00;00;00;00 - 00;00;18;10 Before we begin. This episode contains references to disease, death, madness, viscera, quarantines, government censorship, body horror, and colonial violence. Listener discretion is requested. 00;00;18;12 - 00;00;40;07 The term Badlands has always felt very strange coming off my tongue. It suggests that if a place is somehow not fit to conquer, that the land itself should be held accountable, meaning that a place which fights back against subjugation is wrong to do so. But I believe that there is a place. However bad it might seem for everything. 00;00;40;10 - 00;01;14;01 No friend. There should be no badlands, just places which do not need us and probably never will. Or so wrote Jura Wieland, arcane linguist and explorer, in what would be his journal’s last legible entry. On the eastern peninsula, you'll find the kingdom ofthe Three Staves, though it does go by other names and other tongues. The kingdom, made famous for its long lineage of adept magical rulers, had grown exponentially in size and density as of late. 00;01;14;03 - 00;01;40;07 A population boom which followed a notable seafaring trade expansion. It grew so much and so quickly that the original borders had to be redrawn and additional land scouted for growth. One such parcel, a nearby 2000 hectare plot of eroded black sand desert, had been identified as a candidate for natural rehabilitation, urban expansion and incorporation into the kingdom's reach. 00;01;40;09 - 00;02;10;28 The desert, referred to by the Kingdom Scouts as Adhim or absent place, is almost completely devoid of sentient life and had been so for much of the kingdom's history. And it was just that history which appealed to Jura Wieland, a legacy which called him out to the shifting sands. Doctor Jura Wieland was a short, dark haired man with a strong beard who, in addition to being a researcher of arcane archeology atthe Three Staves College, was also the king's nephew. 00;02;11;01 - 00;02;33;02 Jura asked his uncle permission to explore the landscape himself, in order to learn more about the prehistoric underpinnings of any previous or possibly current inhabitants. A scholar at heart, an explorer by privilege. At very least, Jura could verify that nothing dangerous still lurked out in the windswept caverns. The king gave Jura his blessing. A farewell party was had. 00;02;33;04 - 00;03;03;16 Toasts were given and Jura Wieland disappeared over the horizon. Heading for the Adhim . Then weeks passed. Letters would arrive to the kingdom brought by Jura's pet bird, a trained wren named Oggle, which detailed that the land did in fact have sentient life, and that the sands were host to a group of religious exiles who spoke a very peculiar language, one that did not respond to modern deciphering, magical or otherwise. 00;03;03;19 - 00;03;26;24 Being a lover of dead languages and seeing the perfect opportunity to break new academic ground. Jura seemed content to live with the exiles and learn from them in what would be his final letter. Jura asked the king to reconsider plans to colonize the Adhim , suggesting that too little was known about the land and its people. He asked for more time. 00;03;26;27 - 00;03;53;12 He did not receive it. Matters for both the archivist and the kingdom would worsen when one morning a disheveled, sunburnt Jura Wieland arrived at the kingdom's south gate. Broken, dehydrated and speaking in tongues. In the mere minutes it took to escort the rambling Jura from the gate to the royal doctor, he slipped into a coma, and by the time the doctor was summoned, Jura Wieland had died. 00;03;53;14 - 00;04;27;16 His last words, unintelligible but ringing, horrid in the gate guard's ears, and that, dear Investigators, would be a tragedy and a curiosity in and of itself. But dead linguists do not necessarily a mystery make. In the infirmary, as restorative magics were being prepared to try to retrieve the king's nephew from the rivers of death. The gate guard, a stocky woman named Yann Baz, in recounting the strange language that Jura was speaking, fell to the floor and became unresponsive. 00;04;27;18 - 00;04;57;24 Soon thereafter, the medical and obdurate of teams in the infirmary took violently ill and fell into unshakable slumbers. Perhaps it was quickly thought that Jura had returned from the badlands with an unknown biological disease, some wretched pox from an animal or spoiled water. The explorer's effects were taken into evidence, and the medical facility was quarantined. Clerics and nurses were forced to remain in the infirmary with Jura’s body for fear that they, too, might bring disease out into the open. 00;04;57;26 - 00;05;25;17 But in the open it would be because that night, as one of the King's librarians prepared Jura's journal for the king to read to find some clue as to what happened to his nephew. The librarian began to feel ill. They set the tome aside, open to the very last page, and left. We know this because instead of returning to the book, they were found dead in their bed the following morning, having been brutally burnt from some unseen fire. 00;05;25;22 - 00;05;55;16 In fact, many who had read or heard Jura's final words had died in the night. People began to talk. Rumors abounded that Jura's love language was more cursed than blessing. It seemed to onlookers that it wasn't Jura's body that carried the disease back home, but his words and all who heard or read them were at risk. And thus the so-called plague of word spread in the kingdom ofthe Three Staves, where it remains in some form or another to this very day. 00;05;55;18 - 00;06;20;29 This month on Alchemy Investigations, we explore the mysterious death of Doctor Jura Wieland, his role in bringing about the so-called plague of words. And we question just what lurks out in the far reaches beyond the desert. Bad or not, some lands were never meant for footprints, and some tongues are best kept behind teeth. Stay tuned. Investigators. 00;06;21;01 - 00;06;47;25 Greetings, investigators. With you again is Ichabod M Groster, lead dispatcher for Alchemy Investigations, the realm's foremost private investigatory body. And this month, we must choose our words ever so carefully as we delve into the strange death and even stranger aftermath of Jura Wieland scholar, explorer, and patient zero for mysterious calamity which even now holds his home hostage. 00;06;47;29 - 00;07;15;10 For those just joining us in this ongoing unsolved mystery, earlier this year in the Kingdom ofthe Three Staves, Jura Wieland, noted scholar and occult anthropologist set out to explore the badlands beyond the northern border of the kingdom. At some point in his journey, Jura encountered a small group of clergy in the wastes and embedded himself in their culture to learn more about how they had survived for so long in such a harsh environment. 00;07;15;12 - 00;07;45;20 In the midst of this academic exchange, Jura became very ill and was eventually found dying at the edge of the kingdom, only having barely made it back on his own power. Despite medical and magical attention, Jura passed away, and it would seem that everyone who has heard his last words has either become incredibly sick or died themselves. Even people after the fact who simply read from his journal met a very grim fate. 00;07;45;22 - 00;08;20;25 From this, the King has quarantined the hospital wing where Jura, who also happens to be the king's nephew, died. And given the now public notion that whatever killed Doctor Wieland is spread from the written or spoken word.Three Staves has enacted some rather rigorous public health protocols, which leave the streets quiet in every sense of the phrase. But to try to explain how this came to pass, we need to delve into who Jura Wieland was and how one person's curiosity might spell downfall for an entire region. 00;08;20;28 - 00;08;47;23 As you may know, the lineage of royals andThree Staves is bound to a very powerful arcane bloodline for as long as anyone can care to remember the ruling family. The Ben Huri’s have served as custodians and regents for the entire region, growing their peoples influence through a mixture of very powerful divination magic and deft social maneuvering. Being able to know with exact certainty the weather on any given day is quite the boon. 00;08;47;23 - 00;09;13;24 When your largest city rises above one of the busiest seaports in the area. Sailors all over the world will say that it's not really a storm untilThree Staves Harbor closes, at which point you should batten down the hatches. The current King, Miri Ben Huri, a thin, aging man with large eyebrows and a hunched posture, has overseen the single greatest period of economic prosperity in the kingdom's modern history. 00;09;13;29 - 00;09;34;17 And what's more, he's done so without ever declaring war or engaging in outright hostility. This has earned him the colloquial title of the Neighbor King. And while rumors do crop up from time to time that he is in fact secretly a cruel leader with a small army of vanishing death squads who eliminate his political enemies with no trace. 00;09;34;20 - 00;09;57;20 Much of that seems like the sort of unearned conspiracy theory that you see in pamphlets nailed to tavern bathroom doors. No, the Ben Huri’s seem to be, in all ways that face the public. Clever political leaders, powerful arcanists, and pretty good custodians of their land. They also, as you might imagine, happened to be a pretty big family. All overThree Staves in the surrounding area. 00;09;57;20 - 00;10;24;11 You can see minor members of the family cashing in on the name, taverns, potion shops, charities, third cousins twice removed, running a “Ben Hurry” courier service. I'll let you suss out how they cleverly spell hurry, which makes it all the more interesting when, as Jura Wieland, whose father was the king's younger brother, entered into his professional life as a student, he elected to take his mother's name, Wieland. 00;10;24;13 - 00;10;54;27 Jura didn't want to cash in on the family name, wanting instead, he would later write: “to attempt success or failure on his own copper”. Perhaps that was impressive to others as well. Or perhaps they saw through that smokescreen and wanted to gain favor with the royal family. But Jura, after publishing his First Folio entitled ‘Ars Lingua, a discussion of proto linguistic trends and early peoples ofthe Three Staves kingdom Region’ was given a named chair atthe Three Staves College. 00;10;54;29 - 00;11;09;10 There he conducted research and taught classes on early magical traditions, the evolution of language, and the interaction between land use, arcane evolution, and occult mechanization. 00;11;09;12 - 00;11;30;20 It is unclear to me now if what happened next to Jura was evidence of his preternatural value as a scholar, or simply that powerful Ben Huri diviner blood which ran through his veins. But Doctor Jura Wieland was about to use librarianship to make a huge difference in his kingdom's fortune, which for me as a fellow scholar is a particularly incredible win. 00;11;30;23 - 00;12;00;29 You see,Three Staves had for several years been in competition for a very lucrative trade route with a neighboring city, state called Vixland Isle. It was getting to such a point where citizens on both sides feared an imminent war. Things were heating up and one day, down in the catacomb like archives within the Royal Library, Jura found an untranslated document signed by his family, but also emblazoned with the unmistakable seal of Vixland Isle. 00;12;01;01 - 00;12;21;18 It's a seagull, by the way. Getting to work on the translation. It would seem that generations ago, Vixland Isle ceded control of that particular trade route to one of the Ben Huri ancestors in return for assistance during a famine. As magisters on both sides agreed the document was still binding and the trade route went tothe Three Staves. 00;12;21;18 - 00;12;45;13 Merchant company, with not a drop of blood spilled. It was a big win for the Kingdom and quite frankly, a great day for archivism. With this academic victory under his belt, Jura could effectively and without obvious nepotism, pursue his own interests, knowing that he could call in a boon from the King should he ever need to. And it wasn't long before that boon was called in. 00;12;45;13 - 00;13;15;04 You see, as the kingdom expanded through this new trade route. It grew exponentially in population, in wealth and in density. And of course, this led to issues a housing crisis, stress on the medical infrastructure and increased crime rate, especially around the dock area. And no small amount of social imbalance that comes with rapid economic expansion. It was time, for the first time in an age to consider moving the kingdom's borders and starting new construction. 00;13;15;07 - 00;13;40;22 And the most obvious candidate when you live in a peninsula is to look inland. Which forThree Staves meant an arid desert known to the locals as Adhim or the absent place. I'm sorry, I actually can't help myself hear the term. Adhim in the local parlance absolutely does mean absent. However, it can also be translated as avoided, and I think that holds some weight here. 00;13;40;25 - 00;14;08;04 Absent to me is passive avoided. That's a warning. More on that in a bit. Beyond the capital and surrounding farmlands, the northern area of the region is pretty harsh by every measure of that word. The land is carved up by stinging winds which dig into the black sands below, creating deep valleys and unpredictable cave networks. Put simply, the land is just not used socially. 00;14;08;04 - 00;14;36;14 It's too bleak to be farmed and too unpredictable to be settled. Even nomadic groups make huge deviations in their travels to avoid it. According to local records, it would seem that every other age or so a group of brave -- read: foolhardy -- pioneers would seek to tame the Adhim . And of the handful or so groups who have tried, the best outcomes were from those who gave up and returned, battered, humiliated but alive to Three Staves. 00;14;36;16 - 00;15;02;24 I cannot tell you what exactly, prompted Jura Wieland to fixate on the Badlands. Perhaps years cooped up in the library invigorated some wanderlust. Maybe he felt like he could produce the kind of firsthand sources he read from every day. Maybe he genuinely miscalculated how dangerous a place like that can be. He had, after all, led a sheltered life as three states royalty. 00;15;02;26 - 00;15;31;00 Jura, knowing his uncle, would send explorers to the Adhim , asked for permission to explore a region near the southern portion of the desert by himself. In his research, the archivist said he had found some historical indication of a precursor society there, perhaps even long, long, long lost ancestors of the Ben Huri family. It was worth a look, and Jura made the case that he had the best eyes for the job. 00;15;31;03 - 00;15;50;09 The king owing Jura for his success in the Vixland Isle matter. Agreed and supplied his nephew for the journey. So Jura Wieland, accompanied only by his trained bird, entered the desert with enough supplies to last three weeks and enough parchment to write an entire book. 00;15;50;11 - 00;16;17;10 There is no way to know exactly what happened to Doctor Wieland in the Adhim desert. Not for sure. But being a trained academic, Jura wrote copious notes. And this, dear Investigators, is where we need to have a conversation about consent. Not to jump too far ahead, but Jura's death prompted a very specific response from the Kingdom. You can quarantine against a biological disease. 00;16;17;17 - 00;16;42;28 You can protect against hexes. We've been doing that for ages. But how do you stem the tide of a curse? Spread by reading or listening. King Ben Huri passed several emergency edicts which continue to limit access to what came back from the desert. This includes Jura's last words, his journal, his letters, and any discussion which might reference the above. 00;16;43;00 - 00;17;14;18 In essence, it's illegal to talk about, read about, or listen to information concerning Jura Wieland in the Kingdom ofthe Three Staves. The King believes that this is the only way to stop the spread of the plague of words and keep his subjects safe, personally and professionally. I'm willing to take these risks and share the copies of copies of Jura's journal that made it out of Three Staves, and found their way to me through some intrepid smugglers who shall remain nameless. 00;17;14;21 - 00;17;43;25 I share them now with you, but consider this your final warning, both in terms of potential magical contagion, but also for general illegalities inthe Three Staves region. If you stay, you will become implicated in both. If this dear Investigator is not an assignment you want, if you would prefer the mystery to stay a mystery. If you in fact fear the plague of words, then now's the time to depart. 00;17;43;27 - 00;17;53;07 Are you still listening? Very good investigator. Let's break some local ordinances. 00;17;53;10 - 00;18;18;11 Jura's. Last words are written in a sort of scholarly shorthand that one uses when they intend to rewrite for a larger audience. This alone insinuates that Jura Wieland fully believed that there would be a time after his journey to edit and publish his work. His entries are in a clinical and observational style, especially at first, and I will do my best as a fellow scholar to interpret from his log. 00;18;18;19 - 00;18;43;25 Day three. Warm little shade. “O”, I'm assuming this is shorthand for the bird Oggle “O”. Scouts ahead and sees little. Detection suggests metals in the sand. Curious at night. Loud noises before me, like the sound of screeching. It is the wind. Day five inland have lost weight from sweat. Reminded of the tale of Oona and the wastes. But not so cheerful. 00;18;44;00 - 00;19;06;15 I cannot find them by sight, but in the distance. Some bug or bird chirps the night away. For those of you who perhaps have neglected your historical studies, Oona was the name of a famed huntress who, when confronted with a barren wasteland, not unlike the Adhim and told to conquer it, she said that no beast who would call such a place a home was worth her hunt. 00;19;06;17 - 00;19;35;29 In most circles, this is seen as a story of polite despair and social relinquishment. So I think it's safe to say that Jura. Well, Jura had some regrets about the journey. Day eight sighting confirmed via “O”. Three sub humanoid. Unknown . Unknown. Dorex protocol. Dug a campfire into the sand, which here seems harder and more compacted. Dear investigator, this is the big one. 00;19;36;01 - 00;20;02;12 The short hand here follows the Dorex model, which is used by modern arcane anthropologists to initiate contact with unfamiliar or unknown civilizations. Three sub means three subjects. Or rather, that Jura had identified three humanoid creatures of age and sex unknown. The protocol then dictates that the observer Jura, attempt to wait unseen until the subjects have exhibited three specific characteristics. 00;20;02;14 - 00;20;26;16 They must be witnessed to consume food and drink, witnessed to sleep and witness, to share amongst themselves. Only then should the observer attempt contact. Of course, Jura never made it that far. Day eight plus one. Three. Sub approach. The notation here indicates that this is supplemental to the previous entry, with it being so short and scribbled in a frankly very unsteady hand. 00;20;26;19 - 00;20;52;21 It's likely that the subjects approached Jura’s camp having sighted him as well. This is not at all surprising, considering that Jura was unfamiliar with fieldwork, and the subjects clearly knew the area very well and would recognize disturbances, say, for example, unannounced visitors who lit campfires on their land. But then there are no entries in Tourist Journal for three days. 00;20;52;24 - 00;21;18;16 When Jura returns to his journal, his entries are much more composed using full sentences and a tone which appears much more eloquent. It's likely that Jura did not feel comfortable constantly writing fragmented and observational notes while interacting with these inhabitants, who he calls the Adhimites. Instead, he probably opted to make notes at the end of the day, when he could be alone and write without being disturbed or disturbing others. 00;21;18;18 - 00;21;46;15 This is his first note. Three days later, the Adhimites do not speak a language per se, but they do speak, and when they speak they say the same long statement over and over and over again, either whole or in parts. The same sounds, the same phonemes, pauses like a prayer or a song, and the context and tone of the prayer produces meaning depending on which parts you say and how loudly and how you move while you are saying them. 00;21;46;18 - 00;22;07;13 I do not know this prayer, and while I cannot speak with them or understand their specific meaning, they also communicate through contextual gestures, and as such, we have been able to work out a rudimentary understanding. They have generously provided me with dense bread and water, which on my tongue tastes foul, but I have yet to see it negatively impact my well-being. 00;22;07;16 - 00;22;33;24 I keep rephrasing my questions in different languages and nothing seems to stick. But this morning I spoke the word honor in a patois of old sylvan, and one member of the community perked up, almost as if they knew the word, but do not know its meaning. I do not know how one could know a word without learning its meaning, unless they've heard it somewhere else a long time ago. 00;22;33;24 - 00;23;01;13 Perhaps I will think about this. From another entry four days later. I thought at first that the entire civilization was a mere 30 people, ranging from two small children to a middle aged woman no older than I. But then this morning, ten people arrived. They looked like the rest of the Adhimites I thought maybe a hunting party, but they came back pallid and unwell and with no food. 00;23;01;15 - 00;23;23;11 They then, as a single file line, all moved quickly from the northern pathway from whence they came, to a structure at the end of the encampment, which I had thought empty. Shortly thereafter, a group of ten people with whom I had become familiar, departed heading north. And so, with these arrivals and departures, the community stays at 30 people with ten away. 00;23;23;13 - 00;23;46;28 Like the changing of a guard. Here Jura sketched a crude map, a copy of which I have enclosed. The Adhimite encampment is a half circle of small family structures, units made out of some stone or metals unfamiliar to the scholar. The map indicates this additional structure set apart from the rest of the community. Jura has also labeled the pathway leading north with a question mark. 00;23;47;00 - 00;24;09;03 That road is how members of the group come and go on what Jura would later describe as a weekly schedule. Every seventh day at sunset or so, ten people would return and ten people would leave. It seems he would note that there is some significance in capping the entire community at 40. He wonders if there are other such enclaves, but mostly he wonders where is everyone going? 00;24;09;05 - 00;24;35;06 Later he would write one evening when the returners. That's the term he used for people who spent the week away from the encampment. One evening, when the returners returned. I motion to the north indicating the path of travel. The Adhimite reaction was instant and strong, and for the first time I felt fear since arriving. The members of the enclave moved like a wall in front of me, blocking even the sight of the path to the north. 00;24;35;11 - 00;24;57;05 And then one spoke a word that I've heard as part of their prayer, but said much more slowly than normal, and when said so slowly it became recognizable to me. Malformed in his mouth as it was, I could hear it. An old Cahnt term that meant warning. If only Jura had heeded it. On day 52 he wrote the following. 00;24;57;08 - 00;25;26;00 It has been more than seven cycles since I arrived in the Adhim enclave. Seven times have I seen a small contingent of these priests travel north, and seven times returned, looking worse for the wear. The Dorex rules forbid explicit trespasses against the host wishes, but a scholar is curious by trade. My communications with the teammates are gestural and mostly wordless, but every time I begin to motion to the northern passage, the conversation ends. 00;25;26;03 - 00;25;48;29 We are at an impasse. Last night I tried to introduce “Tall”. This is Jura's assigning names to specific Adhimites based on appearance. Frankly, I think this is a little reductive, but apparently there is a notably tall Adhimite. I tried to introduce tall to the notion that others, like me, may come to the enclave thinking of my uncle’s men, and of home. This caused a stir. 00;25;49;01 - 00;26;11;17 Tall motioned in the negative, drawing an X in the ground with his gnarled finger, and began the ritual prayer. Tall recited the prayer in a hurry. His voice wavering, almost pleading. They will sometimes pull specific sounds from it, but that prayer is their entire alphabet. I have a feeling that the root of that prayer and the origin of the alphabet both lie to the north. 00;26;11;20 - 00;26;35;23 There are several attempts in the journal to codify the prayer in a language based on his notes and marginalia. It would seem that the prayer itself is assembled of sounds that hold word like significance, but they have been said so many times over, so many generations that they have lost direct meaning. Like when you say your own name over and over again, it just becomes sound and then noise. 00;26;35;25 - 00;27;04;16 Most modern spells which allow a wizard or witch to decipher a tongue, require that that tongue actually be a formal language. So it makes sense that these incantations would fail for Jura, and it is unclear to me if he attempted any mental probing on the Adhimites. However, if he did, he may not have written it down. That sort of thing is expressly forbidden by the Dorex protocol and generally looked down upon by any ethics review board at the academic level. 00;27;04;19 - 00;27;30;09 And so he stayed. In the end, Jura was at the enclave for somewhere between 16 and 17 weeks. And all told, Jura's spent 119 days in the Adhim desert before. Dear investigator, we get to Jura's fateful decision to break the Dorex protocol rules and head north from the encampment. There are two notable sections of his journal that I would like to highlight for you now. 00;27;30;12 - 00;28;01;14 The first is an important observation Jura made about hair. I honestly do not know how he was able to record this information surreptitiously, but he made specific note that there is something about the Adhimite physiology, which makes it so that their hair does not seem to grow, or perhaps grows, but at an imperceptibly slow rate. He notes that in his time in the desert, his own beard grew several inches, which seems to confuse and entertain the Adhimites, as if it were the first time they had seen something like that. 00;28;01;16 - 00;28;27;17 Secondly, around week 12, Jura's began to outline Adhimite behavior in relation to what he called the mechanical purpose. He does not directly define this term, which is not good scholarship, but it alludes to a grand design to which these people have been committed not just their lives, but their entire society. In Jura's estimation, it's almost as if the Adhimites themselves are not individuals, but part of a grand mechanism. 00;28;27;24 - 00;28;48;12 Wheels and cogs in a clock too big for Jura to see, let alone till it's time. Whether this is colonial pandering or arcane scholarship, I'm not sure. But it does stick out. This, of course, brings us to Jura's ill fated journey north. In the end, he made no note of planning in the journal. I do not know why. 00;28;48;14 - 00;29;16;03 Reading through it, the script jumps from an anthropological study and notation to some very unnerving final discoveries, which we will discuss shortly. Perhaps you just woke up one morning and his thirst for knowledge was just unquenchable. Maybe he received a letter from his uncle indicating that he did not have long before the Kingdom scouts arrived. Whatever it was, without warning or preparation, Jura Wieland, slipped out of the Adhimite camp and headed north towards answers. 00;29;16;05 - 00;29;39;13 And what would be his ultimate downfall. Doctor Wieland didn't write anything down on the path north, instead making tally marks in one of the margins to track distance. My guess is that he made it about a day's journey before encountering the remote members of the Adhimites -- the returners. We know this because there is a very rough sketch on the last page of the journal. 00;29;39;15 - 00;30;02;04 It seems to depict an incomplete obelisk sticking straight out of the sand in a black sand desert, surrounded by ten figures backlit by the sun. The monolith, which appears four sided and covered in scrawl writing, has a large crack and appears to be missing a piece. In the journal. After the sketch, there is but one sentence written down. 00;30;02;06 - 00;30;17;12 Jura's final words interpreting what he felt and perhaps his last moment of sanity. It reads I believe this place is a warning. 00;30;17;15 - 00;30;42;28 There are technically two additional pages, but the final two pages of Jura's Journal were ripped out hastily. It looks like the one that was kept with the book Jura, or someone used it to make a rubbing of one side of the pillar that Jura described in his previous entry. The other, who knows? Perhaps left in the desert, perhaps lost to time. 00;30;42;29 - 00;31;10;15 It is unclear. What we do know is that somehow Jura made his way back to Three Staves. Broken, rambling, burnt and alone as it would seem that his poor bird, Oggle, did not survive the journey. It would be that on the 119th day of his journey, Jura was found incoherent at the southern gate of the kingdom's capital. And if, dear Investigator, you have a compass handy, well then you know that something does not add up. 00;31;10;17 - 00;31;39;28 Why, if Jura was so sick, would he travel down from the northern deserts around the whole of the kingdom, dying the entire time, only to arrive at the southern gate? It doesn't make a lot of sense, but does pose an interesting notion that perhaps Jura may have had some help getting home. While there are northern entrances to the kingdom, the main road, the largest overland trade road in the region, deposits visitors squarely at the southern gate. 00;31;40;00 - 00;31;59;07 So it's quite possible that someone a caravan, a messenger, a circus, for all we know, gave Jura a lift. And upon realizing who he was and how bad off they left him at the main gate. After all, who wants to be caught with a delirious noble in their cart? And who wants to be punished for just giving someone a ride home? 00;31;59;09 - 00;32;24;09 Speaking of which, Yann Baz was the daughter of a local magister, and when she was young, her mother told her that she was to do what was right, even when it was hard. Yann took this to heart and became both righteous and tough as nails. She served in the town's guard and, according to her peers, was remarkable, having held the company record for most chin ups in a minute and consistently winning the annual militia pie baking contest. 00;32;24;11 - 00;32;52;18 And it would just so happen that Yann Baz had pulled main gate duty on the 119th morning of Jura’s journey. Not long after she had arrived at the gate house to start her shift, she responded to a code three one. A vagrant at the gate, suspecting political rabble rousers from Vixland Isle or someone staggering home after a long night, she was quite surprised to see a member of the royal family -- the sigil of the Ben Huri’s, unmistakably blazened on his cloak. 00;32;52;21 - 00;33;16;10 However, Jura, according to statements later made by Baz was shouting coherently or perhaps incoherently, but not in the common tongue, Baz, while many things, was not a linguist. She was, however, very brave and thoughtful and did what any strong hearted public servant would do. She threw the archivist over her shoulder and ran to the keep, shouting instructions ahead of her to summon the king's surgeon. 00;33;16;17 - 00;34;00;04 It's a code 99. A royal malady. Jura, she saw, was not a well man. As she ran, two other gate guards, collected Jura’s effects including the journal, and began the process of taking them into evidence. Yann ran as fast as she could. It just wouldn't be enough. Somewhere between the gate and the keep, Jura Wieland died in her arms, and by the time she made it to the castle where the medical theater was being prepped by surgeons and clerics alike, Jura’s lifeless body slumped over Yann Baz’s shoulders and was laid gracefully onto the operating table. 00;34;00;07 - 00;34;25;27 Now death as we know it is pretty different for royals, and in just about any other scenario, Jura would have been swiftly brought back to life by those powerful and costly magics reserved for heroic adventurers and the wealthy. If you can afford it, you generally don't have to stay dead. And as components were gathered for the ritual. Yann was questioned by the king's counselor, a tall, intense young woman named Vario Hale. 00;34;26;00 - 00;34;55;18 As Hale tried to gather the context of how Jura came to be here. Yann suddenly stopped speaking. We know this from copies of Hale’s own notes. -- also smuggled out of Three Staves. Yann Baz apparently fell to the floor, vomiting and crying in what was described as visceral, obvious pain. Not moments later, a nurse attending to his body fell over, and then another one of the scribes, Vario, fearing contagion, immediately sealed off the infirmary from the rest of the castle. 00;34;55;24 - 00;35;20;19 There were protocols for this, and she was to keep the king safe at all costs, even the cost of her own life, and every life now imprisoned in the hospital ward, alone with terror. The Kingdom of the Three Staves had encountered an emergency, and suddenly, all over the castle, alarms were going off. Over the course of that first night, notes were passed into and out of the locked infirmary. 00;35;20;22 - 00;35;44;15 Nobody knew it at the time, but these messages would soon be thought of as just as dangerous as Jura himself. Vario Hale detailed the aftermath to the King's staff. Yann Baz died about an hour after the quarantine began, as did some of the other clerics attending to Jura. Hale even admitted that she herself was beginning to feel the side effects of Jura's rash decision to visit the desert. 00;35;44;18 - 00;36;05;22 Attempts to magically slow the decline were largely unsuccessful, and in Hale's last grisly note, passed just before dawn, she wrote that she saw a light from inside of the room. Why would the dawn come so early for us? Or does it know something we don't? 00;36;05;24 - 00;36;29;00 The King met with his staff in an emergency session to develop a response. Clerics, healers, mystics and doctors of all sorts were called in from far and wide awoken from their sleep. A plan was developed and agreed upon. In the morning the infirmary would be opened. Extreme healing and protective measures would be taken. Jura would be revived and questioned, and the issue would be resolved. 00;36;29;02 - 00;36;52;19 If you are rich enough, there is no amount of healing and consecrating that cannot be done. And that plan? A very good plan, would have gone off without a hitch. Had it not been for Jura's last words, it fell to the Royal archivist, Margaret Pernashki to prepare Jura's journal for the King to read, creating notation and translating any bits not in the common tongue. 00;36;52;21 - 00;37;15;23 That night, Margaret pored over the tome, making notes, making copies which are the progenitors of the second hand copies I read from now. Miss Pernashki worked late into the night, and eventually she put down the book, extinguished her candles, walked her quarters, laid down in bed and dear Investigators, if you are sensitive to such matters, please skip ahead a bit. 00;37;15;26 - 00;37;39;24 But that night, Margaret Pernashki’s skin burned. It burned off in her bed as if she were on fire, but the quarters themselves remained unsinged The next morning, she was found in a pool of her own sick -- skin near flayed. And that's not all. The royal attendants who read the notes from the quarantine infirmary had also taken ill, one passing away in his sleep. 00;37;39;27 - 00;38;03;14 The gate guards, who brought the journal to the archive for Margaret to read, were found dead with similar lesions on their skin. It would seem that not only did Jura's body carry back a danger, but that the journal and notes and his very words did as well. For anyone who cared to read or listen, suddenly found themselves unwell, or very much worse. 00;38;03;16 - 00;38;28;01 And so whispers began all through the streets of Three Staves. That following day, people talked and rumors spread. Some said that the mention of Jura's name would bring ill fate. It was now an omen on the wind. Outrageous claims of friends of friends falling into comas after hearing about the poor, wayward Jura or losing their minds after reading his first book, now on run from the public library. 00;38;28;04 - 00;38;55;02 Some folk claimed that they had a brother's sister's cousin who read a bootleg copy of the journal now passed out in the market, and they combusted into flame, having succumbed to the so-called plague of words. It was hysteria in short order. In response to this public panic, and in what some might refer to as a rather drastic move, King Ben Huri put into place a series of edicts to inoculate his kingdom against Jura's plague of words under penalty of death. 00;38;55;02 - 00;39;22;17 No citizen is allowed to discuss Jura or his fate or speculate on the findings in the desert. Copies of his journal are strictly prohibited. Burned on site. And while some neighbors are incentivized to report such whispers to the guards, these whispers, it would seem, persist. To the King's credit and external observer’s filings indicate that the plague, whether on its own or in response to these laws, seems to have abated, or at very least stalled in recent weeks. 00;39;22;19 - 00;39;52;08 It remains that the edicts and the quarantine have yet to be lifted. And there you would have it. Investigators. Jura Wieland goes to the desert, and instead of bringing back new and wonderful knowledge, he brings back of plague of whispers, killing through word of mouth, perhaps an ancient curse or a weaponized prayer and an archaic tongue. In total, we have a dead royal, a kingdom teetering on the edge, a king lashing out at shadows, and, perhaps most troubling, a living warning. 00;39;52;10 - 00;40;09;01 Buried in the sands to the north, even if they're not supposed to. People are talking and theories abound. And I have a few of my own. Dear investigators. But more on that after our break. 00;40;09;03 - 00;40;28;21 This month's episode of Alchemy Investigations is brought to you by that voice in your head that you sometimes hear saying, are you sure you want to do that? Maybe listen to that voice and don't do that thing. 00;40;28;24 - 00;40;56;09 Since speculation and discussion of what actually happened to Jura Wieland is expressly forbidden by Three Staves, edicts and enforced by the town's militia, you would think that such measures would be enough to quell the public interest and grind the rumor mill to a halt. You would, of course, be wrong. In fact, some suggest that by censoring Jura's misadventure, the king had inadvertently caused more people to speak on the subject than would have otherwise, potentially spreading the disease further. 00;40;56;09 - 00;41;24;12 And wider than before. No. By now, everybody within the kingdom has whispered some theory or conjecture as how Jura came to meet his grim fate, and there are almost as many hypotheses as there are pubs and taverns in the peninsula. But we at Alchemy Investigations have whittled down the vast litany of misinformation to four frontrunners. Let's call these theories the hex, the spy, the deity and the vault. 00;41;24;14 - 00;42;04;05 First up, the hex. It is without doubt easiest to point fingers at the Adhimites. It sort of makes sense and makes for a very easy to digest story. Our Jura a hometown hero who embarks on a journey, meets a mysterious cult and returns. Cursed for his troubles. And if you have only heard bits and pieces of Jura's story, it would make sense that you would believe that a group of occult priests who speak in tongues and live in the fringes of society would want to do harm to Jura, especially if they sense that he would be the harbinger of colonialism and encroachment from Three Staves. 00;42;04;09 - 00;42;27;19 And frankly, if that were the case, I don't think anyone reasonable could blame the Adhimites for this preemptive act of magical biological warfare. But if this were true, why feed him for 5 months? Why approach him and allow him to stay in their commune? Why give him warnings about danger in the north. Since Jura’s return and subsequent death -- 00;42;27;22 - 00;42;54;00 It would seem that King Ben Huri -- our good neighbor King has set his sights on the desert much more specifically, no longer out of civic growth and urban development, but now with an air of revenge. Quietly, calls have gone out for adventurers to seek an audience with the King. Auditions, let's call it for an undisclosed, though seemingly unsavory hunting mission in the arid Badlands. 00;42;54;03 - 00;43;20;24 It's little secret that the King is out for blood, which is quite dangerous for a small neighboring religious community who only numbers in the dozens. Killing Jura and attempting to poison Three Staves seems like an obvious tactical blunder. The Adhimites wanted to distance themselves from the kingdom, preventing future encroachment, and while Jura found them at times inscrutable, he never characterized the Adhimites as reckless nor stupid. 00;43;20;27 - 00;43;42;02 No, I don't think there's much weight to the hex theory. There's nothing to gain in cursing a neighbor who wildly outnumbers you. Frankly, I don't think it was Jura's words that were killing anybody, or else I wouldn't be reading this to you. Now. I think the danger here may be much more mundane. 00;43;42;04 - 00;44;02;24 The spy theory brings us a bit closer down to the realm of politics. Let's say that you wanted to destabilize an entire kingdom. It might start with a plan to kidnap a noble, perhaps someone who recently made an archival discovery that cost your city state a lucrative merchant enterprise. But of course, you couldn't kidnap the noble directly. That would alert suspicion. 00;44;02;24 - 00;44;27;27 And suspicion breeds war, and war means death. So you wait for the noble to leave, perhaps even manufacturing the pretense under which they would want to go on an adventure alone in the desert. You place your agents in local taverns and bend the nobles ears with tales of grandeur and danger, and the mysterious lands to the north. And then, just as the noble disappears over the horizon, having bit down on your bait, you grab him. 00;44;27;29 - 00;44;52;22 00;44;52;25 - 00;45;14;06 Otherwise, surely the ruse would be found out by some curious doctor meddling grave digger. I cannot tell you how many mysteries have been solved by a meddling grave Digger. Maybe the contagion is so nefarious that it puts real fear into the king, preying on the king's need for control and observation. It being a variable that the great diviner could not have anticipated. 00;45;14;09 - 00;45;34;02 That's exactly what you would do if you were a Vixland Isle and wanted to shake up the kingdom who ruled the seas you thought should be your own. To this day, the medical theater in the castle keep is under strict quarantine. A lock so tight that information can't even get out. King's orders. Less it carry with it the vector of a perceived disease. 00;45;34;05 - 00;45;55;03 The infirmary has become a sad mausoleum for Jura and those who tried to save him. Or at least for the person we think is Jura. That's the heart of the spy theory. The notion that the body resting in state is not that of Jura Wieland, and that this is perhaps the first in a series of covert terror attacks. 00;45;55;05 - 00;46;20;04 No, this is no real plague of words, just a very well orchestrated scheme by the spymaster of Vixland Isle to take back the seas. The deity theory is a catchall for several different theories that all basically ring the same bell. They all suggest that the Adhimites were some form of religious order to an ancient god who resides in or under or above the desert. 00;46;20;07 - 00;46;45;15 This might explain a few things that I've yet to find suitable answers for. First, it might address how the Adhimites were able to survive for generations in such a rough ecosystem, while simultaneously being able to recruit enough to keep their numbers up as presumably, members age out of the community or die. It would make sense that these people take turns visiting the deity and not want to share that with outsiders like Jura. 00;46;45;17 - 00;47;05;14 This is meant to explain why there's a primary camp where Jura stayed, but then a holy secret site, the North, that was more restrictive of the place with the obelisk. And it would also make sense that once Jura made contact with the deity, he would find himself in a sorry state, perhaps even ruined or cursed for his hubris. 00;47;05;20 - 00;47;44;01 But personally, something about this feels a little off to me now. Gods are fickle, and I am in no position to insinuate that something is off brand for a deity. But historically, mortals who gain unsanctioned audiences with divine beings find themselves either exploded or imploded, some kind of -ploded not writing journal entries or making stone rubbings. If this deity wanted to ruin Jura's people, why send a relatively small scale esoteric plague when any deity worth their salt could have just wiped Three Staves from time in a holy demonstration of cosmic revenge and violence? 00;47;44;04 - 00;47;58;00 Some folks say Jura met a god or goddess in the desert. And if that's true. Well, quite frankly, the kingdom of the Three Staves got off pretty light. 00;47;58;03 - 00;48;23;16 Finally, we come to the Vault Theory, and this is my personal favorite. What if Jura was wrong about the Adhimites? What if they're not a holy group of believers at all, but rather a security system like a wall or a guard What if they were put in place to watch something? A treasure, an altar, a prison? It would make sense that their language is limited and their purpose obscured. 00;48;23;22 - 00;48;55;14 Security should be hard to parse for intruders and Jura posed no real threat to their mission until he went rogue and invaded their northern sanctum, at which point he befell retribution just like any good security force. And perhaps he wasn't to be killed outright. Perhaps the Adhimite orders were simply to repel. Killing draws a lot of attention. In fact, it would make sense that after Jura was attacked, the Adhimites may have been the ones to return him to Three Staves. 00;48;55;16 - 00;49;19;10 How else could a grievously injured librarian walk days back alone through the desert? What I like so much about this theory is that, aside from answering some of my lingering questions about the Adhimites themselves, how their numbers stay consistent, why their language is so tricky to parse, it gives a lot of purpose to the Adhim itself. Maybe our fear of the environment is what keeps us alive. 00;49;19;12 - 00;49;54;09 Maybe Badlands are made bad intentionally to discourage wandering scholars from learning secrets too dangerous to be written down. As far as theories go, dear Investigators, these are the big ones the hex, the spy, the deity, and the vault. Few things encourage a rumor, like a king's decree to remain silent and a small cottage industry of smugglers, rogues and thieves carry information to and from Three Staves, feeding curious minds like yours and mine. 00;49;54;11 - 00;50;20;11 It's strange because the borders of the kingdom are still very much open, and much of the citizenry daily life carries on as it did. That is, until someone speaks to his name and the police are summoned. So if you do decide to visit the kingdom of the Three Staves, Investigators know that the usual tactic of grabbing a drink at the tavern and asking about any rumors may not work so well, especially within earshot of the guards. 00;50;20;14 - 00;50;49;06 So I suppose that the mystery now sits in a state of uneasy equilibrium. Jura's situation isn't changing. The hospital wing is still quarantined, and in time, people may forget about Jura Wieland and what does or does not lurk in the twisting sands to the north. It would be easy, perhaps even kind, to leave well enough alone. But there's actually another reason why the weary citizens of Three Staves can't find sleep these days. 00;50;49;09 - 00;50;58;00 And it has less to do with chattering words, and more to do with the chirping of wings. 00;50;58;02 - 00;51;24;20 The term stridulation is the name for the noise made when parts of the body. Any body, are rubbed together -- think crickets. That chirp is not actually a chirp. But scientifically, it's a stridulation There is a common beetle in Three Staves with the name “Scarab Aridus Dorrans”, or as everyone calls it, Hoxler's Bug. I suppose that rolls off the tongue a little bit more easily. 00;51;24;22 - 00;51;49;19 These creatures are endemic to Three Staves in the surrounding area, and for the most part, they go unnoticed unless you find one amongst your food or children. These are normal everyday beetles. They look like beetles. They move like beetles. I cannot overstress how mundane and ubiquitous these insects are to the kingdom. However, the day the jury returned to the city, a strange thing happened. 00;51;49;21 - 00;52;19;17 And with all of the frenetic action surrounding the so-called plague of words, it took some time before people noticed, but eventually everyone began to hear chirping. These stridulations all over Three Staves. Over time, the chirps grew louder, and eventually the sound was traced back to small swarms of these Hoxler's bugs. These beetles. But that's the strangest thing up until now, including all of Three Staves recorded history. 00;52;19;19 - 00;52;48;01 Nobody knew that Hoxler's bugs made any noise at all. Nobody knew they were capable of it. And it just so happened that they chose that day, the day of Jura Wieland's death, to play their music for the first time ever. All night and all day. Three Staves is now host to a dull, cacophonous symphony which seems quieter by the docks and perhaps louder by the Keep unceasing. 00;52;48;03 - 00;53;17;10 Naturalists and druids remain stumped. Clerics have been calling it the mortal dirge, but the din does not stop. These Hoxler's bugs play accompaniment to every meal shared, every changing of the guard. Every sunrise and every sunset. And of course, to the racing mind of King Miri Ben Huri, as he paces in his throne room, deciding the fate of the Adhimites and no doubt his own subjects and kingdom as well. 00;53;17;13 - 00;53;45;22 Somewhere above the homes and shops and Three Staves, above the droves of hidden conversations and stolen theories, above even the low static of the Hoxler’s bug chorus King Miri Ben Huri remains secluded in his tower room since his nephew's death and subsequent region wide lockdown. The King has withdrawn from public life and is seen little. Rumor has it that our Good Neighbor King has had a falling out with his inner circle, especially Jura's parents. 00;53;45;24 - 00;54;19;06 I cannot imagine the pain of outliving one son, especially not being able to give him a proper burial as the Royal Infirmary remains sealed, and all who attempted to help Jura either through the plague or through just plain starvation, are now gone with him. I cannot imagine being so close and yet so far away from the truth. King Ben Huri has not budged on any of his edicts, and at the risk of editorializing, it seems that the once great ruler is himself now ruled by fear. 00;54;19;09 - 00;54;43;03 But one question remains for me, dear Investigator, one huge question. And it's not what happened to Jura in the desert? It's what happened to the King after Jura returned. King Ben Huri is the last in a noble line of diviners. He is privy to visions and prophecy, which up until this moment have indisputably done him and his family well. 00;54;43;05 - 00;55;09;09 And for all of those hushed whispers in the kingdom which say the King has overreacted and has been gripped by anxiety and fear, how he has grown weak, I offer a different take. What if the King is exactly as afraid as he should be? What if he knows the plague is not what it seems, but is hells bent on containing something far worse, something he can't explain to other people. 00;55;09;11 - 00;55;33;15 What if festering away in the locked infirmary or growing in the desert, is a harbinger of a long awaited, long foretold calamity? I don't know what exactly, but in my experience, dear Investigator, when those who can see the future begin to panic, it's probably a good time to start worrying too. And if I were a betting person and I'm not. 00;55;33;15 - 00;55;53;09 But if I were, I would guess that somewhere in the King's chambers there is an ancient, dusty tome with a prediction inside one that starts with the death of a noble in the desert and ends with the downfall of a kingdom. 00;55;53;11 - 00;56;19;11 Some mysteries are straightforward and require an investigator to just ask the right question at the right time, to the right person, and listen. But Three Staves offers a mystery within, a mystery within a mystery. And I have to believe that all of it. That Jura, the Adhimites, the sight in the desert, the plague, the bugs, the journal, and the newfound terror of the neighbor king are all connected in some dire prophetic web. 00;56;19;18 - 00;56;42;18 So if you were traveling through the area and have the time and inclination, if you were interested in intricate puzzles without easy answers, I would ask you to stop in and see what you can find. But beware, as far as the authorities are concerned, there is no plague in the kingdom of the Three Staves, and the sound you hear is just the chirping of cheerful birds. 00;56;42;20 - 00;56;53;27 So be careful who you trust there. And of course, Investigators do watch your tongue. 00;56;53;29 - 00;57;15;10 But before we can conclude for tonight, I want to offer one last piece of information. Just a note, which could very well be nothing but it may be worth mentioning. There's a shop near the docks and Three Staves. It's called Familiar Friends, and it's run by a pair of sisters, Abdullah and Kelly Goss. Together they sell pets, some common, some uncommon. 00;57;15;12 - 00;57;39;06 In a recent advert, the sisters have on offer several new acquisitions, but one stands out to me they have for sale. A trained Wren found on the outskirts of the kingdom. It was wounded-- caught in some netting, but the sisters saved it and rehabilitated the bird. It needs a good home and as luck would have it, the wren has quite the unique talent. 00;57;39;08 - 00;57;57;17 It likes to repeat things it hears. According to Kelly, the bird has either an astonishing memory or a vivid imagination. But I will, of course, let you be the judge of that. Investigators. 00;57;57;19 - 00;58;28;23 Thank you for listening to tonight's episode. Together, we've looked into the mysterious death of Jura Wieland, the spread of the plague of words, and the possibility of a mad king who is seen just a little too much of the future. Good luck. in Three Staves. This has been Ichabod M Groster for Alchemy Investigations. Farewell, Investigators, and beware. 00;58;28;25 - 00;58;54;11 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;58;54;13 - 00;59;21;11 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. They're in our works of fiction. No identification with actual persons, living or deceased places, structures, ideals and or products is intended, nor should be inferred. 00;59;21;13 - 01;00;09;24 Alchemy investigations is supremely thankful to our wide network of correspondents. This episode could not have been produced without research from Agatha Al-Marwhen, Peerless Nick the Soothsayer, and Malleus “No Last Name Given” who taught me about stridulations. 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).