S4 E1: Welcome to Roseville Beach

[“queeRPG’s Moonlight on Roseville Beach Theme” plays]

Alexander Christopher:

We begin our story right at the beginning of summer. And actually at a very exciting occasion, May’s Antiques and Oddities, kind of a fun little shop where you can find all tons of little, little strange things, but primarily fascinating uranium glassware is having a grand reopening. About a month ago, everything was destroyed in an accident that knocked over all the shelves, but Lou, you were actually hired to kind of help rebuild some of that and because of that a lot of the building supplies and the party planning supplies are at the beach house.

We begin at the grand opening. And Lou, we're going to begin with you. I want to know what you are doing, right? So here at May's Antiques and Oddities, the inside has just been rebuilt. All of the shelves were destroyed during that accident. And May, in an abundance of caution, has taken a lot of her merchandise that survived and brought it out onto the sidewalk as a neat little summer sail. The sun is high in the sky, it's a nice dry heat, but we have the cool wind and the salt air coming from the beach, honestly to the north and south of us. Roseville Beach is a very thin, long island.

Kenzie Tartaglione:

In this moment, there had almost been another calamity where one of the tables that some of these nick nacks were set up on, one of the legs kind of twisted awkwardly and kind of broke and Lou caught it and is now almost acting like the table leg for it as she tries to fix it before we actually begin the grand opening.

Alex:

And are you like fully under the table, under the tablecloth?

Kenzie:

Kind of awkwardly crouched down balancing the table on my back as I try to hold it up and I have my little toolbox by my side and my like green blue plaid shirt that was tied around my waist has now been used kind of as a sweat rag for my hands in the heat. And I am trying to screw this table leg into the table.

Alex:

This is something that you are proficient in. You've been on Roseville Beach for ten years, on and off for the summer. You've had a handful of jobs. Everyone kind of knows you as this reliable person, which is why May reached out to you in the first place. And as you are quickly repairing this, keeping everything balanced, you know, the remaining uranium glass is like tipping over the edge. It almost goes off, but you manage to like catch it just in time or you just like scoot it back up onto the table, you see feet from underneath the table, right? Start to shuffle around as the store, which was not quite open yet, no longer has somebody telling people to wait. And so the citizens had just started to go in and out and start to browse everything. And so whether you were ready for it or not, the grand opening is here. We're going to shift the camera over to… Arion. What are you doing?

Valiant Dorian:

Arion appears, I think, alongside the crowd that begin to slowly filter into this antique shop. As he enters, we see a slender framed individual with this like beautiful dreamy curly shoulder length black hair, manicured eyebrows, very, very soft features who is wearing this 70s style loose pattern shirt with high waisted trousers.

He enters like the sea breeze, like floaty, airy, and has immediately taken to these interesting items that he has never seen before. Arion has never seen the uranium glass before, has never heard of it, in fact. And this is all very, very new to him. After all, this past summer is his first time on land as a siren. And he walks over, I think, to a tall cabinet that has a bunch of these little plates on standees and is slowly pressing his face and eyes against the glass to take a look at all of these things, because they glow this interesting color that he's only seen underwater really. This is new to him from a human perspective.

Alex:

It is very similar to some of the more monstrous fish deep beneath the ocean. And up here on land, really nothing shares this bioluminescent nature to it or this luminescent nature to it, I should actually say. There is in this cabinet, it's separated into this kind of special room that has curtains that block out all the light. And there's like a one dangling little chain attached to a single light bulb that's not affixed with any sort of structure. It's just an exposed light bulb. When you click it off, right, because it has a sign that says, “Pull Me.” And when you pull it, the lights from the uranium glass just glow this fascinating green.

This isn't the only sort of special display. This is the main one, but there is a private collection that May has. Now, most of it has been taken back to her storage because should somebody accidentally knock it over, this would cost her a fortune. But there is one piece, just this beautiful little glass figurine of a salamander.

Val (Arion):

Whoa, beautiful.

Val:

We see Arion's eyes, like the pupils enlarge, and it almost feels like they enlarge to a most unnatural quality for that of a human, as he continues just admiring all of the beauty in this room and reads, I think, all the little plaques that repeat the word, “uranium, uranium, uranium.” Ponders out loud and speaks to the other housemate and says,

Val (Arion):

They keep saying uranium, uranium, uranium, Alyx. Is that a deep sea creature that has been harvested for these beautiful antiques?

Alex:

So this is inside the shop. have moved towards the back and this is actually behind sort of the register, the counter. It is out of sight. It's out of reach for people and there is a massive warning sign that says like “Dangerous. Do not touch.” It's like in bright yellow, bright orange. This is clearly a very dangerous object.

Val:

Arion cares very little about the proprietary ways of entering shops. I do not think he has internalized that yet, much to everyone's dismay.

Alex:

Alyx, as you approach, you even can feel this sort of drain almost as you get closer to

Dan Pyxel:

We see Alyx, who is, in comparison to her housemates, very small. She stands approximately five foot two. She wears these kind of baggy cargos like made out of polyester that are clearly very cheap and have a thousand pockets on them. They're actually of the old school model where it's like there's zippers at the knees. She's wearing like this string halter. And you can see like across her chest, there's like the patterns of where begins her full sleeve tattoo going across her collarbone. But there's also like, what looks like faded scar marks across her chest in different places, like some kind of animal scratched her at different parts. She has on this thick - like not thick in terms of material, but thick is like wide - black choker around her neck. And in one of her pockets, she's like pulling out and playing with a pack of cigarettes. Like she very much would like to smoke one, but she is inside. Her hair is jet black and shaven underneath on one side on the front and the other side goes down in a very long braid. She has piercings all throughout her ears, her nose and her tongue. And she's just kind of like standing there, like looking around.

She doesn't get around much. She frequents two places and it's her work, then the Sandbar and then the corner mart. And that's really about it. So her being in here is just a moment where she's looking and she's like, oh, there’s other shops around here, cool. And so she's just staring at this thing and is like,

Dan (Alyx Cho):

No, no, that's it’s an… It’s an element, know, elements, right? Carbon, hydrogen.

Val (Arion):

Oh, yes. We don't call it that, but certainly.

Dan (Alyx):

Of course you don’t. It tends to be one of those things that you shouldn't touch because then you kind of die.

Val (Arion):

Oh.

Dan (Alyx):

Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't know about you, but like us, shouldn't. I mean, I probably could if I wanted to. I could probably do it. I still shouldn't do it. I could probably do it, though.

Val (Arion):

We're only immortal in the Cronus sense, not necessarily in the flesh sense. So perhaps I will err on the side of caution here.

Val:

And I think like the hand that was hovering dangerously near the clearly dangerous artifact retreats and kind of like Arion just like flaps his hands together, like,

Val (Arion):

Right!

Dan (Alyx):

Well, I didn't mean that that was necessarily radioactive, but uranium as a whole is radioactive. That's maybe not... I mean, there's something fucky about it.

Alex:

As you are - you've drifted behind the counter at May's Antiques and Oddities, out from behind a back curtain comes this old woman. She must be at least one hundred and ten, if not older than that. This is somebody who's been on Roseville Beach for years and years and years, which is where she sort of collected a lot of these things from. And she has in her hand several sort of glass jars about the size of half a loaf of bread. And she's toppling them over and they go onto the counter and she looks at you through the glass and you can see her eyes are big and sort of bulged. One is being reflected in like a massive and the other one is being shrunken in a way that just makes her look a little bit too creepy, a little bit too uncomfortable as she sort of barks at you and says,

Alex (May):

Get back from there. Don't, don't, don't approach it, don't, don’t, [grumbles].

Alex:

And she like pushes you.

Alex (May):

[Unintelligible admonishment]

Val (Arion):

Sorry. Sorry, Forgive me, madam!

Alex (May):

No one is allowed behind the desk. In fact,

Alex:

She squints as she eyes you down and up, and she does a little walk around you. She grumbles under her breath,

Alex (May):

You’re no better than a Gabriella girl. No, no, no. Out, out, out, out, out, out. Nothing in the store is for sale. Everything for sale is outside. I have, I have a - there’s somebody that you can talk to. I'm very busy. Get out of my store. And she actually like grabs her broom and chews you out. But kind of doesn't notice Alyx and sort of lets you kind of stay passively in the store.

Dan:

She’s just right underneath the field of view. Alyx is just gonna keep staring at this thing.

Alex:

Why don't you go ahead and make an investigation check? We're going to roll for Goal and for Clue.

Dan:

I am not injured or scared, so that's a one. Do I have a relevant background? Is this sorceress by any chance? Is this magical? Would sorcery be give me a die?

Alex:

Only if you would consider your magic to be radioactive in some way.

Dan:

No. Relevant background, not really a vet tech thing other than like x-rays, but that's not really radiation. Okay, I'm not protecting a housemate, so nothing else there. I doubt this is a golden opportunity, or is this a golden opportunity because everyone's out?

Alex:

This is a golden opportunity because nobody's in the store, absolutely.

Dan:

That’s two dice. Alright, so I have a four and a three. Three in Clues, four in Goal.

Alex:

You are not too familiar with uranium objects. What you do notice is that even though Arion had told you it's uranium because they saw all of the other signage for uranium, this one is not labeled uranium and it glows differently than everything else. It's reasonable to assume it's some sort of other radioactive material and you're able to keep yourself sort of at a safe distance and not be injured by it, but it is clear that if this was removed from its protective casing, you would be severely injured.

Lou, as people are moving back and forth, you have been picking up rumors. Not rumors, really, just gossip. People talking about how May was so upset a month ago when Gabriella came in and destroyed all of her merchandise and that they were really impressed she was able to get any of it recovered and that a lot of the uranium glassware - everyone’s just curious about where it went. They don't know if it's dangerous, if it's just left out, or if it's fine. May tells them everything is alright. But you're just picking up that there's this general, not disconcern, but interest. This general desire to know what kind of happened, right? And just then you hear a scream come from one of the booths next to you and you see a young woman has been pushed over and she is flat on the ground, her purse ripped open and a shadow of something crawls behind the building.

Kenzie:

Lou grabs up the now kind of sweaty plaid shirt that she had worn, so now she's just kind of in a white ribbed tank top. And she quickly ties the plaid shirt around her waist. She has on raggedy, like there are strings hanging off it, a few holes in it, denim jean shorts.

As she kind of whips her head to the side to look, she has this shaggy kind of shoulder length brunette mullet that is actually a little bit stuck to her neck from the sweat of the hot day. And while she clocks the shadow, it doesn't catch her attention as much as the woman who is screaming on the ground. So she beelines for that. She goes,

Kenzie (Lou Wells):

Let me help you up there.

Alex (Woman):

Ooh, ahh.

Alex:

She gets up, but you can tell that she's clearly in pain, and as you help her up, she has a large gash. Not like so deep that it draws blood, but enough that it's gonna leave a little scar on the side of her sundress that's sort of been ripped by her ribs, right where her purse was.

Kenzie (Lou):

Ooh, that looks like it might hurt.

Alex (Woman):

Yeah, hmm, hmm, yeah, ooh.

Kenzie (Lou):

What, did you have a knife in your bag?

Alex (Woman):

What, a knife? No, I just...

Kenzie (Lou):

What happened?

Alex (Woman):

Where's my purse? I... There was, I don't know, I was just looking at the glassware and I wanted to get something and I couldn't find anybody to purchase so I just left.

Alex:

And she kind of points over to the table.

Alex (Woman):

I left the cash on the table and I was going to bring home... Well, I guess suppose it doesn't matter anymore. I was going to bring home something for my dear husband.

Kenzie (Lou):

Are you incapable of doing that now?

Alex (Woman):

Well, it... I... She sort of...

Alex:

Like, just opens her hands to the wound on the side of her body.

Kenzie (Lou):

Oh, yeah, sorry, yeah, I understand. Is anybody here a doctor?

Alex:

And just at that moment, Arion, you are shooed out of the building by May, as she slams the door in your face and the whole building sort of shakes.

Val:

And there's this like two heartbeats before he immediately drifts again, as if the sea breeze is picked up and moving and changing course. here's, does not hear what Lou is saying, but here's Lou's voice and goes,

Val (Arion):

Lou!

Val:

And marches on over to you.

Kenzie (Lou):

Decidedly not a doctor.

Val (Arion):

I’m sorry, what were you looking for?

Kenzie (Lou):

This woman's hurt and I'm trying to find her some help.

Val (Arion):

Oh. Right!

Val:

Arion’s gonna like take a look around and see if anyone actually like turned to face us when Lou yelled.

Alex:

I think there's a lot of a lot of still more gossip. It's almost like this is entertaining for folks that this is the most exciting thing that's happened in a month since the shop was destroyed and it's happening again on the grand opening

Val:

Arion calls on says,

Val (Arion):

Uh, doctor one verse in the healing arts. Anyone? No? Right.

Kenzie (Lou):

I don't have a band-aid big enough for this.

Val (Arion):

I think perhaps, ugh, hold on.

Val:

Because there's a bunch of things set up outside, would it be unreasonable for me to be able to find maybe an old rickety chair amidst these things or like an old... I don't know, trunk or something?

Alex:

You are able to find, it's not like a nice chair that you can sort of pull up and it's going to be nice and sturdy. This is a beach chair, right? It is something that is meant to relax and loung in, but it's going to do what you need it to do. And in fact, it probably has like some really nice streamers all around it that you could use to bind the wound if you wanted to. She immediately, as you kind of drag it over, even before asking, she just takes the seat as she scrounges up what remains of her shredded purse and starts looking for the gift.

Val:

Arion looks at this like ripped up bag and just says,

Val (Arion):

Have you lost anything?

Alex (Woman):

Yes, it looks like I did lose the gift for my husband. Well, he's over at the country club and we can... He's probably going to be... He's not going to notice a mouth for another hour to find a second one.

Kenzie (Lou):

What was it in the first place?

Alex (Woman):

Oh, yes, it was... It was just this beautiful little chalice, this little glass that glowed the most beautiful green.

Kenzie:

I look at Arion with a face that is like very obviously I have a lead.

Val:

There's three heartbeats where Arion like hears the explanation that it was uranium glassware of a chalice and eyes glow again and he just goes,

Val (Arion):

Oh yes, the fine, beautiful glowing -

Val:

And then catches your eye.

Val (Arion):

Right. It is a shame that you have lost it. Perhaps we can track down where it might have been taken?

Kenzie (Lou):

I think that's a great idea. I think that is a great idea. I would love to spend my afternoon doing this.

Alex:

Alyx, as you are in the shop that's just been shut slammed, May still has not noticed you through all of the things stacked to the ceiling from, you know, uranium glassware and different oddities and also like honestly some strange stuff. There are what looks like high on the shelves are glasses of liquid maybe with a creature inside one here and there and that's when you hear the back door sort of creak open. And then you hear a shatter. And almost like a scraping.

Dan (Alyx):

(sighs)

Dan:

And then just immediately go towards it.

Alex:

How are you approaching?

Dan:

I think just straightforward, just like walking towards it. Okay, who's trying to just like walk in the back door here? Like, what is this? Come on. Have some fucking class.

Alex:

Behind the curtain, right, where nobody's allowed to go, you draw back this, it's not velvet, it's actually like made of like a almost the same fabric that you would wear if you were handling radioactivity. It's like a lead curtain as you push it to the side. And as soon as you do, as soon as you step foot inside, the noise stops.

Dan (Alyx):

What the fuck?

Dan:

She’s gonna step back and close the curtain.

Alex:

I need you to roll Goal, Clue, and Harm.

Dan:

Not Injured. Is vet tech a relevant background?

Alex:

Actually, yes.

Dan:

Is my ability to intimidate, charm, be tough, or do magic helpful here? Or first aid?

Alex:

Yeah, I think your intimidation is just a part of your natural persona.

Dan:

Two threes and a 5, so… let's take the clue and put three in the other two.

Alex:

You step back, you draw the current, and as soon as you do, something skitters out of the darkness and launches you onto your feet, slamming you against the floor. Go ahead and take like, bruised.

And as soon as this thing knocks you off, you hear this [shattering sound] as glass rains down on top of you from the containment field of the little salamander uranium, or whatever heavy metal it is. And you hear [Geiger counter noise] go off from behind May’s desk, which is a Geiger counter that you can pick up and sort of take with you if you need to.

And as soon as the shattering happens, it goes [Geiger counter going off] and the thing, whatever it is, the person, the creature, it's gone.

Dan (Alyx):

Owwww, fuck.

Dan:

Push yourself up.

Alex:

Lou and Arion, you can here this. You’re already tuned into something’s wrong and you can hear this shattering.

Kenzie (Lou):

Okay, miss, I'm gonna have come back to you on this injury. I have to go see what that was.

Alex:

She tries to wave you down to get something as you just turn and fully divert your attention away from them.

Val:

Arion also doesn't spare a single thought and runs after alongside Lou because Alyx is still in there.

Kenzie:

I run down the side of the building and around the back where I saw that shadow go rather than through the front door.

Alex:

Arion, you bust through the door and you immediately see the scene of Alyx on the floor, the glass shattered, and the thing that Alyx said kills people gone. Lou, you dart around the corner and what you see is a trail of things from the- it's almost like half the purse was ripped open and it's been drug around the corner. Things have been taken out of it. There's cash and there's jewelry and there's - anything that a person would want, right? Anything of monetary value is taken out and discarded. It's been left here.

Kenzie:

I am going to start quickly picking up some of the stuff and shoving them into my pockets to give back to her. And so I have this like bulging front pockets of these tight jean shorts.

Alex:

The trail keeps going. There is clearly something. And actually, you see paw prints. Heavy claws dragged through the dirt. Flower beds have been ripped up. And honestly, everything along the path, it's easy to follow because all of the plant life is dead. It leads into the back room of May’s Antiques, and Oddities, where you meet up.

Alyx is in the middle, you are on one end, Lou, and Arion is on the other, and you step on some broken glass of the cup, of the chalice, which the woman had sort of purchased for her husband, but it is distinctly in the darkness not glowing.

Kenzie (Lou):

I think there's a fucked up dog in here.

Dan (Alyx):

That, you know? That, that, that... It's not in here anymore. It was here. Fucking... ow. Why the fuck would a dog want uranium?

Val (Arion):

I was just about to ask that. It's not, I mean, I do not know your customs.

Kenzie (Lou):

Well, it took something that wasn't uranium and I pick up one of the little pieces of the chalice. It stole this from the woman outside. And this isn't glowing.

Alex:

Are you bringing it closer to everybody?

Kenzie:

Yeah.

Alex:

The Geiger counter has like a slight static.

Kenzie (Lou):

Oh, shit!

Kenzie:

And I drop it.

Alex:

It’s clearly still slightly radioactive, but it's not deadly. And it's definitely... It's like it's decayed. Like the radiation from it has been taken out.

Kenzie (Lou):

Oh and the fucked up dog killed everything outside that was growing and living. Not the people, sorry, I should have...

Val (Arion):

Show me.

Kenzie (Lou):

Yeah, right this way.

‘

Dan (Alyx):

(groans) I’m fine. Thanks for asking.

Dan:

She’s gonna just sort of like pull the pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and just start like shifting one up as she goes outside.

Kenzie:

And I point out the destroyed garden.

Val:

I am from the ocean, so I would not understand decaying land life, but is this sort of effect or influence something that I might recognize?

Alex:

We’re gonna roll with Goal and Clue and Harm.

Val:

I’m not injured or scared in way. I have one relevant background. I feel like I'm weird and have like strange mythic background and that might aid me in this is how I will read it.

Dan:

I’m gonna help you. The way I'm going to help is I'm going to be investigating the paw prints. I will use my vet tech background for that. And if possible, I'd like to cross in my sorcery background because of magical like grimoire stuff.

Val:

So I'll give the five to the Clue, six to the Goal, and four to the Injured.

Alex:

At this point, it's pretty easy, especially with Alyx helping you. Pretty naive about radiation as we've already seen, Alyx sort of aiding you in doing this investigation, means you don't have to get too close to it. What the two of you realize is that these tracks are clearly webbed. The feet are from some sort of aquatic creature.

And that's when you hear [electrical explosion sfx] a couple streets down, west of here, right where the construction is happening. And you hear almost like crackling electricity in the air.

Val (Arion):

Poseidon’s beard.

Kenzie (Lou):

That’s bigger than a fucked up dog.

Val (Arion):

It's one of my, I mean, not specifically me, but someone from, how do you say it? Neck of the woods.

Kenzie (Lou):

Well, wouldn't it be like neck of the ocean? Neck of the sea? Neck of the coral reef?

Val (Arion):

It doesn’t - [electrical explosion sfx] - We need to go.

Dan:

Alyx just like snaps her fingers and a small little flame appears in it. She lights her cigarette off of it and then shakes her fingers out. She's like,

Dan (Alyx):

Okay.

Kenzie (Lou):

Okay. I think it's calling to us.

Dan (Alyx):

Yep. Let's go. It's fine. I wanted the night off.

Val:

Arion has started moving. He heard aquatic and was like, uh-oh, it's time and has begun like walking with purpose. Well, running probably.

Alex:

The explosions are really easy to follow. mean, Roseville Beach is one street long north to south and it's several streets wide. And it takes you very little time to rush over. In fact, if you want to get there faster, you could take some of the community bikes that are sort of leaned up against some of the buildings.

Val:

Arion does not know how to ride a bike!

Dan:

She’s not going to get on a bike. Are you kidding me? She just lit her cigarette.

Kenzie:

I’m on a bike, I'm pedaling down that street.

Alex:

Lou, I think you have your choice of bikes. What's the bike you take? What does it look like?

Kenzie:

Probably like the paint is peeling off of it to the point where like if you would touch the metal you like get burnt if it was sitting in the sun. The seat might as well not be there anymore so she doesn't sit down on it. It's the worst bike in the world. Also she's too big for this bike. She's not like a huge individual, she's like 5'9", but this bike is way too small for her.

Alex:

I think even like the grips on the handlebars are like halfway slidden off and one of them is like ripped up. You could probably get the left one back on but the right one is just gone and it's ripped to shreds. You have to hold part of that burning metal part of the way as...

Kenzie (Lou):

Ahhhhh!

Alex:

But you get there in record time. Alyx and Arion are dragging behind. And what you see on the scene, right next to the construction site, there is a downed power line. The transformer exploded. And this power line is now just in the middle of the street. In fact, it's getting dangerously close to that construction site. And if you don't act quickly, people are going to get hurt.

Kenzie:

Is it a wooden pole that's down? Is that kind of what the power line is?

Alex:

So what has happened is there's no really cars on Roseville Beach, but there is one, a truck that is used to bring boats on and off the island from sort of like the harbor into the boat repair shop. And that one truck ,looks like the driver - they’re passed out inside of the truck and they swerved off the street. You can see tire marks on the street as they've crashed into this wooden pole. It’s down onto the building and several power lines have been ripped out and are lying on the ground. And you can see sort of the electricity.

Kenzie:

Could I easily find a power box on this building to shut the electricity off or is this not near where the electricity runs from?

Alex:

How many stressful situations like this have you encountered or been trained to deal with?

Kenzie:

Because it's like electricity based, think there was a lot of electrical work in the hotel.

[ad break]

Alex:

You just need to roll for Goal and Harm and we'll do Clue, we'll do Clue as well.

Kenzie:

I only have three. So I'm gonna do five in Goal, four in Injured, and three in Clue.

Alex:

There’s not time to sort of figure out what happened. You probably have a pretty good guess of what caused the accident, but people's lives are at stake and you don't have time to find any more information about sort of whatever that thing was that caused this accident. You jump right into action. You are able to avoid yourself from getting electrocuted, number one, that's the priority. Number two, the immediate danger for the people walking by is fine. People have sort of, they're watching from the other side of the street, but they're far enough away. The construction workers will be fine. They'll find a way to get out. But it's the truck driver. That's stuck.

Kenzie:

Then I am going to ignore the power lines that are there and I'm going to run over to the truck and I'm going to rip the door open and I'm going to pull him out.

Alex:

Alyx and Arion as you are - Arion, you're running. Alyx, are you running?

Dan:

Yeah, I mean, she's running. She's not gonna ride a bike with a lit cigarette. That feels like she's asking for trouble. She's like, she's done enough. She knows how to like pocket or like palm a lit cigarette as she goes.

Alex:

So the two of you now have just arrived on the scene. Lou is in action getting these people to safety. What do you do? It's taking all of Lou’s concentration not to be electrocuted.

Dan:

I am going to use magic and I'm going use call to pull the two of them out from the danger zone. Not scared. Witch! Sorcerer. Word of power.

Val:

I do have sorcery, I can help you. Arion as a Siren, we've heard of the electricity of man and how dangerous it is, especially to us who dwell in the ocean. And I think what Arion is trying to do with his sorcery specifically is using a singular note that he sings and finding the perfect pitch to focus Alyx and augment their magic in this moment.

Alex:

So you're gonna be rolling for Magic, Goal, and Injury.

Dan:

Oh, wait. I also I also have to assign a diet of all magic risk scares.

Alex:

If Lou would like to, you are already going to try to get this man out.

Kenzie:

I’m fine with giving another die. I think Strong is the only one I have.

Dan:

A 6 and a 1, but that 6 is enough. And with that, I think the five stays in control, the four stays in Injury, so those both are clears. We have a five in Scared and a six in Goal, so that becomes a clear success.

So she's going to use her call spell, which she doesn't say anything else. She just sort of says the one word. Like happens whenever she uses her magic, there is like a bending of what looks like light around her for a second and then like an expansion outward, but then the call like kind of snaps towards her. So it's like a projection of herself appears around her and falls back into place. And as it does, there's this sort of pulling sensation that moves the two of them out of the danger zone as soon as Lou has a hold of the worker and just pulls them both back towards us in like a straight line as though they're being - like a hand reached out and grabbed them and pulled them directly to her.

Alex:

Lou, you rip open this door and as you do, whether or not you know its magic, you feel somethings strange about what’s about to happen. Its almost like a sense. And I think even with that action, the truck moves a little bit too, pulled towards you and sort of tucks itself underneath the downed pole so that it won't crash through the fence. But the live cables are still active, they’re still live. Lou, you clocked it, but it wasn't the most important thing earlier. There is an emergency shutoff that you can access. It is on the construction site.

Kenzie:

Is getting to the construction site going over the electrical wires?

Alex:

It’s not exactly, right? The electrical wires are down inside of the construction area. And the danger here, one, is a live cable. And two, is if it catches anything, it will start a fire.

Kenzie:

I think I turned to everybody and go,

Kenzie (Lou):

Okay, so you guys can magic this off maybe or I'll take a running dash.

Val (Arion):

No, let me try. Don't do that. That's foolish.

Kenzie (Lou):

Okay!

Val:

There’s this sort of like assertiveness that comes out of the easy breezy Arion in this case. In my mind, what Arion is going to try and do is use command to pull the shutter down.

Alex:

Goal and Scared and Magic.

Val:

I’m not scared in any way, yes. Your origin story is stranger, yes. You have the sorcery skill, yes. I draw the word of power, yes. You're willing to take inconvenient amount of time, yes. At least one friend who has sorcery skill can help you. I don't want to risk you all, so I will say no to that. Nope, nope, I do not have anything arcanic on me. This is not a sacred time or a sacred place as we've established. All right, so that is five dice. Let's see how this goes.

Alex:

And you can always take a Trouble die if you want to as well.

Val:

For fun, yeah, let's do it. It helped, it helped, it helped. 'm putting the 5 in Control of Magic. I want to achieve my Goal, so I'm putting the 6 there. Well, I'm going to get Scared. So 4 is going to go into Scare. My three is going to go to the Trouble.

There is a moment where all anyone hears is the sea wind. And it rushes forward and we hear the tides pick up, rushing forward and backward, forward and backward. And similar things seem to happen to the wind as it coalesces and just like winds in the thunderstorm that snap things shut or break things open, we see a gust of wind just slam the lever down to shut off the electricity.

Arion taps too far into the magic is what happens. And we see the pearl necklace around his neck begin to glitter in a very unnatural light and sparkle. As he digs so deep, we see little scales appear past his manicured stubble. The ears peel upward into a sharp, almost like fin-like form. And the hint of gills, not fully formed, but the hint of gills begin to flare as he's taking a deep breath along with the wind to finally unleash that amount of air to shut the power off.

Alex:

It’s the middle of summer, and the sun is high, so it's still lit, and it's still easy to see. But the power for the entire street goes off. And then, from the second story of a building just past the construction site, there's a flash, like someone took a photo. Please take the scare exposed.

There is, in the calm, after taking a breath, making sure everyone is actually okay, there is a glint of glass from the tire of the truck. And when you go to investigate it, it is clearly the figurine from May's Antiques and Oddities. But all of the radiation is gone. It punctured the tire and caused the truck to swerve.

Kenzie (Lou):

Okay, if this thing is from your neck of the coral reef, then that means I have to stop calling it a fucked up dog and aren't seals like the dogs of the sea so fucked up seal? Anyways, sorry, this is me myself just trying to figure out how to refer to this thing. It's eating radioactive material.

Val:

Arion looks rattled for a moment when he is exposed. So there's a moment and the both of you - it's almost imperceptible because the pitch is too high, but you could have sworn you heard him hiss. This like unnatural little hiss from the back of his throat. And like he cowers for a little bit and then as everything begins to settle, stands up, all of the hints of siren are gone.

Val (Arion):

I do not believe this is seal to begin with. It has webbed feet.

Val:

And I know that it's aquatic, great tour guide, but would I have an understanding of the kinds of creature can be mythical or otherwise that has webbed feet.

Alex:

There’s a lot of mythical creatures, a lot of things that live in the sea. If this is a sea creature, it has to be amphibious of some nature because it's surviving well up here on land. But as far as something that consumes radiation, think that's going to cause you to really think deep into your history. I mean, how well-versed are you with mythical creatures?

Val:

I have lived a long time and I am a mythical creature myself. I think he has some understanding. It's just a matter of because Arion is very old, technically. I think it's more of a challenge of searching the archives rather than whether or not he knows it, if that makes sense. I think it's more of like, can I remember all the different weird things we have in the ocean? There's lots of stuff in there.

Dan:

My thing was going to be like trying to, if it's like the the fact that he ate the radiation meant something to me because it very clearly is behaving like an animal. It wanted food and it got it and then it threw it away and it wasn't useful anymore so it's not some kind of like planner, it's not thinking ahead. So the only thing that she would want to know as she takes like another long drag of the cigarette is just like can she remember anything that consumes radiation and would have come out of a grimoire.

Alex:

Thinking into mythical creatures, right? That's a long log book. And it's a log book that... it could be a lot of things, but the fact that it is able to live on land and in water, that tells you something. In fact, it makes you think, actually, right, as you're thinking about this, you look right back to the figurine and it's sort of strikes in your mind. It's... It's a salamander.

Val:

You see, Arion, think really hard and then chuckle.

Val (Arion):

Uh, a Salamander. Poseidon's beard is a salamander. Alright.

Dan (Alyx):

Ah, fuck, don't they don't they like spit fire?

Val (Arion):

Some do, from my very, very distant memory, but very hard to miss. Good news, very hard to miss.

Dan (Alyx):

I mean, I didn't learn that in school. I had to learn that from a book that was mostly covered in what I think was batskin. I'm not too certain of that. It might've been something else. But either way, that was like a whole different book.

Dan:

She’s gonna take like a drag from her cigarette, which is like now halfway done, and just like flicks the ash off.

Kenzie (Lou):

If biology was the class in which I would have learned about salamanders, it was not my strong suit.

Dan (Alyx):

Like the mortal salamanders that are like on land in swamps here, they're like small.

Alex:

One of the construction workers comes up to you and actually takes a loose hand and shakes it very aggressively and says,

Alex (Construction Worker)):

Thank you so much. You saved my crew. I can't thank you. A lot of these people, they are gonna be able to go back to their families and I, you know, I can't thank you enough. I think I just panicked when that alligator thing attacked us.

Kenzie (Lou):

First of all, one thank you is enough. Second of all, I don't need a thank you.

Alex:

And they actually reach into their wallet and they pull out some cash -

Kenzie (Lou):

Ooo, let’s put that away -

Alex:

They actually put it in your pocket.

Kenzie (Lou):

Okay.

Alex:

That’s stuffed with all of the other cash.

Kenzie (Lou):

Great. I'm going to ignore how too close for comfort that was. Third, alligator creature, please elaborate.

Alex (Construction Worker)):

It was the craziest thing. One moment I'm working with my guys and we're getting stuff up, we're getting panels, you know, this is gonna set us back at least three more months. You know, we gotta work back from the foundation. But it was the craziest thing. One moment we were working and then the next the power line comes down, crash, lightning everywhere, scariest shit I've ever seen. And then an alligator just walks right up to us and starts chewing on the cables. I thought we were, I thought that was the end. I thought we were gonna be done. And you know, I got my men into the shed and we were safe.

Kenzie (Lou):

Well you did good work.

Alex (Construction Worker)):

Live power lines are still a danger. Again, thank you so much.

Alex:

Gives you a little bit more cash. He goes on to say that it looked like it was coming after them, but it was really just interested in that power line.

Kenzie (Lou):

Okay. Great. Thank you for the information. We're gonna track down this creature. We're gonna make sure that it doesn't eat any more electricity.

Alex:

And he takes his hat off and he sort of like rubs some of the sweat off of his forehead.

Kenzie (Lou):

Maybe take the rest of your day off.

Alex (Construction Worker)):

Yeah, that's the plan. We're not going back to work. They could pay us a whole day for this shit.

Kenzie (Lou):

You deserve hazard pay.

Val (Arion):

Yoo-hoo, handsome man. Which direction did this alligator go to.

Alex (Construction Worker)):

Well, after it was done chewing on the cables, the thing started moving fast, like faster than you could see. But I'm pretty sure there's some burn marks back at the construction site that might lead you to it.

Val (Arion):

Thank you.

Val:

And Arion says that in this like ethereal sing-songy voice, and it's just like,

Val (Arion):

Right, let's keep it moving then. I would like to see less power cables on the ground.

Alex:

The construction worker, he was correct. If you go into the construction site, you can see a trail of vegetation dead to the power cable. The power cable not just like chewed on, but actually ripped open. In fact, it looks like it was ripping the wires out of the protective cable to get in at that. And some of it is even missing. And then from there, there is another trail of dead vegetation. And in the center, scorch marks, like something has been electrified.

Dan:

The construction worker said that this alligator thing walked up. Do the tracks on the ground look like they are made by something that walks on two legs or four?

Alex:

Four. And it's bigger than a salamander. These tracks are... I mean, you could put your full palm inside of one them.

Dan:

This bitch already knocked me down. I'm like, already at least subconsciously cognizant of its size. And Alyx is just hoping that it's not one of those kind of things that gets bigger when it feeds.

Val:

And as soon as you hope that Arion pauses for a moment, seeing the increased dead vegetation and the increasing scorch marks and pauses everyone for a moment,

Val (Arion):

I just want to reiterate that this thing has been consuming things and I believe we all three of us should be prepared for the very real reality that whatever of the elements it has interred within itself is not necessarily in its control. And we should try and keep our distance.

Dan (Alyx):

You’re saying the salamander is gonna explode.

Val (Arion):

I cannot put that away as a possibility.

Kenzie (Lou):

I get bigger when I eat too.

Val (Arion):

See, it’s natural to all creatures when one consumes perhaps far beyond one's own limit -

Kenzie (Lou):

Explode.

Val (Arion):

- something is something disastrous could happen.

Dan (Alyx):

Yeah, no, totally. One sec.

Dan:

And she's gonna go over to Lou and like reach into the pocket that the worker just stuffed a bunch of money.

Kenzie (Lou):

Everyone’s being so handsy today.

Dan:

She’s not even gonna acknowledge it. She's just gonna take out the money that the construction worker stuffed to your pocket. She's gonna like look at it real quick and like do some math. She's like,

Dan (Alyx):

Okay, that's like a little less you owe me.

Dan:

And she's like gonna tuck it into her top. Actually, no, the top's a bad place for her. She's gonna put it in one of the pockets.

Kenzie (Lou):

Fair. Okay, fair, fair.

Alex:

The trail leads back into the sort of back fence of the construction site and there is about a dog-sized hole. Burned, decayed, irradiated in the fence. And you can see as you squat down, it leads straight through all of the fences.

Val (Arion):

My conclusion is only getting stronger the further we walk in.

Dan (Alyx):

Okay, so we covered that it eats things that are going to power it, like electricity and radioactivity, and that it might explode with those at any given moment. Cool. Great. Yes.

Kenzie (Lou):

Chlorophyll.

Dan (Alyx):

Is it eating that or is it just radioactive in such a way that it's burning that?

Kenzie (Lou):

Ooooh.

Dan (Alyx):

I mean, another way we shouldn't get close to it,

Kenzie (Lou):

Valid. Good point, good point.

Dan (Alyx):

No, no, that one's not your fault. That one is very confusing.

Val (Arion):

I am more stuck on the why. I mean, just because one is amphibian doesn't necessarily mean that you trudge out into human territory and just bulldoze through it. Did you like the way I used that word? Did I use it right?

Dan (Alyx):

Ugh!

Dan:

You see Alyx just like, she had a train of thought and it's just gone. Just like -

Val (Arion):

What? I'm trying to speak like you.

Kenzie (Lou):

You got it. You did it.

Val (Arion):

Thank you.

Dan:

Looks over at Lou,

Dan (Alyx):

You’re an awful influence.

Kenzie (Lou):

Are we talking about bulldozing through things? Because that's the correct use of that word, yeah.

Dan (Alyx):

We’re on a construction site.

Kenzie (Lou):

I know!

Dan (Alyx):

You've taught him puns.

Kenzie (Lou):

It's even a better use of the word!

Dan (Alyx):

Never mind, you still owe me.

Kenzie (Lou):

Oh, listen, they're gonna have to pay me to fix all of these fences. I got you.

Dan (Alyx):

Okay.

Dan:

Alyx knows that that's not gonna happen. Lou will get the work and she will do the work and Lou will get paid and Alyx will not see that money.

Dan (Alyx):

We know we need to stay at distance. How do we stop it?

Val (Arion):

That’s what I'm saying. If we can figure out what has driven it to the shores, to man, maybe we can entice it back home.

Kenzie (Lou):

Do we think we can talk to it?

Val (Arion):

I do not know… I mean, I think Salamander mythologically-

Kenzie (Lou):

Do you think you could talk to it?

Val (Arion):

I could.

Kenzie (Lou):

We only need one of us to.

Dan (Alyx):

Let’s start with conversation.

Kenzie (Lou):

Or we keep feeding it until it does explode.

Val (Arion):

That sounds like a bad idea.

Dan (Alyx):

Maybe we don't make the thing that is radioactive explode.

Kenzie (Lou):

Another really good point, Alyx. Another really solid point.

Dan (Alyx):

(panicked groan)

Val (Arion):

I think we actually have a plan this time in comparison to many of other predicaments we find ourselves in.

Kenzie (Lou):

I think the algae clouds were random and there was nothing we could do about that.

Dan:

Alyx is just like, I'm not saying anything. And just finishes off her cigarette is just like, Nope. Nope. Not starting this fight again.

Val (Arion):

Alright, none of you have a source of power within your pockets, yes? Nothing? Old batteries?

Kenzie:

Was there anything from that woman's purse that would have power?

Alex:

How up to date are you with the coolest newest stuff?

Kenzie:

Lou would know about things, does not own a single thing herself, but she would be aware of their existence in the greater world.

Alex:

You're not really sure what it is. It's like a little metal case and it has a button on it and it like pops open and it looks like it's like a circular shape and there are some headphones that jack into it.

Kenzie (Lou):

I wanna know how rich this woman was, my friends, cause she has a personal music playing device in her bag. I'm surprised this thing fit in my pocket.

Val (Arion):

Honestly, your pockets feel like sorcery.

Alex:

It has like a bow wrapped on it that says like, Happy Anniversary. You know, like only the best for you, you know, limited edition, straight from Japan.

Kenzie (Lou):

Should I leave this or am I supposed to bring it with me as a gift to the alligator?

Val (Arion):

I was thinking more bait.

Dan (Alyx):

I was gonna say bait, yeah.

Val (Arion):

Or distraction if we need to, um, run.

Kenzie (Lou):

Okay, I got it. I'm on the bait and switch job.

Alex:

How do we do this? Do we just crawl through the holes? Some of them are wire, some of them are like just straight up wood with a hole burned through it.

Kenzie:

Well the wire ones, Lou will hold back.

Kenzie (Lou):

Alyx, I'm so sorry, you're gonna have to get your hands and knees a little dirty.

Dan:

She gives you like this look that's just like. what do you think I do and I can't even and she's like small enough that she just goes through it under the like in the wooden like holes. She's like crawls through it.

Val:

Can I use my twink privileges to also squeeze through.

Alex:

You go through the easiest.

Kenzie:

I think Lou gets stuck in one of the wooden ones at one point and just like shoves her way through and it just like rips the entire back of her shirt.

Kenzie (Lou):

Oh, well, that's unfortunate.

Alex:

So you follow these tracks and it leads you clear to the other side, all the way to the west end of the village before the sand dunes, begin for the beaches. Straight through the stonework of the corner mark.

Kenzie (Lou):

Alyx, so I just want let you know that that money that you took from me I was gonna use to buy a snack from here later, so she's gonna even be more mad at me now that I'm gonna get that snack and not pay her. Just so you know what you've taken.

Dan (Alyx):

You know that I have paid her for your stuff like so many. You know that, right?

Kenzie (Lou):

Sure, sure, sure. But you've just taken the money that I was gonna use to pay her and now you're gonna have to use it to pay her. Just so you know.

Alex:

As you're having this conversation, Alyx, you see Auntie step around the corner with a giant bag of trash as she is staring at Lou, opens up the dumpster, and with the loudest sound, drops it in.

Kenzie (Lou):

Hello?

Alex:

She doesn't say anything. She just looks at you and she walks around, but it's like her head is on a swivel, never losing you. And she walks around the corner.

Kenzie (Lou):

I should not do the talking if we're going to talk to her.

Dan (Alyx):

You really shouldn't. I got this.

Val (Arion):

Demeter’s gaze was not as cold as that was, oof.

Dan (Alyx):

I understood that reference.

Alex:

Inside the corner mart, the power is off here too. In fact, you can see that just like the power line going into the building was chewed through and all of the electricity drained out of it. And then a hole was burned through, which you could crawl through if you wanted to, but this one would be a lot harder. It's stone. It's not as flexible. Inside, there's a single light, which is just barely working. It's flickering on and off, illuminating the darkness. You see Auntie has been taking all of the frozen perishable stuff and she's tossing it in the trash can. And she doesn't seem to notice that on top of the aisles is this massive creature stalking her. It is shadowed. It's the length of about one and a half dogs. It is massive. You can see slime drip everywhere it was. Along its back grows this furry green texture. Its eyes glow red and it's highlighted only by its red underbelly. Where its claws are, everything decays, irradiating.

Dan (Alyx):

Imo? Imo, aya?

Dan:

She’s staring at the salamander, but she's just like, trying to get auntie's attention.

Val (Arion):

I think we're going to have to do a double distraction here.

Val:

As Arion notices that you're going after Auntie to bring her away from the salamanders gaze, I would like to attempt to communicate with the salamander in the aquatic tongue.

Kenzie:

I’ll hold the music player next to Arion and be like,

Kenzie (Lou):

Hello, doggy doggy, this way!

Dan:

Alyx is just going to ever so slowly and gently like step by step try and position herself between the salamander and auntie.

Alex:

As you're positioning yourself in between the salamander and Auntie, you notice, you all notice, it like lifts its head in the air, right? All you see is the glowing of its eyes and the irradiation and it's like a shadow, right? And the fur on its back sort of spikes up and it sniffs the air. And it turns its head to the back room where you hear [falling shelves sfx]. And it jumps off and scurries to the crashing.

You're rolling for Scare, Goal, Clue.

Dan:

I don't think bruised is gonna stop me here, because I don't think that's gonna interfere. The vet tech, I'm gonna use that, that sort of like animal handling skill. Both tough and intimidating count for what I'm trying to do here.

Val:

I will assist you.

Dan:

I have a help.

Kenzie:

I was also going to see if I could implement the use of my acting skills.

Dan:

And I am acting to protect Auntie, which is one of my allies, so that is a full dice pool for me. So I have a six and two fives. That is a full success.

Alex:

As you put yourself in the way, Auntie, she didn't notice the creature. She's not scared. She's still collecting all of the expiring food into the trash can. But the creature, whether you scared it or whether something else happened, it moved away into the back room. It is cornered here. It is trapped. But the door sort of swings open as you look around the corner and just through sort of like the aisles. You see its tail slap against the door as it closes the door as well. And then you hear more of that same sound [eating radiation sfx].

Dan (Alyx):

Auntie, you just stay out here, okay?

Alex:

And she just waves you off as she hauls her trash outside.

Val (Arion):

It’s still trapped. Let me attempt to commune with it.

Val:

It only closed the door, I didn't hear like a lock, right? So, Arion’s going to open it a jar and attempt to speak in aquatic tongue.

Alex:

You open it a jar and as the light creeps in, just the faint light that's flashing from the source, almost like illuminates this creature, which you see now in its full glory. This just strange looking salamander that is massive. This creature is coated in a thick layer of slime. Like it's been not in the water, but it's been in some sort of formaldehyde. And it looks back at you, the light disappears, it bears its fangs, its eyes glow.