The Path to Eden, episode 13: New Faces

Venno gathered his audience once again.

"It was once again time for an assembly, but with seven projects on the go, nobody was interested in adding anything new.  Instead there was a lot of disagreement about which of the seven projects should be worked on next.  Jigsaw Jeff was very keen to get the museum finished in Puzzle Paul's honour, while Charlie Cube felt the school was a much higher priority.  Meanwhile there was a lot of enthusiasm for the pigsty, not just because of the prospect of bacon to eat, but because the group from the Misty Mountains would soon be arriving to join their companions at the Prancing Pony.

But eventually it was Briktoria who was the grunt of reason, encouraging people to stop arguing and get on with some work.

Katin, still attempting to be nice to Silas, decided to do some more work on the school.  Unfortunately she got distracted by a book the Chroniclers had left in the area, which seemed to be written in some strange language.  Suddenly convinced that she'd forgotten how to read, Katin retired for a nap.

Lenny hoisted his shovel and went to work on the pigsty.  He soon had all the holes dug for the fence posts, despite straining himself somewhat pulling up roots.  Quin joined him, getting the ground prepared, but managed to slip over in the middle of it.  All the same, between the two of them the pigsty was almost ready to go.

Silas got to work on the school, and determined to prove that he wasn't completely incompetant where staircases were concerned, got the front stairs sorted out.  Zippo joined him, constructing the blackboard and other useful devices, but couldn't get everything where he wanted, much to his frustration.  But the school was now close to completion.

Once again Katin found herself awoken by a commotion in the assembly area.  Some time before dawn, Sundial Steve had seen the Misty Mountains group heading out of the Ark.  It wasn't long before she found out what they were doing, when suddenly a hundred people showed up outside.

Katin went to spread the news, telling Silas first so he could tell the Elder, then going looking for Lenny to let Boss Marlotte know they were going to need a lot of tickets.  Silas was intercepted on the way in by Jigsaw Jeff, who'd found another book in the Box of Lost Prophecies that seemed to relate to the one the Misty Mountains group had brought.  It certainly featured a character with the same strange name: Asterix.

When he got inside though, the Elder already knew about the new arrivals.  Briktoria had already been through, concerned about food supplies within the Ark with all the extra people showing up.

Katin found Lenny and passed on the news.  Together they went in search of Boss Marlotte, where they soon learned there were not enough tickets available for a hundred people.  Perhaps some of them would be family groups and only need one ticket?  Lenny donned the official high visibility vest and picked up the official clipboard and got to work.

The two of them met up with Quin and Zippo on the way, and went to have a look at these strange people who didn't have things like beetle antennae, which they all thought was very strange.  Lenny called for their attention, banging his shovel to make a noise, and managed to get most of them to listen.  He asked about families, but they didn't seem to understand why they needed tickets.

"You also need to mind the gap."
"What gap?"
"When you get inside you will be shown the gap you need to mind."

They claimed to all be one family, which didn't make sense, because you couldn't have a hundred people on a family ticket.  They claimed to be children of Adam.  Who was Adam?  He wasn't in the sacred books.  Some more argument later, they split themselves up into twenty-five groups of four, which they could definitely work with.  There were enough tickets for that.  But the new arrivals thought it was very silly that they needed tickets to come and go from the Ark.

They suggested that if they were brought some grub and water they could just live on the surface.  They offered a strange gun that apparently shot lights in return.  The group discussed things.  Quin didn't like it.  She didn't trust them at all.  Katin thought they were being really rude.  Everyone else concurred.  But they continued to argue, insisting that they needed a hundred tickets, and people started pushing their way in.  Lenny's attempts to intimidate them, backed up by Silas, were not entirely successful.

Half of the group decided they were coming in anyway, buffeting Lenny out of the way.  Silas started handing out anti-museum flyers, while Quin set Ork on them.  Ork refused to bite anyone, however, apparently deciding that these people were friends.  Quin made a note to have a conversation with Ork at a later time.

Boss Marlotte showed up, and was very unhappy with Lenny's performance, demanding the return of the official vest and clipboard.  The others backed up Lenny, but there was nothing they could do to stop the people now.  Katin tried to reassure Lenny that this wasn't all his fault, and they should leave it to Boss Johammed to clear up while they went out for a walk in the zone.

Silas had another idea though.  The new arrivals were gathering around the Prancing Pony, and once Jenga Jeff had stacked up some boxes for him to stand on, he made an impassioneed speech to them about the importance of living according to the Ark's rules now that they were living in the Ark.  Finally some order was restored.

Katin was still keen to get out and about though, and Lenny was also pretty keen to avoid the Ark for a bit, so the next morning they headed out for another expedition.  Katin lead the group to the south, where they found a forest of dead trees.  While hunting for bullets, she spotted a strange green shimmering light, and pointed it out to the others.  Was there an elf about?

Quin sent Ork to investigate.  He followed carefully, but whatever it was, he couldn't get close enough.  The others joined him, trying to follow the light without getting too close, just in case it was one of the dead people from under the mountain in the third volume of the sacred book.  Quin, Zippo and Katin managed to sneak up towards it, while the rather more conspicious Lenny and Silas stayed put to discourage it from moving in their direction.  But after following it for a while, the light simply disappeared.

Zippo closed in on the spot where the light disappeared, but there was nothing there.  Quin looked around but could only see leafless trees and hear the sound of the wind.  Katin wondered if she could pick up a scent from it, but could only smell the other team members.  Her nose seemed to have misfired.

They pushed on to the south, finding themselves in another unpleasant marshland.  This had previously been good terrain to find snails in, and while Katin's nose didn't seem to be working, the others could still get to work, hunting out bullets and clean water in addition to some rot contaminated snails that Katin was sure she could clean up later.

They'd been out for several hours now, and while they could push on, they decided it would be better to head back to the Ark.  A couple of hours later, Katin was happily barbecuing snails - at least until she accidentally breathed in some snail smoke and found herself dizzy and confused.

The group shared out supplies of food, water and bullets, got a night's sleep, and set out again.  The push south to Old Ben was progressing at last.  A quick walk through the dead forest and the marsh brought them to an area where houses still stood, in identical, ash covered rows.

What was in the houses?  Katin had no idea.  She didn't seem to be able to smell anything except barbecued snails right now.  Everyone else noticed an odd smell though, and Quin identified it as animal faeces.  A lot of it.  Ork was very unhappy, and was backing away.  Quin decided to try to get a closer look, sneaking her way up to one of the houses.  She pushed on the door, but it was so rotten that it collapsed at her touch, crashing loudly to the ground.

Rats, thousands of rats, came pouring out of the houses.  Zippo reflexively activated his mutation to scuttle his way up a building.  Lenny grabbed Katin and retreated.  Would they make it in time?"

Venno smiled to himself as the crowd erupted like a pile of rats as he left them hanging.  They would just have to wait.

The Path to Eden, episode 12: A Mystery Solved

Venno's audience were once again excited.  The murder of Puzzle Paul had intrigued them, and Venno had no doubt that they would find the next installment just as thrilling.

"Things had settled down somewhat in the Ark.  Puzzle Paul's place among the Chroniclers had been taken by Jigsaw Jeff, and he insisted that the museum should be completed, and that it should be named in Puzzle Paul's honour.  Silas - or Staircase Silas, as he was now known - was not happy.

With most of the recent Ark projects complete, it was time to discuss starting some more, and the Chronicler Charlie Cube felt that a school would be a valuable way to learn about the artefacts in the museum.  Jigsaw Jeff agreed, and suggested that Staircase Silas would make an excellent schoolmaster.

A few more ideas appeared.  A militia would be a valuable addition to the Ark's defences.  Scraggy Maggie wanted a bank, to keep bullets in safely, and after the incident with Puzzle Paul there was also a demand for a tribunal, so that the Ark could have proper justice instead of mob violence.

It was time to get to work.  Katin went hunting around the Ark to find a good spot for the school's foundations, and soon had a suitable site picked out.  Lenny hefted his shovel, and finished off the Ark's barricades.  Quin, enamoured by the idea of the tribunal, went to fight for justice, but found justice quite a difficult thing to fight for.  Silas spent some time collecting suitable materials for the school.  Zippo gave the Ark's projects a rest for the day to get Lenny's new armour finished.

Lenny's new armour was rather better than the artefact helmet he'd been wearing.  Katin suggested he pass that on to Silas, as his face was clearly in need of protection.  Lenny took the time to write 'Staircase here' along the front.

The next morning, there was some commotion outside Quin's tent.  Two mutants named Estelle and Alfred lived nearby, and Jigsaw Jeff was pulling a confused looking Estelle out of their shack.  Quin went for a peek into the shack, and saw the bloody remains of Alfred.  Closer up she could hear Estelle saying that the voices had told her to do it.

Panic gripped the Ark.  It wasn't just Archie hearing voices.  And Estelle had loved Alfred.  If that could happen, then anyone could be affected.  Who would be next to hear the voices?  The group gathered to discuss what had happened.  Where were the voices coming from?  It couldn't be a big pipe, because Estelle didn't sleep in the same place as Archie.  Katin and Lenny were both familiar with voices in their heads telling them to kill, but that was perfectly normal revenge fantasies.  Not like what had happened with Archie and Estelle.

A large crowd had gathered at the Dawn Vault, with Scraggy Maggie calling for Estelle to be hanged, but Lenny pointed out that the tribunal wasn't ready yet, and along with some intervention from Briktoria, Estelle was taken to the Seven Sisters and Zippo was appointed chief investigator.

Alfred's body needed to be disposed of.  There was a briefly proposed theory that the voice was just someone very hungry, creeping round at night whispering in people's ears to tell them to kill people to create more bait for the hunting party.  But in terms of actually finding out what was happening, they weren't making much progress, and if they didn't go foraging soon they were going to run out of grub and water pretty fast.

A few hours scouting around the marshes to the west of the Ark turned up a reasonable quantity of supplies, and Katin's nose was able to sniff out some additional food.  Back home she sat down to cook the rot out of it, with a bit of help from Lenny and some encouragement from Silas who read to her from the sacred Ministry of Food book.  Soon she had enough boiled snails to feed all five of them for the next two days.

But as Katin was handing out food and water supplies, she heard a strange voice in her head.  It was telling her than Lenny must die.  She must kill him immediately.  Armed with nothing but snails, Katin could only attempt a barehanded attack, which completely failed to do anything thanks to his new armour.  Silas attempted to tackle her to the ground, but she wriggled out of his grasp.  Lenny got up and with minimal effort, picked up Katin to restrain her.  The voice stopped, but Katin was quite happy for Lenny to continue to restrain her.

One of the group hearing the voices meant they finally had something of a solid lead, however.  Katin didn't recognise the voice, but she was sure it was the voice of an old man.  And she had some idea of where it was coming from.  She gave Lenny directions, pointing with her nose, and the others followed behind them.

Just outside the cult headquarters, they found a shack, where an old, very sick mutant named Stan was lying sleeping.  Katin was sure she was in the right place, so Lenny woke him up.  He said he'd been having a nightmare about Katin trying to kill Lenny.  And it wasn't his first nightmare.

Stan had previously had psionic powers, but more recently hadn't been able to use them, after he went out in the zone.  He hadn't intended to kill anyone.  What were they going to do?  He couldn't be allowed to sleep again, or he might end up causing someone else to commit murder.

Lenny put Katin down, and Stan told her that he'd been with her in the dream about the garden.  He'd been wearing the skin of the elf.  Katin was thoroughly creeped out.  She didn't like the idea of someone poking around inside her mind.  Stan also mentioned that one of them would betray her before they found Eden, giving Silas a pointed look.

"Yeah, we figured."  Everyone shrugged.

He also claimed Silas would try to kill Ork, and asked Zippo what it was like being a gearhead who wasn't any good at making stuff.  It was gradually becoming apparent that he was trying to deliberately wind them up, especially when he brought up a dream Katin had had about Lenny.  They'd been at the temple, and Katin had been wearing a pretty dress.  But his attempts to provoke Lenny into killing him ultimately resulted in convincing them that they needed to get Briktoria to deal with things.  After all, Zippo had been appointed chief investigator, and since they'd solved the mystery it was about time he went and reported what they'd found.

Once Briktoria had heard the whole story, she agreed that Stan was a danger to the Ark.  She asked everyone to turn away, and then came a sickening crunch of a head being crushed.  Stan's body was wrapped up and removed to the corpse pile.

The string of murders was over, but Katin still wasn't happy.  Nobody was sure her dream about Eden could be trusted now.  But the elf did know about the Old Ben tower, so that part at least was true.

They all retired to the tavern for some food, which with the new options coming from the croplands now included bits of potato with salt, dry roasted peas with salt, and flakes of bran with peas.  There they talked to the elf again, and asked her about Old Ben.  Once it had told the time, and gone bong at certain points.  That seemed like a good feature to add to the sundial, to give Sundial Sam a break from shouting the time.  But more importantly, they might find some answers at Old Ben.  They would have to keep on searching.

It was time for some sleep.  Lenny accompanied Katin back to her shack, and noted how weird the things Stan had said were.  Katin agreed.  She never wore dresses.  They were totally impractical.  Lenny though it might be nice if she did though.

Katin was also very uncomfortable about what Stan might have seen in her head.  He might have seen things about Jena.  Katin really missed having a best friend.  Lenny suggested that he could be her friend.  She'd hoped Zippo would be her friend, but then he blew her up.  Lenny had never exploded her.  Katin gave Lenny a slightly awkward hug, then dived into her shack, leaving a surprised Lenny outside."

The Path to Eden, episode 11: A Puzzling End

Venno's audience were buzzing.  The level of concern for the team members was obvious, especially among fans of Katin and Silas.  Venno smiled as he prepared to begin.  He could already imagine the coming reactions.

"Back at the Ark, they barely had time to deliver the collection of magazines and other valuable documents to the dawn vault before they found themselves dragged into an assembly.  Puzzle Paul was once again pushing the museum, taking advantage of Silas's crushed face preventing him engaging in any coherent argument.  Ultimately the Ark decided that they had quite enough projects on the go and didn't need any more right now.

Katin went straight back to her den for some sleep, while Silas attempted to use the first aid kit he'd found to fix his face - with a bit of help from Lenny.  He ended up using most of the contents of the box, but got the job done.

That night, Katin had a strange dream.  She was outside, surrounded by green grass, with a gentle sun shining down on healthy trees.  Flowers were all around her, but somehow when she tried to sniff them, she couldn't make out a scent.  Looking around, she saw the elf from the tunnel.  Trying to talk to her wasn't helpful, but she was pointing at a wall where there was some writing.  Katin couldn't read it.  The letters wouldn't come into focus.  But there was a picture.  A tower with a clock on it.  And then a loud bang woke her up, and she was back in her den.

The next morning, everyone felt rather better and got to work.  Zippo began working on making some armour for Lenny.  Silas went scouting for building the defenses.  Quin attempted to work on the pigsty, but lacking the proper tools for digging post holes, she strained her back.  Clearly more time reading the Health and Safety manual was required.

Lenny spotted Silas struggling at the defences and went to help, but distracted by worry for both Silas and Katin he managed to injure himself.  Meanwhile, Katin decided to try another attempt at training the hunting party in archery, this time using a regular jury rigged bow which they were more familiar with.  One brilliant archery training session later, they were ready to go.

As the sacred text said, 'Meat's back on the menu, boys!'

The next day, Katin sought out the others at the Prancing Pony, and told them about her dream.  Silas took extensive notes.  Clearly she needed to ask the elf about it.  But before she could find her, a scream echoed across the Ark.

At the site of the museum, they found the body of Puzzle Paul under some bricks, with his head bashed in with one of the bricks.  Gripped in his hands was one of the anti-museum posters Silas had been putting up.  Accusing eyes turned on Silas.  Paul's face had been crushed - just like Silas's was.

The team rapidly leapt to Silas's defence, by pointing out that he was so hopeless in a fight there was absolutely no way he could have killed anyone, because Puzzle Paul would have kicked his arse.  Silas was a coward who once left Lenny to die, not a competent killer.  There's no way he could have snuck up on someone because they'd seen Silas try to sneak and he was really conspicuous.  A reasonably compelling argument, and enough to buy them some time to investigate what really happened.

Lenny promised to keep an eye on Silas, reminding everyone that he was no Boromir or Saruman.  Quin had a look at Puzzle Paul's body to see if she could find something to get a scent from.  The murder weapon looked like a good candidate, and with some assistance from Katin, Ork was soon on the trail.  Noses to the ground, the two of them tracked down the real culprit.

The young man's name was Archie, and he'd never been known to cause trouble in the Ark before.  He was sitting in the ticket office, covered in blood, and repeating the words, 'the voices made me do it'.

Katin went to get the others, while Quin stayed with Archie.  He didn't seem to have even noticed her presence.  She did her best to get through to him, but it seemed he was too far gone.  Zippo's attempt to slap some sense into him when he arrived didn't even register with him.  Finally Lenny's imposing presence got him to talk - although he was still talking mostly about the voice in his head.  He'd been hearing it for two months, every day, telling him to kill Puzzle Paul.  And with that he retreated into himself again.

He obviously needed some help, and the Seven Sisters seemed like the best option.  Silas hung back, not wanting to get thrown under the replacement bus service.  Zippo explained things to Briktoria.  She agreed to look after Archie, on the condition that they were paid for their services.  After some further persuasion and bribery, she was convinced to go out and tell everyone that Silas was not the killer, cementing the work the team had already done.  Silas was off the hook - even though the nickname 'Staircase Silas' seemed to have stuck.

Silas headed for the Dawn Vault to look at the artefacts, where he was rather annoyed to discover that the other chroniclers were planning on naming the museum after Puzzle Paul.  Katin went looking for the elf, who was no longer staying at the Dawn Vault, but had integrated herself with the group from the Misty Mountains and was currently staying at the Prancing Pony.  Rather to her surprise, she found them reading a book.

The book was called Travels With Asterix, and unlike the Ark's sacred texts, it had pictures all the way through.  It was quite an effort to drag herself away from it, but she finally managed to talk to the elf - even if they were all a little confused about why they called her an elf.  Katin told her about the dream, and she did know about the tower with the clock.  It was called Old Ben, and she knew where to find it.  She drew it on Katin's map of the zone.  It was definitely the right place - it looked just like what Katin had seen in her dream.

It was going to be a long walk, into a far more dangerous part of the zone.  The elf didn't think they were ready to go yet, and Katin agreed.  She would have to scout out the first part of the path so they could get through them quickly when they made the push to the tower, and they definitely needed more food and water supplies.  Katin went on her way with the Asterix book on loan.

Katin knew Silas would appreciate the book, so went to visit him.  His eyes lit up at the sight of it.  She explained that she knew he'd had a rough day, and thought he might appreciate it.  Even with his access to the Dawn Vault he'd never seen anything like it.  They passed some time turning the pages.  Katin might not be the most empathic of people, but Silas was starting to feel better all the same."

The Path to Eden, episode 10: Hospital

Venno's audience weren't quite as nervous as they had been last time, but the chatter suggested they were expecting to hear about a new journey into the zone.  He smiled.  They would not be disappointed.

"The biggest concern in the ark, with so many new people expected to arrive, was food supplies.  After consulting the sacred text, the Ministry of Food, a number of ideas were presented.  Scraggy Maggy suggested rounding up some pigs would allow them to have bacon, and Lenny thought a hunting party could also bring in some meat, both of which would allow them to make more of the recipes from the sacred text.  But there was also the critical matter of defence.  They didn't want to get over-committed.  While at some point they did need to think about a brewery, for now it was time to get to work.

But first, Quin had a gift for Zippo.  She'd found it in the BBC building.  She wasn't sure what it was, but she was sure he would like it, and he did.  While a first attempt to examine it resulted in him accidentally hitting himself over the head with it, he was soon sure it was a tool for repairing things, which was going to be his new best friend.

After some pointed non-discussion of museums, work began.  Quin got to work building the defences, getting a lot of building done but hurting herself in the process.  Silas tried to help, but found himself baffled by the napkin diagrams they were working from.

Zippo decided the hunting party could use some training in how to shoot things.  His first attempt didn't go so well, as they just weren't getting it, but a change of approach involving a lot of running around finally got through to them.

Lenny had a gift for Katin.  As the team's stalker, she was the person best able to make use of the thing for making far away things look close.  Having made Katin very happy, he headed off the the wrestling cage to demonstrate a few moves, and soon had the wrestling team up and running.

Delighted with her new gift, and wanting to support Lenny, Katin went to give the hunting party some training in archery, which had the significant benefit of not requiring any bullets.  Unfortunately, the fact she was using a crossbow and they all had regular bows made for an exhausting session in which nobody learned anything and several bits fell off the crossbow in the resulting argument.

Katin swallowed her pride, apologised to Zippo for blaming him for that time she nearly got blown up, and asked him if he could fix her crossbow.  He managed to stick most of it back together, and fixed the device for finding directions as well.

Everyone had a bit of a rest to recover from their exertions, and then prepared for another mission outside.  Now they knew where the hospital was, they needed to get there as soon as possible to be ready for the arrival of Eriel's hobbit.  Following Katin's lead they headed out through the marshes and turned to the south, and after a couple of hours, found themselves outside St Ann's Hospital.

They weren't alone.  While picking a low rot path into the hospital, Katin spotted a group of zone ghouls up ahead.  Remembering that historically, attempting to sneak past dangerous zone entities had not gone too well, they decided to attempt to surprise them instead.

Quin and Katin lead the charge, surprising the ghouls with rocks and arrows.  The others were...less of a surprise.  Nevertheless, after a brief but brutal fight that included one of the ghouls being dissolved by Lenny's acid spit, the ghouls were defeated and the team were all more or less intact.  They removed the helmet one of the ghouls had been wearing, realising that this was not just any helmet but an ancient artefact.

Lenny donned the helmet, and after some more arguing about the merits of museums, they moved on.  The hospital itself was a creepy sight, with dessicated corpses lying all around and the stench of death in the air.  Ork didn't want to go in, and Katin wasn't particularly keen either.

Leaving Ork outside, they began searching, and soon found a collapsed stairwell.  Zippo activated his mutant powers and used his insectoid limbs to scuttle up the wall, where he managed to locate a sign with directions to different departments.  With some help from Silas, who could remember some important lines from the sacred text, the Health and Safety Manual, he determined that they needed the maternity department on the third floor.

Zippo scuttled the rest of the way up, and found a hose, which he unrolled to allow the others to use it as a climbing rope.  It seemed his difficulty with stairs was not a problem when all the stairs had collapsed and he was soon at the top.

Zippo scuttled back down to give Katin a hand, but despite massive effort, she kept on sliding back down until she was completely exhausted and had to sit down for a rest.  Not wanting to leave her behind, Lenny scooped her up and carried her with him as he climbed.  Quin sensibly decided to stay downstairs and have a look round there instead.

Silas attempted to get Katin back on her feet, but failed to apply the appropriate drugs, leading to a serious case of self doubt.  Lenny stayed with her to look after her while Zippo and Silas searched, sharing his water with her.  The hospital did have some useful bits and pieces, including a box that Silas identified as a first aid kit, as documented in the Health and Safety Manual.  Zippo also found some jars of hobbit food.  Overall, they felt pretty confident they had what they needed.

The four of them descended the stairwell again, Lenny carrying Katin with him and Zippo deploying his insectoid limbs once more.  Silas attempted to follow, but instead the hose snapped and he plummeted down the stairwell.  With Lenny already tired from helping Katin down he couldn't help to break his fall, and Silas landed face down on the ground.

Quin came running at the sudden thud, and managed to put Silas's face back together while Zippo collected stray teeth.  They gathered their finds, and limped slowly back to the ark."

The Path to Eden, episode 9: The Prophecy Fulfilled, Whatever It Was

Venno's audience looked worried today.  Unsurprisingly, given where he'd left things last time.  But they'd all come back.  It was time for the resolution.

"The nearby building with the strange metal rings on the roof looked like a good place for Zippo to find some scrap.  A sign on the front appeared to read 'BBn', but when the last letter was poked with a spear, they realised it said 'BBC'.  After some thought, Silas revealed that this symbol represented an ancient distributor of knowledge through radio broadcasts.  Lenny remembered that the symbol also appeared on the Gardener's World magazine in the Box of Lost Prophecies.  Could this place be a library?

Quin and Ork went in to investigate, and soon learned that they were not alone.  There were people talking there, on the floor above.  This was concerning.  Last time any of them had met other people, they had been cannibals who wanted to eat them.  She headed further in, followed by Silas, with floorboards creaking under her feet, until after a particularly loud creak, the talking stopped and a door slammed.

Quin indicated to Silas that he should keep quiet, and headed up the stairs.  Silas followed, missed a step, fell back down the stairs, cursing loudly and letting an arrow fly into the ceiling.

The noise didn't bring anyone out though, and Quin continued.  There were people there, behind a door, speaking in strange voices.  She kicked open the door, which bounced off something and shut again.  Despite some strange noises, they didn't seem entirely hostile.  After some tentative words, introductions were made.  There was something different about these people.  Rather like that elf they'd found.

They were looking for a new home, and once it was established that nobody wanted to hurt people on either side, and they didn't want to eat anyone, it seemed possible..  They came from a mountain range far away.  Was it the Misty Mountains?  It seemed like it was, although they seemed confused about what goblins were.  Perhaps they were dwarves?

As a sign of good faith, they handed over a weapon which they called a shotgun.  It was like Zippo's scrap rifle, but more powerful.  The group weren't convinced yet, but the strangers then offered to deal with the Nazgul.  The Ark did have a few vacancies after some of the recent deaths, and they claimed to know how to grow crops.  It seemed like a reasonable offer.

While the strangers went to deal with the Nazgul, a task that they insisted they had to do without the team there, they went for a look around the building to see if there was anything interesting.  Lenny found an interesting object.  If you looked in one end it made things look bigger, and if you looked in the other end, things looked smaller.  It gave Lenny an excellent view of the Nazgul.  And the others, an excellent view of what was left of it after the strangers completely obliterated it.

After a thorough search of the area, which turned up a reasonable amount of grub, water and bullets, they made their way back to the Ark, with their new friends in tow.  They had also seen a building with a big red cross on it, and knew where to find it.  It turned out to be only a short distance from the Seven Sisters Ark.  The name St Ann was written on it.  Rather than visit it straight away though, they decided to get everyone home so they could all have a rest.

Quin and Silas took the lead, to warn everyone about the new arrivals, since nobody had ever seen twelve new people at once before.  Lenny, Zippo and Katin showed them around the outside area, pointing out the croplands and the sundial.  Boss Elona came out to meet them, and they told her about the slaying of the Nazgul.

Inside the Ark, Silas and Quin headed for the Dawn Vault, where Silas was forced to have a conversation with Puzzle Paul, much to his disgust.  Puzzle Paul had found one of Silas's heretical posters and he and the other chroniclers had recognised his handwriting.  They argued for a while about the relative merits of museums, until they finally got onto the subject of the new arrivals and how Silas wanted to talk to the Elder.

After a second argument, Silas was finally allowed in.  He explained to the Elder about the new people, who somehow seemed more like the Elder than the people of the Ark, and how they had defeated the Nazgul.  His arguments proved convincing, and permission was granted.

Silas returned to the Dawn Vault, where he found Quin and Ork exactly where Puzzle Paul had told them to wait.  Together they returned to the surface to share the good news.  Lenny headed in to talk to Boss Marlotte, to sort out tickets, and got sent back to ask the important questions, like whether anyone needed a family ticket, and if anyone had an oyster card.  Once Boss Marlotte's spreadsheet was properly filled in, Lenny was sent back up to hand out tickets, blow the whistle and shout 'All aboard!'

And with a cheerful chorus of 'Mind The Gap' the new arrivals were welcomed in."

The Path to Eden, episode 8: Knightfall

 Venno's audience were unusually quiet.  Rumours had been flying that this episode would be particularly terrifying.  He smiled.  They had no idea.

"The people gathered for an assembly.  With work almost complete on the temple and the sundial, it was time to start on some new projects.  Puzzle Paul was the first to speak up.  The Fellowship were bringing back artefacts, and he was sure that a museum to display them in was an excellent idea.  Despite a shout of 'No museum!' from the back of the crowd, the motion was approved.

Then Boss Johamed spoke up.  His lads wanted somewhere they could have a bit of fun.  They'd read all the holy books, and they wanted a tavern, like the Prancing Pony.  And furthermore, if they were going to have this museum, they were going to need to be ready for troublemakers showing up to steal them.  They needed a wrestling cage to practice fighting.

Scraggy Maggie was worried about the cannibals that the Fellowship had encountered.  She didn't think the fighting practice was enough.  They needed proper defences.  She hadn't wanted to keep living on sourdough starter, and she didn't want to get eaten either.  That seemed like quite enough to be going on with, and the assembly broke up so everyone could get to work.

Zippo decided he'd had quite enough of trying to work on the temple, and was going to do something he was good at.  He effortlessly interpreted the Ikea instruction manual and soon had the sundial set up and ready to go.

Silas headed for the tavern site, directing people in the proper layout of the building.  Not many people were actually listening to him.

Quin wanted to do some physical work rather than all this people stuff, and went to the temple.  Some solid hard work later, everything was in place and the temple was complete.  At last, Zippo's ears would be safe from Briktoria's anger.  She was now free to collect rocks for her slingshot.

Lenny was planning on working on the temple, but on finding that it was already finished, he headed for the tavern site instead.  There he found Silas directing people to run around like prancing ponies, not getting very far.  He pulled out his shovel and got to work.  By the time he finished, his shovel wasn't quite what it once was, but the tavern was close to completion.  Zippo got on the case, screwing it back together.

After seeing her artefact bow get broken, Katin was keen to ensure that that kind of thing didn't happen again.  She made her way to the site of the museum, much to Silas's disapproval, and got to work guiding the arrangement of exhibits.  Once she'd put in a decent amount of work, she headed over to the Seven Sisters cult to see how Eriel was getting on and when the hobbit was likely to arrive.  She was still getting sick a lot and sourdough starters were not agreeing with her.

Silas went to have an argument with Puzzle Paul on the subject of museums.  After a prolonged debate in which no agreement was reached, things were getting serious.  They both reached for their notebooks for an epic note-off.  At last, Silas slammed the door as he left, resolving to him him with the notebook next time.  But it wasn't long before he had another idea, and started putting up posters about how the museum was heretical and Puzzle Paul was lying to the community.

Meanwhile, Eriel was berating Katin for her ongoing failure to find a hospital.  Why hadn't she found one yet?  Maybe she could find a surgery as well?  Katin had no idea what that was.  Neither did Eriel.  But maybe if Katin could get her a hospital, she would stop blaming her for the death of Eriel's sister.

Katin ran away to cry.  Zippo, on his way to give Lenny his shovel back, spotted her and went to comfort her.  Together they went looking for Lenny, but they actually found Quin.  There was some disagreement over whether or not Ork was a good boy, and the hunt for Lenny resumed.

Lenny was up doing guard duty near the entrance, and had found some of Silas's posters.  He wasn't impressed.  They looked a bit heretical.  Silas explained his concerns, bringing up the recent damage to the temple, but Lenny pointed out that that was heretickal, with a k.  Silas still had a lot more say though, and the argument was still ongoing when suddenly night turned to day as the sky outside lit up.

Katin, Silas and Quin ran for the surface.  Silas dived for cover, only emerging once the light had died away.  Something had fallen from the sky - maybe it was the work of Sauron?  Perhaps his eye was passing across them?  Zippo thought it had landed somewhere beyond Alexandra's Tower.  Maybe they should go and investigate in the morning?

Katin's attention was drawn to the heretical posters on the wall.  Who had put them up?  Silas claimed not to have seen who put them up.  Ork sniffed the poster and Silas.  Katin told him he was a good boy, gave the poster a sniff herself, and turned to Silas.  Why was he putting up heretical posters?  Lenny took the poster down, and threatened that if he found any more, he would stuff them down Silas's trousers.

The next morning, Silas, Quin and Zippo were awoken by cheering and the voice of Briktoria.  She had a plan to take a group to the site where the Eye of Sauron had fallen, to destroy Mordor.  Eriel was amongst them as the group headed to the Ark's exit.  Zippo's best efforts did nothing to dissuade them.  The crowd soon awoke Katin, who went straight to look for Lenny.  They joined the effort to turn them back.  They didn't have a ring.  And there were supposed to be only nine of them.  It was in the holy book!  And they might have a hobbit with them but it was still inside Eriel, and the health and safety manual was quite clear about how pregant people shouldn't go out on expeditions.

Finally Briktoria was persuaded.  The Fellowship would go out, supplied with some waybread and water.  They headed out, with Silas surreptitiously dropping some fliers on the way out.

There was an unpleasant smell at Alexandra's Tower, coming from the place where they'd found the hanging bodies.  Katin advised everyone to stay away from that part and head for the higher parts of the building.  While Quin scouted to make sure there were no cannibals still lurking, Katin looked out over the area where the Eye of Sauron had fallen.  In the middle of the crater she could see something moving around, and the best, least rot-contaminated way to get there.

The big shiny thing required further investigation.  Was it an olyphant?  They needed a closer look.  Quin offered to sneak her way in and see what she could find.  The thing she found looked rather like a troll, but a metal troll instead of stone.  It looked like it was hunting or looking for something.  She didn't think Ork would be able to hurt it, and Katin agreed that arrows would just bounce off.  Quin was sure it wasn't friendly, so talking wasn't an option.  What were they going to do?

Silas wanted to get a look at it.  Quin offered to take him, on the condition that he was quiet.  Silas wasn't sure he could promise that.  Quin agreed, but said that if he wasn't quiet, he would be in front of her.  He decided it was worth it.

The creature he saw was unlike anything he had ever set eyes on before.  A huge monster, covered in metal.  He had no idea what it was, but perhaps talking to it would be helpful.  But even as he reached that conclusion, Quin and Katin were reaching a very different conclusion.

Katin had seen something like this before, in one of the pamphlets from the Box of Lost Prophecies.  It was called a knight, and was made by covering a person in lots of bits of metal.  They would then be used in fights.  They were very dangerous.  And Silas was about to try to talk to it.

Quin wasn't quite so sure what it was, but she recognised it as something dangerous.  She started trying to talk Silas out of getting any closer when Ork drew her attention to another person in the area.  A cannibal.  And then the creature spoke, in a strange unnatural voice.  'Mutants must die.'  And then a beam of light shot out of its arm and the cannibal was instantly vapourised.

Silas found that a very convincing argument, and the three of them quietly left.  If that thing came anywhere near the Ark, they were really going to need those defenses.  They discussed how it could be stopped.  Perhaps the knight was a Nazgul?  In which case they would need the right prophecy to know how to kill it.  Maybe it could be stopped by a river?  Or by some of Zippo's bombs?  One thing was certain: if Briktoria came here, she would die.

Katin took a look around at the local area on either side of the crater.  To the west she saw a building, covered with strange structures of rusty metal rings.  And to the south she saw what seemed to be an underground carriage that had burnt up after falling from the sky.

The first seemed like a good place to find useful items.  Katin had confirmed there were no threats here, with anything unpleasant having presumably been scared away by the Nazgul.  And so they set out once again, in search of the treasures that might lie within."

Always leave them wanting more.  Venno smiled again as he walked away.

The Path to Eden, episode 7: There and Back Again

Chronicler Venno's audience were once again eagerly awaiting the next episode.  Not such a cliffhanger this time, but with so many injuries, who knew what might happen?

"Zippo and Katin dashed to Lenny's aid, Katin keeping Lenny distracted while Zippo attempted to set his broken leg.  An enormously stressful experience for him, seeing his friend in so much pain as he treated the wound, but ultimately a success.  Lenny would be OK - eventually.  The two of them celebrated briefly, before moving on to Silas.

This didn't go quite so well.  Zippo already wasn't feeling great after seeing far too much of the inside of Lenny's leg, and Katin wasnt much help.  For now, the crossbow bolt stuck in Silas would have to stay there.  Perhaps he could use it as an extra arm?

As they discussed getting some sleep and hoping they felt better in the morning, Zippo was distracted by the sound of yapping.

'Ork!'

'Where?  Where?  Oh, that Ork.'

It was a dog.  A dog they all recognised.  And he seemed to want something.

'What's that, Ork? Someone's trapped down a well?'

While Lenny ate some more stew, Katin and Lenny followed Ork to a door at the back of the room.  Pushing it open they found bodies.  Lots of them, hanging from the ceiling, and several with clear signs of having been carved.

'Lenny, don't eat the stew!'

'Too late.'

In amongst the bodies was one who was still alive.  Ork's handler, Quin.  In a flash, Zippo and Katin were at her side, cutting her down to take her back with them to the fire.  Silas began to come round just as Quin was also waking up.

'Quin!  It's so good to see you again.'

While Silas removed the bolt from his own chest, Quin explained how she had got there.  She'd been out searching for junk and anything else that Zippo could use to get the temple and the sundial done faster, so that Briktoria would stop pulling on his ears.  Not that she had a problem with his ears.  Quite the reverse, in fact.  And she'd met these people who she thought were going to help, but instead had hung her up in their larder.

Zippo collected up weapons from the fallen enemies, and handed them out.  Scrap spears, good for poking people while out of arm's reach.  Also useful as crutches while Lenny and Silas needed help walking with their broken bones.  What was left of what Quin had found out here was a flat basketball and a picture showing two people and 2.4 hobbits.  Perhaps it would look nice in the temple?

While the others got some sleep, Zippo sat down to talk to Quin.  He was concerned about her putting herself in danger.  Quin tried to reassure him that she had Ork to look after her.  And between that and some sleep, he started to feel better.

The next morning, everyone was feeling significantly better, broken bones notwithstanding.  Zippo took on the challenge of repairing Katin's artifact bow, but was so confused by its complex construction that he completely destroyed it.  Fortunately, he'd given Katin the crossbow he'd taken from Malcolm the night before, so she wasn't too angry about it.  And Silas's scrap bow proved significantly easier to repair.

While Zippo was at work, the others went to do a bit of exploring.  With Katin taking the lead, they managed to hunt down a small number of bullets, plus some rot-contaminated food that wasn't made of people and which could be cooked into something edible back at the Ark.  Next they tried climbing upwards in search of a good vantage point to get a look at the nearby area, just in case the red cross symbol the elf had told them about was visible.  But getting a really good look was going to take time, and Katin was worried about Lenny.

The five of them (and the dog) set out once more, and a few hours later they were all safely home.  It was time to do some work.  Katin and Silas worked together on the sundial, getting quite a lot more completed, although the words of the great prophet Ikea remained too confusing for Katin.  Quin, Lenny and a reluctant but resigned Zippo made their way down to the temple.  The damage done by saboteurs was restored and more progress made.  Perhaps with a little more work both projects would soon be completed?"

There was a small murmur of disappointment that the story was over, but the fact that he was not leaving them on yet another cliffhanger left many of them more relieved than anything else.  For now, at least, their heroes were safe.

---

If you'd like to watch us playing this game, we play on Sunday evenings on Twitch and you can also catch up on past games on YouTube.

The Path to Eden, episode 6: Into The Woods

Chronicler Venno was gratified to find his audience already waiting for him.  No need for introductions this time.

"As I was saying, the devourer was approaching Lenny with its jaws open wide.  But as it did so, Katin drew her bow and loosed an arrow into it, while Zippo shouted and waved to draw its attention.  The monster turned its attention away from Lenny to chase Zippo, who was able to fend off its enormous teeth with his chitinous carapace.  Lenny crawled his way to Silas, who gave him a quite massage to get him back on his feet.  Seeing Katin in danger, Lenny charged in with his spiked bat, but it bounced off, dealing more damage to him than to the devourer.  Silas's attempt to punch it was completely ineffective, but finally another of Katin's arrows found its mark and felled the foul beast."

The release of tension in the room was audible, as everyone who'd been holding their breath exhaled in unison.

"What to do next?  It would be dark soon, and they were all injured after the fight.  Should they stop and make camp in the forest, or should they push on to their intended destination of Alexandra's Tower in the hope of finding shelter?  Not knowing if there were more devourers in the forest, they decided to continue.

"Katin lead the way once more, and found them a route out of the trees.  The remains of the old city buildings once again appeared before them, and much to their surprise, as they approached the building, voices called out to them.  They seemed friendly, and invited them to join them for dinner.  Having foregone eating the devourer, suspecting it to be rot contaminated, they were all hungry.

"Silas was suspicious, however.  There seemed to be something not quite right about this.  Their motivations in inviting them to a meal seemed less than wholesome.  He shared his suspicions.  Boss Johammed wouldn't be that friendly if strange people came to the Seven Sisters ark.  But before they could turn around, there was a sudden smell of metal in the air, and their hair stood on end.  Moments later, lightning began to strike, and they all ran for the only source of shelter - the building before them.

"Inside they found themselves in a great hall.  It had once been full of chairs, and had a raised platform at one ended, but the centre had been cleared of chairs and a firepit built in the middle.  Four people sat around the fire, where they were cooking some kind of food.  Katin couldn't help but notice that one of them held a weapon that was clearly an ancient artefact like her own, but of a very different style.

"Lenny suspected that these might be trolls, and they wondered if the meat stew they were given might in fact be hobbit.  Not that this stopped the very hungry Zippo from eating.  Once the strangers assured them that the meat was from some animals they'd found here and killed, and that one of them had cooked the rot out of it, everyone tucked in.

"The strangers wanted to know where they came from.  Silas, still suspicious, claimed they came from Zanzibar.  The strangers said they came from the ark, which was confusing, as they clearly weren't from the Seven Sisters.  Their ark was a boat, but it must have been a much bigger one than Zippo's canoe.  Zippo asked them if they'd seen a big red cross on a building anywhere, and they not only had seen one, but said they could take them there in the morning.

"With everyone tired and injured, they decided to get some sleep.  Still a little suspicious, Silas stayed awake to stay on watch and chat with the strangers.  He spun a long tale about the wonderful sunny land of Zanzibar.  And it was lucky he did stay awake, for he suddenly realised that their leader was about to attack.  The truth had come out.  The strangers were cannibals, and were planning on making Silas and the others their next meal.

"Silas loosed an arrow into the leader, but as he did so the end of the bow shattered, rendering it unusable.  The bolt from the leader's bow slammed into him, and the other strangers stood up - they'd only been pretending to sleep.  Silas threw himself out of the way, waking up the others, who joined the fight.

"The battle was brutal.  Katin loaned her spare bow to Silas, but it wasn't long before a desparate attempt to help a seriously injured Lenny caused her to break her own bow.  Silas took out one of their attackers, but knocked himself out in the process.  But it was Zippo who was the hero of the fight, sacrificing precious bullets to kill one of them, and when the remaining attackers decided to flee, taking down the leader so that his precious artefact bow could be retrieved."

Another sigh of relief from the audience.  While the group were hardly out of danger, at least for the moment they could rest easy.

---

If you'd like to watch us playing this game, we play on Sunday evenings on Twitch and you can also catch up on past games on YouTube.

The Path to Eden, episode 5: Heresy

Chronicler Venno's audience stared in rapt attention.  With his previous tale having gone down well, he felt confident to experiment a bit.

"Remember when we finished the croplands?"  A sea of nods.  The day of the first harvest when everyone got to eat something other than sourdough starter was etched on many of the people's memories.  "And work began on the sundial, despite some difficulty interpreting the instructions of the great prophet Ikea.  It seemed like the Ark was entering a new phase of enlightenment when the dreadful news arrived that the temple had been vandalised."

A susurrus moved through the crowd, but was silenced by a raise of Venno's hand.  "Not only had someone destroyed all the work done on the temple so far, but they had defiled the sacred carriage by writing the word 'heretic' all over it.  And worse still, they didn't even spell 'heretic' correctly!"

He paused for the inevitable gasp of shock.  "No, they wrote it with a k on the end!  And that's not the end of it.  To write it, they stole a sacred artefact, the rattling can!"  The gasps got louder.  "Boss Briktoria initially blamed Zippo, who had stopped working on the temple in order to lend his expertise to the sundial, but as a loyal follower of the Seven Sisters, he had no idea what had happened."

"Zippo being dragged away was noticed by Lenny and Katin, who'd been out working on the croplands, and Silas, the chronicler who had been attempting to interpret the word of Ikea at the sundial.  The three of them went to investigate, and concluded that the best thing for Zippo would be to find out who was really responsible so they could be properly blamed.  They searched the carriage until Katin caught the scent of chemicals in the paint and set off to follow the trail.

Katin led them on a roundabout journey through the Ark, until they arrived outside the corrugated iron building that served as Boss Johammed's headquarters.  Lenny persuaded the two enforcers outside the door to let them in, and a heated discussion followed.  It was clear Johammed was not happy about having his plans for a slave market disrupted, and his words suggested that he and his people might in fact be heretics.

There was no use starting a fight while so heavily outnumbered, however, so the four of them left, tipped off Briktoria about the heretics, and then went to talk to the elf about hospitals.

The elf still couldn't remember anything before being brought to the Ark, but she was able to draw them a symbol that she said meant hospital - a large cross, which she then tore out of the paper, and held up to the Sign of the Seven Sisters to show that it should be red.  With something to go on at last, the team stocked up on supplies and headed out into the zone.

The journey started quickly, taking the familiar path through the marshy grounds where they found the elf, but when the continued further, they found the terrain very different.  Here, nature had returned to the land, and trees had grown, destroying the buildings.  This all made sense, because the elf had come from this directions, and as the sacred texts tell us, elves live in forests.

Katin reminded everyone to be on the look out for giant spiders, trolls and unfriendly elves, but the creature she spotted was none of these things.  There was some speculation that it might be a warg, but Silas recognised it as a devourer, a terrifying beast with huge jaws that could swallow someone whole.  Lenny was ready to fight it, but the others were cautious and Katin suggested sneaking past it instead.

That might have worked, had Lenny not immediately fallen flat on his face and attracted the creature's attention.  It leaped at him at once, its huge jaws open wide..."

There was a sigh as the audience realised Venno had stopped.  He grinned.  Nothing like a cliffhanger to bring people back next time.

---

If you'd like to watch us playing this game, we play on Sunday evenings on Twitch and you can also catch up on past games on YouTube.

The Path to Eden, episode 4: The Hobbit

"Something a bit different today," Chronicler Venno told the assembled crowd.  "And it all begins with an argument."

"Boss Johamed was worried about the number of us in the Ark, and whether there were enough of us to do all the work he wanted done.  So he wanted to build a slave market.  But a lot of the people didn't like that idea.  After all, we'd been working on two other projects, the croplands and the temple, and the Seven Sisters had rewarded us by sending us the elf to replace Rodney."  The audience nodded approvingly.

"So it was decided that we would not build the slave market, and Boss Jarilla had another idea.  If we built a sundial we would be able to tell what time it was, so we could keep track of how long people had been working and manage the projects much better.  Some people weren't sure, because we can't see the sun underground, but Jarilla said that we could put it outside, and someone could be in charge of looking after it and telling everyone what the time is.

That seemed like an excellent idea, and it was agreed that the sundial would be the next project."

Venno noticed some fidgeting and whispering in the crowd, and snapped his fingers to silence them again.  "But you wanted to hear a tale. And this is a tale about...inside!"  The fidgeting ceased, while puzzled, but not uninterested faces looked back at him.

"It began one night when Katin was awoken by the clanging of someone knocking on the door to her den.  It was one of Briktoria's grunts, a friend of Eriel, and the news that Eriel needed help had Katin on her feet in a moment.

Katin found Eriel in the bathrooms, being very unwell, and after holding her hair for her, as is tradition, asked her what was going on.  Eriel told her that she'd been ill every morning for several days now.  There seemed to be something up with her stomach as well, and when she held Katin's hand against it, there seemed to be movement.

Katin was quite disturbed, and wondered if Eriel had eaten something that disagreed with her.  Eriel said she'd had some odd cravings.  They'd found some peanut butter and a jar of pickles...  'Is there any left?'  Katin asked immediately.  There was not, but she couldn't be annoyed with Eriel.

One of the other grunts thought Boss Briktoria needed to know about it, but Eriel didn't want her to.  If Briktoria knew she was ill and couldn't work, she'd stop giving Eriel food.  Katin knew she was out of her depth here.  Eriel needed medical help, and she couldn't do it.  But she knew someone who could.

Ren had had a good day.  He'd come up with a way to mess with Sixter, his least favourite person, with a bit of help from Stimpy.  He'd found a bit of loose mesh on Sixter's den, which was enough for Stimpy to wriggle his way inside and do his business.  Ren had been hoping for shoes, but the bed was an adequate substitute, and soon he and Stimpy were away, heading outside to join Katin and Lenny working on the croplands.  Some might say he hadn't achieved much out there, although Katin had appreciated the company.

But Sixter had somehow figured out who was responsible for the mess in his bed, and now he was outside Ren's den with a mouthful of threats and Enforcer Jonats to back them up.  Despite Ren's denials, things quickly escalated past threats to shoot Stimpy, and Jonats was attempting to kick down his door when Katin showed up.  He tried to tell her that she didn't need to get involved and that his door wasn't worth it, but Katin had her own score to settle with Jonats and wasn't going to let him hurt her friend.  She grabbed one of Jonats' arms, Ren grabbed the other, and together they pulled him away.

Once Jonats and Sixter had gone and Stimpy had been petted, Katin told Ren about Eriel's problem.  Ren wasn't sure what was going on, but was confident that with the aid of one of the sacred texts, the Health and Safety manual, he could figure it out.

Zippo was keen to begin work on the sundial project, but remembering the trouble he'd had with Briktoria before, decided to spend some time building the temple instead.  It went badly, to the point that Briktoria ended up throwing the book at him.  The book in question being the Health and Safety Manual, which he was now required to read until he learned to lift heavy objects safely.

Ren explained that Eriel might have some kind of parasite and he was concerned it might burst out of her.  Zippo couldn't remember anything like that in the Health and Safety manual, and wondered if the Ministry of Food book might also be useful if it was food poisoning, but suggested the next step should be to examine Eriel.

Zippo donned a monocle and picked up the Health and Safety Manual, and the three of them went to find Lenny, who would be needed to carry Eriel.  He was sleeping in his usual place in Boss Marlotte's outer office.  He wasn't impressed about being woken up, but on seeing Katin changed his mind and joined the group going to help Eriel.

After some medical prodding from Ren and Zippo, while Lenny consulted the book and Katin held Eriel's hand and assured her the others knew what they were doing, a conclusion was reached.  Eriel was 'pregant'.  Or possibly 'pregnut'.

The book had some useful information about 'pregant women', including that they should be handled carefully and shouldn't lift heavy objects.  It didn't say anything about a cure though.  However, Zippo and Katin remembered seeing 'pregant women' at the water plant, along with the hobbits.  Katin was concerned that this meant Eriel was going to turn into a hobbit.

The only way they were going to make sense of this was to take Eriel to the Dawn Vault and ask the Chroniclers for advice.  Eriel insisted she could walk, but Lenny insisted that she had to be carried.  Using proper lifting technique, of course.

Up at the Dawn Vault, Chronicler Puzzle Paul was finally able to supply some answers.  Eriel was pregnant, and was going to have a child, not turn into a hobbit, a confusing concept for the group.  A blessing from the elf, no doubt.  Zippo thought it might be something to do with the water, since there had been pregnant women at the water plant and it had happened since they had visited.

Puzzle Paul consulted a text from the Lost Prophecy box and announced it would take 280 days for the new hobbit to arrive.  He also said that an egg was involved, which again pointed to the water plant where they'd found a large bird.

Briktoria arrived at the Dawn Vault the next morning, and was stunned with the news of the blessing of a new hobbit.  She insisted that the temple needed to be finished urgently so Eriel could rest there.   She was reminded that it was very important that the croplands were finished with a hobbit on the way, as they were known to eat a lot.  And of course the sundial project was even more important now, to make sure everyone was doing the proper amount of work to get the croplands finished.  But after that, she was reassured, the temple would be the highest priority.

Briktoria felt that when the hobbit arrived, it would belong to the church.  There was a brief existential discussion on what comprised a hobbit, and some distress from Eriel, and finally the Elder was consulted.  Word came back that Eriel was having a child, not a hobbit, as a result of her getting a bit friendly with one of the zone ghouls at the water plant. The Elder's instructions were clear.  They needed to find a 'hospital', to get supplies, and maybe a 'library' which would contain a lot of knowledge.

Briktoria went out to spread the good news, while the group made plans.  Find a hospital.  But before that, find out what a hospital is."

The Path to Eden, episode 3: Go West

"Only time for a short one today," Chronicler Venno told the assembled crowd.  There was a faint murmur of disappointment, but not so much that he couldn't speak over it.  "Do you remember the day the ground shook?"  Enthusiastic nodding followed.  "And poor Rodney Rubble got killed by falling rocks while out clearing ground, and Boss Briktoria warned us that it was a punishment from the Seven Sisters for spending too much time working on the croplands and not working hard enough on the temple.  So once again, a group went to explore outside."

"There were rumours of a building to the west called the Alexandra Tower that surely had to contain many amazing things, perhaps even relics of the Seven Sisters.  So Lenny, Zippo and Katin set out to find a path to the tower.  They made sure to rest well beforehand.  Lenny had hurt his back clearing rubble for the croplands, Katin had got lost looking for good land for planting, and both Lenny and Zippo had attempted to read the journal they had found in the bird's nest, but found it made their brains hurt too much.

With Katin and the one-way-needle-pointing-device in the lead they left the safety of the Ark behind and ventured out west.  Soon they found the ground beneath their feet changing, becoming wetter and wetter until they were wading through marshland.  Katin warned everyone to watch out for evil fish in the water, but when they did see signs of life it was a woman emerging from the mouth of a dark tunnel.

Katin called out to her, but she answered in words that none of them could make out.  Was she a threat?  They weren't sure, but then she bent double, as if in serious pain, and lay face down in the water.  They decided they should try to rescue her.  Lenny fished her out of the water, and Zippo bandaged her wound.  Katin expected it to be a bite from a fish - after all, one of the sacred texts had an entire chapter on fish, so they were clearly important - but Zippo thought it was a cut, not a bite.

The mystery continued.  The woman wore strange purple coveralls, of a material none of them had seen before.  Her hair was neat and blonde, her skin was strangely smooth, and she showed no sign of any mutation.  She carried a bow, made of another strange material, which Zippo promptly handed over to Katin.

With the woman stabilised, they decided to do some further exploration, heading into the darkness of the tunnel.  Katin had had a good sniff of the woman, who had a weird chemical smell, and concluded that she had had come from the other side of the tunnel.  But beyond that, it was hard to say.

Fascinating as the mass of rusting vehicles leading out of the tunnel was, they finally decided they should go home.  Katin had identified a low level of rot, but not something they wanted to stay out in for long.  The strange woman was now awake, and after some more attempts at conversation they finally managed to make out enough words for a brief conversation.  She was very confused and seemed to have lost her memory, not even knowing her own name.

They checked her clothes, just in case her name was written on them, but unless her name was 'machine wash', which seemed unlikely, there was nothing of help there.  The final conclusion was that she was probably some kind of gift from the Seven Sisters, and that they should take her back to the Dawn Vault so that the chroniclers could talk to her.

There was some argument back at the Ark, when Boss Briktoria insisted that the strange woman should be brought to the shrine, not the Dawn Vault.  After all, who could she be but one of the Seven Sisters themselves?  Lenny was confused, because surely there were already seven sisters, with Briktoria being one of them, so did this mean there were now eight sisters?  But after some discussion of the sacred texts, things started to make sense.  This smooth skinned, blonde haired, bow carrying woman who spoke in a strange tongue could only be one thing.  An elf."

The Path to Eden, episode 2: The Early Bird

After skipping a week due to technical issues it was great to be back in the Big Smoke.  We were back up to four players, and the session began with a bit of housekeeping as we sorted out PC relationships with the new player and explained the absurdities of the Seven Sisters Ark.  We might be desperately low on food, defense and technology, but at least we can read!

The Early Bird

Chronicler Venno had no trouble assembling an audience after the cliffhanger he'd left them on last time.  The only difficulty was getting them all to be quiet as they fired question after question at him.  Only the threat of not continuing the story was enough to bring silence.

"'Hands up!'  The lead ghoul shouted at Katin, who immediately complied.  Fighting three ghouls had been bad enough, and there were definitely more than three here.  Possibly even dozens.  'Drop your weapons and come with us.  We know about your friends.'

Katin hadn't been able to stop herself glancing up at the tower, where Lenny and Zippo were now rapidly descending.  'How about if I come with you without making a fuss and I get to keep hold of my weapons?'  They did not find her argument convincing.  The same suggestion from Lenny carried more weight.  Or possibly more spikes.

The three of them were taken over to the large pools, where they saw a familiar face.  Or rather two familiar faces, as in a pair of cages they found Ren, the final missing member of the first expedition, and his dog Stimpy.

The zone ghouls demanded to know why they were there and if they were trying to steal water.  Of course they told them that they were looking for their previous group, and managed to distract them from too much further questioning by demonstrating their ability to read the signs on the walls, something the zone ghouls couldn't do.

Finally a compromise was reached.  They would be allowed to go free and given some grub and water on the condition that they dealt with the bird from the tower.  If they dealt with a previously unmentioned worm infestation, they would be allowed to return for more water.  And if they provided reading lessons, then the Seven Sisters water pipe would be connected to their supply and the Ark would have fresh water again.

Before they could do any of that though, they needed to rest.  After a night's sleep and some water and grub, they were feeling ready to take on their list of tasks.

The bird was back in the tower.  They discussed the possibility of climbing up there to attack it in its nest, but finally concluded that the risk of falling off the tower themselves was too high.  Waiting for it to leave and ambushing it when it got back was also too risky.  They were going to have to attack it on the ground.  For that they needed bait.  Maybe they could use the worms?

They went to ask the zone ghouls where the worms were, but found almost all of them engaged in some kind of ritual around the water pools.  One of them seemed to be in charge, speaking words from what must have been their sacred teachings, but learned by rote instead of from a sacred tome.  Only a few smaller ones, possibly the hobbits spoken of in our sacred tome, were able to answer questions.  The hobbits told them that the worms lived in the water and sometimes came out and snatched people away.

They conducted a thorough search of the pools, but none of them contained any worms.  Only when the ritual was complete could they ask the ghouls' leader to show them where to find them.

They were taken to a separate round pool, away from the main pool.  It was indeed full of unpleasant looking worms, with mouths full of sharp mandibles.  While they wondered what to do about them, Stimpy made the decision for them by barking angrily at the worms.

A swarm of the hideous creatures came slithering out of the pool towards them.  Lenny immediately started smashing them up with his spiked bat and Katin managed to impale a couple with her arrows, but it wasn't long before the huge bird joined the fight, snatching up clawfuls of worms.

Katin saw straight away what had to be done.  Her first arrow went wide, but the second pinned down the bird so Lenny could get in with his bat.  While the others dealt with the remnants of the worms, Lenny spat acid onto the bird, and at last it was defeated.  Lenny handed the remains over to the ghoul leader.

One item off the list, but the worm problem remained.  They'd only managed to deal with a small number.  They couldn't possibly kill them all one at a time like this.

Zippo had the answer.  After some more rest, he got to work, using scraped up bird droppings and other bits and pieces to construct an explosive.  All they needed to do was to drop it into the pool and then run away.

Katin volunteered.  Once the others had retreated to a safe distance, she dropped Zippo's bomb and ran.  Moments later there was a massive explosion with water and worms flying in all directions.  And Katin was still inside the blast radius.

The others came running, ignoring the rain of worm guts.  The blast had caused few external injuries, but had done enough damage to cause internal bleeding.  Without help she would be dead in minutes.  Lenny cradled her to hold her still while Ren got to work.  With some help from Zippo, and Stimpy ready to lick wounds, he did his best to stabilise her before she bled to death.

A few tense minutes passed, but at last they could all breath easy as Katin's blood stayed where it was supposed to be and Ren could patch up her remaining injuries.

And so the group returned victorious.  Having defeated both the bird and the worms, they were able to bring back both the previous expedition members and some fresh water, and we sent back chroniclers to teach the ghouls how to read their sacred text.  And that is the story of how fresh water was brought to the Seven Sisters."

Zenno sat back, basking in the applause.

(If you want to watch the actual play of this game, you can find it on Twitch and a few days later on YouTube.) 

The Path to Eden, episode 1: A Canoe Over Troubled Water

Mutant: Year Zero kicked off properly last night, and while we were down a player, we still had a great time.

It's fascinating to me how the Year Zero Engine gets modified for every new game Fria Ligan produces, and getting to see how it started out has been pretty exciting.  This is probably the most complicated implementation I've seen, requiring three different colours of dice, and it's the only one where I'd actually be tempted to buy the official dice for tabletop play.  Fortunately there are some decent character sheets and macros available on Roll20 as this would be a struggle with a more basic dice roller app.

There's a lot of moving parts, and we're taking a little time to get used to it all, but the parts all work, and add to the overall experience.  It feels like the effort is paying off.  Post-apoc is a new genre for me, but I'm starting to get a feel for the overall desperation of the setting just from the way the rules work.

So here's how things went down...

A Canoe Over Troubled Water

Education and culture was valued highly in the Seven Sisters Ark.  Many of the inhabitants could read a little, even if it was only the words 'Seven Sisters' written on the walls, and everyone enjoyed listening to stories.  The audience that Chronicler Venno had gathered today were not high status enough in the Ark to hear the readings of the Sacred Tomes, but they were all ready to hear one of his tales from outside.

"It was when the water was running out.  There were rumours of a place out in the zone where we would be able to find all the clean water we needed, enough to support the Ark for years.  An expedition went out in search of it.  When they didn't come back, a second group went out to look for them.

There were three of them in the second group.  Stalker Katin, to guide them through the zone, Gearhead Zippo, to examine the machinery they hoped to find, and Enforcer Lenny, to keep the other two safe.  Lenny also carried Zippo's artefact; a vessel that would carry them across the lake that lay between them and the mysterious Pure Plant.  Lenny was sceptical of the craft's ability to keep them all afloat.  Zippo gave Lenny permission to punch him if it failed.  Katin assured everyone that the lake was not deep, and instructed them that in the event of them falling in, they should run for the shore.

As they took to the water, Lenny was reminded of the journey of Frodo and Sam from one of the Sacred Tomes.  A short paddle later (with Lenny sitting at one end of the canoe and Katin and Zippo attempting to balance his weight at the other) they pulled up at the jetty and started to look around.  Katin headed into a small building, while Lenny and Zippo waited outside.  A slight mist hung over the lake, but even through that they could make out movement in the distance.  They were not alone on this island.

Katin returned from scouting.  The building was empty, apart from a bit of old furniture and a lot of bird droppings, but she had found two things - a baseball bat and some muddy footprints.

They picked up the trail, Katin's sense of smell taking over once footprints failed, and made their way to a larger building.  Signs of a fight weren't hard to find.  Katin silently pointed out the blood splatters to the others.  A blocked door lay ahead of them, and they prepared their weapons...

And then realised that whoever was behind it was probably hiding from something dangerous outside, rather than the other way around.  Katin knocked on the door.  After introducing themselves as members of the Seven Sisters Ark, the barricaded door was opened and they were allowed inside.

Three survivors were sheltering in the building: Enforcer Nelma, Gearhead Lambda and Grunt Eriel.  Katin hugged Eriel and asked what was going on, and Nelma explained.  There were dangers on the island.  Zone ghouls.  A number of them.  A number that was definitely 'some', probably 'quite a few', possibly 'dozens' and maybe even 'at least fifty'.  However many of them there were though, it was enough to cause trouble.  But they weren't the only danger.

A tall tower stood nearby, and in the top nested a huge bird.  It had captured their stalker and taken him to its nest.  He was probably dead, and almost as bad, all his gear was up there too.

There was only one thing for it.  They were going to have to get up that tower to the nest and retrieve the stalker's gear.  Fortunately Lenny was familiar with the passages in one of the Sacred Tomes about the proper health and safety precautions to take when climbing.  Another of the Sacred Tomes mentioned how eagles sometimes rescued people from the tops of towers rather than taking them there, but perhaps the bird had not read the text?

Katin scouted outside, and spotted three zone ghouls that had wandered into the area.  They could try to sneak past them to the tower, but with Lenny on side, a more direct approach seemed viable.  It would also reduce the number of zone ghouls they would have to deal with later.

Katin passed the baseball bat she'd found to Zippo, then dived into some solid cover.  While she traded arrows for slingshot pebbles with one ghoul, Zippo threw himself at another.  Fortunately he had Lenny for backup.

The fight was gruelling, and by the time all three zone ghouls had been put down (and additionally smashed by Lenny to make sure they stayed down) the three of them were injured and exhausted.  They debated resting for a while, but that would risk more zone ghouls showing up and then they'd be in an even worse position.  They had to go now.

Lenny began the climb up the rickety ladder, closely followed by Zippo.  Katin found her tired arms refused to support her, and waited at the bottom.

Armed with the knowledge of the Sacred Health and Safety Manual, Lenny and Zippo reached the top of the tower and began searching.  Many treasures revealed themselves: a gun, bullets, water, and two exciting artefacts - some kind of hand written book and a device with a pointing needle.  They loaded up and prepared to leave before the flappy bird returned.

Meanwhile, at the base of the tower, Katin heard footsteps.  More zone ghouls - far more than she could take on by herself.  And then one spoke."

There was a collective sigh and some disgruntled mumbling from the audience when they realised Zenno had finished.  Zenno just smiled.  They could wait until next time.

(Thanks to some internet woes, not all of this game is on Twitch but it should appear more or less intact on YouTube if you want to watch it later.)

First Time Playing: Mutant Year Zero

It's no secret that I love Fria Ligan games and the Year Zero engine.  But while I've played plenty of Coriolis and Alien, until now I'd never really looked at the game that gave its name to the engine: Mutant Year Zero.  I have a PDF copy, acquired when Fria Ligan did a one-day giveaway, but with no likely opportunity to play, I hadn't got round to reading it.

And then came the invitation.

This wasn't just my first time playing Mutant Year Zero.  It was also my first time appearing on a streamed game.  So I was initially a little nervous, but really it was not much different to the online games I've been playing for the last three months.  The main differences were that break times were reliably set every hour (which is something I should think about more in my own games, as my god am I bad at remembering to take breaks) and that I put slightly more thought into my own appearance than usual.

The first game was Session 0, in which we created our characters, established relationships between them and NPCs, and defined the Ark in which they all live.  Like the other YZE games I've played, character creation was mechanically very simple.  Having picked the Stalker role, I simply had to assign a few points to stats and skills, pick one of three talents, and draw a mutation card.  Where character creation shines, and where we ended up spending a fair amount of time, was on the relationships between characters and NPCs.

By the time this process was finished, we'd established that Rudy Russo the Fixer was somewhat unpopular with the rest of the party - although obviously his ability to get hold of decent equipment is likely to endear him to us eventually.  This process did a great job of making the group feel like a coherent team of real people, and also set up some potential hooks for future character development.  It also lead us very well into creating our Ark, with a number of key players already in place.

The book provides a number of suggestions for where the Ark can be set, but the first one to get mentioned, and the one that we went with, was 'subway station' - although since we're playing in the Big Smoke zone, it's a tube station.  Then we had to decide where it was.  Being right in the middle of the zone isn't a great idea, but as anyone who's travelled on the London Underground a lot will know, not all of the Underground is actually underground.  However, with a bit of research we did manage to find a suitable location - Seven Sisters - which also set us up nicely for thinking about the NPCs in our Ark.

By the end of the session we had our PCs and our home base all well defined and ready for playing in.  It was also a lot of fun.  Fria Ligan's take on character creation is so much more fun than the more traditional approach I'm used to from games like D&D.

Since this is a streamed game, you can go and watch it on Twitch or wait for it to appear on Youtube.  We'll be playing on Sunday evenings, UK time, and I can't wait.