Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry

Part 5: Toward the Whispering Peak | Starter Kit - Numenera

42 min
Jan 12, 20263 months ago
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Summary

This episode of Critical Role's Starter Kit features Monty Cook guiding players through a Numenera adventure toward the Whispering Peak. The party encounters dangerous abhumans, navigates a collapsing rope bridge, and discovers a mysterious gravity-defying mountain with a sealed metal door, setting up the next chapter of their journey.

Insights
  • Game mechanics like 'might defense' and 'GM Intrusion' create dynamic, unpredictable storytelling that rewards player creativity and risk-taking
  • Skill customization (e.g., 'ghost vision', 'metal ghost avoidance') allows players to define their character capabilities based on narrative needs rather than rigid class systems
  • Environmental hazards and NPC companions (like the injured Maro) create meaningful resource management decisions that extend beyond combat
  • Special effects on high rolls (19-20) and automatic intrusions on low rolls (1) incentivize dramatic, narrative-driven play over mechanical optimization
  • The Numenera setting's 'ninth world' concept provides rich worldbuilding context (abhumans, prior worlds, Numenera artifacts) that enriches player immersion
Trends
Narrative-first RPG design prioritizing storytelling flexibility over rigid mechanical constraintsCustomizable skill systems that emerge from player intent rather than predefined class abilitiesFailure-as-narrative mechanics (GM Intrusion) that create dramatic tension and unexpected plot developmentsEnvironmental storytelling through floating rocks, mysterious doors, and atmospheric details (whispers, gravity anomalies)Collaborative difficulty adjustment allowing players to spend resources to improve odds while maintaining challengePost-apocalyptic/far-future worldbuilding that recontextualizes familiar fantasy tropes (abhumans, prior civilizations, advanced technology)Real-time resource tracking (speed points, might pools, cipher duration) creating meaningful tactical decisionsCompanion mechanics that create emotional stakes beyond player characters
Topics
Numenera RPG system mechanics and gameplayCharacter skill customization and player agencyCombat encounter design and difficulty scalingEnvironmental hazards and exploration mechanicsPoison and status effect mechanicsInitiative and turn-based combat systemsGame Master intrusion and failure narrativesCompanion NPC managementCipher (magical item) mechanics and activationDamage tracking and character impairment systemsAbhuman creature lore and worldbuildingRecovery mechanics and resource managementSpecial effects on critical successesGravity manipulation and environmental anomaliesNinth World setting and prior world artifacts
People
Monty Cook
Creator of Numenera RPG system, hosting and running this Starter Kit adventure campaign
Quotes
"Sometimes, characters need to survive hardships that have little to do with combat. Their might is tested, and it is met with a mechanic called, might defense."
Monty CookEarly in episode
"It's not like true night vision, but you could be skilled in like seeing in low light conditions."
Monty CookCharacter skill customization
"Ghost vision. Yeah, sure. Ghost vision, I love it. It's just fine."
Monty CookSkill creation discussion
"You could forego what you were going to do and just grab the rope. Yeah. Or you could still continue with what you were doing, and if you are successful, then you get to kick this thing and grab the rope."
Monty CookBridge collapse sequence
"They're always bestial. They usually eat the humans that they come upon. They're bad news."
Monty CookAbhuman creature explanation
Full Transcript
There once was a woman who lived in a shoe. A size too snug but what could she do? But that's not where her story ends. Thanks to a little help from her Experian friends, she got her score into much better shape and relocated to a box fresh new place with room to grow and a mortgage to suit. Now she lives in a spacious four bedroom cowboy boot. Better your Experian credit score to help get mortgage ready. Experian. Better your score, better your story. Brace the rudder, raise the sails, raise the sails! Captain and unidentified ship approaching, over. Roger that, wait, is that an enterprise sales solution? Terms and conditions apply. Last time on Starter Kit. I am Shay, Ion Priest. We don't want any trouble. Let's show her the map. The area that you're heading to, we call the Whispering Peak. It is filled with ghosts and dangers. I'm a little uncomfortable now. We can go round. Welcome back to your Starter Kit. I'm Monty Cook, the creator of Numenera. Sometimes, characters need to survive hardships that have little to do with combat. Their might is tested, and it is met with a mechanic called, might defense. We'll see how that works this time out. So as you start out on your journey, all of you guys that are jacks, why don't you decide what your flex skill is going to be for now? Is there a list of skills we pick from? There isn't. What kind of action would you like your character to express today? Well, I didn't do such a good job in fighting, so I don't know if there's some sort of fighting thing that I could get from this skill. It's sort of the one thing this isn't for, right? This is to kind of show cases. I can try to increase combat, it doesn't work. Okay. Well, I'm already good at searching, so I don't know. You could have something like tracking through the wilderness. You could have swimming if you think you're going to, you know, have to cross some rivers. I'm just trying to think what would be helpful with ghost mechanical... Metal ghost avoidance. Avoidance skill. Metal ghost. Like detecting danger. You could have, yeah, you could just like sensing a dangerous situation. You can absolutely have that at your skill. That can be my skill for the day since danger. Okay. Is there something like night vision or some sort of vision that might be able to illuminate things that... It's not like true night vision, but you could be skilled in like seeing in low light conditions. And, you know, better at that kind of thing for sure. Okay. Something that might, like if there's ghosts that I might be able to see, you know, where they are. Oh, if you want to see things that like normally are outside of perception, like, yeah, you could definitely take... What would I call that? I don't know. Ghost vision. Yeah, sure. Ghost vision, I love it. It's just fine. Ghost vision. Is there anything with like... So I have botany and plants. Is there a skill that I could apply that to, like making... Yeah, sure. Like salves and things? That would be great. Potions. So we move forward into the wilderness. You leave Rusk behind, leave Shea behind, and the six of you, including Mauro, head off. Mauro, despite his assurances to the contrary, is not looking good. Are you going to maybe carry him again? Oh yeah, I'll carry him. I already pictured myself carrying him. Okay, fair enough. He's my backpack. You look like baby carry. He will. He will, I love. I'd also like to try to find, using my new found potion skill, some herbs that might, or like plants that might make him feel better. Okay, that sounds like a great thing to try. So this would be an intellect-based skill. Okay. So if you want to use effort, it would be intellect. Otherwise, your skill will reduce the difficulty, and the difficulty for this is four. Four. Okay, yeah, I'm going to use some effort here for this one. So with your skill and the effort, it'll make it a two. Oh, okay, perfect. Hopefully perfect. 16. All right, cool. You managed to find some interesting roots that you think, if you just took a little bit of time, maybe chaffed them up and boiled them, you could make kind of a paste that would be, you know, like a salve. Okay, if we have time, I can. Okay, but you can gather the roots now. Mm-hmm. Yeah, kind of as you go. Stick them in my pocket. All right. Walk along with her. For later. Still grinding up while we're walking. Pick up a couple of rocks, just start grinding it. So you continue journeying, and they're going, you know, it shifts. For a while, it's pretty smooth going, and you make pretty good time. And then you hit another spot where it's just over scrambled rocks, and it's really slow and difficult. You know, Maro is good because you're carrying him, but otherwise, you know, the rest of you are getting very, very tired. You make it for a full day of this, and maybe rest that night. You can brew up your salve. Mm-hmm. And do you want this to be something that you would save for someone being wounded, or do you want to try to use it on Maro now? I mean, probably not right before we go to sleep for the night, but maybe in the morning. In the morning? Yeah. Okay. I don't know if I collected enough to maybe save some. That sounds reasonable, sure. We'll say two different doses. Okay. And so you can brew that up tonight, and the next morning, you've had a very chilly night, but you're none the worse for wear. I got a big old blanket. You got a big old blanket. I'm all set. We all piled underneath. Yeah. Your salve actually looks like it helps Maro. When you give it to him, it clearly makes him feel better, and he thanks you. He says, thank you so much. I've never seen anything like this. You have a lot of knowledge. In some things, I do. So he feels much better. You've still got another dose of that. Mm-hmm. And it's another long, hard day of travel, and it's about midway through that day that you come upon a ravine. There's a rushing river well down below, deep in the ravine, and there's a bridge made of rope and planks that stretch across the ravine. The other side of this chasm, though, is higher than where you are now, so the bridge doesn't go to the upper part. It goes to a cave mouth in this cliff face across the way. Can I use my sensing danger? That sounds like a great use of that. Before. Okay. So the difficulty to determine if there's anything weird or dangerous going on here would be four, but you're trained, so that makes it three. Okay. Can I use some of my— You can use— Was it might? It'd be intellect for sensing danger. Yeah, because you're just kind of trying to intuit and see if there's—you see anything out of the ordinary. So I would take one away from that? You would take three. Oh, three. Mm-hmm. You've just lowered it by two, so you need a six or higher. Yeah, 13. All right. So despite the fact that this—you know, there's this rope bridge going across this chasm, you don't see anything. It looks sturdy to you. This looks safe. What doesn't look safe is the fact that when you look across the way, it's about a 40-foot gap. You catch just the smallest hint of something moving, as though there's something just on the other side of this bridge maybe waiting for you. You could fly—you could use your flying— You could fly. Go above and then throw us a rope down. We could avoid the cave entirely. Yeah, that sounds great. I can use my newfound gravity nullifier for an hour. Okay. So do I turn that into you then if I can use it? Yeah, basically if you're going to activate that now. Yeah. Okay. Put it on. All right. And you can float in the air. Cool. I wanted to see what was in the cave. We still might. We might come down. We might come down. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it's the bridge and then the cave. Mm-hmm. And then we're trying to get above. The cliff face that the cave is set into is another maybe 30 feet up. Yeah, I'll go up there. Okay. So you fly up there and it isn't flat. There's actually kind of a slope down. It doesn't look like there's a great purchase up there, but there is probably something you could tie a rope to. Did I carry someone up with me while I'm flying? Well, I was just looking at the gravity and elifire and it's based on the level of this cipher. So what we should do is have you roll. It's a D6 plus 2 and that determines the level of this particular cipher. Uh, 5. Okay, great. That means you can carry about 250 pounds, which is probably good for everyone except for the resident cyborg. Well, the cyborg can climb. But I mean, to even get to the cliff, I have to get to the mouth of the cave. Which you're going to look in anyway. Right? She just punch her way through. Just a quick punch in the cave and then go up the rope. Okay, so tell me what you do. I'll gather as many people as I can. Okay. It's probably one at a time for, I mean, Vix is light, but everyone else is probably... The world's light. Right, you could do Vix and Maro at the same time. Yeah, I'll grab them and then go up. Okay, fly up to the top of the other side of the ravine. And just set them down, nice and gently. And then I'll do the same for Adiron and Agenia. Okay, and everyone's cool with that being up at the top of the other side. And then they can help me hold the rope for Davalur. Yeah, okay, so. You're still on the other side of this ravine. What are you going to do? All right, I plan on, I fully plan on grabbing the rope. I'll say that at the top. But I'm going to take a running start and run across the bridge and then just punch wildly into the dark at whatever's in the cave and then try to grab the rope and swing out of there. All right, as long as you get one good punch in there, that's all you care about. Well, it's going to attack me, I have a feeling. I should get the drop on it. Okay. Okay, so what level is that? All right, so you go charging across this bridge. You know, every one of your metal footsteps shaking the whole thing. But as Bec said, the bridge is secure. That's not a problem. The problem is the thing on the other side. Now, you can see pretty clearly about halfway across that there's multiple creatures in the cave. Great. And in fact, I can show you exactly what they look like. I'm going to have her right above the cave opening, just in case. They look like a very nice. Oh, they are. They stand about four feet tall. They're just hideous sorts of things. You can tell by their positioning that they've been watching as Shonza has been ferrying people up. And then they see you coming across and then they get this look of eagerness in their eyes, like finally something that we can attack. And they do, and they do because they pull out these little blow guns. Oh no. And they shoot out needles at you out of these blow guns. And so there's two of them. So you need to make two speed defense rolls. The difficulty here for this particular attack is going to be four for both of them. Cool. And I have speed defense. So three. Three? There's probably no way anyone else can help me at this point. I'm afraid there's probably not. Okay. Well, I think it's too late for me to use the force field, right? Yeah, I'm afraid it is. What we're looking for is your defense action, not your regular action. Yeah, okay. Then I will... Yeah, I'm going to spend six speed because I got a lot to spend. Okay, right. Because basically what you're doing is that you're spending it one for each, right? It costs for each attack. So that'll reduce the difficulty down to two for each of them. So you need to make two rolls and you need to get six on both of them. All right, here we go. Seven. All right. Okay. Idle Money lies in your current account picking crumbs out of its belly button wondering, should I eat them? But when you start investing with Monzo, your money's always busy. It turns on regular investments, invests your spare change, and tops up your stocks and shares, it even helps you make sense of risk and return. Monzo, the bank that gets your money moving. You could get back less than you invest. Monzo current account required UK residents 18 plus T's and C's apply. It's 19. Oh, no. Okay, so here's the cool thing about rolling a 19. Yeah, the combat's plus three, right? If it's an attack roll, right, it's plus three damage. If it's a non-attack roll like this, a 19 gets you what we call a minor special effect, and a 20 would be a major special effect, right? And so this is sort of anything that you, what's the coolest thing that you can think of that you would do is this thing is shooting a dart at you. It would be me grabbing the darts from midair, or grabbing one of the darts from midair, and then just throwing it back at them, and hopefully it gets in the straw. Okay. I think that seems pretty major. That definitely sounds like a major special effect, but I like the idea of grabbing it and throwing it back. That could be a minor special effect. And so you can just immediately make an attack roll, throwing this needle, and even as you grab it out of the air, you can see that it's dripping with some kind of greenish goo. Yeah. Yeah. Five. Okay. So you manage to grab it, and you throw it back into the cave, but you don't think you hit anything. It still looks impressive as hell. Great. It'd be shocked. All right. And then it's your action. Great. So punching them in the face, punching one of them in the face. Okay. The difficulty to attack this guy is going to be three. So you're looking for a nine unless you want to reduce the difficulty. I will reduce the difficulty. Oh, and I have an edge on my... Okay. So then it'll only cost you two. Cool. All right. So then the difficulty is two? Great. I'm going to roll for it. 13. You punch this guy, or this thing, this creature, right? And it's many, many teeth, probably breaking out a number of teeth as you do four points of damage with your punch. Do we see her running into the cave? You see her running up to the cave. We're all peeking over. At that... Yeah, you're all looking down. At this point, what are you going to do? I'll just hover down right outside the mouth of the cave with my glaive in case anything pops out. Okay, so you're going to come down? Just whack a mullet. Yeah. Okay. All right. So kind of hovering there by the side of the cave? Yeah. So now do you want to actually be in a position where you can see into the cave or are you just kind of waiting outside? Well, if I can see into the cave, can't they see me? Almost certainly. Then I'll just wait outside. Okay. So you're kind of around one side of the cave. Listening for danger. And you definitely see Davaloo. She's right in there. She's fighting something. So what about Edderon? I'm yelling down, grab the rope! Get out of there! And Bix? I think Bix is going to try to scramble down the rope because I think Bix wants to help. You climb down the rope and get... Scramble down the rope. Are you going to get onto the bridge in front of the cave? So I'm going to scramble down the rope. I'm going to be sort of close to where you are. And then Bix is going to peek Bix's head around. Okay. And then Bix is going to run into the cave opening. I'm trained without armor, so I feel like I'm very sort of fast and wily. You're hard to hit. And I think that I'd be really hard to hit, so I think I can probably go in and help out. So you're going to kind of do the distractions that you did before. Just try to help. Okay, so you're down there distracting these creatures, whatever they are. And what is Ajna going to do? I can't see them from where I am. No. Okay. You're up here and they're in a cave down here. And I have Maro with me. Yes. I can't. I don't want to just leave him. I guess I have to just stay. Okay. Yeah. Stay with Maro. Can I look around the area where we are and see if there's like a trap door down into the cave, or if I see anything that might indicate that, you know, with that bridge going across, I deduce that perhaps at some point further into that cave, it would go back up to where we were. Okay. So maybe there's an entry way down into it. Okay. Come up top. So that's, that would be an action and it would be a perception action. And if you're skilled in perception or in your searching or anything like that, that would apply. Otherwise, you can use your intellect to apply effort. Okay. Do that. Sure. Okay. You can intellect edge. It'll only cost you two. Great. When it comes to looking for hidden things, I often like to keep the actual target numbers secret. Okay. So I'm not going to tell you. I'll just roll. Okay. Okay. Our team. So here's what you see. Taking the time to kind of survey the action here and survey the area. Looks like up here, there's this slope down. And you think that there very well could be another entrance to the cave if you kind of scrambled down the rocks here and got around behind. Okay. Okay. The creatures. So you've just punched one in the face, broken out teeth, blood, bloody nose if they have noses. It cries out in horrible pain and leaps toward you. Now it's being distracted. Did you want to apply to her defense or her attack? I was helping her defense. Okay. This thing is attacking you at a level three, but now it's two. Great. And you are trained in speed defense, so you have a pretty good chance at missing this because it'll make it a one. Great. And I'll just roll. Okay. 16. Okay. So you duck out of the way. This is where GM Intrusion comes in. And you know, you were the subject of my last GM Intrusion. I tend to attract these things. You do seem to be the one kind of throwing yourself into things. So, you know, it gets you XP, I guess. Now I will tell you that there is a rule that doesn't get used very often, but if at any time you want to refuse a GM Intrusion, you can spend an XP and say, no, thank you. No, but they're so fun. I know. I never refuse them either. All right. So, same deal as before. You get to keep one. You get to award one to someone else for whatever you want because here's what happens. This creature, you know, you've bloodied its face. Its teeth are all broken out. It's just lunging at you wildly. You sort of, especially with Bix's help, dodge out of the way with ease. And like a crazed thing, it crashes into one of the ropes that is holding onto the bridge. And with its teeth or with its claws, you're not really sure, it slices through, making the bridge suddenly very teetering. Yeah. What do you do? I see that this is happening. The rope is still dangling from... It is? Okay. I plan on running back at the troll creature, using it, like jumping on it to hopefully bounce off and then grab the rope. Okay, are you trying to just use it for leverage or do you actually want to try to do it damage as you're grabbing the rope? I mean, if I could do damage, well, as I grab the rope, that would be great. Let's proceed that way then. These things are four on defense, so it's going to be a difficulty four. Okay, even... Well, they're both on the bridge at this point, right? You see the creature. You see... Actually, you're in the cave. I'm in the cave. So, you see Davalu and you see the creature. Once I see her jump on the creature, hedge magic to like sever the other rope so the creature sort of falls as she's grabbing the rope, the creature falls. So, hedge magic isn't probably strong enough to break a rope. Okay, what if I shot one of my razor? You think that that would be a marksman-like shot? Well, if I shot it and then use magic. Can I do that? As cool as that is, there really are two different actions. Bix has a dagger. I'm also sitting right outside the cave with my blade. That is true. So, if you want to shout at me to cut the rope, I can cut the rope. Okay. Perfect. Okay, change your plans, do that. Don't cut the wrong rope. Oh, no. I know rope up this house. I'll get back up. Okay, so that's cool. That doesn't help me. It doesn't help you one, but it doesn't hurt you. Yeah. Okay. So, it's level four right now. Is there any way I can help her? Can I shoot at the creature since I could see it? You can shoot at the creature, or you can do what Bix did. You can also aid her action by shooting close to it and making it move out of the way, disrupting it. But you can also just shoot it. I want to shoot it. Okay. So, the difficulty is four. Okay. And you're using a light weapon, so that makes the difficulty three. And so, that's a nine or higher. Ooh. And what would I do to bring it down? You'd spend three speed points unless you've got an edge in speed. No, but whatever. Okay. We got to get out of here. All right. So, that'll make it, you need a six. One. Ooh. A one. Here's the fun thing about ones. You know how there are these special effects if you roll it really high? When you roll a one, it's another automatic intrusion, but there's no XP awarded. So, just something gets worse. Sorry. Okay. So, I think I'm going to go the obvious route and say that you shoot, you miss the thing, the creature, and you do like an incredible marksman, slice through that other rope. Oh no. No. What happens is, now you still have your action. He had a held action, so he sort of interrupted your action. So, in the mid attempt to grab the rope, you have a choice. You see that the bridge is now probably going to collapse. You could forego what you were going to do and just grab the rope. Yeah. Or you could still continue with what you were doing, and if you are successful, then you get to kick this thing and grab the rope. Oh man. Well, I mean, it's going down anyway, right? Probably, yeah. Oh, but it would be so badass. Don't die. What's the difficulty for just grabbing the rope? You know, there's no difficulty at all. You would just grab it. And what would I have to roll to do what I wanted to do? We figured it was a four defense. You know, the things on a falling bridge, it's probably down to three. So, you'd roll it, and you'd roll a nine or higher. I'm going to do it. But if you fail, you might also fall with it. Oh no. Ooh. Remember, you got XP for this GM intrusion just a couple of minutes ago, and you can use XP to re-roll, so you've kind of got a safety net. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I want to look badass. That's kind of what I'm here for. Eight. So, you're going to re-roll. Okay. Well, I'm going to do a six. Nine. Nine. Nine. Eighteen. Yeah. Oh, that's actually even plus two damage to this thing. So, to add insult to injury, you just kick this thing right in its face as it falls down into the river below. Probably not going to make it back out again. And you manage to grab onto the rope. Now, you're still right there. You see all this happen. The bridge is now collapsing. The thing is falling off of it. But you know that Bix is still in the cave. Yeah, I'm just going to yell Bix. You should grab Bix. Yeah, because it will so Bix when it comes to the edge of the cave so I can grab them. Can I run out or do I have to wait until it's my turn? No, we can do this now. So, you can run out and grab Bix. But there's still these other creatures that are in the cave. And one of them is going to try to attack each of you as you are trying to get out of the cave. So, each of you is going to need to make a speed defense roll. Okay. Their attack is four. So, each of you is trained. I know you're trained in speed defense. You're trained without armor. That reduces it down to three. I'm going to use some of my speed. I'm also going to use some of my speed. Okay, so you've both got it down to difficulty two. So, you need six or higher. Bix, why don't you roll first? Eleven. Nice. Alright. Ten. Alright. Very nice. You both succeed and can fly out of the cave. Yes. Once you are all together again up at the top of the cliff, what are you going to do? Pull that rope up. Okay. I don't want those goblin things on there. Yeah, definitely not. That was a great shot by me, right? Let's not talk about it. It's one hundred million. So, you guys are all together up at the top of the cliff. And the only way to go is basically down the slope where you kind of figured that there was probably another entrance to the cave in the back. That doesn't sound like good. I don't think it's good. What choice do we have, really? They're coming for us no matter what. At least maybe we can shoot at them as they come up. Ooh, now I'm going to use my force field. Okay, that makes sense. That gives you plus two armor, I think? Yeah, plus two. Okay, and did you award your other experience point that you got for the gym intrusion? No. I mean, it was all me. So, that's a big sign. Thank you. All right, so you're using the force field so you can, unless you need it for reference. No, I just get plus two for the next 28 hours. Okay, great. Very nice. Will you let me know when it's not working anymore? Yes. So that is a weird little interesting side note. All the days, a billion years in the future are 28 hours long. And that's because the moon is slowly moving away from the Earth. Science. All right, you're going to make your way down this cliff. It's not really a cliff. It's just a gentle incline. It's a slope, right? So there's no rolls or anything involved, but maybe a little wary that there are still foes about. How much time has passed since I activated my gravity? 15 minutes at most. Cool. You're still flying. I'd like to at least, if I can cover, you know, cover us as we're moving down. Okay. Gun out, and if anything, if I see anything, I'm shooting. Okay, so in this situation, you know that there are foes. They know that you are here. We will roll for initiative because they are going to come back out. And so this is done just like any other role in the game. They are level four, so you need to beat a difficulty four. You use speed in order to improve this role. Basically, you're just, we're just trying to figure out, do you beat them or do they beat you? And do we factor in our speed defense? Not speed defense. Okay. You can be skilled in initiative, but I don't think any of you are. If you're going to modify the, by using some speed, you'll make the difficulty a three, in which case you need a nine or higher. Otherwise, you need a 12 or higher, or they're going to go before you do. So we also have to subtract some of our speed if we decide to use some of that. Do we two for you? Do you want to spend? I'm just going to roll. Okay. Go ahead and roll. Okay. What? You will be going after the creatures. I'll be going next week. So I decided to spend a couple of points. Okay. What was the number? You need a nine. Oh, okay. Because I got 11. Okay. So you'll be going before they do. You'll see them pop up, but let's figure out where everyone's at. I spent some of my speed points. You need a nine. That's a six. Okay. So you're going to be going after them? Okay. So if I use speed, it'd be two points. If you have an edge in speed, it'll cost you two. If you don't, it'll be three. I'm just going to roll them. Okay. You need a 12 or higher. I didn't make it. Okay. I spent some speed, so a nine or higher? Nine or higher. Nope. Oh, please. Not that music. Music is me nightmares from my childhood. Could we get something a little bit lighter, some lighter music here? Are you a fan of true crime TV shows? And what about Unsolved Mysteries, the show that jump-started all of our love of true crime? I'm Ellen Marsh. And I'm Joey Taranto. And we host, I Think Not, a true crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campy TV shows all the way to Unsolved Mysteries. Baby, you will laugh. You will cry. You'll think about true crime in a whole new way. And you'll also ask yourself, who gave these people mics? New episodes of I Think Not are released every Wednesday with bonus episodes out every Thursday on Patreon. And every Monday you can listen to our true crime rundown where we go over the top true crime headlines of the week. So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcasts. This is the one Chicago podcast. The first ever behind the scenes look at the iconic TV shows. We're talking Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Chicago Med. Join me each week for an exclusive conversation with the writers, the crew members and the stars. Void's doing the right thing for Void. Check out the one Chicago podcast from Wolf Entertainment and USG Audio. Available now wherever you get your podcasts. So these creatures just as Edaron kind of sussed out before, there is another cave entrance. You guys are marching toward it. They pop out with kind of surprise for most of you except for Shonza. You see them coming. You're flying. You've got your bow. What are you going to do? Is it a bad idea to use my other cipher? Not if it's a great idea. Okay. I'm going to put out my frigid wall projector. Okay. I'm going to create a wall of super cooled air up to 30 feet by 30 feet by one foot. Okay. That inflicts equal damage to the cipher's level on anything that passes through it. Okay. It'll last for 10 minutes. Great. So you could put that right over sort of the mouth of the back entrance to the cave if you wanted to so that if they're going to come out they have to take damage. Yeah. Okay. So you need to roll for what your cipher's level is because that figures in. And that's a six, right? It says on the description up in the corner up in the top. Yeah. D6 plus two. Okay. Five. Wow. Okay. So anything that moves through there is going to take five points of damage. It's a D6 plus two. So seven. Oh. Okay. Anything that moves through there is going to take seven points of damage. Yes. Kill those little troll things. That's a goal. All right. That's a very colorful cipher you've just unleashed. These things they kind of, you know, they're already rushing out. It's not like they can, they feel the cold but they just keep going. And so the first two that come out, they take the seven points of damage, which, you know, you can see their flesh kind of turns a little blue. And their eyes kind of bulged. And there's maybe even sort of some frost on them. They look very, very hurt by that and sort of incensed with anger. And these two guys have those blow guns again. And I'm afraid you've just kind of made yourself a bit of a target for them. So they are both going to shoot at you. This is fine. So once again, they're level four. You're trained in speed defense. So two rolls, nine each for you, unless you want to spend speed points. I feel like I'm running out of speed. You could roll for just one, two. I'll roll for one. Okay. And see how the first one goes. That sounds fair. So I need a nine or higher. Oh, well I got a 14. Okay. So that's good. Okay, I'm feeling lucky. Okay. Oh no! It was almost a 16 and now it's not. Okay. A six. So one of these little needles out of the blow gun shoots and just barely sort of scratches your ear. It doesn't do any damage at all. Except you know that they're coated in some kind of weird, weird greenish goo. This is where we need you to make a new kind of defense roll. It's a might defense roll. And this is your ability to resist, say, a poison. Okay. Does that have anything to do with my, how high my might is? It does because you can spend points out of your might to lower the difficulty. So the difficulty is four. Yeah, I'm going to do that. I'm going to lower. Okay. Or I'm going to spend, to make it lower. That makes it three. So I need to roll nine or higher? Yep. Why? Wait, wait, wait! Can I spend an XT point too? Can I roll? Don't fail me now. 12. Great. All right. So you resist the effects of the poison, which is good because it would have done something which is, we call it moving down the damage track. Now you'll notice as you've been taking damage, your pools, the points have been going down in the pools. When you get to zero in a pool, it's called being one step down in the damage track. And you become impaired and it makes your actions harder. If two pools go down to zero, you're debilitated. And basically the only action that you can take is to kind of crawl to safety. If three pools go down to zero, you're dead. And this poison was such that it would just automatically have taken you down a step in the damage track. So it's pretty dangerous, deadly poison. The good news is that with this frigid frozen wall, none of the other of these creatures are going to come out. And the two that are there are really, really hurt. And the other four of you have actions. Who wants to... I do. I'm ready to. Blast. I figured that was coming. I'm going to use onslaught. Sure. I would add, if I want to use intelligence. Intellect, if you want to make it easier to hit them. Yep. I'm going to do it. Okay. I'm ready to use three. Yes, but you have edge. So you're spending the edge to cover the cost of the onslaught. So it will cost you three. Okay. You're right. I'm ready to blast. So you need a nine or higher. Okay. Sixteen. You blast this thing into little bits. Yes. Because it was already really hurt by that cipher. It was frozen. It was frozen. Yeah. It was just shattered like a frozen. Exactly, exactly. That's awesome. There's one left. I've got it. Okay. So they have a defensive four. So that's a 12 or higher. What action are you taking? The buzzer? Yeah. Okay. But I want to, if I use it at speed. Yes. Okay. So that's three. Three off. Okay. The buzzer is a light weapon. So that's going to reduce the difficulty again. So actually your difficulty is only two, need a six. Okay. Ten. All right. You hit it. And that is enough to take this thing down as well. It just kind of falls backwards into the cave, probably into more frozen, swirling, super cooled air. The other of these creatures, there's maybe four or five of them, but they all just scurry into the back of the cave. They're not going to probably mess with you any further. And you're pretty sure that you can bypass this whole thing and keep moving. Let's keep moving. Let's keep moving. Let's keep moving. Let's go this way and then maybe rest. Okay. Just a little bit. Okay. What were those things, by the way? So you're not exactly sure what their nature is, but you think you know generally, in the ninth world, there are humans that essentially intentionally gave up their humanity and became sort of monstrous creatures so that they could better survive out in the wilderness with all the dangers that the Numenera and the prior worlds present. And so collectively, these things are called abhumans, right? They're other than human. And you're pretty sure that these guys must have been some sort of abhumans, and particularly because of the way they use poison, that's a favorite tactic of these creatures. They're always bestial. They usually eat the humans that they come upon. They're bad news. All right. Okay. Let's get the hell out of here. I don't want any more abhumans. All right. So you can rest. Everyone can make a recovery roll, and then you can spread those however you need to spread them. Beyond this sort of abhuman ambush, you can get to a place where you're not feeling any danger from behind you anymore, but something new presents itself. There's a strange mountain up ahead, and they're in fact sort of boulders and big, huge outcroppings of rock that seem to be floating and almost orbiting around it, defying gravity. And as you approach, you can hear just barely unintelligible whispers everywhere you go. Weird little voices. This is what that lady was talking about. At the base of the mountain, you see a huge metal door that's just set right into the rock, and we'll find out what's on the other side of that door next time on Starter Kit. Next time on Starter Kit. Woosh. The door slides up into the ceiling. He was right. One of the machines rotates and moves. Guys, I don't think we're alone in here. Just a catastrophic amount of damage. It's been a pleasure knowing you all. Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run. 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll, of course, have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Kripke was, he's great. We love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent decoveny type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes. So please join us and subscribe to Supernatural then and now. The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world. Praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight. But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time. And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s and man, it is so good to be back. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the shadow dark. Every Thursday night at 8pm Eastern on youtube.com slash the glass cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark.