Roll For You: Arcane Train! Episode 6 - Falling

The crew finds themselves falling... And suddenly no one wants to find out what lies beneath the cloud layer...

As always, thank you for your support on this project. Our cast is as follows...

Game Master: Ross Bloedorn (He/Him)

Mallan Monko: Sam Maxwell (He/They)

Fern Hollinger: Katie Lynn Sinicki (She/Her)

Gor-El: Nic Mains (He/They)


All music in this episode is recorded and produced by the incredible and multi-talented Sam Maxwell


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Transcript

0:15

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai - Go Unlimited to remove this watermark) Previously on ArcaneTrain, Malin, we're going back in time here a little bit. You are here dedicated to making a rotating kind of conveyor belt method of relaying the tracks in front of the would-be Roiber train. And you see kind of like this speck of dust, this hovering there. Something about it is off, is actually growing in size very slowly. Do we have any sort of like a spell box or anything like that? Norman reaches out his hand, casts a very powerful spell. You begin to see the outline come into focus of a larger than life black scale dragon. Malin, do you have any idea what you've done? I left and you never heard from me again and you were sitting there bleeding out with an old man over you with some fucking weird pocket watch. You guys begin on your way to the anti-gravity chamber. I believe that I can ask the ancestors to assist us in this, but it will take a moment. Fern feels a sharp object point into her back. It is absolutely Olivia. Drek unholsters his great axe from his back and holds it reverently. It glows a faint red as he brings it to his side. His dark visage held in his taut muscles is the only warning you have before. With a strength that seems otherworldly, he swings his axe into the wall of the rotunda and rends a section of the golden conduit lines built into the wall of the anti-gravity chamber, and then you feel the train lurch and begin to fall. Fern, it is a cool summer night. A gentle breeze brushes past your frizzy and unruly red hair and wafts the smell of leather and paper past your senses. I think you're in your younger years, let us say around eight or nine, and you're in the middle of the night, and you're in a outside of your family's business, Hollinger Bookbindings and Tomes, a small and quiet bookstore that is also your home. Your mother and father have left on a week-long trip to restock inventory and research new authors in the city of Aldi. In their absence, your grandfather is, well, babysitting. He is inside the house having a drink with an old friend, but you are outside, precariously sitting on the edge of this small island in the countryside of the nation of Esmecia, where your family's shop is primarily located. It is surrounded by many other small floating islands, but none of these small plots of land are connected by much other than the occasional crude wooden bridge in desperate need of repair. This is all to say, it's hard for an eight-year-old girl to be making friends. So while your grandfather is inside with an old friend, the new one sitting next to you is a treasure that I think Fern holds very dear. A small Aldaren girl close in age to you sits on this edge with you. She sports a dull red, primarily muted by the small layer of dirt that kind of covers her. She wears a pair of overalls and no shoes, truly completing this pseudo-tomboy look. Your friend, named Remedy Stilt, is the only other kid for miles that has the ability to actually travel to see you, having in the last year or so grown wings big enough to glide between these smaller islands. Her parents run a cartography business a span or two from you, and reached out to your father for fresh ink and hardy paper to map the region. I think that's how you two originally met. So you're sitting here on this edge. I think Remedy is talking to you about their most recent adventure, which they're able to do now their wings have grown in a little bit there's a huge roaring waterfall that flows down until it dives down down into the into the clouds it disappears beyond sight if i had wings that's the noise i would make that was i make that exact noise i make that noise that's the noise i know i want to make that noise too i am here watch she just kind of dives off the edge and then she comes back up like this flutters her wings totally wicked it's wicked freaking hell freaking hell man remedy it's just wicked man it's totally wicked it's totally wicked uh you two are just causing it is the dead of night uh and you two are just like causing this huge tantrum and there's like very like the light from your home windows is the only thing illuminating this small yard uh you guys are just fully losing your minds over this i think what what is what is fern thinking about uh as remedy is like showing them like basically the freedom that they have found in this moment in this moment and these last couple weeks to be able to fly out and see things that you can't see watching them fly about i think i would trade anything to be able to grow wings yeah we know that later fern actually has like calligraphy supplies and is actually like as like a hobby it's not their main focus they do actually enjoy mapping territory i think you might have gotten this uh from uh remedy at some point uh along the way i think uh that want for wings uh i think it does register with remedy um i think like there might be this moment he's like fern i'm i'm sorry you know it's just so cool i know it's not it's not fair and stuff but at least i can come like see you wait wait wait remedy how strong do you think your wings are i don't know yet okay so why don't you grab onto my shoulders okay and and and we'll take a running start wait wait wait wait i need to get like we should that's just fern that's that's silly we can't do that we need a harness first we gotta go find a harness we need a harness i can't just claw into you that won't work you'll get hurt from my my clawy claws okay well what if uh well what if we uh trade clothes so i can wear your overalls and then you can grab onto the straps of my overalls yes that's wait and she kind of like ruffles in like her messenger bag that she's got like hanging off by the edge and she like rumbles through it and she goes you know my parents they we got to be careful my parents don't know i sneak out to explore when they sleep because they say my wings aren't strong enough yet but i know better because your grandfather said in his book and she like holds it up she goes always seek out what is kept out of reach and she kind of like soars it around it's like if we if we ever uh get older then we could go on adventures together but yeah we'll be professional explorers yeah just like your grandpa yeah my parents would be a little man out there adventure uh she like stands triumphantly on the edge of the island places both feathered hands on her hips and points out over the night sky towards the moon and she said fern i promise that when we're older we will go out there and uncover the hidden the hidden turnings of the world a dynamic duo discovering the unknown of beneath the cloud layer that's right discovering the great mysteries like in your grandfather's book yeah and she kind of like opens up the book and she she like reads a passage why did the avenge now known to us as the crack happen saving us from what would have been our final hours where does magic come from and where was this power seemingly lost to us three thousand years ago why is it that anyone that's to investigate the unknown that lies beneath the cloud layer has never returned why are all the meldeans blue did they not get enough air on the moon yeah yeah yeah he didn't write that part i'm reading between the lines because i i'm a truth seeker hey just like you i told you that idea last week yeah and i agree wholeheartedly it's shane i saw it in this book millions of miles away malin is cringing somewhere in his bed i i think why you guys are just causing this ruckus uh frank go ahead and roll me a perception check perception and i'm gonna also roll for uh remedy all right um that's a 10 yeah uh remedy got a my remedy okay remedy's got a 16 so remedy is gonna hear it okay um i think remedy like kind of like just like her beak shoots up from like on the ground she was like kind of doing like this little bit of like a plane action going around like on the ground still just kind of running forward and her head kind of like shoots up she's like what was that and she like points her head towards her house what what i didn't hear something there was like yelling for a second inside your house what my grandpa never yells yeah that's why i'm surprised he said it's chapter chapter four it's important to never raise your voice when in a tense situation what that's what he said chapter four never raise your voice in a tense situation in the book yeah because he was talking about how he was in bowery he didn't know how their cultures were and so he just decided not to say anything until they decided to give him food he's very wise yeah it was he got he said later he's got really lucky because they just kind of took pity on him but that's fine it was still cool in the moment wait remedy what did you hear oh fuck i mean oh shit remedy oh my god oh my god i'm just feeling so adventurous okay i think we come up gotta be sneaky okay go to the let's see what's going on okay any normal number of things could be going on okay just like holding on to this like small flight noise that she's got with her wings outstretched you guys make your way over to the window and you like peek your heads up inside you see uh gellert in the main lobby uh slash reading room of this hybrid business and house uh talking to another older individual who came to visit earlier in the day your grandfather introduced him as and i quote an old school friend the older man is throwing books at your grandfather and around the room and uh he uh he's just no no no no no no no absolutely not abby take a take a second to think about this and please stop throwing books these some of these books are hundreds of years old and more valuable than either of us the man he referred to as abby goes like that that is what i'm talking about your disregard for any form of self-preservation well not this time nope i won't be part of it i will not have it and uh this goes on for like a moment before uh geller is kind of like quit being so dramatic like one of the books that abby throws at his face and hits him clock some square in the nose and there's just like this moment of silence and ironically enough it is a hole in history gellert's book that socks him in the face and there's like that long pause as he just kind of like holds his nose and the blood from his nose just leaks onto the floor and they both lock eyes for a moment both like kind of like this weird tense moment and then both of them start uproarishly laughing indeed and what should be a very upsetting situation and and then like after a minute the laughter dies out geller goes to grab some old papers off like a crowded desk tucked away in the corner and begins shoving them up his nose to stop bleeding oh my abby goes like i'm i'm sorry i just i just can't this time you know i was happy to help you with the other stuff uh connections tech for excavating hell i even joined you sometimes but this is suicide and i'm i'm telling you this not just as a friend but as someone who is just way fucking smarter than you i mean come on and gaga you don't have a lick of sense and it shows because i'm your old friend uh you see ebby goes like be that as it may i can't help you what's down there under all of that cloud i i get it but i've run so many experiments nothing very official mind you but listen to me and you see as ebenezer shifts his gaze out this window his eyes drift in your direction i think maybe you guys like duck down down and uh kind of like holds like the bridge of his nose for a minute he goes listen to me going on i already know you well enough to know how this ends i have seen this play out more than enough times i can give you the contact information of some people who may be willing to help but that's as far as i'll go you see geller like smile like a toothy granny's clearly missing a few from just his miscellaneous adventures uh most of the blood of his nose has stopped at this point i pulls out the paper and just like shoves him in a waste bin and uh gallery says well if that's all that can be done then that's all that can be done let's drink and with like a routine like efficiency geller uh pours ebenezer just a random amber liquid that's in the decanter sitting nearby ebenezer takes it uh and then catches sight of some of the blood that's spilled onto the floor from gellert's nose and he sighs he pulls out a pen from his jacket pocket he clicks the top of it in a seemingly random but intricate pattern and the blood from the floor gathers and runs into his pen and he holds it out together and goes i have told you before that this stuff can be dangerous in practiced hands if a powerful wizard has your blood you are theirs that's the rules and geller goes yes yes what what do you want me to do i i've heard this lecture and he just like holds up his hand and uh ebenezer goes do not play with things that you do not understand adventure excavation and traveling i leave these in your capable hands no one is better at this than you my friend magic innovation all things arcane i would like to say that no one is better than i at these fields but that is just not true power is power and it wants for what makes you theirs he holds the pen up to his face this is just one way to do that now where to put it he kind of makes like a show of looking around the room he lets the levity kind of return for a second and he smiles and he reaches for the book that bopped him in the nose and he opens it up to the front cover and he signs his own name and it's just there hidden in the very weapon used to draw the fatal blow you should enjoy the drama of that i would think i even signed the name of the perpetrator and open and he kind of flourishes and closes the book cover with a snap and shut case eh they begin to fade away from this house as these two begin laughing again places the book on the table next to him you see that happen and i think uh remedy kind of like wide-eyed looking through the window having watched this it's like wow they're like old superheroes guess wizards actually do exist i've never really met one before do you do you think your grandpa's right about what what about the clouds he just he was talking about like going down right of course he's right he knows everything what do you think's down there i don't know a mystery oh yeah duh maybe maybe uh a whole other civilization that's been existing there for millions of years that just don't know we're up here but then why does no one come back do you think they do you think they like kill anyone who goes down there no i bet it's so awesome they just don't want to come back wow well wait it sounded like your your grandpa wants to go down there yeah do you think he'll come back of course he will but what if it's just too awesome well i'm up here he wouldn't leave me right yeah no i mean hey so this is maybe a good time to i have something i really want to talk to you about okay so we're gonna we're gonna go on all sorts of rad adventures together yeah totally rad but so my mom and my dad said that they're about they're about done mapping this region okay they said we're gonna we're gonna need to move on soon somewhere like in bowery i guess what i'm they're they're like lame you know like they they they like have like say oh we gotta feed you somehow i'm like just fly but like you can't leave you're my only friend you're my only friend okay so it's decided you're staying here i don't know if i have that option but i i think she like pulls out like from her bag like a little like i think little pendant with like a insert on it and she's like you don't have your own wings yet but and she like plucks out one of her feathers and like sticks it like in the little clip of the necklace and she kind of but you can make do with this for now and then when i'm all grown up i can come and see you and we'll we'll do all our adventures okay i'll come find you you promise i promise okay because when i get old enough there's nothing they can say about it but right now i really don't know if uh i could i don't know where i go and i don't think your parents want me to stay here of course they would they'd love it throw me an inside check on that 12th they'd love it they would yeah they would but like even still that my parents i don't know if they would and i really don't want to see them cry okay but i promise i'll be back when i'm older and my wings are all filled out so we can get a ship and we can like fly together and like the things that your grandpa flies in from time to time totally and i think later that week uh your grandfather he carelessly left the book that you now call your own uh at the the counter when he left after he was done babysitting you and that is how you obtained the copy of that book interesting you have not seen remedy since that night and a couple years later your grandfather led a solo expedition beneath the clouds and never returned well well well if it isn't the dedicated listener fancy seeing you here i've missed you please come inside it's starting to get cold out uh while i have you here i should probably say thank you your time is valuable and you taking time out of your day to enjoy our show is so so so amazing if you feel inclined to extend your generosity even further check out our patreon for just five dollars a month you gain access to our after show our original music and ad-free episodes don't have any money to give i really get that there are two amazing ways you can help our show grow that costs absolutely nothing help us grow by downloading our episodes and by leaving a five-star review on our show this helps the algorithm put us in front of more people everyone here at roll for you works super hard to make a quality story and the bigger the community gets the easier it is for us to keep making this show speaking of my hard-working team malin munko is portrayed by the incredible sam maxwell fern hollinger is portrayed by the incomparable katie lynn sinecki and gorel of the deep woods is portrayed by the illustrious nick maines all of their handles are included in the episode description okay i'm going to go boil some water and make some tea why don't you sit back relax and enjoy the show fern i imagine it feels strange weightlessness the sensation of falling as the ground beneath you slightly parts from your feet you may briefly wonder if this is what it felt like for remedy as she took off that final night into the sky never to be seen by you again and perhaps you briefly wonder if you are going to experience what your grandfather experienced all those years ago when he dove beneath the cloud layer everyone as you begin to slowly feel the train lurch i'm going to need everyone to roll initiative as you deal with this crisis not an initiative broken gravity will roll it roll higher than me captain that's a three that's a four i've got some bad news it's a 19. i gotta roll for lyndon because lyndon is here not daddy lyndon uh lyndon did be clear he's daddy lyndon he's absolutely daddy when we get when we get a amazon deal to make this a live action show lyndon is played by pedro pescal oh my god big news and of course i have to get mr drek drek drek drek he'll break your neck uh that we are going to be starting actually at the top of initiative with olivia um as you guys are dealing with this situation first of all whenever your turn finally comes by you guys are going to be making dexterity saving throws to try and get your bearings for your turn and also i'll probably have you until one of you succeeds uh make a sort of uh check to see what you can do to fix this situation but before any of that out comes from like open compartments as like a red light starts going off in the uh rotunda at the top buzzing around and like opens four kind of like hatches along the side and outcomes like for hovering droids cease and desist you are under arrest lower your weapons and we will kill you great wait wait this is perfect timing lower wait lower my weapons and you'll kill me correct your understanding of this there's there's not a jury for this wait a minute you guys see olivia at the top of initiative absolutely just be like uh what's the plan we can uh we gotta fix this and get the fuck out of here right we're falling ah olivia's gonna make her uh dexterity saving throw right up top that is a natural 19 plus 6 has 25 olivia absolutely saved she kind of like uh takes out like a light crossbow from behind her and she like rigs like a very quick and handy knot around the end of an arrow shoots it and latches it around uh the base of the anti-gravity engine to kind of situate herself in this moment i think she looks to fern we established you were the closest person to her uh i think she wants your cue as to what you would like her to do me what why i don't what are we doing right now what what's happening okay so uh to quickly break this down we've got about three major issues one and probably most importantly we're falling to our death uh number two drek drek he'll break your neck uh number three number three these uh the droids help i will not help you will die today great why are you so aggressive immediately open fire wait uh olivia uh i think is gonna deal with the problem directly in front of her uh which is the droids that are about to attack you actually see drek after that attack that rends the conduits along the wall actually goes down to a knee with exhaustion from that blow and uh olivia wait drek goes down to his neck goes down to his knees after attacking the wall um it looks like it was very strenuous for him to do that he used his whole spirit bomb he used his spirit bomb darn that's all there is to say about that um and olivia is gonna make an attack on uh one of the robots here um so she's gonna whip out her crossbow and uh she's gonna make a damage roll so i'm gonna roll here uh that is a 22 hit i do believe that is going to be good i mean it better yeah olivia does six points of damage uh she fires and is able to hit one of these drones and she does like a hefty blow to it spins off its axis and it immediately kind of picks itself up and uh retargets find a new target uh and she goes oh i think i messed up and uh that is going to be her turn gorel uh i will leave it to you if you want your turn to be first or drek's because you uh landed on the same initiative um i'd like i'd like i'd like to go first you go first can you just describe where everything is in relation to me sure so you are in this large rotunda right in the center of the room is the anti-gravity engine at the center of the room we have olivia and fern off to the side because you guys were inspecting the conduit lines when we left off we have you and malin and uh i think lyndon is somewhere between you two in the doorway is uh drek and he's kind of like shoved his axe into the ground and is basically just holding true in this moment to the ground he's like situated himself uh but he is like kind of down he does not appear like he's going to be moving anytime soon is he on the same falling car he ever so all of sector five has fallen at this moment oh oh yes i thought oh okay all of sector five that makes sense okay and is there an opening to the outside at all uh yes so the open door that drek is standing in is the only way in or out at this moment i'm sorry i mean the outside of the train no because you are in the inner sanctum uh there even though there is a rotunda there is not a like skylight shining down do you know what i mean i was wondering if it was like um if there was any like space between the cars or something like that but i guess i need to get my bearing yeah i need you to make your dexterity saving throw yeah let me try to do that and basically what this is going to do is it's going to impact your movement if you fail well i'm certain i failed okay so you cannot move at this time