He's a smart man, learned. Sainthood, pride themselves, well, you know, pride.

But they are teachers, educators. Knowing is important, and Aralan's not knowing is frustrating. Sometimes it's not about the tool or the weapon, but it's more about the person who holds on to it and wields it, and the responsibility that individual takes when utilizing it. end a war when when those of reigning classes decide to to eradicate others and jobs must be done for the sake of persevering of not just oneself but for for others for perhaps the the people we care about most you know it's a it's a heavy responsibility one takes. And when we pass items along for the future in hopes that it might be the same tool in the hands of another, one has to contemplate the possibility that either the world will not be as forgiving with this tool being used by this person or that the person themselves may not take up such responsibility in their wake to be a knife in the darkness, to utilize it for the intentions that one had initially chosen for this item. And it's that what if, that lack of knowing that really is the driving force for concern on one's person. It's almost like an itch or a scratch in the back of one's mind of, did I make the right decision to give this off to this person?

Will it be enough for them on their next encounter or the next thing that they face? Will it be even helpful? Will they use it for the intentions and purpose that I set forth with it? What if, what if, what if? And those kinds of repetitions of concern become more like burning on a shoulder where that uncertainty, you know, weighs a person down on it. And there's nothing that can be done because you walk a different path now. And that path does not include the tool in which you utilized for the betterment of others, and it's lost to you. And there's no, at this current time, no way for you to go back to see if the choices that you made

were the right choices to make. And... were the right choices to make. And regardless of that, there's nothing more that can be done, but the lingering hope and the ever looming concern of it all. And you return to the road. Besides you, a visage of your faith, a time in which you were able to find faith and understanding and you were once again met with a level of understanding beyond recognition, openness, and empathy that someone is with you here, bearing witness to your journey and taking those next steps with you on the road. And there's a moment where that visage of yourself, that skeletal figure with a heart full of flame, maybe takes

a couple steps ahead of you. And it seems that they've kind of taken this lead to lead you somewhere else along this road. And where we go is what's known as the crossing. And the crossing represents locations in all different directions, which often can be represented as airports or bus stations and train stations, stairwells, forks in the road even, portals such as doors and gates, cave entrances and even pools. So where does your guide lead you on this road that might lead into all sorts of different directions where one might have to make a definitive choice in where to go next? To wave station. Wave station. Wave station.

Mm-hmm. Smaller settlement. Roads leading out to all manner of different places. It is a place to rest your feet, but only for a spell. So you got to get going. You got to keep moving along. But yeah, I think it's a way station. The crossing is an opportunity for us

to look at the successes and failure and spite that was made along the way to be able to make a choice here on how we might be able to let go of these things and move on or find reason and purpose in why we stay. And there's two ways we can handle this. One is just simple reflection. We look at all the tallies and the marks and we talk it over and find that answer or we can contest it, which is building dice pools

from your successes and failures and rolling those D4 dice pools and see what those results render to aid you in making that decision. So what do you think would be the best for Rollins here from all of the tethers and things that have been made. So I got a full success, a partial success and a partial failure, no? Yes, but with those secondary dice rolls, technically you've only earned yourself one success

and no failure and one spite from how it all shook out. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. So it come down to one roll. Essentially. Yes. I'll trust it. I'll trust it. I like the reflection anyway. I like the reflection. Beautiful. So yeah, let's talk about it. You've earned one solid success, which was from your time at the farm, but the other cards you pulled were a bit of a kind of a toss-up, where there was uncertainty in whether or not it could definitively give you any progress and earned you a little bit of spite despite it all. So how does Rollins feel about all of these these moments? And

how does Rollins want to utilize that to to take that next step along this road. I think looking at it, taking it all in, especially the parts that were sort of a toss up, right? The parts that still lingered and brought about spite. Those are parts of him that were glimmeringly obvious, that he had issues letting go. Letting go of his past. Letting the negative linger for far longer than it

should. When they've been very clear, there have been plenty of evidence that the positive moments, those are the ones that really matter. Especially if you've done everything you can to mitigate the bad. So I think in that moment as they're taking a moment to rest at the wake station. Rollins takes a moment, takes a breath, gives a final I'm sorry to his old gang, I'm sorry to this old gang. Sends off the prayer of good luck to whoever has taken up the mantle.

I think he sets the shield down. His sword keeps only the lantern with him. He looks at the different paths leaning out of the way station. He sees one ahead of him. He looks to his guide. There are tears. They're not sad. There's no regret. There's no regret. There's relief.

Because Rollins looks far older than he ought to be. Or more tired than a man has any right to be at his age. He feels, I think I've left them with enough. I don't want him to worry about me anymore. And he takes his lantern and starts to walk down one of the paths that will eventually lead him to a valley that's wide. There's a lot to it. Like the sun touches down on this valley on all parts. There's a peacefulness, a quiet, a solitude, but a benchway.

And perhaps maybe someone might find such tools in the end for themselves and carry carry such carry such things to the on then as you say your final goodbyes and apologies and you look at your guide and there's just a moment of recognizing you for by someone that knows you best. And you take up that lantern as the sun seems to kind of starting to set west, and you make your way down that road. You hit what we enter this epilogue, this last and final reflection for Rollins, where we can bring this story to a notable end and Rollins can say goodbye in the way that that he knows best. So what is that?

What is that final thing as you be set forth towards a valley touched by golden sun, only led by a lantern? Think as he's walking, heading into the valley from somewhere behind him, there's a song that sort One that is beautiful, pained, tired like him. It worked. A lot in the hallway for each other. He knows that eventually she'll make her way this way as well. So he'll just wait for her until that day comes. I think for now, he's going to lay down in that sun-dappled valley. Breathe, smile, rest.

It's been a long time coming. To be a sword and a shield for a world that became so most unkind, where humanity lost its sense of good. It makes one weary. And even that level of that lantern and carry on to become a light on the path for another who you hoped will find their way to you in the end, to set your sights on beautiful pastures in which one can finally have an opportunity to rest. You're a bared witness by your guide who stays behind at that way station and watches just a lantern in the darkness carry itself on, knowing well that where it goes, where that light will find itself, will be a place of comfort and rest for a wary soul who has done all that they can along the way for friendship, for hearth and home, to hopefully be a tool of change in its time, in their time. And as that guide, a skeletal-like figure with a hearth of fire, watches on until the light kind of It kind of fades into this golden sunset that slowly sets in a west. So too does the manifestation starting from the east starts to just kind of pull in. And the images of this long and stretched out road that did not have a destination until it was

quite defined begin to fade away. These images of familiar faces fade back into the darkness. A farm dissipates and eventually to this way station fades away, leaving nothing but this last and lingering heart light. And the shield. And the shield. Yeah. And the shield.

Yeah. And the shield. Shield probably glowing too. Yeah. It just leaves that that just lasting emblem of who was here, who was a protector of this world and hopes in some way to never be forgotten. And that too eventually fades into the darkness until that last bit of golden rays sink into the horizon and we fade back into the nothingness. That is where we'll end our story here today and the story of Rollins.

Wonderful. Hell yeah. Guys, thank you so much for joining us today, telling this wonderful story. Let us once again, reintroduce our cast and Q, please tell us where one can find you. What are the wonderful things you get up into and all of those good bits in between? in between. Doing truly too many things. Hi, I'm Q, your friendly neighborhood cowboy maker. When you can't find me here,

you can see me out on the internet at midnight inc. That's midnight underscore I-N-Q, Q's my name. I'm sure you get it. Save a horse ride a cowboy. So I have lots of different games. Tuesdays I have alternating games. One is Nephilim Tenebrous over on Life from the Apocalypse with one Eli. Then the opposite Tuesdays I am over on Entropy Emporium for they call us villains, which is a masks horror game.

It's been a wild time to be sure you should come in and check it. And then every other Thursday, you can see me over again on life of the apocalypse for redacted, a psychological thriller game where we are all full of ghosts. It makes sense if you go see it. And then alternating Saturdays, I have class reunion also on LFTA. Five people got isekai'd,

and then there's also one of their roommates. I'm the roommate. I got a lot of other stuff like in the works or like stuff that I can't talk about, but just know that I'm out here booked and busy But feel free still to come and say hello and like ask me to do stuff because I'll make time Hell yeah Wonderful. Thank you again Q for for telling this wonderful story with us and for all of you who who came to

To hear this this wonderful tale of Rollins. This is not the only ghost story we're telling this month of October. We have 13 ghosts total who are coming here to tell their wonderful stories. Six amongst them wonderful guests who have brought characters in to tell these tales. So be sure to stick around here on May Day and continue to come back all the way to the 31st to hear all these wonderful tales of these amazing characters. If you liked Ghostfy and are curious about it and would love to see what it can bring to not only your table, but maybe even for yourself. This was a game that I wrote in 2022 in hopes to give players and storytellers the opportunity to explore moments of the lives of characters that they put their hearts and souls into, and maybe hopefully bring some clarity and catharsis towards those chapters when they close. So again, if you want to see what that might be for you,

go look down in our description link below and pick up a copy for yourself and see how Ghost Spy might be the game for you. Until then, thank you again so much for joining us and we'll see you soon. Have a good one.