Transcribed by Raina Harper.
## Intro
**
Rhi: Welcome back to Imperial City. As always, thank you so much for joining us. I’m really excited about these next two episodes–they’re a big turning point for the show and the characters, and I can’t wait for you all to hear them. If you like them as much as I do, please shout about the show on Twitter, leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice, or even back us on Patreon!
We’ve got some big announcements today, so let’s get into them. First: there is brand-new merch in the store! We’ve got mugs with Magpies, The City That Never Dies, and Clever Corvids Logos. And we’ve added two of our most fan-requested quotes: “We Die Like Men, Needlessly Taking Damage to Prove a Point” as a t-shirt design, and “Ghosts Want Me, Bluecoats Fear Me” as a t-shirt and a trucker hat. Kim did some absolutely amazing work on all the designs, so go check them out today. And if you’re a Patreon backer, there’s a discount coupon available for everything in the merch store, as a thank you for your ongoing support of the show.
Second, we will be participating in Rainbow Roll Fest on June 18th and 19th! There’s a ton of awesome queer tabletop podcasts (including two other shows that Aki’s in!), so be sure to check out the full lineup. Once we know exactly when our timeslot is, we’ll let you know.
Now, for the big news. When we ran our Kickstarter for The City That Never Dies last year, one of our stretch goals was a second actual play campaign show that Josie would run. We didn’t hit that goal, and so the idea got shelved. But shelved doesn’t mean canceled. Once The City That Never Dies launched, Josie and I did some planning and budgeting, and we realized that we could get a season of her show going after all.
And so I am thrilled to announce that on Tuesday, June 7th, Demon: Love and Hellfire will be launching as Clever Corvids Productions’ second full campaign show. Josie is an absolute powerhouse for this show, as she’s not only the GM and editor, but also the designer of the custom Forged in the Dark game system that it’s running on. Love and Hellfire is a story of humanity, faith, identity, heresy, and betrayal, all set to an amazing soundtrack in a modern-day setting. I’ve been lucky enough to listen to the premiere, and it is awesome. It’ll be running on its own feed, so keep an eye on our Twitter so you can follow it as soon as it launches next month.
Next, Aki is going to tell us about this month’s featured charity.
Aki: Hey, it’s Aki, and our chosen charity of the month is Red Canary Song, a grassroots collective of Asian and migrant sex workers organizing trans-nationally. Red Canary Song centers base-building with migrant workers through a labor rights framework and mutual aid. We believe that full decriminalization is necessary for labor organizing and anti-trafficking. As May is Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, what better way to promote the cause than one that affects my people directly? Get involved now by visiting redcanarysong.net. That is redcanarysong.net. Thanks.
Rhi: Now then. Let’s get started, shall we?
## Story Continues [00:04:04]
Rhi: We find the Whisky Jays on this dark chilly afternoon sitting at the outside tables at a small café. I imagine Pearl is occupying most of the space under the table. Sitting with them at this café is a woman that you’ve worked with a few times before, mostly as an informant.
Anne Slater-Shier is a freelance reporter. She writes articles for a few of the papers around town. She has light skin, blonde hair that’s styled into curls, very smart dresser, and she is mostly focused on the conversation with you but part of her attention is on her 12-year-old son, Isaac, who is running circles around the table, empty table, next to all of you.
Josie: [laughs] Are we gonna teach the young child how to do crimes?
Rhi: [resigned] I’m sure you all will at some point.
Kim: Can I adopt a crime boy?
[giggling]
Rhi: I think that as we join the group the server has just dropped off whatever drinks and snacks you all have ordered. Isaac will sort of veer over and grab a cookie off of his mom’s plate and then run off. She just calls after him.
Rhi (as Anne): Don’t eat that while you’re running. [exhales]
Minna: [giggles]
Rhi (as Anne): Sorry. Alright, now I think we’ve all got something to eat and drink, we can get down to business. Thanks again for meeting me. I need your help in getting a friend of mine out of the city.
Kim (as Val): Sure, just, you know, name a location and a price.
Rhi (as Anne): She’s… Her name is Sola, Sola Gillord. She is currently hiding out in the Shadowfields. She works for the Imperial City Times.
Rhi: Which all of you know the Imperial City Times is not actually a newspaper.
Josie: Oh?
Rhi: It is a gang of highly-skilled forgers. They operate out of an old printing press that they bought over in Dunmore Ridge. Basically, if you need something forged and done very well, you go to the Imperial City Times.
Josie: But in exchange, they really want those pictures of Spiderman.
Rhi: Yes. [laughs] So yeah, when she says that her friend works for the Imperial City Times, this is not a fellow reporter, this is a forger.
Rhi (as Anne): Yes. So, Sola did a job and maybe did it a little too well. Somebody hired her to ruin a business deal that was going down between two corporations. She created a lot of documents that implicated one party in…
Rhi: She starts ticking off on her fingers.
Rhi (as Anne): …blackmail, extortion, fraud, purchase and distribution of illicit materials, smuggling alcohol, just really kind of a whole laundry list of fun and exciting crimes.
Kim (as Val): Impressive.
Josie (as Echo): Yes, that’s impressive.
Kim: [chuckles]
Josie: [laughs] They look at each other as we say it at the same time.
Kim: We high-five.
Josie: Yeah.
Rhi (as Anne): She did a very good job. She’s good at what she does. The deal fell through, but the company that was targeted by her work figured out she was behind it and it seems they’ve sent someone to kill her.
Kim (as Val): And we can’t have that.
Aki (as Darling): Oh, that’s a bit of an inconvenience then, isn’t it?
Josie (as Echo): Seems a bit of an overreaction.
Rhi (as Anne): Well, there was apparently quite a lot of money on the line. I guess that the person targeted is willing to spend even more money in order to get revenge.
Kim (as Val): How soon do they need to skip town?
Rhi (as Anne): Sola very much needs to get out of town. Yes.
Kim (as Val): No, how soon?
Rhi (as Anne): The sooner the better. I mean, this person… I’ve only spoken to Sola once. She reached out to me when she went into hiding. That was after her car blew up. She said that she’s been followed a few times. She said that she’s had some shots taken at her. She’s hiding out in the Shadowfields with a handful of things that she was able to pack up, but yes, she needs to get out of the city for a while. She’s not really particular if she is leaving on a train or by ship, just something to get her out of Imperial City alive.
Kim (as Val): Well, practically speaking, I think a ship would be much more difficult for someone to track.
Aki (as Darling): Though, if she’s on the ship and we do a poor job securing it, then that means she’s on the ship with her killer.
Josie (as Echo): But we won’t do a poor job securing it.
Aki (as Darling): I would hope so. It would seem that the help that is being hired is not that competent, so perhaps this is easy pay for us.
Rhi (as Anne): I hope so. In terms of payment, I don’t really have a lot to spare and neither does the ICT, but… well, one, you can basically call on their services for free going forward if you’re able to do this. They also have a number of connections, sources, throughout the city that they can pull on to get you all information.
Rhi: Mechanically speaking, [laughs] if you look at the crew sheet, you would basically be getting the… There’s the section that has your lair and then all kinds of other turf sort of things. Your claims map.
Josie: Oh~
Rhi: This would be informants is what you would be getting here. So, any time you Gather Info, if you complete this job successfully, you get to add a die to the roll.
Kim & Josie: Oh!
Rhi: Which is awesome. [chuckles] So yeah, mechanically, your reward here is not financial, but mechanically you are going to have a lot of extra—you’re gonna have an extra die on every Gather Info roll that you make after this session.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: So, a very helpful thing to have. And you’ll basically have access to forged documents when you need them.
Minna: I love that, given how much we’ve already used them.
Kim: Yeah…
Rhi: Yeah! Yeah.
[laughter]
Aki: I was gonna say, this sounds quite useful.
Kim: Sounds like a fair trade.
Aki: But in character, I’m a little picky about it. I like coins.
Kim: I also like payment, but this is a good deal out of character.
Aki: Out of character, it’s an amazing deal. In character though, Darling crosses her arms a little bit.
Aki (as Darling): So we’re just supposed to… what, shake on it? Can we get this in writing at the very least? That way we know, you know, we have a list of names of people to go after if this falls through.
Josie (as Echo): Yes, but that leaves a paper trail.
Rhi (as Anne): yes. If you’d like, I can put you in contact with some people at the ICT so you can confirm it with them, but yeah, I don’t think that they’re gonna be too keen on writing anything down.
Josie (as Echo): Yes please.
Rhi (as Anne): Also, for what it’s worth, a written agreement with a group of forgers…
Minna (as Arlene): [laughs] Yeah, that could go…
Aki (as Darling): That’s true. That’s true.
Josie (as Echo): I’m fine with the longer-term favor arrangement, although having gas money would be good; gas expenses let’s toss in there.
Rhi: I think they can probably put that together for you. I think as you’re talking there’s suddenly a clattering sound from the other table and you all look over to see that Isaac has taken the chairs and piled them up on the table into a pyramid that he is now attempting to climb.
Minna (as Arlene): [stammering] You might, um… I have some—Hey, don’t put your hand there. That’s not steady!
Rhi: [laughs]
Aki: Darling’s just getting—
Josie (as Echo): That’s actually very impressive given his size. How did he do that?
Rhi (as Anne): Oh, he’s very creative—Isaac!
Rhi: Anne is gonna stand up and coax him down.
Rhi (as Anne): Put the chairs back where you found them.
Rhi: He’s scowling.
Rhi (as Isaac): [grumbling] You never let me have any fun.
Rhi: Pulling them down. She just rubs her forehead.
Aki (as Darling): Sweetheart, if you’re going to climb things, at least make sure you put a copious amount of pillows on the floor for when you inevitably fall.
Rhi (as Isaac): [indignant] I wasn’t gonna fall… I’m good at climbing.
Kim (as Val): Don’t be afraid to make it taller. You might—
Rhi: [cackles]
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: The dichotomy of parent! If you’re gonna do something dumb, at least make sure that when you fall you won’t hurt yourself, versus, you coward, you can do better than that!
[laughter]
Kim: I try to be the fun dad.
Rhi: You’re not nearly in enough danger!
Minna: All I was saying is that Darling definitely has experience in training somebody to climb things.
Rhi: Mm-hmm! Yep. So yeah, Anne will… well, I guess do you have any other questions for her right now?
Minna (as Arlene): Do we know if the people with the business deal are sending their own people after Sola or if they’re hiring people?
Rhi (as Anne): I assume they’re hiring. So, the company that’s sending them is Lumeni Holdings. It’s a real estate magnate. They own a ton of property all up and down the river. I don’t think that they keep hired killers on staff?
Minna: [laughs]
Rhi (as Anne): To the best of my knowledge? So I assume they’ve hired someone outside, but I could be wrong. I hope I’m not wrong about that. That would be very troubling.
Kim (as Val): Well, if you are, that just means that they’re doing a real good job of portraying their front-facing business.
Rhi (as Anne): I guess. Ugh… So yes, I’m pretty sure that they’ve outsourced this one.
Aki (as Darling): Hmm. Outsourced like hidden gangs or outsourced like professionals?
Rhi (as Anne): Uh, that I don’t know. Like I said, Sola told me that she’d seen someone following her for a few days, then her car blew up, and as she was leaving her home after the explosion somebody took a few shots at her, but she managed to get into a crowd and shake them. She’s been in Shadowfields since then.
Josie (as Echo): Alright. It sounds like we have little time to waste.
Rhi (as Anne): Yes. The quicker the better. She’s a fairly sneaky person. Sometimes she has to enter businesses without an invitation…
Rhi: [laughing] She glances over at Isaac as she says this, like ‘I don’t want him to hear.’
Rhi (as Anne): …but you know, she hasn’t had to hide out from someone trying to kill her long-term.
Kim (as Val): Well, we’ll seek her out and figure out where she wants to go and we’ll make it happen.
Rhi (as Anne): Alright. Thank you.
Kim (as Val): Our pleasure.
Rhi: I think she’ll shake hands and stand up and collect Isaac, fix the chairs that he just pulled down. They’re all piled up on one side. She will move them back and then herd him away. So, you’ve got your job. You can do some gathering of info, but time is rather of the essence here.
Josie: Yeah.
Kim: To be fair, I’m not sure there’s much info we need to gather. We can seek out the ICT if we want to, but I feel like we could do that afterwards if necessary. I feel like the only thing we really need to do is find Sola and figure out how she would prefer to leave the city.
Minna: I do think we need to meet Sola before we do anything else.
Kim & Aki: Yeah.
Rhi: Okay. So, the Shadowfields is basically the underground farming district of the city. Most of Imperial City is kind of up on cliffs and there’s a lot of underground rivers that run through those cliffs. Imperial City, in order to keep its people fed, has expanded the caves around those rivers into these massive farms. There’s radiant energy farms down there, there’s fish farms, there’s mushroom tunnels… everything pulls water off of the rivers to keep it irrigated. That’s where a lot of the city’s food comes from.
Josie: I’m imagining it very vertical because everything needs to get up to the city somehow, so it’s a lot of vertical tunnels with industrial elevators going up and down constantly.
Rhi: Ooh, yeah.
Josie: I imagine it’s very loud for the people who live down here.
Rhi: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Josie: And everything’s kind of built into the cave walls and stuff.
Kim: Yeah…
Rhi: Yeah. So, I think that Anne also would have told you how you can get in touch with Sola, because the Shadowfields is a huge district. She is… I think I’m gonna go with probably hanging out in one of the mushroom tunnels.
So you’ve kind of been given directions like ‘take this elevator down into the Shadowfields and you can find her at this—‘ you know, hmm… I imagine that the different farms and stuff are owned by either different families or different companies, so what do we want this mushroom tunnel, this mushroom farm to be named?
Josie: Lycris Farms.
Rhi: Okay! She’s been hanging out around the Lycris Farms mushroom tunnels.
Josie: And of course, these mushrooms are bioluminescent, because that’s what you gotta do when you’re underground.
Rhi: Delicious, delicious bioluminescent mushrooms.
Kim: Oh my God, do they make your teeth glow when you eat them?
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: Ooh… I guess it depends on if the bioluminescent stuff remains after you cook them.
Josie: I like the idea that you can’t usually tell, but if you’re about to go to bed and haven’t brushed your teeth yet, in the dark you get little flecks of glow-in-the-dark residue.
Kim: Oh~
Rhi: [laughs] Alright. So yeah, you wanna start by trying to find Sola?
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Talk to her? Okay. You all can head up from Kestrel Heights into Ivyridge where I think you have… You’ve been near Ivyridge before when you were dealing with the gang that stole Hedwig’s ledgers. Ivyridge, the majority of the people who live there work in the Shadowfields so there’s a fair number of access points. I imagine there’s elevators and ramps and these winding spiral stairs that descend from street level down into the farms.
I think as you get down there it’s one of the brighter areas in the city. There’s a fair amount of radiant energy down here, which radiant energy is an alchemical process that can basically make living things like plants or even fish produce light that is akin to actual sunlight, which is how things like fruit trees or other plants that require the sun can be grown.
The process of making things produce this radiant energy light does make them incredibly toxic, so they can’t be eaten, but it basically means that you can actually have functional farms beyond stuff that can grow just in darkness without sunlight.
Josie: It’s a shame that they’re toxic. I wanna eat the forbidden sun fish.
[giggling]
Kim: I do too. Actually, no, I wanna swim and pet them, but that’s just me.
Josie: Yeah.
Rhi: So yeah, there’s a lot of light down here. It’s a very busy place. There’s a lot of noise, as Josie was saying, from the industrial elevators, and there’s just a lot of people moving around taking care of all of the plants and the fish, both the ones that are providing light and the ones that are being grown for food. As you all are moving through, you are drawing a lot of looks because you don’t belong here.
Josie: Echo pulls her hat down lower.
Rhi: No one is necessarily stopping you, but you are all being noticed.
Kim: I think Val is very quick to shrug it off, like they’re very used to having eyes on them and knows how to just walk with a purpose and just deal with being seen in general. So they’re having an okay time ignoring it.
Rhi: Yeah.
Aki: The same with Darling, for obvious reasons. [giggles]
Rhi: Yeah. [laughs]
Minna: I feel like Arlene does cheeky little waves a couple of times.
Rhi: Oh God.
Josie: Meanwhile, Echo is “please don’t observe me.” Not just now, like, in general.
Rhi: Yeah. “I do not wish to be perceived.” Yeah, when Arlene waves at people you don’t really get friendly responses. People kind of eye you and go back to their work. It’s just… you all really don’t belong here. You are not supposed to be here and there’s not a lot of reasons why outsiders come down to wander around the Shadowfields.
But you are able to make your way to the Lycris Farm which is a series of mushroom tunnels that are cut into the cave rock. I’m imagining it’s kind of a… So, I’ve seen actual mushroom farms where it’s just towers of rotting wood logs that are built up, and I imagine that’s probably some of them. There’s a lot of mushrooms growing along the walls of these tunnels, things like that. I think that as you approach and come to a stop, a young person with a shovel over their shoulder will come over and be like:
Rhi (as young person): You all lost? Can I help you?
Kim (as Val): We’re looking for Sola Gillord.
Rhi: Kinda gives you a wary look.
Rhi (as young person): Right… and who told you that you could find her here?
Kim (as Val): Anne Slater-Shier.
Rhi: They kinda relax a little bit.
Rhi (as young person): Alright. Hang on a second.
Rhi: They head down into the tunnel and will emerge a little bit later with a short woman, looks like she’s probably in her early 30s, brown skin, short dark hair, dark eyes, wearing the same kind of stuff you’ve seen a lot of the farmers down here wearing—a loose-fitting shirt, overalls, boots, but none of it fits her very well. It’s all a little bit too big. She’s also wearing a completely unnecessary straw hat pulled down.
[laughter]
Kim: Oh. Just for the vibes?
Rhi: Well, and to, you know, probably add to the disguise a little bit. She’ll come out and be like:
Rhi (as Sola): [relieved exhale] Okay. Hi. You’re the ones that Anne sent?
Kim (as Val): That’s us.
Rhi (as Sola): Oh, okay, good. Hi! Uh… are we ready to go? Are we going now? They’ve been letting me hide out here in exchange for helping with the mushrooms, and I’m really tired of mushrooms.
Josie (as Echo): We wanted to ask you if there is some place you would prefer to go outside the city. Family in another city or anything like that?
Rhi (as Sola): No, not really. Right now mostly, uh… away. If I can just get out of Akoros entirely, I feel like that might be best. Um… yeah.
Josie (as Echo): Ship to Iruvia it is.
Rhi (as Sola): Okay. Yeah. Iruvia! Iruvia sounds great. Never been. I hear it’s warm… run by demons, which sounds better than my current situation.
Aki (as Darling): Oh yes.
Josie (as Echo): I did not know the demons part.
Rhi (as Sola): That’s the rumor. Like I said, haven’t been. You know, I’ll let you all know when I get there and then hopefully come back someday when people aren’t trying to kill me. Nobody followed you, did they?
Kim (as Val): No. No, not at all. Demons seems a little bit extreme. Are you sure you wouldn’t wanna go somewhere safer?
Aki (as Darling): All these talks of demons. Do you have any idea perhaps who or what is following you? Did you get a glance at them?
Rhi: Let’s find out with a Gather Info roll.
Aki: This is where I try to bargain for a Hunt roll instead as that is… I’m looking for people, technically, and trying to pry out some people details.
Rhi: Um… Eh… You’re not actively out there looking, you’re talking to somebody.
Aki: Yeah, yep, I know. This is me trying. [giggles]
Rhi: [smiling] I appreciate the effort, but I don’t think it quite fits. This is probably Consort. You’re just asking.
Aki: Consort, you say?
Rhi: Yes.
Aki: [putters] Like a 4?
Rhi: Okay. So, standard amount of information. Sola wraps her arms around herself. She is clearly very shaken up by all of this.
Rhi (as Sola): I’m pretty sure it’s just one person. I haven’t really gotten a good look at them, but the figure that I’ve seen, it seems to be the same person every time that I’ve gotten a look at them.
Rhi: Looks over the group.
Rhi (as Sola): They’re… a little bit taller than you.
Rhi: Points at Arlene.
Rhi (as Sola): Usually they’ve been wearing kind of a heavier coat. Dark hair. Pretty good at—I mean, I had to do a lot of work to lose them when I came down here. I only know that I lost them because I’m still alive. They’re good at moving through a crowd and keeping up with people and I’m pretty sure they blew up my car.
Aki (as Darling): Hmm.
Minna: Hey, information?
Rhi: Yeah?
Minna: This is out of character. How tall is Sola in comparison to the rest of us?
Rhi: She is shorter than everybody. She’s a pretty short person.
Josie: Aw.
Minna: I think Arlene’s listening to Darling being told this.
Minna (as Arlene): Well, I think we kinda stuck out a lot when we came here. When we leave again, we probably will stick out again. If somebody’s looking for that kind of thing and they’re good at this, they’re going to look for that, so we might want to do a diversion.
Josie (as Echo): I agree.
Minna (as Arlene): If we put a cloak or something on me and I crouch down, I could conceivably look like her being snuck out.
Josie (as Echo): Yes.
Minna (as Arlene): Then, we could take her… somebody else could take her more quietly out of here.
Josie (as Echo): Okay.
Minna (as Arlene): We might wanna make arrangements first.
Josie (as Echo): I’m going to scout ahead and see if there’s an underground route down to the water.
Kim (as Val): Alright, be safe.
Josie: She nods and heads off.
Rhi: So is that what you’re gathering info about?
Josie: Yeah.
Rhi: Okay. Yeah, go ahead and give me some kind of roll.
Josie: As much as I hate to say it, this sounds like a Survey.
Rhi: I would say it could be Study as well. I don’t know if you have anything in Study.
Josie: Sweet! Study is better for me.
Rhi: Because yeah, Study is gonna be more like you’re taking your time to kind of map out a route, which I think would make sense here.
Josie: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I got a 5.
Rhi: Okay. So, you all are presently pretty far inland from the bay, so you can’t walk all the way out to the bay right now and make it back in a reasonable amount of time. But, the whole Shadowfields is kind of riddled with canals for irrigating all of the crops that are growing down here. Ultimately, all of those canals lead back to these underground rivers, and all of those rivers eventually let out into the bay. Now, exactly where they come out, you’re not sure.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Some of them are gonna come out at surface level. Some of them are gonna come out underwater. But you know that you can follow the river down to the bay, it’s just a question of then getting up to the docks from there. But yeah, you could move underground.
Josie (as Echo): So, I’m thinking we send the conspicuous group above ground, perhaps to the train station, and then an inconspicuous group below ground to the docks.
Minna (as Arlene): It would be a lot better if we’d prepared bulletproof vests or something, but yeah, I think that sounds like a plan.
Rhi: Do you all wanna just move into the score right now?
Kim: At least I do.
Josie: Yeah.
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: We can, yeah, I feel like…
Minna: Aki, how are you feeling?
Aki: Hmm… Half of me is like “yeah, let’s do it,” other half of me is like “no…” mostly because we haven’t attempted to scout out this person ourselves yet.
Minna: If we wanna do that, we can choose to do that in character.
Rhi: Yeah.
Aki (as Darling): I think… I think we’re the most suspicious people here, who has come down here I mean, and while yes, you don’t want to muck around in mushrooms anymore, we can’t really do much without knowing what we are up against. I certainly don’t like the idea of just having Val escort the ‘package’ out by themselves.
Kim (as Val): So what do you propose?
Aki (as Darling): We keep Sola hidden here. A couple of us can stay, the ones that are much more “blendable…”
Aki: I gesture to Arlene and Val, the most blendable that we have.
Aki (as Darling): “…while the others, we leave, we look and see if there’s any sort of post around here. I personally am quite good at stakeouts, so I don’t mind being around watching for a while. It’s more so I need to see what we’re up against if we’re really going to, you know, split up. The train thing was a bit off, and this immediately afterwards…
Josie (as Echo): Alright.
Aki (as Darling): Mama’s on the ritz. Mama’s on the ritz.
Kim (as Val): If it’ll make you feel better, Dar, then by all means.
Rhi: So, it sounded like Val and Arlene are gonna stay down here to make sure that Sola doesn’t get jumped and Echo and Darling are gonna head up-top to do some stakeouts. Am I understanding that right?
Aki: Yeah, stakeouts or searches, whichever. I think both technically work, because that’s what a stakeout is. [laughs]
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Yeah! I like it. So yeah, Sola, her face falls when you say we’re not gonna leave immediately, but she nods in understanding.
Rhi (as Sola): Okay. Um… yeah. I think as long as there’s some people down here to sort of help keep an eye on things, because um… the Lycrises, they’re very nice, but they’re really not gonna be able to do anything if this person shows up. So yeah. I’ll get my stuff so I’m ready to go when you are, but yeah, I’ll just kinda go hang out in the tunnels again.
Kim (as Val): We’ll keep an eye on you. Don’t worry.
Rhi (as Sola): Thank you.
Rhi: Alright. So, Darling and Echo, you can head back up-top. Aki, what are you thinking for this stakeout? What are you envisioning?
Aki: We have a bit of a description of what said person looks like. We’re technically underground though, yes?
Rhi: You are right now, but you can go back topside if you want.
Aki: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I think making occasional, like… staying topside somewhere where we can scope out the place and then chill for a bit while we people watch is a good idea. Do we have a safe perimeter to even attempt to do a bait and switch or has this person been just watching and waiting the whole time? It’s like one of those.
Rhi: Got it.
Josie: You can communicate telepathically with Pearl, right?
Aki: Yes I can.
Josie: How about you leave Pearl down with them at the farm in case, like, if we see anyone who could be the enemy, you just be “hey, hey Pearl, let them know.”
Minna: [delighted] Ah! That’s so rad.
Aki: That’s true. Yeah, I could do that. I completely forgot. [laughs]
Rhi: Tiger radio.
Aki: Yeah, no, I forgot. Me and my cat, we are literally on the same wave length. Forgot about that. I only remember that I can talk to Pearl telepathically when I want to tell her that I love her. That’s it.
[giggling]
Rhi: Listen, that’s very important.
Aki: I picked that feat not for the cool things but for the domestic things.
Kim: I mean, that’s how you play RPGs in my opinion.
Rhi: Mm-hmm. Okay, so Pearl will stay down here. I think Pearl just sits down on Arlene’s feet.
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Okay! So Darling, why don’t you give me a roll to start here?
Aki: Roll-roll, roll-roll…
Rhi: In this case you can use Hunt.
Aki: [delighted sounds]
Rhi: Because you are looking for a target.
Aki: I was gonna ask. Hehehe. Well, I was, but now I’m good. Um… 6.
Rhi: Okay. Let me think. So you, I’m imagining, get up onto the roof of a nearby building and just keep an eye on the entrance down into the Shadowfields. You don’t see anybody matching the description that Sola gave you going down into the entrance. But, after a couple hours, you’ve been watching, you don’t see anyone, but as you’re starting to get ready to go to head back down, like “okay, it’s been a while, I haven’t seen anything,” you catch sight of movement on another rooftop.
You look over and you can see a figure in a very similar position to how you have been lying on this roof with a scope of their own, basically watching the same spot that you have been, watching the entrance down to the Shadowfields. You just kinda get a glimpse of them as they’re moving, so it’s not like you could just take a shot right now and take them out, but somebody else has been watching the same way that you have been.
Aki: Well, I let Pearl know. [laughs] Before I smoothly go back to where Echo is and basically go:
Aki (as Darling): Oh boy, do we have a spotter.
Josie (as Echo): Okay. So should we tell the group to move?
Aki (as Darling): They were watching the streets, so not out of this way. I don’t know if they saw me or not, but I know they’ve changed position.
Josie (as Echo): They would go the underground route, but…
Aki (as Darling): Yes-yes-yes, becoming a lot safer. Though, we should probably trap this place. Do you have anything… Do you have ‘anything,’ actually? You’re the tinkerer.
Josie (as Echo): I might have something, but other people come through this entrance.
Aki (as Darling): Oh dear! I’m not saying blow it up. Oh-ho-ho, no! I meant like a net or, um…
Rhi: [snickers]
Aki (as Darling): …a lot of powder for like a smokescreen? Or…
Josie (as Echo): Right. Other people come through this entrance.
Aki (as Darling): I mean… one of us stays here.
Josie (as Echo): Oh. Oh, okay, I see. Yes, I can do that.
Rhi: I think down in the farms Pearl has responded to ‘there is danger’ by trying to, with her head, nudge Arlene and Val I think down into the tunnels. She’s just herding you into what she perceives as a safer spot to be.
Josie: [laughs]
Kim (as Val): Oh! Okay, we’re moving! Alright. Tiger’s moving us.
Minna (as Arlene): Okay, let’s go.
Kim (as Val): Can you talk to the cat? Or is that just Dar?
Minna (as Arlene): I can’t talk to the cat, but she is speaking quite clearly and I think we should listen.
Kim (as Val): How can you tell?
Minna (as Arlene): Body language!
Kim (as Val): What body language?! It’s a cat!
Minna (as Arlene): She’s herding!
Rhi: Nudge, nudge, nudge. [laughs]
Kim (as Val): I’m moving. I get it. Okay! What is going on?
Rhi: So do you two head down into the tunnel where Pearl wants you to go?
Kim: Yeah.
Minna: Yes.
Rhi: Okay. So yeah, she kind of—once you’re a little bit further in she stops and just kind of hunkers down, tail lashing, and is just watching the outside.
Kim (as Val): It’s the weirdest frickin’ animal.
Minna (as Arlene): Okay, look at her tail like that.
Kim (as Val): Uh-huh?
Minna (as Arlene): Look what it’s doing.
Kim (as Val): What is it?
Minna (as Arlene): That means she’s agitated.
Kim (as Val): How do you know that?
Minna (as Arlene): Because that’s how cats work.
Kim (as Val): How do you know that’s how cats work?
Minna (as Arlene): Because that’s what Darling told me.
Kim (as Val): Alright. Alright. You know what? I’m just gonna assume, because she isn’t ripping my face off, that means she’s content for now. That’s… That’s why me and Pearl are rad. I love Pearl, gods bless her, but I don’t… I don’t get it. I don’t get it.
Minna (as Arlene): Okay. You don’t have to get it. Just listen to me when I tell you what she wants.
Kim (as Val): You got it.
Rhi: What is your next move?
Josie: Well, Echo is setting up a trap for our companion in case they try to go down.
Rhi: Got it. Yeah, so um… huh. I feel like we’re kinda shifting into the score at this point.
Josie: Oh, yeah. I forgot we hadn’t started yet.
Minna: [laughs]
Rhi: Yeah. Well, it’s been a little squishy on this one. We’re gonna say you all brought your gear retroactively. So yeah, let’s do the engagement roll real quick. I believe that this is a Transport score. You are carrying a people through danger.
Minna: Uh-huh!
Rhi: The route is you’re trying to move underground, right?
Kim: Yup.
Rhi: Along the river. Okay… Then, we will do our engagement roll. Okay, so you get one die for luck. Is this operation particularly bold or daring?
Kim: I mean, somewhat. We’re going up an assassin.
Minna: Yeah.
Rhi: Yeah, you’re trying to smuggle somebody out of the city so they don’t get assassinated. That’s pretty bold, pretty daring.
Minna: We’re putting lives on the line here.
Rhi: Yeah! Does the plan’s detail expose a vulnerability of the target or hurt them where they’re weakest? Um… yeah, actually I think that sticking underground is getting better control over the situation. Friends or contacts provide aid or insight? Um…
Aki: I mean, technically.
Rhi: Yeah, you got help from Anne, and Sola gave you information. Enemies or rivals? Yes. Other elements? This is a higher-tier group, so it comes out to a 2d6 engagement roll. Okay, that is a 4, so everything is starting in a risky position.
Kim: [as a groan] No…
## Score
Rhi: With that in mind, Echo…
Josie: Yes?
Rhi: …can make this roll to attempt to rig up a trap on this, uh… Are you…?
Josie: How busy is this elevator and what’s the setup? Does it just come up to the street or is it in a building or a basement or something?
Rhi: I think that it, like… What I’m picturing is that it would be loaded down below with cargo to be taken out to the different markets and stuff, so I think it probably comes up… I’m thinking it’s in an alley by a warehouse.
Josie: Mm-hmm?
Rhi: So that it can either be moved into the warehouse or just loaded directly onto a truck.
Josie: Gotcha.
Rhi: And it’s not a lot of people using it. Some people do. I think when people are coming and going and at the beginning and end of their shift there’s more people on it, but mostly it’s cargo and then a couple people to go with the cargo.
Josie: Mm-hmm. The tricky part of this is gonna be doing it without getting seen because the person is watching the same spot we were.
Rhi: Yep!
Josie: Honestly, I kinda just wanna hang out around the corner and mark off a gadget to try and have just a little ectoplasm generator, almost like a shock grenade sort of thing, you just click it on and throw it and it just sprays ectoplasmic electricity around it with the idea of, if they try to get on the elevator, I toss it and try to short-circuit it.
Rhi: Oh! Okay. So shutting down the elevator.
Josie: Yeah.
Rhi: So you’re targeting the elevator. I like that.
Josie: I assume there’s a panel where you hit the button that says go down. I wanna be able to just throw it at that and it sparks and shit.
Rhi: Yeah. I think that’s something that you can have had. So this is gonna be risky-reduced. You’re kind of exposed, right? You’re on a street. There’s people around. Pulling this off is gonna be tricky.
Josie: Okay. What sort of roll? Tinker?
Rhi: Yeah, probably Tinker.
Josie: I got a 6.
Rhi: Okay. You post up around the corner. You’ve got your gadget. You see a person in a long bulky coat, short dark hair kind of like an undercut sort of thing, hurry down the alley, striding with purpose towards the elevator.
I think the “you do it but with reduced effect” is that you toss the grenade, it sparks out, there’s some dramatic pops and a little bit of smoke from the control panel, but this person doesn’t get caught in the blast and just very smoothly takes a hard right and turns and heads down another branch of this alley and out of sight.
Josie (as Echo): Whoa, they’re stealthy.
Rhi: I don’t know if you wanna catch up with Darling and report back…?
Josie: What is Darling’s situation?
Rhi: Yeah, what’s Darling up to?
Aki: Darling was going to head back down to offer support, essentially. She’s making her way down, but she’s also giving space in between both, if that makes sense. That way it’s like… she knows where she’s going, she knows where she needs to go, but she’s not striding up there just in case they make it past Echo.
Rhi: Right. You’re taking a roundabout path. You’re not walking directly there.
Aki: Yeah.
Rhi: Got it.
Aki: Not brisk walking, simply just ready to be the second wall.
Rhi: Got it. Echo, I think… because there’s other points, this elevator is not the one point, it’s just the one that’s closest to where you were headed. Echo, you can also head down if you would like at this point.
Josie: I actually wanna try and tail the person.
Rhi: Okay. I don’t think I need a roll from Darling at this moment. Echo, do give me a roll to see how well you can tail them.
Josie: I’m rolling Prowl.
Rhi: That makes sense. This is gonna be—
Josie: Do you want a picture?
Rhi: Oh no. Did you get a critical?
Josie: No, I got a 6, but… [chuckles]
Aki: Hehehe.
Rhi: Okay. [laughs]
Josie: …two in a row is something.
Rhi: Yeah. So, this is gonna continue to be risky-reduced.
Josie: Okay.
Rhi: I think that you tail this person through the streets and over to… there’s like a stairway ramp combo setup that is usually for foot traffic going in and out of Shadowfields. You follow this person to that point and then you have to hang back to give them space so that they don’t see you. By the time you get down to the bottom of the stairs you’ve lost track of them, but you know they’re down here now. [laughs]
Josie: Okay.
Rhi: So you have that much information. They are underground along with you.
Josie: Perfect.
Rhi: So, I assume you wanna probably head over to rejoin the group?
Josie: Yeah.
Rhi: Okay. So, Pearl has remained in protection alert mode in this tunnel, and I think Darling and Echo probably shortly thereafter catch up to where Arlene and Val and Sola are.
Kim (as Val): Did you learn anything?
Aki (as Darling): They’re probably in here, or on their way in here.
Kim (as Val): Already?
Aki (as Darling): They were scoping out the place the same way I was.
Kim (as Val): Ah, shit. Alright. Well, let’s get a move on.
Rhi: Sola will come hustling up with basically a letter bag slung across her shoulder.
Rhi (as Sola): Uh, sounded like it’s time to go?
Aki (as Darling): Very much so.
Kim (as Val): You all packed up?
Rhi (as Sola): Yeah…
Rhi: Yeah, what is gonna be your approach to start with getting from the mushroom tunnels where you are to one of the rivers? Are you gonna go fast? Are you gonna go stealthy?
Josie: I think stealthy.
Minna: I like stealthy.
Rhi: Alright. Y’all wanna do a group Prowl?
Josie & Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: That most traditional of sneaking rolls.
Minna: Who’s leading?
Kim: I have 0 stress so I don’t mind leading.
Rhi: Alright. Sounds good.
Josie: I got a 3.
Kim: I also got a 3.
Josie: Uh-oh.
Rhi: Oof. God, what would this be? It’s still gonna be risky-reduced.
Aki: Oh! I got a 6.
Kim: Phew.
Rhi: Okay.
Minna: Can I push for greater effect?
Rhi: Um… yes.
Minna: That’s a 4.
Rhi: Okay, so you got a 4, so Val, you’re gonna take 2 points of stress.
Kim: Okie-dokie.
Rhi: But the result is a 6, so you do it with reduced effect.
Minna: So—
Rhi: Or no, standard, because you burned the stress. You’re able to make it across the Shadowfields, this area of it, moving quietly, sticking to shadows, avoiding people. I think that you’ve moved into an area where there’s just not quite as many people around at this point so you’re not drawing as many looks as you move. You reach the edge of one of the underground rivers here. I think I’m gonna start a clock for you all. You have to fill in this clock in order to get safely to the docks.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: What do I want this to be…?
Kim: Ten.
Rhi: Yeah, I was thinking 10.
Kim: Oh, for real?
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: Yay.
Rhi: I was like, 8 isn’t enough, 12 is too much… So, you’ve made it to the river, so we’re gonna say you’re at 1 out of 10.
Kim: See, I thought I was just being greedy asking for more clock ticks, but I hit the sweet spot apparently.
[giggling]
Rhi: Yeah, no, well I mean, you have to fill 9 more ticks now with your actions and your deeds.
Kim: Oh no! I understood this wrong!
[laughter]
Kim: Oh, that’s bad for us.
Rhi: Yeah!
Kim: No!
Minna: (laughing) You thought we filled up most of a long clock?
Aki: Yeah. I was like, why are you so happy about this?
Minna: Ten seems appropriate for this, though.
Kim: It does, but I thought it was a clock for like… the assassins go away or something, or it would be a clock in our favor.
Rhi: No!
Kim: Agh! I was not—
Rhi: Nope. This is a clock you gotta fill.
Kim: I was half paying attention to the mechanical stuff as I always do, and I said words, and now it’s the consequences of my actions as always.
[giggling]
Rhi: Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of my actions.
Minna: What is that even from?
Rhi: You’ve reached the river. How do you want to continue to proceed here? I will say, it doesn’t have to be all Prowl rolls. It can be, you know, do you want to scan the area, do you want to have somebody scout ahead… yeah, there’s other things you could do to advance this.
Josie: What does the area we’re at look like?
Rhi: What does this look like? What’s gonna be interesting here? I think I’m gonna say you’ve hit an area that has a lot of the fish and eel farms. So you’ve got the river, and then there’s just stretching out in this large cave on either side of you are large circular roughly-sized pools in the floor that have fencing around the edges that are filled with fish and eels for eating. So, not quite as well-lit, because they don’t necessarily need the light the way the plants do, so you’ve got that going for you, but also a lot more floor hazards.
Josie: [shaky] Uh-huh.
Kim: My question is, the direction that we’re following the river, is it going with or against the current?
Rhi: With the current. It’s flowing towards the bay.
Kim: Hmm. Is there some kind of vessel or boat or raft around that we could use?
Rhi: You could attempt to look for something.
Kim: I would like to do that. Yeah.
Rhi: Okay, go ahead and give me some kind of roll.
Kim: I’m gonna roll Survey with this.
Rhi: Survey you said?
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Okay. This is gonna be risky-reduced.
Kim: Okay… That’s a 6, baby.
Rhi: Oh my God! You haven’t rolled anything except 6s tonight!
Kim: That’s not true! That’s not true. I rolled a 3 for that Prowl.
Josie: Same.
Rhi: No, but collectively, all of you, like every roll you’ve done so far the result has been a 6.
Josie: [laughs]
Kim: I’m sorry.
Rhi: Alright, so it was reduced, though. So, let’s see here. You find it. You find a vessel… Hmm. You do find a boat, but it’s a very small two-person canoe that’s tied up, so you can’t fit everybody in it.
Josie (as Echo): Do we want to send a couple people down the river while the rest of us try to take out our pursuer?
Kim (as Val): That’s what I’m thinking.
Aki (as Darling): That is also what I am thinking.
Josie (as Echo): Who will go with her?
Kim (as Val): I can watch her.
Rhi: I feel like Val is probably the best choice to go in the boat.
Aki: Yeah. I’m mostly worried about the fact that we know that our assassin is also a bit of a sharp shooter, or well a shooter, so I’m just worried about, like… look man, Sola don’t got a bulletproof vest. They got a bullet… a bullet. I was gonna call it a bulletproof Val, but Val’s not bulletproof.
Kim: You don’t know that.
[laughter]
Josie: Okay. Are we gonna do it or not though?
Kim: I think so, and I’m okay with Val staying behind to do it.
Rhi: Okay. So Val and Sola get into the canoe, Sola looking very anxious, and yeah Val, you can start rowing down the river. We’ll check back in with them in a bit. What are the rest of you doing right now?
Minna: Laying a loud false trail. [giggles]
Rhi: What is that? Yeah, what does that look like?
Josie: Well, I’m very conspicuous and durable, so I might just, with other people following discretely, or—oh no, wait, we were gonna do the thing with Arlene pretending to be her, right?
Minna: Oh! We could still do that.
Rhi: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Aki: Yeah, we could still do that. That would be very good to do now.
Minna: How do I expend a load for a cloak? [laughs]
Rhi: Just mark a point of load and you have a cloak. Congratulations.
Josie: And at the very least, me and you, we can slowly make our way on foot towards the bay but try and deliberately look like we’re a bit lost, and I’m just making no effort to disguise my height or intentions or anything, looking around and being tall.
Minna: Yeah, so we’ll slow them down chasing us.
Josie: [laughs]
Aki: Mm-hmm. I might have Pearl, if at all possible, like if there’s… I don’t know—What am I trying to say? If there’s different levels to this place, have Pearl go high? Just because…
Rhi: This area, there’s not. This is just kind of a single level here, yeah.
Josie: But we’re not staying in this single area. We’re wandering around.
Aki: Yeah, to see if we can get the assassin way off the trail. I was trying to position Pearl in a different way, you know, sort of like a semi-ambush way.
Rhi: I think it sounds like we got a few different rolls. I think we need a roll for Echo and Arlene to project this image of escorting a frightened person but not being very good at it.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: And then I think we would need a Darling and Pearl roll for ambush setup. Does that sound about right?
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Aki: Yes.
Josie: Yeah.
Rhi: Because I think in terms of positioning, Aki, depending on the results of your roll, that will just… like, if you roll really well then you’ll find some spot where you can set up a good ambush.
Aki: Yeah.
Rhi: So we’ll just go from there. Okay. Let’s start with Echo and Arlene. How do you want to tackle that?
Josie: Group Sway, maybe?
Minna: Yeah, that sounds most correct.
Rhi: Yeah, I agree.
Minna: Who’s leading?
Josie: I only have 1 stress.
Rhi: It will continue to be risky-reduced.
Josie: Alrighty. I got a 4.
Rhi: Okay.
Minna: What does a Devil’s Bargain look like?
Rhi: Uh… I think you’re just gonna get shot is my Devil’s Bargain.
Minna: Oh…
Rhi: No matter how this goes, I’m gonna shoot you.
Minna: [strained groan] Let me think for two seconds.
Rhi: Yeah. Not fatally. It’ll be level 2 harm.
Minna: Yeah. Um, hmm…
Rhi: That’s the thing. If you succeed, then she thinks you’re the person that she wants to kill. [laughs]
Minna: Yeah.
Rhi: If you don’t succeed, you’re interfering.
Minna: yeah, let’s go for it.
Rhi: Alright. Take your extra die.
Minna: Can you apply that to greater effect, actually?
Josie: Yeah, I believe so.
Rhi: Yeah, we’ve done that before.
Minna: I will do that, and then I’ll just…
Rhi: Alright. Yeah. Go ahead and make your roll.
Minna: That’s a 5.
Rhi: Okay, so the result is a 5, nobody takes any stress, all of which is great.
Josie: Yeah!
Rhi: You do it but there’s a consequence.
Josie: Hmm.
Kim: Must there be?
Rhi: There must! There must be consequences for your actions.
Kim: [playful whine] No…
Rhi: This consequence is separate from Arlene getting shot. The two of you are heading down the river, Arlene wearing a cloak, hunched down to look shorter. Echo… What is Echo doing to project lost and uncertain?
Josie: Well she can’t really emote, but she’s just looking around a lot and will start to go down one path and then go down the other.
Rhi: Got it. Yeah. So, you don’t look like you know what you’re doing. As you are heading down the side of the river, a shot rings out and it echoes in this cave. Arlene, you are gonna take a bullet to the leg.
Minna: Mm-hmm!
Rhi: Level 2 harm that you can resist if you would like.
Minna: I would like to resist.
Rhi: Go ahead and roll Prowess.
Minna: Five, so I’m only taking 1 stress.
Rhi: Okay, so that will knock it down to a level 1 harm. I think you hear the shot and dive out of the way so it just grazes along the side of your leg. The consequence for the actual roll… A bunch of lights in this area all suddenly power on, so it’s now a lot more difficult to hide. You all are very exposed.
Minna: Oof.
Josie: Oh dear.
Rhi: Real quick, I wanna go over to Darling who is attempting to set up an ambush simultaneously. So, rewinding slightly before the lights all go on… give me a roll for ambush arrangement.
Aki: Would you consider this a Hunt roll as we are…?
Rhi: I think… yeah.
Aki: Hehehe.
Rhi: This is gonna be risky-standard for this one, for reasons.
Aki: It is a 5.
Rhi: Five, okay. You do it but there’s a consequence. I think what it actually is gonna be is that I’m gonna bump it to reduced effect kind of in conjunction with the lights coming on.
You and Pearl find a good place. There’s some crates and boxes off to one side that you get behind. You hear the shot, you see Arlene dive out of the way, and you see this person… the bulky coat is now hanging open and they’ve got a rifle in their hands. They dart forward and then hit something on the wall and (pop), all the lights come up.
So, one, because it’s so well-lit now it’s gonna be harder for you to rush out of cover in any stealthy sort of way to jump this person, but also now that it’s lit up, you get a good look at who this person is. And Darling… you know this person.
Aki: Oh, do I?
Rhi: It’s been… a while, a few years. You’ve met Lavender before. So, let’s cut over to Val.
Josie: [laughs]
Kim: Oh boy!
Rhi: Val, you are rowing down the river with Sola who is just hunched down around her satchel as low as she can get. You hear this shot ring out and you can see the reflections on the cave walls and on the water of the lights coming up behind you. You’re kind of right at the edge of where the lights are, so you’re illuminated right now, but you can get back into a darker area if you hustle.
Kim: Yeah, let’s do that.
Rhi: So like, [laughs] you can tell you heard a shot, lights are on, the situation has escalated. So yeah, give me a roll for getting the heck out of dodge.
Kim: Yeah. Is it Finesse again?
Rhi: Yes, for vehicle movement. Risky-reduced again.
Kim: Okay. I’m gonna push myself for an extra die.
Rhi: Okay.
Kim: Oh, that’s a critical. [laughs] I will take a picture for you if you need it.
[giggling]
Rhi: No! It’s okay. Just… Jesus Christ. Okay, so Val, I think when the shot rings out, Sola makes this very small frightened meeping sound and huddles down.
Kim: Aww.
Rhi: Your parental instincts just go into overdrive.
Kim: Yup!
[laughter]
Rhi: Just, the adrenaline surge… you’re just power rowing. Your arms are gonna be wrecked tomorrow, but you just put on this burst of speed and shoot forward out of the lit-up area.
Kim (as Val): [struggling, as if rowing the canoe] Don’t worry. I gotcha. It’ll be fine. Close your eyes if you need to. It’s alright.
Rhi: So, you are now at 4 out of 10 on reaching the vibes.
Josie: Critical thaddy vibes.
[laughter]
Kim: Thaddy! Oh my God, that’s their new title now.
Josie: Uh-huh! You’re welcome.
Rhi: You’ve put on some speed and you’re making progress down the river. Let’s jump back to the rest of the group. I think that you’ve all got eyes on, like—because the lights are up, your tail is no longer really trying for as much concealment and you can see this person. I think as they’re moving forward they’re readying the rifle to fire again.
Josie: Echo jumps at seeing Arlene get shot and immediately… I’m gonna mark off bandolier here to have a smoke bomb. I just wanna toss it high at the wall to create a cloud of smoke above us so that they can’t get a clear shot.
Rhi: Alright. Go ahead and make a roll for that.
Josie: Um… I could see Tinker or Skirmish or something.
Rhi: I feel like Skirmish… yeah. We’ll call this risky-standard.
Josie: Okay. Hey Rhi… do you wanna guess what I rolled?
Minna: [laughs]
Rhi: [stunned] Did you get a critical?
Josie: Not a critical, but still a 6.
Minna: Rhi’s defensiveness.
[laughter]
Rhi: Okay! You all must acknowledge that the rolls tonight have been buck wild!
Minna: Yeah.
Aki: Yes. Yes.
Josie: I know, right?
Rhi: [laughs]
Minna: But also, we must acknowledge it, which also means that we are doomed for a fall.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: Shh! Shh~! Don’t—
Aki: I will say, maybe this is the universe apologizing for the train.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Yeah. You all did get the crap kicked out of you on the train.
Josie: That’s true.
Aki: The train beat us up for five consecutive hours.
Rhi: [laughs] It did. Echo, you just throw the grenade, it bursts smoke… I’m imagining that maybe it hits one of the lights so there’s a big pop and flash and then the smoke fills the area.
Kim: Yeah!
Josie: Ooh.
Rhi: Are you and Arlene just kinda booking it to cover?
Josie: Yeah, I think so. She’ll offer her hand to Arlene, because Arlene did get shot in the leg.
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: Mm-hmm. I think Arlene takes it and tugs her hood down. I wanna say just for flavor that Arlene’s in a deep hood and has a dark bandana tied across her nose and mouth.
[sounds of approval]
Rhi: Nice. I like it.
Minna: Very hard to see any of her.
Rhi: Alright, Darling.
Aki: Yes! I think, now that cover has been given, essentially, through the art of a smoke bomb… technically?
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Aki: I think Darling will first go…
Aki (as Darling): [under her breath] Oh fuck.
Aki: …and then, using this diversion, while hidden, go:
Aki (as Darling): Well as I live and breathe. Lavender, what are you doing in this shithole?
Rhi: Lavender, hearing this, is going to duck into her own cover before replying.
Rhi (as Lavender): Darjeeling, so this is where you ran to, hmm?
## Outro [01.07.11]
Rhi: Thanks for joining us! The Whisky Jays will return in two weeks. The City That Never Dies is a Clever Corvids production. Visit our website at CleverCorvids.net and follow us on Twitter @clever_corvids for the latest on this and other shows.
The City That Never Dies is GM’d and edited by Rhi. Check out her business Skill Check for copyediting and accessibility consulting for the RPG community at RPGSkillCheck.net.
Arlene Graeme is played by Minna Reilly. Find her on Twitter @mynaminnarr.
Darling Tsering is played by Aki. Find her on Twitter @akinomii_art for more TTRPG Content.
Echo is played by Josie. Find her on Twitter @dragongirljosie, and check out her art at josie-art.com.
Valerie Sullivan is played by Kim. Find her on Twitter @kimdianajones.
Our opening and closing theme music is from Something by Kai Engel and is used under a Creative Commons license. Blades in the Dark is the creation of John Harper and is published by Evil Hat Productions.
Anne Slater-Shier and her son Isaac were submitted by Kickstarter backer Jonathan Wroblewski. Thanks so much for your support Jonathan. We’re looking forward to working with Anne in the future and to definitely not teaching Isaac how to do crime.
This episode’s jumbotron message comes from… well, no one! We’ve gotten through all the Kickstarter backer messages that were submitted. Thanks to all our amazing Kickstarter supporters for your kind, sweet, and sometimes very punny messages.
We don’t want to leave this space empty, though, and in the coming weeks, we’ll be opening up jumbotron sales for everyone for the rest of the season! You could have your very own personal message to your friends or gaming group right here. Check our Twitter and website for more info, and listen to this space for more news next episode!
And as always, thanks to all our Patreon backers, whose ongoing support makes this show possible.
## Bloopers [01.09.41]
Rhi: Alright, I will count us off. Three—
[loud echoing hum]
Kim: What… the fuck?
Rhi: [cackles]
Aki: What was THAT?!
Minna: What the fuck was that?
Josie: Sorry, I um…
Rhi: [still cackling] It’s okay!
Kim: [Latin chanting]
Josie: I don’t know what it sounded like because all I did was hit my plosive shield, so none of that shows up for me.
Rhi: It was a loud dramatic ringing.
Josie: I am sorry.
Aki: Like a… yeah, like a bell.
Minna: It was right as Rhi said three!