Message Ten - As Above So Below

March 3, 2024·51 min·4 clips

A necromancer and a ghost debate whether a serpent is listening through a recording device left by a missing woman.

The episode opens with two characters arguing over an open window during an amaranthine eclipse. One has been running a recording device hoping Lo — the show's protagonist, who shares a body with another consciousness — will return. The conversation reveals that a supernatural serpent called Bakunawa may have been listening through Lo's recording devices and broadcasts. A summoning amulet briefly restores Lo, who greets Chess warmly. Chess reflects on their long, complex relationship with Lo, describing how Lo would sometimes be found curled up outside a market with no memory of where she was. The group arrives by carriage at a fog-covered peninsula town for a ceremony they believe will help them find answers about Henrik's infection and the appearance of undocumented creatures. They find grotesquely pocked, giant eyes at the town gates. A storm breaks and the group takes shelter during a lightning strike and encounter with entities called Santhelmo. They follow a scent to a locked house, where Lo's childhood friend Arya initially believes Lo's appearance is an illusion prank by temple acolytes. When she realizes the possession is real, she breaks down with grief: Lo left seven years ago without a letter. Arya reveals she is a summoner and that experiments were conducted on all first-generation children across the peninsula, including Lo, with Lo recording among the worst results. Arya says the peninsula itself is a test and that the entire group are test subjects. She asks them to stay while she goes to the temple, warning that the clergy has been trying to complete a summoning for the serpent Bakunawa and that some members like herself are trying to disrupt the ritual. Clergy from the kingdom arrive and Arya attempts to deflect them while the group hides. They capture Jess and Tala. Henrik, despite being warned he cannot fight as an infected vampire, refuses to abandon his student. Lo descends into a hidden tunnel complex under the temple, drugs a temple researcher, steals experimental scrolls written in old Sisygian script, and discovers caged entities — including a large winged creature with its wings torn — embedded in solid rock. The clergy recaptures the group and the episode ends with the summoning ritual threatening to begin.

As heard by us

A fog-soaked horror hunt where recordings, magic, and myth keep closing in.

A search through recordings becomes a foggy horror chase through woods and toward a house that never quite comes into reach. What gives it shape is the clash of voices: panic, teasing, warning, and old dread all pressing into the same tense soundscape, with windows, lanterns,…

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Why you'd press play

A trail of recordings leads into fog, a locked house, and a serpent-haunted forest.

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