00;00;00;00 - 00;00;37;29 Before we begin. This episode contains references to murder, viscera, disembowelment, imprisonment, mistreatment of the incarcerated, child endangerment, home invasion, and haunted, or at very least, creepy dolls. Listener discretion is requested. This is a story about a famous event of which I'm sure you're familiar. However, even if you've heard about the Vera Pola massacre, new information has recently come to light, which I believe drastically changes the conventional understanding of the crime and its aftermath. 00;00;38;01 - 00;01;01;10 So even if you know all about Vera Pola and the two dozen bodies and the now famed murderer Aslan Kobb. Stay tuned. Things may not be what they seem. Three years ago, south of the Poreg River in the small town of Nori Parish. Although it does go by other names in other tongues, the Olluca family's modest home was robbed while the family was away. 00;01;01;13 - 00;01;23;27 Johann and Gabriella Olluca had taken their twin sons and their teenage daughter to a midsummer's dance one town over in Vite Township. They were only gone for the day, but when they returned to their residence that evening, a cozy stone mason house nestled on a quiet street between the parish's doctor and Johann's tailoring shop. They found that one of their rear windows had been smashed. 00;01;23;29 - 00;01;50;16 Their rooms ransacked and sadly, many of their possessions taken. Home invasions, regardless of the circumstance, are inherently frightening. You have the right to feel safe where you sleep, and when that peace is broken, it's hard to call anything that comes after an overreaction. But as Gabi asked the neighbors what they saw, and as Johann calmed their children and tried to account for what was stolen, he discovered something, or rather the lack of something. 00;01;50;18 - 00;02;13;09 In this absence, though it might seem inconsequential now, had strange and profound consequences down the line. You see, Johann Olluca's concern wasn't at the loss of his tailoring tools, nor at a bound book passed down from his mother. It wasn't even at the purse of money that Gabriella kept under her side of the bed for emergencies. It was a doll. 00;02;13;11 - 00;02;37;11 Mason, one of the twins, had a small porcelain-faced doll that he would sleep with ever since he was little. The kind of comforting object you give a child to ease their fears of the dark. It was enchanted to say in Gabriella's voice, I love you. You are safe. And the burglars, in an especially cruel or thoughtless move, stole the toy along with several other items. 00;02;37;13 - 00;02;57;28 I can imagine being angry at this, and I can imagine wanting to hurt the person or people who stole from your child. But when I see that the Ollucas searched for the doll. That would be an understatement. Nori parish records show that the OlOllucas appealed to the local adventuring guilds. They posted a bounty for the doll’s recovery, which was notably in kind of confusingly high. 00;02;58;01 - 00;03;25;04 I don't know exactly how much a tailor makes, but the reward for information had to be three months of earnings for Johann. Rumor was they even reached out to some of the more nefarious bandit groups in the region to recover the doll, no questions asked. That's a lot of hubbub for a small figurine of porcelain and cloth. And I suppose there are some who would say that you can't put a price on reuniting a child with their beloved toy, but I would imagine that you absolutely could put a number on that. 00;03;25;04 - 00;03;52;25 And if you did, it would be quite a bit lower than whatever the Ollucas were willing to spend. But people can spend their money how they like, and burglaries, however frightening, are not wholly uncommon. So why talk about this? Well, to answer that, we have to take a three days ride from Nori Parish to the port city of Vera Pola, which also goes by other names in other tongues. And in Vera Pola, in a block of industrial warehouses just north of the old port. 00;03;52;27 - 00;04;17;18 26 dockworkers were killed and found in what was described by the local paper as an obscene and unholy bloodbath, the likes of which no war had ever produced. The scene at the warehouse, which you probably know as the Vera Pola massacre, was gruesome, and there are some notable, albeit very unsavory, facts surrounding how some of the victims were found. 00;04;17;21 - 00;04;40;10 Many of the dockworkers were never even identified, their bodies too far gone to be recognized, let alone resurrected. It was a bloodbath, but as you surely also know, the Vera Pola massacre was solved. According to record one Aslan Kobb, a local mercenary in league with the regional gang known as the Axe-Heads, was convicted along with two of his companions. 00;04;40;17 - 00;05;02;17 How only three people dispatched more than two dozen is a question for the fates, but as it stands, Aslan Kobb and his bandits remain in prison to this day. Although there have been some notable and distasteful changes at the prison facility, a new warden, executions and a brand new inmate of sorts. But more on that in a bit. 00;05;02;20 - 00;05;28;25 But that morning, the morning following the massacre, as the dismembered corpses were being removed by authorities, something caught the attention of one of the first responders. And it isn't talked about often. It's a detail that most of the news outlets omitted for one reason or another, probably because to speculate on these implications takes the Vera Pola massacre from mortal tragedy to kind of cartoonishly supernatural. 00;05;28;27 - 00;06;01;22 But we here at Alchemy Investigations do not shy away from such things. You see, in a backroom under some debris, out of place amongst the bodies, and sundered remains of ransacked barrels and boxes. One of the clerics heard a woman's voice rushing over to find what they imagined to be a miracle survivor, removing broken rock and wood. They found it not a person, but a blood soaked doll, one who, with eyes unblinking, spoke, saying, only I love you. 00;06;01;25 - 00;06;28;07 You are safe. This time on Alchemy Investigations, we explore a very particular angle of the Vera Pola massacre, and while it remains solved on parchment, the lingering questions fester. Was this a violent act of corporate terrorism or mercenary bravado? Or are we going to have to have a frank discussion about a haunted and murderous doll? Either way, playtime's over. 00;06;28;09 - 00;06;33;04 Stay tuned. Investigators. 00;06;33;06 - 00;07;03;23 Greetings, Investigators with you again as Ichabod M .Groster lead dispatch for Alchemy Investigations, the realm's foremost private investigatory body. In this time, we're delving deep into the Vera Pola massacre, which took place in the shipping city of Vera Pola, near the Jaras Strait three years ago this very week. While the case, as you know, is extraordinarily famous in the region, I'm going to offer a short summary so we can all start on the same page, because, well, on the surface, this is a solved event and the case has been closed. 00;07;03;25 - 00;07;23;27 It has just one too many loose ends for me to concur. And with a recent bone chilling development, well, all bets are off, but we have to start three years ago in Vera Pola. It was midweek on a rainy night in Vera Pola, the lighthouse at the end of the port signaled to all craft in the water that the seas were dangerous and to take care. 00;07;24;03 - 00;07;49;20 As with many ports in the region, the facility was shared by a number of organizations, from huge conglomerates to local institutions. Docks are generally shared working spaces, and at the time in Vera Pola, free space was at an all time low and tensions at an all time high. Industrial block “Sturgeon” was the name given to a cluster of three warehouses north of the main port, near two large berths. 00;07;49;23 - 00;08;14;19 These storehouses were shared by two companies, Hurbix Shipping Limited, a mid-sized local outfit specializing in exotic exports, and Vital Moorings Holdings, a juggernaut in the transit of large scale mechanized devices. If you've ever ridden in a coach with those yellow upholstered seats that was probably sold through Vital Moorings, according to sources who testified at Aslan Kobb's trial more on that in a bit. 00;08;14;22 - 00;08;34;01 Tensions had been rising in the Sturgeon block for several months, leading back to an accident where some of the Hurbix property was damaged by vital dock workers. This led to a private settlement after some professional posturing. It was a bad look for everyone. It's the sort of tit for tat fighting that happens between siblings on a long wagon ride. 00;08;34;01 - 00;08;58;11 You're cramped and you're antsy, but ultimately you're not going anywhere and you can't change your circumstances. Or at least you can't without getting drastic. So tensions were bubbling. And then on the night of the massacre, as the storm raged outside and the night shift closed themselves into the complex for warmth from the rain, something happened. For now, I will recount the official record, but we will be revisiting that later. 00;08;58;14 - 00;09;22;16 According to Port Authority Captain Belinda Kamao, a small band of three perpetrators led by Aslan Kobb broke into the Vital Mooring section of Storehouse Number two and began to systematically stalk and kill the dock workers through the stacks of stored goods. One by one, and with an increasingly overwhelming ferocity, the perpetrators discarded stealth and began an outright assault. 00;09;22;18 - 00;09;43;21 The screams were masked by the churning waves and thunder, and in the end, the dawn saw tens of thousands of gold worth and damages, and more tragically, 26 Vital Moorings employees killed. It's noted that despite the closely shared space, no, Hurbix employees were hurt. In fact, the on site Hurbix employees claimed to have not heard anything at all. 00;09;43;21 - 00;10;19;26 Despite being right next to the crime scene. But the Vital Moorings dockworkers were not so lucky. Some were so badly brutalized that they could not even be properly identified. They were just assumed to be who they were because of who was on the schedule for work that night and who was missing come the following morning. Port Authority Captain Kamao, a stoic and somber woman known in the area as a stickler for the facts and for rules, said in an interview last year upon her promotion to regional sheriff that these events what happened in the sturgeon warehouses were the single most disturbing thing she had ever witnessed. 00;10;19;28 - 00;10;41;26 I share the following. Not in an attempt to scandalize you with torrid details, but to bring up a point that will be explored later. Of the 26 dock workers, only nine were killed in a way that kept their body intact. The remaining 17 were dismembered, many of them so badly that the words desecration came up several times in Aslan Kobb's trial transcripts. 00;10;41;28 - 00;11;03;12 If you were to imagine the most brutal and visceral way a life could be extinguished and a body mangled, you would only be starting your journey to understand what happened to those poor dockworkers that night. And what's more, one of the unlucky 26 was none other than famed actor Jarvin Aska, who took on the job at the docks to research a role for a new stage play next season. 00;11;03;12 - 00;11;31;08 Mr. Aska was absolutely in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the loss of his talent was felt in bardic circles throughout the continent. Hell's I even had a poster of him in full military garb for his famed run as Gau in “The Archivist’s Hammer.” Gods., that was a good play. On top of the gruesome massacre, and on top of the already tense corporate situation between Hurbix and Vital Moorings, we now have a very public death of a beloved public figure. 00;11;31;12 - 00;11;52;29 I don't know how much time you spent in port cities, but if there's one thing they want less than bad weather, it's bad attention. Fingers were pointing all over, which meant that for Captain Kamao and her officers, someone needed to be convicted quickly. Which leads us to another person who is perhaps also in the wrong place at the wrong time. 00;11;53;01 - 00;12;16;23 Aslan Kobb is a gaunt man with a full mustache and dark hooded eyes. The Vera Pola newspaper, the Pola Picayune, would paint Kobb during his trial as murder incarnate. According to staff writer J. Verts, he holds the gleam of a laughing devil behind each gesture and word, not the impartial fourth estate that one would hope for. But in reality, Aslan is thin and wiry. 00;12;16;23 - 00;12;37;20 He walks with a bit of a limp from an injury he sustained in his youth. If you do a little digging, you find out that that youth was actually pretty rough. Aslan Kobb had few options growing up. He had no real family to speak of, and he made his way to a work camp for orphans near the banks of the Poreg Delta, which is just as bad as it sounds. 00;12;37;23 - 00;12;56;20 He fell in with a group of marauders, the Axe-Heads, before he was even ten. Because you can make a lot more money robbing people than you can digging clams out of river basins. According to rumor, he ran cons and held up passing wagons all over the Poreg region, working out of the Axe-Heads base of operations in the Vite Township sewer system. 00;12;56;23 - 00;13;17;16 He was 20 when he was arrested for the massacre. Before that time, he had already been in prison twice, once for eight months for petty theft. In that case, he stole a cooper’s tools and tried upon them at a merchant shop next to the Cooper shop. The merchant swiftly turned Aslan over to the authorities because, of course, and once he was arrested for public drunkenness, for which, Aslan only served a few days. 00;13;17;17 - 00;13;37;18 I'm not trying to defend Aslan Kobb here. I'm not equipped to pass judgment on him. But it does seem a little strange that Aslan, who by all accounts was a low tier highwayman in a rural area who weighs eight and a half stone soaking wet, would go on to commit seven-tuple murder as his next step in the criminal underworld. 00;13;37;20 - 00;14;00;20 But that is exactly what Captain Kamao would posit when she found Aslan around sunrise on the day following the massacre, just one block away from the sturgeon warehouses. Drunk as a bog goblin on berm day. Disoriented, he refused to answer her initial questions, and when Kamao found out that he was not from Vera, Pola with a criminal record and with no family, she decided to take him in for additional questioning. 00;14;00;22 - 00;14;21;27 Aslan's drinking buddies. A very petite woman named Thorne and a rather tall person named Barb stepped in to support their friend and were of course also taken in. Vera Pola as some very progressive public access records. Laws on the books which allowed me to request Captain Kamao's notes from her initial investigation and initial interrogation of Aslan Kobb. 00;14;21;29 - 00;14;50;06 They are handwritten and not the most descriptive documents I've ever read, but they do paint a very interesting picture. And for the sake of brevity, I won't read them verbatim. There are quite a few pages here, but there are some highlights. When asked where he was the night of the massacre, a still very possibly inebriated Kobb answered with a concise “Around.” They dance on that for a bit, and eventually Kamao asks what I believe to be a fatefully misunderstood question. 00;14;50;06 - 00;15;15;24 And if I had to pin a single moment that ruined Aslan Kobb's life, it would be how he answered this. When Captain Kamao asked Aslan where he learned to kill like that, Kobb gets this very unearned sense of bravado in his response, which is the following. Look, pig, some jobs you take and some you don't. Some aren't expletive deleted. 00;15;15;24 - 00;15;42;00 Worth it, and some pay just fine. Sometimes the expletive deleted treasures there, and sometimes you just need a little bit more time. Some guys are lovers and some are fighters, and I'm the full expletive deleted in the gerund form package. I'm a lady killer and a dangerous guy, and you've got nothing on me. You expletive deleted as a noun. 00;15;42;03 - 00;16;06;13 What a charmer. The interrogation actually ends there. I don't think Kamao was offended, but as it turns out, she didn't need Kobb's commentary anymore. Aslan had a bag with him when he was taken down to the station, and as Kamao was interrogating him, her subordinates went through Kobb's personal effects and found two small sacks of silver marked with inventory tags from, you guessed it, a Vital Moorings warehouse. 00;16;06;16 - 00;16;37;12 So as asylum, Kobb was found close by with stolen property, no alibi, a criminal record, no one to vouch for him aside from other criminals. And to cap it all off, he offers a strange, vulgar soliloquy on how dangerous he is. It ended up being a pretty short trial. In exchange for three confessions. The death penalty was taken off the table, and Aslan Kobb, as well as Barb and Thorne, two of his Axe-Head compatriots, were given 25 years to life with the opportunity to be paroled in 20, assuming good behavior. 00;16;37;15 - 00;16;58;07 In a more sober mind, I think Aslan knew that he and his friends, even if they were innocent, looked exceptionally guilty and better a cell than the gallows. And besides going into a prison with everyone thinking that you can kill 26 people with your bare hands, well, that has some advantages in Aslan's line of work. More on that in a bit. 00;16;58;12 - 00;17;16;20 And that's where things were left. It wasn't perfect, but Vera Pola, as well as the shipping Guild wanted to move on. Apparently Vital Moorings was paid out a huge sum of money by their insurers, so aside from the loss of life, tragic as it was, Vital Moorings and their shareholders may have actually come out ahead for the massacre. 00;17;16;23 - 00;17;41;07 And I know it's terrible. I know that the night after the massacre, 26 beds were left empty, 26 families were changed forever, 26 seaside memorials were held with an uncountable number of voices asking why, to the cruel hands of fate, they say that a person's pain can last forever, but places want to bury tragedies under new memories. Places aren't so well adjusted. 00;17;41;10 - 00;17;59;21 So, Aslan Kobb and his friends were tucked away, and on the surface Vera Pola moved on. That was three years ago and things would have continued like this. I believe that firmly, if not for the new warden at the Vera Pola Bay prison colony. 00;17;59;24 - 00;18;27;22 Doctor Henri Bosch is a graduate of the Nuvellez School, which specializes in law and arcane criminology and has a reputation for matriculating academics who believe in unique absolutes. The school's motto even translates from an old world phrase pain is the practicality which makes us thrive. Yikes. Bosch, a young upstart with thin eyebrows and well tailored suits, took over as the warden in the Vera Pola prison system in the fair season. 00;18;27;22 - 00;19;11;10 Last year, he was tasked with one problem as his prime directive. The prisons had become crowded and in response to this, instead of looking at amendments to the penal and legal systems which could, I don't know, lessen criminal convictions through social programs. With a de-emphasize on punitive responses, Doctor Henri Bosch took a different tack, relying on an archaic but still technically on the books legal ruling from the Last Age, citing emergency power in the face of space crisis, Doctor Bosch unilaterally converted all sentences over a decade to public executions, and within a matter of hours upon passing this new edict, 19 prisoners lifers, they were called, was summarily executed in the gallows by the bay. 00;19;11;12 - 00;19;44;04 In a statement released by Bosch, he said that Vera Pola sleeps easier. Our prison systems are less crowded, and the only people who might complain no longer draw breath. I consider this a victory for morality and efficiency again. Yikes. A sentiment of fear that was surely shared by Aslan Kobb. In the intervening years, he had managed to ride his massacre reputation in the prison system he'd become feared he'd become important in a certain context. 00;19;44;07 - 00;20;05;02 He had earned and maintained a respect that he would have worked his whole life for on the outside, even the Axe-Heads have grown in prominence in the Poreg region, based largely on Aslan's perceived gravitas. In many ways, being caught in the warehouse district and jailed whether his crime or not advanced his criminal career far more than any highway robbery would have. 00;20;05;04 - 00;20;30;20 That is, until Warden Bosch showed up. Because what good is reputation to a hanged man? In response to Bosch's legal nightmare, cries have gone out from the incarcerated and from prison reform organizations alike local groups like Best Coast Reformers in Bet4Tomorrow have spoken out against the warden. Letter writing campaigns have brought hundreds of scrolls and missives from the entire region, some even as far as from the capital. 00;20;30;22 - 00;20;59;05 People have come out against this in droves, and however you feel about punishment versus rehabilitation, the speed at which Bosch moved is disconcerting. As letters poured into Vera Pola, the city itself became more tense, and the warden seemed to brush off these criticisms. That is, until one package arrived. It arrived at the prison not a week ago, at the time of this recording, and carried with it a most pressing message, different from the rest. 00;20;59;07 - 00;21;30;12 But to drive that point home, we actually need to back up a bit and get somewhat personal. As a trained arcanist, I'm privy to a fair number of imbued and occult artifacts from decks of cards that can change your fate to simple tools like a prophetic crystal ball. Everyday objects can take on great import in the right hands, but as I tell you this, it is important to disclose my own biases so that we may come to understand each other honestly as colleagues. 00;21;30;14 - 00;21;55;26 I don't like creepy dolls, whether homunculus or an enlivened toy. There's just think about them that puts me off. They don't even have to be specifically haunted, but a mash of magic and dead shark eyes is a big no thanks from this Investigator. In fact, I'm reminded of one of my professors at the Aesyth School of Radiance who once said homunculi and the like taught our ancestors to be afraid of things which look like people but are not. 00;21;55;28 - 00;22;21;24 With that said, the history of the haunted or animated doll goes back almost to time immemorial. Originally, they were used as theurgistic totems to focus magical or spiritual energy. Occasionally they were used to trap or anchor a being or spirit. You can imagine early clerics exorcizing a fiend from a child. The fiend has to go somewhere, and the child is a small doll in the bed with them and well, necessity is the mother of infernal invention. 00;22;21;26 - 00;22;43;16 Regional variations exist as well. Famously, Husking Betty of North Pembrell a small doll in a frilly green dress, was used as a hidden in plain sight assassin for the Arbor-Hevrex family to depose the Pembrell royal family. Out west, It's said that the indigenous Inquko tribespeople use mechanized automata to hold the ghost of their parents for a period of five years. 00;22;43;16 - 00;23;07;02 This helps to pass on family wisdom. And even here in the capital, you'll occasionally hear of dolls and figurines as simulacra for guardians, parents, jailers, confessors, and companions. We started tonight's investigation off with what probably seemed like a tangent to you. In fact, most recounting of the Vera Pola massacre do not include the doll that was found amongst the wreckage. 00;23;07;02 - 00;23;29;29 And they certainly don't mention the Olluca family. In fact, we only really know about the doll because of the legal notes from the criminal trial of Welka Brute. Welka was a smuggler running a side operation out of the sturgeon warehouses under the nose of both Hubrix Shipping Limited and Vital Mooring Holdings. When the massacre brought the police attention, Welka’s stash was uncovered and they were quickly tried and convicted of smuggling. 00;23;30;01 - 00;23;59;09 As it turned out, they had an ironclad alibi for the night of the massacre, or else I'm sure they would have been caught for that as well. The doll was among the objects found in Welka’s stash, as records would show. Welka was the export point for a number of thievery organizations in the continent, and while the Vera Pola massacre was clearly at the forefront of everyone's mind at the time, Captain Kamao worked very hard to make as much press as possible about the lucky bust on Brute’s operations. 00;23;59;11 - 00;24;23;04 In fact, there is a picture in the Picayune from two days after the massacre, with Kamao handing the doll back, now cleaned to a small boy who we would be able to know is Mason Olluca. It's the kind of nice photo op that helps wallpaper over a blood bath. But again, why talk about this? Why spend a few precious minutes to ponder about a creepy doll in the middle of a massacre? 00;24;23;04 - 00;24;51;03 Deep dive. Well, one week ago, a very interesting piece of mail arrived at the Vera Pola Bay prison colony. It was addressed to Warden Bosch, a mid-sized wooden box with no return address on it. It was stuffed with hay, and even before the nails were pried open, a voice emanated from inside, echoing through the jail's halls. The box spoke in a calming, alarming voice I love you. 00;24;51;05 - 00;25;21;11 You are safe. When the lid was removed, a small doll fell out. Mason Olluca’s doll, the same doll from the massacre, or one so close as to be indistinguishable or so was remarked by some of the prison guards who are old enough to remember the initial investigation three years ago. I can only imagine the wide eyed panic this group of hardened correctional officers felt at seeing this frilly porcelain thing, but the warden apparently had no time for superstition. 00;25;21;13 - 00;25;44;00 The doll was immediately put back in the box and locked in the prisons evidence room, the most secure spot at the center of the facility. And as it turns out, Warden Bosch is not a fan of creepy dolls either. As news of this broke to the general public, rumors have spread like wildfire. Some say the doll was summoned by Aslan Kobb to take revenge for the murdered inmates. 00;25;44;02 - 00;26;11;07 Some say the dolls returned to Vera Pola on its own accord for reasons to bone chilling to comprehend, and some still say that this is a tone deaf viral marketing ploy for this year's Vera Pola Ossuary Festival. Either way, a seemingly closed case has burst wide open and everyone in Vera Pola has thoughts. I have some of my own, dear Investigators, but more on that after our break. 00;26;11;10 - 00;26;50;26 This episode of Alchemy Investigations is brought to you by Rest. Just the general concept of rest. Have you taken too many hits? Do you feel like you're about to die? Take a rest and I bet you'll feel better in the morning. And now back to the episode. Welcome back Investigators. As it stands Aslan Kobb is now on an impromptu death row for a massacre that he may or may not have committed three years ago, a small child’s doll was also found in the wreckage and that self-same doll, which belonged to the seemingly unconnected Olluca family of Nori 00;26;50;26 - 00;27;18;28 Parish has since reappeared in the prison amidst the backdrop of tough on crime hangings. Vera pool is tense and theories abound. The frontrunners for those theories are as such, let's call them the doll, the spirit, the exotic, the hit and the oath. First up, the doll. This one's very straightforward. The doll is a haunted artifact of some immense power and requires a blood sacrifice every so often to slake its dark thirst. 00;27;19;05 - 00;27;38;02 As tavern tales go, the doll holds the soul of some ancient witch or warlock or god or demon or some such, and it wanders the realm in search of lifeforce to steal, calming its raving bloodlust. I don't know, it seems a little trite, doesn't it? It seems like the kind of easy subversion that we see in juvenile fiction. 00;27;38;02 - 00;28;03;18 What if this thing that was meant to comfort us is actually bad? If this is true, it throws a lot of supernatural suspicion on the Olluca family, doesn't it? Surely they would know that the doll itself is wicked and they would have to be making the constant decision to harbor a secret evil in their home. And while I can't say for sure a statement at the time of the doll's initial theft made by Gabi Olluca indicates that the doll was handmade by her father before he passed on. 00;28;03;18 - 00;28;26;11 Not found in some undead ridden tomb, or forged in a pact with a fallen angel with a grudge. This is a stretch for me, and while this does call up my own feelings about creepy and or haunted dolls, which we have discussed, I just find that this image of a little porcelain monster slaughtering 26 hardened sailors, just a little much, right? 00;28;26;13 - 00;28;45;25 The spirit theory suggests that while the doll itself is not possessed, it is a relic of a powerful bygone age, or part of it is. And using the doll in some ritual would grant a person superior strength and talent. The real hitch for this notion is Barb, Aslan's companion, who was arrested along with him as it came out during their trial. 00;28;45;25 - 00;29;10;00 Barb has always had quite the talent for working with arcane items, especially those with some unsavory flavor. In fact, they were imprisoned in their mid 20s. They're older now for a con job wherein they would use their talents to add semi sentience to silverware in the homes of wealthy diplomats. The dishware would then listen on state dinners, and Barb's associates would sell those secrets to the highest bidder. 00;29;10;03 - 00;29;40;01 So it's believed that Barb used their talents to unlock the hidden evil away in this doll, and use it to transform Aslan into a murderous behemoth. Whether this was an attempt to rob the warehouses or acting as a mercenary for Hubrix shipping, that's unclear. But what's more clear is that if Barb, Thorne, Aslan -- and the doll are all currently in the prison facility and their hanging date soon approaches, well, all the pieces are in place for another massacre. 00;29;40;01 - 00;30;14;14 And that is worthy of note. The exotic theory is, despite its name, pretty mundane. Remember how Hubrix shipping was famous for transporting rare and exotic exports? Well, this theory suggests that one of these exports three years ago was some very dangerous creature. During the storm, the creature got out and ran amok, killing all of the dock workers. Hubrix killed or subdued the beast and told Aslan and company that if they took the rap and did the time, Hurbix would ensure that they were well taken care of and they would never want for anything when they were released. 00;30;14;20 - 00;30;45;26 Now that the situation has become a little bit more lethal to Aslan, the Hurbix management is using the doll to send a message or a simulacrum of the doll. Whichever. If Aslan snitches a fate worse than death would quickly approach. Honestly, this is really plausible to me, Aslan Kobb fits the Patsy role much better than the murderer role, and I think that it's more reasonable that a corporate interest would want to protect itself after a workplace accident than anything having to involve itself with a creepy doll. 00;30;45;29 - 00;31;14;28 The Hit Theory is, again, much more natural than supernatural. Folks in Vera Pola saw Vital Moorings as a large, faceless organization, putting their local industries in jeopardy. Local industries like Hurbix The Hit on the Vital Moorings warehouse, whether connected to the doll or Aslan or just paid killers, was just that a corporate hit to send a message. I don't know how much time you spent working on industrial docks, but they're not those soft handed academic sharing circles that one would imagine, especially in Vera Pola. 00;31;14;28 - 00;31;37;11 Sometimes violence will speak louder than any memo. And for what it's worth, about six months after the massacre, Vital Moorings and Hurbix revisited their lease agreements and Vital’s Corporate managers pulled in many of their resources and operators out of the area, relocating south to Vixland Isle. So there you have it. The doll the spirit, the hit, the exotic. 00;31;37;11 - 00;31;59;16 And now we've finally come to the oath theory. And this is a little like the exotic theory. And that suggests that Aslan Kobb is knowingly protecting someone. A lot of this revolves around his very recent behavior. For one, he has not spoken out about the change in his sentence. In fact, he has declined all public interactions since Warden Bosch sentenced him to death. 00;31;59;18 - 00;32;24;15 His is a secret that he seems determined to take to the grave, and I, for one, think it stems from Nori Parish. Aslan's bandit group, the Axe-Heads are based out of Vite Township, which is, if you were paying attention, the same place where the Olluca family went to visit on the day that their home was robbed three years ago, the day that Mason Olluca’s doll was originally taken. 00;32;24;15 - 00;32;52;20 The same doll that ended up at the massacre site, covered in blood and viscera. The same doll that is in the prison right now. And what's more, there's an additional connection between Nori Parish and Vera Pola. What if there weren't 26 victims of the massacre? What if there were more and we just didn't see it until now? Three days before the massacre, a farmer, a poor farmer named Kelly Isaacs, was killed in her fields. 00;32;52;27 - 00;33;15;28 Kelly's husband said it was a wolf attack, and while extremely sad, she was young and vibrant and was said to have loved quilting. It's not uncommon when you farm so far from a major city around the same time. Robert Juria Smith and Belk Mataskins disappeared while on a hike in the woods near their remote cabin. Living alone, they weren't marked down as missing until a few weeks later. 00;33;15;28 - 00;33;38;09 But if we look at the trend here, it's probable that they disappeared within a window the day after Kelly Isaacs was killed, Smith and Mataskins retired from years of working at a quarry and moved far away from the loud clangs and hammers and picks. Their bodies were never recovered, and they're still missing. But it has been three years. 00;33;38;11 - 00;33;57;04 The night before the massacre, Barriss Quell was shutting down a tavern where she tended bar. Quell lived in Barnstay on Pola, a hamlet about a day's ride from the Vera Pola city proper. Suddenly, screams went out, breaking the silence of a late hour. And by the time the tavern's lodgers came down to see what had happened, quell was already dead. 00;33;57;04 - 00;34;25;04 Her throat slit nearly ear to ear, according to onlookers, bloody footprints, small like a child's lead out of the tavern and off into the distance. If you, dear Investigator, were to draw a line between Nori Parish and Vera Pola, it would cross the Isaacs family farm, the cabin where Smith and Metaskin’s lived, and Barnstay on Pola perfectly as the crow flies. 00;34;25;04 - 00;34;53;27 It's a straight shot door to door. So what I propose is this the massacre was a culmination. And whether it was a doll or Aslan Kobb or something else entirely, I think these killings and disappearances are connected. On the move towards Vera Pola from Nori Parish and I fear that whatever killed those people is on the move. Again, as I speak, these words. 00;34;54;00 - 00;35;15;09 Currently, Aslan Kobb sits in solitary confinement in the Vera Pola Bay penal colony, which, honestly, might be the safest place for him, considering, as it turns out, just after the doll arrive, Kobb made an escape attempt. He was found in the prison basement, having knocked out a guard, and was swiftly put in the hole as per prison policy. 00;35;15;09 - 00;35;37;15 It's worth noting that this has been Kobb's only escape attempt during his entire time in prison, which, given the timing seems to be in response to the doll much more than his future execution. Outside the prison walls, the warden's recent hangings have the community split. Some see this as the swift hammer of justice, and others see it as a cruel abuse of power. 00;35;37;15 - 00;36;11;01 Regional lawmakers see this as a city matter. Vera Pola politicians say that punishments are the purview of the warden. Recently, a petition has been making the rounds from the Bet4Tomorrow prisoner advocacy group, asking the warden to reverse his stance on such a cruel plan for capital punishment, citing any number of human rights abuses. And, dear Investigator, it may be worth signing that document because one of the petitions authors, a fierce champion of restorative justice, is a young woman who only recently came to Vera Pola. 00;36;11;01 - 00;36;49;17 Last year, at barely 20, Imani Olluca, the eldest daughter of Gabriella and Johann Olluca from Nori Parish, is working to become a barrister and is very passionate about the rights of the incarcerated. She in fact cites Aslan Kobb, often as an example of how innocent people can be railroaded by a corrupt criminal justice system. So, dear investigators, if you have time, I would urge you to make haste to Vera Pola, as Lynn's days are numbered, and perhaps so too is the time frame to get clarity on what actually happened in Vera Pola all those years ago. 00;36;49;24 - 00;37;13;19 Perhaps you would even be in a position to prevent it from happening once again. And depending on when you arrive, you may be able to catch the Vera Pola Ossuary Festival, which is a mixture of unfettered debauchery and solemn respect for those we've lost in the past year. It's a real wild time. Depending on how you want to approach the situation, the festival may prove for some nice cover, or at least some distraction. 00;37;13;22 - 00;37;37;29 If the doll theory is to be believed, the sheer number of potential victims might make this year's festivities especially deadly. Speaking of things that came in the prison's mail on the day the doll arrived for the warden, another piece of mail arrived at the penal colony. It was a contraband letter delivered by a trained bat to the prison yard and addressed to Aslan Kobb. 00;37;38;01 - 00;37;57;16 Now we only have a copy of the last part of the letter because as prison officials wrestled the note away from Aslan, he swallowed most of it. This was before he made the escape attempt and was thrown in solitary confinement. The part that we do have reads as follows. Starting mid-sentence. It's only a fragment, but it really is illuminating. 00;37;57;21 - 00;38;14;18 It says they want blood. They'll get it. You will be safe. I am coming for you, and nothing you or anyone else can do will stop me. The letter is notably unsigned. 00;38;14;20 - 00;38;36;09 Thank you for listening to tonight's episode. We've looked into the complicated history of the Vera Pola massacre, a potentially haunted and murderous doll, and new revelations amidst a series of cruel and abrupt prison hangings. And together, we will hope to answer the question, who really killed all those people three years ago? And what can we do to stop it from happening again? 00;38;36;12 - 00;38;50;26 Good luck in Vera Pola, this has been Ichabod M. Groster for Alchemy Investigations. Farewell Investigators, and beware. 00;38;50;29 - 00;39;16;15 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;39;16;18 - 00;39;43;14 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;39;43;17 - 00;40;38;07 Alchemy investigations is supremely thankful to our wide network of correspondence correspondents like Bartles the swamp frog who gave me the basis of this mystery over a pint of mead in the forest. 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).