Ep. 75: The Obsidian Cloud, Part 2

Kyle

Previously on Quest Friends…

[Intro song begins, “Friends” by Miracle of Sound.]

Tom (as Xoc)

Redd’s… Blessing?

Kyle (as Mayra)

It’s able to get you connected to it. 

Kyle (as Sunny)

Whoever uses Redd’s Blessing sacrifices themselves to the cloud, but, unlike the other victims, is able to keep free will and able to fight it from the “inside” inside.

Kyle

What happens is we have the Brackleberrys and Mayra and Sunny are gonna go off someplace in the Steadfast to run basically a peace conference in order to kind of undo all the damage the Jagged Dream has done.

Kyle (as Sera)

I’m just saying that you offered to help me out if I ever needed any help, so…

Kyle

And she eventually grabs an object that we can’t see because it’s in her hand…

Emily

[Gasps]

Kyle

…and she sets it in your hand, Hop, and she just says:

Kyle (as Sera)

If you ever need my help, you’ll uh… know where to find me.

Emily

[Sharp inhale.]

Tom (as Xoc)

We need to leave right now. Right now. We need to wake everyone up.

Who was the last person responsible for maintenance of the shield here?

Kyle (as Jaykell)

It was Unit 909, but they haven’t been in charge of that for a year or so.

Tom (as Xoc)

But why is that?

David (as Horus)

[Sighs.] You were never supposed to bring anything back to the Weal, Xoc. You were supposed to leave permanently.

[Intro music swells and carries into the episode.]

Ari

One day there was a baby dragon lying in a bed of flowers.

[Happy, child-like music begins]

The dragon’s name was Inuki, but the flowers, they never did say. Maybe the flowers didn’t speak in psychic links, or maybe they couldn’t think of what to tell her, or maybe they were simply shy… but Inuki didn’t mind. She always had so much to share: stories of adventures, and of flying, and of her best friend in the whole wide world who saved her from that nasty TJ and did everything he could to keep her safe.

And Inuki felt safe. She had felt safe for a long time. But the flowers, well… with a rump-bump-bump the baby dragon pounced on her pray and with a munch-munch-munch she gobbled up all the flowers resting in the bed. But, for the first time, Inuki didn’t eat every single flower, she didn’t even eat half, because her belly was full and the flowers were so pretty. Inuki knew it would be selfish not to share them with all her friends, because Inuki had friends. She had so many friends, and she had so many flowers, and she was so, so, so very happy.

[Music ends.]

Emily (as Elee)

[Forcefully.] Excuse me?! Why don’t you explain everything, to all of us, and I will stay very calm.

Kyle

Horus sighs and leans on his cane.

[Nostalgic music begins.]

David (as Horus)

Hmm. About a year ago, the last time I came back from scavenging, I had heard rumors of a new vote. The Weal, you see, very rarely makes decisions, and when we do the whole town convenes in the town hall and votes on it. It’s a regular irregularity, and I knew that one day my role would be what we voted on.

You have to understand, the machines of the Weal like things the way they are. Everyone has their routine and they complete it like clockwork. But, as much as we admire that routine, we machines aren’t perfect. When we get cut we don’t heal the way you do. We need repairs. We need new parts. 

Scavengers like myself, only myself in fact, were a begrudged necessity. I knew that when the vote came I would stand no chance. So, instead, I put forward a new motion, one that hadn’t been brought forward in the Weal for centuries. I motioned to exile Xoc, and Jaykell reluctantly agreed to second my motion.

I promise, I did not wish for you to leave, Xoc. There is nothing I wanted less in all the Ninth World. But, when given the choice between having you cast out forever or having you stuck in this decaying limbo, well…

[00:05:00]

This is no place for any human or machine.

Tom (as Xoc)

Why are they just giving up? They didn’t even have to work that hard to keep things up. Don’t they care at all?

Kyle (as Jaykell)

Care? They most certainly do care, otherwise they wouldn’t have done such a massive vote.

David (as Horus)

Do not mistake the Weal’s fear for some kind of indifference.

[Music ends.]

Tom

Xoc’s going to be at a loss for words for a few moments and then say:

Tom (as Xoc)

I don't know how I could even begin to try to convince everyone that they should take care of themselves. That’s so vast. If even you two couldn’t persuade people to try, if they want to just sit here and waste away, what do we do?

[Planning music begins.]

No. You know what, I don’t care. They can choose to do what they want, but while I’m here I’ll at least protect them from the trouble that I brought. We will go find Unit 909. We will figure out how to fix the shield. There’s still the stash, there are the part dumps, we can find something that we still have left over, and we’ll figure out how to keep the Apocrita out.

Kyle (as Jaykell)

Xoc, did you not just listen to everything Horus said? The Weal banned all changes. They won’t allow the fixing of the generator.

Tom (as Xoc)

Are they going to stop me if I try?

Hallie (as Hopper)

I mean, Xoc is already here, so they can’t re-evict him, can they?

Kyle (as Jaykell)

Well, you know, a machine that has been evicted has never come back, actually, so we may be fine on that front, but they still will not take finely to you just fixing their generator.

Emily (as Elee)

They’ll have to get through me.

Emily

Elee punches her fists together so that the metal clangs.

Kyle

Jaykell jumps before a little beep goes:

Hallie

[Laughs.]

Kyle (as Q-BO)

[Beep-boop.] Elee Badge, a human, has augmented her bones with metal, making her stronger than most humans and machines.

Kyle (as Jaykell)

I’ll… I’ll note that down.

Emily (as Elee)

Do we need to look at the shield whatever thingy thing so you know what you need or do you wanna just go and find machine things to put on the shield thing?

Tom (as Xoc)

I think my plan is what I said before. I want to go talk to Unit 909 first. If they aren’t cooperative then we’ll look up what needs to be done ourselves to fix it, and then we will just find whatever is on hand. There’s actually quite a lot of stuff just sitting right next to where the shield generator is. It’s like a huge pile of just stuff we’ve put here over the last few thousand years. We’ll be able to find something when we’re there.

Kyle

Jaykell just looks from you to Horus, and Horus is just sitting there gently nodding his head. A few of Jaykell’s arms point and say:

Kyle (as Jaykell)

I would like to put it on a record that I am not a fan of this plan.

[Others chuckle quietly.]

Kyle

Alright. Are you all just gonna go to Unit 909’s house?

Tom

I guess so.

Hallie

In one threatening group? Yeah, let’s do it.

[Music ends.]

Kyle

Yeah. So, Unit 909 is living their life.

[Quirky robotic music begins.]

Unit 909 looks like one of those battle bots. If you have never seen the battle bots before, they are these little Roomba-looking things that usually are square and have a slanted front and have some kind of appendage like a big razor or like a bird head that pokes, so it’s like a Swiss army knife. Unit 909 has all of these. Besides that, they are essentially a murder Roomba, but in this case it’s more like a janitor Roomba.

Tom

So just a Roomba.

[Laughter.]

But with arms.

Kyle

Um…

[Laughter.]

Unit 909 is actually doing their standard part of the day where they are just going from one side of the room to the other, hitting the wall, turning, continuing to move, just vacuuming their space, and there is a knock on the door and the little angry beep from Unit 909 as they hit a wall in order to turn towards this door.

[Music ends in a whooshing sound.]

Everyone else, you see a door that is actually soldered in. Like, you can’t open it. There is no door handle or anything like that. It is clearly a full door that has just been cemented in, but there’s a little thin doggy door mail slot at the bottom, and this janitor battle bot just flaps through the little dog door and stops in front of all of you, alarmed.

Kyle (as Unit 909)

What?

Tom (as Xoc)

Hello, Unit 909. It’s me again, Xoc. Do you remember me? I lived here up until about a year ago.

Kyle (as Unit 909)

Xoc… Yes, I remember Xoc, from the Great Dimming of Year Y-13 when all of Powerstand Street went out.

Tom (as Xoc)

Y-Yeah… I did do that, didn’t I?

[00:10:00]

Um… Hi, so my friends and I came here today because we have some serious concerns about the shield generator. It just doesn’t feel like it’s very safe in its current state. Since you formerly did maintenance on that device, I was wondering if you would be so kind as to tell us what needs fixing and maybe even to help us fix it if you can spare the time.

Kyle (as Unit 909)

Hmm…

Kyle

And there’s a little uncertain beep.

Kyle (as Unit 909)

I have been removed from that duty as of Day D-174. The shield generator should no longer be repaired.

Tom (as Xoc)

But did you vote for that decision to remove you from that duty?

Kyle (as Unit 909)

I do not see why that is relevant.

Tom (as Xoc)

Well, I’m just asking what your personal feelings are on this.

Kyle (as Unit 909)

[Pondering hum.] The Weal has been a lot messier since the removal of the policy. Rain and dirt and other horrible aggravants have gotten all over, and there is no designated cleaning bot. Everything was much tidier when the shield generator was up.

Tom (as Xoc)

It sounds like, by trying to vote for zero changes ever, it’s actually causing quite a few changes to the normal state of operations here in the Weal.

Kyle

You’re gonna fry this little robot’s brain.

Tom

No~! No, please!

[Laughter.]

Kyle (as Unit 909)

Hmm…

Kyle

Give me a roll to persuade.

Tom

Oh… Am I specialized? I hope. Let me take a look at my sheet. It’s been so long since I’ve actually spoken to a machine who wasn’t like a party member or a named NPC in our group. What the fuck are my skills…?

Yes, I am specialized in this, so hold on. Hold the phone. I’m actually good at talking to machines and persuading them.

[Laughter.]

[Rolls. Speaks defeated into his hands.] Ugh, why did I…? Ugh.

I rolled a 5, but you know, 2 steps easier, am I right? So long as it was like a 9 or lower… [Chuckles.]

Kyle (as Unit 909)

I think you are talking outside of the wants of the Weal. Good day.

Tom (as Xoc)

Wait! Wait. Hold on. Hold on.

Kyle

And they start bashing themselves against you to turn around.

Tom (as Xoc)

Hold on a minute. Unit 909, please. Look, it’s one thing to vote on what you yourself are choosing to do with your time, I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to, but these choices are harming everyone in the Weal. Now I just wanna fix this shield so that this place can be a little bit safer. Will you at least tell me how to fix it myself? After all, I’m not part of the Weal anymore. I don’t have to listen to your vote that it not be repaired.

Ari

I also kind of have an ability, but I think that… in case you don’t have anything.

Kyle

Misha, what were you gonna do?

Ari

Well, actually, probably not, because of what Xoc said, because I have an ability called Datasphere Control and I can control the functions of any Numenera, automaton, or-

[Laughter.]

Tom

No! Please. We took that power away from me.

Ari

But I’m not going to do that, because Xoc said “I can’t make you do things,” and I feel bad doing that right after Xoc said that.

Hallie

Misha was like stepping forward.

Tom

My original Tier 6 ability was to just straight up mind control any machine I want, intelligent or otherwise, and we took that away.

Ari

The thing is, that’s part of my Artificial Intelligence Tier 6 thing.

Tom

[Laugh-groans.]

Kyle

That could be real helpful for things that aren’t robots. [Laughs.]

Tom

Yeah.

Kyle

Okay. So, I’m not gonna have you roll again. You rolled pretty poorly the first time and I don't think your argument is really helping.

Tom

No, that’s fair.

Kyle

So Unit 909 is gonna say:

Kyle (as Unit 909)

You may do whatever you want, you are correct that you are no longer a member of the Weal, but I am and I must respect its decisions.

Kyle

And Unit 909 turns around and goes back inside.

Tom (as Xoc)

[Frustrated grunt.] Okay. New plan. Misha Jarvis-Badge, let’s go to the shield and maybe we can just search the Datasphere to find what needs to be done. Surely there has to be some information on how this thing is supposed to work.

Ari (as Misha)

That sounds like a good plan, Xoc. Let’s do that.

Kyle

Alright.

Ari (as Misha)

Also, I think your parents are very lovely.

Hallie

[Laughs.] Just by the way.

Tom (as Xoc)

Oh… Oh, thank you. I hope it wasn’t too strange. I know I dragged you all here very suddenly and without a lot of warning, and I know that they can be kind of overwhelming in different ways, but for what it’s worth I think they both really like all of you.

Ari

Misha’s eyes will lighten up at Xoc saying that they liked them.

Kyle

Alright, so swish!

[Whooshing sound begins calming ethereal robotic music.]

A nut at the top of the stash sits there for a second, and then with a dink and a dink and another dink it hits another nut, a screw, a bolt, a motherboard, as it just plops down and slowly rests at the bottom of this large pile of just miscellaneous parts and tools, probably a dozen feet high, a dozen feet wide.

[00:15:00]

Next to this stash of miscellaneous parts there is a discontinued elevator next to these weird chiseled stairs in the rock wall, it’s this weird in-the-wall step ladder kind of setup, which leads up dozens and dozens of feet to this old big generator. All of you find yourself at the foot of these rungs and at the foot of this stash.

[Music ends.]

Hallie (as Hopper)

So where do we start?

Tom (as Xoc)

There’s one other thing we probably need to figure out from the Datasphere. The shield keeps some things out. Mostly we used it to keep dangerous weather from affecting the buildings and people inside, especially because some machines aren’t very mobile, so it’s hard for them to move to shelter if they need to. So, I think it’ll probably keep out the worst of the storm, but I don’t really think there’s anything to stop the constructs, the obsidian soldier things that Aegon makes, from just walking through the shield if they land on the ground. So, we maybe also need to make some modifications and try to develop something that’ll… that’ll, I don't know, stop them from wandering in here and hurting people.

Tom

Actually, since Misha’s my patron now anyway, do we just combine our powers to search the Datasphere?

Kyle

Yeah, so what happens is, Xoc, you go to search the Datasphere, and Misha, you start hearing what sounds like a little phone call, a little (ring, ring, ring).

Ari

I shall pick up.

[Laughter.]

Kyle

When you pick it up, in your vision, a little customer support chat box with Xoc’s name at the top appears.

Hallie

Adorable.

Tom

Oh, I was hoping it would be audio both ways that way we can open up the mental link and it’ll be like having a Zoom and a Hangouts open at the same time just echoing over each other.

Hallie

[laughs.] There’s like all these echoes!

Kyle

Yeah! Do it. Fine. Let there be horrible echo.

Emily

No! [Giggles.]

[Silly music begins. Voices begin echoing heavily.]

Tom (as Xoc)

Well hello Misha Jarvis-Badge. This is certainly a strange new sensation.

Ari (as Misha)

This is very interesting, Xoc. I don't know if I like it or dislike it yet.

Tom (as Xoc)

Well I thought, you know, twice the channels, twice the communication.

Ari (as Misha)

Yes. I think it could be a good idea. It is a little disorienting I would say, but I will get used to it. Let us get to work.

Tom (as Xoc)

Okay. I’ll close out one of the channels for now.

Ari (as Misha)

No-no! No, don’t close it. It’s okay.

[Laughter. Echoing ends.]

Tom

Oh no! Alright then.

Kyle

This is gonna be hell for the listeners, just hell for the audience with this weird echo. I probably won’t include it.

So what question are you asking, or what ability are you using?

Tom

Uh…

Ari

[Thinking sounds.] I did not plan that far ahead. Let’s see.

[Laughter.]

Tom

Back to the good old character sheet.

Kyle

Well, I know you’re asking Misha, Tom, so…

Tom

Well, like, so here’s my thing. There’s not a lot of point in me using a formal ability to ask Misha a question,

[Music ends.]

because I can ask Misha a more complicated question than what my powers allow and Misha will answer truthfully.

Kyle

Well, so how it mechanically will work is that essentially you two have your abilities combined, so Misha has their ask for the Datasphere, you have yours, so even if Misha may answer more truthfully the extent of your abilities will limit that.

Ari

I see. Because I also have other abilities, but that might be a thing that I want to do after. I have like, Datasphere Spy could be useful, I could just go all over it and see through all of the devices that are near me.

Tom

I guess the first question we would want to ask would be, like, how do we fix the shield to get it to operate again.

Kyle

Without the aid of anything else it would be a Level 8 roll.

Emily

You WikiHow’d to fix the thing.

[City street ambience begins.]

Kyle

Yeah, it was a WikiHow article. It pulled up and it didn’t give you details, like specs or anything, it’s just like “yeah, you put this part in this part,” and there’s like a video of a guy doing it on a Volkswagen version that’s not quite your model but it’s pretty close. The lighting is pretty bad and you can’t hear him over the streetcars nearby, so it’s just like (vroom).

[Muffled.] And you’re gonna stick it in here. Now don’t touch this part, that’s gonna cause major problems.”

[SFX ends.]

Emily

Which then echoes because you left both of the calls open.

Hallie

[Giggles.]

Tom

Oh no…

Kyle

So that’s what you got. You got enough that it could be a Level 8 roll.

Tom

Okay. Well, time to make that roll harder, I guess. I, both as a player and Xoc as a character, don’t yet have a clear idea of how we deal with the soldiers, because we’ve never gotten an impression that Loell has a limited number of those, so like how the hell would we… what would we even design to keep them out. I don't know if there’s a way to electrify the shield such that it shorts out whatever keeps the soldiers active or what, because we just don’t… we barely even know how they work. Um, uh…

[00:20:00]

Ari

I know… um.

Tom

Uh… I’m trying to think. The vaccine that Mr. Mako made to counteract the thing, that was like an actual biological thing to chase out spider venom, right?

Kyle

Yes, that was biological.

Tom

Okay. I’m trying to search my brain. I was like, was there ever anything about a frequency to keep the spiders away or like fuck up the Apocrita?

Ari

Is there any way to incorporate Redd’s Blessing somehow into this shield? Somehow? I don't know.

Kyle

Yeah, if you ask something like “how to use Redd’s Blessing,” the answer is you could incorporate Redd’s Blessing, however the intersections of your knowledge aren’t quite enough for that. Like, you’ve got knowledge of Numenera, you’ve got some knowledge of machines, but that intersection of a deep understanding of the artifact and a deep understanding of engineering, you would need to basically have one person specialized in one and another in another in order to make that work.

Ari

[Grinning.] Would by any chance Jaykell or Horus or anybody else in this place that likes Xoc know enough about engineering to help us with this?

Emily

[Giggles.]

Kyle

I’m gonna answer that by…

Horus walks up to you, Jaykell skittering by his side, and he looks at you looking at Redd’s Blessing and says:

David (as Horus)

I thought you were supposed to stab that in the soldier.

Tom (as Xoc)

Well yes, we need this to shut down the Apocrita as a whole. We were wondering if maybe we could apply some of the principles, though, to the shield and make it more safe against the Apocrita specifically.

Emily

Oh, is that what you were wondering? Because Hopper and I have just been standing here trying to figure out what you’ve been doing, because you’ve been talking to each other in your heads looking at Redd’s Blessing and we’ve just kind of been trying to figure out what’s going on.

Hallie

[Laughs.]

Tom (as Xoc)

Oh, sorry.

Ari (as Misha)

My apologies.

Tom (as Xoc)

I forget sometimes.

Ari (as Misha)

Me too. If it is any consolation, there was a lot of noise in our mental end, so I do not know if you or Simon Scotch would like that.

David (as Horus)

So, you think you can make the shield run again?

Tom (as Xoc)

Yes. I’m very confident in our ability to fix it.

Ari (as Misha)

I think so as well.

Ari

Does Hopper know any—Like, he knows math. Does he know any engineering? [Laughs.]

Hallie

I was gonna ask. Okay, so I have an ability called Calculate where I can determine the odds of a certain task succeeding, so I was going to ask if, based on any of the suggestions that people more knowledgeable than he had, he could like calculate it using his Calculate ability.

Kyle

Yeah, calculate the odds.

Hallie

Of our thing succeeding? Okay.

[Rolls.] Eight.

Kyle

When I say impossible, I mean impossible.

Ari

God damn it, Kyle.

Kyle

You would need someone of extreme expertise, and when I say expertise I mean like an engineer on the degree of Mako or Soe or Sera. You would need someone of their honing and experience. For when it comes to mystical artifacts, you would need someone with as much of an understanding of that, someone who has devoted their life to it, like a Mayra and Sunny for example. If you had folks like them, this could work, but unfortunately none of you jackasses have spent enough time focusing on learning that stuff, so you just can’t do it on your own. [Laughs.]

Ari

[Grinning.] So you took all of the NPCs that we need and pushed it out of this arc so that we couldn’t do this solution.

Hallie

[Laughs.]

Tom

Well look at this, if only we had more friends with us and hadn’t run off on our own we’d have an easy solution to this. Well golly gee, ain’t that just the moral, Loell.

Ari

But hey, we have Q-BO and the car.

Tom

Wait. Yeah! We have fucking Q-BO. What’s Q-BO’s expertise?

Hallie

Yeah. Wait. Is Q-BO good at engineering and/or mystical artifacts?

Emily

Q-BO could explain stuff, but Q-BO also is a ball.

Kyle

Q-BO can give you random trivia about it, yeah.

Tom

Damn it.

Ari

Wait. Is there a way to phone call somebody? I don't know. I mean, I know that Misha doesn’t do that… Well, I guess I kinda did that once. Right? When I wanted to know about Fayz?

Tom

Well, hold on. Xoc will actually throw up his hands.

Tom (as Xoc)

There could be a way. If we really needed to get in contact with someone, we could maybe amplify Misha’s powers. There’s a spot here that’s connected to the Datasphere much more strongly than others, and Misha, with your newfound abilities, we could try something really big, really weird.

Ari (as Misha)

I am always willing to try more of my powers, it’s very fun, and if this can help then let me know how I can do it, Xoc.

Tom (as Xoc)

Um, well… I should show you. It’s a place over near where we live, so we’d have to backtrack a little bit, but in the caves above the sea we found the place I first contacted the nano spirits.

[00:25:00]

Tom

My thought was that—spoilers for my flashback episode—baby Xoc, while within the powers of the Datasphere node, was able to gain vast abilities to see all of the entire surrounding region.

Kyle

Yeah. Essentially he got Sensor but it was souped-up. It’s called the Ring of Power. What it does is it lets you, essentially for free, use an ability and add 2 XP to it.

Ari

Ooh.

Emily

Whoa.

Kyle

You know, within extents, but it will be an exaggerated version of your power with no Int cost.

Tom

My logic was Ari has things like that Datasphere Spy and Datasphere Control, with Misha’s already enhanced powers from having consumed The Lady With Cinnabar Lips, in the Ring of Power Misha could theoretically just scan machines across the entire core book map—

Ari

Oh Jesus Christ.

Tom

—searching for the people we need to find, then just possess a machine nearby to speak to them.

Kyle

So, I’m gonna put some limits on this. I’m going to say that Misha either has to access a specific machine or can access someone who is attuned to the Datasphere. Misha cannot just pick somebody at random. Misha can’t just be like “I’m gonna pick a machine near Jesse” for example. I don't know why you would call Jesse.

[Laughter.]

Misha either has to hone in on a particular person that has nano powers—

Ari

Vespari. No, let’s not. [Laughs.]

Hallie

[Scrambled uncomfortable shouting noises.]

Kyle

—because they can sense that person through the Datasphere or they can sense a specific machine. For example, if you wanted to call Sera you would have to be like, I need to pick this specific device that Sera has, if that makes sense.

Ari

Mm-hmm.

Kyle

So that’s gonna limit the pool of who you can reach out to and call, but I wanna ask out of character, who you gonna call?

Ari

Ghostbusters.

Tom

Ghostbusters!

Emily

[Giggles.] Yeah.

Tom

Damn you. I was too slow.

Ari

Anyways. I was thinking. I mean, we have several options that you mentioned. Obviously not Mako, but other than that—

Hallie

Aww.

[Laughter.]

Ari

Is the Professor attuned to the Datasphere? Like, I know they know a lot about it, so like…

Kyle

Sunny is stratic life, as we know, and Mayra is in a patron relationship with her, so Mayra also can access the Datasphere, and they were the two who found and told you about Redd’s Blessing, so they would be likely to know about it.

Ari

[Grinning.] We should go with them.

Tom

Yes.

Ari

Which is also super cute, like “hey, by the way, I am now his patron.”

Kyle

Aww.

Hallie

Aww, you’re giving them an update!

Ari

“I understand what you mean now.” But yeah, I would be down for that if everybody else is.

Tom

I think that’s probably our best bet.

[Whooshing sound.]

Kyle

“Ooooh~!”

I did not expect to do Sunny’s voice today.

[Laughter.]

Tom

Oops.

Kyle (as Sunny)

Well this is a weird feeling.

Kyle (as Mayra)

Yes, yes, I did not know something like this was possible. This opens up a new realm of possibilities! But what were you asking about?

[Oddball, witchy music begins.]

Kyle

Everyone, you are in another room of Xoc’s home. In many respects it looks like a classroom. There is this projector board and seats of rows of those little wooden singular desks in one corner. In another corner there is what looks to be a teacher’s desk but it has a bunch of weird contraband on it. Like, there is an airship in a bottle that seems to be patched up, there’s some dact tape as if it had popped. There’s a stack of singed cards, a little sewing area… but besides this décor the rest of it looks very oppressive. The way we described it was like Empire from Star Wars, the video game control, very sleek, very cold.

There are all of these devices that make this giant satellite dish designed to hone in on the Datasphere, specifically around this metal ring that has two layers of baby gates surrounding it.

Ari

Aw…

Kyle

The Ring of Power. Inside of this ring hangs a little light that usually doesn’t have much light but grows exponentially with a purple color as Misha Jarvis-Badge, who stands underneath it alongside Xoc, amplifies their powers to a degree only this circle can provide.

[Music ends.]

Ari (as Misha)

Hello. Uh… it is me, Misha Jarvis-Badge, and Xoc. We are here to ask you a question about Redd’s Blessing. Oh! By the way, beforehand, I am Xoc’s patron now.

Kyle

Sunny just immediately goes:

Kyle (as Sunny)

I called it.

Hallie

[Laughs.]

Emily

[Giggles.]

Ari (as Misha)

I know what you meant now. Thank you for all your advice.

Kyle

[Chuckles.]

Tom (as Xoc)

Yes, thank you.

[00:30:00]

Tom

I don't know if they can hear me, but…

Ari

I assume so, because I introduced Xoc.

Kyle

Yeah, the sound—in fact, everyone inside of the ring, inside of the Ring of Power can hear them. But regardless, Mayra jumps in and says:

Kyle (as Mayra)

I’m getting the sense, considering you’re asking us about Redd’s Blessing, that your business isn’t entirely resolved, is it?

Ari (as Misha)

Unfortunately it is not. We are trying to protect Xoc’s home from the Apocrita and we want to see how we can potentially incorporate the mechanics of Redd’s Blessing into doing so. Xoc probably can explain it better than I can.

Tom (as Xoc)

There is a powerful shield, an energy barrier that is generated around the entire settlement. It keeps out weather, but—

Kyle (as Mayra)

Oh, so the soldiers would be able to make it through still.

Tom (as Xoc)

That’s our concern. We have no real way to stop a ground attack from Loell. But we were hoping maybe with… well, we don’t understand it well enough, but maybe if we could use some of the technology behind Redd’s Blessing we could try to break the connection between the soldiers and…

Kyle (as Mayra)

Segment it from the cloud… like separating a patron-nano link. For someone with a nano connection, of course, that just removes their powers, but for the soldiers they’d just return to slates of glass.

I think something like that… yes, absolutely, yes. Something like that could absolutely be done, because with Redd’s Blessing the whole point is to connect everything to the host. It, in and of itself, mimics that connection, because it needs to manually connect someone to the Apocrita. So, if you found a way to invert that power… yes-yes, you definitely could create something to sever the connection.

Ari (as Misha)

Do you have any advice or knowledge about how we can go about creating this?

Kyle (as Mayra)

I have a few ideas, a few things that possibly could work, but… How long until he gets there?

Tom (as Xoc)

I don't know. Last time we spoke it looked like the cloud was already here, but there’s nothing here yet.

Kyle (as Mayra)

Did he know about the Weal before? Did he know where it was?

Tom (as Xoc)

I think he figured out just last night. I think that’s when he learned exactly where it was.

Kyle (as Mayra)

Alright, let me pull out a map quickly.

Kyle

And you hear some shuffling of papers, and some more shuffling, and papers fall over, and she’s like…

Kyle (as Mayra)

Oh no.

Kyle

…and goes to shuffle them up and Sunny’s like:

Kyle (as Sunny)

Let me get these, dear. You just take care of the rest.

Kyle

Eventually Mayra sets a map down and she says:

Kyle (as Mayra)

Based on the way that the cloud moves, I would say, were he going as fast as he could, it would be probably three to four days before he reaches you. I think I can get something together for you, but it’s going to take me at least a day. Honestly, this would be a good excuse to skip that whole diplomacy thing that Brackleberry wanted to do tomorrow, so…

Just give me a day and I can get you whatever you need, but I can only promise part of it. Getting it actually installed, that’s gonna be something far beyond what even we can do.

Tom (as Xoc)

That’s more than enough. We will have to work through any snags on our end. All we can ask is anything you can give us.

Ari (as Misha)

Yes. We are grateful for any help.

Kyle (as Sunny)

Of course. It’s very important to us that we provide whatever aid we can, and we’re so glad that you’re asking for it.

Kyle

And so you hang up, and the bright purple light goes back to a regular one. I’m gonna say Ness probably takes his shades that he’s been wearing, because it’s so bright, and just pockets them again. [Laughs.]

Tom

I’m so sad, because now I’m picturing the visual comedy of this starting and everyone’s like “ooh” at the light and Ness just like slides the shades down like it’s a Wallace and Gromit sketch.

Hallie

[Laughs.] Ness does that with his shades, kicks back and goes:

Hallie (as Ness)

Well you’ve got a lot of work cut out for you.

Tom

[Laughs.]

Tom (as Xoc)

Yeah… yeah we do. It might take the Apocrita three, maybe four days to reach us. Mayra and Sunny need a day to get us some instructions on how we might try to upgrade the shield.

Ari (as Misha)

I believe in the meantime we should focus on repairing the shield.

Tom (as Xoc)

Agreed.

Hallie (as Hopper)

I think so too, but… Elee, you didn’t happen to learn any engineering kind of thing from Sera, did you?

Emily (as Elee)

Learn any… engineering?

[Laughter.]

Hallie (as Hopper)

Yeah, I… Never mind. That was kind of, that was kind of a…

Tom (as Xoc)

We can try to reach out to Sera if you’d like to speak to her, Hopper.

[Upbeat, heist-like music begins.]

Hallie

At “try to reach out,” Hopper looks like a little lightbulb went off, and he pulls from his pocket a small orb.

Ari

Oh my god.

Hallie (as Hopper)

Oh! That’s right. Sera gave me this when we left the Prodigious. She gave me this orb and said I could use it to find her again.

[00:35:00]

Ari

Oh my god.

Hallie (as Hopper)

So we’ve had this all along. We’ve had this all along!

Tom

Holy shit.

Hallie (as Hopper)

We can get Sera! And we can get anybody else to help us!

Ari

Get wrecked, Kyle.

Emily (as Elee)

I hope she upgraded it from when I had it.

Hallie (as Hopper)

Oh, you used to have this?

Emily (as Elee)

It’s a really long story. I had it at one point, and it was not for a very long point, and then she had it… well, her mother had it back, and then she had it, and then she gave it to you. Um, but when I personally had it for no particular reason, basically I just followed people around.

Kyle

Because this orb is the orb from Elee’s Memory, the wind-up orb that finds anyone who wants to be found.

[Music ends.]

Tom

I had an idea just now that is fucking incredible.

Kyle

Hit me.

Ari

We are on fire today.

Tom

So, we need to speak to a specific machine if we want to reach out to someone using these powers, and we might be able to locate it using the orb, maybe, if Kyle would allow that.

Kyle

Tom, you don’t need to worry about that, because you don’t need a specific machine anymore. Using this orb, anybody who wants to be found can be found.

Tom

Oh shit!

Kyle

And as you’re mulling over how to use it, Jaykell has been scribbling on the blackboard and he lets out a big sigh.

Kyle (as Jaykell)

I cannot figure this out. When I look at  these information you told me, Xoc… Right? Everything on this board. You have this barrier, and if you use it and you modify it and we get the Weal to not panic, you will have to convince them at some point I hope you understand.

Tom (as Xoc)

No, I know.

Kyle (as Jaykell)

But let’s assume, let’s assume that they agree to it, and you can get this… I don’t understand, these glass things to separate at the barrier, correct?

Tom (as Xoc)

That’s the hope, yes.

Kyle (as Jaykell)

During that time you’ll have to get up to the cloud and fight that… I just, I don't know. The generator is… it’s instable, Xoc. It won’t work forever. They’re going to find a way in. If you wanted to get up there without any of those things getting in, you need an army protecting this place while you’re gone.

Tom (as Xoc)

Well, since we can find people and we know where they are…

[Upbeat planning music begins.]

We don’t even necessarily have to call someone. We can just get them. I could teleport back and teleport people here. We have other friends and allies we’ve met in our journeys. We could bring more people here.

We have time, after all. We have days. That’s time enough to convince the Weal, and that’s time to bring people here. It wouldn’t be an army, but if a soldier started to get through, or our device never even works in the first place, they could protect the Weal while we fly up to the cloud. It would buy us time at least, to face Loell. That could actually work!

Hallie (as Hopper)

That could work!

Emily (as Elee)

Wait… Wait. So the orb is actually useful now?!

[Music swells and carries out to the bloopers.]

Hallie

Yeah!

Ari

Yeah.

Hallie

Hype’s up. Everybody’s got a plan.

Tom

[Excited.] Holy shit!

So I was going to ask, is this where we come in with our list of who do we want to return for the finale?

Hallie

[Makes a whooshing sound.]

… That was unfurling a scroll and-.

Kyle

At the end of next session I will have a list of every single NPC who is alive from the history of Quest Friends, and with the exception of Lorraine Stiles—

Tom

Good, because we would never, we would have never called upon her.

Hallie

Nobody wants her!

Ari

Just put her as cannon fodder.

[Laughter.]

Tom

Alright. Your job is to stand outside the shield and take care of the soldiers as they land.

Ari

One thing that’s sad is that, oh, I want Misha to meet again with Fayz, but like… he’s an old dog. I don’t want to bring him to the fight. That’s just sad.

Hallie

Right. I don't know if Hop’s gonna bring his dads to war.

Tom

Come on, dads.

Hallie

Like, hey~!

Tom

Get into the trenches.

Ari

I mean, he has already convicted one of theft.

Hallie

That was so many years ago, Ari! God!

Ari

[Laughs.]

Kyle

Jaykell clearly does not know Xoc was not told this, but Horus very clearly lied to Xoc and did not tell him this.

[00:40:00]

Tom

Xoc had to get it from somewhere.

Hallie

Ha!

Ari

Oh my god.

Hallie

Wow! Get out.

Kyle

His fingers are segmented to allow for maximum finger crossing.

Hallie

Wow!

Tom

They will become true anime god.

Kyle

[Amused.] Um…?!

Tom

Kyle, did you ever predict this?

Ari

You haven’t even seen my final form!

Tom

Maybe this is how we handle the Apocrita Wave Defense. We get the shield up and running, we send Misha to the Datasphere node, and then Misha just rains Avatar State powers down on the Apocrita soldiers as they enter.

Kyle

It’s at this point I feel like I need to repeat what the mechanics of the Wheel of Power do. The Wheel of Power lets you take any ability and amplify it with 2 XP, and it does all of this at no cost.

Tom

Like, the power… there’s not even a base cost for using the Ring of Power?

I could do it normally anyway, for the record, but—

Hallie (as Ness)

[Mocking.] Okay Xoc, [Mumbles gibberish.]

Emily (as Elee)

Okay, we don’t need to get into this right now. Okay, yeah, uh-huh.

Ari (as Misha)

I believe you can.

[Laughter.]

Tom (as Xoc)

Well, it’s your power anyway, so you better!

Ari (as Misha)

That is why I believe you can.

Tom

[Laughs.]