While continuing their studies in the library, a strange power overtakes the party. Even Eight feels drowsy and falls asleep.
Arthas and Rou spend a few days doing their own research, as well as indulging in some of the activities that Kidohlva has to offer. Arthas is finally able to get his first tattoo and Rou partakes in some of the lectures offered at the university. Eight, on the other hand, gets lost in their research and leaves little time to indulge in anything else.
One day, while studying together in the observation lounge, the group notices that the staff assigned to assist them suddenly leaves the room without a word. Rou and Arthas then begin to feel their eyelids grow heavy, the muscles become weary and the draw of sleep becomes strong. Even Eight begins to feel drowsy and fails to resist the hold of this strange force.
They soon realize that they’re in a dark abyss. A voice speaks from the darkness, echoing in the vast space. A door opens, light shining through, beckoning to the trio of companions.
Follow Dax @GM_Dax, Kappa @TheKappaChris, and Wren @ThornyDryad
Transcript by CJ Kallevig
Upbeat piano intro ends[00:27]
Gentle piano fades in [00:28]
Dax: Rou, Eight, and Arthas. It has been a couple days since you arrived in Kidohlva. Your first day, the Headmaster’s staff brought you some of the items on your lists. Simple things, like glassblowing techniques for Arthas, political structures of agrarian society for Rou, and the history of the War of Seven Hells for Eight, which unsurprisingly is probably the biggest text that was brought back to your group. As promised, that afternoon you were given a tour of the library. The tour ended up being very similar to what one might expect for tourists. You were shown some of the pathways, how the texts and scrolls and other items are organized. You were instructed as to which areas were restricted, which areas would require appointments to access due to the contents therein, etc, ad nauseam.
Since that first day, you have been able to wander the library and the university on your own as promised. If we take away the library wanderings and what you’ve been researching over the last few days, what are some other things that you might have done in the city or have you spent your entire time focused on the books and manuals in front of you?
Neil: Trying to find a tattoo parlor.
Music shifts to a quirky flute [02:05]
Dax: Yes! So, that markist you found on that first day, that ended up being closed. You were able to go back later in the week and at first, the markist was not entirely convinced that she wanted to give you a tattoo. Usually the tattoos for the Silarin are reserved for more traditional symbols. They have a lot of deep meaning for the Silarin people. But you eventually won her over, and you were able to get a tattoo. So, Arthas. What tattoo would you have gotten and where would you have gotten it?
Neil: So, my first question, for the markist. Is this parlor like there’s a heap of designs on the wall and you just sort of point and go ‘that one’? Or is it more like…
Dax: There are no flash tattoos, so you would have to, this is somebody who is an artist and definitely does everything basically from memory and creation.
Neil: I’m going to get a mom heart on my arm.
[long pause]
Kappa: The silence is deafening.
Dax: [laughing] I’m sorry, I’m trying to swallow my water and not choke because I’m laughing.
[Neil snickers]
Dax: Okay. Mom tattoo, arm, on your heart. Okay. Would it have been proportionate to the size of your arm or would it have been on the smaller side, considering how much larger you are?
Neil: Probably smaller side, because that seems like a several hour job otherwise.
Dax: That’s fair. Yeah, alright. You are able to get a tattoo. At first, the markist is… immediately regrets her decision to agree to tattoo you because, you know, she’s an artist and this is what you have come to her to have done. But, alright, fine whatever. She eventually gets it taken care of. You spend about an hour with the markist and I imagine that all of our listeners that have actually gotten tattoos are sitting there going ‘no, it would take much longer than an hour’. But we’re going to suspend disbelief and say it takes an hour. Because Dax doesn’t know [chuckles]. Honestly, it probably wasn’t as painful as you thought it was going to be, considering that it was a situation where it’s a tapper and some ink. It’s not like an electric machine like we -
Neil: Like a gun.
Dax: Yeah, it’s not a gun like we would have nowadays.
Kappa: It’s magical, okay?!
Neil: Hell yeah.
Dax: So, very much done manually. Not really painful, she gave you instructions on how to care for it, and ever since then you’ve been healing, yeah. Anything else, Arthas? Or just the tattoo?
Neil: Just the tattoo. He’s going to be riding that high for a minute.
Dax: Okay. What about the other two?
Kappa: You said this place has a, has… is a place of learning and lectures and all that, right?
Dax: I did. The University is built into the rocks and kind of interspersed partially with the city itself. Then also there is a designated area of the city where there are like dorms and more of the larger lecture halls.
Music shifts to a gentle guitar [05:00]
Kappa: Okay. Outside of the library, I believe I would just sit in on some of these lectures. Especially if there was any lectures or presentations that had to do with magic, you know. The origins of it, the practical uses of it.
Dax: Sure! So, the University does from time to time offer free lectures to the, where students that are majoring in those sections of education are able to kind of present, it’s kind of treated like one of the tasks they have to complete in order to consider their education completed. So, there were some lectures that you were able to attend free of charge.
Kappa: I definitely want to get into paid lectures.
Dax: Oh, paid lectures?
Kappa: Yes. The ones that require tuition.
Dax: Okay.
Kappa: I’ll roll whatever.
Dax: Do me a favor, yeah I was going to say. Give me a Charm check, at Hard difficulty.
Kappa: Oooh, okay. [rolls dice] Oooh, oh that’s not bad. That’s not bad. One Success.
Dax: Okay, you were able to successfully get some of the professors to agree to allow you to sit in on some of the lectures that usually are only reserved for students.
Kappa: Listen, I’m just here to audit the classes. Make sure you, you’re on top of your shit.
Dax: Audit the classes, oh my god. Okay. Yeah, you were able to find a class that was essentially The Arcane 101. So really introductory class to magic. You know, how it was discovered, how people learned to harness it. The very basic stuff. You were able to get into a slightly more advanced class, along the lines of actually transmuting things from copper into iron. It was one of those classes where it was a lot more about the theory and not so much the practice.
Kappa: I see, okay. I like to imagine I’m just “when do we get to make chickens?”
Dax: Oh my god. [laughs]
Kappa: Where do you get the grey paste? Where does that come from? I heard you can block smells with magic.
Dax: I absolutely love it. I will say the grey paste, while not covered under the transmutation class, the professor was able to kind of explain how that comes about. Since it, in a way, falls under the umbrella? Chickens out of nothing and blocking smells, the professor was not really that willing to entertain because it really deviated from the purpose of the class, which was, as I said, was more theory than practice. You did eventually, at the end, towards the end of the class, any time you would speak up, you did notice that some other students would like make notes in their notebooks to ask maybe other professors or bring up in a later class. Some people start to take some, some of your lead. Anything else other than the symposiums and lectures?
Kappa: Nope, no that’s pretty much it.
Wren: Are you inciting riots with the students demanding to learn more? So it’s like an intellectual riot?
Kappa: Absolutely not, no. If that’s what it comes to, that’s what it comes to. I’m here for my own personal education.
Wren: Break down those mental barriers!
Dax: What about you, Eight?
Music shifts to a soothing piano [08:30]
Wren: Quite frankly, I believe most of my time would be spent pouring over the scrolls and texts that were provided. So long as they conformed to the necessities we needed to try and determine what happened to the children. And of course, any relevant personal interests that were added to the list as well. Seeing as I don’t need to sleep and I do not need to stop to eat, I probably would spend most of the time we are here on the research and leaving my companions to do their breaks that they needed for you know, life functions and other pleasurable activities on the side. I just kind of be like ‘go have fun! I’m going to stay here and read’. Stares at book at the table for hours.
Dax: Okay, so you, you’ve basically been ensconced in the musty texts and scrolls and everything that are held within this library. That’s pretty much taken over everything that you’ve done over the last few days while your companions have kind of mixed it up. So I will say of the items that you were able to find in and amongst the shelves, first and foremost, that first text you received, The War of the Seven Hells. You, you knew kind of the basics. That it happened over 400 years ago, that the Adar-Kai Empire had basically become too powerful, too strict, and the common people rebelled. You knew before your research that when the common people rebelled, it was a long and arduous process, starting out with secret networks.
When you did research in the library, you learned more about what really made the Empire so powerful. It wasn’t just the fact that they had the numbers, it was that they had the Emperor’s advisor, Maruk the Mage, was able to summon demons and other terrifying creatures to fight alongside the Imperial Army. Hence, that is where the Spellweavers and the Seven Swords came in. You know that the battle at Sufara was the climax battle, where the Seven Swords disappeared, where the Spellweavers ran off after the Emperor was defeated. You found some myths and legends about that town to the south that you had heard about in the past, of that city that just disappeared from nowhere. You had originally heard rumours that they had basically pissed off a god, then the god made the town disappear.
Your research indicates that there are actually conflicting myths and legends about what actually happened. Some of the myths and legends talk about how it wasn’t that they pissed off a god, it’s that somebody made a deal with a god to have the city relocated. You found other legends that the city may have disappeared but certain members of the royal family had been spotted across Rejiev. Not everything ties out perfectly. It’s all a mishmosh, some of it is very conflicting, others kind of line up.
As far as that family symbol, well, you know what you found there. How often do the three of you sit together and study? Do you make a habit of doing some study in the morning and then kind of separating in the afternoon? Do you do your own thing in the morning and then kind of get together in the afternoon? Tell me what the last three days have looked like as far as research is concerned for the three of you. How often are you together?
Neil: I’d assume pretty frequently for myself, as I uh, I can’t read.
Dax: Well, you can read a little bit. You learn how to read a little from the, the book of chivalry that Sir Dynevy gave you.
Neil: That’s a good point. I’m going to touch base because I assume this is written academically and it’ll be using a lot of really big words.
Dax: Yeah, and that was what I was going to say is that some of the books that you… rather Eight requested on behalf of you to answer some of your questions, have a lot of technical knowledge. I mean, you got a book of medical sciences that, a lot of that is language that is not really used commonplace. Kind of like we would not understand Latin commonplace, because it’s just not used in everyday terms anymore. You know, you had the earth sciences, you had a lot of genus and species names and other scientific terms that you’re not used to. So, yeah there’s letters, how you pronounce it is a little harder. So yeah, I think that’s probably, yeah that’s a good assumption that you’d spend a little bit more time because the more difficult texts would be a little harder for you to understand. What about you, Rou? Anything to add?
Kappa: Yes. I believe that having to explain to Arthas so many terms would get annoying at some point. No offense, like honestly, I completely understand but it gets in the way of some of the reading that I need to do. So, for a couple of hours each day, maybe finding a little corner for myself and then coming back refreshed and ready to answer any questions that Arthas might have. Eight is 100% more patient than I am, most likely as far as I can tell. So yeah.
Wren: Undoubtedly, I would be taking the lead on answering any questions Arthas poses to us. With a cheerful smile, and an unfortunate lack of educational tact. So I would probably explain things in a manner that was equally confusing with respect to technical terms or the driving forces behind them. Because, my education was also one of higher concepts from an old sage/researcher who created me specifically for the purposes of knowledge and delicate tasks. So unfortunately Arthas, I’m probably not the best tutor but at least I have the patience for your questions.
Neil: Enthusiasm is 90% of teaching.
Dax: I have some teachers in mind that I can think of that would argue with that, but yeah. I think for a general purpose, that works. So on this day, you’re all sitting in the observation lounge where a lot of your texts have been compiled. Where the staff, for the most part, stands kind of at the ready to answer any questions you may have, gather any more texts that you might need help retrieving. The three of them arise, very suddenly, very fluidly from the chairs in which they’ve been sitting and almost mechanically, turn and leave. You sit alone, the sunlight is beaming through the window. You can see the clouds are accumulating on the mountain tops in your view. The lamps, that for the past few days have been humming very quietly with electricity, start to dim. The doors to the lounge slam shut and you hear the mechanical sound of a lock locking.
Neil (as Arthas): Does the librarian know we’re still in here?
Wren: I will look up from my book to Arthas.
Wren (as Eight): I would assume so. I feel like I made direct eye contact with one of them before they left the room. I remember because I smiled very widely. Mother always said a smile disarms people.
Kappa (as Rou): Is there… do you think we lost power?
Kappa: I’m looking around at, you know, anything that could be powered by electricity.
Dax: So the lamps aren’t off, but they are very dim.
Kappa: Mhmm.
Dax: If it weren’t for the sunlight beaming through the window, you’d probably have very little light and be unable to read even anything right in front of you.
Kappa (as Rou): Kind of eerie…
Kappa: I’m going to call out,
Kappa (as Rou): Hello? We’re still in here. Hello? I don’t think anyone’s around.
Music shifts to a mysterious melody [17:50]
Dax: Rou and Arthas. If you could give me a Resilience check for me, please. Hard difficulty, upgrade twice.
Neil: Oh boy!
Kappa: Okay. That sounds really cool. Love that for us. Resilience, you said?
Dax: Yep.
[dice roll]
Neil: One Success.
Kappa: Oh my, that’s a lot of successes and just as many… four Successes. Four Disadvantages. [laughs]
Dax: Alright. Arthas, you’re looking around at all the lamps as they’re starting to dim. You start to feel your body become really heavy. You start to feel your eyelids lower as you start to feel really sleepy. That kind of tiredness that you last felt on your last great hunt before you left your clan. That bone weariness where every muscle just wants, just wants nothing more than to crawl into something comfortable and rest. But you manage to stay awake for now. Rou. You’re looking around at these lights and you start to notice they blur a little bit but when you shake your head, ah you must have imagined it.
Kappa (as Rou): That’s sort of odd.
Wren (as Eight): Is everything alright my friends?
Kappa (as Rou): No, I mean yes, everything is fine other than the fact that we’re abandoned in a library which is inherently very creepy. But nothing seems to be out of order. How are you doing Arthas?
Neil (as Arthas): I have… an idea.
Neil: I’m going to make my best attempt at standing up, getting to the door, and giving it a yank.
Kappa: I like this plan.
Dax: Okay. So I will say when you stand up, that your legs feel extremely heavy. Like, almost feel as if they’ve been caught in a muddy, stone mixture. It’s taking every ounce of strength you have just to get to the door.
Kappa (as Rou): Oh Arthas, is everything, are you okay? Your pants look very heavy.
Neil (as Arthas): Ehhhh..
Neil: And I’ll continue towards the door.
Dax: Give me a Brawn check, again at Hard difficulty, upgraded twice.
[dice roll]
Neil: One Advantage.
Kappa: While that’s happening…
Kappa (as Rou): Eight, did you, did you notice a flicker? Like, like just everything sort of just blurred for a second?
Wren: In response to Rou’s inquiry, while I basically watch Arthas grip whatever handle there is and yank on that door.
Wren (as Eight): No Rou, I did not experience any blurred vision or momentary lapse in my visual sensors.
Kappa (as Rou): Might have just -
Wren (as Eight): Did you?
Kappa (as Rou): Yes, yes. Just, just now as I was looking at the light. I, I thought it was because I’d just been reading these past few days, more than I have ever. Yeah, yes of course.
Wren (as Eight): That would make the most sense. Have you been drinking enough water? I know staying hydrated can be difficult if you are too busy focusing on something else.
Kappa (as Rou): Oh. Yes, I believe so. I’ve been refilling the mug every few, every few, every hour or so. Speaking of which…
Wren: I’ll reach out with my gauntleted palm, with the back of my hand to your forehead. Like I’m pretending to feel your temperature.
Wren (as Eight): Are you warm? Are you sweating? Have you been experiencing fatigue?
Kappa (as Rou): No, no, Eight. I’m fine. No, I'm fine. Thank you very much, I just found it weird.
Wren (as Eight): That is peculiar.
Kappa (as Rou): I am a little worried about Arthas though. It’s almost as if there’s something harrying his pants.
Wren (as Eight): Did you say his pants?
Kappa (as Rou): His pants, yes.
Wren: I’ll just kind of look at Arthas’s pants for a few seconds too long and then look back to you, Rou. My eyebrows just like, furrow over my lenses.
Wren (as Eight): I cannot say that I think Arthas’s pants appear any different than they typically are.
Kappa (as Rou): That’s the strange part. So why is he walking so heavy?
Dax: So I will say at this point, this is about the point that Arthas would have reached the door. Arthas, you go to pull the door and under normal circumstances, you’d be able to open this no problem. Even if it was locked, I mean look what happened the first day you arrived in Kidohlva. However, you feel as if your hands are nothing but paper, pulling against a large rock. No matter how hard you try, this door does not budge. I need you to give me another Resilience check for me. Add a Setback.
Neil: Alright, cool. [dice roll] One Success, one Triumph, and five Threats.
Dax: Rou, give me another Resilience check please. All the same difficulty and also add a Setback.
Kappa: Okay.
[dice roll]
Kappa (as Rou): Listen, I’ve I’ve seen people walk around like that, it’s almost as if there’s something, you know, some accident happened.
Dax: [laughs] Why Kappa?
Wren (as Eight): Perhaps Arthas has been placing boulders in his pockets.
Kappa (as Rou): Like weight training, yes.
Kappa: [laughs] One Success and one Threat. That was very hard to read.
Dax: Okay.
Wren: GM, can I make an inquiry?
Dax: You may.
Wren: Obviously I’m not being affected by whatever is impacting my flesh and blood counterparts, but is there -
Dax: That is a very meta comment, yes. [chuckles]
Wren: This, this is Wren speaking.
Dax: Yeah, yeah.
Wren: Is there any after effect? Like a magical presence that I might be able to sense or feel? Maybe, maybe not like ‘oh I can feel magic’, but alright maybe more like ‘oh I can feel magic’. But, yeah does, does whatever’s affecting them have some sort of physical manifestation or some sort of effect that I would be able to see or experience in some way?
Kappa: Does magic have a smell?
Dax: You have Arcane, right?
Wren: Yeah.
Dax: Give me an Arcane check, give it to me at Hard difficulty. Add a Setback. And we’ll resolve that in just a second, so hold off on what you get. Rou, this time around, you get this weird tingling down your spine. Not the kind of tingle that you would get if something scared you or the kind of tingle you would get if you walked into an area that was far colder and it’s just kind of your body just reacting. This almost feels as if fingers were tracing down your back and leaving this, like, tingle in their wake.
Kappa: Okay.
Kappa (as Rou): Seriously, who? What was that? You didn’t see anyone Eight, right? A spider? It might’ve been a spider. Can you check me for a spider? It’s just.. very, very concerning how, like we’re alone. All of a sudden things are blurry, and then they’re not. Arthas can’t walk very well. Then I get this weird sensation down my back. I don’t know if you have ever had this sort of sensation, but it’s almost as if something crawled up and down.
Wren: I put my hands up.
Wren (as Eight): Just, relax and do a turn for me. I will inspect you for any critters.
Kappa (as Rou): I’m not scared of spiders, I hope you know this.
Kappa: As I turn around.
Wren: And I’ll just kind of like brush your back a little bit.
Wren (as Eight): I see nothing.
Kappa (as Rou): Okay. Someone has to be playing a trick on us. Hello? It’s not funny! Hello?
Dax: Arthas. [snorts] Just had major déjà vu with that whole spider encounter and you two. Arthas, you have a Triumph on your check. I will give you the option if you would like to either insert something into the scene or to do something vital like try to get somebody’s attention or, or whatever you think might constitute a vital action.
Neil: This door is locked, so I’m going to have to engage in lockpicking. I’m going to drive my fist through the door.
Dax: Okay, I was going to say lockpicking? Hmm? Okay.
Wren: I pick the lock with my hammer, as Alex would always say.
Neil: Precisely.
Dax: Yep. Alright. Are you punching or are you going to try and use your club and smash the lock?
Neil: I don’t think I have the wherewithal to use the club right now, so I’m just gonna try and put my fist through it.
Dax: Okay. You can most certainly try and do that. Give me a Brawl check.
Neil: Difficulty?
Dax: Difficulty is going to be the Hard difficulty. One upgrade, so it’ll be two purple, one red plus two Setback.
Neil: Let’s go! [dice roll] One Threat is left.
Dax: You feel this tingling sensation down your spine and you start to get it into your head that I need to get this door open. As you pull your fist back, but it takes every ounce of energy just to push that fist forward and instead of slamming into the door, your fist touches the door. You start to feel your knees buckle under you. Sleep overtakes you and you know nothing else.
Kappa: Do we see this happening?
Dax: Oh yeah.
Kappa (as Rou): Well that’s not good. Arthas! Arthas!
Kappa: I’m rushing over.
Wren (as Eight): It would seem…
Wren: As I follow along behind you.
Wren (as Eight): That Arthas has been hitting the books a little harder than he must have intended.
Music shifts to a suspenseful flute [20:50]
Wren: Dax, when you want to have the results of my Arcana check?
Dax: Now.
[dice roll]
Wren: Two Success, but two Threat.
Dax: Every time Rou has commented on having a weird feeling or noticing something strange, every time Arthas goes to do something and you notice that his reactions are a little slow, they’re a little off. You kind of get this weird feeling in your darkwood core, almost like a pulse as the action goes off and then you feel this pulse of energy. You don’t see anything, you don’t hear anything. But you just get this gut feeling when Arthas attempts to punch through the door.
While he didn’t succeed in punching the door, you do see this physical wave of energy kind of blast off from him. Kind of like energy waves in an atomic bomb, where it’s just that ripple effect. It’s not that powerful, but you can actually see it happening. Rou, give me another Resilience check and add a Setback to the prior difficulty.
Kappa: C’mon dice. [dice roll] A Failure and a Threat. Finally got me.
Dax: Now Eight, you had something other than the Success with that, right?
Wren: Two, two Threat.
Dax: So what do you want to use the Threat for?
Wren: I guess I’ll just throw a Setback on myself for my next check.
Dax: Rou, you watch as Arthas collapses to the ground.
Kappa (as Rou): That’s not good.
Kappa: So as I’m rushing over…
Dax: As you rush over, you also start to feel your legs become extremely heavy. As if you’re trudging through a swamp. You start to feel your eyes become very heavy-lidded. Every muscle in your body is screaming to lay down and take a nap. You feel your knees buckle under you, and you too are taken in sleep.
Wren: Seeing Rou basically faceplant on the ground, taking a nap,
Wren (as Eight): Friend Rou! You, now is not the time to sleep. We are trying to do research, it’s still well before night time and you were just going to check on Arthas.
Wren: And I’ll kind of like, kneel down and shake your shoulder. I’ll like, reach out and try and move Arthas’s foot just like, shaking at the two of you.
Dax: Eight, give me a Resilience check. Hard difficulty, upgraded twice.
[dice roll]
Wren: Three Success and an Advantage.
Dax: Okay.
Wren: So, I saw a, I’ve been feeling a pulse. So for my Advantage here, I’ve been feeling that weird pulse. I saw like a weird shock wave come off of Arthas when he punched the door. Do I see that same shock wave coming from anywhere else in the room?
Dax: No.
Wren: Okay.
Dax: However, with your Successes, because of the way you are constructed, you don’t feel your eyelids grow heavy. But rather your sight starts to flicker. Kind of as if it was going in and out of focus. Then you feel fine. And you start to feel that, that energy pulse grow a little stronger in your gut. If you were human, you could attribute it to anxiety.
Wren: Okay. I’m trying to think if there’s a way I can pinpoint where this is coming from. Basically all I can think is, I almost want to extend my hands out and, now that I’m noticing my own vision starting to be affected and that I feel kind of weird. I wouldn’t say I’m panicky, but I definitely am concerned. As I’m kind of kneeling down next to my currently sleeping companions, I might, I want to cast a Dispel. But not on purpose. I basically want to put my hands up and basically say to myself,
Wren (as Eight): There’s something… there’s something very strange going on here.
Wren: And almost in like a fit of, not a fit but, from a lack of understanding, it’s just like ‘make it stop’. And I’d like to cast a Dispel, which would, I don’t know if I need to know what to, to point at. But it’s a short range effect. So if there’s a magic in short range, I can dispel it?
Dax: If you would like to try, you may do so. However, it’s going to be a Formidable difficulty.
Wren: Okay. I would love to. And that still makes sense because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
Dax: Yeah, between the fact that you’re not doing this consciously, what’s going on. It’s going to be an amped up difficulty, which is often unusual for spellcasting but…
[dice roll]
Wren: Two Threats and a Failure. After cancelling out four Successes. [chuckles] So…
Dax: Okay. Give me a Discipline check. Hard difficulty, upgrade twice, add a Setback.
[dice roll]
Wren: Another Failure and another two Threat.
Dax: You feel your limbs kind of go slack, your jaw drops open as your head nods down. You watch as your sight grows dim and you are no longer, for the first time in your life, conscious. The three of you, upon entering this state of unconsciousness, find yourselves at first by your lonesome. So at first Arthas is there. Rou, you feel yourself in this abyss, this darkness, by yourself. Eight, the same for you. Eventually, you start to see the forms of others arise out of the dark. You see the form of Arthas, you see the form of Eight and Rou. The three of you now stand together, in nothingness. You hear a voice.
Dax (as disembodied voice): [femme, British accent, echoing] An ibis, carved of gold on ivory. Entangled in darkwood vines. Teeth gnashing, claws extended. Sword biting, blood and stone and sweat.
Dax: Off in the distance, light emerges. First a sliver, then it widens up, almost as if a doorway was opening. You also were muted if you were saying something, Kappa.
Kappa: Good, because all I did was whisper “Kingdom Hearts!”. We heard that off in the distance? Or just the inky darkness?
Music shifts to a suspenseful, intriguing piano [36:37]
Dax: Yeah, in the inky darkness.
Kappa: Just all around?
Dax: Echoing very slightly. Making it hard to pinpoint where it comes from.
Kappa: Okay. And then the, the door to light opened up. And we’re all here.
Kappa (as Rou): This is a bit concerning.
Kappa: Looking at Arthas and Eight.
Kappa (as Rou): Well, I guess we can’t stay here. Do any of you recognize that voice?
Wren (as Eight): I do not. Nor do I recognize this space.
Kappa (as Rou): What was the last thing you all remember?
Wren (as Eight): As we approached Arthas, you also laid down and fell asleep.
Kappa (as Rou): I saw Arthas fall and then I was here.
Wren (as Eight): I attempted to rouse the two of you but it seems my efforts were unsuccessful. The last thing I remember was losing control of my own limbs and falling into some sort of torpor?
Wren: GM, do we have all of the equipment that we had had on us? Like if we had been carrying anything on our person?
Dax: If you had anything on your person, it’s with you. If you had a knapsack with you when you went into the library, but you left it at the table, you don’t have that.
Wren (as Eight): Well, we can head towards the light.
Wren: I flick my wrist and pop my spoon out into my hand and I just hold it.
Wren (as Eight): I do not know if we will need to ready ourselves for any sort of conflict, but I suppose I feel a little more at ease with a hand on my implement.
Kappa (as Rou): Should we continue? Not going to lie, the darkness is unsettling.
Wren: And I suppose, let’s start walking towards the light?
Kappa: Start walking towards the door to light.
Neil: I will follow along.
Dax: Arthas, do you… you had said that you wouldn’t have had the wherewithal to club at the door. Does that mean you had left the club at the table and you just didn’t want to go back and get it? Or you had it on your person and just didn’t use it? Trying to determine if you have your club with you now.
Neil: Given how tired I was, I probably would have left that there.
Dax: The three of you walk towards this light, and as you walk closer, it starts to get bigger and bigger. You don’t see what you’re walking on, if you look down, you look like you’re looking into utter blackness. But it almost sounds, from the leather of your boots and the metal of your footpads, as if you were walking on metal or glass. When you get to this light, you realize that it is in fact a door. You don’t see anything on the other side, it’s so bright. Especially compared to the utter darkness you’ve been surrounded in. Do you walk through the door?
Neil: I do so.
Dax: You watch as Arthas walks through the door, becomes enveloped by this light, and disappears from sight.
Kappa: Does, does it feel warm at all? Or is it just -
Dax: Warm as in the sense that a bright light might feel if it had been left on for a long time. Not so much warm as the sun does.
Kappa: Okay. So it’s, it’s not just a light. It’s also…
Dax: A little bit of heat.
Kappa: Okay. I will step through.
Dax: Okay.
Kappa: Am I incinerated?
Dax: No. [laughs]
Wren: I watch the two of you go through and I just go,
Wren (as Eight): Arthas! Arthas, can you hear me? Are you still there?
Neil (as Arthas): Yes!
Wren (as Eight): Friend Rou! What is in the light? Are you okay?
Dax: You can hear Eight, by the way.
Kappa: I can hear Eight, I’m just going to play a little prank.
Kappa (as Rou): [voice echoing] It’s only death.
Wren: Did you say, it’s death?
Kappa (as Rou): [voice echoing] Oh no, Eight! It hurts so much, come save us! Oh my, oh no…
Wren: [gasps] My friends are in trouble. I, I rush through.
Wren (as Eight): Do not worry! I’ll save you!
Dax: Like, I totally believe it. Like, Rou can definitely, I feel, if anybody would be the prankster.
Wren: I believe it. [laughs]
Dax: And that’s where we’re going to end this session.
Music fades out [40:55]
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.