The Troubleshooters - The U-Boat Mystery, Episode 2

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hello, friends, and welcome once again to a single serving tabletop adventure from Queenscort games. I am Aaron, and tonight, once again, I shall be your director of operations. As we step back into the 1960s world of comic book cold War adventures in the troubleshooters, we are continuing our story of the U boat mystery, written and designed by Krister Sunderland. I think it's been going pretty well so far, minus the part where you. I almost let out some spoilers. And that is an important thing to mention because this is the second of multiple episodes. If you have not watched the first one, pause this immediately. No, pause this. When I'm done explaining what you should do, pause this and then go watch the first one on YouTube, then come back and watch the rest of this one. Okay, now pause. We'll wait. How long do y'all think it's gonna take him to do that? [00:00:56] Speaker B: Probably just. [00:00:57] Speaker C: Did we tell them to unpause this bit? Because then that would be now, so probably be fine. Did we? [00:01:02] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:01:03] Speaker C: Your instructions were not clear. [00:01:05] Speaker D: Instructions unclear. [00:01:08] Speaker A: It's fine. They just came back. We'll just pretend it was. Thanks. See? Excellent job following instructions that were very clearly given. Ah, yes. Well, you have just had the cast introduced to you because you just watched that episode. But we'll do it again because this is an incredible cast and they deserve to be recognized. First of all, as our inquisitive journalist with excellent taste in friends, as Emma Beck, it's Viloc. [00:01:34] Speaker B: Hi. [00:01:36] Speaker A: As the globe trotting jewel thief with excellent taste and best friends, as Katerina Upper, it's Chamonix. [00:01:46] Speaker C: Hi. [00:01:48] Speaker A: Coming along as mechanic Frederick, I am constitutionally incapable of not saying djarden. Now, as mechanic Frederick Dejardin, it is Lola. And lastly, but not leastly, driving them around at speeds far exceeding the safety limits of most vehicles. As a racing enthusiast, it is Sonya Volkov. It is Aubrey. [00:02:15] Speaker D: Hello. [00:02:18] Speaker A: You can find links to their assorted social media channels by sending exclamation point cast to chat or exclamation point scenario. If you don't care who they are but are really into this game, that will bring up a link to the drive thru rpg page where you can find this scenario and the game for yourself. Also, please be aware this scenario is built for a lighthearted adventure. However, it does involve punching Nazis and some of the things that folks may find uncomfortable or unenjoyable. So go ahead, pop exclamation point safety or exclamation point content. Because here's the thing, I switched up every time. So V has put both of them as valid commands. Use which one you prefer and it'll bring up some content warnings. We've all talked about what comes up with this scenario, but we want to make sure that everyone watching has a good time. Now I shouldn't put off things any longer because as I recall, I left you all tied up in a burning building and it's getting pretty hot in there. So if we are all ready to affect a tremendous escape and hunt down the secrets of a U boat gone missing, let's get to it. What do you say, folks? [00:03:17] Speaker B: All right then. [00:03:19] Speaker A: That was great. [00:03:20] Speaker B: Sure, it'll be fine. [00:03:22] Speaker A: Alright. Well then let us continue our story. We return to a warehouse on the southwest or east, I don't remember, side of Paris. It is a brick building altered by story points to include a wide skylight on top of it which is now billowing smoke because as the forces of octopus escaped with captive journalist Pierre Martin in tow, they left the four of our stunning adventurers, our folsom foursome tied up in the center, chicken feathers on the floor, flames racing towards you. Important question. Oh my God. What do we do? And by we I mean you. What do the four of you do? [00:04:14] Speaker D: Really wish there weren't chicken feathers everywhere because those are probably really flammable. [00:04:17] Speaker B: Really, really feel like we need to. [00:04:19] Speaker C: Do that well to ourselves. [00:04:20] Speaker B: I, you know, I'm so sorry I introduced chicken feathers to this scenario. I'm so sorry. [00:04:29] Speaker E: That was a quick question. How much would they have searched Frederick given that Frederick surrendered, took themselves out of. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Not at all. I think their priority was Pierre out of here. Whatever evidence they have they weren't really concerned with. They would have disarmed Katarina and Emma, like knocked the feather out of Emma's hand and the knives out of Katarina's. But they wouldn't have spent any time at all doing the pat down or anything like that. You're much more thoroughly searched going into a posh London bar. [00:05:06] Speaker E: In which case I would probably have something in my pocket that could assist us in escaping our bombs though. It depends. How are we tied up? [00:05:19] Speaker D: Rope. [00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah, thick shipping rope. Imagine on a dock or whatever and they have tied you back to back. But recall Katarina and Emma are tied back to back and then Sonia and Frederick are tied back to back. Your hands are behind you and then you are roped also to one another. So you're bound at the wrists and then your forearms are tied to the forearms of the person behind you. [00:05:47] Speaker D: Very thorough. [00:05:50] Speaker E: Sonia, how flexible are you? [00:05:57] Speaker A: Try my best. [00:05:59] Speaker E: Okay. Well, I've got some. I've got some cutters in my pocket, like in the. And Frederick is kind of trying to shift his arms. So that kind of like. Because if our forearms are tied together. Wait, not our forearms, our opera arms. Upper arms. [00:06:26] Speaker A: So your wrists are tied to each other and we can all play along at home. And you can put your arms behind your back with your wrists crossed. And then imagine that your fore. So your wrists are bound to your wrists, and then your forearms are tied to the forearms of the person behind you. Okay. [00:06:40] Speaker E: Oh, that's. That's a lot less hard. Okay. [00:06:43] Speaker D: Yeah, you lean forward. I lean back. [00:06:48] Speaker E: No, but it's. Michael, wait. [00:06:52] Speaker D: Yes, yes. You lean forward, and I'll be leaning back. So I have. As we figure out how this exactly. [00:07:01] Speaker E: Works. [00:07:03] Speaker A: This is a level of fiction first, that I did not expect, but I am totally here for. And as we're all trying to figure out how to do my arms, but I love this. [00:07:11] Speaker C: While this is happening, can I be just ignoring this whole scene? And, Katarina, there was a lot of screaming during the fighting and then a lot of yelling during the tying up, and then there's mostly been a silence since the actual setting fire to things. And I'm just gonna, like, twist my head round and be like. Emma, darling? [00:07:36] Speaker B: Yes, cat? [00:07:37] Speaker C: Hi. Okay, so, just so you know, this is, like, basically, like Tuesday night for me. You know, this is standard. Like, whips is, like, easy peasy, no worries. So, you know, don't. I hope you're not worrying, are you? [00:07:56] Speaker B: I. Is Tuesday with Pierre or the other one? [00:08:00] Speaker C: No, not that kind of. Just. No, not that kind of Tuesday night. I just mean, like, this is like. I do this kind of stuff all the time. [00:08:08] Speaker A: Not. [00:08:08] Speaker C: Not this kind of. No, I. Sorry, I meant the peril, actually. Not the. [00:08:12] Speaker B: Not that. Okay. [00:08:13] Speaker D: Nope. [00:08:14] Speaker B: Okay, right there. Nope. I'm right there with you. I got you. Yep. [00:08:17] Speaker C: You know, danger. Oh, no. What are we gonna do? Just because I thought you might be, like, freaking out. But you seem fine, so, um, I. [00:08:24] Speaker B: Mean, honestly, like, a little bit. Um. I guess I'm just worried that if we do burn up in this fire, they're going to find my body specifically covered in chicken feathers, and it's going to be very confusing for my obituary. [00:08:36] Speaker C: Yeah, no, but we just won't die. It'll be fine. [00:08:41] Speaker B: I love that you are so sure of that fact. Um. This is why we're friends. One of us has to be. And it's not me. So how do we get out of this? [00:08:54] Speaker C: Cut back to the background. [00:08:55] Speaker A: Just, like, leave it all to the left. Left. [00:08:57] Speaker C: I want to see if they've already succeeded by this. At this point in the conversation. [00:09:02] Speaker E: Do you have it or. Yeah, it's just, if you just pull it out and then pass it to me, I think I can do you first. [00:09:09] Speaker A: And then what is it in your pocket that you're looking to retrieve? Is it just a knife? That's what I was assuming, or. [00:09:16] Speaker E: So it's not a knife. It's. It's a. What are they called? It's a little bit like a. One of those army knives that has lots of different tools, but this one's, like, it's a little bit chunky, but you can pull off some, like, a knife from it, but also some, like a cutter. Not just scissors, like. Like a little bit more heavy duty. So this is. [00:09:45] Speaker A: This is like a swiss army knife for, like, a. Dad? Dad. [00:09:48] Speaker D: Yes. [00:09:50] Speaker B: I think at some point you just call them multi tools and just move on. Yeah. [00:09:53] Speaker C: Tin opener. Tin opener on there. [00:09:57] Speaker E: Yeah. I mean, I have my mechanic's toolbox, which I think probably got locked somewhere outside, so I'll have to pick that up later. [00:10:06] Speaker A: I don't think they drug that in to put it next to you. Although it would be very comical if they tied you all up and then they brought the mechanic toolbox in there and have also tied it shut with its own little hostage. [00:10:17] Speaker D: How many story points to make that happen? [00:10:23] Speaker A: I think for then. So the skill here would be, I would take athletics, I would take prestidigitation. If you can think of something else that makes sense, I'm amenable to that too. But there will be some kind of role to see if Sonja can find the correct pocket and then wrench limbs around such that they can break out search. [00:10:46] Speaker D: Why was it Sonya? [00:10:47] Speaker A: Myself, I will take either way. You are tied together as a unit at this point. There's an amount of cooperation. We could say that you both roll something and then we'll let that play out. Search is on the list. I guess that would get. Well, we can do that. Okay, so if Sonya wants to roll search to find it and then Frederick to actually. Whatever it would take to break the binds open. That is an interesting combination of roles. Right. [00:11:19] Speaker E: Frederick is very good at making stuff. Not so good at doing stuff. [00:11:28] Speaker D: Wow. [00:11:28] Speaker E: That requires. [00:11:34] Speaker A: Could play through the. If Sonya doesn't have it and you don't have it, and we want to go that way. I do also like the idea that Katarina and Emma are having this conversation at some point Sonia just like, thrusts the multi tool in between them. Right. But I will leave that up to the point. [00:11:49] Speaker C: It always just sort of works out, you know? [00:11:52] Speaker E: Yeah. Because, yeah, all of the good skills look like, well, I have such a 65, but everything. [00:11:58] Speaker D: I mean, yours is better than my 45. Like, I got, like, I mean, I'm. [00:12:03] Speaker A: Just like, what could I use to. [00:12:04] Speaker D: Cut the rope with? [00:12:05] Speaker A: I have melee. [00:12:07] Speaker C: That's right. [00:12:10] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:12:11] Speaker D: Or straight. [00:12:11] Speaker E: Could be a case of, like, planning on my side, remembering which. Which pocket it is to be able to direct. [00:12:20] Speaker A: Project management strength would just be to, like, bust open the ropes or in the sense of story points, you can alter it by saying that, like, they, the knots aren't good or they're not big, thick shipping ropes, they're just normal, like, tie a package together, twine. Right. You have all these options available to kind of make the most of what your situation is, but. [00:12:44] Speaker E: Story points, given. [00:12:46] Speaker C: Our situation, so tons of story points, we're, like, so rich, we can do whatever we like. [00:12:55] Speaker B: I actually really like the idea of using my story points to make it so the ropes for Kat and Emma are actually, like, really, really loose. And as Kat and I are going back and forth, just kind of like, talking and bantering about stuff, eventually they will just because we're kind of, like, moving a lot and they just kind of, like, wriggle off and they just, like, fall really, like, limp and loose and then we're just like, oh. [00:13:25] Speaker A: Okay. So for chronology's sake, we know that Sonia and Frederick are working really hard on getting out of them legitimately. The ones that are tied. Correct. So we're setting up a situation where Sonia, like, grunt away, sawing at this thing, like, finally. And then turns to release Katarina and Emma, who are just like, oh, shit. Huh? [00:13:42] Speaker B: Right, exactly. Yes. [00:13:44] Speaker D: Well, holding the multi tool, just like. [00:13:51] Speaker A: It would be a more significant spend if you wanted to just evade the danger. I think that falls closer on the 6th end of the spectrum than the two. Would you agree? [00:13:59] Speaker B: Yes, I would agree with that and I'm fine with that for sure. [00:14:02] Speaker A: Cool beans. So let me still resolve what's happening with Sonia and with Frederick. So, Frederick, do you want to said you were thinking about search to have the tool found and then. [00:14:11] Speaker E: Yeah, I'm gonna roll search. 000000. [00:14:21] Speaker A: That is the worst possible result. Zeros across the board is a 100. It is. That's okay, though. It's very fail forward game. So, yes, I think Frederick is, you know, the problem is Frederick, you said it's in my pocket. Not considering that your outfit has literally dozens of pockets. [00:14:42] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah. Where would I be without all of my pockets? No, wait, not that pocket. [00:14:50] Speaker A: Mm hmm. It ends up being a bit like a comedy magician where Sonia is just in a pocket, pulling out something that is clearly not that. And then the next thing, and there's just, like, a pile of small mechanic tools and loose screws and, like, a half of a sandwich that's wrapped up, just piling up on the floor next to you as she's rifling through all of your pockets. Hilarious. And also probably not going to get you killed, because, as we've established, all of this is happening. And then Emma and Katherine are having this conversation. So it's pretty funny, actually, for the viewer to watch this. This building mountain of incompetence kind of, like, piling up, and then at one point, the ropes just fall off of. Emma and Katarina were like, oh, dang. [00:15:33] Speaker C: I think Katarina's still just talking, just being like, you know, things just tend to work themselves out, and I'm just, like, super skilled and very capable, and, like, I somehow managed to get out of every situation, and she just doesn't notice that, like, you're busy, like, flinging them home, wiggling out. So, like, does that make you feel better? [00:15:54] Speaker B: And I just kind of, like, hold up the ropes, and I'm just like, um, yeah, I think so. [00:16:05] Speaker C: Hey, guys, look. We do that. This is fine. [00:16:09] Speaker E: When you look over there, is this mountain of stuff kind of slowly piling around. Yes. Like, rolling around. What is your thing? Like? [00:16:18] Speaker D: No, you put this wrench in your pocket. [00:16:22] Speaker E: I always need a wrench. You never know what you might need it for. [00:16:26] Speaker B: Kat doesn't even have one pocket in her. This is why Kat. This is why you don't have any pockets. Fred has all of the pockets. [00:16:33] Speaker C: I didn't even need pockets. Okay. [00:16:37] Speaker A: Your pockets also break up like the slim lines of the cat bricks. [00:16:42] Speaker B: Mm hmm, mm hmm. [00:16:43] Speaker E: If you not help. [00:16:46] Speaker B: Oh. Oh, yeah. Yes, yes. So I'm gonna come over. Can I just make a prestidigitation roll to help undo the knots and stuff? [00:16:54] Speaker A: Yeah, prestigitation to untie the knots or melee again to cut them. I would take that as well. I mean, obviously, you cut the precedion first, because it's fun to say. [00:17:05] Speaker B: It is. But, you know, I rolled on 96. Whoever did these ropes much better than whoever did our ropes. So, yeah, unfortunately, I'm not making, you know what? I missed the knot day in scouts. I just. Not great with knots, weirdly. [00:17:23] Speaker E: I mean, it tracks. They have more time to do our work. [00:17:27] Speaker A: Not good with knots. Hmm. It's better than jokes that I was gonna make because I was gonna say that I have NPC's written down here and that. Yeah. Catarina and Emma were just. They were tied up by John from Liverpool and then Frederick and Sonja, because we've established this is a multinational bit. They were tied up by Edo Shibari, which explains how we've ended up in this position. [00:17:47] Speaker C: That cancels going a lot, now that you mention it. [00:17:50] Speaker A: Terrible. [00:17:51] Speaker E: In which case, there are no knots. What are you talking about? [00:17:54] Speaker A: I have been exposed as a fraud. Well, okay, let's. Let's rush right past that before I start getting interesting moments on this. [00:18:06] Speaker C: Okay? I'm gonna try and save the day or something, like. Whatever. So, I think Katerina had already reversed her belt. It's white on one side and black on the other. The black side does have her lock picking tools, like, you know, in little pouches. She doesn't actually have any knives. Like, she doesn't. She wasn't fighting with a knife. She got. [00:18:29] Speaker A: I got. [00:18:30] Speaker C: I got nothing. But, um. Can I say, as a part of my lock picking tools, I have, like, ickle blade, a file. Like, a file that's going to take a while, but a blade. But that's just like, maybe that long and doesn't have a. Oh, yeah. [00:18:44] Speaker D: Sure. [00:18:45] Speaker C: Handle. Um. So, yes, I shall. I shall select the right tool for the job and then tiny little. Eventually. Eventually get through that. [00:18:58] Speaker A: It's gonna take too long. Are you. Are you thinking about precipitation there as well, or. [00:19:03] Speaker C: Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah, sure. Yeah. [00:19:09] Speaker B: And while this is going on, can I see a way out of here? I don't suppose that they just left the doors open and completely unhindered, at least, like the big front one. [00:19:23] Speaker A: No, they wouldn't have gone around and locked the whole place up tight again. They're in a hurry. But they also. We're not in the kind. We're in the kind of cold war comic books, my movie, where the villains are a little incompetent. We are not in, like, the James Bond universe of that. So the big rolling doors are shut. The side doors we'll see on the west side is where the kind of fire has picked up the most. That's where you were with the crates falling down. So there's more like, Tinder exposed. So the blaze is a bit roarier on that side. That's how you measure fires. There's roaring, roaring and roariest. The rear of the building, safest, because that is furthest away from where they started the fire. And then the east side, second safest. We'll say there is smoke filling up. We can say that as a consequence, Emma, your failure. And then the Fredericks taking a while, that it started to kind of get pretty smoky in here. Not such that you can't, like, navigate because the building hasn't, like, melted into a new shape or anything, but there are crates kind of starting to fall around. And it might be troublesome to paths you thought that may have previously been clear, may not now be clear. [00:20:36] Speaker B: Okay. While cat is helping Sonia and Fred, can I find a way through and over and try and find a way out so I'm not just standing around. [00:20:48] Speaker D: Being useless to find a fire axe? [00:20:53] Speaker A: Oh, I think there'd probably be a firefax in the room. That's pretty reasonable. So, like, two just to say. Well, because. [00:20:59] Speaker D: Yeah, I'll spend two points for a fire axe. [00:21:01] Speaker A: Well, let's. Let's say that there's probably one in here because, like, building codes existed in 1960, like that, but it would be two for there to be one, like, near you. [00:21:11] Speaker D: Yeah, I'll do that just in case we need it. [00:21:16] Speaker A: Yes, Emma. I would take search, probably alertness less so, but I'm willing to work with it. Or if you have a suggestion, I'm open. [00:21:27] Speaker B: I would rather go with alertness because my search is not great. Um, so, I mean, and if that means, like, climbing onto a crate that looks fairly sturdy and trying to, like, you know, keep an eye out for. For a door or, like, you know, which. Whichever door may be, like, the safest that I can see. I'm fine making that, uh, choice. [00:21:54] Speaker A: The athletics to get on top of the crates and harder, because they have been, um, structurally undermined by fire, but there is still the skylight, so that's another option to get out if you wanted to pursue that. [00:22:08] Speaker B: I mean, that's really cool. I don't know how we get. Because we didn't come in through the skylight, did we? So we don't. Did we? [00:22:18] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:22:20] Speaker A: Yeah, you skylight and then you jump down onto the people and then things went wrong from there. But it was a great plan up until that point. [00:22:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I just worry about my ability to get back out. But, yes, I would like to try and use my alertness to try and find a way out. So if that means I have to make an agility check to get on top of something and try and use that skill, that's fine. [00:22:46] Speaker A: I'll say that if you want to climb up, it will make your alertness easier. We'll say that. Right? Essentially trading one danger for another. But if you're on the ground level, trying to stay low enough as not to, like, stick your head up into the smoky parts, like, it'll make alertness harder. So it's kind of up to you. Do you take the risk on a harder alertness check, or do you take the risk on climbing and then maybe falling? [00:23:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess climbing up when there's smoke in the room, probably a bad idea. So I'm just gonna take a harder alertness roll and see what happens. [00:23:18] Speaker A: Have it negative. Two pips is the default modifier for things that are slightly harder. [00:23:25] Speaker B: So I rolled the 51. [00:23:30] Speaker A: Oh, that's painful. That hurts. [00:23:32] Speaker B: That is. I was so excited because I passed, and I was gonna spend to flip if that wasn't enough, but then I forgot about the pips. No flips. Remember flip types before flips? Well, so automatic fail. [00:23:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's. It's just troublesome, is the thing. I will say that you. We've established there are five ways out, right? There's front garage door, east, west, back, and north, which is four. That's my math. No, there are four sides of the building and one up top. I was right. So we'll say that you have not found a way out, but you have eliminated one of the options. Right. That as you. As you go to push back towards the. You know, you talk about how there's the rear of the building, probably the safest, just based on, like, the way fire works. So you start heading that direction, you're like, oh, God. Well, this. This way over on this side is not working. So you gain a little bit of information, but you have not yet found a clear path forward. If you decide to roll alertness again, we'll say that it's a straight roll and no negative modifier because you kind of process of elimination your way out. [00:24:41] Speaker B: Okay. [00:24:42] Speaker A: We have not yet resolved whether or not Sonia and Frederick are actually out of the ropes yet, though. So, Katarina, I need to get back to you for a second. [00:24:48] Speaker C: I got a 93, but I'm spending two story points to flip it to a 39, which passes. [00:24:53] Speaker A: So then, Sonia, Frederick, the ropes. Join the pile of randomness on the ground around you. We are all, is this stuff important, or. [00:25:04] Speaker E: Yes, yes, it has to go back. [00:25:08] Speaker D: Sandwich is incredibly important. Never know when you need a snack. [00:25:13] Speaker E: Yes. I always carry one on me at all times, and it's stuffing stuff in his pockets. This is so unorganized. [00:25:23] Speaker C: Do you have any doughnuts now? Like pastries or anything? [00:25:26] Speaker E: Yes, actually, no. There's a compartment in my mechanical toolbox, which, uh, should be. [00:25:33] Speaker C: We have to find Fred's toolbox. [00:25:37] Speaker E: Yes. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Uh, we need to find a way out first. [00:25:43] Speaker A: So on that note, uh, we'll. It's starting to get really, really hot. Um, I'll give you this one next action. And after that, it's going to start costing a point of vitality to be in the building because the heat and the smoke and all of that. We know that Emma has found one way that is not the right way. And you have all the information about the building. Sonia, this is probably also time that you will stumble into the fire axe, right? [00:26:12] Speaker D: Yeah. I will grab the fire in case. [00:26:15] Speaker A: Danger. [00:26:15] Speaker D: Break glass. [00:26:16] Speaker A: It's very dangerous. [00:26:17] Speaker D: Break the glass. Take that. And then I want to take a look around to see if I spot anything. Because Emma found the wrong way. Maybe I could find the right way. [00:26:27] Speaker A: Well, how about give you these options? You could either do search for air alertness, as is the case, but you could also melee the wrong way until it becomes the right way because you have the fire axe. [00:26:38] Speaker D: I like that idea. [00:26:40] Speaker C: What are the walls of the building made of? [00:26:42] Speaker A: They're made of brick. [00:26:44] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. [00:26:45] Speaker D: Yeah. The way it's not out, I will turn it right. [00:26:49] Speaker E: Cool. [00:26:50] Speaker D: I will turn it into the way out with a fire axe. [00:26:53] Speaker A: So sorry. To be clear, I'm not talking about chopping the way through the brick wall more than. Emma is looking for a way through the maze of crates to get to the back. And the one way she thought was correct has collapsed down. But Sonia can. Can chop a path clear for you. I hope the dice haven't been doing super good for us so far. I don't want to kill you in this building, so help me out on that by rolling. [00:27:14] Speaker D: Well, I'm gonna do my best. I'll roll melee to take an action to some of these crates, see if we can find our way through. [00:27:24] Speaker C: You know what's in the crates, though. [00:27:29] Speaker D: Feathers? [00:27:30] Speaker A: We know what's in some of the crates. [00:27:33] Speaker C: I thought we'd established it was an entire warehouse. [00:27:36] Speaker B: Am I spent some story points. [00:27:39] Speaker E: That is not salvable. [00:27:41] Speaker A: Frederick's like, oh, wow, they've been shipping fire extinguishers out of this place too. It's amazing. [00:27:46] Speaker E: Yeah, no, but that's not what you want to chop up with an axe. [00:27:50] Speaker C: Oh, no. [00:27:53] Speaker D: That'S an eleven to chop with axe. [00:27:56] Speaker A: Well, there you go. So not only. Yeah, so take yourself a take yourself story point. You get one for a particular success, and then just making excellent work of it to the point. I would think that the effectiveness with which Sonia is using this axe will raise questions in the minds of onlookers as about, like, how did you learn to do that? But going straight through it. And, Emma, at this point, you're absolutely correct. This is the path at least the outside of. Not the outside of the warehouse, but I like, the outermost lane of the inside of the warehouse, and it appears to be a straight shot back out to the other end. We can use agility to make that sprint. And then again, the condition just being that if you pass your agility test, you've made it out before anything too terrible has happened. If you fail it, you make it out, but there's still the. The burns or the smoke inhalation or something falls and you get a little battered up. But pass or fail, we'll say, folks, make it out. Just. Let's just see what the result is otherwise. [00:29:14] Speaker B: Okay, so I rolled a 50, but I'm gonna spend two of my story points to flip it and make it a five so I don't get any injuries. [00:29:24] Speaker A: Uh, between you and me, that is a really big spend to avoid a. Not all that bad consequence. Your choice, but. [00:29:32] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:29:33] Speaker A: One point of vitality missing. [00:29:36] Speaker B: Okay, no, that's fine. Then I. Then I won't. I just assumed that it would be like. Like a harm condition or something. [00:29:42] Speaker A: So I know just that. That one point of vitality, because you're. The building, gets more on fire as you go two or three turns later than it'd be worth. But in this case, it's more like. I'm just trying to remember having seen backdraft from so many years ago. The sputtering and the coughing, of course, from the smoke. Or you're running and, like, you stumble a little bit and then glance up against the wall, which is hot, and it's a minor burn. Right. But not to the point of where, like, you become charred or barbecue or anything like that. [00:30:14] Speaker C: Can I be, like, running behind Emma and just occasionally, just, like, brushing burning chicken feathers off her coat? [00:30:23] Speaker A: I suppose that depends a lot on what the result of your role was. [00:30:26] Speaker C: 14. [00:30:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Then you're fine. [00:30:29] Speaker D: I got a 42. I failed. I will join in the slightly injured club. [00:30:35] Speaker A: I just smile. [00:30:39] Speaker E: However, it's not that I want to flip it. It's that I would rather that instead of just failing, because, like, Frederick, just very not agile at all. Remotely it. Can it be because I spot my toolbox and I divert away from these? [00:31:00] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. [00:31:01] Speaker E: To go grab it. [00:31:03] Speaker A: Take two story points for failing on purpose. You gain two back. [00:31:09] Speaker E: I don't need more story. I need to spend some. [00:31:16] Speaker A: You have them now? [00:31:18] Speaker E: Well, okay, so I've spent two to flip it so that I've succeeded, but. [00:31:23] Speaker C: I've got a caught action. [00:31:24] Speaker A: Sure. However, the math works out. So then this creates a very. An amazing moment, though, because, of course, Katerina, you passed, and Emma, you failed. But, like, you were ahead, coming out in front of this. Sonia, what was your result? [00:31:37] Speaker D: I got a 42 over a 15, so I failed. [00:31:40] Speaker A: Okay. Okay, so then. So, Katarina and Emma, you make it out first, and there's, like, the coughing and, like, the course being on fire and stuff. And then once you reach a certain safe distance, you turn around, and then, like, through the smoke, you can see. Is it motion? Is it just the smoke rolling around? You can hear, like, the crunch of the wood collapsing, the different parts of it. And then Sonia comes shouldering through the door again, just like the jacket ruined. Beautiful purple hair, teal hair, rather singed in parts from being in there. And then the three of you are staring at the door, and, like, the seconds must feel like minutes as you're wondering what happened to Frederick. And there's, like, that moment of panic building up and you're getting a little more nervous. And then it's like a scene from a movie where the firefighter bursts out carrying a baby, but it's not a baby, it's the toolbox. [00:32:38] Speaker E: I think also it's jugging. I think she's juggling it a little bit because it's a little bit hot as well. [00:32:48] Speaker A: Slow motion, like, and then tumbling forward out. So we have escaped the burning warehouse in the distance. Now that you're not in the building, you can hear the sound of the fire brigade rolling in your direction. What happens now? [00:33:12] Speaker D: I think we should head back to the car before people show up and ask us questions that we don't really want to answer. [00:33:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think we should be here for questions, but I wholeheartedly agree. [00:33:27] Speaker E: I managed to slip a tracker on one of the cars, so we have. [00:33:34] Speaker C: A way of tracking octopus. I'm down. We can still heist Pierre back. [00:33:43] Speaker E: Oh, I love this. [00:33:44] Speaker B: Okay. [00:33:48] Speaker C: Then. [00:33:48] Speaker B: Okay, then. Then I think it sounds like we should head back so we can. We can track down that car. [00:33:56] Speaker C: Is this one of those situations where I should leave, like, my signature calling card, white ribbon at the scene of the crime or not? It's not really. [00:34:02] Speaker B: I. Okay, so I was surprised. Yeah. But I was actually gonna ask if you wanted to get, like, a photo, like, with the fire behind you and, like, get you all, like, backlit and, like, standing like a badass, and then, like, your ribbon just, like, blowing. I know, right? I know. [00:34:17] Speaker A: Frederick is making a face of skepticism about this idea, and I would like Frederick to elaborate. [00:34:25] Speaker C: As the sirens get. [00:34:26] Speaker E: Up, and I really think that's wise. This sort of criminal damage. [00:34:33] Speaker C: Awesome. [00:34:34] Speaker E: And, I mean, is that really your. Your mo? [00:34:39] Speaker C: I don't want to be known for awesome, because then people will be like, hey, you're gonna do some more arson. I'm be like, no, like, awesome. [00:34:47] Speaker B: But here's. But here's the thing, right? Because the story. The story, right, is not that the white ribbon committed arson, but that the white ribbon had been kidnapped and escaped. Arson. [00:34:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:59] Speaker C: Like, white women doesn't really get kidnapped. She's more, like, amazing. [00:35:04] Speaker E: And let's do this away from the warehouse. [00:35:09] Speaker C: If we decide we want the photo later, we'll just, like, set fire to something else and then get it done. [00:35:14] Speaker A: I will. [00:35:15] Speaker B: Okay. Find. [00:35:19] Speaker A: Luck with project. [00:35:24] Speaker B: Fred and Sonia just don't get it. It's fine. [00:35:29] Speaker E: I mean, I'm sure none of you get why I ran around looking for my toolbox. [00:35:35] Speaker C: It's got pastries in it. We established this. [00:35:39] Speaker A: It used to be a cheese sandwich. Now it's a cheese toasty. [00:35:42] Speaker E: Oh. [00:35:45] Speaker B: Yes, it is. [00:35:48] Speaker E: And it's nicely smoked. [00:35:55] Speaker A: The hits keep going. Coming. So then off to the car. No one has taken any kind of wound that require medical attention. You can't spritz up with a bit of a bandage. I don't know if they had burn cream in the 1960s, but we can say it was whatever was appropriate for the time. [00:36:12] Speaker C: Yeah, but my look. Like. My look. My hair's messy. Like, I'm all grubby. Such a disaster. [00:36:20] Speaker A: That does lead to the question, then, are you going to pursue the tracking signal? Is that. I know we'd mentioned it. Is that where we're going? [00:36:30] Speaker C: Where are they right now? [00:36:32] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:36:32] Speaker A: Where I kind of want to do. [00:36:33] Speaker D: Just to make sure that we don't, like, lose them tonight. [00:36:38] Speaker E: Yeah. So I guess we do. I'm gonna try and set it up and see if I can get them on the jeep. [00:36:52] Speaker A: Very well. What role would that be? [00:36:55] Speaker E: I was just wondering that it was. [00:36:57] Speaker A: Not actually made available to the public until the nineties it was invented. [00:37:02] Speaker E: It themselves, it might not have been made accessible to the public, but I mean, here's the thing about fried. No, I'm not joking. [00:37:12] Speaker A: But yeah, I think actually 1960s, they hadn't done. Done an especially good job of doing rockets at that point. But having googled it, the first satellite was launched in 1978. [00:37:24] Speaker E: Okay. It's not too late. [00:37:30] Speaker A: Yeah, the Bill Clinton in 1992. It was a result of some air traffic going into airspace. It shouldn't have. Anyway, sorry. It's not very often I get to brag about my deep knowledge of the GPS system, so it just came out of me. But all the same, an electronics roll will take us in that direction if it is meant to be. [00:37:54] Speaker E: Okay. [00:37:57] Speaker A: Yeah, electronics is a real skill in this game. Sorry. Yeah, I was prepping for Call of Cthulhu earlier and I couldn't remember. [00:38:04] Speaker E: I got a six through six. Oh, no, that's literally one over. [00:38:16] Speaker B: And because it's doubles, it's a crit. [00:38:19] Speaker A: Fail, which is because you get another story point which you've already told me you don't want. [00:38:26] Speaker B: Wait, wait. You can spend story points to reroll a task check, though. [00:38:32] Speaker E: True, true. Yes, I will do that. [00:38:35] Speaker A: You wouldn't get one for the critical, so. [00:38:37] Speaker E: Oh, I wouldn't get a. [00:38:41] Speaker A: No. If you spend two to reroll, that's fine. But you don't get the one for failing and then rerolling. It's like a order of operations in the rulebook. [00:38:50] Speaker E: So due to the situation of the last time, I ended up with eleven story points. So spending. [00:38:59] Speaker B: Yeah, 54. [00:39:05] Speaker A: Well, it should come as no surprise that the car is heading towards. I don't know if it was called Charles de Gaulle at the time. I know at one point it was just the Paris airport and then it became Paris CDG. But that is where you are heading. It is 23 km northeast of Paris. So direction for finding being what it is. When you only got one line of bearing, you can say they are that way, but being competent spies, or sometimes competent spies, they are heading northeast on the outer road. Right. They're not going into the city, they're going around it. So you come away with the impression that, yes, they are on a dash for the airport. They have a bit of a head start, naturally, but that is where we are going. [00:39:59] Speaker E: Okay. I think they're heading towards the airport. Let's. [00:40:03] Speaker B: If we. [00:40:05] Speaker E: We try and go after them. I don't. [00:40:07] Speaker D: Then we might be at least learn where they're headed to. [00:40:12] Speaker C: We've got to get the. Gotta get like, get them before they get the goods out of the country. [00:40:21] Speaker B: The goods being Pierre. Oh, yeah. [00:40:24] Speaker C: Sorry. Before they get Pierre out of the country. [00:40:26] Speaker B: Okay. [00:40:27] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:40:27] Speaker B: Okay, great. Yeah. I mean, um, Sonia is known for driving pretty quick, so, uh, Sonya, that's. [00:40:38] Speaker C: Like your whole thing. [00:40:40] Speaker D: It really is. [00:40:41] Speaker C: Like, okay, like, how fast are we gonna go? [00:40:46] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:40:46] Speaker D: How fast can this car go? [00:40:48] Speaker A: To be clear, we did say it was a mini Cooper, so. Yeah, we did. [00:40:55] Speaker C: We're doing the italian job. [00:41:00] Speaker A: All right. Piling in. [00:41:01] Speaker D: Were seatbelts invented? [00:41:03] Speaker A: Yes. They weren't mandatory, but they did exist. They weren't mandatory as in they were not required to be installed in the cardinal that I do think also comes in the late sixties or seventies. I'll check later on the break. But Sony's a race car driver. There's no way this thing does not have. If it not at least seat belts, then the whole last five point harness. [00:41:21] Speaker D: Right, because of course, mini Cooper with a five point harness. [00:41:29] Speaker A: Then, yeah, obviously. [00:41:30] Speaker E: Strap it. [00:41:34] Speaker A: What is your driving skill? I know driving is not a skill, but what is the one that handles driving? Vehicles. There it is. Vehicles. [00:41:45] Speaker D: Yes, that is that word. That other thing. [00:41:47] Speaker A: Vehicles. [00:41:47] Speaker D: I got a 75. [00:41:49] Speaker A: Yeah. So roll it. Don't roll with Frederick's die or Emma's die or Katarina's die. Oh, of course. And you just know there's a bitchin soundtrack going on right now. Right? Like there's like bongos and shit. Trumpets. It's good. [00:42:17] Speaker D: So I got a. I got a 91, but I'm gonna spend a story point to flip that to a 19 because I'm born behind the wheel. [00:42:29] Speaker A: Well, then explain to me what almost went wrong that you averted, because you are the fucking best. [00:42:37] Speaker D: It is probably one of those times where I just take a corner a little too wide and there is just some poor frenchman in the middle of the night driving. And we almost just clip him. But I'm able to just jerk the wheel over, kind of just get us out of his way before we are back down the straightaway. [00:43:04] Speaker A: I don't speak enough French to know what terrible foulness would come out of that driver's mouth as you do, but leave it anyways. So then, yeah, tearing down the streets of it. You are getting closer, Frederick, can you keep them on the right track? Because you are essentially navigating. Like, it's a weird thing where you are the human who is doing the job of the, like tomtom in the car. [00:43:34] Speaker B: Fred. [00:43:35] Speaker D: Fred. [00:43:36] Speaker E: Okay, let's go. What I need to use for this not entertainment. Is it science? [00:43:46] Speaker A: If you want to use science, I'll take science because I think. Imagine Frederick in the back, and you described it as a very big piece of equipment. So you've got one hand with the antenna out the window, and then you're watching the thing bouncing back and forth. That sounds sciency to me. I have an expert in role playing in science over here. We can throw to an expert judge. [00:44:07] Speaker E: Do you think it would be science? [00:44:09] Speaker C: I concurtained. [00:44:12] Speaker E: Okay, rolling for science. And I have groaned. A 41. Mine is 65, and with my electronics toolkit anyway, I get plus two pips. [00:44:27] Speaker A: Well, there you go. Still on track. Sonia, you're making good speed. They are also making good speed. So you're getting close, but it's gonna be tighten. We won't do the boringness of having you roll for, like, each district of Paris you go by, but you're getting closer and closer and closer to the airport. And now this is well before the 911 security state has swept in and made, you know, you can still walk up to the damn to the jet bridge at this part of the day. However, they were pretty picky about who was allowed to go through the gates. Right? You can't just drive onto the tarmac without attracting some amount of attention, which will probably rub you all the wrong way as you burn around a corner. And you can see those mercedes ahead of you. You remember the license plate because you're competent spies. Also, they're full of people. There's probably a really great panel in the comic book of, like, Pierre looking out the back, and you're like. And Frederick is like, and then Emma and Katarina are just like, right? [00:45:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:40] Speaker A: Or no. Emma has the camera is out the window doing the right, and they're approaching the gate, and you're like, got em. And then the person operating sitting there is rolling it aside to let the convoy go through. [00:45:58] Speaker C: No, no. So it's a big rolly. It's a big, like, metal mesh rolly. [00:46:05] Speaker B: No, no, faster. [00:46:11] Speaker D: So for going behind the wheel, I can spend two story points and make a car stunt possible. [00:46:19] Speaker C: Wait, wait, wait. Like a stunt? [00:46:22] Speaker D: Like, like, maybe it says driving on two wheels, jumping over obstacles. [00:46:27] Speaker C: Like, there's a ramp and we're gonna go over the gate. Like. Like, are we gonna fly through the air? Can we fly through the air, please? Point, side story. Calm down. [00:46:38] Speaker A: Oh, if you're asking me that, you're your story point. [00:46:41] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, and, yeah, I've got. I've got seven story points. Spare a couple to sort of do the thing. It's like, maybe not necessarily intended as a ramp, but you know, maybe it's one of those, like, tow vehicles that is kind of ramp like. [00:47:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:04] Speaker D: And, you know, do that up over the fence. [00:47:09] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [00:47:10] Speaker B: Emma is terrified, by the way. If you look over at me, I am just, like, gripping on to whatever I can grip onto because what are we doing right now? [00:47:21] Speaker A: This car doesn't have OSHA handles. [00:47:23] Speaker C: It's like, this is probably a Tuesday evening for Sonia. [00:47:30] Speaker A: So then ramping over you go. And now we are streaming down the Runway. Charles de Gaulle. It's a chain pursuit now where you are pursuing the mercedes with octopus agents inside. You are being pursued by the french federal police for having just broken onto an airport. Will be interesting to explain that when this goes on, when things are happening, once they capture you, not wanting to capture you, eventually you will have to stop. We will, one thinks so what is an airplane that was available in 1960? That looks cool? I want to say, also, just remember. [00:48:14] Speaker C: That the people in all the cars in front of us have guns and we don't. So, like, maybe we don't chase them too closely. Chase them from Machiavelli. [00:48:25] Speaker A: Everyone in front of you has guns, and everyone behind you, behind you has guns to. [00:48:31] Speaker E: I imagine that Frederick has just been looking at this thing and calling out direct, like, calling out directions. [00:48:36] Speaker C: Frederick's not even looking. [00:48:38] Speaker E: Until the car goes airborne. [00:48:45] Speaker C: That dimension isn't in your tracking. You're like, it says, we're going straight line. [00:48:52] Speaker A: This is really. Aubrey. Sorry. Sonia is driving. The way that future generations will play Skyrim, you just have a little. You have a dot on the gps, and you go straight for it. Who cares where the roads are? Right over the mountain. [00:49:05] Speaker D: Sure. [00:49:06] Speaker A: So then, yes. Screeching down the Runway. There are planes that are being waved off. Right. If you were listening to the air traffic controller, there's just french expletives pouring onto the radio waves. Plane taken off. You can see in the distance they're driving past the commercial ramps. Right? They're looking for the private hangars and such. And you see the three mercedes stop in front of this big hangar inside. Congratulations, England. It is a british aerospace 125, which is a six or seven person private jet. The engine pods right up against the back end it little, short, cute, stubby wings. It's a very adorable aircraft. And you can already hear those turbines spooled up, ready to go. You will be able to see as you come. You know you're screeching. Coming into a stop that the red headed woman who kaorina knows incredibly well, and two of the hot dog net goons are hauling Pierre out, a submachine gun in his back, pushing him up the stairs to this plane that has already been prepped and ready to go. This is a big operation. So you have police behind you, octopus in front of you. Three of them are going up into the plane. The ones who are on the ground are doing that James Bond goon kneeling, ready to shoot you thing. You can see them all spread out. Quintessential spy action movie scene happening here. What happens next? [00:50:49] Speaker B: Fred is shining. Like, I don't. [00:50:51] Speaker E: I don't think we want to encounter them again right now. Like. [00:50:57] Speaker D: Yeah, I think seeing that. Seeing there, they're going to try to shoot at us. And especially, like, this car is a handbrake, right? [00:51:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:10] Speaker D: All right. [00:51:11] Speaker A: If you think it's cooler. [00:51:16] Speaker D: So the idea of seeing that, you know, we're maybe a little bit too late to help Frederick and especially a little too underarmed decide maybe it's better if we get to safety for now. Unless anybody has any other ideas. Can we catch any, like, identifying stuff on the plane? Maybe we can search through things later. [00:51:42] Speaker A: Yeah, this is after the formation. Sorry, we're in aviation territory now. So, like, this is my nerd wheel house. Yeah. There's an aviation civil identifier that every plane has to have. It's the one that's, like, na. And then six numbers on the back of them. You see them on helicopters and stuff. Required by law. No matter how rich or evil you are, you have to have one. That's how they tracked Jeff bozos. So very easy to snap that there is pressure, but not to see the thing. So you could grab that. [00:52:13] Speaker D: Yeah. Just like, somebody take a photo of that plane, and then as soon as that photo is done, we're going to make a very quick u turn and start driving back the way we came. [00:52:26] Speaker C: Fred, do you have any. Do you have another tracker we can, like, lasso onto that plane? [00:52:32] Speaker E: No. [00:52:32] Speaker C: And also survive at high altitudes, by the way. [00:52:36] Speaker E: No, this is very new technology. [00:52:39] Speaker C: Okay, but can I at least have a pastry? [00:52:44] Speaker E: Sure, but is that what you should be worrying about right now? [00:52:50] Speaker A: I like, uh, Sonya's using the handbrake. So it's where normally you would imagine a scene where there's a drive by shooting where they would handbrake and it would just be guns pointed aside. It's that, but it's Emma with the camera taking the big flash. And then Sonia drops it back into first gear for the torque and goes screaming off in the other direction. Emma, do you have a cheeky quip that you. [00:53:23] Speaker B: Oh, God. I'm not the cheeky one in this friendship. That's cat. [00:53:31] Speaker A: I didn't know if you had, like, a tagline or whatever, like, you know, that's show business or whatever, you know. [00:53:38] Speaker B: No, you know, I. It's still something that we're working on. Kat thinks that. That I need to have a little bit better handle on my branding as I fling dice everywhere. And, I mean, I want to agree. I just. You know, it's just we haven't gotten there yet, unfortunately. [00:53:57] Speaker C: We're workshopping it. [00:53:58] Speaker A: You've been to the first ideas. You've got the easy stuff off, and then now you're into the good. The good brainstorming, I guess show business. [00:54:05] Speaker C: Was like the first draft, and then Emma was like, yeah, it's actually not show business, though. It's journalism. [00:54:12] Speaker A: And no one says that's journalism. [00:54:15] Speaker B: No, no, that's journalism. Didn't go over well. Neither did a picture's worth a thousand words. It wasn't punchy enough too long. [00:54:22] Speaker C: Emma. [00:54:22] Speaker B: It's gotta be. Yeah. So, you see, she has a lot of feelings, so. No, we haven't. We haven't come up with something that Kat likes. [00:54:29] Speaker A: For me, you've only got a 15 in marketing, so it's going to be. [00:54:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Really not great. Really not great. [00:54:37] Speaker A: So, Sonia, where are we going? You're the one behind the wheel. [00:54:41] Speaker D: I imagine once we get out of there, it is just look at. Look at everybody in the rearview mirror and say, anybody have a place to lay low for the rest of the night? [00:54:52] Speaker A: Let's rewind on that, because there was a very important presumption that you put at the beginning of that sentence, which is when we've gotten out of there, and we haven't yet. [00:55:00] Speaker D: We have not gotten out of. [00:55:01] Speaker A: You are in a police chair. [00:55:03] Speaker D: I'm in a police chase. That is true. I am going to drive towards. [00:55:12] Speaker A: I am acutely interested in how you intend to leave the airport. [00:55:16] Speaker C: Question is whether we're going back over the gate. [00:55:19] Speaker A: That's my question. [00:55:20] Speaker C: Are we getting airborne again? [00:55:23] Speaker D: I mean, I have story points. [00:55:27] Speaker A: It's also hilarious that you jump in, do a drive by asshole selfie, and then jump back out. Right? Like. [00:55:36] Speaker D: I like the idea of. I just hit it for when they're gonna be letting somebody else in. So I just managed, with this little mini Cooper, just get through. Like, maybe I do the whole two wheel thing for a second. I'll spend those two story points, we'll. [00:55:55] Speaker A: Make a driving test first, and we'll see. [00:55:56] Speaker B: Okay. [00:55:57] Speaker C: Two wheels, like, around someone else. [00:55:59] Speaker A: Super cute. [00:56:03] Speaker D: 17. [00:56:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So you. Then we go. Now we're back to Frederick staring back down at the equipment, trying to. Or, like. Or rooting around for the pastry or whatever. Look up and, like, the horizon is entirely wrong. [00:56:20] Speaker E: No, no. Yeah. [00:56:23] Speaker D: Why is everything shifting to the left? [00:56:25] Speaker E: Yeah, Frederick has closed their eyes, and it's just kind of waving the sandwich or assorted pastries at someone in the air. It's like, no, no. Tell me when we're back on the ground. [00:56:42] Speaker A: I think you will know because I don't. I've never ridden in a mini Cooper, but I know that they are low to the ground, and I know that we didn't really have racing suspension for personal vehicles. So there's that trunk as, like, the entire undercurrent. So you're still being pursued by the police, but it wouldn't be like a comic book chase unless the police chasing you then, like, slammed into the vehicles that you had definitely turned around. So, Emily. [00:57:10] Speaker E: Safely. [00:57:11] Speaker C: They don't slam into it. They just have to break and not cause any crash. [00:57:14] Speaker A: Oh, right, right, right. So it's not a modern spy movie. It's a. It's a comic book. Yeah, yeah. So they come screeching to a halt, and then a mustachioed police officer leans out, but in French, so. And now we're back on the highway. Where are we going now? [00:57:37] Speaker D: Now I am going to start heading towards where the racetrack is because I've got other cars there, and this car is going to need some tune ups. The suspension on it is going to be a little wobbly for a bit. [00:57:53] Speaker A: So then what is going on in other folks heads? [00:57:57] Speaker C: Well. [00:58:00] Speaker B: You have to. When you're investigating things, there's kind of a. You have to follow the steps. Right. And the first thing is to go to the source. And our source is currently surrounded by people with guns, and they're getting on an airplane. So the second option then is to follow the sources source wherever he, theoretically, whatever he's been working on, the things that got the octopus's attention, he wouldn't have just been carrying them around if they were at his home or something like that. We could pop over there and see what's going on inside. [00:58:44] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Pierre Martin works for Le Republique, which is not how you pronounce that in French, but I'm from Nebraska. What do you want from me? [00:58:59] Speaker B: So then, yeah. Going to the office. Right. Finding. Finding his place. Of work, finding his desk, seeing what he's been working on, things like that is probably our next best, next best option, given that he is no longer available to us. [00:59:18] Speaker A: We also established that, Sonia, you were friendly with Pierre, so, or may not know his home address. Is this a trip that we're all making together, or are you splitting up to cover ground? [00:59:32] Speaker C: There's a little thought bubble coming from Caterina's head in the cartoon, which is just looking at Frederick and thinking, well, they got the pastry out of the box, but then they've closed their eyes and he hasn't really. He's not giving me the pastry, but she's holding the pastry. So maybe could I just take the pastry that's just going on? Well, yes, it's happening. I want to be rude. [00:59:55] Speaker B: Love that. [00:59:56] Speaker A: I think the conversation bubbles are Sonia, Frederick and Emma having a very serious conversation. But then also just in it is the thought bubble of the pastry. [01:00:10] Speaker D: I mean, yeah, I would, I imagine I have had interviews or, you know, at his home before. I, you know, just a regular thing. So, yeah, I would. If, if the idea has been brought up to maybe go see exactly what he was working on at his house, I would start heading there. [01:00:34] Speaker A: Turning to the question, is this something that you were doing together or something that you intend to split up and cover more ground? [01:00:41] Speaker C: Oh, is that better? I think we should stick together. [01:00:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I think sticking together is good. [01:00:47] Speaker D: Sticking together is probably a good idea. [01:00:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:49] Speaker A: Okay. [01:00:50] Speaker D: Look what happened last time we split up. [01:00:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:54] Speaker E: It all worked out so well. [01:00:58] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [01:00:59] Speaker A: You're not dead. You got two cool jumps out of it and awesome. I mean, the picture thing was pretty cool. [01:01:05] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:01:06] Speaker C: I nearly have a pastry I want to leave. The person with the pastry just has the pastry. Thank you so much. [01:01:16] Speaker A: Adorine is a thief, but she's also polite. Right. It would be rude to. [01:01:22] Speaker E: Yeah, she's not gonna steal it. Where, like, the person that she's stealing from could see her do it. [01:01:27] Speaker A: Right? [01:01:28] Speaker C: I probably could, actually. That does sound like a challenge. Now you've put it like that, and I just, like, I could totally do that. [01:01:34] Speaker E: Okay. [01:01:35] Speaker C: And then I'd just, like, leave a white ribbon on your wrist, and then you'd look down and there would be no pastry. And there'd be like, this white ribbon. You'd be like, what's happened? [01:01:41] Speaker A: I've been gone. [01:01:41] Speaker C: The white ribbon strikes again. Maybe let's go to his office then. [01:01:46] Speaker A: Right? [01:01:46] Speaker C: Or his house. Where's he gonna keep secret notes? [01:01:49] Speaker B: I mean, his office would. Well, yeah, I mean, either one. I think that, you know, if he's been working on a story for work, you know, I don't feel like you'd go through all this much trouble and nothing. Keep some stuff at work. I could be wrong, but that's how I know best. [01:02:06] Speaker A: Yeah, Sonia, you know him best. Is Pierre a work at the office chain smoking kind of guy, or is he a work at home chain smoking and also drinking? It's 1960s. Drink at work, too. Which place is he most likely to chain smoke and drink while working on journalism? Is it in the office, or is that his house? [01:02:24] Speaker D: I think it's at his house, because anytime I've known him, he's like, he's. He has an office. Yes, but does he ever go to the office? Probably not. It's either he's working out in the field or working at his home. [01:02:35] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [01:02:36] Speaker A: You can get away with it when you're Pierre Martin. [01:02:39] Speaker D: Exactly. He just sends in the articles, and they get published. [01:02:46] Speaker A: Well, then off we go to the apartment. He lives in, a small two room apartment with sometimes his girlfriend, sometimes his other girlfriend. There are many girlfriends. [01:03:02] Speaker D: Sometimes his boyfriend in a sequence. [01:03:04] Speaker A: Yeah, sometimes a boyfriend. It's all. And it's not like sometimes it's in sequence, sometimes it's in parallel. It's hard to say, but in this case, you are lucky enough that no one is home when you arrive. [01:03:20] Speaker D: Yeah, I don't want to explain that. [01:03:22] Speaker A: Mm mm. Oh, yeah. You don't be delivering the bad news. [01:03:27] Speaker C: I'd like totes break into his house. [01:03:30] Speaker D: I'm pretty sure I know where he might keep the spare key. [01:03:35] Speaker A: Story point. [01:03:37] Speaker D: Yeah, I was just offer up, like, a story point to see, like, you know, keeps the spare key, like, above the door. [01:03:46] Speaker A: I also think it's perfectly fine, Katherine, if you want to roll your lock picking, and then even as you're, like. [01:03:52] Speaker C: Simultaneously, and I'm like, I see her go for the spare key, and I'm like, must. Must not pick. [01:03:59] Speaker D: No, I think it would be even funnier if it's, like, the keys only to the back door. So I go in the back door, and then right as unlocks and opens the front door, I'm standing right there, like, what took you so long? [01:04:10] Speaker C: Damn it. Well, I rolled a 15, so get in there at least. [01:04:14] Speaker A: I love this. The key is for the back door. Katherine is picking the front door lock. The amount of time it takes Sonia to walk around it means it's a smaller, urban place. And we'll say that because it's a two bedroom, but we'll say it's two story. So there's the long hallway down the center with the stair on the side. So Sonia turns the key, and Katerina turns the pinion. And then both doors open at the same time. And you're just staring at each other like the Spider man meme. [01:04:43] Speaker C: Look at Emma and say, like, don't put that bit in the story. [01:04:47] Speaker B: No, obviously not. No. You lockpicked the door. That was the important part. [01:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:56] Speaker D: Bill breaking and entering. [01:04:59] Speaker A: Well, you know, not the worst thing you've done tonight. I. The apartment is Pierre's. It's obviously the. The. Like, the prototypical. Oh, what's the word I'm looking for? I was going to say wanderlusting schlong, but I was looking for something a little more. A little more delicate to describe Pierre. But your. Your prototypical, you know, male, middle thirties, extremely popular, flamboyant, flashy, celebrity journalist with legions of fans. Right? Like, so every wall has a bookcase. None of them are organized. There are weird souvenirs from all the places that he's done work. Right. It's a little. It's like a combination of a library and a temple and an office, and it's a temple to his own ego. The point that I'm trying to make is, who the fuck knows what is evidence here and what is just Pierre's stuff? So investigation would be helpful. Search be harder. [01:06:10] Speaker B: Well, thank God I am an investigative journalist. That's one of the things that I do. Let's see if I can do them well. I'm gonna spend two story points. [01:06:25] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [01:06:26] Speaker B: Because. Because. Because that was an 88. [01:06:31] Speaker C: Oh. [01:06:31] Speaker B: And I don't want to critically fail, so I'm gonna spend two story points and try one more time. Because, you see, what had happened was 49 under 65. Much better. So, yeah, you know, there's just. There's so many piles of stuff. So I go for the first pile, and I realize as soon as it kind of starts falling that it's not at all what I'm looking for. This is old back issues of some magazines and things of stuff that he clearly was not using for any research. But hopefully, then I find what I'm looking for. [01:07:12] Speaker D: E old men's magazine. [01:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah, you're the type for that. What kind of article do you find in, like, 1960s Maxim? What does the 1960s lad mag have to say about the world? [01:07:31] Speaker B: I don't know. I've never looked at them myself. But here's the thing. I think Pierre is a very interesting person, and I think that maybe they were specific issues that followed. Followed specific people that he was looking into. So it may not have been that he was looking at these. Like there was something that he was trying to piece together. There was a timeline that he was trying to figure out about some model that had been in these magazines. Who knows? Who knows? [01:08:01] Speaker A: Or maybe he just likes the page for you girls. Who knows? We'll never know. Cause he's in an airplane now. [01:08:05] Speaker B: Yep. Can't ask him. [01:08:07] Speaker A: I saw Frederick smiling, and I want you to know that I put a lot of effort into internationalizing this game, and I have learned so much about Europe and the United Kingdom in the last, like, two weeks. So I have. That's. That's where I got cheese toasty earlier when we were talking about. [01:08:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't know about cheese toast. It didn't even occur to me. [01:08:28] Speaker A: I know what they are. We just don't call them that. [01:08:31] Speaker E: Oh, I guess you call them a grilled cheese. [01:08:33] Speaker B: Grilled cheese? [01:08:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:34] Speaker C: I thought grilled cheese is open. [01:08:36] Speaker E: Yeah. No, no. [01:08:38] Speaker C: Oh, okay. [01:08:39] Speaker B: No, grilled cheese is not open. Why would. Okay, we will talk about grilled cheese later. This is a conversation over the place. [01:08:47] Speaker A: This is a conversation Emma and Katarina can have in the car, because at one point, Emma's gonna be like, fucking grilled cheese. And she's like, but now is not the time for an open face sandwich. And then. Or you're having it now where Katerina is like, oh, I go for it. [01:09:00] Speaker B: Katarina's just like, ah, could. Could go for a cheese toast right. [01:09:03] Speaker A: Now as Emma is going about the place, trying to decipher useful from not useful. Sonia, Frederick, what are you up to? Or katarina, for that matter, if you're not just loitering over Emma's shoulder. [01:09:15] Speaker E: So I think Frederick would also be searching, but to find out more about, obviously, the piece of evidence or whatever that we'd uncovered was that book and wondering if there was anyone from. About the lost geophysics and all of these things. [01:09:34] Speaker A: Very well. I'll take search. I'll take investigation. Emma has found the investigation clue. There are others attached to other skills in the building. [01:09:43] Speaker E: Yes, it will be search. It will be a 30 under 65. [01:09:50] Speaker A: Excellent. Then, yes, you are going about your business, watching Emma investigate, trying to mentally build the board and put the strings together. Okay, let me ask you this. If I were working from my home and I had sensitive materials that were important scoops, where would I keep them? [01:10:08] Speaker B: In the bathroom? [01:10:10] Speaker A: I'm asking Frederick. And no. [01:10:12] Speaker B: Oh. [01:10:14] Speaker E: So I. [01:10:17] Speaker A: And don't think about, like, broom. Like, you have something valuable. Where are you going to put it? [01:10:22] Speaker E: I think it would probably be in the bedroom, but, like, under the bed, I think, like, under the bed, maybe in a hidden safe under, like, a rug underneath the bed sort of situation. [01:10:38] Speaker A: And right you are. There is a. And we'll go one further. Right. It's gonna be super fancy that it's a, it's got, like, a false floor, right. So you can pull it out of the wood, up, out like a puzzle piece, and then that's where the safe is. But it is a safe, and it's a big boy. [01:10:56] Speaker C: Katarina, meanwhile, has been, like, moping around trying to find something else to lockpick and show off. And she keeps, like, opening cupboards and they're not locked and, like, I'm covered. No, not Fred. Sure. Not locked. [01:11:07] Speaker E: You hear Fred kind of calling your name from the, from the bedroom. [01:11:12] Speaker C: You go running over, like, super keen, and then just, like, looking casual. She's like, yeah, yeah. [01:11:19] Speaker A: Have you ever seen a cat get scared and then try to get traction on a waxed floor? [01:11:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Do you need my help or anything? [01:11:31] Speaker E: So I think this kind of thing is perhaps your area. [01:11:36] Speaker C: Gosh, it totally is. Okay. Super excited that this is safe, and I'm gonna try and break into it, and I'm gonna do it as performatively as possible with maximal flair. As long as Fred is watching, I will occasionally glance over to make sure Fred is still watching. I'm gonna go with prestidigitation, even though it's less good because I've got a ability that I can flip it for a story point if I'm open at picking a lock or cracking a safe. That's nice. 18. Don't even need to. [01:12:12] Speaker A: Oh. It seems not only that you've passed, but you've. You've done it in a way that is obnoxiously, like, cool. [01:12:19] Speaker C: What does, what does Frederick's face look like right now? [01:12:23] Speaker E: I think Frederick, like, when Frederick is looking at this, and it's just kind of, like, somewhat amused, but whenever you look over, reschools their face, you're like, oh, yes, very good. [01:12:40] Speaker C: Yes, that's what I wanted. Good. Excellent. Happy days. Ah, right. [01:12:47] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:12:47] Speaker C: It's open safe. [01:12:48] Speaker E: Sorry. [01:12:48] Speaker C: That's the important thing here. What's in it? [01:12:53] Speaker A: So there are two things together that you will have both found inside the. Excuse me. Inside the safe is a large Manila envelope, the kind that has the little tie on it, like the big thick ones, obviously full of stuff. When you open it up, it has a picture of a boat. It has a memo from the University of Hamburg, the faculty, department of Marine biology, and then two photos of people. What I can give you. I'll post this, uh, this. These elements in our game chat, and we'll have them come up here on the screen. [01:13:44] Speaker C: Okay, so boring papers. Um, Emma likes that kind of stuff, but I just get to get it. [01:13:51] Speaker E: It's like, ah. Nope. Let me just. [01:13:53] Speaker C: What is this exciting? Can we read the letter out loud? Do you want to read it, Fred? [01:13:59] Speaker E: Yeah. Okay. [01:14:00] Speaker C: Because I definitely don't care. And I'm trying to embody my character and not care. It's not going well. [01:14:05] Speaker E: University of Hamburg, faculty of Marine biology. The migration pattern of. I don't know why I said I'd read this. Not loud. Because I can't. I. Coleocamps remains unknown. The capture of coleocants has so far been lucky catch by local fishermen in Indochina and the african east coast. But no academic study has been performed in situ. The biological faculty hereby proposes an expedition to study the migration pattern of colocants on location and request grants for the rent of the research vessel Amos Adonia and a crew for no longer than 60 days, including sailing to and from the base of operation in Selangit, Sitamayang si to Myang. Okay. Salaries for following expedition members. Doctor Erwin Yeager Rhine, biologist, expedition leader. Doctor Hans Reinhardt, historian. Doctor Emma Walter, sonar and magnum, magnetometer specialist. Doctor Michael Koenig, mathematician, statistician and cryptanalysis. Simon Hinckler, dive master. Adrian Reynolds, Deepsea diver. Carlson Porter, Deepsea diver. Bill Murdoch, diver Marco Poletani, diver. Sovaji Ricky, diver. Alfonso Rickey, diver. The total budget for the expedition. Expedition is DM well, 513,451. See appendix A. Sincerely, Doctor Erwin Gager. Something has been approved. [01:15:57] Speaker C: What? [01:15:57] Speaker A: I believe that it's meant to be deutsche marks. [01:16:00] Speaker E: Yes, English. So quite a bit of cooperation across Europe here. Would I recognize any of those names? Perhaps, yeah. [01:16:14] Speaker A: What's your score in humanities? [01:16:20] Speaker E: No. [01:16:21] Speaker A: Okay, then the. The connection is not going to be entirely apparent. Except that the two photos. One is of someone with the name Jurgen Engels and the other is the name Johann Fresner. But given those humanities not clear that you would be able to pick apart the uniform for what it is. Katarina's making a face. What's up? [01:16:48] Speaker C: No, Sharmy was making a face. Katarina zoned out when Fred said university. [01:16:55] Speaker A: I know. Someone here does have humanities, right? [01:17:01] Speaker E: No. [01:17:02] Speaker A: We all are flight checking. [01:17:03] Speaker D: Not me. [01:17:05] Speaker E: Perhaps through institute connections. I would know something like one of these people. Oh, you know my job. [01:17:15] Speaker A: Mm hmm. I. Oh, God. Does anyone have. Well, let's see. The red tape might do it. [01:17:23] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. [01:17:24] Speaker B: I have a lot of red tape. [01:17:26] Speaker A: Okay, then. Between investigation and red tape, we should say that it's. I don't know how you've come across this information or why you would know it. I will leave you to invent a plausible reason to do so. But the interesting thing about those pictures, aside from the fact that they contain Jurgen Engels and Johan Fresner, is that Jurgen Engels is wearing the uniform of a nazi naval commander, specifically with U boat pins. And Johan Fresner has a mechanics mate badge in the same service. So, if this is to be believed, the leader of the expedition is formerly a U boat captain. In the photo, he is wearing an iron cross, which means he was an especially good one. [01:18:33] Speaker C: So. [01:18:35] Speaker E: Yeah, I believe the the boat that we're looking for possibly is in Citmayang, or at least I thought we. [01:18:49] Speaker C: Were looking for Pierre. [01:18:52] Speaker E: Yes. No, yes. We we are looking for Pierre. Yes. Sorry. [01:18:59] Speaker C: We need someone in this conversation who cares about Pierre, I think. We're not. [01:19:04] Speaker E: Sorry. Yes, but I mean, clearly this is what Pierre was working on and investigating, so perhaps Pierre could end up there. [01:19:23] Speaker D: Did have the book? [01:19:26] Speaker E: What book? [01:19:29] Speaker D: The book about the lost you boat. [01:19:32] Speaker E: Yeah, the book. [01:19:32] Speaker C: Also, the people in the people in the warehouse were saying something, Emma. They were saying, like, oh, where did you get this information? Oh, you vote nazis? Who told you this? [01:19:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Yep. So obviously there's something tying him. I mean, this is this is what he's been working on. And this is why Octopus wanted him, because they want to know what he knows and what he's found. And maybe if we find out where he's going, we can find out where they've taken him and, like, track him. I'm like, if this has something to do with with the U boat, then maybe the plane is going that way, and we can find out, like, where. [01:20:25] Speaker C: They'Re flying, actually, to, like, look for a U boat for some reason. [01:20:32] Speaker D: The only should be pretty easy to find out where that plane is going. [01:20:38] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. You got the number and everything? [01:20:40] Speaker D: We got a photo of it, yeah. [01:20:42] Speaker C: Okay, we gotta call plane people and be like, hey, plane people, help us find a plane. I don't know how that works. I know. How does that work? [01:20:49] Speaker B: It's it's fine. I've got I've got contacts. I can I can call somebody. I don't know. You're the best I know there's one. [01:20:58] Speaker A: Piece of the puzzle that we haven't quite figured out, which is why. [01:21:03] Speaker C: Why do they want to u boat? [01:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah. If they are upset enough about Pierre knowing about it, that they're willing to kidnap him and light you all on fire, when. [01:21:15] Speaker C: Because also, they were like, who told you? And where did you get this information? So is the information. Is the information like where the U boat is? Or is the information like, what went down with the U boat? That's, like, now trapped at the bottom of the scene? They wanted. [01:21:30] Speaker B: What did my investigation roll show up? Because I never got an answer. [01:21:35] Speaker A: I know I was doing this clever gm thing where I led into the. What are we missing? So I could say, well, Emma might have more information on that. [01:21:43] Speaker B: Aha. Okay. [01:21:45] Speaker A: Although I expect that it will be a little bit, perhaps answering questions with questions, because the key piece of information that Pierre seems to have really fixated on for some amount of time is a catalog from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, United States. It is focused on the exhibition of the world of the Nibelungs, Richard Wagner's influence on late 19th century german art. And one of the paintings Brunhild rides to Valhalla is circled. It's the only thing in the whole damn book that has any kind of marking on it that is attributed to a follower of Zoj Eberhardt. I don't know that first name. I've literally never encountered it until just now, and I've read this before, so I must have skipped over it then. A subsection of this is dedicated to the Nazis Wagner obsession. This would be a really good time if someone had humanities, but. Ah, well, in addition to that, there are. There's a pamphlet, like. Like a handout, a single page that is an interview with the author of the book that Sonia found. I think Sonja has this information, but it might have been called to attention. But it is by a doctor Stephen Armstrong. It is published through Columbia University Press, in part because that is a prestigious publishing house, and in part because Doctor Armstrong is faculty at Columbia. The bookmark is a plain itinerary. It showed that before now, Peter had made a trip to New York, spent three days, and returned. He arrived here two days ago, right before his kidnapping. [01:23:44] Speaker C: We have to find out what Pierre knew. [01:23:50] Speaker D: Hold up the book. We could talk to this guy. [01:23:54] Speaker C: That guy could be the only one who knows, apart from Pierre and possibly all of those octopus people. If Pierre told them, he might have done. [01:24:05] Speaker D: Torture. You know, people say a lot of things under torture. [01:24:08] Speaker A: They were tickling the shit out of him. [01:24:10] Speaker B: They were. [01:24:11] Speaker C: You know, I think we need to know exactly where we're going. And then if they don't know, we'll. [01:24:17] Speaker E: Have one up on them and we'll. [01:24:18] Speaker C: Get there first, and then we'll. Well, I don't know. Maybe you guys could do the u boat thing. But we should go to New York right now. [01:24:29] Speaker D: Are you all busy? [01:24:30] Speaker C: Yeah. Like, how hot can it be? [01:24:35] Speaker B: Sure, it's fine. [01:24:37] Speaker A: You're a crew of incredibly competent, globe spanning, nazi hunting, mystery solving sleuths. I'm sure you will figure it out. But before we go to New York, we should probably go to break because it's been about halfway through our adventure, and we'll want to give you some time to digest the clues, digest some snacks, dive into some water, because you need to hydrate, and we provide all giving you all the same advice as well to our folks at home. So we are going to take ten minutes to situate ourselves. When we come back, we might be in the Big Apple. Don't go anywhere. We'll see you soon. Welcome back, friends. We are hydrated and more than a little giggly, having had some time over the break to. To go through the various clues, things that we've. We've missed, things. We've put together a very important conversation about pronunciation of many, many different words. You know what? We should put it on Patreon. We'll let people see what we got up to in that conversation. Hashtag Patreon mid game plug. But that is not the only information that I have been enthusiastically corrected on. So before we head to New York, first we're going to head to the classroom because over at rpgeeks, they do science and Starfinder. And it would be inappropriate of me to not avail myself with the expertise of one shamini Bundel. So we have. I've already forgotten how it's pronounced. I'm assuming it's kind of fish. An important kind of. [01:26:08] Speaker C: Do you want some fish facts? [01:26:09] Speaker A: Everyone? [01:26:09] Speaker C: I got. I got fish facts for you. [01:26:11] Speaker A: Immerse me in the storyline by immersing me in the ocean. [01:26:15] Speaker C: Well, I really. I'm really hoping this is, like, going to be a key part of this story, is going to be going on a marine biology expedition and maybe seeing some coelacanths. Yes, please. That'd be great. So coelacanths is spelt with a. With a c. That it's pronounced with a s sound. I don't know. Don't know why. Something, something Latin, probably particularly cool because I did have to, like, look up the date for this. Basically, they were discovered, as it were, in 1938. So, yes, plenty of, plenty of time for this. But, like, the reason it was exciting is that they were discovered, rediscovered, is that, like, it was quite a well known group, but only from the fossil record, like millions of years ago. And everyone was like, wow. Yes. The ancient coelacanth that we know from ye olden times. And they are very important in the evolution of things that walk on land because they have big strong bones in their limbs, a bit like lungfish, and they could have evolved into animals like us that walk on land. But obviously they were, they were gone a long time ago and then they found some alive, which they're, they're one of these ones that get called, like, living fossil a lot. They're a living fossil because they had a load of fossils. They had a live one, although it's not really accurate. And, like, they definitely have changed and evolved since, since dinosaur times. So it's not like they've sort of stayed exactly the same and like a magical representation of frozen in ancient time, but they are super cool. So I hope this story involves lots of coelacanths. [01:27:48] Speaker A: It does now. I think. I think it's like I'm imagining how. [01:27:53] Speaker C: Deep do they swim? [01:27:54] Speaker A: I'm imagining a scientist having a jurassic park moment. Like, you know, when doctor Grant is like, holy shit, it's a brontosaurus. There's some marine biologists, like, it's a living dinosaur. And I found, like, that kind of enthusiasm. [01:28:05] Speaker C: Yeah. I also wonder if it was one of these cases. I may be misremembering this, but quite a lot of the time it's like, science goes like, oh, my God, we've discovered this. And the local people are like, yeah, we eat that. That's. No, that's just like, that's like yesterday's dinner, you know, I don't know what you guys are so excited about. So, you know, the discoveries of western science, it's not always true. [01:28:29] Speaker A: Well, if we have sent, uh, uh, if we've sent shamini down a coelacanthole, uh, for more discoveries, I'm expecting updates on Twitter, um, to tag us and tell us what's going on in that area. Um, but, uh, yes, so information that we have there is a large Manila envelope that has an expedition with the Ms. Adonia, if I recall, where there is a Nazi U boat captain who is posing as a marine biologist, or perhaps he is a marine biologist, midlife crisis, career change. Sometime around 1944, and a junior officer also on board. They are heading to Si to my. Which we had an indication of. We know that the U boat. U 909, maybe U 909. I'll go back and double check that. But a very specific U boat ended up there, which is the text of the book that Sonya discovered and kind of flipped through. There was a U boat sent on a special mission, 890, apparently. 890. U 890 sent from Hamburg to Japan on a very, very armed secret mission. And then something went wrong. Haven't found it yet. We know that octopus wants it. They wanted enough to shut down Pierre Martin and figure out who he's been talking to because he might have information about its locale and its contents. And all it cost us was a dainty jaunt through an airport, a burning building, and some breaking and entering that was totally unnecessary in the face of a key being had. [01:29:55] Speaker C: Totally necessary. [01:29:57] Speaker A: Now, most of these leads point towards New York, that whatever is happening in Si to Myong, it's pretty apparent that they, our nazi friends, don't know where the boat is or exactly what's going on, and that Pierre was investigating it and had gone to New York City, which poses an important question. I know Sonja is a very good driver, but cannot drive from Paris to New York, so we want to go there. I don't know what the telecommunications infrastructure was like in the 1960s, but I'm guessing the Zoom meeting is going to have very high latency. If you wanted to get in touch with the professor, also, you would be struggling to see the painting in person. We haven't done, like, the 3d art gallery. Don't have to go to the Mona Lisa because I've got pictures of it kind of thing. [01:30:45] Speaker E: I think Frederick might have a solution for that. Pray tell. Well, so I guess we have. We don't talk a lot about Frederick's job, but, I mean, they're on sabbatical. They're just a mechanic. An engineer. But they're an engineer for the institute. And the institute is one of those organizations that would absolutely let a secondary engineer on sabbatical just borrow their plane. Right? [01:31:21] Speaker A: Sounds right to me. [01:31:26] Speaker E: Because, yeah, engineers are important. They do important stuff because they're just engineers. [01:31:36] Speaker A: Definitely just engineers. If you wink any harder, I think it's going to cause a medical issue with what is going on there. Will you not. You don't have to reveal this to the players in character, but will you tell the audience what the institute is actually up to? [01:31:52] Speaker E: I mean, the institute is researching. Well, obviously, there is there's quite some interest in this u boat and forgotten tech from, how to say it, ancient and possibly alien civilizations. There's. It's basically an institute of research. Spooky shit. And. [01:32:22] Speaker C: I am extremely suspicious. [01:32:25] Speaker A: Yes. [01:32:26] Speaker B: Is that. Is that the technical term for it? Spooky shit? [01:32:29] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. [01:32:30] Speaker B: Okay. [01:32:31] Speaker E: 100% technical term. [01:32:33] Speaker B: Okay, great. [01:32:36] Speaker E: Yes. They're one of those organizations. However. However, they are committed to. Well, on the face to that, they're committed to finding forward future looking versions or investing in forward and future looking tech for addressing the energy needs of the world, essentially. [01:33:08] Speaker A: Incredibly well funded, shadowy benevolent organization. I mean, well, if you. So then you have to get in contact with them somehow. I'm sure there's a very. It's like, it's got to be the kind of thing where, like, you call a phone number, and they're like, department of sanitation. How can I help you? And you're like, oh, the pipes are frozen on the 17 July street. And they're like, all right. And then you get punched into the actual network. Right? [01:33:32] Speaker E: Yeah, I think. I think it's much simpler than that. It's very much kind of. Oh, you make a call to a number, and you get a dial tone, but that's fine, because you're making another. You're inputting another number and then another couple of numbers, and it's like, okay, one of them might be a badge number, one of them might not, but there might be a cascode, and then, uh. And then it's like, uh, yes. Um, plane to New York. And then possibly switched. [01:34:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Jet setting. [01:34:07] Speaker A: What. What portion of this do you reveal to the other investigators? Or is it just like, get in the car, losers. We're going to New York. [01:34:17] Speaker E: It's like, I think there's something that could be possibly interesting to my work, so I could call. Call my boss and maybe ask them if we can. If we can go to. To New York. [01:34:31] Speaker C: Oh. Like, so we just sort of put it on expenses. [01:34:34] Speaker B: Yeah. I think all of this is happening as Emma is also trying to figure it out. Like, Emma's, like, making calls, like, hey, like, how much for a plane? Excuse me? How much? No? Okay. All right. Commercial flights. Four tickets. How much for these? Oh, my God. Are you joking? No. And then just, like, trying really hard to, like, find something. And then just like, Frederick from the back is like, um. I mean, I could. I could make a call, and Emma's like, yeah, okay, fine. Whatever. I'm gonna keep trying my stuff too. [01:35:01] Speaker E: Just. [01:35:02] Speaker B: Just until such a time as I know that, you know. [01:35:06] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:35:06] Speaker E: So, um, whenever we're ready, we can go to the airport. [01:35:11] Speaker C: Like, what are you gonna tell your work, though? Like, how are you gonna pretend that it's relevant, like, to engineering, like, fixing cars or what? [01:35:18] Speaker E: Oh, well, it'll be fine. They trust me. [01:35:21] Speaker C: My God, you must have, like, such a nice work. [01:35:24] Speaker A: Learns. [01:35:24] Speaker D: You're very trusting. [01:35:26] Speaker E: Really lovely. [01:35:27] Speaker C: Do you think they'll let us expense the food as well? [01:35:31] Speaker E: Oh, I'm sure. Really? I mean, nothing too fancy. Nothing too fancy. [01:35:41] Speaker A: Katherine has not struck me as I'm entirely picky on the eating front so far. [01:35:46] Speaker C: I have actually really, like, highbrow tastes. [01:35:50] Speaker D: So many cheese toasties. [01:35:52] Speaker A: Yeah. The burning warehouse cheese toasty. [01:35:57] Speaker E: And the grabbed pastry from the deli. Yeah. [01:36:04] Speaker A: Well, returning to the airport this time, hopefully Sonya's driving a different car. [01:36:08] Speaker D: Yes. [01:36:11] Speaker A: And then. But the institute, again, not flying. So you get to have this moment where you go through the same gate and you're like, hope it's a different shift. [01:36:21] Speaker D: It's like 3 hours later. Because we all have to go home and change our clothes so we don't. They don't recognize us. [01:36:26] Speaker A: Well, we've also been doing it at. [01:36:27] Speaker B: Night, I'm guessing still covered in feathers if we had to go back, so. No, I'd like to sleep. [01:36:35] Speaker A: We will give everyone the opportunity to go home, to shower, to change into less burned clothes. It's gonna take time for Frederick to make the call. It's gonna take time for the institute to arrange things. So. It's fucking funny that this just happened. [01:36:48] Speaker E: Dab. [01:36:48] Speaker C: I mean. [01:36:52] Speaker A: I. Yeah, I don't have prescription glasses, so I put sunglasses on. It would just be. It would be awful. I would not know anything about it. [01:37:00] Speaker E: I have prescription sunglasses just then, not anywhere. [01:37:04] Speaker C: So keep them. Do you not keep them right next to your streaming setup? [01:37:07] Speaker B: Like, weird. Why would you not? [01:37:16] Speaker A: Oh, man. I did so. I did. Look at them. It cost $4,900 per person to fly commercial from intercontinental in 1960s. So if you have 20 grand laying around, the four of you can go. But aside from that, thank God for Frederick Dejaro. [01:37:32] Speaker C: Wait, so why does the. Why do the mechanics, like, own a private plane again? [01:37:38] Speaker E: Oh, it's a work thing. [01:37:44] Speaker C: Oh, right. Okay, great. [01:37:49] Speaker A: Frederick explaining this as the. As the. As you go to the hangar and it's not. It's not like a dassault or whatever. It's not like a normal plane. It's fancy as shit, right? This is like institute tech. I don't know what, like an alien jet engine looks like but it's obviously. [01:38:05] Speaker E: Not a point that I've got out my lunchbox specifically to, like, charm them into not asking too many questions. [01:38:19] Speaker A: Katarina is starting to, like, do the. And you just, like, put a. Put a sandwich in the open jaw and on board. Well, the Concorde could make this trip in incredible time. It hasn't been invented yet, but the institute is always ahead of time. So we're talking, like, a three hour journey to bang your way out of Paris and over to New York. Bang. Referring to the sonic boom. Important notes that I did not clarify when saying that. [01:38:52] Speaker C: Bang our way to New York. Come on, everyone. [01:38:56] Speaker A: Very different game. [01:38:58] Speaker B: We are all friends, Aaron. We are all friends. [01:39:04] Speaker A: Right, so I'm boarding the aircraft rapidly, distracting folks from this conversation and taxiing on to the Runway. Trip is short, but we have established the institute. Perhaps not expensing the food, but what does the interior of this plane look like? Because in my head, I'm getting that, like, that retro futurist kind of Jetsons look inside. Is that right? Or something else. [01:39:31] Speaker E: I feel like. I think it's got to look more normal on the face of it, but I think perhaps there's a, like, you know, where you've got, like, cabins behind instead of, like, a normal cabin. It's just a wall. And perhaps if you were to go beyond that wall, maybe it's a kind of jets situation, but, yeah, but otherwise the cabin is. [01:39:55] Speaker C: Or, like, a little curtain, like the airplane curtains, where, like, occasionally it, like, wafts and you're just like, that doesn't look. Oh, food. Yeah, great. [01:40:03] Speaker B: It's like, oh, yeah, that's. [01:40:05] Speaker E: That's where the. The other engine. I don't know. They put the pilot sets. They're driving the plane from the back. [01:40:15] Speaker A: Also, though, the weird level of deference that the flight crew shows to Frederick, because they're just lackeys in this machine, but Frederick's an actual engineer for the institute, so, like, I will. Let's build up the fiction a little more. I'll ask Sonia. What is one incredibly novel thing in the. This jet that you would not expect and Frederik isn't going to explain. [01:40:41] Speaker D: It's got that self dispensing coffee. [01:40:48] Speaker C: What even is that? [01:40:49] Speaker D: You put the mug under the thing. You put the mug under the thing. It dispenses coffee. And you're, like. [01:40:57] Speaker A: With the different buttons. Right? Because you have decaf and full calf, um, cream and sugars. I don't do is I know that the milk before tea or tea before milk is a huge thing is that also apply to coffee. Okay, so then it's just number of sugars. [01:41:14] Speaker E: The situation is, is it depends that tea, milk before the tea or tea. It depends on what you're serving the tea in. Does it really? [01:41:23] Speaker C: I didn't know this was a thing. Why would you put the milk first? [01:41:27] Speaker B: Yeah, why are you only that's like. [01:41:28] Speaker E: You can put the milk first if you've got a teapot and you've already brewed the tea. So you're serving in a teacup, but if you've got a mug, you put. How do you know? [01:41:38] Speaker B: But what I just, it, it's like putting milk first in a cereal bowl. Why would you do that? It's just. [01:41:46] Speaker A: Well, no, my thought is that you can you put the milk in first if you have the tea brewed, because you. It will mix itself quite thoroughly and not being stir. I'm making this up. I don't know. [01:41:58] Speaker E: That's my thought also. Like, we don't really do that. [01:42:04] Speaker A: Mine, everything's a lie. I gotta just, I'm going to pause this game to go aggressively edit a Wikipedia page. I was reading earlier. [01:42:15] Speaker C: How to talk to british people. [01:42:20] Speaker A: I know mentioned she's toasty. [01:42:21] Speaker C: Drop it in casually. [01:42:22] Speaker A: I got that. [01:42:24] Speaker C: You got little notes to yourself. [01:42:26] Speaker A: You were away, but I called someone a bel end earlier and Lola gave me the nod of it, so I'm getting there. Yes. So we had the coffee, and then it'll ask you with sugars, is it a reach to say that there's a small voice with it? Right. Not a robot voice, but so then. [01:42:43] Speaker E: It'S like, sounds great. [01:42:45] Speaker A: Like, so it's like, then how many sugars the machine says to you? And you're like, what the fuck? [01:42:51] Speaker C: Sonia, can you get me a hot chocolate with whipped cream and little marshmallows? Thanks. [01:42:58] Speaker D: I stare at the machine, like I have to do that. [01:43:02] Speaker A: I mean, I think it has to, right? [01:43:04] Speaker B: No, I just, I love the idea of Sonia being like, I don't know how to. Excuse me, mister machine. Tap, tap, tap. Can I have a hot chocolate, please, with whipped cream and marshmallows? [01:43:16] Speaker C: Thank you. [01:43:21] Speaker B: Because that just seems like something Sonia would do. [01:43:24] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:43:25] Speaker B: Now the important question is, and I'm gonna pitch this to Fred, important question is, Fred, does it respond? Does it know, like if you ask it for something like that, will it actually, will it actually give Sonia what she wants? [01:43:42] Speaker E: I think that there might be an, there might be an error on the marshmallows, but you get the hot chocolate. It's like, oh, you might just need to ask one of the cabin crew for. [01:44:02] Speaker D: Yeah, the cabin be like, hi, do you have marshmallows? [01:44:07] Speaker A: But we've established this voice communicated. So when you walk in, like, excuse me, miss. And then she turns around and has, like, a very tiny presentation plate with the marshmallows on it. Right. Because that's the. [01:44:19] Speaker E: You've asked the machine. The machine doesn't have it, but someone else got that message. [01:44:24] Speaker A: We've spent way more time on this than I thought we would. No, it has been worse every. Every single second. And I always said, I like the idea that as Sonia and Katherine discover this, that that is how they spend the remainder of the flight, is seeing this. This magic, liquid creating box. Can do. But, well, eventually, we will have to land in New York and say goodbye to the. Our new favorite character, the institute jet. [01:44:53] Speaker E: Well, only. Only briefly, maybe. Possibly. [01:44:55] Speaker A: Oh, sure. Yeah, that's right. Right. You said we got places to be. Yeah. And we'll add that in the fiction where Katarina's like, no, just one more thing, and you can just. We will be right back. That's not going anywhere. And just guiding them away from the plane. [01:45:12] Speaker C: Can we expense this stereotypical New York taxi cab to get us to wherever Colombia is? It's not another state. It's not another country. [01:45:21] Speaker B: Where are we going? [01:45:22] Speaker D: I think Columbia is actually New York. [01:45:25] Speaker C: It's in New York. Okay, good, because we're in. Okay. [01:45:28] Speaker A: Yeah. The university's in New York. The country's in South America. [01:45:30] Speaker D: Okay, that's fair. [01:45:34] Speaker C: Can we expense this cab, Fred? [01:45:39] Speaker E: Let's not put too much on it. But sure, yeah. It's work related. [01:45:45] Speaker A: Mm hmm. You'll have to file receipts, though, because 1960, we definitely did not have credit card readers, anything like that in the cab. [01:45:55] Speaker E: So, like, as the rest of you all got out of cab, Fred is just like, yeah. [01:45:59] Speaker C: Just. [01:45:59] Speaker E: Can you just write? Yeah. [01:46:01] Speaker C: Right now? I love that we got some dollars on the way. [01:46:05] Speaker A: I love that Frederick is so committed to the bureaucracy of it all. Like, everyone else is trying to have an adventure, and Frederick's like, no, my toolkit. You know, the forms have to fill out to get another toolkit. [01:46:16] Speaker B: Fred. Fred has a notebook that has. It's kind of like, you know, Fred in modern day would be the person who keeps everything of their life put inside, like, an excel spreadsheet. And so they have this little ringed, like, notepad with just very, very tiny little lines. And there's like, a. There's two boxes on each side, and they're just like. Fred has meticulously written down everything, every expense, like dates, times. It's very, very precise and exactly. [01:46:46] Speaker E: I get paid well, but not that well. So, of course, I have to expense everything. Sure. [01:46:52] Speaker A: And you don't want to leave money on the table. Right, then into the cab. He will be disappointed. If you're experienced with London black cabs, that New York cabs in the sixties were nowhere near as nice or friendly, but they can get you to the university all the same. Sorry, that's where we're going first. Yes. [01:47:13] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's important to see the art, but being able to talk to our contact here is a little bit more. [01:47:21] Speaker A: So I think, yeah, then, yes. So, Columbia, it purports to be Ivy League, depending on who you ask. That is true or is not true, but it covers about six city blocks in upper Manhattan. The Columbia is actually older than the United States, and they will not shut the fuck up about it, but it is that kind of school. So, as in the tradition of great american universities, they built it to look like Oxford because that imports prestige. So you've got the ivy and you've got the stuff. You just don't have the Isaac Newton or the history or, at this point in time, the money. Nevertheless, Professor Stephen Armstrong is. I don't know if you've had the experience of meeting a professor in a very niche field and then asking them about their work, because we imagine that the professors are super, super busy. They're always teaching and researching, which is true some of the times, but a lot of the time they're just sitting in their office, responding to the 1960s versions of emails and writing more books that will not. So when you arrive in the history department of Columbia, you find Professor Armstrong in the office, and you will be coming in between other students who are just showing up to be, like, asking about assignments or theses questions or whatever. I will pitch to the four of you. What does Professor Armstrong look like? What kind of professor are we talking about here? The one immutable thing is gotta have the tweed jacket with the leathern arm pants or elbow pants. [01:48:57] Speaker B: Oh, obviously. Obviously. The one word that I have to describe Professor Armstrong is round. Everything about this man is round. He's bald, so top of his head, very smooth, very round. And it's obviously beard, mustache, though, big, big, big bushy. Yes, very, very well kept. It seems like he spends a lot of time on it. Like, he's got rounded shoulders, rounded arms. He's got a big, big, round belly. Not quite, like, to the level of, like, Santa Claus. Jovial, but that's kind of in the realm of, like, where we're going with the roundness, generally, of Professor Armstrong. [01:49:44] Speaker A: You described for me like a bald jack black. [01:49:51] Speaker B: Not exactly what I pictured in my head, but sure, why not? [01:49:57] Speaker E: That's what we're all seeing now. [01:49:59] Speaker A: Yeah, don't. Again. Death of the author. That's my vision. But the great thing about role playing games is that we can all have our own vision in our own nuggets. Well, then, yes. Who is? How do we approach the situation? Someone knocking on the door. What's the pile in together? [01:50:18] Speaker B: Well, I mean, is his door open? Is it office hours right now, or. [01:50:25] Speaker A: Sure. [01:50:26] Speaker B: Okay, then. Since the door is open, just a quick little rasp on the door frame, you know, and poke our heads in. Uh, Professor Armstrong? [01:50:39] Speaker A: No. Yes. Yes. Who is it? [01:50:50] Speaker E: To be fair, I think Frederick's bringing up the wrist. [01:50:57] Speaker B: I'm sorry. I was not acceptable. [01:51:00] Speaker A: Squinting through his ground glasses. [01:51:09] Speaker B: Um. Sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so. I was not expecting that. Yes, I was wondering if you had a moment to chat about some of your work. We just had a couple questions for you. [01:51:30] Speaker A: If that accident bothers you, I can choose another one. [01:51:33] Speaker B: No, it's fine. I just. It took me by complete and total surprise. I was not expecting from you, so it just took me by surprise, that's all. [01:51:45] Speaker A: Well, that's good. Cause I had. You took down that bargain. I was totally gonna go with, like, whangy cowboy, and it was gonna throw you from the loop again. [01:51:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:51:52] Speaker B: Yep. [01:51:54] Speaker A: Yes. No, of course. Excited to meet a fellow scholar, and he's moved, like, desks shut, and, like. And again, that, like, rabid enthusiasm. Like, so everyone here, everyone watching has something that they are hyper fixated about. Like, it is their thing that they are so excited about. And, like, imagine in the appropriate context, someone walked up and, for example, was like, hey, vy, can you tell me the, like, ten basic things about 3d modeling? Or, like, shami, can you describe for me, like, the basic steps and, like, tell me, what's it like to do documentary work? I realize at this point that I don't want to call out Aubrey, but at the same time, I kind of do. So if I was Aubrey, I'm just now getting into it. Can you explain to me more about, like, how AOS tree fandoms work? And then likewise with fabric based handicrafts. For Lola, the enthusiasm when someone approached you with genuine interest in that subject. That is what is boiling off. Like, if he was having a shitty day before, like, I'm grading papers, it's a bunch of, like, stuck up rich kids who have no desire to be historians, but whatever. And then you show up and you're like, holding his book that he sold seven copies of. Imagine the joy that pours out of this man. [01:53:21] Speaker E: And. [01:53:22] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. Come on, come, come. And he's getting up and he's like, there's only two chairs in front of the desk. He goes and finds another one. And then as all of this comes along, he just sits down and then, like, hands on the table, like. Yes. So what can I help you with? [01:53:40] Speaker C: Looking at? I feel like Emma does the talking, does the schmoozing. Unless Sonia would like to jump in. [01:53:54] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I mean, I'm fine with that. I just wanted to give folks a chance if they so chose, but, yeah. So as we all take a seat, I kind of start pulling things out and I'm going to flip around the copy that we have of the one that got away and just say we're actually doing a little investigation of our own into this u boat. And one of my colleagues, because, of course, and I hold up my press credentials. One of my colleagues, Pierre, has been kind of following this as well. And I don't know if you spoke to him at all, if he's contacted you, but I thought that coming here, being able to speak to you in person, maybe you could tell us a little bit about why this u boat is so important and why people would be still looking for it. We have reason to believe that there are some leads that folks have. So I just kind of wanted to pick your brain about this u boat. [01:55:05] Speaker A: Well, I'm sure if you took the time to read the book, you would know why it's important, because I discuss it radial in there. But who'd you say? You said you had a friend. It's so interesting that in the last, only a few weeks have been three people now coming into my office fascinated with this topic. I am, apparently, it's a. It's a great time to be. Sorry. He just. He just became an entirely different accent there for a second. It's a very, very great time to be in this business. Well, I will. There's obviously a bit of disappointment. He was hoping to have a different conversation about the text. But he does reiterate it for you that the U boat was sent to the mission again from Hamburg in the late days of the war, carrying something of immense value to Japan. The Japanese were the ones who revealed the mission because they were communicating under codes that had been broken. And apparently they were sending their own submarine to meet with the german submarine. The Japanese were sending a huge quantity of gold in exchange for something, and no one knows what that something is. But in that interesting fuzzy space between history and rumor and conspiracy, where they all kind of tug together, he paints a very compelling story that brings the juncture of nazi occultism and Hitler's wunderwaffe. The gigantic bell. Dear Glalke, if you google it, there was supposedly a giant nazi superboy that was literally just a big ass bell. And something terrible happened when you rang it. Yeah. Anywho, those people he distanced himself from, but that is the bit going through the end of that he does. Yes, Pierre came. He mentions that, who had a great many questions about it, because Mister Armstrong is working on a revised second edition of the book. He had new information recently about someone who purports to be a survivor and was including those tales in this new edition. So Pierre had come asking the same questions that you had, and this is the information that he had shared that no one's ever been able to find it. But my new book, which you can buy coming out soon in the. That people plug their book includes stories from someone who, you know, was on the boat. And the last he knew, Pierre was planning to travel to cite Maiyang to interview this survivor. [01:57:47] Speaker C: Wait, so did they swap the gold for the thingy already? So, like, is the gold on the U boat or is the thingy on the U boat? [01:57:55] Speaker A: I. Well, no, that's the thing. We don't know what happened because the Americans managed to track the japanese sub and confirmed to sink it, but they don't know if it was before or after it accomplished its mission. They haven't been able to find the wreckage of either boat. It is in the Straits of Si to Myang. We know that much. The destroyer that sank it. And basically on the travel that we've been able to find, we know the general area, but there's a lot of ocean, the tides and the currents moving up, a lot of silt. It's the sixties, so we don't have, like, ocean penetrating megasonar or whatever. This is a few gigs. I don't know. [01:58:40] Speaker C: Why are you so interested in, like, the german one as opposed to the japanese one? Or did they know where they sank that one? So that's less tricky. [01:58:48] Speaker A: They don't know where it sank. They have a general idea. So it's someone within, like, these 10 sq mi of ocean based on what was going on positionally. [01:58:56] Speaker C: The japanese one. [01:58:57] Speaker A: Both of them. [01:58:58] Speaker C: They're both together? [01:59:00] Speaker A: We think so. Based on the date of the rendezvous, we know that the japanese submarine and the german submarine were supposed to meet within a few days of when the sinking happened. So. And that's the mystery that we've been able to track down all these other u boats we've had, all these other things that we've discovered. We never found that one. And, of course, the interest is obvious that something inside of it was valuable enough for the Japanese to park a significant part of the imperial treasury. Mm hmm. And yet it's never been found. [01:59:34] Speaker C: Eyes make it totally, like, high stack gold. [01:59:41] Speaker E: What's the. Sorry. Would they. Would this guy know what the connection is with the painting? [01:59:49] Speaker A: I don't think so. Okay, that's above table. I don't know. He's a. We're gonna say that Professor Armstrong is the kind of person who has three things. He will talk about buying the book about nazi u boats. Nazi u boats. And then, like, can I have more money to write my next book about nazi u boats? [02:00:07] Speaker B: Sure, sure. [02:00:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:00:09] Speaker D: Decks out. [02:00:10] Speaker C: Do you think. Wait, if this survivor didn't tell you where the U boat was, do you think Pierre thinks that he could get it out of them? Like, persuade them to reveal the location? [02:00:23] Speaker D: Pierre is very persuasive. [02:00:25] Speaker A: Oh, I haven't actually been able to interview the survivor. We've communicated via post. But I am traveling to Si. To my young. Staying there, the amount of time I would have to get a grant from the university, which is part of what Peter was going to do, I offered him some information to contact him, and on the promise that he would put me in touch and we'd be able to share some information. [02:00:43] Speaker C: We get, like, a name and address, because, like, we're totally gonna go and say hi for normal reasons, not doing a heist. [02:00:53] Speaker A: So getting to this point where we're going to have to make some kind of role because you're trying to convince him to give up his source. He's already given it to Pierre. There's financial incentive involved. So if you want it for free or to get it out of him, I would love to know which dice you want to use. It's a plural. [02:01:12] Speaker E: You can I use my charming picnic to aid someone charming? [02:01:19] Speaker D: You look like you're hungry. [02:01:20] Speaker A: Fancy a sandwich? [02:01:22] Speaker B: He does look like the kind of man who fancy snacks. That's all. [02:01:26] Speaker E: Well, I think it's more of just, like, Fred. Not so good at charm in general, but like, food everyone needs to eat. [02:01:37] Speaker A: Remind me the. What is the. Remind me the special mechanic that is related to your lunchbox charming picnic. [02:01:43] Speaker E: So it's essentially, I've reskinned it so that it's more of a, like, it's. It's this kind of separate lunch box instead of lunch basket and picnic thing. But it's. It's like a very well stocked lunch box with maybe not. Maybe not wine, but, like, some nice drinks and, like, a good deal of very tasty sandwiches and some nice, fresh snacks and so. [02:02:12] Speaker C: Yes. [02:02:12] Speaker E: And the mechanic is that to get it up, it basically gives plus two pips for. [02:02:25] Speaker A: Persuasion. [02:02:26] Speaker E: Yeah. [02:02:28] Speaker A: Okay, well, then let's say that, yeah, that Frederick does not have to be the one who makes the role, but as you are trying to butter him up figuratively, you begin to butter him up literally, by offering various snacks and implements and making a long enough thing of it that, like, oh, we're going to be here for a while, talking about how much we love people who love nazi u boats. And then the cork pops, and you start pouring out the whatever 1960 Lacroix is. [02:03:00] Speaker B: Would having press credentials here be advantageous? Because we are obviously here with Pierre's copy of the book, and I'm trying to get this information so we can get into contact with this source as members of the press, and he's already. [02:03:18] Speaker C: Agreed to deal with Pierre, so we're just basically, we're with Pierre. [02:03:21] Speaker E: I agree. [02:03:22] Speaker A: Score. That's not a roll in of itself, but, well, so. [02:03:27] Speaker B: Because that gives me plus two pips as well. [02:03:31] Speaker A: Okay. [02:03:32] Speaker B: You asked if we did plus two. [02:03:34] Speaker A: And then, yeah, they stack. [02:03:36] Speaker B: Okay. So, uh, yeah, I guess I'll try. Can I? So I'll make a charm roll then, to try and convince him he's not gonna be charming. [02:03:48] Speaker D: Sonia is not good at any of this. Interacting with people parts. [02:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not as v. I'm not overly charming, but maybe, Emma, that's a lie. [02:04:01] Speaker D: That's a lie. [02:04:05] Speaker B: But, yeah, no. So I'll reach over and I'll pour him a little drink and offer him a little snack, and I'll just say, I really want to. It would be really, really helpful for us so we can further piers work and get all of this done faster. Unfortunately, he's not gonna. He's unable to make the trip to see to my young right now. But that's why we are here, because we would like to go on his behalf and find this person for you and conduct this interview, speak to this person, find out what they know. And it would be a really great help if you could point us in the right direction. And none of that is a lie. [02:04:50] Speaker D: I don't. [02:04:53] Speaker B: All of that is true. I suppose I could lie. I'd actually have a better chance at lying. Oh, my God. No, that's an 87. My dice are not. I'm gonna swap dice. [02:05:09] Speaker A: No, it doesn't help. All right. Someone needs to bail Emma out. [02:05:14] Speaker E: Oh, no. [02:05:15] Speaker C: But something different, right? Can't just do the same thing again. [02:05:18] Speaker A: A stacking charm would be a bit of an oopsies. You can use story points to alter the situation somehow, introduce new information, attempt a different kind of approach. [02:05:30] Speaker D: How many story points would it be to say somebody comes in with a telegram from his contact? [02:05:43] Speaker A: Piece of the fiction? That would be extraordinary because they are not into, like, contact with each other. [02:05:51] Speaker C: He said he wrote them. Wrote him letters. [02:05:53] Speaker E: Of course. [02:05:53] Speaker A: Wrote him letters. That was not from the contact. I'm sorry. That was from somebody else. [02:05:59] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [02:06:00] Speaker D: Okay. [02:06:02] Speaker C: Not spoken with the contact directly, but he sent. [02:06:05] Speaker A: To clarify, there is a in situ. [02:06:08] Speaker C: Mang who's passing him. [02:06:09] Speaker A: There's a heretofore unknown third party who wrote to him saying, I have a contact. I found someone who purports to be a survivor. And then the professor said, I would love to go. I'm stuck here until someone writes me a grant. And then Pierre shows up, and he's like, actually, I will do this. And goes, I was trying to think. [02:06:38] Speaker D: Of what I could do with story points. [02:06:41] Speaker C: Yeah, could I spend some story points? I kind of want him to. I kind of want him to get distracted enough that I can start going through his desk. [02:06:53] Speaker D: He's got, like, a letter that maybe has a return address. [02:06:56] Speaker C: Yeah. So, like, maybe someone comes to the door and he's like, just momentarily, like, just has to say something to them. Like, it's something urgent comes up, and he's just distracted. Do you want me to be more specific so you can tell me how many story points that would cost? [02:07:14] Speaker A: I have realized that there is a piece of information that I have not given you that would be valuable, probably. [02:07:22] Speaker D: Yes. [02:07:23] Speaker A: That is that the. Well, I didn't think it mattered. And then I was like, oh, this is why it matters. This is why they put that in there. The folder that Frederick pulled out was called the Walhouse file. [02:07:37] Speaker B: Was it? [02:07:38] Speaker C: I wondered that because we got information on that earlier. [02:07:42] Speaker A: That was what was written on it. [02:07:44] Speaker C: Oh, that's. I hadn't connected that to here. [02:07:49] Speaker A: But that is the angle you can use. And to the extent Caterina or Sonia as Emma is just having the time of her life throwing a picnic with Frederick and the professor. Walhouse is the name of the person who identified the source. [02:08:07] Speaker C: So Walhouse file question mark was written somewhere in Pierre's notes. Or was it in the book? [02:08:15] Speaker A: It was in the book, but it was on a book mark written in. [02:08:19] Speaker C: A bookmark in the book. [02:08:22] Speaker A: So Pierre had put those things together and Pierre had the file from the Wallhouse here. Mister Walhouse, Misses Wallhouse, Miss Walhouse don't know. But that is the connection that you can make if you would like to leverage it. [02:08:37] Speaker C: Yeah, and we haven't pulled out those papers here yet, right? We haven't shown Mister Armstrong anything. Right. [02:08:47] Speaker D: Now might be a great time. [02:08:49] Speaker C: Yeah. Um, hey, by the way, just nerdy research stuff. Did you, did Pierre ever tell you about the Wallhouse file? [02:09:01] Speaker A: Oh, sorry. I knew this question was coming and I was like, I need to look left because the Walhouse person has a first name and I don't know the fuck it is. And I got to get there before Shamoni asks me. And then I didn't. I just watched you talk to me while the fucking counter ticked down his colleague Richard Walhouse wife Nina and or Nenna. Nenaa German. [02:09:28] Speaker C: Wait, do we know this information? [02:09:30] Speaker A: No. He's giving it to you. This is walhouse? So he says. Oh yeah. No, no. Richard is another historian and a bit of an amateur, young in his career, but going along. And I understand his wife Nana was actually quite, quite. Not close. Not that close. Not to be salacious. And he elbows Emma in a ura. Journalist do not tell anyone this kind of way. [02:09:54] Speaker C: Quite close to what? [02:09:57] Speaker A: Oh, quite close to tapier. [02:09:59] Speaker C: Oh, like she has buddies. Did they research this topic as well? [02:10:04] Speaker A: Oh, so there. Not necessarily. But they've done work in Si to my young before and that's how they stumbled across this gentleman. The name of the person which you will eventually get to is Johann Fresner. F r e s s n e. [02:10:21] Speaker C: R. Johann Fresner is the one who writes the letters. [02:10:25] Speaker A: Johann Fresner is the one who is purported to be a survivor. [02:10:29] Speaker C: Oh, he is the survivor. [02:10:31] Speaker E: Right. [02:10:31] Speaker A: Richard Walhouse is the contact. [02:10:35] Speaker E: Johann Fresner is one. That is one. Is the other one in the picture? Right. Where's that. [02:10:43] Speaker A: Walhouse file? The portrait is. Yes, yes. One of them is Jurgen Engels. The younger sailor is Johann Fresner. [02:10:55] Speaker C: Everett yarn it. [02:10:59] Speaker E: Right. So I did remember that. [02:11:01] Speaker C: You did? [02:11:02] Speaker B: Yeah. That was good. [02:11:04] Speaker A: So good on you to put it all back together. Contextually, we know that Pierre was going to go to cite Mayong to find Johann Fresner. Because Johann Fresner purports to know where the U boat sank. Right. That is the contact that the wall houses were the go between. [02:11:29] Speaker C: And the wallhouses live in siege. [02:11:32] Speaker A: They do research there. They're actually Franco German, I believe, at the time of the sort. They lived in Belgium. But the key information for you is that Johann Fresner, if that is the person who knows where the U boat is, then that's. That's what they might be trying to get out of Pierre. And if your octopus friends find Johan before you do, then they'll have a head start. [02:11:56] Speaker C: And I don't suppose you could just maybe just give us, like, Richard and Nana's address so we can go say hi. We'll, like, take some cakes from you or something. [02:12:04] Speaker A: He's more than happy to. I don't know what the address is. It's not written down. But if you need to get in contact with them, you can have it. [02:12:09] Speaker C: Great. [02:12:10] Speaker E: Bye. [02:12:12] Speaker A: Lovely. [02:12:13] Speaker C: Boom. [02:12:14] Speaker E: Of course, I'm sure if we find anything, we'll get Pierre to feed it back to you. [02:12:23] Speaker C: Yeah, Pierre will totally report back. Cannot wait to read the new book. Oh, my gosh. Revised edition. So exciting. And if we all, Pierre, find anything, it's going to make such a good addition to the book. [02:12:37] Speaker A: Do you. [02:12:37] Speaker C: Do you have, like, a publishing deadline? Or. [02:12:44] Speaker A: Have you ever had someone who's writing a book try to explain whether a book isn't ready yet? [02:12:48] Speaker C: Like, is your book done or are you finished? [02:12:50] Speaker A: Yeah, he makes that face. I don't know, Shami, if you're familiar with this, it might, I think. I don't know who else would be. But when you ask someone like, so, how's the dissertation going? And they make a face, that is the face he is making, right? [02:13:03] Speaker C: Have you finished, like, the writing of it, or. [02:13:10] Speaker A: It's going. It's going quite well. I made some progress last night. And he's, like, remembering just like, putting seven words on the paper before throwing his head back, you know, very self conscious all of a sudden. [02:13:21] Speaker C: Cannot wait. And if. Maybe if we help Pierre, maybe like a little name in the acknowledgments or something. Like. [02:13:35] Speaker A: You'Re working with him. [02:13:37] Speaker D: Yeah, that's, in a manner of speaking, saying. [02:13:40] Speaker C: Right. [02:13:41] Speaker A: I just hadn't mentioned you before, was all. And better. Is he going to go actually find the u boat? [02:13:50] Speaker C: We have to help him out. Like, he's gotten himself into some difficulties. So, like, we're filling in some of the gaps that he can't necessarily do all himself. Now, this is when we're new on this. We've only just jumped in to help him out because he's great and we want to help him, basically. So that's why. Yeah, no, he didn't mention us before. We weren't even doing this before, which is why we didn't have time to read your book yet. But, like, oh, my gosh. Guess what we're going to go do right now. Look at Emma. Right. [02:14:22] Speaker A: When you mention Hill Haska. Oh, you're meet him in city Myang. I understand. In that case, and I won't say he stands up, it's more like a lumbering. Right. If you've seen, like, the lord of the Rings, kind of an ent getting into motion kind of vibe about it, and proceeds with an academic stiffness over to one of the. The wall pieces and pulls out a large rolled blue, I would say probably about 2ft long tube of paper, and then sets it down in front of Frederick. Because we established that your picnic basket is in a mechanic's box or something. It's not actually like a fancy basket. Right. So he can smell the engineer on YouTube hands this to you. Well, then these will be incredibly useful in your search and your time. Please do see these deliveries to be here when you make this collection. [02:15:19] Speaker E: Blueprints. What? [02:15:22] Speaker A: They're blue and they're prints. And if you peel it open a little bit, it is actual. It's in German. I don't know who. Do you speak German? No, just not all the same. Doesn't matter. Then Emma would be able to point out to you that they are craigsmarine blueprints. They are the actual blueprints for U 890. Not like the originals, but, you know, a facsimile, a copy thereof. [02:15:53] Speaker B: Well, great. [02:15:54] Speaker C: Okay. [02:15:58] Speaker E: Fantastic. Yes. This could be incredibly useful. Thank you. [02:16:04] Speaker C: As we leave the hallowed halls of lumber university. Um, so I know we're here and everything, but do you really want to detour via an art museum just, like, look at a big painting or can we just, like, go heist the Pierre now? Not the gold. But the gold would be a bonus. [02:16:27] Speaker A: I'm. [02:16:28] Speaker E: I'm not sure what significance the painting has, but Pierre did seem to place some on it. [02:16:38] Speaker C: We'd have to find, like, an art expert, I guess, who wrote that book. So many books. There's so much reading involved. [02:16:45] Speaker A: Second one was more like a guide, like, of all the art in the museum. So it wasn't a specific piece about that. I suppose you'd say it was like an edited volume, maybe, where each one has a little bit of it. But it is from the staff of the museum. Metropolitan Museum of Art. [02:17:06] Speaker C: Suppose we are here. We could just like. We could like stare briefly at a painting and pretend to be cultured and like, maybe we'll notice, like, there'll be like a little note that says, like, hey, Hitler, if you're gonna sink your Uvo, just like try and sink it here. We jump in a taxi cab and we head to either the MoMA or the Met. Who's one of those? [02:17:29] Speaker A: Certainly not one of those. Well, you could spend several days in this museum looking for art. Honest to God, it is one of the best art museums in the world. I think it actually was so at the time, too. All that railroad baron money used to buy things from Europe and put them here. But you are going for a very specific part of the museum. Your trip will be shorter, I think. [02:17:56] Speaker C: I've never been to an art museum in like the daytime before. There's so many people here. Is this normal? [02:18:03] Speaker B: Generally, yes, but like art. [02:18:08] Speaker A: Having read the guide or paid to, yeah. So you have the art book. This particular painting, Brunhilde rides to about Halle was made by the german romance painter Eberhardt in 1880. It was inspired from the debut of Wagner's opera. Is it gotterdammerung? I have no idea. I'm uncultured. A few years prior, that is the lineage of ithood. The story goes that this artist watched the performance at an opera house in Hamburg, became overcome with emotion, absolutely sobbing, and then immediately locked himself in his studio for weeks to paint this painting, which he gave as a gift to the soprano Astrid Vogel, who played the character in the opening in the first 1st cast. It was a transparent attempt to woo her. She did not accept his advances, but did keep the painting. All of this communicated in the book, but also to you by a guide. Her name tag says Anna and she is happy to explain these things to you. I would be remiss at this point if I did not explain that the painting is rather typical of the late romance era. And it so happens that I have someone who went to art school who can explain to you what that means. V. What is cool about the late romance era? [02:19:42] Speaker B: I mean, the thing about the late romance era stuff is it's they focused a lot on landscapes, like, but not like pretty serene landscapes. They were usually very tumultuous. They were kind of like a mix of like storms and you know, it was. It was a little. There was always, like a, like a push and pull. In romantic era landscapes. You always had, like, a weird dichotomy between, like, the pretty thing and then, like, the stormy, like, negative thing. It was a lot of, like, tension and angst, which I guess is kind of the best way to describe these. But then in, like, addition to the tension and the angst and all of that, you had a lot of, like, heroism. There were a lot of paintings about revolution. People were just really kind of getting into, like, things that were very, like, personal, very original, very individualized to themselves with a lot of emotion and a lot of drama and things like that. [02:20:49] Speaker A: So what came before the romance era? [02:20:55] Speaker B: Oh, geez. What the romance period was from like, the late 17 hundreds to the late 18 hundreds. Oh, God. Would that have been. [02:21:10] Speaker A: I'm just trying to figure out what happens between, because, like, have the. The old masters and that's essentially just very expensive, sophisticated Jesus fan art. [02:21:19] Speaker B: Well, and then, I mean, that's. Yeah, but like, I mean, those. Those are like, during, like, the Renaissance and things like that, where you have a lot of focus. I mean, religion was a big focus of art for a very, very long time because that's what would get funded. People were paying. [02:21:35] Speaker A: But at some point, that stopped at the end of the Renaissance. And then we've got, like, a 300 year window before we start painting tumultuous landscapes and individual heroes in revolution. [02:21:46] Speaker B: So a lot of it kind of, believe it or not, a lot of it was brought about after industrial revolution stuff. You had a lot of focus on social issues, things like that, urbanization, all of that stuff. Social changes are kind of a big thing for it. So as you kind of get away from, like, religion is like the only thing that matters and people kind of start diving into the things that make art worth doing. Yeah, you get a lot of. A lot of. A lot of anger from the people. [02:22:24] Speaker A: A tradition that continues to this day where it manifests as nfts. [02:22:30] Speaker B: Oh, how dare you? [02:22:32] Speaker A: Well, we will return to our art museum. So that is the information that you are able to wring out of the exhibit and the guide. If you have further questions or investigations, we will have to do some investigating or some questioning. But Pierre thought this painting was important enough to mention. [02:22:51] Speaker C: Can story mechanic that we haven't used yet. Is this the right way to do it? I don't know. Can I spend story points to get a clue? [02:23:00] Speaker A: Ah ha. In that case, Miss Anna Holman. Holman, her last name. But women didn't get last names when they were working at art museums in the 1960s. Yeah. [02:23:10] Speaker C: Learning so much about history. [02:23:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Not a good time to be a woman in academia. 1960s. Better than, like, the 1360s, but still not great. Yeah, the. And she'll admit a bit of embarrassment that this art is even here, because the only reason this painting is famous is because Hitler bought it and declared at the time that this is the Germany I want to build and that the original painting, which this one is not, she will confess to you. The original painting was in the high National Gallery in Berlin, disappeared in spring of 1945. And it's presumed by most that it was either looted by the Soviets or destroyed by the Germans before it could be looted by the Soviets. [02:24:01] Speaker C: Who's that dead guy on the horse? [02:24:05] Speaker A: I actually don't know the answer to that question. I think it has to do with the opera. [02:24:08] Speaker C: Okay. Why is there, like, a rainbow coming out of that castle? Why something on fire? [02:24:13] Speaker A: Very early lgbt themes. I actually don't have answering questions. Actually almost, like, made of gold. [02:24:21] Speaker B: I'm just gonna, like, put a. Put a hand up and just kind of, like, put it over Kat's mouth and just be like, okay. All right, cool, cool. No, but what? Did Hitler ever elaborate on that? Like, what about this is the Germany that he wants to build? [02:24:38] Speaker A: The answer is probably kind of that generic nazi stuff, just, like, the myth of, like, look at a strong person who is blonde and she has, like. [02:24:49] Speaker C: Really nice cone boobs. [02:24:52] Speaker A: Very important part of it. Mm hmm. [02:24:54] Speaker E: I imagine. [02:24:55] Speaker A: But, like, you know, Hitler obviously doesn't have very good art taste because, like, the whole reason he was Hitler and not an artist because he wasn't a good enough artist to get into art school. Right. But the mythology on the painting is pretty much around that. That the thing that makes it special is that it's not special at all. But people were making copies of it all the time because Hitler said it was a great painting. This is a copy. We don't know where the original is, but there are four known wartime or pre war copies that survived. One of these is here in the meth. The two are in the hands of anonymous private donors. The third was purchased and is on public display in the gallery of Mister Buddhi Darwaman. [02:25:44] Speaker C: We know if that. Sorry. I was gonna say, do we know if they're all identical? Like, did they say creative liberties? [02:25:52] Speaker A: They're more or less identical. But the person. Mister Buddhi, or might be Budai. I don't know. Darwin is not a collector. In season. My own. [02:26:05] Speaker E: Really? [02:26:05] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. [02:26:06] Speaker C: We were, like, totally gonna go on a trip there. We could, like, go see another copy of the boring painting and stare at that one instead. [02:26:17] Speaker B: Do you happen to have that. The address of this public collection on file that we could have. [02:26:24] Speaker A: I just didn't have it on her. I don't know if she would have available. But if you are rich enough to have a public, private art gallery in Si Ma, you are probably easy to find. [02:26:35] Speaker B: That's fair. That's fair. [02:26:36] Speaker A: That gallery the Walmart people built in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas. [02:26:41] Speaker B: I did not know that was a thing. [02:26:43] Speaker A: In any case, yes, you would be able to find that person if you chose. [02:26:48] Speaker C: I would still. I'm slightly unsatisfied with having come here instead of boring painting. So I would still like to spend some story points to get a clue. Unless you're like, don't do that. Move on. [02:27:01] Speaker A: So the context of it, I don't think we need to spend story points for it. But the painting is important because it is tied to the third Reich, right? [02:27:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:27:09] Speaker A: And we know that one of them was burned, and then two of them are in private collections, and the third happens to appear in Citoyong. How did that person get that painting? [02:27:25] Speaker E: It doesn't. [02:27:26] Speaker B: I mean, so. [02:27:28] Speaker C: So we're gonna go and see if the painting's wet there. [02:27:31] Speaker B: Are there. I know. Because the thing is, the thing about paint, right. Is, like, none of it's water soluble. Like oil paintings, for example. Like, yeah, I. You can. You can dry canvas. You can replace a frame. Like, you can restretch a canvas. Like, the wa. I mean, it's. It's. It's probably been restored. Sorry. This is v. This is. This is not Emma. [02:27:57] Speaker D: I guess be clear. [02:27:58] Speaker B: I guess this is not Emma. Emma doesn't know fuck all about art. [02:28:01] Speaker A: This is me. This is a side of you I did not know exactly. [02:28:06] Speaker B: No, but I mean, the seawater would probably have wreaked havoc on it. But, like, yes, you can absolutely, like, undo, like, any of the frame stuff. You can lay it flat. You'd probably have to restore parts of it. But, yeah, like, not all, like, paints aren't, like, certain paints are water soluble. Other paints. No, like, that's why you use, like, certain brush cleaners, certain really harsh chemicals to clean certain brushes and stuff. Because just cleaning them with water and soap won't work. [02:28:35] Speaker A: Also consider that the painting was off the u boat before it sank because someone managed to accomplish their mission before being destroyed. [02:28:43] Speaker B: That is a point. [02:28:44] Speaker A: That's not necessarily the case that they pulled it out of the shipwreck. [02:28:48] Speaker C: Maybe that's what they were swapping with. They were like, we'll pay you so much gold for this. Amazing. [02:28:52] Speaker B: But this one painting. Sure. Obviously. That's it. Mission solved. Yes. [02:28:57] Speaker C: Okay. In that case, I think it's time to go to city my aunt. [02:29:02] Speaker E: Yes. And perhaps question this baby. [02:29:07] Speaker A: You have one. Not necessarily a nazi, but definitely nazi adjacent art collector. And you know what they say about people who are adjacent to Nazis. [02:29:18] Speaker E: Yeah. [02:29:18] Speaker A: They're basically. They're Nazis. [02:29:20] Speaker D: Yeah. [02:29:21] Speaker A: And also a U boat sailor who said that he was there when it sank. And then also, you know, that Pierre was headed there, had this information that octopus wanted it. So you have now in your head, the things that were worth kidnapping Pierre over, which makes you fairly dangerous. You also know, though, that the Ms. Adonia is currently sailing the Straits of Sita Mayong looking for all of this stuff. [02:29:54] Speaker C: I think they were like, looking for sealer counts, actually. [02:29:59] Speaker E: Sorry. Yes, it definitely looking to seal accounts. But given who the lead on this expedition is, I think that they're possibly looking into a bit more than that. [02:30:11] Speaker B: Why? [02:30:12] Speaker C: Who's the lead? [02:30:13] Speaker E: Did the nazi boat captain that sailed you but before it's believe on me. Is he. [02:30:24] Speaker C: What? Erwin Yeager? No, Erwin Yeager's not. [02:30:31] Speaker E: Sorry. No. Jurgen Engels isn't Jurgen Engels on the, like, old. [02:30:38] Speaker C: Well, I don't know. We don't know if he's dead, but, like, oldenhouse. [02:30:42] Speaker E: Okay, my brain is clearly confused. I can't remember anything from so many. [02:30:48] Speaker D: Names, so many people. [02:30:49] Speaker A: It's like I said, there's a lot of Nazis in this story. It's hard to keep track of. [02:30:54] Speaker D: We still need to punch them all. [02:30:55] Speaker A: There's one thing I will call your attention to about that manifest, since you were bringing it up, is if you are a marine biologist looking for a shipwreck, why do you need a cryptanalyst? [02:31:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [02:31:10] Speaker C: Actually, he's like a mathematician, so. And a statistician. So they're probably just doing some really important research. That's coelacanths, right? [02:31:18] Speaker E: Yes. [02:31:18] Speaker A: The geometry of silicon coelacanthorn. Yes. [02:31:21] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Oh, my gosh. So much geometry. [02:31:24] Speaker E: Yeah. It does seem there's only one marine biologist there in that whole situation. [02:31:32] Speaker C: Also, there's a historian. But, like, coelacanths are very historical. [02:31:36] Speaker A: That is true. They are actually what's called a fossil species because for the longest time, we only had them in the fossil record. [02:31:42] Speaker C: Yeah, that counts. [02:31:42] Speaker D: This is true. [02:31:43] Speaker C: Right? [02:31:44] Speaker A: We're going to gaslight ourselves into believing this is honest, because, Sean, Lenny has provided incredible context for the story, and I like it. [02:31:51] Speaker B: Exactly. [02:31:51] Speaker C: I'm really excited about the coelacanths. And now I'm like, it was a lie. [02:31:54] Speaker B: It's all a lie. [02:31:57] Speaker C: Yes. [02:31:58] Speaker E: Bears looking into. So perhaps that's something we also check out when we're in Si to Myang. [02:32:04] Speaker A: Once we get to city Myang first mayang, it's actually not a real word. We'll require you to get back into a taxicab and then back to the airport. Now. Yes. One of the things that also distinguishes black cabs from New York cabs is in the London black cab. You have to take an exam, right. You gotta get the knowledge, they call it, which means that there's a very strict licensing procedure. They have to wear certain uniforms, and then the cabs are the big deal. [02:32:35] Speaker E: Less on the uniforms, but it's more about, like, knowing. Everywhere in London, though, I think they have made some changes to that now. But given that, like, all of the issues with tax hire companies and I, various blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Not relevant stuff. [02:32:55] Speaker A: No, the extra context has been beautiful. But one of the other key differences between american taxicabs and british taxicabs is that this american taxi cab has a driver who has a very hot dog necky. And also, as I understand it, the black cabs in London don't travel in packs. For example, if you were to hop into a black cab and be like, take me to the airport. And they said, okay, mate, you would not have another black cab behind you full of taxi drivers following you somewhere. And the other very critical part is that if you were going to get into a taxi and say, take me to the airport, the taxi in London would take you to the airport. [02:33:38] Speaker C: Oh, gosh. [02:33:40] Speaker A: And it will probably be a little too late by the time you realize you have turned off the wrong exit. We have some friends who would like to discuss your exploits with you, but we will have to wait and see. That turns out, because we have arrived at the end of this recording session. This has been episode two of the U boat mystery, a scenario for the troubleshooters brought to you by Helmgas games. I do seriously suggest you go give it a shot. And that's not only because they paid me to tell you that I have been having a lot of fun with this, and I think the rest of you have as well. Yeah, super fun. The mood is great, the tone is light. There's a lot of games that, like, it's hard to find a game in this era that isn't, like, dark, right. They tend to go more like Jason Bourne spy stuff. There aren't many games let you have, like, a good old rin tin good time, right? So, yes, check it out. You can put exclamation scenario in the chat. I'm actually gonna be watching this game, so I can do it right now and foist that upon you. And then while you're looking at that, I will introduce the rest of this gang because they're all great, as well as Emma Beck. Doesn't read books, but loves to talk about them. Vloc a. [02:35:06] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I. You know, I think Emma does read books, but, you know, only books about things that matter to her. And, you know, I mean, you boats. I don't know. Honestly, thinking back on it, probably should have read about. Read the book on the flight over, but that's okay. [02:35:24] Speaker C: Did have time on the fly. [02:35:26] Speaker B: Yeah, we were too preoccupied with the. [02:35:29] Speaker A: Drink machine is what it was, which is totally fine. I think the part that probably was where you made the slip up is when you said out loud to him, I haven't read the book, but, yeah. [02:35:40] Speaker B: I don't really know how to ask questions about what's in the book without admitting that I did not, in fact, read the book. [02:35:46] Speaker E: This part where you talked about this. [02:35:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [02:35:50] Speaker E: I just wanted to make sure that I was correct about this. So this really wrong fact. [02:35:58] Speaker B: So, yeah, no, so the next time I go someplace and have to try and lie about having read a book, I will remember Lola's sage advice. But yes. Hello, folks. I am vy. You all know me. You can find me on the Internet pretty much anywhere. Like, has a social thing is for vampire because my name is Vy and I like vampires. You can also find me doing pretty much everything here over at Queen's court games. I am queen of the court. I do lots of art. I do stuff on Patreon for our folks that subscribe over there. They get custom art twice a month. It's pretty rad. It's stuff I don't really post elsewhere because it's just for patrons. Yeah, that's. That's me. You can also find me playing Ivy Larue in the multi award winning vampire, the Masquerade V five podcast, the all night society over here on Queen's court games. And that comes on every two weeks. [02:36:58] Speaker A: Indeed it does. I will tell you, if you really want to fit in with academics, the way that you handle questions is by starting with this is more of a comment than a question, and then you just keep talking anyway. [02:37:10] Speaker B: Oh, okay, great. [02:37:11] Speaker A: Good to know. That will definitely get. You'll fit right in, Will. I don't know if they will be adjacent, actually, in the grand scheme of things, but also incredibly important with a sunk star wanted level grand theft. Aubrey as Sonia Volkov hopping in and out of airports, getting it done. Aubrey, if people want. Want to see you handle stressful situations by racing vehicles, where can they do it? What can they get up to? [02:37:41] Speaker D: I don't know if there's anywhere else I've done that, but you can go check out my twitter or just find me anywhere on the Internet at Macbeacon cosplay. And I got all the fun links to all those things. You can also hear me running a pathfinder to e campaign every Wednesday. Check out goblets and gays. We are getting closer and closer to the end of our very first campaign. It is a wild time. And you can also find me for a little bit longer every Friday over on Hallowed Haven Studios as part of Wayfarer. [02:38:13] Speaker A: Oh, which I have been. I have. I watched a little bit first episode, and then I was like, I had to pay attention to this. I have a lot of work. There are some things you can put on and keep in the background, but this was one of those, like, no, no, I am going to have to spend some time with. So I'm gonna let it finish up and then probably binge it all while neglecting duties for other things, you know, as is the way that is the way. Not been neglecting their duty because they are coming off the back end of an incredibly successful fundraiser. Frederick Dejarden, who has managed twice now to save the day via lunchbox and then also midair catering. It's weird that for being an engineer, most of the things that are happening are culinary, and I think that's a lot about the character, and I enjoy it quite a bit. So, lola, tell us, first of all, you did an amazing thing recently that I would like you to brag about on your own behalf. And then second, if people want to see you doing more of that kind of stuff, where can they accomplish it? [02:39:09] Speaker E: Okay, well, it's an amazing thing that couldn't have been done without, like, a load of other people that also was supporting the cause. Crafting queer future. We were a bunch of collaborators and contributors to our project. We were raising money and are still raising funds and still working towards a better and brighter future, most importantly, safe future for LGBTQIA people across the world. And we have been doing that through our crowdfunder, which we had most of June to like, early July. And it was essentially you could enter and win one of many yarny crafty prizes. And all the money went towards four places, the Transgender Law center, the LGBT foundation, and the Stephen Lewis Foundation Partners in Pride, which supports a bunch of organizations in sub saharan Africa and then direct mutual aid. So yeah, you're raising money for that. Our collaborators, we are dying yarn designing patterns and generally advocating for LGBTQIA folks and multi marginalized folks across the world and continuing to do so into the future. So, yeah, that's what I do. And if you want to see more yarn related things and craft related things, then come find me at third vault yarns pretty much anywhere because that's business and branding stuff. Duh. [02:40:58] Speaker A: We tried that and Twitter said your company name is too long. I think I must say we will throw some. We can throw those links in chat folks now so they can see those projects. Many of those charities sounded like excellent causes to you. We will make sure that you can get in touch with them because I just think it's so damn cool when people find novel ways to support important causes. [02:41:25] Speaker E: And remember, you can direct donate directly to those organizations, or you could just make a little bit of your budget every month and put it towards direct aid and help out your fellow community members. [02:41:42] Speaker A: Sometimes if you don't have money, the other thing you can share is knowledge. And there is no one at this table who has taught me more about jurassic era fish than our last guest. Lastly, but certainly not leastly, playing Katerina uper, it is Chamonix Bundel. Now, there are two things you need to know about Shawnee Bundel. One is that they are incredible in everything they do, and two, they have just recently, at time of recording, released a two minute highlight reel of who they are. So if you are the kind of person who enjoys actual plays, or the kind of person who enjoys making actual plays, Shamoni has provided you an incredible resource of actual plays you should go watch. Or one particular person you should put into very biased actual play. [02:42:27] Speaker C: Actual plays. It's all the ones with me in guys. They're clearly the best ones. I'm not biased at all. [02:42:34] Speaker A: You know what? I will. I will plant my flag on that. I'm an award winning actual playmaker. So I have some semblance of taste, right, that I stand on. [02:42:42] Speaker C: Everyone trust Aaron. [02:42:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I had to get that out of the way because I know that you wouldn't have bragged about it yourself. So I've done that for you. Where can people go find you? [02:42:53] Speaker C: You can find me on Twitter or Instagram. Sbundel. That's sbunde double l. And I also stream pretty much weekly with the RP geeks where we mix science with various Sci-Fi campaigns. At the moment, we are do it in our starfighter campaign. And I am actually, I haven't asked about this, Erin, but I am actually doing an american accent in that campaign, which is a little bold. It's bold, but I'm not going to ask. So come check that out. It's great. And there's science in it as well. And that you can find on Twitch, YouTube, podcasts, Twitter, Instagram. Oh, and threads, threads at rpgeeksdnd. [02:43:44] Speaker A: I don't know if it's just like a bias national, like a nationality bias thing, but I get the. Or maybe it's just that American were more bold. But I always feel like Europeans doing an american accent if they're putting effort into it right? If they're just being like, ridiculous. Of course not. It always sounds like Europeans are doing a better job of doing american accents than Americans are at doing european accents. And I don't know if that's just like a thought that I have or something, but I read a tweet the. [02:44:11] Speaker C: Other day that said that, like, America's so big, you guys don't necessarily know really well exactly what accents from where and like the really sort of specifics of it, and you wouldn't know someone with every accent, whereas, like Britain's small enough and it's so, like, it's so tuned into accents because it's really class focused. Like it kind of matters. You're kind of judging people based on their accent and they're sort of less so. It's like more specific. That's what I read. [02:44:40] Speaker A: This is a conversation that's going to go on way too long. If you want to hear the end of this, if you want to hear the end of this conversation, you can follow it to me on Twitter where I am in words, and I will be happy to report the results. I am also on a real roll recently, making enemies with big podcasts and supporting the union. This is a union household else. You can find anything that I am doing at Queenscourt RPG on Twitter or Queenscourt games on Blue Sky, Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere. We've got so many really friggin cool things coming up immediately after this, we are going to spend the rest of the year highlighting some, some content that features casts entirely from marginalized communities telling stories that are unique to their experiences. We have a southeast asian inspired mecca soap opera that is coming up real soon. [02:45:33] Speaker B: Bass opera. [02:45:35] Speaker A: What did I say? [02:45:36] Speaker B: Soap opera. Very different. [02:45:38] Speaker A: Okay, first of all, not very different, but second, yes, very different. No one's evil twin is gonna turn. [02:45:46] Speaker D: Up and steal their. Their love interest. [02:45:49] Speaker A: You don't know that. [02:45:50] Speaker B: You know what? [02:45:50] Speaker A: That's fair. [02:45:51] Speaker D: That's fair. [02:45:52] Speaker A: And then also, a 1920s game set in the Harlem Renaissance call of Cthulhu featuring an all black cast. So we are thrilled to have that coming out. And if you don't follow us on Twitter, I implore you go do so now, because you will be able to see that, and it's gonna be great. Else we will continue with our nazi punching adventure. I know I was a nazi punching ranger. You haven't gotten to punching Nazis yet, but let me tell you, that's about to change real soon. If you want to catch the next episode of Troubleshooters, it'll be the same time next week but 3 hours ago. Until then, bye for now.