The king is dead. Ted has been deposed, slain, exiled, abdicated, anything that can or must be done. Now the players remain, eager in their malice and treachery to spill those terrible secrets of the realm upon the cairn stones of your favourite podcasting app. Rise, Bilberforth of Nicholls, Kristofer of Oliver, and Elias Weaver of local hobbycraft shops. Your time is now. Sic Semper Tyrannus Est.

This special episode of The Barmy Balladeers podcast is hosted by writer, director, Dungeon Master and friend Samuel Ptolemy "Tolly" Johnson. It features Elias Weaver as Elias Weaver, Kit Oliver as Kit Oliver and Billy Nicholls as Billy Nicholls. Editing and sound design by Kit Oliver, provided by free-to-use open source libraries.

We sincerely hope you enjoy.

"How deep into the mirror do your darkest fears lie? Are they there upon your face, or just behind the eyes? Do they rest in boxes long forgotten, covered in dust and elm wood rotten?

Some day, the running will end and you will see that the mirror is nothing but glass. Perhaps by then, you will know yourself. Perhaps by then, I will know myself.

I hope. I hope. I hope.

One day I will tell this tale for the last time and the Mortimers will know that every triumph was a tragedy in waiting, and every tragedy a triumph of fate. One day, they will know as much as I do, and I shall know as much as them. I hope - as always - that she will remember me.

But until that day... a cardinal flies overhead. The streets smell like rain. My old hands are the youngest they will ever be. There are beautiful things to write about. At times like this, the joy is not so misty."

- From the diaries of the poet Lorenzo.

Part 1 of a Grand Season Finale.

Once upon a time, there was a woman called Ilse, and she - much to her despair - had fallen terribly in love with a man.

Once upon a time, there will be a bard called Lorenzo, and he - much to his delight - is falling terribly in love with a woman.

But those are just are just fairytales from long ago and far away, Tomorrow and Yesterday. For now, it is the age of a family they called The Mortimers whose fates bore a terrible hand. For now, it is the story of a shattered Glass, and the hungry hate that feeds him. For now, The Mortimers are a dead family walking. For now, The Mortimers are blind to the enormity of the lives they will one day lead.

For now... it starts here - as the historians say - in The Undercroft, fifteen years after the Dispersion when everything went wrong. When a group of adventurers dared to ask - against all their better judgement and the amassed forces of evil that would stand in their way - Where. Is. Valeria. Pfeiffer?