480 - Hardcore Ecologist with Emily Hartford
Emily is one of the creators of Metra: A Climate Revolution With Songs, an original musical fiction podcast about how we change the world. The podcast weaves ancient myth, transformative magic, and memorable music to tell the story of a dangerous climate future, and the fight for the world we deserve.
In that same vein, we sat down to play Hardcore Ecologist, a game of wandering the weird Wastes, Wilderness and Ruins of the future world, making an inventory of the new life that has developed here in the centuries after a massive climate change cataclysm, surveying for specimens.
METRA: A CLIMATE REVOLUTION WITH SONGS: https://www.metrathemusical.com/
LISTEN TO METRA: https://pod.link/1843713183
HARDCORE ECOLOGIST: https://davidblandy.itch.io/hardcore-ecologist
ALL MY FANTASY CHILDREN: https://moonshotpods.com/all-my-fantasy-children/
PARTY OF ONE DISCORD: https://discordapp.com/invite/SxpQKmK
SUPPORT JEFF ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/jeffstormer
FOLLOW JEFF ON TWITCH: https://www.twitch.tv/gmjeffstormer
THEME SONG: Mega Ran feat. D&D Sluggers, “Infinite Lives,” RandomBeats LLC, www.megaran.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
[SPEAKER_01]: Part of people, welcome once again to the party of one podcast, the actual play RPG podcast where the gaming table is always set for two.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm host always Jeff Stormer, and this week on the show, I'm joined by Emily Hartford for a game of hardcore ecologist.
[SPEAKER_01]: Emily is a theater and media director, producer, educator, creative partner with Flux Theater ensemble serving on the faculty of playwrights, her eyes and theater school at NYU Tisch, and one of the creators of Metra, a climate revolution with songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Metra is an original musical fiction podcast about how we change the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: The year is 2043, the world's hot water is scarce, weather is unpredictable, and the fossil fuel industry continues to thrive.
[SPEAKER_01]: The wealthy are comfortable in their air purified, cooled, humidified, superbly hydrated bubble cities, but in a roadside bar on the outside, an unlikely group of revolutionaries is about to demand a new story.
[SPEAKER_01]: starring Tony nominee Janette Byardell and a Broadway New York City theater cast Metro Lee's ancient myth, transformative magic and memorable music to tell the story of a dangerous climate future and the fight for the world that we deserve.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can find more information about Metro including links as to where you can listen in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Given the topic of Metra on the show's focus, playing hardcore ecologists just felt perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: A solo module for the game EcoMophos, a game about navigating a world post-climate catastrophe and exploring what has been left behind in the wake of wide-scale climate change.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hardcore Ecologist is a game about wandering the weird-waste swirled in his zoom ruins of the future world, making an inventory of the new life that has developed in the centuries after the cataclysm, surveying for specimens and trying to find the answer for how you and your community can thrive in a world unrecognizable.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can also find more information about Hardcore Ecologist in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And with all that said, let's go and throw it over to me in the past so that he can get started with the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take a past me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Future May.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am delighted today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sitting now with Emily Hartford, Emily.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for coming on part of you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks so much for having me, Jeff.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am delighted.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think today's going to be a really wonderful game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been really looking forward to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But before we get into the game that we are playing today, why don't you take a moment?
[SPEAKER_01]: Let our lovely listeners at home know about what you've got going on that you might want them to know about.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey, listeners.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm really, really grateful for the opportunity to tell you about Metra, a climate revolution with songs, which is my new audio drama podcast, a musical audio drama podcast.
[SPEAKER_04]: I've been creating it with my life and creative partner, Ned Hartford, and it's a nine episode musical story set in a dystopian near future.
[SPEAKER_04]: It uses incredible songs, ancient Greek mythology, magic, and humor to connect audiences to the possibility of transformation, and a future perhaps rooted in climate justice.
[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, the episodes are releasing now as we record this.
[SPEAKER_04]: They come out on Wednesdays probably once you're hearing this They will all be out.
[SPEAKER_04]: We've got it's nine me it's nine main episodes and number of bonus episodes and and I'm really really proud of it
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes a title and a tagline is all that it takes to get me on board with a project and It's and I say that because what a fucking title and tagline pop truly like What a knockout punch of a you know you read like four words and you're like yeah, all right sure Let's rock and roll.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see where this goes
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and so I really cannot wait for people to go and check it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really excited and I'm also excited for us to sit down and play a game today because we are going to be playing in a lot of those same thematic playgrounds and places as we play hardcore ecologist, which is a solo RPG about
[SPEAKER_01]: traveling the world and discovering the the life forms and places that have emerged in a world post climate catastrophe a little the you know the intro text of the game uh... or of the game that it is based upon eco mofos is
[SPEAKER_01]: Around 200 years ago, everything went to crud.
[SPEAKER_01]: The wealthy who created this mess fracked off to Mars while the lucky ones hit in vast underground bunkers, we were left to fend for ourselves on the surface, eaking out an existence in the broken ruins they left behind, searching for the remnants of a past world to help us survive and searching for a place to call home.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are biologists, wandering the waste, wilderness, some ruins of the future world making an inventory of the new life that has developed here in the centuries after the cataclysm surveying for specimens and hoping that maybe the answer lies within the new life forms that nature has provided us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So talk to me about what it is that you're excited about, what is it that you're looking to get out of the experience?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, talk to me where your head's at or sitting down to play.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm so stoked.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, I'm excited for a bunch of things about this game.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, it, the parallels between this game and Metra are, um, are between this game, Metra, you know, and where we currently are as a society.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, so, so uncomfortable.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, a little bit, a little bit.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's a lot of all, you know, Metro is set way sooner than this is set, you know, and perhaps perhaps our conversation and listening to this podcast and living in the world will encourage all of us to have such a feature as this.
[SPEAKER_04]: However, I am so excited to discover some specimens and creatures I cannot wait.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm stoked.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like the vibe is incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: The energy is palpable.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm ready to dive in because I've got like there's a lot of tactile elements to this game that I'm very excited to be playing around with.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've already like laid them out in front of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got like my I've got my workshop to kind of like a guy through the experience.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm both grateful that you are in charge of these things and like sad that I don't have the set up myself because it does, it's such a collection of items to treasure.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, it's a real like, uh, uh, uh, I love, I love, uh, I love a gamey experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love when I get to have like the tactile experience of laying cards on a table and rolling dice in front of me and I'm gonna get to do a lot of things today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so thrilled about it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, we should also say I only learned about the concept of a journaling game within the past five months and I'm now obsessed with this concept and actually have a maybe making one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, let's go.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's maybe a journaling game and also maybe a work of theater and all of those things and is also about, you know, the earth, et cetera, as all things are for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so excited to hear this.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the energy that I, this is the energy that I chase after at all times.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so fired up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you have a mission in front of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have 10 days to explore the area around you before your community removes on leaving you behind.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have a journal to catalog the creatures and locations that you discover.
[SPEAKER_01]: You might even find a blade, a new home for your people.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to wander the space and we're going to describe the spaces that you see.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as we do, basically what that's going to mean is that I have a deck of cards here.
[SPEAKER_01]: each day, each day of these 10 days, you're going to take a number of actions, you're going to wander between places, you're going to catalog the things that you see, and you're going to occasionally solve trouble or put things right in the area that you are exploring.
[SPEAKER_01]: To begin, I've taken a deck of cards and I've mapped out like a 10 day cycle that basically is going to tell us like how the day is progressed, how long you have before your, the people that you were traveling with leave you behind.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's also in front of me the King of Hearts, which represents your home base, a clearing by a river, the place you should return to within the next 10 days.
[SPEAKER_01]: The rest of this deck of cards, including the Queen of Hearts, represent the environment around you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Queen of Hearts represents a blade, which is a tranquil space that would be a perfect place for a community.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other cards represent different like location types, clubs or wastes, areas of broken polluted lands, diamonds are ruined, places covered by the remains of the old world, and spades are the wilderness, places where air nature has returned and thrives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, what this is going to look like at the start of our play is we begin each day with the following ritual.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and take one deep breath.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are now in the world, hundreds of years, post-climate change, and we are exploring the world that has been left behind.
[SPEAKER_01]: We, you know, each day has six phases from dawn until the dead of night.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is too dangerous for you to travel during the night time in the dead of night, so that will be your time for journaling and resting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which means fundamentally you get to do four things a day.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it is dawn of the first day and I'm going to flip your first card to see like where you where you wander to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, you have wandered to the jack of clubs.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is a wasteland.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I am going to ask you to describe to me what you see, what this space looks like.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a, I'll give you the prompt and talk to me about like, uh, what details you are envisioning is added to the scene.
[SPEAKER_01]: The prompt here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Spirals of Rainbow Sand swirl across the landscape each dragon foot step leaving behind multicolored trails.
[SPEAKER_04]: With, okay, so we're on the sand, this rainbow sounds like dangerously beautiful sounds like, sounds like the remnants of like so much oil.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, so sounds, sounds like a world.
[SPEAKER_04]: where we are left with oil spills kind of just existing across the landscape.
[SPEAKER_04]: I wonder if we're on the sand, I wonder if we're near a body of water and I imagine that that's depressingly polluted.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and I'm interested in the description that's it's it's it's broken polluted land you know, I imagine like maybe some scrub scrub grass somewhere I bet it's pretty flat if it's like you know kind of sandy expand yeah yeah
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: This all feels great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wonderful.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you've arrived at this location.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a few things that you can choose to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the sun is getting higher in the sky.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are into the morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Each action that you take moves our day one phase forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in that so you've wandered into this new space.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've left your sort of campsite and found this sort of oil
[SPEAKER_01]: and uh... you can do a few things uh... so uh... actually there's something i need to do which is to see if there is trouble in this location hello roll a d6 oh that's a six immediately let's go oh boy oh boy uh... the timing could not be better uh... where's our trouble table let's see what we've got here
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, creature effects.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know there's a there's a thing for trouble.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And where it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trouble in each biome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Great.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you've arrived in this, like, this, this rame, this, like, uh, almost ira-descent, like, oil-slipped, uh, sand-be-cove.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because this is, uh, clubs are because these are waste.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna roll it another d6.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's gonna tell us, like, what is waiting here for you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or what the challenge is in this space?
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, it is, oh, oh, oh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, oh, interesting, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see the prompt that I rolled.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to describe to you the trouble and I want you to talk and we'll start to talk through like how we How you resolve it or like how you maybe even you resolve yeah, how you resolve it, how you said it right, how you avoid catastrophe.
[SPEAKER_01]: there is a oil slick is exactly right because I think there is like a large there is like a chunk of a large impossibly large ship unclear if it is a plane or a boat or a spaceship one of the the ships from the before times from the old world is like buried into the side of this rocky cove
[SPEAKER_01]: And like I think like you can tell by the placement of the sands that like a roving windstorm has like unearthed this chunk of ship it's
[SPEAKER_01]: unclear to me immediately how large we're thinking but like the thing is like you can feel sort of the the slick or the you can feel sort of the
[SPEAKER_01]: Sticking is almost or the the or the the sheen of oil like on the the soles of your feet as you walk through this like a thing and what you see That has been exposed because the wind has exposed the sheet of metal that has been buried under the under this the sand for a while Is the bright cloudless sky above
[SPEAKER_01]: is shining directly onto this chunk of metal that is moving slow that has created effectively a gigantic or at the very least person-sized magnifying glass point that is
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, shit.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_04]: We got to clear this trouble.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: What a first day.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a first.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a first.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a first situation to emerge.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: We got this.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm imagining like some kind of broken down billionaires yacht, you know.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: The climate catastrophe not save it.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're they're wealth not saving them from from the catastrophe.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know the media luxuries that they left behind when they just kind of disappeared off-world.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, just another item for the Pacific Garbage Patch, but instead it's ended up here and it's shining, it's shining a light on some stuff that seems like it's really about to catch fire.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: What I'm going to do
[SPEAKER_04]: I think I want to do is look around for like any kind of vegetation like any any little like poking up a bit of scrub and see if I can find some like real dirt.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like is it possible for me to get some non-oil soaked dirt and like get up to where the sun is blazing on this piece of metal and somehow like smear it on and cool it down and like oh that's really great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like there's got to be like at the very like, you know, if you're if you're not super far from like a river, like there's probably also like geeky, not just dirt, there's probably river mud, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you could probably like, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So now what's gonna happen is you have three luck.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's gonna happen is I'm gonna roll a D6 and you're gonna test your luck to see how effectively you can solve this, you can clear this trouble without getting injured.
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... i've got bad news for you know uh... so you you you manage to uh... like cake you you you may live your successful in your attempt to clear this trouble right like you you know to grab the you know to grab the mud you know to like smear it onto this onto this uh... sought the ships hull or whatever is jutting out of these rocks but in the process like you are
[SPEAKER_01]: You are hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something goes wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: Talk to me about what that is and what that looks like.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's what it's gonna happen is it's gonna take some extra time and probably resolve the end of our first day.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, man, I imagine, okay, go to this riverbed.
[SPEAKER_04]: I get this mud, this is great.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like this is some juicy mud, this is gonna solve this problem.
[SPEAKER_04]: We get to the ship, we like,
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, maybe we got to get up a little high, you know, we like shove a rock over to step up and reach up and and get this mud smeared.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think it's like I think it's like a slipping situation.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think it's a little jagged piece of metal somewhere on the way down, you know, that some kind of like really dumb cut.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, on the forearm or, you know, someplace that's just like, if it were 2025, you'd rinse it out, you'd be okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: You might have a cool scab for a little bit, but it's probably real not good right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: 100% great.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think crucially, like, um, you know, you're kind of as your sort of like nursing this wound and staring upward like you see the sun continue to like rise into the sky and get to that sort of high noon position.
[SPEAKER_01]: And uh, you kind of watch it, uh, like you watch it go overhead and you watch what you send up
[SPEAKER_01]: it it doesn't just it doesn't just pass over what it ends up doing and what you've what you've set up here you know uh it's a it's a cold comfort it's cold comfort with the with the wound that you've got and the uh I'm certain it doesn't feel great but you do at least get to watch like the sun not just pass over this uh make shift covering that you've placed
[SPEAKER_01]: it dries that mud, like it goes from being, you know, like a smear to a coating or almost a crust to a point where it's going, like it will at least be some time before, like before all of this gets blown away and like you've, you've effectively kind of re buried this chunk
[SPEAKER_01]: no fire you've you've averted the fireball beach uh and um as day turns tonight uh you know uh this is sort of where you end your day uh
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the you end your day.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it what is your what is your campsite like where are you where around where on or around this beach or you kind of setting up your setting up like camp for the night?
[SPEAKER_04]: yeah yeah it seems like the it seems like the river like by the river is probably the safest place to be I don't want to be like want to be as far as I can from those you know oil fumes I think uh yeah so I think I've got some kind of setup close to maybe maybe like a
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got your little space and, you know, rest comes, talk to me about this is the phase where you would be where this is the journaling phase of the game and so rather, rather than have you write as spontaneous journal entry, I'll just say like, what's on your mind?
[SPEAKER_01]: How are you feeling?
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you thinking about the sites that you've seen, the things that you've done today?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, give me the, give me the, give me the, the off the
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, this is not what I expected or wanted from the first day.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I feel like this kind of, okay, I'm a biologist out on out on this mission.
[SPEAKER_04]: First of all, all by myself.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, you know, it's some sort of end.
[SPEAKER_04]: whatever my community is, whatever my society is, they're apparently leaving me after 10 days.
[SPEAKER_04]: So this is not like, I'm not feeling like I have like access to these strong, any strong bonds or care.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, there's no.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's no camp mate to like, to help with this dumb cut I've got on myself.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I imagine it's like, it's feeling a little rough, like, am I, am I in the place where where I'm like, was this a bad idea?
[SPEAKER_04]: Should I be here, um, what kind of, you know, what, what kind of situation have I gotten myself in, what kind of situation do I have to go back to?
[SPEAKER_04]: was this all just dumb.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's credible.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm loving this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so as you rise and shine, we begin an hour.
[SPEAKER_01]: This dawn of our second day.
[SPEAKER_01]: I should know for time purposes.
[SPEAKER_01]: We probably won't get through all 10 days.
[SPEAKER_01]: We might call it at five days.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see how we go.
[SPEAKER_01]: What happens?
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... however we begin the dawn of our second day which means that you will wake in on this like oil soaked beach uh... newly protected from becoming a gigantic beach's eyes via ball uh... you know you you you hear the battling of the river behind you
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... and you've got a few options like you can continue to travel and sort of see what a joining areas there are or while you're here on the beach uh... you can survey for new specimens uh... you would that would get means you can like see what things are what things are living on this beach or what the what the creatures here look like great yeah yeah i think my scientific mind once wants to check it out before i
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, great.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you spend your morning, Dawn, what are our, what are our time?
[SPEAKER_01]: Dawn shifts to morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: The sun begins to rise in the sky.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you spend your time like surveying for new specimens, which means I'm going to gather a bunch of dice.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, you've got a four, and a six, and an eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a four, six, eight, 10, and 20.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I'm so obsessed with dice aesthetics that it's very important to me that I find the right way to make the dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice dice
[SPEAKER_01]: Great, I'm going to roll a bunch of dice and I'm going to take you step by step through what it is and you talked to me about like what you are what you are seeing here you have found a first the first thing I'm going to do is roll this ten side of dice that will tell us the rarity of the object that we are looking at.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is a six.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a this is a not on this is a common, but like a six is for one to six is common, so this is a common object, but like the least common of the comment like this is right on that line.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what we are looking at what you are kind of as you as you explore this space.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a flower the flowers feature is.
[SPEAKER_01]: five is a stringy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's color.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's color.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a red stringy flower.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, oh.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That changes things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it subtly vibrates.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I knew this area was worth checking out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can also tell you if you would like to know the taste of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've not rolled this yet, but I do won't be able to tell you the taste of it if you would like to know whether or not you eat it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I don't think I'm tasting it.
[SPEAKER_04]: After the night I've had it, I don't think.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's plus like a red vibrating thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna find out about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then listen or know that I know how this plant is and I will not say it on Mike.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it's like, I wanna know, but I know that biologist me is not gonna do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate that a whole lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so like you have you have found this is the this is the kind of flower that is blossoming on this on this beach.
[SPEAKER_01]: Talk to me about like I guess I'm curious like you know this is this is Jeff asking an actual biologist questions about the random the random dice results that I've rolled what might prompt something like like is that do you just that feel like it's a defense mechanism like the vibration is the thing that feels to me the most like hey something's going on here
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's like, okay, and we're imagining, are we imagining that I've never seen any of these things that I find before or that I'm familiar with some of these things, do we think?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a, this is, I feel like my thought process and maybe I'll throw this to you because like how I interpret.
[SPEAKER_01]: how I interpret the rarity of these things is like as a biologist common at the very you may have never seen like the the plant these particular variations but like common certainly feels like a thing that like you would have a baseline for yeah you know unusual definitely feels like a unusual feels like a I maybe have seen something related to this but I've never encountered this variation before
[SPEAKER_01]: And rare feels like I ain't never seen anything like this before my fucking life.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, great, great, great, great, great.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, all right, so this is, it's like a, it's probably like pretty, a pretty exciting find because like, it's, it's relatively common, but it's so strange that like, maybe if I haven't done much surveying yet, maybe this is the first like, in person, maybe I've only
[SPEAKER_04]: studied or seen like specimens brought back or something like that um so I think it's I think it's a pretty cool find for the second morning maybe feels like a little redeeming because like it's it's got these it's got these stringy pedals the thing is vibrate yeah I imagine the
[SPEAKER_04]: like it's either warding off some kind of like parasite that would otherwise land on it or it's, or it's, you know, like a Venus fly trap situation, you know, or vibrations are like reaching out for something to pull in.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's really great.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that it's, I like it's shake.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you said shaking off a parasite, kind of where my brain immediately goes, is that like, this oil's been soaked into this sand for a very, very long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: This, that feels like that feels like a very easy, like, adept, like, a plant that has gained the ability to like shake the oil stick off of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Feels, feels naturally prone to surviving in this environment.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, and so I think I envision, do you envision this as like a as like these flowers are fair between or is this like a field of these are you envisioning like a wall of these flowers along some rocks.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's like little pops of them, you know, or it's like a lot of kind of waste feeling and like it's hard to see all the living stuff in this place but then these just like these pops of red.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really adore that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, what a nice, what a nice visual to add into this like oil slick to beach with these pops of like vibrating red scattered throughout.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so the day continues to lay out in front of us more and Dawn has turned to morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, you once again have a few options.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can move on from the space.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or you can keep exploring and see what kind of natural look kind of not just what kind of plants are here, but also what kind of creatures are present on the beach.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, I think let's oh, oh, wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right, so since Right, I could look for a creature.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, okay, yep, yep, yep, let's keep looking.
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to see if we can find a picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got a bunch of dice that I'm going to roll is going to be very satisfying audio for the list or get ready.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that, that hits, that hit really hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, we're looking at another.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a common creature.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is probably something that you've seen before, at least a variation of something you've seen before.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what we are looking at on this, on this, what we are looking at here.
[SPEAKER_01]: is, uh, oh, it's a beetle.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are looking at a kind of beetle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, it is a very delicate, it is delicate, bodied and, uh, color-wise, roll again for, oh, it's got spots.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, inch mmm, always love this I'm gonna throw this to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: This I'm so I'm giving handing this to you as as biologists to sit with this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, I also know what it tastes like because that's all of these tables.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna say it out loud.
[SPEAKER_01]: But well, actually I might end up saying it out loud because of what I also rolled here.
[SPEAKER_01]: what is what what do you take a like red like a beetle being common to this kind of environment having what it says red spots and so my brain goes to the same shade of red as these plants like what is that say to you would you envision this environment?
[SPEAKER_04]: It seems like this beach must have been, must have just been oil-slipped for so, so many decades.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, it's sort of inseparable from the sand at this point, because you've got these organisms that are like, that are co-evolving in this environment.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, yeah, the red spots the color of the flower and the color of the beetle.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what stands out like, this is one of those, this is one of those.
[SPEAKER_01]: The dice have given us a very, a very interesting parallel, which is they both have the same like distinct red to them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean, maybe it's, it's some kind of thing that's like,
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, I might throw it on you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, go for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was gonna say, if you spot this beetle after taking time, you're really intricately study one of these flowers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that to me says it's maybe a camouflage thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it is, did they are spotted in a way that looks like the inside of this flower?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so like you kind of tap one of these flowers and like one or several of these beetles sort of like flutter out.
[SPEAKER_01]: to kind of that they are like they are living within these with in these flowers as a natural habitat.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's great.
[SPEAKER_04]: And let's say let's say this, you know, it's a common beetle.
[SPEAKER_04]: I've seen it before.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's say that I have like red.
[SPEAKER_04]: If not, I don't think I would experience it myself, but I have red what these beetles taste like.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's incredible that you say that, because there's a table of like common creature effects.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, and not, and the, the result that I rolled on that table is fascinating because I did roll tasty, so like, this is not just a beetle, this is a delicacy beetle, but the thing that's, the thing that's wild here is that the taste that I rolled is staggy, so like,
[SPEAKER_01]: green tasty to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so like if I'm looking at those things in combination, you know, dodgy being like heavy, uh, dull, almost joey, what that says to me is that this, this is a beetle that like,
[SPEAKER_01]: has a taste that is like warm warm like a warm joey bread all this is like this is a this is a bready yeasty flavor and it's like it's something that is this pointy to it's like a warming sustenance.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean I think I got to eat some of these beetles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, what do you what you you catch some of these beetles?
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, what are you what are you making out of them?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you just kind of like snatch enough and snacking on them or are you crushing them into a paste?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what is what is the what is the preparation for this sort of this this bread beetle look like?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: So if they're a bunch of them, let's say, you know, I'm popping, I'm popping a few of them in my mouth, just just to get some protein and some comfort on this on this solo morning.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then if I can collect a bunch of them, maybe it's like,
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, you know, at night over the fire, there's, there's like some kind of makeshift pan, you know, some like piece of metal over the fire with like a paste of beetle mash on top of it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, you know, just warmed enough to, to almost taste like bread.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, structurally like structurally and visually like what I envision here is like if you're taking the paste and you're like cooking it on a grill like structurally like what I'm envisioning is basically almost like a non like it's that it's that kind of like you've taken the paste you've cooked it and it's kind of like taking that sort of doughy shape and honestly that like a friend like a
[SPEAKER_01]: crazy like delicious.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a hell of an evening.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you've got this.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got I think like you have you have prepped this.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a really lovely like midday meal as you kind of look onward and start to say like where do you want to travel to next?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so it's so okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we found we found some stuff here.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, shall we try to travel to somewhere near.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I've got these cards in front of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm laying them out into into a grid format.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got your your communities like the community area, you know, where your community is resting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, is to your, is to your east?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want to go east?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want to go back east?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want to go north or do you want to go west or south?
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's go north.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have flipped the two of diamonds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Diamonds represent a belief they represent ruins.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I remember correctly, diamonds are ruins areas covered in
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... areas covered in the remains of the old world uh... the day has advanced into twilight like the afternoon has given way to twilight and uh... and you have arrived at the two of diamonds i will tell you what the prompt is and talked to me about what the visual looks like uh... a building rises high covered in moss inside a jungle of brambles in
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, this is cool.
[SPEAKER_04]: I feel like this is probably really fascinating, you know, any chance to get to kind of poke around in in like an ancient structure and to try to figure out what maybe it was used for and and also I think I'm probably really fixated on like what
[SPEAKER_04]: What kind of organisms can use this type of shelter, this types of materials?
[SPEAKER_04]: So I think, you know, I think I'm being real careful because I'm still kind of kicking myself for yesterday.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I also really want to like climb over some shit and poke around in the
[SPEAKER_01]: great um i've rolled for trouble um as you are poking around you know we see you uh you know upturning some rocks and and passing through ferns and you know there's this moment where you move to plants aside and you are confronted with nothing it's perfectly or a day uh it's perfectly safe
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so you've got a little bit of time left.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the sun has begun to set in the afternoon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want to cry and try and spot maybe a creature or a plant that might be might be living here?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, let's find something.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want to, do you want to survey for a creature or a specimen?
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, the, the moss is so intriguing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's look for a specimen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's look for a specimen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to roll my big junk.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, big chunk of dice.
[SPEAKER_01]: very satisfying noise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see what we got.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, an eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is an unusual, this is an unusual form of quest.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is maybe not something you've directly seen before.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you've read about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you've seen something, you know, familiarly related.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and what we are looking at.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I rolled moss, which is great.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like this is that, you know, as you're getting, as you're really getting close and studying this moss, this, uh, you can kind of see that like, it has this deep, uh, oh, great.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, uh, the closer you get the darker it appears to the point where it's this really thick, like black moss, it is, um, it is, uh, you know, the, and it is,
[SPEAKER_01]: Moss, but almost like grass, like there are individual strands to it that you can almost like point to.
[SPEAKER_01]: It has this like similar kind of stringy texture to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what did I roll?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So talk to, I'm going to ask you for this detail as you kind of get into it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Talk to me about what is particularly pretty about this about this moss.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'd say like, okay, you know how when you find an oil slick, beautiful, it kind of, I don't know if you feel this way, but it's like, you see these gorgeous colors and then it hurts a little that you find it beautiful.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is like that, but without the, without the pain, because it's like
[SPEAKER_04]: gets this like sheen to it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I imagine and and I all throw in my own my own attachment to moss that we can put on my biologist which is just this like
[SPEAKER_04]: feeling of ancientness, you know, this feeling of primordialness and all of this, you know, all of this catastrophe has happened.
[SPEAKER_04]: But here's this species that who knows how many millions of years it's existed or evolved and here it is in this like I'm picturing kind of a like a lush soft carpet shiny carpet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is great.
[SPEAKER_01]: The joy of just getting going to be like, here's a weird thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Talk to me about what's cool about it.
[SPEAKER_04]: It is incredibly satisfying because I am so intrigued by these journaling games as we go.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm making little doodles of the things we find.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so excited to hear this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I
[SPEAKER_01]: if you if you feel comfortable doing so would like to send me a photo of these doodles afterwards, I think I the listeners would be delighted by this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I truly think this would be a gift.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm an I'm an avid but not skilled doodleer and the moss is currently maybe looking a little too much like sperm but you know it's it's also really make me happy so.
[SPEAKER_01]: you know what it's it's about the it's about the it's about the honesty of the doodle I think is really like for me it's about intent and I think like it's about capturing what's in the mind's eye at the moment and that is really having great so like you've you've you've you've you're seeing you know you're in this space and like what I think is so great about like
[SPEAKER_01]: ending the day in this space is like I want to ask the question that I want to ask you as we kind of wrap up day two right as we kind of find ourselves uh like find yourself setting up camp for the night I want to ask you this because I don't think that you're I don't think that our unnamed biologist which uh you don't know if you had a name for your character in mind but also I'm fine keeping them unnamed it just kind of allowing the experience to carry us
[SPEAKER_01]: What I want to ask you, because I don't think that your character would fully like be cognizant of where you have set up camp or where you are, where you are bunking for the night.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is an old converted high rise, you know, hearing like ferns and moss, like
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the bill?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what space in an office building have you found to set up your camp?
[SPEAKER_01]: And how has that space become unrecognizable in the world that you are in now?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we've got north of this river to high rise.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, I imagine it's actually like
[SPEAKER_04]: as a high rise, even pretty old by like our standards outside the game, because I have a feeling like these newer glass buildings are just, you know, they're just going to crunch themselves down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, sure, 100%.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's like, it's like a lot of it's like thick walls and maybe it's this like,
[SPEAKER_04]: ancient art decolaby that's like, okay, I like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, kind of broken down elevators on the other side of some, some beat-up turnstiles or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... and what i think like uh... detail that i want to add to that uh... as someone in a city with a tremendous amount of like old art deco buildings uh... i'm thinking about like a lot of the building layouts in fillet alvia and a lot of the light uh... what i think is added to that in maybe uh... going back to what makes that that must so beautiful is like
[SPEAKER_01]: there's an incredible kind of color contrast if we think about like a really rich black moss because like a lot of these like art deco things are were brass and that means that that means that in the years after especially in a space where humidity has taken hold and where moisture has taken hold like
[SPEAKER_01]: they have oxidized into that statue of liberty, esk green.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you get this really rich, dark like, almost, like you said, like a shag carpet almost, esk of moss set against this like really sort of like focifome green like roasted grass.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's probably a beautiful place to camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, what an incredible sight to camp.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, and so like that's where you've set up shop, you know, you've got some extra some extra beetle bread And we come to the next morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can continue to survey in this space.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, this is the start of day three
[SPEAKER_01]: Dawn breaks which means that like you see the sun like pierce through some of these either like surviving windows or more accurately like open window pains where the glass is long since like shattered through and like The day has greeted you do you want to keep surveying this space or do you want to travel somewhere else?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, let's let's see if we can find any creature now that it's light out now that we're not like finding out what we're sleeping next to maybe now it will will be okay finding a creature.
[SPEAKER_01]: That feels right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That feels right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it that that I'm just making sure that when you do a thing trouble is not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Crumbled the trouble only starts when you first move into an area, but There are now two wilderness guards on the field and every time two wilderness guards are on the field The things that you're studying get weirder, which means now I'm rolling 2d10 for rarity and taking the highest result Let's go pick satisfying pick satisfying roll of the dice We have
[SPEAKER_01]: This is another unusual, this is another unusual creature.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is another creature that maybe you've read about, maybe you have heard seen something related to, but not something directly that you've seen before.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is another kind of beetle or crawling insect.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can describe the general structure of it to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But like, what we are looking at is, uh, oh, I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonna ask you this.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you here before you see them?
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, like, it's a skittering, but they're so small and there are a lot of them that it's almost like, like a low rushing sound.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I love that because the the the feature that I rolled is noisy and so like the idea that you hear like a rushing wind or like I think even taking it further like that's the thing that wakes you up right like you are woken up to
[SPEAKER_01]: what what you think might be like a rainstorm blowing through the windows of this old high rise but then you realize is the the unmistate is like the rush of like the whistling kind of rush of this of this of like a school of this kind of insect and you
[SPEAKER_01]: What I would just write is like, like, yeah, thousands of anti-sized, like the color that I rolled here of thousands of, like, I'm gonna take it a notch further than what is on the, what is on the color result, neon highlighter yellow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Incredibles, specks of light that are most sort of glow.
[SPEAKER_04]: I had to get my highlighter out.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is great.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, neon, neon wave.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like a waking up to like a glowing wave outside the tent.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is an uncommon creature.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so therefore,
[SPEAKER_01]: What indicates to you, what indicates to you that this is not these beetles are poisonous if ingested.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it's like gloomy, it's not like constantly, constantly illuminated, firefly color.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just like waving over the moss, like a tiny, like just like a glowing carpet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That feels that feels that feels great like what is it and and we skipped over we skipped over the the journaling or the head space last time like talk to me about like talk to me about like what's on your mind is your watch you're seeing these things and like what the experience has been like Exploring this this this high rise in this building space
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, this, I feel like last night I got myself together again, you know, like I'm feeling more competent, I'm feeling like, okay, there's stuff to be discovered here.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is, this is the work that I'm supposed to be doing and, you know, and I can do a good job at this.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I feel like going to bed, arm seems to be healing, so that's good, you know, to be
[SPEAKER_04]: gentle pattern.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to assume that there's not like a bug freak out impulse in this biologist, but the sound of this, of this soft rushing, and then, you know, I open the
[SPEAKER_04]: a pretty portentious feeling, and pretty wonderful way to start the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that given that we are, we are moving to our next location, I'll say this, like, do you follow the, do you follow the Beatles?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you go a different path?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think they are rushing in a specific direction, are you going to follow?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you going to go a different direction?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what's your vibe?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think we can leave them behind.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think, you know, I think we've catalogued them.
[SPEAKER_04]: We've had this experience.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to let them have their day and go somewhere new.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, east, east, north, or west.
[SPEAKER_04]: OK, so we came from the east.
[SPEAKER_04]: We went north.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's head west to get further away from the folks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, we are back in the wastes, we are back in the, uh, we are back in the wastes, and, uh, this is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, um, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: The ground here is a field of angelating black glass cracked in places where green grows through.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, all right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Undulating glass and what the hell is that?
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, is this some kind of, it's like some kind of chemical reaction that is happening in our new atmosphere where, now this is there many, venting, many micro ecosystem that we're walking through, but like, you know, can we imagine that this is like,
[SPEAKER_04]: some kind of lava field where the new elements of the atmosphere over the past 100 years have like made the the volcanic rock smooth and shiny.
[SPEAKER_01]: That feels great.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: this grip this this rip I keep getting distracted because you keep saying things that are just really cool and I get so like I'm getting so excited this is that rips yes I love that and there is like this like green you know green poking through this like this dark shiny volcanic shiny but also kind of like if it's undulating it like kind of spongy at the same time
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, which I think is fascinating like walking on, imagine walking on on X or marble, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it moves, but it moves like you are walking across a water bed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where my brain goes reading this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there is like, there are like blades of grass or like plant life is cracking through or poking through.
[SPEAKER_01]: The almost like, almost like the sponge holes in in this rock.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I feel like this is one of those moments where you're just like, I am that grass.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm gonna make it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to put this into your world because you don't have to stop here, but at the same time you could, do you want to keep, do you want to, do you want to explore this space or keep or keep moving through this environment?
[SPEAKER_04]: um okay i mean i mean this environment is so cool but but i'm like hungry now for for more environment so let's say i've let's let's imagine i've seen this grass before it's so freaking cool it's coming out of this i you know stuff some spongy obsidian in my pocket but let's keep going
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, I'm going to drop this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to say you like wander to the south.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm putting this card here and you have arrived.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's spades are spades are wilderness areas.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're nature has returned and thrives and this is the 10 of spades.
[SPEAKER_01]: You pick your way through thickets of thorns.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trees growing up through tangled nests and rabbits darting back into their burrows.
[SPEAKER_03]: Awesome, that's exciting.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right, so I've got some kind of trusty knife hacking my way through the, through the thicket.
[SPEAKER_04]: I've got wearing smart clothing.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not gonna be taken by these,
[SPEAKER_04]: Ricky mistakes again, so I've got my limbs recovered and protected from the briars and yeah, just make them away through so excited to be with some what feels like nature.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm writing, would you like to study some plant life or animal life?
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got a little bit of time before the end of day three.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're in the twilight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like dusk is settling in.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, let's see if we can find a creature.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am writing out, I am writing out a,
[SPEAKER_01]: an extra table because I want I want there's a thing that I want added to this and sometimes we sometimes we add the details that we want to see represented.
[SPEAKER_02]: Love it, create, be the change you want to see in the game.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm getting a lot of joy out of reading the taste table, but also there's a detail about some of these animals in particular that I want to know, and I'm not getting it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to be able to exist and tell me that detail, so I've written down.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, let's find out about some plant life.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got my big stack.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've added an extra third detail.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have here, that is, uh, first my third, okay, great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, this is another unusual plant cre- plant entity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, and this is fungi.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_01]: I found you have found some fungi.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, it is, uh, let's see, the thing that it is- it is-
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to give you the rest of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to set this side this feature because I need to know, I need, I need to tell you the rest of it, and then I'm going to ask you this question because this is a biologist question.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have found this like,
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, this actually makes the, this makes, this, this is great.
[SPEAKER_01]: This, uh, you have this like green mushroom fungus poking through these thickets, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You have these very like clusters of these of these, uh, Oh, wait, hold on.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I got it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got, I got, I think I got some things backwards.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm reevaluating a look at my things.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I said green.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are like these are like greenish yellow is what I'll say because I rolled a four which is yellow and I say the green so like right in that like greenish yellow hue and they are these
[SPEAKER_01]: fuzzy, furry, hairy mushrooms that are that are cropping up in like throughout these thick it's like clusters of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sort of like, brush like clusters of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to ask you this because I need to know this, partially because I got when I numbers mixed up and thought I saw a dice result that's not here, but I'm adding it to the table anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do they smell
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh damn, what do they smell like?
[SPEAKER_03]: They're fussy cream.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think they've got like a, like a sour smell, but not unpleasant.
[SPEAKER_04]: Not sour, like sour milk, but sour, like, um, like somebody could open a lime or a lemon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, this is actually really, uh, really incredible, um, okay, I'm so happy that you said that because I'm now looking at all of the dice that I rolled and I need you to know something.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have heard, here's what I'm going to say, like you recognize these from the smell, you recognize these from the, you recognize these from the smell, you recognize these from the
[SPEAKER_01]: what I would describe as a delicacy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you know, you have never seen one of these these but these mushroom clusters in person.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think like you see, you know, maybe like some of these rabbits, which we will absolutely spend some time today, like exploring these rabbits, fighting over a cluster of these mushrooms.
[SPEAKER_01]: And,
[SPEAKER_01]: What I'm looking at here is they are this perfect combination of like salty sweet the way that I would describe the flavor is and this sounds like maybe a food crime but also might be delicious and we have not ruled it out just yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you were to take the slightest pinch of like flaky sea salt and sprinkle it over top of a small bowl of like sour patch kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the flavor that I am getting from this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's salty and sweet, it is sour.
[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds like it might be a food crime, but like there might also be something there because I'm saying that's out loud and going like, hold on.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, let's try it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking about, I'm thinking about thinking that's out loud.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now and I'm like, hold on.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never tried salty candy before and now I wonder.
[SPEAKER_02]: New movie snack.
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... so that's that is that is the flavor of these mushrooms like uh... that is that is that is the the mushroom that you have found here so exciting and uh... you've got a little bit of time left if we also want to get to know what these rabbits are like yeah let's get okay great uh... i've got a bunch of dice here that i'm also gonna roll
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, this is another unusual creature.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to range my dice, four, six, eight, okay, okay, okay, okay, I think that we need to revise some of what we've described here so far.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-oh, when I said you saw several of these rabbits,
[SPEAKER_01]: You saw two of these rabbits.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, fighting over, fighting over several clusters, fighting over a tree covered in these mushrooms.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no, these are about to be giant rabbits.
[SPEAKER_01]: The table that I had spun up really quickly was size table because we kept rolling on these creatures and we didn't have like a picture of size.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I know that I wasn't like, oh, I'm getting a quiz size, a rolled in eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which means these are massive, these are gigantic ass rabbits.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did roll on the type table, which is either a bug, a moth, a fly, or a beetle.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was just going to be like, also these rabbits either fly, or like, or flutter, or burrow, or whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I got beetles, so they're just regular as rabbits, but they are a tree-sized thing, elephant-sized rabbits.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very exciting, fighting over a tree that is covered in these like lemony salty mushrooms.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the noise that they make?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because they aren't noisy.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I want to say first of all, that I feel like that like misjudging of scale is absolutely a part of this experience where it's like, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, it's a fuzzy mushrooms.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, well, I think I see some rabbits in the distance.
[SPEAKER_04]: So, it's so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no, they just keep getting bigger.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then like it's a little tiny me crouching by these these mushrooms as these two giant rabbits kind of lumber through like dinosaurs and yeah, I think it's like okay better better stay is still as possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh incredible and um.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, what I'm gonna throw in, oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know exactly what unfolds here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You watch them like descend or like, or converging in and like, thrashing a tree trunk back and forth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like, you are watching this occur.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they are like tearing at this tree.
[SPEAKER_01]: And suddenly like one of them grabs it in its mouth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like color wise, these are like a deep sort of like, uh, like, uh,
[SPEAKER_01]: Not the same, not the same color as that moss earlier, but like a very deep green kind of like a like a like a foresty ground like here's a there's somehow also a camouflage just like the size of these things that's why I didn't see them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of them throws this tree trunk aside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh no.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you watch both of them rear back their legs and take off flying, like hurling themselves into the air, it's just with this incredible just spruing and they are into the skies and like you feel the ground shake and they are flying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like there's a moment where like you're like,
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you look up and see in the opposite direction from whence they left storm clouds.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's these rabbits seem to be a natural barometer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they seem to get a signal of a storm is a common.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they jump the hell away.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, boy, boy.
[SPEAKER_02]: What a morning just trying to enjoy my fuzzy mushrooms
[SPEAKER_01]: And you are caught here in this forested Glen as a like a rainstorm comes crashing over it where are you seeking as as night falls where are you seeking out shelter for the evening.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think I try, try cutting away some brambles, see if I can get, see if I can get cover like under like a thicket, but maybe that's not really working.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just getting wet, really getting, it's really getting miserable, but maybe there's like a...
[SPEAKER_04]: like a little hollow under a tree root, a giant, you know, a really kind of giant tree that I can like nest myself in this in a space where the root has come up from the from the ground bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like this, uh, and so like as we close out what I think is our last day in the journey of this biologist, like talk to me where your head is at, like talk to me about like what you have found and as you are seeking out, like,
[SPEAKER_01]: places where a community can thrive and live.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what are the things that you've learned about this area?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what are the takeaways?
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you taking back to our, our on-clave to tell them about the area that you've surveyed?
[SPEAKER_04]: Hello, so sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you good?
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you pass away for a second?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, then great, I will clap hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so as we wrap up what is gonna be the final day of our journey, of the life of our biologists, I want you to tell me, you know, you've seen a lot of things over the last three days.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're taking this knowledge back to your on-click, back to your community,
[SPEAKER_01]: And as you think about your goal, your mission, your ongoing quest to learn more and to find information that might be used to give this on-clave a home for that they can use to survive in their day-to-day.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are the things that you are taking back to tell them both on an individual
[SPEAKER_01]: What are the things that you, what are the insights and the knowledge and the, what are the things you were bringing back to that community?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, I think I'm trying to, you know, put together the, the, like, package of insights that will be most practical, you know, so I think part of it is like,
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, where do we look out for these delicious bread beetles?
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, where might we find them as another food source, you know, as many mushrooms probably as I can stuff in my pocket?
[SPEAKER_05]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, what are, what have I kind of learned about the space that we're moving through that will, like, on a base level, help us survive?
[SPEAKER_04]: And then like, a couple big picture things, I think, you know, in terms of the this like roving community and this search for a home, I think I'm like, okay, well, we gotta keep going because I don't think that we're settling anywhere near these.
[SPEAKER_04]: gigantic rabbits.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that this is probably not our place.
[SPEAKER_04]: We mean, you know, something a little more a little less wild, but I also think I'm coming back like on a personal level maybe, you know, started out in this place where, um,
[SPEAKER_04]: you know, I'm on my own, nobody's helping me do this work, I'm making mistakes, I'm getting myself injured.
[SPEAKER_04]: But over the course of these days, I find so many kind of wondrous things and also these like things that are surviving.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I think that that must be fortifying,
[SPEAKER_04]: just continuing and figuring out how to like poke through the cracks of this world and so I think that like even even if I'm with this society that's apparently going to leave me behind if I get my get lost for a couple days, you know, maybe I'm feeling like, okay, I can hang, I can keep going, I'm going to find my little cracks in the in the on-ex.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, then that and that's a game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's hard core biologist.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, oh my god.
[SPEAKER_01]: This ripped.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was incredible.
[SPEAKER_02]: So fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I want to ask you, what was your favorite moment from play?
[SPEAKER_04]: I like it's so funny, you know, like as as soon as you put yourself in the character, like don't roll trouble, you know, don't we don't want trouble, but I think that like it's of course as soon as that kind of external conflict is introduced like so much story emerges and it just
[SPEAKER_04]: you know, and what, yeah, what the, what the kind of deeper private moments are like.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I think that that, I think that that was, was like really cool, um, the, I mean, the like,
[SPEAKER_04]: the kind of glowingness throughout this world was so exciting, just like just picturing all of these kind of luminous organisms.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there was a real thread of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like with just the results that we can't polling like, there was this real vibrancy of like,
[SPEAKER_01]: contract like there's a real contrast of like we can't really like like that black moss surrounded by these like bright yellow insects like that that color contrast was just an incredible thing that kept coming up again and again and again and it kept it hit every time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think for me, like, there was, I mean, I, I said it during the during the game, but like, you know, for me, it was such a treasure, it was such a joy to get to like sit back and hear and be and kind of like throw you some details or some oddities.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just have you kind of digging and go like, well, from a viologist perspective, like, here's what's really exciting about it and just going to send him back and go like, oh, wow, no, that's way that's that's that's the sickest shit I've heard all day like that was such a unique joy that like I think made this experience all the more special.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's really cool.
[SPEAKER_04]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like, it's like a game that's like, okay, you're gonna go out and you're gonna sit in the dirt.
[SPEAKER_05]: And yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Things are rough out here, but there's a real cool shit.
[SPEAKER_01]: this was magnificent.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm positively beaming.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am absolutely overjoyed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before you wrap things up, where can people find you in your work online?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so please please follow us.
[SPEAKER_04]: The show is at.
[SPEAKER_04]: Metro the musical on both Instagram and Blue Sky.
[SPEAKER_04]: Those are the ones that I'm managing to, you know, try to figure out for myself.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm on Instagram at mly.p.h and the show Metro a climate revolution with songs is available wherever you get your podcasts and our website is Metrothemusical.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for this.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was an absolute joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am beaming and for now I'm going to throw it over to me in the future so he can wrap up with the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: take a future me thanks pass me and thanks again to Emily for coming on to the show that was god that was everything that i hoped it would be i had high hopes for this particular episode and this fulfilled every single one of them just a beautiful rich experience full of like fascinating stories uh remarkable stuff i could not be happy with how this all turned out
[SPEAKER_01]: Be sure to head to the show notes for links on where you can find Metra, a climate revolution with songs.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it is a podcast that a story that you will fall in love with on first listen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that I have.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you enjoyed the show, one tangible thing that you can do to show that support is back us and support us on Patreon.
[SPEAKER_01]: For just $3 a month, you get access to bonus episodes of Party of One.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get side series like Party of None, our spotlight on solo games as well as Party of One Plus One, which is our sequel series and follow-up games with returning guests.
[SPEAKER_01]: You also get access to fun side series and random things that I create for the love of creating, like Batman, Bump and the Night, and Superman Walk in the Sun.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you help keep the lights on, you help pay for hosts and you help pay our guests for their time.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of those things have a very tangible impact in
[SPEAKER_01]: helping the show continue to keep going and I deeply appreciate all of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can find that link at patreon.com slash Jeff Stormer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Other things that you can do obviously leave us a nice review on iTunes, Spotify, whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: That has a very tangible impact of like showing to prospective guests, especially as we reach out to people further and further outside of games and outside of our spaces.
[SPEAKER_01]: that the show has an audience and reach and, you know, plays a very big part in bringing invoices that are outside of games and the people that are going to make the show fresh and exciting as we head into year 11.
[SPEAKER_01]: Plus it makes me feel like I'm not putting messages in a bottle, which is always a welcome experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can also follow us on social pretty much everywhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: You go at party of one pod, tell a friend, post about the show, talk about your favorite episode, anything to put new listeners on the show because that's how we grow and that's how we
[SPEAKER_01]: Part of one is produced and edited as always by Jeff Stormer and Jen Frank, music for the show comes from the song Infinite Lies by Megarin featuring the D&D sluggers, and the Part of One logo is by Evan Roland.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you enjoy Part of one, you should check out our sister show, all my fantasy children, where me and my best friend Naren Katano say as, spin up an original fantasy character based on a listener prompt every single episode, you can find that wherever you get your podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you'd like to inquire about advertising rates press coverage, or you want to send me a recipe for like a baked good or a savory dish, which two whole people did after last episode, and I cannot express the excitement that I feel about that fact.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can email me at partyofonepodcast at gmail.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: And with all that said, I believe that's all we do around here so until next time, thank you so much for listening.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember to fight the forces of fascism every single day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember that self-love and self-care are radical and defiant acts of resistance.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as always, party on everybody.