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These Solitary Defilements! Book 1 - Chapter 2 · These Solitary Defilements! - A Dark Fantasy Mörk Borg Actual Play Serial Novel

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SPEAKER_00: Indeed, and in actual fact, you are listening
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SPEAKER_00: to these Solitary Defilements!
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SPEAKER_00: A dark fantasy serial novel by me, Ryan Leandres, written by the die and doomed to die.
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SPEAKER_00: This solo actual play is going to feature cursed language,
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SPEAKER_00: adult situations, terrible violence, body horror, and the intensely occult.
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SPEAKER_00: If you're a metalhead, you'll be fine.
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SPEAKER_00: The Solitary Defilement of One Ryan Blacklion.
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SPEAKER_00: Book One, Chapter Two, Two Towers.
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SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to These Solitary Defilements with me, your wretched host, Ryan Leandres.
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SPEAKER_00: We left our poor donkey knight walking through an uncanny valley and wondering if
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SPEAKER_00: the strange,
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SPEAKER_00: blasphemed tower that he sees there,
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SPEAKER_00: emerging from the rock,
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SPEAKER_00: leaning like an evil tower of Pisa,
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SPEAKER_00: was the very location that the unclean scroll was perhaps excavated from.
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SPEAKER_00: I wonder if it's true.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, let's use a yes, no, maybe so kind of thing
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SPEAKER_02: that Solitary Defilement gives us.
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SPEAKER_02: Whenever we truly want to let something more abstract hinge on the dice, we can roll a die four.
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SPEAKER_00: A one is a yes,
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SPEAKER_00: a two is a yes but,
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SPEAKER_00: which means there's a complication,
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SPEAKER_00: a three is a no but, and a four is an emphatic no.
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SPEAKER_00: So let's see.
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SPEAKER_00: Was this the spot the most unclean scroll was excavated from?
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SPEAKER_00: One.
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SPEAKER_00: That's a yes.
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SPEAKER_00: This must have been a big operation.
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SPEAKER_00: The excavation of a blasphemed tower
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SPEAKER_02: from a cliff face.
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SPEAKER_02: They would have needed blasting powder, wouldn't they have, my loves?
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SPEAKER_02: Here's another question then.
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SPEAKER_02: Is there still black powder to be found here?
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SPEAKER_02: Yes.
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SPEAKER_02: Yes, but.
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SPEAKER_02: They took it from here, beauty,
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SPEAKER_02: Black Lion finally says to his mount as he traces the tower with his masked eyes.
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SPEAKER_02: The knight could feel a hot buzzing in his middle-aged bones,
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SPEAKER_02: as though his skeleton were bees,
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SPEAKER_02: worried that the queen had been revealed to her enemies.
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SPEAKER_02: His frown matches his steel face.
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SPEAKER_02: Something with a severe gravity was taken from here,
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SPEAKER_02: and now the tower leans cracked and stupid, having lost its evil balance.
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SPEAKER_02: It had to be the scroll.
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SPEAKER_02: Black Lion unslings and readies his heavy blade,
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SPEAKER_02: its own gravity of violence a comfort,
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SPEAKER_02: and coaxes his nervous donkey closer so that he might begin to inspect the grounds.
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SPEAKER_02: He knows he must learn all he can, for there may be clues to Skyr's undoing to be found.
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SPEAKER_02: Approaching the tower, the knight sees that little remains.
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SPEAKER_02: Beauty weaves around grand chunks of cliff,
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SPEAKER_02: sharp like the flints of giants,
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SPEAKER_02: and Black Lion wonders if a brave but foolish bird,
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SPEAKER_02: looking at the dread cliffs of distant and storied Bergen Crypt from on high,
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SPEAKER_02: might see a similar sight.
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SPEAKER_02: Only such stones, like knives, could suit a basilisk for a bed.
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SPEAKER_02: Some of the rock is scorched in a way that he has seen before.
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SPEAKER_02: He wonders at something.
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SPEAKER_02: They pass great piles of rope,
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SPEAKER_02: Broken and intact pulleys with long wooden beams and iron counterweights,
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SPEAKER_02: hastily constructed stablery,
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SPEAKER_02: and pavilions pushed over by weeks of wind and weather.
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SPEAKER_02: He wonders.
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SPEAKER_02: Coming to the tower,
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SPEAKER_02: he finds that its only door is a fissure,
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SPEAKER_02: a great rent in the dark and infernal brick of a quality that gives the night
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SPEAKER_02: a headache to look upon for too long.
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SPEAKER_02: Stone-like whimpering smoke.
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SPEAKER_02: Stone-like cruel smiling.
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SPEAKER_02: It seems to him that the tower is a watchtower and is something lonely.
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SPEAKER_02: As though some sole hellish outpost shot up from the depths of the earth like
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SPEAKER_02: a needle through a witch's doll.
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SPEAKER_02: Black Lion dismounts and pats Beauty's neck to reassure her and his self and moves
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SPEAKER_02: toward the dark rip.
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SPEAKER_02: Beauty stands where she is left and waits, as is her custom and training.
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SPEAKER_02: Slowly and ready, Black Lion peers through the great slash of the tower.
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SPEAKER_02: Inside it is but one chamber and the knight moves into it.
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SPEAKER_02: There is no stair,
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SPEAKER_02: there is no ceiling, but open darkness of a color Black Lion does not recognize.
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SPEAKER_02: And there is no scroll sitting on the empty altar at the center of the floor.
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SPEAKER_02: What is there are three barrels of black powder against the wall.
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SPEAKER_02: They would give Black Lion his roar back.
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SPEAKER_02: But there is also the squirrel-sized and grinning monkey of fire.
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SPEAKER_02: And it is this horrid thing that flaps down from the blackness above
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SPEAKER_02: on smoldering wings once the knight approaches the altar.
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SPEAKER_02: A small but long purple tongue lolls from its doping.
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SPEAKER_02: A dopey muzzle and a jester's cap jingles and unburns around its head.
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SPEAKER_02: It hovers above the powder barrels and giggles and gibbers and glares wall-eyed at Black Lion.
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SPEAKER_02: The knight wheels sharply to face the noise and his Zweihander scrapes with
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SPEAKER_02: an ugly sound along the altar's base.
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SPEAKER_02: But then,
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SPEAKER_02: his wits coming quickly to him,
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SPEAKER_02: he lowers his sword and spreads his gauntlets wide in welcome.
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SPEAKER_02: He takes a slow step away from the altar,
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SPEAKER_02: hesitating to make a mad dash for the tower's only exit.
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SPEAKER_02: He cannot help but notice the flickers of fire peeling from the fluttering imp,
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SPEAKER_02: peeling like the sparks of hot,
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SPEAKER_02: bright mange a blacksmith of disease might strike off an itching anvil.
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SPEAKER_02: Yet no blacksmith would strike so close to barrels of black powder.
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SPEAKER_02: The creature giggles and jingles and claps its little hands.
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SPEAKER_02: Ho, demonling!
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SPEAKER_02: Black Lion says.
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SPEAKER_02: No need to bring your fire to these barrels.
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SPEAKER_02: I see you guard them well.
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SPEAKER_02: And this tower, I did not see you burning above when I entered.
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SPEAKER_01: No indeed,
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SPEAKER_02: the imp squeaks.
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SPEAKER_01: Such darkness hides many things.
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SPEAKER_01: A different darkness of a new color all its own hides the very sun.
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SPEAKER_02: You are well learned,
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SPEAKER_02: says the Knight,
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SPEAKER_02: as he peers upwards through his frowning mask to the unnatural emptiness,
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SPEAKER_02: and feels he might be sucked up into a wordless sky.
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SPEAKER_02: If the barrels blew,
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SPEAKER_02: would the fire even reach him, or would it hurl him into that unfathomable dark?
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SPEAKER_02: How long in afar would he fall?
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SPEAKER_02: How long would beauty wait until need drove her elsewhere,
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SPEAKER_02: to the bad end all untended beasts of burden are bound to find in the dying lands?
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SPEAKER_02: I wonder if you know that I have been sent by Sastiok to send an unclean scroll back to hell.
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SPEAKER_02: Was it found here by Gilbert Skyr?
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SPEAKER_02: So it was!
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SPEAKER_02: So he did!
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SPEAKER_02: Aye, aye!
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SPEAKER_01: The Fire Monkey squeaks and jingles.
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SPEAKER_01: Sastiok!
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SPEAKER_01: Sestiok!
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SPEAKER_01: Such find and evil curves!
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SPEAKER_01: A galaxy of sin, a zodiac of pain to those who fail!
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SPEAKER_01: But she is not my master, you wretched ape, doomed to your rotting soul!
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SPEAKER_01: A different duke of hell holds my whip!
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SPEAKER_01: Shall I blow us up?
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SPEAKER_00: The wretched monkey, without a soul, tilts lower.
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SPEAKER_00: Holy jumpin' a devious little imp!
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SPEAKER_00: I kinda like him.
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SPEAKER_00: Seems like my people.
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SPEAKER_00: But we don't want to blow up, do we?
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SPEAKER_00: No, Precious.
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SPEAKER_00: We could go for combat here, but hitting this thing might send sparks flying.
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SPEAKER_00: Is one of the barrels actually open and lidless?
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SPEAKER_00: Yes, as a matter of fact, one is.
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SPEAKER_00: Well, even if we had shots to make with the culverin gun part of our weapon,
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SPEAKER_00: we wouldn't want to risk that either.
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SPEAKER_00: So, it seems like we make a presence test maybe to see if we can talk to this blaming asshole.
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SPEAKER_00: Talk him down.
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SPEAKER_00: Let's give it a go.
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SPEAKER_00: He seems insane enough to be persuaded in all manner of directions.
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SPEAKER_00: Let's set this at a DR 14, difficulty rating 14.
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SPEAKER_00: A little harder than normal because I think this imp has been bored,
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SPEAKER_00: if not trapped here, and really wants some fireworks.
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SPEAKER_00: All right, here we go.
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SPEAKER_02: Hold!
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SPEAKER_02: Black Lion shouts.
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SPEAKER_02: He decides he needs to shock this reckless thing with something private.
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SPEAKER_02: Sastyak would be furious if you blew up her lover.
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SPEAKER_02: The imp sinks no lower and gapes at the night.
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SPEAKER_02: Yes, a monkey can look quite incredulous despite itself.
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SPEAKER_02: Black Lion continues.
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SPEAKER_02: Does your duke care enough to keep you from... and he clears his throat.
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SPEAKER_02: An eternity of restitution.
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SPEAKER_02: The flaming wings could protest against the very air.
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SPEAKER_01: You?
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SPEAKER_01: Mortal?
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SPEAKER_01: Or Sastyok's lover?
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SPEAKER_01: Absurd, ridiculous, impossible.
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SPEAKER_02: The demonling flaps about Blackline's head and sniffs angrily at him,
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SPEAKER_02: like an underfed bloodhound.
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SPEAKER_02: The knight grimaces as he resists the urge to kill the thing.
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SPEAKER_02: Should he fail, it might dart to the powder, and the distance given now is welcome.
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SPEAKER_01: You do not lie!
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SPEAKER_01: I smell hell on you!
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SPEAKER_01: And donkey?
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SPEAKER_02: It flaps again and capers back towards the barrels before stopping short of them
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SPEAKER_02: to throw its tiny monkey hands upwards.
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SPEAKER_01: There is no accounting for taste, it whines.
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SPEAKER_01: Very well, I am robbed of my fireworks.
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SPEAKER_01: Give my regards to your own master.
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SPEAKER_01: I am last of the failed defenders of the scroll,
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SPEAKER_01: and I am barred from my place within the great fire.
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SPEAKER_01: Perhaps Astiok will open the gates to me.
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SPEAKER_01: There is not to guard now.
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SPEAKER_01: Perhaps I should have fought and not scratched at my mange in the darkness.
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SPEAKER_01: Too late, too late.
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SPEAKER_02: Black Lion's grimace continues behind his mask.
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SPEAKER_02: A demonling and a coward.
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SPEAKER_02: No matter.
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SPEAKER_02: Cowardice is how a demonling may rebel against their masters
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SPEAKER_02: when there is no other way for them.
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SPEAKER_02: And Sastiak is not my master.
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SPEAKER_02: He bristles, somehow petty before this petty creature.
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SPEAKER_02: No?
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SPEAKER_01: Oh no?
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SPEAKER_01: You are here out of love, I suppose, ye lover.
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SPEAKER_01: Those who do the bidding of demons often think themselves free.
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SPEAKER_01: It is a quality of fire to seem like a simple tool when it is indeed a waiting star.
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SPEAKER_01: A demonling a coward and a philosopher.
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SPEAKER_01: A minor jester of the Laughing Hell.
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SPEAKER_01: Granted wisdom so that I may fool myself and others.
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SPEAKER_01: And left here in the dying lands for Verhu's pleasure
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SPEAKER_02: at the world's ending.
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SPEAKER_02: Or Necrobells as it might be.
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SPEAKER_02: The imp then spins like a ghost child's floating top and hisses angrily.
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SPEAKER_01: Say not their names so that they will find me.
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SPEAKER_01: They are false and rival blasphemies, affronts to the order of things.
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SPEAKER_01: You are meant for agony with us in the hells, not in these useless shadowlands.
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SPEAKER_02: The knight quiets and raises a worried hand to beg for slower revolutions,
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SPEAKER_02: for the barrels are not yet out of reach of a careless spark.
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SPEAKER_02: The Skrull, Demonling.
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SPEAKER_02: They say Skyr will summon up an army from Hell and use it to rule the scraps of this world.
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SPEAKER_02: Could he truly do such a thing?
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SPEAKER_01: You ask a minor gesture this?
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SPEAKER_01: Ha ha!
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SPEAKER_01: Hee hee!
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SPEAKER_01: Look at me!
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SPEAKER_01: I know not!
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SPEAKER_01: But I do know that this tower is in the wrong place.
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SPEAKER_01: Something twisted it to this land when it is meant to stand by the borders of its native fire.
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SPEAKER_02: By now, the headache that entered Black Lion when he first gazed too long,
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SPEAKER_02: an inspection at the stonework, has become a throb in his skull.
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SPEAKER_02: Every shrill word the monkeyling spits is a knife.
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SPEAKER_02: The knight moves towards the barrels and watches the imp over his shoulder as he does so.
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SPEAKER_02: Skyr has lucked upon or else cajoled out a great power then,
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SPEAKER_02: it must be assumed, certainly a fell one.
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SPEAKER_02: No matter.
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SPEAKER_02: My goals are unchanged.
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SPEAKER_02: He begins to take what he can from the stock barrels and fill
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SPEAKER_02: the black ivory powder horn he wears at his hip.
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SPEAKER_02: Ten blasts worth.
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SPEAKER_02: Then he loads powder straight from the barrel into the moths of
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SPEAKER_02: the angry black lions on either side of his Zweihander and sets the shot balls
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SPEAKER_01: between their toothy clamps.
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SPEAKER_01: Eleven blasts.
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SPEAKER_01: Or it was gifted, as the powder is gifted to you now.
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SPEAKER_01: Who knows, who cares, Donkey Rider?
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SPEAKER_01: The monkeyling has flitted flaming
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SPEAKER_02: to the split in the wall,
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SPEAKER_02: and is peering outside at Beauty, who waits as patiently as Myth.
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SPEAKER_01: The imp continues, Your mortal flesh will melt away like snow soon enough.
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SPEAKER_01: Goodbye and good riddance.
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SPEAKER_01: Tell Sastiok I helped her here!
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SPEAKER_02: And then he is gone, out the fissure and into the gray.
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SPEAKER_02: With his roar ready to strike fear and poisonous lead into his foes,
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SPEAKER_02: the Donkey Knight finishes his inspection of the tower's lone chamber as quickly
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SPEAKER_02: as he might, before the pressure in his mind cracks through his helmet.
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SPEAKER_02: He finds nothing else to speak of.
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SPEAKER_02: Gratefully, he leaves the tower to its forlorn leaning.
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SPEAKER_02: The imp is nowhere to be seen as he moves to beauty, gives another pat, and mounts.
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SPEAKER_02: He takes up her reins and turns her back down the valley path.
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SPEAKER_02: And with every hoof fall, the pressure in Black Lion's head relaxes until it is gone altogether.
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SPEAKER_02: The knight finds himself coming into a woodland, seemingly empty of all animal life.
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SPEAKER_02: No birds sing.
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SPEAKER_02: No squirrels tweak the twigs.
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SPEAKER_00: Soon enough, it is easy to see why.
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SPEAKER_00: That little imp thing took a couple of presence tests to get by,
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SPEAKER_00: but now we're cooking with grease!
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SPEAKER_00: We've got ourselves a major reward.
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SPEAKER_00: We've finally got ammo and some ranged attack power now.
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SPEAKER_00: That is a big win for us.
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SPEAKER_00: Alright comrades and defilers,
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SPEAKER_00: let's see where our knight gets to next as he tries to leave this valley.
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SPEAKER_00: Does he get out?
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SPEAKER_00: We roll up another random location, which is fine by me.
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SPEAKER_00: Exploration is what this is all about.
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SPEAKER_00: That said, the more we have to walk, the more we risk our boy's death.
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SPEAKER_00: But isn't that just life, danger, and love along the way, the spice of the human soul?
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SPEAKER_00: I hope your own life is filled with danger and love, dear listener.
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SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's see what we get for this new location.
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SPEAKER_00: I'll post an ongoing map on the Substack, by the way, if you'd like to have a look.
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SPEAKER_00: And come to think of it,
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SPEAKER_00: I should post Black Lion's character sheet too,
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SPEAKER_00: as one of my listeners told me, so that we're all on the same page.
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SPEAKER_00: You'll be able to find all of these wonders at the Substack page for the podcast.
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'll post that soon.
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SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, new location.
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SPEAKER_00: Woodland, in which we find an ancient or ruined
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SPEAKER_02: ritual.
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SPEAKER_02: Black Lion comes upon a set of cairn stones.
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SPEAKER_02: They stand like betrayed soldiers, bloody and homeless.
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SPEAKER_02: He brings beauty to a stop and breathes in the silence.
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SPEAKER_02: In that silence,
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SPEAKER_02: his lion head helmet looks foolish in its The night turns slowly and cautiously
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SPEAKER_02: to scan the environs,
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SPEAKER_02: but all he senses is motionless air and the squeak of his saddle as he shifts
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SPEAKER_02: for view.
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SPEAKER_02: He dismounts, and the clanking of his steel seems to him like an affront to the sad stones.
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SPEAKER_02: He approaches the cairns, his sword held low in his hands.
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SPEAKER_02: Some grim ritual has ruined the once holy place.
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SPEAKER_02: He did not know a rock could have a soul to lose until now.
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SPEAKER_02: He stares at the circle of stones and tries to remember.
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SPEAKER_02: Had he seen them here when he visited Park Pale in his youth?
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SPEAKER_02: He does not think so.
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SPEAKER_02: It is a testament to Lord Gilbert Skye's failings
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SPEAKER_02: that he would not show his own entourage the sacred places of his own land.
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SPEAKER_02: What gods did they serve?
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SPEAKER_02: Did they serve gods at all?
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SPEAKER_02: What use were the stones?
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SPEAKER_02: Who placed them?
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SPEAKER_02: They are old even to an old world.
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SPEAKER_02: I think I want some more information about these Cairn Stones.
17:10
SPEAKER_02: Let's pull some descriptors from the Solitary Depths Companion
17:14
SPEAKER_02: to Solitary Defilement, created by Kayakalypse, and thank you very much.
17:18
SPEAKER_02: Let's see...
17:21
SPEAKER_02: We're in the Wastlands part of the Dying Lands,
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SPEAKER_02: so we can go to the table there and roll additional traits.
17:28
SPEAKER_02: We get...
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SPEAKER_00: Forsaken.
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SPEAKER_00: Ooh, love it.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Forsaken Cairn Stones.
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SPEAKER_00: And the feature is a shrine.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: Hmm, also love it.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Now, is there a discovery to be made here?
17:45
SPEAKER_00: There's a table for that.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: We get a clue of some kind.
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SPEAKER_00: Very interesting.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: What is the nature of this clue?
17:52
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: We can roll on a chaos portents table from Solitary Depths.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: A die 100, two times, will give us two words to work with.
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SPEAKER_00: Let's give it a go.
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SPEAKER_01: Listen to the dice.
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SPEAKER_01: Imagine them there
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SPEAKER_00: before you.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: That's good audio.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: We're literally discovering clues to the narrative here with this roll.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: Word one is hunt.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: These are hunting grounds.
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SPEAKER_00: Word two is song.
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SPEAKER_00: Hunt and song.
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SPEAKER_02: The roaring silence surrounds the knight as he steps within the greater stone circle
18:36
SPEAKER_02: when two things occur.
18:38
SPEAKER_02: First, an uncomfortable beauty brays and stamps her hooves.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: Second, something as old as or older than the stones stands before Black Lion,
18:47
SPEAKER_02: the way a deer might appear before you on a second glance to the trees.
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SPEAKER_02: It is indeed some kind of deer,
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SPEAKER_02: a rot-haunched deer known for its flesh,
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SPEAKER_02: for visions and dreams come to those who eat of it.
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SPEAKER_02: Skye are prized these beasts,
19:03
SPEAKER_02: and these hunting grounds that are the Park Pale are kept for their sport.
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SPEAKER_02: The flesh is gone from this one's face.
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SPEAKER_02: And red eyes, like distant old stars, burn from the sockets of the skull.
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SPEAKER_02: Streaks of worm trail can be seen along the bone as though the deer was a rotting log.
19:24
SPEAKER_02: Its body is covered in bleeding arrows.
19:27
SPEAKER_02: Ragged, it opens its mouth.
19:30
SPEAKER_02: Black Lion, in his horror, raises his blade and braces.
19:34
SPEAKER_02: But no attack comes.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: Instead, a wet song.
19:40
SPEAKER_03: We know we were running o'er fresher field,
19:44
SPEAKER_03: And flew before the first arrows had flown,
19:48
SPEAKER_03: Across the grass where stones were raised we wheeled,
19:52
SPEAKER_03: Before your seed and grain had yet been sown.
19:57
SPEAKER_03: A written thing,
19:59
SPEAKER_03: that tool of man,
20:00
SPEAKER_03: was brought,
20:02
SPEAKER_03: These stones were burnt,
20:04
SPEAKER_03: and scored with blood and sign,
20:07
SPEAKER_03: And when we answered ancient oaths were caught,
20:11
SPEAKER_03: Men took our souls to eat, our flesh to bind.
20:15
SPEAKER_03: We give our lives to holy chase and flee.
20:19
SPEAKER_03: But now we stand a silent zodiac,
20:23
SPEAKER_03: while selfish hands reach for a grand army,
20:26
SPEAKER_03: compel hell's hunters, burning to attack.
20:30
SPEAKER_03: Hear us, mortal.
20:33
SPEAKER_03: A soul is made of words.
20:36
SPEAKER_03: The ones you choose will cause the fates to blur.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: The two figures stare at each other, a pair of hidden faces in a dying world.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: A mock lion and a mock deer.
20:52
SPEAKER_02: He feels as unreal as the stag looks.
20:56
SPEAKER_02: A fine sonnet.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: The night finally breathes.
21:00
SPEAKER_02: And the unclean scroll will indeed bring Skyr, a conquering army from the bad fire.
21:07
SPEAKER_02: He glances at his feet,
21:08
SPEAKER_02: feeling at last the soft and slight give of bloody ground beneath his weight.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: And when he looks back, the deer is gone.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: Instead, there is a pile of bones where it stood, bloody bones and arrows.
21:24
SPEAKER_02: Beauty has approached the circle,
21:26
SPEAKER_02: and the knight can see in her big eyes that she recognized
21:29
SPEAKER_02: a kindred spirit here moments ago.
21:32
SPEAKER_02: She snorts.
21:34
SPEAKER_02: I agree, Black Lion says.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: Let us go.
21:38
SPEAKER_02: There is killing to be done.
21:40
SPEAKER_02: And he rides on through the woods, turning the stag song in his mind like a jewel in the light.
21:46
[music]
24:43
SPEAKER_00: I think this is maybe a good time to do something I've put off until now.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Well, forgotten to do until now, let's say.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Set some milestone goals for our journey.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: A milestone in Solitary Defilement is a clear story goal we can set for ourselves.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: A quest, if you will, based upon the fiction.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: And it can either be minor or major,
25:04
SPEAKER_00: and if it's a major milestone,
25:06
SPEAKER_00: we can make the case to let our characters level up and get better,
25:10
SPEAKER_00: or worse, as Mörk Borg puts it.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Getting better, or worse, is a really big deal.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: We'll be able to potentially change character stats or even take on new
25:20
SPEAKER_00: and ultra badass special powers, which would make us that much more survivable.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Now the whole Park Pail ordeal will be a challenge and tough to survive at
25:29
SPEAKER_00: the difficulty that we've chosen.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: So I think completing it and stopping Gilbert Skye will be a major milestone.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: Right off the sinister bat, that's all that seems obvious to me, at least for milestones.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm being overly myopic, myopic, as we trudge along and blow So far, stop Gilbert Skyr.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Once that's done, if we get that far, we can level up and see what our next goal might be.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: There is no doubt going to be so much emergent lore by then
25:53
SPEAKER_00: that we'll point our swords at something or other,
25:55
SPEAKER_00: or something or other will be pointing their swords at us.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: We see now that there are ancient spirits at ancient stones.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: What's that all about?
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Are they old gods from before the time the Dying Land started dying?
26:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Are there other such sites of strange power?
26:28
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: Do they have, uh, I don't know, fucked up animals who will speak in sonnet?
26:34
SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: All right, friends, let's make a dungeon crawling move to see where we end up next.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: My 2D20s.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: Nice!
26:43
SPEAKER_00: A strong hit.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: That is a grand success.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: And that will take us to the first of the four special locations in Park Pail
26:51
SPEAKER_00: that we need to reach.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: Sweet!
26:54
SPEAKER_00: Finally.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Things are looking up, Defilers.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's absolutely nothing that will go wrong.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: That said, it occurs to me that we've been riding through the country for a while.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: I think that has to have been probably a full day's ride by now.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: So we've almost certainly come to nightfall.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: And maybe, maybe you should have already some time ago, to be honest.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, time may be as warped and shifting as the land is in these wretched times.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: So as night finally begins to fall, let's see what
27:27
SPEAKER_02: befalls us.
27:28
SPEAKER_02: At the gates.
27:31
SPEAKER_02: In the woodlands, at last, Black Lion finds the gates of Parkpale proper.
27:37
SPEAKER_02: It looms to the left and right in the rising darkness of the darkling wood like
27:42
SPEAKER_02: an infinite choking collar.
27:44
SPEAKER_02: It has changed in the twenty years since he saw it last.
27:47
SPEAKER_02: At the tips of the iron spikes that top the gates,
27:50
SPEAKER_02: which stretch up some thirty feet of bar, there are heads on display.
27:56
SPEAKER_02: Empty eyes stare down at him.
27:58
SPEAKER_02: Some gawk awfully in dead torment,
28:01
SPEAKER_02: and some sit mutely with confused,
28:04
SPEAKER_02: pursed lips,
28:05
SPEAKER_02: as though when the axe came for them, they thought they were sitting down for soup.
28:10
SPEAKER_02: Black Lion has seen his share of war and has seen many cruelties.
28:15
SPEAKER_02: He carries inside a library of obscenity and desecration,
28:20
SPEAKER_02: and this sight slides easily enough into his shelves of old memory.
28:24
SPEAKER_02: While the sight of Heads on Spikes comes as little shock to him since
28:28
SPEAKER_02: the world went sour,
28:30
SPEAKER_02: Ever fresh is the sense,
28:31
SPEAKER_02: as he gazes upwards,
28:33
SPEAKER_02: that he is made of drying meat and leather,
28:36
SPEAKER_02: like his donkey and like all else that walks.
28:40
SPEAKER_02: Perhaps that is the true message Skyr hopes to send those who dare to enter his park.
28:45
SPEAKER_02: After a few moments of quiet survey,
28:48
SPEAKER_02: Blackline sneers and adds this cruelty to his list of reasons why Sir Gilbert needs
28:54
SPEAKER_02: to drown in his own blood.
28:56
SPEAKER_02: He dismounts and draws a worn,
28:59
SPEAKER_02: oiled canvas toolkit from Beauty's saddlebag and finds his drill,
29:03
SPEAKER_02: hammer, and saw among its pouches.
29:07
SPEAKER_02: The gate doors themselves are sealed by a heavy chain that needs breaking,
29:11
SPEAKER_02: and he sets himself to the task.
29:14
SPEAKER_02: His hammer strikes and his saw-saws at whatever notch he can find or else make for himself.
29:19
SPEAKER_02: He could perhaps,
29:20
SPEAKER_02: failing all else,
29:21
SPEAKER_02: use black powder to explode a link of the chain,
29:24
SPEAKER_02: but the noise could lead to fearful trouble.
29:27
SPEAKER_02: His labor makes noise enough, it seems, when one of the heads above begins to twitch and open.
29:35
SPEAKER_02: Something squirrel-sized and shriveled emerges from one of the slack mouths of
29:40
SPEAKER_02: the rotting heads.
29:42
SPEAKER_02: Imp, like the jester the knight encountered before, but dead and moving.
29:48
SPEAKER_02: It is dry and desiccated like the husk of an old orange,
29:52
SPEAKER_02: flameless but flapping uselessly with barren wings.
29:56
SPEAKER_02: It falls upon Black Lion as he works and the man growls an alarm.
30:01
SPEAKER_02: A small and shriveled arm manages to reach through the mane's visor mask and scratch
30:05
SPEAKER_02: at Black Lion's cheek when it could have taken an eye under an eviler star.
30:10
SPEAKER_02: The knight pulls the imp from his face and pushes it screaming against the bars before him.
30:15
SPEAKER_02: It thrashes and whimpers and hisses ruefully as the knight brings his saw to
30:20
SPEAKER_02: the imp's neck and begins to rake back and forth.
30:25
SPEAKER_02: A few more moments of squealing and its monkey head falls to the ground
30:30
SPEAKER_02: and lands pitifully among the tools.
30:33
SPEAKER_02: No blood spurts from the empty demon's body,
30:36
SPEAKER_02: but Black Lion feels his own trickle down his cheek to wet his neck as he flings
30:40
SPEAKER_02: the remains of the foul creature away.
30:43
SPEAKER_02: Eyes upwards,
30:44
SPEAKER_02: he takes the saw to the chain again as furiously as he had taken it to
30:48
SPEAKER_02: the mummified demon.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: This is going well.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: It could actually be worse, to be fair.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: We managed to kill that thing quickly.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: It says here that these imps,
31:02
SPEAKER_00: these desiccated sprites,
31:03
SPEAKER_00: will emerge from the heads every time we fail to get the gate opened.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: And every round they persist in combat,
31:11
SPEAKER_00: we roll a die,
31:12
SPEAKER_00: and there's a one in four chance that another one will show up to join the fray.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: Now we do have a lot of armor on,
31:17
SPEAKER_00: and they don't do a devastating amount of damage,
31:19
SPEAKER_00: but if enough of them show up, they could overwhelm us.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: We need to keep trying to get this gate open,
31:25
SPEAKER_00: and if we fail again, We need to kill them quickly.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's make another test.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: Maybe let's spend an omen to reduce the difficulty by four.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: That will bring this test down to a ten.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: If Black Lion hitches Beauty up to the chain to pull at it as well,
31:40
SPEAKER_00: it says here the difficulty can be reduced by one for each companion helping.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think the situation is slightly panicked.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: So our Donkey Knight is going to double down on the saw.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's roll.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Saw, baby, saw.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: Dead imps are crawling out of heads on goddamn pikes.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: That is a five plus our one strength to a six, and a fail.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: Okay, do I spend our last omen to reroll that?
32:11
SPEAKER_00: I guess Nightfall is coming, which will let us reclaim some of our omens.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's do it.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be swarmed by dead monkey demons.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: Not for free anyway.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: And roll fuck.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: All right, that's an eight total.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: Heads up, Black Lion.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: As the knight drives hurriedly at the chains,
32:35
SPEAKER_02: another imp sloughs out from a slack jaw.
32:38
SPEAKER_02: With a clumsy clamber, it sweeps down to attack.
32:42
SPEAKER_02: Black Lion backhands the horror to the ground as night continues to close on
32:46
SPEAKER_02: the wood, and the imp tumbles down in a hissing heap.
32:50
SPEAKER_02: Alas, towards the donkey, who stamps nervously and brays as it picks itself up.
32:56
SPEAKER_02: It turns to the animal and dashes toward her like an uncovered spider on all its dry
33:02
SPEAKER_02: and desperate limbs.
33:03
SPEAKER_02: Black Lion immediately whistles, shrill and short, and Beauty knows what this means.
33:10
SPEAKER_02: She rocks quickly in her agitation and wheels around,
33:13
SPEAKER_02: kicking up the earth beneath her and sends her two back hooves,
33:16
SPEAKER_02: once and then twice, to connect with the evil thing's face.
33:20
SPEAKER_02: One would do well to mine the fury of the farm,
33:23
SPEAKER_02: House Black Lion's old stablemaster used to say,
33:26
SPEAKER_02: but she is long gone, and now the imp is ended too.
33:29
SPEAKER_02: It hits the ground, its decrepit demon skull smashed in like a peanut shell.
33:35
SPEAKER_02: The chain finally snaps under the strain and saw, and the gate swings open.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Hell yeah, go Beauty the Donkey.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: Great, I love it.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: Well struck, well dispatched.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: All right, we're through.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion has now reached the interior of Park Pale and night, I think, has officially fallen.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: It's now quite dark.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: Now,
34:06
SPEAKER_00: sleep is always a risk because your blissful night
34:12
SPEAKER_00: of camping fun can always be interrupted by danger and horror.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: Let's see, looking at our equipment, we regrettably have no light sources on us.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: That was smart.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: No torch, no lantern.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: We had to buy our culverin gun after all, didn't we?
34:29
SPEAKER_00: That's the trade-off, I guess.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: In that case, I think we have to try and camp, rather than wander around in the darkness.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Woodlands in the day can be dark enough, depending on the trees.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: Let's put some distance between us and that evil gate and find a large tree or a set
34:46
SPEAKER_00: of bushes to hide us somewhat,
34:48
SPEAKER_00: at least as best we can with a big man and a big donkey.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: So we will attempt a long rest.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: We'll make a camping roll.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there's camping rolls, where we roll 2 die 20 plus our presence modifier, which is plus 2.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: We'll aim for a difficulty rating of 12 and hope for a strong hit.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: Wicked, that's a 12 and a 19.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: A strong hit.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: No trouble.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: We lean against a tree and have a thankfully quiet night.
35:18
SPEAKER_02: Hoping for a quiet night, Black Lion sits and leans against a tree.
35:23
SPEAKER_02: He bites into his rations as Beauty grazes on bitter brambles and wonders
35:27
SPEAKER_02: as he chews at his salted travel tack if the dried remains of
35:32
SPEAKER_02: the mummified imp would chew the same in his parched mouth.
35:35
SPEAKER_02: Then, pulling a swig of water from his water skin to ease his throat,
35:39
SPEAKER_02: he marvels at how much the sharp taste of salt can cut through a hard day
35:43
SPEAKER_02: at its end.
35:44
SPEAKER_02: Finally,
35:45
SPEAKER_02: he sets his Zweihander in his lap,
35:47
SPEAKER_02: shuts his eyes, and sleeps cold and woefully in his full plate.
35:52
SPEAKER_02: But sleep through much of the dark, he does.
35:55
SPEAKER_02: His mount catches her sleep as her sort would,
35:58
SPEAKER_02: standing,
35:59
SPEAKER_02: and silently waits for the morning,
36:01
SPEAKER_02: draped in the dark brown wool blanket her master has placed on her.
36:05
SPEAKER_02: The day arrives, as always, having
36:08
SPEAKER_00: slept woefully itself.
36:10
[music]
38:56
SPEAKER_01: A Mörk Borg Serial
38:57
[music]
39:27
SPEAKER_00: A new day dawns,
39:28
SPEAKER_00: weekly as ever,
39:29
SPEAKER_00: and we must first roll on the calendar of Necrobel to see if one of
39:34
SPEAKER_00: the seven miseries blights the world.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: Hmm, here we go.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: I die 20.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: Don't roll a one.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: That's a nine.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: Cool, okay.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: The apocalypse slept through the night as well, it seems.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: Now we roll for weather.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: The lifeless gray of the previous day continues.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: Good enough.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: We have marked off a use of our rations, and we're down to one day's worth left.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: Again, because, you know, we had to buy that culverin gun.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: That's something to be concerned about.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: All right,
40:08
SPEAKER_00: friendos,
40:09
SPEAKER_00: let's make our next dungeon crawling roll and see where we find ourselves next.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: We found one special location already, so we get a plus one to these rolls going forward.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here goes.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh snap, these dice are so fresh.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: Cool, that's another strong hit.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: We actually find the second pre-designed special location right out the gate,
40:34
SPEAKER_00: literally if you can believe it.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: All right, what have we got on the Park Pail pamphlet?
40:42
SPEAKER_00: Location two.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: Ah, oh dear.
40:49
SPEAKER_02: The two come to another tower, gothic and dour, and some fifty feet tall.
40:55
SPEAKER_02: Where the Leaning Tower was a watchtower for Hell, this one is a lookout for the grounds.
41:01
SPEAKER_02: From the top, Black Lion should be able to spot Misery Lodge and orient himself in the park.
41:07
SPEAKER_02: As he approaches, it is evident that the tower is also built to serve the grounds another way.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: It is also, it seems, a fishery?
41:16
SPEAKER_00: Yes, an eel farm.
41:19
SPEAKER_02: The gothic spired tower is chiseled with images
41:22
SPEAKER_02: of eel farmers harvesting writhing eels from a large circular well and dropping them
41:27
SPEAKER_02: into laden baskets carried between poles.
41:30
SPEAKER_02: This proves to be accurate enough,
41:32
SPEAKER_02: for after leaving Beauty outside and entering the grim tower with his weapon at
41:36
SPEAKER_02: the fore,
41:37
SPEAKER_02: Black Lion finds there is indeed a large and ornate central well,
41:42
SPEAKER_02: With a foot-high wall carved in the likeness of an eel holding its own end
41:47
SPEAKER_02: in its snake-like mouth.
41:48
SPEAKER_02: The surface of the well water moves here and there with the flick of an eel fin as
41:53
SPEAKER_02: the slimy fish crowd and climb over one another in their little world.
41:58
SPEAKER_02: A spiral staircase following the circular walls up to
42:01
SPEAKER_02: the tower's height climbs up its 50 feet to the lookout.
42:05
SPEAKER_02: Black Lion starts his ascent up the stones,
42:09
SPEAKER_02: but ten feet up this corkscrew, something enormous emerges from the pool.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: That's it for now, Defilers.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: Thank you again for listening.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: It is deeply appreciated.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: We'll see what it was that emerged from the pool in two weeks' time.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: Any guesses?
42:29
SPEAKER_00: Leave me a comment and I'll pretend I don't know the answer.
42:32
SPEAKER_00: The musical tracks today were Meshuggah with Past
42:35
SPEAKER_02: Tense and Gear Grind with Dark
42:38
SPEAKER_02: and Twisting Pathways.
42:41
SPEAKER_02: See ya.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: If you found this podcast out in the wilds,
42:48
SPEAKER_00: you can follow it and read the fiction parts
42:50
SPEAKER_00: at thesesolitarydefilements.substack.com.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: And you can find me on Instagram if you want, at TheWizard.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: That's The Wizard, with two A's, because I was too damn slow.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: This is produced by the will of the Watchers by the Gate of Horde.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: The credit really goes to the lore and vision of Pell Nilsson and Johan Neuer,
43:14
SPEAKER_00: of Occult Ortmastar Games and Stockholm Cartel for Mörk Borg,
43:19
SPEAKER_00: and 1D10 Plus 5 for the solo play supplement Solitary Defile.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: The solo module Park Pell is also by 1D10
43:26
SPEAKER_02: Plus 5.
43:28
SPEAKER_02: The title track is Descending Into Darkness by Disrape,
43:31
SPEAKER_02: and the closing credit song is Gravfrost,
43:33
SPEAKER_02: with a cover of Misanthro by Blod Belsvinas.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: Please find these people online or in meatspace and support their stuff.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: I'll imagine you listening to more of my foolishness in two weeks.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: Until then, BURN OR BE!