[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.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Now, where did we leave off?
Ah, yeah.
The party successfully crossed the field of deadly flowers and made camp. When it grew dark, Uwe attempted a heart to heart with Val, which only sent her into emotional distress.
We'll go ahead and kick it to you, petite, to get this started, okay. Cause it was your idea.
[00:01:03] Speaker C: Yeah. So I mean, to give a little bit of background with the facts. So the canon facts, just something that gives you a little bit of insight to the character. May or may not have anything to do with the backstory or the story of what we're experiencing. But my can, in fact, and you guys are going to love this, because I'm introducing a town into this world. Okay. So there's this nomadic town that literally builds and destroys each of their buildings. It's a town of about 200 people, but whenever they run out of resources, or they just don't like the area they're at anymore, they just take everything down or leave it if they have to, and then just move on to another place. See, the thing is, with Zafir, he went into this town, and he had too many contracts. He actually killed so many people in that town that he found out a undiscovered law that they had put into place dozens of years ago that if you kill too many people, you have to pay a tax.
[00:02:12] Speaker D: What is too many people?
[00:02:14] Speaker E: Like, ten?
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Five?
[00:02:17] Speaker C: Well, he did hit the number, but I don't think he ever found out what his limit was. He just had to pay the tax.
[00:02:22] Speaker D: Is regular killing legal then? Since they tax high killing, this asks, brings.
[00:02:29] Speaker E: He has a point. It brings up a lot of, like, questions.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: He got caught.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: Well, I mean, after a while, if you kill, like, a quarter of the town, somebody's gonna know this new guy.
[00:02:40] Speaker E: Is quarter one murderous. We can overlook that. Two? Fine, 20 even. Okay, 75.
That's where we draw the line. Give us money.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: All right, you're free to go.
[00:02:59] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Well, I mean, if you're a hired killer, that's your job. So, like.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: A weird income tax, people.
[00:03:09] Speaker F: Get arrested for being hired killers.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: I've got a question for you. Is this a fine for you've done something we don't want you to do, so give us money? Or is this a tax for saying you've done something, and we just want to get some money out of it too?
[00:03:24] Speaker C: It is. It is a tax for. You have been paid to kill this many people, taking away a lot of our people.
We need to be compensated for this many people that you have killed. You've done too much.
[00:03:43] Speaker F: You've taken away all their tax revenue.
[00:03:46] Speaker C: Give it back.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: You gotta pay their tax revenue for the year.
[00:03:51] Speaker E: I love the idea of somebody comes to this town, kills 75 people, and then they're just like, hey, buddy guy, we're not gonna do anything about this. But you do have to give us money.
Like, we're not gonna throw you in jail. We're not gonna execute you. You just have to pay us, like, $200.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: So that is a canon fact about this.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: It has been confirmed.
[00:04:20] Speaker E: I don't think any of us agree. It's a fear that's so good.
[00:04:23] Speaker C: And what's fun is you can't take it away. It happened.
[00:04:27] Speaker D: Jacob, could you delete this?
[00:04:32] Speaker C: I want to do more of these so that you guys can just take what I'm giving you.
[00:04:39] Speaker E: Mine is nowhere near as what is yours.
[00:04:42] Speaker F: Can we even top that?
[00:04:43] Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know what to do with that.
[00:04:46] Speaker F: We just have to move on now.
[00:04:47] Speaker E: Mine is just. Albert didn't like potatoes until rather recently.
Like, petite's over there. I killed a whole civilization.
[00:04:58] Speaker C: I should have specified they are still go, go.
[00:05:00] Speaker E: No, he likes potatoes now. He was rather recent, though.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: What was the changing factor?
[00:05:06] Speaker E: He just got used to them moving up to, like, a harsher climate where they were more usable and more of a.
[00:05:13] Speaker F: Where the Irish are.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: He met this world's Irish.
[00:05:16] Speaker E: More of a more prominent crop.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: That is a very outward fact.
[00:05:21] Speaker E: Yeah, it is.
[00:05:22] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Fair enough.
[00:05:24] Speaker F: Proud of elward.
[00:05:26] Speaker E: Thanks. He's probably learning.
[00:05:27] Speaker F: Embracing potato.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: Do you know you can get botulism from potatoes?
[00:05:32] Speaker B: No.
[00:05:33] Speaker D: So Val's fact is that she has an accent. Hemia doesn't have that accent. She got it from Faran, who raised her. And she. They're the only family in that town that have that accent, so she stands out a lot. And her. And Hemia doesn't like that.
[00:05:51] Speaker E: Hamir sucks. I'm gonna say this.
[00:05:54] Speaker F: Hamir doesn't like a lot of things.
[00:05:56] Speaker C: To get over it.
[00:05:57] Speaker E: I don't like Haymir as a character, but I'm saying as a person, I agree.
[00:06:03] Speaker D: It's not a great guy.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: We f alt, alt f four on.
[00:06:07] Speaker D: If you are like, Hamir's my guy, and I think he's the best. Please take a look at yourself and consider who you are as a person.
[00:06:16] Speaker E: It is okay to, like, bad characters in the sense of not like they're bad characters, but bad people.
[00:06:22] Speaker D: Right, but. But he's not the hero.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: If you relate to hater, it's like.
[00:06:28] Speaker D: The people who are really into Rorschach on watchmen. Like, you know he's not a good dude, right? He's not.
He's kind of making fun of you. Don't. Don't do that.
[00:06:39] Speaker E: I have a whole rant about this, but I will rant to you later.
[00:06:43] Speaker D: Okay? Yeah. Abby. What's up?
[00:06:47] Speaker F: I don't know. The ceiling. It's pretty up there.
[00:06:51] Speaker D: Nice.
[00:06:51] Speaker F: I'm too short to reach it. Too short to reach a lot of things, though.
[00:06:54] Speaker D: What's your fact, though?
[00:06:56] Speaker F: So Neros is someone we all know and love, right?
[00:07:01] Speaker C: Yes, for the most part.
[00:07:03] Speaker F: That's actually valid. For the most part, yeah. Yeah.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Totes be rough.
[00:07:06] Speaker E: Nine out of ten.
[00:07:07] Speaker F: So she got herself exiled from an entire community.
[00:07:12] Speaker E: Is it for murdering?
Is it this traveling town?
[00:07:16] Speaker F: It's not for murdering. It's from a town that has been established and is still there that doesn't move around.
[00:07:23] Speaker D: What town is that?
[00:07:24] Speaker F: I don't know. Oh, I named it. I named it. But that doesn't mean I remember what I named it. I don't think it actually exists in.
[00:07:31] Speaker D: I thought you were saying that it was established, like, we've already been there.
[00:07:35] Speaker F: No, the town is established in. In the world.
[00:07:38] Speaker D: So what'd you do to get exiled?
[00:07:40] Speaker F: Um, I don't actually know.
[00:07:43] Speaker D: Oh.
[00:07:45] Speaker C: That could also be a personal thing.
[00:07:46] Speaker D: Does Neros know?
[00:07:47] Speaker C: You don't have to know.
[00:07:48] Speaker F: Neros knows.
[00:07:49] Speaker E: Oh, I would love the idea of just. You're exiled from this town. Please. Never. What did I do? You know what you did. I really don't know.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: To be perfectly honest, I don't actually remember what. What happened.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: I feel like there were implications of drunken disorderly conduct.
[00:08:07] Speaker F: I mean, probably that I wouldn't. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what she did.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: I also like the implications of. How drunk and disorderly do you have to be to be exiled?
[00:08:17] Speaker F: Well, it was a history. She had a history in this town of causing trouble and being drunk and disorderly, and they had enough. And honestly, to keep herself from being locked up in jail for an extended period of time, she did just charm the. The mayor, sheriff of the town, and said, hey, do you actually want to look like you're still in control here? And he said, yeah. And she was like, kay, just banish me.
[00:08:41] Speaker E: Nice.
[00:08:42] Speaker F: So that's what happened.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: No, no, I heard a story one time of this woman that led the town on a roarious riot and something about mead not being in the cellar. And that's all I remember of that song.
[00:09:04] Speaker E: I love that.
[00:09:05] Speaker F: Right.
[00:09:05] Speaker C: Is this your fact?
[00:09:06] Speaker E: But are you stalling because you don't have a fact?
[00:09:09] Speaker A: No, I was just.
[00:09:10] Speaker E: My fact is that I know about Nero's fact.
[00:09:15] Speaker D: I would like that fact, please.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: I'll take Nero's for 200.
[00:09:22] Speaker F: It's the worst jeopardy game ever.
[00:09:27] Speaker E: No, I have something. Okay. I was just having fun with that.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: So I think we said it on air before, is that some of us have actually been another campaign together. Just another Pathfinder campaign. Well, I don't think we've ever said that those two worlds are technically connected. Mostly because we have the same gm.
[00:09:47] Speaker C: So there's one idea in mind that's.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: It exists for u Ver a cousin who's a ranger.
[00:09:56] Speaker F: Wow.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: But his whole family is actually a family of rangers. Uvar is actually the oddball.
He, uh, he's the only wizard.
[00:10:07] Speaker E: I mean, he's been alive long enough to swap between like three classes at this point.
[00:10:12] Speaker C: He took the range aspect too literally.
I have a range of.
[00:10:18] Speaker E: Thanks.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: Classes.
[00:10:19] Speaker F: I could have got a range of occupations.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: Rocky, patience and biology. I have a canon fact for you all about the world.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: The region where most of this adventure has been occurring in is the Southmoor kingdom of the land of. Land of the Landmark kings. Currently, you're in the Groomgear forest, which is technically its own kingdom and does not have a king since it's a wild fae forest. But the kingdom that you've spent most of your time in, Southmoor, the current king is Ostog the Unslain, whose backstory is that he used to be a PC, played by, I believe, Erik Mona of Paizo staff and is just canonically now the king of Southmoor.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:11:06] Speaker E: My new life's ambition. Get a job at Paizo, insert one of my characters into lore.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: And he's.
[00:11:15] Speaker F: Basically what we're doing, and then we.
[00:11:16] Speaker D: Can all kill him.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: He has been king for four, no, five years.
[00:11:19] Speaker E: Yeah, but this is like flexible lore. I want. You can't ignore this.
[00:11:25] Speaker F: They can't ignore it. They can try.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: And with that, now that we've gotten to know each other all a little bit better, I'd like Sven, Jenkins and petite to get out of here.
[00:11:39] Speaker E: I'm good, thanks.
[00:11:39] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:11:42] Speaker F: We just won't have this closed session and we may not die.
[00:11:45] Speaker C: So I'll take this opportunity to write my notes.
[00:11:48] Speaker F: Okay, then we're going to die.
[00:11:49] Speaker D: Goodbye, Michaels.
[00:11:51] Speaker F: Goodbye, Samuel.
[00:11:51] Speaker E: Goodbye, Samuels. Bye.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: All right, we're going to go ahead and jump back in. It's about one in the morning. The moon is high in the sky, and it's just the beginning of Val and Neros shared.
I'll pass things over to you, Sam, and you can take it from here.
[00:12:11] Speaker D: Okay?
So when our watch comes about, Val is nervous, but she's confident in what she wants to do. She has an idea and she wants to go with it. So the others all head to bed and I. Val calls Sigrun down and says, neros, are you ready? Release.
[00:12:45] Speaker F: I guess as I'll ever be.
[00:12:48] Speaker D: Alright, I think I've got everything written down that we'll need for this.
We shouldn't have to go too far away from camp, but. So it's dangerous to get too far away. But I'd also, if something happens, I wouldn't want it to be right next to the tents for everyone sleeping.
As the two of them head out, Val ties a rope to the camp, ties a couple ropes together, because this worked before when we left camp. So she's gonna bring the ropes with her so we can maybe go a little further out of camp, then it's probably safe.
And we'll head out until we find a bit of a clearing with a little stream there.
And Val is gonna start unloading some equipment and little like drawing utensils, her large book.
And you wanna help me out here with this stuff here? And she hands you some like, supplies to etch in the ground that we're at.
[00:13:56] Speaker F: Yeah, just show me what to do.
[00:13:58] Speaker D: Right? And she shows you. She has like a picture that she's drawn out of what it needs to look like. And the two of us are fairly. It's not too hard for the two of us to be able to just copy that in the ground.
And once that's done, validity reaches into a side pocket and pulls out a dagger that's all spiraled and it has the symbol of phrasm on it.
And she's like, oh, don't worry about this, it's just ceremonial. And she puts it and stabs it in the ground. In the center of the sigils we've.
[00:14:37] Speaker F: Made, you may or may not see neros shoulders. Relax.
[00:14:44] Speaker D: Don't worry. This is a good ritual. There's no, no blooding or anything like that.
All right?
And she calls down to Sigrun. So Siguran comes and stands next to her.
I kind of mentioned it before. I feel a closest connection to pharasma. When Sigurd's here, Sigrun feels like she gives off some level of divine energy.
And, you know, now that she's bigger than Zafir, it's.
I think she should hopefully help out with this, maybe help focus some of the ritual. Hopefully.
[00:15:22] Speaker F: It doesn't hurt to try, right?
[00:15:24] Speaker D: No. Hit. No. Shouldn't.
This is a little experimental.
[00:15:30] Speaker F: You've never done this before?
[00:15:31] Speaker D: Well, I haven't done this before, and it's not exactly laid out in the book, how to do this, so.
[00:15:36] Speaker F: Right.
[00:15:37] Speaker D: I'm kind of extrapolating off of a couple different things.
[00:15:41] Speaker F: Okay.
[00:15:42] Speaker D: I think it should be good.
[00:15:43] Speaker F: Um, if you summon some sort of, I don't know, demon.
[00:15:49] Speaker D: Um, I don't think that'll happen. Don't worry. I know that wouldn't happen. Um, would you put something like a. Maybe your locket, something that gives you that connection to Corvus, maybe, or the potential connection?
[00:16:05] Speaker F: Look, it's the only thing that I really have, so she'll take it off.
What do you want me to do with it?
[00:16:13] Speaker D: Um, just set it in that circle over there.
[00:16:16] Speaker F: Okay.
[00:16:17] Speaker D: Okay. Awesome. Good. Um, I think everything's good, so if you could follow along with me, I'm gonna be speaking in Empyrean. I know you don't know that language.
[00:16:30] Speaker F: No, I don't know that language at all.
[00:16:34] Speaker D: What?
[00:16:35] Speaker F: So we both have to speak it in order?
[00:16:37] Speaker D: I mean, I imagine it would probably help if more than one person speaks.
[00:16:40] Speaker F: You don't have, like, a phonetic.
[00:16:42] Speaker D: Yeah, I wrote it down, actually, for you. So here. So I will just kind of go.
Are you ready? Is there anything else you feel like you need to do her say before we get started?
[00:16:57] Speaker F: I've never done this sort of thing before, so I have no idea.
I guess let's just see what happens.
[00:17:06] Speaker D: All right, let's see.
And she will start speaking in these words that she has written down in the empyrean as a sort of calling out to phrasma in her power. And then we get to a point. She's like, could you say chorus in common? And I'll say it in imperion and see if maybe that helps. Call him.
[00:17:32] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:17:34] Speaker D: Okay.
So then the two of them get to a point, and they are, you know, saying his name, trying to call him in some way, hoping to just kind of focus all this energy on, like, some summoning him as opposed to just, Pharah. Let me help summon the little servant to help me out. It's more of a plea to pharasma to help us get this information and speak to this thing.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: As you are beginning the ritual and starting to move through the recitations and the chants, the forest around you seems to grow quieter and somehow more distant. And the spacing of the branches above you. It's been how it's been through most of your journey through the forest of Titan. Difficult to see the sky, but somehow through it, all the branches seem to be making way. And you can see the moon shining down just in a narrow slice of the forest where you're sitting. And everything around you seems to get darker as you're focused in that circle of moonlight, as you both call out the name of Corvus, it seems to get quiet around you, and there's almost like, a bubble of focus around you, as if the rest of the world around you has just kind of drifted out of focus.
Val, you're opening your mouth to begin, like, a final stanza of this ritual when you hear, I'm here.
And as you turn to look, there is another bird like creature that's familiar to Neros. It looks much like a dog sized raven, but on the elbows of its wings, like a bat, it's got, like, little clawed fingers. And instead of a regular raven face, it seems to be wearing, like, a tooled leather mask.
[00:19:31] Speaker D: Can I roll religion?
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:19:33] Speaker D: Okay, I want to know. Cause Val was not certain that this was actually a psychopomp or not or something pretending to be. So she's very skeptical seeing it immediately.
Actually, can I roll either psychopomp lore or boneyard lore?
[00:19:50] Speaker B: Yeah, go ahead and do psychopomp lore.
[00:19:53] Speaker F: I don't even know the first question I'm gonna ask this thing.
[00:19:56] Speaker D: Good.
[00:19:56] Speaker F: I have to roll a d ten to figure out what question I'm gonna ask him.
[00:20:00] Speaker D: So I rolled a ten on psycho pump lore on the die. So I went ahead, and I'm spending my hero point because I feel like I want something a little more.
And now I get a total of 28 psycho pomp lore.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Nice. So, with that being a 28 on psychopomp lore regarding a psychopomp itself, that would be a critical success.
So, what, val, you immediately recognize upon the appearance of this creature is it looks a lot like a nozoi, but it is far too large. And the weird fingers on its wings are very strange for a nozoi. You do get the sense that it's a psychopomp, but you've never heard of a psychopomp that looks like this before. And all of your studies, and you've recently been studying very carefully through the bones land in a spiral. So you feel like you would know for sure. But it seems psychopomp ish, but not like any psychopomp you've ever seen before.
You also know for sure that you didn't finish the ritual.
[00:21:10] Speaker D: Do I feel like I need to, or does it feel like it's not needed?
[00:21:14] Speaker B: It seems like it was successful before you finished.
[00:21:17] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:21:18] Speaker B: Because if you had finished, it should have summoned the psychopomp you were wishing to speak with. And it's here.
[00:21:25] Speaker D: So it sounds like he was already listening and watching. So Val is going to kind of, as she's looking at him and thinking back on all of this, is gonna kind of go up next to Neros and have Sigeir and come up behind them.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: There's no need to be afraid.
We were going to speak. Yes.
[00:21:52] Speaker F: Yeah, that was the intention.
Neros looks like, I don't know, a mixture of scared and, I don't want to say relieved to see Corvus again, but I guess, in a manner of speaking, she is, because maybe she can actually get some answers to some questions.
And Neros looks at Val like, am I taking the reins on this? Are you taking the reins on this?
[00:22:18] Speaker D: She just. Her emotions, like, its your think I, um.
[00:22:25] Speaker F: Hi.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Hello.
[00:22:29] Speaker F: Have you been around?
[00:22:32] Speaker B: As I had told you when we had last spoken, ive been watching you, and I have continued to keep watch over you.
[00:22:38] Speaker F: Okay, but why?
For what purpose?
For my parents?
[00:22:43] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:22:44] Speaker F: My parents.
[00:22:45] Speaker B: Yes. I promised your parents I would make sure that you were safe.
[00:22:50] Speaker F: Okay. Who are they?
Who are my parents? Cause you're the only one that could actually know.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: That's more complicated a question than you know.
[00:23:03] Speaker F: How is that complicated? Just a name.
Can you not even give me a name?
[00:23:11] Speaker B: Make a perception check?
[00:23:14] Speaker D: Val's gonna, like, put her hand on Neros shoulder as, like, a comforting hand. Not like a stop or anything, just like a. See, you're getting very tense.
[00:23:23] Speaker F: And she's like, I'm spending a hero point on that role.
[00:23:29] Speaker D: Shorty made a face, and I don't like that.
[00:23:32] Speaker F: Oh, gosh. Okay. It's not any better.
So it'll be a 15.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: You can tell by the look on his face he doesn't. Well, his bird face. You can read bird faces?
[00:23:46] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: You can tell by the look on his face that he doesn't seem to be reluctant. He seems like he's trying to say something, and it's not working.
[00:23:56] Speaker D: Oh, oh, oh.
[00:24:01] Speaker F: I need a minute.
Oh, I could strangle you?
So, what, you can't. You can't remember my parents either?
[00:24:14] Speaker B: No, it's.
[00:24:16] Speaker F: Cause history apparently does not remember anything about them. From what I've found, they've been erased.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: Well. Hmm.
He's looking more. The best. The most concise way to describe it would be he looks ashamed.
Your mother's name was Tyreal.
[00:24:44] Speaker F: It was what?
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Tyrell.
[00:24:47] Speaker F: Can you spell that?
[00:24:48] Speaker B: Yes. It's t y r a e l.
Okay. It's not surprising that history has no memory of her. She didn't make much of a mark that the history books would note down.
She would always say that you were her greatest accomplishment.
[00:25:11] Speaker F: She. Hang on. I'm either interpreting this wrong, she would always say if she had the chance, or she did always say.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: She said that?
Yes.
[00:25:26] Speaker F: So where is she?
What happened?
Why did she give me up?
[00:25:33] Speaker B: You.
Are you sure you want to know this?
[00:25:38] Speaker F: Yes, I want to know.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: Neros.
Your mother is dead.
[00:25:49] Speaker F: How?
What happened?
[00:25:54] Speaker B: She died in childbirth.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
[00:26:03] Speaker F: So then where's my father?
[00:26:07] Speaker B: That.
Who's my father again? He looks like he's trying to say something and can't.
[00:26:18] Speaker F: Right.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: If.
And then he kind of looks surprised.
If you had a father, I'm sure he would be doing his best to help.
[00:26:37] Speaker F: Okay, that just raises more questions.
[00:26:43] Speaker D: Um, you seem to be like you're under a little. Some sort of contract or compulsion not to be able to speak. Certain things, I imagine. Um, can you tell us, was it her father that did that to you?
[00:27:03] Speaker B: Yes, it's. In a manner of speaking, yes. It's. It's all part of being a psychopomp.
[00:27:11] Speaker D: Ah. You're only given certain things you can and can't talk about?
[00:27:16] Speaker B: Something like that, yes.
[00:27:20] Speaker D: Interesting. Val's also been, like, writing some stuff down because she's like, this is a new thing I've never heard about before.
Um, can you tell us anything about him? What he did?
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Well, I don't believe so.
At least not now.
[00:27:54] Speaker F: What does that even mean?
[00:28:00] Speaker B: I had tried to tell you earlier, Neros, to talk to you when you were younger. You couldn't even see me then.
[00:28:09] Speaker F: When did you try to talk to me?
[00:28:12] Speaker B: When you were, I think, eight.
I don't know what's changing, but something is.
And possibly I might be able to tell you more in the future, but I don't know. I don't even know why I can't tell you now. So I don't know what has changed, and I don't know. Perhaps this is as far as we can get.
[00:28:38] Speaker F: There'S something. There's something I need to know for one of my other friends, Alwood, when he.
I heard him do something with the letter that I've had growing up.
He said his father was connected to it.
Like, do you know why?
[00:29:04] Speaker B: Again, he's like, struggling to talk.
[00:29:07] Speaker D: Didn't you say Alberta could see your father's face?
[00:29:10] Speaker F: Right.
But.
[00:29:15] Speaker B: Cadriel Volden was a good friend when your mother died. He was very integral in making sure that you were taken care of.
[00:29:27] Speaker D: That's real.
[00:29:29] Speaker F: Did Euweh know them?
[00:29:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:29:33] Speaker F: So they all knew each other.
[00:29:36] Speaker B: I don't know what has happened with Uwe's memories. I was not around for when he lost them, but I was. I knew of Uwe when he knew who he was.
[00:29:47] Speaker F: When he. When he knew who he was?
[00:29:50] Speaker B: Yes. As he's expressed now, he does not remember.
[00:29:54] Speaker D: Did he know you?
[00:29:57] Speaker B: No.
[00:29:58] Speaker F: No, you. You talk like you were like a part of the adventuring party or whatever.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: No, not as such, no.
I have been invested in your family's welfare for a long time, Neros. So I am familiar with the backstory, you may say, but no, I have not been part of that party.
Something I can tell you.
And he pauses and he looks at Val like he's afraid of her for a second.
Your mother died in childbirth, but she has not been to see pharasma yet.
[00:30:42] Speaker D: What does that mean? What do you mean? She hasn't been to sephorazma yet?
[00:30:45] Speaker B: Val. That anger from before is suddenly flaring up.
[00:30:51] Speaker D: Her hand starts kind of tightening on Neros shoulder.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: A bit more than with your critical success on psychopomp lore earlier. He doesn't even have to keep talking before you realize what he means by he's been invested in Neros family's welfare. And her mom hasn't been to zebarasma yet.
[00:31:11] Speaker D: Does he have her soul?
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:31:13] Speaker F: Oh.
[00:31:15] Speaker D: What are you doing?
[00:31:18] Speaker B: She deserves a second chance.
[00:31:21] Speaker D: Like that's for pharasma to decide, not. Not for you.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: No. No, it's not.
[00:31:26] Speaker D: You're her servant. You're one of her asthma's psychopomps. You know, it's her decision. If she wants to make. Give someone a second chance to be something like a. Like a dusk walker or something. Any other way, that's. That's. That's down another path. That's not acceptable.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: I understand how you feel, but.
No, I am doing what I can.
I cannot fix this. I couldn't stop it from happening, but I can. I can help.
[00:32:04] Speaker D: You can't just take someone's soul. Like that.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: I'm not.
I'm not keeping it. I'm.
I'm holding on to what's left.
I can't let her go.
[00:32:22] Speaker D: Val's sort of like, lets go of neros and puts her hand on her shoulder that has all the corruption and the veins and such, and shes like nothing good can come from that.
If she has passed a.
She has a future with her asthma, she has a destiny to go to her. Fate.
What's written by the mother of graves. You can't oversee this.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: Fate can be rewritten.
I understand. You are a faithful servant of the lady of graves. I understand that.
So I speak to you, Neros.
Would you have me let her go?
Don't you see that we. We have to try?
[00:33:14] Speaker F: Oh, my God.
I don't know what you want me to say to that. Corvus.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: You don't have to decide now. I just want you to know this is your choice. I can't do anything more for her on my own.
[00:33:35] Speaker F: What would I do?
[00:33:39] Speaker B: He looks down at your hands.
Neros, you have a great power in you. And it grows by the day. I am confident that should you decide to, you can change the course of fate.
[00:33:59] Speaker F: How?
There's nothing that I know to do and to change fate.
This. I didn't ask for this. And she lifts her hands.
[00:34:11] Speaker B: I know, I know. But please think of it as a blessing, not a curse.
[00:34:15] Speaker F: Where did it come from? Corvus.
[00:34:19] Speaker B: Again. He's, like, struggling to talk this.
[00:34:23] Speaker F: And she lifts her hands again. Has gotten me into more trouble more times than I can count.
Sure, some of it's been my own fault, but when that sort of power is on display for everyone to see, and there's nothing you can do to hide it because it's part of your skin.
I didn't ask for that.
I don't. I didn't.
Changing fate, Corvus.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:35:03] Speaker F: I feel like that would be dabbling in something. I don't. I'm not sure I can mess with.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: No. You.
I'm sorry.
I know that you can do this. Maybe not now, but maybe in the future.
[00:35:21] Speaker F: You want me to bring her back.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: I shouldn't ask it of you.
[00:35:26] Speaker F: But that's why you've been watching me.
In the hopes I can bring her back.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: The look of shame from before has just deepened. And he can't even look you in the eye.
[00:35:40] Speaker F: I see.
Not for my good, but for something that you want from me.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: No. No, that's not it at all.
I do care for you, Neros.
[00:35:51] Speaker F: It's really?
[00:35:53] Speaker B: They don't have to be exclusive. I can care for you and want you to do great things and to bring your mother back. They don't have to be separate.
[00:36:07] Speaker F: Okay, so why were you so cryptic about even giving me this sort of information? Because when you gave me the locket, we could have had this conversation then.
But you've decided to keep things from me and apparently be watching over my shoulder this entire time without making yourself known.
Because obviously, it doesn't take a ritual to get you here because you showed up without one in the first place, and I don't know. Val. Did you finish it?
[00:36:41] Speaker D: No.
[00:36:42] Speaker F: So you. You were here.
[00:36:45] Speaker B: I didn't plan to tell you tonight. I I didn't think you were ready when I first spoke with you, and I didn't think you were ready now. But you asked.
[00:36:53] Speaker F: Did you. Did you plan to tell me ever, without being prompted?
[00:37:00] Speaker B: I thought I could fix things.
[00:37:01] Speaker D: You didn't want for Asma to know.
Was that why you came before the rituals done?
[00:37:09] Speaker B: You are a good servant of the lady of graves, aren't you?
So what is it now? You give me up? Let her know.
[00:37:18] Speaker D: I don't know.
Oh, look at you.
I don't think you're any better than that monster. It's haunting Zafir or Val.
[00:37:32] Speaker F: And it's a weird. Don't give him up yet.
I'm not upset with him. I mean. Wait, hang on. I am upset with him.
I'm very angry, but don't give him up to yet, please.
[00:37:55] Speaker D: All right. He seems like he, at least, is doing this out of a place of care, unlike other people who have said very similar things, as he has in my life.
[00:38:06] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:38:09] Speaker D: If I could. Something you said sounded familiar to me, and I wanted to ask.
Do you know anything about Cornelius?
[00:38:24] Speaker B: I don't trust him.
I know. I know you don't like me. I know you probably think that that makes you trust him more, the fact that I don't trust him. But he's.
He's hiding something, and I don't know what. I haven't been paying very close attention to him. I've only just met him when you joined up with neros a few weeks back. But there's something about the way he's hiding something. He seems to be more cautious about the way that he behaves around you.
Not. Not just you, Val, or you Neros, but your whole group. He seems to be. To put it bluntly, he's playing dumb.
[00:39:07] Speaker D: Right?
[00:39:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:10] Speaker D: You said Kadriel Vaulding earlier?
[00:39:15] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:39:16] Speaker D: That's a name I heard a lot.
My father said his name a lot when he's talking to himself.
Did my father have anything to do with any of this stuff?
[00:39:28] Speaker B: Again, he looks like he's, like, struggling to speak and just, like, holds up a wing, like, a hold on a moment gesture.
Cadrio was instrumental in your mother's fate, Neros.
No, he did not. He did not cause her death. It's the way things are now.
Cadreil helped them come about.
[00:40:03] Speaker D: But Kadriel did a lot of things, and he spent a lot of time with my father, Hamir there at the end. I don't know if he was. Heimir was involved in any of this stuff that's happening. Everything's feeling sick, run around and connected to each other. I is my mother or my father involved, or am I just here?
[00:40:28] Speaker B: Oh, yes. Sorry. I. I apologize. I misunderstood your question. Your.
Your father has very little to do with Neros, and that's very good to hear, but I.
I had been relying on Cadreal's help before he was killed.
[00:40:54] Speaker D: He's helping you?
[00:40:56] Speaker B: No. No, not anymore. He was.
[00:40:59] Speaker D: He near us, didn't. He wasn't at Kadriel, who took years of baby?
[00:41:05] Speaker F: I think so. Yeah, I know. He wrote the letter, at least.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: Yes. Yes.
If you had had a father, he would have liked to write it.
[00:41:22] Speaker F: What?
[00:41:23] Speaker D: What did you just say?
[00:41:24] Speaker F: That sentence was very.
If you had a father, he would have liked to write it.
[00:41:30] Speaker B: That is what I said. Yes.
[00:41:31] Speaker D: Purposefully.
[00:41:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:41:33] Speaker F: If Neros would have had a father, he would have liked to write the letter.
What?
[00:41:40] Speaker D: Wait, sorry. Did you just say Neros doesn't have a father?
[00:41:48] Speaker B: He's, like, opening his beak and trying to speak.
I can't answer that.
What?
[00:42:02] Speaker F: I have brain freeze.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: I'm sorry. It must be confusing.
[00:42:10] Speaker F: Just a little. Yeah.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: Everyone has a mother and a father.
[00:42:16] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:42:17] Speaker B: Val has a mother and a father.
Albert has a mother and a father. Neros, you have a mother.
Sorry, I'm trying not to be confusing. I'm trying to be helpful. I am.
[00:42:34] Speaker D: So either you're saying Daenerys doesn't have a father, but you're not allowed to say that. Or she has a father, and you're not allowed to even imply that she has a father.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: Well, it's certainly not the first.
[00:42:47] Speaker D: Okay, so she has a father.
[00:42:49] Speaker B: I.
[00:42:50] Speaker D: You're just not able to say anything about whether she has a father or not.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: He slowly nods, and then, like, nods more confidently, as if surprised that he nodded.
[00:43:05] Speaker D: Val's gonna go back to like, focusing more on Neros. So she's like, the anger is kind of subsiding, or she's controlling it, at.
[00:43:13] Speaker B: Least as you're doing that. And like, you're shifting your attention to Neros again. Val, you notice that the bubble of focus seems to be weakening and the branches are starting to come together and block out the moon.
[00:43:32] Speaker D: Neros, I don't think we have a lot of time left with him.
[00:43:38] Speaker F: I don't.
I don't have any more words.
I'm very confused still.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: I'm. I'm so sorry. I know this is a lot, Neros. And I wish that.
I wish that you could have found out more gradually and sooner. But it's all.
It's all a mess.
[00:44:03] Speaker F: Yeah.
Yeah, it is.
So I may never find out who the heck my father is.
Or was. I think or isn't.
[00:44:15] Speaker B: I think if you had a father, your next step would be to find out who he could have been.
[00:44:25] Speaker F: How or can you say that?
[00:44:30] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:44:32] Speaker F: It's kind of hard to find someone that's hidden himself from history.
[00:44:40] Speaker B: Yes, it would be.
[00:44:44] Speaker D: But Uwe knew him. That's a connection.
[00:44:48] Speaker F: Yeah, but Uweir's also forgotten everything about himself and his own past.
[00:44:54] Speaker D: If we fix him, maybe memories have been fully removed.
[00:44:59] Speaker F: I don't know if that's fixing him.
[00:45:03] Speaker D: Chorus, do you know anything about this? About what happened to over. About how we might be able to help him?
[00:45:13] Speaker B: No. No, I don't. I.
I think. I know it's old news to you, but I do think it has something to do with his runes.
[00:45:25] Speaker F: Hmm.
I feel like we're getting a lot of the same answer.
[00:45:29] Speaker D: You know, a lot is going on with him. We don't know. But he's making headway. Him and Howard seem to be making headway that direction.
[00:45:38] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:45:39] Speaker D: So maybe we can help them out eventually.
[00:45:44] Speaker B: Eventually? Neros, I think it might benefit you to make your way to the boneyard. But.
[00:45:51] Speaker F: That came just suddenly out of your mouth.
There was no. Okay. The boneyard.
[00:45:58] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:45:58] Speaker D: Yes. Frazema's realm.
[00:46:00] Speaker F: Yes, I'm aware. Thank you.
[00:46:02] Speaker D: Val. I'm sorry.
[00:46:03] Speaker F: I know what that is.
The boneyard.
[00:46:08] Speaker B: But I don't think you should go there until you are much more powerful. And you have a plan.
[00:46:12] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:46:13] Speaker B: I'm trying to give you what I can. I don't have a lot of direction I can give you. I've been holding on for years, hoping against hope that you would be strong enough to finish what I cannot finish.
[00:46:30] Speaker F: I see.
I assume my lifestyle would have displeased my mother.
[00:46:39] Speaker B: Perhaps.
[00:46:42] Speaker D: Um, if I could ask, before you go, um, do you know anything about what's going on with my arm and this corruption that's there or how to get rid of it or anything?
[00:46:59] Speaker B: I.
I am. I am empowered to bring souls to pharasma for judgment. I know very little about purging the curse of undeath.
Sam, with your critical success on psychopomp lrr recently, that seems really odd. Not like he's. He doesn't seem to be lying, but like you feel like you ought to know something helpful.
[00:47:32] Speaker D: I don't. You know those things.
Why does it feel like we don't understand a lot of phrasma's stuff?
[00:47:41] Speaker B: Let's just say I never paid attention in psychopomp school.
[00:47:46] Speaker D: What are you.
You're not any psychopomp I've ever read or seen anything about.
[00:47:54] Speaker B: The most I can say is that I am a psychopomp.
But you are right.
You never would have heard overhead about me.
I feel that our time is running short. If I linger much longer, I do think Verasma will become more aware of what I'm doing, who I'm speaking with, and what's going on.
Is there anything else you would like to discuss before I go?
[00:48:25] Speaker F: Yeah, but there's nothing you can tell.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: Me from what it seems, and I am truly sorry.
[00:48:35] Speaker D: Oh, wait, hold on. Sorry. Um, these arid sins that we're dealing with.
[00:48:41] Speaker B: Yes?
[00:48:41] Speaker D: Do you know anything about them?
[00:48:44] Speaker B: Not really. Much more than you do. I've mostly been following Nero's.
[00:48:49] Speaker D: Okay. I wasn't sure if perhaps as mad King, there was some information about him.
[00:48:55] Speaker B: No.
[00:48:55] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:48:57] Speaker B: I don't believe I'd even heard of him until it came up in your adventures.
[00:49:02] Speaker D: Good to know we're not alone in that way.
[00:49:06] Speaker B: A leaf drops from a branch overhead and just kind of in slow motion drifts between you and corvus, and he kind of watches the leaf and is like, I'm sorry, I have to go. And then just in, like, an explosion of, like, feathers just vanishes. And with that, the whole of the forest just comes back to life. You hear crickets and nightlife around you, the wind in the trees again, and it's like the meeting had never happened.
[00:49:41] Speaker F: Neros stands there frozen for a few minutes, and then slowly walks over to where her locket is and picks it back up and just stares at it.
[00:50:05] Speaker B: And with that, we'll go ahead and bring everyone back in.
All right. And for reasons that the three of us and the audience know, we'll be giving our hero point for this session. To Abby.
[00:50:23] Speaker C: Congratulations.
[00:50:24] Speaker E: We're so proud of you for all.
[00:50:26] Speaker C: Those things you did.
[00:50:27] Speaker A: All those things you did.
[00:50:29] Speaker D: Hey, Abby, I'm proud of you.
[00:50:31] Speaker F: Thank you.
[00:50:32] Speaker E: I can't wait for, like, six weeks until to listen to this one.
[00:50:36] Speaker D: Yeah, I thought it was pretty awesome.
[00:50:39] Speaker A: If you all don't know, the three of us don't know anything, and we won't know for a while.
[00:50:45] Speaker D: You did a good job.
[00:50:46] Speaker F: Thank you.
[00:50:47] Speaker D: Chilling Val out.
[00:50:49] Speaker E: Val is now archetype barbarian.
[00:50:52] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:50:53] Speaker E: That is what I've got out of that.
[00:50:57] Speaker F: Well, thanks. I guess.
[00:51:04] Speaker C: You're more welcome than not.
[00:51:07] Speaker F: I need to go cuddle a dog and then scream into the abyss for about half an hour, and then I'll see you guys on the flip side.
[00:51:18] Speaker B: Of that, and we'll see you all in the next episode.
Uvair, Val and Neros get back from whatever they were doing, and Val wakes you up for your watch for the night.
So you stretch, wake up, and head out into the camp. And I presume you take your post and start watching.
[00:51:45] Speaker A: Yep.
You just quietly goes to one of the corners of the campsite and holds the horn in his lap, just listening to the sounds of the forest, the ones that you would expect and possibly some sounds that are unique to the grungear forest.
Trying to remember, see if anything jogs that lost memory of the times he's apparently been here before.
[00:52:18] Speaker B: As you are listening, go ahead and make me a perception check.
[00:52:22] Speaker A: I wasn't expecting rolls.
16.
[00:52:31] Speaker B: With that 16, you're sitting, presumably with your back against a tree, just kind of listening to the sounds of the forest, as you'd mentioned, and you hear the sound of, like, a branch or a twig snapping in the tree above you.
[00:52:48] Speaker A: I quickly look up and sling the horn in one hand and pull my staff in the other, just more alert.
[00:53:03] Speaker B: And as you spring to attention and you're looking up into the tree over you, you see some sort of amalgamation of, like, leaves, plants, and branches. At first, it just seems to be just like a pile of foliage caught in the tree. But as you're watching, you see sort of like a tendril of this reach out as if to get a better grasp on the tree. And then in a smooth motion, it begins to drop out of the tree, trying to land directly on you.
But before you can do anything, it just freezes in midair. And all of those sounds of the forest around you that you were just listening to go dead silent. It's as if the whole world around you has stopped.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: He's jumping up and getting ready to cast a spell, and he just, that is unexpected.
[00:54:05] Speaker B: And then you feel a hand on your shoulder. He turns very quickly, and in front of you, or rather behind you, you see Alward, although he looks a little bit more weathered, perhaps, and he says, it's all right. We've got time. I have a lot that I need to tell you.
And that's where we'll end this episode.
This has been an atomic broadcasting production. Pathfinder, Galarian and the lost omens world setting are copyright of Paizo more
[email protected] music in the show is from Monument Studios collection, as well as assorted artists, with some original tracks composed by Jim Jordy Hake. More details in the description. If you enjoyed the show, please remember to share with a friend and we'll look forward to seeing you again next time.
[00:55:03] Speaker F: Oh, Sam's drinking water right now.
[00:55:05] Speaker D: Yeah, he's got to say my name.
[00:55:07] Speaker A: He's got a hat.
[00:55:07] Speaker E: How dare you have physical needs.
[00:55:09] Speaker D: Howdy, I'm a man.
Oh.
