Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: You are listening to an atomic broadcasting production. So sit back, relax and enjoy the feature presentation. And remember, do your part. Such as like comment rate and don't forget to tell a friend to tune in for an atomic time.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Hey everybody. Jordy here we are coming in with a quick recap of books one and two. So if you've heard of the show and you're interested, but you don't want to get caught up on a hundred episodes, you are in the right place. Now before we get into that, a quick announcement. We will be returning with the beginning of book three on October 13th. Now a quick caveat. That will not be the first story episode. We're going to have a quick reaction retrospective so you're going to get a chance to hear the thoughts of all of us here as we're producing the show. What we have learned, any interesting insights behind the scenes thoughts we have and there will even be a frequently asked questions portion. That episode is what's coming out on October 13th and then one week from that on October 20th. The Monday, October 20th is when our next episode, episode 105 to begin book 3 will be coming out. So make sure to set your calendar and tune in for that and we will see you there.
Now onto the recap.
Book one.
Our story opens with a band of strangers brought together for what began as a simple job.
Local miners in the town of Kopperberget had broken through a wall into a natural cave formation full of strange objects and designs. Rather than risk their own lives investigating this vault, the mine administration hired a group of researchers from out of town investigate. These researchers in turn hired a group of adventurers to take the brunt of any risk they might encounter. These venturers, the half elf Alward Volden, a reserved former accountant for the Infernal Mining Company and a developing psychic. The human Heimir Helvig, a retired veteran of the Shining Crusade and a thaumaturge.
The Fetchling Zafir, a mysterious assassin and self taught magus.
The dwarf Uvair Sterkvind, an ancient dwarven scholar and wizard and the Fetchling Neros, a sorceress and prankster, but a partier foremost.
After arriving at the mine, our heroes investigated the strange cave and were stunned to find a set of modest furniture scaled up to nearly twice the size of that of normal furniture. Ancient legible scrolls and writing, a statue of a large hunched creature with a bulbous nose and strangest of all, undecipherable runes etched all across the walls. These runes were most intriguing to Uwe who revealed that he had mysterious scarring across his whole body that seemed to be the same writing.
Even he couldn't read the runes and had no idea how they got there. As the group investigated the room, they soon found that anyone who ventured too close to the northern side of the room where the statue sat was soon overcome by an intense but vague sorrow. Hymir, able to resist this unnatural sadness, found an ornate helmet sitting on the ground in front of the statue. He tucked this into his pouch out of idle curiosity, but none of the others seemed to notice.
The next morning, the head of the research team, Salazar Wells, hired the party to collect some research materials from the local city of Joel.
Our heroes accepted the job, also eager to investigate a strange underground library found in a hidden vault under the city's abandoned arena. They made good use of the travel to Joel by doubling up on jobs. They allowed a young man by the name of Sigmund Eridsson to travel along with them for a small fee.
Back in Joel, the group made a quick stop to collect the basic supplies Salazar had requested before venturing beneath the abandoned Colosseum into the ancient subterranean vault.
As they explored, they were guided by Glow in the Dark vision chalk markings that were revealed to be made by none other than Uver himself. Although the dwarven wizard had no memory of ever being here before.
Perturbed by this memory loss, Uvaire agreed to allow Heimir to attempt to venture into his mindscape and search for the missing memories.
Hymir was successful in opening a door into Uver's mind, but unfortunately could not locate the memories, which seem to have somehow not been suppressed, but removed entirely as the mindscape began to become more and more unstable. Hymir severed the connection, but not before Uwver caught a glimpse of a monstrous gaunt entity chained to 13 ghosts wearing military attire.
Meanwhile, in the physical world and Alward, Neros and Zafir were accosted by a strange sinister stalker who made no efforts to harm the party, but gleefully taunted Zafir from the shadows before retreating.
As they exited the arena, they were confronted by a group of robed cultists who fell upon the adventurers, claiming they had stolen a helmet from them. After a brief battle, the party incapacitated all their assailants except their leader, who had left before the battle commenced, his identity still shrouded by his cloak. The party kept one of the cultists alive and attempted to question him, but he was staunchly tight lipped and only let slip that this cult was formed primarily of the descendants of an ancient king Ered, whom the cultist claimed was still alive and would soon return to reclaim his throne.
Frustrated at the lack of results, Hymir seemed overcome by a strange otherworldly anger and chopped off the cultist's hand. The party quickly used a heal scroll to staunch the bleeding and turned the cultist over to the guards.
The party then split up to pursue their own projects. Nero stopped by the library to research further about her missing parents, only to be met with no more answers than ever.
Alward and Zafir went to Alward's family house for the evening, where Zafir endeared himself to Alward's younger sister Lena and ailing mother Valia.
Meanwhile, Uver had tailed the guard who had took their prisoner into custody and began a stakeout of the jailhouse. Before he could learn anything, however, Hymir arrived and revealed that he had taken the helmet from the cavern at the start of the adventure and believed it to be the helmet the cultists were searching for. The two of them returned to the tavern and attempted to unlock any secrets the helmet may have been hiding, but they learned nothing until Uvhe attempted to put the helmet on.
For his efforts, Uwe was rewarded with a burning sensation along the runes scarred into his skin. Reflexively, Uwe tore the helmet off and the sensation quickly faded. The pair decided not to press their luck any further and to regroup with the rest of the team before trying anything else.
As the evening wore on, Zafir decided not to impose on Alward's family any longer and began back towards the tavern. Before he got far, however, he was stopped by a shady man who had a job for Zafir.
He wanted the cultist the group had just turned in to be eliminated. Zafir hesitantly accepted the job and changed course to the jail. He initially had planned to merely scout the location that night, but plans changed when he encountered Hymir outside the jail. Being drawn there in an unexplained trance like state, the two broke into the jail and absconded with the cultist Safely in a dark alley. They began a second attempt to interrogate him.
After finding him even less talkative than before, Zafir and Hymir executed the cultist and disposed of the body.
In the aftermath of the job, Hymir revealed to Zafir that he was looking for his daughter Hertha, who had disappeared from his home two years ago. He offered to pay Zafir should he be able to track her down.
The following morning, the group reconvened to discuss their next steps. While Zafir, Neros and Uvir stayed behind in the tavern to discuss what they had learned, Alward and Hymir stopped by the library to research this King Aerid. While their research proved ultimately fruitless, Hymir revealed that he had served with Alward's late father in the Shining Crusade. Unfortunately, it was Hymir's hand that slew Alward's father, though Hymir claimed that the discovery of the chalice had driven all his comrades into a frenzy and he was only forced to act in self defense.
Enraged at this revelation, Alward lashed out at Hymir with his mind, the two becoming locked in a psychic duel.
Hymir narrowly emerged the victor and carried the now unconscious Alward back to his family.
As this was happening, Uver remembered a friend of his in the area, Sir Dire the Elf, an antiquarian who had studied these relics and histories. He, Nyros and Zafir dropped by for his assistance and learned that Uver had been experiencing memory issues before and had even spoken to Cere Dire about it previously.
As they were beginning to leave, Neros asked Cyrdire if he knew anything about her family, or if he could recognize the family seal on the letter left with her when she was dropped off at the orphanage. Cere Dire again had little information to spare, but did admit that Nero seemed familiar. Inspired by this, Nero showed her prized locket to Uver, who saw a familial portrait presumably depicting Neros parents.
But no one aside from Nero saw any distinction. Distinct features on the man's face, it appeared instead blurred out and missing.
The party regrouped to Alward's house and decided that they needed to investigate all these strange happenings and the imminent rumors that the Eredsson cult was planning something big.
Alward insisted that he needed to move his family back to the safety of Tomgrove before anything happened. Tomgrove itself wasn't as uneventful as they had hoped, however. The party wasn't in town for long before secretly meeting with an undercover guardsman and saving Trove, an old friend of Hymir's, from a public hanging. Trov, more connected with the rumors of the underworld, was able to confirm that the Eredssons were planning something at their annual ball the next month. They were supposedly going to make a big announcement, one that sent ripples through the criminal community.
With more intel now to work with, the party took the remaining month to prepare to infiltrate the ball.
During this downtime, Hymir stashed the helmet with Raya, a friend of his in town, asking her to keep it safe. With their preparations made, including masks, fake names, and forged invitations, the party entered the ball and quickly split up to investigate. Hymir overheard that one of the family leaders, an enchantress named Daetha, had been seen speaking with a young woman that matched the description of his daughter, Hertha. After finding out that Daetha was likely on the third floor working on some project, Hymir enlisted the aid of Neros to distract the guard posted at the stairs while he stealthed up to speak with her. Her? Meanwhile, Uvir discovered an extensive collection of books regarding King Aerid and the Aodson clan in the manor's library. His investigations were cut short by an attack from a gargoyle, but Zafir arrived just in time to help him escape to the safety of the main hall, where the gargoyle seemed unwilling to follow them. Neros and the guard were standing close by. The guard nearly broke off to investigate the happenings, but Neros distracted him with a kiss.
Meanwhile, Hymir confronted Daetha upstairs. She seemed surprised to find that Hymir seemed uninterested in the family's efforts and merely wanted a lead on where he might find his daughter. Daetha told him she had last seen Hertha heading north to Sojourner's Rest in the Grungir forest, but refused to offer any further information.
Back downstairs, the others surmised that someone knew of their trespassing into the party and was trying to subtly remove them. While they were discussing how best to proceed, they were interrupted by the beginning of the anticipated grand announcement. An old woman known as Mother, seemingly the leader of the group, greeted the assembled family members and announced that they had made great leaps of progress. They had recovered the head of the king. With this announcement, they unveiled the strange helmet which the group had thus far been keeping out of the family's possession. It was presented by none other than the man their group had escorted to Joel near the beginning of their tale, the Sigmund Eredsson. With this announcement, Mother warned that their new world order would soon take effect and that each one of them should be ready at short notice to rise up and fight for their returning king.
After the announcement was finished, Mother returned upstairs. But before the party had time to discuss, they each received a mental message from Datha requesting their presence on the third floor. Heading upstairs, the party minus Hymir hid around a corner and overheard a secret meeting of the heads of the family.
Their meeting began with a Roll Call Mother Brengr the Wolfskin Warrior Ylva the Greenspeaker Hodi the Fey Blooded Adir, the Patron, Ordfuss the Zealot, the twins Siggy and Svelta, and Saito, the King's Shield, who himself was absent from the meeting.
The bulk of the meeting after this roll call was a cryptic status update on the projects each were working on in preparation for the King's return.
After this cursory beginning, Svelta was dismissed to her room on the pretense of getting a shawl to ward off the cold. Moving quickly, Zafir intercepted the girl and was accidentally shut into her room with her. He attempted to befriend her, but succeeded only in getting her cautious and on edge.
Meanwhile, Siggi got suspicious of how long Svelte had been away and went to check on her. Alward attempted to warn Zafir, but only managed to join him just as Siggi caught both of them.
Not wanting to risk a battle, the two feigned surrender before seizing a chance to escape and regroup with Neros and Uver.
They decided it was getting too risky to stick around and attempted to find a subtle way to leave the building.
They found this in the form of an open window in Daetha's workshop.
Taking a moment to gather her unique gemstones and work notes, they began to escape, which gave Datha just enough time to catch up with them and confront them. She had intended to take them captive herself to demonstrate her skill to the family to jockey for more power. But a few well timed strikes and well selected spells and Datha fell lifeless as the four heroes fled the manor.
End of book one.
In the fallout of their infiltration of the Eridson Manor, the party decided their best bet was to lay low and get out of town. They headed back to Tomgrove through the woods in the wilderness. They checked in with Trov, who confirmed that someone, presumably Siggy, had assaulted Raya and stolen the helmet shortly before the ball. While the party was stopping by the town alchemist to buy medicine for Alward's mother, they encountered a strange pair, a fleshwarp named Cornelius and a young woman named Val.
Val introduced herself as a champion of Pharasma and Shellen and explained that Trov had suggested she join them to help stop the Aerodsons.
Val and Cornelius had done some of their own research on the crime family and suggested that the party begin disrupting the plans that they had overheard the family discussing at the ball.
Val suggested their first target could be Saito, who was last Seen seen entering a strange cave called Troll Forge in the eastern Kodar Mountains.
Before they head out, they stopped by Copperburg again to drop off the unique crystals they had taken from Datha's shop. They left these with the inventor Bran, who claimed they were soulstones, gems that could be used to store or refract spiritual energy.
Along the way, the party was introduced to Val's raven companion, Sigrun, and to Zafir's raven familiar, Rusteford. Zafir hadn't introduced him any earlier due to his inability to control the raven, but figured Val and Sigrun could help him develop the skill.
As they neared their destination, the party encountered a rickety bridge. Alward scouted ahead to confirm the safety of the bridge, and something strange occurred. A board broke beneath him and he fell. A lethal drop into the river below.
All before. Everything seemed to snap back to before, and Alward was still safely on the bridge. Not willing to discuss the issue, Alward headed up an effort to bolster the bridge for safe travel before they resumed.
After pushing through the wilderness, the party arrived at their destination, a doorway into the side of the mountain. However, they found the doors ripped off their hinges and a large troll sitting in front of it with its back to them.
While they were initially cautious, the party found the troll who who introduced himself as Pilgrim to be friendly and artistic. He had journeyed to this same place to see what works of art he might find in a place called Troll Forge.
After befriending this strange troll, the group went inside and found the scale of the building eerily reminiscent to the cave they had found at the beginning of their adventure.
Before they found Saito, however, they were stopped by a group of kobolds who insisted they must get permission from their chief before going any further. The party allowed the Kobolds to escort them to their camp further in the mountain before enjoying a pleasant feast held in their honor.
During the feast, Val had enough liquor to loosen her tongue and confessed her true identity. Hertha, Hymir's missing daughter. She explained that she had little love for her birth father and would be happy not to be reunited with him. Meanwhile, Alward and Uvaire, intrigued by some runes they had found throughout the forge, which seemed remarkably scarce, similar to those on Uwe's body, decided to experiment.
Alward and Uver worked together to use Alward's enchanted translation diary, a gift from his father, to attempt to translate the runes. Their attempt worked for the first time, revealing their chosen rune to mean teacher. But the success flooded their minds with seemingly endless information, causing the two to black out from the experience overnight. Zafir had a nightmare where his terrifying stalker mocked him, insisting he would never have a family without first speaking with him.
Zafir took this as a sign to tell his friends the truth about his stalker, that he had been followed by this creature for years. But the sightings were becoming more frequent and more direct. Recently, Val, familiar with this creature from folktales and songs, identified it as a boogeyman, a creature that stalked people until eventually consuming their souls. While they were discussing Zafir's past, he also trusted them with his greatest burden, that his entire family had been killed by an unidentified murderer. When he was only seven, he had taken on the life of a hitman while trying to hunt down this family's killer.
Before they could discuss any further, a group of kobolds informed them that an intruder, surely Saito, had broken into the sacred cell sanctum. The party rushed off, following a shortcut the kobolds showed them and were able to confront Saito before he even left the sanctum. Saito had claimed a strange amulet that allowed the bearer to summon a spirit blade at will. The party demanded that he surrender, but Saito was uninterested in combat with the party and attempted to merely push past them. The party refused to let him leave, however, and quickly dispatched him. They claimed the amulet he had come for, which Zafir offered to keep track of.
As they were making their way out of the forge, a young kobold by the name of Ruby asked to join them on their quest. This situation struck on themes of freedom and duty and sparked an intense argument throughout the group, in particular between Val and Uvir. The schism threatened to fracture their party entirely.
Eventually, the group was able to reach a tenuous truce, deciding the situation at hand was too dire to allow personal squabbles to interfere.
As a part of the compromise, the group moved north towards the Grungir Forest, intending to kill two birds with one stone, to stop Ylva in her mission and to seek out a wise woman Uvir had met before joining the party, who seemed to know more about Uvir's situation and his past than she let on.
On the way, the party stopped at the small town of Brush Hollow, situated on the edge of the forest itself. Neros found herself in good company in the Faerie Run tavern, the Dancing Fairy, as pranks flew left and right. Zafir, however, found himself confronted by his boogeyman stalker yet again, who made him a difficult but tempting bargain. The bogeyman would bring Zafir's family back to life on condition that Zafir murdered Alward's family.
Zafir gave no commitment either way and promised to give his answer later.
The next day the party journeyed into the woods, which grew more menacing the deeper they went.
One night as Val and Neros were taking watch, they broke away from the group and attempted a ritual to summon Corvus, a strange raven like psychopomp that had been watching over Neros. He explained that Neros mother had died when she was born, but that he had been trying to keep her soul from moving on in hopes that she could still be saved. He was unable to answer any further questions, a strange force seeming to compel his silence. As he was operating beneath the notice of Pharasma, Neros made Val promise not to turn him in.
The party faced various threats in the forest, including unfriendly animated trees, a hunting linorm and a patch of sleep inducing flowers. But the most disturbing encounter was a strange plant creature that replaced Uvaire during his night watch, leaving the party to wonder where he had gone to.
Before they could go far, however, they encountered a warrior named Einar. He claimed he was a friend of Uvir's, but they had been separated in the woods as they shared a mutual friend. He was eager to join their cause and assist them with their new ally Einar. The team defeated a pair of trolls guarding the way, then proceeded to confront Ylva Ered the who was mid negotiations with the trolls leader. The party disrupted the discussion and took Ylva prisoner before chasing the trolls back into the forest.
After questioning Ylva, they decided to bring her with them back into town and discuss what to do with the information she had given them. At the inn they discovered Uwe had left them packages, but no explanation of where he was or why he left.
As night fell, Zafir called on the Boogeyman to ask about their unholy arrangement. But the Boogeyman seemed less stable than before and threatened him that the next time they met there would be a body.
Zafir rushed downstairs to discuss with the others, only to find Hymir now changed and distorted into monstrous form. He was still looking for his daughter, but his humanity seemed to be dwindling. He threatened Zafir, scarred him and vanished into the night.
Zafir rushed upstairs to wake Alward. After managing to get them both into a psychic duel in the mindscape, Zafir told Alward about the Boogeyman's offer and they resolved to stand against him together.
The next morning, the party set off in the direction of Brenger and the Wolfskin Warriors. Dropping Ylva and Cornelius off in a nearby town, the team approached the Wolfskin warriors camp.
As they discussed the best course of action for dealing with the camp full of warriors, they heard a group of scouts approaching. Neros told the party to hide in the bushes while she stayed on the road to handle the guards in her own roguish way. While the scouts were distracted by her feminine charms, the party silently moved in and incapacitated them.
Overlooking the Wolfskin warriors camp, the party discussed various avenues of approach.
At Val's request, the party gave up any intentions of stealth or ambush and sought an audience with Brangar directly.
Brenger refused to listen to their requests and threatened to have them executed if they did not leave immediately. Val countered by invoking both her gods and his and challenged him to a one on one duel to the death.
The duel was quick and one sided. Before long, Brenger managed to down Val, prompting her friends to come to her aid. In the chaos that followed, Val was restored the but Brenger began to rage and then morph into a massive white wolf.
Val killed Brenger with a flash of sudden necromancy, then stormed angrily away. Alward and Zafir attempted to stop her, but she lashed out at Zafir, nearly killing him as well, and then disappeared into the woods. When the party finally caught up with her in town, she had regained her senses and allowed them to band together to banish her curse into an amulet of Urgothoa.
While they were back in town, they found that both Ylva and Cornelius had left the camp, leaving no explanation or note.
As the party arrived in Tamgruv, they met Syr Dire, who presented them with gifts that Uver had requested he bring them. As people opened their gifts, Zafir was approached by his old criminal contact who fearfully delivered him a letter from the bogeyman. The letter warned him that Zafir did not make good on his deal to kill Alward's family soon, then the Boogeyman would kill them himself.
Zafir decided it was time to let the party know of his plans, but due to shenanigans and an arrest warrant placed for the party, it was almost dusk before they were able to regroup. They rushed to Alward's former boss's home where he had been sheltering Alward's family, arriving just in time to challenge the Boogeyman and finally lay him to rest.
With Alward's family's safety secured, the group rushed back to Joel and eager to stop any more preparations the Aerodson family might be making.
Upon arrival, they decided to split up and take care of their own personal business before searching out their next target, Hodi. Unfortunately, fate had other plans, as Zafir quickly came across Hodi arranging a hitman to take them out.
After some tense negotiations, however, Einar and Zafir convinced Hodi to sit down and talk over a drink with them.
After a few hours of socializing, they won him over to their side.
Meanwhile, Val went to the Farasmin Temple to seek guidance from her goddess.
To her surprise, she was met not only with a divine injunction to continue resisting the Eredssons, but also with a direction to ask Einar to share his secret.
As the conversation went on, Val was shocked to hear Farasma harbored a stern disapproval of Neros herself.
Val mentioned that they had been working with Corvus, at which point Pharasma speedily ended the audience and left.
The party regrouped in Alward's old apartment, now turned war room for the resistance, and Einar revealed that he was from a possible future where the party had failed to defeat Aid. He had been sent back to ensure his future never came to be.
Just as this conversation ended, a young man who identified himself as a member of the resistance popped out of a secret passage into the apartment. He explained that he was trying to track a necromancer they had seen entering the catacombs beneath the city. Einar informed the group that this was likely Mother, as she had been leading an army of the undead in his doomed future. The group rushed out to the catacombs to trail her, pushing their way through the catacombs and dealing with unsettled spirits, a filth demon, and a mimic. The group soon found themselves themselves face to face with Mother, who seemed to have been expecting them almost too late. Alward noticed a trail of gunpowder leading out of the catacombs and was able to disrupt the trail before it was ignited. As the party battled the necromancer, Einar held back hordes of skeletons as they poured out of a mass grave to buy time for the others to finish Mother off. As she died, the skeletons dropped lifeless once again. Einar also faded out of their timeline himself.
During the battle, though, the sound of an explosion and the earth shaking let the party know that their way out had been sealed. Pushing further into the catacombs, they found a strange tunnel that led them back to the underground library where they had first encountered the Boogeyman. As they finally surfaced back in Joel. They found day was beginning to break, but the Aridsons were now making their move, fighting off a grand group of gargoyles assaulting civilians. The party regrouped with Uver, but they had little time to talk or catch up as they heard that Aid himself was now marching on the Jollburg. If uncontested, he would be able to seize the throne and drag the battle out even longer.
The party pushed through the chaos of the besieged city to do battle with the ancient king himself. As they pummeled him with weapon and spell alike, it quickly became apparent that his order armor was empty and puppeteered from afar by some magic. Just as the armor began to collapse and Aerid's voice mocked them for the hollow victory, Cornelius reappeared on a rooftop and tossed Alward a chalice eerily similar to Hymir's. Alward harnessed the magic of the chalice through his psychic abilities to impose the party and Arid into a psychic mindscape where they would be able to battle his spirit directly.
After a second bout with the king, he finally collapsed, shunting the group back into reality. They arrived just in time to see a mountain south of Joel exploding into rubble as a giant serpentine shape soared into the sky.
Fafnir, it seems, is now unleashed and has who knows what planned for the land of Men.
End of Book two this has been an Atomic Broadcasting production. If you enjoyed the show, make sure to give us some support by liking, commenting and following. These things really do make a difference in getting the word out and helping our community grow. Also, you can connect with us on all of our socials and make sure to check out our Discord server where you can chat with other fans and discuss all the recent developments and happenings. Links to all these good things in the description below. The Written and the Lost is an original story that uses trademarks and or copyrights owned by Paizo, Inc. Used under Paizo's Fan Content Policy, Atomic Broadcasting and the Written and the Lost are not published, endorsed or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo, Inc. And paizo products, visit paizo.com hope to see you all in the next episode. Until then, have an atomic time.
Hey everybody, I want to come in with energy, but I don't want to scare you. Hello.
