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Come, brave the dark woods of folk horror with us in this vason actual play, The Hidden North.
Remember, 12-sided stories are always story heavy, rules light, and full of fright.
Hello and welcome to The Hidden North, episode number 11. My name is Wes Otis.
And today we have a special episode. I have one wonderful player.
Hello, I'm the one wonderful player, Piper. I use they then pronouns.
And today and of all days, I am playing Elizabeth Perce, the writer who is probably big sad energy today.
Who knows?
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So quick recap, we are doing one-on-one episodes with each of the players.
Last week we heard Saints, this week we're going to do Elizabeth with Piper.
In the show before this, I'll just talk about what happened with Piper's character in particular.
They had gone into the woods looking for Linnea, who had been drug away by what they believed was a troll.
Throwing all caution to the wind and believing in plot armor, Elizabeth bound into the dark woods,
not realizing that Greta, her companion, had been baptized as a baby.
How do you stop that? I mean, you're a baby, it just happens.
So they're in the woods and they try to draw the troll out. The troll smells Christian blood, because that's what the folklore says.
And the troll went stampeding towards them in great anger. And that's where we stop that particular episode.
In this episode, we're going back a bit though. What city are you in? Are you in some little village or are you in Dublin or...?
We'll say Dublin.
Okay.
For ease, maybe like a little out in the country.
All right, cool. We're going way back. Well, not too far back, because Elizabeth's only, I think, 30 at this point in the current thing.
So this is maybe eight to ten years earlier, early 20s, late teens, Elizabeth.
You're in a small, I'm going to say suburb. I don't know if they'd use the word suburb back then, but in a small suburb way out,
probably 10 to 15 minute walk outside of Dublin at this point, there is a large lake that goes right by your house.
And there are several farms. A lot of people are looking at the expansion to this area as a possible second city,
though Dublin's growing pretty fast and will probably gobble up this little community at some point.
But at this point, you're independent from the city, but close enough to get there.
You've lived across the street from your best friend, Cassandra, for all of your life.
In fact, you haven't at this point, have you been to New York?
I think you had said that at some point you had gone traveling.
I believe this was kind of later in life, but I feel like Elizabeth has been very homebound for most of her life.
So the traveling will come later before you join the society. OK.
So at this point, you really haven't gone out and seen the world yet.
It is early morning and you've woken up and across the street,
you see a picture of a large heart in the window at Cassandra's place.
Seeing this heart kind of as a picture, I think that Elizabeth will be up and just beaming at this, a small tinge of blush on their face.
I believe that Elizabeth will draw a very rudimentary, as Elizabeth's drawings are not good,
the best estimation of like a bicycle that she can do with a question mark and a heart on the side.
Put it on the window, put it on the window and she responds relatively quickly with a very large question mark
because you've been parted a ton too much information on this sheet.
It's like hieroglyphics. It's way too small.
Elizabeth will look down at the picture and then just draw a heart and then draw an arrow pointing left more towards the city direction.
OK, so you put that on there.
A couple of moments goes by and then you see her open her front door and she starts walking across the street to your street.
Then downstairs you hear a knock on the door and your mother say, Oh Cassandra, it's so nice to see you.
I don't know if Elizabeth is up, but you can go up there and wake her up.
She needs to come down for breakfast in a minute anyway.
You hear her come up the stairs and open the door and she goes, You are the worst artist ever.
I'm trying.
I didn't understand anything you were saying.
OK, I was saying, yes, I acknowledge the heart and also heart as well.
Would you like to go biking? Was the question.
And she gingerly shuts the door behind her and walks up to you and puts her arms around your waist.
Of course, I want to go biking.
But it's going to have to wait at least, I don't know, an hour or two. Is that all right?
Why do we have to wait an hour? I just put on something and we go with your plans.
Because right now my mother is talking with the priest about this year's social.
And in about 20 minutes, your mom's going to be talking with the priest and you're going to have to sit there with her.
Because your mom is way more conservative and in the church than mine is.
I know. And it's a pain right in the arse that we even have to deal with this.
How many more years do we have to deal with these socials before we just consider us non-marriageable?
Well, I think what I would like to do is we save up enough money and we go to France, go to Paris.
France?
Yeah, Paris. I've heard it's way more open-minded over there than it is here.
We can always visit our parents.
I mean, I think that's a good idea. I mean, I've never even dreamed of Paris, but I'd be happy to dream of you.
She goes, I want to go everywhere. I want to go all over the place.
And imagine if we could get an apartment together as roommates. I mean, no one has to know what we're doing.
We could just be old friends.
Aye, very, very close old friends.
Very, very close old friends.
Why not dream of that? Why you're talking with the priest and your mom this morning.
And you hear the knock on the door and she goes, oh, your turn.
And she gives you a kiss and she goes, come over to the house when you're ready to go biking.
Okay.
And she walks down.
Bye, Cassandra.
Elizabeth will try to make it as casual as possible.
Goodbye before coming out to her mother.
Cassandra gets the door and she turns towards you and opens the door and says, goodbye, Elizabeth.
I'm glad to see you're finally awake.
And then she mouths, I love you.
And then she leaves. You quickly get dressed or?
I think Elizabeth will kind of hang on that for a moment, kind of spin the skirt a bit in excitement before hurrying back upstairs
and getting something more appropriate on before the priest arrives.
All right.
Well, not long after Cassandra leaves and you're getting dressed, you can hear your mother talking with the priest downstairs.
Father Michael, he's a nice enough man.
He's in his late 40s.
So he's not like a lot of the priests who are usually super old, who have been around.
But he also seems a bit clueless about things.
He doesn't seem like he's on top of everything.
He is not a fire and brimstone priest, which has been nice.
They call you down after you get dressed.
And Father Michael goes, Elizabeth, you look lovely this morning.
It's nice to see you.
It's lovely to see you too, Father.
What brings you to the house?
Well, your mother and Cassandra's mother and a few others in the town are a little concerned about the socials not working for you all
because it's important your parents want to see you get married.
I know that there have been several offers of people's hands.
I know Bobby and William and Jonathan all have asked you if you'd like to start a courtship.
They're very lovely gentlemen.
Also very happy for their marriages as well.
I just I don't know if it's quite right yet for me.
And your mother goes, what are you?
You're 21 years old, right for you.
I mean, sweetie, right for you.
You get married and it will become right at some point.
I didn't love your father, but we got married.
I understand, Mommy.
But I just think that, you know, that I have high standards, very high standards for the man that I think should that should wed me.
I think that that is this is your mother.
I think that that is not the way for a young lady to think Bobby was a perfectly serviceable boy.
He was fine.
I couldn't tell the difference between the violin and the cello.
So he's not musical.
He doesn't need to be just needs to bring home food and and keep you clothed.
I thought maybe I want a little more joy and a little more excitement than just bringing home food and clothing.
What?
Just in general.
Just in general, I mean, someone who knows musical things about things I like.
Mother and Father Michael goes, do you mean more metropolitan or more sophisticated?
I I exactly.
Well, I understand that the boys around here are not necessarily into a lot of music and theater.
There are more boys like that in Dublin or and I know this might be controversial,
but we could see if there is a social that we can join, maybe introduce Elizabeth in London or something like that.
Maybe the right person is just a couple of days ride away.
And your mother sits there for a second and says, well, I think we should start with Dublin first.
I think that instead of trying to meet these expectations of a man that's a well-cultured,
perfect person that we need to lower our expectations to a point that is more, I don't know, realistic with the world we live in.
I understand where you're coming from, Mother.
And I will try my best to lower my standards to the men around here, I guess.
Perfect. And the father goes, you know, I understand that this is a big step.
But in the future, when you have a lovely family around you and a man who is dedicated to you by your side,
you will feel nothing but joy, I promise. Thank you, Father. I appreciate your wisdom always.
Well, I need to go to the next family to talk and set up the social.
I will talk with you all on Sunday. Have a good day. Good day, Father.
And walks out and right then your father walks in and he's got this huge big thing of curly red hair on the top of his head.
And his hands are covered in paint from where he's taken a brush and like checked color and stuff like that.
And he's got a pipe. Hi. Hi. Hi, honey. The priest is gone, right? He is.
All right. Good. Sits down and your mother goes, there's nothing wrong with the priest.
And your father goes, you know, maybe there is something wrong with the priest and you just can't see it.
I think Elizabeth will look pointedly at their mom. Your mom says to your dad, you know, the reason she doesn't want to get married
and she's having such a hard time with this is because we didn't set her on the right path in the first place.
You wouldn't let me get her baptized. I don't understand why.
And he says, because I think that she should have a choice in whether or not she gets baptized.
And your mother says, that makes no sense. Of course, she's going to be Catholic.
We're Catholic. And your father says, yes. But you know, the Protestants do that.
They do it later. And the kids have to decide. Yeah. The mother just kind of goes, Elizabeth. What?
Your father and I are talking. Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm just going to take this scone and stuff it in my face while you talk about me in front of me.
That's good. And she turns back to your dad, says, see, that kind of lip is your fault.
And he looks at you and says, what are you doing today, pumpkin?
I was planning on going biking with Cassandra. Just down to the market.
That's good. When you get down there, can you buy some paper for me?
Hi. What are you doing there? Oh, I'm working on a new piece and I want to sketch out some stuff.
OK. Can you at some point teach me how to draw bicycles or in general?
Now, I'm a little confused because originally you wanted to be a artist.
Aye. Then you switched quickly over to writing. Aye.
Then you switched back over to art. Now you're on to talking about how Cassandra can do all this music. Aye.
I will gladly teach you any of these things if you just, you know, focus a little bit.
OK, so I'll focus then. I'll focus on music because that seems to be going well for me.
OK. So far. I think it is too. Aye.
I mean, I've been getting pretty good at violin, so I would say.
Charlie, you shouldn't you shouldn't encourage this with her.
She needs to get a husband. And your father goes, I don't think that we need to push that.
Thank you. Thank you, mother.
And I mean, how am I supposed to get a husband if I don't have many skills? Great many skills.
Well, I see that my opinion is not wanted here right now, so I'm going to go do the dishes.
Bye, mommy. What's with the wife?
Your dad has a big smile across his face and he says, well. Well.
I don't think that you need to worry about the social.
Oh, thank you. I keep getting bothered by it. I just don't. I don't know if it's for me, father. I don't know. To be honest.
He leans kind of on the table and in a lower voice, he says, I have noticed that you and Cassandra are good friends.
And I think that if you never find a husband, you'll always have each other and kind of gives you a wink.
Elizabeth looks at her dad. I kind of squint slightly. And there's this look of, OK, thank you.
I am. I definitely know that I feel she'll always be in my life.
He pulls out a big wad of money and says, all right, so get me some paper, get yourself something, get some lunch.
And yeah, I got to get back to painting. I love you, baby. I love you, too.
Thank you. And Elizabeth will go up and give her father a big hug.
He hugs you back and then he smells of oil paints and pipe smoke.
He says, and don't worry about your mom. She loves you. She just is very traditional.
I know. I love her, too. I know she's trying.
I think I'm going to end up disappointing her.
Well, you'll never disappoint me. Thank you.
And he leaves. All right. After you ride into Dublin, you know, it only takes on bikes.
It probably takes maybe 20, 30 minutes at most.
And you go to some of the shops and eat a little lunch and buy the paper your father asked for.
And you look at the different instruments at the music shop.
At some point, you make it back to your little community and Cassandra says, as you're riding up the road,
she goes, you know, today's been really nice.
It has been. It's really been lovely.
Why don't we go to our spot and take some of this food we got and make the day last a little longer?
Elizabeth enthusiastically nods and says, OK, let's go.
OK, the two of you make it to the lake.
You're sitting there for a while. The sun starts to dip down.
And you hear this most haunting, pretty music as you're looking into each other's eyes.
And at first, it's far away. It's a violin.
And then suddenly you hear get closer.
But you can't seem to not look into Cassandra's eyes.
And Cassandra goes, do you hear that?
I, it's, I, where is that coming from? It's beautiful.
Should we go find it?
I, we should.
The two of you stand up and you go to the shoreline of the lake.
And there is a small outcropping and a waterfall that wasn't there before.
The land you're in is relative. It's a little hilly, but it's not like waterfall land.
This doesn't look natural to you. It looks dreamlike.
And at the very bottom, there is a greenish blue human shaped person, but doesn't look quite human.
Very beautiful. They're wearing no clothes except for a small loin cloth.
They have long black hair and these big black eyes.
Their face is very thin and the music itself softens their features as they're playing.
Cassandra goes, that's, that's beautiful. It's coming from over there on that rock.
I, and I think as Elizabeth's listening, there is that appreciation and that kind of beauty that's in the song.
But there's also a undertone of envy that's there for the quality and the beauty of it.
I think with all the practicing and composing that Elizabeth has done, they've never accomplished anything like this.
And hearing it all of a sudden is kind of struck by this low bubbling of envy inside them.
It's like, I wish that I could do that, but that enchantment of listening to it and trying to absorb what's being played as well.
Absolutely. As you're having all of those emotions, you notice that Cassandra starts to walk into the water, tries to make her way to the outcropping.
She's like, I need to hear it closer.
I think they're holding hands at this point. It's kind of like getting towards the end of the fingertips.
Elizabeth just forward and tries to grab onto Cassandra's hand.
It's like, wait, wait, we don't, I can't swim.
Neither can I, but I just, I just need to. Now, can you make a physique?
Oh no. Physique and force roll.
Oh, geez. That's just two dice. That's two dice.
This is a guaranteed not good. That has no successes.
Okay. So would you like to push the roll? Of course I would. And take a possible condition?
I would love to go for it. Okay. So I roll again, correct? Yes.
And I will give you an extra die for your love. Oh, love dice.
A love die. I got one success. Your love die has worked.
You kind of snap out of it and you put yourself in front of Cassandra and you're pushing on her and the music subsides a little and disappears.
And you turn around, Cassandra comes out of this look, this trance, and you look where this large rock outcropping was, and it's no longer there.
And she's like, what was that? I don't, I don't know. Are you okay?
I just wanted to be near it. I wanted to be in the song, be part of the song.
I felt the same way. I don't know what happened. I don't know either. You're okay though, right?
I'm fine. I'm fine. Thank you for helping me. Of course. Anything for you.
And if you're okay with it, she's going to give you a very deep, long loving kiss and then we're going to fade to black. Yeah.
Okay. So a long loving kiss and we're going to jump forward to the next morning.
You wake up, you're tired. You know that there's going to be a day long of sewing and other things and dealing with doing chores around the house and all this stuff.
And your father knocks on your door and says, can I come in? Are you, do you have on clothing?
I am decent. Okay. What's going on?
Well, I was able to procure a new violin from London. Really? Yeah. Here.
And he pulls this case out. He says, I ordered it a few months ago and they finally got it to me.
His little tears that well up at the edges of Elizabeth's eyes as they come over and look at the violin and the case and back up to their father. Thank you.
Yeah, of course. I know the other one you have is a little bit ratty. So this one should be a lot better.
I'll make sure to do you proud. Yeah, you already have.
Now your mother is in a tie over how much work has to be done. So, you know, have fun with that. Is this bribery?
It's partially, partially bribery. I think so. Be nice. I think. Okay. Just nod your head a lot. Okay. I promise. Thank you.
All right. I'll talk to you soon. Bye. Okay. So you run over to the window like you always do in the morning.
My little drawings, little hearts. And you look over and there's no drawing in the window this morning. Oh, Elizabeth.
Well, it's definitely like a little sadness that there's no drawing in the morning, but maybe they consider that she woke up very tired.
Maybe Cassandra is also sleeping in. So I think Elizabeth will leave the picture behind the curtain on the window itself.
So when Cassandra wakes up, she'll see it and she'll also draw a broom, a little heart and a broom just to try and indicate with the worst drawing in the world that it's a cleaning day before they go off to help their mom.
Okay. Throughout the day, you're cleaning and like a excited teenager waiting for a text from someone they care about, you keep checking your window and the day goes on and no picture shows up in their window.
You've been doing the picture thing for a very long time. I would imagine you'd start getting a bit concerned after lunch around two in the afternoon.
I think around just a bit after lunch, again, running upstairs to see if there's a picture and there's none. I think Elizabeth will turn to her mom and ask, Mother, do you mind if I go over?
Cassandra wasn't feeling too well yesterday when we came home. Do you mind if I go check on her, see if she's okay?
No, you can go check on her. That's fine. I don't mind. But be back quick. We still have the upstairs carpets.
I'll be back quickly. I'll be back soon. And Elizabeth will take that and immediately run out the house towards across the street towards Cassandra's house and tap on the door.
Her mother opens the door and goes, Oh, Elizabeth, how are you? I thought you were with Cassandra.
No, I've been home. Is Cassandra okay? I've been home all day.
Well, she said she was going to go out to the lake and I just assumed you were going to go too.
No, I'll be and Elizabeth does not finish any sort of sentence and just starts running towards like you just hear in the background. Is everything okay?
And you're just. All right. So you get to the lake and at this point, it's like I said, like 1230, maybe one o'clock and you hear the music as you get there.
And Cassandra is on the beach swaying back and forth. And I need you to make an observation roll.
Oh, good. I'm good at this. Thankfully, that's going to be seven days. Oh, my God. So many.
Oh, be careful. Oh, no. The carefulness was not there. I failed. No successes.
It's so funny how many it's like, Oh, I've got 10 dice and then just nothing, nothing at all.
Walk walk. All right. You come up next to her and she doesn't seem to respond to you even being there.
Usually she would have lit up at this point, but she seems so entranced by this music.
I think Elizabeth will go in front of Cassandra and shake her a little bit and say, Cassandra, Cassandra, are you are you OK?
What's what's happening when you shake her? You notice that portions of her skin and her flesh shimmer off
and turn into musical notes floating through the air towards the violin.
Elizabeth is trying to grab these notes, not making a lot of sense.
I don't think Elizabeth can comprehend what's going on, just kind of seeing Cassandra essentially fall apart in front of their eyes.
And it's just trying to grab onto these notes, Cassandra, Cassandra, it's OK. Just stop. We need to go. Just stop swaying.
Can you make a fear check for me? Of course I can. I don't know if I get that plus one considering. No.
OK, that's one success. OK, so you're still in control of your faculties and you're grasping at these notes.
And at first it's just one or two notes. And you notice that the creature on the rock has a piece of paper on a music stand,
a staff of music in front of them. And each one of these notes is landing on the paper as he is playing.
Each note that he plays gets taken from her flesh. And you're trying so hard to stop it, but it just won't.
And he's too far away for you to get to. Each part of her is being turned into a musical note and being transferred to the page.
You realize quickly that the song is Cassandra. Oh, my God. And you only have a few moments before she's gone.
Can I see the paper from here? You can. And I'm going to say that you have a paper on you because you were putting notes up in the window.
And you have your pen. Elizabeth will quickly scribble down as much as possible that she can see probably the first stanza and kind of looking.
There's like tears pouring down on Elizabeth's face as she's just watching her love be pulled apart and turned into music.
And it's a horrifying thing to watch each layer of your love turn into these musical notes.
And it goes on for about 10 or 20 minutes of just slowly coming apart.
I think Elizabeth will be at some point screaming at the player to stop.
There'll be like going out into the lake, probably like midway up to kind of hips, but realizing that's too deep, that fear preventing Elizabeth from getting any closer as she's been screaming for them to stop.
It doesn't ever look at you directly. You turn around and you see the last note flicker away from where Cassandra was standing.
And you turn towards and you're yelling at him. He takes out his finger, nicks the top of it so that some blood comes out and the blood runs down the nail.
And in perfect cursive on the top of the page, it just says Elizabeth. And then they both disappear.
Elizabeth is left awestruck and shocked at this.
There's a long time that Elizabeth stands in the water, dressed, soaked, as she just sees the place that he was sitting, gone at this point.
And eventually she makes her way out of the water and just sits down where Cassandra was and sobbed.
All that's left is Cassandra's clothes. And you don't know how much time goes by.
But at some point you hear your father and Cassandra's mother behind you.
They're like, Elizabeth, where have you been all day? Your mother's worried. Where's Cassandra?
Elizabeth's just holding onto Cassandra's clothes, doesn't look at them, is still looking out into the water and says, she's, she's good. She's good.
And that's where we're going to end this episode.
Was that what you were hoping for?
I was amazing. I didn't expect that twist. That was incredible.
Ten out of ten, I was like, well, it's amazing. It's the best thing in the world.
Awesome. Good. I'm glad you liked it.
That was great. Oh my God. That's, that's an incredible twist. I'm so happy with that. That's amazing. I'm obsessed. I'm completely obsessed.
Cool. Cool. I think it was a great episode.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being amazing.
I appreciate it. So before we go, let's find out where everyone can find you.
All right. I've been Piper. You can find me on Twitter at Madi Matihi. That's M-A-T-T-Y M-A-T-E-E-H-E-E.
And you can also find me on Twitch at Matihi where I stream bi-weekly. I stream a queer pirate horror game, which is full of romance and scary times.
So you can find myself and also Candice. You can find also here on the hidden north and you'll find us there bi-weekly.
And then I'm going to be in a few things coming up. So if you want to see what those are, you can always check on my Twitter.
Otherwise, yeah, you can find me on, of course, the 12 Sided Story Discord. So if you're not there, then you are square.
And my name is Wes Otis. You can find me at Plate Mail Games on all of the different socials.
And you can find the show 12 Sided Stories, All One Word, All Spelled Out dot com on our website, obviously.
Or you can find us on our Discord, like Piper said.
You can also help us out by joining our Patreon or subscribing to the actual podcast to get exclusive episodes and things like that.
Finally, give us a shout out or give us a review on your favorite platform.
That always is very helpful because the almighty algorithm is watching all the time.
We will see you next time for more Ennui on the Hidden North. Bye. Bye.