Eeler’s Choice: Episode 4

Episode 4 – Nama

Content warnings:

Rot/decay
Chronic pain
Supernatural threat
Gore
Harm to/death of animals
Shipwreck/sinking

Mentions of: Serious injury, Harm to animals, Loss of family members

SFX: Wind, waves and thundery weather, lightning and electrical crackling, wet popping, high-pitched shrieking, music, distressed yelling, cracking wood, bells,

LOU: After you’ve stopped into Eskmouth, why not head out to Gilt City? A trailer for the Night Post follows the credits.

DAISY: Eelers’s Choice is not suitable for all listeners. This episode contains depictions of animal death. Full content warnings can be found in the show notes. Listener discretion is advised.

[SEA AND RAIN SOUNDS, THEME TUNE BEGINS]

RAN: We are the fisherfolk of Eskmouth.

NAMA: For generations we have made our living from the sea and from the great eels that roam it.

BLETHIN: But the deeps are dark and full of secrets. And the ocean never gives back what it takes…unchanged.

[THEME TUNE]

[EXT. THE ESKMOUTH DOCKS. DOCK NOISES IN THE BACKGROUND]

NAMA: Last chance to back out. You’re sure?

RAN: Certain. I’ve worked my last shift at the Rotting Pits and handed in my notice.

NAMA: That was stupid, what if they don’t want to hire you?

RAN: I’ll find a different eelship.

NAMA: All right. Here they come. (calling) Captains? Sorry to bother you….

BRYSEN: Hmm. Aren’t they one of yours?

BEVAN: The one with the stick is, yeah. Fishercliff, isn’t it?

NAMA: Yes Captain, Nama Fishercliff. This is my cousin Ran Fishercliff. Mr. Tackmansworth said he’d spoken to you about them yesterday.

BRYSEN: Oh…yes, my dear, you remember, the cousin wants to join the crew. And you need a replacement crew member since Frywatch left to marry her sweetheart up the river.

BEVAN: I miss Frywatch. She played the accordion.

RAN: I’m sorry captain, I can’t play the accordion. I’m a hard worker though, I work..used to work in the rotting pits..

BRYSEN: Ah.. That’s where I’ve seen you, hauling the eelflesh away.

RAN: Yes, captain.

BEVAN: Oh, you’ll be strong then, good. Any experience on a ship?

NAMA: Ran learns quickly.

BRYSEN: Oh… I remember the Fishercliffs! They went down with the Industry and the Indispensable years ago.

NAMA: (uncomfortably) My parents, Captain.

BEVAN: Mm.. Good people. Skilful stormcallers. Are you a stormcaller, Fishercliff? Smaller chunkier Fishercliff, without the stick?

RAN: I…..my father taught me the chants. But I don’t stormcall.

BRYSEN: Shame. We could use a stormcaller. I’ve never quite trusted the generators. Failed on us one too many times.

NAMA: I’m sure Ran could if they needed to. Right, Ran?

RAN: (uncertain) I think so..I’m fairly sure I could. [But…]

BEVAN: (interrupting) Good good. You’re hired. Your cousin can show you the ropes (chuckles).

BRYSEN: You do that one every time you hire someone.

BEVAN: I am consistent and that is why you love me.

BRYSEN: (mirthlessly) Ha. Funny. I am going to my ship now, I’ll give the signal to cast off once I’m on board.

[THEY BOTH WALK OFF, STILL BICKERING, DOCKWORKER TALK]

[BEVAN: Oh! Did you feed the cat?

BRYSEN: Yes, of course I fed the cat. Anyway, that cat is near feral, it would feed itself happily on frogs, mice and the occasional weasel even if we never came back.

BEVAN: (fondly) He is a very clever boy.

BRYSEN: He is a very clever boy who keeps leaving mustelid surprises in my boots….

BEVAN: He just thinks you’re too stupid to feed yourself….

BRYSEN: Thank you darling.
]

[PAUSE]

[EXT. STILL ESKMOUTH DOCKS]

RAN: (angrily) Why did you tell them I’d stormcall for them?

NAMA: To get you the job. Anyway, I reckon you’ll be able to. Our family have been stormcallers for generations. It’s in our blood.

RAN: I [don’t…]

NAMA: (interrupting) If you’re going to say you don’t want to, you can belay that talk. If you want to get on in the world you’re going to have to stop being petty and use whatever skills you have to get by. What’s more important, getting a good job or spiting Uncle Blethin?

RAN: That ain’t what this is about!

NAMA:(patiently sighing) Ran, I’ve known you since we were both little ones playing on the beach. Do you think I don’t know what’s going on? Just…play along. You won’t need to stormcall anyway, we have the generators, they don’t fail that often. Captain Helmswell, our one, is just old fashioned and grumpy.

[THEY STEP ON TO THE SHINGLE TO PICK SOMETHING OFF THE FLOOR]

[STORMCALLER LULLABY REPRISE THEME]

NAMA: Here.

RAN: Why are you giving me a pebble?

NAMA: Coal from the tideline for your first eeling trip. Put it in your pocket for luck, so you wash up safely on the beach.

RAN: A coal-wish to keep me safe, and guide me to the tideline.

[THEY PUT THE PEBBLE IN THEIR POCKET]

NAMA: You sound like your father.

RAN: Watch it.

SAILOR: All aboard!

RAN: (still annoyed but trying to cheer up a bit) Well, since you’ve decided I’m a stormcaller now, I’d better start chanting, [hadn’t I?]

[A BELL RINGS FROM THE GOOD RETURN ACROSS THE DOCKS TO SIGNAL THEY ARE ABOUT TO SET OFF.]

SAILOR: All aboard, come on now, all aboard.

NAMA: …Looks like we’re off…come on.

[THEY CROSS THE GANG PLANK ONTO THE SHIP, THEIR CANE TAPPING ON THE WOOD. RAN FOLLOWS. BEHIND THEM. THE PLANK IS REMOVED. ANCHOR CHAIN IS WINCHED IN.]

SAILOR: Ahoy! Anchors Aweigh, aye.

[SHIP CREAKS. SAILS FLAP AS IT LEAVES PORT]

[EXT. THE DECK OF THE GRATITUDE]

[CREAKING LINES, WAVES]

RAN: Is there anything I can help with?

NAMA: We’ll need to…

[MERRY SNEEZES, MUFFLED]

[FAINT MUSIC, POLLY REPRISE]

RAN: Unn bless you.

NAMA: It wasn’t me. Where did that come from?

[THEY ARE BOTH QUIET]

[MERRY SNEEZES AGAIN]

[NAMA PULLS BACK A LIFEBOAT COVER]

NAMA: Oho. Stowaways.

PRIN: Hello. I can explain.

NAMA: It’s not me you’ll need to explain to, it’s Captain Helmswell. And since we’ve just put out to sea you’re in a lot of trouble.

MERRY: Please, you have to help us. Our lives are in danger. Oh!…it’s you…the one who …felt like the sea.

RAN: You…from the station….who are you?

MERRY: Um…I’m Merry. Merrily Whitechanter. This is my twin Princeps.

PRIN: Prin.

NAMA: Nama Fishercliff. This is my cousin Ran. What do you mean your lives are in danger?

[PRIN AND MERRY TALK OVER EACH OTHER]

MERRY: I’m a student..at the Scrimchantry…and this is my sister…

PRIN:…I was visiting her….and she was showing me around…

MERRY: …and we went in the cellars…we shouldn’t have…

PRIN:…and the cellars were full of polly….

MERRY: …and the Principal Adept caught us down there and…

PRIN: ….went all adventure novel villain on us, like you won’t be leaving here alive ahahaha…and then the walls started to come towards us…

MERRY: ….so I distracted zir and hit zir with my stick….

PRIN: …and I pushed zir over…

MERRY: …and we ran away down the hill and to the docks…

PRIN: …I said we should find a ship to hide in as no-one would look there..

MERRY: ….so we snuck on board…

PRIN: …And we hid in this lifeboat…

MERRY: …but we fell asleep….

PRIN: And here we are.

NAMA: Well. You’ve put us in a quandary all right. Do you think they’re telling the truth, Ran?

[FAINT STORMCALLER LULLABY EELSONG MUSIC]

RAN: (firmly) I believe them.

NAMA: Then so do I. All right, you two. You’re on the Gratitude, and we’re going eeling. We’ll likely be out till the evening. If we catch anything, things will get rough, but don’t panic and jump out of the lifeboat or anything. Stay in there, and we’ll try and sneak you some food and water if we can. If you can wait it out, when we get back to the port we’ll come and get you and get you off the ship. And you’ll need to get out of those robes… (trying to remember the name they’ve just been told) Merry.. everyone knows that’s what the novices up at the Scrimchantry wear.

MERRY: I will.

PRIN: If you can get us to the station, we can get out of Eksmouth and go home to our parents. I’ve got money….

NAMA: We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Oh, and if anyone else finds you…

MERRY: If anyone else finds us you didn’t find us first.

PRIN: Merry will cry at the Captain and say she wandered across the gangplank by mistake or something.

MERRY: Oh dear silly poor blind me, I got so lost..

NAMA: We have to go now before we’re missed. Good luck. I’ll pull the cover back on the lifeboat.

MERRY: Thank you. We owe you both.

[NAMA PULLS THE COVER BACK AND THEY AND RAN WALK OFF]

[PAUSE, SLIGHTLY CREEPY MUSIC]

MERRY: (muffled) Could you smell that?

PRIN: (also muffled, under the tarp) Smell what?

MERRY: I recognise the smell from the Scrimchantry. Polypore.

[EXT. THE GRATITUDE]

[JOLLY MUSIC, WEAVING SONG REPRISE]

[WIND AND DISTANT WAVES]

NAMA(v/o): Ran and I left the twins in the lifeboat and showed our faces on the quarter deck where we were immediately put to helping with the rigging. The two of us were sent up to the second yard. The sky was bright gold as we sailed out beyond the piers. Some weavers were atop the last frame on the beach and we waved to them. They waved back.

[SOUNDS OF NAMA CLIMBING THE RIGGING AND ALONG THE YARD]

I scrambled further up the rigging turning around to make sure Ran was behind me. They were not as fast at climbing as me, but I was sure they’d get the hang of it soon enough. They used to be up and down the rocks along the cliffs all the time when we were younger.

When I first started working on the Eelships I had more trouble than most getting around on the rigging. I lost my leg to an infection when I was small, you see. My parents saved up and had an expensive eelbone one specially made to fit me. I take care of it because it was their gift to me and every day it reminds me how much they cared for me.

I got some extra spurs and curves chanted into it, to hook into the rigging and make it easier to climb. I could hang upside down off this leg if I wanted, although I’m not that silly. Showoffs fall and crack their skulls open on the deck, or end up overboard and sink beneath the sea.

[DARKER MUSIC, BRIEFLY, BEFORE JOLLY MUSIC RETURNS]

And I don’t want to pull on it. It makes the pain worse.

It was several hours of sailing before we reached the deep water where the eels roam. We could go further but the captains Helmswell are old-fashioned and wise. They don’t go to the spawning grounds where the mothers go when they are ready to give birth to their litters – the eels will birth one or two or three elvers who feed on the sea snow that falls down there, tiny particles of matter that float in the water. The winds are poorer the further you get into the spawning grounds as well, so wise captains don’t sail too far in unless there’s a fresh breeze that day.

The sea we passed through was clear blue with banks of kelp, and channels in between that the Great Eels swim through. If there’s clouds overhead, I fancy the seaweed banks are like mirrors for them – as in the sky, so in the sea.

So, we hunted outside the spawning grounds. The Good Return came along us and we let out our net into the water to trail behind us. Tied into the net was a mechanical lure, made to mimic the sound of an elver in distress. Following the net, we let out a trawl door, a square of hanging chain to hold the mouth of the net open. We passed the warps across to the other ship who attached them to their winches, then we sailed apart to stretch the net between us, to sweep it through the deep water. Seagulls followed us, hoping to steal from whatever we caught. They would be waiting a while, but they would eat well when we pulled our nets up, swooping down to peck up bycatch from the deck.

The afternoon wore on and we dragged our net gently through the calm waters. The bell attached to the net lines, that rings when something is caught and begins to thrash, was silent. The eelers glanced at it occasionally. The captain stood at the tiller looking thoughtful, but there was nothing. I saw her glance further into the eeling grounds, but shake her head. She was no fool to risk the rudder in the weeds.

When we got a chance Ran and I slipped back to the lifeboat to drop some ship’s tack and a cup of water under the cover.

MERRY AND PRIN: (whispering) Thank you.

[DARKER MUSIC AGAIN]

NAMA: (v/o) We returned to the rigging after eating and drinking, to watch out for eelsign. The flash of a fin, or something winding in the deep water. As I climbed I noticed something yellow starting to sprout on the side of my leg. I knocked it off against the mast. The impact jarred where my leg was grown into my stump and I winced. I tried not to think about it. I pushed the pain into the background of my mind. I know it’ll keep getting worse.

Ran climbed up beside me. They hadn’t noticed anything.

[EXT. THE GRATITUDE RIGGING]

[IT IS WINDY, RAN IS CLIMBING UP TO JOIN NAMA IN THE RIGGING

RAN: (calling up to Nama) So…. you think we won’t catch anything?

NAMA: (calling down) Looks like it. Not a great first trip for you.

[RAISED VOICES STOP HERE, BOTH QUIET DOWN]

[RAN JOINS NAMA ON THE YARD]

RAN: At least it’s been quiet. Apart from….

NAMA: Our little problem in the lifeboat.

RAN: Yes.

[PAUSE]

NAMA: Would you consider stormcalling?

[PAUSE]

RAN: I might. But I’m thinking of what Da always says about it.

NAMA: It changes you.

[EALD BYCATCH THEME FAINTLY BEGINS]

RAN: “The ocean never gives back what it takes unchanged.”

NAMA: And once you let it in, it takes you..

RAN: Yes. (pause) But I want to anyway. You’re right. I’m being a kid about it.

NAMA: All right. You remember the chants?

RAN: They’re not meant to be forgettable. I’ll need thread though. Or line. Something I can knot.

NAMA: I got some waxed linen from the chandlery cupboard…just in case…here.

[PAUSE, RUSTLING OF NAMA FISHING THROUGH THEIR POCKETS]

NAMA: Will that do?

RAN: Hmm…give me a second. This ain’t right. It’s wound the wrong way. Sunwise. I need to twist it the other way…then tie a figure eight.

[WHATEVER ELECTRIFIED AIR SOUNDS LIKE, CRACKLING AND BUZZING]

RAN: One for the fishes that swim in the bay,

RAN: Two for the sun at the break of the day,

[DISTANT THUNDER]

[RAN’S VOICE NOW HAS ELDRITCH REVERB]

RAN AND NAMA TOGETHER: Three for the moon in the dark of the night, four for the beacons all shining and bright,

[A CRACK OF THUNDER]

NAMA: Four is enough.

RAN: Five for a ship…

NAMA: Enough, we don’t need a hurricane!

RAN: (spacy) It’s coming.

[A BELL BEGINS TO RING BELOW]

NAMA: We’ve got one. An eel. You did it…. Ran?

RAN: (spacy) We did it…

NAMA: Come on, we need to get down to help. (pause) Are you all right?

[ELDRITCH REVERB IS NOW GONE, RAN’S VOICE IS NORMAL AGAIN]

RAN: I….I thought I could hear…sorry…I’m coming.

[EXT. THE GRATITUDE NAMA VOICEOVER]

[SOUNDS OF EELERS SHOUTING AND SPLASHING NEAR THE SHIP HAULING ROPES. BELLS CLANKING FURIOUSLY]

NAMA (v/o): Between the ships, the sea was boiling and flashing with foam as something big thrashed in the water. When we reached the deck, all hands were at the winches, trying to haul the writhing mass tangled in the net in. The Good Return had released their warps and now we’d pull until we brought the Eel and whatever else we’d caught on board.

Something wasn’t right though.

[EXT. THE GRATITUDE DECK]

NAMA: Mr. Tackmansworth, what’s happening? We were up in the rigging.

ABERFORD: It’s a big one. And that Unn-cursed machine isn’t working so we can’t stun it.

[CLICKING AND RATTLING SOUND AS THE GENERATOR IS CRANKED, FIZZLING AS IT FAILS]

ABERFORD: I’ve sent someone below for the poison harpoon.

[RAN’S VOICE GOING WEIRD AGAIN]

RAN: Five for a ship filled with silver and gold,
Six for the secrets the river me told,

NAMA: Ran, what are you doing?

RAN: The electrogenerators have failed. We need lightning, don’t we?

Seven for the wind, for the waves, for the water,
The rain and the shadow, the son and the daughter.
Seven for the bight and the loop and the form
Seven for the binding to bring me the storm

[CRACK OF THUNDER, RAIN INTENSIFIES]

RAN: (laughing) I never knew it would be like this, Nama…. Can you feel it? Here it comes!

[THUNDER CRACKS AND A BOLT OF LIGHTNING FRIES THE NETS]

[THE BELL STOPS AND THERE IS ONLY THE SOUND OF RAIN NOW]

ABERFORD: Your cousin is a stormcaller and a half, Fishercliff! They can come out with us any time they like. Get that eel on board!

[RAN IS STILL CHUCKLING TO THEMSELVES]

SAILORS: HEAVE! HEAVE! (continuing in background)

[WRITHING SLITHERING MASS OF EEL AND FISH IS DRAGGED ON BOARD]

[EERIE WHINING FROM EEL]

[VARIOUS SAILORS CALLING TO EACH OTHER AS THEY TRY TO SECURE THE EEL

NAMA: Ran, grab that rope….

RAN: (whispering) I’m sorry.

[UNSETTLING EEL SOUNDS]

NAMA: What’s wrong?

RAN: Kill it… They have to kill it. It’s choking, it’s begging to die.

NAMA: They will, don’t worry. Someone’s coming with the harpoons.

RAN: No, you don’t understand. It’s begging me… in my head. I can hear it. Someone has to…someone has to be with it when it dies.

[RAN CROSSES THE DECK AND KNEELS BY THE EEL]

[EELSONG IS MORE MELODIC NOW, A DEATH SONG]

NAMA: What are you doing?? Are you mad? Get away from it, it’ll kill you!

RAN: (singing gently, grieving) Let me sing you a song of the sea my beloved,

Let me sing you to slumber once more

So sail with me now ‘cross the billowing waves

Tell we come safe at last to the shore

[EEL SINGING HAS CALMED]

[STORMCALLER’S LULLABY HARP TUNE JOINS IN]

Though the deeps they are darksome and daunting, my love

My sweet castaway need not beware

For I’ll gently and quietly cradle thy heart
And I’ll treat thee with greatest of care

[THE EEL SINGS BACK THE SAME TUNE]

[RAN SOBS]

[EELSONG FADES]

ABERFORD: HARPOONS!

[COMMOTION, STABBING OF EEL, POPPING OF EYES]

[EXT. THE GRATITUDE DECK]

[RAN IS CRYING]

NAMA: Come here.

[FABRIC RUSTLES, RAN’S SOBBING IS MUFFLED]

[INSTRUMENTAL OF LULLABY BEGINS]

RAN: I felt them..in its gills. It’s eyes…they burst….(more sobbing)

NAMA: (shushing noises) Yes, that happens. Because of the pressure change when they come up…

ABERFORD: Eel secured, Captain!

BEVAN: (calling from the quarter deck) Get the nets across from the Good Return and then about for home, Helm. We’ll drag as we head back to port. We’ve a fair wind but the weather may get worse.

ABERFORD: (calling) Signal the Good Return to let out their net!

NAMA: Are [you…]

RAN: (interrupting, firmly, pulling themselves together) I’m fine.

NAMA: You look…not fine.

RAN: I… I think I’ve got a handle on it. It was…it was a lot.

NAMA: You’ve really never done that before? The Stormcalling?

RAN: No. Have you?

NAMA: Who’d teach me? My parents are gone, and your father is…

RAN: Complicated.

NAMA: Exactly. (pause) What does it feel like?

RAN: (gradually becoming eldritch again) Like lightning in your bones. Like you’re made of wind and stars. Like you can hear all the fish in the ocean and all the birds in the sky and you are all of them. And…. (suddenly concerned) Nama, something’s coming!.

[ELDRITCH BACKGROUND MUSIC]

[THE BELL RINGS AGAIN]

ABERFORD: Ho there, what’s going on down the lines?.

[THE SHIP LURCHES]

NAMA: What’s going on…

RAN: I don’t know…something…

[THE SHIP LURCHES AGAIN]

[ROARING OF WAVES]

LOOKOUT: Captain! The Good Return is foundering! She’s being pulled down!

BEVAN: (from the quarter deck) We’ve caught something too big! Cut the lines!

[MORE SAILORS YELLING, LINES BEING HACKED THROUGH AND WHIPPING LOOSE]

[EXT. THE GRATITUDE DECK – NAMA NARRATION]

[CREEPY MUSIC]

NAMA(v/o): Sailors rushed to the nets and the lines and began hacking at them with harpoons, knives, whatever they could find. I’d seen something like this before, when an eel was caught half in and out of a net and tried to drag the ship away with it. Our lines and nets are strong and thick though, made to hold a great beast in check and they do not cut easily, nor untie easily when wet. The ship lurched again and I saw a wave wash up over the side where it was being pulled down towards the water.

[EXT. STILL THE GRATITUDE DECK]

[RAISED VOICES OVER THE STORM]

[HIGH WAVES WAVING OVER]

RAN: Are we going to sink?

NAMA: Maybe? I don’t know?

PRIN: (arriving, panting) Hey…Nama, What’s happening?

NAMA: You two should be in the boat!

MERRY: We got tipped out when the ship rocked.

PRIN: We’ve been seen, sorry.

[MORE SAILORS YELLING]

[ROARING SOUND, WAVES ROLLING BACK]

[HORRIBLE WRITHING SQUEAKING SOUNDS]

NAMA(v/o): Then we saw it – rearing up out of the sea, wet and rotting and glistening with salt. A hulk of a head, writhing with fish, bound together by nets, brittle stars and crabs encrusted over its mass. The net lines were tangled around it and it pulled the ship towards it as it raised up out of the sea. A huge, dripping mouth opened up in the head.

MERRY: What’s happening?

PRIN:(amazed) Eald Bycatch…. It’s real…it’s really real!

NAMA: Don’t say that name!

[ETHEREAL SCREAMING NOISES]

MERRY: (wincing) Ahhh. What is it? I can feel it. No, I can hear it. It’s…. screaming.

[SHIP CREAKING]

RAN: She’s right. Why is it screaming?!

[ETHEREAL SCREAMING AND ROARING INCREASES]

[EXT. STILL THE GRATITUDE DECK – NAMA NARRATION]

NAMA(v/o): And then I could hear it too, a roaring in my brain, like a thousand voices of a thousand creatures shrieking all at once. I clutched at my head and tried to cover my ears, but the screaming wasn’t coming in through my ears, it was coming directly into my mind from the hollow void of the mouth of Eald Bycatch.

[SHIP JERKS AGAIN, SPLINTERING WOOD ETC.]

The ship jerked so hard it threw everyone to the deck, and the four of us into a pile against the main mast. It spun around, dragged by the lines tangled around Eald Bycatch. The creature reared further up out of the water until its head was high in the darkening evening sky and its waist at the level of the sea and then it began to move, dragging the Gratitude with it….

[WHOOSHING OF WATER]

[STOMPING THROUGH THE SEA]

[END OF EPISODE]

[MUSICAL INTERLUDE]

DAISY: Eeler’s Choice was created by Lou Sutcliffe and Daisy McNamara. Bevan Helmswell was played by Miria Greyhaven. Brysen Helmswell was played by Mark Nixon. Ran Fishercliff was played by Rae Lundberg. Nama Fishercliff was Lindsey C. Princeps Whitechanter the Third was played by Caroline Orejuela. Merry Whitechanter was played by Tanja Milojevic. Aberford Tackmansworth was played by William A. Wellman. With additional voices by Daisy McNamara, Diego Herrera, J. E. Haywood, Tal Minear, Tanja Milojevic and Meg Molloy Tuten. Our writer, composer and sound designer was Lou Sutcliffe, our producer and dialogue editor was Daisy McNamara. Script editing was by Kale Brown and Pacific S. Obadiah. Our sensitivity consultant was Sarah Clark. Our fisheries consultant was Carolina W. Thank you all for listening! We’re over half way through our season now and your support has kept us going. If you want to support us even more please spread the good word of eels to those you know and maybe leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice? If you want to yell about the show tag us on social media @eelerschoice. Our socials and website can be found in the show notes. Thank you for listening and we will see you in two weeks!

DAISY: Hello, it’s Daisy here, to tell you about the Night Post. Created by an all LGBT team including the awesome Rae Lundberg who you’ve just heard playing Ran Fishercliff, the Night Post is an audio drama podcast about the conscripted couriers of a city at odds with the ancient, arcane frontier that surrounds it.

You can find out more at nightpostpod.com – Now for the trailer.

[AN EXTENDED PIANO VERSION OF THE NIGHT POST’S OPENING THEME PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND.]

VAL: Hello there, citizen. You’ve lived in Gilt City for a while now. Maybe you’ve wondered, when you wake in the morning and retrieve the letters tucked neatly into your postbox, just where your mail comes from. It comes from the Night Post, of course. Those faithful couriers deliver it while you’re sleeping–all the better that they stay out of sight, and keep the unseemly strangeness that follows them out of our city, in the Skelter, where it belongs.

Ahem. If, for some reason, you’d like to know more about Gilt City’s conscripted couriers and the burden that chose them, their secret hopes and fears, the ancient, untamed threats that hound them on their nocturnal journeys–you have only to listen. The Night Post is a queer supernatural audio drama, delivered weekly, in dead of night, to wherever you listen to podcasts.

Find answers at nightpostpod.com.

Sound effects used in this episode:

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