Edited by: Vanessa Pereira
Rhi: Hello! And welcome to another Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. This was another of the sessions we played before official podcast recording started. Kim wasn’t able to join us when we recorded the Two Scores score with the main group, so she and I did a fun little solo adventure for Blaire instead.
It’s pretty clearly pre-series. Kim hadn’t quite settled on Blaire’s voice, I was still deciding how I wanted the Deathlands to work, and so on. But it’s still a fun adventure and it’s the origin story for the acorns that Blaire has been carrying around with her. Special thanks to Minna for editing this episode. I very much appreciate all the work that she did on this.
Now then, let’s get started, shall we?
Kim: I don’t know how to play the game and I don’t know what to expect. I’m excited.
Rhi: So, going back to… This is basically a few days after your first score that we did where you guys broke into the, um, weapons manufacturing facility.
Kim: Yes.
Rhi: Um, while you were there you found, in the office, a bunch of ghosts trapped in spirit jars. There were, like, six—
Kim: Yeah. I remember I walked off with two of them?
Rhi: Yes, yeah. You were able to take two. You didn’t have room to take all six.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: Um, but you got two and so this particular morning, you wake up pretty early, pack a bag with whatever stuff you need, including those two spirit jars—
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: …and hustle out of the nest quickly before any of your comrades can ask you any questions about where you’re going, why your bag is making those clanking sounds, et cetera.
Kim (as Blaire): [Quickly] These are my friends and I’m freeing them. Bye!
Rhi: [laughs] So, your goal here is to find a way out into the Deathlands outside the city.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: Um, and find a safe place to release these spirits. You know that there are things called spirit wells which are places that have a lot of spirit energy, ghosts will— Like, sometimes demons will come through there, but they’re also places where, like, ghosts can feed without having to possess a person.
Kim: Yeah, 30 ghost boys.
Rhi: [laughs] So you’re hoping to find a spirit well outside the city where you can release these ghosts and they can eat spirit well energy and not you.
Kim: Yeah and just have a grand old time in the wild.
Rhi: Yeah, the Deathlands which are full of monsters and the era’s poison gas and it’s great. It’s a good time.
Kim: Sick.
Rhi: Um, do you think Blaire has ever been to the Deathlands before?
Kim: That’s a very good question. I think— Hmm. She’s only been with the Magpies, I think we decided, like, less than a year?
Rhi: A few months.
Kim: A couple months, yeah.
Rhi: Yeah, I think it’s only been a few months.
Kim: Yeah, which, you know, coincides also with her getting expelled, so I would say no. I guess this is her first time.
Rhi: Yeah. Well, because she got— I think you said she got expelled about a year ago?
Kim: Yes.
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: And, um—
Kim: And she just, like, lived underground until she found, you know, a faction to join. In the, uh, in the sewers.
Rhi: [laughs] Found some friends!
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Way in the trash.
Kim: In the— [laughs] Yeah. Where we belong.
Rhi: So Blaire’s never been to the Deathlands before, so she’s not necessarily gonna know— So I guess now the next question is do you think that she would have done some research at any point about how to get into the Deathlands or is she gonna need to, like, talk to somebody and get some assistance?
Kim: Hmm. That is a very good question. Knowing—
Rhi: She was in school for a while, so she could have done the research.
Kim: Yes, she was in school for a while and she is a booky type to begin with. So I feel like she would have done research beforehand but also, for purposes of the game, don’t want to rule out the possibility of getting NPC help.
Rhi: I mean it’s up to you. You can go either way with it, if you want to chat with somebody. This is basically just— I mean you will probably have to talk to somebody because I think that even if you may have researched how to survive in the Deathlands, I’m gonna say you have, like, a gas mask. You know, or you know somewhere where you can buy one this fine morning. You probably don’t know how to get through the lightning barrier. Or where a good place would be.
Kim: That’s true. Yeah.
Rhi: So, yeah, you—
Kim: So let’s just say both.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: I’ve done my research but I also need a person. \
Rhi: Yeah. So who do you think you would want to talk to?
Kim: Um…
Rhi: You could talk to basically any of the friends— Like, any of the strange friends on your list. Any of your, like, any of your personal friends or any of the crew’s friends.
Kim: Oh. Oh, okay. Yeah, no, I’m a sucker for— I got to be on brand, let’s go to Dowler.
Rhi: Okay. Dowler, I think, used to be a member of the Deathlands Scavengers.
Kim: Cool.
Rhi: Which is, uh, a group of people. So, sometimes when you’re convicted of a crime in Duskwall, rather than being sent to prison, you are granted quote unquote “clemency” and just kicked out into the Deathlands.
Kim: Damn.
Rhi: Which is basically, like, you know, a slow death sentence.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Um, however, there is a group of people that have managed to survive out there. Um, they still have some contacts in the city, um, and they will find stuff out in the Deathlands and sell it back into the city. Some of them are able to make enough money to buy their way back in. Um, and they’re collectively known as the Deathlands Scavengers. So I think Dowler is a guy who was a Scavenger, he lived outside the city for a few years, managed to buy his way back, but he still goes out into the Deathlands pretty frequently to, you know, look for stuff that he can, uh, he can sell. So, where do you think you find Dowler? Where does he hang out?
Kim: Well, considering that he still goes out into the Deathlands pretty frequently, I would imagine he lives or works, you can find him most frequently, probably, at one of the borders of the city.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: Does that make sense?
Rhi: Yeah. So he’d probably be… Looking at my map, here.
Kim: Yeah, I don’t have the map in front of me. I’m sorry.
Rhi: That’s okay. I have, uh, my book has— I have sticky notes all in it.
Kim: Ah. This is why books are so good, not PDFs.
Rhi: Yes. So, the direction that you’re most likely going to be going is just due south, out of the city.
Kim: Mm-hmm. Okay.
Rhi: So basically, you’re gonna head into— He hangs out, actually, in Barrowcleft. That’s the district that he lives in, which is kind of the… the farming district. Like, a lot of the farms that support Duskwall and provide a lot of food for the city are in the south.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: And that’s also where the lightning barrier is. So he can get from Barrowcleft out to the lightning barrier pretty quickly.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: So one of the biggest things in Barrowcleft is the market. It’s a big open-air marketplace where people sell basically anything that they’ve produced using—
Kim: Right.
Rhi: … things that they’ve got from the farm. It’s just kind of a— It’s a giant farmer’s market.
Kim: Yeah. Big open-air market.
Rhi: Yeah. And I think he’s got, um, like, kind of at the very outskirts of the market, probably not official— Like, I think that on the fringes of this market is where people who are selling slightly more iffy stuff operate.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: So I think he’s got a stall at the very southern edge of the Barrowcleft market where he sells his findings. So you make your way through the market, it’s morning so it’s pretty busy and crowded. You’ve got, you know, people have just opened up their stalls so there’s a lot of people out doing, you know, their shopping for the day or the week. Stocking up on what they need. There’s all kinds of people, you know, shouting advertisements for the finest mushroom ale and…
Kim: Yeah. Oh, that sounds good.
Rhi: Fine-spun goat hair blankets and various things. Yeah.
Kim: That also sounds good! What the hell, Rhi?
Rhi: And you get to Dowler’s stall, which is… Not so many people are interested in his wares, uh, this early in the morning so there isn’t really anybody else around. Um, what do you think he, uh, what’s he look like?
Kim: Ooh, I get to decide?
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: Okay! That’s good because I already kind of vaguely have a mental image in mind. Um, he is probably a guy of, like, average height, not too tall or whatever. I would peg him, like, mid-to-late thirties and he has, like, a very weathered, chiseled face. Like, you can tell that, like, he’s spent a lot of his life outdoors and, like, he’s seen some shit.
Rhi: Mm-hmm.
Kim: Um, he’s wearing lots of, like, muted neutrals like browns and olive greens. I am basically describing Nathan Drake, god damn it. But he, yeah, just Nathan Drake but not Nathan Drake.
Rhi: Not that handsome?
Kim: Yeah. Well, I mean to me, he’s handsome because I’m just this way, but not the… conventionally handsome, I would say.
Rhi: Okay, what— Does he have any, like, scars or tattoos or?
Kim: Ooh.
Rhi: I think, I feel like he’s got tattoos.
Kim: Yeah! I was gonna say, I think there is a tattoo of a weird symbol on his collar bone, but you can’t really see it. He has it, like, covered with some kind of cowl or scarf or whatever.
Rhi: Nice, I like it.
Kim: Something mysterious, yeah.
Rhi: Alright, I think he also has… So I think that one he got while he was out in the Deathlands.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: And I think he’s got, one his left forearm, he’s got some kind of, like, complicated geometric prison tattoos.
Kim: Ooh, yes!
Rhi: Yeah. I like it.
Kim: Maybe he’s graying at the temples because I’m just like this.
Rhi: I mean, when I asked you to describe him I knew I was getting a hot dad, so like…
Kim: [laughing] I hate myself and I hate that you know me.
Rhi: [laughs] Listen, you have a brand. So I think he’s leaning on his, on the front of his stall kind of idly flipping through a book. You, like, clankily approach, but he doesn’t look up because people are, like, walking back and forth past him.
Kim: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Rhi: He is just assuming that whatever is making noise is gonna continue on past.
Kim: Yeah, he knows the first hour is slow and just, here I am, this small gremlin child with two armfuls of jars.
Rhi: Well, no, I’m pretty sure that you’ve got, like, a backpack that you’ve stuffed them into.
Kim: Oh, that’s so cute! Okay, yes, that’s even better.
Rhi: Or, like a satchel or something. Some bag that’s just, every time you take a step it’s just clink-clink-clink-clink as they’re knocking into each other.
Kim: Do I know his name?
Rhi: Yeah, this is, like, he’s done some work with the Magpies before. You guys have probably fenced some stuff through him.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Yes.
Kim: Yeah, so he knows me.
Kim (as Blaire): Morning, Dowler!
Rhi (as Dowler): Oh, hey Blaire. What brings you out here so early?
Rhi: And he flips his book shut.
Kim (as Blaire): Um… Listen, I need your help with something, um.
Kim: And she, like, looks around, like her eyes dart around the market and then she, like, leans in over the booth and she’s like…
Kim (as Blaire): I need to get outside of the city, into the Deathlands.
Rhi (as Dowler): Why?
Kim (as Blaire): Eh, ee, um…
Rhi (as Dowler): Will I be happier if I don’t know?
Kim (as Blaire): Probably?
Rhi (as Dowler): You understand that for, like, 80, probably 90 percent of people that go out there, it is a death sentence, right?
Kim (as Blaire): Yes, but I figured you’re part of the 10 percent, you know? Maybe if some of your luck rubbed off on me, then you know, math?
Rhi (as Dowler): You’re adorable. Okay. [sighs] I guess you’re looking for, uh, advice on the best place to make a crossing?
Kim (as Blaire): Yeah. I just need a route out. I’ve done some research already, but like, I… [sighs] It’s not the same as hearing it from the horse’s mouth.
Rhi (as Dowler): Not sure I appreciate the comparison, but I understand.
Kim (as Blaire): A’ight?
Rhi: He’s, like, smirking as he says that.
Kim (as Blaire): Sorry!
Rhi (as Dowler): So… [sighs] The way I usually go is any point that’s basically straight south. You head south, uh, out past the market, basically out past the edges of the farms and there’s, right up next to one of the big lightning towers there. If you can break into— There’s like, a maintenance shed there. If you can break in there, they’ve got some tools you can use to basically create a gap in the lightning wall and you can just slide on through. You know, assuming that you do it right and you don’t get completely electrocuted and die.
Kim (as Blaire): Yeah, I was gonna say that sounds a little… precarious?
Rhi (as Dowler): Well, yeah.
Kim (as Blaire): But you do it all the time?
Rhi (as Dowler): Yeah. I’ve had a lot of practice.
Kim (as Blaire): And… you’re not fried?
Rhi (as Dowler): Well, I mean, mostly not.
Rhi: And he, like, you know— So on his left arm he has a bunch of tattoos. His right arm, he holds up and there’s just like burn scars.
Kim (as Blaire): [gasps] Oh.
Rhi (as Dowler): Eh, I got a little careless one time and learned my lesson.
Kim (as Blaire): Okay. So is there anything I should look for with the timing or anything?
Rhi (as Dowler): Uh… I mean, make sure there aren’t any of the, like, Bluecoats or Sparkwrights around, ’cause…
Kim (as Blaire): Well, yeah.
Rhi (as Dowler): … they’ll arrest you for opening up a hole in the lightning barrier and letting ghosts in.
Kim (as Blaire): I’m not letting ghosts in! I’m letting ghosts out!
Rhi (as Dowler): Okay, don’t— I don’t— I do not want to know. I am so much happier if I do not know what you are doing with this information.
Kim (as Blaire): I literally just told you.
Rhi (as Dowler): I’m gonna forget that because…
Kim (as Blaire): Okay.
Rhi (as Dowler): I’m happier not knowing. Much happier. Ignorance is bliss my young friend. Yeah, so…
Kim (as Blaire): It’ll go quickly! It’ll be fast, no one will get hurt. It’s fine! I just… Quick in and out.
Rhi (as Dowler): Well, or if…
Kim (as Blaire): That’s all that this is.
Rhi (as Dowler): You’re here by yourself, so if somebody gets hurt it’ll probably just be you. Which is very responsible of you.
Kim (as Blaire): Uh…
Rhi (as Dowler): I must say.
Kim (as Blaire): I mean, I’m not sure if the rest of the crew would really wanted to have gone along with this, you know? Everyone else seems kind of afraid—
Rhi (as Dowler): That Phin girl in particular is real skittish about ghosts.
Kim (as Blaire): Yeah and, like, it felt like it would have been mean if I dragged everybody along for this so I figured I’d just run a quick morning errand and, you know, I’ll be back before everybody wakes up.
Rhi (as Dowler): Oh. Good luck with that. But yeah, you go through there, it’s gonna put you out near the old north port, uh, which it’s an old port. Doesn’t get used anymore since they build the main docks up at North Hook but, uh, yeah. You head through there and that’ll get you out into the Deathlands and you can do whatever it is that you’re gonna do and then, uh… You, you know— Make sure that when you, uh, pick up those tools to open up the lightning barrier, bring them with you or you’re not gonna be able to get back in.
Kim (as Blaire): Uh, yeah.
Rhi (as Dowler): And… [sighs] I will say, if you run into trouble, head west along the lightning wall and then south about half a mile and you’ll find a scavenger’s camp. Tell Lady Thorne I sent you and she’ll make sure you don’t get eaten too badly.
Kim (as Blaire): Okay. Um… what can I do to make this worth your while?
Rhi: He just sort of gestures at his wares and is like…
Rhi (as Dowler): Buy something?
Kim (as Blaire): Alright! What do you got?
Rhi: Um, he’s got a bunch of, like, weird shit. He’s got—
Kim: I like weird shit!
Rhi: ‘Cause I— For the last Blades in the Dark game I had, they were smugglers so they spent a lot of time out in the Deathlands, so I came up with this whole detailed thing about, uh, like stuff that lived out in the Deathlands and then I never got to use any of it. So I’m using it now!
Kim: Ah, so cool!
Rhi: So he’s got, um, like a bunch of random mechanical parts that are, like, rusted and busted up.
Kim: Nice, cool.
Rhi: Some, like, basically big chunks of quartz crystal, there’s a bunch of— He’s got a lot of, um, sacks of what are labelled as— They’re labelled as, like, different types of mushrooms and I’d say over half of them also have, like, the skull and crossbones poison symbol on them. And there’s bundles of, they look like crow feathers, but they’re like a foot long.
Kim: Damn.
Rhi: Um, what else would he have? Oh, and he has hanging, like, behind him in the back, um, this— It’s a fur pelt. You’re not sure what creature it’s from, but its fur is this, like— It’s thick fur and it’s this, like, ashy gray color.
Kim: Ooh.
Rhi: Yeah. So… You’re not gonna have to spend, like, coin in the, like, 1 coin sense to buy anything, you’ll just kind of spend it out of your narrative pocket cash if you want to buy anything. Actually, well, if you want to buy that fur, that’s gonna cost you a coin, but…
Kim: Well, yeah. I was not interested in the fur even though it sounds super cool. Um, I think Blaire is interested in crystals. I think she’ll ask for a piece of quartz because I think mine’s getting a little dull.
Rhi: Alright.
Kim (as Blaire): Think I could use a new one. Yeah! You can never have too much quartz.
Rhi: So he, yeah, he gives you a large shiny chunk of quartz. You pay him for it and then you stuff that into your bag.
Kim: So more stuff can clank around.
Rhi: Yeah. Yeah, so now you’ve got a big rock to bounce off of your spirit jars.
Kim: Yeah. Yeah, she like, pats her backpack as she puts it away, like…
Kim (as Blaire): Get in there! Good stuff. Make you feel better.
Rhi: And yeah. That’s— He sort of, after he does that he, you know, points you off on your way and is like…
Rhi (as Dowler): Good luck out there. Try not to die.
Kim: She like, two-finger salutes him and just, you know, waves off with a…
Kim (as Blaire): Thanks, Dowler!
Rhi (as Dowler): [sighs] Any time.
Rhi: He just shakes his head and goes back to his book.
Rhi (as Dowler): Kids.
Kim: I am so attracted to this man that we came up with in the past 20 minutes.
Rhi: Mm-hmm. Of course you are.
Kim: Shut up! [laughs]
Rhi: Alright, so you— Are you just gonna follow his directions and head straight where he told you?
Kim: Yes.
Rhi: Okay, so you go hiking off, uh, down the main road in Barrowcleft. You get past the buildings there, um, you’re basically walking past an eelery which is just, like— It’s like a, uh, just a huge…
Kim: Is it what I think it is?
Rhi: Yeah, it’s just a huge tank where they, like, farm eels because eels are a cheap meat source.
Kim: Aah! I love eels!
Rhi: They’re like cattle here, so they’re gonna get eated.
Kim: Oh, I know but it’s— Oh, I know but it’s okay. Aw! I love eels.
Rhi: But yeah, so like, you walk by and there’s like, you know, people standing on the edge of the edge of the tanks, like, scooping eels out and tossing them into bins.
Kim: Sick!
Rhi: And yeah, you get up to the… towards the lightning barrier and this isn’t like, uh… It’s not gonna be structured exactly like a normal score, but I’m still gonna do an engagement roll.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: Just to see how things start off for you here. So you’ve got one die for luck. I think that’s it, I think it’s just gonna be 2d6.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: So you got a 4. Okay, so that basically means you’re in a risky position when things start. So you make your way towards the lightning barrier and the first thing that catches your eye is the, um, door to that maintenance shed that he mentioned is open.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: And you’re like, “Sweet!” And then you see it swing closed and two people, uh, walk out chatting with each other as they are kind of heading up towards the lightning tower. You— They’re not Bluecoats. You’re guessing by the way they’re dressed in, like, overalls with lots of, like, straps and pockets with tools hanging off them… Yeah, these are Sparkwrights…
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: … who are basically the engineers of the city. Um, they— Among many other things. They do a lot of stuff but one of the things they do is maintain the lightning towers. So, we’ve got a couple people here doing some kind of maintenance. So what are you gonna do about these dudes? In your way?
Kim: Hmm.
Rhi: Actually it’s probably— It’s a dude and a lady.
Kim: Okay, let’s be inclusive here. They’re just hanging out, they’re not moving at all?
Rhi: They— So they walk, um… Like, the maintenance shed is about 10-15 feet away from the tower itself and the tower is massive. It is 200 feet tall, probably a good 40-50 feet across.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Like, the lightning towers are huge. The really big ones. Like, this is one that has its own internal generator. This is, like, a main one and you can see, if you look off down on either side, you know if you walk another 200, 300 feet in either direction, there are, like, smaller ones that the lightning is kind of arcing to that— You know it might be easier to get through there, but you still got to have some kind of tools.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: You can’t just, like, side on through the lightning because you will die terribly.
Kim: Or get scorched.
Rhi: Mm-hmm, at best.
Rhi and Kim: But probably die.
Kim: Can I do something, like, throw a rock in the opposite direction and try to get these two guys’ attention and draw them away?
Rhi: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kim: Let me try that.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: How do you wanna…?
Rhi: I think Finesse would probably be the best one here.
Kim: Oof.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: No!
Rhi: So, on a 1, because it was controlled, it’s not as bad as it could be. So basically, what this means is you, like, find a good hefty rock and you’re planning on throwing it off and just as you, like, start to stand up out of the, um…
Kim: Uh, crate?
Rhi: Yeah, you stand up from hiding. Probably, yeah, behind a crate or, you know, an abandoned wagon. Like, you start to stand up just as the lady engineer turned— Like, they both had their backs to you and like, just as you start to sit up she turns around and starts to walk back to the maintenance shed.
Kim: No!
Rhi: You duck back down in time, she doesn’t see you.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: But basically, at this point, you either— You can try again, but it’s gonna be risky or you can try a different approach. So it would basically mean Finessing it isn’t gonna work, you’re gonna have to try a different action.
Kim: I mean, I could try talking to them, but I don’t think I have too many social skills. Is Sway…?
Rhi: Sway? Yeah, Sway, you’ve got.
Kim: I had a thought, maybe I could bribe them with the crystal I just bought? To look the other way? Or is it not worth a lot?
Rhi: For a couple engineers who have access to Sparkwright Tower, probably not. Yeah, so while you’re hanging out there, the woman goes back to the maintenance shed and goes inside and… I’m gonna roll a die to randomize this. She shuts the door behind her.
Kim: Crap.
Rhi: Yeah, I was gonna say if I— I was rolling to see if I got a four or higher, she would have left it open, but I rolled a two.
Kim: No!
Rhi: So, yeah, she shuts it behind her and the guy has his back to you and is just kind of hanging out by the base of the lightning tower.
Kim: Can I just knock? Can I, like, sneak up behind him and knock—
Rhi: Yeah, you can try to do that, that would be Prowl. Um, what weapon are you gonna use?
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Because remember, you’ve got everything— You have access to everything on your list. I assume you’re heading out with a normal load. So you can have 5 of the items on your list. But you just kind of pick them as you need them.
Kim: Subterfuge, supplies, demo— Ooh. Demolition tools. What if I set off any explosion?
Rhi: Yeah. You could do that.
Kim: [laughs] Mm…
Rhi: And… you could do that.
Kim: A small one!
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: Small explosion! What I could do is that I could just set off a small explosion somewhere, or lob a tiny grenade or a smoke bomb or whatever somewhere and that can be a distraction that probably draws both of them away if this goes well.
Rhi: Yeah and I think, if I recall, you’ll probably do that. You can do this via Tinker. Like, you’re basically gonna be tinkering with your demo tools to make some kind of small improvised explosive.
Kim: Okay. Let’s be stupid.
Rhi: Yeah! No, this is good. And I’m gonna say this is risky and I think standard effect. You’re just— They have no idea that you’re there, but if this goes badly, they could know that you’re here in a hurry. You could take some stress, push yourself to get another die.
Kim: Yeah, I’ve got no stress, so let’s…
Rhi: Go for it!
Kim: Yep!
Rhi: So, on a failure, things go badly. You suffer harm, a complication occurs, you end up in a desperate position, you lose— There’s so many ways this could go badly, you’re playing with explosives. Like, I, um…
Kim: In— Near the lightning barrier with two guards, like, around. Yeah.
Rhi: So, I…
Kim: Yeah, I fucked up. I knew this was a stupid idea.
Rhi: No, it’s a great idea! I’m gonna say…
Kim: It’s good for you!
Rhi: Yeah. It’s great! I’m gonna say you’re gonna end up in a desperate position because that’s a good way to get xp.
Kim: Alright, I like xp.
Rhi: And it works with— So, you pull out some various tools and you’re basically trying to just, like, put together a quick, like, flashbang, essentially.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: You’re pouring various powders around and something ignites before it should. You’ve got enough time to toss it away from you, but it’s not very far away. You were hoping to, like, you were gonna go, like, the maintenance shed is over there, you were gonna, like, toss it way over there. It goes off… It goes off far away enough that it doesn’t hurt you any, although, like, your ears are probably ringing from the bang.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: But it goes off close to you and the, uh… Like, you don’t really hear— And I think that’s kind of the other thing about the desperate position is you assume that the other two heard it, but you, because your ears are ringing so bad right now, you can’t hear them approaching.
Kim: I’m a little deafened, yeah.
Rhi: So, yeah, you are in a desperate position. What do you want to do to try to get out of this?
Kim: Um, I should probably run. Um, can I…?
Rhi: That’s gonna be Prowl.
Kim: Prowl my way out of here?
Rhi: Mm-hmm.
Kim: Alright.
Rhi: Yeah. How do you want— Are you just, like, hauling ass? Are you trying to sneak away? What is the manner of your Prowl?
Kim: Both? It is like the stage whisper of Prowling.
Rhi: You are running away, but you’re trying to be sneaky about it. Um…
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: So it’s desperate, standard effect, so basically, if you succeed at this, you’ll be able to get away from where your bomb went off and into new, better cover, but yeah. It’s gonna be a desperate roll. I do have a good Devil’s Bargain in mind.
Kim: I was gonna say, can I just hear what it is?
Rhi: So, as you are running away something falls out of your pack that is identifiable as yours. Maybe a handkerchief with your initials on it and it’s gonna find its way back to…
Kim: Oh, shit.
Rhi: Charter Hall University. So they’re gonna know that you’re— They’re not gonna—
Kim: No!
Rhi: They’re gonna know you’re still around doing stuff and that could come back.
Kim: Oh, oh no.
Rhi: But it’ll get you a free die.
Kim: [groans] You know, I’m going to decline the Devil’s Bargain because I need to give my physical die a chance.
Rhi: Alright. So I will tell you, also, mark a point of experience you get in Prowess because you’re making a Prowl roll. So you get a point of xp to put there. Yeah, and then go ahead and roll your die.
Kim: [gasps]
Rhi: Okay!
Kim: I got a 6.
Rhi: Yeah, you— You do it.
Kim: I knew it! Real dice over fake dice forever!
Rhi: You, uh, scramble away and get over to a new pile of crates and, like, duck down and both of them have now circled around to where you were, there’s a scorch mark in the dirt and neither of them are terribly near the maintenance shed.
Kim: Could make a run for it.
Rhi: The door’s open, yeah.
Kim: I gotta go for it! Especially if I find a new cover. I’m imagining, like, I’m imagining this like a top-down view. I imagine I can just loop around them in a sneaky way, especially if I’ve drawn them to where I once was.
Rhi: I’m gonna say that yeah, you can. You succeeded on— The combination of things— You can make it over to the shed, you just zip around over, you get inside and again, because of your studies and things, you know what kind of tools you’re looking for. It’s basically these big, kind of like, extending metal rods that you can plant into the ground basically use them to sort of open up a hole in the lightning barrier and shimmy on through.
Kim: The arc.
Rhi: So you grab those.
Kim: Cool.
Rhi: You duck back outside and are you gonna try to just open it up right here or try to get further down the lightning barrier?
Kim: Further down. Because I think this is a, like…
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: High-concentration area and I just created a buzz, so let’s get out of here.
Rhi: So you…
Kim: Move further down.
Rhi: You poke your head outside and they’re still kind of, like, they’re back, past your hiding place, still looking around, trying to figure out what the heck happened, why there was a random explosion. And you hustle on down along the lightning barrier, basically a couple hundred feet down to the next tower and you’re gonna need to make— Well, I don’t know. I mean, how do you— What do you think that you do to, uh, to work these lightning rods, basically?
Kim: You say I just have to plant them in the ground, right?
Rhi: You put them in the ground, or you put one of them in the ground and then, like, put it into the lightning field and then with the other one you kind of, like, draw the lightning back. You’re basically—
Kim: So it’s almost like you’re—
Rhi: Yes.
Kim: It’s almost like you’re parting a curtain, but with lightning rods. Got it. Tinker would make sense.
Rhi: Possibly Attune? Because the barrier runs off electroplasm, which is demon blood.
Kim: Yeah, it is magic. Damn, that’s so cool.
Rhi: It’s not magic! This is very scientific!
Kim: Scientific.
Rhi: It is a scientific use of demon blood.
Kim: Um, you know what? I want to go with Attune.
Rhi: Yes.
Kim: So, that’s 2d6?
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: Makes sense. It’s a ghosty thing and I’m good at that.
Rhi: Yeah. So I’m gonna say that, this’ll again, um, risky position, standard effect. You know, you’re not likely to get caught, but if you do this wrong, you could get zapped pretty bad. So…
Kim: 5.
Rhi: 5. Okay. So, you do it, but there is a complication. Or there’s a consequence.
Kim: [slowly] Shit.
Rhi: I think the most obvious consequence here is harm. So basically, you kind of look into the ghost field a little bit and you can sort of— So, like, the lightning field in the way that I— Or the lightning barrier the way I picture is, like, it’s you know, big cracks of lightning going across between the towers and then there’s just sort of that blue haze between them.
Kim: Yeah, yeah.
Rhi: But when you look at it through the, um, the ghost field, I think that it’s, it looks more like a liquid, as if it’s a wall of, like, slowly dripping blood.
Kim: Yeah!
Rhi: Like, demon blood.
Kim: Yeah, something like an oil slick or something?
Rhi: Yeah, yeah, I think that’s what it looks like.
Kim: I can picture that.
Rhi: And that, like, for you is, like, that’s an easier thing to sort of move the lightning rods into and pull that apart, but because you’re not really paying attention to where the big bolts of lightning are, one of those is gonna crack out and hit you.
Kim: [gasps]
Rhi: You’ll have a chance to resist it, but it’s gonna be, um… I am gonna say it’s gonna be level 1 harm, singed. You get burned a little bit. Um, however, you can resist it if you would like. It’s gonna be your roll, um, Prowess. Which in your case is gonna be 1d6.
Kim: Uh-huh.
Rhi: Um, and then whatever you roll on that will tell us how much stress you take to resist the harm. So… Or you can just take the harm, it’s up to you.
Kim: Well, it is just a level 1 harm.
Rhi: Yeah. Which…
Kim: [crosstalk]
Rhi: Basically, like, you’re— That’s gonna give you reduced effect on things that I think, like, your arms got burned. So stuff where you’re using, you know, probably like fine motor skills are gonna be at a bit of a disadvantage.
Kim: Okay. You know… Hang on, let me see how many stress…
Rhi: You’ve only taken 2 stress so far, I think.
Kim: Yeah. I’m gonna risk a resist roll.
Rhi: Okay, so go ahead and roll your 1d6.
Kim: 5.
Rhi: 5, okay. So you take 1 stress and—
Kim: Oh, only 1 stress?
Rhi: Yeah, so the way that resisting harm works is it’s, like, it starts off as you take 6 stress to resist the harm, but then whatever you’re rolling is your resistance. You subtract that.
Kim: Oh, you subtract! Got it. Okay, that makes sense. That’s good!
Rhi: Yeah, yeah. That’s a very—
Kim: I thought I was about to take, like, 5 stress and I’m just—
Rhi: Nope, nope that’s a very good roll. So…
Kim: Great, awesome. I love my dice.
Rhi: You take 1 stress.
Kim: Good.
Rhi: Um, and yeah. So basically, it’s like you come out of the, like, your ghost field sight just as the lightning starts to kind of surge up and you’re able to twist out of the way and it, like, catches on the lightning rod instead of hitting you. So you shimmy on through the gap in the lightning barrier, pull the lightning rods through with you and you are now out in the Deathlands.
Kim: Heck yeah.
Rhi: Uh, so since this is your first time out there…
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: … around the lightning barrier, you’re able to see reasonably well. Beyond that, kind of beyond the light emitted by that, and the lightning barrier is very tall so it emits a lot of light, you can see relatively far, but after a certain point it’s just pitch blackness out there.
Kim: That’s so cool.
Rhi: But you can see, um… There are… It’s kind of hilly. There’s some gentle hills out there.
Kim: Uh-huh.
Rhi: No plant life. You can see the, in a few places, like the petrified remains of trees that have been left behind.
Kim: [simultaneously] Cool.
Rhi: You can see there’s, like, patches of mushrooms growing all over the place. There’s… Some of them, like, you do, like, one thing that catches your eye is there’s a patch of mushrooms that are glowing a faint blue.
Kim: I want them.
Rhi: Okay, yeah you can head on over there.
Kim: Blaire puts her gasmask on, makes her way down, and she takes… how many mushrooms do you think?
Rhi: I don’t know. There’s a decent, like— It’s a— The way that I figured is that fungi have kind of evolved to fill the ecological system that was previously filled by plants. So there’s mushrooms fucking everywhere. And so, like…
Kim: Oh, heck yeah.
Rhi: Imagine, you know, walking through a field of wildflowers, how many would there be of, like, a particular type of flower.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: There’s just— There’s a lot. So you can pick a bunch.
Kim: Okay. I could. But I also don’t know what these things are.
Rhi: You have no idea what they do.
Kim: Yeah. So on the safe side, I think Blaire’s gonna pick just one.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: Faint.
Rhi: She just grabs one?
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Okay, so yeah. You pick one and…
Kim: I’ll study it later.
Rhi: Yeah, uh…
Kim: Hopefully not poisonous.
Rhi: Tuck that away somewhere.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Do you think that you would know— You’ve heard about a spirit well out here. Do you think you’d know where it is?
Kim: Um, I feel like I would have the faintest of ideas.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: From my research.
Rhi: Yeah, so I think that what you’d heard is that it was near the ruins of the old port. Which you’re fairly close to, like, you just…
Kim: Oh, good.
Rhi: … kind of need to keep hiking south.
Kim: Alright. I’ll just head south.
Rhi: So you start walking and are looking around, um. It’s very— It’s surprisingly quiet. Like, Duskwall is a very crowded city.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: You’re used to just, kind of a constant background noise of people and carriages and, uh, you know the buzzing of electric lights. The farther you get from the lightning barrier, like, the buzzing of that fades out and it’s just— It’s very quiet.
Kim: Spooky.
Rhi: You occasionally hear the sound of, like, a crow cawing in the distance. There’s wind that, you know, blows past every now and then. You can kind of distantly hear, um, ocean waves hitting the shore.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: Because you are, you’re, you know, near a port.
Kim: That’s right.
Rhi: You’re fairly close to the coast here. Um, but otherwise, like, it’s about the quietest place you’ve been in a very long time.
Kim: Cool.
Rhi: And so you’re walking along and because it’s so quiet, when you start to hear the footsteps behind you, it stands out.
Kim: Oh. Oh, no.
Rhi: [laughs] So you hear, um, how to describe…
Kim: I don’t like this.
Rhi: So, the— You hear footsteps. I guess that that’s my first question, is that you hear— You hear footsteps behind you. Not super close, it’s not like they’re right up on you but they are behind you.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Um, what do you do? Just kind of as that initial—
Kim: Blaire turns around.
Rhi: Okay. So you spin around…
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: And I’m gonna say in your research, you’ve read about these things. You’ve read about some of the creatures that live out in the Deathlands. So what you see is… It’s a tall bipedal, vaguely humanoid shaped creature. It’s got, you know, a head, four limbs.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Um, it’s probably about six, six and a half feet tall…
Kim: Whoa.
Rhi: … and it looks kind of like it’s a— It’s very tall, it’s very, uh, slight and skeletal, and it looks like it’s a cross between kind of, like, a starved humanoid and a dried out tree.
Kim: So it’s— I’m looking at Slenderman.
Rhi: It looks like it’s made out of wood. It doesn’t have— It’s got just— It doesn’t really have a face.
Kim: Slenderman.
Rhi: But it’s made of wood.
Kim: Woodman. Wood-Slenderman.
Rhi: And like, you spin around quickly enough that you’re able to see it and it’s… It’s just been kind of, like, walking after you. But when you turn, it stops. So it doesn’t, like, stop abruptly mid-stride like it’s frightened. It just kind of comes to a stop and cocks its head to the side and holds a hand out to you.
Kim: Oh. Blaire knows in the back of her mind that she really shouldn’t…
Rhi: Oh, and I’ll tell you. So, you— So since you do know a little, I gave you a description. I didn’t really tell you anything else about these.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: So, they’re called Poisonwoods. Most of the descriptions that you have read say that they are mindless monsters that will attack, um, with like, their hands or like, have really sharp claws. They’re very fast. And they just kind of seem to attack anything living that they see in a mindless rage. But there’s a few stories of ones that seem to have some kind of intelligence to them.
Kim: Oh! They’re so cute. I love them.
Rhi: They can’t speak, so people aren’t sure what they want, but some of them do seem to have some kind of sentience to them. And this one… seems like it might be one of those. You, being Blaire, you were like, “Oh, yeah, absolutely. Of course they’ve got intelligence.” But, like, you never expected to actually see it yourself. So now you’ve got one standing in front of you, holding out a hand.
Kim: And how far away from… is it from me?
Rhi: It’s probably about six feet back.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: It’s hand is probably about four feet away from you.
Kim: Damn.
Rhi: It has very long arms.
Kim: That’s so cool. I have an idea. Blaire is going to reach into her pack and take out the mushroom that she picked out and she’s going to take, like, half a step forward and like, very carefully…
Rhi: Uh-huh.
Kim: … put it on the ground and then step back and see what it does.
Rhi: It kind of lowers it’s hand, cocks its head to the side as it seems to, like… It doesn’t have eyes, but like, based on the angle of its head it seems to be looking down at the mushroom. And then it takes a couple steps towards you and holds out the hand again, um, and like, at this point, its hand is much closer to you. Like, it’s basically arm’s length away.
Kim (as Blaire): Uh… It probably wants the thing. Um… Uh…
Rhi: Are you saying this out loud as Blaire? Or is this you?
Kim: I was gonna say both? This is both.
Rhi: If Blaire is saying, “Oh, what does it want,” it sort of straightens up and draws it’s hand back and points off to the side, away from the port, inland of it. Um, and it is pointing towards a very tall, um, petrified tree. You can just make out against the general gloom of the space back here.
Kim (as Blaire): Is that your friend?
Rhi: It stands there for a second and then, very slowly shakes its head.
Kim (as Blaire): Is there something there you want me to see?
Rhi: Another long, long pause and then it slowly nods.
Kim (as Blaire): Well… I’m not supposed to be here long, I’m supposed to just make a quick errand. Um… Will this be quick?
Rhi: It just holds its hand out to you again.
Kim: Blaire’s gonna look up at it, like, very tentatively and, like, glance back and forth between, like, the head and the hand, and she’s going to very slowly and carefully put her hand out to hold its hand.
Rhi: So it closes its fingers around your hand and it’s not, like… You know when you hold out your hand with a person, like, your fingers are pressed against theirs. This is more like, it’s kind of folding its fingers around your hand more like kind of a cage. Like, more like it’s…
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: You get the sense that it is… It’s trying really hard to be careful.
Kim: Aww!
Rhi: And then it starts…
Kim: I’ve named him!
Rhi: It starts walking, sort of gently pulling you along with it as it starts walking towards the tree.
Kim: Okay. Aww, I love him. This is so endearing!
Rhi: I mean, the journey of the things you find in the Deathlands, I will tell— Once we finish this, I’m gonna tell you about kind of my rationale for the creatures that I make for the Deathlands. Um, but yeah. I didn’t want everything to be an absolutely horrible monster. Sometimes…
Kim: Thank you!
Rhi: Sometimes there’s these guys!
Kim: I love them!
Rhi: So do you just kind of walk along with it?
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Over to… Okay.
Kim: Yes.
Rhi: So it leads you over to the tree and it is a big, big tree. Um, like… You know, kind of in our terms it would be, like, a 40-50 year old oak tree. It’s very huge.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: Lots of branches. It’s dead. It’s dead and petrified, but it’s still a very tall, impressive tree. It brings you, you know, over to the tree, lets you go, and it steps towards the tree and, like, puts its hand on the trunk and then kind of turns and looks to you.
Kim: Blaire is— She’s not going to say anything, but she’s going to, like, after a minute, very slowly, carefully mirror what the creature is doing. She’s also going to put her hand on the tree.
Rhi: It’s a dead tree. You’re not really picking up anything just by touching it.
Kim: I imagine I can’t really switch to my spirit mask while I’m out here? Because I’ve got to keep my ghost— my gas mask.
Rhi: Well, the gas mask I think is just covering your mouth.
Kim: Oh!
Rhi: So I think you could put your spare mask on. I’m gonna rule that you can. Or you can overlay it over the eye things. You can use your spirit mask, I’m gonna say.
Kim: Okay, Blaire is going to put on her spirit mask and see what she can find.
Rhi: So you’re going to look into the ghost field. I think you start off, you put on— Because it’s been directing your attention to the tree. So you put on the spirit mask and switch your vision to the ghost field and you look at the tree and there’s a… Kind of like, it’s like a shard of some kind of ghostly energy in the middle of the tree and then there’s…
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: … this faint tendril leading out of that shard and as you follow it leads over to the Poisonwood. And you see…
Kim: Uh-huh.
Rhi: There’s a… It’s a strange kind of creature that you see overlaid on the shape of the Poisonwood. It’s a— It’s still kind of humanoid, tall, kind of stretched out. I don’t— Like, I think that there is color in the ghost field, but it’s super washed out. But you can still tell that it seems to have kind of greenish skin, dark eyes, um… It’s fairly— It’s androgynous. You’re not really able to pin anything down in terms of sex or gender. Long, tangled hair that kind of— It also seems to be sort of greenish and brown, almost like vines. And it is… Like the creature, like I said, this sort of ghost image is overlaid over the Poisonwood and it is very emaciated.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: And it looks… Whenever you think of sadness from now on, you’re gonna think of the look on this creature’s face. Just this is like, the look on this creature’s face is pure sorrow.
Kim: Aw.
Rhi: It kind of, like, cocks its head to the side again and it still can’t talk to you.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: But it takes the hand off of the tree and makes sort of a downward sweeping gesture through that tether, that line that’s coming out of the tree and going into it.
Kim: Oh, so it can see the ghost field.
Rhi: Or it knows what you can see.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: You’re not sure. But it’s—
Kim: Interesting.
Rhi: Yeah. It makes that gesture of bringing its hand down through it and it doing that gesture doesn’t do anything.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: The tether doesn’t show any sign that it’s been touched. Um…
Kim: Blaire’s gonna swipe her mask off and she’s gonna look up at the creature and she’s like…
Kim (as Blaire): Did you lose something in there?
Rhi: Hang on, I have to think of how this creature would interpret this question.
Kim: That’s okay.
Rhi: So, at first it shakes its head and then it stops and then it nods.
Kim (as Blaire): Do you want me to try to get it out?
Rhi: It makes that sweeping downward gesture again. Like it’s going through the tether.
Kim (as Blaire): Do you… Do you want to be cut from this?
Rhi: It— All the other times when it’s reacted to your questions, there’s been a long pause before it nodded or shook its head. This time it is immediate, it nods.
Kim: Oh.
Rhi: No hesitation.
Kim: Okay. How would I go about this?
Rhi: Uh, I think it’s gonna be… You could…
Kim: Is this an Attune roll?
Rhi: Yeah. I think yeah. Let me look at what’s in your arcane implements kit.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: Because that might be, uh… Or possibly— Let me see what else you have. Yeah, I’m gonna say that you’re pretty sure you could, like, using something in your arcane implements, you know. It would be an Attune roll, basically, but you could break that tether.
Kim: Okay. In that case, that’s what I’ll do. I’m gonna add arcane implements to my load.
Rhi: Mm-hmm.
Kim: Um, and I’m going to make an Attune roll.
Rhi: Yes.
Kim: Which is…
Rhi: Do you want to… Uh, and this is gonna be risky, standard effect. Do you want to try to push yourself or?
Kim: No.
Rhi: Okay, okay.
Kim: I’m just gonna do 2d6.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: Ooh.
Rhi: What did you get?
Kim: Do I go with the higher?
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: 6.
Rhi: Okay! So what do you think the… How do you think you do this? Because you succeed, you break the tether. What do you think that looks like?
Kim: Um… Blaire— First of all, she reaches into her pack and she reaches for her arcane tools and… The first image that came into my mind was like, a really huge… Well, not huge but, like, big pair of, like, rusty looking scissors.
Rhi: [laughs]
Kim: But I feel like that’s a little too on the nose.
Rhi: I don’t think that’s— I think you could have, like, just a knife on you?
Kim: Yeah!
Rhi: If you wanted to do, like, a knife that you do some— Like, you sprinkle something on or do something to.
Kim: Yes! I have a kit from my altar that is some kind of blessed or…
Rhi: Well so, like, it comes…
Kim: What’s the word I’m thinking of? The— Enchanted?
Rhi: Sanctified? Enchanted?
Kim: An enchanted knife.
Rhi: Mm-hmm.
Kim: Something that can affect things in the ghost field, I guess.
Rhi: Yeah, yeah.
Kim: And, uh, she is just going to look up at the Poisonwood one last time before swiping upwards and that tether just snaps in too.
Rhi: Okay, do you have your spirit mask back on? Are you looking through the ghost field while you’re doing this?
Kim: Yes.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: Obviously, I have to.
Rhi: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So you slice up through that tether and it’s, you know, like a cord being snapped. It kind of springs back.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Um, the shard within the tree fades out and you look back at the creature, the ghostly image overlaid over the Poisonwood and… it smiles at you, this big brilliant smile and, like, reaches out and very gently touches your shoulder.
Kim: [gasps]
Rhi: And then very carefully takes its hand back and then it reaches up into the tree.
Kim: Uh-huh.
Rhi: Like, just kind of up into the branches and you can’t really see what it’s doing and it comes back down and it holds out its hand again. And it’s holding, um, you’ve never seen these before. They’re these small kind of woody looking objects, you know, each one of them is probably about, you know, the size of like, your thumb to the first knuckle. Not very big.
Kim: Yeah. Do they look natural or manmade?
Rhi: Yeah, yeah, no, they’re natural. It’s some kind of natural thing.
Kim: Oh, okay.
Rhi: Um, the bottom is sort of rounded and smooth, the top is kind of, like, a little cap that’s sort of knobbly. They’re acorns, but Blaire’s never seen an acorn before and it’s offering them to you.
Kim: Aww! She doesn’t know what they are, but Blaire being Blaire, she is immensely curious about everything. She takes the acorns and, like, she looks up at the Poisonwood and she just says…
Kim (as Blaire): Thank you!
Rhi: It nods at you and then it touches the tree one more time and then it kind of circles around the tree and walks off.
Kim (as Blaire): Wait, wait, wait, wait! Wait!
Kim: Blaire calls to it before it leaves.
Rhi: Okay, it’s not a fast-moving creature so I think, like, it makes it one step away and it stops.
Kim (as Blaire): Do you have a name?
Rhi: I think it stares at you for a very long time, like I think it’s, like, a solid minute of silence and then… Are you still looking through the spirit mask or have you taken that off?
Kim: I’ve taken it off.
Rhi: Okay, so you can’t see the expression of the creature on it, but it’s posture kind of slumps a little bit and it just shakes its head.
Kim (as Blaire): Can I give you a name?
Rhi: A much shorter pause and then it nods, a little hesitantly.
Kim (as Blaire): Okay. Briar? Do you like Briar?
Rhi: It kind of tilts its head to the side, seeming to think for a little bit and then nods and pats your shoulder again, very carefully.
Kim: She’s gonna like, take her hand and, like, pat the hand.
Rhi: Yeah and then it steps back and kind of gives you, like, a final nod and then it’s gonna head off.
Kim (as Blaire): Okay. Bye.
Kim: She kind of, like, she stands in place and just gives a very small wave. That was so good.
Rhi: So, you’re then— You hike back over to where you think the spirit well is.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: You find it pretty easily because it’s kind of glowing and there is what can only be described as the screaming of the damned emanating from it.
Kim: Hell, yeah!
Rhi: So you, having some sense of self-preservation, don’t get super close. Uh, because… the energy that comes from spirit wells is… I’m trying to think of what a good analogy would be. So it’s like the stuff that you get, like the energy that ghosts get from spirit wells is like McDonald’s. Possessing a person is like a three-course meal at a five-star restaurant. Like, the stuff you get from a spirit restaurant will sustain you. It will keep you alive. But, oh man, possessing a person. That’s the good shit. So you don’t want to get real close because even though they’ve got stuff…
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: … to energize them over there, um, it’s not…
Kim: Not great.
Rhi: Yeah, you don’t want to tempt them.
Kim: Exactly. So, Blaire being where she is, I think she’s going to start digging through her pack and, uh, from out of her belongings, she’s going to take out the first ghost jar and just put it on the ground. Take out the second one, put it on the ground. And… what do you think? Is it safe to just let these babies loose?
Rhi: Uh, I think you’re gonna want to be ready to run? [laughs] Because you are currently going to be closer to them than the… You have a demon’s bane charm as one of your items, but I don’t think you have…
Kim: That is— That is true.
Rhi: Yeah, you don’t have a spirit— Every other playbook has a spirit bane charm. [laughs] You don’t.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Because you want to keep them around.
Kim: God damn it.
Rhi: Your special thing, your special ability is iron will, right?
Kim: Yes.
Rhi: Yeah, okay. So, yeah I think you could either just, like, pop them open with your hands and run, which might necessitate some kind of roll or you could try to rig up something where you could, like, pull them open from a distance?
Kim: Yeah. That— That could be— I could see that being a Tinker roll.
Rhi: Yeah. I think using, like, stuff you’ve got in you bag—
Kim: Alright, I’m gonna check off tinkering tools and I’ll make a Tinker roll.
Rhi: Yeah, it’s gonna be, um… Because right now it’s— Well, no, you are trying— Well, no this is just the roll to see if you can make something, so it’s gonna be controlled, there’s not really any present threats.
Kim: Oh, no.
Rhi: What’d you get?
Kim: I got a 1.
Rhi: The… [laughs] The dice have no middle ground. Okay.
Kim: Nope.
Rhi: So you— You’re trying to, like, put together some kind of, like, hook mechanism that you can use to open these up and it’s just not. The light out here is really bad, like, it’s hard to see through the lenses of your gas mask, it’s just not coming together.
Kim: Alright, so we’re gonna have to do this the stupid way once again.
Rhi: Which is— Yeah. Open them, run away.
Kim: Yeah. In tried and true Blaire fashion.
Rhi: Um, so I’ll say this, you could— So I think I kind of mentioned that, like, you have something in your arcane implements kit that will attract ghosts.
Kim: Ah!
Rhi: So you could, like, throw that and then open these and hope they’ll go for it over you.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: I think that’s gonna be the quicksilver, is one of the things that was good in there.
Kim: I was gonna say— Yeah, I could just chuck some quicksilver down the well and hope for the best.
Rhi: Well, it’s towards the well. You’re pretty far away, you’re not close enough to throw anything into it. You’re probably a good, like, 30 feet back.
Kim: Okay, no, that’s good to know. So in that case, I like that idea. I want to go with that.
Rhi: Yeah, so for that you don’t need to make a roll to just do the throwing. I’m gonna say that you’ll still need to make a Prowl to get away.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: But it’s gonna be controlled rather than risky.
Kim: Okay, that’s good.
Rhi: Because you’ve given yourself a bit of a— And if you would like to push yourself or anything?
Kim: Uh, I think I will because I do have some stress to spare.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: And… I would like to avoid getting possessed or eaten or what have you.
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: Oh, no.
Rhi: What’cha get?
Kim: Uh, I got a 3.
Rhi: Ooh, oh dear.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Well, it’s still controlled. Okay. So I think here’s what happens. You throw the quicksilver and it splashes out on the ground, making a nice tempting target for ghosts, and you’re about to open up the spirit jars.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: And you kind of hesitate and you look at, like, the distance between you and where the quicksilver landed and it’s pretty far away. You’re thinking you should probably move closer?
Kim: Okay?
Rhi: To the quicksilver, which is also closer to the spirit well, so basically this is gonna make it a, uh, risky.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: A risky roll.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: But you can try again, you can move in.
Kim: So another Prowl to run?
Rhi: Uh-huh. It’s gonna be risky and, again, you can either take some stress or I can give you a Devil’s Bargain.
Kim: What kind of Devil’s Bargain would you have in mind for this? Because I don’t have much stress left.
Rhi: One of these ghosts that you are freeing right now is going to remember you, for good or for ill, will kind of depend on whatever I want to do in the narrative in the future, but it’s gonna remember you.
Kim: [sighs] Okay. That’s like a 50/50 shot.
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: You know, I’ve made worse alliances. I think if one ghost remembers me, whatever. I can handle it. In that case, I will accept your Devil’s Bargain. Ooh.
Rhi: What’cha get?
Kim: 5.
Rhi: 5. Okay, so, you do it, but there’s a consequence. So I think what’s gonna happen is you open them up, you scramble away, but in the process of scrambling away you twist your ankle.
Kim: Ah!
Rhi: But, like, you get— You get clear. So, like, this basically just means it’s gonna take you a lot longer to hike back to the lightning wall and you’re gonna, you know, it’s level 1 harm, twisted ankle. You can roll to resist it if you want.
Kim: Nah, that’s okay.
Rhi: Yeah, at this point it’s just— You’re just gonna be walking slowly back.
Kim: That’s fine.
Rhi: Okay. You open it up, the ghosts come out, uh, screaming. Loudly.
Kim: Yay.
Rhi: You’re kind of, like, hobbling backwards, watching them. They dive for the quicksilver and then kind of get lost in the general spirity-glow of the, uh, the spirit well.
Kim (as Blaire): Be good! Bye!
Rhi: [laughs] What— One of them turns and looks back at you and, like, it makes direct eye contact.
Kim: Oh, Blaire freezes.
Rhi: Yeah, but then it turns away— That’s the one that’s gonna remember you. It turns away and drifts off towards the spirit well.
Kim (as Blaire): Bye, friend.
Rhi: Alright, so you limp off towards the lightning wall and we’ll just kinda cutscene the rest of this.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: You’re able to get back in, using the tools. Uh, do you try to return the tools you stole? Are you just gonna take them with you? Are you gonna ditch them some—
Kim: I’m gonna keep them.
Rhi: Yeah, good call.
Kim: They’re mine now.
Rhi: Yeah. [laughs] And these are mine. Yeah, so you can put that on your character sheet that you have a pair of, uh, lightning barrier rods that will let you pass through the lightning barrier if they are grounded properly. Yeah. So that’s gonna wrap up your adventure. Because of the detour with the Poisonwood and your twisted ankle, it’s pretty late by the time you get back to the nest. Nobody else is there.
Kim: Oh.
Rhi: They’re out, you assume. Um, but yeah. That is the end of this little adventure.
The Magpies Podcast is GM’d and produced by Rhi. Follow me on Twitter @Rhiannon42. Blaire Culhane is played by Kim Kogut. Follow her on Twitter @KimdianaJones. The Blades in the Dark roleplay system is the creation of John Harper and is published by Evil Hat Productions.
Kim: I don’t think I just trust dice bots in general.
Rhi: I mean, they are probably more random than actual dice.
Kim: And he’s more machine now than man.