Transcribed by Michelle Kelly.
## Intro
Rhi: Welcome back to Imperial City. As always, thank you for joining us. If you’re enjoying the show, consider backing us on Patreon–or, if you can’t do a monthly subscription, check out our merch store! We’ve got City That Never Dies, Love and Hellfire, Magpies, and Clever Corvids stickers and t-shirts available. And if financial support isn’t an option, leave us a review! Tell your friends about our shows! It all helps us keep telling these stories.
Next, Fabby of Love and Hellfire is going to tell us about this month’s featured charity.
Fabby: Hey everyone, fabby here to talk about our featured charity this month.
For this month I am going to ask you all to help someone who not only is one of the most important voices in the actual play scene but also an activist who has time and time again fought racism in our spaces and communities. I am referring to Indi Tan of dice comics. Indi not only runs an amazing podcast that everyone should be listening to, but like I said their work in spreading awareness of racism in both the queer and actual play communities is incredibly important. They’ve recently been through a really hard personal time and have medical bills they need help covering. Please if you have anything to spare, head over to https://ko-fi.com/itsmrmask
Rhi: As always, please take care of yourselves and each other as much as you can.
Now then. Let’s get started, shall we?
## Story continues [00.02.18]
Rhi: We find the Whisky Jays as they are finishing the traditional unloading of weapons in the, uh, entryway of the Sovereign. You all have been summoned here shortly after Leona, from the Breakers and Arlene’s girlfriend, reached out to all of you about a potential job. About a day after Leona asked to set up a meeting, you were contacted by Alicia Marrin, the owner of The Sovereign, to tell you that your deal with the Breakers would be conducted at the Sovereign. Which is a little odd. You all have done jobs with the Breakers before. They haven’t required this sort of kind of formality. So, this is a strange situation you find yourselves in. But the Sovereign is as welcoming as always. At this point, the security have all been briefed on Pearl and the protocol for the lagre tiger. She is allowed in as long as she stays leashed. And as you all enter the front room, the sort of lounge and bar area of The Sovereign, Alicia is waiting for you. She is dressed, as she usually is, in a business-like form-fitting dress with a shoulder holster and a pair of very nice pistols tucked into the holsters on either side. And she comes over and smiles as she sees you come in and is like,
Rhi (as Alicia): Welcome. Thank you all for coming to this meeting. I know this might be a little unusual, but when I heard that the Breakers were hiring you for a job, I wanted to make sure that, well, there was some formal protections in place.
Josie (as Echo): Well, now I am starting to get worried about what they are going to ask.
Rhi: And she kind of, you know, gestures for you all to follow and leads you back through the lounge as she says,
Rhi (as Alicia): It’s less about what they’re asking and more about what they’ve done in the past. They’re oath-breakers, and that means I need to be a little more cautious about them.
Rhi: And as she’s saying that, she opens up a door to a back room that has a fairly large round table in the middle. And seated on one side are Leona and another man that none of you have met before, but based on the fact that he is also dressed like a cowboy, you’re guessing he’s another member of the Breakers. Arlene, you actually might have seen him around when you’ve been at Salma, but I don’t think you’ve gotten like a formal introduction.
Minna: Mm hmm.
Rhi: But both he and Leona have the, you know, long duster. They have their hats sitting on the table beside them. You know, the Breakers have a look. [laughs] And he very much is fitting the aesthetic. And the door opens, you know, as Alicia is just calling them “oath-breakers” and Leona scowls. She kind of brightens for a second when she sees Arlene, but then goes back to making a face at Alicia. And Leona just says,
Rhi (as Leona): You know we had good reason.
Rhi: Alicia will gesture for all of you to sit, and she kind of nods at Leona and says,
Rhi (as Alicia): Yes. But you still committed a betrayal. And once you’ve done it once, it’s easier the next time. So, you lay out the details of the job, and once everyone agrees on the terms I will seal the contract.
Rhi: And then she just kinda steps back and leans against the wall to wait for you all to hash things out.
Josie (as Echo): A betrayal…
Kim (as Val): I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that it’s probably not our business. So, what is it we’re moving?
Rhi (as Leona): [sighs] Well, it’s a little complicated,
Rhi: Leona says,
Rhi (as Leona): You know that a lot of our business is making runs through the Deathlands. One of our more frequent customers are the people who run some of the outposts in the Blackwall Mountains. They’ve got a very thriving black market out there and it’s reliable income. We’re making a run out to one of them in the next few days and normally this is something we would just handle ourselves. But we have been working with a few of the workers in the town who have gotten the money together to pay for us to sneak them back into Imperial City. And that’s where you all come in. We need you to contact these people, get them out of the town and back to our rendezvous point so we can all come back to the relative safety of our fine city.
Rhi: Now, I will say, Echo, you are probably most familiar with kind of these, uh, outposts out in the mountains. Not because you’ve ever been there, but you know people who took jobs there. It is basically one of the last-ditch options of the truly desperate. If you end up in a situation where you are deep in debt, you can arrange to have your debt bought by one of the, uh, well, these are government-run. You can have your debt bought out by the government and go out to one of these mining settlements to work it off.
Aki: It’s like a debtor’s prison?
Rhi: Yes, more or less. Y’know, the arrangement is you get paid for your work, but you have to pay for your bed and your food and your water and your clothes and your equipment, and then a good chunk of it gets take— and then whatever is left gets put towards your debt. And of course, they’re charging interest.
Aki: Woah. Debtor’s prison.
Rhi: So, yeah. Most people who go out there don’t come back. And the people who do manage to make it back, they’re usually gone for decades. So Echo, you would have probably known, you know, maybe not personally, but known of some people where, you know, an aunt or an uncle or a cousin, you know, a friend’s parent, ended up just cutting that deal because it at least meant that nobody else would be coming, you know, after the family while you were out there working.
Josie: Mm hmm.
Rhi: So, it’s a shitty arrangement and it’s understandable why some folks would want to get out.
Josie: Yeah, makes sense.
Rhi (Leona): So, uh, the setup is two of us, me and Ibrahim,
Rhi: Gestures at the other guy, who raises a hand,
Rhi (Leona): We’re gonna load up the goods and all of you, ride out towards the town, drop you off a little ways outside. You’ll sneak in, meet up with the workers we’re bringing out. You’ll have to hunker down with them overnight. It’s too long of a ride for us to make it there and back in one day. And then the next morning, sneak everybody out, we all rendezvous, come back here. Your cut will be seven coin. 50/50 split. We’re about to get 14 coin out of this between what the workers are paying us and what the folks running the town pay us for their goods. You get half.
Kim (as Val): Seven coin works for me, certainly.
Josie (as Echo): Yes. I’m not opposed to this deal, but— and not that we don’t appreciate the call, but why us? You do this regularly.
Rhi (Leona): We need to maintain our relationships with the town’s leadership and it’s harder for one of us to sneak off. We send a group of you, they’re not expecting people from outside the Breakers to be there. We’ll drop you off before we get to the town, we’ll pick you up outside of it. Ideally, the people in charge won’t ever know you’re there.
Josie (as Echo): That makes sense.
Aki (as Darling): Because of the horses?
Rhi (Leona): Partly because of the horses. A lot of them know us at this point. We’ve all made runs out there. Some of our lower-risk trips, it’s just a couple days outside the city, as opposed to some of our longer pushes. So, most of us have been out to these settlements a few times.
Aki: I nod, and then whisper, probably to Pearl,
Aki (as Darling): It’s the horses.
Rhi: [laughs]
Josie: [laughs]
Aki: Cause I— okay. I— I still picture these, like, horses like Ghostrider.
Josie: [laughs]
Aki: So I just think they’re so fucking— they don’t have to be skele-boys or anything like that, okay, I just think of them like that, you know? All black or grey, misty, fucking ashy, and then the eyes are all orangey-red and stuff. And if they, like, doesn’t matter the weather, there’s like, you know, that breath that comes out when it’s really cold.
Rhi: Mm hmm.
Aki: But it’s red, it’s like ‘mayyyy’, you know? It’s like— ‘may’?
[laughter]
Kim: Like in that exact voice. [spooky voice] ‘Neigh!’
Rhi: [laughs]
Kim: Like Mr Ed.
Rhi: Like a human saying ‘neigh’.
Aki: You know, like, that’s what I’ve been picturing this whole time.
Rhi: [laughs] You know? I’ve… I‘ve never specifically described what the horses look like, so there’s no reason that this is not true. [laughs] I just said they’re horses.
Josie: [laughs]
Minna: I don’t know I’ve just been picturing, like… I think it’s because Leona’s a cowgirl, so I’ve just been picturing like a pinto horse. Like a normal-ass…
Rhi: Yeah.
Minna: I don’t think that’s actually what her horse is, I think we decided what her horse is, but my brain has forgotten.
Rhi: Yeah, we came up with something specific. Yeah. I’ve also forgotten. I’ve been—
Josie: Her horse should be a normal horse, but with one really weird characteristic that isn’t immediately apparent. [laughs]
Minna: Wait no, isn’t she dapple grey, because we called her Silver Moon?
Rhi: Yeah, Silver Mist is her horse.
Minna: Silver Mist.
Rhi: We both reached deep into eight-year-old horse girl naming conventions.
Minna: Oh, cause they’re like that kind of draft horse.
Rhi: Mm hmm, yeah.
Minna: Like a small, like a Percheron?
Rhi: Yeah. Mm hmm. Her horse big. Big horf.
Minna: Yeah.
Rhi: That’s my official take. So, Leona and Ibrahim neither confirm nor deny that it is the horses. [laughs] And Leona just kinda looks across the table at the four of you, mostly at Arlene, and is like,
Rhi (Leona): So, does that all sound acceptable?
Kim: Val will look to the rest of the party in a sort of like, questioning expression.
Josie: Echo nods.
Aki: I will also nod and then poke Arlene, cause I want her to make the agreement. [laughs]
Rhi: [laughs]
Minna: Oh, you want her to do it verbally for all of us?
Aki: Yeah, yeah, cause, well, one, that’s your girlfriend over there, you’re technically the closest we got. But two, two, it’s a learning experience.
Rhi and Minna: [laugh]
Minna: I think Arlene kinda glances at Darling then leans forward and is like,
Minna (as Arlene): We’ll do it.
Rhi: Leona nods and then looks over at Alicia. Is like,
Rhi (Leona): Is that acceptable?
Rhi: Alicia pushes off the wall and picks up a couple things from off of a little side table and she says,
Rhi (as Alicia): Yes. That will do.
Rhi: And then she sets down between, you know, kind of on the table between Leona and Arlene, a large— well, I mean, not large. You know, 8.5×11 sheet of parchment. It’s thicker than normal paper, it looks old. It’s got kind of a weightiness to it. And on either side, one towards Leona, one towards Arlene, are drawn these just equally-sized black circles. So she sets that down and then she sets down, again, one in front of each of you, a pair of small, thin, sharp knives. And she says,
Rhi (as Alicia): A drop of blood from each of you in the circle, please.
Kim (as Val): Pardon?
Rhi (as Alicia): Oh, you haven’t had a contract overseen here yet. This is just all part of the arrangement. Don’t— it’s how I make sure that everyone’s holding up their ends of the bargain.
Kim (as Val): This isn’t gonna like—
Rhi: Leona has already picked up her knife. [laughs]
Kim: Oh, jeez.
Rhi: Apparently Leona’s used to this.
Josie (as Echo): From everyone on either side?
Rhi (as Alicia): Just one.
Josie (as Echo): Okay.
Kim (as Val): Ay, ay, ay.
Rhi: Don’t worry Josie, I thought about it.
Josie: Okay. [laughs]
Rhi: I got you. [laughs]
Aki: Wait no, now I’m uncomfortable with my child doing that.
Aki (as Darling): I don’t know if—
Kim (as Val): Fine, fine. I’ll do it.
Kim: Val will like, hold out a hand.
Minna (as Arlene): No, I’m fine doing it! You don’t have to be—
Kim (as Val): No, if this some creepy curse thing I’d rather it be you than— rather it be me than you.
Rhi (as Alicia): The curse will be distributed across everyone in the group if you should break the contract.
Kim (as Val): Ugh, delightful.
Rhi (as Alicia): So it doesn’t really matter who does it.
Rhi: Leona has already [laughs] like, put a drop of blood on the table and is wrapping up her finger. Alicia did also put out some like, little band-aids or bandages.
Aki: [laughs] They’re branded, ‘Sovereign’.
Rhi: Yeah, they have a little fancy S. So who is pricking their finger?
Kim: It’s me.
Minna: I think Arlene has snatched the knife back. [laughs]
Rhi: Okay. So Arlene, you do a drop of blood on your circle, get a bandage. Alicia takes the paper once you’ve both put a drop of blood on it and folds it up, but it’s clearly in a very— like, she doesn’t just fold it in half or something, she is folding it not exactly origami, but it’s a very specific way that she is folding in on itself until it ends up being a fairly small little square. Then she will gesture to Leona and Arlene and she says,
Rhi (as Alicia): Each of you, hold out your hands like you’re going to shake, but don’t actually touch hands yet.
Rhi: So Leona will hold out her hand.
Minna: Arlene holds out her hand.
Rhi: And so then Alicia reaches out and puts this piece of paper between your hands and kind of, she puts her hand around yours and holds them together. So like, you two are shaking hands but she’s got her hand wrapped around both of yours. And there’s this not visible, but you all can kind of feel it in your teeth for everyone except Echo, who kinda feels it in like, the gears and electroplasmic tubing, this like pulse of magic.
Josie: I think one of her fingers twitches involuntarily. Just, bzzt.
Rhi: Yeah. [laughs]
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: Uh, and then Alicia releases your hands and when you pull them back, this small blue-black kind of glossy stone falls onto the table. And she, Alicia, picks it up and kind of pulls one of her shoulder holsters aside, and you can see that sort of on the inner living of it there are a whole bunch of little— not quite pockets, but little leather, like, divots, all just the right size for one of these little stones. And there are in fact several other stones tucked in. And she tucks that one in as well, lets the holster fall back and says,
Rhi (as Alicia): Alright. Now if either of you violate your sides of the contract, I will be aware of it.
Aki: I gayly go,
Aki (as Darling): Wow.
Rhi and Josie: [laugh]
Rhi: Alicia gives you sort of a, like, you know, a nod, but it’s clear that she’s like, she’s a little proud of this. This ritual she’s developed.
Aki (as Darling): This is literally the most magic I’ve ever fucking seen in my life. I think. I could be horridly wrong, but it’s definitely the… coolest.
Aki: Saying that in this voice is this weird.
Josie (as Echo): I need to do more magic, then.
Rhi (as Alicia): Yes, you need to spend more time around here.
Rhi: She winks at Darling.
Kim: Val’s going to point to Echo.
Kim (as Val): No blood curses.
Aki: I pipe up,
Aki (as Darling): A little bit of blood curses.
Kim (as Val): [grunt of disapproval]
Josie (as Echo): As a treat.
Aki (as Darling): As a treat, yes. Learn about them. Perhaps do not perform them. Maybe one of them. I’m not sure actually, they do sound kinda dope.
Kim (as Val): We’ll talk about this later.
Rhi: Alicia kind of brushes off her hands and is like,
Rhi (as Alicia): Well, that’s all settled. Thank you all for agreeing to do this.
Rhi: And Leona kinda makes a face again and you all hear Ibrahim mutter under his breath,
Rhi (as Ibrahim): Not like you gave us a choice…
Rhi: And Alicia says,
Rhi (as Alicia): Should you all have any questions for me, I will be up front, but my part in this business is concluded. The room is yours for the next hour if you have any other details or discussions you need to have.
Rhi: And then she will head out.
Kim: Hmm.
Rhi: Once she leaves, like, Leona kinda slumps back in her chair a little bit and is like,
Rhi (as Leona): [sighs] Sorry about all this. It wasn’t our idea.
Josie (as Echo): Oh?
Aki (as Darling): Better to be safe than sorry, rather than, uh, I mean, if we were to have any beef, I would 100% prefer that the beef remain between us and not catch on with other gangs. This low-key keeps it that way.
Aki: And Darling would not say low-key. God damn, I must be tired.
[laughter]
Josie: She wouldn’t?
Aki: I don’t think this bitch knows what any of that means, unless Arlene has come in and just been like, “Hey Mom, here’s a book of slang you should learn.”
Josie: [laughs] I kinda like the idea that the slang is kinda trickling up the generations.
Minna: “I found a most amusing book in the marketplace, it’s called The City Dictionary.”
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: [laughs]
Aki: Although technically if we’re going with slang it has to be 1920s slang, so I have to be like “Well, aren’t you just the right cherry tomato of the bunch,” you know? Like, I have to call you that kinda shit.
Kim: “Aren’t you a friend of Dorothy?” [laughs]
Rhi: [laughs] So, if there anything else that you all wanna ask your cowboy friends while you’ve got them here?
Kim: Is Ibrahim single? Ibra-him. Sorry. Mispronounced the…
Josie: [laughs loudly]
Rhi: I mean, if that’s a— is that a question you’re actually asking?
Kim: No, that’s a—
Josie: You’re just incorrigible.
Kim: Yeah, no, that was more for the bit.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: [laughs]
Aki: No, I love this, okay. The two elder gays are being gay and horny and the two— and the young’uns are like, “What the fuck? This is not youthful.”
Rhi: [laughs] They will tell you basically like, you know, time and place to meet up. It’s pretty early in the morning, out towards the edge of the city, and they do tell you that, um, you will be riding horses, so be prepared for that if you haven’t ridden horses before, which most people have not. Arlene probably has the most experience of the group, in that she’s gotten to ride Silver Mist around the paddock a few times.
Minna: She is very unrealistically confident because of this.
Rhi: [amused] Mm hmm. Yep.
Minna: She’s like, “I know what I’m doing!”
Rhi: [laughs] Yeah, “I’ve ridden a horse being walked around in a circle by my girlfriend.”
Kim: Oh jeez.
Minna: [laughs]
Rhi: But yeah, is there anything else you all wanna ask about? Or are you feeling pretty ready to go with this?
Kim: Nothing I can really think of.
Rhi: Is there anything you all wanna do to prep?
Josie: Nothing specific.
Kim: Warm clothes.
Rhi: Yes, it is— it’s gonna be, like, you won’t have to camp out in the Deathlands, but yeah, you’re gonna be, you know, in the wilderness. The deeply haunted wilderness. Pitch black, also, for the most part, because there’s no sun.
Aki: [laughs]
Rhi: And once you get outside the cities, there’s no light.
Josie: Mm hmm.
Minna: Oh. Do we have, like, lanterns and stuff?
Rhi: Yeah, yeah. They’ve got like lights, lanterns and stuff they’ll hang on their horses that probably also double as some sort of ghost ward, now that I think about it.
Kim: That’s so metal!
Rhi: Yeah, everything about, like, you know, I’m drawing on the inspiration for the Breakers from the uh, there’s a Severosi faction, I don’t remember their name now, uh, in core Blades. The Silver Nails. But like, everything about them is extremely cool. It’s like, yeah. We have horses. They fight ghosts. We do crime about it.
Minna: We have a pub called The Mustang that we run.
Rhi: Yeah, that was their, the uh, the iteration of that in Duskwall. So yeah, I would say that like, I also am gonna guess that most of you don’t have a ton of experience with operating out in the Deathlands for extended periods of time.
Minna: Mm hmm.
Kim: Nope.
Rhi: Leona probably gives you all a little bit of advice of like,
Rhi (as Leona): Make sure you bring spiritbane charms, electroplasmic ammunition…
Rhi: [laughs] Like, just kind of advising you all on what you will need to be prepared for potential threats out in the wild.
Josie: Mm hmm.
Rhi: But yeah, if there isn’t anything else y’all wanna do to prep, I think we can probably just go straight into the engagement roll.
Kim: Yep.
Josie (as Echo): Hey, Darling?
Aki (as Darling): Yes?
Josie (as Echo): We are about to spend two days riding with Arlene and her girlfriend together. Please don’t bring a blood curse down on us.
Rhi: [bursts into laughter]
Aki: Family road trip!
Aki (as Darling): This shit’s going to be weird. You’re either going to break up, or we’re going to fight, or we’re going to be so close it’s going to be uncomfortable.
Josie (as Echo): I guess I’m hoping for that last one.
Kim: Oh my God.
Aki: I’m gonna look at Arlene directly and smile like I’m the knife cat meme.
Minna: [laughs]
Aki (as Darling): This will be your worst nightmare and I’m going to enjoy all of it, dear.
Minna (as Arlene): Please be nice.
Aki (as Darling): Oh, I’ve come to be nice. Don’t you worry. Remember, you were wounded and that person stayed at my house for a long, long time and didn’t wipe their fucking boots.
Rhi: I beg your pardon, Leona did wipe her boots. [laughs] And she took her hat off every time you came into the room.
Aki (as Darling): She wiped off her boots, she took her hat off every time I was in the room. You know, there is that air of respect. I’m a little bit more okay with this. Now I get to see how professional she is out in the field, and that is where I am the most judgmental. You will not be with some unemployed bum!
Rhi: [laughs]
Minna (as Arlene): I’m not.
Aki (as Darling): Not in my house.
Minna (as Arlene): She’s a lieutenant.
Aki (as Darling): I know. But is she the kind of lieutenant that just sits at a desk all day and goes, “Woo, I’m in charge”? Nepotism? Or is she the kind of person, lieutenant that’s like, “Ha ha!” Front-line experience? There you go. I wasn’t actually sure what to call this in this moment, because I realize that the experience is rather different. But I don’t think we do that much paperwork here, yet.
Rhi: I’m so sorry, Arlene.
Aki (as Darling): I also need to see what the horse upkeep looks like, because I will not have this animal abuser in my household.
[laughter]
Minna (as Arlene): Excuse you.
Aki (as Darling): What? I am an amazing pet owner. I should have another.
Minna (as Arlene): Yes, and so is Leona! She’s very good with Silver Mist.
Aki (as Darling): That is alleged!
Kim (as Val): [quietly] How long is this trip?
Aki (as Darling): You can’t bring a horse into the house.
Minna (as Arlene): I’ve seen the horse!
Josie (as Echo): [crosstalk] Do you know anything about horses?
[pause]
Aki: [laughs]
Aki (as Darling): The silence is palpable, dear.
Kim (as Val): We haven’t even started.
Rhi: I mean, you’ve picked up some stuff just sort of via osmosis by hanging out with Leona and, you know, meeting her friends and stuff. Arlene might think that she has a deep knowledge of horses. She doesn’t.
Minna: [laughs]
Rhi: But she, at the same time, she knows more about horses than anybody else here.
Minna: [laughs]
Josie: I was asking Darling if she knew anything about horses. [laughs]
Minna: I think Arlene should definitely be like,
Minna (as Arlene): Okay. So how would you take care of a horse?
Aki (as Darling): Don’t stand behind it?
Minna (as Arlene): That’s how you take care of you with a horse.
Aki (as Darling): That is still taking care of the horse. Because if I’m wounded, who will take care of the horse? Certainly not the horse. Actually no, it might. It might just eat me. Which, I don’t know how enriching I would be as a meat flavor.
Josie (as Echo): I thought you were a snack?
Aki (as Darling): No, I’m a whole damn meal. I’m like seven feet tall. I could rival the horse’s height. Which means I have to have a rather large horse, holy shit.
Minna (as Arlene): They have large horses.
Minna: [laughs]
Aki: I know they have large horses, but Darling herself is large, so that means a horse larger than Darling is megafauna at this point. [laughs] We don’t get Darling a horse, we get her a Canadian moose.
Rhi: Yeah.
Kim: God.
Josie (as Echo): I will need—
Rhi: Ibrahim rolls up with a moose.
Josie (as Echo): I will need a large horse, too. I am heavy.
Rhi: This conversation is not happening in front of Leona and Ibrahim, by the way. I’ve just decided. I could— the second-hand awkwardness of it would kill me dead.
[laughter]
Rhi: So, they left.
Aki: Out of character, like, I only really see three scenarios happening here. One, we hate each other. Which is the worst-case scenario, okay? Two, I adopt Leona.
Rhi: [laughs]
Aki: Which might be—[laughs] which might be bad.
Kim: Every bitch can’t be your son.
Aki: You ever seen—[laughs] shut up. You take that back.
Josie: [laughs]
Aki: How dare you say that to me. [laughs]
[laughter]
Aki: No, I mean like, no the like, adopt adopt. I mean when your relationship is better with your in-laws than your own parents.
Kim: Word, yeah.
[laughter]
Aki: That’s what I mean. And three, we are awkward friends. We’re like, we’re friendly, but we’re like, “Did you see the… game? I don’t know what the game is. Thundergoats? Yeah. Get a goal. Hit the run.”
Rhi: Place your bets now. I’m putting my money on three. [laughs]
Josie: [laughs]
Kim (as Val): Why would you put your money on three? Five is slotted to win.
Rhi: Oh my God.
[laughter]
Aki: I’ll place a bet on every single one so they’ll always win one but lose more.
Kim (as Val): Mm. That’s how you actually lose money, see—
Rhi: Let’s—
Kim: Yep, sorry.
Rhi: Let’s do the engagement roll, my friends.
[laughter]
Rhi: [laughs] This bickering lasts the entire two days you are packing for this trip.
Josie: [laughs]
Minna: God, it’s gonna be like a family road trip for real. [laughs]
Rhi: Uh huh.
Minna: There’s so much bickering. [laughs]
Rhi: I’m pretty sure this is a transport score. You are helping to transport smuggled goods across the Deathlands via horses.
Aki: We don’t need these ports, we’re trans.
Rhi: What are you all planning on doing for loadout?
Kim: Uh, heavy.
Minna: Heavy.
Aki: Heavy.
Josie: Yeah, heavy.
Rhi: Okay, yeah. That makes sense.
Minna: It would almost be weirder not to have a heavy load going out into the Deathlands.
Rhi: Yes. [laughs] If any of you showed up with less than that, you would get taken aside by the Breakers like, “Do you need more weapons?”
Kim: “Are you good?”
Rhi: “We can loan you some more weapons.” Um, okay. So for the engagement roll. One for luck. “Is this operation particularly bold or daring?”
Aki: Isn’t it essentially a prison break?
Rhi: A little bit.
Kim: Also, Deathlands.
Rhi: Yeah. Yeah, going out into the Deathlands is by default pretty daring. “Does the plan’s detail expose a vulnerability of the target or hit them where they’re weakest?” The target in this case is sort of the Deathlands, so not really, but they’re also not— you’re going in reasonably well-prepared. You are getting aid from friends or contacts. Enemies or rivals, yes, so we’re taking that out. Other elements you wanna consider… alright, so this is gonna be a 2d6 engagement roll. Oh no.
Kim: Oh no?
Rhi: That’s a 3.
Minna: Oh dear.
Kim: Uh…
Josie: Hmm.
Rhi: So, you all spend a couple days kind of getting ready, packing up for this trip, and then you show up out at the edge of the city, actually out in Bones Town, as the town you are heading towards is—or the settlement you’re heading towards is closest to that end of the city. And uh, Leona and Ibrahim are there with their horses and then there’s two other horses that have saddles and are a little more kind of like, heavily-laden. They’re all pretty big horses. And um, there’s a couple other Breakers around who are like— you’re meeting basically right at the lightning barrier, so this whole— right around dawn, so the sky is a little lighter than normal with the shattered fragments of the sun and you’ve also got this massive wall of crackling electricity a couple hundred feet away from you, while much closer to the wall you can see some other Breakers are like, setting up some, you know, big metal poles and stuff. From the last job that you did for the Breakers where you were moving cargo across the city, you know that what they are setting up is basically an arcane device that will open up a hole in the lightning barrier for you all to go through. So, as you all come up, Leona will tip her hat and says,
Rhi (as Leona): Alright, so two of us are gonna be doubled up and—
Rhi: Actually hang on, let me think about— I need to think about the number of horses that I need here for the trip back.
Kim: Count. That. Horse!
Rhi: Hang on. Hang on. I’m doing math. This is very difficult for me.
Kim: [spooky voice] Neigh.
Rhi: Okay. I have figured out how many horses we need. Ibrahim and Leona have their horses, and then there’s three other horses that are kind of, they have saddles but they’re also laden with saddlebags and… the stuff that’s being smuggled. You can kinda see just from what’s visible it’s like, it’s alcohol and uh, cigarettes and harder drugs and substances and like, luxury foods. Like, it’s just, it’s vice, essentially. So yeah, Leona will say,
Rhi (as Leona): So, for the ride out there the three of you can ride solo. Arlene, I figured we could just ride together. And on the way back everyone’s gonna have to be doubled up. We’re gonna be picking up four people, so it’s gonna be a cozy ride on the way back. But it would look suspicious if we showed up with ten horses and only two people.
Josie (as Echo): [flatly] Oh no. You and Arlene may have to share a horse. What a travesty.
Rhi (as Leona): I think that somehow we’ll be able to get through it.
Rhi: And she winks at Arlene.
Minna: [laughs]
Aki (as Darling): Oh my!
Minna: I think Arlene does like, a little smile.
Aki (as Darling): In front of the missus. How quaint.
Rhi (as Leona): Do you know how to ride a horse, ma’am?
Aki (as Darling): I think. Pretty sure I did it once when I was in my… twenties? God, I don’t even know how old I am right now.
Josie (as Echo): So like, thirty years ago?
Aki (as Darling): I don’t think I’m that old! Not yet!
Rhi: [laughs]
Kim (as Val): [laughs]
Aki (as Darling): Fucking rude!
Josie (as Echo): I don’t know why I’m so rude today.
Minna: Arlene is staying pointedly out of this one. [laughs]
Rhi: Leona just sorta gives Arlene a very like, flat, dead-eyed stare of, “Oh boy. That’s how this trip is gonna go, huh?”
Minna: And I think Arlene does a little like, “Yeah.” Nod. [laughs]
Rhi and Josie: [laugh]
Rhi: In the distant background, Ibrahim is pinching the bridge of his nose as this poor guy is the fucking sixth wheel on this family road trip.
Minna: [wheeze-laughs at length]
Kim: I mean, he doesn’t have to be.
Rhi: We’ve got the family, the girlfriend, and the girlfriend’s co-worker who’s being dragged along through—
[laughter]
Aki: Man, did somebody turn on the kettle, there’s some wheezing!
Minna: [laughs]
Rhi: No one is getting— no matter how awkward this trip is for the rest of you, no one’s gonna have a worse time on it than Ibrahim.
Aki: One second, I’m gonna amp up the mom meter a little bit more.
Rhi: Oh no…
Aki: I’m gonna walk over to Leona, who I probably dwarf in size, and um…
Minna: [doubtful]
Aki: Well, I’m like seven-foot-frame, no rats on this back.
Rhi: [laughs] Yeah, I mean, Leona is, I pictured her being pretty tall, close to six feet. So yeah, you’re still taller than her.
Aki: Yeah, you gotta look up when you speak to me. And I will come up and I will politely fix her shirt collars and be like,
Aki (as Darling): This is going to be fun.
Aki: Pat pat on her shoulder. And then go to… I’m assuming it’s the biggest horse, and just go,
Aki (as Darling): Yes, now how the hell do I get on this thing? I’m assuming if I just jump on it that would be the incorrect way.
Rhi (as Leona): Yes. Uh, here, I will show you.
Rhi: Leona just gives Arlene another look of, “Oh God.”
[laughter]
Rhi: And goes over to help Darling mount the horse.
Josie: This is all a distraction from the fact that Echo also knows fuck all about horses and isn’t sure how they’ll react to her. [laughs]
Kim: Yeah.
Josie: So she’s just gonna quietly try and get on and initiate riding horse script.
Rhi: [laughs]
Josie: I do exactly what I am told, repeatedly, and always. [laughs]
Rhi: I’m trying to— hmm. I don’t think that the horse would have any particularly negative response to Echo. Just cause like, you’re not, like, alive in the traditional sense. But Echo has enough sort of movement that it’s not like, you know, they just slung a corpse over. And your ghostness is contained within a frame, so you’re not like— it’s not like a ghost just tried to jump on the horse either, so I— I don’t feel like the horse is gonna be terribly upset, other than the fact that you’re, you know, denser than the average rider. How’s Val doing with horse?
Kim: Val also knows fuck all about horses, and I’m kind of lost track about who is solo and who’s doubling up.
Rhi: Arlene is gonna be riding with Leona. Everybody else is gonna be solo for the first leg of the trip.
Kim: Okay great. So I’m solo. Val’s picked out a horse and has, you know, has the reigns in one hands and is, you know looking at it. But, you know, has no clue what to do next and just keels looking at the horse like, “Yes. You are a horse.”
Rhi: The horse looks back. Ibrahim will come over and help, you know, basically do the thing of kneeling down so he can—
Kim: Give you a leg up.
Rhi: Give you a boost up in his hands, yeah. Everyone is helped into mounting the horses and are given basic instruction. I think that like, you, you know, kind of do a little bit of test riding around in this back alley area where the hole in the lightning barrier is being set up. The horses are all very well-trained and for the moment, everything seems to be going fine vis-à-vis the horses.
Kim: Oh no.
Rhi: So, everybody gets mounted up. I think that with Leona she, you know, swings into the saddle and does that thing where she just like holds out a hand and pulls Arlene up next to— or in front of her. It’s very cool and very romantic.
Minna: [giggles]
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: And then yeah, the other Breakers will kind of— basically, they’ve set up this apparatus that has like a couple of really big metal poles and as you all kind of ride closer to the lightning barrier they push the poles in, and sort of deflects the lightning out and down along these poles and creates a big hole. And you all ride through and out into the Deathlands.
It’s not too bad at first. You’re, you know, initially as you’re kind of riding down the paths cut into the cliffside at the back of the city there’s still sort of enough light from the lightning barrier coming down that the darkness isn’t too terrible, but you can sort of look out across the valley between the cliff at the edge of the city and where the mountains start and it’s just dark. And as you get further down these paths it gets really quiet. Just eerily quiet. All of you have spent most of your lives in cities or, you know, other enclosed spaces with lots of other people. There’s always noise, there’s always light. There’s talking and shouting and traffic and music. And out here, there’s just the horses’ hooves on the ground, your own breathing, the wind occasionally. It’s very eerie after just a lifetime of constant exposure to noise and light.
You get down to the bottom of this cliff path and kind of as you do, each of the horses has hanging from the side of the saddle sort of a lantern that has a blue light inside of it. And that light starts to flare up a little brighter as you get to the bottom of this cliff and out into the Deathlands proper. These, one, provide much-needed light out here and two, a little bit help kind of ward off ghosts. Really determined ones aren’t gonna be stopped by it, but it helps. If nothing else, it kinda makes you feel better to be able to see. So, you start this ride. In the first couple hours of this journey, I want kind of from each of you, what stands out most to you? Like, as you’re riding? This can be just sort of a general feeling, this can be something specific that you see. Just what… what’s sort of sticking out as you’re riding?
Minna: I think at one point, just like far off, almost on the horizon, we see one of those living tree guys moving.
Rhi: Ooh, yeah.
Minna: And it’s just real creepy.
Rhi: Yeah, what are they, uh, poisonwoods. Yeah, I think as you’re riding, Leona will kind of point it out and be like,
Rhi (as Leona): Yeah. Uh, poisonwood. Give ‘em a wide berth. Some of them are okay, but some of them are very violent, and you don’t know which is which until they are on top of you trying to bludgeon you to death with their branch arms.
Minna (as Arlene): That’s good to know. Uh, let’s not— I don’t want to learn the difference.
Rhi (as Leona): Yeah, we can— that one’s pretty far away. So I don’t think we need to worry.
Kim: I think as we’re walking by, there’s that hole in the ground. And Val wouldn’t recognize it immediately, but it’s a spirit well that may or may not have activity going on around it right now.
Rhi: Yeah. I think that like, your lanterns all get a lot brighter as you pass by this sort of deep pit in the ground. And it just feels a lot colder.
Aki: I have raised an umbral big cat for a while. So I think I’m used to the tells of like, one. You know. Like uh, not necessarily stalking us to attack, per se, but like could be stalking us just because they’re like, “What the hell is this?” You know, just that kinda vibe where they just wanna keep an eye on you because you’re in their territory but you’re not really mucking about, you’re just moving on past. So it’s sort of like a, “Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.” Kinda vibe. Pretty sure Darling knows what that feels like, just with Pearl. Pearl is like a teenager, she should be getting territorial by now. And I honestly think her scent would totally alert a lot of, just animal wise. She would be a foreign scent technically, as well, but also— like, foreign-familiar, you know?
Rhi: Yeah. You can just kind of like— you catch the reflective glint in the distance of like, the lantern-light catching off of eyes that are similar to Pearl’s but not quite the same, just watching you all in the distance. Definitely not getting closer, cause they’re solo hunters and you are too big of a group for that. But it’s keeping an eye on you.
Aki: That is probably the most Deathlands knowledge Darling would know. Just like, aha, I’ve raised one.
Rhi: Yeah. [laughs] How about Echo?
Josie: There’s not a ton of stars left in the night sky in this world, is there?
Rhi: There are stars, but they don’t stay in the same place.
Kim: What?!
Rhi: They kinda shift around.
Josie: Yeah.
Minna: [laughs] Every time we bring this up, Kim.
Rhi: [laughs]
Kim: I forget things, I’m sorry. [laughs]
Josie: I think Echo spends a lot of time looking up at the sky, because there’s less light pollution out here.
Rhi: Mm.
Josie: And I think she sees a shooting star.
Rhi: Aww.
Josie: Which goes from one place to another spot in the sky and just stops. It just goes like ‘voop’.
Rhi: Yeah.
Josie: [laughs]
Rhi: [laughs]
Josie: That’s like, uhh… [laughs]
Josie (as Echo): Usually we don’t see them move.
Rhi: Is that a good omen? A bad omen? Or just weird.
Josie: I don’t think she knows, because she hasn’t seen it before. [laughs]
Rhi: Okay. So, just weird for now.
Josie: Uh huh. [laughs]
Rhi: Yeah, the first couple hours are quiet and dark and a little unnerving. It’s just, this is so completely outside of your normal day-to-day experience that you’re all, I think, feeling maybe a little hypervigilant, just sort of like looking around, being very reactive to any noise you do hear. I think at a couple points you maybe kind of get the sense of like, oh, is something following us? You know, and then Darling will, you know, spots an umbra-lion out in the distance and maybe that explains it. And a couple hours in you are coming up towards the top of a, kind of a low hill that seems to have some very ancient ruins scattered on top of it. Like, there’s just the remains of stone foundations. Maybe there was some kind of outpost or watchtower or something out here before the cataclysm. And as you sort of reach these ruins and are kind of guiding your horses around, you hear… at first it, it like, maybe it’s wind, but it’s off. It’s too sort of fast and rhythmic and you don’t feel wind. And Arlene, like, you feel Leona kind of like twist behind you and look up and then she will curse under her breath and is like,
Rhi (as Leona): Lifeseekers!
Rhi: And pulls her rifle off of her shoulder. And you all look up to see a huge flock of crows. Deathseeker crows exist in the cities. They are bred by the Spirit Wardens and they fly out whenever the Death Bell rings to seek the newly dead body so the Spirit Wardens can find it and collect it. Lifeseeker crows are their wild Deathlands cousins. They are not interested in looking for the recently dead. They’re looking for the living so that they can eat your life essence. Deathseeker crows are the size of a regular, real-life crow. Lifeseeker crows, as you’re eyeballing the ones that are swooping towards you, that’s about a ten-foot wingspan.
Kim: [stammers]
Josie: Great.
Rhi: You are starting in a desperate position, simply because of how badly outnumbered you are. There’s about two birds to every one person in your group.
Josie: Oh, fun.
Rhi: So. Whoever would like to start taking actions, go for it.
## Outro [00.51.28]
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, our Twitter @clever_corvids, and our Tumblr at tumblr.com/clevercorvids.
The City That Never Dies is GM’d and edited by Rhi. She loves dice and daydreaming about RPG characters. 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. Minna is a lover of collaborative and audio-based storytelling. You can hear her elsewhere in Demon: Love and Hellfire. You can also find her on Twitter @mynaminnarr, where she is almost certainly talking about fanfiction.
Darling Tsering is played by Aki. Aki is a queer, 1st generation Asian-Canadian game designer, tabletop performer, and all around content creator. Find her on Twitter @akinomii_art for more TTRPG Content.
Echo is played by Josie. Josie is a lesbian and a literal actual dragon. You can hear her GMing another Clever Corvids show, Demon: Love and Hellfire. You can find her on Twitter @dragongirljosie, the Love and Hellfire Twitter @Love_Hellfire, and check out her art at josie-art.com.
Valerie Sullivan is played by Kim. Kim is a bisexual illustrator and performer. Find him on Twitter and Tumblr @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.
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.
## Blooper [00.54.02]
Aki: Okay, we’re riding horses, right?
Kim: Mm hmm.
Aki: Okay, I have a tiger. I don’t think the horses would appreciate that.
Rhi: I was thinking about this, and I have decided that I’m gonna handwave it. [laughs] Because I don’t wanna have you not bring Pearl, and so I have just decided that because Pearl is well-trained and the horses are well-trained, everyone’s gonna get along fine.
Kim: See, because I was—
Rhi: Is this realistic? No. Do I care? Also no. Just here to have fun. [laughs]
Kim: The horses don’t have any prey instinct, therefore the horses in this setting are predators.
Rhi: [laughs]
Aki: Yes! Yes! Yes!
Josie: I mean…
Aki: Because their teeth are sharp. I love sharp horses.
Rhi: I mean, they are able to fight ghosts.
Josie: Remember that one time we did character creation on the character creation cast and I had a carnivorous horse?
Rhi: Yeah.
Josie: I think that is just a thing we can have exist.
Rhi: Yeah, yeah. The horses in this world could have evolved to— they had channeled their anxiety into aggression.
Kim: God, can you imagine?
Josie: [laughs]
Kim: That’s scarier, actually.
Josie: The horses run on spite.