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Terror at Camp Roanoke E5 - 2025 Monster of the Week One-Shot · Session Zero Heroes | TTRPG Actual Play Adventures & Improv Storytelling

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[Music]
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October 30th, Anno Domini 1588
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Father, oh father, if you ever find this, if you ever read these words stained with my tears and fear,
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please, I beg you, turn back. Do not come to what remains of this cursed place.
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They are upon us, Father, an army of nightmares made of real, the hag I saw and, and worse, twisted
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shapes with gnashing teeth and eyes that burn with an unholy light. They descend upon us from the
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woods from the very shadows themselves. Our palestines once a comfort now offer little more than a
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brief delay. Tonight, we flee, those of us who are left. We are making for sanctuary rock. The
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elders believe the runes are for some protection, a sliver of hope in this overwhelming darkness.
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We have moved the boats to the shore nearest the rock. Our plan is to load what little we can carry
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and pray that the stone will shield us until we can take to the water. The natives, the
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croatohan people, they have shown us kindness. They have offered what little aid they can.
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We hope, Father, we desperately hope that they will grant us refuge on the island. It is
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our only chance now. If you find this, Father, or any of the other messages we have left, please,
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please do not seek us here. Go to Croatohan, find us there, perhaps by some miracle we can still
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find safety together. But this place, Roanoke, it is lost. It is consumed by darkness. Please,
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Father, heed my warning. You're loving and terrified, Eleanor.
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[Music]
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All right, where we last left off. You guys, rather grieve specifically, had just successfully
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tied up the Gator Saurus to the side of the lighthouse. And you guys, technically not all of
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you, Martin Fresh, you're still inside the chapel looking through the back rooms, finding nothing
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in your search for this map that has been torn out of the journal.
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Soapy Joe, you stand outside the lighthouse, filming the epic situation that was grieves,
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tying it up to the side of the lighthouse. This giant, massive alligator-like creature just
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flailing awkwardly to the best of its ability, trying to free itself, but not having a whole
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lot of success as it does. What are you guys doing? Well, Soapy Joe's got the camera turned
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around on himself. It's like, did you see what shorts just did? And you know how he did it?
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Because he had some quantum beans coffee this morning. He just started going into an addery.
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Like, he really needs the money. Oh, yeah, yeah. So, he's just doing an ad. Well, I'm sure you're on a
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contract. And then there's the fact that like, it's going to kind of help you decide like,
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how much of a chunk of a video to release at a time. Got a release just 10 minutes. Yeah. So it's
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like, we just captured this giant 38-foot crocusaurus. And we still got a Sasquatch. What do you mean
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we? I was here. I tried helping with the rope, but I got a camera. You guys hear Braden from up top
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of the lighthouse. He goes, "Hey, you guys should totally come up here. Uh, Willie's office is up
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here. I think we might have found some some cool stuff. Okay. Looking over at the Gatoraurus,
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can I like walk away in good faith?" No, oh yeah, will not. Like, I mean, with your roles? Yes,
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absolutely. Is this thing is tied up tight. Don't you worry, Sheila. I'll be back and some somehow
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we'll get you into the Amazon. We'll get you somewhere. Enjoy yourself and stay away from the
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dangers of humanity. That's fair. We are dangerous. You guys rush up the spiraling staircase that leads
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to the top of the lighthouse. And finally reaching the top, you find amidst this giant light that
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shines out spinning around under the ocean and so on and so forth. There's a little section of it
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with a little desk. There's an old computer like we're talking Windows 98 and still installed on it.
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A couple of shells and a variety of things on the desk. The key thing that you notice is that
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scattered through the desk are a variety of photocopies of the letters that you guys were reading
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in the mess hall. And you guys speculate that maybe Willie knew a little bit more than he was
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letting on. But the key thing that you guys find there is what looks like a torn paper. It's upside
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down. You flip it over to find a map. This is like what was in Ancox Journal. We found a map
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living from Ancox Journal in this guy's desk. Where is it pointing? Let's take a closer look at this
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map. All right, do you want to... Find a haunted map in a abandoned lighthouse on this isle.
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Do either of you want to do an investigative mystery? The reason I ask this is because the...
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12? Holy cow! 13. Wow! Okay, so the reason why I ask this is because you look at this map and it
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looks like it's an old drawing of what this island used to look like. One of the key features of this
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is the fact that where you guys see sanctuary rock on the map that I have in front of you guys.
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So that used to not be a separate sort of smaller island off to the side. That used to be all part
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of all of this Roanoke Island. Whether the landmass drifted off or the water just rose up and covered
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portions of it. It's hard to say. But it used to be part of the same landmass. With that being said,
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you're able to follow the line and the little red X that leads out to where you know the
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ultimate ninja course here at the summer camp is located at. Right on the edge of the forest.
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Not too far away from where you guys would have passed by to get to the generator shed.
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And there's it like I said, there's an X on the map. I mean I rolled a 13 on the investigate. So
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where do I... Where's that from the investigate? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, you found...
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I was going to go with where did it go? If that's okay? Oh, you actually get two. So you do get a
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second question if you'd like to. I guess I can't exactly find out what is in there. What is the X?
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I tell you what, you can hold that if you want to. Because there might be an opportunity where
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there might be... Yeah. Okay. So yeah, you guys know the the map was put in the journal originally
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to show Richard Ancock the the settler from way back in the day to show his wife. Should she ever
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come to this island? Whether or not she did, you're not sure. But to show her where the silver cup was
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hidden. The thing that he stole and let the blame fall on the native tribe that was located there.
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Something that he felt incredibly guilty about. Something that he referred to as the quote
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unquote original sin. And something that he claimed was a piece of what you will need in order to
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stop the monsters that are created with the totem. So with that knowledge, what would you guys like
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to do next? Follow the map. All right. Very dory the explorer of you. You guys head down the stairs
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of this lighthouse. You peek out once more to see the the giant crocodile creature still tied up to
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the side of the lighthouse. Whether you need it to be for any long period of time is really,
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I don't know, I'm not all that necessary since you guys are headed out. But whatever the case,
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it still looks fairly secure. You guys start to move back down the east side of the island,
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headed towards the ultimate ninja course. As you do, you pass by the chapel and you see Martin
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Fresh and Hazel, who seems to have returned to that area, and they peek out from the chapel.
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Hey, we're heading on this map quest. You want to go map quest? How did you get sponsored by map
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quest? That thing out of business. Wait, stop even heard of that website and hotline like 10 years.
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These influencers will do anything for stimulus. I'm still on my map quest as Martin is talking to
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them still in his hands and knees looking under a pew. I just can't seem to find it. Justin's also
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with you trying to help you find the map. That's right. You're looking for a map too? Yeah, the map
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from the back of the journal. We found that map. You, you, you, you weren't even looking in here.
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Yeah, come take a look. Okay. And sure enough, you come out and you see this map and when you
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compare it to the journal, which I think Hazel probably would have been holding on to, sure
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enough, the tears, just like in one of my favorite movies of all time, The Parent Trap, you put the
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two pieces of paper together and they fit perfectly. We compare the torn page and it's the same one.
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Well, looky there. Where'd you find this? It was up atop the lighthouse in some dude's office.
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Oh, it's Willy's office. It's the guy that owns the park. You didn't know it? I'm bad with names.
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I'll tell you all about... He's good with animal names. You see it in... Yep.
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Seeing the gatorsaurus for the first time. In short state, whoa, good job, you two lads.
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It's on my fine rope and bank here. We've been working on it. Oh, you guys should go into the
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cattle business after a job like that. Grieve is a kind-hearted individual, much like his idol,
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Steve Irwin, so he will take this in stride and just shake his head. Whoa, why are you shaking your
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head? Oh, you didn't help? Slopey Joe, oh, you feel a little guilty for taking Crail. Plus,
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yes, the great Soatsjuice have tied up the big gator. Yes, sir. You hopefully recorded that.
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I did. Oh, I think I actually deleted that foot. Oh, man. Oh, that's a shame. You've been just to
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record everything here today. But you've only lost the recording of you catching the great gator.
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Yes, God, it's really shaky, so I don't know what's going to be good. I feel like most of your footage
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is shaky considering you're running a lot. Steady Halon, Soap Joseph, they call me. I don't think
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anyone calls you that. That's what they call me. Steady Hand, Soap Joseph. Soap Joseph. Yeah.
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Just as you're finishing this little dialogue between the two of you, you guys arrive at the
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Ultimate Ninja Course, which you guys recognize. It's an interesting feature of the summer camp.
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It's a sort of massive little obstacle course that's been set up amidst the trees in this area
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by the edge of the forest. There's all sorts of climbing ropes and swinging logs and other
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things for you to, again, either climb on or get through in some way, shape or form in order to
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get through the course to test your dexterity, to test your strength, to test your endurance.
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Whatever the case, you guys look the map and sure enough, this is roughly the area where the X
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has led you. But you look around, you're not really a hundred percent sure where the silver cup is.
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I use my "Investigate a Mystery" second thing to find the X. Yeah, absolutely. You could do,
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I mean, I guess, where did it go again? So you did, where did it go to like tell you where the X
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kind of was leading you in the modern day? And then where did it go to find this secret? Or,
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actually, sorry, let's go with what is being concealed here. What is being concealed here?
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So you, with your camera, you turn on the... He has the infrared camera. Yeah, you have the
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infrared camera. You turn it on, you're getting that sort of like night vision style, sort of that
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green... Oh, he also has a metal detector. Oh, the metal detector and on the, yeah, and the infrared
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video camera. Okay, I will say that the infrared is going to be a little bit more helpful here.
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So you're just doing like a pan B roll shot of the Ninja course, right? So you pan across it with
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this infrared camera. It's picking up all these... It's pulling in as much light as it possibly can.
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You're getting this sort of like green image. But as you're passing by sort of the tippity top of
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this Ninja course, or one section of it, rather, there is a sparkle of light sort of that reflects
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off of your camera. And I mean, obviously, with the infrared, it's just a beam of white, right?
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That's just hitting that your camera is like picking up. So you move your camera out of the way,
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maybe switch to just a regular setting, you zoom in and sure enough, you can see what looks like
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the slightly rusted or oxidized rather handle of a silver cup up inside of sort of like an
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owl's nest looking hole in this tree. And it is at the top of one section of this Ninja course.
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So theoretically, if you could climb the Ninja course, you might just be able to reach it
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from the top. As you notice this, you pause as you sniff the air and you smell something burnt
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that seems to be emanating from this area. And a moment passes and suddenly some of the brush
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starts to shake and out steps the charred but certainly not dead bigfoot.
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What do you guys do?
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You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in,
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and you shake a little bit, you do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself a bit.
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That's what it's all about. No, good everybody, you bunch of wet foot in.
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Dude, do you want to manipulate? You gotta dance off the bigfoot.
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Nobody else goes for it. Bigfoot looks increasingly upset at the fact that he thinks that you're
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mocking him. I'll take my gun and shoot the bigfoot. Okay, so you pull out your gun,
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roll me and kick some ass as per the usual. Two? Two? Well, I guess the acid kind of
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burnt the... I guess it must have because as you fire the gun, it just shoots off. The gun
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basically just explodes and fragments. I'm gonna have to give you one harm on that one.
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Anybody else? A successful shot with that gun? Yes, two days, not today.
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Previous sessions, yeah, previous sessions he did. I had like three.
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So I have no more gun, gunless. I still have two growing axes and four tent spikes and a hammer.
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He's gonna throw up. Well, hold on, somebody else has to do something.
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You guys watch as Soapy Joe whips out his gun and it just explodes in his hand,
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the end of his revolver that he brought to this island with him. Here, let me see if I can
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slow that creature down for you. So maybe you'll have a better chance against a stationary target.
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So he's gonna take a bow and see if he can slow it down. Okay. As it starts to move towards you guys.
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Yes. Seven. It says you inflict harm on each... Does that protect someone or help out?
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What, actually, I guess either way. It'd probably be... Yeah, I'm gonna say that it kicks a mass in
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this situation since it's sort of separated from any other action. I would say if you get it,
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it could theoretically be used to help somebody out. But at the moment, you do successfully
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throw this bow and it gets wrapped around its legs. It trips a little bit, but it hobbles towards
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you and takes a punch. You take too harm. Oh no. Yes. The big foot is very strong. Martin, you doing
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anything? Oh yeah. You put your left arm... Okay, you're sitting in. You put your left arm in, you shake
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the whole... Braden picks up his bat and he just lunges forward and starts beating the crap out of
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big foot. I think he too is tired of it and he says, "Could somebody please go get that cup?" Oh yeah,
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that's our goal. Everybody thought, "Oh man, let's just absolutely decimate." Yeah, that's right.
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Martin turns and runs to go get the cup. Okay. All right. Sobie Joe has pointed out where he's seen
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it out in this like tree, halfway up this massive tree in a sort of like owl hole at the top of
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this ninja thing. I think it's probably, I don't know what portion of the ninja climbing course is
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this on, would you imagine? Or maybe it has to... Maybe you have to go up multiple. Maybe it's like
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a little platform that's in the tree. And so you have to go through a bunch of the ninja course in
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order to do it. All right. Do it. Act under pressure as you're climbing through this. Eight. Okay. You
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climb up this like netting section of rope that gets you onto the first platform section. Next
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up is the monkey bars. As you're going across the monkey bars, you start to feel muscles in your
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arm pulling a little bit. You can let go and fall down and you'd have to start over or you can push
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through the pain, but I'm going to make you take one arm to get to the other side. Oh, I can handle
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it. All right. I like old me, Marty, the push through the pain. Guy. You make it to the other side.
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Your arms are so sore and you feel like you may have pulled something in your right arm. But you're
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on the second platform. There's one more that you have to climb. Do kind of like one of those ropes
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that are just like a straight vertical climb and it's got like knots in it. And that would get you
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right up to where the owl is. Before you roll that, Bigfoot is pulling the bolas off of his feet
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and turning around to the rest of you guys. Is anybody doing anything to keep him distracted or
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he might attack? I mean, I threw an axe out of... You did throw an axe at him. So yeah, do that now.
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You rolled an eight. Okay. So you throw this axe at him. It hits him and he turns towards you
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and lets out a huff and he grabs the bolas that he just pulled off of his feet and he
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hurls them back at you. Wrapping around your arms. Your camera is facing right like upwards
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up your face, basically. So that's the shot. It's like up your nose. You can see. Yeah, there's a
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gigantic booger. You can see all your nose hairs. Yeah. That's a cut that out. Oh, I don't know.
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It's a good thing he's not live-streaming. Joe was canceled. At least captured. What are you doing,
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Greaves? So the Bigfoot is now like running away from me. Oh no, he's ready to attack. Who?
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Let's say that he looks over and he sees Hazel, who is just... Just attempt to me to your left and
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like a 10 feet away. Okay. Well, we're gonna just switch things up a little because the
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bolas apparently have not been working. So we're gonna pull out our fishing rod. Okay. Gators usually
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don't go for... They're not dumb enough to go for silly fishing, babe, but maybe I can snag this guy
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on the reels. Okay. We're just gonna kind of cast at the thing. Okay. I'm gonna call this an act
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under pressure because you're not trying to harm it per se. Just to kind of snag it and
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back from whatever it intends to do. Okay. Sounds good. Direction. Okay. I'm super intrigued. This is
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gonna be one of the most interesting attacks I think I've ever seen. Who is this? He is going to
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wind up and do the cast from Goofy to the Goofy movie. I love it. Oh dear. Well, it's an eight.
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An eight. Okay. Here's the hard choice that I'm gonna give you. If you cast, you can hook it onto
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Bigfoot and you can kind of redirect him away from... He's like in a full charge right now towards
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Hazel. You're able to get him and you can direct him away, but what direction are you gonna direct
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him to? You can have him move towards Ophelia, aka Onyx, or you can have him go towards Brayden.
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Brayden's been more useful. I was gonna say I felt like, um, subconsciously, Grieve was kind of
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annoyed or perturbed by all the snide comments that he got in the stairwell of the lighthouse
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from Ophelia, so with all of this is a revenge moment. Without even consciously doing it, he's
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going to set the line in her direction. Okay, sounds good. You give it a tug pulling... This is the aim
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for two human beings. I wasn't gonna give him Sobie Joe for the sole reason that that would have been
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an instant decision. That would have been just like, oh yeah, have him, have him hit. Beat the crap out
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of Sobie Joe. Sobie Joe definitely wasn't bragging about kissing the alligator. Give me no credit.
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Instead, you pull on your fishing rod and throw off Bigfoot's trajectory, causing him to spin and
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slam instead in like backhand Ophelia, and she spirals over and hits a tree and she is out. She's
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unconscious, maybe dead, you're not really sure. Raiden goes, oh my gosh, what was her name again?
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Oh right, Onyx. Oh my gosh. And he kind of rushes over and he starts kind of like using the baseball
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bat to just kind of try to keep Bigfoot at bay. You're kind of just tugging on the line and trying
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to reel it in a little bit. Whatever the case, we'll jump back over to Martin Fresh, who is nearing
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the top of this Ninja course, reaching for the Silver Cup, climbing that vertical rope.
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Roll me another act under pressure. Why are they calling me Marty? Top rope king, Fresh.
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It's a lot of title. You pull up and you try to pull your way up to the top of this
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vertical rope and your damp hands slip and cause you to fall backwards. You don't fall
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to the ground, you just fall back onto the platform that you were stuck at, but you are still
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unable to reach the cup at the moment. All right, tug for real, team. All right, so it's good,
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I'm going to put you on hold and it goes back to everybody else. There's a potential of everybody
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else who's in danger. Sobie Joe. I mean, I got one more axe. Yeah. Tent spikes. All right, so you
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cut your way out of this Bola. Yeah. And you've got your. Got it. Yes, you've got your axe, you've
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got your tent spikes. What are you going to do? But what's the state of the camera? It's still
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functional. He leaves the camera behind. What? Character growth? Still like places it out like
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watch this. I just need both hands for that. I need both hands. What I'm about to do to this big
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foot is he goes up with a tent spike and a hammer in the other hand. I feel like he's John, Henry,
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he's going to obviously say like guts and borgling. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I said on Henry, I love that. I
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guess John, Henry had two sledgehammers. So he's going to actually know that was kind of stupid.
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He's going to chuck the the axe at big foot and just keep the hammer in his other hand.
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No tent spikes involved at the moment. Okay. Sounds good. So you're just focused on the hammer.
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Four. You roll this axe and it goes flying and embeds itself into the rear left thigh of Braden.
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He goes to be quietly and silently goes back to the course. Man, the stuff that this camera is
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caught in the last 30 seconds. Grieve. What are you doing? I suppose I saw the fishing hole in it.
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I'm going to do, I'm going to see if I can find like an anchor point to basically wedge the rod
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between a rock or a tree or something so that I no longer have to hold on to this.
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I would say between the, there's actually, you just grab a section of the the ninja course
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and like a hanging section of rope and you just kind of twist it around the,
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well not not on you or not on your section. Yeah, I didn't know you're fine. No, this is like a way
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lower section and you wrap it around this this fishing rod and manage to kind of jam it into
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place so that it's it's holding big foot almost like a leash. But of course it wisest up especially
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because Braden just went down and it kind of turns towards the rest of you guys and it kind of just
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like gives like a little smirk. So it is now causing a bunch of slack in the fishery by running back
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to the point of, okay. I bet he wants some dogs, some hot dogs, some chips, a couple of brewski's.
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I bet after that he'd be our buddy. Mayhaps. So yeah, having wedged the fishing pole somewhere,
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he is then going to just kind of back up to a reasonable safe distance and kind of reassess
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the situation. Okay, you can literally read a bad situation. So roll with sharp. Oh, can I also do,
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can I use my killer's wisdom thing again? Yeah, yeah, so that's that's also a sharp, right?
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Yes. Okay, so yeah, roll that and then potentially get yourself a plus one ongoing. Yeah.
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Oh, no, did not did not do that. Okay, so your killer's instinct just, although it absolutely works
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with alligators, crocodiles and other such animals, it certainly doesn't work for very
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humanoid animals or humanoid's question mark. Yeah, it was never good with unexplored creatures of
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cryptid origin, such as Bigfoot. Bigfoot starts to walk towards you guys. Oh, I think it's just
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going to rush you and it'll probably yeah, it's going to rush you and slam into you with its shoulders
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as you're kind of observing it dealing too harm to you. Grief is, oh dear, you bridging that area.
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She is at the line. He's at the line before he begins to die. Yes, that's right. Before you
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start to get those really nasty injuries. Okay, we'll jump back over to Martin Fresh.
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Can he climb this rope? Or are you serious? Once again, you start to reach up and climb and you
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just fall onto your bum. As you fall, there's a hand, a hand places itself on your shoulder and
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standing next to you is Justin. And he says, if you help me pass the first half, I think I can
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climb the rest on my own. No, no, my god, you're over yourself. Oh, well, I mean, it just looks like
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you're really not succeeding. I thought I could maybe help. Oh, here I'll give you a boost. All
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right. All right. So you're going to, I'm going to call this an act under pressure, but I'm going
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to give you a plus one since he's essentially helping. Seven. Seven. Okay, you help him climb,
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but you look up and you notice the branch that this rope is hanging from looks like it's about to
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break. Here's your choices. You could either encourage Justin to go the rest of the way up there
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and get the cup and the branch is going to break when he does, meaning he's just going to be holding
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on to this, this owl hole hanging there, or you can let him know and reassess the situation,
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find an alternate solution, but he's not going to get up there. You're doing the first option. Okay,
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he pulls himself up and just as he reaches out and grabs both hand or one hand onto this owl hole,
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all of a sudden the branch snaps and the rope comes falling down and he's left hanging there
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about 10, 15 feet up in the air and he's like, Oh gosh, what do I do? What do I do? Throw me the cup.
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Throw you the cup. And then what about me? That won't get there. Just throw me the cup free of
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my hand. He reaches up and he just kind of like grabs as much as he can of the cup and just kind
30:54
of knocks it down. It falls down towards you and you catch it. Okay, perfect. Now what? Wait, wait.
31:00
So the group go, Hey guys, I got the cup. Oh God, help me. You're just leaving him?
31:07
Figures way down. Okay, Justin is just hanging from a tree right there. You see,
31:13
he's like, Yeah, there's something. What am I supposed to do? Just for those listening at home,
31:20
this is a vaguely familiar situation where Cameron also left me personally,
31:24
Skylar Gorsett hanging from a tree. Still under you and told you the multiple ways to save yourself
31:30
from dropping offering to catch you. And he's not even going to offer this to an in game character
31:35
just so you guys know. Oh yeah, no. Okay. First I failed once. Why try to get me? All right. So
31:40
back on the ground as Martin fresh is main his way back down, you guys are standing there with
31:46
big foot having just plowed through a grieves. What are you guys doing as he turns towards,
31:52
I'm going to say he probably turns towards soapy Joe, the person currently standing.
31:57
Is there anything that around me that can catch fire? Well, I guess mine is the wooden
32:01
Cavalry. Is there anything that can start fire? I should ask. Hmm. Well, first of all, I would say
32:07
do a let's call it a read a bad situation. So that's with sharp eight eight. Okay, so you do get
32:14
to hold one. Let's call that somewhere within the range of what's most vulnerable to me.
32:20
As far as getting a fire started. So there's a lot of rope around here. Oh, he's going to suggest
32:26
to soapy Joe. What if we lit one of these bolas on fire, but with what you see Hazel standing
32:34
there and she overhears you say but light it with what and she goes, Oh, I have a lighter. And she
32:41
reaches into her backpack and she pulls out one of those like grill lighters with the really long
32:46
neck to it. And she tosses it over to you and you catch it. All right. So he's going to light the
32:51
rope on fire and just kind of swing it around in front of this big foot. A bowl or a chunk of rope.
32:57
Ebola. Now we've got a serious problem. Okay, so you grab Ebola off of your friend who's currently
33:05
down. You light a chunk of it on fire. You start swinging it at big foot. I rolled a 10. A 10.
33:10
Are we doing like a kick some ass here? Yeah. Okay, so normally when you get a 10 or when you do
33:16
kick some ass, there's a very high chance that you're going to deal damage potentially and then
33:21
it's going to deal damage back to you. With that being said on a 10 plus you get an additional
33:25
effect to your attack that you're doing right now. You can gain advantage and take plus one forward
33:30
or give that plus one forward to another hunter. You can inflict terrible harm to the creature that
33:35
you're fighting or you can suffer less harm from them. I will inflict terrible harm. Oh, okay. So
33:42
you're wanting to bonus this. You swing this bola just holding one end with one hand and
33:48
swinging the flaming version at this monstrosity. You hit him in the face and you see it scald
33:55
right around his eye and it clutches at its eye and swings back at you. It deals one,
34:00
deals two damage. I know. But it's clutching at its eyes and it's moaning horribly. You see it
34:10
in terror again from the pain and the horrors that the fire has already inflicted on him
34:15
starts to back away into the forest. Martin Fresh, you arrive on the ground and just as you're
34:23
arriving on the ground, you hear a very swift thud and you look behind you and you see Justin is
34:29
basically slid down the tree and very harshly bumped at the bottom. He's going to take harm,
34:35
but he is not unconscious or bleeding profusely from his leg like Brandon is. With that being said,
34:42
you guys have an unconscious NPC, a leg injured NPC. Justin is probably fine. I think Hazel might
34:51
be able to help him out for whatever it is as much as he needs. Bigfoot is now backing away,
34:56
possibly giving you an opening to escape.
35:05
[Music]
35:12
Um, yes. So if you remember looking in the journal, it talked about taking the cup to
35:17
Sanctuary Rock and admitting to a grievous act that you've done in the past, sort of admitting to
35:25
a sin and how many, how many people do we need for that? Um, it doesn't say. All right, I'm gonna go
35:34
run. Oh, and you obviously need to totem, which you guys have. Yeah, I think I had boat. Yeah. So
35:39
I'm just gonna go, all right guys, I'm handing off the Sanctuary Rock to admit my wrongdoings.
35:47
And then I just go running off down to the dock where the boats are. Okay, sounds good.
35:53
Um, you, which actually is not far away. Everybody else, are you guys following behind?
35:58
Are you guys grievously? Is there any other, you know, in a danger around?
36:02
Bigfoot's backing away at the moment. So you have the opportunity to escape. Okay. Okay,
36:07
you head to the boat. Are you guys doing anything with the NPCs? No, you're leaving behind. I'm
36:12
gonna say that as a group, they are able to make and hobble themselves to the recovery tent.
36:19
Although they're gonna be chased by Bigfoot. Are you, are you giving them the flaming bola?
36:24
Okay, you give them the flaming bola. Oh, okay. So you do a duplicate. Yeah, you spread it. They
36:30
swing it behind them as they make their way towards the recovery cabin. You guys head down to the
36:35
South Beach, where there's a whole bunch of docks and there's a bunch of canoes set out next to
36:41
these docks that you guys have prepared for the incoming campers. I'm guessing you guys all hop
36:47
into one together. You grab the oars and you start rowing your way out to this small sort of second
36:55
island that is just off of this one where sanctuary rock, which is this massive rock that
37:01
just kind of sits on one end of it. Hey boats are there. Let's say three. I'm gonna take two to ten
37:07
spikes and just jam holes in the bottom of these canoes so that no one else can follow us to this.
37:12
Okay, sinking boats. Okay, so if they get tried, yeah, absolutely. All right, so you have just put
37:19
holes in the other remaining canoe kayaks, whatever it is that you guys set out there. You guys hop
37:24
into your canoe and you paddle swiftly your way over to sanctuary rock. Boy, you remind me why
37:31
have you told that in that gator or else I'd be terrified right now. That's a good point. With
37:38
that being said, you look out towards the lighthouse and you do not see the gator tied up anymore. Okay,
37:44
well now I'm there. I want you guys to all do an act under pressure. We'll take kind of like a group
37:52
nine. Okay, eight. Eight. Okay, so that's two mixed successes and a failure. You guys make it to
38:00
sanctuary rock and as you, you're like the front end of this canoe hits the sand on this island,
38:08
a huge massive moth. The truth's from the waters slamming down, snapping the entire back end of
38:17
the canoe. The section where like nobody's sitting. Except it does get the back snip of my trousers
38:21
and it shows reveals my heart shaped under my heart. That's right. Your boxes. You leap out and rush
38:30
to the rush towards the rock as you turn to see the giant gator sorus following behind you guys.
38:40
It's maw gaping open with bits and pieces of wood from your canoe hanging out of it.
38:49
If you guys rush to the rock, you climb up to a section of it, probably on top of it. It's big,
38:55
but it's not like that big, right? You can get onto it. You climb up to the top of it and you're
39:01
watching as this giant monstrosity of an alligator is making its way closer and closer to you guys.
39:08
As you watch, you look over to the other half so the island kind of extends towards the west
39:15
in a section of land. You look over to the west and you see this black vapor materialize
39:21
and suddenly standing over there, you see Bigfoot and the scrungus also appear and start coming
39:28
towards you guys. The strange powers of this totem have definitely activated and it's trying to stop
39:35
you from whatever it is that you guys are doing. You guys have the totem. You have the silver cup.
39:41
You have the knowledge of what it's going to take to use this ritual. What we're going to do is I'm
39:49
going to have you guys not immediately, but you guys will each be making a use magic check. And
39:55
obviously you're looking for the most success as possible in order to do a piece of big magic.
40:02
This is a ritual that will hopefully sever the connection of this totem to whatever evil entity
40:09
seems to have given it power. In order to do this, you can, if you want to, try to use magic without
40:17
admitting to some kind of sin from your past. But if you do admit to some sin from the past,
40:25
you will get a plus one forward. Do you say sin or secret? Secret, sin. Because most of mine aren't
40:33
sins, just secrets. It's supposed to be a sin, technically. Oh, yeah. The totem and the cup both
40:41
kind of glow a little bit. As you look down, you can see that the rock itself seems to almost
40:46
emanate a glowing white aura. So be sure to admit to his wrongdoings. Okay, what is that? I staged
40:53
the Bigfoot video. There, I got an eight. Lance, your secret? Yeah, and I got my friends killed
41:04
for nothing. What? We'd have a babe die if there was no Bigfoot. I don't know, I ran away. So they
41:10
might have not died. They might have just gone missing. Maybe. I never went back to check. So, okay.
41:18
Lance, interesting. All right, you've admitted a sin from your past and you rolled your use magic,
41:25
which is plus weird. Did you add weird? Okay. And you got a total of eight, which is a mixed success.
41:30
It worked imperfectly. But in this case, it's a it's a it's like a plus one as opposed to a plus
41:35
two or whatever the case to do the big magic that you need. You see the light from the totem start
41:42
to soften and the light from the cup starts to emanate even brighter. Anybody else?
41:49
Grieve, Gershwin will admit to a sin of his past. Okay. I'm so sorry, cousin Gershwin. Back when we
41:58
were growing up, you showed such promise into following the footsteps of your great grandpa,
42:04
George Gershwin. You were going to be a prodigy at jazz. And then I saw that snake and my curiosity
42:12
was peaked. And unfortunately, I showed you the snake and the snake bit your finger. And in doing so,
42:20
it caused permanent swelling to your finger. So much so that you could no longer play the jazz
42:29
trumpet. And your career was derailed all because of my obsession with animals instead of jazz music.
42:37
Man, this is a real like the football kid like breaks his leg doing something stupid before
42:45
the scouts see him and he would have gotten a full ride to college, but then he tore his ACL or
42:50
whatever. I don't know. All right, roll a use magic with a plus one for admitting your sin.
42:57
Well, that doesn't really seem like you're saying more like the snake, but you know,
43:02
but I showed him the snake, but you didn't bite his finger.
43:06
That's a full Adam and Eve type of thing. Oh, a nine. A nine. Okay. Again, you see the light,
43:12
the sort of like green, dark or evil light start to minimize from the totem and the bright white
43:19
from the silver cup begins to increase. We finally come to Marty Fresh. Well, back back
43:30
10 years ago, I was heading to a big conference and I was stressing out about it wasn't paying
43:38
too much attention to my my driving and I ran here ended another car. And in that moment,
43:48
everything felt very rushed. I didn't want to get caught and I had to go to my conference
43:55
and then all of a sudden I hear the lady screaming in front of me. It's a, it was a bloodthirsty
44:01
scream still haunts me to these days. I have nightmares every night. Anyways, I drove off
44:07
leaving her there. I don't know what happened to her and well, it's been 10 years since then and
44:16
yeah, I'm sure she's fine. Unlike those. Yep. Yep. It's better not to even think about it.
44:24
What a hit and run. Hit and run. That's my secret. All right. Roll your use magic.
44:32
Five. As you tell this, this horrible secret and you use this magic. Oh, geez. Do I have to tell
44:40
another one? It seems like it seems like the magic just did not seem to take you. See,
44:46
a hint of loss from the totem and a hint of brighter, but it just from the cup, but it just
44:51
doesn't tell another one, man. That was a pretty bad one. But back in high school, my older brother
44:58
had a girlfriend and I was real jealous of the fact that he had a girlfriend and I didn't. So I
45:05
created an elaborate scheme to make it look like my brother was cheating on my his girlfriend.
45:10
And it worked wonderfully, a little too wonderfully to the point where he grinded a real bad
45:15
reputation and no one wanted to go on a date with him again. And he's still single to this day.
45:21
Maybe not as severe, but it does harken further back in your life. So maybe this was an original
45:29
sin per se or an earlier sin and that'll take more eight. Eight. Okay. So you see,
45:36
as you guys are staring out the gator, Soros crawling up the rock, Bigfoot crawling up behind
45:43
it, the scrungus standing back on its rear legs with its mouth gaping open, its horrible teeth
45:49
and slime just protruding from its mouth. And you speak this final dark secret from your life
45:55
and you see the glow, the light of the cup emanates so brightly that it causes the glow from the
46:04
totem to go so dim and non-existent. It's practically extinguished and just as it dissipates,
46:11
this stick becoming just that, just a carved stick, you see all three of the monsters before you
46:18
fizzle into darkness and float away as if they were never there. That's right, Sheila. You go enjoy
46:27
the great Amazon. Bye, scrungus. You guys find somehow get your way back. Actually, to be honest
46:39
with you, it's not very deep water. It's fairly shallow. But with that being said, you guys either
46:44
swim or maybe wade your way back over to the mainland. You meet up with the others. I think you
46:50
all probably barricade yourselves in one of the cabins and get some amount of sleep before the next
46:55
day when Willie, the owner of the park, pulls up in his car in his big van that you guys came here on.
47:08
Oh, well, guys. It's good to see you all. Would you get everything ready for the park?
47:14
I've looked around. Everything looks pretty spick and spam for the most part.
47:17
Yeah, sure do. I think Onyx, who's after getting some rest, wakes up, has woken up by this point.
47:26
And the others who are pretty severely injured, Brayden, who has this huge amount of wrapping on
47:32
his leg, they all kind of look at you guys with surprise when you guys say like, "This is just
47:37
all good," or whatever. And they just go with it. They figure we want to get out of here just as bad
47:43
as anybody else. So you all climb into the van and you start to head out. And as the van drives
47:50
its way back towards the bridge, you guys pass what is the entrance of the park. And you notice
47:55
a detail that you didn't notice before. It says, "Royanoke Summer Camp, owned by Willie Ancock."
48:05
And that's where we'll end this.
48:25
August 18th, Anno Domini 1590. Hope well anchored off the coast of Roanoke.
48:31
Three long years. Three years I have been delayed. My heart heavy with worry for the souls I left
48:39
upon the shore. Now, finally returned with the long promised supplies, I find...nothing.
48:47
The settlement stands, or what remains of it. The dwellings appear to have been occupied,
48:54
even improved upon. Palisade fences stand taller, stronger than when I departed. There are signs
49:00
of continued industry, of a community striving to survive. And yet, the silence is deafening.
49:07
No welcoming cries, no familiar faces rush to greet us, only the whisper of the wind through
49:13
the empty streets. We have searched every dwelling, every corner of this small island,
49:19
not a soul remains. My daughter, Eleanor, my granddaughter, all gone. Vanished as if swallowed
49:28
by the very earth. There is no sign of struggle, no indication of a hasty departure. Their belongings
49:35
are scattered. Their homes, left as if they were intended to return. One clue, and one clue only,
49:44
offers a sliver of a path to follow. Carved into the main Palisade post, the word "Croatoan",
49:50
and upon a nearby tree, the letters "C-R-O". "Croatoan", to name of the island to the south,
50:00
and the tribe that dwells there. Could they have moved, sought refuge or lights? It is the only
50:06
explanation that offers a glimmer of hope amidst this crushing despair. My heart is leaden-wicked
50:12
within my chest. Where are they? Are they safe? The silence of this island screams a thousand
50:19
unanswered questions. Tomorrow we will sail south towards the Croatoan. Pray God we find them there.
50:27
Pray God they are well. John White, Governor.
50:40
Hey everyone, Skylar here, creator and creative director at Session Zero Heroes. I just wanted
50:45
to quickly say a few things before we head into the next episode. Firstly, thank you so much for
50:49
listening to our 2025 Monster of the Week 1 shot. We love creating these, and honestly,
50:55
Monster of the Week is what inspired us to create TTRPG content to begin with,
50:59
so it holds a special place in our hearts. We'll be posting a brand new episode of Terror at Camp
51:04
Roanoke every week throughout October 2025, with the final episode landing nicely the day before
51:09
Halloween on October 30th. We hope you enjoyed the mystery we put together. I personally had a ton
51:15
of fun creating it and working with the incredible vocal and musical talent that brought the intros
51:19
and outros to life. If you want to find out more about them, follow their talent on socials,
51:25
or even reach out to them with your own project, just check out the episode description and you'll
51:28
find their names, handles, and links there. They all did a phenomenal job, so a huge shout out to each
51:33
and every one of them. Speaking of links, if you want to follow more of what we're doing at Session
51:38
Zero Heroes, be sure to check out our website or scroll through our other TTRPG actual play series
51:43
and one shots that we've done. From Avatar Legends and Dungeons & Dragons, all the way to Kids on
51:48
Bikes and All Flesh Must Be Eatin', we try to create and play through unique and entertaining
51:53
stories using a variety of systems along the way. There's plenty to listen to and plenty more on the
51:58
way. To ensure that you don't miss out on our future productions, be sure to drop a follow or
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subscribe on whatever podcast streaming platform you're using. The same goes with socials. You
52:07
can find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, Blue Sky, Discord, and Mastodon, so be sure to
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drop a follow on whichever of those you frequent. With that, we hope you enjoyed this mystery and
52:18
it successfully gave you those spooky vibes that made your Halloween season extra special.
52:23
Be sure to check back in in the following month for Return to Criminals of Ila Numis
52:28
and Future Series following that. We'll see you guys next time.
52:37
[MUSIC]