Transcribed by Tyler (Twitter: @Tyler_MoonSage)

## Intro

Rhi: Welcome to Whitehollow. In this episode The magpies are taking the long-promised trip out of Duskwall to the city of Whitehollow. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to our worldbuilding bonus episode I highly recommend checking that out.

As always, please continue to support the show in whatever ways you can; reviews, Patreon support, pin purchases, tweets, fan art, we love it all.

In case you missed it, I was a guest player on the Roll Out Podcast where I got to play a one-shot of Turn. Turn is a really charming RPG about shapeshifters in small towns, and I had a great time playing with everyone. Links to both episodes are in the show notes.

Next, I’d like to tell you about this month’s Featured Charity… which is partly about a specific charity and partly about a specific issue in the US.

As some of you may know the Trump Administration recently implemented new rules for SNAP benefits. SNAP is a program that allows people with low incomes to get financial help with buying food. Food insecurity is a major issue throughout the nation and millions of people depend upon this support. These new rules would, in short, make it far more difficult for people to access the funds they need to feed themselves and their families. Money is always tight during the holidays and there are hundreds of charities asking for your support, but if you’re able locate a local food bank or other food access program to donate to.

If you’re in Chicago, my personal request is support for the Glenwood Sunday market. It’s a farmers market that I volunteer for, and one of our core missions is to provide a food access program. The neighborhood that I live in has a food insecurity rate of about 30%. The Glenwood Sunday Market works to support people facing food insecurity through our SNAP matching program. For the six months out of the year that the farmers market is open, anyone who shops at our market with SNAP funds gets a triple match of money. That means if someone charges $25 to their SNAP account we give them $75 to spend on food at the market. This year we gave away $26,000, a $6,000 increase over what we gave in 2018. We want to continue these programs in 2020, but the federal grants that provided a lot of our food access funding are in jeopardy, so any donations you can make would be greatly appreciated.

If you can’t donate, please visit 5calls.org and contact your representatives about this critical issue or see if you can find a food bank to volunteer with. Things are really hard right now all around the world. It’s important to do what we can, even in the smallest ways, to take care of each other.

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

 

 

## Story Continues [0:03:13]

Rhi: We open up on The Deathlands, the distant Void Sea, the rolling hills, the petrified forests, and cutting through this dark, abandoned terrain is a set of train tracks. Racing along the train tracks, we zoom in on a long train that is loaded with a mix of cargo and passenger cars. The engine has sort of a blue-green electroplasmic glow to it. It’s not smoke that billows out of the stack, it’s a sort of glowing steam that occasionally shoots off electroplasmic sparks.

The camera pans down the train, large cars loaded down with coal or other ores mined in Duskwall, manufactured goods, and along the tops of all the cars occasionally you see people in lightly armored jackets, long lightning hook poles strapped to their backs, and lines keeping them clipped to cables that run the length of each car, the Rail Jacks that protect the trains from spirits.

Minna: Oh, that’s metal as hell.

Josie: Yeah.

Rhi: The Rail Jacks are so fucking cool.

Minna: I didn’t realize that’s what the Rail Jacks were!

Rhi: And from the outside of the train we pan in through a window in one of the passenger cars to the small, private room where the Magpies are seated. And yeah, the three of you are in there with your luggage stowed in racks up by the ceiling. It’s a fairly long trip from Duskwall to Whitehollow, somewhere between 18 and 20 hours, so you’ll end up sleeping on this train. You did not have the money for a sleeper car to have proper beds. You’ll just kind of have to make do with the benches in here.

But yeah, what are the three of you doing as we zoom in on your compartment? And what does, I think particularly for Minx, what does the travel clothes look like?

Josie: Uh-huh!

Minna: Heehee.

Josie: Well, imagine a western movie and what you would imagine a southern belle on a train dressed in.

Kim: Ohhh~!

Rhi: [giggles] Oh goodness. Like full-on hoopskirt situation or a little more sedate than that?

Josie: Oh yeah, definitely down below it’s hoopskirts.

Rhi: Oh my God.

Kim: Josie, here’s the very important question though. Do you have a church fan?

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie: Yes, obviously.

Kim: Yes!

Josie: And also a small bowler hat.

Kim: Yes. Oh, that’s so cute~

Josie: And she’s sitting there, legs crossed, sort of tilting her head back and forth happily, because this is a scenario that she’s been wanting. I think she’s reading a book which she specifically bought for the purpose of looking sophisticated on the train. [laughs]

Rhi: [laughs] Oh God. Again, Minx’s commitment to the aesthetic is so strong and powerful and inspiring. It’s very good.

Josie: I am glad.

Rhi: All right. How are Myra… What’s Myra and Blaire up to?

Minna: Myra is probably also reading, but I think she’s as ready as she can be for the situation ahead so she’s reading for pleasure. I think she’s got some of the recently printed stuff from the underground historian people in Duskwall, because she’s a nerd.

Rhi: Mm-hmm. Nice. And Blaire, what are you up to?

Kim: Blaire is hunched over on the little table in the train compartment between the two benches. She is drawing in her journal mostly for pleasure and less so for notes because there’s nothing to observe here. She is drawing what looks to be a very crude picture of Hex.

[awing]

Rhi: There’s not really- It’s very hard to see anything outside, because one, you’re going so fast, and two, it’s pitch black constantly. I think that the Rail Jacks can see where the train passes through the ruins of small towns. I think the train lines were built on the remains of old trading roads, so it kind of follows those paths that caravans used to take where there were little small trading outposts and things, but none of you in the train are really able to see them. At this point you’re probably only an hour outside of Duskwall, and as you’re all sitting there enjoying the novelty of this train ride there’s kind of a light rap at the door and then it slides open and a woman in the crisp, you know, we’re gonna say dark green conductor’s uniform pokes her head in.

Rhi (as Conductor): Excuse me, ladies. Can I get your tickets?

Josie (as Minx): Of course, dear.

Josie: Minx will produce hers.

Kim (as Blaire): Our what?

Rhi (as Conductor): Tickets.

Kim (as Blaire): Oh yeah!

Kim: And Blaire produces her tickets from a random page from bookmarked in her journal.

Minna: [smiling] I feel like Myra has a little folio with papers and notes and things, and that’s where the ticket is.

Rhi: Of course. Yeah. So, she’ll collect them and take them.

Rhi (as Conductor): Huh, Whitehollow? You three enlisting?

Minna (as Myra): It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?

Minna: [chuckles]

Kim (as Blaire): Enlisting what?

Rhi (as Conductor): Oh, in the military. It’s still a military outpost.

Kim (as Blaire): [cackles]

Rhi (as Conductor): I’ll take that as a no. But, well, I hope whatever you’re doing there you have a good time or a short trip if it’s not gonna be a good time.

Rhi: She salutes you with the tickets and then steps back into the hall and pulls the door shut.

Kim (as Blaire): Myra, is Whitehollow a bad time?

Minna (as Myra): How much do you two know about Whitehollow?

Josie (as Minx): Not much. I know it is hot.

Rhi: And you two would both—Well, Blaire I think got to Duskwall right after the Unity War ended, so I think Tycheros is so far away from the rest of the Empire that you probably didn’t hear a lot of news about it, so Blaire would not know much about Whitehollow at all. Minx, you would know that Whitehollow is where people who got drafted went. You know that it was the main staging area for the military during the Unity War, so you probably knew some folks who got drafted, and a lot of people who probably dodged the draft and became criminals. [laughs] Like, yeah, I am now on the run because I got drafted and I don’t wanna.

Minna (as Myra): So Blaire, the history of this place is this is where everybody who left for the Unity War ended up. They all came here.

Kim (as Blaire): Oh.

Minna (as Myra): You got your Whitehollow letter, and you went to Whitehollow, and you were off to war from there and who knew if you’d come back the same person, or at all. But Whitehollow is more than just the place where the military came when the war happened. Before then it was a city of artisans. They do steel working, arms manufacturing, silver smithing, that’s what kind of stuck around after the war. Still have a strong military presence which, you know, our conductor alluded to. The military itself is mostly gone now except for the people who hung around and are just making themselves at home.

Kim (as Blaire): So, what does that mean for Bluecoat presence?

Minna: Do I know this? It’s not in my notes.

Rhi: Yeah, I don’t think you were able to get… It is a fair assumption to be like “they have a police force,” but I don’t think you’re gonna know the specifics of how that police force works.

Minna (as Myra): I mean, law and order probably still holds, but I don’t know what that looks like there.

Kim (as Blaire): Gross.

Josie (as Minx): [chuckles] Yes, well, fortunately I hear it at least used to be a rather pleasant place. I suppose we’ll see how the war changed it.

Minna (as Myra): So, hand of Kotar. I managed to track it to Whitehollow via a bulletin that made its way to Duskwall. The Delvers Guild in Whitehollow found an occult preserved hand from ancient times. They’ve already sold it off to Admiral Hubert Stroman. He’s one of the ruling council in the city right now. He’s pretty soon gonna hold an auction to sell off a bunch of artifacts; rare, historical, and probably occult. It’s phrased as “strange” but that’s my best guess. So, I think that we’re gonna have to look into this auction, because it’s quite possible the Hand will be there and he doesn’t know what he has, or if he does that’s gonna be even more of a problem.

Josie (as Minx): Ah, another one.

Kim (as Blaire): [giggly] This is so crazy. We’re gonna get the Hand!

Josie (as Minx): Well, we’re not gonna use the Hand, though.

Kim (as Blaire): [disappointed] Oh… But we gotta know how it works, especially since we have the Eye, too.

Josie (as Minx): Do we have to?! If we just keep it locked away in a box that’s sufficient, is it not?

Kim (as Blaire): [whining] Minx, no. Minx…

Josie (as Minx): Listen. I am fairly understanding of eyeball friend despite some prior experiences, but using multiple of these, that is the very definition of a bad idea.

Kim (as Blaire): Well that’s why we do it in a controlled setting, and first we test it in an isolated position so that way we can theorize about how it’ll interact with each other.

Josie (as Minx): So what you’re saying is you will be doing it far away from The Nest and thus my room?

Kim (as Blaire): I’ll be doing it far away from your room.

[giggling rises into laughter]

Josie (as Minx): I suppose these are questions for later.

Rhi: All right. I think we pull back from the train again and then fade in several hours later as the train pulls into the station at Whitehollow. This city is very different than Duskwall. Duskwall is very, very cramped and crowded, fairly tall buildings. Whitehollow is built along a river that has fractured out into a delta, so there’s a lot of little scattered islands amongst the rivers. It’s very spread out. It’s still surrounded by a lightning barrier, but while it occupies less geographic space than Duskwall it feels more open, and you can see out past where the river flows into the Void Sea there is what, at first glance, looks like just a mountain out in the sea, but it’s actually this massive, massive coral reef that juts up above the sea line. But yeah, the three of you have I think exited the train station with your luggage. How much luggage does Minx have?

Josie: Hmm… Putting an exact number is probably a bad idea, but more than three.

Rhi: More than three suitcases?

Josie: More than three trunks, yes.

Rhi: And then I think Blaire and Myra each have ‘a bag.’

Kim: Yeah.

Minna: Yeah. Myra has the equivalent of a duffle bag.

Rhi: Yeah.

Kim: Yeah, and Blaire just has her backpack that she takes on Deathland trips.

Rhi: Blaire is the world’s most efficient packer. So yeah, the three of you have reached Whitehollow. It’s decidedly warmer; not like ‘hot’ hot, but it’s a lot warmer than Duskwall, very humid. Yeah. I think you have arrived a few hours before sunset, so you’ve got time to get settled into a hotel and then maybe check out the city, see what the night life is like. You find a hotel. Somebody give me the name of this hotel.

Kim: The Four Peasons.

Rhi: [flatly] No.

Kim & Josie: [laughs]

Minna: The Fairgate… I can’t do Arms again.

Rhi: No. The Fairgate Hotel.

Minna: Yes.

Rhi: It’s a family name. they’ve owned this hotel for generations. You all expect to be staying in Whitehollow for a few days, and I think it’s gonna cost 1 coin basically for those few days that you’re there, but in terms of sleeping arrangements there is a bed and then a large couch that one of you can sleep on. It’s near the town square, so you all can see the clock tower that’s one of the tallest structures in the city. It’s this huge, big tower with this really intricately crafted clock on it, lots of silver filigree and just beautifully crafted. The one thing that mars this clock though, and I think from your rooms you have a pretty clear view of it looking out the window, the way that the hours work in the Empire, the first twelve hours of the day are numbered and the next twelve hours of the day are given names based on local custom, every city has a different set of names for those second twelve hours, but if you’re in the military you need a uniform set of names so everyone in the military uses the Imperial City ones.

So, this clock has the Whitehollow names artfully, in this very beautiful silver lettering on the clock, but then next to it in heavy iron that’s bolted on and it looks really ugly and out of place are the Imperial City names for the hours. I think that’s kind of the view that you have as you’re getting settled into your hotel room.

Josie (as Minx): At least it’s a mostly nice view. I imagine since I am the least petite of us I shall be taking the couch. Fortunately, I came prepared.

Josie: She’ll pop open a trunk with a bunch of her bedding from home in it.

Rhi: [laughs]

Kim: Oh my God.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: Ah, there’s some poor porter who works at this hotel who had to  haul all of Minx’s stuff up to the room.

Josie: Yes, it’s a shame, but what am I going to do, not come with my preferred bedding? Now that’s just ridiculous.

Kim: A girl has standards.

Rhi: Yeah. [laughs]

Josie: Precisely!

Rhi: Oh man. So, you are in Whitehollow, you have your hotel room. I think that the auction is indeterminate number of days away that give you enough time to prepare, but you know, probably no more than three days, so one to three days until this auction, as with many things in Blades the exact amount of time will be determined by the narrative.

Kim: Schrödinger’s time.

Rhi: Yeah. So what do you all wanna do? We can start Gather Info, we can kind of just let you all explore the city some? Both at the same time? However you wanna approach it.

Josie: It will be good to both scout escape routes and go shopping.

Rhi: I will tell you that for Gather Information all of the rolls are gonna be at reduced effect because you are in a new place, you do not know people here, you’re away from your normal networks and contacts and everything, so it’s just gonna be harder to get information here.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: Just because you’re in a completely different environment. But yeah, I don’t know if you all wanna go out together, if you’re all gonna scatter. I imagine that each of you has very different interests.

Josie (as Minx): I think we should stay together for the moment, enjoy things.

Minna (as Myra): That sounds like a good idea.

Josie (as Minx): Besides, we have time enough today to hit both the market and somewhere more related to our business.

Rhi: Do you wanna start at the marketplace? That’s also not a bad way to, you know, just sort of pick up general gossip and information.

Minna: It really isn’t.

Josie: Sure.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: All right. I think you get directions from the receptionist at the hotel. They tell you how you can get to the market which in Whitehollow is a floating market. There’s just barges and boats, and there is… I don’t think they’re called the Gondoliers here. What do we think the folks that take you around on boats would be called?

Kim: The Ferriers?

Rhi: Ooh! I like that. yeah. It feels very similar in terms of how they operate.

Kim: Yep.

Josie: Mm-hmm. I imagine that it’s actually slightly bigger boats, because water traffic is even more essential here, so rather than a carriage it’s kind of like a water bus.

Rhi: Yeah, and they probably have early – rather than it all being paddling with oars – if they have some kind of early electric, or in this case electroplasmic motors, and they’re super loud, like it’s almost impossible to have a conversation on these things because these motors are so loud.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Yeah, you’re able to ride on one of these. Even though the motors are really loud it’s still kinda cool because you’re going way faster than you ever would go on a gondola. Yeah, I think there’s designated bus stops for lack of a better description at the market where you can get off, and a lot of the barges and boats and things are connected by walkways. Yeah. The market is just this big, sprawling thing. I think there’s a lot of, similar to the kind of lights that are up in Nightmarket during Doskvorn, those little fairy light type things, those are just all over the place. There’s some bigger colored lanterns and things as well. There’s people standing outside all of the shops hawking their wares, trying to get people to come in and spend their coin.

Josie: Minx is going right for the jewelry. [laughs]

Minna: Oh my goodness.

Rhi: [laughs] Yeah. I think that there is… It’s very large. I think it takes up a whole boat. Minx, you notice a couple things as you hurry aboard. One, this place is just filled with beautifully crafted, primarily jewelry.

Josie: [gasps]

Rhi: But there’s a lot of other very fine silver pieces here. And two, oh my God, there’s so much security. [laughs]

Josie: [laughs] Oh dear.

Rhi: Like, there’s so much. It doesn’t seem to be like the local police force, this is private security. They’re all wearing silver lapel pins with that same symbol on them, and there’s in kind of the first room that you step into – which is like a large room with several glass display cases – there’s probably like ten guards and maybe three actual clerks to help people.

Josie: Uh-huh… Regardless of that fact, I don’t think Minx actually notices, because her eyes get all wide and is like…

Rhi: Oh. [laughs]

Josie (as Minx): So much silver…

Rhi: Steven Universe star eyes.

Josie: Precisely. She’s gonna be on this boat for a while. Whatever Gather Infos happen Minx needs to go last, because she’s distracted.

Rhi: I do have a question for Minx. Did you tell Nyryx that you were leaving town for a bit?

Josie: Yeah, probably.

Rhi: Do you think you’re gonna bring her a present back?

Josie: Oh! Yes, yes, I should do that.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah. So Minx is enraptured by these very—and they are beautifully, beautifully crafted pieces. Myra, what are you up to?

Minna: I think I’m mostly walking around and complimenting venders on their wares and asking them “oh, so what’s going on, I’m new,” and hear anything interesting that’s happening, maybe implying that I have a little money to splash around.

Rhi: Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and give me some kind of roll for that and we’ll count this as a Gather Info.

Minna: Consort?

Rhi: Yeah, sounds like a Consort.

Minna: That’s a 6.

Rhi: Okay. You’re gonna get a standard amount of information. I think particularly if you start off in the same silver shop that Minx is in…

Minna: Yeah.

Rhi: You start to get some information about this auction. Some people have invitations. If you did not get an invitation you can buy your way in, you can buy an invitation basically, if you pay enough money.

Minna: How much money are they thinking that is?

Rhi: Two coin per person, so not cheap, but the way that you’re talking and presenting yourself the people who are giving you this information assume you have that kind of money, of course. Blaire, what do you go poking around at?

Kim: Blaire is going to try and sniff out if there’s anything occult or weird in this marketplace, obviously.

Rhi: Yeah, I’m gonna just let you kind of have this. I think that if you ask around, because Myra did mention this Delvers Guild as the people who found the Hand, and they sold it, and it sounded a little bit like maybe they dealt with some occult stuff. I think that they actually do have basically an antiques shop?

Kim: Yeah!

Rhi: On one of the barges. Maybe not a full shop, but they have a tent?

Kim: Yeah!

Rhi: On a barge, where they will sell… the things that are more like oddities and trinkets that they have found. The really expensive stuff obviously they’re not gonna put out here, but just sort of weird little stuff that they’ve dug up or pulled up.

Kim: Yeah, no, she’s all there for it.

Rhi: Yeah. I think that you’ve been around enough, you know how to ask questions in the right way to get pointed to the sort of things you’re interested in. You find your way to the Delvers Guild little shop. I don’t know that you necessarily at this point know exactly what they do, you just know that they are called the Delvers Guild.

Kim: Right.

Rhi: I think that this tent is fairly large, has lots of shelves that I think are covered in a fine mesh netting to keep stuff from falling if the barge that it’s on shifts any.

Kim: Right.

Rhi: And to, you know, prevent shoplifting. There’s a couple people standing around that look like they work there. Josie, since you came up with the Delvers Guild, what do you think their insignia or uniform or something would be?

Josie: I imagine their general aesthetic is pretty dark and sleek, you know, like stuff that can go under diving suits and the like.

Rhi: Yeah, yeah.

Josie: As for their logo? I kind of imagine like a chalice but a stylized chalice, so it’s just like a V, and then depending on how detailed this particular insignia is it’s just a triangle of blue within.

Rhi: Ooh! Cool.

Josie: Or like waves, right?

Rhi: That’s cool.

Kim: That’s dope.

Rhi: So, I think that they are also wearing those that are wrought in silver and then the blue waves part is painted on the silver. I think there’s maybe one or two other customers in here poking around. There’s a middle-aged person in form-fitting dark clothes, dark skin, kind of short cropped very curly hair, who will give you a little bit of a bow when you come in.

Rhi (as Delver): Welcome, miss. We don’t see many Tycherosi around here. Can I help you?

Kim (as Blaire): Yeah! I’m just looking around. I only know you guys by reputation and kind of name. What is it that you guys do?

Rhi (as Delver): Ah, you just, uh, I assume you’re visiting from elsewhere.

Kim (as Blaire): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Rhi (as Delver): Yes. Well, the Delvers Guild, we have been around for quite some time and we seek out things that are lost, mostly to the waters here in Whitehollow. The river that we are built across was not always like this. During the Cataclysm it fractured and split into this delta that we now live on, and you can see a great many of them here. We just collect oddities and trinkets and antiques and occasionally stranger artifacts will fall into our hands, but for those you have to sort of put in special requests.

Kim (as Blaire): [grinning] What do you mean by stranger?

Rhi: They kind of look you over and glance around a bit.

Rhi (as Delver): Objects of a spiritual bent, one might say.

Kim (as Blaire): Hmm?! Go on. … Sorry, no, I don’t mean to come across as weird, I’m just really into this stuff.

Rhi (as Delver): Certainly. You seem like a bit of an explorer yourself.

Rhi: I assume Blaire is still kind of kitted out.

Kim: Oh yeah. She’s way into this.

Rhi: They kinda size you up.

Rhi (as Delver): Well… follow me.

Rhi: Actually, you know what, before we do that give me a Gather Info roll to see what this person has available.

Kim: Ah. I would guess this… Is this a Consort?

Rhi: Yeah.

Kim: Highest is a 5.

Rhi: Five, okay, so that’s gonna be limited info. I think they nod and kinda gesture for you to follow them up towards the front of the store where there’s sort of a large glass case that serves as also the counter, and in this case there are what you can recognize as stones carved with very simple runes, a number of spirit bane charms or demon bane charms, there’s a couple spirit masks.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: They’re an older style. They look like they might be a century or so old.

Kim: Ohh…

Rhi: Like, it’s cool, but it’s nothing really…

Kim: Earth-shattering?

Rhi: Yeah. There’s nothing here that is at the level of “you found one of the Relics of Kotar and didn’t know what you had and sold it.”

Kim: Damn it.

Rhi: Yeah. They’re cool little trinkets, but ultimately they are just trinkets.

Kim: Hmm.

Rhi: So if you’d like, you know, a souvenir, you could get a cool little spirit mask.

Kim: Honestly, I would. I can keep that on my shelf. A century’s old spirit mask? Hell yeah.

Rhi: Yeah!

Kim: Oh wait. I don’t have money…

Rhi: Yeah, I don’t think Blaire has money. [chuckles]

Kim: Blaire has 0 coin.

Josie: Aww.

Rhi: Oh my God, Blaire. Do you have anything in your stash?

Kim: No. I used it all for downtime actions. Oh wait! Wait! I have 1 coin. Phew.

Rhi: You have 1 coin?

Kim: Just one.

Rhi: Okay. You’re not gonna spend the whole 1 coin on this. You’ve got enough pocket change to buy one of these masks.

Kim: Yay. Fuck yeah.

Rhi: You’re probably gonna have to ask Minx and Myra to pay for your meals.

Kim (as Blaire): Hey, so like, I don’t have any money… like, I don’t have any money.

Josie (as Minx): That’s quite all right, dear. I came prepared.

Rhi: [laughs] Yeah. You’re able to get an old, not necessarily archaic, but you know, an old spirit mask. What do you think it looks like?

Kim: Blaire’s spirit mask she made herself so it’s very personalized. This one is less so personalized, it’s very generic, but it is no less lacking in craftsmanship at all. Whoever it was meant for or if it was meant for the general public it’s still very polished even though it is weathered. I’m imagining something closer to maybe what the mask in Dishonored looks like, so lots of gears and machinery but very functional.

Rhi: Okay, you’re able to get that. I don’t think it’s gonna function as a fine spirit mask.

Kim: No.

Rhi: I think it’s just a regular spirit mask.

Kim: Yep.

Rhi: But it’s a cool thing that you’ve got.

Kim: Something she can keep on the shelf with tens of thousands of her other shit.

Rhi: Yeah. [laughs]

Josie: [laughs]

Kim: Blaire is a hoarder.

Rhi: Okay. The three of you reconvene, probably back at the silver smith’s, the Silver Spinners boat, because Minx has not left. [laughs] Then yeah, I think we see just a few scenes from how you all spend the rest of this evening. This is sort of your free evening before you gotta buckle down and get to work and start planning a crime.

Josie: I think we cut to dinner with the three of them around the table and Minx has scouted ahead and knows what she’s getting into. The other two probably haven’t. You know, these big plates of steaming seafood and crustaceans and stuff arrive which is probably not super common in Duskwall.

Rhi: There is a fair amount of seafood in Duskwall because it’s still a coastal city, but this is mostly freshwater stuff.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: So there’s like, I think that the appetizer is just this huge thing of probably steamed crawdads. [laughs]

Josie: Minx has a fanciful lobster bib.

Rhi: [giggles]

Kim: Of course she does.

Rhi: Oh, that’s very good.

Josie: Yeah, I mean you don’t want to splatter. Come prepared.

Minna: I mean, at the nice dinner we’re definitely clinking glasses and there’s a white drink. [laughs]

Rhi: So you all learn at dinner that the local alcoholic beverage of choice is a cocktail called the White Wyrm. I think the server that talks to you says that, you know, every establishment that serves drinks in this city has their own twist on the basic recipe which is at its core goat’s milk and an alcohol that’s basically vodka, but everybody adds their own thing. And of course the server tells you that, you know, “ours is the best.” So yeah, you all enjoy the local cocktail. Blaire, what’s another thing that we see on this montage?

Kim: I imagine that while the other two are getting ready for bed Blaire is sprawled out over the comforters of the bed kind of doing that, when you’re lying stomach-down on a bed you do that kicking thing with your legs, while she’s just finishing making notes in her journal.

Josie: [laughs] Aww.

Rhi: Uh-huh. Very good.

Josie: Yay.

Rhi: Yeah~

Minna: Can I add a dumb, light detail while they’re getting ready?

Kim: Please.

Rhi: Yes.

Minna: Because I think they all drank a little bit more White Wyrm than they usually would if they were working.

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Minna: I think Myra’s just kind of like, semi-drunkenly, musing about the poets who live here and she’s read some of their work, and just so strange to be in this place that she never thought she would be in.

Rhi: Aww.

Josie: Aww.

Rhi: So, the next day, I think you’re all sort of shifting your attention into preparing for this auction properly. You can all continue to do some info gathering, try to figure out how you’re gonna get in, what your options are, things like that.

Josie: Yeah. I think Minx is in favor of – at least for her – getting a cover identity, going in the quote unquote “legit” way, and trying to figure out what she can while there.

Minna: The thing is, how much money do we have and how much money are we willing to spend? Do we have to keep some money back for the auction?

Rhi: Yeah. To get into the auction, if all three of you wanted to get in legitimately, it would be a total of 6 coin.

Josie: [stammers] Okay.

Minna: Which is all of the money that we probably have, like pooled together.

Josie: Yeah…

Minna: So, I think somebody’s gonna have to go in un-legit-ly.

Rhi: At least one somebody.

Josie: Yeah. Would the two of you disguising yourselves as staff be a thing?

Minna: Oh, we haven’t done that in a while.

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie: Because staff gets in free.

Rhi: That’s true.

Minna: Didn’t, last time we do that, we shot somebody? [laughs]

Josie: I mean, just don’t go in shady back rooms this time.

Minna: I love it. Let’s nobody get captured and put on an altar. [laughs]

Josie: [smiling nervously] Mm-hmm!

Rhi: Yeah. If you wanted to take that approach of trying to find out how the staffing is gonna work for this event you could do that.

Josie: Yeah. I think Minx wants to pay her way in legitimately just to minimize risk there.

Rhi: For that it’s not gonna take a Gather Info roll. You are just able to. If you ask around being like hey I wanna get in on this auction you’re very quickly directed to the estate of this admiral.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: It is naturally on the coast overlooking the harbor. I think it’s up on a cliff. Or no, there wouldn’t really be cliffs, I said this was a pretty flat terrain. I think it’s up on a hill. It might not be a natural hill. [chuckling] It’s probably a manmade hill that this asshole made them build for his house. I think that there’s kind of a tent or some kind of temporary structure outside the fence where you can make your purchase. So yeah, you can very easily spend 2 coin and get a legit invitation.

Josie: Right. I kind of wanna do a setup action to make sure my cover identity is established ahead of time.

Rhi: Yeah, go ahead and roll something for how you’re gonna go about setting up that cover ID.

Josie: I want to establish a military persona.

Rhi: Ohh, okay.

Josie: Not one from here, someone who is possibly on a different front, but basically I wanna make it seem impressive, like the idea being people will question me less because it’s like…

Rhi: You’ve got some kind of rank. But you don’t wanna be so high up that any of the military people here feel like they should know you.

Josie: Right, which now occurs to me that I need to look up what military structure looks like. [laughs]

Minna: I think captain sounds dashing, but that’s just because I’m coming off persuasion rants.

Josie: Yeah.

Rhi: And I feel like captain is also high enough rank that you will garner respect but not so high ranked that a general would necessarily recognize you off the bat. And I mean, really, Minx is just so much about the aesthetic, I feel like she would think about being called captain and just be all about that.

Josie: Yes. I’m very much into it. I got a 5.

Rhi: Okay, so with a 5… maybe you’ll have improved effect when you’re talking to military personnel?

Josie: Yeah, let’s do that.

Rhi: Okay. So Minx has just bought an invitation and has established this cover identity as, you’ll have to come up with what your fake name is, but you are some kind of captain in the Imperial Military.

Josie: Captain Celia Abernathy.

Rhi: Ooh~!

Minna: Beautiful.

Kim: Hot!

Rhi: A powerful name.

[laughter]

Minna: We all immediately die.

Rhi: Yeah. It’s a good name! Myra and/or Blaire, what are you two thinking in terms of how you’re gonna get in?

Minna: Do we wanna try the staff approach? Do we want to try the make friends approach? What do we wanna try and do here?

Kim: See, I would suggest the make friends approach, but Blaire is very hyper-focused when it comes to socializing so I don’t know if that would do well for the team as a whole.

Minna: That’s super fair. We have done the staff thing and I do not mind doing it again.

Rhi: Yeah, so Myra, do you wanna roll some kind of Gather Info check to see?

Minna: Ooh boy, what is that?

Rhi: Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of ways you could go about acquiring uniforms, or get hired. [laughs]

Minna: I was gonna say, we could get hired legitimately.

Rhi: This is the sort of thing where they would be hiring on a lot of temp staff.

Minna: Yeah, exactly.

Rhi: So you could try and do that.

Minna: Yeah! Would that be Consort? Because that’s being honest, -ish.

Rhi: [quavers indecisively]

Minna: I have a fine cover identity.

Josie: I mean, what’s a job interview except lying very well anyway? [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah… I feel like Sway is probably more apt.

Minna: Oh, because it’s a job interview, you’re right.

Rhi: Yeah, and you are not being honest in the least about why you’re trying to get this job.

Minna: Are we still at reduced effect for this?

Rhi: Yes.

Minna: What’s a Devil’s Bargain look like?

Rhi: Yeah, so I’m pulling one that is submitted from a Patreon backer. This is, again, KrysmPhoenix. The bargain is you’ll end up isolated from your crew.

Minna: I get hired for back of house stuff and Blaire gets hired for front of house.

Rhi: Yeah, and Blaire—Yeah. Blaire and Minx will be able to connect very easily but Myra is gonna be elsewhere.

Minna: I’ll do that. I’ll take it.

Rhi: Thank you, KrysmPhoenix.

Minna: That’s a 5.

Rhi: Okay. This is limited. So I think… Huh.

Minna: The isolation is actually that Blaire gets hired for front of house but I don’t.

Rhi: You don’t get hired at all?

Minna: At all.

Rhi: Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking, is that there ends up only being one position.

Minna: Yeah.

Rhi: So Blaire and Minx are able to get in legitimately. Blaire has a job, Minx has an invite, and Myra is gonna have to find another way in.

Minna: I’m able to sneak.

Rhi: Okay. You all have ways in.

Josie: I think as part of Minx’s disguise efforts, at one point in the hotel room she tells Myra to just—

Josie (as Minx): Hold still for a moment, dear.

Josie: –and she like studies Myra for a second, and then does her hair like hers. She’s trying to look more severe.

Minna: [gasps]

[giggling]

Rhi: Yeah, oh that’s very good.

Minna (as Myra): You could have asked, dear.

Josie: [laughs]

Kim (as Blaire): Do you think I need a braid?

Rhi: Your hair is so short.

Kim (as Blaire): Yeah, but you could probably French braid it.

Minna (as Myra): We could slick it.

Kim (as Blaire): No. Ew. Gross. Greasy.

Josie (as Minx): I would love to partake in those experiments, but I think that might be better for after the job.

Kim (as Blaire): Ugh. Yeah, okay. I just… Ugh. I don’t know. Usually uniform server types there’s a dress code or some bullshit.

Minna (as Myra): I think all you need is a comb.

Kim (as Blaire): Yeah? What are those?

Josie (as Minx): Or perhaps a nice hair pin.

Kim (as Blaire): A what?

Rhi: [laughs] There’s a montage of Minx and Myra doing Blaire’s hair.

Kim: Yeah.

Josie (as Minx): Never mind, this can’t wait.

Kim: Blaire doesn’t know what a hair brush is, you guys.

Josie: Oh no!

Rhi: Does she just run her fingers through her hair every day?

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: I could see Minx doing a pair of short French braids on the back of the head.

Minna: Aw, yeah.

Rhi: It’d be pulled back pretty tight, but yeah, it’d be cute. Okay, you’re all doing a light load out, so the engagement roll. I think I’m gonna stick with this being just a 1d roll, because I think you’re… I would take away a die for you being in a completely different city, but I think the fact that you are in a place where you are not recognized as wanted criminals is actually gonna help you out, so it breaks even there and it’s just gonna be one die. Well hot damn, that is a 6.

Josie: Nice!

Rhi: Yeah.

 

 

## Score [0:44:56]

Rhi: So, we start the night of this auction, this big, elaborate estate is all lit up. There is a line of people winding up towards the front doors to where invitations are being collected, and I think we first see Minx as she’s handing over her invitation. Go ahead and describe what Minx’s disguise looks like.

Josie: Well, as we just established, she’s looking a lot more severe than usual. She’s trying to strike a balance between reasonably Spartan but also fanciful enough for her.

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie: So her hair is pulled back pretty tight. Her dress is a black with gold trim military coat with black boots, and it’s fairly sleek and doesn’t have that much ornamentation but it does go past the waist so it can flow dramatically as she walks.

Rhi: Got a little bit of a flair to it?

Josie: Yeah, and it matches her cane which she clicks along in front of her. I think as part of her makeup she has put a scar across one eye…

Rhi: Nice.

Josie: …in just the right position as to be sexy. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah, of course.

Minna: Does it cut her eyebrow in half?

Josie: Yes.

Rhi: Very good. The person at the door collecting the invitation is like:

Rhi (as Ticket Taker): Ah, Captain Abernathy. Welcome. Very glad to have you here.

Rhi: And you’re ushered inside.

Josie: She’ll just kind of nod sternly in response.

Rhi: So you head into the foyer of this estate, and you know, you’ve been in your fair share of grand estates at this point. Usually you’re breaking in. You’re always, if you’re not breaking in you have lied to get in there. This is top five one of the nicest places you’ve been in.

Josie: Does it rank higher or lower than The Centuralia Club?

Rhi: It’s up there, like, you’re having a hard time gauging which was a fancier environment.

Josie: Top five places too rich for you, number three will shock you.

Rhi: [laughs] It’s a big two-story foyer with  huge windows that look out over the sea. The walls have a fair amount of paintings on them that are mostly either portraits of military generals and admirals or they are paintings of sea battles or ships. All of them have these really ornate silver frames, and for the most part it looks like the foyer is huge and it seems people are mostly kind of mingling and socializing out here while the auction itself is gonna be taking place in the ballroom, and nobody’s really been allowed in there yet.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Most people are just sort of standing around and chatting. There are servants milling around with trays of drinks. I think as, Minx, you’re kind of surveying this scene there’s a very familiar voice that offers you some kind of drink.

Josie (as Minx): Yes dear, thank you.

Josie: And then she’ll kind of wink at Blaire.

Kim (as Blaire): You’re welcome.

Kim: Wink.

Rhi: So, the two of you are in. Nobody really suspects you at the moment. Myra, how are you sneaking into this place? Or, more accurately since you’re starting in a controlled position, how did you sneak in?

Minna: [smiling] So, Blaire would have gotten a uniform. I saw the uniform she was dressed up in, acquired something similar, and just kinda walked in like I knew what I was doing.

Rhi: Blended in, like you walked in with a big group of people and just slipped away as names were being checked in?

Minna: But the entrance that was open was like back of house. It was like the kitchen entrance. She went to the kitchen entrance where everyone was gathered for a smoke break or whatever and she went back in with them.

Rhi: Yeah. Yeah. So, you’ve made it in. What you’re wearing was enough to get you through the door, I think, but you’re not gonna pass as a servant on close inspection.

Minna: Yeah, now I’m skulking.

Rhi: Yeah. Where precisely are you skulking?

Minna: I think I’m trying to find my way to where the auction stuff is happening, like where they’re keeping all the lots and things.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah, in that case, give me some kind of roll as you are trying to make your way in that direction.

Minna: I think this is probably a Prowl, honestly.

Rhi: Probably, yeah.

Minna: Five.

Rhi: I think that you’re making your way down a back hallway towards where the ballroom is and you see somebody leave a room with a ledger tucked under their arm, and before that door closes you slip inside, and there’s crates and boxes and things piled up really high in here so you’re not immediately visible to the other people in this room, but there are other people in this room. You are now in a risky position.

Minna: Yeah. Okay.

Rhi: Let’s jump back up to the party. Minx and Blaire, what are you two up to?

Josie: Minx is trying to mingle, at least at first starting amongst people of her military—her supposed military rank, or sort of equivalent.

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie: Okay, so there’s like, looking at a map of Skovlan, there’s three cities on here, and way up near the top there’s one called Blackvale, and I think what she wants to work to establish is like she’s kind of mysterious because the Siege of Blackvale or whatever was kind of far-flung and not a lot of details were known about it.

Rhi: Mm, yeah.

Josie: And then whatever it was trying to accomplish didn’t come to pass because the war ended.

Rhi: Okay.

Josie: Honestly, she’s trying to get people to come to her a little bit rather than seek people out.

Rhi: Okay. Are you trying—So you’re just kind of trying to draw social agro? Are you trying to get any information out of people or are you just sort of trying to pull attention?

Josie: I do want to try and get things out of people. I want to be like, oh, this is someone that an interesting conversation can be had with, and you know, maybe some weirder topics will come up in that conversation.

Rhi: Yeah, and it makes sense. You’re all here for this auction where everyone is like wink-wink, nudge-nudge, we’re all here to buy the weird occult shit.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Yeah. Go ahead and give me some kind of roll. For you, it’s still gonna be controlled.

Josie: [astonished] Wow… 2, 3, 3, 3.

Rhi: Oh my goodness. Wow, okay, so a 3.

Josie: Four dice. Phew, okay.

Rhi: I think what it is, you talk up, you’re like “oh yeah, the Siege of Blackvale,” and someone else is like “oh yeah, I was there too,” and it’s just like… shit. [laughs]

Josie: Ah. [laughs] Yeah, okay, so I had to bail out on that angle a little bit.

Rhi: Yeah, so you’re gonna withdraw that attempt?

Josie: Yeah, I think I need to pull back and rethink.

Rhi: I think you very quickly excuse yourself from that conversation and move away. While you’re regrouping, let’s see what Blaire is up to.

Kim: While Blaire is out and about, working at the party, posing as a server and giving everybody drinks, she’s getting a good sense of the perimeter, taking a look at potential exits should things go, you know, absolutely pear-shaped.

Rhi: Yeah! Go ahead and make a roll for that.

Kim: Ah-ha, that’s a 4 and a 1.

Rhi: Okay, so a 4. Again, this is you hesitate or you can do it with a minor complication.

Kim: I hesitate.

Rhi: I think what it is, every time you start trying to scope things out you get interrupted by somebody who wants a drink or is giving you their empty glass or has a special request from the kitchen, they want this particular thing from the kitchen, people just keep interrupting you, because you’re working a food service job right now and it sucks. [laughs]

Kim: It sucks real bad.

Rhi: Yeah. So you’re not able to quite figure out where good escape routes would be at this point, you’re just kind of staying afloat in your server position.

Kim: [disappointed] Yeah.

Rhi: I don’t know if you wanna reconnect with Minx since both of you have kind of had some difficulties.

Kim (as Blaire): I’m getting no luck, Minx. What about you?

Josie (as Minx): Hmm. Well, my approach didn’t seem the best either.

Kim (as Blaire): Yeah. No shit. People keep wanting stuff from me.

Josie (as Minx): I think it’s gonna be very contingent on the auction itself, this.

Kim (as Blaire): [sighs] Yeah.

Josie (as Minx): Now my plan is to just wait until the auction, and then when it comes up try and cause some sort of war for the item. That can give us a cover.

Kim (as Blaire): Yeah. Well, keep your eyes open. I gotta work on this cocktail for some rich asshole…

Rhi: [giggles]

Josie (as Minx): My sympathies.

[laughter]

Rhi: So, let’s cut back to Myra. I think that you had entered this room and you heard voices towards the back of the room and just instinctively ducked down to hide. What are you doing now?

Minna: Okay. I think what I’m looking for actually is some kind of indication of where the Hand would be.

Rhi: Okay. It’s gonna be risky, reduced effect, because due to the other people in the room you’re limited in how much of the room you can access.

Minna: Yeah, for sure. Five.

Rhi: You do it, but there’s a consequence. You are able to find, you’re sort of digging around, you’re able to find a book, a ledger, that has a list of all the lots that are up for auction. You’re kinda in a corner and you’re flipping through it, running your finger down the list, and there’s nothing in this ledger that seems to match the description of the Hand. I think you go through it once and you’re like okay, let me look again, and you start again from the beginning.

Minna: Maybe he isn’t selling it today.

Rhi: There’s a voice from behind you that says:

Rhi (as Voice): Hey! Who are you?

Rhi: And you are going to be in a desperate position, because you have been caught.

Minna: Ooh, no~!

Josie: Ohh…

Minna: Oh no, what do I do?

Rhi: You have been found. So yeah, what do you do?

Minna: Oh God. What do I do? Oh no.

Rhi: I mean, if you turn around you see a man in the actual servants’ uniform standing there eyeing you very suspiciously, and his friend is—or the, not friend, but his coworker, other servant, is standing a few feet back also looking at you.

Minna: Hmm, so this isn’t a good opportunity for [giggles] basically chloroform, because there’s two of them.

Rhi: Nope, because you have two witnesses. Yeah, there’s two people here.

Minna: And one of them is further away.

Rhi: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Minna: Can–? Okay, okay-okay-okay.

Minna (as Myra): I’m so sorry, I’m just, I’m looking, a little bit lost and I really didn’t want to tell the person in charge that I’m lost. I just figured I’d find out where to go and then I wouldn’t have to bother anybody.

Rhi: Uh…

Josie: That’s pretty real. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah. Make a roll. It’s desperate.

Minna: I’m definitely gonna push myself here, though. Hey! I critted!

Rhi: Holy shit!

Josie: Woo!

Rhi: Okay, you do it with increased effect.

Minna: That was a 5 and two 6s.

Rhi: Nice! Yeah, so I think the both of them, like, you just pull off socially awkward, bumbling guest so well that both of them are just like:

Rhi (as Servant): [sighs] Okay. Look. You’re very lost. You’re… Here, come on.

Rhi: And the first servant who had addressed you gently takes you by the shoulder and steers you back out of the room.

Rhi (as Servant): Okay, where are you trying to get to?

Minna (as Myra): I was trying to find a bathroom.

Rhi (as Servant): Ugh, okay, all right…

Rhi: And he will walk you down the hall to where the bathrooms are.

Rhi (as Servant): Here you go. You can’t go back into that room. That’s where all of the lots are being kept. We’re not supposed to let other people in there. I thought that door was locked. I’m gonna double-check that, but—

Minna (as Myra): Yeah, I don’t know how I got—I just, yeah, once I was in there I kinda knew I wasn’t supposed to be in there, and that was… yeah. Sorry about that.

Rhi (as Servant): Oh, you know, it’s all right. These admirals are far better at sea battles than floor plans if you ask me.

Minna (as Myra): Well, it’s lucky he’s got someone as good as you to back him up.

Rhi (as Servant): Ah, well thank you, miss. But anyway, enjoy the rest of the party, and best of luck at the auction.

Minna (as Myra): Thank you. Have a nice night.

Rhi: [laughing] He will head off having safely escorted you to the bathrooms, not suspicious at all of the woman who was randomly pouring over the ledger.

Josie: [laughs]

Kim: Skyrim guard. “It must have just been my eyes.”

Rhi: [laughs] yeah! Pretty much. Oh God, yeah. You’ve made it out of there. I think you do go into the bathroom and wait there for a few minutes to make it seem like—

Minna: Yeah. I definitely take a few minutes to just cool off and breathe. I can’t believe that worked.

Rhi: I think as you’re coming out you hear people announcing that the auction is about to begin and there’s that kind of murmur of a crowd that is moving from one place to another as everyone files into the ballroom. So yeah, I think Minx and Blaire are both able to get into the ballroom no problem. Minx, where do you position yourself?

Josie: Well, is the guy who supposedly has the Hand here?

Rhi: Yes. Yeah, he is there in his uniform. I think he’s got white hair that’s starting to thin—

Kim: Fuck.

Rhi: –and a big handlebar mustache.

Kim: No~

Minna: [laughs]

Rhi: Oh my God, Kim. Are you fucking kidding me?!

Josie: Really? Really?!

Rhi: He looks like the god damn KFC colonel, Kimberly!

Minna: Right?!

Josie: Yeah! [laughs]

Minna: I was gonna say, this is Colonel Mustard. Different colonel, but still.

Rhi: Yeah! [laughs] I love you, Kim.

Kim: Stop kink shaming me.

Rhi: [cackles]

Josie: Oh my God!

Rhi: I’m leaving that in.

Kim: Nooo!

Minna: [laughs and squeals] That’s the stinger! That’s the stinger!

Rhi: That’s staying in the episode.

Kim: [feigned shouting] Nooo!

Rhi: Anyway. He sort of steps onto the platform that’s been set up and gives a speech about, you know, how glad he is that you all could be here, hopes that you all have enjoyed the party, says that the items here are things that have been acquired over many years of collecting, and he goes into some stories about how he acquired some of these and like… a number of these objects are things that he straight up looted from Skovlan.

Josie: [laughs]

Kim: Fucking gross.

Rhi: Yeah. These are like Skovlan historical artifacts that just got looted during the war.

Josie: Oof.

Rhi: Yeah, it sucks. [laughs] And then there’s also some things that are historical relics from Whitehollow that, you know, he says that he has purchased or things like that, so he’s just auctioning off a bunch of other people’s history so that he can profit.

Kim: Gross!

Josie: Oh dear.

Rhi: As he’s giving this whole speech Blaire is against one of the walls, Minx is sitting in the crowd. Myra, where are you?

Minna: I feel like she’s kind of at the entrance, like hovering and watching, like not really being involved.

Rhi: Okay. Then he finishes his speech and says that he hopes everyone has come prepared to spend a lot to take home these artifacts and relics and things, and then he gets out of the way so that the auctioneer can start doing her work.

Josie: I want to keep an eye on him all night. I want to see his reactions to the various items that come up. If he leaves I want to follow.

Rhi: Okay. So, the auction starts and there’s a number of things that have been, like, you know, there’s… I’ll kick this out to the three of you. what are some of the things you think that come up for auction that are from Skovlan, from Whitehollow, there are some just weird occult things that he’s got.

Josie: Yeah, in that case I’m thinking old weapons or relics with like, you know, Celtic knots on them and stuff.

Minna: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Okay.

Josie: Like weird, old, ornate things.

Rhi: Okay. I think that there is a ceremonial sword that used to belong to a member of the Skovlan royal family.

Minna: Ohh. [groans]

Rhi: Yeah, that is up for auction. Minna, what did you have?

Minna: Yeah, my thought was like – and I don’t know if this is a reference to the entirely wrong geography – but I’m picturing just some kind of jewelry that was buried with a king, a nobleman, somebody.

Rhi: Yeah, I can totally see, particularly I think if you get far enough north in Skovlan and—

Minna: Like from a burial mound.

Rhi: Yeah! Or like far enough north you’re looking at people getting buried in permafrost.

Minna: Oh my God.

Rhi: Which I feel like maybe that’s an alternate way of trapping a spirit.

Josie: Hmm.

Kim: Ooh.

Rhi: Like you bury it deep enough in frozen ground and the spirit can’t escape.

Minna: And I like the idea that there’s some kind of representation higher up that then gets dressed in all of their worldly goods.

Rhi: Yeah! So they dug up the, there’s like a sarcophagus that has their things and then deeper below that is the body.

Minna: And if somehow they manage, if somehow their spirit manages to escape, they’re hoping they’ll be attracted to the things that they liked that they had in life and they’ll stay there instead of leaving.

Rhi: [gasps] yeah! Oh, that’s really cool! That’s very cool.

Josie: Ooh, appeasement.

Rhi: Okay, so it’s some kind of… Maybe it’s a chest plate from a piece of armor going back centuries old.

Minna: Yeah.

Rhi: But I think that there’s an implication in the description that the spirit of this ancient warrior may yet reside in this piece of armor. Kim, what have you got?

Kim: Would this guy have any interest in pillaging anything from the middle class? Any kind of artifact from a laymen.

Rhi: Potentially, if it’s something that seemed valuable.

Kim: Probably a centuries old family heirloom.

Rhi: Yeah, somebody’s heirloom.

Kim: Yep. No idea what family it’s from, but it was old, it was ornate, he wanted it, he took it.

Rhi: Yeah. Do you think it’s Skovlan or Whitehollow?

Kim: You know, I think it’s Whitehollow.

Rhi: What do you think it is, the heirloom?

Kim: Something that… It’s probably some kind of metal slab that has family sigils across generations carved into it.

Minna: Oh, yes~

Rhi: What if it’s like a serving platter or ornate plate or something that they’ve just etched into, like the family history is basically engraved around the edge of this thing.

Kim: Exactly, yeah, and there’s at least five generations worth of symbolism there.

Rhi: Yeah. I think Blaire, when that comes up, you notice one of the other servants, like, her jaw gets real tight and her hands get balled into real tight fists.

Minna: [sobs]

Kim: Yeah…

Josie: Aw.

Rhi: But she doesn’t do anything about it, she just watches. Are any of you gonna do anything during the auction or are you just waiting for the Hand to come up?

Josie: I’m waiting for the Hand to come up.

Kim: Waiting for the Hand.

Rhi: Yeah, so the auction goes, and goes, and they get down to it’s announced that this is the last item, and there hasn’t been a Hand. There’s been nothing that sounds even remotely like it could be the Hand of Kotar.

Josie: Hmm. What’s the last item?

Rhi: The last item is also from Whitehollow. I think it’s a piece of coral that’s been taken from the White Wyrm, or that’s been dipped in—what’s the word, gilded. It’s been gilded in silver.

Josie: Ooh.

Rhi: I think it was that fan coral so it’s very, very delicate. It’s a really cool looking thing, but also like… you broke this off from this thing where maybe coral doesn’t grow anymore because it’s above sea.

Kim: Oh yeah, no, if it’s out of the water it’s definitely dead.

Rhi: Yeah. That’s the last item that’s up for auction is this very cool looking, silver gilded piece of coral. There has not been anything that seems even remotely like it could be the Hand of Kotar in this auction.

Minna: He’s not selling it, or if he is, not publically.

Josie: Minx is going to stand up and leave the ballroom, just like, excuse herself, not like storm out.

Rhi: Yeah. I will say, with you keeping an eye on the admiral, he basically just stood at the back of the room with some of his buddies and was drinking the whole time, just seemed to be having a jolly time ,having a blast, not really paying much attention to the auction.

Josie: Minx is gonna go find Blaire and tell her:

Josie (as Minx): Go find Myra?

Kim (as Blaire): Yeah.

Josie (as Minx): And then meet in back, here.

Josie: And she’ll signal to kind of like the back of the stage.

Rhi: Blaire, I think the nice thing about being a servant is people don’t pay much attention to you, so I think you are very easily able to locate Myra. Go ahead?

Minna: Can I—I think Myra’s actually trying to chat with people in the auction room, like she’s kind of edged in there.

Rhi: Okay. Do you wanna roll? Are you trying to get some information?

Minna: Yes. It’s probably gonna be a Consort. I think what she’s gonna ask is:

Minna (as Myra): So have you heard much about the admiral’s private collection?

Rhi: Okay. Yeah, go ahead and make a roll.

Minna: That’s a 5.

Rhi: I’m trying to think of a good complication here.

Kim: My idea is that whoever it is that hears Myra and answers her is far too engaging and not as accurate as what Myra was hoping to be.

Minna: yes.

Rhi: I like that, yeah. I think that’s more reduced effect. The information that you get is unreliable.

Minna: Yeah.

Rhi: You’ve got somebody who, I think this is somebody who’s former military who… their plan for social climbing is pretending like they are closer to the admiral than they actually are and you’ve made the mistake of being like “so what do you know about the admiral?”

Minna: Well I specifically ask about the admiral’s private collection.

Rhi: Yeah. “Let me tell you about the time when Hubert – he lets me call him Hubert – gave me a tour of the private collection that he has!”

Minna: So he could just be riffing off me and there might not actually be a private collection.

Rhi: He could be, yeah. He gives you a bunch of information, but some of that information is just, a fair amount of that information is just lies, but Myra can’t tell what’s what because you just don’t know the situation well enough to be able to tell. And then Blaire comes over and collects you.

Kim (as Blaire): [sweetly] Miss, your drink.

Minna (as Myra): Thank you!

Rhi: [chuckles]

Minna (as Myra): Could you show me…

Minna: And then she whispers in her ear and it’s really just like, watermelon-watermelon, whatever.

Rhi: The three of you reconvene somewhere removed from the auction which I think is kind of wrapping up. The party is gonna sort of continue a bit after the auction.

Josie: I kind of want to convene where Admiral Stroman will likely go to when he’s leaving the room.

Rhi: Okay. There’s gonna need to be a roll or a flashback or something for you to figure out where he’s gonna be.

Josie: I don’t even know what that would be…

Kim: What’s the stress to do a flashback?

Rhi: It depends on how complicated the flashback is. It can be 0 to 2.

Kim: Okay, because I have the stress to spare. I would not be above doing some homework on this guy to get an idea of what his after-party scene kind of is and how loose or not loose he gets so we can get an idea of what his whereabouts are somewhat like during social settings such as these.

Rhi: Yeah. You could have chatted with some of the servants during training.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: I’m gonna say that’s a 1 stress flashback. Blaire has been able to figure out what his usual late party routine is. I think what it is, retires to a smaller room, not alone, there’s a small group of people with him to just kind of unwind as the party is winding down, socialize with a small group of friends, because I think he spent most of the party sort of politicking.

Josie: Yeah. I mean, if he’s not alone then I don’t really know what to do with this plan. I’m gonna be honest, I have no idea how to proceed from here. [laughs]

Rhi: There are still ways you could probably get him out of the room and get him alone. You do have somebody who looks like a servant with you who could possibly lure him out.

Minna: I like the idea of hey, we need you to come talk to X, he is having a fight with X other person.

Rhi: Yeah, General So-and-so needs to talk to you or whatever.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: Where are Minx and Myra setting—What’s the location where you’re trying to get him to come to?

Josie: I’m thinking it’s… Are there any side rooms downstairs?

Minna: I think the second floor there’s gotta be a study or a drawing room or something that we can corner him in.

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie: Yeah, you know what, the study works, because that’s where someone would go to try and find him, right?

Rhi: Yeah. I think there’s a, you know, he and his friends are in… I don’t know, like—

Josie: A drinking room. A parlor.

Rhi: Yeah, a drawing room… Yeah, something like that. The billiards room.

Minna: [simultaneously] They’re in the billiards room.

Rhi: There we go. [laughs]

Kim: Gross.

Minna: [laughing] We had the same thought at the same moment!

Rhi: I’m literally sitting here thinking about the map on the Clue board. What are my options? Conservatory? No. I think, Minx and Myra, maybe if you wanna do a group action of some kind to sneak up into this study…?

Minna: Group Prowl?

Josie: Yeah, might as well.

Rhi: I think it’s gonna be risky. Or, well, let me think. I actually think it’s gonna be controlled because Minx, with your appearance you look like you belong.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: And people aren’t gonna question if you’re with someone in military uniform, Myra’s gonna get a little bit of a pass, so I’ll put this in controlled position.

Josie: And I will lead this because I’m very good on stress.

Minna: Sure.

Josie: I got a 4.

Minna: I got a 1.

Rhi: Yeah, 1 point of stress, and I think you’re gonna do it with a minor consequence. I think what happens is you’re making your way to the study and a servant is coming down the hall and sees you, and I think sees you going into the study, like you’re half way through the door. It’s the same servant that ran into Myra, it’s the most gullible fool, and he’s just like:

Rhi (as Servant): Oh! Are you meeting with the admiral?

Josie (as Minx): Yes, as a matter of fact. He’s already been sent for.

Rhi (as Servant): Ah, okay. I will, uh, I’ll run downstairs and fetch a bottle of the scotch for you. I’m sure he’ll want that.

Rhi: I’m gonna start a clock. There’s going to be an intruder coming back in relatively short order.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: Now, the intruder is an unarmed servant, but it’s a complication. You don’t need somebody else walking in while you’re threatening this guy.

Minna: Nuh-uh.

Rhi: So, that clock is gonna be Servant Returns, 1 out of 4. Yeah, the two of you get into the study. Where are you posting up?

Josie: I think Minx is gonna post up right across from the door.

Rhi: Mm-hmm. Are you gonna sit at his desk?

Josie: Oh right, this is his study.

Rhi: Yeah, it’s a study.

Josie: Oh… Um.

Rhi: Do you wanna go for that power move?

Josie: Yeah, power move, doing it.

Rhi: Okay. Oh God! You should do the thing where you’ve got the chair, like the back of the chair towards the door and then you can spin around.

Josie: Yes! Yes! Minx is absolutely going to do that.

Rhi: [laughs] What is Myra doing that’s more subtle?

Minna: Leaning with her arms crossed behind where the door would open so that when he comes in she can just, like, flat her arm flat out to the side, close the door behind him.

Josie: Yes.

Rhi: Yes! Okay, so you both have basically positioned yourself to be as extra as possible.

Josie: Uh-huh.

Minna: Of course.

Rhi: And I love it.

Josie: And Minx has a pistol in her lap, so you can’t really see it over the desk, but to a trained person like him he’ll probably know it’s there.

Rhi: Yeah, you got it. Okay, so the two of you are all set up, and we will cut over to Blaire as she’s knocking on the door. Well, I think it’s that knock-knock, open the door to the billiards room.

Kim: Right.

Rhi: Unlike actual gatherings of people to smoke cigars in Victorian era this is a mix of genders, all sorts of folks are represented here. There’s a visible haze in the air and not all of it is from cigars. Some people are hitting some harder stuff. But yeah, people are drinking and talking and smoking. A couple people are playing billiards. A few of them just sort of glance up when you slip into the room, but you know, a servant is to be expected. You’re not, nobody is immediately suspicious of you.

Kim (as Blaire): Excuse me, Admiral Stroman.

Rhi: I think he’s in mid-conversation with some of his friends and sort of looks up and glares.

Rhi (as Stroman): [flatly] What?

Kim (as Blaire): General Halifax was just outside. He has some business with you he’d like to attend to. In your study, sir.

Rhi (as Stroman): Ah. [grunts] Fine, God, what a prick.

Rhi: He takes another drink.

Rhi (as Stroman): I’ll be back.

Rhi: And a couple of the other people around him are like yeah, yeah, and grumbling about this Halifax person as well. So yeah, he will stride out of the room. As soon as he’s out of the room you may as well not exist, Blaire, he’s not paying you any attention. He will stride into the study and throw the door open.

Rhi (as Stroman): All right, Halifax, what is this about–?

Rhi: Realizes there’s nobody else here as far as he can tell.

Minna: Myra shuts the door. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah. I think Blaire is able to slip in just before the door shuts.

Kim: Oh yes. Oh yes.

Rhi: Yeah. So, door slams.

Josie: Minx slowly swivels the chair around with the most condescending look on her face.

Kim: Team Rocket style.

Josie: Yes, precisely.

Josie (as Minx): Admiral Stroman, I respect your time, I’ll skip right to the point. Where is the Hand?

Rhi: He is standing there with his hand on his pistol as soon as he sees what’s going on. Give me a roll. This is somebody who is more experienced than you as an individual, but you do have him outnumbered, so I’m gonna say it’s risky.

Kim: Would you like an assist, Josie?

Josie: Yes please. Yeah, and I’m gonna go for Sway on this one.

Rhi: Okay.

Josie: Can I push myself also?

Rhi: Uh-huh. You just wanna max this out?

Josie: Yeah! Yeah, 6d6, doing it… Whoa! I still got a 5, but there are four 1s in there. I want the listeners to know that.

Rhi: Blaire—Tell me how Blaire assists here. What does that look like?

Kim: I’m imagining that on the inside of the door to the study there is that lock-unlock switch on the doorknob, and as Blaire closes the door behind the admiral she very audibly clicks it to a locked position.

Minna: [quietly] Yes!

Rhi: Okay, yeah. So Myra had pushed it shut, and then Blaire just ‘click.’ He can tell that Minx has got, Minx is armed, he can tell that.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: So, my initial thought was that he’s gonna aim his gun at either Blaire or Myra, but I think he can tell that that’s not the smart play here, so I think I’m gonna go with reduced effect. He’s not gonna give you all the information you want right now. He just sort of glances between the three of you.

Rhi (as Stroman): The Hand? That’s what you’re after?

Josie (as Minx): Yes.

Rhi (as Stroman): Well, I’m afraid that you are too late. It has already been sold to another buyer.

Josie (as Minx): We can pay better.

Rhi (as Stroman): [laughs] I sincerely doubt that.

Minna (as Myra): Is your life worth more than whatever they paid you?

Rhi: Make a roll.

Josie: Yeah.

Minna: [giggles] I think that’s a Command, unfortunately. Well, Command isn’t bad. I am gonna push myself.

Rhi: Yeah, okay.

Josie: Can I assist you?

Minna: Sure. Because you have—You raise your gun!

Josie: Oh yeah.

Minna: That’s a 6!

Rhi: Okay. I think he, again, kind of surveys the situation, has a gun pointed at him, he has not yet drawn his weapon, he just has his hand on the grip of the pistol. Does the math, and is just like:

Rhi (as Stroman): I very sincerely doubt that any of you have more money than a member of Duskwall’s ruling council. The Penderyns have very deep pockets.

Minna (as Myra): Ah, but we have your life in our hands.

Josie: Hold on. Which is Lady Penderyn again?

Rhi: Lady Penderyn, her husband is on the ruling council of Duskwall. She is a member of the Circle of Flame and apparently paid a ton of money to get her hands on it. So yeah, I think when Myra sais “so we have your life in our hands,” was that your line?

Minna: Yeah.

Rhi (as Stroman): You could shoot me if you wanted, but it would not get you the Hand. That’s on its way back to Duskwall. And if you kill me there will be a manhunt across the Empire for the likes of you.

Josie (as Minx): When does the Hand leave, and by what means?

Rhi (as Stroman): [sighs] The early train, tomorrow morning.

Josie (as Minx): I see. Well, thank you for your time, admiral.

Josie: I think I wanna close this out by trance powdering him in the face.

Rhi: [laughs] Or, would Myra just chloroform him since she’s right there?

Josie: Oh yeah, do that.

Minna: Sure.

Rhi: Because I’m imagining there’s a fair amount of distance between Minx and this guy if she’s at the chair and he’s right by the door. I’ll give you that for free. I think that he’s so distracted by this conversation that Myra’s just, “thank you for your time,” (whoosh impact noise).

Josie: [laughs]

Minna: I’m so sad that we have to do a heist in the morning, because if we did not I would be leaving a Magpies pin on that desk, but we can’t because we’d be warning them that we’re after them.

Josie: Mm-hmm, but on the plus side we just get to walk out of here.

Minna: Oh yeah, for sure.

Kim: Which is so rare.

Josie: With no real consequence.

Kim: We never get to do that.

Rhi: Yeah. I think as you’re leaving you walk past that servant who has the bottle of scotch.

Rhi (as Servant): Oh! Oh no. Is your meeting already over?

Josie (as Minx): Yes, and I believe the admiral has already had too much to drink tonight. Sorry to waste your time.

Rhi (as Servant): Oh, that’s all right. Have a good night.

Rhi: And heads off. [laughs]

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: And yeah, the three of you just leave and walk back to your hotel?

Josie: Yep.

 

 

## Downtime [1:22:56]

Rhi: So, for downtime, it’s gonna be very limited here. There’s not gonna be any payoff in terms of rep or coin, because y’all didn’t take anything, again. You’re not really gonna take any heat because this is in a different, like, you’re leaving town in the morning, it doesn’t really matter too much.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: And as far as downtime activities, you each get one. Your options are [laughs] acquire an asset or you can indulge your vice. No matter how you go about indulging your vice you’re gonna roll 2d6 and take the lower result, because basically you are not able to get access to your normal vice purveyors, you just kinda have to take what you can get, so it’s not as effective.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: So, let’s start with Myra.

Minna: I am indulging my vice. I’ve already rolled it. It is a 2. I’m going into next session with 5 out of 9 marked.

Rhi: Blaire, what do you wanna do for your downtime action?

Kim: I would like to lower my stress. I rolled double 5s, and let me see… That actually puts me back to 0 stress, so that works out.

Rhi: What do you do to indulge your vice?

Kim: I’m guessing that there are maybe one or two patrons from this auction who are at the same bar that Myra’s getting drunk at and Blaire’s tagging along and she’s just eavesdropping and occasionally saying one or two things about her hyper-fixation and having a great time.

Rhi: Yeah. They either seem to not notice or not care that you are a servant or a total stranger and they will happily chat with you about weird, spooky bullshit.

Kim: Yay.

Rhi: Minx?

Josie: Hi!

Rhi: Hi.

Josie: I think my downtime is to acquire an asset.

Rhi: Yeah?

Josie: And I think that asset will be a train crew uniform.

Minna: Ooh.

Rhi: Okay, nice. Let me see… Yeah, just go ahead and roll 2d6.

Josie: Okie-dokie, 5.

Rhi: Okay. That is gonna get you… your result is a 2, it’s the equivalent of your tier, and that was what I was thinking for the minimum quality level, would be a tier 2 asset. I think you just sneak over to the train station and break into the lockers of some of the staff.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: You lift a very nice, freshly ironed, I think dark green and silver is the train staff uniforms. It’s got the little hat. So yeah, you’ve got a nice, well-fitting uniform for the train. So, the end of this I imagine very frantic evening, you leave this party, there’s some running around town, you’ve all I guess reconvened in your hotel room. Myra is wine drunk, I believe?

Minna: [laughs] Yes.

Josie: Minx also has a glass of wine and she’s kind of flopped luxuriously on the couch because she’s ready to go to bed, but she also has a glass of wine and is listening to drunk Myra.

Minna: I think Myra’s flat on her back on the bed with her eyes on the ceiling.

Josie: [laughing] Aww.

Minna: [giggling] Where’s Blaire?

Kim: Uh… on the bed.

Minna: So she’s lying on the bed and she’s like:

Minna (as Myra): And they’re all here, these… they just, have you ever read any of the Whitehollow school? The poetry?

Kim (as Blaire): No.

Josie (as Minx): I haven’t.

Minna (as Myra): Written since the war?

Kim (as Blaire): I saw it when I was in Charterhall. I saw it on the library shelves, but I never picked it up.

Minna (as Myra): They put it in the library? Whoa. That librarian’s got some gumption, yeah. Point is…

Minna: [laughs]

Minna (as Myra): The Whitehollow school, they just, some of the people who came back after the war who weren’t the same saw things that they didn’t wanna see, maybe. Some of them stayed here, they didn’t go home, and they’re just writing all of this beautiful, horrific, courageous stuff, things that are talking about how bad it was there, how bad it was for them, how bad it was, like, how bad the lie was that took them out there, and it’s just… I mean, I’m gonna have to show you some. I’ll have to show you Kelkashia by Night when we get back, and some of the Catherine Torquill stuff. I wish I had some of it with me, but I just didn’t even think about it. It’s okay. If you care about poetry I’ll show you when we’re back. It’s just very… And they’re out there somewhere, doing this right now, not too far from us, and that’s just so much to think about right now.

Rhi: So, the three of you are gonna get as much sleep as you can before you have to be at the train station at sunrise to get the first train out of Whitehollow to try to steal the Hand of Kotar before you all make it back to Duskwall and it is passed over to the Circle of Flame.

Josie: Yup.

Kim: I believe in us.

 

 

## Outro [1:28:42]

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 [1:29:52]

Kim: And there was only one bed…

Rhi: There is only one bed, but there is also a couch.

Kim: [giggles]

Josie: Once again.

Minna: Mm-hmm!

Rhi: I don’t think you can afford—

Minna: But there’s still one bed for two people.

Kim: Slow burn, 480K words.

[laughter]

Minna: Who about?!

Kim: Any of them you want, baby.

Rhi: [laughs]

Minna: [squirms]

Rhi: I mean, it wouldn’t be Myra.

[laughter]

Minna: Very true, it would not be Myra.

Rhi: Unless it’s—yeah, and it can’t be a slow burn friendship, because y’all are already very clearly friends.

Josie: Yeah, a fucking—

Kim: But there was only one bed!

[giggling]

Josie: A fucking Blaire-Minx slow burn would be weird.

Rhi: It would, yeah.

Minna: Listen, maybe we’re all in the sister zone.

Rhi: Yeah, yeah.

Josie: Yeah, but yeah, honestly that’s why.