Ep. 32 - A Grudge Settled
As the Pride of Duskwall travels across the Void Sea with a burden that may lead to disaster, they cannot expect to venture unmolested over the water once again. On their last trip, the disturbed bones of an ancient spirit gave rise to a powerful foe that the crew barely escaped. Will a fresh spirit rise on board the Pride for this trip, as some dreaded curse from the Void Sea itself?
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Ghost Lines by John Harper. Music by Sebastian Black. Art by Yoshiko Agresta.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Andrel 0:00
Previously on Ghosts on a Train.
Greg 0:03
Been a while since you've read the arcane script, and it takes it takes you a while, but you know you want to get the spell exactly right. Confine the boy to within the luggage car. You do take long enough that one of the approaching passengers might have seen you.
Drix 0:24
Laudius Dalmore the Second smuggled a body onto the train.
Candace 0:27
If he does die you need to silence him, because we can't, we can't register him.
Greg 0:33
It crashes and, like, goes, recedes back into the water of the Void Sea, but as it recedes back in there, it doesn't fully, and it begins to rise again, coming back around. It appears the entity is some kind of liquid being of massive scale.
Andrel 0:52
Aren't the ghosts usually not on the train? Why are we -
Radio Announcer Greg 0:56
The Pride of Duskwall shines as a cool blue streak traveling across the endless blackness of the Void Sea. Back on land, any light the pitiable sun can yield is smothered by the smog of industry. And yet, it is only in the Inner Void Sea that one can understand a perfect dark. A clear night sky sits at its bottom, with strange stars unlike any in our sky, that are only muddled when the occasional locomotive passes over. Despite its untold fathoms, the Inner Void Sea is lacking the hordes of unquiet dead that plague the Deathlands, with two prominent explanations. Natural philosophy understands that a spirit, like an animal, would seek out land with there is more like to hunt, while those were more spiritual would remark that the Void Sea must be as peaceful for the dead as it is the living, and perhaps a spectre may reconcile by sinking to its depths. Regardless, any aggressive wraith in the Inner Void Sea can be assumed to seek a goal other than lifeforce and utterly divorced from peace.
Greg 2:24
Hello, welcome back to Ghosts on a Train! This is a podcast where we play Ghost Lines, an RPG by John Harper. I'm Greg, your conducter.
Hannah 2:32
I'm -
Greg 2:33
I run the game.
Hannah 2:35
I'm Hannah, I play Andrel Anderson. I don't know why you're laughing so hard.
Greg 2:41
You know, I just heard you, like, shuffling your feet when at first I was gonna start.
Hannah 2:45
Okay?
Guy 2:47
I'm Guy, I play, I play Pip. Barely. Sometimes Pip plays me. We're all one here.
Stefen 2:55
You should really see a doctor about that.
Guy 2:57
I should, but do you know how expensive it is to go to therapy right now?
Stefen 3:01
Ey, extremely.
Guy 3:04
Healthcare the United States, dab.
Stefen 3:07
What a way to start an episode. I'm Stef -
Greg 3:10
Healthcare dab.
Guy 3:11
Healthcare dab!
Drix 3:11
Yeah, I'm Stefen. I play Drix, who is not a wizard.
Hannah 3:16
Bullshit.
Stefen 3:18
I mean, he's not a wizard.
Hannah 3:19
No, he, bullshit.
Guy 3:22
I mean, clearly he is a warlock or sorcerer.
Greg 3:26
So the reason why we're here just talking about, like, what, what? He's not a wizard? Last time on Ghosts on a Train -
Guy 3:34
He did wizard shit.
Greg 3:35
The Line Bulls only really just got started on their line to Irondale, crossing the Void Sea. Drix was charged by Laudius Dalmore to protect the dying body of Gafou, his dogsbody, a young boy servant, 12 years old, who is currently in the freight boxcar in a box designed to both maintain his body and also hopefully try to keep his spirit inside. Drix took charge of this and used a small arcane trinket. Using the human magics left within, channeled through a spell in a scroll, text that only Drix could read, revealing some magical expertise that he claims to have learned from Severosi magicians. Trevor knows, as well as fellow Line Bulls Andrel and Pippin, about the boy. Candace also knows, while she is unhappy and gave the ultimatum that should Gafou's spirit escape to silence it immediately, as this sort of thing cannot be noted on any official registers for the Imperial Railways. And we will pick up there, as you guys are currently crossing the Void Sea, within the crew car.
Pip 4:04
Do you guys remember last time we came through here?
Andrel 4:56
Yeah. Hadn't fought a demon yet.
Pip 5:01
I mean, not, like, here specifically, but just, like, Void Sea.
Drix 5:05
Yeah, we haven't been over this this specific rail yet, but yeah, I understand.
Pip 5:13
If you would like to see the map of the locations that we have and have not been, please check our Twitter. I don't know who that's to. I just felt compelled to say it.
Andrel 5:24
I never have any idea what you guys are talking about, as usual.
Stefen 5:29
I mean, I feel like Twitter has come up before, but I'm still kinda lost on it.
Andrel 5:34
Anyway, feel like we should try and do something fun. But also, I can't stop thinking about the almost dead child in a box on the train.
Pip 5:46
Aren't we all, like, almost dead children, metaphorically speaking?
Drix 5:51
Well, at least you and I are not children. I would hope all three of us aren't almost dead. But Pip, would you like to tell me something?
Pip 6:01
Sometimes I can hear my liver screaming.
Drix 6:06
That is deeply unsettling and also completely expected.
Andrel 6:13
Okay, this line sucks so far.
Gafou 6:17
Andrel, out the window, you can see a placid surface of the Inner Void Sea, with those stars shining from their bottom that do not match the stars in the sky. But you also see bobbing along the top, something like shapes traveling. First one, then two, a couple. They all seem kind of uniform in shape, but it's too far away for it to be anything but, like, a weird blob or something. But something seems to be bobbing its way.
Andrel 6:49
Guys, do you see the bobbing thing? We, should we be worried about this?
Drix 6:54
Usually is the answer.
Andrel 6:55
Yeah, right.
Pip 6:56
Typically, yes.
Andrel 6:57
Okay.
Hannah 6:58
Do we have the Owl goggles out? Can I, like, peek through the Owl goggles and try to see what it is? Or I can just roll an insight. I always forget I can do that.
Greg 7:07
I mean, yeah, that can be that, the method by which you...
Stefen 7:10
Just pop on the Owl goggles.
Hannah 7:11
All right, yeah, I'll just kind of grab the Owl goggles and look through and try to, try to have some insight. Oh, I pass!
Greg 7:22
Which means you get two questions.
Hannah 7:24
Yeah!
Greg 7:24
With your, what is it, Sly?
Hannah 7:26
Yes I am. I rolled an eight. I think I will go with what's really going on here for the first one, in regards to blob thing.
Greg 7:35
Yeah, I mean, those are coming up spirit. There's at least... six.
Hannah 7:41
Goddamnit.
Greg 7:42
There's at least six of these blobs that are reading spirit from here.
Hannah 7:45
Hmm. Okay. I'll hold the other one. I feel like that's what I wanted out of this.
Greg 7:52
Okay.
Andrel 7:53
Um, hey, yeah, those are, those are, those are ghosties. Those are ghostie whosties. Should probably deal with them.
Pip 8:00
Is it time to suit up then? Already?
Andrel 8:02
Yeah.
Drix 8:03
Man, they wasted no time on this one.
Pip 8:06
I feel like we've wasted a lot of time already.
Greg 8:10
What roles are you going to suit up in?
Hannah 8:12
Classics?
Stefen 8:13
Yeah.
Hannah 8:15
Yeah.
Stefen 8:15
Classics works fine.
Guy 8:15
Classics.
Hannah 8:15
I'll go for Spider, then.
Stefen 8:17
Then I shall take the Rook.
Greg 8:19
Hell yeah.
Hannah 8:21
Who needs an Owl?
Greg 8:23
You guys, you guys gonna pop up through the freight car, or just, or any other particular exit point?
Hannah 8:30
I have nothing in mind in particular.
Greg 8:32
It'll just depend on who you, like, who you bump into. Theoretically.
Hannah 8:37
Maybe we should avoid Candace.
Greg 8:41
Yeah, you can exit through any of the little areas between cars.
Stefen 8:44
Yeah.
Greg 8:44
We've, we've established that. There are hatches between each car.
Hannah 8:47
Okay.
Stefen 8:48
Maybe we'll just go out between the passenger and the crew car.
Greg 8:51
Yeah, yeah. You guys start to climb out, and you see some of the passengers are looking on, some of the passengers are looking on with some amount of concern. Mr. McClaremont sort of waves away the concern of the Burned King priest, but the Elysian with the tower of silvery hair looks concerned, and in fact, looks specifically at Drix with some amounts of disdain.
Stefen 9:18
Fucking Polnareff.
Greg 9:21
And yeah, so you guys climb up top. You can see them now. From here, they look like bits of water. You see, like, they're, like, amorphous forms, but you see stubs that seem to definitely be, like, limbs, from each. They're maybe going to get more shape as they get closer. But for now, who wants to lead the Bulls against the supernatural?
Hannah 9:41
Anyone particularly - I feel like we haven't had Pip lead in a while.
Guy 9:44
I lead the last one!
Stefen 9:46
Oh, yeah. I guess I haven't lead in a while.
Hannah 9:48
Okay.
Stefen 9:49
You know what, I'll take it.
Hannah 9:50
I will follow your orders without hesitation.
Greg 9:53
Yeah, so the, the only, have you clean your apprenticeship, yes. You don't have the support of another gang. You don't have a Bulll in every other role, so that's currently a zero. Yeah, swear to follow his orders?
Hannah 10:04
Mm hmm.
Greg 10:05
Pip, you follow, swear to follow his orders?
Guy 10:07
Of course.
Greg 10:08
You have not worked this line before, so we're going to take a minus one. So a total minus one.
Stefen 10:13
Okay. Let's do it. Oof, that's a six.
Greg 10:18
Okay, so you don't get to pick any of the special things, but you can make the opening move.
Stefen 10:22
Okay. I think Drix is going to immediately, like, level his heavy lightning hook and try and blast the nearest one before it can, like, reach.
Greg 10:33
All right, go ahead and roll me force.
Stefen 10:36
That would be a nine.
Greg 10:38
Okay, which one do you pick?
Stefen 10:39
Um, I want to do great harm.
Greg 10:42
Hell yes.
Guy 10:43
Starting off strong.
Stefen 10:45
There's, like, six ghosts here.
Greg 10:47
There's, like, six ghosts here. Might as well go nuts. So yeah, extra, that's, like, five coming at this thing. You heft the heavy lightning hook, you level it. These things are sort of bobbing at a predictable pattern, bobbing together. You zap with the heavy lightning hook, one of these fingers, you see the water portion of it bursts, like, maybe whatever membrane might have been carrying it bursts. It splashes. The water that makes these things up doesn't have, like, the, the stars reflected in it, so you can sort of tell the difference. As you blast it like that, you realize that there's an entire area spread among these six blob things that also doesn't have the stars, and your watch as the all together slap sideways into the Void Sea, as emerging from the Void Sea is a massive water spirit, with many limbs, many wings, the horrible hurricane with teeth that you only cleared on your last Void Sea crossing.
Andrel 11:55
Ohhhhhhh.
Greg 11:55
That, by the way, only took half of that five because you were only aiming at one of its, one of its little hand-limb-things.
Drix 12:07
Dammit.
Greg 12:07
This thing has suckered you in. For Drix, it lets out a, you know, another horrible, horrible, "GUWOAH," that reminds you of your horrible flight, desperate flight, rather, to Iruvia. This thing seems determined to follow you until it is captured or silenced. It leaps out of the water -
Guy 12:27
That's new.
Greg 12:27
- this time with clear intention not to slam the train like before, but to knock you off of the train, Drix.
Stefen 12:36
Oh, no!
Greg 12:37
It's massive. You're the first receive its, its full weight. Go ahead and take a major manifestation attack, that's three.
Stefen 12:46
Oof.
Hannah 12:47
Yikes.
Greg 12:47
Andrel, Pippin, and Drix, you are all currently in danger of falling off the trail as right now this thing's sort of passing over you, like, like, like a wave, like a fierce wave. And you're, you've got your magnet boots on, but you might fall, fall off the train at this point as this thing sort of passes over you.
Hannah 13:07
Can I do a finesse roll to try and, try and get myself and the other two, like, stabilized? Like, grab arms and position, reestablish a center of gravity and all that?
Guy 13:19
It might be better if I did a steel roll for that, because I know you've got better, like, offensive stats.
Hannah 13:26
Yeah, I just, well, you can - I figure if I can help all of us then you two will still have free moves rather than you just doing yourself. If you want me to just grab Drix...
Guy 13:40
Well, I was thinking, like, if I could try and steel myself and, like, hang on to the both of you using my steel, that would still leave you open to attack because my fighting is no good.
Hannah 13:52
Okie doke.
Greg 13:53
That's possible. Also, Stefen, don't forget you do have that barrier.
Stefen 13:58
Oh, yes.
Greg 14:00
So subtract one from that three harm.
Stefen 14:02
Yes.
Greg 14:03
But,...
