Transcribed by Tyler (Twitter: @Tyler_MoonSage)

## Intro

Rhi: Welcome back to Duskwall. As always, thank you so much for joining us.

We have nearly 1,000 followers on Twitter, which is honestly kind of mind-blowing. The Magpies fan community just keeps growing and it’s because all of you wonderful people leave reviews and live-tweet new episodes and tell your friends about the show. If you’d like to support us financially and help us do more awesome things, check out our Patreon or our Shapeways store to get your very own, very cool Magpies pin.

The Descent into Midnight Kickstarter is still going. I am the Accessibility Consultant on the project, and last weekend we posted the Screen Reader Friendly versions of the quick start materials. I’m really proud of the work we’ve done to make this game accessible so far, and we are planning on doing so much more.

Descent into Midnight is a really fun, creative, emotional game, and we’re working our way through the stretch goals right now. The more we unlock the more stories will be told with this game, as most of the remaining stretch goals are about streamed episodes of an actual play or written fiction inspired by the games themes. So, if you haven’t yet, go check it out and consider backing before the Kickstarter ends on March 15.

Next, Minna is going to tell us about this month’s Featured Charity.

Minna: This month’s Featured Charity is the League of Women Voters. They have a mission to empower voters and defend democracy by working to expand voter access and fight voter suppression. They provide election guides and information for voters and help them register to vote. If you’d like to donate they can be found at lwv.org.

Rhi: Today is Super Tuesday in the United States, meaning that in our painfully long and increasingly bizarre election cycle a whole bunch of states are holding their primaries today. If you haven’t voted yet, pause the episode and go do that… unless you’re listening to this episode on your way to your polling place, in which case carry on.

Voting cannot and should not be the end, though. There’s so much more to do before the November election. Local elections are of critical importance as are House and Senate races, and above all that is the necessity of protecting and expanding voting rights. Look for opportunities to help in your area, many of which can be done from your home or meeting up with friends, writing letters, making calls, or sending texts. Making sure as many people as possible can vote is one of the best ways to turn back the tide of fascism and hate flowing out of our current government.

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

 

 

## Story Continues [0:03:00]

Rhi: We open up on a small apartment building in Crow’s Foot. It’s the nicer area of an overall not great district, sort of a quieter residential area. We move inside one of these apartments. It’s very minimalist I suppose would be the word, pretty sparse in terms of decoration. The furniture and things that are in here are all pretty… more utilitarian than anything. Cinematically, the camera kind of moves into a small, dark bedroom where someone is sleeping in a bed. There’s a creaking sound outside the apartment, and this person sits upright, gun in his hand, and we can see that it is one Bazso Baz.

He has pulled a gun out from under his pillow and is looking around, slides out of bed, makes his way across the apartment and listens at the front door. He raps out a beat on the door, and then waits a couple seconds, and he seems to be waiting for a response that doesn’t come, so he unlocks the door and then does that thing where he yanks it open and sort of lunges out into the hallway very quickly, gun first.

He sees, as he’s looking around, there are two bodies on the floor dressed sort of the way that the Lampblacks usually are, boots and bracers type look. There were chairs outside in the hall that they were apparently sitting on and they have fallen out of them onto the floor. He kneels down to check the pulse of one of them and then curses under his breath and straightens up, and as he straightens up a blade is laid across his throat.

Kim: Oh…

Rhi: Bazso seems less alarmed by this than by his dead guards. He immediately grabs the wrist, twists it around, there’s sort of a popping sound, spins around and, without really looking, fires… and the person holding the knife collapses to the floor clutching at their stomach, already bleeding out. As he turns, a knife comes flying down the hallway at him, thrown by someone else. He manages to twist so that he catches it more in the shoulder than in the heart, where it was aimed, but he cries out in pain when it impacts his shoulder and he looks up just as the person who threw the knife disappears around the corner, so leaving him in his apartment hallway with a knife in his shoulder and three dead bodies. So he’s not having the best night ever.

Josie: [sympathetic groan]

Rhi: And from there… Myra, you got a note written in handwriting that you did not recognize—it’s not Jeren, for sure—asking to meet you at this café.

Minna: Interesting.

Rhi: It wasn’t signed. It was just a note saying…

Minna: This is the basically Panera I usually meet Jeren at though, correct?

Rhi: …

Kim: Yes.

Rhi: Son of a bitch. You all did make it a Panera, didn’t you?

[laughter and clapping]

Minna: [smiling] I’m just making sure that it’s the same café.

Rhi: Yeah~

Kim: Bread bowls, baby!

Minna: It doesn’t have to be a Panera, but that’s what we call it.

Rhi: Yeah~ Yeah, it’s that place…

Minna: [giggles]

Kim: Getting some microwave macaroni and cheese.

Rhi: [reluctantly delighted] Oh no… [coughs laughing] Yeah, you’d gotten this note asking, someone asking to meet you here. What do you do?

Minna: Um…

Rhi: It does specifically ask for you to come alone.

Minna: Yeah, I mean, that is a red flag. I’m definitely going to show the note to Blaire and Minx.

Josie (as Minx): So… why are you meeting with Bazso Baz?

Minna (as Myra): Is that his handwriting that is?

Josie (as Minx): Yes. It’s too clean to be anyone else.

Rhi: [chuckles]

Kim (as Blaire): Bazso Baz, that guy who caught us spying on him and breaking into his place, Bazso Baz?

Minna (as Myra): Yeah…

Josie (as Minx): Precisely.

Kim (as Blaire): Huh…

Minna (as Myra): He says come alone, as you can see.

Josie (as Minx): An ambush of this fashion does not seem to be Bazso’s style. He does prefer upfront business dealings.

Rhi: And if he was gonna ambush you it wouldn’t be in Nightmarket. That’s really far away from his turf.

Minna: That’s our turf, not his.

Rhi: Yeah. Yeah. He is coming to your place of business.

Minna: Yeah, he’s almost setting it up as like, yeah, that seems like a thing that he would do trying to make it seem like it’s on the up and up.

Josie (as Minx): Yes. No doubt he has an ulterior motive to whatever he says, but…

Minna (as Myra): It’s a gesture of faith, sort of. Good faith, rather.

Josie (as Minx): Yes. I think we can trust that you will be safe at the café.

Minna (as Myra): Yes. I do think I’m going to go meet him. We’re not on the best of terms, but I’m definitely interested to hear what he has to say if this is the trouble he’s gone to.

Josie (as Minx): Would you like us to observe from a distance?

Minna (as Myra): No. I think… You’ll know if something happens, because you know the time and the place and when I’m expected back.

Kim (as Blaire): But will we know too late? I don’t think this is a good idea, Myra.

Minna (as Myra): He asked—

Rhi: You did get kidnapped, a little bit, last time. [laughs]

Minna: Yeah…

Minna (as Myra): He’s in good faith coming here. I think that if we show this much distrust it might scare him off. It just depends how much we’re willing to risk in order to get his good favor and how much we want that good favor in the first place.

Josie (as Minx): Eh…

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie (as Minx): I think we should have someone watching just in case. Perhaps neither of us, perhaps a friend of ours.

Minna (as Myra): I’m more comfortable with that.

Kim (as Blaire): Who can we send?

Josie (as Minx): Maybe we could just pay a cabbie to chill across the street for a moment?

Kim (as Blaire): Or we could get Kay.

Josie (as Minx): Or we could get Kay, although were something to happen she may just outright kill Bazso Baz, which…

Minna (as Myra): That’s not a bad idea to have in our back pocket.

Rhi: [laughs]

Minna (as Myra): I mean, you want me to have backup, right?

Rhi: Yeah, Kay is… backup.

Josie (as Minx): Yes. [laughs] You know what, let’s ask Kay if she is willing to stand outside the café for about half an hour.

Rhi: [laughing] I think there’s just a quick cut to the three of you standing on some dock in the canals and Kay being like:

Rhi (as Kay): Hell yeah!

[laughter]

Rhi: Cut to the café. [laughs] Kay is I think hanging out at a, uh, there’s like a news stand across the street that she’s hanging out at, perusing the papers and pamphlets and such. She’s gotten something to snack on from this café, standing over there, because she wanted to come in and get a lay of the land. Which chairs can I pick up and throw?

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: That sort of thing. So yeah, Kay is not immediately across the street but close enough that if you yell she will be there in about ten seconds. So yeah, how early do you get there?

Minna: I’m gonna say 15 minutes.

Rhi: Okay. When you walk in Bazso is already there.

Minna: Oh boy. Oh boy. He’s Myra but worse.

Rhi: [laughs] And he is at your usual table but he’s sitting in your usual spot.

Minna: [smiling] He’s in my spot.

Rhi: Yes.

Minna: Myra does not let on that this is slightly frustrating to her. She just calmly settles into the spot left for her. How does he know that’s my table? [giggles] How does he know this is my café?

Rhi: He knows it’s your café because he has sources.

Minna: Yeah.

Rhi: He doesn’t know it’s your table, he just did the same—

Minna: Got lucky.

Rhi: No, he did the same assessment of the place that you did.

Minna: Fuck!

Rhi: Which is oh, this is the one that gives me the clearest sightlines to all the windows and exits.

Minna: Fuck me!

Kim: Ohh…

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: Therefore I will take this seat.

Minna: Why is Bazso a direct attack?

Kim: “Listen here, hero. We’re not so different you and me.”

[laughter]

Rhi: I mean… So yeah, you sit down and he kinda nods at you.

Rhi (as Bazso): I expected you to get here a bit earlier. They got good tea at least.

Rhi: He picks up the mug of tea, but he picks it up in his off hand and will sip at it.

Rhi (as Bazso): So, I guess at the top I should ask this. You haven’t sent anybody to try to kill me recently, have you?

Minna (as Myra): You haven’t done anything recently that warrants it more than usual, have you?

Rhi (as Bazso): Not that I can think of.

Minna (as Myra): Then there’s your answer. We’re not irrational.

Rhi (as Bazso): Well, I figured I should clarify that before I ask what I’m going to ask. Somebody killed my guards and sent people who were, I assume, trying to kill me, and I am pretty sure it’s somebody in my gang.

Minna (as Myra): Somebody in your gang?

Rhi (as Bazso): Yeah. There have been some complaints lately about how I’ve been running things. People don’t like that I’m in the Docks. Quite frankly, I’m starting to lose interest in the Docks, however I know that you and Ellie and the weird little one—

Minna (as Myra): You know she goes by Minx now, right?

Rhi: He shrugs and then winces a little bit.

Rhi (as Bazso): I know that the three of you have some kind of beef with the Circle of Flame and I know that you need me to hold the Docks on your behalf.

Minna (as Myra): [chuckles] On our behalf?

Rhi (as Bazso): Well you sure as hell don’t have the manpower to hold it. That’s why you got me involved, right? Your whole stunt with the ghosts and all those downtrodden refugees.

Minna (as Myra): We didn’t get you involved to disrupt all civilian life in the Docks. Last time I was there it did not look like a place where anybody was happy, not you and not them.

Rhi (as Bazso): Well, if you don’t care if Lord what’s-his-name moves in and takes that territory and builds that factory of his, then that’s fine, I can just walk out of here and go hire a private eye.

Minna (as Myra): Do you have any suspects, or is it that everybody in your gang wants to kill you now?

Rhi (as Bazso): Most of them are still loyal, but there’s been grumbling, and if somebody else takes over they’re going to walk away from the Docks. I think that I can turn this around. I think I can still profit there. Whatever gang there, the Umbra Hunters, haven’t been as organized of late. If I just get more time I can solidify my hold there, but there’s people in my organization who are no longer willing to give me that time. So, I need you and the other two to figure out who’s leading this would-be coup and bring them to me, so I can deal with them.

Minna (as Myra): I’m gonna need a list of the people you think are the most suspicious and also the people who have the most friends among your gang.

Rhi: So, he tells you. I think just to keep things focused and useful you basically end up with three names of interest. The first is a woman named Constance Cora. She is already dead. She was one of his lieutenants who very publically called him out about his dealings in the Docks. He responded by sending her and her gang to the Docks where she got killed in a rival gang shoot-out, however some of her people may be holding a grudge about that. Some of her friends might be. Constance herself, unlikely to have committed the crime seeing as she’s been dead for a few weeks, but some of her people maybe.

There’s also another Lampblack lieutenant named Andre Rowe. He also raised some concerns to Bazso, although he did that in private, but it did turn into a bit of a heated argument, and Andre went missing not long after Constance was killed. The third name you get is Rado Viktorov. The Lampblacks’ main business—well, their two main criminal enterprises are cheap drug dens and street toughs, will beat people up for money. Rado Viktorov runs one of the drug dens in Crow’s Foot, specifically he runs the one closest to Bazso’s apartment and Bazso’s guards tend to be pulled from the enforcers of his place.

He will kind of describe what happened when he was attacked, what he saw, and it looks like his guards may have pre-gamed their work shift a little bit, which is not uncommon for his people. They had gone to Rado’s place, taken some drugs, a couple hours later they were dead, apparently of poison, so he’s suspicious about that.

So those are the names that you get as your starting leads. Bazso will also tell you that, in his opinion, the best way to approach this is that, since you know, it’s a pretty well-known fact amongst the Lampblacks that they don’t get along with the magpies, that if you start coming around asking about people trying to kill Bazso maybe they’ll assume that you also want him dead. [laughs]

Josie: [laughs]

Kim: Hmm.

Rhi: But yeah, he basically says that you all need to find the people responsible, bring them in, if possible he wants them brought to him alive, and in exchange he will continue to hold the Docks as opposed to just doing what most of his gang wants and bail on it. Anything else that Myra wants to ask or say at this point?

Minna: I think she… Like, Bazso generally keeps—Oh no, did he keep his word after the riot?

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie: Yeah.

Minna: Yeah, pretty much.

Rhi: Yeah, that’s why he’s in the Docks.

Minna: Yeah. I just don’t personally like the way that he’s doing it, we don’t personally like the way he’s doing it, but he kept his word.

Rhi: Right.

Minna: We did kind of replace one asshole with a different brand of asshole, but he’s slightly the lesser of two evils. [chuckles]

Rhi: Yeah. [chuckles] The thing is, if a single gang holds a territory that territory tends not to see a ton of violence, because there’s not a lot of fighting happening within it.

Minna: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Rhi: So, he’s not entirely wrong in saying that if he can just get the Docks locked down, or his section of the Docks, things will probably get better.

Minna: Yeah. Yeah.

Minna (as Myra): It sounds like we have a deal.

Rhi (as Bazso): Wonderful.

Rhi: Again, he starts to reach out with his right hand, stops, puts his hand back down, and then holds out his left to shake.

Minna (as Myra): Do you need a healer?

Rhi (as Bazso): I’ll be fine.

Minna (as Myra): You sure about that? We’ve got one at our disposal.

Rhi (as Bazso): I’ll be fine.

Minna (as Myra): Try not to get killed before we find the person who did this.

Rhi (as Bazso): Try to find them quick.

Rhi: So, we wanna hop back to The Nest so Myra can…?

Josie: Yes.

Rhi: Yeah. I think we come in on the end of Myra explaining all of this.

Josie (as Minx): All right. Before we start planning, I have something very important to do.

Josie: Minx will go to her room, open the door, and before it shuts behind her she emerges in a new outfit.

Kim: Oh, I thought she was gonna—

[laughter]

Josie: For the listeners at home, it’s about as stereotypical s Sherlock Holmes outfit you could get.

Minna: It’s a deer stalker.

Josie: Complete with the deer stalker and the pipe, but of course, since this is Minx, the coat is cinched in at the waist and has a skirt instead of trousers, and thigh-highs.

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie (as Minx): Now then, my dear Myra, what shall we do?

Kim: See, I thought Minx was gonna go to her room and just scream, but this is much better.

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna: I also love that we have now two Sherlock Holmes in the party. I realized the other day that Myra is basically a Sherlock Holmes expy.

Rhi: Mm-hmm. It’s very good.

Josie: Yes, but I have the aesthetic.

Rhi: What do you all wanna… Okay, so this is the part where I should explain how this is basically gonna work. Blades in the Dark is not entirely designed well for solving mysteries. Gathering information is the mechanic by which you would solve a mystery, but when there’s not a score that necessarily needs to follow it, it kind of falls apart a little bit. So, how this is gonna work is that this is going to be… there might be a little bit of a score-type engagement towards the end when you figure out who done it and need to bring that person in, but otherwise it’s gonna be gathering information against a clock and when that clock fills in the people involved in this are gonna get suspicious and they’re going to go after Bazso again.

Josie: I see.

Rhi: Basically, if you roll low on the Gather Info that will add ticks to the clock, so we’re not necessarily gonna be setting position and effect, you’ll be making Gather Info rolls, you know, there’s consequences attached to it. There may also, depending on what the roll is and what you’re doing, I may go with that there is a personal consequence rather than ticking up the clock, we’ll kind of see how it goes. This is all… I’m winging it. [laughs]

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: I have not ever used this kind of twisting of the mechanics before, so we’re just gonna see how it goes. I’m gonna type in this clock here…

Josie: [chuckling] The Bazso Murder Countdown.

Minna: [laughs]

Kim: At least it’s a 10 clock.

Rhi: I think that you can also potentially do things, like, if the clock starts getting up pretty high we can talk about if you wanna do things to sort of try and bring that down.

Josie: Do we have a clock for us, or is it more fluid on our end?

Rhi: It’ll be more fluid on your end to kind of put the clues together and figure out who is responsible.

Josie: Despite my love of mysteries I’m actually really terrible at deduction, so we’ll see how this goes. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah. Similarly, I also like mysteries, but putting them together, especially for RPGs, is really tough.

Josie: Yes.

Rhi: So I have a person in mind, and I do have a failsafe for somebody who can just give you the correct answer if it gets to that point.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: If I’m doing a really bad job of giving you clues or you all are just really stumped, I’ve got a thing that can happen. [laughs] So… yeah. I’ve been working on this for like the last week. It’s really hard. So, we’ll see how it goes. With all that said, what do you all wanna do to start investigating this?

Josie: I wish to track down this missing Andre Rowe.

Rhi: Okay.

Josie: I think finding him will shed some much needed light on this situation.

Minna: I just have this image of us just rolling up to Rado’s club and going in and just pretending to be patrons.

Rhi: [laughs] That is an option.

Josie: Just really quick, I know this conflicts with Blaire’s trauma…

Kim: However?

Josie: …but we need to say it this episode. [cheerfully] Let’s split up, gang. We’ll find more clues that way.

Kim: [shrieks]

Rhi: [laughs]

Minna: [smiling] Oh my god.

Kim: Like zoinks, Hex.

[laughter]

Rhi: Minx is gonna go investigate the missing person of Andre Rowe. Do the two of you want to go with her or, as was suggested, do you wanna split up to find more clues?

Kim: I mean, splitting up during Gather Info is fiiine.

Minna: Yeah. I am going to roll up and pretend to be a patron of Rado’s club. [chuckles]

Kim: Right.

Rhi: And if you don’t roll well, actually become a patron.

Minna: And potentially get poisoned. Who knows.

Rhi: Yay~

Kim: Fun time.

Josie: Yay.

Rhi: So, I think Blaire, it actually could make sense for you to investigate Constance, because she’s dead, she could have left a ghost. Depends on…

Kim: [gasps] That is true.

Rhi: Criminals are not always the best at proper body disposal.

Kim: Yes, this is true.

Rhi: Okay, so let’s… Yeah, let’s start with Minx.

Josie: I think my angle is I just want to find the people he works with and make, like… I think my angle is, first of all, I’m Shirley Hawkwood, private detective.

Rhi: Mm-hmm?

Josie: I think a, ahem, “companion” of Andre is worried about his whereabouts and has hired me to figure it out.

Rhi: Okay.

Josie: She came into my office one night, legs for days, far too many legs… more leg than any woman should have.

[laughter]

Kim: She was a spider.

[laughter]

Rhi: My God.

Josie: Kind of mixing genres here, but…

Rhi: No, no, I’m into it.

Minna: I just really wanna see Minx in a noir episode now.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah, go ahead and roll me something for chatting with some of Andre’s associates.

Josie: I feel like Sway is appropriate here, because I’m using a disguise.

Rhi: Mm-hmm. You are.

Josie: Well, I got a 6.

Rhi: Yes. Okay, so you get a good amount of information. Yeah, you talk to some of the people who used to work in Andre’s gang, and I think in particular you talk to a woman named Katya who says that they pretty much all assume that Bazso had him killed.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: They also assume that Bazso had Constance killed. They just are, you know, that’s kind of how you do business, but they don’t have any proof. The thing that’s weird is that normally there would be a body. Bazso isn’t the type to just disappear someone.

Josie: Mm-hmm. He’d want to make an example?

Rhi: He’d wanna make sure that people knew that they were dead. Like, Constance, they assume that he arranged for her to be killed, but everybody knew she was dead. Somebody just going missing doesn’t match his style necessarily, so that’s a weird thing. The other thing that Katya can tell you is that a number of Andre’s former lackeys, gang members, have ended up working as enforcers at a couple of the drug dens, one of which is owned by Viktorov, Rado Viktorov.

Josie: Interesting. Minx puffs thoughtfully on her pipe.

Rhi: I think the last thing that you get from Katya is that she says that Andre was unhappy with the direction things were going, but she believes that ultimately he was loyal to Bazso.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: But she does not know what has become of him.

Josie (as Minx): I see, then the motive is called into question. Thank you for your time.

Rhi: [laughs]

Rhi (as Katya): You’re welcome?

Rhi: She’s very confused.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: Let’s go to Blaire.

Kim: Hello.

Rhi: Hi.

Kim: Um…

Rhi: You’re looking for a ghost.

Kim: I am. I am going to roll Attune.

Rhi: Yes.

Kim: Hmm, 2, 4, 6.

Rhi: Okay. I think that initially you have to ask around to try and find where Constance was killed.

Kim: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Basically, I think there was a big shoot-out on a bridge and she got shot and fell into the water.

Kim: Ohh.

Rhi: So, how do you go about luring in a specific spirit?

Kim: Interesting, because I imagine I don’t think I have any of her personal belongings. There’s no way I would have that.

Rhi: No.

Kim: Do you think I find her just through word of mouth, asking around some friendly spirits I am already acquainted with in the area? Who are like “yeah, there’s a new face in town.”

Rhi: Yeah, you know what, I think that makes sense. Blaire just sort of asks around through the ghostly network. After a little while, I think you’re hanging out on this bridge and it gets really, really cold around you. If you look into the ghost field you see a woman in probably her late 30s, broad shoulders pulled back, a lot of tattoos, and she is fairly recently dead but is already kind of losing substance. She’s not feral, but she’s on her way.

Kim: Right.

Rhi: So… but you got a 6, correct?

Kim: Yes.

Rhi: Okay. What specifically would you be asking Constance about?

Kim: Probably, you know, what the last moments looked like, the motive. Do you know who was coming after you? Description of…

Rhi: Okay.

Kim: If she caught a description of the person.

Rhi: Yeah. Yeah. So, it was a shoot-out with another gang.

Kim: Right.

Rhi: The Lampblacks’ side was winning and had taken out most of the people, and then somebody kinda slipped into the back ranks of their opponents and just… usually these sort of things you’re just kind of shooting at anybody you can get, this person clearly was shooting at her.

Kim: Oh, so it was targeted.

Rhi: It was targeted at her. She recognized the shooter as a guy named Henner.

Kim: Henner.

Rhi: Who is in fact one of Bazso’s, not lieutenants, but trusted enforcers, like still a street thug, but somebody that Bazso would call upon for things such as this.

Kim: Right.

Rhi: It seems like Constance was killed by Bazso, indirectly.

Kim: Gotcha.

Rhi: Yeah, that’s pretty much it, but she might have some information about—you can ask some follow-up questions and see if she knows anything about other people who were maybe opposing Bazso.

Kim: Yes. I would like to know about that.

Rhi: What she’s able to tell you is that, you know, the lieutenants of the Lampblacks had been talking this over amongst themselves recently and you get, again, she mentions Andre as one of them who was unhappy with the direction that things were going, Rado Viktorov again, and then two additional names. Selma Anadio, she’s pretty high-up. She kind of oversees all of the drug den operations, and then Evette Baldi, who also runs another drug den, so basically Rado and Evette report up the line to Selma who reports to Bazso.

Kim: Gotcha.

Rhi: So, the two of them were also unhappy with how Bazso has been running things. Selma in particular, she had been unhappy for a while, and then her twin brother got killed in the Docks.

Minna: [gasps] No…

Kim: Oh.

Rhi: And she’s been a lot more unhappy. It went from Bazso, this is stupid, to…

Kim: This is personal.

Rhi: …you fucking asshole. Yeah.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: All of these people all thought that this was bad for business. Like, holding the Docks is draining money and people and they’re not getting much back. That is what you are able to find out from this ghost. I think it takes you a while to pull this information out, because she, you know, you have to ask a lot of very precise questions and also probably a few times fend her off, because she’s just kind of like, I’m hungry, and will move to take your body, and you’ll be like nope, have some more ectoplasm.

Kim: Yep. Yeah. Can I send her over to The Reconciled, or do you think she’s too…?

Rhi: There’s not enough there at this point.

Kim: Yeah. Okay. Bummer.

Rhi: Yeah. You can try, you could jar her and try to take her out to The Deathlands later, but…

Kim: [thoughtful sigh] No.

Rhi: All right, so Myra.

Minna: Hello.

Rhi: You are going to a real sketchy drug den.

Minna: I am.

Rhi: So, you walk in and this is like… The place that you used to go, The Devil’s Tooth, that was a classier joint. They had private rooms. There was…

Minna: It was a classy, trustworthy, not sketchy… not super sketchy joint.

Rhi: Yeah. This is not that. [chuckles] There’s a handful of rooms, but it’s just basically like, there’s just, you know, a group of people in each room on various things, probably a lot less quality control in terms of what you’re getting. What’s your stress at right now?

Minna: Two.

Rhi: Two? Okay.

Minna: So I’m doing good.

Rhi: Yeah, you’re not feeling too stressed at this point. I think as you’re moving through the space, since it’s a tar-like thing you can kind of smell it being cooked as people are prepping it.

Minna: Some kind of sickly sweet smell or something, I don’t know.

Rhi: Yeah. It’s kinda niggling at the back of your brain, but you’re not quite there yet.

Minna: Yeah.

Rhi: What info are you looking for here? Who do you wanna talk to? What do you wanna figure out?

Minna: I… Yeah. I’m going to go talk to Rado.

Rhi: Okay. What do you wanna get out of him?

Minna: I think she approaches him—

Minna (as Myra): Hello. You’re Rado, aren’t you?

Rhi (as Rado): Yeah. Who are you?

Minna (as Myra): My name is Myra Keel. I am looking for a haven, shall we say.

Rhi (as Rado): Okay.

Rhi: Kind of waves a hand at the space.

Rhi (as Rado): Find a cot.

Minna (as Myra): I’m sure you understand that as the leader of The magpies…

Minna: Out of character, she’s not the leader, she’s just playing it up.

Rhi: Yeah. [chuckles]

Josie: [laughs]

Minna: [laughs] She’s doing this for effect. Don’t kill me.

Minna (as Myra): I’m sure you understand that as the leader of The Magpies I have to be selective.

Rhi (as Rado): Then why did you come here?

Minna (as Myra): Because I think you and I have an enemy in common, and you know, the enemy of my enemy…

Rhi: Roll something.

Minna: [giggles] Oh God.

Rhi: [laughing] We have now reached the point where you have piqued his interest.

Minna: Yes. Yes. I think it’s a Sway, because I’m lying through my teeth.

Rhi: Mm-hmm.

Minna: Five!

Rhi: Okay. He eyeballs you, and he had been acting really, like, not making eye contact, just staring into the middle distance, not super engaged, but when you say that his gaze and focus suddenly sharpen and he looks at you.

Rhi (as Rado): The Magpies, you said?

Minna (as Myra): Yes.

Rhi (as Rado): You all kinda fucked us a while back, you know?

Minna (as Myra): From what I hear “us” is a very splintered concept these days. We fucked Bazso.

Rhi: He stands up from the table he’s sitting at and just sort of gestures for you to follow, and he will walk you back into his office which is a very small, cramped space. He sits you down, closes the door, sits down behind his desk, and then leans over and opens a drawer.

Rhi (as Rado): You want a drink?

Minna (as Myra): Sure.

Rhi (as Rado): Too bad.

Rhi: He comes up and has a gun on you.

Minna: [laughs]

Kim: Oh! … Okay.

Rhi (as Rado): A precaution, you understand.

Minna: Yeah, I think she’s still playing the badass and she is not going to flinch.

Rhi: [chuckles]

Rhi (as Rado): So, who tipped you off?

Minna (as Myra): I have friends in many places. I’m sure you understand I don’t really want to reveal my sources, and they’re not particularly close to the person who originally learned it.

Rhi: He kind of eyes you again.

Rhi (as Rado): So what do you actually want?

Minna (as Myra): What I actually want is to get in on this plan that you have going, whatever it is.

Rhi (as Rado): Well, you understand that I can’t just give you everything, because I have no idea who you are. For all I know Bazso fucking sent you.

Minna (as Myra): Oh, I fully understand that you wouldn’t trust me immediately.

Minna: What is a token of good faith that I can give him?

Kim: A handkerchief.

[laughter]

Rhi: Yeah, I’m also trying to think of what is something he would ask you to do to prove that you are…

Minna: Yeah, because I don’t think we wanna do a score for him to prove ourselves to him, because why would we do that.

Rhi: Yeah, yeah, that’s a lot.

Minna: Ooh, I wonder if there’s something I could have acquired for him that I have a reasonable suspicion he would want, that would help him? But I don’t know what that would be.

Rhi: Maybe…

Minna: So, okay, the information we have on him is that there have been poisonings?

Rhi: Yeah. Well, so, the guards who were on Bazso the night of the attempted assassination had visited Rado’s club before…

Minna: Ah.

Rhi: …and then died a couple hours later of a poisoning, so Bazso thinks that whatever they were given, whatever drugs they did while they were here, were laced with something that killed them.

Minna: How does he know they were here? Is it just word of mouth? Probably, yeah.

Rhi: And this is also the drug den closest to his apartment, so his guards would often come from here or go to here after their shift at his place. I was thinking maybe he’d ask you to acquire some of the poison, but that still is giving away that he actually, you know, is involved in that.

Minna: Oh. I have a connection to… I have connections to several people who make weird and subtle things. Perhaps I could suggest that I have a connection that could get him something subtler and slower-acting.

Rhi: Sure. Yeah. Let’s go with that.

Minna (as Myra): You were a little sloppy the other night with your attempt. The timing on that could have been better. I’ve got a few connections in strange places who might be able to get you something slower-acting than that, something that looks less like poison as well.

Rhi (as Rado): Bring me whatever you can get your hands on and we’ll talk. If it’s any good, maybe I can introduce you to some people.

Minna: Out of character, how are we gonna test this?

Rhi: I’ll just have you do an Acquire Asset roll.

Minna: No, I just—out of character, is somebody going to die who shouldn’t die? [giggles]

Kim: [noise that sounds like “I dunno”]

Minna: I’ll just have to get something and an antidote.

Rhi: [laughs] There you go.

Josie: [chuckles]

Rhi: Yeah. Myra, you’re leaving again, and… yeah, I think on the way out is where it hits you, because you were able to focus a little more on the way in because you knew you needed to talk to somebody, but on your way out, you didn’t push yourself mechanically but you pushed yourself sort of internally to have to get through that conversation.

Minna: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: It would be nice to just…

Minna: [tightly] Mm-hmm.

Rhi: …take a break for a little bit, wouldn’t it? So I think Myra is gonna need to make a resistance check.

Minna: What’s the resistance on that?

Rhi: For this it’s gonna be Resolve.

Minna: All right. I think we’re gonna do that, because she doesn’t trust this guy to give her—she has stuff at home.

Rhi: [laughs]

Minna: That is a 6.

Rhi: Every god damn time. Okay, yeah. You manage to shrug it off and keep walking, however I am ticking up the clock on because you got a 5.

Minna: Yay.

Rhi: So, yeah, they are… there’s a little suspicion.

Minna: I’m sorry that this was a half-baked plan that we had to think how to make work. [laughs]

Rhi: It’s okay. we are all muddling through this. Like I said, this is an experimental thing. I’m guessing that the three of you will reconvene after your first day of murder mystery investigation.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Yeah. You’ve got a variety of leads, you’ve got a couple new names, and you also have a not admission of guilt but a not denial of guilt from Rado Viktorov who seems to be amenable to Myra’s offer of additional poison. How do you all want to proceed?

Josie: Well, first we must address the issue, while it may very well seem like he’s the culprit, given that this seems to be a widespread descent sort of thing, who’s to say that it wasn’t all of them? Or some of them?

Minna: Hmm.

Josie: Or that he’s merely planning his own attempt in addition to someone else trying and failing?

Kim: I mean, that’s true, but he’s also the only lead we have right now.

Josie: I suppose so.

Minna (as Myra): I am certainly intrigued by Rado, it seems that something may be going on with him, but I am also very curious about Selma. If they’re all unhappy she would be a good candidate to climb up in Bazso’s place especially if she has two lieutenants already at her side.

Josie (as Minx): That is true. Do we want to pursue her?

Minna (as Myra): I think it’s worth a look, but we do have an in with Rado, so maybe we begin with him, but I would like to keep her in mind.

Josie (as Minx): I see.

Kim (as Blaire): That sounds like a plan.

Josie (as Minx): What has Rado asked of us?

Minna (as Myra): He wants a slow-acting poison. I suggested that I could find one for him.

Josie (as Minx): Aye…

Josie: Do we really have anyone who can get us that?

Rhi: Seeks might be able to whip up something. [laughs]

Josie: You’re right. [laughs]

Minna: Yeah, I was gonna say, we have Seeks. Also, we have Bryl, a drug dealer who may have some connections. We have a couple of connections we can talk to to see if they could find us something like that.

Josie: Since this is a mystery and we’ve made the Sherlock Holmes reference, can we get a hand on, a hold on that drug that makes you seem legally dead for a time?

Rhi: See, that is actually, I was thinking something along those lines…

Minna: Yes~

Rhi: …where Seeks would be able to give you something that would knock somebody out without killing them.

Minna: So we’ll get something that leaves people, yeah, that knocks people out or leaves them bedridden but will clear up.

Rhi: We’ll just say that you’re acquiring an asset from Seeks.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: I feel like something like this, quality level is gonna be 4. Somebody can roll me 3d6…

Minna: I can do that.

Rhi: …for your crew’s tier, and we’ll see what you get and then how much money you might need to spend.

Minna: Really? It’s a 3.

Rhi: Oh no. Okay. That’s gonna give you a result of 2.

Minna: How do we—Can we push quality level up?

Rhi: If you spend 2 coin that’ll get you up to what you need.

Minna: I only have 1 coin on my person.

Kim: Believe it or not, I have coin on my person. I have 3 coin.

Rhi: Oh my gosh.

Josie: Whoa.

Kim: I know! Blaire has money!

[chuckling]

Minna: I will use 1 and take 1 from someone else if that’s fine.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: Okay. I think that what it is, you kinda describe what you need to Seeks and Seeks is like:

Rhi (as Seeks): Okay. Well, I am going to need, uh…

Rhi: Rattles off a long list of very expensive components and then you all have to go on a mini shopping montage to get all this stuff.

Minna: Mm-hmm.

Josie: [laughs]

Minna: I think it’s something that’s gonna take a week to actually go into effect, so anywhere from like four days to a week, but as long as they watch during that window for the guards to go out and then it won’t look like “oh, they just came from X drug den.”

Rhi: Ohh! Okay, so really, really slow-acting.

Minna: Or, it doesn’t have to be four days to a week, but like… a couple of days rather than like, oh, later that evening they passed out after visiting the drug den, because you know, when someone gets food poisoning you don’t usually look to the place they went three days before they got the food poisoning.

Rhi: That’s true. Does Myra wanna deliver this alone or do you wanna bring the other two?

Minna: What do you guys think?

Kim: I’ll tag along.

Minna: Okay. She’s going to brief you that she pretended to be the leader of the gang and also is adopting a slightly different persona.

Josie: I don’t think I’m going to show up.

Minna: Okay. I’m there with a lieutenant. [giggles]

Rhi: [laughs] Oh no. Okay. Minx, Josie… I almost asked Minx is Josie doing anything, which…

Josie: [laughs]

Minna: [laughs]

Josie: I mean, I’m just sitting here, so…

Rhi: Yeah. Josie, do you wanna have Minx do anything while these two are going and talking to Rado? You could follow up on one of these other names. I know Myra said she was interested in learning more about Selma potentially.

Josie: Yeah. I wanna figure out some more info about her. I think my disguise angle on this one is that I’m looking to open a place but I don’t wanna do that without the permission of a kingpin. Right? [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah. [laughs]

Josie: Because I don’t want to get my kneecaps confiscated.

Rhi: Yep. Okay. Let’s start then with Myra and Blaire. It probably takes Seeks a few days to whip something up, but she will present it to you very proudly and will describe how it works. So yeah, you show up back at the drug den, and yeah, Rado will escort you back into his office and kinda looks sideways at Blaire when she follows Myra in.

Minna (as Myra): My friend, Blaire.

Kim: Uh, fake names?

Rhi: Nope. Myra went in here being like “I am Myra Keel of The magpies.”

Minna: Oh! If you want a persona, though, you can have a persona, if we discussed ahead of time.

Kim: No. Fuck it. I’m Blaire.

Rhi: [laughs]

Kim: It’s fine.

Rhi (as Rado): All right… You bring me anything interesting?

Minna: She wordlessly slides a vial across the desk.

Rhi (as Rado): And what does it do?

Minna (as Myra): Within 48 hours of being administered the target should pass out. I’m sure you can keep an eye on the guards during that period, and it won’t be directly after coming from your establishment.

Rhi (as Rado): That could have a lot of applications.

Rhi: I think I’m gonna need another roll from you to persuade him to admit to anything.

Minna: Can it—Hmm. It might be Sway again.

Rhi: Mm-hmm.

Kim: Would you like an assist?

Minna: I mean, sure. I did get a 6 on that.

Rhi: Okay. He kinda eyes you.

Rhi (as Rado): Well, I’ll have to take this up the chain to see if she approves of the plan, and if so…

Rhi: He pauses for a second.

Rhi (as Rado): …what do you want out of this?

Minna (as Myra): Bazso has not exactly held up his end of the bargain. While he has attempted to maintain control of the Docks we had planned to have more involvement. Frankly, we want the Docks for ourselves.

Rhi (as Rado): Huh. I’ll take that higher up the chain, too. Come back in a couple days and I’ll let you know how things sound.

Rhi: So, he will shoo you out, but what he did let slip inadvertently is—

Minna: Yep, she, higher up the chain!

Josie: Uh-huh!

Rhi: [laughing] So let’s cut over to Minx.

Josie: Yeah. I don’t wanna directly meet her yet. I want to figure out as much about her as possible.

Rhi: Okay.

Josie: Trying to start a small personal operation.

Rhi: Okay.

Josie: She’s kind of the… She’s the drug kingpin of the area, and can’t really do that without permission or knowing how to approach her, so…

Rhi: Right. Right. What’s my initial offering in terms of a bribe that I need to make?

Josie: Right. [laughs]

Rhi: What’s the weekly cut that I need to be setting aside? That sort of thing?

Josie: Right.

Rhi: Got it. Okay. You’re kinda asking around some of the other drug purveyors?

Josie: Exactly.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah. Go ahead and make me a roll.

Josie: Six.

Rhi: Okay. On a 6, a lot of what you get is pretty consistent in terms of what Selma expects from people in terms of getting a cut, how much money is due upfront. There are certain drugs that they wanna maintain a monopoly over that you’re not allowed to offer. If you start asking more about what is she like to work with as a person, because I assume that’s sort of where you steer around to…

Josie: Yeah.

Rhi: …you know, for a high-ranked lieutenant of a criminal organization who makes its money through beating people to bloody pulps and cheap drugs, she’s a pretty fair person. If you stay in your lane and do what’s expected and pay on time you’ll basically be left alone, and if you kind of develop a good record of, you know, if you pay consistently for a year and then you have a bad month, you know, you’ll be given a few days or even a week to get the money together before they come after your kneecaps.

Josie: Yay! [laughs]

Rhi: Although, I think what you do get is that some people report that’s how things operate, you do talk to a couple people who say that lately she seems to have been less flexible and less patient, has been a lot more demanding that people pay up immediately, has even been turning up a little bit of pressure in terms of asking for more money than normal, that sort of thing.

Josie: Okay, so it’s definitely affecting her work right now.

Rhi: Mm-hmm.

Josie: Something is.

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie: Okay… Where can I meet with her?

Rhi: I think that for meetings, if she’s meeting with either other gangs or independent contractors as it were, independent operators, she has a place that she meets with folks in Tangletown.

Josie: Oh yay.

Minna: [gasps] Yay.

Rhi: Yeah, which is an old leviathan hunter that sank in the river near Crow’s Foot and basically a bunch of people started building on it and lashed old ships to it and expanded it out, and it’s now just sort of a little floating shanty town neighborhood. Everyone in Crow’s Foot, even a lot of the gangs throughout the city, respect Tangletown as absolute neutral ground. Gang warfare is not permitted there, and it’s a self-policing system. Even so much as a bar brawl between a couple opposing gangs, not even a serious fight, will see all involved grabbed by other criminals and chucked into the river.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: Maybe they’ll swim to shore, maybe they won’t, but it’s just like you don’t start shit in Tangletown, because it is important to have neutral ground for these sort of things. I think there’s a little dive bar where she will conduct meetings with people.

Josie: Okay. That’s good to know. That kind of rules out taking her during a meeting. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah, that was part of where I was like, oh, this will also add a bit of a wrench to… [laughs]

Josie: Yeah. Now we know where she’d be heading to if I scheduled a meeting.

Rhi: Yes.

Josie: I’d like to reconvene before I decide on other stuff.

Rhi: Okay. So, the name of—I went to a tavern name generator, and the name of the dive bar where she wants to meet with you is called The Cheap Club.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: You know what you’re getting. But yes, yeah, you can all reconvene and figure out what you’re doing next.

Josie (as Minx): Yes. We do still need proof, ultimately. I mean, we’re not trying to get this passed in a court of law, but we want to assure Bazso that he is safe. Rado admitted to it, basically.

Minna (as Myra): Yeah.

Josie (as Minx): But will that word be enough?

Minna (as Myra): Well, Rado admitted that he was a lackey to somebody. I think it would be good to confirm who’s in charge of the operation. We can make a guess, but we can’t be certain.

Josie (as Minx): Yes.

Rhi: Yeah. Minx, I will tell you that I think you know Bazso well enough to know that he will take verbal confirmation.

Josie: Okay.

Rhi: Yeah. He doesn’t need a written out plan in somebody’s handwriting if you come in and be like yeah it’s these two fuckers.

Josie: Yeah. To be honest, he’ll probably take who we give to him…

Rhi: Yes.

Josie: …but if we’re wrong that could be bad.

Rhi: Yeah. [laughs]

Minna: We want to get the right person too, because we don’t want him to die, necessarily.

Josie: Yeah, and the person above—What’s her name, Selma?—is just Bazso again, right?

Rhi: Mm-hmm. She answers directly to him. Yeah.

Josie: Yeah. But you said Bazso still needs to go up the chain to the Crows.

Rhi: Yeah. The Crows run Crow’s Foot.

Josie: Uh-huh.

Rhi: Bazso wants to take them down someday, but he is not in a position to do so at this point. Basically, he does not work for the Crows; in order for him to operate in Crow’s Foot he has to basically pay a percentage to the Crows.

Josie: Right. Are there any opposing forces on the Docks?

Rhi: Yes. In addition to the Umbra Hunters, who are somewhat weakened, on the Docks you’ve got, where are they… the Billhooks and the Grinders.

Josie: Uh-huh.

Rhi: Both of whom are also bravos, street toughs.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: In addition to the conflict between the Umbra Hunters and the Lampblacks that you all kind of generated, you also introduced a third very violence-inclined faction into the Docks.

Josie: That’s the problem. we can’t rule out that someone in another group isn’t pulling the strings. It may very well be agents that are working in the Lampblacks, but as far as up the chain goes…

Rhi: Yeah, it could be. The leader of the Crows is a woman too, so who knows. [laughs]

Josie: Yeah, so… [laughs] Well, the Crows are top dog, so unless they have gotten worried about the Lampblacks they probably wouldn’t do this.

Rhi: Yeah. I will say, because you all are criminals, you’re just sort of tapped into the local gossip, yeah, the problem that the Crows had with the Lampblacks previously was because the Lampblacks were at war with the Red Sashes.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: The Lampblacks won that war, the Red Sashes have been wiped out, and now the Crows are fine with whatever the Lampblacks are doing so long as they’re getting paid.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: So long as they pay their money and they know their place, everything’s fine, and right now Bazso is not making any plays.

Josie: here’s also the thing. It could also very well be the Circle slash Umbra Hunters. They have shown that they can figure out people who are close to us through Salia. Like, it’s possible that this is an outside scheme to take Bazso out, potentially to get to me, but then again they’d also know we’re not on great terms… me and Bazso.

Rhi: Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of possibilities. This is true.

Josie: I think it’s probably either that or it is Selma.

Rhi: Well, I think either way you probably need to go meet with her.

Minna: Mm-hmm.

Josie: Yeah.

Rhi: Do all three of you want to go?

Josie: Yeah, we might as well.

Kim: Sure.

Rhi: All right. So, I think there’s messages sent off and you arrange this meeting, and yeah, you make your way down into Crow’s Foot across the… bridge is a little too generous a description.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: Rafts and boards kinda lashed together that lead out to Tangletown. It’s not a very… I think there’s ropes that are tied across as handholds slash things to grab onto if a board drops out from under you. it’s not easygoing. Your boots, all of you, end up soaked, because all of these things kind of sink down into the water a little bit, there’s waves lapping up.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: But you make it over to Tangletown and over to The Cheap Club [laughs] where you find Selma waiting for you. She is Akorosi, short dark hair, light skin. I think she’s got a burn scar on the right side of her forehead, kinda going up into her hairline, wearing a hat, sitting there drinking the one thing that’s on the menu. You just, you go and you ask for a drink and you are given… something

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: that bears a resemblance to a beer.

Josie: Honestly, I think our angle here, we might just be we come as ourselves and like… We know no violence can happen here, and I can tell if she’s lying, so we just gotta try and provoke something.

Kim: That makes sense.

Rhi: Do we wanna call this the start of a score?

Kim: It kinda feels like it, doesn’t it?

Minna: Yeah.

Josie: Yeah. I feel like this is a Social score.

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna: Yeah.

Rhi: Because I feel like if nothing else the guy who more or less admitted to being involved in this indicated that she was the one that he was taking his orders from, so if nothing else you need to grab her to find out does it stop at her or does it continue on higher up.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: Just gonna say this is a 2d6 engagement roll… and I got a 6. You’re starting off in a controlled position as you’re walking into this technically a bar. Selma is sitting at a table, has a mug in her hand already, and kinda nods at you all when you come in.

Rhi (as Selma): Heard a lot about you, the famed Magpies.

Josie (as Minx): Well, I’m glad the papers are getting around.

Rhi (as Selma): Have a seat.

Josie: Minx will gingerly sit.

Rhi: The crate creaks ominously under you. chuckles]

Josie: Mm-hmm. [laughs]

Minna: Myra sits with absolute confidence that nothing will give under her.

Rhi: It also creaks, but yeah, you’re fine.

Kim: Am I the trifecta? I’m the one who’s seat just breaks underneath me?

Rhi: [rolls] … Nope, you’re fine.

Kim: Comedy comes in threes, Rhi!

[laughter]

Rhi: It hasn’t broken “yet.” One of you still could.

Kim: Oh, okay.

Minna: Rhi periodically makes a roll.

Rhi: Once you’re all seated Selma will kind of eye you.

Rhi (as Selma): So, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you are not actually interested in opening up another drug den in my neighborhood, right?

Josie (as Minx): No, we aren’t. We’ve been having to tell many stories in order to work up to getting a meeting with you.

Rhi (as Selma): Yeah, I heard a couple of them.

Rhi: Kind of glances at Myra.

Minna (as Myra): Wouldn’t you love to know which ones are true?

Rhi: She just smirks and takes a sip.

Rhi (as Selma): So, what are you actually after here?

Josie (as Minx): We want to know whether you have attempted on Bazso Baz’s life. If you have, well, we might be able to assist.

Rhi: Give me a roll.

Josie: Yeah. I think this is—

Minna: Sway. You’re lying.

Josie: Yeah, I guess I’m lying.

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie: Like, the thing is I’m just trying to go for candor to get her to say something that I can use Like Looking In A Mirror on.

Rhi: Mm-hmm.

Kim: I’ve got a feeling this isn’t the place where candor will… well, no, candor probably would work.

Minna: You’re being blunt but you’re not being truthful.

Josie: Critical.

Rhi: Oof.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: Jesus Christ.

Josie: Like, I think part of it is just like, okay, we’ve been lying all day, we’ve been dancing the games, we’re here on neutral ground, let’s get to the point. Right?

Rhi: Yeah. Yeah. I’m just trying to think of how she’s gonna react to this… Okay, I know what it is. I think she kinda eyes you, Minx, and smirks.

Rhi (as Selma): Well it took you long enough.

Minna: [delighted hum]

Rhi (as Selma): From what I heard, the way Bazso talks about it anyway, you and him have been heading for this sort of thing for years.

Josie (as Minx): Yes, well, I think we have been trying to give each other a bit of a three strikes rule… or five, or seven.

Rhi (as Selma): Hmph. Apparently he ran out on your side, huh?

Josie (as Minx): Yes. Once… He changed, and not for the better.

Rhi (as Selma): Oh, don’t we all? Hmm. This could actually work to my advantage. I have a feeling that he suspects anybody who’s ever said an ill word about his leadership or decision-making abilities, so…

Josie (as Minx): No doubt.

Rhi (as Selma): I know that you all aren’t on the best of terms with him, but he might not see you coming, so if you all wanna do the honors…

Josie (as Minx): I know that he does not think we can do it, but if we’re doing it for you, well, might as well get paid for our time, yes?

Rhi (as Selma): Sure.

Minna (as Myra): We’re speaking with the ringleader, yes? I’m not sure I’m comfortable making this deal with a lackey.

Rhi (as Selma): Yeah, I’m the one in charge.

Minna: Is she lying? I think Myra glances sideways at Minx.

Rhi: Let me look up the text of that. A lie of omission is a lie. So, Minx, whatever kind of… You can tell that she is leaving something out. She’s not entirely lying, she is in charge of this operation, but there’s something missing.

Josie: Yes. Hmm. Now I’m trying to think about my approach here.

Kim: Yeah, do we wanna press harder, or…?

Josie: I think Minx will just say out loud:

Josie (as Minx): Well that was awfully quick.

Rhi (as Selma): Fucker got my brother killed, and I was willing to be patient and talk to him and hope that he’d get his head out of his ass eventually, and then I ran out of patience.

Josie (as Minx): I see.

Rhi (as Selma): And there’s a lot of us who aren’t happy, so I talked to some of them and we came to an arrangement. He’s gone, I take over, we pull out of the Docks, we start running this gang sensibly again, stop getting people killed.

Josie (as Minx): That… Sorry for your loss.

Rhi: She kinda nods and takes another swig.

Josie: So, real quick out of character thing right here. [laughs]

Rhi: Uh-huh?

Josie: I wasn’t expecting to have sympathy for it.

Rhi: [in a sinister voice] Welcome to hell!

Josie: I know!

Rhi: [hissing] I did it on purpose!

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah. How do you wanna proceed?

Josie: I think Minx just wants to push ahead and get some numbers on the table, and you know, just proceed normally, and then as soon as they’re out of Tangletown be like:

Josie (as Minx): What the fuck?!

Rhi: So basically try to get her to agree to like, okay, I’ll pay you X amount to kill Bazso, right?

Josie: Yes.

Rhi: Okay. We can just sort of gloss over that negotiation. I think that between all of you and Selma you’re able to come to, I mean, it doesn’t really matter what you all agree to because you’re not gonna get that money, most likely.

Josie: Yes.

Rhi: Unless you all take a hard left here that I am not foreseeing.

Minna: [giggles]

Josie: [laughs] Uh-huh.

Rhi: Yeah. You agree to something that’s reasonable, a reasonable amount of money for an assassination, it’s fine.

Josie: Yeah.

Rhi: And then she says, when it’s done, she’ll contact you and you’ll meet back here is the plan.

Josie: Okay.

Rhi: And when you all get up to go she does not move.

Josie: Yep, makes sense.

Rhi: She is staying put.

Josie: Yeah. Minx wants to get out of there and meet with Bazso as soon as she can.

Rhi: I mean, if the three of you want to go straight from there over to…

Minna: Sure.

Rhi: …the Lampblacks headquarters.

Kim: Well, I just wanna make sure we’re all on the same page here. We’re definitely killing Bazso?

Josie: Oh, no, I just wanted to figure out what the fuck happened.

Kim: Yeah~

Rhi: Heh…

Josie: [chuckles]

Rhi: So just talk to Bazso and try and get his side of things?

Minna: Yeah.

Josie: Yeah, and I think it’s like, okay, we know, but you need to explain everything before we tell you.

Rhi: Okay.

Minna: Cards on the table time.

Rhi: Yeah. So, do you go to Lampblacks headquarters or do you send him a message and try to arrange a meeting elsewhere?

Josie: I think… Minx is reckless, so she’s gonna push for Lampblacks headquarters.

Kim: [nervous groan]

Rhi: Just march straight up there?

Minna: I’m going to push for an empty house that is neutral territory.

Kim: Yeah. I don’t like the idea of meeting him on his home turf.

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie: If Minx is outnumbered she can be restrained.

Rhi: [laughing] Yeah, I’m just—Minx striding forward and Blaire and Myra grab her arms. “No~”

Josie (as Minx): But, but… [sighs] Fine.

Rhi: Yeah. I think you send him a note and find an abandoned building not too far from headquarters so it’s not like you have to wait a really long time.

Minna: yeah.

Rhi: And yeah, he shows up after a little bit, walks in. As he walks in the door he’s pulling a gun out from under his jacket, not aiming it at any of you specifically, it just…

Minna: Paranoid.

Rhi: He’s very paranoid right now, yeah, and he just has agreed to—even though it’s people that he knows, he still has just been invited to a meeting in an abandoned building.

Josie: [chuckles]

Rhi: So he walks in and looks a little surprised to see Minx and Blaire there.

Rhi (as Bazso): Oh, so you brought the whole family along.

Josie (as Minx): Quite. We have a name.

Rhi (as Bazso): Wonderful.

Josie (as Minx): What haven’t you told us?

Rhi (as Bazso): What are you talking about?

Josie (as Minx): What is going on with you, Bazso?

Kim (as Blaire): You killed Selma’s brother?

Rhi (as Bazso): I didn’t kill her brother. He was up in the Docks. The Docks have been bad. A lot of people have died up there.

Josie (as Minx): She is the ringleader.

Rhi (as Bazso): Huh.

Josie (as Minx): It seems very much like someone will simply step into her spot.

Rhi (as Bazso): Ringleader. Who else? Who else is involved?

Josie (as Minx): Rado.

Rhi (as Bazso): Oh. Eh, kinda figured. All right. Anybody else?

Kim (as Blaire): Someone named Andre?

Rhi (as Bazso): He went missing weeks ago. I don’t know what happened to him, but if he turns up again I’ll keep it in mind.

Josie (as Minx): That’s the thing, Bazso. Her sentiment of her thinking you got her brother killed, that was a common element with everyone we investigated, different reasons, of course there are some like Rado seeking to pounce on it, but…

Minna (as Myra): We’re finding people both inside your gang and outside your gang.

Josie (as Minx): Something needs to change, Bazso.

Rhi (as Bazso): And what the fuck do you want me to do?! You’re the ones that said that I could waltz into the Docks and hold it and have all this wonderful territory, and I’ve been getting my ass kicked for months, because of you!

Rhi: It started as a general you. It very quickly narrowed to Minx in terms of who he is addressing.

Josie (as Minx): Believe it or not, I don’t want you dead, Bazso.

Rhi (as Bazso): I know. You just wanna see me off my throne again.

Josie (as Minx): No Bazso, I want you to… I want you to be doing all right for yourself, not… I don’t know.

Rhi (as Bazso): If I pull out of the Docks… I keep my word. We agreed that I’d hold them, I’ve been holding them, and I am not entirely without a heart. I know what’s gonna happen if Mora moves in. it’s bad now. It’ll be worse. It’ll be so much worse. If I pull out of the Docks, a lot of these problems that I’m having will go away, so are you all gonna be able to do something?

Josie (as Minx): I’ll admit, I don’t know what to do either. There’s only so many of us.

Minna (as Myra): Do the people of the Docks know that you’re there partly to protect them from that? Is there a way that you could make allies where you are now?

Rhi (as Bazso): The refugees that moved back in, yeah, but hard to protect people when I’m fighting a war on three fronts, well I guess four fronts now because I got internal strife.

Minna (as Myra): If there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that making more friends has never made the fight harder. Well, occasionally, you know, people are able to threaten you through your friends, but I don’t see that stopping you. if you can get more allies that can only be good. Take some of the burden off yourself. Ask for help.

Rhi: He eyes Myra for a long time and then looks at Minx, and then just kinda tightens his jaw.

Rhi (as Bazso): I’ve found that friends are rarely as reliable as you’d like them to be.

Josie: Minx will just kinda look away in shame a little bit.

Rhi (as Bazso): I don’t have a lot of people that I can turn to right now, and it’s not easy to build new connections when you’ve got this many knives at your throat.

Minna: I’m trying to think if we have any allies that we could connect them with.

Rhi: Yeah. You don’t have allies among a lot of gangs is the thing.

Minna: Yeah.

Rhi: You have a lot of individuals, but you don’t actually, like, I think the closest that I could think of is the Silver nails, and they’re not so much an… eh, you have a mutually beneficial relationship with them.

Minna: I’m still trying to think if there’s any way we could harness the citizenry of the Docks and have them actually be, you know, working with Bazso and not being terrorized by Bazso while he’s trying to protect them.

Josie (as Minx): Bazso, you have how many underneath you, dozens within the gang and without? There’s the three of us, but think, how have we managed to survive, especially with the Circle after us?

Rhi (as Bazso): It’s real fucking rich that you of all people are trying to sell me on the power of friendship.

Josie (as Minx): I know.

Minna (as Myra): Whatever happened between you two it was years ago, now.

Rhi (as Bazso): It was actually a couple months ago when you all interrupted my ritual and attacked a bunch of my people. That was much more recent that you all kinda screwed me there.

Minna: [smiling] What were we doing then? Out of character.

Rhi: You were planting a fake Hand of Kotar to instigate the Circle of Flame to start attacking the Lampblacks.

Minna: Ah! That’s right! That’s right. We weren’t friends for a while.

Rhi: The current situation that Bazso is in is about 85% y’all’s fault.

Josie: [laughs]

Minna: Yeah… Yeah. So, let’s see. What can we do to help?

Kim: We could give him cookies.

[laughter]

Rhi: So, I mean, you could… Basically, he’s staying in the Docks because he knows that if he leaves it’ll be worse for the people there.

Minna: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Doing something else to continue to prevent Mora from moving in if the Lampblacks pull out, or finding somebody else to ally with him, like convincing another gang to back him up so that he can actually get some breathing room, because he’s never really had a solid hold on the territory. He’s had to fight for every inch of it this whole time, and that’s why it’s been bleeding him dry.

Josie (as Minx): Bazso, what do you know about the Circle?

Rhi (as Bazso): Uh, they really fucking hate you.

Josie (as Minx): I mean, that is true, but them personally.

Rhi (as Bazso): They’re running the gang that has been a pain in my ass, one of the gangs that’s been a pain in my ass lately. That’s about all I know. It’s kind of all I need to know.

Josie (as Minx): Do you know which one of them is pushing that gang at the moment?

Rhi: He shrugs.

Josie (as Minx): Hmm.

Rhi: And then winces.

Minna (as Myra): You still haven’t had that seen to?

Rhi (as Bazso): [angrily] I’m fine.

Minna (as Myra): Mm-hmm.

Josie (as Minx): I think maybe we might have the contacts to, if not another gang, at least sway opinion, and then of course I’ve got…

Josie: She sort of just clicks her sword cane.

Josie (as Minx): …for everyone else.

Rhi: For the first time in a while Bazso actually gives you a, it’s a small smile, closer to a smirk, but it is genuine.

Rhi (as Bazso): Heh. Well, you toughened up again, Ellie.

Josie (as Minx): Well, having friends will do that.

Rhi (as Bazso): Right…

Kim: Oof.

Rhi (as Bazso): I am gonna clean house, ask some questions of some people, and uh… in the meantime, if you all can figure out a way to get me some breathing room, do it, but otherwise I can’t hold the territory much longer.

Josie (as Minx): If you end up having to leave, do so. We don’t hold ill will about it.

Rhi: At that, actually, he seems to relax a little bit. I guess apparently keeping his word is very important to him. I hadn’t really thought about that prior to this episode, but I think that’s where I’m landing with him. [laughs]

Josie: Yeah, seems like.

Kim: I mean, that tracks.

Minna: [giggling] I just can’t get over the fact that Myra and Bazso are just like dark mirrors of each other.

Rhi: Yeah, there’s an alternate universe where they’re the best of friends.

Rhi (as Bazso): All right. Well, you all see what you can do, and uh, I’m gonna go torture some people for information about who’s trying to kill me.

Rhi: [laughs] He kinda salutes at you and goes to leave.

 

 

## Outro [1:14:30]

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.

 

Now I’d like to thank our stupendous Patreon backers. Kyle Maxwell, thank you. Christopher Kelly, thank you! The Bar, thank you. David Bell, thank you.

 

 

## Blooper [1:15:55]

Kim: [singing, to the Scooby Doo theme] Hexy, Hexy mess… it’s a mess.

[giggling]

Rhi: Um, okay, so…

Kim: We’re trying to solve a murder~