Live at the Table: Misspent Youth

Episode description[edit | edit source]

Hey everyone, Austin here!
As those who watched along via YouTube earlier tonight can tell you, this episode of Live at the Table was something else!
For those who couldn't make it, well: Jack, Dre, Sylvi, and I returned to Marielda to fill in a few of the blank spaces we love to keep around. We played Misspent Youth, a game with serious levels of dramatic tension, that centers on young people fighting back an oppressive system.
Set during the one year gap between Marielda's "The Valentine Affair Pt. 4" and "Four Conversations" episodes, we jumped into the boots of some folks whose futures were left up in the air: The young students of the mysterious Yellow House, a school of esoteric and eschatologic studies. And before you ask: Yes, there is a weaver.
And remember: If you enjoyed this, please let your friends know where they can come support us and listen!

Opening[edit | edit source]

“

When I hear people tell the story of this town, they always skip an act. They talk about the war to the north, about the refugees and the bad weather, fire from above, the arrival of cold on the western shore. And then they jump to the story of how those brigands and thieves changed the history of this city, of this world, forever.

They cannot wait to tell you about the distant affection of gods and the sharp, sharp edges of dark, dark blades. I swear, to hear them tell the story of Marielda, that's all there is to it: Samothes, Samot, Maelgwyn, the Six. Sometimes they don't even mention me. They act as if the Lord of Ingenuity was the only source of authority in this town surrounded by a sea of fire, as if the sea of fire itself were not a second authority.

But, I am an authority on authority. And I have been around long enough to tell you that for every Lord with a capital "L," there is another, one happy to be written in lowercase, a little line. A little line determined to separate those in power from those in need. They wear capes and grins and expensive rings. They dance when others cannot afford to listen to music. They send soldiers into the lives of normal folk, and when the soldiers cannot march, they make rules instead.

Authority like mine is rare, but authority like that is everywhere. But in the history of Hieron, throughout all time, we are blessed. Because for each little lord, there is a clique of youthful offenders, ready to kick over the throne.”

Plot[edit | edit source]

Part 1[edit | edit source]

The cast goes over the rules of Misspent Youth. The game is set somewhere in the gap between "The Valentine Affair" / "Four Conversations" and the finale of Marielda. They decide on an authority with a motive of greed, whose victim is nature. His plan is to create his own parish from parts of Helianthus, Orchid and Quince. He has access to guards from Hard-Work-Safe-House with the Siblings (two horrible dogs), wide-ranging popular support, and de facto control over the city layout. He is opposed by the Gardeners.

Jack, Dre and Sylvi create Run-For-Your-Life, Edi, and Squid, members of the next class of the Yellow House.

Part 2[edit | edit source]

Austin gives the authority a name: Cabbot Quick-As-Your-Blade.

What's Up[edit | edit source]

In a tenement building recently bought by Cabbot, Squid is painting a mural of the recently deceased Yellow House teachers. Below arrive Hard-Work-Safe-House guards and the Siblings. After a tube of paint clatters, the dogs set upon the kids, despite Run-For-Your-Life trying to scare them off. While trying to defend her friends, Edi gets bitten by the Sister. Cabbot uses this incident as support for new regulations requiring public artwork and messages go through him.

Fighting Back[edit | edit source]

At the Yellow House, during the evening, Edi apologizes to her friends for making things worse, and Run-For-Your-Life explains they would've all been fine (dogs can't climb past 10 feet). Their teacher Lady Accountability talks with Willie Clark, Cabbot's Blade Elect; Cabbot plans to buy the building. Run-For-Your-Life wants to kidnap Clark to prevent the sale, and the clique agrees, although Squid has to shut up a kid who tries to rat them out. As Squid is showing the Blade Elect around, Run-For-Your-Life and a few others take him down and tie him up. Clark tells Run-For-Your-Life that his wrath is much like Cabbot's, but Run-For-Your-Life ignores him.

Heating Up[edit | edit source]

The clique returns from a picnic they had in the woods where Edi attempted to cheer up Run with delicious muffins. They see Pala-Din marching alongside Cabbot and some Bureau of Reconfiguration officials; Cabbot's planning to use a reconfiguration favor to block travel into the woods. Edi charms the officials with muffins while Squid draws the Pala-Din away by breaking a window. The officials are startled to see the ghost Run-For-Your-Life desperately pleading that they not reconfigure the parish. Samothes, sensing through the Pala-Din, takes pity on him and performs a swap of Yellow House and Cabbot's home, preventing Cabbot's current plams, though he does not further interfere.

We Won[edit | edit source]

Cabbot has a ditch dug between Orchid and Helianthus, in preparation for a future train line, which effectively divides the parishes. The Yellow House class sneaks down in the middle of the night to destroy the machines in the hope of setting public opinion against him; Run-For-Your-Life wears Willie Clark's golden collar. Edi uses a sleep potion from her flowers, which the Gardeners taught her how to make, to put the Hard-Work-Safe-House guard crew to sleep, but one guard sets off the alarm.

Run-For-Your-Life sets fire to some of the machinery, which creates a shape resembling Maelgwyn's symbol, causing some guards to turn away. In fact, the kids had already snuck here earlier to set things up, so Squid is able to trap the dogs with netting. People from Orchid Parish turn up and get aggressive, and Squid leads the kids in fighting back against them. In the fight, someone from Helianthus is hit by someone from Orchid, and the Black Slacks, including Squid's parents, turn out in force to defend their parish.

We're Fucked[edit | edit source]

The kids sneak out alcohol from the Yellow House liquor cabinet in celebration. Willie Clark then escapes and sets fire to the House, which would not only destroy it but remove the clique's access to their support network. Run-For-Your-Life wades through the flames and strikes open a fire hydrant. Clark follows after him, mixing in a powder into the water that makes it encourage the fire. Squid strikes him with a bottle. Clark, taking back the stolen golden collar, rubs his blood in Squid's face; Squid spits it back at him. Despite being a flammable weaver, Edi rushes through the fire, knocking over Clark and spilling the powder safely.

The fire is extinguished. The destruction burnt through an old wall and uncovered a book of the history of the Yellow House, which reveals that Maelgwyn once studied with the Yellow House, which he'd recreated based on Samot's old group also called the Yellow House back when he studied with Christopher. The book details the tenets and beliefs of the Yellow House, including their knowledge of the Heat and the Dark, but the clique doesn't read that part.

Who Wins?[edit | edit source]

It's an overcast morning, and the kids sit in the remains of the Yellow House, as people from Helianthus prepare to help rebuild. Cabbot arrives with some Pala-Din and the Lance Noble Orchid. They plan to exorcise the House by destroying Run-For-Your-Life and taking control of the Yellow House's book and magical paraphernalia. Edi recites the word of Samothes as proof this isn't endorsed by him, but the Orchid Parish crowd only mocks her. Run-For-Your-Life floats off the top of the building, which frightens the crowd -- Cabbot has the Lance Noble shoot him with a magical crossbow bolt. Squid snatches the crossbow, and when Cabbot stands in his way, confident that Squid won't kill him, Squid shoots him in the foot.

A downpour of rain begins as fighting again breaks out in the streets. Edi actually did read all of the Yellow House's book; she goes to a Pala-Din and begins to recite what she read, disillusioned by Samothes but knowing he won't allow the spread of this information. The sun begins to shine on Yellow House, and the Pala-Din arrive in force, taking Cabbot and Lance Noble Orchid away. The Yellow House is enfolded into the Church of Samothes as the House of the Yellow Sun.

Squid finally finishes his mural, which depicts the old Yellow House and all of the current class, including the clique; the edge of the mural has fire coming to burn it away.

Cast[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

The Patreon version of this episode's audio was split into two posts due to its length: Misspent Youth Pt. 1 and Misspent Youth Pt. 2.