The Magpies – Transcript
Season 3, Episode 1: The Fine Art Score, Part 1

Transcribed by Tyler (Twitter: @Tyler_MoonSage)

 

 

## Intro

Rhi: Welcome back to Duskwall, and welcome to Season 3. It’s absolutely incredible that we’ve come this far. Thank you so much for all your support and for joining us on this journey. Whether you’ve been a fan since our launch in February 2018 or if you just binged the whole show in a week to catch up, we are so glad to have you with us. If you haven’t done so yet, please leave us a review on iTunes and help more listeners find the show.

Announcements aplenty. First, in case you’ve missed it, we have a Shapeways store where you can buy your very own Magpies pin. These 3D printed models were designed and donated by fan James Bricknel. I have a pin of my own, and it looks fantastic. The pins are available in a wide variety of materials and at a wide variety of prices, and all the profits from the sale of our pins will go to our Featured Charity of the month.

Second, you can earn a chance to win a Magpies pin, printed and painted by James and accompanied by a personal note from yours truly, by backing us on Patreon. When we reach 100 active backers all current patrons will be entered in a drawing to earn one of five Magpies pins. The Patreon has a ton of amazing behind the scenes content that builds out our version of Duskwall, lets you hear what got left on the cutting room floor, shows you what’s in Blaire’s journal, and more.

Third, thanks to the generous support of our current Patreon backers, we have transcripts for all of Season 1 and we’ve started on Season 2. Thank you to Tyler, Lyra, and Michelle for all their amazing work in transcribing the show.

Fourth, I will be at AcadeCon in just a few weeks. If you’re attending this friendly local con in Dayton, Ohio, let me know. I’d love to meet fans, and if you say hi you can get a neat Magpies bookmark.

Next, Kim is going to tell us about this month’s Featured Charity:

Kim: The Rainforest Action Network’s Protect An Acre program works directly with grassroots and indigenous-led organizations to prevent vulnerable ecosystems from natural disaster and deforestation efforts. Since 1993 RAN has saved millions of acres of land and has collaborated closely with the indigenous communities who protect it. They uphold the values of fair trade, promoting the dignity and human rights of rainforest communities and fighting against corporations who seek to disproportionately consume it for resources. Right now the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil is being intentionally burnt down with the intent of creating more farmland for cattle.

President Bolsonaro has time and time again proved unwilling to stop the global crisis that is at hand. Of the world’s oxygen that is not produced from the ocean, one third of it comes from photosynthesis occurring on land, and of that one third the Amazon is responsible for nearly half. It is imperative that we begin and remain louder than ever on the side of science, the side of nature, and the side of indigenous people. To make a donation, visit www.ran.org, select Support, and go to Protect An Acre. For a donation even as low as $20 your money will go directly to protecting an acre of rainforest land and to the people who are its closest defenders.

Rhi: The news these days moves alarmingly fast and it can be really hard to keep up with the firehose blast of information. There are some excellent summary email newsletters like Celeste Pewter’s weekly updates, or What The Fuck Just Happened Today, as well as others that can help make it a little more manageable. If you can only focus on one crisis for a while or even if you just need to step away from that firehose and breathe, that’s okay too. We’re going to be in these fights for a long time, and taking care of yourself is how we all endure. If you’re in the US and you’re able, pick an issue or two from 5calls.org and call your representatives.

Now then, let’s get started. Shall we?

 

 

## Recap [0:04:31]

[somber music starts]

Rhi: The last several months have not been easy for Duskwall’s newest band of hopeful vigilantes. The Magpies have faced spirits, criminals, corruption, and more, but few challenges have been as hard as saying goodbye to one of their own. With Phin’s family in danger, The Magpies, aided by the charming thief known as Needle, broke Phin out of Ironhook and helped her escape Duskwall. She’s free and as safe as anyone can be beyond Duskwall’s electroplasmic walls. With Phin gone and Needle vanished, The Magpies had to find a new equilibrium and a new purpose.

Plagued by threats from the Circle of Flame, they struggled to help the citizens of Duskwall and to stay even a single step ahead of their foes, and the reasons for their struggles came to light when Harker, Minx’s old friend, was kidnapped. Minx risked her life to save him and her friends but paid a high cost, and all the Magpies were left reeling by the revelation that the Circle had been aided by none other than their longtime friend Rigney who had been blackmailed with threats to his younger brother’s safety. They rescued Rigney’s brother and helped him escape Duskwall as well. They faced threats from old rivals and tried to uphold their obligations to new allies even as those alliances pushed them to make greater ethical compromises.

But of all the compromises, none are as great as those made to risk the safety of one’s friends and loved ones in the name of the greater good, a lesson Myra learned when her old mentor and employer, Salia, kidnapped her oldest friend. In the course of saving both her and her friend Jeren, some of Myra’s most closely guarded secrets were revealed. The Magpies have forged tighter bonds than ever, but will that be enough to see them through the threats to come? Only one way to find out.

[music ends]

 

 

## Story Continues [0:06:29]

Rhi: We open up over Duskwall, a wide, high shot of the city, the lights gleaming in the darkness. The camera pans in down through the city. It swoops over Ironhook Prison and then down to one of the many bridges cutting across the River Dosk. We see the magpies – Blaire, Minx, and Myra – making their way across the bridge and down into Dunslough. Dunslough is the poorest district in Duskwall. It mostly surrounds Ironhook Prison, and there’s a lot of prisoner’s families that live out here. There’s like a labor camp that prisoners who are sentenced to hard labor work there. There is also, one of the places where a lot of the people in Dunslough work is a place called The Mire which is a giant quarry where some kind of meteor struck in ancient times and now there’s a bunch of precious ores and jewels embedded in the earth around there, and so people will… A lot of it has been, at least a lot of the easier to find things have long since been claimed, but you know, there’s always people searching through the muck trying to find their ticket out of Dunslough.

This is not a place where— Even Minx and Myra, you two grew up in poverty, but it was better than this. Even where you were growing up you always kind of had the consolation of ‘well, at least it’s not Dunslough.’

Josie: Oof.

Rhi: Yeah. This is not a place where most people really want to spend any time. You all are heading down here because you got a tip from Lani and Roxanne. They’ve been continuing to investigate the members of the Circle of Flame. Recap real quick, you know a lot of the members: the Iruvian ambassador, Avrathi, who is dead thanks to Phin; Harvale Brogan, former owner of the Centuralia Club, is in prison; Lord Alistair Mora is a member who is still active out in the world; Lady Drake, magistrate; and Lady Eleanor Penderyn, a noblewoman whose family serves on the Council of Duskwall. You know that there are more members. Lani and Roxanne have continued to dig, looking for information, and they have turned up another name: Raffello.

Minna: Ooh! That’s “R”!

Rhi: Yep. Heh.

Minna: The painter guy with the hook-up for the drugs, right?

Rhi: Mm-hmm. Yep. Minx, this is a name that you recognize. Raffello is a very well-known painter in Duskwall. Their art style is a lot more abstract. People in the art scene know that the majority of their stuff is done in drug-fueled binges where they get just really high on ghost drugs and other weird, arcane, occult stuff and then just paint for 12 hours and then pass out for two weeks.

Josie: [laughs] Great life.

Rhi: Yeah, you know. It’s a living, I suppose? But, they are a very popular artist. They have made a  huge name for themselves. They don’t have, like, they’re not attached to any particular nobility in terms of having a patron. They’ve actually been successful enough where they don’t need that kind of specific support, but you know, most rich people in the city own an original Raffello to kind of show their status. And apparently, they are a member of the Circle of Flame. Lani made contact with an alchemist who says that she used to work for Raffello and the Circle. Her name is Tya Laren.

Minna: Hey~! “TL”!

Rhi: [laughs]

Minna: Also, wait, don’t we know that name otherwise?

Kim: It sounds familiar.

Rhi: You do. This is an incredibly deep lore pull. She was first mentioned in Season 1, Episode 1!

Josie: What?!

Minna: Who–?!

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: Yep!

Josie: Who?!

Minna: Who was this? I know this name.

Rhi: She was mentioned in the report on the Gondoliers who were killed…

Minna: That’s it!

Rhi: …as being a Whisper or an alchemist who was on the run from the Circle of Flame.

Josie: Okay!

Rhi: Yeah. [laughs]

Kim: Yeah, that shit.

Minna: Holy shit.

Josie: Damn.

Rhi: My web!

Minna: [reading] Thorn asked them repeatedly what they knew about Kotar. Tya Laren, cultist wanted by the Wardens, not our problem. And the blood-iron ring.

Rhi: Yep.

Minna: So the Circle of Flame were trying to chase down Tya.

Rhi: Yep, all that time ago, and apparently she is hiding out in Dunslough. According to Lani, she made contact with them because she had learned that Lani and Roxanne had some ties to the Magpies, and the Magpies are trying to screw over the Circle of Flame, so it sounds like you’re people that she would like to know.

Josie: Yay.

Kim: In theory.

Rhi: Yeah. [laughs] So, the three of you make your way through Dunslough. There’s not really an address. You were given kind of a description of where she lives. You find the place. It’s a ramshackle hovel at the end of a street. You pass by it a couple times before one of you notices. There’s a symbol carved into the doorframe that is a seven-pointed star that has lines coming up from the top as if it is, you know, kind of movement lines as if it’s falling.

Kim: Interesting.

Josie: Huh.

Kim: Blaire takes note of this.

Rhi: Yeah. Blaire, you actually probably recognize this. Myra also might, but from two different sources. There is a forgotten god known as The Fallen Star.

Minna: Ooh… Wait! The Fallen Star ritual journal Fallen Star?

Rhi: Ding-ding-ding!

Minna: [laughs]

Rhi: So, you’re standing outside this hovel. This is where you’re supposed to meet an alchemist who has been on the run from the Circle for several months now.

Josie: I’ll just knock.

Rhi: There is a long pause… and then the door opens a crack, and the barrel of a pistol pokes through the crack.

Kim (as Blaire): What the fuck?!

Josie (as Minx): No need for that. I do believe you requested some birds.

Rhi: You see an eye peeking out over the top of the pistol.

Rhi (as ???): Who sent you?

Minna (as Myra): Our mutual friends, from the press.

Kim (as Blaire): The reporters Lani and Roxanne.

Rhi: There’s a pause and then the pistol withdraws and the door opens just wide enough for you to slip in one at a time.

Josie: So much for the code speak.

Rhi: You all head on in. It’s a little one room hovel. There’s a bucket in the corner to catch leaking water when it rains. There’s a bed shoved in one corner, table and chair in another. Most of the back wall is taken up with a very ramshackle, thrown together alchemist’s workbench. It looks like a lot of scavenged equipment. There’s a mix of an acidic sort of smell that you all, particularly Blaire, kind of just associate with alchemy, and also just kind of like a mildew smell. Standing in the middle of all this with the pistol still in her hand, held at her side, it’s pointed at the ground but she’s still holding onto it, is a woman in her 40s, very typical Akorosian features, light skin, dark hair, dark eyes. Her hair has been cut short. It looks like somebody, possibly her, just kind of took a knife to it and hacked it off. It’s very messy. She’s got really dark circles under her eyes. She is gaunt in an underfed sort of way. Her eyes are darting over the three of you.

Rhi (as Woman): Well, can’t say you’re exactly what I was expecting, but glad to make your acquaintance. Tya.

Josie (as Minx): You as well, although I hope we exceed expectations. I am Minx.

Josie: She’ll shake.

Rhi: Shakes your hand, cautiously.

Kim (as Blaire): Blaire Culhane, also from an alchemist background.

Kim: Blaire offers her hand.

Rhi: She steps in to shake your hand, but she does like one shake and then retreats back to keeping a good five or six feet between all of you.

Minna (as Myra): Myra. Would you prefer not to shake?

Rhi (as Tya): Just found it’s best to stay out of stabbing range.

Rhi: She rolls up a sleeve to show where there’s a scar on the top of her forearm. You all probably have scars like this. She got stabbed. [laughs]

Minna: Oh…

Josie (as Minx): Oh dear.

Rhi (as Tya): Yeah. I wouldn’t be down here if I had any other choice. So yeah, I heard rumors that somebody was tangling with the Circle and actually having some success in putting them down, so I figured you were people I ought to talk to.

Josie (as Minx): Yes, well, from what little we understand you’ve had a history with them as well?

Rhi (as Tya): Unfortunately.

Rhi: She looks around and suddenly seems to realize something.

Rhi (as Tya): Uh… huh. I guess there’s not really anywhere for you all to sit down. Sorry.

Kim (as Blaire): We can stand. It’s fine.

Rhi (as Tya): I started working for Raffello probably five, six years ago right when they were starting off. Even back then they paid real well, like real well. All I had to do was mix up their weird, very specific cocktails, and they made paintings, and they made more money, and I made more money, and it was great. Then I guess a couple years ago I met with some of Raffello’s friends, later found out that they had their weird, spooky club, the Circle, and they gave me a very interesting challenge. They wanted something that could see across space and maybe time and maybe into other parts of reality, and…

Josie (as Minx): That sounds familiar.

Kim (as Blaire): Did this involve any artifacts?

Rhi (as Tya): No… No. I mean, they wanted to find artifacts with it.

Kim (as Blaire): So all of this metaphysicality, this is induced with drugs? That’s what’s what these alchemists in the Circle of Flame are after?

Rhi: As a refresher, in the journal that you found talking about this ritual that they were doing, they were buying large quantities of a drug called Spiritsight, and this drug when given to people gave them extradimensional sight, they were able to see faraway places, they were able to locate objects. Side effect of this drug is death.

Minna: Yeah, and then several seers identified that maybe the Eye was in Iruvia, in Alduara, and then they got the Eye, which we stole, and then they started looking for the other relics and ordered like a double batch, and then three entries later is the last entry that we have.

Rhi: Yeah, that’s kind of what you know. Blaire, you would also know that this Spiritsight is made using ghosts.

Kim: Unfortunately, yeah.

Rhi: Flashback over. Tya shrugs.

Rhi (as Tya): They probably have alchemists there now, but I’m not working for them anymore. I bolted I guess about seven or eight months ago.

Kim (as Blaire): But reason still stands that they’re probably still at this. They’re probably still trafficking spirits and grinding them up into dust so they can get whatever they want.

Rhi (as Tya): I mean, yeah, almost certainly.

Kim (as Blaire): [huffs]

Minna (as Myra): Out of curiosity, you have a symbol above the door, what is the significance to you or to the ritual?

Rhi (as Tya): Oh, The Fallen Star? You know, a lot of alchemists find them a worthy patron.

Minna (as Myra): Yes. It was mentioned in their notes that they call this ritual using the Spiritsight the Fallen Star Ritual.

Rhi (as Tya): Wait, you got notes? What notes? What did you find?

Minna (as Myra): We got notes.

Rhi (as Tya): Did you get my research?

Minna (as Myra): Not your research—

Rhi (as Tya): Damn it!

Minna (as Myra): –so much as their commentary on the experiments.

Rhi (as Tya): [huffs] I mean, that’s something. Lady Penderyn is devout, I guess you’d say, to a number of forgotten gods. More of a flavor of the week if you ask me. She just sort of latches on to whichever one she finds convenient. It’s sort of a fickle devotion I guess. But yeah, I think most of the others just saw it as a means to an end, but she saw it as a way of expressing her faith for the time. My research is what I wanted to talk to you about. I wasn’t able to get it when I left. I sort of had to evacuate in a hurry.

Minna (as Myra): Where would your research have been?

Rhi (as Tya): Raffello’s studio over in Silkshore.

Kim (as Blaire): You think it’s still there?

Rhi (as Tya): Probably. That was sort of where the alchemy labs were set up.

Josie (as Minx): Are you certain it hasn’t been secreted away to some more secure sanctum?

Rhi (as Tya): It very well could have been. I can tell you where I left it when I was running for my life.

Kim (as Blaire): Judging from Raffello’s reputation, I’m guessing that he probably still has it in his possession.

Josie (as Minx): Most likely, but…

Rhi (as Tya): They could have moved it.

Kim (as Blaire): It’s not going to be easy to get no matter where it is.

Rhi (as Tya): As you can probably guess, I can’t really pay you much.

Josie (as Minx): Dear, at this point the Circle needs to be taken down either way. Payment is hardly at the forefront of our minds at the moment.

Rhi: She visibly relaxes and nods and finally holsters her pistol.

Rhi (as Tya): That’s good to hear. I need you to find my research, my notes, and bring them back.

Josie (as Minx): How will we know it?

Rhi: She goes over to her workbench and rustles around, lifts up a thick sheaf of papers and thumbs through it for a bit, and then pulls out just a few pieces of paper and comes back over.

Rhi (as Tya): I’ve been trying to recreate it from memory, because if I can recreate it I can create a counteragent.

Josie (as Minx): Ah, I see. It’s less about taking it from them and more getting it for that reason.

Rhi (as Tya): Yeah.

Josie (as Minx): Because I would think they made copies.

Rhi (as Tya): Probably, but if I can get my original research back I might be able to make it safer and then find a way to… I don’t know, I don’t really have a plan after that, I just know that we need to get the- if we can get the research away from them, if you can mess up whatever alchemical production they have in place, slow them down, that would be good.

Kim (as Blaire): Do you think that it’s anywhere in the realm of possibility that this counteragent could recover the ghosts that were trafficked into these drugs?

Rhi (as Tya): Oh no. That’s basic spirit alchemy.

Kim (as Blaire): No, I know that. As soon as the spirits go through the ritual they’re ground up, they’re completely destroyed, there is no essence left whatsoever.

Rhi (as Tya): Yeah. I mean, there’s some essence left depending on how you prepare them, I mean, that’s why dream essence and thought essence are so damn popular.

Kim (as Blaire): I’m asking about recovering them fully.

Rhi (as Tya): No. They’re gone. Why would you want them back?

Kim (as Blaire): Isn’t dying enough?

Josie (as Minx): I think this might not be a discussion for this moment.

Rhi: Tya just looks baffled, has no idea what Blaire is getting at. [laughs]

Josie (as Minx): We have our own spiritual concerns…

Rhi (as Tya): Uh-huh?

Josie (as Minx): …but you don’t seem to have any solution for them, so we don’t need to talk about that, so we just need to get the notes out and maybe mess some things up on the way out.

Rhi (as Tya): Yes, that would be great.

Josie (as Minx): Well, you’ve come to the right group of girls.

Rhi (as Tya): That’s good to hear. I heard you put Brogan in Ironhook.

Kim (as Blaire): Yeah, that was us.

Rhi (as Tya): Good. That guy was a real creep.

Josie (as Minx): I had seen the way he was running the club. That is definitely true.

Rhi (as Tya): Let me tell you what I can about Raffello’s studio.

Rhi: As far as general details you get about Raffello’s studio, it doesn’t have the same level of security that a lot of the other places that you’ve hit related to the Circle. There aren’t private guards. There’s pretty minimal spark-craft security or even mechanical security. There’s locks and stuff, but the real security is all pretty much arcane. There’s a lot of wards, there’s a lot of bound spirits, that is how Raffello protects their domain. They also have a kind of retinue, I guess would be the word, of other artists who follow in their style of doing a lot of drugs and then doing a lot of art.

Minna: God, is there a Raffello school of art?

Rhi: Not quite, but it’s, like…

Minna: Like lower case school. Heh.

Rhi: yeah, there’s a small group of artists who hang around Raffello and do similar art types, you know, some Whispers, some alchemists, that are just kind of in their circle, and they are probably also gonna be around, not necessarily as a security force – none of them are really trained combatants – but they are people who will potentially be in your way. That’s kind of the broad strokes of what she’s able to tell you about it. She is able to give you a fairly detailed description of the layout, so that’s gonna help you when you get to the engagement roll, but we’ll deal with that when we get into the score. So yeah, you all chat with her for a while and then head on out and rapidly make your way back towards the bridge that will lead you out of Dunslough.

Josie (as Minx): Blaire, what were you trying to get at back there?

Kim (as Blaire): I just thought that there’s another way.

Josie (as Minx): I mean, I imagine so, the way is to free the spirits before they undergo that process. You said yourself that once they are…

Kim (as Blaire): According to popular convention, yes.

Josie (as Minx): All right. You know the science better than I.

Kim (as Blaire): What I’m saying is that there has to be a way to undo it. All this damage that’s being done, it can’t keep happening. It’s not enough just to take down the Circle of Flame. We have to recover the spirits. It’s punishment enough to be viewed as monsters. Being crushed up into drugs and alchemical resources for people to just use up and then throw away, it’s not right.

Josie (as Minx): of course it isn’t, that’s terrible, but I don’t know how it can be possible once it’s done to reverse it any more than you can bring a spirit back to life.

Kim (as Blaire): It’s a different thing from, you know, bringing a spirit back to life in a corporeal form versus, you know, trying to pick up the pieces of dust and then bringing back their semblance of personality.

Josie (as Minx): Right. If a piece of wood is burned on a fire it can never be made wood again.

Kim (as Blaire): Yes it can.

Rhi: [laughs]

Minna (as Myra): … Can it?

Josie (as Minx): Um…

Minna (as Myra): I don’t know much about alchemy.

Josie (as Minx): I, um, ahem.

Kim (as Blaire): If the wood is burned it turns into ash. That ash can be mixed with water and then turned into a pulp. That pulp can be laid over a stone slab, and if it cures long enough it can become wood again. Will it be the same as the first wood? No.

Josie (as Minx): So you are suggesting less a restoration and more a transformation?

Kim (as Blaire): A both, a mix of both.

Minna (as Myra): I mean, is there any theory behind it? Can that theoretically be done?

Kim (as Blaire): I believe it can. If trees can be made into paper then ghosts that are turned into drugs can be brought back too. I just know it.

Josie (as Minx): Well Myra, I think we are in the presence of a potential revolutionary in a certain scientific field.

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie (as Minx): We will… I cannot help with the science of that whatsoever, but I would back you in the endeavor.

Minna (as Myra): I would love to hear more.

Kim (as Blaire): [whining] Minx! Minx, don’t you know me?

Josie (as Minx): Of course.

Kim (as Blaire): We’re trying to save ghosts here. I’m not going to sit around on this score if there’s anything I can do to help them.

Josie (as Minx): That is fine, dear. We will support how we can, but…

Minna (as Myra): There’s a human cost to this ritual, both to test subjects and to the spirits being distilled into these drugs, and I think we need to help with as much of that as we can. It’s not just about getting those research notes, although those research notes will help with the living human cost.

Kim (as Blaire): Yes, that’s exactly what I’m getting at. Tya back there, she was only concerned about the research. She was so single-minded about it. She didn’t care about the ghosts. She didn’t care about the victims.

Josie (as Minx): I imagine there was a reason she was hired in the first place.

Minna (as Myra): You have to remember that there’s a certain way that most people view spirits. I don’t think it probably occurred to Tya Laren that that’s a cost.

Kim (as Blaire): Well, it is a cost, and this city needs to learn that.

Josie (as Minx): Yes, but Blaire, understand that we don’t have a way yet.

Kim (as Blaire): I have ways.

Rhi: [laughing] Okay, I think on that very ominous line…

Josie: [laughing nervously] Uh-huh…

 

 

## Score [0:29:32]

Rhi: Wanna shift over into Gather Info?

Josie: Yeah, sure.

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie: I actually think this is a Gather Info stage that I’ll excel at, because I’ve been in the art community for like two seasons. [laughs]

Rhi: Yes! Yeah, so what do people want to do to learn some information?

Kim: I am probably going to roll a Study for my Gather Info.

Rhi: Okay. What are you looking for specifically?

Kim: Saving ghosts and recovering them from being distilled into drugs because that’s something she’s passionate about and knows things about from an alchemy background, and also on top of that, this research that she’s doing with Setarra in her downtime about summoning things from other places has started turning the cogs in her brain a bit.

Rhi: Okay. Myra, what do you wanna work on?

Minna: It almost makes sense for me to stake out the studio.

Rhi: Yeah. You can definitely do that. Kim, go ahead and roll your Study.

Kim: My highest was a 5.

Rhi: Five. Okay. It’s tough, because this is not something that anybody has ever really tried to do. Most of the research on ghost drugs is the making thereof. People are not really interested in undoing the process.

Kim: That’s fine. Blaire can still reverse engineer from that.

Rhi: I think that’s what it will be. I think this could potentially be more of a long-term project, but I think for the purposes of this score and this Gather Information, you get a lot, you dig very deep into how these kinds of drugs are made, and you have some ideas about how they could possibly be, if not exactly reversed, ways that you could add additional elements, alchemical reagents, that would just neutralize it so that it’s ineffective, if you wanted to just mess up their whole supply of it or something.

Kim: Right.

Rhi: So yeah, you’ve got some info about how these drugs work.

Kim: Good.

Rhi: Minx. Art friends.

Josie: Yes. I think we know Minx’s process at this point [laughs] for mingling here.

Rhi: Yep. Your little something on the side, your business is like an art gallery, right?

Josie: Yes, pretty much.

Rhi: So you basically can just be sort of chatting with your visitors.

Josie: Yeah. Honestly, it’s kind of refreshing to her to be delving deep in that community again, because that stopped being her vice a while ago. I got a 6.

Rhi: Okay. You’re just looking for anything about Raffello, right?

Josie: Yeah, as much as humanly possible.

Rhi: All right. They are one of those, you know, art figures that’s shrouded in mystery as far as where they came from, they just burst onto the scene about six years ago and became very popular very quickly, just sort of a right place, right time in terms of they managed to appeal, they created art that appealed to the right people and they just took off and have maintained that popularity ever since. They are kind of reclusive, don’t really come out and socialize very often, mostly just stick to Silkshore. When they do show up at parties it’s always, one, they usually just show up invited places, and two, it’s always a huge deal. It’s like having a huge celebrity just show up at your party. Yeah sure, they weren’t on the invite list, but holy crap, they’re here, at your party.

Josie: I wanna know if their reclusivity is an intentional affect or they just don’t give a shit. Like, are they deliberately secretive or is it just because they sleep for a solid week at a time that no one knows anything? [laughs]

Rhi: It seems to be more of the latter, that they are either lurching between a drug fueled creative binge or they are recovering from that.

Josie: Right. What do I know about the artists that kind of work with them? Have any come out of that studio notably?

Rhi: A few. None of them have hit the same level of fame, but there’s a handful that have gained some popularity, that have developed their own style. Nobody has really been as big as Raffello so far.

Josie: Gotcha. You said already that they kinda use spirits as security?

Rhi: Yes.

Josie: Okay. Do I know if Raffello has any ties I can pin down to other groups that would either provide for his spirit interests or if he has some sort of deal with the Spirit Wardens?

Rhi: Not with the Spirit Wardens, they try to avoid the Spirit Wardens. The Dimmer Sisters are their main supplier.

Josie: Mm-hmm!

Rhi: They’re kind of the main spirit traffickers in the whole city. There’s a few other small independent operations, but the Dimmer Sisters are very much trying to get a monopoly over the spirit trade. The few times that Raffello is seen out they’ve been seen visiting the Dimmer Sisters’ manor.

Josie: I see.

Minna: I forget. Are we friends with them?

Kim: I would prefer not to.

Josie: We did A job for them.

Rhi: Yeah. They were one of your friendly contacts, well positive contacts when we started, when we built the crew. You did them a favor, and then it’s basically you are currently even.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: You don’t owe them anything, they don’t have any particular problem with you, but they also don’t feel particularly loyal to you.

Josie: Wouldn’t it be fun if we could somehow pin this on the Dimmer Sisters?

Kim: That would be fun.

Rhi: That would be fun.

Josie: Because they’re providing him with the spirit stuff and they’re the ones who would likely know if he obtained some sort of spiritual refinement process that they didn’t know about and they would want it.

Rhi: Yeah. That’s a possibility.

Josie: That would be nice to do that and then pin it on someone else so that we don’t incur more Circle hate.

Rhi: Yeah, that’s definitely a possibility.

Josie: And frankly, the Dimmer Sisters deserve what’s coming to them.

Kim: Agreed.

Rhi: [chuckles suspiciously] All right! Myra, you’re gonna stake out the studio?

Minna: Yeah, let’s do that. Let me figure out what action that would be…

Rhi: Probably either Study or Survey.

Minna: I’m gonna argue for Study there, [whispering] because I’m much better at it.

Rhi: Yeah. You are sitting and staring intently at one particular building for like a day. That’s a Study.

Minna: That’s a 6!

Rhi: Nice. Okay. Cool. You go to the address that Tya gave you. It’s in a neighborhood of Silkshore called Fogcrest which is kind of the Bohemian artsy neighborhood where if you want to…

Minna: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rhi: …live out your dream of being a starving artist you go to Fogcrest. They have, Raffello has a three-story mansion basically near the top of the hill. In my mind it’s kind of a slightly rundown three-story Victorian style mansion, so it’s got a little tower and big fancy roof and all of that fun stuff.

Minna: Porches running across the entire front of it.

Rhi: Yep. It’s rundown in a way that it’s probably only external. The paint is kind of worn and chipped, but the windows are really nice, so it’s clearly like… a little bit of a style thing.

Minna: It’s distressed.

Rhi: Distressed. That’s the perfect word for it. Yes, the building is distressed.

Minna: Stylishly distressed.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah. So, there’s an apartment building across the street, and you get up to the roof and just watch this place for a while. There aren’t any guards posted. Over the course of the day you see about six different people come and go, none of whom are Raffello. You all have a description of what they look like. You identify that there’s about six other people, at least, that are hanging around in there. I think throughout the day you periodically will switch into looking into the ghost field, and you are able to see from your vantage point there’s at least one bound spirit on each floor that’s kind of patrolling.

Minna: Interesting.

Rhi: It’s kind of hard to see because of the distance, and also just sort of interference. You’re able to see there’s a lot of arcane wards on the doors and the windows, some of the interior doors… and then there’s just a lot of arcane stuff in the building that leaves its own signatures in the ghost field. So, you’re not sure, there might be a second ghost on the third floor, but you know for sure that there’s three ghosts, there’s a lot of arcane wards, and then there’s at least six non-Raffello people and then Raffello in the building.

Minna: You said there was wards, right?

Rhi: Uh-huh.

Minna: Mostly arcane wards, or does it look like spark-craft as well?

Rhi: You don’t really see any of the wiring going to the house that you would need for an intense spark-craft security system. You’re guessing that it’s primarily these wards, these arcane wards.

Minna: Yeah. Does it look like there’s any good routes to try and sneak in?

Rhi: There is… I think your two options are there is a root cellar, like those cellar doors that are off to the side of the house, that aren’t as heavily warded. There are still wards on them but it’s not as much. And, there is in the yard – you know, “yard,” there’s not really grass or plants or anything – around this house there is a huge, metal sculpture that looks like a tree, that is tree sized…

Minna: Huh.

Rhi: …that you could probably climb to get up to the second or third story. It’s a question of do you want to come in through the basement or do you wanna come in through an upper story.

Minna: Cool.

Rhi: Yep. You all have reconvened probably about a day later with all of your information. What’s your strategy? What’s your approach? How are you gonna go about getting in there and stealing some notes and breaking some stuff?

Josie: Now that, I have no fucking idea.

Rhi: [laughs]

Kim: Break in.

Josie: Okay.

Rhi: Well, I mean yes, but how?

Minna: Do we wanna do the root cellar or the tree? My vote is the tree…? There’s more security if we take the tree route, but also we don’t have to go up through three floors worth of… people?

Kim: Of wards, yeah.

Josie: Right. My concern is how we get past the ghosts that are patrolling.

Kim: I can take care of that.

Josie: Okie-dokie. [laughs]

Minna: [laughs] No further questions.

Kim: I got this.

Josie: Blaire’s on a fucking mission this week.

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie: I guess we’re doing a Stealth mission?

Minna: Unless you want to try and not break in and disguise yourself and get let in as a patron, or artist?

Josie: I could, but that’s not the sort of thing that happens in a day, really.

Minna: Yeah.

Kim: Yeah, and the Gather Info didn’t really reflect that.

Minna: Also, there’s only so many times  we disguise ourselves as not ourselves to our actual enemies.

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie: Right. I think really this might be our first Occult score?

Rhi: “Engage supernatural power.”

Josie: I don’t know what that looks like.

Kim: Oh, that means… No, we just dive off the deep end on the weird shit.

Rhi: Right, but what exactly- how are you- I need specifics. What supernatural power are you engaging?

Kim: Oh.

Josie: Either some possibly backfiring spiritual event that gets rid of the ghost guards, or temporary invisibility to ghosts.

Kim: Both work. I am also not opposed to just straight up engaging with them and consorting to get them to go away.

Rhi: Well, here’s the thing. It’s not a question of convincing the ghosts to leave, it’s a question of breaking the arcane seals that are binding them.

Kim: Yeah, no, I feel like I can really do that.

Josie: We will have limited time before the Spirit Wardens appear.

Rhi: Yeah. Okay. Where… I feel like you have to do the ritual in the vicinity.

Josie: You did say there was an apartment complex across the way.

Kim: I guess I’m just trying to gauge the distance radius of this spell’s power. Wouldn’t it make more sense to cast this closer to Raffello’s studio as opposed to away from it?

Josie: I was thinking if we can sneak into the basement of the building across the way or something.

Rhi: Or you could get into the basement- You have an access point to get into the basement of Raffello’s studio, and you could do it down there potentially.

Kim: Yeah, I can absolutely do it down there and then work our way up.

Josie: Okay. That sounds like a plan.

Rhi: Yeah. All right. Engagement roll. One for luck. For once you don’t actually have anyone directly interfering in this operation.

Josie: Yay.

Rhi: So, this is going to be a 3d6 roll. Phew, that’s a good roll for you guys, 5-5-6. You are gonna be starting in a controlled position. I think we are gonna cut right to you’re all in the basement of Raffello’s studio. I think the basement… [laughs] You’re not the first people to do some kind of weird ass rituals down here. Blaire came I think with candles and chalk and salt and other, you know—

Kim: Liquids, vials, ink.

Rhi: –all kinds of stuff, and then you get in there and there’s just half of the stuff you need is already here.

Josie: [laughs]

Kim (as Blaire): Oh! Awesome. Restocks.

Kim: Blaire’s gonna help herself.

Rhi: Yeah. Fortunately, nobody’s in the basement right now. Blaire, how does this ritual look? What are you doing? I know a lot of Blaire’s rituals have been the sacred geometry circles on the floor sort of thing. Is it another kind of that?

Kim: Some of that, yes. Instead of doing sacred geometry on the floor she’s going to do a very ornate one on the wall. She has a curved dagger with her, a very small one that’s curved at the end, and she has that strapped to the belt across her chest. While she is painting this geometry on the wall there are sparks at each corner that is lit by a single candle and remains lit despite no visible wick being in between the bricks of the wall. From there, the sigil starts to seep, it starts to leak a little bit almost as if it’s bleeding, not so much in the sense of red blood or wine, but it’s very dark black with these specks of gold in the corners. She’s going to wait a minute, let that simmer until vapors start coming out from underneath the bricks, and that’s when it starts working.

Rhi: [laughing] I’m sorry, it’s very cool, but the description of simmer just gave me this sudden flash of Blaire hosting a cooking show style thing. “So—“

Minna: yes!

Josie: Yep! [laughs]

Kim: “If you can’t summon your own flames from hell, store bought is fine.”

Rhi: Yeah. Exactly. [laughs] The vapor rising up through the house is what’s gonna break the bonds on these spirits? Okay.

Kim: It’s a very, very fine, undetectable, lavender steam.

Rhi: Nice. Yeah, I think it might be slightly visible…

Kim: Oh it is, right.

Rhi: …but this is also a house where there’s just kind of a permanent haze in the air, so nobody’s gonna notice.

Kim: Exactly.

Rhi: But, you do kind of have to hang out down here for a little bit to wait for it to do its work. You’re basically standing down here, all of you, waiting quietly to start hearing screaming from upstairs.

Kim: Yup. Blaire’s just sharpening her dagger in the meantime.

Rhi: As you’re standing down here… I think among the ritual accoutrement that’s in this place there is a large glass bottle of sea water. I think the three of you are just all standing around pacing, maybe watching this violet vapor—not violet, lavender vapor drift upwards, and behind you on this shelf the sea water in this bottle starts to swirl, and then the bottle shakes a little bit and then crashes to the floor, and all three of you turn to see a tall figure rising up out of the sea water splashed across the floor.

Josie: Minx’s hand immediately goes to the hilt of her sword. She doesn’t draw it, but…

Rhi: And it resolves into the figure of Setarra, who I think glances across the three of you, looks to Minx, narrows her eyes, and says:

Rhi (as Setarra): That’s a quick way to die.

Kim (as Blaire): Put it away, Minx. It’s fine.

Josie: Minx will step back behind the other two and relax her stance a little bit, but she still has one hand on the sword hilt.

Rhi: Yeah. [laughs] Just not visible.

Josie: Yeah.

Rhi: I think Setarra looks over to Blaire.

Rhi (as Setarra): So this is what you’ve been wasting your time with instead of focusing on your studies.

Kim (as Blaire): It’s circumstantial.

Rhi (as Setarra): Meaning?

Kim (as Blaire): Meaning this is related to our summons work.

Rhi (as Setarra): I suppose we shall see.

Rhi: She looks at Blaire expectantly in a “so, what are we doing” kind of expression.

Kim (as Blaire): There’s an artist in this studio just a few floors above who is prominent in the community, but even more than that they’re notorious for spirit drug trafficking and alchemy. I get my hand on those drugs and that research and it fills in the gaps for our Book of Summons.

Rhi: Setarra regards you for a long moment and then nods.

Rhi (as Setarra): Very well. I will be interested to see what you and your friends are capable of.

Rhi: Setarra looks over the three of you again, and then glances up and goes:

Rhi (as Setarra): Ah, it’s about to start.

Rhi: Then there is a ghostly wail, and then screaming starts from upstairs, very human screaming.

Kim (as Blaire): It’s working.

Minna (as Myra): What’s working?! What did you do?

Kim (as Blaire): I didn’t do anything. The spirits are just being freed from their wards, that way we have a quicker access into the studio. The humans are gonna get a bit of a scare, but it’ll be fine. I’ll be able to jar them up before any harm comes to anyone.

Rhi: Eh, you’ll see. That’s your plan anyway.

Josie (as Minx): Well then, we best get to the studio.

 

 

## Outro [0:49:35]

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.

Blaire Culhane is played by Kim Kogut. Follow her on Twitter at @kimdianajones.

Minx is played by Josie. Follow her on Twitter at @DragonGirlJosie, and watch her art streams at  picarto.tv/DragonGirlJosie.

Myra Keel is played by Minna. Follow her on Twitter at @mynaminnarr.

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.

The Blades in the Dark roleplay system is the creation of John Harper, and is published by Evil hat Productions.

 

 

## Blooper [0:50:43]

Josie: Also, I’m poised waiting for Kim’s TMNT reference.

Rhi: Oh. [chuckles]

Kim: I mean, at this point I am a double-edged sword, because it could be a TMNT reference, it could be an art history reference, or – and this is a deep pull – a Good Omens reference, so you never know with me anymore.

[laughter]

Rhi: Kim has a powerful, chaotic meme energy.

Josie: Yes.

Minna: Or it could be, you know, the Ferrero candies which was my first thought. [giggles]

Kim: Yeah, that too.

[laughter]

Rhi: So many options!