The Glitterbois Play Rifts 10: Murdercat with a Jet Pack

Breakfast Puppies.

This podcast contains adult language and content and is meant for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

I'm Gorshkov. You're listening to Glitter Boys. You failed the Rodina. The sun is rising in the east, which is behind the Mountaineer as you head west through the Michigan wilderness towards the distant port of Muskegon. It is early in the morning. You've been driving all night after leaving New Laszlo. At this point, you're driving down a path, more than a road, that's just been worn through the forest. By your estimation, probably about 10 miles from Muskegon. And the trees are starting to get much thinner. You can see homesteads in the distance and beyond, a hint of fields. Where is everyone in the Mountaineer? I'm assuming that Riley's behind the wheel.

Of course.

At the end of last game, Donna called shotgun.

I like to ride on top.

Sure.

This time Henry will have joined Mr. Cat Sea with all the fuss is about.

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Branches just so sprawled between the bucket seats. And on both Donna and Riley is Mor Thak, the juvenile dragon. He's snoring with his head. Let's see.

It could be on my lap.

Yeah, on Donna's lap.

We have a history.

Oh, that's. Yeah, yeah, you've. He would know you very well, Jacob. In the distance, Riley spots clearly some kind of checkpoint. There's looks like some. A ruin maybe in the forest. There's greenery growing up around it and a clearing of some kind. Clearing is not empty. There is a towering robot at least 20ft tall with a skull face painted green and gray.

I want that.

At the robot's feet are infantry, dismounted, armored, armed. Also painted in the gray green livery of Muskegon militia. This is something that Donna would have told you about Cranston. You know, Dark Falcon has been to Muskegon before and they. They have a very active militia. They get a lot of material from the coalition. And with these militia in the Forest is a UAR1 Enforcer robot, though it has this big stylized M on its chest rather than any Coalition insignia. Now, you're still some distance from this checkpoint, but they obviously see a giant Mountaineer driving through the forest and you can, you know, it's morning, some of the soldiers are milling about and a couple are looking in your direction. What we would you find people like to do?

Oh, hey, everybody's got armor now we do. Which also means everybody's got a headset now we do.

Now, real quick question. If we were expecting this.

Yeah.

Would we have Taken measures in advance to either avoid it or I was.

Going to assume that just for time efficiency that we hadn't talked about it in advance. Okay. Just for whatever reason.

Well, because you Riley's psychotic driving and we have a deadline here to make.

And Mr. Cat was drooling about a railgun.

I want the railgun, but I also want to meet the shiny thing.

Yes. So over the comms I just call out got a roadblock ahead. How we want to play it.

Can we run it over?

Yes, but I think the towering robot will probably not be good for anybody sitting up top and not good for the Mountaineer for more than a minute.

Gorshkov, what you think about this big guy?

It is big robot. I do not know him.

That's no help.

I would like to vote against blasting through the checkpoint.

Yes, agreed.

Riley reaches up to the center of the console and flips a plastic guard cover back over this big red button.

Sighs a breath of relief.

It was recent with all of his rework with you know, the cattle catcher and the KC Lite rack and the repaint job with the cavalry banner on the side.

Don't forget the speakers.

Oh yes.

So then I do have a question about character knowledge because it's kind of vague and hazy who we are versus who we became. And you know, I was a house cat and I might have absorbed some things during the games, but now I'm a battle cat. But very specifically battle cat. This body is probably an escapee from Lone Star. Mr. Cat wouldn't know that. But would the body. Would this body have any kind of an instinctual fear of that skull icon? Something that's like oh, I remember these from that place I ran away from.

I would say you probably have an unusual reticence around it, but. Well it's not, it's. It's clearly not specifically Coalition, obviously it's the their equipment. I mean, you know, I would say it gives Mr. Cat feels an unusual sense of reticence to be close to this, but you know, it's not like some sort of deep seated psychosis mainly. I say that mainly because I think the underground and secret areas where all the mutant experimentation is done is probably much more. What's the word? Austere. Rather than having all the iconography and regalia that a normal Coalition facility might.

Gotcha. Oh yeah, and player question. Are we still in the cool ass black armor stage of the Coalition or have we switched over to the silly looking white and black plastic looking Coalition armor? What era are we in?

We're still in the standard, I believe. I don't think that changeover happens until, like, we're in 109p or 101pa. Yeah, and I forget when that happens, though. It was my intention to have it before, so. Okay.

Jacob's giving me that look because we've had this conversation.

I don't.

I don't hate the new armor. I just think the old armor was cooler.

Yeah.

Kyle, I have a question for you. Yes, technically, in the last episode, Donna said that she had not heard of Muskegon, but we could make that like a tongue in cheek kind of thing. Perhaps. But if Donna does know, what do I know about this checkpoint, if anything?

Oh, oh, the checkpoint you don't know anything about, but you know of the Muskegon Militia. They're a capable fighting force. They're not known as to be particularly, you know, brutal or intolerant. Muskegon is not part of the coalition, though it is friendly, nominally friendly with the coalition. And there's definitely people in Muskegon that would want to be a part of the coalition, but that is not the case.

Gotcha. So just from my time here, I would know of the militia and Muskegon, even though I. Maybe I haven't actually been there.

Yeah, yeah, they're a they. They range into the Michigan wilderness on various operations for their city state. Muskegon itself is defended by this huge, massive barrier wall made of mega damage material. But the Muskegon Militia, you know, they. If there's some big threat that they think might go after Muskegon, they go out and they. They take care of it. Again, they're not as well equipped as the coalition, but they. They do. Okay, cool.

So Donna would kind of look over and be like, you know, I think they're going to be fine. We haven't done anything wrong. I think we can probably just go through the checkpoint like normal.

I nod, pull out my revolver and stick it in my lap.

Doesn't hurt to be prepared, I suppose.

Henry gives the giant robot a friendly wave.

I slow down as I approach the checkpoint. Yeah, I slow down.

You slow down.

Even for. Even below what Riley considers slow. I go slower than that.

Yeah.

So as the Mountaineer approaches, a couple of guys get up and start walking that direction. You slow down, you come to a stop, a guy hops up on. On the side, you know, where he can look into the window. Hey, good morning. How's it going?

Hi.

Oh, doing fine. How ya got? Morning.

Oh, hey. Good, good, good. Heading into the city.

Yeah, we're hoping to pick up a delivery.

Oh, okay, okay, Great, great, great. What business are you gonna be visiting? Do you have a destination?

Muskegon.

No, no. What business? What outfit? What enterprise within the city?

Donna goes, oh, I would ask you to keep your voice down, please. I don't want to wake the little one. She's, like, stroking his head.

Oh, sorry, Sorry.

Nah, it's okay.

Oh, God.

We have a bill of ladling I didn't think of to God. I glanced at it when we left.

I think it's in the back seat, but I don't want to wake up.

I'm gonna send a mess. Through the headwear radio that we are connected to, I believe the store was Grenades, Grenades, Grenades and grenades.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I continue rumbling around, going, like, looking through the glove box, and I just happened to pick up a plasma grenade. And I'm holding it in one hand while I'm going through, like it was in my way. And I'm just holding it while I'm going through the rest of the glove box, and I turn back to him and I go, oh, yeah. Grenades, grenades, grenades, grenades.

Okay.

All right.

Well, I guess that's fine.

We're picking it up, not delivering, to be clear.

Oh, okay. This is just.

This is just for, like, road obstacles, if you know what I mean.

Hey, you know, Michigan, what are you gonna do, huh?

Right? Have you. Have you seen the moose around here?

Keep your noses clean and enjoy Muskegon. And he hops off and, you know, they kind of part ways. The robot takes two steps back. Its sensor tower over its left shoulder is whirring. You know, this big. You know, death's head is, like, tilted in your direction, but they clear a path for you to drive through.

Oh, my God. I'm so embarrassed. I forgot that I'm Dark Falcon. I almost forgot who I was for a second. I just. Just love this little guy.

You need to work on your tough guy voice.

I had a good tough guy. Affirmative.

I approve.

That's right. Big muscle, scary guy. Non maternal.

Call me Donna. Falcon.

You guys drive through the checkpoint, and just about another mile and you're out of the. Out of the woods, out of the Michigan woods and driving through farmland in the distance like this, there's this gray horizon, and it is the Muskegon Shield Wall around the city. You get to it, there's this huge gate. There are more robots and militia, but they're not stopping people. There's traffic going through, and unless you guys decide otherwise, you will enter Muskegon proper.

I'M in, I'm in. Let's go.

Cool. You drive through the the shield Wall, which is, you know, easily like 100ft thick, made of some massive mega damage material. And once you're through it, you're in Muskegon. And of course, probably none of you visited Muskegon in your previous lives when it was a normal part of the United States, but you're pretty sure it didn't have massive mega damage. Skyscrapers and a huge harbor full of ships. Muskegon has changed quite a bit.

Skyscrapers for one of any sort.

Indeed. There's people packing the streets, commerce, honking horns, smell of engine exhaust. And when you come up on a hill in the city and you can see the vast harbor connecting to the Great Lakes, lots of different ships and boats, some clearly designed for lake travel or riverine traffic, and others that are large ocean going vessels and above them, flyers and aircraft and hovering vehicles. It is very different from New Laszlo, where New Laszlo was amidst the trees, this arcane settlement, where this is clearly full of technology that is far more advanced than the Earth you remember. Even though it's battered and dented and dirty, it's still hyper sophisticated in ways that your crude 21st century, 20th century human minds cannot comprehend.

As we pull up to town, Riley's like on a touchscreen on the dashboard flipping through these hundreds of ancient music files he purchased. Hits Gordon Lightfoot's wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as we're pulling into town over the outside speakers.

So what was that like yesterday? Day before the anniversary day?

50Th anniversary was Monday.

Monday.

I was an absolute menace to everybody in my life. My wife had to deal with it.

Yeah, I would say in this era that's probably some. The Edmund Fitzgerald has grown in the telling over the years where it is at this point, some ridiculous fable about this great treasure ship from a long lost empire that sunk in one of the lakes due to some Atlantean magic. Apparently in, in this retelling of the tale the Edmunds Fitzgerald, the, the crew had angered the, the, the Splurgoth in some way, but who could say? All right, what is your plan now? You know, you're supposed to rob, I mean, pick up some things from Warehouse 9 on Dock Street. Well, but yes, you're supposed to steal the weapons there.

I say we case the joint.

How much do we want to. I mean, we've clearly been seen coming in the city. Do we want to spend a lot of time being picked up on cameras or do we want to just keep Our heads low and get right to it as much as one can in a.

Well, given we're just pulled into a city surrounded by gigantic mega damage walls, it doesn't strike me as this is going to be a smash and grab operation. Because we can't like high speed our way out of town easily. There's portcullis, gates and all of that. Yeah, quit glaring at me, Cat.

One of us has a jetpack.

Yes, I will be the grease man.

We did also inform the nice gentleman at the checkpoint exactly where we were going.

Yes, I mean, I did consider that. And did you? Yeah, I did consider that.

I mean, you're the crime people, but I'm here to follow along.

No.

Grenades, grenades, grenades. And grenades I think was something we made up, but it was a joke from the previous episode.

Fair enough.

So, like, I don't think it necessarily matters how much we get caught on camera as how much we can figure out how to do this quietly so we have a chance to get out of town and get a head start.

More of a no alarms situation.

Or leave them all dead quietly to get said railguns.

What if we just asked?

I mean, I suppose that's an option too.

Yeah, I've got bribe money.

What exactly are we getting?

A bunch of crates, including a couple railguns.

Hmm. We should case the joint.

Probably. Good first step.

Sounds like a plan.

Okay, you're going to head there and see what it looks like.

Well, my thought would be that we head directly there. We find somewhere to park outside.

Cool.

And then take some side road. I don't know, maybe we find a.

Place to hole up for the night. Unless we're staying inside the Wagoneer.

This place, it doesn't have beds. So if we're gonna stay overnight, we should probably find a hotel or a lodge of some kind.

Yeah, Muskegon is a modern city. There's plenty of lodging to be found. There's nice hotels, there's boarding houses, there are bars with back lots, you know, what kind of accommodation are you?

Are you looking for something along like a Motel 6000?

I'm down for it. Um, let's find a cheap hotel and, you know, hopefully there won't be too many meth addicts.

Yeah, okay.

I'm deferring to the party leaders. I mean, I could lead. You could let Mr. Cat make the decisions.

Mr. Cat leads when he wants to lead. Apparently not right now.

Yeah, let's just find a cheap motel close to the docks.

Are there, but not. But not too cheap. Maybe, but not very expensive.

So like a mid range place, right?

Like a Holiday Inn.

Like a mid range.

So you don't want sex workers in the parking lot, but you don't want the Ritz Carlton.

Got it.

I think I got a game Holiday.

And yeah, sex workers need to make a living too.

Yeah, yeah, they're fine.

So you find a place called Grumblers. It is recommended to you when you ask around. It has a massive parking garage full of vehicles covered in dirt and mud, bullet holes, scorch marks. And this parking garage is attached to this massive, you know, concrete and steel hotel. Slash tavern. The whole first and second floor are apparently just a massive bar. And it is full of, well, adventurers, explorers, mercenaries, travelers from distant worlds, DBs, robots, aliens, all laughing and drinking and eating. And you enter the the upper lobby that comes from the the parking garage and there's some weird alien with like four eyes coming off in stalks off its head. Welcome to Grumblers. How long will you be staying with us, esteemed sentient creatures?

Eh, let's say three days.

Ah, I see the party standard. Yes, of course. How many rooms would you like?

Morthak and I can share a room. That's okay.

I was more thinking about whether you and Morthak could share a room with somebody else. Well, like who?

I'm sure Bronson would crawl up on what's left of your lap.

Oh, Bronson, you can stay.

Of course I will stay with Donna.

Well, then you're probably getting Mr. Cat on a package deal then.

Mr. Cat, can we stay in Donna's room?

Your blanket is player characters.

I have no objections to this.

Okay, we'll get two rooms.

Very well. That will be 200 credits for each night, sir.

Oh, let me, Let me take care of this, please. There's 600 credits, Dan.

Thank you.

As Riley was reaching towards his gun to negotiate.

No, no, no. I got it.

We are a full service buffet 24 hours a day that is built into your accommodations. You have a few drink tickets. And this creature pushes some drink tickets across the table.

Donna grabs all of them.

Enjoy Grumblers.

Well, thank you so much for having us.

Yes, of course. Should you get into legal trouble, we can offer you the services of the house lawyer. Just let us know.

Interesting. But thank you.

Could we get his card?

A card is slid across the counter.

Could I get a second card in.

Case I lose the first one?

He slid you two cards the first time?

I like this place.

So he hands you a couple keys. And these are actual physical keys, not key cards. They've learned some Things in the future. And you might say, kyle, what do you have against hotel key cards? It's because the last two hotels I've been in, they've handed me a hotel card, said, now be careful. Don't put this next to a cell phone or a credit card. Like, oh, good, because my pockets are full of. Not those things. Where would you like me to put this? We require our hotels. Our hotel goes to keep their key in their prison pocket. Good lord.

I'm gonna assume prison pocket is what I think it is. Okay.

It's your sock.

I used to sock is what I think it is.

Okay.

I. I just. But seriously, like, what. Where would I carry this? What? What. What is going on? Like, oh, okay, so no woman can put it in her purse, right? I mean, I assume there are credit cards there and probably a cell phone. Like, who's. Where are you carrying this?

Inside Sandworm.

Yeah. There you go. That's it. That's. That's. That's the design America.

Well, these are keys, so obviously we put them in our keyster.

Ah, logic. So you guys, your rooms are on the eighth floor. They got you connecting rooms.

Does that mean we share a bathroom?

No, no, no. There's just a door that you can open and go through.

Actually, that's worth asking. Do we have our own bathrooms or is it like a communal bathroom?

You have your own bathroom.

Okay, this isn't a McMinimans then. Okay.

Kyle has no idea what that means.

I don't think anybody at this, anybody in the group would have note.

True, but.

But players at the table. If you ever stayed at McMinimans Hotel, chances are you don't have your own bathroom because it's rustic.

I would not stay there.

Or a school.

Yeah.

Or an old folks home.

Or a prison.

Or a prison.

A work camp is what. Or something like that. Poor folks. It was the poor home, the poor labor farm that Edgefield winery used to be. Okay.

Anyway.

But they got it cheap.

All right, so you guys have a hotel, You've got rooms. The Mountaineer is parked. You're in Muskegon. What would you like to do?

What time of day is it?

It's early morning. You guys drove through the night, so you're probably quite tired. But it is early in the morning. Great.

I'm going to sleep.

Mr. Cat's going to sleep.

I imagine I have a long night ahead of me.

Yeah, a long night of doing cat like things. Skullduggery.

I've been leading Mor Thak by the hand and I pick him up And I put him in the bed next to Mr. Cat and Tuck him in.

Morthak is very excited. He's in his little boy form, and he just, like, burrows into Mr. Cat.

All right, Morthak, you. You stay here, and I'll. I'll wake you up if anything happens, okay?

Okay. If bad guys come, I will. I will them up.

Okay. You watch the room, okay?

Yeah. I've been practicing my fire breath.

Okay. Save that until I tell you.

Okay. Also, I took one of the guns, and I have it.

Oh, can I see it?

Yeah. Here. And he. He's got, like, a little canvas sack that he carries around all the time. And he opens it up and just pulls out a laser pistol. Just holding it, like, completely the wrong way.

Oh, I was gonna say just pointing.

Yeah.

Look at. He took.

Oh, wow. It's not even like that competent, right? Like he's, like, holding it by the handle upside down.

And how do you fire it? Do you put it in your mouth?

That's a good one more, Thack. Here, I'll hold on to that for you.

Are you sure? Because I might need it because we're probably going to get attacked by assassins.

Well, someone just told me. A pretty big guy just told me they're working on their fire breath.

This seems to have been something of a conundrum for him. He, like, scratches his chin. Like, who? She's got me there.

Don't worry, Mor Thak. We'll keep you safe.

Okay.

To be fair, even if he did take that gun and put it in his mouth and pull the trigger, he regenerates more MDC per second. Dragons are broken.

We'd be more pissed about paying the deposit.

Riley points at you and goes, it is your responsibility to introduce him to housekeeping.

Okay.

Just so they don't surprise him. And we suddenly have a room on fire.

Noted.

Yeah. Morthak is happy to snuggle up with Mr. Cat and go to sleep. Bronson is like, I really want to explore the city. There's lots of different smells.

I'll take you, little buddy.

Sweet.

Yeah, well, I'll go Bronson.

All right.

I look at Riley and I take the do not disturb sign and kind of nod and put it on the outside.

All right, so who's going to go out to the city? Mr. Cat? I sleep.

Is going to sleep more than 100% sleep. Because I'm a cat. Yeah. I sleep whenever I want, Jacob.

I'm gonna go out and walk around. Check. Just get a lay of the land near the hotel. Find food that isn't Dehydrated or smoked?

Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. So you guys go back downstairs after, you know, stowing stuff in your room. The elevators end on the second floor, so you have to walk downstairs to go to the first floor and get to street level. You can't eat at the buffet if you wish. It smells great and it is packed with, you know, people, but there's certainly places around Grumblers that you could also go to.

I think it would be a good idea for nobody to explain to Bronson what buffet means.

Oh.

Because that could be bad.

Just a quick question. As a cyber knight, I can put my sword into, like, the ether realm. Can I store. Can I stow other things in that?

No.

No.

Okay, Your sword. Think of it more like just a lightsaber that pops out of your. Your fingertips.

Oh, sick.

Yeah. So it's not a physical sword. It's a psionic blade that just manifests however you want. Yeah.

Yeah. You make the sword with your mind.

That's dope.

Yep.

But I can't do that with the vodka.

Psylocke.

No.

Yeah, Psylocke. If you're familiar with Marvel, Psylocke is, I think, pretty close. She has the psyblade.

Nice.

Yeah.

Yes.

If there are some dried meats and Bronson's attention is turned as we pass the buffet, Henry would like to grab a handful and throw him in his thigh compartment. Nice little return to form, having some snacks on him.

So I would say that on the salad bar, there would be some dried stuff, but it's mostly, you know, like, meatloaf and bacon wrapped pork shoulder and ham.

God, I thought you said it was early morning.

It is, but this is, like, so. So Grumblers caters to, like, adventures. So it's a full buffet, full bar, 24 7, you know, seven days a week.

Hell, yeah.

Well, I'll grab a bacon wrapped, whatever.

Whereas I'm gonna find the nearest equivalent to a greasy spoon diner.

Yeah, you find one. So Riley goes out, explores the city, walks around a little bit, and you find kind of an unnamed diner. It's just like city diner, and it's across a plate, you know, across from a bookstore. And, you know, they have exactly what you would expect. Eggs, bacon, pancakes, coffee.

Perfect.

Yeah, it's. And the interior even looks like something from the 50s. And so you're convinced either this survived or someone with a very specific aesthetic desire built this.

Yeah, I come on in, sit down, order food, pay half attention to the conversations going around with me. Mostly I just wanted to get out of the driver's seat. You know, that kind of trucker just did a long haul. Minding their own business, theoretically, while listening to everything around them.

Yeah, no, I get it.

Donna takes a seat at the table and sort of urges Bronson to sit with her.

Oh, he absolutely would. Now, did you. Did Donna and Bronson go with Jake or go with Riley, or did they stay at Grumblers to eat at the buffet?

I think they stay at Grumblers. I think Donna started hitting the buffet while Riley kind of. Kind of slipped out.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, Bronson would definitely want to stay. This whole environment is incredibly exciting for him.

Yeah, this is definitely Donna's vibe. She. She puts a plate down in front of Bronson and puts one of the bacon wrapped proteins in front of him.

Oh, my gosh. I will save this bacon. And he scoops it off and, like, wraps it up again. I'll give it to Riley. He was so mad that bear stole it.

No, Bronson, this is all for you.

Really?

Yeah.

Yeah, I got this for you.

Oh, thank you so much, daughter. You are the best daughter.

Thanks. Bronson, I. Scratches his head.

Yeah. He starts eating the bacon that he wrapped in a napkin. While it's in the napkin.

Bronson, I just want to. I just want to tell you, and I hope you know that I mean this genuinely, you are a good dog.

Oh, thank you very much. And like, there's people sitting around you, and he locks eyes with some random DB did you hear that? I'm a good dog, Motherfucker. Don't you look at me, frogman.

Donna looks at them and goes, it's true.

NPC. What is Bronson's intelligence?

Bronson's IQ is 10.

Yes. All right. Bronson has realized that this buffet means you can just keep going and getting food and coming back. Oh, God, no.

You know what the best part of finding Donna is? Bronson becomes Donna's problem.

You say problem like it's a bad thing.

Yeah.

Bronson's been a light in all of our lives.

Yeah.

So Bronson disappears for a minute, and then. Then one of the staff comes over to the table. Alex, did Henry go with Riley or did he stay with Donna and Bronson at the buffet?

I'll stick with the one with the money.

Okay, so Henry and Donna are sitting there. Member staff comes over. Excuse me. Well, it's not strictly against our rules. Your companion has now taken his third plate into the men's restroom. And is eating in one of the stalls. And again, I suppose, technically, this Is not against the rules, but it is a bit unsettling.

I got it. I got it. Gets up and carefully navigates through various tables to go get Bronson.

Yeah, but it's not against the rules.

It's not.

Okay, excellent.

So Henry goes into the men's room and, you know, kind of looks for one of the close stalls that seems to have little munching sounds coming out of it, like, bronson, buddy, we've got a table. What are you doing?

You hear some trick sounds? I'm not eating.

Well, I. That's what we're here for, man. We've got a t. Look, you'll be.

I'm on point seven, and I just thought Donna would be mad at me because she said I was a good dog, but I've been eating, and I think. I think that Riley knows that the bear was me.

Buddy, buddy, first and foremost, I'll give you scritches if you come out second, I'm sure Donna is not going to have any problem with how much you eat, and you'll be able to eat quicker if you're hanging out with us. Okay. Plus, I know you licked your butt, dude, but it's kind of gross.

He opens the door, he is covered in food. His armor is just covered in food. He's got a ham under one arm.

Give me the ham. You'll get it back when we're at the table.

Okay?

All right.

He gives it to you.

Come on, pal.

All right. He goes back and he sits down with Donna and Henry.

I give him the hand back.

Thank you.

Welcome back.

I'm back. I was just. I got. I got lost.

Did you?

Yeah, I flagged down a waiter and asked for some napkins and maybe a jug of water.

Yeah, yeah. They. They bring you some warm towels and.

All right. I spent some time cleaning up Bronson. Wally munches on some ham.

Yeah. Oh. So I do want to point out in case anybody's listening for the first time and don't know what's going on. Cranston is playing Donna, but Donna presents as a man because she's a woman from the 90s in a cyber night masculine body. In the future.

It'S really not that difficult.

Yeah, yeah.

And if you just decide to start picking this up now. What are you doing? Is this literally your first podcast? No judgment, but a little bit of judgment.

Figure it out.

Isn't it, like, episode eight? Like you. It won't take you much time to go back.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maybe they just. Yeah, it is 10, so maybe they're just like. I like to start at number 10.

Well, welcome.

I start. I start every show at episode 10.

It's when it gets good.

Yeah. Okay, so you guys eat, you have a nice, you know, morning. What is your plan for the day? Obviously, I know you're going to try to case this warehouse at some point. I presume some of that will be at night. Or not. It could be during the day, since you're just taking a look.

I suppose after we all eat, we could go kind of check it out.

I was going to say we don't all have to case it together, and it might even be beneficial to do it separately.

Yeah. Maybe run into Riley while we're out and about.

Yeah, let's just take a stroll.

Okay. So, you know, after you have this very long breakfast, you finally pry Bronson out of the. The. The restaurant? Out of Grumblers. Jacob Riley finishes his breakfast way before.

Yeah, because I don't eat three plates.

Yeah. Goes outside, smoke a cigarette. And he's sitting there, he's smoking. And like I said, Muskegon is very much a technological society. He starts to get this, pick up this strange smell. It's like hot chili peppers and castor oil. It actually reminds him very much of what the PRC77 smells like when he was messed around with it.

I follow my nose.

Well, you don't have to follow it very far because you're pretty sure it's coming from the bookstore across the street. Burt's Books.

Oh, I'm walking in.

Yeah. So it's a bookstore. Lots and lots of antique books, meaning stuff from the golden age or before paperbacks, hardbacks. Clearly some been damaged over the years or waterlogged, then dried out. But yeah, that smell is pervasive.

I walk up to the clerk.

It's an older man, probably early 60s. Balding.

Yes.

Good morning. It's got a little vest. It's very dapper.

Would you have any books on technowizardry?

Keep your fucking voice down. What do you want?

I want to know why your bookstore lights up from a million miles away as a technowizard operation. Well, mostly because I'm in the buy in market.

I think what you're. I'll show you. It'll be faster. Come on. And he. He gestures for you to follow him in him into the back.

I follow him on in.

So he takes you back past these, through this room with, you know, just tons of uncatalog books, uncategorized books, to a small room. And you see a German SEM 52A sitting there on the table. This is an old VHF low band FM radio built for the West German Bundeswehr.

Uhhuh.

You know, olive green casing, flax stencil numbers. But where there might be a battery base, there's this fat beveled jade bar. It's like. I don't suppose you're from around here.

I like walk around looking like. Walk around it like looking it over, going like, damn. You're putting a lot of power through this.

Yeah, it's been on the fritz lately. It's not supposed to be all the time, but for about a month it's just been popping on and popping off.

Oh.

Would you like me to take a look at it?

Yeah, if you don't mind. I would rather it not turn on when I'm not using it. It's not illegal technically, but techno wizardry is frowned on by the city council these days.

Gotta hate it when they walk the line like that. All right, yeah, let me crack into this and see if I can do you a square.

All right. What skill are you going to use to diagnose?

Would you allow me to use technowizard reconstruction for this?

Absolutely.

A 36 out of 82.

You start taking this radio apart and there's more techno wizardry components. Essentially. He had the equivalent of a magical short. And you're able to repair it without having to replace any components or anything. It takes you a couple hours.

Oh yeah, your mu polarity on your probability horizon was just way off due to this short you had here. I got you rectified.

Thanks. You also notice while you're puttering around with it, that it is has a pretty sophisticated encryption device kind of cludged onto it that you would know is definitely not NATO standard. It would be from a much different era than this radio was built in.

Like, are we talking closer to today or closer to the Enigma machine?

Closer to the golden age of technology. Right, okay, got it.

Yeah, I like pat the encryption unit and go, hey, nice little baby you got here.

Thanks. Yeah, it's just. It came with it.

So might I if I ask why a bookstore needs a radio that can talk to an entirely separate continent?

I'm a hobbyist.

Yeah, interesting. I'm a bit of a hobbyist myself. I have a lot of hobbies, including fixing things like this and acquiring things like this and acquiring other things sort of like this. Transporting things like this with minimal questions asked.

Well, if you are looking to expand your techno wizardry collection, I could always recommend some vendors that I have quite Good relationships with in Tolkien, if you ever get that far west.

Oh, what?

I would definitely take you up on some recommendations. Do you get a lot of your stuff from Tolkien?

Oh, I of course would never maintain a fixed business relationship with such a place so far from Muskegon and so unfriendly to our coalition friends.

I quick light another cigarette with my blatantly techno wizard lighter. Yeah, and I go, of course not.

But if you're ever in Tolkien, you should look into my. You should visit my cousin, Matthias Persson.

Oh, I will definitely do that. So do you ever, oh, I don't know, have need to send Matthias say packages?

Not lately, but if I should. Your name is?

Riley.

Riley. Very nice to meet you.

And I pass him the main frequency I use for the prc.

Yeah, yeah. He typically hands you his own. He introduced himself. His name is. As per the bookstore, his name is Bert.

Bert Pearson.

Yeah.

I go Bert. Just so you know, I'm in town on business and I'm going to be here for a couple days.

I see.

So if anything comes up, you feel free to give me a holler.

I'll, I'll consider it. Should anything come up that my cousin might be interested in knowing, please do let me know.

Will do. Will do.

You're in a bookstore.

I know. So do you have like a computerized database? All your books or you like one of those old school? It's. If it's on the shelf, it's on the shelf operations?

Well, I, it's, this is, hold on, I cannot think of the word a front. No, no. Well, yes it is.

I figured that part out already.

That's word I was trying to think of. No, he explains that he buys and sells books. They actually do quite a brisk trade. So he doesn't keep a main database? He says yes, unfortunately, if it's on the shelf, it's on the shelf. But is there anything in particular you're looking for?

I, you know, I've been interested in this like almost pre golden age publishing company called Palladium Publishing. I was just, I'm always on the lookout for rare tomes from them.

Roll a, roll a D6, a 5. Palladium. Actually. Yes. Here, please come with me. I, I. And he actually, he takes you into the room you came through where there's lots of un categorized books. It looks like stuff that he has been bought and not been put out. And he goes to a stack and he pulls out this old ragged copy of a, you know, a clearly what Riley clearly recognizes as a Palladium book. It's Riff's Merck Town. It is battered and beaten, gentlemen. Brought this in.

How much would you want for it?

Three or four days ago, he's like this.

It's.

I haven't even had a chance to look through it, really. You know what? Given our relationship and our new friendship, it's on the house.

Oh, absolute perfect. Also, if you have any business about town, I'm always interested in income opportunities.

Of course, Yes. I will keep you in mind.

See you around. And good luck with your radio. And I'll look up your cousin next time I pass through Tolkien.

Ah, please do. The family needs friends these days.

Does the way he say that. Is he saying family needs friends with a small F in family or a large F in family?

Large F. But you're pretty sure? Yeah, obviously he's definitely not necessarily talking about his specific family.

Okay. Yeah. So I'm about to get in bed with the Norwegian mob.

Great.

Yeah. But, yeah, you have a copy of Riff's Merc Town.

Collection, Groves.

Which is definitely a Plenty of book that Riley never would have been able to look through, but he can tell immediately that the. That a lot of the pages are missing.

That's fine. I'm gonna take it back, share it with the others.

Okay. Yeah. So we'll assume you find Henry and Donna and Bronson walking around the neighborhood around Grumblers. You probably would have told them what you were doing, I'm assuming, while you were fixing the radio.

Perfect.

I'm just going to walk up and there's no one here who would fucking care. Just have the book tucked under my arm and I go like. Oh, for a stroll.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We thought maybe we'd check out Grenades, Grenades, Grenades, Grenades.

Oh, well, then.

I'll keep watch a.

Couple blocks away for you.

Sounds good.

And I'll stay inconspicuous.

Yeah, you will.

Henry just slouches a little bit.

Bronson. You just beat Bronson.

Here's a question. What is Grenades, Grenades, Grenades, Grenades. Is this some nonsense? I said last time it was a.

Joke in that we were doing some shopping and someone said. I don't remember. It might have been me, but someone was like, oh, yeah, okay. Grenades, Grenades, Grenades, Grenades. And then the joke was, no, that's the store across the street.

Oh, okay, gotcha. Because I did not remember telling you guys about a store named Grenades, Grenades, Grenades in Muskegon. But I was like, did I? Just making something and forget to write it down.

I'm just. I just finished editing the episode today, so it's still in my brain, so that's. That's where it came from.

Okay. Okay. Excellent. All right. That is a great store for a weapons monger. You know what you're gonna get? Yeah. Okay. Do you guys want to go and case warehouse time?

Yeah, and. Sorry.

No, go ahead.

Specifically, talking a little bit with Gorshkov, Henry would like to make use of his finger camera to maybe get a little bit of sneaky footage of the area.

Yes, we can do this. Henry, would you like for me to do the recording, or would you like to point finger?

You handle the finger movements, my man.

All right. Got a better tactical, so he'll handle it. You can just walk around. Dark Falcon, Henry, Bronson and Riley, you're walking along the waterfront of Muskegon. It is easy enough to figure out the docks district because it's this massive neighborhood of warehouses and loading docks and gantries and cranes. These are all MDC warehouses. These huge buildings clearly built well after any time that you all remember and helpfully labeled with huge stenciled numbers, it's easy enough to find. Number nine. What's your plan here? Are you just gonna walk past it or try to be inconspicuous or stealthy or. How are. How are you guys gonna pull this off?

I think Donna's plan is just to kind of walk around, see what there is to be seen, and maybe take advantage of any opportunities that happen to opportune themselves.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, there's obviously a street that goes past. There's other businesses in the neighborhood. But Warehouse 9, it's a massive warehouse. As you walk by one of the. There's four doors, one on each side. Though the warehouse is longer than it is wide. The ones on the street side are open. There's a large moving or a large cargo truck there that's being unloaded. You can see workers, and they're not in any kind of uniform. They're clearly just dock workers of some kind. Unloading nondescript cargo containers and boxes and pallets into this warehouse says Donna have any skills that would be useful in assessing security?

Let me take a look.

Yeah, I don't, off the top of my head, recall what cyber knights get.

But I do have prowl.

Yeah.

Oh, Recognize weapon quality. Those are probably the ones that make the most sense. From what I'm reading, I'd say you.

Can roll your prowl for skills.

Okie dokie. We got 80. Or, excuse me, we have eight.

Eight. Eight. Well, I don't know what your prowl is, but I'm sure it is larger than eight.

Yes, it's 65.

Oh, nice. You notice that on one corner of Warehouse 9, there's what look like homeless people, right? A couple of guys in dirty, dirty, dirty coats and pants look like they've been sleeping in the street for a couple nights. But you also notice that they are keeping a close eye on the guys unloading and people that walk past and that maybe they are really homeless, but they seem to be in really good physical shape for homeless people. Like, wow. You didn't realize homeless people could get access to a solid diet and a good gym, but these guys, there could.

Be really good social services here.

Could be amazing Social services in Muskegon, you know, they provide commando training to all their homeless people.

I'm gonna give Henry a look and then approach them and I'm gonna. I'm just gonna pull some of the bacon wrapped pork chops from my pockets that I was saving for Bronson and go. You gentlemen look hungry.

Now, please describe what Dark Falcon looks like.

Dark Falcon? Imagine Fabio. Slicked, slicked up, long blonde hair, just immaculate. The torso is completely open, but he's got big old pauldrons and he's got some armor on his forearms and his legs, and he's just completely beautiful and ripped.

What are you wearing? Do you wear full armor?

Technically, yeah.

Okay.

My. My torso is bio armor, but then on my forearms and legs is like actual, like, cybernetic looking armor. I sort of like, if you were to see, like futuristic World of Warcraft pornography, I would sort of look like a warrior.

Okay.

Yeah. We decided that his torso, it looks like, you know, the classic romance, in my mind. Looks like the classic romance novel cover. Right?

Yeah.

Because his cyber armor is. It's bio organic and it's subdermal.

See a rippling chest? Yeah, yeah. Chest always exposed.

Yeah, yeah. So if he gets shot, you know, his armor will take it, but it will rip up whatever. Like, faux muscles are on top. It look horrifying.

They're real muscles. I need to be clear.

Oh, very well.

But it's fake muscles on top of the armor on top of the real muscles.

Technically true.

So cyber knight Fabio, with a kind of motherly demeanor, offers these not homeless people some bacon wrapped pork.

Oh.

So let me think about this. They look at each other. There's two of them here, and then they look kind of down the alley and gesture and what you think is like an actual homeless guy, like, comes out. You got some meat.

Yeah.

This man looks emaciated. His eyes are like, one is dilated and one isn't. And he accepts it if you give it to him.

Yeah, of course I give it to him. I go, when's the last time you gentlemen had a proper meal?

So the two guys, one of them looks. Oh, it's been some time, but thank you. We're fine.

Oh, nonsense. You must be starving destitute.

The actual homeless guy is just eating right in front of you.

Yeah, I grabbed it from grumblers down the street.

Oh, I love their trash can. What.

What's your favorite?

Ooh, they do a pineapple upside down cake. It is so good.

Ooh, I'll try some of that. I'll bring some for you.

And just, like, a bottle of hooch just appears from beneath his mini coats. Just materializes, and he's drinking and eating.

I don't suppose I could take a pull off that.

He gives you some side eye that you're pretty sure says, no, that's all right.

It's all right. You know, you keep it for you. You need it.

So one of the other quote unquote homeless people says, well, thank you for your generosity, but you should move on.

Feel like you gentlemen should have a bite to eat.

We're good, thanks. You're also close enough. Now, you could definitely. You're not sure what kind, but you could tell under their, you know, heavy coats, they definitely have weapons.

Well, I'm glad you all have some nice coats to keep you warm.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for your generosity.

You're very welcome. I'll come back later. What do you want? It's a buffet.

Yeah, the actual homeless guy's, like, the cake. Cake sounds good. Pour some rum on it.

Like to imagine this entire time, Henry's just been keeping a nice but firm hand on Bronson's shoulder as Bronson watches that treat get.

Which is funny, because I was about to offer Bronson to come over and say hello to these gentlemen in. Yeah, give him some love.

Yeah. So the whole time, like, Henry's finger is, like, weirdly extended, and Gorshkov is recording everything. And he's also, like, superimposing imagery on, you know, Henry's vision. And so, like, there's these glowing outlines of pistols under their coats and knives, body armor. These are not homeless people, Henry. Oh, I do not know if Dark Falcon has determined that yet.

Oh, so they. They have Holmes.

He says something in Russian that you don't that he does not translate for you. Okay, no, Henry, no. Maybe, Perhaps, yes, but not here.

So do y' all Just hang out here at the. At the docks or.

So they look at each other. One of them says, yeah, we gotta go. And they turn and walk down the alley away from you.

Hey, you have a nice day. Remember, if you're hungry, you come and find me. I'll be back.

Okay? And so, as you're. As they walk off, coming out of, like, the main doors on the street side, there comes a man in, like, these blue coveralls that are very well taken care of. They're pressed. There's creases in his trousers, and he's. He's got an ear beat in and a sidearm and a holster. He's not wearing any military insignia, and the coveralls are not distinctly a military uniform, but this guy walks with all the precision of someone on a prairie ground. He walks over. Excuse me, sir. This is a private property. Please move along.

Oh, yeah, I'm happy to.

To move along.

I was just offering some of these destitute individuals some food.

That's very generous.

Yeah, I thought so. I do what I can. I think we're only as strong as how we treat our. Our weakest.

The man just stares at Dark Falcon.

You let these. Let these folks hang out or.

Yes.

Okay.

What do y' all do here?

Business.

Okay. All right. I get the message. I'll mosey. But you do me a favor, okay? You have yourself a nice day.

Thank you, sir.

No, thank you, sir.

Oh, God.

I mosey back.

Yeah. So Gorshkov is highlighting security cameras on the. That are tracking Dark Falcon.

If there's any way we can utilize our amplified hearing and sound filtration system to assist in this endeavor of surveillance building.

So there's the guys moving down the. Down the alley, away from where Dark Falcon was. You know, these are the fault. Fake homeless guys. And then there's the guy in blue coveralls. He's going back in. Are you gonna. You could try to surveil either group.

I would, in theory, like to surveil them going inside, especially if there's any sort of keypads they might be pressing. And to do that, obviously, I don't want to be obvious, but if I, you know, they're going that way, I go this way. Again, visual bits on a podcast, but, you know, walking at an angle to where I can get better footage of anything good.

Okay. Can you tell me a little bit about your surveillance suite on your cyborg?

Is that an actual thing?

Oh, I don't know.

I've got stuff that I purchased when I originally built My character that I haven't quite used too much. Like, I've got amplified hearing. That's a bionic sensory system I've got.

Yeah, yeah, that's more of what I meant. Like, what techno systems on your cyborg are you using?

Right, so in having little internal discussions.

With.

Gorshkov and just like. Like, oh, he's maybe moving that way. Maybe walk a little. Walk 20ft that way so I can get a better shot of him walking into the door.

Okay.

Type of thing.

Yeah. So Gorshkov is like, yes, complying. And you walk down the street and, like, one of your audio sensors is, like, pointed straight through the door of the warehouse. And you see this guy in the coveralls walk in, hails down another, and Gorshkov amplifies hearing, and essentially these two guys start having a conversation. Like, there's someone out suspicious fake. A cyber knight, judging by the cybernetic armor. Really? That's odd. Well, tell the guards to be on their toes tonight and talk to our sources of the militia. See if they've heard anything. One of them says yes. The shipment will need to get to King Abel on time if we're going to maintain operational momentum. Indeed. Well, that'll be all, Lieutenant.

Quick question.

Go ahead.

Yes. Was that King Abel or King Mabel?

King Abel, A B, E, L, which was referenced in the last session.

Just making sure.

Yep, that was the guy that Truth Densmore was trying to gather support for. Going after. And of course, Dark Falcon would. Would know that as well.

Sorry, let me make sure I'm following this. Going after. Like, let's go after and take him out. Or let's go after.

Okay.

And support him. Got it. Okay.

Is a. What are those human mutants called that drink? Psychic energy?

Psy Stalker.

Psy Stalker. Yeah. He's a head of a Psy Stalker tribe. Well, a large coalition of Psy Stalker tribes in central Michigan, but that is what you get, Alex.

Okay. Then I kind of gently guide Bronson on our way so we don't draw too much suspicion. But ultimately, to reconnect with Dark Falcon.

Okay. Yeah, we'll see you guys, you know, reconnect down the street out of Frying Eyes, so you notice definitely there. And you. You could review Gorshkov's feeds. There's security cameras on the corners of the building. Yeah, there's the large bay doors. There's also eat on each side of the building. Also has smaller doors for people to go in and out. This is a massive warehouse stocked full of stuff. And clearly they have some sort of security personnel masquerading as homeless people. At least two of those.

Interesting.

Did you see all that, Henry?

I mean, honestly, it was mostly my Bud Gorski, but yeah. I'd relay this over the radio to everybody, but I don't want to wake up Mr. Cat. You know, I'll bet technology's come far enough that I could just do that without waking up Mr. Cat. So, of course, relay this to everyone sans Mr. Cat, which doesn't even.

He doesn't even conceive of the idea of Mr. Cat taking his helmet off to sleep.

Yeah, not really crossing his mind at the moment.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah.

Now, two of those gentlemen absolutely were not homeless. They were armed to the teeth. I don't know if you caught that.

I saw they didn't eat your treats.

No, they sure didn't. They don't really know how to keep up a disguise, do they? There was one gentleman who was homeless that we might be able to utilize. But I'm thinking maybe I can come back and cause a big old distraction for y'. All.

Yeah, I mean, Mr. Cat still needs to do his own reconnaissance, but I think we got a good start here for building a plan.

Yeah, I think so too. Maybe we head on back, see if Riley caught anything.

Yeah, when we hook back up, I just go, like I noted down, some trucks going in and out. Nothing much more interesting.

I tell you about, like the homeless guys and the front.

That's weird. Why be covert about it?

I thought the same thing. They also weren't. They weren't very prepared to be pressed.

How hard did you press them?

Not too hard. I mean, I presume they were homeless, but they didn't take the bait.

Pretty buff.

Oh, so you didn't like, break any fingers or anything?

No, I didn't want to give that much away.

I was just trying to figure out.

Was I supposed to.

I mean, you do you.

I don't do a lot of crime. I just trying my best.

Riley just looks at her slash him with a look of like what? She says she doesn't do a lot of crime.

Yeah. Try to fight for good, for justice. Now, usually what I do, it's like they're very obviously evil. Makes things a lot more, you know, crystal clear, black and white.

Uh huh. Okay. Yeah, good.

Yeah, good.

Well out of character. We have spent a decent amount of time with Mr. Cat asleep if we are wanting to perhaps see some Mr. Cat in action.

Absolutely.

This session, maybe we fast forward to evening time or whenever Mr. Cat deigns to wake up.

We go back to the motel, grab Bronson as he tries to make a break for the buffet on the way in yet again.

Well, I'm peckish.

I just want to remind you, Bronson, there are no bears in the city.

I don't know. Have you seen some of these TVs? What about that? And he points to, like, there's clearly some sort of earth sign alien in the corner. Look at that guy. Henry, that was. That was the guy.

I get it, pal. Dinner will be later.

Bronson, you and I will come back for dinner later, I promise. Okay?

Okay.

Okay.

Dark Falcon. Donna.

So we go back to the room with the sleeping Dragon Kin and Mr.

Cat, who are not there.

Oh, great. Oh, good.

Oh. Oh, good. Yes.

Let's flashback a few hours. I think Mr. Cat would have woken up not too long after everybody left and decided to go exploring. And I just can't imagine that the dragon would not have come with.

No, no. When Mr. Cat wakes up, there's just, like, a little boy just sitting in the bed, just staring at him.

Goodbye. And I just walk towards the window and open it and start to climb out.

He just follows you? Just starts to climb out with you. Where are we going?

I don't know.

Cool.

I'm not taking my armor either. I am going in. Just, like, strip back down to my shorts. Yeah, yeah.

Now remember, you're on the. You're on the eighth floor.

Oh, yeah.

My cat.

Not that that particularly matters to Mr. Cat. Yeah.

Yep.

And so you. You're climbing out, and he says, can you fly?

I can with a new toy that I acquired. Can you?

Yep.

You want to go flying?

I don't think I'm supposed to, but.

Do you want to?

Well, of course I want to.

Then let's go flying.

Yeah. Okay.

I'm gonna climb back in, get my jetpack, strap it on. Let's go flying.

Yeah. So he's like, okay, should I turn back into a dragon, or do you just want magic? I don't know. What is socially acceptable?

You're asking a cat.

I'm a dragon. Why wouldn't I ask a cat?

This is going to go wonderfully.

The last cat I talked to said you were the dominant species on the planet.

That cat was very wise. I wish to meet him or her to the roof. And I climb up the side of the building.

Yeah, yeah. He follows you. He's climbing up after you. Very excited.

Okay. Yeah. And I think, you know, yeah, sure, let's test fire this thing. I think that if you wish to have the most fun in my company, you should do so in a form that you favor.

Hmm.

Well, I don't want to make Donna mad, so I'll just fly around in this form. Oh, and I can do this. And he goes invisible.

Okay.

Hmm.

I'm going to activate my See Invisible power and follow him around.

Yeah. You see him? He's floating around next to you.

Well done.

Okay.

Yep. I'm just gonna look for the nearest open space, activate the jetpack, and take it for a test ride.

Yeah. Fly off into the air. More thack follows you, and you guys are flying through the skies of Muskegon. Now, there's a fair amount of air traffic. It is rifts Earth, so lots of things can fly, but not so much that there's, you know, imminent danger of collision. And how. How does Mr. Cat take to his first experience flying?

It's wonderful. Oh, the heights that I can get to the shelves that I could climb upon with such a tool under my employ.

The pigeons that can no longer escape you.

Oh, those birds are getting fucked. Yep, Yep. I'm gonna go find some birds and fuck them up.

Imagine they're flying, like, through this hyper technologically advanced city and, like, holding hands. And some Disney soundtrack is playing as they just, like, fly through a flock of pigeons and just killing them and attacking them for no reasonable reason.

Yeah, Basically, there's a moment where we are, you know, hand in hand, flying in one direction, and we encounter a flock of pigeons. And the camera shows the pigeons that just suddenly turn into a cloud of red mist.

Just exploding.

Oh, man. No, I'm gonna get three of those pigeons.

Yeah.

Yep.

This is great, Mr. K. Cat, what are we doing? Do we have a job in this city? Donna was kind of ambiguous about it. She said something about crime, which I'm down for.

There was a warehouse. I think we were supposed to go there tonight.

Look, a. A warehouse. And he just points to some random warehouse.

Let's go.

We're going to that warehouse.

You guys fly down. You're. You're in the dock district. Mr. Cat's super smart, so he'd probably remember it's supposed to be Warehouse 9. Now, is it still day, or did you. Was it. Were you waiting until the COVID of darkness?

Oh, no. Middle of the day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the warehouse that Morthak pointed at is definitely the wrong warehouse. Okay. Warehouse 23 or something. He's fully passed. Here's the plan. We'll smash the skylight. I'll start wrecking some stuff. I'LL turn into my real dragon form. I'll breathe fire. Just kill everybody inside. They're bad guys, right?

I would not go that far.

Okay.

I don't know if they're bad.

Oh, here. I see.

I don't think this is the right warehouse. Oh, but I won't stop you from going inside if you wish to. That does sound like cool.

No, we're not supposed to commit crimes.

Well, what are we doing here?

Oh, I don't know. I'm just following you.

Well, we're already here. Let's go to Warehouse nine.

Okay, you guys fly around. So you find Warehouse nine. Land on the roof. There's skylights. You can see people moving around, crates, boxes. You know, just normal warehouse work activity. Or as normal as Mr. Cat would suppose. He's never seen it happen before.

Hmm.

Any vents or windows that can be opened from up top? I don't necessarily want to go in. I just want to open and take.

A deep breath of air and see.

If I smell anything untoward downstairs.

Yeah, they've got skylights all across the top.

Okay.

Like any good movie warehouse.

Yeah.

Well, there we go. Pop my head in. I want to see if I can smell anything supernatural, evil, or magic.

You smell a lot of things. Nothing supernatural, evil, or magic. Other than the dragon, though, he only smells magic and supernatural.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

But not evil.

Hmm. Well, I'm gonna take in whatever I can from up here, but I don't think we're gonna hang around too long, because that wouldn't be very smart.

Yeah, eventually you would be spotted. Somebody will just randomly look up.

Yeah. Yep, yep. So I case the roof, and then we go somewhere else.

Okay. It's pretty standard roof. So, again, Mr. Cat's probably not been on a lot of them, but, you know, there weren't any, like, large weapon turrets or death robots or anything of that nature on the roof, and you guys fly off. Again, the look he got from the inside. There's a lot of boxes and crates. People moving boxes and crates. There's an office. Lots of things covered in tarps and packing material, but no magic, evil, nothing like that.

Okay.

As a matter of fact, I would say Mr. Cat has not spelled ton of magic since arriving Muskegon. There definitely would have been some in the grumbler from magic items that adventures were carrying. Or just a couple of wizards laying low. But very different from New Lazlo, where it was just saturated.

Okay, well, what was his name again? Morthak.

Morthak.

Mor.

Thak. Morthak. Would you like to Go hunting.

I would love to go hunting.

It's the best way to spend the middle of a day.

Sure.

Okay, so we're gonna go find animals and kill them. Okay. We need at least six animals dead that we have to bring back with us to the rooms.

Yeah. So Morthak is definitely down. Yeah, you guys can just fly off into the forest and go hunting.

Great. I'm teaching him the ways of the proper offering.

So you're not using the jetpack right now?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, okay, cool. Because I was imagining like our type where it's like you flying around the screen blasting birds and squirrels.

Yeah, yeah. You and Morthak go hunting for the afternoon. And I feel like a battle cat and a dragon will have no real problem getting at least six animals. Great.

So when you guys come back to the room.

Oh, geez.

Each of your beds has a very dead animal on it. And a very proud looking cat and dragon child.

Whoa.

Mr. Cat. Half a bird corpse.

Awesome. I'm the one that killed the moose.

Yes, Riley, you deserve it.

And you just.

Why is there a moose heart on my bed? No, this isn't a heart. It's a spleen, isn't it? Why is there a moose spleen on my bed?

Oh, I did think it was a heart. That is my. I'm sorry. I had a great day.

Donna, I'm so glad to hear that. How do you feel, Mr. Cat?

Accomplished.

Why did I get the skunk?

That's a beautiful pelt.

Yeah, it's got the white stripe. It's super cool.

Thank you, Morthak. Thank you so much. Donna just looks at Riley and Henry, not knowing how to. How to handle this.

They are very pleased.

I look right back at dark raven and. And give her a Look. That is 100. What the do you think I know about this?

Henry Gibson?

He.

He was your cat for how many years?

That's very true.

Henry gives him big old NOISY Thumbs up.

Mr. Cat, I do remember when you would bring little rats and mice, leave them at the foot of the foot of the bed.

Yes. They were evil, disgusting creatures and you needed to recognize the labors that I went through to protect the household.

I tried to praise you when that happened.

You did a very good job.

I'm sorry that Mr. Kripke thought otherwise, but.

Well, enjoy your skunk. It would make a nice pelt.

You could turn it into a hat. You know what? Thank you. Thank you so much.

I think it's pretty clear, dark falcon, that Mr. Krifke didn't know a good thing when he saw it.

I think so, too. Okay, so we need, what, three new pillows?

Is that what we're looking.

I'll go. I'll go downstairs and I'll come back.

So are we gonna go burn down a warehouse?

I'm down with this plan.

So we're gonna just Dukes of Hazards our way out of this city once we're done with that?

Yeah, that's not really in the cards. Unless you saw a big ramp so I could jump a wall.

Well, one of us has a jetpack, made me carry us.

Or more to the point. Well, no, it's too many crates, Damn it. Otherwise. If it was only the rail guns, I'd say, fine, have him fly over the wall carrying two railguns.

He'll probably.

At the very least, we spent some time pouring over the footage Gorshkov compiled. They are going to be more active tonight, so maybe tonight is not the best night to be gallivanting, at least from the ground level.

I will also explain everything that I observed, which was very minimal, but there's no. Doesn't seem to be any kind of a significant magic or supernatural evil presence there. Which also means there's probably not any kind of magic or evil defenses there.

I imagine Donna brings up the King Abel factor.

Yeah, after Mr. Cat gives his recollection, Donna opens the door and comes back with four pillows and goes, we can just leave the other ones outside. I presume that you told us about the King Abel thing, because I didn't technically hear it.

I couldn't remember which one of us had encountered that part, but, yes, yes, that's relayed, so there's that factor. But I imagine perhaps by now that ship has sailed. Maybe.

Well, truth. Dimsmore often talked about King Abel. Kyle, is there anything that I would have picked up about King Abel that I might be able to, like, relate to the group?

He is a bloodthirsty, murderous maniac.

Okay, so refresh me. The over the bit of conversation that we heard. Was it saying that this stuff was for him?

Yeah.

Okay. You know, one ship was getting loaded up with stuff. I'm sure it wasn't the first or the last, so we haven't necessarily missed any opportunities, but food for thought. Food for thought.

You know, I got the impression that these guys are kind of a bunch of bumbling idiots. I think if maybe I came back with just, like, a bunch of cakes, that I might be able to provide a nice distraction for y'. All.

Okay, so, stepping away from character talk, a king of psystalkers working With a group of military trained non psystalker people. Kind of odd.

Hmm. Interesting. Some wheels are being greased.

Okay.

Yeah.

If only you knew of a faction, a militaristic faction that actually liked psy stalkers, used them in its armies.

Never heard of that. No. So.

That being said, as the least Rifts knowledgeable person here. Would working with somebody like King Abel be considered illegal in a proper city?

It depends on whose city is it?

It is.

Yeah. I mean like it's like our very existence violates. Well, okay.

Yeah.

No, all of our very existence violates multiple laws in the coalition.

Whoopsies.

Which again I would like to point out my looking at Dark Raven. Like the.

Dark Falcon.

Raven. Falcon. Whatever the fuck, Donna.

So as we're having this convers going over all of this stuff Mr. Cat has. They're going to love this. So Mr. Cat has been dipping his fingers in the various bits of blood from the animal corpses and is drawing on one of the sheets drawing a map of the place.

We are not getting our deposit back.

So as shitty a person as Mr. Kripke may have been, Mr. Cat spent many an evening with Mr. Kripke watching his favorite gangster movies. Mr. Cat is suddenly taking this very seriously. Drawing out the map. I've grabbed these little bits of bone and brain matter that I'm using to represent each of us and our positions and how we're going to go to the map. I've got one of the birds I've set over here. And this is going to represent the Mountaineer. Cause we're gonna need a driver in place ready to go as we get all the goods into the Mountaineer and we haul ass out of town. So he's like going into this whole thing. Y' all are probably like the fuck.

Except for Henry who like once you're 75% done, he's like, wait a minute, Gorshkov, help him out here. Let's get some those Curie cam layout. So essentially Henry would like to add to this map his own dipped middle finger in blood, pointing out like, you know, noticeable sentries and security cams and et cetera to watch out for.

I also like to think that it's not always blood with Henry because he's got a pocket full of like food stuffs.

Oh yeah.

So he's probably got just like some barbecue sauce or something.

Oh yeah. One of my compartments got a little schmear over here. That's one of those two hunky Sylvester Stallone in a trench coat guys.

Yeah.

So gorshkov would be able to tell you where the security cameras are and also where the main electrical lines are running from and to.

Interesting.

So if you wanted to know where specific wiring was, he could tell you.

You know, one thing that we haven't talked about, and I'm not saying we should do this, I'm just saying we haven't talked about it, is we could just leave. Like.

Right.

We could just go.

Leave one or two railguns behind.

Yes.

Huh. I really did want that railgun. Oh, Bronson, let me see some of that spaghetti. Start laying noodles out for the power lines.

I love this.

So we're gonna be the world's worst. Oceans 8.

Well, Mr. Cat has sat and watched through the original Ocean's Eleven with Mr. Kripke familiar with the concept.

We are so fucked. We have no face.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

We need a Clooney or at least a pit.

We need a Sinatra.

Oh, right.

What's Mr. Cat's favorite song? My Way.

100% not.

What's new pussycat?

I took the words out of my mouth.

Yeah. No entire listening audience.

Although I can't decide whether he would prefer the Frank Sinatra version or the Sex Pistols version. Probably the Frank Sinatra version, but the Sex Pistols version is pretty good too. So we gonna do this completely ignoring everything that Donna. That Dark Falcon said.

You know what? I'm here to support you. So if y' all want to do this, that's fine. I'm happy to help. I think I can provide a good distraction. I think these guys are pretty foolish.

I was questioning our commitment to this when we came into town because the people here seem fairly nice. Don't want to steal from potentially good people. But when you explain these people and we see these skulls around, it got me thinking.

Them.

I don't think these people in the warehouse are good people.

Exactly.

They're definitely not. Mr. Cat.

Let us take what is theirs and make it ours.

Not opposed.

They dance with the devil in the pale moonlight. So, yeah, Mr. Cat, fuck them.

Do you say that to all your friends?

Most of the time my lovers, which is why I don't have very many.

Was that from Batman?

Yeah.

That'S right.

And the follow up line is, I say that to all my friends.

Which was the entire point.

I didn't read that page.

Yeah.

Out of character. This, quite frankly, feels, scale wise, the same kind of impending doom as it was when we were in the. When we were about to meet up with the. I'd have to scroll back in my papers. The lady when we were running from the rats.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

It was like, oh, if we had really stuck around, we would have probably gotten shit canned. This feels similar, but I do want to see what'll happen because railguns, I mean, game changing. Two railguns.

First off, I'm not 100% convinced that the railguns are what we're getting. I thought the rail guns might have been what he was offering us to get what we're getting.

Yeah, correct.

Oh, I misunderstood. I thought that was part of the.

However, if the railguns are what we're getting, the concept could be that if we do go in and steal some railguns, we could potentially immediately then use said rail guns. I mean, part of our exit strategy.

Yeah, I figured that was kind of like, well, if you're grab railguns and my shit, you can keep the railguns.

Here. Here are my thoughts. These guys have soldiers or very highly trained mercs that are watching this place, but we're also really good at what we do. Well, I mean, I'm really good at eviscerating people and being sneaky and moving around. We have a dragon and our dragons are. He's clearly excited about murdering something. So if we just point him in a direction and let him go, that.

Would be a good distract. We have a motherfucking Fabio cyberknight.

We have a cyber knight. Cyber knight with decent armor and a psy sword that can fuck some shit up too. We've got Riley with your magic.

Well, I was also going to say, do you want the power cut to the building?

Yes.

And maybe a fucking hellacious thunderstorm going on.

We could do this. Yeah, but then if we. So, okay, we are also at a dearth of equipment. If we can go in and take these people down, kill or not. I don't necessarily, as a player or as a scrupulous battle cat, want to murder everyone in there.

I don't get the impression our group of players were ever murder hobos, but.

We should take their stuff.

Yes, Gorshkov, we got plenty of non lethal options. Right. It's just a bunch of bonking, bonking on the noggin.

Yes, but we also have plenty of lethal options.

Yeah, we do.

I'm not against killing, especially those who earned it.

And as a player, a lot of the hints have been pointing at these potentially being related to the coalition states. And if that is the case. If that is the case, I have no compunctions against taking them out.

Right.

And we also could be disrupting a Supply line to this King Abel dickhead.

So we could also become enemy number one to King Abel. I'm not against that, but I don't know if y' all have ever had a psystalker on you, but.

We could.

Be opening up Pandora's box that we can't close.

I mean, Pandora's box already opened us, man.

Here.

I like. I like what you're saying.

Yeah. Plus, my. Honestly, Henry's biggest qualm. I'm saying, is Alex's biggest qualm. I fucking love the name Grumblers. The idea that we never get to come back. Grumblers. We've got a fucking. I don't have the energy or the wherewithal to put a theme song to it, but the name Grumblers kills me. So I'd like to be able to come back to Grand Muskegon.

I mean, if you guys get out, you know, if you don't have to shoot your way out.

In a perfect world, I really want those railguns.

Hey, you know, if you have a cover of a thunderstorm, nobody hears the set the battle, there are no witnesses. Then, hey, whatever.

A thunderstorm, a fire, a power outage.

I can make all three of those happen for you.

And a very hungry dragon.

Well, that's in the dragon's hands.

I'm also still willing to put up a big distraction. These guys are idiots.

I really think.

I really think I can distract them.

Hey, Henry. You look like you could use a nap.

He says, twirling a huffling cable in his hand.

All right, all right, Riley, at this point, I get it, all right?

I mean, your brain, it's an organic unit. Still, it does need downtime.

Gorski, watch my back, will ya? I trust him, but just, you know, powering down. I chuckle loudly after that. And then.

He didn't lay down first. He collapses back on the bed.

The bed breaks.

Yeah, I'm just gonna flip up the part in the back of his head, plug in my laptop and go to work.

Donna just stares, mouth agape.

Want a programming roll on this?

Yes, please.

Would this be hacking or would this be programming?

This would be programming because Gorshkov is going to help you.

I kind of assumed he'd be all in on this once he realizes what I'm doing.

I'm curious what you're doing.

You have a 10% bonus.

Oh, yeah, I got a 36. Out of. With 10% bonus. 62.

All right, then. It is successful.

Excellent.

I click finish, step back, tap my earbud, comrade. Are you there?

Good afternoon, Riley.

Excellent. Yeah, bridge is complete. So now you can curse everybody out rather than just him all the time and me whenever I log in. And you don't like my code?

Yes, this is good. I would very much like Soviet ski railgun.

That's kind of why I wanted to bring you into the conversation, since you're the most, shall we say, tactically proficient person at the table outside of Mr. Cat. He notices looking at the eye twitch going on across the room.

Less of an eye twitch and more of that head raised like.

But I have to say, I do not think you Americans would very much appreciate Soviet tactics.

I mean, I think you and I can come to an understanding that the others might not agree upon.

In that case, let us break out the players by grenades.

I actually had a plan for those.

Oh, excellent. Yeah. So Gorshkov is on board with stealing stuff.

And more to the point, he's bridged to the your onboard comm system so he can talk across the net to everybody.

Sweet. So long as they're wearing their heads.

Yeah, very true. Yes. He can only talk to Henry inside his brain. Right. I just.

One, I wanted the Russian to be able to give us advice. And two, I wanted the Russian.

I mean, I'm just excited. Out of character for more Kyle voices because fucking amazing, you know?

Plus the thought of Gorshkov being able to curse us out individually is just too much of an opportunity.

It's comedy gold.

Okay, so why don't we do this? So I feel like you guys want to rob the warehouse, but you don't yet know how you're going to do it. So let's call the session here tonight. And in between sessions, you guys can plan your caper.

Okay.

Out of character will tell you it is absolutely full of coalition commandos who are supplying weapons to King Abel and his side stalker tribe to keep Central Michigan destabilized.

Damn.

So they all deserve to die.

Yeah, I mean, they're fascists.

Can't really speak for the psy stalkers because they're not their king aside, we don't really know much about them as a people. But the coalition using them. Yeah, them.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, the. The. The size talker tribes that serve King Abel. I mean, they're just size talkers, you know, and they're ruthless barbarians, but they're not necessarily genocidal maniacs.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, I like this plan. Yeah, open up next time. Just in the middle of the heist.

I think so. Yeah, I think that would be my If. If we can get a good idea between sessions, which I think you guys can. Yeah. We would start hopefully in Media Res. We could steal some stuff from Blades in the Dark. Of course.

Okay.

We're gonna have to figure out what to do with Morthak while we're doing this. I don't think experience would appreciate us.

I don't think we really have the power to do anything with Morthak. I think it's more of a matter of how can we more or less sort of aim the morph that cannon right direction.

We have a mega damage safe in the goddamn mountain here.

Yeah, he's down to clown, that's for sure.

Well, then, hell yeah.

Oh, God.

If.

If Mor Thak suddenly starts wearing Juggalo Maeve Cup, I'm out.

I'm just out.

That needs to happen.

What if it's more of a boiled frog situation where, like, he doesn't suddenly wear it, but over time, you start to get used to the fact that Mor Thak is wearing Juggalo makeup.

He finds an ICP CD somewhere and. You know. You don't understand me, Donna.

I have one diamond over my right eye. I think it's cool.

How do magnets work?

Don't get me talking about scientists. They're full of shit.

Somebody get me some Faygo 6000.

You know, I know every lyric to ICP's Riddlebox album because high school was a very interesting time.

I'm sorry. Damn.

Yeah.

Miracle.

No, this was long before the Miracles. Long before the Miracles. Yeah.

For any cons. I don't know if this is going to end up on the cat. Every Juggalo I've met has always been for better, for worse delight.

Yeah. Yeah. I've never met a shitty Juggalo.

I have no problem with Juggalos.

Yep, I've met a few, but it's only because they've been gone too far down the road of addiction. The rest of them, solid people.

Yeah, solid people. Fair for fair.

Yeah.

Definitely easy targets.

If you're looking to sponsor a podcast, let us know.

Hey, Fago's made with real sugar that slaps.

Oh, I legit enjoy Faygo for a minute. I was bringing it to this place from that gas station over in Beaverton that happened to have it.

Yep. Yep. Okay. So, wrapping this up, Kyle, give us just feel about your other podcast.

I'm GM on the Bastard Quest podcast. You can find us wherever. Fine. Podcasts are distributed, play lots of games. If you like this, you'll probably like Bastard Quest. Though I will warn you, it is much more comedic.

And folks, by the time this episode releases, it's a good possibility that Bastard Quest will either be at or just before their 200th episode. So this is a great time to go check them out.

That's right. So I will say this. For our 200th episode, we're gonna play Renegade's G.I. joe Transformer crossover.

Yes.

Wow. Oh, my God. I own both of those rule sets. I have questions on how are you crossing them over? I'll talk to you over offline.

I need.

I need some barge hog in my life. I need more.

So, yeah, yeah. We have decided how we're gonna split up the. The teams.

And it's.

I think it would be pretty funny. Okay.

That's wonderful. I hope they also do a Power Rangers crossover because I think it's made with the same system.

It is.

Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah, it is. We'll have to. So, yeah, we were. We would have probably already played Power Rangers, but alas, when I had busted pipes last winter, the Power Rangers book was lost.

Damn.

It was completely, completely waterlogged and just. There was no recovering it.

That sucks.

Yeah. Yep, yep, yep.

Well, as for the rest of us, if you've been listening to the Glitter Boys and I'm npc, I'm just Jacob, Alex, and Cranston, who we hope is becoming a new regular.

Me too.

And hopefully soon we'll get the whole gang together.

Yeah.

Here we go.

And I'd just like to say thank you, Kyle.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

And folks, listening, as a note towards the future, I'm probably going to come up with like an automated message or a stinger to add on for this for later. But I hope you have enjoyed listening to these. And I also hope you've enjoyed listening to the special effects and the music that I take the extra time to add to. Just making a note here that going forward, those are going to be moved into our patron feed. The main feed is still going to have the full and complete episode, but the extra little effects that we do are just gonna be for people and coffee and our Pinecast patrons.

And possibly some extra outtakes on the Patreon.

Maybe some extra outtakes. And I'll probably occasionally pop another fully FX'd episode on the main feed just to give a teaser. But yeah, these are fun. I enjoy doing it. It is a little bit extra work, though.

It's a lot of work. You put in a lot of work.

And time do sound amazing, though.

Thank you.

It's. Yeah, they're super rad it. It's a joy to listen to even even if I am on it.

Creme de la Creme, the pro stuff.

And folks at home. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time. Starships, Magic, Mystic Martial Arts, Romance. All of these can be found in a Cloak of Blades by Isaac Sher. You might have heard my name before. I've done a lot of voiceover work for Breakfast Puppies and I've recently released my first novel. It's available on Amazon as an ebook and paperback and you can get it for free if you have a Kindle unlimited subscription. I do hope you'll support my work as you're supporting Breakfast Puppies and it's been a pleasure talking with you today.

Have a good one.

You've been listening to the Glitter Boys, a Palladium Books fan podcast. Glitter Boys, Rifts, the Megaverse and all other such topics are the Property of Kevin Sambita and Palladium Books. Please buy all their stuff and help keep them in print and making more games. You can order [email protected] and their entire catalog is available digitally at drivethrurpg as well. Our opening music is 8 bit bassin lead by FurbyGuy from freesound.org this closing music is Caravana by Philip Gross, available at freemusicarchive.org all sound effects used are self made or acquired via Creative Commons zero license. If you like what you have heard, find us on Twitter and Facebook as theglitterboys. That's B O I s and check us out [email protected] glitter boys and also join us on the the Breakfast Puppies network [email protected] Discord and if you want to help us out, please spread the word and help us build a community. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you next time.

One second please.

Are we getting all this?

Yeah, we're getting all. I can take my headset off.

I'm just teasing.

No, this is good for the outtakes.

Sneeze counter one.

All right.

Khan, can you hear me? No. There you are. Yep. Something took over the phone or the microphone. Okay.

Anyway, it was probably the nsa.

You know, if that would. That would track if they were responsible for all of the tech problems that I've been having. I wonder if one of my exes got hired there or something.

I shall have my revenge.

At some point. We're gonna have to have a little sting where it's this game has been supported by Whole Foods or whatever this brand is.

Applegate.

Applegate.

Pork and beef uncured pepperoni.

If you're looking to sponsor a podcast.

Oh, if we get an Applegate sponsorship.

I'd lose my shit.