00;00;00;00 - 00;00;31;07 Before we begin. This episode contains references to serial killings, ritual killings, postmortem mutilation, the murder of children, the desecration of corpses, state sponsored violence, mob violence, the murder of the innocent, corporal punishment, mental illness, and the murder of the mentally ill. It's a rough one. Listener discretion is requested. Kuljas City, though it does go by other names in other tongues, sits on the west bank of the Besdin River under the shadow of the Offray mountains. 00;00;31;09 - 00;01;01;12 Its unique Gothic architecture blends into the mountain ranges beyond all pointed spires and eaves, dark and cool, even in the daytime. Kuljas is a sharp place with a strict legal code that was born out of pain and absence and negligence. Using the unflinching pressure of the law to address past wounds. The saying goes that even the wind is afraid to blow too hard Kuljas Free City, less it, too be charged with disturbing the peace. 00;01;01;15 - 00;01;30;13 As you surely know by now, Kuljas is also famous for something else. Or rather, someone. 23 years ago, the Sacred Ash Killer murdered and immolated 17 members of the Kuljas City community before he was captured, tortured and executed. This includes six children. His given name was Corrin John Vorray, and he was responsible for the most horrific series of peacetime murders in the region's recorded memory. 00;01;30;16 - 00;01;53;12 But this episode isn't about Corrin John Vorray's killings. Not directly at least. Tonight I would like to tell you three ghost stories and one history, because recently, and despite some of the most stringent and quite frankly, violent legal deterrents in the realm, a killer has taken up residence in Kuljas -- stalking, killing and mutilating their citizens once more. 00;01;53;19 - 00;02;36;28 Some say it's bandits from across the river, and some say it's a monster awakened from the thaw in the mountains above. But many, most say they've seen the spirit of the Sacred Ash Killer moving quietly through the narrow streets at night or waiting just outside their window, his eyes wide and his mouth open with an expectant smile. This time on Alchemy Investigations, we share four at first unconnected stories tales that paint a picture of loss and law -- of a brutal city who would use violence as a threat to ensure peace of a killer who only wish to set your heart alight and would dig it from your chest to do so. 00;02;37;00 - 00;03;04;10 Tonight we look to lost children to a prison that would consume its inhabitants, to a toll keeper who paid the ultimate price, and to a family who only found peace when their last breath was drawn. And if we pay very close attention, dear investigator, we may see a pattern emerge. Because alive or dead, flesh or spirit, monster or man, a killer is back on the loose in the safest city in the realm. 00;03;04;12 - 00;03;12;10 And there is no telling who its next victim may be. Stay tuned. Investigators. 00;03;12;12 - 00;03;34;03 Greetings, investigators with you again as Ichabod M. Groster lead dispatch for Alchemy Investigations. The realms foremost private investigator body. Tonight we are going to share four stories from Kuljas Free City. In the hopes of understanding how a place so tough on crime could produce the most famous serial killer that the Besdin Basin had ever seen. 00;03;34;05 - 00;04;00;28 However, there is an important context that must be understood before we can get into these stories. Because before you can appreciate what the ghosts have to say, you need to know how Kuljas came to be. A small city Kuljas, whose name means beneath the shroud, was originally intended to be a dry dock for ships sailing down the Besdin but larger berths to the south and to the north subsumed it for years. 00;04;01;01 - 00;04;31;18 Ships would continue past not stopping, not spending coin not staying the night the economy tightened. The city was never in the right place at the right time. And then the war came. Barrow Crown to the east and Paquid to the west, fighting over rightful heirs. And when the eldest daughter of Barrow Crown was named Queen regent in the last of the Paquid uprisings were squashed and the remnants pushed back over, the Besdin -- maps were redrawn without Kuljas city on any of them. 00;04;31;21 - 00;05;03;28 It wasn't a conspiracy. It wasn't a spell. It wasn't malice. The sleepy city was just overlooked, and it didn't appear on a number of important postwar maps. Eventually the mistake was uncovered, but by that time things around the Besdin had settled. To call borders into question now would reopen old wounds, perhaps reignite the war. So sages and counselors on both sides decided that the people of Kuljas would have the freedom to live as they wished. 00;05;04;00 - 00;05;32;24 Ungoverned, but also unprotected. So Kuljas a place with no kingdom was forgotten, then remembered and then thrown to the wolves of a tenuous peace. It was not, as you might imagine, an enviable position. Without regal protection, Kuljas was completely on their own. Any trouble had to be solved by themselves. Now, this is the kind of rural justice you see in small backwater towns. 00;05;32;24 - 00;05;59;25 But Kuljas was a port city. There's a fair amount of coming and going, a fair amount of churn. Not a place where you know all of your neighbors and the sun always shines. And at the time, the city elders, led by the first mayor of the newly christened Kuljas Free City, a woman by the name of Ossua Rexma, enacted a series of edicts that became known as the Bloody Five, a way to deal with criminals who might think Kuljas easy pickings. 00;05;59;25 - 00;06;35;00 Having no royal protection, they are as follows one. A criminal is an individual who commits irreparable financial, spiritual or mortal harm to a citizen of Kuljas free city two a criminal is named by the Kuljas, Free City police, Civic guardians, city elders, or their ordained representative. Three. All criminals will be tortured in full view of the citizens of Kuljas Free City for as long as their bodies can hold pain. 00;06;35;03 - 00;07;09;05 Four. All criminals will be subsequently killed in full view of the citizens of Kuljas Free City. Five, a criminal's soul may only be purified in this way. A pure soul is light. A light soul may rise. A risen soul may leave. The original document containing the bloody Five ends with the passage. Peace blooms above the graves of the wicked. 00;07;09;07 - 00;07;35;00 So all of this is to say, Kuljas Free City is a place that takes its crime incredibly seriously. Trials simply do not exist here. Public torture is a method of theatrical deterrence, and criminals, when caught, will surely face the most brutal of remedies. These are the core tenants of this place, so why would such a strict city breed the realm's most storied serial murderer? 00;07;35;02 - 00;07;41;19 We'll get to that. But first, I would like to tell you about a stable boy. 00;07;41;22 - 00;08;16;14 Hella Mellish was an itinerant worker from Three Staves, making her way north in the fair season nine years ago. That's 14 years after the Sacred Ash Killer was caught and convicted, as is want to happen, she ran out of money near Besdin, and found herself in short order and Kuljas looking for work. Hella took a job in the grainhouses, stacking large bags of millet and making sure that the rats didn't make too much of a beachhead in the vast warehouses owned and operated by the Kuljas Grainery Company, these buildings were a new addition to the Free City being built over the old site of the Southern Gate Horse Stables. 00;08;16;17 - 00;08;36;26 That's important for this story. The stables had fallen into disrepair, and the original owners aged out of their ability to care for them. Eventually, one of the city elders purchased the land and developed it for grain storage. I think the hope was that eventually, with a large enough store of grain, Kuljas could coax more ships into our ports. 00;08;36;29 - 00;08;58;00 Hella was a hard worker. She would come in early and stay late. She would take extra shifts. Maybe every extra bit she worked was an extra coin in her purse, and one day closer to when she could just continue on her way, leaving Kuljas behind her. Just a memory. When she started working, some of the men in the warehouse would tease her. 00;08;58;03 - 00;09;22;07 This is on record because of the accident documentation. Certain statements were taken. The warehouse workers and their jokes would make near-constant reference to a stable boy. Don't get too many womenfolk in here. The stable boy will be happy. He's always looking for some motherly love. At first, Hella paid this no mind. It's just teasing. She'd seen that before and she needed this job. 00;09;22;09 - 00;09;49;15 Whatever inside joke the stable boy was part of, she did not need it until one night, six weeks into her stay at the warehouse. She was alone in building C. It's a large, long, windowless room, having volunteered to stay late to do the seasonal inventory. The next morning, Hella would write an incident report. Here's an excerpt from the narrative portion. 00;09;49;18 - 00;10;18;18 I was verifying the barrel counting day 313 against the eastern wall. Everything was in order until I heard something or someone scurrying to my left. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a figure at the end of the row, pretty small, and they were holding a grain sack. I turned to meet this person and began approaching, figuring it was either a new hire who was on the shorter side, or maybe it was Brayeri’s kid, the one who likes to visit him at work. 00;10;18;21 - 00;10;45;19 But when I got closer, it wasn't no kid. Or it was, but something was wrong. His eyes, they were sunken and his cheeks were hollow. His skin looked wet, but he wasn't leaving any footprints behind him. It wasn't raining that night. I should have left then, but I didn't. I? I didn't want to. I didn't want to lose the job. 00;10;45;19 - 00;11;12;06 I didn't want to get reprimanded. And then the kid started to speak. But I couldn't hear his words. His voice was hoarse and quiet. It was almost like he had a secret, and he needed me to get closer to him to hear it. So I got closer. But as I did, I. I could see him better. That was when he dropped the grain sack. 00;11;12;08 - 00;11;44;03 His shirt was torn and his chest was slit open, wide open, like a smiling mouth with ribs for teeth, small ribs, baby teeth. I screamed and I must have fallen against the shelf. That's why it was knocked over and 313 had to be righted. It it was my fault. I take responsibility and I know this sounds wrong, but I know what I saw. 00;11;44;05 - 00;12;17;20 That wasn't anybody's kid. I don't know what that was. It would seem that the Kuljas Grainery Company believed Ms. Mellish’s story, or at least understood it, because even though there was notable product loss in Bay 313's millet stores, Hella Mellish was not fired, not even disciplined. And the supervisor's note on the incident report just stated that Ms. Mellish was to be given the following day off, restricted to daytime working hours only, and concluded with the supervisor's code for workplace hazard. 00;12;17;22 - 00;12;43;02 Hella had met the stable boy, and unfortunately for her, it would not be the last time she heard him try to speak. This type of story is not wholly uncommon. The stable boy, as he was affectionately named, was a known presence and would apparently visit the warehouses from time to time. Hella story is the only one that comes with any sort of real documentation, which is why I can share it with any sort of certainty. 00;12;43;02 - 00;13;07;15 now. Everything else is hearsay and anecdotes from friends of friends, but they all center around a small boy in outdated clothing. Most of the time he's wearing a wool cap and an overcoat that he keeps cinched together with one hand hiding his chest. The stable boy hangs about building C, especially in the south end of it. Sometimes workers will hear the sound of hammering nails on hooves. 00;13;07;18 - 00;13;36;05 Sometimes they'll hear the boy speaking. But almost all of these encounters are tangential. The stable boy very rarely, if ever, came right up to anybody. Maybe the crass warehouse workers were right. Maybe he was looking for a mother figure. Or maybe. And this is just my theory. He was trying to offer a warning. You see, a few weeks later, Hella Mellish would see this stable boy once more. 00;13;36;07 - 00;13;54;12 She was assigned to repair one of the transport carts, the kind of wheeled flatbed that you would attach a team of horses to and pull a ton or two of grain up the embankment to the warehouse. One of the wheels needed to be repaired, and as it would happen, the maintenance shed was down a small hill away from the main warehouses. 00;13;54;15 - 00;14;24;16 According to the warehouse supervisor’s record, Ms. Mellish clocked in for the day, grabbed her tools and walked down to the cart shed. Four hours later, her body would be found crushed under the cart she was supposed to be fixing next to her, arranged neatly, where 18 small iron nails, the kind meant for shoeing horses arranged in a heart. 00;14;24;18 - 00;14;50;15 The general theory went that Hella Mellish didn't secure the cart properly, and after removing the offending wheel, the cart and some of its contents fell on her, pinning her to the ground and slowly crushing her to death. She would asphyxiate there in the maintenance shed and while very sad. That isn't exactly a ghost story worth telling, just a tragedy and perhaps a cautionary tale about workplace safety. 00;14;50;17 - 00;15;20;16 And so it would have been, save for the fact that Kuljas Grainery Company is insured through a regional firm called Burray and Vice, and these insurers are prepared, scrupulous, and have a number of diviners in their employ. In the case of mysterious workplace deaths, it is stated practice within those insured by Burray and vice that the adjusters will conduct a seance with the formerly living employee to ascertain any potential impropriety, either on behalf of the workforce or the employer. 00;15;20;18 - 00;15;44;05 In so doing, Burray and Vice have been able to avoid millions of gold in payouts. As it turns out, the dead are not exactly inclined to protect the business interests of their former employers and will happily throw them under the proverbial cart. But our case is a little different here. This is the transcript from the short insurance seance, conducted three weeks after Hella Mellish’s death. 00;15;44;08 - 00;16;13;06 Mrs. Mellish, this is Argon Conover, a representative from Burray and Vice. We would like to ask you some questions about your recent death. I never married Miss Mellish. My apologies. Can you tell me -- were you given any safety training regarding the maintenance of the B-1, a galvanized wheel and axle system? No, thank you. And the Kuljas Grainery Company did not provide you with a safety partner to assist you in the strenuous task. 00;16;13;08 - 00;16;38;14 Also, no, thank you, Miss Mellish. We will let the record reflect that you were alone and untrained for the task you are asked to perform. I wasn't alone, I'm. I'm sorry, Miss Mellish. Are you now indicating that another employee was there with you? No. The stable boy came. He came and sat with me at the very end. He looked. 00;16;38;16 - 00;16;59;07 He looked sad. Miss Mellish, I'm sorry. Who is this stable? Leaned down next to me. I couldn't move, I couldn't even scream. The pressure was a lot. Every breath I breathed out, I could only take half back in. And then the stable boy, he leaned in and he told his Mellish, I would like to get back to the topic at hand. 00;16;59;07 - 00;17;14;20 Were you aware of any relevant saved whispered? I could hear him this time. In it he only said the one thing. A monster got me. 00;17;14;22 - 00;17;45;25 Well, this did not specifically help the insurance case. Words of this cryptic ghostly message quickly spread around Kuljas Free City, and speculation ran wild. People, especially the warehouse staff, knew about the stable boy, but they couldn't make hide nor hair of this message until six months later. An addition was being built to add a small cellar to building C, and amidst the digging, the construction crew found they found a small skeleton. 00;17;45;27 - 00;18;08;20 It was of a boy, no older than ten, with severe damage to the ribs and collarbone. Next to the boy was a number of iron horseshoe nails and a metal clasp, the kind you would use to seal a book. A book now surely decayed with the imprint A and S on it, or as everyone would come to know, little Alexander Serkin. 00;18;08;23 - 00;18;38;18 The book was given to Alexander on his 10th birthday from his mother, Zaydee Serkin-Botts, the town's record keeper. Still actually to this day. But this was 24 years ago. She told her son to use the book to write down his many adventures. But 24 years ago, the evidence suggests that Alexander, probably while working alone near the stables, ran into Corran John Vorray, the Sacred Ash Killer. 00;18;38;20 - 00;19;16;04 And that would be the last face he ever saw. It's guessed that this was one of Vorray's first victims, possibly his very first. He hadn’t fully developed his pattern yet. Alexander was unfortunately a building block, and instead of leaving the body where it could be found, as per his strange and unwieldy ritual, he buried the boy. Records show that there was a search for Alexander when he initially went missing, but nothing turned up, and without a crime to report, the Kuljas constabulary couldn't act, and it was chalked up to a young man leaving town to seek adventure. 00;19;16;06 - 00;19;41;29 Despite his mother's firm stance that Alexander would never do anything like that. But finding what was believed to be another victim caused an issue for the culture. City elders. By this time, the time of Hella Mellish’s accidental death, and the discovery of poor Alexander's bones, the Sacred Ash Killer had been punished and executed. Much discussion was held behind closed, gilded doors. 00;19;42;02 - 00;20;03;11 How could he also answer for this crime? While the city elders deliberated, rumors began to run wild, and the big takeaway was that another victim of the Sacred Ash Killer had been found 14 years after Corrin John Vorray had been put to death. It appeared to the sensational and unnuanced that he had struck again from beyond the grave. 00;20;03;17 - 00;20;37;13 And even though this is and was absolutely not the case and a big misinterpretation of some pretty grisly facts, the notion of a spectral serial killer is hard to remove from people's fears. So with the uncovering of Alexander Serkin's body and a healthy dose of misinformed rumor, the public now believed that the Sacred Ash Killer had returned and was on the hunt once more. 00;20;37;15 - 00;21;06;03 Pressing on, we now find ourselves a year and a half ago. Not unsurprisingly, the Sacred Ash Killer's ghost did not hurt anyone in the interim because, of course. But that did not stop people from adopting Corrin John Vorray as the unofficial boogeyman of Kuljas Free City. He would be the ghost story you told around campfires, the one you would save for when you actually needed to scare someone to perpetuate a fear you knew they already had. 00;21;06;06 - 00;21;25;03 In some stories, it was even Vorray who killed Hella Mellish, and the cart accident was just an elaborate cover up by the city elders. If anyone went missing, that was the ash killer. If anyone heard a strange noise, it was the ash killer lights in the mountain above. That was the Ash killer. And by the grace of the gods, go. 00;21;25;03 - 00;21;52;07 We still alive and as well as one can be in such a place. And it was all well and good, stupid and reactionary, but well and good. Just a bit of mob mentality and misinformation. Until the last week before the Kuljas Free City Festival a year and a half ago, gearing up for the festival, which celebrates the adoption of the Bloody Five, means different things to different people. 00;21;52;10 - 00;22;21;26 To Sergeant Horace Auguirre of the Kuljas Free City Police, it meant redoubling his watchful efforts. The festival brought in more people, and more people meant the threat of more crime. And that, of course, meant the opportunity for more punishment. Not only did the police force have to be ready, but the Kuljas free City jail would have to be fully prepared and able to accommodate any wrongdoer and ne'er do well who wasn't immediately shuffled off to the rack and gallows. 00;22;21;28 - 00;22;44;26 At week's end, Sergeant Auguirre had set up a meeting with the city's new chief elder, Yanni Moss, to go over some pre festival precautions, meeting at the jail. Elder Moss would be the last person to verify that the good sergeant was alive. After demonstrating to Elder Moss and some of his members of court that the jail was in fact up to the task and code of enforcing the bloody five. 00;22;44;29 - 00;23;15;15 The elder departed, and it would seem that Auguirre would situate himself in evidence. Room B, this room is down a long corridor from both the cells and the intake area. It's isolated by design because evidence means something different and Kuljas. Evidence isn't items to be stored for a trial. There are no trials. The evidence room is a place where someone can be accused, and if the right person accuses according to the rules of the city, that is evidence enough. 00;23;15;18 - 00;23;37;25 All it takes is a word from an elder or an officer, or a high ranking citizen. The room itself looks much more like an interrogation theater than anything else. It could be postulated that the sergeant was in the room to take a statement, but according to the jail's logs, Auguirre was the only person in that area of the jail at that time, and for the rest of the evening. 00;23;37;28 - 00;24;09;29 So Sergeant Horace Auguirre was alone in an unoccupied room with a locked door and no record of any additional visitors. All of which adds to the mystery of how the good sergeant of the Kuljas Free City Police was found the next morning. Found behind the locked door, his body slumped in a wooden chair covered in blood, his chest broken, the cavity burned and his heart either removed or, more probably, burned to cinders. 00;24;10;02 - 00;24;37;04 Did you know that your blood is sugar in it? And when it burns, the blood caramelizes like candy. This was, in effect, the modus operandi of the Sacred Killer. And while any reasonable person could dismiss the stable boy's death as a delay in finding an old victim and a bad PR crisis management, the sergeant was a fresh kill under very strange circumstances. 00;24;37;12 - 00;25;02;13 And there was one more bit that fueled the rumor mill more than anything else. Before he was tortured and executed. Corrin John Vorray was housed in the jail for two weeks. It wasn't a question of guilt. He was guilty. But there was some discussion of torture methods amongst the city's governance. Surely such a man, so wicked, deserved a pain so complex, so unique that the traditional methods would not do? 00;25;02;15 - 00;25;30;09 No, this needed some workshopping. Meetings were held, the books were consulted, and for two weeks the Sacred Killer was kept in cell eight of the Kuljas Free City Jail. But a few years ago, the jail went through a redesign. As it turns out, the need for holding cells is pretty minimal, but the need for evidence and witness statements to accuse and sentence criminals that's a bit higher than the original prison architects envisioned. 00;25;30;11 - 00;25;57;01 And so cell eight, the final cell in the row, was repurposed. And I bet you can guess into what there were no clues, no witnesses, no suspects. And the Kuljas Free City rumor mill went absolutely haywire. Primed by nearly a decade and a half of ghost stories, Kuljas was confronted by a familiar murder that nobody could solve. 00;25;57;03 - 00;26;16;05 Nobody in the city council would admit it, but it did look like Corrin John Vorray had somehow returned to Kuljas. Free city. But what did he want and why now? Speculation on that and more. After a break. 00;26;16;07 - 00;26;40;29 This episode of Alchemy Investigations is brought to you by the annual Haricot Hearth Apple Festival. This year's events promised to be the Apple solutely best on record. Love that! Visit the delightfully quaint town of Haricot next month for hearth Apples by the bushel, a hearth apple pie bake off, and cold pressed hard hearth apple cider which, if I'm reading this right, is somehow 91% alcohol. 00;26;41;02 - 00;27;06;00 Really? That can't be right. It is. Okay, let's let's let's get some tickets. So if you like hearth apples and want to celebrate and consume them in a variety of forms, the Town of Haricot’s Agro-tourism Council Organizers or THACO want to welcome you to their home, heart, and hearth - apple their words, not mine. And now back to our episode. 00;27;06;03 - 00;27;35;29 Welcome back investigators. If the strange murder of Sergeant Auguirre wasn't enough, not but one month ago, another grim epilogue was added to the Sacred Ash Killer story. This chapter comes in two parts what was seen and what was found. What was seen was seen by nine year old Erin McCauley. This testimony was relayed to her mother, Jerusha, and then shared the following day with the Kuljas Free City police as part of their murder investigation. 00;27;36;02 - 00;28;00;10 A month ago, mid-week, just after the sun went down and supper was finished, little Erin was told to go to bed. She said her prayers tucked herself in. Erin is lucky. She has a small window in her room. It faces west and from her bed she can see the toll bridge just out of town, about 500ft away. The toll Bridge Road is an east west running span that crosses a stream about 50ft below. 00;28;00;13 - 00;28;23;12 The stream is a small tributary that flows into the Besdin to the east. There's a toll keeper's booth that sits on the east side, the city side, and it collects a toll from all the visitors coming into and out of the city's western limit. Erin would lay in her bed some nights and watch the torchlight comings and goings over the span, counting them as one would count sheep to fall asleep on the night in question. 00;28;23;12 - 00;28;45;23 By her own account, Erin had dozed off after counting to 12. 12 comings and goings. However, at some point the night she woke up, she doesn't remember waking up to a sound or a commotion or what time it was. She just happened to wake up and it was dark and then turning over her pillow. Something on the toll bridge caught her eye, or rather, something just below it. 00;28;45;25 - 00;29;13;17 It was a near new moon that night, but little Erin maintained that she saw, as she described, a flying person hovering really just under the bridge, moving back and forth like they were inspecting the trusses. The apparition was cloaked in a flowing robe, and not being accustomed to whatever magics would allow someone to fly so easily. Erin ran from her room to tell her mother, which she had seen. 00;29;13;20 - 00;29;34;09 There was a ghost at the toll bridge, and the only ghost she knew was the Sacred Ash Killer. I would like to make a special note here. Imagine being a nine year old. Even the adults around you live in some amount of fear of this hometown ghost story. And out of your window you see the floating apparition of what you believe to be a spectral killer. 00;29;34;12 - 00;29;57;05 Who knows, if you move from your bed, perhaps they'll see you and float the 500ft from his perch to your windowsill. And then what? He'll kill you and kill your mother. Cut you open and burn your hearts and your chest. Just like that mean girl at school said. And still, with all that fear, Erin got up and silently ran to her mother's room to frantically, albeit quietly, report what she had observed. 00;29;57;12 - 00;30;17;28 She saw something and she said something. So, Erin, if you are listening, please stop. This podcast is gruesome and not for children, but know that we here at Alchemy Investigations appreciate what you have done and would like to award your bravery with an unofficial Junior Investigator title. Congratulations! But seriously, turn this off. It's disgusting and it's only going to get worse. 00;30;18;01 - 00;30;42;06 Jerusha, Erin's mother did what most parents would do in this situation. Despite the danger of the Sacred Ash Killer, real or perceived. It was the middle of the night and the toll bridge was still quite far away. She told Erin to close her shutters and go back to bed. Erin obliged, but I'm not sure how much sleep was had that night, which takes us from what was seen to what was found. 00;30;42;08 - 00;31;10;10 What was found was found by Mrs. Bonnie Moss, wife to city elder Yanni Moss, and unfortunately playful spousal rhyme for this unpleasant story. Mrs. Moss was out for the morning with her handmaiden. Together, they were going to cross the West Bridge to pick some flowers at the base of Mount Offray for a small gathering that the masses were to hold that night, celebrating the two year anniversary of when they've met, the handmaiden saw it first a trickle of blood on the paving stones of the bridge. 00;31;10;13 - 00;31;34;25 Following the trail, she peered over the edge of the stone rail and saw it. Saw him? The ghost. Of course, it wasn't a ghost. It was poor Richard Godswarths the aging toll keeper hanged by the neck from the bridge. His head dangled and his tongue lolled out of his mouth. This was, of course, the apparition that little Erin saw floating. Traumatized, 00;31;34;25 - 00;32;12;18 Mrs. Moss and her handmaiden managed to summon the police, and as the constables reeled the Hanged Man back onto the bridge, all present saw the unmistakable and familiar trappings of the death. You see, when little Erin McCauley saw the floating ghost and her mind immediately went to the Sacred Ash Killer, her instincts were correct, Mr. Richard Godswarths who kept the toll bridge nearly every day for 41 years, was split open, his heart charred to ash in his chest all before his corpse was hanged for all to see. 00;32;12;20 - 00;32;45;03 But aside from Erin, there were no witnesses, no meaningful footprints. The bridge was well trodden and no real theories disclosed by the police. Mrs. Moss and her handmaiden were even questioned by the constables, much to Yanni Moss's protest. But the deposition yielded nothing more than two incredibly shaken women. Having expected a morning of flower picking now subject to seeing the grisly corpse of a public servant. During his lifetime, Corrin John Vorray killed at least 18 people that we know of. 00;32;45;05 - 00;33;22;08 17 were known at the time of his execution, and Alexander Serkin came to light later. However, now there is a mounting suspicion that both Sergeant Auguirre and Toll Keeper Godswarths are his 19th and 20th victims, killed in the exact same way. But why, dear investigator now, why after so long? And why these men? Well, there may be an answer to that question, but to explain it, we will need to delve into who Corrin John Vorray was before he descended into madness and became the Sacred Ash Killer. 00;33;22;11 - 00;33;49;27 His first documented kill was 24 years ago. We'll go back 25. Corrin John Vorray was born in Kuljas to a seamstress and a schoolteacher. By all accounts, he led a very normal and loved childhood at the age of 18, he joined the Kuljas Free City police force, and over the next several years he became a respected lawman, decorated for his service and held in good stead with the city elders of the day. 00;33;49;29 - 00;34;14;17 At this time he also met and married Valerie Hox, who became Valerie Vorray, and the two had a daughter named Connie and then a son named Maxim, and for a time things were very good for the Vorrays. Connie showed an aptitude for the harp and Maxim for illusions. They were happy. But then in the winter of the year that he was made lieutenant, there would be an accident. 00;34;14;19 - 00;34;32;24 One night, near the solstice, Lieutenant Vorray was overseeing a small shipment of corn coming in from the east dock. Some children were playing near one of the piers, and, well, it's unclear exactly what happened, but one of the children fell into the freezing water of the Besdin. Vorray being a civil servant, dove in after the child. 00;34;32;27 - 00;34;54;11 But again it was dark that night. Other sailors began to move their boats towards where the child fell in some with lanterns, some with incantations to light up near the water, but all of it made for a busy and hectic scene. And somewhere in the mix one of the small boats struck Lieutenant Vorray. Incidentally, the child who fell into the water made their way back to shore on their own power. 00;34;54;11 - 00;35;28;10 But at that point the damage was done. The bleeding and half frozen Corrin John Vorray was pulled from that water. According to the police medical records. He was so close to death that they couldn't tell whether to send for a cleric or an undertaker, but eventually, through some miracle, he regained consciousness. The recovery process took months in absentia Vorray was hailed as a hero, representing the finest that Kuljas Free City had to offer, and God's be praised. 00;35;28;12 - 00;35;57;28 He was eventually put right back on his feet and asked to return to work. Vorray was reinstated and things on the surface looked like they had returned to normal. But beneath the waves, something had changed. A malice was growing beneath his skin. Outwardly, he looked like the same person, but the good part of Corrin John Vorray died in that river, and what was left was a fiend masquerading as a man. 00;35;58;00 - 00;36;20;11 There have been a number of books and scrolls written about the Sacred Ash Killer, several bard ballads, even an entire series of stage plays entitled King of Hearts The Sacred Ash Killer Story. I don't feel the need to go over the murders and the manhunt and the capture and the execution. We have culturally been there, and other bards have done it far better than I could. 00;36;20;13 - 00;36;45;02 But if you are absolutely brand new to the story, the basic facts are these. Over the span of two years, Corrin John Vorray lived a double life. On the surface he was a family man, a police officer, a pillar of one of the most law focused societies in the realm. Underneath he was compelled by a force he described as Arangis, The Heart Hunger, a manifestation of his brain injury. 00;36;45;04 - 00;37;09;25 Or Arangis would force him to kill innocent people and light their hearts on fire. Only by the light of a burning heart could Arangis enter this world. To Vorray, these killings were an imperative ritual, transposing the monster within out into the world. We, of course, live in a magical and mystical and complicated place, and many things are possible. 00;37;09;25 - 00;37;37;02 But Aragnis is not real. The name does not show up in any literature from this plane or beyond, and seems as everyone agrees to be the incarnation of an injured brain, molded by and surviving in an ecosystem of iron law and perpetual punishment. Vorray killed 18 victims that we know of burning or removing their hearts and leaving the bodies to be found, except Alexander Serkin, whom he buried. 00;37;37;04 - 00;38;01;29 This is what earned him the grim nickname the Sacred Ash Killer. He conducted this murder streak while maintaining his job and his family. Nobody knew what he really was. Nobody even had suspicions. In fact, the only reason he was caught was because of candle wax. Vorray was in the process of lighting his 18th victim's heart on fire. A woman named Dawn Clark. 00;38;02;01 - 00;38;30;12 Dawn was in life a candle maker, and her clothes harbored a fair amount of wax, which burned very brightly and very quickly, catching part of the apartment block where she was killed on fire. It spread fast. Too fast for Corrin John Vorray.Too fast for Arangis. This summoned authorities to try to control the blaze, and as a crowd gathered, a feverish and wild eyed Vorray ran from the apartment building where he had just murdered Dawn Clark. 00;38;30;19 - 00;39;03;03 The onlookers saw a blood covered man leave the scene, and some of the onlookers in the police force recognized their colleague. A manhunt ensued, and two days later a raving wild Sacred Ash Killer was pulled from a larder behind one of the northernmost farmhouses. He was a gaunt man screaming about Aragnis, the injury in his mind when he was pulled from that larder and loaded into police custody, according to onlookers. 00;39;03;06 - 00;39;35;29 He just kept saying over and over again, a pure soul is light, a pure soul is light, a pure soul is light. An unnerving excerpt from Kuljas’ Own Bloody Five. There was no trial. A number of members of the police saw Corrin John Vorray leave the crime scene, and that was enough for an accusation and guilt, especially under Kuljas' intense legal code. 00;39;36;01 - 00;40;01;14 Further evidence was found in a secret compartment in the Vorray's family home, a number of knives sharpened to a razor's edge, and a book which contained the ravings of a broken man. Vorray had become obsessed with Arangis, which served as a narrative for his descent into madness. As it turns out, he felt that he made a deal for his life with Arangis, when he was near drowned in the river, and he walked the soil in service of that grim oath. 00;40;01;16 - 00;40;25;27 Vorray was imprisoned for two weeks in cell eight of the Kuljas Free City Jail, while the city elders determined the method of torture and execution. I will save you the gory details of the Sacred Ash Killer’s torture and execution. There are plenty of resources on that topic. I will simply say that the process took several days to complete and by all accounts Vorray never fully understood what was happening to him. 00;40;25;29 - 00;40;51;12 It was clear to many bystanders in the moments of Vorray's death that the Bloody Five is not about purifying a criminal, it is instead about purifying Kuljas. And unfortunately, that quest for purification extended far beyond Corrin John Vorray himself. In the two weeks since his arrest, his family was the target of verbal abuse, threats of violence, vandalism and even an attempted break in. 00;40;51;17 - 00;41;12;22 It would seem that the protection of the law, a law so ironclad in Kuljas Free city no longer protected these types of innocent people. And they were innocent. Vorray's family had never been accused, and by all accounts, even Valerie knew nothing about the man her husband had become. He murdered under the cover of being a police officer for two years. 00;41;12;25 - 00;41;43;28 If his colleagues didn't figure it out, how could his wife? On the final night of his execution, after the grim deed was done, Valerie packed up her children in a horse drawn cart. Realizing that they would never be safe in Kuljas, she left the town to the cover of Darkness. They made it as far as the toll bridge, and it's unclear what happened next, but a small group of people, citizens from Kuljas, met them on the bridge and apparently tried to stop them from leaving. 00;41;44;01 - 00;42;15;04 It's likely that this group rocked the cart enough that eventually it just toppled over the side and was dashed to pieces on the rocks and water below, killing Valerie, Connie, and little Maxim. Three innocent people and their killers were never known, nor accused, nor charged, nor punished, despite that being the core tenants of Kuljas Free City a free city for some of all the pieces of media which detail the killing spree and mentality of the Sacred Ash Killer. 00;42;15;08 - 00;42;49;00 The best one, I think, is a tome called Heartless The Hidden Truths of Corrin John Vorray, written by Estelle Marx Hembree. In it the author writes, obviously Mr. Vorray was a monster and a monster needs to be slain. Slaying monsters is a force that transfigures ordinary people into heroes. Or so the stories go. And I am not attempting to make claim that we should try to understand the plight of every animated skeleton and abyss walker, but every hero who strikes down a monster reinforces the line between them. 00;42;49;03 - 00;43;13;19 The difference? The fact that if you destroy a monster, you are a hero by default. And when that happens, you start seeing monsters everywhere. Because the call to be a hero is strong. Too strong. Some would say that is the essence of Kuljas. Free city a place where every person is a hero because every monster is slain. 00;43;13;21 - 00;43;37;26 Dear investigator, these circumstances are puzzling even to me, and unfortunately, I only have two theories for you to go on the ghost and the mimic. The ghost theory suggests that, in fact, someone has raised the undead specter of the Sacred Ash Killer to do what he did best in life. Who in or outside of Kuljas, would want to maintain an air of fear in the city? 00;43;37;26 - 00;43;58;23 Who benefits from our population on edge? And what necromancy could return a famed killer to prominence? Nearly a quarter of a century after he was dispatched? What does a ghost give us? That a mortal killer could not? There is an added wrinkle here to any thought of real necromancy, and it revolves around the way that Corrin John Vorray's body was handled. 00;43;58;23 - 00;44;25;17 Postmortem. His corpse was burned to ash, ironic given his namesake, and that ash was mixed with salt and lye, and that mixture was spread down the Besdin -- Vorray’s corpse is thoroughly been lost to time, so any attempts to reanimate or revive would either take an incredibly powerful incantation or an act of the gods. And I want to believe that not one of them are so vengeful that they would bring back a man like that. 00;44;25;19 - 00;44;47;12 The mimic theory suggests that someone has come to Kuljas Free City, to take up the mantle of the Sacred Ash Killer, stepping seamlessly into his grim work, someone so attentive to the small details of the case that they could recreate them exactly. Normally, such minute details would be limited to the killer, their victims and the local police. 00;44;47;15 - 00;45;10;03 But so much has been written about Corrin John Vorray that it is completely feasible that someone learned the tricks of his trade from books and scrolls. And yes, even podcasts like this. Who would want to come to Kuljas to take up the blade and scalpel? And to what end? And if this is the case, are we trying to break Corrin John Vorray's record? 00;45;10;05 - 00;45;34;13 If so, I'm afraid to say that things and Kuljas may get a lot worse before they get any better. One final note, dear investigator, before we conclude whether the killer is the restless spirit of Corrin John Vorray or simply a well researched fanatic mimicking his madness, I am not sure, but something I cannot help but shake is what connects the two most recent victims. 00;45;34;15 - 00;46;07;18 Why them? The sergeant and the toll keeper were not high ranking members of society. They weren't the most influential of people, nor the most visible. If you wanted to instill fear, there would be better targets. But there is one thing, one detail, that unifies the dearly departed sergeant and told keeper they both intersected with the Sacred Ash Killer before. Sergeant Auguirre, just a recruit 23 years ago, was the arresting officer, the one who found Vorray in the larder and initially captured him. 00;46;07;20 - 00;46;27;14 And the toll keeper would have been on the bridge when the Vorray family fell to their deaths. Perhaps, dear investigator, we are seeing a vendetta play out and I wonder how many more names would be on the Sacred Ash Killer's list before he can rest once more. 00;46;27;16 - 00;46;51;17 So, dear investigator, if you find yourself near Kuljas free city and have the time and inclination to uncover the truth about this returned killer, I can offer you the following. Do not get caught breaking the law. They do not take kindly to strangers. And be careful who you talk to, because there is a killer on the loose in Kuljas free city, one who may have already paid the ultimate price. 00;46;51;17 - 00;47;25;07 But if you are successful and can track the right clues and get the right answers, you may be able to save a life or two. As the Kuljas Charter reminds us, peace blooms above the graves of the wicked. Thank you for listening to tonight's episode of Alchemy Investigations, where we have delved into the history and possible return of the Sacred Ash Killer born of a forgotten city, omitted from maps to a quintessence of unflinching totalitarian justice, Kuljas Free City does everything it can to slay its monsters. 00;47;25;09 - 00;47;55;16 But how do you slay a monster that you've already killed? With a bit of luck and some thoughtful questioning, I'm sure that you will be able to find out. Just keep your wits about you and your heart in your chest. For now, this has been Ichabod M. Groster for Alchemy Investigations. Farewell, investigators, and beware. 00;47;55;18 - 00;48;21;04 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;48;21;07 - 00;48;48;04 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;48;48;06 - 00;49;18;10 Alchemy investigations is supremely thankful to our wide network of correspondents correspondents like Estelle Marx Hembree for her permission to use excerpts from her research, and Emily Brewer of the Guilt Index podcast. Check out their episodes on the Sacred Ash Killer wherever you listen to things like that. 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).