Latest / Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama / S3 The Wretched

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S3 The Wretched · Tale of The Manticore, a Dark Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons Audiodrama

0:03
Speaker 1: The following podcast is intended for a mature audience. Listener
0:07
Speaker 1: discretion is advised. Hey, folks, if you listened past the
0:16
Speaker 1: credits in the last episode, you'll know that I recently
0:19
Speaker 1: suffered a hard drive failure and lost a giant forest
0:22
Speaker 1: trolls weight in produced audio. I do keep a buffer
0:25
Speaker 1: of my episodes, and I also back up my work
0:27
Speaker 1: fairly regularly, but my buffer was stored on a hard drive,
0:31
Speaker 1: and my backup only managed to rescue my scripts and music.
0:35
Speaker 1: To be honest, if I lost those, I'd be dead
0:38
Speaker 1: in the water. But since I do still have them,
0:40
Speaker 1: there's an opportunity to rebuild, and that's what I'm going
0:43
Speaker 1: to do. That said, rebuilding takes time, so for this month,
0:46
Speaker 1: I need to adjust my usual release schedule. Instead of
0:49
Speaker 1: three regular episodes, there'll just be one with the bonus episode.
0:53
Speaker 1: This episode put out is something to tide you over
0:55
Speaker 1: until I can work my way back into shape. Thanks
0:58
Speaker 1: in advance for your patience and understand So what is
1:01
Speaker 1: this bonus episode anyway? Actually something I made just for fun?
1:05
Speaker 1: A response to the twenty minute solo challenge issued by
1:08
Speaker 1: PJ of the Solo role Players podcast last December pj's
1:12
Speaker 1: challenge was to pick up any game you've been wanted
1:14
Speaker 1: to try but haven't play it for twenty minutes and report.
1:18
Speaker 1: I chose The Wretched by Chris Bissett, a solo sci
1:21
Speaker 1: fi horror journaling game, and ended up playing it all
1:24
Speaker 1: the way through in one sitting. The game took about
1:26
Speaker 1: forty five minutes to finish. I tried to distrill it
1:29
Speaker 1: to twenty for PJ, but I couldn't get it down
1:31
Speaker 1: to less than twenty five. I figured that was close
1:33
Speaker 1: enough for Rock and Roll and sent it over anyway.
1:36
Speaker 1: When this hard drive problem occurred, I emailed PJ and
1:39
Speaker 1: very cheekily asked him if I could you know, have
1:42
Speaker 1: it back so I could release something while I rebuilt. PJ,
1:46
Speaker 1: wonderful human being that he is, said, no problem, and
1:49
Speaker 1: so that's what you were about to hear. I had
1:51
Speaker 1: a lot of fun making this, and I help you
1:53
Speaker 1: enjoy the Listen. The game I'm playing is called The
1:57
Speaker 1: Wretched by Chris Bissett. Okay, I'm just going to read
2:00
Speaker 1: to you the what is it about? Section? The Wretched
2:03
Speaker 1: is a game about human resilience in the face of
2:05
Speaker 1: overwhelming odds and almost certain death. So it's right on
2:09
Speaker 1: my alley. It's a game about isolation, fear, and perseverance.
2:13
Speaker 1: I love isolation, fear, and perseverance in that order, So
2:18
Speaker 1: I think I am going to enjoy this game a lot.
2:20
Speaker 1: You play the lone survivor of a horrific attack. You
2:23
Speaker 1: are sure you won't survive this, but all you know
2:26
Speaker 1: to do is to keep fighting. I guess I should
2:28
Speaker 1: mention at this point if it's not obvious that this
2:30
Speaker 1: is a sci fi game. The Wretched is inspired by
2:33
Speaker 1: the music and films of John Carpenter, the music of
2:36
Speaker 1: Nine Inch Nails, and a few other games that are
2:38
Speaker 1: listed here. How to play, you need a single six
2:41
Speaker 1: sided die, Okay, a tumbling block tower. I have that here.
2:45
Speaker 1: Sounds like this only the finest and ten tokens of
2:49
Speaker 1: some kind, preferably a collection of nuts, bolts and screws,
2:52
Speaker 1: but anything will work. Okay, I've got my tokens. They
2:55
Speaker 1: are mostly coins. You need some way to record your game, yeah, okay,
3:00
Speaker 1: begin set up the tumbling block tower. I've done that.
3:04
Speaker 1: Roll your die and complete that many pulls from the tower.
3:07
Speaker 1: The tower represents the state of your ship. Okay, rolling
3:10
Speaker 1: the die one, that's lucky. All right, I got one
3:16
Speaker 1: out and it didn't fall, so I'm kind of killing it.
3:20
Speaker 1: Shuffle the dick of playing cards and place them face
3:23
Speaker 1: down with an easy reach. Okay, record your first audio logue,
3:26
Speaker 1: reading from the script that follows.
3:30
Speaker 2: Day one. Salvage ship the Wretched, flight Engineered John Mantekor
3:34
Speaker 2: reporting the other members of the crew are dead and
3:37
Speaker 2: the engines remain non operational. Well ship integrity remains good,
3:40
Speaker 2: and life support systems are still active. I successfully jettison
3:44
Speaker 2: the intruder from the airlock, but it remains alive and
3:47
Speaker 2: continues to try to access the ship. With a little luck,
3:50
Speaker 2: I can repair the distress beacon and somebody will pick
3:52
Speaker 2: me up. This is John Mantekor, the last survivor of
3:56
Speaker 2: the Wretched, signing off.
3:59
Speaker 1: Now you're ready to begin. The game is divided into days.
4:02
Speaker 1: Each day has two phases, the tasks and the log.
4:06
Speaker 1: Roll your die and draw that number of cards from
4:08
Speaker 1: the deck, keeping them face down. Turn over the first
4:11
Speaker 1: card you drew, and consult the operation's manual. If the
4:13
Speaker 1: operation's manual ask you to do a specific thing, do it.
4:16
Speaker 1: Continue turning over cards and consulting the operations manual until
4:20
Speaker 1: your tasks are complete. Phase two the log. Take a
4:24
Speaker 1: moment to consider the events of the day, keeping in
4:26
Speaker 1: mind what you've learned about the state of your ship,
4:28
Speaker 1: the actions of the creature, and how you're feeling. Record
4:31
Speaker 1: your audio log for the day. Okay, so I guess
4:35
Speaker 1: I mean I will record all of it. But the
4:37
Speaker 1: actual log itself is the only sort of official recording.
4:42
Speaker 1: Roll the diet draw the number of cards one king
4:44
Speaker 1: of hearts, it says, consult the operations manual. You hear
4:48
Speaker 1: a skittering, scraping sound in the air vents, and you
4:51
Speaker 1: fear the creature or something else may have got aboard
4:54
Speaker 1: the ship. How will you make sure you don't attract
4:57
Speaker 1: its attention. I think I'm going to close off a
5:00
Speaker 1: certain part of the ship, like the stern. Yeah, I'm
5:05
Speaker 1: going to close off the stern of the ship. Hopefully
5:08
Speaker 1: it won't be able to get further if it is
5:11
Speaker 1: actually in the ship. Record your audio log for the day.
5:16
Speaker 2: Day two, Salvage Ship the Wretched Flight Engineer John Mantique
5:20
Speaker 2: or reporting, I have reason to believe that the creature
5:25
Speaker 2: or creatures have managed to get aboard. Sensor's have picked
5:29
Speaker 2: up movement in the stern of the ship, and I
5:31
Speaker 2: have decided to close all doors and engage all locks.
5:37
Speaker 2: Hopefully whatever's in here won't be able to get any further.
5:43
Speaker 1: And so now I go back to drawing again. Roll
5:46
Speaker 1: your dye, draw the number cards. All right, A lot
5:48
Speaker 1: is going to happen on this day ten of arts.
5:51
Speaker 1: You spend a day climbing around in the engines, doing
5:53
Speaker 1: basic maintenance and trying to figure out what needs to
5:56
Speaker 1: be done to get the ship moving again. You in
5:58
Speaker 1: the day as clueless as you be. Pull from the tower. Okay,
6:02
Speaker 1: I'm guessing the engines are in the stern of the ship. Actually,
6:06
Speaker 1: why do they No, they don't have to be. The
6:08
Speaker 1: engines will be midship, and I have blocked off cargo
6:13
Speaker 1: and freight. Yeah, because we're a salvage ship, right yeah, okay,
6:18
Speaker 1: so the stern is where the salvage goes. So engines
6:21
Speaker 1: are in midship. All right. So I've wasted a day
6:24
Speaker 1: trying to get the ship moving again, and I have
6:27
Speaker 1: to do another block So here I go. Not a problem.
6:32
Speaker 1: What else happened? You lose power throughout the ship, and
6:35
Speaker 1: while you're trying to fix it, the backup generator fails.
6:38
Speaker 2: Two.
6:38
Speaker 1: You manage to restore power, but you need to cannibalize
6:41
Speaker 1: parts from the backup generator, which will never work again.
6:44
Speaker 1: Pull from the tower. Done all right. Next up, in
6:51
Speaker 1: its attempt to get back into the ship, the creature
6:53
Speaker 1: detaches one of the habitat modules and sets it adrift
6:56
Speaker 1: in space. You manage to steal off that area of
6:58
Speaker 1: the ship before the creature can get real access. I've
7:02
Speaker 1: already said that it did gain access. Maybe I'll just
7:05
Speaker 1: rearrange how this happens in time. I gotta say the
7:08
Speaker 1: Jenga tower is a lot of fun, because Jinger towers
7:11
Speaker 1: are fun. Okay. Next, we've got a nine of diamonds.
7:16
Speaker 1: The sewage silo springs a leak. It smells terrible, and
7:19
Speaker 1: you fix it as quickly as is humanly possible. Pull
7:22
Speaker 1: from the tower. Okay, don't have the most steady hands,
7:26
Speaker 1: it turns out, but we're still good. That's done, And
7:29
Speaker 1: there's one left and it is a spades, and the
7:32
Speaker 1: spades is the creature. So this might be exciting. You
7:35
Speaker 1: find yourself muttering a short phrase over and over and
7:38
Speaker 1: over again, like a catechism. What is it? Pull from
7:41
Speaker 1: the tower It's something that my teacher taught me. No
7:45
Speaker 1: matter the problem, there's always a way. Okay, So now
7:51
Speaker 1: take a moment to consider the events of the day
7:53
Speaker 1: and record my audio logue, Day.
7:56
Speaker 2: Three, Salvage Ship the Wretched Fight near John Manticore. Reporting.
8:03
Speaker 2: Today has been a busy day. I'm increasingly worried. But
8:07
Speaker 2: like my instructor used to say, no matter the problem,
8:10
Speaker 2: there is always a way. No matter the problem, there's
8:13
Speaker 2: always a way. If I keep saying that enough, I
8:15
Speaker 2: might actually believe it. A lot happened today. The sewer
8:18
Speaker 2: system sprang a leak that smelled fantastic, let me tell you,
8:21
Speaker 2: But I did fix it. I did waste a lot
8:24
Speaker 2: of hours crawling around an engineering midship, but I couldn't
8:27
Speaker 2: get anything working. I did manage to restore power to
8:30
Speaker 2: the ship, but I had to cannibalize parts from the
8:32
Speaker 2: backup generator to do that, and that will never work again.
8:37
Speaker 2: Yesterday I managed to lock the creature or creatures in
8:40
Speaker 2: the stern section of the ship, but when the creature
8:43
Speaker 2: reached the hull, it detached one of the habitat modules
8:47
Speaker 2: that is now gone, lost in space forever. But whatever
8:52
Speaker 2: the problem, there's always a.
8:54
Speaker 1: Way, all right, So now I'm back into rolling to Die.
9:00
Speaker 1: Two two cards, seven of clubs. You've been carrying a
9:04
Speaker 1: rifle with you for a few days. Now you pried
9:06
Speaker 1: it out of the cold grip of a dead crewmate's hands.
9:08
Speaker 1: How did that make you feel? Do you think the
9:10
Speaker 1: rifle will be effective if you need to use it? Okay,
9:14
Speaker 1: Jack of diamonds. You spend a day taking the engine
9:17
Speaker 1: a part, completely putting it back together an attempt to
9:19
Speaker 1: fix it, but you're not sure exactly how to do that.
9:21
Speaker 1: You suspect you may have caused more damage than you fixed.
9:24
Speaker 1: Pull from the tower. Okay, like to do that? There
9:26
Speaker 1: we go. Oops, looks like I forgot to do something.
9:31
Speaker 1: At the end of the first day, I get to
9:32
Speaker 1: roll to see if I take a token away before
9:35
Speaker 1: it means I don't. At the end of the second day, no,
9:38
Speaker 1: At the end of the third day I roll again
9:42
Speaker 1: got a three, and day four a five. Well that's
9:45
Speaker 1: not good.
9:47
Speaker 2: Day four salvage ship. The wretched flight engineer John Matthikore reporting,
9:53
Speaker 2: I actually went back to the engineering day and wasted
9:57
Speaker 2: another day trying to fix the engines. I thought I
10:02
Speaker 2: thought I had an idea. Whenever there's a problem, there's
10:05
Speaker 2: a way. But I think I actually caused more damage
10:09
Speaker 2: than good. Things do not look good in there. I
10:13
Speaker 2: can feel that the ship is starting to come apart now,
10:16
Speaker 2: and I can hear things from the stern. I came
10:19
Speaker 2: across the body of Andrews. Andrews is security, and I
10:24
Speaker 2: took his rifle. I've been carrying it all day with me.
10:28
Speaker 2: I've never fired a rifle, and I don't even know
10:31
Speaker 2: what would happen if I did. I don't think it
10:34
Speaker 2: would be a good idea. At least I still have
10:37
Speaker 2: food and water.
10:39
Speaker 1: Signing off next day, rolling my die, I got a three. Okay,
10:45
Speaker 1: let's see. Something happened to the lights when the creature
10:48
Speaker 1: was near your hiding place? What was it? Pull from
10:52
Speaker 1: the tower? Whoa, I guess the creature managed to get out.
10:57
Speaker 1: I have pulled from the tower. Now, what did happen?
11:00
Speaker 1: I think the light started blinking and they haven't stopped blinking.
11:04
Speaker 1: You find something left behind by the creature, blood or
11:07
Speaker 1: a body part, or something you can't quite explain, describe it.
11:10
Speaker 1: Pull from the tower. It's a body part. I have
11:14
Speaker 1: found a severed hand and it looks like it's being
11:18
Speaker 1: cut off by a guillotine, like the cut is so clean. Yeah,
11:22
Speaker 1: that's cool, I mean horrible. Pull from the tower. Did
11:27
Speaker 1: it one more? The past few nights, you've been dreaming
11:31
Speaker 1: about the creature. What happens in your dreams? In my dreams,
11:34
Speaker 1: the creature is like a beetle with mandibles slicing mandibles,
11:40
Speaker 1: and I am paralyzed with fear and I can't run.
11:44
Speaker 1: I had a nightmare like that recently, where some creature
11:47
Speaker 1: was approaching me. It was not a space beetle, and
11:50
Speaker 1: I couldn't move. I was paralyzed. Like there's no question fight,
11:54
Speaker 1: flight or freeze. I unfortunately am freeze. Okay, that is it,
12:00
Speaker 1: and we are going back to Oh. I get to
12:02
Speaker 1: roll the die to see if I can take a
12:05
Speaker 1: token away. I can. I got a sex Hey, now
12:08
Speaker 1: I roll for cards. You managed to gain access to
12:13
Speaker 1: one of the lander modules and the hopes that you
12:14
Speaker 1: can use it to escape the ship. The asteroid that
12:16
Speaker 1: struck the ship before your engines failed damaged it beyond repair.
12:20
Speaker 1: I cast it a drift into the black in hope
12:22
Speaker 1: that it would distract the creature. Pulled from the tower,
12:25
Speaker 1: all right, well, pulling for the tower. Oh okay, that
12:28
Speaker 1: time I felt the tower actually wobble. Okay. Next up
12:32
Speaker 1: is the five of Clubs. Where did you hide while
12:34
Speaker 1: the rest of the crew were dying? Right, I've already
12:37
Speaker 1: said that Private Andrews was dead. Where did I hide?
12:41
Speaker 1: I hid in. I hid in a kitchen. That's why
12:43
Speaker 1: I've been able to feed myself, and that's why I
12:45
Speaker 1: have access to water. I hid in a kitchen. It's
12:48
Speaker 1: the coldness. It somehow made me harder to detect. I
12:52
Speaker 1: doesn't say I need to draw a Djenga block, so
12:55
Speaker 1: I won't I do. Notice. I have a gaping hole
12:57
Speaker 1: in my Jenga tower already tended diamonds. With the climate
13:02
Speaker 1: control on the fritz, mold springs up in some of
13:05
Speaker 1: your food stores. You can't fix it, so you just
13:07
Speaker 1: seal that locker up and hope that nothing affects the
13:09
Speaker 1: rest of your supplies. Pull from the tower. Okay, once again,
13:12
Speaker 1: this Jenga tower is starting. Ooh, it is starting to wobble. Gosh,
13:17
Speaker 1: my memory is bad because I already am like what
13:20
Speaker 1: happened first. Maybe I won't have to memorize these events
13:23
Speaker 1: much longer. Finally, nine of Clubs, one of the crew
13:29
Speaker 1: told you all about a terrible dream they had a
13:31
Speaker 1: few days before the creature came in hindsight. Were they
13:34
Speaker 1: having a premonition of what was about to happen? Why
13:37
Speaker 1: did you ignore them all? Yeah. One of the assistant pilots,
13:42
Speaker 1: Alison Macy, she had a recurring nightmare about something that
13:48
Speaker 1: she couldn't see that made a chittering sound, and we
13:52
Speaker 1: called her bug brain for a little while. Mostly it
13:54
Speaker 1: was a source of entertainment. Okay, here we go. I'm
13:57
Speaker 1: trying to remember all these things.
14:00
Speaker 2: Here we go, Day five, Salvage Ship. The Wretched. Flight
14:05
Speaker 2: engineer John Manticore reporting, I'm not sleeping well because I'm
14:10
Speaker 2: starting to have dreams, which is funny because assistant pilot
14:15
Speaker 2: Alison Macy was having dreams and we all laughed at her.
14:19
Speaker 2: And now I'm having dreams. I'm having dreams of being
14:22
Speaker 2: paralyzed by fear as some giant beetle approaches me and
14:27
Speaker 2: I wanna run, but my legs won't move. Anyway, those
14:32
Speaker 2: are just dreams. I'm living it. Hopefully when the time comes,
14:37
Speaker 2: If the time comes, God forbid, I will at least
14:40
Speaker 2: be able to run if I can't fire this rifle.
14:45
Speaker 2: I might be the last person alive on this ship.
14:47
Speaker 2: I'm not sure. I think I made the right decision
14:50
Speaker 2: when I decided to hide in food storage. Because the
14:54
Speaker 2: temperature in there is low, and although it has been uncomfortable,
14:58
Speaker 2: very uncomfortable, very cold, I think it has somehow masked
15:03
Speaker 2: my presence to the creature. I hear it, but I
15:07
Speaker 2: don't think it senses me yet. I hope not. Between
15:12
Speaker 2: the food storage and the engines, I did manage to
15:16
Speaker 2: access one of the lander modules, but uh, it's damage
15:19
Speaker 2: to the asteroid struck it. This wasn't the creature. I
15:22
Speaker 2: cast it adrift, and I thought maybe the creature or
15:26
Speaker 2: creatures would notice this thing and pursue.
15:30
Speaker 1: I don't think that happened.
15:32
Speaker 2: I went back to the food storage and I noticed
15:34
Speaker 2: that one of the temperature controls has failed. Is a
15:38
Speaker 2: lack of power generally in the ship. It's causing problems,
15:41
Speaker 2: gonna cause more problems, and the food is going off
15:45
Speaker 2: very soon. There's gonna be mold in there, food won't
15:49
Speaker 2: be edible. I decided to seal that locker up so
15:53
Speaker 2: they wouldn't contaminate the rest of the supplies. I hope
15:55
Speaker 2: that was the right decision.
15:58
Speaker 1: And that's it. I get to try and fix my
16:00
Speaker 1: with the roll of the diet. The three means no,
16:03
Speaker 1: and I'm roll anxiety. See how many cards two two
16:07
Speaker 1: is manageable? Before the creature came, you were in the
16:11
Speaker 1: very early stages of pursuing a relationship with another member
16:14
Speaker 1: of the crew. What was the last thing you said
16:16
Speaker 1: to them? And why do you regret it? Well, that
16:18
Speaker 1: has to be Alison Macy. And the last thing I
16:20
Speaker 1: said to them was Alison Macy, Do you worry too much?
16:25
Speaker 1: What else we have here? Make a list of the
16:28
Speaker 1: five best hiding places on the ship in the event
16:30
Speaker 1: that you need to use them. Five? Maybe three? I
16:33
Speaker 1: need to do three, okay. One of them is food storage.
16:37
Speaker 1: That's my top. Second is I think the captain's quarters
16:41
Speaker 1: if I could get there. And the third place is
16:45
Speaker 1: I found a disused engine that is hollowed out, and
16:49
Speaker 1: I think I could climb in there. There would be
16:51
Speaker 1: no supplies, but it would be fairly safe because it's thick,
16:56
Speaker 1: heavy metal and it's small crawling into a metal cop
17:00
Speaker 1: but it might keep me safe. That's that.
17:04
Speaker 2: Day six Salvage Ship. The Wretched Flight Engineer John mancikor reporting.
17:11
Speaker 2: I'm feeling very bad about the way I left things
17:14
Speaker 2: with Allison. I think there could have been something there.
17:18
Speaker 2: I think there was something there. But what did I
17:21
Speaker 2: tell her? I told her, you worry too much. I mean,
17:26
Speaker 2: everybody was laughing at her. But I could have been
17:29
Speaker 2: the one person that took her seriously, and I wasn't.
17:34
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what to do now. I'm spending too
17:36
Speaker 2: much of my time thinking about these things. That's not productive.
17:40
Speaker 2: So I've made a list of hiding places in the
17:43
Speaker 2: order as I need them. First, up right here. It's
17:48
Speaker 2: smaller now, but this is still the safest place. I
17:50
Speaker 2: think the cold temperature is hiding me, is cloaking me.
17:54
Speaker 2: If I went here long enough, maybe someone will come
17:57
Speaker 2: and save me. I don't know. For summer, I have
18:00
Speaker 2: to leave here. There are two other places I could
18:03
Speaker 2: think of. There's the Captain's quarters, which I know have
18:06
Speaker 2: some extra security, and then I think the last resort
18:11
Speaker 2: would be the holiday engine in the engineering bay. Once
18:15
Speaker 2: I got in there, I'm not sure there'd be any
18:17
Speaker 2: coming out, but it would be safe. God forbid.
18:22
Speaker 1: It comes to that. Rolling for my beacon A one. Nope,
18:26
Speaker 1: that's a fail rolling to see how many cards for
18:29
Speaker 1: day eight, I got a six. I'm telling you, I'm
18:32
Speaker 1: going to reroll that. I can't handle more than four. Four, fine,
18:36
Speaker 1: even four. My brain is just not smart enough. Three clubs.
18:41
Speaker 1: You had to use someone else's ida to access an
18:44
Speaker 1: area of the ship normally forbidden to you. Whose idea
18:47
Speaker 1: was it? And what were you doing there? That was
18:49
Speaker 1: Private Andrews, and I was trying to get into the
18:54
Speaker 1: armory with his pass card, so I was looking for weapons.
18:57
Speaker 1: Doesn't ask me if I found any, but for I'm
19:00
Speaker 1: gonna say I found a grenade. Next up, well, rummaging
19:05
Speaker 1: through the cruise quarters, you found a tool that you've
19:07
Speaker 1: been in need of. What was it? The next time
19:09
Speaker 1: you're told to pull from the tower, you may choose
19:11
Speaker 1: not to. Okay, it is a multimeter. Sure, it's a multimeter,
19:17
Speaker 1: so that now I can take accurate readings of voltages
19:20
Speaker 1: and not have to guess based on the parts that
19:24
Speaker 1: I'm looking at. Does that make sense? I hope. So
19:28
Speaker 1: while you've slept, the fire suppression system was activated. What
19:32
Speaker 1: caused the fire? And how will you make sure it
19:34
Speaker 1: doesn't happen again? Pull from the tower. I am going
19:36
Speaker 1: to pull from the tower for this one, because I
19:38
Speaker 1: don't see how having a multimeter would help that or
19:41
Speaker 1: a grenade. But I'm going to say that I don't know.
19:43
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened, but it could be a
19:47
Speaker 1: sign that someone else is alive on board, right, I think? So?
19:54
Speaker 1: Last one is down one of the long straight corridors
19:57
Speaker 1: between rooms on the ship. You follow gouges in the
19:59
Speaker 1: walls and flora left by the creature described them, and
20:03
Speaker 1: which part of its anatomy you think left those tracks behind.
20:07
Speaker 1: I think it's a slime trail, and I think it
20:10
Speaker 1: is just basically excreting the remains of my erstwhile crewmates.
20:15
Speaker 1: That's disgusting.
20:18
Speaker 2: Day seven Salvage Ship The Wretched, Flight engineer John Manticore
20:23
Speaker 2: reporting there was another busy day. I couldn't stay put
20:26
Speaker 2: in that food storage any longer. It's freezing. I decided
20:29
Speaker 2: to go and do something. So I went back to
20:32
Speaker 2: where I found Private Andrews, and I took his pass
20:35
Speaker 2: card and I went to the armory. There's a lot
20:37
Speaker 2: of stuff in there that I don't know how to use,
20:39
Speaker 2: and a lot of it's under code lock. However, I
20:43
Speaker 2: didn't manage to find of all things, a grenade. I'm
20:46
Speaker 2: not sure if it's a fragment grenade or if it's
20:49
Speaker 2: a smoke grenade. I don't know, but somebody had left
20:54
Speaker 2: it out and it was available, and I took it.
20:56
Speaker 2: And it's a good thing too, because I'm starting to
20:58
Speaker 2: see trails from the creature line, trails that I think
21:01
Speaker 2: are excrement. It stinks and it's disgusting, and thinking about
21:07
Speaker 2: how big this creature must be to leave that much
21:10
Speaker 2: behind is disturbing. At least I can kind of see
21:14
Speaker 2: where it went, so of course I went the other
21:17
Speaker 2: way and I found something. I found a multi meter tool.
21:23
Speaker 2: It was in an open locker and I took it,
21:25
Speaker 2: and I think it's gonna help me with repairs down
21:29
Speaker 2: the line, at least it very likely could. Just as
21:33
Speaker 2: I was heading back to the food storage, the fire
21:36
Speaker 2: suppression systems were engaged, and I have no idea what
21:40
Speaker 2: could have caused a fire, But my hope is that
21:43
Speaker 2: somebody else is.
21:44
Speaker 1: Alive somewhere else in this ship. That would mean the
21:47
Speaker 1: world to me. Signing off, well, I get to roll
21:50
Speaker 1: for Beacon A six, Okay, I get to take away
21:54
Speaker 1: one of my tokens and rolling for cards three of
22:01
Speaker 1: art says, the consystem blinks into life, picking up garble
22:05
Speaker 1: chatter from far off vessels. It falls silent before you
22:07
Speaker 1: can signal to them. What were they saying? They were
22:11
Speaker 1: hailing to see if we were in distress. Maybe they
22:14
Speaker 1: somehow picked up that fire. Is that even possible? No,
22:18
Speaker 1: they found the lander, That's what it was. The ejected
22:21
Speaker 1: lander drew their attention, and they're coming to see it
22:24
Speaker 1: fall as well. Right here we go, Day eight, Salvage
22:29
Speaker 1: Ship the Wretched. Flight engineer John Mentigor reporting a glimmer
22:35
Speaker 1: of hope today. That lander that was knocked free when
22:38
Speaker 1: the creature boarded. I think it may have drawn somebody's attention,
22:42
Speaker 1: because the calm suddenly blink to life, and there was
22:45
Speaker 1: chatter some other vessel asking for our status. I mean,
22:50
Speaker 1: of course I ran to respond, but the system died
22:54
Speaker 1: before I got there. Still, that is hope. The creature,
22:58
Speaker 1: by the way, has been silent, maybe left rolling for
23:02
Speaker 1: my beacon, the one that's not good. Rolling for a
23:06
Speaker 1: number of cards. Six. I just can't do six. I
23:09
Speaker 1: can't do it. I'll do three. Okay, let's see, I'm
23:14
Speaker 1: going to go hearts first. How does it feel to
23:16
Speaker 1: look at the sensors and the monitors and see nothing.
23:19
Speaker 1: How does it feel to know that you may never
23:21
Speaker 1: see a land or light or have a conversation again. Yeah,
23:24
Speaker 1: it feels bad immediately. Makes me think of the movie
23:28
Speaker 1: Castaway with Tom Hanks when he sees that ship and
23:30
Speaker 1: he tries to signal it, but he's got what a
23:32
Speaker 1: flashlight and they're miles away, and then when they're gone,
23:36
Speaker 1: it's like worse than if that ship had never even
23:39
Speaker 1: been spotted. That's how I feel about that call, because
23:42
Speaker 1: twenty four hours have passed, haven't heard anything, and I
23:45
Speaker 1: think I probably should have, And now Hope is slipping away.
23:49
Speaker 1: Next up, one of the crew died while holding a
23:52
Speaker 1: teddy bear. His daughter gave him. What was the bear's name?
23:55
Speaker 1: I guess that means that I've discovered some other body. Okay,
23:59
Speaker 1: it looks like I'm I'm leaving food storage because it's
24:02
Speaker 1: just too cold. I'm going to take what I can.
24:04
Speaker 1: I'm going to the captain's quarters. And so it was
24:08
Speaker 1: the captain whose daughter gave him a bear, and the
24:11
Speaker 1: bear's name is Picard. And finally the creature today, you
24:17
Speaker 1: feel like giving up. You couldn't summon any energy. Your
24:19
Speaker 1: tasks weren't completed. Return any cards you haven't yet turned
24:23
Speaker 1: over to the deck, and shuffle it pulled from the tower. Okay,
24:27
Speaker 1: I guess I should have been drawing these in order
24:30
Speaker 1: that I pulled them, not in order of the presentation
24:33
Speaker 1: in the book Live and Learn. I won't be returning
24:36
Speaker 1: anything from the deck because that was the last Ooh,
24:41
Speaker 1: that feels very dangerous.
24:45
Speaker 2: Day nine, salve the ship the wretched. I've left food storage,
24:50
Speaker 2: took what I could food water. I went to the
24:54
Speaker 2: captain's quarters. Luckily I was able to get access. Horribly
25:01
Speaker 2: was the corpse of a captain and he was clutching
25:05
Speaker 2: a teddy bear to his chest. His daughter gave him
25:09
Speaker 2: that bear, called it card. It was supposed to be
25:13
Speaker 2: some kind joke, some joke. Starting to lose hope. There
25:19
Speaker 2: haven't been any sign of the ship that sent that signal.
25:24
Speaker 2: I think they may have given up. I think I
25:26
Speaker 2: may have given up.
25:28
Speaker 1: Okay, here goes the beacon. I got a five close,
25:31
Speaker 1: no cigar, how many cards? Five is a lot? I
25:36
Speaker 1: can't remember five. I'll do four, and now I know
25:39
Speaker 1: how to do them in order, So let's do them
25:41
Speaker 1: in order. Let's see, I got a six of diamonds.
25:45
Speaker 1: A fire starts in one of the engines while you're
25:47
Speaker 1: attempting to get the ship going again, you're forced to
25:49
Speaker 1: jettison it. Pull from the tower. Yeah, that's not something
25:52
Speaker 1: a multimeter could help me with. Okay, I have pulled
25:56
Speaker 1: it from the tower. Next up, clubs, you spend a
26:00
Speaker 1: day clearing bodies out of a small room that you
26:02
Speaker 1: tend to hole up in if the creature gets aboard again.
26:05
Speaker 1: What was its purpose before this happened? And why were
26:08
Speaker 1: there so many people here when the creature came. Pull
26:11
Speaker 1: from the tower. I think I will skip the pull
26:13
Speaker 1: from the tower. I'm going to use my get out
26:14
Speaker 1: of jail free card, and I'm going to say that
26:16
Speaker 1: I managed to use my multimeter to somehow hot wire
26:21
Speaker 1: a security room, the captain's security room, and there were
26:25
Speaker 1: a dozen people in it that the captain was trying
26:27
Speaker 1: to keep safe. But because it's been so long ten days,
26:31
Speaker 1: they have all died of thirst. So that's horrible. I
26:34
Speaker 1: moved the bodies out, and I've decided to use that
26:36
Speaker 1: space for myself because I can open and close the doors. Now, hooray,
26:42
Speaker 1: you didn't see the creature properly because you were hiding.
26:44
Speaker 1: But you heard it. What did it sound like pull
26:46
Speaker 1: from the tower? Well, loud, chittering. It is big, it
26:50
Speaker 1: is insectile. I think my game's over. How did I die?
26:58
Speaker 1: I think when I opened that security room, the creature
27:02
Speaker 1: was nearby, and the smell of death. Those six bodies
27:05
Speaker 1: in there drew it because they would have been ripe. Yeah,
27:09
Speaker 1: there was a stink, a terrible stink when I opened
27:12
Speaker 1: that security room. It drew the creature and it cut
27:15
Speaker 1: me to ribbons. And the game is over. And that's
27:18
Speaker 1: about it. Well, that's it my little response to the
27:23
Speaker 1: Solo role Players Podcast December challenge. Please forgive my clumsy
27:27
Speaker 1: attempts at improvisation. It's never been my forte. My only
27:31
Speaker 1: regret in this playthrough is that I really missed an
27:33
Speaker 1: obvious and better ending. I should have concluded by detonating
27:37
Speaker 1: that grenade and having my character go out in a
27:39
Speaker 1: blaze of glory, taking the creature with him. Forget Chekhov's gun.
27:43
Speaker 1: I had a Chekhov's grenade in my pocket. Oh well,
27:46
Speaker 1: I had a great time playing it anyway, And I
27:48
Speaker 1: think Chris Bisset has made a really great game here,
27:51
Speaker 1: I will definitely play it again. As for Tale of
27:54
Speaker 1: the Manicore, the next regular episode, episode forty nine, will
27:57
Speaker 1: come out on March first, and I hope I can
27:59
Speaker 1: resume the normal schedule from then on. I will try
28:02
Speaker 1: my best until next time. This is John Manticore signing off.