Sagas of the Sunless Reach

Episode Notes And with that, our time in the Delta draws to a close. There’s just enough time for us to catch our breath and regroup before we go our separate ways and tackle the next big thing. Dragomir and I have reached a sort of impasse, I think. He wants to have a relationship with his daughter, and for a long time Daria had been that proxy. I still don't know if I want a relationship with my...

Episode Notes Content Warning for graphic violence and body horror It seems useless at this point to be asking why? And they’re not even good investigative questions either. Why do the Errols want to control Tarandaur? Spare me the greater good rhetoric, you’ve proven you’d just as soon control mindless sheep than lead people to prosperity. Endless food supply? Finally a chance at freedom, for you...

Episode Notes Content warning for graphic violence When we first came to the Delta, there was no real reason for Viidra to have trusted us the way that he did. Implicitly, our presence meant that we were here to disrupt the order of things — undoubtedly Jack had told him stories about us. What we had done in Ruel, and what we looked to do in the Delta. At the time, what did we know of Viidra’s lif...

Episode Notes I am not the only one with a deeply personal connection to this course we have plotted. It is still a new concept to me, that this is my family, though they seem so ready to try and drag me in on one side or the other. And as this family starts to tear itself apart, it expands wider and wider across the countryside. But even beyond that: Apricus has some sort of history with Nico. I...

Episode Notes There is one thing I keep telling myself with each report from across the Delta: It means nothing if they can’t do this for themselves. With each new day, how much are we carrying the fight on our backs, instead of letting the citizens of the Delta learn they can stand for themselves? They do not need outside revolutionaries, and they do not need Wolves. They just need to know that t...

Episode Notes We come, at last, to the first step in the emancipation of the Delta. So much has changed since we first entered months ago. The Anglers are poised against us and Dragomir, the erstwhile father I never anticipated to find here, fights on our side. Not an ally, per se, but the enemy of my enemy… Old allies are a welcome sight. I didn't mean for my letter to be a summons, but I won't l...

Episode Notes It has been a little over a year since I learned that I was an Errol. It has been mere days since I learned that I was Dragomir’s daughter. And of everything those revelations have brought to light and have forced me to understand about myself, what Dragomir said today highlights the one fear I’ve always had about my lineage. Blood compels . I am only a dhampir. I can stand in the su...

Episode Notes Momma, I met him recently. Did you know this would happen? When I wrote to you weeks ago and said that we were going into the Delta and that our next target was going to be its Warden. Even if your response had been able to reach me in time, would you have warned me off of that course of action? Would you have finally given me an answer, told me the truth, or would you have begged me...

Episode Notes CONTENT WARNING for: medical/descriptions of surgery at 21m04s to 29m11s spiders at 1hr02m8s to 1hr02m33s I can’t stop thinking about how Aldrich and Dragomir have viewed Ksana’s brand of magic. Calling it self-sacrifice, calling it stupid, calling it useless because she gives and gives of herself and expects nothing in return. Of course they would think that; their view of that outp...

Episode Notes Content warning for graphic violence and medical mention So that's it then? Stanislaw’s betrayal has reached its peak, my name as Dragomir’s daughter has spread beyond his cloistered few, and Ksana… But how do these pieces all fit together? Why does Stanislaw hate Dragomir so much, when they are not father and son? What is Nico and this faceless Hans’ role in the Errol hierarchy? Wha...

Episode Notes The culmination of our plans with Stanislaw comes to a head tonight, and I will be stuck behind a locked door playing cards — unable to tell which way the tower falls. I can only hope that my friends, whom I have kept the truth from, will prove victorious. I trust them on the field of battle, but my hesitation to trust them in spycraft and delicate investigations might just cost us m...

Episode Notes THIS WEEK ON: the ADVENTURES of DARING RED - our intrepid PRODUCER faced challenging OBSTACLES, literal HOURS of GRUELING LAG, and a deep and terrible FEAR that she would not get the episode OUT IN TIME! So to save her the distress and ENSURE that YOU, DEAR LISTENERS, get the BEST OF THE BEST we bring to you: OUTTAKES from episodes 6-18! Cast: Bitmap as Ksana the Spear Cory as Apricu...

Episode Notes I have to keep the truth from everyone for as long as I possibly can. I don’t know how much Stanislaw knows. I don’t know if he can see through me because at this point I feel like every lie I tell is so transparent that it’s a wonder I’m even visible at all. Does he know I’ve figured him out? Have I figured him out? Things I know are true, or at the very least, I have solid evidence...

Episode Notes This whole time, I’ve pushed to be taken seriously as a contender. I’m treated like a child by my own party, I’m seen as naive by kin, and I’m otherwise ignored by every other player in the Delta. Even Stanislaw, whom I hoped might see me as an equal despite my ignorance of family politics, keeps things from me. And now I feel like I am earning that disregard. All my calls are backfi...

Episode Notes At last we have met the final two players of the Delta’s power structure: Daria Sangelue and Mama Tursa. Not under any circumstances I would have preferred to meet them, but I’ve long since anticipated for nothing to go the way I would prefer. It wasn’t until we arrived that we even realized that the Sangele had moved in to fix the Tursa’s problems while we worked elsewhere. But base...

Episode Notes We have a lot coming up quickly upon us — the Tursa cranberry bog and its spider problem, the Last Fool Standing tournament, and all the bits and pieces that fall between them. But now all I can see is the bloodless, decomposing face of the mortic on the ship. All I can think of is why have I not looked closer at the Anglers? There are pieces falling into place, and my usual propensi...

Episode Notes Content warning for suicide threat “Don't you know anything about vampires?” The question has been looping in my head since he asked it, and I can't snuff out the spark of irritation it caused. I am a dhampir: a human mother and a vampire father. But I've spent my entire life rejecting the half of me that was wrong . I never could lie to myself, to pretend I was fully human, but it w...

Episode Notes They say ‘if you want something done right, then do it yourself’ — which, believe me, I would love to not be in the negotiation room. I am not a negotiator; that is Ksana, and she’s asking us to do the hard work of reading people for her. I’m a bounty hunter and an investigator, and I do my best work when no one else knows I’m there. Stanislaw, for all his ability to be stealthy and...

Episode Notes When an organization such as the Dawnbringer University suddenly shows a deep and invested interest in a local culture, you know they already have drawn up plans on how to bring that culture under its heel. There won’t be anything recognizable about the mess that is left once they get what they want. Eventually, even the stories will stop being told. When I was looking for samples of...

Episode Notes We have been in Low Road for a scant few hours and already I can feel the pulse of the city humming just out of earshot. This is a city built on waterways and trade so it is only natural that the current of its people never rests. But beneath it all there is a silent, deadly thread of stagnation. It is more noticeable here than it is in a city like Tommerby, who has to fight to survi...

Episode Notes Content warning for graphic violence For my whole life, the Errols had been a name that was larger than life — the rulers of Tarandaur, the family who claimed to fight back the night and all it brought with it. Not that I believed it. I couldn’t, if I wanted to stay safe. But they had always seemed bigger than anything I could conceptualize, a boot to avoid being crushed by; myths an...

Episode Notes We knew, coming into this, that there is going to be a change in power dynamics once we remove the head of the Delta. Ruel is self-sufficient enough, and we have been working with Cipru and the Anglers for these past weeks to know that they will be able to manage their own once Dragomir has been unseated from his position of power. Two things have happened immediately in the wake of...

It's the third day of Christmas and the fourth day of Hanukkah so here's a little gift of some of the sillier things (and our fantastic claps) that I've cut while editing the first five episodes! We'll see you again in the new year! Cast: Bitmap as Ksana the Spear Cory as Apricus the Luminary Jade as Viidra Matei Mab as Elżbieta Wrona Zachary as The Game Master Produced by: Mab Sound effects: zaps...

Episode Notes Content warning for graphic violence It’s a wonder we have made any progress as a united force when we all refuse to work with our strengths in fighting style. And of course Big Bill, a man who churns out a police force for the Delta with surprising efficiency, can see right through us. That doesn’t mean he has the right to try and instruct us during battle. We have made it this far,...

Episode Notes A Note From the Editor: We had to revert to back-up audio for Jade, and had a few other issues throughout so the quality might be a bit mid. Hope you enjoy all the same! -- I don’t feel confident about this plan of action. We are, admittedly, more prepared to fight Big Bill than we were Argus Vanatori, but something still sits wrong in my gut. With Vanatori, there were a multitude of...