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Combosode that may confuse you. Yes it is a tavern talk and yes it is an companion episode for the Lightlessness campaign. Probably a bad idea to mix categories. But did you really want a 20 minute and then a 15 minute episode? Maybe you did…see below for Notch’s background semi discussed in episode.

• Notch is a Tiefling Warlock with a love of all things knowledge.
• Notch grew up in the city life of Piazza, where he lived in a shared dwelling with separate living spaces called a Seperatment.   He was always different from birth being one of the few pure tieflings that had come from a time his parents referred to as A-ru-drah (spoken like three barks) which was abyssal for the breaking of chains. He later grew up to learn from his parents what it really meant
  • The human Murdok Stromal came to the land with ten thousand men of many races, majority elven and human. They were all slaves until Murdok led a rebellion and they fled from their land across the Tiber (Tib-er) ocean.  They worked within a plant creating clockworks for a man known as the Emerald King in the land of Samara, and had stolen parts over time to build a large raft like hovercraft which Murdok had designed. When it was completed Murdok convinced all the plant workers across a large whole of the land’s assemblies to destroy their work places and those clockworks that were in charge of reporting back to the King or winding his soldiers. They made it to the Land now known as Felicia and vowed to gain support through alliances and use their tools and knowledge to build up a force to protect if the Emerald King sent minions across the Ocean. Felicia was mainly inhabited by spaced out families of Elves, some druidic in nature, sects of dwarves which kept separate from the elves, and a united society of Dragonborns with provinces throughout the land.  The elves welcomed their brothers in the race among their people and supported their brother’s friends.  The dwarfs were promised technology from Samara if they were to share their land and help.  But the Dragonborns threatened to send the slaves back to their master as this was their way and beliefs.  Because of this the elves out of a desire to protect their kin, the dwarves interested in the technology, and Murdok with his army of ten thousand went to each province and asked for amnesty, if this was not granted they were forced to destroy that province.  Ultimately to this day no one has ever come from Samara to regain their slaves.
• Piazza is a shoreline town that is very expensive to live in.  Most of the people who live there are in charge of making and designing machines known as Forge.  Some big, some small, they all are based off exact engineering to run off fire, water, air, or wound gears.  There are those who sell smaller machines with less purpose to tourists, such as toys, or small noise makers known as alarms that hit a bell after a certain hour cycle when set.
• Notch was more or less accepted for his abyssal bloodline and qualities throughout his life, his parents had come from parents who knew the great evil of having freedom taken away and making machines of destruction.  Though the mature in his society never treated them negatively he was set apart in being the only pureblood Tiefling in all his learnings by the Half-Evlen Scholar Silvio. 
  • Silvio always treated notch as a certain favorite due to more than their shared interest in books.  He had noticed from a young age that Notch had a spiritual understanding beyond his own and some link to that world.  Small things would happen when Notch engaged deeply in discussion about these beliefs in an Old One, which no one had ever taught him about. After assisting in the raising of Notch he saw that Notch was destined for more than being a Forge-head as he would refer too many of the kid’s parents on some occasions.   He encouraged Notch to head up north to study among some of the original land dwellers (Known by some in the south as Greyjaws) whose ways of life were still very spiritual and their reliance on Gods and the supernatural unaffected by the Forge that had changed the lives of those in the south. Though Notch’s parents were not happy when asked by Notch to travel up North when he became a man of age, they knew he wasn’t quite right, though they not dare admit it, or mess with their very pleasant social standing among the people.  They feared many would have no problem making the slight jump to demonic, which would not go well.
• With some money from his parents for the journey Notch set off up North on the very popular Darius’ Pass and took some turns east in the spur of the moment until he heard of a tribe of dwarves known as the Topart Tribe, in the Scronag Mountains.  These mountain dwarves are a close knit tribe that were here before the country of Felicia was united, some argue their existence in these lands rival that of the elves.  The strange mountains rarely connect at the base which average 20 to 100 ft. in diameter.  From that base they shoot up vertically up to two miles high, all very steep but the rock is solid.  So much so that the Topart tribe has hollowed out caves for dwelling within the base of these spire-like mountains. Many in the south know of these mountains and are perplexed by their existence given that there are 233 mountain peaks and a natural explanation for the formation of such a formation has yet to be found.  For the dwarves of the Topart tribe the explanation is simple:
  • Game and sustenance on the Scronag mountains: Though not readily known or believed by many the Topart Tribe hunts Yeti’s that live and move between spires in the dead of night.  The largest of spires have hidden dwellings up high beneath the snow.  The tribe also compete with the Yeti’s in hunting griffin’s that make nests at the tips of the spires. Griffin eggs are quite the treat and Notch misses them dearly.  While with the Topart tribe for 2 years he had only seen one successful yeti kill. To bring a Yeti to the Topart people is to gain their respect and acceptance to their society.
  • The Moon:  While living up in the Scronag Mountains Notch was able to learn to climb well from the people and spent many evenings high up on peaks studying and mapping the stars. He had found a strange fascination with the moon during this time which led to random unexplainable events similar to those during his childhood but on a greater scale. He felt powerful near the moon, and over time learned to harness this internal power. One night of a full moon, while training high up a spire Notch was hit by strong winds, within these winds were words in abyssal saying “I am the old one which you seek”  “Your true name is (what your character sheet says)” “Your time of learning is complete, head to Tribeck, my children need you”
• Notch stirs over this experience for some time before regretfully leaving the kind Topart people and what had become his home these past two years.  He could not shake the itch that there was more for him in Tribeck, and to miss out of the knowledge and wisdom from a new experience was against who he felt he was.  Given rations and a farewell celebration of rotisserie Griffin Notch made way to Tribeck.
• Upon arriving in Tribeck, not knowing what else to do, he remembers as a child in Piazza hearing of the great Library in Tribeck which housed ancient information from lands passed, many curated and provided by the dwarves, elves, and Dragonborns who lived here before.  The library was formed by the third King Thrombeg in an effort to support new learning when it was found that integration in other areas other than Forge was difficult for the children and grandchildren of the slaves from Samara. The Library was named after the King and is to this day Thrombeg Archive.
• Arriving at the library, he found the place to be quite empty.  It still was majestic and full of books, but gently disheveled in places (books in stacks of various sizes, some laying on their sides, fallen between the empty spaces on shelves, and covered in dust.  The library itself had a sleeping Human in his 20’s behind a large circular wooden table.  Notch approached the table and greeted the man startling him awake. The human’s name was Job, and he quickly apologized for being asleep but no one rarely comes in and he was up late the night before drinking with some of his friends who are scholars of Forge.
  • Conversation continues and Job grows interested in the adventures and story of leaving home that Notch shares. Job has grown up in Tribeck, and failed to thrive at crafting, forge knowledge, and entertaining so he found paid lodging and a wage caring for the library. He tells Notch that they have books on the sky, though he doesn’t know where, he ensures Notch he saw them though. When asking Notch what his business in town was or if he had a place to stay Notch fails to be able to adequately answer either.  Notch states that the Library’s overseer, Weather Lophandle, may be able to offer him a job, given that he always complains about having to fill in the night shifts when Job has off.  Interested in this idea and desperately wanting to find those books Job had talked about Notch stayed in the Library until Weather arrived. Around sun down a rather woodsy looking dwarf came in the front doors of the library, wearing leather, and an animal pelt across his shoulders. He had six small axes in holsters, three on both sides. He had a long uncut beard that was far from even in length.  He ignored Notch who was off on the left reading, and walked up to Job who asked how the hunting went.  The scruff dwarf grunted in reply.  He then introduced Notch to the dwarf, who only asked if he hunted and what his pay would be.  Job interrupted saying that Notch has hunted Yeti’s which genuinely sparked Weather’s interest and Notch was given the job at 1 silver a day to watch the library 4 days a week from afternoon to darkness (two hours after sun down).
• While working at the library Notch received a letter addressed to the head librarian delivered by a courier.  He offered it to Weather who could care less, then to Job who allowed it to sit on his desk through a week’s worth of napping shifts until Notch felt he must open it.  It was indeed a letter, but no-where did it say from whom.  The return address was for Quarks, a forge parts town in the south west of the country.  In the letter the sender asked for many questions and the books that would hold their answers. He asked for those answers to be found, written and sent back.  Notch having no work to do as a soul rarely set foot in the library began this scavenger hunt.  The books he searched through for answers were Plants by Fey, Furry and Lovable, and Living off the Land and Loving it.  He wrote back the answers and asked to the sender’s name, as well as giving an introduction of himself.  A few weeks later he received another letter, addressed the same way, with no acknowledgment of any of his pleasantries and with none of the information he had asked for.  Again a list of books and again a list of questions. Notch continued.  This went on for months with topics ranging, but they seemed to converge around demonic practices, cults, and nature. With books such as “How to ‘C’ a cult by Boaz, A coup d’état by Mordecai, and strangely a children’s book called: Stories from the Dark by Nerix Featherfoot. It was the final letter that was most interesting, for this one was addressed to one Notch Stern when it arrived from one Bubbles Keyholder
  • The final letter read: Not much time. Our research has unearthed them. Cult of the Silver Moon. Bigger than we know. Cure or kill?  Ranks and meetings. Medallions and murder. They came from us, in history lost to the Forge. What do they seek? I’ve seen their beasts and they are coming. If you find me with them….kill me
•  Notch has heard nothing since and has been unable to gain any more information on the subject. He is comforted by knowledge but desires action and is waiting for the opportunity to present itself.