Ep. 24 - A Horror Born (feat. Jack Wisnosky)
The Imperium of the Shattered Isles is built upon the history of a world destroyed, of cultures broken. Survival is paramount, and the Imperial Railways is a resource aimed towards the preservation of the living now and do not stray far from their tracks to explore the people left behind in the cataclysm. The past will make itself known regardless as the spirits of the deathlands will jump at any chance to strike, even for a routine current collector realignment on the Pride of Duskwall. Drix wants Silence. Andrel worries for her friend. Jamu'kha meditates. Pippin smashes a unicycle.
You can't find special guest Jack Wisnosky online... YET!
For the full transcript, go to https://ghosts-on-a-train.captivate.fm/episode/ep-24-a-horror-born
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Ghost Lines by John Harper. Music by Sebastian Black. Art by Yoshiko Agresta.
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Greg 0:00
Hey there passengers. Before we start the episode, I want to draw attention to a new donation link we've added for the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum. Around the time of this episode's release, there was a racially motivated mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight dead, most of which were Asian women. The United States' long history of anti-Asian sentiment cannot be ignored, especially after the past year of racist discussion around COVID-19 in the media and from elected officials. Racism and sexism have intermingled with tragic results, and we urge our listeners to donate and stand with the Asian American community. This past year has been harsh for so many reasons, but this latest reminder of white supremacist terror in the US cannot be ignored. Please listen to and support marginalized groups and stay safe and healthy in your own lives. Thanks. Now onto the podcast.
Pip 0:51
Last time, with ghosts or trains or something...
Proctor 0:55
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.
Andrel 1:16
Pip, Drix, this is my friend from the orphanage! His name is Jamie!
Vagrant 1:21
It is always helpful to remember that we are all one within many, spokes in the Singular Wheels that is.
Pip 1:27
And today...
Radio Announcer Greg 1:30
The layer of reality known as the Ghost Field can be perceived by any living thing that is echoed within, as well as many supernatural entities that exists outside of it. It is called the Ghost Field because this is where spirits reside, and it is the place from which they manifest into the reality of the living. But the Ghost Field is far too simple a name for what this layer contains. All of humanity's actions are imprinted upon it, where they can be perceived by inquisitive minds, as one might peruse an album of imprinted leaves. And much like one might carefully remove a leaf from the safe storage of a book, it is also possible to whisper into the Ghost Field and create an opening into our reality for a bound spirit, or even for a summoned horror from beyond the field itself. Regardless of one's purposes for access, it is never safe to attune oneself the Ghosts Field, and the living who wade into its depths may soon find themselves dragged to their doom by the undertow. An example of this phenomenon is the Line Bull Drix, whose mind plummets through the Ghost Field as he stands with his Bulls against the supernatural, leaving him vulnerable and all too aware of the horrific possibilities.
Greg 3:00
Welcome back to Ghosts on a Train, the podcast where we play Ghost Lines, an RPG by John Harper. My name is Greg and I am your conductor, I run the game.
Hannah 3:10
I'm Hannah, I play Andrel. I have a friend this line, in addition to my coworkers who are kind of my friends? We're getting there.
Guy 3:21
I'm Guy, I play Pip, I am canonically not Andrel's friend. It's tragic.
Hannah 3:25
We're getting there!
Stefen 3:29
I'm Stefen, I play Drix, and I'm just along for the ride.
Jack 3:33
I'm Jack and I play Jamu'kha, and I guess I'm Hannah's friend?
Hannah 3:38
Yay. Wow. Okay. Four years of my life.
Jack 3:43
I meant in the game, Hannah.
Greg 3:45
Yeah, Jack is Hannah's real friend.
Hannah 3:47
Jack is Hannah's real friend, yes.
Guy 3:50
As opposed to us where we're all fake friends.
Stefen 3:53
Believe it or not, off mic we hate each other.
Hannah 3:56
I think we're friends!
Guy 3:59
This is news to me.
Stefen 4:04
The feud between our bloodlines will stretch across the ages, Hannah.
Greg 4:09
Oh, gosh.
Guy 4:11
Hold on, on the second day of Hanukkah, as a Jew, I'm not sure how I feel about that one, bud.
Hannah 4:17
It's the third day of Hanukkah, I think.
Guy 4:21
Eh, until sundown.
Hannah 4:22
I guess.
Stefen 4:28
So not cool to declare a blood feud during Hanukkah?
Guy 4:32
Generally -
Hannah 4:32
I think blood feuds are pretty in the spirit of Hanukkah, honestly. It's a war holiday.
Greg 4:35
If you're a rabbi and listen to this podcast, please tweet @ghosts_train about, about blood feuds during, during Hanukkah.
Guy 4:50
I think it's more appropriate during, like, Passover, personally, but, like, hey, so it goes.
Greg 4:54
You know what, I amend that. Tweet at us @ghosts_train about which High Holy Days are the best for declaring blood feuds and which ones are the worst.
Guy 5:07
Buzzfeed's Top 10 days to...
Hannah 5:11
I'm gonna text, I'm gonna, I'm gonna text Sam about this later. I feel like they'll have opinions.
Greg 5:15
I love it. So, getting back to the matter at hand, the Pride of Duskwall is stopped for some realigning of the contact shoe, the current collector for the train to the electric third rail. Meanwhile our Line Bulls are protect the - protecting the laborers from the horrors of the Deathlands, in this case, one ghost armored up in an Iruvian, an ancient Iruvian noble who seems to take umbrage with the I'Yalim-style armor that Andrel Anderson currently has. In this case, you all know what's up, so who would like to lead the Bulls against the supernatural?
Guy 5:57
I think this feels like either an Andrel or a Jamu'kha.
Hannah 6:03
Jack, do you want to do it? Or should I?
Jack 6:05
I believe you should. You've got more experience on this train.
Hannah 6:08
That's true, actually.
Greg 6:10
All right. So Andrel has completed her apprenticeship so that's a plus one. You've got a Bull in every single role, so you don't take minus ones there. You have worked this line or area before so you don't take a minus one there. Do the other Bulls swear to follow your orders without hesitation?
Pip 6:26
Yeah.
Drix 6:27
You know it, Little Spurs.
Jack 6:28
No.
Hannah 6:29
What!
Jack 6:30
I might hesitate.
Greg 6:32
Ooh, I like it!
Hannah 6:33
You absolute bastard.
Greg 6:35
So in total, you have a straight roll.
Hannah 6:39
All right. It's, it's two dice, right?
Greg 6:41
Two dice.
Hannah 6:41
Yeah, yeah, I know how to play this game. Well, it's a 10. So Jack didn't fuck us all.
Greg 6:47
So pick two.
Hannah 6:48
I'll pick...um, does anyone have a particular opportunity or advantage you want? Cuz I'm bad at coming up with those.
Guy 6:57
I have an idea.
Hannah 7:00
Yeah?
Guy 7:00
Because they got spat out by the earth, and things are starting to, like, still reform -
Greg 7:07
So no, no, no, no, no, no. To make it clear. The earth part was an echo.
Hannah 7:12
Okay.
Jack 7:13
So it didn't actually happen, okay.
Hannah 7:15
Maybe I'll just take seize the initiative and orderly disposition, I guess.
Guy 7:20
That's good.
Greg 7:20
Hell yeah. The Bulls are deployed exactly where you want them and are ready for action.
Hannah 7:26
Yeah, bitch.
Greg 7:26
So go ahead, you make the opening move. You are the Rook, currently. So go ahead, use your lightning hook.
Hannah 7:34
I'm begging you to stop making me do things. Yeah, I'll use my lightning hook. That's what I'm gonna do. That is an eight.
Greg 7:43
Which one would you like to pick?
Hannah 7:45
I'll inflict great harm. Fuck it up.
Greg 7:48
You shoot it with your heavy lightning hook, the heavy lightning hook, it's got a big, like, battery pack, and it's held, like, from overhand, there's like, a heft to it. But Andrel you're pretty strong for, like...
Hannah 8:00
For a thirteen-year-old.
Greg 8:00
For a thirteen-year-old. The electricity arcs from the lightning hook, grabbing this ghost. It's got, like, Falcon wings from its little backpack part of the armor, and as you zap it with the hook for a shocking four harm, with your extra harm, the bird wings start to, like, go haywire. He veers off course. But as he swings past you, extends one hand, and out of open palm a jet of fire bursts at you. Go ahead and take two harm.
Hannah 8:36
Reduced to one?
Greg 8:37
Reduced to one.
Hannah 8:38
Yeah. Still not great. But love armor.
Greg 8:42
You've maintained an orderly disposition and seized the initiative, so where are the others at? And who wants to go?
Hannah 8:49
I think, so it's flying towards us, right?
Greg 8:53
Yeah. Now a little bit to the side.
Hannah 8:55
Now a little bit to the side. I think probably it's conveniently been swung towards Pip, so he can do his Anchor thing and maybe hold it still. And Jamie is, like, lined up sort of perpendicular to that to, to throw a lightning web or whatever.
Greg 9:19
All right.
Hannah 9:20
I don't know where Drix is. You can do whatever, man.
Greg 9:23
So Pip, ready to deploy.
Guy 9:25
Yeah. I'm gonna roll insight, actually.
Greg 9:31
Like, like, like, you just want to roll insight, you like, your own dang self. You could outsource this theoretically to Drix because he's the Owl, but also then again, he is seeing things.
Guy 9:39
Yeah, he's, he's seeing things. I think I kind of want to know for myself.
Greg 9:43
Okay, be aware this will be your thing.
Guy 9:45
This is, this is my Anchor-related thing for, for this. So. That is a nine total, nice.
Greg 9:55
What's your question?
Guy 9:56
That gave me a hold one. So I think I'm actually gonna sit on it for a little bit.
Greg 10:00
All right.
Guy 10:01
As I try to, like, analyze the situation, it's like -
Pip 10:04
Oi, you...I don't know what's appropriate here.
Greg 10:09
Jack, I think you were the next one mentioned. It's perfectly ready for you to shoot it with the lightning web thrower, or your hook, but probably the lightning web thrower.
Jack 10:19
Where, like, where is it in like relation to, like, the train and us? Like, is it, like, in between us now? Like, it's in between me and Pip, right?
Greg 10:28
It's between you and Pip. You guys are effectively keeping yourselves between it and the train.
Jack 10:34
Okay. And, like, what's on, like, what's behind it? Or, like, what's, like, on the other side - like, it's the train on our one side, what's on the other side?
Greg 10:39
Andrel and Drix.
Jack 10:42
Okay. I think I'm just gonna grab it with my lightning web thrower and just try and pull it to the ground.
Guy 10:47
Yeah.
Greg 10:48
Hell yeah. Roll finesse.
Jack 10:49
Okay. So that's nine.
Greg 10:54
All right.
Jack 10:55
Do I get any bonuses with, like, swift?
Greg 10:56
So, so, swift would not give you a bonus on finesse, not in this situation.
Jack 11:02
Okay, so just nine.
Greg 11:04
Yeah, so pick one from the list. Doing it quickly, avoiding trouble, compromise, or cost, doing it impressively, stylishly, or to greater effect.
Jack 11:12
I'm going to avoid trouble.
Greg 11:14
Hell, yeah. You get them in the lightning web. As you pull him down, he's got time, he wriggles some and you see the backpack - he's a ghosts, so it's not like any of the stuff is physically real. The backpack turns into a large falcon, which then swoops around, doing, like, a big circle around everybody, whistling as it breaks into several falcons which whistle towards each of you.
Hannah 11:44
Oh, that's not great.
Pip 11:45
Bugger.
Greg 11:47
Drix, your go.
Stefen 11:48
Okay, so we're currently being attacked by whistling birds?
Greg 11:52
Yes.
Stefen 11:53
Okay. If I use an insight...no, no. I'm gonna steel myself against this attack.
Greg 12:00
Which is the one you don't want to do?
Stefen 12:02
I don't want to freeze up or leave myself - or no, I don't want to suffer more trauma or harm.
Greg 12:10
Okay.
Stefen 12:13
Oh, boy, well, I did that. I got a five.
Hannah 12:18
Oh, sweetheart. Oh, buddy.
Greg 12:20
Oh, boy, okay. These things whistle out, Jamu'kha, take one harm, as these things are relatively light, these like, spectral, whistling falcons sort of hurt you a bit. Andrel and Pip, they sort of just bounce harmlessly off of your armor. Drix...Drix, you see the birds come, and you blink and you see an echo, somebody that looks an awful lot like this man but with a slightly different dress sending out a stream of, like, just bullets. So you try to dodge those bullets and you end up, like, smacking into more of these whistling birds. Go ahead and take two harm.
Stefen 13:03
Okay.
Greg 13:05
Drix noticeably reacted to a spot that, like, was not where anything is happening.
Andrel 13:10
Drix, you good?
Drix 13:12
Yeah, yeah. That one, that one smarts a little, but I'll be fine.
Andrel 13:18
All right.
Pip 13:18
He can only have so many of those. I think it's...
Greg 13:24
It's only fair, right?
Pip 13:27
It's, it's supposed to be, like, uncommon and rare.
Greg 13:32
Yeah, so, the spirit, struggling against the lightning web from Jamu'kha, reaches, it reaches its hands by, where, like, a pocket might be and, like, an old flintlock style pistol appears in his hand as though withdrawn from some phantom holster, and he points it at Jamu'kha. Who's going to do a thing? We're at, like, the top of another round, so to speak. So Jack, you can do something if you'd like, or somebody else can do something in response to help Jack...
Stefen 14:01
Can I roll insight to try and, like, get a handle on the situation?
Guy 14:04
I was gonna roll steel to try and, like, take...
