Play By Podcast

The bridge of the Vehement was preternaturally calm, given the circumstances. Ambrose Belgard, on the other hand, was not. He sat alone on the quiet, dark bridge, slumped in his chair staring out onto the bright red sphere of Mars below him. The mesas, the mountain faces, the green expanses of ocean.

And the Amano capital ships hovering just in low orbit above it all, their dropships still descending.

The other houses hadn’t mobilized their forces yet. That was worrisome. At this rate the Amanos would be ready for them when they did manage to muster a response. All across Mars the Amano fleets loomed in a way that made Ambrose’s stomach tie in knots. It reminded him of something he’d only read about, or heard stories third hand from dockworkers in the Freeholds.

Allies taking up arms against allies. Mercenary contractors picking at the bones of the still bleeding. Betrayal from the highest laying the lowest even lower.

It reminded him of the Kennet Rebellion. It reminded him of the First Jovian War.

And his team were in the thick of it.

*

In today’s episode, something is up in the Cydonian sector as the Martian skies fill with the ships of House Amano. How will our freelancing heroes respond to this new looming threat? This week enemies become allies, we make some tense preparations, and try to negotiate a shaky truce with a haughty heir. How will it shake out? Find out here!

This week on Play By Podcast: Territory Nouveau 03: Quite the Fortuitous Meeting

Play By Podcast is Michael Collins (@arealwriter), Leon Barnes (@SlapKatZ), Liam Higgins(@liamhiggins97), and Max Coe (@_NotMyDivision_)
Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)
Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

“The Wingard’s Anchor assembly plant in the Cydonian sector went dark a few days ago. House Wingard is furious, obviously.

Last transmission from security was a run-of-the-mill all hands call for the night shift.

After that, nothing.

No one in, no one out, not even the factory techs. Anything that gets close to the place in plain view either gets shot down or blown up by something on-site. Something that hits very, very hard.

Most likely a number of Anchors rolled the factory overnight, though no demands have been made and no allegiances declared. We don’t know who’s sponsoring the other side but they paid for some premium muscle.

Letter of the contract from Queen MAB says get planetside, assess the situation, and pacify the targets so the Gentry can get back to making their money. I’ll leave the definition of “pacify” to your discretion.

That’ll be all, people.”

-Ambrose Belgarde, Captain of the Vehement, Briefing Minutes Section C

*

In today’s episode, we get into our first session of actual play after a quick refresher on the system. Our luck is all over the place this week as a mission to a Martian gulch brings back old anxieties in Scarlett, Bete’s Anchor takes a beating, and Otto’s first engagement leaves him wondering if he’s really cut out for life among the freelancers. Will the team pull itself together or be blown apart? Find out this week!

This week on Play By Podcast: Territory Nouveau 02: Human Squabbles

Play By Podcast is Michael Collins (@arealwriter), Leon Barnes (@SlapKatZ), Liam Higgins(@liamhiggins97), and Max Coe (@_NotMyDivision_)

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

“I was fifteen years old, the last time the Union tried to take back the Freeholds. A ‘fact of life’ my mother told me. Happens periodically. Been happening forever, shit. And we’ve pushed them back every time, them and Kennet’s damned Commonwealth. Every time, for centuries. Like clockwork.

Let’s look at the state of things, folks. Our forebearers watched the Solar Union collapse. Saw it reborn as the ghoulish bastard-thing it is now. Saw the Jovian’s close ranks. And even apart, they still come after us. They go out of their way to cast hell on our lives. For a mining operation that dried up centuries ago. For sunk costs.

It’s 279-goddamned-3. If they really wanted their colonies back they’d know by now it takes more than a measly little fleet of cruisers to break the Charon Freeholds. So what gives? There’s no profit in it for them, it doesn’t track.

I see it three ways. One, the Gentry are a bigger bunch of incompentent pissants than even we thought. That’s rich. Two, they’ve got a real long con going and one day they’ll send a real armada while our pants are down around our ankles, which ain’t ever likely. Or three, they don’t really want the Charon Freeholds folding back to them.

Those monied bastards still have their hands around our throats, they just want to keep reminding us that they could crush us if they wanted. Anytime.”

* Linwood Berrett, Dockmaster of Charon Alpha, overheard in the Dockside Bar.

*

In today’s episode, we give a rundown of the familiar yet strange expanse known as the Territory: a hellish, hyper-capitalist vision of the Sol system. We talk about the setting’s powerful factions, our odd lot of characters, and the driving ideals behind both. Greedy Galactic Aristocrats? Giant mechs on Mars? A sentient crash test dummy? Still gay? But of course. All that and more to come in this season of Play By Podcast!

This week on Play By Podcast: Territory Nouveau 01: The State of Things

Play By Podcast is Michael Collins (@arealwriter), Leon Barnes (@SlapKatZ), Liam Higgins(@liamhiggins97), and Max Coe (@_NotMyDivision_)

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

To think, no one had ever seen a blue sky before…

In those days, the last days of what was the Interdependency, of what was Shard, we stood defiantly against our own end.

Shoulder to shoulder, as ever in the Interdependency. Staring down the inevitable. Staring down the end. The Miasma. That once dormant sentient mist who had snuffed out all the life that came before us. Across Shard our communities, our friends, our families were safeguarded away, should we fail in this our last-ditch effort to secure all our futures.

And in the First University we toiled and built and worked ourselves to the bone, unaware of just how close we skirted calamity with little more than hope and the leylines to guide us. This would be it. All or nothing, this would be it.

We stared down our inevitable end, and it stared right back.

And one of us was about to blink.

***

In today’s episode, we’ve reached the final chapter of the story of the Interdependency Shuffle. For better and for worse, whatever happens inside the strange otherworld of the Shuffle will change everything. This week we consider giving in to astonishment, strike a few deals, and close out our story.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 26: The Last Days, The Blue Sky

Play By Podcast is Michael Collins (@arealwriter), Leon Barnes (@SlapKatZ), Liam Higgins(@liamhiggins97), and Max Coe (@_NotMyDivision_)

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

Imagine, if you will, a deck of playing cards.

The top card of the deck, we will say, represents this tangible world of ours. The card immediately below that, I hypothesize, represents the intangible plane from where all eldritch ability is drawn.

A plane of leyline energy. An astral plane. Something I call the Shuffle.

My research at the First University has focused heavily on the Shuffle, on traversing the barrier weaved between the planes, interfacing with leyline energy, and drawing power from the Shuffle itself in a tangible, physical form. It is something that, in my small, controlled tests, anyone regardless of ability or training in magical arts has been capable of if they have the heart and willpower to do so. One only need maintain their composure, as the Shuffle has proven volatile in its reaction to the immaterial bounty of raw emotion.

Not only does interacting with the Shuffle offer us the opportunity to physicalize the metaphysical, if I am correct then harnessing the Shuffle’s power could potentially provide thousands of Shardites with access to what was previously only possible through years of study or innate ability.

We can bring magic to everyone.

*

Dissertation on the Shuffle, Scientific Applications of - Bell, Proper New - The First University

In today’s episode, The Wanderers complete their trek to Boon with a trip to the First University, Shard’s oldest and most venerated learning institution. With the doomsday clock ticking down, what solutions will the greatest minds of the Interdependency bring to the table? This week we refuse to get hot for teacher, have a meeting of the minds, and maybe, just maybe find a way to fix all this, if you’re willing to risk it.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 25: The First University

Play By Podcast is Michael Collins (@arealwriter), Leon Barnes (@SlapKatZ), Liam Higgins(@liamhiggins97), and Max Coe (@_NotMyDivision_)

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

BY THE ORDER of General Aspect Abell,

Acting Commander of the Armed Forces of Shard:

All civilian, reserve, and active duty personnel currently residing within the Settlement of Lockstock are hereby instructed to evacuate the area within the next twenty-four hours. Following established emergency protocols, all available transports have been assigned to begin transfer of evacuees from Lockstock to the settlements of Boon, Summit, and Nomad’s Heights effective immediately.

At this time, travel to the settlements of Oxbow, Glasstown, Sandbar, and Port o’ Plenty is deemed ill-advised. Those of you with family or other relatives residing in the settlements not on the evacuation route, please refrain from deviating from current standing evacuation orders.

Those with family or other relatives in settlements along the route will be considered for appropriate relocation, though this serves as no guarantee for such placement.

Please do not return to Lockstock until the all-clear is sounded and confirmed.

Your safety is paramount to me. All of you.

I am assured we will make it through what is to come.

* An emergency bulletin, distributed to the people of Lockstock

*

In today’s episode, we make our not-so-triumphant return from the Miasma after a tense encounter with the Abdicated Throne. The Wanderers warn the people of Lockstock of the coming cataclysm and set their sights on the settlement of Boon for a solution. With only two weeks to save the world, they’re going to have to come up with something good. We get a little shaky, advance the clock, and do experimental science on some car parts.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 24: All the Time We Can Get

Play By Podcast is Michael Collins (@arealwriter), Leon Barnes (@SlapKatZ), Liam Higgins(@liamhiggins97), and Max Coe (@_NotMyDivision_)

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

Seeing his sister again, here in this place, Orion was of two minds. He had been of two minds for some time now, but the feeling still left him uneasy.

Everything came with a kind of duality: Panic and placid calm, fight and flight overlapping into inaction, familiarity and otherness. He stood tall before them in the clearing, his every emotion, his every action delayed or belaid by the will of another. His inner monologue now more than ever a dialogue.

It was all his fault. What was going to happen to her. To her friends.

But of course it was good that she was here. It meant she would survive what was coming. Wasn’t that something to celebrate? Of course it was.

Both voices were his own. It seemed that he fought only himself. Had it been this way all this time?

Had he warned Leela away from here of his own volition or had Lady Pluma allowed him to reach out? Did she need his sister as well?

Did he want her to be a part of all of this? To become a subject of the Abdicated Throne? His own voice, whether his conscience or something else, answered:

Better to accept the Gift than die a slow death from what was to come.

*

In today’s episode, the Wanderers stay skeptical as they explore the Keep of the Abdicated Throne, an eldritch location found deep in the Emerald Firth with ties to the Miasma, and to the mysterious Pluma. Who or what is she? What are her plans for DeGrasse? What does she know that our intrepid Wanderers don’t? We get cleaned up (again), start a ticking clock, and contemplate a change of careers.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 23: What She Wants

Play By Podcast is Michael Collins (@arealwriter), Leon Barnes (@SlapKatZ), Liam Higgins(@liamhiggins97), and Max Coe (@_NotMyDivision_)

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

It had been awhile since she had entertained guests. She hoped she would still prove an adequate host. She could not afford to be inhospitable at a time like this.

Not with so much on the line.

She did not often ask her subjects to make their way to this place, to her home. Often simply entering the Miasma under her influence was enough. But that influence could only reach so far outside without straining her, and she needed to be at her full potential for her next guest.

A very special boy, one of exceptional heart and mind and ambition. One who wanted to do good, as she had.

One who could change everything, if he so chose.

*

In today’s episode, the Bazaar crew follow DeGrasse’s lead as they make their way into the Miasma-filled forest of the Emerald Firth. What will our Wanderers find trailing the siren call of the mysterious Pluma? We procure some potions, stitch ourselves up, and contemplate fratricide. It’s that kind of episode.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 22: Undertake a Perilous Journey

Play By Podcast is Michael Collins (@arealwriter), Leon Barnes (@SlapKatZ), Liam Higgins(@liamhiggins97), and Max Coe (@_NotMyDivision_)

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

General Aspect Abell stared out from the battlements atop the walls of Lockstock, peering down onto the clearing below.

Their battlefield. The Front.

800 feet of open ground that separated the folk-at-arms of Lockstock from the toxic boundary of the Miasma. Ground pocked with bloodstains, acid scars, and craters of cool molten metal. Ground the scouts had told them they were losing slowly but surely by the day.

Aspect was exhausted. They were sure that all of them were. The uptick in Aberration incursions, the Miasma now on the move.

It seemed again, they thought, like the end of days.

Aspect, ever the leader, put up their brave and stoic front once more, and began heading down for morning chow. As their bootfalls echoed down the long stairway, they noticed another, distant noise carried in on a morning breeze.

A sound approaching through the forest. A cacophony to beat the din of hell itself. A great and a terrible thundering, a howling and a crashing of fallen trees.

And a heavy fall of wings.

*

In today’s episode, Sierra is back! She may not be at her best but an incoming Aberration attack means she won’t have a lot of time for R&R. And who’s that once-friendly face leading the Aberrations? We walk through a rain of fire, have a family reunion, and one of us becomes the Special Boy.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 21: To the Front

Play By Podcast is Michael Collins (@arealwriter), Leon Barnes (@SlapKatZ), Liam Higgins(@liamhiggins97), and Max Coe (@_NotMyDivision_)

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

Life in Lockstock was a bit harder than it had been in Port ‘o Plenty, sure. Her skills didn’t really suit the place. She was no fighter, no grand strategic mind.

But to her credit Suri was getting used to it.

Getting used to sleeping in the quieter alleys and keeping to herself in the daytime. Getting used to switching aliases with what acquaintances she had made. Getting used to hiding her face in public, keeping her head low, and avoiding eye contact in case someone might recognize her.

Suri the Engineer from Port ‘o Plenty. Suri, the one who caused the Incident. Suri, the Jaxx whose picture made all the papers that week.

The streets of Lockstock were by no measure the loft above Tor’s shop, and they were leaps and bounds away from her old lab, but it was the reality of things now, so like the people of Lockstock she soldiered on.

She missed her old life. Her old friend. Though, all things considered, would Lyra miss her?

Suri almost hoped she’d never have the chance to ask.

*

In today’s episode, while Sierra is on the mend in a Lockstock field hospital, DeGrasse and Lyra have to learn to get along without their surrogate road-mom. A chase in the nighttime streets of the settlement signals the return of a friendly face, though some are happier to see them than others. We take a stroll with one of the most powerful people in Shard, argue with medical professionals, and interrogate our besties.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 20: One Night in Lockstock

Play By Podcast is Michael Collins (@arealwriter), Leon Barnes (@SlapKatZ), Liam Higgins(@liamhiggins97), and Max Coe (@_NotMyDivision_)

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)