B "I'm glad you applied too. Means one of us is likely to get it."

A "So the other doesn't get assigned any more cases like this?"

B "Nah. As long as there's a chance, it's good work looking for people."

A "Thank you for allowing us to come see you today. How well do you know Rad?"

Ref "That's fine. I didn't really know him, which is what I said to whoever I spoke to on the phone."

A "We have from multiple people in your gaming group that you have known Rad for over two years?"

Ref "Well, that's true, yeah. We were playing pretty much the whole time though, so I know his character much better. We didn't really talk about anything other than the game."

B " If that's your relationship with Rad, then I think we'll look elsewhere. Thanks for your time, we'll be going now; we'll be in touch if we need anything."

Ref "He was pretty well connected to his character, you know."

A "OK. What can you tell us? Anything might be helpful in finding him."

Ref "Well. What do you want to know?"

B "I'm not sure about this. Maybe if we've explored many other options first then this might become the best use of our time."

Ref "Have you ever played a role-playing game?"

B "Yes. A long time ago. So I know that there's not much to gain from this regarding a missing person."

Ref "Did you play the same character for two years? Play them knowing you're out of the game if they die? And two years is plenty long enough that you start to put yourself into them, your ideas and wants, otherwise you get bored -- I saw it in practically everyone; and in my game you can't just play someone new. Some of them don't talk to me any more because they lost their character."

A "Okay..."​

Ref "I can tell you some high-level things about his character, but you'd be better off finding out what you need in-world. It'd be much easier for me to get across what you want to know if you ask an NPC."

B "Seriously?"

Ref "I'm serious. Wouldn't you rather someone that knows you describe you, versus someone whose only heard about you? It feels like that to me. If there's a way I can help you find him, I think this is it."

Ref "We can start right now. Look, this isn't me trying to recruit you to my game."

B "Really?"

Ref "Yes. There's lots of players. Once people started hearing about the impact the initial group of player's were having in the world, they got interested. I don't have a grand plan, or story I want to tell, I just made a world and keep it moving forward in response to the character's actions."

A "That's very interesting, but I am afraid we can't justify the time to be doing this. Is it OK if we get back in contact if we think we need more of your help, after we've explored a few more leads?"

Ref "Yeah, whatever. That's fine."

B "Did you see how disappointed he was that you turned him down? You'd probably be the first woman in his game."

A "Funny. And yes, I did notice it; he's good at hiding his emotions, but not great."

B "I just remembered -- being back at this door reminds me. Pickering dropped out, so it's just me and you left in the running."

A "Hmm. I had a hunch he would drop out, once he got a better idea of all the desk work involved."

A "What's all this?"

Ref "Well, you need to play, right? So I already set up."

B "Before we do this, and I can't believe we are, is there anything you can tell us about Rad that might help us in his disappearance? If there's something we find out in, this, process, that you could have just told us, then we may find that you've been withholding evidence."

Ref "Uh. No, I have no clue where he's gone. He didn't mention anything during any session, and we don't talk about anything other than the game -- I don't have time for much else now that there are so many characters that have been affecting the world."

B "OK. We'll see."

A "Well, we agreed to this, and we are here now. Between us, our station doesn't know that this is exactly how we're spending our time in search of Rad, but we are 'up against' it now. Everyone else we spoke to says he was very much into Cruise, that's what your game is called, right?"

Ref "Yeah. OK, let's get going. Roll me 3d6..."

A "What's that?"

Ref "You find yourself in the town of Hug, it's a rainy morning, it's warm and the market is on."

Annabellia "Aha. Umm... OK what do we do? How do we play?"

Badron "I think he wants us to tell him what we do and say."

Ref "Yes. Please."

Badron "Well, we are looking for..."

Ref "Darra."

Badron "I start asking around for anyone who knows Darra."

Ref "The first person you ask, an older man with a leathery face, leading a cow with enormous horns, says: 'Of course! Darra is a credit to the town of Hug'."

Badron "Great. Where is he?"

Ref "The man calms his cow and says: 'I have no idea'."

Annabellia "Can't you, you know, just have him tell us?"

Ref "No. No, like I told you last time, I don't know. I've not had you roll characters just so I can tell you what I know in an American accent. This man does not know where Rad's character Darra is. You asked this NPC what he knows, and he's telling you."

B "Non-player character."

A "I knew that, actually."

Badron "OK, guy. What can you tell us about Darra? Why is he good for the town?"

Ref "'For the good he does, he's a follower of the Sufferer.'"

Badron "What?"

Ref "'You must know. The god of Suffering... Darra has endured and been rewarded for his devotion. He set up a shrine here and spends a great deal of his precious time assisting townsfolk. People suffer, and he helps. People need guidance, and he teaches them about the Sufferer.'"

Badron "Where is this shrine?"

Ref "'Just up a bit further. There's a sign on the signpost up there, it'll be near the bottom.'"

Badron "Cool. Does the signpost lead us to the shrine? Can I see it from here?"

Ref "As you ascend the shallow hill that this town is built on you come to a large wooden post, fifteen feet tall. There are many boards nailed to it, each with a name: 'Alchemist's Guild', 'Arcanist's Guild', 'Archaeologist's Guild', 'Association of Linguists & Translators',"

Annabellia "We are still only on the A's?"

Ref "Yes, but most are A's. In fact there are only two that don't begin with A, and one of them is for the shrine you're looking for."

B "Look, mate. We're here, playing your game, in your world, which frankly is what I think you wanted to happen. Time is critical here, so could you just speed things up a bit, skipping things like listing all of the names if we've found what we're looking or?"

Ref "I don't know what will be useful to you. For example, all of the organisations in Hug kept choosing names that appear, alphabetically, before all the others, so that their new sign would be placed above the others -- it was something the people here saw value in. Darra deliberately chose not to follow this; his sign is: 'Shrine of the Sufferer'. You said you could claim I've been withholding information if I tell you something, whilst in a session, that I could have told you before; surely the same applies to what I don't tell you, something you later find out and say I withheld?"

B "It's... not the same."

Annabellia "Let us just keep going."

Badron "Fine. We go to the shrine. And he's here?"

Ref "No, he's not here."

A "You have had a note from Rad for how long?"

Ref "A few weeks. He was scheduled to play last week, which was his first in a while, he's usually one of my most regular players."

B "You should have told us straight away; straight, away. This. Is exactly what I knew would happen. You've kept information that could help us find him."

Ref "No, I haven't. At the end of a session players can write down what their character will be doing as time continues to advance, they seal it and I keep them all here. We started doing this after a year in, before that all characters had to remain somewhere safe. I was against what we do now for a long time but it became clear that as these characters became more complex, involved in many moving stories, that it made no sense for them to have so much down-time between adventures. The notes explain what the characters are doing, where they're going, what protections they have in place. I don't open them except when necessary to know a character's location before the player's next session, and if it's unrelated then I don't say anything to the players at the table. Even then, we can usually ask the player over chat if, for example, they're anywhere near the Forgotten City or the Lone Mountain -- to avoid looking at the notes."

B "So what does Rad's say?"

Ref "I'm not opening it. I shouldn't have said anything. It's not related anyway, it'll just be something simple, saying where Darra has headed, what protection he has -- because character's can still die like this."

A "We could get a warrant, you know?"

Ref "And say what? You demand that I show you a note from a missing person written about their fictional role-playing character, about this character's movement in a fictional world? I don't think you will. Besides, there's an easy way to get me to open it, which is to do something that justifies me needing to know what it says."

B "You mean, go somewhere Darra -- Rad's character -- might be?"

Ref "Exactly."

A "Or... How would you feel about someone at the station, someone who has no connection..."

Ref "Not happening. One of the reasons this game has gone on as long as it has is because I take this stuff seriously. I keep time moving, I don't play favourites and I don't do things like looking at the notes unless it's necessary."

A "Are you not worried about him? Not once have you asked anything about what we know. Where he was last seen. What his emotional state might have been."

B "You said he was one of your most regular players. Don't you at least care about what impact that will have to your game?"

Ref "I see what you're doing. You can paint me out to be a bad person all you want. Right now I am helping, in really the only way I possibly can."

B "And I suppose there's nothing wrong with you getting to have fun in the meantime?"

Ref "No offence, but this is like playing chess with just the pawns. You two stumbling around Hug is nothing like what a normal session is. We once had a two-hour session that was just a funeral for a player's character. That player was invited but opted not to come, to further the idea that the character wasn't there any more, and so forfeited their last session, for it to mean even more. There have been full-on large-scale battles -- which needed new rules written for, as none of us ever thought that that would occur. There's been political manoeuvrings, "

B "Point taken."

A "So we just need our characters to go somewhere and you will open the envelope and tell us what it says?"

Ref "If there's a reasonable chance that Darra is there, or has been there and was seen, then yes, I will open it and I will read it, but I won't show you what it says."

A "But what if his character has gone in the other direction, purposely to his death? Maybe Rad is doing what the player who had the funeral is doing, distancing himself? It sounds like this game meant a lot to him after all."

B "Yeah, if Darra follows this god of suffering, what if he went out to suffer?"

Ref "Darra often does that, but it's never with the intent on being killed -- remember, if that happened he wouldn't be allowed to play ever again; well, not ever but it would be very hard and would involve a lot of the others working together. One of the reasons I set this game up with permadeath was so that players couldn't take stupid risks and just roll a new character, or allow themselves to get bored and just switch to playing someone else. This god, the Sufferer, is all about enduring hardship and learning from it. So when Darra sets off to have those experiences, it's never intended to end badly. Darra could be dead -- it's very unlikely though. Because of that same god he follows he can take a lot of punishment -- more than any other player character. But he's still vulnerable -- he only wears robes -- but the rules are different for him now; his health works differently. That's one of the main reasons to follow a god, the rules are adapted for your character around what the god is about. Another well-known god in this world is the god of Truth: followers get some very useful abilities provided their characters speak the truth, not just avoid telling lies."

B "Well, since we're just pawns on your chessboard, can you advise how we would go about prompting this note to get looked at?"

Ref "It's not my chessboard, I never wanted it to be mine, it's the players -- which technically includes you two now. I've already said: go somewhere that Darra might have gone to."

Ref "'North is where the closest shrine of suffering outside of Hug is. Not just any shrine: not made by a follower; thought to be made by the god himself, out of an old tower.'"

Badron "What's the quickest way there?"

Ref "'Well, young fellow, it should be just a few days ride on horseback.'"

Badron "Do I have a horse?"

Ref "'Well, young man, that is a good question. One I think you should know the answer to, not me.'"

Badron "No, I'm asking you."

Ref "No. No, I explained this during character creation. And you don't have enough coin for one."

B "Honestly!"

Annabellia "Is it safe to walk there?"

Ref "'Stick to the roads, avoiding the toll as most do, and you'll be fine. Paying the toll will be even safer.'"

Annabellia "Come on... Badron... let's get going, if this is the quickest way."

Ref "We skip over time whilst you travel, so it won't add much more time, it just means more random rolls."

A "What's this on me sheet? 'HP'?"

B "Hit Points, your character's health."

Ref "Hit Protection. Your character's stamina, ability to avoid damage, et cetera. Your health is your inventory slots; they take wounds when your Hit Protection is at zero."

B "Oh. So when you take wounds you can carry less stuff?"

Ref "Exactly."

B "I never used to liked when someone had one health but could still act like they were all fine. Does it work the same for monsters?"

Ref "Not the same. I'll make morale checks when a monster is at half health or when a group is at half their numbers left. It varies a lot though."

B "That's cool. These games have come a long way since I used to play them."

A "So what happens when 'HP' goes down?"

Ref "You can recover it by consuming a ration whilst resting."

Ref "The road rises, but the rest of the land stays flat, leaving a steep drop on either side; thick brambles cover the land around, making this the only crossing as far as you can see. 'Hold! You must pay the toll to pass through here!'"

A "My character sheet says I have 46 coins, which is enough, right?"

Ref "Yeah, it's only five coins -- half of what a labourer earns in a day."

B "Brutal."

A "I can pay for us both."

Ref "Where the road peaks is a stone archway that extends to the sheer drop on either side; the path underneath is blocked by a doorway of iron bars. Two tough-looking men, carrying spears and wearing armour, stand in front of the archway, with two more guards on the other side. They remain calm, bored, as you approach. You give them the coin?"

A "Yes. Should I subtract ten from my sheet?"

Ref "Yes please. The closest guard takes the coins and drops them into a waist-high plinth built into the archway, through a slot carved into its flat top."

Badron "Weird. I ask him why he doesn't hold on to them. Doesn't he get a cut?"

Ref "'Mind your business.'. They open the gate. 'Just get moving.'"

Annabellia "'We will go, we were just interested.' Is there an obvious way the coins get collected? Did we hear the coins land on other coins inside? If we were close enough that kind of sound would just be audible, no?"

Badron "She's right."

Ref "It's. Funny that you ask that. The guards look a bit taken back, as if they weren't expecting to be asked about it. You didn't hear a clink of coins and you see no way the guards could get to the coins."

Badron "We'll keep moving; we don't want to get pushed off the edge or anything."

Annabellia "They might really try that?"

Ref "Please mark off a ration for the night."

Badron "What happens in the event we have no food?"

Ref "All characters are capable at foraging, even basic hunting, so you could take a day to do that. A night of no food would just slow you down a bit; a second night is when your inventory slots start to be filled with hunger."

A "I noticed that us asking about where those coins went at the toll might have been the first time anyone asked about that."

Ref "Uh. The guards definitely seemed surprised."

A "It might be a detective thing, that meant we paid attention to it."

Ref "Maybe Annabellia & Badron like investigation too, maybe they're interested in becoming people who could be hired to find people? Just an idea."

Badron "Yeah. Does this world have wanted posters? Maybe bounty hunting is what our characters get up to once we're no longer investigating Rad's disappearance; you can decide how we fare doing that."

Ref "Or you could, just saying."

A "You're quite welcoming, into this group, aren't you? I would have pegged you, well, someone running a group like this, as someone quite selective."

Ref "Thanks. No world is full of one type of person, and it's nice to see different types of adventures undertaken than just what the typical D&D-player does. Don't get me wrong though, there's plenty of dungeons in this world; they're mostly built to protect the valuables of the wealthy; there are no banks like we hawe today, after all. A couple of characters have dungeons that they designed themselves."

B "You don't mind people having a say in your world like that?"

Ref "If it was ever just mine, that ended when the first character was rolled up."

Ref "OK. I'm looking at Rad's note, see?"

Ref "You see the tower ahead of you; it's a miracle it's standing given the condition it's in; it's more a stack of rough stones than a solid structure. Yet, it still snakes its way 60ft to the sky. There are four arched entrances at its base, allowing you to see out the other side. Inside looks hollow and empty, only a stone block bench can be seen inside, with someone sitting on it, their elbows leaning on their knees."

Badron "I get close enough to see who it is."

Ref "They're old, wincing in pain it appears. Sweat is beading down him and his clothes are sodden."

Badron "I ask if his name is Darra."

Ref "The man doesn't respond. His eyes are tightly shut."

Badron "Right. OK. I go up to him and "

Ref "The moment you step into the tower every one of your senses is overwhelmed. You can still see, but you feel an immense pressure, pressing on your lungs, your ears, your heart. You immediately start to sweat. You can only hear your blood pulsing through you. You can only feel the hairs on your skin -- piercing needles. Your body feels hot but your skin cold. Please mark an inventory slot as 'oppressed'."

Badron "What? But I have my HP, right?"

Ref "Damage you can't avoid hurts you directly, bypassing your HP, like gravity."

Badron "Fair. Cool, actually."

Annabellia "Maybe we can help the man? And ask him for help in return?"

Badron "I get out of there, I guess."

Ref "You immediately feel relief, relief from pressure like you had been deep beneath the ocean and have now broken the surface. After a minute your 'oppressed' wound will disappear."

Badron "If I shout at the man, will he hear me?"

Ref "You weren't able to hear anything when you were within the tower."

Badron "I'll call to him really loud."

Ref "He slightly turns his head, peers open his closest eye at you and then returns to his hunched position."

Badron "Uhh. I throw a stone from the ground at him."

Annabellia "What? Really?"

Ref "It's hard to tell if he's bothered by this, given how much discomfort, or pain, he's in."

Badron "I throw another."

Ref "He looks disapprovingly at you. You hear the stone hit him and it thump onto the grass."

Badron "Ah, OK."

Annabellia "What does that mean?"

Badron "It means when I couldn't hear anything in there, that it wasn't really something about that space, more that it was an effect directly on me."

Badron "Would I know how long it would have taken to fill all of my inventory slots if I stayed in there? Would filling them all kill me?"

Ref "You wouldn't know how long, and yes it would kill you; most wounds take a while to recover, but wounds like 'oppressed' just need you to be relieved from the cause of it."

Badron "I make it clear to him we need to talk to him."

Ref "He looks to relent after a moment, slowly rises to his feet and approaches you. Relief begins to wash over him as he leaves the tower, but he almost looks to be holding onto the tension in his body. He hasn't opened his eyes."

Badron "Are you"

Annabellia "Are you"

Badron "Sorry. You go."

Annabellia "Are you, Darra?"

Sufferer "No. But I know who that is."

Annabellia "We're looking for him. Do you know where he is?"

Sufferer "He's always on the move. He endures many hardships, learning."

Annabellia "When did you last see him?"

Sufferer "It was some months ago, not since the moons last crossed."

B "How on earth are we meant to get anywhere? Honestly."

Ref "You're learning about Darra, that's something."

B "We don't have time to indulge this. We need a lead, a good one, now."

Ref "Ask him then."

B "Fine."

Badron "How can we find him? We need to know where he is, to talk to him."

Sufferer "We are all connected."

Badron "Does that mean anything useful?"

Sufferer "I understand your urgency. I too have felt that way, to be swimming, lost, no land in sight. But this firm ground you seek doesn't have to be as far if you let the current take you there. Step back under the tower, the Sufferer will let you feel the weight of everything. If you endure, you might see get a feel of that current, feel the connection to all those who suffer. Darra is well tuned to this himself and drifts along this current constantly; often having no plan of where he's going, just experiencing."

Badron "Right. OK. In I go. I'll sit down on the stone bench."

Ref "Getting to the bench is hard. You feel like there's little blood to your legs to help carry you there."

Badron "Well, I'll crawl if I have to."

Ref "Very good. Make an inventory slot with 'oppressed'. You make it to the bench and pull yourself up to sit on it. How much time are you spending in here?"

Badron "As long as it takes."

Ref "You feel your heart start to strain, the blood no longer reaching your extremities. The silence in your ears is now an unbearable hum. Fill all but one of your inventory slots."

Badron "OK. I get out of there."

Ref "You leap from the bench, but only manage to fall off. You crawl. Crawl. Every inch a mile, how long have you been in here now? Under the tower? Under pressure? Failing. You're failing. As you feel the cool breeze outside on your face, the dew on the grass, an image comes to your mind. It's you, but not you. A tree. Broken. Split down the middle as if an almighty axe tried to cleave it in two, leaving only a foot at the base of the trunk still whole. Thick, purple vines climb up it, working their way into the crack."

A "Is he OK?"

Ref "Yes. Though it'll take an hour to fully recover."

Badron "'How did you stay in there so long? Did you see what I saw?'"

Sufferer "It is certainly a test. I've been a follower of the Sufferer long before you."

Badron "I'm not a follower."

Sufferer "Yet you saw something. What?"

Badron "A tree."

Sufferer "Ah, the cracked tree? I've not been there, but I know that it's east. Past the dark forest. But don't go in there, go around it. South, I think."

Badron "Is that where Darra is?"

Sufferer "I don't know. But you saw it for a reason. Darra has been there before though, I know that much."

Annabellia "Let's rest then."

Ref "OK. Mark off a ration each. I think we should call time. You're in quite safe lands but still I ask that you make a note of what Badron and Annabellia will be doing. Time will continue to advance now. I would recommend travelling back to Hug. If there's anything you want to prepare before you leave the town again, put that in there too."

B "I think we should get a description of what Darra looks like. Could we get anyone to come with us next time? Maybe someone from the Suffering shrine in Hug?"

Ref "I think you could, now."

B "What did you write in your note?"

A "Just that we're going back to Hug. Did you write more?"

B "Oh yeah. I said on the way back to Hug we go through the toll and that I offer five extra coins to each of the guards in thanks -- I want to see if they keep them or stick them inside the slot too; I want to know if they're allowed to keep any coin, even extras. Then, when back in Hug I'm going to ask around for anyone who has or can make explosives."

A "OK. What does this have to do with finding Rad?"

B "Well. Well, we're level one characters, right? We need to be more capable in that world. I'm laying the ground work for being able to keep going. And I plan to join the gaming Discord and recruit any of the other players to join us; I think uncovering whatever we both think is below that toll gate will give us credibility."

A "You're good at this, and I can tell you enjoy it."

B "I won't lie, I love this stuff; I can't stop my brain from thinking about it and making plans. But this is now our best lead. Rad left everything behind, even his phone, so he must have not wanted to leave any clues as to where he went. I feel like we're going to spend the work day tomorrow waiting around until we clock off so we can come back here."

A "Yeah, I don't want to have to explain what we're doing, here. Let's ask if we can start earlier and just say to anyone at work we were following a lead that didn't pan out."

B "I hope that's not what we're doing."

B "So joining that Discord was interesting. There must be multiple books worth of adventuring write-ups on there, and that's just the stuff I can see. Dozens of players, mostly dead. There's a number of high-level players knocking around who seem powerful; and there's a bunch of old message of fresher players asking for their help, to make trades, etc. But the thing is, there's been no new messages in two months -- except for a daily weather report for each location, which must be automated as it's at 9am on the dot, daily."

A "You're saying there's been no active games for that long?"

B "I assume so. Unless they're not using the Discord -- which I really doubt as that seems to be where all of the history of that world lives."

A "I imagine that could be a sore topic, especially since he didn't mention it."

B "Yeah, let's tread carefully. Oh, and FYI, the game slash world is called Crews, like in a group -- I though it was like as in a ship."

B "Hey. So I got a response on the Discord, the guy seemed pretty happy I was playing and says he's going to join us today."

A "Did you say that we are detectives?"

B "No, and I don't plan to. But he might be surprised by our age."

Ref "It's a bit of a long story how we met, but the gist is that these guys are looking for Darra."

Derrington "Darra, huh? OK. He may be hard to track down."

Badron "What makes you say that?"

Derrington "Well we don't usually go trying to find people out in the wild. We mostly gathered in a safe haven and trekked out together."

Ref "Usually. These are the kinds of players, if you don't mind me saying, who aren't typical adventurers, so I expect we'll be experiencing something different."

Derrington "That's cool. Sure. Sounds fun, just nice to play again -- been a while. I'll try and help how I can. But we can't go west; there's a lot of people looking for me west and they know my face. Annoyingly it'd take going west to get what I need to make an alteration potion."

Badron "What else can you make?"

Derrington "Oh all sorts. For a while I was part of group where I got into carrying everything needed to make potions on the fly, and it grew from there. After that I came up with the whole reagent system."

Ref "Which is kept in balance by the furthest areas being the least habitable for life but containing the most powerful ingredients."

Derrington "You been east yet? Bring me any purple mushrooms you get there and I'll make it worth you while, and open your minds."

Ref "He's referring to something that's directly to do with your character's minds. Something worth exploring if you stick at playing."

A "East is actually where we are looking to go, to a broken tree."

Derrington "That tree was involved in a few stories. There was this whole arc around an NPC; he used to be the mayor of the original village that characters were from -- before some players I never met unlocked other starting locations. The NPC was the only person who was in the good graces of two separate gods. One was the Sufferer."

Annabellia "Who was the other?"

Derrington "The Wild & Plenty. Basically a nature god -- who I've dealt with a lot, but never explicitly followed. I do have a relic of theirs though, but don't worry about relics for now. If the Sufferer gave you a vision of that tree then let's go."

Badron "Great. I want your opinion on something as we pass through the toll."

Derrington "Oh, forget the toll. I know another route that's much quicker and more direct. I'll keep you safe."

Badron "If it's OK with you, we'll take the toll; I want to ask you about something there anyway. Was I able to collect what I was looking for in Hug?"

Ref "Yes, what you're after was available, but very expensive -- way more than you can afford."

Badron "Ah, OK. Derrington, think you can mix something that can cause an explosion?"

Derrington "Oooh, yes. So you are adventurers after all!"