Ep. 1 - Down These Mean Streets: Part 1

In Rz’n, the drifting city, rain blurs the line between truth and falsehood, enemy and reluctant ally, life and death. A corpse and a damsel in distress set a hag, a fixer, a smuggler, a bodyguard and a detective on a collision course.

Content Warnings

• This episode contains dark themes, unsettling sound effects, discussion of murder, graphic depiction of a dead body, descriptions of blood, alcohol, graphic depictions of violence, mild language, crime, knife violence, suffocation, and graphic depiction of injury. 

For full The Drifting City content warnings, please reference the Show Notes & Disclaimers linked at the bottom of the episode description.

The Drifting City is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.

Cast & Credits

• Chrys: Lily Bell
• Morin Wreaver: Aspen Langford
• Orion Amaros: Porter Hurst
• Rook Aarden: Victor Thorne
• Valentine Bellana: Marilyn David
• The Narrator: Ray Hamilton

Class & Subclass

• Chrys: Coven of the Green Witch (find the class at: Worlds Beyond Number Patreon)
• Morin Wreaver: Floater Ranger (Homebrew)
• Orion Amaros: Echo Knight Fighter (find the subclass in Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount)
• Rook Aarden: College of Spirits Bard (find the subclass in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft)
• Valentine Bellana: College of Hard Knocks Bard (Homebrew)

Editing, sound design, episode titles and descriptions by everyone at The Rolling Waves.

Intro & Outro Theme
“The Drifting City (Theme)” 

• Composed by Porter Hurst.
• Performed by Porter Hurst, Victor Thorne, and the friends and family of The Rolling Waves.

S1E1 Music Credits: 

• Longing by Vendla
• Rise in Light by Daniel Fridell
• Marquise by Bladverk Band
• Haunted Mansion by Stationary Sign
• Electric Touch by V.V. Campos
• The Smoke Room by Alexandra Woodward
• Foggy Sunday by Bladverk Band

All courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

S1E1 Sound Effect and Ambience Credits: 

• atmosphere.wav by 13F_Panska_Tlolkova_Matilda -- https://freesound.org/s/378322/ -- License: Creative Commons 0 
• Many drops of water in a big cave (Karstic system Ojo Guareña, Burgos, Spain) by nomadas -- https://freesound.org/s/609161/ -- License: Creative Commons 0 

Remaining courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

Show Notes and Disclaimers (link)

Transcript

 Episode One - Down These Mean Streets: Part One

Narrator: A city full of souls hurtles through the void, swept along but not lost on the astral sea. This place is called Rz'n because in ages past this city picked up and left when all hells broke loose. Its people live by that history, like a motto, a creed that commands them to just keep their heads down and their limbs moving. Get up, go to work, say thank you when the city sucks the soul from your bones. Don't think about your empty stomach. Well, that's how it is for most people. There are others, those who live on high enough decks that they can keep their heads high despite the perpetual drizzle. But on some days, the sprinklers work overtime and the drizzle turns into a downpour. Valentine. You open your eyes to another misty morning in a city that doesn't know your name. Water pours down your window, casting strange shadows across the tiny room you call home. It's irrigation day, a day of flooding and tedium here on the lower decks. What do we see as you get up and get ready for your shift?

Valentine: The room is very sparse. Not a lot of personal items. Just a bed, a wardrobe, a sink. It's kind of one of those very old school like New York, one room studio where it doesn't even really have bathroom. The bathroom is shared with the neighbors. And what you see of Valentine is a young woman in her mid twenties. She has the pointed ears and the white on white eyes that would indicate that she's an astral elf, but she also has a golden halo behind her head that marks her indelibly as aasimar. She has short hair that she's kind of curling as she starts to get ready for the day. Black, she wears red lipstick , and a. White kind of flapper style dress with a long, golden necklace that hangs almost to her kind of mid torso and it's got some kind of golden pendant on it that swings in and out of the folds of her clothing.

Narrator: Does Valentine look in the mirror before she leaves the room?

Valentine: Of course,

Narrator: What does she see?

Valentine: she, when she first looks in the mirror as happens, the first time she looks in every mirror, she sees a dead woman, and then she blinks and focuses and sees a shell, and then she goes to work.

Narrator: Your reflection watches you leave, but it doesn't match your movements. She watches you with a soft, pitiful expression, tears in the corner of her eyes like the ghost is the one morning you. You don't see this though, and you continue through the motions. Paint the picture of the fading light. What does this bar look like?

What does it contain and what does it mean to Valentine?

Valentine: The fading light is a place that was built to be beautiful a long time ago, and it hasn't really managed to hang on to a lot of that beauty. It has these surfaces that used to be gold and now the fake gold is flicking away revealing the brass or wood or steel undertones of everything. It's very smoky and has the smell of, rads, that kind of sharp coppery storm smell mold, the way everything smells down here and smoke. There's a stage and a bar and a couple of small tables, and there's even at this hour, it's the end of the drinkers from the last shift and the beginning of the drinkers for this shift. And to Valentine, this place means. Shelter, not necessarily in a very romanticized way, but almost like a bust shelter or a tall tree in a rainstorm where it's an impersonal sense of gratitude that this was here when you needed it, but it's not somewhere you're gonna be forever.

Narrator: And is this one of the shifts where Valentine's going to be performing?

Valentine: Yeah. Yeah.

Narrator: As you come down, you see, Yryst’nyke coming down off the stage. She immediately reaches out and, almost immediately, one of the longtime patrons just holds up what's left of his stein of rads, and she takes it, she holds out another one. Another guy offers her her long cigarette holder with a wis weed cigarette already lit and ready to go, as she holds it up to her mandibles and takes a long blow. As she begins to walk off the stage and as she comes closer to you, she says it's a little of crowd out there tonight. Uh, they, uh, they aren't tipping like they should.

Valentine: Are they ever.

Narrator: Well, I'm gonna go get some, you, uh, you, you ready to start or do, uh, Della. And you see, Della, the young astral elf, waitress that sort of helps out around here immediately go like, oh, uh, yes, of course. And, immediately pours, a, a little bit more tasteful glass of rads and pass it in your direction, to see if you want any before you start your performance. 

Valentine: She'll down half of it and slide it back. You need this as much as I do

Narrator: Yeah. Thank you. Uh, and Della takes it and takes a sip of it and has a look on her face. Like, this is way stronger than what I normally have. And then just sets it behind the bar. She's like, I, I'll work on it. And yeah, you're able to take the stage. What sort of performance does Valentine want to give this shift?

Valentine: I think tonight she will play, I'm so sorry, I forgot the name of this instrument.

Narrator: A theremin. Your, your critical theremin and proficiency.

Valentine: Right. Like put it in their custom theremin proficiency. Um, could I make an insight check of the crowd to see what they need.

Narrator: Yeah, go ahead and do that.

Valentine: A nine?

Narrator: A nine. Like you said, your first set of the shift, you're probably gonna be performing for a around an hour, then you'll have some time for a break and then you'll go up again, that sort of thing. As this crowd transitions, it's hard to tell what group's gonna be filtering in today. What you can see is that there are, as always, a lot of people who look grimy and dirty. Seems like you have mostly an engineer type crowd in here today. Though you do get some refinery folks from time to time and, everybody just looks tired.

Valentine: Okay. Then I think I'll play them something that sounds like. A happy childhood, like the end of a long summer day spent playing. Not that Valentine or any of these people really has much experience of that, but she'll conjure a feeling of happiness and exhaustion and play something like that.

Narrator: Go ahead and roll for me.

Valentine: Do, do, do. Please.

Narrator: Oh no.

Valentine: That's a natural one.

Narrator: A natural one.

Valentine: This guy's going away.

Narrator: Yeah. Put it in, put it in jail. How does this go wrong?

Valentine: I think that she is thinking about childhood and playing and, and playing the instrument, not thinking about playing, but I think that somewhere in between her thoughts and her hands, the idea curdles 

into something that is laden with dread and is very like ominous. Halloween haunted house music on a.

Narrator: it's not so much a nat one because you failed to play, but it's a nat one because you did not play the right thing for this moment. And you see people, as your set starts coming towards its close. Della starts walking around with the, with a small stash box to collect chips.

That'll be your tips and, uh, it's sparse. You see some regulars always throw in a day chip or something in there after every performance that gets thrown in. But, there's also some people that are like, is this chick gonna play all night? Or you, as it gets passed around and eventually Della sets it on the edge of the stage, looking a bit apologetic up at you as you wrap up the final notes of that performance and as you step down to sort of get the lay of the land of how your performance went.

Go ahead and roll another insight check for me.

Valentine: Sure. I'm gonna use a different dye this

Narrator: Yeah, please do.

Orion: Fully supported.

Valentine: Uh, it wasn't the die, apparently it's me. 

Narrator: Oh 

Valentine: another natural one.

Orion: Oh my goodness.

Chrys: No way.

Narrator: yeah, I'm going to say with that natural one that leads you to notice something in particular. And as you come down off the stage, you have the prime vantage point to see people come in and out of this establishment, folks of all kinds coming in and out of the fading light. And as you begin to step off the stage, your reflection walks into the fading light. But this time she's wearing another woman's face, all tragic beauty and eyes as wide and empty as a beggar's mouth. She looks up at you like a savior and you know, immediately in the deepest cavern within your heart that you hate this woman. But you have to save her

Ay Orion, perk up, pal! Turney, slaps his hand on your back as he passes by your desk. You glance up at the clock and see that you've spent the last half hour staring into space. The inventory in front of you is still as unfinished as it was when it was first assigned to you this morning. Turney must have noticed you zoning off. He has this way of honing in during the exact moment when he would be least welcome, like a tax collector or an annoyingly catchy jingle on the wires. How do you respond?

Orion: Well, hey, um, sorry. Um, it is so monotonous, you know?

Narrator: Uh, I mean, uh, you, you'd think that you'd be able to do an inventory on time. I mean, hey, you used to do a lot more, right? 

So, you know, you gotta, you gotta hasten that up there, fella.

Orion: Yeah. You'd, you'd think, Hmm.

Um, 

Narrator: got this. You're, you're more than capable

Orion: thanks. Um, well, I, I suppose I should get to it, you know, look at me doing my inventory. So good.

Narrator: in that moment. A. Loud thud sounds next to you as a Sun Lasher, a Sun Lasher proper. A short dwarven man by the name of Quentin, decides to drop his canisters of unrefined Rads down right next to your desk. He looks At you and goes, Hey, Ryan. Eh, what, what are you up to?

Orion: Not that much, you know, just same old, same old, floating around. Those are some good canisters that you've got. There sound. They sound heavy.

Narrator: hey, we miss you out there. You know, uh, I don't, I think you're sort of wasted down here with Tan and all them. And Tony looks at him and he goes, uh, we don't need any of that. You know, he is doing important work here.

Orion: Yeah, he says it's important work. Uh, we love you. Um, anyways, so, um, hey, sounds like it was a, sounds like it was a good haul. You doing okay? You know, any banged up? Should I, should I, uh, ring any medics? You doing okay?

Narrator: Oh, no, we're, we're all right. No. Uh, you know, me and the squad, we had a little bit of a, of a run in with, with a little bit of stray blue out there. But I think that, you know, uh, Mary's about all thought out. And, uh, we we're, we're gonna be all right, you know. But, uh, 

Orion: Yeah. Good to know. Good to know. I'll, uh, make sure that I follow up on her, but hey, you, you keep these, uh, canisters here, you know, go, go take 10. I don't know. Um, I'll, I'll get him off his, off your ass. Um, but yeah, go take 10, um, and then, you know, rest, rest up. Grab a bite to eat. Honestly, I think if there's any, um, leftovers just like sitting out in the, in the bay, then, you know, like, you know, far be it from me.

Don't tell them, don't, don't tell them that I told you that it was there. Uh, it's technically not supposed to be for the last years, but who cares? Um, yeah. So lots of blue out there you said today.

Narrator: Yeah, for sure. Um, you know, appreciate you looking out, if you're thinking about doing some favors for some of your friends that are still out there, you know, busting their butts, actually doing the dangerous work in this place. Uh, it might be nice if you could requisition, you know, a few extra perks. So we heard that some of the, the folks in escort would be able to, to do those sorts of things, you know, so, um, we, we heard some stuff about, you know, some rads after they, you know, get processed or, or some, some rads before sometimes fall off of the inventory list and.

Orion: Did you Now that is something that I can definitely look into. 

Um. 

Narrator: Thanks, man. You know, it's the least you can do, really. All, all things considered. But anyway, I'm gonna go back to my squad. You stay here with your desk and, uh, wish you all the best. Uh, and Quentin walks off and, attorney who was excluded from this conversation, but was very much present, goes . Well, Ryan, you know, I, I hope you know that we here in, in escort and inventory, we, we, we are our own kind of family and, and we really appreciate all the work you've been doing, um, or the work that we know you could be doing, uh, you know, if, if, if you, if you did it. And so we, you know what, uh, if you finish up that report, there is a, uh, detail taking, uh, a, a shipment down, uh, this afternoon. Uh, if, if you want to, you know, partake, uh, I, I know you like to get outta the office and, uh, I think, I think it might be good for you to get, get some, uh, well, I hazard to say it's not very fresh, but to get some air that's not, not here.

Orion: Well, hey, couldn't have said it better myself. Um, yeah, so you know what? That's exactly the motivation I needed. Thank you,

Narrator: All right. 

Orion: And I think Orion is going to take the canisters and kind of just go over the, you know, the protocol of charting them and making sure that all the. Everything's up to standard before they ship it off to refinery.

Narrator: All right. Good work there, bud. Uh, and, and don't forget, I think it's at the bottom of that inventory report, but there's a survey that management, you know, passed down would really help me or supervisor out if you could complete that. Uh, it's just, you know, it's good to be that quarter where we need to be, be doing some of that, uh, you know, uh, personnel management.

And it would be, it would really do me a favor if you could, you know, fill that out for us. All right.

Orion: Yeah, sure. Whatever man. I, uh, okay. Yeah. Where was it again, you said, and it was on the bottom.

Narrator: Oh, it's right after Form 14 D four. Uh, it's, it's specifically if you look in the employee handbook, it talks about the surveys, which is form GH five.

And 

so 

Orion: one of those.

Narrator: yeah, it, but it's attached to the back of that inventory report. So if you just get that in, you know, you can turn in your, your, you know, turn that in with that as well, and it'll, it'll be good.

Orion: All righty. Well, I, you know, swing around in an hour. I don't know. You'll, I'll probably, it'll be done. Probably most likely it'll be done.

Narrator: It will be definitely. Thank you, Orion. And, uh, yeah, if it gets in on time, you know, uh, it's gotta be done by, you know, uh, second and third tick, you know, it just, uh, yeah, if you wanna go on that run, so,

Orion: Sure can do.

Narrator: all right. Know that I'm looking out for you friend when you're filling out that survey. All right.

Orion: Alright. You take care now.

Narrator: Another hard clap on the back. How is Orion feeling as he looks down at this, inventory report?

Orion: He has never been so incredibly bored in his life and it's, you know, it's not something that he can really bypass at this point. I mean, his sun lashing days are probably mostly behind him at this point. But , to watch people go out there, to watch people bring back canisters of the stuff and just prattle on and on about useless things like inventory and who's, you know, who done what and who has the latest gossip on whoever else. It's just so mundane and it's just drl and he. Knows that in order to , keep his job, he has to keep up appearances, however basic. But he's really itching for some action at this point. And how do you pronounce his manager's name?

Narrator: Turn.

Orion: Attorney Turn is just presented him with something that just might perk up the rest of his working shift.

Narrator: So go ahead and roll a history check for me as you're completing this inventory history or investigation.

Orion: Ooh. Oh good. They're equally terrible.

Narrator: Yeah.

Orion: Okay. 

Chrys: We don't want another, not one please.

Orion: 14. 

Narrator: 14. Okay. That's definitely enough. This is a fairly simple inventory. You know because of, budget cutbacks that a lot of the escort does, a lot of the admin for the actual, shipments nowadays. Which is maybe why some things get left off from time to time, but as you complete, you get it in plenty of time to be able to go and, make that escort run. So I gotta ask you or Ryan, do you fill out that survey?

Orion: You know what? Yeah, let's say he does.

Narrator: Uh, does your supervisor get a positive review?

Orion: Um, is it like a LT scale, you know, like world one to seven, one to 10 kind of rating? Or is it like open-ended questions? Like common? Anything we could do better?

Narrator: It's one to five in three categories. The first one being communication, the second one being team morale, and then the third one being guidance and mentorship. And then there's a place for comments.

Orion: Okay. I think what Orion might do is that he actually fills out the survey like fairly decently, like threes and fours, but he just so happens to accidentally knock a little bit coffee onto the page so that it's like, is that a stain or is that a s, you know, is that a smudge? Is that a stain? I can't quite make out what number that is, but it's not a five and it's not a one.

So make of that what you will and in the comments it, I think he would just, he wouldn't put anything specific. Just be like, Hey, you know, he manages and then he just takes this kind of coffee smudged paper and puts it, I'm assuming there's like a little rack or a box where all the rest of them go.

Narrator: Yeah, there's sort of a, a male style shoot into a locked box where all of these anonymous surveys are meant to go

Orion: It's so funny 'cause I feel like. With the amount of coffee that's on the page, it actually might soak a couple more sheets while it's in there.

Narrator: corporate espionage via survey. All right, you, you slide that survey into its, receptacle and you drop off your inventory in the mail slot for the administrator. It's meant to go to for final audit and review. And then you're able to move off towards the warehouse and loading bay, getting ready to head out on that escort.

And as you do, you pass by a, you have to walk down a long hallway that has portholes 'cause you're right here on the edge of the ship and you look out into the void. You see the tail ends of the colors of the storm. It was a twister today, mostly, uh, blues and greens, but it's not for you anymore.

You walk on, but the void, the astral sea, it means a lot of things for a lot of people. What does the void mean for Morin?

Morin: For Morin, more than anything, the void means freedom. And part of that is just in the feeling of stepping out of the bounds of the city into a space without gravity, without pull, without anything to kind of bring you back down to the ground. There's a sense out there that truly, even when you are out on a job, when you have a responsibility, that is the lack of responsibility in its truest form. It is a joy, it is a wonder to be out there, in a way that being back in the city is not.

Narrator: The void is freedom and the void is catastrophe. The void giveth and the void it away, and on some days the difference is hard to decipher. This is one of those days, Lauren, you are currently at half your hit points. Small spherical drops of blood spin in a whirl. As your body somersaults away from Rz'n's hull, who do we see and what do we see as you hurdle towards oblivion?

Morin: Oh my goodness, 

Narrator: go ahead and make a ranged attack roll for me.

Morin: Ooh,

Narrator: Or whatever your Yeah. Your grappling hook attack rule is

Morin: that's gonna be a Nat 20 for a total of 24.

Orion: Nice 

24.

Valentine: my gosh. 

Narrator: Um, throw out your grappling hook and, , the younger astral elf Ennix, grabs hold of it. And in a practiced maneuver that makes you like your, your chest gets warm with pride, he grabs it and immediately hooks the grappling hook through a special belt loop on the edge of his pants, that sort of specifically designed for this purpose and latches it into place. But with your momentum that causes you, while you're no longer going out, away from the ship, you are now in a wide sweeping circle as it yanks your momentum and spins you and someone is chasing you through this darkness. Someone you vaguely recognize a floater is coming towards you with only barely more controlled flight. With the current speed you are both moving. This floater will collide with you next round. And you're both about 60 feet away from the access hatch that Ennix is currently posted by. But you're , very grateful that you've managed to cause your momentum to pivot back around the back of the city, towards the wake the chains rattle Soundlessly in front of you. What do you do?

Morin: I am going to yell out, "Ennix, pull me in!" and I'm going to try to push and swim towards the chains closest to me to grab and try to change my momentum to get myself closer to him as fast as I can.

Narrator: Okay. Go ahead and roll an acrobatics check for me. We'll call that your action this round.

Morin: That's a 14.

Narrator: Okay, I, I'll say with that, because the chains of the wake are very thick, you are able to grab one easily and thank goodness you left the city right after a storm. So there's currently, no debris or, other ous in the wake. As you grab immediately onto this chain and with your momentum halted, it's now enough that Ennix can start reeling you in.

Thankfully you're weightless here. But immediately after that round ends , the floater managed to control her momentum as well and slams into you. And she's going to make an attack roll. Let me roll that. That is a 22 to hit.

Morin: Yeah. That hits.

Narrator: Alright, that is six piercing damage as she rams a dagger up under your ribs and towards your heart. And it is only the shortness of the blade that keeps it from stabbing you through. It is your turn.

Morin: Whew. Okay. I'm down to 10 hit points, I think as she has rammed into me and has just put the knife up into my ribs. Um, I'm gonna place my hand on the side of her skull and cast. Shocking grasp.

Narrator: Nice. I think that's a melee spell attack. Right.

Morin: Yeah, that'll be, I think it's just 1D eight. Lightning damage. No attack. Roll.

Narrator: Is there a 

Morin: No on a hit. You're right, you're right. Let me roll an attack roll. I'm getting excited. I,

Valentine: That would be the best. Cant

trip ever. Just damage. No attack. Roll. Sorry.

Morin: well, fortunately for us, I'm great at attacking. Apparently that is a 21 

Narrator: Yeah. More in doing what she was designed to do. That does hit roll your damage.

Orion: I cast instant pain and suffering.

Morin: That's a four. So she'll take four. Lightning damage 

Narrator: Nice. 

Morin: the skull.

Orion: Ooh.

Narrator: Uh, you've actually been, been fighting with this person for a little bit at this point, so, she's taken up some dings as well, as she stabs into you., But it is now her turn again. We'll say that you have been like your full 30, feet of movement. Is that your movement? Speed 30 feet.

Morin: 35.

Narrator: 35. We'll say that. Because you're getting assisted by nx, you were able to move that full amount with this person grappled onto you. But it is now the floaters turn again and she is going to pull her dagger out and attempt to stab it into you again. And that is a seven to hit.

Morin: That does not hit

Narrator: You're able to get up your forearm and force it away and it slides, mostly harmlessly across where your neck meets shoulder thinly slicing the skin, but not enough to cause an actual point of damage as you deflect it from going up into your neck. And it is your turn again,

Morin: Do I Know What Race is? The floater that's attacking me 

Narrator: dwarven. 

Morin: and she's still right next to me in Melee Range.

Narrator: Uh, basically she latched onto you like, hold on tight Spider Monkey from twilight, um, and is now stabbing into you with a dagger repeatedly.

Morin: With the hand that I had to shock her on the skull. I'm gonna try to pry open her mouth at the same time that I punch her in the ribs to try to get the air out of her lungs out in the void.

Narrator: I will say that will be an unarmed attack roll. We'll, we'll, we'll just call it one unarmed attack altogether.

Morin: Okay. I need this look to keep going. not even joking. That's another Nat 20.

Orion: Oh my gosh.

Morin: I would say I wish I was kidding, but I don't, 

I'm I'm overjoyed.

Orion: somewhere.

Narrator: Oh, man.

Chrys: The Valentine Morin juxtaposition continues.

Narrator: Okay. In this moment, you stab straight or you punch straight into her gut. And the floater instinctively goes to grab and goes. And in that moment your eyes meet. And with that gasp, you see all hope. Leave her eyes. And in that moment you have time to take in her features. You look at your kin. She is awar woman . Honestly, she might've grown up a few blocks over. You struggle to remember her name, but you knew her. It's funny how certain things stick with you rather than a name. You might remember what someone was drinking when you spoke with them at a bar. You might remember their particularly boisterous laugh, but not their name. It's the little things that make someone a flesh and blood person rather than a concept any name can capture. What is it that you remember about this woman as the light fades from her eyes?

Morin: As this woman is beginning to die, I'm remembering the soft reach of a hand within the first year that Morin remembers being free. Maybe seven years ago on one of her first jobs, a soft hand reaching up from an alley with a cup, a couple coins in it, jingling, and she remembers passing her by and then telling Gwen V about her later and then nothing else.

Narrator: And she dies in your arms. holding onto a corpse as an ex is starting to finish, reeling you in. Do you let her go?

Morin: Yes, it would be dishonorable to do anything else. Um, still bleeding out from the abdomen, but it's not quite as important at this as this moment right here. I cross her arms over each other, press my forehead down to hers, whisper no law but the void. No honor but the creed, and gently push her off into the great unknown.

Narrator: And you watch the woman float away giving her a proper chainless burial. As you watch, you become increasingly aware of the bloody cloud forming around You need to get inside to the place where the ground holds you tighter than any lover you've ever known. And the city full of people that are nothing but their names.

Another corpse lays on a floor in a twisted heap. Her eyes stare up at an apathetic ceiling fan. The slight breeze it offers causing the woman's hair, the parts of it that aren't stuck to the floor in drying blood to shift slightly. The way it blows at the edges of the ascot she wore around her neck would almost fool you into thinking she's breathing. If it wasn't for the fact that she doesn't really have much of a neck anymore, her throat has been ripped out, revealing the shiny white bones that once protected her windpipe all the way down to her clavicles, which were gently draped with the frayed edges of her skin, as if coy about their exposure. The clerk gags slightly behind you, more of a collection of stiff clicks and shuffles on their feet. I found her this morning, sir, I am, I I'm supposed to bring her breakfast when she's been here all night. The light was on when I got here and I, I left and I came back with the reserves. And when I came in, she was, uh, look, how do you respond?

Rook: Take a breath. Calm down. I need you to be a little more calm about this. I know it's difficult, but walk me through the situation one more time. Try to slow your pace.

Narrator: Yes. And you see the, if Kai take one of his arms and scratch behind one of his antenna a and take a deep breath. Um, uh, Ms. Print. Um, the Phyllis, she,

Rook: Okay.

Narrator: uh, she's my, my boss, I guess. I, uh, I'm her, I'm her assistant. Her clerk, uh, she she oversees distribution here, um, at the, at, at the reserve.

And, um, uh, she, she sometimes works late into the night, uh, especially when, uh, you know, we're short on sprinklers. And so she, uh, she told me that if, if I see her light on to, to, go get her breakfast before she leaves for the day. And so I, I, I saw her light on when I got here and I left, uh, about, um, another, another, uh, 20 minutes maybe.

Uh, I went and I, I got her, uh, you know, some of the real food reserves that we have, uh, and, and made, um, anyway, it doesn't, but yeah. And then I came in and she, um, yeah, she was laying there like that.

Rook: So the last time you saw her was earlier this morning or

Narrator: Yesterday. Uh, I, I, I work, uh, straight through first and second shift. Um, I have third shift off, but, uh, she, she typically comes in for, you know, end of first and second shift, but sometimes she stays over third shift. So I, I imagine she worked

Rook: Okay. And just humor me here. Not exactly saying it's a significant contributor. Um, but what did you get her for breakfast?

Narrator: Oh, um, well, we got a shipment of, um, don't, don't tell anyone, uh, but, but we have actual eggs here from like the, the the chickens up top. Uh, and so I went and I, I got a few and, um, uh, I just mixed with a little bit of, of, uh, water. But, uh, I also, I got some salt from down at the market and so, uh, I, I made some, uh, egg scramble with some, I just watered down a little with water, but, uh, but salt and, uh, I, I dunno, I was proud of it.

Rook: Yeah, it's a high roller item. I, I would honestly be quite happy to get a meal like that, but Okay. So thank you. I appreciate the, uh, testimony here. I think I'm gonna get to work so you can relieve yourself. Try to walk off the shock,

Narrator: Oh, okay. Um, 

Rook: take deep breaths. It's quite jarring. I'm sure.

Narrator: uh, yes, yes. I, I should go oversee the floor. But, um, uh, let me, let me know if, uh, you need anything else. Um, uh, uh, we, we know about your fee and, uh, yes, our employer just wants things handled quietly, if possible. It's not good when someone at the Reserves is. Um, uh, I'm gonna go get some air.

Rook: Do that.

Did I, I get any feeling on them besides just abject shock and horror.

Narrator: Do an insight check for me.

Rook: Okay. That I can do.

Narrator: That's what this, this, this check was built for.

Rook: Okay. Insight That is gonna be a 16.

Narrator: 16. This guy an intern. just wants to do a good job. So maybe he can start actually being paid for all of the work that he does. And the boss that was seeing most of the work that he was doing has just, ostensibly been murdered. And so he is distressed, but it is not necessarily a personal distress for this woman, but rather a distress of, oh no, I'm starting for from square one., And so , it is not, I hated this person, but his distress is not necessarily, I loved this person either.

Rook: Yeah. Okay, so I'm just gonna take my time and examine the body and examine kind of the scene, see if I can get any traces of what could have happened.

Narrator: Yeah, for sure. Do an investigation check.

Rook: Great Investigation. That is going to be a dirty 20

Narrator: Nice. What is Brooke's process? What does it look like? What, what do we see as he starts inspecting the scene?

Rook: I think. I think what's gonna happen is first he just kinda looks at the body, kind of half, half treated and you know, covered up for palatability. And he would kind of, his eyes almost starting to like wander, not out of boredom, but out of intrigue for what else could be here besides just the traces on the body themself because she is messed up and that it's a little too brutal to get a decent clue from. So I think it would start from the body and go to the surrounding floor to the table. How does it look like she was killed?

Narrator: Okay.

Rook: Kind of trying to piece the scene together.

Narrator: Yeah, for sure. And I'll go in the order that you described how R'S process would be. So inspecting her body first, her throat has been ripped out., At first glance, you can't tell immediately how, but you know that it was not, it was probably not done with a bladed weapon. It, the skin is not cut, it is torn., So it was like viscerally ripped rather than sliced in any way. And as you pat down her body a little bit, of course being respectful, but looking for clues. She's wearing a pencil skirt and a blue button-up shirt, colorful ascot, working woman's clothes., One of her heels is still on one of her feet while the other is slightly away, like it came off when she fell. And as you go down, you look to see if maybe there's any evidence that she was wearing expensive jewelry that's not here anymore, but it seems like she still has, a watch on and rings. But as you look at her right wrist, you see a tattoo of a ship's wheel on the inside of her right wrist marking her as a member of the cult of the crew. There was basically in this office, a desk whose back. Has a window behind it that sort of looks out over the floor where various, sprinklers and other low level casters work for the reserves creating, provisions. And, there's a large desk in front of it and there were two chairs that were perched in front of the desk that have fallen to the side, been knocked over, she's splayed out like she was facing the door in and fell backwards towards the desk, but did not quite make it to the desk near,, her body. You see that there is broken glass and a stopper like for an ink bottle, but the desk itself does not seem otherwise disturbed at all., And as you look, there's no like ink stain or anything under the broken glass in the stopper., But that's the closest thing that you could think,, to what that might be. And as you look further on her desk, there's reports, there's progress reports on employees, people who seem like they've been really able to move up, they are able to produce a higher quota every day, things like that. Just general management type stuff for the reserve and nothing too crazy. You look through the drawers, you don't find any hidden compartments. There's bland corporate artwork on the wall that when you look behind it, it's dusty. Like it's been there since long before this woman had this office., Oh, and I probably forgot to mention, but, she's human is her species. And so that's the most notable thing. So I think with a 20, you can feel confident. You found, quite a bit here.

Rook: Okay. And you said it looked like she was going to, she was facing a door and then like. Was like pushed back and that's the right direction that she was splayed out in trying to get back to the desk. Right.

Narrator: Yeah, it looks like she was, the momentum was towards the desk when she fell,

Rook: okay.

Narrator: but she is on her back and the broken glass is towards where her right hand is splayed.

Rook: Okay. Is there anything in this room that, like the broken glass, did that come from that, like ink bottle with the stopper that you were talking about? Or is it broken glass from a different source Entirely.

Narrator: The broken glass is from some sort of container that the closest approximation that you could imagine might be in this room is an ink bottle, but there's no stain on the carpet, from anything other than blood.

Rook: Okay, I'm going to, the wounds are not very conclusive, the glass is a little confusing, but I'm gonna search around and see if there's been any signs of anything in the room being tampered with. Like either anything being stolen or anything being left out of place. You know, was that breakfast that was, you know, supposed to be there? Is anything gone from that or, well, that was supposed, nevermind.

Scratch that, that was supposed to be delivered and that's when it was seen.

Narrator: Mm-hmm. In fact, by the door you can see a tray where the, the breakfast on was on, it was dropped, and there's sort of egg across the, the carpet by the door.

Rook: that is a terrible waste. Okay. Well, uh, being said and he kind of just like slowly saunters over to the desk and sees if anything seems to have been taken from the room as well, or if it was just someone came in here to kill this person.

Narrator: Yeah, for sure. I'll say, go ahead and roll another investigation check, or you can roll a history check.

Rook: That'll be investigation easily do. Not as good. That's a 15.

Narrator: Okay with a 15. I'll say the most notable thing about the desk is that it has a bunch of employee progress reports and other records on it. And as you're looking through, it seems like pretty accurate to what the clerk told you. She was looking at third shift employee records. And you can see that there's some handwriting cramped in the margins on different reports. Personal comments like exceeding expectations, falling behind too many sick days, just little notes like that. Nothing that actually stands out as nobody has been noted as to be terminated or anything like that. The only thing that maybe is of note with a 15 is that there is a mark of an employee that was recently promoted, and that employee's name is, uh ter.

Rook: Okay. Recently promoted. Does it say what pro, what position? They were promoted to?

Narrator: It says that they originally was a, were a floor worker. They were a sprinkler, but they were a sprinkler third class. They actually created provisions , and they were promoted to,, senior management above Phyllis Brent,

Rook: Okay. Phyllis Print being,

Narrator: the dead woman.

Rook: yes, the victim. Okay. And with the blood, I'd imagine it is a particularly brutal method of death. It's also a very difficult method to conceal. Is there any sort of trail or any even remote like dotting of blood, anywhere else leading in a certain direction, leading back out of the room, leading to anything within the room?

Narrator: No, not at all. In fact, other than the arterial spray, over the carpet, up one of the chairs and onto one of the filing cabinets in the long lying of cabinets on either side of the room, there is remarkably not any blood trailed out of the room at all. Like other than the blood under her and sprayed from the wound, it seems like all blood is concealed right here to her person.

Rook: Couple last little, little tidbits. How do her own hands look?

Narrator: In what way? What, what's 

Rook: said there was, there was broken glass by her right hand and then on the floor and nearby that there was just the stopper bottle on a ball that looked like it should have ink, but there's no ink staining anything.

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Rook: Okay.

Well I suppo. 

Narrator: look 

Rook: Interesting. So it's just horrible mangling of this woman's neck and no trail of anything like that. No tracks. Just isolated tearing of the throat 

vanished. 

Narrator: Do an arcana check for me

Rook: I'll do that. Oh, that's good. Okay. Arana, that's gonna be in 19.

Narrator: with a 19. You see that the pool of blood down around her body,, flows pretty naturally. Like one, would imagine you've unfortunately seen one too many bodies in their pools of their own blood. And looks perfect, except there is one side of this pool of blood that's just a little too straight. And as you stand, you're familiar with lots of the different kinds of magic that people have. It's not a terribly common skill, but it's more common amongst people who work in the reserves than others. And if you were standing in front of this woman's dead body to cast a simple, pressed a digitization, five foot cube around yourself to clean, you'd cut a perfect line, right where the edge of that pool of blood is.

Rook: Okay. I am gonna stand up a bit after I've been crouching and back. Makes like an audible crick and Rook is just gonna take out this pipe of his, as he just takes off his hat, sweeps his hair back again, just to keep it nice and neat and takes this pipe emblazoned with a metal skull and a set of chains that wrap up the length of it with a strange mixture of herbs in it. And he just uses his left thumb being this fire genasi that he is with this ash gray skin remembers cracked up along his face, a contorted scar going up his right side. And he just uses his thumb like a lighter and just takes a long drag. And as he exhales the smoke, I am going to use a tails from the beyond with my bardic inspiration.

So I'm going to roll to see what that gets me.

Narrator: Nice.

Rook: B it was the one that I wanted. Okay, so as he's blowing this smoke out, it starts to swirl and materialize a little bit. It almost looks like it materializes on the ground in the shape of a fox just silently staring at this scene. And then it to a different part of the room, perched on a filing desk and looks like an owl. And then it trails back around Rook and it just dissipates into the air around him, because I got tail of the clever animal, which I will keep in my back pocket for a little bit as, what did you say the name of that employee that got promoted was? That's area. I'm gonna go try and find her.

Narrator: All right. Are you going to look at the record again or are you going to ask the clerk about her or something 

Rook: is the co did the clerk leave or has the clerk been like just outside the room.

Narrator: He said that he needed to go check on the floor, and as you look through the window, you can see him walking up and down the rows of people, casting there, create food and water for the day. And so he's easily accessible, but he's not right outside the room.

Rook: Okay. I'm just gonna do kind of a final, like a a, a precautionary final because if someone can cast something like press the digitation. I'm not entirely trusting the fact that someone isn't just sitting invisibly in that room. Been around the block a few times, so I'm just gonna do a sweep and see if I can get anything

Narrator: Yeah, for sure. Do a perception check.

Rook: do that. Okay. Okay. I'll take it. That is a 13 plus four for a seven 17, sorry.

Narrator: I was like seven, um, for

17.

don't notice anyone invisible.

Rook: Great. Well that's the best I got for right now. I'm gonna go up to the clerk and try to, you know, tail them down.

Narrator: All right. It's easy enough. You're, you're a very noticeable fella. , I'll say like, as you step into the, , arcane version of fluorescent lights in this, production warehouse,, we can see Rook more clearly than when he was in this shadowy office, what is the figure that, that steps onto the floor and immediately catches so many eyes.

Rook: Yeah, stepping onto the floor. Quite honestly, it, the best way I could describe the, some of the only parts of him that are visible through his kind of heavy leather waist length coat, his wide brim hat on his head. He's got his hands, which even have kind of a set of gloves on them, not full gloves, so that his fingertips can still be exposed, um, or any sense of feeling. But his kind, his fingers have this ash gray and a charred appearance with like the, the lines at the joint of the fingers, almost having like an ember underglow to them. He looks like a man made out of burnt charcoal, like, like a corpse that someone tried to light on a funeral pyre that decided halfway through it wanted to go on a walk. He's kind of got this scar going up the right side of his face that kind of just turns into these mangled cracks. His face kinda looks withered and wilted and gaunt, and he's got kind of like that same ember under glow and cracks that are around his eyes too, which makes it all the more ODing, considering the shade that his hat casts over his face.

The only thing that most people can see is the under glow glow from this scar and the red glow around his eyes

Narrator: Nice.

Rook: he kinda walks onto the floor with just his hands and his pockets and just starts looking around. Still piping hand.

Narrator: I'll say pretty much immediately the clerk, , who had introduced himself as, , bin Kai. , Whether you remember his name or not, , immediately rushes over to you. You, , are, are a very noticeable presence, when you want to be. And he rushes over. He straightens his little vest that he's wearing and says, alright.

Well, um, did, did you get what you need? Can I, um, can I, can I call her her crew mates for, for her burial or, or what can I do?

Rook: Um. I imagine you're aware of what needs to happen for the burial. Just be sure that it's a standard. Use burial. I'm sure you're familiar. Um,

Narrator: Yes, she, um, she has a deal with the estates up top. Uh, she'll be, uh, buried on the plantation there. Yeah.

Rook: Oh, fancy. Okay. That being said, I'm so sorry. What was the name of the, of the, of the, um, of

Narrator: Of, of the, of the intern, basically.

Rook: gone. No, not, not of the

intern of the Promoe.

Narrator: Oh, Ataria.

Rook: Atter. I was like, I know I'm missing a consonant.

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Rook: Atter. He just kinda leans in and kinda whispers a bit. Do you know of worker named Atter area?

Narrator: Oh. Uh, yes. Um, uh, she was promoted, um, uh, last week maybe. I think. Um. Not too long ago, maybe, uh, maybe four days. It's, it's not been long at all. Um, I remember because, uh, uh, she was doing good work here. Um, we were very pleased with it, but I, I, I, was surprised that she, she moved up so fast, but I mean, good for her.

Uh, 

yeah. 

Rook: yeah.

Where might I be able to find her?

Narrator: Oh, um, gosh, normally she's on, uh, third shift, but, uh, I guess she went home a little early 'cause I had everyone stay. Uh, she, she has an apartment, uh, not too far from here. Uh, her address is in her, uh, rec, rec record. Um,

Rook: Fantastic. Okay.

Narrator: uh, I can go get it if, uh, if you need.

Rook: No, no. I'll refresh my memory. There were some papers on the desk. I held myself to some intel. 

All that being said, no, just do you want the salt or not?

Narrator: uh, the, yeah, I can do, do, do what you need to do, Mr. Rook. I, I, I, I, I, I, don't, I don't have any sort of authority here. I can't tell you what to do and not, and, uh, and just, you know, uh

mm. 

Rook: that is quite okay. So what I'm going to ask you to do is just deal with the burial proceedings, deal with cleaning up the room. I'm sure someone's just itching to get into that nice, shiny new office. So I'm going to get an address and I'm going to go on a bit of a walk. For the time being. I've gotten what I need from the body and from the crime scene.

Narrator: Okay.

Rook: I appreciate your help, be it. My face does not exactly express the level of gratitude that I have. I am grateful for the information you provided me. Thank you. I will be on

my way so that you can hopefully take a few more deep breaths.

Narrator: yes, of course Ms. Okay.

Um, 

Rook: I'll be back when I get something else.

Narrator: okay. And with that you go, you double check the address on the record and you're all set to go. Is there anything else that you do before you leave?

Rook: Yeah, just kinda looks over at the body and just kinda just shut my eyes. Take a drag, blow it up into the still air of the cover, up, the smell of some of the iron on the floor. And just say, I'm sorry, walk out of the room. Close the door gently behind me.

Narrator: And you walk out into the dim lower deck light. The water from above is pouring down, flooding this part of the city. As you wade through water up to your ankles, you pass by a sewer drain down into the hold, and we follow the water down dripping through these pipes into a muggy bog that makes up the area between engines and boiler rooms.

And down deep below in the open, cavernous space is the hold. This place is humid and wet a. Festering pot of mold and fungus clawing their way towards the light. This is a place of sweat and filth, the boilers and the engines that they feed. This is also the place where a young boy about 10 years old, peaks around a stack of a decaying boxes to see a hunched figure picking some mushrooms that grow in the corners where wall meets floor, the boy squeaks as the figure looks up in his direction. Chris, what does the boy see when you look up at him?

Chrys: Hmm. The first thing the boy would probably notice because it's, it's probably oddly enough, the most striking thing about him, the two owlish large, wide eyes with. That, that seemed to almost glow dimly in the dark of the deep place. And the eyes are , a very strikingly light gray., The face is gaunt and in a way that's not just like from a hungry person.

This face,

this face is falling apart a little bit. The, the color is this sickly purplish blue like that of a corpse. In fact, if you really were to look at Chris, that's probably what you would assume she was. Uh, um, there's a section of the face near the jaw and side of the mouth that is kind of crumbled away to show the bits of bone and jaw and teeth underneath that.

And of this is.

Shrouded in a hood that is made up of cloth, colorful, almost in difference to the face that it holds. And Chris stares at him.

Narrator: The boy squirms under your gaze, and he has dark, on the, on the tinge of olive tone skin,, his ears slightly pointed. And,, all of that color is draining out of his face currently. And he looks,, too scared to move his knees start to shake like the walls of your home when the engine kicks up into third gear., And he looks about ready to bolt.

Chrys: Hmm. Okay. Um,

Chris straightens up slightly. And the mouth, it's very, it's a very thin mouth, but it. curls into an attempt at a disarming smile. And Chris raises a currently gloved hand , friendly wave , and says hello. Little one.

Narrator: Go ahead and do a persuasion check for me.

Chrys: Okay. Ooh. Okay. That is a 15.

Narrator: Okay. The boy still looks incredibly scared, but the shaking stops slightly and he just sorts of looks at you and he goes, uh, hi. Um, are you the hack of the hold?

Chrys: Chris kind of tilts their head.

Is that one of the things that they call me now? The dam changes every once in a while.

Uh, I, I assume, yes,

Narrator: Oh, oh, okay. Well, I, uh, I was, I was playing with some boys who are older than me and they said that, uh, they, they would, they would let me be the, be be the, the king in our, in our game. Uh, if, if I, if I came down and I, uh, I, I, I got a, a, a, token from the, the hag of the hold. Uh, and they said that I was gonna be too scared to do it, but I am not, and I am here now.

Chrys: a test of bravery. You are very brave to come down here. Not a lot of people older than you like it down here, very much.

Narrator: I'm gonna be honest, ma'am. I, I don't, I don't really like it down here.

Chrys: There's almost a, it's a very broken laugh that escapes like, like little giggle sort of thing that escapes, , Chris's , lips. Most people don't. I think I get that a lot. But you would like a gift.

Narrator: I, I, I was told I should ask for a token, sir.

Chrys: I could do that for you. I think, let me see what I have. And Chris opens their very large, large cloak to start looking in amongst the little pockets that she has in there. , She likes to store stuff in there. Uh, no. That one, ah, this one will do, I suppose. And Chris brings out, it's like a little,

it, it might be a doll, but, it's made like from a mixture of,, it's made from a mixture of sewing scraps of fabric together and. It's like has little mushrooms as decoration, like the hair is made of mushrooms and things like that., It's a little, probably full of straw or something to that effect. , It's just a little thing that they made in their spare time.

And,, Chris,, holds it out. Will this be good enough?

Narrator: You see the boy, he sort of takes a step closer and another step until he gets like, just close enough that he can kind of reach out his hand and snatch it real quick and he looks at it and he goes, A doll.

Chrys: It is a token, as you said.

Narrator: Uh, I thought it was gonna be like a, a rat skeleton or something.

Chrys: No, that would, well, I suppose that would be all right for me, but I've heard that that's bad for people like you. Um, I like to soak things.

Narrator: Like,

like with the estates up top or like,

Chrys: I. I'm not sure what you mean. Uh, but I, I made this cloak that I have.

Narrator: oh, like oh, when? Like when my mommy puts patches on my pants.

Chrys: Yes. Uh, probably like that. Yes.

Narrator: Okay, well that's neat. I can't sew things.

Chrys: Oh, that is all right. It is, it is a good skill. If you asked your mommy, uh, maybe she would teach you.

Narrator: Oh, I don't know. Last time I tried, I stuck my finger and I got blood on the pants and then

my mom said to just go play outside.

Chrys: Oh, dear.

Narrator: Yeah.

Chrys: That won't do

Narrator: I'm

not really good at a lot of things. I'm too little. I.

Chrys: Oh, I'm sure that's not true. We're all good at something.

Narrator: Not me.

Chrys: Will, you are very brave. You came all the way down here by yourself.

Narrator: Yeah, I guess I did

I guess I can be good at being brave. Oh, I, I guess I'll take this. I, I, I guess it's what I came for. Well, you are not really what I thought you'd be, Mr.

Chrys: A lot of people say that,

Narrator: Well do, do you have a name?

Chrys: Hmm.

People call me, or I suppose when they ask, people call me. I like to call myself Chris

Narrator: I'm Greg.

Chrys: Little Greg. That is a nice name.

Narrator: Thank you. Chris is a nice name too. I know a guy named Chris. He's a bully , but I don't mind him too much.

Chrys: I see. Well, that is probably not very good

I am not a bully if that is good.

Narrator: that is good. I, I'm glad you're not a bully.

Yeah. Well, I should probably go now. I am, uh, I'm getting a little bit, a little bit hot. It's really hot down here.

Chrys: is it? Hmm. Sometimes people say it's cold,

Narrator: I, I don't know. Uh, well, well buy me, I'm, I, uh, I'm gonna go,

Chrys: right?

Narrator: do I, uh, do I gotta like give you my toe or something for this, or

Chrys: Your toe? 

Um, 

Narrator: you'd take one of my toes.

Chrys: I do not usually take toes.

Narrator: What do you usually take?

Chrys: Mm.

Tell me.

Oh, alright. What to a mommy?

Narrator: What is a mommy?

Chrys: You mentioned you had you called someone a mommy?

Narrator: Oh, do you not have one?

Chrys: I do not believe so.

Narrator: Well,

that's sad. 

Chrys: might, maybe 

I do not remember if I did.

Narrator: huh. I guess a mommy is a person that puts patches on your pants and they tuck you in and they yell at you a little bit for needing to put another patch on your pants, but then they still tuck you in. Um. I dunno, I guess it's kind of what a mommy is like.

Chrys: Curious.

Narrator: Well,

Chrys: Thank you. I have learned something new.

Narrator: okay, I'm gonna be honest. This is real weird and I, I kinda wanna go now.

Chrys: Yes. Yes. I apologize. Go on.

Narrator: Okay.

Chrys: I do not mean to keep you.

Narrator: he nods and Greg's scampers away. Definitely unsure About this whole encounter you watch him go and, and what, what's Chris's thoughts as, as this little boy scampers away?

Chrys: Hmm.

Well, most kids that Chris meets are frightened of him. This one didn't cry or anything. In fact, this one didn't even run away, which is impressive.

And Chris learned something new, which they always appreciate because Chris doesn't know a lot of things

Narrator: It's nice.

Chrys: This. Mommy concept sounds nice.

Chris looks down under their cloak.

 Rell, do you suppose I am a mommy to you?

Narrator: No,

Chrys: Hmm. Interesting. Thank you.

Narrator: you are welcome. And with that, Chris begins to take your hall, or, or their hall of this, , mushroom picking session back towards your home. And as you walk, we pan back up into a similarly dark and dingy, but higher elevation wise portion of the

 city.

As we come back into the fading Light Valentine, you see your reflection go up to the bar and it seems like, CEFI nods, takes what seems to be an offered chip and escorts this woman to the back room, a sort of private audience chamber that you sometimes do business in., As long as Sie gets a cut and he looks up at you as he leads her and gives you a nod.

Valentine: All kind of, um, nod back, trying my best to kind of hide my irritation. I.

Narrator: And this woman is led to that back room and situates there. And Effie walks up to you as, as you meet him partway by the bar. And he looks and he goes, all right, uh, there's a, a lady looking for some fixing in the back room. Uh, she said she heard about you from a friend. I didn't get that much more, but I can, uh, you know, look out while you're talking to her if that will be of use.

Valentine: That would be great. Cefi. Thank you. Can I get two rounds to take back

Narrator: Good stuff, or the stuff that we usually call good but isn't.

Valentine: good stuff for me. Always good stuff. Cefi, you know that

Narrator: I know it's dang expensive is what I know. And he starts to, regardless, pour to,, hearty glasses of,, some of the more refined rads to the point where it has a sort of pink tinge to it, almost as, as, he hands it back to you. And you're able to take it into the back room,

Valentine: set down one of the rads in front of her and. Say so. Who's trying to float you?

Narrator: and she looks up at you and her eyes get really, really wide. They are. And like Icy Blue, her hair is a very, very fine,, blonde. She, she's an astral elf. And her hair falls in this white blonde around her face framing it nicely longer than yours, brushing her shoulders, but in a, in a bob like, cut.

And she looks at you and she goes, oh, well, uh, I wasn't expecting you to get to the point Right. So quickly there, um, well, uh, I need to get out of the city. Right? Um, and I, and I heard there's an angel working Miracles here at the Fading Light. So I thought I'd stop by and, and see if you could help a girl out.

Valentine: I don't trade in miracles, sweetheart. I trade in favors.

Narrator: Yeah, I know your business. I know you, uh, you, you take chips and I can, I can pay you good. I, I'm a sprinkler for, for the reserves, and so I got some good, uh, some good chips that I can spend. Um, I, uh, I just need to get outta the city and I need it to be sooner rather than later.

Valentine: Okay, I can help you. I mean, for chips or it's an expensive job. Do you have anything better than chips?

Narrator: I, I, I don't know what you mean. I, I, I, I could pay you a year for this,

Valentine: Well, all right. You're clearly frightened on the run in a hurry. Let's slow down, take a drink and tell me what happened.

Narrator: or I am, and she sort of looks towards the door and then takes a little sip of her rides and goes, Ugh. Good stuff. Um, oh, I, uh. I guess it's the same old story, huh? I got, uh, some man wanted attention. I need to get outta the city. I, uh, I wanna get off at the next rift. You know, I heard it's just a few days off figure. That's enough time for someone with your reputation to, to help me. Um, I don't know how much more I should say. I don't know how much more you need.

I, I, I got the money, so just, just get me outta here.

Valentine: Well, I can definitely do that. There's a couple of ways we can go about this. I think there's one you're going to want, because if you, you say you have a year, maybe you do, but you would be upstairs somewhere if you could buy fake papers. So this is gonna take a little bit of time and a couple of days, and I think. That's my neck on the line as well as yours. So for both of our sakes, go on.

Narrator: Roll a persuasion or intimidation check.

Valentine: Ooh, I'll do persuasion because I have expertise in that. Only guacamole. It's a 12,

Narrator: At 12. Um,

Orion: Not a one.

Valentine: not one

Morin: Not a one

Chrys: If it was a one again.

Morin: that's like four better.

Narrator: um, she looks down at the rods in her hands, and then she looks up at you. Look, uh, there's some higher ups in the reserves. You know, guys closer to the provisionary that they, sometimes they see pretty girls out on the floor. They get a promotion, they go work in their office, and then nobody hears from them again. And, you know, I just, I caught someone's eye that I don't wanna, I don't want nothing to do with, and I need to get out before, before something bad happens to me.

Valentine: Finish your drink. It's going to be okay.

Narrator: Right. She takes a big sip.

Valentine: Do you have anywhere safe you can stay while we're getting close to the rift.

Narrator: Now my address is in my employment records. They know where I live. Um, I was hoping you'd have some place I could hide out. 

Valentine: Well, sometimes we can up beds back here. My apartment's nearby. It won't be a palace, but it's better than nothing. And unless you told people where you were going, no one would look for you there. Air.

Narrator: Um, all right. I, I, I told some of my girlfriends on the floor. I was coming here. Um, they asked where I was going, and I, I didn't want 'em to be too worried. I, uh, I probably was a dumb move. Right.

Valentine: That's totally fine. Um, well, um, can I, I don't know what kind of check I can make to think of places other than my house.

Narrator: I did do a history check.

Valentine: Okay, please. 12 on the day. Um, 14?

Narrator: 14.

Orion: We're moving up.

Narrator: well, I'd say with a 14 if this woman told people that she was coming here, well, you know, you're smart. You don't put your neck out too far, but people know they can come to you. Like you're, you're, you're known enough that if people wanted to. Find this woman. They would probably, if they knew she was coming here, check all of your usual spots.

Valentine: Okay. All right, well, my apartment's off the list then. Um, we'll have, how many, how hot is it? How many people are coming for you?

Narrator: I don't know how many, but, uh, let's just say, I know that they're, they're not gonna be too hesitant on the trigger. You know? 

It wanna get me real bad?

Valentine: I always do. That's all right. Nothing's gonna hurt you. It's going to be fine. Um, okay. Well, I guess if all of the other, I'm trying not to metagame this too severely.

Narrator: Yeah.

Valentine: Um, I think even if, sorry, I'm trying to think about this.

Narrator: Well, good. Take your time.

Valentine: Um. Because I think when, in her kind of InBetween years, I think there were probably a few nights that Valentine spent kind of on the very lowest side of things, you know, when it was just

too cold and inhospitable, even in the lower decks. So I think maybe she starts thinking like, not even necessarily of Chris's bolt hole, but like of just, maybe we can just put her in a corner down there

for a day and then have it be good.

Narrator: Yeah.

Valentine: Now here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna go find a floater Who's gonna be able to bring you down? 'cause we can't take you out in goods. You'll suffocate. Those things are not insulated. We can't get you fake papers, even you don't have the chips for that. So we're gonna, you're gonna have to go down a outside.

Narrator: Alright. Um, yeah, if you can just tell me a good place to hide out. I, uh, I already talked to some people about some muscle. Um, someone to stay with me, keep me safe. Um, I just have to leave a note of where we're going for 'em.

Valentine: All right. I think we're just gonna go down a little ways into the hold.

Narrator: Okay. 

Valentine: don't like to go down there. It won't, it'll be perfectly safe. I've spent plenty of time down there.

Narrator: Alright. Whatever they say. 

Hmm. 

Valentine: stop telling people where you're going after this person.

Narrator: All right, lady, I'll, uh, I'll behave. Yeah. Um, I don't think you actually ever said your name,

Valentine: I'm Valentine. What's your name, sweetheart?

Narrator: ter,

Valentine: Pleasure's all mine. Let's go.

Narrator: and in that moment we pan up and around slightly earlier in 

the day.

Orion, you are loading up one of the wagons that are going to be pulled by some arcane automata down through the streets of of middle deck outpost where the gangways are. But it's close enough to the lower decks that it's just, you know, a few streets down and over to get to the sort of elevator like loading platform for larger shipments that can't fit in the gondola. And as you're helping load up this wagon, you see that it's going to be a fairly large squad going with it today. That's been pretty normal 'cause there's been some disturbances from the holon and things recently., There's actually going to be a sprinkler with you. You, you know her from other escort gigs.

There's not very many sprinklers in the escorts, but, Yvette is one of them. She's a,, tall, astral Elvin woman who,, comes along for a little bit of extra muscle. And you guys will also be escorting two admins who are going to be driving the wagon, and taking care of things. A short dwarven woman named Twila and a, earth Azi, uh man named Madson. And as you're loading everything up, a sort of young, probably barely old enough to have joined the Sun Lashers human fella that, you know by the name of plan comes up to you and he goes, oh, hey Ryan, you're gonna be on this run too, right? I think this is only our second, or our third one together.

Orion: Hey, sure am still good to see you kicking.

Narrator: Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm happy I've gotten, uh, this job, this, this quick. Uh, now I wanted to, as sort of, the wagon starts walking. You guys are walking and talking. Um, I wanted talk to you a little bit because, um, they, they, they say that YY you know, the, the, the test to become a squire is really hard and I wanted to talk to you about it 'cause like you've been out there, right?

Orion: Sure have.

Narrator: Yeah. So, um, like, like what, like what was it like? Um,

Orion: Ooh. Hmm. You wanna hear what? You wanna hear what everybody wants to hear? Or do you want to hear how it really is out there? 

Narrator: I guess I wanna hear how it really is.

Orion: okay. Well, it's, tell you what, you never feel tied down the way you do in this city when you're out there. It's, it's dangerous work. You're gonna. I mean, hell, most true lashers probably know a couple people that didn't make it back from a storm. So there's a reason why there's always a set number and rotation, you know, people to swap in and out. It's 'cause it's, it's beautiful, but it's unpredictable. And you know, as nice as it is to be untethered and to know that what you're doing is, you know, you're, you know, ether is what makes the, the, the city tick ground and, you know, you're just supplying it. But at the end of the day, oh, the job floats and you're tired and you're burnt. It's, it's a weird sense of comradery you have with your fellow lashers out there. You know, everybody wants the job until you actually get the job and all of a sudden you're in it because you can't bear to see the people around you go.

Narrator: Hmm. I mean, sounds kind of magical, doesn't it? Just a little bit.

Orion: It, it is a little bit. I will say I have my fair share of pretty funny stories from, from when I was, uh, still a greenie out there, man. Uh,

Narrator: Hmm. Well, do you regret it or? I, I, maybe that's not the right question to ask. I just, I'm thinking about it and I, I know it's dangerous and I don't know, but the pays better than what we've got. Um.

Orion: yeah. No, I, I get you, I, I got into it really for the pay too. I would say, you know, most people don't regret it. I, I guess, I don't know if I really regret it at the end of the day, but it's not my station anymore. And. I never let a new lasher walk out there without letting them know that every day you put on that suit and you walk out of that airlock and that might be the last time you get out there. For better or for worse. I mean, I haven't walked out there in a couple years. You might end up like me, huh? And then we'd always be on jobs together. Keeps the boredom at bay at least.

Narrator: Yeah, uh, for sure. Um, I mean, I'm, I'm just a blue. I, I'm not, I'm not up there yet. I got a few more ranks to go before I can take the exam. Um, it's given me some stuff to think about for sure. Uh, for sure.

Orion: Hey, you know what? I'll I'll let you know something. It's always the people who think they're big shots that get up there and don't know what they're doing and think too much of themselves, they're the ones that'll always get caught in the Rip Todd. Yeah. And you're smart. You're asking around and you're willing to hear what other people might not be able to hear. So for what that's worth, feel like that puts you a little notch above the rest. Rest of it is just hard work you that there's no way you're gonna get around that. That's something that you just gotta do.

Narrator: Mm,

Orion: Bootcamp is brutal.

Narrator: I can imagine. I've seen some of it. Alright.

Orion: I'm glad I wasn't part of it when you saw it. 'cause I was a mess.

Narrator: Yeah. right. Well, thanks Orion. It's, it's nice to get a, an honest opinion on things. No, no sugarcoating or anything. Well, all right. And the, the, rest of your escort passes by in a forced silence is not many people typically talk to you on these sorts of runs. The comradery. Butts up against you, like you're the wrong end of a magnet. And you walk down through the city, take the lift down to the top part of the lower decks and wade through cramped alleys, bustling market, places that are barely more than tarps, spread out between narrow buildings, trying to keep a little bit of the irrigation off. And as you move through, you head into the deeper parts of the city and it gets warmer as you go, as you get closer towards the refinery. And soon you're there, an uneventful escort ahead of schedule. Twila one of the admin lets you all go early at the end of your shift. What is Orion thinking as he gets released and he is down here deep in the lowest parts of the city.

Orion: I think that the deep, this is still part of the decks, right?

Narrator: Yeah. You're, you're sort of right on the edge of the hold. That's where the refinery is.

Orion: Okay. This is not a place that he is a stranger to, but definitely not a place that he very much frequents. Um, mostly because for him, I mean, he doesn't like to stay in one spot for too long. It's so much more practical to stay moving around. You know, there's always something going on, something to see, something to hear, and you never know when you're gonna be able to run into something that might put two and two together. Um, so I feel like in this moment, now that this job is done, and he's technically in between his next assignment, um, I'm wondering if he would kind of poke around, especially since this is near the refinery, to see if there's anything that he might, you know, any interesting things that they might've picked up.

Narrator: Okay, roll a investigation check.

Orion: The one that I'm famously good at all right. Oh, that's a, that's an 11.

Narrator: All right, with an 11, what is, what is Orion really trying to glean?

Orion: Um, well, he's had some, you know, like guarding escort missions to where he's, it's just like a one and done supply supply trip, you know? Um, I'm wondering since he's like right around the refinery, if they've picked up anything strange, anything, you know, like that's out of the ordinary in terms of, as far as canisters go, um, he tells himself it's partially for accounting purposes, um, but the o other part of him is just interested in any, you know, out of the ordinary cargo that someone might have picked.

Narrator: The 11, you don't hear much of anything about that. Things seem to be running pretty smoothly here at the refinery as smoothly as it can. The scent of ozone and the sort of bleeding tinge of your senses taking in more than they should. Colors being brighter, sounds being sharper. The natural harmony and melody of life just radiating from this place is all present, but there's not anything out of the ordinary on any of the cargo manifests that you've seen.

And. No one is walking down the street talking about like, Hey, I found this cool thing. You know, there's, there's nothing like that happening here, but as you are poking around, the time ticks by, and you look up at one of the large clocks embedded in some of these taller buildings here, and you see that it's getting towards the end of the shift time, and you have a date with a certain lamppost, if I recall,

Orion: That is true. Um, do I need to roll to navigate to it or would I just know where it is?

Narrator: you would know where it is. But is there anything else that Orion would try to accomplish before going there?

Orion: Hmm, I don't think so.

It seems like a straightforward job. Um, not very different from many others. He's taken like it. Um, and you know, the further away from his desk he is the, the better. So he'll happily go to the lamppost and take a look at what his next assignment is.

Narrator: Nice. And as you go. You pass by an alley that leads to one of the outside hole areas of the ship. And as you pass by, you don't notice a figure hunched in the

 shadows there.

Morin, you sort of crouch in this alleyway holding onto your wound that bleeds sluggishly. The fluid seeps into your shirt and begins to dampen the inside of your vest. There's a reason you wear black. There's a rip in both. Now the vest and the shirt where the floater got her knife in you. But that's a problem for later. You know, you need to get somewhere and get this wound seamed up, or you're in for a pretty long and permanent sleep. Who is morin's? Go-to Healer.

Morin: Morin is gonna be navigating as best as she can while she's hunched over bleeding out, navigating these alleyways to get to where she last remembers Ika, um, having his set up?

Narrator: Mm-hmm. Would Enex be with you still?

Morin: Yes. Mostly because Morin doesn't really have the energy to tell him to go away.

Narrator: All right. Would you allow Enex to help you walk?

Morin: Yes.

Narrator: So Annex has his, arm around your side propping you up a little bit., He's actually slightly shorter than you,, but you know, he, he's trying, he's propping you up the best he can. And as you guys are , walking by, he's like a, uh, what was that out there? That was a, that was a, a floater, right?

It was one of us.

Morin: Yes,

correct. 

Narrator: I have, I wasn't aware that that sort of thing happened. Like, what's, what's I, I thought this whole creed thing was like, we're like a fellowship of something.

Morin: Yes. No, it's, that's why we let her float. It's, she probably had a job out on me or I get in the way of one of hers or there there are exceptions to these things.

Narrator: See, you keep wanting me to take this creed, but I thought that like, the whole point was like you had a group of people that you could like trust, but then now you're like saying that you can't even trust people who also take this creed. So like, why would you even bother?

Morin: No, listen, listen. She's gonna stop and turn kind of painfully, kind of set her hands on his shoulders. Um, this is the most important thing that you will ever do. Listen, you, you did great out there. You did great out there. Listen, you want someone you can trust. I had so much trust in you just then I'd be bleeding out out there still probably, if not for you.

You grabbed me. You pulled me in just like we practiced. It was fantastic. And she was following the creed, so I trust her.

Narrator: The lady that almost killed you.

Morin: Yes. No, I can, I can go back over it again. Um,

Narrator: No, no, no need. It is entirely inconsistent and incoherent to me. But anyway, I think we need to get you to this guy. So let's just go. Alright, let's just go whatever. You can wax poetic about it later

Morin: okay. Okay, let's go.

Narrator: and then it sort of helps you limp along and eventually you, you wind your way through the back alleys and vertical slums that make up the majority of the lower decks here and the stone buildings and the sheet metal stalls create a cold ever present echo. As you step the way you move through, it seems like it makes the city hold its breath. And I need you to roll a perception check for me.

Morin: That makes me feel so awesome. That's a 10.

Narrator: Okay.

Morin: I'm bleeding out.

Narrator: yeah. With that 10, you and Enix stumble out of an alley into one of the brighter parts. The, the lamps here are working, shining their,, light down on the street and this little shop, the front of which is just a normal sort of spice and herb stall, pricey goods, but, not too abnormal to have a little shop for that here,, in the upper lower decks., But you stumble right out in front of two Briggs that are standing on either side of this front door., One is a young dwarven man, the other is a tall sort of Cian woman, a Astri elf. And, the young Dwarven man has his hand rested on the butt of his baton, and the other is fiddling with the end of a wand in its sheath. And the woman is much the same, although she's not fiddling, she's standing very straight. And they both notice you as you step out into this alley, having not noticed them. And a woman sort of perks, perks up and she goes, Hey, what, what is, what's going on here?

Morin: Uh, afternoon officers. Um, we're just, we're going shopping

Narrator: Uh, this place is going to be closed from now on. So, uh, get, get a move on.

Morin: closed.

Narrator: Yes, it. And in that moment you see Aika sprint out of the front door, his red beard flowing loosely behind him, where normally it's in braids. He's wearing a long white nightgown and his hair flows loosely behind him as he runs. And the young din brigg immediately close lines him with his forearm. And aika just go whoop and like flip up into the air and fall down on his back as he gets caught and out from behind him. You see? A towering cian man. An astral Elvin man , shaped as much like a Dorito as you could imagine, step out

into this light., He's wearing the knots that show him to be a lieutenant, where these other Briggs 

 Seem clearly to be end sins.

And he steps out and he goes, this floating Spock tried to cast on me. And the, lieutenant spits onto Iah from where he is, currently collapsed on the ground, and Iah looks at him and like, I didn't, I didn't mean I'm not a I'm, I'm not. And then, the Dwarven picks him up and begins to press him against the outside of the shop windows.

Hard enough that you see a ripple of cracks across the glass and begins to bind his hands, with some rope.

Morin: Well, no guys, I don't think that's, I don't think that's necessary. What was, what was he casting?

Narrator: The lieutenant turns over to, looks at you, looks at you, and goes, I don't think it's any of your business, ma'am, what he was casting. We all know that you must get the permission of the brigadiers and the first counsel in order to have a focused license. And this man has no such license. He should not be casting anything.

Morin: I, I mean, did you, did you check to make sure he didn't have a license? I don't, I, I can't tell by looking at him, he looks pretty legit to me.

Narrator: And then you, you see aika sort of with his hands behind his back going, no, I'll admit it. I didn't have a license.

Morin: I could idiot.

Narrator: I didn't, I I, I, I was, uh, I, I, I casted and I, I shouldn't have, I'm sorry sir. Uh, but, but it, it's all fine. You see? 'cause uh, my license is in the works, right? I took the test and I'll have it real soon. So if you give me a wake, I can drop by the station and show you. And the lieutenant roughly shoves him and says, no, that won't be necessary.

Sir. Does Moran do anything in this moment?

Morin: Gosh dang it. Yeah,

Narrator: Yeah, I will say you are, you are very injured. 

Morin: I'm, I'm so injured and I have no persuasion skills.

Orion: I feel like you do something and just like collapse from bloodlines.

Chrys: Wait, 

Lord. 

Morin: I would like 

to do something. I'm going to faint on the spot. No. Um, I am going to kind of prod Enex in the side because I know that I don't have it in me right now to move very far or do anything and gently whisper in his ear right next to me. Distraction. Now,

Narrator: And Enix looks at you and he goes like, uh, violent or not violent.

Morin: preferably non-violent, but you know, you move faster than them.

Narrator: Violent it is. Come and get me Briggs. And you see, immediately he

takes a rock, throws it, hits the lieutenant in the face, dead on and takes off running down the street. And the lieutenant looks at you, looks at him, blood gushing from where the stone got him right in the nose. And he's like after him and he takes off running down the street.

And the, other Elvin takes off after him immediately. And you see the, the d of an kind of doesn't know what to do,, as, as he looks at them. And then he looks at the guy that he has currently like restrained, and then he goes and he pull, he fishes up from inside Ike's shirt.

What appears to be a like crystal in golden housing, , which you recognize from in the past what, , Ike uses as his focus. And he rips it off. And then he goes, don't go anywhere. And then he rushes off after the lieutenant

Morin: Can I, as he runs past, can I try to really quickly pickpocket it from him as he goes past?

Narrator: I'll say it is clutched in his fist. It will be a difficult slide of handshake, but you can certainly try.

Morin: You know what I would love to try. I'm gonna bleed out and this man is my only hope

Narrator: Go for it.

Orion: I mean, if you fail and pass out, it'll probably be another good distraction. I.

Morin: That is an 18.

Narrator: An 18, that's pretty good. Um, but I'm not sure it's quite good enough for this task. But I will say you begin going for the focus and you realize that in order to pry it from his fist, you will have to get his attention and he will know what you have done. So you can decide in this moment whether to abort or whether to like get it into your hand.

Morin: Ugh, abort.

Narrator: Okay? And so in this moment you pull your hand back, the guy runs off and aika turns, he's still bound behind his back. And he goes and he sits on the front stoop of his little shop and he just goes, Hey Mo, how's your day?

Morin: Ugh, not so great.

Narrator: You hurt.

Morin: Deeply,

Narrator: You're floating

outta luck. Unfortunately.

Morin: Well, here, and I'm going to take the edge of the, my grappling hook that's kind of looped onto my belt, um, and kind of saw it through the ties that are holding him together.

Narrator: Ugh. Thank you. I'm gonna have to relocate again, but M's. The breaks.

Morin: Well, do you at least have something to bandage me up real quick?

Narrator: Oh yeah, I got some gauze and stuff, but I think you're gonna, he looks at your wound for a second. Oh yeah. You're gonna want someone to cast a little something on that before tonight.

Morin: Yeah, given why I'm here,

Narrator: Oh, I don't got another focus or anything,

so. 

Morin: okay. I just, if you can throw something together real quick. Do you know, do you know anyone? You're, you know, you're the only person that I know, otherwise I wouldn't be coming to you.

Narrator: Well, I know there's other people, but they're all gonna give you a potion and I know you won't take those.

Morin: Shit.

Narrator: Um, let me go get something. And he goes inside and he brings out like a normal, ordinary, like healer's kit, first aid kit, and he sort of binds it up to buy you some time and begins soaking it up a little bit. Uh, well, I guess if you need some halen pretty quick, some interesting rumors. I've heard about someone down in the hole who might be able to assist you. Um, some of my usual clientele said that they were in a scrap and someone down there bound him up real good.

Morin: I will take it. I mean, you said it yourself. I'm gonna bleed out by tonight. If we don't get this patched up, I'll take a risk.

Narrator: Yeah, for sure. And then he describes generally an area near, one of the boilers between the Midship and Prow engine. And he goes, they found the thing wandering it around down there., I don't know what it is, but they say that it's friendly, so

Morin: The thing

Narrator: yeah.

Morin: Okay. If, if Enex comes back here, would you tell him I'll see him in a bit?

Narrator: Yeah, sure. You want me to tell 'em where you're going?

Morin: No. No. He'll be fine. I don't know what I'm gonna do with that one. Iah.

Narrator: All right. When he comes back, I'll tell him where I'm gonna jet to so you know where to find me next time.

Morin: Thank you, and next time don't cast it a break, please.

Narrator: hey. He was near my rotor entrance and he was gonna knock him off the counter. I was pruning it, so it's not my fault that he got a little something in his face that stuff's pricey.

Morin: That's fair. You know what? If this thing can get me what I need, you protect your rodents, all that you want.

Narrator: All right, try not to die.

Morin: I'll do my best.

Narrator: All right. And with that, you set off towards the hold. And as you walk,, you start going down deeper into. The lower decks towards the hold and you pa

ss by, uh,

one of the nicer lower deck reserve station and stepping out the front door is a cloaked figure moving up the other direction, passing you by unnoticed as rookie begin to move up towards the middle decks an apartment complex as you move through.

It's a nice area. , But it's right there on the edge, you know, where the poverty stricken underground turns into the slightly more affluent suburb as you escalate up here through the levels. And this is a tall apartment building. It's not for necessarily the wealthiest sorts of people, but that's the area of the city that you're in.

Rook: So suppose I gotta try to orient myself based on something to do with this address, looking for an eter, I believe.

Narrator: Mm-hmm.

Rook: So guess I'm gonna just try to figure out where I am and where I need to go relative to that.

Narrator: Yeah. There is a door attendant at the front door., It appears to be a, middle aged dwarven woman. Wearing a red door attendant uniform. As you approach, she looks at you and she goes, well hey there, are you here to visit somebody?

Rook: Hey there. Yeah. Um, I'm looking for an aria.

Narrator: Oh, uh, I think she's out today. Unfortunately,

Rook: Oh man, that is, that's such a shame. Do you happen to know where she would be going around to? I have something urgent for her.

Narrator: I wouldn't right now.

Rook: She telling the truth.

Narrator: Roll an inside check.

Rook: Okay. That's gonna be a 2117 plus four. 

Narrator: As you look at her, you see a thin bead of sweat trickle down next to her eye that she rubs away with the corner of her sleeve, as she is very clearly trying to appear cool as a cucumber while she has her pants on fire.

Rook: Okay, well I suppose I'll just come out and say it. I really need to know where Aria is and I really know that you know where she is. So why don't you make this easier for the both of us and just spell okay.

Narrator: Now listen here, I don't know where Terria is, but I sure as hell am not gonna tell some strange man on the street where she is.

Rook: For starters, rude, I've been quite polite up to this. Point two, what exactly are you trying to hide anywhere? Do I need to get the Briggs involved?

Narrator: Hey, unnecessary. I haven't done nothing. I'm just trying to do my job, which is to make sure that the young ladies that live in this apartment complex don't have strange men come into their doors at all hours.

Rook: I'm not trying to come to her door. I'm clearly just trying to go wherever she is.

Narrator: I don't know. That's much better, sir.

Rook: Anyway, apologies has been a bit of a tense to end. I know that my face is a bit off-putting, so I'll apologize for that right off the bat. However, I do very urgently need to know where she is.

This isn't for me. See, I can tell you why, but I don't think you're gonna want to be involved in why?

Narrator: Sir, I'm, I'm, I don't know where Aria is. All I know is she's not here, so if you want anything more, you're gonna have to tell me what you're trying to do, but I can guarantee you I do not know where she is.

Rook: Well, this is what I get for not fixing my face anyway. I'll just come clean and say it. I'm an investigator. Terry is my number one suspect, so please for the both of us cooperate so that I can hopefully clear your friend's name. Clearly, she's your friend, otherwise you wouldn't be fighting tooth and nail to keep her out of this. So I really hope for the both of us that you have some sense in that head of yours. I'm trying to keep her name out of things, so clearly you and I are on the same side, but I need to know where she is so that I can talk to her. You don't want the details of what I'm investigating because then that would implicate you and I don't think you want that headache either, because trust me, it's a bit of a headache.

Narrator: Roll a persuasion check. Let's say roll it with advantage. I feel like, like you earned it.

Orion: Oh yeah. Killing it.

Rook: Persuasion. That is gonna be an 18.

Narrator: Look, sir, I, I don't want trouble and I don't want ter to be in any trouble. She's been right nice to me whole time she's lived here. And I dunno, I like to look out for the people who live here. It's so, it's, it's tough here, you know?

Rook: Trust me. I know. 

Narrator: yeah, look, I think she's gone for good and I truly, I truly don't know where she's gone.

Um, she left here with her stuff in a suitcase a few hours ago, earlier this morning. Um, mean, if you, if you're really trying to help her, I could let you see her room, but I don't think there's gonna be much in there anymore.

Rook: Look, any, any little thing helps. I am sorry for my abrasiveness earlier. It's been a tense day. You know how it goes. So just on my part, I do apologize on my unduly terrible manners. However, any little bit helps. So if I could at least see the room, anything of whereabouts, any direction that you might have that she might have been going to, it's all useful, but at the end of the day, the reason I'm looking is ultimately because I'm hoping that she isn't the name I'm looking for.

Narrator: Hmm.

Rook: I

get it. Things are tough out here. It's tough for all of us, but some people make it tougher than it has to be.

Narrator: All right. I'll let you up, uh, or I'll let you in. She's on this floor, and she walks in the door and you hear the jangle of keys as she walks down the hall and opens the door to a small apartment room here on the ground floor. It's very, very small, a studio. The only furniture in this room is a stool and a writing desk. There are clothes strewn out of a closet. Limply on the floor, what seems to be whatever. She couldn't fit in her bag as she left. And there's, yeah, it's very bare bones, no food in the print, nothing like that.

Rook: Okay. Can I find anything like looking around, is there any indication of a direction she might've been going? You know, any clothes that were haphazardly picked that might give the indication of the general, I don't know, temperature of where she was heading to? Anything like that. Just a little subtle things that might be given somewhat of a direction.

Narrator: Go ahead and do an investigation check.

Rook: Okay. Investigation that is an 11 for a total of 18.

Narrator: All right. You begin to look through and you find in one of the drawers of the desk, none of them are locked, but it seems like they were swept and cleared out. And when they were being cleared out, a piece of paper got stuck between where the drawer slides in and the. Actual desk itself. And you pull that piece of paper out and it's an arc clip. You've heard of these. They're not terribly uncommon nowadays as they've gotten cheaper to produce. But it is a glistening, slightly moving photograph of a scene that you've never remotely seen before. What appears to be the bluest water spread out as far as the eye can see more than you've ever seen in one place.

And dirt that's the color of cream on the top of your coffee, grainier with sort of a glisten to it. And tall you think with ring shaped sections and tall frons that sort of seemed to blow in this phantom breeze and a bright, bright sun cresting over this large body of water.

The place it, it seems to be some sort of card or advertisement for a place that's spelled out in big letters, Sandy Shore. On the back you see in a flowing sort of feminine script, one word. 

Rook: Well, that definitely ain't here, so I'm gonna take the. Postcard and pocket it just as like some frame of reference in case I need that handwriting, but no direction. We're trying to get out, left in a hurry, left in a big hurry by the looks of it, and only a couple hours out, which means she can't be too far. Would I happen to know any places where people tend to, you know, take off to, especially in cases like this, if they may be implicated with a murder? Do they default to a different floor? Do they have like, you know, more hideouts that they tend to go to?

Narrator: I'll say at this point, you think for a second and. There's no food in the print. So she must have places she goes to to get food, right? Like that would be the only thing that makes sense. So you start opening the drawers in like the small kitchenette. And you see one drawer has pamphlets for various restaurants and eateries,, places that,, either dress up provisions or offer the cheapest sort of dead ends of stuff from the upper decks. And as you're looking through all these different pamphlets, you see, a matchbook that catches your eye. 'cause you've heard the name of the place advertised on this matchbook before. And you pick it up and it's a matchbook for a place called the fading light.

Rook: It can't be too far, can it? I think I've heard of that. I think that's around here. Well, better than someplace that I don't even think is on this hunk of rock. Well, guess I got my direction. Stash is the matchbook, just trails out the door. Closes it and then as he is walking out, he's just gonna kinda look at the lady at the desk. Now, once again, apologies for the bad manners. I'm not going to introduce myself and I don't expect you to do the same. But thank you. I appreciate it. I hope things go well. Just stay well out there.

Narrator: Just if you see her, tell her Gertie's looking out, wants her to be well.

Rook: Will do. Thank you very much. I'll be sure to pass on the message

and he just turns trails off.

Narrator: And you walk out into the rain.