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This episode carries content warnings for description of a burn injury, injury causing limited motor skills, lack of access to medical care, insect infestation, bodily infection.\\xa0

Among Sangfielle\\u2019s self-proclaimed adventuring class, the idea of retiring to a riverboat ride is something of an old canard. Everyone says they\\u2019ll do it one day, but very few ever speak of actually completing such a post-venture vacation. Something always comes up. A scheduling error, or a last minute change in ticket pricing, or another job crossing the desk. Perhaps none have been as lucky as the Blackwick Group. Perhaps none have had friends in such high places.\\xa0

This week on Sangfielle: Passage on the Jade Moon Pt. 1

The Almanac of the Heartland Rider

Places

Sapodilla: One of, if not the, largest city inside of the walls of Concentus. Sapodilla rests on the western shore of the vast lake that takes up much of southeastern Sangfielle, and prizes itself as the rare hub of culture in the bloodfields. In recent years, the powerful witch hunting organization called the Glim Macula has grown in power there, owing to the city\\u2019s focus on furthering \\u201ccivilization.\\u201d

The Sleeping City: Every 13 years, a metropolis wakes with the buzzing sound of life. Do not cross its borders uninvited, especially not when it and its inhabitants are at rest.

Blackwick County: From the mines to the lake, the hills to the flats, the town once called Eastern Folly has felt a little more expansive now that it\\u2019s out of the hard grip of the old curse. It\\u2019s people aren\\u2019t perfect, but they\\u2019ve made it through some dark times, and that\\u2019s more than most can say.

Zevunzolia:\\xa0Who the hell knows. A miraculous city waiting to be built? A utopian dimension adjacent our own? "The Seventh Sun Itself," I think I heard one of those fools call it. All I know is, however prime and pristine it is in promise, the pricetag keeps going conveniently unmentioned...\\xa0 \\xa0

Facts and Figures

Aterika\\u2019Kaal (it/its): An ambivalent and ancient spirit. Offers the sweet smell and sublime beauty of roses and the sturdy foundation of a root structure. In exchange: Feed it.

Dyre Ode (he/they):\\xa0When an agent of the almanac pressed this mysterious, masked figure for more information about him, they only repeated their name, as if to ensure we\\u2019d print it right, adding\\xa0\\u201cDyre with Y but Ode as you\\u2019d like, a poem said in praise or a debt gone unpaid. It bothers me little, how you spell that name.\\u201d\\xa0The Blackwick Group first encountered this myterious figure during their investigation into Roseroot Hall, where they helped him recover his skull.

The Course: There is debate about the true nature of the Heartland\\u2019s Truth, the power that turned Sangfielle into what it is today. But the Cleavers call it the Course. Part river, part lesson, part direction traveled. Entirely beyond the grasp of mortal minds.\\xa0

The Structure: Reason, logic, sense. The world is, fundamentally, a place that fits together and functions. We may not like that, say the adherents of the structure. And sometimes, the world may move in ways beyond our particular ken. But there is something holding it together, and that, they say, is the Heartland\\u2019s Truth: The Structure.

The Shape: Are the trains that run across the Heartland bound to the Structure, or do they direct it? Is the overlap between the two even real at all, or might two machinic forces be at work here in Sangfielle?

The Ojan: To call it "The Ojan River" is not only to misspeak but to advertise your distance from knowledge. Ojan itself\\xa0means "running water," and in Ojantani it is the word you attach to other words to mark them as rivers--each just an faint echo of this paragon of waterways.\\xa0

The Jade Moon: A luxurious vessel, the Jade Moon glides up and down the Ojan. You have to work to find its exterior wooden hull, so covered is it in silken, green banners and curtains. Dining, Dancing, Gambling, Live Music, plush living. An engine that churns below. 250 feet long, 50 feet wide. It\\u2019s a beast, but in the width of the Ojan--in some places over 2 miles wide--it pales.

Teak: First mate of the Jade Moon.

Dr. Pest:\\xa0Sawbones of the Jade Moon.

Organizations

Wrights of the Seventh Sun:\\xa0A secret society dedicated to the construction of Zevunzolia, whatever the cost. Their motivations are many: Some believe that the Devils ought to have continued climbing whent hey escaped hell, that this was not the paradise earned. Otherse believe that Zevunzolia is\\xa0telos of telos, the end-cause of all end-causes, and thus will inevitably bring itself into being. And given that, to do anything but aid it is to risk exclusion from it, or worse.

The Disciples of the Triadic Pyre: Appropriately devoted to a trio of gods, the Triadic Pyre believe that entropy is the only certain thing in this world, and as such aim to master it. Recently began to mark workers willing to do their tasks in the mines with their brand.

Hosted by Austin Walker (@austin_walker)

Featuring Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart), Ali Acampora (@ali_west), Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal), and Andrew Lee Swan (@swandre3000)

Produced by Ali Acampora

Music by Jack de Quidt (available on bandcamp)

Text by Austin Walker

Cover Art by Craig Sheldon (@shoddyrobot)

A transcription is available for this episode here.

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