INTRO
SATAH: Welcome to Folio, an actual play podcast about solo & epistolary TTRPGs. I'm your host, Satah, and I'm showcasing multiple possible experiences of self-paced games by inviting guests to play them alongside me so I can compile our stories together. You can support the show financially at patreon.com/foliopod to vote on games and get access to the bonus podcast feed, or you can join there as a free member to get somewhat delayed access to the bonus podcast feed.
This is episode one of our games of Skyworthy, a "journaling game of iconic skyships" and "the captains who fly them" by A Couple of Drakes. The other two sturdy vessels soaring 'cross the horizon with me are Caleb Zane Huett & Connor C. I'll tell you a bit more about them at the break.
In Skyworthy, you ARE the ship. As the years pass, you host a series of captains and crews, each one a much smaller chapter in the story of your life than you are in theirs. The game runs off of a standard deck of playing cards, using combinations and comparisons of suits to determine characters and prompts.
GAME: COMMISSION
SATAH: It is garbage collection time. So there are going to be trucks.
CALEB: [Sea shanty tune] Here we go. This is a test of my microphone.
SATAH: That's fine. We celebrate these trucks.
CONNOR: Here we go. Yeah.
SATAH: Even as podcasters.
CONNOR: Yeah, I've been thinking a lot about the sky recently. I've been dealing with kind of a bit of a strange sense of vertigo as I look up to it and I just kind of see this endless field of blue… or gray or black, I guess, as the weather or time of day dictates. It feels as though I'm standing kind of on the edge of some great expanse, and that if I lose my footing, I'll slip and fall upwards forever into a deep, dark depth. So, naturally, I jumped at the chance to become a skyship. To become Skyworthy.
SATAH: Today, I'm going to play Skyworthy.
CONNOR: To have the opportunity to be an entity that dares to go up into that vast azure field and return… safely? Maybe. Changed? Oh, absolutely.
CALEB: I need a standard deck of playing cards with the jokers removed, and so the jokers are once again banished. Those poor jokers. We need a game that's only the jokers removed. Those two are the deck and everything else is pulled out. Or maybe we just need to frame it a little differently every time and say that that's what's happening. The jokers are honoured! They remain. Remove every other card and then put those cards through the rigour and the work of having to be used in a game while the jokers celebrate their freedom.
SATAH: "You start simply as a skyship. You are a mid-sized soarwood cutter, capable and adaptable. Be aware you will not end the story as you begin it. Your body will change each time you are refit by a captain to meet their needs."
CONNOR: So what's really interesting about this one, too, is I play as a skyship? Which is cool. It's so interesting to normally pick and be a person, right? Like somebody who goes out and interacts with the world. And it's going to be interesting to kind of play as the object of interaction.
But object feels like the wrong word, right? I think there's– it's a vessel, right? Like a ship is a vessel, you know, both literally, but also kind of poetically, right? Like it's a vessel for the people within it.
SATAH: "Your story takes place over four distinct eras, during which time you will pass through the hands of seven different captains." Four different captains in our… our playthrough. "And their crews, each growing your legend."
CONNOR: You are not the blood that pumps in your heart, but, you know, it fuels you, right? And so similarly, you know, while the vessel might not be the people that move about inside of it, it's definitely changed by the people who live in it. And so I think that's interesting. I really like the idea of dealing with, you know… time on a on a very long scale and kind of the memories, uh, and- and kind of the ghosts that we we have living inside of us. Um, and the marks that they leave on us, some some positive and some less so.
CALEB: I need a journal or a word processor; I have a journal right here to take notes but of course I also have the audio journal of the folio podcast.
SATAH: So I'll say now… the vibe of this game, in the art– which is gorgeous, very like splatter watercoloury– is very piratical. [Laughs] Uh, wood ships that fly… a little- like pretty fantastical, not as much technological. And I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna sci-fi it. I think I could! But it's hard to say if that's… I think that if I do sci-fi it– if I am like a spaceship, kind of, I want to still set certain limitations of probably not… interplanetary? I think there's something interesting about the limitation of it being like on a planet. And that just that image of something that should not fly flying feels to me like it's probably sort of part of the heart of the game? Ooh! Which is the title– that's the chapter that i'm looking at right now! I didn't realise that!
My inclination is always sci-fi. We'll see. In The Heart of the Game! "You'll draw cards from your shuffled deck and note whether you drew a heart, a club, a diamond, a spade, or a combination of these two when called for. This is the beating heart of Skyworthy. Each card suit represents a different descriptor tag to help you choose your prompts. Hearts are dauntless
CALEB: "Hearts are hardy and enduring, extending my reach or weathering any storm.
SATAH: "Clubs are powerful.
CALEB: "Concerned with projecting force or destroying whatever stands in my way.
SATAH: "Diamonds are sleek.
CALEB: "Impressive, luxurious, or comfortable, making me more apt to catch eyes and imaginations.
SATAH: "Spades are swift.
CALEB: "Making me faster, more agile, or otherwise more difficult to catch and pin down."
CONNOR: Clubs here are powerful. Diamonds are sleek. Spades are swift and hearts are dauntless. That's, uh, you know, that's good. It resonates. I like that. I can dig it.
SATAH: "In the event you are seeking permission, you are always allowed to forego the randomness of drawing cards when you see a prompt that calls to you. Simply act as though you had drawn the prompt and continue on as otherwise instructed." Not a thing that will be relevant for me, but it is very good to have that be explicitly stated.
CONNOR: So let's jump into it! Let's start with the commission. Let's find out why I got made. I am a skyship. And why was I created?
SATAH: "Your commission. Draw a card."
CALEB: I'm going to draw a card.
SATAH: "Take a moment to answer the below prompt set corresponding to the tag you drew, and tell us about your creation, skyship."
CALEB: Amazing. I got… clubs. Powerful.
CONNOR: So I flipped over the king of clubs, which means I am powerful. I'm a government contract. Ooh, okay.
CALEB: So my commission. Government contract. "My engineers had access to the
CALEB & CONNOR: "wealth of a nation,
CONNOR: "outfitting me to exacting specifications. I was designed to project force and carry the flag to the furthest corners of the world."
SATAH: Heart, dauntless. Labour of love. "Someone considers you their life's masterwork. The attention and care they paid to every join and seam ensures, in this case, love will stand fast in the face of time."
CALEB: "Who was the engineer with the greatest hand in your design?
CONNOR: "What signatures did they leave in my plans?"
CALEB: Ooh, okay. So now we're already getting into it.
The engineer with the greatest hand in my design… I think I was made by a child. The government found a child who was kind of a savant who had been obsessed with skyships from a young age and who put together some secrets of their craft very young by experimenting in his own backyard.
We don't know much about this world, but I'm imagining that it's sort of a like, you know, a techno fantasy. We are in a industrial age in a fantasy world as they develop things like flying ships.
So I think skyships are still relatively new, and up to now, they've been made basically along one set of designs. And I was one of the first made by the designs of this child engineer, who we will call, um… Colma.
CONNOR: So I love the idea– I mean, I'm always big on the idea of eccentrics, right? People or individuals that kind of go against the grain and are maybe, like, a little bit goofy themselves as well, right? I have a hard time taking things seriously all the time.
So when I think about the engineer who has the greatest hand in my design… I think, you know, I like the idea that building skyships is more of an art than a science. So… in that sense, you know, the government, if they, you know– skyships are the way to project force, right? Like they are a way to kind of liberate the force of the government and have that be spread around the world. But I like the idea that in order for them to have this kind of really strength-based approach, they have to go and deal with someone who's a little… anti-that, right? Like not, not quite, uh, they're- they're more elegance than they are, are force. Um, so I, I, I like the idea that, you know, uh, the- the- they've gone out and they have recruited someone, um, who- who knows how to make skyships.
So the, the engineer, uh, with, with the greatest hand in my design was a shipwright named Galoom.
CALEB: Colma was my engineer, and she was only 13 at the time that she crafted me. The signatures she left in my plans… I think as a sign of her youth, she always incorporated in the gears, deep within my body that operate the propellers, uh, that move me, along the back– in the gears, there are a few gears that are in a unique shape with rounded– the rounded petals of a flower functioning as the gear. So instead of having stiff sharp edges, she made a few gears hidden in there that are tiny little flowers. Originally painted with a– I don't know you call the middle of the flower– with the middle of the flower painted yellow and then the petals painted with some minor details. So if you're looking through the vast wooden machinery of the skyship, if you were to look close, you would see that many of the key gears are shaped in an unideal but whimsical way, befitting a child's love of the flowers of her hometown.
So Colma left those within me. And even if the paint will chip, that shape will stay the same because the gears around them are designed to accommodate them so it would be expensive to replace all that stuff.
CONNOR: The way that Galoom approaches building ships is a very inside-out approach. Right? They– it's a little bit unorthodox, you know. The government is looking for things like, oh, it needs to have, like, crew quarters for like a hundred crew, or it needs to be able to haul at least 500 tonnes of goods and gold and stuff.
Is that a reasonable amount for a ship to even carry? I'm not sure. There's a reason why I'm not a shipwright.
But I think when Galoom starts with this contract, he looks at it like we're making the heart of the ship first, right? We build the heart. And so that signature… that they leave. They see the building of the ship as like a very organic process, right? Building the skeleton and, you know, sort of kindling the heart, you know, starting to breathe kind of the fire, the life into that ship.
And so the signatures that they leave in the plans is that the ship itself seems almost organic in nature. While, it is, you know, regimentally structured and stuff, the ship has got like a very natural flow to it. It's very, um… it's sleek, but it's also lumpy. You know? It's slumpy??
It's kind of got like these odd projections and it's, you know– if a ship could have like knobbly knees or like awkward hands, you know, it has… it has a certain honesty to it, right? Like a certain newness, right? Like a just having grown up a little bit and starting to find a confidence in its own existence.
So yeah, the signature that I think they left in my plans is that I'm organically designed, but awkwardly implemented. So there might even be like some hallways and stuff inside me that just kind of seem to go to nowhere, or even sometimes like they lead out to like a very scenic view, and, you know, the government says, "You know, this is not really a functional area of the ship," but the engineer is adamant that it's necessary, right? It needs to have this, because it's a critical structure in order for it to feel alive.
SATAH: First prompt is, "Whose love and labour is owed to your construction? For what grand purpose did they produce such a singular skyship?"
Labour of love… could mean a hobby– this was a hobby? Like the classic sort of the project car that gets worked on over– and maybe is never quite expected to be finished, and then is, over the course of a lifetime or a very long time.
There's also the idea that the love is, I was a gift, I was constructed for somebody, either as a gift or… to guarantee their safety?
Could be an artist who was like, "How can I make the most beautiful skyship?" Like the idea that… skyships are always very utilitarian and this was somebody who was trying to like push the aesthetic bounds of it.
I think the thing I'm most drawn to there is the idea that I was constructed for somebody to keep them safe. And I think it was a little bit of a project thing like I'm picturing a gruff– a gruff butch mechanic who was always like– I mean this is too small scale but the vibe of tinkering in the garage, and then one day, very abruptly, going to… I don't know if it's like a partner or a sibling… maybe a sibling, yeah.
And she, like, is like– goes to her younger sister or something and is like, "Um. So I know that you've always wanted to travel and that I've always disapproved of it because it isn't safe. And it isn't. [Sighs] But." and like shows her the ship, you know? And is like, "I would feel better– if you have to do it. If you have to do it, I'll feel better if you go in this."
The question is, "What grand purpose?" I think that's grand enough, right? This is like, this is somebody who spent a lot of time constructing this ship to her specifications. She thinks that safety- the, like, regulations are a little lax. And so she built something that was not just up to code, but considerably higher than code.
A skyship is… is big, though. So can it be one person? I guess over a long enough span of time was in the equivalent of a dry dock and this was like years and years and years. And maybe the sibling is much younger and so it was sort of like as- as the younger sibling was growing up, she was like working on this and then gave it to them as a young adult kind of thing. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe- maybe I'll see more about that, especially when I figure out who my first captain is.
I should probably name her… Ginny. Which was, in fact, from me looking at the word "engineering."
Ginny Profunda. Ginny Profunda made me for her younger sister.
CALEB: "What production delays strained the terms of your contract? How did the engineers find a workaround?" Ooh, I have a couple of thoughts about this.
I think one just as like an interesting piece of flavour is that Colma was taken by this government to do this job kind of against the will of her parents. And her home- her parents and the others at her home took it into their own hands to try to get her back. So the process of engineering me was fraught because I was being continually moved to accommodate moving Colma so she was not found and returned home.
This is not a great government, I'm going to say.
CONNOR: I think, you know, when it when it comes to building this ship, right, the going to the the more art than science aspect of it, um, I think the idea was that there are– there are some very, like, specific materials that Galoom required for building the ship.
Um, what could those materials be? I mean there's a part of it that like you know really likes body horror and stuff… so maybe, you know, maybe some parts of the ship were- were grown, right? Um, like the mast and, uh, any like- any protrusions, any like, um, like… you know… what is it? What is it called? Like at the bow of the ship, like the, uh, is it the gunwale? Is it the gunwale?
[Typing] , it is not the gunwale. Uh, that is just the part where the, uh, like the, the edge of the ship. No, I'm thinking, like, the thing that sticks off the front of the ship, right? Oh, gosh, I need to… I should have looked up some ship parts beforehand. I'm going to be talking about boats all day.
But, yes, like, the prow of the ship was kind of grown organically from, like, a calcium substrate or something, right? And this substrate requires, like, a certain, like, fungus or something to… in order to achieve the desired effect, right? The desired boniness. Um, so that delayed the terms of the contract, was getting this very specific, like, fungus calcium substrate in order to achieve the desired kind of organic look. That really slowed it down. Yeah, absolutely.
CALEB: "How did the engineers find a workaround?" And the production delays also make it sound like there's something to do with what's happening in my… body…
I think other than those production delays, it was an issue of… Colma's design relied on the use of an extremely expensive mineral. An extra light metal that was able to be flexible and be used in certain pieces of my design amongst the wood that kept it from getting bogged down and weighed down by heavy metal, like, plates and stuff. Maybe there's like a power system that requires a thin metal.
And it's very rare. It was difficult to find. And as a result, the final design is actually compromised a little bit. I am heavier than my original intent, and all of these metal plates that were meant to be something like Mithril, you know, in Lord of the Rings or other fantasy stuff, a very light but very sturdy metal, are instead a more traditional steel– I guess we have steel at this point?– more traditional steel. And that means that I am slower and heavier than Colma's original design.
But a lot of the engineers that were working with the designs of this child saw her desire for that mineral to be kind of a childish fancy. It would be like a kid saying, "I want my whole house to be made out of diamonds."
CONNOR: And how did the engineers find a workaround on this?
So I think the process is fairly time-consuming, right? Like, it takes a while to grow bones, and so what the engineers did was that they sculpted them. Right? Or– maybe not– sculpted isn't the right word. But they tried to kind of, like, deceive Halloum a little bit.
Or- not Halloum. Galoom. Maybe I'm thinking of the cheese.
Anyay, Galoom. They tried to deceive him a little bit by making it out of, like, like ceramic, right? Like they would, you know, the process was taking a long time. I mean, it took a while to source the fungus, and it takes a while to nurture the fungus. So they, you know, when Galoom was asleep, some of the other engineers would get in, and they'd be like, "Okay, do you remember what this bone is supposed to look like?" And, you know, it's like, "Oh, I think it's supposed to look like a thigh bone or something." "Like a femur?" "Yeah, yeah, like a femur." "Okay, okay, so we can sculpt something that kind of looks like a femur."
And so they would do that. They would build kind of simulated bone and then just kind of leave it in the substrate and Galoom would wake up the next morning, and he would see that the progress far exceeds his expectations. And, well, you know… while I know it was like a little bit of a deception, I think he looked at it as, "Oh, I'm doing something right. If nature seems to be pushing the process along, then I must be in line with- with nature." Right?
And so these are engineers that were put on the project. These ones are actually working for the government who are trying to, you know, keep- keep Galoom from spending, you know, four weeks trying to craft the perfect door, um. And so they- they're- they're the ones who try to rein in the artistry a little bit.
Is that sabotage? I don't- I don't think it's sabotage if you're, like, encouraging the plans. You're helping them along. It's- it's like a little… it gets, you know, it's. Yeah, it's dishonest but like, it's- it still encourages the vision, which I think is kind of fun.
SATAH: "The day of your first launch was a momentous occasion. Who was there to see you take flight for the first time?" Hmm.
The thing I'm immediately imagining is that this, like… Ginny and the sibling, this family live in, like, a small community. And that's part of what made the younger sister, like, want to explore and travel, right? Like, small town, wants to see the world.
And I think that everyone was there because ever– and like, in a way that she couldn't understand as a child, when people were saying, like, "It isn't safe. No, you can't do this thing," she only felt the oppression of it. She only felt, like, oh my god, I'm trapped here forever. And later in life she will come to accept that it was care. It was real care. They genuinely weren't safe. The regulations were shit. People were constantly dying.
Maybe it's even that, um, skyships as a thing were barely real and people were going, like, into the oceans in these regular ships and just constantly get- getting their getting their shit wrecked. Getting- getting shipwrecked. Getting their shit wrecked at a shipwreck. Um.
And it was just- it was just dangerous. And skyships were– like, Ginny didn't, like, invent skyships, but I don't think we had one where we… like, that came out of where the– this small, uh, community was? This village or small town or city or whatever. Um, and she did that so that the younger sibling could leave safely and the whole town wanted this.
Like, this is really- this is a big deal. This is such a huge source of local pride and the idea that this kid, now young adult, can go off into the world and, like, explore and be the pride of this town without, like, as inevitably falling into tragedy? Which I understand might be tragedy– we don't stay with one captain the whole time, if she even is the captain, um, which I think she's not because it's going to have to be refit. Well, we'll see what happens.
Everyone was excited. Everyone was really proud and excited.
And I think, you know, I characterised Ginny as- as quite gruff in that moment. Like, the not really knowing how to show she cares type thing, um… which is, uh, me. Which I'm pulling on from me. [Laughing] It's something I occasionally struggle with.
The idea that the, um, town in part is also– at least, this- this community, you know, is excited to be able to support Ginny by supporting her younger sibling and supporting this launch and this– having this big party that it's like… wow, it's so nice to be able to… [Laughing] we can compliment Ginny's work as a way of expressing that we care about her without scaring her off. [Laughs] 
I'm laughing at myself. I've done a lot of work. This isn't as active for me, but it is always going to be part of me.
So yeah, the whole town, the whole town showed up.
[Sing-song] What is Ginny's younger sibling's name? Laura. And yep, that is because I was like, oh, I named Ginny for engineering. What if I named Laura for something that she's going to do? Exploring. Laura. From explor… a. Eh. [Soft meow in the background] I know, Garold, it was a bit of a stretch.
Oh, it's going to be so hard for me not to get super distracted by thinking– because I'm like, ooh, wait, if Ginny's like this brilliant constructor or- or- or mechanic or whatever where she can like do all of this work by herself over the course, that there's probably a little bit of like the people in town being like, we tried to get her to leave town too, to like go to the big city and go to school and fully realise her potential, but we couldn't- we couldn't do it. She stayed because she thinks it's important to stay here and take care of us. And that's great! And we appreciate it. And she is a valued member of the community. We've always wondered if she would be happier if she'd stretched her legs and gone out into the world. That ship– sorry, pun, kind of– has sailed. But hey! We can help her help her younger sister. Like, that's- that's– it's almost making up for it on sort of, like, a community level?
Yeah, and I'm not gonna get– I'm not just gonna sit here and think about these two. I'm gonna– I'm gonna– because I'm a ship. I'm a ship. I'm the ship! So I'm– I- I barely know Laura. I've hunt out with Ginny this whole time while- while she, like… I think probably, like, retrofits me and you know gives me sail– gives me- gives me flying capabilities etc.
CALEB: "What name were you given when the contract was completed?"
CONNOR: Well the government- government names things so boringly, right? Like, it's always after like some famous person or a significant political figure, right? Like that's- that's where it comes from, you know. Like, oh, it's- it's the SS Elizabeth or Queen Anne, right. Like it's, uh, it's named after people.
I don't think Galoom got to name it. He tries to. The name that's coming to me right now is Jasper. I feel like Galoom wants to name the ship Jasper, but the government's not having it. They're intended to project force. Jasper doesn't really sound like a… it's an honest name, but it's not a threatening name. Or at least, rather, I don't know any threatening Jaspers.
So, what was the name? Projecting force… well, where I'm thinking now is like, okay, force, you know, like a Newton, like a unit of force. Force over distance is work, is effort, is energy. So, maybe The Joule? But not like… you know, maybe- maybe I won't call it like The Joule, like J O U L E, but maybe- maybe there is still like a– maybe somebody in government still has like a– can still have a little bit funny with- fun with it. Right? So…
Ugh. How boring do I want to– I feel like the Azure Joule… um, or The- The Joule Azure? Hmm. Gosh, naming things is hard.
SATAH: "What name was given to you at your christening?" Ooh! Oh, that's hard.
CONNOR: Okay, we're going to get one more layer removed. So force to joule to jewelry…
SATAH: Right, if you search ship names, it's going to tell you about putting two people's names together. [Laughs]
CONNOR: The King Sapphire. Yeah.
And then we establish that we're kind of in a bit of a… a monarchy situation, right? But the- the King Sapphire. Right? It's his- his blue jewel of the skies. Um, and it, you know, it burns with an internal fire, kind of like a- like a sapphire does too, right? Like, that comes back to the- the heart of the ship, right, um that- that Galoom had- had created.
SATAH: Let's look at "boatingwise.com: 900+ great boat names."
CONNOR: So yeah, I think definitely, like, the King Sapphire.
And then I think this kind of tells me a little bit more about the ship as well. I think it's like a brilliant blue vessel. And that's kind of like a bit of a… it's almost like a stealth ship then, right? Because blue skies, blue vessel.
SATAH: No… words related to safety…
CONNOR: Yeah, I like that. Okay.
Yeah, so it's… I am the King Sapphire. I am the jewel of the Empire. And I am the first stealth ship to be created.
And I think that kind of goes with a bit of that organic construction as well, right? It's almost like a camouflage to build something that resembles nature. A concrete building stands out very starkly on a grassy field, right? So how do you make a big building blend into a grassy field? Well, you make a… you make a grassy building, I think.
Maybe it looks a little bit like a bird, too, with, like, big awkward wings. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I said, you know, it's got, like, kind of knobbly hands and strange joints. So maybe it has, like, large, kind of gawky, bluish, translucent wings that catch the sunlight and glimmer from on top, but when you look at it from below, it looks like a mere ripple in the sky.
CALEB: I was given the name… I'm thinking through things. I'm thinking about the flower. I'm thinking about this strange metal. I'm thinking about Colma, the child.
SATAH: How can I- how can I- how can I… a name that something is, like… can I get safety and exploration into the same concept?
The first thing I thought of was a net. A net enables you to, like, you know, go high– I'm thinking of, like, high rise, uh, acrobats and stuff. You can go higher and be more daring if you know there's a net to catch you.
Mmm… The Catching Net, I think.
And I like– I'm not gonna- I'm not- I'm NOT getting distracted. I'm so focused. But I do like the idea that it is also a segment of like a lyric from a song, maybe that Ginny and Laura knew, like, from their childhood? Maybe even a song that, like, their mother wrote or something, and she was a musician… maybe not. But just, yeah. It's- it is, to people from here, at least, recognisable as a segment of a lyric. For Ginny, specifically it means like you'll land safely if you fall.
And then I think it also gives it this interesting, like, reputation– like, people hear The Catching Net and they think like this is going to be… not even like a fishing– like, bounty hunting. Like this, oh, this is a ship that will track you down. You know, it can very easily be turned into a threat. And I think that's very cool to have all of those meetings in there. So yeah, The Catching Net is the name.
CALEB: My name is Greenblade. Greenblade meant to… evoke the freshness of a plant, the newness of the design, and blade meant to evoke the speed and sharpness of the skyship moving through the air and cutting through the clouds.
But of course, the real reason it's called Greenblade is because of a mythological story Colma's parents used to tell her of a hero who wielded a green blade, a sword made entirely out of plant. A fairy who plucked it directly from a tree, and from that point forward, it was sharper than any other sword.
So we were always Greenblade. And Colma gave us that name before we were even born, as she wished to find her home again.
CONNOR: Cool. All right. Yeah, I'm happy with this as my commission.
CALEB: I believe I have completed my commission.
SATAH: I think that's it for the commission, so we'll go into the first era!
BREAK
SATAH: It's beautifully fitting that the first ever return guest is one of the first ever guests of the show at all. Thank you so much to Caleb Zane Huett for coming back on the show. Caleb, of course, is one of the brains behind Triangle Agency, a paranormal investigation & corporate horror roleplaying game that you can pick up at shop.hauntedtable.games or hauntedtable.itch.io. He's also a genuine, kind, and hilarious person who I am honoured to get to idly chat with about games and stories. Follow hauntedtable on Bluesky and pick up the LITERALLY award-winning Triangle Agency as soon as you get the chance. Also, if you haven't heard it, go back and listen to the first ever Folio series, in which Caleb and Tomas Gimenez Rioja play Accomplice. It kicked off the show. It was the thing that gave me the confidence to be like, "I think this is working! I think this will work. I think this can be a show," and that is in huge part tow– because– [stumbling] of him. Not because of me. 'Cause listen to how I talk. What was that?! No, I'm not going to do it again! I have to move on!
Connor C is a dear old friend of mine and a brilliant storyteller. I don't think I would have the relationship to games that I do now if not for the time I spent at his table, like, ten years ago. He gave me a completely skewed vision of what Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition actually feels like to play with his collaborative, clever, deeply strange DMing. He was graciously enthused every time I sent him 3000 word Google docs at 4 am about how my character's grandparents met. He always encouraged my creativity and depth of play, and I am thrilled to have him here. Even if it does mean that both guests have a name that starts with C, which made me literally scream into my mouth a few times while doing the episode transcriptions.
Speaking of screaming into my mouth, you are currently listening to my show– thank you! My name's Satah. I'm a TTRPG editor and designer, podcast wrangler, and musician. My singer-songwriter acoustic goth broadway bedroom doom pop feelings project people you meet outside of bars released an EP at the end of last year and a full length-album at the end of February for record production month. Check out my work at gaygothvibes.online and follow me on Bluesky at posatahchips.gaygothvibes.online.
And now… with our commissions completed, it's time to meet our first captains.
GAME: FIRST ERA
CAPTAIN
CONNOR: Get ready for the first era, my first flight. Okay.
CALEB: I have to draw two cards to determine my first captain.
CONNOR: If I draw two of the same suit, continue to draw until I have two different suits. Okay.
SATAH: I really do want this first captain to be Laura. But we're going to see what I draw.
CALEB: My first two cards are hearts and clubs, so I need to scroll through to find what the captains are…
CALEB: Alright, let's take- let's take a look. Let's flip over the first card. It's a spade… and a diamond. Ooh, okay, what does that mean? Sleek and swift.
SATAH: I drew a heart and a diamond which is dauntless and sleek.
CALEB: Hearts and clubs– oh, it's the first one! Dauntless and powerful. The Decorated Admiral.
SATAH: The Shrewd Merchant.
CONNOR: The Dilettante Noble. Oh, this is- this is fun. This is fun. I like that the, um– they've gone and given this stealth ship… [Laughing] to a noble? Oh no, what happened here?
CALEB: "This is not the Admiral's first command, and it shows. They are experienced, wise, and protective of you and their crew."
SATAH: "You and the merchant pursue profit to the edges of the horizon. They are hungry, resourceful, and stubborn to a fault."
CONNOR: "I am a status symbol. And the noble intends to show me off. They are vainglorious, bored, and grasping."
SATAH: Is this Laura? Or did the ship end up in someone else's hands? This is, like, the first flight… let's- so, let's do the second step and see.
CONNOR: "The jewel in their collection of treasures…" oh, wow. Hey, the jewel in their collection of treasures? How?! Oh, this is fun. This is really fun.
Okay, yeah! Oh, man, already. You know, I'm thinking, like, okay, the ship was commissioned by the king, right? And then they look to their… their son, right? Like their heir. And they're like, okay, yeah, I really, I want to, you know… it is,--it's their 18th birthday, right? And so it is only fitting that they are granted their own commission, their own ship. And so this is a 18th birthday gift for the king's son, hoping that it would be a motivating force for them to become a little bit more mature. Right? Um, and so yeah, he named it the, uh- the– oh, maybe it's not the- oh, because, you know, it's gonna be- he's gonna be the prince… no, no no; I think it's the King's Jewel and he's giving it to the prince in hope that it will bring him to kingliness.
[Typing] "A prince who likes to party." This is silly! I love this already, yeah.
REFIT
SATAH: "Draw a card for a chance of refit.
CONNOR: "If the suit on the card you draw matches either one of your captain's suits, you gain the corresponding refit." So let me see. I draw. And yes, I get another clubs! Because I got the clubs, I got "the long nines." "What does it do? What does it look like? And how did your captain acquire it?"
[Dramatic voice] "The long nines…" [Regular voice] I appreciate that this prompt is just like, we're going to put some words here and you are going to decide what that means.
I think the long nines are, obviously, sniper rifles. They are really, really interestingly gilded and huge sniper rifles on the scale of a ship. There are two of them, both pointed forward on the ship. There are two sniper rifles pointed, uh… at the… prow? Is that the front? We're revealing that I have failed to do what all authors are required to do, and it's learn how a boat works. At the prow, I think.
I think the trade-off of the long nines is that they are a long charge-up time. So, part of what the people who fire them get good at doing is timing them several seconds in advance, as they need to be heated up and charged and then fired. And then also, I think they are not as powerful as a cannonball, so they must be precise.
It's a tough combination. You have to be making precise shots, a la a sniper rifle, but you have to be making them several seconds in advance and preparing the gun to fire after… let's just say three seconds. Even three seconds is a long time when you're talking about a sniper rifle. To fire at the end of a three second charge up that you cannot stop once you've started it. I think that's interesting.
And those are the long nines. I'm actually going to make a note about that so I don't forget.
CONNOR: I drew a club, so I don't get any refits.
SATAH: I drew a heart, so I am going to get a refit. Let's see what it is. The dauntless refit for the shrewd merchant is a "cavernous hold."
Hungry, resourceful, and stubborn to a fault… I mean, that does sound like it could be Laura. Maybe what this is is… she goes to explore and she finds herself in, like, a shipping hub and loves the chaos. Like, is lost, for sure, but in a delighted way, and is, like, trying to follow the flow of the crowd. And, like, people are yelling at each other and- and- and- uh, haggling and bargaining in– just right in this dock where she first lands. And she just, like, feels this spark. And that's how she sort of gets into trading, specifically.
And I think she also, like– she looks– she's looking around and she's looking at all these ships that have fifteen different types of boxes on them, that are stamped with the cargo from from a hundred different places. That these ships are obviously like going all around the world and having an excuse to. And she's like, "Oh. Oh. This could be the thing that gives me guidance on where I go." 
And so she does add a re– she does do a refit. Uh, she adds the, uh, the cavernous hold.
And I think what this is is, um, there was a– there was a- a room on the ship that was very, like– a parlor, essentially? She's not– she's not ripping out, like, all of the places where people can live and be comfortable. But there was a room that, like, was made to- to- to host and be a little fancy. And she just guts it. That- these- are the– this is the first thing that she sells is these probably hand carved locally sourced furniture from her hometown. She- she rips it all out and- and the- the fabric, the coverings…
And- and I want to be clear, I- I- I don't– I don't want it to seem like she's doing this disrespectfully. I don't– she's not like, "Oh, fuck all this." She's, like, appreciating the craftsmanship. And, like, I find it a little distasteful to only start noticing the positive aspects of something when you realise, like, oh, I need to find a way to sell this. I find that a little distasteful, for sure. But I do think Laura grew up around this. Like, this is just something that is done in her hometown. And she never had occasion to recognise that it's special. And in this moment, she does. And she does that so that she can sell it. So that she can do a good job at selling it.
And she does. She sells all the furniture in this room and she buys some shelving and some straps, and she turns this big parlor into a cavernous hold for goods.
CONNOR: Okay, yeah, so what was this captain's name? I mean, obviously it starts with Prince. Cool, we're halfway there. This is going to be like a royal name, right?
So we're in a world where the sky isn't the limit, right? But the sky is like kind of that… final frontier, um. And so I feel like names of some kind of gravitas would have something to do with the sky. So it's like– what's a really– a powerful thing that the sky does, is- is, you know, thunder and lightning. It's like– is Thunderhammer too on the nose? Like Prince Thunderhammer?
I think thunder is a good place to start, because I feel like this prince is- is loud, right? Is- is very boisterous and, um, he's a bit of a narcissist, right? And really loves the sound of his own voice. And he has a very big and booming voice, right? So, you know what? Let's just get really sky -y with it, you know? Thundercloud. Yeah, Prince Thundercloud.
So, yeah, so Prince Thundercloud, so-called, you know, a very apt name, the Thundercloud family, for they are known for their booming voices and… their stormy temperament. Yes, how's that for subtext, right? So when things are going well, they are loud, they are boisterous, they are the center of the party. They can be the life of the party, absolutely. But when they get glum, when they get… you know dour, right, that's- that's when they really darken the skies, right, and that- that is where the Thundercloud comes in. So yeah. Yeah, Prince Thundercloud. Oh, I love this. This is great. This is great. Wow– this is randomly generated? What? What?! It's wack! It's fun.
CAPTAIN'S PROMPTS
SATAH: Okay, now answer the captain's prompts.
CALEB: "Describe the daily routine of the Admiral and the sailors under their command. How do they deal with the boredom and drudgery of endless patrols in this era of relative peace and prosperity?" Oh, interesting.
Okay, so we established in the previous section under my commission, that while this ship was developed by a government, the government was willing to take a child from her home against their will in order to get these built. And that it was a design intended to be competitive versus other designs. So I think what we learn about this era of relative peace and prosperity is that the ships they're competing with are also within the empire. They're not in a war; they are dealing with a community of people who have been building their own ships. And something Colma uncovered would have meant that the citizens of this empire would have had better equipment than those who are intended to police it. So this admiral is now given the Greenblade, the first of these ships, and is set with patrolling her own country, her own empire.
The daily routine… I think they're primarily concerned with two things. One is trade. They are assisting with the movement of important resources from place to place in this empire, which I believe is very large and crosses multiple islands and land masses, which requires the use of skyships sometimes for transportation and trade. So the admiral assists, both as a ship that can carry that stuff and as a bodyguard for larger, slower skyships who are attempting to carry important cargo.
And then the other thing they do is a different kind of important cargo, which is people. I think they are often acting as basically a private jet for the most important people in this empire, the emperor and his entourage. So I think, I think… I think that's it.
And the way that they deal with the boredom of this– because it is kind of boring– you are dealing with some of the most, like, specialised and annoying– potentially– people in the country and you are moving stuff back and forth in kind of a boring way. You're not getting a lot of combat, even though you've been trained for it. I think they handle it by playing a lot of games on board. And I think a few of the sailors are smugglers on top of this. They have their own secret cargo they're moving around.
And so the Admiral, who is decorated and proud of the work she's done, also knows that she has, by virtue of the team she's put together, built something of a crew of spies and criminals who are doing their jobs very well, but who are not chastised or stopped from acting on their own behalf during this time. I'm guessing because the Admiral herself is also doing this.
SATAH: "What rare commodity does the merchant load your hold with before setting off for the horizon?" I think I kind of just established that. It's, um, like…
So this- this- this  trading port that she went to was very close. I think that she was with a very, like a very minimal crew and she was told to come here to hire a crew, which she does. And the first thing they do is return to her hometown, first to drop off any members of the hometown crew who don't want to go on the rest of the journey… I think a couple of them do stay though. They're very taken by this energy as well. Maybe all of them stay. That's kind of fun, right? Yeah, they were supposed to– at least for a leg, at least for…  a couple journeys, all of them are like, "You know what, I want to see this through for a little while longer."
And… just a bunch of the, like, beautiful handcrafted… I'm seeing a lot of, like, just carefully woven textiles and handcrafted furniture from… is it wood? It's… yeah, it's, like, a very specific… it's- it's a local tree or something that just– it has this, like, almost deep purple to it, this- this wood.
And Laura just talks to a bunch of the people who make stuff here and she's like, "Whatever you're comfortable sending with me, I will sell for you and I will- I will return with profit," or something like that, you know? I imagine, like they have to– there has to be some form of trade, presumably, especially if they're close enough to a big trading port– the- the one that Laura went to first. But she's basically saying like, "Hey, I can- I can make it faster and I can haggle for you." Ooh, yeah, that's one of the things, is that, like, traders come through and will, like, trade goods and whatever, but people in this town didn't have a lot of like bargaining power or whatever and Laura is basically saying like, "Hey, we can do this. I can do this. We can be in control of this." Yeah. Yeah!
One other detail is just– I think I mentioned, like, textiles and I think that I really like the idea that this- this- this tree that has this sort of deep purple wood, also it… it's almost like a willow tree in the odd like fibrous leaves that it grows. And that's one of the things also, like, that gets broken down and woven into these textiles. And then a lot of just like… hand dyes with strange, like, gems and rocks that are all around this town. Yeah. Just very, very unique to the, like, physical geography of this place. That's sort of what all their materials are. And that's why it's a rare commodity to load the hold with.
CONNOR: "Describe the lavish parties that the noble has hosted aboard me." Um, hm. I'm putting a bullet point in my notes here that says parties, question mark? Yes!
Initially, I'm like, what kind of parties does somebody host on a sky boat? And immediately the answer was the same kind of party somebody hosts on a water boat, I think.
Um, and I think– yeah, I think with the– ooh, yeah, because the wings of the ship I described as really capturing the sun's fire, right? And making the wings of the ship glimmer almost. But what I think the prince has discovered is that while the sun's fire is a very fierce and hot and raging kind of energy and lighting… the moonlight, now that's where the party really happens. And the wings glimmer silver and- and… cold. Um, almost like, uh– like being on the inside of a disco ball. Like a disco ball– yeah. Like- like an inverted disco ball, you know? Sitting on- sitting on the inside, uh, of an orb of mirrors as the moon's light glints and glimmers. And I- I think, you know, the prince really loves chasing- chasing the moon and going to different places to see the moon in different phases, um, and- and just really, really drawn in by the most extreme parties.
The most, you know– when all the stops have been pulled out are the eclipse parties. Like a full moon eclipse party, yes. And I think this is, you know… I think the prince initially, like consciously, he seeks this party out, this full moon eclipse party as, like, a very unique spectacle, right? He thinks like, "Oh, look at me. Look at how fancy I am. I'm– Prince Thundercloud goes chasing after eclipses and is able to find them and hosts parties underneath their waxing and waning light."
But I think there's a subconscious piece going on here for the prince as well. Something that, it almost feels like a… like a ray– [Laughing] raging against the night, you know? The idea that you can go partying into the dark. And when you are in this darkness, when the very last sliver of light has faded away, that is when the light of the ship, of the prince's own youth and fire, burns the brightest. I have burned so… hot and so bright that it is by my light that the moon once more reveals its face.
And I think this is a, you know, maybe a youth is wasted on the young kind of deal here. You know, the prince is only, what, 18, right? I mean, I guess it was given to him on his 18th birthday. Maybe it's been a couple of years and maybe he's like, you know, 20. now or something. He's having like, oh no, I'm 22. I'm so old, right? My youth is over. Now I'm an old guy.
I've written, "In the darkest part of the eclipse, this is when his 'waning'" – and I've put big sarcastic quotes around waning– "youth burns the brightest."
Man, I've gone and created a character that I find a little insufferable. But hey, that's the fun of it, right? You don't need to love everyone that you– you think of. You just need to, you know, do right by them.
SATAH: "Tell the story of the day the merchant nearly had to sell you to cover an unexpected loss." Oof.
It's a while in. She's been going around… is it for a couple of years? I think it's at least a year. Enough time for her to gain a lot of confidence and start taking bigger risks.
I… don't understand how economies work. I mean, I- I- I do, but I'm- I- uh, hate it. And so I refuse to. Which makes it hard for me to think of taking a big risk… [Laughs] when you don't have the money to back it up. What is it?
Ooh, it's crew. Not that they died, but it's– it's the crew from the hometown. Um, all of- all of the people who stayed on as the vibe has gotten a little more intense. Higher risk gambling. It seems like the trading is no longer an excuse to explore, but instead, like, we're now often going to places that we've already been because they're reliable and we know that we'll be able to sell there rather than taking the risk.
That's the thing, right? We're taking, like– the risks we're taking are not as interesting. They are financial. We are not risking, like, going to a new port so that we can check it out and see what's there. We're just risking, like, buying bigger shipments and having to sell and move more product and that kind of thing.
And we go back to the hometown and all of the members of the crew who are from the hometown– maybe one stays, but other than that, all of them come to Laura and they're like, "Hey, we can't do this anymore. It isn't satisfying. It isn't fulfilling. It's just fast and kind of scary. And we're going to stay."
And Laura's like, "Oh, yeah, okay. No, I totally get that. Uh, sure."
And she goes to try and hire crew to replace them. And, like, they were the skeleton crew that was sent so they have, like– like- like, when it was just them on that very first journey, that launch day journey– which implies to me that they have some of the most important skills. Like, if you're only going to send five people to do 15 people's work, you really want one of those people to fuckin' know how an engine works.
And so, like… Laura quickly learns that hiring their replacements is going to be inordinately expensive. And is getting to a place where she's like, "Okay. Well, I could sell this ship. I could sell The Catching Net and just get a cheaper ship. And then I'd have to hire less crew. I can keep the crew I have, hire just a couple people, and be able to use the money that's left over to hire them."
And how is it that she doesn't have to? I want an answer that isn't, you know, she stumbles upon a bunch of people who are like, "I would love to work for experience." [Laughs]
I think… part of it is some crew members come to her shyly and say, like, "I've been– we've all been learning while we've been here. We can cover a bunch of those roles. Probably not quite as well, but we can do it."
And I think one of the things here is that, like, this is Laura going to the whole crew and laying out what's happening. And maybe, just to tie it to why– to the– to why I was created the way that I was, they are like… a lot of them have horror stories of working on other ships where the conditions are technically legal, but fucking miserable.
I, Satah, worked on a cruise ship for a season, a very small one, and the boat was built, like, in the 70s or 80s. Regulations were different then. But if a boat is old, then you can kind of get grandfathered into the new regulations? Like in the 80s, you were allowed to build a ship where the crew sleep below the waterline. At a certain point, they realised that the crew should not be the first people to die if someone goes wrong, and so legally, you cannot do that anymore. But if you already made the boat, it's okay! As long as you don't do any major renovations to it. Because if you do any major renovations to it, you have to get the whole thing up to code. I'm sure that you can sort of… think through the implications of that all on your own. What that means. To have a boat that cannot have any major fixes applied to it because it would have to suddenly leap forward, you know, 30, 40 years in standards.
And I think that that's a thing here, too. Um, except the regulations are even more lax and it's really easy to get– even- even– like, technically there are a lot of ships that, like, wouldn't even meet code, but it's really easy to get an exception, unfortunately, from whatever licensing board there is because… they want these ships to be moving and moving products and facilitating trade and that kind of thing. That's more important than making sure that the people on them are safe and cared for.
And so the crew is like, "No, we have to keep this ship. We've all been learning. You're going to have to give us raises, but we can do the crucial work. And we will be cheaper for now."
We draw up some contracts that are like, I will take… like, my wage should 300% of what I'm making right now. For the next six months, I will accept 200% of what I'm making right now. And then… I will be owed the 300– 200% plus retroactive, blah, blah, blah. But sort of just like giving a buffer, giving us time to, like, get more profit. And I can use the savings from not paying them their worth… oh, god, this is a difficult character for me. To… [Laughs] hire crew to replace them in sort of the, like, lower skill stuff.
Oh, god. This is not even close to the most villainous character I've played, but is the most difficult for me to handle with a straight face.
CALEB: "Tell the story of an engagement in which you and your crew were the only survivors in your fleet." Oh, gosh. Wow. Um… the only survivors.
I think there was a first spark of a civil war within this empire. It came from a community that happened to have access to many skyships because of their location. Actually, I think because of that they're near a forest. It's a community of foresters who, kind of pushed by the small rebellious activity that started when Colma's family began terrorising the sky harbors to find Colma, grew very quickly into something like a militia that was interested in liberating the main source of wood for skyships from the control of this empire.
However, I think the Admiral has been very happy with her position in the empire and so has the crew, so she was not in a place to try to stop it. And when a bunch of the sky ships from the imperial navy sky navy were sent to attack this place, the Admiral and I, The Green Blade, were the only survivors because we were the only ship fast enough to outmaneuver all the rest of them.
We were still the first Green Blade made. All the rest of them were very similar make and model and their cumbersome, slow movements meant that the battle went the way a lot of skyship battles go, which is that everybody goes down. When you're shooting cannons at flying ships, it only really takes one or two shots to knock people down, and those cannons can fire at the exact same time, assuming that both parties are aimed at the other.
And we're going to say that's another reason why we survived is… I have two guns. Those guns can be maneuvered by specialised shooters at very long distances. And we are able to stay sort of out of the fray and fire these larger sniper rifles, rather than cannonballs directly at important parts of the ship. So I think we are the only ones who are able to maneuver fast enough and make fast enough decisions to not get taken down. And it was a truly… nasty and bloody battle.
Because we were the last ones standing and because it was shut down, the civil war's first attempts, the little bubbles of the civil war, did not succeed, at least not now. Rebellion was squashed and the Admiral and her crew– though the tone on the ship really turned sour, I think– became extremely well known and were able to even further promote themselves and their own wealth as a result.
CONNOR: "When did Prince Thundercloud put me, the King's Sapphire, in the most danger in their pursuit of novelty and excitement?"
I think it was during one of these eclipse parties. I think by their nature, they are already a dangerous event. But Prince Thundercloud really wanted to claim his namesake here, I think. I think… yes. Yes, he managed to find the perfect combination of lunar eclipse and raging thunderstorm.
And I think the idea is that, you know, the ship, you know, the King's Sapphire sits high above the thunderhead. I don't think the partygoers know. what the plan is, right? I think this is almost like a show just for him, you know? A way to demonstrate his resolve while other people may be panicking.
But they, you know, I think, you know– sometimes- once– his parties, he does often park above thunderheads, right? The flash of lightning below serving to be nature's strobe light.
But on this occasion, he decides to dive into the thunderhead. And he orders his pilot to bring the ship down to the center of the thunderhead with the waning of the light of the moon and leave it there only until the moon starts to reveal its face again.
And I think that this goes exactly as you'd expect, right? And that is poorly.
The ship descends into the thundercloud as the moon's light starts to fade, and the guests are, you know– they see them lowering the ship a bit, and they're like kind of, "Ha ha ha ha, okay, this is fun, um! I'm kind of getting a little close to it, though."
And then they start to kind of give way to panic, right? I mean, as I would, too, if… you know, "This is your captain speaking. We are going to be experiencing a moment of intense turbulence, um, because I am fly– I am choosing to fly us into a thundercloud. Sorry, prince's orders."
So the guests start to panic, right? They start to get really nervous. And I think the prince is the only one, like, just still kind of being very blasé about it. You know, very much like, oh, you know, like, "Come on, people! Let's get on the dance floor. This is nature's light show! You don't want to miss this!" I think he kills the music and lets the beating of the thunder be the beat of his dance, right?
And I think he's really, you know– he likes the idea of this so much that when lightning strikes the ship, it takes him a good, solid, like… ten seconds to realise that they're falling out of the sky.
Now, you know, clouds are pretty high up there, and the air is pretty thin up there, and I think they're on an open deck, right? There's got to be some way to keep themselves warm, you know. Maybe like a heated floor that kind of projects heat up a little bit. And, you know, it's- it is when lightning strikes the ship that the ship's power starts to fail, right? I described it earlier as the ship having a heart, so it is kind of like that electric shock that stops your heart for a little bit. And so similarly, this lightning strike has stopped my heart. My- me. The King's Sapphire.
And so the prince is busting a move and he feels like the earth… well, no, he feels the ground kind of, like, tilt underneath him and a sense of vertigo come over. And he thinks it's, like, you know– it's the thrill of his, you know– this is him at the, like, apotheosis of his party, right? Like, it doesn't get any better than this.
And then he feels cold because the heated floors have quit, too. And then he feels cold on the inside, because he realises they are falling.
And it just looks like rain rushing upwards, right? Because, you know, that's kind of what clouds are. They're just like rain up in the sky, right? So instead of the rain falling down, it's rushing upwards as like flashes of light, lightning strike off in the distance of this cloud, and he can feel the ship pitch and yaw as the guests freak out.
They're panicking. Their wine glasses are smashing against the floor. There's people confessing their love to each other. Some people confessing their dislove for each other. [Laughing] You know? Some people… you know… someone being like, "I knew I shouldn't have come on this party." You know, like, "I don't even like the prince anyway," as it careens towards the ground.
And, you know, back at the bridge, the pilot, right, is fighting with the controls, right? Trying to glide the ship down or trying to regain some sense of control. I think the ship is… I mean, obviously it's saved. I'm not going to break upon the ground on my… this isn't even my first flight. This is just a silly party in pursuit of novelty and excitement. I think Galoom, the shipwright, is… well, he does believe in organic design. He also believes in functionality as well. And so from the– he did design the ship– while, you know… hard to control without the power steering, can still be brought down safely if the ship were to lose power. And so I think it plummets from the sky, but eventually the pilot is able to… rein and rest control from gravity and cause the King Sapphire to spread its wings and bring it down to a very slow glide and bring it back down into control once they are underneath the thunderhead.
Rain pours down on the deck as guests are cast all across the party's floor. Tables are upturned. There is not a… there is not an unsmashed glass or shaken spirit out on the party floor. And I think, you know, finally,  in a moment kind of contrary to his nature, the prince can only, like, muster up a very, like, squeaky and soft and meek, like, "Sorry?"
And he storms off into his chambers because he couldn't have done anything wrong. And he refuses to repeat it again.
OUTRO
SATAH: This has been Folio, an actual play podcast about solo & otherwise self-paced TTRPGs. To find where you can find the show, check out foliopod.carrd.co. Sign up as a paid member at patreon.com/foliopod to vote on games and get early access to the bonus feed with edited audio-only versions of livestreams a while after they happen and occasional other stuff.
You can follow Caleb Zane Huett's work on Bluesky at hauntedtable. Triangle Agency, an award-winning game of paranormal investigation and corporate horror, is available now at shop.hauntedtable.games & hauntedtable.itch.io.
You cannot follow Connor anywhere, but he wants to recommend that you support your local library and take a little walk to appreciate something small and beautiful.
You can follow Satah– that's me– on Bluesky at posatahchips.gaygothvibes.online and check out my work at gaygothvibes.online.
Next week, Caleb and Connor and I will continue our games of Skyworthy by A Couple of Drakes. Everything I mentioned here is linked in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening, and take care out there.