Transcribed by Tyler (Twitter: @Tyler_MoonSage)
## Intro
Rhi: Welcome back to the Void Sea. As always, thank you so much for joining us. Today is the second and final part of our Leviathan Song adventure. I hope you’ve all enjoyed this trip into another part of the Blades setting. We had a ton of fun with this story, and I hope we can delve more into Leviathan Song someday in the future.
Today marks the beginning of International Podcast Month. You’ll be able to hear me in just one week as the GM of Mission Accomplished and again at the end of the month as a player in Songs for the Dusk. You can also hear good friend of the show Waffles as the GM of Delver next Thursday and as a player in Descent into Midnight later this month. Check out InternationalPodcastMonth.com for episodes, blog posts, news and more.
Next, I’m going to tell you about this month’s Featured Charity which was suggested by Josie.
With protests against police brutality and white supremacy continuing across the nation we recommend donating to your local bail fund. Bail funds are organizations that pay bail for people who can’t afford it and who also often provide legal support for people once they’re out on bail. Right now many of these organizations are supporting protesters who have been arrested, but they’re important to support at all times as cash bail unfairly harms black and brown people, especially those living in poverty. You can find your local bail fund by searching online for your city or state plus “bail fund.” We’ll link to a few and the show notes.
As we draw ever closer to the November elections in the US, I want to emphasize how important it is to ensure that you are registered to vote and have a plan for how you’ll safely vote this year. You may not be enthusiastic about the choices for President, but it’s still critical that you vote because this is more than the presidency. This is the Senate and finally removing Mitch McConnell from power. This is your local officials who have a huge influence on your day-to-day life. This is especially the Supreme Court and who will be selecting and confirming lifetime appointed judges in the next four years.
I am tired of the absolute terror I feel every time Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s name shows up in the news. She needs to be able to retire without fear that we’ll end up with another Kavanaugh or worse in her place. Voting isn’t the only answer, and I know there are so many hurdles in place to prevent us from voting, but it is part of the answer and it’s critically important to make sure that you are registered and able to vote this year.
Now then, let’s get started. Shall we?
## Story Continues [0:03:12]
Rhi: Another few days pass. There’s a lot of kind of minor adjustments to the ship’s heading as you’re zeroing in on this leviathan. The atmosphere on the ship is growing increasingly tense, because everybody now knows that you’re getting close, everybody’s kinda ready, and the longer that it drags out without actually getting to hunt the leviathan the more people kind of don’t have an outlet for all this extra energy. The captain does have to break up some fights, a couple people get thrown into the brig just to cool off, but eventually at dawn, about four days after the barnacles or urchins attacked the ship, a cry goes up from the crow’s nest.
Rhi (as ???): [shouting] Leviathan! Leviathan, portside!
Rhi: And everyone bursts into action. Ahavah, you run to the armory to help the quartermaster basically start laying out the weapons so that people can run by and pick them up. Isabelle, you are helping with everything that needs to be done to get the ship into proper position.
Kim: Yep.
Rhi: Along the rails, the master butcher—
Kim: Ooh.
Rhi: —is overseeing the poor bastards who lost the chum lottery. They’re hauling up the carcasses of the spawn and buckets of… stuff, and loading them into the boats. But through all this, whenever you’re up on the deck, these boats get lowered into the water and launched out towards the leviathan to distract it with something it can feed on so it doesn’t just eat all of you.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: While all this is happening, whenever you’re up on the dock there’s kind of a fog at dawn that starts to clear off as the sky grows brighter, and as it grows brighter you can see it, you can see the leviathan. It does look like an island, like a perfectly round smooth-topped island. Well, almost smooth. You can see, in what looks like the very center of this creature, a tower? A growth? I think at different points while both of you are on the deck you see these massive, unspeakably huge jellyfish-like tendrils, almost invisible in the dim light they’re so translucent, coming up out of the water and placing something on this structure. It’s building something on itself.
Josie: Weird~
Rhi: It’s very weird. But before too long, the boats start coming back and the leviathan’s tendrils stop moving up to build whatever this thing is on itself, and the water where all of this gore is now, basically, starts to churn, and the tendrils come up and start pulling chunks of stuff underwater. Then the cry goes out of “launch boats,” and you two end up in the same boat along with another couple people.
The way that the harvest works is you’re sent over in pairs, two boats, four people each, and you go ashore somewhere on the leviathan. Some of you are going to be harvesting and some of you are going to be defending. I think that given your skillsets the two of you are probably gonna be on defense. This is also a point where you would have, I’m gonna just say, a normal load for each of you.
Kim & Josie: Okay.
Rhi: So yeah, you can have guns and other assorted fun weapons. So, I am gonna give you options for what region of the leviathan you would like to land on.
Kim: Ooh.
Josie: I mean… you set up the nautilus shell.
Rhi: Well, so the whole thing is a nautilus shell…
Josie: Ah.
Rhi: …but on the nautilus shell there are different regions, because this thing is literally, like, it is big enough that there are different territories. [laughs]
Josie: [uneasy] Great.
Rhi: Yeah. If you are standing on one side of it you can’t see the other. It’s that big.
Josie: Wow. Okay. What the fuck.
Rhi: Yeah. Leviathans are no joke.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: So, you kind of would have heard in conversations with the master augur this is a known leviathan. It’s behavior is understood. So one thing that’s also here is because this thing is covered in a shell, in order to get at the blood and other squishy bits you all are loading up these boats with explosives and drills.
Josie: [laughing] Oh no.
Rhi: So the harvest teams are going to have to blast through the shell to get in there and get anything useful. So the regions where you can land are the following. There’s an area called the pools. The shell is pitted here and there are pools of a strange iridescent liquid that fill the pits. There’s an area called rune curse where there are giant runes that seem like they’ve been branded into the shell. People who have been on this leviathan say that the runes are still hot to the touch.
Kim: Huh.
Rhi: Hammerfall. The shell is cracked here as if a massive hammer or falling star crashed into it. The shell shifts around sometimes and glimpses of the flesh below can be seen.
Kim: Hmm.
Rhi: Watcher. Something here is watching you and it will not look away.
Josie: Ominous.
Rhi: These are basically your choices for where you can land, whichever one of these you would like to explore.
Josie: I mean, I feel like hammerfall would be the practical choice since it’s probably easiest to harvest shit from there.
Rhi: Yes.
Josie: What were you thinking, Kim?
Kim: I was also leaning towards hammerfall. It seems the most vulnerable point of it.
Rhi: Okay. So your two ships set out. In the ship with the two of you is a guy who goes by Crossroads. He’s a member of the Closed Eye cult, so he’s been working with the master augur. He claims to have made a deal with a demon at a crossroads. He likes to tell stories too, Ahavah. He only really tells the one story, the story of this deal with a demon at a crossroads, but the story changes every time, but he seems to believe that it’s the true version every single time he tells it.
Josie: So it’s a tribute to the best story in the world.
Rhi: Yes.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: You are also joined by a woman named Brenna Booker. She is one of the Fog Hounds who is serving a sentence for theft. There have been a few issues with her. She suspects that somebody sold them out and has kind of become increasingly paranoid as she’s been on the ship. She thinks that somebody on the ship is to blame for her and her crewmates being here. I don’t think either of you have had much direct interaction with either of these folks prior to this, but they will be here probably helping on defense while the other boat is gonna be harvesting.
So, the first challenge is navigating to the leviathan. You are going to be in a… because you have basically two NPCs assisting, that’s gonna give you kind of better position and effect than if it was just the two of you.
Kim: Okay.
Josie: Okay. I have 12 stress boxes instead of 9…
Kim: Oh~
Josie: …so I can lead if you want.
Kim: Yeah. Please, by all means.
Josie: Yeah. It really encourages you to spend lots of stress. [laughs]
Rhi: Yeah.
Josie: I think I’m gonna roll Survey? That makes sense, right?
Rhi: Okay. Looking for a good place to set ashore?
Josie: Uh-huh.
Rhi: Okay! So Isabelle, you’ll also roll Survey.
Kim: Okay. I got two 5s.
Josie: I got one 5.
Rhi: Okay, a 5 it is. So you do it but there’s a consequence, and you did it with greater effect. You, because you got it… So this is kind of, as you two surmised, this is a pretty popular area for people who are trying to get a fast harvest because these boats can only hold so much, so you wanna get your stuff, load up your little boats, and haul ass back to the leviathan hunter so you don’t have to be out here, because the longer you’re out here the more likely you are to die a horrible death.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Josie: Right.
Rhi: So, I think that what ends up happening is your two little boats make it out here first and you’re able to get ashore fairly safely. I think the complication is going to be… Brenna has signaled some of her crewmates from the Fog Hound, from the Fog Hounds rather…
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: …and I’m gonna start a clock. It’s gonna be at 1 out of 4 right now. Basically she has signaled some of her people to come over and run you all off of this spot so that her and her crew can have… they come back with more and better stuff and that will move them up in the ranks.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: So you are facing both the spawn and potential treachery from the crew, but you’re able to, you know, haul the boats up onto the shell, and as you got closer you realized that the shell actually isn’t perfectly smooth. There are, covering this thing, like plant life almost, these protrusions of what looks kind of like different types of coral. Most of them are fairly small, like knee height or below, but there’s some that you can see that spiral up like trees towering overhead.
Kim: Oh, cool!
Josie: That’s so cool.
Rhi: There’s some talk as the drills are coming out of like, maybe we should try and get a couple of those big ones and just drag them back through the water with us, because you want, you know, everybody’s here to get leviathan blood because that is what you turn into electroplasm, that is what fuels the cities, but you also want other stuff, rarer stuff, because that is what leads scientific advancement. You get these weird things off of the leviathans and then they can be studied and the leviathan can be better understood. Sometimes you can unlock some new things about the nature, some new ways to use electroplasm or some new ways to use the stuff that gets harvested from the leviathans, other things besides the blood.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: So there’s, you know, if you can come back with something cool and rare that’s also a good way to raise your standing and your pay. Your pay at the end of this is tied to how much you bring back. [laughs]
Kim & Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: So I think the four, the other team, that’s set up on harvesting is getting to work, they’re prying back chunks of this shell, and the other four of you I think have kinda fanned out a little bit on defense, but also, you know, if you wanna look around and see if you can find anything interesting, if you just wanna keep watch for any spawn coming in, at this point you can kinda decide what you wanna do.
Josie: I think Ahavah is kind of idly poking at some of the coral.
Rhi: Okay.
Josie: And occasionally pocketing colorful bits.
Rhi: Okay. Do you wanna roll something to see if you get anything particularly cool, or if you find anything particularly cool?
Josie: Sure.
Rhi: Yeah. Go ahead and make a roll.
Josie: Survey makes sense for that.
Rhi: Yeah.
Josie: I got a 3.
Rhi: Three, okay. So, you’re picking up just interesting little bits of coral. Maybe they’ll be worth something, maybe they won’t. We’re gonna come back to that. Isabelle, what are you doing?
Kim: What am I doing? [sighs]
Rhi: You need money.
Kim: I do need money. In that case, I think she’s probably gonna be focusing on harvesting more so than kicking ass, up until she needs to, so she’s probably gonna get right up in there and just try to gather whatever she needs to gather.
Rhi: Yeah. It’s described as blood and viscera.
Kim: Viscera… Okay, then I will go after the ichor. Is it already bleeding or do I have to attack it first in order to harvest?
Rhi: You can go at this a couple different ways. You can join the harvesting team and kind of assist them in digging stuff up.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Because you chose to land on an area where the shell is already cracked it’s a lot easier.
Kim: Uh-huh.
Rhi: Or you can kinda go out on your own and try to… not like too far on your own.
Kim: Oh, obviously, yeah.
Rhi: But you can try to find something that is unique that you could bring back yourself and kinda make sure you get credit for it.
Kim: And thus raise my pay?
Rhi: Yeah. Because right now it’s sort of like, you know, the barrels of blood you bring back everybody is just gonna get equal credit for it.
Kim: Right. Everyone’s gonna get a cut.
Rhi: Yeah, but if you can bring back something special then you will get more money, and you need more money. [laughs]
Kim: I know. No, that’s what I was… I think I’m gonna do that. I think that’s what Isabelle is gonna do is go off on her own and try to look for something to bring back herself.
Rhi: Yeah, so go ahead and roll something.
Kim: It makes more sense to me to roll Study, but my Survey is higher, so I think I’m gonna roll Survey for this.
Rhi: Yeah, that makes sense. You’re gazing across a large landscape basically.
Kim: Yeah, that too. Oh, I have a spyglass. Can I use that?
Rhi: Absolutely. I will… so this is gonna be risky, with a spyglass I’ll make it greater effect.
Kim: All right, great, 5 and a 6.
Rhi: Ooh… So you take out your spyglass and kind of sweep across the local area and a bright glint catches your eye.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: There is something wedged in between two cracked chunks of shell, a ways off, you’re probably gonna have to go about 50 or 60 feet away from everybody else, but you know, you glance around and it seems pretty calm here for right now so you jog over.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: And wedged in there is this… at first you think that you found a giant pearl that is the size of a, I mean, I don’t know what the Duskwall equivalent would be, but the size of a basketball.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: But when you get close enough and pick it up, it’s not reflecting light, it is glowing slightly.
Kim: Oh~
Rhi: So you have found this glowing radiant orb that looks like a giant pearl. I think everybody has satchels and stuff on them, and you can just kinda tuck that away.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Now let’s go back to that 3 [laughs], that Ahavah had while poking at coral. Since Isabelle has kinda jogged off to go pick up this shiny thing, and you are distracted poking at the coral, you don’t notice the spawn that come flying towards you.
Josie: Flying, huh?
Rhi: Flying, yeah. They’re moving through the air as if it’s water, kind of in a… the closest thing that your mind can think of is eel. They’re moving in that ribbon wave undulating motion through the air.
Kim: [gasps] I love eels.
Rhi: They are covered in coral growths similar to what you’re seeing all over the back of the leviathan, and when they open their mouths to hiss at you their teeth are these long sharp needles that look a lot like the spines on the urchins that attacked the other day.
Josie: Hmm.
Rhi: You don’t notice them coming until they start hissing, so you are gonna be in a desperate position…
Josie: Oh dear.
Rhi: …because these things have basically gotten the drop on you.
Josie: And how many are there?
Rhi: [rolls] Three.
Josie: [sarcastically] Cool!
Rhi: The other defenders are taking out weapons and shouting warnings and getting ready for a fight, and I think that, Isabelle, you’re just turning to come back when you start hearing the shouting.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: So you can start running back towards the others.
Kim: [exhales] Do I want Isabelle to shout “captain” as she’s running towards there or would that be an issue…?
Josie: [gasps]
Rhi: I mean, it would definitely raise some questions.
Kim: Hmm.
Josie: [smiling] I like it.
Kim: You like it?
Josie: Uh-huh.
Rhi: It’s a one-shot. You don’t have to live with the consequences of your actions.
Kim: [smiling] That’s true. All right, fuck it. Isabelle’s gonna run towards her and just yell…
Kim (as Isabelle): Captain!
Josie: [laughs]
Kim: …and you know, ready her gun as she’s rushing towards her.
Rhi: Yeah. If you wanna take a shot, because you got a gun so you don’t have to be right up on things…
Kim: I do. Yes, I would like to mark off fine long rifle and roll Hunt.
Rhi: Hell yeah. You wanna just shoot one out of the air?
Kim: Oh yeah.
Rhi: Yeah! So that’ll be, for you, that’s gonna be risky, greater effect since you got that fine, fine hunting rifle. Go ahead and take your shot.
Kim: Great. All right, 6, 2, 2.
Rhi: [laughing] Oh man.
Josie: Nice.
Kim: That was close.
Rhi: Yeah. So I think there’s the shout of “captain” and then a gunshot cracks out, and one of the eels just crashes to the ground.
Kim: Kim is mourning. Isabelle is not.
[laughter]
Rhi: Almost as soon as it hits the ground one of the harvesters skidders forward and grabs it by two of the coral things and starts hauling it over towards the ship because you’re taking everything.
Josie: [laughs]
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: And yeah. Ahavah, there’s still two of them. You’re no longer in a desperate position. I think Isabelle shot out the one that was closing in on you but there’s still two of them.
Josie: Okay. I think when Izzy yells out “captain,” Ahavah, who is getting ready to attack, stumbles for a moment because she’s not… [laughs] Izzy’s the only one who has called her captain in a very long time.
Rhi & Kim: Aww.
Josie: But then she smiles and clicks out her collapsible harpoon. Can I try to skewer both of them?
Rhi: Yeah, it’s just gonna reduce your effect.
Josie: Uh-huh.
Rhi: So I think…
Josie: What if I use Terrible Power to throw this harpoon with the force of an actual harpoon gun?
Rhi: Yeah, that would get it back up to standard. It would be risky-standard.
Josie: Okay. I’m also gonna push myself for an extra die. I got a 6.
Kim: Nice.
Rhi: You do it. [laughs] You shish kebab them.
Josie: [laughs] She just sort of stalks around, lines up a shot, and then is just like PEW and they both get skewered.
Rhi: Yeah. I think Brenna looks kind of impressed in spite of herself and lowers her weapons.
Rhi (as Brenna): Good throw.
Josie (as Ahavah): Thanks. Probably could have been a little bit better, though.
Rhi: I think that, you know, a couple of the others come over and Brenna will help haul these other carcasses over.
Josie: Can Ahavah pull… She like steps on one to pull the harpoon out and then slings the other one over her shoulder with the harpoon still in it.
Rhi: To Brenna?
Josie: To carry it back to her, yeah.
Rhi: Yeah. Yeah.
Kim: Have I caught up to the group at this point?
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: I think at this point the threats have been removed. So, I think that for a little bit things are going really smoothly, like almost too smoothly. It’s getting to a point where you’re all loading stuff up and kinda looking around and looking at each other like what’s wrong, why aren’t we being attacked.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: And it is at that point that you see—You know how like if you’re swimming…
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: …and you pull your arm out of the water real fast it kinda, the water sort of sloshes off to the side and leaves a divot in the water for a second and then it comes back together? So very abruptly you all see that in the ocean but on a massive scale. The water just kind of splits apart, and the sun is gone at this point so you don’t see it so much as you feel the water falling on you, and you can just barely tell because the stars are blurred through the translucent arm of the jellyfish tendril that is crashing down towards your position.
Josie: Fuck.
Rhi: It’s trying to crush all eight of you.
Josie: Jesus.
Rhi: So you’re gonna need to fucking move.
Josie: Uh-huh.
Rhi: You also need to consider do you try to save anything that you’ve harvested, or the boats.
Josie: [squirming] Mm-hmm.
Rhi: So [laughs], because it’s so big you do have a couple seconds to react. It doesn’t move fast…
Kim: Right.
Rhi: …but it’s coming down on you.
Josie: Can I shove Isabelle out of the way?
Kim: [gasps] Please.
Rhi: Yeah.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: For sure.
Josie: Do I need to make a roll for that?
Rhi: Yeah… I think I’m gonna treat this as a setup action. You’re gonna give Isabelle a better position on her roll.
Josie: Okay.
Rhi: This is probably Prowl since it’s a physical thing. That would be my guess.
Josie: Mm-hmm. Okay. I got a 3.
Rhi: So…
Josie: I was trying to be nice!
Rhi: Yeah! I think maybe you see it first and you shout a warning and start running towards Isabelle, and Isabelle also starts running, and your, Ahavah, your foot just catches in one of these cracks in the shell and you trip and just go sprawling.
Josie: Ahh!
Rhi: So you are going to be… When you roll for your own getting out of the way of this thing crashing down on you, you will have to… you’re gonna be in a desperate position.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Isabelle, you are at risky-standard to keep running and get clear of this thing. If you want to help anybody, if you want to try and save the boats, if you want to save the other stuff that’s been harvested already, you know, that will potentially change your position and effect.
Kim: What if I want to save Ahavah?
Rhi: That’s gonna change your position and effect, because you gotta run backwards. Ahavah’s behind you. You gotta run back into danger.
Kim: Yeah, but she’s stuck, so I think Isabelle… Here’s the thing. Ahavah used to be her captain and she thought she was dead, so yeah, she’s gonna…
Rhi: Gonna run back?
Kim: Yeah, she’s gonna run back and try to help. She’s gonna run back and try to help get her foot unstuck.
Rhi: Yeah. I don’t think her foot is stuck, she just tripped and fell flat on her face.
Kim: Oh. Well, I’ll bring her to her feet.
Rhi: But it’s kind of a, like, helping her get up and run clear will help her move faster. Yeah, so that’s gonna be…
Kim: What would that be?
Rhi: I think that it’s gonna make… We’re gonna still treat this as kind of your… I think since you’re running back you two have the option now of doing a group roll to escape.
Josie: Okay!
Rhi: But it is going to be desperate for both of you.
Josie: Okay.
Kim: What is that, a group Prowl then?
Rhi: Probably.
Josie: I think when Isabelle comes back to help her Ahavah is like:
Josie (as Ahavah): Izzy, why? I’m dead already. You need to get out of here.
Kim: Geez. What does she even say to that?
Josie: Probably something like “shut up and come on.” [laughs]
Kim: Eh… maybe something along the lines of “I’m not gonna let one of these things kill you again.”
Rhi: Oh no~
Josie: Aww~ [laughs]
Rhi: Oh no~! That’s very good.
Kim: [giggles]
Rhi: Yeah, so go ahead and do your roll.
Kim: I wanted to ask about a Devil’s Bargain first.
Rhi: Oh-ho-ho!
Josie: Ooh!
Rhi: Oh-ho-ho!
Kim: Before I rolled my— [laughs]
Rhi: I mean, I think the obvious one is that you drop your satchel and you lose that orb.
Kim: [groaning] No.
Rhi: Yeah. I’m going with that. That’s the offer is that do you wanna keep the shiny thing that’ll get you out of debt?
Kim: I refuse.
Rhi: All right.
Kim: Actually, wait a minute. I don’t have to suffer the consequences. [laughs]
Josie: [laughs]
Kim: Who cares if I’m broke by the end of this or not? I accept the Devil’s Bargain.
Rhi: Yeah, so take your extra die.
Kim: All right.
Josie: I got a 5.
Kim: My highest was a 5 as well.
Rhi: Okay. You two are very consistent with your group rolls. So you don’t take stress… Oh boy, oh boy. I think…
Josie: We were a crew together. We work well.
Rhi: Okay, so describe how you two get clear of this crashing tendril and then I will describe the consequence.
Kim: I think… The way I’m visualizing this is that this tendril was coming down. Right?
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: Instead of running away we run off to the side to avoid it.
Rhi: Yeah.
Josie: I kind of imagine since it’s like a nautilus shell there’s a curve we can slide down into.
Kim: Ooh!
Rhi: Oh yeah. So, the two of you get clear. I think that as you’re running, Isabelle, your satchel catches on something and it rips and that glowing pearl just kind of bounce, bounce, bounce, splash.
Kim (as Isabelle): Fuck!
Rhi: Into the sea. And the tendril comes crashing down. And then after what seems like a small eternity it peels back up and slams back into the sea, and these huge waves sweep up onto the shell, and… your boats are just gone.
Kim: Oh shit.
Josie: Huh…
Kim (as Isabelle): [out of breath] Now what?
Josie: Real quick, did anyone else survive that?
Rhi: Let’s see. There were six others. Let’s roll a d6 and find out.
Kim: Oh boy.
Rhi: Oh! Actually, you only lost one. Somebody on the harvest crew who was named Lurker. Most of you managed to get clear. I think that Lurker was actually trying to move one of the ships, or one of the boats rather, and just got…
Kim: Yeah, and he just got…
Rhi: There’s not really anything left of him. So now the seven of you who are still alive are stuck here with, like, your equipment is smashed to smithereens. Your boats are gone. At this point, your best chance for sheer survival is to try to trek over to another landing point and convince some people to let you ride back in their ships.
Kim & Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Which like… may or may not be a problem. It depends on if they have to choose between taking you and taking extra goods back.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: They may not take you.
Kim & Josie: Right.
Rhi: So, at this point that’s kind of your best bet for survival.
Josie: We can either do that or we can press in a little and find something that we can scramble into a boat or paddle back with.
Rhi: Oh, interesting.
Kim: Hmm. That’s true.
Rhi: There are some big pieces of coral that you could try to use as a floatation device or lash into a raft.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: You can give that a shot.
Kim: Why don’t we give that a shot instead of, you know, testing our luck on a… they are crewmates, but on a whole bunch of strangers who won’t hesitate to leave us to dead if they have to.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: [laughs] Yeah. There’s a little bit of everyone for themselves at harvest time. Does one of you propose heading further onto the creature to the group as a whole? Because it’s not just the two of you. You’ve got five other people.
Josie: I think Ahavah suggests it.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Yeah, Ahavah, give me a roll to kind of persuade the other folks.
Josie: Mm-hmm. Would Sway or Consort be better? Because I’m kind of being honest here.
Rhi: It’s probably Consort if you’re not trying to trick them in any way.
Josie: I got a 1.
Kim: Oh no.
Rhi: Hoo-boy. I think that as the two of you, like, I think the two of you dove to one side and the rest of them dove to the other, so by the time the two of you, your two groups kind of meet back up, Brenna seems to have taken charge of the other group, and when you propose this idea she just shakes her head and is like:
Rhi (as Brenna): Nah, I already got some people on the way. You’re welcome to wait with us.
Rhi: Then she kinda looks at Isabelle and raises an eyebrow.
Rhi (as Brenna): [fiercely] Captain.
Josie (as Ahavah): No, no, it’s just a thing. We knew each other before this voyage. It’s kind of an in-joke.
Rhi (as Brenna): Well, I’m sure that “Captain” Ankhayat will be very interested to hear about it.
Josie (as Ahavah): Uh-huh.
Rhi (as Brenna): We’ll wait here. You two can do what you like.
Josie (as Ahavah): [grumbling] I’m pretty sure the captain has more of a sense of humor than she does.
Rhi: [laughing] Honestly? Probably.
Josie: [laughs] Ahavah is not especially quiet in saying that either.
Rhi: I think that one of the other folks on the harvest team snorts a little bit when you say that and then quickly goes quiet when everyone else looks at her.
[laughter]
Rhi (as ???): [embarrassed and submissive] Sorry.
Rhi: But yeah, basically you’re not getting a very friendly reception from the rest of the group here. It seems like Brenna has basically told everybody that some of the other Fog Hounds are gonna come and pick them up.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: She thinks that she’s got something on you by being able to say “oh, she was calling her captain. What’s that all about? Are you trying to stage a mutiny?”
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: Whether or not that turns into anything would be a future tale. Right now you gotta get off this fucking leviathan.
Kim: yeah.
Rhi: And hopefully maybe find something that will be worth something, but mostly you need to escape with your life slash unlife.
Josie: Well, if we just wait for the Fog Hounds we have a little bit of time to look for stuff?
Rhi: Yeah! If you wanted to do that you can do that.
Kim: What would we roll for that, Survey?
Rhi: Sure.
Kim: Okay.
Josie: And I’m thinking maybe they go together this time?
Kim: Sure. Yeah.
Rhi: Yeah, if you wanna group action it.
Josie: Sure.
Kim: Group Survey?
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Kim: I can lead it…
Josie: Cool.
Kim: …because I have a spyglass still.
Josie: Four.
Kim: I got double 3.
Rhi: Okay, so you’re gonna take a point of stress.
Kim: Okie-dokie.
Rhi: So, the two of you start walking off a little ways looking around for stuff, and you find… I think Ahavah, you spot this. Kind of at the base of a larger chunk of coral that is kind of closer to tree size, just sort of nestled up as if it were a tree with roots, just kind of tucked into a little crevice is a sealed cask of leviathan blood that is emblazoned with the symbol of your old ship.
Kim: Oh!
Josie: Oh…
Rhi: It’s just tucked neatly in there, perfectly unharmed.
Josie: I think Ahavah at first is like “oh hell yes, finally something good,” but as she gets up to it she kind of just stops and looks down at it sadly for a little bit.
Kim: Isabelle’s just gonna be right there behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
Kim (as Isabelle): You okay?
Josie (as Ahavah): Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.
Rhi: There’s also a question of how it got here, because the part of the Void Sea that you are in currently is nowhere near where your ship went down.
Josie: Uh-huh.
Rhi: And this does not look like it has been adrift at sea for however many years or decades. This looks like it just came fresh out of the hold.
Josie: Yeah.
Josie (as Ahavah): Maybe we hunted this thing before and I forgot? I did lose a lot.
Kim (as Isabelle): No… No, we never came after this thing when I was part of your crew.
Josie (as Ahavah): Yeah. Could have been before, but I don’t remember much from before when you were on the crew.
Kim (as Isabelle): I’m sorry.
Josie (as Ahavah): We should at least check and see if it’s what it appears to be.
Kim (as Isabelle): What if it’s a trap?
Josie (as Ahavah): Right. That’s why I’m saying, we should check and see if it’s a trap or not.
Kim (as Isabelle): To me that means just leaving it alone.
Josie (as Ahavah): Yeah, but if we take it we may be able to find out more about what happened.
Kim (as Isabelle): What more do we need to know what happened? The ship went down. That’s all. It’s weird that it’s here, yeah, but we know all we need to know about what happened.
Josie (as Ahavah): Yeah, I guess you’re right. Listen Izzy, it makes me happy that you apparently still think of me as captain, but you don’t need to go out of your way for me again. If shit goes bad I can just hitch a ride on the ship, maybe in someone’s head, until we get back and find a new body.
Kim (as Isabelle): No offense, but I don’t like the sound of that. You shouldn’t have to jump around other people just to get by.
Josie (as Ahavah): Yeah, but you shouldn’t have to give up the one good life you’ve got for my sake.
Kim (as Isabelle): You really think my life’s good?
Josie (as Ahavah): Listen—
Kim (as Isabelle): You really think I wanna be doing this right now?! If I could be anything but a leviathan hunter I would, but I have no choice.
Josie (as Ahavah): Trust me, being a vampire is worse.
Kim (as Isabelle): Fair point.
Rhi (as Brenna): [shouting] Are you two coming or not?!
Kim (as Isabelle): Agh… Yeah! Yeah, we’ll be right over.
Rhi: Are you bringing the thing or are you leaving it?
Josie: I think we’re leaving it.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: All right.
Josie: Ahavah hesitates a moment longer to look at it, but then follows Izzy.
Rhi: Okay. So yeah, I think that some of the Fog Hounds have their ship heavily laden with stuff. It looks like they’ve got some other spawn that they found that they’re basically dragging the bodies out on lines to make room for all of you. But yeah, you all pile in and return to the ship. You are coming back basically empty-handed.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: So your two crews are not gonna make any money. I mean, you’ll make money for your service on the ship which is very little money at all. [laughs]
Kim: Yeah.
Josie: Wages but nothing else.
Rhi: Yeah. But you make it back alive and intact. You’re hauled back up, and I think at this point everybody is sort of turned to the task of getting the haul into the vats so it can be processed. Most of the ships make it back. As the last few are pulling out some of those big tendrils come up again and just smash them into the sea. The last of the survivors get pulled in.
The leviathan doesn’t seem terribly interested in pursuing your ship. As the Steadfast Star begins to pull away those who are up on the deck see, just before you’re out of view, the tendrils come up and start building whatever is in the center again.
So the two of you are very busy helping with the post-harvest processing, but eventually things calm down. Most of the rest of the crew is celebrating, because you had a good haul, some people did anyway. There are some small groups of people who are mourning lost friends, and then there are the folks from your crew who came back empty-handed. People are kind of avoiding all of you. You’re bad luck, basically.
Kim & Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: But, the upside of that is it’s easy for the two of you to find space to talk privately.
Josie: And also no one notices when I take that collapsible harpoon off the ship.
[laughter]
Rhi: Yeah. Yep. Well you’re the one checking the weapons back in.
Josie: Oh yeah.
Kim (as Isabelle): So what’s next for you?
Josie (as Ahavah): Well, I gotta spend some time on shore. I might wanna try and find a different crew since I’m bad luck on this one.
Kim (as Isabelle): Sorry.
Josie (as Ahavah): And you know, eventually work my way up to getting another shot at The Red Serpent.
Kim (as Isabelle): I really think that’s a really stupid idea.
Josie (as Ahavah): [laughs] I mean, yeah, it’s kind of a wonder I was captain at all, really. Listen, I don’t know if I can give that up yet, but there’s time, and this body’s life isn’t a pretty one, but if you wanna spend some time or continue sailing out together I’d like that.
Kim (as Isabelle): You know, as glad as I am that you’re… not alive, but as glad as I am that you survived and, you know… as much as I begrudgingly respect your decisions, I don’t have a death wish. I don’t want to be in another wreck like that one.
Josie (as Ahavah): When I go after it you don’t have to come. I just mean in the meantime, right?
Kim (as Isabelle): I mean… [exhales] I’m gonna be sticking with this crew until they either get sick of me and kick me out or I leave on my own, so…
Josie (as Ahavah): [laughs] Well, maybe I’ll stick around then too, if you’re okay with that.
Kim (as Isabelle): Okay. Yeah… I am.
Rhi: I think that we leave the two of you in whatever bunk you’re chatting in as the Steadfast Star turns towards lock port and the terrible processing facilities there where you will empty your hold of all the leviathan blood that you have harvested.
## Outro [0:42:39]
Rhi: Thanks for listening. The Magpies will be back in two weeks. In the meantime, follow us on Twitter at @magpies_pod, and visit our Patreon at patreon.com/magpiespodcast.
The Magpies podcast is GMed and produced by Rhi. Follow me on Twitter at @rhiannon42 and check out RPGSkillCheck.net for my copy editing and accessibility freelance site.
Isabelle is played by Kim Kogut. Follow her on Twitter at @kimdianajones.
Ahavah is played by Josie. Follow her on Twitter at @DragonGirlJosie, and watch her art streams at picarto.tv/DragonGirlJosie.
The opening and closing theme music is from ‘Trio for Piano, Violin, and Viola’ by Kevin MacLeod, and is used under a Creative Commons license.
Leviathan Song was created by Jonathan Walton.
The Blades in the Dark roleplay system is the creation of John Harper, and is published by Evil hat Productions.
Next I’d like to thank our incredible Patreon backers. Ellie R, thank you!
## Blooper [0:44:03]
Rhi: [rolls] Five… 55. What’s that get me? That’s not fun.
[rolls] … But it flies.?
[rolls] Twenty-two… Oh…! [delighted] Okay!
Josie: That was an utterly terrifying sequence of DM vocalizations.
Rhi: [laughs] Sorry.
Kim: DM vocalizations and dice rolls.
Josie: Uh-huh.
Rhi: [laughing and smiling] I’m rolling on a table to find out what happens here.