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 more than it will be worth. Whatever I win at this tournament won’t compare to what we lose if I am wrong. Or, more vitally, if Stanislaw outsmarts me again.

There are two final thoughts that I have, before I take my seat at the table: The first is the reassurance that, despite all his resources, Stanislaw still couldn’t access the journal without our help.

The second is just why, exactly, does Stanislaw so clearly hate Dragomir but is so willing to help Sofia to the point where he would use me as a stepping stone to get what he wants? How does he not hate the Errols for what they have done?
- From the investigation notes of Elżbieta

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
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson.
Sound effects: zapsplat, Soundbible user Tony Phillips & Mike Koenig, BBC Sound Effects Library, and Freesound users slave2thelight, IENBA, artninja, eminyildirim, brendan89, fractanimal, sounagix, kev_durr, bcginn, kevp888, julianmateo, and minecraftgamerlr
Other music: Kevin MacLeod & Ovani Sound

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing

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 Apricus the Luminary
Jade as Viidra Matei
Mab as Elżbieta Wrona
Zachary as The Game Master

Produced by: Mab
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson.
Sound effects: zapsplat

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing

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 for:

• That was him fleeing the bogs after the Sunken Tune took Paavo.
• He is the one who pushed for the fight against Big Bill and the destruction of the fort
• All we have is his word on what he found in the Dawnbringer ship, Nico’s rooms, and Sharpe’s rooms. (None of which is concrete.)
• He did not grow up alone in Coronant like he claims
• His Anglers bear strong resemblance to the mortics we found
• He genuinely hates Dragomir with every fiber of his being.

I don’t know how much rope I have left at this point, but I hope that it’s enough that if I fail, I can at least take him down with me.
- From the investigation notes of Elżbieta

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
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson.
Sound effects: zapsplat, Soundbible user Tony Phillips, and Freesound users augustsandberg and cgeffex
Other music: Kevin MacLeod & Ovani Sound

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing

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 backfiring. All my ill-earned confidence turning against me.

Our advantage, the trust and faith we have gained, the surety that we are on the right path: I’m questioning all of it now. Nothing is what we thought it was.

Does it count as a victory if this is the price you have to pay to earn it?
- From the investigation notes of Elżbieta

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 & Zachary
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson.
Sound effects: zapsplat user Still North Media and others, Soundbible user Tony Phillips, and Freesound users halleck, julianmateo, kirkpatricklive, & eminyildirim
Other music: Ovani Sound

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing

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 based on Viidra’s investigations, the Sangele might have moved in even earlier to instigate the problem in the first place. Can’t fault her for shrewd business practices, even if it comes at our expense.

I still feel confident about our decision to approach Low Road first. I do not like the alternative timeline where we rid the cranberry bog of weevils, but lost our chance at securing a solid route out of the Delta.

(There’s a clever thing to be said here about tactics with regards to this card game I’m learning. We have one final play left before we can win the hand, I think.)
- From the investigation notes of Elżbieta

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
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson.
Sound effects: Soundbible user Tony Phillips and zapsplat

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing

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 propensity to not delve into an ally’s secrets are coming back to bite me in the ass. Let them keep their secrets, as I have kept mine, I would say.

There are two ways that this can go. The first is that it could be as Stanislaw said, and he freed the Anglers from Sofia’s clutches; these people on the ships were ones less fortunate or more dedicated to her cause.

The second is that I have made a terrible mistake.
- From the investigation notes of Elżbieta

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
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson.
Sound effects: zapsplat user Alan McKinney and others, and Freesound users other_kat and licorne_en_fer
Other music: Kevin MacLeod

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing

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 was always my secret to bear until Ruel.

Now, though… “Don't you know anything about vampires?”

My knowledge of my own ancestry is on par with Apricus’ in that it is purely academic. Do I want to know anything about vampires? About myself?

Aldrich offered to teach me, not that I was tempted. I would reject Dragomir's offer the same way if it was ever given. I don't need an uncle to suddenly find me interesting — not after what happened to my mother. Not after what happened to Stanislaw.

But something about that question feels far more pointed than it has any right to be.
- From the investigation notes of Elżbieta

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
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson.
Sound effects: zapsplat, BBC Sound Effects Library, Soundbible user Tony Phillips, and Freesound users julianmateo, eminyildirim, treyc, and fastson
Other music: Kevin MacLeod and Ovani Sound

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing

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 melt from shadows or a crowd, does not seem to have as keen an eye for evidence gathering as I would have hoped. Between the Dawnbringer boat at Fort Pointer, and now with Sharpe’s and Nico’s rooms, he brings me back big picture details but nothing that I can turn into a solid lead.

We don’t have the time for me to slip away from the table now that I’ve made headway on both Sharpe and Janek. As willing as Viidra was to cause a distraction, or Stanislaw to put the toughs to the knife, we have committed our focus to the negotiations.

Sleight of hand tricks only work when their attention is elsewhere.
- From the investigation notes of Elżbieta

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
Theme song: "Stray Not, And Be Safe" by Zachary Frederickson.
Sound effects: zapsplat, Yellowstone National Park Sound Library, and Freesound user eminyildirim

Find us on Twitter at SunlessReach, Tumblr at SagasoftheSunlessReach, and Bluesky at SunlessReach. Don't forget to post about the show using #SunReach.

Follow all of Standing Stones' projects @stones_standing