Christian Ashley leads a wild ride in this episode of "Geeks on a Roll," diving headfirst into the question: does the media we consume really matter as long as we’re entertained? The crew assembles a ragtag team featuring Jessica Jones, Nightcrawler, Hondo Ohnaka, Friar Tuck, Alfred Borden, and Tinker Bell, embarking on a quest that blends theology and tabletop gaming in a campaign called "Incursive Entertainment." As they navigate the chaotic world of Gotham, our players grapple with moral quandaries and unexpected twists—think "Murder World" meets philosophical musings. With clever banter and witty exchanges, the gang has a blast exploring how storytelling can reflect deeper truths while keeping the fun factor cranked to eleven. Buckle up for some epic character dynamics, a sprinkle of humor, and a whole lot of geeky exploration! Kicking off with an easygoing vibe, the 'Geeks on a Roll' episode on Systematic Geekology takes listeners on a rollicking journey through a tabletop RPG campaign called 'Incursive Entertainment.'

The players, TJ Blackwell and Evan Garcia, embody a vibrant cast of characters, including Jessica Jones and Nightcrawler, as they venture into a story filled with intrigue and adventure. The episode opens with a casual roundtable where the crew shares their latest obsessions, crafting a relaxed atmosphere that sets the stage for the ensuing escapades. The conversational style is peppered with humor and clever remarks, making it feel like a hangout with friends rather than a structured podcast. As the narrative unfolds, the team grapples with weighty themes about the media they consume and its implications on morality and entertainment. The players explore how their characters might respond to various ethical dilemmas, adding a layer of depth to their role-playing experience.

With Christian Ashley at the helm as game master, the dynamics between players spark lively discussions about theology and play, illustrating how these fictional narratives can reflect real-life moral questions. The introduction of characters like Hondo Ohnaka and Tinker Bell adds delightful twists to the unfolding plot, creating unexpected moments of levity amid the tension. The episode builds to a thrilling crescendo with the arrival of Arcade, who turns the stakes up by inviting the characters into a deadly game. The playful banter continues as the players navigate the challenges posed by this new villain, showcasing their unique abilities and strategies.

This mix of humor, philosophical exploration, and high-stakes drama culminates in an engaging session that leaves listeners eagerly anticipating the next chapter. With its blend of iconic characters and thoughtful commentary on entertainment, this episode not only entertains but also prompts listeners to reflect on the stories they engage with and the characters they admire.

Takeaways:

• The episode dives deep into the idea of exploring theology through role-playing games, blending creativity with spiritual reflection.
• Listeners learn how characters like Jessica Jones and Nightcrawler navigate moral dilemmas in a tabletop game setting, showcasing their unique personalities.
• The group's dynamic is enriched by the contrasting backgrounds of characters ranging from a con man to a magical fairy, sparking hilarious interactions.
• The campaign, titled 'Incursive Entertainment', introduces a thrilling plot where the characters must save the Psycho Pirate and confront dark forces.
• Christian Ashley, as the game master, emphasizes a collaborative storytelling approach, encouraging players to think outside the box and engage fully.
• The episode wraps up with a cliffhanger that leaves listeners on the edge of their seats, eagerly anticipating the next part of the adventure.

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Systematic Geekology

Our show focuses around our favorite fandoms that we discuss from a Christian perspective. We do not try to put Jesus into all our favorite stories, but rather we try to ask the questions the IPs are asking, then addressing those questions from our perspective. We are not all ordained, but we are the Priests to the Geeks, in the sense that we try to serve as mediators between the cultures around our favorite fandoms and our faith communities.

Does the media we consume matter so long as we're entertained? This is systemic ecology. We are the priests of the geeks. Going to another special episode of Geeks on a Roll.

It's my first time actually leading, you know, Joshua and I gave one to TJ and Will last time. But this is actually me in charge.

This is one of our series that we're doing, Theology is Play, where we're creating these grand scenarios, getting different characters from different stories together for the purposes of just having fun. I joined, of course today, Christian Ashley by two wonderful men, one of whom. Who's done this before, the other.

This is his entrance into the scenario. We got TJ Blackwell. How's it going, tj?

Great, thank you.

Perfect. And of course we have Evan Garcia. What's going on, Evan?

Affirmative.

All right, so gentlemen, what we have here is the beginning. And at the very beginning we like to ask what everyone's been geeking out on. So who would like to go first?

Oh, I was just watching the ping pong movie with. With what's his face? A Marty Supreme. Oh, yeah, it was pretty wild. It was a pretty wild movie. It's a fun one.

It really threw me off that he didn't have really a real accent like everyone else. But once the soundtrack kicked in and it was the. And I figured out, okay, it's not that kind of movie.

So.

Alright.

Yeah, it's one of my favorite pieces of ping pong media. I'd say it's up there.

I. I can see why.

Okay, tj.

Yeah, for me, I just, I have a perspective thing that I would like to be geeking out on.

Okay.

Eventually.

I've been working so much the past week, I've mostly been geeking out on the backside of my eyelids, but hopefully when we're done recording tonight, I'm gonna start playing Invincible versus the. The Invincible Fighting Game came out today.

Is that released or is it still in beta?

Oh, it's out. It's out now.

Okay.

Came out nine hours ago or seven hours ago, something like that.

Okay.

So can't wait to get into that.

Right at the end of season four. Good time me.

In light of what we were doing today, this actually inspired me, based on a character selection, to actually watch a movie I'd been planning to watch for like 20 some years. And that was the prestige and I really enjoyed it. I think, I believe, Elvin, that was your idea to include that character. So thank you for that.

Oh, right on, man.

And as well, just a little, you know, I'm feeling Pretty good. I was playing some Pokemon Violet earlier and I got two back to back Charmander shinies and I'm feeling pretty good about that too.

So not to flex on anyone or anything watering ticket, but today's been a good. I should probably go out and get one at this point. So those who don't know this is part of our, you know, Geeks on a Roll series.

I'm actually repping the shirt for that. You can buy from us. Go ahead down the links below. Love this shirt. I mean, it's got some really cool stuff on the back.

I'm not going to turn around just to mess up the flow of the video. So part of this is that we kind of discussed the idea that one of the things Joshua came up with when he first had this idea is theology as play.

So in light of that, like, how can we explore our theology through playing a role playing situation like this?

I think it really depends on who is involved.

Like, I like any role playing anything, but a lot of roleplay scenarios, you know, whether it's online, tabletop, whatever it is, they kind of play out as conversations between, you know, you and you and your game master.

So there's a ton of potential there for exploring your theological processes and new ones just by putting yourself in the footsteps of someone who adheres to that. So it can be a great tool depending on who you've got in your corner. It could also be nothing, unfortunately.

The Big Old Nothing Burger.

Big Old Nothing Burger. So it depends.

How do you feel about it, Evan?

Hey, I. This is a blank slate for me. It's wide open spaces. So I'm trying to find another Dixie Chicks reference, but I can't come up with.

Yeah, Evan. Before we started, Evan told me he's never done any role playing game.

I haven't.

Oh, wow. I get to be your first Dungeon Master. That is a high honor. I will take it. Yeah, I've been on several of these before.

I've been in many different role playing groups before.

And one of the things that I universally, I kind of feel is that my theology does impact how I create a character in the first place and then have them respond to things that, you know, whatever DM I'm working with or whatever I do as a DM that I expect my players to work with, like, hey, I'm going to set some moral quandaries in front of you. What are you going to do? You know, if I played this character that I made earlier, well, he would probably respond this way.

If I play this character Here she probably would do that instead. Based on, oh, this is. When I was at this stage in my life, I was thinking more about this. Where I was in this stage, I was thinking more about that.

And I think one of the things this can do is like, give us opportunities to see how we've grown, what we're currently struggling with, but also just have fun at the same time. The purpose isn't for me to beat you at this game. The purpose is for me to tell a story alongside you.

Yeah, that's how I'm always taking.

As someone who's played in one of Christian's games before, he definitely. He wastes no time with. With the moral quandaries and the ambiguity side of things.

So a lot of cable cars on track.

Yes. Yeah, that unfortunately was one that kind of fizzled out too soon. It just, we just. Time got in the way. But I did enjoy it while it lasted.

But we're here right now. We're going into another, you know, games sort of series here. Geeks on a roll.

Kind of the big basis of this is once again, theology is play, but also just having fun. So my job in this is to be more of a yes and not necessarily no. Unless there's. There's actually an affirmative no that needs to be said.

Like, I shoot an arrow at the sun. Natural 20. Do I hit the sun? No, that's not how things work. But yeah, but it's like, oh, I have this idea.

Well, I hadn't considered that you'd think that idea. So let me work with you on that idea.

So being more flexible, open and honest, like, yeah, there are some things that would be more rigid than others, but we'll work on that together as well. I'm not a professional voice actor by any stretch of the imagination, so I'll probably flip flop between character voices and one.

One may sound completely different from one sentence to the next. You know, it's perfectly fine. You know what if you can be with me there, join me on the journey.

If that's something that gets you very upset about, I maybe, maybe skip this one.

Right.

It's easier to have fun and just see the wacky ideas that I had. Like, this was a lot of fun to make because I could literally do anything and that's part of the fun of this.

So I'm very interested to see how you guys do this. There are some other set rules in life. If they come up, they come up. So the first part of this is I want to see the characters.

Obviously, I know already but for the audience, who did you pick? I gave you a group of like character archetypes to choose from. The first one was a private investigator.

So who did you choose for your private investigator, gentlemen?

So as a, as a precursor for those who are unfamiliar with the series, we are supposed to work together and build these teams. I've been doing a ton of work and when Evan submitted his picks, I just kind of went, I like all those characters. And we ran with that.

That's how that worked for us this time.

My room.

Jessica Jones.

Okay. The one and only Jessica Jones for your private investigators. Superheroine mother, private investigator detective. Very multifaceted. Excellent pick.

We'll get into the why you picked them in a bit. So that's your first off. The next archetype I gave you was a non omega level mutant. And I specified non omega level because omega.

If I just said a mutant from X Men, a lot of these would just break any campaign you went through. So.

Sure.

Who is your non omega level mutant pick?

So this was Nightcrawler because we, yeah, we'd had to get in the. The. The three bladed. The. The three bladed swordman in there.

Teleporter. Catholic. Good man. Great mutant too. Excellent pick. Next up was a con man,.

Hondo Onaka. Such a good poll for a con man. Such a good pull for a comment. Not what I would have thought of legitimate businessman.

Seeing everything. Like fought Count Du and lived. Oh, yeah, great experience there. Excellent pick. Next up on our docket was a priest.

And I let this one be a little more open. I said any earth religion. And you picked Friar Tuck.

Friar Tuck.

Friar Tuck from Disney's Robin Hood. A solid pick if there ever was one. I'm not trying to butter you up, Evan, but I really enjoyed the creativity you got with a lot of these.

Right on. Yeah, perfect.

Next up, we have a stage magician.

Who is Alfred Borden.

The Prestige forced me to watch the film so I could know who the character was. You know what, you never saw the film? Like I said, I'd never seen the film. It's always been on my list.

Right.

And I knew the twist beforehand because it's been 20 some years. But like that actually enhanced the movie to me because I don't care about spoilers. It's like, oh, can I guess it beforehand?

Yeah, I was like, almost there. But like it makes sense.

Yeah. One of Nolan's less appreciated movies.

Yes.

I will say, you know, spoilers for a 20 year old film given that you chose to use this character. There is a Twist in the film where there's not just one character, but two.

What I'm going to let you do, because I think this is fun, is there will only ever be one, unless you choose to let him. Kind of multiple man himself.

I was one could do recon or something like that, and if one were to be injured or die, it would just come back to the hole. The only way he's out is if the original is gone. Kind of multiple and duplicate, that kind of scenario.

Okay.

So I wanted to reward your pick. I thought that was a good one.

Right on. Right on.

Yeah.

All right. And this one dark horse pick. Wasn't thinking of this one, but it's one that Evan came up with. And I said, you know what? Sure. You're a magical girl.

And I had specified it couldn't be the main character of a series. But instead of who I was thinking.

You went with, you went with Tinkerbell.

Yep. Hilarious. Subversion of the category. You know, I was reading Evan's pics, and I was like, oh, yeah, Tinkerbell. I love Tinkerbell.

I proposed to the, like, the Tinkerbell actor at Disney World one time just because I thought it'd be funny. So I saw that big, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't blame you. I don't blame you.

So, all right, so that's your team. I'd like to hear, like, Evan, what was your motivation since you were the ultimate arbiter here?

Like, why did you choose each of these for each category?

Honestly, I didn't give too much thought for these. I just. For Jessica Jones. I've been watching season one because, because I never seen it, So I did that Nightcrawler. He's my favorite Hondo.

I probably just rode the A Riot at Disney, so he was fresh on my mind. A Friar Tuck. I've always liked the, the character, and he's kind of a. I don't know. He's just generally cool guy. I thought Alfred Borden.

It reminded me of Feet Twist, and I thought it would be. Thought that would play good. And Tinkerbell. Same. I had a few more. More kind of obvious ones, but I went with this one. I, I. What's it called?

Rian Johnson.

Yeah. You know, friend of the show.

Ryan Johnson.

Forgot his name. No, friend of the show. Trip Fuller did get to record with Rian Johnson.

That's right. And that was a great episode.

That was cool. But I thought the one that really tripped me up was stage magician. Like fictional stage magician. There's not a lot to choose from fictional.

Yeah, so that was.

That was a good pick. That was a good pick.

It was either that or the. Or the Hugh or the Hugh Jackman character for me. So, yeah, either one would have worked. Yeah.

Great job there. So who do you think. Who do you imagine would be like the leader of this group?

Probably Hondo or Friar Tuck.

Yeah, maybe like the character wise, you mean? Oh, okay.

I mean, obviously you're the leader. Am I really?

What?

Oh, yeah.

I don't know what I'm doing.

So you think that there's a triumvirate here?

I think Alfred Borden's the most likely to. To like, take the lead in a team.

But Jessica Jones won't let him take the lead. She'll be very pissed off about everything.

Yeah.

Okay. All right. So the last time we did this is where we have our current high score. This is 48 as done by Mark Flower and myself.

Grubbing. Good job.

Doesn't necessarily. Yeah, it doesn't necessarily have to be to beat that score. It is just what it currently is.

It is actually possible today for you to it to beat this score depending on decisions that you make. The composition. That's the word I'm looking for of your team.

As always, there are bonus points you guys will have access to depending on choices made in the midst of this. You will not know them beforehand, obviously, but they will change everything about this game. And I will know if you do them or not.

And we'll find out at the very end and score you. So before we go any further, do you guys have any questions about how this runs? Anything you want to do?

I don't know what.

I.

Have one question. Can we have some bonus points if.

You do the right thing multiple times over?

I thought that the right thing is.

Asking is always good. That is nice. Next time I may add that to a slide. That way it wouldn't be cheating right now to give you bonus points for being nice.

But I'll keep that in mind for future endeavors. So your team suddenly finds yourself in front of this man.

And one thing I should also notice note to everyone listening, is that I also forbade them from using people who had been used in the past. And some of these. And Batman was one of them. And this is one of the reasons why this is.

I think it's more creative to just use more characters than who we picked originally. So that's not what other the ends when I have to do this have to do. That's a personal rule I put myself.

Okay.

If they decide to good for them. If they decide not to good for them.

All right, so this balding gentleman, much like myself, very distinguished, very British, has stepped up from his computer to look at all of you. And he says, well, it's finally time we help explain everything. So here's what you need to know for right now. You have all been brought here.

You have not worked previously by an incursive transporter to the Batcave. You are told a little enough about the world to know what's going on. Superheroes and the like, crime, so on and so forth.

Alfred here has activated the transporter under orders from his employer, Batman, who is currently in space with the Justice League, Titans, jsa, and as many more groups as I need to say as they're off fighting dark side forces yet in yet another crisis event. Thus explaining why they're not here for the story. They can't save us knowing this would happen. Yep.

Batman created the incursive teleporter to find worthy protectors able to guard Earth in his absence from people willing to take advantage of that.

In that time, since, the Justice League and alike have left an unknown villain has left behind a message where they explain that they know the true purpose of this reality and are working to destroy everything in it. This same villain has kidnapped the Psycho Pirate. And you need to find him and discover what the villain's plans are.

The Psycho Pirate is, of course, a noted D.C. villain who knows what happened pre and post crisis.

Which one?

The second one.

Okay. Roger Hayden's like a pilot.

The original didn't really. Yes, Roger Hayden. So, you have any questions for Alfred before you go out? Are you ready to go?

Did Batman leave us, Like a budget?

Tools.

He says that if you require anything, the Master will be more than happy to provide what he can in compensation. He will also keep account of what you actually use and what you don't. So be wise.

All right. I think Alfred Borden and maybe Nightcrawler and definitely Jessica Jones would have way more questions. But I don't.

Same.

What do you think those questions would be?

I don't know. That's why I'm not asking them.

Okay, I'm not.

Fair enough.

But I will give you additional information. Is that it was basically one of those things where the villain sent out messages across multiple media. Disguised their voice. The look.

It was basically those garbled images you see of someone giving testimony on the stand. I can't really tell who it is, what they sound like, anything like, but there's really no one else who can Respond to this right now.

That's why he had to use the incursive transporter. Out of desperation. So you're the best that he's got.

So we are trying to save someone. Sorry, I would.

Yeah, you're trying to find out who this person is who threatened to destroy all of reality. Because he knows how it actually works, as well as why and how he took the Psycho pirate. And maybe bring him to safety, if possible.

All right. Psychopirate.

Because he is a villain. Alfred says he's still a villain. But Master Bruce would be very upset if something would have happened to him. He does believe in a no killing rule.

Okay.

All right, all right.

So how do you go about this investigation? I will tell you where it happened.

This happened at one of the local fundraising sites that they kind of host and the different billionaires and the like in the area. A gala that Bruce probably would have been in if he'd been there, but he wasn't on Earth. So he doesn't know why the Psycho pirate was there.

He just knows that the villain took him there. And that's where the message started.

Okay, so Jessica will probably have us go that way. Check out the scene of the crime first thing. And.

Well, Nightcrawler can't just bamf everyone over there, but Tinkerbell might fly them across the city.

Can everyone in the group think happy thoughts?

Yeah, okay.

I think. I think it's possible. Yeah, that works. Is she able to explain the process? I mean, she's mostly nonverbal, as far as I'm aware.

Outside of, like, other media where she's the main character.

Right. Which. Which would be cheating. So she can't. She could probably. Probably get it across. Most of our people are quite intelligent.

They've probably seen Peter Pan.

Yeah, most of our characters have probably seen Peter Pan.

Yeah, I can go with that.

So they're excited, you know, Jessica Nightcrawler.

So everyone now.

Yeah, everyone now, as long as they are emotionally stable and are able to think of happy thoughts, can have the ability to fly as you approach the building. It is one of the many skyscrapers of Gotham City. That neo Gothic design could be in any point in time in history that it was made.

You notice there, there's police cruisers around, but when they see. I don't know. Did you take the Bat plane there, or did you go straight from the Batcave, flying?

You know, we did our due diligence and got out. One of the secret passages, probably one of the escape routes that the Bat plane will take just without Flying the Bat plane.

I don't think anyone's confident enough to fly the Bat plane, even. Even Honda.

So you could set it on autopilot.

Yeah, Hondo actually probably would have jumped at the fly the Bat plane.

Okay, so I will say, just for the sake of simplicity, you do make it there, and you all do fly out of the Bat plane itself when they see people emerging from it. Like, obviously you're not Batman, but who else would be inside of something that Batman has, other than heroes?

Even though not everyone involved is a hero here. You know what? They don't know that.

So the assumption is around from the police, you see, is that they're going to let you inside to examine the crime scene. So, as you do, I would. Who would you imagine in your group is the most perceptive?

Jessica Jones.

Yeah, she is eyeing them all down.

Alfred Borden's up there. He's very persistent.

Cena, since they've talked to each other, do you think that they would get along enough to where Alfred could use to help action with her?

I think he. I think he wouldn't.

Okay, so then go ahead and run me a D20. Tell me what you get.

But Evan should roll the next one. Get it? That's what I got.

What'd you get, buddy?

Four.

Four. All right. I was going to give Jessica a 10 plus modifier, so that's a 14, so that's decent. Not enough to actually get all your bearings here.

Looking around, there's obviously been some distress. You see some dead billionaires on the floor who had attended this gala. Whoever had attacked them caused massive devastation.

What I will tell you is looking around, she does notice a torn off piece of clothing when she does pick it up. It has a purple and green coloration.

Okay, so we have a lead. We have some. We have some evidence. Jessica, of course, will try and keep that. Sneak that out however she has to, and maybe consult most of them.

They're given a wide berth. Yeah, like obviously Batman contracted you to do this. Like that you couldn't possibly be acting on your own accord when you came in the Bat wing.

Of course you're on his side.

Yeah. So you said the messages were here.

No, this is where it was broadcasted from originally. And what you do find, actually, in light of that, go ahead and give me an investigation rule.

I'm going to try one more time, and then it's still bad. Okay. 17.

17 Base. Base 17.

Yeah, easy.

You'd be. I mean, for this one, I wouldn't really put Jessica's intelligence up that great. But I would put her as proficient in investigation.

So I don't actually have her stats in front of me. We'll just say a plus six for right now. Yeah, so we'll say it's a 23. All the numbers are made up anyways. We're fine.

So what she finds in her investigation is that she was lucky enough to find that scrap of purple and green clothing. And as she does so, she looks around a little bit more and then sees that the stairway leading down there's another ripped off piece and some blood.

All right, so looking.

But before she heads that way, what she experiences for a moment, she sees something out of the corner of her eye. She looked around. She can't quite narrow down exactly where it was with that roll, but it was enough for her to notice something out of the ordinary.

Does Nightcrawler see it?

She points it out to him that there's something around that she couldn't quite get the grip. He can actually look around himself. I will not have you roll for this one.

Given his reflexes and the like, he bams exactly directly to where it was, attempts to grab it and it leaves. But he saw it long enough.

Okay.

He goes back to report to everyone else. He says, this is. I thought it was some type of mobile camera drone. Very small, circular colored. I thought it was purple and green, but it changed.

For a moment it was a diseased yellow, but then it returned to that purple and green coloration.

All right. Friar Tuck obviously will, you know, send out prayers for. For the dead bodies here before we move on.

What? Well, what do you think he's saying? Like, how does he pray over them?

Well, he's very overwhelmed. He's been on a plane and seen superpowers, so he's just going to say the Lord's Prayer, probably center himself, pray over these.

His will be done.

Yeah.

Okay. I'd like you to roll me a D100, please. Or would you rather I did it?

I got one.

Okay.

Oh, actually, I don't have one. The set of dice I'm using are from the Cosmere role playing game.

Okay, well, I have them, so I can go ahead and do that. He got a 60 even. So what I will tell you is that in light of his prayer, there's a moment where he feels another presence.

A kind presence, one that he's never felt before, but one that he feels, has heard the prayer, isn't the one the prayer was directed towards.

But maybe working with God, he feels positive, but he doesn't know like, it's hard for him to put that into words, especially with everything else that he's experienced so far. It feels like you are being watched. It's something separate from whatever that drone was, but it's positive.

Can. Can a Tinkerbell shine some light on it?

Yeah, absolutely. She can use. I mean, she can enlighten the area around them.

That'll make investigations a lot easier, but also make everyone a target later on, maybe potentially never know. But for right here and now, from what you can see. No. No role needed. Like, there is no other person here except for the GCPD and you.

And whatever that camera drone thing was, you can't see it right now.

All right, so we will follow the trail of torn cloth and blood. Jessica will probably want to lead the way. Hondo will want to be in the back. Will not let him sneak off and not be involved in this situation.

All right, as you do, as you go down the stairwell together, who's taking lead? You said Jessica, probably. Okay. Going down. She doesn't see any more scraps of closing. She does see what looks like signs of blood.

Again, it is red, so it looks humanoid at the very least. And as you get to the bottom of the stairs, like, the lights are flickering a little bit, she kind of pauses for a moment.

There's a body laying in the middle of the hallway in front of you. And for a moment, she says, there's someone else here, but when you look up, none of you see anything.

And she's kind of blinking as well, like, did I see someone or not? I don't know, but there's definitely a body there.

On the stairs?

No, in the hallway after you've gone down the stairs.

How long is the hallway?

You would guess probably 40, 50 yards.

That's a huge hallway. Can Nightcrawler.

You're in a skyscraper in Gotham, baby.

Can I crawler baths to the other end and check it out from another angle?

Yeah, you want to go next to the body or behind the body?

Behind. All the way down the hallway.

Okay. Yeah, absolutely you can. This is well within his range limit. As he looks around, there's no one else in there with them.

He does still see the body there. And he goes, my God, it's the psycho pirate.

All right. And he will build back to the. To the body, and I assume everyone will meet him there. Tink is terrified. You know, she's seen a lot today.

She's spilling it everywhere.

She's been attacked for years by a man with a hook hand and a Bunch of pirates, but no one's ever died.

Yeah, no one's ever died. They're all dead already.

So who's going to investigate the body first?

I think it's still going to be Jessica Jones. That's kind of a lot more up her alley than anyone else.

Do you think anyone would be more suited to a medicine check besides her?

A good medicine check? I'm asking like a middle. Middle times medicine check. I think Nightcrawler has shown some decent, you know, medic tendencies.

Alfred Borden is quite intelligent. Friar Tuck thinks he knows medicine.

Probably pull some teeth, but that's. That's about it.

Yeah, I think. I think Jessica probably still stands the best chance at, you know, finding a cause of death.

Had to stitch up some of his crew members every once in a while, so, yeah, I'm sure he has some experience.

So all that to say, you think Jessica would still be the best person for the job?

Probably. But we've got a few people who are willing to take a crack at it.

Okay, so we have backup just in case things go wonky. So why don't you go ahead and give me a medicine check, please?

Evan, do you want to. Would you like to roll your dice? Sure.

Well, I have the 20. Is that cool?

Yeah, tell me what the number is.

15.

I'll work from there. 15. Okay, well, that'll give you 29.

Natural on this role, given, you know, Jessica's watched a bunch of different crime scenes, and immediately she notices blood around Psycho Pirate's body. But when she goes to where the wound is, He's a freaking clanker.

What?

He's a robot. Hondo steps in.

Bones is Mr. Bones.

Is it profitable to take this robot? Is it sufficiently advanced for him to make money off of it?

Most definitely. His only question is, can he take it out of here? At the moment, what he could do is he could tag it. No one else knows it's here right now.

Yeah, it could. Okay, like a mental note, but it's not.

And as he's examining. Go ahead.

But it's not Psycho Pirate.

It is. It is most definitely not Psycho Pirate. It is a robot made in the image of Psycho Pirate.

Is it wearing the.

The purple and green wearing the same thing? No, it is not wearing purple and green. It is the red and black you see in front of you on the screen and the yellow.

I say at this point, out of everyone there, probably out of disinterest at first, Alfred will notice something. Borden. And he goes to one of the pipes because he Saw something a little different. No roll needed.

Okay.

And he sees it got broke probably by the psycho pirate robot being thrown into it and busting it. He goes, are these carnival colors. And like he points it out to everyone and you notice it looks like. You ever seen not.

Not the barbershop kind of swirls and alike, like for a circus or carnival or something like that. Like the different swirling reds and greens and yellows and whites, like a maple that obviously. Yeah, but like, like you're at this bombastic circus.

He notices inside of the pipe is this structure, this pole that looks like it's set up for a carnival.

Can you pull it out?

He does not have sufficient strength to do so. Like it is like, imagine it is like literally inside of the pipe, like stretching out throughout the pipe.

And you imagine the rest of the pipes around you are probably built the same way.

Jessica Jones pull it out easily.

And when she does, what you hear is a bunch of streamers and sparklers go off for a second, like flashes of these many fireworks. But there's no like, message or anything. It's just like, haha. You notice what this is, but you don't know why.

All right, is there any other trails? Anything ending at a cause of conflict for our cybernetic?

You can see as you turn ahead, you see several things. The first you note is that there are puddles from pipes that are actually doing their job and moving water around.

And there is a footprint left behind from one of the larger puddles where some water dripped down. But you also notice another figure there who's smiling at you.

What you do is you see this larger man, very imposing, blonde hair, green and white and yellow. No, purple and a little bit of red. He says, oh, I was wondering what happened to one of mine.

And he points down to the robot and says, I thought something had happened to him, but I guess his soul is still intact and he's still alive. But then he looks at you and he gets this literally like greedy grin on his face. Oh, well, wouldn't you like to know what I know?

And he gives a little faux bow and says, the name is Neron, one of the Lords of Hell.

Does, Does. Does a Tinkerbell recognize him?

No, Tinkerbell would not recognize Neron, all right? And unfortunately your characters are mostly marvel on that side of things, so they don't recognize him either.

Friar Tuck is doing his Hell Mary's,.

Which you notice makes him flinch a little bit.

Okay.

But not in the, like, it's actually harming me. It's More like I can't stand what you're doing right now.

Yeah.

So Alfred's trying to figure out where he came from. Like, what, a trap door or something?

Looking around, he can tell, like, this man did not walk into the room. There is no paneling that suggests, like, something is out of. Bent out of shape to where you could drop down or drop from the side.

Like he simply wasn't there. And now he is.

Nightcrawler. Great offense to this. Nightcrawler wants either an answer or a fight.

Oh, I'm not here to fight. I just wanted to make sure that the things I cared about were taken care of. That the souls that were owed me were owed and brought to my feet.

Psycho Pirate is one of mine. He sold it to me all a very long time ago, back when I first appeared.

And if. Did he really?

Yes.

Nightcrawler. Safe. You know what a psycho pirate is? Can you tell us,.

My little German Catholic friend? I could tell you anything. Things about your God that would make you quiver and shake. I can bring you the truth. No strings attached.

I will tell you everything you need to know to solve this mystery. Before you can even head to the finish line, I require something great from you. All of you.

Sign your souls over to me, and you will have the answers to everything here. The quest can end right here and now. You will know the truth, and you'll continue to live. I will not kill you. I will not harm you.

You will live your natural lives. When you're gone, you're mine.

Hondo's down. Everyone else, not interested.

Doesn't believe in a soul.

Yeah, Hondo's down. Nightcrawler and Friar Tuck are especially offended at this.

So Alfred, he has a. He has his. He. He has a backup soul. So he's. He's okay with it?

I think he might. Yeah, he might. Might try to get one over on. On Neuron.

Okay. What do you think Jessica thinks about this?

She just wants to punch. Okay. Really hard.

Well, I. I notice a hostile audience when I see one. Don't come complaining to me when things get more complicated than. I could have simplified things. But I have no quarrel with you.

What's mine is still alive. If you decide to take his life later on. That's for you to decide. But my time here is gone. But you know what it's into interest me so much. Not here.

Not everything here is as it appears. You're not what you think you are. And he kind of cackles a bit.

We'll stop him.

Disappears from sight.

Oh. Or he's gone. If he can't get the information, what can Hondo get for his soul?

I know that is an excellent question. You're very far from home, and you don't know how many problems that's causing this world right now. Oh, not just this one, but that would be telling.

No, no, you had your chance. It was going to be all or nothing. As you were. Some gambit. Maybe next time, get them to be convinced and he will snap. Disappear from sight.

He's mad. He lost his profit. He lost his profit.

Okay, so you do notice the trail does keep extending ahead.

Okay.

And you notice the pipes do as well. So whatever those little carnival spiral things are connected to, they had that way too. Actually, let's out of all of you.

Jessica hasn't experienced this, as far as I'm aware of. A new crawler. Roll him a history check for me. What's that? A history check for Nightcrawler.

Want me to roll?

Oh, yeah, yeah, go ahead. Yeah.

And I got a six.

There's something eerily familiar about this, but he can't quite place it. He knows he's seen something similar to this before from one of his many adventures for the X Men. But when you're.

You're in like 500 some issues, 600, 700, like, it's. It's hard. Really hard. And that's not even mentioning guest appearances, different authors, who knows?

Yeah, he does know he's seen something like this before. And the coloration from the camera drone thing from before is still bothering him. It's more the yellow one.

But he can't get to the point where he's like, where do I know this from? We do have the path in front of you into the next room.

Alfred takes the lead.

Okay, going ahead, you open to a much larger room. It seems like this might be a conference room of some sort here.

And the moment that you do, all the seats go down, a bunch of machine guns come up, and they were. And a bunch of firing motions happen, but no bullets are thrown your way.

And then right in front of the stage is a giant sign comes down that says, welcome to Murder World. Hope you survived the experience.

As you see on the screen, a redheaded gentleman who looks at all of you and says, well, took you long enough to head this way. The name's Arcade. The game is your death.

While he's. Nightcrawler will already be trying to grab, you know, get as many people in contact with him as possible.

Oh, don't worry. The guns Aren't loaded yet. That wouldn't be very fun, would it be very surprising.

I love playing and I have been paid a lot to bring you all here today. I'm so very eager to see where you end up.

I mean, Hondo's there for it. He's there for the fate Alfred wants. The more information. Jessica Jones already wants to hit this guy. All right,.

So seeing that we're at the time we're at now, there's plenty left. One things we'd like to do now is we would like to, you know, start splitting episodes up a little more.

Make things a little easier for our editor in that regard. So we're going to make this a part one for the journey here for geeks on a roll.

So in regards to that, you guys have any recommendations for the audience you want to. You offer and we'll head that way to finishing this episode. Starting up part two.

Cosmere role playing game. Cosmere role playing game. Play the Cosmere role playing game. That's it. Those are my recommendations.

Play it now.

Okay, Evan, recommendation.

I'm getting into.

I'm.

I'm trying to get. I'm trying to get it into playing the Pokemon battle system. So I've always wanted to try that. So try. There's, there's.

There's a tournament coming up and I might take my son with me.

Cool. You're gonna do Pokemon Champions or what?

I think. Yeah, I, Yeah, I haven't really to look into it, but I'm starting to. I'm gonna get. Yeah, we have a card shop down the street, so.

Yeah. All right. Since I wasn't planning on doing this, but we're doing it anyways. Recommendations? Arcade's first appearance. Marvel team up cap.

Captain Britain and Spider man fighting against Arcade. Classic story, of course, his first story with the X Men. I think The Captain Britain one is like 65 in Marvel team up.

And I think the X men is like 122, 123. Spider Man's also in the first part of it. Yeah. Excellent stories. A very fun character.

So if you're interested to see where things are going, part two will be there later on. So before we head that way, do you want to thank some people who help out the show?

Thank you to supporters, Russell Gentry, Justin Vaughn and that Noel and Jeannie Mattingly. Thank you for all you do. But remember, we all are to trying chosen people. A victim of Freeze.