Speaker 1: We're live Woo. From the studio audience.
Speaker 2: Live from WKNC. It's here, the DodoBorne morning show. And with the weather, we have one, Holly Baker.
Speaker 3: Hey, that's me. Hi.
Speaker 2: What's the weather like, Holly?
Speaker 3: You know what? I I heard that cue and I didn't actually I didn't actually call it that. You know what? It's it's it's it's okay today. It's fine.
I I haven't been outside.
Speaker 2: Nice. That hard hitting weather report brought to you by the UKNC. And on the sports, we have Rachel Baker.
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm the exact wrong person.
Speaker 2: For sports. Aren't you playing a jock?
Speaker 3: I sure am. I hope
Speaker 2: that well, tell us a little bit about the sport. What's the sport news today? Oh. The sport.
Speaker 3: Do I actually get to talk about the sport? Yeah.
Speaker 2: You get to talk about the
Speaker 3: sport. Okay. So
Speaker 2: Give only a few details.
Speaker 3: Picture this.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Foosball.
Speaker 2: Okay. Uh-huh.
Speaker 3: But people. Oh, my god.
Speaker 2: Okay. Okay.
Speaker 3: Makes a lot sense.
Speaker 1: Is that not soccer?
Speaker 3: No. Oh. I'm talking bars, magical bars That's right. That you have to dangle off of Oh. To kick a ball around.
Speaker 2: Gymnastics plus then that's why you're the star tackler. Yeah. And you tackle with two feet.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Which means getting getting hicked.
Speaker 1: Getting hicked? Yeah.
Speaker 2: Get hicked.
Speaker 1: Get hicked.
Speaker 2: Oh, wow. And what are the scores like today? Who's in the lead?
Speaker 3: Well, right now, it's not Hickory. And that's a problem
Speaker 2: for Hickory. Hickory is the captain. Yep. Though the captain doesn't necessarily need to be the highest scorer.
Speaker 3: It does in this sport. For him. In his brain.
Speaker 2: Just for him. The only box score that matters is points.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: Hickory's a real wins or a quarterback stack kind of person.
Speaker 3: I totally know what that means.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That
Speaker 3: sounds Yeah. He's very competitive. Yep.
Speaker 2: What about rings box minus? Am I right?
Speaker 3: Yes. Sports. Yes.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: Plus minus? Mhmm. Kick. And with the celebrity cultural gossip news, we have one Rowan Collins.
Speaker 1: That's me. And did you know your favorite twink has just come out as a pansexual? Me neither. But today, his news is that he is here, and he is queerer than you thought he was ever going to be, and we're all proud of him. And back to our head anchorman.
Speaker 3: Did you just out someone on listen, this is the only news that matters.
Speaker 1: This is the only news that matters. And also, he added himself on his Instagram.
Speaker 2: Is this a real person?
Speaker 3: No. Oh.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sorry. For a second, thought this was like a real person. I was like, oh, what? Did Timothee Chalamet come out?
Speaker 1: No. Man, we all wish. No. Not anymore.
Speaker 2: Not anymore. We don't we don't we don't don't. Turned against Timothee.
Speaker 1: We have. You said
Speaker 2: something bad about ballet and that's it.
Speaker 3: How dare. Done.
Speaker 1: Band opera.
Speaker 2: And opera.
Speaker 1: And specifically for crit failed tenor, who's a fan of ours, we hate to eliminate challenge. Oh.
Speaker 2: I can't say anything anymore.
Speaker 1: That's true. Anyway, back to you, Isaac.
Speaker 2: And I'm Isaac Allen Burns, and this has been your reporting, your morning show. Coming up next, the world in crisis. More on that later. Be him. Start the music.
Our brand new heroes, or should I say study group, or should I say student body? Who quite knows? Our three Little Misfits started their year at Polaris University. One of, if not the most, prestigious university in Altea. Rainey, our do gooder, way too busy, but always walking around with something to do.
Hickory, our star captain of the unnamed sports game that we have that we're gonna discover together what it
Speaker 3: is. And
Speaker 2: Vivi, our journalist, asterisk. The three of you wound up in detention because y'all were way too curious about a package that one of your professors received that Rainey was tasked of delivering, and Hickory and Vivi immediately wanted to know what be in that box.
Speaker 3: It was mainly Vivi though.
Speaker 2: It was mainly Vivi. That's true.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And Vivi, what was
Speaker 2: in that box? Do you remember?
Speaker 1: It was a code of some sort. A letter.
Speaker 2: That's right. And wound up in detention, the three of you did. But while in detention, you heard a fracas. And a dew, a kerfuffle outside. And upon inspecting it, the three of you discovered the body of one professor Foswald, an older, fawn professor who also happens to be Hickory's advisor.
Devastating. Hickory's advisor who did say, as long as I'm around, you don't have to worry about studying. You can just worry about winning games.
Speaker 1: Uh-oh. No. No. You're gonna have to actually do work.
Speaker 3: I mean, nepotism will get you nowhere. Unless I'm very smart.
Speaker 2: Are you very smart, Hickory? Yes. So smart. Hickory is the smartest person on
Speaker 3: the team. He's clearly here for his smarts.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Straight a student.
Speaker 2: The three of you are standing in this previously described research laboratory
Speaker 3: Mhmm.
Speaker 2: And the place is an absolute mess. The main thing that you do notice though is that laying down prostrate and prone on the ground is Foswold. Looks like he's splayed out, and he's not moving. And so I asked the three of you, you have obviously come to what looks like a crime scene. How do you approach?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, guys. It's actual crime scene. I don't know if he's dead or not, but let's draw a perimeter.
Speaker 3: Hickory runs right up to Foswald. Hickory.
Speaker 2: Hickory, you run up to him.
Speaker 3: Foswald. Don't touch the body. He rolls him over. Hey, hurry.
Speaker 2: Foswold. You roll him over and his eyes stare up vacantly and his tongue walls out.
Speaker 3: Oh. Oh, god. Oh. I've seen this before. It might just be a concussion.
Doesn't look like a concussion. I'm gonna give him a little smack. Just a really
Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 2: You give him a smack. His his tongue lulls the other way now and his Professor Foswold
Speaker 1: Face the other way. Okay.
Speaker 3: It's not working. Is any no one else was in this room. Correct? We just walked in here and it's just us and Foswald's body.
Speaker 2: As far as you're aware, you stepped into this room and only Foswald was here. So Hickory and Vivi Mhmm. I would like y'all to give me instinct checks. Choose one of you to be the one to make the check, and choose one of you to be the assister. One of you will be basically checking the body, and one of you will be assisting.
And let me know how you assist, because this is going to be a quick little group role.
Speaker 3: Group role.
Speaker 1: Alright. I think Vivi's gonna take the lead as she is the journalist. Nice. And she'll be inspecting the body. And then, I'd like to add my experience, investigative journalism.
Speaker 2: I would say investigative journalism would let you pilfer through someone's secrets. In this case, the secrets being themselves.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And Hickory, what are you gonna do to try to assist?
Speaker 3: Hover. Hover? Hover. Very worried. Nice.
Speaker 2: Make another make you make an instinct check for me first, Hickory. Let's see if you recall. Yeah.
Speaker 3: 14. 14. Awesome. With hope.
Speaker 2: Oh, very nice. In this case, are reaction rolls for you. Shoot. So you get a rate so you gain no hope, but Nope. The assisters fun fact for you GMs out there, what I like to do, this isn't explicitly stated in the rules, but the assistants, I tend to have a lower DC for them.
And so, in this case, that 14 will succeed. So you add a plus one to whatever you roll Vivi.
Speaker 1: Nice. Let's go, Vivi. This is a plus six total for you. Wow. And that's a crit on three.
Speaker 3: Hey. Woah.
Speaker 2: Very nice. On that crit, I will give you all possible information that you could get off of this person's body.
Speaker 3: Woah. Okay.
Speaker 2: So, Vivi, first and foremost, I want something from you.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: There is a mark on his back. Clearly, this is where he was struck. But what's something odd about it that Vivi notices?
Speaker 1: It fractals out like lightning
Speaker 3: struck
Speaker 2: all
Speaker 1: up and down his back as if it was struck in one place and then it coursed out through him.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's very good. That's a very good observation, in fact. Because you would deduce right off the bat that this wound is clearly from that of a chain lightning spell Oh. Which you know is typically associated with the domain of Arcana. Another thing that you notice is that there is a note in his hand.
His badge is gone. All professors wear a badge that allows them entry into various places that are not suitable for students to be in. Many times, this is office buildings. This is restricted areas, certain research labs. In this case, his is missing.
And, Hickory, you would recognize that he had it on him when you spoke to him early this morning.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. That's also how he pays for his lunch.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: It's your meal plan too. Yes. Get free meals if you have a badge that professors do. Students don't have badges, but professors, they get free So you're very you have very good deduction skills clearly because of this crit.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Chain lightning is specific because it can attack multiple targets. Mhmm. Usage of that spell seems odd given that there's only one body here.
Speaker 1: Vivi immediately, like what she'll do first is she'll take out her little recorder. Think of a tape recorder that people would have, except it's like circular shaped. And she'll click it and it'll like kinda hover next to her. And she'll go, alright. Professor Foswell's body found what time is it?
Speaker 2: Probably later in the day. What time is it, Vivi?
Speaker 1: Professor Foswell's body found 06:16PM. Seemingly struck by chain lightning, only one person has been struck confusion as why only one target. There is a note in his hand and his badge is gone. I'm going to go ahead and take a look at this note and read it aloud. Meet me in Research Lab 204.
Stole something from his desk that you might wanna see. PS, also hasn't have an update on the Ooze. We are currently in Research Lab 204. Right?
Speaker 2: Yes, you are. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Hickory's gonna ask, is someone else here?
Speaker 2: You say that out
Speaker 3: loud. Yes.
Speaker 2: Your words echo on the research lab walls and return to you with nary a response.
Speaker 3: It was worth a shot.
Speaker 1: Hey, Rainey. Do you know if do you recognize this handwriting at all? It doesn't look like anybody that I've seen.
Speaker 3: I take it and look at it a little more closely. Is it like I mean, I would assume I process a lot of written notes from various professors. Is this a handwriting that I would have seen before? So I work all these different jobs and interact with a lot of different people in the university.
Speaker 2: You know what? I will say in this case, this will be an instinct role. Okay. So go ahead and give me instinct.
Speaker 3: Alright. I will do that. My instinct is plus one. Cat wears many hats is a plus three.
Speaker 2: Oh, here we go. Big moment.
Speaker 3: That is a it is with fear. It's an 18 with fear on instinct.
Speaker 1: Isaac's smiling.
Speaker 2: And 18 Mhmm. With fear. And 18 does pass this. That was what you needed. Mhmm.
The thing that you recognize immediately through your Rolodex. This is not the handwriting of a professor. You can tell because it's nice. Professors have really bad handwriting.
Speaker 1: True. True.
Speaker 2: Of the students, though, you've graded a lot of papers Mhmm. There's a lot of students that have good handwriting.
Speaker 3: Mhmm.
Speaker 2: And of the two groups of people that you think this could apply to, the one that narrows down for you is probably the journalism club.
Speaker 3: No. I think I would point that out very carefully to Vivi. You know what? I I have created a lot of papers, and Mhmm. The only students that have handwriting quite like this Mhmm.
It's pretty distinctive are
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: Well, in your club
Speaker 1: In my club. With journalism. In my club.
Speaker 3: Are you sure it doesn't look familiar to you?
Speaker 2: I think this tells us that Vivi doesn't really read other people's writings.
Speaker 3: Or pay attention to them.
Speaker 2: In their own in their own club. Look,
Speaker 1: there's something called journalistic integrity. And I can't be reading other people's work, lest I get influenced by them. So I don't edit any of the work myself. I instead just I I write I have I I write my own stuff.
Speaker 3: Are we aware of anyone that would have an issue with Professor Foswald in any way?
Speaker 1: No. Vivi's gonna rack her brain to see if there's any sort of like rumors that she's heard about people hating Professor Foswald.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Make a knowledge check for me.
Speaker 3: Can I assist with this?
Speaker 2: Yes, you may.
Speaker 3: I have advantage as a lore born on roles that have to do with the politics of a person or place. Oh.
Speaker 2: Okay. Group check once again. Who's assisting and who's making the big role?
Speaker 1: I will let you take it. And then, I'm going to have just like Vivi, you know, maybe because I didn't have to use my experience last time. I'll do like, I sent a scoop, maybe, like, if this was some sort of, like, rumor that she would have heard of.
Speaker 2: Mhmm.
Speaker 3: Okay. So 19 with hope.
Speaker 2: 19 with hope is really good. And
Speaker 1: then I will add mine. And that's going to be a 15 with hope.
Speaker 2: K. So in your case, it's the reaction roll, so you No don't get hope. A 15 will succeed, which Rainey puts you at a 20. Rainey, what is a rumor about Foswald that's been going around?
Speaker 3: You know, now that I'm thinking back on it, I we've heard that Foswald had was supposed to have co written a paper with one of his peers, and then was snubbed and was left off, the research paper that they were writing. And but I'll I though I'm not sure that I remember what the paper was supposed to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Foswell has been really upset the last few weeks. And a lot of people suspect that that's why. Mhmm.
Exactly. Yeah. Who it was? No one really knows, but something clearly has him miffed. Now, Rainey, you've kind of been staying back while they're inspecting the body.
Mhmm. Where is your attention at?
Speaker 3: I imagine with their attention immediately on the body, Rainey would have started examining the rest of the room just to see if there were traces of any other types of magic, or anything that maybe looks like it was moved or taken. Anything that really would have indicated, I guess, signs of a struggle, like anything like that that really would have maybe lent clues as to who did this and where they went.
Speaker 2: Oh, okay. Give me an instinct roll for And this is specifically looking around the rim.
Speaker 3: My instinct is flat and I guess I don't get advantage on this anymore.
Speaker 2: Here we go.
Speaker 3: That is a five and a two. So a seven with fear.
Speaker 2: Oh. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Fear. Thank you so much.
But I'll tell you this, even on a failure with fear, the room is a mess. Clearly, something happened here. You can see the markings of magic on the walls as though someone fired towards the door. But other than that, you don't really see anything. But the main thing that you find and that catches your eye is underneath the table, right next to the body, is a small little purple crystalline thing Mhmm.
With light blue etching on it.
Speaker 3: Okay. I Rainey is gonna head over there and and pick it up.
Speaker 2: You pick it up. It looks exactly like your friends' Gamitachi's.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: It is a it's got a purple crystalline exterior. Mhmm. It's kind of like a shape you've never seen before. And you know those classic classic gaming consoles that were transparent where you could see the innards inside of
Speaker 3: it? Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's like that. And inside of it, you see these lines of the light blue that all of you at this point would be familiar. It looks like Novusite in there. Like Novocide wiring inside of it. Yeah.
But yeah, looks like a Gamatachi.
Speaker 3: Is it is it like the one that I have in my pocket that I'm taking care of for Vivi? Is it like a live? Is there a
Speaker 2: It looks like there's little buttons on it just like normal. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 3: I I'll go ahead and see if I can feed it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, man. You No. You do so. You click one of the buttons, and you see a little face appears on it.
A little light blue face, similar color to the other ones. It looks like an older fawn man's face.
Speaker 1: Wait.
Speaker 2: And in fact, as you've turned it on, you two at the body see the eyes of this body begin to glow just slightly blue.
Speaker 3: Wait. He's alive. Oh. Boswald?
Speaker 2: Boswald does not smack. You give him another smack.
Speaker 1: Boswald is an old fawn. Right? Is this Boswelld in the Gamatachi? What?
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 3: Show me. Me. Show me. I know his face. I'm gonna press a few more buttons and see.
Speaker 2: Yeah. You press a few more buttons. You see that it makes different faces. Yeah. You feed it and it it's fed.
And that's good.
Speaker 3: Does anything with the body change?
Speaker 2: You see that the body kinda like kinda glows a little bit as if in response as you're clicking buttons as it's moving around.
Speaker 1: Rainy, what are you doing over there?
Speaker 3: So I found this under the table, and I it looks like your Gamatachi.
Speaker 1: My god.
Speaker 3: But when I touched it, that's what happens to Foswell's body.
Speaker 1: What? Did Foswald get put in the Gamatachi?
Speaker 3: That's not how that works. Those are toys.
Speaker 1: Did you not read that entire paper that was on the the rights of the Gamatachis?
Speaker 3: Yeah. I can totally read.
Speaker 1: Right. Rainey, did you get to see that one article by the Lagoon that was all about how the Gamatachis might be sentient?
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, that's that's why they're talking about stopping producing them.
Speaker 1: Right. And also why I'm very glad I'm kind of following that a little bit. I might be liable for manslaughter. But
Speaker 3: Well Does this mean we have to keep him alive? I played the film.
Speaker 1: Yes. I think we should
Speaker 3: keep In him the crystal.
Speaker 1: Until we could figure out at least how to get out of
Speaker 3: That's definitely his face.
Speaker 1: That is definitely his face. Professor, can you hear us?
Speaker 2: Body doesn't respond.
Speaker 3: Give him give him some food. I already fed him. You want do you wanna try? And I I go hand it to Hickory. Yes.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: What does Hickory do with it?
Speaker 3: Struggles a little because the buttons are very small. Oh, no. The buttons are very small. This is a tiny thing. So I have to use his smallest finger to poke in the buttons.
Speaker 1: Aw. Oh, no. Aw.
Speaker 3: It says that he pooped.
Speaker 2: It suddenly smells in there.
Speaker 3: No. No. Oh,
Speaker 1: Hey, Rainey, can you can you Yes. Yep. Yeah. I'm gonna use
Speaker 3: I'm gonna snatch it back from Hickory and then hit the little toilet button on the on the But this means he's not dead. This is we'll we can save him. Right?
Speaker 1: I mean, we can
Speaker 3: You do magic.
Speaker 2: Did you check for a pulse on this guy?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, he's still alive.
Speaker 3: I smacked him. That's insane. He's
Speaker 1: definitely alive, but
Speaker 2: He responded as though a body got smacked.
Speaker 3: Oh. Oh, my god.
Speaker 1: I'm doing the breath test. Is he breathing?
Speaker 2: He's breathing very slightly.
Speaker 1: Is there now poop on him?
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, god.
Speaker 3: You have magic. Just fix it. You have prestidigitation. I have prestidigitation. Fix so.
Speaker 1: Clean clean him, please.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, that doesn't require a roll. Just for the head. It's just a but it's just an illusion. I can just make it look and smell like he didn't Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not changing him, Rainy.
Speaker 3: Well, at least it'll look and smell like he didn't. Well He's no man. He always smells weird anyway.
Speaker 1: We cannot leave him with shit in his pants, Rainy.
Speaker 3: I refuse to do anything about this other than what I have already done.
Speaker 1: Rainy.
Speaker 3: I think this is a problem we could come back to, honestly. I You're gonna He's leave dead.
Speaker 1: Well, he's not dead, but he anybody could walk in on him at any moment and
Speaker 3: Why don't we take him to the nurse's office? The nurse can change his gonna go over and shut the door, because maybe that's actually a good idea. Nice. Shut the door. Can
Speaker 1: I spend a hope to telepathy to see if I can either communicate with him or the Tamagotchi?
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2: Mhmm. Yes, you may. Okay. Go ahead. Does that require a roll?
Speaker 1: No. I just have to spend a hope.
Speaker 2: Oh, nice. Yeah. Spend a hope and then immediately give me a presence reaction before Oh, great. Go.
Speaker 1: Alright. I'm a 23.
Speaker 2: 23.
Speaker 1: Get my hope back.
Speaker 2: This reaction roll, so that is Damn it.
Speaker 3: Hope. Hope and fear don't matter here.
Speaker 1: Take a shot every time that we forget that reaction rolls. A
Speaker 2: 23 is so good, Vivi. And so you will not take any damage from this. Nope. However, because this was a failure
Speaker 1: It was a failure?
Speaker 2: You reach out into this black crystalline device, object, artifact, Tamagotamatachi. You feel yourself immediately pulled down into a deep, deep abyss.
Speaker 1: Okay. Okay. You
Speaker 2: feel like you're falling. As you look up, you see that the ground above you is getting smaller and smaller as you descend deeper and deeper. Around you are flashes of blue and nothing but an abyss below and you swear you can feel the presence of something incredibly large, incredibly massive, both in scale and in scope. You feel a hand grab your shoulder, and you turn around and you see the face of Foswald. And he says,
Speaker 3: get out of here.
Speaker 2: And you're back Woah. Where you were standing.
Speaker 3: Woah. What happened?
Speaker 1: Oh. Oh. I think Vivi takes a second, like, she flutters because she was like, you know, a little off balance and goes, oh, that was not good. Oh gosh.
Speaker 3: Are you okay?
Speaker 1: I okay. Have you read that one book?
Speaker 3: Vivi, I've read all of it.
Speaker 1: Right. You know The Sunken Place? Yeah. That's what that was. It was like deep deep deep deep abyss with giant huge awareness or whatever.
And
Speaker 3: Were you trying to connect with Boss with Foswell. With Foswell or with the crystal?
Speaker 1: With both. Well, wherever his brain
Speaker 2: is.
Speaker 3: Doesn't that mean he's in the crystal?
Speaker 1: Well, he grabbed me and shoved me out of there. He did? Yeah.
Speaker 3: He's trapped. Well He's trapped.
Speaker 1: He's I don't know if he's trapped or he's trying to stop something.
Speaker 3: Well, if he could throw you out of there, can't you throw him out of there?
Speaker 1: Not gonna do that again.
Speaker 3: Thanks. Plus,
Speaker 1: I can only do that, like, once once I get some sleep.
Speaker 3: Once per session?
Speaker 1: Once per rest.
Speaker 3: Listen, if there's anything I have learned in my time here at PU.
Speaker 1: I think so mad he's
Speaker 2: You little stinkers. You little stinkers.
Speaker 3: It is that if I can't do this, somebody else around here can and probably better. So we should just let them do it. Okay. So let's go find help.
Speaker 1: Yes. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna spend a fear to where you hear footsteps approaching the lab.
Speaker 3: The next thing I was gonna be asking about is, are there other exits aside from the hallway where we came from?
Speaker 2: You see that there is a window, but otherwise, just this door.
Speaker 1: Where does the window go?
Speaker 2: Outside.
Speaker 1: Alright. Hold on. Hold on.
Speaker 3: We are in a tower. You can climb though. You want me to jump out of a window with him?
Speaker 1: No. I have arcane door. Vivi, he's just gonna because when you have no adversaries within melee range, I can make a spell cast roll. On a success, I'll spend a hope to create a portal from where I am to a part point within far range that I can see Mhmm. Which includes outside.
Speaker 2: That's true. It does include outside.
Speaker 3: How did it include the nurse's office?
Speaker 1: I can't see the nurse's office from here.
Speaker 2: You look outside, there's quite a few balconies to the other two spires.
Speaker 3: Oh. Perfect.
Speaker 1: I see the nurses office right the like window next to it. Let we can go there.
Speaker 3: Okay. Let's go. There's no time, Rainey. You'll just run over and like hug your leg.
Speaker 1: Okay. Perfect. It's our indoor, so we get to walk through it.
Speaker 3: Oh, great. Come on, Boswell. I don't know that spell.
Speaker 1: Just fun.
Speaker 3: I didn't wanna be left behind. I'm gonna throw Boswell over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Do I still have the Tomica? No. You have the Gamatachi.
I have the Gamatachi. We should keep those close. Give me the Gamatachi. I'll hold on to it. You give me I've got both of them.
I'll hold on to this one. We don't have time. Let's go.
Speaker 2: What's your roll? Oh, no. What we got?
Speaker 1: A nine with hope.
Speaker 2: Oh, does that does that beat the spellcasting set?
Speaker 3: No, it doesn't.
Speaker 2: What happens on a failure?
Speaker 3: Oh god. It
Speaker 1: doesn't tell you. But because I think it's funny, can I come up with something different?
Speaker 2: You know what? Absolutely. Yes.
Speaker 1: Can instead of like, it popping up and you like, you doing something, can it like just suck me into a portal somewhere else and banfing it out somewhere? Or something else?
Speaker 3: Oh, like rant somewhere random?
Speaker 1: Somewhere random?
Speaker 3: Rather than somewhere intended? Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know what? Oh my god. I like that. I'll say that you open this up. And it was with hope.
Yeah. It wasn't out of fear. So it was with hope. Which means that where you wind up will not be immediately deleterious to you, but as you open up this portal, got it's a little too much gust out. Mhmm.
And you are sucked in against your will.
Speaker 1: No. No. No. No.
Speaker 3: No. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: I'm gonna roll actually, no. Roll a d 20 for me.
Speaker 3: Just Vivi? Just sucked in against your will?
Speaker 2: Everyone, all four of y'all are sucked in against your will.
Speaker 3: Four, including Foswell. Including Foswell.
Speaker 1: Got a two.
Speaker 2: A two?
Speaker 1: We got a two.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Great. Good.
Speaker 1: Grand day.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna throw this to someone else. Rainey, what would be a two out of 20 place to wind up?
Speaker 3: At one of my places of employment. Let's go with the Top Floor cafeteria or cafe. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2: Incredible. You bamf up to that cafe.
Speaker 3: Shit. What does
Speaker 2: this cafe look like? Tell us, Rainey, about this cafe.
Speaker 3: So this is one of the lower trafficked cafes because it is at the top of one of the towers of the university. Only really a handful of students that are up there and they look like they've been dialed in for quite a while. So they're kind of spread out amongst the various kind of seats and tables. And I would imagine that we just land right in the middle of of this little this little student seating area. I have a question.
Yeah. Do either of you have capes on right now?
Speaker 1: No. But I have wings.
Speaker 3: Put your wings over faucet. Just walk away. How big are your wings? Do you think they're
Speaker 1: big? They're big. Vivi's, like, five two.
Speaker 3: So, like, their wings are, like, gets crouches on his knees, and it shuffles. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So y'all appear two feet above the middle table No. And clashing you with a loud noise. In the cafe turns to look at all of you. Oh, no. And then one guy in the back says, yeah, failed teleportation.
And they start clapping like like people in a restaurant do and it's like a waiter breaks a bunch of glass. Rainey just
Speaker 3: immediately lean into that and walk like five paces away from her friends to try to draw attention and just be like, I tried my best, just leave me alone. And she's just walking away to try to have eyes follow her.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're making a do about it?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You see, oh, Rainy, you failed your teleporte Oh my god, Rainy. You see one of the students is like, hey Rainy, is everything okay? You failed the teleportation spell?
Speaker 3: Yeah. Shut up, Jeremy. I don't wanna talk about it.
Speaker 2: Okay. I'm sorry. I just Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was just okay.
Speaker 2: Jeremy runs away crying and everyone
Speaker 1: Don't sign up.
Speaker 2: Is immediately like, woah. Woah. Okay. Raine's having a bad one. Everyone just kinda like turns around.
Speaker 3: That's why I
Speaker 2: love awkwardly don't pay attention.
Speaker 1: That's why they call her Ring Cloud. Alright. Let's go. Come on.
Speaker 3: Is there any way I can face with this professor in my arms that won't just be broadcasting that he's like limp in my arms right now?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: They will like wave their hand and make an illusion spell over the guy to make him look like coffee beans.
Speaker 3: All time.
Speaker 1: Hey, we needed somewhere We were arguing about what to do. That's all I'm saying. Anyway, I do have to make a spell cast roll.
Speaker 3: Can I
Speaker 1: see if it goes off? Yeah. Make
Speaker 2: a spell cast roll.
Speaker 1: Okay. It does 22. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2: 22 whip? It's better. Oh, nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay. He not only looks like coffee beans, he smells like coffee beans. Problem solved.
Speaker 2: Problem solved. Perfect. So based on the time of day, you're kind of figuring out where to go. You think that you have about one more location that you can go to before curfew's gonna hit, and it's gonna be harder to move around. Current places that y'all kinda have is you can go to the nurse's office.
You could also go check out his office, Foswell's office. You could go talk to doctor Tomasz if you wanted to, or you could go to someone else. Go to the journalism club. It's up to you. You think you only have one location you'll get to easily though.
Speaker 3: Are we gonna be taking care of him? Is that the plan? Because we could bring him to his office, and he has a chair there. It's a crappy chair, but it is a chair. Yes.
And we can leave him there.
Speaker 1: I would recommend that we do that also because I have to keep eyes on him for this illusion to keep. So we can carry him too. He will look like a sack of coffee beans for you that we will carry to his office, and then we can leave him there. And hopefully, has a change of pants. I don't wanna leave him in this state.
Speaker 2: Beans. You know, I didn't realize when we had him shit himself that this would be one of the biggest problems that you'll have to deal with. And that's the beauty of that's the
Speaker 3: beauty of I thought about it the moment we looked at you and said, did he shit himself? And you begrudgingly went, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He did. You know what?
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Anybody that doesn't like scat humor?
Speaker 3: Oh, my god. Sorry.
Speaker 2: So y'all are walking out of the cafe, headed to his office.
Speaker 3: Yep. Mhmm.
Speaker 2: Polaris is a very early university, clearly. It's about at this point, we'll say 07:00, so things are winding down, curfews at eight. You know what I mean? You gotta get back to your rooms or to a study room by 08:00 if you're doing an all nighter. And as you're walking, really no one pays you any mind.
They just see you carrying a bag of coffee beans and people are busy. They got studies. They got research to do. They've got homework. No one really pays you any mind.
And as you get to the wing where many of the offices are, you see that there's two individuals kinda having a conversation in the middle of the hallway. You see professor Lysander, who you all saw earlier today.
Speaker 1: Mhmm. It's kind
Speaker 2: of the reason you're in detention.
Speaker 3: Great.
Speaker 2: And he's talking to another professor that I think in this case, Rainey, you would recognize. This is Professor Costello.
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2: And who better to reprise his role as Costello than the man himself, Joe Diomedes. Special guest, Joe Diomedes on his own show. Joe, tell us a little bit about Costello.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Hey, everyone. So Costello is an elf. He has medium, shorter, purple hair that's pushed forward with a curl that falls, you know, right in the middle of his forehead. And he has round spectacles.
I think in human terms, he probably looks like he's in his late fifties. And, aside from that, probably just how you would picture any really busy researcher, professor. You know, has his sleeves pushed up and you know, wider pants and he's clearly, you know, in a few buttons undone at the top. Whatever the magical equivalent of that is.
Speaker 2: He is a professor of novocite research.
Speaker 3: Mhmm. I'm trying to get in good with Costello.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, you see the two of them talking. And, as you're approaching, you see that the two of them look at you and Lysander just kind of smirks a little bit. And Costello, you see three students approaching with a big bag of coffee. It's a weird hour for them to be here.
Speaker 4: Excuse me while I send her one moment. Yes. You three students, what are you doing carrying a bag of coffee in here?
Speaker 3: Hi. Professor Costello. So I Hickory was helping me carry some beans from the top tower down to the cafe on the Lower Floor. So we're just making our way down there.
Speaker 4: Oh, okay. And you're taking a detour here. Okay.
Speaker 1: Yes. So we have to hit a couple of the classrooms before. I'm doing a new piece on the cafe upstairs as part of the food and drink section of the journalism club. So We're just
Speaker 3: strong and I can carry.
Speaker 1: And, Hickory has the power of strength.
Speaker 4: I see. I see an odd an odd trio the three of you make. Well, that's that's fun. I'll tell you what. You leave a few coffee beans in my office and I won't mind at all.
Speaker 3: We can probably arrange that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. We can
Speaker 3: make that work. What will you do with the coffee? Okay. Do you know how coffee is made, hickory? Do you chew on the beans?
This makes no sense.
Speaker 4: Okay. Well, on on that note
Speaker 3: And he turns,
Speaker 2: and he heads to his office, and you see Lysander is just kind of looking at all of you and just kind of nods a little bit with a little smile, and then he also leaves and goes to his office.
Speaker 1: Okay. Bye. Bye.
Speaker 3: That was easy. We didn't even have to roll a presence roll. Magic fixes everything.
Speaker 1: Magic does fix everything. Anyway. Excellent.
Speaker 3: Excellent. Alright. We proceed.
Speaker 2: So you go into Foswell's office. Mhmm. It is unlocked, surprisingly enough.
Speaker 3: Mhmm.
Speaker 2: And you go inside and you see his office before you. Wow. The office of a researcher. A little messy, organized perhaps in some way, but nevertheless, is before you now. And so, as you are in this new location, I ask, how do you approach?
Speaker 3: Step one, we put Foswald in his chair.
Speaker 1: No. Step one, we change Foswald.
Speaker 2: Hickory plops him down with
Speaker 4: the squish on his chair.
Speaker 3: No. No. No. No.
Speaker 2: Too late. Too late. He's on the chair. No. But you do have his office here.
Speaker 1: Alright. I would like to make another fun. I would like to use reveal in here.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 1: So I would like reveal makes a spell cast roll. If there's anything magically hidden within close range, the roll will see against it. It is revealed.
Speaker 2: That's beautiful. Go ahead and make that role. While Vivi's doing that and Hickory, you're putting the body down Mhmm. What are you doing right now, Rainey? Where's your attention gone?
Speaker 3: I think because we were just messing with this crystal again and thinking about Foswell and the state that he's in. I think Rainey would take a quick moment and maybe see if she can help with the wound on his back. Because he's still alive, but he's been injured. Yeah. So I think Rainey would cast Mending Touch on him.
Speaker 2: Nice. Nice. And that's
Speaker 3: just I spend two hope to clear a hit point.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 3: So
Speaker 2: You do that mending, you see some of the skin start to heal on his back, some of the fur, that fawn fur comes back. Mhmm. And you see on the Gamatachi, there's a little health bar and that goes up too.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's nice. Good job, And
Speaker 2: what do we have for reveal?
Speaker 1: 13.
Speaker 2: 13. On a 13, you see that a little bookshelf on the side kinda lights up.
Speaker 1: Vivi's gonna go look over at the book shelf real quick.
Speaker 2: You look at the bookshelf. And on that reveal, you see that there's one of these books that's just kind of glowing a little more than the others.
Speaker 1: Is it one of those, like, in an animation cell frame where you would, like, pull it out and do it like?
Speaker 2: Yeah. You see that the whole thing is just a a picture that's been drawn, but this one book looks a little brighter than the rest of it. Looks like it's about to move.
Speaker 1: And then Vivi's gonna pull it, I guess, off.
Speaker 2: You pull it out and suddenly, the camera the camera turns away for a moment to look at something else. And then as we come back, you see that the bookshelf has moved. We don't see it move, but it has now moved. And not the whole bookshelf, but you see that there's a little hidden slat behind where those books are
Speaker 3: Mhmm.
Speaker 2: That you see a stack of books. Stack of new books out there.
Speaker 1: Gonna sit and start looking at the books.
Speaker 2: You pull up in these books, and you see that they are some Novocite research books from approx some old stuff. Some stuff that would have been printed about, you know, twenty to fifteen years ago or so. And the first thing that you see is a little note. It's kinda tucked in.
Speaker 1: Alright. PV starts talking to her. She clicks on her little thing again, and she goes, alright. Doctor Fazwa's office, 07:03PM. Behind bookshelf, we have a stack of books in a peculiar note.
You report that Adrian Toulouse's defender m k two is seen in Bracken Road is curious. Unfortunately, our records show that Luce left for just R and D, primarily known as Leo R and D in 2008, and no records of his research were left. No information exists of MK two's with any self consciousness.
Speaker 2: The other thing you noticed about all these books, these research books, once again that they're old. They would have been from around that time. Now go ahead and give me a knowledge check. And while you're kinda looking through those books, Rainy and Hickory, you notice that all of those books that Vivi has pulled out kinda plumped them down. Mhmm.
Clearly, Foswald was looking into something. And so I'm curious, where are y'all doing at this point?
Speaker 3: What are y'all? I think Hickory loves robots. So this is very exciting.
Speaker 2: Hickory's hovering.
Speaker 3: Hovering around the robot books. Nice. He'd be interested to learn more about the Defender series. 100%. Yep.
I didn't know Foswold liked robots.
Speaker 2: And what about you, Randy? Where are you at right now?
Speaker 3: Is there anything else in the room, like, that was discovered through the kind of magical site? Mhmm. Is there anything else in the room that looks like it's been recently disturbed or anything that maybe Foswell would have been recently working on?
Speaker 2: You see his desk, there's a bunch of papers all around. And you see that the trash is full of just like crumpled up papers.
Speaker 3: Okay. I think Rainey would be sorting through maybe just what's on his desk and and especially if we are talking to each other as we do this, seeing what, you know Yeah. What's what's of note versus what maybe his most recent attention has been on.
Speaker 2: Go ahead. Give me another instinct check for me. And Vivi, what'd you roll?
Speaker 1: Can I use my experience? Get a sense of scoop.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. There's a scoop here for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So that's gonna be a 20 with hope.
Speaker 2: A 20 is very good. That's some gold star.
Speaker 1: Gold star.
Speaker 2: You see that these textbooks specifically are opened and dog eared and bookmarked on a sections in regards to Novocyte research talking about the conductive properties of Novocyte on Anima. Theories that this could impact the Anima of a person are postulated in these books, but circled in the footnotes is the name A Toulouse. Additionally, one of the other books, you see that there is a paper that has been published a couple many years ago. The names published on it are a, Talus, p, Pleiades, and f, Costello. You see Costello's name is circled, and there's an old photo of the three of them with a small note that says Pleiades on EOP.
Speaker 3: On EOP? You said EOP?
Speaker 1: Yeah. EOP. Though this paper is showing a two Pleiades on EOP and Costello.
Speaker 3: Wow. I I think Rainey would put down the papers and and come over to look at what you're looking at and be like EOP EOP is means enemy of Polaris.
Speaker 1: Enemy of Polaris.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And Costello knows these guys? Apparently. And okay. And this one indicates that Adrian Toulouse that maybe have some self consciousness.
Speaker 3: This seems suspiciously like what could be happening with our Gamatachi friends.
Speaker 2: You think the one important thing that you would notice, Rainey, as you're looking at it is that in the conclusion section, and in fact, at the end of the abstract, it clearly states that the amount of energy that it would take to make this work would be a lot.
Speaker 3: Mhmm.
Speaker 2: And in order to test this, one would have to do unethical experiments on people Mhmm. In order to even make this feasible. An
Speaker 1: ethical experiments on people.
Speaker 3: On people.
Speaker 1: On people.
Speaker 3: And that's the only way that this would be able to be feasible at all. Well, we would hear more about people just being zapped into Gamatachis. Okay. Would we though?
Speaker 1: We all know the state of Polaris has its secrets. I mean, that was the whole, like, conceit of the Senor Flip Flop episode. Never trust the state.
Speaker 3: I remember that one. Right?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: You do. Right? That's the one where where Senor Flip Flop is a double agent.
Speaker 1: Yeah. When Senor Flip Flop was like a rogue, it was the rogue version of Senor Flip Flop. Mhmm. Mhmm. The blue one.
And he was like really into like finding the the different papers on the pirate ship. Yes. Yeah. And he like he like abandoned the druids in your flip flop.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So we don't trust the state.
Speaker 1: We don't trust the state.
Speaker 3: And the question is, the only name on this paper that we know is Costello.
Speaker 1: So maybe we ask Costello?
Speaker 3: How do we ask Costello?
Speaker 1: I don't
Speaker 3: know that that's a good idea. Yeah. I My professor is dead. Ish.
Speaker 1: Your professor is not dead.
Speaker 3: Ish. Yes. We need to be careful.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't wanna be a Gamatachi. I have a meat this weekend.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't wanna really be a Gamatachi either. Okay. Well, we need to get back to our dorm. So and I don't think we can figure this all out tonight.
We should put these all back where we found them, lest anybody know that we were here.
Speaker 2: Mhmm. And before before we get too far though, Rainey, what did you roll on your
Speaker 3: Thank you. I rolled a it was a 16 with hope.
Speaker 2: 16 with hope.
Speaker 3: Yes. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Let's go back a little bit, some of the papers that you were seeing. You see that there are a couple of notes that are in here. First and foremost, you find a half finished note on a 16. You find it in the trash with a bunch of other somewhat unfinished notes.
Speaker 3: Is it unfinished? Like, it looks like Oswald was penning this note and then quit?
Speaker 2: It looks like he was penning this note and then misspelled something. Mhmm. And then threw it in the trash.
Speaker 3: As I think, maybe I'm not gonna read it. I'm just gonna read it out loud to you all. Alright. Since we're talking about everything we found. So, you know, when I was looking through the trash, I found I found this note.
It says, Ilya, don't tell Tosme. Ilya, don't tell Thomez about the ooze or about our target's movements. We will patently. And then, Ilya, meet me at Fresco's. So it looks just like he was trying to write the same note multiple times.
Speaker 1: Don't tell Tomas.
Speaker 3: Don't tell Tomas. So don't tell professor Tomas about the ooze or about our target's movements. Meet me at frescoes.
Speaker 1: Vivi starts to turn like like from pink to like a little shade of red and goes, Ilya?
Speaker 3: Wait. Isn't that that one guy? No.
Speaker 1: She's a bitch.
Speaker 2: And that's where we'll end this section of of DodoBorne. That's right, everybody. Find out next time. Who is Ilya? Hey.
It's a podcast. Hello, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to the second episode of our little side thing, Polaris University. And before I let you go, I just wanna shout out some of our biggest supporters, the bag of gold members. Apologies so profusely for missing last week.
That's on me. Joe has summarily punished me, and now I am reformed and a better person for it. But without further ado, shout out to BDS at dork master, Muscles, Dynamite, Daddy Bright, Tabletop Optimist, thirty bird, CEO Zorak period, Maria w, Cole Lecago, Minor Thoughts, Joshis seven zero eight, Darcy r, tales by daggerlight, nicholas w, condor blue, world of Gariva, Emma, and raechy loves you. Shout out to all of y'all. We so appreciate y'all support.
Y'all are some of the biggest reasons that we were able to put the studio together and begin moving to a video and audio format at the same time. Thank you all so much from the deepest appreciative portion of our souls and our hearts. And squawk on three. One, two, three. Squawk.