Arc 10 Descriptions

## Episode 0: Introduction Monologue

[01:25:47]

"If I may have your attention for just a few moments of time. I would love for us to take a journey together, to participate in one of the oldest human traditions, that of storytelling. I have the honour of being your gratious host, and I have taken great care to weave a tapestry before you now, a mystery in more ways than one that only you can solve, as it was made for you.

The players: actor, writer, and audience all at once, I thank you for lending me a thread to spin into this tale, and ask for you to suspend reality, that we might all dive into the world laid before us and breathe life into it once more. Do you wish to come with me on this journey?

And I would be remiss, if I did not ask you, dear listener: You are the one who gives meaning to this story's telling, who grants sound to the trees falling in the forest. Would you do me the honour of following us on this journey? If you do not mind, I will take you continued attention as a yes.

So let us go, let us go far beyond the ocean, past the ships of the sea and beasts of water and air and whatever denizens find refuge within them, beyond the veils of foam riding cerulean waves, into the cushion of the shore of the Island of Luno, beyond the shore into the sleepy expanse of the Coteau Bay, past the bay up river we find ourselves at Port Manteau of Malum.

Malum is a land where the earth harbours neither forgiveness nor punishment, and magic flows ever present as the waters and air, where gods walk amongst the people with whom they deal in bargains, pacts, penance, and prayers, where actions and words are embraced in equal measure, where secrets and contradictions grow amongst the flowers, where the assurance of mystery has become its own comfort and its own culture. Beyond all of this devine pretense we find ourselves at Port Manteau at Malum, looking upward from the water past the rolling hills and thick jungle at the peaking silhuette of a tower carved in black against the light of the sun. Like a dandelion in the rocks, it is growing despite and against the environment in which it was birthed, though not entirely without its permission. We find ourselves at the home of one wizard Leofric Theophania Highwater Illanya Orpheus Rennigold, known to friends as Tiffany, and others simply as The Wizard. Perhaps the most infamous of local legends, having devoted themselves to the arcane more than is tolerated by polite soiety. Though discouraged, the study of arcana has proven itself to be a necessary evil, and perhaps, at times, an unexpected good. And so Tiffany has remained.

As the night grows on when darkness grows thicker than the underbrush, and the only things in view beyond the treeline are the occasional pair of eyes and whatever large shadows move with them, we will find ourselves within this tower as this evening holds the centenni-annual gathering of the necromancer's guild, a small organisation that lies somewhere between rumour, myth, and legend.

And this is where we part, so to speak. I apologise, but I am quite busy. Like I said, there is a gathering tonight, and I have the honour of being your gracious host. Whether or not you are part of the necromancer's guild, you have either through invite or happenstance, find yourself at the estate of the wizard Tiffany on this of all nights. I believe in setting your expectations that you will not find yourselves disappointed with the story unravelling before you. Friends, within this story, I will promise murder, I will promise mystery, and ask nothing in return but that you search alongside me for a story's conclusion, for each character has their own agenda, whether it has been revealed to them or not, and the only thing set in stone are the glyphs carved into the tower where our story is set. So keep your wits about you, pay attention to the clues, and we shall embark."

## Episode 2: Tiffany's Speech

[01:40:30]

"Members of the necromancer's guild, and esteemed guests, we have entered as is outlines in our bylaws, the ancient traditions, the show and tell portion of this evening. I, as your host, have been tasked with presenting a summary of work that has been building over the past several centuries, in some ways predating my membership and the creation of this very, very guild. In other ways, well, this is a very recent discovery, otherwise I would have brought it up last time to overshadow, you know, other people. Anyway, allow me to set the stage.

We know the practices of blood magic have grown in which people have circumvented the need for arcane components by drawing on the source for their very life. What if I told you, that the necromancwers of lore, the ones who fell armies in order to use their skeletons to win futiled wars, to have more mortal complaints and disagreements, such petty things, what if I told you, such pain didn't need to exist? No more will we need to beholden to the gods or their promise of immortality. There are other beings throughout the world, naturally, that have mastered what it means to truly be eternal, without followers, without prayer, without tearing asunder the flesh of the masses dooming their immortal souls to torment, without pain or victims, simply by altering their relationship to life and death.

This world is full of puzzles to solvem, within the weave there are stories to hear more ancient than the Lacuna, and the meteor that birthed it, more ancient than the planes themselves, if we only listen when they talk. If we learn to see the universe for what it is, to fear darkness no more than light, and understand that death is not an end, it is the entropy of existence returning to balance, a cost incurred in the same way, everything that flies eventually falls to the ground. Death is my greatest challenge, and, now, my greatest victory."