Why this matters
This is the unrecorded first campaign that happened before the podcast. It is the origin of Zen au Kouréas the Archlich, the Four Horsemen, The Bag / Louche Devourer, and The Forgotten Hour — the event the podcast (Echoes of ITYS) opens on. It also fixes a key entity distinction: the cast’s first-campaign PCs are NOT the same as their “Horseman” Bloodlust-Curse monster forms.
The cast & their first-campaign PCs (unrecorded)
Set on the continent of Eritessa. Each player’s first-campaign PC later became one of the cursed Horsemen (see below).
| Player | First-campaign PC | Class / note | Later “Horseman” monster form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dave | Zen | High Elf barber (Kouréas = Greek for “barber”) → necromancer & demi-lich → Zen au Kouréas the Archlich | (the BBEG; not a Horseman — the curse-keeper) |
| Hayley | Kava Bacia | Red Dragonborn Paladin | Horseman monster form |
| Chris | Laurence Shâdos | Tiefling Cleric & Cheesemaker | Horseman monster form |
| Steve | Yerlin | Blood Hunter | Horseman monster form |
| Jesse | Krengrum | Half-Orc Rogue (made pottery) — killed by Blazsch | Horseman monster form (the death that started everything) |
Entity distinction (important for the wiki)
Kava, Laurence, Yerlin, and Krengrum as PCs at the table are DISTINCT entities from their “Horseman” Bloodlust-Curse monsters. Keep the PC identity and the Horseman monster form as separate, cross-linked entries (same dual pattern as Nadei⇄Legion). When Hayley speaks “as Kava” to Zen at the table in ch0, that is her first-campaign PC — Kava is NOT a distant ancestor of Old Man Jenkins. Kava (Red Dragonborn Paladin) and Old Man Jenkins are simply both Hayley’s characters (different characters, same player).
Player threads across the eras (Dave, 2026-07-08)
Each player runs a first-campaign PC (→ Horseman), a Forgotten-Hour founder-hero (ch0), and an Echoes-era main PC. Gray Star is an NPC (no player). Kava Bacia is a PALADIN (the ch0 transcript mislabeled her a sorcerer).
| Player | First-campaign PC (→ Horseman) | Forgotten-Hour founder-hero (ch0) | Echoes main PC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dave | Zen → the Archlich (the BBEG) | — | Xeros |
| Hayley | Kava Bacia (Red Dragonborn Paladin) | Old Man Jenkins | — |
| Chris | Laurence Shâdos (Tiefling Cleric & Cheesemaker) | Jock Bjorn | TBD |
| Steve | Yerlin (Blood Hunter) | Lashara | Nortle |
| Jesse | Krengrum (Half-Orc Rogue) | Father ITYS | GM |
| Brin | — (joined for Echoes) | Levitas | Basil |
Kava Bacia and Old Man Jenkins are two DIFFERENT characters played by the same player (Hayley) — NOT related. Kava is not Jenkins’s ancestor.
The story of the first campaign
- Medina & the barber. Zen began as a High Elf barber in the city of Medina — south of present-day Malum (which sits inside The Orchard, where Zenspire also stands).
- The orphan girls’ orchard. Zen solved the murder of two orphan girls’ father, who owned the orchard. Zen bought the orchard from the girls and founded “The Forbidden Fruits Orchard and Distillery” — the party’s base of operations.
- The Prestige twist — Zen & Auin. The party kept noticing Zen seemed to be in two places at once (while they were away adventuring, people at the Orchard and in Medina spoke as if he’d never left). This thread ran through the whole story until they learned Zen was actually two people — Zen and Auin (inspired by the film The Prestige).
- Adventures & the Seven Deadly Sips. The party adventured in Maroon Hill, Maporphis (the Orcish Fortress of Maporphis), Targos, and Bremen, bringing spoils back to the Distillery to brew the “Seven Deadly Sips” from ingredients they found.
- The fall at Moors. Their final adventure took them to Moors, where a tear opened into the Shadowfell. There they fought a Dark Wizard, Blazsch, and his Necronomicon. In the battle Krengrum was killed.
- The Realm of Gruumsh & the Bloodlust Curse. To pull Krengrum back, the party ventured into the Realm of Gruumsh One-Eye, where they were struck by a Bloodlust Curse that mutated them into monstrous forms — the Four Horsemen. Through the travesties that befell his party, Zen became a necromancer and demi-lich, holding his friends together night and day with a curse that kept them from being fully overwhelmed by the Bloodlust.
- Gog the Accreted & the Louche Devourer. Zen’s search to heal his friends led him to Gog the Accreted, who placed a relic into Zen’s Flesh Bag of Holding, turning it into a Louche Devourer (“The Bag”). Gog tasked Zen with collecting souls for the Bag; once full of concentrated Louche, Gog would use its power to break the Seal of Chronomancy and return the party to a time before Krengrum was killed by Blazsch.
- The Forgotten Hour. The Forgotten Hour is the result of Zen using the Louche Devourer to collect souls into The Bag. This is where the podcast begins.
- The naming of Kouréas. After The Forgotten Hour, the continent was named Kouréas — so its people would always be watchful of Zen au Kouréas the Archlich and wary of his return from the East.
Key entities introduced here (may need notes / cross-links)
- People: Auin (Zen’s second self), Blazsch (Dark Wizard), Gog the Accreted, Gruumsh One-Eye; the first-campaign PC identities of Kava Bacia, Laurence Shâdos, Yerlin, Krengrum.
- Places (Eritessa): Eritessa, Medina, Maroon Hill, Maporphis, Targos, Bremen, Moors, the Shadowfell tear, the Realm of Gruumsh One-Eye.
- Things/Items: The Forbidden Fruits Orchard & Distillery, the Seven Deadly Sips, the Louche Devourer / The Bag (Flesh Bag of Holding + Gog’s relic), concentrated Louche, the Necronomicon, the Seal of Chronomancy.
- Concepts: the Bloodlust Curse, the PC ⇄ Horseman-monster duality.