Transcribed by Tyler (Twitter: @Tyler_MoonSage)
## Intro
Rhi: Welcome back to Duskwall, and welcome to the final episode of 2020, the year that lasted approximately seven and a half centuries.
This year has been awful. I’m not gonna try to sugarcoat it or look for a silver lining. It may have had some bright moments, but on the whole it’s been pretty much just terrible.
One thing that’s made this year more bearable, though, is doing the show for all of you. Having this creative project helped give us all something to focus on, but more than that, hearing from our audience about how much the show has meant to them made it mean so much more. Your support throughout this difficult, strange year has been truly wonderful, and we are so grateful for each and every one of you.
Our Featured Charity fundraiser is still ongoing. As of this recording we’re more than halfway to our goal of $1,000 raised for the Black Voters Matter Fund which is doing critical work throughout the United States to ensure that Black voters are able to vote safely and freely.
Once we hit our goal we’ll release a bonus episode of Descent into Midnight with a Blades in the Dark twist. The game was GMed by Richard Kreutz-Landry, one of the creators of Descent into Midnight, and it features myself, Minna and Josie as members of the Whitehollow Delvers Guild on an undersea treasure hunt.
Take care of yourselves and each other as the year winds down. It’s been a long, hard, scary year and we lost so much, but we’re still here. We are still fighting and building and creating… and we’ll keep it up into 2021.
Now then, let’s get started. Shall we?
## Story Continues [0:02:03]
Rhi: I think we pan down, like from Myra, down-down-down into the catacombs an sewers where we see Blaire and Seeks happily stomping along, alongside the canals, carrying all kinds of gear and giant leech.
You’re following these underground passages, and there is a tunnel that looks like it goes directly into some catacombs underneath the Sanctorium. You peek around the corner to look down this tunnel and you can see that there is a heavy gate that has two guards posted outside of it blocking your progress forward.
Waffles: Unless Blaire would like to take the lead, I do have a blowgun and darts and syringes. [laughs]
Kim: By all means, please lead the way. Blaire is very squishy.
Waffles (as Seeks): I guess we should attract them over here with spooky ghost noises and then take them out with drugs.
Kim (as Blaire): Yeah, that works for me.
Rhi: Yeah, I think luring them over with ghost noises will be one roll, kind of a setup action.
Waffles: All right.
Rhi: If one of you wants to do that. Then you can take them out with drugs if/when they come over. So yeah, what do you wanna roll to do spooky ghost noises?
Waffles: We could roll Attune.
Rhi: Attune would probably actually just be getting a ghost.
Waffles: Listen, they would be the best at making a spooky ghost noise.
Rhi: You’re not wrong. Go for it. [laughs]
Waffles: [laughs] I have 2 in Attune. Kim, what do you got?
Kim: Oh, 3.
Waffles: Did we wanna do a group action?
Kim: Yeah, that works for me. I can lead it.
Waffles: Okay.
Rhi: Yeah, so both of you roll Attune, it’s risky… well, it’ll be greater effect, because Blaire has that fine spirit mask.
Kim: It’s a 4.
Waffles: It’s a 6.
Rhi: Okay. So result is a 6, and you don’t take any stress.
Kim: Yay.
Rhi: You both just link hands and look into the ghost field. There’s actually not a ton of ghosts in this area, looking around. These catacombs are weirdly mostly empty of ghosts. You do spot one ghost kind of hovering around cautiously. You also notice that the two guards do not have any kind of signature in the ghost field. They aren’t showing up at all. So, you’re able to get the ghost to come over.
Waffles (as Seeks): Hey buddy, you wanna steal a body?
Kim (as Blaire): That’s not ours?
Rhi (as ghost): Um… I don’t know.
Waffles (as Seeks): Just kinda be spooky and wave your arms and then get them to follow you and we’ll ambush them.
Rhi (as ghost): Uh… okay. I’ll see what I can do. I… I only died about a week ago, so I’m still sort of figuring out how this works.
Kim (as Blaire): Oh… Oh, I’m sorry. What’s your name?
Rhi (as ghost): Um… started with a J. I’m gonna go haunt these two for you now. Bye.
Kim (as Blaire): Okay… bye.
Waffles (as Seeks): Okay bye.
Rhi: Drifts off, and you hear… There’s a bit of silence and you hear:
Rhi (as ghost): [unenthusiastic stereotypical ghost sound] Ooooh~
Waffles (as Seeks): [quietly] He is very good at this.
Rhi (as ghost): [ghostly moaning gets louder and sillier]
[laughter]
Rhi (as ghost): … Just fucking follow me, all right? Come on!
Rhi: [laughs] And then you feel a cold breeze and you hear (thud, thud, thud). The two hollows come plodding after this apparent threat. So yeah.
Waffles: I yell sneak attack and I turn the corner and shoot a dart right into their face.
[laughter]
Rhi: Okay. Are you trying to hit one of them or both of them?
Waffles: I will go for both in quick succession, and the danger that inherently entails.
Rhi: Okay. Yeah, that’s going to be risky, reduced effect basically.
Waffles: All right.
Rhi: Since you are trying to hit two.
Waffles: And I will push myself. I’m going to argue for Prowl as this is an ambush with close violence.
Rhi: Yes. Mm-hmm.
Waffles: And we’re at risky-limited was it?
Rhi: Yes.
Waffles: And then our setup does what for this?
Rhi: Oh, that’s right, you did a setup action, so that actually might take care of one of these. You can either have increased effect, so you could push it up to standard effect, or improved position to have a controlled position rather than risky.
Waffles: I will push it up to standard effect.
Rhi: Okay.
Waffles: Then I will ask you about Devil’s Bargains and what they look like.
Rhi: Boy-oh-boy, yes. Gosh… This is gonna make a fair amount of noise, and I’m gonna start a clock for alerting guards further into these tunnels.
Waffles: How big is this clock?
Rhi: You’re in a risky position right now… We’ll make it a 5-tick clock.
Waffles: Okay, I’m in.
Rhi: All right.
Waffles: Six.
Rhi: [flatly, to herself] They have to start rolling consequences eventually. It has to happen.
Minna: [laughs]
Waffles: Six, 5, and a 2.
Rhi: Eventually I’ll get to give them consequences.
Waffles: Thunk-thunk!
Rhi: Yeah. Yeah.
Waffles: All right, and I will mark my blowgun and a bandolier and one of my alchemies.
Rhi: All right. The clock is 1 out of 5, Guards Alerted, because I think that these two fall heavily and one of them stumbles and splashes down into the water, so it’s not super quiet. Then that ghost drifts back over and is peering over your shoulder.
Rhi (as ghost): What did you say about a body?
Waffles (as Seeks): Oh yeah.
Waffles: I drag one of the bodies onto shore and I take off its shirt, because I assume they have some manner of ritual that makes them… There’s a hollowing ritual I assume.
Rhi: Yes, yes, yes.
Waffles: I have a thing called Ghost Ward, and I can Wreck with arcane substances and methods to make a thing anathema or enticing to spirits, my choice, and I’m going to Wreck this body in order to make it habitable for ghosts.
Rhi: Okay!
Waffles: I rolled a 5.
Rhi: So you do it but there’s a consequence. I’m just gonna tick that clock up again, 2 out of 5. Yeah, now this body… I’m imagining you just painted some sigils on it.
Waffles: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: But now it looks like a nice inviting home for a ghost, and this ghost is like dang, thank you for this gift, and just hops in. The now possessed hollow stands up a little unevenly, turns, walks straight into a wall, turns back.
Waffles (as Seeks): Oh, oh! Careful. You will be very disoriented. You have not had feet in quite a while.
Rhi (as ghost): I only died a week ago. How did I forget how to use feet?
Waffles (as Seeks): Well, these aren’t your feet. You spent all your life getting used to incremental changes in a single pair of feet, but these are brand new feet.
Rhi (as ghost): Oh…
Rhi: [laughs] I think they kinda slide down to sit against the wall and are now just staring transfixed at their hands.
Waffles: I pull out a sandwich, and I hand them a sandwich.
Josie: [laughs]
Kim: Blaire gives them some ectoplasm as well.
Rhi: Just in case, get all your bases covered.
Kim: Yep.
Waffles (as Seeks): Now you take your time and move when you are ready to move.
Kim (as Blaire): Do you want some water?
Rhi (as ghost): Uh… I think I’m okay. Thank you, though, for the sandwich, and the electroplasm, and the body.
Waffles (as Seeks): No worries.
Rhi: Munches absently on the sandwich.
Waffles: I pat them on the head.
[laughter]
Josie: A little juice box of ectoplasm.
Rhi: Yeah, basically.
Kim: Probably.
Rhi: Blaire out here with Capri Sun pouches full of electroplasm.
Kim: [laughs] That actually sounds kind of good.
Rhi: I think that you can unlock this gate and move into the catacombs under the Sanctorium. Back up in the Sanctorium proper—Minx, you’re getting the impression that whatever ceremony is happening tonight is going to be starting soon. People seem to be moving into position, lining up, and you recognize that a few of them are carrying what you recognize as ghost jars.
Josie: Ah…
Rhi: There’s like four people with ghost jars.
Josie: I see…
Rhi: Mm-hmm.
Josie: I think… I mean, do they seem to be expecting something of me?
Rhi: Kind of. Everybody else is kind of lining up for what seems to be some sort of processional, like you’re gonna be parading into the main cathedral area.
Josie: I see. I think I want to slip through a side door or something, like I need to go prepare something.
Rhi: Okay. Yeah, give me a roll to do that successfully.
Josie: Five.
Rhi: Five, okay. I think this would have been risky-standard. What did you roll? I assume Sway.
Josie: Ah, I went for Prowl.
Rhi: That makes sense. Okay. You’re just trying to do a sneak. So you do it but there’s a consequence. Where would you like to end up? What would be… Where are you trying to get to?
Josie: I want to end up near the alter.
Rhi: Okay.
Josie: If there’s a big main alter, I wanna end up near there.
Rhi: Yeah. I think that there… I don’t think it’s an “alter” necessarily, but there is sort of a central ceremonial type space. Yeah, I think you can navigate through some of the back hallways until you get to a side door that if you crack it open you can tell that it will lead right out to behind this central space.
What’s out there right now, when you peek out there you can see that there’s some kind of machinery setup it almost looks like. That ozone tang of electricity and electroplasm is in the air again. You hear electric popping sounds, and you can see there are some Spirit Wardens out there that are standing, like, you see the blue and brass coats that they wear and the masks.
Josie: Oh, that’s bad. That’s a bad thing to have out there. [laughs] Shoot.
Rhi: That’s basically the consequence is that there are Spirit Wardens on site too.
Minna: Cool-cool-cool.
Josie: Can I have flashed back to before me and Myra split up?
Rhi: Sure.
Josie: Basically just saying if you’re able to start some sort of commotion I’ll whisk the guy off to the side from my position and then lead them right into the other two.
Rhi: Yeah. They’re not out there yet. Elder Rowan is not out in the… The ceremony hasn’t started, basically.
Josie: Right, but once he is.
Rhi: Okay. Got it. Yeah, so you’re in a pretty good position to do that once this starts, but there’s also Spirit Wardens about.
Myra. So it sounds like Myra and Minx, your plan is to just kinda hang out and wait. Also, that would have been a 0 stress flashback, Minx. That’s a very easy thing for you to have done.
Josie: Okay.
Rhi: Sounds like your plan is to wait until the ceremony starts and then…
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: …have things happen.
Minna: Yep.
Rhi: So, the two of you are kind of waiting for this to begin, and… yeah, we’ll jump back down to the catacombs then.
Blaire and Seeks, you are making your way through these catacombs, and basically as soon as you got through that gate you can tell that you’re not just in “the catacombs of Duskwall” anymore. This is part of the church. These catacombs are much better maintained, they’re much cleaner, they’re much better lit. There are signs on some of the doors leading into little alcoves and side rooms. I think that you’re gonna, like… there are people down here. There are guards. There are members of the clergy. So, in order to sneak through this area I’m going to need a roll of some kind.
Waffles: I could lead a Prowl roll.
Kim: Yeah, that sounds good.
Rhi: All right. This is gonna be risky, I think reduced effect, because it is brightly lit and being pretty well-patrolled.
Waffles: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: So yeah, risky-reduced.
Kim: I got a 4.
Waffles: Do I need to bargain with devils to get us up to standard so we can not make it five feet? [laughs]
Rhi: Up to you.
Waffles: What does a Devil’s Bargain look like?
Rhi: I want it to be something with Chungus.
[giggling]
Kim: Oh no…
Rhi: I think… Chungus is very hungry, and is no longer asleep, and the sound of pincers or teeth scraping against glass over and over and over is going to draw further attention from the guards, so I’m going to tick that clock up another one.
Waffles (as Seeks): Shh, Chungus shh. Shh.
Kim: It’s so cute.
Waffles: Six, 4, and 4.
Rhi: Okay, and Kim, what did you get?
Kim: A 4.
Rhi: Four? Okay. So again, result is a 6, nobody takes stress, clock is 3 out of 5 for guards being alerted.
Waffles (as Chungus): [gnawing sounds]
Rhi: Just really working at that glass.
Waffles: It’s doing the Ghibli bristle
Rhi: [laughs]
Josie: [laughs]
Waffles: So hangry. “Why have you done this, mother? I’m so hungry.”
Rhi: [laughs] You make it through most of the catacombs. You can kind of see where there are some stairs leading up ahead of you. As you’re going though, it’s unnerving down here because you hear these pained moans and distant ghostly wails. Blaire, you do pass by a room and you kinda do a double-take at the sign that’s on the little door outside, because you recognize, it’s not… the writing isn’t in Imperial, they are runes that you really don’t see very often, because it’s not often that the speech of demons is written down.
Kim: Right.
Josie: [uneasy mumble]
Rhi: But this room is labeled in the demonic tongue.
Kim: Hmm… interesting. Considering recent events, I have to wonder if that’s something that Blaire would be tempted by anymore or if she would steer away from it.
Rhi: Yeah, it’s up to you.
Kim: I think I know what it is. I think she sees that and is so taken aback by it that she needs to investigate it to make sure that it’s not saying, or involving I should say, rather, anything that has to do with Setarra.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: It’s almost like a morbid curiosity thing.
Rhi: Yeah. If you wanna check it out, go ahead and give me some kind of roll to figure this out. Study would probably be the best one here.
Kim: Yeah. Let me do a Study. Okay, that’s a 5.
Rhi: You stop and squint at this, and it’s hard to do exact translations, but none of it seems to hint at Setarra specifically. There’s nothing about sea demons. There’s nothing even about water. There are sigils that speak of blood and transformation.
Kim: Hmm.
Rhi: But nothing that’s directly related to Setarra.
Kim: Interesting.
Rhi: Seeks, you notice that Blaire has stopped and is staring very intently at one of the little signs.
Waffles: I peek around the corner and make sure no one’s coming, and then I walk back to the sign.
Waffles (as Seeks): What is it?
Kim (as Blaire): Uh… it’s demon speak, written down. I wasn’t expecting it here. I was just making sure it didn’t have anything to do with, you know…
Waffles (as Seeks): Do we need to go inside?
Kim (as Blaire): I don’t think so, no.
Waffles (as Seeks): Did you want to go inside?
Waffles: I say, pulling out a knife. [laughs]
Rhi: [laughs]
Kim (as Blaire): No, let’s get out of here.
Waffles (as Seeks): Okay.
Rhi: Okay. Give me I think one more roll to make it safely to the stairs. It’s gonna again be risky-reduced.
Kim: I got a 6.
Waffles: Nice, because I got 3s.
Rhi: All right. So Seeks is gonna take a point of stress, but you do make it to the stairs that lead up into the Sanctorium. Oh, that was reduced. Yeah, so you make it just to the bottom of the stairs I think at this point.
Meanwhile, up in the Sanctorium proper, from somewhere in the cathedral music begins to play. It’s very energetic, like the kind of music people would dance to, and as it begins to play a lot of people leap from wherever they’re sitting or lounging and just grab whoever is nearest and they begin this very energetic, almost frenzied sort of dancing. And then—
Josie: Swing your partner round and round. [laughs]
Rhi: [chuckles] Yes, the ancient ritual of square dancing. Minx is at a side door off of the main cathedral area. The main doors from the back that lead in here fling open and the clergy members that you had been with earlier come in, a lot of them are also dancing, carrying these spirit jars.
Myra, from where you’ve been sitting out here, you saw four Spirit Wardens come in carrying large boxes that they unpack and they set up this device that you can tell is a mix of spark-craft and occult things. There’s a lot of electricity crackling on it and also a lot of runes and wards and things.
Then at the end of this procession is Elder Rowan who comes out carrying basically a large vat of glowing green-blue electroplasm that they pour into tubes and pipes that lead into this large tub in this machinery. They start reciting an incantation that I’m not gonna try to make up, but basically, Myra and Minx, you very quickly realize that what they are… what this ceremony is about is celebrating the triumph of the flesh over the spirits by ritually destroying these ghosts that they have in ghost jars. This is basically a Spirit Warden portable crematorium, as it were, that will completely destroy these ghosts.
Josie: You know, that’s something I’m surprised that modern capitalism hasn’t invented.
Rhi: [laughs] So, your target is out here.
Minna: You tasked me with creating a distraction. I still haven’t come up with a distraction.
Josie: If you have a way of, in the commotion, setting the ghosts loose.
Minna: Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking.
Josie: Because I think you’re better at Attune than me.
Rhi: [laughs] Yes.
Minna: Is there any way I could use magic to break a ghost jar from a distance?
Rhi: Huh, um…
Minna: Like maybe I could undo the seals? If there’s magic seals on them.
Rhi: Let me look at the specific description of ghost jars. Give me just a second. Yeah, I think that there are some, like… there are runes on the lid of a spirit jar that you might be able to interact with. It’s not something that Myra’s ever done before, so you’re gonna be just kinda winging it.
Minna: It’s worth a try.
Rhi: So, this is gonna be… it’s gonna be desperate, reduced effect.
Minna: Oh damn.
Rhi: You could potentially adjust one of those. You could increase your effect if you get closer.
Minna: I’m gonna try and get closer.
Rhi: Okay.
Minna: Like maybe pretend I’m looking for somebody in this crowd.
Rhi: Yeah. The crowd has the feel of like a rave at this point.
Josie: Unce, unce, unce, unce.
Minna: Oh yeah, so I’m moving through this crowd.
Rhi: Yeah. You’re gonna get closer. It’s still gonna be desperate, so mark experience, but standard effect.
Minna: I am going to take 2 stress for an extra die.
Rhi: Okay.
Minna: Oh no, it’s a 3.
Rhi: FINALLY!
[laughter]
Rhi: Y’all have been rolling nothing but 6s all night! Yeah, let me just figure out what horrible fate befalls you here. [hums while thinking]
Minna: So I think she gets close, wanders closer through this rave, and you see her fingers move by her side as she tries to manipulate these runes from a distance.
Rhi: You start trying to do this, and unfortunately, when people are usually attuning or looking into the ghost field, we have determined in the past that this often makes their eyes glow kind of a greenish-blue, so your eyes start glowing.
Minna: Ah.
Rhi: And one of the Spirit Wardens notices this and turns and points at you and bellows in a voice that echoes off of this flawlessly acoustically-designed chamber.
Rhi (as Spirit Warden): Heretic!
Minna: [laughs]
Rhi: Everybody’s looking at you.
Minna: Uh-huh.
Rhi: The music skitters to a stop. Everyone turns and looks to Myra. So good job, you’ve created a distraction.
Minna: The distraction is me. [giggles]
Rhi: The distraction is you. Minx, from your spot peeking through the door, you witness this happen. Everybody is now staring at Myra who has just been accused of heresy in front of the gathered faithful.
Minna: No big deal.
Rhi: What would you like to do?
Josie: Can I, uh… How reasonable is it for me to get to the elder?
Rhi: Getting to? Pretty easy. They’re not very far away. It’s maybe 30-40 feet, but everybody’s roughly looking their direction, because they’re at the front and Myra’s also at the front, so you’d be potentially noticeable. Myra is drawing more attention right now, but…
Josie: Well, you know what, if I think I confuse the situation and draw attention away from Myra that’s fine.
Rhi: All right.
Josie: I don’t think I’m gonna rush it, actually. I think I’m gonna, in the pause, just sort of like I’m being awkward, peek out from my doorway and walk out a few steps, and just try and casually sideswipe some trance powder to the elder’s face.
Rhi: Okay. This is gonna be desperate.
Josie: Okay. I would like to push myself.
Rhi: Okay. I’m trying to figure out the effect level here. I think I will give you standard effect because you are dressed appropriately so you will draw a little less attention. You look like you fit into the expected scenery.
Josie: Uh-huh.
Rhi: But it is still gonna be desperate, so mark xp for this.
Josie: What roll is this?
Rhi: Prowl or Skirmish I would say.
Josie: Okay, well if I have the option for Skirmish I will use that… and get a critical.
Kim: Oh my God, Josie.
Waffles: [laughs]
Rhi: All right. So, you successfully manage to, without really being noticed, flick trance powder into the elder’s face. The elder kind of staggers and reaches out and instinctively grabs at your shoulder to steady themselves. The Spirit Wardens, a couple of them notice this movement and turn and then look back to Myra.
Rhi (as Spirit Warden): She’s cursed the elder!
Rhi: [laughs] And start moving in to grab Myra. But Minx, you can very easily—you’ve basically got the elder right here. You could very easily lead them away.
Josie: Yeah…
Minna: Yeah. If there’s an opening, by the way, Myra’s going to take it and be like “ha-ha-ha,” like do the evil witch, play it up, to distract from…
Rhi: [laughs] God, okay.
Josie: Oh my God. Yeah, I think Minx will just try and semi-urgently get the elder back from whence she came.
Rhi: Yeah. [thinking noises] This needs to be some kind of a roll.
Josie: Okay.
Rhi: From one of you. I’m not sure if it needs to be Myra to grab everybody’s attention again.
Minna: Look, I’m happy to do a speech, a villain speech.
Rhi: I think that’s—I think it does need to be Myra to kinda keep everybody’s attention so nobody notices Minx slipping off with the elder.
Minna: All right. Let’s see how it goes before I make the speech. [laughs]
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: It’s Sway, right?
Rhi: Yeah. I’m trying to figure out position. I think it’s still desperate, but greater effect, because your goal here is not to escape, your goal here is to hold people’s attention, and you already largely have their attention. So desperate, greater effect.
Minna: I’m gonna push myself for an extra die.
Rhi: Okay.
Minna: I got a 6. So, Myra lets out an evil laugh.
Minna (as Myra): Ahahaha! Of course I cursed your elder. Didn’t you know it was coming to your shores?
Minna: Then I think she steps forward.
Minna (as Myra): I’m here to disrupt this silly little ceremony on behalf of all of the ghosts of this Empire of yours.
Rhi: I think it is at this point that the Spirit Wardens are moving in to grab you, Myra, so if you want to do anything about that you’ll need to make a roll. Minx, you’re able to just slip on backstage, as it were, with the elder who I think as soon as the door closes behind you just gently slumps against the wall and is staring vacantly into the middle distance, having just a lovely time in this trance that they’re in.
Josie (as Minx): All right elder, just stay here and relax and I’ll help take care of… yes.
[laughter]
Josie: I think the original plan was to meet the other two somewhere with the elder, but now I think she needs to go help Myra and hope they find him.
Rhi: Yeah. Yeah. Myra, what do you want to do about the fact that a pair of Spirit Wardens are moving in to grab you?
Minna: Um… [laughs] I didn’t think this far ahead. What do I have at hand? Well, I do have smoke bombs, right?
Rhi: Yeah. As a group, you still collectively have two smoke bombs that Seeks has given you in the past. I do need to update those.
Waffles: Also, if we want to flash back, I can just mark some hand grenades for you. [laughs]
Rhi: Also an option if you would like hand grenades.
Minna: Okay. Do you know what I kind of want? This is so dumb. Like, you know those snap and pops? Like the little tadpole things you throw on the ground.
Rhi: Yes.
Minna: Like that but actually explosive, so there’s just a bunch of little (small bursting sounds) on the ground where I throw them.
Josie: [laughs]
Waffles: That sounds like a…
Rhi: I feel like that’s absolutely something that Seeks could have whipped up.
Minna: It probably also involves smoke, but also it involves freaking people out.
Rhi: Yeah.
Waffles: It’s a mixture of smoke bombs and fire oil.
Minna: Yeah. That’s extremely Myra. Yes.
Rhi: Yeah. I’m gonna say that’s a 1 stress flashback to have those.
Minna: Is that a me flashback?
Rhi: Yes, that’s a you, to have worked this out.
Minna: Okay. Just so you know, I’m 1 stress away from taking trauma. Maybe it’s the night!
Waffles: Yay.
Rhi: [gasps]
Minna: [laughs]
Kim: Make it happen~
Rhi: All right. Yeah, so go ahead and roll to… What are you—Is this you’re trying to throw these down and then run?
Minna: I’m trying to, yeah, kind of distract and confuse and terrify, and then, yes, run.
Rhi: Okay. Still gonna be desperate.
Minna: Is it a Skirmish?
Rhi: No… I think it’s gonna be either Prowl or Wreck. Skirmish would imply that you’re fighting them more. This is you’re just trying to throw down a distraction so you can escape.
Minna: I’m starting to think this is not what I would normally put as a Prowl roll, but it’s also not a Wreck.
Rhi: I think it can work as Prowl. Prowl covers a lot of physical sort of things. I’m thinking more that it’s cover for your escape. Still desperate, I think standard effect.
Minna: What’s a Devil’s Bargain look like?
Rhi: Oh…
Minna: We don’t have to. I can just roll these two dice.
Rhi: Oh no-no-no, I will give you something here. The crew, because of this, people are seeing your face as you are publically branded as a heretic, you’re gonna take +2 heat on top of whatever else.
Minna: I’m gonna say no, because I kinda want this to just be like a foreigner who happens to look like a Magpie. [laughs]
Rhi: [laughs]
Minna: That’s double 1s. [giggles nervously]
Kim: Oh no.
Rhi: It’s the worst outcome, is how this category begins.
Josie: Oh no.
Minna: Wasn’t I… Was I rolling desperate?
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: Awesome. Mm-hmm?!
Rhi: So, you throw down these little flash popper things, and they’re very dramatic and scary. A lot of the people recoil. The Spirit Wardens don’t. The Spirit Wardens fight ghosts and demons for a living, and some little flash pops are not gonna stop them. So two of them grab you and twist your arm. They grab you, twist your arms back, you get slapped in, like… handcuffs isn’t quite descriptive enough, these are thick rune-carved bands that you can like… you might not have even really consciously been aware of your connection to the ghost field, but you can feel that it has just been completely suppressed.
Minna: Ooh, they’re Force suppressor cuffs. [laughs]
Rhi: More or less.
Minna: For the ghost field.
Rhi: Like, if you tried to look into the ghost field right now it just would not work.
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: And it’s a weird sort of feeling, and they are hauling you away.
Minna: [weakly] Mm-hmm…
Josie: That means she’s not in the crowd anymore.
Rhi: Correct, but I think that they are dragging her out of the cathedral to take her back to Bellweather Crematorium.
Josie: So uh… can I rush around a side exit to try and head them off at the pass? Once they leave.
Rhi: Yeah. You wanna slip out the side and try to intercept them out front?
Josie: Yeah, essentially.
Rhi: Yes. I think we see Minx run out the side, and then we’ll come back to that. Let’s go back to Seeks and Blaire. The two of you have… I think you make it up the stairs. You get to the top of the stairs which comes out into the back area of the Sanctorium right as—you can hear shouting from up front. I think you probably do hear the word heretic somewhere in the shouting. But back here it’s pretty quiet. [laughs] What do you wanna do?
Waffles: I want to stumble upon an archbishop. [laughs]
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: Yeah.
Waffles: Mostly because I believe the plan was to get up into his room, but he’s not in the room.
Rhi: Yeah. The original plan had been that Minx was going to bring the elder to the two of you so you could put a leech on them. That no longer seems to be happening. You do not see Minx anywhere. So yeah, if you would like to search around back here you can do that.
Waffles: Yeah.
Rhi: Tell me what you’re gonna roll.
Waffles: It sounds like a Hunt, but that’s something I’m bad at.
Rhi: It could also be Survey.
Waffles: I’m also bad at that.
[laughter]
Kim: I can roll a Survey. I’m okay at it.
Rhi: Go for it. This is gonna be…
Waffles: I will assist and take this 1 stress.
Kim: Oh, thank you.
Rhi: It’s gonna be risky-standard.
Kim: Five.
Rhi: So, you do it but there’s a consequence, and the consequence is I’m ticking up the guard clock one more time, so we’re at 4 out of 5.
Kim: Ah~
Rhi: Some of the guards downstairs saw some weird movement and heard some weird noises and they’ve been unintentionally trailing the two of you and are closing in, but they haven’t found you yet. They’re close though. As you’re wandering around back here you continue to hear panicked, you know, it sounds like an angry/panicked crowd up front which is not the sounds you were expecting to hear during this event, but you do find, sitting on the floor beside a door, staring into space with a very vacant smile on their face, in just fine sumptuous vestments is Elder Rowan.
Waffles (as Seeks): Well that’s fortuitous.
[laughter]
Waffles: I help them to their feet. Was our plan to bring the ghost into here or do we need to get Elder Rowan out?
Kim: We need to get Elder Rowan out.
Rhi: You need to get Elder Rowan out of here, because the ghost was like “hmm, o, I don’t believe I will be going anywhere near church property until I am safely ensconced in the body of a church official.”
Waffles: Yeah. I’m just going to listen to the commotion and look to you.
Waffles (as Seeks): I can get this one out of here. Did you want to go help them?
Kim (as Blaire): Uh… I don’t think splitting up is a good idea.
Waffles (as Seeks): Okay. Well then let’s get out of here.
Kim (as Blaire): But he’s right here.
Waffles (as Seeks): Well yeah, but we have to get the person inside. It’s very hard to carry a body. They’re very heavy and floppy.
Kim (as Blaire): Yeah, I know…
Waffles (as Seeks): Come on, Elder Rowan, we are going to get you to safety.
Kim (as Blaire): Yes.
Rhi (as Rowan): [vacant contented hum]
Waffles: [laughing] I lead Elder Rowan down the stairs.
Rhi: Yep. Okay. Are you gonna try to sneak back out or are you assuming that the fact that you have the elder of the church with you is gonna just buy you cover to walk straight through?
Waffles: Um…
Kim: Hmm…
Waffles: I will attempt to sneak, and the classic plan “help the others under attack, they need you up there in the church” is my backup plan.
Rhi: Okay. Yeah, give me a roll for the two of you attempting to sneak out with a drugged archbishop.
Kim: That sounds like a group Prowl.
Rhi: Risky, reduced effect, because you have a drugged archbishop in toe.
Kim: Mm-hmm. What did you roll, Waffles?
Waffles: A 5.
Kim: Oh good, I rolled a 3 and a 1.
Rhi: Okay, so Blaire will take 1 point of stress, but the result is a 5. You make it to the gate before three guards who have been having their own adventure tonight of trying to solve the mystery of the weird noises and movement that they keep seeing. You’re at the gate, you’re trying to unlock it. You’re at the gate, you’re about to open it, and you hear a:
Rhi (as guard): Hey! Who are you? What are you doing with the elder?
Waffles (as Seeks): We are getting the elder to safety.
Waffles: I say, spinning on with the elder wobbling next to me. [laughs]
Kim (as Blaire): He’s not feeling well, so we’re helping him home.
Waffles (as Seeks): The church was attacked. You should go up there and help.
Rhi: Roll me something. [laughs]
Waffles: I have 0 in Command, and… [laughs] 0 in Consort, and 0 in Sway.
Rhi: Yeah, this definitely does sound like a Command. It definitely sounds like Command. So, would you… you could do a group again. If I recall, Blaire has like 1.
Waffles: All right.
Rhi: Blaire, do you wanna do a group action on this.
Kim: Uh… yeah. Yeah, and I can lead it. Were we thinking Command for this?
Rhi: I think, yeah. Command seems correct.
Kim: All right. Yeah, I can lead it.
Rhi: Risky, reduced effect still.
Kim: Okay great. I got a 6.
Waffles: I got a 2.
Rhi: Okay. Blaire takes another point of stress. These three guards look at each other and clearly have some kind of silent wordless communication, and then they nod and two of them run off and one of them is going to approach you.
Rhi (as guard): I’ll stick with you to make sure that they get home safely, or at least to their guards.
Waffles (as Seeks): Yes. I believe they’ve been drugged. Help me carry them.
[laughter]
Rhi: [smiling] All right. So yep, they will step over to the elder’s other side and will help you move them through the catacombs. Let’s go back upstairs.
So, upstairs. Myra, you are being hauled. Like, they’re dragging you along, you’re not being allowed to walk.
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Out of the front of the cathedral. Another two Spirit Wardens have materialized from somewhere and are kind of—
Minna: [nervous noises]
Rhi: There’s the two that are dragging you and then two have taken up positions, one in front and one in back, so you’re boxed in. Minx, you are able to slip out a side door and sprint up to the front of the cathedral where you see Myra being hauled along by four Spirit Wardens.
Josie: Okay. Is there like a wagon they’re hauling her towards?
Rhi: There’s a hull-pulled carriage that is probably what they brought their equipment in that they’re pulling her towards.
Josie: Would I be able to sneak around the other side of the carriage?
Rhi: You can try.
Josie: I would like to try.
Rhi: Okay. Risky-standard I’m gonna say.
Josie: [laughing] I got a 6! I’ve rolled so many.
Rhi: Yeah. You are able to slip around in the shadows and get around to the opposite side of this carriage. Now what?
Josie: I take it it’s locked.
Rhi: Yeah.
Josie: Well, we’ve tried to deal with a Spirit Warden carriage before…
Rhi: Yes. You got the hulls to run off, basically.
Josie: Minx is not good at this, but she’s going to try. She is going to try to… “Minx, just think of them as horses. That’s what they’re shaped like, right now. It should just be like talking to a horse.”
[others giggle]
Josie: Or rather goats, goats. Replace all that with goats, because we don’t have big horses. And say… and try to essentially cause them to stampede at the Spirit Wardens.
Rhi: Oh! I like it. Smart.
Josie: I know this puts Myra in danger, but hopefully she’ll get yanked.
Minna: That’s fine!
Rhi: Yeah! Man, okay. I like this. Hmm…
Josie: I’m definitely gonna need to push myself in some capacity.
Rhi: Yeah. It’s gonna be Attune, I think is what you’re rolling here. I think it’s gonna be risky, reduced effect.
Josie: Okay. Yeah, you know what, I’m just gonna push myself for the extra die and let’s make this happen.
Rhi: All right.
Josie: That’s a 3.
Rhi: Okay… let’s see here. So, you reach out through the ghost field and you push these hulls to just start running as fast as they can.
Josie: Uh-huh.
Rhi: And they do, but unfortunately they’re not facing the Spirit Wardens when they do that, so they run off, taking the carriage with them, and you are staring at four Spirit Wardens, because your cover that was the carriage just ran away.
[laughter]
Josie: All right. Give Josie a hot second here.
Rhi: Yep. You’re also now in a desperate position. Myra can also act. Like, you could try to do something. You’re both in desperate positions, but you’re not helpless. Myra is not unconscious at this point.
Minna: [hums nervously]
Rhi: Next episode is gonna be rescuing Myra from ghost jail.
Josie: I’m gonna try and distract by being like:
Josie (as Minx): There was another one! I tried to stop them, but they took the hulls.
Rhi: [grinning] Give it a shot! I assume that’s Sway?
Josie: Uh-huh!
Rhi: Yeah, still desperate. I’ll give you standard effect, because you are wearing the robes.
Josie: Six.
Rhi: Okay.
Josie: Rolling four dice again.
Rhi: So… I think that—you can’t see their facial expressions, because they’re wearing those creepy masks, but you can see kind of in body language that they’re frustrated. Two of them break off and go to chase down the carriage. You can kind of feel some ripples in the ghost field as they are also trying to reach out to these hulls to get them to stop running, because it’s just off down the street. So there’s still two Spirit Wardens here holding onto Myra, who is cuffed, but you’re not outnumbered anymore.
Josie: Excellent. Perfect.
Rhi: I’m trying to think… I do want to jump back to our kidnap team.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: So I think with the help of this [laughs] very supportive guard, who’s just very concerned about everything that’s happening here today, you are able to get the elder out and back up onto the street. This guard is gonna start leading, walking towards where the elder’s carriage is.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: To see them safely home. What would you like to do?
Waffles: Oh. I was going to try and hand… like, when we both have an arm over our shoulder, me and the guard, I was going to reach into my back pocket and pull out a syringe, and just holding it behind us waving it to Blaire. [laughs]
Rhi: Ah. [laughs] So, okay, got it, got it, got it. So yeah, just syringe behind Seeks’s back. Blaire, I feel like you can… I don’t think that’s gonna take a roll. I think that you can just do that without being noticed.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: So Blaire, you have one syringe.
Kim: Okay. [chuckles]
Rhi: I assume the intent is to stick it in this guard?
Waffles: Yeah, because I figure we just have to get far enough away to, um…
Rhi: Yeah.
Waffles: …that the ghost would be willing to come hang out.
Rhi: Yes. You’re now outside the cathedral.
Waffles: Yeah. Probably don’t even leave the spooky underground catacombs as they are a winding tricky path.
Rhi: Okay. Yeah. So, I think it’s that, yeah, you’re getting close to the exit of the catacombs then. So Blaire, if you would like to poke a man with a syringe.
Kim: Yeah. Do I have to roll for that?
Rhi: Yes.
Kim: Oh. Hmm, is this Skirmish?
Rhi: However, it is going to be… I think for this it’s gonna be controlled, because this guard is very occupied with carrying the archbishop who outranks them a lot so they’re very focused on that.
Kim: Yep.
Rhi: And previous rolls have made him think that you all are trustworthy, which is foolish.
Waffles: [laughs]
Rhi: So it’s gonna be controlled, standard effect.
Kim: Okay. What am I rolling?
Rhi: You know what, I’m not gonna ask what’s in this syringe. I’m just gonna let this happen and we’ll find out. [laughs] Go ahead and make a roll.
Kim: What am I rolling? Is it Skirmish?
Rhi: Yeah, Skirmish or Prowl, since you’re doing an ambush.
Kim: I’ll do Prowl. I have more dice in that.
Rhi: All right.
Kim: Oh no, that’s double 3s.
Rhi: Okay, so you can either try again but it’ll be risky or you can withdraw and try a different approach, which will basically mean you’ll stay at a controlled position but you have to do a different action.
Kim: I think I’ll try again, actually.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: Devil’s Bargain?
Rhi: Let me think. You are gonna take… I think it’s gonna be, I’m gonna say level 1 harm. Just, at some point in doing this, whether you succeed or not, he’s gonna flail around and just elbow you in the stomach.
Kim: Um… I accept that.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: So I’ll mark another one level 1 harm. Bruised?
Rhi: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, just Bruised, Winded.
Kim: Okay great, because that was double 3s again and a 6.
Rhi: Phew! All right, so yeah, on the second attempt you just get him in the arm. I think it’s just, like, I’m imagining you get the syringe into his bicep and he just instinctively jerks his arm back and just gets you right in the solar plexus.
Waffles: I jump on his back until he collapses from the drugs.
[laughter]
Rhi: What do the drugs do?
Waffles: It’s just some manner of knock-out poison.
Rhi: Okay. Yeah. Injectable sleep powder or whatever.
Waffles: Yeah.
Rhi: Slumber essence. Yeah, so… Blaire is kind of wheezing a little bit but otherwise unharmed. This guard is unconscious. Elder Rowan has gently drifted down to sit on the ground but is otherwise just fine, still kind of staring into space.
Waffles (as Seeks): Can you call your ghost friend?
Kim (as Blaire): Yeah. Yeah, let me do that.
Waffles (as Seeks): Okay. Let me… Elder Rowan, I have someone you want to meet.
Rhi: [laughs]
Waffles: We just get a horror movie–esque opening of the jar and pointing the gnawing leech at an Elder Rowan.
[laughter]
Kim: They’re gonna love that.
Rhi: So, when you rolled for this ritual there was a consequence. Yeah, when you did the ritual to make Big Chungus extra hungry…
Kim: [snickers]
Rhi: That sure is a sentence I just said.
[laughter]
Rhi: There was a complication, and the complication is that you succeeded perhaps a little too well. As this enormous leech latches onto the elder and starts draining their blood… Seeks, you’re a medical professional, you realize pretty quickly that this is about to turn into somebody being just desanguinated.
Waffles (as Seeks): Oh! No, you’re supposed to vomit. [reprimanding] Chungus?
Rhi: So you’re gonna need to make some kind of roll to make sure that this is a living body. [laughs]
Waffles: All right. I go into my, um… I pull out a syringe and I start talking to Chungus. I would like to do either a Tinker roll or an Attune roll to commune with my leech baby and get him to vomit up some of the blood.
Waffles (as Seeks): You’re supposed to cycle it. That is not healthy for you. You don’t have enough sacks for that.
Rhi: [laughs] Oh my God, I love Seeks. Tinker would be in the physicker sense of it. I always forget that Tinker is used to, like, yeah, you tinker with people’s… blood.
Waffles: Yeah, I have Physicker. I can tinker with bones, blood and bodily humors, and I get +1 die for that.
Rhi: Okay. Yeah. I think either one of those would work.
Waffles: Yeah. Then I will push myself for 2 stress and an extra die, because Chungus is very important.
Rhi: Okay. This is gonna be risky… Do you have some kind of physicker’s tools that you’re using?
Waffles: I have fine tinkerer’s tools. I don’t think there’s a physicker…
Rhi: I think that since Tinker is used as the physicker skill I’ll say that tinkerer’s tools for Seeks is your med kit. [laughs]
Waffles: Okay.
Rhi: So I’ll allow that to be fine, so that’ll be risky, greater effect.
Waffles: Six!
Rhi: Okay. So yes, you are able to coax your leech into behaving as it’s supposed to. It is not actually killing the elder anymore, however it is gonna take a few minutes for this whole process of feeding a person’s soul to a giant leech to work. Meanwhile, Blaire, you were going to try to summon Desdemona.
Kim: Yes.
Rhi: I think just probably an Attune roll. I think this would be a flashback, but it would be a 0 stress flashback. You and Desdemona can have worked out a meeting place, so I think that she is lurking in the vicinity of the cathedral and is just waiting for your signal.
Kim: Okay. Ugh! All right. It’s not the end of the world. I rolled a 1, a 1, and a 2.
Rhi: Oof. So I think… What I’m imagining is that it’s basically like you’re sending up a signal flare in the ghost field.
Kim: Kind of. Oh no…
Rhi: You don’t get a response.
Kim: Huh.
Rhi: Maybe something happened. Maybe she spotted the Spirit Wardens and bugged out, but she doesn’t seem to be here.
Kim: Hmm. [giggles]
Rhi: So, back up to Spirit Wardens.
Josie: Okay then.
Rhi: Myra and Minx.
Minna: Yes.
Josie: Yeah. What are the Spirit Wardens doing now that their two compatriots charged off after their cart?
Rhi: They seem to just be holding onto Myra, waiting for the carriage to return. If you are not heading back to the cathedral they’re gonna start, kind of… They’re expecting you to leave. [chuckles]
Josie: Oh. Yeah. Minx is trying to look somewhat winded like she had just run out there.
Josie (as Minx): Oh… phew, earth below.
Josie: But as she passes one of the Spirit Wardens, I would like to use my Cloak and Dagger move to cast off my disguise, draping my cloak about his face and blinding him.
Rhi: [giggles]
Minna: Ooh~
Rhi: Yeah! Yeah, go for it.
Josie: Swoosh! And it gives me the initiative in this situation.
Rhi: Yes. It’s gonna be risky, I think standard effect.
Josie: I’m gonna shoot for Skirmish?
Rhi: Yeah, Skirmish makes sense.
Josie: Five.
Rhi: Yeah, so I think that you whip off your robe and throw it on the head of one of the Spirit Wardens who immediately just (yelps loudly).
[laughter]
Rhi: Has a whole bunch of floofy silk and fabric wrapped around their head. The other Spirit Warden wrenches Myra away and… still has one hand on Myra’s arm, and then with the other, as they move they basically whip out an electrified bludgeon and smack you with it. You’re gonna take level 2 harm, Zapped.
Josie: Yeesh.
Rhi: As you just get hit with this thing.
Josie: I would like to resist.
Rhi: Go for it. It’ll be a Prowess resist.
Josie: Six.
Rhi: Okay. You don’t take any stress, and that’ll knock it down to level 1.
Josie: Oh wait, but my level 1 is already filled.
Rhi: Okay, so it’s still level 2. [laughs]
Josie: [laughs] Okay, I’m Zapped.
Rhi: Yep. Myra, would you like to do anything?
Minna: I would like to try to escape this guy, and it might even be something like stepping on, like, stomping on their instep while they’re distracted to try and get them to let me go.
Rhi: Yeah. You are cuffed, but they’re big heavy metal cuffs, so if you wanted to try and just hit somebody with them that is also an option.
Minna: Yeah. Yup. Mostly I just want him to let go of my arm, and then I will probably attack with it, with the cuffs.
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: So, position-effect?
Rhi: Risky-standard, or… hmm, reduced effect, risky-reduced.
Minna: I literally can’t push myself. I only have 1 stress left.
Rhi: You CAN push yourself.
Minna: Oh, take 2 stress… I can spend stress I don’t have? [laughs]
Rhi: Well, you would push yourself, you would get the extra die, but you would take trauma.
Kim: [whispering] Do it.
Minna: Can I push myself and take trauma for better effect?
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: I’m gonna do that.
Josie: Oh no!
Minna: I did it.
Josie: Really? This is the episode?!
Minna: I did it. I didn’t know I was allowed to do that. I didn’t know I could spend trauma I didn’t—or stress I didn’t have. [laughs]
Kim: Four seasons, two years.
Rhi: I think it, like… I wouldn’t let you go beyond this, but I think we’ve done this in the past where I’ve let people push themselves up to and above this point.
Minna: [smiling] I didn’t realize that. So that’s a 5.
Rhi: Okay. Yeah, as you said, you stomp on this person’s instep and twist away while they’re distracted and in pain. The other Spirit Warden by this point has disentangled themselves from the robe and grabs at something on their belt, and this jolt of energy shoots through you out from the cuffs, and Myra, you just collapse.
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: It basically just, just kind of arcane energy shot through you and knocked you out.
Josie: Oof.
Rhi: So, Myra is no longer being held, but Myra is also unconscious.
Josie: That’s a problem.
Rhi: Yes.
Josie: Agh… okay. So, we’ve got the one guard who is there and the other who’s tangled in my ruffles.
Rhi: Yes.
Josie: Okay. I think I want to use Not To Be Trifled With to push myself to engage with a small gang on equal footing.
Rhi: Okay.
Josie: Ultimately I think I want to take a weapon off the tangled guard and smack the other guy with it to try and stun him.
Rhi: Okay, yeah. Yeah, you can definitely try and do that. Since you are doing that move, this is gonna be risky. I’m gonna give you greater effect on this, because a small gang is usually more than two people.
Josie: Right. Critical.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: That’s like your third critical tonight, Josie.
Rhi: [laughs]
Josie: Yeah. I’ve been on a fucking hot streak. [laughs]
Rhi: So you’re able to knock out the one guard.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: You grab the electrified bludgeon, truncheon thing, and just hit the other guard in the face, and it turns out when you’re wearing a brass facemask and you get hit in the face with electricity it goes badly for you.
Minna: Oh… mm-hmm.
Josie: [laughs] Makes you wonder why they wear brass facemasks.
Rhi: They don’t expect people to grab their weapons and hit them with them. It doesn’t happen often. You got a critical, so how do you… I don’t think you’re gonna be able to necessarily knock the other one out, but you’re able to do something that will give you an opportunity to start getting away. What would you like to do to sort of temporarily incapacitate this person?
Josie: The tangled one?
Rhi: Yes.
Josie: I think I just want to trip him.
Rhi: Okay. [laughs]
Josie: So he hits the cobblestones still tangled up.
Rhi: Okay. Okay. So yeah, you’re able to do that, and I think that you can grab Myra and toss her over your shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Josie: I’m in what is the equivalent of a tank top having just cast off everything else. [laughs]
Rhi: Yeah. You can start heading off, but you’re in Brightstone and you’re carrying an unconscious cuffed person.
Josie: [nervous sounds] I think I just need to get to the sewer that they were using to get in.
Rhi: Okay. Yeah!
Josie: Not my preferred method of escape, but…
Rhi: Yeah. I think I’m, um… I think if you’re just going that far I will just let you do that without having to make a roll. I think just as your giant leech baby has finished the process of eating a soul, Blaire, you’re still trying to reach out through the ghost field to figure out where Desdemona is and getting nothing.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: You hear clattering footsteps on the stairs near you, and Minx comes running down carrying Myra over her shoulder.
Kim (as Blaire): What happened?!
Josie (as Minx): [stammering] Spirit Wardens got rough. Turns out there were several in the cathedral. Fortunately we stopped their ghost destroying ritual. We should get out of here.
Kim (as Blaire): [shakily] Is she okay?
Josie (as Minx): She… She will be fine. She will be fine, especially since we have the best doctor in the city with us.
Waffles: I look around.
Kim: Oh God.
[laughter]
Josie (as Minx): Seeks, I was paying you a compliment.
Waffles (as Seeks): Oh! Thank you.
Waffles: I am shoving just a bloated glowing leech, it’s bright as all hell, into a jar.
Rhi: Into—?
Waffles (as Seeks): Get back… Get— [struggling noises]
Josie (as Minx): I take it your end went well.
Waffles (as Seeks): Well, we’re waiting on somebody to show up and move this body.
Josie (as Minx): Oh dear.
Rhi: Well, you basically have a hollow now. [laughs] The elder’s not dead, they just don’t have a soul at present.
Josie (as Minx): Well, we have two unconscious bodies and would need to get to a canal I think, because we need to get home and we need to get this lout somewhere where Desdemona can get in.
Rhi: So you do have your maps, and you are currently in the catacombs underground part of the city, so you could try to navigate to a canal and find a Gondolier.
Waffles: That sounds like a plan.
Josie: Yeah.
Rhi: Okay. I think just give me some kind of roll for making this trek safely, because as Minx said, you do have two bodies that you’re hauling.
Josie: A group Prowl maybe?
Kim: Yeah, that works for me.
Waffles: Yeah. I am down to prowl. I have 2 stress boxes left. What does everyone else have?
Josie: Oh, I have 1 stress box left.
Kim: I have 3 left, so I guess it’s me.
Rhi: All right. It’s gonna be risky-standard.
Waffles: A 5.
Josie: I got a 2.
Kim: I got a 6.
Josie: Phew.
Rhi: What did you get, Waffles?
Waffles: Five.
Rhi: Okay, great. So Blaire will take 1 point of stress. You get a 6. You make your way through the tunnels, find a Gondolier dock. There’s a Gondolier who, it’s not Kay, but it’s somebody that you have seen around the Gondoliers headquarters frequently. We’ll say that they go by… Coil. So, Coil looks up and is like… I’m imagining that Blaire comes out first, and they’re just like:
Rhi (as Coil): Oh, hey Blaire—Oh… Oh dear… Um? You should all get in.
Rhi: [laughs]
Josie (as Minx): [shakily] Yeah.
Rhi: They will help you in. Blaire, if you want to try to reach out through the ghost field again as you are heading down the canals to see if you can get a read on Desdemona again.
Kim: Yeah. Do I have to roll for that?
Rhi: Yes. Attune, but it’s gonna be controlled now.
Kim: Mm… my highest is a 4.
Rhi: Okay. I’m gonna say you do it with a minor complication. You reach out again, and this time you get an answering signal flare, and before too long, if Blaire’s looking into the ghost field, you see Desdemona kind of come down over a bridge to float along beside you as you’re heading down the canal.
Rhi (as Desdemona): Sorry, I had to split when the Spirit Wardens showed up. I couldn’t take the risk.
Kim (as Blaire): No, I understand.
Rhi (as Desdemona): Oh, is this my new house?
Rhi: [laughing] Peering over the elder.
Kim: Oh, let me take that back.
Kim (as Blaire): Do you like them?
Rhi (as Desdemona): Um… you know, I think I can do an awful lot of interesting things… so yes.
Josie (as Minx): Well, as I believe the saying goes, it’s free real estate.
[laughter]
Waffles (as Seeks): I hope J is doing okay.
Rhi: Who?
Waffles: J.
Rhi: Oh.
Waffles: Our new friend.
[laughter]
Rhi: Yeah, your other ghost buddy. So yes, Desdemona will possess the Elder Rowan, and I think that after a little bit will ask to be let off so that they can make their way home and start covering for all of this weirdness. They assure you that your physickers will be returned safely tomorrow and the clinic will be left alone. So, they head off.
Josie (as Minx): You know, technically this was my idea, but that will never not be unnerving.
Rhi: [laughs] Yeah, I think the only thing is that Myra is in these cuffs.
Waffles: Ah.
Rhi: Myra, you can come to at some point during this journey if you would like.
Waffles: I can tinker those off.
Rhi: Oh yeah. Maybe as soon as they come off, then Myra will…
Minna: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. As soon as they come off, that would…
Waffles: Five.
Rhi: Yeah. Controlled… I think that you are gonna take level 1 harm. You trip some kind of zappy bit that just zaps you.
Waffles: Bzzt!
Waffles (as Seeks): Ah! Ow…
Rhi: You get sparked real bad, but it doesn’t seem to hurt Myra any, and you’re able to just pop them off.
Minna (as Myra): [gasps] Oh thank goodness. Hi… how did it go? Did it work?
Waffles (as Seeks): Excellent.
Josie (as Minx): Uh, it worked. How are you feeling?
Minna (as Myra): I’ve got one hell of a headache, but…
Josie (as Minx): Oh. For that I should put on some tea.
Minna (as Myra): [laughs] That would be wonderful.
Waffles (as Seeks): Ooh, tea?
Rhi: So Coil is gonna ask where you wanna be dropped off. Are you gonna bring Seeks back to The Nest is my big question. Does Seeks get to see where y’all live? I don’t think you’ve ever brought anybody back.
Kim: Oh… Yeah, I’m okay with that. Are you two all right with that?
Minna: Yeah.
Josie: I mean, might as well.
Minna: I think Myra at this point is:
Minna (as Myra): [weakly] I just want to go home.
Rhi: Aww. Out of curiosity, what trauma have you picked?
Minna: I’ve picked Reckless, because it’s on par with what’s been happening with Myra anyway. [laughs]
Josie: Yay! Reckless buddies!
Rhi: “My life just flashed before my eyes. Okay!”
[laughter]
Rhi: Yeah, so Coil drops you off in Six Towers and the four of you make your way back to the hidden entrance to The Nest.
Waffles: I use my last bit of load to give Myra a juice box.
[giggling]
Minna: Thank you.
Rhi: I love that Seeks always dedicates 1 slot of load to snacks. It’s very good. Yeah, the four of you head up into The Nest which, Seeks, you’ve never actually seen where the Magpies live before. It’s an abandoned guard tower.
Waffles: Ooh.
Rhi: You have to go up a couple flights of stairs to actually get into the living space, but it’s nice, it’s cozy, it’s homey. There’s a very fancy marble statue wearing a hat and scarf in a corner.
Waffles: Ooh.
Minna (as Myra): That’s Kevin.
Rhi: And there is a winged three-eyed cat that comes over to sniff you.
Waffles (as Seeks): [gasps] Who’s the very good c—What are they?
Josie (as Minx): Uh, they’re a cat. This is Hex.
Waffles (as Seeks): Who’s a very good cat?
Minna: Somebody do the meow.
Rhi & Kim: [meows]
Josie: [giggles]
Waffles (as Seeks): Very cute. Oh! Where should I avoid standing? Where do you keep your booby-traps?
Kim (as Blaire): Uh… just my room.
[laughter]
Josie (as Minx): In the common area you should be fine, and you’ll have company out here in Hex and Kevin.
Rhi: So yeah, I think you all can start patching yourselves up. Somebody can put tea on. You can just lay low here for the rest of the evening.
Minna: Myra has fallen asleep in an armchair. I just want to point this out. Somebody had to take the teacup from her before it fell. [laughs]
Josie: Oh heavens.
Rhi: But yeah, it’s a… you know, there’s always that post-score tension in the air of, you know, are we gonna get caught, what’s gonna happen, but it’s still kind of a nice cozy evening. You get the fire going, you have some tea, and yeah, you hang out here for the night.
Then, the next morning, you head out and make your way over to the clinic at the southern end of Charterhall. Seeks will unlock the back door and head on in, and I think there’s a physicker who was handling the night shift, immediately comes running down the hall to you.
Rhi (as physicker): [out of breath] Oh good, you’re back. I don’t know what happen. I know I heard Isabis and Eigen didn’t show up for work yesterday, but they just, um… they just, they were unconscious, they got left outside the back doors with a note pinned to Eigen’s chest that just said sorry? Uh… I figured you might want to check on them. They seem healthy. We can’t find anything really wrong with them. They’re both very shaken. But…
Waffles: Yeah. I’m going to do just a physical. [laughs] Just check on the both of them and make sure the souls inside their body are their souls. That’s very important.
Rhi: Yes. [laughs] Yeah, so they are in kind of a larger room. They’re each in their own beds. As the physicker said, both pretty shaken up, Eigen definitely more so. But yes, their souls are in the appropriate places.
As you’re talking to them, they don’t really seem to have super clear memories of what happened. It seems like they were drugged or unconscious for most of the time. They’re both dehydrated but have been given water and some soup so they can start fixing that particular problem. There’s a few bruises that you find but nothing really major.
Most of what they report is they got grabbed on the street. What little they remember, they were in a dark cold stony place. They could hear some weird noises. As they’re describing the noises and what little they were able to see, Seeks and Blaire, you realize that they were probably down in the catacombs under the Sanctorium where the two of you were. You just had no idea that they were around.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: But it sounds like they just got chucked into a cell and were left without anybody really checking on them aside to administer more drugs. Otherwise they are unharmed.
Waffles: I start quizzing them on the drugs that they think they were drugged with.
[laughter]
Waffles (as Seeks): And what drugs cause those side effects?
Rhi (as Isabis): Uh…
Waffles (as Seeks): And what would be the best way to counteract those side effects?
Rhi (as Isabis): I don’t…
Waffles (as Seeks): This is very important. If you ever get kidnapped you should know these things. You are a physicker.
Rhi (as Eigen): My head feels like it’s full… of cotton, and so does my mouth.
Rhi: Drinks more water. [laughs] But yeah, it seems like, at least so far, the new elder of the Church of Ecstasy is keeping their word.
Minna: [giggles]
Josie: [giggles]
Rhi: So, good job on… that. I have to think about what repercussions this is going to have throughout society.
[laughter]
## Outro [1:15:05]
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 Rivers Lost But Seeking was played by Waffles. Follow them on Twitter at @mahaffay.
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.
Next I’d like to thank our magnificent Patreon backers. Natalia Utter, thank you! Dylan Howl, thank you! Antoine deJong, thank you!
## Blooper [1:16:39]
Rhi: Waffles, did you have something you wanted to do?
Waffles: I was just going to put Chungus into a bucket. They’ve been trapped inside a jar this whole time, and they’re quite bloated.
[laughter]
Rhi: Hex comes over to investigate and then just runs off. Just like, “eh, no. No, I don’t think so.”
[laughter]
Waffles: There’s a whole soul in there.