The Strangford Expedition Ep 3 - "He Made a Choice"

The Strangford Expedition Ep 3 – “He Made a Choice”

[The Strangford Expedition theme]

[Alien, rumbling ambience]

Kim
Ravi. Standing before the mirrored iceberg, this ice cut like a polished diamond. You start to hear this deep thudding sound, beneath the ice.

[Deep, rhythmic thudding]

Kim
Coming closer to you. And then you smell something pungent. This fermented kelp smell. The smell of blood and fresh snow. And then very close in your ear, as if standing inches away, you hear…

Evangeline Falkenberg (Kim)
Ravi, darling.

Vyn
And immediately he closes his eyes shut.

Evangeline Falkenberg (Kim)
Right before you did, Ravi, you saw appearing in the reflection of the mirrored iceberg, your mother. Could you describe her for us?

Vyn
I think she is a round, kindly-shaped woman. If you just put the gender beam on Ravi: same positioning, hair, mirrored silver streak. And I think it’s almost frightening, because he thinks he’s seeing a different version of himself, due to the superstition. Until it speaks.

Evangeline Falkenberg (Kim)
That’s alright, darling. No need to open your eyes. It’s probably better this way.

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
W…Wolfgang. You’re still here. You’re real, right?

Kim
Wolfgang is growling. And in the back of your head somewhere, you hear Dr. DeLanvier on the deck of the Fang, just one day earlier. When Wolfgang growls, you’d do well top ay attention. Because he only growls when death is near.

Vyn
And again, tries to compose himself.

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
I… I don’t know who or what I’ve disturbed. But I mean no harm. I was looking for my friends.

Evangeline Falkenberg (Kim)
But you’re ever so far from home.

Kim
And then you feel an arm wrap around you. Very motherly. Very comforting. And the temperature around you is rising. Just a little bit. Just enough that you’re no longer shivering from the cold.

Evangeline Falkenberg (Kim)
Come with me, where it’s safe.

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
S…Safe?

Evangeline Falkenberg (Kim)
Why yes. I do fear you’ll die out here, Ravi.

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
It… It is rather cold…

Evangeline Falkenberg (Kim)
Leave those sailors behind. They do not mean you well. They do not mean me well. You wouldn’t want anyone to threaten your poor mother, would you?

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
N…No. Of course not. I’m sorry.

Evangeline Falkenberg (Kim)
It’s alright, boy. Little boys do make mistakes, don’t they? It’s a mother’s job to forgive. And I do forgive you. Now lets… go… home.

Kim
And you feel that arm around you tighten.

Vyn
[Hums nervously]

Kim
Ravi, I suppose you could choose to go away with the Isigaruk. But if you would like to resist in this moment, it will be a Night Move.

Vyn
Okay, cool. I would like to do that.

Kim
Marvelous. This is going to be a Night Move with Sensitivity, I suppose. I feel as though it must be. What are you afraid will happen if you fail?

Vyn
That I’ll wander in the snow forever!

Kim
Yeah, I think that there is a very real fear of becoming an avatar of the Isigaruk, here. And I don’t think Ravi’s spirit and mind would survive such an ordeal.

Vyn
Yeah, no. Yeah.

Kim
Yeah. So that is, I believe, how it is worse. You will die, if this happens. And be possessed by the Isigaruk, to perhaps lure another hapless member of your crew to their doom. Night Move with Sensitivity.

Vyn
Okay…

[Rolls dice] Oh goodness. Big money, no whammies… And that is… Hmm. That is a solid 6.

Kim
Ravi, you open your eyes and turn around. And for a moment, you do see your mother, Evangeline. Very plainly dressed. A little dirtied apron wrapped around her waist. Her hair pinned up. But the shadow behind her is long and large and cruel and terrible. And you see your mother’s skull split open as a large thing crawls out of the skin of your mother.

Ten – no, twelve – no, fifteen feet tall. Too tall for you to comprehend. Blocking out the sky. Blocking out the northern lights. This immense monster opens its enormous arms, and still speaks in the voice of your mother.

Come give your mother a hug, child.

And you feel yourself moving not of your own accord. Just this little boy, lost in the snow.

Wolfgang is barking and growling and trying to grab at a bit of your pantleg, and you brush him off. You no longer need him. And you lose yourself in the embrace of the Isigaruk. And then we hear your neck snap.

Vyn
Uh… I guess I’ll mark a burden? Please?

Kim
Yeah, let’s leave Ravi’s poor neck alone, for a little bit. I will give you an opportunity to think about that prompt, for the next chapter in the life of Captain Strangford.

Let’s go ahead and visit Einar and Maeve.

[A crackling fire]

Kim
The two of you, along with the rescue party that set out from the Fang, have settled down and made camp at the abandoned supply depot. No rolls here, really. I think I’m just curious to see how you all are spending your night.

Madeline
I think Maeve is very shaken by what’s just happened. She’s usually pretty cool, calm demeanor. Kind of keeps to herself. You know, very downplay everything. She is shaking. She is breathing a little erratically. Realistically, she’s having a panic attack. But she’s not voicing that, necessarily. And you just see her hands in her pockets grabbing something and just shaking, staring blankly ahead of her.

Robert
Similarly, Einar is also not on the most even footing. But his reaction to it is more of a dissociative one, where he has just gone sort of blank behind the eyes. And is just going through the routines of setting up camp. Despite the coldness, he does not try and sleep in a tent or in what little shelter remains of this. Rather, he sets up a bundle of furs and a sleeping bag up on top of one of the ruined buildings here, where he can see the stars as he falls asleep.

Kim
Sleep does not come easily. You all hear throughout the night the weeping and cries of Dr. Norland, the scientist who, despite Maeve’s rescue and despite the attentions of Dr. DeLanvier, is nevertheless in an extremely bad way.

But sleep does eventually come. And the two of you, perhaps all of you making camp, dream of a large, motionless shape watching you. Far away on the ice. All of you dream of the rhythmic thudding beneath the ice that Einar swore that he heard in a dream earlier today.

[Deep, rhythmic thudding. Alien, eldritch ambience]

Kim
You smell fresh blood. And all of you arrive at an understanding.

It doesn’t rush. It waits in the dark, just outside the firelight. Like it’s learning your shape.

There was something buried in the ice. Not the creature, the thing it was meant to watch.

Once it was worshipped. Then, ignored. Now, it punishes.

[A crackling fire]

Kim
When you wake in the morning, Dr. Norland is no longer crying. Dr. Norland is gone. Reginald Dumpley is hovering over a fire, dishing out what looks to be some meat stew, and handing it to the sailors as they wake.

Madeline
Maeve, as her eyes blearily open, she feels like she’s been raked over the coals. She sees the doctor is no longer there. Isn’t seeing much fuss. And quickly scrambles up.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
Where did the doctor go? Where did he go?

Kim
Dumpley looks at you over the stewpot.

Reginald Dumpley (Kim)
Well, lass. Where he went, I suppose is a question for a priest.

Madeline
That hits her.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
Where has his body been put?

Reginald Dumpley (Kim)
Ice is too hard to make a proper burial. Wrapped him in a cloth. Set him just over there. Now, lass. Eat. We don’t want Mr. Norland to go to waste.

Madeline
Maeve walks over and takes out her utility knife, and stabs the chef in the neck.

Kim
[Gasps]

Madeline
[Chuckles]

Kim
Boy, I think maybe you just do it?

Madeline
[Laughs]

Kim
Ooh, no. I should make you roll. You are murdering a guy. Or wanting to. But even so, I think this is just a Day Move.

Madeline
Amazing. And I am using my multitool to do this.

Kim
[Chuckles] Marvelous. This is gonna be a Day Move with Vitality, and you can go ahead and take it with advantage, because you are invoking your multitool. What are you afraid will happen if you fail?

Madeline
She is not in her right mind. And this callousness that she is perceiving to be, after she just went through the worst possible situation with the doctor…

Kim
Yeah.

Madeline
Being met with this flippancy has just been enough to tip her over the edge. And she fears that if this doesn’t go well, she dies too easily.

Kim
Yeah, I could certainly see a scenario where, especially… God, I hate to bring gender into it, but especially you being one of the only women out here.

Madeline
Yeah.

Kim
That, like, you are left behind, for sure. Go ahead and make that Vitality roll with advantage.

Madeline
[Rolls dice] Nine.

Kim
Maeve, please describe the last moments of Reginald Dumpley.

Madeline
There’s shock first, by this being the immediate response. But she is not doing this emotionally. She is doing this as a reaction. And it’s quick enough, and she is strong enough, that she has used these saws and carpenter tools all these years. She stabs so far into his neck that the amount of blood that comes out means that it is a very quick death. At the very least, a quick unconsciousness. And there’s a little bit of fear in his eyes after the shock before he collapses to the ground. And Maeve just stands there.

Kim
Einar. What is your reaction to seeing this unfold as you wake?

Robert
Yeah. Einar swings almost ape-like from the top of the building, where he was. And not quickly enough to stop Maeve from stabbing the cook, but quickly enough to stop her from stabbing anyone else. He attempts to grab her, and specifically grab the hand that she is holding the multitool in.

Kim
She doesn’t resist. She doesn’t have beef with anyone else.

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
We have already lost our Captain, one of our doctors, and now our cook. Calm yourself, before we have to lose you too.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
Losing him was no loss. I am calm.

Kim
First Mate Redwell, running a hand through his hair to smooth it – still, even on the ice, trying to maintain some formal affections and manner of formal dress – speaks rather clipped.

Redwell (Kim)
Yes, well, I suppose Dr. Norland was no great loss. He was not much of a survivalist, more of a drain on resources. But Mr. Dumpley was doing an admirable job of keeping us all alive.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
You want to eat your teammates so quickly?

Redwell (Kim)
I want to live.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
If you are so concerned with your own life above all else, perhaps you shouldn’t have gone on this voyage.

Redwell (Kim)
I went on the voyage because I believe in Captain Strangford. A trait, I believe, we all share.

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
Then what are we still doing here? Shouldn’t we move on, leave the dead on the ice, and hope we still find the living captain?

Redwell (Kim)
Well spoken.

Kim
He looks at you, Maeve.

Redwell (Kim)
Wrap up Mr. Dumpley. It is the least you can do.

Madeline
She just puts on her coat and starts heading out.

Kim
Maeve, how are you feeling in this moment?

Madeline
Oh, seething…

Kim
[Laughs]

Madeline
Seething! There is so much that she has seen that does not bother her. Cruelty, necessarily. Violence? It’s fine. It’s just what this world is. Maeve, I think, had put herself in an emotional state with the doctor when she tried to save him, in a way that she has not done in many, many years. Of actually caring to protect someone, and wanting to be the thing that can save them. And having that ripped away from her and treated… feeling like she has been spat on? She wants to scream. She wants to hurt. But she knows that this is the punishment she deserves for the choices she has made in her life.

So she finds a moment to breathe, and find that stillness. As much unfeeling as she can muster, to continue on with her day.

Kim
Maeve, please take the Condition: Haunted.

Robert
Einar joins Maeve in wrapping up the body of the former cook, and speaks low enough so that only she can hear him…

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
I have sailed with many men who have made the decision to eat their fellow men for sake of survival. I have seen, even on journeys less perilous than this one, that decision go badly. You made the right choice.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
As you just said: people make the choice to do so. This choice, he made for us.

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
Still. We should finish here, and move. The sooner we find the captain, the sooner we can get out of here.

Madeline
Just has a moment of… I think our shoulders are maybe touching, and there’s just a moment of… [Exhales] Breathing out, a nod, and continuing.

Kim
Ravi. Let’s flip back a couple pages in the story of this young photographer.

[Alien, rumbling ambience]

Kim
You still turn around and see the thing wearing the skin of your mother split it open and stand before you. But what happens after that?

Vyn
Ravi doesn’t hesitate. He just runs. With everything left in his body, legs and all. Hopefully Wolfgang is behind him. But for now, he’s booking it for his life.

Kim
Take the Condition: Runaway. Ravi, you and Wolfgang bolt across the snow and the ice. And you hear the Isigaruk scream this haunting screech. But as you continue to run, that smell of fresh blood grows fainter. That large shape retreats farther and farther onto the horizon. You run. You keep running.

As you’re running, I think this is a good opportunity to tell the story of the next Burden of the Icebound Dream. Could you go ahead and read the prompt for us?

Vyn
Narrate a flashback to the moment Strangford’s path began to change. Not on the ice, but at a desk, alone. When he found something that no one was meant to see, who tried to stop him? What did he do instead? Show us a decision that sent him down a road he couldn’t return from.

[A fire crackles in a study]

Vyn
I think we’re surprised as the view shifts, and the room is actually quite nice and decorated. Not the Captain’s quarters or the ship that we’re used to harsh conditions, freezing cold… It’s a nice study. And sprawled across the desk is a myriad of tomes, books… As far back as scrolls from ancient times, with a different language. Still referencing the same phenomenon or mystery in the arctic.

[Deep cello music]

Vyn
And what he takes as inspiration or divine is the fact that no one stops him. There isn’t someone to clear his mind or change his morals, or etc. And he feels affirmed and complete, despite knowing nothing that these works say.

[A harsh winter wind]

Kim
Einar and Maeve, and the crew of the rescue party. I think this second day’s journey across the ice is a lot quieter and tenser than the first one. You are moving faster, as Lars perhaps is quick to point out. Considering you no longer have Dr. Norland or Reginald Dumpley. However you are without Wolfgang, who Lars was relying upon as a guide.

[Cold, ringing ambience]

Kim
Hours pass. And eventually you come upon a very deep crevasse in the ice. As you grow closer, it seem as though that there are carved steps that descend into the darkness of this incredibly deep crevasse. The wind and the snow have died down, here. It’s sort of eerily calm. Like you’re in the eye of a storm. And there is a strange fragrance coming from the void below.

Paint the Scene: What sound echoes up from below that no one else but you can hear? Ravi, you can answer this even though you are not yet present in the scene, because you will be appearing momentarily.

Madeline
Maeve hears the wails of a young toddler, and the screaming of a man. Just overlapping. Makes her kind of cower. It’s too loud.

Vyn
Ravi hears this crystalline tinkling, like windchimes in the air. Very faint. But still enough to make him jump.

Robert
And Einar hears a low, moaning sound. Unsure if it is made by voices of those in pain, or ice moving slowly and crushing against itself, all underlaid with a steady drip, drip, drip that should be too soft to hear, but somehow roars like thunder.

Kim
Just as the rescue party hesitantly approaches the edge of this crevasse, you hear footsteps trudging through the snow as two figures run towards you. Wolfgang arrives first. But just on his tail is Ravi. Thin, wild-eyed, but alive.

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
Well, look at that. Some good news for a change. The most competent member of our team is back. And also the photographer.

[Everyone laughs]

Madeline
Maeve runs.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
Ravi. Are-are you okay? Where have you been?

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
[Gasping for breath] I… I’m great… Raced Wolfgang. That was fantastic… Good aerobics.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
You’re racing the dog!?

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
Yes! It’s what you do in the arctic, doesn’t… You get exercise, warm the blood…

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
Okay. I am glad you are back. Maybe do not go racing the dog. We’re sort of in a serious situation, here. We’ve lost members of our team. You’re not taking this seriously.

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
What do you mean? Wha… Who… Who did we… Where’s the doctor, and Dumpley?

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
The doctor did not make it. And the cook made his own choice.

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
He left?

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
He made a choice.

Vyn
Ravi’s gonna pivot to Einar for translation.

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
She killed him.

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
Oh….

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
He deserved it.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
I did not want to eat our other member.

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
Good. Now we are all caught up. Enough talking. We are here to find the captain. Have you, on your excursion, seen him? Or any sign?

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
No. I didn’t see anything. Just the great scenery. The cold.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
Okay, my dear. [Sighs] You should stay close to us. And we should figure out what’s down these stairs.

Kim
Redwell hesitates, at this.

Redwell (Kim)
You don’t mean to send us down there?

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
I will not send anyone anywhere. But the captain came out searching for something. I see stairs in the middle of the ice, in the arctic. I think there’s a good reason he could have gone down there, as well. You do not have to go. I want to go.

Ravi Falkenberg (Vyn)
Before we possibly go down these steps, could I have a moment? Since we’re all together, and I don’t want to separate.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
Yes, of course.

Vyn
And he starts digging through his pockets and pulling out the pocket Kodak, and unspooling the film. I want to use my move?

Kim
Yeah, go ahead and read it.

Vyn
Once per game, if you find the space and time to develop your film, you may also ask, “Why?” The Keeper’s answer is a Clue.

Kim
So, Ravi. The first thing that I must answer is, “What is about to happen at the ice stairs?” That is very simple. A fight is about to break out between First Mate Thomas Redwell and Lars Hegelund, the icemaster and trailblazer. Lars, much like Maeve, wishes to descend down the ice steps in search of Captain Strangford. Redwell is trying to pull rank and have the party go elsewhere, afraid of what lies down those stairs.

Why is this happening? Ravi, I imagine that you took a kind of like group photo and are developing it. And you’re seeing this “why’ in the picture, as you’re developing it. IT’s able to pick up on some details that weren’t immediately apparent to your eye. And you notice a bit of a shadow, these kind of, like, darkened lines appearing behind your crew.

And as you are further developing this photo, you see these lines start to stitch together. They’re words. They’re something that someone had carved into the ice of this crevasse, along the makeshift staircase heading down. And the words say, “No orders, no return.” That is a Clue.

I think seeing those words, Lars points and says…

Lars Hegelund (Kim)
Well, that must have been the captain. We have to go down. We have to go after him.

Kim
Redwell pulls out his pistol.

Redwell (Kim)
That way lies death. We will not be heading down.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
This way lies death. You are holding a pistol.

Redwell (Kim)
I followed every damned order. We all froze our fingers to the bone doing it. And for what? Just silence and ice and a captain who vanishes like a ghost. What if he doesn’t want us to follow him? What if he’s not even down there? Who knows how old that message is?

Robert
Einar mutters to himself…

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
Fy faen…

Robert
And with one of his big, hammer-like fists, takes a swing at First Mate Redwell.

Kim
Einar, make the Day Move. What are you afraid will happen if you fail? This will be with Vitality.

Robert
I’m afraid that Einar won’t be fast enough, and Redwell will get a shot off before Einar can punch him.

Kim
Makes sense.

Robert
[Rolls dice] So that is an 11 on the dice. With my +2, for a 13.

Kim
Einar, what does this look like?

Robert
I think the first mate was in his own mind, ranting to himself. Like, not really thinking about what he was going to do with that pistol, should push come to shove. And so Einar’s fist comes out of nowhere, and just right across the cheekbone. There’s a wet, crunching sound as the bodies make contact. And Redwell drops to the ground. Not knocked unconscious, but just stunned for a moment. And Einar reaches down, grabs the pistol that dropped from his hand, and tucks it into his jacket.

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
We have already lost several. You are not the captain. Stop playing at it.

Kim
Einar, you can go ahead and add Redwell’s pistol to your Sea Bag.

Madeline
Nice.

Robert
I’m getting all the items!

Kim
All the treasures!

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
Lars is the most experienced of us in this terrain. If he says we go down the stairs, I would follow his lead.

Kim
Lars claps you on the shoulder in thanks.

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
Even if he is a Swede.

Madeline
[Laughs]

Kim
He claps again, a little harder.

Madeline
If we start to move down, Maeve is just gonna gesture her hand for Redwell to go first in front of her. And she will take up the rear.

Kim
I think Maeve, you pick up that Tookoolito hesitates a little bit, before going down the ice steps.

Madeline
I’ll look at her, see if she has anything she’d like to say.

Tookoolito (Kim)
I fear if we go beneath the ice, we will be buried beneath it.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
Yes, we might. You do not have to come, if you do not want to. You don’t have to stay with us cursed group.

Tookoolito (Kim)
You don’t have to go with them, either. We could leave.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
I am already under the ice.

Kim
Your party starts making their way down these ice steps. Farther and farther, into this crevasse. What are you all doing, as you’re making your way down?

Madeline
I wanna see if there’s any other carvings. There was that big one up top. If there’s anything else. Any sign of a breadcrumb trail. Or, even just other activity. If there’s any other shoe prints, or any sign of other people.

Kim
That sounds like a Find Clues with Reason. I am gonna put this at disadvantage, I feel, because you’re Haunted.

Madeline
[Rolls dice] Uh, 3?

Kim
Ravi or Einar, anything you want to do as you’re making your way down?

Robert
Einar isn’t looking for clues. He trusts that others who are more fit for that will have that handled. Instead, every couple of minutes, as they get farther and farther down to the crevasse, he pulls a piton – a steel pin – out of his bag and hammers it into the side of the ice.

Kim
Ravi, what about you?

Vyn
I would like to circle back to our Paint the Scene, and possibly look for the source of that tinkling in the ice?

Kim
I love that. Find Clues with Sensitivity.

Vyn
[Rolls dice] That’s a 9.

Kim
So, Maeve…

Madeline
Mmhmm? [Chuckles]

Kim
Heading down these ice steps. You’re at the very back of this line, correct?

Madeline
Mmhmm.

Kim
You are running your hand along the ice wall, as you are descending down. Both to feel for carvings, as well as a way to ground yourself. These steps are just out over this crevasse. There is no bannister or railing, protecting you on the exposed side of these steps. But everyone else seems to be making their way down the steps pretty easily, with no issue. Albeit, quite slowly. Maeve, you feel a hand on your back shove you off of the ice steps, and into the crevasse.

I am gonna let you try to get your bearings. But it’s gonna be a Night Move to try to survive this.

Madeline
Yeah.

Kim
As you felt something push you, into the abyss.

Madeline
[Laughs] Oh, jeez… I wanna say I’d use my multitool, but I don’t think I’d think that fast. I think I’m just desperately trying to grab and slide and kick my feet into the ice, and just find purchase.

Kim
Absolutely.

Madeline
Yeah.

Kim
Night Move. Vitality.

Madeline
Okay…

Kim
What are you afraid will happen if you fail?

Madeline
[Laughs] Well, that I go plummeting to my death!

Kim
Yeah.

Madeline
But also, like this. Maeve isn’t afraid to die. But to go in that way feels wrong.

Kim
I feel you. You said that Redwell was right in front of you. I think actually, Redwell will see you slip and try to help you. And you will drag him also into the abyss, along with you. That is how it is worse than that.

I am gonna put this at disadvantage because you are Haunted. Because, who pushed you? Unclear.

Madeline
Yes. So true. Okay! Here I go!

[Rolls dice, laughs] Oh no! 5.

Kim
I think the sad thing here is that all the rest of this rescue party are so far ahead of you, that it’s not until the rest of the party reaches the bottom of this crevasse that they even notice that Maeve and Redwell are not with you. And you just see this bloody mist on the floor of this crevasse, where they fell and smashed, their bones breaking, to their death.

Madeline
Yeah, I would love to mark a Burden.

Kim
Lovely. I’ll give you a moment to think about that.

Ravi. I imagine towards the front of this rescue party. You returned so suddenly and in such a bad way, I think Tookoolito is not letting you out of her sight, nor is Wolfgang, who is always at the front of the pack. He is continuously looking over his shoulder and making sure, like a good little duckling, you are still right in line.

Vyn
[Laughs]

Kim
But you start zeroing in on that strange tinkling sound that you heard, like windchimes, that no one else seemed to be picking up on. Although everyone does seem to be listening, though judging by the looks on their faces, what they’re hearing is not quite what you are hearing. But Ravi, as you get closer to the floor of this crevasse, that windchime-like tinkle.. Now that you’re listening to it, maybe it’s shifted. Maybe it never was windchimes. It now starts to sound a little bit like a baby rattle? Or a mobile for a baby’s nursery? Indeed, placed on one of these ice steps is a set of baby shoes. Clean, dry, pristine, and neatly tied together.

That is a Clue. How do you feel, when you see these?

Vyn
He steps over them. But they are stuck in his head. Trying to piece why would there be shoes here? Is there a baby here? And then, like, tries to compact it. Save that for later. There’s too much going on.

Kim
Can you please take the Condition: Mother’s Baby Boy?

Vyn
Suuuure…

Madeline
[Laughs]

Vyn
Yeah! That’s so great!

Kim
Maeve. You’ve marked a Burden, which means you do not go plunging into the crevasse. I feel like, with Einar’s permission here… You were placing those pitons along the ice as you were traveling down. I’d love to see that come into play, with how we rescue Maeve, or Maeve rescues herself. So Mads and Robert, if you could help me collaborate on what all happens here.

Robert
Einar is just in front of Maeve in the line. So he doesn’t see her stumble, but rather hears the noise behind them. And instinctively, completely unthinkingly, years of having lived up in the riggings of the ships, he quickly throws a rope into the most recent piton that he just hammered into the ice, and jumps towards her, one hand firmly holding that rope.

Madeline
I think Maeve, when she slips, it’s that moment when you’re too afraid to scream, and you’re just going [Breathless sounds] And just the breath. And she just reaches out blindly, but catches Einar. And just tenses her body, as hard as she can, so she can try to get brought back up.

Robert
And they both go over the edge. One of Einar’s too long arms wraps around Maeve. His other hand, he quickly uses to tie a bowline around himself, securing them both. And they dangle, just a few feet off of the edge. Still, for just a moment.

Madeline
In that moment, she can think to take out her multitool, and just jab it into the ice for a little more purchase, to help haul herself back up.

Robert
And as Einar sort of helps her by pushing her up a little bit, and then pulling himself up by the rope, says with another one of his smiles mostly hidden behind his rats’ nest of a beard…

Einar Gunnarson (Robert)
Watch your step. The ice can be slick.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
Thank you… I think the ice can also be aggressive. Stay close to the wall.

Kim
Redwell pauses, looks at you, and then mutters under his breath…

Redwell (Kim)
They did say bringing a woman aboard was bad luck…

Kim
Take that Condition: Bad Luck.

Madeline
[Chuckles] Mother fucker…

At that, Maeve stares daggers into him.

Maeve Lindgren (Madeline)
Would you like to test that bad luck?

Madeline
I’ll get in his face. I’ll get close.

Kim
Redwell, recalling what you did to the cook, and also noticing the hulking Einar behind you…

Madeline
Mmhmm.

Kim
Rubs his cheek, which is still so swollen from being decked by Einar. And also, he looks at your multitool, which is still, I think, covered in some of Reginald Dumpley’s blood.

Madeline
Yeah.

Kim
And he shakes his head.

Redwell (Kim)
My apologies, Miss Lindgren. I do believe that the cold and the stress is getting to us all.

Madeline
She just smiles.

Kim
Maeve, as we’re finishing up our trip down these ice steps, I think it’s a good time to hear your Burden of the Icebound Dream. Go ahead and read the prompt for us.

Madeline
Narrate a flashback to the night Strangford chose exile over approval. His second expedition was unsanctioned. Show us what, or who, convinced him to go. Who did he leave behind, and how? Let us see the cost of slipping away from the world he once served.

[Deep cello music]

Madeline
Captain Strangford used to be part of sort of a council of people who did expeditions, and exploration. Things were discussed before journeys were made. As time went on, and he kept being around… these mostly men. They wanted riches. They wanted to find ways to just bring themselves higher and higher in the upper echelon, and just benefit from all of these expeditions. And the Captain had always wanted answers.

As he kept pushing these ideas and pushing that it wasn’t about those things, he slowly ostracized himself from this council. But the problem with not having any people around is he started to lose any perspective. He was not bouncing ideas off of people. And he slowly was spiraling, inside his own self. And there was nothing to kind of bring him back into maybe more reality.

And you see just more of that, of him alone in his office. And reading through the same papers, over and over again. His notes becoming more scribbled. And his eyes becoming more feverish.

[An empty, rumbling cave. Tinkling chimes]

Kim
The crew of the Fang makes their way to the bottom of this crevasse. And you come upon a large cave system. These looping, maze-like tunnels of ice caves. All around you, you hear groaning echoes, and the crackling and tinkling of glass.

Paint the Scene: What detail at the ingress to this maze makes it feel less like an entrance, and more like a mouth waiting to close?

Robert
As we are deep under the ice, it’s only natural for icicles to form, stalactite-like, from the top of each of these cave openings. However, these aren’t the simple conical drips that one would see hanging off of a tree in the winter. But these are jagged, rough shapes. Like broken and horribly defined teeth.

Vyn
Any shift in temperature is noticeable, in the expedition. But there is an almost rhythmic, pulsating heat from the cave that almost feels like panting of a much larger creature.

Madeline
As we enter into the opening, the heat is almost like a wall, hitting you. And it feels like you can feel the heat ending behind you. And it gets darker, further in. That, for some reason, is almost a maroon color. Like the stomach of a beast.

[The Strangford Expedition theme]

Kim
The Strangford Expedition is a Kitten Marlowe production. This episode was edited and produced by Kim Dalton, and featured a theme song by Jason Myers. You can find out more about us by visiting KittenMarlowe.com, signing up for our newsletter, or following us on socials. For Discord access, exclusive cast talkbacks, ttrpg materials, and more, visit Patreon.com/KittenMarlowe and join our doomed crew, the Kitten Marlowe patrons, in supporting artist-driven storytelling. Thanks for listening.