Rou learns that even a great collection of knowledge doesn't provide all the answers you seek, but can still surprise you.
The librarian Sira leads Rou down several flights into a very old section of the archives and then leaves him to search alone. As he scans the texts and scrolls, their pages covered in dust from disuse, he finds more frustration than answers. Many of the documents in the library’s archives aren’t written as fact. Historical data, at least for Werewolves, seems to be lacking.
Trying not to give up, he begins to broaden his search. Learning that other cultures with bloodier pasts still managed to shape their future, gives Rou hope that his efforts may foster change for the better.
Follow Dax @GM_Dax, Kappa @TheKappaChris, and Wren @ThornyDryad
Transcript by CJ Kallevig
Upbeat piano intro ends[00:27]
Gentle piano fades in [00:32]
Dax: Rou. Yesterday, you were given a text on agrarian societies and politics therein. In the morning, you were given a tour of the basic structure of the library. Then you were able to spend your time as you will, doing research or exploring Kidohlva. Whatever fancied you. This morning, as the group of you arrived in the library and decided to go off in your separate ways and start doing your research, the librarian that was assigned to assist you, leads you down a relatively wide stairwell. Off towards the back of the Observation Lounge, beyond several bookshelves. She leads you down several flights. You can see every so often, as you reach a leveling off mezzanine, that you.. there are doors that lead into other areas where there are shelves. The farther you get down, you start to notice that the organization becomes less evident. You start to see shelves where there are scrolls laying haphazardly, you start to smell the dust from disuse. At one point, she stops. Her small lantern humming very quietly. She turns to you and says,
Dax (as the librarian): [femme voice, British accent] Well, um, this is the section that you were looking for. You were looking on folklore about Werewolves? It’s not one of our more well-received or researched topics, so we kind of, keep it down here. I’m going to give you this.
Dax: And she hands you a secondary lantern, one that has not yet been lit.
Dax (as the librarian): This should allow you some light without causing a fire hazard for the texts. Now, if you need me, I’ll just be a few flights up. I have some research myself that I have to do. Don’t tell the Headmaster, but I don’t really feel like you need to be babysat. So, I won’t be hovering. But if you need me, I’ll be there.
Kappa (as Rou): I appreciate that, so much. Okay. Two flights up, you said?
Dax (as Sira): Just, just two. Just go up two more and you’ll be fine. If you don’t see me readily, just call for Sira and I’ll come to you.
Kappa (as Rou): Of course. Good luck on your research.
Dax (as Sira): And you as well.
Dax: With that, she gives you a slight nod and heads up the stairs, leaving you alone at the entryway to a very musty smelling room.
Kappa (as Rou): Okay. So, Werewolves, Werewolves, Werewolves. Lycanthropy…
Kappa: Is there, is there anything immediate about Werewolf clans throughout history here?
Dax: So, I won’t make you roll for this. I’ll say that as you start walking amongst the bookshelves, and you get beyond an area where there’s scrolls kind of just hanging about. You start to see on the book bindings things such as Folklore, the Eternal Lycan Question, Societies - Do They Exist Among Shifters, things like that. So it starts to gradually get a little bit more focused as you walk.
Kappa: I see. Yeah, then I’d like to take a look at the those books you just, those scrolls or those topics you just mentioned.
Dax: Mhmm.
Kappa: Just sort of, seeing at first what the perception is, whether or not my clan is the norm and then moving on from there depending on what I find.
Dax: Sure. So how in depth are you actually looking through these texts? Are you flipping through a page and reading it in its entirety? Are you kind of like running your finger down the page and scrolling quickly to see what words kind of draw your attention?
Kappa: I’m definitely, definitely skimming at this point.
Dax: Okay. So, the first book that you pull out, Folklore, seems a little bit more, kind of on the vein of Frankenstein, where it’s clearly talking about what the author believes is fiction. But in a sense that’s a little bit more real. So, you start to read things about how rumor has it that one of the ways that Lycanthropy first came about was that some sorcerer was jilted by a lover and cursed her descendants to forever have to change with the moon. Then it shifts to, somebody tried to play a trick on the god of trickery and as punishment, his bloodline was cursed with the ability to shift. Some of them become a little bit more fantastical, some of them become almost believable, depending on which folklore you’re reading. But again, it, it doesn’t read as if it has any factual context to it.
You get on to the next book, where it talks about societies and whether or not they exist among shapeshifters. This one reads very much like a research text. It starts to talk about how most shapeshifters that have been observed tend to be solitary creatures. They tend to hide from civilization, perhaps in an attempt to not be discovered. For those that have been discovered, have been skinned alive. Their pelts hung at the entryway to cities. Looking at how yellow the pages are, you start flipping towards the back and front of the book. You realize this text is probably several hundred years old and might be a little dated in its views. And then, yet another book you pull out tends to be more about medical research. How Lycanthropy came about, potential cures. But everything that you pull out and off the shelves, doesn’t appear to really address shifters living in a society of their own. It’s more a conversation in relation to traditional human society.
Kappa: So what I’m seeing is more about how Lycanthropy impacts most others and what comes about because of, you know, encounters with the one off, especially how old this thing looks. It’s frustrating, actually. I’d like to press on a little bit further and see, maybe not so much Lycanthropy. Maybe non-human societies and their structures, go a little broader on this.
Dax: You continue through the bookshelves, going down an aisle or two. You eventually find some older texts that talk about the Kingdom of Sarendell to the south and when it first came about. It talks about how Dwarven society works. The eternal question of the differing clans of Dragonborn and how they have evolved over the centuries. A lot of the books are still very old, but they do give a much wider variety of what works for this, why it works. A lot of it tends to be very research minded and theoretical discussion.
Kappa: I think we’re getting somewhere here. Comparing this to my own clan and how violent the structure of it is. Do I find anything that could be applied to shift, more ruthless, more violent societal structure?
Dax: So, when you get to the text about Dragonborn, you find that Dragonborn society used to be very brutal. It used to be very focused on survival of the fittest, and if you were injured and unable to contribute to society, you were ripped to shreds in a challenge of some sort. Usually the challenges weren’t very fair. They weren’t as structured as a lot of your clan’s challenges tend to be. It was much more along the lines of the whole clan is going to gang up on you, and if you survive, then fine. But if not, which you know was more often the case. Eventually, a few of the Dragonborn ended up being exposed to other societies.
They went off on pilgrimages, more of the Shamans and those kinds of standings in society, those that actually had access to magic went out into the world to learn what they could learn to harness that power better. It was just when Dragonborn were first starting to learn that magic was a thing, and learning to harness it. They went out, they got exposed to Elves, to Dwarves, to humans, and how their societies worked. And they started to learn that maybe theirs wasn’t the best way. It resulted in a nearly 100 year war among the different clans as to which thought process was better for society as a whole. Eventually the more pacifistic, more scholarly ideals took hold in the case of civilians. So popular favor eventually won that over, not so much leaders making decisions for the society.
Kappa: That’s very interesting how pilgrimages much like mine have shaped the trajectory of the Dragonborn way of society. Is there any, any sort of writing from the Dragonborn themselves that catalog this? Any sort of author or intellectual group that published anything that I could follow?
Dax: You do find a couple of texts. They’re very small, almost like journal sized. Most of them are written in Draconic. However, you were able to find two small publications that were written as translations. One, the title is very well worn on the surface of the book. It speaks of the end of the war and how civilians are tired of the fighting. They’re tired of the arguments, children are growing up in a world that is full of bloodshed and hate and anger. And how the author laments that peace can’t be obtained. As you go farther and farther through the book and you skim later on, the writing tends to become a little bit more frantic.
You start to learn that the author originally was in a location that was kind of removed. It starts to become very evident that they were speaking from a more observer kind of perspective, as opposed to somebody who is actually living in the war itself. And as the book goes on, it becomes more frantic because the war actually comes to his own home location and he’s actually physically affected by it. He ends up becoming one of the voices, one of the leaders in essentially what is a rebellion to get society to move towards that goal of peace.
Kappa: Okay, okay. That’s not quite what I had expected. I’d like to shift back over to Werewolves. I know it’s, it’s, there’s no sort of catalog or anything about Werewolf society and groups and their own structures, their own politics.
Dax: Mhmm.
Kappa: Is there someone that I can find and suspected to be a Werewolf? That has done any writings? Perhaps in some of the myths and folklore, maybe there’s someone that stands out.
Dax: You know, why don’t you give me a Knowledge check? Let’s, let’s make it a Lore check and go ahead and give it to me at Easy difficulty. So just the one purple.
[dice rolls]
Kappa: Okay. One Success.
Dax: As you’re perusing the books, one of the titles kind of catches your eye. If you weren’t specifically looking for this, you probably might have just glanced over it and not really made the connection, called ‘The Hand of Zorei’. Now, you know that Zorei is what is seen as a deity of magic. This thin book with a red leather cover. As you read through it, the author labeled it as a work of fiction. But the more that you read through and the more that this author writes, you start to get the sense that this is somebody who actually is affected by the shapeshifting ability. They mention a lot of things that most folklore you’ve read and heard of about Werewolves is not something people comment on. Like, the feel of muscle moving under your skin.
The unique sound that the bones cracking makes. The urges that come to you in the night. It almost seems too real to be something some human imagined. The author talks about looking for something called the Hand of Zorei, which, reportedly, has the power to lift the curse. Throughout the book, the author is describing all the struggles, all the people that he meets with, all the different collections and different descriptions of this artifact. From what you see, he doesn’t ever find it in the book. But the book does kind of take on this obsession to find it and lift the curse.
Kappa: I see. Very interesting. And, what was the author’s name?
Dax: You can barely make it out, but it is Nemo Silverswift, is the handle they use.
Kappa: Silverswift. And you said this was a, purportedly a work of fiction?
Dax: Yeah, the dedication at the front of the book claims that it’s a work of fiction and the result of a fevered dream.
Kappa: I see, okay.
Kappa (as Rou): First of all, I want to point out that Lycanthropy is not a curse. Just is part of who you are. It might have started that way…
Kappa: And I’m talking at the book at this point, as I’m flipping through it. I’m just kind of like,
Kappa (as Rou): That’s… you shouldn’t be so ashamed. I mean, sure if you know you can’t control your urges, I can understand why you’d want to cure it. But it’s livable. It’s just the way things are.
Kappa: Anyway, I'm going to take this thin red book and try and find more from this Nemo Silverswift. If there’s nothing nearby, I would go up the two flights of stairs and see if there’s any other publications that they have done.
Dax: Okay.
Kappa: Maybe not necessarily this, you know, topic, this genre. Maybe it’s some sort of pen name or, you know.
Dax: Sure. So I will say that as you wander the floor where you are, you don’t see anything else by this author. But if you do go up and you talk to Sira, she is able to direct you to actually the floor below where you were. In this floor, you find a few more books by this same author. Some of them are labeled as N. Silverswift. Others are the full name, or Nemo S. You know, it’s some alteration or another. Sira points out that a lot of them are on a single bookshelf.
Dax (as Sira): Is there anything in particular about this author that drew you to them? Do you need to know more about them, or..?
Kappa (as Rou): Not necessarily. I just, I was a bit interested in their, you know, it’s a work of fiction but perhaps they’ve drawn some sort of material for their works from real life. And so I want to get sort of a map of who this person was, where they’ve traveled, what they’ve found. You know?
Dax (as Sira): Hmmm. I can understand that. I mean, there are quite a few authors that I’ve enjoyed that I kind of get a little obsessed and I want to know more about them, so. This is the greatest collection of their work that, that we have here at the library is on this bookshelf. In fact, I’m not even really sure how that one got misplaced. We usually keep them pretty well grouped. So you can feel free to leave it here or put it back upstairs, wherever you prefer.
Kappa (as Rou): Sure.
Dax (as Sira): Is there anything else you’ll be needing from me for now?
Kappa (as Rou): No, no I don’t, I don’t think so. I have the sneaking suspicion that Nemo Silverswift is not the actual name of the author. Do..do you know if there’s some sort of directory or catalog of, you know, known authors that use certain pen names?
Dax (as Sira): Hmmm. I don’t believe one like that exists. Um…
Kappa (as Rou): That’s perfectly okay.
Dax (as Sira): I might be able to do a cross reference for when they started writing, see if there’s anything beforehand that had a similar feel? But written under a different name. Some authors will start writing under one name, find it’s not as successful, and then they switch and then for some reason that takes off, so.
Kappa (as Rou): Oh, that’s a very good point.
Dax (as Sira): I could, I could go do a little research in our back catalogs about that so, I’ll be back in a little bit.
Kappa (as Rou): Thank you.
Kappa: I’ll start perusing the various titles. If there’s anything that looks more recent, I’d like to prioritize those to pull out and skim through.
Dax: There are a few books that were written like 200 hundred years ago, and that’s about as recent as you can get. They appear to be the tail end of a series. As you pick up the most recent book, you, and you’re flipping through it. You kind of get the sense that this is being told from an omnipotent observer who is telling the story of someone who is finally reaching the end of their journey. It talks about how the obsession of finding what in the book is a rare object called Liquified Silver, this individual just becomes obsessed with finding it and to the point where they lose their family. They lose their friends, no good, you know. Almost, almost as if you were reading a story about somebody with a severe addiction. And how there’s only so much most people can take before they stop supporting that person, stop being around that person.
Kappa: Mhmm.
Dax: If you go to the one before it, it almost feels like the second in a trilogy, where this person has gone on this, it’s still the same character. And again, still written from the perspective that it’s fiction. But it’s a little less frantic, it’s a little bit less tragic in its storytelling.
Kappa: Okay, interesting. They were consumed by this notion that there’s something out there, to confirm where it exists or not. Is there, there’s nothing that I know, personally, of a liquid silver, right?
Dax: There is, actually.
Kappa: Oh, okay. Cool.
Dax: So, one of the darker pieces of Werewolf history tells the story of a researcher who believed that drinking liquified silver, or what we would know as silver nitrate, had proved to relieve a shifter of the abilities to shift. So, cure the curse or give them an opportunity for a different life. Whatever perspective you want to take it. However, it ended up proving to be very poisonous and people back in the days when Werewolves were much more solitary, to the point of hiding from society because of the way society treated them as a whole, would if they found someone they suspected of Lycanthropy, they would force this liquid silver down their throat. It was just very bloody and grim and terrifying. Eventually, when science started proving that that wasn’t really a good idea and you know, like, we shouldn’t really be taking “folklore remedies” and trying it on actual people. It stopped, becoming a less common practice. But it is seen as a very dark spot in your family’s history.
Kappa: Mhmm, okay. That does bring up another, another thought then. How old is my clan? I’ve only known as far back as one or two generations beyond my parents.
Dax: You tell me.
Kappa: Okay. I don’t think Rou would know.
Dax: Mhmm.
Kappa: But it is fairly young. I think the reason why most of the stuff that he’s able to find regarding Werewolf society and Lycanthropy structures, denotes one offs and solitary creatures is because the idea of a clan and a wolf pack hasn’t been around for very long.
Dax: Mhmm. Yeah.
Kappa: One, because there probably hasn’t been very many shifters until about, you know, 200 or so years ago.
Dax: Yeah.
Kappa: Yeah, they all live in secret because they see what’s going on.
Dax: Mhmm. I think that is very reasonable and that’s why I was more like ‘you tell me’. Like, you give me your thoughts on this.
Kappa: Yeah. Yeah, okay. So I think at this point, Rou is going to come to a few conclusions. My clan is very young. The traditions haven’t been around for very long, relatively speaking. There’s still a lot of learning and a lot of it has, was born out of survival. Necessary tactics to make sure that those who were making decisions are strong enough to handle pressure in case someone is discovered. Someone that can make awful, brutal decisions when the time comes for it.
Whether or not we’re past that though, is harder to say. The Dragonborn had a very different history but some similarities can be drawn, hopefully given the nature of how separated all the clans are. A war won’t break out if someone like me comes along, trying to change things up. I think, given what I’ve discovered today, I think my goal now is to find other Lycans, young ones, and see if their sentiments match or at least are similar to mine. That is going to be very difficult, given the very warm welcome I received arriving here in Eulela from, I can only assume, were other Lycans. Very territorial, but who knows?
Dax: As you are sitting there with your thoughts, Sira actually walks up to you from behind.
Dax (as Sira): I did find a few names that might interest you.
Kappa (as Rou): Oh geez, you scared me!
Dax (as Sira): I am, oh, I am so sorry! I often forget [chuckles]. You’d think after a hundred years of working here, that I would, I would learn to be a little bit more loud with my walking.
Kappa (as Rou): I was just very deep in thought there, and pulled me out of it. No issue, no issue. Just, hoo, my heart just jumped a little bit.
Dax (as Sira): I still feel sorry. So, I went into our catalogs and I, I was looking for authors that maybe wrote a few books before this particular one took off. I looked specifically for names that didn’t publish anything after the Nemo Silverswift was published. I found a couple of names that might suit you. There’s Nathaniel T. Sparks, there is Nor… what is it? How does this pronounce it? Nor.. Nina…Sunderswift? And Nicholas Brightwell.
Kappa: I’m writing all these down.
Kappa (as Rou): Okay.
Dax (as Sira): They all were writing well before Nemo Silverswift, any of those books came to light, so they’re my best guess. At particularly the first two, they had similar initials.
Kappa (as Rou): Very interesting.
Dax (as Sira): They don’t all write fiction, Nicholas actually wrote a little bit more on the line of research and medical texts. But there was some fiction every now and then, so it… you obviously can make the decisions. Whatever’s going to work for you, whatever makes the most sense. But those were the three that came up in my searches.
Kappa (as Rou): Okay. I’ll look into this, this Nathaniel Sparks. Thank you very much.
Dax (as Sira): Are you going to be needing any refreshments or anything? I think I might go upstairs and get a glass of water. It gets a little musty. Do you need anything?
Kappa (as Rou): Oh, um. Actually, sure! Yes, a break would be very nice.
Dax (as Sira): Perfect, um. Do you plan on going with me or would you like me to bring you down something?
Kappa (as Rou): I can accompany you. No need to bring stuff down here. I’m at a fairly logical stopping point.
Dax (as Sira): Alright. Suit yourself then.
Dax: As the two of you start to walk back up towards the main sections of the library, Sira turns to you and says,
Dax (as Sira): Did you find anything in particular, did you find what you were looking for? Or did you just find something that caught your interest and you got lost for a few hours?
Kappa (as Rou): I, I believe, I think, I think it’s more the second one. I think I found something that I didn’t know I was looking for. If that makes more sense?
Dax (as Sira): How so?
Kappa (as Rou): I came here with a specific goal in mind, but if that goal was not attainable, given just what’s available to use, the resources just aren’t there. You get creative, you find other ways, new perspectives that inform questions that you didn’t know to ask. But are still very important.
Dax: She nods a little bit.
Dax (as Sira): Similar to going into the archives to research a line of history from a very important family and finding a diary from a very notorious mistress.
Kappa (as Rou): Very much so, yes.
Dax (as Sira): Maybe not quite the same, but [chuckles] it’s the one reference that I have.
Kappa (as Rou): Is that what you were doing?
Dax (as Sira): Yes, actually. We, one of the professors needed some textual context for one of the royal families and I ended up finding a diary from one very powerful monarch’s mistress, who gives a very unique perspective into said monarch.
Kappa (as Rou): Does that inform some of the decisions that were made by said monarch?
Dax (as Sira): Well, according to her diary, she was certainly the reason why some of the policies became a little bit more twisted than they might have been without her influence.
Kappa (as Rou): I see.
Dax (as Sira): Usually used as a punishment for showing favoritism to other people than her.
Kappa (as Rou): Oh. Oh my, okay. And this is important for, for what reason? If I may ask.
Dax (as Sira): Why is it important her perspectives or why is it important to teach about this family?
Kappa (as Rou): Bit of both. Why was this task assigned?
Dax (as Sira): Some of the professors don’t like going into the archives because it’s very dark and it’s very musty. Our role as librarians is, in part, to do some of the research for them, offer them ‘this is what we have’. Then they can use what they wish. As far as the family is concerned, you know about the Adar-Kai empire, correct? The, the whole reason that we went to war seven hundred years ago?
Kappa (as Rou): Cursory knowledge, not anything in depth. I know that there was a war, but that’s about it.
Dax (as Sira): The Adar-Kai used to be a very benevolent empire. So most people didn’t really suffer under their rule. It’s not like we would all be holden to follow, let’s just put it this way. When Suvre Dinai came to power, many of us thought he went mad and we couldn’t figure out why. We couldn’t figure out why suddenly out of the race that had always been benevolent that this one bad apple was doomed to ruin all the power preceding generations had accumulated for him. Rebellion broke out, as it does when there’s unrest in an entire country. Hence broke out the war.
Kappa (as Rou): So this, this mistress’s diary could be used to inform some of those irrational decisions?
Dax (as Sira): Perhaps. It really becomes a question of what kind of hold did she really have on him that he would change tactics, change policies, on a whim?
Kappa (as Rou): You know, back where I’m from, there’s a very specific term for that. It’s the power of boners. It’s a little crass, I understand, however, the power of lust is extremely potent.
Dax (as Sira): I think you make a very good point. I think sex can be a very powerful tool, used for good or ill.
Kappa (as Rou): I mean, it would make sense to me, at the very least. Lots of people make very, very stupid decisions in the name of love. Now combine that with political power, royal power, entire wars can be launched, right?
Dax (as Sira): There are some references that it wasn’t all, well I shouldn’t say it wasn’t all, there is one reference that she ended up having a child, but it was born stillborn and therefore she talked to some sorcerer that convinced her if she were to burn the child, then future production… It, it’s just a, she ended up also appearing to lose her mind. So I’m wondering if perhaps grief also plays a role?
Kappa (as Rou): That would make sense. Grief is just another form of love, isn’t it?
Dax (as Sira): That’s true. From a certain point of view, that’s very correct.
Kappa (as Rou): Well I, I hope this investigation proves fruitful. That’s, in my opinion, that’s quite the large find.
Dax (as Sira): It’s a very interesting one. It’ll just be a matter of whether or not the professor finds it as interesting as I do. This particular professor’s a lot more about facts and considering this is the first time I think anyone has seen the contents of this diary, it’s also very possible that it might be discounted as fact and more just supposition.
Kappa (as Rou): I see. Well, I agree with you that it’s very interesting. Whether or not it’s taken as fact, I mean, you have this very unique perspective. You are sitting in a very fleeting position of ‘I know this thing and not everyone knows this thing’. It’s a little exciting.
Dax (as Sira): That’s true. It certainly warrants more research for sure. You know, I do feel a little disappointed that you didn’t find exactly what you were looking for. I mean, we do have the largest library on the continent, so if we don’t have it…
Kappa (as Rou): Well, here’s how I view it from my perspective. You have the largest, the largest? The largest collection of knowledge from the past, from history. Great minds contribute their knowledge and their intellect to analyzing what has been written before. What if the knowledge hasn’t been formed yet? It wouldn’t exist here, would it? But thoughts, opinions, and suppositions, ideals are collected here. And can help form the decisions, form theories, form actions that can be applied to the rest of the future. That’s what I found.
Dax: She kind of pauses at that, and actually stops.
Dax (as Sira): You know, I think in its own way, both of us managed to obtain some interesting finds today.
Kappa (as Rou): Very much agreed. [chuckles]
Dax (as Sira): Come on. I’ll treat you to lunch.
Kappa (as Rou): Ooooh, what’s for lunch?
Dax (as Sira): I don’t know, but there is a café that is often not visited by tourists thankfully. But I think you might quite enjoy it.
Kappa (as Rou): Lead the way.
Dax: And I think that is a good spot to end the session.
Music fades out [35:02]
Dax: Thanks for listening! We hope you’ll join us next time but in the interim, follow us on Twitter @RoadsUncharted.
The “Roads Uncharted” podcast is GMed and produced by Dax, who you can find on Twitter @GM_Dax. We use the Genesys RPG system published by Fantasy Flight Games, and music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
Arthas, Champion of Offam, is played by Neil.
Eight is played by Wren, who also composed the music for our opening theme. Follow them on Twitter @ThornyDryad.
Rou is played by Kappa, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheKappaChris.