Episode description[edit | edit source]
To say that this particular story starts off in a strange way would be the underselling of a lifetime. But that’s how things are sometimes. Sometimes, in pursuit of a missing eggsac — which we know isn’t even in this direction — an unlikely trio sets off towards an abandoned town, and on the way finds themselves at the wrong end of blade and riddle. Yet by the end of it all, in stories like this, they find themselves confronted with horrors physical and existential. So it goes in Sangfielle. So it goes.
Today on Sangfielle: What Happened at Bell Metal Station
Almanac of the Heartland Rider[edit | edit source]
Places[edit | edit source]
Sapodilla: One of, if not the, largest city inside of the walls of Concentus. Sapodilla rests on the western shore of the vast lake that takes up much of southeastern Sangfielle, and prizes itself as the rare hub of culture in the bloodfields. In recent years, the powerful witch hunting organization called the Glim Macula has grown in power there, owing to the city’s focus on furthering “civilization.” The Waterlogged Kingdom: At least that’s what we’re calling it for now. Deep under the water, an empress waits. There’s been debate: Did they turn the wood from her sunken ship into a palace for her? Build castles out of the lake sand? Maybe they never stopped marching, and they’re down there right now, just going round in circles. An likely area of inquiry, for certain. Facts and Figures[edit | edit source]
Chantilly Scathe (she/her): The signs and barkers rarely say her name alone. She ain’t Chantilly, or even Ms. Scathe, she’s always “Ms. Chantilly Scathe and Her Shackled Engine.” Don’t let her showmanship and ringmaster garb fool you though: She seems to have done what no Shape Knight could: Make a train of the Shape, The Grand Cormorant Limited, her very own pet. Phendleton (they/them) and Brace (he/him): Representatives of the so-called True Loyalists of the Sunken Empress. What makes them “true loyalists”? Well, if we knew that, things would be a lot simpler, wouldn’t they? The Sunken Empress Altapasqua (she/her): Around fifty years after the panic set in, Altapasqua told her people she would ride across this cursed land and purge it of its disease and danger. She only made it about three fourths of the way. And well, it’s as expected. She was down there ever since. Agdeline (she/her), Ettel (he/him), and Larch (he/him): This devil, drakkan, and human trio once spent time mining in the hills of Blackwick. In recent times, they’ve found that poorly armed travelers make for better prospecting. Sometimes called “the Toll Collectors.” Katonya (she/her): A cleaver near the end of her career, Katonya’s body bears all the marks of years in service to the Heartland. Loyal to those who employ her, and a walking catastrophe to those she opposes. Organizations[edit | edit source]
The Bell Metal Band: Of all the Shape Knight gangs, the Bell Metal Band might be the most curious (in both meanings of the word). From their tall station at the intersection of two major Shape lines, the Bell Metal Band tries to yank away whatever train parts they can safely reach for study and, frankly, for fun. In the recent days, though, they’ve come under some sort of trouble and have put out a call for help. The Shape Knights: It took people with clear minds, great ingenuity, and implacable spirit to face down and defeat one of the living trains of Sangfielle. In the time since, they’ve crafted armor from their slain foe, and with that have come to be experts of all things train. They herd, they breach, they redirect. But they haven’t yet killed a second. Cleavers: Given how loose and fluid this collection of monster hunters, mystery solvers, and naturalists is, it’s hard to call them “an organization.” But when the central belief system of a group is that everything is ever in flux, well, give them the credit of applying that particular ontology to themselves, and take them at their word.
Contents[edit | edit source]
Opening[edit | edit source]
“
Some stories — and, to be honest, some of my very favorite ones — are simple at the end of the day. There’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. There’s heroes and there’s villains, and there’s little in between except for space soon taken by blades, bullets, and bards exchanged. These stories don’t have the texture and nuance of the so-called literary mode, but they are comforting. How couldn’t they be? Their worlds are simple, confident in themselves. There are good guys and evildoers and third parties defined mostly in the way in which their lives are at stake. Hell, even when the heroes lose in those stories, it’s... well, like I said, it’s loss. It’s open and shut. It’s easy to understand. But we here at the serialized almanac of the Heartland Rider are not fabulous nor peddlers of fiction.
Now, I don't hold a grudge against purveyors of the imagined or hypothesized, but we are here to tell it as it is. To tell the truth. And the truth is that it’s not so simple, or at least I don't think it is. This world is a mélange without recipe. You can taste it and tell me after the fact whether you think it’s thyme or oregano, cinnamon or something hotter. But you cannot look at the thing as it lies on the plate and know in truth how it was flavored. In fact, the world is a whole damn meal of untraced providence, a prime cut from pedigree unclear, dressed with greens soft in color but otherwise unrecognizable.
All of which I mean as a preface to and a priming for an account that is complex in character, diluted in piquancy and murky in the final state of things. There are heroes, and there are villains, and there are people in between, but I am not sure that there is much comfort here. And if there is a world laid bare for us in the pages that follow, I can tell you this one thing for certain: it is anything but confident in itself.”
Plot[edit | edit source]
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Cast[edit | edit source]
- Austin Walker
- Art Martinez-Tebbel (as Duvall)
- Jack de Quidt (as Pickman)
- Keith J. Carberry (as Lye Lychen)