Ep. 23 - A Guardian Conceived (feat. Jack Wisnosky)

Hadrathi chant made using the Hadrathi conlang by Ben Scerri, which can be found here .

Line Bulls are intimately familiar with ghosts: spirits lacking bodies and yet forced to persist. Inversely, it is possible to remove the spirit from a body and yet force the body to continue living. These living vessels are called Hollows after their emptiness, and their creation is often a punishment where one's flesh will be enslaved. But in Iruvia there is the practice of Hollowing willing individuals into Guardians, leaving some amount of the individual within so they may think and speak. These Gua'lim demonstrate supernatural abilities beyond a typical Hollow; a demonic nature remains unconfirmed by the Imperium but it stands to reason that what is empty can be filled. Pippin doesn't want to talk about the rats. Andrel finds herself comping up short in front of an old friend. Drix is haunted by the past (but not HIS past).

Content Warning for Child Death from ~00:07:11 to ~00:10:58, Four teens fight a Summoned Horror but only one survives.

For the full transcript, go to https://ghosts-on-a-train.captivate.fm/episode/ep-23-a-guardian-conceived

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Ghost Lines by John Harper. Music by Sebastian Black. Art by Yoshiko Agresta.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Radio Announcer Greg 0:00

In an ancient chamber that reeks of death, torches flicker as if shivering, they timidly illuminate the unnatural form sprouting from an arcane circle along the ground. But summons horror takes root in our reality as a coil of thorns, menacing with a snarling cry that comes not from any mouth, but from its own unnatural locomotion. Four youths surrounds the fiend, dress in Iruvian encounter suits and equipped with standard Line Bull equipment. They are Gua'ata, hopeful apprentices to become Gua'lim, or city guardians. Should they succeed this test, they will be granted a taste of the power of the Demon Princes. The tallest looks to be 16, though he is neither the oldest nor the youngest of the apprentices here. His name is Jamu'kha, and he wields a lightning web throw with the confidence of an apprentice spider. As the cursed coil draws near, the youths hear instruction from their Proctor, a member of the noble House of Ixis who is invisible among the shadows.

Proctor 1:05

This is a summoned manifestation of the Lady of Thorns. It will not perish. There is no hope of defeating this as there is a ghost, but one of you will surely be able to outlast it. That one shall go on to complete the task before you.

Jamu'kha 1:25

Master, can only one of us complete the task?

Proctor 1:27

I have hope that one of you will be able to.

Greg 1:30

We are going to roll to face off against the supernatural. What role are you, Jack?

Jack 1:38

So I'm just fighting a ghost right now. Right?

Greg 1:41

You're fighting a coil of thorns. It is a summoned horror.

Jack 1:45

Okay

Greg 1:46

You will fight this thing as though it were a ghost. But there is essentially no defeating it, only surviving it.

Jack 1:53

Only surviving it, okay. Am I armed with my spider lightning web thrower?

Greg 1:57

Mm hmm, mm hmm. So you are spider is what you said, correct?

Jack 2:01

Yes, that is correct.

Greg 2:02

All right. You have completed your apprenticeship. You have a bull in every single role, you have not worked this area before. So you'll take plus one for the apprenticeship, minus one from not working before. You will, however, take another plus one because you have the Iruvian homeland gift "swift". So right now you're sitting at a plus one. Before that, the one that I always like to ask is do the other bulls swear to follow your orders without hesitation? If not take minus one. So just here's an opportunity for you. What do you say to your fellow class? Before beginning this engagement.

Jamu'kha 2:40

We're going to have to work together if we want to get out of this alive. If any of us want to get out of this alive. The Master said he only hopes that one of us will make it, that means none of us can make it. We have to try, boys, we have to try.

Rook 2:53

Jamu'kha, I will stand behind you. But it will be me at the end of this.

Greg 2:58

Says one of them. They promise to follow your orders without hesitation. So roll 2d6 with a plus one.

Jack 3:04

2d6 with a plus one. Okay? So 10 total, a three and a six.

Greg 3:11

Hell yeah. So as you can see on the second page on there, against the supernatural, on a 10 or 11, you get to pick two of the following options: seize the initiative, maintain an orderly disposition, or seize a particular opportunity or advantage. So which two do you want to do?

Jack 3:24

I'm going to maintain an orderly disposition.

Greg 3:28

Oh, hell yeah.

Jack 3:29

And I think I'm just gonna seize the initiative right now. I don't think -

Greg 3:31

All right. So tell me how are they deployed? Like what's what's your plan? And also you seize the initiative, so you're, you'll act first and then your team will act first. What's your plan? What's your...

Jack 3:43

So in the front we're gonna, like, I'm gonna have the anchor kind of go up and, like, kind of position itself in front of the spiky thorn bush to act as kind of like our tank, or kind of like a distraction, sort of. Then me with my spider web thrower, I'm gonna, like, try and catch and sort of control it. You know, kind of like, hold it in place. Then using the Owl's, like, lightning oil canisters - it says there's four uses, right?

Greg 4:08

Yes, lightning oil for each use gives you a +1 to a roll, or just in general, it's like what powers - it's what powers things. It's what is electricity, so you can use it for anything you can come up with.

Jack 4:19

Like will the lightning oil do anything to it? Or was lightning oil just like, more for powering things? Like, it's like a Molotov cocktail kind of thing?

Greg 4:26

Lightning oil is kind of just power, but I suppose if you just sort of tossed the whole canister you could blow it up.

Jack 4:33

Okay, cuz I'm thinking maybe like, I use my web thrower to control the bush, and then I'm gonna almost have my Owl take their, like, canisters and, like, he just kind of uses it like as an explosive kind of thing.

Greg 4:44

Yeah, yeah. If somebody zaps it hard enough, yeah, I'm sure it would explode.

Jack 4:47

Yeah, so what I'm thinking is we take all four oil canisters, or if there's one canister just the big canister, put it into, like, the side, almost, like, have them put it in, like, a corner. And then I'm going to try and take my lightning web thrower and, like, drag them to, over it. Like towards that lightning oil canister. And then -

Greg 5:04

Oh yeah, and -

Jack 5:05

When it gets over there the rook is gonna zap it and trying to explode it to help destroy the bush.

Greg 5:09

Oh, I love it. I love it. Alright, so as you can see, still in the middle section of the second page, you make the opening move because you're the one who leads the team. So use your lightning web, roll 2d6 and and your finesse.

Jack 5:23

2d6 plus finesse. Where's my finesse? So I got another 10

Greg 5:27

Hell yes. Back to the first page, on the left. When you employ finesse, you get to pick two of the following. Do you do it quickly? Do you avoid trouble, compromise, or cost? Or do you do it impressively, stylishly, to greater effects? So pick two of those.

Jack 5:41

I'm definitely doing it without trouble and doing it quickly. I'm just all about business get this hedge shit done.

Greg 5:46

Hell yes, efficiency. You get everybody into position like this is a practiced motion. You have all been training for months, the better part of a year. Without any wasted movement, you shoot your lightning web thrower. It wraps around the coil of thorns, which is at the moment about the size of one of you. You wrap it up, tighten it; the anchor with their, like, electro field crackling, is able to help kite it, and then, like, as you swing it, he also helps to push the coil of thorns right towards where the owl has placed two lightning oil canisters.

Jamu'kha 6:21

Keep it going, keep it going, it's working!

Greg 6:23

It is at that moment the rook, the boy who said "Jamu'kha it will be me," gets forward and shoots it, blasts it with lightning. The coil of thorns crackles and twists along with the lightning around it. And then there's a greater, just, BOOM-CRACKLE as, like, the lightning oil canisters explode, unleashing some of the lightning inside. The coil of thorns is, like, standing up straight. Imagine it like a thorny tumbleweed, but if it just sort of, like, exploded, all stretched out and stuff. Still together, but just like, it's all stretched out, arced and bent like lightning. At that the rook turns to nowhere in particular, because you don't know where your proctors are.

Rook 7:07

There, the test is over. Only one of us? Easy!

Greg 7:11

And at that, there is a sickening grinding noise as thorns tear the neck of his encounter suit open, and there's, like, a squirt of blood as the coil of thorns, which has now grown a little bit larger -

Jack 7:26

Oh, shit.

Greg 7:27

- slits this boy's throat, leaving them on the ground, and you hear a voice.

Proctor 7:31

This is no common spirit. This summoned horror is a manifestation of the Lady of Thorns herself. As I said, there will be no defeating it. Only outlasting. Continue, Gua'ata.

Jack 7:43

Oh, no.

Greg 7:45

The coil of thorns lashes out, tossing the body of the boy towards you. It's, like, about to let it loose. It will hit you and probably hurt.

Jack 7:55

Okay, so can I just, like, try and roll out of the way, or just dive out of the way?

Greg 8:00

Hell yeah, that's - that's perfectly within your rights. That'd be - what do you think, finesse?

Jack 8:04

I would think so, yeah, just let me - I'm just diving, I'm not, like, trying to do anything else.

Greg 8:07

Hell yeah.

Jack 8:07

So 2d6?

Greg 8:08

Roll 2d6, add your finesse.

Jack 8:10

Oh, shit. Five.

Greg 8:12

Ooh, so on a six or below, that is a miss. You fail in what you're doing. So you try to roll out of the way, but this boy's body hits you. You hit the ground. Take one harm as it was thrown with some force, but even more horrifying than that, you shake your head and, like, sit up, and as you sit up, in your lap is the head of this boy that moments ago was sure that he was going to win, and months before that even, you'd maybe trained with him. Take three trauma, horrifying.

Jack 8:41

Ooh, three trauma. Oh, wow. That's a lot of trauma.

Greg 8:44

Mm hmm. So misses are punished a lot. But engagements are also very quick in this game.

Jack 8:50

Okay.

Greg 8:51

So you missed that. The Owl has fully decided to play dirty.

Jack 8:56

Oh, no.

Greg 8:56

And you see the Owl, like, did like a sliding kick, tripping the Anchor, and to add insult to injury, the Owl's like -

Owl 9:06

Kha'ish, Ki'ata!

Greg 9:06

- which roughly translates to "You blew it, maggot boy". He's gonna run past you, he's just running away from the coil of thorns. And you see the Anchor, entangled in these thorns, and then sort of, it's almost like - there's no stomach. There's nowhere for him to go. But this coil of thorns eats him and grows a little bit larger.

Jack 9:24

Jesus. So it's just me and the Owl left.

Greg 9:26

It's you and the Owl, and the Owl's running.

Jack 9:28

Okay. How does my lightning web thrower affect people?

Greg 9:31

Your lightning web thrower would work on people. But you do have a lightning hook yourself. It's not a heavy one. But you have a normal one. So you can do either of those if you want.

Jack 9:40

So it's about survival...

Greg 9:41

Mm hmm.

Jack 9:42

Okay, so can I use my lightning web thrower to like, grab the Owl, and almost like, pull them back to me? And like pull them in front of me?

Greg 9:50

Hell yes! Oh, that's, that's dark. That's the shit you've learned here. From the orphanage to here.

Jack 9:54

Yeah.

Greg 9:56

Jamu'kha, coldhearted, I love it.

Jack 10:00

It's all about survival, the orphanage taught me survival.

Greg 10:02

Roll me 2d6.

Jack 10:04

2d6. Oh, 12.

Greg 10:07

Oh my god! You do all three! You do it quickly, avoid trouble, comprise, or cost, and you do it impressively, stylishly, to greater effect.

Jack 10:14

Let's fucking go.

Greg 10:14

Do you have a vision of how this, how this goes? Do you want to narrate?

Jack 10:18

So, okay, so here's my - my vision is basically I take my lightning thrower, I grab the Owl, pull them in front of me, like directly in front of me, like a foot away. And as they're in front of me, I, like, grab their, like, spirit goggles off their face, put them on my arm - like, just off their face - and then I kick them into the bush.

Greg 10:36

Hell yes! Oh my god, they get - you grab them. And they're like -

Owl 10:41

Oh, Jamu'kha, I don't want, I don't wanna -

Jack 10:43

- and they kick, and then the the coil of thorns grabs, like, just assimilates into its body, and it grows huge and it starts to, like, rather, it starts to spread out and wrap around this, like, torchlit area. But then, although it hasn't touched any of the torches, it starts to burn at the edges. And you see when it burns, it leaves behind no ashes, just, like, this weird, unearthly ether. And the coil of thorns, it doesn't have a face or anything, but you swear the way these thorns move, it's almost, like, scared of this. And this, like just this fire just consumes it, leaving behind this strange, ethereal sparkle. And then you hear just a couple of claps.

I do a small bow.

Proctor 11:25

Excellent. As you can see, manifestations of Forgotten Gods can no longer survive in this world for very long, and you, Jamu'kha, have survived.

Jamu'kha 11:37

I did what I had to.

Proctor 11:38

And that is what makes a good Gua'lim. You will do what you have to, for Iruvia first, for yourself seconds.

Jamu'kha 11:46

For Iruvia, master.

Proctor 11:48

For this assignment, you may come into contact with another envoy of the Forgotten Gods. It has come to our attention that onboard of one Imperial locomotive, the Pride of Duskwall, there is an artifact of the One Within Many. The One Within Many will be able to give the Demon Princes some vital information. We shall give you a boon with which to negotiate.

Jamu'kha 12:15

Negotiate?

Proctor 12:16

Though we do not know where this artifact is.

Jamu'kha 12:18

Does someone have the artifact, Master? Must I take it from them?

Proctor 12:22

There is no need for theft. The artifact will simply allow you to communicate with the One Within Many, if you can find some time alone with it, whatever it may be. We do not know the shape of it. But we know that it has been consistently upon the train. So it is not a passenger's.

Jamu'kha 12:39

How will I recognize this artifact, Master?

Proctor 12:42

That will unfortunately be left to you. But know that is the One Within Many. One thing made of many things, or many things perhaps made of all one thing. The Forgotten Gods are...

Jamu'kha 12:54

Fickle, sir?

Proctor 12:55

Fickle, and contradictory. This is fortuitous that you were the...