Second Citadel - The Silvered Secrets (Part 2) is an episode of the Penumbra Podcast in the Tales of the Second Citadel series. It is the ninth Second Citadel episode of season 4, and the eighteenth overall.
Overview[]
Silvershore's clock tower breaks out from the skyline of beehive apartments and exploding tree-monsters, a constant declaration to the most fundamental truth of Silvershore itself: advertising.
Because the clock tower isn't just a historically important building; it is also the headquarters of Wayward East Press, the largest entertainment company in an entertainment city. The offices are near-impossible to break into... unless you happen to know a lot of secret information about how the WEP runs their business.
Enter the mysterious Lam, a book thief who seems to know a lot of secret information about a lot of secret things. His bag of tricks opens the door for he and Olala to enter these offices and rob them blind... but does he know enough to get them back out again?
Trigger Warnings:[]
- Racism and xenophobia
- Depictions of chase/pursuit
- Violence and threats of violence (towards humans and animal-like creatures)
- Deep bodies of water
- Claustrophobic/enclosed spaces
- Home invasion
- Explosions and sudden loud noises
Episode Summary[]
Lam enters the Silvershore clock tower with Olala, in the shape of a cockroach. They are challenged by a receptionist, but Lam blusters that he's an inspector, "Doctor Gallantry," so Olala can slip away. She turns back into a girl and chats with Tail. To her amazement, the clock tower's rooms are magically enhanced to be much bigger than they should be. As per the plan, she finds a janitor's closet and untwists an anti-magic capsule Lam gave her. The closet shrinks, destroying it. Lam spins the receptionist a disaster scenario, claiming it could happen at any moment to any of the storage spaces. He frets briefly about Olala, but she made it safely back into his pocket, so he happily sets off with the receptionist to take a tour.
Caroline and Ale go looking for a monster woman named Capuchin, who supposedly knows the location of a stranger Caroline is contracted to find. Her house is protected by a "sandbox tree," with exploding seed pods. When it cools off, Caroline and Ale make a playful bet to see who can find Capuchin first. The lower floor doesn't look lived-in, so they run upstairs, dodging more traps. Caroline damages a gauntlet in the process. Capuchin declares she would rather blow up the whole house than be taken alive. Ale, meanwhile, has discovered the sandbox tree has a dryad. She has agreed to disable Capuchin's all-natural traps in exchange for Ale bringing her some fertilizer. Capuchin relents.
Ale and Caroline riffle through copies of Capuchin's tabloid, The Soothsayer. Caroline presses Capuchin for the address of her quarry. She agrees she knows who Caroline means, a foreign knight who works for her sometimes, bringing information from apparently impenetrable places. She writes down his address in the City Beneath for them. Certain they're about to find Sir Galahad, they discuss him and their plans for rematch as they walk.
Lam is moving through the clock tower faster and faster as he dismisses rooms as not in "danger." When he finds the vault chamber he wants, he knocks the receptionist out and encourages Olala to transform and take five minutes to look for books. She finds a book on the Western Wastes and starts to browse for gifts for her friends, but Lam calls out, sounding worried. The "unconscious" receptionist has disappeared, making Lam afraid security knows they're here. Olala encourages him, so he says if they limit themselves to one book each, he can fit them and Olala in his pockets and take off.
Unfortunately, the door has been blocked by a "statue," who turns out to be a guardgoyle named Ms. Cobbleston. She attempts to arrest them, but Lam challenges her to a duel, pulling out a wooden sword. It's just a toy, but Lam is judicious enough to hit her in the right place to target a shoddy repair job and crack her arm. They duck into a "confidential" room to hide, and immediately find themselves separated. Olala sees that the floor is covered in tiny crystals. She hears a baby crying, and Lam calling out to her. She and Lam describe their surroundings. He grumbles that all his room has is tchotchkes related to WEP's history. Lam tells her to calmly count to ten and make her way to the door, hoping they'll be let out into the same place. It works, and Lam is able to lock Cobbleston into the room he just left.
Caroline looks through Lam's house, musing that it shows signs of knightly training, but she has trouble reconciling the possessions with Galahad. She finds Lam's pearl and sees it has a mermaid's portrait on its surface. Lam and Olala enter, laughing, Caroline threatens Lam, believing Olala needs protection. She believes the pearl means Lam slew the mermaid, and identifies him as Sir Lamorak of the Piercing Eye, Galahad's chief strategist.
Elsewhere, Gremling congratulates himself on his cunning for making a huge profit by selling the address Caroline procured to Sir Tristan. Gremling is dismayed to find Tristan only has Northern money, but Tristan kills him, to Damien's outrage.
Cast and Crew[]
Cast[]
- Marge Dunn as Olala;
- Leslie Drescher as Caroline;
- Anjimile as Ale;
- Joshua Ilon as Sir Tristan the Cold;
- Matthew Zahnzinger as Damien;
- Erica Simpson as Cobbleston the Guardgoyle;
- Ginny D'Angelo as Capuchin;
- Kate Jones as the Receptionist;
- Stewart Evan Smith as Sir Lamorak of the Piercing Eye.
Crew[]
- Alice Chuang as Head of Design
- Ginny D'Angelo as Head of Merchandise and Outreach
- Melissa DeJesus as Script editing team
- Harley Takagi Kaner as Co-creator, Head of Episode Development, Director, Sound designer
- Joelle Kross as Transcriptionist
- Noah Simes as Production manager
- Grahame Turner as Script editing team
- Kevin Vibert as Co-creator, Head of Operations, Lead writer
- Ryan Vibert as Composer and performer of original music
- Recorded by Mertz at The Bridge Sound & Stage