The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone: Ethersea — Prologue III: The Comfort of Guilt

Episode Date: May 27, 2021

The shoreside community stands divided over their priorities as the storm looms ever closer. Join us as we build our next campaign while playing The Quiet Year, a brilliant mapmaking game designed and written by Avery Alder. Learn more about The Quiet Year and purchase it for yourself here: https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year See the maps and their alt-text here:http://bit.ly/EtherseaMaps Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointaz

Hey folks, quick pre-programming announcement. Thanks for listening in to our setup episodes for the Ethersea. We're playing The Quiet Year, a game by Avery Alder that's all about map making and making wild choices to help build a community. You can find a link to where you can find and purchase and learn more about the game on the episode description. And also, if you want to follow along visually, we are uploading all the maps at the end of each of these sessions at bit.ly.

EtherC maps. And I think you need to capitalize ethercy and maps in order for that link to work, because that's how Bitley works. We heard some folks say they were having some trouble following along sort of visually. And if you need a little help with that, go to that link. I also think that if you go to our Twitter page, we will be uploading those maps alongside the episodes there as well. That's it. Here's the episode. Today's lesson, the strange comfort of unbearable guilt. We should discuss the strange choices our community made during that final summer on the surface. You must understand, while none of us denied the reality of our situation, our responses to that reality varied wildly. There were those who worked to preserve the culture and biology

of the surface world, refusing to let the past die alongside our poised. and planet. There were those who worked to secure a safe and prosperous future in our new undersea home, developing an infrastructure that could support our civilization for generations to come. But the thing that united us all, aside from our fear of the coming storm, of course, was our guilt. Guilt for letting the world for causing our risk. For causing our world to collapse so spectacularly, for robbing our children and their children of a land that should have been their birthright. Tireless and necessary work was born out of that guilt, but so too was a kind of paralysis. So when people among us did not know how to stomach that

shame they instead allowed themselves to be fully occupied by let's call them distractions. I don't know how many episodes this is going to go, but the idea that this map is going to get more convoluted, and I apologize that that is how like the beginning of all these episodes, that's how all these episodes are going to start, but it is a, um, yeah, I mean, right, it's like one of those boards that like the FBI guy has all the strings connected to it, except there's no strings and the stuff on it is just extra bonkers. It's like Richard Busy's scary world.

Yeah. Yes. Let's talk ongoing projects because I feel like that's, if we talk about everything that's on this map, it's going to go on forever. It's obviously, Griffin, we got the blue penis. That's got four.

We've got a robot with nipples. That's got five. What's that? Offset nipples. That's clearly a schoolhouse. The schoolhouse rips. There's no way. It might be a Ronald McDonald's house,

but I think it's a schoolhouse. That one's got three on it. The robot, Travis alluded to earlier, is Dad's Project, where a sort of bunch of engineers and magicians and folks are trying to fill. Most technicians. Right. Putting together a frame for the I and our spirits. We have the fishery project where the folks are coming up with sort of a sustainable underwater food source with the filler fish.

And at four weeks, we have the crystallized. ascendance, which somebody's doing a project on that to see if it can be sort of used underwater. Yeah, the engineers are studying that and the bathysphere design. Right. To intend to see if they could construct a like downward lift into the ocean. The bathysphere has been stolen by the Vanguard, which is a group of resource gatherers who disappeared, not disappeared.

They told everybody we're we are leaving. leaving you all are taking too long. We're going to be the first ones to head out there. And Phineas Call has sort of posted up at this calm patch of sea, which his expedition found to be a suitable sort of jumping off point for undersea construction. Not that the city has to be built right there, but that is where we can keep all of the, you know, supplies and machinery or whatever is going to go into. building an underwater city.

Can anyone else think of anything on this map that we should circle back on? They got horseshoe dogs. And yeah. Oh, and the tanks showed up from Delmar. And we're doing an exchange with them. Yes. They are sticking around for a month, one week of which has already expired. So we are back to the top of the order and I'm going to drop.

I got confused because it just says a summer. But this is the ace of summer. A contingent within the community demand to be heard. Who are they? What are they asking for? Or a contingent within the community have acted on their frustrations. What have they damaged? And why did they damage it?

Is it permanent? Hmm. I feel like we've kind of had both of these things happen already. But we can build off that. One of the things that surprises me about this game is sometimes another player will get a card. And the jealousy that I feel that's just like, Oh, man, I want that hard. Okay.

A contingent within the community have acted on their frustrations. What have they damaged and why do they damage it? Is it permanent? The charismatic young girl and her sort of troop of folks who took some supplies from the boat dock or the shipyard. The cradle, thank you. And worked on the bathysphere. and by punishment, they were sent to the trash geyser. I don't think that this punishment has quelled their excitement to get things moving,

get projects moving undersea. And so the team here is going to, you know, they've been picking through the trash geyser and collecting things. And I think, as has happened now, a couple of times. times in this community, they are just going to take all of the stuff that could be useful for undersea, you know, building and stuff and just take it right to the build site. Travis and I talked a little bit about this charismatic young girl because she's come up enough times now that we wanted to, you know, give her a proper character.

She is Delmer royalty. She's like the daughter of a baron or baroness who was next in the line of for succession, kind of the kind of an it girl for Delmer culture who really had an interest in like engineering and specifically like city planning, but was not sort of given the opportunity to do all that. And so I think she sees an opportunity to kind of chase that life here. And that is why she is as charismatic as she is and also as like fired up about. you know, actually having a voice in how this city gets built. So we are just going to move them all down here.

And at this point, I think her and Phineas Call are just a fully united front and represent sort of the two driving forces for building the city right now. I've moved the trash geyser down. Maybe that was a mistake. I shouldn't do that. No, that looks a lot of off. I'll just erase the trash, perhaps. But yes, that is what they have done. And countdown.

Oh, I mean, the Delmer are here, too. That's probably a reason why she is as eager to literally go underwater as she is because she's not wild about the Delmer, you know, trying to force her hand into bringing her back. Because I imagine her parents are not wild about her. for leaving like that. Yeah, that's fair. Nothing reached zero.

So I'm going to take an action. Let me think. Did we name the baroness, baronet? Yes, she is a bojar, which is a, I think, German term for the child of a baron or baroness. Her name is the bojar Hermine. I think we've kind of danced around this a bit, but while the Delmer are still here, so I'll put a time of two weeks on this clock. I think there's somebody in this community who sees this as the last opportunity to secure culture.

Again, I don't think that this convoy is traveling with the great works of art of Delmer culture, but they probably have some stuff, and that's better than nothing. So there's some sort of collector, some sort of preserve. now who I think is this is the this is the kickstart they needed to really start taking this stuff seriously it hasn't been up to this point because up to this point it's been where are we eating what are we living what are we doing but let's call them the curator the curator yes we've talked a couple of times about worrying about preserving not just the living but if we are looking at this is like now a job right that there's somebody whose job it is to collect these things and prepare it it's the curator Okay. I don't know why I pronounced it, Curator. Yeah, I don't know, but I kind of like that. Fantasy man. Yeah, that's how they say it there.

It does sound like Euriter, which is. Oh, please. No, let's stick with Curator then. All right, so I'm just going to draw like a nerd-ass nerd with big glasses. And this is the curator. You know you can make shapes, right? Oh, yeah, but who's got the time? Hey, Griffin, it's starting to look like a self-portrait.

I was about to say it just looks like Griffin. This is my self-insert. I'm the curator. It's like Shmorby. All right. Wow, we have a lot of clocks at two. Okay. A ton.

All those are going to finish at the same time. But now it is Travis's turn. Correct. Flip that card. King of Summer. Summer is fleeting. Discard the top two cards off the top of the deck and take two actions this week. Oh, no.

Should we look? I think we got to look at what the top two are. Okay. So we're skipping two cards. cards. O' Jesus, this would have been cool.

Outsiders arrive in the area. Why are they a threat? How are they vulnerable? Or outsiders arrive in the area? How many are they greeted? Yikes. Well?

Well, we'll never know. Predators and bad omens are afoot. You are careless and someone goes missing under ominous circumstances too. Or predators are ominous circumstances are afoot. What measures do you take to keep everyone safe and under surveillance? Dang. Wow.

That would have been neat. That would have been fun, but bad. Not bad. So let's, yeah, go ahead and, this is going to take a while, so go ahead and I'll work on the clocks. So first, I have an idea for a thing. I want to, and I think I'm using Discover Something, is Discover Something, Discover Something on the map, or is it just like? Everything's on the map. Everything we do is on the map.

Here's my idea, and you tell me if it works within the mechanics of the game. I think what we discover is that there is a subset of people here, primarily Aynar, who are, uh, uh, have very, very, very strong religious feelings about these spirits.

Okay. Returned. Um, as that they have traveled to the vestigial plane and back. Uh, they believe that they are to be revered. Interesting. And honored.

And, uh, they have come forward because they see this, this building of bodies, uh, for them as a means to put them to work. and they believe that they are to be worshipped and followed. And they are called the Ordo Spiritus.

That is rad. It almost feels more like start a discussion, though, because I don't know that discovering that people have a feeling. Okay, okay. I'm going to say that one of the leaders of the Ordo Spiritus comes forward and wants to have a discussion. All right. I believe that these spirits are to be worshipped and revered and not to be used for menial labor.

Okay. I'm going to speak for the coalition. Is that allowed? Yep. Speak for what coalition? Oh, of the people building the robot parts? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Our intent in building these were to return these poor people to some kind of functioning life because that. seem to be what they were wanted. We have no intention of creating servants. We're just trying to give these disembodic spirits a chance at finishing a life. How do, Griffin, how do I add contempt? We've just been, I've just been saying contempt and adding it to the, uh, contempt. And adding it to the order of spirits who do not see these as poor spirits who need help finishing it. That they, they see them as having moved. beyond our limits. But I feel you.

I feel you. That's not continuing in the discussion. That's just where the contempt point came from. I just want to make that clear. That's not me, Travis. Right. Okay. Juice, you want to talk or you want me to?

We believe the way we always believed. There are no spirits. It's a hominine trick. Is this the same guys before? Time is passing so quickly, Travis. it's impossible to keep track of. All you need to know is there is a sentiment amongst the people. The spirits aren't real and it's a hominine trick.

Okay. The Ainar spirits won't be made to do anything they don't want to do, but you don't get to decide for them. Okay. That's the end. Okay, that's one of your actions. I want to bring everyone's attention that someone has eliminated the blood and dukeye coming out of the trash geyser. I don't know what happened.

I, they have salvaged the trash geyser. And so I believe that the trash geyser is now, has outlived its usefulness. And now it's back to be just a problem. I didn't realize that this is a living document. Did somebody screencap it? I worked really hard on there. Whoa.

You know like that. It almost looks animated. That's beautiful. Whoa. Yeah. So, Griffin, your contention is that it will no longer spew out garbage? I think, I mean, the earthquake, like made it start,

but sort of got rid of the compression stuff that was going on in there, right? And made it start shooting out stuff. And the Belyar Hermine and her crew took that stuff and took it to the build site so that they are all set up. Okay. I know what project I'm going to set up now. So I am going to say,

Griffin, which of these four kind of groups that people would you say are the most, like, artistic? I mean, definitely the, the southern archipelago, um, uh, sort of they, they did not prioritize war or industry or,

uh, you know, arcane study or anything like that. Uh, they were all about sort of their, their liberties, uh, not,

not being under the yoke of that. And so from that, I think a lot of, a lot of good art came out of that. Okay. Then I'm going to say, uh, like the most revered artist of

the Southern Archipelago and the most experienced engineer architect of the Delmer pair up and start figuring out a design for what an undersea like encampment would look like. Oh, wow. Okay. So this is the this is the Epcot Dream Lab, Blue Sky, Solutionering sort of. Okay. In the design phase, right? Right.

Your project is the, does, okay. And it's going to be up here near the cradle, between the cradle and the shithouse. Just gonna have, oh, I'm a good. Between the cradle and the shithouse would be a really, really, really good thing for a record. All along the shithouse. I wanted to a very physical.

Are they doing this in secret, or is this like? No, no, this is like, all right, we have materials plans, we scouted the floor of like the immediate ocean and we're like we've been studying things and doing things so let's start thinking about both a practical

and like long term aesthetically not displeasing but we don't want people to be sad living there so we're going to think about like this is our perfect design choice of what we want it to look like yeah and there's no saying that that will be what it looks like because then you have to

fucking build it uh all right that is two actions now we're on to uh dad and it's a pretty big one this i'm just drawing oh right how long is this going to take uh i'm gonna say like six weeks like this is wow i mean well let's see six six six weeks i think would factor in a lot of logistical quite like it's not just wouldn't the city look cool if it looked like this it would be like six weeks i feel like would factor in like and here's how people would move around and here's how you know what i mean like

it would have some... This isn't just aesthetic planning. There's like engineering going into this and like architectural planning. This is like full-blown like, okay, listen, if we're going to start building something, we need to have a plan first. So give us like, you know,

give us like if we could get started tomorrow and had all the time, what would it be? Right. And then we'll work backwards from there. Six weeks sounds good. I will add that to the map. Dad, I have drawn a new card for you. Oh, okay.

Um, seven of summer introduce a mystery at the edge of the map or an unattended situation becomes problematic and scary. What is it? How does it go awry? Oh my God. Those are both so good. Um, is summer like the, the period of like, whoa, some weird shit's going on. If you feel that way, fall and winter are not going to be kind. No, that's not bad shit.

I know that those are bad shit. But summer is just like some cooombs. Suki stuff. Summer's just slippery, yeah. Yeah. There are some kind of strain, something's flying around in the storm. Oh, no.

They're huge. It's, we can see these flying shapes in the distance, in the storm, and it's very mysterious. Where are these in relation to it? What's the weird thing? That's like a rainbow. This is the storm.

It is not to scale. The storm is not 20 feet from the shore. This is just meant to represent that far off in the distance. You can see the storm brewing. But people have observed maybe through telescopes or whatever kind of far sight. Yeah. That they have, that there are these gigantic shapes flying in the storm. And we can't make out hardly any detail, but they're huge.

Gigantic scale-wise, like teradactyl size or like Eldridge God size? I think since they're this far away, like very big whale size? Very big whale. Not like one of those little whale. Not a baby beluga. An adult beluga. Can you draw those shapes in the cloud here? Okay, you're going to have lots of time because these clocks are now going to four of them are going to end all at the same time.

Did they not, do they not click down after Travis? They did. They did. They were just all at two. Yeah. Okay. So, Travis, the fisheries. How does that end up?

So basically, some things that they discover is one, while these fish are very small, the bones within them are also very soft. And so basically all of it can just be ground up. You can just pop it, just pop it. Just pop one right in there. Yeah. And the speed at which they replicate and the little bit of food that they need makes it like a perfectly sustainable source. And they also filter naturally. They are like those sucker fish that keep the thing as clean seeing pretty much like dump them in a big vat of water.

Right. a little bit of food and they'll fill up that container water and you can just like keep taking them out. But to keep them from being too O.P, these are freshwater fish, right? So if this is something that's going to provide sustenance in the city, like we are going to need some of that spring water. Correct. Also, like, you're going to need people like maintaining it.

Right. Because like, as I said, their life cycle is fairly short. So it's not like a thing. Like if you're not cleaning, if you're not removing fish from the thing, you would end up with like rotten fish in there pretty quickly. Okay. Their life cycle is fast. Juice, the schoolhouse finishes.

The local kids reluctantly start to come to the school. They love their tie pool. Someone's moving one of the baby bodies. It's very confusing. But the kids no longer play at the tie pool. They spend their days learning how to, learning math, basic skills, math, reading, cultural histories, but also survival skills.

They learn how to hold their breath for extended periods of time and how to catch saltwater fish. That baby's as big as that. It's cool. We're raising a more prepared generation. Which of the, and maybe you address this when you started building the project, but who is sort of organizing this school? Like which of the, because I imagine, you know, local school board elections can be a contentious thing. Are, is there like one kingdom?

They have one instructor from each of the contingent. So there's a homine instructor. There's a Delmer. There's one from the Southern Isles. And there's one from the INR plane. Okay. Dang, I did that all in one thought. I'm so in this.

That was so fresh. Well, you do... Makes it feel not bullshit when I do it like that. Would you do me the close personal favor as a brother that we named the hominine one, Brother Seldom? Because that's a name I came up with and started using for the intro narration. Yes. He is the founder of the school.

He was the one, Brother Seldom was the one who was like spearheading it. Okay. But he has brought in to keep all the parents happy. Right. There are representatives from each of the four different. What do you call them? Kingdoms, yeah. Okay.

From each of the four different kingdoms. Okay, Brad. They called themselves. Now, they shouldn't have done this. They should not have done this, but they let the kids pick their mascot. Oh, shit. So they're called the Goosey Wolves. And no one knows what it means.

The kids won't tell them. I don't know what it means. The kids wouldn't tell me, but they all think it's really fucking funny. But all the teachers have to be like, good morning, Goosey Wolves. Let's get out there and learn. And the kids bust up. G-O-O-S-H-Y-G-O-O-S-H-I-E-W-O-L-V-E-W-E, W-E-W-E-W-E-W-E-W-E-W-E-W-E-W-E-W. Oh, my God, Gucci-Wolves, fucking, that's powerful.

We'll do Gushy Wolves, but Gucci-Wolves, somebody do something with that. I have to imagine, like, when the kids, come back from the tide pools every day and they're like, yeah, I saw a fucking I saw a jelly cougar and it's like a jellyfish cougar hybrid because shit's weird in the tide pool so when they came in and were like, yeah,

these are the gushi wolves. People are like, is that a real thing? You all have to tell us. If you saw something called a gushi wolf, you need to tell us so we could keep you safe from it. Okay, the curator project, I'll wrap that one up before the tanks leave. I think they successfully

collect what the tanks had. And I think what the Delmer would consider to be art is like blueprints. And I also think that's the type of thing that this convoy would actually have on hand, thinking like, yeah, maybe they can use this. These are old blueprints that are outdated and we have like better shit, so maybe they can use it.

But also, there is a sort of sentimental and historic value to these early blueprints which were kind of our first big steps away from, we depend entirely on magic because we're hominine. So I think those blueprints, those documents, and there's a lot of them, are the sort of big, there's other stuff mixed in there too, but that is the big sort of cultural donation.

Not donation. I imagine there was some trading for it, that this curator managed to secure. And with that, the World Clock, is going to reset because the Delmer tanks or the convoy take off. Does anybody have any sort of anything to add to? I know this isn't really necessarily how the game operates,

but any thoughts on this parting? Because they are essentially saying, like, thank you for everything. We'll never see any of you ever again. Yeah, I'm just going to say that I think that the Delmer people that are here, like send letters back to, like, friends and, like, you know, family that they had there that didn't come that's just like you know i love you very much and i'll miss you and be safe and all those things right i think that it's this is like a last connection moment

kind of thing um i'll add that the the boyar hermine probably in addition to just like sending a message to her parents sends a message to the elders of the you know this this underground this inside the mountain city that they're building of like don't count us out like you all need to find a way to still be able to reach us yeah because we are not this is going to work so you know you seal yourselves up and do whatever you need to do to feel like you're safe but do not count us out we we can still help each other after everything goes bad okay and the wagons leave and we move on to oh wait dad needs to take his action yes what did we get from the caravan.

We got art and blueprints and the main thing, the main interaction we had with them was sending those messages back to the Delmer and securing all of these historic blueprints. So they came here to donate. Well, to trade. Yeah, we traded them to fish. Yeah. Oh, yeah, sure. Why not?

Yeah. They got some fillers. That was what I was wondering about. I'm going to add, uh, I don't think we can remove culture from. the scarcity list, right? But I think we can add Delmer blueprints. Is there anything else we need to update in the scarcity abundance list that anybody can think of?

I think food we can get rid of, right? Yeah, food. Yeah, food is abundant. Fillerfish is actually already in abundance, so that probably should have gotten fixed a while ago. Still have an abundance of blink sharks, though. Yep. Well, I don't know what to do about that.

Yeah, nobody seems to know what to do about that. We convince them to leave. Yeah. I think Phineas, not I think, this is my action. Finneas and the boy are and her crew are going to go investigate the giant spiral shape off the calm seed. They've more or less sketched out the oceanography of the of the terrain. Right. And there's a lot of questions about this thing. So, and it's not going to take it for it. Can I put a week on it? Sure, you put one week on it.

I think all of this tracks. You have mapped that out. You have mapped that area out. You have done literally everything you can to prepare yourself for this. Now it's a question of, okay, who's going to walk down this fucking thing? And it takes one week. Huh. And we still don't, they still don't have the baths.

Oh, I feel like you guys didn't hear. Let me try again. It takes one week. No, it does. They don't have the bathroom. Could you guys not hear me? Was I muted? Let me try again.

Travis, you're cutting out a little bit. Okay. It takes one. week? Oh, yeah, but I love that one. Okay, great, great, great. Yeah, okay. And where's the Bathisphere? It got stolen by the Vanguard. Nobody knows. Right, right, okay. Um, Justin. I have lost track of how many cards we have left in summer because of Travis's

skip, skip, skip, skip, one, two, three, four. Okay. The queen, the nine, the eight. Are you keeping track on your? Are you counting? Are you counting cards? Yes. That's the wolf. Wow. There's five left.

After this one, four. The pit chief is going to beat the shit out of you. Only if I get caught. You just admitted to it. Just got caught. Yeah, it's like if the dealer said, do you want to stay or hit? And you say, well, if I hit, the next card's probably done because I've been counting cards. This card is pretty scary.

Let's see here. Someone tries to take control. of the community by force. Do they succeed? Why do they do this? A headstrong community member decides to put one of their ideas in motion. Start a foolish project. Oh, I like that.

Isn't that what we've exclusively been doing? But imagine how foolish it will be now. Oh, that kid's ass. Okay, I got it. I got it. Okay. Okay. Now, I know we don't necessarily have characters, but I do have to like...

We've broken that. We have three characters so far. We have to, like, name someone... Okay. All right. There's a bell ringing in the... Right near the shit house. and this guy

kind of haggard, old dude, in what looks like beat up military fatigues, is ringing this bell in the middle of the town. And he waits until he has a bit of a crowd.

And he says, It's me, old Joshie. And I've had it with the blink sharks. I know you all have to. And there's some, like, nodding. I am willing to pass on the secrets I learned in the military of psychic warfare. And I'm putting together a band of psychic soldiers to help me hunt and kill the blank sharks.

Come on down. Who's going to join me? This is my school. It's called Old Joshy's Training Grave for Psychic Soldiers against Blank Sharks. Figure out the acronym later. And I'm going to have it launched here in about four weeks. and I want to see as many of you faces out there get ready to do battle against the blake sharks

and you courageous folks come on out here we're gonna put it into these these blinking idiots now Justin I'm sorry is this the same guy that's been in the discussions are they just like all brothers what's happening? He is friends they're friends they're all friends they're best friends they're best friends okay there is a contingent of it's really important to me I was listen when I was

listening to the story that Griffin had set up the initial story it all seem very high-minded to me and it's very important to me that there be a strong contingent of idiots. Oh, absolutely. That are making this and not funny idiots, but like regular idiots that are making this harder for everyone and this man, old Joshy, decides that the seas won't be safe until the blink sharks have been dealt with psychically. Psychically. Yes, exactly. I think it's beautiful. It's brilliant. Josh. Is it old, O-L-E or O-L-E- O L. apostrophe, Joshy.

I'm going to give you a four there to use whenever you draw this psychic shark battling school. Okay. Can we just agree how much better Jaws would have been if the dude was like, I know how to handle these sharks with my brain? Psychic stuff. Okay. So the Crystal Ascendants and Robot bodies are down to one each. I'm sorry, Travis, I've already forgotten what this part. Oh, it's the design of the.

of the city is down to one month. You can't tell, Griffin? Look at those tools on there. Yeah. And just like that, Dad is about to tell us what's, uh, and I don't want to hear, well, they get to the spiral staircase and they discover it's weird. Let's, let's, let's, they have, the spiral staircase exploration project has completed. Father, what's going on?

Well, they've been, um, it's, it's been, uh, it's been, uh, it's, taken the better part of the week just to get down there and make observations. And what they've found is they still don't know what the materials are of the spiral staircase. And they're not really sure who put it there. But it's very obvious that it was put there as a natural foundation for coral growth. There's a massive atoll of coral that has grown up. the spiral staircase and this coral has been infused with the prestige salts, which is why the area near the spiral staircase, the calm area is so low in prestige salts that these coral have been taking in the prestige salts. and they surmise their theory is that much like, you know, people do today, where they will like sink old ships to give coral a place to build coral wreaths

that somebody in the long ago past put this structure there for the intent of growing this coral. And this coral has absorbed the prestige salts, giving it some, powerful, mystical stuff. Stuff. It's got weird stuff. Okay. You want to draw, you want to spice up that that sad spring there? Cool. Justin, I enjoy your shark killing big box store.

Yeah, it's awesome. And Justin, once you're done with that, you get to... It looks like the ghost is really excited to go there. Ooh! The ghost is talking. The guy says a speech bubble, and what he's saying is, I'm excited to go to this school. I can't wait to start at my new school. Hurry up and finish my robot body so I can go to psychic shark fighting school.

This is a great game. This is a good game. Justin, you get to take an action, too. I feel like, okay. Okay, I want to out hold a discussion. Oh, God. Everybody. Do we need to do something about old Joshy, or we just let a good?

I'm going to let him go for it. I'm going to be honest with y'all. I don't know why the gods invited old Joshi and his friends to come. It seems counterproductive to what we're doing. Oh, I'm going to take that and turn it. There's a reason old Joshy is here. There's a reason old Joshy heard the call like the rest of us. And God doesn't make mistakes.

Joshy take the wheel. And my statement is that the Joshy problem will deal with itself. There's no doubt in my mind that he'll either get rid of the sharks or more likely the sharks will get rid of him. Okay. I think that was a question. So if you, whoever voiced this concern. So I get to make a final statement? Yeah.

We have not solved anything here tonight. Thank you all for your time. All right, back to the top of the order, which is me. Nine of Sunmer, a project fails. Which one? Why? I'm not touching Joshy, no way. Don't know. I know there's an obvious choice for failure.

Something goes foul and supplies are ruined at a new scarcity. Oh, God, both of these are bad. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Trave. the Crystal Ascendence Project without that bathysphere, they realize. They just can't.

They've done a lot of work, and they understand this thing a whole lot better, but without that bathosphere, then whatever they were planning on turning this into, you know, underwater human transportation cannon or whatever it was going to be, the project just kind of fizzles out.

There's not some grand explosion or, you know, catastrophic failure, it's just like, well, we don't have the bathysphere anymore, so let's just spend our time doing something else. Okay. Sorry. That's okay. I understand. It wasn't used to cards.

Now, robot bodies are done. Client? We had talked a little bit about, we had posed the question and decided that it was doing a little bit too much up front of what these things are made out of. So maybe this is a good time to answer that. but how does the robot bodies project pan out? I also will remind us

because we talked about in the last episode that the codite, the magical material, is now in scarcity? Or at the very least, it is not a naturally occurring thing that we have an abundance of. Not to say that you can't use it, but that, you know,

there will be political ramifications for anytime anybody uses the codite from now on. The coalition with input from Phineas Call and the Boyer, and of course our coalition of magic users and technical people and naturalists have determined that it's possible to construct these golems, these robots, out of the magic coral. That by placing, by building some kind of framework like armor, so to speak,

or something along those lines, that it's possible to make these golems out of the coral. The thing is they will have to be built in the water. Yeah, they have to be grunts. It has to be done on water. And these golems will not be able to function outside of the water for very long. But much like real coral, which is a living entity inside, you know, the growth,

that they think they can construct these golems to allow, and with its mystical abilities, they would be accessible to the disembodied spirit. Yeah. Hey, can I just say, as the person who's DMing this next season where all of this shit's going to be relevant, big thanks for that. Yeah, that's a good one.

That's a fucking radical idea. Coral-infused robot frames. is some real shit. So these are, these are, is this purely hypothetical or I would request that, you know, in the interest of keeping things moving, that this is not just, hey, we can do this. It's a, hey, let's do it. Oh, I think it's, it's, the coalition is good. Yeah, they're going to do it.

Okay. They've been able to, the magic members of the coalition have determined that it's almost, that there's a very. tenuous ability to communicate with the with the polyps which are the actual coral the creatures that live inside the coral okay and they're down too well yeah let's fucking do this guys get the ghost in me I think yeah I just I think it would be very conducive to some cool ideas with the spirits

and the yes it's all fucking fantastic so I have moved this robot down to the black staircase, which you said is where the coral is growing from. And I imagine is where this, you know, this frame. And this is going to be a long-term project. Well, this isn't a project. This is a, this is the culmination of the robot. This is happening. Consortium project.

So we're not starting a new project right now. Gotcha. Um, no other clock's finished. I get to start a project or discover something new. Um, Heck man, you know what? Now that that project failed, the,

this group, this, maybe we need to name for it, the Phineas call, Boliar Hermine sort of, let's get this shit going group, wants the Crystal Ascendance. The action squad. The action, the take action squad,

the do something squad, is going to start a project to literally haul the Crystal ascendance in its, you know, whole form down the beach into the water and get it to the construction site where they can just use it somehow. I don't know what that looks like, but that's why it's going to take a while.

I'm going to say they probably know how to move shit. I don't think that that's the toughest thing in this world, but this is an enormous thing that it's sort of built into the plateau. So I'm going to say this is going to take five weeks. Okay. I don't think I'm duplicating your shit, right? No, no, no. Yeah, mine was like studying it.

Okay. But if you wanted to, I mean, you could justify shaving a week off of that because there has now been like blueprints done of it. Yeah. Not that it's going to be used for like whatever that thing was because I don't think they ever figured out like what it was they were, you know, designing. But it's clearly like a magical structure of some sort. So let's let's add it to the city somehow.

I'll draw like a track maybe leading down to the beach from the Crystal Ascendants. And that'll be the project. Okay. Now it is Travis's turn, and I already flipped your card. The two of summer, someone new arrives. Who? Why are they in distress? Or someone leaves the community.

Who? What are they looking for? This is a good question. Griffin, how far away is the citadel, the capital of hominine? Very far away. But I mean, you could also argue that we are half a year in almost, so maybe that's how long it takes for somebody to arrive here. I think there has been enough time that people have gotten here,

obviously, from the capital city. Um, okay. I am going to say, uh, a, a troop arise, a troop of performers from, uh, the citadel have arrived. Um, and they are fleeing hominine. They've heard about this, uh, because, and I don't know what you're planning. As, as, as we have seen the INR had a plan. And the Delmer have a plan. I assume that hominine has a plan as well. I mean, I'm not, I know that obviously because I am the one who prep these world events, but I also think everybody in this place knows that hominine is not just going to fucking roll over and die. They have a, they have a god sort of on their side. So they're going to do something. And so this troop does not agree with what hominine's plan is. And they heard about this place and came down to see if they would be welcome in this community.

Okay. Yeah, I don't think we need to answer that. One thing we probably should answer, though, the people who came here first heard the call, and that's how they all knew where to go and were sort of divinely inspired to come here. Does this represent that, like, now it's not just the call anymore? Now it's like word has gotten out that there's this project, there's this community, and I guess the buzz is positive enough that people feel like, hey, that seems like a good thing to risk my life on.

Yeah, I think it's, the fact of the matter is, it seems like a very practical and open-mindedly where like Delmer isn't like, hey, everybody, we're going to hide in the mountain. All are welcome, right? And so, like, if you're not of Delmer and Einar was like, we're going to erase ourselves from existence. And so it seems like if you're out in the world and you're like, we're going to actively create a community underwater and everybody from every system has come here, then you're like, that's, you're like, that's, you're like, that's. seems like an active good solution option. Sure, yeah. Okay. Do you want to draw this troop on the map? I do. I'm going to draw a little wagon.

So basically this troop just is against whatever hominine is doing? Yeah, that's the thing. Is like, do they tell people what hominine's planning? You know, I'm going to say that this truth, I don't know, Griffin, what you're planning, and I don't know how you feel about hominine. but hominine strikes me as pretty hoity tooty. Yeah. And so it seems to me like as troopers, like performers,

they are probably enjoyed by the higher-ups, but not necessarily prized as necessary. Sure. And so whatever the hominine were planning. That's it. That's the general thesis of what they know about the hominine plan is everything and everyone who's not necessary is fully expendable.

Correct. Could they present that in the form of play? Sure, yeah. And if you're cool with this, I'm going to add like, like performance, homine performance to the list of abundance, right, shipping away at that culture scarcity. Yeah. Do you know what I mean?

Yep. Okay. I like that. Dope. That is our, sort of. of contractually obligated, here's some, here's a community theater troupe for the season. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wouldn't be an adventure zone without some shoehorned in there.

Okay, so are there any project? No, no projects are complete. So Travis, go ahead and take your action. Okay, okay. All right. I am going to start a project where the, as we've been calling them, the coalition, which I like. Now, we've talked about a few different coalitions.

Is this the robot builder coalition? Oh, sorry. This is the council. That's what I mean. The council of four that was elected as representatives from each. The council is going to start categorizing the skill sets of people in town for the jobs that they see as necessary in this undersea place. So like food, farming, you know, like safety, engineering, mechanics, anything like that of like, what are your practical skill sets where we can put you into the right role? No matter what role you've done before, we need to think about like necessary jobs in this new place we're building.

Okay. I mean, that's certainly something that would take a while. Is this something that people in the community are okay with? I am going to say that's probably, you know what? That's a discussion. Yeah. We shouldn't be doing that. How long, well, real quick, how long is that going to take, do you think?

I'm going to say it takes three weeks. Three weeks. Okay. Okay. Dad, it's on to you. At five. Okay. Five of summer, a project finishes early, what led to its early completion.

or the weather is nice and people can feel the potential all around them. Start a new project. Whatever you do, please don't finish Joshie early. Please, Dad. I'm begging here. Don't tilt the scales. You're right, you're right, you're right. Get your finger off the scales.

Let this man do. Okay, so when it says finishes early, we've got, what's the project with two weeks? That is the design. Joshi. Okay, that's the design. Design project, the Joshi project, which is my favorite Comedy Central half hour, a primetime show. The sort of labor organization project and the let's move the Crystal Ascendants to the to the worksite project.

Okay, I'm building off somebody else. So if you, if nobody wants to do, I mean, if you guys are not in favor of that, that's fine. It's your action, man. It's my action. Yeah, take your act. Okay, the theater troupe. Yes. The theater troupe.

They all die. The theater troupe puts on a play about imagined horrors of the storm. Obviously, nobody has any, you know, concrete evidence, but these things are swimming in it, are flying in it. And we know that it's so bad, we've got to move under the water. So they come up with this. sci-fi play and put it on and it puts the fear of God into the design committee. So they start like burning the midnight oil and they start they start working over time just because they're so terrified of the story that they saw in this play because as we all know,

theater can be very moving. I think there's also probably a lot of people in the community who saw the play, and the more likely thing is they went to these designers and were like, finish that fucking design. Yeah, dude. They got fucking shit done. They got flying spiders in that big-ass storm. Finish drawing it.

So I think that the, I think I want that project to wrap up early. Okay. Because generated by fear, which is in turn been generated by the performing arts, which is how it should be. That's how it should work. Travis, this may be a big sort of big, big thing to take on in a single project, but what is the result of this blue sky solutionering session? So the design that this engineer and this artist come up with is that you begin at a central half dome, a central dome.

Like a diving bell sort of situation? Yeah, I mean, basically, like very large. We're talking about like, let's see, like a hundred-yard, you know, radio diameter. Okay. And then building out from there, like, concentric rings. So the idea being that even if we have not finished, building during the time that we have, we would then be able to continue building outward,

especially now knowing that we would have this dive team that is experienced as well as potentially the help, if they are willing, of the spirits in their coral bodies of being able to build out these rings. So we could continue to grow over time if we're able to get enough material. down there. So basically you would have this main hub and then rings connected, you know, with passageways spreading out. Okay. Maybe you want to not right now while we're recording, but kind of like sketch out what you're talking about and send it to, you know, us so we can post it for folks to kind of get an idea of like what this actual design. It doesn't have to be

anything sort of, you know, actual blueprint level specificity, but just to give an idea of. of like the shape that you're you're talking about. And I would say that while there will probably be like tweaks to it from everybody in the community saying, well, shouldn't we put something like this here and where the bathrooms go or whatever, the thing that everybody can get down with is this like central thing that if we can drop basically. Yeah, for sure. If we can start this, then we can keep building it after the storm hits.

Like we don't, there's not a hard deadline for finishing the city. we just need a thing we can expand on. I think that being the kind of like driving force of this design makes total sense. Right. Okay. No projects hit zero. So dad, you get to take an action now.

The son of the murdered by blink sharks. Murdered is an interesting. Like if a shark killed a person, I wouldn't be like, that shark murdered them. Yeah. Bifurcated. Arrest that shark. Mint Clackleroy, his son, Enos, goes...

Sorry. That was a sorry, I didn't understand you, and a simultaneous sorry to our listeners. Enis? Enis? Enis. Enos. Enis. Enos. Enis. Okay.

Okay. Enis Clackleroy goes and pledges everything to Joshy's efforts. He joins Joshy. Okay. He gives him his... his all of any wealthy has anything he owns his expertise in operating a boat because you know that's what meant clackleroy did right he's a boat he's so enous goes to joshy and says i mean i believe i believe in your mission i am with you so this is is the discovery that enis is also a dip shit

because it needs to be a discovery or a project that is being started. And I don't know how this is one of those. And I, yes, it's discovered. Enis is discovered that nobody knew that he was alive. Yeah, he, nobody knew he was mint Klaquilroy's son. And so it's discovered that he was mint's son. Just now one put together the last name and then one looked like a younger version. He's Lackleroy.

Right. All right. So the upshot is he he is pledging everything he has, including the boat, because nothing, you know, he came into possession of the boat that meant fell off of. Okay. Justin, the queen of summer. Wait. That's what they call me. Okay.

A project finishes early, which one? Why? If there are no projects underway, boredom leads to a quarrel. A fight breaks out between two people. What is it about? So this is not a, I guess this isn't a choice. This is, we have projects. One of them finishes early.

Old Joshy sticks his head out the door. Hey, everybody, good news. We cracked it. These are real promising recruits you got. We're going to get out there and start hunting these sharks with our minds. And old Joshy's school for advanced psychic warfare against blade sharks. is open for business. Oh, yes, there is a nominal fee to learn.

I should have mentioned that earlier. Now, why did it finish early, Justin? What gave you the benefit? The benefit? The Enis put it over the top? No, it's just they cracked it early. It wasn't as hard. He thought developing psychic techniques to combat

Blake sharks would take four weeks. In the end, it wasn't as hard as he thought it. Oh, okay. Yeah, no one's ever done that before, Traff, so you missed the mark a little bit. Yeah. Actually, it just wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. He gave those sharks too much credit.

Yeah, he underpromised and overdelivered. You know what I mean? Exactly. That's his motto. That's good business. That's old Josh's whole thing. What is the, do we want to determine then kind of what the functional result of there being these psychic shark warriors now?

Or is there going to be a sequel to Old Joshi School for Advanced Psychic Warfare against Sharks? I think it's just what you need to know is the school is the school is open. And some number of people are training to hunt sharks psychically. With their minds. That, that, what did it, what's, it's just, it's just, um, it's just Chekhov's Joshy. Yeah, no, for sure. And someone will find a way to need them. To be fair, it was explicitly a foolish project.

And so if, if the end result Griffin was after four weeks, they can do it. It's not that foolish, isn't it? I'm not saying, no, no, no, okay, to be fair, the school is open. and he is recruiting recruits. Yeah. They have not, they have not staged any missions yet. Yeah.

To go hunt shark cycle. Okay. Then I'm gonna, I'm gonna add an abundance of psychic shark warriors that we can then add to scarcity when they are devoured. And when they are maybe devoured, Griffin. Okay. Okay.

Well, Hey guys, our abundance list is fucking wild. We got filler fish. We got horseshoe dogs. We have Delmer historical documents and psychic shark warriors. We got all those things. If you need those things, do not worry about it.

Unnamed Underwater City. Okay. You know what we don't have, air tanks. We don't have that. Yeah, our boat. Boat is one thing we don't have. The cradle is just sitting there. There's probably somebody who's been posted up at the cradle since it was finished.

Like, guys. I just assumed. I forgot how this game work. And I thought they're designing it, right? They're designing the boat. I mean, they designed the city. Nobody has really done anything with the old cradle. I know I said it a season ago.

That's the last great hope for our civilization. But old Joshi's doing something really important over there. Here's what I say. Here's what I say. If you go into the water with your great boat and you get instantly attacked by blinks, you will be very sad. That's a good point. Sharks can.

Don't blame Joshy. Sharks can blink up. Like a ship is not going to protect you. It's going to protect you. He's going to protect you more, though, Griffin. Now, if a shark blinks into your boat, is he going to have a long and happy life after that? He will not. But he will have some fun on the way out.

He'll get his for sure. He'll get his nuts. You know a blink shark. Griffin, can I tell you, the honest truth? I forgot how this game worked. And I figure, well, the cradle's done. So it's going to be building boats itself? It's not working.

It's not fucking Starcraft. I know. I realize that now, Griffin. Yeah. Okay. So there were no finished project. when I count it down the clock, so Justin take an action. I don't have to take, well, okay, let me say what we got out here.

The resource gatherers use these very specific, they're like electrosonic picks to do their gathering. Okay. And these all went missing when the Vanguard went through, their when they rated. Yeah, sure. Under the sea. And one of these picks washes up on the shore. Uh-oh. Maximumfunn.org. Comedy and culture. Artists owned, audience supported.