INTRO
SATAH: Welcome to Folio, an actual play podcast about solo and 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 join there as a free member to get somewhat delayed access to the bonus podcast feed.
Every time we end a series or finish up a game here on the show, I make a public post on Patreon with some, like, stats and production notes and whatever from the game. They do get posted about on the Folio social media, but also signing up as a free member on Patreon is a great way to have them just delivered right to you. They're fun! I make graphs. I make graphs! It's my second favourite part of making this show, probably. Second or third. I do have a ranking, and it's up there.
This is the final episode of our games of Skyworthy, "a journaling game of iconic skyships" and "the captains who fly them" by A Couple of Drakes. With me again, once more, are Caleb Zane Huett and Connor C. You can follow Caleb's work on Bluesky at hauntedtable and pick up Triangle Agency, an award -winning game of paranormal investigation and corporate horror at shop.hauntedtable.games and hauntedtable.itch.io. You cannot follow Connor. You will just get lost if you try, and we will miss you so terribly.
Last episode. We saw most of the time our third captains spent aboard. Today, we will see them off, meet our final captains, and then bid them adieu as well.
GAME: THIRD ERA (CONT'D)
EVENT
SATAH: Now, "draw a card and turn to 'The World Moves On' prompt table. If you draw a diamond or heart, choose a prompt from 'The World Moves'. If you draw a club or a spade, choose a prompt from 'No, You Move.'" [Chuckles]
And I drew a club.
CONNOR: A heart.
CALEB: The nine of spades. "No, You Move."
SATAH: I'm going to roll a d6… [Die rolling] The subtitles of these tables are "The Coalition pushes further" and "you push right back."
CONNOR: So I guess, like, the Coalition is the regime, right? Yeah, let's say it- it is– we're getting cracked down, right?
CALEB: Oh, I'm seeing that Coalition is the name of a faction in this era. That's fine. I don't need that.
SATAH: "No, You Move" is "and you push right back."
CALEB: I honestly answered several of these with the story I just told, but I want to mix it up. So I'm trying to think of a different one I can say that adds more. How about–
SATAH: I rolled a four, which is. "We'll get ourselves a little further."
CALEB: "We'll get ourselves a little further."
CALEB & SATAH: "The arm of the Coalition extends and you are forced to the raggedy edge.
SATAH: "What kind of jobs and shady characters keep you and your crew flying?" Okay, so I was clearly supposed to be outside of the Coalition, but was assuming that I was part of it. My bad.
But that's perfect because I think we have seen glimpses in this Admiral's story so far of her pulling further and further away from the establishment, right? Realising that she's just for show. That the people above her consider helping people to only be worth it when it sends a good message and not for its own reasons of helping people. That they're happy to suppress the development of technology that would disrupt labour industries that harm people just because they have financial agreements with those industries.
And it's years and years, right? It's a long career. And I think the beginning of the answer to this prompt, when it says "the arm of the Coalition extends and you are forced to the raggedy edge," is that she sees the tide turning. She feels the leash being tugged. The people above her are starting to get that the whole reason that her position was reworked was that so she didn't have as much power. And they're starting to notice that she's doing what she wants a lot of the time. [Laughs]
And she is doing her best, constantly coming up with excuses to be further away, to keep helping people on the edges. And at a certain point, she receives a direct order and she refuses it. And a warrant is put out for her arrest, but unfortunately for them, The Catching Net cannot be caught.
And the Admiral has made it her entire life's work to help people who otherwise would be ignored by these systems. And so they're not fucking giving her up, you know? And she and her crew who are still very- who are loyal, you know? She's– she, over her career, definitely had to, like, handpick her crew and- and- and has a very loyal contingent of people who feel the same way as her about the system and about their place in it and how they can turn their place into it into the best version. The version that feels best, that involves the least compromise.
Another thing they have in common with the pirates. No more compromise. [Chuckles]
And… she's on the run! She's on the run as well.
"What kind of jobs and shady characters keep you and your crew flying?" They are shady; they're criminals. And they're good people. [Laughs] By necessity, now, overnight, she became a criminal. Her behaviour didn't change. Not really. But the way that it was regarded did, and therefore, so did the way that the behaviour of people around her is regarded. Suddenly, everybody who helps her is a criminal. Oops. [Laughs]
And I think when it comes to "what kind of jobs," just like… they keep doing the same thing. They're still helping people. It's harder. They have to start doing more trading and that kind of thing. But overall, like… people want to help them because they've been helping for… decades, I think, probably. At least a decade. Probably two.
So they're just– they're in the wind. Supplies to and from places. Running from the Navy. Waiting, hoping that it will collapse under its own weight. Feeling unnerved that it doesn't. Because surely something that is built on something as, uh… unstable as selfishness and profit has to fall, right? But… sometimes it can get very, very tall before it does that.
CALEB: So I think the Empire, following our destruction of their bomb, really cracks down and starts hunting for us. And we're constantly on the run, hearing the hum of my reactive plating and having to flee from town to town.
And I think what happens is we end up back in contact with Admiral Glavik from the First Era twenty years prior. Now she's in her seventies. And Admiral Glavik, in her seventies, has gone full underground criminal. The Empire eventually kicked her out. She wasn't able to be an admiral anymore. She got too old and she was unhappy with the way that they were treating people, anyway.
Of course, Admiral Glavik– not so much of a rebellion person herself. She's still in it for herself. She's still out there trying to make money for herself. But Colma realizes that we have a lot to learn from her, and by offering Admiral Glavik our assistance in some smuggling runs that she's doing with people outside of the Empire and within the Empire itself, she began to give us guidance on the actual military strategy of the Empire. Where they go. What they're up to. How they will react. And her years and years of service working undercover within them means that she has a ton of information on the way they comport themselves, how they will behave… and her and her crew of smugglers, her extended family and her crew from before, who– many of whom left with her, they guide us toward the right targets, the right safe spaces.
And in exchange, you know, we bring them back something nice every once in a while.
CONNOR: There's a couple of these that maybe speak to me, but nothing that hit me quite so profoundly as last time. So I am just going to roll a die, and let's see what happens here. I'll re-roll on 19s and 20s.
[Die rolling] Six. Ooh. "Seizure and impound. The Coalition seizes control of you and places me in an impound in some backwater. For what purpose am I seized, and what must my Captain do to reclaim you?" Okay. Hmm.
I think I need to play into the fact that Hush maybe isn't as clever as they think they are. Um…
So I like that it was placed in an impound in some backwater, but I think it was also impounded in that backwater, right? It's not like the ship was captured in some main city and then impounded in this backwater. I think it was found nearby and impounded in this backwater.
And I think Hush… forgot to pay a docking fee. Yeah, I- I think, like– I think it's a, you know– it is a simple mistake that has created a… intense situation. This is a– this is a backwater town. They don't have a direct connection to the Coalition. Or they don't have an incredibly active connection to the Coalition. They are connected, mind you. They are– you know, everyone's part of the Coalition now, and everyone has to report and adhere to certain governmental structures. But I don't think they have a Coalition agent or a Coalition terminal on site yet that connects them to the central network on Coalition ship registries. I think they're still transitioning from a paper and pencil era into a, uh, maybe more of this, uh– maybe more of a digital age.
And I think that is the saving grace and the timer which Hush is working against. Because Hush knows that if this ship is reported as having been impounded to the Coalition, they are going to swarm on this place and they are going to swarm on them/
So, yeah, I was seized for a parking tic– [Dissolving into laughter then recovering] for what is effectively a parking ticket.
And how does Hush get me back?
I think Hush has to do something that they are not very comfortable doing, which is trust a stranger. So often– I think they very much view trust as a thing that is a little transactional. That they will only give trust once they have been… once it has been earned, right? And, you know, we love to say trust is never freely given and it is earned, but I think in moments of dire need, they need to learn to trust somebody that they do not know well.
So. Yes. Hush– I think they're having a bit of a dalliance with someone who lived in this town. And so, yeah, they're doing that whole first weekend in bed sort of deal, right? Where you're staying up late, you're watching X-Files, and then you wake up really late in the morning and you have, like, a breakfast in bed as you watch the sunlight slowly filter in through the… the, like, half open window.
And Hush goes to go back to their ship to fly off on another smuggling run when they see that it has been impounded. It is not where they had parked it. And so they have to go back to this person that they were seeing. Let's give them a name. Her name is Veronica.
I think Veronica has somebody who works in… bylaw? Yeah. Works in the bylaw office, right? Whoever's in charge of enforcing docking violations and unpaid fees. Yeah, in the docking office, sorry; not in bylaw, in the docking office. Veronica has a friend who works in the docking office. And so not only is Hush having to learn how to trust this individual, who they've really only known for a weekend, but they're going to have to learn to trust this individual's friend.
And, you know, I'm going to go for something a little mundane here. We talked about exciting things before, but I think there can be excitement in the mundane as well.
I think Hush has to go out to a party that Veronica's friend is throwing to go and meet them and try to convince them to help Hush get their ship back.
Honestly, resonating with me right now– like, the scariest thing someone could ask me to do right now is go to a party where I don't know anyone and I barely know the person who has invited me along.
But I think there's something exciting about that too. And I think Hush sees that excitement. I think they're– again, it's this push and pull of trying to be vulnerable with people so that they can win them over. And I mean, I know vulnerability isn't always the most attractive– isn't always the most attractive quality. Not that vulnerability isn't attractive– but you know, it's scary to open up to strangers, and… I feel like Hush stammers a lot through their words, kind of like how I'm stammering a lot through my words.
I think they're really trying to– whereas normally they take a very slow burn approach, they're really trying to expedite the process, because they need to get their ship back yesterday. And so there's like a lot of like a, um… I think there's a scene where– [Laughs] they're at the party and they're talking and, you know, they're each enjoying some canapes, right? Because it's the party where they have little finger sandwiches. And they're very nervously, like, through, like– with a cheek full of, like, cucumber sandwich, they're saying, "Haha, yeah, this cut. I, uh– my grandfather's knives? Um– I used them on my… back by accident… on my face?"
And everyone's just kind of, like, staring at Hush, like, wide-eyed. And Veronica's, like, you know, laughing and being like, "Oh, you're… you're so funny. What a funny story, right?" As they're trying, like, very hard to be genuine, right?
But ultimately, I think they do manage to get a bit of one-on-one time with Veronica's friend, Mike, who works in the impound dock.
Now, Mike and Hush spend some time– again, awkwardly at first, just kind of out on the deck, looking up at the sky.
And I think… I know where I want to go with this, but I'm not sure how to get there. Right? Um…
So I think… yeah. I think it starts off with Mike saying that Veronica has been, you know, going on and on about how she feels so lucky to have met them. And I think this is disarming for Hush because they're, you know, looking at this as a kind of a fling that, you know, maybe they'll never come back to. Again, like, that– they're not looking to build a trust network with somebody.
And I think maybe it's a moment of realisation that this trust that they're so scared about other people breaking… in doing so, in being so reticent to give trust, they themselves may be breaking other people's trust. And so in this moment, I think Hush realises, you know, that they are so lucky to have met Veronica.
And I think they have like a bit of… hmm. I think they feel icky when they say this. Because I'm feeling icky about it right now, too. But I feel like it's a– you know, "I am so lucky that I have met somebody who is going to be able to get me out of this sticky situation," right? And I think they are looking at this purely from a… how do I get out of here?
But I think in this moment, there's maybe a slight change of heart, right? And this realisation that your circle doesn't need to be just Shadowside. Their circle doesn't need to be just the people that they have pre-approved as being trustworthy.
And I think Mike and Hush spend the evening talking about all the moments in their lives that they have felt so lucky. And Hush has been vulnerable and has been open about how they felt stuck, and it wasn't until they found me that the world really opened up for them. And how much they have come to depend on me as this key to freedom.
And I think, you know, Mike resonates with this a little bit. Feeling kind of stuck in this small little… this little backwater village. And I think Mike, you know, agrees to help Hush get their ship back.
And I think Hush brings Mike and Veronica on board with them. I also don't think they tell them that they're smugglers. [Laughs] I think it's just very much a, "I should– I was so blessed to have the opportunity to fly my own ship. I want to give you the opportunity to leave this life behind and see the world." And then will be smuggling on the DL.
I do think that the Coalition eventually receives report that this ship has– had been impounded here, or has been, and I think they get away just in the nick of time. Like, you know, maybe half an hour slower, and Coalition ships would have been all over the place.
But they have escaped, and I think, you know, there's a… certain freedom and a, you know– it's excitement too, right? Like they bring Mike and Veronica on board and then open up the engines, open up the dual sweep drive. And just, again. I fly. That's what I do, is I fly. And they laugh. And once more, they have skirted danger, and we get to chase the sun for another night.
TIME PASSES
SATAH: Now, "draw a card as time passes and you find your way into the service of a new captain. Take a moment to reflect."
Wow, I ended up loving the Admiral. [Laughs]
CALEB: My next card is the Eight of Diamonds, so it's diamonds…
CONNOR: Let's see, this is a… diamond.
SATAH: "If you draw a diamond or a heart, answer a 'This Hull, This Home' prompt of your choice," slash whatever you roll if you're me.
CONNOR: All right. I have rolled a three, which is "Painted with care."
CALEB: Ohhh… I know this is like immediately fixing this, but I like this. "Painted with care."
CONNOR: "Who took the time to painstakingly stencil my name on my hull? And what does it look like?"
CALEB: So at the end of the last era, you know, we were hated by many, feared by many. And then Colma, as the one who adopted us back and knowing that– you know, we are a ship. We're her design. No matter what bad stuff we did, that's a result of the captains more than us, really. And if it is our fault, then it's her fault, too– decided to show herself some care by showing some care to us.
She painted each of the flower gears by hand once again with a much stronger and more adult drawing hand. She stenciled our name, The Greenblade, on the hull and covered it in beautiful doodles and tiny hints as to the original myth. There is, piercing the words, a leaf blade, as wielded by the fairy from her story.
And across the whole ship are filigrees, swirls and flowers and plants, drawn over time, a little bit at a time, between jobs, while we're hiding and laying low, until eventually every plank is covered in beautiful swirls, drawn by someone who spent their whole life drafting precise blueprints and instructions for engineering.
CONNOR: You know I- I think it was Veronica. I think the girl that they took a chance on and brought them into their safe space, right, like their– into me, into their home, has been inspired by the sky.
And she loves to paint. She's always chasing a bluer blue, and she loves the way that the outlines of clouds dance upon that bright blue canvas, and how it can– how it does its subtle change from blues to grays to purples and oranges as the sun sinks and rises above the horizon.
So I think one day… while we're back at a beach– I don't think it's the beach where Hush found me, but I think it is a beach reminiscent of the one where Hush found me– that Veronica is covered head to toe in white and blue paints as she hangs precariously over the side of my gunwale… gunwale is the edge of a ship, I think… as she hangs precariously over the side of my gunwale, sometimes upside down, sometimes, you know, turned 90 degrees, painting my name.
And there, writ in fluffy white and blue letters, is "Ol' Saffy."
I think, yeah, I think Ol' Saffy has– like, O L apostrophe Saffy– has kind of become the name du jour. Because I think both Mike and Veronica both make fun of Hush for the way that they always say Ol' Saffy instead of just Saffy. And so– and I think Hush is like, you know, is like, "No! It's just Saffy!"
And it's like, "Oh, that's not what you said."
And so I think kind of as a– I'm going to say– I want to say jab, but I don't think it's a jab. I think it's the way that we love to laugh with people about their small idiosyncrasies, right? The way that someone's peculiarities really endear you to a person. I think that's emblazoned on my side, written in the inks of the sky.
SATAH: [Die rolling] Mmmm. "Marks on the mizzen for remembrance. How many members of your crew have been memorialised on your mast? Which one still hurts to remember?" Oh, that's beautiful.
I think… a lot of Laura's crew. The tradition was, if you come to think of The Catching Net as home, you can become part of it by inscribing an initial or a symbol on the mast. And the majority of the crew who worked with Laura thought of me as their home, and so there's a lot of their scratches on there.
The pirates, I don't think ever had that relationship to me. There are marks on the mast from them, but it's from sword fights and practices and throwing daggers.
And I think one of the crew here, this new group of rebels, under the Traitor Admiral [Chuckles]– they notice the names and the symbols one day. They notice these little symbols and they call the Admiral over and gesture at it. It was hard to see them underneath all of the sword stuff from the pirates and everything, but when you look closely, it's clear that there are names or- or- or a symbol that is obviously personal to somebody.
Ooh, and maybe it's that they recognise it, like– some of the bunks have these symbols. People on Laura's crew marked their bunks with the same thing and they start to realise, like– somebody puts it together like, "Wait, that's the symbol that's carved on my bunk. Do you think that's someone's name?"
And I think that… the Admiral puts her hand on these symbols and all at once, in a way that she hasn't really before, realises how much of what she's been able to do to help people has been because of me. My unique elements. The way I keep people safe, the way that I can navigate through the sky. And she's touching these names and just has this rush of… gratitude.
And I think- I think there was a little bit of a disconnection between us, because… she resented me a little bit for– she was put here because it was a symbol, right? Not because they actually thought that she was going to do well with it. And she didn't realise until this moment how much she was carrying that.
And she realises like, "Wait. Oh, god, I've been a fool. We've been working together this whole time. I kind of, on some level, thought that I was working against you. But no," that– as much as it pains her to admit the power of those symbols and– because that was weaponised against her– she thinks of like that mission, that one where she came around the mountain and people started painting me. Not her, not the crew, me.
And she suddenly really admires that or is grateful for it, and realises that when they're approaching a dock– when we're approaching a dock and she sees people's eyes light up, it's not because they know who's aboard. Not really. They assume because they're seeing me, they're assuming that whoever is aboard is coming to help. And she is so happy about that.
And… in a almost… I think this is relatively quickly after the schism actually happens. She's a– we're actually on the run now. And so it's this sort of, like, exciting incitement of a taboo where she pulls out a pocket knife and scratches her initials into the mast. And the person who initially brought her over, like, laughs in, like, horror and delight. And she hands her pocket knife to them and she's like, "Go ahead. We're all part of this, right?"
They very lightly, hesitantly scratch their initials in and then back up, and they're, like, giddy and so scared of what they've done. And they invite everybody.
And that's not explicitly a memorial, right? But I think what it is, is that as people die… as– because things do get much harder. We are on the run. The Admiral, the Traitor Admiral, finds their initials on the mast… she doesn't erase them. She like… pours a dye in them to make them darker and more noticeable, making them more permanent.
[Sighs] And the thing about the question, "which one still hurts to remember," is I do think that it's the Admiral.
I'm not sure yet how she dies. But she does. And then a member of the crew, with a shaking hand, spills ink into her name on the mast.
And I think I… I have affection for all of my captains. I do. I think Laura was special. It hurts that she gave me up, but it was probably– it was the right thing to do.
And The Corsair, I think– I saw them in a lot of states that people didn't see them, right? Because when they were alone, they could be vulnerable in a way that they generally weren't around other people. And so I did see their care. But also, they were an asshole. [Laughs] But I think I also appreciated that they did take, like– push me to my limits, you know? They really got to know me so that they could do these crazy maneuvers. And there is part of me that– that's- that's exciting, you know?
But the Admiral, I think… it feels so on purpose with her that, like– she didn't like me and then realised she hadn't been being fair and really embraced- embraced me and- and connected with me and thought that I was important. And so it's hard to lose her. It's really hard to lose her.
But I do. And we're going to go to the fourth era.
CONNOR: Yeah. And we bring ourselves now to the fourth era.
CALEB: Alright. Now I, the freshly painted Greenblade, back under the control of Captain Colma, head into the fourth era.
GAME: THE FOURTH ERA
RED ENDING V BLACK ENDING
SATAH: "The final captain."
CONNOR: "The final captain." So I divide the prompt cards I've drawn so far into two piles.
CALEB:I'm now checking to see if over the course of the game I've drawn more red than black cards or more black than red cards. So let's take a look.
SATAH: "If over the course of the game you've drawn more red than black cards, go to 'Once More to the Horizon.' If you've drawn more black than red, refer to 'Things Fall Apart.'"
CONNOR: Let's go. Let's do this counting. I think I've drawn more red than black, but let's… let's find out for sure.
SATAH: Holding them in my hands, definitely looking like there are more red cards.
CALEB: I have drawn one, two, three, four…
CONNOR: I'm going to count the black first. I'm going to go for the drama of it. Here we go. One, two, three, four…
SATAH: [Card flipping sounds] Eleven red cards. Nine black cards. So not decisive exactly, but a clear winner.
CONNOR: Nine black cards. Ten red cards.
CALEB: Ten red cards. Six black cards. So, more red cards overall, by a pretty significant margin.
CONNOR: I thought I was definitely gonna be clearly with more red cards. I did not think it was just one more.
SATAH: I did count, like– at one point, I pulled two clubs for a captain, and so I had to pull another card… I've counted that in here. I'm not sure If I should? If I should like discard cards that weren't relevant, but I just assumed any card that I pulled out of the deck should be part of this choice. It wouldn't really change things either way for my particular setup, but.
CALEB: So I'm going to be referring to
CALEB & SATAH: "Once More to the Horizon"
CALEB: to find my final captain.
CONNOR: I am hopeful for the future.
CAPTAIN
SATAH: "Draw a single card. Its suit will determine your final captain." Okay.
CALEB: The king of clubs. A king! Clubs is powerful.
CONNOR: I have drawn, for my last captain, a diamond.
SATAH: Diamond. Diamonds are sleek. My final captain is…
CONNOR: My final captain.
CONNOR & SATAH: The Passing Stranger.
CALEB: The Flag's Servant. Oh, gosh.
CONNOR & SATAH: "The world's changed,"
SATAH: "and the stranger wants no part of it."
CALEB: "The world's changed, but the servant hangs a familiar flag on your mast."
SATAH: "There's no place for them here."
CONNOR: "There's no place for them."
SATAH: "Perhaps you can carry them elsewhere."
CONNOR: "Perhaps you can carry them elsewhere."
CALEB: "Together, they say, you can help make the world a better place for all of us. They are hopeful, humane, and noble."
CONNOR & SATAH: "They are wealthy.
SATAH: "Disillusioned."
CONNOR: "Disillusioned.
SATAH: "And hiding their true identity."
CONNOR: "And hiding their true identity."
SATAH: "Answer the captain's prompts right away…" okay. [Chuckles] This is fascinating. Okay.
CALEB: "Describe Servant and the nation they serve. What sense do you get of how they view you?"
I think Colma, at the end of the day, is an engineer. She was a freedom fighter. She was a face of a rebellion. And she loves the flying ships she creates. But she's not a pilot; not so much. She's not a captain, exactly. And she had the most amazing time of her life flying around with me, but there came a time where she had to pass the ship to someone else.
And I think as the result of her rebellion, a small civil war was able to actually catch fire, and as a result, the last few years have meant a huge chunk of the Empire– several islands, all connected in a long archipelago– have begun fighting back and bit by bit inviting more of the islands under their banner.
Which actually isn't a new banner, it's an old one, as the Flag Servant mentions here.
The Empire's symbolism had changed over time. I don't know exactly how, but I like to imagine the Emperor has been slightly changing the flag every few years to reflect his own selfish interests and desires. The flag becomes his favorite colour. It features his favorite bird.
And what they decided to do when they started this– to fight back as a rebellion is to fly under the flag of this original nation, before the Emperor began to make it about him.
I don't know the origin of the flag. I'm not sure what it originally was but Colma now hands me over to a younger, experienced– younger and experienced, it's true– a younger captain who is experienced specifically in flying airships. And when I am handed over to someone who really, really knows how to fly for the first time since I was fixed, after Colma repainted me and fixed me up and gave me attention, it's truly the first time I've ever been complete in the way she intended. I'm the best I've ever been, and perhaps now, even 40 years after my original creation, I am… the best ship in the sky!
And that's how they view me. The Servant thinks I'm the best ship in the sky, and this captain is proud of what I represent. Both, you know, for the new movement and also something that has been brought back from corruption. People remember what the Greenblade once was and now they see it as it is, and know that they too can be that way. They too can come back from a time of darkness.
SATAH: "What exorbitant price does the stranger pay for you? What strange necessities are brought aboard to ensure their comfort?"
Strange necessities makes me think they're not strictly human. Like, that's– that's a vampire-ass thing to need, right? Strange necessities? [Laughs]
CONNOR: Hmm, exorbitant price. Again I love the– I like the inversion of these kind of questions, where– or not necessarily inversion– subversion?– subversion of these type of questions where it's not necessarily a you know, one trillion dollars kind of deal, but a very dear price.
So, you know what, let's try a different way of building this character. Instead of me trying to give them a name and stuff and then answering these questions, I'm going to answer the questions and then try and build them based off of what they have given up.
The first question is the question of cost. "What did they pay for me?" This one stumps me a little bit, right? You know, there's… there's like a part of me that's like, "Oh, they paid their soulll." But, you know, I'm not feeling like a devil's bargain at this point in time. This is meant to be an optimistic one, right?
I think the cost is an heirloom. I think the heirloom is an old crown. I think it is a crown made out of white gold that shines with the intensity of a lightning bolt, dotted with gray and blue jewels and pale… white- white- white, gray, and blue jewels, yeah. Uh, like gray and white jewels in in large kind of fluffy cuts upon a a blue jeweled background like, uh– like thunder clouds upon a clear blue sky. And depending on the angle of light, or the way the angle of light plays upon the crown, sometimes it looks like wearing a brilliant sunshiny but slightly cloudy day on your head, and sometimes it looks like wearing a furious storm upon your head.
And I think in terms of strange necessities that are brought on board… I think it's a… a mushroom farm. Or some sort of fungi cultivation array. They fly me to all sorts of places around the world, to different climates, different humidities, different temperatures, and they do little experiments with their mushrooms, and they tinker, and they draw, and they mutter to themselves as they fly me around the world.
SATAH: This is a human. "Exorbitant price that they pay." Okay, so.
The Admiral died. I assume people kept– that I kept moving. But maybe without the Admiral's tactical brain, it did become harder. Hmm. Yeah, okay.
So the Navy caught up with us. And they took the ship. And the thing is, I've– I'm way too recognisable. They don't even want to risk just, like, scrapping me yet or like painting over to make me less recognisable. They're like, "Let's just fucking hide this skyship for like a hundred years until people have forgotten and then we can figure out what to do with it."
And I just sit in a warehouse. It's miserable. Fifty years passed– pass. I'm not being taken care of. Seventy-five years pass. And I don't really know what's going on out there, and people don't spend a lot of time talking around me, but I do know that, like, the uniforms of the people who come to load other stuff into the warehouse change.
And I think the exorbitant price isn't… money. This isn't– they don't auction– they don't auction me off. But it's, it's a price of, um… status.
I think, looking at the other prompt, which is, "Who is the stranger really? What confessions do they make to you in the long nights of your journey together?" This is the child or grandchild… grandchild. Of one of the people who was responsible for putting me here for a lot of the current shitty status of the world. This is their grandchild.
And I think it's, you know, a wealthy, established military aristocrat family a few generations in, and this kid just grew up hearing their grandparent and their parents talk about all of these victories and was like, "Fuck this, actually. It sounds like you did a lot of evil shit."
And they leverage their family name to pull off a heist. To steal me.
CALEB: "Before the servant leaves port, they give an inspiring speech to their crew. How is it received?"
Ugh, it's incredible! It's so glowing. It already said it's inspiring, so they are inspired.
And I think that the speech is on the theme I was just saying. It's on the theme of how every single person there has had to make choices and decide things for themselves in the moment that seemed smart, that seemed necessary. Each of those people was trapped into bad decisions that they would not have made if they had a real choice. But now they do have a choice, and many of them have already made it. And no matter who they were under the Emperor's thumb or boot, they can be something different now. They can make a real difference. And I, the Greenblade, am a great example of that. [Chuckles]
So that's how it's received.
SATAH: "Who is the stranger, really? What confessions do they make?"
They confess to… their family lineage, and they confess to that the stuff they had to do that they hated did look like they were keeping in line while they were secretly planning their escape. They had to be cruel to other people. They had to verbally express their support of systems that they knew in their heart were hurting people and let it look like they were just kind of floating by on their privilege and their name… and know at any point that that could be true. They could just give up. And having that little, like, nagging thought in the back of their head, like, "You've been playing this part really well. Maybe it shouldn't be a part anymore. Maybe this is just who you are. Maybe you should just let it be who you are." That nagging voice made them really hate themself a lot.
And they want to prove to themselves that they're not, right? They want to believe that they can do this and be good and bring back like… the thing that I was a symbol of well before they were born. They want to believe that that's possible to achieve.
I don't– they don't think it's possible to do here. Their description says, "There's no place for them here. Perhaps you can carry them elsewhere."
They're like, "We're going to get out of here. We're going to go to the other side of the world and see what we can do to help people there. Because this place, I've given up on it."
CONNOR: I think the Stranger tells me that their great, great, great grandfather used to build ships, when they could be built, when they could blend this strange art and science together to create these floating homes in the sky.
And I think he confesses to me that that art has been long lost.
The Leviathans have disappeared beneath the waves and faded into legend, and so there is only a finite number of airships left.
And I feel alone.
I think the stranger tells me that they believe there is a way to make these ships once more, without the heart of a Leviathan. I think they tell me their name is Jasper.
SATAH: I really can't think of… "what strange necessities are brought aboard to ensure their comfort?"
I guess they come from a very wealthy home, so they're used to a certain standard… maybe hilariously, this is a multi-part heist, and they, like– they steal the ship, and then they steal their bedroom. [Laughs] They just take all of the furniture from their room and just transport it directly onto me.
I think the other maybe thing is they pick up a couple people. They're friends who they think… oh, it's like a big– it's a thing that like, these are people who they've hurt while they were playing this part. And they go and they're like, "Hey, you have no reason to trust me, but I know that this matters to you. Please come with me."
And a lot of people don't. A lot of people don't trust them. Or they're like, "What? Leave? But I have to make things better here."
And my captain is like, "No. We have to give up on– things can't be better here. We have to go elsewhere." And that's a hard sell for a lot of people, but they do get some people.
And the reason I bring that up here is because I think that does ensure that this is a comfort for them, that they have people that they know that they're bringing with them. And also, this is evidence that they can make up for the things that they've done, starting with just these individual people. "If you can learn how to work with me, maybe even forgive me, then in the long term, maybe I can make up for all of it."
LEGEND
CONNOR: Alright. I'm going to reveal my final card for my legend and answer the prompt.
SATAH: Now… "draw a single card to determine your legend prompt."
CALEB: My next card is the Ace of Hearts.
CONNOR: It is a diamond.
SATAH: Got a club.
CONNOR: And because it matches my Passing Stranger, I get to realise my legend. I am sleek and I am a folk hero.
SATAH: That's too bad. If I'd drawn a diamond… be a folk hero. "The Stranger turns their back on what they once were and dedicates their life to fighting for a better future."
Unfortunately, that's not what I pulled. I pulled a club. So… the legend is "gilded cage". [Laughs sadly]
CONNOR: "The Stranger turns their back on what they once were and dedicates their life to fighting for a better future. Do they don a mask and moniker? What legendary injustice do we fight together? Who do they pass me on to in order to keep hope alive?"
I don't think they don a mask and moniker. I think we know what the legendary injustice that we're fighting is, right? It is this need to hurt a Leviathan in order to take to the skies. We know that is not true.
I think this all comes back to time. To time and that strange fungal calcium substrate that years and years and years ago, Galoom wanted the time to grow, and the government said, "No, we can't wait for that. We have to have this now."
And I think… Jasper and I have this time.
His little mushrooms become scale models of tiny flying machines. And on my deck, when he starts to grow larger and larger models, out of the very earth that we have spurned and floated away from, out of the very sunlight that keeps me alive. These ships start to… come to life. Their engines, their hearts start to beat with the rhythm of the parties that once danced upon my decks.
I think my name has been forgotten. I am not the King's Sapphire. I am not the Stalker. I'm not Old Saffy. When people see me flying above their cities, they just point up and they say, there's Jasper.
And what I and Jasper do is not flashy. It's not glamorous. But we do light the way to a future where we can grow and live together.
SATAH: "You and the Stranger drift together away from the world, apart from it. All their days, they spend in recollection and bitterness. Eventually, you become a tomb, adrift and alone. Where do you end up? What condition will the next passerby find you in?"
They meant so well, but they- they just weren't able to actually unlearn it. They weren't as radical as they thought. They didn't know how much they were protected and how hard the world actually is.
They didn't handle it well. They hurt everybody who tried to support them and drove them away until it was just them and me.
I'm hard to control as one person. Can do the basics, but… you don't want to go anywhere too dangerous.
And so, "where do I end up?"
Near the end, they were so angry, and they thought it must be my fault. People weren't responding to me in the way that they were supposed to. I was supposed to be a symbol and my symbology should have overridden their cruelty. People should have continued to see me as a beacon of hope– a revived beacon of hope– even if my captain was treating people poorly, not listening to what people need, and just doing what they thought would be best, often getting in the way of those who were actually helping and listening. And people started reacting to that as is completely rational, by rejecting it. And that must be because I wasn't powerful enough as a symbol.
And they want to talk to the person who made me. That person is long dead, obviously. But they want to get to the bottom of this. And so… they research this odd wood that I'm made of. They find the area that it has to be most likely from, and they're starting to go back that way.
And we don't make it. Not all the way.
They die naturally and terribly and accidentally. It's a heart attack or something else that just happens sometimes. There's no particular glory to it. It isn't a big moment of stress or a fight or even just they realise in a sudden rush what their life has become and succumb to it. They're exactly as they have been, and it just happens. And it happens quickly enough that they don't even have a chance to reconsider their life. They just die.
CALEB: "Blaze of glory. There comes a time when old courage and devotion is tested. What crisis pushes you and your captain to the ultimate sacrifice? What doom do you avert? And where does your battered hull come to rest, waiting for care and repair to raise you once more?"
I think the Empire pulls out all the stops. They send their ships to destroy us. They invade the archipelago. They are attempting to quell it the way they once did. And in almost like a dark, frustrating mirror of my first battle, they send a dozen Greenblades. A dozen ships made just the way that I was, to attack us.
But those Greenblades, like me, were made initially with the wrong metal. They're all just a little too slow. I'm able to move through, taking them out, one after another after another.
But there are so many of them, and before too long, someone who is very familiar with the Long Nines, is able to make that call. Three… two… one. And the blast shoots straight through me.
Nobody would even notice or think about this, but they managed to perfectly aim through my hull directly down the center of one of those little flower gears. And those flower gears are important. My machinery only functions because of them.
It's not the only thing that's destroyed, but my propellers stop, my hull burns, the sail struggles to catch the wind, and in the three seconds I'm there, suspended, slower, while my crew tries to figure out what to do, the few remaining Greenblades are all able to charge the Long Nines. Three, two…
I'm realising in a second that I should have used the word nine to say it was a nine-second pause, but whatever. [Laughs]
The doom that I avert is that I do my job. The captain is an amazing pilot. Those Greenblades are taken out where they can be. The larger ships, I've taken out where I can. And this archipelago, the rebellion against the Empire, will win because of me.
But I am destroyed and I hit the water and sink beneath the waves.
SATAH: I was alone and– I was in a dock for seventy-five years, and then taken by somebody who didn't really know what to do with me and didn't listen well to experts.
So I'm listing. I float for a while. Then my engines run out, and I crash. A little horribly. I don't shatter, but it hurts. And I'm just on the ground, in a place that people don't really travel that often.
And that's how I will be found eventually.
CALEB: And that's what happens to me.
CONNOR: To this final question,"Who do they pass me on to in order to keep hope alive?"
Well, the first new skyship just left the construction deck yesterday for its maiden voyage. As it flies off into the rising sun, there is a new way forward, because we dared to dream it and we dared to give it the time it needed to grow.
Who have they passed me on to in order to keep hope alive?
I've been passed on to everyone.
TIME PASSES
SATAH: With that, "Prepare to say goodbye for now. You've come so far. Now it is time to turn to making an end of it on page 43 and answer your final prompt.
CALEB: "After your final captain leaves your deck for the last time, take a moment to reflect on all you've seen and done with your captains and crews. Think about the ways you have changed."
SATAH: "Think about the ways you have changed."
CONNOR: "Think about the ways I have changed. Think about the ways the world has changed."
SATAH: "Think about the ways the world has changed."
CALEB: "Think about the ways the world has changed."
SATAH: "Consider those who have used you for great and terrible things.
CALEB: "Consider your part in the passage of history and the way you will be remembered… or not."
CONNOR: "Or not."
SATAH: "Or not.
CONNOR: "As the footsteps in my passages become ghosts…"
CALEB: "As the footsteps in your passages become ghosts,
CONNOR: "The shouts, laughter, and tears become nothing more than memory."
CALEB: "The shouts, laughter, and tears become nothing more than memory, and time passes. Answer the following final prompt."
SATAH: "Answer the following final prompt."
CONNOR: I have this final prompt.
CALEB: "Will you be ready when the next captain comes?"
No.
SATAH: Oh, yeah.
CALEB & SATAH: [Both giggling]
CALEB: I don't know if another captain's ever going to come.
SATAH: I'm thinking of my Admiral and the ways that she made people believe. The ways that we made people believe. I was so hopeful when the Stranger found me, that they'd really do it. And they couldn't, but I still believe.
CONNOR: I don't think I'm ready for when the next captain comes, because my time is over.
CALEB: I sunk to the bottom of the ocean. A Leviathan has made its home in me. The world remembers the Greenblade, the original, and Colma. It remembers my captain and Admiral Glavik and the other captains who I didn't name. [Laughs] They will remember me, but I don't know that I'll ever be piloted again unless the waters drain from the oceans or a Leviathan learns to be a captain, which maybe they will.
But I am not amphibious. [Laughs] I was not meant to sink beneath the waves. I won't be ready when the next captain comes, because they won't come. But I'm proud of what I've done.
CONNOR: My era of machines that beat with bloody hearts has passed, and a more beautiful future awaits, full of skyships of all sorts of uncanny shapes and sizes, of bizarre and beautiful colours that will fill the sky with something other than blue for a change.
SATAH: Next person who finds me, my next captain, is going to fix me up better than ever. And we're going to go out into the world and make people believe that help is on the way by proving to them that it is.
CONNOR: I've been dreaming a lot about the sky a lot recently. About the wind underneath my wings. About that freeing feeling as you fly so high you can see the curvature of the earth.
I dream about my children that now get to experience that joy. They're playing the coda now. They're putting out desserts. My party is ending. But that doesn't mean you can't keep the dance alive.
WRAP
SATAH: I didn't do sci-fi! Like, immediately. I truly didn't. Are you proud of me?!
CONNOR: All right. Okay. Wow. Gosh, this was so cool. This was… this was good for me, I think. This was very good for me to do. I loved this opportunity. I loved this game. I loved being a skyship! Gosh, that's so cool.
CALEB: Cool game. Cool prompts. Very pleased. Voice tired. Sleepy! And hungry!
SATAH: When I was sixteen, I was really into orchestra. I was a big orchestra dork and I would do orchestral arrangements of pop songs to play in my quartet because I was cool. And I would sign all of them Captain Satah. No, sorry. More accurately, Cap'n Satah. C-A-P-apostrophe-N. I was really into pirates. Really, really into pirates as like a part of my identity. So ultimately, you know, this is part of me too. This is part of me too. Even if it isn't chrome and metal. [Laughs] Great.
CONNOR: Thank you so much. I don't really have a social media presence. Don't try and follow me on anything. I heard in some episodes some people did plugs. So I am going to… I'll give a plug. I'm going to plug two things.
One, I'm going to plug your local library. Get out there. Get, um… go take out a book or something or go check out a book on Libby or something like that. Libraries are super cool and super, super important. I cannot emphasise it enough. Go- go check that out. Go check out your local library.
And then the second thing I'm going to plug is just… just trying to find a moment of peace and beauty. Right? Go for a walk and admire a stick, right? Go find a stick that looks really nice. Or go just kind of admire the way that the trees are currently sprouting their new leaves or that the sun sticks around for just a little bit longer. And it doesn't need to be anything big or profound. Just, you know, you're here right now and you get to see that and that rocks.
CALEB: Thanks, everybody. Bye.
CONNOR: This is Connor, then, signing off. I'll see you in the sky.
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.bsky.social. 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!! But as you just heard, 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.
This week, Caleb and Connor and I finished our games of Skyworthy by A Couple of Drakes. Everything I mentioned here is, as always, linked in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening. Take care out there.