I did not say anything substantially untrue, nor left I out relevant information for the purpose of deception.

Thank you for answering my questions, Altronus.

You're very welcome.

Thank you for thanking me.

...Ah.

Altronus wasn't actually offended, nor affronted. He quickly caught on that he hadn't been singled out by her, but continued to be difficult because he thought it was funny. That says some good things about him - compared to the unreasonable alternative - and bad things as well. In this moment it kind of makes her want to strangle him.

Deep breaths, count to ten, try and see through Heaven's eyes. She'll get through this.

Unless Heaven sicced those shadows on her.

In which case she'll - she doesn't know, Nirvana probably has eyes too, she'll borrow those. And look at Heaven with them...?

Altronus feels young.

It's odd. Her first impression of him was of a grizzled ranger, jaded and hard to impress. She doesn't think he's faking it, he isn't faking his threadbare and dusty clothing in its sun-worn reds and black, you can't fake martial competence nor a calculating mind, his descriptions of his last ten paydays sure as Hell came from an experienced hunter, and he certainly isn't faking his cocksure certainty in his own abilities.

Yet beneath that he feels young. It's the strangest thing.

He has something to prove... he wants the world to respect him, and feels that it doesn't. Not odd for a young warrior of great martial skill, much odder for a nigh-30 year old man of great martial skill and long experience. Maybe Kasatha mature more slowly than humans? And like the half-elves she's known, this young man has been through too much, too fast...

The shift of perspective makes patience easier for her, similarly as with Ileosa of Infernal Cheliax.

I'll put all my cards on the table.

When I met the four of you, I took you for experienced adventurers and very old friends. You had the casual ambition, the fearlessness, and the deep trust in each other.

You found a scroll and oil in that dungeon and drew from a conclusion that no one else would - but all four of you were of like mind. You're operating from within the same body of theory, from within the same paradigm and... organizational culture. When you aren't on the same page you quickly get so, following trains of logic that are missing steps to me but which are immediately accepted by your entire party.

You're comfortable trying to embarrass each other.

You look and smile and wince at what your friends are about to say before they've opened their mouths to say it. Where one of you goes the others follow without hesitation.

When you fight together you trust each other to do your parts. Choryon jumped on Lyvina for a tactical advantage and Lyvina comprehended the situation instantly, she didn't buck or slide, she tried to make a good hillock. You studied martial pursuits under different masters and have your different approaches, but in terms of tactics you think along similar lines. It screams to me that you've fought together before, that there's been cross-pollination of ideas; you've created an idiosyncratic whole.

But as far as I could tell you weren't lying. You and your party are sincere in believing that you've only just met.

I checked with Abadar's truthtelling to be sure, but after it all I'm no less confused.

Can you make this make sense?

You've made your point in the most hilarious possible way, and for that I applaud you.

Actually, I'm kind of pissed.

If you have a problem with how we're playing, talk to us outside the game.

Now that Cressida's pointed it out, of course Olin has to notice how weird this is too.

Which raises the question of why he didn't realize earlier, and raises the much bigger question of what, in-universe, is even fucking going on.

That's what she wants to know.

I'm with, uh, I get why Barry is upset, I feel the, I feel similarly but at a lower intensity but that's not strictly the case but there are considerations at play I just want to say that the Game Master does a lot to make this game happen, more than anyone, and, I don't want it to be the case that, I don't want this to be a bad experience, I've been having a lot of fun.

But I don't know how Lyvina is supposed to respond to, to the absolutely true facts that the Watch Sergeant is pointing out, it doesn't...

So, like, we are playing these characters and you're playing the NPCs, who live on Golarion, but, to the characters and NPCs our world doesn't exist, it's past the fourth the wall. And if Golarion is, inconsistent, or low resolution, or it breaks the fourth wall, the characters can't notice that, they live in a detailed world. The way I imagine it is the inconsistent and fourth-wall breaking Golarion that we - speak into existence - is only vaguely pointing at the Golarion that the characters experience, getting it close enough that we can see the general shape and know how the characters feel and act.

But if there's something plot-relevant that relies on information that shouldn't exist, in-universe, that relies on a fourth-wall breaking joke, then - then how do I know what Lyvina should do next?

In-universe we're going to roll back to before the conversation and pretend it never happened.

Bet.

Going forward we'll roleplay a little harder, and be forgiven any fuckups as long as we really try.

Nah.

In universe, it seems like there must be one of: a proper explanation for why we're so different from everyone and alike each other, or it's a wild coincidence, or - or it isn't happening, this is all fourth-wall breaking meta-humor that isn't happening in the detailed Golarion that our characters really live in.

"Really live in."

I want to know what Cresselia thinks is going on.

My leading theory is that you've had your memories tampered with. That it effected each of you implies a common enemy or a dungeon hazard. Possibly in the Thassilonian ruin just explored.

You may have also been level-drained, as in many ways you seem to have the habits of even more dangerous adventurers than you are.

Fifth-circle spells are precious and I don't know when we'll be able to bid on a commune, but at dawn I plan to buy an augury and, if advised, four castings of restoration.

We'll figure out what happened to you.

The Archpope can cast your augury, he just hit second circle. But it's not negative levels, if it were I'd have more feats.

I'm sorry for being difficult with you earlier. I think I had a mental block around even thinking about this, but now you've thrown a brick through it and it's obvious that you're on to something.

You're definitely on to something.

Do you guys remember that dungeon we hit level 2 in?

Of course they do, and in excruciating detail.

When the Archpope gets stone shape we should check what was behind that rubble.

But in the meantime they'll do that bodyguarding thing so Cressida Kroft can get on solving Korvosa's other time-sensitive problems.

This whole thing with those fucking guys took longer than I thought it would! We're eighteen pages in, wow.