Welcome to Theater of the Mind.
Theater of the Mind is an unofficial D and D five E actual play podcast. Theater of the Mind is not appropriate for all audiences and therefore for listener discretion is advised. Hey, welcome to Theater of the mind. My name's Mike. I'm your dungeon master for this episode. And again, we're gonna continue forward using the ultimate rpg campfire card deck by James D'Amato, pronounced correctly this time and this episode's quite. Is what superstitions do you keep and do you feel compelled to impose them on others?
My name's Amanda, and I am playing Mel Kelly. Mel did not. She's not superstitious, really. She didn't grow up in that kind of household like, her mom's a marine biologist. Super science y analytical superstitions have no space for things like that. However, she does have her lucky charm kind of thing. It's a necklace that was given to her by her dad on her birthday when she was, like, six or something. And it's just this little glass bunny. It's cute and it has no value, but it. To her, it's her lucky charm. And she's always wearing that. Never goes anywhere without it. And she absolutely will not oppose that on others. It's her lucky charm. She's not sharing.
Hi, I'm Jeremy. I play Elliot. Brandy Bain. And Elliot definitely has got superstitions. He had a horseshoe with the legs pointing up nailed over his barn door. He spills salt, he'll throw it over his legs, left shoulder. He tries not to step on cracks on the sidewalk. And no, he's not going to impose it on somebody else. If you want to have bad luck, that's on you.
Hi, I'm Brunel. I'm playing Olnack Vaga Johnson. He's a naval sailor and doesn't really carry a lot of the superstitions that are associated with sailing, but he has gotten a back tattoo since the incident because they bring good luck and fortune. There's like a guardian on his back and no, he doesn't really impose that on anybody. He just feels like it gives him good luck, especially in times of combat or what's the word?
I don't.
When you're stressed out. Times of fortune, not distress times. I don't remember. But, like, when you're, like, when shit's going down, the apocalypse, chaos, like now. Yeah. I can't remember. It's an a word, but yeah. A certain je ne sais quoi.
Yep.
All right. I'm downs. I play James O'Brien. And James superstition is, every time he has to bounce from city to city, he always grabs the closest things to him and scoots out of town, and he always winds up with the same knife. Regardless of what he's able to grab ahold of, it's always the exact same knife. So he's got notches in it for every town he's been to. He just winds up with that knife, and it's kind of difficult to impose that on someone else. So that's a no.
Hi, I'm Casey. I play Emery Lee. I don't think Emery is, like, outwardly superstitious, but it's a lot of, like the, you know, knock on wood or the, you know, just the general misfortune of walking under a ladder or breaking a mirror. You know, the thought crosses her mind, but she's not really actively doing anything about it.
So. Safe to say most of you aren't superstitious. You're just a littlesticious.
Just a little sicious.
Quoted by Michael Scott. Michael Schock.
Minor stitches.
Awesome. Let's go ahead and roll for recap. We'll go highest tells.
All right, I'll roll.
I'll roll. We could go middlest tells closest to ten. Yeah, we'll go middlest tells closest to ten.
615.
Six two.
That's us.
Two sixes.
Eight four.
All right, Casey, what happened last time?
All right, last time we were at Pete Rodriguez's house, the boyer's house. He was kind of talking us through the area where he thinks we might be able to find some of the game he's asked us to get. So we spent the night there, then headed off north of rifle past the prison. We're out there looking for elk and some turkeys. So after scouting around the rest of the day, we camped again, and Elliot and James went off after the elk set themselves up in a nice spot to get a good vantage on them. That's about where we left off. The rest of us are still back at camp.
Excellent. And last thing we had done is roll four initiative. We had Elliott first with a 25. So what is Elliot gonna do?
Elliot's got two arrows in his hand. He's knocked one. He draws his bow back. Elk haven seen him. They are favorite enemy because they're beasts. And he's going to take his shot dirty.
20 hits.
And between the extra attack or the extra from the umbral attack and everything, we've got a total 22 piercing damage.
All right, describe it.
He just one shot at Mel.
He did.
Elliot is going. He watches the spike bull come out, kind of stop for a second and he turns and the elk looks over his right shoulder. And Elliot draws back, takes very careful aim to go for the vitals where he needs this arrow to land and loose it with his perfect release. The arrow does the side to side wobble that arrows do when you from a bow and just dead centers directly through his heart.
Beautiful.
Drives all the way through out the other side.
So with James watching, you see the hair just kind of all you would really see is the hair gently part just behind the shoulder of this elk, and it immediately jolts and tries to take off running. It's able with that beautiful of a shot, it's able to make it 2030 yards before you see it. Kinda start to stagger and get a little weird. The other elk immediately bolt as soon as they see that the bucks or the young bucks scared. Young bulls scared. They dart just bolting away, looking for cover.
Okay. I was informed by Elliot to fire the moment that he fires. So I'll probably still fire at in the direction that he took that one down.
Same one?
I mean, the arrows probably.
Yeah.
Heading towards it.
I don't know if it'll hit the.
Same one that he just took down.
I guess we'll find out.
Do I get adventured because I'm hidden?
No, I guess you would. Yeah. Yes.
I gotta do a sneak attack to an elk.
Yes.
Rolling with advantage.
That is a 22 to hit.
Yep. Hits.
Okay.
You're at what, two d six for your sneak attack?
Yeah.
Not at three yet. Yeah.
So it's a total of three to sixes. The short bow and the sneak attack. 18 points of piercing damage from my bow.
All right, with that, you hit the same elk, you shot well enough. You hit the same elk. That dude's dead. It's done. You got to. Beautiful, beautiful shots. So it does just out of sheer adrenaline. It doesn't know it's dead yet. The nice part downside to arrows is they tend to just cut through. They don't leave exactly big exit wounds like a rifle round would. So it's able to move for a while. It's dead. It just hasn't found out yet. So it gets probably 2030 yards through the scrub rush before it just topples over. With those good of hits, you're not going to have to work too hard on this one.
So I'll have seen both of those and I'll tell James, good shot. And we're just going to sit here. We're not going to move.
Got it.
And we're going to sit here for probably 2030 minutes.
Okay.
We got our shots off. We saw the hits. He went that way. I can hear him.
We'll just wait.
So we'll just sit there without moving until it quits making noise. Give it another ten or 20, and I'll tell him. If we wounded him and didn't take him down, if we go to chase, he'll run. We want him to lay down until he's finished. So we're not going to chase yet. So we'll get to about 2030 minutes, and then we'll walk over.
You're gonna have to squish back into the bush a little bit. This illusionary bush is gonna go away.
That's fine. So I'll tell James.
Damn.
That was a good shot there.
You too.
Thanks. So, yeah, you wait your 2030 minutes. Somewhere through there, you do hear a thump. For want of a better descriptor, a little bit of twigs breathing, breaking, and stuff, and a thump. So you wait your 2030 minutes, where you were, you were able to see Pert near where it ended up. Between that and the amount of blood this thing's dumping out, you find it. No problem. Yeah, there's not even any. Almost a blind guy could track this elk.
Right.
We're kind of in that level of difficulty here. So you're able to get up onto the elk. It is dead.
And we're going to start cutting it open and cooling it down so the meat starts to cool and doing the appropriate preparations.
Has James been involved with butchering in the past?
Probably, yeah, he probably did some in culinary school.
Okay. I would assume that usually comes refrigerated to you. Doesn't necessarily look like the animal it was.
Yeah, he probably didn't deal with, like, the actual, like, guts and internals and whatnot, but he definitely butchered the meat itself.
Let's go ahead and just. Cause I know firsthand, this isn't particularly pleasant. Yeah, let's have you roll a constitution check.
Okay.
Constitution save. Sorry. Constitution save.
That is a 14.
Okay. You're okay. This isn't great. It stinks. As soon as you cut it open, the guts just inflate. It's weird. They get triple, quadruple the size they were. It's like a. It's like there's a helium tank inside. The animal just inflates. Massive. I'm assuming Elliot's saying, all right, yeah, this stuff's getting big. We need to get out of the way. We don't want to nick it. If we nick the guts, we ruin the meat.
Yep. Oh, yeah. You gotta be real careful when you cut this open. You know, after.
After re killing zombies, I was expecting to get used to the smell. It's not that pleasant.
No, it's. I swear, you never get used to it.
The big difference between this and the zombies is the zombies were still cold. This is hot. So with how cold it is, particularly right now, it's steaming. It's a fair bit warmer than the frosty grass it's laying on. And it's an unpleasant stank. It's wet, it's thick. But through Elliot's guidance and your help in hand, you guys were able to get it gutted out nicely. And then I'm a what? What's Eliot's process? Quartering it down, I'm assuming.
Well, we're gonna let this cool. I say we go back to camp, and we'll everybody to come help. We'll have to. We were specifically for what our payment is. They. Pete wanted the hide, so we're gonna do a very careful job of skidding it because we really want the hide. And then once we get it skinned, we'll quarter it out. We'll bring. And we'll bring everybody out here to all the horses to pack it all back.
I'll keep James back.
Jacob. Jacob.
Sorry. That's me.
Take that again.
Jacob.
It's no longer on screen.
Keep me back.
Yeah, I go away.
Sorry. Keep Jacob back. We don't need to traumatize the kid anymore.
Oh, he'll have to learn sometime. But if you think that's for best.
Yeah.
Cause I'm pretty sure that we're gonna be hunting.
Oh, I know. I just felt like, you know, after seeing the zombies and whatnot, that might bring back some unpleasant memories.
Yeah, that's true.
I don't know. I'm not a psychiatrist.
Ah, me either. I don't know. Maybe we'll ask the gals when we go back to camp. Maybe they have a better idea. All right, but Elliot's gonna very carefully. I mean, he's gonna know where we are specifically, like, okay, I know how to get back here.
Perfect.
But now we've got him. We've got him quartered. It's like, okay, it's cooling. Now we'll go back to camp and get everybody.
So the both of you are going. You're leaving the elk unattended?
Do we want to, like. Like, put some foliage on top of it or something like that, or. We're not worried about.
No, we want it open. We want it. We need it open for the air to flow through. If we could try to. We could try to hoist it, find a tree and hoist it up in the tree. But it'll be okay for a little bit because we're not a long ways and we don't have to travel. We're gonna move pretty quick. We'll be back in an hour or two.
Gotcha.
Okay.
If it had snowed, we'd pack it full of snow. But we don't have snow right now.
Gotcha. Unfortunately, I don't have ice hands.
Are you sure? Have you tried? Okay, well, don't. Don't blow a vein. Okay. No ice hands.
Got it. Perfect. Yeah. You guys are able to head back to camp. It didn't take you too awful long to get where you were going. It took you half the day to find that spot, but now you knew where it was. You went straight there. We'll say maybe. Maybe 30 minutes ride. It's all 45. Somewhere around there.
Perfect. So we'll get back to camp before we get inside of the camp. I'll just go. I'll say, hey, the camp. It's Elliot and James. We're coming in.
Don't shoot.
None of us have anything we could shoot you with.
Well, I mean, our hands.
Okay, I forgot about magic for a small second, but.
Did y'all get any turkeys?
No. No, but we did make coffee.
We did. It's good coffee. It's wonderful coffee.
We've got an elk down. We need you all to grab your horses. We'll leave camp here. Just grab the horses and pack saddles, and we're all gonna go and get this guy quartered up and bring it back. We need everybody's help.
All right.
It's kind of a bit of a smell to it, so I was gonna ask. This is a group, whether or not y'all think Jacob should be involved.
I don't think I should be involved. You.
You can stay back here with Jacob if you want.
Oh.
I guess I'm gonna have to figure it out.
What does that mean?
Are you coming? I'm coming. I'm coming.
Okay.
Needs to know, Jacob, did your parents ever take you hunting?
No.
Have you ever heard about hunting?
Heard about it? Yeah. It's what they used to do in the old days to get food.
That's how we're gonna have to get food now. Do you want to learn about hunting?
Cause welcome back to the old days, I. I guess.
Well, we'll. You'll come along. And if you're not interested, then you can hit, hang back, and keep an eye on the horses while we do whatever nasty thing Elliot's going to make us do.
All right, so while they were out hunting, we'll travel back in time. What were the folk at the camp doing?
Sleeping.
Since no one woke us up before. Like when they left.
I mean, Mel probably got up slow shortly after dawn because it's our habit now.
Yeah, I was gonna ask, like, did the sun come up while they were out? And then, yeah, I woke up when the sun came up. Cause it's hard to sleep through it.
So we probably did normal morning camp things.
And I'll make it clear that Emory did not wake up until either she smelled coffee or one of the other people woke around.
I sent Jacob to wake you up as only a small child can. Miss Emery. Miss Emery. Miss Emery.
Now, if you guys don't have children, the typical way that I get woken up by mine is a flying, screaming pounce attack.
Exactly.
Daddy.
I don't know if he's quite so familiar with Emory, but I don't doubt it was equally as terrifying.
Yeah.
Miss Emery, it's time to wake up.
Oh, God.
Jesus.
Mini heart attack to start the day. Always great.
Yep.
And while we're sitting there eating breakfast, or at least working on breakfast, just some subpar oatmeal. Hey, guys, weren't we supposed to do something? Like, Elliot told us to keep an eye out for turkeys. For turkeys. I mean. I mean, I didn't see any turkeys.
I still don't see any turkeys.
Looking around up at the sky like.
He did about being and waiting for turkeys. But that ship may have sailed the whole.
Oh, quiet, quiet. Do we perceive any turkeys in the mirror?
Do you want to enroll me a perception? Okay, while we're on that, what is everybody's passive perceptions?
I rolled eleven, but my passive is ten.
Okay, I rolled a 19, but my passive is. Is nine.
I rolled a 13, but my passing is nine.
Oh, and it's a minus one, I think. So I'm gonna. I think it's an 18. Let me look.
Elliot, what chance. Passive.
Passive is twelve.
James?
Passive is 14.
Elk. You don't have it, you're dead.
It is, in fact, a negative one, so it's an 18.
Perfect. So, uh, the two. Two of y'all are drinking coffee. You're more focused on coffee. Waking up, maybe doing some. Your yoga, keeping an eye on the kid. Old knock. Maybe this is just out of habit, but you wake up. You kind of scan your perimeter. Maybe it's from your time on watch. You see there is some fresh track, uh, along the perimeter of your fence line, okay. Surrounding your camp. Um, you don't recognize it? Okay. But there is. There is. It's not wildly dissimilar from what Elliot described. Okay.
Like the cat, almost cat. Dog thing, foxy thing, bigger than a.
Wolf, smaller than a mountain. Like, okay, well, smaller than a bear, I think is what I said. Smaller than a bear, which. I mean, a bear.
Prints.
Massive. Yeah, they're huge. So you do see that there's no turkey at your camp, okay. And if that's how you guys spend your morning, you're about halfway through your second cup of joe and you hear Elliot Holler out, hey, camp. Yeah, it's Elliot and James. And then you hear James yell, please don't shoot. And then the thing that we just had happen happens. Yay.
Recap.
Timelines converge, I think, on that. Emery will just start getting the horses saddled, at least hers.
And so you guys go about setting up your horses. Same light travel. Probably a ration for them as well, I would assume. Are you going straight there to go hunt the turkey?
Well, we're going to bring this elk back to camp and get it hung up and get everything ready on that. And then we'll go back and hunt turkey.
Perfect.
Although I'll be keeping an eye out as we're traveling back and forth in case of opportunity does arise. I'll definitely. He'll definitely take it.
Are we wanting just the one elk.
Or are we wanting more than one?
I think we were just gonna do the one. I thought that was.
That's a lot of fucking meat.
It's a lot of meat, and it's a big hide.
I didn't know how. Yeah, I didn't know how much hide he needed.
We'll get him this one.
And I'm pretty sure one elk hide would do, like, four or five dozen bows.
Oh, yeah. We haven't got any of the bad spots. The bad part of it's tan into this thing.
Yeah.
I'm looking forward to seeing how you go about this.
I would like to volunteer for fletching.
I don't know what that is.
We may leave that to the professional.
It has nothing to do with tanning. And we'll be very far away from that project.
It does, however, involve glue, and I really wouldn't want to see that happen.
I'm smart enough to use glue, mostly.
Perfect. So you guys, you're able to travel back to the elk. No sweat. You get up there, who all is getting their hands dirty?
James.
Will.
I'm in.
I'm assuming that Mel and Jacob are going to be lingering on the perimeter.
I'll help if you make me, but I'm definitely not gonna dive into that mess.
Elliot's already got blood up to his shoulders, so it. Yeah, it smells bad.
Let's go ahead. And the three newcomers. Rule con saves.
You should save.
Yes.
That's a five.
Ooh. Yeah. You're not doing good. You have to find somewhere to.
I'm doing worse.
I did great, but I rolled it.
610.
Yeah. You're not feeling good. You're able to keep it down. Just. Just barely keep it down, though. This is. This is pretty gross. It's a pretty awful smell.
We're, like, lingering on the edges, and I've learned that you can press to digitate, like, you know, nice smells.
You're gonna. You remember that a little too late. You are gonna need to find a bush.
Yeah.
Let's take a quick second.
This is all that glorious coffee.
Sorry, real quick, it looked like you did a. A check, not a save. Sorry. Yeah, it would be down here.
Oh, so you did slightly better.
Oh, I did much better, yeah.
Apologies. I just happen to notice.
I didn't.
I didn't know they were different. That's on me.
Yeah.
The top 22.
Yeah.
Plus what to your constitution say, or he's a barbarian. How did you go from a ten to a 22 with plus?
Because he rerolled.
Oh. Oh, you rerolled. Yeah. Okay.
Did you want me to take the original number? Okay, so, yeah.
Twelve. Okay, wait, that's not how math works. Okay. I was.
I'm sorry. I derailed the game. I fucked it up.
All right, all right.
I just wanted to make sure that in the future, whatever you do, if.
You specify saves, you want to make sure you're doing a save, because you can be proficient in those like you are with cars. Constitution, which makes it.
Constitution and strength are way, way better.
For instance, I have a negative to my wisdom, but I'm proficient in wisdom safes.
Oh.
I don't know how or why that works, but it is, but that's how it works.
So you feel your stomach getting a little unhappy. Then in the back of your mind, you hear one of your drill sergeants yelling at you to suck it the hell up, steal your. Steal your mind, and force it down. And no one watching would know that you hate this as much as you do. Y'all are off finding a bush?
Yeah.
Jacob's fine. He's not stoked, but he did. He rolled pretty good. He's doing okay.
He's got his learning brain on.
Yes, exactly.
He's learning. We're not.
No.
Harry, I'm worried about Jacob, and Mel's.
Over here almost throwing at us.
Oh, no, Mel is absolutely.
She's harking.
She rolled a five. Oh, yeah. I'm not gonna have you have, like, any lasting effects, but, yeah, you're throwing up. You're not.
Handle that.
James is gonna make a mental note not to hide in that bush.
Mel might be considering doing the.
God, that's gonna be so hard to.
Do in the apocalypse. Yeah, it is.
Considering is not the same as doing.
But perfect. So it takes a little while to.
Field dress and especially being super careful with the hide. So it's one thing if you're just getting it off. It's another one if you're trying to keep it. So, yeah, it's going to take some time, but now we've got enough people and the horses, we're going to be able to hoist him up into a tree, use the horses to hoist him up, and that makes him a lot easier to clear out. Skin out.
Emery does have frostbite too, so she can help cool it down pretty quick.
That would be very helpful.
There we go. She's the one with the cooled hands.
Yeah.
I can do that from a slight distance in case I have to go hurl again.
Yeah. The faster, the better you can cool this meat, the less you lose. So that's great.
Perfect. So we'll say. We'll say that this pretty much kills the day. It's not over. Day's not done. But you got enough time to get back to camp, relax a little bit, get washed up. Get washed up. Yeah. If you're wanting to go after the turkey, that's gonna be a tomorrow thing. Unless one just happens to stroll through camp. You're going back out tomorrow for the turkey.
James was probably keeping an eye out just in case, though, on the way back for a turkey.
Okay.
Cause if we wanted to get a bear, that gut pile that we left would be the place to sit on one. But I'm not. I don't have any use for one.
Do you think I've never hunted a bear before? Our arrow is gonna be enough to kill a bear.
Oh, yeah. You just wanna really make sure you get a good shot. But I don't. I don't think we need to. But I guarantee there'll be one by tonight on that pile?
Yeah.
It'S okay.
I vote we don't hunt. Anything else we have to gut. Like, how about fish? Can I be.
You have to gut fish?
Well, yeah, but that's not smelly. I've. Yeah, not very as bad, I would imagine.
And you just grab it by the chin and rip.
Yeah, exactly. Even I've done that.
That's not.
Not as gross. Maybe I can be a pescetarian in the apocalypse.
In the future. I just won't tell you how the food was prepared.
How about that?
It's fine when it's meat. It's just.
This is a fish stick.
Does it have to smell so bad? If it didn't smell, it would be okay.
Perfect. So just put it in perspective. For those of y'all who don't frequently partake in this, you're looking at anywhere from 280 to 340 pounds of animal that you're packing out of there. I'm assuming you're keeping the bones. You're not going that far.
Yeah, now we're just. We got horses, so there's no reason to bone it out.
We'll just quarter it. So, I mean, this is. This ain't. This ain't nothing. This is a good amount of animals. If they're a year and a half ish, they're 280. If you're going two and a half ish, they're 340. They're not small. Get a good sized hide. And like I say, that killed pretty much the youthful part of your day. You guys got time to go back to camp? You got sunlight still yard down in a valley, so it does set a little earlier. Like we were saying, it's a tight valley up at this point, so it probably sets, I don't know, 30, 40 minutes earlier than it would if you were out on the flats. And is there anything else we want to do for this evening in particular?
I would like to talk to Emory real quick and see if she can help me with my axe that I fucked up.
Perfect.
Yeah, she definitely like. Oh, man. You put a lot of. Oh. A very specific kind of stone that you use.
I didn't know that at the time.
Yeah.
Excited to try.
I've got one that I scavenged from Elliot's barn. You can have this one because I'm not actually sharpening much of anything right now.
The proper term is acquired, so it doesn't sound like you stole it.
I thought scavenge was pretty good. It seems to be abandoned.
It's a military thing.
Okay. I acquired this. It's yours now.
Sounds more official.
This is how you use it.
Okay.
Thank you.
So, just for fun, what would that mean? Wisdom, intelligence. Okay.
To see how well he learns, how.
Well you teach him.
I'm not good at wisdom.
Neither of them. I'm not. I've got a negative one to intelligence, which is not good for the job that I have in the navy, but whatever.
Carrying helicopters? Yeah. Yeah.
14, eight.
I think my passive was a nine.
Well, she's teaching you there is, uh. Yeah, you, uh. You. You're better than you were.
I watch him do that for a little bit, and then I'm like, I'll fix it tomorrow.
Don't worry about it.
She's like.
She's like, bro, what are you doing?
Emery gets the sense that you're looking for the shing sound, that the samurais have less than an end product.
It's not making the cool noise.
Oh, if you want that sound, you have to borrow the sharpening steel from James's knife kit, which doesn't sharpen. It just hones.
I don't know what that means.
You don't have to. It's okay. It's not what you want for sharpening an axe, but it'll give you the cool sound.
Okay.
I'll let you ask him to borrow it.
Sounds great.
Good luck with that.
Can I use your honing steel on my battle axe that you use for your chef's knives? Awesome. All right. What are we gonna go for order of watch tonight? If that's the only fun bit.
No, we'll take morning watch.
Okay. Last. Kate?
I'll go first again.
Okay.
Audio do third.
Okay.
Yeah. You get to sleep.
Awesome.
Do you mention the tracks that you found around the camp?
You haven't.
I have not. I probably should.
I'm just curious if he would think too.
So who's first on watch?
Let's. Because that was this morning.
Yeah, that was morning.
Gutted a deer.
Let's gone all day to see if I remembered even. What is my rolling?
That'd be history could work.
Some kind of knowledge.
Yeah, history could work.
What about, like, a straight intelligence check?
I don't know what ADHD is as a stat. So. Do you?
Well, I usually go for wisdom.
It's still a negative one. It doesn't really matter. That's an eight. That's fucking. Did not remember to tell them. Sorry, guys. I fucked us.
You're playing your. I was just curious if you mentioned it this morning. There was no role. But now you've done some stuff you've had a whole fucking productive day.
Right.
I'll wake up in the morning.
Right.
Like, tomorrow. Be like, oh, yeah, guys.
Oh, by the way, after we've been.
Attacked by Sid painter, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
What? Prince?
Like, what are you talking about? I didn't say anything.
So what does Emery do on her watch?
I think I back on track most.
Of the same things she always does on watch. You know? I think if it's another clear night, she's spending some time looking at the stars because they're remarkably clear.
How was that night? Yeah, it's exactly one degree warmer. So down by the river, you're still getting frost, but it's not quite as sparkly glittery as it was last night.
Yeah. And I think she's moving around a little bit because sitting still in the frost is awful.
Yeah.
So she's definitely kind of moving around the outskirts of camp a little bit.
Okay, let's have you roll a another perfection check.
Passive ten.
All right. Yeah. Your watch goes on a Memphis doing great.
God, we're a perceptive.
Perceptive.
It's wild going from my other character to this character because he's got a plus three on his perception.
Yeah.
So even if I do terribly, it's not that terrible.
Bails you out a little.
Yeah.
James is after you.
Yep.
I'll go wake him up.
All right. Anything to report?
Nothing. It's cold.
Yep.
All right, good luck.
Try staying warm.
Yeah.
God, it's cold out here.
What does James do?
James spent last, last watch hunting his minor illusion spell. But this time I think he will be more adapted to looking for. Looking around camp and seeing if. If there's any tracks close to camp.
You're specifically looking for tracks?
Yeah, turkeys and stuff like that. Seeing if there's any, like, even like old tracks and stuff like that.
Okay. Go ahead and roll perception. Or if you would prefer to specifically look for tracks, you can roll nature or survival. Just tell me what you're doing.
I'm gonna do a perception check. Cause my nature and my survival suck.
Didn't know that loophole.
That's why you get to tell me. I'm not gonna feed you. Who's that?
Is a 22 for perception.
All right. You see this fits because you've got night vision too. So you can see further than most folk. You see out along the edge. Close to. As far as you can see, something humanoid. You're not 1000% sure. It could be a weird shaped bush. So you're watching it for a while as one does in a creepy. Is that a people or is that a bush? And you see the bush people thingy? Hunker down.
I'm going to slowly pull the bow from my back. Gonna grab an arrow. And I'm probably going to yell that we have company.
Okay.
Because, you know, just in case. Because we fought zombies at one point in time.
It's gotten weird before.
Yeah.
Going straight to attack on the thingy with that. Let's have everybody roll and enjoy. Initiative. Oh, my bell. What did you doing?
Crate 17.
Apparently I'm a little jittery tonight.
Elliot, 21.
Jesus.
Hi.
Hold on.
He's always ready, bro. Six.
Oh, my God.
Doing great. We're off to a great start.
James.
James. Got a dirty 20.
Emery, two. Nice.
I'm not dead last. Jacob participating.
Hey, that was.
You just hit the rem cycle.
Yep.
Oh, boy.
Yep.
She was deep in sleep, bro.
This hit that, like the dream started. Then all of a sudden, James just starts yelling, like sound. They all are.
It's the thing where you've stayed up late and then you finally go to bed and you sleep like a rock. Disorienting to wake from that.
Yes, it is.
Is Jacob actually on the. On the initiative?
He is.
He's in camp, but doesn't get a.
Choice in this one.
But Jacob, you're small.
His action can be hide and dodge.
I would recommend it.
So going down the initiative order of this. First up is Elliot. You're asleep. You get woke up.
Well, with the cry that I heard, Elliot's going to. To throw his sleeping bag open, grab his bow and then go. What? Where? Point. Point. And I'm gonna look. What do I see? So Elliot can see 60ft in the dark as well.
You see? You'll see the. It hunkered down. Yeah, it's the last thing I said it did. So he points in that direction. You can see that there is an unusual looking bush with this level of confusion. You see it's in a level unusual looking bush. If you want to focus in on.
It, use your action to do a perception check.
I don't know, whatever it was, but it's people shaped.
Well, you.
That bush looks vaguely people shaped.
I'm going to point my bow in that direction. I used. I did my action. There's nothing I can do.
Okay. And it's James.
James is gonna hold.
He's gonna.
He's gonna pull string back and he's going to hold it at that bush. And if the freaking thing does anything hostile and we shoot it.
Define hostile.
If it starts running at us.
Okay, that's it. All right, Mel, you just got yelled awake.
Um. What? What? What? Uh, I'll look at Jacob and tell him, like, stay in the tent, don't move. I I don't know why. I'm assuming that Jacob shares a tent with at least one person.
That would make sense. That's what I've been assuming, too.
Yeah. Uh, just stay in the tent, don't move. And then I will exit the tent, which we'll probably avoid a lot of zip cod, zipping, and cussing.
All right, I will say getting out of tent is. That's effort.
Yeah, totally.
For a six second turn. That's.
No, that's fine.
Next up is who does stuff? Okay. It did stuff. It does not start sprinting at you, Jacob, because that would be terrifying. Jacob listens. He stays intent and takes the Dodge action. He takes the Dodge action.
Okay.
Yes. I'm gonna type that in here. So I remember Dodge action.
He's hunkered down and ready to avoid trouble.
Dodge, dip, dodge, duck, dodge.
With that, it is olnack. You just got yelled awake.
Okay, so y'all might not know this, but Navy sailors are pretty light sleepers.
Shocking.
Which is weird, because when you have to sleep under an aircraft carrier's launch cable, you learn how to sleep through a hurricane. But somehow a breath or a call will immediately wake you up. So I'm awake. I'm in my tent, and all I can do is get out.
It's a six second turn.
I gotta get out of my tent and be like, what's up? What's going on?
Perfect discussion is a free action. So you yell that out.
Okay?
What's up? What's going on?
Humanoid in the bushes. Arrows point that way.
You don't have time to assess because you got out of the tent. You just know they're pointing off in the field. Okay. Off to. We'll say off towards the east.
And I feel quite confident that those of us without dark vision can't see shit.
Yeah.
I would not be able to see it.
Yeah. So the two of us are, like.
Staring intently at a bush, and no.
One can see shit.
Yeah. We're like, what's going on over there?
There's a bush.
There's things over there.
There's bushes everywhere.
Bush looked at as funny.
With that. We're at emory, okay?
Emery, like, unwillingly jerks out of sleep, and I think she trips over, like, eight things as she's on her way out. She gets haggled in the sleeping bag, tries to go through the door while it's zipped.
Has to.
Then she's just totally disoriented because she's rolled in that water. Ever.
Are you good? Overlap?
I'm fine. Oh, Jesus Christ. Throws her sleeping bag on the ground. Horse tangled.
Her foot stumbles out of the tent.
Yeah, that's my whole action. I would. I have light as a cantrip that takes an action to cast. So I'm assuming I can't do it this round.
Yeah. Just because of the net one.
Yep.
Oh, you lose the surprise condition. Effectively.
Yep. I lose the sleep condition.
Question for the DM. What is Charlie doing?
Yeah.
Is he growling?
Do you sleep in a town or do you just sleep in a.
No, no, Elliot does not sleep in a tent. He's got a bag with a bedroll outside.
Charlie's on edge.
He's on it. Okay.
His hackles are raised. He's staring in the same direction. He's picked up on what James is putting down a little bit.
Got it.
Yay.
James isn't crazy.
And we're back to the top. Elliot.
So Elliot's gonna get on his feet.
Okay.
And he's gonna move 15ft towards. And he's gonna. He's just gonna yell like if it was a critter. That should kind of scare it off.
Trying to spook it out of there.
Yeah, that's kind of what he's doing. Like, hey, get out of here. Get out of here.
Go on, get.
And also, I'm trying to get close enough to see if I can actually see what it is.
Roll a fresh perception.
Ooh. 19.
You can now see that the bush has got some things. Someone hunkered down behind it. It is actively trying to not be seen.
Okay.
And it's still. You're 15ft closer to it. It was right at the edge of your vision. So, you know, you can tell. You can tell this is not a fox. This isn't an elk, this isn't a turkey. You could tell it's human ish. Humanoid.
I guess I'm gonna holler. Hey, we can see you come out of the bushes with your hands up.
Persuasion. Intimidation.
Uh, persuasion. That was the question asked. Eight.
Eight. Okay. Nothing occurs. Jimmy, be your turn, laddie.
Oh, okay. Sorry.
Hence the confusion. You are the next option. Yeah.
All right. James is going to ignore the fact that he just called Jimmy.
My God. Jesus. Jimmy.
My experience is the gods can call you whatever the hell they want.
Just.
Just saying.
Call that me, bro.
Anyway, James is going to keep the arrow locked onto that bush. That bush is terrifying. And he's going to attempt to hide in a different bush. Okay, can I get behind her tent and hide behind it?
But, like, you can absolutely move behind her tent. Hide? Yeah.
Okay. Bonus action had. And then I will hold my action to shoot whatever the fuck comes out of it. If it's running towards. That is a 17 for stealth check. Not the greatest.
Ready? That brings us to Melody.
Now that Mel's out of our tent, what are we, what are we looking at? What are, what are, what's happening?
So I'm hiding behind your tent.
I see that.
You see where I'm pointed? Now go. Creepy thing over there.
What's it look like? I can't see.
I don't know.
How can you not see it?
It's right over there.
Did you say it was human or you actually talk? Could we talk to you?
Oh shit. Yeah, I guess I do. So they went that stealth.
So I guess if you guys. If they successfully convince Mel that whatever it is, is human, then she will attempt to persuade it to come out in a friendly way.
That worked real well last time.
Yeah, hence why I said attempt.
You just woke me up from my sleep. Please come out of the bush now.
Go for it.
Like, hey, I mean, if you're a lost person, I mean, we might be able to help or something or get you back to civilization or like we were help. It's okay. Come out. Come next to the fire.
Go ahead and roll 18 on its turn. The two that can see this thing, see it stand and kinda shufflingly make its way in your direction. It's not. It didn't stand up and start sprinting at you. And it's not like, it's like timidly walking. Yeah, that's a good word. Timidly walking. It's not drunk or anything. It's not stumbling. It's just. It's slowly progressing towards you. That's its turn. Slowly progressing towards you. And now you guys are over here because I moved you. So next up is Jacob, who takes the dodge action in a tent so he sees fuck all and olnock.
So I don't know. Did I say it say if I had my weapon or anything?
Huh? You did not say if you had your weapon or anything.
Currently nothing's going down.
Correct.
Although everybody's on high alert.
Correct and accurate.
I'm gonna stay where I'm at at the moment. Cause weapon is near, but I don't have a reason to wield it at the moment.
Safe to presume what weapon is intent? Yes.
Okay, perfect.
Yeah. Okay. You do. So nothing.
Yeah, I'm just gonna hang out.
I'm observing, maybe hold action.
You can hold an action meaning I'm gonna do a thing when a thing does a thing.
Okay.
But you have to say what those three parts are.
I'm going to arm myself. If it seems like creature is going to attack.
Okay. If the creature seems like it's going to attack, you will go for your weapon. That is going to be your turn. Yes. Perfect, Emery.
Okay. I am actually going to lean down and pick up a rock from the ground. I'm going to cast light on it.
Okay.
Which makes. It makes bright light for a 20 foot radius and dim light for a. An additional 20ft.
Okay.
It can be colored as I like. I don't want it to be, like, super bright that it blinds us. I make the sun red. Yeah. A color that's not gonna blind the shit out of us.
Okay. We could say you can emulate.
Yeah. Yeah. Something kind of warm and not overly, but so that we can actually see what we're. I mean, these guys can see it, but the rest of us can't see shit.
The equivalent of. I cast road flare.
Yeah.
Okay. Yes.
I'm gonna move a little bit closer to Elliot and James holding this rock.
You're keeping hold of it? Yes. Perfect. It is right on the edge of the light. It didn't take a full.
Yeah.
Slowly towards you. You can see that it is human sized, human shaped. And there's. You can see that its clothing has seen better days. And again, you don't see any. You don't see like a sword, spear, a gun. You don't see anything to make you think of me immediately, that this thing is going to massacre us. Okay. And Elliot, you can now very clearly see the humanoid creature. Human. Human. Coming towards you.
Is he human?
Yep.
Okay, so Elliot is going to, like, a person, relax the draw on his bow. He's going to leave the arrow knocked in in place, but he's going to kind of hold the bow at his side and he's going to say, hey there, partner. Have you got a name? What are you doing out here in the dark? Persuasion.
Okay, go for it. Ooh.
1515.
All right. Um, just because it's a free action.
See, I can be persuasive too.
You hear yesterday?
Griff. My name is Griff. I haven't seen people for a while.
You hungry, Grif?
Always.
Well, we can. We've got a little bit of meat we can share with you if you want to come in out of the dark.
They're all holding weapons.
I'm not.
We've run into some unfriendly people out, so we're a little on edge. But if. Hold your hands. I don't think. You don't have any weapon, do I?
See, I'm not holding anything.
The hand says, holds his hands forward and they are indeed empty.
And he is human.
He is human.
I'll go ahead and put my arrow back in the quiver and just kind of set the bow down.
James.
James trusts no one.
Is it possible to do an inside check on this dude's intentions from behind the tent? I'm going to pick around the tent.
Be more. What do you want to know?
Well, like when he said that he's always hungry or something, that's a little sus. Yeah, sure.
Roll an insight.
This guy's giving off some serious spooky vibes and I do not like it. That's a natural 20.
You can tell. 22 total. This guy definitely seems to always be hungry. He's everything you can see. This is a guy who fully believes he is always hungry.
He's just giving all creepy vibes.
What?
I'm gonna poke my head back.
You don't feel comforted by this revelation?
I'm going, I'm gonna rehide.
Okay, roll it.
And maybe not talk this time.
Right?
James is a little rusty. Give him a sec. That is a 23.
All right. That brings us to Mel.
What I mean, okay, he's obvious. He's a human of some kind. Is he tall? Is he fat? Is he old? Young? Is he? He?
Is he? He is. We'll say about six foot six one somewhere in there. He's not short king. He's not a gigantic man.
Says you.
Well, yeah, I mean, I guess it depends on how tall you are. Compared to Olnach, he's not particularly imposing. Compared to Jacob, he's a giant. He is on the slenderer side of the build. Think skate punk kind of build. Lean, not. Not fit. But he's not like cut from what you can tell. I mean, he's wearing relatively season appropriate attire, so you can't. He's not like rocking a tank top or a crop top or something right now, but he's not a huge guy, but he is a he. You can roll a perception if you want to do more on your turn, or you can do a thing. That's what you can see for free.
I'll. Could I do like an arcana or a history check to see if there's anything like is there anything that seems magic y about him that I could potentially, potentially tap into that? I don't know that I know she.
Knows that you know, that he knows that you know.
Well, I mean, normally, in a different scenario, as magic user, I would know what I know, but because of this scenario where we're not used to magic, I don't know what I know. Have I confused you enough to let me roll it?
Really confusing history. No, your history checks. Gonna tell you this is a bro.
Could I do an Arcana check to see if there's something that seems magical about him?
Sure, but it's a high dc.
I'll give it a go.
I'm gonna say it's like a 19.
All right, you got this.
I don't got this. Rolled a 13.
Damn it. Homeboy is a homeboy in the middle of nowhere.
Well, come on. Come on up closer to the fire. It's cold out here.
Just marginally taller and skinnier than average homeboy at that. With that turn, it's his turn. He keeps his hands out in front of him, and he keeps his slow. Now that you can kind of lay eyes on him a little bit, you would perceive it as perhaps cautious progression towards you guys. Um, he's not. Again, he's not brandishing anything. You can now see he is clearly not brandishing anything as he gets into sight. What you can see for free is he's wearing jeans, uh, a t shirt, and a fairly thick flannel over the top, all of which have been through hell and back. The jeans are pretty well tattered. The flannel is pretty fucked up, and you can see a fair bit of flesh under his t shirt. It looks like he lost a fight.
With a weed whacker.
That's his turn. Brings us to Jacob, who continues to take the dodge action in a tent, terrified by himself.
That must be so intense.
What's happening? They're talking to it, and it's Olnack's turn. The dodge action also looks like curling into his.
Yeah, I guess I'm just gonna talk to him, um. Cause I don't feel currently still don't feel like he's a threat. So I'm not gonna weapon up. I'm still gonna stay by my tent in case shit turns south real fast, just given the kind of trip we've had so far.
Great.
Griff.
Yes.
Griff, what happened to your clothes, buddy? How long you been out here?
I've been out here.
Weeks. I think I've lost track. My clothes are. They got. They got to work.
We can see that.
I don't feel 100% like. Been a rough while.
What have you been eating out here, buddy? You said you're always hungry.
Whatever I can catch.
Huh?
You can see I don't have anything on me. Hunting is hard.
All right.
I don't know if you've ever tried.
To chase an elk on foot. No, I can't say that I. Fucking fast. Yeah, they're way faster than we are. I tried to punch one in the face once.
Rabbits are quicker.
Yeah.
Just out of curiosity, it's a clear night.
What's the moon?
What's the moon, Jared? Not that Mel would have a clue.
But you described it as pretty bright last night.
Yeah. Mel would be just clueless on this, but as a player, I'm super intrigued by what our weather's like here. It's not quite fully full, but it's pretty damn close.
Pretty damn close to full.
Yeah. Wish Mel knew that.
Yeah, that'd be. That'd be information. I don't know if it'd be helpful. You could just see real good now that he's moved forward. You could see him as if it was a normally clear, foolish moon night.
Can I get you something to eat?
He is moving towards light that I'm holding too, so we can see him pretty decently.
I'll offer him some jerky.
Are you guys going to do anything aggressive or are we dropping out?
Oh, I am. James is staying the fuck hitting.
I'm not ready to attack yet, but he's not out of the woods.
Summary I really just want to. I want to move close enough that he's just in the bright light.
Okay, how.
Sorry, it's a 20 foot radius, so he's about 20ft. He's 20ft away from me, buddy.
Okay.
If I can get that close.
Sure. Yeah.
He's been moving towards us too, so I kind of.
You can make it comfortable. You don't have to dash or anything.
You can get up.
Yeah. Just non threateningly, slowly, you know, and I just want to get as good a look at him as possible.
Okay. Yeah, you're able to get close enough. He does kind of from the light kind of shit. Kind of puts his arm up, kind of tries to block his face a little bit. But it's you. You think it's more from the light, not like. Yeah, Count Dracula hiding behind his cape. It's more just fucking. You're holding a flashlight?
Yeah, pretty much.
That's not pleasant.
Yeah.
You're trying to get a better look at him? Yep. What you can see, you don't need a world perception. What you can see is pretty much what I described. He doesn't appear to have. He's dirty. You know, his hair is a mess. His clothes, again, have been through hell and back. His shoes in particular, they were like. They were like brooks or something along those lines, you know, decent sneakers. They have taken a freaking beating. The mesh on them looks torn in several places. They're filthy. He's filthy. His clothing has been shredded. And it doesn't look like just. Again, it doesn't look like just wear and tear from Walken. It looks like he lost the fight with a weed eater. He's got slashes and stuff all over him. You don't see blood. You don't see wounds visible. I mean, again, you're. You. You are still 20ft from the dude. You're not giving him a full medical inspection. But it doesn't look like a guy who lost a knife fight. It doesn't look like he got in a fight with Zorro.
Not moving. Like he's hurting super bad.
Right? It's more cautious. It's maybe a little on the frail weak side. It's definitely. He's not giving off a huge aura of trust towards you. Um, but that. That's. That's. That's about what you'll be able to see.
Okay.
Brown hair or dark hair? You can't really tell his eye color. He's not close enough.
Cool.
Looks like a dude who's been living in the backcountry for what, four, three weeks now?
Okay. Um, I think Emeril would just say, you're welcome to come. Have a seat. We can. We have some leftover food we can share.
Okay.
Just. I am also holding this rock, trying to kind of. It's hard to disguise it as anything other than what it is, but, like, either. Like a la. Probably like a lantern. It's bright enough that you can't really look straight at it.
Are you trying to hide that, your.
Magic a little bit? Yeah.
And roll a deception. Just go against passive.
Deception.
You could roll. All right, I guess you could try to roll Arcana if you wanted.
A 19.
Yeah. Okay.
I have proficiency in deception. I didn't know that.
Hell, yeah.
No, I don't get to roll.
Arkansas.
No easy outs. What am I?
My arcana is worse.
Really? That's bunkers.
Okay, well, I'm a sorcerer. That's charisma. That's fair charisma casting.
All right, Elliot, you can now clearly see everything. I just described to her.
So Elliot's gonna go, well, you know what, we got an elk today. Here, let me slice, let me slice. You chunk off and we'll cook it. So he's gonna set his bow down, pull out his diet, go over and one of the quarters that we quartered, I'm just gonna cut a big slice off and start cooking it over the fire.
Don't, don't waste the time. I'll eat it as is. I've eaten worse the last three weeks.
It looks like you might have. You don't need to. It only take a few minutes.
Really, really learn to. Super bad for you to eat at that rotten.
I mean. Okay, if you really want. And I'll pick the stick back up and kind of.
My dad ate it, rare as it was. This isn't that much farther from there.
Yeah, it really is.
Worms that way, but okay, just extra protein, you know. No, no, that's not how that works.
James.
James is trying really hard not to like to say something about like that.
His safety and sanitation training really.
He's over here going.
Is that your turn? Is your trying not to say it?
Oh, no, no.
Okay.
James is probably.
You're not getting away without a roll.
James is going to continue to stay hidden, and as he's getting closer, he's probably going to attempt to stealthily reorient himself so that the newcomer, Griff, if that's his real name, doesn't see James in any way.
Go ahead and reroll. You're moving.
Hiya. That is a 19.
All right, Melissa, I still have my actual.
I'm going to continue to attempt to make like five pounds. That's a lot like.
It's.
It's really hard to hold a bow for any length of time. By the way, did I not.
Next round you'll roll a con to see if you can hold it.
You moved into hiating while you had your bow drawn.
Oh, I did.
Okay, so next round I'm gonna make you roll a strength to see if you can keep it.
Okay.
You would have to keeps it really.
Is on a recurve compound. Yeah. No, on a recurve. That is really hard to do. So anyway, Mel will continue to try to make like introductory small talk. Well, put them at ease. Even though she's increasingly creeped out, especially with the whole eating raw elk thing. Okay, so where did you come from? Like, are you one of the prisoners or like, I mean, what brings you out here all by yourself? We're only like a day from rifle. We could get out to some, like just that onslaught of small talk, nervous chatter, which could be sort of in a persuasive, like maybe if you can get a word in edgewise, you'll tell me something about yourself.
Go ahead and roll. Another persuasion.
17.
All right.
Um.
I don't know where I am. We. I was. We were. We were four wheeling when the four wheelers stopped. I'm not. I don't know where we are. I'm not from around here. This is where daddy said that there'd be some good, good fun trails he thought he could ride from rifle all the way up to, all the way up to this lodge near a town named Meeker. The four wheelers stopped. What's left.
And anything else, asks the DM, not the suddenly pleasant griff.
What happened to everybody else?
They're not here anymore.
I'm very sorry to hear that. It's very unfortunate.
What was your stuff?
19.
Okay.
I. I appreciate you guys letting me. Someone's hiding in the tent. Why?
That's, uh, that's one of. That's my little brother and he's just sleeping. It was a hard day. He's never butchered milk before. It was gross.
Go ahead and roll. Deception.
Oh, I lied. I am not good at that. That's a 24.
I just gotta confuse the dice real quick. That's what we're asking him.
Intimidation. I'm not very good at.
Oh yeah, I'm glad.
I'm glad he's getting sleep. It's hard to sleep these days.
Yes.
I appreciate your willingness to share your kill with me. It's been hard getting food. I'm just so hungry. Can I enter your camp? I mean, I don't intend to hurt you.
Phrasing. Sure you can.
Come have a seat.
Yeah, come warm up around the campfire.
We've pulled up a few logs and rocks.
He relaxes a little bit, comes up to the fence line and ducks through the two rails of the fencing. It's typical railroad tie fencing, you know, there's two slats of wood running along the length of it with the occasional post. So he ducks between the two slats. Comes up to you guys. He's still, you know, he's not suddenly amicable mister personality, but he's relaxing ever so slightly as he comes up on you. Jacob continues in the tent. Olmach.
I'm gonna move a little bit forward. Tim. With the intent of no, no act. Just coming to investigate a little more.
Okay. Coming at him peaceably, peacefully. Perfect.
I mean, he seems to have let his guard down a little bit. I'll return the favor.
All right. What are you wanting to do? What's your intent here?
Like, hey, man, I like my meat lightly cooked, just the same as any other guy. But, I mean, rare from a freshly killed elk is a little odd, I would say. Is that how you've always eaten the meat or. What's going on with that?
They say the great warriors of my ancestors would eat their kills raw. They would eat the liver or the heart in particular. Supposed to be the tenderest, best tasting cuts of meat fresh from a kill that they earned.
I have heard that from certain tribes.
I think I. Folks, my. My. My kin come from the old country.
You said you've been out here three weeks.
Yes. My father does not come from the old country. My lineage comes from the old country.
Okay. God.
Smells good.
Do you want some more elk?
I haven't had any yet.
Didn't we just hand it to him?
He just entered your camp. Elliot cut off a piece. He hasn't gotten to it yet.
Oh.
He hasn't actually gotten it.
Okay.
Sorry. He entered the camp. Ulnock came up to him. He has not made it to Elliot.
Gotcha.
I appreciate your hospitality.
Sure.
Group of travelers to another traveler.
Anything else?
On your turn, I'm gonna attempt to persuade him that it's all coal. If everybody's just right. Like, as long as you're not attacking us, we're not attacking you.
Right? Like, you get this. You pass. You get the sense he's not going to just start swinging like this. He's as calm as this guy who's clearly been through hell and back is going to be all right. This is as good as it gets.
Okay, let's let him go. We'll leave him be, then get him by the fire and get him some food.
Emery?
Yeah, I'm kind of following with the light, but I think I'm just going to kind of move near the fire between him and Mel's tent. But not conspicuously if I can't.
Are you heading behind Mel's? Okay.
I forgot that I could talk to the dam.
Yeah, you can tell me what's going on. I get to know.
But then I'm just. I'm gonna just kind of, in a way of like, that's the seat I'm heading towards.
Okay.
Around three.
Fire.
And I'm just gonna kind of be the first one to sit down and just kind of let that thing settle.
Perfect. Elliot.
So he's holding the ever so slightly warmed chunk of meat.
It touched the fire once that he's.
Offering and says, yeah, the eating the raw meat. If you get worms, it's hard to digest. And that might be why you're hungry all the time. But, you know, to each his own, I guess. But, yeah, come over here, warm up, have something to eat. And we're looking to hunt for some turkeys. Have you seen any around? Do you know a good place around this area to find turkeys?
James? Mm hmm.
Uh, James is, uh, we're going to, uh, relax his bow. He's going to continue to hide, roll it as much as possible. James.
No trustee.
James no trusty.
Uh.
Damn it. That got worse. 18.
Mel, uh, what are the horses at this point? I mean, I know Charlie's not loving it, but what are the horses doing?
Roll. Perception or animal. Yeah, perception.
That would be a zero.
Wow, you're so perfect. Fairly confident the horses are still alive.
The horse is.
I don't know why I asked. That's not a question Mel would know. Thing to ask. I think she kind of sees what Emory's doing as far as placement goes and will also try to sit over on that side to kind of keep space between him and my tent that is currently containing Jacob and hiding James.
Okay. Uh, on that, that's his turn.
He.
There were. Thank you.
It takes, takes the beat from you again. Slow, cautious, you know, kind of almost shies away as he reaches his hand out to grab the knee. Once he grabs it, he pulls it in pretty close. Not unlike a animal would. Grabs it, brings it in to protect it. And it's very much his hunk of elk. Now.
There were. There's plenty of turkey around here. They're one of the few. Few things I could get. They're aggressive but stupid creatures. You could find plenty up the crick from here on foot. It's about a quarter day walk. They travel through there regularly. They don't, they don't taste right.
He takes a bite of elk.
But they don't raw.
Oh.
Semi turn.
They don't raw.
Oh, God.
Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
And unplucked and everything else.
Oh, dude takes a big chunk of bite of the elk. The blood's kind of dripping down his chin. He doesn't seem to mind.
Yep. Mel is absolutely thinking about becoming a pescatarian.
Jacob is still in the tent so we can drop out of initiative.
Okay.
Yeah.
James is still going to stay as.
Hidden as possible, I'm assuming, so I don't have to have you roll a strength check every time.
I'm not gonna. I'm gonna hold the bow in my hand, but I'm not holding. Yum. It's not under tension.
Okay. You have it knocked still. You're ready to draw, but you have not drawn. Yeah. So he, with his hunk o meat, he doesn't sit, but he kind of approaches the campfire, and he looks about as relaxed as he's gonna get.
You got a little something there on your chin.
Oh, yeah. I guess.
He reaches up with his sleeve, not unkin to how Jacob probably would wipe his face. Honestly. Wipes the blood. Does more of a effective job of smearing the bits through his stubble. He's got a fairly impressive. Impressive in the. It's pretty rough.
Three weeks filled.
Yeah, it's. He ain't winning any booty pageants, so he just kind of grinds it more through his stubble in this lighting. We're from the campfire, and the campfire colored lightrock. Um, it just kind of darkens his beard up fairly significantly.
I I'm sorry. I have not. I had to worry about manners for a little.
It takes another big chunk of elk.
You want a carrot? I got some carrots.
I think the elk is plenty. Thank you. I would hate to deprive you of your food.
Pretty sure she's got some kale chips if you want to try those.
I was saving those.
That sounds awful.
We keep trying to tell her that.
She's.
She doesn't believe us.
I like them.
You're a vegetarian, are you?
Just like the accusatory way in which you friend. But, no, I am not. Although I've been rethinking that all day.
I don't smell the fresh kill on your hands.
No, I was too busy barfing at breakfast. It smells really bad.
This smells like survival.
It takes another chunk.
Oh, well, like, I'm not great at that.
Aldi will say, well, Griff, we've got more meat than we can use. If you want, you can have some more to take with you. We've got plenty. We need to keep the hide.
But if you want one of these.
Quarters, we'll let you take one.
You would do that freely?
Sure. You've got it pretty rough out here, and we've got plenty at the moment, so I don't think anybody would have an issue. He looks around everybody. No, I mean, that's what you got. If you want, you're welcome to take a branch and take some of our campfire. Make it easier. I don't. Can't tell if you've got a way to make a fire but you welcome to take some of the campfire with you for your own camp. He's leading at this point to go have your own campfire. Okay.
It's cold.
I guess you just kind of get used to it after a while. I haven't really noticed.
The cold never bothered him anyway.
I mean, like, we're not that far from civilization.
What was your stealth?
God damn it. It was 18.
Sorry, I thought I heard something.
I thought I heard something, too, but frankly, I hear all kinds of things.
It might have been the horses, but.
Like, I mean, we're not that far from. What, like, town you can go back to people. It's not exactly civilization, but it's not eating raw meat in the wild, which just.
I don't know what much good people would do at this point.
You could get some new clothes.
He kind of looks down, realizing how rough they are for the first and a. What?
A bathroom.
Thought you said a bath.
A bath. You could get a bath.
Cause, wait, I see we got a free flowing crick there.
Oh, fucking cold.
No, I said you get used to.
It after a while.
Speak for yourself, burr.
That is what I tend to do.
She rolls her eyes.
You remind me of the girls in school. That wouldn't pay me any mind anyway.
I wonder why that might be, Griff.
Not willing to kill your own food, relying on others.
I'm cute.
I believe you think that.
Ouch.
Burn. Starting to like this guy a little bit.
How'd you roll on that stealth save there, James? Too bad shot to giggle.
I'm sorry. I've not seen people for, I think the last of my mine. I haven't seen them since they've been about two weeks. That wasn't the nicest thing I've ever said.
Sometimes we face things we probably shouldn't have. Well, Ike says, you're welcome to that. And he points to the piece that he cut the meat off. You're welcome to have that one. And says, if you want, take a bit of the fire for you, but if you don't want to, that's. But we. We need to be getting on to bed here shortly, so, you know, we hope you have a good evening and things go well for you.
I appreciate you.
He walks over. What are you specifically offering up?
One of the quarters. Yeah, it's the one we cut supper off of. And then I gave him the piece, so it's a good chunk of meat.
So we're looking at 70, 80 pound chunk of.
Chunk of haunch on bone. Yeah.
You see him walk up and just hoist it up off the hook. No real sweat on his part at all. Yeah. To probably surprise a couple of you, he's not built that's impressively strong. He points it off the hook and I.
This is weirdly kind of you, but I appreciate it. I will not bother your camp.
Thank you. We appreciate it, Grif. And, you know, good luck to you. And if we run into you, I'm planning tomorrow to go hunt where you told me about those turkeys. But if that's on your place, we can go somewhere else.
This is all my place. There's human nearby, you said?
Yeah, from Rifle town. He kind of nods his head, sort of in the direction of where rifle is.
Could I do it? Insect.
You're hiding. You can't see him.
Yeah.
You can read his tone of voice? Yeah, okay, but disadvantage if you want to. Okay?
It's ways for sure.
How long?
What? It was about a half a day horseback ride.
That's a 14 on the inside. Check.
What are you trying to get?
Trying to see if there was a double meaning to him. Saying that this is all his land.
Meat believes that this is his land.
Yeah.
Okay.
He said it's slightly ominous.
Do you have a problem if we go hunt turkeys there? If not, we go. So I'm not trying to take all of them I can find. I need. I need feathers for fletching. So I'm thinking five or six is all we need, and then we'll be out of here.
There are plenty of turkey. They taste wrong. Take what you want.
Okay, like says, we're definitely not going to take all. We just. We need about five or six for what we need to do, and we'll leave the rest alone.
I would recommend. Don't store the meat so close. There are cats in the area, feral beasts.
All right, we will definitely take that under advisement. We appreciate the. We appreciate the advice.
Thank you for the kill. The boy in the tent need not be so afraid. I will not hurt him.
I'm gonna insight check that.
Ooh.
16.
You know, he knows there is a boy in the tent, and he does not believe that he will harm the boy.
Perfect. Okay.
He meant what he said.
Got it.
The boy is safe.
Yeah, but I can assure you, Mel smells a lot more scared than she did a minute ago.
And you can also believe that he. You believe he will not bother camp.
Got it.
He means what he says, even if he says it. Weird and creepy.
That's why I needed an insight check.
Rifle is the name of the town.
Yeah, it's light, says. And he indicates that direction.
Do south.
He looks directly at you and says, thanks. And with that, he stands up, picks the meat back up with absolutely. Again, weird lack of effort. And he makes his way in that direction.
South headed towards town.
Yes, he leaves towards the south.
I don't like that. I don't like that he's heading towards civilization.
Can we do double watches?
Yeah. Might not be a half bad idea.
I don't want to be out here by myself.
Well, you won't be. And Elliot is pointedly gonna look over his shoulder and then put his fingers to his lips like he's gonna point to his ears and then shush. Do a shushing motion in front of his mouth, like this guy might still be able to hear us. So let's let him get a ways.
Before we start to talk.
I'm afraid of the cats. He said there were mountain lions. That was totally a deception.
Go ahead and roll it. See if he gives a shit. He's gonna do a perception check against him.
14.
He doesn't.
He looks over his shoulder, smells scared.
I promise I mean what I say. I will not harm your camp.
Okay. Thank you.
Once he gets to the edge of the ice, the. The light path, which. It's 40ft for dim, 60ft for dim. Once he gets outside of 40ft, you two can still see up to 60. You two see him kind of hunker down a little lower as if he's getting on all fours and continue away. Okay. Out past the edge of your vision and he is gone. Unless you do something. Actually, you're behind a tent.
Yeah, I can't see that.
Yep. I'm just gonna watch him as he goes and wait a good couple of minutes before I relax.
Perfect.
Oh, that dude was creepy as shit.
What the hell was that?
Do you think it's bad that he's heading towards town?
Yeah, I would have rather he didn't go that way. Yeah. But I damn sure I'm not gonna go tell him not to.
That's a good point.
You guys do realize that if we go back to town, everyone's freaking slaughtered? That we just let the creepy ass motherfucker to town.
If he slaughters everybody in town, what are six to five of us gonna do?
That's fair.
I mean, I'm not a whole ass city. Yeah, and it's not like he couldn't figure out where town is. It's not like it's a secret. True. To get to where he is, he had to have went through it?
Yeah. I mean, in theory, he would have found it eventually.
I don't know.
The guy was giving us serious creepy vibes.
Yes, he was.
That was why I tried to get him out of camp as fast as he could. Get him out. I didn't want to give him a whole quarter, but he got him out.
It counted to get him gone.
Do you think he really is gonna.
Not attack us also?
Who?
I don't think he's gonna bother us.
Who eats elk raw?
Ew. Yeah, I know.
It's done it, but, yeah.
Disgusting.
I don't know. That's some shit I saw in, like, dances with wolves. And.
What was that movie thing about his people? I don't like old country. Like, what, is he from Transylvania or something?
I don't know.
I was wondering if maybe he was kind of like the elves or something.
For what it's worth, he has a distinct flavor of white.
He also mentioned he was riding ATV's.
Yeah. So I don't think he was with.
Elves, so I don't think that was the.
But what's the ATV's?
I mean, people refer to Europe as the old country, but it's, like, weird subsets of people that refer. And he did not strike me. I don't know. I wouldn't have expected to hear him.
Refer to it that way. Right?
I don't know. But we got a line on some turkey, and that's good.
I think I read about him in a comic book.
One small victories, I guess.
He's got adamantium claws.
Wolverine.
Well, then we damn sure couldn't take.
Well, I don't know.
I'm going to bed.
Yeah.
Oddly impressed. Elliot knows about Wolverine.
Comic book's been around for a long time.
All right, so that was the middle of.
That was mine.
It was James's watches. Watch the. Yeah.
Oh, my God. Are we not gonna close his fucking eyes?
Are we restructuring a little bit to do double watches?
Yes, I think we should. Even if he isn't willing, even if he's not gonna bother us. God knows what else is out there. Yeah.
We also don't know if he's, like, the only one like him. He did say that he came with other people.
He also said he hadn't seen them in two weeks.
Yeah, that doesn't.
You know, that doesn't necessarily mean he ate.
No, but that's. He didn't seem. It didn't seem like something he'd lie about.
Maybe they ate too much raw turkey.
He did say they taste funny. I don't know what the hell that means. But.
Oh God.
Turkey seeds, raw poultry. Yeah.
God, he probably didn't even pluck it.
Probably.
Probably ate the feathers and all.
Well, I'm gonna go back to bed. I'm probably not gonna sleep, so.
Same.
If something else is going on, just say something.
Let the property roll.
That's probably wisdom.
Con.
What are you trying to accomplish if.
You'Re able to actually.
Well, I'm on freaking watch.
Well, I mean, yeah, but you will eventually watch saving thrower. Yeah.
Of it would wisdom or honestly, charisma.
Yeah, let's go. Charisma.
Save or check.
Say.
21, you're fine.
Eight, you're not.
No, I got an 11th.
21, you're fine.
I'm geeking out because I think he might have been a werewolf.
I totally think he was a freaking werewolf.
So Mel doesn't read those books are.
Gonna have a point of exhaustion. You're fitful, but you're okay.
Yeah.
You guys, Mel doesn't read those sort of books.
For those playing along at home, seems like you don't know who I'm pointing at. Elliot and Oldok will have a point of exhaustion tomorrow. They do not fall back asleep. They are on edge. James doesn't feel good, but he seems okay. Emory and Mel is.
Yep.
The adrenaline.
Creepy.
How does Jacob do? Yeah, how does it.
Jacob didn't see anything.
So Jacob, I feel like when I go back to my tent, I have to reassure Jacob a little bit. It's fine, it's fine. Just another traveler. A little bit of a weird one, but a traveler.
One of the less stressful, scary things Jacob's seen since you guys have come to his life. So he's alright. You just had a weird conversation. In fact, you open up the tent while he was hiding. He felt like a sleep.
The second part of my watch. Can I still look out for like turkey tracks to continue looking for stuff like that? Because I don't trust that dude at all for anything.
You said go for a fresh nature or survivor.
Couldn't do a perception or just nature or survivor. Survival.
Nature. Survival.
Okay.
If you're specifically looking for tracks.
Okay. Nature check. That is a 17, sir.
Okay. Yeah. You find plenty of track. You see the track that Omok saw yesterday morning? Okay, what the hell? I guess it's whatever. In the morning you see those. And again they would be described as they're either a cat or a dog. Yeah, they are smaller than a bear, bigger than a wolf.
With a 17. Can I tell how old they are?
Yeah, they're not. They're not particularly old. Yeah, they weren't made tonight.
At least a day old since they were there yesterday.
Yes.
But I don't know that.
Correct. They're. They have frost in them. You can tell they weren't fresh fresh, but they're not dried out and hard to read.
Okay.
Um, and you see some bird track. It mirrors what you've seen everywhere else. Yeah. Anything else in particular?
Oh, no, just, you know, jumping at every bush rush.
Elliot's watch. Anybody joining Elliot? You guys talked about doubling watches?
Well, since y'all can't get the switch.
Guess I'm already awake anyway, so I'll fucking join em.
Military RSS is up.
I'm the one that can see in the dark. God, that guy was creepy as shit.
That dude was creepy as hell. I've never seen anybody eat raw meat like that.
I've heard stories about it, but it's not good for you.
Right?
I actually read a story about a guy, that he was a fugitive from the law that lived off of raw deer for, like, two years up in Montana. Yeah, he said he preferred the flavor raw. So where.
Where.
Where have you been stationed? Where have you been before you got here to Colorado?
I tried pretty hard to stay overseas. I was stationed in Japan for a little bit, stayed there for probably eight years, and then had to transfer back stateside. They wouldn't approve another overseas, so we came back stateside. Unfortunately, we came to Florida, which is, in my opinion, America's taint. But, you know, it's warm. I don't like the humidity. But after that, they approved another overseas tour, ended up going back overseas, went to assist, and then that was almost my last one. I had one more stint. I tried to go back to Japan because I just. I really enjoyed it there and then. But they didn't let me go back to Japan. I had to go to Germany because that was the next spot. They had to bill it for me. And then came back here to kind of close out. I'm only, like, six months from retirement, or at least what would have been retirement had the world not gone to shit.
That's some traveling under your belt.
Yeah.
Said you used to be married.
Yeah.
How long ago was that?
Three years.
Not long.
Yeah.
Military's hard on a family.
Yeah. Hmm.
Well, I appreciate the fact that we ran into you in that bar. It's been. Been good having. Having some help.
Yeah, man. I mean, I'm glad I ran into y'all. Cause at least we got something going on, you know? I would have just been kind of running around trying to figure out what the hell's going on, what I can do.
You know, I still don't think it's real half the time.
I know, right? Feels like a shit, shitty nightmare we can't wake up from, huh?
Every time I wake up, I hope I'm gonna be in bed, but, oh, well, what can you do?
I guess I know, right?
Just gotta keep pushing through, you know? That dude did seem hella strange, though.
Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna sleep the rest of the night.
I don't think so either. Do you think? Okay, forgive me if I sound insane, but I read a lot of horror books and stuff, and we've seen some whack shit with the elves and the giant salamander creatures they were riding. Maybe Homie was a werewolf.
Hell, I've seen elves, we've seen zombies, we've seen ghosts. Shit, I. I think he was a damn werewolf.
Yeah, I know it sounds crazy. I'm glad somebody else may have thought that shit.
Yeah. And I don't know if anything we heard is made up, real or not.
Right?
I do know that that's on our list to get our weapons silvered. And that's supposed to. Yeah, that's supposed to be against werewolves. We don't have any of it done yet, I don't think.
No, I don't think we found any silver.
Yeah, well, I just kind of hope we don't run into Griff again. Honestly.
Yeah, honestly. Heading to town. I hope he doesn't go hurt people.
I don't think he wouldn't hurt us. I don't think he would if he's been hiding out here for three weeks.
I mean, yeah, it did seem like he could smell.
I can't believe he didn't know about it. Maybe he didn't, but I. I don't know. I don't know. I guess one problem at a time. We're gonna be headed back to town here in a day or two anyway. I guess we'll find out.
Yeah.
Just gotta get us some turkeys, right?
Yep. We need the arrows.
All right, well, I'm gonna go ahead and kind of walk around, check the perimeter, make sure we're clear.
Tell you what, how about you stay here by the campfire since you can't see shit in the dark? How about I go walk the perimeter?
That's fair.
We can do that too. You make a good point there, Elliot.
All right. Will you keep an eye on these folks here? I'll go do a slow walk around yeah.
I'll keep on alert just in case anything else weird happens for the evening.
If I'm not back in about ten or 15 minutes, you come get me.
All right.
You shout or something? Maybe. I don't know.
Yeah.
Cause I'm not gonna be able to fucking see her.
No. So. Oh, it'll go. Walk the perimeter.
Perfect.
That could be the rest of your watch.
That's fine.
Do you wanna wake with Mel? Yep. Okay.
And he'll walk up and he'll just scratch on the side of the tent, make the little nylon zoom.
Morning already.
It's practically morning. You need to get up and help the sun come up. It ain't up yet. It's waiting on you.
Aw, that's so sweet. Okay, I'll go fight with my zipper. Come stumbling.
All right, young lady, you yoga that sun up into position. Keep an eye out. I'm gonna try to get some sleep. I don't think I'm gonna get any, but I'm gonna try.
Okay.
Does Olnok make the effort or do you stay up?
I'm just out here hanging out by the fire anyway.
Perfect.
Go ahead.
Guess I'll try to do a yoga with her if she wakes up and does yoga.
Absolutely. We can do yoga together.
Hell, yes.
What do you two do on mills munch?
What? Oh, well, I mean, we'll do some gentle morning. Yeah, yoga. And every time old knock will try to talk about the creepy dude last night, I'm gonna in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Is this one called downward facing dog? What is this?
Sure, yes. Every third pose.
Downward facing dog. Even if it's not.
Yep. Sure, sure.
Are you sure this is different than the first time?
We'll just. You know what? Make it, make it. What do you feel like? What does your inner animal feel like? Call it that.
Feels like camel.
Yes, we'll call that the upward camel.
Or the sleepy cobra.
Yes, sleepy cobra. Downward dog. Upward camel. There's the cat pose.
What's that one?
That's the one where you arch your back.
Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, I've done that one.
I can't remember what the opposite. Cat, cow, cow, cat, cow, cat, cow. That's right. Cat, cow. Got cat, cow, camel.
Good for the lower back.
Yes.
Did we do the sun salutations or vinyasas or whatever they're.
Yes, yes. We're working on sun salutations.
Let's do those.
As the sun starts to, Jacob joins you. Oh, it was a good night.
I'm glad you slept well, kiddo.
Do you sleep okay, Miss Mel?
Surprisingly well, actually. Trauma does that to you.
You look tired, Mister Olnock.
Uh, yeah, I'm pretty beat.
Ready to go, hun?
Isn't that.
Oh shit.
That's right.
We're supposed to go hunting.
Gotta catch us a bird.
Gotta catch them all. You know what I'm talking about?
Do you think that they smell better than the elf?
No.
Like inside they absolutely do not. Probably not.
The outside smells worse.
Perfect. The rest of that watch goes uneventfully unless there's a particular conversation you wanna have.
James wakes up screaming about raw elk tartar.
Son of a.
You can't sushi that.
Sure you can't.
Steak.
Tar tar.
All right.
Of all of the trauma before, but not steak.
Of all of the trauma to get from that.
It's the fucking elk.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Fucking live game elk, gamey as it.
Is, decided that whenever we kill something again that she's got like a scarf, she's gonna press to digitate like, oh, to peppermint. And just wear it as like a battle mask over her face. I can help.
Now.
Peppermint.
Everybody wakes and up. Sun rises. Well, are you wanting to get up before the sun rises?
I can't go back to sleep, so I get up.
Okay, what's your plan for the hunt today? Boogie for it? Or are you gonna take your time?
I'm tired. I didn't sleep for crap. But we know where that guy where Griff said those turkeys are.
Allegedly.
Allegedly. You know what? It sounds reasonable. I don't have a reason to disbelieve him. It's a good place to go look as any. I say we'll go check it out.
Perfect. You guys set off to. Do you guys notice these weird tracks? No.
Oh yeah, I saw those yesterday.
They match what Olnock and Elliot have both seen so far.
Okay.
They are the undiscernible catwolf bear dog.
They didn't. Well, no, we saw that guy's feet. He was wearing shoes.
Yes, he was.
When we saw him beat to shit.
Huh. Oh.
What if he's like a shapeshifter?
Elliot knows the proper way to hunt turkey. I do not.
Me either.
I've kind of got an idea on elk, but I'm like, I don't know. But Elliot would totally know how to hunt turkey. He's gonna go hunt turkey.
Perfect. You set off to go hunt turkey. And we will see how that goes next time. Cause it's midnight.
Okay?
So we will wrap up that episode.
Catch that fucking turkey, snap his little goblet y neck.
What does turkey ever do to you?
And in the meantime, I'm gonna google how to hunt Turkey. Theater of the Mind is Jeremy Arston as Elliot Brandybain, Amanda Arfston is Melanie Kelly, Michael Burnell as Olnach Varger Johnson, Michael Downes as James Obrien, Casey Weingarten as Emery Lee and myself Mike Schalk as your dungeon master. We release new episodes every two weeks, so our next episode will release on April 14. If you want to follow us, our social media and website can be found on our link tree, which can be found in the podcast description. Also in the podcast description you can find a link to Pinecast as well as our referral code to get you 40% off your first four months of a paid membership, as well as our referral link to Epidemic Sound, which gets you a one week trial period to their excellent program. The music this week was sourced from epidemic Sounds, who we are not sponsored by under the Creative Commons license. The songs used in order are Delivering by Peter Sandberg Take Away the blues by Franz Gordon Double crossed in Johnson City by American Legion Five Star Day by Will Harrison the clearing by Golden Incur Ghost Dungeons by Ethan Sloane ghosts Everywhere by Xperia Animorph by enigmatic Broke Down Heart by Peter Crosby and that impossible last breath by Dasain the theater of the mind theme ad break and outro were written by Mike Schalk Theatre the mind is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.