Beiinors Campaign/Session 21

**Transcription Notes from Paavo’s Recording Library, RecallBox #1.01.0204-0205**

**(Silence. Emptiness. No one seems to be in the room right now aside from Paavo. He sounds… distraught, and as though he’s focusing his attention on something in his hands.)**

*Damn it all, why did I ever sign up to do this stupid book? Some things aren’t worth dredging up like this. I need to see them…*

**(The sound of a metal object can be heard clinking against a table. Then, a humming noise that almost sounds as though the object is spinning. A new voice cuts the silence. This one is much gruffer than the book writer from before.)**

**Hey, kid. Got news for you.**

*…What do YOU want?*

**Come on, don’t be like that. Our problems are in the past.**

*Uh huh. Forgive me if I still expect you to hold a grudge, because you’ve always been good at that.*

**Spare me your melodrama, Paavo, I don’t need to hear any of it. You have a visitor, but he won’t see you while I’m here. But while I AM here, since that night’s going to be the topic of conversation, I might as well throw in my two cents. Yeah, I overheard you whining about that “stupid book” earlier.**

*…Alright, I’m listening.*

**You’re well aware of what happened to me after the fire. That night I was afflicted by that… hell. The night after your merry band of dipshits rolled up into town like you owned the place was an important one. I was set to meet with the Hunters that night. I guess some of you saw the “treatment” process I’d been put through.**

*Why the arm? Why does the vial have to be incubated like that?*

**I just did what they asked me to do. I would have done anything for a cure, you know. I worked with whoever I felt could help me. A little bit of pain would be worth going back to some semblance of normalcy. But don’t ask me for the scientific details, that’s not my wheelhouse.**

*Fine. So, you met with the Hunters. Gentle Fury was there, and so was… Moira.*

**Yeah. And you thought I hated your guts after everything that happened. She makes me look like an old, dear friend.**

*I thought you said, “no melodrama.”*

**Yeah, well it’s funnier when it’s used against you.**

*…Get to the point. You had one vial, which you took out of your arm. Moira gave you the second one, which you drank. Then… something happened. Bolt wasn’t exactly clear when he told me about this.*

**Do you think I understand what happened? I was cursed to be a fucking werewolf. I’m getting my treatment from people who can become one of those things whenever they want, while I’m forced to? It’s like I was being taunted every time I met with them. But either way, it didn’t work. While I was hunched over screaming my lungs out, hoping this sludge would do something for me, they had to kill… something. I didn’t see what it was or why things showed up in the first place. And I didn’t care.**

*Yeah, I know, progress is never fast enough for you. I get it. If any of this was easy it would have been invented a long time ago.*

**Don’t pretend to know what you’re talking about. All you Adrian worshippers are the same. “Oh, progress is inevitable, but if we didn’t have failure, we wouldn’t know what success feels like.” Bullshit. That attitude doesn’t solve the bigger picture problems.**

*And reaching out to small-time thugs like the Marble Wolves somehow does?*

**At least I was taking the initiative. But it doesn’t matter now. Your so-called friends accosted me on the way back into my home. I don’t know how they hid; you could smell the little one from miles off—**

*Ok, I’ve heard enough. Your “two cents” isn’t buying you any sympathy. Please leave. I’ll ask my so-called friends for more information because I trust them to be objective.*

**(The gruff visitor leaves in a huff. There’s more silence, followed by a horrible screeching noise. This must be what it sounds like when a box is smashed, thankfully the voice was salvageable. The next box picks up in a livelier place: a tavern. Two voices pop up, both quiet, only one familiar.)**

*I can’t believe that he of all people would have told me you’d be coming here. I don’t know why he’d even extend the courtesy after the last time I talked with him. Regardless of that, I’m glad I have a chance to ask you a few things. You know… now that it’s all said and done, I have to ask… why that night in particular?*

**(The other voice speaks up. It’s soft, but… haunting. As though this person has seen, or caused, great tragedy.)**

He had his reasons, kiddo. They were valid ones at that. Besides, progress has no end, but it also has no set beginning.

*Come on, don’t play games with me. You knew damn well where I was all that time, and you both showed up out of nowhere to provide me with just enough to prove everything I thought I knew was a lie. Did you expect me to just nod my head and move on with my life?*

Yekhil, it’s—

*Don’t call me that. I can’t… use that name. You know that.*

**(There’s a pause. The softer voice cracks a bit.)**

Ok, Pete… it’s more complicated than you knew at the time. Look, we’d been scouting out Hypox for a long time, and when you’re working for multiple sides, you tread extremely lightly to not piss any of them off. We didn’t have a choice, and we didn’t have the time to explain everything.

*Especially not you. You had things to give us first. Not to mention having to die for your cause… one of them, at least.*

Hey, you can be bitter all you like, but that ring saved your ass, just like I hoped it would. It… kept you safe. You all had to be safe from Ordo as long as possible. None of you would have survived with them on your tail. Xayin and I… we wanted to keep you away from them forever, if possible. But after you came back to town, we knew we would lose that fight.

*So, you worked for Ordo for a while before realizing what they really wanted. Not progress, but supremacy.*

Yes. The chaos between the planes would open a power vacuum that mortals would fill. Or so they claimed. We knew about the resistance movement, Quo, because we had fought them before. We figured they could, with enough coordination, make a serious hitch in Ordo’s plans. All we needed was the perfect time to make our escape.

*The night we reunited.*

It had to be that way, Pete. A group with that much influence is nigh impossible to back out of. Not without being a little desperate.

*A “little” desperate? You set up a fake betrayal and had her kill you.*

I got better. And I’ve done worse than that. Sometimes you do things that don’t make sense to people at the time. You did something like that that night too, you know.

*I didn’t do anything I felt was undeserved.*

You still held the guilt for the things we did during the fire. Why?

*Because I didn’t know everything yet. And until I did, those chemicals were still my responsibility, as was what happened to my friends.* *So, I still had to do something about it.*

Just as bull-headed as I was…

**(A few moments pass.)**

Listen, Pete… The cure may have been Ordo’s project to begin with, but Adrian willing, it’s one that can benefit everyone. And it’s one that we’re never going to stop improving.

*Yeah, though I’d prefer researching it in a way that doesn’t involve kidnapping people or storing objects underneath someone’s skin. …By the way, are you stopping to see anyone else while you’re in town? I’m sure X would be happy to see you. He loves long-term projects as much as anyone I’ve ever known. I’m sure with him and the Hunters, you’d be fine if you hung around here for a while.*

No, Xayin and I are trying not to complicate things again. We’re going to… lie low for a while. If you need to find us, you know how.

**(Paavo sits alone once more.)**

*Lie low, huh? Just like the first time. At least this time they’re there together. …Hey Ox, keep the specials coming, it’s going to be a long night.*