Transcript of Audio
Well, hello, so many people come to hear my stories and songs that I can't be sure if you're a regular or new to this whole thing. So welcome. Welcome back. I am Aster Fourtuna Bard Extraordinaire, and you have the great honor and fortune of listening to my beautiful voice for a while. If you're new to our story, you're in luck. You've missed an awful lot of exciting adventures, and action. But I'm going to fill you in on everything you missed up through Episode 40, which was the end of season one. Of course, if you're planning to go back and listen from the beginning, and really, you should do that, then you should stop listening to me now. I know it is hard to resist my dulcet tones, but resist you must. Or perhaps you could listen to part of this summary and decide whether you'd like to go back to the beginning. I leave it up to your good judgment. If you've already listened to every episode, well, you're not going to get much out of this, aside from being able to listen to me, of course, but you might find a recapitulation of the events of the story so far to be very valuable. In Episode 65. Our heroes give a new companion a crude explanation of events. But let's be honest with ourselves, they just don't tell the story what style and they leave out so many important details, especially about me. How could you do that? So let's start at the beginning. With the basic facts of history. We come from a world encased in glass. It seems natural to us. But you might be surprised to learn that our world is flat. We can look up from anywhere in the world and see the glass wall sloping upward, narrowing toward the ring at the top that we call the sun. It brightens during the day and dims at night. There's a sort of lens high up on the wall that people see the gods you slip through. But we didn't put much stock in that we didn't believe in Gods. The first people of our world a woke 2000 years ago, on an island we call Arrival in the middle of the world, lying on canvas tarps suspended from tall pillars. These first people, elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, humans and so on a work with innate knowledge of skills and trades and created a society. In the middle of their Island City, there was an enormous glass container, and whenever a beam died, its soul drifted towards this jar, and was sucked inside. The soul jar was a mystery and a monument no across the world. Eventually, the residents of Arrival cross the sea around the island and discovered the world beyond binding that the seas were fed by four great rivers that fell out of holes high up in the glass. The early explorers also found four enormous stone numbers 123 and four, lying facing upward toward the sky, each in a quadrant of our world. settlements arose around these numbers, forming Four Nations, The Free Cities, a loose alliance of independent city states, full of farmers and artisans, The Magistracy, a land of wizards and sorcerers run by a council of powerful arcane spell casters. The Great Forest, is a big forest, it has a lot of Druids and you get the picture. And the Iron Empire. And of course, there was still Arrival which, by the way, was the land that I Aster call home. That's a lot of boring history though, right? Don't worry friends. Now it gets interesting. About 50 years ago, one of the rivers the Godsriver, known for sometimes having healing powers stopped working reliably. It just started spurting irregularly instead of flowing, and it got worse as time went by. This started having some pretty dire consequences for the farmers of The Free Cities, as you can imagine, as it changed weather patterns to. then godsriver became known as the Broken River. And that's where our story comes in. Starting with the courageous and persuasive Tara Dean, the dean family are nobles from Arrival and successful merchants. the breaking of the Godsriver started impacting the family business. Those grain shipments weren't coming in as well. as they once did, Tara Dane decided to investigate. So she hopped on a ship with our childhood friend, the brilliant gnome wizard, the mecca spinner, Fin. Tara is no slouch either. By the way, I mean, she's not brilliant, but she's just about the toughest human warrior you'll ever meet. A true adventurer. Tara and Fin arrived in The Free Cities and hired a local cleric by the name of Paxton as a guide, a big, burly, bearded guy, who's quick with a joke, but a little secretive and anxious. They took a job transporting a wagon, full of grain that was headed in the direction they wanted to go, and set out toward the Broken River. along the way. They had some interesting diversions. They noticed that they were being followed by a wizard in a great cloak, but weren't sure what to do about it. they encountered a strange blob like creature trying to eat a farmer's hay and destroyed it. They helped some farmers who had been kidnapped by goblins and had their cows poisoned, though the hobgoblin leader escaped. They even ran into some bandits desperate for food and took them down. Oh, and Paxton got his hands on a magical glass steel sword the goblins had been using. Glass steel is made out of glass taken from the walls of the world. Most people considered poor form and dangerous to use such a weapon. And Paxton found out why the weapon was cursed. It made Paxton into an overbearing, unfriendly jerk, fortunately, been managed to persuade some traveling dwarves to rush him and knock the sword out of his hand. Eventually, they reached a town called Newtower on the border between The Free Cities and the Magistracy. Right next to the bridge, crossing what was left of the Broken River. Tara and Paxton left the cart and Fin behind in the town to take a look at the Broken River. Fin took the opportunity to look up some spells in the library, and was confronted by the wizard in the great cloak who had been following them. His name was Ataulf, and he explained that his job was to keep secrets. He had heard that Fin and Tara had come from Arrival and were poking around, and he wanted to make sure they didn't stick their nose into any top secret Magistracy business, Fin was a magistracy trained and certified wizard, so a talk left him alone. Meanwhile, Tara and Paxton reached the small lake created by what was left at the Broken River, the area was a barren wasteland, with a pillar of stone rising from the lake, and some old buildings on top of the pillar, they took an abandoned boat to the pillar of stone, fighting off some strange water monsters along the way. And eventually they were able to climb to the top of the pillar, they found a monastery there, as well as a halfling, who said she had been stuck there for years. Her name was Aethelflaed, and she joined the party because she apparently didn't have anything else to do. She said she had joined the order of the monks there, but she had some suspicious roguelike skills as well. The party explored the monastery, but there wasn't much to it. The only room of interest was reserved for Observers and wouldn't open. Oh, did I not mention Observers? From the beginning of our world, there were people who always seem to be present at important historical events. They were each set have a gym imbedded in their body somewhere. And sometimes people saw them just stop and pray or even meditate. Eventually, people began to suspect they were causing big historical events, battles, natural disasters, plagues, rather than simply being there when they occurred. you know how superstitious people can be. So of course, the next thing that happened is people started hunting them down. As far as anyone knew, there weren't any observers left at this point.
Where was I? Oh, right. The party had discovered a room reserved for Observers, but Paxton kept fainting when he tried to open the door. Returning to new tower, the party met with Fin, and did some shopping with a strange fellow Sigbert, who owned a magic shop. His shop was really just a facade with a portal to another location, and most of his goods were somewhere between useless and annoying, but remember him as he will pop up in the story again, they decided to get through that frustrating door in the monastery. And with a bit of help from everyone else. Paxton was eventually able to arrange the door open without fainting. And inside, they found a room with gems on the walls and these sorts of bolts. They removed some of the gems. But then Paxton realized that some of the gems when pressed in the right order, opened the secret door leading down under the monastery. There the party found several undead shadows, which called Paxton an observer and attacked. The party defeated them and found a room with some magic items. And he letter addressed to someone named Frith. This fellow sounded like a real jerk. The letter writer said she was heading to The Great Forest. But Paxton Tara and Aethelflaed didn't think this was anything worth following up on at the moment. Tara pressed Paxton, to talk about why those shadows might have called him and observer. And Paxton shared something he had been keeping secret. A couple of years ago, he had woken up in a cave with a headache and a dent in the back of his head, and no memory of anything that had happened. Up until that moment, the party began to suspect he was an Observer who had lost his gem. But Paxton seemed resistant to the idea. That evening, it rained heavily, and this brought out more blobs like the one they had previously fought. They defeated that group of blobs in the ruins of a temple of Foresight, the only names God the world had ever known. The conventional wisdom was that Foresight either never really existed or had died. Our heroes had managed to collect a couple of famous sayings that were supposedly from this God, but they weren't sure of their significance, if any, maybe Cult of Foresight just made it all up. They still had some grain to deliver. So they continued northward to the magistracy town of suburb felt when they dropped off the grain. They also talked to the Duke who ruled the town and learned that there was a powerful undead in the nearby graveyard who harassed the town every night, they decided to track down this undead learning that he was named Carlton the cruel, and that he was angry that the aqueduct running through town was dripping water into his tomb. They let the Duke know and he told them he had another problem they could deal with a Chimera was attacking travelers on the road north of town. The heroes agreed to deal with the monster and they did. It was a difficult fight, they defeated the beast. They did not return directly back to do the Duke. However, instead, they continued north to talk to a famous wizard known as Mun The Immortal, who they heard might know more about the broken River. Arriving in the town around months tower known as Munville, they encountered a small construct made of cloth sweeping the streets and the town's residents all gathered around the tower, Tara Aethelflaed and Paxton felt pity for the filthy construct, Lumpen the rag Golem and he'll come up later again. Mun The Imortal appeared to be a suit of animated armor with vines moving inside him, and he had a ridiculous voice, which prompted Fin to laugh at him. insulted man demanded the party to go inside his tower for a stern talking to the party pressed him for answers to their questions, but he said he would only help them if they would do something for him. One of his students Tor had gone to a Magistracy Research Facility at the Western Wall of the world where there is a giant bubble and the glass wall he'd disappeared after sending some worrying messages. He wanted the party to follow the path of the aqueduct, through a forest and all the way to the Wall. The party agreed but asked that Lumpen the rag Golem, be free to go with them. Mun agreed. After a long journey, and some suspicious nighttime traffic on the aqueduct. They arrived at the research facility just in time just stumble upon the scene of a murder looking suspicious Autalf, the great cloaked wizard who had been following them was there investigating the facility. They presented evidence that they had been sent by Mun The Imortal and were allowed to begin investigating the facility. They quickly discovered that the administrator in charge Minister Klemperer had been using an old machine to melt a path through the wall of the world into the glass bubble. He had killed researchers who discovered his scheme and clever or tried to kill our heroes using the machine. But they escaped and an exciting boat chase ensued. When Klemperer attempted to flee down the aqueduct shouting at them about how they were all trapped and needed to escape this dying world. Tragedy struck when Fin that brave little gnome wizard was killed by a fireball cast by Klemperer Tara Used the potion given to her by Mun The Mighty and she magically and temporarily merged with Paxton to form an enormous Ettin. Together, they smashed Minister Klemperer, and his corpse changed shape, revealing that he had been a doppelganger. They suspected he was also a member of a cult known as The Glass Breakers, a group whose goal is to break through the walls of the world. Returning Mun's tower, the party explained their findings to mind, he revealed that his silly voice was an act and told them what he knew about the things they had been investigating. He said that he suspected Paxton was an Observer, he had heard that the last Observers were hiding out in The Great Forest and in the city of two. Most importantly, he revealed that there were several things of the suppose that Foresight had sayings that they hadn't yet heard. To summarize the sayings of Foresight, don't break the walls of the world. And when the river breaks, your world has maybe 15 years left, so consider escape. But man suspected there were more of these sayings, and he wanted the party to travel to get to another bubble. In the glass, the eastern bubble, where some researchers said they could find the rest, they would have to travel through the iron Empire to get there. They also received the news that another of the world's rivers, this one adjacent to the iron Empire had started to break. Mun said this was bad news, and might bring war as the Iron Empire struck out in pursuit of water and other resources. They paid Sigbert to let them use his magical shop portal to avoid a long journey. Arriving in the city of two capital of The Great Forest, they explored an abandoned tower once used by observers and found more letters suggesting Frith the person named in the secret underground observer chamber, your new tower was a dangerous and possibly insane fellow.
They decided to go to a city council meeting to ask about observers, but when they stood up to speak, the City Council was shocked and immediately identified Paxton as Frith. Oh my God, what a crazy twist. A party was thrown in jail and interviewed by syntha, a member of a secret of great forest organization known as the green cloaks during their imprisonment, a brave, handsome, talented, Half Dark Elf Bard, known as Aster. That's me! intervened on the party's behalf. I managed to sneak out Aethelflaed out so that she could help me with some burglary. That's how I obtained this wonderful musical instrument, The Guitar of the Bazaar in exchange for her help. I helped Aethelflaed spring, the entire party and we escaped back through Sigburt's portal. I could see that Tara Paxton and Aethelflaed could use my help. So I nobley and selflessly decided to join them on their adventures. Also, I needed to get out of the city where I was wanted for burgulry you see how smart and intuitive I am. This time, we exited secret shopping in The Iron Empire in the city of Drugaldoon. The city was a bit rundown, and an innkeeper invited us into His in saying we were violating the curfew. He eventually showed us a secret underground Tavern where guests were enjoying themselves with the music and games, my kind of Tavern we decided to hire a halfling barbarian named Eppalima as a guide who could lead us to the eastern bubble. In the morning we went to the market square to buy some goods as a favor for the innkeeper. But we were accosted by the city guard and a troublesome official. I use the charm spell to make the official more cooperative, and we fled back to the end. Clever of me, wasn't it? unbeknownst to us, a halfling spy followed us back to the end. So once the charm spell wore off, the official and a large group of guards raided the place. Unfortunately for the guards. The inns guests were a mix of sorcerers barbarians and various unsavory types. We fought our way out with some help from Eppalima The Barbarian and then fled out of the city. I also killed some guards and I felt pretty bad about it, but I was helped to get over it. On the way out, I brilliantly distracted some guards using Pristina prestidigitati press Prishtina by using a cantrip to cause them to soil themselves. Eppalima didn't think much of My distraction, but she was probably just jealous. Who wouldn't be. I am an amazing Bard.
After a long journey east, our party eventually arrived at the eastern bubble. There, we found an enormous stone with the complete sayings of Foresight. According to these sayings to escape the world, someone needed to break the Soul Jar. The freed souls would know what to do, Foresight claimed that he used the last of his power and die for the sake of the residents of the glass guarded world. Weird, huh? we weren't sure what to make of it either. We were attacked by a group of undead camped by the stone, and we found evidence suggesting that we'd been tracked there by Iron Empire forces, we headed back towards civilization. But along the way, we found an abandoned Dwarven house, where we fought more undead and discovered a magical weapon, a war pick named Chain Breaker that was particularly good at destroying restraints, such as handcuffs. Returning to the city of Drungaldoon, we skirted the city walls and went straight to the port. Eppalima said she would create a distraction so that the party could board a boat and sneak away from the Iron Empire soldiers. But it looked to us as though she was trying to turn us in and accidentally got into a fight. We nonetheless managed to get on board a boat, crewed by some sailors, Paxton Tara and Aethelflaed had met before the captain known as Shortbeard, managed to lose some pursuing Empire ships and drop us back off at Magistracy ports. We made our way back to Sommerfeld, where we checked in on Carlton the cruel and found that the Duke had finally fixed the leaky Aquaduct. We made our way to Munville and filled Mun in on all we had learned. This was my first time meeting him. And let me tell you, he's a pretty strange guy. Eventually, we agreed with Mun, without saying so directly, that Tara Paxton Aethelflaed, and I would go to Arrival and try shattering the soul jar. As per the words of Foresight, we traveled back to a port shipped to Arrival and were surprised to find the Iron Empire had a blockade of the city. It seemed the Emperor had decided to start his push to seize valuable resources from the rest of the world. We managed to run through blockade and once in Arrival, we headed straight for Tara's lovely family who was delighted to see her. And they expressed their condolences about Fin. They were also happy to meet me, and I think I made a good impression on them. I'm not sure if Tara caught on to how highly they thought of me though. And really, everybody thinks highly of me, I believe. Plans were made to hold a party to celebrate her return, but we decided to slip away during the party and attempt to destroy that Soul Jar, dressed in disguises and hiding in the shadows we managed to evade the soul jar's well meaning guards and repeatedly strike it until it shattered, releasing a cloud of souls. Each of us was confronted by a ghostly spirit that offered a hand and he promised him escape. And we were lifted up and out of the world quickly, increasing in size. We were deposited in a stone hallway, and the metal lid slammed back down onto the world. As the souls dissipated. We weren't alone either. Around 50 or so other people are also crowded in the hallway standing next to an enormous glass container that housed their world. Further down the hallway, we could see more large glass containers, and a section of collapse ceiling with twinkling lights high in the sky above. That was the end of part one of our story. Exciting and strange, I know. But there's more. Would you like to hear what happens next? You can start at Episode 41 if you want to continue the story from there, or go all the way back to Episode 1. If you'd like to hear the whole story in detail. Unfortunately, I don't make my appearance until Around Episode 25. But don't worry, there's plenty more of me after Episode 41 you'll even get to hear me perform a few awesome songs. Oh, sure. There's still more about Tara, and Paxton too.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai