Transcribed by Raina Harper.
## Intro
Rhi: Welcome back to Imperial City. As always, thank you so much for joining us. If you’re enjoying the show, please consider supporting us by leaving us a review, buying some merch, sponsoring an episode, buying a jumbotron message, or backing us on Patreon. Any and all support helps keep The City That Never Dies going, and helps us create new shows like our Court of Blades mini-series and our second full actual play series, Demon: Love and Hellfire! Love and Hellfire has had an awesome launch, and we’re really grateful for all the compliments and support you’ve shown it so far. And if you haven’t listened yet, now’s a great time to go check it out!
Next, Fabby of Love and Hellfire is going to tell us about this month’s featured charity.
Fabby: Hey everyone, it’s Fabby to talk to you about a charity. The Thrive youth center is a San Antonio center and shelter for lgbtq+ youth 18-24 experiencing homlensess in San Antonio Texas. They provide emergency shelter, housing support, and case management. I lived in San Antonio for a decade, it was the city I came out in as a trans woman, it’s not the most trans friendly city in the world. Knowing that queer homeless youth have a place to stay, something to fall back on is super important to me. You can donate by going to https://www.thriveyouthcenter.com/donate.
Rhi: Please continue to advocate for reproductive rights and civil liberties of all kinds within your communities. Make connections at the local level, and find the people who have been leading the fights and doing the work already to lend them your support.
Now then. Let’s get started, shall we?
## Story Continues [00.02.47]
Rhi: We are gonna start at Arlene’s apartment where Arlene has just received a note from Leona. Normally, this is something that would be a cause for excitement. Notes from Leona are usually inviting Arlene out for a date or letting her know that Leona is back from a Deathlands run, but this one is somewhat different in tone.
It starts with an apology for bringing business into things, but the leader of the Breakers would like to meet with Arlene’s crew as soon as possible about hiring them for a job, and if they could come by Salma to meet with her sometime today, that would be great.
Minna (as Arlene): Huh.
Rhi: She does sign it with a little heart and ‘Leona.’
Josie: Aww.
Minna: I think she tucks the letter into a pocket and is like:
Minna (as Arlene): Well, I guess it’s time to go talk to them about this. Weird.
Rhi: You do know that Darling has informed the rest of you that she is unavailable for work or anything fun. This was all delivered very dramatically as is Darling’s style. She is having some repairs done on her home and some furniture is being replaced. She wouldn’t explain why she needed repairs done or furniture replaced, she just sort of deflected when anybody asked what had led to this.
She has to oversee the workers and make sure that they don’t touch anything or take anything, so she basically can’t leave home until that is done, so she will not be available to join you all on this. So, most likely, you’re just headed to the garage to collect Echo and Val.
Minna: Mm-hmm! She swings into the garage and calls out:
Minna (as Arlene): Echo~! Val~! Everybody home?
Kim (as Val): Door’s open!
Minna (as Arlene): Hey!
Rhi: What’s Echo and Val up to when Arlene comes sliding down the spiral staircase?
Josie: I kinda want Val to be teaching Echo how to gamble.
[laughter]
Kim: Oh, that’s actually kinda cute.
Josie: We’re just playing with spare nuts and bolts instead of chips, right?
Kim (as Val): So the great thing that you’ve got going on is that you actually have a really good Poker face, like just from the get-go.
Minna (as Arlene): Yeah, Echo’s got a great Poker face, but can Echo lie?
Josie (as Echo): No, I can’t lie.
Kim (as Val): Why not?
Minna (as Arlene): Was that a lie?
Josie (as Echo): That’s for me to know and you to find out. Maybe never.
Kim: Val is making a smirk and pointing their finger, like “oh you.”
[laughter]
Minna (as Arlene): Misdirection, I like it.
Kim (as Val): Very good. Very good start. I like it. I like it a lot.
Josie (as Echo): I am worried that my eyes are too glossy, though. They might see the reflections of the cards in them.
Minna (as Arlene): Wear sunglasses.
Kim (as Val): Have you ever considered—exactly, wearing sunglasses.
Josie: Do we have sunglasses in this world?!
Kim: Oh…
Rhi: So they probably wouldn’t be called sunglasses, but I think—
Kim: Right!
Minna: Oh.
Minna (as Arlene): Wear tinted glasses.
Minna: [giggles]
Rhi: Yeah, I think tinted glasses could be a thing.
Minna: Just for fashion, or possibly for occasional industrial use? I don’t know.
Rhi: Yeah, industrial use, for folks that are doing welding or things. Yeah.
Josie (as Echo): I suppose I could do that if those aren’t also too shiny.
Kim (as Val): Yeah, I think that’s doable. I think I’ve seen a few pairs that are a little bit dull, less reflective as it were.
Josie (as Echo): Yeah. Or, I can put in other eyes that have the reflections painted on so they get wrong information.
Minna (as Arlene): That’s a level of misdirection I did not expect.
Kim (as Val): I feel like we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves here.
Rhi: [laughs]
Minna (as Arlene): Has Echo learned the rules yet?
Josie (as Echo): Maybe. What’s got you so excited, Arlene?
Minna (as Arlene): I don’t know if excited is the word, but we have, um… a job offer?
Kim (as Val): A job offer?
Minna (as Arlene): Yeah. So, uh… Leona’s boss, the Breakers’ leader, wanted to talk to us about a job.
Kim (as Val): Uh-huh… and did they say anything in that message to you about what the job is, or…?
Minna (as Arlene): No, they just said to go see them at Salma.
Kim (as Val): That’s not suspicious at all.
Josie (as Echo): Yeah, this could be us getting shot.
Minna (as Arlene): I don’t think Leona would invite me if she thought that was a possibility.
Kim (as Val): Let me ask you this, girlie. What kind of people does Leona work for? Do you know?
Minna (as Arlene): Uh… I mean—
Rhi: Same kind of people you work for, more or less.
Kim: Okay.
Minna: Yeah, I was gonna say, the usual mix. [laughs]
Kim (as Val): Alright, so probably no more or less dangerous than our usual crowd.
Rhi: I will say, Arlene, you have been to the Breakers headquarters, not often but a couple times, and you’ve never felt any more unsafe there than you would walking into any other neutral gang headquarters.
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Minna (as Arlene): I mean, I know we kinda pissed them off a little bit that one time, but I don’t think this is a trap.
Josie (as Echo): Okay. We probably should be making more connections.
Kim (as Val): Yeah, that’s true, especially if we wanna expand in the future, potentially. We should still probably show up with a little bit of assurances though.
Josie (as Echo): Yeah, I’m just gonna…
Josie: She goes to her room and starts lining the inside of her coat with some guns.
Rhi: [laughs]
Kim (as Val): Doll, don’t make it obvious.
Rhi: So, you’re gonna bring a bit of firepower on your trip?
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: So yeah, the three of you can pile into the Drake and drive across town to Bayrise. I think it is mid-afternoon-ish, mid-to-late afternoon, so it’s just kind of right before the dinner time rush would be starting at a restaurant. So, when you arrive at Salma, about a quarter of the tables are full but you can see other people are starting to come in.
You can see the wait staff are clearly getting more tables ready. The kitchen is firing up. It smells great in here. The tables that do have people eating at them… Bayrise is not a wealthy neighborhood, but there is a lot of fresh food here which is surprising. There’s a lot of stuff. I think there’s a lot of vegetables and things that probably you all don’t recognize. It’s not stuff that is from Akoros, but it all smells really good.
When you arrive, I think Leona is hanging out by the podium at the front and is leaning there chatting with the person working there but will straighten up when she spots all of you.
Josie: Have either of us seen Leona before?
Rhi: I don’t know. I think that might be up to Arlene. I don’t know if…
Josie: I think we only just recently learned about her.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: Yeah… Has Darling even met her yet? I don’t think…
Rhi: No. Darling expressly has not. I believe in that earlier conversation it was established that Darling hasn’t met her yet.
Minna: So I think Arlene runs ahead to meet her.
Minna (as Arlene): Hi! I didn’t know you were gonna be here also.
Rhi (as Leona): Oh. Um… yeah, here I am. Is that okay?
Minna (as Arlene): Yeah, no-no-no, it’s fine! Just, nobody’s met you yet.
Josie (as Echo): Hello.
Minna (as Arlene): Darling’s not here though, so hi—Oh hi! Hi. Uh, so this is Echo and this is Val, and this is Leona!
Josie (as Echo): Nice to meet you.
Kim (as Val): Pleasure to meet you.
Rhi (as Leona): Yeah!
Rhi: Leona will take off her hat. I do want to remind everyone that Leona is…
Minna: [delighted] Uh-huh.
Rhi: …dressed like a cowboy. [laughs] She is wearing a cowboy hat. She’s wearing a long duster. She will take her hat off and tuck it under one arm and will shake both of your hands.
Rhi (as Leona): It’s really nice to meet you both. Arlene and I don’t tend to talk about work too much, but I’ve heard a little bit about you. Yeah, it’s good to meet you, and I really appreciate you coming. Let me take you on back so you can meet {Minna}.
Rhi: Not Minna…
[laughter]
Josie: [hums a comedy stinger]
Rhi: It’s spelled very similarly; Mina.
Minna: Oh! The thing that people always call me when they don’t know how to pronounce my name.
Rhi: Yeah. I just now realized what I have done to myself.
Minna: [laughs]
Josie: Well, we’re obviously in it and committed now.
Kim: Yup.
Rhi: Yeah, now I’m locked in.
Rhi (as Leona): Let me take you back so you can meet Mina.
Rhi: She will lead you to a back room that is clearly usually meant for private dinner parties, but there isn’t any food set out right now. As you come in, there’s another woman sitting at the head of the table who will stand as you come in. She looks like she’s in her probably mid-to-late 30s, also has dark skin, same as Leona. She’s got short cropped curly dark hair. She’s got some pretty notable facial scars on the right side of her face…
Josie: [as a gay whimper] Mm-hmm.
Rhi: …and uses a cane to help her stand as she gets up, and leans on it as she comes around the table to greet you.
Rhi (as Mina): Thank you for coming at such short notice. We have a smuggling job that got a little complicated and, well, Leona speaks very highly of you.
Rhi: She nods at Arlene.
Rhi (as Mina): A few of our people ran into you on a job down in lower Bayrise a few weeks back and said that you, uh… Oh, how did they put it? Drove like a thing possessed on two busted wheels?
Kim (as Val): [chuckles] Possessed is probably a bit strong of a word, but you know, things get hairy.
Rhi (as Mina): They also said you put in some effort to keep the situation from getting more inflamed than it already was, which I very much appreciate.
Rhi: She’ll kind of gesture for everyone to sit and will move back to her chair. Leona takes up a position standing behind her, clearly in a right hand position, because Leona is a lieutenant of this gang.
Minna: Mm-hmm!
Rhi: She holds a position of some authority here. So, Mina will explain that she has some people—some of the Breakers are outside the lightning barrier with a shipment that they have smuggled across the Deathlands that they have a client waiting at the docks ready to pick it up, but they need somebody else to get it across the city for a couple reasons.
Reason number one, the docks is kind of the Brigs’ territory, and having the Breakers run cargo down through the docks right now might kind of set that whole situation off. Mina seems to be a fairly serious person, but she looks even more somber as she says:
Rhi (as Mina): I very much want to avoid anything that will disturb the peace that we’ve managed to establish.
Kim (as Val): Yeah, rightfully so.
Rhi (as Mina): Secondly, there’s the nature of the cargo itself. Our client is the Queen’s Guard, the Skovlan revolutionaries. They’re mostly over in the Ironworks. They have acquired a small ship—how, I haven’t asked and quite frankly don’t particularly want to know—that they intend to take back up to Skovlan with our cargo. Now, the cargo that we have acquired for them is military-grade arms and explosives.
Josie (as Echo): I see. That is a bit more volatile than our usual fare.
Rhi (as Mina): Yes, and also a bit easier and safer to transport by car than by horse.
Minna (as Arlene): I see.
Josie (as Echo): Yeah, that makes sense.
Kim (as Val): I guess it’s just a matter of will it all fit in my trunk.
Rhi (as Mina): Uh… I hope so. We didn’t acquire the product, we picked it up from contacts in Whitehollow who, um… well, they were quite successful in their latest run at the military stronghold there and were quite generous in their sale to us, so there’s a lot available. You may have to put some of it in the back seat.
Kim (as Val): Yeah, no, that all sounds very manageable.
Rhi (as Mina): Alright. The admittedly volatile cargo aside, your task is fairly straightforward. Meet my people at the lightning barrier in Silvercliff and transport the goods across town to the Ironworks side of the docks and deliver the goods to the Queen’s Guard people who will be waiting for you there.
Kim (as Val): Alright.
Rhi (as Mina): And for your trouble, I can pay you 3 coin.
Kim (as Val): That all sound fair to you?
Kim: They look to the rest of the crew.
Minna (as Arlene): That sounds like something we can do.
Josie (as Echo): I would prefer 4 coin.
Rhi (as Mina): Based on?
Josie (as Echo): That’s not a small distance. We need to take care of the car as well, especially transporting volatile materials.
Rhi: Give me a roll. This will be more of a fortune roll than anything.
Josie: Sure. Just a single die or what?
Rhi: No, it’ll be an action roll. Yeah.
Josie: I’m bad at socials. [laughs] So I’m rolling—
Rhi: But I am gonna give you, I mean… I think this will be Consort, but I think I’m gonna give you a bonus die because Mina and Leona are already inclined—they already think positively of the group, so they’re inclined to think well of you, they just need…
Josie: Okay, one die then. That’s a 3.
Kim: Oh no.
Rhi: Okay. [laughs] Mina gives you a sympathetic wince.
Rhi (as Mina): I see your point, but 3 coin is about all we can afford for this. I will talk to the Queen’s Guard and see if I can’t get a little more out of them, since we are giving them a bit more than they asked for initially. I’ll see what I can do, but no guarantees.
Josie (as Echo): I see, then I suppose it will have to do for now.
Rhi (as Mina): So, our people should be at the lightning barrier…
Rhi: And she kinda trails off and looks up at Leona.
Rhi (as Leona): They’ll probably arrive tomorrow morning, so if you all can be—
Rhi: And she will give you an address to meet at.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi (as Leona): If you can be there, we can get you to the crossing point and we’ll go from there.
Kim (as Val): Sounds like a plan.
Josie (as Echo): Mm-hmm.
Rhi (as Mina): Great. Thank you again. We really appreciate it.
Rhi: And yeah, Leona will see you all out. I don’t know if Arlene wants to hang back and say anything.
Minna: I feel like they’re both at work… [laughs]
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: …so I think she just nods to her on her way out.
Kim: “Babe, why’d you come see me at work?”
Rhi: [laughs] I think as she’s walking you guys out she will touch Arlene’s elbow.
Rhi (as Leona): I have a few more days after this before I’m heading out again, so I’ll make sure that, once this is all wrapped up, we can get some time outside of all this.
Minna (as Arlene): Yeah. I mean, I’m not mad you got us a job. It’s nice to have work.
Rhi (as Leona): Okay. Good. I just… there’s just—it’s a bit of a time crunch and you were the first people I thought of.
Minna (as Arlene): Yeah.
Rhi (as Leona): Okay. I’ll let you all get going and I’ve gotta go talk to Mina about the details.
Minna (as Arlene): Okie-doke.
Rhi: I think there’s that moment where normally when the two of you head your separate ways there’s a goodbye kiss, so it’s kind of this awkward, like…
Minna: Yeah. Yeah. [laughs] I think Arlene goes in for a cheek kiss.
Rhi: Okay, yeah. [laughs] So yeah, she seems to relax a little bit after that and she’ll squeeze your hand and head back inside.
Josie (as Echo): Arlene, your girlfriend is so pretty.
Kim (as Val): You two are very cute together.
Josie (as Echo): Can we work here instead?
Rhi: [laughs]
Josie (as Echo): But I don’t wanna leave Bailey behind.
Minna (as Arlene): I mean…
Josie (as Echo): Though, I don’t know how I’ll deal with being around so many attractive people. I have a hard enough time in this group.
Rhi: [laughs and claps]
Minna (as Arlene): Do I have to worry about you and Leona?
Josie (as Echo): No. I don’t think you need to worry about me and anyone. But I am still very gay in here.
Josie: She taps her porcelain temple.
[laughter]
Minna: I think she just pats Echo’s shoulder.
Minna (as Arlene): I think you can still be about as gay as you wanna be no matter what your body’s doing.
Kim (as Val): To be frank, Echo, just judging off the way that you’re dressed, it comes across on the outside too. Don’t worry.
Rhi: [cackles]
Josie (as Echo): Okay good. I worry I am too stoic.
Kim (as Val): Nope, still got it.
Rhi: [claps, still laughing]
Josie: She kinda flips her braid.
Minna: I love that Arlene and Val—
Rhi: This reassuring friend group. “Don’t worry, honey, you’re very gay.”
Josie: That’s the one thing being a robot can’t take away from me.
Rhi: No. They’ll never take the gay.
## Gather Info
Rhi: Is there, like—I don’t know if there’s a ton of info that you all would need to gather? You have time if there is any prep work you all want to do, but it is also a pretty straightforward job.
Kim: What kind of info do we even need to gather?
Josie: I was gonna say we should research whose gangs’ territories we’re crossing.
Rhi: Hmm…
Josie: Because there’s a fair amount between Silvercliff and the Ironworks side of the docks. We’ve got Veldaire Hill and Portmarch and the docks and then into Ironworks.
Rhi: You’re not actually gonna get into Ironworks, you’re just gonna get to like the edge of the docks that’s closest to Ironworks.
Josie: Gotcha. So, it might be good to know whose territory we’re going through so we don’t mess with people, but otherwise I can’t really think of anything.
Rhi: [groans] Josie.
Josie: Sorry!
Rhi: That’s good—No, that’s good thoughts, but I’m just sitting here like oh no, this is so much.
Josie: We have a bunch of factions.
Rhi: We do, but I’m… We do, we have a lot of factions.
Josie: I’m giving an excuse to drop world building on the audience.
Rhi: Yeah. We’re gonna have to make some of the shit up. Okay, yeah, let me open up some things. Open up my districts. Open up my factions. Yeah, so basically you’re doing the pickup on the edge of Silvercliff, and then yeah, you’ll have to drive through Silvercliff… Let me open up my map, too.
So yeah, you’re gonna have to cross Silvercliff, Veldaire Hill, Portmarch, and then the docks, basically getting down to the very southeastern side of the docks, because that’s the closest edge to the Ironworks. So just a nice southeastern arc across the city. Let’s start by talking about the neighborhoods you’re gonna be crossing. Some of these you’ve been through before, some of them you haven’t.
Silvercliff I think is brand new. I do not think you’ve been there before, on the show at least. It’s high up on the cliffs and it’s fairly close, all things considered, to Suncrest which is where the imperial palace sits.
Minna: Hmm…!
Rhi: It doesn’t border Suncrest, but it’s like one district away from bordering, so it’s up there. It’s an upper class residential neighborhood with some high-end businesses and restaurants mixed in. A lot of the population that lives there are retired or active duty military officers.
Kim: Oh.
Minna: So we’re hauling armaments through retired fancy rich military people zone.
Rhi: Yep!
[laughs]
Josie: Fun.
Rhi: So that’s that neighborhood.
Kim: No biggie.
Rhi: Then, Veldaire Hill is smack in the middle of the city. It’s next to Corvis Row, so you all have passed through there a number of times. It is home to the Alchemical Institute. It’s just a very busy kind of social district. It’s got a lot of social clubs, dance halls, restaurants, apothecaries. Any time there’s a sports game in Robelston it catches the spillover of people who are celebrating. So, it’s a very trendy nightlife kind of district.
Josie: Is that where The Sovereign is located?
Rhi: No, The Sovereign is over in Kestrel Heights.
Josie: Oh! Okay.
Rhi: Yeah. Veldaire Hill makes up… You remember the place you all went… what was it, Four Arches?
Kim: Maybe?
Rhi: It was very early on. You robbed that apothecary.
Minna: I remember what you’re talking about.
Josie: Oh yeah.
Kim: Oh yeah, the apothecary.
Rhi: Where there was the sort of shopping center that basically went over a four-way intersection.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Kim: Yes.
Rhi: Veldaire Hill is like one corner it sits on, because that intersection basically sat at the corners of four very wealthy districts. Veldaire Hill is one corner of it.
Josie: Gotcha.
Rhi: So, Veldaire Hill, again, pretty wealthy, very trendy, busy, happening. Portmarch you’ve been in a little bit between not in the wealthier part. Portmarch is the business district. This is where a lot of the skyscrapers are going in, a lot of construction happening here. And then the docks you all are very familiar with. You spent a lot of time in the docks.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: So, that’s basically gonna be your path. In terms of figuring out who you’re gonna be dealing with faction-wise, go ahead and give me a roll.
Josie: I’m gonna go with Study.
Rhi: That makes sense.
Josie: I got a 1.
Kim: Oof.
Rhi: Um… these are neighborhoods you just don’t know a lot about.
Josie: Okay. We are usually on the south side of town.
Rhi: Yeah. This is the… you know, you’re pretty familiar with the docks, you know who you’re dealing with there. I think what you do know is that there is very minimal criminal presence in Silvercliff, for fairly obvious reasons. That’s an area of the city that’s very heavily patrolled by the Bluecoats and you have a lot of active and retired military. It’s just not worth it. It’s not worth the risk for most criminals.
That’s just a lot of people who are gonna make it way too difficult to do crime, so most criminals just don’t bother with Silvercliff. I think that’s all you really know about the faction game. Silvercliff is… You’ll get the occasional independent thief who will do a robbery there, or attempted robbery. Usually you hear about it because they got busted, or shot.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: Listen, if you break into a retired colonel’s home, you better really know what you’re doing. [laughs]
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Kim: Yeah, especially if he makes fried chicken.
Josie: [laughs] And you’re really into that fact, huh, Kim?
Kim: [grinning] I’m just leaning into it now because y’all are not letting it go.
Josie: [laughing] Hey, we didn’t bring it up this time!
Kim: I know. My brain made an unfortunate connection. Moving on.
Rhi: That’s about the only info that you have, digging back through your memories and experiences that you’ve had in your past work. Just not a lot of criminal activity in Silvercliff but you don’t know who really has a lot of influence in Veldaire or Portmarch.
Josie (as Echo): Does anyone else know more about that part of town? I feel like I should know more about Portmarch, but I guess I haven’t been in the game long enough.
Kim: Would I know anything about it?
Rhi: You could give it a try.
Kim: Cool. What kind of roll makes the most sense here?
Rhi: I don’t know.
Kim: Val strikes me as someone who’s very streetwise and I think has a lot of connections from just talking to people, so I can maybe see an argument for Consort to see how much they know about the neighborhood.
Rhi: Sure. Yeah, you can give that a shot.
Kim: Um… cool. Alright, I rolled a 5 and a 6.
Rhi: Okay. Let’s see here. Let me look at my… There’s a specific… Here we go! Okay. So, what you know about Portmarch… The majority of the power players in Portmarch are the corporations, obviously.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: You don’t have a lot of connections there. It’s the corporations, a lot of the banks, a lot of the newly-growing financial industry. This concept of buying on credit is rapidly growing. It’s a new development that is gaining a lot of traction and entire corporations are springing up to support it. The Ministry of Progress does a lot of work in Portmarch. They’re very tied into a lot of the construction of the skyscrapers that are going up in that area. So, that’s the people in power in that area.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: They’re not really… Like, as long as you’re not planning on blowing up any of their buildings, they’re probably not gonna be paying a ton of attention to you all. What you all probably need to care about more are… this is an area that is patrolled pretty heavily by the Bluecoats. I think probably where you get a lot of your info is you know that, because here’s so much construction happening here, that the construction unions actually have a pretty large presence in Portmarch just by virtue of there’s a ton of their workers in Portmarch at any given time.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: Which could work to your benefit. In terms of crime, the major crime syndicate that works in Portmarch is a gang called the Tellers. They are basically the Akorosian mafia and, unsurprisingly for where they’re located, they focus on financial crime. They do extortion, fraud, racketeering, money laundering. They are a little more on the fringes of Portmarch. They haven’t quite gotten their hooks deep into the corporations yet.
Kim: Okay.
Rhi: But they do have, like… In game mechanics terms, the corporations are Tier 5 influence and the Tellers are a Tier 3. So, they’re a little more on the fringes, but you know, in the underworld, you’re passing through their territory.
Kim: Right.
Josie: Okay. Do they dress like bank tellers?
Rhi: No, but you know, my inspiration for them was leaning very much on the Chicago Outfit, so they all got the snappy suits.
Josie: Gotcha.
Rhi: Al Capone.
Minna: [smiling] I was like I have never heard of the Chicago Outfit but I’ll just go—
Rhi: Yeah. That is the actual name of Al Capone’s gang. So yeah, that’s basically what you’re dealing with in Portmarch, a lot of very powerful people who probably aren’t gonna pay you any mind, cops, and a financial syndicate.
Josie (as Echo): So, if we can get into Portmarch not being chased, I think that will be the safest stretch… so let’s not get chased.
Kim (as Val): We’ll just keep our heads low and don’t poke anyone and it should be fine, right?
Josie (as Echo): It should be.
Minna (as Arlene): Let’s hope so.
Rhi: Anything else y’all would like to do to prep or do you feel like you wanna head on in?
Josie: I’m ready to go.
Kim: Yeah, I think I am too.
Minna: Yeah.
Rhi: Okay. This is I think pretty clearly a Transport score. We figured out your route, and the means is the Drake. Let’s do the engagement roll. So, you have one for luck. Is this operation particularly bold or daring?
Kim: It’s a little spicy considering we’re going into Bluecoat territory, kind of.
Minna: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Yeah, you’re driving explosives across the city. I think that’s pretty bold.
Minna: Possibly to help destabilize the imperial regime in Skovlan, eventually.
Josie: Yeah.
Rhi: Yeah! You know, good on them. Can your friends or contacts provide aid or insight? Yes, but also, you do have some enemies interfering.
Josie: Oh-ho-ho.
Rhi: Are there other elements you want to consider? You’re Tier 1 now, right? Yeah. Look at you go. I’m so proud of you. You are punching a little bit above your weight class, though, because you are in areas of the city where criminals do not normally tread, and that are well-patrolled by the cops, so I am—that is essentially above your tier, so I am going to take away another die. So this is gonna be a 1d6 roll.
Kim: Oh geez.
Rhi: Yep.
Kim: Please no.
Rhi: Yep, it’s happening. Here we go. I’m rolling the die.
Kim: [squirms] No~
Rhi: That’s a 3.
Kim: [sharp inhale]
Minna: [laughing nervously] No~
Josie: I mean, it’s not the worst it could be.
Kim: It’s still below a 4.
Rhi: Strictly speaking, it is the worst it could be. A 1 to 3 is the same result.
Kim: Yeah…
Josie: Oh, I thought 1 was special. Okay.
Rhi: Nope. [laughs] You’re in a desperate position when the action starts. Okay.
Kim: Fuck.
## Score
Rhi: Oh boy. How exciting this is. Okay. The next morning you all meet up at the garage again, load up in the Drake, drive all the way across town out to Silvercliff, and it really is just an interesting gradient of the city as you drive because Kestrel Heights is very much a lot of multi-unit housing. The streets are a little narrower, not as well maintained. There’s less money invested here by the city.
As you get up into Silvercliff, you’ve got these wide, smooth streets. The streetlights are all working and they’re all clean, bright illumination down these streets of these huge single-family homes that have big fences around them and not really yards, because grass and gardens aren’t a thing, but people will have big paving stones and statues and sometimes fountains. If people really wanna flex they’ll have radiant energy plants growing to give their home a little bit of illumination. A few people here have that. There is some serious money in this place.
Even the Drake, which is like… Val and Echo, you put a lot of work into this car. You keep the Drake in good shape. You keep it clean. You keep it in good repair. You’re catching some looks from people as you’re driving through because the Drake very clearly does not belong here.
Kim: Yeah.
Josie: The whole way over, Echo is slightly bouncing in her seat, but it’s not fast because she can’t really do that, so it’s just kind of slowly up, slowly down.
Rhi: [laughs]
Kim: Oh my goodness. Poor baby.
Josie: Slowly up, slowly down.
Rhi: [laughs] So, you drive over to the address that you were given. You have to drive across the entirety of Silvercliff because you have to drive out to the lightning barrier. Basically, where you end up is in a back alley behind this, like… Let’s see. What do we think? I need a large building for a business. What do we want?
Kim: Oh… Do you mean like a name or a description?
Rhi: No, just a type of a building, a type of business that would be in a fancy place like this. The first thing that came to my mind was opera house, but that doesn’t…
Kim: What about like a high-rise hotel? Would that work or are you leaning somewhere towards business?
Rhi: Oh! No, I kinda like, um… I knew somebody in college who worked at a really, really fancy long-term residence hotel where people who had more money than God would just stay there for like months and months and months at a time.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: So maybe it’s something like that?
Kim: Yeah.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Yeah, okay, I like that. So yeah, big, big, fancy, super-expensive hotel that rich people will stay at. You pull up behind this hotel and Leona and a couple other Breakers are waiting there. As you pull up, you can see that one of the Breakers is talking to a couple of the hotel employees and money is clearly changing hands. These employees are clearly being bribed to make sure that nobody comes back here. [laughs]
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: As you all pile out, Leona waves to you.
Rhi (as Leona): Just hang on a second. They’re on the other side of the barrier. They’ll need some space to come across, so just hang back for a couple minutes.
Josie: Echo leans over to Val.
Josie (as Echo): I can’t believe we get to help out the Queen’s Guard.
Kim (as Val): Yeah, uh… I have no words.
Josie (as Echo): Okay. Sorry. I’m just excited because I’m, you know, before Skovlan… Okay, sorry.
Kim (as Val): What? No, huh…? Alright, we’ll talk later.
Josie (as Echo): Okay.
Rhi: You all are… It’s very bright here because you all are right up by the lightning barrier. Very bright and kind of loud. The lightning is popping and cracking between the towers. Those of you who have hair that can stand on end, it is standing up. Echo, I imagine it feels weird to you but in a different sort of way. I’m kind of wondering what you think being this close to this much electroplasmic energy feels like.
Josie: I think it’s kind of the closest she feels to having adrenaline flowing.
Rhi: Ooh.
Josie: I feel like, for once, she’s having a hard time keeping still and that’s why she’s been more excited than normal too. She’s just raising and lowering her arms a bit and flexing her fingers. She is energized and looks more nervous than her body can usually convey.
Rhi: Yeah. So, one of the Breakers gets up right by the lightning barrier and unslings this big leather pack that contains what kinda looks like an oversized version of some of the metallic rods that Echo has used in her arcane implements to take down wards before. They will plant them into the ground, arranging them in apparently a very particular way, and then kind of lean them into the barrier.
There’s some big pops of lightning and then this hole is created in the barrier—not right at the ground, it’s probably two or three feet up. Then, this person scrambles back and there’s a few moments of silence. You can’t hear the hoof beats because the lightning barrier is too loud, but you definitely see the horses with their riders and heavy-laden saddlebags come leaping through this hole in the lightning barrier and clattering onto the stones paving this back alleyway.
There’s six of them that (whoosh), come jumping across, and as soon as they’re all clear they pull the rods out, the hole snaps back in, and everybody just seems like… you know, there’s that general releasing of tension from all of the Breakers. [exasperated] “Phew! Okay, we made it. Alright… phew. Everybody relax. … Ugh!”
Everybody is just kinda like… The riders are all sliding off their horses and clapping each other on the back and patting their horses. They seem like they have finished the hard part of their job which was riding across the Deathlands with a bunch of explosives and then jumping through a lightning barrier with a bunch of explosives. [laughs]
Kim: Yup.
Rhi: They’re gonna go home and nap.
Kim: Yeah.
[laughter]
Rhi: So, Leona and the other two Breakers who seem to be here to help her will look to you guys.
Rhi (as Leona): Okay. Well, this is the cargo. We can help you get it loaded up and then…
Kim (as Val): We’ll take it from here.
Rhi (as Leona): Alright.
Rhi: And yeah… This is a lot of stuff. [laughs] This is a lot of very high-end military-grade weapons and ammunition and explosives.
Kim: Hoo-boy.
Minna: So we can’t get in any car crashes because we will die.
Kim: Nope!
Rhi: Yeah. It basically is the sort of thing where it fills up—you fill the trunk and then you have to pile a lot of it into the back seat. It is obvious that you have… It’s not like you have a grenade launcher poking out of the window, it’s not that obvious, but you know, there is a look to military crates of ammo for example.
Kim: Right.
Rhi: And there’s only so much you can do to hide that. I think that is what you have shoved into the back seat as you all set off into Silvercliff. You make it, like… 10, maybe 15 minutes into your drive across the city when a Bluecoat car pulls up behind you and flashes its sirens, indicating that you need to pull over.
Kim (as Val): Shit!
Rhi: [laughs]
Kim (as Val): Well… any ideas, you two?
Josie (as Echo): Maybe we can buy him off?
Kim (as Val): Ugh, maybe, but I’m not very liquid right now. What about you?
Josie (as Echo): I’ve got a coin that I can throw at him.
Kim (as Val): I don’t know, this is a pretty swanky part of town. I don’t know if 1 coin is gonna be enough to tip one Bluecoat off. Either way, I’m pulling over. I don’t wanna turn this into a chase. We’re pretty fully-loaded as it is.
Josie (as Echo): Yeah.
Rhi: Alright. So, you pull over to the side of the street. The Bluecoat pulls over behind you. Two officers get out. They split. You’ve got one on either side, one on the passenger side and one on the driver side. The one on the driver side—Val, do you roll down the window before they get there?
Kim: I think so, yeah.
Rhi: Okay. He leans on the window and kinda eyes the three of you.
Rhi (as Bluecoat): So, what brings you out to this part of town this morning?
Kim (as Val): We’re moving.
Rhi (as Bluecoat): Moving?
Kim (as Val): Yeah, just passing through. We’re from—
Kim: Oh fuck, where’s the map? Because we’re obviously not from here.
Rhi: Uh-huh. [laughs]
Kim: Would it make sense for us to be coming from Robelston?
Rhi: Hmm… From Robelston but to where? Because the Palisades and Amaryl—Like, everywhere else that you’re aiming for is even more well-off.
Kim: Well, what time of year is it? Because we could pass off that we’re moving someone to college and we’re headed to the university.
Josie: I mean, that’s true. Tourmaline Park is also super wealthy, right?
Rhi: Uh-huh. Basically, if it touches Suncrest, it’s incredibly wealthy.
Josie: We might be able to swing Ivyridge. We’re going up around the curve here, maybe?
Kim: Yeah. Maybe there’s just a highway—not a highway, but you know, some kind of connecting road…
Rhi: Yeah, a road. Yeah.
Kim: …that makes that route make more sense. Okay.
Kim (as Val): Yeah, we’re moving. Coming from Robelston headed over to Ivyridge.
Rhi: Give me a roll.
Kim: Oh boy.
Rhi: It is going to be desperate.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: And… I’m trying to figure out what your effect level here is. I think it’s gonna be reduced. It’s desperate-reduced.
Kim: Can I push myself to put me up above reduced effect?
Rhi: Yes, and somebody can assist if they would like to take a point of stress to boost this further.
Minna: I could assist.
[somebody shouts in the background—just noise]
Josie: I’d like—Yeah, go for it.
Minna: Oh, go for it.
Josie: No, you go for it.
Kim: Ah!
[laughter]
Josie: You’re more social than me.
Minna: Ah, this is a problem when Arlene is one of the more social ones.
Rhi: Yep.
Kim: Yeah, I’m the social guy.
Rhi: Arlene, mark a point of stress.
Minna: Yeye!
Rhi: You are at desperate-standard and you have a bonus die from Arlene.
Kim: Let’s fucking go.
Rhi: May God have mercy on your soul. [laughs]
Kim: And she did. My highest was a 6.
Rhi: Wow!
Josie: Nice.
Kim: Yeah, I rolled a 3, 5, 6.
Rhi: So you do it.
Kim: And there’s no consequence because I rolled a 6.
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: I love it when there is no consequences.
Rhi: So, he’ll kind of eye the three of you.
Rhi (as Bluecoat): Alright… Some folks around here noticed you driving through and just a little concerned. We’ve had some troublesome sorts around here lately and just want to make sure everybody feels safe.
Kim (as Val): Completely understand, officer. You know, we’re not two-trip Tommys over here, and we couldn’t really afford a moving van, so I’m sure you could understand.
Kim: And they wink.
Rhi (as Bluecoat): Mm-hmm… Well, just drive careful.
Rhi: The guy on the passenger side is squinting at the cases in the back.
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: But I think that one of the Breakers had loaned you a saddle blanket to toss over them, so there’s just a little corner of an ammo box poking out.
Kim: Oh no.
Rhi: It’s not enough for him to exactly be able to tell, and when his partner’s like “okay, come on,” he just gives it up and walks away.
Kim: [heavy relieved exhale]
Rhi: Yeah, they go back to the car. I think that they are going to loosely tail you until you leave the district.
Kim: Okay.
Kim (as Val): Ah, fucking hell, that was close.
Josie (as Echo): I trust your winning smile.
Kim (as Val): Why thank you. It’s worked so far, so uh… just gonna keep using what works, I guess.
Josie (as Echo): But is it really that unusual to drive around in a Glamdring up here? What’s that about?
Kim (as Val): Ah, fuck if I know.
Rhi: [laughs]
Minna (as Arlene): Eh, I don’t know anything about cars.
Josie (as Echo): They just probably all own Rivies up here is all. Boring.
Kim (as Val): Yeah, they’re probably not used to an older model rolling around on the streets over here.
Josie (as Echo): The Drake’s not that old.
Kim (as Val): Eh.
Josie (as Echo): It’s just unfashionable.
Kim (as Val): He’s getting up there, and don’t you say that he’s unfashionable ever again.
Josie (as Echo): You’re right. I’m sorry. That’s my bad this time.
Rhi: [laughs] Pat the dash in apology.
Kim (as Val): I know you’re timeless, baby. I know.
[giggling]
Rhi: So yeah, you’ve got a tail, basically, until you leave Silvercliff. Val, give me another roll for driving just to make sure that you, you know, are able to…
Josie: Be convincing?
Kim: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: Well, like, because here’s the thing. Most of the time, people do not follow the rules of the road flawlessly. You go five miles over the speed limit. You don’t come to a full and complete stop at every single stop sign. Like… you know, that’s just kind of how driving works. Val, you need to follow the rules of the road so perfectly right now.
Kim: Oh yeah, so they don’t have an excuse to hail me again.
Rhi: Yeah. You give them the barest thread of an excuse… The fuckers have a quota to meet.
Kim: Yeah. Remind me again what driving is. It’s Finesse, right?
Rhi: Finesse~! You are out of desperate, I’ll say that. This is gonna be risky… risky-greater.
Kim: Okay. Boy howdy. That’s another 6. I guess my new dice are just really happy.
Rhi: Jesus! Are these the Blades in the Dark one?
Kim: One of them, actually—Okay, so Val’s dice set is a bit of a mix, but one of the dice that I did roll was one of my metal, officially licensed Blades in the Dark dice, and it came out on those lovely double daggers.
Rhi: Nice! Love it. Yeah, so Val, flawless driving, perfect. You could teach a class.
Kim: But I shouldn’t is the thing.
Rhi: You shouldn’t. You really shouldn’t. [laughs] You get the impression… I think Echo and Arlene are glancing back to keep an eye on your tail. They’re far enough back that you can’t see their faces, but you get the impression that they’re annoyed.
Kim: Yeah.
Rhi: Something about the way they’re driving conveys irritation, that you’re not giving them an excuse to pull you over again.
Kim (as Val): Yeah, that’s right, fuckers.
Rhi: But you make it out of Silvercliff. You get onto the road. You cross the intersection and pass into Veldaire Hill. At this point you’ve lost some time because you had to drive a little more slowly through Silvercliff. It’s late morning by this point. God, would they have…? I feel like Veldaire Hill would have the concept of brunch.
Kim: They would.
Rhi: Very trendy brunch spots. So yeah, I think that the brunch rush has set upon Veldaire Hill. There’s lots of people out and about on the streets and sidewalks wandering around, having a grand time. So, you have to kind of weave your way through Veldaire Hill because it’s just… streets are very crowded, there’s a lot of deliveries happening, there’s a lot of people out on the street, but you make it through without too much trouble.
Then you pass into Portmarch, and pretty quickly it becomes clear that the reason traffic was a little slow in Veldaire is because traffic is gridlocked here. Like, nothing’s moving. People are leaning on the horns. You can see there’s Bluecoat sirens up ahead. Something is going on a few blocks down, but from where you are you can’t get a clear view of it.
Josie (as Echo): Want me to go ahead and see what’s up?
Kim (as Val): Yeah, do you mind?
Josie: Echo is gonna do that.
Rhi: Alright. Are you just going to walk like a normal person, or use…?
Josie: Walk like a normal person.
Rhi: Alright. [laughs] Yeah, so you make your way down the sidewalks which are also fairly crowded. There’s a number of people. It’s a mix of who you would expect to see in this part of town, business people, but there’s also people who seem to just be kind of like, eh, sort of here for the same reason you are, walking around trying to see what’s going on, and a lot of construction workers who are all heading in the same direction.
That’s unusual, because this is really late in the first shift for construction workers to be heading to a job site, but it becomes clear as you get closer to where everyone’s moving towards. What’s going on is there’s a half-built skyscraper down this street a few blocks and apparently, you know, the details are unclear from what’s going on here, but there is some kind of protest happening from the workers who are working on this site and it looks like a lot of other construction unions are joining in.
They’ve basically shut down this entire street with the protest that’s happening. The Bluecoats are trying to get in to break it up, but it’s a combination of there’s just so much traffic here and also there has been strategic placement of building materials to block the roads, [laughs] that they’re having a hard time getting in. Echo, if you wanted to, you could try to scout an alternate route.
Josie: I could do that, yeah.
Rhi: Or, if you wanted to try and come up with an alternate solution to the problem, that’s just one possible way.
Josie: Yeah. I might as well scan around, see what I can find, like if there’s an alleyway we can pull into or something. I feel like Survey is what this is.
Rhi: Yes. This will be just risky-standard.
Josie: Well that’s a 2.
Rhi: Oof.
Kim: Ugh, no.
Josie: I’m rolling like shit tonight.
Kim: No~
Rhi: [laughs] Okay, so here’s what I got.
Josie: Okay.
Rhi: I mentioned that they had used construction materials to block off the street, and Echo, you’re an engineer, you’re a builder.
Josie: Mm-hmm.
Rhi: You don’t usually do architectural stuff, but you can still look at parts and figure out how to put them together to solve a problem. In this case, it’s a pretty simple problem to solve. Right? You need to get this car past a blockade. You’re looking at the street, and what comes into your mind in this perfect moment of clarity is… I could make a ramp.
[laughter]
Kim: Oh no.
Minna: Yes! Dukes of Hazzard this shit!
Rhi: That is the only—like, that just crystalizes in your mind. It’s like tunnel vision. It doesn’t even occur to you to look for other options. You’re just like, yes, this is the perfect solution. I’m gonna make a ramp and we’re just gonna ramp over this and then we’ll be out and we’ll be past this. That is gonna solve all of our problems.
Josie: [uneasy] Okay.
Rhi: Never mind the fact that that’s gonna draw attention, and you have a lot of volatile explosives in the car. The only solution that Echo can think of here is… ramp.
## Outro [00.59.07]
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.
Rhi: If you’d like to dedicate a personal message to a friend, family member, gaming group, or other special Clever Corvids fan in your life, you can do so right here! Visit clevercorvids.net and click on Jumbotron Messages under the Support Us menu to buy your very own message. As always, thanks to all our Patreon backers, whose ongoing support makes this show possible.
## Bloopers [01.01.00]
Minna: [giggling] I need to tell you the pun that I made this week, only because it will make you extremely sad.
Rhi: O no.
Minna: I forget. I think my coworker said something like… We’re dealing with all this stuff that’s blowing off the trees at us, and my coworker said “I wish this wind would leaf us alone” or something, and I said that pun was a-pollen.
Josie: [laughs]
Kim: Oh…! Well done.
Rhi: … …
Minna: [laughs]
Kim: Oh… how are you doing, Rhi?
Rhi: …
[giggling]
Minna: Listeners, if there’s no episode today, it’s because Rhi has abandoned us.
[laughter]
Rhi: Rhi has decided to abandon society and go live in the fucking woods. Jesus.
Minna: But there’s so much pollen in the woods for me to make puns about!
Rhi: No!