0:04

Listen if you dare to

0:06

the Lovecraft teams.

0:12

Welcome to

0:14

the Lovecraft tapes podcast. This

0:17

is 15,

0:20

The Crossing. I

0:24

am Jeremy, your keeper of arcane

0:26

lore. And we play Chiasium's

0:29

call of Cthulhu, a role playing game

0:31

filled with cosmic horror, existential

0:34

dread, and the cellophane bag

0:36

inside the cereal box that no matter

0:38

how careful you might be when opening

0:40

will invariably rip to one

0:42

side of the scene, exposing your breakfast

0:45

flakes to the vagaries of feathered air

0:47

and eventual rot well

0:49

before the expiration date. How

0:51

dare they do that to my blueberry? Your

0:54

investigators of the unknown

0:57

are Brian,

1:01

as Ben. And

1:03

Ben, keep on track. Matt,

1:06

as Kyle. Hey,

1:08

everyone.

1:10

I really hate mornings and

1:12

introducing Lupine

1:16

as Rosa. Hi.

1:18

Hi, guys. I'm cool.

1:20

Right? Because I got backwards hat.

1:23

Yeah. I wear two hats and

1:25

they're both backwards. My twice as cool

1:27

or does one backward hat cancel out the

1:29

other backward

1:29

hat? Could

1:30

you do like four of them? Like a helicopter?

1:32

Oh, yeah. If I'm

1:33

one in each direction and I start spinning, does

1:35

that mean I'm gonna, like, lift off?

1:37

Well, welcome players. How is everybody doing today?

1:39

Fantastic. Besides cranberry on the floor,

1:42

you

1:42

know?

1:42

It's a cranberry bag over here. Whatever.

1:44

Sabbie. Sabbie.

1:46

Oh, yeah, there's a zombie on the floor.

1:49

That

1:49

just seems inconvenient. How are you,

1:51

Jeremy? I'm doing well. Thank you very much.

1:53

I've been thinking a lot lately about the

1:55

fallout of the pandemic and

1:57

things like inflation is, like, going

1:59

crazy. It seems to be dramatically rising

2:02

these days. And I got me to thinking, what's the one

2:04

thing that you guys by on regular basis

2:06

that now makes you reconsider purchasing

2:08

it

2:08

all. Eggs. I've pretty much

2:10

given up eggs. I

2:11

used to tell people to suck eggs, but I can't afford

2:14

it anymore.

2:14

I do get those bags of salads all that I

2:16

throw out about two weeks

2:17

later.

2:17

You gotta wait till it gets all slimy and

2:20

not nice in the fridge. And

2:21

then you still check the date for some reason, even

2:23

though it's all smooshing around in the pack.

2:25

It is a solid block of goo.

2:27

I'll check the date. That's when you turn it a

2:29

lettuce

2:30

smoothie. For me, it's underwear because,

2:32

I mean, what's the point? We're already

2:34

wearing pants for crepe steaks and now

2:36

that I think about it, why would they even bother

2:38

wearing pants? Most of our shirts are

2:41

long enough to cover up most of the naughty

2:43

bits already. So but, you know, now

2:45

that you mentioned it, why are we bothering with any

2:47

clothes at all? Are we all prudes?

2:49

I say today, we rally

2:51

together against big clothes, Bobby,

2:54

and go streaking the quad. Who's with me?

2:56

Hashtag nota pants Can we streak

2:58

in my doubts instead? Listeners, if

3:00

you would like to drop us a letter from Beyond,

3:02

please. Contact us on our website

3:05

at lovecraftapes dot com anytime.

3:07

We accept thoughtful criticism, thirsty

3:10

praise, and even tongue

3:12

twisting can trips plucked from

3:14

Btwicks pages of an ancient

3:16

leathery tone bound in saggy

3:18

human skin festered with boils.

3:21

You know, my mother-in-law. But

3:23

let's take a gander and see what if we have

3:25

any letters from beyond. And we do have one, guys.

3:28

It's a very short missive that

3:30

Bifford wrote. Sad face.

3:32

Gonna miss you Gabe? Oh, that's

3:34

it. That's the only letter we got. So Gabe, if you're

3:36

watching, Bifford misses you terribly, and

3:38

we'd like to get your phone number. He's gone

3:40

to soon. This show is brought to you

3:42

by our generous fan supporters on patreon

3:45

dot com slash lovecraft tapes, and I

3:47

get to read a really long list of people.

3:49

It's my favorite part. Thank you so

3:51

much to Jordi Rose, Barry

3:53

Robison, Atulia, Brownie

3:55

Davis, James Mayo, Chris Parker,

3:57

Elizabeth Grieve, Kyle Sherman, and

3:59

Hugepie. John Scarsella, the

4:02

Frilled Chart, Amanda Power, or Jefferson

4:04

Bell, Eric Zane, Oldie Poker,

4:06

Mitch l Little Rowan Place, Frank

4:08

Delwynthal, Eric Phillips, Malambra fifty

4:11

seven Snow, Ripley Island, Discordient,

4:13

Daniel Capron, Dom Driver,

4:16

John May, Wouter Vermein, Robert

4:18

Jamieson, Boston Harbor Horr

4:20

Andrew Pette, Flicks capacitor, Liz

4:22

Moonberry, Steven Gregory,

4:24

Horst Draper, Sheldon Warner,

4:26

Chainsbury Unicorn, Profit of Woe,

4:28

Captain Vashdown, Peter VDB,

4:31

David Winterman, Divinia von Zurbich,

4:33

James Brown, Shane Stoltley, ruined

4:35

ashes, INEPTIS Sartis. Matthew, a

4:37

E. Jones E. Kevin C.

4:39

Marty Dixon, Casper Ryback, Phoenix

4:42

Black, JR, oddity,

4:44

Rolling Box Cars, Botran, Sean

4:46

McConnell, Grindel Stubs, j Clark,

4:49

Jeffrey Young, Bifford, Luke Corbin,

4:51

Hold it on my hands. Phil Campbell. Just

4:53

a little look. Nicholas Hutto,

4:56

John Kanepasek, some dude,

4:58

Kevin g, Mick Cope, Robert

5:00

Lamb, Jehovah's Thickness, Tomás,

5:03

Keyee, Benjamin King, Sir written

5:05

Wizard of Isenglass, Steve l,

5:07

Matt's sister, literally, Ryan

5:09

Hill, I got walls in a roof,

5:11

specmisgrindled

5:12

Gunge, and Jeff Howie. Hello,

5:15

Howie. What a mouthful? You

5:16

know, maybe one of these days, I'm gonna revise

5:18

those Patreon tiers. I don't have to read all those

5:20

places. Before

5:22

we begin, we need to

5:24

take a quick

5:27

commercial break.

5:31

And now a word from our

5:33

sponsor.

5:43

Hello, children. It's nice to

5:45

see you again after all this time.

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I've missed you. Today,

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we're going to show you something new

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It's called magic.

5:56

And right here, I have my

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official magic kit. Isn't

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it splendid? I think

6:03

so. See here, it's a

6:05

black top hat just like the

6:07

kind 2 undertaker wore at my grandfather's

6:09

funeral. Spiffy. Well,

6:12

I say the magic words, damn

6:14

brok godaver, and

6:16

I wave my wand over the opening

6:19

like this. Then plunge

6:21

my arm elbow deep

6:23

inside the borderline. That

6:27

tickles. Then I

6:29

pull it out. Teddah. It's

6:31

your pet rabbit from two years

6:33

ago. You know, the one

6:35

you found sleeping under your bed

6:37

one morning? What was his name?

6:40

Mister Rickles, was it? Yes.

6:43

But he wasn't really sleeping that

6:45

day was he. No.

6:47

Stiff is a board. Even as

6:49

your dad carried him in that shoe box out

6:51

to the hole in the ground, he made

6:53

you dig behind the shed. Then it

6:56

was by by mister Wiggles. Until

6:58

now that is, here he is

7:01

not looking so great and kinda smelly.

7:03

If you don't mind me saying so, mister

7:06

Riggles, yet, you don't have

7:08

much to complain about. Do you?

7:10

Because you're alive again

7:12

in all things. To the

7:14

unknowable power of magic. Before

7:17

you run away screaming and bloody terror

7:19

little tape, just remember

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you can have a magic kit

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all of your very own.

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Simply send twenty three box tops

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from your favorite serial along

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with a thirty dollar check, repayable

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to satanic writes international, and

7:37

you'll receive your package in six to

7:39

ten weeks. What do you

7:41

do until then? I might

7:43

suggest borrowing your father's shovel

7:45

and start digging for fresh tricks

7:48

in the nearby graveyard. Practice

7:51

after all makes perfect.

7:54

Damn bro, whatever.

8:01

And we're back. If

8:04

that product couldn't service had a

8:06

theme

8:07

song? Who would sing it?

8:09

And what would it be called? Meatloaf.

8:12

What would the song

8:13

How about squeezy bits?

8:15

Yeah. Keep on trucking who would sing

8:17

a a need a baker. I don't know

8:19

who would sing it or what it would be, but

8:21

whatever it was they would use it without permission. And

8:23

then shortly after receive a cease and desist

8:25

from the

8:25

artist. So Matalika, you know, guys,

8:28

those are all great suggestions, but

8:30

I'm pretty sure Kenny Logins

8:32

has already created an entire

8:34

album around this concept called,

8:36

this is it, I'm free, so meet me

8:38

halfway to the dangerous and where I'm

8:40

alright playing with the 2 footloose and

8:42

forever. The key enhancers have said not to do the

8:44

music video Boy, there's a throwback

8:46

from two thousand six. All

8:48

throwbacks all the time.

8:50

Oops. I'll throwbacks. Now,

8:53

Dear investigators.

8:55

We play case fifteen.

8:58

Tape 2 ringworm

9:00

around the rosy. Nothing

9:12

much of interest ever

9:14

seems to happen in the place where you

9:16

live. In

9:18

fact, As you often tell

9:20

your friends and family, Las

9:22

Cruces, California might

9:25

be the most boring place on

9:27

Earth. Oh sure.

9:29

You've got rivers and creeks

9:31

fed from the nearby mountains to the

9:33

hot springs below. Yeah.

9:36

There are wind caves to the south

9:38

and Pacific coast beachfront

9:40

even further along. No one

9:42

could argue natural resources

9:44

around here abound. If

9:46

you're into that sort of thing. To

9:48

a teenager living in

9:50

nineteen seventy four, it's

9:52

pride ActualPlay pure torture. You're

9:55

hovering in that strange

9:57

half life state, not

9:59

quite a young adult, and

10:01

tool to be a kid. You

10:03

feel as though you're perpetually

10:05

on the brink of some kind

10:07

of discovery. Something

10:09

that will propel you out of immaturity

10:12

and into the orbit of forces

10:15

larger than yourself. It's a

10:17

scary prospect, but exciting

10:20

too. So it

10:22

is, out of June morning,

10:24

the first Saturday of summer vacation.

10:26

You wake up to birdsong

10:29

outside your bedroom window and

10:31

wonder if today

10:33

will be the day you finally

10:35

get to grow up.

10:39

Alright. Let's meet our new

10:41

investigators. Brian.

10:43

So tell us a little bit about Ben.

10:46

Well, he's five foot four, Sandy Brown

10:48

hair that's just over his ears. Mom

10:50

hates it. He's got hazel eyes. He hadn't

10:52

had his growth spurt yet. That's what he's been

10:54

told anyway. I think my height is

10:56

fine. Five foot four. Little too skinny.

10:58

That's what Stacy says. Stacey's

11:00

my mom. I have a small scar over my

11:02

eyebrow from crashing my bike last

11:04

year. I hadn't really ridden a lot

11:06

and I did get that that 2 air off that

11:08

jump, so it's cool.

11:09

It was pretty sweet, honestly.

11:11

It's pretty cool. I'm outgoing

11:13

and friendly, and dependable. I

11:15

like to figure out how everything works. And

11:17

I'm always there to help others if they need

11:19

it. But admittedly, I'm

11:21

terrified of conflict. Then

11:23

McKnight is my name, so my mom's name is

11:25

Stacy McKnight. Growing up, I was told

11:27

that my dad was an important

11:29

scientist in the German military, so

11:31

he had to stay there, but didn't

11:33

provide any more details. So when I never

11:35

really thought asked to be honest. On my

11:37

thirteenth birthday, Stacey sat me down

11:39

and told me the truth that it

11:41

was it fleeing and my father,

11:43

Hans Gruber, had no intention of

11:45

ever raising a family. Does that

11:47

make me a bastard child? So

11:49

I have dual

11:50

citizenship, which is pretty cool, I guess, I was

11:52

born in Cape Town in Germany.

11:54

Kysor Sloughton, Gudtenbach.

11:56

I like spiders and bugs, worms are

11:59

really cool. But the one thing I cannot

12:01

stand are bees. I can't stand

12:03

bees. They're they're too unpredictable.

12:05

They'll chase you for miles.

12:07

You gotta be careful with bees. I don't like

12:09

to tell everybody, but I am allergic

12:11

when I was one years old, a a bee

12:13

sting almost killed

12:14

me. Okay? Let's go take a look at

12:16

Couture characteristics and skills. You

12:18

have a strength of fifty, so

12:20

not terribly strong. About average.

12:22

Deck thirty though, you're pretty decks this with an eighty.

12:24

Your power is very low with a

12:26

forty. So power is mostly, like,

12:28

sort of, willpower, but also can

12:30

inform spell use at a

12:32

later age. Your education's

12:34

fifty five, so you're pretty well educated.

12:36

Your appearance is fifty, so you're

12:38

nothing to write home about really, but cast stitution

12:41

is sixty. So you're actually you're you're relatively

12:43

healthy. Your size is forty five, of

12:45

course. So we you've already said you're a

12:47

little on the short side. Abbotcher intelligence

12:49

is quite high at seventy. Currently you have

12:51

a sanity of forty. Only if

12:53

there's b's. Maybe the b's. Yeah. Maybe, like,

12:55

you have some sort of anxiety

12:57

about

12:57

things. Yeah. You always gotta be on your toes.

12:59

The beast

12:59

could be anywhere. You know, having grown up with

13:01

a father who is not in the picture

13:03

and had been a mystery for so long.

13:05

And of course your mom works for

13:07

the Air Force Base in

13:10

Lombok. You've moved around

13:12

quite a bit, at least when you're quite young.

13:14

You've been here in Las

13:16

Cruces for quite some

13:17

time. But you're you're rather lucky with

13:19

the seventy five luck. I

13:21

chalked that up to my lucky rabbit's foot, which I

13:23

do not ever leave at

13:25

home. Let's talk about your skills for a

13:27

minute. Crediting in forty five, so your

13:29

mom's pretty well off. More middle

13:31

class, I guess. She's just comfortable. Looks

13:33

like you bolstered your drive auto by twenty,

13:35

so you

13:35

have a forty drive auto. Pretty cool.

13:38

To be the only kid at my age that can that

13:40

can drive. Occasionally,

13:41

your mom will let you drive her. I'll

13:43

drive the

13:43

car with her in it. You're not gonna go pick her

13:45

up or take her to work. You you actually

13:48

have to have someone in court with

13:49

you. It looks like

13:49

electronics is one of your passions.

13:52

So you you've bolstered that up to

13:54

fifty among your possessions here.

13:56

The seventy five and one electric kit.

13:58

We pretty much do anything, really. I could hook it up

14:00

to the system in house so we could run the lights at

14:01

bed. So sort of in lieu of

14:04

computer use electronics is

14:06

like what captures your

14:08

imagination, computer use.

14:10

You mean that big giant room that the base

14:12

has that's full of like those big

14:14

spinny

14:14

things? Those will never catch

14:16

up. And nobody has firearms just in

14:18

FYI to the audience. We've

14:20

kept these guys as innocent

14:23

as possible. First aid is fifty. Both are

14:25

that up twenty points. That's pretty

14:27

good. I have that because my EpiPen, I have to

14:29

know to get it in there. Library

14:31

use is seventy. So you've bolstered it

14:33

up fifty points, so you're you're quite adept

14:36

at researching. Locksmith

14:38

is forty. Because of your dexterity,

14:41

have managed to pick up some

14:43

locksmith skills. The yale

14:45

ones are the hardest though. You keep a collection of

14:47

locks at your desk in your room and

14:49

constantly practice at them and Yeah.

14:51

The next thing would be medicine. You're

14:53

actually relatively adept at

14:55

medicine forty. Cuts and

14:56

scrapes. I mean, I was it was me. My mom was at

14:58

work and I had to do it.

15:00

And natural world is a forty that

15:02

was bolstered thirty points I know most

15:04

of the plants and stuff in my area. I'm

15:06

really into geology, though, I really

15:08

love studying the different formations and

15:10

stuff of the rocks around

15:11

us. Yep. Science geology is

15:14

fifty. So you do have an love and appreciation for

15:16

probably the world around you. Beyond that,

15:18

looks like a sleight of hand because your dexterity

15:21

bumped that up fifty points sixty.

15:23

Spot hitens up a little bit to forty

15:25

five. Stealth is up to sixty. So

15:27

you link around quite

15:29

well. Throw is up 2 fifty.

15:31

Hopefully, that gives people a nice

15:33

picture of who Ben

15:35

McKnight is. Let's move on

15:37

to Kyle

15:38

Wyndham. Tell us about Kyle Matt. Kyle

15:41

is fourteen, but he is at

15:43

this point five foot eleven,

15:45

has a very thick messy,

15:47

curly mop of brown hair and

15:49

brown eyes. A very

15:51

slim but athletic fit

15:53

build. His dad has basically put

15:55

him through all the sports his

15:57

whole life He's played baseball. He's

15:59

played basketball. He's played, you

16:01

know, tennis. He did track and

16:03

field. It was all all in

16:05

prep. For the this

16:07

year starting high school. Kyle's dad

16:09

is the high school gym

16:11

teacher slash football coach. So

16:13

everybody basically knows that he's gonna go

16:15

out for the team and he's gonna get quarterback

16:18

because his dad has more or

16:20

less been training him and boot

16:22

camping him his whole life to be a

16:24

great football player because nobody

16:26

in town knows this, but his

16:28

dad almost went pro. He was playing

16:30

really well in college. She got scouted the

16:32

whole nine yards until one

16:34

night after a game where

16:36

a couple of drunk fans from the other

16:38

team happened to find him celebrating with

16:40

his friends in a bar and

16:42

they managed to drag him out back

16:44

and they did enough damage

16:47

to his legs. He was able to he can

16:49

walk and he can, you know, kind of, job, but

16:51

he doesn't have the capacity to play

16:53

football anymore. His dad has kind of been

16:55

pushing him his whole life and his his dad is

16:57

the only parent he has since mom

16:59

left four years ago. He was okay

17:01

before but just mom disappearing like

17:03

that pushed pushed him over the edge, and he

17:05

didn't take time to really say much about

17:07

it. It was just immediately, you know.

17:10

Oh, no. Everything's fine. I'm okay

17:12

doing the whole strong keeping

17:14

up appearances for his kid and he hasn't been

17:16

the same since. When Kyle wants

17:18

to to escape his dad

17:20

and the constant pressures of

17:22

being good at sports and having to be the best all the

17:25

time. He likes to sneak away across town

17:27

where his uncle John and

17:29

Anne Emily live and

17:32

uncle John runs his own

17:34

little mini mechanic shop out of his garage where

17:36

he's he's retired. He fixes

17:38

up old cars he takes in, you

17:40

know, junkers and, you know, turns them around, and

17:43

that's that's basically how he makes his money.

17:45

As much as Kyle pretends, you

17:47

know, oh, he's all about sports because, you know,

17:49

dad that's what dad wants secretly.

17:51

His his passion is mechanics.

17:53

He likes to be able to get in there and, like, remove

17:55

all the parts to an engine. So 2 can see,

17:58

oh, this this fits in here, which means this, you know, does

18:00

this, which causes this to go. And he

18:02

absolutely loves that aspect. So let's

18:04

go over some of your stats here. So

18:06

your sixty strength deck

18:08

thirty is

18:08

fifty, so you're not super decks just about average

18:11

power sixty. So you had some pretty decent

18:13

willpower. Your education's forty five. So that's a

18:15

little on the low side. So maybe you're

18:17

just not super interested in

18:19

school. Appearance is fifty, so

18:21

you're kind of playing Jane. Constitution

18:23

seventy, so you're quite healthy. Size is

18:25

seventy five, so you are a

18:27

bean bowl. And your intelligence is forty. So I think

18:29

you actually mentioned in your traits

18:31

that you're curious. You have a

18:33

short fuse, not the brightest. And

18:35

reserve, but pretends to be outgoing. So that that

18:37

tracks with all your

18:38

characteristics. Whenever he's, you know, in school

18:41

or around, you know, his fellow teammates, it's all,

18:43

you know, oh, he's really loud or

18:45

really

18:45

boisterous, but when he's with his actual friends, he

18:47

tends to sit back and listen a little more

18:49

than he talks. Sanity is

18:51

sixty, so that's in line with your

18:54

power. Forty five luxe, so not the luckiest

18:56

guy in the world. I got you. Diving

18:58

into your skill set, charm is

19:00

forty. So that's kind of

19:02

what you said here. When you look at public

19:04

people, you kind of put out a different

19:06

face, climb is forty, so

19:07

athleticism. Credit ratings thirty five, so

19:10

maybe you guys aren't rich people

19:12

in the book. So we had a single dad living

19:14

off of a teacher's salary in

19:16

the seventies. We we get by with

19:18

what we

19:19

have. Electric repair is forty. Fast

19:21

talk is forty. Jump is forty.

19:23

Listens fifty. So you do like the

19:25

eavesdrop if you're being quiet around your friends.

19:28

Lock Smith is sixty, so maybe you and

19:30

Ben got into trouble back when you

19:32

were like nine or

19:33

ten. I was the one that

19:35

opened the car door and he

19:37

was the one that drove us away. Went for a little

19:39

joyride. There's your mechanical repair. You got

19:42

seventy in that. So, yeah, you are pretty adept at

19:44

cars. And then moving along,

19:46

slight of hand, fifty spot

19:48

hidden sixty. So you're you're kind of mirroring Ben a little

19:50

bit here. And stealth forty, throw his

19:52

forty. So we're gonna move on to Rosa

19:56

Garcia. Go ahead

19:58

and tell us about Rosa at Lupine. I'm

19:59

Rosa. I'm almost fifty

20:02

four long. I like to learn about the 2,

20:04

and I like school. I love

20:07

my parents, we mostly raise vegetables

20:10

and citrus to sell. The

20:12

animals are mostly just to feed us. We

20:14

got, like, chickens and some pigs

20:16

and stuff. And my dad and

20:18

Tomo, he goes to

20:20

the farmer's market in Lampak.

20:22

Every weekend. Carmen is my

20:24

mom. She keeps the home

20:27

together. She takes care of me, and

20:29

I'm an only child

20:31

I don't really like to talk about it necessarily,

20:33

but I had a twin brother.

20:35

His name was Gammel when he

20:37

was a year old he

20:39

had this really weird illness, sickness,

20:43

something they don't

20:45

really know what it That

20:47

killed him. I also love my

20:49

kittens. I have six of them. They're

20:51

little babies. They're little feral kittens

20:54

that my parents sort of just allow

20:56

me to keep. They just got a room around

20:58

the farm and they're good

21:00

mousers. So my parents' loam stay. I

21:02

like taking care of them and and

21:04

just like them little treats

21:06

and and dim as grudges. My

21:08

favorite subject in school is history

21:10

class because I really like learning about

21:12

history stuff and like archaeology

21:14

stuff. So But recently, I got

21:16

to watch, like, my first movie,

21:18

and it was really cool.

21:20

The actors and actresses were

21:22

so so glamorous and

21:24

they're really pretty.

21:27

And I really 2 be

21:29

part of that someday. The

21:32

film is supposed to be like centered in like Hollywood,

21:34

so we're not too terribly far

21:36

away. Right now, I just, you know, hang out

21:38

in my hometown with my buddies.

21:40

I'm usually the one

21:42

stopping them from getting themselves seriously hurt

21:44

because I don't know if you

21:47

may have guessed, but I may be the

21:49

smart one. I like

21:51

hanging out with these guys because they're cool

21:53

and everybody got a little hurt

21:55

in their lives. So it's it's nice

21:57

to have friends. My mom says I have

21:59

a I have a scar in my heart. Because of my

22:01

brother. Since we don't know what it

22:03

was that killed my brother, I guess

22:05

I'm really afraid of illness

22:07

this sort of time that you

22:09

have to spend getting better and everything

22:12

can change while you're trying to get better.

22:14

And like one time my dad

22:16

got sick he got laid up

22:18

for week and a half, and it was

22:20

really bad for

22:20

us. We didn't have a lot of

22:23

money that month. And we

22:25

had some trouble. And we're gonna just take a look

22:27

at your characteristics here. So strength is

22:29

forty five, you're not super strong, dexterity

22:31

is fifty, average. Power

22:34

though. You have eighty. That is a huge

22:36

boost to your sanity. Probably

22:38

among all you guys, Rosa has

22:40

the most potential for learning

22:43

some magic arts down the line.

22:46

Education is sixty five.

22:48

So, yep, you love school. Parent's

22:50

sixty, so you look better at these Jackalopes.

22:53

Hey. Constitution fifty.

22:55

So you're about middle of the road, so I

22:57

could see why you would think that

22:59

illness might be a concern that

23:01

you're probably always about that in some

23:03

way, shape, or form. Size obviously is

23:05

forty, so you're quite short, and intelligence

23:07

is sixty, so very

23:09

smart. Archaeology. Wow. Forty as well as history,

23:11

bolstered that up to fifty. So between those

23:13

two, you're very enamored

23:16

of things like egyptology and

23:18

ancient burial

23:18

grounds. I love all the stuff that's around

23:21

here, like buildings and the

23:23

paintings and all the art that

23:25

happens. Disguise, you have a twenty five

23:27

in that passing yourself off

23:29

as younger or older. You are at that

23:31

age where you could kinda do a little bit

23:34

of both. Library use is fifty, so you're also booked

23:36

learning, of course. And a

23:38

cult, you have a forty in that. So that

23:40

also helps reaffirm

23:42

that you're probably interested. You've

23:44

maybe stumbled across something that peaked

23:46

your interest in things

23:49

like magic. And also Ben,

23:51

you know, does a little bit of

23:53

amateur magic. You've sort of taken

23:55

that interest maybe he was this springboard for it,

23:57

but you've sort of gone down a little

23:59

bit darker path and maybe more

24:02

serious studies

24:04

of that. Type, persuade

24:06

fifty. You do have the capability

24:08

to have people come around to your way of

24:10

thinking. Cycle analysis forty.

24:13

That is something maybe you can

24:15

help with these guys, in particular, calming

24:17

them down, getting them to see your

24:19

side of things without having to

24:21

bend their arm too much and psychology

24:23

sixty, so that you're you pick up and

24:25

are well attuned to folks who

24:27

might not be completely truthful

24:29

to you. You may have to apply those in a

24:31

active sense rather than a passive sense

24:33

in certain situations, so you just needed

24:35

no window to step forward and say, will

24:37

do psychology to see if this 2 lying.

24:39

And finally, you have track, bolster that

24:41

up to thirty. 2, again, with your

24:43

archaeology, maybe you

24:46

you hiked out into these trails a bit and

24:48

tried to come up with some

24:50

explanations for a lot of the

24:52

rocky outcroppings in the wind caves,

24:54

especially to 2. And of course, you you

24:56

can speak Spanish. Sixty in

24:58

that, and you can also read lips.

25:00

Twenty one in read

25:02

lips. So that could also come in handy. Alright. I

25:04

think that is good enough

25:07

for our introductions for each of

25:09

the characters. But

25:11

there was something that I glossed over

25:13

that we need to talk about.

25:15

You will notice on your character

25:17

sheet in the other skills

25:19

there is something called the

25:21

reach. The the

25:24

The reach is a special

25:26

skill that only you three

25:29

have. It's a shared

25:32

power. You can intuit

25:34

the general area where

25:37

one of your fellow investigators

25:39

are currently if you concentrate

25:41

hard enough. The second

25:43

site is something that you have

25:46

collectively come to know as

25:48

the reach because you're attempting to

25:50

reach somebody who is not

25:52

in the immediate area.

25:55

The skill cannot ever

25:57

be recharged. So you

25:59

may not check this box when

26:01

you make a success. This will

26:03

only dwindle with time

26:06

because this represents your

26:08

innocence and openness as

26:12

a child migrating into

26:14

adulthood. So as we know as

26:16

already adults, the magic of

26:18

youth is lost to us over time. And

26:20

this will typify that

26:22

erosion. This skill check can

26:24

only be performed once

26:26

a day. It recharges at

26:28

midnight. Basically, if

26:30

you make a normal success, you can kind of

26:32

get the general idea of where they're

26:33

at. A direction and what

26:36

kind of environment they're in.

26:37

If you get better successes than

26:40

that, it's gonna pinpoint it

26:42

even more. Would be

26:44

sort of know whether it is safe

26:46

or not? In

26:46

certain success? Yes.

26:49

And failures will

26:51

indicate erosion. Does the person that's

26:53

being reached know

26:55

that they're being reached if I'm in a cave

26:57

and they don't know where I'm at and they

26:59

reach out for

27:00

Do I feel that they're reaching out for

27:03

me? I would think that there would need to be some

27:05

sort of conversant activity

27:07

on your part. So may maybe it's a simple

27:10

power rule. Yeah. I like it. Makes sense to me. Okay. I

27:12

wanna say power role from recipient

27:15

equals they are aware of

27:17

the

27:17

probing. Can

27:19

you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel

27:21

it? Call it Halo Reach. Oh.

27:23

Now I need to

27:26

assign you some secret

27:28

handout. Secret secrets there. No fun unless you share with

27:30

everyone. So I need each

27:32

of you to roll

27:35

please. I needed a forty

27:36

five. I got a ninety eight. That's a fumble. I

27:38

needed a seventy

27:39

five. I rolled a thirteen. That's an

27:41

extreme anti fumble.

27:43

I failed. World seventy eight over

27:46

forty five. This is information only you

27:48

know currently. What you do this information is

27:50

up to you. Feel free to read those

27:52

at your leisure and act

27:54

upon them how you like later

27:56

on. Now finally, we're going

27:58

to look at some maps, and I'm

28:00

gonna go over real quick here just the

28:02

general location where we're

28:04

at. First one up is going to be the regional.

28:07

Shows you basically California and you'll see a

28:09

red circle there, showing

28:11

you where Las Cruces is

28:13

located, so a bit north of Los

28:15

Angeles and south of San Francisco

28:17

San Jose on the

28:18

coast. Not too far from Santa Barbara.

28:20

Next step, we're going to move to

28:22

a local

28:23

enhanced. A little bit of the

28:26

Vandenberg Air Force Base to the

28:28

North West. Las Cruces

28:30

sits at the convergence of

28:32

US one and 101.

28:34

You see, Gabrieta State Park

28:36

is the big attraction in here.

28:38

Wampak is about twenty miles away. And then finally, we're going to

28:41

zoom in a little bit closer to the

28:43

2. Enhance. This actually shows

28:45

not only where the last cruise is

28:48

located, but also where the wind caves are

28:50

to the south of Las

28:52

Cruces. And Gavio to Beach is

28:54

where you guys would go

28:56

swimming from Las Cruces. To the

28:58

beach is only five miles, perfectly

29:00

within a bike ride. And then, of

29:02

course, to the northeast,

29:04

you can see there's a horse ranch and

29:06

a falls part. A lot of, again, outdoor

29:09

activities, enhance. And

29:11

then finally, here is a

29:13

close-up of your town

29:15

and the location of your

29:17

houses. This is for

29:19

anybody who's listening and watching. If you

29:21

go to 2 dot com

29:23

and go case fifteen, you'll see there's a

29:25

link to the map. I'm constantly updating

29:27

it, so there are some things on that live map that

29:29

are not yet on this static

29:31

image within no twenty, but this is enough for

29:33

us to go on tonight, and I'll constantly

29:35

update this as we go along. So,

29:37

Rose's farm is located

29:39

on the other side of one and 101

29:41

at the end of Gabrieta Park Boundary

29:44

Road. Kyle is a little

29:46

south on the other side, south of town,

29:48

but not too far away from town. Ben's

29:50

house is all the way at the far end of San Julien Road

29:53

before it turns into the dead end. 2 then,

29:55

of course, there is your club house which

29:57

is located right on the

30:00

verge of that is the boundary

30:02

of when town scrub

30:04

leads into deeper forestry. Uncle

30:07

John's house is quite to the north there,

30:09

easy bike right away. There's the Goods and

30:11

sundries store downtown, gas

30:13

station, there's the

30:15

diner, there's the church, and

30:17

then, of course, the school, and the

30:19

Ranger Station all the way to far

30:22

upper right. And then all the way to the east are some

30:24

cabins that are there for rental. That

30:26

also shows you all the tributaries

30:28

and all the different little creeks

30:30

and riverbeds And of course, the hot

30:32

springs is there to the southeast.

30:34

And those actually have

30:36

tributaries which end in

30:39

hot springs that you can bathe

30:39

in. Skinny

30:40

dipping in the hot springs. Hey.

30:43

So that is it as far

30:45

as background stuff, and we're gonna

30:47

right into it. The only thing I need to remind

30:49

you is that as you've woken

30:52

to this beautiful June

30:54

Saturday morning, first thing top of

30:56

mind is you've

30:58

promised each other to meet at

31:00

the clubhouse at eleven AM.

31:03

Ben, you wake up, and your mom has

31:06

already made breakfast. It's

31:08

a little after nine probably. She

31:10

welcomes you as you come down the stairs,

31:12

Yamini, and your jammies. Well,

31:14

hello. About time you got up?

31:17

Hey. Oh,

31:17

doing the

31:17

teenager thing already. Well, here. Maybe some

31:20

bake, it'll perk you up. I

31:22

lift my head and kind of follow my nose

31:24

to the table. Mhmm. And there is a

31:26

big old pile of bacon there. There

31:28

are also a fresh cados, a little bit

31:30

of sour cream, and a little dollop of

31:32

salsa. And I have

31:33

a kato

31:35

hate. Is that what you kids call?

31:38

Sarcasm, eye roll, look up at her and then

31:40

back down and focus on the

31:41

bacon. Do you want cream this morning or not?

31:44

Yeah. Cream. And she

31:46

pours two dollops of cream and two cups of

31:48

coffee and slides one over Georgia.

31:50

Splash mode. Come on,

31:52

you've seen worse. I got a meeting at the

31:54

clubhouse today. Are you guys just finished school

31:56

yesterday? Are you gonna meet today? It's

31:58

called freedom? You say that's what you fight

32:01

for, so I'm a use it.

32:03

Alright. Well, just eat your breakfast. That's all.

32:05

Oh, hang, I I think I got something for you.

32:07

Foot Foot Footship your breakfast Okay. I'll

32:09

be right back. And she strats off towards

32:11

the living room and you hear

32:13

her shuffling some papers around.

32:15

And she comes back sipping

32:17

her coffee herb called. He wants you to

32:19

stop around about four o'clock at his

32:20

store? Oh, don't be as smarty.

32:23

At goods in sundry, you know him? I

32:25

know.

32:25

I know. Alright. He said he might have some

32:28

deliveries for you to do so. Don't burn

32:30

this bridge. These are people we live with

32:32

appreciate you being on

32:33

time. Okay? Okay. What time do I have to be there?

32:35

Four o'clock, I can do there's the

32:38

note. I grab a couple piece of bacon, take a

32:40

couple steps up the stairs. Where are you going,

32:42

mister? I stop, and I

32:44

turn around. And I go back and I give her a

32:46

one arm

32:46

hug. Thanks, ma'am. Take my coffee

32:49

and run upstairs with the bacon. Alright.

32:51

Well, I'm gonna be Alright. I'll

32:52

be back sometime. And you hear

32:55

as you're getting dressed upstairs,

32:57

your mom gets in the car and

33:00

drives away. Remember that she was just gonna

33:02

simply run into a Lampak to

33:04

pick up some supplies. You got about an

33:06

hour to kick around before you have to meet the

33:08

guys and you're relatively close a

33:09

clubhouse. Is there anything else like to do? Yeah. I'm gonna start this this

33:12

summer off right. I'm actually gonna clean my room

33:14

up because I wanna I wanna

33:16

dive deep into that seventy five

33:18

and one electric when I get home after

33:20

running the errands. So I'm gonna clean off my

33:22

desk so I have plenty of space. And

33:24

as you clean the deep

33:26

audio music, That's why I need the seventy five and one

33:28

electrical kit because I took my

33:30

radio apart. And I don't

33:32

remember how to put it back

33:34

together. That's my evening project,

33:37

hopefully. I can get my music back.

33:39

Because you have no music,

33:41

you do hear the constant

33:43

lull of the

33:44

interstate. Nearby. Passes

33:45

the time though, I cracked the window open. It's

33:47

got a great breeze. It's gonna be a

33:49

beautiful day. You can just tell Saturday, shape it up

33:51

to be very

33:52

nice. So you finish your cleaning

33:55

and head out

33:56

to the clubhouse. Meanwhile,

33:59

Kyle, you wake up to

34:01

a silent house. For

34:03

a moment you imagine

34:06

that you smell

34:08

your mother's famous pancakes, but it

34:10

was but the wisps of a dream

34:14

dissipating. And

34:16

now you just smell laundry

34:18

that probably should have been cleaned a

34:21

week ago and the

34:24

waft of dirty dishes in the sink from

34:26

downstairs. You do remember

34:28

that your dad was

34:31

supposed to head to Los Angeles, but you didn't realize it

34:33

was today. You think he said

34:36

something about being gone for a few

34:38

days? Was it

34:40

a week? Can't quite

34:42

remember because you and your dad don't

34:44

communicate as well as you used

34:45

to. Take a minute and just kinda lay in bed

34:47

with my eyes open. Before

34:50

I stretch and swing my

34:52

legs over the edge of the bed, just grab

34:54

whatever pair of pants I can find on the

34:56

floor followed by whatever t shirt I can find

34:58

lying on the floor. And then we're

35:00

gonna go into the bathroom, and we're gonna just

35:02

brush our teeth and, you know, brush out

35:04

my hair because it can get a little bit unruly in

35:06

the morning. Before we head downstairs and

35:10

grab a box of

35:12

generic o's breakfast cereal because we

35:14

can't afford the good

35:16

stuff. Formmable open the fridge only to realize that dad forgot to go

35:18

shopping before he left, so we have no milk.

35:20

So I'm gonna stand there for a

35:21

minute, and I'm gonna reach and pull out a

35:23

carton of orange juice and

35:25

pour that in my cereal instead. As you pour the

35:27

orange juice over your generico's your

35:30

eye line drifts to the

35:32

answering

35:33

machine, which is blinking. On the kitchen

35:35

counter. Take a couple of steps

35:35

over and hit the play button mom just spinning orange

35:38

just serial into my mouth. So

35:40

you hit the button and you

35:42

hear that awkward squawk

35:45

beep thing. And then

35:47

a familiar voice comes out of

35:49

the tiny little speaker.

35:51

Pick up college or I'm with

35:54

John.

35:54

Just wonder if you're gonna be

35:56

around this weekend and what what

35:59

oh, I'm talking talking to

36:00

him. Alright. Adam, she

36:03

said Adam says come on

36:05

over for dinner

36:06

tonight. She's making some special,

36:08

I guess. Be around six. Right?

36:10

Right. Fine. Finish up my orange juice

36:12

cereal. Set the the bowl in the sink

36:14

with the rest of the dirty dishes. Think about

36:17

doing the dirty dishes. And

36:20

then I'm gonna head back out into the into the backyard to start throwing practice

36:22

drills 2 I know Daryl get all over me

36:24

if I don't keep up with my my

36:26

drills and my, you know, skill

36:29

practice, why he's gone. And I'm just gonna do that

36:31

until it's until it's time to leave to meet up for

36:33

the

36:33

clubhouse. And sure enough, the

36:36

time flies. As you

36:38

practice and hit the

36:40

center of the tire that

36:42

you're passing the balls

36:44

through. Why don't you go ahead and

36:46

give

36:46

me a throw rule? I needed a forty. I rolled a twenty three. That is a

36:49

success. The prospect of

36:52

having a decent

36:54

dinner tonight with m

36:56

and John gives you a

36:58

little bit of excitement.

37:00

You feel more awake now or maybe it's the orange shoes kicking in.

37:02

I don't know. And you you begin after a

37:04

couple fault starts, you you

37:06

start passing the

37:08

ball through you have a whole

37:10

bin of footballs just

37:12

sitting next to you and you you throw

37:14

through the tire time

37:16

after time

37:18

nailing it each time. And and in you grows that

37:20

sense that if only your dad could be

37:22

here to see this, he would be so

37:24

proud And

37:26

of course, the time comes when you gotta

37:28

go meet him, so you draw it on

37:30

off to the clubhouse.

37:32

Rosa, you hear lots

37:34

of clattering and lots

37:37

of commotion downstairs. Your

37:39

mom is clearly in full

37:41

swing with breakfast. She's let you sleep in a little bit. It's

37:43

a little past nine, ordinarily you'd

37:45

be up much earlier even

37:47

on a weekend. To

37:50

take care of the animals, and you know instinctively that your

37:52

dad has already left for the farmers

37:55

market with all

37:57

the wares. Thrown

37:58

a jacket, draw it downstairs. All in mind me.

38:00

Rosa, my baby. How are

38:02

you this morning? Good. It's

38:04

the first day of summer. I'm so

38:08

excited. We're gonna bake so many things together. We're gonna

38:10

really

38:10

shape up that garden, aren't we? Great.

38:12

Great. We

38:13

have so many projects

38:16

to do. I'm gonna make these boys today. Oh, the

38:18

boys. You know, maybe those

38:20

boys, they're they're a little bit of

38:22

a battered fluids on you? I

38:24

don't

38:24

know. Do you guys don't get any trouble, do

38:26

you?

38:26

Oh, mommy. I keep them out of

38:28

trouble. That's what

38:29

I do. That's my girl.

38:31

You keep these people on a straight narrow and

38:33

will be swimming in roses

38:36

as my grandmother used to

38:38

say.

38:38

Just like me, roses. Swimming

38:40

in roses. That's what you got your name. Grab some breakfast. It's all

38:42

there on the counter. I I did

38:44

make some fresh donuts this

38:48

morning. Load

38:50

up on carbs. And of course, your

38:52

mother being the generous cook

38:54

and baker that she is has

38:57

put out jalapeno cherry jelly that you

39:00

could dip the donuts in if you like. Oh,

39:02

yeah. As

39:03

you eat the donuts, and

39:06

wash it down with some milk. You do

39:09

hear the frequent meowing getting

39:11

more and more

39:13

ferocious outside. Mommy,

39:15

I have to go check on my kittens. Okay? It's your first

39:17

day, so go have fun. I'll see

39:19

you later. Bye, mommy. Home by dark.

39:21

You got to do

39:24

choice before dinner. No later at five o'clock. Okay.

39:26

Bulk back upstairs, put my

39:28

clothes on real fast, bolt down

39:31

and something in my room, so both back up, both

39:34

down. Kiss my mother

39:36

cheek on the way out the door. Go check on my

39:38

kidneys.

39:39

They are all meowing around the dishes that you

39:41

set out. So you got some water dishes and

39:44

some some food dishes, and and they

39:46

look like they either

39:48

want more food or

39:50

more kisses. And I will give

39:52

them both. The cats

39:54

become even more playful and begin

39:56

to roll around in the

39:58

sunshine and tangle with each

39:59

other. They're quite small. They're probably

40:01

maybe between nine and

40:03

ten months old.

40:04

I'll just play with the kittens and say hi to all the farm animals

40:06

before I go. So you say goodbye

40:08

to chickens, you have goats, the

40:12

queen goats, Jesse who just gave birth to kids

40:14

not too long ago, four of them. You know,

40:16

eventually, they will become dinner,

40:18

but not for a

40:19

while. Right now, you know,

40:21

living on the farm. They are more like pets to

40:23

you right now. I go give them little

40:26

pieces of grass because they love

40:28

snacks. You know 2 goats. They love

40:30

the

40:30

snacks. Any

40:30

tin cans in the storm. That's my philosophy.

40:32

And they will, in fact,

40:34

eat tin cans. You don't need recycling. We

40:36

have recycling at home. Big sure

40:39

the farm is, like, not that I

40:41

keep it together or anything, but just

40:43

make sure everything is in its place.

40:45

Was anything on fire You're

40:47

not there, so no. It was

40:50

one time.

40:50

Okay. I said I was sorry.

40:52

My mom will never forgive you

40:55

for

40:55

that. I will never forgive you. It was an accident.

40:57

But an entire hay bale, come on.

41:00

I saw it in the movie once. Okay. I thought it

41:02

would be cool.

41:03

Steve McQueen did it. So we'll

41:05

fast forward to you guys all meeting up at the clubhouse then.

41:07

It arrives

41:08

first, Kyle, not too shortly

41:11

after. And then, of course, Rosa.

41:14

What'd

41:14

it take you guys so long to get here? It's eleven o one. It's

41:16

summer. I just I had to check

41:18

on all the animals, but I'm here now. What are

41:20

we gonna do? What are we gonna do?

41:23

My dad would killed me if I hadn't gotten my number

41:25

of drills

41:25

in. He's really whole up tight about this

41:27

whole joint, a high school

41:30

football thing. Your

41:32

dad, like, what is wrong with

41:34

him? You're fourteen years old.

41:36

Do you have chance to

41:37

play? I I wish. He

41:40

almost went pro when he

41:42

was back in college. And now

41:44

he assumes that if he works hard

41:46

enough and by works hard

41:47

enough, I mean, pushes me. You know, maybe I can

41:49

go pro and he can kinda, you know, live off of

41:51

me for That thing where your

41:53

parents want you to do

41:56

what they wanted to do

41:58

with their lives. Yeah. It's

42:00

Yeah. My parents want me to take

42:02

over the farm and I just like,

42:04

I wanna go to college I

42:06

mean, I know girls don't usually go to college, but I wanna go to college. You

42:08

should go to college.

42:09

Yeah. I think it'd be

42:10

fun. And I could travel all over

42:12

the world. Well, my mom

42:14

wants me to be a mom. Wait. What? Can't do

42:16

that yet. It's the seventies, man. Okay. What's on the agenda

42:18

for today, guys? Well, has

42:21

there been anything exciting

42:24

happening. You guys are gonna hate it, but I

42:26

have this really cool piece of shale I found on

42:28

the way here. Check this out. Look how many layers

42:31

So

42:31

cool. Great. Oh my

42:34

god. It's a rock.

42:36

Seriously, you know I like

42:37

this. The it's like the history

42:39

of the world Kyle Quinn.

42:42

Some people appreciate it. I

42:44

grabbed this newspaper from Herb's Herb's on

42:46

the way here. Maybe there's something that

42:48

popped up in the local

42:49

around here sometimes. Did you got some

42:52

herbs

42:52

too? No. No. They

42:54

don't allow me in the back room.

42:57

Not yet. We

42:57

could go to the beach, we could

43:00

swing. We should definitely patch the roof

43:02

before we do anything else because this is gonna be our

43:04

hangout the whole summer. Yeah.

43:05

Okay. That makes sense. I was gonna suggest

43:07

using my piece of shale, but nobody likes

43:09

it. So I guess we'll go find some wood. I'm

43:11

just gonna start leafing through the newspaper looking

43:14

for any, like, weird stories

43:16

or, you know, strange things that are going

43:18

on in town. Then give me a spot

43:20

hidden. Kyle give me a library use.

43:23

Rosa, give me a

43:25

persuasion. For spy hit and I needed a forty five,

43:27

I got a seventy four. For library

43:30

use, I needed a twenty I rolled

43:32

a twenty 2? I'm gonna burn two points of luck to bring that down

43:34

to a

43:34

twenty, which puts me at forty three.

43:36

I got a fifty seven.

43:39

I needed fifty. 15 everybody

43:42

failed their first real roles.

43:44

Kyle used two points of luck to

43:46

try to bolster his

43:48

library use You do read lot stuff about

43:50

Vietnam is still a thing

43:52

that every newspaper is still

43:54

talking about. Chatter

43:56

about the Watergate scandal, they're pretty sure that Nixon

43:58

is gonna have to get out of the

44:00

White House. But more importantly, someone wrote in

44:03

and said that they have pictures

44:05

of something called Tahoetesi,

44:08

a sort of lochness monster

44:11

in lake Tahoe. And that of course captures your

44:13

imagination because if there's anything in this neck

44:16

of the woods that has peaked your

44:18

interest its recent

44:20

talk of weird

44:21

things, cryptids, aliens,

44:25

even zombies. Because you're

44:27

not gonna believe this. It says

44:29

in here that somebody actually got photos of Tahoe Tasei. Did

44:31

they publish them? Can we see

44:33

it? Did they

44:33

put the photos in there? Did they just write in and

44:36

say, hey, I

44:38

have photos? Yeah.

44:39

That that's just an eyewitness account. No photos.

44:41

Oh, come on.

44:42

Yeah. They don't think so.

44:46

I kinda have something

44:46

to show you guys. Do you wanna see it?

44:49

It's kinda weird and

44:51

I don't know.

44:53

Yeah. Now we have to. I mean, it's better than

44:56

sitting around here unless Ben over here

44:58

wants to use his rocks to fix a hole in

45:00

the roof.

45:01

I think that rock is a little small bend.

45:03

Everybody

45:03

says it's an average size. You

45:06

gotta, like, use a pump on that or

45:08

something

45:09

or rock pump. Follow me you

45:11

guys. It's not that far away. And I'm gonna take them to

45:13

the place where I found

45:16

an ammo

45:18

box. You know, whole log

45:20

in the forest near the clubhouse.

45:22

I'm a little bit embarrassed

45:24

because the ammo box has, like, adult

45:26

magazines in it. So I'm kind

45:29

of gonna, like, let's sort of, like, go

45:31

through those real fast. Try not to

45:33

let the 2 see that there's

45:35

this magazine that has, like

45:38

like, stories in it, like, scary

45:40

stories. Like, look at this.

45:42

I'm gonna show them my favorite

45:44

story, the one that I, like, don't want

45:47

to like, it's

45:49

called graveyard shift. And

45:51

it's about rats. And I hate rats.

45:54

But for some reason, I

45:56

just

45:56

like, you know, morbid curiosity, I

45:58

look at it. I'm like I

45:59

have been morbidious curiosity. The bogey is curiosity. It

46:01

just goes around and around and around. I'm going

46:04

bogeyans. Like, I mean,

46:06

this is an ammo box.

46:09

Do you know anyone around here

46:11

who, like, went to 2? Like,

46:14

anybody in the army? A lot

46:15

of people around here did I

46:17

mean, we're what? Your mom works at that

46:20

weird army place, doesn't she? It's not a

46:22

weird army place. It's a air force

46:24

base. I mean, we found this

46:26

clubhouse and claimed

46:26

it. So someone must have had it

46:28

before us. Right? Who someone built this

46:30

out here? We

46:31

never talked about who

46:34

built the a clubhouse. So

46:34

I'm gonna

46:35

examine the box that the magazines were in to see

46:37

if I can determine how old it is. We'll

46:39

say there are markings on

46:42

it that caused you a little bit

46:44

of concern, Kyle? Because Rosa actually asked, do we know

46:46

anybody who was in the army? And

46:48

even though you didn't, forthcoming

46:52

with it, you do know that your

46:54

uncle John came back from

46:56

Vietnam, not quite the same man

46:58

he was. Just a

47:00

few years ago. And

47:02

this ammo box does look

47:04

to be either Korean

47:07

or Vietnam era. That is

47:10

when you hear from behind you

47:12

about fifty yards at the

47:14

edge of the

47:15

forests, someone going

47:17

A very

47:24

familiar voice

47:26

calls out Hey, guys. Are you guys in there?

47:28

I I think I could see

47:29

you. Can I be part of the club tomorrow,

47:31

please? It's summer, come

47:34

on.

47:34

And you recognize the voice

47:37

of gertie, gertrude Cooney,

47:39

the little nine

47:41

year old tagalong.

47:44

Who has plagued you guys for many years now.

47:46

Always wanting to be in your club. I

47:48

put my hands straight out like everybody's

47:51

me

47:51

still. Don't move. I

47:53

can totally see you, Ben. I heard that nine

47:56

year old's vision is based on

47:58

movement. My mom says you can't

48:00

ignore me. The number you

48:02

have dialed is no longer in

48:04

service. Please hang up and try again.

48:06

We're sorry. This club is unreachable at

48:08

this moment. Guys, come on. Check back in a week.

48:10

We've got some repairs to do

48:12

first. If you bug us, we won't

48:14

let you at all. So

48:17

check back in

48:17

to OSHA requirements before we let

48:20

anyone else

48:20

in. It's an insurance thing, really.

48:24

Alright. Well, I guess you're

48:26

not interested in seeing the creature

48:28

then. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

48:30

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

48:30

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. The creature?

48:32

And she turns? she turns walking away. Tune

48:35

in next time

48:37

as we play another reel of the

48:40

Lovecraft tapes.

48:41

I'm excited and a little

48:44

bit nervous to see 2 creature.

48:46

I want the donuts.

48:47

I mean, it's not as good

48:49

as the orange juice Siri. Who doesn't

48:51

love orange juice cereal? I was gonna say

48:53

at least it wasn't blueberry because

48:55

blueberry with orange juice would have been

48:57

Hey, now. Think we

48:59

can afford blueberry? Was blueberry

49:02

around in nineteen seventy four?

49:04

Yes. A hundred thousand. But you

49:05

could only eat it with orange juice. Now it caused

49:07

your gums to bleed back then 2 I have

49:09

blue die number twelve. Now it's

49:11

time for hashtag room endos where we share some

49:13

of our geeky

49:15

obsessions. Lupine. Tell us your recommended, please. I

49:18

would like to recommend one of my favorite

49:20

books. It's called The City of Saints and Mad

49:22

Men by

49:24

Jeff Vandermeer. You might know the name because Jeffrey Revere is the guy who

49:26

wrote annihilation, hashtag, the book is

49:28

better than movie. Fight me. He writes

49:30

a lot on,

49:32

like, Novelis. So shorter

49:34

stuff. The city of 2 Mad Men is the

49:36

collection of, like, short stories that all take

49:38

place in the city called Ambergress. It's a

49:40

fictional city

49:42

that exists sort of out of our dimension. His

49:44

fiction actually reminds

49:46

me a lot of, like, this game.

49:48

Call of Cthulhu. It's just

49:50

kind of, like, awful a wall and

49:52

anything could happen next. You don't necessarily see what's

49:55

coming until it's already passed. It reads

49:57

a lot like an anthology, but I

49:59

like about anthologies as

50:01

you can read a little bit and then put it down. This

50:03

is just a really good book and

50:05

it will bend your mind in ways

50:07

that you did not know it would bend. Oh, and

50:09

then and then okay. So I have I

50:11

have another recommend though. Actually, three

50:14

more. I'd like to recommend

50:16

Jeremy and Brian

50:18

and Matt. Because you guys are awesome and you gave

50:20

me chance to be part of

50:22

this podcast that I love. I'm

50:24

just really honored to be

50:26

part of the

50:28

love car tapes

50:29

now. So thank you. Thank you very much, and

50:31

thank you for the record window. Appreciate that.

50:33

We'll see you, Matt. You're

50:35

up next. we going to start with this

50:37

little game that nobody has ever heard of

50:39

called Vampire Survivor. A really

50:42

minimalist game. You

50:44

spawn into your level

50:46

and you kinda walk around. Your

50:48

weapons that you have, you start with,

50:50

everything happens automatically. You literally

50:52

just walk around. There isn't a whole lot

50:54

of story to it. More or less what you

50:56

get is that, you know, the world has

50:58

ended in all these

51:00

different creatures from hell and all the different planes below have come

51:02

up. You pick your

51:04

hero, your character, you get a

51:06

starter weapon, And

51:08

from there, it's up to you to just survive.

51:10

So as you walk around your

51:12

chosen weapon and there are a lot

51:14

of different weapons at all, act in

51:17

their own different ways, does what it does and you kill enemies

51:19

and you collect XP and that levels you

51:21

up. And when you level up, you get

51:23

to pick either a new

51:26

weapon a new utility item or you can upgrade the weapon you're currently holding

51:28

to make it better, make it, you know, give

51:30

it a larger area of effect

51:33

make it do more damage, give it an

51:35

extra projectile. And as

51:38

simple as that sounds, the more you dig

51:40

into it, the more addictive the

51:42

loop becomes. Because you

51:44

do a couple of rounds and you you

51:46

know might you might survive for a little bit and you know,

51:48

oh, okay, that's not bad. And then you go back in with

51:50

a different person and you try a different weapon.

51:53

And you find, oh, I really like this.

51:55

And I started out with this going, oh, you

51:57

know, this this game costs five bucks.

51:59

There can't be that much to it. Turns

52:01

out there's a lot to it, and

52:03

I have spent at this

52:06

point, like, ten hours with it. So if you're

52:08

looking for an easy

52:10

to pick up game that's cheap,

52:12

that you're gonna be able to really sink your

52:14

fangs into and learn all

52:16

the in and outs and the the

52:18

minutiae of builds Vampire survivors

52:20

is a really good time. And

52:22

like I said, it's on steam and it's

52:24

only five bucks. You can also

52:26

play it on mobile. Like, they literally released a mobile port of the game

52:28

and I believe that that's free. So you can

52:30

play it on your phone if you want.

52:31

Alright. Thanks, Matt. And I am going

52:34

up next and I'm gonna

52:36

keep it very simple and succinct.

52:38

I am recommending a piece of technology

52:40

because I am an early adopter

52:42

of technology,

52:44

but for so many years and decades, I do have a bit of fatigue.

52:46

So I have to thank Brian

52:48

for giving me his old

52:50

four k TV set because

52:53

I would not have bought one otherwise.

52:56

I plugged it in and it just sort of

52:58

worked. And looks great. I

53:00

rented top gun Maverick,

53:02

my very first four

53:04

k movie in holy

53:06

cow. It was amazing. It

53:08

looked like being in a

53:10

theater. It was incredible. Crisp,

53:12

clear visuals. The cinema

53:14

settings worked exactly like you had

53:16

without any tweaking. I actually

53:18

It only tweaked them according to some website. And I was like, 2. This sucks.

53:20

Let's go back to the basic settings. And boom.

53:23

It looks just so much better. It

53:25

also works with my Sonos

53:28

surround system, so it just plugged in and it worked perfectly.

53:30

Beautiful. I recently hooked it up

53:32

to ethernet because it has an

53:34

ethernet port unlike my ancient Plasma

53:38

TV. And then I decided last Friday

53:40

to purchase the four k

53:42

version of Friday the thirteenth. And

53:48

it was incredible. I

53:50

was enthralled because they cleaned

53:52

up the original so well. It felt

53:55

like I was back in the eighties watching

53:57

it in the in the theater for the very first

53:59

time. It was amazing. At this stage, I

54:01

am looking forward to bolstering my library

54:04

with four k titles because I do have A4K Blu ray player

54:06

too that I bought purchased cheap

54:08

online. I'm so impressed with that with the four

54:10

k now that I

54:12

can actually display four k that I could actually get

54:14

those movies. So so check that out. If

54:16

you have the means, I highly

54:18

recommend

54:19

it. Brian, why don't you wrap us up here, buddy? I'm going to

54:22

recommend a real oldie, but it fits

54:24

in with our time frame. It's a

54:26

very very goodie. Money Python

54:28

flying circus.

54:30

I started watching that from the beginning on Netflix,

54:32

they have the entire series,

54:34

very political at the beginning.

54:37

With the war and everything like that coming out,

54:39

you know, Vietnam and all of that was

54:41

just starting when they at nineteen sixty nine,

54:43

they started they finished up about seventy four

54:46

seventy five. All of their

54:48

first season pretty much is

54:50

like British political. So I did some of

54:52

it I didn't get, but then they would cut

54:54

to like Hitler interviewing a soldier, like, what do you see your

54:55

qualifications? I was like, oh, okay. This is

54:58

great.

54:58

All the stuff that I've ever seen,

55:02

I was probably fourteen years old, maybe fifteen years old.

55:04

And I had just bought my first

55:06

TV, thirteen inch TV, and I had

55:08

rabbit ears on it, and I was able to

55:10

actually get

55:12

I think MTV was showing them at the time, so I was able to

55:14

get MTV on my tiny little black

55:16

and white TV, and I would stay

55:18

up till one, two, 2 morning

55:21

on school nights and watch Money Python fall asleep to the Fine Circus. So

55:23

this is bringing back tons of nostalgia for

55:25

me. It's relevant today. Their comedy

55:27

is still relevant today

55:30

that they were poignant on

55:32

then. So if you have a chance, if you've

55:34

never seen it or if you haven't, you just wanna check

55:36

it out again, definitely check out Minnie

55:38

Python's flying circuits on that

55:39

Flex. Thank you, Brian. And that's it for this episode of

55:42

Lovecraft tapes. Thank you for listening. Please

55:44

subscribe on whatever podcast

55:46

platform you prefer. If you like what you hear,

55:48

please leave a review.

55:50

Meanwhile, you can find us at lovecraftapes dot

55:52

com with links to our hashtag recommendos and

55:54

social media channels including Reddit, YouTube, and our

55:56

Discord server we could chat list in real time. You

55:59

can find me on Mastodon at

56:01

Lovecraft

56:01

tapes. And if

56:04

anybody

56:05

wants like some pointers on throw and footballs hit me up

56:08

on Mastodon at the real

56:10

weird kid. I don't have Mastodon

56:12

yet, but

56:14

I'm gonna get it because I didn't know that was a thing. Just to find

56:16

me on discord. I'm a I can pop in

56:18

and give a light turn

56:19

something. If you wanna join me and

56:21

look at anything in

56:23

a box, can my lintry at lintry

56:25

slash lupine med

56:26

data. Until next time. Roll

56:32

four. Rock

56:33

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56:36

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