Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry

Part 4: The Kindness of Strangers | Starter Kit - Numenera

38 min
Jan 5, 20265 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

This Numenera Starter Kit episode follows a party of adventurers as they recover from a cavern collapse, discover the recovery mechanics system, find shelter in the village of Rusk, and learn that their companion Mauro is suffering from a terminal illness called 'the wasting' that drives his quest to reach the mysterious Whispering Peak. The group trades with the village's Ion Priest elder Shea for magical artifacts to aid their dangerous journey ahead.

Insights
  • Game design mechanics like resource management (rest pools, experience points) create meaningful player choices and pacing opportunities during recovery sequences
  • Character-driven storytelling through personal quests and health mysteries creates emotional investment and party cohesion beyond combat encounters
  • NPC interactions and trust-building mechanics reward roleplay and social problem-solving as alternatives to combat
  • Transparent communication about character limitations and motivations enables collaborative storytelling and party alignment on objectives
  • Trade and barter systems with NPCs provide narrative opportunities to acquire tools while building world relationships and lore
Trends
Tabletop RPG design emphasizing narrative recovery and downtime mechanics over constant combatCharacter mortality and terminal illness as narrative drivers for party motivation and urgencyTransparent game mastering that explains difficulty mechanics and allows player agency in resource spendingCollaborative worldbuilding through player character backstories integrated into NPC reactionsAccessibility-focused design accommodating non-verbal communication (sign language) in gameplay
Topics
Numenera RPG system mechanicsCharacter recovery and rest systemsExperience point allocation and re-roll mechanicsNPC trust-building and interaction checksMagical artifact trading and acquisitionTerminal illness narrative storytellingParty composition and character abilitiesWilderness exploration and village encountersIon Priesthood lore and worldbuildingCyborg and supernatural character integrationDifficulty scaling and effort mechanicsEmotional character developmentQuest motivation and party alignmentArtifact identification and utilityAccessibility in tabletop gaming
Companies
Wolf Entertainment
Produced Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, and Chicago Med shows featured in One Chicago podcast advertisement
USG Audio
Audio production company partnering with Wolf Entertainment on One Chicago podcast
Glass Cannon Podcast
Tabletop RPG podcast running Shadow Dark campaign, competing in actual play RPG content space
People
Monte Cook
Creator of Numenera RPG system, hosting and teaching Starter Kit episode mechanics and lore
Quotes
"I have what our people sometimes call the wasting. And I don't know how much longer I have."
MauroMid-episode
"Just because something awful happened to me in my past doesn't mean I'm going to let it destroy me as a being. I'm going to fight."
BixNPC interaction sequence
"The area that you're heading to is a place that we call the Whispering Peak. It is filled with ghosts and dangers."
SheaVillage elder warning
"You might actually consider a position in the Ion priesthood at some point."
SheaTrade negotiation
"Children can be a handful, but also insightful."
SheaCharacter observation
Full Transcript
Last time on Starter Kit, I'm not messing around with these bird dogs. Can I punch wildly at the air in front of me? Ah! Come on, you little bastards. Is there anything else I can spend? Because I'll spend it. I just wanted to fight a thing. We can see if you survive. Oh, okay! Welcome back to your Starter Kit. I'm Monti Cook, creator of Numenera. Resting in recovery in the ninth world works a lot like it does in the real world. You can rest a little while and get a quick second wind, or for a long time in hopes of recovering fully. We'll see how that works in this episode. So, you guys got a little roughed up as the cavern collapsed. So, what you can do, now, is get some many of your down points in your pools. And what you can do is instantly recover some of those. And this is the way recovery works. Basically, every character gets four rests every day. And the first one is just a one action, right? You just take a minute, breathe, and you get a rest. And every time you get a rest, you get to roll a six-sided die, and you add one to that. And that's how many points you can restore back to your pool. And you can choose them in any category? Yeah, absolutely. Now, the second time in a day you want to take a rest, that takes ten minutes, right? You've got to really kind of take a long breather, collect yourself, and then you get back the six, the D6 plus one points. The third time is an hour. It takes to do that. And the fourth time is actually sleeping overnight, right? So that's how that works. So you might be, even as you stumble out of the cavern with billowing dust clouds coming behind you as everything has collapsed, you might want to take your first one now and recover some points just so you've got them. And so that's pretty much instantaneous for everyone. And that's a D6 plus one. Okay, all right. Better run, you got that whiskey? I do, here you go. Oh man, great. You know it was holding it safe. Yeah, yeah. I rolled a five, so. Okay, great. So you can have six points to restore back to your pools up to their normal maximums? Excellent. Four, so that would be five. And that goes on. Anywhere you want in any of your three pools. And you can split it up? You can split it up? I rolled a two. Okay, so that's three points. I'm probably going to put it back in my mites so that I'm safe if I. That makes a lot of sense. I rolled a three, so then I have four points. So I put three back in the mites. Okay. So I'm back up to ten, and then one back in my speed to be at twelve. Okay. I'm back at nine in mites, ten in speed. Back at twenty-one in mites. What, twelve? Yeah, fourteen in speed. Okay, some of you are still down a few points. Maybe it's time to find a good place to rest. You're in the wilderness, but there are villages kind of scattered here and there, isolated places that you could find. And in fact, your skill in geography lets you know that you think, like on some old map that you saw once, there was a village. You don't even remember its name, but it's up ahead somewhere along here. I think pretty close there's a, there may be a village. I don't know if people even live there anymore. It could be abandoned, but I saw on an old map that there was some sort of hamlet or something close by. I think we should make for it and try to find a place to rest. Yeah, I could do that. Yeah, let's do it. Big snods. Okay. Fortunately, it's not too long of a trip, and you can see up ahead, you know, you're still making your way through mountainous terrain, nestled in between two enormous boulders that stretch up into the sky. There is a tiny little gathering of very simple little homes of stone and wood. You see lights inside the, coming from windows and smoke coming out of chimneys. How many homes does it look like? You see maybe 20 buildings altogether. Okay. Do any of them look like an inn or? From outside, it just sort of looks like a bunch of buildings. There might be one that's larger than the others, kind of deeper in, and the whole place is very well protected by this, like I said, sort of nestled in between these two big stones. Let's go knock on a door. Okay. Yeah, the middle of the night. What could go wrong? Someone else go in front. You see, even as you approach, that a door opens up and someone comes walking out. It's a man. He's wearing, looks like farmer or herder, herdsman clothing. In fact, he's got a big long staff, the kind of staff that a herder wears, not a Gandalf staff. And he looks at you warily. He says, who are you? Just some travelers, just, you know, making our way across town. I don't know if I should be talking. I'm an inability at interaction, so maybe it's I. Oh, I'm not a ghost. Okay, so maybe I should be talking. I'm the only one that can. We're just some travelers getting through, we've got our own little personal quest going on. We're looking for a place to kind of, to crash for the night. We don't want any trouble. We don't get many visitors here. We're well off the beaten path. How do I know you're trustworthy? We are. We have a child with us? Yeah, we do have a child with us. And a teenager. And a teenager that's very childlike too. So at this point, what we're going to do is we're going to have you make an interaction role. Your friends are chiming in and so they're helping. They're assisting you, but it's going to come down to you. Since you kind of decided to take the lead and become the party voice. Great. Or you could just punch this guy. I could, it comes right down to it. And I'm thinking about it, but... So the difficulty to get this guy to trust you is going to be three and your friends are helping, so it's only two. And if you want to use effort, it's intellect. Okay, well, I only have seven intellect. I spent it all, but I'll just stick with the two. Okay, so you need a six or higher. Six or higher? Eight. Right, the least charismatic party in history. He strokes his chin, he says, well, I don't want to be inhospitable. You clearly have seen some rough times in the recent past. Why don't you come in, we'll get you cleaned up and get a meal and at least somewhere to sleep for tonight. It's cold. Great, thank you. Thank you. So he guides you into the village, he guides you to his home, and he tells you, we call our village Rusk, and my name is Davus. Davus? I'm a herder. We made it to Rusk at dusk. Did he say that joke out loud and did Davus laugh? So Davus has probably heard that joke before. He rolled his eyes. So he does not laugh, but he'll smile because it's good natured and warm to bring in some levity. So he gives you a smile and he says, well, so I'm going to make you some stew here. We have y'all here. Do you have y'all? Oh, we have y'all. We love y'all. Okay, all right. Y'all need y'all stew. Great, and there's probably someone here in town that you should meet. But you know, enjoy your meal, rest, and maybe we can deal with that tomorrow. Sounds great. Okay. Thank you for everything. I'm sure you'd do the same for me. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yes, where are you from? We're from Aldervale. That's a name I've heard maybe once before, down out of the mountains. Yeah, it's a little tough to get to from here. What brings you here? You're just traveling, you said? Yeah, we're kind of like on a road trip. Exploring. Exploring just, yeah. Oh, and I guess Mauro has a quest that he's trying to do, but the rest of us are kind of along for the ride. Mauro is sitting by the fire and he's actually kind of leaning up against the hearth and he's not looking great. So worse than when we started? Mm-hmm. Can we make him a y'all meat sandwich? Can I find like plants that might make him feel better? You might be able to. Can I forge? Yeah, it's dark now, but maybe tomorrow would be a lot easier to do that. Can I just straight up ask Mauro? Mauro, why? Are you okay? I'm fine. I'm just tired. It's been a long day. Okay. I mean, you seem... He looks more than just tired, though. You look more than just tired, though. He says, I'll be fine. If I could just get maybe some sleep, I'll be just fine tomorrow. Okay. Fine. Now, Ajna, there's something about... You've got this telepathic ability, right? Which I think comes with it as a certain amount of intuition, right? You can't read people's minds per se, but there's some empathy there, right? Yeah, I feel things. Yeah, yeah. Do you think that Mauro is probably on a timeline? If he's going to finish this quest, he probably needs to do it sooner rather than later. I'd really like to try to get a little bit more out of him if I can. Okay. So what would you like to say tomorrow? Let me just break a little bread with you for a minute. Please. Four couple shots. He's 16. It's all right. There's no drinking age in Aldervale. Take a little sip of this. It always makes me feel a little bit better. It's been a long day. Okay. He takes about half of what you've given him and kind of shakes. Yeah, but a little hair on the chest. You like that? Yeah, he says, putting that half full glass down. So let me ask you, something's going on. You know, I trust you. I think you're a great kid. I want to help you and we're all here helping you. You are helping me. I'm so appreciative. But I feel like you're not being very forthcoming about a couple things. Have another. You're trying to get Maro to talk about something that he clearly doesn't really want to talk about. So this is going to be an interaction. Now, normally you are, you have an inability at it now because you've got this mysterious mystic aura about you. I'm going to say that that doesn't apply here because you've already sort of won Maro over. He's not uneasy around you. And in fact, you know, you've just gotten him a little tipsy. He's the true serum right there. But I'm still, I still, I'm going to have you make an interaction action. So you've reduced the difficulty down to two at this point. And this would be intellect. It would. Which I have a 16 of. You have an edge in intellect, right? Yeah. So it only cost you two points to lower it even one more if you wanted to. You don't have to. And then if I made a roll it'd be over six. You're looking for six now and if you reduced it it would be a three or higher. I think this is pretty important. Okay. So I'm going to use a couple of points off that. Okay. And you know, Maro is smart dude. Cool. Four. Okay. Good thing you've put in effort. Exactly. He says. Just talk to me, buddy. I don't really like to talk about this. It's hard for me. But I have what our people sometimes call the wasting. And I don't know how much longer I have. I just, I know it's my destiny to go to where these coordinates are. Go to where the sing song was leading me. I feel like it was leading me specifically to go there. I won't lie to you. This is really hard. But I feel like I've got to do it. I don't know how much time I have. Let me ask you something about this wasting. Do you feel as though maybe where we're going might help you cure whatever problem is happening, whatever this wasting is? You know, this maybe seems strange to you, but it doesn't even really matter to me. As long as I can get there and see what's there and see what I feel like I'm being led to, if that helps me with this, great. If it doesn't, at least I'll have accomplished it. What do you feel? Hi, I'm Brian Lucci, a former Chicago cop. Now I'm a producer on Chicago PD, and I'd like to introduce you to the official 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. Voight's doing the right thing for Voight. Check out the One Chicago podcast from Wolf Entertainment and USG Audio. Available now wherever you get your podcast. 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 8 p.m. 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. Get good rest at least. It's your 10 minute and your hour as well. So I'm guessing that all of you by tomorrow morning will probably be at full. Back at business. Yeah. So do we not need to roll? We can just push it back. I can't imagine that you won't. Yay. With this rest, this is something that in Numenera normally we would do at the end of every game session. But we're doing things a little differently here. So everyone also is going to get an experience point. And so I'm going to give you guys these cards. What this is is for accomplishing what you've done so far, right? You've gotten Morrow this far. You've survived some dangers. You've made it to a brand new village that you've never been to before. And experience in Numenera is often for discovering things, right? And some of you already had experience points from the GM Intrusion last time. So some of you have got a couple. In the course of a Numenera game, you can save up experience points and advance your character. Or you can also spend them right in the middle of a session anytime you want. And what you get to do then is re-roll a die. And the thing is, is that you can re-roll any die at the table. So even if you see someone else roll badly in a clutch, you can spend your XP and re-roll the die. So now all of you have the capability of doing that once. A couple of you have the capability to do that a couple of times if you want to. And so that comes from having a good night's rest. You probably sleep pretty hard that night. But it is probably not even the chance to have a bite of breakfast before someone new comes into the herder's hut. And she looks like this. She stands up very straight, almost sort of a regal demeanor. And she has a symbol that a couple of you recognize. It's known as the symbol of truth, but it's also a symbol of the Ion Priesthood. And Ion Priests are people who have dedicated their lives to studying the past, studying the Numenera. They're the ones who, you know, when adventurers like you find something weird out in the wilderness, you often bring it back to the Ion Priest to have them figure out what it is. If your village had an Ion Priest, it would probably have been Maro, assuming he would actually last that long. But she comes in and she says, you are outsiders here. We have not had an outsider in Rusk in a year and a half. I am Shea, elder of the village and Ion Priest. And you are? Hi. I am Davalu. This is Shanza, Ederon, Bix and on... Agenia. Agenia and Maro, who's asleep right now. She nods and in fact she will immediately look over at Maro and say, he appears unwell. Yeah, he's really tired all the time. He won't tell me why. So why are you here? We're just, you know, traveling, just trying to get to this one place that Maro really wants to go to. Bix points to Maro. What one place? It's just this place on a map that he really, really wants to go to. And we're all just accompanying him. So it occurs to you that perhaps, since you're much farther into the wilderness, now you're talking to someone who lives much closer to where you're going. She might know information. Is there a way that I can or some of us can try to detect her motive? Does she seem, is there something I can do to... Sure. So that would be, you know, there are skills for that. I don't think that Ederon has them, but you can always try this and it would be modified by your intellect. Is it sort of a perception kind of thing? And that governs perception. So if you want to use effort in that, it would cost you points out of intellect. I want to try it. Okay. So with your edge that will cost you two, I'm going to tell you that she is a little hard to read. That doesn't necessarily mean she's lying. She's just, she's a person of some stature. She's level five. So even with a level of effort, you're only lowering it to four. So that's still going to be a 12. And will my edge help? The edge reduced the cost. Oh, okay, okay, right. So you're going to need a 12 or higher to kind of see if you can get anything from her. 12 or higher. 14. Yeah! Your take on her is that she is the head of a very small village out in the middle of the wilderness. And she's probably very protective of this place. She's probably, you know, understandably a little leery of newcomers. But you don't sense any malevolent emotion in her. You don't sense that she's trying to get one over on you. You get the sense that she's worried that you're trying to do that to her. Okay. So I whisper to Ajna, I go, I think we can trust her. I think she's just trying to protect her village. I'm getting a good vibe. Let's show her the map. So I go over to Mauro's map or notebook there. I'm like, Mauro, let me just get this thing. All right. This is where we're headed. You know, I'm not exactly sure what's there. None of us really are. But we know that, you know, we trust Mauro. We really want to help him. To be honest, you know, I had a conversation with him last night. He says he's suffering from this thing called the wasting. I personally have a feeling that he will be, wherever we go, it's going to help him. We really like to help him because to be honest, I think, you know, he can help us in our village and, you know, really, really educate us on where we are and where we come from. So you ask to hold the notebook. She takes a look at it. The area that you're heading to is a place that we call the Whispering Peak. It is filled with ghosts and dangers. Then she kind of closes the notebook up. She hands it back to you and she says, I recommend you do not go. I think we're going to go. Yeah. He insisted on going. He was going to go no matter what. And why? Where did he get this location from? There's a relic in our town that emits a beeping. A chime. Yeah. And he figured out the coordinates. He thought it was a code. So he's quite smart this one. Very. Yep. Interesting. Well, you, of course, are free to do whatever you wish. We do not go there. And we've known for a long time that it is a place of great danger. So I hope that you are ready. I hope that you have some capabilities among you to withstand some probably very strange experiences. But, you know, as I look at each one of you, I can see that you all have some qualities among you that are not what I see among, you know, the villagers of Rusk. You are part machine. Yep. That happened. It's a long story. I would be very interested to hear this long story. When I was younger, maybe I got in a fight with some outsiders that were trying to do harm to my village. And maybe they beat me up real bad. Maybe they kidnapped me and forced me to go under some operation to become part cyborg. And maybe that's why I am the way that I am. But you seem to have adjusted to it quite well. This is part of me. I'm not going to hide from it. Just because something awful happened to me in my past doesn't mean I'm going to let it destroy me as a being. I'm going to fight. I'm going to use it to fight. And that's what I'm doing. I'm a fighter. I can see that. And I can see that that is a valuable survival trait here in the Ninth World. Thank you. I like her. I also can't help but notice that I can see through you. Yeah. Like literally. Literally. Is this a device that you have? No. I was born this way. You were? Yeah. It's been rough. Lots of people think I'm a ghost. So I often have to yell, I'm not a ghost when I first meet people. But I think it's an awesome part of you. You saved my life. I did. I saved her life. Really? Yeah. So I can do this. And I push something. Whatever's in front of me. I don't know what's in front of me. Like a chair. A table. Alright. I can do this. And then I'm going to stick my hand through the table. Very cool. She says that is also very impressive. And this is just something that happened to you from birth. This is natural? Yes. I'm not exactly sure where it came from. There is a rumor though about one of my ancestors coming across a creature from a different dimension. Plain different world. Really? Yeah. I have heard of such things. And he literally disappeared after a while. And I wonder if it had something to do with this. How do you know that you won't one day just mysteriously disappear? I haven't really thought about it. I guess I don't. I guess I don't know. Well, I wish you the best. Thank you. You don't like her as much as I do. I'm a little uncomfortable now. While they're having all this conversation, she has left, when she came in, she left the door open. Vix, you notice outside there is a little girl. And she's just kind of looking in curiosity, looking at everyone, but particularly looking at you. So Vix notices this little girl and Vix first tries closing Vix's eyes and then opening the eyes again and then seeing what the little girl does. She kind of hides behind the door and then she peeks out again. Okay. And so Vix turns around and then turns back around. She does exactly the same thing and then laughs. Okay. So Vix runs to the door but stays on the inside of the door and then Vix heads around. Then she moves to mimic you and does the same thing, but then she laughs. Okay. So Vix finally does that again and then makes a big smile, a sign for a big smile. Okay. She says, you talk with your hands. Vix nods and does a little sign for an adjuster for no and then talking. Why not? Is your voice broken? Vix shakes their head. She says, well, do you want to play? Vix nods. Okay. So she leads you out of the house and she has a ball and stick game that she plays around with you. And Vix delightedly dives in. Okay. Meanwhile, back inside with the adults. So then she turns to you and she says, you're clearly filled with electrical power. Is that also something you were born with? It's more something I was interested in and discovered and cultivated and discovered I could do draw electricity right from the air. Is this a device or are you doing something else? It's a yes. A little bit of both. You must know quite a bit about the Numenera too, have put together something like this. I've spent my life researching it, yes. I wish that you weren't on your way out of the village. We could talk. I've got to go do this mission with Mauro, but wouldn't mind coming back. Yeah, please do. Please come back to us. I would appreciate that. You might actually consider a position in the Ion priesthood at some point. Maybe. I don't know if I'd want to join any organization that would have me. She laughs. For the first time, she laughs. You, I can't quite put my finger on. There is just something about you. Is this a secret that you want kept? Well, yes. Then I will ask no more. I also won't ask why you've brought a small child with you into the wilderness. Wait, where is our small child? Yeah, Vix is not around, but then you can see, you can hear a little girl's laughter, and you can look out into the space between the houses and they're playing. None of us have any kids. We don't know how to. She nods and she says, children can be a handful, but also insightful. I understand that you're in a hurry. It is clear to me that I can't dissuade you from your path. Is there anything else that I can do for you? Do you have any tips on how to deal with these ghost monster thingies that you were talking about? Or perhaps some things in your village that might help us if you wouldn't mind lending him. And Ed Oron can bring him back when he comes to join the priesthood. She says, well, we are not wealthy in that way, but we have some things. I could offer you potentially a trade if you have something to exchange. That's okay. If there's anything you see that we have that... Well, I'll tell you some of the things that I have, and if there's something that you would like to offer me, if any of these things sound interesting to you. Sure. We can work out a trade. So I have a glove here that I fashioned, and if you touch someone with it, it will force them to tell the truth. I have a capsule that you can take and it will improve your intellect. Game-wise, basically what it does is that it gives you an intellect edge for an hour. And it would add one, so if you've already got one, you would make it two. Okay, great. She tells you that I have this rather large device, but once you have it up and assembled, it will create a big wall of pure energy, a force that will be very difficult for anyone to break through. I like that. Yeah. What do you want to trade it for? Where's the time when Jane Austen wrote her books? The Regency Era was also an explosive time of social change, sex scandals, and maybe the worst king in British history. Vulgar History's new season is all about the Regency Era, the balls, the gowns, and all the scandal. Listen to Vulgar History, Regency Era, wherever you get podcasts. Mark, not so stormy, hard-boiled detective story that probably nobody saw coming. Follow Sonic and the Intrepid Chaotix Detective Agency as they take on their biggest case yet. This high-flying, action-packed adventure will take them across the world, fighting for every clue they can find. It's one heck of a tale, which is good, because this story might be the only thing that can save there. Sonic, wait! Well, if that's all I can just dispose of you. Wait, what? A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! All will be revealed in Sonic the Hedgehog Presents, The Chaotix Case Files. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. When the Chaotix are on the case. I don't know. I've got a mask that will help make you change your appearance. Well, that's interesting. I would consider that trade. In the place that we're heading, do you think there's any metal there? That would be a problem? Where you're headed, I believe that the greatest dangers will be metal. Okay, keep in my thing. We refer to them as the metal ghosts. That doesn't make sense. Ghosts are see-through and just energy. This place doesn't make sense. Do you know if there's any water there? Yes. You know, they could get in the way of... I don't think that you'll run into any water barriers that aren't as easily forted as what you've already encountered. Okay, in that case, I would love to trade you this desiccating detonation. What it does is it drains moisture from everything within. Okay, okay. Is that something you might be interested in? It is. She tells you about one thing that she hasn't yet told you about. She just calls it the heat weapon. In fact, she'll bring it out and it looks like this big, large, curved knife. She says, there's a device here that when you activated it, this whole blade will glow with heat and become a very deadly weapon. You could probably cut through metal. So I'm scared of it. Did you consider that trade? Let's make a deal. And you wanted the forces of the skin projector instead of the image changer. Okay. Great. I'm not going to get the last line of defense kind of thing there. I have one other thing that you might be interested in. I would have to go back to my home to fetch it, but it's something that I've cobbled together. It's a glove, but when you wear it and activate it, it will allow you to ignore the effects of gravity. Vix runs back in because Vix can hear what's going on. Sure, of course. And Vix grabs the two items that Vix has, which is the friction reducing gel. Okay. Vix also has the visual displacement device that replicates what you look like. Right. And Vix holds both out to everyone, offering it up if there's one of the two that you think would be better for the team to keep versus getting that. I think the slippery one might be useful. You want to keep the slippery one and you want to give up the replicating? Yeah. I mean, they're awesome. They're really good. What'd you get, Shonda? They have a device that creates a wall of super-cooled air up to 30 by 30 feet and it inflicts damage equal to the cypress level. That's kind of good, too. Would that work on metal ghost things? I think it would. I know if it works on metal ghost things. You don't know what a metal ghost is. It would certainly work on any sort of normal, natural creature, including humans. Oh, actually, yeah. This one is poison for the next hour of the victim flees in terror for one minute when threatened. She would make that trade. I would go with that. Yeah, make a trade. Do you have that anti-gravity device? I mean, you can fly and go through things. Unstoppable. I'm saying. Alright. Two-inch of an actual ghost. She seems satisfied and happy with those trades. We're satisfied as well. Okay. So if you're ready to go, then, she wishes you well. Cool. Thank you for everything. Maro, get up. He struggles to his feet. Sorry for yelling at you. He says, I'm ready to go. Feeling better, buddy? I'm feeling just fine. Great, let's get out of here. I'll be back. We'll talk more. Excellent. We'll get to it, she says. I'm picking up kind of a weird vibe between the two of you. Yeah, there's like something going on. So, you get all your gear back, maybe get even some more supplies, and head off back into the wilderness. And we'll find out what you find next time on Starter Kit. Next time on Starter Kit. You catch just the smallest hint of something moving. This is fine. I want to shoot it. It leaps toward you. Get out of there. No way anyone else can help me at this point. What do you do? 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 Dukovny 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. To be 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. No safe questions. Just the truth. Listen now to the Roxanne and Chantel podcast. Available where you get your podcasts.