Apparently the fire burns everything... This was jam packed with just about everything - wizards, healers, street urchins, addict pseudo-zombies, an evil sentient factory, and a mad scientist! I thought is was an inventive mashup of fantasy tropes. Excellent visuals. The story didn't need the info dump of clan dynamics and sexual politics; the story didn't need it, though an exploration of that in this world would make an interesting story in its own right.
I did think that the story changed scenes awfully quickly. That may have had more to do with the narration. The narrator has an excellent podcasting voice, Podcastle should use him again, but geez he read this breathlessly!