Speaker 1: Welcome Welcome back assorted megafauna to the next archive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're keeping that. We're keeping that. Welcome back mammals
and assorted quadrupeds is what I was gonna say. The
MegaFon is real good. To the Knicks Archive. I am
your game master, C. D. Corrigan. I am joined as
always by my lovely wife Matty Hammad.
Speaker 3: Hello, I'm playing Sarah.
Speaker 2: And our very dear friend Marissa Montero.
Speaker 1: The interrupter ed voice of Cake.
Speaker 2: The real and figurative chaos goblin of the group. Last
time on the nixt Archive, our crew had been setting
out across the arctacondra north of Osk, seeking some sort
of ancient ruin in the Bulwark Mountains far to the north.
After a day of reversing with their new companions Orlo
and Tula, the centaur siblings, one of whom appears to
have some connections to the Great Old One who wants
to eat the world beyond the bounds of time and space.
No big deal. Our party settled in for their second night,
having crossed the open tundra and preparing for an ascent
into the rocky mountains. But before they were able to
bed down for the evening and sort of assess what
they were going to do there. Skink spotted a pair
of tracks around their camp that did not belong to
any of them. Obviously coming up with the most logical
plan that they could, our heroes decided to fake a
potty break and headed over to the tracks, only to
be interrupted by a mysterious voice from the night that
could have picked a more private spot. And that is
where we pick up. Sarah. You squat down to look
at these tracks, and if you'd like to, in the
split second, you can make a precision check to examine
the tracks.
Speaker 3: I will do that.
Speaker 2: Well, you're pretty distracted in this moment. I think it's fair, right, right,
Sarah rolling straightforwards? I think for the entire last episode.
Speaker 3: Yeah, really struggling.
Speaker 2: Struggling.
Speaker 3: I will say Farah didn't actually pull her pants down.
She would have been examining, so she wouldn't have done
that knowing that there's possibly somebody out there. Do I
have a reaction to? Can I like? Do I have
an ability to have like a reaction?
Speaker 2: Uh? We are not in initiatives. If you have a
response to hearing a voice just behind you, you are
welcome to just respond accordingly, I'm.
Speaker 3: Trying to decide if she's that startled. I actually do
think that she would cast pinprick pretty immediately, just as
a like reactive. Sure, sure she's looking for like she's
expecting trouble.
Speaker 2: So why don't you describe what Skink sees in this
moment watching you head over to the tracks?
Speaker 3: Does she see the individual who spoke to me?
Speaker 2: I don't think she does.
Speaker 1: From the last episode, it sounded like it's just a
voice to both of us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you definitely have both heard the voice.
Speaker 3: Oh but Skink, I didn't think you followed me.
Speaker 1: No, I didn't. I'm by the campfire.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a little bit further back, but you heard
the voice too. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I guess Skink would the farah squat down
to examine the footprints, and like bare like a split
second of doing that, stand right back up, whip around,
and she would can I describe? Do I get to
decide with my blood mage magic? Okay? So she would
see this small burst of like red light that or
maybe not like light light like it wouldn't be super illuminated,
but a very clear, like magical burst, just a small,
almost needle like Projectile of sorts, pinprick is a blood
mage ability. It is a spell and I can target
myself for a willing creature and it gains one round
of bleeding. And I think in this case sometimes she
likes to make herself bleed. In this case, I think
she would beat her the whoever she feels like she
heard behind her. Okay, okay, I don't know if it
hits anybody.
Speaker 2: But well it's not a willing creature, so inherently.
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, no, no, okay, she wouldn't have used that one.
Then I think she would then use it on her self.
I still think she'd choose pin prick. I think she'd
use it.
Speaker 2: This changes.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry I didn't read carefully. There's listeners. I apologize.
I think she would use it on herself, and I
think she would use it to trigger blooded No, I
can't do both of those at the same time, can I? No?
I can wait, they take two.
Speaker 2: Actions, it'd be two different actions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, I think she would still do pin prick
to start with and on herself.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I have a whips around and you see skink,
you see the familiar sight of this like it's not
like an enormous burst of light. It's more like it
kind of if you ever see the liquid from like
a glow stick on its own, where like it is luminescent,
but it is not casting a ton of light unless
it is super concentrated. You see this little flicker of
this crimson energy and then Farah, you kind of gain
just the beginnings of that like blood haze that hangs
around you as you gain a blood token. Sarah whips around,
starts calling up this blood magic skink. You have a moment.
What do you do? You do not see what she
is reacting to, but you did hear a voice.
Speaker 1: I did hear a voice, and so I in the
full darkness, I am going to become phantasm, just in case
I need to cause some damage. And like it's dark,
so I know I'll definitely do something terrible if the
moment calls it. But I'm just gonna like be dark,
darker and more menacing.
Speaker 2: Read become phantasm for me.
Speaker 4: It says.
Speaker 1: You wrap yourself in shadows, becoming more powerful the darker
your surroundings are, according to the table below. And I'll
skip light because we are in darkness. It is night
when you deal damage that to a target that is
also in darkness, you deal an additional one D four
eldridge damage and it has a little extra part here
as this horror. When you deal eldridge damage with this
ability against the target that is frightened, it would take
the same amount of psychic damage.
Speaker 2: Lovely, so Pharah whips around blood magic. Skink wraps yourself
in this like. It's not the same as your like
aura of shadow, but you just start to like call
upon the darkness around you to prepare yourself to potentially
have to react to something. As Skink, you trigger that
shadow magic, you shift into the state, and you draw
up that energy you see as you pull in and
activate the mana for that spell. A figure appears, almost
materializing from like the thin air of the night, standing
equidistant between you two and looking side to side. This
is the visage of an old man. Looks to be
a guy in, but not Gallio's a guy in. He's
a frost or a mountain guy. And it looks to
be cleaved much like from the frozen rock around you,
and into the shape of a rough hu man. This
figure is got the quality of an old mountain much
more weathered, smoothed features and worn down. And you can
see as he shifts his gaze between you, the center
of his head is actually cleaved in twain. The whole,
like from his nose opening and eye sockets and everything
where they would be is just completely cut through. So
these two halves of a head are turning and operating
and joined just at like the jaw.
Speaker 4: This is awful.
Speaker 2: And this man, who himself seems to be wrapped in
the stuff of night and shadows between the two, settle down, everybody.
It's dropping in to say.
Speaker 3: Hello, who are you?
Speaker 2: I've had a lot of names, the locals up here,
They've called me a zero zero windser It's not my
first name, and it won't be my last.
Speaker 1: Why are you here.
Speaker 2: Now? It's always good to see who's come to the neighborhood,
isn't it. I could ask you the same you came
to my mountain?
Speaker 1: And then Skink, Remember is feeling something weird in the rock?
Speaker 3: It's like, is this your rock?
Speaker 2: Possession is not a thing that we quantify in the
same way I am of this rock. It is of me.
This was not always the case. The rock has been
here a very long time, as have I been not
nearly as many eons. But now I am of this rock,
and it.
Speaker 3: Is of me.
Speaker 2: And you sense in the way that he is intoning
this that he is not talking about the wall you
are standing next to. He is talking about the mountain
that it is part of.
Speaker 4: Is like, are you a ghost?
Speaker 2: It is mighty funny for one who has cloaked herself
in the stuff of night again and again to ask
me in this time if I am dead? That is
something you would be able to answer as well, if
I don't miss my mark, young miss. But no, I
am a living man, just an old one.
Speaker 1: How would he know how much dead stuff I look at?
Why would he think that? And is a very still
like not going to drop phantasm? Still like why why is.
Speaker 4: This dude here? Why is this dude here?
Speaker 1: Uh? And then and then skid guess what do you want?
Speaker 2: Once again you are asking me questions that I have
thought to ask of you. Come, Will you sit by
the fire for a moment we can speak? Sivilly, I think.
Speaker 4: Are you alone?
Speaker 2: Is a mountain alone? There are others of my can here.
There are many things upon my face and beneath my surface.
You are here. I have not been alone in quite
some time. But if you are asking if I brought
others who mean you harm to this place, the answer,
of course is no.
Speaker 3: Sarah is letting skin Jo all the talking at this point.
She's very wary. She's gonna slowly like circumvent him and
out towards the fire. Uh.
Speaker 2: You have the sense like as you kind of strafe
around this guy, Farah, there is a darkness have gathered
within the shattered skull that this man is speaking with.
His eyes are just sort of gazed fixed ahead, But
you have this uncanny sense that both of you that
he is staring directly at you.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, well we all know that pray have three
hundred and sixty or larger fields of view, so obviously
he's not a predator.
Speaker 1: Wow, incredible, and calm down.
Speaker 2: He's got binocular vision. As you kind of parah, as
you kind of straight around to stand near Skink, there's
a moment where you involuntarily like you have to blink
at some point. When you do, he is gone, and
then he calls out from behind you over by your fire.
Once more's has come sit we can discuss Civilly and Skink.
You don't know when you lost sight of him, but
he is behind you now by.
Speaker 3: The fire Bear's had like whips to where he is now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think shadow Skink also just turns so fast, but.
Speaker 2: You behold him. He is sitting next to like the
little kind of smolver pit that you guys had used
to like prepare meals and everything. There is a flame
blazing there that appears to be made of like this
tar black fire flecked through with streaks of like acid
green and purples. Just he produces a flask and he's come.
Speaker 3: Sarah is very going to very slowly sit down kind
of not like super close to him, like I think
Sarah would try to position close next to Skink sort
of like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I want to say, we're both across
from him. You're both like directly across and I've like
and I have approached. Uh, I guess still wrapped in shadow.
I'm not pulling this down until until things progress, because
this guy makes me uncomfortable and I.
Speaker 3: Don't trust him. Does her shadow encompass me if I'm
right next to her with fantasm?
Speaker 2: No, but she certainly could do aura of shadow to
try and like shroud you a.
Speaker 3: Few and I wouldn't be able to see him through that,
probably right, probably not snow, Yeah, okay, curious, okay, which.
Speaker 2: In point of fact, Farah, you're not fully sure. You've
been having this conversation and discussing back and forth, and
I think you realize, like as the adrenaline is kind
of like processing through, you did not see him until
Skink perceived him and then he was clear to you.
Like there's this very like dreams sense of like I
knew he was there the whole time, but I didn't
know he was there kind of deal. Yeah, And like
I think just at this moment as you sit down,
you kind of clock like weight that doesn't make sense, like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, weird, yeah, okay, all right.
Speaker 1: All right, so we have cautiously approached, very distrustful.
Speaker 3: And he's asked us why we're here.
Speaker 1: But how like you're sitting when you want to get
back up again, where like you didn't lean back. You're
sitting and like all of your weight is still sort
of like in your toes and you're just like perched,
perched at the edge of the seat where it's like
I might be getting up again pretty quick, Like yeah,
I have technically sat, I've technically sat, but I am
in no way settled.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as you said, the fire is giving out more
warmth than anything else you've experienced since you set out
onto the tundra. But it's not like blistering hot. It's
just like being close to this thing is like being
in a comfortable room or a tap room further south somewhere.
Speaker 3: What is Verry doing?
Speaker 2: You want to look? Yeah, go ahead, and we'll say,
make a precision roll in either one of yours.
Speaker 1: Oh, I think I'm not taking my eyes off this guy.
Speaker 4: I'm not looking at anything else.
Speaker 2: It's a two oh farah every precision roll for two episodes. Yes,
it's real bad. I think I need to.
Speaker 3: Pick a different dice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you kind of have this thought, and then you
can't really tell from here you're having trouble between skank
and this guy perceiving really the rest of your campital
Sure that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, between your like now incredibly dark and shadowy friend.
Like maybe you just see like the tiniest glint of
like you know, when light reflects on eyes, there's like
a little bit that you can see, but a lot
of it is just kind of misty and hard to
pinned down. Like it's there and like not there at
the same time.
Speaker 3: I think Vera is gonna wait to see what Skink says,
because he's asked us why we're here? Right sort of?
Speaker 1: He keeps, he keeps, just like mirroring my questions back
at me.
Speaker 2: Shall we start again? I had come down because it
is not every day that two marked ones make their
way to the base of my.
Speaker 3: Mountain, marked ones marked by who.
Speaker 2: My dear mother and patron, the Mistress of Night has
taken note of you two upon this land, this place
that is dear and sacred to her.
Speaker 3: Okay, now can I do a knowledge check on Mistress
of Night?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Is this something that I would have heard of? Or
I have to roll for.
Speaker 2: It to roll for it? Definitely? All right, we're gonna
puke peg this one at a fourteen? Still tough?
Speaker 1: I got an eleven?
Speaker 3: What did you call it? What? What did you say?
It was a knowledge?
Speaker 2: Knowledge going for fourteen?
Speaker 3: Okay? Can I use my fate point?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: Let me mark it all?
Speaker 2: What effect are you invoking rolling a D eight? So
you are spending a fate point to add one D
eight to a role that you make a checker attack, you.
Speaker 3: Make yes, not quite.
Speaker 2: I got to twelve, twelve and eleven. Sorry, guys. He
he evokes it like it is a superior or a
senior to him, but you do not recognize, like any
specific thing that he is referencing. Okay, all right, her
eyes have long been upon this land, places, steeped in
the stuff of her domain.
Speaker 3: I am what do her eyes click?
Speaker 2: He chuckles? Played, He chuckles and takes a He unscrews
his flask and tosses a spray into the fire, the
black fire before him, And there is a moment where
the fire all other color disappears and it becomes the
texture and consistency of onyx, flecked through with veins of
glittering violet. Whoa before it, Daddy, damn, that's how you
turn a loss into a wind. I can't roll, but
I will get there.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna so. Pharah says, I recognize those eyes.
They've been in a dream of mine.
Speaker 4: Is that how we were marked?
Speaker 2: Perhaps when you were marked? Is many people are marked
throughout their lives. You've had brushes with all kinds. I
assume for her to have taken interest in you, these
others that come with you here have seen death and
destruction before, but it did not leave its mark on them.
In the same way, Ah, you two are marked because
it has become part of you, part of your life,
part of your deeds and doings.
Speaker 3: I see, see he called her the mistress of the night?
Did he what else?
Speaker 2: Did he call her his patron, his mother, mistress of Knight?
Speaker 3: Is there are there any other names your mistress goes by?
Speaker 2: He kind of laughs, just like you are keen to
taxonomize and identify. I see and I respect that it is.
Speaker 3: I am a seeker of knowledge, a.
Speaker 2: Seeker of knowledge. We are purveyors of wisdom up in
these parts, not necessarily dispenser's of fact, However, I do
can your meaning? I believe you are seeking after the
name of Nix, the mother of Knight.
Speaker 3: Okay, now can I roll again?
Speaker 2: God, you would know the name Nix as a patron God. So,
in point of fact, Farah and Skink are well traveled
you guys. We've established this in your session zero and
your character backstories and everything. You guys have been the
length and breadth of at least one continent, possibly more,
and you've certainly interact with people from all over the world,
Nix is a lesser cult. The continent you guys are
on is called Concord's Reach. Nix is a relatively lesser
cult here, not due to a lack of perceived power
or influence, but simply because her domain is not one
that many people flock to worship towards. There are other
gods for funerary rites and good fortune and protection and
like other lesser elements of her kind of realm. Actually,
the strongest following that she has here is amongst sailors,
because as the Mistress of Night, she is deeply tied
into navigation and stars. But her other most well known aspects,
and the reason why people don't frequent her worship in
this region is due to the fact that she is
also the god of death.
Speaker 3: Right. Sarah is gonna like, like very clearly, It's seen
on her face that she recognizes what that is, who
Nix is, and she it like clicks for her. She's like, oh, yeah,
I guess it would make sense that we've drawn the
attention of Nicks.
Speaker 1: I think as a shadow of age and necromancer, Skink
has definitely heard of this.
Speaker 2: Of this Skink has Skink I will actually say as
part of just your class choices. Uh, Nix is one
name of this entity. Uh, there are others. She is
a lot of gods are known by like different faces
and names in different parts of the world, different creeds
and cultures and whatnot. Nix is one name of this entity.
You have heard inklings of others. Some other religions and
cultures assign the different slightly, like varying domains to different gods.
So in some places she's also seen as like a
gatekeeper or a judge as well as but here most prevalently,
it is just the domain of death and night.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Can we do a quick lore defining moment since
we're at this juncture, what version Skink has used? Like
as a as a little goblin who has been learning
the art of necromancy and the art.
Speaker 4: Of a shadow majory?
Speaker 1: Like there must be one that that Skink knows best.
Speaker 2: Oh, let's see, well, so you tell me. Is Skink
from Concord's reach ers Skank from further afield continent wise?
Speaker 4: Continent wise? Wait a minute, have we looked at a
map like this?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: I mean like this is no, like Skink is from
absolutely nowhere near osc No way like way the hell
like not even your beacon.
Speaker 2: So further afield than that, I'm just kind of going
like on a radius basis, right, just ballparking. You would
certainly be familiar with this interpretation of Nix and her domains,
but getting further afield you get more into like she's
all She's not just the domain of nights. She is
the keeper of the gate between life and death. So
there's an aspect to necromancy that very much plays with that, like, yeah,
I'm gonna borrow this body. I can't mess with the
soul because if I mess with the soul, Nix is
gonna get real punchy about that. So necromancy draws very
strict lines of like the soul is for the night Mother,
the body is just returned to the earth, but in
this time we can harvest the essence of the body
and use it for an aspect or for an action
here and there.
Speaker 1: Right, So, because I'm assuming that in like some of
my spells and in like in the the magic that
I operate on, I know that there is a power
over there, but I probably maybe I just don't call
her Nicks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's so it may not even be that
you have like a phonetic other name from Nicks or Nicks.
Speaker 1: Is the name that I use, and it's and it was.
Speaker 2: I don't know either of those things could be true.
But I think what you do recognize kind of intuitively,
that is that in some of the symbols that you have,
like tattooed on your body and recorded in your scrolls
and whatever, there are glyphs that are phonetically linked not
to her name, but to the concept of this gatekeeper
that stands and divides the soul from the body at
time of death.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right.
Speaker 2: Another aspect actually that you might know her as in
certain places is just the Reaper.
Speaker 4: The reaper. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that seems like a goblin waver. It seems like
a very goblin Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just making.
Speaker 2: This little goblin grim reaper.
Speaker 1: So the rap back and uh okay, So that was
a lot of talking, but in the actual conversation we
just got a name. And so I think in that
instant Skink is going to draw a link between Nick's,
this Mistress of Night and the Reaper, and you know,
like this little neurons firing, like, okay, I think these
must be connected, and that's who this guy is representing
right now.
Speaker 2: So too, marked by my mother and mistress, come to
the base of my mountain. Obviously, I have to come
take a peek. As I mentioned, these others here are
not they have seen death, they have witnessed her works.
They are not marked in that same way. You are
both purveyors and experiencers. You are performers. That is rarer.
It is a rarer thing. I come not with threats
or ultimatums. I come not with an agenda. I seek
only to know what has brought you here.
Speaker 1: I think at this skink will drop phantasm and uh
after it seems like it seems like this creature knows
something about like the depth of who she is. So
she drops fantasm and then sits there as a little
goblin and.
Speaker 4: And says, Okay, then we've.
Speaker 3: Started Farah is going to cast clot Is that all right? Yeah, totally,
So she's just I lose bleeding right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: And shall we say that that blood token kind of dissipates, Yeah, yeah,
you gotta.
Speaker 3: I think Sarah at this point is pretty sure that
he could find out what we're here for, or may
already know. Like he's mysterious enough that She's like, I
don't know that it's worth lying or like saying that
we're on a flake expedition.
Speaker 5: This Kink clicks up and says, you will understand my
apprehension at your appearance. But now that, now that we're
being simple, may I introduce myself as Skink Goblin acromancer
and I am here with my friend Sarah, and we
are in search of the cultor.
Speaker 1: Were you at the battle where.
Speaker 2: This?
Speaker 1: I was like, were you at the battle where the
wall fell?
Speaker 2: Wow? Okay, okay, you went straight past finding the divining
Pool to just like, hail Mary, we're going for it.
Speaker 1: I was like, it's a shadow. It came out of
the mountain. It knows, it knows my it knows who
I am. I'm just gonna tell them, yeah, real talk.
Speaker 2: What happens when the GM drops uh primordial being in
for a conversation and the players are just like, fuck
the quest we're on. Uh, we're gonna talk about the
big arc. Okay, okay, all right, I got this. Well.
Uh he looks at you and you register his So
what you're realizing is his upper jaw is where the
split stops right like from the nose up gone all
of that up here, the two halves are frozen like,
they do not animate, they are statue. But his smile,
he kind of turns to you and just goes, all right,
you've asked a series of questions there, and I respect that,
and I appreciate the honesty here. And he kind of
gestures up towards the mountain, beyond the wall that your
campus is sheltered by. But you see as he gestures up,
it's almost as if like the night sky swirls and
you are able to like translucently see through this wall
towards the peak of the mountain, and like the cloud
cover clears and the snow sort of like fades away,
just in this vision that you are perceiving right now,
and you see that at the top of the mountain,
the peak where it would come together is in fact split,
and he goes, I have been here for a very
long time. I have seen many battles on these lands,
and I believe I know the one that you speak of.
It was the one of the first of the war
in fact, that was fought here. If we speak at
the same time, I know something of the visions that
you saw when the mother looked upon you I saw
that the calder Infinia did not fall in that battle.
That was the first clash of a great war that
waged for many years. The Caulder Infinia fell far, far
north of here, beyond my sight. What is it you
wish to know about this lost thing of great, poor,
tent and power.
Speaker 1: Skink is going to look over at Farah and be like,
we're doing this right. He knows everything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, farahnods like. She's like, yeah, obviously.
Speaker 1: Escake is going to say, we wish to know where
it was buried.
Speaker 2: He kind of goes, It's more complicated an answer than
you might think. I can tell you the plane, the
broken field is far north of here, and all that
walk upon it freeze and die before they reach the
place you would need to find. That was the last
I saw of that accursed thing. It is of here.
It is older than here, It is older than all.
It fell into the hands of wicked souls who sought
to bend and break this world and remold it in
their image and make themselves us onto a god. That
is why, as I watched the whole world went to war,
Young miss Goblin, you reached out earlier as you came
upon my mountain, and I believe you sen something deep
beneath did you not?
Speaker 4: I did?
Speaker 2: Would you like to see it?
Speaker 1: I would?
Speaker 2: He flicks his flask into the fire once more, and
the black, burning veined flame engulfs, swells out like a bonfire,
and engulfs all of you, and you drop. You feel
this great sensation of falling, falling, falling, falling, falling, and
then it stops, and you find yourself among stars, among twilight.
And then you look down and you see beneath you
is actually the split faced mountain far far below. It's
like your many thousands of feet up in the air.
But you still feel as if you are sitting around
the campfire, like your bodies do not feel like you
have moved. Aside from that sensation of vertigo, he yes,
what you felt was my mother's domain or what parts
of it have touched this land? And he sort of
waves his hand across the image, and you have a sense, skink,
I think this is most prominent for you, just based
on your character and your vision. The lands below you
explodes in points of light. It looks like you are
looking in to like the Milky Way scattered across the plains,
an Arctic tundra below, and all these twinkling lights like stars.
You are drawn, both like in your perception and your
magical like third eye, towards a particular one. It just
resonates with you, and as you kind of focus your
gaze upon it, you realize that it as it sort
of grows and encompasses your vision for this fleeting moment,
there's this touch of familiarity of a knight who rode
a b into a fight, who fell here. And then
that sort of ember of familiarity and recognition flickers out,
and you expand your gaze back out to look upon
this field of stars that coats this plane from south
of Osk to north of the mountains. And then as
the vision fades out and looks up, you see beyond
the Bulwark into lands barely traveled by mortals these days.
Far to the north of the Bulwark Mountains, this plain
of tundra and ice and snow and rock. More stars,
dense pockets in some places, millions of them, it seems.
And then some scattered out far far out, some blaze
bright like nova, some barely flicker like you can only
see them out of the periphery of your vision. And
then the fire fades back, and you were sitting around
it once more. You were attuned to certain things. You
are marked when you reached out. Since what was here
you found death, much of it has touched these lands
more so than most other places.
Speaker 4: Is our expedition party doomed?
Speaker 2: He just laughs, sees, that's not for me to say.
That is more for you to do or do not. I,
for what it is worth, do not see you undertaking
anything that I think must lead to your doom. Certainly
harm can befallow you here, and I have not the
power nor will to stop that, nor should I. But no,
I do not think you have been marked for damnation.
It is more that you drew a passing glance from
eyes that are tuned to see what you delve deep within.
Speaker 1: I look over at Parah to see if there's anything that.
Speaker 4: She wants to ask. While while like Skink is taking
in all of this.
Speaker 3: So Farah is at this point, She's like, he knows
a lot. It's related to Nix's domains, but she is curious.
She says, I know this might not be within your
mother's perview, but the flakes that are here are what
people call flakes. Do can you tell us what they are?
Speaker 2: The calder Infinia is not of this place. It is older.
When it came through it brought matter with it. There
was a cleaving of planes, a collision of worlds, and
between all worlds. Does flow the ether either normally as
it comes into the world as annihilated, it gives itself
to fire and fury, and then fades back from whence
it came. But in the presence of that god forsaken
mote of deepest cold and stillest night, some was frozen.
And in the Great War, the great conflicts, and the
violence that ensued, there was scattered across my mountain in
these lands that I believe is what the kids these
days referred to as flakes.
Speaker 3: So that just confirms what Sarah had like ascertained from
her inspection. It was like it was like a thing
that she thought might be based on what they know
at this point. So just confirm that. Thank you for
answering that question. I had suspected as much.
Speaker 1: But this gig feels like they're getting a lot out
of this. And then and then wants to ask.
Speaker 4: Zero, you have been so helpful so far.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that we can give you in return.
Does your mother wish to be a tribute in any
particular way on these parts?
Speaker 2: He kind of chuckles. He goes, there are gods who
want for tribute and adoration. Death is not one of them.
You will all come to it in the end, as
will I someday, as from my wants and desires. It
tickles me that you would wish to do a favor
to a thing, to a land. Perhaps there is something
a boon, it would shay. Uh, Well, we'll see what happens,
won't we. There is a place towards the peak of
my mountain, just below the split face. He kind of
flight gestures to his own like jawline. It is a
pit of darkness and damnation that was once sought as
a place of enlightenment and prophecy. A creature has festered
there that I do not care for. I am comfortable
with death and destruction as much as anything. But well,
some purveyors are simply uncouth, are they not. It does
me no harm to leave it there, but I would
take it as a kindness that I did not need
to perceive it any longer. Send it to meet my mother.
She will enjoy that.
Speaker 1: Skink cocks their head a little bit, and uh, and
says the dividing pool.
Speaker 2: It has been called that shore. That is certainly what
they sought to build there. As with many things, it
is older, but could be harnessed to such such events.
Such could be harnessed to such effect, is what I
was trying to say. And then the DM just lost
his mind for a moment.
Speaker 3: We can try our best to rid your mountain of
this pit of darkness and damnation. But one last thing,
one last question, if you you know the answer to it.
We are seeking a scroll?
Speaker 2: Are you perhaps describing the perpetual scroll that those poor
of lost souls sought to create within that place? It's
there still, it has some musings that may be of worth.
Does she of the books and tones?
Speaker 3: I think Farah is going to clock that. I don't
think she's going to say anything, but she notices Ah,
he just referenced.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does. I'm afraid to send into some tracts
of madness. After a time, as things unfolded in that place,
it was not pleasant for those who went through it.
But supposedly within the lines of this even enlightenment there
may be gleaned.
Speaker 1: Noted skink is suddenly wondering if their entire mission needs
to be like rethought to destroy the things that they're after.
Like if the Calder Infinia was hidden on purpose and
it should never be unburied, do we need to go
find whatever it is we're looking for and then destroy
it to make sure no whatever access is in Like
this is this is literally what skik Is is imagining now.
Speaker 3: And I think faris on a similar page. She's thinking
now that the I think they had wanted to find
the Caulder Infinia originally, but is thinking because everybody who
seeks it freezes and dies. He just yeah, yeah, Zero
just told us that. So yeah, she's I don't think
she's thinking we need to find it and destroy it.
I think she's thinking, oh no, this is something that
is being kept tidden for a reason and we do
not need to uncap it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And she's
actually second guessing the scroll now, like she'll complete the
mission for five, But originally I think she had wanted
to read it. I think she'll she's she's still willing
to take a glance, but now she has a I
think a better understanding of think it might not be
worth it.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I think Skick is gonna ask, do you
have any advice for us as we as we trek
through these through these parts?
Speaker 2: Advice is tied to goals. What is it you wish
to accomplish here? And then I can give you direction
towards what might bring that about. But simple advice I
believe for all living things is not to die. But
I have crossed that rubicon, and I do not fear
it any longer, so I cannot say that I empathize.
Speaker 3: I guess our goal is to retrieve the scroll.
Speaker 2: Well, it seems we are aligned in wants on this evening.
What a great and fortuitous circumstance. I do wonder if
that was in the mother's wishes, wants and machinations as
she brought my attention to you, as you brought it
on yourself. Entering the layer directly will be difficult. It
has collapsed many ages ago, and you would have to
clean through several feet of rock and eye ice in
order to even find the trail to the door. However,
if you are so inclined, he kind of does the
thing where he like gestures and like a part of
the mountain becomes visible to your perception, even though you
can't directly see it. Yes, on the eastern face of
that ridge line. Over there you will find a long
frozen underground stream. There is should be enough passage through there.
I do not know if your companions will be able
to follow you, but you two, with your smaller stature
should have no trouble scrambling up that sheet of ice.
It will lead you to the Amphitheater the atrium rather
of the divining pool. It is, in fact where the
water from the pool does flow.
Speaker 1: Or did Skig's last question is going to be this
creature at the dividing pool, which I.
Speaker 4: Promise to.
Speaker 1: This creature at the divining pool, which I promise you
to dispatch, does it have any weaknesses?
Speaker 2: Admiring the irony of the situation between well who sits
around this black and fire right now? It does not
much care for light, good to know? Good to know
normally something that would make me appreciate a fellow creature
of the night in darkness, But that there are things
that are comfortable in the shadow, because it is a
natural state. It must exist. For there to be light
and warmth and becons, there must be darkness and shadow
and night. But there are some things that seek to
cloak themselves within it, to hide their wickedness and their stain.
This is of the latter kind.
Speaker 3: Is this something that we would need our companions to
help us fight or is it something we can dispatch
on our own as a two person team.
Speaker 2: A strong arm in a battle will always treat you well.
I would keep that in mind. There may be other
ways to get them within before you face the sink,
or to draw it out perhaps, but I have faith
in your abilities. If you wish to fight it on
your own, it may require more than simple bloodlust.
Speaker 3: Noted, and I have myself one last question. I don't
know about skink, but just to clarify, out of respect,
you are comfortable with us reversing your mountain.
Speaker 2: He just laughs. You will do no more harm to
me than the wind and snow do every day.
Speaker 4: Zero.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your friendliness and your kinship. Would it be
possible to call on you again in the future.
Speaker 2: You may call, I may not answer. We'll see, we'll see.
I bid you good evening and good morn, my friends.
It has been so stimulating to sit and talk with
those of you who have walked a similar path, Though
it be far in my past. Well, whether you rid
me of this menace, or if your bones are added
to those of the many graves upon my slopes and sides,
sleep well, mm.
Speaker 3: Hm m hmm, thank you.
Speaker 1: And then, uh, is Pip gonna do anything?
Speaker 2: Uh? You look down to see Pip has been sleeping
perfectly still in his burrito for this entire time. And
as you have this moment of looking down and turning
your perception there, you look up. The fire is gone.
Zero is similarly gone. Farah is crouched over the footsteps,
and you are hanging back, and you have both reacted
to a voice.
Speaker 3: Oh so I'm gonna look at I'm gonna look at uh,
skin can be like, because so that happened to you too, right,
Like that wasn't a dream? What just what just happened?
Speaker 4: It happened.
Speaker 3: It happened, Okay, all right there? Okay, so maybe not physically,
but he was there in our minds.
Speaker 1: And then I look back to see if the footprints
are still there?
Speaker 3: Yeah, good call, they are?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: Right now? Can I do a perception check again and
see if I recognize anything in them?
Speaker 2: Sure? Absolutely? Wow?
Speaker 3: Is just perception is not my thing today. It's A three.
Speaker 1: I actually feel like I want to protect our our
secret meeting with this mountain spirit, and Skank is going
to start to muddle up the the footprints so that
no one asks questions later like I want this, I
don't know if well, what would we say to the centaurs?
Speaker 4: What would you say?
Speaker 3: There is going to totally follow along she's leaving.
Speaker 1: I just start like running around in the prince and
intentionally like kicking around to make it look like I
just you I went for a walk, or you know,
I did something whatever. I want.
Speaker 4: I want to obscure the footprints.
Speaker 2: As you do, you start obscuring the footprints, you find
that the trail only goes about twenty yards, and then
it's like whatever it was just gets lighter and lighter
until it is no longer touching the snow. As you
obscure all of this and you finished kind of like
muddling up the whole area, you hear just faint, like subsonically,
like in your ear, just a small chuckle, so balls
in your court. Do you two go to bed after
your shared dream state situation?
Speaker 1: I think, I think, I mean, we're not going to
stay outside anymore, that's.
Speaker 2: For sure, you now, do hear Barry?
Speaker 3: Okay, Sarah is gonna be like, well, I think if
we're gonna have to fight whatever's in this pit of
darkness and damnation as he described, we should probably get
a good night's sleep. So I'm gonna curl up with
Farry like I was before, and okay, go to sleep,
and uh, and we're trying to I look at Farah
and I go, I'm serious about taking it out, whatever
it was.
Speaker 1: If they didn't like it, I don't like it either.
Speaker 3: I mean, I agree at this point Farah very much
so trusts Siero does not have any kind of like,
and and knowing that his patron is Nix, has a
better sense of like. Okay, I think with Farah's background,
she would not feel like a lot of people shy
away from Nicks. I don't think Sarah is like, she's
not as like put off by Nicks. It's not I don't.
I don't feel like Siah was as off putting once
he closed all of that, and he was certainly honest
and he was certainly helpful as far as she can tell.
So she is actually more focused on that now, more
driven by that mission than the mission to retrieve the scroll.
He made her very much so. Second, second, guess the
pursuit of the scroll. So I think Sarah and you
GM can tell me if this would be true. Farah
senses that zero is older than five.
Speaker 4: Is that true?
Speaker 3: Should I roll for that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Roll a, We're gonna call that cleverness.
Speaker 3: Why now I got a twelve and I rolled. That's
with my cleverness. It's a fifteen, and I'm going to
take that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Zero is significantly older than I think anyone you've
heard of, And I think on a twelve, we're going
to honor that. Several of the things he mentioned, like
not only like whatever entity or essence or consciousness he
is as a collective is older. But okay, I'm going
to give you a little bit more. But I also
want you to go ahead and make a knowledge check
for me.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's going to be fourteen.
Speaker 2: Okay, some aspect of what zero is is as old
as the mountain. It is geologically ancient. I think you,
as you kind of are replaying all of this in
your head, are getting the sense of like, okay, that
is true, but also that is a topographical feature, like
that is a thing of the world. And stone and rock.
It is not a person you can interact with. So
some part of him is that, and some part of
him alluded to being effectively a mortal who had a
life and a death. And I think on those two
checks the terms that are not definitive but that are
circulating in your mind, there are furies, which are sort
of like primordial spirits of a place, of which guyans
are closer like in the way that like fiendlings are
closer to infernals, and fermolites are closer to celestials, and
guy ins are closer to furies compared to other humanoid
and mortal races. And the other word that kind of
like just is summoned up to your mind that like
you don't have all the answers for yet, but like
feels like something might be in this ballpark. Is a
genius loci, a personification of a place.
Speaker 3: Got it, got it, got it?
Speaker 1: Got it?
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So with that sense and like what that might mean
for his understanding of stuff, she actually, I think, trusts
his assessment of the scroll and the area more than
she trusts what scib has told them. She recognizes that
civ Like is in pursuit of this scroll, but may
not actually understand all that it has. I think she's
still willing to like pursue it and get it for her,
but at this at this point Farah and Skink we've
been more mischievous. We kind of wanted to see it our.
I think she's a little less interested in that now, Skink.
I don't know how you're feeling.
Speaker 1: Skink now that now Skink is feeling like almost as
as blessed or as lucky as a little necromancer shadow
mage can get.
Speaker 3: Like.
Speaker 1: I have absolutely played with death and made a profession
out of it and made lots of use of it,
but in that line, I have always respected its limitations,
and like there are things that there are lines you
cannot cross when working in this particular realm and getting
to speak with almost like a voice of or like
you know, a representative of the Mistress of Night. Uh.
That doesn't happen to just the average goblin. That doesn't
happen to just anyone, And it didn't even happen to
our whole party. It only happened to us. It didn't
talk to Tula and Orlow. So Skink now has this
like rarefied sense of divine purpose or like and and
like you know, anything that that that that spirit voiced
is like iron truth for as far as Cake is concerned.
And if if the calder Infinia should never be uh disturbed,
then it should not. And if anyone who goes searching
for it dies, we should not. And if the scroll
leads to leading if the if having the scroll would
lead scythe to looking for it, the scroll must be
right like a scroll. Like I think Skik is a
little confused about how things work, and like who's doing
what and for what reason? And so if anything is
going to be like offensive to the reaper, and like
the person on the other side of these rules skates
like we we gotta we gotta stop that. We can't
do that, we can't do that, like we're gonna go
and and now I'm I'm absolutely gonna kill this creature.
I don't even know what I want with the scroll anymore.
I don't even know.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: I think uh Skik is like almost adduled, you know,
like the like the you were rattled before earlier, like
in a in a in a way, I think like
there's something in's Kith that's like when I go to
sleep tonight I might wake up with totally different priorities.
Speaker 4: I don't even know.
Speaker 1: I don't even know that's that's where, and I guess
I guess that's it. And it's kind of Skig feels
like something huge and tremendous and momentous has happened, and
it's a little surprised that Farah just wants to go
to sleep, and uh, it is kind of I think.
So you are like off off with uh with the
Barras and Skate is alone in the tent now with
with Pip. I think Cake's just go like a Pip
and go like Pip, what do you think?
Speaker 2: Eh, Pip? What was that about Mamma the h cosset lady? Pip?
Speaker 1: Do you remember anything?
Speaker 5: Pip?
Speaker 1: Did you see did you.
Speaker 3: See c R O.
Speaker 2: Dinner? Oh?
Speaker 1: And Eskate just shakes their head and is like, I
don't know. I don't know, Pip, I don't know what
would deal went out here anymore? And just like tucks
into bed and hopes it is like pray Yank for
another nightmare?
Speaker 2: Vision does okay? So you guys are talking down into bed,
does Skink or Parah? But because Skank just said it,
do you do anything to try and make that happen.
That's a very open ended DM question. Dang, I think.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna I'm gonna put the flake under my pillow.
Speaker 3: I don't know that Parah wants another.
Speaker 1: Yeah, dream was way worse than mine.
Speaker 3: The memory was a bit traumatic. So but I think
she's thinking about Nix now. She had that experience at
the temple where she was healed a little bit, so
she's in her experience with magic. She I think believes
in divinity of some sort. I don't think she thinks
this is always as cut and dry as some people.
I think she would want more information. I think given
that what she now understands to be a fury most
likely talked about something as a pit of darkness and damnation,
she is concerned about going up against that. And if
it's if this, if Zero is this like Pa not
patron but follower of Nix and he eluded that Nix
is not fond of this either. I think she would
like more information about that. So I think before she
goes to sleep, she'd say, like almost like a prayer
of like to Nick, if you want this, uh preacher
or essence gone, can you give me in my dreams,
more information about it, including how to get rid of it.
Speaker 2: Okay, so Sarah is doing that as she beds down, Skink,
same question. Are you doing anything particular before bed.
Speaker 1: Apart from I put the pillow?
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, two things, Sarah, go ahead and make
a willpower check for me.
Speaker 3: No, oh no, that's a six six.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna offer both of you a bit of
a devil's bargain tonight. Oh no, if you burn your
fate point, I'll let you add a D twenty to it.
Speaker 1: I don't have any faith points, so it doesn't make
it anything.
Speaker 2: Oh you're getting something else? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh okay, mmmm mm hmmmmmm, because I might want my
faith point coming up against.
Speaker 2: The D twenty can still roll, the one still roll.
Speaker 3: The one that can still roll a lot of low numbers.
But you know what Parah is going to do it.
Speaker 2: It's a fourteen on the D twenty, so twenty total.
Uh yes, oh that includes your willpower and everything. Okay, great, yep. Okay, Skink,
you have beseeched for guys sence. Is that accurate?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Okay, how much is it worth to you? Well, let
me let me, let me put it this way. Is
Skink willing to sacrifice to have that connection or is
this just only if it's being offered?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think Skik is already wowed that
they got as much advice as they did, and.
Speaker 4: I don't know what she would think to do.
Speaker 2: This is just I'm just asking if without knowing what
a price tag.
Speaker 1: Might be, Yeah, exactly, it's hard to know.
Speaker 4: With death, you can rule for it.
Speaker 3: See what Skink would design?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, maybe Skink has some divination tools on hand.
Like I wonder if Skink has ever like done bone readings,
you know, like like things like yeah, absolutely, yeah, you
know what Skink's gonna do. Skink's gonna crack a wishbone
and uh and to see.
Speaker 4: I think Skink knows that.
Speaker 1: The left hand is for uh dreams and that the
right hand is for tools. And so Skink is gonna
pull out a wishbone and crack it to see which
side got the bigger half. So I guess I'll roll.
Yeah exactly, I was. If it's odds, it's the left hand,
and if it's evens it's the right hand.
Speaker 2: It's even Okay, So what does that mean to Skink?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that means.
Speaker 4: No dreams.
Speaker 3: No dreams.
Speaker 1: To Skank, that means focus on what has been given
to you in the knowledgeable realm, and.
Speaker 4: Focus on that.
Speaker 2: So Skink has placed the flake under her pillow and
is curious to see if a dream might happen. But
that's as far as that's going. And Farah is beseeching
Nicks directly through prayer to ask did did Farah have
a forgive me? Did Parah have a specific prayer she
was offering or was it just a general for guidance?
Speaker 3: It was specifically for information on how to defeat the thing,
because she picked up on the fact that not only
did Cero Night like it, but that Nicks may not
like it either.
Speaker 2: Got it? Got it? Got it? Okay, Skink, you lay down,
You toss and turn a little bit, have a hard
time getting to sleep, to the point where I think
Pip finds his way out of your bundle and drags
his insulated scarf over to a different corner of the
tent and makes a little nest mother has restless leg
syndrome and just sort of tucks himself in over there
with his little feather like But Skink, you eventually find
your way into a fitful but uneventful night's slumber, Sarah
m HM. Have that same sense of vertigo you experienced
when talking to Zero, and this brief flash of the
split peak, and then your body, your mind, your perception
is being drawn down down through the rock, through the earth,
through the ice below it. It's a great chamber, and
it is hitch dark. It is to shadow to the
point of not only your dark vision would give you
some illumination, but this is like a dream darkness, a
lack of perception. You cannot see through it. You cannot
make much details. You have more of an intuitive sense
of where you are than any visual input that is
making its way into your mind. You sense a presence
down there, sinister and wicked and scuttling, and an overwhelming
certainty that to face it directly is death.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: Your mind is drawn to the center of this chamber,
in which there is a great, placid, dark pool carved
into the stone and the bedrock of the mountain. From
within that pool, a series of pillars rise up to
meet the roof, again carved directly out of the stuff
of the mountain itself. This chamber was expanded at some point.
All surfaces within here are carved intricately with rooms and
glyphs and etchings of magical workings and divination. The central
pillar of this room is fractured. Ice has grown within
it and split the stone from itself, replacing it with
just the frozen water. And your mind is drawn from that,
that's weakness in this structure, to the domed ceiling above
and the sun which is only so briefly present in
these twilight days on the tundra? Did you fade into sleep?
And I think actually, we've got a few more minutes
if there's anything you guys want to run Otherwise we
could call that a good stopping point.
Speaker 3: I think that's a good stopping point.
Speaker 4: I think that's a good stopping point.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that is all for this episode of the
Knicks Archive. As always, I have been your game master, C. D. Corrigan.
I am joined by the lovelinessus, Maddy Hammett laying Sarah tutaloo,
everyone and Marissa Montero.
Speaker 1: Going off into a fitful sleep.
Speaker 2: Escape wherever you are in space and time, there it
is good night, Say good night again. Damn it