The Magnus Archives - MAG Mothership Game - Part 3

Episode Date: July 22, 2021

In the finale of our Mothership gaming special, can Android 0170701, Carter and Alabaster Artichoke (The Goodest Boy) survive the nightmares of space? Content warningsTentacles & aliensPhysical violence & injuryBombs & explosionsHuman remainsDiscussions of: guns, panic, thalassophobia, medication & drugs, infectionMentions of: death, heart attacks, the void, rot & mould, goreSFX: continuous high-pitched beeping & alarms, gunfire & explosionsFor more information on the game played, check out Mothership here: https://www.mothershiprpg.com/Edited this week by Nico Vettese, Annie Fitch and Catherine RinellaProduced by Lowri Ann DaviesSound effects this week Cymeon, tomfilm, kyles, quboup, klangfabrik, Sergenious, sophiehall3535, eddies 2000, Abyssmal & previously credited artists via freesound.orgCheck out our merchandise available at https://www.redbubble.com/people/RustyQuill/shop and https://www.teepublic.com/stores/rusty-quill.You can subscribe to this podcast using your podcast software of choice, or by visiting www.rustyquill.com/subscribePlease rate and review on your software of choice, it really helps us to spread the podcast to new listeners, so share the fear.Join our community:WEBSITE: rustyquill.comFACEBOOK: facebook.com/therustyquillTWITTER: @therustyquillREDDIT: reddit.com/r/RustyQuillEMAIL: [e-mail] Magnus Archives is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill Ltd. and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike 4.0 International Licence Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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hello and welcome to the uh magnus archives mothership rpg special part three i am your oh in this game warden which is their fun games master of terminology ben meredith i play elias it's the third part of this you've listened to the magnus archives you know what's up who's with me oh you meant our actual names yeah no but also who is with me it's me johnny hello i'm lydia i played melanie and now i am playing an android alex i play martin and i am still playing the goodest boy good soft boy canonically i am you have a patch that's what it says according to the patch self-assigned good boy dr alabaster arse choke look okay i'm the only one with written proof that i am a good person okay so just saying we shall see but yes when last we left you had just navigated through a sort of floating debris field of warehouse kind of slash

greenhouse that had been going on got to a field of horrible mold with translucent tendrils explored one of the tendrils and it tried to jab at 017 0701's hand it was like a little squid thing it was like a little vantablack squid. Little translucent antennae on top. Probably the kind of thing that might be a bit cute in a different context, but... It may be an appropriate time to work under the assumption that these creatures and or biological organisms of another kind are in fact hostile. Retreat, retreat, retreat. Definitely retreat.

Don't run forward, run backwards. Well, float back. if this is a good cultural reference or at least the audience you could google it these things are like a 10-legged mimic from the video game prey how scary video games are sad after this thing kind of makes a weird squeal after failing to jab 017 0701 in the hand three more of them kind of like float up around you and they do look like they're swimming in water so they're kind of pushing their tendrils about to kind of propel themselves through the you know pseudo atmosphere in this room i prep my gun and aim at one you have a single chance to step down i consider this behavior an action of threat okay well i think one of them is going to not heed you and try and make an attack so can you please make me an armor save they didn't heed you what no and then i'm going to quickly look up

who gets to go first but i feel like this is a good intro to, like, the fight kicking off. Oh, I'm still rolling like bums. I fail by 31. Combat. Yes, I've rolled under it. Woo-hoo. Delightful. Oh, in which case, I think with a successful check,

it attacks you and it genuinely just bounces off of your battle dress. I'll be honest, I have been struggling a little bit with this horror scenario just because it's lunchtime on a really lovely day yes no you will all stay inside and play your games but i want to go to the park and run around stop running around and going out playing and having fun with your friends you'll stay in and play games on your computer for hours yes father so in who goes first now that the fight has like kicked off appropriately everybody can make me a speed check those of you who succeed get to go before the enemies those who fail go after if you have tactics as a skill you can add this to your speed check. I fail.

Okay. I succeed. Oh, there's no chance I'm getting this. Oh, my speed's 17 and I've rolled 19. Oh. So that's a fail. Okay. 0170701 is acting before the Squidlers.

Vanta Squids is what I'm going to call them. Why not? So they are apparently branded, because that is a brand name. Vantasquid TM. And then Carter and Alabaster are going afterwards. I'm going to shoot the one that attacked me. So, you get two

significant actions in your turn. That's quite loose, but the examples it gives is like attacking, bandaging a wound, checking vital signs, maneuvering a vehicle, opening an airlock, you know, that kind of stuff. Yep. I'm going to shoot the one that attacks me. Great. So you make a combat check and then it makes its armour check. Ooh. I rolled under my combat.

Oh, so you succeed. Mm. Great. Always the tone of surprise. Yeah, I mean, in these percentile systems, it is a bit of like, ooh, I actually succeed. Well, I mean, my combat's 44, so it's nearly a 50-50 chance. Yeah, yeah, that's true. You're like, I regret that. What weapon do you have?

I've got an SMG, which is, I believe, a gun. It is, and it does deal 4d10 damage, so please roll me 4d10. Okay, that is a total of 14 i managed to get a one a two and a three ouch and an eight but really that doesn't make up for the rest ah well you spray your bullets at this thing the thing that like i'm assuming try to attack you because it's the closest your bullets like splatter into it and it almost splatters like paint. But it doesn't disintegrate or explode or do whatever these things do when they die. But it looks deeply hurt.

And not emotionally, physically. I'd feel emotionally hurt if you shot me with a gun. I'd feel a bit hurt. Yeah. You know? Well, these things don't. Try and give someone a standard spiky hello and then they throw lumps of metal at you.

It's nonsense. Pretty rude. Right. It retali metal at you it's nonsense pretty rude right it retaliates at you lid because now it's the monsters go there are four of these things so again i would like an armor save from you please oh dear okay so that's 53 and my armor is 35 okay so that is a failure, and it for once succeeds, so it will deal you 4 damage. Like its tendrils start to jab into you, and just start slicing and tearing as it can.

These things aren't huge, which is why it's not doing a massive amount of damage. They're probably the kind of thing where if they swarmed, they might be a problem. That doesn't sound nice. Yeah, speaking of, Alababaster you are being faced down by two of these things and they are both going to try and strike at you so i would like two armor checks from you please little did they know i am weak yeah they will hurt me so armor checks all right yeah so the first one succeeds by eight for me. Oh, I succeed.

I rolled a seven and my armour's 30. So I succeeded by 23. Fine, you rebuff the first attack and the second one. I write the most sternly worded letter saying no. Succeeds by eight again. I miss by 24. I was very lucky once. That second one does actually manage to hurt you dealing four damage both of these things they push their tendrils sort of together to make a

spear almost a spearhead and propel themselves at you you manage to dodge one and the other one slashes you in the side no and then the last one is sort of approaching Carter. And in the melee, you've seen them try and stab and slice at people. You're prepared for that. But this one instead sort of spins. And you can't quite say, but almost like a cloud of ink, it kind of expresses a cloud of pure darkness onto you. No, no, this is a good thing. They've been hurt and now they're expressing themselves.

And I'd like a fear save from you, please. That is not a success. Okay. It's not critical, but it is pretty bad. 87 over 35. Oof. This deals 1d10 stress at you because I'm the warden and I can do what I want.

You take 7 stress as you are... Oh, my... Oh, goodness. And the reason this is so horrifying I'm the warden and I can do what I want You take seven stress as you are Oh my, oh goodness And the reason this is so horrifying Is that you are enveloped by Absolute darkness Just completely It blocks out sight and sound It imbues you with this sense of just

Utter solitude In a way that is almost indescribably Terrifying Right It is literally otherworldly And I think with seven stress in one go in a way that is almost indescribably terrifying. Right. It is literally otherworldly. And I think, with seven stress in one go, I want you to make a panic check. I've panicked!

Okay, right, there we go. So, what does a Teamster do when they panic? It just says once per session a Teamster may re-roll a roll on the panic effect table. I think the idea is that a Teamster is actually comparatively controlled because they're very practical. Yes. Make me a roll of 2d10. That's 17. 17.

You are potentially afflicted by crippling fear. Gain a new permanent phobia. When you encounter this phobia, make a fear save at disadvantage or gain 1d10 stress. Oh yeah, that is an element of the game that I completely forgot about. Advantage and disadvantage. It's like d and d5th you roll two d100s and take the best or worst

result there are two elements here that you can do so first of all you have resolve starts at zero and i'm not giving you any so that's fine we're ignoring resolve for now i'm just straight up like full screams lots of screams Your ally's looking over. This is not just like a psychological effect. You can see Carter's legs in this cloud of pure darkness, like flailing about. Ah! I'm now obviously scared of the dark.

Oh, you don't want to be scared of the dark in space? Oh, no. No, Alex. You're quite right. I don't want to be scared of the dark in space oh no no alex you're quite right i don't want to be scared of the dark in space the panic effect wasn't pick your favorite phobia sorry that tickles me you have a new phobia i'm afraid of whales with an h or without they're both a good answer i decided i'm now scared of the sea. It's a very common phobia. I don't know what you're all... It is, it is.

You know. Thalassophobia? I mean, ooh. You're scared of the dark. I'm scared of the dark. Yeah, I was going to go into a tangent. You're scared of the dark. That's fine.

Not having a good time. However, what happens when you resolve the panic effect to the right and add your current stress? Oh, add your current stress. No, I'm wrong. Sorry. Because of the way the game the right and add your current stress oh add your current stress no i'm wrong sorry because of the way the game works what was your current stress i believe it was 11 and you rolled 17 yes so it's actually a 28 oh no oh no you die no but that oh wow oh that escalates quickly expect that. Because 30 plus is you just have a heart attack and die. Oh, my God. So you've got 28.

I've played a lot of Savage Worlds, and there's a fear table on that. And, yeah, it's surprisingly often that you're just like, heart attack, you're dead. Oh, my God. But you actually got Descent into Madness. You get two new phobias. Would you like to also be scared of the sea? Yeah, please.

Okay. And your stress cannot be relieved below five now okay grand feeling real glad i gave you a whole load of meds to deal with this don't worry i'm gonna be dosing up with stim packs very shortly second that we're not in a vacuum we're gonna be taking so many drugs oh no i was gonna say actually yeah that's true you don't lose any stress you're still as stressed it's a release valve. It just escalates until it goes wrong. So absolutely screaming the blue blazes. However, we've dealt with you. So let's go back to Alabaster. What would Alabaster like to do?

How many of these things are there? There are four. One of them is severely hurt and three of them seem fine. Are there any loose crates or loose sides of crates or anything that could be used as a makeshift shield because i am not good at hurting things yes would you like to in fact push a piece of debris at these things and hope they get squashed what i was going to suggest is pushing some debris and then try and like pull us along in its wake if you see what i mean oh yeah okay it's less trying to smoosh them and more just like push you away without touching you please go away

personal space in which case yes there is a reasonably sized container that you reckon in this sort of low gravity situation you could push so i would like a body check from you to push it in the direction that you want i should have taken the drugs prior to coming in here. I was like, no, don't do that, Alex. That'd be crazy. Sorry, not body strength because bodies are safe. That's even worse. Okay.

Oh, no. Not even a little bit. No. Is it just a flat failure? It's just a flat failure by like 30. Yeah, you push this thing and you do get it to go, but you heave so much it just goes off into a random direction and kind of floats away into the room you do have another

significant action available to you i'm gonna assume that we're not gonna win this fight how far is it to get past these if you see what i mean do i look closer to the opposite end or do i look like a retreat is more likely no so you are about 75 percent of the way across this large space so it's much easier and like they're not creating a perimeter yeah it's that you know you've you've started to get into sort of this area and it's they popped up randomly does the airlock on the other side of them look smushed in or functional first impressions first impressions it looks okay i am going to try and drag all three of us through them because if we retreat, we're going to suffocate anyway.

So I'm just going to try and just mad dash us through because we are all attached on a rope. Fine. Speed check, I think. Because I've got a feeling that Carter will not be putting up any reasonable resistance right now. No. The thing is, I was going to make my action.

Is there an escape pod i want to run towards the escape pod but now it's very much like i am stood here screaming because i'm both terrified of the actual dark and imagining the sea just imagine the sea i picked the right dice here by which i mean i don't think i've rolled lower than an 80 almost all game. 95 on my speed check. Okay, you start trying to run and it is like moving through treacle. In fact, Carter has not disengaged one of his mag boots. So you're kind of, you're able to do it a little bit, but the mag boot is like scraping along.

Help me! I'm also, let's say the rope for 01 0701 is still a slightly slack but obviously the android will have to go with you as well i'm not assuming either way but yeah an excellent excellent turn i love it okay oh hang on these are squids so yeah i am also scared of the ocean oh yeah that makes sense good shout but it is actually now carter's turn the horrifying ink cloud has dissipated slightly so that it's like it's still quite dark but the effect of just absolute impossible nothingness is gone past i'm gonna be waving my crowbar around wildly just anything that's nearby indiscriminate violence i think given the context that is the thing that's inked in your face so I think make a combat check against that

that is 15 under that's a success oh excellent yep and this is only 9 under so it's also a success but less of a success CS deal your crowbar damage 6 okay

this thing gets batted and starts floating away I've got another action right yes and Alabaster's trying to drag me right I'm probably going to hit him as well sure and starts floating away. I've got another action, right? Yes. And Alabaster's trying to drag me, right? Mm-hmm. I'm probably going to hit him as well.

Sure. Just because, you know. Johnny doesn't like me. Never has. Not waiting for, like, a critical failure or anything. Just bang. I mean, that's one of the two things that is touching me, has been dealt with. No, it makes sense.

It makes absolute sense. It's a 21 over, so I failed quite badly. You should be fine, Alex. But make an armour check. Save. Sorry, not a check, a save. Should be fine. I am swapping two other dice just to prove

I rolled a 9. Oh, wow. So I've got my bad dice for when I want to fail and I've got my good dice over here for when I want to succeed. Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug. You successfully managed to dodge out of the way. It's pretty obvious that this is not malicious intent from Carter. It's like...

Blind panic. Well, no, sorry, I've said that on Carter's behalf. Is it malicious or is it just your plain old freak out? Uh... So, like, 80-20? Okay. Carter doesn't like alabaster. on carter's behalf is it malicious or is it just your plain old freak out uh so like 80 20 okay carter doesn't like alabaster he probably realizes it's alabaster he could fully stop the swing but he's like instead he just doesn't quite you know the worst thing that happened is there's one slightly creepy person removed from the equation i get it yeah so Yeah. So we are back round to 0170701, who's acting before the enemies.

To give you a reasonable lay of the land, the one that Carter has hit with a crowbar is kind of careening off across the room and doesn't appear to be making massive efforts to stop itself from going. The one that retaliated against you, or attempted, is now trying to sort of swim away, for lack of a better word, but the ones that are on Alabaster are still engaged and aggressive. Can I disengage Carter's Mag Boot? Is there an obvious button to press?

I could run them out of here. Oh, I see. Well, actually, I think at this point Carter's Magboots aren't engaged because of the movement towards Alabaster and the frenzied attempt to bonk. Yeah. To kill me! Well, then, yes, I'm going to try and run pulling the rope to, quote-unquote, safety? Being security, I have assessed the situation and it is not going well

So are you almost like picking Carter up bodily? Yeah, let's do that, let's grab him, but it's low gravity, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, I'm going to grab him by the legs so he tips backwards and is pulled forward So his head then comes out of the absolute darkness, is the hope I knew it, sure, I knew the government had sent this robot to betray us, that's it I'm being a hero i'm just logically assessing the situation and doing the thing that requires the fewest moves

so make me a strength check but in the spirit of engaging with the systems and good justification with the low gravity roll with advantage so that means roll the d100 twice and choose the best. Hooray! What is this? That's a 75. That's not good. It does not go well. Okay, so you're all kind of next to each other. 0170701 has attempted to pick up Carter and is not able to. I'm a heavy lad.

So you're kind of all clumped together in a bit of a grapply melee, to be honest. It's a bit of a mess. Really hope that gives disadvantage to anyone trying to attack us. I think probably the other thing. Although that was one move, you have another significant action. So if you want to, you could fire SMG at another squid. I will do that. I will fire me gun.

It's what I'm here for. You sure you don't want to finish what Johnny started, kill my character before we even encounter anything else? No, but I will shoot the squid that's nearest your head with the expectation that if I fail critically, it may shoot your head. Understood, yeah. You know, cinematic. Isn't it fun to deniably try and kill Alex?

Comes up surprisingly often. I didn't. Unfortunately, I rolled a 16, so I succeed. By? 28. Oh, wow. I succeeded, so I succeed. By? 28. Oh, wow. I succeeded by 19. Not by 28, though. So yes, roll 4d10 and shoot one of these squids, which is threatening the group. Cool.

Total 29. It pops. Woo! You splatter it, and then it just kind of sadly and wetly bursts, as obviously its integrity has been damaged to the point where it just can't hold itself together anymore. The horror. The remaining squid thing that isn't running away or hasn't burst is going to attempt to slash at 0170701

as the greatest threat in the area. That makes sense. And whiffs it horrifically. Fail by 45. I rolled a 1, so under horrifically. Fail by 45. I rolled a 1. So under armour, I've succeeded by 34. Do I succeed so much that I end up

like, I reflect the damage back at it? You and I are playing such radically different games right now. I'm competent until I get killed, I think, is how this character in an action horror plays out, right? Like, pew, pew, pew, pew,

and then something happens that means I have to stay behind. Yeah. I was doing fine until suddenly I was doing the exact opposite of doing fine. The darkness of emptiness of being. But no, this thing is not having a good old time. It bounces off of you. And we move on to Alabaster's Go.

How many are left? One. Two are running away. One's been burst. How big are they? I don't really have a sense of scale here. Oh, yeah, sorry. They're about the size of a fist.

They're not massive. Yeah, they're tiny and adorable. Are there any, like, buckets around the place or something that looked like I could do a cheeky scoop and, like, you know the way you catch your spider under a cup? Cheeky scoop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A cheeky low gravity scoop using a big old bucket for what is ostensibly to me a big spider.

Are there any helmets hanging around on the walls? Not in here actually because it's the warehouse area so it's not for personnel. Just wanted to set it up to be a helmet be put on someone's head for later, you know? Oh, let's just end it then. Yes, there was a consignment of helmets

which has burst open of a shipping container. So it's just a bunch of random helmets. So that is the bucket, in fact, that you find. Can I helmet other problem then? Can I attempt to helmet the problem? Yes, I think that's a speed check given you're trying to like agilely like scoop it into the aperture and get rid of it.

I love that I keep leaning so hard on my absolute worst skill by an enormous margin. given you're trying to like agilely like scoop it into the the aperture and get rid of it i love that i keep leaning so hard on my absolute worst skill by an enormous margin oh crit fail excellent he said with a weird joy i like crits good crits and bad crits i like crits and by the way by a crit fail my speed 17 and i rolled an 88 so it's really quite horrendous crit fail oh i know what you do okay so you scoop and it goes in you get it in and you're like yes yes but then because of the weird gravity you kind of over commit to the swing and end up effectively just throwing it into your own face it's exactly that i am a a genius. Oh, no. Oh, my gosh.

You've got daggers in your face. Well, no, worse. Obviously, as some sort of fear response, it does the ink at you. Save us from our problems, Lyd. But it's like in your eyes, because I don't want to utterly misery Johnny and probably give his character a heart attack immediately by doing that again.

We'll have some consequences, not some just death right now. So yeah, it's like a channel of darkness which is sprayed into your own face. It's fine. It's really easy, right? I scoop with the helmet, over gauge it and I do manage to pin it to my face plate. Bear with me. And then you can panic me all you want

and I can let go and it's back out. Job done. Sure, yes. This is working in an instant. But you gain yourself. Oh no, make me a fear save. I don't want to. Aww, fail by about 40.

The way you said that, it sounded like you'd only just failed. Yeah. I missed my numbers. I got my numbers backwards. I thought I got like a seven, just failed. Yeah. I missed my numbers. I got my numbers backwards. I thought I got like a seven, but I didn't. I got a 70. Nice.

You gain yourself a cool seven stress. And make me a panic check, as you are also consumed by just the unending terror of the void. Okay. Oh, he rolls 14 with 12 stress. you go down to 11 stress then because you've successfully passed that panic check and yeah there is a moment of like you get that thing where like it feels like all of your internal organs are trying to force themselves out of your mouth and you manage to fight that feeling back down and just because you do the thing of like carter

didn't have a moment but you just wait like an actual second and the effect fades slightly it's now just very dark well if nothing else the fascination of a new and unexplored life form does help to counteract things just a little bit yeah sure if that's how you want to deal with it oh i could post rationalize anything you throw at me don't worry about that hey carter your go i'd like to take some drugs and run for an escape pod perfect yeah sure thing i'm in a vac suit so i will probably be stabbing the needle through the vac suit yeah fine i gave him two auto meds two pain pills and two stim packs i'm gonna be sticking me with a stim pack are there escape pods ben actually i would like an intellect engineering

check actually from you or mechanical mechanical repair. Okay, cool. If it's engineering, I get plus 15. If it's mechanical repair, I get plus 10. Let's say engineering. Basically, you've seen enough of the hilltop to try and guess at the pattern of this ship, because you don't have escape pods on your freighter, but the hilltop might. Oh, okay.

Well, 39 and a 40, so I succeed by one. Excellent. Yes, you are pretty sure that this is a theta pattern which do include escape pods in the wreck area which is just behind the cockpit which means that you're heading towards like your engines are assumedly its cockpit so if there are escape pods they'll be that way brilliant well I'm drugged up and ready to sprint cool what does this impact do oh i've got it open in fact oh perfect what does this impact do it grants an immediate 2d10 to health and temporarily increases strength and combat by 2d10 each for 1d10 hours okay and i apologize by the

way 0 1 7 0 7 0 1 because i assume these things don't work on androids but i could be wrong i think they do because i've got a pack of six it doesn't say it don't work on androids but I could be wrong I think they do because I've got a pack of 6. It doesn't say it doesn't work on androids. If it doesn't say it doesn't work then it's all good. Oh great Romy 2d10 Johnny. Yes that was an 11. Good so get plus 11 to your strength and combat

d10 hours is irrelevant for the timescales of this adventure. We will be dead by then. Yeah okay cool in which case make me a strength check to just book it and effectively, in your panic, you're attempting to just take the people with you because you're tied to them. I was going to say, I love the idea of us just flailing like a comet tail behind.

He's not trying to help, but we are tied to him. That is 30 under 61. You just go and, to a certain extent, I don't actually know how much the others are resisting. I don't think I can. Resistance is futile. I'm not going to, but I would like to be shooting as I go. Like when it gets to my turn and we're still moving.

Sure. You pull everyone and yourself just straight through, like just through this mould. You're kicking up clouds of it. Fortunately, the things which were the fronds have already revealed themselves to be upsetting and you've been dealing with them. just straight through like just through this mold you're kicking up clouds of it fortunately the things which were the fronds have already revealed themselves to be upsetting and you've been dealing with them so you're just kicking your way through you kick something soft which you're just not paying any attention to yeah don't care don't care you just go straight through it and you end up at

the airlock which you're now door which you're now heaving at in a panic. That is your turn, which means that Alabaster's gone, Carter's gone. It is now 0-1-7-0-7-0-1's go. The only remaining enemy is stuck to Alabaster's helmet. Shoot it! Shoot it with your gun! I will... Wait, is it in this helmet that's attached to you? Could I grab it and throw it?

So, I'm pinning it to my head head because better pinned to my head than floating free. That's the situation. It's pinned to my face. So you can kind of see this thing scrabbling around inside through the helmet visor. I'm banking on my helmet and the helmet doing something. Well, I think that's foolish. So I'm going to grab the helmet and throw the thing back into... As we move past, so it's back in the...

What was it, life support? No, it was the cargo... Yeah, you're in sort of the warehouse area. The warehouse area, yes. Is Alabaster resisting this if you feel like 0170701 try and pull the helmet away from you? Nah, probably not. Okay, fine. So just make me a body check lid to just chuck it. Cool. Would military training or athletics add to that?

I'd say athletics does. I've just remembered that I have skills. Yeah. Might as well use them. Trying for competence. Ooh, I rolled a nine. You wanted strength, right? Yes.

If you roll a nine, it's a big pass, I think, regardless of your number. You grab this thing. You keep it in a scooping pattern. You basically do what Alabaster was trying to do initially and just throw the helmet as hard as you can. I think regardless of your number you grab this thing you keep it in a scooping pattern and you basically do what Alabaster was trying to do initially and just throw the helmet as hard as you can with the thing still inside it just away from you if we are being pulled along by Carter can I use my second action to throw a frag grenade into that space as we are pulled out. Of course you can. Grand, I would like to do that.

Sure. I don't know how I do that. So that is a combat checklist. Ooh, okay, 28, and that is under my 44. Yes. Oh my gosh, the competence! It is so worrying because it suggests things are going to bad. How are you this competent without drugs? I'm doing the things I am trained for.

Don't do that. And equipped to do. What is your specific intent with this frag grenade? I want to blow up the scary things. I do not want them to follow us. So as we go out the airlock, I would like, or we are distanced away. I think the frag grenade has i cannot remember the

radius but i looked it up and it has a radius yeah it does it's fine i want them to be pulp i do not want to have the enemy behind me i have military training i'll have you know so the one that got crowbarred has just disappeared into the distance into the darkness even but you can see the helmet and the one that you shot initially are kind of close-ish. You aim your grenade, throw it expertly, and it detonates just between the both of them, and they're both consumed by, well, not a fireball,

but like a cloud of shrapnel, effectively. And you can see, like, the helmet is shredded and the one that was not in the helmet, it just disintegrates. It was a very good throw and effectively done. Turn around and I say, acceptable. I'm going to say we're out of combat now. The situation is, grenade's just been thrown, Alabaster's kind of back to being okay,

doesn't have darkness stuck on his face. I mean, I have a torn suit, presumably, because I got spiked. Yes, but we're not in a hard vacuum, so you're okay for now. And Carter is scrabbling at this door trying to get the damn thing open open open open open open it's gonna get open it's gonna open and we will leave you slam the button it doesn't work it like starts to open and you just start kicking at the small gap and just force this door open inside you you can see, you know, a more familiar hydroponics area that you know that is, again, absolutely destroyed.

But there are enough plants that it seems intact. Not that this is your concern anymore. And then up and to the right, at a really, really unhelpful angle, you can see a patch with escape pod written on it. It looks like this thing hasn't fired and you are in luck. There is an escape pod on the hilltop. I will assist you. Just trying to wrench it open. Not really

engineering and procedural training largely forgotten in favour of fear and drug-fuelled panic. Fair enough. Given we're out of combat, are you all working together to get yourself into that escape pod? I'm not oh my god alex well you two have it covered you were an agent of badness all along i am going to be did you say we're in our hydroponics yeah yes i'd like to be using

my med scanner and my cybernetic diagnostic scanner to basically find out if we're all infected with something and shouldn't be allowed to escape. Okay, make me an intellect check while you're doing that. I imagine you're trying to be reasonably subtle about this. I don't think I need to be too subtle with Carter. I am being subtle around Captain Competent over here. Make that roll. Keep it in the background for now. Only competent at shoot. That's the bit that scares me. Is 0170701 assisting Carter in getting to the escape pod?

Yes. My job is to make sure that the biologics escape. I am hot garbage. I am just incompetent. I fail by like 20. Inconclusive. Without a lab and some proper time you're just going to be unable to do this because any infection will be very subtle you can't just

like wiggly weep them and it'll be like bad there's badness yeah okay so you can't just what wiggly weep wiggly weep sorry it's a reference to like the star trek wiggly weep machine that spock has which is just like it does everything it's just he just wiggly weeps and it's like, oh. Oh, you're a tricorder. You're wiggly weep. Yes. 0-1-7-0-7-0-1 is assisting Carter in getting to the escape pod, yeah? Mm-hmm. Great.

With Zero's help, you are able to clamber into the escape pod. As you open it, you take an additional two stress as a corpse falls out of it. Oh, dear. I'm going to out of it. Oh dear. I'm going to stamp on it a few times. Sure, you drop down and land on this thing to try and make sure that it's proper dead. Oh, stamping with mag boots, that's got to be

bad. Yeah, and this thing is in the same situation as you found the one in your crew quarters, so it splatters and I think that is going to be a cause for a couple of stress for both Alabaster and 0170701. And a panic check from everybody. Ha ha! Ha! 17. I've done it. I've done it.

You've done it? I've done it. 18. Did it. 19. We're so good at weird things! Incredible. I'm really sorry, Ben. It turns out we are fine. Well, the thing is, this is neither squid nor dark, so I don't care.

That's true. No one's calling me a biohazard, so I do not feel personally attacked. And none of this scenario has involved me giving a lecture wearing only my underpants, so I'm in the clear as well. There you go. Now remember, everybody reduced your stress by one for successfully passing a panic check and yeah this corpse has been turned into a paste effectively it was very very decomposed but it looks like somebody tried to escape and unfortunately died before they were able to hit the go button effectively looking up into the escape hatch

it looks intact it looks fine it doesn't look like it's been compromised. And I go. Yep, you're clambering up again. Mr. Carter, you should allow me to assess the situation to determine what killed the former biologic. Get in here, get in here, get in here, get in here. We're leaving. Dr. Artichoke. Is there enough space for more than one person for a start?

This is a crew-based thing. Like, this is big enough. It's effectively a lifeboat, right? This is a terrible plan.abaster goes inside sure it's clearly infected and we're going down onto the planet with no that's my character contribution okay so you you reluctantly clamber in i don't have a better suggestion i suppose if there's room and I'm not going to be a drain on resources, 017 0701 will also climb in and lock the door behind them. Great, you lock the door, you hit the escape button. Obviously this thing kind of programs itself and yes, it fires out of the ship and starts its descent towards the undesignated planet the way these things work is it's got an

oxygenator on it and enough food to last you for a little while and it will send out a beacon where like a corporate reclamation team will turn up to try and get you and its assets out i mean if it's profitable supposedly yes assuming it's profitable and yet as you look back towards the ship you can see that both of them sort of overlaid on each other. They were roughly the same size, with the hilltop being a slightly bigger class than yours. But its cockpit is entirely smothered with this massive growth of black mould, effectively. Very lucky you didn't try and find navigation or anything like that, because assumedly it would have been a bad idea. That is a very bad munch.

I feel so bad for Ben trying to create this horror setup. He introduced the word and all I did is explain that it's a multiverse unification non-causal generic event. All you've done is moved it in universe. Yes. Yes. With an absolutely torturous background in which I respect.

Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah so that is the situation you're in your ships are gone you have no idea about this undesignated planet it's undesignated because there is no information on it and all you can do is hope that the beacon will bring a reclamation team before you starve is this going to be like the between aliens and alien 3 where you like you just kill two of us in the crash before the next adventure. Just be like, in case you were wondering, Carter and Zero just died in the crash. No, you're kidding me. It'd be the fleshy meat sacks.

We just get bounced around and then an android walks out. I was also going to say, unfortunately, I think Carter has to die because we can't have two Pete Postlethwaite's in that film. Yeah. I do need to ask one question though is carter covered in living stuff or just generic gunk just because that lets you know the scale of just how awful this descent's gonna be oh and his boots yeah his boots are entirely coated with this kind of black mold in fact all of your like legs are from wading through that drift. Oh, we're gonna die! We're gonna die! He is still, like, many hours of combat drugs away from a comedown.

He's a combat-enhanced, infected, and panicked beefcake engineer in a tight space. Oh, God. It's fine. That is outside the realm of the adventure. We've succeeded, Alex. we have survived the adventure it's a happy ending yep happily ever after i'd say you're the bad guy in the next film johnny it's a happy ending well done you have got pretty much the best outcome that i would have allowed so you know congratulations everybody good job in many ways it's more grim

so what was the deal with the fungus and the munging the mungus i just basically nicked event horizon and made it moldy like the hilltop somehow slipped into... Oh, mould hell? Yeah, it slipped into mould hell. Yeah, basically it's Event Horizon by way of Resident Evil 7. We'll lean off that gel quite nicely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was just a thing of like, unexplained event,

some broad horrors, I was going to hit you with a zombified crew member. Adorable little squids. But we took too long sorting ourselves out. Well, I was going to hit you with a squid ratatouille ah that'd be fun if you'd dealt with that like it would have been sat on its head yeah yeah glumbling about oh like limbo time makes fools of us all so as we descend to a planet then literally sealed into a can of war pass yeah hold on so the planet's actually fine it's nothing to do with the planet the planet is literally just another thing potentially a place for a second

adventure who knows you're the point of infection johnny you are the problem running through the caves away from the drugged up infection vector yeah it's all fine the adventure is over I will keep you alive Dr. Artichoke Whether you like it or not That's a great and horrifying line I think on that note We're going to have to just properly finish Oh thank you so much for that Ben

And what a line That was a lot of fun mate Thank you Yes Spooky Yeah solid system as well Cannot recommend it enough Oh just to remind everybody What a line. God. That was a lot of fun, mate. Thank you. Yes. Spooky. Yeah, solid system as well. Cannot recommend it enough.

Oh, just to remind everybody, this is Mothership RPG by Tuesday Night. That's with a K. Tuesday Night Games. Yeah, it's good stuff. It's pay what you want on DriveThruRPG and then you can buy additional modules for a fixed price. I haven't looked at them,

but given the quality of the base book, they're probably a lot of fun. This is cool. Yeah, I want to play this again. Anyway, we'll catch you all later. Goodbye. Bye all. Bye.

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