The Quiet Year: Spring

While we prepare for our mid-season arc, take a listen to the first episode of our Patreon-exclusive series - The Quiet Year.  If you want to listen to the rest, head over to our Patreon at patreon.com/PortalQuandary!

Volcanos, flowers, fresh bread, and a charismatic young woman.  Welcome to the first episode of our patreon-exclusive miniseries! The Quiet Year is a map-making card game where players collaborate to create a landscape and community therein. As the fairies realise Glamos and its hostile inhabitants grow steadily closer to their settlement, they look for a way to escape the encroaching fields before the year is up. Set long before the events of Portal Quandary Prophis, we come together to explore how the city of Lambence came into being. In Spring, we start building the map, creating some fun lore, and playing with some ideas on how to navigate the Glamos problem.

Content warnings for this episode include coarse language.

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Dungeon Master, Editing, and Community Manager is Tyrone Cross      

Noah is Steven Edwards

Timothy is Olive Jerome

Lucille is Rosemary Ochtman

Magnolia is Jorja Odd

Elias Moffat is our Content Producer, Narrative Consultant, and Transcriber

Theme song is “Belly of The Beast” by Lily Harnath and Henry Lucas (@lilyharnath & @henrylucas5)

We’re on the lookout for a couple of people to join the team as a Community Manager and Transcriber. Send us an email if that sounds like you!

Email us at portalquandary@gmail.com 

Sound effects used in this episode include:

texture1 - levelclearer

intro_menuet flowing2 - levelclearer

eternity20 - levelclearer

This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri people and produced on the lands of the Awabakal, and Wurundjeri people. Portal Quandary acknowledges and pays respect to our traditional custodians and to their past and present leaders. 

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased) is intended or should be inferred.

Transcript

Rosie: Portal Quandary has some content warnings, which you can find in the episode description.

Tyrone/Kyros: It has been an ageless time since we came to this world, unjustly exiled from our own. I would think that over the centuries, we would accept that this planet is our home now and feel as though we belonged here, but time has not healed our homesick hearts. If anything, I fear we become less and less welcome in this world. Though we have established well our city now, and learned how to navigate the varied regions that fight for space over the land and sky, one such region causes me a growing amount of concern: Glamos, the plains that have perhaps the least beneficial qualities to it. The soil isn’t farmable, the creatures there are, for some reason, highly aggressive. There are no trackable underground wells or ore deposits, even the flora itself is useless - inedible in its current form, and we don’t have the tools or need to study further if it could be transformed in some way to become edible, perhaps as a wheat substitute. It isn’t worth the fight against the fauna to harvest, and there’s no guarantee it would even provide adequate sustenance if we could attempt to prepare it in other ways. Furthermore, the boundaries of Glamos are surely moving. When Scout master Bramble reported that the fields were growing I assumed they meant in the way that plants grow - slowly, sprouting new stalks as the seasons pass and seeds drop from existing flora. But the rate at which the border of Glamos draws nearer to the city is incredibly concerning. I can only hope King Oberon takes this news with the levity it deserves. If Glamos is, indeed, growing towards us we need to look at finding a way to move our people elsewhere, away from the spread, before its hostile entities are close enough to attack regularly. In the meantime, this has spurred me to pick back up my old portal research. I had, for a time, put it to rest, foolishly thinking that the way forward was to accept this planet as our new home and put my energy into making it so, rather than try to find a way back through the stars to our old home. But now? Now, I think it has become my number one priority. I will find us a way to our home planet again, or my name isn’t Kyros.

Theme Song: [rock music plays]

Finding home in the belly of the beast, to make it home we can’t accept defeat, so roll the dice and come along with me, finding home in the belly of the beast

Tyrone: Welcome to Portal Quandary: Prophis. A little side adventure here: The Quiet Year. Thank you so much for giving us your generous support on Patreon. So, The Quiet Year is a little map drawing game. Basically… You should have heard from the prologue a little bit, but what has happened is that the fairies are new here in Prophis, and they have discovered that Glamos is moving towards them, so the scientists of the community - namely Kyros - has decided that we’re going to build a moving city. We’re going to find a location to build a new city, and it’s going to move so they don’t have to rebuild it every time, and they’ve calculated we have approximately one year until Glamos comes. How’s everyone going?

Rosie: Pretty neat mate.

Steven: Alright. 

Tyrone: Are you excited?

Steven: Yeah.

Jorja: Yeahhh!

Tyrone: Woo! Alright, this game has got a few steps to it, so we’re just going to start doing them in order rather than going through them because we know them, and we can explain them to the audience as we go. Step one - knowing that you guys know what landscapes are in Prophis now. We’re recording this after episode six, so we’ve got a little bit of a rundown now. We’re going to take turns drawing one bit of scenery on the map. I’ll start. So, I don’t have an ulterior motive, but I will have some sort of ulterior motive as the DM. What I’ve drawn here is the Kingsgrove tree. This is going to be the centre of our city. Alright, Steven, have a go at drawing something.

Steven: Sure. So, that’s the big tree where everything happens, right?

Tyrone: Yes, the Kingsgrove. 

Steven: I’m going to say that we’ve got some pretty flowers over here. 

[laughter]

Jorja: That’s so cute.

Rosie: That’s so adorable. 

Tyrone: That’s very cute.

Rosie: That’s a good drawing.

Steven: Let’s do a few of them because why not? A little patch of them - little daisies over there.

Jorja: It’s weird how you got them all so symmetrical each time. 

Rosie: They’re like- They’re like-

Steven: Crazy! I’m just that good. 

Rosie: What’s it called when twins look the same? Identical. Yeah, they’re like identical twins, not flowers. That was like the dumbest thing!

Steven: Do I need to mirror one of them? Hold on, I was told my flowers were too symmetrical. 

[laughter]

Jorja: I knew you were going to do it!

Tyrone: Jorja, your go.

Jorja: Yay!

Steven: Yay!

Jorja: I have a question. Are we doing the outside of what we know as the city as well?

Tyrone: Sorry, what do you mean?

Jorja: The city, and then there’s all the other things.

Tyrone: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Jorja: Okay. Okay, okay.

Tyrone: We have not built a city yet. 

Jorja: I’m going to do… Oh, oh my god. A weird little forest area.

Rosie: That’s exactly what I was going to do exactly where I was going to do it. 

Jorja: Get wrecked.

Rosie: Crazy.

Jorja: That’s good enough. 

Tyrone: What sort of forest is it?

Jorja: A very green forest that’s got lots of puddles that are way deeper than they look. 

Tyrone: Sus.

Jorja: Yes.

Tyrone: Olive, hi. 

Olive: Hello. A bit of uncharted territory here, but I kind of wanted to draw a little… I need to remember how to draw.

Tyrone: I see it. He’s remembered.

Jorja: It looks like a scarf. 

Tyrone: Looks like a river.

Jorja: Like a bridge. Harry Potter scarf! Another one!

Tyrone: It’s a volcano. 

Olive: Little volcano.

Rosie: That’s a pretty big volcano. 

Olive: No, it’s a little volcano. Tiny boy.

Tyrone: It’s just indicative. It doesn’t have to be accurate.

Rosie: Actually, now looking at the flowers compared to the volcano - those are massive flowers. 

Steven: They’re representative.

Rosie: Not to scale. We should put a disclaimer. 

Tyrone: Okay, moving onto Rosie. Put on the last piece of the landmarks. 

Rosie: Hello, I shall do that, yes. I’m going to scribble. 

Jorja: I only just remembered that you can change colours.

Steven: Mind blown. 

Rosie: It’s a river.

Tyrone: Ooo, nice. Nice, nice, nice. 

Rosie: They’re different colours on everyone’s screens.

Tyrone: It’s because someone’s clicked on it. 

Jorja: Yours is brown because you’re clicked on it, so it comes up as Anonymous Raccoon. 

Tyrone: So, moving onto the next phase of the game. We’re going to have a little list of resources. We’re going to name one each, which I’m going to keep track of here. This is either going to be something we have an abundance of, or in scarcity based on the landmarks we have here. So, I’m going to say that we have an abundance of drinking water. 

Rosie: I never specified if it was saltwater or freshwater. 

Jorja: You said it was a river, right?

Rosie: Yeah.

Jorja: Okay.

Rosie: But, in this land a river could be salt water.

Tyrone: Well, do you want to clarify that for us?

Rosie: Okay, fine. It’s freshwater. 

[laughter]

Tyrone: Steven, what have you got?

Steven: I would say, as we have a forest nearby, that we have an abundance of wood. 

Tyrone: Sorry, she didn’t clarify that it was wood that you could actually build things with. 

Jorja: Yeah, actually they’re rubber trees, and it’s just rubber.

Olive: We couldn’t chop any down, so we just have sticks that have fallen down over time. 

Jorja: Oh, Noah loves sticks.

Tyrone: Jorja.

Jorja: I’m going to go ahead and say we have an abundance of natural dyes from the flowers.

Steven: Stunning.

Jorja: I went for weird. 

Tyrone: That’s very Magnolia.

Jorja: Yep.

Tyrone: Olive.

Olive: Can we choose a resource from one of the landmarks that have already been done, or is the goal to try and cover all the different landscapes?

Tyrone: How do you mean, sorry?

Olive: So, say that I also wanted to obtain a resource from the flowers. 

Rosie: Oh, I see.

Tyrone: Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Let’s see what you’ve got. 

Olive: We have a pinch - just a tiny amount - of residue fairy dust from the flowers.

Tyrone: Alright. We’ve got to list it as an abundance or a scarcity, so do you want to say an abundance of fairy dust?

Olive: No, a scarcity. A very small amount. Just a tiny bit.

Steven: We’ve got no fairy dust.

Tyrone: The most important thing to fairies. Rosie.

Rosie: Going back to the flowers, we have an abundance of dandelion tea. 

Jorja: For our abundance of water that we have.

Rosie: Yes.

Olive: With all the abundance of mugs we can make from all that wood.

Steven: That we can boil over the volcano. Oh my god, it’s all coming together. 

Rosie: Oh my god!

Jorja: We can boil it over a volcano. You’re going to trek up a fucking volcano to get tea?

Olive: What limit wouldn’t you go to for some tea?

Steven: We can fly. 

Jorja: Mmm, yeah. 

[music]

Tyrone: Alrighty, moving onto the main part of the game. We have a deck of cards here that match up to your standard deck, so we’re playing from the spring deck this episode, so there’s thirteen cards. Basically they’ve got two different prompts on them. You get to pick one to describe something that happens in the community, and then there’ll be turns afterwards. So, there’ll be three different options. You can hold a discussion, you can discover something new, or you can start a project. So, holding a discussion: that’s supposed to be the only time you have table talk. We’re not really supposed to talk to each other about our decisions. We’re just supposed to do them without consulting people. Holding a discussion is a good way to get the vibe of what everybody wants, and there’s rules around that as well. Discover something new: exactly what it sounds like. You discover new in the landscape. This landscape is new to use, so it’s easy to discover something. And finally, you start a project: so this might be something that takes a little bit of time. It’ll have a timer that will go down every single turn until it reaches the end, so it might be like, ‘I want to explore over here, ‘ I want to build something,’ and then you get to decide how it goes. There’s cards that interact with projects as well, so it’s always good to have projects going. Yes, so I’m going to take my turn first to show us how it’s done.

Rosie: You show us, Ty!

Jorja: What the fuck?

Rosie: Sorry, I just wanted to… I felt like I was on an ABC kind of show. ‘You show us!’ Anyway.

Tyrone:  Okay, this is an interesting one to start on. I got the nine of hearts. ‘A charismatic young girl convinces many people to help her with an elaborate scheme. What is it? Who joins her? Start a project to reflect. Or, a charismatic young girl tries to tempt people into sinful or dangerous activity. Why does she do this? How does the community respond?’ This is hard for the first card!

Jorja: Can I ask a quick question about the fairy dust? So, does it come from flowers?

Olive: No, it was just leftover. 

Rosie: From the flowers?

Olive: Sure.

Rosie: Okay. 

Tyrone:  This is hard. I’m thinking.

Jorja: *makes a countdown tune*

Tyrone:  Alright, I think - I’m just going with my gut instinct. I don’t want to think about it too long. This charismatic young girl is going to have a scheme to capitalise on the flower patch. She’s going to make her own dandelion tea business. 

Rosie: Nice!

Jorja: Kill her! Those flowers are mine!

Tyrone:  So, she’s going to set up a little cart up here. A fair few people join her, I think. I think a lot of the older people in our community tend to enjoy the tea, and so they’ve sort of jumped on her bandwagon to ensure that they also have access to the tea, so… Oh, actually, I’m going to set up a fence around it.

Rosie: You’re fencing off the flowers?

Tyrone:  She’s a charismatic young girl.

Jorja: She’s evil. She’s scheming. 

Rosie: Oh my god. Flowers should be free for all. What sort of world is this?

Jorja: Then kill her.

Rosie: Alright!

Steven: Damn. 

Jorja: That’s a wonky looking fence.

Olive: She’s charismatic. She’s not very practical. 

Jorja: She’s just a little girl!

[laughter]

Tyrone:  Oh, apologies. The fence should not be drawn yet. It should be a timer for me to start a project to do this. 

Olive: Oh.

Jorja: For her to make it better.

Tyrone:  I’m going to say it’s going to take her three weeks. I don’t think it’s going to take her very long at all.

Rosie: Three weeks to build a fence? My gosh.

Jorja: Have you seen the size of the flowers?

Rosie: That’s a good point. 

Jorja: There’s a maximum amount of weeks, right?

Tyrone:  Six. It’s supposed to be dice, so you’re supposed to represent that with physical dice. In my notes, I’m writing this down as flower capitalism.

[laughter]

Steven: Nice.

Tyrone:  Okay, then for my turn I want to start a discussion. Let’s get a discussion starting straight up.

Jorja: You would. 

Tyrone:  Why’d you roll your eyes?

Olive: Right off the bat.

Jorja: There’s nothing to talk about!

Tyrone: So, the rules around ‘hold a discussion’: I get to either start with a question or a statement. If I start with a statement that’s it. If I start with a question I get to finish with a statement, so I can ask a question then come around and finish with a statement, but if I start with a statement then that’s it.

Olive: So, it would end with Rosemary?

Tyrone: Yes.

Olive: Okay, okay.

Tyrone: But, I’m going to start with a question, so it’s going to end on me, and you get one statement, so don’t be here monologuing. It’s a couple of sentences. 

Jorja: I use a lot of commas when I talk.

Tyrone: We’re not writing a Brontë novel or anything.

Jorja: We could be!

Tyrone: How will the city move?

Steven: Well, it’s not very big yet. I get one statement, right?

[laughter]

Jorja: I was just making sure there was nothing to add onto it.

Olive: The man’s got a point. He’s not wrong.

Steven: Sorry, did I do it right? Do I-

Jorja: No, no. That’s right.

Tyrone: Yeah.

Steven: Do I need to go again? Okay, good. I’m not coming up with solutions. I’m just stating facts. 

Tyrone: True, another part of ‘hold a discussion’ is that we are members of the community, so it can hold a wide variety of opinions.

Jorja: What was the question again? How will it move? What integral parts will we need to move?

Olive: So we can ask a question or a statement?

Tyrone: She’s answering a question with a question.

Olive: Oh, I see.

Jorja: I’m being a dick.

Olive: Copy that. 

Steven: I don’t have enough brain power for that right now.

Olive: I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like this fairy dust is going to come in clutch. 

Rosie: Well, I don’t think that we should move.

Tyrone: If fairy dust is the answer then this charismatic young girl having a monopoly troubles me. 

Jorja: We need to form a coup.

Tyrone: Alright Steven, I shall draw a card for you.

Steven: Thank you. 

Tyrone: So, got the king.

Steven: The king of hearts?

Tyrone: Yes, the spring is all hearts. 

Steven: Okay, ‘A young boy starts digging in the ground, and finds something unexpected. What is it? Or, an old man confesses to past crimes and atrocities. What has he done?’

Jorja: I’m living for this theatre. 

Steven: Thank you. Let’s see… Young boys so love to dig into grounds, don’t they?

Jorja: Yeah, just boy things.

Steven: Just boy things. There were no girls present, but a young boy found - he was digging in the ground - and he found some stones, and these stones were in a particular formation. Let me see if I can just- Oh my god.

Rosie: Did you just have that ready to go? Just stones?

Steven: They were down here, and there were five of these stones, and they were all arranged in a circle like that with different coloured pictures on them. That’s he discovered

Tyrone: Steven, I know these are in a different formation, but these look an awful lot like the magic colour wheel. 

Jorja: I thought they looked like infinity stones.

Steven: Well look, there are no new ideas, so-

Tyrone: Wait, how big are they? Are they like big stones, or are they little stones? 

Steven: Each individual stones is probably like… I don’t know, if you were to hold your arms around in a circle. Probably about that big. So, small-

Jorja: We all did that as soon as you said it!

Rosie: All of our circles are different sizes!

Steven: Excellent! Yes! So, like small boulders. Now I have to do a thing. I’m going to start a project.

Tyrone: Oh, my timer goes down as well. 

Steven: What?

Tyrone: The three on the flower garden will go down now.

Steven: Oh, right. I’m going to build… Let’s go here. I’m going to build a watchtower here, and I think that’s going to take at least four weeks. 

Tyrone: I like it.

Steven: Keep an eye on that volcano.

Jorja: Make sure that it doesn’t move!

Steven: Exactly, it could move anywhere.

Tyrone: Alright, let’s move onto Jorja.

Jorja: Alrighty, I drew the four of hearts. ‘What important, basic tools does the community lack? Or, Where are you storing your food? Why is this a risky place to store things?’ Well, in the volcano.

Olive: Oh, god. 

Rosie: Everything’s cooked!

[laughter]

Jorja: What do we count as basic tools?

Steven: Spanner.

Rosie: Spanner. 

Olive: Gardening supplies.

Tyrone: What are you thinking?

Olive: Bike pump.

Jorja: What the fuck?

Tyrone: Yeah, just whatever you’re thinking. 

Rosie: Big rock.

Jorja: We just found five of them!

Steven: I think this counts as a discussion. 

Rosie: That’s a good point.

Jorja: I’m going to go with, ‘Where are you storing your food? Why is this a risky place to store things?’ Do I draw it? 

Tyrone: Yeah.

Jorja: Okay.

Tyrone: Something’s happening over by the river. 

Jorja: Yes, so we have a storage shed essentially, basically, for food, bu the river has been getting more aggressive, and they’re worried that it’s going to flood.

Tyrone: Well, I wasn’t worried until you said something. 

Jorja: You should worry. It might flood.

Rosie: Have you ever wondered why flood isn’t pronounced ‘floo-d’ like brood. ‘Floo-d.’

Jorja: Blood.

Olive: ‘Bloo-d.’

Rosie: ‘Bloo-d.’

[laughter]

Olive: Is that your turn finished then? 

Jorja: No, I’ve got to do something. So, it’s discussion, project, or discover something?

Tyrone: Yeah.

Jorja: I’m so bad at this.

Olive: Build something with those tools you just got,

Jorja: I didn’t choose that.

Olive: Oh wait. Oh wait.

Jorja: I’m going to… So, for project I can send someone to research something, right?

Tyrone: Yeah.

Jorja: Okay, I’m going to send people up the volcano to see how it’s doing. Is it about to explode, or do we have time?

Rosie: Is she good?

Jorja: Is she good over there?

Tyrone: How long’s it going to take?

Jorja: I don’t know, three weeks? I don’t know if that’s…

Olive: I would have said two.

Jorja: Well, it’s not your turn. Done.

Tyrone: Your go.

Olive: The ace of hearts. ‘What group has the highest status in the community? What must people do to gain inclusion into this group? Or, are there distinct family units within the community? If so, what family structures are common?’ Oh boy. What have we got going on so far? We’ve got a flower.

Steven: A single flower. 

Olive: Just one. We’ve got a watchtower. We’ve got researchers. Hmm, I think I’m going to have to go with ‘distinct family units in the community,’ and as for family structures that are quite common, we’re going to go with pagoda merchant stalls. So, you have house with the merchant stall out the front. So yeah, just some merchant abodes where the house is like a little turtle You’ve got the merchant stall with the head and the shell as the home at the back. 

Tyrone: I love that.

Olive: Do I draw that?

Tyrone: Yeah, draw it wherever you want.

Olive: Hmm… I don’t think that’s going to work? That didn’t work. There we go. Nope.

Tyrone: Ooo, I see a little turtle happening.

Rosie: It has an angry face in the middle. Grrr.

Olive: It does! Just to get an idea, the curve out the front is where you can buy all of your sweet little tools - well, lack of tools - that we have, and yeah, the triangle is supposed to be representing the roof of the house, and you’ve got the back there and all that jazz. 

Rosie: Nice.

Tyrone: I can see it, yeah.

Olive: Yeah. I wonder if I can potentially make it a bit smaller.

Tyrone: So, while you’re thinking about what you’re going to do on your turn, one of the counters has reached zero, which is homegirl finishing her little flower patch. 

Rosie: Do you mean fence? Because the flower patch is already there. 

Steven: She was building a fence.

Tyrone: Shhh.

[laughter]

Rosie + Jorja: No! 

Rosie: You nearly got rid of the flowers.

Tyrone: That was a very visceral reaction.

Jorja: I love the flowers.

Tyrone: So, the outcome of the project is that she completed the fence and her little stall there, so now its capitalism baby. She jumped on it first. Now you’ve got to pay to get your dandelions. 

Olive: For my turn I would like to open a discussion.

Tyrone: Ooo girl. 

Olive: My question that I’ll start with is: how do we all feel about this monopolisation of flowers that occurring right now? How does everyone feel about that?

Rosie: Unhappy. Used, and as though all the good things in the world are being taken away from me.

Jorja: Holy shit. 

Tyrone: Well, if we’re going to build a city then a commercial district would sort of be a part of that, so there’s nothing wrong with homegirl making business. 

Steven: She’s got bills she’s got to pay.

Tyrone: I’m gonna work, work-

Tyrone+Jorja: Work every day.

Steven: Every day.

Jorja: Well, we were using those flowers first, and then she came in and claimed them.

Olive: I feel that there will be time yet to usurp.

Tyrone: Ooo. Rosie. 

Rosie: I have the five of hearts. ‘There is a disquieting legend about this place. What is it? Or, alarming weather patterns destroy something. How, and what? So, an unfortunate and alarming weather pattern comes through the - well not city yet, but you know. Anyway, what it is is it’s basically this purply, pinky storm that is also a little bit sparkly too, but it sort of comes through like a cyclone, and unfortunately for everyone it breaks down one of the sides of the charismatic young girl’s fence for the flowers.

Steven: What an oddly specific weather pattern. 

Tyrone: Just one side of the fence? No damage to the flowers? 

Rosie: No, no. The flowers themselves are fine. It’s just the fence. 

Tyrone: Draw it.

Olive: How do these tokens work again? 

Tyrone: Oh, I’m taking one too. You just change it on your name. 

Rosie: I’m trying to delete one of your sides, but I can’t do it.

Tyrone: Oh, it’s a whole box. 

Rosie: Can I just delete the whole thing? I’ll just redo it like this.

Tyrone: Rosie, I honestly thought that you were going to make a volcano eruption. 

Rosie: I would never sabotage that much.

Olive: I totally saw that food storage getting yeeted.

Jorja: I thought it was going to be like a tidal wave. Either that, or she was going to destroy the not-built watchtower, and then say a terrible joke of, ‘I bet they didn’t see that coming.’

Rosie: That would have been funny.

Tyrone: What would you like to do for your turn?

Rosie: For my turn I would like to start a project.

Tyrone: Yes?

Rosie: I shall be making a bakery, and the bakery shall be at the bottom of the volcano, and we shall exclusively bake the bread with the coals from the volcano, so that does mean it’s a bit of a seasonal bakery. We can only really cook things when the volcano has recently erupted, or if we can use any of the heat from the volcano. 

Steven: Lava logistics.

Tyrone: How long is it going to take?

Rosie: About five weeks because, you know, we’ve got to get in and shovel some coal. Harness the lava and try and get it to flow through the back of the building. It’s a whole thing, you know.

Jorja: The lava is in the building?

Rosie: Oh yeah. Like, out the back. We’re trying to get it to flow through the man-built lava river so we can use it to cook things. 

Olive: Sorry, have you never been to a lava bakery?

Jorja: You know what? That’s on me. I should have known better. 

Rosie: People lava [love] it.

Jorja: I will kill you. 

Tyrone: You’ve got five weeks to think of a cool name for it. 

Rosie: Nice.

Tyrone: Alright, going back to my turn, I guess. The two of hearts. ‘There’s a large body of water on the map. Where is it? What does it look like?’

Rosie: A squiggle.

Tyrone: ‘Or, there’s a giant man-made structure on the map. Where is it? Why is it abandoned?’ Ah, so something interesting that will be discovered, which is kind of relevant to the people at the volcano… There’s a lot of action happening at the volcano right now. 

Jorja: It’s a hot place to be.

Tyrone: We discovered an abandoned mansion sitting on top of the volcano.

Jorja: On top of it?

Tyrone: Like, not inside the crater, but-

Jorja: Okay, I was going to say that’s fucking sick. 

Tyrone: Part way up it. Was that the full question? Ah, what does it look like? I don’t know, Renaissance era. 

Rosie: Did the fairies have a Renaissance?

[laughter]

Jorja: No.

Olive: There’s still time. 

Rosie: But wouldn’t that make it not Renaissance era? Wouldn’t it be modern era if we’re in the Renaissance era?

Jorja: You’re living in it, baby. 

Tyrone: Okay, so we’ll resolve the watchtower project first, and then we’ll do the researchers. What happened Steven? What happened with the watchtower?

Steven: They built a watchtower. 

Jorja: Yeah!

Steven: Yay! Now they can see good. 

Jorja: Oh my god!

All: Woah!

Tyrone: You’re coming out with all these sick drawings. I’m coming out with these little coloured squares.

Steven: You’re welcome.

Tyrone: Anything cool about the watchtower?

Jorja: I’d like to imagine that it’s like Animal Crossing when you’ve finished building a bridge, and everyone stands near it to celebrate. We’re just doing that in front of a watchtower. 

Tyrone: Are people going to man it?

Steven: Yeah, it worked. They did it.

Olive: No, you watch it. 

[laughter]

Tyrone: It’s like Hymbo’s city watch joke. ‘I’m watching the city right now.’ Okay, the volcano research also finished. 

Jorja: So, it looks all good. It doesn’t look like it’s going to kill everyone or the bakery any time soon. It’s pretty standard, but they found a lot of phosphorus and obsidian from previous eruptions that they think they can use it as a spell focus for material components for casting big spells, so they’re going to bring some of that back.

Tyrone: Phosphorus and what?

Jorja: Obsidian.

Tyrone: Just keeping track of this for our lovely audience. Sounds sick as fuck.

Steven: Make sure you bring your diamond pickaxes. 

Rosie: Okay, so I was just reading the sticker on Jorja’s laptop that says Official Vintage. To all of our listeners out there, do you think that vintage is called vintage because it’s about age, and it’s ‘vint-age.’ The age of vint. ‘Vint-age.’

Tyrone: No, I don’t think that.

Rosie: Okay. 

Jorja: Alright, it’s going to take forever, drawing this.

Tyrone: What are you drawing there?

Jorja: That’s a little puff of phosphorus dust, I guess.

Tyrone: I can see it. 

Jorja: That’s supposed to be a shard of obsidian.

Tyrone: Okay, what I’m going to do, is I’m going to start a big project that takes six weeks. I want to build some city walls, so I’ll put that probably near the watchtower. We’ve gotta get some boundaries happening. We love setting boundaries.

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Tyrone: Steven, let’s see what card you drew. It’s the ten of hearts. 

Steven: Ten of hearts, ooo. ‘There’s another community somewhere on the map. Where are they, and what sets them apart from you? Or, what belief or practise helps to unify your community?’ I’m going to go out on a limb and say that there’s not another community… DM?

Tyrone: Do whatever you want.

Rosie: You do you, boo. 

Steven: Do whatever you want. Let’s bring in some religion, yeah. We all need some religion. I’m trying to think of what we would worship though. How’s it worded? ‘What belief or practice helps unify you?’ Let’s do something nature or some shit. I know. The monthly tea ceremony. Every month everyone boils up their favourite daisy or chamomile - or whatever the fuck it is - tea, and they have a tea drinking ceremony, and that’s something that they do every month.

Tyrone: I love.

Rosie: I love this.

Steven: Do I have to draw that?

Tyrone: Yes.

Steven: This one’s rushed. Oh shit, ah. What did we decide that we have tea cups made out of? Wood, right? Oh no, that makes it look like poison. I was like, ‘I’ll make green tea.’ No, that just makes it look like poison in a cup.

Jorja: That’s how we get the little girl. 

Steven: Oh, mamma mia. Oh my god, just draw please. Cute, sexy. That’ll do. We’ve got a tea cup. I’m going to say that we have to drink it in the tree circle thing. This is where the monthly - monthly - tea drinking ceremonies occur.

Tyrone: Love. I’ll put down the timers.

Steven: Now I have to do a thing. I’m going to start a project. I’m going to gather a group of people, and we’re going to go looking in the forest.

Tyrone: Just to see what’s there?

Steven: Yeah. We’re going to go on a three week expedition. I just realised that was way too big. There we go. We shall investigate for three weeks and see what we find. 

Rosie: Nice.

Tyrone: Fuck yes. Alright, let’s pass it onto Jorja. 

Jorja: I got the jack. ‘You see a good omen. What is it? Or, you see a bad omen. What is it?’

Tyrone: That’s my favourite card.

Jorja: I’m going to choose a good omen.

Steven: Boo. 

Olive: Lame.

Tyrone: What is this omen of which you speak?

Jorja: I’m drawing it.

Steven: Calm down.

Jorja: I’m doing my best. Just because I wanted to get the girls in here, you see a little bumblebee over the other side of the people, which makes people think, ‘Oh, maybe there’s some more flowers over here,’ or it’s just lost. Who knows?

Steven: Or it’s just lost. 

Tyrone: Make it yellow.

Jorja: I tried. Also, yellow doesn’t come up very well. 

Tyrone: Valid. I just put down all of the timers, so what would you like to do?

Jorja: Okay, I’m going to start a project, and they’re going to try build an aqueduct, water wheel situation for the food storage.

Tyrone: Fancy.

Jorja: And it’s going to take two weeks. Why not?

Tyrone: Wait, so what are they trying to do with it?

Jorja: They’re trying to find a way to either move the water away from the food storage, or somehow make it go through and use it as power.

Tyrone: Unlimited power. Alright, Oli, you are up. 

Olive: Alright, I have the three. ‘Someone new arrives. Who? Or, two of the community’s youngest members get into a fight. What provoked them?’ So, obviously two of the community’s youngest members involving the flower girl and the rock boy-

Steven: Wow, we’re really hating on entrepreneurs, aren’t we?

Tyrone: Young business people.

Rosie: How dare they.

Olive: Get into a fight, but what could possibly provoke them? What interests do they have? Well, there’s this thing. It’s really handy, and they call it religion, and they have a massive fight over which should be involved in the ritual tea ceremonies month to month. They believe rock boy, or rock boy believes that the rocks have a very calming and sturdy nature that should solidify their place. Whereas the flower girl believes that the flowers should be involved because the flowers make the tea. She has a very compelling case, but rock boy has a rock, and he is stubborn. I have to draw this now, don’t I?

Jorja: You’ve just described every man ever. 

[laughter]

Jorja: Oh, you think yours should win because it’s integral? Mmm, no. Rock.

Olive: Your idea is valid and makes sense? No.

Rosie: Only rock.

Jorja: I have big thing. It mine.

[laughter]

Olive: Alright, this is not working, but we’ll make do. Oh boy, I really wish that I hadn’t gone super hard on this. 

Jorja: Just draw the cover for the movie Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Rockboy and Flowergirl.

Rosie: I miss that movie. 

Steven: Why?

Rosie: It was so good! You can draw over there?

Olive: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tyrone: That’s like wedding shit. There’s a flower girl, and then I guess rock boy is the ring boy? The ring bearer?

Jorja: He’s the guy that brings the rocks to the wedding. 

Olive: This is fucking impossible. I can’t do this shit. Okay, I’ve got to go more simple. 

Rosie: Just draw one of those - you know one of those anime things that happen in those anime shows? Where people are fighting, and they go like, ‘Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew,’ and it’s basically like a little square - not a square - but a little sparky explosion thing, and there’s clouds everywhere and stuff. Just draw something like that, and we’ll know there’s a fight.

Olive: No, I have a better idea.

Steven: Like a dust cloud with a fist and a leg and a limb. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Jorja: But then if you pause it at the wrong time, one of them’s got three different arms because that’s the animation. 

Steven: Yeah!

Olive: Okay, I’ve got an idea. It’s forming in my brain hole. I’ve got it. 

Tyrone: You shouldn’t have holes in your brain.

Rosie: I was just about to say that. 

Olive: No, but that’s exactly where they belong.

Jorja: Is it medusa? 

Olive: Yes. It’s supposed to be yellow, but it did not work. Hang on. That did not change colour. Fuck it. Yes. No, be yellow.

Rosie: Bees are yellow. 

Olive: Due to the smallness of my screen, that will be about as good as I can do for that, and for my turn I’m going to start a project. It’s called war. It’s going to take six weeks, and the rock boy and the flower girl are going to have a full, massive war, and we will see what the consequences of this war are in six weeks. 

Tyrone: Wait, what sort of war? Are you talking weapons? Are they getting tanks?

Jorja: Sorry, I just imagined two children in tanks. 

[laughter]

Olive: They will use the tools that they have.

Jorja: My money’s on rocks. 

Tyrone: I’m going to put a counter on it for you for six weeks. Alright. Fuck, the stakes are getting high.

Rosie: How did the steaks [stakes] find marijuana? The steaks [stakes] are getting high? You know? Like-

Jorja: We got it. 

Rosie: Imagine there’s some steaks getting fried up, and they’re just smoking, you know?

Tyrone: Wait, is that two different things? Like, flower girl’s up there and rock boy’s down there? 

Olive: Yes, they’re fighting from afar. They’re fighting a war. They’re not going to have a battle. They’ve got to be smart.

Tyrone: Alright, I just put down the timers, so Rosie, you are up.

Rosie: Ooo, I have the six of hearts. ‘Are there children in the community? If there are, what is their role in the community? Or, how old are the eldest members of the community? What unique needs do they have?’ So, yes there are children in the community.

Tyrone: What’s their role?

Rosie: That is such an excellent question Tyrone. I am so glad that you asked. 

Jorja: I hate to break it to you, but it was a part of the card.

Rosie: So yes, the children in the community. They’re not given lot of responsibility because they’re children, what what they do have to do is, at the start of every tea ceremony, they have to climb to the top of the tree and carry down the scared tea set, and if they drop it - well it’s never happened - but if it happens the sacred tea set’s broken. That’s pretty bad, but anyway, that’s their role. They do that once a month. Each family takes turns submitting a child to climb up the tree. Sometimes they go in groups. It really depends on the vibes of that tea drinking ceremony. 

Tyrone: Wait, so they keep the tea set in the tallest bits of the tree?

Rosie: Only the sacred tea set, which only the elders of the community drink from. 

Tyrone: Please draw it.

Rosie: Oh, I mean there’s already kind of a tea set there. I mean, I’ll draw a child.

That is a singular cup of tea. 

Jorja: Yeah, a tea set for one.

Rosie: Yeah. 

Jorja: Are you going to draw him in the cup?

Tyrone: He’s having a little bath in it. It’s like a big communal tea. It’s like a big cup of tea. 

Jorja: Oh, it’s like the big chilli from Stardew Valley that you get to add the ingredients to.

Tyrone: Yeah.

Jorja: Yeah, the Luau. 

Rosie: So, that right there that I’ve drawn is a child.

[laughter]

Steven: That child is as big as the watchtower.

Rosie: Big boy. And for my go.

Tyrone: Ah.

Rosie: Oh.

Tyrone: Ah.

Rosie: Oh? Alright, I’ll shut up. 

Tyrone: We’ve got a couple of counters that are reaching zero. So, I think the first one that went was the trees, so what happens from investigating the forest?

Steven: Well, I’m glad you asked. We found a rather large tree in the centre of the forest, and it’s growing these weird purple fruits that we’ve never seen before, and also it’s surrounded by a bee hive. There’s a bee hive there on the tree, and the bees look angry.

Rosie: Aww, that’s so cute!

Tyrone: Did you just draw that?

Steven: No. 

Jorja: He’s had time.

Steven: Oh yeah, I’ve had time. Two weeks, and then Jorja drew a bee, and I was like, ‘Perfect!’

Jorja: Yes!

Tyrone: And the other thing to reach zero is Jorja’s mill.

Jorja: Yes! Okay so, they build a big water mill thing, so the water can pass through the mill and hopefully unaffect the food storage, and then opens up the opportunity for future infrastructure. 

Tyrone: Cute as fuck.

Steven: All I can hear is the music from Majora’s Mask, when you get the wheel to start working and the music starts playing out of the music box. 

Jorja: Yeah, it works well, and they can also use that to their advantage later if they need to mass produce anything, or, I don’t know, ground up some flowers for tea purposes. 

Tyrone: Too bad that the bakery is on the other side of the map.

Jorja: Get fucked. 

Rosie: For the lava.

Jorja: People need jobs in this economy. You might peddle some flour from one side to the other.

Tyrone: Alright, so what were you going to do for your turn Rosie?

Rosie: Oh yes, for my turn I’m going to make a discovery. So, some of the kids - you know, that we were previously discussing - were playing in the river. Just swimming about. Having a good old time. When suddenly they saw a huge fish that had really really sharp teeth that swam towards them, and it was bigger than all of them, and it was really quite scary.

Tyrone: I’m scared.

Rosie: Good.

Tyrone: For the children.

Rosie: Oh, and it’s really near the food supplies by the way.

Jorja: What the fuck?

Rosie: Hey, I don’t make the rules. It’s just a discovery.

Jorja: Yeah, you do!

[laughter]

Jorja: Leave my food alone! It’s got all my snacks in there.

Tyrone: Take a contempt. Just do it. 

Jorja: Yeah you know what Rosie? Fuck you.

Rosie: No! Why am I the only one getting contempt?

Tyrone: Because you’re making contemptuous decisions.

Jorja: Because you’re a little scoundrel. 

Tyrone: Big fish.

Jorja: What the fuck are you…?

Rosie: It’s got Pacman’s head. Nawr!

Tyrone: It’s cute.

Rosie: It’s meant to be scary, not cute.

Jorja: It looks like a ninja turtle on my screen right now.

Rosie: Nice.

Tyrone: I’ve got the seven. ‘Where does everyone sleep? Who is unhappy with this arrangement, and why? Or, there are natural predators that roam this area. Where are they, and are you safe?’ Something very unfortunate that we didn’t realise when we went and visited the volcano earlier: a dragon lives inside the volcano.

Rosie: Woah!

Jorja: Oh, that’s what that was. 

[laughter]

Tyrone: It lives inside the lava.

Jorja: Go on then. Draw a dragon. 

Tyrone: Fuck me, alright.

Jorja: So, let’s not go to the fire plane. 

Tyrone: It hasn’t hurt anyone yet, but it’s there.

Rosie: But there’ll be a bakery there. 

Jorja: And an abandoned mansion with a dragon perched on it. 

Rosie: Is that why it’s abandoned? Because of the dragon?

Jorja: Could be. 

Jorja: Send some people to investigate and inevitably die.

Olive: I’m very worried - as our DM - what notations this could have in the future. 

Tyrone: It’s a dragon. It’s going to be more of a dragon, but I’m going to keep talking while I finish it off because Rosie's bakery has just finished. How’d the bakery go?

Rosie: Well, the bakery is finished, and it works; however, there’s a bit of a downer on the big reveal day because a dragon has just been discovered right next to the bakery since it was built at the base of the volcano, but apart from that everything went well. They did get lava flowing through the back of it, which they use to cook all the bread. Most of it’s burnt because lava is way too hot to cook evenly through dough, and they didn’t think about how hot it would be in the kitchen for the workers, so it’s not the ideal workplace, but it’s built near the dragon. 

Jorja: Does it have a name?

Tyrone: The dragon?

Jorja: No, the bakery. Oh, both!

Rosie: Oh yes, the bakery. 

Steven: The dragon. 

Rosie: Hot Rocks Dough.

Jorja: That kind of sucks. 

Rosie: Excuse me. They thought really hard about it, and saw the hot rocks nearby, and the dough in the oven - I mean the lava. But now people can sit at the bakery eating their bread and watch the show of the dragon breathing fire above them.

Tyrone: My dragon’s finished. He looks kind of shit, but it’s fine.

Jorja: It’s cute.

Rosie: Oh, I should draw a bakery.

Tyrone: Oh, I need to keep track of the name. What was the name?

Olive: Hot Dough Bread?

Rosie: Hot Rocks Dough.

Jorja: Dragon [dragging] these biscuits into your mouth. 

Tyrone: Oh lord!

Jorja: That’s way better.

Olive: Woah!

Tyrone: Alright, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do? 

Jorja: Kill the dragon.

Tyrone: I’m just going to go with my instincts and start a project to research the magic rocks that rock boy has. They seem to have some kind of magic properties. They’ve got all these different colours, so what do they do? What that rock do? Correct me if you think different, but I think it’s going to take four weeks. Yeah, four weeks.

Olive: You’re really going for it. 

Rosie: I’m drawing the lava river.

Jorja: The bakery is hot pink with the insides of light blue. 

Rosie: Hey, it’s what’s in right now. They did some market research, and this is what the figures came up with. 

Olive: When did they do market research?

Jorja: They took a census!

Rosie: Yeah, don’t you remember?

Olive: Oh, I did forget about the census.

Rosie: They stood at the top of the watchtower and screamed. The one person that answered was the rock boy.  

Jorja: I like the colours that are on my rocks.

Tyrone: Moving onto Steven. Steven, you’ve got the eight of hearts.

Steven: Yo. The eight? ‘A piece of old machinery is discovered, broken, but perhaps repairable. What is it, and what would it be useful for? Or, an old piece of machinery is discovered, cursed and dangerous. How does the community destroy it?’ An old piece of machinery? Alright, I’m going to rapid draw again. I’m going to say that they discover and old, cursed teapot that was used in a previous tea ceremony, but they believe it’s cursed now.

Tyrone: Why do they think it’s cursed?

Steven: Because lots of people died from drinking that batch of tea. Okay, died was a bit extreme. A lot of people got sick. Some people died, but a lot of people got sick. I realised that it was monthly, and that probably would have been a lot of people. So yes, it’s a cursed teapot that they thought they got rid of, bti someone recently found it again. 

Tyrone: How did they destroy it?

Steven: They burnt it in the fire that they used to make the next teapot ceremony.

Tyrone: It doesn’t sound particularly wise, but you do you.

Rosie: I mean, it’s a developing society. They’re learning as they go, you know?

Olive: You’ve got to make some mistakes to grow.

Rosie: Yeah.

Steven: That’s what they did, and they will eventually finish drawing this. I promise. I’m pretty proud of it. I’m not going to lie. That’ll do. You can tell that’s pretty evil.

Rosie: Oh, that’s very evil.

Steven: So evil. Evil teapot.

Tyrone: I love this society around tea that we’ve made.

Steven: Yeah. 

Tyrone: I love that he’s got a frowny face, but it’s also the grain of the wood. 

Steven: Oh, now I’ve got to do a thing. I’m going to discover something. So, while homegirl was out watching the flowers one night she discovered that one of the flowers - actually some of the flowers sporadically throughout begin to glow in the moonlight, and they glow a weird orangey colour. Just some of them, but then when the sun came back up again they were regular white flowers again.

Tyrone: They glow? Do they change colour?Like, orange? Like what you have here?

Steven: Yeah, they’re glowing orange. I did have an orange halo around them, but I couldn’t put them in there because it made a black background.

Tyrone: Very sad.

Steven: I know. You were going to be able to see the other flower behind it, but oh well. Lame.

Tyrone: I’m realising we’re not going to get to resolve half these projects until the next season. Very sad. 

Jorja: Oh well.

Tyrone: Alright- Wait, you discovered something. That’s it. Jorja. You have the final card of spring. 

Jorja: Dun-dun!

Tyrone: It’s the queen. I’ve been card counting. 

Jorja: Kick him out!

Steven: I was also card counting, and I was hoping I got the queen.

Jorja: The queen: ‘What’s the most beautiful thing in this area? Or, what’s the most hideous thing in this area?’

Tyrone: I lied, this is my favourite card. I love it.

Jorja: I have to choose one? Dammit. Okay, but they’re both so good. I don’t want to be Miss Positive all the time, but I want to draw something pretty. Okay, so I’m going to go with, ‘What’s the most beautiful thing in this area?’ because of course I would. Just up from the forest area is a very beautiful, sort of natural looking archway made of stone, covered in vines that are overgrown. You know, aesthetic as hell, but it shimmers in the stone. There’s something that glints, and they don’t know what it is, but they like it, and they think it’s very cute and very pretty.

Tyrone: Looking cute as fuck.

Jorja: Thanks. Okay, that’ll do.

Tyrone: Cute as. I’ve done the counters, so what would you like to do? 

Jorja: What would I like to do? That one’s war. That one’s city walls, and then investigate stones, right?

Tyrone: Yes.

Jorja: Okay, I think some scouts are going to be sent out to figure out why that one fish is really big. 

Rosie: And don’t forget it has big teeth.

Jorja: And it has big teeth. Well, some fish have teeth.

Rosie: But big teeth. 

Jorja: Human teeth?

Rosie: Oh, that’s horrifying. 

Jorja: That’ll make it scary. I think that it’s going to take two weeks because they’re just going to observe, and then they’re going to run some tests.

Tyrone: Yep, alright.

Jorja: Yep. 

Tyrone: Before we finish up for today I thought we might look at our resources, and decide how they hold up still. Do we have an abundance of drinking water still?

Jorja: Yes.

Rosie: If you avoid the fish.

Jorja: Yes, and the mill is before the fish. Well, in my mind the river runs down. I don’t know if that’s true.

Rosie: You know fish can move?

Olive: Yes, one hundred percent, but there’s a mill there now. 

Jorja: Yeah, but you drew it in that spot, so in my mind it stays there. 

Tyrone: Wait, which way does the river go?

Jorja: Oh, it goes up?

Rosie: Yep.

Jorja: Then we’re fucked. We’ve got fish water.

Rosie: Oh yeah. 

Tyrone: Do we still have an abundance of wood?

Jorja: I think we still have an abundance…

Tyrone: But it’s on thin ice.

Jorja: Yeah, but it’s also like, ‘Hey, what the fuck is up with that?’

Olive: I feel like it would have taken a turn for preserving nature. After investigating and finding out that a hive of bees lived in the woods. Plus we built a lot of things. We built a mill. We built housing. Fences.

Jorja: My mill was made out of dragon scales actually. 

Olive: If I had known this.

Tyrone: So, abundance, but on thin ice?

Jorja: Yep.

Tyrone: Natural dye. We haven’t really done much with that. 

Rosie: Scarcity now, right? Because of the charismatic girl.

Tyrone: Yep, it’s a scarcity.

Jorja: We can’t have coloured cookies and stuff.

Rosie: We need to get rid of her next season.

Jorja: We need to plot a murder.

Tyrone: There are cards that are like, ‘Somebody dies.’

Jorja: Yes! Plot twist: kill rock boy.

Olive: You don’t know what’s going to happen. 

Rosie: And then it turns out flower girl was secretly in love with him, and then she falls into a depression and can no longer have her tea. 

Jorja: Oh my god.

Tyrone: Do we still have a scarcity of fairy dust? I reckon. 

Olive: I reckon there’d be some more brewing. I mean, magic flower. Magic rocks. Who knows, but for the moment: scarcity. 

Tyrone: Scarcity, but on thin ice. Dandelion tea?

Jorja: Oodles. 

Rosie: Oodles and oodles.

Jorja: We need that every month. My tax paying dollars are going straight to the tea.

Tyrone: Is there anything you think we should add to the resources after that season?

Rosie: Hot.

Jorja: Lava? Yeah, okay. Is anxiety a resource because there’s a lot of that.

Rosie: You’re welcome.

Tyrone: Resources can be abstract like that. It could be ‘culture.’ It could be-

Olive: Baked goods. Oh, religion.

Tyrone: Abundance of religion.

Rosie: Coal.

Jorja: I don’t think you really understand how volcanoes work.

Rosie: Not really, but I’m sure there’d be coals there somewhere. 

Jorja: It turns into obsidian.

Rosie: Yeah, but at some point-

Jorja: Yeah, the tree that it destroys on the way down.

Rosie: Yeah, yeah. 

Olive: Before the obsidian part it’s coal, right?

Jorja: Fuck me. 

Rosie: There’s black and black.

Tyrone: Can I just change the baked goods to just food in general? I feel like we’ve got the mill happening and the bakery. 

Olive: Yeah. One hundred percent. 

Jorja: Got that sweet, sweet honey. *gasp*

Jorja + Rosie: Honey tea.

[laughter]

Olive: We’re evolving.

Tyrone: We need to capitalise on that next season. Before we said goodbye I thought that we might do some closing remarks about how we’re feeling as the community as well. I guess I’ll start. It’s good that we’re laying some ground work. Possibly we need to think about making the city some more, but I am building the walls, and the watchtower exists. Plus we;ve got those turtle merchant things. That’s happening, but we still have to figure out how the fuck to make it move. What do you think Steven? How’s it going in the community?

Steven: The community?

Tyrone: Yeah, like what’s your thoughts on the season so far?

Steven: They’re going great. They’ve got tea. What more do you want?

Tyrone: They’re living their best life until Glamos comes.

Steven: Dun, dun, dun. 

Rosie: Dun, dun, dun.

Tyrone: Jorja?

Jorja: I think there’s a lot of anxiety and contention happening, but I think that there’s some good prospects happening for future use.

Tyrone: Oli.

Olive: The community is only as great as its greatest stories, so whilst we don’t have a lot of material wealth, there’s a lot of smaller an interesting stories escapading everywhere that will build it from the ground up. 

Tyrone: Rosie.

Rosie: I think that the community needs to find a way to figure out who is really in charge of our resources because situations where somebody builds a fence around the community’s flowers I just feel needs to be addressed. 

Tyrone: I’m going to leave us with something to brew on until next time that we play.

Jorja + Rosie: Brew like tea!

Tyrone: Steven, pick me a number between one and four. 

Steven: Oh god, three.

Tyrone: We find that we wake up one morning to the area with the forest and just on the edge of the glimmering archway - Glamos has come and grown into the corners of our community.

Steven: Not the bees. 

Jorja: My bees!

Theme Song: [rock music plays]

Finding home in the belly of the beast, to make it home we can’t accept defeat, so roll the dice and come along with me, finding home in the belly of the beast

Tyrone: Thank you so much for listening to Portal Quandary. Portal Quandary is made possible by the following people: The players are myself, Tyrone Cross, Steven Edwards, Olive Jerome, Rosemary Ochtman, and Jorja Odd. The production team includes myself, Tyrone Cross, as Community Manager and Editor, and Elias Moffat as our Content Producer, Narrative Consultant, and Transcriber. That theme song is Belly of the Beast by Lily Harnath and Henry Lucas, and if you need to contact us you can do so at portalquandary@gmail.com. If you liked this episode and you want to hear the other three episodes in the arc, all you have to do is head over to our Patreon, which is patreon.com/portalquandary, Q-U-A-N-D-A-R-Y. You can also find us on our other social media including Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, and Threads.This podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri people, and produced on the lands of the Awabakal and Wurundjeri people. Portal Quandary acknowledges and pays respect to our traditional custodians and to their past and present leaders. 

Theme Song: [rock music continues]

Finding home in the belly of the beast, (in the belly of the beast), to make it home we can’t accept defeat, (there’s no turning back) so roll the dice and come along with me, (come along with me, let’s go), finding home in the belly of the beast.

Steven: Is that- Is that it? We’re stopping? Oh, okay.