The Spirit of Twilight pushes through mists that hide the Dagger Isles from the rest of the Imperium. Blind as they are, they fall hopelessly into the trap of one of the deathlands' many spirits- but a third party intervenes! A devilish figure with a Harlequin mask; but ultimately is she friend or foe? Days later, a journalist comes to write a review of the Pride of Duskwall on a trip full of particularly important passengers. Pippin conspires with a criminal. Drix hides from an old enemy. Andrel tries to put words to a feeling.

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For the full transcript, go to https://ghosts-on-a-train.captivate.fm/episode/ep-27-enter-harlequin

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

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TRANSCRIPT:

Radio Announcer Greg? 0:00

The Spirit of Twilight slides through the mist surrounding the Dagger Isles. Despite its moniker, the spirit is no ghost, but a locomotive of the Imperial Railways. The people of the Dagger Isles have no need for the train's lightning oil, though their secrets of survival are clouded by the obscuring miasma. Apprehensive in the mist, three Line Bulls stand atop the locomotive to shepherd its freight safely to Irondale from the remote city of Mistport. They circle around the fourth Bull, who has experienced too much on this trip. His mind is shattered, and he will retire if he survives this line. A hidden vouyer watches as a specter emerges from the mist to finish them off, and their posture tenses as she prepares to intervene.

Greg 0:43

Jolene, do you recognize anything about this spirit?

Jolene 0:47

Yeah, I think, I think this spirit has, like, a longer cloak with, with an insignia. Probably some old industrial company -

Greg 0:57

Yes, yes.

Jolene 0:58

- that manufactured some small bits, pieces, here and there.

Greg 1:02

From this cloak, as it appears, it produces, like, a horrible spectral lantern. And as the light shines, a shadow crosses it suddenly. Jolene, could you please describe to us, the Harlequin?

Jolene 1:17

The Harlequin flips through the sky, carving a dark silhouette against the darker night, and, with a full front flip, onto her feet directly. The sharp lines along her arms and along her legs seem to glow with lightning oil being pumped through them. In her hands is some kind of web thrower tool, but not quite, something about it is a little a little off, a little different. And clad on her face, almost lit up by the service lights on the train, you can see one of those tragedy-comedy masks completely overlaid on her face.

Greg 1:48

Hell yes.

Jolene 1:49

And she looks over and she says -

The Harlequin 1:50

This is where you get off, buddy.

Greg 1:53

The other Bulls, one of them, one of them who is Elysian, is like -

Bull 1:57

Mon deau! The Harlequin!

Greg 1:58

And the, one of the others says -

Bull 2:01

I guess that reporter lady wasn't lying.

Greg 2:03

And the, the third says -

Bull 2:06

Oh man, she's gonna give us such a bad review.

Bull 2:09

If reviews are what you're worried about, kid, you're never gonna get out of here alive.

The Harlequin 2:13

You can get out of here alive if you just simply pay attention to your commands. Oh, and forget about this shot!

Jolene 2:20

And I'm gonna, I'm gonna, like, just launch my lightning thrower at the at the guy's lantern to kind of try to yank it.

Greg 2:26

Well, I was gonna say, I think right now you have taken command of the situation. You are leading these Bulls against the supernatural.

Jolene 2:32

Alright.

Greg 2:32

So you'll be able to make your opening move, but first, we're going to roll your 2d6, based on several questions. Have you completed your apprenticeship?

Jolene 2:41

Yes, yes.

Greg 2:42

We've decided you have not completed your journeymanship or the, or are you a Master Line Bull. You do not have the support of another gang. You have Bulls in every role. You have worked this line before, we'll say.

Jolene 2:52

Yeah, I've worked, I've worked lines all around.

Greg 2:54

Yeah, you've probably worked, like, almost everywhere. For reasons. You've been around. What do you say?

Jolene 3:01

I say -

The Harlequin 3:02

If you want to live, you will listen to me.

Greg 3:03

Yeah, they all snap to attention.

The Harlequin 3:05

And if you don't, I may have your souls for dinner.

Greg 3:08

The one, the one who was despairing about the reporter lady, like, shakes a little bit. You hear, like, the clinking of metal. But he'll, he'll listen.

The Harlequin 3:17

Beautiful.

Jolene 3:18

Alright, so what was that plus?

Greg 3:20

Roll 2d6, and it's a plus one total.

Jolene 3:23

All right, well, that was a four total.

Greg 3:26

Heck.

Jolene 3:26

Off to a resounding start.

Greg 3:28

Okay, you are not able to do any of the exciting new things. But you can make your opening move as this thing is...the, yeah, it waves that foul lantern about. You weren't able to seize the initiative, so go ahead and take two trauma for, like, approaching a ghost, as the lantern itself just sort of menaces everybody in the area. So take two trauma to start with, but then you can also make your opening move with finesse.

Genevieve 3:54

Okay, yeah. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my specialized web thrower and I'm going to target his lantern and kind of try to drag it down. He has to, like, either let go of it and lose control of this very valuable possession of his, or he's going to get dragged down to the ground with it.

Greg 4:10

Hell yes.

Jolene 4:12

So now that is going to be a...four.

Greg 4:16

Ooh, okay.

Jolene 4:17

So The Harlequin has a very tough start.

Greg 4:21

You open up - you go to yank the lantern, you yank it, and you watch as it flies from this thing's hands, the cloak sort of like falls off into the fog as thought there was, like, never figure inside of it. The lantern is pulled among the Bulls. And you see -

Greg 4:36

Well, I guess, I guess you really do know what you're talking about, Guardian De -

Greg 4:42

And the one Line Bull gets picked up as a spectral hand comes out of the lantern that is now among the Line Bulls, and the cloaked figures sort of steps out from underneath the lantern. Currently grasping the Anchor in one hand, it picks the lantern back up and now it's among you, all threatening to stuff you into its cloak.

Genevieve 4:59

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to run full speed, and do sort of a slide kick to try to knock the lantern far away from these people.

Greg 5:07

Hell Yes. I believe in you.

Jolene 5:10

Yeah, I switched up my dice. So that's plus finesse, that's gonna be a 10.

Greg 5:14

Fuck yes! Okay, that's two things. What do you want to do? Quickly, avoid trouble, compromise, or cost, or do it impressively, stylishly, to greater effect?

Genevieve 5:22

Impressively, stylishly and to greater effect, absolutely. Was that was that one thing or is that two things?

Jolene 5:27

You get two things, actually.

Jolene 5:28

Okay. And the other one is, um...

Greg 5:31

You could do it quickly, or avoid trouble, compromise, or costs.

Genevieve 5:34

I think I'm gonna do it quickly.

Greg 5:36

Hell yes. Okay, so the Anchor gets lifted up, and he's like -

Bull 5:39

Ah!

Greg 5:40

As this horrible ghost is just, like, breathing sinisterly at him, about to stuff him into the cloak, just haaaa, and, slide kick the lantern. You watch as the, the cloak, once again, it's, like, this thing's definitely tethered to this, like, spectral lantern, it gets knocked away. The Anchor goes flying and is dropped, but you have actually kicked the lantern over towards the, the despairing Bull. And, yeah, as the lantern light catches them, you watch. Their face goes white and this thing, the, the cloaked, the cloaked spirit once again bursts from the lantern and just entirely engulfs that Bull. The, the one Bull that was, like, shaking and scared shouts up -

Bull 6:22

Clermont, no!

The Harlequin 6:23

If you want to end up like Clermont, you will stay! Otherwise get your ass in gear!

Bull 6:29

Yeah, yeah. Oh!

Greg 6:30

They fire up their lightning hook.

Bull 6:33

You're a Spider, right lady?

Genevieve 6:35

Yeah! Yes, is, in a way.

Bull 6:38

All right. I'll catch it!

Greg 6:40

And they get their lightning hook. I'm just gonna need a roll from you to get that bad boy in.

Genevieve 6:46

There we go! A four. All right, these dice are also going in the pile.

Greg 6:52

Oh no! Oh gosh.

Genevieve 6:59

I just, I'm just gonna be going through all my d6s.

Greg 7:01

So yeah, you go, you try to, you try to pull it in. The lightning hook breaks, and he gets a pinned to the top of the train and sort of, like, scraped along by the hand that isn't holding the lantern as this thing - unlike that other guy that it absorbed, it, like, pushes this one to the side and sort of looms over you, Harlequin. It's realized that you're the one that's sort of, like, in control here.

Genevieve 7:25

Oh, mou senour, this is trouble!

Greg 7:27

The Anchor, from behind, fires up their electric field, sort of stands over you and, like, offers, like, a hand.

Bull 7:34

Now or never, lady!

Genevieve 7:35

Well, um, I guess we give it one more go! I did not expect this one to be so much trouble. I suppose that's the way things go.

Jolene 7:46

That would be a nine. I'll take it.

Greg 7:48

Yes! Hell yes! Which one do you want to do as you absorb this ghost?

Genevieve 7:54

I think at this point avoid compromise or costs, at this point. It's, there's, there's been enough of those.

Greg 7:59

Yeah, there's a lot of struggling, the one scared Bull with the lightning hook gets free from the hand as you start to catch the spirit into lightning bottle, and it lets out one final "haaaaa" as it goes into the bottle, pulled by the web. You, Harlequin, are pulled to your feet by this Anchor.

Bull 8:20

Thanks an awful lot! We got to thank that associate of yours, Genevieve, down by the way.

The Harlequin 8:26

Oh, yes, if you go back you should see her. But I must go now. I, my place is on the back of this train. Farewell!

Jolene 8:31

And I'm going to, I'm going to kind of do a very dramatic, like, fall off the side of the train.

Greg 8:37

Hell yes. The one scared Bull is like -

Bull 8:41

Whoa, wait, so, is she, like, always living on the back of the train?

Greg 8:47

And the Elysian who was the Owl is like -

Greg 8:51

Of course not, you idiots! I...

Greg 8:54

God, now I've got, now I've got a bad, I've got a horrible French accent.

Jolene 8:58

You're doing fine!

Bull 8:59

Of course not, you idiot. She merely means she has our backs.

Greg 9:05

And they clunk their way on down to the bottom of the Spirit of Twilight, and go into the inside of the Spirit of Twilight. And down there we find Genevieve Paquet, a reporter. As the train pulls into Irondale on the coast of Severos describe to me Genevieve.

Genevieve 9:23

Yes, so Genevieve is, she's got like long, long dark hair. She's kind of got a little, I think right now she's wearing a little, like, pageboy cap. She's got, like, very, like, light makeup on, a long, like, brown trenchcoat. She's kind of a tall woman with some pretty nice clinking boots. She's got, like, a bunch of camera equipment strapped around her and stuff. And she's, she's very eagerly thanking, like, the conductor of the train, like -

Genevieve 9:51

Ah, merci, beaucoup! It's such a lovely train. You never see the sights so much as you can from outside of the window and, oh, so sorry that, that some of your Bulls were a little injured but I'm sure they will be okay. Please, please send them my loveliest regards. They were, they were such peaches.

Bull 10:10

Well, way I see it, um, you know, all of us that, that got out there, it's just because of your friend. We all, we all know the dangers when we take this job.

Genevieve 10:19

She is always there when I need her. I cannot ask for more.

Greg 10:23

The Elysian tips, tips, a hat. The, the, the guy who's the Anchor leaves, pats the scared Bull on the back, and the scared Bull goes to awkwardly leave and I think, I think maybe bumps into Genevieve. And some some pictures fall to the grounds of Harlequin's battle, pictures of, like, underneath the cloaked figure, the, the appearance.

Genevieve 10:50

As you can see, I was a little busy while you were fighting.

Bull 10:54

Oh, wow. Gosh. Wow. These are really impressive pictures. Are you - ?

Genevieve 10:58

If you could help me...

Bull 10:59

Where were you?

Genevieve 11:00

I am the only one that the Harlequin will allow to photograph her.

Bull 11:05

Most Bulls wouldn't let reporters photograph on account of how dangerous it is! You, wow. You're a, you're a brave lady to take these.

Genevieve 11:13

You know, I have my trade secrets.

Jolene 11:16

I wink. You can't they can't hear my wink, but I...

Greg 11:21

Yes. Yeah, I think he leaves, and maybe Genevieve, as Genevieve, you, you put the pictures back. It's a good thing that he didn't rifle through them some, because the Harlequin mask is probably also underneath there.

Genevieve 11:35

Oh, good lord. Oh, boy. That was a rough one.

Greg 11:42

When you show up, there is Stev Ankhayat, who has just taken the train in from Sunfall.

Genevieve 11:48

Stev, mon ami!

Greg 11:50

Stev is an Iruvian reporter that was previously met by the crew of the Pride of Duskwall.

Stev 11:57

Genevieve! Genevieve, my girl, is great to see you! Ah, come over here! Mwa, mwa!

Genevieve 12:02

Such a darling! Oh, the line went not as great as expected. But I got the pictures! And I got the article. The food was actually not too bad. I actually had some delightful little stuffed fried mushrooms.

Stev 12:15

Let me tell you, let me tell you, those Severosi, they know how to fry a mushroom!

Genevieve 12:20

Mm hmm. So what do you got? You got another job for me?

Greg 12:23

Yes, yes. I have...