Transcribed by Tyler (Twitter: @Tyler_MoonSage)

## Intro

Rhi: Welcome back to Duskwall. As always, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate all the reviews and commentary and Patreon support. It means a lot.

For today’s episode, I would like to offer a formal apology to the Ace Attorney series, a video game I have never played and yet was a powerful inspiration thanks to the shenanigans of my players… and a critical success on an acquire asset roll.

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

Kim: I want all of our listeners to know that everyone behind The Magpies Podcast believes in and supports the Black Lives Matter movement. Black lives have always mattered. They mattered yesterday, they matter today, they will matter tomorrow, and they will continue to matter every single day afterwards.

In honor of the nationwide uprisings happening in the US at the time of this recording, and also in honor of Pride Month, we are featuring the National Black Justice Coalition as this month’s charity. The NBJC is a civil rights organization that works to empower Black LGBTQA+ people. They work to increase education on HIV and AIDS in the African American community, encourage historically Black colleges to create a safe environment for their gay and trans students, support non-traditional queer families, and so much more.

To learn more about what they do and to donate, please visit NBJC.org. To all of our Black listeners, we see you, we love you, and we stand beside you. We are with you in this fight. Black lives matter.

Rhi: I can’t say I feel exactly like a broken record, because I feel like every time I record an intro I’m talking about some new horror we’re facing as a society, although these latest protests aren’t about anything new. Racism and anti-blackness are as old as America. But as horrific as the police response has been to these protests, as heartbreaking as it is to hear so many names and see so many faces of people whose murders drove protesters into the street… change is happening.

It’s been about two weeks, and cities are reducing spending on police. The Minneapolis City Council is having an actual serious discussion about disbanding their police department. Is it enough? No, but it’s only been two weeks. If we can keep this up, what might change in a month, in three months?

That said, we are still in a pandemic. We are still in a crushing economic depression. We in America, and elsewhere, are still in an authoritarian state that has proven again and again it will not hesitate to deploy violence to maintain power. So, be careful, be safe, take care of yourselves and each other.

This fight is a marathon, and you have to take breaks. 2020 has brought unimaginable crises, but it has also shown a strength of community and a depth of love for each other that gives me hope. Things are bad, and scary, but so many of us are doing what we can to protect and care for and fight for each other. A better world isn’t guaranteed, but I think there’s still a chance for one.

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

 

 

## Story Continues [0:03:43]

Rhi: So, we see The magpies making their way through Nightmarket. It’s getting on towards evening, probably about 5 or 6 o’clock, and I think they are coming back from spending the afternoon over at the Red Lamp helping with paperwork and wards and backrubs as all was arranged previously.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: And they are making their way to The Hound’s Paw, and at this time of the evening this is kind of when the first rush hits. People are getting off work and want to have a drink, so The Hound’s Paw typically is all lit up, people are heading in through the door, this tends to be the busiest time for them. But as you approach, you see that most of the lights are off, door is closed, the closed sign is flipped over in the window, and on the door there’s like… it looks like a piece of paper was hammered up there, because you can see the little tacks and then some corners of paper where something was ripped down.

Josie: Huh. Does the door have a window on it? Or is there a window we can peek in?

Rhi: Yeah, there’s windows that you can peer in.

Kim: Blaire knocks.

Rhi: Heh. Yeah, so Minx peering in the window, you can see that it doesn’t look like the bar, like, it doesn’t look like it ever opened. The chairs are all still put up, and I think you can just barely make out Rigney standing behind the bar with his head in his hands.

Josie: Oh dear.

Rhi: And then when Blaire knocks he kinda startles and looks up and will walk over to the door, and when he sees it’s the three of you he opens it up.

Rhi (as Rigney): [heavy] Hey. Come on in. I suppose it’s best that you’re the first ones to know.

Kim (as Blaire): Know about what?

Rhi (as Rigney): [long sigh]

Rhi: He’ll let you in, close the door, and then say:

Rhi (as Rigney): Apparently I’m closing.

Kim & Josie (as Blaire & Minx): What?!

Rhi: He walks over to the bar and picks up a piece of paper and will hold it out for the three of you to look at. It is basically an eviction notice.

Minna: Myra’s flipping through looking for reasons.

Josie (as Minx): Why? The bar has been doing fine.

Rhi (as Rigney): Uh, yeah, I asked the same thing of my landlord when I went over to his office to demand an explanation for this bullshit.

Rhi: There isn’t really an explanation on there, Myra.

Minna: Yeah.

Rhi: It just says, you know—and it’s like, he has to be out in like three days.

Rhi (as Rigney): Apparently an offer was made for the building that was too good for him to refuse.

Josie (as Minx): I see.

Rhi (as Rigney): Yeah…

Kim (as Blaire): Who outbid you?

Rhi (as Rigney): Well, I mean, I never owned the place, but um… [sighs] one Lord Mora, apparently.

Minna (as Myra): [scoffs]

Josie (as Minx): Ah, well that’s fortunate then, because now we can just ram a sword through his chest early and then be done with it.

Minna (as Myra): Minx, we may want to be a little more cautious than that.

Josie (as Minx): That’s true.

Kim (as Blaire): We just killed Madam Tesslyn not too long ago. We need to be a little bit more sparing about our blood trail.

Rhi: [laughing] Rigney moves to put his hands over his ears like “I shouldn’t be hearing this!”

Josie (as Minx): Right, but if the Circle is dead then there will be no one to follow the trail, eh?

Rhi (as Rigney): I mean, I think the Bluecoats would probably still investigate somewhat.

Josie (as Minx): Eh… fine. Let’s buy another building, everyone.

Rhi: So, we see sort of the wavy flashback lines, and then we see Minx at a party. It’s a nice fancy high-society rich people party. Minx is here for, I would assume, either enjoying the high life, looking for marks, probably both.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: At one point in the course of the evening, Minx, you end up at the bar at the same time as an Akorosian man, looks like he’s probably in his early to mid-30s, light skin, brown hair. What catches your attention about him is that he is impeccably dressed. His fashion is flawless. The season’s latest styles in the latest colors and patterns. This is someone who has that rare combination of both money and taste.

Josie (as Minx): I must say, your cravat is impeccable.

Rhi (as fancy man): Oh, thank you. Not many appreciate the finer points of accessorizing, although I can see you certainly are one who does. What is your name?

Josie: Uh… Lady Redwall. Let’s do it. Let’s throw some Redwall appreciation in there.

Minna: [laughs]

Kim: Yay, Redwall!

Rhi: [laughs] Yeah.

Josie (as Minx): Lady Redwall. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.

Rhi (as fancy man): Ah, a pleasure to meet you. I’m Nicholas Firebird.

Rhi: He says it with kind of that look where he expects you to recognize the name.

Josie: Minx doesn’t off-hand, but her face brightens up anyway.

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie: Because she’s like “shit, that’s a cool name.” [laughs] “I gotta use that.”

Rhi: Yeah. I think as you talk with Nicholas here it eventually comes out through conversation that he is a real estate solicitor. Specifically, it seems like he has—because I think you end up gossiping basically, and anybody who’s purchased property in the last ten years or so in Brightstone has probably gone through him, so he has all kinds of fun and exciting gossip about what people have in their homes, nasty stuff in their finances that had to get covered up, and yeah. I think you have a nice time chatting with this guy, and then didn’t really think anything of it until this moment where you are once again confronted with a real estate problem.

Josie: Yes. [chuckles]

Rhi: And wavy flashback lines return us.

Josie: I think Minx did just straight up zone out for a couple moments.

Rhi: [laughing] Uh-huh!

Josie: And then is suddenly like:

Josie (as Minx): Ah-ha! I believe I know someone who can help.

Kim (as Blaire): You do?

Josie (as Minx): Yes. Has anyone heard of Nicholas Firebird?

Kim (as Blaire): Nuh-uh.

Josie (as Minx): Big time real estate agent in Brightstone. I think we might be able to use him to sneak this back out from under Lord Mora.

Kim (as Blaire): When did you meet a real estate attorney?

Josie (as Minx): At a party some time back. I didn’t think much of it at the time aside from his cravat.

Kim (as Blaire): Oh! Of course, that’s what did it.

Josie (as Minx): Mm-hmm, that and the distinctive name.

Kim (as Blaire): It’s a pretty cool name.

Josie (as Minx): It’s a shame it’s taken by such a prominent person. I was inclined to use that last name as part of an identity. I do believe he has offices somewhere. Shall we go speak with him?

Minna (as Myra): I don’t see why not.

Josie (as Minx): Excellent. No worries, Rigney. The bar will be open for business inside of three days, hopefully.

Kim (as Blaire): Are you all right with that, Rigs?

Rhi (as Rigney): I mean, if I don’t have to shut down my livelihood and move out of my home with  no plans to reestablish either, yeah, that would be great. I would very much appreciate that.

Kim: [sad groan]

Rhi: Yeah, he looks pretty stressed. [laughs]

Josie: [laughs]

Kim: Can I give him a hug, or do you think he would like, not in a hug mood right now?

Rhi: No, he’d go for a hug.

Kim: Okay. Blaire’s just gonna hug him without even saying anything.

Rhi: Yeah, he hugs you back.

Josie: Blaire gives good hugs.

Kim: She does, and Rigney receives them well.

Rhi: [laughs]

Kim: Listen, as a player I just love hugging Rigney.

Minna: [giggles]

Rhi: Yeah, he needs hugs, so it works out.

Kim: I know! Blaire is here to provide.

Rhi: So yeah, I think he will hug you back and pat your shoulders.

Rhi (as Rigney): I mean, probably gonna start packing up some of my stuff just in case, but hopefully in a few days you all can help me unpack it, here.

Josie (as Minx): Have we ever failed you before?

Rhi: [laughs]

Kim: Have we?

Rhi: No, no, but I think he kind of looks a little awkward and vaguely guilty.

Minna: Oh no!

Rhi: You may not have failed him, but he kinda screwed you all over that one time.

Kim: We forgive him!

Rhi: [chuckles]

Kim: We forgave him for that, though. It’s fine.

Rhi: I know, but he still feels guilty.

Rhi (as Rigney): All right, well, if you’re gonna get started on this, better get moving, because that got posted this morning so I basically gotta be out day after tomorrow.

Josie (as Minx): Then let’s hop to it.

Rhi: All right! So, we cut across the city to Brightstone to the very refined law office of Nicholas Firebird, Esquire. I think he has an assistant who will very suspiciously ask for your names.

Josie (as Minx): Lady Elizabeth Redwall. We met the acquaintance of Mr. Firebird at a party and require his assistance in a transaction, or contesting one rather.

Rhi: She narrows her eyes at the three of you.

Rhi (as assistant): I’ll be right back. Please wait here.

Rhi: And heads into the back office. I think after a few minutes she comes back looking a little displeased and is followed by Nicholas Firebird who kinda—clearly Blaire and Myra don’t register to him at all, like he clearly doesn’t recognize the two of you—but he kinda squints at Minx for a couple seconds and is like:

Rhi (as Nicholas): Oh, the Evermars’ party, right? You liked my cravat!

Josie (as Minx): Yes! Precisely. It’s good to see you again.

Rhi (as Nicholas): Yes, good to see you.

Josie (as Minx): And I see your taste hasn’t wavered at all.

Rhi (as Nicholas): [chuckles] I would hope not. This is a bit unconventional. Usually I set up appointments for this sort of thing, but if you can tell me briefly about what you need I might be able to…

Josie (as Minx): Unfortunately, the problem came to light this morning, so it unfortunately didn’t have the prep time that I think both of us would prefer. An associate of ours who sits in opposition to a member of high society is having a very important place essentially bought out from under them on very short notice, and it seems very clear that it’s not on the up and up, so we were hoping you could help us get to the bottom of that.

Rhi (as Nicholas): Hmm, well it’s gonna honestly depend on who the member of high society is, because I have a certain reputation to maintain. Do you know who is trying to make this purchase?

Josie (as Minx): Right, right, it’s no big deal, really. It’s just Lord Mora.

Rhi (as Nicholas): Lord Alistair Mora?

Josie (as Minx): Uh-huh.

Rhi (as Nicholas): … I’m in.

Minna: [laughs]

Josie (as Minx): Wow. All right.

Kim (as Blaire): Yeah?

Rhi: [laughing] He just walks back, and his assistant just groans and rolls her eyes really theatrically, and he’s just like:

Rhi (as Nicholas): I don’t wanna hear it. Please, come in. Tell me everything.

[laughter]

Kim (as Blaire): What’s your history with Lord Mora?

Rhi (as Nicholas): Lord Mora? None. His lawyer, however…

Rhi: [laughs] He sits down very huffily at his desk.

Rhi (as Nicholas): His lawyer, Milo Virtos, has been a longstanding rival of mine.

Rhi: Then I think as the door is closing you just hear the assistant go:

Rhi (as assistant): That’s not all he was!

Minna: [laughs]

Kim: Uh…

Josie: [smiling] Minx is suddenly beaming and has her hands to her cheeks.

Josie (as Minx): I do believe we walked in on something amazing.

Rhi: [laughs]

Kim (as Blaire): Minx, I don’t think we should pry any further about…

Josie (as Minx): Oh, no need.

Kim (as Blaire): [grumbles]

Josie (as Minx): Continue.

Rhi: [laughing] Minx is like, I have all the details that I need about this situation, and I’m thrilled.

Josie: [laughs]

Kim (as Blaire): [quietly] We don’t want to make him uncomfortable. We barely know this guy.

Rhi: I think as Blaire is muttering that he just leans back in his chair and is like:

Rhi (as Nicholas): It was a very messy breakup, and now any opportunity I have to screw him over I will gladly take. So, tell me everything about this deal.

Josie (as Minx): Yes. Well, Lord Mora is attempting to buy out The Hound’s Paw tavern in Nightmarket. It’s kind of a community establishment and one we frequent and patronize and have friends there, ahem, as it were. It would mean a lot to us if that could remain open for business and decidedly out of Lord Mora’s hands, because we are not fans of him.

Rhi: He nods, and I think he will ask a few questions of you and then at some point gets up and opens the door and tells his assistant to run down to the Hall of Records before they close and pull these files, and she’s just like:

Rhi (as assistant): I’m charging you overtime!

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi (as Nicholas): Fine! Fine! That’s fine, just get me the papers. We only have two days!

Rhi: I think after, he gets a little information from you and he says that he will continue to get some info on his end, so I think we gloss over that and then he says:

Rhi (as Nicholas): All right. What is your ideal end game here? Do you just want the sale to not go through? Would you prefer that your friend own the place at the end of this?

Josie (as Minx): Preferably Rigney would own the place, because the person who owns it now seems more than willing to get rid of it.

Rhi (as Nicholas): Yes. I think I can arrange that with the right paperwork and signatures on the correct forms. Don’t worry about the money. The money’s already changed hands, I just need to make it look like it came from different places.

[giggling]

Josie (as Minx): I see.

Rhi: He just shrugs a little.

Rhi (as Nicholas): You don’t get to be the top real estate attorney in a city like Duskwall if you play by the rules.

Josie (as Minx): I think we will get along well in that regard.

Rhi (as Nicholas): The only thing that I can’t really come up with on my own is the deed to the building. That’s a very official document, and if we want this to be ironclad we’re going to need that.

Josie (as Minx): Although, won’t it be questioned how you came to be in possession of that document?

Rhi (as Nicholas): No, that’ll go into my whole—part of the argument I’m going to be making here is that the current landlord didn’t actually have standing to sell it because he didn’t actually have the deed, because you’re gonna take it. It’s sort of complex, but basically by him not having the deed it’ll help our case.

Josie (as Minx): I see.

Rhi (as Nicholas): And potentially slow things down. If nothing else it’ll buy us a little bit of time if Milo has to scramble around to find that.

Rhi: He kind of rubs his hands together. [laughs]

Josie: [laughs]

Josie (as Minx): Excellent.

Kim (as Blaire): So, I hate to be the one to bring this up, but… you’re doing this for us pro bono?

Rhi (as Nicholas): Hmm… You know, I got so wrapped up in the idea of sticking it to Milo that I sort of forgot about payment.

Rhi: The assistant outside, you just hear a thunk as her head hits the desk.

[laughter]

Rhi (as Nicholas): I am afraid I would need to charge you. Normally for something like this I would charge 4 coin a week, but this being a rush job I would actually normally charge more for that. I think typically we’d be looking at 6 coin for something like this. However, you are granting me an opportunity that I very rarely get. Milo deliberately avoids cases where I am involved, because he’s a coward who won’t face me… Anyway.

Josie: Minx giggles.

[laughter]

Rhi (as Nicholas): I will… Let’s say 3 coin for this.

Josie (as Minx): I see. I think we can manage that.

Rhi: He will also tell you:

Rhi (as Nicholas): Also, you do not pay me until the job is done, so you do not have to pay anything upfront. Once I have settled all of this for you and your friend, then you will pay me. Also, I think it might be easiest, because I’m going to need some information from your friend Mr. Rigney as well… I may just, I’ll check with him but save you a trip as well, may just set up in his bar and operate out of there for the next couple days. I haven’t been down to Nightmarket in a while.

Josie (as Minx): Yes, well we would be glad to see you there.

Rhi (as Nicholas): All right. Well, yes, I think if you can get me the deed to the property I can handle the rest.

Josie (as Minx): Then it’s a deal.

Rhi (as Nicholas): Wonderful. This is gonna be fun.

[laughter]

Josie: As they leave, Minx is like:

Josie (as Minx): [delighted] We’re helping out with a spurned lover revenge scene.

[laughter]

Minna (as Myra): It does rather fit our mandate, doesn’t it?

Josie (as Minx): It definitely fits mine.

Minna: [giggles]

Rhi: Do y’all wanna start working on gathering some info about how to obtain the deed to a property?

Kim: Yes.

Josie: Yes. Who owns said property?

Rhi: This you would be able to get from Rigney. The owner is named Lucas Sharrin.

Josie: Okay.

Rhi: Landlord. He owns a few properties in Nightmarket and rents them out to businesses, apartments, that sort of thing. Pretty typical setup from what Rigney has said.

Josie: How would we go about tracking down his other properties?

Rhi: There’s records that you could look up in Charterhall.

Josie: I’m thinking we figure out another property of his, stage some sort of problem at said property to get him to go there, and then while he is out we slip in and retrieve the deed.

Rhi: Okay.

Josie: Provided that it’s in his home, which it may not be.

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie: Research isn’t really my thing.

Kim: I want to roll a Study to get a feel for how Milo operates just in the off chance that he interferes early, what to expect from him.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah. I think also, Josie had the idea of somebody checking the records in Charterhall but it sounded like not wanting Minx to do that herself.

Josie: Yes.

Minna: I mean, Myra’s definitely done that in the past, so I can take that if you want.

Rhi: Yeah, and then maybe Minx can scout out his place?

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah. Let’s actually start with Myra hitting up the records hall.

Minna: That is a critical.

Rhi: [laughs]

Kim: What?

Josie: Nice.

Minna: I rolled four dice and got two 6s.

Rhi: On a Study roll?

Minna: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Nice. Okay, so you are able to find information about all the properties that he owns I think including the recently filed I guess contract bill of sale for The Hound’s Paw, and that includes some information about what’s gonna happen to the place. Lord Mora is planning on tearing it down and building a building of multiple shops and apartments and things on the site.

Minna: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: So, you know that that’s kind of what’s happening with The Hound’s Paw. You also find that he owns a building that has a stationary store, sells papers and ink and pens, and has a couple apartments above it, and then a high end cobbler shoe shop that also has an apartment above it. It seems to be kind of the kind of building. The Hound’s Paw has an apartment over it where Rigney lives, so it seems to be that’s sort of his setup where he will rent a building to somebody where they can live and work in the same space.

Josie: Gotcha.

Rhi: So, you got a critical. Is there any other information that you would like on that, Myra?

Minna: Yeah. I mostly wanted to know, like, are we looking at his house or at an office for trying to find these, this stuff?

Rhi: Oh yeah, probably it seems like the landlording is his primary source of income now, so you’re guessing probably at his house.

Minna: Okay, that makes sense.

Rhi: There doesn’t seem to be anything… yeah. It doesn’t seem like he has a business address listed on any of these. So, let’s then go to Minx who is scoping out Mr. Sharrin’s house.

Josie: Yes. I actually kinda wanna scope out several properties if I can.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah. What do you wanna—Oh, do you wanna look at his house and then the places he owns?

Josie: Yes.

Rhi: Yeah, go for it. All of them are in Nightmarket, so you can just kinda stroll around.

Josie: Cool. I’m gonna roll Survey. I got a 6.

Rhi: Okay! Good score for you all so far.

Kim: Don’t jinx it.

Rhi: So yeah, he’s got a nice townhome in Nightmarket, and then the other two businesses that he rents out look pretty similar to The Hound’s Paw just in terms of the clientele that they’re aimed at. The Hound’s Paw is kind of a middle to upper middle class sports bar, which makes the fact that you all picked it as your hangout spot wild in retrospect.

[laughter]

Kim: Yeah, we don’t do a sport.

Rhi: A little bit, just a smidge. Yeah, so the other two are kind of aimed at a similar clientele. They both seem to be pretty successful businesses. You go and hang out outside of both of them for a little bit, and there’s a good number of people coming in and out. The businesses are both operating well, which means, in this context, that they are both steady sources of income.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: Which is probably why he felt like he could get away with selling off one of his buildings, especially if he’s getting a—well Myra would have been able to see that Lord Mora paid handsomely for this property, like a lot of money, more than it’s probably worth.

Minna: Yeah. This is also spite-motivated I’m assuming.

Rhi: A little bit. There’s a little bit of spite, yeah.

Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: You all did recently kill one of his compatriots, so there’s maybe a little bit of vengeance happening here. Yeah, is there anything in particular that you would like to learn about any of these buildings, Minx?

Josie: Honestly, given kind of how mundane they are, I think we can probably just go in through the house and not worry about it.

Rhi: Okay.

Josie: I think Minx had the idea and checked it out, and it didn’t pan out this time.

Rhi: Yeah. Did you wanna get anything in particular about his house?

Josie: Yeah, general layout and if there’s any security measures that I can see.

Rhi: Yeah. It looks like it’s a pretty typical Nightmarket brick townhome. Sort of a narrower building, three stories tall. From what you can see of the security, you can kinda see that there’s definitely some spark-craft security on the place. It doesn’t appear to have any security guards on staff. He doesn’t have that kind of money.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: But it looks like he’s got a pretty solid spark-craft security system that would set off alarms and alert any nearby patrolling Bluecoats that something is amiss.

Josie: Gotcha. Okay, so it might be a fairly simple breaking and entering. I feel like our current plan would be to break in and take a bunch of other stuff.

Minna: Oh yeah, so he doesn’t realize that…

Kim: Ah.

Josie: Yeah, and not that we specifically targeted the deed.

Kim: I mean, that way we can also profit for once.

[laughter]

Rhi: Oh my God!

Josie: Yeah. We’re actually gonna ransack a place. What the hell?

Rhi: Okay, and then Blaire, you wanted to follow up on Milo and see what his deal is?

Kim: Yes. Yeah, I actually already rolled earlier. I got a 3, 4, 5.

Rhi: Okay, so a 5. I think that if you ask… I’m picturing the next morning, like you all kind of check in at The Hound’s Paw and Nicholas has already set up at one of the tables. Rigney is a little bemused by this situation. [laughs] He was not actually expecting this to happen. I think when you all get there the two of them are talking and Rigney is answering a bunch of questions about the building and about his landlord and things like that. He will wrap up his conversation with Rigney and then will start chatting with you about what Milo’s operating style is like as a lawyer.

Kim: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: I think the 5 here is reflective of the fact that you kind of have to take a lot of what he says with a grain of salt.

Kim: Yes.

Rhi: Because he is more than happy to exaggerate any flaws. He does say that Milo is very organized. He will begrudgingly admit that Milo is good at his job, and he’s been on retainer for Lord Mora for a while now, and he I think in particular wants to make sure that this deal goes smoothly. This was kind of unbeknownst to all of you, and Nick still has not made the connection of who you all actually are, but the Ink Row deal was a thing that Milo would have worked on.

Minna: Mmm…

Kim: Oh.

Josie: Ah.

Rhi: So he lost out on that, because that all fell apart because of all of you.

[chuckling]

Kim: Huh.

Rhi: So, I think that… Nicholas suspects that he’s gonna be very determined to make sure that this goes smoothly.

Kim: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Nicholas is like:

Rhi (as Nicholas): And I am equally determined to make sure that it blows up in the street.

Josie: [laughs]

Kim: I’m just trying to keep on the lookout for any updated autopsy reports that are coming our way.

[laughter]

Rhi: So, you’ve got a target. I’m guessing this is gonna be Stealth?

Josie: Yes.

Kim: Yes.

Rhi: Engagement roll… All right, that is a 5.

Kim: [groan/sigh of relief]

Josie: Phew.

Rhi: Starting—Yeah, the other one was a 2. So, you are gonna be starting in a risky position.

 

 

## Score [0:31:13]

Rhi: You kinda spend that day after you meet Nicholas doing your research. I think you talk to him and Rigney about the plan, leave the two of them chatting at The Hound’s Paw, and you gear up, make your way out into Nightmarket again, head over to another townhome. It feels kinda similar to the other score that you did recently.

Minna: [giggles] I was getting deja vu.

Rhi: But as you’re making your way over, all three of you start to get the feeling that you’re being followed.

Josie: Hmm.

Kim: How so?

Rhi: It’s hard to pin down. It’s a little bit of that, like, just that you see things out of the corner in your eye, like movement that when you turn there’s nothing there, that hair on the back of your neck standing up feeling like somebody’s watching you.

Kim: [creeped out noises]

Rhi: Nothing solid that you can pin down, it’s just a feeling, but nothing happens as you make your way.

Kim: Can I look into the ghost field?

Rhi: Yeah. I think that you get to the townhome, and Blaire, you kind of decide to check around before heading in. So yeah, go ahead and do that. It’s gonna be risky.

Kim: Six, five, one.

Rhi: Six… Okay. Sorry, I gotta read about something here.

Kim: That’s okay.

Rhi: You kinda stop near the back of the house. Minx and Myra are probably looking up at the windows and quietly discussing the best way in. Blaire, you look back and into the ghost field and kind of scan the area behind you.

Kim: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: It looks pretty typical. There’s a lot of the fainter outlines of living people. There’s a handful of ghosts drifting around. There’s little dots here and there of various little occult charms that people have tucked away. Then, you kinda let your gaze drift up a little bit, and it looks like on the roof of a building, a couple buildings back, so your regular sight you wouldn’t be able to see it…

Kim: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: …but in the ghost field you can, there is a humanoid figure that is just blindingly bright in the ghost field.

Kim: Oh… and I’ve seen this before, haven’t I?

Rhi: You have seen it before. It’s been quite a while. Way, way back in Season 1 when you all attacked that ship that was stopped out in the harbor, that’s where you got the Eye of Kotar, something was attacking the crew and the Umbra Hunters who came on to stop you, and as you were leaving you saw a figure standing on the deck that looked a lot like that. Very, very bright.

Josie: Wow, that’s a hell of a callback.

Kim: Yeah, I don’t know how I remembered that, but I just knew that… having the out of character information that I have, knowing that Blaire has seen this before.

Rhi: Yeah, but I don’t think Blaire knows what it is necessarily. I don’t know if she…

Kim: Yeah, I don’t think she knows what it is either, but do you think she would make the connection like oh, I’ve seen this before a long time ago?

Rhi: I think so. Yeah, I think she would remember that she’s seen it before, but she doesn’t know what it is. She didn’t know what it was then, she doesn’t know what it is now.

Kim: Okay. Blaire’s gonna take her mask off and just say:

Kim (as Blaire): We’re being tailed.

Josie (as Minx): By whom?

Kim (as Blaire): I don’t know, but something on the roof’s following us.

Josie (as Minx): Something? I can’t help but notice the terminology there.

Kim (as Blaire): I don’t know if it’s a person.

Josie (as Minx): [heavy exhale]

Kim (as Blaire): It’s not a ghost either. It’s something in between, or something more. I can’t really tell.

Josie (as Minx): Could it be Ojal?

Kim (as Blaire): No… No.

Kim: Out of character, does Ojal have a signature? She must, right?

Rhi: I don’t think that you had a chance to look at her in the ghost field.

Kim: Hmm, that would track.

Josie: Although we did encounter hulls before.

Rhi: Yes. I think that, yeah, because hulls are around in the city, so Blaire I think that you would know that hulls look like just a brightly glowing point just kinda floating in space. Like, the hull body doesn’t show up in the ghost field at all because it’s just made of metal, but there’s—Actually, I take that back. What you see is there’s this glowing central point and then there’s the lines that carry the electroplasm out, so it looks like a network of veins almost running out through whatever form.

Kim: Oh, oh-oh-oh, I see. It’s very webby?

Rhi: Kinda, yeah.

Josie: It’s like you’re seeing the circuitry.

Kim: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Yes, exactly. It looks very different than this. This is just a humanoid figure that is solidly glowing very brightly, so you’re pretty sure not a hull.

Kim: Yeah, all right. So yeah, Blaire’s gonna relay all that back to the group and just be like:

Kim (as Blaire): Hulls are different from this.

Josie (as Minx): I don’t think we can press on knowing that’s there.

Kim (as Blaire): I don’t know how we’ll get to it, though. We’ll probably spook it off.

Josie (as Minx): Well, if it spooks away then that is good for us.

Kim (as Blaire): Do you think we should get rid of it before we get closer to the house?

Josie (as Minx): Yes.

Minna (as Myra): Yeah, I’m not really comfortable with that following us.

Josie (as Minx): Where precisely is it?

Kim (as Blaire): The rooftops, behind us, a couple leagues back. Does anyone have any ideas?

Minna: If we look, can we see it also.

Rhi: If you two look into the ghost field, yeah. You don’t have to roll Attune now that Blaire has kinda told you what to look for. Yeah, you can both see it.

Minna (as Myra): Interesting.

Josie (as Minx): I say we just ascend to a rooftop and get its attention.

Kim (as Blaire): As quietly as we can. The more time we can buy getting closer to it the more time I can study it.

Josie (as Minx): Yes. Okay. I say we move a little bit towards the house, duck into a side alley, and then climb up to the roof as best we can.

Kim (as Blaire): Sounds like a plan.

Rhi: All right. So, the plan is to climb up to the roof, try and deal with this…?

Kim: Yep.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Okay. So yeah, I think I’m gonna need a roll for climbing up to a roof.

Josie: Group Prowl perhaps?

Rhi: Yeah, that would make sense. Does somebody wanna mark climbing gear?

Kim: Yes, I can.

Josie: Who wants to lead it?

Minna: I can lead.

Josie: Okay. Well, I got 3s, so… [chuckles]

Kim: I got a 5.

Minna: I got a 5, so I’m only marking 1 stress.

Josie: Woo.

Rhi: Yeah, 1 point of stress and the result is a 5, so you do it but there’s a consequence. I think that… Are you getting onto the roof of the house that you’re robbing or like next door?

Kim: I would say next door.

Josie: Yeah.

Rhi: Okay. You climb up onto the roof, you’re going slow and quiet, you make it up, and I think that you all get up there and you check the ghost field to see where this thing is… and it’s not where you left it.

Josie: Where is it?

Rhi: Well, you all kind of have a moment of panic and look around very frantically, and then you see the light of it coming down from what looks like a pretty impressive jump, and it lands on the opposite end of the roof from all of you.

Josie: Oh no!

Rhi: It’s on the same roof as you.

Josie: I think Minx is gonna kind of recoil in fright and stammer out:

Josie (as Minx): Hello?

Rhi: So, if you are looking with your normal sight, not ghost vision, it’s hard to make out a lot of distinguishing features. The person is wearing a fairly nice form-fitting coat that goes down to mid-calf, they have a hood up that is shielding a lot of their face, and a voice that you do not recognize says:

Rhi (as ???): I hadn’t expected the opportunity for payback so soon, but I suppose when it falls into my lap…

Josie: Oh dear.

Kim (as Blaire): Who are you?!

Josie (as Minx): Yes, that doesn’t exactly narrow it down.

Rhi: They’d sort of landed in a crouch and they slowly straighten up and start slowly moving towards you.

Rhi (as ???): Well, I suppose you wouldn’t recognize me anymore after what you did to my body.

Josie (as Minx): Oh dear.

Minna (as Myra): What was your name?

Rhi: I think that they are close enough now. Again, you can see the face, a random Akorosian person, like they have light skin, that’s kind of all you can tell, but they give you this horrible toothy slasher smile and just say…

Rhi (as ???): Tesslyn.

Rhi: …and she’s gonna lunge at Minx.

Josie: Oh no. Agh!

Kim: Ahh!

Josie (as Minx): [yelps]

Rhi: [laughs] I’m gonna need… She’s trying to tackle you off the roof, so I will need you to roll resistance to keep from being hurled three stories to the alley below.

Josie: Okay! That’s a Prowess resist.

Rhi: Yes.

Josie: What does a Devil’s Bargain look like?

Rhi: Oh… So this Devil’s Bargain is submitted by Patreon backer KrysmPhoenix, thank you Krysm, and the Bargain is: The death bell tolls but not for you. Spirit Wardens are in the area already for a simple pickup.

Josie: Huh…

Rhi: So, you’ve got a vampire and there would be Spirit Wardens nearby who might take notice of this situation.

Josie: But at the same time they might help with the vampire.

Rhi: They might.

Kim: They might… Two things though.

Josie: Yeah, you know what… Uh-huh?

Kim: Here’s my hang-up about reporting them to the Bluecoats which is… Sorry, no, not the Bluecoats, my hang-ups on reporting them to the Spirit Wardens. One, would the Spirit Wardens recognize Blaire, and two…

Rhi: [chuckles]

Kim: I had a second point. I’m trying to remember it.

Josie: I mean, the fact that Blaire carries ghosts on her at any given time is a pretty good counter-argument. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah, it’s up to you, Josie.

Kim: Oh! Yeah, no, sorry. The second thing is that it’s all going to depend on how fast we put two and two together in character.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: You all know that this is some kind of spooky occult shit. You may not exactly have the word vampire, but you know it’s spooky occult shit.

Josie: I imagine there’s kind of a cultural perception of vampires, right? But it’s probably just like Bram Stoker kind of stuff? We don’t “know” that this is how vampires happen, unless you’re Blaire?

Rhi: No, I think that it is known that vampires happen when a spirit possesses a dead body.

Josie: Okay.

Rhi: They can feed on a lot of things. They need to feed on mortals, but it’s not necessarily blood. I think that is a thing that is kind of a little bit of the stereotype, but there are stories of other vampires that can feed on emotions or things like that.

Josie: Right, so once we put it together that it’s a vampire we’ll understand what that is.

Rhi: Yeah. There also just like superhumanly powerful.

Josie: Right.

Rhi: Yeah, so with all of that, do you want this Bargain?

Josie: See, for Blaire and Kim’s sake I don’t think I can…

Kim: [exhales]

Josie: You don’t sound excited.

Kim: Well no, I am excited, I’m just thinking. I mean, we could split up, even though that goes against the crew’s ethos at this point.

Josie: No. You know what? Let’s have an epic rooftop duel. I’m not gonna take that Devil’s Bargain.

Minna: Oh my God. [laughs]

Rhi: Okay. [laughs]

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: All right, then go ahead and make your resistance roll. It will be Prowess to keep from being hurled off the roof.

Josie: I got a 5.

Rhi: Five, okay, so you’re gonna take 1 point of stress.

Josie: Okay.

Rhi: You still… I think that would have been level 3 harm.

Josie: Uh-huh. [chuckles nervously]

Rhi: She’s still, like, I think you have to brace yourself pretty hard, and you still skid backwards a bit, and she hits you hard, like you are pretty banged up from her just linebackering into you, and that’s happening.

Josie (as Minx): Oof. Whoever you’re possessing is quite spry.

Rhi: Yeah, I don’t… She doesn’t seem to be interested in chatting at this point anymore. She looks like she’s… [laughs]

Josie: [laughing] Minx is.

Rhi: Yeah, I mean, it’s Minx. Yeah, what do people wanna do?

Kim: I know Blaire has to be more careful about this now, but I kind of want to unleash a ghost on her.

Rhi: Ooh, interesting.

Kim: Out of character, how would a vampire deal with that? Are they like equipped?

Rhi: I dunno. I have no idea.

Kim: Because they can’t really be re-possessed.

Rhi: I think it’s gonna be… It depends on what you wanna do with the ghost. Do you want to ask it nicely to do something? Do you want to just unleash it and see what happens?

Kim: I can kind of see this being a Command roll, but I’m also interested in just unleashing it and letting it do its thing.

Rhi: Yeah, so I think just unleashing it is gonna be Attune, or you could try and do a Command.

Kim: Okay. No, no, I have more in Attune.

Rhi: All right. This is gonna be risky, reduced effect.

Kim: Okay, that’s a 5.

Rhi: Okay! So you whip out one of your ghost jars, open it up, a ghost comes screaming out, and it doesn’t seem to have any interest in Tesslyn.

Kim: At all?

Rhi: Because that’s a dead body. Dead bodies aren’t really of any interest to a ghost, and ghosts can’t eat each other.

Kim: Yeah…

Rhi: [laughing] Or the ghost problem would have cleared up years ago.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: So, it’s gonna turn on you and Myra.

Minna: [surprised and displeased noise]

Kim: That’s fine. I can deal with that.

Rhi: So, yeah, I think the complication here is that you’ve added a hungry ghost to the mix. [laughs]

Kim: It’s fine. I can just talk to it and let it go away, or coerce it back into the jar, whatever. Whichever actually works.

Minna: How is Minx doing with this situation?

Josie: She’s still not quite sure what to make of it.

Rhi: Minx is holding her own.

Minna: Okay.

Rhi: She’s not been thrown off the roof, but it’s clearly a struggle.

Minna: [laughing] This is silly, but are there any folk superstitions about what you can do to a vampire?

Kim: [laughs]

Rhi: Oh, like silver or holy symbols or the like?

Minna: Yeah.

Josie: Garlic.

Rhi: Garlic.

Minna: I just like the idea of her trying that, but I don’t know what it would be that she would have on-hand.

Rhi: Let me see here. You could try a spirit bane charm. [reading] Vampires are extremely rare… In legend, vampires were destroyed by the rays of the sun. Since the sun was shattered by the Cataclysm this is no longer possible.

Minna: Could I make a deduction that fire might work?

Rhi: Yeah!

Minna: [laughing] I’m gonna try fire, and if that doesn’t work at least I’ll set her on fire.

Rhi: Yeah. The book doesn’t have anything about specific myths, so if you would like to make up some kind of folklore about vampires you can do that, or you can just try and set her on fire.

Kim: Oh, hell, yes.

Josie: [laughs] Counting stuff.

Minna: [laughs uproariously]

Kim: Count–? OH! [claps]

Minna: Yes! Yes please.

Kim: Yes.

Minna: I want to try this dumb, dumb plan on her.

Josie: That’s why Vlad dad is so particular.

Minna: That’s my favorite vampire superstition. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.

Kim: [laughs]

Minna: What do I have that I could just scatter everywhere? Oh boy.

Kim: Pebbles?

Minna: I feel like burglary gear might have, like, you know, the classic ball bearings you scatter everywhere. [laughs] I don’t know if that’s true. We’re not really into dungeoneering.

Rhi: I’ll allow it. I’ll allow it. Yeah, so if you mark that you have burglary gear I will let you attempt this, risky, reduced effect. God, I don’t even know what this would be in terms of an action.

Minna: [delighted] I don’t even know, my dude. Skirmish?

Rhi: Skirmish, maybe Finesse, uh…

Josie: Honestly, I could see a case for Sway.

Rhi: Yeah, I was gonna say. [laughs]

Minna: Yeah, I think it’s Sway.

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna: Well, I rolled a crit.

Rhi: Are you fucking kidding me?

Josie: [laughs]

Minna: I rolled two dice and they both came up 6! The gods want this.

Rhi: Oh my God…

[laughter]

Kim: I love it.

Minna: You made a gamble and you lost.

Rhi: I did. I did! I got… yeah, no. I mean, I was literally sitting here being like the only way this is actually gonna work is if she gets a critical, which you did, so I am beholden to the promise I made myself.

Minna: [giggles]

Kim: I love it.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: So, describe what this…

Minna: [catching her breath, laughing]

Rhi: How do you do this?

Minna: Oh God.

Rhi: And then I will describe her reaction.

Minna: Okay, so I scatter basically a bunch of jacks on the floor.

Rhi: Well, so you’re on a roof.

Minna: On the roof.

Rhi: Yeah, I’m picturing that it’s a sloped roof and you all are kind of up on the top edge, so I think that they kind of scatter down and some of them catch on the tiles, and… I can’t believe this fucking worked.

Minna: [laughs]

Rhi: Struggling with Minx, hears this clattering of many small objects, kind of looks away, does a double-take, shoves Minx away, and scurries after them and starts frantically collecting them, and you can hear muttering counting under her breath as she’s picking them up.

Kim: … You’re kidding.

Rhi: She got a critical. I have to… that particular…

Minna: [giggling] You didn’t have to make it work in the exact way.

Rhi: By virtue…

Kim: It’s just… no, I understand mechanically.

Rhi: By virtue of the dice, this has been willed into truth.

Kim: I understand the mechanics. The mental image is just extremely hilarious to me.

Minna: It’s amazing.

Rhi: I mean, it’s a silly superstition.

Minna: It’s the best.

Rhi: Because the thing that they usually would advise is to like dump rice on your porch and the vampire would have to sit there and count all the rice and then the sun would come up and they would burn.

Minna: Oh. Yeah, it’s a distraction, it’s not like a fix, so somebody has to capitalize on this.

Rhi: Yeah, this is distracting her, this is not solving the problem.

Josie: Uh-huh. Minx kinda just looks at Myra like, uh, what’s going on? [laughs]

Rhi: I feel like at this point that’s when it clicks for Blaire and Minx, because I think you would both be familiar with that particular piece of vampire legend where you’re like, wait, vampires do that, wait, she’s a vampire?!

Minna: Wait, did I just guess that she was a vampire? I’m sorry.

Josie: In that case, I have a very important Minx reaction.

Rhi: Uh-huh?

Josie (as Minx): Wait, Tesslyn, you’re a vampire now? What kind of self-respecting vampire looks like that? Where is your black lace high collar? Where is your crimson cape? I’m very disappointed in you.

Rhi: [laughs] What did you say that you had dropped, Minna?

Minna: Uh, basically…

Rhi: Like ball bearings, or tacks?

Minna: I’m just picturing them being like those jacks that you play kids’ games with. I don’t know why she has those on her person.

Rhi: Oh! Caltrops. Little pointy caltrops?

Minna: Yeah, I guess they’re caltrops.

Rhi: She has a handful of those, and she throws them at you, Minx.

Josie: [yelps] And yes, Minx, I feel like it fits her reckless nature to waste her action fretting over the fashion of the situation. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah, goading the fucking vampire. So yeah, she throws them at you. I think you’re gonna take level 1 harm.

Josie: But I can resist that, right?

Rhi: You can, yeah. She’s throwing them with vampire strength, so like, it hits with a lot more speed and force than you would expect.

Josie: Oh geez. Yeah, I think I’m just gonna roll Prowess resist.

Josie (as Minx): Ah, not the face!

Rhi: Yeah, basically.

Josie: I got a 6.

Rhi: Okay, yeah, so you manage to dodge out. You duck, and they go sailing over your head, but it was close.

Josie: Uh-huh. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah, so… she is, for the moment, distracted. What would you like to do with this particular moment?

Josie: I think I wanna turn the tables, and knowing that the body she’s possessing is dead now, try and bulrush her off the roof. This may not go well.

Rhi: Okay. Mm-hmm.

Josie: I feel like this is a Wreck.

Rhi: Yeah, I’ll allow that.

Josie: And I’m gonna push myself on it.

Rhi: Okay, so this is gonna be risky, reduced effect.

Josie: Oh… You know what, I’m gonna push myself to increase effect instead.

Rhi: Okay.

Josie: I got a 5.

Rhi: So, you bulrush her, and I think she had kinda gotten close to the edge of the roof, because some of these had slid down into the gutter, so you hit her and she starts to go over the side, and she grabs onto you to take you down with her.

Josie: Uh-oh.

Rhi: I think you manage to, as she’s trying to drag you down with her, scrabble around and grab onto the gutter, so you’re hanging onto the gutter with your hands and she’s hanging onto your legs.

Josie: Oh dear.

Rhi: So you are in a desperate position, hanging on for dear life with a vampire on your legs.

Josie (as Minx): [yelps, breathes heavily] A bit of help, dears?

Rhi: Yeah. [laughs] So, Myra, Blaire?

Kim: Yeah. Blaire’s gonna rush over to help, I just don’t know what that help looks like.

Rhi: Oh, what happened… Right, I forgot that there was another ghost flitting around up there too. That’ll come into play, I’m sure.

Kim: Oh right. Should I clean that up first before I help?

Rhi: I dunno. Do you want me to have it available as a potential consequence?

Kim: I do not! Okay, yeah, let me clean up that mess. Minna, are you okay with going after Josie?

Minna: Yeah.

Kim: Okay.

Rhi: [laughs] I feel like Blaire starts to run towards the edge of the roof and then gets really cold as this ghost moves in on her and she’s like AHH.

Kim: Yep, that’s exactly what happens.

Kim (as Blaire): AGH! Oh geez!

Kim: Totally forgot about it.

Rhi: Yeah, so did I.

Kim: Yeah, I’m just gonna push myself and roll Consort for this one, just try to talk it down.

Rhi: Talk it back into the jar? Yeah.

Kim: Like usual.

Rhi: It’s gonna be risky, standard effect for this since this is a regular old ghost.

Kim: Okay, great, a 4 and a 6.

Rhi: Six, okay. Yeah, I think it takes some coaxing, but you’re able to convince the ghost, like, no-no-no, back in the jar, I’m sorry.

Kim (as Blaire): Sweetheart. Sweetheart? Baby? [frustrated grumbling]

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: It will eventually go back in the jar.

Kim (as Blaire): In! Now! Get in!

Josie: [laughs]

Kim: She’s just talking to it like a cat.

Rhi: Yeah. [laughs] So while Blaire is arguing with a ghost, Myra, what are you doing?

Minna: I am trying to haul Minx back over the edge of the roof.

Rhi: Okay. That is gonna be I think a Prowl, most likely.

Minna: Okie-doke.

Rhi: Risky position, and again, reduced effect, because you’re not just hauling Minx. She has another person.

Minna: Gonna push myself for better effect.

Rhi: Okay.

Minna: That’s a 6.

Rhi: I mean, so you haul Minx up, but Tesslyn is still hanging onto her, so Tesslyn comes up too, and I think once she is within arm’s reach of the gutter kind of launches herself away from Minx and grabs the roof and pulls herself back up as well, and kinda moves a few steps away from you. It looks like she is regrouping the same way that you are as well at this point. So, you still have an angry vampire looking for revenge interfering with your ability to just steal a couple pieces of paper, and probably some other stuff. You were gonna lift some other stuff.

Josie: Uh-huh. Minx is gonna groan and be like:

Josie (as Minx): Ugh, at least you’re wearing a cloak while doing these acrobatics.

Rhi: Minx’s priorities are flawless, really.

Josie: Yeah, and she’s also maybe trying not to focus, the person she put a lot of emotional energy into killing is standing in front of her again.

Rhi: Yeah, yeah…

Josie: Anything to avoid revisiting the trauma. [laughs]

Rhi: Yep.

Josie: Huh… What do I want to do? So real quick, we’re on a sloped tiled roof?

Rhi: Basically.

Josie: Okay. I’m trying to think what I would reasonably have when preparing for a normal house heist that could be used to knock tiles loose.

Rhi: Burglary gear? That would have a crowbar.

Josie: Yeah. Yeah, you know what, crowbar time. Instead of attacking her I’m gonna take her footing away.

Rhi: Okay, so you’re gonna try and knock the tiles out from under her?

Josie: Yes.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah, so this is still gonna be risky position, reduced effect. You’re basically dealing with a vampire, you’re kind of always gonna be at reduced effect.

Josie: Mm-hmm. [uneasy noises] That’s a 2.

Rhi: That is a 2. I’m gonna put this… I’m gonna crowdsource this one. So, vampires in Blades in the Dark feed on life essence, and stereotypically it would be by drinking blood, but most vampires actually do not. They drain life essence in other forms. It could be a particular emotion. It could be memories. It could be anything like that. It could be energy. What do we think Tesslyn feeds on?

Josie: Hmm…

Minna: Social power.

Josie: In that case I think maybe like fear or desperation?

Rhi: Yeah! Although I almost like the idea that… so, that she can temporarily damage your reputation. If she feeds on you, you just have this aura that people just don’t wanna talk to you as much, like they’re just put off from you.

Josie: She feeds on charisma.

Rhi: Yeah! Yeah. I like that. That’s really cool.

Josie: No! That makes her the bane of every single one of my characters.

Rhi: [laughs] I know!

Kim: [gritted groan]

Minna: That’s why she’s such a good nemesis for you.

Rhi: Yeah! Yeah.

Kim: You played yourself.

Rhi: So, and vampires, they also leave some kind of mark on their victims. You had gotten a 2, so I think you start trying to take out the tiles under her feet, you’re swinging this crowbar, and she kinda jumps backwards away from the tiles that you’re knocking down and then she just jumps and tackles you and pins you down and has her hand over your face.

Josie: Oh dear.

Rhi: And Minx, you can feel something being drained out of you. I think that you end up with, like…

Minna: Maybe just a lack of confidence behind the eyes?

Rhi: Yeah… Yeah.

Kim: Like a little bit glazed over maybe?

Rhi: Yeah, I think that works. I was trying to think of something that would kind of be representative of that off-putting feeling, so yeah, I think that it’s just like… yeah, when she pulls her hand away you can still see fine, Minx, but anybody who would be looking at you would see this glassy-eyed, a little bit unfocused, vacant expression to you. So you’re gonna take… this is gonna be level 2 harm, Charisma Drained basically. [laughs]

Josie: Uh, I’m gonna resist!

Rhi: Yeah. This is gonna be with Resolve.

Josie: Okay. Critical.

Rhi: Okay. You manage to partly fend this off. It’s gonna drop down to a level 1 harm, so you’re gonna be at reduced effect on anything that’s gonna be based on your ability to be charming and sociable.

Josie: Right. I also heal a point of stress.

Rhi: Yeah, you also overcome a point of stress. Tell me, how does that work? How do you mentally fight this off?

Josie: Well, I think it’s just raw force of vanity.

Minna: [laughs]

Josie: [laughing] Just like, you will never take my charm!

Kim: Just absolute petty…

Josie: Yes.

Rhi: [laughs] I love that. That’s very good.

Josie: Like, Minx’s voice is a little softer and a little harder to make out, but she’s like:

Josie (as Minx): You don’t even drink blood. What? You’re such a shitty vampire.

[laughter]

Kim: That’s not what vampires do in this setting!

Josie: But it’s what we understand them to do.

Rhi: I love the idea that Minx has read a bunch of trashy dime novel vampire stories.

Minna: Oh no.

Kim: Yes!

Josie: Oh yes.

Rhi: And that is 100% her conception of what they’re supposed to be, and she’s so disappointed!

Josie: Yes.

Minna: I feel like she’s read, like, what is it… Anne Rice books of Duskwall?

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie: Yeah, of course. Now, we can go full-on, we can get pretty close to Twilight here. Minx doesn’t have—

Minna: Oh my God.

Rhi: [cackles]

Kim: Why not?! Sure.

Josie: Minx doesn’t have standards when it comes to romance novels.

Minna: [claps and laughs]

Kim: There’s definitely a Twilight equivalent of a young adult tragic vampire versus werewolf kind of thing in this setting.

Rhi: Oh my God… Yeah.

Josie: Yeah, of course.

Rhi: Oh my God. Yeah.

Josie: Like, the one standard she has is make it gay or make things ambiguous enough that she can squint her eyes and make it gay. That’s her one standard. [laughs]

Rhi: Jesus. Okay! So Minx got jumped by this vampire and had her charisma partially drained. Blaire, Myra, Minx is being pinned down by vampire Tesslyn. She still has her hand over Minx’s face, and Minx is just kind of flailing and yelling at her about how she’s a shitty vampire who has no fashion.

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: What would you two like to do?

Kim: At this point would you say I’ve completely gotten the ghost in the jar now?

Rhi: Yes.

Kim: Okay.

Rhi: Yeah, you got a 5 or a 6 on that roll previously, so you’re good.

Kim: This is gonna end so poorly, because I’m so squishy, but would you say Tesslyn is distracted enough that I could sneak up behind her and I could try to do a stab?

Rhi: You can try, yeah.

Kim: I feel like Prowl makes the most sense to sneak up to her to do a stab.

Rhi: Yeah, yeah, if you are trying to do an ambush…

Kim: Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Rhi: …Prowl is good.

Kim: Um… Devil’s Bargain?

Rhi: I think that you’re gonna, in whatever ends up happening here, you end up losing the blade that you use.

Kim: Eh, that’s fine.

Rhi: Like, you’ll be able to replace it before your next score, but you will not have access to it for the rest of this one.

Kim: That’s okay.

Rhi: Okay.

Kim: Yeah, I think it’s a pretty expendable blade that Blaire brings along with her for this and not any of her fancy ritual ones.

Rhi: [chuckles]

Kim: Okay, that’s a 5.

Rhi: Okay. So, where on her person are you trying to stab her?

Kim: You know, I can just super picture Blaire just, like, spider-monkeying onto her back and trying to go for the neck.

Rhi: Okay!

Kim: [laughs]

Rhi: I like that. Yeah. So, you jump on her and start trying to stab her in the neck. She jerks upright, releasing Minx, which is a bonus. You do manage to slash her across the side of the neck, once, before she grabs you by the wrist and twists your wrist really sharply and forces you to drop the blade, and it goes skittering off and falls off the roof.

Kim: [seethes] Uh-huh. Right.

Rhi: And then while still holding your wrist she just grabs you and throws you, just across the roof.

Kim: Off—?

Rhi: Not off the roof.

Kim: Okay.

Rhi: No, you were rolling risky not desperate. Desperate would be clear off the roof.

Kim: Yeah. [laughs] Just YEET.

Rhi: Yeah, she yeets you across the roof, and you are gonna take level 2 harm, Battered, as you’ve just been hurled, and your wrist is messed up, you’ve been thrown across a roof, you’re just in bad shape physically.

Kim: What can I roll to resist that?

Rhi: Prowess.

Kim: Okay, 2, 1, 5.

Rhi: Five, okay, you’ll take 1 stress and you can reduce that to level 1 harm.

Kim: All right.

Rhi: So, I think what Minx and Myra notice is that cut on her neck, it’s not really bleeding. I mean, it looks like she cut a corpse.

Kim: Oh! That’s so cool.

Rhi: Bothering her some, she kinda puts her hand over it, but it’s not bleeding.

Kim: Huh.

Rhi: So Myra, I believe you have not acted recently if you’d like to try and do something to deal with this situation.

Minna: Okie-doke, um… [whispering] I don’t know what to do with a vampire.

Josie: I mean, normally my answer would be smooch but not in this case.

[laughter]

Rhi: Unfortunately no.

Minna: I feel like we need a plan.

Rhi: So, this came up a little bit earlier. Part of the traditional vampire lore is that they were harmed by sunlight.

Minna: Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to think of. I think I’m going to try the classic “fire barrier” which I use entirely too much.

Rhi: Mm-hmm. It’s a solid one.

Minna: So I do have a lantern, so let me mark that off. I’m going to try spilling lamp oil in an arc between her and us and lighting it on fire, preferably caging her in on her end of the roof.

Rhi: Okay!

Minna: That’s… What is that going to be?

Rhi: I would say Finesse potentially. That sounds like something that is gonna require some pretty precise aiming and movements.

Minna: Google’s dice roller really likes me. I just critted, again.

Rhi: Again?

Kim: Again?!

Rhi: Good lord… Um, okay. Yeah, I’m gonna just say tell me how you manage to use this fire to drive her off.

Minna: I think actually it does mean she can’t surge towards us. I run towards the edge of the roof and start an arc there, and just like, I’m spilling the oil, shaking it out, and it’s in a half circle around her with the open end on the edge of the roof, and then I set it on fire, and I don’t know how she reacts because that’s up to you.

Rhi: Yeah. I think that she’s lunging for you and then the fire goes and it just flares upwards, and I think this is a little bit similar to the counting thing where she hasn’t been a vampire for very long, she is still learning what she can and cannot do. Things she can do: drain people of their charisma and jump like two blocks in a single bound.

Minna: Hmm!

Rhi: Things she can’t do: resist the urge to count and pass through fire. I think that she just instinctively recoils and hisses, and I think as she’s doing that her cloak kind of flairs out and the edge of her cloak catches fire and she just panics. I think she just jumps away to a different roof, and you can see her, kind of, the flame trailing behind her. I think half way down the next roof she just rips the cloak off and leaves it behind. She just books it. You are now standing on a roof that’s on fire. The roof that she jumped onto, also on fire. Oh… Hmm. Somebody tell me odds or evens.

Kim: Evens.

Rhi: [rolls] All right, you’re in luck. She did not set the house that you’re trying to get into on fire.

Josie: That’s good!

Rhi: [laughs] I was just like, y’all were next door to that, she could have jumped onto his house.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: But I decided to give it a 50/50 chance, and she did not, so she is fleeing away. There’s two rooves that are on fire now but not the one that you need. The house you need is currently not on fire.

Kim: How are we breaking in?

Rhi: You were gonna try and go in through a second story window.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Minna: The classic.

Kim: Well, we’re already on the roof. We can just—And I still have my climbing gear, so should we just jump over the roof and then climb into the window, second story?

Minna: Yes.

Josie: Yeah, let’s freaking do it.

Kim: Yep.

Rhi: Yeah, okay. I think I’m gonna need a roll for that whole maneuver.

Minna: I can lead a group action.

Kim: Please, yeah.

Josie: Cool.

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie: Group Prowl probably?

Rhi: Yes, and this is gonna be… I think it’s gonna be controlled position, standard effect.

Josie: Well, I got a 2 again.

Minna: I got a 4.

Kim: Phew, okay, I got a 6.

Rhi: Heh. So, Myra’s gonna take 1 stress, but you do it. You all, using ropes and stuff, are able to jump across, climb down, I think pop a top floor window and climb inside. I think that as you get inside you start to hear shouting from the street outside, people being like “oh God, fire, fire! Call for the Brigade!” So people outside are reacting to the fire now.

Josie: Oh geez.

Rhi: Yeah.

Josie (as Minx): Uh, let’s make this quick.

Minna (as Myra): Yes.

Kim (as Blaire): Yep.

Josie: Minx is grumbling the whole time about Tesslyn being back and her being a shitty vampire and draining my gorgeous beauty and not even taking blood, and I wanted to be pinned down by a vampire but not like this, and fuck her, and I killed her, and she was supposed to be dead…

Minna: [laughs]

Rhi: Aww.

Kim (as Blaire): Minx, Minx… Minx?

Josie (as Minx): Huh?

Kim (as Blaire): We can rant about Tesslyn after the score.

Josie (as Minx): Very well, dears. Very well.

Kim (as Blaire): Mm-hmm.

Josie (as Minx): Business first.

Kim: Blaire’s just gonna pat her on the shoulder, like there-there.

Josie: Aw. [laughs]

Rhi: Okay, so just as a refresher, your plan had been that you were just gonna kinda ransack the place to make it look like it was just a standard break-in so it wouldn’t be as obvious that you had taken the deed, so if you all still wanna do that…

Minna: Yes.

Josie: Yeah. Ransacking!

Minna: I think we should locate the deed first before ransacking.

Josie: I mean, yeah, probably.

Rhi: Yeah. Can I get odds or evens again from somebody?

Minna: Odds.

Rhi: Odds? All right, Minna said odds. Okay, once again you’re in luck, he’s not home.

Josie: No, no, no!

Minna: Never tell me the odds.

Josie: You can’t tell us the odds.

Minna: [laughs] Thank you!

Kim: Aaah!

Josie: [laughs]

Kim: Very good.

Rhi: [sighs] Anyway. Okay, so he is not home, and I’m gonna say you all can make some rolls to find the deed. It is reasonable to assume it’s in his study.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: So I will give you that, but you’re gonna have to spend some time searching.

Minna: I will happily Study about it.

Josie: Same.

Rhi: Okay. Go ahead. This is gonna be, for the moment, controlled. Four for Josie. What did you get?

Minna: Well I got a 2.

Rhi: Two, okay.

Josie: Oh no.

Rhi: So the result of that, of those two rolls combined, is… yeah. Minx finds the deed. One of the bottom drawers on the desk is locked, but it’s a super cheap lock that you can basically just brute force open.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: Rifle through the papers, find the deed, awesome. As you find it, you can kind of hear distantly the clanging bells of the Brigade approaching and more shouting outside. It seems like the fire that Myra set is spreading.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: So, I’m starting a clock.

Kim: Why?

Rhi: Because they’re fun.

Kim: [stammers, indignant hum]

Josie: [laughs]

Rhi: One out of 5, the Brigade and the Bluecoats arrive on the scene.

Kim: [growls]

Rhi: So that is where you’re at, at this moment. You’ve got the deed, though. You could just go now, or you can take some extra time to try to ransack the place, cover this up.

Josie: I think we have time to shove things in a sack.

Kim: Oh yeah, absolutely, sure we do.

Rhi: Okay! Yeah. Go ahead and everybody… I’m imagining that you’re all gonna kind of fan out for this.

Minna: Mm-hmm.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: Yeah, so each of you give me some kind of roll for how you are going about the ransacking.

Josie: I am going to roll Wreck, because I’m not being subtle or careful about it.

Rhi: Yep, that makes sense.

Josie: I got a 6.

Rhi: Minx, I think you, because you used Wreck, you’re at a little bit of a penalty in terms of how much valuables you’re actually able to acquire, because you are mostly focused on breaking things, I think. You basically end up only grabbing 1 coin worth of stuff, but you do a fucking number on this place. Knocking things over, furniture thrown askew, clothes ripped out of wardrobes. You throw open the cabinets and start breaking plates, because why not. You’ve got some complicated angry feelings to work out.

[laughter]

Rhi: You lay down a lot of mess to confuse any future investigation, so in that you are highly effective. Who wants to go next, Myra or Blaire?

Minna: I’m gonna go ahead and Study about it, because I wanna look for valuables and do precision strikes on those.

Rhi: Okay.

Minna: [sighs] I just rolled another 2.

Rhi: Yeah, I think on a 2 you spend a lot of time. I think I’m also gonna give you a one die roll on that to see how much coin you get. Also only 1 coin worth of stuff. I think that you just get caught up in looking at some of his business papers trying to figure out what this guy’s deal is. Maybe there’s something useful you can take back to Nicholas… but you get distracted. You only manage to grab one small valuable, and it takes time, so we’re ticking that clock up again.

Minna: Yep.

Rhi: Now at 2 out of 5. Blaire?

Kim: You know, I don’t actually picture Blaire being too strategic about it either, so I think I actually want to roll Wreck as well, even though I have nothing in it and I don’t think I’ve ever rolled Wreck before, ever.

Rhi: Yeah, go for it. Yeah.

Josie: [laughs]

Kim: Okay, that’s a 4.

Rhi: You also are kind of following Minx’s model of breaking shit, but you’re actually looking at stuff before you break it.

Kim: Yes.

Rhi: Rolled a 6. So you find something that’s worth 3 coin.

Kim: Ooh, okay.

Rhi: I don’t know what that something is, or it might be multiple somethings, but you find loot that is worth 3 coin.

Kim: Cursed object please?

Rhi: I mean, one of it can be a cursed object. Sure.

Kim: Yay.

Rhi: You got a 4, you said?

Kim: Yes.

Rhi: We’re gonna tick the clock up once more.

Kim: What’s the clock at now?

Rhi: It is at 3 out of 5.

Kim: Ugh, okay.

Rhi: But you have thoroughly trashed this place, between Blaire and Minx this looks pretty bad, but at this point the clanging bells of the Brigade and the Bluecoats are getting louder. You can hear people shouting outside. It sounds like people are trying to organize a bucket brigade to start dealing with it. Myra has just probably burned down an innocent bystander’s home.

Minna: In my defense, there was a vampire~

Rhi: I mean, these things happen. Yeah, so if you all are good with your loot, do you wanna just book it?

Josie: Yeah.

Rhi: I think that since they’re still two ticks away on the clock and you all do have in your crew equipment from your Shadows days you do still have those maps for underground passages and things, I think that you’re able to just slip down into the catacombs and make your way back across Nightmarket that way.

Josie: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: So yeah, you got the deed, you got some goods. I’m imagining, and you all can correct me if this is wrong, but I’m imagining you would probably go straight to The Hound’s Paw to give the deed to Nicholas so he can start working his lawyerly magic?

Kim & Josie: Yes.

Rhi: All right. So, it’s you know, fairly late in the evening, I think, when you get there. The Hound’s Paw looks kind of like it has for the last few times that you’ve stopped in, only a couple lights on, everything else is closed up. The front door’s open, and I think that—Who is taking the lead here? Who goes in first?

Josie: I’m gonna go in first.

Rhi: Okay. So Minx, you open up the door, and you see at the table that Nicholas has been sitting at, he’s sitting there, his papers have kind of been sorted off to the side, and he’s sitting there across the table from Rigney, and the two of them are, you know, sitting there chatting. They’ve got a bottle of wine between the two of them that’s about half empty.

Minna: [as a giggle] Aww~

Rhi: They’re laughing about something, and they both kind of look up in surprise when Minx bursts in.

Josie: [smiling] Minx just gives like a Cheshire smile and delivers the paper to Nick.

Rhi: [laughs]

Rhi (as Nicholas): Oh, perfect. This is perfect. Why do you all smell like smoke?

Josie (as Minx): It’s best not to inquire about these things, dear.

Kim (as Blaire): Occupational hazard.

Rhi: [laughs] Yeah. Rigney is like:

Rhi (as Rigney): Trust me, the less you know the better. It’s just overall better for your health.

Rhi (as Nicholas): Well, I will trust the expert on this one.

Rhi: Winks at him. Rigney? Visibly blushing.

Minna: Oh my gosh!

Josie: Aw!

Rhi: [laughs]

Josie: I think Minx has her hands to her cheeks again, and is just like [squirms happily].

Rhi: He is trying to play it off like it’s not happening, like he’s not reacting to it at all, but like…

Minna: [laughing] I think Myra very gently elbows Minx.

Rhi: [giggles]

Josie (as Minx): Oh, yes, ahem. Well, hopefully this is enough to make our case.

Rhi (as Nicholas): Yes, yes. I had a lot of the paperwork prepped already. I just need to fill in some blanks, and this will help me do that, and then I will file some things in the morning, and… yeah. It’s gonna take a few more days I think, but this will at least delay the proceedings. You won’t be evicted tomorrow.

Rhi: He says to Rigney, who looks very relieved.

Rhi (as Nicholas): Yeah, I think that there’s gonna be some arguing back and forth, lots of paperwork, but I’m pretty confident that I can get ownership transferred to Caelan here.

Josie (as Minx): Do we get to observe?

Rhi (as Nicholas): Oh, it’s not really going to be—it’s not that sort of court trial thing.

Josie (as Minx): Oh, I see.

Rhi (as Nicholas): Yes, it’s just me and opposing council sitting in a conference room shouting at each other and quoting different legal precedent.

Josie (as Minx): I see. I do miss courtroom drama, though.

Rhi: [laughs]

Rhi (as Nicholas): When would you have been involved in any kind of courtroom proceedings? Were you sued?

Minna (as Myra): You’d be surprised.

Kim (as Blaire): Mmm!

Rhi: [laughing] Rigney is once again just vigorously shaking his head and being like:

Josie (as Minx): We walk in many circles.

Rhi (as Rigney): You don’t wanna know.

Rhi: [laughs] I think Nicholas just kinda looks from Rigney to the three of you, back to Rigney.

Rhi (as Nicholas): I… am going to assume that yes, I am better off not knowing the details. Thank you for getting this. Once this is all cleared up I will collect my fee.

Josie (as Minx): I’m gonna go get cleaned up and try not to have nightmares about vampires.

Josie: Then she’ll turn to Rigney and wink knowingly. [laughs]

Minna: What?!

Josie: And then head out the door.

Rhi: [laughing] Rigney barely notices.

Rhi (as Rigney): Vampire? Vampire? Minx? Minx, what are you talking about?!

[laughter]

Rhi: Minx is already gone.

Josie (as Minx): Better off not to know~

Kim (as Blaire): No, Rigney… Rigs, you probably should know about this.

Rhi (as Rigney): Yeah, I was going to ask. Is this something that’s going to cause problems for me?

Kim (as Blaire): No, it shouldn’t, for you.

Rhi (as Rigney): I didn’t think vampires were real…

Kim (as Blaire): Well they are! I could actually tell you a lot about them if you’d like.

Rhi (as Rigney): I… Nope. I just need to know if it’s gonna cause a problem for me and my establishment, and the people who visit my establishment or who work here.

Kim (as Blaire): No. No, we are going to do everything that we can to keep tabs on her.

Rhi: [laughs] Nicholas is just sitting there, like staring at all of you.

Kim: [laughs]

Minna: Yeah, I think Myra’s gonna turn to him and say:

Minna (as Myra): If this leaks, we do know who we’ve told about this.

Rhi (as Nicholas): Uh… right, yes. No, you do not seem like the sort of people I want to cross, and also you’re friends of Caelan’s here, and I—

Kim (as Blaire): First name basis! Rigs!

Rhi: Rigney is just like:

Rhi (as Rigney): Uh, I think you have somewhere that you need to be now, Blaire?

Kim (as Blaire): Uh… Oh! Oh.

Kim: Blaire is putting two and two together.

Kim (as Blaire): Okay!

[laughter]

Kim (as Blaire): Yeah! Yeah, okay. Um… Have a good time. We’ll be seeing you.

Rhi: [delighted] Oh my God. This poor man. He’s just trying to have a date. He hasn’t been on a date in so long, you guys.

Minna: The single dad life takes a toll on him.

Rhi: Yep. So the three of you head out. I think that, Myra, just as you pull the door closed you hear Rigney just kind of burst into hysterical laughter.

Minna: [laughs] Listen, if you meet a cute guy through the Magpies it will be chaotic.

Rhi: Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.

 

 

## Downtime [1:22:36]

Rhi: So, the magpies all head back to The Nest and clean up and stash their ill-gotten loot, and then as they often do kind of drift apart to take care of themselves and recover in various ways from the score. Some of that recovery is physical, some of it is mental and emotional. While Myra and Minx are off elsewhere in the city, where do we find Blaire?

Kim: So, Blaire as usual is in her room where she usually just works, because that’s the only space available to her to safely work, especially with extremely experimental and unstable projects such as this. Blaire is working on the final stages of the first tests for her recovering ghosts long-term project.

I imagine that there are just several vials and flasks scattered across the floor – she’s working on the floor as she usually does – and just very carefully putting one drop into another. If there’s any reaction she records it, but there are I would say two concoctions that she hasn’t tried yet, and she’s deliberately kind of saving that for last for the evening, because she knows those are the two most volatile. Her research suggests that it could give the most promising result that she’s hoping for, but it’s also very dangerous, so I think she’s deliberately kind of procrastinating on that one.

Rhi: Yeah, and I think though that eventually she kind of has to make a decision of either I put this all away and I call it a night and I put off these last two until another day, or… I just do it.

Kim: And I think she’s probably too wired up to sleep anyway. I feel like if she went to bed now it would just be nudging at her and she wouldn’t be able to get to sleep. Yeah, I think she’s just gonna do it.

Rhi: Yeah. So again, kind of taking these different mixtures of ghost drugs that she’s obtained and other things, alchemicals that she has devised, and starts combining them, and one of the vials that you have, when you add some of the mixture that you’ve made to the ghost drugs, it starts vibrating in your hands, the flask.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: Does Blaire hold onto it or does she set it down when that starts?

Kim: When it’s vibrating? I think she’s still holding on.

Rhi: Okay. Then, it gets really cold in your hands, and you know, I think you’ve probably been looking into the ghost field this whole time. You can see the rough shape of what looks like a spirit, or spirit energy at least, pouring out of this thing.

Kim: Right, just like fragments of it just trying to coalesce into something?

Rhi: Mm-hmm. For a moment, Blaire thinks that this worked. She’s watching in the ghost field and she sees these fragments start to come together, taking on a humanoid shape. You can see a head and a torso and limbs, and for one second Blaire is just like, I did it, I actually did it.

But then it keeps going, it keeps growing. There are too many limbs and too many heads sprouting off of this thing, and suddenly every last one of those heads that have grown off of this spirit opens their mouths and lets out this horrible gut-wrenching wail, and it doesn’t stop, and it’s getting louder and louder, and it just feels like this sound is clawing at the inside of Blaire’s skull.

Kim: I feel as though Blaire, in her back pocket, has some sort of last-ditch effort if she, back against the wall, cannot calm down a feral ghost. She basically has some kind of kill-all missile, like not a spirit bane charm but something that can actually destroy a ghost.

Rhi: Okay, something based on the stuff that the Spirit Wardens use.

Kim: Yes, and I don’t think she ever carries it on her person, I think it’s just something that she keeps in her room in case something ever goes wrong in the house kind of thing. So, Blaire is going to reach for that and use that.

Rhi: Yeah. I’m imagining that it’s kind of a powder…

Kim: Mm-hmm.

Rhi: …and I think it sort of hits this spirit and the shrieking intensifies for a couple seconds, and then the spirit kind of folds in on itself and seems like it’s imploding and just kind of collapses down into just this, for a second, this single bright point of spirit energy, and then it winks out.

Kim: Blaire is just like on her knees, and I think it’s just silent in the room for maybe one minute before she just keels over and just is sobbing, because I don’t think she’s ever had to do that before in The Nest, or ever, but she just got so panicked she didn’t know what was going to happen, and it’s just now hitting her, like oh my God, I killed a ghost, which goes against her entire ethos as a person.

Rhi: I think that in all this chaos that had happened you had a vial of salt water, Void Sea water, on a shelf, that I think as you were scrambling for this kill switch you knocked to the floor. Blaire doesn’t notice it, but that little puddle of sea water starts to bubble, and then I think what we see is just, you know, Blaire is on the floor weeping and a hand, surprisingly gentle, probably gentler than Blaire has ever experienced from Setarra, rests on her shoulder, and you hear a familiar voice say:

Rhi (as Setarra): I told you it was a waste of your time. It’s remarkable really how someone so clever can be so foolish at the same time.

Kim (as Blaire): [crying] I didn’t want to kill it. I didn’t want to.

Rhi (as Setarra): Sometimes you find yourself in situations where you have to make difficult choices, and you, unfortunately, walked into this situation yourself.

Kim (as Blaire): You don’t understand. You weren’t there. I was this close. [sobbing] I was so close! I could have saved it.

Rhi (as Setarra): It didn’t look that way from what I saw. Blaire, you are clever, you are brilliant, but you must focus your brilliance on the things that matter. This project of yours was doomed to failure from the start, and I indulged it because I knew it would teach you a lesson. Your attention must stay on things where you can succeed, where you can make a difference.

Rhi: From somewhere in her dress of water she produces a book. It’s a familiar book. It’s one that the two of you had been working on for a long time about summoning things from other realms. She just kind of holds it out to you.

Rhi (as Setarra): Do you want your name to go down in history, Blaire? Do you want to be known for your brilliance, for your discoveries?

Kim (as Blaire): [sniffles]

Rhi (as Setarra): This is how you do it.

Kim (as Blaire): Okay.

Rhi: She will offer you a hand up.

Kim: Blaire takes it.

Rhi (as Setarra): When you’ve rested we should get back to work.

Kim (as Blaire): Let’s do it.

 

 

## Outro [1:31:27]

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.

 

Next, I’d like to thank our wonderful Patreon backers. Elizabeth, thank you!

 

 

## Blooper [1:32:43]

Josie: But puppies.

Kim: But it’s Applebee’s, that’s all it is.

Rhi: [giggles]

Josie: Well, it’s Applebee’s but cuter and probably better.

Rhi: Yes. Yes.

Kim: Yeah, oh definitely better, like food-wise, but aesthetic-wise definitely Applebee’s.