1 - Origin of the Zodiac club

In the debut episode of "Lost In Asteria," we embark on a thrilling journey within the mystical city of Havenspire. Six lost souls stumble upon fragments of an immensely powerful weapon, propelling them into an unforgettable adventure that will leave a lasting mark on their lives. Join us as we dive into a captivating tale of discovery, danger, and destiny.

Most of the music used in this episode is made by "Tabletop RPG Music".
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Transcript

When Zeus came to power, there was not much he did not desire, and no one did he desire more than the goddess Asteria, daughter of the titans Corius and Phoebe.

Asteria and her then pregnant sister Leto, goddess of the witchcraft, tried to flee from Zeus, but no place on earth was out of reach for the god-king of Olympus.

So Asteria turned herself into a wandering island, hidden from the eyes and hands of Zeus.

Here, her sister could birth two children, Apollo and Artemis, and many years passed, and the island started to inhabit life.

Halflings, orcs, elves and humans, yes many creatures grew from the island, some of them even blessed with the magic and witchcraft of Leto.

But Artemis and Apollo feared that one day Zeus would find them, so they created a weapon of tremendous power, in case the unspeakable would occur.

But the sheer power of this weapon shined like a beacon to every god and every titan in the world.

Asteria and Leto were furious, and casted Apollo and Artemis in a prison deep, deep below the island. And broke the weapon into six pieces.

But the damage was done. And now there's a shift in the winds in Asteria, as Zeus draws closer to the island.

However, the sisters of fate have sprung the most curious of threats, and it seems now the future of Asteria is in the hands of some unlikely heroes.

Look, I don't care if he sucks Celestians dick for this insight. There is no way he could know this without spying on us. Come on guys!

This is their story.

Welcome to Lost in Asteria, a D&D podcast with a serious story about silly people.

Here we play Dungeons and Dragons, a collective storytelling game where the players are the heroes of their own adventure. So sit down, relax and listen to stories from the world of Asteria.

And in the center of Asteria we find a large city, a capital of the island Haven Spire.

It's a baffling and noisy and chaotic metropolis of a city. A city filled with strange creatures, tieflings, orcs, elves, humans and much, much more.

And in this busy city we find a small shop with the name of the Zodiac Club.

A horoscope enthusiast club of sorts where people can discuss horoscopes, zodiac signs, stars, stellar constellations of all kind.

But there's no customers in this shop. It's completely empty besides the owner, alone. And what is he up to?

In the center of the room sits a young guy, meditating, calmly saying out some zodiac signs for himself. Whispering zodiac signs.

Arius. Scorpio. I'm Astraland Moonshadow. A human ranger. Right.

Who's obsessed with zodiac signs. Obsessed. Obsessed. Yes, but just those four or five you mentioned. Yes. Not the rest of them. No. Just those four. He only knows four or five. And you're suddenly disturbed as they knock on the door.

Come in. In walks a huge, or a huge, a tall human with a full plate of armor, a long sword and a shield on his back.

He has dark curly hair. And he walks into the door. Frame. Ow! Oh, sorry, Astro. I forgot how small your door is. Oh, yes. Hello, Charles. I remember you. Big guy. Big guy.

So, so, your reading last night for my star signs, they were totally correct. They always are. Yes, they always are. How do you do it? You must tell me your secret.

There's a way for everyone. You know that, Charles. Yes, I know. You have told me many times. And I hope that we find the right path for me. And suddenly, another knock comes. Well, actually not one, just two.

Like, clearly two people is knocking, but they didn't decide which one is the one who knocks. So, there was like two awkward knocks right after each other.

You see a less than one meter tall man with a decidedly light green hue to his skin and dark green hair. He looks like a child until you notice the contrastingly red eyes.

Eyes that have seen some stuff and somehow convey the feeling that they will die. You'll see a lot more stuff. On the side of his head is a white expressionless mask with an elongated beak.

Next to him is standing a regular sized tiefling. So, a purple skin, male character with horns in his head, white hair, red eyes and a tail.

And then he has a grin and a smile on his face that takes all the darkness away. Okay. So, you knock and you enter the room.

I was promised food? I think that's food somewhere. Yes, good friends. I have food, but we'll wait for the other guys to arrive first. But could I offer you some mint wine? Well, I don't mind mint wine.

Sure. Wait, what's mint wine? Wine with mint taste. Just regular wine and you just put a lot of mint in it? Yes. Very delicious. Okay, you get that. And you serve it to a guest.

How is it? It's amazing. It's amazing. It's very bad. It's very bad. I can imagine it's super bad and you're just drinking it trying to keep a straight face. No, that's super good.

So, now there's this meet and greet session for this horoscope type organization. It's starting to take place, right? Take form.

And you're all gathering around and discussing your... your zodiac signs and your future and stuff like this. And then suddenly another knock comes on the door. Another guest enters. And who is in the door?

It's a... He's a human. A human male. Pretty average build. Kind of... He has a long black hair, brown eyes and he's very tan.

And he's dressed in a robe made of rags and covered in dust. As he walks in, he just looks around and... So, I was... I was promised food, I think.

I think it stands here on this flyer. Is that right? Ah, yes. You must be Galdric the Capricorn. Yes, yes, yes, of course. We have food, but we're waiting for the other people first. The food will be served soon.

We're just waiting for a few more people. Could I give you some mint wine while you're waiting like the other guys just got? I'm sorry, but I don't think I know what wine is.

We don't have that where... Where I come from? Yeah. It's called mint wine. Mint wine. Yes. But what is wine? It's okay. We have water as well. Ah, sounds lovely.

You should really try some wine at one point, but not this one. It's always important to have an alcohol-free option for these meal-in-greets. But what is wine? A fermented grape.

Well, I think I haven't been fortunate enough to experience this so-called wine. What do you mean so-called wine? You never heard about wine. You never heard about wine in your entire life, and then someone brings you a liquid

you've never seen, and it's wine, and you're like, okay, let's call it that, wine, if that's what you're saying. Poison. No trust in this.

It's not that I don't have trust, but it's a liquid I haven't heard of before. Yeah, and you don't believe that's the name of it? No. That's not... It sure has another name. That's a stupid name.

I roll inside to see if it's actually called wine. Okay, roll. Yeah, no, that's not going to happen. Wait, what do you mean? What did you roll? One, but not in that one. Just the one.

Okay, you suddenly was in doubt as well, because obviously you always thought it was wine, but you was always... Maybe people made a bit fun of you in the past, so you were fearing like, oh, damn, did

someone just tell me that this was called wine my entire life, and that's not the name of it? Have I been wrong all these years? Oh, no. But to be honest, I don't think I've ever had wine in my entire life. I've never had wine like this before.

No, I don't know if this is wine, though. Yeah. That might be the real question. But there exists wine. Yeah. People don't normally put mint in it.

So while you're discussing if wine really exists, and if this really is wine, and this doubtful meet and greet for horoscope enthusiasts, you suddenly hear a very angry knock on the door.

Someone please open the door. I open the door. Before someone breaks it. I go up and open the door. You open the door, and who do you see? In the dark. Out of the door stands Arika's daughter, Felcliffe.

Currently a 1-7 ball of fairly contained anger. Dagger in hand, she eyes the room, tries to look past Charles, who's kind of in the way,

and boldly, or maybe stupidly, she tries to shut past him inside. Oh, sorry. Am I interrupting anything?

Which one of you is Astraland Moon Shadow? It's me. You.

right yes this and she sort of pulls out the flyer is widely inappropriate not only is it

inaccurate okay like i am definitely not and she tries to sort of read out the words from the fire

like a three-year-old who doesn't want help from anyone just no that's not me but also it's just

it's just personal enough that i would like an explanation as to why you are stalking me oh so

you're here to join the club as well what the club the zodiac club no i'm not here to join your

club i'm here to find out why i have a personal stalker and also kind of out exactly that's a meet and greet yeah classic meet and greet between stalker and stalky look i i don't care there is

no way you could know this without spying on me ah i see everybody is here now very good before we get started i will like everybody

to give some 10 gold to to to lead the way let me lead the way easily or maybe just pay house rent

for this of course astro and i give you 10 gold thank you yeah no i heard free food not 10 gold

expensive food the food is free but the house rent is not nothing is free in this world trust me he's

a good guy but what what does he actually do tells your future no he stalks people apparently he's pretty accurate about the star sign but i know that's what i'm telling you how gullible are

you so what did your star sign say that's not important what's important is that this guy is

stalking all of us and you just gave him 10 gold i don't think he's stalking us but you cannot be mad about a future seer telling you that you're a good guy and you're a good guy and you're a good person and you're not a good person and you're not a good person and you're not a good person and

if he's right it's not because he stalks you it's because he sees it in the stars i don't care if he

sucked celestian's dick for this insight there is no way he could know this without spying on us come on guys and what if i sucked celestial stick

god damn i mean you can't you can't blame people for what they're into jesus all right But Silas, I'm really going to need 10 gold if we have to give him. Yeah, that's a problem. I don't have 20.

I didn't sell that many corpses to you guys. Oh. So far, so good for the Zodiac Club.

But I think it's time to learn a little bit about who's on this podcast. My name is Willis and I'm your dungeon master. And I would like to introduce you to our cast. We have Mikkel, Morten, Anne, Chris, Chung and Simon.

But let's break them down one by one. Hi, my name is Mikkel and I'm playing the character Rhesus Blas. The necromancer who is cheerful to the bone and smiles and shines even darker than the crypt.

Hi, my name is Morten and I play the leech-loving plague doctorish monk named Silas. Hello, I'm Anne.

I play Arikus, a half-up rogue who tries poorly to deal with her problems by putting up an attitude. Hi, my name is Chris and I play Astraland Moonshadow.

A ranger deeply fascinated by the Zodiac side. Hi, I'm Chung. I play Galdric Gullibley, an exiled human cleric who's on his path for redemption so he might return home someday.

Hey guys, my name is Simon and I'm playing Charles of Stonehaven. A human fighter trying his best to win his father's approval.

And if you want to get to know these people even more, you can follow us on Instagram at Lost in Hysteria. But now, let's get back into the story.

You sell corpses? No, no. Interesting. How much? That's depending on how much you got. But I get 10 gold? No, it's more just how expensive a corpse is here.

Oh yeah, that very much depends on how much gold you have. It usually does. It usually does. Sorry, I'm not in the right place. But it's also like it depends on the condition of the corpse. Like how long has it been dead?

What type of race is the corpse from? Is it missing like arms or legs or like there's a lot of stuff that can sort of contribute to the price of the corpse. Of course. Of course. I understand.

Also, like what did it die from? That's very important. I mean, if it was chopped in half, it's a really bad corpse. Yeah. You can get a 50% discount in that case.

What's the highest value corpse a person can get? That's a really, really good question.

See, in that case, it's very much like demand. Like what you need. You need it for.

But the rarer the corpse, like if it's from a dragon or like some kind of big beast, then it's certainly going to be way more expensive than all of the human corpses. Like there's so many of them, there's not enough demand. I see.

They're cheaper. Oh yeah. So suddenly while you're discussing all these things, you hear another knock on the door.

But more desperately. So obviously, Erika's knock was angry. And frustrated. This one is like, let me in. Let me in, Astro. Please. It's a matter of life and death. You hear.

And I open the door. You open the door and in there, you see your old master in zodiac science and wisdom. Jonathan. Oh, hello, Jonathan. Oh, hello, Astro.

But we haven't time for pleasantries. I'm being followed. Close the door. Barricaded. Oh, wait, Astro. I've found something. Something I never thought. I've found something. Something that I would ever going to see with my own eyes in my life.

It is the artifact. You have to hide it. They are right behind me. Take this stick. And he hands you like this. It's not anything like significant. It's like a small wooden stick.

And you see like some symbols like written on it. But nothing you really like recognize or anything. You have to keep it hidden. I have to run quickly. Quickly hide it.

And he runs out the door. Again. And he's gone. So I quickly close the door behind Jonathan. And then I hand the stick to Charles. Charles, I know you're a big guy.

Can you hide it underneath your armor? I'm afraid it will break if I put it under the armor. All right. Then put it in your pocket. It's where you keep it. The second best thing.

I'm going to put it in my pocket. All right. You do that. After that. You hear another knock on the door. This one is a lot more calm.

It's controlled. It's there. There's plenty of room and space for this person to do their deeds. So no panic. No anger. No frustration.

Please, Mr. Astro. Could you open the door if you're so very kind? Yes, of course. Who's there? It is Mr. Raab.

Mr. Raab. I open the door. You open the door. And before you, you see a smaller gentleman of human nature.

Not old in particular, but maybe like on the autumn side of life.

He's wearing a very fine clothes of sort of a high society standard. And two very large orcs are placed next to him.

Right in the back, not saying anything. You do actually know who Mr. Raab is. He is a sort of tax collector around these parts. And on his shirt, you see a symbol.

A symbol of a full moon. And you recognize it as the Twilight Conclave. Oh. Ah, Mr. Astro.

I believe that you are late for your rent. Hello, Mr. Raab. Yes, sorry. Sorry. Can I come in, please? Yes, of course. He enters the room and says,

Ah, I see we have a small party, a gathering of sorts. Food and drinks. Very nice. Very nice, Mr. Astro. So, do you have the money?

I have 30 gold, if that's enough. Ah, but Mr. Astro, that is not sufficient. We know this. We'll see what we can find. And he makes like a hand movement.

And suddenly these two like big guys, big all starts to go around. And it's like clearly looking through your room. Like they're not just looking for money.

You see clearly that they are like turning, starting to slowly and surely turn the whole place upside down. And he looks over at you. You see, I'm not only here for money today.

I'm looking for a certain item. Perhaps you can be of some assistance. A small stick with some writing on it. You wouldn't happen to have it, would you?

And he looks over and he looks over at Charles. Who might you be, sir? I'm Charles of Stonehaven. Ah, Mr. Stonehaven.

You wouldn't have seen a small stick with some writing on it nearby, would you now? I've seen a lot of small sticks outside. But no one had writing on it. Okay, roll Deception. Oh, wait, no.

You're not... Ah, you didn't lie, actually. Oh! I see, I see. Let's see if Mr. Raab suspects anything. Let's roll. Ah, okay.

A five in Inside. You see. Hmm, I see, I see. Well, very well then. And you... Oh, an elf. Rare sight on these parts.

You wouldn't have happened to see any stick of such a nature, would you? No. I'm sorry, who are you again? Do you collect texts? Ah, sorry, I must have forgotten to introduce myself.

I am Mr. Raab of the Twilight Conclave. You, of course, do know the Twilight Conclave because you know they supply wine to the Paradise Isles. Oh, no, sorry, the Drifting Isles, as you are from.

Hmm, so Arikas is definitely... Intuitively not a fan of this man. No. So even though she doesn't really like Astro either, she just... No.

She just crosses her arms and is like, no. Okay, roll Deception. 14. You barely got away.

He's like, hmm, I see, I see. Very nice to meet your acquaintance.

So the two goons behind him have been scrabbling through the room, obviously not turning everything upside down, like pulling the velvet drapes from the walls and such.

So you do, in fact, have the stick. Hitting very, very good, sorry, very well in your pockets, right? So I think you need to roll a sort of stealth, I would say.

That's a disadvantage because I have a heavy armor on. Oh, God. 17. Okay. That's pretty good with disadvantage.

Also, Rob and his goons rolled a natural, yeah, a natural one. So in my head, like, the stick... The stick you have hidden is not really well hidden.

Like, you have your hand in your pocket and you can clearly see, like, the shape of your hand and something, like, long after it and, like, before it. So it's pretty obvious. But I assume...

I have a stick where I just have it. Yeah. Yeah, I have hidden it as an erection. Okay.

So you have hidden the stick as an erection. And Mr. Rob is like, oh, Mr. Sto...

And he's sort of, like, clearly he's not used to this sort of encounter. And he's... Before he was super, like, confident, like, moving around with that sort of mind.

And suddenly he doesn't know what to say and he's sort of staring at the stick and realizes, oh, damn, I've been staring too long. Okay, this is weird. I can't...

I cannot argue, like, why I've been staring so long at this stick. And then he looks up. And realizes that all of you have seen him looking at the sticks for, like, not just a glance, but, like, a solid five seconds. And it's...

That's too long for any, like, social interaction. And he's like, um... I'll see myself out and make sure it's around somewhere.

Guys, please follow me. And Mr. Rob and his two goons exits the room of Astro and closes his door on the way out.

So... So what is this about? I hand the stick over to Astro. Do you know what it is? I have no idea, actually. Maybe you should do a religion check.

Yes. Wait a minute, guys. There's actually something written on this stick. I thought it was just some small marks in it. Well, it's a magic stick. I wrote 13. 13.

So you have sort of heard about this said artifact, who was supposed to be... sort of a weapon of gods, namely Apollo, which is known to be the sun god.

And you can maybe realize that the rest of the name most likely is Artemis, which is also a god of the hunt. And you recognize this as sort of a...

as their weapon. It's sort of a... It is unclear exactly what the weapon is, but it's in many texts just specified as, like, the artifact, the weapon of Apollo and Artemis.

But you don't know much more of what it is, but it becomes extremely clear to you that it must hold great, great power. You also realize that you actually have a book on this very topic.

I assume you want to find it? Yes. No. No. No. No. Okay. So you start reading, and there's not really a lot of information about the artifact,

but what you do found out is that, yes, it's said to be broken into many pieces and spread through the land of Hysteria,

and that it doesn't say where those artifacts are hidden, because then people would have found it or looked for it.

But the only clue you do find in the book is that one piece at least has been spotted

in the Frosthole Clan's regions to the north, way up in the ice in the high mountains. So that is so far the only clue you have to find the piece.

I know where to go, guys. I have an old book. It's like a treasure map, and people have seen it up north, other pieces of this stick. Well, you say guys.

It's just the two of us, right, Astro? Like, why do we need the other guys? Well, you're not leaving here with that stick without me. I'm definitely going to stay for the stick as well. Same as well, yeah.

You wouldn't want it. Potentially unlimited power, a long life, never a boring day. All right. So it seems like everyone here has suddenly a purpose, an idea of where to push forward.

You are currently lost in Havenspire with this part of an old artifact. You're all gathered by some of you, at least for some of you,

by the, like, say, interest in Zodiacs. And while the Twilight Conclave might be right behind you, you do have an advantage that they don't. You have one part of the artifact,

and you have an idea of where to go next. Far north from Havenspire, through the Crimson Peaks, and to the Frosthole Clan's area. In the ice, you might find your answers.

Thank you for listening to the first episode of Lost in Hysteria. If you like it, why not recommend it to someone, or maybe review it somewhere on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or whatever of your choice.

And if you're interested in the characters and how they look and how they behave, you can check out our Instagram. There we'll frequently update posts about the characters, the people behind the cast,

and anything Lost in Hysteria-esque. All the music that you heard in this podcast is produced by a guy called Ian from Tabletop RPG Music. Check out their Patreon.

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