"I think so. Where were we? Discussion of your gods."

"And the dead ones from here."

"And the dead gods. Of course. I think you were attempting to make a point about the latter, but I couldn't focus on it, and—I suppose I can't remember the specifics now because I can't focus on it."

"Right. We were observing that, to be dead, a thing must previously have been alive. Yes?"

"Yes."

"And that on Golarion, some things not unlike the 'gods' are in fact alive today."

"The blickets. Such as Aroden, you mentioned."

"Right. When He died, there were storms persistent and intense enough to sink major parts of continents. A portal to the Chaotic Evil Outer Plane opened. Prophecy stopped working all over the planet."

"...Wow. I don't think we have prophecy here. Anymore, at least. There are stories about [Oracles], but I don't think I've heard of any credible account of one. Don't think we have portals to evil planes, though."

"- how do you think it might be that prophecy stopped working here?"

"I'm... not sure it's something like that. I mean we have [Soothsayers] and [Seers], and some people believe in them and some people don't, maybe they just have luck-affecting Skills or something? And in the other direction I... don't really believe in stories about [Oracles].

"Mostly because—there's no legend with an [Oracle] which matches well to any well-established historical event, and there are a lot of well-established historical events which are supposedly contemporary with the alleged [Oracles], which don't have any prophecies, and which I would really expect there to be a prophecy about if prophecies were real?

"So when I said 'anymore, at least' I really meant, uh, never, in my personal opinion. I was just hedging."

"It might be that your 'gods'' death had nothing to do with prophecy not working here, but the point is that a 'god' or a blicket dying can have some dramatic effects, and I'm wondering if the - difficulty thinking and talking about 'gods' and about blickets-by-their-Chelish-name could be one of those effects."

"The gods are...right, as you said... their..." Arxam is REASONING. "Yyyes, I think that sounds possible?"

"- which I don't think has any especially interesting implications, I'm sorry if I was making it seem important by harping on it but it was somewhat difficult to convey."

"It's an interesting idea—" He's already half lost track of the idea but he remembers it was interesting! "—but maybe hard to write an article about, because of the problem, and also maybe hard to publicize if you wrote it, because everyone might forget it... which is quite concerning, but evidently the world has been fine without this information for tens of thousands of years, so." He shrugs. "I do appreciate it being told to me in the abstract.

"Was that the only thing you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Yes, I mostly just wanted to learn the boundaries of the issue, which seem to actually be pretty conservative so I can explain where my spells come from and so on in an only moderately roundabout way."

"Happy to help, even if it's not exactly low-level arcana." Smile to indicate he's joking.

"Thank you for seeing me." And he will get up and be on his way.

...his way is nowhere in particular, which means it is to the place full of chess.

The amateur chess club which happens on Beithdays starts at 5, so there's still over an hour, but maybe he can scout out the address first? Whoever runs it might be there early.

He lives in hope!

We'll it's more like half an hour off by the time he gets there. The location appears to just be some guy's house. There's a sign out front indicating this is the place for chess, and the gate's propped open, so does he want to try the door?

No, he can't explain himself; he'll wait outside the fence.

After around fifteen minutes, someone else will show up early. A short Drake, carrying a nice hand-carved chessboard. He's a bit surprised to see Blai, but doesn't let it stop him from introducing himself.

"Here for the chess club? You don't have to wait out here, Imiss is probably just doing a puzzle inside. Haven't seen you before."

Quick Comprehend Languages as the stranger starts to speak. Nod nod at "for the chess club"; a step toward the gate at "don't have to wait". "Select Blai Artigas," he says.

"I'm Pellorn."

He'll go up and rap on the door twice. A voice calls for them to come in. The door's not locked; Pellorn just enters and holds the door for Blai.

        There are tables set out, with a few chessboards already set up. A blue Drake, presumably Imiss, is at one of the smaller tables playing solo on a board. She glances up. "Hello, new guy! What brings you here?"

(Her board state is also highly unusual, though not necessarily impossible, similar to the receptionist from yesterday Blai believed to be performing some sort of abstract art in the medium of chess.)