00;00;00;00 - 00;00;39;09 Unknown Before we begin. This episode contains references to murder, disappearances, the supernatural, illegal cartography, child endangerment, and possible mind control. Listener discretion is requested. Dear Investigator, are you familiar with the concept of a paper town? A small, out of the way village or hamlet marked on a map by a cartographer. Chosen away from the beaten path on a site where few feet would normally tread, and bearing a permutation on the map maker's name or a private joke or something so innocuous it could be glossed over by almost every traveler. 00;00;39;11 - 00;01;05;10 Unknown Paper towns or phantom settlements are a way to identify that a particular map was made by a specific mapmaker, and that any other map, which includes that paper town is little more than a knockoff forgery. It's a way for a mapmaker to protect their hard work from low skill copycats. This is because paper towns, by their definition, dear Investigator, do not really exist. 00;01;05;15 - 00;01;28;25 Unknown They're fakes. Frauds. Nobody lives in a paper town. Nobody goes there. Their only purpose is to serve as an artisan's maker's mark, and not in any way to demarcate a real place that you can go and live and thrive. They exist on the map and nowhere else. So you will understand and appreciate how curious the following advertisement is. 00;01;28;29 - 00;01;53;01 Unknown Sent out just six weeks ago and plastered in the hundreds, possibly thousands, on bulletin boards and town centers across the realm. Welcome, neighbor to West Aldora Township. Are you a lively up and comer with a song in your heart? Do you want to roll up your sleeves and get the job done? Do you and your family want to belong to a safe, productive community of like minded go getters? 00;01;53;02 - 00;02;26;03 Unknown Well, this is your moment, your time to shine. Join your neighbors in the intentional community of West Aldora Township, at the rolling foothills of the stunning heraldic mountains. There, you and your family will be greeted with open arms and a steady hand, not to mention a can do attitude. If you can contribute to our neighborhood on the Grow West, Aldora is happy to offer free housing, community events, education, health care and all the neighborly support. 00;02;26;03 - 00;02;54;29 Unknown A body could want. That's West Aldora Township, just beneath the peak of Mount Eustace. Bring your family, bring your best self and find your kin in West Aldora Township, the home you have always known. But of course, West Aldora Township is not real. Or at very least, it shouldn't be. And it certainly shouldn't be advertising for permanent residents. 00;02;54;29 - 00;03;21;07 Unknown The township is the maker's mark of a fabled cartographer, Umerico Aldora, and has been for the length of her illustrious career. It was her paper town. So, dear Investigator, what does it mean when a town that should not exist reaches out to you? To all of us looking for new citizens to make home in a place that simply should not be. 00;03;21;09 - 00;03;34;04 Unknown Is this a kindly nod to community building or a trap that's just too good to be true? Stay tuned. Investigators. 00;03;34;06 - 00;03;57;20 Unknown This time on Alchemy Investigations, we explore the paper town of West Aldora Township, a fictional place that seems to have manifested itself into the realm of material community development and quaint, good neighborly vibes. We'll touch on the famed and fabled map maker, who envisioned this town as a means of copy protection. Look back at tales of other places that have seemingly arrived and disappeared out of nowhere. 00;03;57;20 - 00;04;22;05 Unknown And finally, and most troublingly, we will get a firsthand report from one of our own Investigators on the state of things in West Aldora Township. Along with her own hasty and suspicious resignation. There is a joke about “real” estate in here somewhere, dear Investigator, but I am far too unnerved to make it. Stay tuned. 00;04;22;07 - 00;04;48;02 Unknown Greetings, Investigator. With you again is Ichabod M. Groster, lead dispatch for Alchemy Investigations, the realm's foremost private Investigatory body. Tonight we are going to consider the inherent questions residing in the newly realized West Aldora Township. How can a fake place become real? How can that happen so quickly? Why does it need citizens so badly? Why is it seemingly irresistible to visitors once they arrive? 00;04;48;03 - 00;05;10;01 Unknown How does a new town like that have any advertising budget already? And most pressingly if the township arrived without warning or pretense. Who's to say that it couldn't disappear just as easily? And what then? Now you may be asking yourself, as we have been, dear Investigators. Is this really so strange? Towns and villages spring up all the time. 00;05;10;02 - 00;05;31;15 Unknown Perhaps settlers took inspiration from Umerico's fictional mark and thought it a keen spot to develop. And as a matter of fact, it kind of is the heraldic mountains are gorgeous and the local climate is temperate. There is a water source nearby with the Alimoony stream, and the ground itself is incredibly fertile. Being the site of the Battle of Drathmore two generations ago. 00;05;31;15 - 00;05;58;07 Unknown So the would be farmland is rich in minerals and ripe for cultivation, also uniquely attractive to both grave robbers and necromancers. But that is a wholly different story. Even though things above ground seem great for colonization, beneath the surface lies a problem and a well-documented problem at that, so well documented, in fact, that it creates a time frame for how and when West Aldora must have come into being. 00;05;58;09 - 00;06;22;11 Unknown About a year ago, diviners from Vixland Isle noted an arcane instability growing near Mount Eustace. While West Aldora should not exist to the land where it is said to be, and thus the surrounding area are governed by the Vixland Isle Regency, so they hold responsibility over the comings and goings and in our case, the growing concern over magical emanations from the heraldic mountains and from Mount Eustace in particular. 00;06;22;16 - 00;06;48;29 Unknown This took the form of ground quakes and frequent sudden and unpredictable storms. Unconfirmed reports of disappearances and alleged super fauna attacks. Fearing a growing calamity, Vixland Isle hired Gem Fallow and Associates, a private group of arcanists, geomancers, scientists and explorers to dig deep into the mountain range and uncover the cause of these unnatural occurrences and dig they did. 00;06;49;02 - 00;07;23;27 Unknown For a month, they set up camp and took readings. They caved, they spelunking, they prognosticate, and they reached out to their patrons and deities for guidance and support. And at the end of the survey, they released the following statement to the Vixland Isle Regulatory Council on superluminal events, land forms and terrestrial appreciation. Following a thorough excavation and survey of the land grid near 413.221 A invoice enclosed -- Gem Fallow and Associates have deemed that a natural transient ley line has formed beneath the southern portion of the mountain range. 00;07;24;00 - 00;08;08;00 Unknown While dangerous, these invo-organic events will typically vacate on their own in the span of 12 to 16 months. Gem Fallow and Associates offer the following proactive legislative and municipal steps to ensure limited loss of life and or damage to property. 1) The east west running road denotated as Stroupe’s Meander should be closed until the ley line evolution process has run its course 2) No structural development in said land grid, nor for a perimeter of 10,000 hectares should be permitted, and periodic site checks should be made by a well qualified industry professionals such as Gem Fallow and Associates or similar to verify ley line evolution progress and ensure no unsanctioned nor unexpected developments or 00;08;08;00 - 00;08;33;21 Unknown settlements have begun. 3) 18 months following the receipt of this report, an additional survey should be conducted to verify the ley lines decline and decommission. This survey should be made by well qualified industry professionals such as Gem Fallow and Associates or similar. Thank you for selecting Gem Fallow and Associates for all your arcane terrestrial needs. Yours and service Gem Fallow. 00;08;33;24 - 00;08;59;19 Unknown So dear Investigator, precipitated by a dangerous natural occurrence, this area had been effectively shut down. And what's more, it was monitored by Gem Fallows team periodically over the intervening months. The most recent report dates back nine weeks, which is three weeks before the West Aldora Township adverts went out and indicates that there were absolutely no structures on nor surrounding the site in question. 00;08;59;19 - 00;09;26;12 Unknown And the surveyor, a Mr. Ham Williams, more on him and a bit even went so far as to write specifically that the Vixland Isle enforcement of the designated exclusion zone had appeared to have been working quite well, as it was, in his words, a ghost town. So not only is West Aldora Township a paper town, its apparent incorporation only had a brief window of maximum three weeks to take place. 00;09;26;14 - 00;09;47;08 Unknown Otherwise, Hamm and his fellow surveyors would have noticed something and reported it. Now, obviously, there are individuals of great talent who, with the flick of a wand or a riff of the pan pipe, could evoke a town into being. It is completely reasonable that a powerful practitioner willed West Aldora into being in a short span of time between the surveys. 00;09;47;10 - 00;10;05;20 Unknown But I ask you, dear Investigator, if you had such immense power, are you really using it to develop affordable, intentional housing overnight? And if you are, there has to be more to it, right? Not to be so publicly a cynic, but I don't think people are going around wasting mana like this out of the goodness of their hearts. 00;10;05;22 - 00;10;50;26 Unknown So we're posed the question. West Aldora sprang up overnight and began attracting would be citizens from far and wide -- Families, largely. So is a powerful arsonist behind it, hoping to play mayor in a new kind of community? Or is nobody behind the wooden desk in the township itself is asking to be inhabited like a haunted house, calling out for spirits. To glean more about West Aldora Township and its possible machinations, we should turn our attention to Umerico Aldora, the map maker and namesake for our mystery, perhaps, and investigating her trajectory as a mystic and cartographer, we will be able to find purchase and guidance in the true north of this story. 00;10;50;28 - 00;11;30;21 Unknown Many of you in the know have heard of Umerico Aldora, the famed cartographer of Decareaux -- though it does go by other names in other tongues. But for those of you who do not follow in topographer circles and publications, these are the major bullet points. Umerico was a child prodigy in both divination and the arts, showing unparalleled aptitude for mapmaking and being recruited many years ago, while still quite young, by her eventual mentor, Quint Mamaroneck of the Dover Pinion Cartographic Society, the realm's leader in high quality maps and wayfinding aids, Umerico worked under Quint for decade upon decade, creating some of the most detailed and exquisite artisanal maps of our time together. 00;11;30;21 - 00;12;03;03 Unknown The two pioneered several unique disciplines, not the least of which being the now forbidden school of prophetic cartography. More on that in a bit. But eventually Umerico Aldora set out on her own, and in her time after leaving Dover Pinion, she produced a number of bespoke maps and cartographic artifacts for royals, armies and governments, and a number of her works have been so sought after they've been preserved not only as maps but as art objects by the likes of Xaxxon Miswit and the Obelix Dark Moon Conservatory. 00;12;03;05 - 00;12;31;20 Unknown Long story short, Umerico Aldora was a long lived, very important mapmaker and was until recently at the very top of her field. More on that. In a bit too. Her particular maker's mark was always the inclusion of a marker for West Aldora Township, just beneath the heraldic mountains in the shadow of Mount Eustace. This fake landmark was included on every single one of her realm maps, even her very first when asked about it. 00;12;31;20 - 00;12;48;19 Unknown And she was often she would chuckle and say that there really wasn't a rhyme or reason to it. She just liked the mountain and thought that the name was innocuous enough to not really draw suspicion. At first, West Aldora as a name is so bland as to be anesthetic, the kind of thing that people's eyes gloss over. 00;12;48;21 - 00;13;08;27 Unknown It doesn't really disrupt the value of the map the traveler, but proved to be a very helpful tool for both Aldora and Dover Pinion. When less talented rivals copied their map designs without permission. Paper towns or phantom settlements, as they're called, are not supposed to be recognizable. They need to be somewhat invisible for the copyright trap to work. 00;13;09;04 - 00;13;32;06 Unknown But as Umerico became more and more famous, West Aldora took on a new kind of role. Not something to be ignored, but coveted. Finding West Aldora on a map was a way to verify that it was of the highest of qualities. After all, Umerico Aldora does not make a bad map. There are two major points I want to bring up about Umerico's time as a prominent mapmaker. 00;13;32;12 - 00;13;59;14 Unknown First, ten years ago, after a heroes score of years with Dover pinion, Umerico unceremoniously left following the death of her mentor. The public story was that, given Quint Mimarineck’s next departure from this mortal coil, Umerico thought it time to move out on her own. But a year or so later, Quint's niece Yvonne had taken over the business, and it came out that Yvonne had tried and tried again to regain the services of Umerico. 00;13;59;14 - 00;14;31;17 Unknown In fact, it was Quint's dying wish that Umerico inherit and take over operations at Dove Pinion this was a lot to walk away from and speculation as to why Umerico would give up all of that to open up her small, artisanal shop ran wild in those particular circles. When asked why she would defy her mentor's dying wish, she responded, I will never forget Quint or my time at Dover Pinion, but it's come time for me to build a home and not live in someone else's, which I think is personally pretty fair. 00;14;31;20 - 00;15;06;10 Unknown The second point is about the home that she built. For legal reasons, I will emphasize that all of the following is hearsay and whatever involvement Umerico has had with prophetic maps is strictly speculative. But apparently Umerico Aldora’s primary clientele at her new self-directed firm was a roster of governments, militaries and regents. These organizations allegedly engaged her to develop maps of the realm as they might become should certain factors come into play, they would ask, for example, can you draw a map of our kingdom in six months time? 00;15;06;10 - 00;15;37;29 Unknown Should we invade our neighbors? Pre manifestation maps. This sort of mapmaking is expressly forbidden by treaties like the Heights-Nusome Convestion and the Articles of the first age Arcane Land Interpretation. But maps like this are made. It does happen. Prophetic maps can be artifacts of great power and therefore great danger, but they are also incredibly hard to produce as they rely almost exclusively on the singular talent of the cartographer, splitting their skills between arcane divination talents and high bardic draft work. 00;15;38;01 - 00;16;11;01 Unknown And there are very, very few that are that talented but a child prodigy who had outgrown their previous employer and then goes relatively dark for a number of years working on private, secretive projects. That's a recipe for a hidden map. Again, speculation. My apologies. So Umerico, a famed map maker, walked away from a cartographic empire to allegedly produce off the record, illegal maps that predicted dangerous futures, and her symbol, the fake town that she used to sign. 00;16;11;01 - 00;16;32;19 Unknown Her work, mysteriously and without warning, manifests itself into being exactly where she had always said it would. There is one more beat to this story, but before we can dig into it, I want to make a brief mention of another town that has come into being just as quickly as West Aldora and for that, we need to go way back to a children's nursery rhyme. 00;16;32;22 - 00;16;59;08 Unknown The Bard of Spire Island. I'm sure you've heard it. You know about the Bard of Spire Island, even if you don't know it by name. Come, dear one from the Salt Sea many a year ago. Be kind to the bards, for they sing to thee. Bringing both hope and woe. That one. Most people know the opening lines for sure, but there's a lot more to it, and actually a fair bit more about how it came to be. 00;16;59;10 - 00;17;19;23 Unknown Spire Island was said to be off the south coast of Decareaux and most people see both the story and the island as apocryphal. But here we are ages ago. Beyond age is actually time immemorial. There was a section of the sea that we would now call the Decareaux shore straight, which was supposedly a prime target for pirate ambushes. 00;17;19;25 - 00;17;39;17 Unknown It was a false cove and allowed for ships to lay in wait, while unsuspecting merchant craft made their way to unload cargo at Decareaux’s considerable ports to the northeast. Over time, people became wise to how dangerous this cove was, and they stopped sailing it. But one enterprising pirate whose name has been lost to time. So let's call them the Dread Captain. 00;17;39;17 - 00;18;03;19 Unknown No name needed to change strategy. So Captain No Name convinced a local bard who had set up shop in Decareaux’s Market, who will later be referred to as the Bard of Spire Island. But we don't know that yet. To produce several maps which drew a fictional island port just south of Decareaux Shore Straight, the island looked lush and the map falsely indicated ports for resupply. 00;18;03;22 - 00;18;25;24 Unknown And what's the polite way to say this -- entertainment? It was less expensive and more convenient than the main port beyond. Very enticing. And this honeypot worked like a pit viper. Captain no name and their crew just waited for ships to sail right into the strait, looking for the fictional Spire Island in the wares and protection it would offer. 00;18;25;26 - 00;18;51;15 Unknown And that's when No Name struck. This went on for a long time. Years. It became a rite of passage, almost. New crews would set sail and the Bard's false maps would funnel the most ignorant or the most desperate into the fictional Spire Island, and thus no names awaiting trap. Seasoned sailors knew to avoid such things. But piracy is a zero sum game, so they kept their lips notably sealed, whittling down the competition as a form of natural nautical selection. 00;18;51;15 - 00;19;15;15 Unknown Don't you know? And so this went on and on, until one day when a small ship was making its way to the false island to unload its cargo and unknowingly be robbed. It came across Captain No Name’s ship utterly annihilated, the boat was run aground and in fact run through on a volcanic rock spire as a yet imaginary island. 00;19;15;15 - 00;19;46;29 Unknown A trap on the map seemingly appeared beneath the greedy vessel in the blink of an eye, impaling it upon a very real rocky shore. Much like our West Aldora Township, Spire Island started itself as a fiction and manifested into existence in a flash just underneath Captain No Name’s vessel. According to the rhyme The Dread Captain No Name nearly ran across the water itself to the Decareaux market to find the merchant stall where he had employed the bard. 00;19;46;29 - 00;20;08;15 Unknown All those years ago, intending no doubt to run the poor cartographer through with their sword, but arriving at the very same spot no name saw just a mural on the wall behind where the bard should have been, but was no longer. The fresco depicted a familiar sailing ship, all too familiar, run ashore on an island with a volcanic spire. 00;20;08;15 - 00;20;35;25 Unknown No name’s ship with the words “Spire Island now really open for business”, emblazoned almost mockingly on the wall above. Like nearly everything that is this old, this tale is apocryphal, very old, and almost certainly a patchwork of embellishments, lies and half truths. But it has stayed with our cultural consciousness so long. I want to believe that there's something to it. 00;20;35;26 - 00;21;06;05 Unknown Maybe at its core, beyond a pirate getting their comeuppance. But despite the legend, that's not where that story actually ends. The rhyme can be dismissed. But according to merchant records dating back nearly 950 years, there was a small settlement, an unnamed port on an island south of Decareaux -- Old time sellers -- old timey sellers. Ye old timey sellers, came to peddle their wares, trade some goods. 00;21;06;05 - 00;21;33;07 Unknown People even moved there permanently to best bolster the burgeoning community. And then, about two seasons after it is first mentioned in the ledger, a freak storm must have run through the Decareaux sea and completely wiped out the settlement. The island, and all of its inhabitants. It did not appear on merchant records again, it was just a blip. It's almost as if it was never really there to begin with. 00;21;33;10 - 00;21;55;12 Unknown But then what about the records and the impaled pirate ship? That's actually why the children's rhyme about this macabre tale ends with this stanza “A line in the sand cannot stand when the wind comes to gale. Trust your heart, not the map. When the thunder goes clap. And the island takes to sail.” Why do children's rhymes always stem from a tragedy? 00;21;55;12 - 00;22;18;02 Unknown Who's in charge of that? You start singing a tune and think, yes, this is pleasant. And something I'll teach the youngsters. It's about some flowers or a nice cake and then. Boop! Nope, it's actually about necromancers. Sorry. Tangent. Truth be told, I'm actually a little on edge with this mystery because cards on the table, it hits reasonably close to home and I'm actually deflecting. 00;22;18;02 - 00;23;04;22 Unknown I'm working on that. So there's something I should discuss here. Alchemy investigations is largely a freelance organization of daring and clever Investigators like you, but we do employ some full time Investigators on site. Typically, these inspectors will develop preliminary dossiers on specific rumors or phenomena by researching or visiting the site where they are supposed to have occurred. These reports will then turn into my dispatches, leaving the actual investigation and all the danger and glory therein to you. Investigator Evelyn Barrow -- Evie -- to us is a hard nosed, detail oriented woman who I've had the pleasure of working with for eight years. 00;23;04;24 - 00;23;37;16 Unknown She's well dressed, wears glasses, and is one of the best arcane forensic analysts we have. Evie was dispatched two weeks ago to West Aldora Township to report in on the nature of this dubious town, creating preliminary records which I was meant to pass on to you. These came in the form of communiques sent initially by her familiar, a bat named Buckle, but were soon thereafter sent via the mail system, which is apparently already operational in West Aldora, replete with postmaster and everything. 00;23;37;19 - 00;24;07;23 Unknown The following are unedited excerpts from Evie's first hand reports in West Aldora Township, or at least not edited by us. More on that. Unfortunately, in a bit. To Dispatch Alchemy Investigations from Investigator Evelyn Barrow concerning the appearance of West Aldora Township. Communique One. Findings. West Aldora Township is real, actually real. Dispatch, you have to make a day's trek from the main road across some grasslands, but when you crest that last hill, there sits West Aldora. 00;24;07;23 - 00;24;33;27 Unknown Quaint smokes rising from brick chimneys and the smell of bakers and blacksmiths on the wind. I spent the night camped out at a distance and watched the comings and goings, but there was nothing conspicuous or out of the ordinary. In fact, the township seems to move like clockwork. An hour or so after sundown, most of the homes close their shutters, and by the time it was fully dark, save for the waning moon West Aldora Township was a sleep at first light. 00;24;33;27 - 00;24;58;00 Unknown I'll make my way in and see what I can find. Despite the appearance of the town, I remains skeptical. A good trap is an appealing trap, so I'll keep my eyes open. Evie. To Dispatch Alchemy Investigations from Investigator Evelyn Barrow concerning the appearance of West Aldora Township. Communique Two. Findings. They gave me a house like a whole house just for me. 00;24;58;00 - 00;25;16;15 Unknown I mean, I'm not keeping it. It's just to stay in until I, quote, decide to stay in the best township in the realm. It's too nice. It's it's nicer than my apartment in the city. But I crossed the threshold of the township. I was immediately greeted by the head of the township greeting committee, a woman called Julia Williams. 00;25;16;17 - 00;25;34;04 Unknown She produced a gift basket of fine baked goods and cured meats and deftly began walking with me. Or rather guiding me loosely down the streets of West Aldora while giving me an informal tour. She pointed out the tavern and the school, and asked a lot of questions about me and what I do and what brought me to West Aldora. 00;25;34;04 - 00;26;04;02 Unknown I said I was a writer, which isn't totally untrue, and that I was doing a story on up and coming communities, which I think she accepted, or at least it looked like she did. Finally, she stopped at a small one story cottage and handed me the keys. She said I could stay as long as I liked and told me to, when I had made my choice to stay or not attend a township meeting so I could either give back the keys or announce my intention to stay, I noticed that there was a bright green banner over my new doorstep that read in the common tongue, friend of the Township. 00;26;04;04 - 00;26;25;19 Unknown Looking down the street, I saw dozens of similar banners, but I also saw bright yellow ones that read the home we have always known. Pretty aggressive recruitment tactic give someone free housing in a friendly town that smells like currant scones and see who wants to leave. I don't know more soon Evie. Did you catch that? Dear Investigator, the name Williams. 00;26;25;19 - 00;26;51;06 Unknown It's not uncommon, but that was also the last name of one of the surveyors from Gem Fallow’s group. That's a fact that Evie could not have known, as we only got those records in recently. Additionally, and just a bit of context for those who do not know, West Aldora positions itself as an intentional community, which means that its residents are all trying to live in a way that promotes a certain goal or lifestyle. 00;26;51;08 - 00;27;14;21 Unknown This can sound cultish, but it's more common and less inherently nefarious than you might think. Any neighborhood association is trying to employ intentional tactics. Any time neighbors get together and pass rules that elect to be this over that, that's intentional. But also, every cult that owns land together is, by definition, intentional community. So a community does not necessarily produce a cult. 00;27;14;21 - 00;27;37;13 Unknown But every cult is a community. You might appreciate why Evelyn would tread so lightly here. For those of you who have listened to our episode on The Ornamental Order, Evie worked extensively on that, so her hackles may have already been raised. To Dispatch Alchemy Investigations from Investigator Evelyn Barrow concerning the appearance of West Aldora Township. Communique Three. Findings. 00;27;37;16 - 00;27;56;02 Unknown I spend most of the day walking around, and there are three main facts about Aldora that I want to foreground for you one. Everyone here wants to stop and talk all the time and forever. They want to know about you and they want to tell about themselves. They will always ask if you need anything and are absolutely eager to ask for small favors, even from a perfect stranger. 00;27;56;04 - 00;28;13;00 Unknown On my way to get breakfast at the tavern, I was asked by a young man to help find his lost cat, which I did with ease because it was literally up a tree next to him. And I was asked by a school teacher if I could list my three favorite tomes for possible inclusion in her curriculum. I did Gilded Barbs and Other Maladies by Thompson. 00;28;13;00 - 00;28;37;03 Unknown This connection of everyone with spells by Ryan and the Burninated Peasant by Doherty, and she was on her way. For a city dweller, this places a lot more social interaction than I was thinking it would be. Two the kids here are odd, like very notably odd. All morning and into the afternoon I was being followed by some child between the apparent ages of 6 to 13. 00;28;37;05 - 00;28;57;10 Unknown Maybe some of the elves were older, but taking the law of averages into account, I don't know. They didn't speak to me and they took turns doing this like shifts. And once I got wise and looked twice at one, they would be replaced by another one. But I was always being watched by little children. Cute kids, but they're bad spies to a trained professional. 00;28;57;16 - 00;29;19;23 Unknown If they do this tomorrow, I am absolutely going to mess with them. Three there is an obvious structure to this place. Dispatch. People fall into two groups and are referred to as such. Neighbors are people who have committed to stay in West Aldora. They have a yellow banner over their homes, and they have jobs in the community that they take very, very seriously. 00;29;19;26 - 00;29;42;08 Unknown Butcher. Welcoming committee. Schoolteacher -- they will introduce themselves job first. So I would be hello, I am clandestine Investigator Evelyn Barrow, and I am supremely suspicious of people who define themselves through their job title. If you're not a neighbor, you're a friend. I'm a friend. Friends have green banners over their rented homes. If you're a friend, you will be asked by almost everyone all the time. 00;29;42;11 - 00;30;02;14 Unknown When do you think you're going to put down some roots here in West Aldora, or what are you hoping to contribute to our township or some variation? So yes, to recap, needy citizens, strange kids, rigorous hierarchy. Dispatch. This looks like a quaint town, but there's a rule set underneath that. It's rubbing me the wrong-ist of ways. More soon. 00;30;02;16 - 00;30;27;14 Unknown Evie. To Dispatch Alchemy Investigations from Investigator Evelyn Barrow care of the West Aldora Township post concerning the appearance of West Aldora Township. Communique Four -- Findings. I sent Buckle to do some scouting around the town's extremities and decided to use their postal system. Let's see how well this works out. Sorry they didn't report in for a few days, but there's something about this place that really fills up your day. 00;30;27;17 - 00;30;45;14 Unknown I woke up with a plan. I wanted to check out the large town hall looking structure at the center of the Civic Square. See more about those weird kids, maybe mess with them and try to connect with another of the township's friends to compare notes. I noticed that the friends don't really carry themselves like the neighbors do, so I might be able to get some less biased answers from them. 00;30;45;14 - 00;31;04;04 Unknown But the second I left my door, I was asked by the town's candle maker to help him gather flowers from a nearby garden. And even though I had things to do, I. I guess I made the choice to help out. That took a few hours, and as I was about to leave, he gave me some candles for my trouble, which are burning very nicely by the way, and asked me to go see his friend the butcher. 00;31;04;04 - 00;31;21;02 Unknown And no sooner had he said that did I find myself walking back into town and coming across a stout woman with a giant cleaver who mentioned that she needed help cutting fat back. And I didn't want to be rude, and I thought I could pump her for information, so I did. And when it ended, she mentioned that one of the carpenters needed help. 00;31;21;05 - 00;31;38;11 Unknown You get the picture. At the end of the day, I had helped a bunch of people. Honestly, it actually felt pretty nice being so useful. And to boot, I ended up with six candles, half a pound of sausage, a nice little birdhouse, and a scarf which looks great on me. And just now a thank you card came in from the tavern owner. 00;31;38;13 - 00;32;01;15 Unknown I'm exhausted. This place is charming, but to be honest, I'm worried about being charmed. Tomorrow I'm gonna put my head down, ignore everyone, and go straight to the town meeting house. Evie To Dispatch Alchemy Investigations from Investigator Evelyn Barrow care of the West Aldora Township post concerning the appearance of West Aldora Township. Communique Five -- Findings. I couldn't get into the town hall meeting house. 00;32;01;15 - 00;32;17;20 Unknown Apparently it's only open for township meetings, and those are signaled by a big chiming bell. So I guess I'm gonna have to wait until that happens and then I'm definitely going to go. Apparently, according to one of the friends here, when you go, the townsfolk ask you if you want to stay in the township or leave it. You have to make a decision right there. 00;32;17;22 - 00;32;38;13 Unknown I guess they want to give the house to another potential citizen, a potential neighbor, especially if you're not going to commit. And that's where the letter ends. Dear Investigator, you heard it right. You noted, as we all did, that it didn't end with “Evie” as the sign off. In fact, the letter ends exactly where the page ends. Like maybe there was more to it. 00;32;38;18 - 00;33;08;18 Unknown Subsequent pages that were excluded or omitted or censored. And then we come to the big one. To Dispatch Alchemy Investigations from Investigator Evelyn Barrow care of the West Aldora Township post concerning the appearance of West Aldora Township. Communique Eight -- Findings. Sorry, can I write for a few days? Ichabod? I'm just enamored with this place. When the town hall bell chimes again, I'm going to march down there with all the purposeful steps I can take and make myself known. 00;33;08;20 - 00;33;32;24 Unknown I think I will become a librarian. Or maybe a florist, because Ichabod, I have been able to grow the most surprising and beguiling daffodils here. Wish me luck, Evie. Every week a word is selected for all Alchemy investigation staff. This is a word that we can use with one another to describe distress, and do so in a way that won't alert suspicion to an outside party. 00;33;32;26 - 00;34;01;07 Unknown It's always an innocuous word that you can use without raising any red flags. The word that week was daffodil. When we received this communication from the West Aldora Post Office, we immediately began to put together an extraction team of Investigators to go to West Aldora and assist Evie. But before they could leave, mere hours after we received this letter from the post, a courier arrived with the following to whom it may concern I hereby resign my position at Alchemy Investigations, effective immediately. 00;34;01;09 - 00;34;26;18 Unknown Yours professionally. Librarian Evelyn Barrow, West Aldora Township. Dear Investigator, I am all for employment mobility. I'm also of the opinion that you can make big departures on short notice. However, that just isn't the kind of person that Evelyn is. I'm looking through the bullpen right now. At her desk, there's a pile of scrolls and personal pictures. Her desk mate is still watching her cat boots for her. 00;34;26;21 - 00;34;50;02 Unknown I don't think that there's an impromptu career change here. I think it's something else. That resignation came just a few days ago, and that is part of the reason we developed this episode and developed it so quickly, and why we're reaching out to you and to our wide range of Investigators. Obviously, if something dangerous is happening in West Aldora, we want to be able to stop it and save as many people as we can getting to the bottom of that mystery. 00;34;50;02 - 00;35;11;15 Unknown But we also want to confirm the safety of our colleague Evelyn Barrow. And if that wasn't enough, and it is, but just in case, just this morning, as I was preparing my notes for this episode, a letter came through the West Aldora post once more, this time from a small boy named Kevin. Dear Mr. Groster, my name is Kevin Eikusilt and I'm 11 years old. 00;35;11;21 - 00;35;30;24 Unknown I live in West Aldora Township with my mother and two brothers. I met your friend Evelyn Barrow last week and she told me about the exciting world of freelance mystery writing. I would very much like to know more about that, and you and your staff and what you do. I want to know how to solve mysteries. Big ones, important ones. 00;35;30;24 - 00;35;51;29 Unknown So my mom said I can invite whoever I wanted to West Aldora Township for my birthday, and I wanted to invite you. So now I'm writing you this letter to invite you. I want to learn more about the interesting things you do. Please come and visit me. In return, I can offer two very shiny rocks, the best scones in the world, one birthday cake, or at least a slice of it, and one of the daffodils that grows in my mother's garden. 00;35;51;29 - 00;36;13;15 Unknown She won't mind if we only take one. Sincerely, Kevin. Eikusilt. Oh boy. Dear Investigator, this could all be coincidence. This could be marketing, this could be happenstance. This could be cosmic relief. But my intuition tells me that there's a bell chiming in West Aldora Township. And whether it's a countdown or a siren song, I'm genuinely not sure what I am sure of. 00;36;13;15 - 00;36;24;17 Unknown As we need to get to the bottom of this phantom settlement before the last strike and toll some theories on that and more after our break. 00;36;24;20 - 00;36;46;18 Unknown Actually, Evelyn used to coordinate these ad breaks, so we really don't have anything for this week. Sorry. 00;36;46;21 - 00;37;04;18 Unknown Welcome back, dear Investigator. With a pot of coffee and some scrolls of acumen at our disposal, the alchemy investigation staff have been putting together ideas and theories on what might be going on in West Aldora. These range from the mundane to the plausible to the unreasonable, to the downright tinfoil helm. But we want to give everything a shot. 00;37;04;20 - 00;37;33;01 Unknown Our frontrunners are the irresistible The Suburb, the Vampire Child Cabal, Homeowners Association, and the ritual. Up first, the irresistible, sometimes extra planar or just plain powerful beings want to gather up mortals for some far off purpose in the same way that you might have collected toads at the creek when you were small, they too, like to see us hop Fey will do things like this from time to time, and it ranges from pranks to straight kidnaping. 00;37;33;01 - 00;37;54;07 Unknown They will throw a ball or a cruise or something regal and enchanting, recruiting mortals to join in the fun and then vanish as quickly as they came. But the fey usually bring a lot more whimsy to it nudity, bright colors, songs, wine, merriment. They generally tend away from neighborhood associations and rules for how tall your hedge can be. 00;37;54;09 - 00;38;17;05 Unknown Still, stranger things have happened, notably the thrall here, if there is one, seems pretty strong. Evelyn wasn't the only one that poached four members of the survey team from Gem Fallow, and Associates have quit their jobs to move to the community at West Aldora, including Gem themselves. This is why I think the town's welcome wagon with the surname Williams might have been related to Ham 00;38;17;05 - 00;38;48;18 Unknown Williams, who was under Gem's employ until about four weeks ago. It's notable that those researching the area near where West Aldora would come into being would be drawn back there with such consistency, perhaps it wasn't just a ley line that was causing the preternatural disturbances, but something much more irresistible, something that got under your skin. Perhaps at the center of West Aldora Township is quite literally an offer you can't refuse. 00;38;48;20 - 00;39;10;08 Unknown The suburb theory is the easiest. It could just be a nice place to live. Good location free housing. Families welcome 100% employment -- it seems. Our intern Orla brought this up and none of us could fully dismiss it. But then there's the daffodil cry for help and that kid's letter. It could theoretically be a coincidence, but what a coincidence. 00;39;10;11 - 00;39;34;25 Unknown And quite frankly, I'm not going to risk Evie's life and the lives of all of the Aldora friends and even the neighbors on quaint streets and property values go in with an open mind, but maybe not a suggestible one from the most mundane theory we arrive at. Well, it's uncommon. We're tentatively calling this the vampire child cabal homeowner's association theory, but that one is a mouthful. 00;39;34;27 - 00;39;57;04 Unknown This one is based off the daffodil code word and was specifically championed by Evelyn's desk mate. Imagine you had a child and that child had some kind of terrible curse or hunger. This is possible even this season. We've looked into mysteries like this. When our investigations, you might reach out to other parents who had the same situation. You might bond over that shared lived experience of a supernatural needs child. 00;39;57;11 - 00;40;24;23 Unknown Together you might start a support group, parents of supernormal children or some such. And from that support group you might hatch a plan, a way to live together far from society and their questions. Inviting people to your purposeful community, a community with a strange and inquisitive population of children. I don't know why I'm being so coy. If you had a child vampire, you would want to create a place where that child could live safely and be around other vampire children. 00;40;24;26 - 00;40;47;16 Unknown As loving parents, you would want to invite people to your town to offer the best the world could give them in terms of health care and education and stability. You would furiously vet those people because you love your vampire child and those that don't make the cut become food. I can appreciate how wild this sounds, and I want to dismiss it outright because I'm logical. 00;40;47;22 - 00;41;09;17 Unknown But then I'm reminded of the Oolis River lycanthropy colony conspiracy and how those were-creatures were able to operate full moon riverboat gambling tours with an astonishingly high passenger mortality rate for years before anyone caught on. Cultural cryptid conspiracies do happen, and I'm not in a place to rule anything out right now, especially with the goosebumps that little Kevin's letter gave me. 00;41;09;19 - 00;41;37;23 Unknown Daffodils sounding much more like threat and warning. Finally, dear Investigator, we come to the ritual and this one is my personal frontrunner. It's a loose theory, basically stating that the township or someone therein needs a lot of people together, a lot of bodies, a lot of energy or spirit or whatever. So they make a very attractive public offer to gather not just individuals, but families, not adventurers or heroes, but regular people. 00;41;37;23 - 00;42;01;25 Unknown Families don't have the initiative that heroes often do. And while they may want to resist with all their might, they can't mount the defense that an ax wielding, barbarian or spell slinging warlock can. And even if the adults in the family did sense danger West Aldora is really remote. They might not know of a way to fight back that didn't put everyone, including their own children, in mortal danger, with them all in one place and relatively undefended. 00;42;01;25 - 00;42;29;06 Unknown In a remote area, something terrible happens, something that perhaps Umerico Aldora saw. There were rumors that she was developing illegal prognostications in the form of several dangerous and heretical prophetic maps. What if this is the outcome of one of those? Or what if this is one of a long series of events that need to happen to accomplish something larger and more dangerous that she prophesized a long time ago? 00;42;29;09 - 00;42;55;21 Unknown What if West Aldora is just the beginning of something? I champion this theory for one major reason, and it's a somber one, and it's the reason I have been referring to Miss Aldora in the past tense. Three months ago, while she was at home in her flat in Decorah, Umerico, Aldora was murdered. Her body was found cold in her bed with a knife wound to her heart, her hands clasped on her stomach in a repose as if she had been positioned postmortem. 00;42;55;23 - 00;43;22;18 Unknown The local authorities have yet to name a killer or killers, or even any suspects, but I believe that the investigation has been waylaid as they investigate the possible connection between Aldora’s murder and the arrival of her namesake town. The timeline is just too close for it to read as pure happenstance. So whatever malice might be emanating from this paper town, its first victim may have already been laid to rest. 00;43;22;20 - 00;43;45;06 Unknown Dear Investigator, we have a dead mapmaker, a magical disturbance, a town shed materialized out of the ether, a distress signal and a letter from either a potential junior Investigator or a very threatening child monster. In West Aldora Township, there is a growing number of people who have left their lives and potentially their senses, to stake a claim in an until recently imaginary place. 00;43;45;09 - 00;44;05;12 Unknown For the rest of us, we are left to wonder and hope if it could arrive in the blink of an eye, could it not disappear just as quickly? And what happens then? So, dear Investigator, if you find yourself near West Aldora Township and are willing to investigate a series of strange attractions, we would urge you to do so with your wits about you. 00;44;05;14 - 00;44;33;19 Unknown West Aldora will most probably want to keep you there and do everything reasonable to entice, perhaps even unreasonable. Keep your head down, ask the right questions, and keep your eyes open for Evelyn Barrow, the new town librarian. Be advised she may be lost in the stacks of her own making, but she's still our friend. Go swiftly. Tread carefully, and return your books on time. 00;44;33;22 - 00;44;58;09 Unknown Thank you for listening to tonight's episode of Alchemy Investigations, where we have looked into the sudden appearance and strange circumstances of West Aldora Township, a thriving community that should not exist. We have discussed paper towns, our Investigatory staff in peril, and a possible ritual just that its unforeseen culmination. For now, this has been Ichabod, my grocer for alchemy investigations. 00;44;58;12 - 00;45;13;26 Unknown Farewell, Investigators, and beware. 00;45;13;29 - 00;45;39;13 Unknown Alchemy Investigations is produced at Else Break Labs and is hosted by Ichabod M Groster. This episode and its related materials are released with absolutely no warranty nor support, and are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution noncommercial share alike 4.0 international license. If you are interested in learning more about tonight's mystery or want to explore others, please click the link in the description or visit us at our website. 00;45;39;16 - 00;46;06;14 Unknown alchemyinvestigations.com. There, Ichabod will explain the resolution of this particular scenario and offer tips on how it might be run as a tabletop role playing game One-Shot, or as part of a larger campaign in your next game night. Tonight's story all names, characters, and incidents therein are works of fiction. No identification with actual persons, living or deceased places, structures, ideals and or products is intended, nor should be inferred. 00;46;06;17 - 00;46;38;00 Unknown Alchemy investigations is supremely thankful to our wide network of correspondents, correspondents like Orla HiddenTail for their work this season and notes on suburban thrall and Amelia Menet for her tireless work in bardic archivism and arcane data analysis. And of course, thanks to you, dear investigators. Stay well and stay curious. This transcript may contain small inconsistencies. If you encounter one and would like to report it to be corrected in subsequent updates, please contact us at ichabodmgroster@gmail.com Alchemy Investigation and its related materials are offered with absolutely no warranty nor support and are distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).