Blinding Light - Session 0

00:08 - An entirely innocent use of an incredibly cursed object.

00:16 - This useless lesbian being fucking useless.

00:24 - I read a great paper back in my anthropology degree.

00:30 - What does Bastard have going for him? So things that we’ve already done prior to this point or prior to starting recording, we took about 15 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes, to let everyone read the setting guide to kind of a just an overview of the kind of shared, established steading of the Stonetop world.

00:58 - There’s a lot of things to kind of hook off of and and ideas that that the game tries to set up as established givens.

01:06 - But then a lot of the details of the world and a lot of the blanks are going to get filled in by us in play specifically things that were called out that the group is interested in is the history of the makers like the ancient race that that Stonetop is built on top of, as well as the kind of the mystery of deep water things.

01:30 - Everyone knows that deep water is dangerous in this world and that there are things that’ll drag you to your doom and also some discussion of the things below, which are sort of the big bad cthulhu elder dark demon monsters that live buried deep in the ground to be explored and discovered later.

01:53 - So a lot of interest in those sorts of things, as well as getting out to some of the neighboring towns, particularly Marshedge exploring some of those those watery areas and doing just exploring the past in general because it sleeps unquietly.

02:09 - Also, we talked about basically lines and veils, content that we wanted to have excluded and content that we want to just always fade to black on. I’m not going to go into detail about that, about what we decided on just I wanted to point out that we had that conversation already.

02:24 - And then Luke and Hobbes and Kat made characters.

02:28 - Kat. If you wouldn’t mind going first, introduce yourself, please.

02:32 - My character’s name is Korina, pronouns are she/her.

02:36 - She’s originally from Lygos, but she left there probably 20 years ago.

02:43 - Since then is for this particular world, I would say quite well traveled.

02:48 - She’s been all over the place and if she has come across a bad idea, she’s like, I want a piece of that and went after it.

02:55 - And that typically led to her needing to move onward fairly rapidly after that.

03:01 - So she wound up settling in Stonetop about five years ago and has surprised herself at still being here five years on.

03:10 - In terms of appearance, she’s probably late thirties, early forties. She’s pretty solidly built.

03:17 - She’s one of those people that my grandmother would use to say could pull the plow herself, just a very sturdy woman with short dark hair and olive skin and green eyes.

03:32 - So Lygos is kind of the down south.

03:36 - That’s the more civilized part of the world in general.

03:39 - What led you I know you said that you surprised yourself by staying here five years back.

03:45 - What’s the first thing that got you to stay? I think she might have rolled into town bloody and hard up, and the tavern keeper basically put her up and let her recover.

03:58 - And they really hit it off, became really good friends.

04:01 - And every time an opportunity to move on presented itself, Korina would come up with a reason why now just wasn’t the right time.

04:09 - It seems like someone who has traveled that widely and that broadly and has always moved on is probably not used to kindness and hospitality.

04:17 - Like it wasn’t the first time somebody had been kind to her.

04:21 - But for whatever reason, this time it made her want to stick around and help out as opposed to just being like, Thanks, I appreciate it, I’m going to keep going.

04:31 - What’s up with Korina’s background? I chose Destined, which reads Fate has laid her hand upon you and set you on a course for greatness.

04:40 - So that happened when Korina was about eighteen and her immediate response was, don’t like that.

04:49 - And that was more or less the impetus for her to leave town initially and run off as far as she could in the opposite direction and do literally everything that she could think of that was the opposite of being destined on a course, a course, for greatness.

05:05 - Like, how did you know that you were destined? First thing that happened is she had very vivid and bizarre dreams for several nights in a row, like she dreamed about spirits and monsters and things being on fire.

05:28 - And she was like, I don’t know what any of this shit is.

05:30 - My aunt has been putting weird crap in the stew again, and then a spirit appeared to her and told her that she needed to go to join the adventurers who would be arriving in town the next day. And that was when she was like and I’m out.

05:52 - And just packed a bag and very calmly stole one of the family’s horses and left town.

06:00 - Were there any repercussions from that that you know of? I think she ran into her brother at one point, like a decade later, and he had taken over.

06:15 - I think her family were merchants and I think he was either like had taken over the business or was working in some sort of supervisory fashion.

06:25 - And she ran into him at Gordin’s Delve and he was like, I thought you were dead.

06:31 - What the fuck happened? She was like.

06:37 - Yeah, stuff happened, was not honest with him at all about what had actually occurred.

06:45 - And I think it was a pretty brief interaction before he was like, well, you have to come back with me and see the family.

06:52 - They’ll be so excited to hear that you’re alive.

06:55 - And she was like, yes, I will definitely come with you.

06:58 - I just have to go pack my bags and then never came back.

07:01 - Now I’m sensing a bit of a theme emerging.

07:06 - What are the elements that you chose for your destiny? So the elements I chose was your coming foretold, protect, fire, and the makers.

07:17 - OK, so we’re going to fire the makers.

07:21 - Great, good start. The spirit was like, you’re coming has been foretold.

07:29 - We have awaited you, the time is now.

07:33 - This has been years in the making and Korina was like, I want none of this.

07:38 - Does anyone else in town know about your destiny or does anyone else, period, know about your destiny? I think the innkeeper, the lady who runs the public house? I think she might.

07:50 - Do you believe that you are in fact destined or is it just more like? She believes is that it’s definitely was a mistake.

07:58 - That she was like if the spirit has made a mistake, they’re definitely looking for someone else and that if she were called upon to do something important, that it would go badly, that she’s not cut out for it at all.

08:17 - OK, cool. Anybody else have any questions for this round? Awesome.

08:24 - Let’s see. Luke or Hobbes. Either of you want to go next.

08:28 - Yeah. So I am playing Alix, whose pronouns are they/them.

08:34 - They are the Lightbearer. Their background is soul on fire.

08:40 - You led a worldly life, a life of fear and doubt, base pleasures and petty grudges, a life like so many others, but something happened. Injury, illness, a brush with death, perhaps a moment of such profound misery and self-loathing that you thought you could fall no further.

08:56 - There in the dark, Helior’s light shone upon you, igniting in your soul, lifting you and filling you with a profound sense of purpose.

09:06 - And specifically, I think like Alix.

09:12 - Alix lived a life of violence back in Lygos.

09:18 - They’re from Lygos originally as well? There they are, they are also from Lygos originally, like they were a professional soldier, a professional mercenary, even.

09:29 - Like they they did bloody, violent, unpleasant things to both people who deserved it and people who didn’t.

09:37 - And they were very good at it. OK. And then there came a point at which they kind of like got their shit together and turned their life around.

09:46 - They are well weathered, so I think they’re like, I want to say they’re like in their mid 50s but like kind of well like well, well preserved for 50.

09:57 - Sure. And that’s I think that’s contributed to by the fact that they’re like they don’t they their head is bald and they don’t keep a beard.

10:07 - And so, like, there is no like graying to cue how old they are.

10:11 - Sure. There’s just like a lot of a lot of laugh lines and smile lines around the eyes and mouth.

10:18 - Because they are jovial, they have a melodious voice and they have a threadbare cloak.

10:26 - Their fashion is kind of like engulfing and comfy, but in a kind of like well worn way.

10:37 - How, how and when did you end up in Stonetop? I think they came to Stonetop.

10:49 - Probably like 10 or 15 years ago. Which I think was like I like, I think there is a pretty direct line in their life that you draw from, like their epiphany about like how like miserable their life of violence was to them, like moving to Stonetop.

11:12 - Like, I think that’s a pretty direct six month period of their life.

11:17 - Was it. Was it like you had an epiphany and the epiphany was go to Stonetop, or was the epiphany, I need to put this behind me and then you, like, a series of events deposited you in Stonetop? I think more the latter.

11:30 - It was like, I need to put it behind me.

11:33 - And, you know, like then they made it to Marshedge and like the the corruption and the greed, you know, and the like callous hearts of everyone in Marshedge like that didn’t really do it for them either.

11:44 - And, you know, I think they tried working and they were like, oh, like, what if I, like, made things? What if I was like an artisan? So, like, they tried to hand it like, you know, being like a potter or like a weaver in Marshedge and like that didn’t take and Marshedge didn’t take. And they were like, oh, you know what, like actually making things isn’t what I need to do to make up for what I’ve done.

12:03 - Like, I need to bury my hands in the rich earth and I need to, like, make things grow.

12:09 - And I think that impulse kind of led them to Stonetop, you know, where they settled down.

12:16 - I think the other the other thing now that I think about it, about appearance, is that like.

12:24 - It seems like being kind of like being like broad and strong is maybe like a Lygosi trait because yeah Alix is like.

12:33 - Well north of six foot, but like more importantly, like built like broad and like wide hipped and wide shouldered.

12:43 - And like, made to lift heavy things like.

12:50 - You know, not necessarily for long periods of time, but for short short bursts.

13:00 - OK, cool. Do you hold a formal position as a servant of Helior? Like absolutely not.

13:06 - OK. I think the the worship of Helior is like mostly a southern thing.

13:13 - And there there was probably a priesthood and so like, you know, outside of there, like, you know, people have maybe like heard the name, but it doesn’t they like it rings a bell, but like, they don’t really know what it’s about.

13:26 - And like, you certainly wouldn’t see, like, priests of Helior running around. It’s not that organized.

13:31 - Gotcha, and certainly not up here. Yeah, certainly not this far north.

13:36 - So mostly a southern religion. Got it.

13:38 - Yeah. And then how. How have the people of Stonetop responded to your preaching? They’re not out to convert anyone, they’re out to like like they are seeking to live a better life because, like.

13:55 - That like that is the thing that they think is worthwhile for them to do.

13:58 - Gotcha. And I think other people may well be won over by that, but like, not in a missionary kind of way.

14:04 - Sure. OK. I would also like to note to everyone that I have minus one constitution because I wanted to be bad at defending.

14:19 - I wanted the mechanics to bear out, to bear out the character’s experience there.

14:25 - I have a question. So it sounds like you said you came to Stonetop, what, 10, 15 years ago? Yeah, like 12 ish.

14:34 - And then you came directly from Lygos, right? Yeah.

14:37 - Yeah. So if Alix had any kind of reputation, Korina would have been a teenager, I think, when that was happening.

14:45 - But she would probably have had an aware. I don’t think Lygos is so big that she wouldn’t have heard of him depending on, like the nature of what that was like.

14:54 - Yeah, I think they were like in the same way that we talk about Brennan and the claws in the same breath, I think like like I think Alex’s name was on people’s lips in the same way in reference to whatever mercenary company they like were part of.

15:10 - Got it. OK. Yeah, I was the biggest, deadliest, most dangerous person, but not in a formal capacity.

15:17 - Was a very big badass. OK. I don’t want to glorify it in that way like they weren’t a bad ass.

15:24 - Oh, OK. They were a very deadly person.

15:27 - They didn’t there was nothing glorious.

15:29 - There was nothing. It wouldn’t even look cool on screen, right? Like it was a lot of like having a sword fight with people and just like sticking knives in their ribs while they were occupied or just like breaking people’s arms because they were bigger and stronger than other people in the middle of a fight. It was bloody and unpleasant.

15:47 - And like they’re not they’re not proud of it. And I, I don’t want the camera to be proud of it, if that makes sense.

15:53 - Yes, I completely get that. OK, cool, so Korina probably knew of Alix and probably knew of them very dark reputation.

16:05 - It was not it was not a good reputation.

16:09 - OK. I think I don’t necessarily want to get into the details of like what happened now, because I think that’s kind of like tease out in play, if that’s OK with you Kat.

16:24 - But like. All right. But I definitely like that idea that, like, you got to Stonetop and there was this farmer, there’s this farmer and gardener there that you recognized as, wait a minute.

16:42 - Any relation to… ? The famous murderer, mass murderer of the same name? Yeah.

16:50 - Little bit, yup. Yes. And Alix just like sighs.

16:54 - They’re like yes, you know, I changed.

17:01 - All right, Hobbes did you have any questions for Luke? OK, cool.

17:08 - Then Hobbes, would you introduce yourself and your playbook and background and pronouns and all that good stuff.

17:17 - Sure, I am called Aylwin. Ah, or Ellwen, how do we want to say that? Eylwin? E i l w e n.

17:30 - E i w. Eilwen? I guess my reading of it, it would be Eilwen? Eilwen? Right. Yeah. Because the name that makes me think of Eilonwy, which is another Welsh.

17:41 - Yeah. Eilwen. Eilwen. Yeah.

17:45 - OK,. I’m sure that we will get this wrong and.

17:48 - Yes. Eilwen, she/her, and Eilwen is the seeker.

17:59 - She is a patriot, the text of which is these people are family, chaos grows all around, but you’ll be damned if you’ll let your family come to harm.

18:11 - Damned indeed, you have sought out and embraced dark power to protect that which you hold dear.

18:19 - Or perhaps that power fell upon you and you took it up for the greater good.

18:24 - Either way, you seek more. This is going to be delightful.

18:28 - Eilwen is curiously young. In fact, she’s 16.

18:36 - She is a Stonetop native, born and bred.

18:41 - She was six when Alix showed up back in the day and I imagine took a liking to them immediately.

18:53 - I think as a. A really young kid. She was very much kind of a know it all like this is this is absolutely informing her seeker tendencies of like I want knowledge for knowledge’s sake and I want to learn everything.

19:14 - But she was very outspoken about it and very bratty about it and really just wanted everybody to know how much smarter she was than everybody else and got a lot of rebuke about that.

19:27 - And so she’s very now as a teenager, very reserved and whispery and quiet.

19:36 - How have you managed to pull it off that you have soft hands in a village where, like.

19:41 - By the time you were 16, everyone is like basically like starting to become a full time adult and like having to work in the fields.

19:49 - Every time there’s hard labor to be done, she hides.

19:57 - What a strange coincidence. What’s your your or your family’s role in the community that you had the opportunity to learn to read and write? Do you have books and so on and so forth? Like where did that come from? Maybe we’ve got a town judge and she’s been nicking him out of the out of the Chronicle.

20:22 - Or maybe we have a chronicle and we don’t have a judge.

20:26 - Or, yeah. Oohhhhh. Like a timeless vault does sound somewhat like a description of the chronicle.

20:35 - It kinda does. Oh boy. And spoiler alert, that’s that’s my–.

20:41 - That’s the one you took? One of my minor arcana.

20:43 - Yeah. Yeah. That sounds freaking delightful.

20:48 - So how’d you learn to read? I was going to ask Alix if they were literate.

20:55 - I imagine that literacy is far more widespread as a skill in Lygos.

21:00 - Korina is definitely literate because she came from a wealthy merchant family.

21:04 - Yeah. Sure. Yeah, I think Alix probably probably was literate.

21:10 - Then it was probably something that she picked up from Alix.

21:13 - That’s very sweet. Yeah, I love the idea of, like, you know, as a young child being bullied for, like, you know, being too bright and asking too many questions like heavy footfalls down the alley as Alix, like scares off the other small children that it’s like, all right, it’s time to learn to read.

21:30 - Alix was absolutely the wall that she hid behind when the bullying got bad.

21:34 - Oh, wow. Oh. Very good. Very wholesome.

21:37 - Love this. I love this. Yup.

21:39 - Can’t wait to break Eilwen’s heart when.

21:42 - Oh yeah. She finds out like who Alix used to be.

21:46 - Oh wait. Wait till you wait till you actually meet Aylwen.

21:50 - Eilwen. Oh even better. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

21:55 - So. Welcome to our terrible village.

22:00 - Who else knows about the stuff that you have, ah, acquired.

22:07 - I kind of want it to be a sibling? OK.

22:13 - A sibling who maybe is bigger and stronger and more industriously inclined.

22:19 - But younger? Like a pillar of the community.

22:23 - Normative, normative Stonetop like expectations.

22:28 - A 14 year old sibling who is just, you know, an ox takes like does all of the work that she’s not? Way to twist the knife, Jeremy.

22:39 - And a younger big brother, basically.

22:42 - Uh huh. All right. And what is your area of expertise that you chose, the things below and what else? The things below and the makers.

22:51 - OK, and I’m gathering that The Chronicle this chronicle is probably like reading the books that you got out of The Chronicle is probably where you learned most of this stuff? Yes. Yes.

23:03 - So I don’t I don’t know, out of the game know that it’s true, but Eilwen definitely believes it is.

23:13 - What is your look again? She’s short and skinny and like very just like the the definition of your bookish 16, 16, but she probably looks like 13 because she’s spending more time reading than, you know, out in the sun or possibly even eating.

23:40 - So. Alix is doing their best on the eating front.

23:46 - Right. But occasionally she disappears for like three days and forgets to eat.

23:53 - And by occasionally, I mean every other week.

23:56 - No, dear. All right, I’m loving these characters already.

24:00 - Kat, did you have anything that you wanted to ask or add? Eilwen grew up here.

24:04 - You obviously have a relationship with Alix.

24:07 - Do you think Korina and Eilwen have any kind of relationship at all? She’s been there about five years.

24:16 - I think it’ll depend entirely on how Korina and Alix get along, because I think she would follow Alix’s lead.

24:27 - Let’s actually put a pin in it. Yeah, because that’s like one of the later steps establishing like, PC to PC relationships.

24:37 - We just got ahead of ourselves. Yeah.

24:41 - But I think that’s a great question. I think it’s fair to assume that you’re going to you certainly know each other like there’s no way that you don’t.

24:50 - All right, so round two is on your second turn around, describe your special possessions, which are the things that you picked on, kind of the third page of your the third spread of your sheet.

25:03 - And related to that, how you contribute to the village beyond just working in the fields.

25:08 - So for special positions I picked first one is a good dog, a devoted keen nosed tracker who is fast.

25:18 - Korina has a soft spot for animals and found this.

25:24 - I think probably was, got them off a trader passing through Stonetop.

25:30 - Just took a liking to the runt that grew up to be a very devoted pet that accompanies Korina everywhere.

25:36 - OK, the can we can we ask the most important question of all? Yes.

25:40 - What kind of dog? They’re absolutely a mutt, but probably mostly more like a tracking dog.

25:48 - Hell yeah. Good for good for hunting, good for tracking, and then the second item is a personal token fraught with meaning, it’s a shield bearing the crest of a crew that Korina used to run with back when she was in.

26:05 - I think she got all the way up to Barriers Pass actually.

26:08 - Off some folks up there in exchange for one particular misadventure.

26:13 - And it is just a particularly sturdy shield that is both a memento and functional.

26:21 - So she’s almost always got that on her.

26:23 - So you actually spent time in Barriers Pass? Yep, absolutely.

26:27 - OK. And it’s a shield from like that style? Correct.

26:32 - Cool. Detail I’m going to throw in here. It looks nothing like the shields that get used down in Stonetop.

26:39 - Like I’m picturing the shields in Stonetop are basically like round embossed wooden things with a metal emboss in the middle of them.

26:47 - So my question for you is, how does it look just different than that? Is it humans up in Barriers Pass or is there another race? Yeah, no, they’re people.

26:56 - Culturally wise, they’d be more have more of like a Tibetan Nepali Himalayan feel to them.

27:03 - OK. Might have to think on the shield, honestly? I have a thought to offer.

27:07 - Absolutely. Which is like made of like bronze or brass.

27:11 - I was thinking it was made of something different. Yeah.

27:13 - So that works well for me. Bronze or brass.

27:16 - But maybe this is just because it’s made of metal and maybe this is like a quirk, but like it is like resonant in a way, like when you hit it like clangs and makes noise and is like almost musical in a way that like a wooden shield, like you hit it and like there’s a dull thud.

27:32 - Yes, I like that a lot, actually. Something that they do at the start of battle, like they clang their swords on their shields to make like this loud ringing noise like a Hakka or in the way that a Hakka is used to like psych up the warriors and also like send a message to the enemy.

27:48 - It’s like an intimidation tactic. So you’ve got a well trained hunting dog and a shield that comes from a very different place.

27:58 - Right? Like it definitely stands out. What do you think, and it could be related to this and it might not be, but like, what do you do to pull your weight in the village? Korina is pretty much always willing to say, yeah, sure, I’ll help out.

28:11 - And I think she’s also frequently willing to help people who have brought their misfortune upon themselves or like made a bad decision.

28:21 - You’re a good friend. It sounds like.

28:23 - Yeah. And if that person is trying to do something new or different or make it right, she’s pretty much always willing to let the past be the past, let bygones be bygones.

28:31 - And that definitely stems from her wanting to say, OK, this destiny was thrust upon me.

28:36 - I wanted nothing to do with it. So I ran as hard as I could in the other direction and tried to make my life my own.

28:42 - And so I think she tries to recognize that and act on it when she sees another people.

28:48 - Do you work the fields, mostly? Do you keep a home? She probably spends a fair amount of time in the watch.

28:54 - I think she wound up being fairly valuable just in terms of how much she’s traveled.

28:59 - Questions from anyone else. Yeah, I have one.

29:02 - Who helped you train the dog? Oh, that’s a great question.

29:06 - Because, like, here’s a well trained hunting dog.

29:08 - We haven’t heard anything so far that implies an expertise in either dog training or hunting.

29:13 - So yeah, who who in town helped out? Should we assume? Like, I know that we we’re going to assume that there’s an innkeeper and a cobbler and like a tradesman.

29:24 - But if we haven’t picked a playbook, should we assume that there is a Blessed or a Ranger or a Marshal? So, there’s definitely hunters, right? Like there are definitely people who ply the wood and bring in meat, bring in fur, bring in, bring in stuff. And there’s got to be someone who makes sure that the watches get filled and do that stuff. Whether or not that’s actually a Marshal is up for us to decide.

29:52 - Same thing with like whether or not there is an official priest of Aratis or a priestess of Danu or or any official roles.

30:00 - Then I think it was probably just a more senior member of the watch, like an experienced hunter that Korina had spent a fair amount of time with, because that was where she naturally wound up volunteering a lot of her time. And she was like, well, now I’ve got this dog that is a puppy and I should train it.

30:15 - And they were like, OK, well, let me help you with that.

30:17 - I guess the other thing that kind of point out, the general expectation is that every able body is part of the watch.

30:23 - And and it’s not so much a watch. It’s a militia, right? There are watchtowers and everyone kind of rotates through pulling a shift at night on the watchtowers and everyone drills and everyone’s expected to be able to protect themselves. But it’s also not a thing where, like, if you’re unable to do so, you’re, well, then you’re someone who gets protected, but you contribute in other ways.

30:45 - But I still like the idea that it’s an experienced hunter and someone else who’s also pretty heavily involved in the watch, that makes a lot of sense.

30:52 - All right. Then how about Alix? So Alix has a chandlery, so the supplies to make candles.

31:02 - And soap. And yeah. And other soap and other things out of wax I guess.

31:07 - And has a herb garden that they keep that is like, you know, I think imagine herb garden expansively, right? Like I think that also includes like it is a vegetable and fruit and herb garden.

31:17 - Right. Yeah. And I think honestly I think like working in the fields is like the vast bulk of Alix’s place in the village.

31:27 - I want to posit something which is that like I think they are maybe the closest to the village has to a priest, but really weird sideways way.

31:39 - In that like, I think Stonetop has folk religion, it doesn’t have like capital R religion.

31:47 - Sure. Like. There is no need for, like, quote unquote, a capital P priest to like, you know, rituals are not really led by anyone. They’re like very communal affairs, the like the lore of the gods and the prayers are kept again, like in the communal folk memory.

32:05 - Like the closest thing the village has to a priest is the person who is responsible for like upkeep of the pavilion of the gods and like making sure the altars are clean and bringing fresh candles around.

32:18 - And like, I think as the candle maker, like Alix has slouched into that role by default.

32:25 - So you tend to the pavilion. Yeah, I like you know, I sweep it every couple of days.

32:30 - I like swap out the offerings of any of them are starting to go a bit manky.

32:34 - I think they make like. I think they make like special scented candles for each of the gods.

32:41 - OK. And then similarly, there is like, you know, there is and then there is like a kind of candle for like mourning and for burning at a funeral.

32:48 - And there is probably like a kind of candle for like when we need to, like, petition the spirits of the wild kind of writ large to like, not rain terrible things down on the village.

33:02 - Why would any gods rain terrible things down on the village? But yes, so I think it is like I’m very much interested in I read a—god, I’m so sorry.

33:14 - This is like me at my worst as a player. I read a great paper back in my anthropology degree about the ways in which in Theravada Buddhism in Thailand, like women who are not allowed to read scripture or discuss scripture or like participate in like the high part of religion are still engaging with all of the same concerns of like what kind of a being is this and all those doctrinal debates by how how they prepare food offerings and what kind of food offerings they prepare? Oh, interesting.

33:47 - And so, like I think similarly, this is a thing of like Alix is a priest, but in a very like material way of life when when the decision has to be made, what kind of candle is appropriate for this thing? Like ultimately, Alix is the one who makes the decision what candle is the right offering candle.

34:03 - And that is a kind of scriptural interpretation.

34:07 - But it’s a very, like, sideways one. Just to make sure are Kat and Hobbes does that, does the idea of there not being any formal priest or any formal religion in town is that OK with with with you two? I think it tracks like if there’s if we’ve already we’re talking about there being no judge, that makes it seems likely that there’s no formal priesthood of Aratis.

34:35 - It does make it sound like maybe there isn’t a currently a Blessed either? Or if they are, maybe they keep to themselves and they only come in to visit every once in a while.

34:45 - And it’s more like. Could be like a wise person out in the woods or something like that.

34:53 - I think that sounds fine. Yeah. OK. Cool.

34:56 - Yeah, I’m totally down with it. It absolutely works.

34:59 - It also should one of you, your characters happen to pass away. It gives us all sorts of interesting opportunities for dropping a new character in.

35:09 - All right, cool. Anyone, Kat or Hobbes, questions for for Alix? How much is Eilwen involved in the candle/soap making? Oh, that’s a great question.

35:26 - Probably more now than when you were eight. Like, I think it’s one of those things where Alix has like a very calculatedly, you know, like carved out the areas into which you are increasingly allowed as you’ve grown up because like.

35:41 - Yeah, with like soap and lye and like, you know, various like herbal compounds like lying around.

35:48 - I don’t think people in general get to go in Alix’s house.

35:54 - Because it is full of things that are varyingly poisonous, if you don’t know what you’re doing, I think Alix’s front yard is a room where people visit and Alix’s house is the back room where no one gets to visit, as it were.

36:14 - I also just like to to establish real quick, just for myself, because, like, I can feel myself thinking it.

36:21 - A chandlery demands beeswax. Where are the bees? And the answer to this is, I think there is a colony of wild bees down in the great wood, quite close to the bluff.

36:34 - You know, like a kind of overgrown, like it very much has the vibe that it was, like maybe a thousand years ago in the days of the makers, it was like a garden, right? It’s like, you know, sprawling blackberry bushes and all these fruit trees grown and grown, like totally feral and rampant and like flowers just like thick on the ground.

36:54 - And like, if you squint in the winter, you can kind of see the architectural bones of like, was this an orchard once? Gotcha.

37:04 - But like, who could say maybe, you know, maybe it just happened that way. And so, yeah, I think that’s that’s where they go for for wax.

37:11 - And I think that’s also where they get some of the, like, little plants they transplant into their garden.

37:16 - And I think their garden also has a lot of stuff they like brought with them from Lygos.

37:22 - So I think like–. They that they that they brought up? Like I think there is probably a lemon tree growing in their garden and it is the only lemon tree for like a hundred miles.

37:31 - There is probably like a little patch of ginger growing somewhere.

37:34 - There’s maybe even like a row of very carefully tended crocuses.

37:38 - And like once a year, like we get the holy harvest of like, oh my god, twelve threads of saffron. And like, it’s a huge deal.

37:47 - Awesome. All right, Eilwen, tell us about your special possessions.

37:55 - Well, I clearly have scribe’s tools and books and scrolls, which I acquired from our maybe a Chronicle.

38:05 - I’ve also got a laboratory. Of chemicals, reg- reagents, vials, measures, that sort of thing.

38:15 - Is it perhaps the back room in Alex’s house? Maybe? I would say that the most likely person to have a bunch of chemicals would actually be the tanner.

38:28 - OK. Because they’re going to have lye, tannins.

38:31 - Salt. Yeah, salt. Yeah, no, no, no, no, that that that makes total sense.

38:37 - But also, like, Stonetop is full of whiskey, right? And like from that, you can derive high proof like isopropyl alcohols.

38:44 - Mm hmm. And I have this friend who’s got a back room.

38:48 - Yeah. It’s like it’s a very hodgepodge collection of.

38:51 - Right. Which is why I can make, every season, one d4 uses of naphtha.

39:00 - Fuckin naphtha. Every, like, is there ever going to be a seeker that doesn’t choose that one? I want the sparky sparky boom boom.

39:10 - This feels consistent, so I would like to volunteer.

39:14 - Did you somehow finagle that recipe out of Alix? Oh, absolutely.

39:19 - Because. Yes. Yeah, when I when I say they had an inglorious career in violence, like, that is exactly the kind of energy I’m talking about.

39:27 - Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, this was this was absolutely a like, walk in the woods conversation that was like all over the place and it got dangerously close to like “what did I do down south” and Alix just kind of whooshed past that and was like let me tell you about this cool thing that I learned how to make.

39:58 - And Eilwen was like, hi. What is your role in the village? They have me doing accounting on the granary.

40:12 - They have been tracking everything like, fine, you’re not going to show up and work in the fields, at least keep track of what we’re bringing back.

40:24 - OK. And then you probably also like someone that people would come to when they like, you know, have a letter that needs to be read and stuff like that or? Yeah, yeah.

40:34 - Or sent, or whatever. And like trade accountant too, right? In a sense, like when the village is like, hey, let’s send a shipment down to Marshedge, you’re the one who says, well, here’s how much we can spare and still have food come—.

40:50 - Right. Yeah. And I feel like I feel like Alix they tried to make you do that because they were like, hey, here’s this person from down south who can read and knows—.

41:04 - Who knows numbers and letters. And knows numbers and all of this stuff maybe they can do.

41:08 - And you were just like uh-uh, mm-mm, no.

41:12 - Well I’m actually interested in because that actually also seems like the kind of thing that Korina would actually be a natural fit for, having come from.

41:20 - As a merchant. From a merchant family.

41:22 - But I’ve been doing this for longer than Korina has been here.

41:26 - Oh, interesting. And Korina—. I started doing this when I was like eight.

41:31 - Kat did you, when you grew up, like when you were growing up, do you think that you were, like being groomed to be a merchant’s kid or? Follow up question, whatever you were being groomed to be, did it take? I think they probably wanted her to take over the family business, but she found being a merchant interesting only in the sense of getting to travel.

42:01 - I think the bookkeeping and haggling annoyed her. And when they let her alone long enough to try to mind the shop, she’d do things like make terrible trade deals in exchange for, like, bullshit from some somewhere else in the country. You should be like, oh, here’s an interesting animal skull and it’s got a red ruby in it. And they’d be like, you gave away how many bags of grain for this. And so, like, they made me do it like, twice and then they never left her alone to like, mind, or oversee transactions again because she’d always just be like oh this is boring.

42:35 - Did you did you happen to bring that skull up with you and maybe give it to me? All right. I just I wanted to make sure that we weren’t stepping on like your character’s kind of niche.

42:52 - Being like being from a merchant family with with like like like that particular role going to Eilwen.

43:01 - But it sounds like you’re that’s not necessarily something that you would have wanted your character to be all about.

43:07 - No she, I don’t think that she would shed many tears over leaving that behind.

43:11 - You might have smacked me around and been like, why are you doing it the dumb way? Here, do it this way.

43:16 - Eilwen was like, ooh, thank you. Yeah, I think that’s accurate.

43:21 - Like, I think she probably like had by the time she was 18, like memorized quite a bit about the field of being a merchant, but like wasn’t that interested in doing it herself and was more than happy to let this kid with this knack for numbers and letters and tracking fine details be the one to do it.

43:42 - The fewer questions asked about her personal history like she has that in common with Alix, where she’s like, I don’t really want to talk about.

43:51 - Why I learned how to read, because that’s that’s a loose thread that unravels a whole mess that I don’t want to talk about.

44:00 - No, yeah that’s a, we’re going to talk about other things now, I’m not interested in discussing that.

44:05 - All right. Let’s go to round three, and this one is going to be different for everyone, so this is where let’s see if we go back to Korina on this one.

44:22 - Tell us of your fear and anger and the last time they caused you trouble.

44:28 - Every once in a while, Korina will still have another like omen filled dream.

44:35 - And they’re pretty rare. I think she has them maybe like once or twice a year at most.

44:40 - I think she’s had them a few more times, like slightly increased in frequency since coming to Stonetop.

44:45 - And it makes her uneasy. And the thing that she’s afraid of is that she’s right and that the first thing she’s afraid of, rather, is that.

44:55 - She’s certain she’s not actually cut out for whatever this preordained destiny is, that sooner or later this is going to catch up to her and whatever big task or role or quest that she’s supposed to fulfill, that she’s not cut out for it at all and that it’s going to go badly.

45:14 - And then the second thing that she’s afraid of, if they are actually right, what she might actually be capable of doing, because those the, the omens she always had? The dreams and omens that she always sees are always horrible, like everything is on fire and there’s so much destruction and there’s voices screaming.

45:40 - And she’s like, is this what I’m being asked to do? What am I capable of? And so she tries not to think about that too much.

45:48 - I think that’s the other reason why she is afraid of what she’s capable of is because she’s actually ninety five percent of the time.

45:57 - She’s very easygoing. She’s very chill she’s very forgiving. When people want to, if they fuck up and they want to try to fix it, she’s like, that’s totally fine.

46:06 - But she has. When there is something that sets off her temper? It’s like dropping a match into a can of kerosene.

46:17 - She just goes up like a flame. The things that I chose for what makes you burn with righteous anger is wanton cruelty and unnecessary suffering, um, violence to children, animals and the innocent, and then threats to your loved ones.

46:35 - So the last time this happened was just somebody passing through, tried to cheat her friend, the innkeeper, out of paying for a night and sneak out, and Korina like cold clocked the guy and didn’t stop.

46:57 - And somebody had to pull her off him.

47:00 - I think that he was stealing from her also, that he had gotten into quite a bit of her food and was making off with both food and personal belongings and then was trying to leave, sneak out first thing in the morning without being detected after having robbed the innkeeper.

47:17 - She was coming home from a night’s watch and saw him sneaking out and loading things onto a like horse, saddlebags on the horse, including something that she recognized as being like personal belongings of the innkeeper.

47:34 - Was it one of Stonetop’s horses that he was also stealing? You know what, in for a penny, in for a pound. Yeah, for sure.

47:41 - She had seen him like before she left for the night’s watch the night before. And he was funny and charming and everybody seemed to like him very much.

47:47 - And anything he needed, they would have given him for free.

47:50 - But instead, he was sneaking out in the wee hours of the morning after having tricked everyone and was stealing a lot of things.

47:57 - And so he really took advantage of their friendliness and welcoming him into town.

48:04 - So it was adding insult to injury for him to basically spit in the face of their generosity.

48:10 - So I’m going to like, I’m totally cool with that back story. Like, I love I like the idea that that that’s what tripped you over. But that doesn’t strike me as the three things that you’ve selected that strikes me as cowardice, treachery and selfishness.

48:24 - I think the cherry on top of this particular sundae for me is that like in medieval Welsh lore, horse theft specifically was like a really fucking big deal.

48:38 - Oh, yeah. Like stealing a horse was the same as like violating guest right.

48:43 - Like that was you don’t fucking do that.

48:45 - Yeah. And that feels like it feels like that tied up with the fact that you, too, are a horse thief? Like originally? Like whole cocktail of like messy unresolved bullshit there.

48:57 - Oh man. I’d forgotten about that. That the whole you were a horse horse thief from your.

49:03 - Huh. Yep. That’s a would be hero. Anyone have any follow up questions? I would like to volunteer because I’m conscious that right now we have.

49:12 - We have one side of our PC triangle feels very strong and two sides of it feel a little stunted.

49:17 - I would like to volunteer myself as the puller offer.

49:21 - If that’s something that you’re interested in.

49:24 - I love that, that Alix was the one who, like, hauled her off.

49:27 - Was just like, mmm, no, we’re not doing this anymore.

49:31 - They would know when this is going to get just messy and gross and not actually accomplish anything.

49:38 - Like they know exactly where the line is at which this stops being like, I am cathartically venting.

49:42 - And like. There was the line. OK.

49:45 - OK, we’re done now. Beautiful. All right, let’s jump to Alix.

49:57 - So tell us about I always forget the word, why don’t you read this one? Let me praise the day.

50:06 - Yeah, so Alix is the appointed servant of Helior the day bringer, god of the sun and light, beacon of hope and mercy.

50:13 - Apparently. I don’t think that’s how Alix would characterize it, like even a little, um.

50:20 - Yes, the worship of Helior is, Jeremy, I have chosen two, because rules are a suggestion.

50:30 - Yeah, I think because I want to characterize it both as like, yes, it is most common in Lygos in the South.

50:36 - But up here in Stonetop, it is a new thing.

50:41 - Helior’s name probably appears sideways in some pieces of folklore, but like.

50:46 - You know, the idea of like there being a collection of stories associated with Helior and there being some substance to it, I think is new.

50:56 - And like Al Alix is the one who is bringing that that cluster of myths.

51:02 - I think Helior is worshiped through joyful song, which I think traditionally is like a group exercise and involves a bunch of like really sick harmonies and like.

51:16 - You know, kind of like cool, like a little bit like sea shanty or like work song energies.

51:23 - Yep. I think in a lot of like union, like big strong unionists, like 60s folk song vibes.

51:32 - And so I think there is something a little bit sad in the fact that, like, Alix doesn’t have anything, anyone to sing those songs with.

51:38 - Has he. Have they not taught those songs to the fellow workers, like to the fellow field field hands.

51:45 - I mean, you know, I think I think they have on a casual basis, but like.

51:50 - You know, back home, like every day there would be singing and there would be groups singing in this communal sense and like here like maybe sometimes when it’s, you know, when they’re at the public house and it’s their turn to name the song, like maybe there’s like a round or two, but it’s very much not the same thing. Like most of their devotional singing is done alone.

52:15 - Korina like you’re from the South. Does Korina like follow Helior? I was actually going to ask the same thing once, once Alix was done with their intro, I was going to say like Korina was absolutely raised in a family that was pretty devoted to Helior. And so I suspect what happened is when she ran away, that kind of she was like, oh, this is my past and I’m leaving now.

52:42 - Fuck that! And then she got a little older and and like I think.

52:45 - Unexpectedly, like first recognized Alix and be like, oh, you’re you’re that violent guy, Mister Notorious, but then.

52:55 - Eventually was like almost like a way of reconnecting with her past and her heritage, like this opportunity to worship Helior in the way that she literally hasn’t done since she left Lygos 15 years before.

53:11 - She can make like traditional Lygosi foods, like that’s something she learned from her mother.

53:18 - Yes. So like she can make like the meals that they would share on the holy days.

53:23 - And Alix has the like actually has the lemons and the cinnamon and the shit that like otherwise in Stonetop you can’t. Yeah.

53:30 - I think Alix and Korina also probably bitch to each other about how fucking cold Stonetop is? Like, why did anybody come up here and like camp out in the shit middle of winter and everything’s wet, cold and it’s terrible.

53:42 - Where is the sun. Beautiful. I love it.

53:46 - Iconic. So in the Pavilion of the Gods, Helior’s shrine has recently been restored by Alix.

53:57 - Was it restored, or was it just like created anew, do you think? It was restored.

54:01 - Like, the thing that I want to really characterize here is the name of Helior, the existence of Helior is not the thing that is unknown in the north.

54:09 - It is like the worship of Helior and specifically and particularly like institutional worship.

54:17 - So like I think Helior absolutely has a had a shrine.

54:20 - I just think like no one really thought about Helior much.

54:24 - And so it was a bit neglected, whereas Alix was like, no, OK, like this is. It’s not the three main gods. And then this like major sun spirit.

54:34 - It’s like, no, here are the four gods. And like we are going to take that seriously.

54:41 - My predecessor, the previous Lightbearer, wrote many works of sublime beauty, indeed, I think many of the devotional songs are attributed to them.

54:52 - Faced one of the things below and died in their bed peacefully.

54:58 - That sounds lovely. Yeah, it was a pretty good life all told.

55:03 - And I came into my powers after a visitation from Helior or one of his servants.

55:09 - But again, like I want, I want to like very explicitly, like not in the like burning light and like giant wings and like explicit supernatural power. Like, I think in the darkest moment of Alix’s like bloodsoaked, miserable, grimy past, like a kind person, like, reached out and made all the difference.

55:34 - So do you think it was like after a battle that you had won or a battle that had gone sideways? Do you ever really win battles? Well, I guess I was was going, like was this some atrocity that you were a part of? I don’t think it was after, like, the worst thing they ever did.

55:55 - Like there was nothing special about the bloodsoaked night after which they were visited and like.

56:05 - Kind of awakened to a better way. It should have just been another day.

56:11 - OK, cool. I have picked my thing below because I think it is a good way to reincorporate.

56:19 - I think it was El’ash-Orra. That’s that’s who I was probably going to go with too.

56:25 - It’s one of the specific named things below, and it’s specifically related to the lidless orb.

56:32 - Which is the arcana that—. I’m about to tell you about! All right, so my my step three is to describe my major arcana and tell you about my minor arcana, too. And I’m going to do that out of order because I found my major arcanum in one of my minor arcana.

56:58 - So the the place that I kept spending all of my time, that I was supposed to be working in the fields, the place that I would run away to and read was this timeless vault.

57:14 - And the the text says high in the hills or mountains, I would argue that it’s a little closer to Stonetop, but a pair of massive stone doors are set into the hillside.

57:29 - The markings outside are faded and covered in lichen.

57:32 - The doors aren’t locked, one lies a bit ajar.

57:35 - Inside the vault and its contents are untouched by time, free of dust or mold.

57:41 - Clearly, some magic is afoot. And there’s a bunch of awesome stuff inside of it that I got to read and take.

57:54 - And it was super not cursed or anything.

58:02 - But this is my. This is the. The minor arcanum that I have actually unlocked, because by spending so much time here, I noticed that there were preserving runes around and I figured out how they work.

58:26 - And I can now mark things with preserving runes and on a CON roll I will preserve the contents of the room from dust, debris, spoilage, rot, rust, etc. , But one of the things that I found on a very recent visit to the to the vault was the staff of the lidless orb.

59:10 - Which is a sphere of greenish glass etched with a cat’s eye design and set a stop atop a staff of rough pitted black iron, the orb catches the light and seems to glow and the pupil seems to widen in the dark and narrow to a slit in daylight.

59:26 - Sometimes you would swear it seems to look about on its own.

59:29 - But that’s preposterous. So I found it in the timeless vault only a few weeks ago.

59:42 - And, of course, immediately had to mess around with it and see how it worked and got my got my first mark on the on the arcanum.

60:02 - But what I what I want to assert about the price that I paid for this is that it was a long time coming.

60:13 - That this is actually the, the result of having gone to the the vault so many times as a kid and having spent my childhood there and having given this vault, like, the youthful energy or something like that, like it was sucking something out of Eilwen every time she went there and finally.

60:51 - Had paid enough that it was like, OK, I’ll unlock one extra bit.

61:02 - Jeremy, on a six minus when Eilwen marked one below, what terrible vision of some distant time or place— I was wondering.

61:15 - Did she see? It quite possibly ties into the previous Lightbearer and/or Korina’s destiny? So I kind of want to think about that bit.

61:32 - So tried messing with it. Got a vision of a distant time or very terrible vision.

61:42 - This is not a great vision, a terrible one.

61:46 - Just like clearly, the orb needs a contact lens? Blurry and out of focus.

61:53 - Some Visine. It just needs, you know.

61:55 - It’s got astigmatism. OK, but but the vault basically presented this to you.

62:05 - Right. After sucking some amount of your innocence and life energy, or.

62:12 - You’re a scrawny kid, right? I’m a scrawny kid.

62:15 - Would people say that your your growth has been stunted? Oh, absolutely.

62:20 - All right. I’m short and scrawny. No matter how much I feed her.

62:23 - Yep. She just never, you know. And in fact, maybe it’s the the vault that’s been responsible for the whole I disappear for three days and forget to eat.

62:37 - It steals like time? Where do you think this vault actually is? I was going to say it’s in the the cliff at the bottom of the cliff.

62:48 - Does it have some bears living in it by any chance? No! There’s doors on this one.

62:57 - That are, the one is ajar so that this scrawny little kid can get in, but probably not bears.

63:05 - Maybe like a bear cub. So it’s basically like at the bottom of the bluff that Stonetop sits on in the great wood, that pair of doors.

63:13 - It is probably like almost completely overgrown.

63:17 - Cool. And what are they what about the other arcana? So the one that I have but have not unlocked is the strange skull and antlers, which possibly Korina brought from down south.

63:32 - It sounds like maybe? No, because that’s like.

63:36 - No? The definition of like the description of that thing is like, like like the size of a horse, right? Right. I know, she was just talking about this like bad trade decision that she made that was a skull and I was like ooo.

63:52 - Doesn’t seem like something she’d be dragging along for 50.

63:55 - Nah. So where did you find it? Um.

64:02 - And also. I feel like a merchant. Yeah, I feel like a merchant brought it in and I’m going to go with the whole like.

64:10 - My parents are the tanners, and we keep it proudly displayed on a wall of the house.

64:16 - All right. I immediately like. Like your like your parents, your character’s parents just sort of like popped into my mind, as fully formed people right now.

64:28 - Is this a situation with your parents where the apple did not far fall from far, fall far from the tree? They don’t have a problem with me being like I am.

64:38 - Oh, good. That’s that’s telling. Yeah.

64:43 - All right, what about the third one? And the yeah, the third one is a crumbling arch on a rare dry spot in Ferriers Fen besieged by foulness is an ancient arch that still improbably stands lichen and moss grow thick and healthy. But the keystone remains clear, engraved with the sigil that makes the eyes water and that drives evil away.

65:05 - So that is my third, which I will remit to you.

65:12 - And ask. You have a lead on it, right? Yes, I have a lead on it.

65:17 - OK. I think the lead is you found a description of this like in some book.

65:28 - And then. You know, like some well traveled explorer or something like that came through and like told you, you got to like, was telling you about some of the stuff that they’d seen in Ferriers Fen and, like, described this to you. And you’re like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

65:53 - You found like, was it this? And like, yeah.

65:57 - And then you got sort of like directions basically on how to find it. And then that guy went off and got mauled by like a thunder drake or something like that.

66:07 - So. Shame. Classic. It’s why you don’t leave the road on the flats.

66:13 - Like, come on, guy. A now dead adventurer.

66:17 - Emotionally, how do you feel about the staff? When you have it in your like, does it feel good to be around, does it feel kind of creepy to be around? Does it feel? Does it make you feel powerful to have it? It absolutely it makes me feel powerful, but I also feel like I shouldn’t have it, which is why the only person who knows about it is my sibling.

66:43 - No, they saw me like sneaking it back into Stonetop.

66:49 - Like what you got there? I’m like a smoothie.

66:53 - But it was one of those, like I, I don’t think I should tell people I have this. I probably shouldn’t have it. It should.

67:01 - This is taking this out of the vault is beyond just, you know, nicking some scrolls to read.

67:09 - Like this is this is probably not cool, but it’s mine.

67:18 - I have a secret. Shit. A powerful secret.

67:22 - I think I know what the vision was.

67:25 - Oh God. Oh, no,. No. Because one of the things that’s been bugging me about this—.

67:30 - Everyone mark xp. Nah. One of the things that’s been bugging me about the story and I love this character, but I’m thinking about the whole background of the Patriot, right. Of like you’re delving into this.

67:46 - The protector. To protect your family and I think or your loved ones.

67:51 - And I think what you got was a vision of Stonetop like on fire and being weighed laced and desolated and just like smote and a promise, like some inclination that that you could help and that there was something that you could do do do about it.

68:19 - And it will surprise no one to learn that Korina was also part of that vision.

68:29 - Was Alix? Unclear, right? There’s enough going on.

68:34 - There were some large silhouettes in the background.

68:37 - One of them could have been, sure. If I may offer a detail and like Jeremy, feel free to.

68:45 - I think part of this part of the fire in this vision and part of the strangeness is wherever.

68:51 - Wherever the fire was burning on the Maker stone, it was like the stone was burning like wood.

68:58 - Oh, I like it. The normal stone that we just dug out of the ground was fine, but like but those big.

69:08 - The actual Stone? Impossibly perfectly cut.

69:11 - The Maker stones. 90 degree angle, maker stones were like. Yeah.

69:15 - Oh, what about the Stone itself? Like, you know, the Stone of Stonetop? The Stone.

69:20 - I wouldn’t care to speculate as to the Makerness or otherwise of the Stone itself.

69:27 - I am not a seeker and I am not steeped in lore about such things.

69:36 - Stonetop—. Actually on which point actually hold up, let me turn that into a question, because like you are the seeker, you are steeped in lore about the makers.

69:45 - We do have access to the Chronicle, slash a horrible room, which like given the runes like, you know, me, Luke, my running theory is definitely like the Chronicle is some kind of a maker vault.

70:00 - It contains a things a things below thing.

70:03 - Yeah. It’s rune warded, you know, like that sounds like makers to me.

70:07 - So like my question is, what does what does Eilwen think the Stone is? Like does a she think it’s a, like in the middle of town, like.

70:17 - In the middle of town. Does she think that’s a maker thing or not? Because I think it seems to me obvious that she would have an opinion, whether it’s correct or not.

70:28 - There are many actually conflicting, at odds reports of what the Stone is.

70:38 - Nothing is conclusive and it’s the only thing that she doesn’t know what to believe.

70:44 - Is it the kind of thing where it’s like there are a bunch of people all talking about it and they’re all like talking about it as a mystery that they all have theories about? Or is it like.

70:55 - You find seven different accounts that are all this is the origin story of the Stone, and they’re all fundamentally different from each other.

71:04 - I think it’s more the latter. And like not just this is the origin story, but like people’s fucking lab notes, right? Like people have done science to this thing and gotten incredibly contradictory results.

71:25 - Gotcha. Like it. Don’t do science on god.

71:28 - So she she doesn’t go anywhere near it.

71:32 - That thing is cursed. Like actively? Avoids the town square.

71:40 - I just want to propose one like it’s not even a retcon.

71:43 - But I had said that I didn’t think Korina was interested in doing, like, accounting, and I don’t think she’s good at accounting, but I think she does.

71:51 - Just because she’s traveled so much does sort of participate in, like the haggling and discussions with merchants that come into town.

72:01 - So I think she is involved in like trade.

72:04 - And that might have been how she ran into Korina, not Korina Jesus.

72:10 - Eilwen, initially, is because Eilwen was in there and she was like, what is this? Who is this literal child? Who let this small baby into the granary? But I wanted to mention that before I forgot about it.

72:28 - It is midnight thirty here. Yeah, we got to bed.

72:32 - Gotta put a fork in it. Let’s do this like sometime in the next week.

72:38 - If you are like maybe in the next couple of days, if you all could like take a look at the NPCs and request that, the next the next round on your your playbook is name an NPC or two you know that that answers the questions.

72:54 - OK. And then. Like, yeah, actually, why don’t we just try and do the like the next couple of steps just casually over the next few days over Discord? OK.

73:08 - Yeah. OK. And and then we’ll fucking sleep. .