Play By Podcast

Suri had spent the hours since her failed test run with Lyra and her new friends feverishly reassessing her original calculations, crunching new numbers, and reconfiguring her runes. Something DeGrasse had said, as simple as it had seemed at the time, had really stuck with her.

“Send me to Oxbow.” he’d said, but that would be impossible. Undoable. Unthinkable with the technology in its current state, she thought.

Unless.

Originally she had split the leyline energy between two points. An easy enough conclusion: Start at one point, end at the other. But this, this was a completely different, even more exciting prospect. If she hyper-focused it all through one rune. Coded the right coordinates. Maybe.

Her teleporter would work this time. She knew it would. If she ever hoped to make her mark on Shard it had to work.

She’d stake her reputation on it, if she had a reputation.

Her retrofitted machine whirred to life, drawing in arcane energies from the great leylines themselves like water from a rushing river, bending the very fabric of reality to her whim. Approximately, at least.

At least Tor wouldn’t be able to shout at her if this went poorly.

In today’s episode, the Miasma comes to Shard in a very big way as the Wanderers work through a falling out within the trio. This week we’ve got portal mishaps, the last remnants of Big Boy Season, and regret as Michael realizes the scale of what he’s done. He’s very sorry, Laura.

*

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 10: The Battle of Port ‘o Plenty Pt. 1

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

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

The Orion Greyfeather of before, he was certainly dead now. Yet what remained was inexplicably still him, that old self in a new shell. The Highwing. The son of merchants. The coward.

It was all still him, mostly.

He had managed to reach out, managed to warn Leela without drawing too much attention, but now he felt that he had only complicated matters for his sister and her friends. They grew more distant, surely he could feel them moving away, heeding his warnings, but he knew somewhere deep down that this would not be the end of things. He should have known she’d be stubborn.

As he and his ghastly host staggered, stalked, and shambled among the great green trees that surrounded them, he kept a part of himself leashed to that book, that damnable almanac. His only link back to what had once been his home. He was certain she would want a word with him again soon.

*

In today’s episode, the Wanderers touch down in Port o’ Plenty, the trade and commercial hub of the Interdependency and home of the Greyfeather mercantile clan. What’s there to do around our Lyra’s old stomping grounds? Experimenting with old friends, seeing a familiar face in a not-so-familiar crowd, and having a genuinely upsetting conversation with your parents, and that’s just for starters.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 09: The Prodigal Daughter

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

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

He should never have come to this place. He hazarded to think this, to dissent, as he well knew now that his thoughts were no longer his own private purview.

There was something else in here with him now.

He had been a coward when he left home, he should have stayed a coward, not followed some frantic beacon of will out into the damned Miasma. That will had not been his own, but it had called to him just the same. Directionless as he was he followed.

Something was coming to Shard. He knew. He had seen it. Spoken with it. It had, in its own grotesque grace, bestowed something to him. Some ability the limits of which he did not yet know.

He knew he needed to warn someone. To warn her. Warn Leela. And so he summoned what power was available to him in secret. 

And he reached out.

*

In today’s episode, we take a moment to catch our breath with some enlightening downtime in the city of Sandbar. What news awaits our Wanderer’s in the sleepy little settlement? We drink moonshine with a dog priest, learn some unwelcome truths, and take a good look at a mysterious book. Call your brother

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle  08: In the Farther’s Almanac

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

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)
Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

He should never have come to this place. He hazarded to think this, to dissent, as he well knew now that his thoughts were no longer his own private purview.

There was something else in here with him now.

He had been a coward when he left home, he should have stayed a coward, not followed some frantic beacon of will out into the damned Miasma. That will had not been his own, but it had called to him just the same. Directionless as he was he followed.

Something was coming to Shard. He knew. He had seen it. Spoken with it. It had, in its own grotesque grace, bestowed something to him. Some ability the limits of which he did not yet know.

He knew he needed to warn someone. To warn her. Warn Leela. And so he summoned what power was available to him in secret.

And he reached out.

*

In today’s episode, we take a moment to catch our breath with some enlightening downtime in the city of Sandbar. What news awaits our Wanderer’s in the sleepy little settlement? We drink moonshine with a dog priest, learn some unwelcome truths, and take a good look at a mysterious book. Call your brother.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 08: In the Farther’s Almanac

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

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

An excerpt from the journal of Bumphrey Hogart, Privateer Captain:

“The boy, Caedmon, he seems excited to begin our little thought experiment. I don’t misunderstand his enthusiasm, he’s entitled to it. He lost as much as I did in the Fire. Maybe more.

I appreciate his efforts, he’s the closest thing I have to a real confidant, even more than Sibilance, but I do sometimes question his eagerness to do harm. When I told him the cost of our endeavor, our vengeance, his only qualm was that he be the voice, the face of our little club when the time came.

I was the Captain of the Privateers, what did I care?

His ideologies suit my purpose, his vision of a world without Wanderers, a return to antiquity, would play well in the streets of Glasstown, and anything that brought more minds to our side was of use.

He’s come a long way from the boy I found sulking in the Iron Forge, it will be something to see when he’s reached his full potential. As long as he’s pointed in the right direction when the time comes.”

*

In today’s episode, the Privateers are closing in and the window for escape is shrinking ever faster. Caedmon Hightower joins the brawl in Asstown and the Deviants make a violent push in the Mercantile district. What’s in store this week? Fighting our ex with sarcasm, grounding a birdman, and tossing classists all over the shop.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 06: Send Me On My Way

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

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)

An unsent letter, penned somewhere in Glasstown:

I’m conflicted, Sierra.

Conflicted over everything I used to be so sure of. My life. This town. You. Us. Was I just a distraction, like Bazeen said? Something for your spare time? Someone to entertain you? Were you play-acting your way through my vulnerabilities all along? What did any of this mean to you, really?

I lose sleep thinking about the you I thought I was so sure of. What you would say. How you would make this all make sense. How could that person have done all this? To my friends? To my town? To me? You didn’t even say goodbye, didn’t even offer an apology, no you disappeared like a coward. You left me holding the baggage, taking the blame, and everything I ever wanted went up in smoke with you.

*

In today’s episode, we’ve got trouble right here in Glasstown and it’s B-I-G big. Past relationships come back to bite a particular Immolator in the ass and the clock is ticking on whether or not our intrepid trio will make it out in one piece. We burn down a head shop, get the drop on the cops, and someone’s getting shot with a crossbow bolt whether they like it or not.

This week on Play By Podcast: The Interdependency Shuffle 06: She Knows Her Very Well

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

Cover Art by Ariel Corrales (@arielcorrales_)

Music by Cody Ojea (@SixChordCircus)