cambium | npc contact.

CROW

Occupation: unofficial leader of The Nest
Age: late 40s
Gemstone: "a pure black gemstone, highly polished and slightly tapered towards one end not unlike an egg" (first mentioned here)
Description: Crow has sandy blond hair and dark brown eyes, and can typically be found at home or around the train station. Reportedly, he holds a lot of influence over the town, and is a good person to talk to when troubled. While many npcs have been losing memories, Crow reportedly has not. He is the one who gave named npcs their bird names, as well as the one who named the town The Nest.

SWAN

Occupation: ferryman
Age: mid 30s
Description: Swan has dark brown hair and dark green eyes, and can typically be seen out in the water on a boat during good weather, or couch hopping during bad weather and at nights. Six silver coins are used as a passage fee and conduit for her to take a person across the water; according to Lark, those who leave with her never return.

ROBIN

Occupation: rail attendant
Age: early 30s
Gemstone: "fragile light blue shards encased in clear gem" (first mentioned here)
Description: Robin has black hair and light brown eyes, and can typically be found around the train station or cafes in town. She was married to Jay, the train conductor who was murdered early in the game, and has picked up enough from him to operate the train if we ever get it working again. While she has lost a considerable amount of her memories, she claims to be content living in the present. An unknown individual stole her uniform and faked her death via the train's furnace at the start of the game.

LARK

Occupation: postman
Age: mid 20s
Description: Lark has ashy hair and golden eyes, and can typically be seen around town with his mail bag doing deliveries, or hanging out in the graveyard talking to the dead underground. As a postman, Lark prides himself in knowing people and places, but has trouble speaking and reportedly cannot read aside from names he's learned to recognize. It is not widely known, but Lark is able to speak with and, to a certain extent, control the dead.

RAVEN (née HAMTARO)

Age: pre teen
Gemstone: "completely clear, like a diamond, aside from a tiny red spot in the center: a gemstone trapped within a gemstone" (first mentioned here)
Description: Raven has black hair and grey eyes, and can occasionally be seen wandering around town but is most reliably found at Poppy Hall after dark. Following the "sacrifice" of several characters, he awoke without any memories of his identity or past life, and was given the temporary name Hamtaro before learning his true name. His family is dead, and according to the note he had written on the back of a photograph discovered in a burning house, he had sworn to bring them back no matter what the cost. According to the townspeople npcs, according to Crow, a boy named Raven died in a house fire many years ago.

MAGPIE

Age: early teens
Gemstone: "blue and yellow, splotched like flowers run through a photoshop distort filter" (first mentioned here)
Description: Princess Stephanie Astrapia (aka Paradise Magpie, aka Magpie, aka Maggie) has sandy blond hair and golden eyes. While not related by blood, Crow and Maggie consider themselves father and daughter. An unknown individual has been using her name and reputation to communicate with the characters, and has stolen six silver coins.

SPARROW

Age: mid teens
Gemstone: "like a fire opal: bright yellow and red that dance like flames when turned" (first mentioned here)
Description: Sparrow has black hair and bright blue eyes, and is difficult to get ahold of; the most reliable way to meet her is to wait for her to come home, which she does some nights. She has an interest in the supernatural and the occult, and reportedly is the person who gave other npcs their gemstones. She is Maggie's best/only friend at the start of the game.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[That does an excellent job of distracting Phil from his own thoughts-- straightening up, he turns his attention to Crow, business mode back on. This was what they were here for, after all, and right now that statement is the best lead they've got.]

Would you mind telling us what exactly happened in that house, then? Since you seem to be familiar with its story...

[Hmm.]

As I recall, that was where Dimos found that box of gem shards some time ago. He said he had seen some sort of creature lurking in the house... if there's a chance it could be the same beast that attacked Kaeya, I would like to learn whatever you can share with us about that place.

Edited 2023-03-19 05:17 (UTC)

[ It's all news to Yuri, and he suspects it came before his time. This isn't the first time a collection of shards has entered into the equation...was it the same box? Yuri shelves the thought for later consideration.

For now, there's the matter of what mauled Kaeya and ripped his heart out. And an eye, apparently. ]

My people believe the dead can't move on if their business is unfinished... Been wondering whether that may factor in.

[ It doesn't matter that Kaeya had nothing to do with the fire. He was likely in the wrong place at the wrong time. ]

That may very well be the case.

[ Tea should be done steeping by now, sit back and enjoy story time ]

Long ago, a family lived in that house: a mother, a father, and their two young sons, Raven and Koel. They had all arrived to town together, which was a rarity even back then, and as such, the family largely kept to themselves. The children played in the house and seldom left; they needn't other playmates other than themselves. They were a happy family, content, on the surface.

[ long dramatic sip of tea ]

I visited one day, when the parents were out. The two boys were not allowed to answer the door or step foot out of the house, but they were curious, as sheltered children tend to be, and we spoke a little through one of the windows on the side of the house. We talked about this and that, and some time along the way, the younger brother had fallen asleep, and it was just the older brother and myself.

In whispers, as if speaking his thoughts and feelings out loud for the first time, keeping them secret even from his brother, the older brother admitted to being lonely, frustrated, scared— he wanted to leave the house, to run away, but he was afraid of his parents and afraid to leave his brother behind. There was a thought he had played with for quite some time by then, of burning down the house while the family slept. He had it all planned out, starting the fire in one of the smaller bedrooms upstairs so that it would be noticed from the outside, put out before the entire house collapsed— but not until enough damage was done, and the house became too dangerous to live in anymore. He would break the house wide open, so that it could no longer contain him.

I should have tried harder to dissuade him.

[ But he didn't, and he has regrets about that even now. He's never been great at dissuading people's bad ideas, just discussing them and hoping they come to the conclusion themselves. ]

Something had gone wrong that night. Perhaps the fire had gone out of control, perhaps he was seen by the younger brother, perhaps the parents ran upstairs for their children instead of leaving the house as the boy thought they would. I do not know the details. But I was there when the house burned and burned, I was there watching the family trapped within the flames, I was there, when the fire was eventually put out, to recover the bodies.

The mother was dead. The father was dead. The boy, Raven, was dead. Only the youngest, little Koel had survived, and he had run away soon after that. He claimed the freedom Raven could not.

[Though Phil remains silent through all of this, his hands grasping the teacup tell another story, the knuckles turning white with the force with which he grips it.

They had only been intending to destroy Bifrost and Prince Woden, make them pay for what they'd done to Ix. It had all been planned out, or so they thought. Instead, nearly the entire world had come crashing down around them as a result, the Aegis not deploying fast enough to be able to protect more than a small area around Sellund...

He remembers standing and watching the inevitable destruction he could do nothing to prevent. He wonders if Crow felt the same way as he watched the house burn.]

... and the grief and negative emotions gathered in that place may somehow have given rise to a monstrous creature.

[At this point, whether it was a physical manifestation of said grief or a being from elsewhere summoned by the emotions lingering in the burned-out shell of the house is irrelevant. The end result is the same either way.

He's wondering something else now, but it feels somehow wrong to bring it up just yet in the wake of this tale...]

...Well, that's dying with regrets and unfinished business, no doubt.

[ Even as a child, Yuri would have done nothing that brought his mother to the most remote of risks. It's difficult to relate to, but then, he hadn't really had what others would define as a normal childhood to begin with. The family who died, either never knowing why or because their own relative had set a fire...

He could see how that would foment into something dangerous. Yuri does believe, as others in Fódlan do, that souls who can't move on may bear a certain malice, denied their eternal rest. It begs the question of what they can do about it, exactly.

And, likewise, what Crow himself believes. ]

You know this realm better than we do. Has such a phenomenon ever been heard of prior to this?

Oh, I am sure it has. I am not the first denizen of this realm, nor will I be the last, and people will be people will be people.

[ Just look at Phil there. You don't have to be from the same world to make the same mistakes. ]

It is why I wish to become somebody others will feel comfortable talking to, as a friend, rather than as a confessional. Grief in particular is a difficult emotion to deal with. It cannot be "fixed" and while time may lessen the pain, it takes but a single nick for grief to feel as raw as the day it consumed you.

[ So, you know. good luck with that. ]

You have to learn to direct it towards something else. Something productive.

[It's something he's still working on even after more than ten years, and he's lucky enough to have people like Ix and Mileena and Marcus supporting him the whole way.]

The things that have already happened can't be changed. If one continues to dwell on the past rather than trying to move forward, all it does is fester like an unhealed wound.

[Phil knows he'll never truly be able to atone for the things he was responsible for. But if he can help put the world back together little by little, that will have to be enough.]

Or manifest a monster.

Well, we'll have to sort it out. Can't leave a monster out there mauling people.

[ Not to mention, it feels less like a mindless, violent rage when specific body parts had been harvested once again. It was a matter they would have to sort out, as a matter of general safety... Though Yuri does have one last question regarding that. ]

...You ever heard anything about someone's heart, eye, and tongue being stolen?

[ He has his own thoughts on it, given their tenure here, but he's curious what Crow might have to say about it. ]

[ Something productive... like death and murder! ]

Heart, eye, and tongue...? Heart and eyes, yes, but I don't recall any missing tongues.

[ Maybe that was personal. Maybe they just wanted Kaeya to shut up, who can blame them ]

For a ritual of some sort, I'm assuming?

[Mmmm he hates this! Partly because he still remembers the whole incident with that mutant heart out in the woods that was definitely made up of multiple beings!]

Why those particular parts?

Something about demons, isn't it?

[ Yuri recalls something about that, not that he's an expert on these matters. Fódlan has demonic beasts, but those are another matter entirely.

He finally gets himself a cup of tea and takes a sip, far from wanting to waste it. ]

It's happened several times since we've started being brought here, so I've heard.

Of a sort.

[ If not demon demons, then people who may as well be. ]

The heart is where emotions lie, the spirit, the soul. Eyes see the world, interpret it— some even say they are a window into the soul. As for the tongue... it represents communication, I suppose, the way people connect with one another. Many metaphorical examples can be made of the human body.

[ Hands that create. Feet that move. Ears, lungs, bones. The body is sacred; part each is special in its own way. ]

... or what if they were trying to make a human body?

[He still can't get that hideous mess of a heart out of his mind...]

Something that would be more suited for their purposes than a regular human with all of the limitations that entails. Something more... durable, perhaps, or with more latent abilities...

Well that'd be horrific...

[ Not that Yuri hadn't heard of human experimentation before. Unfortunately, it seemed the enemies who called them beasts back home had done just that. ]

So any way we slice it, we've got a problem on our hands.

[ No news there. ]

There are plenty of perfectly nice intact human bodies, though...

[ Like, look at him. His heart couldn't be the best part of him, that they'd take only that and leave the rest, that's kind of depressing to think about. ]

Why do you think one would need such a special human?

That I don't know.

[He frowns.]

A couple of months ago, however, Rinne and Kotetsu found a heart buried out in the forest on the island. They asked me to see if I could use my abilities to identify who it belonged to, but when I attempted to scan its anima, I found that contained multiple sources of anima rather than a singular one. Surely whoever made that heart - pieced it together from multiple beings - was doing so for a specific reason, whether it was to strengthen the ritual or create a special sort of being.

We know demon summoning is a whole thing here, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was the former.

[ If only because creating some kind of vessel piecemeal strikes him as inefficient, not that Yuri knows entirely too much about the subject. He simply thinks it's more practical one way than the other.

Is he correct? Who knows. ]

[ There's something about "demon summoning" that makes the corner of Crow's mouth twitch, but he lifts his cup to his mouth to take a sip and it's gone by the time he lowers it. ]

It must have been a very special ritual indeed, to necessitate something like that. I am afraid I am at a loss as to what, exactly, that ritual would be.

[ Does he look like somebody who's aware he's been living with a demon for many many years? nah, he doesn't know anything about them, no sirs. ]

As we currently stand, this is how I see it: We do not know who is behind this, why they are doing it, or what the end result is to be. But we know what they are after, and that is a start. Even if bait fails, we will surely learn something new from the endeavor, am I right?

Yes. And we can use what we've learned to hopefully prevent the same thing from happening again. The more knowledge we have, the more effective we should be able to be, in theory.

So if it isn't too much to ask, I'd like to ask for your cooperation in this matter.

[This is the Biqe - the most powerful and knowledgeable mirrist in the world - speaking.]

We will share what we learn in exchange for any information you have that may prove useful on this front. For the good of the town and all of the people in it, ourselves included.

[ Yuri has nothing to tack on or amend this proposal: it's practical, and they all benefit from it. As little as they know, combining whatever scraps they get a hold of may yield insight into the bigger picture.

Obviously, whoever is behind all this has all the cards. They, in contrast, have been dealt bad hands. He simply nods at Phil's suggestion and sips his tea.

A dainty sip, mind, but after Byleth's terrible experience with apples, Yuri's never too sure of anything consumable initially. ]

Of course. What do you like more information on?

[ "tell us everything we don't know" there's so much, where does he even start ]

I admit that part of this is my own personal interest speaking, but anything you could share on the nature of this world in general would be a great help.

[If this is a situation at all similar to Tir Na Nog...]

The more we know about the laws of this place, the easier it will be to understand how things such as this creature work within them... or outside of them, as the case may be.

[He glances over to Yuri to see if the other man has anything in particular that he's curious about as well.]

[ With the prompt, Yuri sits just the tiniest of degrees straighter, despite his already overly proper posture. To think the man's a crime lord turned mercenary back home. ]

S'pose I'd add whether it's always been like this, or if anything's a pointedly new development. Aside our arrival, that is.

[ It's important to pace themselves, after all. They only have so much to offer Crow in return at the moment, though as the man had observed, they're rather industrious investigators. ]

[ Well, that doesn't narrow things down at all. It's been so long that Crow has been here, sometimes it slips his mind what it was like when he too first arrived and knew nothing. But he doesn't forget. He isn't able to. ]

This world is a world between worlds. Your arrival is not a new development. Many have come before you, and many will come after. The others you see around town were in your shoes once upon a time: strangers from distant lands.

[ You've got demons walking amongst your group too, why be surprised to find the Nest infested with them? Look at Kuja, or Ain- cake demons are tame compared to the likes of them. ]

As a world between worlds, there are places where the veil is thin. The train station, for one, and the lake shore. There are certain times, too- the transition from day to night, from night to day, after the autumnal harvest during the festival of the dead. I believe this is when the first of your cohort began to arrive. Significant life events such as births and deaths can thin the veil as well.

[... so it is a similar situation to Tir Na Nog, in a way. A "walled garden" of sorts, separated from the outside by a barrier that can be destroyed, populated by people brought unwillingly to this place from other worlds.]

... this world is not unlike my own, then. Which means that the knowledge I have from my world may be of use to you, and I offer it freely along with my abilities, though I don't know how much I'll be able to do with them here.

[He is, as ever, bound by the frustrating physical limits of his body.]

Is what you seek a way to return to your original worlds? Or merely the continued stability of this world?

CROW

SWAN

ROBIN

LARK

RAVEN (née HAMTARO)

MAGPIE

SPARROW

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