"I guess it's not that unlike how liches are a species but... I think the distraction is a preliminary symptom of the headache problem."

"...Ah. On a high level, what was the specific trigger?"

"The name the people of Golarion give to a collective that includes Aroden, Iomedae, Pharasma, and others who give spells in the same way."

"Right. I wonder if the term has the same effect if there's no Share Language active, but we can't easily test that now. We can invent a nonce word for the sake of discussion, or were you interested in probing the phenomenon directly—I have to say it doesn't sound pleasant, and we'd normally call for a very well-paid volunteer for that."

"I'm not aware of a spell that lets me simply speak the local language at a circle I can cast. Please feel free to invent a word, I worry that if I do it it'll -" gesture.

"How about 'blicket'. So blickets are a type of being that one can transform oneself into, which grants spells and—other types of boons?—to individuals under their command, as a [King] makes [Royal Knights] and a... [Lich] may empower lesser undead. I'm getting the impression that blickets are closer to [Liches] than [Kings] in the sense that becoming one is a more fundamental transformation than simply acquiring a class, but it sounded like you had some objection to that characterization?"

"I don't know much about liches even at home and certainly don't know much about them here. It's not completely inapt, just - odd, especially as Iomedae spent her... pre-Starstone lifetime... fighting a lich and his armies."

"Of course. It's simply the comparison that comes to mind due to recent history. The relevant part is that it involves a complete transformation or shedding of the original living body, significant mental changes, and significant changes to one's classes and skills. It also renders the lich immortal."

"Yes, that's all correct in the case of Iomedae and... other blickets... except that I believe some blickets may have been blickets all along without a previous normal life."

"Interesting. Do they reproduce, or are natural-born blickets created ex nihilo in some way?"

"Some blickets are said to reproduce but in a way that might well be - metaphorical somehow. Many of them are ancient to the point where history says nothing about their origins at all."

Understanding nod.

"And looping back to the previous conversation, you were talking about Iomedae moving to Heaven...?"

"Yes, she moved there in the process of becoming a. Blicket. And now has a large organization on Golarion dedicated to advancing Her interests, and chooses people to grant spells to; I'm one of those and we are called 'clerics', though there are also 'paladins', like Iomedae was as a human."

"Advancing Her interests" is a weird way to put it. Obviously one's organization advances one's interests, usually. Why call it out?

"I don't hear anything in there that's particularly confusing or dangerous to know. I wouldn't be very surprised to hear your description of blickets as an obscure type of thing from Drath, for example. Which makes the fact that the term is—redacted—even stranger. You said you don't think it's a curse, but it really is starting to sound like one, or... I've heard legends about [Witches] that can steal your name, which makes it impossible to say and hard for people to talk or think about you. And in recorded history there have been [Kings] with Skills to issue decrees preventing their subjects from discussing certain matters."

"Perhaps I should have said that I don't think I am under a curse. I can't rule out that everyone native to this land is."

"That seems possible. Not a curse on the people, specifically, but a sort of wide-ranging Skill or enchantment. It doesn't really give us any leads on how to solve the problem, however. Are there specific outcomes you wanted from the investigation?"

"I seem to be getting along tolerably well just being a spellcaster without trying to fully explain my relationship to Iomedae but it's - mysterious. Do you mind if I try again the thing I asked when you were distracted, in a perhaps unnecessarily roundabout way?"

"It's certainly mysterious and, if you permit, I'll be writing a number of letters to the Houses in other cities... I suppose you could explain your relationship without using the specific word? And this is a Share Language problem only, it sounds; I imagine you'd eventually want to translate that explanation into common anyway, once you learn the language.

"...Actually, it doesn't make a lot of sense that this maybe-a-curse is active only in our lands, but only in your language. We're missing something.

"But yes, go ahead."

"I have at least once heard someone utter a - curse, exclamation - which in Chelish I would render as - 'dead gods'."

He's trying very hard not to get distracted but he still manages to forget the last few words.

"I heard, a curse or exclamation... can you render the rest of your sentence without actually saying the word? I think it's preventing me from parsing the rest of what you said."

This is wildly discomfiting now that he notices it's happening.

"I could write it down? Or - the first word was 'dead'."

"I'm now immensely curious what happens if you put on someone a hat with a stick holding a sheet of paper in front of them with the word written on it—but please don't do that."

He cycles through the curses he's familiar with.

"Was it 'dead gods'?"

(He says the curse in the local common tongue.)

"Comprehend Langauges - repeat it please?"

"That lets you understand our language?" Switching language, "Dead gods."

(It translates correctly.)

"It does, yes, and that was the phrase. Does the second word in that phrase ever appear anywhere else?"